Sad Panda (Open)

[Joelle McIntosh]

Joelle was not in a good mood today.  In place of her usual sunny disposition she had resorted to being quiet and near-antisocial.  Even her clothes, chosen today to hide in rather than flaunt her usual style spoke volumes to anyone that knew her.  

It wasn't really anyone's fault, either.  She'd simply woken up in a state, and she'd resigned herself to the fact that it was just going to be one of those days.  Part of her had just wanted to stay in bed with the blanket over her head, but she'd forced herself to get up and go to classes.

Now that they were over, she had taken to hiding away in the student lounge.  She hadn't fully explored it yet, and for the moment that was okay with her.  After an attempt to call her brother Nick, who had been too busy to answer his phone, apparently, she'd dug out a book instead from her bag.  She didn't feel like running and crying to Jeff, because he didn't like feelings and she got the feeling he still hadn't quite adjusted to her transition, so she didn't want to intrude on him more than she needed to.  She was fine on her own.  

Curled up on one side of one of the beaten up couches, she kept her feet tucked up under her as she read, one hand idly twisting around stray pieces of hair that had escaped her ponytail.  She probably wasn't going to have the lounge to herself for very long, but for now the peace was nice.

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

Harmony wasn't in a good mood either today. Her mother had called her early in the morning, woken her up, and then proceeded to rant for close to an hour about her grades and such. Then her uncle had called. Apparently he had also gotten a morning wake up call complaining about Harmony's lack of improvement at Hammel.

Who cares? It wasn't like she was trying to impress them. But couldn't they just let her live her life and stay the heck away from her.

So Harmony did was she usually did on bad days. She went to find someone to make them have a worse day.

And there was no better place to go looking for students to dump on than the student lounge. She was in luck to find a girl curled up on the couch and looking pitiful. A normal, nice person might have looked at the girl's body language and realized that today was not the day to annoy her. But Harmony was not that kind of person.

Harmony teleported to land on the other end of the couch and stretched out her feet just enough to take up just more than half of the couch. Grabbing the remote, she quickly found some show about skateboarders and loud rock music and cranked up the volume.

"What's with the face, moron?" she yelled over the noise.

[Joelle McIntosh]

Jo should have known that the lounge wasn't going to stay quiet for long. She just hadn't anticipated this. She'd hoped her interruption would have come in the form of rowdy boys playing games or something. Instead, she'd been gifted company by way of a rather loud, brash girl.

God help her if she ever acted like that. For a start, her mother would be ashamed of her. For another, she actually liked other people, and acting that way around others was no way to make friends. Even if she was feeling better today, she suspected that this girl wouldn't be one to try being all that friendly with.

Then again, maybe she was having a bad day too. But that was no reason to act so rude.

Joelle jumped at the sudden intrusion on the couch, not even sure how the girl had managed to move so fast. Maybe she had super speed or something. Regardless, she frowned slightly and scrunched up a little tighter to increase the gap between them as best as she could. She could be quiet and just let the other girl do whatever she felt she needed to. Worst case scenario, if she was too loud, she could also go back to her dorm for a bit.

The yelled question made her jump again, mostly because she hadn't been expecting her to actually talk to her. Keeping a finger on her place in her book, she chanced looking up. "I'm not making a face," she said as loudly as she dared back. God, even her voice today wasn't making her feel great. It was too low and gross. Maybe if she didn't fight the other girl, she'd just leave her alone.

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

It wasn't so much that the other girl was making a face It was that she had a face. Harmony understood that most of the human race had faces. In fact she would probably freak out if someone without a face walked into the student lounge. But really Harmony was just looking for someone to annoy. And anyone fit that requirement.

She had just been reaching for anything to start the conversation. And it worked. She almost smiled when the girl responded, raising her voice as well.

"Ah! It speaks!" Harmony said. Of course Harmony didn't know this girl. So she had no idea how such a pronoun might offend her in such a personal way. Though if she had know, she wouldn't have cared too much.

"And I didn't say you were making a face. I just wanted to know what was wrong with yours," she added.

[Joelle McIntosh]

On a normal day, Joelle might not have been so self conscious. But today, it felt like everything was going against her. She hadn't felt so... un-feminine for a long time, which was why she was hiding away in the first place. Her voice had been cracking all over the place today, which had only served to darken her mood as well.

This girl wasn't helping matters much either.

Jo flinched at her tone, as well as her words. She may not have been doing it on purpose, but today it felt like a real possibility. Or maybe she was just being sensitive. Either way, 'it' stung. Jo bit down on her lip and stared down at the ground.

Again with the face thing. This time it brought with it a new wave of anxiety. What was wrong with her face? Oh God, had she started getting visible facial hair since this morning? Part of her wanted to reach and check, but she also didn't want to give in to this girl. "Nothing," she murmured, barely above the volume of the television. Getting up and leaving felt like a good idea, but it also felt like letting the other girl win. Maybe she could try a different approach. ".... What are you watching?"

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

Harmony was usually always being mean on purpose. Of course in this particular case she had no clue exactly how mean she was being or why this particular person was being so sensitive. Still that didn't mean that Harmony couldn't tell that her words were having the desired effect.

She was surprised at how easy it all was, but that didn't mean she should back off.

"So you keep thinkin that," Harmony added, not looking over at the girl as she messed with the volume some more.

"It's the highlights from the last X-games. But I'm sure you have no clue what that is, since you're just some stupid girly girl," Harmony said, her voice mimicking what she thought girly girls sounded like. "Freakin ridiculous," she muttered.

[Joelle McIntosh]

In an unconscious act of defense, Joelle cuddled up a little tighter to herself, practically pulling her knees to her chest. Thank God for years of gymnastics allowing her to do so. If nothing else, it made her feel the tiniest bit better to hide herself more than she already was. Tucking her chin against her chest, she began to resemble more of a ball than anything else. Setting her book page-down against her leg, she shifted her hands up to the end of her ponytail, anxiously twisting the hair around her fingers.

She didn't know what was up with this girl to make her feel the need to be so... so mean. Much as Joelle was usually fine to forgive and forget, turn the other cheek, all that jazz, but on an off day? It was hard.

She was actually a tiny bit familiar with the X-Games. At one time or another her brothers had held interests in things like skateboarding. Daring a peek sideways, she let her gaze dart up to the screen. "I do too. I've got brothers. They like this stuff." And football. And soccer. Just because she was a girl didn't mean that she wasn't aware. "And you're a girl too," she pointed out. Unfortunately for Jo, anxiety was making her voice unstable and hard to keep as high as she liked it. A small crack made her clamp down on her lower lip and look at the ground again. Maybe it really was a better idea to just go back to the dorms.