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 Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 10:51 pm
There had been promises of free food. And Mom and Dad weren't getting home until late this evening. All the perfect set up for Ellie to ignore her "being grounded" restraints and literally sit in the bleachers while her friend, Zuniga, was doing soccer practice. In all honesty, it could have been more exciting. If it was a soccer game, she would have been watching intently, and acting like a true fan by cheering and jeering at the appropriate times. When she was watching soccer games, she was just flat out rowdy, easily able to beat the snot out of someone over the pettiest little issue over the score. It was one of those habits that never went away after she gave up on soccer. She had always been very physical when she played the game, and frequently got booted from any sort of organized team as a result.
Regardless of her previous history with soccer, right now, nothing too exciting was going on. Basic drills and skirmishes across the field as the cheerleaders practiced right in front of Ellie. Literally, the girls on the cheer squad were directly in front of her, shaking pom poms and doing stupid little dance moves in the name of "school spirit." Being the type of girl she was, she was sitting towards the back of the bleachers rather than directly in the front. She wasn't exactly about to interrupt the cheer squad over their overly suggestive steps on the grass. Sex sold, it was a way of life.
"God... seriously... only 20 more minutes... y'can handle this, Ellie," she somewhat groaned out to herself. She was doing this all in the name of tacos. Ignore the booty-shaking, and ignore the pathetic soccer drills, it was ALL in the name of tacos!
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 1:58 am
There were cheerleading competitions. There were cheerleading awards. There were even cheerleading scholarships, such as the one that got Tara's former head cheerleader into their exclusive (yet deadly) school. Tara was far from a star in that particular field, but after being drilled by someone with that kind of talent, she couldn't help but find the Meadowview Cheer Squad... lacking. There, it had been about acrobatics and flexibility and pushing your limits, while looking damn good doing it. Here, the cheerleaders seemed more concerned about pushing themselves than their limits.
While Tara wasn't quite disgusted, she was close. If she allowed herself to do this, would anyone take her seriously? Was this the kind of attention she wanted to get from her peers?
Considering she was up there dancing with them, apparently the answer was yes.
"I'm taking five," she told the leader, who appeared not to care. Still, Tara pressed on. "Can't overdo it. The doctors said I should avoid strenuous activity for a while." When it was clear she wasn't going to get anywhere no matter how much she talked, she shrugged and climbed into the bleachers, sitting somewhere near the middle.
That quickly proved to be boring, so Tara leaned back until she saw someone behind her. Odd. "Did you know you're upside-down?" she asked, feeling the blood rush to her head. "How are you managing to defy gravity? I've tried for years without success."
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 2:16 am
It wasn't often than a cheerleader would take a break in the middle of practice, but Ellie soon enough saw from the corner of her golden eyes a girl who was doing just that. In all honesty, the girl really didn't look very familiar. Probably one of those kids from Barren Pines she concluded, trying to not give her too much attention. Cheerleaders and her didn't have much to talk about. Cheerleaders were girly, frequently all about getting boyfriends, shopping, and being popular. All things which Ellie couldn't stand.
For a moment, she went back to watching the soccer practice, noting that Zuniga was mid-skirmish, but then a voice circled her ears. With a less than enthusiastic glance, she noted that the Barren Pines cheerleader girl was looking at her. And talking to her. It was a rather random conversation starter, which intrigued the tomboy.
Perhaps that was the reason she bit. "Depends on yer perspective, chick. Right now, yer th'one that's upside-down t'me."
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:36 pm
Tara didn't consider herself girly. Or boyly, for that matter. She wore pants and makeup at the same time. She liked cheerleading and whacking people with fake lightsabers. She got along with a wide range of people, provided they were okay with her going off on tangents and testing them for otherworldly contamination. So she had no problem at all, when bored, striking up conversation with the nearest possible person.
"That's just it, isn't it? From my perspective, you should be falling into the sky. When I turn right-side up, you'd think the question would go away. But it didn't, for someone, and that's how we know about gravity and why there's a down and an up."
Starting to feel dizzy, Tara sat upright and twisted around to face the other girl. "What about you? Do you have any questions that don't go away, no matter how your perspective changes?" It had taken time, but Tara had learned that if you wanted to talk, you asked questions and listened first. That way, people couldn't complain about you ignoring them. Besides which, maybe this would lead somewhere interesting.
And if not, they could always talk aliens.
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 8:02 pm
The blonde lofted a brow at the explanation, not certain whether to find it amusing or just plain nerdy. Science was not exactly her best subject, but Ellie wasn't so ridiculously stupid with science to not realize that referencing science went under the category of "SCIENCE."
It might have been a bit rude of her, but as she leaned forward, elbow against her knee, she completely bypassed the question and simply asked "Is science yer best subject?" The question that this dark-haired girl asked was quite an interesting one, but that sounded more like a philosophy sort of thing, and Ellie was far from a deep thinker. In fact, thinking was something she didn't like at all. There was a reason why she didn't really try in most of her classes, save for math and Auto shop.
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 8:29 pm
That was an interesting question, and Tara was sufficiently distracted by it. After several seconds of thought, she shook her head. "Nope. Gym is. Well, if it counts, lunch is probably my best class." She winked. "But if we're talking stuff we're graded on, gym. No homework, just participation. My kind of class. Science would come after that, though. How'd you know?"
She briefly wondered if being Aquarius meant she now flashed "SCIENCE" at people telepathically, but ruled it out. If that was the case, the school wouldn't have tried to put her in such an easy science lab. So what if her GPA wasn't the best? It didn't mean she didn't know her stuff.
"What about you? I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's not Home Ec."
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 9:48 pm
Ellie listened carefully, nodding her head at the mention of "no homework," since she could 100% relate to that. However, this new girl might have regretted asking Ellie of all people how she knew about science ranking up high in the "favorite classes" category.
"You were talkin' like an egghead, chick." There was no insulting tone to her voice, and somehow the blonde was able to admit such with a straight face. It would have been nice if someone could call Ellie "painfully honest," but the truth was that Ellie just didn't think before she spoke. Heck, she rarely thought before acting too.
The only hint of a smile that came was after the cheerleader asked her about her own favorite class. The suggestion of Home Ec got her laughing REALLY hard. It really wasn't that funny, but in her head, she got a flash of someone she knew that did take Home Ec willingly. "Oh god, that was a good one, girly!" She rubbed at her eyes, as if that was going to be the solution to calming herself down. With a few more hearty chuckles, she then explained herself. "Sorry, I ain't like Mr. Baking Fairy!" That was her fond nickname for Aaron Michaels, the only guy she knew who'd volunteer to bake things for you, then expected you to consider him straight. "Naw, I'm into Auto Shop. Ferget all the book-learnin' when it comes t'me!" Her eyes momentarily glanced towards the field to see if Zuniga was done with practice yet or not. He was not. She shrugged rather noticeably before turning back to the conversation.
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:20 pm
"Egghead? Now that's a term I never really understood. The only eggheads I can think of are heads actually shaped like eggs, or those school projects in grade school where you had to plant grass in eggshells with faces painted on it. Now tell me honestly," Tara said, smiling wryly, "is my head shaped like an egg, or does my hair look like grass? Just so I know the next time someone tells me that."
In short, Tara didn't particularly mind being called an egghead. She did like to have facts backing up hypotheses, though.
The Home Ec crack had been made for laughter, so Tara joined in. "There's a baking fairy? Does he do cookies?" As she thought about it- or more accurately, about who she usually had cookies with- her laughter petered out. Maybe that was not the best request to make.
Auto Shop was a welcome change in topic. "Don't sell yourself short. It takes brains to be a mechanic. Just a different part of the brain, I think. But I'm sure you're plenty smart- you're up here instead of out there." Tara pointed at the cheerleaders, who seemed to be doing some sort of hokey pokey to her, and sighed. What had she gotten herself into?
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:54 pm
"I think it's supposed t'mean that ya got so much brains, it makes yer head look like an egg... figuratively." That was always the way that Ellie interpreted the insult, though she did remind herself mentally that it was not meant to be an insult. To clarify, she added "Yer head doesn't literally look like an egg."
She smirked for a moment at the question about the Baking Fairy. "Yeah, he bakes all sorts a sh*t! He baked cookies and stuff fer the bake sale recently."
It was on the mention of having a brain that Ellie once again laughed heartily. It was a bit curious why a cheerleader would be insulting the cheer squad. It was actually quite amusing in her mind, so she had to point it out. "That's nice of ya t'think that, but then part of me wants t'know why a girl with so much brains is then on th'cheer squad?" She lofted a brow and looked at the girl quite curiously.
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:10 pm
Tara let out a mock sigh of relief. "That's good. It would be hard to find hats that fit if it was really shaped like an egg." At the bake sale comment, she gave another mock sigh, this one wistful. "Shame I missed it. I'd have loved some..." Not cookies anything but cookies, "some cupcakes." Cupcakes were safe, and had icing on them. Perfect. "Would've been better than the junk I had to eat in the hospital." A comment which made it perfectly clear where Tara was from, in case any doubt remained.
She had, of course, been inviting that question. Tara looked wounded. "Who says that you can't be a brainy cheerleader?" But watching the group practice, her heart wasn't in the rebuttal. "I'm used to things being a little more challenging, I guess. At my last school, the head cheerleader was really good, and we got to do some fun stuff. I guess I thought it would be like that."
Another sobering reminder of someone who didn't make it out alive. Part of the reason Tara was even bothering with this booty-shaking troupe was because she felt somebody had to. She couldn't make up for everybody, but she could do something for the people she knew.
That, and she just plain liked the attention.
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:21 pm
Ellie had been right. It wasn't like there had been much doubt, but she was right. However, there was little sensitivity to that particular subject as she bluntly asked "Oh, Barren Pines, eh? I heard most'a the girls that got outta there went t'Crystal. Guess that means yer parents weren't made o' money, eh?"
The blonde really could benefit from sensitivity training.
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:35 pm
"You must be psychic," Tara commented with a laugh. "For all you knew, I could've been an average, run-of-the-mill transfer student. But no, you pegged me for the ex-organ slave that I am. How do you do it?"
She thought for a moment about Crystal Academy. It had been an option, technically. She might have been able to get a partial scholarship, like some of the other Zodiacs. But she shook her head. "Made of money, definitely not. Besides, all the girls there are supposed to be hoity-toity rich bitches, right? This place is more my scene, I think. Not that I fit in anywhere," she added honestly, the statement of a girl who didn't bother trying to fit in. "But there, with those prisses? No way."
There was one particular Crystal girl Tara was thinking of, and not for the first time, she relished the fact that Giselle Petrova was out of her hair. At least as far as school was concerned.
"What about you? Oh, that's right, no Auto Shop at Priss-tal Academy. So you're forced to slum it with the rest of us, or are you a Joe Schmoe too?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:43 pm
"Eh, there's so many of ya guys poppin' in the school lately, that I kinda figgered all recent transfer students were from there." Her shoulders rolled for a lazy shrug before listening to the girl's explanation. In all honesty, Ellie was starting to like this girl more and more as she listened. Many girls mourned the fact they couldn't go to such a privileged school like Crystal Academy, and several other girls were spiteful over the fact they weren't accepted into the program. However, it was a rarity for someone to call it exactly what it was. A hoity-toity rich b*tch school.
With a laugh, she couldn't help but praise the girl with a simple "Amen t'that!" Had she been thinking about it a bit more, she might have held back from the friendly gesture of agreement. Ellie wasn't that sort of girl though. Without hesitation, she extended her hand out in a fist for a fist bump. She didn't really explain what it was for, but she hoped this girl knew the gesture of acceptance.
"Oh god, couldn't afford it unless m'parents both got big fat raises at work, and even then, yeah, I wouldn't go. They ain't got any use for me there, and I ain't got any use fer their 'fancy ways' there."
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 9:23 pm
So it wasn't insight or telepathy, but a lazy guess. Tara was a little bit disappointed by that. "It's good to consider all possibilities," she said, more to justify her own habits than to criticize Ellie's. "The first conclusion might not be the right one, and if people stop thinking there, they'll never discover what lies behind the half-assed 'discoveries' that keep piling up."
For a split second, she looked at the fist in confusion. Then, realization dawning on her, she enthusiastically crashed her fist into Ellie's. "Same here. I think we're better off though. Who needs them?"
Who needed bossy Hero Barrett and insufferable Giselle Petrova? Not Tara, that was for sure. She kept telling herself that, despite the fact that the strange memories that had come to her after Barren Pines insisted otherwise. But for the first time, talking to this girl she'd never even met, she felt like it might be true.
"Who needs them?" she repeated. "Meadowview all the way." And she waved a pom-pom in the air with gusto, feeling better than she had in days. Maybe she would like this school after all, sub-par cheerleaders aside.
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 9:51 pm
In all honesty, Ellie filtered out the sound of Tara's voice as she went all "egghead" on her. If the blonde had been a thinking person, she might have tried all the methods from science classes. Yet, her mind was too simple. The obvious answer was the right answer, even when it wasn't the correct answer.
Her ears only seemed to tune back in when she felt the impact of the cheerleader's fist against her own. Oh right, there was still a conversation going on! For a moment, a grin broke onto her cheeks, before the cheerleader did a very cheerleader-like thing. School spirit was not the cool thing to have, no matter how popular cheerleaders were. The pom-pom wave only forced Ellie's golden eyes to glance over to the field to check on Zuniga. It looked as if everyone was getting ready to head in.
"I think yer cheerin' is givin' me cavities, kiddo!" she mentioned as she turned back to face this girl. Here it was, time for her to almost go, and she only just realized that she had forgotten to do something pretty important.
"I go by Ellie, by the way!" she stated as she thrust her right hand out for a handshake. Handshakes always spoke a lot about a person, and in all honesty, she was hoping the cheerleader's handshake would be on the stronger side rather than the limp-noodle side.
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