Ripped Jeans -open-

[Ann Hudgins]

She wasn't on the Hammel campus, which was a rare thing for her. People outside the school tended to have a completely different spectrum of emotions and feelings, and while she morbidly wanted a change in the record, she also didn't want to deal with any road rage. So she had more or less ran the entire distance from the school to the mall. She was clothed in a thin sheet of sweat and her chest was heaving by the time she arrived. She probably should work out more. If her parents hadn't hated her guts for being meta, then they would be disappointed that she couldn't run a few miles without feeling winded.

She leaned against the wall next to the doors to catch her breath before she pushed her way through the heavy glass doors. It was busier than she thought it was going to be, but she realized belatedly that it was Saturday, so of course there would be people at the mall. She was an idiot. She slid her hands into her pants pockets and looked around. Her shoes had finally ripped through so she needed to procure another pair, and she needed at least two pairs of pants because of the holes she had ripped in them last week. (some fight had been going on and she got bumped into by one of the participants and she had gotten pushed and skinned holes in both the knees.)

She let out a sigh as she weaved her way through the bubbly traffic. It was a good thing that everyone seemed to be feeling extremely happy, or at least content, so she was feeling generally good about this decision. She found Journey's soon enough (she hadn't been inside the mall enough to actually remember where the damn stores she shopped at were) and went straight to the wall of shoes and located her pair of size men's six black high top converse. She didn't even need to try them on, because she knew they were her size. She put the shoes on the counter and tried not to look hateful at the stressing cashier. Some personal business went a-foul sometime earlier in the day and the guy was doing his best to smile. So she decided to be gracious and even told him to have a good day after she started to walk away.

She pocketed what money she had left over (she finally got a package from her aunt a few months ago with something close to six hundred dollars, because of her birthday), and started to move through the crowd, her eyes were peeled for an acceptable pant store like Wet Seal or something, when her eyes spied a Dipping Dots vending machine. She made a beeline there and waited in line, her eyes fixed intently upon the Oreo Cookies and Cream selection.

In coming to the mall, she actually had an ulterior motive; she'd thought a long time about what Dr. Neville had told her, and while she was still hesitant to take up more of his time--because he was probably a very busy man, with very little downtime-- she wanted to get more help from him. But she knew she needed to do things on her own, as well. So here she was, trying to make a friend. How ridiculous, right? Ann was a broken human, she was very certain she wasn't capable of it anymore, but she was still motivated and wanted to try. The person in front of her walked away with their cold treat and then it was Ann's turn.

She put a five dollar bill into the slot and selected her favorite flavor and waited for the machine to give it to her. In the meantime, she gnawed her lip and tried to locate any students that were prowling around.

[Devin Sykes]

Devin had been on a mission.
She wasn't really a 'mall' sort of person, or if she was she was more like the boys, hanging around the arcade or something, and she hated shopping if she could help it.
Unfortunately she couldn't help it, she'd lost her last pair of jeans to an unfortunately timed change and she needed some new ones, so she intended to be in and out in thirty seconds with a new pair of jeans or two in hand, and all would be well.

But it was Saturday, and the place was packed, and she really didn't want to go dodging around through people like she was in a hurry just because she didn't enjoy shopping. So she'd chilled out about it and decided to take the relaxed approach. After all, just because the mall was full of preppy teens clamouring for the latest style - eugh - didn't mean it was necessarily a bad place, right?

Plus she had a bit of spending money and, well, why shouldn't she treat herself? A book of poetry maybe, some more film for the ancient camera she used for her 'arty' photography, or... there. Ice cream.
That was definitely a good place to start, so she joined the line for the vending machine and dug through her pockets for some change.

[Ann Hudgins]

She watched on the tip of her toes as the vacuum thing went inside the ice machine to get her treat that cost her $3.75. There was a beeping sound and the vacuum came back up, but without a small tub of dotty ice cream. Her brows furrowed together and she jabbed another button on the machine. "C'mon..." She muttered to the machine. She just wanted the treat to relax herself, so she didn't have the entire mall hating everyone around them. She moved anxiously from one foot to the other as the mechanical arm came back up empty handed. She smacked the side of the machine in frustration. How could the damn thing be empty? It was a vending machine! They were never supposed to be empty!

She jabbed another button and chewed her thumb nail as she watched it come back up again. Empty. Again. "You gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me." She smacked both palms on the glass window and resisted the urge to rock the machine. She knew that wouldn't make the Dippin' Dots actually show up, by some sort of magic. She let out a disgruntled urrrgh and jabbed the coin return button and snatched her five back from the money slot and turned to leave but froze in motion as she almost smacked foreheads with the girl behind her.

As much as she didn't like to be rude--knocking into people was considered rude, right? (right.)--she absolutely, under any and every circumstance, could not make skin contact. She immediately took a step backwards and smacked into the machine. Her cheeks flared faintly in embarrassment. "The uhm...the machine is empty." She said, her shock of almost knocking into her still had her heart parading inside her chest cavity.

[Devin Sykes]

Devin couldn't help share at least a tiny bit of frustration with the girl in front of her when the machine turned out to be empty, given that it made her queuing entirely pointless and, well, who doesn't feel just the tiniest surge of disappointment when the promise of icy treats does not come to fruition?

It dissipated when the girl nearly bumped right into her, the flush of embarrassment on Ann's cheeks immediately distracting her. She smiled with an easy shrug.
"Damn, and I was really looking forward to it. Are you ok?" She asked, hoping she hadn't banged into the machine too hard. She should have noticed the girl turning and stepped back, so she felt a tiny bit guilty for causing her to bump into it.

[Ann Hudgins]

Ann was the sort to get discouraged at the first sign of adversity, and an entire vending machine being empty was a large slap in the face. She didn't even want to bother with the pants anymore. She just wanted to go back to her dorm and pretend she didn't think she could change her circumstance. Pathetic, right? She closed her eyes and told herself that it really wasn't that big of a deal, and that there was probably a machine just like this one somewhere else in the mall that actually had something in it...totally.

She laughed a little when the girl asked if she was ok. In what manner did she mean? Physically, mentally, religiously, narratively, psychologically, etc. Ann went with the obvious, but this girl could also be a mind reader. There seemed to be a lot of those around the Pilot Ridge area. She moved her hair behind her shoulders and shrugged it off, though she was still shaken up about almost touching. It was just something she couldn't go through. "I'm fine." She replied quickly, not liking the idea of this girl giving her attention. "No permanent or semi permanent damage at all," she rambled, which was a good sign that she had absolutely no idea what she was doing with talking.

She glanced left and right, not really knowing exactly what-the-hell to do so she took a step to the side. "Uhm...bye then." She walked away then with her purchase slapping into her leg. She glanced around the mall, carefully judging the signs above each archway and decided that one store would have the jeans she was looking for. She walked in and was surprised by the heavy smell of denim and warehouse. This store only sold pants.

Score.

She looked about the isles until she landed on her size 3 section and started sorting through the pants. Her favorite thing about new things like this was that they didn't hold any old emotions, she she didn't get anything by touching them, though of course she got the occasional distaste because of a previous person not liking the pants, or not being able to afford them.

[Devin Sykes]

Devin just nodded when the girl said she was fine, lifting her hand in a little wave to bid farewell. For a moment, she almost stepped forward to buy the icecream, then remembered why she'd had to talk to the girl in the first place and sighed, dropping her money back into her pocket and turning away.
Maybe she'd go over to the foodcourt later and see if they had any tasty treats on offer there.

For now though, she'd go back on that mission and see if she couldn't get what she came for. Granted she wasn't exactly about to go all a-team on the issue, she was sticking to her newer plan of a slightly more chilled out mission, so she'd just take a stroll until she saw a suitable store, but still, the focus of the day was more jeans.
Preferably in a store that wasn't full of fashion conscious brats, but that might have just been a pipe dream in a mall on Saturday.

Finally she reached a store that was close enough - the sort of girl she wanted to avoid would probably be hanging around designer stores, there were very few willing to sort through all the jeans this place had to offer just to find the right ones, which made it perfect for Devin. A more relaxed search suited her just fine as well.

She was browsing through the aisles when she saw a familiar face, and being the friendly sort of person she was, she offered Ann a little wave.
"Long time no see." she joked.

[Ann Hudgins]

Either the pockets were bedazzled or the pant legs were for chickens.

Ann was about to give up. She was pretty sure she looked at every single size three in the store before she decided on a pair of low rise dark was jeans, that didn't have any freaking jewels on the freaking pockets. She held them up and crossed her hands so she could look at the back when someone spoke nearby. She lowered the pants to look around and when she saw a blond girl waving at her, she looked...shocked.

"Uhm, what?" She asked. Long time no see? She skipped through her memory trying to locate the blond's face or at least her essence but she couldn't remember her. Then all at once she remembered the not five-minutes ago scene in front of the Dippin' Dots machine. She could have smacked herself on the forehead. "Oh! Hey." She mumbled, lowering the pants down to her hips and looking at herself in the wall mirror. They would be fine. If only she could find another pair that wasn't absolutely horrible.

She looked around before she looked back at the girl, then around again. "So...pants?" She asked, the idea of impaling herself on something sharp began to look like a good idea. "Why can't they just make a simple pair of pants anymore. It's either got paint on it, holes in it, or too tight to sit down...." She rambled shuffling through a stack of folded pants.

[Devin Sykes]

For a minute, Devin wondered if she'd said completely the wrong thing, or if her own particular brand of humour was just way off with this girl, because she looked completely confused.
Attempt at a joke successfully failed, Devin was at least glad when the other girl worked out who the hell she was, and she smiled a little awkwardly before turning to look at the jeans.

So, things Devin wasn't always so good at, making friends in malls, apparently. It wasn't that she completely failed at friends, she had a few, but clearly not everybody was tuned into her frequency... or were they?
Devin was a little surprised when Ann started talking again, given how flat her previous attempt at friendliness had fallen, but perhaps she could see that Devin was at least trying - or perhaps Ann was the socially awkward one.
Either way it gave Devin the cue she needed to keep trying. She was more than confident enough, she just dropped back a little when her attempts weren't working.

"I know right?" She laughed, definitely automatically approving of that significantly anti-fashion attitude "Some stick-figure model accidentally wears a hideous pair of ripped up jeans from the 80s and suddenly everybody's 'oh my god got to have them'." She rolled her eyes

[Ann Hudgins]

Ann could feel that the girl felt a little taken aback by Ann's first reaction and for that, she felt bad. "Sorry...I'm not really that observant." She admitted honestly, though after she said it, she didn't really know why she said it. It really didn't make that much of sense, but it did in her head...before she spoke. She sighed and rested her forehead against the metal pole that held up a nearly empty rack of pants. She drew in a few calming breaths. It's not all bad.

She looked up when the girl carried on what she was saying. She nodded her head in agreement a few times. "And why-the-fuck would anyone wanna dress like a half-starved and cracked up chick like that? It's just not comfortable." Ann truly was her mother's child, no matter how much she hated the woman now she was raised by her, and shared a lot of her opinions. Fashion was one of the things the two had never fought on. Ann like simple colors and designs, and comfort. Ann's mother liked cheap thrift stores and department stores.

"Do...do you go to Hammel?" She asked, hesitantly only because she didn't want this girl to turn out to be some anti-meta. Because that would suck. She shifted on her feet for a moment when a pair caught her eyes, but the freakin' pockets were bedazzled. She shoved them to the side. "Figures." She muttered to herself.

[Devin Sykes]

"Hey it's no problem, I shouldn't make lame jokes." Devin told her with a chuckle, waving a hand to dismiss the apology. Devin could be stubborn, ridiculously so, but when it came to making new friends, unless they hit one of her definite pet peeves, she was usually quick to forgive and forget, it made things so much easier.
Besides, with her sarcastic ways, sometimes she needed people to forgive and forget with her, so it was best that she did it for them too.

"Amen to that." She agreed sincerely "I don't even understand sacrificing comfort to look good, so I really really don't get them sacrificing comfort to look that ridiculous." she rolled her eyes.

Devin looked up at Ann when she asked the question, trying to figure out the reason for her hesitancy - was she worried Devin did go there, or that she didn't? Hard to tell, but Devin wasn't the type to back away from who she was, so while her tone was a little guarded as she spoke, she nodded.
"Yea, I do."

[Ann Hudgins]

Thinking back on it, it wasn't lame at all, but actually comical because it was odd that in out of all the stores in the mall, they both ended up going to this one after the bastard ice cream vending machine. Ann shrugged her shoulders at the matter and looked back at some of the pants, after she found one that didn't have any designs she pulled it off the rack and held it to her hips, looking down at them. At the girl's words, she snorted and nodded.

"Too true." She rolled her eyes along with the girl, "And just how does a pair of jeans ruined by paint with holes in them cost more than a clean and unruined pair?" She lifted the pair she had been looking at and decided they would be the best she would find with everything else in style. She folded them over her arm like the other pair.

Ann heard the guarded tone and wondered exactly why the girl thought so. Then she realized the rest of the implications one would ask that question. Ann laughed awkwardly. "Me too. I'm a senior..." Not that that meant shit. She certainly wasn't going anywhere at the end of the year. Her powers were still out of control.

"I'm...an empath." She said it more like a question as she looked over some more jeans. "You?"

[Devin Sykes]

"I know!" Devin laughed "I guess we shouldn't complain though, it means we don't have to pay an arm and a leg for the jeans that actually look ok, right?"
Silver lining to every cloud and all that, she considered as she started rifling through the jeans herself, eventually also finding a pair that wasn't nearly as ripped or spangly as the others. They had a little bit of embroidered decoration on them, but as long as it didn't look too ridiculous, Devin didn't really mind. Besides, the cut was almost exactly the same as her last pair of jeans, and she knew that suited her.

As she dug out a couple of pairs of the same design, she watched Ann out the corner of her eye, waiting to see whether her reaction was positive or negative, and trying not to be too obvious about her relief when Ann said she went to Hammel as well.

"Shapeshifter." She answered the question simply, grinning a little "And I'm a senior too."

[Ann Hudgins]

Ann really knew the cost of a penny. For her entire high school career she had been wearing the same clothes she brought with her from her home in North Carolina. She had had no money, no allowance, and no job since being a freshmen and half of her shirts had armpit holes and almost all of her pants were wore down at the ankles and almost thread bare. She probably would still be down two pair of pants if her aunt hadn't sent her all that money for her birthday. It made her wallet heavy, something Ann was not used to. She inspected the tags and the prices upon them and she blanched a little at the price of them. Fifteen dollars, plus tax, per pair of pants. Somewhere deep inside her memory, she new that was actually pretty cheap. But all she could focus on was that after she purchased the pants, she'd be out thirty-some odd dollars.

She rung her hands on one of the denim legs and looked back at the girl. "That's odd," she mumbled, more to herself than the girl. "That we don't know each other, from, you know....somewhere." Surely they had a class together in the past, right?.....Of course for the longest time Ann was as antisocial as they came and never, ever, ever socialized with any of her peers. Not even her lab partners.

Ok, so maybe it wasn't that odd that they didn't know each other--or at least Ann wouldn't know the girl. "I'm Ann." She said with a small tilt of her head towards the girl, a tiny smile on her face. She could learn to know this girl, right? That was her alterior motive to shopping in the first place, wasn't it?

[Devin Sykes]

"...Yea..." Devin agreed, somewhat skittishly. "It's a surprise we haven't really run into each other at all."
Not even realising that Ann might be blaming her own anti-social tendencies, Devin probably thought that any lack of meeting was probably due to her - after all, it was hard to meet new people when you were skipping out on classes and spending your nights drinking, dancing and... other. Ann didn't look like the sort of person Devin might've run into during that time - which actually, she considered, brightening up, was exactly why she should get to know her now. The more people she got to know who were nothing like, well, her (or how she had been, at any rate), the better it would be.

"Devin." She introduced herself with a sunny smile "Nice to meet you, Ann."

[Ann Hudgins]

From the girl's almost hesitant reply, Ann figured this girl didn't do socialwork either....or maybe it was something else. Whatever it was, Ann wasn't experienced or cunning enough to figure it out just by looking at her. Though what she had gathered, was that she was pretty cool, which was just basing what she knew about her choice in clothing and treats. You can never go wrong with Dippin' Dots, after all. She smiled a little.

Nice to meet you, Ann. ...What an odd thing for her to say, in Ann's opinion. She was so awkward and lame, she was actually surprised the girl hadn't ended the conversation already. But whatever, she'd roll with it only because she selfishly wanted to keep trying this socializing thing. "Nice to meet you too, Devin." She said with a small smile. She was pretty much done shopping. She had her new shoes on her arm, and she knew her pant size perfectly to know she didn't have to try on these the pairs of pants she had picked out. She glanced down at her arm and then back up at her. "Uhm..."

Whattodo? System failure, abort abort.

She nearly rolled her eyes at herself, she was definitely overreacting. She could still peruse the store to see the most ridiculous thing she could find was. She rubbed her chin as she moved through the aisles, each pair getting weirder and more distasteful than the next. "Uh, so yeah...'' Oh! That's right, she could ask a question, that was appropriate, right? "What sort of things can you shape shift into?" She asked, and hoped she didn't sound so desperate. She was really reeling here, though.