Minisode 2
The Challenge
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"Fifty bucks."
The tension in the lounge was so thick it was nearly tangible, a dense cloud of expectancy hanging over the students gathered around the table. Cessily crowded forward with the rest of them, her hands clinched together in anticipation as Julian and Santo stared each other down across the small space separating them from one another. In the middle of the table was a plate. In the middle of the plate was a small chili pepper about the size of a golf ball.
But not just any pepper. The pepper.
The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion.
Julian eyed Santo. "Fifty bucks," he repeated. "Eat it, and that's all yours."
Santo laughed. "I'd pay a hundred for you to eat half of it."
The crowed "Oohed" at the counter challenge, and Cessily joined in. She clapped along with excitement as the standoff raged, neither of them prepared to back down. Victor and Sooraya stood next to her, he with his arms folded across his chest and watching with an amused curl of his lips, the latter's eyes betraying her bemusement at the whole situation. Mark was on the other side of the table taking wagers from the other students (probably with a small commission of the winnings for himself), and she thought she saw Nori and David, and Josh and Laurie elsewhere among the crowd. Sofia left just before the challenge began in earnest, muttering a bit of exasperated Spanish Cessily guessed spoke volumes of what she thought about the maturity level of the two competitors.
"Two hundred," Julian said, "for just a bite."
"Three if you just lick it," Santo countered.
"Three…" Julian gawked at him with an irritable glare. "Where the hell did you come up with three hundred bucks?"
"I have my sources!" Santo made a face at that accusation, and pouted with wounded pride Cessily doubted was genuine.
Julian pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh god, please don't tell me he's extorting lunch money from people, that would just be way too high school sitcom."
Victor cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hey, are you two going to do this or not?" he shouted.
Cessily grinned at him, and added her cat-call to the chorus of excited shouts. "Get on with it!"
Sooraya sighed heavily. "I find it hard to believe there is really so little for us to entertain ourselves with today that we have come to this."
"Aw come on, it's exciting! And the best part is we'll get to see one of them utterly humiliate themselves when they eat it. Oh! Wait a second, that reminds me…" Cessily raised her voice above the crowd. "Hey! Is anyone recording this?"
Her question was answered when about a dozen smartphones suddenly appeared over the heads of the crowd.
"Awesome, this is so going on YouTube," she said, rubbing her hands gleefully.
"Come on," Julian said. "Do it."
"No way!" Santo replied, and folded his rocky arms across his broad chest. His t-shirt strained to contain the unyielding bulk of his body, and Cessily idly wondered exactly where he found one (not to mention his jeans) that actually fit.
"You're not afraid are you?"
"Hah! Me? Of course not. I'm the biggest and toughest thing around. This is child's play."
Julian leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest to match Santo's posture, and his lip curled into a smug grin. Clearly he believed he had his opponent backed into a corner. "Then why don't you eat it?"
Santo leaned over the table and eyed him. "Because I'm such a big guy I'm willing to let you prove you got the stones." He stabbed a finger into the table-top to emphasize the point.
Another chorus of "Oohs" and "Ahs" followed the retort.
"What is happening?" came an unexpected voice at her side, and Cessily nearly leaped out of her own metal skin as it startled her.
Laura had slipped between her and Sooraya, so quietly no one even realized she was there (to judge by the equally surprised reactions of Victor, Sooraya, and several other students around her). Now she surveyed the scene playing out in front of her with curiosity. Her green eyes were thoughtful as she took in everything from the crowd, to the table, to Julian and Santo's posturing over the Trinidad Scorpion.
"Oh, hey," Cessily said, willing whatever passed for her pounding heart—did she actually even have one anymore?—back out of her throat and down into her chest where it belonged. "Where have you been?"
"Outside," she said flatly, never taking her eyes off the scene in front of her. "I heard the noise."
Cessily blinked at her. "We're not that loud, are we?"
She merely shrugged as she repeated her inquiry. "What is happening?"
"Julian and Santo got hold of one of those Trinidad Scorpions in Salem Center earlier," Victor said. "They're trying to goad each other into eating it."
Laura considered that for a moment. "Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, a cultivar of Capsicum chinense ranked at 2,009,231 SHU on the Scoville scale," she said. Cessily's mouth dropped open in surprise as the other girl recited that from memory. Laura just blinked and cocked her head as for a moment a perplexed expression found its way onto her features. "Why?"
Sooraya shook her head at Julian's and Santo's antics. "Posturing and some silly contest of machismo, Laura," she said. "Apparently they consider eating it a test of strength."
She frowned. "That would be pointless. Tolerance of the capsaicin in the pepper is not a matter of strength."
"She means it's about courage," Cessily said, and hid the smile at Laura's face-value interpretation of Sooraya's comment. "They're trying to see who has the bigger pair of…you know."
Laura considered that for a moment. "Then who wins? The one who eats it, or the one who does not yield to the pressure?"
"I have been asking myself the same question," Sooraya said.
"You first," Julian said as his battle with Santo continued, and pushed the plate towards Santo.
"Nuh-uh. This was your idea," Santo replied, and pushed it back. To her amazement Cessily thought she actually saw fear on the big mutant's rocky features.
"No way! You're the one who said we should see who would eat it." If anything, Julian's expression was just as panicked at the thought he might actually have to follow through on their challenge.
Around her the crowd was beginning to grow restless, and a chant of "Eat it!" worked its way around them. Judging from the mischievous grin on Mark's face as he accompanied them, Cessily guessed that was where it began.
"No, I said we should slip the powdered stuff into someone's food and see what happens," Santo countered. Both of them were now practically sweating (or in Santo's case what passed for sweating) as pressure from the gathered students prevented them from backing down.
Cessily and Victor joined in with the crowd with glee, and added their voices to the chanting. Sooraya just buried her face in her palm.
"Neither of them will do it," Laura said, a casual observation.
"They don't have a choice now," Cessily said as she turned to her, and found herself looking at an empty space where she had once been standing. She frowned and searched the crowd, and to her surprise saw Laura breaking out of the ring of students to approach the table, having somehow maneuvered through the press of bodies closing around it.
"Hey, get out of here," Julian snapped as she reached them. "Seriously, who invited her?"
"Yeah, this doesn't concern you, Ice Queen," Santo said.
Laura ignored them, and Cessily watched without comprehending what the other girl was thinking: The rules of the game were clear and no one was allowed to interfere with the competitors.
"What is she doing?" Victor asked, giving voice to Cessily's thoughts.
"I don't know. I never know what she's going to do," Cessily said.
Which was true enough. Though on her (rare) good days Laura was talking more and spending more time in her, Mark's and Sooraya's company—when she could be found at all, that is. She had a strange tendency to disappear for long stretches in which no one seemed to know where she went—she still evaded any efforts by the others to get to know her. If there was a method to anything Laura did, she kept it secret to anyone but herself.
Apparently the rest of the crowd was just as confused, and a low murmur swept across the gathering as they watched her.
"Hey, freak!" Julian snapped. "Did you hear me? Get lost." She ignored him and snatched the pepper off the plate. "Hey! What the hell are you doing?"
Laura gave the pepper an experimental sniff—Cessily couldn't help but be reminded of a cat sampling an unfamiliar treat when she did so—and then casually popped the whole thing into her mouth at once and ate it. "Shit!" Julian blurted out, and the lounge went so quiet Cessily thought she could hear Victor's heart beating next to her.
"It tastes fruity," Laura said in her usual off-handed way, and then turned and strode off without another word or any sign of being the least bit troubled by the pepper.
Victor worked his mouth in astonishment. "What just happened?"
Cessily blinked in amazement, and around her the other students started to murmur about what they had just seen. "Wow. I…uh…I don't know, but Santo and Julian are going to have a really hard time living that one down."
Apparently the two agreed: Santo had his head down and buried in the crook of his arm as he pounded a rocky fist on the table, making the plate bounce into the air with each blow. Julian's expression might have been even more priceless, as all he could do was stare open-mouthed as Laura gracefully strolled from the lounge, and damned if it didn't look to Cessily like she was strutting.
"Well," Sooraya added with a wry smile at Cessily from behind her niqab. "I guess it proves who has the biggest pair after all."
A Note From The Author
Another minisode while 1x05 is being written. I'd been asked if this is the format the story would be taking from here on out, but I just want to assure you all we will continue to tell the main story in the form of the longer episodes as in 1x01 - 1x04. This is just a little bit of fun we're using to keep you all entertained while the main episodes are being written. We'll probably continue using these periodically to feature characters who don't appear much in the main episodes, as well as to give a break from heavier stories, and maybe for some general silliness that wouldn't fit otherwise.
This one actually began life as the cold open for 1x06, but with 1x05 taking longer than expected, and the fact that it doesn't really fit well with what's planned for the rest of 1x06, I decided it worked better as a stand-alone short story. So here we get another look at what the kids get up to on their downtime when they're not embarrassing each other with impromptu karaoke or getting into fights in Salem Center. I really like the idea that even in a school where some of the students have scales, tails, wings, or, well, look like Santo, Laura still manages to be the weird kid. Plus, considering she's been the target of a fair amount of bullying from Julian and Santo to this point (I'd really have liked to show more of that than I have thus far, but I mostly haven't found a place to fit it in), I wanted to give her a moment of triumph over them. It almost seems like she did this on purpose. Y'know, if she actually cared about that sort of thing... ;-)