[Location: Taxon High Gymnasium] Time for the big game!

[genequeen]

Tonight is the night of the big basketball game between Taxon High and their rival Cricetidae High! It is the biggest game of the season for the basketball team, the band /and/ the cheerleaders. All of them have performances that they need to hit out of the park. For some there are scholarships on the line and for others it is a huge peer pressure moment.

Of course, for others, it is just another thing to do, another place to be seen and another chance to get out of the house.

What might happen this evening? Will there be triumphs or tragedies? Will there be hookups or hangouts?

Only time will tell!

Comments

[personaldemon]

Jason Blaise Blood is here. no his student ID doesn't have his last name painted over with crimson nail polish and BLOOD scrawled over it, of course not

This in itself is kind of unusual, since while he is on the tall, lanky side, this is where any similarities between himself and most of the basketball players or fans end.

Of course, he's not on the court. He's up in the bleachers, at the very top, hunkered into one corner so that as the stands fill up there's less chance the crowd will make people sit by him.

His ubiquitous black hoodie is drawn up, and behind the hanging locks of dyed hair Jason's eyes are scanning back and forth over the court. One hand is nervously tapping his black-nailed fingers against the wood of the bleachers, and the other is at his mouth where he's worrying at his thumbnail. He's also muttering to himself, inaudibly unless you are really close, but who wants to be that close?

[threelivesdown]

She's not that close, though she totally gets the hoodie pulled up high not interacting with the world thing. She's doing something similar, though, weirdly, she seems to be slowly moving closer to him. It isn't obvious but just ever few minutes she's managed to move up a row of bleachers or slid down them in his direction. Her hands are in her pockets and her head is down.

[personaldemon]

Have a wary side-eye from behind the lank red-and-white hair, Selina. Jason presses his shoulders back into the gym wall where it meets the bleachers, brings one knee up onto the bench he's sitting on. Baggy black jeans are frayed at the bottom.

Jason jerks on the loose frayed threads with his nail-bitten fingers while keeping a suspicious eye on Selina. Sure. Sure. She's just accidentally coming his way. Sure. No such thing as accidents.

Socially awkward kids. Who's gonna be the one to break personal silence first?

[threelivesdown]

She ends up sitting on the far end of the bench from him and doesn't come any closer. For now. Pulling out a lighter, she flicks it a few times. There is no flame but she's almost sort of threatening to create some with the ... is that a Cookie Monster lighter?

[personaldemon]

Jason fidgets restlessly, twisting in order to be able to keep her in view. He watches the lighter, the motion of her thumb on the tab, holding his breath each time but she doesn't, she doesn't do it.

That it's a Cookie Monster lighter doesn't seem to matter to him.

For about thirty seconds he says nothing, then, voice a little hoarse, he blurts: "I have matches."

But the gym has smoke alarms. He knows this from experience.

[threelivesdown]

That gets a small smile from her. She presses down on the lighter, a bright flame springing to life for a few moments before she lets it die again quickly.

Flipping the lighter between her fingers, she offers it to him between two fingers. It isn't as if she doesn't have another one in her pockets somewhere.

[personaldemon]

He stares at the offered lighter and then at Selina as if it's a trap, or a gesture of opening cultural exchange between alien cultures-- something to be considered very heavily before taking it.

After many thoughtful seconds, Jason reaches into the catch-all pocket of his hoodie, rummaging among god knows what that's in there until he brings out... a head.

get your minds out of the gutter

Well, technically, it's an apple. But it's been carved and shrunk to resemble a head, and sprayed with sealant, and painted in places-- it's in pretty good condition for being an apple. A little linty from being inside a pocket, maybe, but yeah.

Wordlessly, Jason extends his hand, dangling the head by its yarn topknot. Trade.

[threelivesdown]

At seeing the head, she gets a curious look on her face. The hair moves out of the way of her eyes for a few moments as she tilts her head one way and then the other. After a few moments, she nods, putting the lighter down on the bench closer to him than to her before reaching out for the shrunken apple head.

There might be something resembling a smile on her lips.

Maybe.

[personaldemon]

Trade accepted. That way nobody's in debt or anything. Jason's satisfied as to the Significance of all this. He gives a jerk of his chin in answer, releases the apple, then snatches the lighter up.

He flicks it on, stares fixated at the wavering little yellow point of flame for about ten seconds before his fingers start to get hot and he lets it click off.

It's not fair that Dad says he can't have lighters anymore.

[threelivesdown]

Selina bounces the head on the string a few times. After a few moments, she turns it toward the basketball court and has it survey what is sees there. Looking at the head, she turns it to look at her as well. It seems, with a nod of the head, that she's having some sort of a conversation with it, though a silent one.

After a moment, she puts the head into a pocket and then looks over at Jason. The pyrophilia gets her attention, a small smile on her lips before she slides just a very bit closer to him.

[personaldemon]

Jason watches all this intently. When she scoots that tiny bit closer to him, he allows it, although jams the lighter down into a pocket as if he's worried she might take her trade back.

"What's he say to you?" he asks, jerking his chin at the apple-head. Apparently he's asking quite seriously.

[threelivesdown]

Selina looks at him with brows arched. She didn't think that he'd actually ask. "Secrets," she says. This is a girl who has said maybe ten words in his presence in all the time that he's ever seen her and that includes, somehow, a group presentation she was an important component in in class.

[personaldemon]

Jason nods as if totally unsurprised by this.

"He doesn't talk to me," he says. "I made him so he can't talk to me. Sometimes he lets me see things but because we're too close we can't talk. He'll keep you safe while you sleep though. You should hang him over your bed. He keeps the things with legs away."

Okay, so apparently he'll talk enough for both of you.

[skinandbone]

"Psssst."

Metody smuggled in cookies. Want one?

[personaldemon]

Jason jerks, maybe a little bit of a startled flail thrown in for good measure. He'd apparently been so fixated on the court that he hadn't noticed Metody slipping up to join him, and given the, well, eye-catching combination of Metody's paleness and Metody's... outfits, that's saying something.

"Don't do that!" he yelps at the other boy.

[skinandbone]

He flinches at the yell, and guiltily ducks his head.

"I'm sorry - I didn't know you didn't see me." Because you've got your hood up, Jason, he doesn't say. But there's an edge of reproach to his voice.

"Cookie?"

[personaldemon]

Jason returns to staring at the so-far-still-empty basketball court, over Metody's shoulder, and to chewing a thumbnail ragged.

"No," he says, and then, "What sort?"

[skinandbone]

"Chocolate chip. And oatmeal, too."

Metody settles down, leaving a seat between them.

"....what on earth are you watching?"

[personaldemon]

Jason makes a face at the 'oatmeal', half-hidden by his straggly hair.

The question makes him jerk again, like a nervous dog, and turn to give Metody a suspicious glower. "Who told you? Was it Sherlock? I'll kill him if he did."

[skinandbone]

"I....don't know anything? That's why I'm asking...?"

"Are you okay? You look - you look a little - a little tired."

[personaldemon]

Squint squint squint. Jason stares until he decides that Metody is telling the truth, then slumps against the outer bleacher rail again, looking back at the court.

"'m fine."

Jason scuffs the toe of his boot against the bleacher the next row down, and again, until he manages to leave a little streak of black rubber against the bench.

It would be way too much to say 'sorry' to one of the few people on campus who tolerates his company and vice-versa-ish, so instead Jason leans forward, buries his hands in his big hoodie pocket, and shrugs.

"Chocolate chip sounds okay."

[skinandbone]

Squint all you want, Jason, but all you'll ever see is baffled politeness and a little worry, because what if all this is Jason teasing him? Like, long-term teasing him, because omg, can you believe this guy believed him? Let's all laugh at him.

It could happen. Some people are mean.

But Metody is pretty sure Jason once carried a dead frog around in his pocket all day, and that's some real dedication to teasing.

He smiles happily and hands over one of the cookies. Somehow, they are not covered in rainbow sprinkles.

"Did you hear about this dance? I'm trying to get a group together for a limo, so we can at least arrive in style. You interested?"

[personaldemon]

Jason scrutinizes the held-out cookie. Since this is certainly not the first baked good that Metody has given him, Metody is probably familiar with this: Jason seems to have a problem accepting gifts, even cookies, and always regards each one like it contains either cyanide or the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

And he always feels the need to trade back. Hands emerge from the pockets of the hoodie after several seconds, gripping something which Jason puts down on the empty seat between them. It's a ring, apparently, lopsided as only home-grown attempts can be. It's black. It's made of.... wax?

(careful inspection will reveal this is actually crayon.)

Jason takes the cookie and stuffs half of it into his mouth. Whilst chewing, he simply Stares at Metody from behind his curtain of lank hair.

You just asked if he is interested in going to the dance. The sheer incomprehensibility of this is temporarily enough to drag his attention from the laminated wood of the basketball court and its two- and three- point marker lines.

[skinandbone]

This always makes him feel a little bad, but he's come to accept that Jason is a bit odd about some things. He plucks up the ring, and chuckles with delight.

" - oh, this is cool! Did you make this? Can you make me one in all different colors? I'll so trade you for it!"

[genequeen]

Madelyne's been stretching and drinking a lot of water. Tonight she's going to be flipping through the air and jumping and spinning and generally being cheerful and peppy. She's folding her socks correctly and pulling her hair up and making sure that her high pony tail is perfect.

She's at the gym and ready early.

Early enough that she can watch the basketball team warming up.