-- TRADE MY SOUL FOR A WISH [Sandra]

Not having a car of her own (or even her license yet, yeesh, she should do that at some point), Sandra had pretty much had no choice other than to ask Matt for a ride to prom. It wasn't that she didn't want to ride with her brother or anything, because really they got along pretty darn well -- without all that gross best friend type of sibling thing -- and he did, after all, drive her to school almost every day... but mostly, Sandra kind of just didn't like bothering him for that kind of thing. He'd agreed anyway, though, and later it had made her feel way better about getting the ride when it turned out that Lieanna had asked him to be her date to prom and so he would be going too. Then, it had been even better really when Nell had shown up to help them get ready -- a pretty fun affair in itself -- and they'd concocted their own plan to sneak her in. After getting there and handing over her prom ticket and all of that jazz, she'd started with her own part of the plan: being the distraction. She was pretty good at distracting people, actually, and she hadn't actually done anything terrible. First she'd started by asking security if they'd seen her date, describing Devin in excruciating detail. "Uh, blonde hair, blue eyes, about this tall, Earth kid, Grade 12, super friendly and adorable... Come on, I'm sure you've seen him around tonight!" When security had seemed umimpressed by this, she took slightly more drastic measures, getting a tiny bit of water on the floor (thank you, mom, for being a Water elemental and passing that on) and walking over it, slipping and falling near the door and pretending to be hurt.

Once they'd gotten in, Matthew and Nell had eventually rescued her from the clutches of security, her ankle "injury" had magically healed itself, supposedly, and they'd gone off. She'd slipped away, though, because it had seemed like a terrible idea to have Matthew intercept Devin first or something just in case he tried to make threats. She didn't know where the two had gotten to anymore... Well, that was okay -- now she just awaited her date. They were just going as friends, of course, so really there was nothing Matt should be worried about anyway, but the idea of having a prom date was kind of cute and fun, at least she thought. She would have probably gone anyway, though, and just hopped around with her friends, being a general cockblock for those of her friends who were, unlike herself, in relationships. Either way she thought it'd be pretty fun, though probaly in different ways. While waiting for Devin to show up, though (she kind of felt bad that he'd be skateboarding here still when she'd gotten a ride) she got a little bit distracted by a friend on the side of the room, and she'd bounded off over there instead. That probably wasn't a good idea if she'd be trying to locate Dev later, but Sandra had honestly never been the greatest planner, and hey, she had her phone in her handbag and so she was confident they'd be able to hunt one another down later if need be.

"Hey Jessica!" she greeted, giving the other girl a hug. They chatted for a few minutes -- apparently Jess was trying to find her boyfriend, having lost him somewhere... somehow. The story was apparently a really funny one, but Sandra only ever got to hear half of it, because after that they'd spotted the girl's boyfriend, and Jess had hurried off before she lost him again. This left Sandra alone, but she didn't mind -- it was kind of understandable considering it was their last prom, though Sandra herself had another year. Not two seconds later, anyway, before she'd had a chance to become distracted yet again, she felt a tap on the shoulder and then came face to face with (surprise, surprise) Devin. "Hello, handsome!" she said in return, laughing at how corny she sounded. "You look pretty spiffy yourself! I dig your choice in suits... and the tie was a nice touch." This last part was said kind of snarkily and she grinned at her own wit -- she had, in fact, bought him the tie as a gift to match her dress. She reached over and fixed his hair a tiny bit. "I'm guessing you skateboarded here?" She was just judging by how windswept his hair was. "Please don't die of pneumonia or something." It was cold out, and part of Sandra was seriously not okay with his skateboarding here in his suit and stuff, but there hadn't really been much they could have done about it, and Devin had seemed alright enough with it. "Very ready! And I... can't make that promise for myself, but let's just try not to fall and get concussions tonight or something."

(lol bam, dress! the turquoise one, that is.)

"Pfft," Sandra said, shaking her head at him even as she kept on grinning. She was definitely in a very, very good mood -- how could she not be? "That is definitely a lie, I think you look pretty sharp. Fresh. Pretty fly for a white guy." She nodded like this were a totally normal reference to make randomly. Devin did look good though. Most people did get pretty dressy for prom, naturally, so this wasn't at all out of place. She laughed and gave him a quick hug of greeting, kind of. "You should definitely do something nice for your prom date in return. Buy her food or something." Sandra would always be thinking of food, but in this case it was definitely a joke. They were here to have fun! She usually didn't even get hungry at dances and things like that -- it was like she started running on pure adrenaline and fun and music or something ridiculous like that. "There," she settled, deciding that his hair wasn't going to get any neater than this -- and besides that, it was kind of cute the way it was, anyway. "I guess, but if it's colder later we're going to try to find you a ride home," she said with the tiniest of frowns. Then she smiled again, a little more contentedly and warmly this time than the usual excitable grin. "Seriously, it's like, about to start snowing outside." That wasn't too bad, admittedly, if it was just dipping toward zero and it was already December, but she still thought it was definitely too cold for him to be skateboarding around outside.

She giggled and laced their fingers together, hoping they weren't about to be spotted by Matthew -- even though it wasn't like he had anything to worry about. They were just two friends at prom. Still, her brother got some pretty weird ideas in his head occasionally... or often. "Darn, there goes my plan to start with bungee jumping from the top of the Academy," she said, snapping her fingers as if to say drat, like Swiper from Dora the Explorer when he was stopped or something. Instead she just followed along, even though it didn't seem like they were actually heading anywhere in particular. Any one spot in the room was just like another, she figured, except for the snack table and the various groups of people milling around. "Doesn't really matter to me," she sang after a second, not being terribly picky. Her only real plan for the night was to have fun, which probably wouldn't be that hard all things considered. She was a pretty positive person anyway. "We could grab food or find other people we know and drag them along or anything! You're right, though, I'd just be disappointed if we didn't even dance at all tonight." She didn't even know what the song was that was being played, but it was pretty upbeat and fun. Well, she could find out later. "I mean... Yes, sir, I would be honoured to share a dance with you! Just, I mean, don't step on my feet too much or anything," she teased, giggling a little. Devin's clumsiness was not a well-kept secret, but she was sure he'd do just fine. Even if he didn't, there was no real harm done anyway.

Well, that was the understatement of the year, she was pretty sure. Prom was definitely a dressy event, one of the few occasions a year when kids could wear something formal (or formal-ish, anyway, as formal as cocktail dresses and things like that were) without being overdressed. From what she'd seen, everyone looked really good, and Sandra had to admit, apparently everyone she knew was pretty darn attractive. She didn't really think about thesse things on a daily basis, though. "Don't worry, that looks fine!" she said after a second of watching him mess around with his collar. It was a little bit crooked, actually, but she hadn't really noticed before he'd started playing with the thing. "Pfft, you'd be screwed either way," she said, sticking a tongue out at him, but this probably wasn't true. He was considerably bigger than she was, not that this was saying much. "I am beast, yo! Can't out-eat me." She liked sweets but kind of just liked to eat in general, too. If it were a spicy food competition, though, especially with hot sauce, forget it -- she'd wipe the floors with pretty much everyone she knew, except maybe her dad. She'd had to get it from somewhere. At his dismissal of her worrying, she gave him a brief pout, but it was gone again quickly. "Captain Canada braves all the winters!" Sandra laughed before nodding a little bit more seriously at him. "If you say so. We'll see how cold it is later." She would have offered him a ride of course, but Matt's car seated two, and it seemed like a bad idea to stuff her prom date into a trunk or something.

She followed dutifully, considering she had no idea where they were going. Luckily, though it was definitely crowded, there weren't so many people that it was actually possible to get separated or lost or something. That was potentially hilarious, though, if they had to find each other or something -- it would be an adventure story to tell later. "Well... we could go out to the lake and try it out there," she said, laughing, but even then she wasn't sure that bungee jumping over water would be any safer. If she remembered correctly, hitting water from a height like that was pretty much the exact same as hitting concrete, and she didn't think her Water elemental skills would be helpful. She wouldn't be at the top of her game when she was hurtling out of the sky, she was sure. "Though I mean, hey, you're not supposed to die when you go bungee jumping. S'long as nothing goes wrong!" She still probably wouldn't really try it, though. Sandra was definitely too weak-hearted for that kind of thing. She giggled as he groaned and then laughed even harder at his suggestion. Hey, she'd be impressed if they could actually manage to do all of that. "Multi-tasking to the max! Let's do it," she said, though this probably wasn't the real plan. His real decision made much more sense, even though in Sandra's experience plans got derailed very easily. "Sounds good! To the food!" She lifted her free arm and pointed it, with gusto, in the direction of the food table, then started off in that direction. She had no problem taking the lead when the destination involved food, after all.

"Positive," she answered, nodding at him for emphasis. "No one would notice!" Well, maybe a few people would, but Sandra hadn't before he'd said it, so she thought they were probably okay. She didn't really mind that much, anyway. It was kind of cute, in that goofy awkward sort of way. She gave him a look as if to say "bitch please" at his proposal of an eating contest. "I could take you," she then said, after making a show of sizing him up. He was a pretty short kid, actually, though still taller than she was. She'd never really taken note of that before. "Hm... what if the loser pays for all that food? Or winner gets whatever they want after the fact." She really couldn't think of anything that she actually wanted right at the moment, but she'd pretty much be up for whatever. Neither of them were very decisive or picky, she'd realized over the course of a few years of friendship. "Does it? Do you yell 'come at me bro' at the cold, but he never does becaues you're so frightening?" she asked. There was a pretty awesome mental image of Devin walking outside on the first snowfall of each year, shouting "come at me, bro!" and then laughing in the cold's face because it refused to come near him. Uh... she was pretty sure that didn't happen, though, which was just unfortunate. She'd be pretty impressed. "One cold night," she insisted, but then she just shook her head at him. Prom had pretty much just started -- there was probably no use worrying about things that would happen at its end.

Actually, the thought of sky diving sounded frightening no matter where it was from. Sandra could handle the thrill of roller coasters easily enough -- well, she was terrified of them, but in a good way -- but that was pretty much as far as she was willing to go. She'd probably be the one crying on the plane if she were ever told to go sky diving. "Well, we can't lie," she said, grinning. She tried to make a point not to, but overall she didn't have all that much to hide. Sandra was pretty much an open book on most things. Plus, she was a terrible liar. "Let's not and then not bother to say that we did anyway." That kind of thing might be fun, though. She might try it, maybe, one day, but for now it was pretty scary. Sandra was probably uncoordinated and kind of stupid enough to forget to do something crucial while in midair or something, and that was just a great way to go splat on the ground. "Can you imagine, though, if we did it? In prom outfit and everything. I'd be impressed with us..." She'd be impressed with anyone who went skydiving, or bungee jumping, or anything crazy like that. "What, like eating salsa while dancing hte salsa?" She considered this for a moment. "Pfft, I could totally do that in my sleep!" That was a serious lie, but it was okay in a joking context. She was pretty sure, though, that if they did try it only bad things would come of it. Neither of them were very coordinated. There'd be food all over the place for sure, and since they were all dressed up and snazzy-looking, that'd just be a little bit sad.

There were snacks and sweets and the like, and Sandra kind of made these her main focus, though truth be told she wasn't actually all that hungry for once. She also assumed that the eating contest wasn't right now or anything, though she was still going to stick by her firm belief that she could definitely beat him. Either way, she wandered off a little bit from Devin along the long table to search for food, and then eventually came back to rejoin him. "Yep! Unless we want to actually try dancing while doing this, but I'm sure that'd just end really badly," she said, grinning as she noticed cupcakes a bit down the table. Oooooh. She grabbed one of those and stuck it on her plate as well before following him over to the table. "They did, they're really pretty!" she agreed, nodding a few times to show her enthusiasm. Sandra was generally just in love with everything in the world around her, though. "How were the decorations last year?" She couldn't even be sure that he'd gone last year (she wouldn't remember something like that) but as he was a year older than she was, she'd assume that he had. "It's weird to think you'll be, like... a college student or something," she said. She was only a year from that too, but it felt like ages away. "Though you never know about prom! Someone could ask you. Or me, if I can't find a date or something... Wait, not as in like you're a second choice or something, just -- you know!" She waved her hands around a little, kind of embarrassed as she tried and failed to explain herself. She hadn't really meant it that way at all, though; mostly Sandra was just the type to go along with whatever happened. A year was a pretty long time. "But nope! There's this year and then next year and that's it." She smiled a little. The idea of growing up and all that was a very weird one.

She laughed when he poked himself in the chest -- she couldn't tell if he'd meant to do that or not, actually, but she didn't say anything about it. It was generally not in her best interest to make fun of guys' manliness, she'd learnt, even when it was a good friend like Devin. "Nuh uh, can't beat natural-born talent," she said kind of cockily, giving him her most confident of grins. She wasn't sure if she actually could really, but it was in good fun and, at least, they could both be pretty good competition for each other, she was pretty sure. "But sweet! Gives me time to think of what I get as a prize." Sandra was really just bursting with all the confidence in the world, sometimes. Devin's attempt at a "scary" face made her giggle -- way too much -- but she still pretended to cower at the sight of it. "Eep, remind me never to get on your bad side!" Then she relaxed back into the usual smile, though. Devin was one of the least threatening people she knew, honestly -- many of the Earths were like that, she'd long figured out, but... Devin was so cute and squishy! She honestly couldn't imagine him being considered a threat to anyone. "I'm not sure both of us would fit on your skateboard at once," she pointed out in response to his suggestion, laughing a bit. Even with the wink, she didn't notice any perverted ways to possibly interpret his words... and she probably wouldn't have even if he'd meant it on purpose. Such was the innocent mind. "Otherwise I'd love to, though... but we'll figure something out."

Well, she hadn't actually been that serious about it, but she laughed at Devin's response. "Ah, well, I guess omitting a bit of the truth is fine," she said with a mock air of reluctance, though she smiled widely at him. He was too nice, seriously, so willing to go along with whatever other people said and whatever made them happy. Sandra... was actually pretty similar, when she thought about it, but she didn't usually consider that kind of thing. This was just one of the things she found altogether adorable about Dev. "Hey, send me the link if you actually find one!" She laughed at the mental image. Her dress would probably be flying around everywhere, though, and that didn't sound all that fun... except maybe it did, but it still wasn't really a good idea. "Doubt people would join us if we tried to make this a prom trend, though." Maybe a few of the really adventurous ones would, but other than that... it was doubtful. Most of them had some kind of sense of self-preservation... heh. "Huh? I am?" She blinked, then grinned and wiggled her eyebrows (or tried to) once she realized what he meant. "We would be like, the best multi-taskers ever! And then there's people all around us dancing too and trying to steal our food, but nope, we're too quick for them." No... if anything, they would step foot on the dance floor and immediately fall over, but anyway, that was that. "Can't everyone sleepdance?" she asked, feigning surprise. She was a pretty heavy sleeper though, actually... so Sandra literally had no idea what she got up when she was asleep. She was pretty sure she stayed relatively still and didn't by any means get up and dance, however.

Sandra had some pretty awesome conversations with people, with any kind of imagineable topic, but some of her favourites by far had been with Devin. Most other people took themselves so seriously, some of them too busy to hang out or some too boring to provide anything funny to the conversation... Some were just caught up in their own self-destructive lives, and hey, Sandra figured they could do what they want, but Devin had still managed to be absolutely adorable, hadn't he? She didn't know other people's deals at all. "Well, yeah," she agreed, grinning, "at least until we take some really hardcore dance lessons. But at that point if we could eat at the same time we should go on like, So You Think You Can Dance or something." Sandra and Devin were both generally positive people and prom was, of course, a pretty happy occasion, so when the mood seemed to shift a little, she noticed. She probably wouldn't normally have, but his sudden aversion wasn't really that subtle, but with difficulty she bit back the questions -- were they really that nice, did you bring a date last year, why didn't you stay for the whole prom? -- and just kept quiet for a few seconds. Instead, she reached over and took his free hand again. "You okay?" It was kind of a relief when he smiled again. She didn't like when her friends were upset in general, let alone on a night like tonight. "Good! Unless you're a terrible date this year, then maybe you'll be out for consideration," she teased, giving him a suspicious look as if she were afraid he would be a total jerk or slob or something. That was pretty much impossible for Devin. "Not as old as you!"

Sandra cocked her head to one side as she looked at him, trying to figure out what the heck he was doing, before she realized that this was Devin's attempt to be scary. He was pretty terrible at the whole thing. "Eep, frightening!" she said, giggling and shifting a few inches to the left as if she were trying to get away from him, but she held onto his hand and followed along still. Devin was squishy, like a teddy bear or a puppy or... or something. She couldn't even explain it, honestly, and all she knew was that seriously, he was possibly the cutest ever. "And skateboard at the same time? While we're dressed in prom wear?" she asked, grinning. "I only know of one guy who could manage that, and unfortunately it's not you... It's Captain Canada." She was kidding, obviously. She did know about his secret identiy and what-not, after all. "At least you can drive, though," she pointed out. "Are you planning on getting a car sometime soon?" She still hadn't gotten around to getting her driver's license... actually, she hadn't even taken the silly written test yet, but she'd been assured by many people that it was easy, so hopefully it would be okay. Maybe she would go for it when the new year came. She'd been old enough to for a while now. "As long as no one goes splat," she said with a giggle. Pretty crazy things were uploaded on Youtube, though, and she could probably spend hours on the video site, browsing the Related Videos and searching for whatever came to mind.

Well, actually, Sandra thought they were pretty unique as it was, just looking at the two of them. Nobody was quite like that, she was almost certain... but then again, hey, Sandra wasn't exactly an expert or anything. "I think we already are," she said, pulling a face and then laughing. Yeah, that was probably evidence enough. She was seriously way too easily amused, and Devin did nothing but encourage this type of behaviour... but at least they had fun. Sandra didn't really care about much else, to be honest. She was pretty simple in that regard. "Heyyyy," she interjected, putting on her best offended face as she looked over at him. "Are you saying that if I had fluffy white hair I'd look like a creepy old man?" Man, that would actually be pretty weird, now that she thought about it -- Sandra's hair wasn't that special or anything, but she was pretty fond of it, and it was pretty long and straight. There wasn't anything fluffy (or white, but that could potentially change with time) about it. "Nearly impossible, unless they're ninjas," she said, nodding, "in which case they might have a shot... but only maybe. We're just too good." She laughed when she saw him puff up his chest, and she raised her free arm to flex her muscles as well... It was too bad that physically, Sandra was kind of a wimp. She wasn't as light and pathetic as she probably looked to people, but it definitely didn't show to make her look intimidating or anything. Then again, she didn't go around trying to scare people. "Only special people, eh? Can you learn it, or is it just one of these special things you're born with? How intriguing!" She giggled.

Dancing shows were pretty fun-looking, she thought. She didn't really watch much TV really, but once she'd watched an entire marathon of one of those competitions all in the span of a weekend, and it had been really good, honestly. Most fascinating, though, she'd thought, were how close people seemed to be despite being competitors. Well, they were obviously way, way better dancers than either herself or Devin, but hey, at least they looked like adorable friends. "Nope, not at all," she agreed. "I don't know though, I think if we were actually good enough to win money I'd still be too lazy... Those shows seem like intense stuff." She wrinkled her nose at the prospect. "Then again, imagine all the Timbits we could buy with the prize money..." Sandra had her priorities in order, clearly. "Okay," she said simply enough at Devin's assurance that he was okay, but she found that it was hard to know for sure. She would just have to take his word for it, though -- the girl wasn't psychic, and really, she wasn't... even that good at reading situations most of the time, though she sure as heck tried. She smiled brightly when he kissed her hand, though, feeling the warmth in her cheeks even though it was okay, it was no big deal. Devin was kind of adorable and lovely, she realized. "You're off to a pretty good start," she told him with a giggle, and it was true, though this whole conversation was pretty ridiculous. "And I don't know... eighteen already... You're going to be an old man before we know it!"

Sandra was no pushover or anything, but it literally took one sad look from Devin to make her fold and give him a hug. "Awww, it's okay, Captain Canada could never replace you!" That was true. CC (as she had nicknamed him as of that very moment) was a superhero, but he probably wouldn't just sit around and play video games with her under the pretense of "studying"... wouldn't take her to prom, wouldn't be the cutest thing ever. Nah, if it came down to it, superheroes were boss, but nobody was Devin. Sandra's friends were pretty irreplaceable in her ilfe. "Isn't it hard with snow and stuff though? Skateboarding, I mean," she said, frowning a little. She imagined that wheels weren't that great in the snow and ice that covered the entire city of Maple Hollow in the winter. Even car tires didn't always do a stellar job, and they had real snow tires for those. Maybe there were snow wheels or something for skateboards, she thought wildly... but for all she knew, it could have been true. Hey, it was hard to tell. People came up with all kinds of things around here. She laughed a little too hard when he almost fell over, though she didn't intend for it to be mean. "I didn't see anything! But are you okay?" she asked, still giggling a little bit. That was pretty typical Devin behaviour, though, so she couldn't really say she was surprised. Though she hadn't really seen him trying to do any tricks or anything, she figured he was slightly more graceful on a skateboard than on his own two feet.

People who had to try to be unique or different or original or something probably weren't, all that much, Sandra figured. They had to have been basing it off of someone else's "uniqueness", after all, so it didn't really work out that way. The two of them... well, apparently they were unique, but in actual fact they were probably pretty normal people, all things considered. Sandra was just a little happier than most, that was all... and Devin just happened to be hilariously clumsy and adorable. "Definitely not. We can totally get along without it... but it'd only add to all the awesome, 'cause I mean, look at us." She laughed. The girl was brimming with confidence, but maybe not to that extent. She did think they were pretty ridiculously epic, though. They were at least cool enough for that. "Good, glad you think so," she said, giggling and nodding. "Because I was seriously considering making my hair white and puffy this weekend." That was a joke. She liked her hair just fine the way it was, and she wasn't about to go doing crazy things to it. Well, she might do a bit, but Einstein-esque hair was not in the gameplan, no way. "Dunno, we might have to invest in a pair of nunchucks to include in our choreography so that we can take them on," she said. She didn't really know if ninjas used nunchucks, though. They probably didn't. Hell, she had no idea! "Something you're born with..." She considered this for a second as if this whole thing even slightly resembled a serious conversation. Sleepdancing could have been genetic, she supposed. There were plenty of things that were genetic that she wouldn't have guessed before she'd learnt of these things in Bio class. (Granted, she'd forgotten most of these things by now. Exams were done, there was no more need to worry!) "Interesting! You probably have it too, though... You just wouldn't know."

Doing work was pretty lame, honestly. Even when it came to an actual job, one in which she got paid... well, she didn't actually have one, but she might when she got to college, and she was seriously debating whether or not it was worth it. She figured that after graduating, if she stayed with Matthew in the Hollow, then she'd be getting a job to pay for her own half of the rent instead of her parents -- and if she didn't, then she'd probably be heading back home or something like that. Fair was fair. She didn't like to think much about the future, though, and she pushed it out aside in order to nod in agreement with what he said. "Seriously! So stupid how you only get money for doing work. I'll have people know that sitting around all day and sleeping and eating is hard enough work," she said, equally huffily. "All that business of converting oxygen to carbon dioxide, y'know." Okay, that wasn't all she did, but... it turned out to be a pretty decent amount of it, yeah. The rest of the time she mostly just hung around with her friends and did whatever she felt like doing, but hey, she could only ever be young once. "Seriously, all the Timbits in the world... That must be what heaven is like." She was also a pretty big fan of all other kinds of foods, though, not just sweet things -- people shouldn't really be fooled. "Doubt it will, but --" She was distracted then when she realized what he was asking. "Oooooh, yeah, of course!" She giggled lightly but sobered up for the most part as she stood and took his hand, letting him lead the way. Hey, Sandra wasn't exactly knowledgeable on this whole... dancing business. She just liked to have fun.