Secret Meetings (Mia)

[Jordan Scholl]

Quite honestly, his even being downtown was a little remarkable. It had only been about a week since Jordan had first arrived at school, and everyone knew to keep an eye on him in case something went wrong. The good news was that his family couldn't keep an eye on him all the time. So, during a free lunch break, he'd slipped away. This involved three vending machines, two vehicles, and eighteen minutes in a bush, but eventually he was out and walking the streets of downtown. Carefully, since he didn't want any responsible adults calling in on a kid who looked too young to be getting out of school this early.

But so long as he kept his head down, no one really even noticed. Don't make any unnecessary stops, don't jaywalk for no reason whatsoever--don't draw attention to yourself. At all. And so he managed to get into Emma's Cafe and get the back corner booth. The one shrouded in shadows where no one really wanted to look and where no one could just peek in the window and see him.

Now all Jordan had to do was wait for this meeting to begin. He smiled as he looked at the menu. Finally, he was doing something on his own, and he expected to have some fun doing it, as well.

[Mia Keystone]

Mia had been staking out Emma's for about two hours so far. She was sitting up the back, her menu high over her face, her trench coat collar popped. Polarised sunglasses hid her face, and an olive green beanie covered her head. She looked a little odd, but her identity was safe. Her mark, (seriously, a kid had emailed her to her school email?) had come in and headed straight for the back booth. The obvious choice.... people always looked in the hidden areas first. She sighed and folded her menu back up. He hadn't been followed.

God, he looked young.

"You're Campbell's nephew?" she asked, as she crossed behind him and sat down opposite. The sunglasses were pushed back, and Mia's scowl was in full view. "Ok, look, I'm not used to people asking me to help me find information. I'm used to people asking me for the info." Sharp eyes looked up and down the young teenager, the scowl still in place. "You're thirteen. Relatively new. Invisibility..." Mia rattled off, tapping her fingers on the tabletop.

"How'd you hear about me so quickly?" To the technopath, monitoring her own reputation had always been highly important. "And I'll have a black coffee, four sugars."

The waitress had arrived.

[Jordan Scholl]

Jordan looked up with surprise as a girl wearing huge sunglasses and a green beanie slid into the booth across from him. He'd known that Mia was a little strange and over-the-top when it came to this kind of thing, but seriously? Didn't she know how ridiculous she looked? She'd be drawing a large amount of attention to herself, which meant it would be impossible for her to stay under the radar. How had she gotten the reputation she already had?

"Yeah, I'm the nephew," Jordan replied. "I like being referred to with a real name, though, instead of like a referral." A part of him wondered how much he was going to be associated with his uncles when he really wanted to be able to prove he could make it on his own. Then again, the connection to his uncles was the reason he was here in the first place.

He waited calmly while she looked him over. He wasn't ready to pitch in with any new information yet. Presumably, if she was as good as she thought she was, she'd already know most of his background, so there was no need for him to speak up. Her, on the other hand, he knew nothing factual about. Only stories handed down through the family.

"How'd I hear about you? Simple. Uncle Chase has a big mouth." Then he turned to the waitress. "I'll take a glass of water and a piece of apple pie." After perusing the menu he had discovered that this was about all he could afford with the cash he had on them. Then he turned back to Mia and made stupid doe eyes.

"So now, where were we?" The waitress left. "Ah yes, I recall." He left off on the doe eyes and sat back in the seat. "Methods. You obviously work under the paranoid assumption that the world is out to get you and so set your efforts on working in the background, never letting your face be shown. I work on the front lines, gathering information as people tend to drop it around haphazardly. I don't even need to be invisible most of the time, I just need to act that way. It's how I found out about you and some of your misadventures, as well as many of the other kids in the school. For me, it's all about connections."

He tried to keep his hands from shaking by placing them on his knees under the table. He could get in so much trouble for what he was trying to pull here. In addition, he was talking mean to one of the older students, who could very easily pummel him into the sidewalk. It was a completely different track from what he had been doing in his old school, which involved not talking to anyone unless he could help it. But then, he got the feeling that this girl would just leave if he acted like he was too chicken to do anything. So he gathered up all of his Bond-style bravado and tried to play it cool. When his water came, though, he grabbed it with sweaty hands and took a long drink before digging into his apple pie.

[Mia Keystone]

He didn’t like her outfit; his reaction was too quick to be rehearsed. It was maybe a bit much and people might have been staring but hey, they would have no idea who they were staring at. Besides, he sure as hell hadn’t noticed her until she spoke. Then he spoke and her eyebrows rose as her eyes iced over. ”Ok, you’re Scholl, first name Jordan, born December 2, 1997 in Arizona. You’re the biological son of James Campbell's younger sister Laura Scholl nee Campbell. You’ve just transferred here from a Catholic school in New York where your father works as an orthodontist. And, as you told me yourself, you have the ability of invisibility. Lesson one by the way; never tell people things like your abilities. Not for free anyway.”

The slight scowl that had been twisting Mia’s lips faded at the mention of Chase and she laughed sharply. It had been a few years since she’d loudly announced to his face that he Campbell’s jedi wife she’d been looking for, before choosing to bail out of the nearest window. Some things stayed in the memory. Still, her laughter was shortened by Jordon’s expression, and as he talked the scowl came back with new force, one eyebrow rising.

Mia always liked a bit of pluck, but he was touching on some personal shit there. She did not need some mouthy 13 year old brat thinking he had her all figured out. He finished, and Mia was about to unleash a few choice comments about his mother, his face and his ideas when the waitress returned with their drinks. His hands were shaking slightly as he took the glass, and his pupils were slightly dilated. The kid was scared. The tiny technopath paused for a moment, then smirked and shook her head. ”Nice speech, kid. You practice that in front of a mirror?” Picking up the little sachets of sugar, Mia added six to her coffee and began stirring.

”First thing’s first. You’ve got guts, dude. Not many people talk to me like that, least of all kids who’ve just discovered puberty. But get your facts straight; I do field work. That’s where your ideas get interesting...” Tapping the teaspoon against her lip rings, Mia stared hard at Jordon, her mind ticking over. The conversation was being recorded of course; she’d grab a photo or two for her files soon as well. ”As you might have realized, most people know about me. More as an information broker then anything else, but still, it’s enough to set people on edge.” her expression hardened for a moment. ”I don’t get kids to do field missions for collection, but you’d be very useful in planting bugs. Now,” with ease, Mia slipped on a comfortable expression and lent back, still sipping at the strong, sweet coffee. ”What do you want from me?”

It was impossible that he’d just wanted to help for interest’s sake, and if that was the case, it was just one more lesson he needed to learn. Nothing was ever given for free.

[Jordan Scholl]

Jordan waited while Mia spat out recorded information she'd apparently picked up from a file somewhere. At the end of her spiel, he looked at her carefully. "I didn't tell you my power for free. It was payment for trying to get this meeting with you. Because if you didn't think I could be of use to you, you wouldn't have agreed to meet me at all."

When he watched Mia mix the sugars into her coffee, he made a mental note. Ten sugars, no milk. Any information might be useful someday.

"Not in front of a mirror, exactly," he said with a careful smile. "But suffice to say it was rehearsed." When confronted, he wasn't able to hold his ground and easily backed down in favor of the older, more experienced person. Still, he'd managed to get her attention at least, and that had to count for something. And he wasn't dead yet. Also a good sign.

When she mentioned that he might be able to help, he sat up straight. His half-eaten slice of pie was left abandoned and pushed to the side.

"Planting bugs, huh? I guess I could work with that." He'd been hoping for something more interesting, but everyone had to start somewhere. Eventually he might be able to build up.

"What do I want?" It stopped Jordan. What did he actually want? It wasn't like there was a specific piece of information he wanted, or anything like that. So instead he went with the first thing that came to mind.

"A chance. I just want a chance to prove that I can do something, be someone. And maybe make some friends of my own. Plus, I think you have some good experience with this that I'm hoping to learn from." It was a mixture of truth and sucking up, with hopefully not so much sap that it would make her leave immediately. Jordan stuck his left hand under the table and crossed his fingers for luck.

[Mia Keystone]

Mia’s smile was close to predatory. ”Well thought out, and a pretty accurate assumption” she granted, sipping at her coffee. ”Next time, try and keep something back. A hook. Still, I’m here and I’m listening.” Well, she would be for a while. He had about two minutes tops to get her interested before she left, and left him the bill.

He was eager; sharp eyes took in how quickly he looked up when she threw him the possibility of helping. ”It’s not a game,” she said quickly, mouth tugged into a slight scowl. The last few weeks had made that very clear. Man, if it got back to security that she was recruiting kids, or that kids wanted to be recruited, she’d be getting a few more visits from her favorite head of security and she doubted it would go nearly as well this time as it had the last.

“First thing’s first,” Mia absently scratched at the tattoo on her wrist. ”Details. You say you can use invisibility. I need more. How well trained are your powers? How long can you hold invisibility for? Would you show up on security cameras?” He was young, but she wasn’t going to hold back on her questions. If she’d learnt anything about the other students and their abilities , it was that it was never the same from person to person.

Then, at his speech, Mia’s eyes rolled with distain and she shook her head. ”You want to make friends, join the newspaper. You do this and people talk to you when they want something, not because they're your friends.” She didn’t miss the hand under the table, but she didn’t care enough to wonder what it was. ”But look, you want to help out, do you expect a cut?” He’d have to know Mia didn’t operate for free, not for anyone. ”Besides,” she looked at him curiously, ”who’re you trying to prove this to?”. He didn’t look like the type to want to go into ‘private investigation’.

[Jordan Scholl]

Jordan noted the advice about holding back some information and filed it away for a later time. It was something to walk away from this meeting with, even if nothing else went right.

"I get that spy work isn't a game, and that it's not all glamour and crap like they show on TV. But at least you're doing something, which is more than can be said for most people." He stumbled on the last word, almost specifying "kids," but decided at the last moment that it wouldn't be advantageous to his strategy.

As far as the questioning on his powers, Jordan actually knew basically nothing. It wasn't like he'd been working on this for very long. But he also figured that kind of answer wouldn't cut it with Mia. So he improvised. "I just started working on training my powers, but I've already figured out what makes it come and go." A lie. "Sort of." Better. "Mostly I think it happens when I get scared or something, and then it lasts for a few minutes usually. Enough time to get in and out of a place. And it's so fast that only a high-speed camera would see it, not any of those cheap little security cameras." Fact. This was one of the first tests he'd done, and if none of the cameras he'd found had been able to pick him up, it was going to take something a little stronger. Chances were though that a good enough machine would still see him. "My heat signature is still there, so if it were any kind of camera other than visible I'd be ousted." Better to get all the bad stuff out there so it couldn't come back to bite him in the butt. He decided, though, not to say everything he knew about his power yet. He was supposed to be keeping stuff back, anyway.

"It's not just anyone I want to make friends with, you know," he muttered. "Why would I want to hang around with a bunch of idiots like the newspaper group when all the cool people know better than to join clubs?" This was not to say that he was ruling out clubs entirely. Merely that they were Plan B.

When she mentioned a cut, Jordan's brain went into overdrive. Was he supposed to say yes? Would she not take him seriously otherwise? Should he say no, since he was just asking to help anyway? "If I do get paid, it would only be for jobs that I helped with, and based on a fee according to what kind of jobs I do." That should be safe enough. "Each bug planted will be a different price, and hard-to-get-to locations would be extra." Fair. And enough to show that he was vaguely business-minded. What did she expect, though? He was only thirteen.

"Prove what to?" he asked innocently. "I'm not trying to prove anything." She didn't need to know his reasons. Especially since he wasn't sure what they all were himself.

The waitress returned. "Check," she said, leaving one ticket on the table.

Jordan eyed it warily while it still rested on the table, mentally counting the money he had in his wallet. It wasn't his until he picked it up. "Can you cover tip?" he asked slowly. "And I'll need another fifty cents if you want me to get this."

[OOC: Sorry this took so long to post.]

[Mia Keystone]

Yeah, but I do it for me, Mia thought, but she just nodded sagely, like he had just uttered words of deep wisdom. It was, in the very least, doing amazing things for her ego. She was being... looked up to. After spending years at school with people firstly having a go at her, then when they realized that was a terrible idea, staying away from her. And the little kids? They all seemed to make sure there was at least a 20 foot radius around her at all times.

Without looking away from Jordon, Mia grabbed her phone and started making notes. Lasts a few minutes, fear main trigger (could be tricky), can be seen on high speed cameras, will show up with heat, radar...With a slight frown, Mia’s free hand tapped on the table as her mouth twisted. ”So you need to be scared? I mean,” her smile turned a little dark, ”we can work with that. But might be easier if it was just an accelerated heart rate though.”

His comment about clubs was met with only a sneer, showing just what Mia thought of newspaper clubs, and that stupid photography club with that stupid perky blonde who’d asked her to join when she’d come here as a 14 year old. ”Fair enough.”

Watching him panic over prices was mildly amusing; he was way out of his comfort zone. ”Not all jobs are paid, but yeah, that sounds right. I’ll judge difficult level and the like. You know,” with a smirk the girl ran a hand back through her hair, ”You’re pretty on top of all this, you know,” she said mildly, with a hint of mockery. Sure she liked that the kid was level headed, but she wasn’t going to let him think she actually had much respect for him.

Still, when the check came and he was clearly panicking and calculating and wondering if she’d leave it to him to play, she flicked out a ten and shook her head. ”Naw, I’ll cover this. You can owe me,” She winked, and stood up, flicking her glasses back down and pulling her beanie over her ears. ”It was pretty cool meeting you. I’ll be,” a slight pause, then a wide, somewhat unsettling smile, “I’ll be in touch.”

Despite her rather... outlandish outfit, Mia made a good job of disappearing from view among the other cafe-goers as she stuffed her hands in her pockets, slide outside, and like someone with a few screws loose started chuckling to herself.

[Jordan Scholl]

"I don't know about the accelerated heart rate, but I think it might need to be more than that. I don't go invisible when I run up a flight of stairs, anyway." Honestly, he was fairly certain it came with some sort of adrenaline rush. There was no way to be sure that was it, though, and he'd rather not go experimenting without some trained professional around. He'd heard enough horror stories.

When he managed to get through the question about getting payment he said a silent prayer of relief. So far, no death or threats, and she almost complimented him. Kind of. "Thanks, I suppose," he murmured. Better to still defer to the older and wiser student. The one who had the power to destroy his life at school.

"I'm not so sure I want to--" owe you... he wanted to say, but she was already continuing the conversation and leaving. "Yeah, I guess I'll..." And she was gone.

Jordan sat back in the seat and let out a deep breath. He'd done it. Made someone who was not really a friend but could at least be considered someone who he went out of his way to meet. Which was saying something. Not only that, if he managed to pull this off right, he might get a little more respect at school. Not like he was being picked on, but it would be nice to have some sort of claim to power or fame.

"I've got to come up with a reason for us to legitimately meet," he said to himself. "And, of course the obvious. Getting back." He looked around the restaurant and inched his way toward the door, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. He managed to make it outside and was on his way up the street when it finally hit him.

"What is Uncle Chase going to do when he finds out I got off school grounds without permission?" He raced up the street and on up toward the school. By the time he reached the gate he was so nervous that he could feel himself starting to shake. Once he was close enough to be seen by anyone or picked up by any of the security cameras, he was invisible. He darted back onto school grounds and waited on the lawn for the jitters to clear away. Home, safe and sound, and hopefully with no one the wiser. After a quick look around, he headed toward his next class.