Gummy Bears (Open)

[Beatrice Booker]

Beat thought that Winter in Boston was bad. Winter in Vermont had proved to make her have to reevaluate her definition of hell. In Boston at least there were places to go, things to do, sports teams, football, hockey, parks! In Vermont there was snow, more snow, shit covered in snow, snow covered other shit, snow on snow on snow with no sign of it EVER melting and nothing to do but build the 100000000 snowman. Deciding against building another snowman, Beat set up camp in the student lounge praying to God someone halfway interesting would walk through the door. 

She knew it was her own fault for not making many friends. She hadn't been particularly friendly and hadn't gone out of her way to talk to the other students. Quite frankly, the fact she didn't want to be at Hammel at all, made her resent everyone who was stuck here with her too. On top of it, most of them seemed to be perfectly content being freaks hidden away in no where Vermont while the rest of the world had a choice in where they were. But she was young, and she'd be at Hammel for five more years at least, so it was time to make new friends.

Back when she'd left for Hammel her mother had packed a giant bag of gummie bears. "Make friends." She told her. "Sit in a common area and share. Kids like candy." Beat had quickly shoved the bag away to the back of her drawer. 

She sat indian style on one of the worn in couches, gnawing on the first few. They were fresher a couple months ago. Sighing she took the hard candy out of her mouth and threw it at the ceiling, maybe she could catch it when it came down! She opened her mouth, anticipating the thud of the candy, but to her surprise, the bright red candy had managed to resist the laws of physics. She opened her eyes and laughed seeing the bear stuck to the ceiling. 

[Danny Cohen]

Eleven was a little young to be thrown out of the house and disowned, but things like age had never stopped Danny's Grandma from doing what needed to be done. But as lonely has that had been, amazing thing after amazing thing had happened since then. He had a Daddy! He was living with him! It was all very exciting. Danny had never had a Daddy before, and his Daddy didn't even seem to mind him being around! And Daddy smiled back at him all the time! It was pretty awesome.

Daddy also worked really late, and with his power, Danny couldn't be with him, not even with a hat and gloves and a scarf on. Too much could go wrong. But he understood. When he tired of running up and down the hallway outside Daddy's room, he'd leave his backpack outside the door and yell in that he was going exploring. There had not been any answer, so Danny figured it was okay.

In minutes he was comfortably lost. It was okay though, Daddy would find him, or someone else would, and he was still in the school. That was amazing too, that he could go so far and still be at school. Danny skipped down the halls, in slightly grubby navy corduroys, a yellow sweater over a green shirt (and yes, he'd dressed himself that morning), red sneakers that had seen better days, a pair of those thin stretchy knit gloves, and his dinosaur hat. It wasn't a plesiosaur hat, but apparently plesiosaurs weren't popular hat subjects. Danny didn't know why, they were they greatest dinosaurs ever.

He'd just passed a doorway when a flying red thing caught his attention. Stopping, he skipped back to see a little red dot stuck to the ceiling and a girl under it with her eyes closed and mouth open. When she started laughing so did Danny. He trotted in, still looking at the dot, which he could now see was a piece of candy.

"That's so cool!" Danny tended to talk in exclamation points. "Is that a new game? Can I play? Hey, that's a LOT of gummy bears! Did you go to a paper store?"

One thing about shopping with a Grandma as no-nonsense as his; he got to go to the neatest stores. Like office supply stores, which had, for reasons he didn't understand, alongside their desk chairs and reams of paper, ten pound jars of gummy bears and five pound bags of M&Ms. Danny figured they were trying to keep it a secret, hiding all that great stuff in with the paper clips and file folders. And for reasons he also didn't understand, Grandma never partook of those epically sized containers of candy.

"Jake's mom gave out gummy bears for Halloween but my Grandma said I couldn't have them 'cause they'd make my teeth all gross. Do they?"

[Beatrice Booker]

The intrusion of a foreign voice made Beat jump, despite attracting people being the entire point of this little exercise. But she'd done something she was sure any faculty would frown upon. Good luck getting that sucker down, it looked pretty stuck and the ceilings were decently high in this room. When she glanced over her shoulder she settled, the other person was a student, and a young one at that, younger than her at least. 

"Yeah you can play!" She answered enthusiastically before hearing the rest. "The paper store?" her brows furrowed together, why the hell would they sell candy at a paper store? Didn't paper stores just sell paper? Wait... stores that were paper stores existed? That was dumb... 

This kid was weird. Paper stores? Who's Jake? Maybe he was an illusion she was making... she was always worried about that... twice now she'd managed to conjure up ghosts after Rowan made her watch scary movies and that was a disaster...

"No. Yes." Her lips pursed. "Well... I mean." She huffed, "Well yeah they kind of do but." She licked a yellow one and threw it up having it join the stuck red one on the ceiling. "I guess you don't have to chew them if you don't want and honestly one little cavity never hurt no one." Well, it probably did but he didn't have to know that. 

[Sylvie Richelieu]

That morning Sylvie woke up entwined with Carter, her body a tangled mess with his own and the blankets that survived the activities of the night before. A chill wind was what woke her and after a minute or so of coaxing the half asleep Chevalier to move the heiress finally arose cold and naked from the bed. Her hair was a mess and her porcelain skin was sprinkled with goosebumps, urging her to take a shower just to get rid of the winter's kiss that settled into her bones.

The heiress took her time getting ready for the day's routine, knowing full well she had little more to do than catch up on some readings for class. Whilst she would've preferred Carter's company, the princely twin had his own plans for the day and she settled for a visit scheduled for later that evening.

Naturally, Sylvie found herself in the last place she wanted to be. The student lounge. What she feared to be filled with the typical bunch of rowdy plebeians was fortunately proven false, having been vacated so early on in the morning for the wintery wonderland that was outside.

The self titled gargoyle found herself a nice corner and after a brief inspection for anything remotely questionable she sunk into the large beanbag to read. Time passed as she delved into the histories of the world, to the point that she completely ignored the presence of anyone who happened to be in the room, not that she would've acknowledged them anyway.

It was only after another hour of reading did the ungainly voices of the prepubescent kind break her studious trance.

Frowning, Sylvie turned her head to see two tiny individuals playing around not far from where she sat. Their voices were high and squeaky, grating if one were to be completely honest and the mere sight of them made her roll her eyes.

They were just kids.

"Excuse me, but can you pleas be a little more quiet?" She asked flatly, offering the girl a curt smile before repositioning herself into the beanbag.

[Danny Cohen]

When she agreed he could play, Danny grinned wider and ran over. He looked up at the red gummy bear from beside her and giggled. Of all the ways to be naughty, he'd never seen anyone throw candy at the ceiling. Mostly because candy was too great to do that to, but the girl had a LOT of gummy bears. Maybe she didn't like red. Danny liked every flavor of colored candy except cinnamon. Too hot! ...And banana. Banana was weird. And sometimes pineapple, when it was stingy.

"Yeah, paper stores. You know, they're big like Target or Walmart and sell paper in boxes and folders and pencils and pens and desks. They got a place way in the back where you can get big bags of candy. Big ones. Like bigger than that." He pointed at the girl's sack. "Like ones that have five pounds of candy in them, or a bucket that has three hundred pieces of gum inside." Danny's eyes sparkled a little just thinking about it. Why didn't more kids know about this? It was fantastic. Two and a half pound bags of M&Ms or Lifesavers or Jolly Ranchers or little boxes of Nerds. The first thing he was going to do when he was an adult was go to one of those stores and buy one. Maybe even two. "I got a catalog in my room. They were free at the store. It shows all the candy."

In case people didn't believe him. He barely believed it. Danny's eyes crinkled in a smile as a yellow bear joined the red one. Good. It had company now! His smile dimmed just a little when she said they were bad for teeth but... he brushed! He brushed really good. Grandma had made him, or she said he couldn't have desserts.

About to suggest she do a green one next, Danny jumped when a voice spoke up from... from... oh! After craning his neck around... there! Wow, that girl had been here the whole time? Maybe her power was super sneakiness. About to yell over a hello with a smile and a wave, he heard what she said and was immediately contrite. "Sorry!" he called in what was probably a too loud voice, but... it was an apology! He had to make sure she heard. "We'll be quieter!"

Leaning in a little, he whispered rather loudly, "Throw a green one."

No, Danny's middle name was not quiet. But he tried.

[Beatrice Booker]

"Excuse me, but can you pleas be a little more quiet?" She asked flatly, offering the girl a curt smile before repositioning herself into the beanbag.

Beat smirked hearing the not so polite request from across the room. The "Smile" on her lips and that tone lead beat to believe that she'd done something rather annoying to the girl. And like any 13 year old girl who had an ego problem this only made her smile and toss a gummie bear in her direction. "You get red." Everybody liked red, plus she was sure she'd be raging by the time Beat left. 

She turned her direction back to the boy, a brow raised and her nose wrinkled as he explained. So like a target but not like a target and sold paper? "Like staples?" Where the hell was this boy from? Mars? Beat chuckled as he grew more and more excited, practically salivating at the idea of the large bags and buckets of confection. "I think I better send this bag back with you then." She laughed "You clearly need more sugar in your life if you're this excited. Plus, my dad sends me candy every month and I haven't touched any of it yet." She didn't really like candy, actually she didn't really go for sweets in general, she was more of a savory food girl. 

Beat turned her attention back to the gummie bears. "My brother used to play army men with them." She told him, talking about her deceased family member for the first time to someone who wasn't Rowan here. "It'd always be Red and Yellow vs. Blue and White." She chuckled as she started to sort them and then conjured up an illusion to make tiny little cannons for a moment before it went away. She still wasn't able to hold an illusion for more than a couple seconds and it frustrated her. 

She smiled when he told her to throw a green one and quickly pulled one from her battalion, licked it, and tossed it at the ceiling. 

[Sylvie Richelieu]

Sylvie's back was already turned by the time the little metas were made known of her presence. If her suggestion had been heeded, the heiress would've returned to her study and forgotten about the prepubescent littlies playing with their food. Unfortunately, her attempts at quieting them fell on deaf ears and Sylvie was left suffering through more of their insolence.

A gracious young woman may have excused their behavior, but that was not Sylvie; she was graceful not gracious. So when the gummi bear was hurled in her direction, conveniently landing in her hair, the heiress did little to hide the scowl that rippled across her face.

Snapping her gaze back towards the culprit, the little girl, the heiress could not help but notice the last seconds of the sly grin playing on the child's lips. Even though the attack on her person was a direct assault on her now dead state of tranquility, she couldn't help but begrudgingly accept the little girl's bravery. It was either childish stupidity or some misplaced rebellious streak that sent the gummi bear flying in her direction...and Sylvie was going to teach her a lesson.

Completely ignoring the exceedingly loud whisperer, Sylvie pursed her lips before tossing the candied animal back to its original owner.

"Stop playing with your food, it's disgusting." She uttered, closing her book and waiting for the girl's reaction with a cold leer. The heiress wanted to see just how brave the little wench could be.

[Danny Cohen]

Awww, Danny thought it was so nice of the girl to share. He was still young enough that he thought of thrown candy as Doing The Right Thing instead of rude - hey, if someone was sharing gummy bears they could totally toss him a couple. Except she didn't catch it. Her hair did. Oops. Maybe the girl should throw her another one? Maybe two. To make up for the first one.

"Maybe?" Danny's catalog had Office Something on its cover, but if there was a store called Staples he was pretty sure they sold the same thing and they'd probably have their own big giant candy aisle. He blinked and his eyes went wide when she said she ought to give him the bag. Give him. She didn't even know his name. What magical land of candy did she come from to be able to just give away a bag of gummy bears that would register on a bathroom scale?

But then his Grandma sense kicked in and his energy dimmed a little. "Oh, no. I don't think my Daddy would let me keep it." Though this didn't nix the idea of Daddy buying him his own big bag of candy. The man was so willing to buy him things that Danny was a little intimidated and scared. It couldn't be right. But thinking of him made the little boy smile again. "I just got a dad," he informed her. "I never had one before. He teaches here!"

As a kid who was more interesting in tearing around outside than doing something that required organization like playing army guys, Danny was still impressed that apparently gummy bears were so plentiful in their house that they could use them as toys. "Do you live in a gummy bear factory - HEY."

Totally forgot his indoor voice, though whether Danny had ever had one to begin with was debatable. Little canon thingies just appeared! That was so cool! About to say so, the other girl spoke up. She didn't sound happy. Maybe the girl should give her a lot of gummy bears?

The remark about playing with food made Danny feel guilty. It was something Grandma had said, but she hadn't said it often. The words were often followed up by time outs, and then his dinner got all cold, and then when he was let back to the table he had to eat it that way. Grandma worked hard to make money, and money bought food. Danny had come to understand that at an early age, and he tried very hard not to waste Grandma's money. After all, she didn't have to raise him. He wasn't her kid. She could give him away to the government.

That said... were gummy bears food? Danny had no idea what they were made out of and knew they didn't grow on trees or in the dirt. They were candy, he knew that, which made them junk food, and junk food wasn't good for you. So then, logic said, wasting it wasn't so terrible. And it made the ceiling all colorful!

"Maybe we should let her play?" he suggested in a not-very-quiet whisper.

[Beatrice Booker]

Beat returned her attention to Danny with a raised brow and a cocked head causing her messy brown curls to fall over the side. "What?" She wrinkled her nose "Your father... What? No." She shook her head "He isn't here though... I mean if you don't want it that's ok but.." She honestly was confused by the small boy in front of her. Clearly there were issues or- oh. "You just got adopted?" She inquired carefully, afraid to prod too much but genuinely curious. Beat had been so consumed with her own family life and grief since losing her brother that she'd forgotten about the rest of the world. Seeing this boys problems or solutions or situation or whatever it was was enlightening.

The cold girls reaction made Beat's insides feel warm and fuzzie. Oh Beat had gotten under her skin and it was so easy and she was so damn pleased with herself. "Stop playing with your food." She mocked to Danny as she picked up the red gummy bear Sylvie had discarded, throwing it into the air before catching it in her mouth.

Beat smiled triumphantly before the boy offered to let her play. Let her play? Was he nuts? "I don't think she'd like to play-" She cut herself off "I'm sorry what is your name?" She asked realizing that it hadn't come up. "I'm Beat." She smiled straightening up and jutting out a hand for him to shake.

[Sylvie Richelieu]

There may have been a time where Sylvie would have frolicked and played, being the sweetest peach her father wanted her to be and making friends with every lonely soul that wandered through the tapestries of her life. But the heiress was not that person, she had chiseled away the unnecessary desire to please people and was quite content with her solitude, especially since it kept her well away from the two prepubescent kiddies.

But...it had been so long since the last time she had a gummi bear.

Her work back in Paris sacrificed the longing for sweets and although it was a painful separation the stony French girl knew it was for the best. But she was no longer modelling and was now just a student. She could buy a packet of her own, maybe even a box considering the money she hid away but was it worth it?

"She can still hear you." Sylvie uttered, more amused than annoyed this time. The boy wasn't going to get any quieter, that much she knew. With a deep sigh and a roll of her eyes the heiress swiveled in her place before looking at the sassy little girl, who strangely bared a similiar resemblance to herself when she was younger.

"No it would be too easy for me to win." She smirked, cocking her head and gauging the little brunette's reaction. Sylvie was playing easy.

[Danny Cohen]

"Adopted?" Danny didn't think so. He was pretty sure he'd belonged to his Daddy the whole time. It was complicated. "Nnnnnnno," he said slowly. "I used to live with Grandma, but then when I got all meta she said I couldn't live with her anymore-" Danny rolled his eyes, obviously - he'd be living at the school "-but then this man found out my dad worked here so now I get to live with him." He smiled proudly. "I never met him b'fore."

When she caught the bear in her mouth, he giggled and clapped. "That was awesome!"

Name... oh! Okay, Beat was kind of a weird thing to name a kid, but Danny had certainly heard worse. "I'm Danny."

Looking over at the Girl Who Could Still Hear Them. "How do you know?" he called over. "I don't even know the rules." Oh, and names! "I'm Danny and this is Beat, who're you?"