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Gwendolyn Caspian wasn't the type to get letters passed to her during class; if anything, she was usually the one that played the middle man in such situations, and often time then not, being the one caught with the note and being forced to endure whatever punishment laid ahead of her. Even at her old school she never had much luck, and she always found it weird that she could easily sneak out of the classroom and even the school grounds in general, but passing a note without being caught was simply impossible. Some Senshi of Tigers she was- her animal was king of stealth, and she had the grace of an elephant that got into an entire village's wine cellar.

Except this time, Gwen was the proud recipient of a letter, and she had gotten the chance to skim over it before it was, once again, rudely taken from her and sent to the front of the class to stand. It was from someone that she hadn't seen in what felt like forever, and even though she was standing before the class and forced to read the section of their assigned reading out loud, she was excited to see who it was from.

Anming! One of the first girls she had the chance to meet here at Destiny City! That's why the moment the closing bell rang, Gwen was running so fast that she felt like she was gliding, trying to remember where she said to meet. She wasn't the type to enjoy coffee, but if it meant to see Anming again, she'd tolerate the smell of coffee and the crowd that was likely to be there. By the time she arrived, her hair was a bit of a mess and she had managed to slip on an icy patch here and there, but thankfully no nasty spills. She looked around for her friend, afraid to admit that she might have been looking a little too high to see her. "Anming?"

All of her hassle to make it here and even her punishment she endured from classes was worth it with the way she beamed when she spotted Anming, just moments before she called out to her. She pushed her way past other patrons and practically flew into the seat next to Anming, the only thing stopping her from giving her friend a hug was the bag of cookies that the girl handed out to her. Gwen, ever a lover of gifts and treats, graciously accepted the bag and pulled at the ribbons, scoffing at the very notion of trouble. "Nah, I am queen of stealth when it comes to concealing letters... most of the time, anyway."

She looked down at the snowball cookies and grinned from ear to ear- she wasn't sure what was in them besides pecans, apparently, but they looked and smelled delicious, and Gwen was eager to throw one into her mouth. The only thing that prevented her from scoffing them down immediately was the fact that she wanted to talk to her friend, but then again, when did she ever care about manners?

"Never had them before, but I'm willing to try anything once!" Gwen said happily, always eager for the challenge of new things even if it ended in complete and utter failure. She grabbed one and stuffed it right in her mouth, not prepared for the crunch but pleasantly surprised by the taste. She waited until most of it was swallowed before giving Anming a thumbs up of approval, and immediately she bombarded her with questions. "So, Anming, it's been forever, hasn't it? How things going for you? Did you miss me?"

The cookies were great! Anming had made a terrible mistake in giving her the cookies first, because now it was going to be hard to keep a steady conversation going when all she wanted to do was scarf it down. However, for the sake of being polite, and of course for her friend, Gwen had limited herself to three, before closing the bag and placing it on her lap as she listened as intently as possible.

"Sorry I missed your birthday, but... I guess we're even since mine was in the tail end of July," Gwen said, still reeling at the thought of Anming being older than her, despite her appearance. Then again, great things came in small packages, and the two of them were obviously proof of that! That's how Gwen saw it and was willing to play along. "It sounds like you had a fun summer, though... even if we did have each other phone number, I'm sure my sister would have killed me if I rung the phone bill up that high. Maybe we should invest in exchanging email addresses, if that happens again?"

In truth, Gwen didn't really want to talk about her summer. As Gwendolyn Caspian, her summer was... painfully uneventful. Now, if she could spill the beans about her Senshi identity and all of her adventures from that, she'd do it in a heartbeat, even if it did bring up some negative memories and feelings. However, knowing better than to drag poor Anming into that, she did her best to focus on the important aspects, all without giving away her secret. "My summer wasn't as fun as yours, I think. Really just hung out here in DC, dealing with some... colorful... people and meeting a few friends, as well as people I'd be happy to never see again."

In truth, more had happened in the fall than during the summer, and Gwen had silently hoped that there was enough powdered sugar on her cheeks to hide the slightest hint of a blush that might have been visible as she admitted. "Recently, though... I'm now seeing someone. Someone very special to me. We've decided to start dating, though you should have seen the confession. I don't think I stammered so much in my life..."

'And by 'stammer', I mean dealing with one really nasty youma that almost killed me...'

"Been to the hospital a few times, for stupid things, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?"

Gwen wasn't too concerned about missing out on each others' birthdays, especially since it was mutual from each side. Missing out on birthdays sometimes happened; she didn't want to admit that she had missed her mother's birthday on multiple occasions in the past (though perhaps that was why she was so quick on sending her baby girl off to Destiny City, now that Gwen thought about it).

Speaking of her mother, she remembered something else exciting in her civilian life that occurred over the summer, and Gwen tried not to sound TOO excited when she brought it up. After all, it was still a few months away yet! "Also, my mother and her husband are expecting another kid, so I guess that means I'll be a big sister, for once. Too bad he or she's going to have a lame last name and not the awesome one of Caspian!"

Yes, she would continue to hold that bitterness close to her heart, but there was no need to drag down a good conversation down because of something out of both of their control. Instead, now was the best time to focus on her new romantic developments, as well as the dangers of Destiny City coming to mind, which Gwen had her own fair share of, all things considered. No, she couldn't go into great details about how she confessed her love for Anandi (at the time, Sutai), but she figured a cliff note version would be acceptable, and non-threatening to the both of them. "It was like a scene out of an action movie, or a sci fi drama, or something. One of the reasons why I ended up in the hospital, but... it was definitely worth it!"

She looked to Anming, never the type to gossip or seek it but unable to prevent her curiosity from getting the better of her. "What about you? Any lovers back in China, or here in DC?"

Gwen wasn't that knowledgeable about stuff around the world. In fact, she might have known more about her own homeworld than she did about Earth's culture and history. All of that bored her, but she had heard about the One Child law in China, and she tried not to sound too ignorant on the matter. "If that was the case here, I'd be nonexistent... they do that to keep the population under control, right?"

She realized just how bad that sounded, and she was immediately trying to salvage the situation. "Not that it's TOO big a problem, mind you, but it's one way of going about it. Not that I'd understand why anyone would want to have so many kids to begin with. Two's enough!"

Though her mother was willing to have a third, but that was neither here or there. Gwen needed to remind herself to call her mother at the next opportunity- surely they'd know what gender the baby will be by now!

"Nah, don't rush into love or anything. I find that if it's meant to happen, then it'll happen," Gwen said in regards to romance. She broke her vow and dug back into the snowball cookies, preparing to stuff a few more in her mouth if only to prevent herself from blushing or gushing on about her relationship, especially if her friend wasn't interested. "Can't really force it and when the moment comes, you'll know. For now, enjoy the other things in life! Like school, if you're into that sort of thing."

Which brought her to another subject she was hoping to avoid. It was likely that she'd fail now, thanks to her Senshi duties, but even BEFORE all of that, Gwen just had a sinking feeling in her gut that she wasn't going to go far with it. However, Anming still had some hopes, right? "What do you plan on doing after school? Got any dreams?"

It took Gwen a moment to swallow down the cookies entirely, but she was listening intently to Anming, despite the crunching of the pecans and such. She mused over the thought of attending culinary school, but that just brought up all sorts of bad memories any time she tried doing anything besides baking. Baking cakes and cupcakes, even pies, from a box was easy, but baking or cooking from scratch? She had met her match on one too many occasions, the most recently being that damned pie (though, one could easily put the blame on Maddy in that event).

"Well, I think culinary school would be good for you, because these snowball cookies are fantastic... erm..." She looked inside the bag and made a horrifying discover, and she couldn't help but give a nervous chuckle as she gave the empty bag a shake. "Were fantastic."

She placed the bag aside and silently lamented their quick passing, but she was grateful to have tried them in the first place. "Thanks for the cookies, by the way. I don't really have anything prepared, given this trip is on such short notice..."

An idea came to mind, and she scrambled to pull out her sketchbook and pencil. "Oh, I know! I can draw you or something you like real quick! That way you're not going home empty handed! Would you like that?"

"Well, if you knew how much energy I burn off, I can imagine you'd make a killing off of just baking for me... well, if I had a lot of money, anyway," Gwen said, flipping around to an empty page in her sketchbook and not too happy to see the pages already yellowing. It had been entirely way too long since she did anything new in this book, but all of that was going to change! She was determined to get back into the habit once more!

When Anming commented on not knowing she could draw, she scoffed, but playfully so. "I more or less sketch... I'm not too good with proportions, of humans anyway. I'm more keen on sketching animals, though. But I'm always willing to practice more with humans."

Without further prompting, she got to sketching, drawing the main skeletal figure first and moving quickly, though not really in a rush to finish it and knowing that her hand would likely cramp thanks to the inactivity. But, she was itching to get SOMETHING down for her friend, even if it wasn't her absolute best. "So, I'm not Picasso or Van Gogh, but I enjoy it from time to time. Now, is this your best angle or did you want to pose? I already kind of started, but I can always erase and start over if I need to!"