SO FRESH, SO COOL [annabel]

[LUCAS OLIVER GARROWAY]

Lucas rolled his shoulders back to kind of somewhat not really stretch. The time on the clock read that it was just a few minutes past noon, and the kid still hadn't eaten breakfast... or done anything... at all... besides getting out of bed that morning and going immediately to his Xbox to take on a couple of idiots. He'd actually gotten up a couple of hours ago, though what time exactly he wasn't sure, and since then he'd been sitting here on his couch more or less being a waste of space. (He'd totally kicked ass, though. Everything was good.) At this point, however, he was getting pretty hungry, and with a bit of a jolt he remembered that Annabel was supposed to be coming over to hang out in... uh, less than half an hour. Maybe he should eat breakfast or something. At any rate, he should probably take a break from gaming -- his eyes were starting to water a little and that probably was a sign that he should call it quits for at least a few minutes.

Deciding with resignation that this would actually probably be a good idea, he wandered away and into his kitchen a few moments later. He grabbed a bowl and filled it with Honeycomb cereal and milk before seating himself lazily in the living room, lounging around and taking his time eating. He wasn't overly concerned about when his friend would be showing up, really, but he was still somehow a little surprised when he hadn't yet finished his cereal and he heard the doorbell rang. Huh. A glance at the clock as he left the room told him that, if it were Annabel (and he wasn't expecting anybody else, especially since the rest of his family was actually out for a few hours), she was actually just on time. Okay, so it was his fault that he wasn't totally ready to greet people properly -- Lucas was still just in the usual pyjama pants and a t-shirt, carrying his bowl of cereal -- as he went to get the door.

As expected, it was of course Annabel. "Yo, you're early!" he greeted, grinning a little, holding the door open with his free hand to let her in -- trying not to spill his cereal with the other. Actually she wasn't really early, he was just typically late and still in what he'd slept in, but pfft. Never mind that. It didn't make much of a difference anyway -- even if he'd had time, he probably wouldn't have gotten dressed. Who was he trying to impress? Annabel was chill. "How'd you get here, anyway?" he asked, craning his neck out the door to see if there was a car driving off or something like that, before he shut it, gesturing for her to follow him back into the kitchen for now, shoveling the rest of his Honeycombs into his mouth as he went. "Sorry dude, didn't eat this morning. Halo," he said as his only explanation, ditching his bowl and spoon in the sink for now. Someone would take care of it later. "But what's up, what d'you wanna do?" The obvious was probably video games, but there was actually a ton of shit they could do if they wanted.

[ANNABEL LYNNE DALE]

Her relationship with her eldest brother had changed considerably over the course of the last couple years. In outgrowing the phase of innocent childhood where she'd believe anything he told her, they'd become much more likely to bicker and disagree, but she also felt like she was closer to him a lot of the time. Except now. Now was not one of those times. She stood in the doorway with arms crossed, glaring at where he lay on his bed and paid her no attention. "You can walk. It's summer, you're not going to die. I'm busy." Ugh. You're always busy. She knew he had important things to do, like medical school and work, but come on. "I don't want to walk," she complained. "It's hot. Unlike Mr. Fucking Fantastic over there, I can't magic the heat out of the air." He looked at her now, expression unimpressed. "Don't swear. And I can't do that either, it just doesn't bother me." He looked back down and she squinted irritably at him. "Ugh. Do you want a medal or something?" He was such a pain in the ass. "Just give me a ride. Please?" Her brother acknowledged her with a smirk and it was the first indication that there was a scheme in mind.

A short while later, the fairly conspicuous sports car was pulling up alongside the road in front of the Garroway residence and Annabel got out, wiggling her fingers at her ride, who rolled his eyes and drove off. She was grinning as her friend opened the door, excited to hang out. She always loved to chill with her guy pals for a good night of video games and food, which was usually how such things went. Then she had her girlfriends for the sleepovers and manicures—they could be just as fun, but that wasn't the mood she was in today. "You would say that." She laughed, shaking her head. "You're not on time unless you're fifteen minutes late. Good luck getting a job." You were supposed to show up early to interviews, that'd be an adventure for a guy that usually didn't bother. Annabel was right on his side with that one, though. She hated showing up early for appointments and so if taking an earlier bus meant getting there half an hour early or else getting there a bit late... she'd rather be late. How would she pass an entire half hour? Ugh. "Totally made Josh my bitch," she boasted, flicking her wrist and lifting her chin. "Lamborghini chauffeur, all right." Laughing and giving up the ruse, the blonde shook her head. "More like the other way around. He's gonna hold this over my head, but like... walking. I didn't want to walk." There were no buses that wound their way around the fancy upperclass areas and as they both lived in said neighbourhood, she hadn't much choice.

Though she acknowledged the bowl of cereal in his grip with a glance, Belle knew him well enough not to question him. She grinned at his explanation, however, nodding. Makes sense. Video games were a pretty valid excuse for anything in her opinion. No sleep, no food, no homework handed in on time... like any high school student, she totally had her priorities straight. "Dude, I feel you, though. When Halo 4 came out I kind of forgot food existed for like, days. Thank god I've got my sis to help me out." Between her and Josh, Annabel wondered how Nell didn't have a heart attack over how little they could take care of themselves. One addicted to games and the other to studying, they were a handful of a sibling duo. She swatted him at the inquiry. "You better not be burnt out on games. I did not come here to trade gossip and watch movies, excuse you." There was a friendly light in her blue eyes. "Yeah, so speaking of Halo... you get all the achievements yet? Bet I could kick your ass." Achievements were bad for people like her. It gave her a reason to keep playing. Just five more minutes would turn into hours and soon enough she'd wasted a whole week away. Her brother and sister could only do so much without physically dragging her away from the console.

[LUCAS OLIVER GARROWAY]

Lucas just rolled his eyes at her words. "Shut up," was his only verbal response, but he wasn't exactly surprised or bothered by her words. Pfft, a job? That was a long way off, it being that he was just fourteen or so, and he wasn't at all concerned about anything like that. Hah, work? A job? The kid could hardly focus on school as it was. "Fuck a job," he said bluntly. He had no shortage of money and no desire to work at all -- but then again, he was young and had never yet faced that entire conundrum of having to fend for himself, had never even considered ever having to move out of his parents' place. That would all come in the future, he was sure. He snorted at the thought of Josh being anyone's bitch. That dude could be really fucking intimidating, though probably less so for his own family. "Right," he said sarcastically, but he laughed. "Dude, walking sucks. What's he gonna make you do later, though?" As the youngest -- well, along with Seth -- in a mess of half-siblings, he knew that older siblings really sucked sometimes. Then again, he was marginally more annoying than Annabel probably was to Josh, so that played a major part in it as well.

What the fuck were priorities? Lucas didn't know and didn't really care, either -- he just liked video games and basketball and hanging around generally being obnoxious. Well, okay, he didn't even think he was that obnoxious, but other people tended to differ. Pfft, whatever. Annabel put up with him well enough. "What's food? 'Cause I bet Halo 4 is way better, whatever it is," he said, rolling his eyes. Unfortunately he didn't have a big foodie like Nell around to help him when he was stuck on the couch for hours and hours and hours, but someone in his family would probably eventually bring him sustenance. Sometimes Seth did it, if Lucas yelled at him to -- what were brothers for? "What d'you think I am, a girl? Like I'll paint your nails or something while we gossip," he said, rolling his eyes again. Was that potentially offensive? It probably was, but it didn't really register in his brain that way -- Annabel was very cool and not at all like Those Girls. "Almost," he said, close to being unwilling to admit that he still had a handful to go, but he figured it made more sense to be honest. He was really close to all of them, okay. "But don't talk so big, no one beats me in my house. Or any house." The last part was an afterthought as he walked off toward the gaming room. "You're on," he said, eyes flashing as he tossed her a controller -- it was all in a friendly, good nature, but hey, she was the one who'd come in here all threatening and challenging. As if.

[ANNABEL LYNNE DALE]

Nodding at his disgust, she said, “Amen.” Everyone stressed about the importance of employment—teachers, her parents, her brother—but Annabel had no desire to jump on the daily grind bandwagon any time soon. Oh, she knew that she wanted to work with games and technology, sure, but did she want to start working so soon? Hell no. Her brother was her free ride right now and until he threatened to put her on the street (or something less drastic, perhaps) she was staying right as she was. “Especially when it’s this hot outside. Like, no. Until I can make it rain at will, I’m not walking anywhere on a day like this.” Man, Annabel couldn’t wait until she could fully take advantage of her Water powers. She was excited by the process of ice manipulation as well but that would come later, when she finally started to grasp the basic elemental principles. “No idea. Might make me clean my room or something. It doesn’t sound that bad but have you seen my room?” It was a big room and when she was left to her own devices, it could go from neat to a total mess in a matter of minutes. “I shouldn’t have to clean, we’ve got house staff to do all of that for us. But Josh likes to torture me.” She rolled her eyes dramatically. Never mind that cleaning and chores were a part of most teenagers’ lives, Belle wasn’t used to it. She was used to the pampered life of a spoiled rich kid.

Ever the queen of exaggeration, Annabel’s eyes stretched as wide as they were able when he dissed food. “Dude, Lucas, food. Pizza. How could you say that about pizza?” Man, her mouth was watering just thinking of the cheesy, meaty deliciousness that was pizza. Her stomach growled as she thought about it. “We should totally get take-out. I mean yeah, Halo 4 is better than food, you’re right, but like… video games and food?” There was no more of a heavenly combination than that. She was warned a lot about how sitting on her ass in front of the TV and loading herself full of junk food would cause her to blow up like a balloon when she got older but as she was still thin as a stick, she was content not to listen to them. She was young and still carried the invincible mentality. Sure, it happened to other people, but would it happen to her? Nah. “Um, excuse you, Luke-Ass,” she said, using her favourite insulting nickname. “I hope you’re not included me in that.” She wasn’t as angry as she sounded, for Belle knew that he wasn’t. She was only playing around—it was only sexism if he really meant it. She wasn’t some radical feminist. “Nail polish is a waste of time unless I’m bored or it’s important,” she frowned, looking at her unpainted and currently unremarkable nails. “Always ends up getting chipped.” She’d totally let her gal pals do her nails if they were hanging out, though. She was different around her girlfriends.

Leaning forward, she asked, “Have you beat it on Legendary yet? That was so fun.” Belle liked a challenge and so she tended to try a game out on the hardest difficulty available first—hard if ‘legendary’ or ‘elite’ or whatever the game called its final stage wasn’t available. If it proved too difficult she might eventually concede defeat and bump it down to normal but she was known for being stubborn. Flicking her hair behind her shoulder and then tying it up so that it wouldn’t get in her way while she was concentrating, she smirked. “We’ll see about that.” And just like that, it was on. She gripped the controller like a lifeline, expression a mask of concentration. This girl took her games seriously.

[LUCAS OLIVER GARROWAY]

Maybe working sounded like a pretty good gig for most teenagers, but a lot of that had to do with money -- spending money, and a desire to show their parents that they were totally mature, thanks. Lucas was fortunate (or something) enough to have plenty of the first one, and not even a little of the second one. What did he care about these things? "Can you make it rain? When you're older?" he asked, blinking. He had no idea about these things -- it had never occurred to him to ask. "Dude, that's kind of sick. Can you make a swimming pool or something anytime too?" He was a year younger than her and so his grasp of his element was much less than hers even, but he figured that it wouldn't make too much of a difference. Tenth grade was still babyish compared to the older college students or even senior high schoolers. "Yeah, fuck that," he said, laughing a little bit as he swore. He really was lucky that his parents (and of course older siblings) were cool enough not to try to stick that kind of stuff on him -- cleaning. "Sucks to be you, dude. Least you get to drive next year." She was a year or so older than him so she would get to drive soon, he was sure, and the Dales definitely weren't hard put to afford another car or anything.

Lucas did love food (though perhaps not as much as he loved Halo 4) but he just rolled his eyes at her. "Dude, I think you're missing the big picture here," he told her like she was the one being irrational, and he crossed his arms at her for a second before dropping them, already moving over to grab the phone from its charging port. "What do you want? We can have whatever delivered." His parents would usually leave "emergency money" for them in "secret" hiding places, but the house's definition of an emergency was pretty much whenever Lucas or Seth wanted something and their parents weren't home to ask. He liked that. "Just don't get shit all over the controllers, okay, 'cause that's a dick move." Although he wasn't the neatest, or a germaphobe, he did hate picking up his controllers to find them sticky or something from food. Gross. It was probably him most of the time, but he tried not to let it happen. "Shut up, Anna-blow." They were equally stupid nicknames. "I'll include you in whatever I want." He really hadn't been including her, though. Annabel was too much of a bro for that. "Seems pointless to me," he told her, shrugging at the nail polish thing; Luke didn't really get girly things like that at all.

"Yep." He hadn't done it right off the bat, like her, but eventually he had, and it had been a triumphant day in Lucas' world, even if nobody else cared (which most people had not). "Was awesome. But it took a while," he admitted, rolling his eyes as if at his past mistakes; it would probably be easier the second time around, as anything was. He supposed that playing it on normal difficulty first would have made things slower, though, or at least added to the overall time. Lucas didn't keep that much track of things like that. He wasn't crazy. "Good luck," he told her, tone mocking and challenging as if he thought she didn't have a chance in the world, but his face was equally (ridiculously) serious as they started. She won the first game, and he let out a loud noise of disappointment. "Ugh what the hell? Screw you." He was a poor loser, apparently, and he pretended to swat at her head in anger at the loss, but he didn't mean it... the violent part, at least. He did hate losing, though. "Where the hell did you come from?" he asked, still gaping at the screen.