Participants:
| Scene Title | Mallory and McLovin |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Mal and Simon talk Stillwater and PARIAH again before skipping out on the rest of their classes for the day. Mallory leaves a message for Diego accepting the Stillwater job. |
| Date | October 24, 2008 |
To all appearances, little has changed about Washington Irving High School, although it was closed for 20 months after the bomb exploded in Midtown. The windows broken and walls graffitied by mischievous teens during that interval have been restored to their original appearance; the hardwood floors have been recently waxed, the walls are clean, and row upon row of lockers line the halls of all eleven floors. The entrance hall remains elegant in its wood paneling and fireplace, as if nothing untoward ever happened.
Mallory sometimes does lunch outside on the bleachers, because she's weird like that. And kind of off on her own all the time, because popularity is for dicks. DICKS, Simon. So she's munching on a carrot stick and watching some cheerleaders going over routines on their lunch breaks. Her nose is wrinkled.
Simon busied himself for about ten minutes with trying to figure out why there were so many "saved" seats in the lunchroom before heading outside, where he figured at least Mallory would be. Popularity may be for dicks, but at least if he had some he wouldn't feel like such a loser. As he nears the bleachers, Mallory is there, sure enough. He heads over and waves. "Yo, sister. You thinking of finally trying out?" Her sticks a thumb out to the cheerleaders and sits down.
"While the half of cheerleading is wishing the other team would lose, the other half is cheering your team to win. That's only half good, Si," Mallory answers, looking over at him. Her lips quirk to the side. "Nice internship you've got set up there."
A sly smirk sneaks across Simon's face as he looks out on the field, watching perky girls flip and fly through the air. "You think so? I don't even know what I'm working on, just that the numbers are fun to work with. Mr. Smith seems cool, though, even though his name gives me the creeps."
"What, all Matrix-likes?" Mallory asks Simon. She looks out at the fields and says, "Do you know what I could do with access to that kind of stuff, Simon?"
"I can imagine, and it scares me, to be honest." Simon lets out a sigh and starts to open his brown paper bag, where lunch awaits. "Still, it's also mildly cool." He grins and pulls out an apple. "Are you thinking of taking Mr. Smith's offer?"
"Maybe," Mallory tells Simon, reaching into her baggie for another carrot stick. "Even if I find PARIAH, I don't need to tell him that, now do I?"
"You don't," Simon says before taking a bite out of the crimson fruit. He chews it and some juice drips down his chin and onto his pant leg. "Maybe you should, though. I mean, otherwise he's just going to let you go. Then you can say bye-bye to all those fancy computers."
"And their plans," Mallory says, chewing thoughtfully. "You suck," she says as he drips on himself. "What if I find them and you want to join up?"
Simon tries to rub the juice off his jeans, but it only smears and sinks in deeper. "I am a gross, disgusting man." He grins and looks over at his sister, then shrugs. "What if I do? I don't think I will, though. I mean I don't know. To be honest I've just been confused since we got back here. It sucks."
"Yeah. It's weird to see the city like this. It's familiar, but… not. All at the same time," Mallory murmurs, corners of her lips tugging downwards. "Like a ghost of our lives before."
Simon's own lips tug down for a moment, before they bounce back up and force him to laugh. "Oh, shit, Mal. We are so melodramatic." He laughs for a bit longer before settling down. "I think you should take the job. It could be fun, and you never know when access to those systems might come in handy."
Mallory shoots him a look out of the corner of her eye, shakes her head a little. "It's what it's like," she says quietly. Then she stands up. "I think I'll take the job."
"Yeah, I know it is," Simon tells Mallory, turning the apple around in his hand over and over. "Good. You should give Mr. Smith a call, then. I'm sure he would want you to start right away."
"You don't wonder why he'd offer something like that to a high school student?" Mallory asks Simon, brow furrowing.
Simon shakes his head. "Not really. I mean he obviously doesn't want the work to be in the books, and contract professionals would probably want a whole lot of money to keep quiet about their work. You're a cheap alternative, I think."
Mallory reaches into her jacket pocket to remove her cell. "I'll leave him a message."
Simon just nods and turns back to watch the cheerleaders continue to cheer. He looks happy enough that Mallory is calling, but there's something underneath that smile. Something deeper. He takes another bite of his apple and this time is able to control the drip. He comes out clean.
Mallory leaves a pretty short message - 'This is Mallory Allistair. I'll take the job, if the offer's still open, Mister Smith.' She closes her phone and tucks it into her pocket again, glancing down at him and raising an eyebrow. "Peanut butter cup for your thoughts."
"So this is our new life, huh? Living next to a burnt out husk and working for a high-tech corporation hunting terrorists. Did you ever expect that?" Simon turns away from the cheering girls, who probably have much less serious thoughts in their heads, and stares at Mallory.
"Nope," Mallory admits. "Last thing I thought would happen. If Stillwater's successful, we could be… set for life, Si."
Simon laughs and shakes his head. "I mean, I don't know about that. Then again, with the inheritance - " Simon pauses a moment and lets some awkward silence fill the air. "Anyways it would rock, that's for sure."
"It's a good job, Si," Mallory tells him, extending a foot to nudge him with one toe. "That's what I mean. If they hire us after the internships…"
Simon snorts and shakes his head. "I don't think I would take the job. Something tells me I wouldn't be able to do as well in college if I'm working full-time as well. I *am* going to college, Mal. So should you. Have you even started applying?"
Mallory shrugs a little. "I guess. MIT. Caltech," she says, shoving her hair out of her face. She may have even combed it recently. "And I'd work part-time in college."
"I guess. Still, even part-time would be so much, I think. I don't know," Simon clearly hasn't given the thought of permanent employment at Stillwater much thought.
"Your choice," Mallory tells him. "I haven't even worked a day yet, so you have a better idea than I do."
"Yeah, but that's still really far away, so I don't even want to start thinking about it. Who knows what will happen between now and then." Probably more than either of the Allistairs could ever think. Simon sigh as the cheerleaders start to head back inside. "I don't want to go to class."
"Yeah, I've heard, Skippy," Mallory tells him with a snicker. "I don't, either."
"Hey, you should try it sometime. The world looks so different when you're supposed to be in school and you're not." Simon thinks about this for a moment and then says, "I guess the sun just shines differently or something."
"I like how you think I've never skipped," Mallory tells Simon with a little smirk. "That's so cute."
Simon rolls his eyes, as is typical whenever he and Mallory talk. "I forgot how much of a badass you are. I stand corrected." He grins and then adds, "I am cute, aren't I?"
Mallory makes a face at him. "Don't ask me that. Gross."
"Oh come on. You can tell me. Come on, Mal, stroke my ego will you?" Simon makes a crude stroking motion and starts to cackle. Sometimes he just cracks himself up, seriously.
Mallory aims another kick at his leg; it goes wide. "Ugh!"
Simon keeps on laughing until tears build up. "Watch it, you'll take an eye out." He breathes heavily a moment as he tries to calm himself down. "Ok, seriously. I guess we need to go learn now or something."
Mallory shrugs again with a faint smile. "Maybe. I'm game to skip if you are. We can, like, bond and stuff."
Simon thinks about this for a moment and then shrugs. "What do you want to do?" He glances over at her with a raised brow.
"Remember how we used to play wall ball?" Mallory says after a moment's thought.
"Seriously?" Simon eyes his sister with a quizzical gaze. "Sure, yeah. I guess. Let's go play us some wall ball."
"What?" Mallory demands with a scowl. "What do /you/ usually do? Score some smack?"
"No, but I met a stripper in a park yesterday." Simon grins, although he's actually telling the truth,
Mallory stares at him. "…You're kidding."
"Actually, no, I'm not. Her name is Krystal and I think there's something wrong with her." Simon taps his head and winces. "Still, she actually talked to me. That's cool, right?"
"Oh my god, that is such a stripper name," Mallory says. "What's wrong with her? Other than being a moron." Mallory: so forgiving.
"She's not a moron. I don't think, at least. She just, I don't know. She's really quiet. I guess I figure she should be really outgoing since she's a stripper." Simon shrugs and brushes some hair out of his eyes when a gust of wind blows through.
"Maybe you get shy when you're usually out shaking your tits at people," Mallory theorizes. "Or maybe since you never talk doing that when you're outside in clothes you have no idea how to talk to people."
"Maybe, I guess. Still, I don't know. Let's forget about the stripper," Simon says. "Anything cool happen to you lately?" Way to dodge the subject, Simon.
Mallory shakes her head. "Nah. Not really. I met some British guy who gave me a hanky when I was having one of my nosebleeds," she says. "He was kind of cool. And this one girl with a blind eye who was kind of nice. When I picked up the bananas that day we were talking to Sammy. It was like a record. Two people who didn't annoy me in one day."
Simon grins and nods. "Yeah, Samir is pretty cool. Does he like to be called Sammy, though? It's so - American. I don't think he would like it."
Mallory shrugs. "He didn't say anything."
"In that case I stand corrected." Simon glances up at the sky and squints. "So how about that wall ball?"
"Sure. If you wouldn't rather go see strippers," Mallory tells him with a little smirky grin. He's fun to tease!
"You could come with me? They're really entertaining." Simon thinks a moment and then points out, "You don't have an ID, though. Sucks for you."
Mallory sighs, reaching into her jacket again and pulling out her wallet. She removes a driver's license, which she shows him. Hey, twenty-one! "It's pretty easy when you can just worm your way into the DMV. Remember a few months ago when I always got the mail first?"
Simon peers at the card and huffs. "Damn, that's a lot better than mine." He reaches into his pocket and fishes out his own fake ID. It might as well read McLovin. "See?"
Mallory leans over to take it and shakes her head. "Simon. That's ass. I'll see what I can do. How much did you pay for this?"
"Nothing. I just did Rico's math homework for a month. It wasn't even not fun." Simon shrugs and puts away the card.
"Math geek," Mallory sing-songs.
"Yep, that's me. I'm not ashamed of it. Look where it's gotten me so far," Simon points out. Skipping class to play wall ball!
Mallory laughs. "Okay, we better go now." She starts trotting down the bleachers, smiling for once.
Simon grins and stands, then follows Mallory down the bleachers.
 October 23rd: Cages and Cobbler |
Previously in this storyline… Next in this storyline… |
 October 24th: Nothing to Say |