Angela had stopped her evening jog to take out some momentary frustration in the dark. She kicked and punched a tree until bark started popping off of it, getting little bids of rotted wooden shrapnel caught in her hair and on her shirt. She just got so damn angry sometimes, and you know, she didn't even know WHY she honestly still answered her cell phone.
Her roommate, Tanya, had just called to tell her that the sprinklers in the dorm had gone off and their room was officially flooded. Again. This made TWICE now. Angela was switching buildings tomorrow. She shook her hands off and stepped away from the tree, surveying her damage.
So she felt a little guilty, there. She should have pounded a stupid bloodsucker's head in instead. She just needed to burn off some steam before she showered and went to see Jared; she tried not to get too angry in front of him. She didn't... like what she necesarrily became when that happened.
She took a deep breath through her nose and exhaled softly through her mouth, counting to ten. She'd have to buy new books, no doubt. At least her laptop was at her parents' house, as was about half of her clothing she'd taken home to do laundry. She couldn't deny that had been fortunate, and concentrated very hard on the good things.
Hailee walked casually through Central Park, on her way to a subway station so that she could get back home after a most successful shopping trip - ah yes, the bargin hunter shoots, she scores. Honestly, some of the deals she'd found had been amazing.
What? All right, so Hailee spent have her life coated in blood, that was no reason she couldn't also enjoy some of the finer things. And, of course, those finer things included silk and suede and designer styles, to list a few. And that was when she noticed a jogger stop and begin to beat upon an apparently perfectly innocent tree. That was slightly unusual in and of itself, but it wouldn't exactly have been anything to raise eyebrows if it weren't for the fact that the tree was loosing. Badly.
Hailee stopped for a moment and stared at the other, then took a few steps closer. And, strangely enough, the figure who the tree had apparently so offended seemed familiar. She stopped and stepped back, taking a breath to calm herself, and Hailee became almost sure as to the person's identity.
"Angela?" The witch grinned as she stepped closer still, flipping her black ponytail over her shoulder as she did so with an easy, practiced movement. "So then tell me, what did that tree do?" She looked down at the poor, splintered remains and the small pile of wood scattered across the grass at its base, then her too-blue eyes flicked back up to her cousin's face. "It must not be a normal tree."
Angela blew bark from strands of her dark, wavey hair as it cluttered her vision. She smiled at Hailee and shrugged sheepishly. At her tenth birthday party Hailee had gotten her first real taste of Angela's temper, though it wasn't directed at her - rather, a little boy who'd busted her pi?ata and eaten half the candy before she could get to it. Hailee was the one to yank Angela off of him as she swung the plastic bat menacingly, dangerously close to his face.
"That tree," she said, pointing at it. "That tree..." she sighed. "Innocent bystander. Tanya just called to tell me our dorm room got flooded because of some fault in the sprinkler system on campus. Again. Do you know how hard it is to get that stink water out of your clothes?"
She was going to get mad all over again, so she just sat down on a rock formation and sighed, looking at her cell phone. "Eh, I should call Jared. I bet Tanya already warned him I was on the rampage. He's probably at home laughing because I made fun of him for getting caught without an umbrella last week. Damnit. I hate losing."
She grinned a little. Angela had a good sense of humour, at least. She pointed to the bags. "What's going on with all that? You hit the lottery?" She didn't know Hailee was in Frost yet, but she knew she had applied.
Hailee shook her head with a laugh. "Innocent bystanders seem to have a hard time of it around you," she said in a teasing tone. After all, she hadn't forgotten the birthday party incident either... nor the fact that, if she hadn't been fairly good at dodging, the pi?ata might not have been the only one who ended up injured.
Hailee made a face at Angela's description of why the poor tree was having what was probably the most traumatic day of its life. Ugg. She waved her hand at the other witch airily though. "Water nothing, try blood. A year ago I got blood all over my favorite sweater. And it was white. Why does that always seem to happen to my light colored clothes? Or - better question - why do I even bother with any light colors anymore?"
"Lottery? Nah. There was just a whole bunch of really great sales today. I mean..." she trailed off briefly for a moment, rummaging through a bag then triumphantly pulling out a top and displaying it, "will you look at this? I got it 75% off."
"Holy shit," Angela said, unable to stop herself. She snatched it from Hailee. "Is that Chanel?" she asked increduously. "Jared would taunt me for the rest of our miserable lives together if I ever shopped as much as you do," she said with a giggle.
"How's that brother of yours doing? Still being the shy, brooding type women will find ah-dorable?" she asked, having no real clue about what Alex had been doing the past few months. And a good thing, too.
She rummaged through the extended bags Hailee had as she gabbed about this and that, making either sounds of approval or grunts of disinterest at specific articles of clothing. It was like some sort of mating ritual women engaged in.
"By the way, whatever happened with that Guild stuff? Did you make it?" she asked hopefully, ignoring her phone vibrating a text message at her for a moment longer.
"Oh come on, I don't shop that much," Hailee said with a laugh. "No time." Not that she wouldn't like to or anything. "Today was kind of a treat to myself combined with the irresitable pull of all the sales. It doesn't do much good to spend $150 on an outfit, and then have it ruined the next day because blood got on it, or it got torn or something. But anyway, I think I could take care of the teasing." Hailee winked at Angela. "After all, you can't tell me he wouldn't appreciate this outfit. Maybe I'll let you borrow it. See if I can convert both of you."
She laughed at her cousin's description of Alex. "Yea, that's still him. He's still so shy." A thing she teased her little brother about often enough. It usually made him glare at her, and that was always fun.
"Oh, hey, yea, you didn't hear! Yea, I made it. Great news, huh?"
Angela let out a low whistle as Hailee teased her with a certain outfit. "If you let me borrow that, I don't think you'd want it back," she said seriously. She couldn't even believe her cousin would wear something like that; she prayed she was going to wear it OVER something else.
"You did? Awesome! I guess it pays well, huh? Did they put you up in the house or do you have that apartment, still? I heard that the leader of Frost is cuuuuute, is it true?" She glanced around, as she always tended to do when she found a man attractive. Much like her jealous streak, Jared wouldn't hesitate to make sure she found that same man -un-attractive in around the time it took for her to get up and get a soda. She'd timed it.
Hailee wrinkled her nose at her cousin when she mentioned that she might not want it back, then sighed a little. "All right, all right..." she said as she dropped it back. "I'll get you eventually though, just watch and see."
She laughed when the other witch began to gush. "Yea, it pays pretty well. Varies from job to job, of course, but even so.... Hiring Bruja isn't cheap.
"Aaaand... kinda both, actually. I stay at the guildhouse sometimes, but not always. It's a bit far away to be convenient for certain persons who still have to get to High School in the early hours.
"But as to Christian...." She grinned. "Oh yea. He's happily married though. Pity."
"Bah, lame," she said. She didn't worry if someone was married or not - window shopping meant you never had to commit. She smiled a little to herself and straightened.
"So how does Alex feel about you being a hunter? Or is it huntress? I always thought that sounded dumb - anyways! You need to draw that poor boy out of his shell. Too bad we can't find a way to get him drunk," she laughed.
She laughed at her cousins reaction, then frowned thoughtfully a little at the question. "You know, I don't know," she finally said. "I guess it could be either, though. But I think I prefer hunter too. Huntress just sounds like something out of Greek Mythology or whatever.
"Anyway, I'm not sure he approves." She grinned. "I swear, that kid was born 30 years old and gets more middle aged every year he lives. Whatever, though. He's all right with it. But yea, I do. Tell me, got any ideas on how I could do that?"
She shrugged. "I dunno. Does he have a girlfriend yet?" she pried, peeking into more of her cousin's shopping bags. Ooh, she'd have to buy those shoes. Angela made a note to go shopping in the near future - maybe she could con Jared out of some money if she promised to go to Victoria's Secret. Of course, last time she did that, she came home with about 10 different lipglosses and lotions, and he swore she was never going to fool him again.
She'd just try it anyways, maybe if he was drunk it would work.
"We could always try to get him to come to a party or something. I think he needs a girlfriend, though. I mean, I was a hermit. A mean hermit. Then I met Jared, and, you know. I stopped being... a hermit." She grinned. "I love that word. Hermit."
Hailee groaned expressively. "No, he doesn't. You'd think that he'd have had enough dates by now too, but not even really that. I mean, honestly. We've got to do something for that boy."
"You were more then just a mean hermit," Hailee teased. "Waaaaaay more. Way, way, way-" She laughed and ducked out of the way as Angela took a goodnatured swipe at her.* "But you're right. A girlfriend would be good for him."
Alex would have been horrified if he could have heard the two of them talking at that moment.
~*~*~
*) If not then tell me and I'll edit, it just... seemed like something they would do. O.o
"Ha," she cheered as Hailee ducked. "Maybe we could set him up or something. You should peep his phone and see if there are any girl's numbers in it. Or I could just set him up on a blind date," she offered, laughing.
"Maybe I can find some really beastly chick named Agnes. Wait, no, that would traumatize him. There has to be someone. Unless... you don't think..." she trailed off. What if Alex didn't like girls? Well, she could always set him up with Ape if that was the case! Of course, Angela didn't know Ape was dating Ritz.
It didn't take too long of Hailee looking at Angela in a puzzled sort of way for her to catch on to what the other witch was thinking. "Ohhh... But nah, he blushes too much around members of the opposite sex not to like girls." Her voice was rather thoughtful for a moment, and then glanced over at Angela and grinned. "It's sooo cute." She laughed.
"Checking out his phone sounds like a good idea though. And if that fails... well, all as I ask is that you don't set him up with 'some really beastly chick named Agnes.' Be nice to the poor boy." And that sentence would have seemed very nice, but it was followed after a moment by Hailee breaking into a rather evil grin and laughing.
~*~*~
Alex: Why me?
"Pshaw, whatever. I'm sure there's someone in his phone we can call and ambush. Maybe I'll write some poems and sign his name and dump them in random lockers.." she said, wiggling her fingers menacingly.
She balanced on one leg and bent her other at the knee, pulling it up to her rear and pressing against it, stretching herself out. Angela had a habit of being unable to stand still, not unless there was something very imparitive she needed to attend to.
"Oh! Mom says you two have to come over for, egh, Sunday dinner. Dad is apparently all about family time all of a sudden." She reached out and jabbed her. "Mom wants to talk to us about hunting stuff anyways, and I think she wants to drill Alex about when he's going to bring a girl over for dinner." She giggled.
She giggled at Angela's suggestions for Alex, but the Sunday dinner invite made her pull up short. "Really? Huh. I... thought your mom didn't approve of us. Ah well, whatever. I think that should be fine." It still felt kind of strange, almost uncomfortable - but these were her Arun relatives. If it had been Vidas she would have had a few choice things to say in response to such an invitation, none of which would be 'Goddess bless you.' Not that she honestly thought any of her Vida relatives would dare. Hailee and Alex were still part Vida and recognized as such, sure enough, but relationships weren't that good between them. Hailee didn't want to be stripped of her power and cast out of the clan formally - she had too many enemies who would jump at the chance to kill a witch who was no longer a witch - or at least who no longer had the power of one.
Gah. She was not another of the perfect, icy, ever so controlled daughters of Vida, nor did she have any wish to be - but one drop of Vida blood in your veins and they all expected you to pretend to be one. Not that you ever would be as good, of course, because it wasn't pure. Or, at least, that was how Hailee perceived their views. Hypocrites.
~*~*~
*gets to work catching up on all of her threads*
"My mom? Ah, no. You could be thinking of Reilly's dad, her brother. Uncle Thomas is, well... Mom got the good genetics on that one." She snorted. She hated that man. She didn't understand how he and her mother even shared any of the same DNA, but whatever. Thank god her own father wasn't like that... but then again any man who thought he'd tell an Arun woman what was up had another thing coming. Like a fist to his face.
"Rest assured he won't be present. Mom likes you guys, she just never has time for anything. She's been making these wicked huge doilies around the house. I don't know why. She likes to crochet suddenly. I think ever since Dad took a job in the city she's had a lot of time to bury herself into strange old-lady hobbies, which is odd, because she isn't THAT old. I think if she starts buying cats, it's time to lock her up."
"I... I guess," Hailee said, still feeling kind of strange. She laughed a little, deliberatly breaking some of the tension. "You Arun types are rebels. I don't think Dominique much cares for us." And it was a little unnerving to have something so normal happen as an aunt ask them over for Sunday dinner. It's just... it had been so long of it mostly being her and Alex, without any of their witch relatives. And before that it had been their parents, with the few rare exceptions of when someone came to visit or they when to visit one of them. It hadn't happened often, and the trips had often been somewhat uncomfortable affairs - they'd never really known anyone that well. Not well enough to be really comfortable, certainly.
"Yea, sure, we'll be there."
"Dominique doesn't even like her own kids, remember? She doesn't like anyone," she said, rolling her eyes. The Matriarch of the Witch lines had a habit of making everyone feel like they were left of center when it came to her, like they could never amount to her standards. If everyone only knew, heh.
"Anyways, I'd better get going. But Sunday, don't forget." She brushed herself off a little and looked down at her phone. "I'm supposed to go pick some crap up before I head out tonight. We should go to the mall sometime this week. Give me a call when you're free, I can just ditch class, okay?"
Angela was never the one to settle down and study.
"Yea - doesn't change the fact that when she says jump, everyone in the family pulls out their trampolines," Hailee said, a bit bitterly.
"Yea, sure, Sunday. And don't worry, I'll call you." Hailee tilted her head to the side a little. "You gotta go now, then? I probably should too."