When Mindreaders Collide!

who: chloe & isabelle
where: highschool corridors
when: first period

Chloe was worried. She'd pulled her hair into somewhat unruly pleats in order to tame down the whole...OH HEY LOOK AT ALL MY HAIR thing, but really it just functioned to make her look like Pippi Longstocking. Awesome. Also, she was wearing uniform - grey skirt, knee socks, shirt & tie, the whole shebang. Which was making her stand out a whole bunch amongst the rest of the kids who frankly, all looked like extras from an advert for The Gap.

But appearance aside (and she was catching the odd thought that amounted to "oh Christ what is that girl wearing but nothing too outrageous) Chloe was more worried about all the people. Already there was the dull roar of too many thoughts inside her skull, and this was with her special pass that let her walk to class 5 minutes after the bell. She was slightly bewildered and pretty sure she was in the wrong corridor for Mrs. Alpen's English class, as well as terrified everyone was going to stare at her when she did finally get there late.

It was all kinds of not good.

However, she was trying to look on the bright side. She hadn't seen that kid Eben yet so that was an awkwardness averted. Also, with all these people around, there were a lot of heads she could scan for thoughts of Drew (or someone who matched his description) so that was good. And as much as she had given up on the whole normal life thing forever ago, it was kind of cool to be learning stuff again. Chloe hated the feeling she got when she didn't have a clue what someone was talking about - she hated feeling dumb and out of the loop, and maybe this would help with that. If she could just get through her first lesson without spazzing out and drawing too much attention, that was.

Isabelle was walking down the hall, running an errand for her "favorite" teacher, humming a little to herself as she went. Things with Thom had gone swimmingly and she couldn't help but be in a good mood. Plus it was almost necessary if he did come to school today and she ran into him. So for once her outward appearance matched her inner feelings as she replayed the better moments of the day before in her head. Thom was as good as hers and she was finally having fun securing her little prize.

She wasn't really paying attention to Chole, although she notice her and her outfit. Those sort of things stood out, not to mention Isabelle knew who everyone in school was, even if she didn't bother to talk to all of them. This girl was clearly new to the school, but she didn't seem like a threat to Isabelle's place in school so she barely even looked over the girl.

Chloe heard the footsteps and saw one of those very Gap Commercial kids she'd just been thinking about. She tugged at a loose curl nervously, looking at the girl's very smooth and very shiny hair. Chloe's hair was neither of those things. It was unruly and had very chewed ends. But whatever, this was no time to be self concious. She scanned the girl quickly (although with general school background buzzing it was hard to get anything solid) and it didn't seem like she'd even noticed Chloe.

"Um, hi," said Chloe with obvious shyness, catching up with Isabelle, "Uh, I... I just started and uh... I'm meant to be in English class but I have no idea if I'm in the right corridor or whatever so yeah. Could you tell me where Mrs. Alpen's room is?"

Jesus this girl was new. People who didn't know Isabelle weren't just walking up and talking to Isabelle, no matter how empty the hallway was. A little taken aback she put some space between them, quickly scanning the empty hallway for Thom, just in case and then focused back on new girl. She peered at her closely and then answered. "Um, no. You're definitely lost," she stated plainly, trying to keep her nice girl appearance even though she was annoyed. "Well kinda. It's this hallway, only upstairs." Isabelle pointed up, with her finger and gave new girl her best nice, helpful smile, which was hard when all she wanted to do was cringe at her hair.

Chloe caught that, the whole... not wanting to be seen with her vibe. It was kind of bitchy, especially the hair thing (although that was maybe a fair point because Chloe was really regretting the whole plaited look) but perfectly okay by Chloe - she wanted to be left alone. "Okay thanks," said Chloe, scowling slightly, but deciding to match the whole playing nice thing - she didn't want to make friends, but being actively disliked was just as dangerous, "It sucks being new. I'm probably going to be wandering around aimlessly for like 3 weeks before I get used to anything. Lame."

Ugh, Isabelle thought, but continued to play her role. She was going for a new role after all, trying to be a nicer girl, less like Chrissy, more like...Well she wasn't sure who but someone nicer whom Thom wouldn't mind having at his side. "It's ok, by tomorrow you'll be all settled. It's not a huge school. I just moved here not long ago myself, and by day two or three I'd figured out where everything was."

Chloe repressed the gut reaction to ask "who's Thom", and instead focussed on the fact that the girl was trying to be personable. Which was better than nothing, and Chloe had learned a long time ago that most everyone thought bad things. Sometimes you just couldn't help it. She smiled shyly and continued twisting her hair through her fingers. "I'm Grace. My big brother Drew and I just moved here," she said looking at Isabelle and reading intently for a reaction to the name Drew (not exactly subtle, but whatever, small town - people could know people), "Maybe I'll see you around?"

Who cares? Isabelle really was getting annoyed. Especially when the girl made the comment about her brother. If Isabelle didn't know better she thought the girl was waiting for some reaction. What does she think I'm just going to ask about some available older guy? "His Grace," she responded, purposefully not giving her own name. Most people never noticed when you left out that bit of information, especially if they were intent on talking about themselves as Grace or whatever seemed to be. "And yea, I'm around. Good luck!" Hopefully she could get away now.

Chloe's colour drained a little as she heard that internal monologue, and she tried not to look put out. Well, the girl didn't know Drew then (and Chloe kicked herself mentally for wanting to snap that he wasn't available, actually) one down, only like 3 million to go.

"Uh," Chloe couldn't quite think of what to say - it's not like she could show that she was taking offence to what the girl was thinking, because that was generally the thing that got her into trouble, "I didn't get your, uh, name? Just like. In case we have a class together or something," she finally settled on, sounding more sullen than she meant to - thinking more along the lines of knowing the girl's name would make it easier to avoid the crap out of her. She doubted that the polished Queen Bee was even a junior, but whatever.

Double shit. She'd hoped to avoid that one all together, but instead gave Grace a look of surprise. "Did I not say it? I'm sorry. I'm Isabelle." Figuring it would keep the entire encounter from being a total loss she reached her hand out to shake.

Chloe blanched. Fuck. The idea of taking some strange, mean girl's hand in her own made Chloe feel nauseous. She couldn't just... not, though, could she? That'd be fucking weird. Oh fuck. Who shook hands in a fucking highschool, anyway? They weren't business men. Chloe's fear made her feel irrationally annoyed about Isabelle's gesture, but she was aware she was going to have to act on it.

Feeling intensely uncomfortable - and probably looking it - as she reached out, telling herself It's just a handshake, she's not going to try and inject you with anything, stop being a fucking freak, she's not going to hurt you, she's just a teenager you massive loser Chloe took Isabelle's hand as if it was some sort of disgusting giant insect and made a very weak attempt at smiling (although it looked more like she was going to puke) trying to ignore the tight feeling of terror pressing at her ribcage. "N-nice to meet you, Isabelle," she said, feeling like the entire ordeal was taking about 40 years instead of 40 seconds, hoping the other girl wouldn't do anything like... squeeze her hand. Fuck. Ass. Fuck..

Isabelle hadn't meant to hold tight to the girl's hand, but the rush of thoughts almost knocked her over. The fear was almost crippling, and the look on the girl's face didn't surprise her anymore. "You too," she managed to mumble with a faker than usual smile, wondering how for fuck's sake this girl handled walking when just shaking someone's hand scared her so much.

And then Isabelle heard her own thoughts echoed back at her, from Grace. Isabelle was good, but that was too hard to cover. Instantly letting go of her, breaking the connection, she stepped back half a step before she caught herself. What the hell, she thought, only to realize what it was exactly. Fear pulsed through her system, but she kept her face in check in case the girl's powers worked the same way as hers. This, this was trouble.

Chloe felt it too. The jolt, Isabelle squeezing her hand, the strange rippling sound, like an echo, Isabelle's thoughts bouncing between their skulls like a ping-pong ball. "What did you just do?" Chloe hissed angrily before she could think about reigning herself in, checking Isabelle's head for something that would explain. First Eben and his demons and exploding lights and now this. This was one weird fucking town.

"Nothing," Isabelle countered, trying hard to fill her mind with nothing, white space, as quickly as possible. She wasn't even sure what she was doing, but she'd read about it in one of Medea's books from Nevermore on psychics. It was stupid, but it was a worth a shot. "What did you do?" she asked in an angry whisper.

Chloe could sense the girl trying to push out her thoughts, but it never really worked quite like that - saying "don't think about pink elephants!" was the same as thinking about pink elephants in the long run - and she definitely heard that straying thought about the book on psychics. Not good. Really not good. Even if this girl had some sort of mojo of her own, it was dangerous. More dangerous in fact - she couldn't attract that sort of attention. She couldn't have Them tracking her down. She tried a different track. She wouldn't be able to outright convince Isabelle that nothing had just happened but she could maybe make her think it had been nothing to do with Chloe. She didn't do anything, Chloe channelled into Isabelle's head, She's too pathetic and boring to have done anything, look at her stupid uniform - that was me. I did something. I did something that made her able to hear me.

"I didn't do anything," said Chloe, trying to hide her annoyance at how badly this was going, and how much nudging Isabelle made her head hurt, and sound confused rather than like she was shitting bricks, "Look, I... I need to get to class, okay?"

Isabell heard the voice in her head, but for some reason it didn't sound like her own. Only it was talking like it was her own. Frustrated her brow furrowed, her eyes squinted as she watched Grace closely. "Wait," Isabelle spat, not angry but surprised as if she'd forgotten something but then suddenly remembered. She grabbed the girl's arm, careful to touch skin on skin and waited, listening, and pushing her own brand of thoughts towards Grace. You're losing your shit, and scaring this girl.

Chloe did not like being touched at the best of times, and if she went batshit over a handshake? You bet having her arm grabbed was not going to go down well. At all. She snatched her arm away from Isabelle and flat out shrieked "Don't FUCKING touch me you BITCH!"

She took a good couple of steps back, rubbing her arm, shaking, and glaring flames at Isabelle. Damn right she was scared. She continued to press the thoughts into Isabelle's mind that Chloe was not doing any of this but they were tinted with the anger Chloe was feeling at being violated like that.

Isabelle got what she needed, both from the girl's thought and her outward freak out. There were still lost thoughts in her head, angry ones she didn't remember thinking, but she was beginning to think that maybe that was from Grace herself. She'd heard her own thoughts coming back at her hadn't she? It couldn't all be her. Still frustrated, but not wanting to fight the girl in the hall, nor direct any more attention to them, she stayed put, not following after Grace, hands on her hips, head tilted slightly. "Chill, Grace," Isabelle said calmly.

Chill? Chloe couldn't chill. It was one thing after another since she'd arrived, between werewolves on the news and her apartment flooding and all these fucking weird people everywhere... and all she wanted was to find Drew and this was just. Too much to deal with.

"Stay the hell away from me you freak. I have to go to class. I don't know who you are or what you did but you have no right to touch me. So just stay the fuck away!" spat Chloe, blatantly still furious. She was trying to get Isabelle to just follow the train of thought she was pushing, trying to do it with her words as well as her brain, but she was fuming and it hurt and Isabelle's mind was... different, somehow. Stronger. Chloe figured the girl must have some power of her own and that frightened her - but she couldn't deal with it. For the second time in as many days she turned on her heel and just ran.

The whole not-crazy thing wasn't going particularly fucking well, was it?

Isabelle watched her go, making no motion to call her back or whatever. Grace wanted nothing to do with her and that was just fine in Isabelle's eyes. The last thing she needed was someone with powers like her around ruining her plans. Granted that opened up a whole new vein of possibilities.