"And look here!, teen population, six males to twenty-three females, almost four to one, and I still can't get a date.", he wailed, waving the printouts at Marcus.
After Marcus had had his birthday, suddenly most of those twenty-three that hadn't wanted to know him as a child, suddenly did. "I managed to hack the records of the girls at this school, maybe we can go through it at lunchtime and find ourselves girlfriend candidates?" Before Marcus could reply, the principal opened her office door and called out, "Lawrence Lum, my office...NOW." Lawrence handed the papers to Marcus, and sighed, "I was sure it was a clean hack."
Marcus waited around for Lawrence at lunchtime, but he didn't show, and Lawrence wasn't on the bus either. Marcus was pretty sure that Lawrence's unlucky streak was on a roll. "You have reached the Lum residence, this is David Wong speaking", a voice answered when Marcus dialed the house number.
"Hello mister Wong, my name is Marcus Jettstar, I'm a friend of Lawrence, he vanished midday from school and I am worried about him, is he there?", Marcus asked, trying to sound worried. The was a short pause, and Marcus could hear a muffled voice, "There's a Marcus Jettstar on the phone for Lawrence, do you know him?", a second muffled voice, "I sure do, his mother is quite a celebrity here in Elba!".
After a short pause, the conversation resumed, "Marcus, sweetheart, this is Lily, Lawrence isn't allowed to come to the phone because he was caught hacking again, and got himself suspended for two weeks." There was a dramatic sigh, and Lin continued, "For the time that Lawrence is suspended, I've taken his phone and his computer, he is grounded, and won't be communicating with anyone."
Marcus thought for a moment, and then played the celebrity card, the school report play, and the sympathy call all in one hand. He took a very deep breath. "You see Lin, the thing is, I've been failing science all term, and since I've been partnered with Lawrence, I've been getting an A, because Lawrence can explain the things I don't understand in terms that I do, and my mum is so proud of me getting and A, and we have a project presentation due in tomorrow, and I'm going to fail because, I don't have his side of the research.", Marcus rushed. "Please Mrs. Lum, I just need to talk to him for five minutes!"
"Oh, that's terrible, I don't want you to fail because of Lawrence, that wouldn't be fair... one moment." Marcus tried to high five himself, nearly dropping the phone. In a voice that would would put your average banshee to shame Lily screeched "LAWRENCE, GET DOWN HERE NOW!"
"Your science partner is on the phone for your share of the project research, five minutes, and not a second more.". "Hi, what's up buddy?", Lawrence asked quietly. "Dude, what the?", Marcus asked. "One sec mate." Lawrence replied. Lawrence turned to the lounge room, "Mum all my science notes are in my room, can I take the phone upstairs?". Marcus couldn't hear a response, but the next thing he heard was the pounding of feet on stairs, followed by the gentle closing of a door.
"Marcus, how the hell did you get passed the Sphinx?", Lawrence inquired, referring to his very strict mother. Marcus summarized his earlier conversation, then asked "What happened, how did you get caught?". Lawrence hesitated for a moment before coming clean, "When I sat down to hack the principals computer, my wallet fell out of my back pocket and I didn't notice. So now I'm in purgatory for a fortnight! Just my luck."
Marcus decided that if he was going to unravel the mystery inside the enigma, bound inside a puzzle, that was the opposite sex, without help from his best friend Lawrence, he would need help from experts. His mother's were the only people he could think of that where qualified, and that he felt comfortable talking to about such things.
Marcus explained that because there were only 3 single boys at school, and around twenty single girls, and that being the sudden focus of attention was disconcerting, and distracting. He went on to explain that he was not adverse to the idea of having a girlfriend, he quite liked the idea.
The conversation wove its way the dinner, and dessert. By the time the last dishes had been washed, it had become apparent that Marcus, wanted to find 'the one', or at least 'a highly likely one', without dating half the girls in school. As a child, he had imagined that one day he might marry one of his best friends, Alycia, Bernadette, Casey, or Elsa, but now that he was older, he could see that things were more complicated.
Venice and Lilli put their heads together for an hour or so while Marcus did his homework, then advised him of the following plan. "Here is what we think you should do, first of all don't date any of them until you know them better." suggested Venice. "Try to get a little time alone with each of the girls you are interested in, to get to know them better, don't say it is a date, say something like 'I'm heading down the beach after school, do you want to come for a swim, or something casual like that. If it is a date, there is a lot of pressure, if its just 'hanging out', not so much pressure." Lilli advised, then just say things like, 'my favorite color is lime green, whats yours?
"But, okay, say I get to know their favorite foods, music, favorite colors, whatever, how do I know which one is the right one?
Venice looked into Lilli's eyes, "When you are with the one, you will want to introduce her to everyone else you know."
Lilli replied "When you are with the one, you will laugh a lot, being with her will make you smile."
Venice leaned towards her lover slightly and continued, "When you are not with the one, who is the one, you will get butterflies at the thought of seeing her again."
Lilli added "When you are with the one, they will defend you, and stand up for you, even when you are being a fluffee head."
Venice finished with "When you are with the one, you know you can trust them with your heart completely, and that they would sacrifice everything for you, as you, for them."
Venice touched Lilli's lips softly, Marcus interrupted the very tender moment. "They’re kissing again. Do we have to read the kissing parts?", he asked, quoting his favorite move.
The next day at school, Marcus began filling out the list, he started by crossing Lakisha Fritz-Reynoso, and Malika Williams off the list, not only were they the two oldest teens on the list, but he was pretty sure by the sly glances, and the discreet hand touching, that those two girls were an item.
Marcus also crossed out the Taylor Twins, and Triplets. Again, like Malika and Lakisha, they were much older, and wouldn't be teens by the end of semester. Winona Taylor almost made it back on to the list, at lunch time she had told him 'you are so damn hot, definitely the cutest boy teen in town.'
Marcus asked her if she wanted to hang out after school, and Winona had shut him down with "Ease up kiddo, the compliment was free, but you cant afford the rest!", she had said, sliding her hands from her shoulders, down her waist to her hips, "Besides, I'm looking for a sugar daddy, not a toyboy!" 
After he got home from school, Marcus finished his homework quickly, and decided to take both Bull and Dozer for a walk, he cut across the empty land behind the family lot, followed the base of the steep hill around to the left and trudged across to the footpath. Bill and Dozer took turns at leading, and the dog on the right would go left as the dog on the left would veer right the moment Marcus let his thoughts wander. This meant every few minutes he would have to stop and untangle the leads, or his arms, or both.
The dogs had dragged him halfway past the equestrian center, when he decided that he had enough. He called out, "Tweedle-Dee, Tweedle-Dum, home!", and steered them as best he could. He wished he taken them on separate walks. "Hey stranger!", called a familiar voice. "Hi Elsa, where you been all week?", Marcus asked. "Appaloosa Plains!", Elsa informed him excitedly, "Daddy is negotiating to buy the Equestrian center over there, if he is successful, I'm going to move there and be the manager when I'm done with school!"
When Marcus finally got 'Evil Muttley', and 'More Evil Muttley' home, he added some notes next to Elsa's name. She was one of the easier ones, apart from the Errant family, or Errant-Jonas family, he reminded himself, he had been friends with her longer than anyone else.
Elsa:
Country music, negative, nope, double negative.
Color:Yellow
Food:Expensive
Highly Intelligent, possibly Genius. Positive,
Family is important, she likes kids. a half positive? leave it blank, nope definitely worth at least a half.
Same Age - is that relevant? kinda Score N/A
Seems ambitious, chasing her dreams or mummy and daddys though?
Do I like being in her company --- Yes, most of the time
Marcus realized he needed to keep this list hidden, he didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.
He reread through his scrawled notes to see if he had covered everything, hit the lights, and slept.
Over the next few days, Marcus tried to find out some more about each of the girls on his list, he was hoping to get a few details about each girl today. He was nervous that someone might see his 'casual' questions, so he didn't push too hard. When Alycia got off the bus, she was in her werewolf form, it was three or four days until the full moon, so he knew she was just being inappropriate to get a reaction.
Almost everyone in class agreed that Alycia was probably the prettiest girl in school, and could easy get a career in modelling, but since becoming a teen, she had started taking great delight in doing the wolf face thing. There was no law against it, but it did make people uncomfortable, and she knew it.
Bernadette was walking behind Casey, doing the zombie stalker thing, stopping and acting all innocent when Casey turned around, a bit childish in Marcus opinion. He reminder himself to write that down later. It wouldn't be a fair and accurate assessment if he wrote the negatives down for everybody but his three oldest friends.
Declan Somethingorother tried to push past Casey to get through the doors, when she held her ground, Declan muttered "Move it dog-breath", Marcus knew before the spray of blood on the glass doors that saying something like that to a teen werewolf probably wasn't the smartest move. A teacher inside the building had heard and seen the event, but Casey was still going to be in trouble for breaking Declans nose.
'Possibly hot-headed, mean spirited, brooding, grumpy or inappropriate, I'm gonna have to work on that one.', though Marcus
When school got out for the day, Marcus waited by the front door to see what sort of trouble Casey was in. This wasn't the first time she had assaulted a student over a werewolf comment, but the first time was a split lip, and the second a black eye. Jessica Quintaro exited the school, and walking around the back of Marcus, pinched his butt, she kept walking without saying anything. Marcus mentally crossed her off the list.
"I have the Illustrated Kama-Simtra at home, if you want to drop by and imitate random pages with me.", Nekita Hunter-Watson said casually as she walked past.
"Don't mind her." Stated her sister Sabrina, who was right behind Nekita, "She just wants to get her claws into you before any other girl here can, then she'd be tired off you with in a week ,and cast you off. Why she bothers with muggles, I'll never know." At least Sabrina made eye contact while talking at me.' thought Marcus. 'Wait, did she just movie reference me?, okaaaay, both these witches is bitches, and strikeouts.'
The list had been cut in half, and the remaining girls only had a few details between them. Billie Cote-O'Halaran crossed the road in front of him, having quickly visited the 'Sunshine Diner' before the bus arrived, he knew she was a bit forgetful, and occasionally mooched money from her friends for lunch, whether or not she paid them back, he didn't know. She was a bit chubby, and had bigger boobs than almost all the other girls. He stopped himself.
Marcus didn't really care about her size, she wasn't anorexic, and she wasn't obese, her weight had little impact on her health. Big boobs were nice, but so were small ones. He realized he was concentrating on her visual aspect to avoid talking to her. She had a nice smile, when it happened, and from overhearing here talk to other people, she seemed to have a nice personality. They had barely exchanged a dozen words all semester, and he was not sure how she would react.
"Heya Billie", Marcus ventured. "Oh hey, um Lucas?", Billie guessed. "Marcus." said Marcus. "Yeah, that's right, whats up?", asked Billie. When she asked the question she took a step closer.
Marcus tried not to wrinkle his nose when the wave of body odor hit. He got a look at her aforementioned cleavage, which appeared to contain at least a tablespoon of 'Sunshine Diners Special Chip Gravy #2'. It may have been the #3 gravy, he really didn't want to inspect it that thoroughly.
Forgetful - SuperSlob - Mooch... possible couch potato. Four strikes, your out!
"Nothin, just saying 'Heya', see ya tomorrow"
Tenika Wong winked at him and blew him a kiss as she was leaving. Seriously was every teen girl in school, going to have a pass at him today? And didn't Corey Taylor ask her to go steady at lunchtime?
And didn't Corey say that Tenika had say yes. And why was Tenika still on the list? And why didn't Corey wag school today. Tenika was a sweetheart.
The bus pulled up, and everybody got on board, except for Corinna Woodford, who kept looking from the bus to the phonebox. Susannah Hendrik came charging out of the school doors, she hurled down the path, and at the last moment launched herself through the bus doors, clearing all the steps easily and landed gracefully in front of the bus driver. She bowed gracefully, asked the bus driver to hold the applause, and went to take her seat.
She was only slightly older than Marcus, and had recently transferred in from big city school with a monster athletics budget. Marcus didn't really know anything about her, accept she had a flair for the dramatic, and all the sports coaches at the school insisted with a few more like her that the Elba Village Vicunas might actually win one for a change.
The bus driver waved at Corinna to board and she shook her head in the negative. The bus driver shut the doors with a hiss and the bus chug-lurch-zoomed across the intersection. Marcus knew Corinna to be a dog person, and that one of her dogs had just had a litter of pups. Marcus decided to use this angle to start a casual conversation.
"Hi Corinna", Marcus started. Corinna visibly jumped, her huge Afro launching like a swarm of birds taking to the sky. "Ohmygod. Ohmygod.Ohmygod. youscaredme. Ithoughtyouwereanaxemurderer!", she squealed, breathing frantically, she pulled a paper bag from her pocket and hyperventilates into it.
"Slow it down, Slow it down, that's it, almost back to normal", Marcus encouraged. Corinna had also moved to recently moved to Elba, although probably a week before Susannah. She was a quiet spoken girl, and most people mistook that for shyness. She was short for her age, but her crazy big hair made up for it. Marcus thought she was friendly, and neat, these both scored positives, and she really liked animals, again, that was a win, there was only two negatives.
Firstly, Corinna had no idea about makeup, she wore all the wrong shades for her skin tone, even a boy, who new almost new nothing about makeup could tell, and she always looked like she applied it on the bus without a mirror. He really should ask Alycia to give her some pointers. The second issue was her chronic anxiety, which was hardly apparent when she arrived, but rapidly getting worse. Again, Marcus thought maybe he should ask someone to help.
Marcus was about to make small talk about puppies, when she yelped, "I have to go, I'm going to be late!", and run off around the back of the school. Marcus noted his latest thoughts, and added 'MAYBE', next to her name, as she really was a very nice girl, despite the fact that she was scared of her own shadow.
He waited another ten minutes and still no sign of any of the Errant-Jonas girls. He walked back inside the school building. Marcus cruised past the principals office, and the interview rooms, in case they were in there over Casey's outburst this morning, he checked the clock outside the staff room, and realized he was running out of time. Marcus ran through the corridors and got back to the phone box, just as the driving instructor pulled up.
Marcus had aced the basic driving course that the school provided all teens upon aging up, but his mother had insisted on advanced driving lessons with a qualified instructor. His real mother was a global success as a Rock Star, and his step mum, (He really didn't like that term), just had a knack for finding valuable things, especially gemstones.
Because the Jettstar family were one of the wealthiest, if not, the wealthiest family in Elba, he knew his new car, which still hadn't arrived, wasn't going to be a Jalopy, A Lemon, or a Wornado. He had told her told her exactly what his dream car was, although he doubted anyone could find such a rare car, but that he would be happy with any of a similar age, and style. Venice and Lil both drove 55 Chev Bel Airs. Marcus wanted something a little more modern, and if his mother had insisted on advanced driving lessons, whatever was on it's way was no shopping cart, he added to his mental monologue.
Marcus busted out the paints and for inspiration he imagined a city where he might drive his new car when it arrived, while he chatted.
Casey laughed, "Not very.. When mum got called to the school, she was pretty mad, she had to bail work.", Casey explained. "The principal was ranting about banning S.N's from school, I told mum what Declan called me, and mum turned on the principal, said she was going to sue the council and see to it that he lost his job for allowing such rampant bullying and discrimination to continue on his watch!"
"I got a one week suspension, that's it, not even grounded. I just have to pretend that I am!, Mum gave me the biggest hug for standing up for myself when we got home!"
Alycia:
Dark Wave music, positive, not as good as custom style :P
Color:Red
Food:Vegetarian, meat only as wolf.
Very Pretty, Athletic, Loves the Outdoors, Likes to dress and behave inappropriately sometimes just to annoy people.
No rush to have kids, if at all.
Same Age - Pos.
Could be a supermodel if she has drive / could also be a diva...
Do I like being in her company --- Human Yes, 99%,Wolf No
Bernadette:
Indie music, meh
Color:Hot Pink, its a girly girl color, suits her most of the time
Food: Sushi
Loves the Outdoors, Party Animal +, Artistic / Loves art +++
Always more childish than sisters, hasn't grown up --
Wants dozens to play dollies with ??
Same Age - Pos.
Childish werewolves = danger?? --.
Do I like being in her company --- Human not as much as I used too.,Wolf NoNoNo
Lilliana picked up Casey and brought her over for dinner, her family was still pretending that she was grounded to appease dumbass Declan's family.
Casey:
Darkwave and Custom +++
Black: My color too...SHADEE!
Food: Grilled Salmon
Loves being Outdoors, Romantic, needs self confidence, and maybe anger management :P
Puts others before herself a lot, kind selfless nature, or low self esteem
Would like to someday, in rush.
Same Age - +
Afraid of hurting people in her wolf form, not comfortable with me seeing it.
Do I like being in her company --- Human Yes!!!,Wolf yes.
The next day, Bernie called, "The Modern Art Museum just opened a surprise display of local artists, Mum's got the day off, so it's gunna be a family day. Me , Aly, Mum, and boofhead, even mentalcase is allowed out of the house, so you gunna come hang with ya favorite crew or wots?", then promptly hung up before Marcus could even reply.
Marcus called a taxi and went to the museum, he checked that he had his wallet, watch and phone three times on the way, to make sure he remembered to grab everything on his way out. Were those butterflies?
When Marcus arrived, he dropped some simoleons into the drivers hand and didn't wait for change, he run up the museum stairs three at a time. Once inside he began prowling the displays, eventually he spotted the three flame haired sisters, they turned as he approached, Alycia and Bernie where arguing the merits of a painting of the grim reaper playing an electric guitar, with rainbow colored notes streaming from the amplifier. The two nodded in greeting, but didn't pause the debate.
Alycia had her normal face on, but had pulled her hoodie down, and her shorts up tight over her hips so that they looked like underpants, she wasn't wearing shoes either. Bern was wearing mismatched shoes, not just different color, but different style. She was also wearing a t-shirt with a child's toy on the front. She was also faking a child's voice and reasoning to argue with her sister. Casey rolled her
eyes, and stepped around the corner to view the next piece, and to escape her sisters. Marcus followed her.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't bear Bananas In Pajamas any longer without my head exploding!", sighed Casey. "Since we teened, my sisters have been infuriatingly irritating, but, enough of my eternal torment. You've been down since your birthday too, don't think I haven't noticed, spill!"
Marcus spilled. He explained how since he become a teen, suddenly most of the girls on school wanted to be his girlfriend, and that he hadn't realized at first that he had only ever been interested in one. Marcus gave her details about how he had even tried to scientifically measure 'soulmate compatibility' using scores and scales, until he had eventually come to the conclusion that it should be felt, not measured.
"And now that I can see what I've actually known all along, I'm just waiting for my car to arrive, so when I ask her out on a date, I can take her somewhere other than my backyard!", Marcus said. Casey nodded in understanding, "It made me so mad, when they all started behaving like they were on heat, I nearly got my self suspended a few times."
Casey's top lip curled up, and her eyebrows jammed together like a rampant caterpillar, "You aren't seriously thinking about dating that stuck up Collins bitch, are you? Please tell me you have better taste!".
"No, No!", Marcus raised his hands, "Okay, I was at first, guilty, but no, the taller she's gotten, the shallower, she's become.". Casey nodded in agreement. Marcus divulged "No Case, I've known the person I want to ask even longer than I've known Elsa."
Casey blindly followed her train of thought. "Of course! Alycia, the only people you knew before Elsa, was my sisters and I.", She tried to keep her face a solid mask. 'Idiot!', Casey thought to herself, 'Alycia, with the perfect skin, the perfect boobs, the perfect body, Alycia, who knew how to get people to do her bidding with a single look'.
"Casey, It's not Alycia, that I want to ask!" Marcus said, a hint of frustration creeping into his voice.
Casey's train of thought derailed, and plunged into the swamp, "Bernie?", 'Bernie wasn't anywhere near as pretty as Alycia, and didn't have Alycia's curves, but at least Bernie wasn't over normal height, with a flat chest and horrible pale blotchy skin like herself.'
Marcus took a deep breath, who knew asking a girl out could be this difficult?
"Casey, in case you haven't worked it out yet, just in case, Casey, it's you I have been waiting to ask. Will you go out with me, not just out to the swings and the unicorn in the backyard, but will you go out on a date with me?"
Casey's derailed train slowly sank further into the swamp, accompanied by popping swamp fart bubble noises. Suddenly there was a blinding light.
"Me?, me?, of all the girls in town that you could chose from, why would you even consider me?", Casey asked in confusion, "I'm so.. less than average in every way, except height!", still in shock.
"Oh, Casey!", Marcus pulled her into a hug, and yes even without heels on, he was looking at her teeth, "You are so much more than average in every way, including height!" trying to inject a little light comedy into what had been a very confusing and complicated conversation so far.
Marcus loosed the hug stance slightly so he could look up into her eyes. "I chose you, because when you walk away, even If I've made you angry, or I'm angry at you, I want nothing more than for you to come back to me.".
"Casey, you do want to go out with me, don't you?", Marcus asked, lately he had suspected that Casey felt, at least partly, about him, the way he felt about her, and that she was hiding those feelings as she felt unworthy. Inwardly he flinched, considering that he may have badly misread a great many things.
"YES, YES I DO!" Casey yelled, drawing the attention of everybody in the museum.
CHAPTER NOTES:
I converted them to package format, as I refuse to install S3P's these days.
None of them would show up in World Edit :/
So then I built a massive 3 story art gallery with toilets, and offices, and an art repair room, on the top floor I added a security room with lots of multi screen PCs, loaded the whole lot with copious quantities of CC garnish, added 250+ lights, to make sure every that needed lighting was well lit, as the secondary function was to let art critics get there rocks off, the primary function was to build a monster screenie art gallery, where I could get a few 100 screenies without every background looking the same, satisfied I'd wrestled the beast into submission.... and ...go to save....crash........
with 1 screen cap while testing to show for 6 house work :P
Needless to say, the last picture in this chapter above notes, is a 2x6 stage I built in the sisters front yard, after deleting half their house, and moving the rubbish bin and letter box, then reloading the previous save.!
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