girls are annoying!

Who: Arden and Pepper
Where: Fontaine Park
When: Late Afternoon
  
  
Arden was beating up a tree.

And she must've looked like quite the sight, because respectable people approaching her in the park shot her appalled glances and moved to the other side of the path as they neared. All in all it was a smart move on their part. Her face was scrunched up in a fury that was as much feral as it was childish. It was the kind of expression that came with snarls and growls before you found something's sharp canines embedded in your leg.

She had just gotten out of school and it hadn't gone well. Her teachers were all stupid idiots who didn't know anything. And since lunch Arden had been fighting the urge to pull the hair out of every one of her classmates' heads and shove it in their stupid faces. But she hadn't, and when the final bell rang she headed for the park -- and it wasn't too long when she found an ugly tree with a stupid little twig that needed to be knocked off of its stupid-looking branch. And Arden was determined to be the one to knock said twig off as she picked up a stick and began the task of furiously whacking it at her target. Sometimes she'd jump up and try to hit it, other times she'd hurl the stick into the air, and occasionally she'd change her sights and fury onto the trunk. In fact, Arden was in the middle of giving the trunk a few good kicks when she noticed one of the passers-by wasn't crossing the path to avoid her.

After a while, the sixth street bridge, though home - or as near to it as Pepper got - had become claustrophobic today. Pepper blamed the mist. It seemed to cling to everything, damp and horrible. She'd headed out into the park, for a change of scenery - though with the white stuff all around, it was hardly all that changable.

Though, she had to admit, the bridge hadn't had another girl trying to beat the hell out of a tree. That was definitely a change. "Whadda it do to hurt you then?" she asked the familiar-looking girl, keeping back out of hitting-distance, just in case she surprised Arden.

Arden recognized Pepper, but the Look she shot her was none-to-friendly regardless. "It's a tree, it doesn't 'do' anything," she shot back, returning her focus back to her work as she hurled the stick at the trunk. After the gratuitous abuse it had undergone, the stick shattered in half upon impact -- leaving Arden at a loss to continue channeling her physical rage, and also leaving her stickless. It was only then that she fully turned around, arms glumly crossed, and fixed Pepper with an expression that was still sulky if largely out of rage. She really had no problem Pepper, but Arden was still in a dark little mood. "What d'you want?" She followed her question with a sound kicking of a rock across the path, narrowly missing one very startled pigeon. ...Apparently the rage wasn't all gone.

Pepper held up a calming hand. "Hey - look, whatever your issue is today, don't take it out on me. If you want me to leave you be, just say, but don't make me your issue. Just saw you, thought I'd say hi," she said, wondering if she would have just been better to keep walking. But still, she had that address in her pocket and she was still looking for someone to read it for her. Course, she couldn't come right out and say that, but she knew Arden was smart, even if she was a couple of years younger than Pepper was.

"I don't have an issue!" Arden declared, defensively but not actually yelling. And at least she was no longer hitting or throwing things. She did roughly toe the ground a bit though as she finally mumbled, "...You don't need to leave."

Because despite her attitude Arden didn't actually want Pepper to go. It had been a long, annoying day at school, and she could use a distraction from it -- beating up the tree had been getting boring anyways. In fact, now she had apparently taken a liking to said tree, jumping to grab a hold of the low-lying branch and letting herself dangle there as she watched Pepper. "Whatcha doin'?" she asked, her earlier ire giving way to curiosity. She started to swing her body softly from the branch that she had been so furiously whacking before. And it was a good thing trees didn't 'do' anything, because this one probably would've broken its branch to make her fall as payback.

Pepper looked up at her, adjusting the cap she wore over her shaved head to make sure it wasn't going to fall off as she did so. "Nothing - walking," she told the other girl. "Watching girls beat up trees. Did you hear Roy's sick?" she asked, since that was really the only bit of news that she had that she figured would mean anything to Arden, and in Pepper's world, that was a pretty big bit of news.

Arden had grown up in a world where getting sick meant staying in bed all day being served hot soup and hugs and being catering to and not having to go to school. Occasionally it meant a not-so-fun trip to the doctor's; and things usually passed within a couple days. But she had learned early on that wasn't the case for the street kids. She may have been largely naive on a lot of aspects of street life: she didn't know what it was like to be hungry or not have a warm, soft bed to sleep in. But getting sick? Arden knew that was a Big Deal. She knew it could get more serious than simply not having a parent to coddle you or not having a warm blanket to stay under. ...She didn't see how anyone could hang out or talk with a street kid and not know that.

So her expression changed to concern as she dropped down from her branch. "No," she answered -- all traces of attitude gone, "How long's he been sick?"

Pepper tracked her descent until they were more eye to eye - Arden was tall for her age, and Pepper wasn't overly tall herself. "I dunno - saw him a few hours ago and he was coughing and stuff," she said, realising that she hadn't actually asked the guy how long he'd been sick for. She'd been too busy being concerned about the fact that he was and she didn't want him to get worse and she didn't want to get it at all. "I told him to keep warm, and to go to the soup kitchen." She was no nurse, she didn't know what else to do.

Arden nodded, sagely concurring. She thought back to trips to the doctor's and the seasonal talks her teachers gave about being sick. "Sounds 'bout right. 'Stay warm, plenty of fluids...'" Repeating the doctor's words, Arden trailed off as she got lost in serious thought on what was done when she was sick. She wondered why she got better within a week while a street kid could get the same thing and might die from it. She suspected it had more to do with the treatment she received than her just having a better... non-sickability or whatever.

Warm bed, window crack open for fresh air, hot soup, hot drink, lotsa sleeping... She frowned, realizing that the regiment couldn't be so easily carried out by Roy or any street kid. But, catching onto a little nugget of inspiration, Arden perked up a bit and declared, "And keep everything hot! Like don't drink any water or liquid or whatever that wasn't boiled first. Something about it killing things -- like bad things. Things that cause sicknesses or make them worse and the like." She didn't really understand the exact mechanism of how that worked, but she had heard it enough from enough sources to go with it. She was also aware that advice may not be so easy for a kid on the streets to carry out, but it was the best Arden could come up with. She considered heading to the library after this, reading up about colds and stuff and see if there was anything else. Anything useful.

Pepper pulled a slight face at that, but nodded, not wanting to betray either the fact that she had no idea why that would be a good thing to do, or the fact that boiling things wasn't exactly an easy thing when you lacked pots and pans and, say, access to a fire if someone wasn't minded to let you round theirs. "That sounds good," she agreed instead. "I'm sure he'll be fine," she added, though she wasn't sure - she just hoped that he would be. Roy drove her crazy from time to time, but he was an okay guy - she would never admit that to his face, of course - and she didn't want him to be sick. "He can't have been that bad - he's still been working and all," she added, trying to put a positive spin on things, though she knew that knowing he was sick was bringing her down today. It was that worry, she didn't like it.

"That's good I guess," and then Arden was quiet for a moment, wishing she could be more useful. At not being so, a little anger spiked up inside herself. But the main feeling over her was concern, and that tampered the anger enough so that she didn't return to beating up the tree. But she did find another rock in reach of her foot that she quietly sent hurtling across the path; and then, just for good measure, she kicked a smaller rock across to trail after it. She eyed the rustling of the shrubbery as the rocks became buried within them before shoving her hands in her coat pockets and turning back to Pepper. "Wanna head up to the fountain?"

"Sure, we can do that," Pepper agreed, stuffing her hands into her pockets and turning that way. She liked the fountain - it was kinda pretty, even if there was usually rubbish thrown in it. They didn't clean it up often enough. She was used to that though. "You know - you should watch that - I hit Roy that way, earlier on," she advised. And she'd been throwing little pebbles as well. He'd still bitched at her for it though. Kind of anyhow.

"Well he should look where he's going anyway," Arden dismissed stubbornly as she bent down to pick up her small backpack. Then she hopped back onto the path and started towards the fountain. Pepper could have said she hit an old blind man and Arden still would've said something to that effect. But at least in Roy's case it was true; or at least she was betting it was. The boy could probably run smack into a bright orange elephant on a sunny day. That thought amused her greatly, and Arden determined it was one to share. So she turned towards Pepper, grinning, "I betcha Roy'd walk right smack into a bright orange elephant on a sunny day!"

Pepper looked over and burst out laughing, the shared thought enough to bring her out of her funk. "That he would - and then he'd cry like a girl when he fell over and got bruises on his knees," she added. That was her insult of the day, she figured - boys that cried like girls. She was a girl and she never cried like a girl, but that didn't stop her telling others they did. Not even girls cried like girls unless they were wusses, after all. "And yeah, he shoulda been looking - but he kinda said I shudda been looking where I was throwing. Like, well, yeah - I wasn't even throwing hard or anything."

Her insult got a gleeful laugh out of Arden in turn. "Whining like that? Heh, what a girl," she added, all too happy to continue on with the Roy-and-girl bashing. The slight malice was only on the girl part though, not on Roy. Sure Arden was decked in a skirt today, but it wasn't by choice. Her father's good mood from Church had carried over into this morning when he offered to walk her to school. And Arden had happily accepted, because such a mood wasn't that common anymore and she had wanted to bask in it. So she hadn't fought him for the tomboy look this time and had arrived at school looking uncomfortably respectable. ...And that was where her good mood had ended. But it was re-surfacing now!

But said good mood couldn't quench the dark tone and look Arden gave when she muttered, "Being a girl's annoying." Heck, 'annoying' didn't even cover it. But it was a testament to her higher spirits that she hadn't used the term 'hate' and didn't kick at or throw anything.

"To right it is. I think we should get a choice - what do you want to be, boy or girl? I'd choose boy every time. Leave the girl thing to the ones that actually want it," Pepper agreed, though her eyes did drop to the skirt. Pepper wouldn't wear a skirt - you couldn't pay her to be seen in a skirt. A lot of the time, she got mistaken for a boy and anyone who wanted to think that could feel free. She was just fine with it, and would play along every single time. She didn't want to be a girl, ever. And being a woman she loathed - especially when it was unavoidable.

"That would be amazing, bein' able to choose," Arden was too busy looking ahead to notice the glance at her skirt; and even if she had, she wouldn't have explained it. She would've given any possible response -- most likely defensive -- rather than explain it. Because "I wore it 'cause of my dad" wasn't exactly a hotshot answer. And it wasn't just that: there was something more to it that Arden found troubling but couldn't name. It was tied to that shapeless troubling feeling that constantly lurked in the back of her thoughts; a feeling she didn't understand and that got her upset which got her angry. And explaining about the skirt would've tapped into that and Arden wouldn't know why and that would've upset her more...

...but thankfully Pepper was spared whatever flare of attitude, or lack of it, that she would've received at the skirt glance. Because Arden had spotted a line of unoccupied park benches to the side of the path and had decided that walking on them was more fun than using the ground. Her arms were spread out as if she were a tightrope-walker from the circus, stepping carefully upon the wood. "And it'd be even better if you could choose other stuff too," she called out to Pepper as she reached an iron armrest in the middle of the bench. Arden stood atop it, arms occasionally wobbling, just to see how long she could balance there. "Like your age, or your height, or looks -- I saw this one kid with one blue eye and one brown one, once; I think I'd do that 'cept I'd want one gold -- 'cause how come animals get gold eyes but people don't anyway?"

She had reached her limit on the armrest and hopped off to continue tightrope-walking the rest of the bench, still captivated by thoughts of controlling other unpleasantries. "Or parents. Definitely parents. Like if you'd want them, or just one, or even none at all... and there'd be a store or a market or some kinda place with all kinds of moms and dads to pick from." That would be truly amazing. And imagining such a thought filled her with a sense of power that decided she wasn't going to just hop down at the end of the bench. Oh no, she'd try jumping the gap to the next one! And it was a largely successful venture, if Arden did say so herself -- as long as she ignored whacking her foot against the end of it. But she made it, and that was worth grinning about.

"I don't see why people can't have gold eyes," Pepper said, tracking Arden along the benches but making no move to join the girl. Trapise-y stuff wasn't her thing, and anyway, the overly large coat always off balanced her and she wasn't going to take it off - someone might nick it. "And... yeah, if you want parents, you should be able to choose. Like, adults could come and go. Like, cometimes George treats me like I'm his daughter, which I'm so not, but sometimes he does. Course, cometimes he calls me 'Henry' and says that I'm his nephew and that's fine and all, but he's just - well, George is George and well, he's George, y'know?"

Arden flashed a frustrated frown at adults coming and going (or more adults that come and go and never come back again). But the frown morphed into a perplexed one as Pepper continued, because Arden actually didn't know. Her definition of 'crazy' and the like was limited to kids who did dumb stuff in the schoolyard. Even though she had never met George, she had heard him mentioned before. And the stuff he did had made more sense to her than the adults she knew -- until now, at least. Pepper looked much like a boy, sure; but once you knew she was a girl Arden didn't see how somebody could forget again.

"Why's he do that?" she asked, stopping mid-bench to give Pepper a curious look. She just didn't get why and wanted to know. There wasn't any judgment behind it -- Arden even sounded interested. Because the idea kind of appealed to her: life could be pretty sweet if her dad thought she was a boy sometimes -- not all the time though, but definitely some of it. ...They wouldn't have to argue about skirts, at least.

"Because he's George," Pepper stated, sounding much like she figured this was reasoning in and of itself. She reached down and plucked a long strand of grass from beside the path, beginning to shred it as they walked along. She looked over to Arden and clued into the fact that the girl probably didn't know George. "He's crazy as a loon," she explained. "Like, completely cuckoo. And loads of other birds that mean crazy, probably. Who knows why he does anything that he actually does? He'd probably call you a cauliflower if you caught him in the right mood. Mostly, I just tell him that Henry's a dumb name and that I want to be called Vincent. Or, like, Dave or something - usually I just pick the first name I think of, just to see if it'll catch and he'd start calling me that instead. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he's just all 'You want to be called Doug? Why, you got a shovel stuck in your head or something?' He's really random."

"Heh, I like him," Arden declared; which was impressive because she wasn't prone to instant likings of any adult. Reaching the last bench, she hopped off the end and moved back on the path. "Didja know names have meanings? Like the normal names -- 'cause obviously 'Rose' means 'rose' and stuff -- but names like John and Mary have meanings too. We talked about them in class today," she paused in thought, recalling the lesson. "Henry means 'home ruler', and David means 'beloved'. ...But there wasn't a Vincent or Doug in our class though so I dunno those. And Arden means 'blazing' or something -- but 'parently it's not blazing like fire but blazing like excited which is dumb because I like the fire one better." She gave a pause, the displeased expression on her face deserving of its own moment. "I think the whole thing's stupid though: I mean, if you wanted to name your kid 'Beloved' or 'Home Ruler' or whatever then just name them that... why think of something stupid and boring to cover it up?"

...Actually, Arden had found the whole lesson quite interesting; until she found out that Margaret meant 'Pearl' and Mildred meant 'Gentle Strength' and neither meant 'Mean Horrible Cow' which was much more fitting. Thus her opinion on the whole matter changed from 'Interesting' to 'This Is Stupid'. Really, the street kids had better sense with names like Pepper and Mud and Roach and Dodge and Doll Girl and Ogre and Dog and Freckles and others (some she had met, others just heard of). There were no stupid names that were un-interesting disguises for stupid meanings. Yep, they definitely had the right idea.

"Really? I didn't know that - I just kinda figured names were names, y'know? Things that once someone kinda said 'hey, I like the sound of that'. Not, 'oooh, look - fancy word here!' or whatever, like they were showing off or something. Though, i can call you Firebrand now. Which, y'know - kinda suits you," she teased, laughing a little. Arden definitely was, that was for sure. "And I think that - well, yeah - the fire's more interesting and I'm gonna say go with that one. Cos, adults probably just made them up once or something anyway. Who says what words mean anyway? Someone has to decide at some point, right? So I'm gonna decide right here and now that 'Arden' means fire blazing as well as whatever else. So there. It's done!" She waited to see whether Arden was going to contradict her, hoping she wouldn't - making things up was much more fun when you just went with it, after all.

The look of more-than-haughty pride at the title and meaning change meant Pepper had nothing to worry about on that front. In fact, now Arden was more than latching onto the idea and adding on to things, "Hah! and it means Beyond Amazing and Beater of Stupid Things. And Pepper can mean both Vincent and David and all three would mean Does Not Cry Like A Girl Or Roy!" Yeah, Fire was more than fitting because she was in a clearly passionate state: enthusiasm burning within her as she found a long stick on the ground and went about brandishing it the air; when she approached the Fountain, Arden leaned forward and rapidly swung the stick back and forth, slicing through the falling water with each pass.

That got a real laugh then, and Pepper jumped back out of the way of the flying water. "And Arden means 'Beats Trees with Sticks'," she teased, since that was the way she'd found the girl today. She watched the other girl splash the stick in the fountain for a little longer, before she added. "You know, I do have an actual name as well," she admitted. Not that she ever used it, but since they were talking about names and meanings of names, she wondered if Arden would actually know what her real name meant.

Before Arden could haughtily or defensively reply with 'The tree deserved it' (an answer that would've made no sense to anyone other than her), her interest was quickly caught by Pepper's admission. She stopped her movements and glanced back at the girl. "What's the name?"

"Don't laugh," Pepper pre-warned the younger girl, wearing her 'I'll punch you if you do' face and taking a fighting stance. She'd never actually hit Arden, and she wouldn't hit the girl hard, but she didn't like being laughed at either - plus Arden would be the only person who knew. "And you can't tell anyone, either," she added, figuring she needed to have that out there as well. "...Penelope." It was a dumb, girly name. Always made her feel like she should have her hair in curls or something like that. Which she would never do. Ever. Even if she hadn't shaved it all off anyway.

Arden, to her credit, did not laugh. In fact, the expression she wore was remarkably serious as Pepper revealed her name. If she had heard the information in passing, then she might've snickered -- and Pepper's physical threat would've done nothing to stop that. But this was a wholly different situation. This was a friend telling another friend a personal secret, and that was a Sacred Thing in Arden's book; and sacred things warranted consideration and a certain level of solemn gravity when carried out. She thought for a moment, thinking back to class. There was a girl named Penny in it, and her name was short for Penelope. "Weaver," Arden replied, as solemnly as ever. She actually quite disliked the Penny from class, but since her and Pepper had gone about changing names' meanings Arden decided that the same name's meaning could change depending on the person. So Penny's Penelope meant 'Stupid Pigtailed Brat' while Pepper's Penelope was perfectly fine. "And it's also some kind of bird from Greece." That reminded Arden of something:

"And there was this lady in Greece too! A long long long time ago -- her name was Penelope. She was a Queen and weaved a lot, and her father was this great inventor named Icarus. And the King left for a battle so she was there running the country and stuff I guess. And everybody else thought the King was dead and figured she'd want to get married again. 'Cept she didn't think the King was dead and even if he was she wouldn't want to get married anyway. And all these guys -- the suitors -- came in their suits and stuff to propose to her and get her to marry one of them. And they came from all over the world and had all kinds of money and jewels and animals and cars and chariots that they offered but she kept telling them 'no'. And she'd fight some of them off in duels and play tricks on them and even used her weaving to trick 'em -- like she said she'd marry one of them once she finished weaving a blanket or something but she kept undoing what she did so it would never finish. And she fought them for twenty years and never married any one of them which means she won a lot of fights and when the King came back they killed them all in a big battle."

And thus was Arden's avid re-telling of The Odyssey... well, part of it. She had read it from a mythology book in the library, and not in class (which was good because her teachers made things boring anyway). And Arden had a good memory of the things she read, and thus was able to easily share the story with vivid details. Of course the story she gave Pepper wasn't exactly verbatim: it was more a combination of the book's readings and the Grand Imaginings of the Amazing Arden.

Pepper stuggled to keep up with Arden's story, rattled off as it was, and from a tale she'd never even heard of, never mind heard before. Plus, she didn't know where Greece was either - she figured it fell under 'a long way away', but didn't actually know. And, well - Kings and Queens. Yeah, had to be a long time ago and a long way away because the one thing she did know was that they didn't have things like that anymore. "So... You're saying I'm a queen that tricks people?" she asked, cautiously, at the end, wondering if that had been the point. She really wasn't entirely sure - and she wasn't sure whether, if that was what she'd just been told, if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But! At least Arden hadn't laughed!

Arden nodded, "Basically, but the people the Queen tricked weren't nice and needed to be tricked anyway. 'Cause they were suitors -- who were these guys in fancy suits that were jerks and wanted her to marry them." She returned back to the fountain and used the stick to steer a floating bottle around, "And she also fought some of them off -- I guess with a sword or maybe she only needed a needle or something since she was a weaver and probably had a lotta needles around. But in the end all of the suitors got beat and the country was saved because she didn't let any of the suitors get power." That was Arden's understanding, anyways. "Which is pretty cool, all in all. Although if she had just dressed like a boy she probably could've saved a lot of trouble in the first place."

"Not keen on the 'weaver' bit - but the rest sounds okay," Pepper decided, having thought about it. The weaver part sounded a bit too domesticated for her liking - too girlie and she wasn't into that at all. But the fighting and the not getting married of it all she could get with. If she ignored the 'previous husband thought dead'. She just wasn't going to do that kind of thing at all. Guys couldn't be trusted. Not unless they were like George, who was crazy anyhow and didn't expect you to trust him so didn't try and trick you unless he was in one of his crazy moods, or like Roy, who was just a fool anyway and totally didn't count.

"So Penelope could mean 'Fighter of Suitors'," Arden concluded, focusing on pushing the stick into the bottle's opening and using it to maneuver the bottle into an upright position. She was trying to see if the bottle could float upright with the stick jutting out of it... and was finding that, no, it couldn't. But it didn't stop her from having a couple more gos at it. "But I think I like Pepper better. If you use a little pepper on food it can make it tasty, but there are some peppers that if you use too much of them can make people cry -- like, grown men will bawl like girls or babies." Arden had only heard of such things from a magazine, and not seen or tasted such foods herself. But that didn't stop her from speaking as if she had.

Pepper grinned at that. "Oh, I can make people cry - you just punch 'em in the face and they'll bawl. Or, if they don't, you just knee 'em in the - well, you know," she said, making a vague gesture with her hand that wasn't anotomically correct, but she didn't talk about that kind of thing. She just avoided the subject whenever possible, male or female.

"Ha!" Arden had seen enough schoolyard scruffles and mishaps to know that a boy could get punched in the arm and merely looked annoyed or laugh... but a boy hit somewhere else? Well, he doubled over and cried for his mother. And that word, and the fact that the stupid bottle still wasn't cooperating and just kept falling over, brought forth a clearly frustrated frown. She then deemed the activity stupidly boring and tossed the stick and bottle aside. But the bottle had more spunk than the tree she had beaten up earlier, because it managed a splash that got both her face and socks. Arden threw the water and bottle a dirty look before taking a step back from the fountain (which was guilty by association).

"See - some things fight back," Pepper called, noting the look and finding the situation amusing. "So - how come you're taking everything out on the world anyhow? Bad day or something?" she asked, since Arden did seem to have been trying to beat the hell out of everything vaguely inanimate she'd come across since, oh, before Pepper had happened along.

"School's stupid," the mentioning of it bringing a dark look across Arden's features. "And the teachers think they know everything but they don't so they're useless anyways. And there you can't get away with hitting somebody who deserves it because the principle has this wooden paddle and they've also got detentions which are even worse and they're all useless too." And with that she kicked at the fountain base, "But it wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that they tell your parents everything, anyways." And it was that reason alone that Arden hadn't gone about throwing rocks or beating up her classmates yet -- stuff like would get back to her father. Even if the school didn't tell him, the kids would tell their parents who would tell her father. Many of the students' parents knew each other -- they'd often talk together at church and Arden had to endure smiling and being forced into the company of the girls she hated because adults were stupid and assumed all kids were best friends or something.

"But you get free food," pepper put in - though that had never been enough to get her going regularly, especially not lately. These days school just proved to her how stupid she was. She couldn't keep up with anything, so she didn't go. Anyway, she had much better things to do, and the kids that did go all hated it. So, why bother? "If anyone hit me, I'd punch them - teacher or not. Nobody gets to hit me and not get hurt back for it," she said, decisively.

Arden grinned almost maliciously at that, liking the image of Pepper going around school and punching the people who deserved it. And in her mind that was most of the student and faculty body. But an even funnier thought caught her and took that edge off the grin some, "And after you'd punch somebody, I'd like to see them bring George in for a parent-teacher meeting." She hadn't met George, but she had heard him mentioned enough to like him and know that meeting would be more entertaining than anything.

"He's not my parent!" Pepper said, reflexively. She didn't have parents. Maybe once she had, but she didn't anymore and she wasn't going to start. She'd done okay for herself without them and she wasn't going to start now. Anyways, I don't go to school. I'd hate it just like you do, just I'm smart enough to know that you don't do what you hate, do you? What's the point?" she asked, challengingly.

"I know he's not your parent," she shot back defensively, "but they'll only talk to adults and George's an adult so they'd bring him in." She didn't have a good response for going to school when she hated it -- and not having that response didn't help her mood any. She had already explained her teachers were useless, and Arden could just go to the library and read stuff there she wanted to learn about such as how to help Roy not die from being sick. And the library was better anyways because it didn't have her stupid classmates who told her she was a freak and called her 'Giant' and said her parents lied about how old she was 'cause she was too stupid for a 15-year-old. But trying to tell her father that one time had only led to him yelling at her in a way he had never done before; and he said if she didn't need school then she didn't need anything or anybody and he had started to walk out and then Arden had freaked and apologized and made whatever promise she could to get him to stay.

But that was a memory she preferred to keep buried away -- because he had been nice and loving and even took her to the movies the next day anyways. And all of that was too messy and unpleasant and upsetting for Arden to share, so she stuck her chin out and said, "Well, I'm not going to school tomorrow anyways." Shoving her hands in her coat pockets she gave a haughty shrug, "Hell, I might not even go for the rest of the week!"

"Well, I don't go to school anyhow, so they don't need George for nuthing, and if you're not going then you can come and hang with me if you want and we could go and see Roy at the garage he's working at and I might go work at cos the guy that owns the place said I could if I wanted, but don't know if I want, so I might not, but going to see Roy isn't, y'know? So we could do that and stuff," she suggested to the other girl.

"Never been in a garage before," Arden murmured -- which meant a resounding 'yes' from the girl. She had developed a huge fondness for going to places she hadn't been before. And that fondness had recently blossomed into going into places she shouldn't -- especially if it meant breaking into places that were clearly not for her. "I wanna see what a car's insides look like!" And although she might accomplish that easily enough by asking Roy or one of the people at the garage to show her, Arden was picturing herself sneaking away and exploring such wonders with the garage workers being none the wiser.

In fact, being sneaky and trespassing and breaking into things had become her primary means for almost everything now. It had started off with her proving to some street kids, who were unimpressed with her bravado at skipping school, that she could keep up with their delinquent lifestyle and wasn't scared of trouble and of being where she shouldn't. But then Arden began to enjoy being daring and breaking into things and dismissing the signs that tried to keep her out. She was finding that a kid found out more stuff that way -- learning things that no parents or teachers would ever let a kid know.

"Well, cool - we should do that then! How about you meet me, say.. By the fountain, tomorrow? About noon?" Pepper suggested, pulling the time out of nowhere, figuring that it was one that she could meet. And, well, if Arden was coming with her, maybe the whole 'potential job' thing would be less daunting. Maybe. It'd be one more person to kick the guy inna nuts if it called for it, at least.

Arden nodded, "Okay! I'll definitely be here!" It was an exciting adventure to look forward to -- scoping out the garage with its cars and investigating what was inside them and seeing Roy after she read up in the library on things to make him Not Die.

"Great!" Pepper said with an honest grin. She felt better about things now. She didn't have to make a choice about whether she felt confident going or not - if she was going with someone else, someone unconnected to the place, that made it all the easier. "Well - I'll see you tomorrow then?" she told the other girl. She was aware that it was getting on in the day, and whilst she didn't really have any ties for being anywhere at any time, she knew the same wasn't true for Arden.

Arden did have other obligations that cut into her explorations and adventures and general fun of her roamings about the city, and those obligations began and ended with her father. But her dad had been spending more and more time at work, or at least that was as far as she knew. So she had been able to get away with staying out until just before dinner before her father got home. Although she suspected that wouldn't be the case today: her father had been in a good mood this morning. And she had noticed that he didn't stay away at work as much when he had a good mood day -- she hadn't determined the reasons behind it, but she had noticed the trend. And she liked her father during a good mood, so Arden had plans on getting home a bit earlier than she normally would.

"Yep, tomorrow!" She shifted her weight a bit, adjusting a strap of her backpack. "And I could stop by the drug store -- or the library -- see if there's anything else for bein' sick," she added, her thoughts turning over her plan. Oh, she'd definitely go to the library -- the information from the man at the drug store wouldn't be nearly enough for her. He'd probably lie -- adults pretty much always did. Even if they weren't lying, they never told the whole truth. But if Roy was sick then Arden wouldn't leave any stone unturned, and she'd talk to the drug-store owner and could at least use his half-truths to point her in the right direction when she reached the library. And once there she could probably see what they'd have about garages and cars in general... and tomorrow Arden could see how the actual garage would stack up to what she read.

"You could?" Pepper asked, breaking into a grin. "That... he definitely needs it," she said, toning down a little. "Being a big girl about being sick and all," she added, for good measure, to cover the fact that she was actually kinda worried about Roy being sick - and not just because he could make her sick as well either. She didn't want anything to happen to the guy. That wasn't allowed and it wasn't fair. "Great, well - sweet! I - that'd be great!" she said, losing the 'toning it down' after a moment.

Arden's grin grew wider. Sometimes, when somebody admitted to liking her idea, her attitude would flare up and she would be quick to change it to something opposite. But not this time. This time the support only strengthened her resolve, and she was determined to stop by the drug store or library or both on her way home -- whether her dad came home early or not! But that meant that Arden had to get going. "Great! I should get going then, but I'll be back here at noon!" she promised. And her word was good. At least, it was good for a friend -- she had more than taken to lying and other trickery as far as adults and her classmates were concerned. And with that, Arden began the trek out of the park, soon returning to trapise-ing over another set of benches lining the pathway: just because she had limited time didn't mean she'd stop parading about in her own manner.