ninja vs. jedi -- who wins? [nell, sandra]

Nell had to say she liked clothes. Fancy clothes. She’d never had many, she still didn’t have many, but the prom outfits were so pretty to look at. All the fabric and the ruffles, the dresses and ties . For the girlies, of course. The tuxes and suits were also neat, and it was during this season that she acknowledged suits were her favorite clothes for males. So she was very excited to help Matt and Sandra get ready. Giving advice, rambling on about what should be done with hair, the corsages, just the overall feeling of it. There was a rush that she felt, being busy with them. It was like helping royalty get ready for the ball. Nell complimented how pretty Sandra looked, and how spiffy Matt was, and she grinned when the plan formulated to sneak her into prom. It made her feel like some kind of delinquint, and that was exciting. Especially since it wasn’t actually a crime, right? She couldn’t be too sure, no matter how much research she did on habeas corpis and corpis delicti. That was the thrilling thing about it, something tat everyone could get excited about. The simple joy of doing something that you know you shouldn't be doing.

And the plan was to act natural, of course. Pretend like you were supposed to be there, which Nell was not. She was a good actress. Nell could be like Rita Hayworth and Doris Day, smoking her cigarette with smokey eyes and keeping true intentions hidden. It was a little trick, see. She kept her arm in Matt’s, and tried to pull her lips down into a frown when Sandra’s distraction worked. ”But of course,” she said, just like one of those golden age actresses. That was easy, and she wanted to repay them for their help. Nell looked around at all the nicely dressed teenagers, cheeks ruddy and heart thudding. Right. Sandra. She was probably fine, but Nell nodded. ”Yeah, congratulate her and everything,” she joked. She did a fine job, being the distraction. Nell thought that maybe they should form a group like Ocean’s Eleven and call it Nell’s Eleven or something like that. ”Yeah, yeah,” she agreed, and then Nell lifted her eyebrows. ”Really? You never met the Deej?” Well, it wasn’t surprising since Matt didn’t go to the Academy, but she thought maybe Sandra would have introduced them. Tonight it would happen, she supposed. She tugged Matt along and found Sanra, hugging her and going, ”You did great! Thank you!” She grinned from ear to ear.

Honestly, if Matt didn't know better (and feared for the rest of the world, really), he probably would encourage Sandra's foray into acting because her distraction worked like a charm. He knew his sister pretty well and she was always relaxed and pretty easygoing about everything -- basically completely the opposite of the drama queen pitching a fit about nothing now. He couldn't even help but laugh -- she truly was ridiculous. And he really hoped that her dress was saved and not wet or anything terrible, because then he'd just feel really bad, and it's not like he could just dry it for her, and he didn't know many Winds around to help them out, nor would he trust them to, either. Loitering in the lobby was also a little sketchy, though, but seeing as everyone else within a 10 ft radius was also loitering and staring at Sandra make a spectacle of herself, he thought it was okay. It did give him flashbacks of his own prom, though, and how his date ended up being a little more high maintenance than he would have liked. When Sandra made her way back to them after her little show, the area cleared a little as they all fell back into the normal swing of prom-like things -- people getting their tickets, picking up placards, girls gushing over friends' dresses, guys looking like they didn't really want to get dressed up but did it for the sake of their lady friends. Ah, prom. A cesspool of youth, if Matt ever saw one.

"I think the only acting roles you'd be good for are sleeping ones."

Matthew responded to Sandra when she came up to them, all smiles. The girl was having way too much fun with this. But something piqued his interest, then, something she had said in the earlier part of her act, and his eyes narrowed, momentarily forgetting that this was her prom and he should not be a douche and ruin it for her. "Wait, did you say your date was 'adorable'?"

Sandra waved off Matthew's... criticism, or whatever she could call that, deciding that she shouldn't take him too seriously. She didn't really take most things seriously, though, and to be perfectly honest, there wasn't much to take seriously about this entire situation, so it was okay. She did, however, take a deep and very flowery, over-the-top bow, making sure to use silly hand waves and everything, too. "Just remember when I do win that Oscar that you were very unsupportive," she said to her brother in what would have been a very huffy tone... except that she ruined it by laughing. This stopped quickly once Matt started grilling Nell, though. Pfft. Sandra could have answered all of these questions, but he wouldn't have believed her anyway! She decided to just stay quiet and let Nell handle things, knowing that the two of them were also friends and so she obviously wouldn't do anything to slander Devin's reputation (or worse, make Matthew angry).

It was Sandra's job to just stand there and try to look as innocent as possible... which, to be perfectly honest, wasn't hard at all. That probably wasn't helping her whole "I can take care of myself" thing though... not that she really wanted to be left alone all the time, just on certain things when Matthew got all overprotective. In the absence of their parents, though, Sandra honestly didn't mind it as much as she let on. That wasn't for Matt to know, of course!"And like, a cute stuffed animal. Not one of the ugly ones." She couldn't think of any ugly stuffies, but they probably existed. "And anyway," she continued, rolling her eyes a little, "It's nothing! We're going as friends! Cool your jets! Oh, and also, his name is Devin." She tilted her head back at Nell, somehow not really bothered by the fact that this was her, uh, life they were discussing. "Definitely not." Sandra's only real priority in life and everything was seriously just happiness, anyway, and that was probably where naivety played to her favour, that she wouldn't really worry about it. If her prom date did start being a jerk, she'd probably just leave and group back up with Nell and Matt later anyway. "Anyway, enough! Dev said he'd be a bit late and you," she pointed a stern finger at Matthew, "aren't allowed to get all up in his grills when he gets here." Devin didn't actually have grills, of course, but the part about being late was true enough -- he'd sent her a text a few minutes ago. "Let's go find something to do!"

It would have been a difficult situation if Sandra's date was a bad guy. Nell would feel caught between the siblings and wanting to please both of them. Should she have lied for Sandra or given Matt a warning? Such thinking didn't matter, though, so she focused on the fact that Devin was a good guy and that Matt would just have to meet him. And not sit him down with his twelve-gauge. Older siblings were terrifying. Well, most of the time. If a rivalry was bad enough, it was possible that a big brother might not care what his little sister did or who she dated. With Matt's disapproval about Sandra's 'date', Nell wondered if this was a good thing or bad thing right now. "You're so cute when you're restricting Sandy's love life," Nell said cheerfully, pinching Matt's cheek. In a graver tone, she said, "Which is non-existent. Because they're just friends." But they were the most adorable things ever! She kept this opinion to herself, sure that it would go unappreciated by the two. She couldn't help how much she loved the youn'uns.

It must have been magic that kept Nell from disappearing to the food table, with only dust in the shape of her left behind like a Hanna Barbera cartoon. But her head turned sharply at the mention of it, her food radar going off. "Yes, we need food, why haven't we been eating yet?" she asked distractedly before pushing Matt's back to steer him in the direction of the table. That's what she was here for, after all, the food. And to see that her friends had a good time. She sorely missed Josh, however, she would have loved to have him by her side as she swooped down upon the table, getting a plate and stacking it up. She balanced it in her hands as she turned and looked for a table for them to sit at. "Have you seen Anna yet?" she asked Matt, before remembering to swallow the cookie she'd picked up from her plate. She grinned, and then told Anna, "You need to grill him about his date." It only seemed fair. Anna was terrific superb awesome, and totally weird, but in a good way. She and Nell were tight, yo, and she only had good things to say. Maybe the siblings would both realize that their dates are respectable, young Earth folk. And Nell could be the cool old person crashing their party.

Matt didn't understand girl logic. "If he's not cute, why would you go to prom with him?"

he asked, clearly confused by the insisting -- and she was totally insisting -- that Devin wasn't cute. 'Back off,' his inner sanity told him, and so he just let the subject drop -- there were more subtle ways to deem whether this Devin was a worthy guy or not, which may or may not involve some stalking subtlety. At the mention of Anna, though, he did a quick onceover of the area they were in, trying to see if he could spot her, but to no avail. She was probably still running late, then. And though he would have been pretty annoyed if Nell's suggestion to interrogate him about his date resulted in anything embarrassing, but there wasn't anything there -- they both knew that he and Anna were just friends, leftover from his high school days, and it would have been too weird to view Anna as anything more than that. She was like another little sister, just not related to him at all. He let Sandra and Nell go in front of him at the line for the buffet tables -- ladies first, after all -- following after them with a plate of his own but choosing to get actual food first, even if the dessert table was very, very tempting.

"If you want to give her the shotgun talk, be my guest?"

She rolled her eyes but grinned. "Dummies. I meant Matt," she said, shaking her head. "Devin is very adorable." She waggled her eyebrows a little just to bug her brother. It was just fun to make life difficult for him... and it was very easy. Sandra had experience, though, so maybe this made it a bit different. She sighed a little bit. "It wouldn't be fun to give Anna the shotgun talk, though." She already knew that Matthew didn't like Anna, or at least she didn't think he did, but then again it wasn't like they discussed this kind of stuff. Ew. She didn't need to know about her brother's feelings, whatever they were, unless it came time to actually meet any of these girls... and at that point, she was pretty sure things would have gotten far enough that it wouldn't be weird or anything. At least, Sandra hoped. She was way less private about her (lack of a) love life, anyway... but Nell's words did make her curious. "Who is this Shakespear Girl?" she asked, blinking a bit. This was the first Sandra had heard of this. "Ooh. Oooooh. What do I need to know?" They really didn't talk about this kind of thing.

Sandra scoffed a bit. "Bit late there." She got an image in her mind of Matthew showing up to Nell's and Josh's wedding with an actual shotgun, sitting Josh down before he said his vows and threatening him, then letting the ceremony continue on. That... that would be really, really weird. "Aw right, Spanish Inquisition time," she said, almost excited about this for some reason. "Meh, I'm willing to feel like a bad person if I get to threaten Matt's future girlfriend." She tried to cackle but it mostly came out as giggles. Sandra really couldn't be as mean as it would take to legitimately threaten people, at least she didn't think, but this would just have to wait until Matthew actually did wind up some kind of relationship or whatever with a girl. She wondered if he'd actually tell her, but hey, this was actual permission for her to grill the girl later. "Lots of threatening all around," she said thoughtfully. "I guess Josh got lucky." She didn't know how he'd gotten lucky -- maybe just because Sandra and Matthew hadn't been good friends with Nell at the time, way back when. It wasn't like Sandra really knew the details anyway.

Even if Matt didn't pursue Shakespeare Girl, as a friend, Nell felt obligated to tease him. Not mercilessly, because it wasn't like Nell could be very mean considering her idea of an insult was calling someone a poopyhead. ”Aw, don't be coy,” she said. It surprised her a little bit that Sandra didn't know about it, but the only (healthy) sibling relationship she'd had was one of complete candidness. And she knew if Till was alive, she'd still be telling the girl everything. But then again, Nell might not be the way she is today if her sister survived. ”The f-word. See, I say that you need to go down on bended knee with flowers and recite a sonnet. Compare her to a summer's day.” She gave two thumbs up before stabbing her fork into more food. It depended on the girl what she liked, but if she liked Shakespeare, no harm in poetry for that one.

Sandra agreed that it was too late for any real 'talk' with Nell's significant other. And went on to say that she was willing to feel bad for the chance at Matt's future lover. ”Hear that Matty, you better watch out because Sandra gon get her.” Now Sandra with a shotgun was something Nell did not want to think about. She was too cute to be so scary. It didn't mix right in her head, even if it was a gun of a lesser caliber.

The Earth girl pursed her lips when Matt said that Josh would bite his head off with a glare if he attempted the shotgun talk. ”That's terrifying to imagine,” she said flatly, ”But pretty accurate.” It would be funny to think that Matt might be afraid of Josh, but she knew those two were friends. It didn't mean that her fiance wasn't scary when he was mad. ”I guess for those little wedding favors or whatever, we'll need Kleenex. Put fancy little designs on it and Josh and Nell for eva in cursive writing.” And that was the first plan she made for the wedding ever, aside from half-assing it with Matt. She had yet to actually discuss it with Josh, the person she would be marrying.

Of course he mentioned Devin though. Nell waved her hand in the air, the other holding a glass of water. ”A plus guy, swear on my life. And if you do background check him, just know that the one little blip on his record was kind of actually completely my fault.” She put a hand on Matt's arm. ”And remember, guns are illegal. Keep that in mind.” Matt with a gun? Almost as bad as Sandra with a gun. And something else she did not want to think about. At all.