Sunday, April 27, 2008
Who: Ada and Addie When: Sunday afternoon Where: The dormitories What: Roomies meet, a case of mistaken identities ensues, fake life stories are fabricated in an epic bullshitting contest Rating: R for language stuffs Status: Complete
Ada and Jace had made a bit of a road trip out of the trek to TJS. A straight shot from their place in New Orleans to the school wouldn't have taken more than a really long day's drive, but they made a week of it, knowing it would be the last time they'd get to spend together for a little while. Jace was headed back to L.A. to play guitar on an album being recorded by a band he'd done session work with from the beginning, and she was going to be at the school, unable to just pack up and head out West to see him whenever she felt like it. They were used to distance, though. Both of them were musicians, and their gigs took them all over the country, often in opposite directions. They were well adjusted to grabbing a weekend here, a few days there, but Ada had gotten spoiled by the last couple months. They'd both had time off the road, and the domestic pattern they'd fallen into was intoxicating. It was hard to give it up.
But that was life, she supposed. Before heading to TJS, she dropped Jace off at the airport. When he removed his bags, it barely maed a dent in the packed-in mess of bags and boxes piled into the backseat of the vintage Camaro. It had been a junker for so long that seeing it fixed up now that she had the cash was still a shock sometimes. She was coming to the school for the long haul, and she knew she needed to pack for it.
Unloading was another thing entirely. She got help from school employees carrying her things up to her room, which she apparently shared with another student (par for the course, but she was beginning to think she was getting to an age where she was too old for roomies). She had a lot of stuff, and most of it was musical. The first order of business, before she worried about the bags and boxes piled on her bed (sleep could wait), was to get her guitars someplace safe. There were four of them, and it had been wrenching to leave the rest of her collection behind. She dug in one of the gig bags until she found the wall-mounted guitar stands. WEll, the makings of them. Now she just needed a hammer to nail the bastards up. She knew Jace had packed one, and some nails (he called them something else, but they looked like nails so that’s what she was calling them) for this very purpose. A look at the clock proved distracting, however.
“Shit!” she exclaimed, diving across the bed to pull her laptop out. The speakers weren’t bad, but they weren’t up to par for what she needed, which was just a shame. She really didn’t have time to hook up her sound system before the telephone meeting with her new record producer. He was a man from the label, and was beginning to get on her nerves more than a little. Ada was used to mixing and mastering her albums with her band, self-producing as much as possible, but ever since that one minor hit song things had changed. The label was interested now, which sucked more than she ever thought it would. She was hoping they’d eventually lose interest and crawl back to Taylor Swift and whoever else was making the big bucks.
She connected to the school’s wireless network and quickly downloaded the newest version of the eleventh track on what would soon be an album if she could get through the remainder of the process without murdering anyone from the corporate office. She set the track to play on repeat and picked up the hammer and nail thingie that went along with the first wall mount. Tape measure not required, she eyeballed a spot on the wall that looked about right, turned the volume up, glanced at the clock – five minutes till the telephone meeting – and got to nailing shit.
She continued hammering away, getting two of the four mounts up before her cell phone rang. She balanced it on her shoulder, answering, and all was going well until she heard that her guitarist’s solo after the second bridge had apparently been entirely cut out.
“Woah woah, what the hell happened to –“ she started. Then she hammered. And caught her thumb. “FUCK!”
Which concerned the producer greatly. “No no, not fuck you. Well yes, kind of, because what the hell happened to that solo? You can’t just take shit like that out!”
And as he gave her some snappy reply about how radio listeners don’t like long solos, she started talking with her hands, including the one with the hammer. “I don’t care if the radio listeners won’t like it. This is still my music, I’m at least pretty sure of it. No, I know it won’t be a hit single. I don’t care. No, I really don’t.” She paused as he went on. “Okay. Listen. Just put the solo back in, okay? Because it needs to be there. This song sounds like poppy bullshit the way you’ve got it. And I’m pretty sure I hear some synth something or other on my voice and you know how I feel about –“
And the hammer fell. On her foot.
“FUCK! No, not you. I’m trying to–“
That’s when she saw someone standing at the door. Probably her roommate, getting a nice earful of her language and an eyeful of her being a moron with a hammer. “We’re gonna have to do this later, Daniel. Just fix it. Please? Bye.”
She flipped the phone closed, tossed it on the bed (where it landed in a box), leaned over and picked up the hammer off her now-bruised foot, and turned fully to face the person in the doorway.
“Sorry,” she started, turning off the music on the laptop with her computer’s remote before giving the other woman a once-over. And a twice-over. And then a perplexed, maybe even exasperated and disbelieving look.
One word was going through her head as she saw the spitting image of the bitch extraordinaire of her old school. REALLY?
---
A roommate? A fucking roommate! "This blows," Addie had remarked to the poor sap who's official business it was to tell her. And it wasn't a defeated comment. It was the kind of comment that people assumed meant they would be sleeping with the fishes. Leveling her icy glare on the poor admin, it probably seemed like she was the kind of person to follow through. Especially with the otherwise perfect silence she bestowed on the guy and the news.
Heading back to her room, she had decided that she would probably dislike this chick. Having a roommate was never fun. She didn't have any dreams of all night pyjama parties or any such pink ribboned frivolities. Let the girls with blond cheerleader hair deal with that.
A musician? Seriously. Addie liked music. She really did. But she had a low tolerance for musicians. The ones she had met were either seriously out of touch with reality, or... Actually, either they were completely involved narcissists, or they were completely flaked out. Out of touch in either case.
And again with the staring. Ugh. I'm so over this. "So you remember me. I'm sure you know where we stand then," she offered vaguely and coldly. Take that and chew on it for a while.
-----
So it was her. Lovely. She opened her mouth to reply, probably with something groundbreaking and eloquent like oookay then when the damn cell phone rang again. Somewhere on the bed. Shaking her head she spun around and started searching for the device, ringing so softly that the music ringtone was inaudible, and buzzing. When she found it inside a box full of books, notepads of lyrics and other various paper-related crap, she saw that it was Daniel again and tossed it back in the box. Not now, douchebag.
There was still one of the stupid guitar mount things to put up but she was too shellshocked by the roommate situation at the moment. Not to mention her thumb was purple and her foot was throbbing. Instead of getting back to work, she stayed sitting on the edge of her bed.
"So. Roommates. This'll be fun. Just like a big slumber party," she said, casting her eyes skyward as if mentally contacting god to say: what the fuck, O Holy One? I thought we were friends!
And why the fuck hadn't Starbuck WARNED her that the bitch to end all bitches was here?? Whatever. She had dealt with a lot heavier shit than some too-big-for-her-britches bitchface and she was here for a REASON. So she decided to pose a question.
"So... where do we stand?" she asked. "'Cause I don't seem to remember much in the way of a state of the situation address."
---
Addie snorted at the slumber party comment. She had already flopped on her own bed and was ready to set to work on some homework, ready to plug into music oblivion with her earbuds, when she started talking again.
"Yeah, that sounds right. A non-entity. Pretty much what I remember," she commented, her gaze steady and icy. "In fact, I don't remember your name. You are?" Ha. This was amusing as Hell.
---
Ooooookay, Ada was gonna have to call bullshit. As many times as the two of them had gone round and round in the past, she was SURE she was more memorable than that. So, either she was being screwed around with, which was possible considering who she was dealing with, or this was a case of mistaken identity in which the mistaken party had some of the same personality traits as well as the physical resemblance.
So which was it?
"Ada," she said, looking over a little suspiciously. And then decided just to see whether this was who she thought it was. "You still going by Jana?"
--
Addie caught the suspicious look, and it gave her pause for a moment. Didn't Xander say the bitch's name was Kat? Hrm. "If you want," she shrugged. "I'm Addie here. Witness protection." She could even deliver such a bold-faced, totally ridiculous lie without flinching, not even breaking eye contact. Go ahead, doubt me, she seemed to say. At least her roommie wasn't a braindead airhead. That would have been insufferable. She could deal with someone intelligent.
---
Ada didn't even buy that one for a half second. First, 'if you want' wouldn't have been even in miss Kat's lexicon. So there was that. And then the whole witness protection bit... but Ada could play along too. "Addie, huh? Well I'll try to remember." Then, she laughed a little, barely a whisper of a sound, and turned to more fully face the imposter. "So, witness protection. You turn state's evidence on that mafioso you were dating or was it something else?"
---
Ada's reception of Addie's obvious lie earned a grin. Not because she thought the other woman had bought it. Not even a second of hesitation? Bah. She hadn't bought it. But she was willing to wait and see, try to trip her up. Tricksy little hobbitses. And Addie liked it.
Mafioso? Seriously? Whether Xander thought the bitch would be dead by now or not, if the woman was anything like Addie, there was no way she'd be dating Mafioso. Those fucks believed women were property. Slap your mistress around, no problem. Don't raise a hand to the wife, but beat the crap out of a whore. She belonged to you. As if a piece of paper and a gold ring made a fucking difference. Hypocritical dickheads. Ada could have done better in trying to call her bullshit.
"State's evidence. Pfft. Small stuff, baby, small stuff. What about you? What are you up to?" This was turning out to be interesting.
----
Well excuse Ada for not having enough time to think up something better than mafioso. She had been watching a lot of gangster flicks thanks to Jace's taste in films, not that she minded, and the idea had just sort of appeared. But at least this was amusing. Way better than accidentally nailing her finger to the wall.
"Well Jesus, it's been awhile hasn't it? I was married last time you saw me, Jana-- I mean Addie. Sorry." She pulled a little apologetic face. "I'll remember, promise. Well, I divorced his ass. And then I married this guy, owns some racehorses. We met at a bar at Santa Anita park and hit it off, two months later we were hitched, now the divorce is just ALMOST final. Got one of his horses though, AND his house in Cabo, so I'll call that a square victory."
---
Interesting life. But how much of it was real? Some of it sounded true enough. But Addie didn't place her as a golddigger, which is what that story painted. Hmm. Of course, she couldn't help but seem obviously surprised at the marriage bit. Married? This woman seemed like too much of a free spirit to be shackled like that. Interesting. She may have misjudged.
"Yeah, what's the name of the horse?" Take that.
---
Funnily enough, NONE of that story was true. In fact, she was only just engaged, for the first time in her life thank-you very much. Hopefully the last, too. The whole divorce thing just seemed so messy and if things were gonna go south, she hoped they did it before the wedding bells were rung. Not that she wanted any damn bells at the wedding, but you get the picture.
What's the horse's name? Well that mighta been a challenge for a girl who hadn't grown up in West Texas within spitting distance of several ginormous horse ranches, and who hadn't spent the last six years playing various small-crowd venues, which included horse racetracks. And car racetracks, but she preferred the horses. "Dapper Dan. Like from that movie, O Brother Where Art Thou. He was a Kentucky Derby hopeful last year but got bumped in the homestretch of his final prep race and came up lame two weeks before he was getting shipped to Churchill. That's the way it works in horse racing though."
She was having way, way too much fun with this. Oh, storytelling. She was quite a bullshitter, a skill she had picked up from sharing too-close quarters (i.e. tour buses, and before that, tour VANS) with four to five cocky men at a time. Never thought they'd come in so handy.
"You still been accidentally blowing shit up with your crazy mind powers when you're pissed? Cause if that's the case I'm getting a storage building."
---
"That movie sucked," the blond commented, rolling her eyes. "Nothing like the book. I'll take ancient Greek poetry over that drivel any day." Seriously. It sucked. "And why is it good you got him if he's lame? I mean, the house is awesome. But a lame horse?" Bad deal.
"Nah. Seems like once I got things under control, I can freeze things. They think I inadvertently reversed slowing down molecules and sped them up, making shit explode. How's your shit doing?" Damn. That was a hard one. Disguising powers. Touche.
---
"I was high when I saw it so I don't think I'm qualified to make a review," she said, laughing. "I laughed, I remember that, but that could have been more the chemicals than the movie." She pulled a hair tie off her wrist and pulled her wild blond hair back before shaking her head. "No, no, he's not lame now. It was just a bruised hoof. He's back racing this season and after that he gets to go make me tons of money by knocking up a bunch of mares every year." You know, maybe she SHOULD get a racehorse. That might be fun. "And the house is awesome. Gonna have some great parties there once I get it fixed up the way I like it."
House in Cabo was also next on the list. Maybe she should let Daniel butcher her songs if it meant more money for random shit like beach houses and racehorses.
"Freeze things? Well, that sounds less dangerous for my guitars but I'm not a fan of the cold. Better try not to piss you off, huh?" And then she went off on some physics/chemistry whateverthefuck crap and Ada just nodded along, trying to think of something weird and 'out there' that she could pretend to have as a power. Fuck it, what she had was crazy enough. "Whatever you say about the molecules. And you know, same old same old. Trying not to accidentally eat people because I turn into a jaguar outside of the full moon. They told me that shit would stop happening if I took anger management but it soooo didn't." Okay, so she didn't shift outside of the full moon. Well, she hadn't. Yet. But she hoped she never did either!
---
"Yeah, what's your poison of choice?" The cryokinetic sounded genuinely interested. If this woman liked to party, maybe they could get along. "Ah," was her only response to the horse talk. She didn't really have any soft spots for animals. She didn't like seeing them hurt or neglected, but she wasn't nurturing enough to actually have to care for another living being.
She continued to listen, slowly losing interest. Wait a minute. "Outside the full?" Great. Catwoman on crack and steroids. Just what she needed. Oh, and just as whacked, apparently. Fun times.
---
Oh, entering dangerous territory. Well, not yet, because there was no danger in talking, but she realized she had probably made a mistake by bringing the subject up. "I've tried a little bit of everything. Not heroin, but..." she shrugged. "Mostly coke, but it's been awhile." And she intended to keep it that way, no matter how hard it was.
Ada decided not to scare her new roommate to death with a lie. "I've never shifted outside the full. THat was bullshit. I've come kinda close a few times but it's never happened. And no anger management." What? She was too nice to keep ALL of it up, if it meant making the girl start carrying around a gun loaded with silver bullets or some shit like that. COuld be harmful to BOTH of their health. Especially her own, and she was all for self-preservation. "It's been a pretty rough two years since I was turned too, so hopefully if it was gonna happen it would have already."
---
"Yeah, I keep away from heroin, too." Addie listened to her talk. Been a while... Hmm. For all her faults, the blond respected someone who tried to better her life, even if she herself didn't make much of an attempt. What was there to better? She was happy with her life. Nonetheless, she offered, "Well, if you're ever interested, I usually know how to get stuff. I'm not dumb enough to bring it on campus." Usually. There was that night she 'kidnapped' Jacob, but it was just what was leftover from her original adventure.
The cryokinetic snickered. The girl was too nice. She'd lost the game, but Addie didn't look at her any less for it. She seemed pretty cool even with the horse talk and the musician bit. She played the game, and well. "Yeah. That sucks, chica. Seriously. I guess I was born with the frost queen bit, so it wasn't exactly life altering. My brother has it, too." Shrugging, she admitted, "I was just a bit fed up with everyone mistaking me for someone else, so I figured if I was gonna have to deal with her shit, may as well play with her identity a bit. I sure as hell didn't ask to have to deal with her mind-fucked ex or his fucking fire sprite friend."
Shifting to lie on her side, she looked over at Ada. "If you know this Kat bitch, you must know Starbuck? He's pretty cool, but I could put that Frankie twit through a wall." Sorry if she was a friend of Ada's. She had been a bitch to her for no reason from the start.
---
Ada had been happy with her life... at least she had thought so until things had spiraled completely out of control. Even then, there had been excuses to offset the damage of her drug use, basically deflecting techniques to keep her from having to face quitting. And quitting, well, it had been kind of a hobby for awhile. She'd stop awhile and then start back up again. Now she was looking at over 12 straight months sober and it was something she was extremely proud of, but also very afraid of messing up. Which reminded her, she needed to find a place to go to NA meetings in the area around the school. She didn't go to them every day or anything and she didn't subscribe to the "full" clean living lifestyle – she still drank alcohol on occasion, and had never had a problem with it – but she found listening to other peoples' struggles helped remind her why she had stopped. It helped keep her accountable to herself. Still, this was a thought process and potential conversation for another day. "I'll keep it in mind," she said, smiling because really, it was just a friendly offer, something she would have said to a friend who had mentioned drugs just a dozen or so short months before.
"It's getting better," Ada said, trying to sound positive. "I mean, I'm sure it'd be easier to cope with if it's something I was born with and had a lot more time to get used to but I really think I'll take the lycanthropy thing over something that's more of an issue all of the time instead of just a few days out of the month. I'm just glad I wasn't bitten by a vampire. I like the sun too much for that. And food." Ada listened as she explained the mistaken identity thing. "Oh god, I can imagine that'd get old real fast. Kat had a lot of... enemies. Not sure if that's the word, but yeah." She laughed just a bit. "I'm glad I wasn't the only one to mistake you for her though. That would have been embarrassing."
"I do know Starbuck," she said, nodding. "In fact, he's the one who told me about this place. We met back at some other school for freaks of nature. I wasn't really looking for friends and I've been told I'm a hard person to get to know but Starbuck was friendly enough for the both of us. Didn't stay in touch with too many people after I left school to go back on the road but I have emailed him a lot. Told him I wanted to get this were-shit more under control and he pointed me toward this lovely new school." She shrugged one shoulder when Addie mentioned Frankie. "Talked to her a couple times I guess, but it's not like I know her well. Don't really remember much about her though except for the flamethrowing capability."
Ada took a few battered picture frames out of one of the boxes and started setting them on her nightstand. One was of her with the band, but not the typical "album art" type of photo. One was taken in the tour bus during a long overnight drive. Smoke hung in the air around them and Ada grasped a lit cigarette and playing cards in the same hand, holding up her cards trying to keep the guy next to her, Rhett Davis, the bass man in the band, from "peeking." She had sunglasses on, because hello, she had to look like a pro. She also had on her best poker face, which was being slightly interrupted by Rhett's constant attempts to cheat so he wouldn't keep losing. It was a game of strip poker that Ada was apparently winning, because Rhett was down to boxers and cowboy boots, the Angry Enchilada (otherwise known as Roderigo Ramirez, the drummer) was missing everything but underwear and socks. The non-permanent band members were usually lead guitar and keyboard, and both of them were already out of the game. One was taking the picture while the other glared over his shoulder at the photographer as he put his jeans back on. She usually wasn't that good at poker but it had helped that the rest of the guys had consumed way more tequila than she had. Good night, good times. She missed the craziness already.
Another picture was of her and her family back in Texas, the last picture of she, her brother and her parents all together before her mother had died in early January. The picture was from Christmas Eve, which in Texas was warm enough to barbecue on the back porch this past year. The next time the whole family would be together after this photograph was taken had been twelve days later when Ada had hopped a plane home from New Orleans after hearing that her mother had been in a car accident. The tragedy had blindsided the whole family, but especially Ada's father. Ada was thankful for that last Christmas together, especially after she had missed out on so much time with her family while she had been screwing her life up for so long.
The third picture was of her and Jace, her new-ish fiance as he attempted to teach her how to ride a motorcycle for the first time. He'd bought her a slightly crashed 1994 Ducati Monster and had been working on fixing it up for the past few months. While she was learning, however, he'd said it was okay if it was scraped and dented because she was just gonna hurt it worse. She did, too. The photograph showed Jace laughing, obviously shaking his head a little as he reached down to pull her up from what had been a comically low-speed crash. As in not moving yet, and the bike had fallen over. She was laughing as well, pulling her helmet off. She had eventually learned to ride, but it had been a process fraught with frustration and near-constant pleas to "just let me ride with you!" The last picture was a snapshot of the two before one of Ada's shows a couple months ago. He was strumming into an acoustic guitar while she apparently took a break from fixing her hair to sing into the hairbrush animatedly, standing on the coffee table that Jace rested his feet on as he laughed and played. It was her favorite picture of them – Jace so laid back and constantly a little amazed by her antics and Ada full of energy and totally unafraid to show her true colors even if it made her look a little silly.
"So," she said, grabbing a handful of looseleaf paper with random scrawled pieces of what might someday be lyrics scrawled on them to sort through before she eventually just gave up and shoved them in a drawer before turning back to Addie fully. "Other than being despised on sight for looking like someone you aren't, what's your impression of this place? Other than creepy as fuck to look at from the outside. I felt like I was walking into a bad horror flick."
---
Addie was impressed with this woman's rather positive attitude about the were-thing. She'd be pissed if it happened to her, and certainly not dealing with it as nicely as she seemed to be doing. "Yeah. He needs better friends, though. Got a whole bunch of shit from his current girl because a bunch of his asshat friends started chattering at her about how he got together with Kat again. Because he carried a box to my room with me. Sap. He totally tweaked when he saw me." Even though the overall tone of her comments was disdain, her expression wasn't nearly as hard. She liked Starbuck. He seemed like a genuine nice guy. And as much as nice guys were saps, she still usually had a fondness for the nice guys. They deserved good things.
Addie's side of the room was devoid of pictures. She had boxes of photos from before digital cameras, but she didn't have any on display. The only one she'd have wanted to display was one of Danny, but they'd never done the family portrait bit, and she'd never thought to frame any of the random ones she had. She had one of him in her wallet, and that was good enough for her. Instead, she had put up several paintings. None were hers - they were prints of various well-known pieces. While the artpieces looked rather classy, the rest of her side of the room was typical blond tornado - clothes, random books, magazines, notebooks, etc. strewn all over the place.
"Eh. The people seem petty, but most do." That probably sounded affected, but one thing with the cryokinetic was that she was honest to a fault. She included herself in that statement, even if she didn't go as far to say that. She may have presumed herself less stupid than most of the people she despised, but she knew she was petty. She took offense quickly, and revenge usually followed. "The classes are fine, though. I'm pretty much set on my abilities since my brother taught me what he knew. Little disappointed they couldn't give me more on that, but they got decent information about the world itself. Good to know since I've been getting in with that crowd recently. Vampires and such."
----
Oh, Ada had gone through the pissed phase. Then she'd gone through the "well I'll stay drugged enough that I forget about it," phase. Then, once she had left Halcyon and sobered up, her focus had been on just ignoring it entirely. If the aftermath of the full moons since she had started that tactic had been any indication, ignoring the jaguar side of herself didn't sit well with the inner beast. She had vague memories from the shifting itself enough to know that she would turn with a lot more violence than usual, and when she would wake up the next morning her body would be much worse for wear. Exhausted, sore enough that moving at all was a chore and often bruised and slightly battered was not how Ada wanted to spend the days following every full moon for the rest of her life. Something had to give and maybe this school could help her figure it out.
Ada was glad her roommate wasn't a clean freak. That would have resulted in some major differences of opinion, she imagined. The musician wasn't a slob, per se, but keeping everything in its place wasn't a high priority.
"Starbuck is... nice enough I guess that he can put up with people those of us with less patience would like to punt out a window," she said, shaking her head a little. "I guess the world needs the really nice people, but some people really do deserve to get knocked down a few notches. I bet he did flip when he saw you, though. That bitch traumatized him I think." Ada shook her head again at the story about the girlfriend freaking out about him carrying boxes to her room. Good grief. "If Jace flipped shit every time I was alone with another guy, we'd have some major relationship problems. I don't get the possessive thing at all, from either side – why people have to be so jealous and why others put up with it. But I have a low threshold for that kind of drama in general."
Ada didn't mind someone who was up front and blunt with how they felt. "Yeah, I actually plan to attend these classes. I was wasting my own time and everyone else's at the old school. Never made it to class, didn't pay attention when I did. Don't even really know why I was there other than I guess it was good to have a safe place to shift and learn a little about that. Mostly I was just into way too much trouble. I'm a little more determined to get a handle on all this were-shit this time around." She nodded, "Yeah, definitely a good thing to know a little about the species' you're hanging around with. I'm still floored by half the supernatural things I hear about though. Just when I get used to vampires, I hear about demons and shit. Can't keep up."
She decided to give a little attention to her boxes of shit, and started unpacking one of them after shoving the song notes she had found earlier into an empty drawer on her nightstand. It's where they'd end up anyway. This one had... shoes. And some various articles of clothing. She climbed off the bed and started putting her shoes on the closet floor until she realized the pair of boots at the bottom of the box was definitely not her size. "Shit, I stole my bass man's boots," she said with a laugh. "He's gonna be pissed."
---
"Yeah. I got that. I think he just stared at me for a full 5 minutes. I almost socked him. Thought maybe I was food to his race or something." Shrugging again, she added, "Yeah, well, I don't think it was all her. I think she simply got the message from his friends that he was with Kat. I don't think she made a lot of assumptions. His friends gave it all to her. Threw him right under the bus."
The blond nodded again. "Yeah. Talk to some of the professors. I haven't pinned any of them for total morons, so I think they know their shit. And since they are supernatural, I think they've been where the students have. It's like being back in tech school or whatever. The teachers are doing whatever they're teaching. Less likely to be morons I think," she grinned.
Addie laughed at the stolen boots and shook her head. "Now, that sounds like you all had some good times." The only time Addie ended up with other people's shit involved lots of nudity. Unless of course she simply took it. She wasn't exactly into pickpocketing, but she had been known to pocket some ass's stuff simply because he was an ass.
---
Ada laughed. "Yeah you do have to be a little concerned when people are staring at you in a place like this. Might be a hungry vampire or something even scarier. I might be a little bitchier than normal right before the full moon but at least you don't have to worry about me chowing down on your life force or something." All she could do about the girlfriend drama was roll her eyes. "Good grief, some friends. Don't ask questions, just go tattle because we're not grown ups here or anything."
"Good to know. I'm most concerned with the inner beast control class for obvious reasons so we'll see how that goes. Guess I start class tomorrow. The sooner I get going, the sooner I can get back to real life.
She laughed, setting the boots aside to mail back to her friend when she got the chance. "Rhett's like my big brother, except less annoying than my real big brother. He must have left his boots at my place when he was over last week. You'd think we'd get sick of each other after practically living out of vans and buses for the last seven years but we wind up together even when we don't have to be. There are always shenanigans, too. I figure someday we might grow up, but I'm not gonna rush it."
---
Addie grinned a rather wicked grin and offered slyly, "Been there, done that." Fucking an Incubus was quite a rush. The dizzy, heady feeling afterward was a pretty nice little high in itself. "Holy crap, yes," she quickly replied. Clearly, she was glad to find someone who agreed with her. Starbuck hadn't acknowledged the total idiocy of his friends (hence why nice guys are saps), and it was about time that someone noticed that she was right about these things.
"Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busy days, but I do have class tomorrow, too. I get pretty busy, cuz I'm still working outside of staying here, but I'm sure you'll see me around. You don't have to quit your real life," she offered. It wasn't as easy for other people, though. Addie knew she had it pretty good. She was a damn good welder and her boss let her make her own hours for the most part. Usually she enjoyed the company of the other men, even if it was just to see if she could make them cry, but right now she didn't get much of that. She couldn't work those hours.
"Hell, no. I'd say I'd go to Neverland, but that place has been tainted in recent years -" with an excellent impression of Robin Williams, she quoted -"'You must be this high to ride Michael.' However, I do absolutely refuse to grow up," she finished with a grin.
---
"Geez, now I feel like I've fallen behind. Never been 'fed' from in any capacity that I'm aware of... maybe I'm missing out." Ada had a feeling that despite the awkward staring start, she and Addie might actually get along. Shocker! Ada didn't have many female friends generally due to the higher drama factor but that didn't seem to be an eminent problem with her new roomie. Time would tell, but she was optimistic.
"What do you do, work-wise?" she asked. "I'll try to keep the noisier side of the work I'll be doing to the times when it won't annoy the shit out of you. This school thing is gonna interrupt my normal rambling lifestyle but I'm assuming that barring disaster, the road and all the clubs will still be there when I leave. I'll just try to focus on writing and composing a little instead. And trying not to murder the producer who thinks my voice needs to be Britney-Spears-ified or something. Sometimes I don't really listen." She smiled, leaning back over to pull some more stuff out of her box. A pair of Jace's jeans -- poor guy, he'd miss this pair until she got it back to him. And, nestled at the bottom beneath a pile of flip flops... a toaster? "The fuck?" she half questioned, half-exclaimed. "Why in the world would I think I need this? And with my shoes..." She giggled, and then fully laughed at Addie's neverland joke. "As long as it's the real Neverland and not the ranch.... If we do go, just make sure we go with a group of prepubescent boys. We'll be totally safe."
---
"Being bitten while fucking is pretty intense. But out in the blood bars and stuff, the vamps are pretty snobby. Almost got a whole Hitler-Jews view of humans and vamps, except instead of killing, we're food. The multiple orgasms just aren't worth it. In here, I don't know. The vampires seem younger, so I think they're still mostly human, mentally." Her few brushes with these blood bars had been the main impetus of what drove her to the school. If there was that much crazy shit out there, she wanted to know about it.
"I work construction. Welding mostly. I'm good at it. I also do art with it. You know, junkyard art. One of the Witches her is gonna enchant some of it to move and stuff. I'm hoping there's gotta be a supernatural art gallery or something." Addie rolled her eyes at Ada's music problems. "God, I hate the people who run the art scenes. They're such dumb fucks."
Her Neverland comments earned a snicker and snort. That was a good one. The cryokinetic loved finding someone else who was not only unoffended by her general irreverence, but also joined in. Good job.
---
"Blood bars? I am sooo out of the loop. Never heard of that shit. I have met a few holier-than-thou vamps... well I guess not holier since they're allergic to church related shit, but they definitely thought they were far superior to us mortals. Most of the ones I know well are young like you said though. Hope they don't turn into assholes while they stay young and gorgeous and the rest of us get old. Personally I hope to use my extended lifespan to make millions of dollars. I'll do infomercials for some bullshit face cream or something made out of cheap ass lotion in a fancy package and say 'bet you can't guess my age. I'm 65 years old and I have the skin of a 30-year-old, and so can you! For only 19.99 you can get a 30 day supply..." she laughed. "It's my backup plan for if my music career goes down in smoke."
"My dad would love you," she said. "He's always trying to find a decent welder for some project or another but always winds up bitching about who he chooses." She smiled. "He wrote me off as a hopeless cause after attempting to help me build a bird house for a school project in fifth grade. I needed stitches before all was said and done." The art stuff sounded cool though. "There should be a supernatural art scene if there isn't one. I've met a few supernatural-only music acts so maybe it goes to visual art too. And I agree about the dumb fucks. This dumb fuck is going to get his auto-tune bullshit shoved up his ass if he doesn't watch it. But that's a story for another day."
"So, from what I've gathered so far I'm rooming with an expert bullshitter who welds shit, freezes shit, rags on MJ and doesn't approve of middle school drama. Anything else I should know?"
---
Addie laughed. "Dude, that's awesome. You're a total con artist." She continued chuckling for a moment, obviously thoroughly amused at this prospect. What a ridiculously awesome scam.
"Yeah? Well, there's hope then. It's not that I care much about hanging out with 'people like me', but I doubt I'll get away with displaying the enchanted stuff in a regular show."
"Yep. It's all a lie," Addie winked. She didn't like being categorized, and her tone was just enough to make Ada wonder if she was joking or serious, or somewhere in between. Also, the blond just liked to make people keep on guessing.
----
Ada gave her a very serious look. "I'm open to the idea of investors if you're interested. I'll call up my attorney to figure out the profit breakdown. You could get in on the ground floor of this excellent way to rip off unsuspecting housewives devastated by sagging skin." You know, this scam wasn't a bad idea at all! She decided to truly file it away for a future rainy day. Never know when one will wind up destitute, after all!
"Definitely hope. Not to mention there are probably lots of supernatural art collectors who would love to buy something that's a little more interesting and unique than humans can manage to make. You know, if you're interested in selling stuff." She knew some people weren't into getting rid of their art though.
Ada laughed again at Addie's assertion that everything she had told her was a lie. "Well fine then. Guess I'll just have to put on my detective hat and figure out the truth for myself."
---
Addie laughed. "Investors require money. Don't got that. But maybe I'll peddle it. Like one of those Avon ladies. Just don't expect me to look pretty or be nice. If their skin looks like leather, I'll tell them so."
"Hey, yeah, you're right," she mused. Why hadn't she thought of that before? She wasn't a total idiot. She could have figured that out if she wanted.
The cryokinetic grinned widely. "Just remember that the life of a detective is much less glamorous than advertised on TV." Ada was a pretty cool chick after all.
---
"You could totally be a salesgirl. And definitely, do be mean! Tell them they look awful. It'll make them wanna buy it more," she said, nodding solemnly. "They must first grasp their hideousness before they submit to the desire for my fake skin youthifying serum."
Her dreams of becoming like the detectives on SVU (yes, she was a Law and Order addict at times, sue her) would have to be put on hold. The cell phone was ringing from inside another box, and she had to dig it out. "Haha, it's Rhett. Probably wondering where his boots are," she said. Flipping the phone open, she bypassed 'hello' to say: "They're safe, for now. But if you ever want to see their leather unscuffed again you'd better do everything I say. First rule: No cops..."