Just Hangin' Out (OPEN)

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex caught Ray's heartbeat picking up, but whether with excitement or fear she couldn't tell. However, she felt pretty sure after a few more moments that it was leaning more toward fear, judging by the grip he had on her hand. Ah well... It'd be all right, and as soon as they got out, he'd be fine. She just had to make sure that neither of them ended up running into anything. Which was fairly easy for her to do on her own, but a little more challenging when she factored in Ray, because of the height difference. She also hadn't even considered the problems he might have running with his wings... She adjusted her speed accordingly, though still running as much as possible.

"Just a little further," she said in answer to his question. She tightened her grip on his hand, determined not to let one of his trips make her loose her old on him.

Then he was pulling her backward suddenly. She gave a muffled gasp, putting a hand over her mouth to keep anymore sound than necessary from escaping. After a moment, she gave a whispered, "What?" Almost immediately, however, she caught the sound of footsteps, and eased further back into the shadows, still gripping Ray's hand as she allowed the echoes to bring back a picture of the area. Once the person passed, they could run out... Then things would be all right.

She took a deep breath to steady herself, but couldn't help a faint grin despite the tenseness. Ah, no prank was ever the same, and could never be predicted perfectly. And thank goodness for that-- otherwise they would get boring really fast. This just added a new level of interest. ... So long as they didn't get caught, of course...

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

The combination of darkness and fast pace was making it difficult. He either ran with his wings out with the intention of using them or he secured them they way he did when he swam so that he didn’t have to waste a moment thinking about keeping them against his legs. Not being able to see made him hesitate in his steps forward and his wings quivered ready to catch him if for some inexplicable reason the floor vanished from under his feet. Hearing from Alex that they were almost there gave Raylaigh a great deal of relief. Alex was definitely a trustworthy person in Ray’s eyes. She was taking care of him, the way he saw it by not leaving him to find his own way. It didn’t matter to Raylaigh that she lied about her power.

The hope was that with the light to the person’s back they wouldn’t noticed that there were shadows moving among the shadows and he held his breath in just in case that person had some sort of hearing thing that Alex had. This was terrifying, his heart was racing and he was sure that at any moment he would be grabbed by security and in so much trouble. They’d call his parents and his mom would call to yell at him and his dad would call to yell at him and chances were his brothers would call to tell him he was an idiot. It took a lot of effort to keep his wings from fluttering with his nerves and making a whole lot of noise. He clung to her and looked around the machine and saw the man disappear into the darkness.

“Alex, the stairs are clear can you hear anyone else coming?” He asked his heart racing and he realized that he was more excited than he was terrified. He had never been this close to getting in trouble. There was a crazy rush in doing something that he knew he could get into trouble for and the possibility of getting out of it scot-free. He looked down at Alex waiting for his leader to give the go ahead before he was going to sprint up the stairs and out of harm’s way. Ray wasn’t completely not thinking about the consequences. Chances were if they got caught they would get detention for a long time and probably have to do the horrible detention jobs like scrapping gum off of desks or something.

Ray looked back into the darkness and saw a bit of a flashlight as it looked like they were looking for some sort of short or something. It would be a shame if they missed everyone’s reaction. Already there were sounds that Ray could hear from upstairs from people on the stairs. He really wanted to see someone’s reactions to his masterpieces.

[Genesis Kyland]

Much as Alex disliked getting caught, it was largely a matter of pride for her, rather than fear of getting in trouble. Sure, if she was caught, and they actually managed to prove it had been her, she'd likely get detention and get her parents called. But she wasn't terribly worried about the parent situation. They'd call, sure, but the scolding would be light. Their darling blind daughter would never intentionally do something wrong, of course. She grinned faintly. She loved her parents, she really did, and she tried not to take advantage of them, it honestly was at least a small part of why she did her best not to get caught, but she also knew she could get away with a lot when it came to them.

Ah, the stairs were clear. Good. She cupped a hand around her ear to listen very carefully to the echoes. The person Ray had pulled her aside to avoid was walking further in the basement, probably looking for what had caused the power outage. Other than him, she caught the sound of faint footsteps in the hall outside, but not too close...

She nodded. "There's someone further down the hall, but if we hurry we'll be able to get out of here before they're close enough to notice. And there's a corner not far. We'll turn left when we get outta here. Ready?" She took a deep breath, ready for the home stretch sprint.

Soon they would be out. And she would be able to hear the reactions of everyone above. And see vicariously through Ray's reactions to their reactions. "Let's get out of here." She bolted around the machine and for the door, heart pounding with excitement. What was even better, she was pretty darn sure Ray was excited about this too. Double the excitement!

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh was trying really hard not to make any noise, but it was getting harder and harder with the excitement racing through his veins making his wings want to flutter and sent him running up the stairs. His wings were not like an owl’s. Chances were when Ray found out that Alex was actually blind he would feel very dumb, but she already knew he was super gullible so it couldn’t be that big of a surprise that he was so daft. He was glad he’d met Alex, she was definitely not someone he would have initially expected to be such a trickster, he’d obviously been wrong. Ray was wrong about a lot of things, which was why he decided most of the time to not trust his instincts. He had terrible intuition kind of stuff. He was definitely one of those feeling kind of people. Very much connected to his emotions, he didn’t know why men had such a hard time embracing emotion, and be it that he was gay or that he’d been raised mostly by his mother, but he’d never had a hard time expressing emotion, well at least when that emotion was happiness or excitement, but it still counted.

“Okay,” Ray said nodding, even thought it was too dark to see him doing so. He bounced on his feet and braced himself. He was so excited they were going to be like spies, those one in the movies that were awesome and slid into the right place. “Ready,” he said psyching himself up for the race to come. His brain clicked into race mode and he was focused, out of here and to the right. He could follow her no problem, hopefully wouldn’t completely eat it on the stairs and then they would be home free. He took a few deep breaths in attempt to calm himself and get himself to not act like a bullet being fired. His focus sharpened and he bounced, practically prancing in his socks.

He felt her move before he saw her and he darted after her. His tall form allowing him to take the stairs two at a time as they raced toward the door. He slipped once and caught himself with his hands thankfully before he face planted but it did make a bit of noise. Oops. Ray’s heart leapt when they got out the door, but he had picked up enough speed that when he went to make the sharp left his sock covered feet slipped right out from under him and he fell back trying to break his fall with his hand. Pain erupted in his wrist and he bit back a cry. He swallowed it down scrambling to his feet and racing after Alex into the corner. He held his wrist close to his chest and his heart dropped as he heart an exclamation after him. They must have seen him! Oh shit, oh shit!

Thinking fast Ray did the only thing he could think of with such short notice. “Alex! Kiss me!” He didn’t wait for an answer and just went for it, his mouth on hers and his heart racing in his ears. It was worth it risking a punch in the face from his new friend because Ray had seen this work in a movie once. They staff member would catch them and assume that this was all they were up to and getting scolded for kissing in a secluded hallway was much less than getting punished for turning off the lights.

[Genesis Kyland]

Up the stairs, into the hall... Alex hesitated briefly as she heard Ray slip--at least, she assumed he slipped-- and fall. She opened her mouth to ask if he was okay, debating whether or not to stop long enough to help him up and out. However, a moment later, he was up and moving again, saving her the decision. Good. Good good. She sped down the hall again, hoping neither of them tripped or had any other complications.

She paused on the other side of the corner, the hammering of both her own and Ray's hearts pounding in her ears. However, above the pounding, she caught an exclamation. Someone had seem 'em. Dang, that made it more difficult, but at least it was dark, they wouldn't be recognized, right? She had no idea how dark it was, or how much bearing it had on recognizing them in particular. She assumed it did... If they kept running, they could probably get away. They took that hall... and then turned there... then--

"Alex! Kiss me!"

Wait, what?

And he was kissing her. She froze, taken by surprise and almost pulling away, for a brief moment. But then it quickly clicked in her mind-- yes, this could work as well to get them out of pranking trouble. Probably get them scolded, but not detention. Promptly on this realization, she put her arms around his neck and returned the kiss, listening as the footsteps neared, and hoping very much this worked.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Alex didn’t stop for him and nor would Ray have wanted her too. It was his fault he’d been dumb and gotten paint on his shoe and had to stash them and run around in his socks. He did wish that he was more sturdy his wrist hurt a lot. Every bump sent flames of pain up his arm, he held it as still as he could, but the pressing matter of getting up and hiding was first in his mind and he did so despite his pain. He’d been injured worse than this, it hurt like hell, but hey maybe breaking bones all the time did give him some advantage. His pain tolerance must be pretty high. He caught up to her easily enough, despite the decreased friction on his feet, and this time he was prepared for the stop so instead of a sharp turn or something he just let himself slide more or less to a stop.

It was dim, Ray wouldn’t say it was dark, at least not as dark as the abyss that was the basement. He could see more detail in Alex’s face and the lighting gave the world a kind of gray appearance but it wasn’t too dark to see. Hearing the shout and the footsteps approach freaked Raylaigh out. When he first reached forward and kissed her, he was about fifty percent sure that she was going to pull back and slug him but either she didn’t find it terrible or her brain and synced with his brain and they were on the same page. When she returned the kiss Ray found himself enjoying it. He might not be that into girls but she was a good kisser and he didn’t have to be straight to enjoy kissing people did he? She was only the second girl that he’d ever kissed. He knew there should be something in him lighting on fire from the fact that he was kissing a pretty girl, his brothers would have been all over that, but Ray, well Ray was different and it spoke nothing about either of them except perhaps that Ray liked boys not girls.

The footsteps got louder and Ray broke away from Alex when a flashlight honed in on their faces. He winced in the sudden light and heard the annoyed scoff of whoever it was who was hiding behind the light of the flashlight. “Jesus! Seriously? Get out of here!” It was a male voice but not one that Ray could identify offhand. He grinned sheepishly and removed his hand from his wounded wrist with a wince and grabbed Alex’s hand. Once they scurried past Ray saw the man continue into the basement and Ray gave a breath of relief and smiled down at Alex. “Sorry… I… I blanked,” he laughed and ducked is head, “Have mercy,” he said in mock pleading still absolutely certain she was going to take him out. “But before you kill me let’s go see what havoc we’ve wreaked.”

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex couldn't say she'd kissed many people in her lifetime, but that said, she also couldn't say she disliked kissing when it came down to it. She enjoyed most contact with other people, to be honest. Her family had always been big on physical affection, so she'd grown up a hugger with close friends, and really, she didn't see much of a difference between hugging and kissing as ways to express affection. Even if her heart did beat a little faster with the latter.

When the man "interrupted" them, Alex managed a gasp of "surprise". She gripped Ray's hand in return when he grasped hers, and offered a breathless, "Sorry" to the man before scurrying off with Ray. How embarrassing would that have been if they actually had been meaning to be kissing alone in the dark? Majorly. But it had worked! They were out of the woods, and were now free to run up to the dorms and hear the results of their handiwork, even if they might have missed the initial shock of it.

However, as her overconfident self, she still felt fairly sure they would have been able to lose the guard if they'd run for it. So of course she had to give Ray a hard time. Sheesh, she would've had to give him a hard time regardless! "Yeah, yeah," she snorted, mock punching him in the shoulder. "I think you just wanted an excuse to kiss me." She snickered. "But don't worry, I'll put killing you on hold until we've found out how our prank went over. If my girl cooties don't kill you first."

With a toss of her head and a smirk, she picked up her pace again, eager to get to the dorms. Even just nearing it, she could hear chattering and squeaks, as people presumably found their handiwork. Speaking of hands... she tilted her head toward Ray. "You didn't get hurt when you fell back there, didja? Forgot y'just had socks on...."

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray had to hide a smile as Alex played along and they slipped through the hall. It was strange to kiss someone and be caught, he and Jack had never done anything where someone might be able to catch them, it felt extremely rebellious. Alex was a good kisser and Raylaigh was not even that experienced but he had to give her that. She was going to get a boyfriend really quick, she was gorgeous and she was a good kisser. Ray had a very simplistic look at life and relationships. And even better it had gotten them out of trouble, they were pretty much home free now. The prank was on the way to the climax and Raylaigh wanted to be there to see it happen. He couldn’t wait to see everyone’s face. He would have skipped with excitement if he wasn’t trying to keep his wrist from getting too badly hurt.

The flyer flinched when she mock punch him, laughing at himself when he did so. It was easier to laugh it off than think about why he flinched. It was not something that hurt, but he wasn’t sure she wasn’t actually going to hit him. He believed she was a little more wicked than she let her innocent face betray, not that that was a bad thing. Ray blushed and giggled. He nodded his head emphatically and smiled slyly. “Awe, you caught me,” he whined jokingly. He tossed his head from side to side as if he was really guilty. He let go of her hand and pinched her cheeks. “You’re just so cute, I couldn’t help it!” He ducked his head and pranced next to her holding his tongue between his teeth as he tried to avoid guffawing.

“Girl cooties, you know, I am starting to feel a little faint, this is why I only kiss boys—” Oops. He said it before he thought about it and blushed crimson. He ducked his head his humor dying off a little bit as he bit his lip nervously. He didn’t like to come out and say stuff like that when he first met someone, he guessed he fell into a trap where he felt really comfortable around Alex. After all, they had just kissed but he wasn’t sure how she was going to take it and he was nervy.

Ray jumped in surprise and looked down at his aching hand. “Uh, I mean, it’s not the worst thing that’s ever happened. It hurts a bit, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.” He shrugged and touched his wrist gingerly with his good hand and hissed in pain. He hadn’t tried to move his fingers and now that he did he was tempted to howl in pain, it was terrible, but he wanted to see this, he could wait. “S’okay, not your fault, I’m just a klutz.” It wasn’t fair that he slipped and fell and shattered. Any normal person could have fallen like that and would be sore but fine in five seconds, Ray was in serious danger of this being a break. It was painful and now that he’d touched it it seemed to be amplifying. God he hoped it was only a sprain, then it would only take a little bit and maybe a brace to heal, if it was broken that meant a cast and a lot of recovery time. He sighed in annoyance, why did his bones always work against him. They were so delicate and all he wanted to do was do crazy things.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex swatted for Ray as he pinched her cheeks, fully intending to bonk him in the head if he didn't move clear quickly enough. However, she was smirking as she did. "Brat," she quipped with a snort. "Too bad I can't say you're as cute." She wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out, very clearly jesting. Just because she couldn't see Ray didn't mean she didn't already consider him an attractive enough person. You didn't have to be able to see to tell things like that, after all.

When Ray cut himself off, Alex didn't reply right away as she considered both his words, as well as his reaction. Honestly, she wasn't completely taken by surprise by the revelation, both from their earlier conversation, as well as the fact his heart hadn't had quite the same reaction as most boys' would have upon kissing a girl, pretended or otherwise. And she also didn't particularly care what his orientation was, anyway-- people liked who they liked, and that was that.

Of course, she couldn't be all deep and comforting-like, even in this situation. It just wasn't her, after all. So, she just shook her head. "Well, you've gone and messed up, then. One girl cootie is enough to kill ya, y'know." She cast a smirk in his general direction. "Think I'm gonna punch you again for comin' clean or somethin'?"

Alex frowned at Ray's hiss of pain. "I know it ain't my fault, but it still stinks. Think we should find someone to look at it?" Though she hadn't stopped her quick walk for their "crime scene", she was perfectly ready to go off and find the nurse or someone to get the hand looked at. Broken bones, even sprained bones she guessed, weren't exactly a piece of cake to deal with. She should know, from all her tumbles with her skateboard in the beginning.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

The flyer held his tongue between his teeth a clever little grin on his face, this time though it didn’t stop his laughter. He ducked her flailing hands holding his arms around his belly to keep his insides from falling out, he was laughing so hard. “Awe, don’t be mean, Alex,” he teased right back. Getting under her skin was something that Ray was finding quiet funny. “By the way, you need to get your eyes checked. ‘Cause I’m adorable.” He said and batted his eyes at her folding his hands under his chin. Ray didn’t even realize his blunder and probably would feel terrible about telling someone who was blind that they needed to get their eyes checked. Ray just said things without thinking on a normal basis, but take ignorance into the equation and he was bound to accidentally piss someone off.

Raylaigh swallowed nervously, and gave a smile. He didn’t really make a secret of it but he was never quite sure how people were going to take it and now was no different. Really, Ray rarely came out and just said it but when he did no one was ever actually surprised, which was kind of annoying. That wasn’t the point, the point was that he was well out in the open here at Hammel, and he’d almost gotten into the habit of expecting people to know without him having to say so, no matter if he was open or not it was always an awkward thing to say, and he didn’t understand why. Half of him thought that that was a little bit of a terrible thing that telling someone he was gay was awkward. It felt like it shouldn’t be.

He breathed out a little breath of relief, taking her joking as a form of acceptance or maybe she just didn’t care either way. “Girl cooties, not even once,” he joked back and ducked his head as she continued. He winced at the question and shook his head. He had to keep reminding himself that she wasn’t going to hit him, at least not like Jack used to. Jack wasn’t here, he didn’t have any power anymore. Raylaigh wished he didn’t feel like that though. He forced a giggle. “I don’t think you could,” he said mock tauntingly a grin on his face, he was trying so hard to keep her from realizing the real root of the problem. Nope, not gonna happen.

Raylaigh nodded in agreement, it did suck, it sucked a lot. “Um…” he looked down and considered his option. “Well, if it’s broken it’s not gonna be any more broken in the next twenty minutes, I say we see our handiwork and then it’ll be totally worth it.” He smiled at her, hoping he looked a lot less in pain than he actually was. They could go to the nurse later, at least that was he could say he saw the prank and got scared and ran and fell, then it wouldn’t be a lie if he was seen at the scene of the prank. It would all make sense and no need for anyone to get in trouble. They were getting closer and Ray was excited, he had more of a reason not to be bouncy though, it shook up his arm a little bit worse than usual. “I can’t believe this worked!” He exclaimed in a whisper to Alex as they rounded the corner and saw the glowing paint on the wall, just as terrifying as he imagined, even more so because it had dripped a bit and looked more eerily melt-y. People were arriving from all areas a few youngsters were already hiding their faces and a few older kids were feinting boredom though giving the walls side eyes.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex wasn't one to take offense at comments about getting her eyes checked, at least, not when the comments weren't intentionally meant to be irritating. Ray's comment, of course, she knew for a fact hadn't been meant that way. Even if he had known about her blindness, she was still used to people using figures of speech that referenced "look", "see", and people's eyes. She couldn't expect people to change how they talked just because she had defective eyes. At least, that was the belief she'd taken on quite a while ago, and it had saved her a lot of frustration since. "Yeah, yeah," she muttered. "You need to get your face checked." She stuck her tongue out again and rolled her eyes in exaggerated fashion.

"Girl cooties not even once, huh?" Alex raised an eyebrow. "Better be careful about getting into sticky pranking situations then. You mighta caught girl cooties from me just now, anyway. I'm not a dude, you know." She smirked. "Ohh, you don't think I can whack ya, huh? Psh, what are you, racist against--ah...girls?" She'd caught herself from one of her more favorite lines, of accusing people of being "racist" against blind people, and reminded herself again that she should explain things to Ray soon. He'd told her about his orientation, anyway, even though he obviously felt nervous about it. Even if it had been an accident that he'd told her. Truth for a truth, right? Even though she hadn't really lied about her blindness-- just dodged the question. Expertly.

Anyway. He seemed kind've tense about the whole punching him subject, though she wasn't sure if that was directly linked to the subject, or if it was residual tenseness from his earlier awkwardness about mentioning his being gay. However, she did wonder, however briefly.

When Ray commented about his wrist not being anymore broken a little later, Alex nodded and shrugged in agreement. True enough. He could get patched up anytime that evening, but they wouldn't have the whole evening to hear the result of their prank.

As they rounded the corner, Alex didn't have to wonder if they paint had done its job-- Ray answered it with his whispered, "I can't believe this worked" before she even thought to ask. Good, good. She grinned and found the pen in her pocket, clicking it a couple times to get an estimate of how many people were observing their handiwork. Pretty good amount of people... Their hearts were beating out a steady nervous beat, too. She chuckled, glad the prank had worked out for herself just as much as for Ray. It was his first real prank, after all, it would be pretty lame if it didn't turn out!

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Once Raylaigh realized that his new friend was blind he was likely to be mortified by what he’d just said, not only that but he would feel terrible. He was all sorts of unobservant, he was always day dreaming and very literally at times had his head in the clouds. Maybe he’d breathed in too much low pressure air, it was starting to affect his brain. “Ha-ha,” Ray fake laughed putting his hands on his hips before remembering that one of them hurt and he quickly aborted that action disappointed that he couldn’t give her the full affect of his unamused amusement. He chuckled and stuck his own tongue out in return.

Raylaigh gasped dramatically, half in pain as his wrist twinged and the rest to cover it up. “Wait?! Alex! You’re a girl?!” He declared as if completely shocked by this revelation. He collapsed into giggles and grinned at her holding his tongue between his teeth. He snorted, “You know being a girl isn’t a race right?” He asked still smiling. Things would certainly get all sorts of complicated if that were the case. There was already enough confusion from the dynamic spectrum that was gender and the issues that went along with that. There were a lot of things that Ray didn’t understand about a lot of things that went on in people’s minds. In Ray’s opinion, he didn’t have to. People should be able to do what they wanted and feel comfortable with themselves without people like Raylaigh having to understand it. Life was short, live it how you want.

He moved forward with a quick step, moving at least kept his attention off of his pain in his arm. He really hoped it wasn’t broken or Nao was going to kill him. Ray had a lot of trouble not smiling at their handiwork when it came into view. Some people were pointing and whispering alarmed with their friends. There were a few older student and people who clearly knew this was a joke and were either watching with bored eyes of hiding amused smiles as younger students twittered frightened. Ray would have probably felt bad if he hadn’t been thinking of what a good job he had done of the ghosts. He really hoped he didn’t get caught because painting over that or washing it off was not going to be fun.

“I’m so glad I let you talk me into this,” Ray whispered to Alex. He was holding his arm tightly to his chest and he dodged someone rushing past him to get to their friends as quickly as possible. The staff was starting to show up in force. Immediately some went to frightened students and started trying to console them, others went to examine the paint on the wall and Raylaigh was starting to realize something he hadn’t thought about. This was a school for meta children and more often than not the people who worked here were meta humans. He swallowed nervously and tried to hold it together. Really if even one of the staff so much as passed a glance over him Ray would probably get extremely jumpy. Not that he wasn’t already nervy as it was. Well, maybe now would be a good time to go to the infirmary…

[Genesis Kyland]

"Surprise surprise." Alex smirked. "I'm not a guy after all! .... Wait." She paused in her tracks briefly, smirk growing a bit. "You're not a girl? Shock and horror, ain't I just all shades of embarrassed..." She waved a hand in front of her face, as if to fan away a blush, as she started walking again. "Fooled me. And women-folk are most definitely their own race," she stated in mock seriousness. "We're from Venus, don't you know."

"Talk you into this?" Alex snickered. "I don't talk people into anything. I could get into trouble for that, you know." She wiggled her eyebrows significantly. "No one did any kinda talkin' into or suggestin' for this. In fact, I have no idea who did all this." The last sentence was said with a perfectly straight face as she tilted her head to the side. "You got a clue who mighta done it?"

Barely a moment later, she began picking up on Ray's slightly increased heart-rate. Again, it was hard to tell the difference between an excited heart-beat, and a nervous one, but either way she made the decision it would be best for them to get clear of the place. Either excitement or nervousness could be detrimental to not being apprehended.

So, she grabbed Ray's arm and began steering him for the door. "Anyway, we should get that wrist looked at before it inflates or somethin'. I'll be darned if I let you run around with a smashed up wrist or whatever." She released his arm a moment later, when she was sure he would be following. It was better to let people guide themselves. With the commotion going on behind them now, it was all she could do to keep herself from walking around like a... well, like a blind person. It wouldn't do to steer Ray into a wall or something of the like. She wanted to let him in on "secret", but not like that.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh laughed and cried, “Hey!” before breaking into more laughter. “Venus? So where does that make me from?” He asked with a sly expression on his face. He bumped Alex with his shoulder and grinned, he’d never done something like this before, it was super exciting. He was so close to breaking the rules, well he broke the rules, but he was so close to getting caught that was giving him excited goosebumps and cold chills. This was awesome, no wonder people did it. It was only the aftermath when he was getting yelled at that Raylaigh felt any sort of real remorse. At least they were in this together, or at least unless Alex got away. If Ray had to make quick movements again chances were he’d meet the floor again.

Staring at Alex open mouthed Ray couldn’t decide at first how to react but instead laughed. Alex was definitely a clever and sly woman. “Right, you would never corrupt the innocent,” he tossed her a knowing grin. Alex then talked about blame and Ray caught on quick, he wasn’t so slow he didn’t catch on when she tossed the hint. Her pretty face definitely had innocent spelled all over it. If Raylaigh didn’t know that she’d been the brains behind this outfit then he would have easily believed she was innocent. “Nah, nope, no way, no idea,” Ray replied shaking his head like a dog. He was so good at lying, no one would ever suspect a thing. He smiled broadly at Alex and shrugged like he had no idea what she was talking about. It was this reason that when he caught the passing glance he started to panic.

He wasn’t cut out for this, he wasn’t one of those people who was strong under pressure. He’d crack under torture. He’d be singing like a bird. Not that he wanted to give up Alex but if he claimed to be working alone a lot of people would probably not believe it. Ray gave no resistance when Alex started moving. It wasn’t like him to resist when someone decided he should go somewhere or do something. He breathed a sigh of relief as they moved toward the door and away from the accusing eyes of the faculty. He smiled warmly at Alex and cleared his through as if he wasn’t looking to let her see the warmth in his gaze. “Thanks, Alex,” he kept walking when she let go, he knew very well where he was going, he’d been there so frequently it was likely that he could make his way there without seeing where he was going. Which made it very easy considering it was getting darker.

Ray wondered in passing if the faculty that went to check the circuit breaker would figure out that the switches were just off and turn them back on, or if it even worked like that, Ray wasn’t an electrician. The lights flickered back on as they were approaching the infirmary. Ray smiled at Alex. “Well, it was fun while it lasted.” He opened the door and before he could even give the nurse a smile she sighed and said, “Oh no, Ray, again?” He shrugged and glanced at Alex ducking his head and he muttered some unintelligible excuse. “You tripped?” the nurse guessed, “I bet it was the lights.” She shook her head and motioned for Ray to follow and Ray stole a look at Alex and resisted without much success a sly smile.

[Genesis Kyland]

"Well, that'd make you and all men from Mars, of course." Alex snorted, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Duh. We migrated here from our different planets and decided we liked each other for some odd reason." She snickered. By this point, though excited to hear their handiwork, the majority of Alex's excitement had died down. For her, the best part was the doing rather than the experiencing the results. However, she was glad Ray was enjoying himself so much now... She decided that he would be one of the many pranksters who got the most excited about seeing the results. Though he had been excited about the execution of it too...

Alex tapped a finger to her chin, considering. "Innocent? Nah, I wouldn't corrupt them. I wouldn't corrupt anyone, of course. But even if I did like corruptin' the innocent, I don't think you'd have anything to worry about. You definitely ain't no innocent." She grinned. Actually, he was very much the innocent type, she was pretty sure. An innocent type who had episodes of being not so innocent. Yeah, that was a better description. Either way, it was still fun to tease.

"No problem, newbie." She chuckled easily. "Better start workin' on gettin' better at not being suspicious if ya wanna have a career of pranking." She gave a wink as they approached the nurse's office.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted."

Alex tilted her head, thoughtful, but a moment later assumed that he simply meant the deal with his wrist. So, she nodded and shrugged. "It was." Then something ocurred to her, and she frowned a bit. If the electricity was off, would the nurse still be able to fix his wrist right? She didn't know much about the whole fixing injured wrist process, she'd never paid much attention when she went to the doctor herself, but she was pretty sure it would have something to do with electricity. "Hopefully the nurse will still be able to fix your wrist..."

But then he opened the door to the nurse's office, and the nurse didn't sound too worried about it, despite her "Oh no, Ray"'ing. That meant they must've had something figured out then, right? Good. She grinned and waved when Ray went after the nurse, mind already on another track. Operation skillet in Ray's pillow, as promised, of course.