Perfect Synergy

"The fishermen know that the sea is a dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore." - Vincent Van Gogh

"Fuck no."

My blonde friend didn't look at me as she inserted a gold hoop into her ear piercing. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

"Ffffffuck no." I repeated, adamant on my position.

"Don't be like this, Max! We've had a rough couple of days we deserve to have a little bit of fun out on the town!" Raven continued to try and sway me.

I made some ridiculously nasty faces towards the back of her head. My psychic signals better make it through to her.

"Please?" She pleaded, finally looking at me, "I don't think Hank will go if you're not there."

That's how she was going to get me to go with her? Blackmail me with an adorable nerd? As if! "Fuck no." I repeated, yet again.

Raven sat down at the edge of my bed, "Please?" She continued to plead, "For me?"

I looked into her green eyes, big mistake. They were the most convincing pair of puppy dog eyes I had ever seen. I felt myself turning into an opinionless puddle of goo. No! Stay strong, Max! You're the daughter of a WWII hero and the sister of bad ass army guys! But no matter what I told myself I just couldn't resist any longer. She was one of my few weaknesses. "Fuck you. I'll go."

"Really?" She practically squealed with excitement.

I only nodded in response but Raven began jumping up and down in excitement. She was so easily riled up. Maybe I didn't want to go through with this after all. Not that I had time to change my mind, Raven promptly started taking my clothes off before I really even realized what was happening to me. She had placed me on the bed and her mutant claws were man handling me!

"The fuck you doing!" I asked/yelled as my shirt was ripped clear off my body.

"Forcing you to put on a dress!" She said deviously. Guess she was dressing me herself so I couldn't refuse. I could still run like hell though. I was a nationally ranked cross country runner.

Next went my shorts, then my ace bandages were practically torn off of my chest. The cold air that met my exposed chest caused me to shiver; my arms crossed over them to retain warmth. So, there I was. Clad in my birthday suit plus my underwear with a girl who was ravaging her closet to find something to force me into. First, she tossed me what looked like one of her old bras. The cup size was way to small to fit her now. Trust me, I noticed. I guess I was going to go along with Raven's madness. I attempted to clasp the bra but had a tad bit of trouble. I hadn't worn a bra, like, ever. After some struggle the infernal contraption snapped into place. My breasts didn't feel as constricted as they had with the ace bandages. Partially due to the fact that the bra was actually too big. I didn't get a chance to complain when something black was thrown in my face. It took me a second to register that it was a dress. A black sleeveless little number that looked rather similar to what I'd seen some hookers wearing on the street corners in the big city.

I gave Raven one of my looks. "Are we hookers tonight?" I asked, wiggling the dress to give emphasis.

"No, we're treating ourselves. But, as a plus, Hank won't be able to take his eyes off of you with that on!" Raven gave me a wink before she began to dress me.

A scoff came out unintentionally. "That boy wouldn't know a romantic encounter even if it bit him on the ass. He's a sexless innkeeper."

"Oh give him a bit of credit. He was really shy because of his mutation." She said as she zipped up the whore dress. Then she retrieved three inch black pumps for me to wear. Was that girl trying to kill me?

"I don't know why, I would've loved to be him growing up." I managed to say as Raven tried to squeeze me feet into her shoes. Her feet were small.

Her green eyes looked up at me. "Not everyone is as confident as you are. Remember that." She said with a sad voice. Clearly she was including herself into that category. Hiding in her own skin couldn't be easy on her. Before I could really address it she got up and started picking out her own outfit. Her hand was a clothes magnet, she had a dark green one shoulder dress in her hands within seconds. A few more seconds and she had a pair of gold gladiator heels, and a few more seconds after that she had a matching purse and bracelet. "You have pierced ears?" She asked suddenly.

"I have one piercing. It's a clip." I had actually forgotten about my clip. It was technically two piercings and one earring, it was silver and about an inch in length. It was happily clipped to my left ear, halfway up. Not the girliest earring ever but my brothers thought it would be cool. And it most certainly was. I was very proud of it.

Raven swept my hair off my left shoulder to examine it. She 'hmmmed' a bit, then she went over to her vanity and grabbed a pair of onyx studs. When she returned she put the studs in my hand as she worked at taking the clip out of my ear. I hadn't taken off the earring in awhile so it felt funny.

"You have two piercings! Perfect!" She exclaimed before yanking the studs out of my hand and putting them through the holes in the cartilage of my ear. Man, that felt weird. "Done!" She said with pure excitement as she started putting in her own earrings. We were both dressed and ready to hit the town.

"Let's get out of here." I said with a smirk. I stood up from my seat on the bed and approached the door out into the hallway, wobbling in the outrageous heels I was forced to wear. We were only on the second floor, giving me a very slim chance of getting lost, so getting downstairs was my next challenge. I don't wear heels. I just don't. Steadily I hobbled down the stairs with a hand firmly on the railing the entire time. Raven was right behind me, giggling at my apparent lack of feminine grace. I turned and flicked her off. She continued to giggle. If she wasn't so cute I would've smacked her, probably. Probably not.

Once we reached the bottom of the stairs we had full view of our boys, Alex and Sean in dress shirts and denim, and Hank in black jeans, a white button up, and a black blazer. They were so dashing. Hank looked towards us and blushed something fierce. I thought his eyes might actually pop out of his hand. That's when I noticed it, his hair was way too neat. I wobbled up to him and ruffled his hair. Sexy hair, check. Hank looked more like a rocker now than a shy nerd, too bad he was still blushing like mad. His shirt needed to be ruffled a bit. I pulled it out of his pants a bit and left it at that. I could practically feel the heat coming off of his skin. I looked up at him, he was nearly purple. How cute.

"Who woulda thought Hank would get molested before we left the house?" Sean stated with a laugh. I turned and gave him a sour look.

"I had a feeling." Raven said. My jaw dropped, now she was against me too? I ended up laughing at their words anyway.

Someone cleared their throat, then I realized that no one within ear shot had. It was Charles and he was in my head.

'Now I know I agreed to let you all have your night out on the town but no one will get into any major trouble, yes? Also you have to be back before two and there will be no giving any minor any amount of alcohol, correct? Good. With that, I bid you all adieu. Have fun... but not too much fun.'

It took me a second to realize that Charles was speaking to all of us, yet that statement about minors and alcohol I knew that he could only be speaking about me. I still felt Charles in my head so I decided to get some payback. I surrounded my head with and electrical field and I heard him yelp in slight pain from wherever he was in the manor. I smiled despite myself.

"Come on. Let's get going."