fandomtownies | The Perk - Monday

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The Perk - Monday - 9:30am...

Shane sits at a table outside, her feet drawn up into the seat. She's dressed in a black wifebeater, jeans with no holes (she's got class later, after all), her hoodie and her sneakers. Her glasses are perched on her nose and her hair has gone from chin-length to almost a boyish short-cropped style.

Her journal lays open on the table in front of her [though her handwriting is too small for anyone to make out what she's writing about] and she leans over it, writing rather determinedly. Her usual cup of Black Death sits near to her hand, as well as her cigarettes, and her expression is pensive.

[ooc: Come play with me!]

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Jake comes shuffling in, looking very much like death warmed over. He orders his regular, extra large with cream, and then some. Getting it he looks around and spots Shane. Recognizing her, he shrugs and wanders over. "Hey, mind if I join you?"

Pausing in her writing, Shane looks up from her notebook and recognizes Jake - even though the last time she'd seen him, he'd been a she. "Yeah, sure, have a seat," she says with a smile, nodding to an empty chair.

He drops down, holding his coffee carefully. "I hate the paper," he confesses with a sigh.

"Why? What'd it do?" Shane asks giving him a bemused look as she picks up her own mug and sips from it.

"It exists. And while I'm on the topic, I also hate Chloe and the professor for making me work on it." Jake gulps down coffee, looking marginally happier when he stops.

"Aww, don't hate Chloe," she says, brows wrinkling. "She's too sweet." Shane closes her notebook and sets it aside on the table, resting her elbow on the edge and propping her head up with her hand. "So what's the deal?"

Angela comes into the coffee shop and stands next to Shane and Jake's table, chai latte in hand. "Okay if I join you? And why do you hate Chloe?"

"Hey," Shane says, smiling brightly as Angela approaches. "Yeah, absolutely. Join us." She sits back in her seat with her coffee. "I think Chloe's being mean to Jake by making him work on the paper, somehow. I'm not sure."

Jake nods. "Yeah, sure." He gives her chai latte a suspicious look, but lets it go. "And Chloe's insanely obsessed." Jake nods again, picking up his coffee. "Cute and all, but insane."

Angela laughs. "She came to Logan-never-a-bunny's party on Saturday. I think that was the first time I've seen her outside the journalism classroom."

She twists a piece of hair, thinking. "I have no idea how we'ree going to get the missing student thing done, though. Maybe her being obsessed will help on that one."

"God, don't ask me to think this early," Jake protests, giving her a pained look.

"Subject dropped until you get your caffeine. Maybe Jerusalem will let us work on it in class, though."

"What missing student thing?" Shane asks, giving the both of them a curious look. "I'd ... I'd heard about Kitty and that one guy Archie that Tara mentioned in class, but... are other people missing?"

Angela glances over at Jake, waiting to see if he'll take the question.

When he doesn't, she finally speaks. "There's this whole, weird 'people come and go so quickly here' thing at the school," she says. "Like, Rory Gilmore's ex-boyfriend was here for about ten days and then just vanished. A few teachers did the same thing. There's this guy Brian I spent all of study hall talking to one day, then never saw again. And the first English teacher was gone in about two days, she never even held a class."

"I mean, there's no reason to think that, like, bad stuff happened to them. It's a weird school -- some people probably just went home. But we have no way of knowing, and the newspaper was going to try to find out."

She turns to Jake. "Sorry. Is that too much making you think, still?"

"Ah. Yeah, that makes her a total witch," Angela says, mischief in her voice. "The newspaper staffers should stage an uprising."

"So dinner came out pretty well last night," she says to Shane, lightly. There's more she could say, but it's too nice a day to bring up bad memories.

Shane chuckles. "Yeah... who knew Chloe was so mean, right?" She asks, shaking her head, an expression of utter disbelief on her face. "Here I was, thinking she was perfectly sweet and innocent, but... turns out, under that adorable shell there's this nasty taskmistress."

"Yeah, it did," she agrees, smiling. "You guys did such a great job. I'm so proud of Geoff. So did you do any thinking about what night would be good for you guys to come over to my place?"

"I know. Like I said, it's time to revolt agains Chloe," Angela says, grinning. It's nice to see Shane happy.

"Geoff was awesome," she agrees. "And I'm sorry, but I didn't really get a chance to talk to Marty any about coming over to your place. We kind of fell asleep as soon as we got back to the dorms. I'll call and let you know, okay? Are there any nights you know are out?"

"Oh, hey, that's totally no problem," Shane assures her, shaking her head. "As soon as we got home, we totally passed out, too."

Reaching her arm up over her head, she arches her back as she stretches, a thoughtful look on her face. "Thursday, I know, for sure," she murmurs, settling back down into her seat. "Deb hired this new guy at the shop and he and I talked, figured out what days would be good for him. So he's taking Thursday, Saturday and Sunday."

"Thursday should probably be okay for us," Angela says. "I'll check with Marty and let you know."

"What do you think we should cook?"

"Cool," she says, smiling.

Worrying on her bottom lip, she thinks about it for a moment. "Um... I don't know, Tara's vegetarian... Kate and I aren't, but we'll eat pretty much anything. If you guys wanted to do another cooking class, though, and wanna keep it simple for Geoff... really, whatever you guys want is fine."

Angela thinks about it. "You know what could be good? Soup. It's easy, and it's definitely the right weather for it. I can email my dad for a recipe, unless Tara has a better idea."

"That'd be perfect," Shane says, smile broadening. "And it's something he's already familiar with, even if he doesn't know how to make it yet. I can ask Tara, though, and see what she thinks... unless you want to? I can give you her number."

"Nah. I can ask her before class today," Angela says. Her face goes a little worried. "I mean, if it's okay to sort of mix the teacher thing and the friend thing together that way. DO you think she'd mind?"

Shane takes a sip of her coffee, a considering expression on her face. "I... I think she's trying to... keep things separated? Y'know?" She says, arching her eyebrow just slightly.

"I mean, I think... she really wants to be careful about it, because of Maia and... because of me, too, I guess. I think she's worried that people will start thinking that ... I don't know, she's... going easy on me or something."

Angela considers this, sipping on her chai. "I see what you mean," she says. "Even if Tara is completely fair to everyone -- and I think she really tries to be -- it looks bad for people to be too friendly with her when she's being a teacher. So yeah, I should probably call her."

She shakes her head. "I'm so not used to beling friends with a teacher yet. And it must be much more complicated for you."

"Cool," Shane says, smiling. Slouching down in her seat a bit, she takes another sip of her coffee, brows furrowing slightly.

"I don't know, I... I know it's her job," she says deliberately, obviously thinking aloud. "I know... she really loves what she does. I just... try not to think about it, I guess. I mean -- I do, but at the same time, I don't, because I think the two of us are on the same page, y'know? I know there's a line... when I'm sitting in her classroom and I really respect that. I don't wanna make her job harder for her than it has to be, by... thinking she should treat me differently in class because I get to take her home, afterwards."

Angela takes in what Shane has to say, thinking about it for a long moment. "I get it," she says. "I mean, she's new to teaching anyhow, so ... she's probably glad you aren't making it any harder or weirder than it is."

She lowers her voice. "You know Maia Rutledge dated Ms. Sidle -- she teaches science -- at the start of the semester. I think that got weird for both of them."

"Yeah... at least, I hope I'm making it easier," Shane says, frowning a little as she thinks about what happened in Ethics class.

She leans forward just slightly as Angela lowers her voice. "Maia told me she was... seeing someone," she murmurs quietly, mostly to herself. She looks as though she's trying to remember something. "Is -- is that teacher's first name... Sara?"

Angela notices Shane's frown and leans across the table to put a hand on her arm. "It's complicated," she says. "And, honestly, from what you told me you were way more restrained than I might have been."

She wrinkles her brow. "And yeah, it's Sara Sidle. Have you met her?"

"Thanks... and yeah, I... I just didn't think," Shane murmurs, shaking her head a little. "I just don't ever want Tara to lose her job over some stupid shit that I pulled, y'know? I let it get out of hand and... I shouldn't have."

"No, I've never met her, but Maia mentioned her a couple of times, I think," she says, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth. "I remember being kinda confused at the time, because... she'd told me about someone named Sara but then tells me I'm the reason she always used to come into the shop. I didn't get it."

New thread.

Angela squeezes Shane's arm before withdrawing her hand. "Seriously, I think Tara and you will be fine in class unless you do stuff like that every week, which you won't."

"And as for Maia..." She shrugs, taking a sip of her drink. "Maybe she just likes brunettes? Or maybe she was interested in you in some other way. Hard to say with her."

"No, I won't," Shane agrees. "That was... a very particular set of circumstances all kinda crashing together into one great big clusterfuck... but it's not gonna happen again."

Shane makes a face and scratches a hand through her short-cropped hair, which leaves bits of it poking out here and there. "I don't know," she sighs. "After everything that happened with her and Tara, I... is it... bad for me not to want to be anywhere near her? Like, ever again? 'Cause that's how I feel."

Angela vigourously shakes her head. "Absolutely not. Sometimes, people are just ... too much trouble, you know? If you don't have anything good to say to someone, it's better to avoid them. In my humble opinion, anyhow."

She smiles ruefully. "That makes me sound like the most insensitive person on the planet, doesn't it?"

"Yeah... that's just... that's just it," she says, lips twisting. "I don't have anything good to say to her. Just... lots of questions... like, did she seriously think she wasn't hurting or scaring Tara by giving her those messages? It's just... unbelievable."

"And, no... I don't think it makes you sound like the most insensitive person on the planet," Shane replies, giving her a reassuring look, lips quirking up into a similar smile. "I think... fuck, I don't know - maybe she had a reason she was doing it and I'm just not getting it, or something. I have no idea."

"I'm not even sure the reason matters -- I mean, I can't think of anything that would justify upsetting Tara as much as you say she was upset," Angela says. "So you're probably better off not asking."

She finishes her drink and stands. "I should head back to the dorm," she says apologetically. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, no problem," Shane says, smiling as she gives her a wave. "Tell Ror and Chloe I said hey, if you see them."

"Absolutely," Angela says, waving to Shane and Jake as she heads out the door.

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The Perk - Monday - 9:30am...

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