Tensor

Chase was glad he'd brought his skiing gear. It made waiting outside in just below freezing temps easier. He'd had to rebuild his cover a bit, but thanks to Drake and his tendency to blow snow at any excuse, there was more than enough snow still for a short term assault.

It hadn't been that hard to convert his small portable tennis ball launcher for snow. It wasn't like he expected it to last any longer than the day. Not with people who could blow up buildings as a knee jerk reaction. Which was probably why this was dumb, but thus far, the most exciting thing that had happened was getting together with Gert.

That was awesome. But that just meant he had a partner-in-crime. Which was pointless unless they were making some sort of trouble. So, snowball ambush outside their dorm early Sunday morning.

For now all there was to do is drink coffee and wait for their first victims though. "So am I gonna get a treat for this genius idea?" he teased Gert as he looked back at her over his shoulder.

Gert was pacing, and Old Lace was tucked away soundly in her head although she could feel her shifting and stirring. Even with her roommate gone, it would have been irresponsible to let her out. Gert couldn't keep things the emotions from funneling to her currently. Pacing was not something she did regularly. It was typically reserved for very complex homework assignments that required concentration. There could be something relaxing in the movement, but now she was just fidgeting and there was a terrible, horrible knot in her stomach.

Calm, cool and collected were out the window, and Gert was reduced to the sort of person that she didn't like. What the fuck was wrong with her and why couldn't she seem to stop it? Gert stopped and pressed her forehead against the wall, counting under her breath. That wasn't helping, either.

What the shit was going on? How the hell was it that whenever Chase Stein was in her life the whole world seemed to get shaken and strange? And how could she get that to stop?

Did she want it to stop? That thought made her start pacing again, muttering darkly to herself. "Stop it. This is ridiculous. You are not five years old. You can control yourself better than this. Fuck." There was a note of resignation rather than anger in the swear.

Okay, time to do more broadening of Gert's horizons. Because really, who the hell, especially a girl like Gertrude Yorkes, had not seen Shrek? Shrek was epic. All of the movies were good. Even the third one where they all have kids. And the fourth one. Shrek like managed to stay awesome through all the sequels even.

So they were having a Shrek movie marathon. It was Friday night and there was absolutely no reason she could refuse. Well, there was, but Chase wasn't going to let her have that option. He'd even buy dinner again. So he was outside her door at 7pm, with his copies of all four movies, knocking.

Chase had totally misjudged Kitty. She was clearly one of the awesome geeks who possibly not even geeky. Like him. Depending on if the ninja thing was at all accurate. Because ninjas were not geeks. Except Donatello and Donatello was a techno wizard, so he got a pass anyway.

He was enjoying going back and forth with her. Contrary to what he was teasing her with, he did indeed have pants on. Sweatpants, but pants none the less. He had no shirt on, because he was in his room and kicking back. That and he'd not bothered to put one back on after his shower earlier.

For now he was gleefully trading glib posts with Ms. Katherine Anne Pryde. And completely distracted by it.

Anna realized, as she changed quickly from her uniform into jeans and a tank top, that she had no idea what the guy she'd just agreed to go pie shopping with looked like. She was pretty sure it wouldn't be all that hard to figure out who he was, though, and she pulled on a hoodie and zipped it, then let Ali know that she'd be back before the fun started, grabbed her keys and wallet, snagged her leather jacket and headed out. Keys dangling from her mouth by the keychain, she pulled her jacket on and adjusted her gloves before hopping over the railing to the stairwell and landing softly on the first floor.

He was one of the new kids, which would make him stand out. Hopefully. And if not, he'd probably find her.

Gert had tucked Old Lace firmly back inside her mind, shut the door, turned the keyed and bolted everything down as tightly as she could. The last thing she needed was for Old Lace to chomp down on Chase. Again. The rest time it had happened, there had been a plethora of excuses at the ready not the least of which was the fact that her power was pretty brand new and easily provoked all those years ago. He had taunted her, and Gert had lost control and defended herself in the brand new way that her genes had devised. It would not do to have a repeat now though if anyone was likely to draw that reaction out of her, it was bound to be Chase.

There was also no earthly, sensible reason for her to be the slightest bit nervous so she pushed that feeling to the back of her mind as well and locked another door. The tinge of paranoia, though, she was going to keep. The option that this could all be some sort of massive set-up was still prevalent in her brain.

Grabbing her favorite pair of drumsticks off her dresser--there was no way she was going to trust a video game to be packaged with proper drumsticks--Gert closed her door behind her and then stalked down the hall to Chase's door. She stood there, arms crossed over her chest, drumsticks in hand, looking at the door for a moment, wondering. There were lots of ways this could go terribly wrong although only a 34% of those scenarios ended with her getting kicked out of school.

She could live with those odds. Shoulders back, Gert knocked and then crossed her arms over her chest again, waiting.