WEIRDER STUFF - Rainbow Connection

[Jaunt]

Devin looked at Cora like her face was melting.  "Uhhh... what?"

[Bannon]

"I'm assuming she's happy that Cody Sikes is missing, perhaps dead."  Jason had stopped skewering Charlie's eyeballs to the back of his head with his gaze at Marissa's injunction - but not immediately, holding the stare for a few moments more before turning to rummage in his bag for his lunch.  Tupperware container and chopsticks in hand, he dug into the left-over stirfry as they talked, seeming to become his normal relaxed self again.  As Lilly came jogging up and took a seat, he nodded to her silently as they spoke.

"Amen to that."  Clara offered Cora a high-five, which the tall dancer returned with a grin.

"Unfortunately, it has larger ramifications."  Jase went on in the same calm tone, his words acting as a cold splash of water.  "I don't care about Cody Sikes.  As I pointed out, though, there are monsters in the woods.  Given what Devin has just told us, it's a good idea to bear in mind that there are people in Shelly High who do not know the Tree is made up - and might have sought to discipline Sikes.  If they did, and something happened to him - who are the primary suspects?  Who would want to murder him?"  He indicated the group with a circular gesture of his chopsticks, then popped a slice of meat into his mouth.  The teens grew thoughtful.

"You're not going to let us enjoy this, are you?"  Lona asked, mostly joking.  Jase smiled as he chewed, then shrugged.  He reached for his bottle of flower-sweetened ice tea, to find that Marissa had appropriated it with some evident enjoyment.  With a smirk, she handed the somewhat lighter container back. He took a drink then nodded at Lona.

"Cora.  You.  Clara.  And me. We could all be linked.  So could Devin and Marissa if 'the Tree' is involved.  By extension, all of us could be dragged into it."  He glanced at Devin.  "We need to talk to whoever might feel the need to use 'the Tree', not realising it was faked.  We need to find out where he was taken."

[Cade]

Once Cade had found out about what had almost happened to Cora, it was safe to say he'd wanted to take his bat to the trio of offenders and make it so the thought of doing what they'd planned never entered their minds again.  "It wasn't me, though i admit I still want to break a bat or three on the trio of them."   He'd even thought about going to his dad on it, but hadn't, because Cora had asked him not to.  He spoke softly as he joined the group, taking a seat next to Cora as had become the norm.

He sat their with Cora, taking her hand in his with a smile.   It was the only thing about all this that didn't feel a little weird.  I mean Devin and Marissa were there with them.   He'd simply avoided the pair as much as possible.  His focus was on Baseball and Track,  not the social strata of the school.   Now there were there, and more, the rest of the group had pretty much accepted them.   What's next, they start gaming with us?   the very thought of the two of them seated at the table rolling dice in one of Sean's game made him smile.   Even thinking that, he wasn't actually opposed to it, though with such a huge party, the burden was really going to be piled on Sean.

[Jaunt]

"Are you guys serious right now?"  Devin glared at Cora and Clara.  "He's a piece of shit human being, but then again, so am I.  This what I a hve to look forward to when I end up missing and might possibly be being tortured out there somewhere?"  He mocked their voices and glared at them furiously. 'Woo.... fuck Devin... flay him... yay, high five.'

"No one deserves that.  How would you feel if it was Lona missing, or your precious Cade?"  He stood up to leave and it was obvious he was beyond pissed off.  "He's not a great guy, but no one,  no one deserves what he could be going through out there if the worst has happened.  You two should be ashamed of yourselves.  And I expected better from you Avie, honestly."

He used her pet name and Devin glared at all of them like they remembered he would when he was playing the role of their tormentor weeks ago.  "I'm gonna go find Courtney and the other and arrange a meeting.  We need to find out all of what's going on."

Devin stormed off the bleachers, no longer wanting to be a part of what was glorifying someone's possible torture or even death.  Marissa smirked like the evil Diva she was as she slid through her phone.  "Wow.  Smooth guys.  Real smooth.  It's totes amazing when you guys do my job for me."

[Sara Hutchins]

"Marissa, call him back," Sara spoke pleadingly to the one person here she despised more than anyone but her mother, "he needs to be  here with us discussing this not going to  Courtney, and the others letting them know that something is going on. We need him just like we need you. Call him back ... please?"

 

[Marissa Jauntsen]

Marissa's eyes narrowed at the literal teen titan.  She paused for trite effect and finally sighed.  "Fine."

She called him and huffed a few times.  "Duh, dip shit.  Yeah, I know.  Either way the large one wants you to come back and she's looking at me like she's hungry, so hurry up.  Because we need you here right now!  Because we do!"

She rolled her eyes and cursed at the clouds.  "Jesus Christ, just get your ass back here.  Devin Leslie, I swear to god I'm doing this with you right now!  I hot, popular, look great in a bikini... and surrounded by nerds... if they decide to start cosplaying, I am a dead woman!"

Furious she pulled her phone from her ear and then smiled, tapping the hang up icon.  "He's on his way back.  You're welcome."

Spoiler

When Devin returns he'll (reluctantly) have Lilly with him so she doesn't miss any of this.

Sara smiled and nodded at Marissa, "Thank you."

[Sean Cassidy]

I like cosplaying...  Well, on Halloween anyway, Sean thought indignantly as he deftly peeled a clementine in a single strip and started eating it one slice at a time. He could see both sides of the Cody issue as well as the ramifications, but he kept his thoughts to himself, knowing his own biases. While some of his friends might seem to be delighting in Cody Sikes being in trouble or worse, he didn't think they really wanted him dead - not truly - and would end feeling like shit if things went that far. If everyone he had ever wished dead had died, well, regret wouldn't begin to cover the depopulation that would have been perpetuated.

Though he had to disagree with Devin on one thing. Some people did deserve bad things happening to them, though he wasn't sure Cody Sikes was one. Life wasn't fair, true, and Karma wasn't real, but sometimes, it could be made to be real, with some help.

Absently brushing the crumbs from his sandwich off of his chest as he reached into his lunch bag for another clementine, Sean's large vivid eyes went from Marissa to the returning Devin to Jase to finally rest on Sara, his head tilted slightly in inquiry. He popped another sweet slice of clementine into his mouth, then pursed his lips for a moment.

"If Devin and Marissa just made up the 'Tree', and you hadn't heard about it before, then how did you find out about it now, Sara?" Sean mused. "Or rather who did you learn it from? And do you find out anything more about it?"

 

[Jaunt]

As Devin came around the end of the bleachers and started back up to join them Sara started to explain. 

"I didn't hear about it from anywhere." She looked at Sean and then around at everyone. "I've been having things happen in my head since the night of the party. Just like you guys. It's how I found the phone." She looked at the bottle of Dr Pepper in her hands. "Just now when you were telling me about what was going on up at the main building... I saw something in my head and this wasn't like the memories I have that aren't mine. It was like a vision or something.

There was a tree.  It was old and gnarled I don't know, it was almost like a silhouette.  It was standing alone and suddenly I... I don't want to say I heard those words because it wasn't in my ears, it was..."

Just then Devin stopped, back among them.

"Why do you guys even care?"  Devin asked Sean.  "I mean look at you.  You're actually toasting to the hope that he's dead, or worse."  He gesture to all of them, communicating as much with his hands as he was with his voice.  "I'm pissed and mildly ashamed of you guys at the moment, true, but you now what I am more than anything?  Scared."

"Maybe it's because I'm not a borderline social retard, but this camp," he motioned to all of them.  "Right here - had both the motive and opportunity, plus witnesses, to do and want done the most harm to him.  One of you even threatened him," he pointed out.  "A self-defense plea will only take you as far as the part where this kid could have been tortured or murdered while tied to a tree or... whatever the hell might have happened.  He's a puke of a human soul, but I don't want him dead,"  Devin shrugged honestly.  "At least, not while I can be the blamed for it."

"To top it all off, I just sat in there and lied for you.  All of you.  We, collectively, are in a world of shit at the moment.  Now rest assured the Sheriff knows something, at the very least and we, the kids here at Shelly High, are either suspects or somehow connected.  I put my ass on the line for this group and instead of taking it seriously you're treating the potential harm to him like it's funny.  Frankly that's sick and as long I can potentially be blamed for any of this, it makes you as bad as whomever is doing this to him."  He gestured for whomever to 'have the floor' back.  "So if you have something that's going to help me, spit it out.  Because I have work to do."

"I do know that Jason threatened Sikes as well as Todd and Chet," Marissa said calmly.  "So I recommend you guys get your shit together, and fast.  Because if it comes down to you or my brother."  He looked from her phone to the group of mixed up kids.  "Sorry, Jason, but you all are gonna burn before he does.  So, get right with Jesus, or whatever you have to do, and fix this."

[Bannon]

"What is it with people hearing only what they want to hear to go tearing off on some rant?"  Jason asked mildly, if somewhat rhetorically.  "I just got done pointing out that 'no, Cora, it's not a good thing that Cody is missing' and lo and behold, after some name calling and finger pointing, the end result is still 'no, Cora, it's not a good thing that Cody is missing'.  Only now I'm being accused of sociopathy.  Which is amusing on many levels and insulting on others, especially considering the source is someone who terrorised his peer group for the lulz."  He held up a hand.  "Not judging, just stating observable irony.  Devin, I'm not any happier the human shit stain is missing than you are, and for much the same reasons - if something comes down, I'm first in the sheriff's sights.  Because the whole school knows I threatened Cody, or has heard a version of the story.  And the sheriff doubtless has already heard at least one version of that."  He let that sink in, gaze resting on the football field.

"Now I know I didn't kill him.  I have an excellent memory - one that is currently storing yonder cheer-practice for future review-"  That was good for a snort of amusement from Marissa and a ghost of a smile from the still-rattled Devin, as well as some small bemusement from the others who did not know the more exotic uses Bannon made of his memory and were just absorbing that tidbit of information along with the fact that in this respect at least Jase was a normal teen. "-and my memory states no contact with Cody since the fair, at which point he was alive, damp-trousered and running away."  He turned his gaze from the field to the male Jauntsen.

"Also, on a personal note - thank you for lying for me, Devin.  You didn't have to do that - I wouldn't ask it of anyone.  Indeed, if you'd asked me if I wanted it I'd have said no.  But you didn't know that, and protected me whilst putting yourself at risk.  I appreciate that."  He offered Devin the bottle of homemade ice tea - a gesture of sorts, less formal than a handshake and more restrained than a hug - but no-one watching could doubt that he meant what he was saying.  Devin waved it away, clearly still out of sorts.

"Thanks, dude, but what are we going to do?  We need to find Cody or what happened to him stat."

"We're going to find out what happened to Cody.  Sara was telling us about the tree - large, gnarled, standing alone.  Sort of a gothic horror cliche tree that teens and younger kids would love to spook each other with, would you say?"  he asked Sara, who nodded.  

"It's hard to explain... " she began  "but I don't think it was anywhere on this world, I don't even know if it was real! It was just standing there, everything else was flat, featureless... You ever seen one of those old movies where they wanted you to think time was passing fast... hour days weeks and the showed the date spiraling away from the camera. That's how it was and the words were in the sentence i heard ... 'Break the rules, Face the Tree' over and over. I'm sorry, Jase, I don't even know if it's real or if I'm going crazy."  She hesitated, then looked directly at him, meeting his eerily direct gaze.  "It looked / felt like this..."

The other teens didn't see anything, but Clara felt / heard an echoing whispering in the back of her mind.  Jase, who was looking into Sara's eyes, saw them shift colour and then seemed to freeze in place for a moment, his own gaze distant as she showed him...

No sky no stars nothing but shadows and above the shadows the tree no sense of scale yet somehow massive looming imposing as it bore down on the mind-  He blinked, and Sara felt an odd shuttering sensation as the will behind Jase's eyes closed the window.

"I don't think you're the one that's going crazy."  Jase said with a grim tone.  "I think you touched a crazy mind.  Try to isolate that from your own thoughts, okay? You're not the nutty one."  He glanced at Devin, then Sean.  "Who at school has changed the most drastically over the summer?  Something we might associate with a psychotic break where 'breaking the rules, facing the Tree' is the uppermost drive in their mind.  And possibly helped by strange shit - god knows there's enough of that going on too - but back to the original question:  who surprised everyone this morning?"

"Chet." Sean said with no hesitation.  "When he made nice I just about fell over.  And it took Todd Asper by surprise - no-one knew he was going to do that."

"So we start with Chet."  Jase suggested.  "If Sara can perhaps focus and pick up an impression from him - while Devin's talking to him about the Tree, perhaps?  If he's clear, then we move to the other would-be top dogs."

[Cade]

"No one here actually did anything to him, aside from that night to my knowledge.   We don't know that something has actually happened to him, only that he's missing, and has been for twenty-four or more hours."    He knew his own Alibi was ironclad, and that he hadn't done anything to Cody.  He didn't believe anyone here had, beyond Bannon's threat that first night.  What they all needed was something that proved that they hadn't done anything, and despite the dark conversation they'd be alright, legally.

To that end, his suggestion and how to go about it was dead on the money.  "That's a solid idea and a great way to start."   

[z-Avalon Wilson]

When Devin lashed out at her, Lona had frozen in hurt surprise. She’d made the off-hand comment flippantly with zero thought. It was just supposed to be a harmless, if tasteless joke. Looking back, she saw how it could be taken badly and she started to go after his dumb, running-away ass. By the time she’d worked through it, Sara already had Marissa working on getting him back. She quickly typed a text to him: //I didn’t mean it the way it came out. Sorry. I’d have told you that if you hadn’t run off.

Silently, she absorbed the other’s comments, their back and forths happening too fast for her to get a word in. Finally, Lona held up her hands. “Okay, first, let’s get something established. No one’s going to jail! Even if the Sheriff heard about Jason’s exploits with Cody, there’s no reason to tie Devin to the incident at all. I’m happy to be a witness and say it was just Bannon, Cora, and I, and just as happy to point out that Cody ran away with his tail between his legs with the problem settled. If anything further happened, its because Cody started something with someone else. 

“That said, if anyone here did do something to Cody later, spit it out now. I’m down for protecting you all because you’re my friends, but I expect that if you did something that’s going to fuck with all of us, you’ll give us fair warning.” Lona looked sternly at the people here; it was easy to forget her force of personality when she was just hanging out but now she was leveling it at the group. Marissa even realized that if Lona tried, they could be peers at manipulation. “It’s only fair that if you have something to come clean about, you do it right now.”

[Clara Lys Wright]

"If we're going to get our stories straight, then don't leave me out. I was there and I did escalate the situation by saying I'd alibi Jason if things went violent." Clara looked more subdued now, the fact that Cody might not just be skipping school finally starting to sink in. "As for Chet...maybe he had a split? Like, now there's nice Chet and there's 'take you to the Tree' Chet?" She paled and added, "What if he has powers? Like the tree is some mind-melting thing and that's why it doesn't feel real or whatever to you, Sara?"

That scared the hell out of her. Everyone in the small group getting 'cool as party trick' powers was all fun and games, she could think of ways to make life really dangerous from just what Jason had showed he could do. All she was getting was weird feelings, so that wasn't a big deal, but. . . . Someone like Chet? Or Courtney? That wasn't just a social nightmare, it was dangerous. She shivered and pulled back in on herself, ceding the focus of the conversation to whomever wanted to make a confession or come up with a more detailed plan. 

[Lilly Pryor]

"Guys, we don't need to get stories straight if we just tell the truth." Lilly said simply and then took a drink from her water bottle.

"And the truth is that, nobody really did anything wrong. At east not too wrong. The threat was a threat, but nothing more, and it was done to come to the defense of a girl who was.. well, we know the situation. At best, it would be overlooked due to circumstances and Jase gets a stern warning. At worst, he probably gets a slap on the wrist. We're all still minors and it was just a threat, nothing more, and from somebody without a record too.

Heck, the worst thing was Devin lying to the Sheriff, which even that is likely not too big of an issue if it is played as just concern for friends and something stupid done in the moment out of concern." Lilly said with a shrug, appearing rather calm. 

"We've all been around each other a lot and we all have phones which can be tracked too, if absolutely needed. So we have alibis and can alibi each other. And look at us too. Generally upstanding "A" students with no records, including the son of the Sheriff himself. I think everybody is freaking out a bit much. Concern is fine, but chill. We all got each other's backs." she urged, leaving out some choice words about the outrage from Devin of all people, since Jase had already more or less made the same points.

"And what Lona is right." Lilly noted, pointing at Lona with her hand holding her water bottle. "If anybody went and did anything, now is the time to come out with it so we can deal with it.

"And should we look for Cody and into Chet? Sure. I mean, I honestly hope that he's not dead or anything. What he tried to do was terrible, but people can bounce back, learn from their mistakes and be better people." she said as she popped the cap back down on her water bottle.

"Everybody deserves a chance." she added.

[Charlie Cole]

Charlie sighed. Lilly was very right about this, assuming Chet's turning good wasn't the result of mind control or pod people, and the same could be applied to Cody Sikes without said powers or replacement. "You're right. Anyway, I've done nothing, and I don't think anyone here is the kind of person to do so." Several weeks ago in teenage fashion he would have labeled Devin and Marissa absolute hellspawn and leave it at that. "So how do we want to split these tasks up, Chet, Cody, Tree?"

[Jaunt]

"Son of the Sheriff?"  Devin's eyes grew wide.  "Has Cade done anything except hold her hand and show us a tooth or say 'yeah, that sounds good, let's do that'?  The guy just hangs out, for fucks sake!  Pardon me if I'm not all for trusting the competency of his Dad's police work.  It's a small town and a kid missing.  With no hard evidence but enough speculation and public outrage, there can be enough evidence.  I have a history of violence, Chet," he ticked off a finger.  "I'm the school bully, the town smart ass, I have no regard for the Sheriff's authority," fingers just kept getting ticked off.

"Not to mention I invented the tree.  I planted this idea in some psycho's head, and yeah, I'm saying psycho.  Because I have Google Maps in my head, and can calculate the distance from here to Malibu like it's nothing."

"Ulaanbataar." Jason said.

"Five thousand three hundred, eighty one miles."  Devin said rapidly and shot a glare at Jason. "Stop doing that."

"Where's that?"  Charlie asked.

"Mongolia," Devin and Jason both said in unison.  Jason had a tell tale tick to his lips that told everyone he was, despite the seriousness of the situation, enjoying his minor torment of Devin.

Marissa smirked and tapped away at her phone.  "JayBee has been giving Deej some of the most random locations on the planet for awhile now.  He's been accurate to about five miles on all of them except Delaware... because... who the fuck wants to know anything about Delaware.  It's been fucking hilarious."

"So between Sara's wicked visions, Mindy Mindfucks 'oh... there is goes again, tee hee, hi all' bullshit, Charlie Marley's The Potman Prohesies and the Murder Sister's mind melding color parade I'm really starting to open my mind to the possibilities that out there is some psycho," he pointed to the treeline beyond the school's boundaries.  "And right now I have enough strikes on me and my personality alone for the Sheriff to consider me a suspect, if he isn't already.  I hope he's okay and I'm just really paranoid, I do, but I'm not willing to take that chance.  Because right now, none of our lives making a lick of sense."

"So, get your stories straight, trust in the establishment's history of always playing by the book and doing the right thing, and high five the hell of each other.  I've got shit to do."  He turned to Sara and gave her a nod.  "This brainy thing you got... think it'll work if we use Bannon's idea?  I talk, you snoop."

[Sara Hutchins]

Sara nodded, "I'm not really sure how to make it work at least not as good as your...knowing where stuff is, but I think if I can look him in the eye I can get enough." She looks around at everyone her eyes ending on Bannon, "Everyone needs to chill I mean we don't even know that Cody is missing. Let's go find Chet and see what he knows." 

She stands up, "As for the rest, my two cents says leave Eddy alone, he knows everything so if he is working for someone they do too, and they haven't done anything about it except for, I guess , watch us. Maybe we can use him." She shrugs and points at Sean's laptop, "I think the plane is a good start though."

Sara steps up to Devin and gives him a wry smile, "You ready?"

[Bannon]

Jase considered Sara's words, his eyes not moving from her gaze, and nodded after a fraction of a second.  She remembered briefly what it had felt like to accidentally skim his mind during the link a few moments ago as she showed him what she'd seen. A chilly, precise place that'd whirled the image she'd offered to it from her 'hands' and filed it in some distant room as she'd stood in the foyer.  There was little of the warm dark intimate tangle of emotion mixed with thought that she'd felt from others, by contrast there were breath-like warm currents of affection-humor-irritation as he'd sat with them all coming as if from a distance, but there was the sense that the whole structure was atop some deep rumbling cauldera: an ice palace atop a volcano.

Disconcerting, to say the least.

"It's a good idea.  We might be able to feed him false information, or use him to fish." He glanced at Clara, a certain appraisal in his stare that made her shift.  "That is going to be hard.  You're going to have to try and be convincing that nothing is amiss, or if it is it's nothing to do with him.  You're a high school girl, not Mata Hari, and it's not fair or nice to ask.  But the situation is not fair, and I'm not nice, so I'm going to ask anyway: can you try?  Start small - give him his usual lunchtime phone call, you miss him, school is crazy, the usual couples thing."  He paused, thinking whilst Clara mulled over his cold-blooded request.

"Charlie?  Can you help coach Clara for the future?  Acting lessons."  he smiled faintly.  "Right now, we have an advantage on Eddy - he doesn't know we know, and therefore nor do his handlers.  The longer we can play that out, the better our advantage."

"Lilly, Sean, and I.  We can start with the plane then.  A civilian Cessna or other single-prop plane should not be too hard to find, and shouldn't set off too many alarms if people see us looking.  We can start with boneyards, see if it's on the decommisioned list somewhere, and then backtrack it that way to the airfield it flew out of.  Those areas of the FAA records should be pretty low-importance." he suggested, nodding to Sean.  "Then when we have an airfield, we can try something else.  You're up, Sean.  Time to shine.  Show us something."  He mimed typing on an invisible keyboard.  "Make with the mojo, either here or get somewhere where you can.  Time's ticking."

"Sara and Devin are on Chet patrol.  And everyone else - help whoever you think you're best suited to help.  Just remember that if you do, you're supposed to be helping."  He pulled his Chromebook from his bag and started setting up.  "While Sean does his thing, I'm going to do some research into local records of weird shit since Shelly's founding."

[Dave ST]

Finding Chet wasn't to difficult, thankfully.  With some side hustle from Marissa, whom Chet still texted with (because no guy would stop chatting with the hottest girl in school just because her brother punched him in the nose), locating him was the easy part.  Now Devin and Sara had the great challenge of getting him to talk to them.  They met him outside of the school, not far from the gym exit at a few picnic tables people would use when the weather was nice.  He had just broken off from a group of a few of the more popular students and Devin gave Sara the nod that now was time to approach him.

With hands dug deep in his hoodie Devin jogged lightly up to him, calling his name quietly as he approached.  "Chet, hey," he offered the larger kid a nod.  He still couldn't believe he'd broken Chet's nose that day considering one day Chet was going to collect on that fight and cave Devin's head in with a single blow.

"What do you want?"  He asked.  Neither Sara nor Devin found it surprising that he wasn't particularly thrilled to see them.  He looked at his phone then to Devin and offered up an expression of disappointment that Marissa had given him up to her brother again.  "Look, she's talking to me and I really don't have time for the big brother act."

"What?"  Devin seemed confused for a moment then realized what he meant and shook his head.  "No, no... that's not what this is about.  Besides, we're twins, we'll always be the same age from womb to tomb.  I wanted to ask you about Coby, bro."

"We ain't 'bros', Jauntsen." Chet sternly set that boundary with a step forward like he wanted to smash Devin in the... well, nose.

"Yeah, yeah," Devin stepped back, hands raised like he wasn't going to push the issue.  Sara noticed that Devin didn't act like his usual tough guy self.  He let Chet feel like he was in control of the conversation and lured him into feeling safe around Devin.  No big brother routine, no wild punches, no more 'Prince of Shelly' (even though he was, let's face it).  It was as interesting as it was nauseating watching the twin's manipulate people.  Sara could have backed him up, but he'd asked her to chill and just be present.  The more intimidating she was, the confrontational he'd get and like Devin, Sara was a bit impulsive at times.  "Look, man, we just want to know what's up with Cody, okay?  I'm getting questioned by police here, dude, and I don't even know what's going on.  Could you fill me in, please?  Is he okay?"

[Sara Hutchins]

Sara had hung back when Devin jogged up to Chet, but Chet, while not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, wasn't an idiot. He knew that they were together but Devin had been hanging with the nerds, what the hell was he doing with the incredible dyke?

19 minutes ago, Dave ST said:

"Look, man, we just want to know what's up with Cody, okay?  I'm getting questioned by police here, dude, and I don't even know what's going on.  Could you fill me in, please?  Is he okay?"

That drew Chets eyes from the muscled arms of the tall girl, and studied Devin's face, but couldn't meet his eyes. "Man, you were there, the sheriff just asked a bunch of questions, l ...," He looks aside and then at his phone and his shoulders slump. "I swear i didn't tell him anything about you," Chet said with an almost whisper, "they asked me about Colby but they didn't say why and the Sheriff, man, he avoided all of my questions, but I swear to god, I never mentioned you not even when he asked me if I knew about the tree."

Sara could barely hear them and she couldn't catch Chet's eyes which made it easier to get the memories. But maybe if she tried real hard...

Spoiler

holding here so Devin can respond to chets admission.

 

[Jaunt]

"Chet," Devin was legitimately being compassionate with the large guy.  "Dude, look at me, okay?  Look at me.  This isn't about cliques or rivalries, okay?  This isn't about whether or not we ratted on each other.  Sikes is missing, dude.  No one has seen him, he won't answer my texts, police are involved."

"There is no 'tree', Chet,"  Devin inhaled and let out a sigh.  "There never was any tree, I just made that shit up, dude.  That means that someone out there has made one up and Sikes could be in some serious danger.  Please, try and remember.  What sort of stuff did the Sheriff ask?"  He didn't need to know, but with luck it would keep the conversation going.  "Sara and the others worried, just like me.  We know there's bad blood, but dude, one of our own, this goes beyond petty squabbles.  I taught you guys better than that, we always look out for each other."

[WS ST]

Chet looked at the ground then he looked up at Devin and for the first time met his eyes.

"He just asked questions he never said anything about Cody but the questions were about him. He questioned Todd first, when it was my turn it was stuff about how long had I known him stuff like that then he asked about the fair. Man we were stoned and drunk we didn't know what we were doing and when we saw the black girl, I don't know, what came over us. You know me man I would never do anything like that. But we almost did.

When the sheriff asked about the fair I figured it was about that and that the girl or one of the nerds told. I told the sheriff everything. But you were even there. Then he asked about the tree. Asked if I had ever heard the phrase 'break the rules, face the tree'. I told him know I never had and i hadn't i don't remember you ever saying that. But man the tree. That scared me. I almost pissed my pants."

Chet had grown pale as he spoke and Devin could see real fear in his former friends eyes. A cough from behind caused both boys to look back at Sara. She tapped her watch and gestured toward the school building with a toss of her head.

"We gotta go Devin."

[Jaunt]

Devin looked back and nodded to Sara.  "Chet, dude... look, find Cora.  Find her and apologize.  I know you're a good guy, show her you're one too, okay?  If you hear anything, you have my number, or... y'know... text Marissa.  See ya around."  He gave the large kid a nod and a smile.  "And, thanks.

The two teens walked away and Devin followed Sara who seemed to have a path in mind.  After he felt they were safe he looked to her and simply said, "Well?  Did it work?"

[Sara Hutchins]

Sara glanced around to make sure they were alone then she rolled her shoulders and sniffed real hard. Devin noticed a spot of blood just inside her left nostril and her eyes they were bright blue and he knew that that was not the normal color of her eyes.

"He doesn't know anything about Colby. As far as i can tell he's telling the truth about what the Sheriff asked him." She reached out and put her hand on his arm and gripped him tightly, "He, they, weren't responsible for what happened with Coraline. I don't know how but  I was there, in his memory. Something else was there too. And Devin it didn't want to rape Cora it wanted to kill her.

It wanted to kill everyone"

[Jaunt]

Devin sighed at the news, rubbing both his hands down his face as he collected his thoughts.  "Okay, okay... uh, 'it', 'it'... what do you mean by, 'it'.  We dealing with a clown here, becase I can kill me some clowns."

"Alright,beautiful, look, we're short on time so let's divide and conquer, okay?"  He was anxious and nervous as he spoke, like he hated not knowing who the bad guy was.  "No texts, okay?  Find everyone and I'll find everyone you don't, okay?  We'll fill them in and we'll move from there.  We need to make sure everyone is spun up on what's going on, and, if you see Cora... please tell her the truth.  It might mean more coming from you, y'know?"

"Yeah," she nodded.  "I'll try to come up with something better than 'get over it, prude'."

"See?  That why I trust you with this," he smiled and winked at her.  "You're a thinker.  A people person."

She squeezed his arm once more, gently. "I"ll see you later then," Sara let go and started away only to turn back, "and Devin, watch out for clowns." She grinned and waved good by.

[Bannon]

As everyone turned to their own tasks or concerns, Jason stood up and moved to the far end and highest tier of the bleachers, leaning back against the wall as he rested his Chromebook on his lap.  A pair of earphones were plugged into an ipod in his pants pocket, and as the eerie music echoed in his ears, he began working.

And the world fell away...

Pages flipped past his eyes, their contents whirling to the music in his mind, suspending as if hanging on a vast wall.  He plunged into local records before pulling up old news articles and public records from Great Forks, grabbing anything that might be relevant while his mental sorting house crunched through all the data.  Leads that turned out to be irrelevancies were not discarded, instead being relegated to another storage area for future consideration.  His mind took flight, finding a purpose now more important than merely satisfying a thirst for knowledge.  It soared through clouds of information, seeking the anomalies, looking not just for the bright spots but the dark - places where there should be more data but it was unaccountably missing, perhaps deliberately excised.  And he did this with a speed that would rival a computer - indeed, there were times when the scrolling webpages and document readers could not keep up with him as he worked to put together an archive of all anomalous happenings in Shelly since it's founding.  Along the way he was picking up a lot of public chatter, gossip, news articles, all of which were sifted with a fine mesh as though panning sand for grains of gold, before the sand was sent into less immediate storage - along with a faint whiff of expensive perfume he identified as Marissa's which intruded on his consciousness briefly.  At this rate, in the space of a few hours he would have an encyclopedic knowledge of Toole County and Shelly in particular...

Devin found Marissa on the bleachers still, tapping away at her phone whilst keeping an eye on the goings-on - the bleachers being second only to the cafeteria for those wanting to keep a finger on the social pulse of the school.  He filled her in on what Chet had said and what Sara's uncanny gift had uncovered, which caused her lips to tighten as she controlled her own nervousness.  She pointed where Clara and Lona had headed off to, then mentioned where Sean and Lilly had gone to begin their own research, and finally gestured to the solitary figure at the far end of the bleachers.

"I peeked over his shoulder five minutes ago- he didn't even seem to notice." she said.  "Pages just flipping past like he's not even looking, but you know he is."

"I've got to get him to teach me that."  Devin remarked.  "I could get all my studying done in half an hour and have the rest of the night off."

"Firstly, you can't teach a goldfish to tapdance."  Marissa snarked, smirking as Devin shot her the finger.  "Secondly, brother dearest, I don't think he knows how it's done - he just does it.  It's a gift, like my effortless elan and your... well, whatever you do."  she said dismissively.  She was taking refuge in the familiar byplay and banter while she processed what she'd learned - some dark presence, pushing people to attack others?  And the sheriff had asked about the Tree, specifically about the slogan.

"Lunch is gonna be over soon.  We've got to gather everyone and tell them, no phones."  Devin was obviously rattled - he didn't even take the bait.  "I'll grab Sean and Lilly, you get the weird sisters.  Sara is hunting up others.  Oh, and we better nudge him too."  he gestured at Jason.

[Sean Cassidy]

18 hours ago, Bannon said:

"Lilly, Sean, and I.  We can start with the plane then.  A civilian Cessna or other single-prop plane should not be too hard to find, and shouldn't set off too many alarms if people see us looking.  We can start with boneyards, see if it's on the decommisioned list somewhere, and then backtrack it that way to the airfield it flew out of.  Those areas of the FAA records should be pretty low-importance." he suggested, nodding to Sean.  "Then when we have an airfield, we can try something else.  You're up, Sean.  Time to shine.  Show us something."  He mimed typing on an invisible keyboard.  "Make with the mojo, either here or get somewhere where you can.  Time's ticking."

"On it," Sean affirmed, nodding sharply then packing up the remnants of his lunch, and slinging his satchel and lunchbag over his shoulder. "I can get started now, but to find anything, if I do, it'll take me time after school, unless I'm insanely lucky."

An arm across his chest and turned a bit to the side, the buxom boy hurried down the bleacher steps then hustled to the library - it had the best wifi connection in the school, and on the first day, it was practically empty - after stopping by his locker. Claiming one of the study booths, Sean set up his laptop, then laced his fingers and stretched his arms out before him until he heard satisfying popping. He slipped an earbud in one of his ears and let the playlist on his phone go. With a fierce grin at the opening of Totem of The Wolf, he started typing, his fingers flowing over the keyboard like a master pianist at a piano at two and half times speed, forming code like music. Direct manual searching would be tedious, but a well written script could crunch through the sites and databases and FAA registry even faster than he could, and collect or highlight info of interest that fell under the parameters he set.

Within a few minutes, he had his script written, just re-purposing one he had written before, and amending it for this specific purpose. Then, routing through a number of proxy servers so it seemed he was anywhere but Shelly, Montana, he began seeding it on the FAA registry and the various aircraft graveyards he could find, some of which surprisingly took a good deal of searching for. He was able to access the databases and lists he wanted readily enough, glad he could overlook the military aircraft boneyards, since Lilly recognized the plane as being a civilian number.

At least for now.

With only a partial tail-number, Sean could only set the parameters so fine, by class of aircraft and the partial tail-number. He considered excluding dates of when the plane might have been sent to the boneyard, but aircraft, usually, when through very vigorous testing, and could be used for decades. Just look at all the 737-Max's being grounded, and airlines replacing then with forty year old 737-200s. By the time the warning bell for the end of lunch period sounded, Sean already had a good bit to sift through, numbers and photos dropping into the elaborate, indelible database of his mind, looking for the right plane before he could even try to back track to its originating airfield, and maybe even trying to find out who signed the order sending the plane to the boneyard - it could be another lead to follow.

Sean set the script to work on one more boneyard, then packed up, leaving his laptop running in its bag, as he began to hurry to his next class, his worn, bright red sneakers soft on the industrial carpet of the library then slapping on the linoleum of the hallways. Hopefully he could sneak in some extra 'study time' in his last few classes. AP Calculus was next. He could sleep his way to an 100% in that. If the teacher wasn't particularly dickish about electronics in his class, that would be practically another hour.

[WS ST]

Devin and Sara between them caught up with everyone by the end of lunch and the next class and filled them in on the bare bones of what they had discover with their Chet chat. Everyone had classes and they did what they could to help Sean and Jason in their research, although Jase generally shook his head when asked if he needed any help. Both of them worked on their personal projects during classes, Sean surreptitiously activating his algorithms and letting them do the work while he attended the teachers instructions. Jason simply kept working without regard for the class he was in and due to his past performance in years past the teachers paid little attention to him and his preoccupation.  As the day wore to aclose Texts were passed and it was decided that after school and any extra curricular activities such as band and football practice, a surprise meeting of the Drama club as well as the Yearbook staff, that everyone would meet at Bunnee's to catch up and figure what to concentrate on and get a better feel for the weirdness Sara had sprung on them.

Coraline and Sara shared  afternoon gym as their last class along with Lona and the two musically inclined girls cornered Sara away from the rest of the class and plied her with questions about what she had seen.

"Its kind of hard to explain and I'd rather do it just the once when we are all together later," she explained, "but i will say this Cora, and I'm not excusing them, I mean if I'd have been there I'd have beat the crap out of them. But with what I ...saw... it wasn't Chet driving, he knew what was happening was wrong and he couldn't stop. Something was making him, and I would guess the others too, do what they were going to do."

Before anything more could be said the coaches whistle called them back onto the gym floor and back to class.

After the last bell the Fellowship went to their various after school activities, promising to meet up at 7:30 at Bunnee's. Sean caught a ride with Jason back to Sean's place where they could both finish their research.

In the parking lot Marissa and Devin were arguing when Sara came walking up. "What do you want Arnie-girl," snapped Marissa as she turned away and put her head down to read her text using the phone as her usual shield. Devin gave Sara a shrug when Mari turned away.

"I  overheard you and Ja... Bannon, and heard you say you were banned from Bunnee's." She shook her head, " Bunnee never bans anyone, not for real anyways, not when he can get his own kind of revenge."

"Don't tell me he spits in the food or worse." Devin made a face and Marissa glanced back at him over her shoulder before returning to her texting.

"No, he just makes annoying changes to your orders. Anyway if you want I'll vouch for you."

Mari looked up  and squinted at Sara, "And why would your vouching carry any weight with anyone in this cesspool of a town?"

"My dad. He and Bunnee have a history, " she explained, "it's up to you," she finished with a shrug.

Spoiler

ok school is over  meet up at bunnee's at 7:30 I will post as needed after everyone has arrived. Finish the day

 

[Bannon]

"Mr Bannon."  Mr Jelbert's lilting sarcasm appeared to hit a brick wall in his current target, who continued gazing at the screen of his Chromebook with a faint frown of concentration.  U.S. History was the final class of the day, and Jase hadn't appeared to pay attention to anything beyond the bare minimum necessary to navigate the halls to the next class.  Now seats creaked and necks turned as the students present half turned in their chairs to regard the figure slouched in his chair, fingers tapping to scroll through whatever was on his screen.  Behind Jase, a student peered over his shoulder and blinked at the flickering pages, glancing sideways at Charlie in the next row who simply shrugged a 'yeah, what ya gonna do' shrug.

"Hmm?"

"Am I disturbing you?"

"No."  There was a barely audible titter from some of the more nervous souls in the class, which spread slightly as Jason waved a hand idly.  "Carry on."

"I see.  So evidently you feel no need to pay attention?"

"When you teach something I don't know, I'll be all ears."  Jase said absently as his eyes flicked over the screen before him. Reddening slightly, Mr Jelbert hesitated. He'd already heard some buzz in the teachers lounge at lunchtime - like most of the faculty at Shelly High he'd known Jason Bannon had not, in previous years, performed to his ability.  And that this semester things seemed to be different.

"Would you care to perhaps demonstrate why-"  

"Although the Federal Reserve Act was signed into being by Woodrow Wilson on December 23rd, 1913, the concept of central banking in the United States goes back to the ratification of the Constitution in 1789.  Andrew Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, proposed a plan for a central federal banking system to help with the fledgling nation's credit problems after the War of Independence.  It was controversial, not least because it was backed primarily by the commercial and financial interests in the northeastern states, whereas Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who represented a lot of the rural agrarian interests, held the idea of a central federal bank under suspicion, his camp favoring state power over federal."  Jason stopped what he was doing, his air one of eternal patience sorely tested as he raised his eyes to meet Mr Jelbert's.  The class was silent.

"Jefferson argued that the Constitution did not expressly authorize the federal government to charter a national bank or issue paper currency, considering it an overreach of federal power.  Hamilton, supported by the Federalist Party, won the debate however, citing the pragmatic necessity of stable central banking to the growth of a nation state. The First Bank of the United States was subsequently chartered in 1791. A bill to re-charter the bank failed in 1811. Without a centralized banking and credit structure, state banks filled the vacuum, issuing a multitude of paper currencies of questionable value. Naturally, this led to a loss of faith and a stagnation in trade across state lines, people actually starting to revert to barter in many cases.  Congress attempted to solve the country’s financial problems by chartering the Second Bank of the United States in 1816. This second bank lasted until President Andrew Jackson declared it unconstitutional and vetoed its re-charter in 1836."  Jason held the teacher's eyes for a moment longer, then dropped his gaze back to his screen.  "Would you like me to continue, Mr Jelbert?"

"Dude..."  Lilly murmured quietly, not sure whether to laugh or not.  The rest of the Fellowship who were in the class echoed the sentiment.

= = = = = 

Amazingly, school got out without Jason being suspended, placed in detention or strangled by his teachers.  He waited for Sean in his car, closing the Chromebook only once his friend had ducked into the passenger seat, and then got them both back to the Cassidy Farm without incident.  Once there, genius and geniuser got comfortable up in the barn and continued their work.

For Sean it was relatively straightforward.  He wrote the search algorithm, set it on the trail like a huntmaster loosing the hounds, and then sat back keeping one eye on the results whilst playing games, listening to music whilst drumming on his desk, and chatting casually with Jase.  Or rather, at Jase.  Usually, such conversations would be punctuated by the occasional 'hmm' or grunt of acknowledgement, but though Sean was fairly sure everything he was saying was being stored somewhere, the lack of audible feedback caused him to tilt his head and frown at the lanky figure stretched out on one of the couches, booted feet up on one arm with his earphones in.

"You guys sticking round for dinner?"  Sean's dad, Jack, called up from below.  Sean glanced at Jase, expecting to have to repeat the question, but the single upshot thumb directed his way as his friend continued working showed that yes, he was paying attention.

"Sure Dad!" Sean called down.  "Want some help?"

"I'll get the grill heated, then you can come help - assuming the studying is done by then.  Laurie will be home from her first practice soon."

Shortly after, Sean heard a jaunty step on the stairs and Lilly breezed into the room, having showered and changed at school

"Laurie didn't feel comfortable getting changed in the locker rooms."  The star athlete reported to Sean as she helped herself to a drink from the small fridge.  "She's getting showered now."

"How'd practice go?"  Sean asked with brotherly interest and concern.

"She's got promise.  Good eye and fast on her feet.  She'll need conditioning to play a whole game.  She's going to be one sore Cassidy tomorrow."  Lilly took a long drink, then cast an askance glance at the recumbent Jason.  Sean grinned at her, shrugging.

"It's kinda peaceful without all the grunts and 'hmm's.  Never knew how chatty he was before."  he joked.  "But from what I can tell glancing over his shoulder, he's doing a detailed archive search at about the same speed as my algorithm is searching for partial tail number matches.  He's not completely dead to the world, though.  He was able to give a thumbs up to grilled food a minute ago."

"He's alive.  Alive!"  Lilly mimed a mad scientist, then took a chair and chilled out, chatting with Sean.

Roughly ten minutes later Jase sat up, setting aside his Chromebook and standing in a full-body stretch before taking out the earphones and rolling his head side to side.  He blinked, then caught the bottle of still fruit juice Lilly tossed him.

"Done?"  Sean asked, making a point of checking a non-existent watch.  "About time."

"Done."  Jase nodded, giving a small smile of satisfaction, then a slightly warmer smile of greeting to Lilly..  "And there is a lot we don't - or rather didn't know about Shelly.  This place is-"  And then Laurie burst in, freshly showered, hair still a little damp, some red in her cheeks from the workout of training but her eyes snapping with irritated curiousity.  She looked good.  Jase privately mused that if Devin was present, he'd probably be speechless - at least for thirty seconds or so.  And then, being Jase, he took a mental snapshot.

"Okay, Boobie Bro and New Bannon, what. The. Fuck?" an irate Laurie demanded as she barged in and planted a fist on a cocked hip, her gaze meeting Sean's vaguely annoyed big brother expression before raising to meet Jase's calm stare.  She pointed at Sean.  "Standing up to Chet-"  then she waved a hand up and down at Bannon.  "This whole new thing, which is working for you - and for half the girls in my class too - 'eww' by the way."  Lilly snickered at that.  "Devin the Dickhole being pals with you all.  Lilly being all mysterious when I try to talk about it.  And apparently there's a meeting at Bunnee's of everyone who was at the trailer - except me."  She glared at Sean, which was easier than glaring at Jason.  Glaring at Jason never got a reaction other than detached amusement.

"You said you'd spill later.  It's later.  Spill.  Or so help me I'll... Do something."  Sean, Lilly and Jason exchanged a glance.  Jason smiled faintly, then held out a hand.

"Want a drink?"  he asked.  Distracted, Laurelei's fingers closed around the bottle of fruit juice before she realised that she was the only one holding it.  With a faint gasp, she let go, and the bottle stayed in mid-air.  With a flick of his fingers, Jase made it come to rest on the desk beside her.  "Perhaps later, then."

"meep" Was perhaps the best that Laurie could manage, mouth gaping as she looked at the bottle, then Jason.

"Great.  You broke her."  Sean snarked as Lilly stepped next to his sister with a reassuring hand on her arm.

"Cuts through a lot of bullshit."  Jase replied as Lilly gently steered Laurie into her seat.  "Get comfortable.  Sean has a story to tell.  Lilly and I are just the audience."  With that, he resumed his seat on the couch and sat back with a sly smile.  Lilly plopped onto the couch beside him.

"You're enjoying this far too much."  she said, ruffling his hair.  Jase's smile didn't shift, but he nodded as he settled in.

Spoiler

Assume that Sean is telling Laurie everything he (and Jase) knows, swearing her to secrecy.  Despite being sore from football practice, she will insist on coming to the meetup at Bunnee's.  This gives Devin a chance to make an ass of himself.  You're welcome.

 

[Jaunt]

"Daaaaamn..." Devin laughed.  "Might wanna get a racket Mr. Jelbert, cuz you just got served!"  The class burst into laughter and Mr. Jelbert shot Devin a wicked stare.  What was the guy going to do?  Punish a student for calling him out because another student just took him to school while he was already in a school trying to school?

The fellowship was quickly realizing that having Devin in their camp meant they were always going to have someone who was willing to speak up and out against pretty much everything.  Whether or not Devin was actually in the right seemed largely irrelevant too, so that was a plus!

--==[***]==--

The twins headed home and Devin spun Marissa up on everything.  Out behind the Jauntsen home was a large obstacle course, or so it seemed, of Devin's various gymnastic equipment from a homemade balance beam, uneven bars and a large clearing where he had mats out to simulate an Olympic floor show are.  Generally the standard was twelve meters by twelve meters, but Devin's was eight by eight.  Amazon did carry the mats he needed, despite his mother willing to make sure he had them so he settled.  Still, it was more than enough for him to get in his flexibility and floor exercise routines for a couple hours each day and the parents were thrilled to see that he found something he enjoyed and it kept him fit.

Thankfully the weather in Shelly was still in the eighties and Devin was out back with Marissa sweating under the still summer sun.  Marissa was flexible and graceful with a dancer's agility to her brother's lithe gymnast's frame.  They would spend some time on complex flexibility and balance exercises before Devin would begin more complex gymnastics that his sister had forgotten and lost the desire to perform years ago, but Devin's flexibility training helped her with her dancing and yoga immensely.  Cora was free to dance professionally, Mari never had much mind for weening herself just to work for someone else but she did ever so enjoy the workout dancing provided.

The twins were talking as Devin was practicing aerial cartwheels and aerial walkovers trying to sort through the madness that had suddenly become their lives.  Both were drenched in sweat and Devin, as always was sans shirt.  It was no secret the kid had an ego, but he also had an amazing body he'd worked hard to get so he showed it off as often as he could and vehemently thought that Sara and Lilly should do the same... thus far they'd refused to remove their shirts though.  His sister could pretty much do anything he could for the floor exercises, providing her hands hit the mat so they kept their routines similar until he went on to do his no handed 'aerial' practice.  She enjoyed the flexibility, she wasn't crazy.

"I just don't get it though, Deej," she gulped down nearly half of her bottle of water.  "I mean, how come you got this... whatever it is, and I didn't?  I mean, looks what's doing for your balance?  I'm jealous and I want my own toys to play with."

Devin's hands hit the mat and he paused in while doing the splits, both his legs completely horizontal as he did a hand stand.  He lowered himself once, and raised up, doing vertical pushups.  He did five before allowing his self to roll forward and stand up straight.  "I have no idea, to honest.  Lilly doesn't have anything and I think Cade only got the ability to hold Cora's hand, so who knows.  Maybe yours is just being shallow and vapid."  He shrugged and smiled.

"Blow me taint lick," she smirked at him.  "I'm being serious, come on."

"And I'm being funny because I honestly don't have an answer," he shook his head.  "Hell, I don't know what this is."

"H-hey, guys."  Charlie rounded approached them, having let himself around back.  He raised his hand for a wave that never quite happened.  To say that Charlie didn't like the Jauntsen twins would easily qualify as the understatement of the century.  Being invited to their home after school by Marissa, the Mantis didn't seem like his ideal way to spend his first day after school, but she knew people and she had pull in events and with faculty, so when she approached him about the drama clubs planning events he figured an afternoon of her time was the least he could do.

They really didn't make a strong case for themselves when it came to trying to like them.  They had a huge house, a frickin' gymnastics training camp in their back yard, and to top it all off they both looked like they were cut from ephemera and descended from the heavens to grace the world with their presence.  God he hated them, and considering their treatment of him, he certainly had the right to.  When Marissa smiled and stood to greet him the primal part of his brain reminded him that no matter how much he didn't like her, at least she was nice to look at.

"Hey," she approached with her usual predatory grace and practiced superiority that came with her real or imagined station within the Shelly social hierarchy.  She tipped her water bottle back again and took another long drink.  Charlie swallowed hard himself as his eyes feasted on her frame in her black leggings and sports bra.  When his eyes fell on Devin glaring at him like a vengeful protector he cleared his throat and managed an awkward smile.  "Thanks for coming by, lemme go get cleaned up and we'll get to work, okay?  Come on inside, and give me a few minutes."  The fact that she seemed to be being pleasant only raised his guard even more.

She escorted him inside and Devin kept glaring.  The last thing Charlie heard as he slid the door to the dining area closed was, "Keep those eyes up, Drama Club."

[Charlie Cole]

Charlie let out a sigh, remembering Chet and the Bunnee's Brawl like it was yesterday. He took a seat, and Marissa went off to get changed, leaving Charlie staring at a table that was probably worth more than his dad made in a year. On second thought, probably not. More than the teachers made in a year probably. A rumination that lasted until Marissa returned, wearing jeans and a stylish top of course. Death before out of season disgrace.

"So what exactly are we discussing?" Charlie ventured, hoping he wouldn't regret this.

Sometime later...

He regretted this. Regret, a dozen of those birds, the egrets, with big bold embossed R tattooed upon their bodies and wings, outstretched to meet the glorious dawn of REGRET. Marissa had apparently self-appointed herself producer for the drama club. And as any producer, wanted to know what the plan was, what needed to be done - so she could start telling people what to do. Without any knowledge of drama or sense of humility.

Upon hearing that Charlie hadn't decided on a play, she's suggested possibly doing a lengthily Dora episode "so the local primates understand the premise and the drama club's really not that talented anyway. You know, keep it simple." Words that made Charlie see red like a bull against a matador. Devin at least, could be assured no eye-banging of his sister was involved, given the heated words he could hear passing back and forth.

In short, Marissa was seeing it all as a brag bullet on her college resume. Charlie, as someone who actually took this seriously, finally asked whether she planned on taking responsibility if anything went wrong. The expression on her face...

"Arrrgh!" Charlie closed his eyes and made angry grasping motions, imagining the catharsis of strangling the Mantis... hands fighting against his... wait what?!

Charlie opened them to see his arms stretched meters long, throttling Mari the Mantis, who was struggling back with nails biting into Charlie's skin. "Holy shit!" Charlie released her and his arms snapped back into normal length and place like a rubber band. "I'm sorry, I swear I had no idea that would happen!"

[Marissa Jauntsen]

Marissa's heavy breathing and shocked expression paled into comparison to the way she backed away and slammed her back against the wall.  Her chest heaved as Charlie pleaded his case.

"Um," she glared at him like he was some sort of freak or a monster.  "M-my brother likes you guys, and I don't want to ruin that for him... so I will keep this between us."

There was no denying she was scared.  Her eyes were locked on him, monitoring his every movement and shift in posture like he was a predator that had broken into her home.  For the first time Charlie saw a young woman who was scared and weak... she was... human.  Just like everyone else under all the money, snobbery and mean remarks.  "I think you should go."

[Charlie Cole]

Charlie was surprised to see the reversal in the sort of predator-prey image, but then again even in her place she'd be scared of him. "Probably for the best. Have a good afternoon." Devin wasn't in the immediate vicinity, which made leaving easier. No awkward discussions about accidentally choking his sister and resulting beatdowns as he left the house and decided to take a nice long walk home.

[Sean Cassidy]

Riding shotgun in the Charger, his eyes closed and the window rolled down, Sean could feel his coppery hair ruffle in the wind, the cool evening breeze on his face as Jase drove them to Bunnee's. He idly rollercoastered his hand against the air, enjoying the sensation of the forceful wind pocket slip and slide across his fingers. His eyes were closed but he could practically taste the long, slanting rays from the red-orange sun riding low in the sky.

It had been hard to pay attention in AP Calculus and AP Physics, when all he had wanted to do was look at the progress his algorithm was making, to see what it had found already. He had folded his arms tight and fidgeted throughout the last two periods, more than one person sitting next to him wondering if he had to go to the bathroom that badly, why didn't he just ask for the bathroom pass.

Back at the Barn, he found out just how much he had to sift through thanks to only having a partial registration number. But once he was able to narrow it down to a specific model of plane, he was able to eliminate hits until he got his search down to something reasonable, numbers and pics flipping by on his touchscreen laptop like a tinder user on a hundred cups of coffee. Kind of tedious, and Sean would have preferred bouncing comments and questions off Jase - even if they had nothing to do with their actual research - but Jase had his process and Sean had his own. Helping prep supper, he could let his mind wonder and picture how better to refine his search. It was just a bit after supper when Sean thought he had narrowed it down as much as he could.

And then Laurie had made her entrance. Sean had hesitated only long enough for Lilly to guide Laurie to a seat about how much he was going to tell her. But Laurie had been there, he had promised to tell her, and for his part, it was always better to know than not. And while she had been at the trailer, she was still a step removed from the strangeness, at least, so far. As a sort of control, Sean believed someone on the outside able to look in, as it were, might be a good thing, give them another perspective they might miss being in the middle of all the weird.

Plus, Laurie was his sister. Laurie and Teagan may have teased him, but he loved them of course, even if he wasn't that demonstrative about it, and with Teagan leaving at the beginning of summer, he and Laurie had grown a bit closer than they had been.

So he'd told her everything, with a few additions and clarifications from Jase and Lilly.

Sean looked over at Jase, who noted his glance with a twitch of his brow while he kept his apparently-lazy-but-was-anything-but focus on the road as he turned into the parking lot of Bunnee's. "Y'know, Jase, Laurie took it a lot better than I was expecting. I think you getting cleaned up surprised her more."

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Her blue eyes wide, Laurie sat stiff and tensed in Lilly's truck that had nothing - okay, little - to do with how sore she was after her first official practice on the football team. Incessant ancient rock music blaring tinnily from the speakers, they were halfway to Bunnee's before Laurie said anything. "Okay, so that happened." 

The slim, tallish redhead turned to Lilly with a soft groan. "If I find out they dosed me with a hit of Lucifer's Reserve and trapped me in a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma with this freaky shit, I'm punching Sean in the tit and kicking Bannon in the balls, or the other way 'round, whatever hurts more." She gave Lilly a suspicious glower, than sat back in her seat and watched the neon adorning Bunnee's get closer. "And I have something for you, too, Lilly, once I think of it, for going along with this."

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Jase and Sean waited for Lilly and Laurie to catch up with them. Laurie gave her brother a doubtful glare, slightly less doubtful when her eyes slid to Bannon, and Sean huffed in exasperation.

"it's all real, no trick, no lies," Sean hissed in exasperation.

Laurie sniffed, then they all entered Bunnee's together. It seemed like they were the first to arrive, and Max got them a corner booth with several tables pushed together, and took their orders, if any, and noticing Sean's better fitting clothing, gave him a grin and a thumbs up. Sean was still pretty full from dinner and only got a small strawberry shake, while Laurie got a water and a large shake with all the aplomb of a teen athlete with a superior metabolism.

"I mean, how much worse can it get?" Sean, Jase, and Lilly all stared at Laurie in disbelief that she actually said that. Laurie sucked up a big sip of her chocolate shake through the straw, then looked up, brows furrowing at their expressions. "What?! Oh, I just tripped through a trope, didn't I?"

Jase laughed a weird, whispery laugh at Laurie's comment. "Oh, it gets worse."

Laurie stared at him, then slowly reached for her glass of water, pulled out the straw, then flicked it at the rangy young man who cleaned up better than he had any right to, spraying his face with several drops of water. "You're making it worse. Stop being weird." She cocked her head contemplatively in a manner very similar to Sean. "Okay, more weird."

Sean snickered - it was clearly a snicker, not a giggle or god forbid, a titter - feeling goosebumps prickle his fair skin at Jase's thin, eerie laughter. "She's not wrong, y'know. You are making it worse right now."

[Jaunt]

The twins pulled up to Bunnee's.  Devin was on his Ducati trying enjoy as much of the summertime air as he could before the Montana Snowpocalypse arrived.  As they walked through the doors, like always, it seemed like they should be moving in slow motion with their very own entrance music.  Marissa shared a few fingertip waves with people she knew from school and Devin offered up a high five or ten on the way to the table.

Marissa sat down in the booth next to Jason (no shock there) and set her designer bag next to her while she crossed her legs and straightened her blouse.  Devin spun a chair around and straddled it, restin ghis arms on the back and offered a 's'up' with a nod.

Laurie narrowed he eyes and rolled them.  "These two?  Really?  What is wrong wit this town all of a sudden?  Do they... you know?"

"Oh, for the love," Marissa rolled her eyes.  "Lovely.  Why don't we just print fliers and let everyone know."

"Hey, for you information-" Laurie yelled.

"Enough."  Jason said calmly.  "And lower your voice," he glared at her, wondering if their decision to share with her was an error.  "I thought Charlie was coming with you two."

"He was," Devin chimed up with a distressed smile.  "Then he tried to strangle my sister in our dining room."

"Fucker can walk."  Marissa hissed, raising her phone to her face and using the camera on it to check her makeup.

"Woah, what?"  Sean asked while leaning into the table to emphasis his interest.

Jason looked to Devin and cocked his head, examining Devin and getting a read for him and his current state.  "Are we going to have a problem?  Is he alright?"

"He left our house fine.  I told him I would tell Devin and told  him to just go."  Marissa offered.  "I told Devin later and... we agreed with the weirdness going on that... well, that-"

"-I will refrain from killing him until he's had a chance to explain what happened."  Devin finished.  "After you have your research material, then I'll kill him."

"What exactly happened?"  Lilly asked.

"He fucking tried to strangled me, Pryor."  Marissa snapped at her in a low whisper.

"Marissa, we've all thought about doing that," Lilly dismissed her attitude and said plainly, trying to cut through the drama.  "What did you do to provoke him?"

She flipped Lilly the finger. "From six feet away, Glamazon?  Six fucking feet.  His arms... they... stretched..."

[Bannon]

Jason didn't react obviously to the news of Charlie's attempted strangling of Marissa beyond his inquiry directed at Devin.  At least, not with the same shock and amazement as the others present did as Marissa explained that Charlie's arms had stretched six feet to attempt his murderous attack.  Nor did he refute Lilly's offhand remark about everyone thinking about strangling Marissa - because frankly, Jase never had.  Nor had he wanted to commit mayhem on anyone except Cody Sikes and company at the fair.

Until now.  He studied Marissa sitting beside him, his eyes running over the smooth skin of her throat, checking for bruising or scratching.  She paused checking her makeup, glancing at him.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly, his voice calm and below the level of table chatter currently ongoing.  Marissa gave him a nod and a small smile, then refocused on the conversation as Jase sat back in his seat.

He was perfectly still, though his posture didn't change or go rigid, or any of the other signs of anger normal people exhibited.  His face went expressionless, his gaze hooded and distant, a cold and ugly gleam entering their pale shimmer.  There was a sense of withdrawal from the conversation, his personality no longer radiating it's usual calm laid-back aura.  Though perhaps a more accurate description would be a sense of internalised coiling, as of a snake making ready to strike.

It was probably a good thing Sara was not present and with her sensitivity switched on.  It would have been unpleasant for her.

A slender finger tapped once, then twice on the tabletop before he idly reached out and plucked a fork from the central cutlery and sauce holder, beginning to toy with it as everyone talked.

[Lilly Pryor]

Being the trailblazer for the girls on the team, Lilly felt a bit protective of them. They had made the team on their own merit and earned their place, beating out boys to do so. That made Lilly proud, and she knew this was an important milestone. One girl on the team could be written off as just a gifted athlete, but several meant much, much more. She knew it was important for them to make a good showing of themselves for the sake of future girls, however many or few there may be, trying out for the team. She was quarterback as well, the de facto leader of the team, so she gave words of encouragement and motivation when needed, and made the offer to each of the girls to train with them and help any of them any way she could.

Among the girls was Laurie, Sean's sister, and so she made it a point to look out for her. Being her friend's sister certainly helped too, as she had known Laurie, but now with her not only on the team, but serving as kicker, meant that the the pair would be practicing together even more, seeing as Lilly would be holding the ball for her field goal kicks. She liked Laurie's fire, seemingly proving that the stereotype of the 'fiery redhead' existed for a reason. 'It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog' was a phrase that her dad used on occasion, and seemed particularly fitting to Laurie.

Lilly looked forward to working with and getting to know her better, which made things a little difficult when it came to Laurie's questions about what was going on. She didn't want to lie to her, but Laurie was Sean's sister, and she didn't know what he wanted her to know, so she was in a bit of a bind and was glad when Sean clued her in finally at the barn.

11 hours ago, Sean Cassidy said:

The slim, tallish redhead turned to Lilly with a soft groan. "If I find out they dosed me with a hit of Lucifer's Reserve and trapped me in a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma with this freaky shit, I'm punching Sean in the tit and kicking Bannon in the balls, or the other way 'round, whatever hurts more." She gave Lilly a suspicious glower, than sat back in her seat and watched the neon adorning Bunnee's get closer. "And I have something for you, too, Lilly, once I think of it, for going along with this."

"No worries." Lilly assured Laurie. 

"I thought it might have been the weed too, but theory held no water. It's legit. And I might have missed some of their weirdness, but I have seen plenty enough to believe it. So buckle up, buttercup. This should be one heck of a ride down the rabbit hole." she said with a half smile and half sigh.

"And if not,...then come at me, bro!" she said teasingly with a laugh as she pulled into a packing space.

Lilly was surprised to hear the story from Devin and Marissa. Stretching arms, like Mr. Fantastic? Seriously?

She tried to dismiss it and cut through the drama, teasing Marissa in the process, which earned her a middle finger, which caused Lilly to blow Marissa a kiss in return with a grin. She chuckled to herself and relaxed a bit when she noticed something about Jason seemed a bit... off.  

Lilly knew Jason pretty well, even more so due to recent events and revelations, and subtle shift in demeanor, or lack there of, did not go unnoticed by her. He had never been all that expressive, but as of late he had began to come of out of his shell, so to speak and peel away his masks, expression more emotion than ever before, so to every bit of it drain away from him stood out to her.

From her seat across the table from him, Lilly slid her hands forward and clasped them lightly around Jason's as she tilted her head a little and looked up at him.

"Hey, dude. You okay?" she asked softly with concern, trying to figure out her currently sphinx-like friend while the others talked.

After what he had revealed to her that morning during the archery lesson on his farm, Lilly had a new insight into him. She had been trying to see people, relationships, even simply the world in general from his perspective, as best as she could figure it, but it was difficult for her at times. Other times though, things seemed relative cut and dry, like now.

He was not one to be nervous or have nervous energy that had to be let out by fiddling with something in his hands like had with the arrow that morning. Everything he did was intentional even, as bad as it might sound, calculated. So he wasn't toying with a fork out of boredom, and given the way he had gone stone-faced and emotionless, it indicated something else entirely. He was arming himself.

"Jason. Look at me." she said a bit more firmly as she looked into his eyes.

"I'm sure that it wasn't intentional. Everybody, or well, most of us, are experiencing weirdness. This sure sounds like more of it. You've only heard her side of what happened. I'm sure there is more to it. He's your friend too, so give him the benefit of the doubt." she explained to him in a calm, steady tone with her hands still resting on his.

"Okay?" she asked for affirmation.

[Sean Cassidy]

Jason had been to the Cassidys often enough over the last couple of years that Laurelei could usually get at least some sense of his minimalist social cues. Eyes already wide from hearing one of her brother's friends tried to strangle the Queen Bitch of Shelly High from too far away, Laurie leaned away from the palpable, coiling menace emanating from the guy sitting next to her, chewing on a lower lip as she eyed the fork in Jase's hand. She hadn't been there, but Laurie thought she might understand what Cody might have been feeling with a hay hook at his throat.

Sitting at an angle across from Jason on the other arm of the corner booth, Sean felt his goosebumps return, more intensely than before. Like Lilly said, while just about everyone they knew might have thought about strangling Marissa, Sean couldn't believe any of them would actually do it, with Charlie near the bottom of the list. Sara maybe - maybe - on a bad day with The Mantis being particularly unrelenting, but not Charlie out of the blue, with his arms... And Jase was incensed, in his understated way, in a way Sean hadn't seen before.

"Okay... okay... I'm sorry that happened Marissa, honest..." Sean was trying to sound calm and collected, but a note of sympathy peeked through his sweet, velvety voice.

Sean rubbed at his temples with the first two fingers of each hand. Now that she wasn't being an utter cunt, Sean could see, or at least appreciate that Marissa was undeniably gorgeous, but under the armour of condescension, perceived status, and bitchitude, there was a young woman as vulnerable as any other - as vulnerable as he was. A smaller part noticed how flattering her outfit was, but he told it to shut up and stuffed it in a locker in his mind, out of mental sight, but never out of memory.

Sean's eyes went around the table, from the Jauntsens to Lilly, giving her a nod for what she'd already said, to Jase. "Logic this through. From all your experience, do any of you believe Charlie would ever do something like this if he knew he could? Anyone notice him being extra limber or Mr. Fantasticky lately? Marissa, how many people would you have banished to the phantom zone of... of the less well off and poor fashion choices, if you could do something like that, but didn't realize it?" Sean's lips tightened for an instant, leaving unsaid how many would be so banished if Marissa could do something like that and did realize it. "How many people could you have burned to cinders with a glare or a dumbfounded stare at their idiocy Jase, if that was all it took to activate the laser vision you didn't know you had?"

"Laser vision?" Laurie tried not to squeak. "He - you guys aren't super... whatevers."

"Okay, fine, laser vision and phantom zone banishment is a bit over the the top," Sean huffed with exaggerated exasperation, rolling his eyes then giving Laurie a level look. "Let's say... how about if Jase hadn't figured out he's telekinetic and accidentally squashed someone's carotid artery or hypothalamus with a bit of telekinetic force." Sean held up a hand and mimed squeezing something small and eminently squeezable between his thumb and forefinger. "I squish. More believable?"

Laurie sat back with a thump against the vinyl of the booth seat, folding her arms, put out but forced to concede the point. She looked at Jase from under lowered lashes. Can he do something like that? Would he? "Point."

"Lilly's right," Sean said, hands flat on the table. "There's strangeness drenching us, and Shelly too. We're gonna have to figure out what we're capable of and how to control it. And quick! There was the thing with Cora's hair at lunch, and what if your mom had been walking past the dining room and seen what was happening, Marissa? A possible ass-kicking followed by a felony charge - or maybe, charges - would only be the start of it."

[Coraline Hess]

...And Sara's little comment with all it's little implications about someone or something running around turning otherwise okay-ish people into murdering rape monsters lodged itself in Coraline's head like a poison arrowhead, tainting the rest of her day.

PE? Her chance to get the start of a good burn on before the afternoon and freedom? Ruined. If anyone could be turned at any time, this thing, human shaped or otherwise, needed to die as soon as possible. Soon as they did something about, sigh, Cody...

First day of Dance Club with new and returning members she might have missed during the day? Yeah, she got through it, but Geof, damn his attentiveness, had picked up that something was bothering her. He'd accepted her excuse of new year jitters, but she could feel the Senior's concerned gaze on the back on her neck all the way around the corner.

Ballet Class after mercifully light homework? Well, Miss McKenna could read her like a coverless book, sense her distraction and uncharacteristic errors during drill, and her precise, encouraging rebukes did the job of focusing her long enough to get to a water break. And *then* she'd had another episode in the bathroom. Darkness and a burst of noise. Damn it. at least no one else saw it. Hopefully.

At least she didn't miss the bus in time to get to the meeting. Whew. Winning. She walked into Bunnee's with a duffle bag over  her shoulder, expression serious, especially as she caught the tail-end of Sean's comment, expression quirking unpleasantly. "...Something else happened, guys?" she asked softly, sitting down at the edge of the group next to Sean, not sure if she wanted to know at this point. 

[Bannon]

He'd been under no illusions about killing Charlie.  No - he was fairly sure that he would not get more than a few seconds to do anything, and Bunnee's forks were of good quality and sturdy, but not a suitable weapon for quick clean killing.  No, what he'd been planning was punishment, to scar - perhaps put out an eye from - the thing that had tried to harm his friend.  To make the offender scream.

And then Lilly's warm hands had clasping around his, her eyes meeting his cold, predatory stare, and he felt that sense of connection to the others once more.  He was aware of Laurie's discomfort on one side, and Marissa had lowered her phone and was regarding him from the other with some trepidation.  Sean's heterochromatic gaze was wide with concern - and all this he felt rather than consciously perceived, as though a missing sense had turned on with the connection repairing a broken circuit.  It wasn't complete - he was still himself, still capable of detachment... But it did serve to ground the lightning of his thoughts for a moment, and he listened to Lilly and Sean, nodding very slightly.

"I don't picture hurting people out of frustration over words." he said quietly, not so much an argument as a refutation of Sean's point. "Even idiots."  His lips twitched from their flat line, and he opened his hand inside Lilly's, letting the fork relax on the table as he turned his palm up to return the clasp.  "Perhaps that's why I've not done what Charlie did."  He sighed, his eyes losing some of their snake-like intensity, and nodded again.  "Alright."

Laurelei still looked askance at him, and Marissa's dark gaze was mildly concerned, but more for him than of.  She also didn't miss Lilly's hands around his single one, or the fork he'd set on the table.  

"We're not going to have to get a bite-mask and a straitjacket, are we?"  she asked, her tone gentling the snark of the words.  Jase rolled his eyes slightly, then shook his head.

"Not for me." he replied with a small twitch of a smile.

"Good.  I don't want to wonder if that's ketchup on my fries."  she smirked.  On the other side of Jason, Laurelei looked at her, then Lilly, seeking clarification, and then looked at Sean with an expression that clearly asked 'What the fuck, damn guy?'  Sean shrugged, not having an answer - he knew Jase was odd, possibly Aspergers of some kind, but the cold malice he'd presented was mildly disconcerting.  Turning to Cora, Sean briefly outlined what Charlie had done, causing the tall dancer to glance at Marissa in some sympathy and shock.

Cora's presence seemed to trigger a thought in Jason, and Lilly felt the last of that terrible tension leave him as his eyes focused on the tall girl, then narrowed and looked down at the fork.  A slight metallic sound, and the tableware was lifted back into the central container by an invisible hand.  Jase relaxed, his other hand patting Lilly's two clasped ones reassuringly.

"Of course." he said quietly.  "The Dark."

"The Dark?"  Laurie blinked.  "What's 'the Dark'."

"The thing that pushed three boys to attack Cora, wanting to escalate harassment to sexual assault and then likely to murder."  Jase said quietly.

"Oh.  That."  Laurie nodded doubtfully.  "If it's real."

"We think it is."  Marissa stated like the Word of God(dess) from on high.  "Weird though it is, She-Hulk can read minds, at least enough to tell that Chet and company were not acting purely of their own volition."  The other Fellowship members nodded.

"And the Dark is not a new thing in Shelly."  Jase said.  "I'll wait for the others to explain fully, but short version is: we need to be careful of violent, callous or cruel impulses - more so than usual, I mean.  They might not be our own."

In the silence following that statement, Laurelei shivered.  "Okay, that is worse."

[Sara Hutchins]

The scalding hot water pounded the skin of her neck, shoulders and back and ran down in cascading rivulets across tautly muscled legs about which billowed clouds of stream. Her skin was red from the jets of water, she leaned, head down, hands outstretched against the wall on either side of the showers hot and cold handles. She breathed steadily in the moist artificially humid air, letting the water massage her pain.

Sara Hutchins had come into the gym angry and with a pounding headache. Her trainer, Art, had seen her and called her to come and spar in the ring with some of his other students. She had waved him off and without a word gone into the change room and then to the weight room.

It was early evening and as usual the place was full. Shelly was small and the Civic Center Gym the only professionally equipped gym out side of the school grounds available to anyone wishing to workout it was also affordable when compared to the big city gyms and even free to city employees and students with school Ids.

Sara saw that her favorite machine was occupied as were all the others. She could have used the free weights but she wanted her machine. She moved to the big cage workout machine and took up a position with her arms crossed and stared at the guy using it. He was a twenty-something oilfield worker Sara had seen in the gym before but didn't know, she thought his name was Ken something or other, not that she cared, all she wanted was her machine. Ken could see the incredibly buffed girl standing there staring at him, not looking, not watching, staring. She was intimidating and that stare was getting to him. After a few moments under that glare Ken decided it was time to move on. Without a word he stopped, wiped down the seat, and with a nod, walked away and out of Sara's thoughts.

Sara hit the machine at full speed, she was angry and wanted to work it out, she added extra weight and didn't bother counting reps she just went full bore at it for way longer than she should have. It wasn't until her body began to protest that she realized her headache was gone and she had overdone it with the weights a stupid armature mistake.. It was late, she was hurting and she was dripping with sweat. She hit the showers.

Spoiler

 sample of the gym equipment at Shelly Civic Center   

Eyes closed, the heat finally penetrating, Sara dropped one hand to the handles and turned the water off. She stood there for several heart beats taking in deep breaths of the heavy steam laden air, the water dripping off her down turned face to fall through the steamy cloud around her feet. It ran across her back and down her buttocks and her bulging sculpted legs. Slowly she straightened up to her full height and after running her hands trough her hair slicking it back left the shower.

When she had come into the showers after her workout there had been two other girls there, both younger than her, Jr high age she didn't know them beyond recognizing them as kids from school. When she came out they were already gone, she glanced at the clock on the wall, it was almost seven. She had been in the shower longer than she had realized as well. As she dried herself off, she looked at herself in the full body mirror. She liked what she saw, even if others, mostly her peers, thought her freakish, called her names, mostly behind her back but some to her face.

She was different now than she had been a year ago, hell, three months ago, even. She had put on weight, all of it muscle, grown almost an inch in height which made her 5' 11” now, and possessed what to her mind was the best Physique in Shelly high school maybe even the entire city or county. Only a couple of boys from the wrestling team and the football team, could even approach her in strength and the look, and one or two guys from the gym who had been body building for years.

She remembered the look on her dads face when he saw her after being apart for a couple of months, he had given her that same smile he had given back when she had learned something new that he was teaching her and she had finally got it right. It was approval, pride, and now something else, admiration. She wished he were home but glad he wasn't at the same time. He was safer where he was.

She straightened up and faced the mirror, towel held loose in her hand by her side. She studied her nude form in her reflection, the muscles, her broad shoulders and small breasts, the narrow hips. She looked at her face. She wasn't ugly, at least she didn't think so. She would never look like any of the other girls, couldn't not with her size, almost six foot at sixteen. But what she saw fit her, made her proud of her accomplishment. She was, in her mind almost perfect physically. So then why the fuck did she develop mind fucking powers? She wasn't dumb, but she wasn't all that smart either not like Sean, or Bannon or Clara. Why not get Super-strength or laser-eyes, or flying for fucks sake. If there was a god she must have one sick fucking sense of humor.

With a last glance at her image in the mirror and a sigh she tossed the towel into the dirty towel hamper and got dressed.

 

Sara walked the short distance from the civic center to Bunnee's. She was sore and would be feeling the pain tomorrow but at least her headache was gone, her mind clear. As she stepped onto the diners parking lot she saw that as usual it was busy. There were a half dozen cars at the car hop stations and as she looked around she spotted Lilly's truck and Bannon's new car, at which she felt a twinge of emotion when she laid eyes on it. The Sara saw the motorcycle and remembered her earlier anger but felt nothing now. With a slight smile she started toward the entrance and as she looked in the plate glass windows to see if she could see the other kids something, well, weird happened. She could see people inside but at the same time in her mind she also saw soft glowing lights like fireflies, sort of superimposed over whats he was seeing with her eyes. Except she could also see these 'fireflies' where she couldn't see with her eyes and she knew that they were people too. “Well this is new,” she said out loud without thinking she might be overheard. In one section of the diner kind of away from the other patrons she saws several bright fireflies and she knew that these were her friends.

Sara entered the diner and made her way to her friends as she came up she gave a wave as she walked by Devin, who was sitting at the end of the pushed together table, the kings seat of course, to the far side of the table and sat in the chair closest to Devin, better him than his witch of a sister.

“Hey guys you won't believe what just happened outside when I was walking up here.” Sara began and trailed off as she took in the mood of the table. She had noticed Cora across form her with a slight look of agitation around the eyes and that Cade wasn't there yet. She hoped they hadn't broken up already.  Clara, Lona, and Charlie were also absent, as was Cassandra. Was Cass even part of the Fellowship? Sara wasn't sure. She also noticed Lilly and Bannons hands across the table, and then there was Laurie, Sean's sister, what was she doing here.

“What's going on guys? Did something happen?”

Everyone just gave her a look then Jason began explaining only to be interrupted a couple of time by the mistress of snark and by Sean. After digesting all of it and realizing she hadn't read anyone's memories during the whole time they had been talking Sara said, "I can't believe Charlie would have really meant to hurt you Marissa, but it is possible that this, Dark, as you call it could have something to do with it.

Those of you you have known me all my life know I have a temper and I used to get in fights a lot, " Sara glanced around at the ones who she had known all her life and those only a few years. "I thought I had gotten a hold of that but lately, starting at the trailer I find myself getting angry a lot easier, at nothing really, and having violent thoughts." She stopped and noticed Laurie looking at her with somewhat wide eyes. "So Charlie is strechy guy, what's your power," she asked Laurie?