Joe's Note: Since the previous chapter was the end of Blue Belle's Chapter 7 and the start of Chapter 8… I'm sure you can guess where the rest of Chapter 8 ended up. And obviously some new scenes, since the timeline adjustment means that Michelle's first day of school is now also the climax of The Dark World. Oh, and if you're wondering about some of the back story that Michelle shared in Chapter 8? John Flaherty is a real baseball player of no particular acclaim. He was drafted by the Red Sox in '88, and played up through their farm teams before spending MLB time with Boston ('92-'93), Detroit ('94-'96), San Diego ('96-'97), Tampa Bay ('98-'02), and the New York Yankees ('02-'05) before retiring and going to work for YES Network. Coincidentally, I met him when I was six and he played for the New Britain Red Sox in 1991. Small world, huh?
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Alexander, Howard, Alonsis2, Connor, MJ, Daniel, Christopher, Sarsif, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Janne, Eric, DireSquirrel, Joseph, Jason, mpop, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Luke, Zachary, Marc, Ziryo, Elliot, Crusifikz70, Timothy, Leigh, Chris, George, Koby, Ken, Dimitria, William, Invernos, Paul, Pat, Joel, Kentucky Fried Dragon, Warren, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.
November 4, 2013
University of Greenwich,
Greenwich, Greater London, England, United Kingdom
"Um… what the hell just happened?"
Agent Darcy Lewis looked around in confusion, trying to figure out… well, what the hell had just happened to her. One second, she'd been urging Jane Foster to use her surprisingly effective modifications to Erik Selvig's gravimetric spikes to take out what her recently-trained eye was telling her was probably an opposing leader among the svartálfar. The next, there'd been a flash of blue light and now she and Ian Boothby were… somewhere else entirely. Still on the University of Greenwich campus, she quickly established, which meant they weren't too screwed. But where they were relative to Jane and Erik, she had no idea and-
There was a loud thump to her right and Darcy spun around, drawing her SHIELD-issued FNX-9 and putting two rounds into the skull of a stunned svartálfr. Ignoring the stunned look on Ian's face, she prodded it with the barrel of her gun a few times before beckoning for him to follow her. Why anyone who had so much as glimpsed at her college transcript bought the whole 'stupid intern Darcy' act was beyond her, but in the face of an extraterrestrial invasion that could lead to the extermination of all life as they knew it? It was time to drop the role she'd been playing from the moment she'd first been dropped in Jane and Erik's laps, and put on her agent pants.
"Darcy? Since when do you-"
"Not now!" Darcy scowled and raised her pistol again as another ripple of blue light deposited two more svartálfar behind the silver Passat that the first one had landed on. While she was a passing fair shot, she wasn't confident that she could put them down without the element of surprise. The energy rifles they were toting were also a bit worrying. "Run! I'll cover you!"
Evidently, Ian's gallant streak ended when aliens showed up and his sneakers beat a rapid staccato against the pavement behind her as he dashed to safety. Darcy allowed herself a faint shake of her head before sighting on the rear svartálfr… who had a sword. Leave it to Jane to follow her advice in the worst possible way. Doing her best to breathe evenly, her finger curled around the trigger and then two bolts of yellowish-green energy curled around her body, slamming into both of her opponents and throwing them back into the wall. "Don't. Touch. My. Human." Her hands alight with eldritch energy, Amora Incantare breezed past Darcy with a smirk on her face, making a series of gestures that caused the elves to float up off the pavement before slamming into each other with bone-crunching force. "Miss me, lover?"
Darcy let out a sigh of relief, quickly holstering her pistol so that she could dash forward and envelop the blonde Vanaþegn in a tight hug as Amora turned to face her. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you right now. And… lover? Do I actually qualify for that yet? How many alcohol-fueled, terrible decision one-night stands do you have to have before you move from fuck buddy to lover?"
Wrapping her arms around Darcy's waist, Amora rested her hands on the brunette's ass as she leaned back in Darcy's embrace and arched an eyebrow curiously. "I wasn't aware that you inviting me and Göndul to meet you at a hotel for a romantic candlelit dinner - a dinner that you made sure included some of our favorite dishes, even - followed by hours of torrid sex could be considered a 'alcohol-fueled, terrible decision one-night stand'. Göndul? Thoughts?"
"Don't look at me, I was just there for the free food and fun. You're both most definitely 'fuck buddies' to me." Göndul Vagndóttir's gaze darted around warily as she made her way over to Darcy and Amora, twirling her wand quickly between the fingers of her right hand. "You insisted that we come to make sure that your Midgardian pet was safe." Aww, Amora had? Maybe they really were lovers after all. "She is. Now what? I can feel Mjölnir's magic nearby, and a large dark stain that has to be Malekith. While the Allfather may have assigned me to be your guard today, I believe that he would want me to aid Lord Thor in his battle…"
Amora gave Darcy's ass another rough squeeze before releasing her, whirling around to stare at… the wall? No, Darcy realized, given that all of the seiðr-using women she'd met could sense magic to some degree and Amora's talent in that area were significantly better than Göndul's? Amora was most likely evaluating the situation from the safety of their side street rather than charging blindly into danger. Smart. Suddenly, the Vanaþegn threw her head back and cackled loudly. "Thor and Malekith just disappeared and if I'm not mistaken, I got the faintest taste of Svartálfaheimr's magic as they departed. They must have gotten swept up in one of those portals swirling around the area."
That news made Darcy tense up as her mind whirled with the implications. No Thor meant nobody to stop the dark elves from running wild through Greenwich and beyond. Sure, she was there and so were Amora and Göndul, but the Avengers and SHIELD were both based on the other side of the Atlantic. Even if they'd dispatched teams to help the second Malekith's ship appeared in Greenwich, they were still hours away at this point. To Göndul, on the other hand, Amora's announcement meant something else entirely. "If Lord Thor is gone, that means I should remain with you. I take it that means I won't be slaying svartálfar in glorious battle today?"
"To borrow one of Darcy's favorite phrases… bitch please. That restaurant in New York lets me eat there free whenever I want because I protected them from two petty thieves. Imagine what the mortals will give me if I protect them from a svartálfar invasion?" Whirling around to face Darcy and Göndul, Amora grinned widely before making a faint pulling motion and materializing an ornate golden staff. "Besides, I can't let Mórrígan have all the fun…"
"Will work for stuff? Isn't that a little petty for someone like you?"
"I'm sorry, you're honestly surprised that I'm being petty? Have you met me?"
Fair enough. Then something else that Amora had said registered with Darcy, and she perked up. Moira was somewhere around here too?
"What are you doing?"
"My signal's not connecting!"
Erik Selvig shot a glance back over his shoulder as he continued to run from the svartálfar, only to do a double take and then let out a loud groan as he realized that his erstwhile protege had stopped to fiddle with the controller for the gravimetric spikes. Displaying a distinct lack of self-preservation was turning into a terrible habit of hers; this, getting wrapped up in the whole Aether mess in the first place, refusing to leave Thor's body in Puente Antiguo… "Jane! Come on!"
Reaching out, Erik grabbed Jane by the arms and guided her back into motion, ducking down a bit as reddish energy bursts whipped past around him. Then things were flying past him from the opposite direction, feathery wings buffeting his body as a cloud of ravens swarmed past him in a deafening cacophony of cawing. While he wasn't dumb enough to stop and investigate, he did shoot quick glances back over his shoulder… allowing him to catch the unbelievable sight of the ravens merging into a writhing mass of black feathers that quickly took on humanoid form.
Well, it might have been unbelievable if Erik hadn't been fighting on the side of a Norse god against a group of svartálfar to prevent the destruction of what was essentially all of reality as he knew it. As it stood, a unkindness of ravens transforming into a person was… perhaps merely strange at best?
Feathers abruptly exploded outward, revealing a pale-skinned woman with dark hair, an all-black outfit that did nothing to hide a body that Jane would have killed to have, and a wicked-looking dagger in each hand. Hefting one, she let it fly with an almost negligent flick of her wrist, burying it to the hilt in one svartálfr's face even as she lunged forward and stabbed another in the chest. Before the bodies of her first pair of victims hit the ground, she was already slitting a third svartálfr's throat on her way past to attack a fourth. And then suddenly… running didn't seem like quite as pressing a need anymore.
Opening his mouth to warn the newcomer about the second group of svartálfar that had almost managed to flank him and Jane, Erik was instead left gaping as she whirled and hurled a giant burst of green energy into the oncoming svartálfar. "Avada kedavra! Or… some such." Her prey collapsed to the ground in perfect synchronicity even as the woman gave the fifth and final svartálfr from her original group of victims several vicious stabs to the chest, stepping back as it collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Slowly straightening up, she casually summoned the dagger she'd thrown earlier back to her hand before peering back at Erik and Jane. "I really do hate those books." What? "Harry Potter. It's got a completely unrealistic depiction of magic, and don't even get me started on Rowling's take on classic mythological creatures…"
"I don't know, I kind of like them." Personally? Erik wouldn't have argued anything at all with the incredibly lethal, magical bird-woman… but Jane really did seem intent on exercising her suicidally brave side today. "Granted I was part of the target demographic back in the day, so I grew up reading them as a kid and…" Jane trailed off, looking around at the carnage that the woman had wrought. "How did you do that? Are you… are you like Thor, then?"
The woman responded by throwing her head back and letting out a harsh laugh that sounded closer to a raven's caw than a noise that a human would make. "No, darling, I am nothing like that bumbling oaf. Nothing at all. I am Mórrígan, of the Tuatha Dé Danann."
November 4, 2013
Sunnydale High School - Hallway
Sunnydale, California
Her attention glued to the phone - and when they cut to an intrepid reporter for on the ground updates, Gwen's cleavage - Michelle didn't realize that someone else was leaning against Gwen's right side until the four-on-one battle had concluded with Thor and his lady friends decisively defeating the aliens, stopping the very evil-looking reddish-black cloud of yuck and doing something to make the alien ship disappear into thick air. To be honest, caught up in the replays of the action from alternate angles as witnesses began uploading video from their smartphones, Michelle probably wouldn't have noticed the unknown girl leaving either… but her words combined with her strange accent captured the redhead's attention in a heartbeat. "Göndul gets all the fun. Knew I should have stayed with Amora."
Head snapping up, Michelle watched the unknown girl retreat, eyes bouncing from surface to surface to drink in every glimpse at a reflection of the girl she could find, memorizing her features as best possible. In a student body of twenty-two hundred, it was easy to blend in… but she would definitely need to find the girl at some point. If she was connected to Thor and his friends, then she was probably on the side of angels… but Thor's own brother had been responsible for some heinous shit a year and a half ago, so Michelle wasn't really willing to take that for granted.
But with the battle over and the girls around her seemingly unconcerned with the repercussions - as if the whole thing had been a WWE match or a trailer for the latest impending DC theatrical flop - Michelle had other things to worry about. Namely, that she returned to being the center of conversation as soon as Harmony looked up from her phone and remembered that the 'new girl' existed. "So, potentially stupid question here but I'm gonna ask it anyway… does you taking Michelle on as your new pet project mean that we have to be nice to Rosenberg from now on? And, uh, why exactly do we have Michelle around? I mean, I could understand it if you were going to recruit her for the cheerleading squad or something, but-"
"Because she's like Janet and Aura… and now me. Unique." Cordelia's words brought Harmony to an abrupt stop, but earned her looks of confusion rather than acceptance and so she sighed before turning to Michelle. "Show them."
Show them… what, exactly? Her mutation? Michelle was reasonably sure that was the only halfway unique thing about her, considering redheads were hardly a rarity in Sunnydale. Case in point: Willow. Well, there was that whole 'girl who used to be a boy' thing, too, but she couldn't exactly 'show them' that. But why the hell could Cordelia possibly want her to… Michelle sighed. Whatever. There was obviously some sort of plan brewing in the cheerleader's Machiavellian little brain, and this had to be a part of it. And if Michelle outing herself blew up in their faces? Cordelia was the one who'd be stuck cleaning up the mess. After all, she'd gone from Xander to Michelle in the span of a weekend; it wouldn't be hard to reinvent herself a second time to escape any fallout from what she was pretty sure was a terrible idea.
Her fears assuaged enough for the time being, Michelle let her eyes roam over the assembled Cordettes and quickly narrowed her options down to two girls before picking the one closest to her body's current measurements. "Right. Um, Gwen was it? Ever wonder if you'd make a cute redhead?" Fixing an image of the blond cheerleader in her mind, Michelle tweaked her mental Gwen to incorporate her preferred hair color and then shifted.
Still somewhat subdued as people huddled over their phones in small groups and whispered to each other, the hallway again descended into silence as Michelle's transformation tore their attention away from what was arguably a far more interesting current event. Holding her breath, she waited as Gwen looked her up and down before reaching forward to play with Michelle's shoulder-length red hair. "Huh. I might need to make an appointment with that stylist Cordelia keeps mentioning. I look kinda hot like this. So you're what, then, a mutant or something? I mean, you could be some kind of magical shapeshifter girl, but Cordelia doesn't seem to like magic much and so I doubt she'd keep you around if you were." Michelle nodded dumbly; this wasn't exactly how she'd pictured people reacting, especially given Willow and Cordelia's responses to her imitating their forms in the past. "Well, I can honestly say I don't know another mutant. Guess that means Cordelia was right about you." Pausing, she let out a soft giggle. "You know, taking you to the mall is going to be awesome. Now 'I' can try stuff on twice as fast. Just split my pile and give you half." Looking back over her shoulder Gwen let out a loud whistle before making a shooing gesture. "You can go back to watching Thor kick alien ass, folks. I'm not gonna make out with my temporary twin sister or something. If you want to get to know the new girl, start writing notes to pass her during class or something."
Yeah, this definitely wasn't what Michelle had been expecting. Pitchforks and torches, maybe, or at least someone shouting 'mutie!' before tackling her and pounding the crap out of her. But apart from some pointing and whispering? And a few phones being pointed her way in hopes of catching her doing something else interesting before Gwen discouraged them? Nothing. Where was the hatred? Where was the fear? Where was the- "So, do you have your schedule yet? We can show you where the office is. Although you should probably turn yourself back to normal so you don't freak the secretaries out." Harmony latching onto her arm and tugging gently brought Michelle back to reality. "That and if you're going to be the Cordettes' only other non-cheerleader, we should probably get to know each other."
Oh boy. Quality girl time with Harmony. Just what she'd always wanted…
November 4, 2013
Sunnydale High School - Cafeteria
Sunnydale, California
"So, what do you think?"
Harmony looked up from her lunch tray, pondering the question as she tore open the packet of Lite Italian she'd picked out for her salad. The same thing she ate every day, but consistency was the key when it came to a good diet and she had to maintain her girlish figure. Plump and popular rarely went hand in hand, after all. "About what? This magical Halloween story of yours? The new you? Abercrombie & Fitch's winter collection? The fact that if I'd picked a less slutty costume like you told me to, I could have super-soldier girl memories floating around in my head like Aphrodesia instead of AP Pole Dancing? Because… actually, I'm not sure how I feel about that last one yet. Being a soldier seems kinda butch, and the only people who like butch girls are other girls."
Rolling her eyes, Cordelia used her fork to point at something off over Harmony's left shoulder. "Michelle, dear. Although depending on how much you remember, I might have to hire you as a personal trainer. I hear it's a fabulous way to stay fit."
"Hmm. I could use the money… or maybe some of those shirts you can't fit into anymore. Gimme a chance to figure out how much actually got left behind and then we'll talk. As for Michelle, she's… interesting. Not exactly what I'm used to, but maybe that's a softball thing? You and the others are all cheerleaders, so it's not like I have anything to compare to there. Definitely a bit of an oversharer, but we can work on that. It's handy now when I know nothing about her, but it'll probably get old fast to have her constantly telling us every little thing about herself. Um, what else? Oh, there's the mutant thing obviously. I had her turn into a couple different versions of me just out of curiosity. Did you know I look good with black hair and purple eyes?"
The corner of Cordelia's mouth quirked up at that. "No. Probably because you're a blue-eyed brunette who only dyes her hair blond?"
"Oh. Right. Well, then I might ask for Claire's number too. Maybe buy some colored contacts. Have Michelle show you that version of me later; I'm totally hot. Other than that… well, we don't have too much in common but I suppose we can work on that. There's nothing wrong with her. Nothing right, either, if you wanna look at it that way. But since you seem to want her around for some odd reason, I'll make it work. Although she needs to calm the fuck down about this 'giant Norse girl' she's fixating on. People are evidently okay with 'lesbian mutant'… oh, don't even try to deny it, I see the way she looks at you and Gwen. But as I was saying, they're cool with 'lesbian mutant' but 'lesbian mutant stalker' is gonna be a whole lot less popular. I don't want to be connected to that sort of train wreck, and I don't think you do either. So keep her on a short leash and be ready to pull the choke chain if you need to." Harmony looked off to her left and Cordelia followed her gaze to watch the girl in question cross the cafeteria with her tray, setting it down opposite a more familiar redhead as she slid into her seat. "What are we going to do about Rosenberg? Because I noticed you didn't answer me when I asked this morning…"
A sinister smile spread across Cordelia's face and suddenly Harmony felt very much afraid. "A hundred bucks says you can't bring her up to our standards."
Harmony blinked. That wasn't what she'd been expecting at all. "What, you mean like She's All That? Turn the nerd into a popular girl and all that?" Cordelia nodded, and the blonde glanced back over her shoulder at where the girl in question was eating lunch with her cousin. While Rosenberg looked like less of a hot mess than usual today, that didn't necessarily mean anything. And it was Rosenberg. "Two hundred. I mean, have you seen what I'm working with here?"
"Deal."
"Moving on, since I know you're gonna want to fangirl… did you see the news this morning? Black Cat and her harem of Spider-Girlfriends took down a drug dealer and found something that got SHIELD called in…"
Across the cafeteria, Willow shuddered. Looking up from her three supposed 'barbecue rib' sandwiches, Michelle gave her fellow redhead a concerned look. "Will? You okay?"
"I felt a great disturbance in the Force. As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced." After a few seconds, Willow pointed her fork at Michelle. "By the way, I know what you're thinking. And… no way, José. Err, Josefa. Josefina?"
Michelle did her best to look innocent. "I have no idea what you mean?"
Evidently Willow wasn't fooled. Probably because she knew Michelle inside and out. Well, a bit less on the outside these days, what with the changes and all, but she'd probably- "I'm not becoming a member of the Cordettes. I hate them. They hate me. There is a very mutual hatred going on, and I'm okay with that. And before you ask, Missy isn't a Cordette and so I'm totally okay with what happened there."
"You really like bringing that up, don't you?"
"Please, I remember how much you and Jesse talked about the cheerleaders. Do you really think I'm going to pass up a single chance to rub in that I was the first to kiss one?"
"…how very Cordelia of you, Willow. Are you sure you don't want to join the Cordettes with me? C'mon. You already spend enough time with them doing tutoring, and they're obviously rubbing off on you. Why not join up outright so you can enjoy all the perks?" Neither Michelle's words nor her best attempt at puppy dog eyes seemed to affect Willow, and she racked her brain for a new way to try and convince the redhead. "It'll be educational." That earned her a raised eyebrow and so Michelle pushed onward. "I mean, haven't you ever wondered what the other half actually does when they're not here at school? Mall crawling and makeovers and sleepovers and maybe another thing or two that also end in 'over'?"
Letting out a sigh, Willow let her fork drop onto her plate before burying her face in her hands. "You're going to keep nagging me until I agree, aren't you?"
"Resolve face."
"Fine. If only to stop you from trying to actually do my resolve face. You look like a constipated chipmunk when you do it…"
November 4, 2013
Sunnydale High School - Classroom
Sunnydale, California
While there weren't assigned seats anymore by the time one got to high school, most of the students were creatures of habit enough to gravitate toward the same seats every time. That in turn meant that Michelle could largely control who she interacted with in class: nobody was going to try and evict the new girl from 'their' seat, at least on her first day, but that same possessiveness meant that the rest of the students would end up in the same seats they'd been in for the last two months. And so by carefully picking her seats, she managed to keep herself either near the Cordettes or at least away from some of the more infamous womanizers that Sunnydale High had to offer.
Or at least that held true through her first three periods.
"So, you're the new girl." Michelle looked up to find the seat in front of her occupied by a cute Latina rather than the socially awkward penguin she'd been anticipating. The girl was familiar and yet not: one of the cheerleaders, but not one of the Cordettes or a girl that the Cordettes had seen fit to introduce her to. Spinning all the way around to straddle the chair, the girl leaned forward and offered Michelle her hand. "Santana Lopez. Santana, Tana, Snixx all work for me. Is it true that you're a shapeshifter?"
Michelle nodded; after being forced into a public demonstration of her powers by Cordelia and repeating it for Harmony's amusement, there was no use in denying it. Reaching out to shake the girl's hand, Michelle shifted her skin tone to match Santana's. "Michelle Flaherty. No nicknames that I can think of."
There was a faint groan as someone threw themselves into the desk at her left. "That's so cool!" Michelle looked over and then jerked back a bit as she found herself uncomfortably close to another girl's face. The blonde newcomer offered up her hand too, grabbing Michelle's unoccupied hand and pumping it energetically. "I'm Brittany Pierce. Santana's biffle. You really should think about joining the cheerleading squad. Our softball team sucks."
"All the more reason for me to stick with softball. Maybe they'll suck less with me on the team." Although that wasn't likely, Michelle mused, considering she wasn't terribly good at baseball. She should probably start figuring out how to live up to that part of her lie, just in case she was still here come spring. "Besides, I don't know anything about cheerleading."
"Look at some of the girls you've already met who are on our squad. It's obviously not rocket surgery." Brittany shrugged before leaning back and settling into her seat. "Besides, there's at least one perk to being a cheerleader." Michelle raised an eyebrow curiously. "Something like twenty-five percent of cheerleaders experiment with other girls during high school. Number goes up to one in three in college."
Michelle's jaw dropped.
"FYI: I've got the most accurate gaydar in Sunnydale. So… just putting that out there. Figured it might be relevant to your interests."
November 4, 2013
Sunnydale High School - Hallway
Sunnydale, California
"So, baseball and softball, huh?"
Jumping slightly at the unexpected voice, Michelle finished stuffing her textbooks into her locker before turning to face the girl who was easily the second prettiest on the varsity cheerleading squad. A girl she'd spent enough time admiring in the past to be able to imitate. A girl… whose last name she hadn't even known until Cordelia had introduced them. God. How lame was she? Pushing that from her mind, Michelle forced a smile. "Hey, Gwen. Uh, that's not a problem, is it? You didn't get hit in the head by a softball in gym class or something, did you?"
Gwen laughed at that, moving to lean against the locker to Michelle's right. "No, just wondering if you liked any other sports or were only into baseball because of your uncle. Football… basketball… hockey maybe..?"
"Um…" Michelle found herself between a rock and a hard place as she debated her answer; while she was far from a sports fanatic, she knew enough about baseball to support her cover story as a softball player - unless she was actually asked to join the softball team, that was - and a passable amount about football and hockey as well. But was Gwen actually curious, perhaps even sharing such interests herself? Or was there an ulterior motive behind this line of questioning? Finally, the redhead decided to just go ahead and risk it. "I went to a few Rangers and Islanders games back home in New York. They were pretty cool. Football's not bad. Basketball's kinda boring to me but people say the same thing about baseball, so eh. Why?"
Looking both ways, Gwen lifted the flap of her messenger bag to show off a collection of colorful pins bearing sports team logos. "I'm a bit of a sports nut. My parents are like, stuck in the Fifties and still think that girls playing sports isn't 'ladylike'. Joined the cheerleading squad because it was the closest I could get to sports and, well, it doesn't exactly hurt my popularity either."
As she let out a laugh at the blonde's comment, Michelle made a mental note to look up a bit of information on New York sports teams and then check to see if Willow or Cordelia felt they should care about that new nugget of fictional background information. Then she realized that she was being given the perfect opportunity to make a non-Harmony friend among the Cordettes… an exceptionally pretty non-Harmony friend, even… and she sure as hell was going to take it. "You know, you should come over after school one of these days. The Rosenbergs have the super duper DirecTV package. If it's got YES and SNY, it's gotta have channels that show your favorite teams."
Gwen perked up at that, offering Michelle a smile that quickly faded. "If Willow lets me come over, you mean. I'd understand if she didn't; we haven't exactly been nice to her over the years." Pulling a scrap of paper out of her pocket, she nibbled her lower lip uncertainly before shoving it into Michelle's hand. "I never really understood what Cordelia's problem with her was, to be honest. If she's willing to let me, though, I'd like to try turning over a new leaf with Willow. If not… I wrote down my Facebook, Skype account, and phone number. And of course we'll see each other around."
Tucking the paper into her pocket, Michelle nodded. "I'll talk to her. And Willow's got a spare computer she was talking about setting up in my room. Until then, I have my iPhone. Talking to new friends from school. There's an app for that." Suddenly, something tugged at her pants and Michelle looked down to see the change in her pocket straining outward, tugging towards… Cordelia? The green-haired girl was staring at them with arms crossed under her breasts, tapping her foot impatiently. Then someone cut past in front of Cordelia, instantly pulling Michelle's attention away from the visibly irritated cheerleader. "Gwen! Do you know who that is?"
"Who?" Glancing over at the blonde, Michelle nodded in the mysterious brunette's direction, Gwen following her gaze before humming softly. "I… do not. She's the girl who was watching over my shoulder this morning, right? I thought maybe you knew her, except obviously that's stupid because today is your first day here. God, way to be blonde, Gwen. But no, I don't. She's pretty eye-catching through, if you're into that sort of thing. Well, one of a few sorts of things, really."
Nodding along as she followed the girl with her eyes, Michelle furrowed her brow and made an inquisitive noise at that. "Wait, what sorts of things?"
"Well if she's not the tallest girl in school, she's gotta be close. And that's in flats; I can't even imagine what she's like when she dresses up. Or there's the fact that she looks like she could bench press me for fun." Gwen chuckled softly, drawing Michelle's attention back to her as the blonde brought her hands up to pantomime… "Personally, I'm pretty sure you're more interested in the fact that she has breasts the size of your head. Oh, and pro tip: if you're gonna drool over another girl? Don't do it literally."
"I did not drool in your cleavage."
"Yes, you did."
"Lies and slander."
"I took a selfie before I wiped it off if you really want me to prove it…"
"I mean, if you want to send me a copy of that to prove it…" Michelle winked playfully, making Gwen giggle, and then shook her head. "But no, while I appreciate the mystery girl's… huge tracts of land… I'm more interested in the fact that she's not human." Gwen instantly sobered, staring at Michelle with wide eyes. "I don't know what she is, but she made a comment that makes me think she might be the same thing as whatever Thor and his friends are. Gods. Aliens. Whatever. So now I want to know what she is, and how long she's been running around your school."
Looking from Michelle to the girl's retreating back as she wandered off down the hallway and then back, Gwen shook her head slowly. "…and of course, everything had to go and get weird on me again. Damn it. Can we just like, pretend you're into her for her breasts or something? I'm still trying to process that magic is real, I'm not ready to tackle that one of my classmates is a goddess."
Yeah, that was fair. Even with an eight hour head start, Michelle wasn't doing much better on that front. Then came another, harsher tug on her pocket followed by the sound of Cordelia clearing her through excessively loudly. "Well, as much as I want to chase her down and start asking questions, it'll have to wait until tomorrow. Mostly because I think my ride's going to leave me if I keep her waiting any longer."
"You know, all the other girls want to be her best friend but if it's anything like being on the squad with her…" Gwen glanced over at where Cordelia had given up waiting and was stalking down the hallway towards the doors. "I'll pass."
Michelle chuckled, slamming her locker shut and swinging her backpack back up onto her shoulder. "You're evidently a smarter girl than I am, Gwen. Much smarter."
