Sizing up the competition, take two.

Who: Jessie and Maddy
When: After school
Where: On the streets

This not-paying-attention in class thing was becoming a habit for Jessie. One she didn't like, but still a habit. Although today, she had much more of a reason for it. Dressed in a dress that Lily had given her, along with the red sweater Lily had given her, JJ had floated through the school day. She hadn't paid attention once all day and thankfully, her teachers had left her alone because they wouldn't get anything close to a real answer out of her today.

When the bell rang, Jessie grabbed her bag and left, breezing out of the school. She didn't see Dodge on his usual picnic table and for once, it actually kind of stung. She'd expected him to be there, to be asking why she hadn't been at school the day before. But as she walked, she started to wonder why it bothered her that he wasn't there. She'd never needed anyone to walk her home before and she sure didn't need anyone to do it now, but what she was slowly starting to realize was that their walks and their conversations had been pretty nice. Welcome, even, despite all the twirling he made her do and all the repetitive talk about boyfriends and princesses.

Whatever. He wasn't there now, so at least she wouldn't have to tell him she wasn't going home yet this time. She needed to walk, to clear her head. So she just let herself walk, thinking less of Dodge and more of Lily. And as she thought about Lily, she found that walking was becoming harder and harder, so she picked a bench at random and sat down, looking down at her hands over the black dress. It was the dress they were going to get altered to fit JJ more, but now Jessie wasn't going anywhere near a tailor with it. She was going to leave it and all the rest of the clothes she'd gotten from Lily just the way they were, in commemoration of a lost friend.

Jessie wished she could stop thinking about this. Not that Lily didn't deserve to be thought of; of course she did, and only in the best way, but...it was making her really sad. Really, really sad and Jessie James didn't want to just burst out into tears on the street. She'd been far too emotional in public lately and it wasn't helping. Still, she couldn't stop the little track of tears that rolled down her cheek.

Maddy had left Pepper's feeling a little less panicked and more content, even a little giddy. Sketchbook in hand, she was off trying her speed sketching, which was easier this time around because there weren't as many people on the street. She wasn't drawing anything related to the play, instead if was Pepper sitting on the bridge. She'd gotten the idea with Pepper's insistence of not being drawn. Especially in a dress. Well, Pepper wasn't in a dress, so she should be pleased.

However, Maddy was not pleased when her pencil broke and she swore rather loudly. It was then that she noticed the girl sitting on the bench. She would've ignored her had it not been for the fact that she looked upset. Couldn't be another street kid -- her clothes were too fine. Too big, maybe. Older sister's clothes perhaps.

"You okay?" she asked, because the girl looked pretty upset. Maddy took a step closer, holding her sketchbook to her chest.

Shit. Jessie hurriedly wiped at her eyes. She'd not been paying attention but had been hoping that no one was really around to see her moment of weakness. When she looked up at the girl, Jessie felt a sense of familiarity. What was DG doing here? It wasn't like she and JJ were best friends or anything, but Jessie knew of the girl. How could you not? Still, it was a little awkward, because she'd never really hung out with her before, but then again she hadn't spend that much time with Dodge either and now it seemed like they had a standing appointment after school.

Sniffling once, she nodded but kept her eyes away from DG's. "Yeah, I'm fine," She said, but even she could tell that she sounded anything but fine.

"You don't look fine," Maddy pointed out, bluntly but gentle. She noticed that the girl on the bench recognized her. That wasn't surprising but Maddy wondered if she was meant to remember this girl's name. Pocketing the sketchbook, Maddy sat down on the bench next to her. Not close, there was enough space for another person to sit comfortably between the two of them. There was still the smell of honeysuckle on her skin from the night before, a hickey peaking out just over her collar that Maddy didn't know about. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Well, I am fine," Jessie said. She'd intended there to be a little bite in her voice, but there wasn't. It was just more of a statement, probably attributing to her not being fine at all. She'd just gotten over that whole Veronica ordeal and immediately after, she found out that Lily was dead. She was not fine in the slightest. But there was no need for her to be rude or mean or even short with DG. Shaking her head, Jessie glanced over at her. "My friend died," she said, not feeling like she had to elaborate much on that.

Maddy pressed her lips together with a little nod. She turned a bit in her seat so she was looking at her more head on. "I'm sad for you." She didn't think the girl needed pitied. People usually didn't in those sorts of cases. "Ain't easy thing to deal with. But in my experience sitting out in the cold's not the best way to try help yourself feel better."

"Just wanted to try and clear my head a little..." She would go home soon, she knew she would. She'd want to see her father and her kitten and just be somewhere warm and safe, but right now she wanted to sit here and try to sort things out. Jessie gave DG a small smile, sad but still something. "Thanks," She said, knowing that DG was going out of her way to check on her. She didn't want to pour her heart out to someone she didn't know very well, not about this, but still, it was really nice of her to ask. "Never really had a friend die before."

Maddy offered her a smile back, not a Doll one, but a little one in hopes that it'd make her feel better. "It doesn't get easier but if it helps any, they're in heaven now." It sounded kind of contrived, Maddy knew that but she didn't like people crying. It got her anxious and upset herself. "Then again, in my experience, life here in this city was good enough to be hell for a few of them."

Jessie wasn't so sure she believed in heaven over hell or God or whatever, but the thought of Lily somewhere peaceful, somewhere safe, and somewhere she was happy was enough to make Jessie a little happier. Happier and sadder at the same time. She wiped at her eyes again, nodding to DG. "She deserves to be someplace like that. Someplace nice." She looked back at DG again, noting now that she'd said it doesn't get easier. Did that mean she had also lost someone. "This might be...really rude of me to ask and you don't have to answer, but have you ever lost someone?" After all, how did she know it wouldn't get easier if she hadn't ever lost anyone?

"When I was little a lot of my friends died. Flu was bad one winter." It's where she lost the hearing in her left ear after all. "I was around eight. Everyone got sick. Hell, I'm still surprised I made it out alive. But heaven's a lot better for them than it is living the way they were." Wasn't that the truth. Not that she'd want the world to have to face a future without her gracing the streets of Eidolon City, but it was a fact of life when you were a street kid or an orphan. "Dying's a lot harder on the living than it is on those who died, and it sucks being sad over it, but it just shows you how much you treasure the memories that you made with that person."

That made a lot of sense. Would Lily really want her to sulk around all day? It was still sad, but a part of her thought that Lily might not really want that of her. And she deserved to be remembered with fond thoughts and not sadness, but still...it sucked knowing that she wasn't going to see her anymore. That she and Lily couldn't get Leo and Dinah together and bake pies anymore. Maybe she'd try to perfect the art of pie-making in Lily's name. Certainly couldn't hurt to try... "Sorry about your friends." Jessie gave a small frown to DG, which made her wonder if DG even knew who she was talking to. Figuring it couldn't really hurt to introduce herself, Jessie held out a hand to DG. "I've seen you around before, you're DG, right? I'm Jessie, Jessie James."

Maddy looked at her hand for a moment before returning the gesture, shaking it. "Yeah, I go by DG." Jessie James? "Your dad has the same name, right?" She was pretty positive she'd heard the name Jesse James tossed around on the streets, but she wasn't one to pay too much attention if it didn't have anything to do with her.

"Nice gloves," Jessie said, a genuine but small smile on her lips. "I've never seen green gloves before." She nodded to DG, though. Her smile grew bigger, even more genuine now. "Yeah, he does. Do you know him?"

Never seen green gloves? Maddy glanced down at her gloves, the cotton wool soft, if a little worn in some places. So that dress Jessie was wearing definitely wasn't the usual fare. "No, I'm pretty sure I've just heard people mention his name." She returned Jessie's smile with a sweet one of her own, pulling her hand away and settling more comfortably on the bench. "I don't hang out with older guys. It usually leads to trouble." She realized what that might insinuate and she winced. "Not that I'm trying to say your dad's like that. It's just in my experience... yeah, I don't know 'im."

Jessie didn't like the way that sounded, but DG cleared it up pretty much right after she said it, so it wasn't awful. Still, it didn't sit well with her. But she was sure DG didn't mean anything by it and she knew her dad wasn't like that, not at all. Still, it left her with a queasy feeling of what might have happened to DG that could be classified as 'trouble with older men', but it wasn't her place to ask. "He's the best," She said, feeling that it needed to be said. She guessed it was all right for people to know her dad's name. He'd promised he wasn't doing anything bad anymore and she wasn't going to doubt him on that, so maybe he'd just heard it around, like she said she had.

She glanced back at DG before looking off at the street again. "So what are you doing out here in the cold?" She asked, figuring it was a fair game question now that they knew what Jessie was doing out in the same cold weather. Maybe it had something to do with that book DG had earlier? Jessie had always liked being outside with books so if DG was reading, she could certainly understand that, although she didn't know why reading would have prompted her to curse so loudly.

"Surveying my kingdom," Maddy said primly, sliding up from sitting properly on the bench to sitting on the back of it. "Checking in on my loyal followers." Pepper would pop her one if she heard herself being referred to as a 'loyal follower' and that got a grin on Maddy's face as she thought about it. "Nothing else to do."

"You sound like Dodge," Jessie said, rolling her eyes as she leaned back against the bench. Loyal followers, kingdoms... apparently it wasn't as out of place as Jessie thought for people to refer to the city and its inhabitants like a fairytale. Still, she was perfectly fine just letting them think that way and going about her business as just Jessie James.

At the mention of his name, her toes curled in her shoes as she thought about that morning, but then it actually sank in that this girl? This... Jessie James. She knew enough about Dodge to make that kind of comparison. Maddy's big blue eyes narrowed a little bit and she looked down at Jessie a little warily. "How'd you know Dodge?" she asked casually.

"He's a friend," She answered, shrugging a little. "Walks me home sometimes. Haven't seen him since Tuesday, though..." Which was more her fault than his, probably...although he hadn't been there waiting for her today so who knows what was going on. She was too shaken up to really want to contemplate why Dodge was or wasn't somewhere when he said he would be.

Upon later reflection of the moment, Maddy would be rather proud of herself and the fact that when Jessie said those words, she didn't grab the girl by the collar and tell her to back off. Because Maddy? Had better control over herself than that. She was cool headed and awesome. Supreme Goddess of the Universe. "He's fine, if you're wondering." Had this Jessie been the reason why Dodge left the other afternoon? But he'd come back. Always come back and it'll always be you. Her eyes were still narrowed though because the other thought Did he come back because he didn't see you yesterday floated across her mind.

Jessie watched DG for a moment, confused at first. Slowly, though, things started to make sense. It seemed like they might have 'made up', because last she heard, Dodge and DG were kind of on the outs. So it was good that the two friends had gotten back together and fixed their problems, but JJ wasn't going to say anything about that. She'd promised Dodge she wouldn't. "Well, that's good." It would take her much longer to realize that she maybe had been a little worried about Dodge, but at least DG was saying he was all right. "If you see him, will you tell him I said hey?" Why had she even said that? It wasn't DG's job to tell Dodge hi for her..and now she wondered what the whole point of asking that was? She sighed a little; her mind was so jumbled right now. Otherwise she was sure she wouldn't have said something like that. "If you don't mind, that is."

This girl had to be kidding. Now Pepper's warnings were echoing in her head but she reminded herself of her end of the deal. That she'd let him... yeah. So Maddy smiled prettily at Jessie, the sweetest, most sincere smile she could possibly muster. "When I see him, I will let him know." She just didn't specify when the specific time that would be. "Any friend of Dodge's is a friend of mine."

Jessie gave DG another smile, although this one looked a little more awkward than before. She needed to get ahold of herself. She didn't need to be asking people favors for things like telling Dodge hello. "Thanks," She said anyway, since it was nice that DG would do so. And who knew, maybe she wouldn't. Maybe it was one of those 'sure, I'll tell him' kind of things where you say you would but won't actually do that, but who was Jessie to judge that of DG? Either way, she needed to get off this subject because it was just really confusing her. "So..how's your kingdom looking? Like you want it to?"

Maddy shrugged, looking at the cars passing the two of them there on the bench. It was cold, damp, no sun out. It looked nothing like how she wanted it to look but it was what she was accustomed to. "It's my city," she said simply. "The streets that I grew up on. The people that I see. The sounds that I hear. The wheels squeaking as they turn. Wouldn't have it any other way."

Jessie watched DG for a moment, a little surprised by what she heard. It was kind of nice to think of it that way. Nostalgic in a way. The same city she'd grown up in, but seen through totally different eyes. And for once, she honestly didn't mind thinking the city belonged to someone. "Looks like it's in good hands with you since you're looking out for it and all."

"Oh, the best," she assured Jessie, pushing her hair out of her face and reaching into the pocket of her pea coat for the pink ribbon she still had there, using it to tie her hair back. "If the city doesn't provide for me, then it can provide for no one." It sounded completely self-absorbed and full of self-importance, but as a street kid, Maddy had every right to think of it that way. If the city couldn't provide for it's citizens of the streets, then who could it provide for?

Well, now it sounded a little less nice than the way DG had phrased it before, but she had said it was her kingdom. Mostly, she felt that people should try to provide for themselves and not rely on outside sources like the city to do so for them. Either way, this was giving her something else to think on and she wasn't tripping over her words like earlier. "Is it not providing for you?"

"For now. It's harder in the winter." She didn't expect a girl like Jessie to understand. Someone who had a proper family and a home with hot meals on the table at dinner time. "But spring is coming and things'll get easier." Then summer and her attic would get unbearably hot and she'd have to sleep in the theater. Which wasn't terrible by any means, but there wasn't a bed there and it was just a lot of work.

"At least it won't be freezing rain in the spring." JJ was definitely looking forward to the change of seasons, even if they had a while to go before it really would be spring. But the cold was awful and relentless, so she could hold out hope for spring if it got them away from the cold. "It'll be nice to go to the park and just read under a tree, or sit outside, when it's not so cold. And then at least it'll be warm for you to survey your kingdom?"

"The cold doesn't bother me too much." Just the other day she'd been walking around in a skirt. "The wind is what gets you though. I'm more of an artist than a reader though. Not that I can't read. I can, mind you." She looked at Jessie seriously. Not all the kids on the streets could read. "I read the paper every morning, thank you. But I'd prefer to record what I see." Maddy patted her pocket where her sketchbook was, remembering that her pencil had broken, so she pulled out one of her switchblades, flicking it open. She pulled her pencil out of another pocket and began sharpening it before she could forget. "So you're a reader? What do you like to read?"

Jessie hadn't thought for a second that Maddy couldn't read. She also didn't tend to think that many people couldn't read, it was probably something she should realize was more widespread than she thought it was. So she focused on DG's talk about art instead of whether or not DG thought Jessie thought she could read. "Wish I could draw. I couldn't draw a straight line if my life depended on it. I bet your really good at it. But yeah, I read. I was reading Moby Dick earlier for school but now I have to read Hamlet and I hate it. Haven't really been reading it anyway..." Which she should probably start doing, she had a test on it coming up.

Maddy pulled out her little sketchbook, flipping past the first few pages. It was some sketches of Roy, of Dodge, some of his boys, and opened it up to the start of the Peter Pan sketches. "I'm doing these for the new play. Moby Dick is about a whale or something, right?" She'd never read it. "Hamlet is really good. For some people it's too dark though but I like it." It was a bit of a challenge there, that Jessie couldn't appreciate something fine, that Maddy was more cultured despite living on the streets. It was Shakespeare. He was the master.

"Yeah, Moby Dick is about a whale and this guy's quest to find and catch the whale." She shrugged a little. "I think I might like Hamlet if I wasn't going to get graded on it. If I could sit down and watch it be performed, I think it wouldn't be so bad. Mostly I just hate having to read something because someone tells me I have to. I want to read it because I want to..." She turned her eyes to the pages of Maddy's sketchbook and her eyebrows raised slightly. "Wow...those are really good!" Yeah, she definitely couldn't draw like that.

"Well, plays should always be watched, I agree, but at least reading it, you wont' miss any of the dialogue. Shakespeare is hard to understand sometimes." As for the praise of her drawings, Maddy just shrugged with a self-satisfied smirk. "Yeah, I know."

Jessie glanced at DG, fighting to roll her eyes. She guessed she should have figured that someone who referred to the city as her 'kingdom' would have the same sort of self-assurance about her art. Still, she would have expected a 'thank you' instead of an assertion. But maybe that was just the way DG was and Jessie didn't really know her yet so she shouldn't expect anything at all. "So is your favorite thing to draw people? That's got to be the hardest thing to draw too..."

"Pretty much," Maddy said, bracing her elbows on her knees while she whittled at the pencil. "You can have a beautiful setting. Appreciate it, but it isn't alive. It doesn't cry or yell or smile or life. It's eyes don't get the wrinkles of age. Doesn't crinkle it's nose." She crinkled her nose at Jessie as an example. "Statues can't do that. Clock towers can't. The inside of Saint Peter's is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been too, but it's the people who make it even more beautiful because they're the soul of the building. It sounds kind of lame, I know, but it's how I see it." She blew on her pencil, shaving a little more off. "It's the people that make the city. The cogs or whatever. I bet if I wanted, I could be a pretty damn good lie detector. I watch people's faces enough."

"Doens't sound lame," Jessie said as she shook her head. People were important, very important, to her, and her family was of course the most important, but she could understand what DG was saying. Out there in the city was an endless number of people, all who had families and friends of their own. And if she had to imagine the city without any people in it, she wasn't so sure she'd be able to. Wasn't that what made a city? "It's a good thing these people all have you to draw them then."

"Someone has to remember them," Maddy said, looking quite serious. "Because there might not be anyone else." That lonely feeling was coming back and coupled with the jealousy that was still bubbling inside of her, it put her previously content mood in jeopardy of souring. "And everyone's gonna remember me when the day's done. I'll never be forgotten." Even though in some cases, she'd like to be, she liked to make sure that this city remembered her. Knew who she was. The girl who stood on fire hydrants and did cartwheels and back-flips on the Sixth Street Bridge railing.

On a normal day, Jessie might have thought that was incredibly selfish of DG to say, but hearing it now put things into a perspective she hadn't thought of. There would be no more pictures taken of Lily, no more nice things said. If she had a picture of Lily with her, she might have asked DG to sketch Lily's image, just to see what it would look like and to have another recording of Lily's life here, but she didn't have one. Instead, she thought that it might be nice to write something about Lily on a nice piece of paper and put it in a nice, safe place in commemoration. "That's a really nice way to put it." Jessie said as she looked back over at Maddy. "It's a nice thing you're doing."

It was kind of cute, how Jessie thought that she was doing it for other people. It did sound that way and maybe, to an extent, it was, but she liked her collection of people in her sketchbooks. "Yeah. Do you do anything?" Jessie said she couldn't draw. Maybe the kid wrote. Sizing up the competition? a snide little voice whispered but Maddy quickly pushed it away. There was no competition between the two of them. Maddy was by far the more superior of the two, homeless or not.

DG's question brought Jessie back to a previous conversation with Dodge, about what kind of girl she was. What worried her now was that even the answers she'd given him seemed a little dull. Aside from a 'family-type girl', which she still held in the highest regards, Jessie was starting to realize even more that she needed a hobby. "Uhm...I cook?" She offered, shrugging. "But just for me and my dad. I guess...I write sometimes but not all the time. I have a cat, Leo, he takes up a lot of time." But not enough for her to apparently not be a little jealous of DG's passion for art. "Mostly I just spend a lot of time at home, reading."

"That sounds really fucking boring," Maddy said bluntly. "And you could've just said you didn't do anything. I mean hanging out with your family is cool and all but a lot of people do that." With what they considered family. "Like, do you enter competitions with your cooking? That'd be something to do. Writing sometimes doesn't count either." She stopped, pretty sure that Jessie would have now picked up on what she meant and Maddy realized it sounded kind of mean. "You should find something to do. Like the writing? I dunno, write short stories or poetry. Get it out there. If you're gonna cook, put your everything into it." No, there was nothing to worry about with this girl. She was as dull as a broken pencil.

Well, damn. That was blunt. No, not even blunt. That was rude. Jessie had been thinking some pretty nice things about DG what with her drawing all these people that she didn't even know, but now she was just staring at the girl in disbelief. "Do you enter your drawings in contests?" Jessie asked, annoyance in her expression. "What if I like to cook for the people who are special to me instead of trying to win a competition with cooking? Or write things that I don't really want people to see? I don't think that makes it any less interesting than if I did share it. I think it makes them more special because not everyone gets to see what I write or eat what I made."

"Then maybe you should've said that," Maddy pointed out innocently. "I get paid for my work, alright, little girl? I get paid for doing what I love, because unlike you? With her wonderful daddy with the bad reputation and a happy family? I live in an attic on the kindness of the caretakers. I help fix scenery in exchange for them letting me stay. There have been times in the winter when I've had to go up to almost a week without eating because I have no kitchen nor do I know how to cook and it's too bad outside for me to get to the soup kitchen. So excuse me, Miss Jessie James, for telling you that the life you live, the life that gives you a step up in the world while I'm still stuck on the bottom floor, the life that gives you more opportunity right off the bat to do things you'd love to learn how to do than a lot of other people, shouldn't be talked about so carelessly. So maybe you should look around and be grateful for what you have and if you do something you're proud of? Sound like your proud of it. Don't sit there going 'well, woe is fucking me, I don't do much."

By the end of DG's lecture, Jessie was pissed. "Let's get a couple things straight, DG. Don't ever call me little girl again." It was by far the most trivial of the things that pissed her off from what DG had just said, but it still needed to be addressed. If anyone was the little girl in this situation, it sure as hell wasn't Jessie.

"And who made you the expert on what I do and whether or not I'm proud of it? Maybe I just haven't been sitting around writing or cooking as long as you have been drawing but that doesn't mean I'm any less proud of it." Jessie barely realized that she had stood up, that one of her hands was curling into a fist, or that the nails of that hand were digging into her palm now.

In the back of her mind she could hear Roy talking about how other people had it worse off than her, how he had no parents and how he had been left to clean up the mess they'd made without them. But he hadn't been as much of a bitch to her as DG was being right now and she honestly didn't need a lecture from some girl with an axe to grind. "Don't ever tell me I'm not grateful for what I have. You have no idea who I am and I don't know who you are either so for you to sit there and judge me just because you think I have a 'privileged' life is pretty much bullshit."

She didn't need this. There was no reason she had to sit here and listen to DG tell her what she should and shouldn't do. She didn't even know the girl, she'd only heard of her. And to think she'd actually stood up for DG during that conversation with Dodge. "Have fun surveying your kingdom."

During Jessie's tirade, Maddy simply sat there, infuriatingly quiet with a content look on her face. It was like watching a ten year old throw a tantrum, with the whole fist curling and the standing up. "No, I don't have any idea who you are," Maddy pointed out. "I'm just going by how you present yourself and how you talk about yourself. That's how people who don't know you draw their opinions. And you may not think you have a privileged life and compared to some people in this city, I'm pretty sure that's the case, but that doesn't mean you should discount the privileges that you have." It wasn't said unkindly. Maddy was more amused than annoyed at the spectacle. She gave Jessie a big, blue eyed look, a little Doll smile on her face, the kind that tended to dissipate the anger that people might have towards her. In this case, it might serve to piss Jessie off even more.

DG was twisting her words around. Privileged and 'privileged' were supposed to mean two different things. Jessie was proud of her life, very proud of it. She loved her family, had a safe, warm place to live. There was nothing to be ashamed of and she didn't like that DG was twisting things.

This girl was ridiculous. What was that smile she was giving her? Jessie was utterly confused by it. She'd just turned from a cursing, judgmental girl to this weird, accommodating, explaining girl and it wasn't serving to make Jessie any less pissed off. It was condescending, that's what it was. "For the record, I'm damn proud of my life. I'm not stupid, I know what I have and I'm not ungrateful. I also don't need you jumping in, deciding you know everything about me just from one thing I said. I could decide a lot about you from the things you've said." Why was she still talking to her? The last thing Jessie needed to do was still be here, arguing to her (but now it was more like she was arguing with herself), but for some reason she just couldn't seem to walk away. Maybe it was smile of hers, that expression. Jessie wanted to see it wiped off her face and then maybe she could leave without something so infuriating weighing on her mind. But until then, JJ was glued to the spot.

"I didn't say you were stupid," Maddy pointed out calmly, wondering what Jessie was trying to get at, because she was pretty sure that the girl was ready to storm off a minute ago, but now she was just standing there. "I simply pointed out how you presented yourself to a stranger and maybe you don't realize that that's how you come off." As if Maddy herself hadn't goaded the girl into anger, but that stupid, jealous voice wanted to drive this girl crazy and that's what Maddy was going to do. It wasn't often she found someone that she could rile up. There was something kind of satisfying about it.

Jessie was literally biting her tongue. DG hadn't simply pointed out anything. She may have thought that was what she was doing, but she chose words that hurt and it made her wonder if she had done something like this with Dodge. Because they didn't even know each other and this girl was getting under her skin, but she was and Dodge were good friends so it made since that it would bother him a little from the things she said. It was the way she phrased things, that ability to just twist whatever JJ had said around into something new and something she hadn't meant to say...that was the worst part.

Or maybe the worst part was that she was now trying to sit here and 'be nice' again and JJ was just too pissed off to let it happen. "You know, it doesn't hurt to say it in a nice way." She'd been nice earlier when they were talking about lost friends and people but now Jessie wasn't sure what to believe.

"You're not used to me," Maddy said with a nod, and leaned forward, beckoning Jessie closer. "The whole me trying to give you suggestions? That was me trying to say I was sorry because I know that sounded mean. But that's okay." She shrugged. "But just so you know, I'm not the kind of person whose going to bite back anymore. I already said my piece."

"Giving a suggestion and actually saying you're sorry are two different things, you know." It didn't serve to appease Jessie. It just sounded like an excuse to her. "What's so hard about saying you're sorry anyway? It's a whole lot nicer to hear than a suggestion." Jessie pulled at the sleeves of her sweater, Lily's sweater, and shook her head. "I need to go..." If she stayed here, it was only going to make things worse. She was only going to keep getting angry and keep arguing and really, what was the point? DG had said what she was going to say and there was no reason Jessie had to sit around here and let the girl twist her words up and make her angry. "Bye, DG." Even though as she walked off, she was still fuming.