Snacks and Stories (open to roommates)

[Zoe Clementine]

She had this wonderful plan of getting together with her roomies. In fact, she had even left Newspaper early just to get all of this together. It was sort of a surprise to them, after all, she hadn't clearly said it to them, but left hints around the room like the sticky notes that said "Be here at eight tonight." Hopefully, they'd get the memo and be around. She had bought chocolate bars, and lots of them, two bags of marshmallows, graham crackers, and even had little sticks to stick them on and roast them with. Now although they weren't allowed to have a real bonfire in the room, they could still light a candle, couldn't they? She had even brought one of her unscented ones from home with her. It had been just one of those 'Oh, I might want this with me at one point' kind of things before she'd left from a short vacation last time she'd been home, only a few months ago, and look at that! It had finally served a purpose.

Now she could touch the wick and make it light, or she could do what any normal person would do and grab a lighter to start this. Knowing that she didn't much trust her ability at combustion, and as she didn't want molten wax all over her outfit or her skin, she opted for the lighter. Starting up the small flame, the wax began to heat and liquify. She took out the boxes of food, set them up nearby, and threw three pillows on the ground. This was as close to a campfire as they would be able to get, but it was good with her.

Zoe looked at her watch, it was five minutes before the hour. Hopefully, just hopefully, they'd come around and be delighted with what she had for them. If not, then, she'd probably be a bit sad, but end up gorging on warm, sweet, chocolatety goodness all in her lonesome. But really, she opted for the first choice. She sat there on the ground fuddling with her ingredients and utensils, adjusting the pillow under her bum, and went to draw the blinds to add to the campfire effect. In no time, they'd be having bonding time, filled with food and fun and stories.

[Jalen August]

Just how many notes was her roommate going to leave? Jalen plucked the fifth one off the bathroom mirror, which indicated that she was supposed to be here at eight. She shrugged, at least whoever this girl was, she was friendly. As outgoing as the blonde was, she wasn’t sure she would have the patience and time to plan something, whatever it may be. Still, she would happily accept the distraction and be back in the room around eight after heading to the mall. Besides, how could she be rude to her roommate before even meeting her? It wasn’t like she knew of the personal drama Jalen was going through, she wouldn’t be so cold hearted so as to not show up to the little get together the girl had planned.

Walking into her room, Jalen found the lights off and the drapes closed. Great, my roommate wants to murder me... She groped around in the dark, searching for the switch, and once she found it, an array of munchies were in the living area, pillow scattered on the floor. “Oh!” She said without really thinking about it, her dark brown eyes catching the sight of what she could only assume was her roommate. The blonde smiled, setting down her purse near the door.

“So this is what you had in store?” She asked, looking at the supplies the younger girl had gathered. “Cool,” she offered her a smile, sitting on one of the pillows, seeing as it seemed like she was meant to mimic the other girl. “You must be Zoe. I’m Jalen, or Jay if you prefer,” she said, sitting cross legged, her elbows resting in the crook of her knees. She glanced at the other girl, then back down to the snacks. “Chocolate, always a good way to break the ice.”

[Zoe Clementine]

With a creak of the door, Zoe's eyes flitted through the darkness. This was her queue. Within a few seconds, she got a match to light, held it to the wick of the candle, which cracked as it accepted the heat, setting a bright glow to her surrounding area. Looking up, she could now make out which figure had come in, and from the curly hair's silhouette, Jalen has come in. She looked shocked, but then her face softened as she saw Zoe's smile. Turns out she wouldn't be nomming on the s'mores all by herself. And a good thing too..she needed to start training for swim team.

She waved and flashed a grin of pure delight. "I'm so glad you could make it! I've got everything set up for us," she pointed at the various foods as Jalen took her place on one of the fluffy pillows made available for her roomies. "There's a lot of Hershey's bars, and I've got two bags of marshmallows, and lots of graham crackers. And in case you were wondering, the candle's melting waxiness is non-toxic incase it gets on your food. Oh!" And sticking a finger up in the air as her little noggin produced a lightbulb-effect, she pulled out the metal skewers she'd bought from the handyman store down the street. Why they had them, she wasn't sure, but what mattered was that they did have them. With that, she handed one to Jalen, and went to break open the marshmallow bag.

"I'm so excited to start this! I'm Zoe by the way, and you're Jalen, or Jay. I'll call you J., if that's alright. Should we wait for our other roommate? I mean, it might be rude to start without her, but she won't know if we eat a few marshmallows ahead of time, as long as we scarf them down before she comes on in. What do you say? Now or later?"

[Naomi Green]

Clearly one of Naomi's roommates was desirous of bodily harm, or at the very least, having their IPods permanently magnetized. The Brit had pulled several sticky notes from various places, and found them nearly everywhere in the common room. After about the third, she felt her temper starting to rise, her determination to do something toward whichever of her roommates did this growing even further.

No lights. No, a candle, and her two roommates already gathered close together. Before saying anything, Naomi looked about, taking in the various paraphernalia, including the desserts and, more importantly to the magnetic user, several toasting forks.

"Now seems appropriate," she finally said, answering the question that wasn't asked to her. She raised a brow and looked from one to another. No reason to start threatening with sharp metal objects quite yet. There was always the chance that this was a clandestine meeting of a new branch of MSAD. A very strange clandestine meeting. Involving marshmallows and pillows.

"Please tell me the candles are for a dark ritual of some kind," said Naomi. She raised her eyebrows now, looking from one roommate to another, clearly expecting an answer.

[Zoe Clementine]

While they were having a good ole time, it seemed not to last for too long of a period of time. Their final roommate had come on in, and looking rather peeved, questioned the purpose of this meeting. Zoe looked around at everything that was set up, and then to J who was sitting right next to her side. If J could get it, then what was stopping the other from understanding? Maybe she was just having a bad day and couldn't pick up on this sort of stuff. That was fine, she'd explain it clearly and simply for the girl, just in case she was a bit .. slow.

Cheerfully, she chirped, "We're having a bonfire of sorts, and this candle is for roasting the marshmallows, no dark magic of any kind here, sorry wrong room." She flashed a smile at the girl and then focused in again on stabbing a few marshmallows with the skewers. The grumpy roommate of hers certainly had woken up on the wrong side of the bed today, and hopefully she wasn't like that every day, that could be quite the damper to Zoe's continuous rays of sunshine.

She fit the third of the white fluffies onto her skewer and held it above the fire just a wee bit, so it wouldn't catch on fire, and twirled it slowly as to hope for an even roasting. Holding up the last of the three skewers in the direction of the third roommate, she asked politely, "We'd love it if you'd join us, there's plenty of food to eat, probably enough for at least three rooms full of people, but I wanted to make sure there would be enough, in case you guys were hungry." She kept her arm out in the air, the skewer as a symbol of peace, safety and invitation. Hopefully the girl would bend, lighten up, and join in on the festivities.

[Jalen August]

The blonde had marvelled at her roommate’s ability to ignite something at will as she entered the room. Most of the time she was jealous of those around her and their powers. Yes her power was interesting and all, but it wasn’t nearly as awesome as some of the people here. If she could’ve picked her meta power, it probably would’ve been non-winged flight or combustion – not spontaneous mind you.

“I’m really glad to be here Zoe, life’s been hell these past couple of weeks,” Jalen readily admitted to. No she wasn’t going to pour her heart out, but she really didn’t have any secrets. Her roommate seemed genuine enough anyways, and the blonde could use some friends who were female. Not that she minded having Cole or JD as some of her good friends, but she was pretty sure they were tired of her relationship woes, and they wouldn’t be nearly as sympathetic as a woman could be.

Jalen smirked and then laughed lightly as Zoe explained what she had gathered. “It sounds like a delicious recipe,” she said, her hand gesturing towards the assortment of goodies in front of them. The blonde happily took one of the skewers, looking at her new roomie, “Jay it is.” She looked at the vacant pillow beside her and shrugged. “Let’s give her a few more minutes,” she offered. What she really meant was, ‘let’s see how long I can sit in front of all this awesomely delicious stuff and not have my tummy rumble’.

Sitting back on her hands, Jalen let the poker stick lie across her lap, looking behind her to spot Naomi. She had never personally met the girl, but she knew that Cole knew of Ms. Green. “Maybe later,” the blonde answered her other roommate, sending a wink to the one beside her. “The only thing dark about this, is the chocolate,” she said happily. If anything, Jalen was going to have to stand as mediator this evening, as Naomi didn’t seem to carry a lot of patience with her.

Helping herself to the marshmallows, Jay looked at Naomi and shrugged. Zoe was obviously younger than both of them – still full of spunk and fun. It was pretty much exactly what Jalen needed at this very moment and if Naomi had a problem with the younger girl, then she could go to her room. It was a free country after all. “I don’t think I could eat enough of this stuff to fill me, I’d probably throw up,” she said bluntly, looking back at Naomi, who still hadn’t approached.

“What part of England are you from?” She asked the brunette, hoping to break the ice.

[Naomi Green]

They were roasting marshmallows and telling stories. Had Naomi's roommates lost their minds, or were they perhaps trapped in some version of a second childhood? True, Zoe was obviously younger than the other two, but Naomi hardly thought that an excuse for such a completely childish exercise. That wasn't even detailing the irritating notes or other notions.

The chocolate still beckoned, almost whispering sweet temptations to the Brit.

She was still eying the various sweets and considering when Jalen asked her question. Caught slightly off guard, considering that most Americans were willing to simply accept "England" as a description, Naomi looked to Jalen. Her expression was still as neutral as ever though.

"Southern England," she said. "The London area, to be completely accurate. My parents sent me to a preparatory school in the general area, where I stayed until my abilities developed. Then it was Kocher, until a rather unfortunate incident sent me here."

She looked back to the food, again considering. If there was one thing that mankind had gotten right, among the multitude of wrongs committed, it was chocolate. Chocolate and Finnish Operatic rock, but one thing at a time.

"I suppose I can indulge in some chocolate. I'm not about to go roasting things over a candle though," said Naomi, making abundantly clear how stupid the very idea was. Nonetheless, she was soon taking a seat next to the other two, pulling out a bar of chocolate to break into more acceptable pieces.

[Zoe Clementine]

A smile was lit on Zoe's face when the girl finally caved in from her stubborn stuckiness, and came to have a bite or two of chocolate. The youngest of them all took one of the big bars with one hand and thrust it towards Naomi's direction. "Here you go!", she said over-enthusiastically, it coming out more of a squeak than an actual sentence. But that wasn't going to bother her, nor was Zoe going to let her type A roomy get her down and out, quite the contrary. If she could, she would do everything in her power to get the girl to crack a smile for more than a millisecond. From her other roommate's reaction to the Brit, though, Zoe sensed it would be quite the challenge, though she Jalen didn't seem to want to let it go either, and tried to provoke the third girl to talk.

She did, in fact, respond to a question, be it about her, as many people liked to talk about themselves forever, herself included. But now was not the time or place to be talking about her, she had a different mission for the night. It wouldn't be until after she really go to know these girls and share some secrets would she go about chatting about her own problems.

"Ooh London, that's so fancy and nice! Why would you move from a big awesome city like that to the US, or here of all places?" She didn't know anything about the girl, and if she were wise enough to factor it all in, she could indeed be offending the girl, which certainly wouldn't make things any better for any inkling of a friendship that they could have. But unluckily for Zoe, she was a wee naive little girl, and an exuberantly outgoing one at that. Hopefully her English roommate wouldn't treat her too unkindly.

She turned her attention to Jay now, trying to focus in on what had explained the awkward look on her face. It could have been a mixture of things, and she decided to probe in on the matter. "What's got you down, Jay? I'm a good listener, if you need one."

[Jalen August]

Jalen looked Naomi over, wondering what she meant by ‘unfortunate incident’. “How unfortunate,” she ventured with a smirk, wondering why the brunette was so secretive. Surely whatever brought her here couldn’t be as bad as she thought it was.

Shrugging, Jalen stuck a marshmallow onto her poker, letting it simmer over the flame. “Suit yourself, you can’t make smores if your chocolate isn’t melted,” she said, taking a couple of said bars and walking to their tiny kitchen, along with her brown marshmallow. It really wasn’t big enough for three people, but they would have to make do. She unwrapped the bars and stuck them in a bowl, putting them in the microwave for thirty seconds. This was going to be awesome.

Jay smiled to herself in the kitchen, glad it was Zoe who probed Naomi for further information. The younger girl was about as intrusive as the blonde, and they would get along famously. Naomi might try and find herself a different room no doubt, what with the antics of these two.

“Oh you know,” Jalen said in response to Zoe, taking the bowl out of the microwave and giving it a stir before popping it back in. “Boy problems,” she said with a sigh, crossing her arms over her chest as she glanced at her roommates. Zoe was starting at her intently, Naomi, well, Naomi looked like she would leave any second, regretting ever coming here. “I broke up with my boyfriend, well, ex now I guess,” she said, not unwilling to share her life with those in the room. They would find out very quickly that she was a clingy girl and had nothing to hide.

[Naomi Green]

People like Zoe should be given their own separate little island, where they were allowed to roam wild and free. Like natives. Zoe behaved exactly like Naomi pictured natives acting. Innocent, carefree, a little dim and always smiling. The idea of finding an island of such people made Naomi smile, continuing to hoard her single bar of chocolate as she listened to the other two.

While Jalen microwaved chocolate (a bloody waste in Naomi's opinion), Naomi answered Zoe's question. "It was quite nice, actually. But I spent most of my time at Kocher, seeing as I ended up there the moment my ability developed itself," she raised a hand, pulling out a roasting fork and letting it hover in the air. Some directing, and the fork stabbed at a bag, skewering a marshmallow. Naomi let it sit near the fire, smiling smugly.

"There was an incident though, and I needed to switch schools. The school in India was actually my first choice, but my parents wanted me here, closer to where they live," a pause. "They're American."

Because Naomi was technically British in the sense that she'd been born and spent most of her life over there. In reality, both parents were citizens of the good ole U S of A. Though Naomi hardly admitted to her dual citizenship, it did happen.

Thankfully, Jalen returned, bringing the conversation spotlight off Naomi and onto her. Naomi took the opportunity to nibble on some of the chocolate, her ears perking. Who knows what kind of information could be gleaned if one paid enough attention?

There was also a chance, if slight, that Naomi actually knew Jalen's paramour. That would be revealing indeed.