snowed in

Who: Isabelle and Porter
Where: Halls around school
When: 5 PMish

This officially sucked. Even if he was doing better, meeting people like Leija, Porter still had absolutely zero desire to spend any more time than he had to at the school. He was a creature accustomed to his own habitat, to the luxuries of modern technology. Porter wanted his stereo, his TV, his games. Sure, he had his laptop and mp3 player, and the fact that there was always an internet signal to piggyback on helped, but Porter was already fidgety. He'd called home, half-arguing with his parents about how he didn't like this either, and telling Carter to come pick him up if he still had a problem with it. That wasn't going to happen.

So Porter was back where he'd been at lunch, seated on the floor against a row of lockers, earbuds in and a movie playing on his laptop as he did his absolute best to tune out everyone around him. Medea showing up would've been a great reprieve, or even Kaysen (though he knew he wasn't supposed to acknowledge her publicly). Really, any single person would be a start, but the clusters of chattering teens around him all griping about the situation were getting old fast, so a reviewing of 'Road to Perdition' was in order.

Unlike many of the students, Isabelle didn't mind staying overnight in the school. Certainly her own bed was more comfortable than a floor surrounded by other teenagers, but the opportunity for information gathering and maneuvering was one she just couldn't pass up. She was returning to her locker to put some books away before really getting out to circulate, but found access blocked by a boy with a laptop and some headphones. She waited patiently a moment to see if he'd notice her standing there, but whatever he was doing apparently had him engrossed. So she stepped up beside him, crouching and tapping him on the shoulder. "Excuse me," she said politely. Because one always caught more flies with honey than with vinegar. Usually.

It wasn't like he was raptly focused on the events on his laptop, but more that Porter was just working to ignore his surroundings for as long as he could. There were far too many hours left until tomorrow, though, and what if it was still snowing like this then? Porter didn't have time to worry about what might happen tomorrow as he felt a light tap on his shoulder. Glancing over, he got a glimpse of Isabelle's hand withdrawing and blinked, scooting to one side in surprise. "Holy Nightcrawler!" he blurted, looking up with obvious shock at Isabelle. Okay, she was... just a girl. Who was missing a finger. And now he felt like a dick for reacting like he had.

"Hell, sorry, I... uh," he stammered, yanking an earbud free and pulling his legs under him. It wasn't like Porter could just scoot down, there were people coming and going at lockers all along the wall. This was probably a bad place to settle in. "You startled me," Porter managed as he finally hit some coherency, folding his laptop shut and tucking it under an arm.

He wasn't the first person to have a reaction to her missing finger, but his was certainly one of the more vocal. Isabelle didn't give a damn what others thought, but she never could resist and urge to make them squirm. She let a hurt look flash over her face before closing her expression into neutrality, sliding her hands into her pockets. "Sorry," she said quietly. "I just needed to put some stuff in my locker." Had she caught her sister's name in his thoughts during her brief touch? She'd given his head a quick look out of habit, but hadn't really thought she'd find anything interesting.

Well, he figured his day could always get worse, so he shouldn't have been surprised that it had. But still, Porter felt bad for that, for the flash of offense on Isabelle's expression. "No!" he blurted, shaking his head and realizing that it sounded like he was telling her not to. Strike two, champ, a cynical voice told him. "I mean... no, don't apologize?" he clarified, doing his best to ignore the snickers of amusement from people nearby in the halls. "I, uh, I shouldn't have freaked like that. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to..." To what? Make her aware of her own deformity? She was aware of it long before he'd gone and made an ass of himself, after all.

"It's okay," Isabelle said with a kind smile, speaking up before he could finish that sentence. "You're not the first by a long shot. I should be used to it, I guess." She glanced over at the kids laughing, raising an eyebrow. "Run along, boys," she instructed, "and maybe I won't tell the teachers how you were all looking for a nice, dark corner in which to practice your kissing." Of course, the teachers weren't the real threat here. The real threat was the implication that they'd been going to practice kissing each other, and the surety that it would get around school. Isabelle didn't understand teenage boys' fear of being labeled gay, but she understood it was an effective weapon. Scowling, the group of teens moved on, and she reached out to spin the combination on her locker.

Porter watched the guys go, smiling slightly to himself. That was a reason to want to be a girl, for sure; the ability to tell a guy off without worrying that he was going to slug you. "Thanks," he murmured Isabelle's way, still feeling like he had atonement to work towards. "I may not be the first? But that doesn't make it any less crappy of me. I, ah, if you change your mind and decide you want your boyfriend to kick my ass or something? I'm Porter, that'll make it easier to find me." And he'd have it coming. But with the quasi-introduction, Porter stepped back, swapping the plug from his laptop to his mp3 player as he lingered for a moment in the hallway and stuffed his loose earbud back in place.

"Well, I suppose I didn't help by getting all up in your business when you weren't paying attention," Isabelle allowed, amused by his apologies. "And I don't have a boyfriend, so I guess you're safe," she teased, winking. His next words, however, had her restraining laughter. What were the odds that she'd run into Medea's puppy without her even introducing them? "Porter?" she echoed, eyes widening as if surprised. "Like, Medea's Porter?" She coughed, as if she'd let her sister's feelings slip on accident. "I mean, Medea's friend Porter?" She smiled warmly. "I'm Isabelle."

"Are there a lot of other Porters here?" he asked quietly, stunned by the revelation and suddenly twice as worried. Medea's sister? Or half-sister, as it were. Either way, this was bad. He'd just offended the only family of the girl he was mad about, and Porter was fervently praying that Isabelle was truly just brushing off his accidental shock. "Um, ignore that. Because unless there's a lot of Medeas at this school too, then I think 'yes' is the answer," Porter went on, unable to help a little, hopeful grin from spreading just at the mention of Medea. "You're her sister?" Damn. Good genetics. "She's told me about you, I was, uh, wondering when I'd get to actually meet you though."

"I guess there probably aren't a lot of Porters around," Isabelle said with a tiny laugh, opening her locker and pulling her bag around to start shoving books in. "And I'm pretty sure there's only one Medea, so I guess that's a 'yes' to both. And yeah, we're sisters." Or well, biologically half, but that had never mattered much to Isabelle. Medea was her sister in the only ways that truly mattered. They understood each other. "She's told me a lot about you, too. It's nice to meet you." She started to put out her hand to shake, then aborted the motion before it'd gotten far, pulling a soft sweater with long sleeves out and sliding it on. It was comfortable and also hid the majority of her hands.

"You too," Porter offered, wincing a little as the premature handshake was withdrawn. Yeah, this worried him. It was something that could really throw a wrench in what was, undeniably, the best part of living in town. And what if Medea told Isabelle something? Was it paranoid of him to fear that? "I hate to do the broken record thing? But seriously, sorry," he offered, "I didn't... it's not a big deal, I really hope I didn't hit a nerve." And he offered his hand out, trying to prove that he wasn't going to be hung up on this.

"Really, it's okay," Isabelle said sincerely. "It takes a lot of people by surprise, I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable." She looked at his hand and then searched his face, as if trying to make sure he wasn't just offering out of a sense of obligation. She decided to go easy on him - no sense scaring away her sister's pet, after all - and reached out to give his hand a quick, firm shake. Might as well try and get a read on him, since they were both here.

His thoughts were a flutter of relief that washed over Porter as he smiled warmly to Isabelle, not hesitating in shaking in kind. The secrets were safe, and he could only hope he'd made a good overall impression in spite of a rocky start. "Honestly? It takes a lot to make me feel uncomfortable. Or sometimes it does." Other times? Well, Porter mused on how much he hated walking through a crowded hallway, hearing faint snickers and just knowing they were aimed at the babyfaced boy with a superhero shirt on. Headphones helped, but they also made every smirk seem aimed at him. So a weird situation one-on-one? Porter could handle that. "I'm guessing you're both stuck here overnight too?" he asked, figuring if they weren't he might've heard from Medea by now.

"Yeah, until the roads are clear and the storm lets up," Isabelle confirmed. "Whoever stayed home today is luckier than the rest of us. I like school... just not this much. I mean, it's cool to be able to just hang around with friends and whatnot, but I like sleeping in my own bed, not a mass slumber party, you know?" She was amused that he thought his secrets were safe; there was no such thing as a secret between the girls, not with their hunger for knowledge and love of games. But he wasn't hers to play with, not until Medea invited her in. So she'd keep it quiet.

"I just hope my mom thinks to turn up the heat in my snake's tank," Porter offered, nodding his agreement, "I love my room, I'd much rather be there. Even if it's like I'm gradually finding some pretty cool people in town? No one here has an Xbox, and I only have a few movies on my laptop drive." A few was more like eight or nine, but he'd already watched part of one at lunch, and he'd need to plug into an outlet before really settling in. "If you don't mind comic movies and you're bored later, feel free to find me though," he went on, "I mean, I figure you'll have plenty of people to hang out with..." Hadn't Medea said something to that effect? Isabelle was the more sociable of the two of them?

"Goodness," Isabelle said mildly, in tones that could be taken as gently teasing. "No Xbox and only a few movies on your laptop? How will you survive the night?" Hell, she didn't think she'd ever been within ten feet of an Xbox, and this was officially the closest she'd been to someone who owned a laptop. She couldn't fucking wait until she and Medea turned eighteen and were no longer wards of the state. She shrugged. "I'll probably spend most of the night with Medea," she said, "and I'm sure you'll be welcome, too. My friends'll probably come and go, everyone's mostly just circulating, you know?"

Porter laughed slightly, his smile teasing. "I'll probably just end up watching stuff online if I can get a signal. Primitive, I know, but you and Medea are definitely welcome to hang out." For a supposedly popular girl? She seemed okay. Which Porter was more willing to credit to her family than anything else, but it was still a plus. "You know when you're getting together with her? Not to be like, a total sap or anything, but... mind if I walk with you?" he asked, obviously eager over the prospect of seeing Medea.

It wasn't as if she was going straight to Medea - her sister was likely doing a little mingling of her own before they met up, but she wasn't about to turn him down. "Sure," she said, closing her locker after making sure she'd unloaded everything she didn't need. "So, you're new to town, too?" she asked, indicating her intended direction with a nod.

"Yeah, a couple of weeks now," Porter answered, mindful of his laptop under his arm as he followed Isabelle. Hopefully she'd be a buffer against the jerkier guys around, the last thing he needed was even the chance of someone slapping it from his grip. "My mom and stepdad moved me out here from Baltimore, and honestly? Ghosts aside, it's not as bad as I thought it'd be here," he elaborated. Hell, the weird stuff here was helping; back home Porter never would've had the reason or opportunity to start working towards what he'd always wanted, the chance to be a hero. The werewolf, Medea, the ghosts, Kaysen's unknown problem: they were all adding up in shaping him towards some real courage and confidence.

"I think I'd like to live in a bigger city one day," Isabelle mused. "Medea and I've lived in small towns our whole lives, I want to try something different. It's pretty here - prettier than Iron Mountain, definitely - but I don't want to stay here my whole life." She wanted to find their mother, see if the gifts she and her sister had were from the mystery woman. See if there were any more siblings out there. And, of course, the potential to cause trouble was so much greater.

That seemed to be a common idea around here, and Porter couldn't dispel it. Back home it had been the same among a lot of kids; Baltimore was okay, but people wanted to see L.A. or New York. And he guessed that kids in New York wanted somewhere smaller, inverse as that logic would be. "It's okay in the city," he confided, "Maybe other cities are cooler? But y'know, there's crime and traffic and everything. It's all a price you pay to live there, I guess. Like, here? The price would seem to be getting bored if you're under twenty-one, but it's actually, y'know, ghosts."

"Ghosts are everywhere, though," Isabelle pointed out. "There are only so many experiences you can have in a small town, and a completely different set in big cities. I'm sure it depends where in the country you are, but I don't know if I could see myself settling down in a town where if you don't know people's names, you start to recognize their faces after a while."

"It's not so bad in that sense," Porter assured her, "Eventually your routine lends itself to meeting people, y'know? Had a hotdog vendor just up the street from my comic shop back east, I must've passed the guy a hundred times before I bought one from him. It turned out I knew his daughter. So yeah, it's definitely lonelier? But only if you let it be." Which was big talk from the kid who'd only just started making real friends in the past two weeks, but it sounded good.

"That's what I meant," Isabelle said. "People are all up in everyone's business here - if you don't know someone, you know someone who knows someone who knows someone. After almost eighteen years of that, I wouldn't mind a little big-city anonymity for a while." She sure as shit wasn't going to get it around here. Plus there was so much more opportunity for trouble out in the big wide world.

Porter shrugged, finally understanding what she meant. "Still gonna run the risk of the whole 'six degrees of separation' thing, but I think I understand. Up here? It's seriously almost like a comic with how people are intertwined." And given that Medea and Isabelle had both grown up here, they had to be itching for a change of pace. Porter just didn't like thinking that isabelle might take her sister with her. "Just don't get in over your head, wherever you end up. Do, like... Boston or something. Somewhere big, but not enormous."

"We'll see," Isabelle said, shrugging. She didn't need moving tips from Medea's puppy, but she wasn't going to say anything to that effect. "It's a while off, anyway," she said, flashing him a smile. "We both still have to finish high school, so there's at least a year." And god help the justice system if it took too long to come into their inheritance. She caught sight of a group of friends, indicating their direction with a nod. "Anyway, I think I'm going to say hi to a couple of people before I find Medea. If you see her, will you let her know I'll be along in a bit?"

Porter knew the signs well enough. 'Nice talking to you, off to my friends now'. But it didn't bother him this time, at least. Isabelle was a cheerleader, for crying out loud. And at least she was a nice one, though he'd attribute that to genetics. "That's cool, and yeah I'll let her know," he promised with a nod and a grin, slipping his hood back up as he took a step away from Isabelle. No sense in sullying her reputation, after all. All he really needed now was to actually find Medea, then somewhere quiet to hide and spend time with her. Maybe being snowed in wouldn't be so bad, after all.