Parking Lot Woes [Rhys]

[Chloe Singleton]

"Oh poop!" Chloe shouted, her face pressed against the window of her car as she stared at the keys sitting innocently in the passenger seat. She tried the handle again although she knew it was useless. Sighing and looking incredibly defeated, she turned around and leaned against the side of her car. Not only were her car keys on that ring, but also the key to her apartment, and Ella was away on account of a new recruit.

She dropped her purse and bag on the hood of the car and looked around the mostly empty parking lot. The apartment building wasn't too terribly far away from the school, she could walk, and maybe begging her neighbors or building manager would get her inside, but there was no guarantee.

She walked around the car, looking at the passenger window. She'd left it cracked a couple inches to let some air in when she parked this morning. (It was miserable sitting on leather seats when they were hot, it was like they tried to melt into her thighs.) Looking around briefly, Chloe lifted her arm and pushed her hand through the opening, hoping that she would be able to reach the lock and pull it up.

It was a tight fit and she grimaced as the window pinched her arm, managing to push her entire forearm into the car. Chloe raised up on her toes and rotated her arm, but alas her fingers were not long enough to reach the lock. "Nooooo!" She whined, struggling to reach it, but her bad luck was not over yet. Giving up, Chloe went to pull her arm out of the window, but it didn't budge. The blonde's eyes went wide and she tugged again, until it hurt, but her arm still didn't come free. Now she was screwed.

She turned, hoping maybe a different angle would free her, but no luck. She also noted that there was a man walking out in the parking lot and suddenly she started to panic. Not that she was scared, no, she was just incredibly embarrassed that she had managed to get her arm stuck in her car. But... maybe he could help her? "Um... sir, excuse me?"

[Rhys Rockwood]

Rhys had finished up for the day; he'd deal with the rest of the things on his desk the next day. He changed clothes in the bathroom into something more appropriate for running and headed for his apartment, walking by the parking lot on his way there. Just happened to be the direction he was taking that day.

When heard someone call out, he instinctively turned that direction and looked over the parking lot, quickly spotting the young woman standing by her car. Rhys figured she needed something and headed that way; why else would she have yelled for him? "Hey there, do you need help with something?" he asked as he approached. It was only a few more steps before he could see that yes, she did need help with something. She seemed more than a bit stuck.

"Well now, that's not something you see everyday. Lock your keys in your car?" No, she just thought it would be more fun to unlock it this way than using a silly key. Sometimes, he just asked the dumbest, most obvious questions he could. Perhaps he should just try helping rather than opening his mouth and showing how much of an idiot he could be.

"Is there someone I can call for you? A friend with a spare key or something?" he asked. YAY. Something helpful finally came out of his mouth. "Any chance Ella can help? I know I've seen you with her on occasion, figured you were friends." Rhys just didn't know; he clearly needed to catch up with Ella and listen to what was going on in the rest of her life outside of the office. And once again, he'd proved his inattention. Ella was out of the office, out of town, and on assignment. He should have known she wouldn't have been able to help here.

[Chloe Singleton]

Chloe turned as far as her trapped arm would allow to face Rhys, looking a little relieved that he had actually come over to help. Had she not been so embarrassed, or so air headed, she might have called him on his silly questions, but at this point in time they were the least of her worries. "I could have sworn I grabbed them this morning, but there they are. Sitting right there." She sighed, waving her arm around inside the car helplessly.

"Jerks." She hissed at the keys, as if they were not inanimate objects and had feelings and that by calling them mean names, they would realize their folly and somehow float right up into her hand. Not that it would do much good anyways, because her arm would still be stuck.

But then Rhys mentioned Ella and Chloe giggled like a teenage girl with a crush. "Yeah... we're friends." More than friends, but Chloe didn't think acting giddy over her new relationship would really help anything. "But she's out of town. She went to pick up a new recruit." Suddenly Chloe gasped, then held out her other hand to the man. "I'm sorry, I must have forgotten my manners. I'm Chloe! Thanks for coming to help." Giving another hearty tug on her arm, she winced, then sighed. "Still no good."

Chloe collapsed against the side of her car dramatically. "Maybe you could help pull me free? I don't think I'm strong enough."

[Rhys Rockwood]

Rhys smirked a little bit when Chloe responded; the insult added for the keys was just hilarious in his mind. He looked into the car to see exactly where they were for himself then looked a little closer at her arm. She was really wedged in there, and it probably wasn't very good for her arm. They needed to get her out of there just to be safe, even though Rhys didn't really know whether or not there was any legitimate danger or just a nice bit of inconvenience.

Her giggle at the mention of Ella's name caught his attention. His initial impression from the recruiter party that day seemed to have a little merit, but he'd go mine that information from Ella later. Oh, that would be fun. Rhys got a distinct enjoyment out of teasing his fellow recruiter. He and Ella got along quite well, and it made him curious why she hadn't mentioned this girl to him yet.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he replied when she introduced herself. "I'm Rhys. I actually work with Ella in the recruiting department. I like to think she and I are pretty good friends, actually." He took another close look at her arm where it was stuck in the window. "I'm not sure pulling harder would be good for your arm. Might be better to call a service to have them come pop the lock. Either that or try to carefully break the window, but that seems like a bad idea," he said with a small laugh.

"I'll give you one pull if you really want me to though," he said after a quick thought. "You'll just have to let me know if it hurts too much." One would think that at a school like Hammel it wouldn't be hard to find someone who get the keys anyway, but that actually intelligent idea seemed to be avoiding Rhys entirely, of course.

[Chloe Singleton]

"Oh!" Chloe looked even more excited to learn that Rhys was a friend of Ella's. "I haven't met many of Ella's friends yet, but I've only been here for a couple months." She leaned her head against the side of the car. Her fingers were starting to tingle and she began moving them to see if that would help. "It's a shame we couldn't have met under... well... better circumstances." She laughed, shrugging as best as she could.

Pursing her lips thoughtfully, Chloe nodded. "It's worth a shot. I think I'd do just about anything right now." Being stuck in her car was definitely not as much fun as it sounded... that is, if it sounded like any to begin with. It probably didn't, but this is filler so nyah. "I'll probably just yelp if it hurts, but then again I think my arm's starting to go numb." Despite the situation, she was still as chipper as ever.

"Or if that doesn't work, I guess we could call the police department to come spring the lock, but I'd hate to bother them if we don't need to." Oh look! A smart idea! Somebody mark this day on the calendar, because it's a momentous occasion. Not that I'm saying Chloe is stupid or anything, she's just... spacey. Yeah, that's a nice word for it. "Ella is sooo going to laugh at me when she finds out about this."

[Rhys Rockwood]

"Well, when it comes to meeting Ella's friends, I suppose I'm a decent one to start with," Rhys said with a laugh. He really didn't have a clue who else Ella considered a friend, so he had no idea how accurate his statement was. For all he knew, he was the best person for Chloe to meet first....and just as likely, he was the worst. For Ella, he was probably the worst. He was going to have too much fun with this, and that was all he could think about.

An actual decent thought crossed his mind. "So, before we try to pull your arm out with sheer force, how about I try to push down on the window? Any extra room might make it easier for you to pull your arm out. Should be the least painful way that involves the fewest people." He assumed she was embarrassed by this incident, so he was taking that into account when he suggested possible solutions to her predicament.

Deciding it was the best course of action, Rhys stepped a little close to Chloe and put his hands on top edge of the window, one on each side of her arm. "I'll push down, you pull out, alright?" he put simply. He took a deeper breath and leveraged his weight down onto the window, hoping to make it budge slightly. She didn't need much more room to get her arm out; he was just hoping the window didn't bust from the pressure.

[Chloe Singleton]

"Well, you're being quite the gentleman and helping me, so I'd say you're a wonderful place to start!" Chloe agreed. Sure, it was a little unorthodox, and Ella wasn't there to break the ice for them, but I suppose being caught in an awkward position did that well enough. Not that Chloe ever really needed anyone to break the ice, considering what a personable young woman she is. She'd be friends with everyone on the entire planet if it were possible.

Rhys' idea was even better than hers - which wasn't unusual, Chloe doesn't really think things through, she just does. "Yeah, that might work!" And really, even if the window did break, it was a small price to pay. If it came down to a broken window or a trapped arm, she'd definitely take the broken window.

When Rhys began to push down on the window, Chloe bit the inside of her cheek as she twisted her arm and pulled. It took a moment, but when her elbow finally popped free of the dastardly window's grip, she squeaked and nearly fell back into Rhys. "I'm free!" She shouted, throwing both arms up over her head. The window had left a couple marks on her upper arm, but she didn't care. In fact, she was so excited that she threw her arms around Rhys. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She really didn't give a second thought to personal space or whether or not Rhys would have appreciated a hug from her, she was too busy being happy about being freed and grateful that Rhys had been there to help her.

Giggling, Chloe eventually released the recruiter from her hug, stepping back and giving the window a glare. Except as she did that, she realized her keys were still sitting in the passenger seat. "... oh darn."

[Rhys Rockwood]

Rhys was both surprised and thrilled that his idea had worked. He hadn't been sure he could put enough pressure on the window without breaking it to really get Chloe free. Apparently it had been enough though. He caught Chloe a little when she fell toward him and laughed when she threw her arms around him for the hug. He laughed a little and half returned it. "No problem, no problem. I barely did a thing. Just pushed on it a little." He was glad to have helped her, and the hug didn't make him uncomfortable. Most guys don't mind having a pretty girl give them a hug.

Scratching his cheek as he looked into the car again, Rhys started to figure out a way to get the keys out. "Well, your keys are still in there, but at least your arm is free. One problem solved, one to go. No hanger to do the old, cliched trick to make a hook and fish them out, so let's do something a little more meta. Let's go back up to the school and find someone who's telekinetic or can play with magnetic fields. Someone with that ability should be able to help," he suggested.

He already had someone in mind. He'd met that...instructor? Teacher? He couldn't remember what her job was, but he remembered Hermione being able to play with metal. She might still be around. If not, they could start looking up students that might be able to help out. Nothing wrong with getting a little bit of labor out of the students, right?

((Dunno if you knew, but Hermione is the name Naomi gave Rhys when he found in her in the staff lounge. Tossed that in for lolz.))

[Chloe Singleton]

Rubbing her arm and willing feeling back into her fingers, Chloe sighed and fell back against the side of the car. She had been so excited to get free of the window that she'd completely forgotten the reason why she'd been stuck in the first place. At least Rhys didn't seem nearly as disheartened as she did, but it was also not his keys that were staring teasingly up at him from the safety of a locked car.

She tilted her head to the side as Rhys formulated another plan, one that left Chloe face-palming. “Duh!” She laughed, gently pushing him. “We only work in a school full of people with powers, how come I didn't think of that?” That's because your head is full of butterflies and cotton candy and flowers and Ella and other girly things. “Look at you with your brains!” She giggled, fetching her purse from the hood of her car and sliding it over her shoulder and hooked her other arm with Rhys'.

As they walked back up to the school, Chloe looked thoughtful. “I've had a couple telekinetics in my class, we could find them. Ummm, do you know anyone offhand?” Seeing as he'd had all the brilliant ideas thus far, it only made sense that she'd ask for help again. As embarrassing as it might have started out, Chloe couldn't help but to be excited to tell Ella that she'd made friends with Rhys.