Who: Stacey and Linn
When: Tuesday, just after school
Where: The school grounds, outside

Linn walked out of the school building, feeling just a tad lighter. Two days down, only three to go until the weekend. Couldn't blame a guy for smiling for that reason. He munched on a crisp green apple as he walked against the flow of most of the students, heading for the school weight room. An hour or so lifting weights, then another hour or so prowling about town... it sounded like a good afternoon to him. He turned his head back over his shoulder as he casually walked, thinking he heard someone call him, only to instead bump into someone that he hadn't seen coming his way.

Stacey was beginning to wonder if she picked up a curse along the way, because this habit of running into people began since she moved here. Normally this could be a good thing if it wasn't for the fact that she was -literally- running into people. Stacey let out a grunt as she ran into the big guy and hit the floor with a thud, dropping her bag yet again.

"Aw... aw, man. I'm sorry," Linn said. He had been feeling so distracted lately; this was probably the third person he had run into today. Though he hadn't knocked anyone else DOWN. Oops. He bit into his apple and held it with his teeth, looking a bit like a boar roast as he held out his gloved hands, to help her up. It wasn't particularly cold, but he was wearing a long-sleeve shirt, too.

Stacey took his hand and helped herself up. "I swear, this has been happening to me ever since I moved here. Bumping into people I mean. Or rather colliding into them."

Linn let go of her hand after she was standing and took his apple out of his mouth. "Oh good. Maybe it's NOT my fault for being so out of it..." He was teasing. "But then, I hadn't realized that you were new around here. You're a senior, right?" He himself had only been in Marquette for only about 7 months.

"Yup, one more year and I'm free of high school. What about you?" Stacey dusted off her jeans, another habit she picked up with the becoming-a-victim-of-physics thing.

"I'm sort of hoping to graduate this year, too... though that sort of depends on if I can make up world civ... I kinda lose in a big way when it comes to names and dates, you know?" The smile on Linn's face made it seem as if he wasn't too broken up about the idea of not graduating on time, though. He took another bite of his apple, his other hand resting on his messenger bag strap.

Stacey dug around for her oversized green bag and hefted it up. "Well there's an easy way around that, actually. Just think of it as calling someone. You call Christopher Columbus at 1492. You call Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg at 1863. It's easy to remember phone numbers right?" She took a better look at him, "Aren't you in my class?" Stacey tended to fade into the crowd sometimes, it was a bit hard for her to pick out people from groups.

"Phone numbers of hotties, yeah. Never much cared for the looks of Columbus or Robert E. Lee, though..." Linn laughed, his eyes squinting with amusement. He grimaced at himself when she asked if he was in her class. He WAS bad with names, and faces too, apparently. "God... Maybe I AM. Math? Is that right?" It couldn't be history, since he was in remedial history still...

"Well, it's easy to find out. I mean all we have to do is go to class tomorrow. I'm Stacey, by the way." Stacey held out her hand.

Linn shook her hand. "I'm Linn Constable." He straightened his face, trying to be serious, but then he cracked a smile. "Sorry... I was just having this funny thought... totally random. I was picturing us being in class tomorrow and like, one of us calling the other one to make sure it was really them... Like in High School Musical?" As soon as he said it, he grimaced again. "Maybe you should forget I said that..." He laughed slightly at himself, though. "I've got a lot of sisters... yeaaah."

Stacey grinned, "You'd need my number for that, but then again, it's not like I'd answer the phone in class. Okay, if it's my mom, sure, but otherwise, no."

"I figure you should give me your number, so I could remember you better... that was your advice, right?" He took a last bite of his apple and glanced around, looking for a trashcan. Finally he spotted one a bit of a ways off and tossed it, the apple falling short by about 3 feet. He grinned at his failure, totally un-fazed.

"That was for remembering important things. Me, not so important." She grinned a bit at the miss, "Looks like you have my coordination today."

"Yeah?... I should blame that on you, then?" With a short laugh, Linn jogged over to the apple core and tossed it to the much closer trash can, this time making the basket without any trouble. Still by the trash can, he said, "Did I make you uncomfortable back there? About the phone number thing?" He wrinkled his nose, looking apologetic.

"A bit, I'm not used to that sort of thing." Eben called her pretty and she turned into a blushing goofball.

"Just ignore me. I'm a total spazz." With a faint smile, Linn walked back over to her. "Social settings? Not my usual talent. But... yeah. You know how I can't remember Columbus's number? Prolly wouldn't have trouble with yours..." He laughed lightly.

Stacey laughed, "Well, I'm sure if you have it written down somewhere, it's easy."

"Or if it's programmed into my phone, with your delightful mug in there?" Linn laughed, again a little embarrassed, but not enough to regret what he had said, nor enough to deter him from again talking about High School Music. "I mean... okay. Confession time. When you meet someone new, aren't you tempted to snap their pic with your phone and program in their number, just like Troy and Gabby did?"

"You know, when you put it that way, that sounds vaguely stalkerish."

"Ooops..." Linn laughed lightly. "Me equals spazz, remember?" He smoothed his ponytail back, a bit self-consciously. "And anyway... in the movie it's romantic, not stalkerish, yeah?" Not that he'd ever do that in real life... Okay, well maybe. But he'd make sure that it was mutual.

"I'd actually need to see the movie to verify that." Stacey hitched up her bag higher on her shoulder.

"Great! You could come over this weekend," Linn suggested quickly, with a grin. "Sharine's got friends coming over and they ALWAYS watch it. But um... You won't catch me there with them. When she's got all her giggly friends over, I hit the hills."

"Sharine?"

"My sister. She's thirteen. Natrishka and Georgie will be there too... they're 9 and 6. More sisters." He smiled weakly. "SOME of my sisters..."

Stacey grinned, "So how many sisters do you have?"

"Uh..." Linn counted on his fingers. "Five sisters. Four brothers... Had 3 more brothers, older ones, but they died," he added casually. Two to a curse, and one doing his protector duty. It was sad, sure, but you got used to it.

"Your brothers died? I'm so sorry." Because, yeah, what else can you say to that? "Was it some sort of accident?"

"Um. Sort of an inherited condition..." Linn had never been told NOT to tell people about his family's history. But how do you explain to someone that one of your brothers died saving the governor of Florida, and the other two to a ridiculous mistake?

"Oh. I'm sorry, Inherited conditions can be rough." Stacey should know, what with being vampire-bait and all.

Linn nodded, pursing his lips. "Yeah. But--" He shrugged. "Wouldn't trade my family for nothin. Curse or no curse." Er-- He didn't mean to say 'curse.'

Stacey tilted her head, "Curse?" She knew a little something about curses.

With a small sigh, he nodded. "Yeah... Curse. Weird, right?"

"They're a lot more common than you think, actually." Stacey shrugged.

That made Linn's eyebrow peak. "Really? What do you know about them? I only know my own family's history with them..." That wasn't giving away too much. And it would definitely make him feel better to know that other people had to deal with curses as well.

"That depends on how open you are to alternate spiritual practices." Stacey replied, chosing her words carefully. She could say she was a witch freely; the rest, not so much. You never know who was listening.

Alternate spiritual practices? That didn't quite make sense to Linn. He hurried to assure Stacey, "Oh, my family doesn't go to church. We prefer not to get involved with religion. So I'd say we're pretty open." He tried to smile encouragingly. Maybe that's what she meant? Linn hadn't ever had any real run-ins with witches, or magic or anything, so it didn't occur to him that that's what she was referring to when she said 'spiritual'.

Stacey grinned, "Well it's good to know I won't be burned at the stake anytime soon," and decided to leave it at that. She didn't want to seem like a complete basketcase, she just met the guy.

"Burned at the stake?" Linn looked a little startled by that comment. "Believe me... the last thing I'd want to do is hurt you... I only hurt people who have it coming, you know?" His hands seemed to tighten on his messenger bag as he spoke.

"It was a joke, I'm a fellow spazz too." Stacey put her hands up, "Totally harmless I assure you." She smiled to further the point she was joking.

With his small laugh, it was obvious that Linn was relieved by what she said. "You never know... people think us wrestlers are like, out to get 'em sometime. Like, I'm not about to jump out and try to pin you, yanno?" He reached out and took a hold of her shoulder with a firm grip, playfully acting as if he was going to try to knock her down and start wrestling with her.

Whoa, was she really that skinny, or did he have that good of a grip? "Heh. Good grip. Reminds me of yesterday's workout." Nothing like getting tossed to the mat by your hunter aunt to learn lessons of futility.

"Oh, yeah? You workout?" Linn said, his eyes opening slightly with interest. "Very cool! What do you like to do?" He let go of her shoulder at that.

"Self defense training from my aunt, actually. Mostly I learn to run really fast. Otherwise most of my activity's from my bike."

That made Linn laugh. "So between me practically knocking you down, and your aunt... you get beat up on a lot?" He was teasing though. He couldn't imagine anyone beating up on her niece.

"Not so much beat up, but pushed around. And I'm joking on that one." Well kinda joking.

Linn kept going on as if Stacey was joking completely, not just kinda. "it sounds like the way I treat my younger brothers and sisters. I mean... I'm not mean or anything. But I definitely like to push them around." He laughed. "That's what they're there for, right?"

"Wouldn't know, I'm the youngest. Just have an older brother."

"Just one brother?" Linn couldn't imagine what it'd be like to have only one sibling. "Well then, does he treat you like that, too? Like your aunt does?" He wondered if this girl had anyone to act as her ally.

"I hardly see him, he lives with my dad. We mostly communicate online." Yes, Stacey was a child of the internets.

"Oh, yeah? Online?" Linn's cheek dimpled momentarily as he looked amused. "You a computer nerd or something? If you are, it's cool. I just...I've got to admit, I don't have my own computer..." Computers were so still. He loved to move.

"I perfer the term 'geek' myself. And I'm not really into computers, like programming and stuff. I just use them a lot."

Geek...nerd... Linn didn't really see a difference in the terms. They were both words for something that he wasn't, and not entirely by choice. "Alright, it's cool. Geek, then." He smiled more broadly. "So where were you heading before I knocked into you?"

"I was headed to the bike rack. I bike home instead of taking the bus."

"Great! Then I'll walk you? To make sure you at least make it safely there without getting mauled by another klutz like me?" He grinned, tugging his bag further up on his shoulder again.

"Sure thing." Stacey hiked up her bag on her shoulder as well and headed over to her bike rack with Linn. It was nice to meet someone new, even if Stacey would have to find a way to change her method.

--End Scene