Ciara had spent a good portion of the morning at a Denny's in St. Bats with her dad, mulling over their menus as they debated what to order before ordering the exact same things they always did. A French Toast Slam for her and Lumberjack Slam for him. As they ate, they talked, Ciara carefully omitting quite a few things that had happened in her life since they'd had their last monthly Denny's breakfast and deftly turning the conversation onto him as much as she could. Which worked out well enough, in that he had plenty to talk about, mostly about her stepmother and the divorce he'd finally decided to get.
By the time they were ready to leave, Ciara was full and feeling more tired than she probably should have been. She hadn't been sleeping all that well the past few days, and although the day before had gone well, the night ending with a relaxing evening with Lora, she felt majorly off this morning. Thankfully her dad was too busy stressing about his own life to notice and ask too many questions, though if he did she felt she could have fielded them by using the school excuse. That one usually worked.
After she'd said her final goodbyes and declined an offer of a ride back to her dorm suite, she headed for one of the nearby bus stops. Public transit was her usual mode of transportation until she could afford to buy a new car to replace the one that had been totaled by one of her less responsible cousins. It was a fairly nice morning, and she was enjoying the walk for the most part. Until she caught the tale end of what seemed to be a one-sided conversation between three teens and two obviously homeless persons. The 'Why don't you just get a freakin' job?' comment made her clench her jaw, and Ciara couldn't help herself when she stopped.
Sure, she could be an ass and tended to be that person most people disliked because she could be on the not so nice side, but she was careful with who she talked to like that. There were certain things she'd never be rude to someone about, and this was one of those things. Bickering with someone was a lot different than demeaning them, and Ciara had a lot of feelings about people who were unnecessarily cruel to other people. Fishing in her pocket for the few dollars she'd stuffed in there after paying for her half of breakfast, Ciara moved toward the group, dropping the bills into the hat.
The glare she gave the three teens was cold as ice.
Rather than bother with them, she completely ignored them otherwise and turned her attention to the homeless teen and the man beside him. Had she not heard the comment, she probably wouldn't have stopped, as she'd been somewhat lost in her own thoughts as she'd been walking. But now, she was irritated that they'd had the gall to say that to two people who clearly didn't have much of anything. Getting a job was hard enough for people who had stable homes, let alone those who had to sleep on the streets.
"You guys hungry? I can do better than a few dollars in a hat if you haven't had anything yet today," she offered, knowing from experience that some would accept the offer and some would decline. It all depended on the person.