morP 3.5
Taylor technicially arrived at Immaculata after the dance officially started, even though she had directed her swarms in various tasks from a nearby restaurant for at least the last hour and a half. The first visit she'd made to Immaculata earlier in the afternoon where she'd placed the supplies she'd bought up to the roof, had come to fruition with the swarms she had gathered from her travels all over the city. Taylor hid her backpack in the bushes and coordinated mega-swarms on the gymnasium roof from a block or so away. Because the ceiling of the gym was still decorated from an event last week, her teams of roaches and spiders had good cover to set everything up through the duct system.
Taylor had observed groups from different schools arrive with snacks for the refreshment table or the DJ set up.
She planned to pickpocket a Track team member's wallet for ID to plant on roof during the dance if necessary to cover her tracks even further.
Taylor had learned her lesson well from her ordeal at school today and every single person who entered her range was graced with a bug and she was pleased she could keep track of everyone and everything around her. It made it easy for her to slip behind the stage curtains unnoticed and finish the final preparations of what she had planned. Eavesdropping on the Track Team as they had been among the first to arrive to set up their prank had been quite informative.
_____
Missy settled into the regular routine of a shift behind the Console. She forwarded on the text from Sophia that she was on her way.
Most of the Wards had just arrived by an armored diplomatic PRT Limousine and got last minute instructions from their Social Worker in the passenger seat that they would have to stay a minimum of 2 hours to satisfy the Youth Guard requirements.
"Sucks to be you," Vista said through the communication earpieces each of them wore, "but at least you're not stuck running the Console all night just listening to the rest of you having a good time."
Apparently Dennis dashed ahead and held the door open for everyone as he burst into
song
"Secret Agent: Concierge,
Fights crime when he gets the urge.
Sings his theme song,
Like a prat.
Opens doors,
Just like that.
Look Out!
'Cuz he's the Spy-Doorman…"
Missy wondered if her head hitting the desk was audible over the groans of those actually present while she was on Console duty.
She toggled over to ask Chris privately over the comms, "Any way to get him to stop?"
Chris tapped Dennis on the shoulder and pointed him towards the impressive refreshment tables.
"No way I'm going to pass up
that much broken dark chocolate in one place." Dennis said.
_____
Dennis watched the student minding the refreshment tables mutter, "Uh, save some for others, I gotta go…" and dash out of the gym.
A chocolate fountain with skewers for cut fruit, marshmallows and graham crackers graced one table, An iced tub filled with store-brand sodas shared a table with paper bowls and a variety of open bags of chips, and yet another table had a large bowl of cookie dough and numerous small bowls of toppings. A few teens loaded a sheet with their creations into the portable cookie oven next to the table. Dennis took a big scoop of dough and whacked it down into the bowl of dark chocolate, brought it to his mouth like a popsicle and chewed happily.
Dennis noticed a couple of girls not from Arcadia stare at him as if he had grown another head.
"What?" Dennis mumbled with a full mouth.
"That's brilliant!" one of them said and then smacked her own spoon into multiple bowls of toppings.
"You two forgot to fill out your name and school," said a blonde haired, blue eyed girl wearing an Immaculata school uniform who held a marker in one hand and empty name tags in the other.
"Oh, um… I'm Chris, and he's Dennis, from Arcadia."
After filling out the name tags, the girl handed them out and said "I'm Elisabeth Vanhousen. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too. So how did this 'morP' get started anyway?" Chris asked as Dennis took another bite.
Elisabeth answered, "It's a no pressure dance for all the behind-the-scenes organizers to be able to relax. The 'reverse of Prom' in the middle of Prom season with not-so-serious awards." Elisabeth explained furtheras she flicked the ribbon pinned to her blouse, "Any Immaculata student still wearing their school uniform gets a 'Worst Dressed' ribbon as soon as they make it through the doors. It's all in good fun."
"So since you had the gear and an open spot in the calendar," Dennis said, "why not have another party?"
"Yep. After the last dance it all migrated to the teacher's lounge. Mysteriously.'" Elisabeth said with a knowing grin.
Chris asked Elisabeth, "So, how did it turn into an all-district invite?"
Elisabeth explained, "Tuxedos. Dance organizers from different schools complaining while renting Tuxedos, where it cost as much for a month as a one night rental. It was also cheaper to rent the chocolate fountain, cookie oven, and other party hardware for full month with only one damage deposit to scrape together rather than rent everything twice."
Dennis took another bite of the dark chocolate held to his spoon with cookie dough and said, "Hey Chris, watch this."
The redheaded boy made a beeline to a group of girls, most of whom he recognized from a video he had shown Kid Win last week. Sophia had arrived with them, but was split off from the group by an older boy who said, "C'mon, just say 'Hi' to the track teams from other schools, put some 'friendly' in 'friendly competition' for once..."
The scowl on Sophia's face as he led her away betrayed her actual feelings about the situation.
Dennis singled Madison out of the crowd and said, "Hey I loved your video from last week, can I get an autograph?"
"Do you know the one thing to keep in mind if you insult a short girl?" Madison replied with a sly grin.
"No, what's that?"
"
Your genitals are at
my punching height." Madison lunged forward with her fist, and enjoyed the debacle as Dennis tripped over his own feet in his attempt to get away from the petite pugilist.
Carlos and Chris arrived right as Dennis fell on his butt in front of the clique of girls as they pointed and laughed. Chris muttered, "Don't try this at home, kids, he's a professional idiot."
Carlos helped Dennis back to his feet by a refreshment table, filled a small bowl with chips and said, "Dennis, in the future take your cues from people more grown-up than you. It's too bad Missy's not here to do the job."
Muffled snorting laughter transmitted over everyone's in-ear comms.
Dennis consoled himself with a second scoop of cookie dough coated with a ridiculous amount of dark chocolate.
Chris split off from Dennis to follow after Elisabeth as she walked past in the hope to continue their conversation.
Carlos appeared to consider the chocolate fountain for a moment and asked Dennis, "Do you think it could do that with Nacho cheese instead?"
"That would be awesome," said Dennis, as he kept his actual thoughts hidden
_____
Taylor sneaked out from behind the curtain at the edge of the stage, only to have Emma, of all people, spot her descent down the stairs to the gym floor.
"Oh. My. God." Emma said, "Look what decided to crawl out of its' hole."
The group of girls loosely encircled Taylor, who finally recognized just who had approached her as she guided her swarms to their appointed tasks. Taylor's grimace at the situation was merely an outward sign of her determination to not get blindsided in this way yet again.
It seemed Emma got the wrong impression, because she stepped forward. The group parted to give her room.
"What's the matter, Taylor?" Emma said, "You look upset."
Her words didn't seem to fit the situation. Taylor had maintained her composure through worse than this. for however long they had been at it. What she'd been feeling was more a mixture of frustration and boredom at being mildly distracted from her task than anything else. Taylor opened her mouth to say something, she had a "Fuck you" chambered for just such a situation as this. But before she could even inhale, Emma spoke.
"So upset you're going to cry yourself to sleep for a straight week?" she asked.
The words died in Taylor's throat as she processed Emma's question.
Now, given their shared history, Taylor gaped at Emma, wordless. Her redheaded former friend's smile widened. She had gleefully packed as much cunt into that one sentence as she possibly could.
Taylor thought,
"Fuck me, it almost worked." Had she been emotionally drained or beaten down a little more the tears would have flowed from such a simple sentence. She noticed as her power roared to life, her range expanded and even more insects fell under her control. She reveled in it. If she was not focused on how to direct her bugs at the moment, Taylor might have given Emma's words more weight.
"She is! She's crying!" Madison laughed as she mistook the temporary internal focus on her mental power rather than the physical as shoulders slumped in defeat.
Anger, sadness, all other emotions aside from disgust displaced into her swarm, Taylor considered her surroundings and the entire situation.
The track team had subtly steered Sophia closer to the stage to begin the festivities they had in motion. New arrivals, and with a glance Taylor confirmed it was Glory Girl and her boyfriend, took an unusual interest in what was happening around her.
She could give a theatrical yawn, say
"What else you got?" and enmesh herself with Emma's bitches coven even further, or she could make a small sacrifice of ego and take her pound of flesh later while Emma was unsuspecting.
Taylor directed a wasp riding in her hair to crawl down and sting the back of her earlobe. She winced in pain and tears flooded her eyes.
"It's like you have a superpower, Emma!" one of the girls tittered.
Taylor interpreted that as volunteering for what came next. She shoved her way through the gathered girls, shoulder checked 'little miss superpowered' on her ass, totally worth the resulting brief spike of pain down her side, and ran out of the gym, down the hall to the outside. With no onlookers around Taylor dried her crocodile tears as she ran around the building to the other entrance so she could watch what was coming with her own eyes.
Back in the gym Taylor thought the high five between Emma and Madison was a bit much, even if she'd only detected through her bugs on them. They were about to learn that the worst enemy is the one who you believed beaten and beneath you, first Sophia's going to find out just how true those words are, and then it was Emma and Madison's turn.
____
Dean stood there with Victoria on his arm, as his eyes followed the distressed girl leaving in tears and his power sensed swirling faint black/red/sickly greens of her emotions as she ran past and which strangely lingered in the walls around them. Amy and the guy her sister had forced her into bringing was about to ask Dean what was wrong when Dennis brusquely brushed past the couples, to speed walk with purpose and intent out of the gym, one arm cradled protectively against the rebellion in his intestines.
Author's Note: Thanks to Chojomeka for the 'believed beaten and beneath you' quote, above.
