time at the park

who: kaysen and taylor
where: Harlow Park
when: afternoon

Kaysen wasn't at her usual haunt today, opting not to be doing any tricks (sort of) today on the steps of the middle school. Instead she was out for a walk, and she had a kitten in her backpack. Edison The Second seemed to like it in there, which she found weird, but good. Maybe if he got used to being in there she could really taking him out all over the place and it'd be cool.

She'd stopped by the fountain, and sat down in front of it on her board. Taking off her backpack, she tugged her kitten out and smiled at him. "Hey, Edison..." she said to him, giving him scritches under the neck and generally cuddling the crap out of him.

Taylor was currently sitting about ten feet of the ground concealed by the branchs of the tree she'd decided to climb. Her sketch book braced against her knees, she had been drawing the branchs above her when she noticed someone walk past her and sit by the fountain. Peering through the leaves, she saw a girl about her own age sitting by the fountain. They looked fairly substantial which was a relief and she smiled as the girl removed a small cat from her bag.

Kitten in a backpack, now there's a novelty item. Turning back to her pad, she swore as her pencil case slid from her lap and crashed to the grass beneath her. Hoping the fall hadn't caused too much damage, she climbed out of the tree and retrieved her case.

Now she was closer, Taylor recognised the other girl as Kaysen St. James, the only person in their grade as unpopular as her with just as many unpleasant stories in circulation. Knowing that the stories were probably as unfounded as most of the one's about her, Taylor gave the other girl a small wave before checking through the contents of her case.

Kaysen noticed the movement, and looked up. She frowned a little as she spotted Taylor. She'd heard about her. Fights, other stuff. She'd heard a lot. Granted, absolutely none of it had actually been said to her. It had all been conversations she'd heard. People didn't talk to her unless it was to say...well. The same kinds of things that they said about her. But they might be right. Who knew. She didn't. So for now, she looked uncomfortable, and pondered leaving for someplace else while she pretended she hadn't seen the other girl wave.

Well, that wasn't an entirely unexpected response, Taylor thought to herself. She didn't know why she attempted social interaction with the living, they never ended well if they started at all. Seeing the other girl's discomfort, she rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I'm heading else where. No-one will know you even saw me." Taylor called out, slipping her pencil case into her bag and tucking her pad under her arm. "Nice cat by the way" she said, her voice lacking its usual sarcasm as she turned to find somewhere else to sit and draw.

"No one would anyways." Kaysen snapped back, and she hugged her kitten closer, since she didn't want anything to happen to him. She didn't know if the other girl would attack or not, she had heard about fights, after all.

Taylor turned back at Kaysen's retort, a wry smile of amusement on her face. So the girl wasn't completely lacking a spine, who would've guessed. "Careful you don't fall off that 'loner stroke martyr' high horse of yours, might be a long drop." Watching the other girl holding onto her kitten like Taylor was about to start something, she let out a small laugh. "You can relax you know, I'm not about to beat you up and steal your cat for a satanic ritual."

"Oh fuck you you don't know anything about me, so you can piss off with your snap freaking judgments." Kaysen said, glaring. She also stood up and put her backpack on her shoulder again, holding her kitten in her arm. "Nice to know everyone's exactly the fucking same. Arbitrary judgments and immediate jabs. Awesome. Just freaking awesome" She put her foot on her board, and started to push off.

"Yeah because you're the only person in the world who has to deal with that sort of crap" Taylor shot back. She hadn't wanted to get into a shouting match, she had tried to be polite in her own peculiar way but she wasn't about to let the other girl leave without making a point. "I say what I see, it's not fucking personal. And besides, you're hardly innocent of making judgements yourself."

"I didn't say a thing to you!" Kaysen shot back, turning around and staring at Taylor like she had really struck a nerve--because she had. "I didn't say anything I was minding my own business, and you decided to be a bitch! Then be all mean and judgmental at me! And please, saying what you see? After seeing me for two seconds? Fuck you!"

Taylor was a little suprised by Kaysen's reaction but didn't let it faze, instead she walked right up to the other girl. "No, you just pretended that you hadn't seen me then when I spoke to you, sat there looking like I was about to beat the crap out of you. My mistake, you aren't judgemental in the slightest" she replied, folding her arms across her chest.

And because she was completely incapable of leaving things alone, she went on. "Oh, and just for the record, I've seen you at school plenty of times, so fuck you right back."

"Ever hear of someone wanting to just sit at the park and mind their own business?!" Kaysen said, though she immediately scrambled back when Taylor got any closer. No way was she getting within striking distance. she was already beat up enough from her ditching on her board the other day. "And yeah I looked at you like that when you spoke to me, you were immediately a bitch to me!" she cried. "What the hell was I supposed to do? I've heard about you, I've heard about all the fights! Heck I've seen a few! What the hell do you expect?!"

"Oh, I don't know, some rational thinking on your part?" Taylor replied, her voice laced with sarcasm. "I only finish what other people are stupid enough to start and believe it or not, I don't actually enjoy myself. Like I said before, I've got no intention of laying a finger on you." She didn't move towards Kaysen again, instead just gave her a pointed look. "I wasn't trying to intrude, if I hadn't dropped my pencil case you wouldn't have known I was around. And that wasn't me being a bitch." Granted, now she was being a bitch, but that wasn't the point.

"Rational thinking, why don't you try some? Only finish what other people start, whatever. I've seen some of that. I suppose you're going to tell me you're just misunderstood now and really a very nice girl and not at all a psycho bitch or anything, even though you're being one to me for no reason." God, why couldn't her brother come out of the woodwork around now? Where was he when she needed him? "You decided to start bitching at me, making remarks." she protested, feeling sure that's what happened...wasn't it?

Taylor's stomach gave an involuntary squeeze at Kaysen's 'nice girl' remark. The fact of the matter was that before Jack's death, that genuinly was the case. Sure she had always been weird but she had never fought back against her tormentors, always kept herself to herself. But since Christmas, she had changed and there was no denying it. "I'm not going to deny being a bitch, I'm not that self-deluded but I was actually trying to be polite earlier and leave you alone given how offended you seemed by my prescence."

Kaysen hesitated, looking at her like she wasn't at all sure about things. She wasn't. She didn't know now if she was right or not. Shit. Hadn't she sounded mean in the first place? Snotty or something? She had...hadn't she? Now Kaysen wasn't sure. Crap. She looked everywhere but at Taylor.

"Oh." she said, for lack of anything better to say.

"Yeah, oh. My thoughts entirely" Taylor replied running her hand through her hair. She didn't have any problems with Kaysen and really hadn't meant to get into a bitch-fest with her but it had happened and there wasn't anything to be done about it. "I'm going home, after this the last thing I want is an earful of abuse from my parents."

She turned and began to walk away before stopping, blowing her hair from her face. "Look Kaysen, I...I'm sorry if I was out of line" she said quietly, looking back over her shoulder before making her way out of the park.

Kaysen looked after Taylor, utterly baffled. She didn't say anything back again, then turned miserably, not at all sure what the hell just happened. It was far past time to go home. It was safer and less confusing. Well. So long as Thom wasn't around.