-- NEW YORK CITY COPS && [mona]

Mona did not cry. She did not freak out, she barely showed emotion save for a small smile. The only person aware of the fact she had emotions was Jeremy. Her siblings must have assumed that she froze over as the years went on, because there had been a time she was a passionate person. It had numbed when she realized she'd never get what she wanted. Despite assumptions made, she did feel. A lot. She couldn't remember not feeling, because lately there was always a tightness in her chest. The emotional pain manifested into something tangible and real and it swallowed her whole sometimes and there was no one who she would ever say this to. Not even Jeremy, the one who watched her laugh and play and act like the kid she wanted to be. If she was ever going to get the respect she wanted, then she couldn't allow any room for childish fantasies.

Her arm hung off the edge of the bed as she lay in her dorm, dark with the light off and she could barely breathe because her chest hurt so much. "I'm not going to class," she murmured. Everyone was already up and out of bed, but she slept in until she woke up in a cold sweat. A shower would be nice if she could bring herself to get out of bed. It would take a minute. Maybe two. A few more and she was still there, her legs tangled up in the sheet, her eyes gazing at the far end. It might have been a half hour. And then class was over, she heard the bell ring. It spurred her into moving, into getting dressed and forgoing that shower, relishing in the piteous feeling strung through her body. This was how she would live now, this was what it would be forever. After Mama dies... How would she live then? How could it get worse than this moment, sitting on her bed and pulling on her boots and wondering if her sister even cared about what she wanted or that she was trying to help when she was locked out of everything. Only fourteen. Because of that number, she was not allowed to understand or do anything for her family.

It didn't seem fair at all, because it wasn't fair. She knew what brain cancer was, chemo was, insurance. She knew what it would do to her family, because it was already happening. They were already drifting apart when all those advertisements for cancer awareness said that families needed to pull together and be strong. That wasn't how it worked. No one knew how to handle it, and even though she felt lost as well, she knew she could be the one to make it better. But she was pushed into boarding at the Academy, forced to sit outside the door as Pearl and Queenie talked and bonded and there would be tea that Mona would never be able to drink.

The light made her squint as she left the dormitories, looking for somewhere to go. Class was not an option, and she wanted to tell her sister that to show her it wasn't the best decision to kick her out of everything. It would only make things worse. Maybe she was doing this in a show of teenage rebellion, but she didn't want to think that, didn't want to undersell it all.

Her search ended with her on the cliffs. Cold and aching but it was the cold that made her feel better. What didn't make her feel good at all was the sight of a familiar Water, playing a Gameboy. She kicked a pebble, hoping to alert the blond to her presence. "I thought you were into the newest shit they have," Mona said without a sneer or even a look that would betray her animosity. She did not get angry, or upset, because of that emotionless facade she had. "Or are you trying to be a hipster by playing your Gameboy?" All Annabel would need were thick-rimmed glasses, plaid, and a beanie. In truth, she was just a little jealous that Annabel could have any video game console, when she barely had anything at all. The envy manifested in some bad ways. "You can move now, I don't want to be around you." Because she needed this peace, up here, and she wanted to be alone. This was one of her spots, even though many people laid claim to the cliffs as their 'spots'.

Annabel displayed more passion and emotion than Mona ever could, but she did not stop to admire that trait in the other girl. She could care less how others handled themselves, what other people did. And she disliked the people that did. The Earth students came number one on her shit list because they were too nice and to Mona, it was insincere. How could they possibly be so friendly and welcoming all the time? It made her kind of really sick. "I don't really care to know you," she said in her slate of a voice, and it really was the epitome of not caring. At this point, there was few things Mona cared about outside her family and her mother. Those few things would end up destroying her. And the pompous attitude the Water chick had with her video games made her want to do one of those things. Or jump off the cliff. "I just assumed with how much of a snob you are..." She shrugged as if it was just a comment, and she was not trying to be mean. It's just how she naturally was, and she didn't like Annabel in the first place. She felt no regret for it.

The girl's next comments made her snort, but she was not smiling, so whether or not it actually amused her was left unsaid. She had fun. She had fun a lot, because if she would be treated like a child, she was going to act like one and get into as much shit as she could. That was her goal in life, the end game. "Don't act like you know me," she shot back, and again, it was without any emotion or inclination that she might have been angry. Was she angry? The absence of passion did not allow that sort of emotion. "Gameboys were fun back in the nineties, like Ferbies were." She lifted her eyebrows and drew herself back as if she was blowing her own mind, though in a way she was mocking Annabel. And this girl's idea of fun was playing video games? Mona did not see it, wasting away in front of a screen. What would that accomplish in the long run, getting a high score in the game? Though she supposed she lived similarly, for the instant gratification that she could find.

Mona was not fazed at all, but Annabel knew this by now. She was impossible to shake. "Mona," she replied evenly, though she didn't know why she even bothered to play this game with the Water chick. Oh, she knew why, and it was because she had a problem with Annabel and she wasn't one to let things go easily. "Another area to pollute?" Mona repeated incredulously. "Ah, you're cute." She shook her head, looking for one minute like she was going to laugh, but as expected, no such expression of joy or mirth came from her. It was really a shame that she didn't feel like she could express herself, but it took months of conditioning. She had always been rather dispassionate, but at least before she had the sureness to accompany it. "Don't see what it means to you," Mona answered to the girl's question, and again it was like they were complete opposites with the way Annabel could actually talk that way. "You're the one playing a video game, which you can do anywhere, by the way." Just in case the bitch didn't know. Mona felt like a Good Samaritan, reminding her of that.

Now was the moment that Mona actually did question why she even bothered communicating with Annabel. For all she was expressive, she was incredibly droll, and the Thunder could only breathe in and look elsewhere. The view was incredible, the sky pale with the weak winter sun. She felt the chill seep in through her thin jacket, the coat she'd had for a few years, now. No one ever thought that maybe Mona should be getting a new jacket, and she never asked for one. She didn't ask for anything, and if she wanted something she got it for herself. Unfortunately, being fourteen made it hard to come by money when she refused an allowance in a house of six kids. "I'm not even two feet in your area," she said, wondering how someone could get in another's personal space when being so far away. She did not consider herself the type of person to get near people, anyway, and she did not like being touched. In some moments she wished she were a porcupine so she could naturally ward off people. She only liked being touched when she gave the other person permission, or when she instigated it.

Mona was in no mood to go in circles with the girl. Then again, she was never in the mood. Her breath came out in puffs, and it was a sudden desire to have a cigarette in hand. She didn't like them, not as much as people thought she did. "Most people don't like obsolete technology, that's why we keep getting new shit," she said, wondering why she even bothered to explain. And she made note of the usage of lame, a word that should be left in the nineties, just like the Gameboy. In all honesty, a Gameboy would be all Mona could afford. She didn't have much at all in terms of video games. Her brothers were the ones with the Xbox and the PS3, and she never bothered to learn to play video games. Years ago she may have been interested in gaming. All things pass with time.

Mona shook her head, the unruly curls practically immovable. "Not what I asked, babe," she said. "What does my business here mean to you?" She could have almost smirked then, almost. She could have almost made an expression, but everything would be almost in her world. And the girl had a foul mouth for a freshman, like most kids when they found out the glory of the f-bomb. It amused Mona, at least, which was enough to keep her there. The pride would not allow her to move now, back down. She could be stubborn as the best of them. "Someone's on the rag," she said, turning so she leaned against the cliff face, arms crossed over her chest. Period jokes were the worst kind of jokes for women, she knew that from experience. Hers had come rather recently, and since then her brothers believed they found comedy gold. "You're right," she acknowledged. "But now I want to stick around just to hear what other horseshit comes from your mouth." If it pissed Annabel off, it would give her some gratification as she continued to keep her eyes anywhere but on the girl she was speaking to.

Mona sucked in a breath between her teeth. Now her eyes actually showed some life in them, because this was getting better for her. "Ooh, try again, but this time maybe you should use stronger language." Because Annabel just wasn't giving her a good argument, was she? And

So what? Mona shrugged. She wasn't going to argue about something stupid like that, unless she got some kind of gain from it. And she didn't feel like she would get anything out of this. Her lips almost formed into a smirk when Annabel continued to shoot back words at her. "And you can play games anywhere else. Go figure." And how could Annabel be sure she had no purpose up here? Maybe what she wanted to do needed to be on the cliffs. The knowledge of this power enticed her.

Mona was still impenetrable, but she had no intent to actually fight the chick. She fought, had done it a lot in her childhood and had to say she learned plenty from roughhousing with her brothers, but she didn't go around doing a lot of it anymore. "No, I got that part," the Thunder said, scratching the back of her head. "But maybe if you said it nicely..." She let the rest be said by silence. That wouldn't change anything, of course. Mona's speed was set on stubborn.

The girl was tempted to come up with a list, but then that would take effort she did not want to waste on the Water. "You should know," she said instead, her voice taking on exceptional dryness. If Annabel hadn't started shit with her--unintentionally, perhaps, knowing how the element was--then she wouldn't feel much of a desire to stick around. She snorted, blue eyes on the sky. "Don't flatter yourself, you're not very interesting." And Mona meant it from the bottom of her heart. She still wasn't saying that she skipped class, it was not relevant information for her.

Mona lifted a fine blond eyebrow at Annabel, sparing a gesture for her. It was a gift, a sign that she would actually give some of her time to muster up human forms of communication. The Water must have been completely honored, no doubt. ”Time and place,” she hummed, the sound like a purr in her throat, low and threatening. And if she creeped the girl out, even better. Maybe she wouldn't care, maybe it would make her day. She was fickle in how she felt about the people around others, an unshakable boulder in other areas of her life. ”Still not what I'm looking for,” she told the girl when 'go away' was used in opt of something a little stronger. Perhaps, “The fuck you think you are, los conquistadores?” It might have gotten some attention from Mona, but Annabel getting even a moment of it sober was pretty good.

She shrugged her shoulders up, the winds becoming a little too much for her. Mona's lack of three square meals a day was taking its toll on her body, and she could say she looked more like a shade than a fourteen-year-old girl. Her period hadn't come in two months, and she didn't just chalk it up to its usual infrequency. She kept finding new ways to break down her body. ”Because it might get me to leave,” Mona informed her when she asked why she should be nice to her, paying extra mind ot the additive stipulation—if she were an Earth. ”Would you take an Earth's shit, then? Just because they're in your alliance?” She may have recognized the importance of the alliances, but she wouldn't take shit from a Thunder or a Fire if they handed her a huge sack of it.

Annabel must have thought she had the upperhand in this, and Mona let her have it. Yeah, she was butthut. ”What of it?” she questioned. She held grudges, its how she worked, how she was built to operate. She had been equipped with bitterness in the assembly line, while this Water was equipped with brattiness. ”And here I thought you wanted to fuck me, I'm sorely disappointed.” The Thunder didn't exactly match sarcasm for sarcasm, that's not how it sounded. Her tone made it sound like a normal discussion of unspoken sexual, lesbian tension. ”And are you guys capable of self-restraint? Don't blame me for my genes.” Self-restraint was important to her until she got a few cocktails down her gullet. Then it was not even a word in the dictionary. ”I might be inspired to move...if you're willing to do something for me.” Would she even listen to her, or continue to be a stubborn priss? It would be interesting to find out.

It may be sad to consider one of the only ways for her to have gratification was pick on a Water girl, but it really made her feel better. She guessed that's why bullies did it, except she didn't consider herself a bully. She didn't know why, it just seemed like a stupid word to use. Instead, she'd prefer tormentor or evil or something else credible.

Annabel was really just damning herself to Mona's harrassment by not kissing her ass. It was no skin off the Thunder's chin, she wasn't annoyed by her.Which was pretty ironic considering that she was so easily irritated. It was because she did this on purprose, getting on the girl's nerves was her goal. ”You're stuck with me, then,” she commented. In reality, Mona was being just as immature as her fellow freshman playing this game. It was damn near close to playing 'I'm not touching you' but just a little less annoying.

Mona nodded her head as if taking in every word the other girl said like she could honestly believe. And may she'd say, “Hey, no problem, sorry for bugging you.” But that was not what happened. Instead, she decided to be a cocky bitch, as was her favorite speed for the day. ”So you don't take anyone's shit? Well, you're certainly taking mine. What, you're not gonna fight me?” Maybe she was just like those Earths she apparently respected so much. Mona didn't care about them, didn't even care that they might have been good people or whatever. Who the fuck cared if they were good? Other people probably did, but she stopped caring about a lot of things. ”I don't do nice,” she snorted. ”Nice is for doped-up invalids and doormats.” She wasn't either, and she wasn't going to play nice with people for their benefit.

She shouldn't be? Well all right, that did kind of irritate her. Kudos to Annabel. ”And now you're telling me what to do. See, isn't it fun?” she said with feigned excitement, before rolling her eyes. That was like telling someone they shouldn't be wincing after they'd been punched in the face. ”Don't know what you're missing. Pussy tastes great.” It felt like a personal goal to make the girl as uncomfortable as possible around her. She liked making sexual remarks before for her, it was a sign of knowing about something she shouldn't at that age, and therefore she was mature and wordly. It worked well enough for her. ”No reason? Human decency, maybe. Manners. But I guess you may have been raised by element dellusional wolves.” She shouldn't have been making those kind of comments for how much slack her family got because of her siblings, but if Thunder affiliation was the only reason to hate her, Mona knew that wasn't the truth. She could just say that Mona was a bitch.

Mona tilted her head, looking at Annabel throguh her eyelashed. ”Yeah, you established that. Don't swing that way.” What a loss to the lesbian community. Or the fluid sexuality community. ”Welp, guess you're stuck with me.” Annabel was getting nowhere, now was she? And Mona got her entertainment for today, a distraction to keep her mind off of things at the expense of the poor girl's sanity. Mona still adhered to the fact that the bitch fucked with her before, and therefore anything she did was deserved. An enemy made was an enemy kept.

Curling a piece of light blond hair around her finger, Mona seemed to consider the challenge as if she were considering whether to eat the chicken nuggets first or the fries. "Yeah, I think I might want to do that." She looked back at Annabel with her gray-blue eyes, and she didn't look angry, which was usually why people fought. But underneath it all, she was. At least, she was bitter and aching for revenge. "Ooh, you talk big. Can you back it up?" They were both freshman, both new to controlling their elements. Fisticuffs? Usually fights with chicks ended up in lots of hair pulling, so she felt the need to warn Belle. "And don't touch my hair or I will knee you in the vag." She didn't like to play those games, because hair-pulling was more annoying than anything.

The Thunder wrinkled her forehead. Carrot-top? "You mean that steroid-injected prop comedian?" she asked, though it sounded more like a question than a statement. Whether she was just fucking with Annabel again or honestly confused was left unsaid. Then she decided to take the insult as serious as she could when she said, "No, this is my natural hair." Though the style was quite akin to Carrot Top. Not something she wanted to think about. "So I'm a doormat?" she said to the insult. "That's really mean, I might just tattle on you." And at that point, she took on the bitchiest tone, which was the first use of a tone in this conversation. She supposed that was one point to Annabel.

Mona almost smiled. Everything was almost. She almost gave a shit, sometimes. She almost got happy. And did things. But it was always almost. "And you'd know?" Mona said. "I mean, I'm just saying. You don't know until you try." She figured that everyone had to try once, too. Or maybe she just was never told "you will end up with a nice boy and marry and skip off into the sunset". It wasn't how things played in her head, and she didn't know how it could be disgusting to people like Annabel. A girl who was the same age, but probably exactly where she should be.

She shrugged. "I know about human decency. But I don't practice it." She wasn't an observing decent human, she was just had an objective viewpoint on it. Like someone who was born Catholic but didn't observe. "They're the ones who teach you about, you know...everything. So I guess that's where you get your lovely personality from." Like she could say anything about Annabel's personality when she was just...kind of not a nice person. At all. But she wasn't talking about herself, here. She didn't have a care about that.

Damn, did Mona really wish she had a smoke. Not because she liked smoking, but because it would give her something to focus on instead of sitting here. Even though she was enjoying tormenting Annabel, she hadn't planned this out very well. "There's worse ways to spend your time. Let's make a list!" A falsely gleeful voice, and it was clear that yes, she was still hellbent on harassing her. Revenge was always so much fun.