Giving the Runaround (open) }{lunchlady pranks}

[Exxie]

Time for some fun. The cafeteria wasn't generally associated with fun, but it would be if enough people heard about what she had done here. Possibly, if her plan went off without a hitch. Her eyes sparkled, but there was no trace of a smile on her face. She walked up to the cafeteria counter.

"Could I get a piece of pizza? Oh wait...no, I'd rather have a small cup of grape jello...no...wait...that isn't quite right...give me a second..." Then she stood in the place, looking thoughtfully at the menu. The cafeteria wasn't busy at all, and the ladies behind the counter had just been busy chatting about something so-and-so had done to so-and-so. They had been very wrapped up in it too. But it was a SECRET, so while they could tell each other they couldn't tell her. They could only tell everyone on the cafeteria staff. Jodie had to hold back the laugh. The old gals didn't know what the word 'secret' meant! After exactly a minute of counting in her head, she spoke again.

"Maybe a cheeseburger?"

"Are you sure about it this time?"

"Yes...or maybe no. No. Maybe a pudding cup. Can't go wrong with puddi-then again...hmmm...a dish of macaroni and cheese, an ice cream float, a cheeseburger, a piece of chocolate cake, a glass of sprite and...let me think...an apple. Yes. Definitely. An apple." The cafeteria lady glared at her, and Jodie couldn't help but quip.

"Customers come first. You know, I could report you for giving me such bad service. Then you wouldn't even have this crappy job, would you? You'd just have to trade 'secrets' for a living. And I guarantee that the secrets you were trading with each other before I interrupted you would only be worth a couple of dollars on a good day." That made their eyes widen. It probably would to a normal person. Finding out that a sixteen year old knew the going rate of secret trading usually did that. There were so many different aspects of her previous life that were so much fun in the whole shock factor part. They brought her food to her and she picked each thing up separately, examining it at the counter before putting it back on the tray. She hesitated on the glass.

"What is this?"

"Your glass of sprite, miss."

"THIS IS NOT A GLASS OF SPRITE! I REQUIRE A STRICT DIET INVOLVING ONE SUPERNATURAL CREATURE A DAY! I DON'T THINK THIS IS EVEN LIQUIFIED SPRITE! I expected fresh sprite. I'm very disappointed." They looked a bit confused and a bit frustrated now. Jodie did her best to get across that she was extremely frustrated with how inept they were. Then she walked across the cafeteria and sat with her back to them. It was also in a corner that they wouldn't be able to see. Then her shoulders started shaking with silent laughter. That had been sooooo great. The only thing better would be to have someone to share this with. Possibly she'd give them some of her food. She had paid for it, but really it was so they had more to prepare, and she had more to order. Jodie knew she could eat it all if she had to, but then again, that would probably mean a few more laps around the ol' pool too.

[Amethystasheryn]

Well, that was definitely one way to make enemies, Cora thought as she slid up to order her own food. She glanced over her shoulder to watch the other girl walk away; Cora couldn't see her face, but she had clearly just been winding up the women behind the counter. No other set of circumstances in this world, she was pretty sure, could tempt someone to order liquified fairies at a school cafeteria. Even that probably couldn't raise the caliber of the cuisine here.

She smiled at the lady behind the counter, as if that could make up for the other girl's prank, and placed her own order: A pretzel, a large coke and a cookie. This provided, she quickly left the line and surveyed the crowded room for an empty table.

There weren't many. She had come in a little late, and the other girl's prank hadn't hurried things along any. Most of the tables were larger ones, with chattering groups already crowded around them, their food spread out all across creation. She probably couldn't get a seat there even if she'd wanted to.

But the prankster girl, Cora noted, was seated alone at a table in the corner. Nice vantage point too: From the empty seat there, she would be able to look over the girl's shoulder and see most of the cafeteria.

She strolled over, careful to avoid protruding feet and bags, and stopped beside the vacant seat. "Is this taken?"

((Hope you don't mind me jumping in.)

[Exxie]

Jodie had her eyes closed as she laughed. Then suddenly she heard a voice and opened her eyes slowly and lazily, casual enough that she could just pretend that she was had just opened her eyes on her terms if, say, the voice had been talking to someone else. But no, the girl was talking to her. It surprised Jodie and her eyebrows rose slightly.

"Yeah sure. I mean...no it's not. I'm sitting alone right now. You're welcome to sit there, but be warned that what I did up at the counter is what I basically do as a hobby. Trouble should technically be my middle name. And if you're concerned about your rep, you might not want to sit anywhere near me." She glanced at the next table over. It was empty. People didn't want to sit at it now that she was sitting here. Jodie wished she could say it was for a different reason.

"However, if you're not concerned about that I'd be grateful for the company. I have this little feeling that the cafeteria ladies won't come over to visit on their lunch break." Jodie giggled. Yes. Giggled. It surprised her too. But pranking them had been so much fun! Of course, if people were nice to her, there was no way she was going to prank them, but the cafeteria ladies were different. They were always nasty to her. Might as well have a bit of fun with it.

ooc: actually, I'm thrilled you did. I love threading with new people.

[Amethystasheryn]

Reputations. Not like she had one, really; the friends she had would probably have thought Jodie's prank at least vaguely amusing. So it shouldn't matter who was sitting at the nearby tables, or whether there was anyone in sight she knew.

She looked anyway, a surreptitious glance out of the corner of her eye, and felt her face already heating up. She wasn't ashamed to be sitting here, with this girl who was sitting by herself in a corner. She just had a horrible feeling--very parental, and more specifically, fatherly, in its tone--that she should uphold what little integrity she had. An admonishment maybe: Do unto others and all that.

Yeah, right.

She smiled, shook away the nagging remnant of a moral backbone, and took the empty seat. A large swig of the soda allowed Jodie to finish her sentence, and Cora put the cup down.

"Don't worry about it," she said, flapping one hand as if shooing away a pestering insect. "They don't come visit me on their lunch break either, and I haven't even done anything to them. I don't think they care about my reputation." She shrugged. "I'm Cora, by the way," and she extended her right hand to shake. "I don't think we've met." She might vaguely recognise Jodie by sight, but everything else about her is a mystery.

((Glad to hear it.

[Exxie]

The girl sat down, and that surprised Jodie too. She had friends sure, but that was just because one of them was Ainsley, a trouble-maker himself. And sure Zeke wasn't a trouble-maker, but she still didn't seem to care about reps, what with her being friends with Jodie and Ainsley both. She smiled at the girl as Jodie listened.

"Yeah that might be true enough. Everyone seems to get some sort of dubious glance. Either they're not sure if we're all delinquents, or they're just jealous we have powers. Which is screwy because it isn't like we asked for 'em." Hell to the no!

"And no, I don't think we have." The hand was extended, and Jodie bit her lip for a moment, nervous about what to do. Well, no point in being abnormal when it had only happened one time. Might as well try again. So she shook the hand. And her eyes widened as she scrambled backwards, letting go of the hand like it was made of fire. She fell backwards in her chair, crashing to the floor of the cafeteria. Jodie just sat there for a moment, in shock and embarrassment. She was woken from her stupor by laughter from the other side of the cafeteria and she stood up quickly, sitting back in the chair with her head ducked. She groaned, putting a hand over each eye for a moment before sighing and speaking quietly.

"That's another reason why you might want to sit with someone else." She had seen it again. Whenever she touched someone, she saw ribbons of light mixed with what looked like ash. The last time she hadn't known about it and even the other person had seen it. Apparently it hid itself from other people now. Great. She knew she looked absolutely nuts. Way to go Jodie. Look like a psycho just like your parents. Jodie nervously picked up her fork and started in at her macaroni and cheese. You could never go wrong with cheese, right? And it was elbow, not KD, aka Yellow Death. There were so many things running through her head. What a freak she was. Why couldn't she have non psycho powers? Why couldn't they obey her? Why couldn't she have just been non-powered? As far she was concerned, all the business of gifteds being 'gifted' and the next stage of human evolution was a bunch of baloney.

"I only prank people who aren't nice to me. That guy across the cafeteria, for example, is asking for it. I'm not that awful as to be pranking for no reason." She gave a shy smile, unsure as to what Cora would say or do. If the other girl decided to walk to another table, Jodie would definitely understand.

[Amethystasheryn]

Jodie's sudden outburst made Cora jump reflexively, pulling her hand back too fast and almost knocking over the soda glass beside it. She caught it just before it would have sent liquid all across the table. More luck than skill, but she'd take it. "Jeez!" The word came out as an indignant, undignified squawk as she leaned around the side of the table to see if Jodie was all right.

She was, rising in embarrassment to return to the table. Cora refused to look for the mirthful students across the room, and instead blew out her breath disdainfully at Jodie's comment. "I don't wanna sit behind you now," she shrugged. "But I don't really want to move, either. What was that?" she added, extending her right hand palm-up. "I mean, it wasn't my hand ..."

[Exxie]

When she heard Cora's exclamation, she turned redder than she already was. She heard the breath blown out and Jodie was unsure as to the point it was supposed to get across. But it seemed a little clearer when the other girl said she wouldn't want to sit behind her now, but wouldn't want to move. When Jodie heard the question, she was silent a moment. Weighing her options. She might not seem like as much of a freak if she explained about her powers. But on the other hand, telling that meant saying that she wasn't in control of them much at all. At this school, that was admitting a weakness. She sighed. Well her training had prepared her if anyone wished to challenge or something like that.

"That was part of my power set. I've been trying to figure out why it only happens when I touch someone. I think I get fed information about you or something. It just appears like ribbons of light and ash to me though. I'm a light manipulator though, so the light makes sense. The first time it happened the other person saw it too. I just thought it was a freak thing. But now I know my suspicions are probably right. I think I might be seeing the light and shadow of...you." Jodie bit her lip. It was certainly unexpected.

"I thought it might happen if I shook hands with you, but I mean...what kind of weirdo refuses to shake hands? It tends to inspire mistrust, y'know? So I tried..." Now what could she do to that jerk across the cafeteria. Ah...she had an idea. Jodie held up a finger to say something like 'one sec' to Cora before looking behind her. There was a light above the guy and she threw a small ball of light she'd been practicing at making. It hit the light, not denting it but just making it swing back and forth. He looked up at the light, curious. She snapped her fingers and the light went out for a few seconds, flickering for a full minute after the small outage. She could do it to only that light because there was still residue from her light manifestation. Jodie smiled and turned back around in her chair.

"There. That settles that."

[Amethystasheryn]

"What, like ... an aura?" Cora asked curiously. "Does it tell you something about the people then? Can you like ... read minds with it?" It was a bit far-fetched, but the thought put her on edge. Telepaths could see right into you, pry back your layers and look at all the dirty little secrets you didn't want anyone to know, and then any relationship you might have had with them went right down the tubes. Even if they didn't want to read your mind, it probably happened anyway. Especially if the power was set off by a handshake.

She rubbed the palm of her hand absently and tried to put that out of her head. Jodie was a light manipulator, not a telepath. She, Cora, was just being ridiculous.

"You ever tried wearing gloves?" she asked curiously. "You know, just thin ones. It might not work if you don't have skin-to-skin contact." She watched Jodie's revenge on the laughing boy with a little disdain,, for the prank itself rather than the execution. Jodie's powers did seem to be quite wide-ranging. As the girl turned back around, Cora said: "You've got good distance with your powers. If I tried to do that, the whole light would have shattered right where it was."

[Exxie]

An aura...Jodie thought a moment. Was it an aura?

"No...I don't think so...I didn't see your emotions or your thoughts. So it's not exactly empathic, but not telepathic either." She wasn't smiling like she had been at the start of the conversation, but pranking that dude helped a bit. It wasn't a frown on her face exactly. When she heard the suggestion of wearing gloves, her eyebrows shot up.

"I never thought of that! I got some new gloves and I've been wanting to try them and see how they are." A slight smile showed itself. But Jodie saw the look on Cora's face after the prank and was a little puzzled. Oh wait...not anymore. She had a hunch. But Jodie figured ignoring the reaction was probably the best way to handle it. Pranking was her way of letting go of excess energy. If she didn't let it out by pranking, something worse might happen. She didn't have control over her amount of energy very well. She finished off her macaroni and cheese and gulped down her glass of sprite. Sprite. That still made her chuckle as she looked at the glass. Time to move onto the pudding.

"You want something dessert-ish? I ordered too much just to make the prank more effective." Then she remembered she had carried her new pair of gloves with her and slipped the brown leather over her fingers. Smooth and buttery kind of leather. They were beautiful. Then she realized something and groaned.

"I just realized...it's more respectful to shake hands with someone without gloves on. This could be complicated." Especially if she met someone from her 'previous life' because if that happened they would expect the same caliber of manners she had had at the party. When she heard the comment about good range with her powers, she shrugged.

"It's a bit of a fluke that it actually worked. It could have gone horribly wrong. I can't always control my powers very well. But if you don't risk something, then there's never a chance of something interesting happening." A shattered light?

"What? What are your powers, that they'd shatter the light?"

[Amethystasheryn]

Cora shrugged. She'd eaten less of her food than Jodie had, but dessert was dessert was dessert. "Sure, if you don't want it," she said of the pudding. Then, "Nice gloves." They were, too. Fancier than Cora had meant by suggesting it, but she supposed it was lucky Jodie had been carrying them at all.

She shrugged one shoulder over Jodie's misgivings. "I know it is," she said. "Could cause some problems outside ... But in the school, you can just explain it. I doubt anybody will get on you about it if you do. Have you talked to any of the Gifted teachers about it? They might be able to help you control it so you can shake hands without the gloves."

She spent a moment polishing off her soda before she got into Jodie's other question. "I'm telekinetic," she explained. "But it doesn't work well. I can use it to levitate and fly, but on anything but me, it goes haywire. If I had tried to do anything with that light, I probably would have shattered it by mistake. Even trying to move something as close to me as this cup would probably have gone wrong." She shrugged. "But at least they don't act up when I'm not expecting it."

[Exxie]

Jodie passed over the pudding with a smile before putting the piece of chocolate cake in front of her and starting to eat.

"Now I'll definitely be able to eat it all." She laughed, thinking how it must look. Tons of dessert, tons of food and all that she couldn't eat was a pudding cup.

"I have this monster metabolism. I have to eat like crazy. And it doesn't even have anything to do with my powers I don't think because I've eaten tons for as long as I can remember." She started to glow faintly. She couldn't help it. Jodie was feeling happier, despite the stupid laughter directed at her when her powers psycho-ed on her. And yeah, she supposed she could explain about the powers. But talk to the gifted teachers? Jodie shuddered.

"Talk to teachers about it? Not the most palatable option for me. I've been in and out of the office since I got here. I don't know if they'd really want to help me. Besides, I'm not good at asking people for help." She rolled her eyes to make like it was a joke, but she was only half kidding.

"Telekinetic? Cool! And...have you thought about your emotions while you're using your powers, or when they activated? I glow when I'm happy for example. And the first time my powers manifested was when I was super super happy at a birthday party. And now, if I want to prank someone, it helps my control if I'm at least a little annoyed. The more intense the feeling the more power I have right now. Maybe it's a similar thing with your powers?" She shrugged. It was just a suggestion.

[Amethystasheryn]

Jodie nodded her thanks and tucked into the pudding, deciding that she might as well eat dessert first even though there was still actual food in front of her, too. She curiously watched Jodie glowing from across the table. Emotion-based powers? Sounded like a royal pain in the neck.

"You don't want anyone's help?" she asked, swallowing a bite. "It sounds like your powers keep changing on you when you least expect it. I wouldn't want to try to figure them out alone." On the subject of her own powers, she just shrugged. "Mine don't have anything to do with my emotions. Well, I mean, if I'm angry and try to move a glass it'd probably just shatter into even smaller pieces. But that's only because I have more trouble concentrating when I'm mad. It doesn't change if I'm happy or anything."

[Exxie]

Jodie heard Cora's exclamation and she shrugged. It wasn't so much that she didn't want anyone's help, it was that she doubted she'd get any even if she asked. There were nice people in the world, and then there were not-so-nice people, and then there were people who would be nice if you paid them. The teachers seemed nice, but then she had also not been given a punishment for her delinquencies yet, which gave her the idea that her benefactor had probably donated a large chunk of money to the Academy. Either that, or they were really hesitant to dole out punishments.

"It does sound like that, doesn't it? And to be perfectly honest, I hate my powers. Asking for help controlling them is admitting defeat to them. For the first bit that I was here, I was trying to find ways to suppress them. Now I've given up on that and I'm just trying to figure out ways to ignore them for the most part. I use them sometimes when it suits me, but they've controlled my life lately. And I'm sick of that. Asking for help with them is admitting that I can't do it on my own. And they win." Her eyes were blazing with the fire of the fight inside her. Lesson one about Jodie: she was always ready for a fight. And right now, there was one going on with her and her powers. She was not going to lose.

"It's a one-on-one fight." She thought about the emotions. Maybe if she calmed down, she could control them better. If her emotions were put out of the equation.

"Hmm...maybe mine are just connected to my emotions because I haven't tried using them without my emotions in play." She closed her eyes, calming down to try to rid herself of the feelings. She commanded her powers to glow. And suddenly, she was glowing stronger than ever. In fact, a guy two tables down made a sound of exclamation. She smiled slightly, but kept under control. Then, mentally she commanded it to shut off and opened her eyes. She was still glowing a bit.

"Well, it'll take time I guess. Apparently they don't have to be linked to my emotions. They can work without them. Good to know. No, great to know. But I wouldn't have realized that for a while if we hadn't had this conversation, so thanks. And sorry for any temporary blindness I may have induced." Jodie chuckled, but she was serious about the apology.

[Amethystasheryn]

"I don't know," Cora shrugged, the space in front of her almost food-free now. "I would just rather know how to control my powers than not. Even if that meant looking for help." She swallowed her last bite. "But then, mine aren't that uncontrolable anyway."

She was on the verge of puzzling through Jodie's comments about trying to work her powers without her emotions when the other girl closed her eyes and burst into light. The glow was so bright it caught even people two tables over by surprise. Cora was looking directly at it. She was still trying to blink the spots away when it faded and was gone.

"Jeez!" she muttered. "I think I'm gonna need a little more warning next time." She looked back at Jodie, still glowing faintly, and shrugged. "I guess that's a step forward though. Glad I could help." This last was added with a slight sarcastic tone, because the spots were being very slow to fade away, but she wasn't feeling particularly bitter about it. Sometimes it happened here. Well, especially here. And she couldn't really get mad at Jodie; she had lost count of the times her father had encouraged her to try her powers again, only to have a lightbulb shatter over his head. She'd be a hypocrit if she did.

"What else do you suppose you can do with those?"

[Exxie]

Jodie heard the exclamation from the powers and the complaint about wanting more warning next time and when she heard the sarcastic tone in the 'glad I could help', her light happy glow disappeared and her mouth turned into a line that was neither a smile nor a frown. It was also the position that was natural for her mouth normally, before she came to the Academy. An expression that said she was serious, and thinking, or slightly unhappy. Many times it was her version of a frown, come about when her parents kept lecturing her about fooling the enemy into thinking your mood was other than what it was. No showing of outward emotion.

"I don't know what I else I can do with them yet. There's probably tons of possibilities. So far, I've shut off the lights in the office accidentally, although the receptionist wouldn't say that if anyone asked her I'm sure. And I've picked up a straw with a ribbon of light. So I guess they can be constructs too." Jodie shrugged, not sure what else to say.

"Being telekinetic must have a few uses too. You said you shatter stuff...have you tried exercises to calm yourself before you use them? That's what I just did, and well...it works. And it always used to help me focus when I trained. Maybe all you need is to know exactly what you need your powers to do. Or picture it in a certain form. For example, the ribbons of light are how I picture light in the darkness, so that might be why it showed itself that way."