Spies and Fries (Jean, Open)

[Ginny Campbell]

The Staff Lounge was probably not the best place for Ginny to be hiding out. She wasn't a student (well, not at Hammel, anyway) but she also wasn't staff, and she was currently in the company of one Jean Manne. It hadn't taken much convincing for him to join her; all she'd had to do was ask if he wanted to play spies, and who were more fun to spy on than teachers? It didn't matter that they weren't her teachers; they still were authority figures and thus naturally the first people who came to mind when she was trying to decide who to spy on. No, the Staff Lounge was undoubtedly a bad place for her to be.

She and Jean had grabbed lunch (Wendy's, because shakes and fries were the best lunch) and hunkered down behind a couch, waiting for staff to venture in. Unlike her bouts with Mia this wasn't spying for any particular purpose; no, this was spying solely for the joy of getting away with something, however temporary.

She grabbed a fry, grinning over at the boy beside her. "Man, can't believe nobody's come in yet." She whispered, dipping the fry in the pile of ketchup she'd squeezed onto the foil wrapper her burger had come in. "Hammel staff must actually work or something. Crazy."

She made a sweeping gesture at their food before adding, "Good thing we got lunch first, we might've starved to death before anyone came otherwise." She giggled, peering up over the edge of the sofa. Nope, still nobody there. Unsurprising, of course, since she hadn't heard anyone, but with meta-humans you never really knew.

[Jean Manne]

This was the best day ever. Ginny had been away for a while—probably taking care of finals or something like that—but now she was back and had presented him with probably the best idea in the world. They were going to go spying in the teacher’s lounge. The way Jean figured, it was okay for him to be in here because Ginny let him in, and she was an adult enough to allow this sort of thing. Even though she didn’t act like any adult he’d ever met. But that was okay, because she seemed to know what she was doing. So with all that in mind, there was really no way for Jean to say no.

They’d even gone to get fast food as well. And what twelve-year-old didn’t like burgers and fries? Crazy ones, that’s who. At least in Jean’s opinion. Taking a large bite of his hamburger, Jean nodded, looking over from behind the sofa where they were sitting, “I don’ know.” He mumbled through his mouthful of food, “Vey mush be workin’ yeah.” Jean was a classy little boy. Very classy.

“Mmnn.” Jean nodded, swallowing, “Me too, I was hungry.” He peeked up over the couch again, “I wonder how long we’ll have to sit here.” Maybe they would have to sit here for hours. That would be hard. But that was what real spies had to do sometimes.

“Have you ever been in here before?” Jean asked, “I haven’t. It’s not as awesome as I thought it’d be.” Really, it was just a room with some chairs, a couch and a microwave. Totally boring.

[Ginny Campbell]

"Maybe all day long," Ginny suggested between bites of her own burger. There was no way they would get their burgers confused, not when she'd loaded up on tomatoes and onions while Jean had kept to condiments, lettuce and pickles. "Then we'll have to sneak out past security." She had no doubts that Mia would have some way to deal with security, but she wasn't Mia. She couldn't talk to computers. She could, however, always point out that she was James Campbell's daughter and had every right to be on campus. So maybe when she'd gotten a visitor's pass they hadn't expected her to stay until midnight....so she was hoping some faculty would show up before then so that she and Jean could properly spy.

"Yeah, I have been." That was one of the perks of being the daughter of staff. Granted, she'd only been in the staff lounge previously when accompanied by her father, but she wasn't about to let a little detail like that stop her. "Yeah, it isn't that great. You'd think the teachers would have better perks, right? But," She pointed out, pausing to take a swig of her strawberry shake, "they do have a vending machine. That's pretty awesome, I gotta say. And the coffee machine looks...." She peered over at what looked to be an ancient, decrepit and thoroughly coffee-stained machine. "like it exists. So bonus points for cool machinery."

She pulled out another packet of ketchup, ripping off the ends with her teeth before squirting at her foil. Most of the ketchup splattered on the back of the sofa.

"...oops."

[Jean Manne]

“Hmm…” Jean considered this. “Well, that’s the danger of being a spy, huh? We could do it. You’re like an adult, that should count for something.” Jean frequently (read: always) forgot that the Campbell in Ginny Campbell meant she was Mr. Campbell’s daughter and the general advantages that could entail. Either way, it was more fun with a bit of risk, so Jean wasn’t too troubled. Besides, he didn’t really think he’d get into any major kind of trouble. It wasn’t as though they were hurting anything! They were just having some fun. Besides, Ginny didn’t even go to school here. How were they gonna punish her? That wouldn’t be fair at all.

“I know.” Jean munched on a handful of fries, “Like, I always thought there would be TV’s or something. Maybe some supercomputers.” After all, these were metahuman teachers. Why wouldn’t they have super cool secret technology?

When Ginny spilled ketchup all over the back of the couch, Jean started snickering (not giggling, though. He wasn’t a little girl). “It looks like we killed someone back here.” He tried rubbing the ketchup away with his hand, but he just ended up smearing it everywhere and making it worse. “…Ooops.” He snickered again, “Maybe no one will notice?” How many people looked back here anyways?

[Ginny Campbell]

"That's true. Being a spy is all sorts of dangerous." Ginny agreed, pleased beyond words at Jean's casual acceptance of her adulthood. Most other adults did not, in fact, include her among them, which was irksome. She was 18! She could do all sorts of things now, in the eyes of the law. Not everything (hi, car rentals) but a lot and she thought she was pretty mature. At least Jean agreed with her.

"....that is a really good point!" She mused, poking her head back over the couch to scan the room. Nope. No TV's or supercomputers anywhere in sight. "Maybe there's another, hidden room." She suggested, ducking back down and returning to her burger. "That would explain why there's nobody in here. We should try and look for the entrance." She took a bite of her sandwich, chewing thoughtfully. "We'll have to be careful, it's probably booby trapped."

She grabbed a fistful of yellow paper napkins and began dabbing at the ketchup spill, but to no avail. "It does look like we killed someone." It would be easy enough to discover that this was ketchup and not blood, but initial appearances would be shocking. "Yeah, I'll bet they won't." She conceded, giving up on trying to clean up and dropping the wad of napkins in the paper to-go bag the food had come in. "Except maybe the janitors, but I'll bet they're used to all sorts of weird messes."

[Jean Manne]

Jean looked about the room, attention re-piqued at the possibility of secret rooms. “Maybe!” He looked up at Ginny, “Where do you think they’d hide it?” Clearly it wouldn’t be immediately obvious, but maybe Ginny had some idea. Hammel was starting to be more like Hogwarts than Jean had initially thought. Which wasn’t a bad thing at all! “Yeah… it’ll be like Indiana Jones or something.” He really liked those movies. Even though the James Bond movies were better, “Though I don’t think they’d have a giant rock or anything.”

“Ewww…” Jean made a face, thinking of all the weird messes janitors must have to clean up, “That’s true. Gross.”

[Ginny Campbell]

"Dunno," Ginny crumpled up her foil wrapper, dropping it on top of the napkins. "Let's see if we can find it!"

She stood, shake in hand, scouring the room for a place that looked like it might be hiding a secret door. "...I think the vending machine looks door-sized, what do you think?"

She crossed the room, leaving her trash behind the couch for the janitors to find, stopping before the vending machine. "If I were a hidden door, how would I open?" She mused, placing one hand on the plastic case and staring intently at the snack food choices available for staff. Apparently the battle against obesity hadn't yet made it to Hammel's staff lounge. Then again, she had yet to meet an obese meta-human, so maybe they could get away with eating trans fats and sugar.

[Jean Manne]

"Okay!" Jean jumped up after Ginny, opting instead to throw his trash in the little receptacle. He looked around the staff lounge, trying to think about all the movies he'd seen and where things would be, if this were a spy movie. Things had to work like that, right?

The vending machine was a good idea. Jean peeked around back, peering through the wires and dust and other gross things to see if there was any incriminating evidence of a secret passage. He took a step back, making a considering face, "Well... what if it's like in Tron? Y'know the part where the arcade game moves 'cause the guy pushes it? Maybe we should push it." Without further ado, Jean began pushing at the vending machine with all the weight in his little body. Which...wasn't much, really.

"What do you think we'll find, if there is a door behind this?" Jean asked, straining. Ginny was the experienced one here, after all. She must have some idea.

[Ginny Campbell]

"Probably the supercomputers." Ginny mused in answer to Jean's question. "And the staff. They have to all be somewhere, and they aren't here. But if they're in their secret room with supercomputers then they probably know we're out here trying to get in, so they'll make it really difficult for us."

She watched the boy struggling to move the vending machine for a moment before placing her shake on the counter beside the microwave. She skipped over beside him, reaching over his head to join in pushing, but she was a runner, not a weight-lifter and her own upper body strength was negligible. "Hunh." She grunted after a moment. "It's not working. Maybe there's some secret button or code or something. Or...maybe you have to actually buy a specific snack in order for it to move."

She stopped pushing and went around to peruse the snacks. "Whadda you think is most likely to open the secret door?" What she meant, of course, was is there something you would like, because we clearly haven't eaten enough unhealthy food with the burger, fries and shakes. "We might have to try multiple choices if the first one doesn't open it." She added, fishing around her pocket for change.

[Ella Tate]

Paperwork. That was the brunt of her work and Ella didn't quite like it. No scratch that, she hated it. She heard something about Stephen Gage, one of the older recruiters who got to get away to another country to get more recruits and to train other recruiters. Ella was obviously jealous of the older man.

At least he didn't have to do his paperwork.

Spinning in her chair, Ella looked at the clock and grumbled at the time. Lunch was in half an hour but she was bored now. So abandoning her paperwork, she grabbed her bottle of water and went to the staff lounge. It was empty save for two kids. Kids who were obviously not supposed to be there.

"There are snack machines in the student lounge and the cafeteria aren't there?" she asked, leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. A smirk on her lips indicated she was nowhere near reprimanding the two. How they even got in without anybody noticing, Ella had no idea.

[OOC: bwahahaha I'm totes inserting myself in here ^^]

[Jean Manne]

“Wo-ow.” Jean breathed as Ginny gave her expert opinion, “How do you know all this stuff?” He supposed Ginny learned it all in college, which clearly taught you all the important stuff, like how to spy and where to make the best snow forts. Not to mention helping you find a job so you could buy tasty food. Man, college sounded awesome. But clearly college didn’t lend you any type of super-strength, because despite both their efforts, Ginny and Jean were unable to move the candy dispenser.

“Oh, that makes sense.” Jean squinted at the machine, trying to decide what he wanted, “Hm… well, it would have to be something that not just anybody would buy, that way, you don’t just press it by accident…” Jean’s ruminations, however, were interrupted, by another voice sounding out behind him. Jean jumped about a foot in the air and whipped around, bumping into Ginny.

It was a teacher. For a split second, Jean thought she was going to be mad, but the grin on her face seemed to suggest otherwise. However, Jean didn’t know if he was supposed to give anything away about their sneaky plans. “Uhhh…” Jean supplied intelligently, looking up at Ginny for direction.

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny grinned down at Jean. She really appreciated that he thought so highly of her; sure, he was only twelve and didn't know any better, but his awe was still an ego-booster.

"I took Spying as an elective this semester." She told him. What with all the bug planting she'd done with Mia's help, both at her father's house and at the dance, she figured this wasn't too far off from the truth.

She nodded thoughtfully as he pondered his snack choices. If there were really a hidden door that was opened by purchasing snack foods then Jean's assessment would probably be correct. The question was, did Hammel's staff share the same snack preferences as Ginny and her college friends or not?

An unfamiliar voice floated from behind the pair, and Ginny tensed, willing herself to turn with as much nonchalance as she could muster.

"Yeah, probably, but I'm not a student." She retorted casually. Granted, Jean was, but he was under her protection, and that surely counted for something. "So hey, which snacks are the most popular?"

Might as well use this woman's expert knowledge while they had her here.

[Ella Tate]

The surprises on the two kids' faces made Ella almost burst out laughing but she held it back before crossing the length of the room and sliding on to the couch to look at what they were doing exactly. "If you're not a student, then you really shouldn't be here at all." Ella pondered. "And you, little guy...you look familiar so you really can't say you're not a student here."

When the girl asked about snacks, Ella didn't stop the incredulous laughter that left her lips. "Try all of it. It's surprising how much of a sweet tooth the staff all are. So, what are you two doing here? Can't be because of the snacks..." she raised an eyebrow, slapping a smirk on her lips.

[Jean Manne]

Wow, you could take spying as an elective? Jean resolved right then and there to study really hard in school so that he could get into a college that taught you how to spy as an elective. Maybe his childhood dreams of growing up to be like James Bond weren’t so ridiculous after all. After all, Ginny seemed really good at it as she turned around slowly and nonchalantly and declared her position as not a student to the woman. It occurred to Jean that he was all but hiding behind Ginny, so he stepped out a little bit and flashed the woman a nervous grin.

He jumped when the woman addressed him. Jean glanced up at Ginny for a moment before shrugging, trying to feign her nonchalance, “Yeah. It’s my first year here. Ginny was just… showing me around.” He hoped that was a feasible lie.

He all but gaped at Ginny when she asked about the snacks. She was good. She didn’t even look nervous! The staff woman, however, seemed to be onto them. Jean didn’t know what else to say, so he said nothing, waiting to follow Ginny’s lead.

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny snickered at the woman's comment about the staff's sweet tooth; she certainly had firsthand knowledge when it came to her father and step-father, and Dr. Neville, who was a frequent guest in her dads' home. Individually they could put away some cookies; she wondered if the entire staff ate like that. Possibly, if Ella was telling the truth. "Yeah, sounds about right." She admitted, nudging the bottom of the vending machine with one foot. "I don't suppose there's something that nobody buys ever?" Maybe that was a better question to ask.

"Yeah, Jean is new." Sort of. "And he can't be seen with his brother or he'll never have any chance of being popular. You know how that is, older siblings are always totally lame." Of course, she hoped that wasn't the case, or she would never be able to talk Nikki into doing anything cool ever again.

"And anyway, I thought he ought to meet my dad, but he wasn't in his office and I didn't see him in Mr. Kilbourne's room, so we thought maybe he'd be in the staff room." She really hoped that her dad hadn't holed up in his office all day, or this woman would know she was lying; he had to go out sometime. Like, maybe to go to the bathroom or something, right?