The Rhythm of My Life (Penny)

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Ever since her weird encounter with Blaise, Lucy had every intention of keeping her business elsewhere. She couldn't explain why, but she felt some pretty strong emotion towards her. She hated the girl.

And when Lucy hated someone, she went after them. Clearly this was her dilemma.

Thankfully, procuring supplies for this idea was easy. And getting into the girl's dorm was even simpler - her roommates were pushovers. At any rate, Lucy was in the other girl's dorm. It was everything she expected. Dull. Lifeless. White. The most colourful thing was the navy bedspread and even then... Ugh. After she spent a small amount of time - read; not small at all - going through her idle belongings, she got to work.

After about an hour at work, Penny's room was significantly different. The roof itself had been decked out with an extravagantly idealistic galaxy style painting - equipped with fairy lights as stars to boot. She probably should have secured some kind of drop sheet, but oh well. Her navy bed spread was doing wonders to catch the idle drops of paint that fell. She'd already erased the white boards contents and replaced it with various doodles of miscellaneous robots tinkering away at an extravagant space ship.

At some point, a small glass globe had gone rolling off the desk and smashed.

She pushed that well under the desk and into the corner. With her enclosed foot.

Lucy was just working on the walls now - starting with an astonishingly bright orange and a wide paint brush when she heard a noise behind the door. By now her red and black flannel printed shirt was stricken with the paint itself, her black skinny jeans not fairing much better. When the door opened, Lucy would be securely hidden by the way in which it opened - she was busy dragging that brush across the wall without fail.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

After Penelope’s little moment of intimacy with Lucy, she had been going out of her way to avoid the girl. She hadn’t been so sure as to exactly what had happened, but Penny was sure that she hated the girl more than ever now because of it.

Penelope had a bit of work to do for the day, so she had headed to the library for a few hours with the intention of getting what she needed to done. It was the third thing listed on her to-do list, which was written neatly out on her whiteboard in black marker right in between “Morning tea” and “Lunch”

Fortunately, she had gotten done sooner than she had expected, giving her time to relax a bit before she got something to eat, so she headed back to her dorm with the intention browsing news sights and catching up on current events. She turned the doorknob, pushing the door open.

“Son of a bitch—“

Penelope never swore, yet she had no other reaction to what she found in her room. Her mouth opened and closed, unsure what to say or do. She almost believed she was in the wrong room, but recognized her belongings.

Stepping inside, she had yet to notice Lucy behind her door. Penelope brought a hand up to her mouth, looking around with wide eyes. Who would possibly do this? Her bed had splats of paint all over it, ruining the comforter and pillows. She hadn’t had time to appreciate the art behind any of it, due to the sheer shock of it all.

Her eyes finally caught sight of the whiteboard, and all the pieces came together as soon as she saw the little robots.

“Serrano!”

Penelope spun around, ready to storm out of her dorm and hunt down the woman, but she quickly noticed a glimpse of movement behind her door from the paintbrush. Penelope gritted her teeth, walking over to the door and slamming it shut to reveal Lucy, and she grabbed her wrist, forcing the other to turn and face her. “What---What on earth did you do to my room?!”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy resisted the urge to laugh, or even snicker at the way her name was called. She wondered what gave her away.

She kept about her business. At least, until she was caught. The door closed with a slam, her wrist grabbed and her body turned. Lucy held the brush out, idly waving it towards her face.

"Relax, Blaise. I'm making it less OCD." Lucy replied, recalling that hand around her wrist being much softer between her fingers. "I'm doing you an awesome favour! You could show a little more bloody gratitude." She tried wiggling her wrist free idly, no use it seemed. "Nothing better than a blank canvas. Right?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penelope leaned back as Lucy waved the brush, but still kept a tight hold on the other. She wasn’t one for physical contact, but she had never had to deal with something like this before. She wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do.

“Relax?” Penelope raised her eyebrows, confused as to how on earth the other could tell her to do such a thing, “How can I relax when you--- this!” She motioned to the destruction around them with her free hand.

Less OCD. Gratitude. Was this girl speaking another language? “How is this a favor?” She demanded, her hands were shaking from her frustration, even as continued to grip Lucy’s wrist. She looked around the room again, and the sight just made her more and more angry.

And then she noticed something was missing.

Her hand loosened, and she immediately turned her body completely towards her desk to make sure she hadn’t missed it. But the globe was definitely not there anymore.

“Where is it?”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy responded to the repetition with a small nod. Yeah, relax. But the more the other girl spoke, the more Lucy felt her shining personality darkening. Well, she was just being rude now, wasn't she!

"It's pretty obvious." She retorted. Look how epic the ceiling looked!

Glad she was free, Lucy very briefly touched her free hand to her own wrist, running her fingers across the space that'd just been choked for dear life. That girl had some kind of grip on her.

"Where's what?" Lucy asked, "Stop freaking out, everything's still around."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

A swelling anger was building up inside of Penelope. “If you call destroying other people’s property a favor, then thank you!” she snapped, “There’s paint everywhere! And---ugh!” Penny let out a groan, running a hand through her hair.

She hadn’t been aware of just how hard she had been gripping on Lucy’s wrist, but at that moment she didn’t care. There were very few times where Penny just didn’t give a crap, and this was one of them.

“Don't you dare tell me not to freak out." She snapped her head back, giving Serrano the coldest look she could muster, yet she couldn’t hide the worry in her expression. “The globe. The glass globe that was right there.” Penny raised her hand, pointing just left of where her laptop was sitting on her desk.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"You're welcome!" Lucy shouted. Fake or not, she was fully taking advantage of that thank you. "It's like, outsider art."

This was a new side of Penelope Blaise. One Lucy hadn't been accustomed to. So far, she liked it.

"Fine. Chill out. Calm your farm. Put a fucking lid on it, lady." Lucy corrected, unable to stop herself from grinning in response to the cold stare she was being offered. "Very smoldering." She added, raising her eyebrows. Seriously, who was this girl kidding with her attempt at aggression. She was standing across from an Australian. A Serrano at that.

The globe. "Oh." Lucy suddenly realised what they were talking about. She kept her eyes securely on the other girl, knowing looking in its direction would be bad. "Yeeaah, it broke."

That was too nonchalant for her own good.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

“Outersider art can remain outside my room!” Why the hell was that girl grinning? That obnoxious, cheeky grin of Serrano’s was just too much for Penelope. She couldn’t stand that woman. Serrano certainly brought out the worst of her.

She didn’t care how unintimidating her glare looked, she kept her eyes fixed on the other. “I’ll ‘put a lid on it’ when you learn to act like an actual human being instead of some…barbarian!” The fact that the other girl seemed amused made Penny more frustrated.

“How did you even—“ Penelope’s expression changed quickly as soon as she comprehended Lucy’s words, unable to mask the concern. “Broken?” Penelope’s stomach felt as if it had a knot in it.

“Where is it?” She demanded quietly, refusing to break her gaze from the other. How could the Serrano be so casual about it? Although Penny spoke more quietly, she felt her hands tighten into a fist from anger.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy raised her eyebrows, turning her head with a slight nod. Alright, she had to concede. That was a pretty good one.

"These ain't cave drawings, Blaise." Lucy retorted. That was a little harsh. Fair enough - she'd called her a barbarian before. But this was her art they were talking about.

Wasn't it?

Lucy raised her free hand - dotted with paint as it was - and ran her fingers across her jaw. It was broken. She leaned forward slightly with a nod. Yeah, that's what she said. Jesus, it was like this girl was suddenly deaf.

"I dunno, I kicked it into a corner when it smashed." She indicated in the direction with a small tilt of her head. If Penny headed off that way, she'd turn around to find a daring Serrano continue to paint curves across the wall by the door.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

“No, cave drawings would be art.” Penelope countered. Okay, that probably went a little too far. In fact, if Penny had actually stopped and looked at Lucy's work, she probably would have found it to be quite beautiful.

But she didn’t.

“This is just vandalism.” She gestured to the room again, as if by doing so would make the other realize just exactly what she had done.

The moment Lucy had nodded towards the globe, Penny broke eye contact and went to find out just how much damage had been done. Once she spotted it, Penelope carefully reached out, grabbing a piece. The axis had snapped off, and the glass globe itself was broken. Instantly, her eyes began to water.

Penelope wasn’t sure what angered her more, the fact that Lucy had broken one of the few items she actually put emotional value in, or the fact that she didn’t seem to even care.

She turned back to Lucy, and found the girl painting away again as if nothing was wrong. Dropping the piece, Penny went back to where the other was and grabbed the paintbrush. “Stop that!” Penny attempted to pull the paintbrush out of Lucy’s hand, but instead accidentally added a line of paint to her wall.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy felt her mood darken even more. She knew she hated this girl, and now she knew exactly why. Why couldn't she just roll with the punches like other people seemed to. Hell, Sawyer's dorm still carried remnants of Lucy's pranking spirit. She even added to it. And Evony...

"No, it's not." Now she was getting defensive.

Having completely missed the fact that Penny was actually quite upset about the broken glass (possibly because it was broken glass in her formally pristine room?), Lucy had returned to what she was doing. Everything had intention. She just wasn't the best at making that clear.

When Penny rushed back towards her and tried snagging the brush, she'd evidently added to the beginning of a new found drawing. She didn't even bother correcting the placement of the line - the spontaneity was perfect.

"Oh, you wanna take over?" Lucy asked, either misreading the situation or just returning to her usual behaviour. Twisting the brush in her hand, she extended the handle out towards her. "Here. Go for your life. It's awesome to see you emoting."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

“Yes, it is.” Penelope was shaking by this point, but refused to let her tears fall. She wouldn’t give Lucy the satisfaction. “You don’t respect anyone just because they’re different than you.”

She couldn’t believe how somebody could be as inconsiderate as Lucy was. Regardless of it was a prank or expression or whatever, she had no right doing so in Penelope’s room. It only reminded Penny as to why she hated the girl - any thoughts that before made her question that hatred were most certainly gone.

Penelope gritted her teeth at the words, and snatched the brush out of the other’s hand, shooting Lucy a glare in the process. She most definitely had no intention of helping Lucy destroy her room. Yet, she grabbed the brush with a bit too much force, causing a large amount of paint to splatter across her door and Lucy. She was too infuriated to bother apologizing or even caring, even if it might have looked like she did the action on purpose. The girl had paint on her already as it was, anyway.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy could do nothing but scoff at her response. Did she bother to look at who she was talking to? "You're an idiot." The girl said flatly. Truthfully.

When paint splattered across herself and the door, Lucy resisted the urge to laugh. She found it almost invigorating that Blaise would make such a mistake. If it was a mistake at all. She reached up and ran her finger across her own cheek, lifting some of the orange paint and smearing the rest in the process.

"Feels good, right?" She asked, almost arrogantly as she reached out to run her fingertip across her counterparts cheek. "Y'know, you look good when you're getting dirty."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Fine. If Lucy wanted to call Penelope an idiot, she could. At least Penny wasn’t the one breaking into other people’s rooms and messing with their things.

She put the paintbrush on the tray, but when she brought her attention back towards Lucy with the goal of making her leave. Her eyebrows knitted together as she became puzzled by the question asked.

Did what feel good?

Penelope’s eyes widened as she felt Lucy’s fingertips against her cheek. Instinctively, she backed up half a step into her desk. Woah. What was going on? Her cheeks became flushed and she cleared her throat. “Don’t play games, Serrano.” Yeah. That was reeeaaally going to stop the other. It was at least an attempt.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy felt no different without the paintbrush - she wasn't unguarded as one might have been in that situation. She relished in the confusion she was being offered. It wasn't that it was funny, it was that it became somewhat intriguing with each passing emotion.

She didn't react when the other girl backed away. The grin she wore remained plastered on her lips all the same. It didn't even broaden when she realised Penelope Blaise was blushing; likely from the ounce of human contact.

"What games? I was just saying." She asked, shrugging her shoulders. "You worry too much, y'know?"

Those words felt oddly bitter from her lips. They held something of a memory of their own.

"Rage is a very powerful emotion. No robot can emulate that." She started again, pointing towards her idly, "How about you at least look up for a second and tell me what's so bad about it."