Movies

Who: Journey, Lullaby, Jezebelle, Joshua, Caleb, Leija, Jamie, Tensiel, and Sandy
Where: Winters/Endleigh house
When: mid-afternoon

There was a reason Journey never threw parties of his own, and that was because he couldn't think ahead. It just wasn't his strong suit, at all. So he'd woken up early this morning and gone into mad scramble mode. Food was easy enough; call the pizza place, beg for enough pizza to feed at least twelve teenagers (just in case!), run to the store and buy as much soda and junk food and popcorn as he could carry, and then throw it all on the kitchen counter. Food, check!

Next he dashed off to the movie store. On a whim, he got nothing but scary movies; Disturbia, American Psycho, Mortuary, 28 Days Later and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. Yeah, it was totally mean of him, but nobody had yet to mention the kinds of movies they wanted to watch.

He also happened to know girls were clingy in scary movies (it was yet another law of the universe) and now that he had a girl, well... Scary movie marathon. Totally.

Movies, check!

lot.

"You're sooo social and polite." Lulu teased him. "I texted Joshua to tell him what was going on. So hopefully he'll show. What did you rent?" she asked, eyeing the time to see how close it was to people-arriving-time. Not that close, but getting there!!

It was just then that people really did start to arrive, and since one of said people was Tensiel it wasn't so much a ring of the doorbell as a tap at the window which announced it. The dark-haired young angel was up on her tiptoes and peering though the window next to the door, having run straight up to it the second Caleb pointed this one out as 'the house'. Curiosity had the better of her, most completely, and she turned to smile at Caleb as he came up the path. "Look, Caleb! This window's huge..."

Caleb looked at it. "Yah, definitely is." he said. "Though I suggest we use the door, Ten." he added, quirking a smile at her before he walked up the porch and knocked. Not that they probably didn't notice a girl peeping in at them if anyone happened to be inside. Because that was hard to miss.

"Scary movie marathon, totally. Because I'm selfish," Journey grinned. "I guess I should get the door, since it's my house," he sighed dramatically. "God, being a host is hard." He swiped a candy bar from the bowl as he passed Thia on his way to the front door. Because he was in an over-dramatic sort of mood, he opened said door with a flourish... And then he was gaping at Caleb. "Dude, what the fuck?! Did you get hit by a train!?"

Lullaby came up behind Journey and peeked around him, bodily moving him aside so she could see out. She waved, smiling but then blinked. "What happened?" she asked. Cuz...yeah wow. That was a whole lot of beat up. Last time she'd seen someone looking that messed up was when Journey'd had a hospital trip. Jeeze!

Having heard the door begin to open, Tensiel scarpered over to it and was just in time to hear the exclamations of shock from inside when she peeked her head around the side of the door frame suddenly.

She blinked at the tall blond boy and the short-haired girl, then over to Caleb, then back again. "If he'd got hit by a train there'd be track marks," she pointed out conversationally, then tilted her head at Caleb considering. "And you'd be dead. Don't get hit by trains." Tensiel frowned upon it mightily.

Caleb sighed. "No, I didn't get hit by a train." he said to Journey, and he kind of half waved back at Lullaby. Then he looked to Ten. "No getting hit by trains. Check. I'll keep it in mind. Tensiel, this is Journey and..." he sort of trailed off since he wasn't sure who the other girl was.

Lullaby stopped hiding behind Journey and stepped out to wave. "Lullaby. Hi, nice to meet you both, um, if you can't tell by the signing, I'm hard of hearing, so if you say something to me and I don't answer, I'm not ignoring you. Just tap me and talk so I can read your lips." she said, signing as usual for them though she didn't think either of them recognized the signs. Oh well, most people didn't.

Jezebelle didn't knock on the door. She didn't even use the front, since that's not the one Journey had led her through last time. Instead, she wandered in through the back door, her cape wrapped around her, her hood over her head. Otherwise, she'd worn jeans and a black top, with the purple ribbons in her hair, since those were her favorite. The cape wouldn't have come to the party, except the weather had mysteriously changed over night! Jezebelle quietly wandered up behind Journey, eying the other people in the room before she whispered in his ear. "It got cold!" she said, as if this were the first time ever.

"Ahh!" Journey yelped, jumping in surprise and whirling around. And then grinning. "Belle! You came! Look, Lu brought candy," he cheered, feeling very much like a little kid as he waved the candy bar at her. Oh well, it was either that or kiss her silly, and he wasn't sure how she felt about PDAs yet. "Um, dude, you guys can come in," he managed to say to Caleb and Tensiel, suddenly very distracted now that Jezebelle was here. "This is Jezebelle," he explained cheerfully, before grabbing the girl's arm and dragging her into the kitchen to where the candy was. He wasn't entirely sure if she'd been intimately acquainted with chocolate yet, but he was about to introduce her.

Having to concentrate hard to keep up with all the people suddenly, Tensiel took a cautious step over the doorway and once she was inside and nothing had happened, she promptly started looking around at everything she could see. People included of course, but wow, this house had a really neat ceiling and were those stairs? "Ooh~" she said, looking at them curiously for a moment. Then she looked to Lullaby and waved slightly. "Hi," she said. "Do you live here too?"

Caleb was going to say hello to the Jezebelle person, but then Journey whisked her off before he could. Righto then. Instead he nodded a greeting to Lullaby. "Hi. Caleb." he introduced back. "I'm actually going to go get Jamie...so I'll be back soon, I just wanted to bring Ten here so she could meet everyone." he told her. And she's probably going to yell at me, and she doesn't need to do that in front of everyone else.

Lullaby sent an incredulous look following Journey. Jeeze, what was with him? She hadn't even gotten to say hi back! That boy occasionally needed a swat to the back of the head. Then she looked back at the other two. "No, I don't live here. Well, kinda. I'm Journey's best friend, and I kinda sorta live here but not for really. C'mon in." she said to Ten, then looked back to Caleb. "I'll let mister terribly scatterbrained host know. See you in a bit then!" she added with a smile. This, while trying not to look at his injuries and wonder if something happened to him like had happened to her. Today she'd taped her fingers together and taken off the stupid splint things because they were painfully obvious, and she didn't want people worrying. Still, she couldn't help but wonder. Making herself stop looking at the injuries, she just smiled again and gave a little wave as Caleb turned to head off towards Jamie's. Then she shut the door and looked back to Tensiel. "Let's go find Journey and Jezebelle in the kitchen." she said.

Jezebelle squealed softly as Journey pulled her through the house, the hood falling back on her cape. She wanted to meet the people-- there were so many of them!-- but she wouldn't object to being pulled off by Journey for an introduction to chocolate, even if she already knew what that was. "I know chocolate, silly," she grinned, taking a small piece and putting it in her mouth. "It's like cake, or ice cream. Everybody knows chocolate!" According to her, sweets were their own food group. Just like pizza. "Are you going to introduce me to your friends?" she asked, grinning as she held a piece out for him.

He took it from her with his teeth, flashing her a cheeky grin afterwards. "I thought I already did?" Journey questioned, tilting his head to the side in thought. "Didn't I..?" he wondered, thinking about it. And then he laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "Oh. Crap. Sorry, Belle, I forgot." And then he was pulling her by the hand again back to the living room. "Lu! Why didn't you tell me I forgot to introduce Belle? You're supposed to hit me when I do stupid stuff, you know!" he complained, eyes sparkling with amusement.

Lulu did actually swat him on the back of the head. "You're a rude idiot." she informed him with a little smile. "Caleb had to go get Jamie, so he'll be back. And by the way if you expect me to keep you in line you actually have to not like, run off for another room at the speed of light so I can." she added. "Hi, Jezebelle, I'm Lullaby. Or Lulu or Thia, depending on your whim. Nice to meet you." she said. She was assessing Journey's girlfriend without really looking like she was giving her the hairy eyeball. But then Lulu was good at that. She hadn't quite expected someone so...goth, she supposed. Capes? That was weird. But she was a very pretty girl anyhow.

Tensiel for her part was suddenly feeling slightly lost without Caleb there. She hadn't even had a chance to say 'bye' and she didn't get why they hadn't just picked Jamie up on the walk over... but maybe she wasn't supposed to. She watched the other teens interact so easily with each other: Journey and Jezebelle and Lullaby. She repeated their names inside her head, to try and make sure she remembered as her hands retreated to tuck up inside the sleeves of her blue hoodie that Eli had gotten her for when it got cold.

"Nice to meet you, too," Jezebelle said with a shy smile, curtsying to Lullaby with the sides of her cape. "Lullaby's a pretty name. But so is Lulu and Thia. Where does Thia come from?" she asked, confused on that part. She could understand Lulu, but Thia seemed like something totally different, considering Journey's explanation of nicknames. She turned to the other girl then, repeating the curtsy as she reintroduced herself. "I'm Jezebelle," she said, but then suddenly became aware that she was the center of attention and became silent. It was a little odd, with so many people. Hopefully Journey would talk and cover that up.

Unfortunately for Jezebelle, Journey's focus had switched to Tensiel. If the boy was good with anything, it was people. And nobody was allowed to have moments of shyness around him; it was yet another universal law. Seemingly out of nowhere, yet another pilfered candy bar appeared in his hands. Nothing like thiefy parlor trick abilities to lighten the mood, right? "Want some candy, Tensiel?" he asked with a cheery grin, holding it out for her to take.

Lullaby was noticing that Ten seemed to be shy too, and waved her over. "Come talk with us!" she said encouragingly. She wasn't really good for keeping people shy either. She was a friendly, bouncy sort. Then she answered Jezebelle. "Thia comes from my middle name, which is Amarantha. It's like, a flower or something, I think." she replied.

Half-paying attention to Lullaby's words to Jezebelle, Tensiel went a bit closer to Journey and looked up at him - noticing that they had similar coloured eyes. Which was interesting to her, given that it wasn't often she noticed that and she tended to rather disconcertingly stare at people's eyes often. She politely reached out and took the proffered food, looking down at it curiously and then back up at Journey. "Thank you," she said, lifting the chocolate bar and shaking it next to her ear to listen to what noise it made. It must have been satisfactory, because she decided she would eat it once she was hungry and smiled at Journey a little bit - brief like a ripple but enough for him to see. "Your house is pretty," she said to him. "It even has stairs. You're really lucky." Tensiel had always been fond of stairs.

"Amaranthus!" Jezebelle said, excited that she could follow now and that she happened to know what that was. "The flower means 'one that does not wither'. It's the never-fading flower. I will call you Thia then," she said, clapping her hands together. "I will have to grow some in the garden," she told Journey. Even if it was somewhat weed-like, it could be contained, perhaps in a pot. "I like stairs, too," she told Tensiel. "And attics. Sometimes they have ladders."

"You're welcome, and thanks, my house is pretty awesome," Journey said, flashing a grin at Tensiel. Yes! All tension was now broken, and Tensiel was part of the conversation. And everyone had candy! Hurray! He was completely awesome sometimes. Journey stepped over to Thia and nudged her in the side. "Think Caleb will come back more injured? Jamie hits hard," he murmured, signing awkwardly to go along with his words.

Lullaby blinked. "You really know what one is? They're for real? Awesome, if you did grow some, could I have one?" she asked Jezebelle. She was kind of surprised, she'd sorta thought they were mythical or something. What with the 'never wilting' part. "I'd erm...teach you sign?" she suggested with a little laugh. "Or something. That'd be really awesome though." she added. Then she laughed at Ten. "The house is cool. Homey and everything. The attic and basement are neat." Then she looked to Journey. "He might. Maybe that's why he wanted to go alone. So he can be abused in private." she whispered back to him.

Despite being pulled into conversation with Jezebelle about the complete merit of stairs (and yes indeed, of attics) Tensiel couldn't help hearing the mention of Caleb's name and getting a very odd feeling over the way Journey and Lullaby were sharing looks and nudges. And mentioning this Jamie person. So she glanced away, because staring was bad if it was kinda all you could manage, and looked up at Jezebelle and lifted a hand to gesture to her hair. "Your ribbons are pretty," she said, meaning it even it was just a way to not have to hear whatever the other two were saying. Tensiel's own hair was tied back in a ponytail, but much of it was strung in the small braids she'd put it in while talking to Dorian in the kitchen. No ribbons or such in it though, it wasn't something she'd had time to learn to do. "How did you learn to put them up?"

"Of course you can have one," Jezebelle told Lulu, pleased to have something to talk about, even if it was flowers. That was good enough for now, since they'd really just met. "What's signing?" she asked, curious. It was probably making signs of some sort, but... what kind? Stop signs, maybe? Or maybe she meant signatures? Jezebelle could write her name just fine, but she'd love to learn how to write everyone else's correctly. But then again, having her own stop sign would be wonderful. She could just STOP those mean cars every time she wanted to cross the street. They seemed much more willing to obey the signs than her. "Thank you," she said, turning to Tensiel when Journey and Lulu started whispering to each other. She'd pay more attention, but she was proud of her ribbons and twirled one around her finger. "Journey gave them to me. My mother used to put them in my hair when I was little and I just watched her. Sometimes I braid them in. Sometimes they're just tied. Depends on my mood. I'll show you sometime, if you'd like."

Journey snorted, covering his mouth with his hand to disguise a fit of laughter as a nasty cough. Oh, God, when was Lulu gonna remember he was a teenage boy? Things like that were always taken in the worst possible context. Of course, it was pretty amusing, so, yeah... He drifted back over to Jezebelle, standing behind her and being very well behaved. He didn't even grab for her hand! Go him. It helped he still had no idea if they were dating or not, of course... He listened intently to Tensiel speak, despite the fact he knew he looked more distracted by the pretty girl with the pretty ribbons in her hair. Hey, he could be ninja sometimes, when it was important. With new people, especially kind of shy people, it was important! So he'd look like a lovestruck idiot (and hey, he was) and try to figure out Tensiel in the mean time, without looking creepy.

"Signing...like what I'm doing when I talk." Lullaby said, wondering how she managed to miss all the sign language. "It's talking without saying anything." she added, cuz she felt a bit like she had to explain. "Nevermind. I'd really like the flower though. I'll come up with something." Then she paused. "Actually, I do have something!" she added, then went to go get the bag she'd come in with, her purse was in it. She went over and started looking through, before she chose a necklace and held it out towards Jezebelle. It had a circle in the center, and crescent moons on either side of it, points outward. "Here you go." she said pleasantly, then eyed Tensiel, before choosing one for her as well. Ten's looked almost like a snowflake, circular with points going out from the center that branched. "For you." Please don't think I'm crazy!

Tensiel blinked, almost a little hesitant to tune back in to whatever Journey and Lullaby were saying, but couldn't help looking with quiet surprise at the necklace being held out to her on the end of a dark brown cord. She knew what it was from an old story her mother used to tell her, and carefully accepted it from Lullaby, looking at the warding shape as she held it up in both hands. "It's an ægishjálmur, isn't it?" she asked, looking up from it to Lullaby. "It's very pretty but I..." Tensiel didn't understand why suddenly she was being given such a present by somebody she didn't know. Especially one which meant what this one meant.

"Ohh," Jezebelle smiled. "I wondered." She'd noticed them doing things with their hands, but she had no idea what it meant and hadn't even considered the idea that it had something to do with a language. She almost said that she talked without saying anything too, but she thought maybe this was different. It wasn't just being quiet. They could make hand signals even if they were completely silent. When Lulu presented her with the necklace, she gasped happily, throwing her arms around Lulu in a hug. "Thank you!" she said, her voice naturally quiet, but close to Lulu's ear, even if unintentionally. "It's beautiful," she smiled, pulling back. "What is it?" she asked, already starting to put it on. New friends that gave presents! It was better than she could have imagined!

Journey shot a knowing look at Lullaby before sidling up to Tensiel. He was good at being stealthy. And thiefy. Really, he made an awesome suburban ninja. "Lulu's got a protective streak going for her right now," he explained quietly, flashing her a grin and hoping being this close and talking quietly didn't look creepy or flirty or creepy-flirty. He held up the cross she'd given him Wednesday. "See? It's kind of a friendship thing." Hopefully Tensiel would buy his explanation, and Lulu wouldn't hit him, and Jezebelle wouldn't think he was flirting. God, girls were complicated. Caleb needed to come back right now! And where was Joshua!?

Joshua at that particular moment was picking himself up from Journey's garden path having managed to trip over a protruding paving slab that he could have sworn wasn't there five seconds ago. Dusting off his hands on his jeans, he headed up to the front door and rattled the letter box. Propping himself against the door frame, he grinned to himself. He had been totally stoked when he got Lulu's message and would have probably arrived earlier if he hadn't lost his door keys and spent half an hour searching for them before they turned up at the bottom of his laundry basket. Still he was here now where there was Lulu and a bunch of new people to meet.

Lullaby heard the door and went to open it up, making a happy squeaky sound when she saw who it was. She reached out with her non-injured hand, then tugged him inside by the front of the shirt. "You came!" she said happily, then looked back to everyone else. "Hey, everyone, this is Joshua...Joshua this is Jezebelle and Tensiel." she introduced. "You know Journey, of course. And a couple other people are coming too."

One of said 'other people' chose that moment to turn up. Sandy'd gotten the call earlier on and decided that movies sounded like a great idea. He'd had a terrible day the day before - hardly able to drag himself out of bed, he'd spent most of the day lying on the sofa absently flicking through the channels, his mind not able to settle on anything at all. Today, he felt a little better and the change in the weather meant that he'd been able to get in a few (albeit) cold hours out on the lake this morning before his dad basically kicked him out of the house when Journey's invitation came through. He'd taken a few detours on the way, but he'd made it! Though walking up the path he realised he didn't really know any of these people - he recognised a few from school, but that was it. And so he hovered, waiting to be noticed.

Narrowly avoiding being pulled of his balance by Lulu's enthusiastic greeting, Joshua wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a small kiss on the cheek. "Wouldn't miss it for the world" he said with a smile before turning to said new people. "Nice to meet you both." he said, still smiling as he recognised the gothic looking girl from the old orphanage and resisted the urge to turn to Journey and give him a thumbs up. His girl was pretty that was for sure. He didn't recognise the other girl but then he didn't really expect to given he'd been in Marquette all of two weeks and wasn't exact a social butterfly.

Journey shot Josh a grin, but didn't say anything. He'd immediately noticed Sandy hovering, and dashed over to pull him in the house. "Dude, you came! Awesome! Sorry, I know I said I'd call earlier in the week, but it's been crazy and yeah, but you're here now, and there's food and movies" and girls, but Sandy hadn't seemed the type to come to anything for that reason "and candy. These are... well, they're people, but I guess you want names. This is Lulu, the best friend type, and that's her boy toy Josh. The girl with the ribbons is" mine "Jezebelle, and the girl next to her is Tensiel. I know we got at least two more people on the way, new guy named Caleb and Jamie Sullivan. Guys, this is Sandy!" And cue breathing again.

Lullaby looked over and smiled brightly at Sandy, waving to him. "Oh I know Sandy! Hi!" she said. "I was supposed to tutor him but he's really not in need of it at all so I was going to teach him sign instead." she said. "Nice to see you again!" She slipped her hurt hand back and to Joshua's, knowing he wouldn't hold onto it hard enough to hurt. Though with all the people, and her signing and everything, she was pretty sure if she didn't do something with it, she'd knock it against someone or something and just hurt herself, sooooo--hand holding.

Sandy gave the group a little wave. "Hi," he said, before turning to Lullaby. Because - gah! He'd forgotten. "Yeah, I, er - sorry about that. I.. Would you buy that I forgot? being it's the truth and everything. Distracted," he added. "I do still want to learn though. But maybe now's not the time." Though his tone suggested that the realisation that now wasn't the time was something that had occurred to him after his enthusiastic proclamation that he was still interested. He should... Do something else! he was good at that. "So - am I late?" he asked.

"Not late," Jezebelle said, though she wasn't sure her voice could be heard over the rest of them. She was still trying to learn everyone's names, but what was easier was figuring out associations based on interaction. Journey was close to Lullaby, but not in a way that made Jezebelle want to claw her eyes out. That was always a good thing. To confirm that, Joshua seemed to be with her and seeing their hands locked together, Jezebelle slid her own down to Journey's. She just wasn't sure what was acceptable, but no one else seemed bothered with it. "Are we just eating candy tonight?"

Despite being a bit surprised by all the people showing up, and having to keep up with their names, and still holding a small Icelandic magical stave which sort of screamed extremely apt yet ironic things at her, Tensiel hadn't missed the sudden proliferation of handholding going on. Or the rest. It was all kind of confusing and she was trying not to feel a touch uneasy about it as she looked at them all while they stood around. "This is a lot of people," she commented, also kind of wondering what it would take to feed them all in here as she looped the cord of the ægishjálmur around her wrist and tied it so she wouldn't lose it. "Is this everybody?"

Journey bit the inside of his cheek to keep from grinning like a fool. He gave Belle's hand a happy squeeze and barely resisted the urge to kiss her full on the mouth. Maybe a few too many people around for that, as tempting as it was. "We have pizza. Lots and lots of pizza. And we're still waiting on Caleb and Jamie, at least. I didn't invite anybody else, but who knows?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe get some stragglers. Help yourselves, people. My house is your house and all that jazz, but if anybody breaks anything? Well, I might just break you back." He flashed a cheery grin at the group to lighten the mood after his little 'warning', even though he really did mean it. He wasn't against breaking some face if someone got a little too happy and broke something. And then he was wandering back towards the kitchen, tugging Belle along with him. "C'mon, I'm hungry. Pizza!"

Lullaby shot Journey a bit of a look at the threat, then looked at everyone else. She was a better hostess than he was, damnit. "C'mon, everyone, there's pizza in the kitchen. And like, a ton of other stuff. I hope everyone likes everything!" she said, leading the way.

Following Lulu along the corridor (not that he had much choice given she was holding his hand), Joshua's stomach growled at the prospect of pizza. For all his admirable traits, he wasn't about to pass on the opportunity to gorge on pizza shaped goodness.

"There are different types of pizza?" Jezebelle asked Journey, looking at the options in the kitchen. She'd only been exposed to the sort that came out of Alex's refrigerator and that had been cold. "Is it good hot?" she asked. The cold pizza had been wonderful, but this smelled far better.

"Pizza's great hot," Sandy told her. "Do you not usually eat it hot? I prefer it that way - though most of the time I end up eating it cold," he shrugged. Usually because he forgot what he was doing after he finished his first slice and then 'rediscovered' the rest of it hours later. There was a reason that he was skinny and it had a whole lot to do with forgetting to eat.

"There's lots of types of pizza," Journey said, flashing Belle a grin as he deposited a stack of clean plates on the table by the assorted pizza boxes. "There's spicy pizza, which is really gross, and there's cheesy pizza, which can be awesome, and there's pizza with vegetables, which defeats the entire purpose of pizza, and then there's my new absolute favorite." He flipped open the lids on the various boxes before stopping at ham and pineapple and grabbing three slices. "Awesome," he proclaimed happily, dropping them onto a plate. "Cold pizza makes awesome breakfast, though," Journey noted with a grin, before reaching into the fridge and drawing out a can of Coke. "Dig in, people. What you don't eat, I will later."

Leija was late. She knew this, and it really couldn't be avoided. Right around the time she was getting ready to go out again, that undeniable pull had started in her stomach and chest. Already on edge from her nerves over the quite-possibly-a-date thing with Thom, she'd resisted for about two seconds before throwing open her window and taking to the sky. Chicago, a man in his forties in a car accident. She thanked whatever gods there were that it wasn't terribly horrific, but it had taken a while. Once her duty was done, Leija high-tailed -- or high-winged -- it back to Marquette. Since she was dressed and all, she just went straight to where Caleb had told her to go. Her heart was pounding in her throat as she stepped up to Journey's door, straightened her clothes a bit, put her chin up, and knocked. Oh god what was she doing?

"So many choices," Jezebelle said, watching everyone take their pick of pizza. It was just so hard to decide! "Can I mix them?" she asked, thinking she wanted to try several different kinds, even if Journey had taken all three the same. She'd just picked up a slice of the pineapple and ham when she heard a knock at the door. "Someone's here!" she announced to the room at large, then realized she wasn't quite loud enough for that to be successful. Dropping her pizza on a plate, she headed for the door, opening it with a smile. "Hello!" she said softly, but brightly to the girl standing there. "Welcome!"

Don't panic, don't freak out, you are normal, these people are normal, this is a totally normal thing to do ... smile dammit! Obeying her inner coach, Leija smiled. "Hi," she said to the girl that opened the door. Then hesitated. She didn't know anyone's name here except the guy who supposedly lived there. "Um ... Caleb invited me," she stated. She realized she was wringing her fingers together and made herself stop.

"Caleb was here... I think," Jezebelle said. "Someone went to get someone else, but they'll be back. You should come inside. It's cold out there!" she said, stepping back from the door to let the new girl in. She didn't know her, but someone should. As far as she was concerned, everyone was welcome.

While everybody was so distracted with the pizza and the uh, hand-holding and stuff, Tensiel was just going to watch until things quieted down and she could hear herself think. She wasn't used to having so many people all around together, but she was going to persevere - whether or not Caleb was there. She found a piece of spicy pizza in her hand (somebody must have handed it to her, but judging by his earlier outburst she was sure it wasn't Journey) and settled down on a chair, cross-legged and picking at the topping with careful fingers as her blue-grey eyes slipped from person to person in the room. Mmm... pizza was good, especially with these little spicy meatballs, but she wasn't so distracted with it she didn't see a new person come into the room and wave.

Slightly relieved that she wasn't completely in the wrong place, Leija walked in through the door and past Jezebelle. She didn't quite think to introduce herself, too busy looking around -- in what she hoped didn't look like abject horror -- at all the people. She caught Tensiel's wave and waved back, hand low at her side. It immediately made her feel like a dork, but there was no help for it. Leija glanced back to Jezebelle for some sort of guidance, since she'd opened the door.

"I'm Jezebelle," she said, curtsying to Leija in welcome. "This is Tensiel. She knows Caleb, too! There is pizza in the kitchen and some of it has pineapple on it. It's hot pizza, if you like that." She had yet to see if she did; her piece had been left behind. "Umm... That's it!" she said, feeling like that was all she knew introduction wise. Jezebelle was still somewhat new to this, after all. "What's your name?" she asked.

Leija took 'hot pizza' to mean 'spicy pizza', which didn't really match up with her recollections of having pineapple pizza, but okay. She wasn't going to start asking potentially stupid questions; maybe things were strange here in the UP. "Leija," she told Jezebelle. At least she was perky-friendly enough. "Your's?" Her eyes were still darting around to other people milling about, but she tried to focus at least for polite introductions.

"My what?" Jezebelle asked, confused. Leija seemed a little odd, which was surprising for Jezebelle to think. Generally, she considered herself the odd one. "This is Journey's house, not mine. Well, Uncle Lee's too. But you can still come in."

Tensiel had caught a little bit of similar fish-in-a-desert feeling from the way Leija was looking around, and she was curious about her knowing Caleb. She slipped off her chair and went over to Leija properly, holding out the hand that had been holding the plate with her pizza on it (and was therefore not covered in pizza sauce from picking at it). "Hi. This is busy. Want pizza?" As conversational gambits went, it was probably not the best, but still. She was trying. Dorian and Caleb said this stuff was way important.

Leija realized belatedly that the girl had already told her her name and flushed. Goddammit, she was not good at this. It had become much easier with Thom, and part of her really wanted to leave and go walk to his house. But that would make her creepy, so no. She looked at Tensiel with a bit of gratitude. "Hi, yes, please," she answered. She shook Ten's hand, her grip light and unsure.

The younger girl's own handshake was quick but straightforward, and she was a bit relieved it seemed to be going well enough. Tensiel inclined her head towards the kitchen and guided Leija into the thick of the teenage chaos in search of some pizza. A worthy quest.

Sandy was standing by the kitchen window, tucking into the pizza, just watching everyone else as he leaned against the worktop. He knew a few people - you kind of got to know people when you lived in a town like Marquette, but he'd never really hung out with them. Then again, Sandy didn't exactly do a whole lot of hanging out, so... "What movies do we have?" he asked as he swallowed a mouthful of pizza.

Thankfully, Journey had never claimed to be the best host. He was horrible at it, and he was well aware. He shot a cheery grin at the new girl and waved, but other than that? He stayed right where he was. Food trumped shy girls anyways, and Belle and Tensiel looked like they had her all taken care of. He swallowed the remains of his second piece before flashing Sandy a grin. "Scary movies. Disturbia, Mortuary, American Psycho... uh, 28 Days Later, and that remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Scary movies are always funner in groups, so yeah." And, of course, scary movies made for clingy girls. And he was a teenage boy, with a pretty kind of sort of girlfriend now. So yeah, scary movies made perfect sense in his head.

"They're scary?" Jezebelle asked, leaving Leija and Tensiel to go retrieve her pizza. What she'd seen on television hadn't been frightening, but then she'd gone for the cartoons. Oh, and the teenage soap operas. Only one day with a television and they'd sucked her in good. "Like, what kind of scary?" she asked. There were lots of different sorts in her head. There was the fun kind, and the kind that made her cry. Hopefully Journey had gone with the fun kind.

Lullaby for her part was feeling slightly overwhelmed. She liked gatherings, but when so many people were talking all at once, she couldn't follow very well. It was hard for her, and she sort of drifted back a little, not by any means hiding, but taking herself out of things a bit. She dug in her purse for a pendant, and chose a necklace for Leija. Heading around everyone towards her, she smiled. "Hi, I'm Lullaby, and this is for you." she said, handing her the necklace. "It's nice to meet you." she added. She signed while she did so, and things were slightly less hectic for her when she focused on one person. She half reached her hand back for Joshua though, feeling that slight bit of sillily overwhelmed. It had been a while since she'd had to deal with so many people all at once. At least during the movies it would be easier for her. But her smile was just as bright as it always was, as she gave Leija the same friendly treatment as she did everyone else today.

Seeing Lulu's hand moving out behind her, Joshua quickly stepped forward and gently laced his fingers through hers. "I'm here" he signed, moving round in front of her, incredibly glad that he had been working on his sign language. He couldn't fathom what it was like for Lulu with all the different conversations but he was fairly sure it wasn't fun for her. "So scary movies" he said with a smile. "Me thinks Journey might have an ulterior motive."

Still close enough to Leija to have picked up Joushua's voice, Tensiel blinked and looked at him curiously. It wasn't what he'd said, it was his accent. It had been a while since she'd heard an Irishman talk and it was kinda odd to find one here, in a busy kitchen, in Michigan. Maybe she would ask him about it later... or... maybe not. Suddenly she was getting a weird feeling from him that made her want to back away. But she didn't. Maybe she'd ask about that too, but when there weren't so many people and when Lullaby wasn't holding his hand (she still wasn't sure what the protocol was for that) but in the meantime she had sort of realized what Lullaby was doing with the necklaces she was giving out since they were all religiously powerful symbols. She'd never permanently blessed anything in her life, but she could give each of them a bit of blessing energy to make them more useful. Nobody would notice. So while Leija was still holding her own pendant, Tensiel brushed it with a curious finger that also imbued it with a blessing. Yay, one down, few more to go. Better talk some, though. "Is ulterior like nefarious?" she asked, peering round at Journey. He looked like the least stealthy or wicked person she'd come across in a while.

"Not necessarily," Sandy said, answering the question. "Nefarious means 'extremely wicked and villanous', ulterior is just... something else, something beyond what's given. Nefarious motives are always bad, ulterior motives don't have to be." He gave her a smile and then headed to get another piece of pizza, unaware of the fact that he very much sounded like he'd swallowed a dictionary.

Journey chewed thoughtfully as he considered what Josh had said. Well, it was true, wasn't it? No real point in pretending otherwise. He swallowed, and shot the gathered teens a cheeky grin. "'course I had ulterior motives, I mean, duh," he said logically. "But that wasn't all of it. Dude, Josh, you look just like this guy in one of the movies I got! I picked it 'cause of that, and then it was like 'whoa, total horror movie theme!'" He took a sip of his soda, still grinning from ear to ear. "So while I'd like to take evil genius credit, it was partly coincidence, too," he admitted with a laugh.

There was a knock on the door once more, and then Caleb opened it, finally having arrived with Jamie. Who was at least talking again, so that was a good thing. He still would have rathered that she yelled at him for being beat up. He was kind of blinking at how many people were there. He for some reason thought it looked a million times more when they were in a small space. "Hey." he greeted people, smiling at Leija, who had apparently made it when he walked in where he heard everyone talking. He glanced behind him to make sure Jamie hadn't decided to run off.

Jamie hung back, looking considerably more gloomy than usual, her eyes a shade darker. Her gaze bounced around the room to all the people; Journey and Lulu she knew, of course, and she recognized their respective significant others (if only because Journey's girl was now 'that goth bitch' to Chrissy and Josh--that was his name, right?--was her number two target after Journey himself). She thought the blonde leaning against the counter by Journey looked familiar (Alex? Alexander? No, those weren't quite right...), but the other two girls were new. "Hi," she murmured, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. God, it was as though Journey and Caleb had conspired to put as many people that Chrissy wanted vengeance on in one house or something...

Lullaby looked over as she saw new people again, and smiled brightly at Jamie. "Hi!" she called, waving her free hand. "It's great to see you again, Jamie, come have pizza! Meet people! There's Tensiel and Leija, this is Joshua I know you met for like two seconds before, but still...and then there's Jezebelle, I don't know if you know her yet..." she said, nodding to everyone. "And Sandy!"

"Hello," Leija said quietly to Lullaby, and blinked at the pendant that was suddenly in her hand. "Nice to meet you too." Her head was spinning a little bit, and it got even worse when Tensiel touched the necklace. A shiver ran up her spine and she stared as the girl turned to speak to someone else. And then Caleb was walking in and there were far too many people to look at and the brunette had just done something and they were talking about horror movies and she was really about to freak out. She tried not to look too panicky and pocketed the necklace. She edged closer to Caleb, as he was the reason she was here in the first place. "I think I'm about to hyperventilate," she murmured at him.

Caleb smiled faintly at Leija. "Breathe, partner." he murmured back. "Don't lose your cool now." Sure, she could break in places with him just fine, but not handle a house of nice people? Course, they were scary. He was glad she hadn't blinked over his condition, though. Hooray for not having to explain the damage again.

Anybody who broke into houses was bound to get into fights, so Leija just took his face in stride. Really, her mind was also terribly preoccupied with the feeling she'd gotten from Tensiel. But she wasn't going to ask. Not yet, not until an opportunity came up to snag the girl into alone time without looking crazy. She took a deep breath and nodded at Caleb. "Just a ... little much ... is all. You okay?" was all she would ask, glancing at him a little more closely. There were a lot of scratches ...

Jezebelle hadn't really gotten a look at Caleb the first time he'd arrived, but now that he was in the light she was struck with just how beat up he looked. It didn't matter that she'd never met him before, as she just assumed this wasn't commonplace. Suddenly she was at his side, looking at him curiously. "You got hurt," she said quietly and gently poked a finger at his cheek, right below his black eye. "What happened?"

Caleb blinked at the girl suddenly poking at him so he took a huge step back. "Hey...don't touch me." he said, frowning at her. "I got in a fight. It's no big deal..." he said, addressing both girls. "Really...fine." he said again, hoping that would be the end of it. And he didn't want to kick up Jamie's upset again too. She was already worried enough.

Jamie was currently a little too busy having a stare down with one Journey Winters to notice Caleb's 'plight'. For some reason, Journey had locked eyes with her and seemed to be attempting silent communication, and boy was he failing. Horribly. She watched, faintly amused, as he lifted his eyebrows and moved his hand in a slight gesture towards Caleb. She rolled her eyes heavenward. Honestly, how obvious could he get? "Hi, Lulu," she greeted with a wave, attention moving from the resident dork to his best friend instead. "I'm not very hungry right now, but I might eat something later," she said carefully, being sure to move her lips clearly. She ignored the dirty, sulky look Journey shot her.

He did indeed shoot her a dirty, sulky look, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. Thoroughly. He didn't know what was going on with Caleb and Jamie, but he knew something was up. And he was a nosy bastard. So there. Maybe she'd spill something to Lulu and he could find out that way? He glanced over at Sandy. "You detect any weirdness over there?" he asked quietly, gesturing towards Caleb and the flock of girls around him (including his girl, insert jealous twitch here).

Sandy looked over at the said flock, then back at Journey. "Who's the new guy? Oh, right - I know this one, Caleb right?" he asked, dragging the name out from an earlier conversation. "Who is he though? And - is he new, or have I just managed to never see him before?" Both of which were eminently possible - sometimes (read: lots of the time) things passed Sandy by.

Jezebelle took a step back from Caleb, listening long enough for a poor excuse of an explanation before heading back to Journey. It must have been some fight. Last she checked, mortal men of this age didn't carry large blades with them, though that appeared to be what had slashed at Caleb's face. Maybe she was over reacting. A sword wasn't necessary for that kind of work. A knife would have done just as well. "Why would he fight?" she asked Journey and Sandy. "Was there a battle?"

"He's new," Journey said, his voice still quiet. But it was a casual quiet; he didn't want to draw attention to the three of them, oh no. "From New Orleans. Decent guy so far." Yeah, so why am I on edge around him again? I like the guy so far, I just keep expecting the bottom to drop out around him or something. Probably all the stuff he said about being trouble, and now he shows up looking like he got his ass handed to him... "He said it was a..." His brows furrowed again. Shit, Belle had shown up and distracted him before he'd gotten the news. "Huh. I don't know." He eyed Caleb thoughtfully. But I'm going to try to find out, that's for sure.

Leija took "fine" as enough of an answer out of a boy she hardly knew anyway. Not that they hadn't bonded, but ... when you asked nosy questions, people started asking you nosy questions, and in this sort of setting, she counted that under Absolutely Not Allowed. So she nodded, giving Belle a strange sort of look as she walked away. She knew she should probably mingle, but she kind of was terrified to. Pizza, pizza was a good excuse, right? She crossed the kitchen toward the pizza boxes and got a slice.

Sandy, easily distracted at the best of times, was successfully turned from listening to Journey as Leija came over to snag pizza. "Hi," he said. "Leija, right?" he asked - he could be good with names at times. Usually when he forgot it was just that he knew, but couldn't remember he knew. It was frustrating when he was aware of it. Today he was doing okay, his head felt clearer than usual.

Completely oblivious to the looks Leija had been giving her, Tensiel was going to go and see Jezebelle and bless her charm too. It couldn't hurt, then maybe she could get Lullaby's and any others. She'd actually learned about the real warding power of religious charms and symbols from Mathias Lockwood (of all people) back when they'd had conversations that didn't involve bodily threatening each other. If Lullaby was worried about that stuff, then what was wrong with helping out? She didn't notice Caleb had returned with Jamie until she stopped and stared somewhat confused at the weird head-tilty-boogle-eyed thing Journey was doing.... which maybe wasn't the way she needed to notice. She turned around, spotted Caleb and a very pretty girl she guessed had to be Jamie, and waved... then thought maybe she should sort of stay separate and carried on her search for Jezebelle.

Leija looked up from collecting a paper towel as she was addressed and looked blank at Sandy for a beat before she blinked and shook her head. She tried a smile. God this was even worse than the pre-date (!!) jitters. "Yeah," she confirmed that yes, that was her name. Because she knew her name! That was a good start. "Sorry, I think I missed your's," she admitted with a little nose-wrinkle. This was for sure a lot more than she was used to keeping up with.

"Sandy," he told her. "You new? I don't think I've seen you around before. Course, that could be that I just don't know you - I... Don't know that many people," he admitted, wrinkling his nose slightly. If fact, he couldn't remember the last time he'd been in a room with this many people his own age outside of a classroom. Possibly summer camp as a kid. Or a field trip. Nothing voluntary, anyhow.

Sandy. Leija filed that away and would hopefully remember it. He was blonde, so maybe that could be a handy association. She smiled a little easier at hearing that he didn't know very many people. "No, I'm new. Only ... three days now? I think? But I met Caleb --" she nodded over toward the dark-haired boy. "-- and he invited me. So. We can not know anybody together." She leaned against the counter near him and took a testing bite of pizza.

Lullaby was looking through her purse for some more necklaces to give to those who didn't have them yet. So, Sandy, Caleb (who looked like he needed protection of SOME description) and of course Jamie. What to give them? She hoped they'd take them, and not think she was nuts. So far people had been pretty cool about it, but she knew eventually that she'd totally get a lame look from people because of it.

Jezebelle had completely missed the fact that Tensiel had blessed her necklace, just pleased to have it in the first place. Gifts were special and should be cherished. Jezebelle had put it on right away, even if she wasn't really sure what it was. When Lullaby started looking through her purse for more, Jezebelle watched curiously, then finally decided to ask. "Did you loose something?" she asked, looking between the purse and Lullaby. Lost things were always fun because then they could go be found. It was like hide and seek with an object, rather than a person.

Tensiel had been distracted from her blessing-of-things quest by more pizza. This pizza seemed to have pineapple on it, which was also very cool, so she paused and started digging in. Glancing around the room at everybody's situation she noticed Jezebelle and Lullaby peering into a little purse; Sandy and Leija and Journey all sort of talking and looking around; and... her eyes stopped at the brown haired girl she hadn't met yet. Jamie. She seemed very quiet and kind of sad, and wasn't really interacting with anybody. In for a penny, in for a pound. Better go say 'hi' since it had worked with Leija. Abandoning her pizza and darting over to shove her hands in the sink so they were washed, Tensiel slipped around everybody and then looked at the taller girl with a very curious expression. "Hi, I'm Ten. You're Jamie. Uhm... don't be so sad. Will pizza help?" It wasn't as good as fish sandwiches, but it was something, right?

Jamie blinked rapidly at the girl who'd suddenly appeared in front of her. Was she that out of it (outside of her 'silent yet obvious' communication with Journey)? "Ten?" she repeated, making sure she got it right. At the same time, she was doing the appraisal of people that came to her naturally; this girl was giving off good vibes. Much better than other girls in this town, that was for sure. She seemed happy, and sweet, if what she'd just said was any indication. Jamie felt herself smile faintly, but reassuringly, in that 'I'm fine, don't worry about me' way she'd perfected years ago. "It's nice to meet you. I'm okay, really. Not hungry at all. But thank you for offering. Are you new in town?"

"I... yeah," Tensiel answered, realizing just a moment too late that there had been a bit of a surprised pause between the two words. She pushed on though, pretended she wasn't surprised. (Was it stupid to just think that Caleb would have mentioned her to his new friends?) "Just got here. It's pretty. There's some friendly trees, and that kinda spooky lake, and fish sandwiches... it's nice." She was trying to think fast for something good to say, which was an unusual thing to struggle with for her but it was happening right now, but didn't look away from Jamie's brown eyes. "Uhm... mmyep." ...bugger, not very good.

"It is really pretty here," Jamie agreed with a somewhat puzzled smile. Hm, that was... strange. Why was this girl so surprised? Jamie ticked back through what she'd said, wondering what was so very odd about it. Oh, wonderful, now they were in awkward silence mode. "So you'll be joining us at school next month, then?" School was always a good ice breaker. It was what teenagers had in common, after all. "What grade are you?" Am I going to have to try to keep Chrissy distracted so you aren't a target, too?

The latter was a question Tensiel didn't have an answer to, but she supposed she'd better do the research now and ask. She nodded, "I'm going to start school so long as I can get in," she said lightly, yet matter-of-factly too. Her hand lifted to settled at the back of her neck as she thought about it. "I'm not sure what grade I'll be in. I never went to school before. Do they do it by age? I'm sixteen, does that count?" Her blue-grey eyes flitted up to the ceiling as she wondered, and then back down again to Jamie's face. "What about you?"

Lullaby chose necklaces for the people who she hadn't given them too yet, and she went and handed them out to Sandy, Jamie, and Caleb. Caleb gave her a look like she was nuts, but took it anyhow with a kind of distracted sort of 'thanks'. She didn't care as long as long as he took it. Then she was looking around at everyone some more, before she picked up a gummy bear to flick at Journey's head. "Movies!" she signed and said, though with everyone talking at once, she wasn't easy to hear.

"Hey, no gummy bear war!" Journey yelped, rubbing at his forehead. Damn, that had been a good shot. Oh, it was so on now. He'd get her (and Josh) right in the middle of one of those suspense scenes. Maybe a couple of other people, too. Oh yeah, he was total suburban ninja today. "Right, right. Movies. And I'm the shitty host," he grumbled, heading for the living room. He was so not throwing anything else like this for awhile. It was just too much hassle. Next time Caleb wanted to plot social evils, they could have the thing at his place. Without really paying attention to what movie he grabbed first, he popped it in the DVD player and pressed play, then went to snag Belle from the living room. It was his house. They got the couch seats!

Sandy followed everyone else into the room, slouching down onto the floor without giving the seats a glance - other people could have them. In the meantime, let the movies commence!