She really IS Sally Sunshine, isn't she?
Who: Stephanie and Janna Where: Avarice When: Friday evening
As the loud, thumping beat blared through the club, young Stephanie Whitmore bounced around happily, in black vinyl pants, clunky combat boots, and a black leather Fiend Club jacket over a Suicide Messiah tee-shirt. A huge grin spread across her face, as the young dhampir just seemed to...exude a love of life. Nothing seemed able to keep her down for long.
While Stephanie was enjoying herself and the thumping beat that sounded throughout the club, Janna sat at a table wearing an ankle length leopard print skirt and fitted tee enjoying an orange juice with just a dash of vodka as she watched the bodies bumping and grinding out on the dance floor. The ebony haired young woman was just starting to get out a bit more each day, mostly coaxed into doing so by her younger brother, Jaycen, since her injuries had healed competely. An unpayable debt she owned to the Bales who she credited with saving the lives of herself and her brother.
Since becoming one of Skylar's bandmates, Stephanie had come out of her shell a little more in regards to interacting with others. Still full of energy, the little guitarist finally bounced on over to the bar, all smiles, as she was handed her 'usual', a huge glass of strawberry milk.
Janna couldn't but smirk when she caught sight of Stephanie bouncing on past toward the bar. Someone certain was a little ball of energy that evening. Amused, and slightly intrigued, Janna let her gaze linger on the girl once she reached the bar and was automatically handed a drink. Definitely a regular for the tender to know her drink and have it ready when she showed.
Just to be sweet, the little dhampir gave Janna an adorable wave, grinning. So she was friendly. Ok? Sue her. And yes, the bartenders were taught to automatically get all the Suicide Messiah girls their favorite drinks.
Staying with the Bales, Janna had learned that Suicide Messiah was Skylar's band, and though she came to appreciate the groups music, Janna wasn't all that familiar with her host's band-mates. When she caught the cute grin and wave Janna couldn't help but reciprocate with the same. The she wolf smiled back sending a little wave back to the girl who didn't smell quite right. Not like the majority of the patrons inside Avarice.
Funny enough, Steph was just THAT friendly. She recognized the girl's smell from sensing it on Skylar, and quickly put two and two together. "You're Skylar's new friend, aren't you?" She asked in that perky voice.
"Word gets around first." Janna responded when the girl wandered over to her table. "My brother and myself are staying with the Bales for the moment." Not that she felt that that was a good idea considering the hunters that had followed her and Jaycen to L.A. were still out there, and still breathing, but the Bales weren't some small pack trying to make a name for themselves. The Bales <i>had</i> made a name for themselves and weren't exactly ones to be messed with.
"Nah, not really. I just have good senses. I'm Stephanie. I play guitar in Skylar's band." She extended a dainty hand toward Janna with another bright, infectious smile.
"Electric, Bass or Acoustic?" Janna inquired extending out her hand to the girl. "I'm Janna, by the way." She added with a warm smile of her own to Stephanie.
"Electric mostly." She said, then, beaming with pride, "my girlfriend is like... one of the greatest guitarists AROUND, so I have a hell of a teacher."
"Nothing like a bass," Janna commented, "though I'm not too bad with an acoustic." The brunette admitted. "Anyway," she smiled, "care to join me?" Janna made a slight motion with her hand toward the empty chair at her table. Having Stephanie as company was relatively better then sitting alone in the club.
"Sure!" The bouncy little guitarist grinned, clasping her hands behind her back. Hard to believe someone half-vampire could be, well, the sweetest thing EVER
Janna chuckled. "Are you always this hyper or are you just juiced up on the caffeine at the moment?" Janna asked pleasantly so the girl wouldn't take any offense at her inquiry. There was just something about the guitar playing that Janna found cute and adorable
"I'm not really hyper..." Steph pointed out, fidgeting nervously. "Chloe... that's our drummer... SHE'S hyper. I just... I just love life. I'm just a very happy person. I love my band, I love what I am, and I love my girlfriend. Nothing wrong with any of that, right?" She asked with a bright smile.
"I'm going to take your word on that about this Chloe." And if she were more hypered up then Stephanie here, Janna wasn't sure she'd want to meet the girl. Being surrounded by so much hyperness might be more then the she-wolf could handle. "And there's nothing wrong with a love and appreciation for life." Janna smiled back
"So... Why are you staying with the Bales?" Stephanie asked, before giving a little wince. "That wasn't meant to sound as nosy as it did, I swear."
"They kind of help me and my brother out of a bit of trouble." Janna told her not willing to go into much detail on the hows and whys. To her the less people who knew, the better.
"Anything I can help with? Any friend of Skylar's is a friend of mine." She grinned, her incisors naturally fanged
"It's nice of you to offer, but things have pretty much been taken care of." Janna said with her smile fading slightly at seeing the girl's sharpened, fang-like incisors. She knew now what had been off smelling about Stephanie, and though she tried, Janna couldn't help but show her reaction to seeing that truth.
"Please don't be afraid..." The girl said when she noted Janna's reaction. "I'm not a vampire. Not... totally, at least. I swear I'd never hurt ANYONE."
"Trust me. I'm not afraid of your kind." Janna told her quite seriously. If the girl would make any attempt to try and harm her she'd be in for the surprise of her life. "And I'm going to take your word on that." Though she didn't know Skylar overly well, Janna knew enough about the girl to know she would befriend anyone who'd be an open threat to anyone.
"Oh good..." Stephanie said with audible relief. "I'm soooo not scary. Like, at ALL." Right. Tell that to the vampires she'd decimated, right? "And I can be a good friend."
"I'm not one that takes friends easily." Janna informed her with a smile. And perhaps she wasn't as trusting of people as she used to be, but things did seem to be off to a good start between Janna and Stephanie. The girl seemed to be making the attempt to be open and honest with her.
"I understand. Its a crappy world out there, ya know? But sometimes... its our friends and family that get us from one day to the next." Somehow, Stephanie was being sincere enough to NOT make that sound like a damn Hallmark card.
"Sometimes all you have is family." Janna agreed. Though he could be stubborn as hell and irritate her like no other, Janna wouldn't trade the brother she had for any other on this earth.
"I wish I knew my family..." Steph said with a hint of sadness. "I never got to know any of them, really."
"I'm sorry about that." Janna said genuinely. The she wolf then let her gaze flutter around the club when she drank a bit more of her drink before looking back over to Steph with a sympathetic smile.
"It's ok..." Stephanie said with a sigh, before smiling again. "I try... not to let the bad things get me down. Not trying to be Sally Sunshine here, but if you try to focus on the GOOD things in your life... it's a lot harder for the bad things to bring you down."
"That's a nice little philosophy you've got going there." Janna smiled back. And Steph could be right, but a lot of times Janna found it hard to concentrate on the good things when she knew what bad was out there, or more to the point after her.
"It wasnt easy to have, I'll admit. Years of being hunted, of knowing people want yo kill you, control you, or punish you just because of what you are? It can make a person really bitter." She never really admitted this to ANYONE, not even Lexi. Hrm. "I just... there comes a time when you have to decide whether to give yourself to the darkness, or tell it to bug off."
That was something Janna could relate to and sympathize with. It had been, after all, how she had ended up in L.A. "It's not easy sometimes to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but sometimes you need to take a little faith.
"Friends and family have a way of doing that." Janna agreed. If it hadn't been for Jaycen insisting on going on the run with her, Janna didn't know if she would have survived going it on her own. And it was because of the Bales, specifically Skylar, that she and her brother were alive this day.
"Well... if you decide you want another friend? Consider me honored. You seem nice, and honestly? I love making new friends. Maybe we could jam together sometime or something." She gave an embarrassed little grin there. "And if you know anything by The Misfits, you'll officially be the coolest person EVER."