Ophelia McCarthy (breatheoutside) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2019-01-31 10:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | #november 2017, jen, jen x ophelia, ophelia |
Who: Jen and Phee
When: Wednesday, Nov 29th, lunchtime
Where: school
Status: complete
It hadn’t been an easy week for the McCarthy kids, and it was only Wednesday. Sebastian had gotten into a fight with Kyle over some homophobic stuff, so that was bad enough. But Ophelia had been getting some attention she really didn’t want from some of the popular boys. At least that was who she assumed had done some of the anonymous harassment, like the melted candy bars that had been shoved inside her locker, and the note that had been passed to her in class that was just a drawing of a pig. She’d heard some snickering with that one, but hadn’t dared to look around. It took everything she had not to cry, but Phee could be stubborn when she wanted to.
Now it was Wednesday, and Phee had already heard some oinking directed at her in the hallway after the lunch bell. She was already dreading the game tonight. She would be in the circle of her band friends, but still, most of the boys who kept bothering her were on the basketball team too. It felt like her whole face was on fire as she hurried to her locker to switch out some books. Luckily there was nothing weird in there. Still, she felt pretty exposed and vulnerable in the hall by herself, and she definitely wasn't risking the cafeteria today, so Phee headed toward Jen’s locker, hoping to catch her so they could eat together. There was safety in numbers, after all.
She was in luck. Jen was at the corner near her locker where she'd slumped down to write a reply to a message she'd gotten online. It wasn't terribly important but she wanted to get it out of the way before she headed to lunch so she wouldn't forget. She didn't notice Phee until she was just a few steps away and Jen happened to glance up. At first she smiled, but it quickly faded because Phee looked upset and she definitely had a face that was easy to read. "Hey," Jen said quietly, turning her phone off without thinking about it as she stood up. "You okay?"
Phee almost didn’t spot Jen on the floor, but then she did and felt a wave of relief. Not that she wanted to burden Jen with this bullshit or make her a target by accident or anything, but there was safety in numbers, and it was just nice to have an ally. “Hey,” she greeted, tucking her thumbs into her backpack straps as the other girl got up. “Yeah, I just ... there’s some guys being dicks to me.” Phee shook her head like she could just shake those bad feelings off, and mustered a tiny smile for Jen. “So, do you want to like, eat together?”
Jen would have scoffed at the notion that Phee was dragging her into anything. She was not fitting in at all, a lot of kids in school didn't much care for her or trust her. Phee did, that was worth a lot and Jen was not afraid of confrontation. "Let's do that," she agreed, though she was still looking at Phee with a concerned little frown on her face. "Who's being a dick to you?" she asked and hoisted her bag up on her shoulder. Phee's little smile wasn't convincing but Jen wasn't going to push it if she really didn't want to talk about it.
“Ugh, just ... Justin Sanders and Billy Conway and um ... that Franklin dude, mostly,” she said, trying to sound dismissive about it. They were all popular boys, and while Phee had a suspicion about what had kicked off this harrassment, maybe they’d just gotten it in their stupid heads to pick on her randomly. Phee started walking toward the band room with Jen, ready to get into a less crowded hallway and sit down to eat. She was glad that she’d brought her lunch: she didn’t always, and not going into the cafeteria was for the best for her today. The thought made her stop and glance at Jen’s hands though. “Do you need to get some food?” she asked. It wasn’t completely an avoidance tactic, they were just going the wrong way if Jen needed to go through the line to get a tray lunch.
"Guessing you don't really want to talk about it," Jen said after shaking her head no. She'd brought food in case she didn't want to deal with the cafeteria which happened a lot. Usually being alone was just so much nicer than sitting in a room full of loud and obnoxious teenagers and she didn't always have the stomach for dealing with other people more than she absolutely had to. "Aren't those guys technically friends with your brother?"
Phee walked on once Jen confirmed her lunch situation, nibbling on her bottom lip a bit. She didn’t want to talk about it and sound like she was whining or something, but at the same time, she did. Being Sebastian McCarthy’s sister had helped her stay pretty protected in school as far as bullying went -- there had been instances here and there, of course, but it had never been like this. They were just such idiotic things in the first place, it felt silly to be upset about them. “Yeah, well, they’re teammates at least,” she answered with a sigh. “So ... kinda? This is just like, day two of oinking and stupid drawings and stuff.” She rolled her eyes.
"Oh, real mature stuff," Jen said with a roll of her eyes. "Do you think it's because of Victoria?" She could almost guarantee it was because why else would they suddenly start picking on Phee now? Of course she knew about the bonfire incident, Phee had told her and the whole damn school knew Greg had been a dumbass and confronted Victoria at lunch in front of everyone. Dumb move, like kicking a hornet's nest. Greg Wheeler was not a subtle kind of guy though so pissing off a queen bee in public really did seem like his style. Poor Phee.
“I dunno what else it could be about,” Phee admitted kind of unhappily. She’d appreciated that Greg was defending her, especially to someone within his own social circle, but he really shouldn’t have done it with an audience. She didn’t know that Victoria had sicced some of boy minions onto her, but she had a strong suspicion that was the case. “I don’t think they ever even acknowledged my existence before, so either it’s like ... they’re just bored right now? Or Victoria is pulling strings to hurt me, I dunno.” Phee could just hope that it was something all of them would get bored with and abandon soon enough.
"Does Greg know?" Jen asked hesitantly. She wasn't sure if it was a good thing for him to know about this, he might just go barrelling in all angry - or maybe that was exactly what Phee needed, for an angry boyfriend to give those boys a beat-down. Guys like that sometimes didn't speak any other language than violence and there was a whole set of codes there that she'd never understand. "Or your brother?"
Phee thought that either one of them would go barrelling in angry, and make things worse. But at the same time she thought she would’ve enjoyed watching that, at least a little. “No, not yet,” she told Jen, giving an uncomfortable shrug. Her biggest inclination was to just ignore it all and hope it went away. Why couldn’t people just leave other people alone? It was so stupid. “It’s only been a few days,” she added, glancing over at her friend. “And Bash just got into enough trouble ... did Hunter tell you? He got into a fight with one of the guys being homophobic. And he like, never does that. Fight, I mean.”
"Hunter did not tell me," Jen replied with an emphasis on 'not' that said she was kind of surprised and a little miffed by that. "Wow that's weird, that's like Hunter getting into a fight." She didn't know Sebastian well but by now she'd heard enough about him to know why this was weird. That guy must have said something truly shitty - or else it was just the straw that broke the camel's back and all. "Is he hurt? ...Is the other guy hurt?" She probably would have heard about it if someone had actually been more than a little bruised, people talked in a school this size and she was honestly surprised she hadn't heard about this until now.
She shook her head. “No, they’re both okay. Which like, is better than that asshole Kyle deserves, but whatever,” Phee said with an eyeroll. She’d been pissed about what he’d said when Bash had told her, but it wasn’t like she could do anything about it. She didn’t want to drag her brother into whatever bullshit was going on around her now. “But yeah, it was weird. I know he’s just super stressed out and on edge, but he just like ... never does stuff like that.” Phee sounded fretful about it, because she was. She just wanted everything to feel like it was back to normal. They’d reached the band hall, and Phee picked a spot to sit down and unzip her backpack.
"I get so weirded out when people are homophobic," Jen said as she sat down too, leaning back against the wall and rummaging around her bag for her lunch. "Like, really? What are you doing with your life, Kyle?" She rolled her eyes and pulled her sandwich out of a ziplock bag. "I'm trying to picture your brother punching someone and it's honestly a little scary. I can't picture Hunter doing it but maybe that's just because I know him better."
“Yeah, same here,” Phee agreed with a huff and an eyeroll at Kyle, wherever he was. Hopefully suspended. Or expelled, that would be even better, but Phee doubted that would happen. She pulled out her own food to start munching as she stretched her legs out in front of her and crossed her ankles. “I’ve seen him like ... get really mad when my oldest brother was being a dick and messing around with him. He gets super red, but we all do that.” She chuckled faintly. “But yeah, besides socking Trip sometimes, I haven’t ever seen him hit anybody either. I really can’t picture Hunter doing it.” Greg was kind of a different story, even though he was a sweetheart, but he’d always seemed more aggressive than Sebastian.
"I'm pretty sure that if my brother did end up punching someone, he'd panic," Jen said. "I'm more likely to throw a punch than he is, I swear." And she was not likely to punch anyone ever if only because she really doubted she had the upper strength for it. "I can see how it could be useful though, some guys are like that. You punch them in the mouth once and they drop whatever bullshit they were doing. Might be worth looking into with Justin and Billy." She gave Phee a grin that said she was clearly joking but it was still a fun mental picture. She bet Phee was strong enough to sock someone, and even if it wasn't a powerful hit it was still that, a hit.
Even though she was tiny, Phee could definitely picture Jen hitting someone over Hunter doing it. She would probably do something more clever than that though; Jen seemed like someone who fought with her brain rather than her body. One of Phee’s brows arched and she let out a little bark of a laugh at the implication that she could punch someone. “I would probably break my hand or something,” she said with an amused shake of her head. “No, I need to like ... research how to give people like, fungal infections, or mold or something. Those are plants, right?” And therefore in her magical purview. Or could be if she put the work into it, anyway. “Boys are such idiots, though. ... most of them, anyway.”
"I guess?" Jen said, though she had no idea how you gave someone a fungal infection using plants. "But yeah, boys are dumb. Guys like that it's like... You need to do some the human equivalent of smacking them on the nose with a newspaper. Maybe a punch is just that and your brother's done us all a service somehow." Or things would get worse, that was sadly also an option. "Or he started a war," she said with a wry smile. "Pick a side, pick a weapon. We need to be ready!" She was mostly joking, but that didn't mean she wasn't already strategizing in her mind.
Phee realized her mistake as soon as Jen looked a little confused. They still hadn’t had the talk about magic, and she needed to better remember who knew what, now that it was a subject she was talking about more frequently. Phee wasn’t sure if Hunter had told Jen about any of what Sebastian could do or not, but he obviously hadn’t shared that Phee was a witch too. Which was probably for the best, it wasn’t his to tell. Jen just rolled on with the conversation though, so Phee tried to ignore the little flare of pink in her cheeks and focus on how dumb guys were. “Ugh, god,” she said with a dramatic eye roll. “I’m definitely going to start carrying a rolled up newspaper around. And try to aim for their balls.” She wouldn’t, not really, but it was fun to imagine. Phee took a bite of sandwich and sighed out her nose. “We’ll see, I guess. What about you, what’s been up?”
"Not much," Jen said with a little shrug after chewing on her food and swallowing, taking her time to think about it. "Been binging Mindhunter and listening to Hunter whine about stuff. My life is boring." She nudged Phee gently. "You should come visit me, see the beetles. I have a couple of new ones in their pupal stage, it's awesome, they look like little aliens." She widened her eyes and wiggled her fingers at Phee before grinning.
Mindhunter sounded vaguely familiar, Phee was pretty sure it was a show, so she nodded along, then laughed a bit. “Wow, how could I resist an invitation like that,” she teased first, nudging Jen back. “Really though, I’d love to see your little alien bugs.” Bugs were just a part of nature, and that was what Phee had an affinity for, after all. She ate a couple of bites of her sandwich, looking thoughtful for a moment. “So I might like, start working in a greenhouse for the lady who owns the tea shop. Maybe she could use some good bugs to keep the bad ones away, and you could be like, our bug consultant.” Zania probably used magic to do pest control, but maybe she would be into the idea anyway.
"Ooh!" Jen exclaimed, though it wasn't so much the prospect of a job that appealed. "You can get me exotic greens for my bugs." She nudged Phee playfully and there was a chance that the tea-lady didn't grow anything her bugs would like to chew on but that was okay. "Don't work too much or we'll never get to hang out. Unless I visit you at work - which I'll totally do. If that's allowed, anyway."
“That too!” Phee agreed first with a giggle. She was feeling much better now, hanging out with Jen and talking about bugs. It was probably silly, but just the distraction was nice. “But I won’t work too much, we’ll totally still hang out. I dunno how-all it’s going to work yet anyway, I haven’t even asked my parents if I can do it yet.” Phee rolled her eyes, because getting permission for stuff was so inconvenient. She thought they would probably say yes though, since she would be working for a Castell and all.
She was so cute when she giggled and it was a bit contagious so Jen grinned back at her and wondered why the guys were being such dicks to her, they had no good reason and Phee was so sweet! "Your parents are pretty strict, huh?" she said then and hoped they weren't going to be all militant about Phee getting her job. As long as it didn't affect her grades it couldn't hurt. It was something to put on her college application!
Phee hoped that would be the case too. That maybe they would even be so fed up with crap from Sebastian that her having a small part-time magical job wouldn’t be a huge deal. She was pretty damn excited about what-all she could learn from Zania Castell. Plus a place to just let her magic run wild? It was super enticing. “I guess,” she answered Jen with a little shrug. “I mean, about some stuff, but not others? It’s weird. Like Mom helped me get on birth control without freaking out at all, so that was good. But it’s been super tense since Bash came out, so I dunno.” No one wanted to think their parents were homophobes, but Phee had been getting a distinctly uncomfortable vibe from her father, at least. “Is it nice, just kinda being able to do whatever?”
Jen looked confused for a moment, then shook her head. "I can't just do whatever, dad's not strict but there are still things he'd flip out about and probably send me back to Portland if he caught me doing them. I think he just... thinks I don't do anything wrong ever and I mean, he's not entirely wrong? I'm not huge on parties or boys and those are the Big Bads when you're a teenage girl, right? Sex, drugs, alcohol..." She shrugged. "He checks in on us when he's not home and I know he's worried so I try not to add to that."
Oh. Well that had possibly been a shitty assumption to make, and Phee’s cheeks got a tiny bit pink. Hunter just seemed to have way more freedom than Sebastian did, so Phee had kind of thought Sheriff Barrett was too busy to keep his kids on really short leashes. “That’s probably a good thing, at least he like, trusts you,” she said, aiming for positive. Did having sex with Greg and going to parties and drinking sometimes make her a Bad Girl now? She definitely still felt like a Band Dork. “I don’t think Daddy even knows I’m dating somebody yet,” she added as it occurred to her again. “Greg’s totally scared of him.”
"I think that goes with the territory," Jen said with a little smile. "I'm pretty sure your brother is terrified of my dad too, he was so awkward when they met, it was weird." Weird in that Sebastian McCarthy always came off as confident and easy going and seeing him all flustered had been amusing and new. "From what I hear your dad is pretty scary though, at least Hunter thinks so. Maybe it's just a rule with boyfriends and dads. Are you worried about him finding out?"
Phee wrinkled her nose, both amused and sympathy-uncomfortable at imagining Sebastian being all awkward around Hunter’s dad. She guessed that was a boyfriend thing, though she wasn’t sure how overprotective dads worked when it came to gay boys. Like did they get treated like girls usually did? Phee doubted it. But this conversation wasn’t about family gender politics and stuff. “Not really, no,” she answered Jen’s question with a shrug. “I mean, I’m a daddy’s girl and pretty much get my way, but I’ve also never dated before. He’s known Greg for forever, so he’s seen him be a stupid kid ... but at the same time Greg’s never like, really pissed him off. So I dunno what to expect. Mom was fine with it. I think he will be too.” Especially considering the ‘trouble’ they’d been having with Bash, Phee having a boyfriend seemed like small potatoes. “What does your dad think of it all? Hunter and Bash, I mean.”
"Not dating definitely earns you some major points with dads, I think," Jen laughed and she had plenty of those points herself so far, unless of course her dad thought something was going on with Liam now. "He seems fine with Hunter and Bash, I mean, as fine as any parent with any dating you do, I guess. I mean he should have seen that coming. Hunter is just so the type to have a boyfriend or go on dates, he loves that stuff." She had barely blurted out the words when she gave Phee a sidelong glance and laughed. "Guess you are that type too now... But you know what I mean. That super outgoing pretty boy thing."
“We haven’t actually been on that many dates,” she admitted with a sheepish huff. “Which is fine, I’m not really one of those people anyway. Super outgoing pretty ... girl.” Phee gave a little self-deprecating laugh and took another bite of her sandwich. She didn’t want Jen to think she’d changed as a person or anything. Really, she and Greg mostly just hung out and watched stuff and made each other laugh. In between all the making out, that was. Who needed to go out to eat when they treated one another like a buffet already? “Sebastian is totally that guy though, so they’re a good match, I guess,” she added, since they were talking about their brothers too.
"You're definitely pretty," Jen told her firmly. "But you're not that type... I don't know how to describe it. Hunter's just always been that extroverted guy with lots of friends, doing sports and... We're so different. You and me we're more introverted, I guess. I still can't get over the fact you're dating Greg Wheeler." It just went to show stereotypes didn't always apply to real life, she would have imagined Phee getting together with some sensitive artsy guy, probably a skinny one. Greg was none of those things.
Phee was nodding her understanding. Jen was right, and it sounded like she and Hunter kind of mirrored the McCarthy siblings. The last bit made Phee laugh some, because she really couldn’t get over it either. “Yeah, I’m definitely more introverted than Bash,” she agreed. “He was always out on a field or court or whatever, surrounded by friends, and I was off somewhere else with my nose in a book.” Phee shrugged a bit and took a swig from her water bottle. “I thought it would be weirder? Like we wouldn’t have anything to talk about and it would be awkward, but it’s ... not. He’s honestly more of a nerd than you’d ever guess, and it’s fun.” She smiled a little, fondly.
"Yeah, but he's so hyper," Jen said with feeling, throwing her hands up and laughing. "He's good to you, that's all that matters. I was kinda the same with Hunter. He was so social and I was like... in the park studying snails by myself. I'm just bad at people'ing, you and Liam are just easy to get along with, I don't know." She couldn't imagine having a boyfriend, it just looked boring in a way she couldn't explain.
She laughed with Jen, because Greg was pretty hyper. Which probably would’ve been a turn off in anybody else, anybody she hadn’t known for forever and had a crush on for a while. “It’s kind of like hanging out with a puppy?” she said with an amused little nose wrinkle. “But yeah, he really is, he’s super sweet. And you are not bad at people’ing, there’s just a lot of stupid people around who aren’t worth your time.” Phee tossed her hair over her shoulder and looked haughty for a beat, then snickered. “Me and Liam are pretty awesome though, so you fit in with us. Speaking of ... have you guys hung out much lately?”
"Not outside of school, no," Jen replied. It was a shame since they shared the same taste in movies and it was fun to watch horror movies with him. "We should all meet up and do something outside of school, watch a movie or something. If you're not too busy with your boyfriend." The last was tongue in cheek and her eyes crinkled playfully as she turned her voice a little more nasal to get the effect across.
Phee rolled her eyes, but she was grinning as she did so. “I guess I can let him hang out with Bash for a night,” she said with a snicker. “But yeah, we really should.” She still wasn’t really sure if Jen was interested in Liam or not, she hadn’t asked her directly. Which was probably the fastest way to find out, but Phee didn’t want to make her feel weird or anything. She just thought they would be really cute together, but she tended to want the people around her to be happy and couple-y. “Band is a little easier now that football season’s over, so I’ve got time and everything.”
"Do you like horror movies?" Jen asked and it was a little weird that they'd never talked about that but if Phee said yes she was just opening up a whole new world of stuff to talk about, one that Jen was particularly eager to delve into. It was what she and Liam had bonded over, the haunted house, the scary movies - even the stupid ones that weren't that scary but still fell firmly into the horror category, Jen loved them all. Well, no, she hadn't particularly loved the haunted house at the time it happened but she did love having had a real life experience and it made for a really interesting conversation piece.
“Um,” Phee said first, thoughtfully. “I’d say yeah, but I’m kinda picky about them.” She wrinkled her nose apologetically. The Halloween party had pretty much told Phee that Jen was a horror fan, like Liam was. “Like slasher flicks just annoy me, and the torture porn ones make my stomach hurt. But I really like creepy ones and psychological horror things. Or the funny ones, like I loved Cabin In The Woods.” She offered Jen a smile. All of that probably didn’t make her much of a horror fan, but that was okay. She could still enjoy them.
"Three out of five isn't bad," Jen said cheerfully, even if there were more types of horror movies than those five. It was a start and she too loved Cabin in the Woods - as evident by her Halloween costume. "The torture porn just doesn't really have a good storyline most of the time. I mean, then it would just be a good story with a lot of gore, but it can be fun to watch, especially with someone who's super grossed out." She gave Phee a wicked little grin but only for a moment. It wasn't like she intended on torturing her friend.
Some people got weirdly upset when you didn’t love what they loved, and Phee was glad Jen wasn’t one of those people. She snickered and made a little face back at Jen for the tease, then finished up her sandwich. “I do like a story,” she agreed around the bite of food, wiping her fingers off on her napkin. “What’s your favorite flavor?” Phee thought she could see Jen liking the really weird, surreal stuff. Or the Asian horror that was way scarier than any crazy dude in a hockey mask.
"Body horror," Jen replied after thinking about it for only a few seconds. "And just slow and weird and creepy in general. I mean, scary thriller horrors can be fun and all but only when you're watching with other people. There are some really good weird indie horror movies I love too, like less is more and they did a good job with the budget. So what kind of movies are your favorite? Not horror, obviously."
Phee was on board with slow and weird and creepy, but ‘body horror’ just made her think of that movie she’d heard about with people’s faces sewed to other people’s butts, and it made her shudder a little. She hummed thoughtfully at the question. “I guess like, fantasy would be my top one. Stuff with magic in it. It’s super dorky, but ... I kind of love historical dramas? Adventure movies. And some musicals, comedies, romcoms ... I love animation too, Pixar is amazing.” None of that sounded very cool like horror was, but oh well. She liked what she liked.
"I like all of those things," Jen said with a smile, maybe picking up on the fact Phee wasn't so sure if it was cool or not, even if it was just subconsciously. "I like nature documentaries too. Fantasy can be super cheesy but I like it when it's done well. Even the cheesy stuff can be fun too sometimes. Did you ever see Stardust? I watched it probably like fifty times when I was little."
Jen did not seem like the musicals-comedies-romcoms type, so that was a relief. Phee laughed a little as she nodded. “Yeah, I loved that one,” she said. “And like, Spirited Away and MirrorMask and like, all the Harry Potters a billion times.” She rolled her eyes at herself, but she really had a soft spot for those kinds of movies. “Have you watched Across the Universe? It’s like a musical, but all Beatles songs, it’s really good. But yeah! I’m into nature docs too. Especially the rainforesty ones.” Just thinking about all those plants made her palms itch a bit. Phee crumpled up her trash and stuffed it back into her lunchbag. “We should totally have a movie night or something though.”
Jen nodded to all of those movies enthusiastically. "Oh my god I went through a major Beatles phase when I was like... nine? That movie was so great. The actual Beatles movies are so weird though, like the ones they made themselves? They were just a bunch of weirdos. Funny though, and yeah we totally should. I was going to drag you to a horror movie night but we should just hang out more in general." She put away her own things and a quick glance at her phone said the break was just about to be over. Those breaks were always way too short.
“You can drag me wherever!” Phee told her cheerfully. She might not love horror movies, but she had a feeling that going to see one or two with a friend would be fun. As long as Jen didn’t mind her jumping and grabbing her arm or rolling her eyes, depending on the movie. Phee had a feeling she wouldn’t, and that was a nice feeling. She stood up and slung her backpack over her shoulders again, then smiled at Jen. “What do you have next?” she asked. Maybe they could walk together for a couple of hallways at least.
"Biology," Jen replied as she got to her feet, bouncing a little as her leg was falling asleep. Biology was one of her favorite classes so she might not fall asleep, especially since she felt somewhat energized from hanging out with Phee. "Where are you going? Heading my way?" She gestured in the general direction of her classroom and gave Phee a questioning look. Stupid short breaks, she kinda wished they were in the same year now so they'd have some classes together.
Phee wrinkled her nose and shook her head a little. “Got US History next,” she said, tucking her thumbs into her backpack straps. It was in a whole different wing of the high school, unfortunately. “Gotta try to stay awake through Mr. Myers droning on about the Revolution.” She rolled her eyes, then grinned a bit at Jen. Phee liked history, but she always thought US history was the most boring of all. “I’ll text you later, though?” she added, a bit hopefully. She had no idea what they would talk about, but that was the fun of texting with a friend.
Jen nodded sharply, then considered for a second before turning to face Phee and pulling her into a tight albeit brief hug. It just seemed right since someone was bullying her and Jen considered her a friend. She didn't exactly have many of those. "Might catch you in the hallways first so watch out." She grinned as she pulled back and hoisted her backpack up on her shoulder. "If you do sleep? Sweet dreams."
The hug surprised Phee, so her arm took an extra second or two to raise and embrace Jen back. That made it very short on Phee’s end, but it was sweet and made her feel kind of sappy inside. She gave the other girl a grin once they parted. “Thanks,” she said. “You too, for ... whenever!” She tittered and rolled her eyes at herself a little, backing up a pace or two. “See ya later,” Phee said before she turned to head down the hall in the direction of her class. Hopefully Jen had gotten her day back on track and the rest of it would go better now.