SUE: Botched Fundraiser (Marnie and Lucas)

[Event !]

Marnie had been working on a list of fundraising ideas for the summer semester. Lucas had a proposition but it doesn't matter now.

[Marnie Sullivan]

Marnie's bright idea to show initiative by coming up with a brilliant fundraiser was looking less bright by the minute. A sheet of paper sat in front of her, mostly empty, the list it bore made all the more disappointing by the options she'd crossed out.

Car wash
Bake sale
Other sales - fruit? calendars? mattresses?
recycling soda cans
Ticket sales - talent show? dunk tank?
Fortune telling
playing Justin Bieber over PA, pay to have it stop

Marnie sat, chin resting on her fist, frowning at the list composed mostly of fundraisers her old school had held. Done right, any of them would work at Hammel. Some, like the car wash, regularly did. That wasn't the problem. The problem was the distinct feeling that an actually interesting idea was lurking somewhere, half-formed, and if she could just concentrate it would present itself.

A few more minutes passed, and all she'd done was scribble "flowers" next to the other sale options. It was time to enlist some help. Marnie rose with a frustrated huff, strode to the door, and collected the suggestion box sitting outside. It's contents weren't strictly fundraiser related, she knew, but maybe if she was lucky another student had submitted something creative. Marnie popped it open and reached inside.

The first slip she pulled out was creative, she had to admit. Not constructive in the least, but you didn't come up with that many slang terms for certain private body parts without a little ingenuity.

Marnie crumpled the paper and tossed it aside before trying again. This one was a rather rude drawing of one of the math professors - unrecognizable from the poor quality alone, but helpfully labelled by the "artist".

A string of curse words.
pizza in caf everyday
No curfew for students please
THANKS OBAMA

So much for relying on her peers.

[Lucas Blacke]

Talking. Lucas shrugged with the idea that talking happened a lot on decent schools. He would've never guessed that it was so annoying though. But, in the defense of others, he had been imitating a lot of people in his days in this place.

He spent his days, when not listening to someone who claimed to know stuff, striding past doors in the hopes of finding someone he knew he could annoy. Plenty of people like that, right? This day it was time to explore some unexplored territory, it was time to go to where the activities were planned! There should be people a plenty to annoy there. It'd be funny to see them react.

Passing several closed doors Lucas saw a door down the hall swing open. A person swung out and took something and went back in the room. Luke shrugged and went on, not thinking all that much of it aside from seeing it as a potential victim of his. He put on a grin and, while looking further for something to happen, kept his attention on the door that just opened and closed.

There was a plaque on the door that read council room.. or something. Luke shrugged and went for the door handle. He plunged his hand down on the handle, making sure to startle anyone in there and opened the door with a fierce swing.

'I am here to-' He began but was silenced as he stared in the eyes of a girl.. He did not have too much experience with those. He mumbled the rest of his sentence and lowered his eyes, there was some kind of box just standing there with the top open. It was some sort of suggestion box.

'So..' Lucas mumbled. 'I had a suggestion.' He regained his posture and put back his grin, looking the girl in the eyes again.

'But beautiful people tend to make me forget.'

[Marnie Sullivan]

Marnie jumped a bit at the sudden noise of the door handle clattering, but smiled when she realized it was just a student entering. Maybe he was part of the student council as well? There hadn't been any meetings since she'd joined the group, so as far as she knew that was his most likely reason for being there. It hadn't been her intention to brainstorm with anyone else that day, but she was getting nowhere and two heads were better than one, right?


He seemed a little nervous, mumbling like that - maybe he was new to the council like she was - and Marnie was about to greet him when the boy, whoever he was, went and dropped that line on her.


"Oh, uh-" Marnie blinked rapidly in confusion while a flush crept into her face and her greeting fell out of her ears. Was he calling her beautiful? It didn't make much sense - maybe if she were more dressed up than a simple sweater and jeans - but then again, there was nobody else in the room.


"That's, um, thank you?" Nervous in this new territory, Marnie unconsciously raised a hand to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Are you here too? That is, I mean are you part of the council too," she corrected herself hastily. "I was just working on-"


Overhead, the ceiling lights flickered a couple of times, and then darkness. There was enough light filtering through the window blinds that it wasn't pitch black, but it was a surprise nonetheless.


"Oh of course."

[Lucas Blacke]

The lights had gone. It wasn't real dark, but it did give off something of a homey feel.

'Aaaand let the fun begin..' Lucas whispered under his breath as he put his hand on the cheek of the girl. 'You don't need to thank me for anything. I am just stating the obvious.' She seemed flustered, lines like that tended to do that. But what made it gold was that it was just what Luke wanted - confuse someone.

He pulled back his hand from the cheek and cleared his throat before grabbing the hand of the girl, bowing down slightly and kissing the back of it. 'I am Lucas Blacke.' He tilted his head slightly so that he looked the girl straight in the eyes. Or.. somewhere near the eyes, Luke didn't know nor care at the moment. 'And no, I am not on the council. But seeing as you are on here, where do I sign up?' He smiled and stood up right, but did not let go of the hand.

He winked at the girl. 'And what might a beautiful creature such as yourself be called?'

This would be a great day. Being in a dark[er than normal] room with a girl, didn't get much better than that. Of course, most guys would think about.. other things. But not Luke. He was mainly thinking about what he could do that'd confuse her the most. Right now, being nice seemed to do the trick, but that act would get old soon and he would need something else.

[Marnie Sullivan]

The only positive thing about the sudden darkness was the way it hid her face and neck as they blanched to match the classroom's tile floor. Under better visibility, the panic response of Marnie's power would have been perfectly clear. Being alone in a room with a strange guy who felt perfectly comfortable touching her face had replaced her nervous flattered feeling with distrust.

She yanked her hand away and stared, wishing not for the first time that she could swap her power for another. Mind-reading, for one. Marnie knew the boy's name but little else. If she could tell what he was thinking, maybe she'd also have a clue what to do about it.

"I'm Marnie," she answered carefully. "I have super strength." She winced at the blatancy of her lie - she'd meant to sound intimidating, but it was such an easy statement to call her on. She could only hope Lucas wasn't a mind reader either.

[Lucas Blacke]

Oh. She was still pretty flustered judging by the way she acted and spoke. Something about her name being Marnie and have super strength.

Lucas wondered for a moment as the girl had yanked her hand away as she said that. Super strength, that was a movie thing, right? It couldn't be real, no way there were other people with oddities like Luke. He had been branded a retard, he did not wish that upon this Marnie girl.

He shrugged and got back to looking at Marnie full time. 'Super strength, you say?' It was more of a statement than a question and brushed his hands together. 'That'll be a hard one to copy then.' He said with a smile.

'But at least I'll have a beautiful girl capable of defending me.' He winked. He'd need someone to stand up for him, with what he was doing, and was, he made a lot of enemies real fast.

[Marnie Sullivan]

The boy's repeated use of the word "beautiful" was beginning to sting a little. It was the first time since the age of stupid middle school crushes that a guy had ever shown any kind of interest in her, and Lucas was laying it on so thick it was difficult to tell how sincere he was. Although given the circumstances, Marnie wasn't sure if she even wanted to believe him, let alone could.

"...Defend? Against what?" she asked. It made some sense that he just wanted something from her, although she hadn't expected him to ask for help of all things. If he was serious, he was in for a disappointment when he realized that Marnie's was far from super. "Don't tell me you're afraid of the dark."

[Lucas Blacke]

Lucas chuckled and lowered his head. 'Afraid of the dark? Me?' He tilted his head to look Marnie in the eye. She acted the way Luke liked best, insecure, like he was. He could do something with that. 'There is nothing to be afraid of in the dark when I'm with a pretty girl like you, right?'

The way she asked what he needed defending for actually gave rise to more questions than answers. What would he need defending from? Aside from the people he annoyed. But then again, he had been the recipient of many a beatings in his time, and found it was nothing he couldn't handle.

'But aside from the dark, do you know of something or someone I should be afraid of?'
A sly grin grew on his face.
'Your boyfriend, perhaps?'

[Marnie Sullivan]

Well, she'd lied once already.

"Maybe you should be afraid of him," Marnie replied, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest and continued, "He's on the council too and he'll be here soon."

At any rate, simply standing around wasn't getting her anywhere but more and more unnerved. The lights had so far failed to return, and the darkness in the hallway indicated that the problem wasn't exclusive to the council room. As much to put some distance between her and Lucas as to improve visibility, Marnie decided to start with the windows. She strode stiffly across the room, willing her face with each step to return to its normal color. The first set of blinds jerked up easily, allowing light to pour into the room.

[Lucas Blacke]

'Oh well.' Luke sighed. 'Someone as pretty as you pretty much gets a boyfriend with every look.'

So, she had a boyfriend. This changed things. And he'd be in that same room soon. Nice. Lucas tried to conceal a smile.

Marnie started walking across the room while Luke grabbed a chair and sat down at the giant table in the center of the room, contemplating what to do next. He reached for one of the notes nearby and started reading it.

Car wash
Bake sale
Other sales - fruit? calendars? mattresses?
recycling soda cans
Ticket sales - talent show? dunk tank?
Fortune telling
playing Justin Bieber over PA, pay to have it stop

Suggestions. Some of them awesome, like the last one. Shame it was crossed off. Though the first one on the list rang quite the bell with Blacke. He looked over at Marnie as she yanked open the blinds and let in light, the sun was shining and quite heavily.

'So thi-' Halfway his sentence Luke was shot in his face with sunlight and fell backwards in his chair.

'..-s car wash..'
'Ow.'

[Marnie Sullivan]

She was halfway to the second window when she heard the crash of Lucas falling out of his chair.

"Are you okay?" Marnie rushed over, only remembering once she reached the table how unnerved she'd been just moments ago. Now, sprawled on the floor under a ray of sun, the boy was much less intimidating. As she stood over him, Marnie tried and failed to keep a smirk off of her face.

For most people, she wouldn't have hesitated to offer a hand up after a fall like that. Then again, most people didn't give her a reason to hesitate. Marnie did feel a little guilty watching him wince, whether it was from the fall or from the sudden light. Mostly she just enjoyed it.

"You were saying?"

[Lucas Blacke]

Marnie rushed over. Yay. Didn't make it hurt less though. Luke closed his eyes for a moment and tried not to think about the back of his head, it hurt quite a bit and began producing some kind of ringing sound.

'Oh awesome. This is..' He sighed.
'Roll with the punches, ass. You know how.'

He opened his eyes slightly and forced a smile, looking straight at the girl above him just looking in his direction with a smile on her face. Probably a smile of the 'ha ha' variety. Luke had to admit, seeing someone fall over was a funny sight, especially so if he acted like a douche.

He lifted his arm as if to say something and winked at Marnie.
'Did anyone ever tell you you look great from this angle?'

His arm went back down and he tilted his head as he lay stretched out on the ground, kicking the chair away. 'Though you would look much, much better if you were down here with me.'

He coughed as he saw the look on Marnie's face.
'Okay okay. I'll stay down here until your boyfriend gets here.'

Maybe, somewhere far away, he hoped she was lying about having a boyfriend.

[Marnie Sullivan]

If he was implying that he would wait for her imaginary boyfriend to appear, Marnie was in trouble. Or maybe it only meant that he'd fallen for it. Another instance when telepathy would have come in handy.

"No, you don't have to," she said after a pause. Attempting to sound stern, she continued, "But I'm trying to work, okay? If you want to hang out here you have to help."

Technically, Marnie was in no position to be making demands, but the boy seemed to be swallowing her fibs just fine so far. And this wasn't even a lie, really - she didn't say she was allowed to order him around. She just gave an order and hoped he'd follow it. In the best case scenario, they might actually make decent headway on the fundraising issue. If Lucas just continued to horse around, she might be able to turf him from the council room on the pretense of all work and no play.

"Dr. Neville said there's going to be a fundraiser after graduation." Marnie took a seat and grabbed the suggestion box to place it between them. "I wanted to get a head start on planning."

[Lucas Blacke]

So a fundraiser it was. Luke slowly got up from the ground and scratched the back of his head as he grabbed the note that had fallen away from him. He lifted a finger to the air as if to ask something and then pointed at one of the suggestions on the paper. 'This one.'

Lucas plopped back on the ground and folded his legs. It was fun to sit like he did, but at the cost of his right foot as it went numb almost instantly. He tilted his head up and looked at Marnie. 'The car wash one. If we get some hot girls like yourself to do that we'll both be millionaires before the day is up!'

He unfolded his legs as he noticed the look on the face of the girl and got up. Forgetting that his right foot was numb he took one step and tripped forward on his way to the suggestion box. 'Foot!' He yelled as his ankle swiveled under him and he could only barely put his hand on the table for support.

'So. Yes.'
He cleared his throat.
'I had something scribbled down before I got here.'

He reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone. 'Maybe a bit high tech, but it works.'
He smiled as he pretended to browse to his suggestion as he looked up at Marnie.

'Ready?'
He handed the cell over.
It read:

You don't have a boyfriend, do you?