Better than picking up dead cats

Who: Chance and Open
When: Early afternoon
Where: Lower Harbor Park

After therapy ended, Chance went to see Devon, feeling guilty for not having gone in awhile. Really, he had a summer's worth of time to make up for. So he sat there in the hospital room, like a dumbass, talking about everything that had happened since his last visit. If the nurse is right, if there is a possibility Devon could hear people speaking to him, Chance sort of hoping Devon would wake up just to tell him to shut the fuck up already. Unfortunately, it was just wishful thinking.

After arriving home, Chance had taken the small yellow package that was addressed to him upstairs to his room before his mom could start quizzing him on his session with Doc Elkelson. Inside of the package had been a Dreamcatcher. One that he hadn't ordered. It was pretty cool, but what was he suppose to do with it? The things were bunk. Chance nearly threw it away, but instead placed it on the table next to his bed. He didn't know who sent it, and he felt he shouldn't toss it until he knew it wasn't from maybe Jordan, or even his mom. So he left it there and grabbed his skateboard. It was a hot day, and while his mom mentioned earlier that morning about maybe going out to help clean up the dead cats, spending his afternoon scooping up stinky corpses didn't exactly appeal to Chance.

He rode to Lower Harbor Park, trying to shake off the sun's heat. He had a few problems finding the energy to grind properly, but eventually he fell into a decent rhythm. It'd been a couple days since he'd been on his board for more than just riding from point A to point B and it felt a bit freeing. He worked on the trick Kaysen had shown him - the one he had attempted and had ditched on like a moron. It was much, much better than picking up dead cats who were rotting in the streets, that was for damn sure.

Tensiel was silent and soaking wet as she sat by the skateboard park, legs dangling over the side of a concrete block, watching the hot blue sky and the park. She was tired, and probably looked a bit pale, but she felt accomplished. Since the Lockwoods hadn't been home, she'd vaccuumed the house (except Dorian's room) and made some sausage stew and cookies for them in case they were hungry when they got home. Then she'd cleaned the kitchen probably putting all the utensils in the wrong drawers, but she'd tried! and earlier this morning had gone to get her poor puked in, bled on truck.

Cleaning the poor thing had taken up most of her day so far. After basically gutting everything that hadn't orginally come with the truck (over half her possessions, in the end), she'd just rolled down the windows, opened the doors, and driven her prized blue truck through a carwash.

She'd been soaked too, of course. But at least her and her truck were clean. It was sitting off East Michigan St, drying in the sun too. Tensiel had only walked to where she was sitting because nobody had been around. Well, until now. Finger-combing some of her dark brown hair out her eyes she watched the teenage boy skateboarding not too far away, her blue-gray eyes a little envious of his board but her expression somewhat distant. He looked like he was having fun, and he was doing pretty well - now he had his routine. Even if Tensiel hadn't flash-fried her board she knew she couldn't be out doing that right now, not with the stitches still in her belly still pulling and itching, and her body feeling a bit tired and weak still, after all the excitement of Wednesday and the energy drain everything in and around that cat attack had been. Speaking of which... didn't she recognize him?

"Were you at the bonfire on Wednesday?" she called curiously, once he landed a neat flip and wasn't likely to fall flat on his face turning around to talk to her.

Chance landed his board with a loud clap on the ground, silently pleased that he had pulled off Kaysen's trick without falling, or tripping off onto the ground.

He heard the question and pushed around on his board to look at the girl to make sure she was actually talking to him. Not that there were many people around, but it was rare for someone to actually approach him.

"Huh?" He stopped, one foot on his board as he studied her face. She did look vaguely familiar. "Oh, yeah, I was there. Fires, S'mores, and crazy, possessed cats and a lot of shrieking. Ah, good times," he added with a wistful, yet sarcastic grin. "I don't think I met you though." He pushed his left foot slightly to roll his board toward her. "And you've gotta be new around here, because I don't think I've seen you at school either."

The little angel shrugged slightly and half-smiled at him. "I have to agree with everything you just said, especially about the smores." She looked at the guy, who had very green eyes and realized that that was how she'd recognized him. Hm. Odd, especially since they'd sort-of-met at night.

Cool. She kicked her heels off the block she was sitting on with a pair of disjointed little taps. Some water squelched out of them. "I got here uhm... a little while ago. Marquette's nice, even with the stuff that's been trying to kill me. D'you live here?"

His eyes fell to the drips of water falling out of her shoes as she hit them against the block. Now that he was actually paying attention, her hair was damp too. What, had she been swimming in the lake or something?

His eyebrow arched curiously, but he dragged his gaze from her feet to her face at her question. "Yeah, I've lived here for about eight years or so, I think. I guess rabid cats aren't exactly what Marquette considered a welcome wagon for their new residents." He looked back at her feet. "Might dry faster if you take off your shoes."

"Oh there was stuff before the rabid cats," Tensiel replied, easing her foot up carefully so she could untie her shoelace. Because he was right, actually, that was a good plan. As she picked at her shoelaces and took her blue chucks off to sit next to her, along with her one sock (hadn't been able to find another one this morning) she kept talking away. "But this place is probably worth it. Oh, hey, everybody was okay after that thing with the cats - weren't they?" She let her bare feet dropped and looked over at him with her eyes showing concern. "I mean, nobody died or lost an eye or something? I never heard."

His brows furrowed together as he watched her take off her wet shoes and - one - sock. It didn't seem strange to her that she was sitting in a park, wet, and wearing one sock. Immediately Chance pegged her as weird - but not in a bad way. He was weird in his own way too, after all. Maybe she'd explain why it looked like she took a shower fully clothed - or maybe not. It wasn't even his business, after all.

"Um, I dunno, I think everyone is okay. None of the people who were there are really my friends, so I couldn't tell you for sure." He flipped his board up with his shoe and grabbed it with his fingers. He felt kind of lame admitting that. He didn't feel lame that they weren't his friends, but it made him look a bit moronic to be at a bonfire that he didn't really belong at. "Sorry. I guess you could call uh, Lullaby. She could probably fill you in better than I could."

A relieved look crossed Tensiel's face, brightening her eyes a bit. If anybody had been seriously injured or killed (if Leija hadn't recovered, or Journey and Jezebelle hadn't made it) then it would be big news in this town. Even to somebody who wasn't their friend.

"Thanks, I guess I will just to make sure," she said with a nod. That taken care of, she couldn't help feeling a bit better. "I didn't know too many people at the bonfire either, but fire is neat and there were s'mores." She looked at the boy she was talking to, taking a moment to examine him curiously now she could see him in the daylight. He seemed kind of interesting, and Tensiel was quietly proud of having remembered his face. "I'm Tensiel, by the way," she said, holding out a damp hand. "What's your name?"

So she was new. It was like an influx of new kids into Marquette and Chance secretly wondered if like, the government, or someone, was trying to overrun the town with teenagers. Forget the zombie apocalypse! Kaysen would be throwing her machete at hormonal braindead teens. She'd love it.

Not that Tensiel was a braindead teen by any means. In fact, most of the new kids he'd met were actually pretty cool. So far. Things changed quickly once school started and influences begun.

"Hi," Chance replied, reaching out to take her hand. It was damp, like the rest of her, but he gripped it tightly anyway. "I'm Chance. And since we're formally introduced, I gotta ask ya...what's with the, er, wet shoes and stuff?"

Tensiel glanced down at her damp jeans and her wet t-shirt, then back up at Chance and shrugged a little bit. "Oh, I had to clean out the inside of my truck so I rolled down the windows and cracked open the doors and drove through the car wash." She gestured off in the direction her truck was parked in, not sure if it was visible or not and not turning to check. "I've never been through a car wash before, but for five dollars I guess we're both clean."

"Huh?" The story seemed so ridiculous that he was sure she was fucking with him. Then again, he remembered Jezebelle and her complete naivety toward electronics. Reaching a hand up to scratch at the nape of his neck, he eyed her closely even as he resisted the urge to smile at her. "Uh, you're not really...suppose to go through the car wash with your windows down and your doors open. They have, like, interior washes available too. And the shit they use on the cars could probably wreak havoc on your skin. Chemicals and shit."

"Oh." Tensiel frowned in slight contemplation of that fact. Well, nobody had stopped her and there hadn't been any signs prohibiting what she'd done... that she'd bothered to read. Ah. Oh well! At least she'd ducked when they used those high-pressure jet things. Her expression cleared and she shoved some strands of dark wet hair out her face from how they'd fallen into her eyes. "Well, I got rinsed off pretty good at the end. Hopefully I won't turn purple or something later from the car shampoo...." She trailed off and looked down at her hands. No, not purple. Not even any colour other than normal.

So it was fine! She looked up at Chance and tipped her head at his skateboard. "You look good on your board. How long have you been doing tricks?"

"Ah, well, maybe not purple, but if you start to like, itch or get rashes, I'd see a doctor." Okay, so he couldn't stop the smile now. He grinned widely at her, the situation fairly amusing to him. He only hoped she wouldn't take offense to it. He was just picturing her driving a truck through the car wash and trying to avoid getting pelted with high pressured jets.

"Thanks." Chance paused to control the waver of laughter in his voice. "I've been skateboarding since I was a kid. I started when I was like, seven I think. Do you board?"

Tensiel filed away the probability of rashes and itches for later (and was thankful her truck couldn't get afflicted with such things) and lifted an eyebrow for Chance's amusement. She couldn't help smiling a little bit too, it was easier when she was speaking with somebody she made laugh.

"Yep. Well, I did. I lost my board in uhm... a sort of accident. Flamey accident. But I'm saving up for a new one." And a place to live, and money for food, but a new skateboard was on the list before more clothes - that was for sure. She reached over and gently prodded one of the wheels of his board, making it slowly turn for a moment. "You'll have lots of practice if you started at seven. I only started this year when I came to America. The towns and cities here are just made for it. It's really neat."

Chance noted the wistfulness in her eyes as she touched the skateboard and he wondered just what kind of flamey accident she was talking about. The girl seemed a bit accident prone, given how she'd been talking since he met her. But if she was, it didn't seem to faze her much.

"I did get a lot of practice. I think I lived on my skateboard for years. It was the only way I wanted to get from one place to another. Drove my mom crazy. Where'd you live before Marquette?"

Imagining Chance's mother pulling him around on a skateboard by a piece of string, Tensiel smiled a little bit and rubbed the side of her nose. "I lived everywhere. My parents travel for their work. Not many places with sidewalks though, or else maybe I would have driven my parents crazy too."

She looked at Chance's green eyes and wondered why she hadn't really encountered him before. Caleb and Lullabye in turn had put her in touch with a lot of the other teenagers, but he said he didn't really know them. He was neat, so she wondered why that could be. Maybe he had his own group of friends.

"I do like it here, though. Especially now I know people skateboard, it's always more fun with things like concrete and company."

"Well, there's plenty places around here to skateboard. It's how I get to school, most days, unless it's snowing. And there's some really cool places around the middle school, and behind some of the local businesses. I know a few people who board, so maybe I could introduce you to them."

Kaysen would probably freak out if he tried to introduce them. Antisocial didn't even begin to describe her, but she seemed okay with Charlie, so maybe meeting a couple new people to town would be good for her. Chance was learning it was easier to get to know them than the kids he'd gone to school with for years.

"So your parents are settled in Marquette for the time being?"

It was odd, how now thinking of her parents didn't hurt as much as it had just at the start of this week. It didn't really hurt too much at all. She needed to find Eli and hug him for giving her the phone she now had, because thanks to it she'd been able to call them out in Indonesia for the first time in over a month... and now even though she missed them just as much they didn't feel so far away.

So she shook her head a little, reaching over to flip her sole sock as it was sundried next to her. "They're still travelling. They have to, for work." They always would have to, and soon so would she - but maybe not yet. For now she was here, she was fighting to stay here, and she wanted to have reasons to stay. Like Caleb and Eli. Friends. She looked at Chance and told the truth. "It's just me here. But it's alright. I've got some friends."

Chance didn't quite understand the concept of missing parents. He missed his dad, but he'd died so long ago that it was sort of just a dull ache every now and then when he thought about it. His mom? He actually preferred it when she wasn't home and he wished she'd travel for work and leave him be for awhile.

"So, wait, you're on your own?" He thought of Jezebelle and wondered if Tensiel was in the same boat - only without the wings. "Your parents are okay with that?" It wasn't his business but he was curious - and envious.

"More or less," Tensiel replied, tipping her head and looking curiously at him. It was strange to her, that now she better understood why people got so preoccupied with the question of what she was doing on her own. Caleb and Dorian had certainly had plenty to ask, and she supposed it was a sign of how much staying with them had changed her that she knew better how to answer these questions. "And I'm not completely on my own, two of my friends are letting me stay with them for a little while until I can afford my own place."

She tilted her head a bit, an idea occurring to her. If Chance had lived here a long time, maybe he knew about where to find a cheap place to live. He'd have noticed if anywhere new had popped up lately too, right? "Do you know anywhere that's worth looking in to for renting a room?"

Chance looked away thoughtfully. Jezebelle had been staying with a friend too. That stuff was always so temporary, especially which you could easily wear out your welcome. But how many teenage girls could afford renting a room?

"I guess that depends on if you're looking for something temporary, or more permanent. Temporary, Venture motel is pretty cheap. Permanent? There are a couple of apartment complexes in town that have a decent rent rate, but unless you have a damn good job, I'm not sure how long you'd last before you were broke." He wished he could be more help, but he didn't know many teenagers able to live on their own, especially ones in school.

Mentally recording those names and places, Tensiel nodded but gave Chance a little shake of her head to say not to worry about it. "Thanks, Chance. It'll work out." She kicked her heels gently off the concrete block, feeling that her feet were now dry with some interest. "This 'settling down' thing is complicated, but Marquette's interesting enough to be worth it. Plus there's skateboards."

She squiggled her toes and smiled a bit at Chance. "You were right, they did dry faster."

"See? I know what I'm talking about," Chance boasted with a grin. "Though I wouldn't always recommend going through a car wash, or anything that'll soak you through, and letting the wet clothes dry on ya. You could get sick, or something." At least that's what he'd always been taught. "And now that I know you skateboard, you should come around and show me what you can do sometime." It would be nice to know more people in town who might share the same interests he did.

Tensiel didn't tell him she wasn't likely to get sick from damp clothes, being an angel, but she appreciated he was giving kind advice - so she nodded for the inherent wisdom of it.

Had to smile a bit for the invitation to go skateboarding sometime, though. It was an opportunity she'd gladly take up as soon as she could, and a really nice sign that this town was making itself more and more worth the grief she was putting herself through to stay. When she had Caleb and Chance and Leija and the others to practice with she hoped she could make a decent friend (she had a feeling she'd been getting it wrong with Caleb lately and was keen to try and fix it). She just had to try harder, and learn.

"That would be really fun," Tensiel told him truthfully. She wasn't one for showing off, but she liked learning from other people. "Maybe by next week I'll have enough saved for a new board." And maybe by then she'd be physically fit enough to be tearing around on it. Plus the skateboard had just bumped food off the list of things to buy for herself, being as it was now an investment in potential friendship. "Are you usually here boarding?" After all, she'd need to know where to find him again!

Chance knew about trying to make a decent friend. He was lucky enough to have Jordan, and Jezebelle - and he even felt that he could hang with Taylor as well. Yeah, they were all girls - and he missed having Devon around for that reason - but he couldn't complain about it. He had no reason too.

"I am usually here, yeah. Really, you might see me all over. I get bored in one spot after awhile, so I sort of move on." Chance glanced at his board for a moment before setting it on the ground and rolling it toward her with his foot. "You can take my board. I have more than one." And he found he didn't mind giving them away lately. "And if you're on your own, you should probably worry more about a roof over your head and food and stuff."

Tensiel blinked in surprise, but her bare toes went down automatically to press on the scratchy surface of the board's grip and catch it. She looked at Chance, then down at the board, and then eased off the wall to lean down and pick the board up, holding it like it was made of gold with platinum wheels. "Wh-- really?" she looked up at Chance, who seemed a good bit taller now that she was standing instead of up on the block, and managed to find her voice properly. "Chance, thank you!" A skateboard! A skateboard! Tensiel grinned and spinned one of the wheels eagerly. "Wow! Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I am." Even if he wasn't, he was now. Because she looked happy and it was rare when he could make a girl smile rather than scowl or cry. He almost felt like Santa Claus. "I have a bunch of them at home, so it's no loss." And even if it was, he had plenty of money to buy another. She, however, didn't. "It's pretty broken in, so you shouldn't have any problems with it. Just, don't like take it through a car wash if you ever get it dirty," he joked with a smile.

"I won't. I'll take really good care of it," she promised firmly, spinning another wheel and peering all around the board in her hands as though it was some fantastic Rubix cube with all sorts of secrets in it. Broken in was great, because that was when her last board had been at its best. And oh wow! There was some sort of unparalleled generosity of fun in Chance just giving her a skateboard like that. They'd only just learned each others' names - suppose it was influence of that 'q' in Marquette again - and she figured it was proof that skateboarding was one of those bonding-friendy-things she'd been looking for.

"Does it have a name?" she asked, curiously, peering up at him. You never knew, after all.

Maybe the old Chance would have never considered giving her his skateboard. The "old" Chance would have probably not really taken the time to talk to her at all. But "dying" sort of put certain areas into perspective. And in all honesty, if he was going to be around for as long as he thought - he saw no problem in giving away his possessions. Besides, Chance sort of hoped that when the time came for the usual rumors to make their way around school about his reputation, she'd remember he was a somewhat decent guy who hello, gave her his skateboard.

"No name," Chance said with a grin. "I do have one at home named Tassie." Thanks to Mac naming it for him. "But this one has gone far too long nameless, so it's all yours to name as you please, Tensiel."

Chance didn't have to worry about what Tensiel would make of his schoolyard repuation - after all, she'd never spent any time in a school or its yard, so she'd make what she wanted out of it when her turn came. And so far as Tensiel Smith was concerned, Chance's name came with gold stars attached.

She'd probably have hugged him in thanks for his sharing, but that maybe didn't fly so much with people who weren't Eli (Caleb was so twitchy about the touching, she wasn't gonna chance it here). So she beamed cheerfully up at Chance, looking a lot more like herself than she had done for a while (since she lost her last skateboard, actually) and hugged her brand-broken-in-new skateboard instead. "Okay, well I only named my truck 'Truck'. So lemme see..."

Tensiel gently dropped the board down, stepped onto it, and cruised sedately for a moment to get the feel of how to lean and corner with it. Her stitches felt okay, so she dared a stronger kick-off and got enough speed to perform a quick kickflip which landed just fine. Tensiel didn't have much polish to her technique, but she had enthusiasm and it showed. She rode back over to Chance and smiled at him, clearly elated to have a way to play again. "I think I'd better call him Flip. And he's a great skateboard, Chance." She grinned at him and pushed her stray dark hair back out her eyes. "Now you've gotta come visit Mya's Diner when I'm on shift so I can feed you for a thank you." She wondered if he was a waffles or a pancake guy, and hoped he'd show up at the diner sometime so she could find out.

Chance probably wouldn't have minded a hug - had she tried it. He really wasn't sure the last time he'd been hugged in that kind of manner anyway. But really, her enthusiasm was enough and he watched as she did a kickflip and rode back to him.

"Flip it is. It's a good name." He glanced at his board - odd that girls seemed to want to name certain things. Cars, skateboards...he'd never really given that sort of thing much thought, but if it made them happy, then that was fine with him. "You work at Mya's?" he asked, wondering if he'd ever saw her there. He couldn't place her face at the diner, but it was good to know now. "I'll definitely be in then. Love that place's fries to be honest."

Perfect. Tensiel nodded agreement and smiled cheerfully, happy as anything to be on a skateboard again - stationary or not. "I'm going back to work tomorrow, I work eight til four in the afternoon, six til two on Wednesdays. Then I'm off til Saturday. But I work tables and orders, and sometimes even in the kitchen - when it's safe - so I'm there. If you come in I can give you a bunch of fries or whatever you'd like no matter what time it is."

That would be really good. Mya allowed her staff to feed their friends on special occassions for hardly anything, and this was a special occassion if ever there had been one. Leija had definitely deserved something when she visited her there, and so would Chance. Definitely.

Chance slipped his hands into his pockets, watching her on the board as he mentally filed away her work schedule. At least she seemed to know the best way to say thank you to a teenage boy was with food. Well, it was one of the best ways.

"Awesome, then I'll have to take you up on the offer. And I'll definitely take the big plate of fries. Seems like a decent trade for the skateboard." At least to him!

"Great," Tensiel chimed, perfectly pleased. She wanted to give Chance something to reciprocate his totally unwarranted kindness, so this was good! Plus it meant she could hang around with him some more if the diner wasn't crazy busy when he came by. Tensiel had just discovered she couldn't help but like somebody who gave you a skateboard because they figured you very essentially needed one, but not so much that you shouldn't be buying yourself rent or meals. It was a balance of logics that worked nicely in her brain, and gave her the unconscious impression that Chance might be somebody she actually got in some small way. Eventually, maybe. Tensiel had trouble getting people - and now that she was forming relationships with others in Marquette she was realizing that it was a handicap she'd best beat. Maybe she was on her way!

Or maybe she was just wheel-happy. Either way, she wasn't silent and tired anymore - so she set Flip the skateboard up on the concrete block and went to drag her dry sock and drier shoes back on over her dirt-smudged feet. Skateboarding barefoot wasn't exactly reccommended, after all. "Meantime, can you show me some more of those neat tricks you were doing?" She looked over at him and picked up Flip, wiggling him enticingly. "I should learn to know the local manners and specialities, right?"

Maybe Chance and Tensiel had more in common than he really thought. Because he didn't really get many people either, and most of the time, he didn't care too. Only certain people got his attention and interest enough that he wanted to get to know them - and Tensiel seemed to be one of them. He'd think about it later, that all the people he met and had begun building some kind of relationship with this summer were female.

"I think that would be a good idea for all newbies to the town," Chance agreed. "I can show you some of my tricks, no problem. If I ditch, don't judge me. I seem to do that often when I have an audience." Or when the sun was high and hot like it was today.

Handing the board over, Tensiel shook her head. "I never judge. Well, I try really hard not to." That was for bloody certain, it inevitably led to horrible trouble with her being what she was. But she wasn't thinking about that right now, she didn't have to - there was skateboarding and a new friend. She smiled a little bit up at him, "So let's see what you've got."

She pulled herself back up to sit on the block she'd started at, a perfectly good vantage point for watching Chance at the rails, her shoelaces dangling heedlessly untied and her hand idly rubbing at her healing stitches on her stomach. They'd come out soon, and as she watched Chance taking off in the sunshine and cheered inside for each trick he pulled, she decided that soon wasn't soon enough.