Lakeside

Who: Jessalyn and Isabelle
When: Midafternoon
Where: Down by the lake

The first appearance of the ghosts had been cause for bewilderment and concern on Isabelle's part - she wasn't at all happy with the thought that certain ghosts of her past might be hanging around, waiting to tell tales. Or worse, come after her and Medea. After all, one couldn't re-kill a ghost. At least, not in any satisfying ways. She supposed exorcism would work.

At any rate, since it didn't appear that the ghosts were speaking, stalking, or wreaking any forms of vengeance upon the townspeople, Isabelle decided it was safe enough to go exploring. She'd never seen ghosts before - had never really believed in them - and seeing them wandering around was rather fascinating. So when she found herself with some free time on Saturday, she decided to head down to the lake where there seemed to be a larger contingent of spirits. Finding herself a flat rock, she took a seat and just observed.

After Jessalyn left Ransom, she had gone to the small crafts store on West Washington to get some more yarn with the hope that maybe she could make a hat or scarf for Madock before it got even colder in Marquette. She took the long way home, however, and parked along the lake to maybe take a few minutes and run about the shore. If no one was around, of course. She couldn't shift in front of people, obviously. She got out of the car and started walking when she got a whiff of a fairly familiar scent. Looking around, she saw a girl sitting on a rock and instantly recognized her. "Isabelle!" She smiled and started toward the other girl, pleased to find someone she knew from school out. It was rare these days, what with the ghosts.

Isabelle was pulled from her musings on spirits and how they'd died when she heard her name called. Twisting around, she put on a friendly, bright smile for the timid thing she'd met at cheerleading practice. "Hi, Jessalyn!" she called back, waving her over. "Come have a seat." She scooted over a bit to make room. "What's up?"

Smiling, Jessalyn sat down on the rock next to Isabelle, adjusting her skirt to get comfortable. "Nothing much. I was just checking out the lake and saw you. What are you doing out here all by yourself?" Well, not really by herself, since there were a few ghosts here and there.

"Just checking out the lake, too," Isabelle said, smiling over at her. "I still can't really believe this happened, you know? I don't think I ever really believed in ghosts at all, but now I guess we can't help but to believe in them."

"I don't think they're very scary," Jessalyn admitted. "Though I do think it's kind of bizarre that it's everywhere. I don't know what we're suppose to do with them... or why they're here. But they're not hurting anyone, so I guess we just have to co-exist?" She shrugged and glanced down the lake to see if she could see anymore. "Unless there's something more sinister on the horizon, though I hope that's not the case."

"Me too," Isabelle agreed. Unless it wasn't aimed at her, in which case it had the potential to be very entertaining. "Have any of them spoken to you? So far, all I've seen them do is just kind of... wander around and look lost." Good if it meant her own weren't going to come knocking on her door anytime soon, but sort of pathetic. You'd think being dead would give you a few more options.

Jessalyn shook her head. "No, most of them just sort of look at me or wander around confused. No one seems to have any answers except like, apocalyptic stuff, which I think it is a bunch of bologna." She always considered the apocalypse to be much bigger than ghosts. "I guess it's like, you can sit and home and be afraid, or try to figure out the answers. I've just been doing things like normal... what else can you do?"

"I'd think we'd have more like, asteroids falling from the skies or hellfire or the oceans drying up or tsunamis or something if it was really the end of the world," Isabelle ventured. "Really, if they're not doing anything to us, I don't see why we should worry about them, I guess. Live and let live... or haunt, as the case may be. I'm just glad none are in our house."

"Ours either. I think the last thing I would want to do is wake up in the middle of the night and see a ghost standing over me. I don't think our house is exciting enough to haunt anyway." The ghosts were kind of cool, in Jessalyn's opinion. Even if they were creepy. She wasn't afraid of any of them. "Well, how are things other than the ghost thing? How's your sister?"

"She's all right," Isabelle said. "Her arm is doing better, so that's good. I guess she's kind of with this one guy, too, which is super cute. Although I haven't met him yet. What about you? What've you been up to?"

Jessalyn nodded, glad to hear her sister was doing better - and with a guy! Which was always nice. Good news was always welcome in this town, especially lately. "Me? Oh! You know... just regular stuff. Family things, and I just got done visiting my friend Ransom at the coffee shop." Jessalyn pushed her hair behind her ears and grinned again, since she couldn't seem to stop grinning. "I went on a date last night! And we're going to the movies tonight too... so it's been a really good er, last part of the week for me."

"I don't think I've met a Ransom yet," Isabelle mused. She wondered if he was as biddable as Jessalyn seemed to be. Not that she wanted all submissives in her little group - she needed some muscle, too. But still. "Ooh, a date?" she echoed, looking delighted, though she wondered if he'd become a problem. If she was going to adopt Jessalyn, she didn't want her too distracted. "With anyone I know? That's great!"

Isabelle's delight only heightened Jessalyn's and her cheeks flushed happily as she nodded. "Yes... I mean, I don't know if you know him. Madock Barrow? He plays football... uhm, he's blond and tall. We went ice skating... and we're going to the movies tonight." Jessalyn paused, thinking she was rambling too much about herself. She couldn't stop smiling though. "Oh! And Ransom... he plays basketball. I can introduce you to him sometime if you want. He likes meeting new people."

"I'm familiar with him," Isabelle said, "but I don't think we've actually formally met. I mean, he plays football and I cheer, that's about where the association ends." She grinned. "You'll have to introduce me to both of them, then, I love meeting new people, too."

"Oh! Right, I forgot about the cheerleading, football thing. But he's really nice. I'll definitely introduce you to them both. I think they would like meeting you too." Since Isabelle was actually pretty sweet and not like most of the other cheerleaders. She had a different kind of smell to her, which had Jessalyn leaning over just a touch to try and get a better scent. It was like the last time they had met, only she couldn't place the scent herself. It wasn't like perfume. Just... different.

"Sounds good. Maybe we can all eat lunch together one day," Isabelle suggested. She liked to further the image that she was friends with all, not just cheerleaders or other jocks. Though Jessalyn was apparently the only one who wasn't an athlete. She fell quiet, noticing Jessalyn leaning closer - subtly so, but Isabelle had always been observant. She wasn't wearing any perfume (save whatever scents lingered from her soap and shampoo), so it struck her as an interesting behavior.

She couldn't really pick up on any chemical scent like perfume, though she could smell faint traces of her shampoo. Jessalyn blinked and realized Isabelle had said something. "Oh! Yeah, I think that would be really nice," Jessalyn said, eyes widening along with her smile. Someone other than Ransom wanting to have lunch with her? How awesome was that? "Anytime! Oh, how's the cheerleading team been? I mean, since Chrissy and everything..."

"Well, everyone's sad, of course," Isabelle said. "It was a shock to lose her." Or in her case, a pleasant surprise. "But what else can you do except keep moving forward? I think everyone's going to be fine eventually," she continued. "We'll just keep her in our memories." Gag her. What bullshit.

"Oh! Well, yes, I suppose..." Jessalyn had felt sad, but it had been more for Chrissy's parents. And oddly enough, she hadn't really felt sad over it for a few days now, not with having so much to be happy about. Should she have been feeling guilty about that? Probably. "I don't know how many of those memories will be nice ones though." Jessalyn clamped her hand over her mouth and glanced at Isabelle, horrified. "Sorry, that was mean. I didn't really mean it the way it sounded."

Isabelle burst out laughing, throwing a friendly arm around Jessalyn's shoulders. It had the added benefit of hopefully giving her a little insight into the girl's thoughts when she used her ability. "It's okay," she said, smiling. "I get it. I didn't know her all that well, and what I saw wasn't very nice. My sadness mostly came from the fact that someone died, and a life lost is always something to be mourned. It wasn't really a personal grief. I'm sure you're not the only one who feels that way."

The fact that Isabelle was smiling was a relief and it helped Jessalyn not to feel too badly about what she had said. "That's sort of how I felt about it," she admitted. "I just think some people are really touchy after a death, no matter who's it was, that they pretend they care more than they actually do. Or something." It was nice having the girl's arm around her that way as it let Jessalyn catch her scent better. She still couldn't place it, but that was okay for the moment. Isabelle certainly didn't smell like Gabe or that other girl in school, so at least Jessalyn could be content with knowing she wasn't a fellow werewolf.

"Some people probably do get really upset over death in general, no matter how they felt about the person in question," Isabelle agreed. Which was stupid if you asked her, but she kept that to herself. "But I think some people are probably aware of how much you can get away with when you're supposedly mourning someone, and they use that to their advantage - to get attention, to get things from people, whatever. Maybe that sounds overly cynical, but I've seen it happen." And done it herself several times.

It did sound cynical, and Jessalyn knew it was probably true, even if her mind rallied against it. "I think people are good at heart. Most of them just don't know how to deal with certain things, so they reacted poorly, that's all." Maybe that made her sound overly optimistic, but she didn't how how else to be.

Dear god, she was a raging little optimist, wasn't she? That could be fun. "I hope that's how it is," Isabelle said. She paused. "Makes you wonder though, doesn't it?" she asked. "Who's being genuine and who's faking, that is." She blinked as if a thought hit her. "Do you think Chrissy's ghost is around somewhere?"

"I don't know if people can fake being genuine... I mean, maybe they can, but..." Jessalyn could generally tell if people were being phony. At least she thought she could. "I don't know why they would want to be anything but. As for Chrissy? I don't know. I guess it depends on if she's stuck, or has unfinished business, right? Maybe she crossed over."

"Well, all these other spirits are here that we've never seen before," Isabelle said. "Or at least, that I know of. You'd think if there were that many ghosts with unfinished business, there'd be a lot more ghost stories about the lake told, right? So maybe she got... like, pulled back or something when the rest of them all appeared."

"Maybe... I guess I didn't really think about it like that," Jessalyn admitted. "I did think about the kids we went to school with... Lullaby, and Josh and Mary, and Chrissy. But I haven't seen any of them, so I just assumed their circumstances were different. Unless they all appeared in different places than where they died? That's a possibility too. I think it's a good thing, these spirits. It gives people an extra chance to say goodbye, if they didn't get to initially, right?"

"If you can talk to them, maybe," Isabelle said, shrugging. She, personally, didn't care to say goodbye to any of the ghosts she'd know personally. "Or it could just be like salt in the wound - I know I'd be devastated if I saw my dad again."

"I think you can talk to them. I've heard a couple ghosts talking, though I didn't join in the conversation." Jessalyn paused and frowned a touch, the feeling of her downturned lips almost foreign to her. "Why would you be devastated? Did you not like your dad?"

"No," Isabelle said immediately, "I loved him. He was all I had. But... there was a fire, when I was eight, just a little after my birthday." She let tears fill her eyes, though they didn't spill over, and her voice took on a slightly shaky quality. "I tried as hard as I could to wake him up, but he wasn't moving. I didn't get to say goodbye, but I don't think I'd want to see him again. It would hurt too much. And..." She took a breath. "And what if he didn't think I tried hard enough?"

"Oh." That sounded horrible. She hadn't known Isabelle had lost her dad that way. How awful. Jessalyn reached over to slip an arm around the girl for a small hug. "I'm so sorry... I'm sure he wouldn't think that of you. You did what you could, and sometimes that's all you can do. I guess I can see why you wouldn't want to see him again. You said your goodbyes when it happened... and it would probably bring up old hurts or something. I'm really sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Isabelle said, leaning into her slightly when Jessalyn gave her the hug. "It was hard, but it eventually led to Medea and I finding each other in the foster system, so at least something good came out of it."

"I'm glad you found something good out of it. You and your sister are really lucky to have found each other. I mean, the odds of that are so slim... everything happens for a reason right?" Jessalyn patted Isabelle's shoulder before pulling her arm back. "You seem to have dealt with it pretty well... some kids in that situation could have gone down a completely different road."

"Tell me about it," Isabelle agreed. "What were the odds that we were both in the same town and would both end up in foster care? Let alone at the same house at the same time. It was crazy, but amazing." She shrugged. "I guess you just do what feels right." Which was true, assuming one didn't know what felt right to her. "What about your family?" she asked.

"I think that sounds like fate," Jessalyn said with a smile. "You two were meant to find each other, as terrible as the circumstances had been. My family?" Her smile grew since she always liked talking about her family. "My dad works at NMU... I have a brother, he's actually a freshman in our school, Jacob Lainey? And I have a younger sister too, and my mom's going to have twins next year. They're trying for a big family, I guess."

"Wow, that is big," Isabelle agreed. "But cool. What's it like, having a big family? I mean, I know what it's like to live with a bunch of people, but it's not the same as actual family." Foster parents weren't parents - they were government-paid caretakers. The smart ones took on as many foster kids as they could get, because each one brought a check in.

"It's loud and noisy and chaotic," Jessalyn explained with a smile. "But I prefer that. There's not a lot of privacy when you're a part of a bigger family and there aren't enough rooms in the house... I think I might actually have to share my room with my little sister once the babies are born, but that's okay too, I guess. Too much silence starts to bug me for some reason." That was when she heard all the small things that no one else would be able to hear. "I spend a lot of time at Ransom's house too... he has even more brothers and sisters than I do."

"My sister and I share a room," Isabelle said. "And there are a couple other foster kids, so I totally know how that goes. Thankfully, I'm totally the fastest so I never have to wait for the bathroom in the morning." She grinned. "I don't mind sharing a room, either. It's nice to know that family's close." She blinked at the last revelation. "Wow, he's definitely got a big family, then."

"I'm the oldest, and I've got to be at school first, so I'm usually allowed in the shower first by default, unless someone gets up really early. And yeah, he's got a big family! It's nice though." She had always considered Ransom's family her own, since they were of the same pack. Jessalyn breathed in, sorting through the scents that hit her nostrils. "I should probably go... I've intruded on your alone time long enough," Jessalyn said with a small smile. "Maybe we could do something sometime! Like, shopping or something?"

"You're welcome anytime," Isabelle said, though she did want to get back to her contemplation of how she might be able to use the ghosts for her own ends. "I'd totally be up for shopping or something!" she said with a big, enthusiastic smile. "I found a good thrift store in town when I was looking for a Halloween costume, they had some great stuff in there."

"The thrift stores are the best," Jessalyn agreed. It was where she did most of her shopping, since she couldn't really afford much else. "Anytime you want to call! Or text, since I'm finally learning how to do that... or just find me at school." She beamed, extremely pleased with how the afternoon had worked out so far. Standing, she stretched and glanced back down at Isabelle. "You don't need a ride home or anything, do you?"

"No, I'm okay, thanks," Isabelle said with a smile. "I'm going to hang out here for a little bit more, then maybe wander into town and check out this bookstore I heard about. But I'll definitely find you later and we'll set up that shopping date. See you around, okay?"

"Definitely! Bye, Isabelle." Jessalyn waved at the girl before turning to head off, back to her car. She could always shift and run around later... she was much happier with this turn of events, and having a potential shopping partner. And a new friend, which was even better.