I Wonder How Bad that Tastes (Ada)

[Felicia Blackwood]

The young woman had decided, for once, to braid her silvery hair so it was manageable for once. She enjoyed having her long, silvery locks flow down to her waist, but it was a pain sometimes. It had been her downfall more than once in training, but she refused to cut it; it was almost like a good luck charm. She had been growing it out since after Romeo’s death, and nothing bad had really happened. Well, save for being ripped away from her mother and her best friend. Deep underneath the mask, she was slightly afraid for Donna and Caleb. She had heard that people had been killed if they had knowledge of the gifted, and she did not want the only two people left in her life to be taken away. She let out a soft sigh and shook her head, pulling slightly at the collar of her jacket to straighten it out. Everything had to be perfect, especially since she held a position of power. The position of commander was offered to her upon her “graduation” from the prefect-training program, which had mildly surprised the emotionally detached young woman. She had learned later, upon her arrival, that the former commander had been slain in battle and that she seemed like the best choice to whip the team into shape.

The tall young woman left the prefect dorms, holding herself with her usual poise and grace as she descended the stairs. Of course, there were bound to be stares, particularly from males, since she was quite top heavy. She did not seem to mind, though, as she was used to ignoring people but pretending like she cared. Her acting skills had been perfected over years and years of endless disappointment and being returned. She was too rowdy. She hit the other children. She’s just not the kind of child we’re looking for. All of those excuses and more had come from the mouths of her former foster parents. In all honesty, she thought that they had gotten in over their heads when taking her in. She had not had any real attachments, since her mother had given her up and her father was nowhere to be found. Thankfully, she had two attachments, but they were far away and she had no reason to make new, permanent attachments. They were all going to leave the school eventually, right, so, why bother? She tilted her head, blinking when she realized that she had come to a choice of paths. She chose the one that lead to the cafeteria, noting that her stomach was making a little bit of noise. She supposed musing to herself took a lot of glucose that her body needed. With that thought in mind, she headed to the cafeteria.

Red eyes widened when she saw the condition of the cafeteria. Students were crowded everywhere and seemed to be chattering endlessly about this or that. She let out a sigh, wandering over to the area where the food was and filling her tray with things that looked vaguely appetizing. Of course, she was not much of an eater to begin with, so she was most likely going to push the food around her plate with her utensils. The only thing that looked safe was the water, but even then, it seemed slightly cloudy. She let out a frustrated grunt and moved back to the crowded seating area, which was more clogged than the pores of a teenager’s face. She was able to elbow her way past several people to find a relatively empty table. She took a seat across from a young woman with red hair.

"There are no open tables, so I’m going to sit here. I hope that’s alright. And also, your food looks horrendous."

[Ada Ivy]

It was a typical day for the young scientist/inventor to be. Stay up half the night working on something. Wake up late. Breeze through morning classes and zone or maybe just take a nap. Get in the food line as a formality but have food in her bag, then pick a table without people and get to work. She had notes and diagrams and all manner of things that looked like they belonged more in a lab than on a lunch table spread around her. Not only did she legitimately need those, but they served as a further deterrent to keep people from sitting with her. When she was in work mode she didn't want to deal with people. Any people. Her tray was pushed to the side, questionable meat and unsanitary veggies and all so it wouldn't interfere with her work. Besides, she had a snickers and Red Bull. Who needed real food?

She had just started to really delve into it all when something disrupted her. Someone rather. She recognized her as another Prefect, but anything other than that was lost on the grouchy genius. Not moving her head for a moment she just glared at the chick who dared interrupt her. Listening to her made her want to roll her eyes but somehow she managed to just barely hold herself in check. This ain't gonna be fun..She could tell that right off the bat.

"No, it's really not alright. If you must know I'm working." She gestured to all the paper around her with annoyance. "So if you don't mind, I don't need any distractions. I.E, you." She said bluntly, not in the mood to beat around the bush. It just wasn't her way anyways. She didn't believe in sugar coating. At all. If you had something to say, you should just say it. Who cares about how the other person felt or something mushy like that. Being nice to someone on the off chance that their emotions couldn't handle it otherwise just never made sense to her. Probably never would.

And who could blame her? Her life wasn't all sugarplums and fairies. If she could handle that as a little girl other people should be able to handle that now.  If they couldn't then tough luck. They weren't getting any sympathy or pity from her. It was time to put up or shut up as she always said.

[Felicia Blackwood]

It had not really occurred to the silver-haired young woman that there was paper all over the table until she glanced down. She let out a soft huff and rolled her eyes. Of course, this girl had to be one of those types, didn’t she? The young woman herself was a workaholic, and had spent the previous night cooped up in her room, reading over files while listening to music and trying not to fall asleep. She would have liked to believe the lives of super-powered teenagers was interesting, but she had pretty much read a book that dealt with nearly every student’s history, with some exceptions. Regardless, she knew that the situation between this girl and herself could either end very well or very badly. Something about the other girl’s attitude told her that the latter was more likely than the former. It seemed the redhead minded her presence very much and that she wanted to be left alone. Unfortunately, the ruby-eyed young woman was quite stubborn and rarely gave in to anything, especially not something as stupid as a bad attitude. So, she placed her tray down with a ‘clack’ and sat herself in a seat, locking eyes with the young woman across from her.

“Regardless, I’m going to sit here, but don’t let me distract you. I have more important things to do as well.”

The young woman never wasted any time in “beating around the bush”. She had been described as “blunt” and even “b****y” in the past. The people who said that tended to be the people who disliked her because of her high grades, her wealth of knowledge, or any other shallow or superficial reason they could find. She always listed straightforward as one of her qualities, and always found that it was a good one to have. She did not have time to waste; there were many things she wanted to accomplish and, given the school’s infamy, she figured it was better to accomplish them sooner rather than later. After minutes of deafening silence, she simply shrugged and tasted a leaf of lettuce. She immediately regretted the decision, but ended up chewing and swallowing the horrid-tasting vegetable before taking a few sips of water to compensate for consuming the bitter product. She shifted the food around on her plate with her fork before letting it clatter against the tray. She then reached into her schoolbag to pluck out a book and pencil. She opened the book and started to read it, tapping the pencil’s eraser against the table as she did so. She despised annotating literature; the whole point of reading it was to enjoy the story and appreciate the beauty of words, not try to make notes on every single sentence in the book!

After a few moments, Felicia started to scribble notes in the margin of the book. The air was silent for a moment, but she could feel the slight charge in it. Of course, she could not hear the other young woman’s thoughts yet, but it was very clear that her presence was still unwanted. The question was whether or not she disliked the young woman scribbling in her book even more now because of the annoying noise she had unintentionally been making with her pencil eraser. What Felicia would never tell the young woman sitting across from her was that she hated the noise as well, and her presence and annoyance was merely a test to gauge student reactions and decision-making. If the redhead chose to “flip out”, it was her own decision and her natural reaction. It was no skin off the silver-haired young woman’s nose; no one had to like her. All they had to do was respect her and everything would be just fine.

[Ada Ivy]

She would not be beaten by an eraser, dammit. She wouldn’t. Irritation radiated off her in waves, enough to choke a horse with. She embodied hostility at the moment, and she sincerely hoped that would be enough to drive the priss away soon enough. Few people could stand being around her when she did that for very long, not being able to take it or just being scared that she’d rip their head off if they didn’t get the hell away from her in the next five minutes. The girl in front of her seemed stubborn though. Stubborn and determined. She might be harder to get rid of. Ada resisted the urge to huff and growl.

She continued to work in silence, ignoring everything that was going on around her as she did. She wanted to sit there? Fine. She was going to get ignored something fierce. Or not. Ada snorted at her reaction to the food. She really couldn’t blame her though; the food here was absolutely horrid. She wasn’t even sure if it was edible, let alone had any nutrients in it. “Rookie mistake. Never eat the food they give you here.” She said, not looking up. Just how new was this chick?

She herself wasn’t a seasoned veteran by any means but she was still clearly here for a longer time than this girl, whatever her name was. She had a lot to learn, that was for sure. And Ada would definitely not be the one to teach her a thing.