hooking up the dynamic duo

Who: Tad, Kaysen and Porter
Where: Kaysen's house
When: midday

Try as hard as he could Tad could not sit still long enough to do anything all morning. He'd tried at least three different video games, tried getting a jump start on his project with Dean or the other homework that was piling up, tried just dancing around his room to loud music and none of it worked. He was still jittery and completely unfocused. Giving up he grabbed his bike and did his best to brave the weather and less than ideal road conditions to just wander around town.

Fifteen minutes into his wandering he realized he'd taken himself over to the Ridge, which was where Kaysen lived. He pedaled up and down the street debating over which house was hers, and if just showing up unannounced would be a reasonable idea. She'd seemed less than thrilled when she agreed to be his friend, but she'd agreed so that had to stand for something right? Taking a closer look he noticed one of the mailboxes actually had her last name on the side of it and he figured what the hell? Worse that could happen is she accused him of stalking her and sent him home never to speak to him again. It would put him back at square one but at least it was familiar territory.

Dropping his bike about halfway up the drive he crossed the rest of the yard on foot. When he got the door he rang the bell and waited, a little on edge, to see who'd open the door. I hope she's home.

It happened to be Kaysen who opened the door, which was likely a good thing. Or, at least, she considered it as such. Her mom still gave her weird looks when people came over, and then she got a grilling session on who they were, and all sorts of crap. It was kind of nice on some levels that her parents had decided that they had two kids instead of just their golden boy Isaac, but at the same time, Kaysen occasionally missed flying under the radar far more than she was able to now. When she looked at Tad, the first clear sort of expression going on was confusion. Like maybe Tad was lost. "Er...hi?" she said, sounding terribly unsure, and she even ducked her head out to look around, trying to spot the group of people waiting to leap out and point and laugh. Or...some other paranoid scenario.

"Hey," Tad answered as he followed her eyes and turned to look behind him as well expecting to see someone else on the stoop. Reassured that there was no one there but him, he turned back to Kaysen. "How's it going?" His gaze dropped to his shoes and he realized he hadn't actually thought this little plan out very far in advance. "I was you know in the area, thought I might see if you were home." No, not very far in advance at all because that sounded completely moronic.

"Really?" she asked, automatically, the whole thing not passing through her brain before she spoke. But then that happened to Kaysen a lot. Her mouth/brain connection was faulty at best. "Um, I mean..." she said in a particularly ungraceful cover. "Hi. And...um. Okay?" she suggested. "What's up? Is the world ending?" she asked. And then thought maybe she shouldn't have asked that last bit, because he might think she was kidding. Then she wondered if it was probably better for him to think she was kidding than serious, and she was just overthinking the shit out of this wasn't she.

"As far as I know the world is intact. At least it seemed that way when I was headed over here." Tad paused and looked up at her. "Does the world have to be ending for me to show up?" There was a joking tone, but part of him worried that she might actually say yes. One of those snowball's chance in hell of hanging out on his terms kind of things. "Seriously I was just bored and figured I'd see what you were up to."

"Well, you kinda never know." she said. Then fidgeted where she was standing, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "Well, come in I guess..." she said, stepping back. Not the warmest of welcomes, but she was still thrown, and wasn't quite sure what to think. Plus, she wasnt' the most socially aware girl in the world, so she wasn't sure what to do. And vaguely, she wondered if Chance would take massive offense, or what, and if he did what she'd say, or if he even had a say, and if they were even still together, or what. She was chock full of not knowing. "I'm not doing anything that entertaining." she offered, shoving her hands into her back pockets to stop herself from fidgeting with the cuff around her wrist, or something. "I'm kinda y'know. Boring."

Tad smiled and walked into the house. "You will be the first person I call in the event of the end of the world, promise." Once inside he kicked off his chucks and unzipped his hoodie. He took stock of the much larger house and worried briefly what she'd thought standing in his foyer a few days before. "Nice place." His gaze dropped back to her from the crown moulding. "Boring works for me. I'm boring too. Am relieved you're home and all. I got worried out there on the stoop you'd be out with Chance or...Porter right?"

"Yeah, Porter. Not sure what he's up to." she said honestly. "I haven't talked to him in a while." Not that that was unusual. It wasn't like they were bffs. "And thanks..." she said a little late, about the house. "Um..." she paused, trying to think of where to go hang. Her parents were home, and she would like to avoid the living shit out of them if possible. "Wanna go upstairs?" she asked, sounding like she wasn't at all sure about that herself. She just didn't know where else to take the guy, considering. Maybe the garage, but that was kinda a weird place to hang out.

"Upstairs works." He didn't ask which person it was she hadn't talked to in a while, Porter or Chance, because she'd gotten pretty upset the last time he brought Chance up and the last thing Tad wanted to risk was her looking so hurt again. His smile remained in place, doing his best to reassure her that she didn't need to make a big deal. "Lead the way," he said, sweeping his arms in front of him to let her go in front of him.

She still wasn't sure about this shit. It wasn't like she had people over and up to her room all the time or anything, so it was offically weird. But, whatever, she was just making it more weird by acting like it was weird, right? Right. Whatever. So, she walked quietly back towards the stairs, and when she got there, she dashed up them fast, taking them two at a time til she was at the top. Her room was the first on the left, and she ducked inside, peeking out into the hall and down the steps, waiting for Tad to follow her.

Kaysen's room was kind of a weird place to be. It was rather large, had a window seat that overlooked the front yard and street, there were unlit candles everywhere, various punk things, skateboard things, a shelf with a bunch of well worn books on them. She had a small televison which was on her dresser, and her dresser was slightly strange because it quite obviously at one point had had a huge mirror attached to it--but the mirror was missing now. Her bed was decked out in black and white, with little round yinyang pillows on it. There was also a grey cat peeking out from beneath the bed, watching the door curiously.

He scrambled to keep up with her up the stairs, and then across the hall into her room. He paused in the doorway, taking the room in. It seemed to fit her with her skateboard paraphenalia and black and white theme. The grey cat underneath the bed didn't really seem to fit Kaysen, but then again he didn't really know her that well. She just seemed like a dog person to him. This was all coming from the kid who'd never even had a hamster though, so he wasn't terribly good at matching people to their pets.

"You break the mirror?" Tad asked as he gestured to the dresser and let himself into the room. He bent down to see if he could get the cat to come out from under the bed, but wary that it might be one of those "attack cats" and the last thing he needed was claw marks to go with his bruised face. "Does he have a name?"

She went to sit on the window seat, watching him try to coax Edison out. "'Course he has a name." she said, rolling her eyes a little. "He doesn't just hang out without a name. Who would do that? His name's Edison." she told him, a little curious if Edison was actually going to cooperate and go see Tad. Then that question was answered when he did, deciding to go check the guy out, and possibly get free pets out of the deal. She ignored his question about the mirror, because what could she say? 'hey, yeah, remember when the weird shadow monsters showed up and like, came out of mirrors? I was trapped there before, behind them, for a long time and it sucked really bad and we kinda thought Kurt was going to have to kill our asses or whatever and after that I've had a real icky feeling around any mirrors so Isaac took it out of the house for me' really probably wasn't going to fly.

"In Breakfast at Tiffany's she just calls her cat 'Cat', so you could have been like that." The cat crawled most of the way out and sniffed his hand. "Hey there, Edison," Tad said talking to the cat. When the cat seemed content that Tad was safe enough, he ducked his head under Tad's hand for pets. Tad obligied and looked up at Kaysen. "Edison, as in Thomas? or something else?"

"You've seen Breakfast at Tiffany's?" Kaysen asked. That was a flick she'd only ever heard the title of. Like, she knew it existed, but she couldn't say what it was. Besides it sounded like a chickflick to her, and she wasn't a chickflick sort of girl. Generally they annoyed the piss out of her. "As in Thomas." she clarified for him. "...he's a smart cat." she made a lame attempt to explain, like she needed to justify what she'd named her cat. Then she had a brief fit of self consciousness and wondered if that was a really stupid name for a cat or something. Probably. She'd never had pets until Charlie had given her Edison.

Was having seen Breakfast at Tiffany's entirely not cool? Tad wasn't really sure and he didn't know much about being cool in general. "Sure I've seen it. I live with my grandmother, we watch a lot of old movies. Plus Truman Capote wrote the story it's based off of and he's pretty cool in that totally wacked out crazy kind of way. He's the one Harper Lee based the crazy kid who lived next door in To Kill a Mockingbird after." Tad glanced away because he realized he was rambling on about books and old movies and sounded like a complete nerd.He turned his focus to Edison who was purring happily. "Sounds like a good name for a smart cat. Edison was a smart dude."

She listened to the whole ramble about books and movies, and knew she'd heard the names and such before. Then she landed on it. "Wasn't there a movie about that guy?" she asked. "Capote? Like he was really weird and a writer guy and he did this book about these guys who'd randomly killed some family or whatever, and...it was weird." she recalled. "I remember he talked funny." Then she paused. "...funny weird-gay, not funny ha-ha."

"Yea the movie was about him. I think that's was got me reading about him. I mean I'd seen the other movie with my Grams but then I got curious and the more I looked into it the more interesting it got. His other book, In Cold Blood? It's totally wacked out, it's the one they talk about in the movie you mentioned." Tad relinquished his pets with Edison and stood up because he'd felt awkward kneeling on the floor while Kaysen sat on her window seat. Only now that he was standing he felt even more awkward just standing. He shifted his weight slightly from his toes to heels and back again. "So if you weren't terribly busy and such, I was hoping I could talk to you about something."

"Yeah, I remember." Kaysen said, thinking about it. "In Cold Blood. But it got all wacky." She said. Then she paused, looking a touch surprised. "Um...sure?" she suggested. "Um...sit down...er...wherever." she said, not quite sure where he should sit, since it wasn't like she had an over abundance of seating in her room, but that was hardly the issue. "But yeah, er...you sure you wanna talk to me?" she asked, nervous. "You can--I'm not saying you can't because you totally can if you want to and shit, just like, if you want advice or something, I'm not the best source in the world, I kinda suck and I'm irrational and like...I dunno. Stuff. Er...what was it?"

He did his best to stifle the chuckle when she went all rambling and unsure. There was something rather adorable in that funny way about her when she went off like that. Tad opted for sitting on the bed, twisting so he faced Kaysen instead of joining her on the window seat. Sitting there seemed like it would give off the impression he wanted to talk about them when that wasn't the case at all. "So you remember yesterday when we were talking about my parents and how they're dead? You said something about looking for their ghosts or whatever, you know with all this crazy spirit stuff going on lately. I know you kind of just said it off hand or whatever, but I was wondering if you might actually know about anything of that nature. Spirits or ghosts or whatever."

OH. Well, that was something she could kinda talk about. Maybe. Hopeuflly it just didn't make her sound batshit insane. Which...well, she should face it, she did that sometimes. She hadn't been kidding with the whole irrational thing. "Um. Not specifically...." she said. "But...I dunno. I know some stuff. And like, I dunno, there's this bookstore downtown. That's got books about...er...this kinda shit." she said, knowing she was tripping all over her words, she just couldnt' help it. She wondered if Thom would kick her ass if she mentioned that she knew someone who did white magic and maybe he knew. Hrm.

"Nevermore? Yea I know about it. Dean and I were planning on hitting it up for our history report so I mean i can always look at that sort of stuff while I'm there I guess." Tad paused because why he'd really planned on asking Kaysen about this whole lot of stuff was a mixture of crazy and weird. "I dunno I guess I just thought you might know something, first hand or you know someone else. I was thinking about it all last night and I'm two steps from asking that kinda goofy kid with the long blonde hair about it since he's like jumping on the ghost's rights bandwagon or whatever." The last part was a joke. Kind of. Ok it was like half a joke, but he was really running out of idea on his end.

She paused. "...why would you think I'd know?" she asked, wondering if she had a neon sign above her head that said 'fire elemental' or something. Or if she just gave off the idea taht she was knowledgeble about that kind of shit. Which...she was kinda. Just not full fledged or anything. Mostly she was just really aware of how crappy things could get. "You always could. I don't know him or anything, but...I dunno. Maybe he does knwo somethign about spirits since he's going on about their rights and whatever. I kinda...I mean...I dunno." she said, tripping over things, unsure what was acceptable to share. "I've...kinda seen a few things, I guess."

Tad panicked that he'd offended her right off the bat. "No, I just, you mentioned it. You were talking about it like it was you know, whatever. Sorry." He wanted to chuck the whole conversation, call it a day and tell her to forget about it, and then approach the Jesse kid (yea he knew his name, even if he didn't mention it before) on his own. It was stupid to think Kaysen might come with him anyway right? But then she mentioned seeing things. "Seen things? What kind of things?"

Well shit. Now she had to answer. And she really, totally didn't know what it was she should say, either. Crap, crap, crap. "I um...I dunno. Things. The world it's kinda...messed up, and...um...with stuff, and..." Wow! Was she ever doing a spectacularly poor job of this! She deserved a prize for 'least coherent or helpful statement ever'. "...well, like..." she tried again. "I dunno. Just like, whatever, things are different than they seem." she went with. Which was still stupidly unhelpful.

He laughed, even though it probably wasn't the most appropriate reaction. "That was beyond vague. You just said essentially nothing I hadn't already guessed on my own." Because he had guessed that everything was different than it seemed. It felt like it was different than it seemed. Tad guessed though that Kaysen was stumbling because she didn't want to talk about it and he' just put her on the spot. "You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to or whatever. I was just curious," he apologized feeling embarrassed to the point where it showed on his face. "I wasn't trying to put you on the spot or whatever."

"It's okay, it's just...weird to talk about." Kaysen admitted. "Things're crazy in the first place, and just saying out loud like that kinda makes it sound even worse." she went on. "Like, y'know, admitting you know it was vampires that ransacked the town and not some stupid 'gang' really just isn't the way to go in a conversation, y'know?" she asked, hoping he didn't look at her like she was insane.

Staring at her like she might be insane was one way Tad dropped-jawed, almost glassy-eyed look could be interpreted. It wasn't accurate though, he didn't think she was insane at all. What she'd said had just blown his mind. Vampires. Not gangs, but vampires. "Real fucking vampires? The undead kind and not just crazies who think they're vampires?" Probably a little too direct, but the lead-in thoughts hadn't really managed to follow through with words. "Oh. My. God. You're not just shitting me are you?" Kaysen wouldn't joke with him like that right? Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered briefly how his grandmother would react to the news considering she'd flipped out so hard at the time and wouldn't let him leave the house.

Wincing, Kaysen ducked her head a little, really not liking being in the position to go crack someone's reality like that. It had certainly sucked for her. Like, insanely so. Whole worlds of suck going on there. "No, I'm not shitting you." she told him. Cuz that was all she could manage at the moment, she wasn't exactly getting into huge detail just now. Or possibly ever, it wasn't like she was a card carrying member of the 'I know about the supernatural, ask me how!' club or anything.

"Fuck." It was the best Tad could manage with his thoughts racing all over the place. Vampires. Real vampires. His mind blazed past all the creatures he'd read about in books, he'd studied on his own time. All of that could be real. Every last thing that went bump in the night. Tad's reality was cracked alright, but not cracked broken. It was more like a cracked wide open and the silly little egg he'd been living in crumbled apart to reveal a whole new and exciting world around him. "Wow, this is epic Kaysen. Beyond epic. You know what this could mean?"

"...you don't really want me to guess an answer there." Kaysen told him. "So, why don't you go ahead and let me know what it could mean." Since she coudl fill in the blank with a ton of things, but she didn't figure any of them were relevant. So! She opted for the part where she just let him do it since he obviously had something in mind.

"Well the question was essentially rhetorical anyway." Tad was starting to get his senses in order and his sense of humor was returning with it. "It means that all the something more I've been waiting to happen? It's been happening, I just didn't know it." Perhaps it was just him being a little dreamy but realizing that this whole supernatural side of things could be true opened up miles of possibilities. His parents, what if they were out there as spirits? Or even if they weren't, what if their lives had been rooted in this supernatural stuff too? It was a ridiculous thought and he knew it, but deep down he was still a kid who grew up knowing nothing about his parents and desperate to learn something more, something new.

Oh. Right. Rhetorical type questions. Sure. "Well...yeah." she agreed. "Not sure I'd be all that like...yay, excited seeming about it, like you seem to be, but whatever. Mostly it's more scary type stuff. Like 'hey, oh, right, there's shit out there that could rip my face off, and they probably want to and everything'." she said. But then that was her own take.

She was probably right about it being scary but mostly Tad just found it exciting. There were real live bad guys out there that could be fought. Not that he knew anything about that sort of thing, but some determination was building in him to figure out how to fight it. It was like being awake for the first time in 17 years. Looking back at Kaysen, he realized she was not sharing his excitement at all. "I'm acting like a complete freak aren't I?"

Kaysen didn't say anything for a moment. Not for a long moment, even. Then, she looked over, and decided to share something, just for a bit of perspective for him. "Like, this summer, before I knew much, I was helping out some people. Me and my brother, and Thom, we went, and like...we got caught. Like in this parallell place? It had windows we could see out of, but it was just...empty corridors. I guess the 'windows' were mirrors. And we couldn't get out. And we were there for days, and there was this guy with us. Kurt? And we all had to seriously consider him just shooting us all, because there was no way out, and all there was was endless nothing." she said. "I know what it sounds like to listen to vampires screaming as they burn. Forgive me if I'm not all 'zoh my god! Cool!' about it all."

"Kayce," Tad got up from the bed and moved to sit next to her on the window seat. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make light of it." He wanted to put his arm around her, because he could tell that remembering what had happened was hard on her, but with Kaysen being Kaysen, there was no good way to tell if a gesture of that nature would help any. Instead he looked at the space where the mirror should have been on her dresser, finally understanding why it was gone. "There's got to be people out there trying to stop it right? I mean the really bad stuff. The vampires eventually left town, so someone had to run them out right?"

Yeah. I helped. And completely floored myself trying. Kaysen thought. But she wasn't necessarily ready to admit that yet. Because knowing about things wasn't the same as being part of it. Then she blinked, and belatedly looked up at him, wide eyed. Kayce?? She didn't get nicknames. 'Squirt' didn't count. 'Yak' didn't, from her brother. Generally speaking, she just...yeah they didn't happen. So she was surprised, to say the least. Even if she'd given him one right out the gate. So, it took her a second to recover. "I um--er..." she started, failing at speaking entirely. So she tried again. "Yeah, people are trying to stop it. I guess. like...yeah." She failed at coherency.

Not realizing the wide-eyed look was from his nickname, Tad took it for something close to fear and instantly wanted to protect her in some way. And not just Kaysen, but everyone. He wanted to be one of those people out there stopping all the bad shit from creeping up on people. Unconsciously he reached out for her but pulled away at the last second. Granted he probably looked like a complete freak with his arm out in the air and then suddenly jerked back to his side. He really wasn't trying to make a move on her, especially since she had a boyfriend and all, but he was sort of an affectionate person by nature. His grandmother was always affectionate, as if she felt she had to do the work of two parents, and Tad ended up the same way. Which just made social situations even more awkward. "I wish I could stop it."

She noticed the arm thing, which had her panicking on one level, and just very confused on another. Wary, on the outside edges of her mind as well. This kind of thing didn't really happen to someone like her so she wasn't used to it. So, she had no idea what she might have done if he had put his arm around her. But she equally didn't know how to react when he stopped. Maybe he just remembered who she was, and wondered what kind of diseases he might pick up from touching her. Right. "Well...there's not much stopping it. Whatever's out there? It's cooler than us. And like, I'd guess lots of it involves death of some sort, and I just...I dunno." She was quiet for a long moment, then added something else in a mumble as she stared at the floor. "I get the impulse, though."

"I don't see why we couldn't. I mean everyone has to start somewhere right? We could fight this. The ultimate dynamic duo!" He was smiling and half joking, trying to bring the smile back to the edges of Kaysen's mouth. Deep down though, Tad was considering a completely new route for his life. Monday he would talk to Jesse about ghosts and when he and Dean went to check out Nevermore, he'd check out some other stuff there.

You and Porter would make the perfect fucking couple. Kaysen thought, the first thing that ran through her brain. "...it's official. You and Porter have to meet." she said. "Just the fact that that came out of your mouth at all, Ghostal. Seriously." she said, and there was light humor to it. "And I? am totally not a superhero. For serious now. Not. Sure, I whacked some douche with my skateboard, that doesn't make me like...fuck, I dunno. Catwoman or something. Or Skater-Girl. Or anything else. But I'm willing to bet Porter would just love where your head is going."

If Porter would love where his head was going they would be best friends (although at the moment someone beating Kaysen out for that title seemed impossible), because right now his head was in the gutter. It was the Catwoman comment and it came with Kaysen and black patent leather. Tad half coughed, half laughed and shook the the inappropriate thought away as best he could. "Skater-Girl would be a pretty cute super hero," he grinned and poked her side lightly liked he had a few days before. "She'd probably be pretty badass too you know. Doing all sorts of tricks on her board and taking out bad guys in the process?"

Yep. It was official. Even if they weren't gay-in it up, Porter and Tad needed to meet and like...bond or something. "Highly impractical. And like, cinematically cool and shit, but you're going to have to find yourself another skater chick if you want that going down." she informed him. She watched Tad out of the corner of her eye for a moment, chewing on her lip as she debated. "Want me to call Porter?" she asked.

"I'm thinking the current skater girl I have will do just fine. And doing the impractical is what makes you a super hero. Duh," Tad teased. "If you're sure Porter won't hate me, call him. What have I got to lose?" Suppressing most of his excitement about making a new friend who, apparently would actually be a friend, the comment came off almost as light hearted as he'd wanted and lost most of the desperate tone.

Sure, she probably shouldn't have gotten stuck on part of his wording there, but she did. Did he just call me his !?! went through her mind as she stared at him, wide eyed for a moment. She blinked a few times, then quickly got up, going to grab her phone from the bedside table. It was better than contemplating what was probably off hand wording or whatever, but she'd never been anyone's anything. Not like that. So she distracted herself by going through her list on her cell to call up the dude who'd probably like...have a geek-gasm with Tad and they could totally forget she existed in their haze of warm glow of comic references. Or something. She hit the call button, skipping texting and the urgency to get a deflection in here even overcoming her weird habit of never actually calling anyone. She was practically phobic about it, but right now she needed the out. So she listened to the ringing in her ear and held up a finger to tell Tad to wait a second.

He was a little anxious, but not just about the impending meeting. The way she'd looked at him before she jumped up lead him to be worried about what he'd said that would garner that sort of reaction. When she silenced him with her finger, Tad ran through what he'd said trying to figure out what it was that had set her off. He didn't think much of referencing her as his because in his mind she was his. Not romantically, but at the moment he had one friend and a classmate and his one friend was his best friend. Even if she didn't want to be, he was attached to her and adored her in his own way. Tad certainly had no desire to let her go.

A few blocks down and over, Porter's day wasn't that far from how Tad's had begun. The TV was on, the controller in his hand as he sat raptly and unloaded an in-game gun into someone else in the online match. He laughed richly as he listened to the curses on the other end, shaking his head. "I'm a fag because I'm better at Halo than you?" he asked into the microphone, the levity dying as his phone began to play a snippet of 'Burn Baby, Burn'. That was Kaysen's ringtone, which was a surprise. "Okay, here's your chance for payback, let's see if you can kill me while I'm on the phone," he told his opponents, quickly muting his mic and grabbing his cellphone. "Hey!" Porter greeted, tucking the phone against his shoulder as he tried to focus on both things at once.

She hadn't expected such a bright sort of greeting, not that she was sure what she was expecting, but still. It threw her, but it was kind of easy to throw someone like Kaysen. "Er. Hi, Porter. It's y'know. Kaysen." she said, now quite certain she should have thought through what she was going to say to the guy when he answered, instead of just dialing in a weird panic. Forthought wasn't her strong suit.

"I know, goof," he teased mildly as he twisted and pitched a grenade, "Custom ringtones and stuff, you've got one. What, uh... what's going on?" The levity he'd answered with faded a bit as Porter considered her calling at the core. Kaysen was antisocial by default, and even if she seemed okay with him, Porter had always figured he'd need to bug her. "Everything okay?" he asked, sighing a moment later as he got run down in the game and set his controller aside, slipping his headset off.

"I have a ringtone?" she asked, then shoved that to the side and got on with her point. Especially since he was asking if she was okay, and she was fine, just a little flaily. "Yeah, I'm fine." she said. "What's exploding? Nevermind. Anyways, so I'm home at the moment, and like, there's this guy Tad you should meet and shit, and...whatever, you want to do that?" she asked. Yep. A master of planning and conversation she was not. But hey she got her point out, that was progress, right?

Tad? Meet? "Tad? Meet?" he echoed intelligently, surprised by the request entirely, "For... um, what's up? Is this about that thing we talked about before?" Porter had to be mindful of his open door, after all, so he couldn't go saying anything like 'when are we getting vigilante?'. "Know what, nevermind that either. Give me like ten, cool?" he asked, shutting down his console and TV and moving to throw open his closet with more dramatic flair than was needed. Someday, someday he'd do that, but he'd be grabbing his mask and gloves, his climbing claws and grappling hook.

Kaysen rolled her eyes, glancing back at Tad, wondering if he was watching her or just looking around her room or what he was doing over there. "No, it's not about that. Just...whatever, he just said the words 'dynamic duo', and used it properly in a sentence, I figured you two for soul mates, just...I'll see you in a few." she said, and abruptly hung up, just so she didn't have to deal with whatever he might say there. Which really just left her with dealing with Tad, which she also wasn't feeling confident enough to have a proper course of action with. Well she was just screwed on all sorts of fronts, wasn't she? Shit. "...he's coming over." she said lamely.

Tad had been watching her entire phone conversation with an amused smile that seemed to be his permanent expression whenever she started to flail about. When she hung up and announced that Porter would indeed be joining them Tad was thrilled, but he did his best to keep that close. "Excellent." He stood and crossed the space between them realizing that standing normally he was still a good bit taller than Kaysen. "He say how long he'd be?" Tad asked as ran his hand through his curls, trying with no luck to somewhat tame them into shape.

Several totally crazy, irrational thoughts went through her head. None of which she shared, because she didn't really think any of them were appropriate by any stretch of the imagination. But they were there! Such as she realized in a really stupidly belated fashion that she was going to have two boys in her room. Which...was really messed up, considering she never had people over in the first place, defintiely not guys, and they sure as hell didn't hang in her room. How the hell had that happened? Shouldn't they hang at Tad's or Porter's or something? She also wondered when she'd got to be That Girl. The one who apparently had guy friends. Was she one of the guys? Was Tad messing with his hair to be impressive for Porter? Or had he walked over closer to her to be closer to her? And what the fuck did any of that mean? Yep. She was in flail mode, no two ways about it. "He'llbehereinliketwosecondsheonlyliveslikeafewstreetsover." she said in a rush, all in one breath. Panic was settling in, and did it get warmer in there? Or was that her? Unfortunately, it was both, since she kind of heated the air around her up in her moment of 'ZOMG!'

His smirk was still in place as she flailed about some more, but now he was starting to get a little worried, especially when she crammed about 15 words into three seconds. Braving whatever sort of blacklash she could throw at him, Tad reached out and took her shoulders in his hands, settling her as best he could without completely overpowering her. "Kayce, look at me. You have got to chill out. You're starting to freak me out just a smidge and I think you're already freaked yourself out." He did his best to make eye contact, even with a stray curl or two trying to fall into his face. "You gonna be ok Skater-Girl?"

Porter had worked quickly to get ready, stomping into his shoes and pulling on his nice, menacing Punisher hoodie before telling his folks he was going out. He'd expected an argument, but with how his plans for a movie night had fallen apart? Carter seemed a little more lenient, for once. So he'd slipped from the house in their car, driving the short distance to Kaysen's house with a curious smile in place. Who the hell was Tad? Was Kaysen finally mellowing out if she was introducing them to each other? He knew he'd have to wait for answers as he parked, hopping out and moving for the front door, then thumbing the doorbell twice.

She was frozen in half-panicked shock when Tad went to calm her down, which really, was the opposite of what the guy was going for and all. She also had no idea what to say to him, other than 'Are you really going to call me that?' which she managed to say in her head, but never made the jump to out loud. "I'mfinejustwhateverit'sfineleggo." she said in that same all-at-once ramble. Then, thankfully, the doorbell rang. Or kind of thankfully, she did jump a mile at it, even if Tad did still have his hands on her shoulders. She might have squeaked. "That's himI'lljustgetitholon." she said, then made a mad dash for the door. She took the stairs two at a time and lept down the last few, making a break for the door, passing her mom on the way there. Skidding to a halt in front of the door--or more accurately, skidding then falling on her ass as the rug slipped beneath her foot, she managed to tell her mom she got it. Then she scrambled up to her knees and opened up the door, peering out looking probably fairly ridiculous, if massively frazzled. "Porter!" she said, stating the obvious, and she pulled herself to her feet via the doorknob, reached out the door, and grabbed him by the hoodie front, yanking him inside, and she already started to drag him through the house towards the stairs. Kaysen didn't do calm. And when she was in this hardcore a flail mode, she also wasn't the best with little things like social niceties, or say, sanity.

Tad was waiting at the top of the stairs as Kaysen literally drug Porter towards him. He'd followed after he when she dashed off and had watched her from the stairs until she dropped out of sight (when she fell, but he didn't know that). "Kayce I think he can walk on his own." Why did Tad feel like he was being set up on a blind date?

"HiI'mPorter!" he managed to call at Kaysen's mom in a rush as he was hauled bodily towards the stairs, the older woman disappearing from eyesight in half a second. For a smaller girl, Kaysen had some kind of panicky super strength going, it seemed. As they reached the base of the stairs, he lunged to grab the bannister and leaned back, halting their progress with a little grunt. "Okay! um, chill?" Porter asked, cheeks flush and his expression obviously a little flustered. It was totally different, but the last thing remotely close to this was Medea pulling him through her window into her bedroom... and he figured he prefered the former to the latter. "Uh... hey," he eventually said up at Tad, glancing his way and back down to Kaysen.

Kaysen abruptly let Porter go, flushing dark, dull red. "Sorry, um....Tad. Porter. Porter, Tad." she mumbled, then started up the steps--though she managed not to dash up them in a rush. Mostly because she was now between both boys, and which meant she couldn't go forward or backtrack and be safe. She ducked her head and even reached up to tug her hood up and down, obscuring the top half of her face from view, since she knew she was blushing so much she was bound to have an aneurism at any given moment.

"Hey Porter," Tad called down to Porter as the other boy regained his footing. Allowing the other just a glance, he brought his attention back to Kaysen who'd hid her almost purple flush under her hood. Realizing there wasn't much he could do he shrugged and looked back to Porter. "So according to Kaysen, we're soul mates. What do you think?"

"I think that sounds kinda gay?" Porter ventured, shoulders shrugging in a self-conscious moment, "Like, 'Wonder Twin powers activate' gay..." He started up after Kaysen, smiling after a moment and reaching past her to offer his hand to Tad. "Still, cool to meet you," he said, nudging Kaysen with his free hand, "When did you start playing match-maker, exactly?" He wanted to ask about other things, given that now he knew there was someone dangerous out there, but now wasn't even close to the right time.

Kaysen glanced back at Porter, and shrugged. "When he started talking about fucking dynamic duos, and I figured you both could like, hang out and bliss out in a cloud of geek-gasmic joy." she said, rolling her eyes slightly, though she didn't know if it was at herself or him or the whole thing. "Or you could like, get into a fight, because he dissed on my board for having Daredevil on it." she added, shrugging as she walked past both boys and got back to the safety of her room. Or it was safe for like three seconds before she realized that fuck the two boys in her room thing was about to happen. This was fabulous. Maybe by noon on Monday, the rumor would be that she and Chance had really bottomed out, and she was consoling herself with these two. Awesome.

"Kaysen, damnit that wasn't cool," Tad whined, lolling his head back as if to watch her go behind him into her room. He turn his full self until he was headed in the same direction following her towards her room, but stopping in the door frame. "Look Porter, you know his movie blows, so don't even start. I couldn't get into his comics either because face it, the villains just don't do it for me." Tad beckoned the other boy to come stand in the doorway with him as he motioned towards Kaysen. "As for it being on her deck, it doesn't make sense. Look at the girl. She's fucking Catwoman." He tossed Porter a look complete with raised eyebrow, as if the mentally pass his image from earlier to the other guy.

"All I'm going to say is that no one can pass judgment until they read Miller's run, which is like six years worth of issues," Porter said without getting defensive, "But yeah, shitty movie. She's so not Catwoman, dude..." He didn't want to explain his hypothesis there, how he knew Kaysen hated the way women were done in comics or how she was prone to ridiculous stunts like diving into a freezing lake in the dark. She was just... self conscious, he figured, and Porter didn't want to twist the knife. "Trust me, she's totally Daredevil. Or maybe Speedball if he was cool," he assured Tad, cresting the stairs and moving for Kaysen's door. "Do we have to sit in the hall?" he asked, poking his head in.

Kaysen had gone and flopped on her bed. Which was a safer option, because there was already a whole bunch of gay-talk being tossed around, so she figured making the boys sit on the bed together would just be kinda mean. So, she didn't. Which didn't make her feel any more comfortable about anything, but she was fucking around with her stereo remote anyways. "Only if you're really ass stupid vampires who like, need a specific invite to come in or something." she said, looking over at them, and that actually had her seeing them both in her doorframe. Which kind of abruptly looked very silly to her and she smiled brightly for about .2 seconds.

"That smile looks like trouble Kayce. What are you thinking?" Tad was half teasing, because really he enjoyed her smile and it was an improvement on her scowl from before. He made his way into the room, leaning against the dresser. There was a small part of him that would have rather dropped on the bed next to Kaysen but he was trying to keep that part of him in check. Somewhere between her flailing and Porter's introduction, Tad realized that he was completely smitten with his new friend, as a new friend. He was also fighting back the jealousy of the extended relationship she had with Porter. He knew stuff about Kaysen that Tad didn't. "Well Catwoman, Daredevil whatever. They've got nothing on Skater-Girl." His grin solid and almost back to it's regular shape now that most of the swelling from his split lip had gone done. There wasn't much he could do about the black eye which was ringed in green bruise, but he was looking less fearful when he grinned.

Moving just past the doorway of the bedroom, Porter stepped to one side to lean against the wall and grinned at both of them. "Skater-Girl? You striking out into superherodom now?" he asked Kaysen, looking to Tad, "And she might be thinking it was a mistake to have us meet? I don't know." With the passing of his rushed arrival and first meeting with Tad, Porter settled somewhat more naturally back into his usual awkwardness. His hands tucked in his pockets, head hanging a little . "You, um, you new in town or something? She told me everyone who's been here hates her." Which was true, from what Porter heard in the halls, though he had no idea where it all stemmed from.

"Fuck no. Ghostal here just has grand dreams of that shit or somethin." Kaysen said, shrugging. She eyed the open door, and wondered about shutting it. Especially if they got to talking about things that went bump in the night or whatever. Not that her parents were really that oblivious. But kinda still. Whatever. She didn't do anything about it, she just hit play on the stereo and turned the music down so no one had to shout over Rancid. "And he was getting his ass handed to him so I kinda...hit a guy or two with my deck. Can we move on now?" she asked, glossing over that bit, even if the question really hadn't at all been directed at her.

"You brought it up first by the way, I just thought it was marketable." Tad ducked his head when she informed Porter of how they'd met. Sure it'd been glossed over but it was still a little rough on his ego. "No, I've lived here most of my life. I just didn't know Kaysen until the other day. She saved my ass; by default I can't hate her," he explained even if it seemed like Kaysen didn't want to talk about it. Tad crossed his arms over his chest and leveled his gaze on Kaysen. "As of now I've got one friend. And she's not even that stoked about it." His voiced teased, but there was something there that said he was being honest about it. "You're new though right?" Tad turned his focus back to Porter.

Most of his life? That meant he was some kind of survivor, or at least absurdly lucky. "Yeah, been here a few weeks," Porter answered, shrugging again, "My mom moved me out here from Baltimore." He'd been going to elaborate when something Kaysen said clicked in his brain, splitting Porter's cheeks with a grin. "Ghostal?" he asked, laughing slightly, "Oh man, tell me you have a brother named Chad!" He wasn't trying to be a dick about it by any measure, Porter knew the sting of teasing, but it was an old and obscure joke, and he loved it.

Kaysen actually had to smile when Porter said that. Thank christ, someone else who got it. "Thank you." she said. "I had to explain the reference. I just...couldn't pass it up. Dude's name is Tad." she said, as if this should explain everything. Then she looked back at the boy in question. "So now he's Ghostal." she finished firmly, like it was now set in stone, and that was that. Like she had a solid say and anyone would actually listen to her. Cuz that was going to happen. Right.

Tad rolled his eyes. "No it's just me, no Chad." When Kaysen turned to him and made his nickname official though, looking at him like that he ducked his head to try and hide the flush creeping up on his cheeks. He reached into his back pocket, pulling out his test kit for something to do with his hands (plus he was starting to feel a little low) and he busied himself with testing his blood sugar, wondering if Kaysen would be as interested as she had been at his house. It took a full moment before he realized they were waiting for him to say something. "It could be worse as far as nicknames go." Wow, that was inventive and moving as far as things to say go. The tester beeped, sixty-three. Damn. He pocketed the kit and pulled a small container of glucose tabs out of his hoodie pocket popping three into his mouth. "What does she call you?" he asked Porter, hoping his nickname was just as ridiculous.

"Uh... Porter?" he answered after a moment of consideration, lips quirking slightly. "I don't really have one, I guess. Just me." Porter's eyes fixed on Tad as he fiddled with the testing kit, wondering for a moment about what he was doing. It looked vaguely like a device that'd come off a utility belt, but these days? Plenty of things did. "Really, it could be worse," he eventually agreed, knowing firsthand how bad it could get. "They got pretty creative back at my old school, and seriously. Ghostal is a cool one, I'd love to be associated with Space Ghost."

"We could always start calling you Moltar." Kaysen commented, her eyes on Tad fussing with the tester, because she was still curious. Then she glanced at Porter, as he watched Tad as well. "He's diabetic." she explained. Since she didn't think it was a big secret or anything, and if the boy wonders were going to be hanging out and shit, it was probably a good thing to know. Or, that was Kaysen's story and she was sticking to it.

Tad's chuckle was more of a muffled snark at the "Moltar" comment. Sure he wasn't as versed in Space Ghost but he was pretty sure Moltar was the goofy sort of thing that worked in the basement or whatever. He had a head that looked like a welding mask. Ok so maybe he had watched a few episodes late at night, he just didn't get the Ghostal reference. Tad was going to assume Porter wouldn't be as amused as Kaysen seemed. "She's right about the diabetes thing, sorry if it wigged you out or whatever. There isn't much blood and you're way over there so I figured it would be ok." Tad really hoped Porter wasn't much of the fainting at the sight of blood type. But then again he was into comic books so hopefully not. "Kayce has already quizzed me on most of if you need any additional information on my endocrine system." He gave Kaysen a playful wink and a small smirk.

"Can I opt to be Brak?" Porter asked, looking to Kaysen and winking, "I'm not the Moltar type, I don't think. Never was a fan of 'CHiPs' or anything." He glanced back Tad's way, nodding a little more with understanding now. "I was wondering what all that was for, but I'm not scared of a little blood or anything. As long as you're not gonna squirt it on me?" he asked, smirking thinly, "We're cool." Really, Kaysen had probably made a good call here. Tad was reserved enough that Porter didn't even feel self-conscious around him, which was a feat unto itself.

Okay. She had two boys in her room, and they were both winking at her. That had her ducking her head a little bit, and melting back against the pillows on her bed a little, as if trying to make herself smaller. Which really didn't work out so well for her. Plus there was that whole blushing herself into an imminent aneurism. She could feel the heat on her cheeks, and really really hoped that neither of them would say shit about it. She didn't actually have the naive hope they wouldn't notice. It was way obvious. "You can only be Brak if you're good to shout nonsense from time to time. How's your 'what time is it'?" she said to Porter after she recovered enough to manage coherent speech. Right now she was thinking anything that came out of her mouth might just be gibberish but hey--she managed a whole sentence and everything. Two, even, if one was counting. In the end, and probably belatedly, she stuck her tongue out at both of them.

"No worries man, I have no desire to squirt my blood at you. That's usually reserved for the fools who make me bleed." Again Tad's tone was playful and humorous. As if getting beat up on a regular basis was some sort of big joke. In his case though, it had to be; otherwise it would have killed him a long time ago. His glance ticked back to Kaysen who's cheeks were exploring new shades of maroon. Part of him wanted to make a comment, but he knew in front of Porter it wouldn't be appropriate. At least if they were alone she could throw a pillow at him or hit him or whatever, but she'd know he was just playfully teasing. With an audience it might not work that way. Plus he didn't want to seem like he was hitting on her. 'Cause really he wasn't. Not really.

And again, Porter could see why Kaysen had thought he'd get on so well with Tad. It hadn't happened much in Marquette, courtesy of the crises and tragedies, but back home? Porter had been a punching bag for everyone in school who was tougher than him, which only left the Math Club and Anime Club as safe zones. He laughed richly at Tad, shaking his head and glancing Kaysen's way with a raise in his brow. She was... blushing? Hiding, or trying to? Deflecting at the very least, Porter had done it enough to know the behavior on sight.

"My Brak is strong, thanks," he told Kaysen with a grin that promised a demonstration sometime in the future, "And dude, Tad? Where's your locker at? I've found the asshats around here are less likely to start trouble if there's more than one of us." Which was some kind of bravado, but Porter felt it lately. It was a combination of Medea's positive influence, his own still-stable energy from the werewolf, and the fact that he'd offered to help Kaysen and she hadn't outright said no.

And, there it was. Where was his locker at. It was a weird kind of sensation, watching the two of them, like...make friends or whatever. Because she'd introduced them, even. She'd never actually done anything like that before, it had just seemed like a good idea. And hey, it had worked out and such. Though, she couldn't help but wonder when they were going to decide to become bffs and kind of forget about her. When she'd become a third wheel, if they even started hanging out on a regular basis, the three of them. And it was weird to realize that she'd been thinking about them all hanging out again sometime. In the end, she kind of just fell silent, unobtrusively so, watching them interact. They were better at it anyways.

Tad's focus left Kaysen's face when Porter asked him about his locker. "It's over by the art room. I think I got short-changed in general as I don't even take art, but whatever." He pushed off the edge of the dresser and climbed onto the bed, sitting with his knees up and his arms rested across them at Kaysen's feet. Since he and Porter seemed to be bonding, which was beyond cool, he didn't want her to feel left out. Closing the space between them seemed like the best way to keep her included. "If you want we can rally before and after school or whatever. Maybe I can go back to blending in and not looking like I have a bulls-eye on my forehead. Which is only a cool thing in the comic books." Porter was growing on him, and the jealousy was starting to subside. Plus with Porter's offer to travel in packs, that very well might mean that now Tad had two friends. And a classmate. This was the best weekend ever.

"I've been told not to acknowledge certain people in public," Porter said, mock-scowling Kaysen's way, "Which is stupid, but I'm pretty sure she could beat me up. If I didn't have to? We could do lunch too, I know a few other pretty cool people even. My... I'm pretty sure she's my girlfriend, for one." And he couldn't help grinning awkwardly there for a moment, overcome every time it came up by the fact that Medea existed. But he rallied, shoulders shrugging again as Porter glanced back to Tad. "You'd like her, she's cool. So yeah, we should do some kind of rallying thing in school. I keep harping on safety in numbers and all." Plus? Friends were a good thing, and he knew both he and Kaysen needed someone like Tad if they were seriously going to pursue what she'd mentioned before, even if only to keep them grounded in reality.

Kaysen felt a little selfconscious as Tad came and sat by her on the bed and all. She wasn't sure why he'd done it, and then of course started mentally going through different rationalizations that it might be, ranging from petty and mean to sweet. Either way, she didn't know, and sure as hell wasn't going to up and ask. When Porter said the bit about public interactions, she looked over and made a face at him. "Dude, it's for your own good." she said. "If you two want to hang at school and shit, that's cool. But the second you throw me in there, things'll go south really fast. There'll be bullshit and badness for all." she assured them. She didn't want to get her social disease on them.

"That's not fair Kayce." Tad reached forward and tugged on her foot. "I told you I don't care. I can't just go around ignoring you. Fuck, you pummeled a buncha jocks for me; people are already going to be assuming something's going on. Plus he's got a point about the safety in numbers bit. It works against zombies, it has to work against high school." The look he gave her was pleading, his blue gray eyes stood out strong against the purpling bruises and gave him a very convincing pathetic face. He didn't care for an instant that Porter had offered to have lunch with him, which was unheard of, or introduce him to his girlfriend (lucky bastard) and her friends. His reluctant best friend just told him that she didn't want anything to do with him in public and he was two steps from devastation. Plus it seemed Porter had some other friends, but all Tad had was Kaysen and Porter (and Dean in history class until their project was done). He looked to Porter for help. "She's serious about this isn't she?"

He sighed, holding empty hands out to Tad and nodding. "She doesn't even look at me in the halls," Porter confirmed, not liking it but understanding why. He heard what people said about Kaysen in the halls, and if he hadn't met her before hearing it all? Porter would've avoided the girl on her reputation. "What we need is someone popular to work against all the bullshit, but then we're getting into the plot of some teen movie," he went on with a smirk, "You get a makeover before the prom and the head quarterback falls in love with you, all to a soundtrack of Blink 182." Porter chuckled at his own joke, hoping to defuse the tension tad obviously felt over it all and looking to the other guy. "All I've been trying to do is keep my ears open in the halls, y'know? Make sure no one's plotting some 'Carrie' bullshit or anything." Which, given Kaysen's apparent powers? Was likely how any pranks on her would end.

Kaysen was actually thinking the same thing. And really, she was amazed homecoming hadn't turned into a teribble scenario where she burned the gym down. Really, she was a bit shocked. And she wasn't going to prom, and there was gonig to be no makeovers, and if she had a soundtrack, it sure as hell wasnt going to be that. But she kept all that in at the moment, and just kind of half looked between both boys. She was vaguely surprised that Porter was paying attention though. That he would do that. Unless he was just kinda joking or something. In the end she shrugged. "It's not personal against eithe rof you, it's just for your own good. It's like...anti-personal against you."

Tad closed in on himself a little, releasing his hold on Kaysen and resting his chin on his folded arms. There weren't people who hadn't heard the rumors, but Tad had never been apt to believe the worst of them. True he'd been afraid of her, but if someone got talked about that much, they had to be prone to random fits of violence. Hell he was prone to fits of violence in the video game nature. "I guess I get it, but you forget Kayce. Up until you dragging poor Porter here in to make me his sidekick, all I had was you. No offense to you, P," Tad told the other boy and shortening his name down to just the first letter. He seemed to have a habit of just shortening everyone's name to one syllable, which was probably a result of having a one syllable name himself. "But if she won't have anything to do with me, lunch sounds cool. I gotta talk to this Jesse dude at some point on Monday though if I can find him." Tad shot Kaysen a look that plainly said he'd hoped she'd go with him on that adventure.

"Dude, why would I take offense? I mean, I don't think I deserve a sidekick, not even being a superhero or anything," he said, glancing Kaysen's way fleetingly. She wouldn't have told Tad what he could do, would she? And why did he think secret identities would've been easier? "But if you want to be one, cool. My folks get a little worried when I'm only hanging out with girls, which is weird. Isn't that a good thing for a guy my age?" It was funny how the lot of them, misfits in their own ways, had collided like this. Literally, in his and Kaysen's case. And then she'd brought him here just to meet Tad... it was a good thing. Like the Justice League, Porter mused, though he thankfully recognized that was too nerdy to say even in this company.

Kaysen felt a little rush of ire swell up, and it was irrational, she knew, but she was getting sick of Tad playing the poor me card. He was probably not even doing it intentionally, and she got it, he didn't have a social standing that was much above hers, but she didn't make commentary on it all the time like he did...did she? Just like, when people were being weird and wanted to hang out with her where other people could latch the hell onto that and start making their lives hell too. And they didn't have the luxury of having a nicely spelled hoodie like she did. Maybe she'd feel better if they did. But yeah that was something she couldn't do, and couldn't really go asking Thom to do either. Not to mention she'd have to like, either get them something, or like, ask to borrow clothes, and that was just weird and there was no way she'd even be able to stutter her way through asking. Hell she didn't thinks he could write that shit down and give it to them. So that idea was a non-starter. She felt the little spark of grr, and for once in her life--she bit her tongue on saying anything. Literally, in fact, she just clamped her teeth down on it and made herself shut the fuck up. It meant she didn't actually add anything new to the conversation, but it also meant she didn't go totally irrational bitchface at anyone either! It was a trade off. She messed with the stereo for a second instead, flipping through songs til she found one she wanted to hear.

Kaysen's silence and interest in her stereo led Tad to believe the discussion was over and he gave up. He was absolutely terrible at this friend thing and plus he was starting to worry she only stuck around out of pity. You are a total loser Tad. With his attention properly focused on Porter, he did his best not look like he'd just been kicked. "I'd have to have some stipulations on being a sidekick though dude. I'm not going minion and letting you send me off just to die or whatever. I deserve to keep my costume in the bat cave with everything else." He thought about the next bit. "True about your 'rents and you only having chic friends. I mean in my Gram's case, if I told her my only friends were chics she'd be throwing tea parties or whatever to determine which one I'd be marrying. Kaysen's lucky she got out of the house before Gram's noticed because otherwise she would have had to pose for pictures or some other nonsense."

"You have a costume?" Porter asked, thinking Kaysen's silence was odd, given what he knew of her. But he'd also seen her get twitchy when she was the focus of things, so he was okay with giving her a second. "Dude, you're one step ahead of me already." Which was a white lie, given the mask he already owned, but it was harmless. "Still, that sounds fine. You pay for your own drycleaning. I'm saving up for a car, no way am I paying for bloodstain removal." He had to smirk at the bit about Kaysen posing for photos, just imagining the pained looks she'd be wearing for those pictures. "Damn, I think I've got it easy by comparison," he confessed, his smile dimming a bit, "My folks just keep telling me to keep college in mind and not get too attached."

The comment about posing for photos had her looking over wide eyed. "Okay from here out you're coming here, and I'm never going to your house again." she told him. "That goes for both of you, actually, if your rental units are all weird about the girl-ness and shit. I'm not all that girly, but I'm pretty sure I can't actually pull off pretending to be a full on guy."

Tad laughed at her ultimatum. "You do realize the alien bunnies live at my house right? I'm not dragging all that over here because you're afraid of Grams asking you if we're dating." In actuality Tad was afraid of Gram's potential reaction and not so much her asking if he and Kaysen were dating, but rather some far more embarrassing conversation that could lead to a sex talk of sorts. The thought made him shudder.

Porter was clearly lost, blinking in confusion between both Kaysen and Tad. "Alien... bunnies?" he asked with a hesitant smile, pretty sure he was just not party to whatever the joke was. "Are those like tribbles or something?" Really, the confusion was better than understanding in this case. Porter had already been given the sex talk by his stepfather, Carter, and even having a man deliver it didn't soften the blow much. Before he could feel too self-conscious about not having too much else to say, he was saved by his phone. Blaring a snippet of 'Too Much Drama' from the pocket on his hoodie briefly, Porter dug the phone out with a scowl and put it away without answering. "Shit, think I gotta jet," he grumbled, wondering just how much intruding Carter and his mom would do in his life today.

"He's got this alien bunny game thing..." Kaysen started to explain, but then his phone rang and such and she sighed, looking slightly disappointed for a second. "Alright. Well, thanks for coming by anyways and stuff." she said. "For hanging for a while." Even if she seemed like one of the most ungrateful, abrasive people ever, she did kind of like hanging out with people.

He'd been half a second from chiming in about the game, but then it seemed Porter was due to make an exit. "Oh well, bummer dude. It was cool meeting you though. I guess I'll see you around on Monday or whatever?" Tad was curious if Porter leaving meant he was supposed to be leaving too, so he reached into his pocket to check the time on his pump. It would seem most of the afternoon had blown by in the minimal amount of time. "I guess I should scram in a minute or so as well Kayce."

"Game?" Porter asked before he'd even turned to leave, eyes lit up from the prospect. It seemed like he and Tad's compatibility even overlapped in spots. Thanks, Kayce, he thought with a little grin, shaking his head. "Dude, you need to bring it over so I can try it next time we hang out," he told Tad, making it clear that there'd be a next time, "And yeah, look for me at school. My locker's right up by the Spanish classrooms. I'll keep an eye out too, for both of you." He grinned to Kaysen teasingly with that promise, stepping back to her door and turning to head out even as his phone rang again. "jesus, Carter," he muttered, slipping out of the bedroom and starting home, "Take a breath."

Kaysen held back the eyeroll and headshake at the whole Porter threatening to see her in school too. He'd have to find her first! "Bye, Brak!" she called after him, then looked at Tad. Apparently everyone was bailing. Well, she had homework she had to get back to again, and she didn't know how long her parents were actually going to leave them be with boys in her room. If they'd noticed. But seeing Porter leave might clue them in totally and such. "See you around soon too then?" she suggested.

"Later!" Tad called to Porter as he'd left. He unfolded himself from the bottom of her bed and stood to stretch. "Of course you'll see me around Kayce. If you're dead set on ignoring me, then go for it, but seriously if you want someone at school to talk to, I am at your service." He gave her a sweeping bow which was punctuated with a goofy smile. Straightening up he turned to leave but stopped in the doorway. "Oh! Like I said I was gonna try and talk to that guy about the ghost stuff on Monday, you know if Monday goes ok and such." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tossed it to her. "Give me your number and I'll text you or whatever and let you know how it goes."

She caught the phone, then shrugged, and put her number in for him. Texting was alright. She was better at texting. "Okay. I hope it goes well or whatever." she offered. She didn't really know how that might go, but maybe he'd learn something. Maybe. It was worth a shot anyways. Plus, Jesse might be less intimidating for Tad, because that dude was a little weird too.

While she'd entered his number Tad'd moved closer to bed so she could just hand him the phone back. Mostly because if he'd missed throwing it to her or she missed catching it, it would just bounce on the bed and all is well. If he missed catching it when she threw it back it would bounce off the wall or into the hall or just straight up hit him in the face. The latter would probably the actual situation and he opted to avoid any further embarrassment. "Here's hoping. i don't think I'll get much off of him, but I could use a starting point." Tad took his phone from her and pocketed it. Part of him wanted to pat Kaysen on the head or hug her or something so he shoved his hands in this hoodie pockets to keep from doing it. "I'll see you around Kayce, lemme know when you want to get together again." He spun on his heel and headed for the door, ducking his head back in even after he left. "And I'll be sure to text you if the world is ending." Another Tad grin and he was gone.