S.S. Anne: R is for Roommate {Erika}

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

Frank was on a boat! Which, of  course meant that he had to sing the "I'm On A Boat" song, which should immediately make anyone feel extremely sorry for whomever happened to be within earshot. Especially considering that it was, uh, "rapping"?

"I'm on a boat, I'm on a boat," "rapped" Frank as she strutted down the hall, heading to her room. Well, technically the room she shared with someone who should be wondering if someone hates them (or loves them?): "Everybody look at me! 'Cause I'm sailing on a boat!" she kept going, pausing for a moment to spread her hands and go "I'm on a boat! I'm on a boat! Take a good hard look!" And then she practically kicked open the door to the little room she shared with said unfortunate person.

"We're on a boat!" she said, spreading her arms wide and grinning wide, while at the same time shifting her stance and sort of looking for her roommate. Picture a lighthouse with the beam of light being someone's spread arms and the shifting light being the rotating of said person and you pretty much had the picture. That said person was practically beaming good vibes straight in the direction she faced really only increased this idea. "How exciting is this? So much better than being at school. I'm Frank, by the way, I'm your roomie. Well,' she rolled her eyes, "duh, but yeah." Then she extended a hand. "Nice ta meetcha!"

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Pulling out her clothes from her bag only to fold them nicely together into one of the two closets she shared with her roommate - thank god it wasn't Ellen - Erika hummed silently to herself, making sure the clothes were folded exactly the way she wanted them to. She had a little issue with her OCD whenever her clothes weren't folded this or that way. It was the same with her room. She had this intense, insane need to keep it tidy at all times.

Finally finishing her unpacking, Erika neatly tucked the bag away at the bottom of her closet and clapped her hands together as she turned around, ''Okay Erika. You're here to have fun, and not even Ellen's going to ruin that for ya,'' she mused to herself. As if telling herself the obvious would make any difference. Ha.

Her chain of dark thoughts was broken as the door opened and her seemingly loud roommate made an appearance. Watching the girl in shock, Erika's mouth dropped a little more than what she would have liked as the girl continued to talk, and talk, and talk. She reminded her of a hyperactive squirrel high on coffee. Cute.

''Hi Frank,'' Erika said, accepting the extended hand with a smile of her own, ''I'm Erika. And it's a pleasure to meet you too,'' Well, this didn't seem too bad, right? Sure, the girl was loud and all, but Erika didn't really mind. Unless she was one of those freaks who'd watch her while she was sleeping, whispering demonic languages into her ear.

Or something.

''Do you have any plans for the evening?,''

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

Frank took the hand and shook it a few times, nodding the while. She mentally repeated the name to herself, the mental chant of Erika, Erika, fo ferika buzzing through her brain, which should probably make Erika thankful that she wasn't blessed with the gift of telepathy. "Awesomesauce, I'm sure we'll have a blast. Oh, I do snore a bit, but, like, I can put these things up my nose; it'll be fine," Frank waved a dismissive hand and stepped a little further into the room, looking around. Cramped, but there was enough space for both Erika and Frank, along with their personal effects.

Erika's question refocused Frank's attention back on her, and she turned to look, beaming a broad smile again. "Oh, we are gonna have so many plans!" she declared, obviously having already decided that Erika was going to be roped into things. Frank nodded confidently, then leaned forward, "I'm so gonna have a party to welcome everyone to the S.S. Anne!" she bounced her brows a few times and then dove toward her gear, rummaging through the various, very expensive suitcases. "'cuz this is a cruise ship, and we are so gonna par-tay! You're with me, right?" Frank twisted to look at Erika, "'cuz it's gonna be at least twenty percent cooler if you're with me," and given that tornado Frank had landed, Erika was likely to be swept up like some kinda unfortunate Dorothy.

It seriously looked like Frank had packed party hats too, or else raided them and smuggled them into the room. Given Frank, it really could be either.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

She truly did remind Erika of a hyperactive squirrel, and quite frankly, it wasn't only cute, it was also adorable. It was like watching a child bouncing around without a care in the world and it was rather refreshing. After all, Erika had spent the past weeks with mostly serious people, and people who acted their actual ago, so this new behavior was welcomed with open arms and a huge grin, ''It's fine, I don't really mind. It beats having to hear three kinds of different sex noises, so I think I'll live,'' the brunette said with a laugh.

Erika plumped down in her bed and ran her hand through her hair while chewing on her lower lip. She watched the girl as she spoke with such enthusiasm, she couldn't help but to smile, and refusing the offer seemed like such an awful thing to do to someone so joyful. Heck, what was the worst that could happen, right? All Erika needed to do was stay away from the alcohol and she'd be good to go, ''Yeah, sure,'' Erika nodded with a smile and stretched her arms in the air, ''Where did you plan on hosting this party? I suggest keeping it somewhere inside, at least if there's alcohol involved. People tend to be reckless after drinking and I wouldn't want to be responsible for the party where someone decided jumping off the ship was a good idea,'' she laughed and sat back up, tapping her fingers against her thigh.

''Wow, you brought a lot of stuff. And here I thought I was horrible at packing,'' Erika leaned over to see better. She was nosy like that, always had been. Hopefully the girl, Frank wouldn't mind too much.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"There are three different kinds? Well, I guess if you're really good at it," said Frank, pausing for a moment, as if trying to count the number of various sex noises that she had either produced or heard produced. She got distracted easily enough, and it certainly helped that the conversation plowed forward on its own momentum, much like that whole aforementioned tornado, or possibly a giant snowball rolling down hill and picking up speed and size as it went, but that would be mixing our metaphors.

Hosting the party, Frank paused, stroking her chin for a few seconds, "I had sorta figured we'd head for the deck. I kinda want to do it on the poop deck, but I've got no clue which one that actually is..." Frank's eyes wandered again, as she tried to remember if she had a map of the ship stowed away somewhere. Ah, she'd look for it later. Plus, Erika had a point about the whole falling into the ocean thing. "Man, but jumping off the ship is, like, the best part of nautical themed parties. 'cuz then you gotta throw a life preserver or have a really hot guy strip off his shirt and be all heroic and jump in. Tell me, Erika, do you not want to see a ridic hot guy stripping his shirt off and being heroic? 'cuz we might have words,'

Frank paused, then looked at one of her suitcases. She shrugged. "Eh, I'm, like, super rich and a boarding school brat. Packing is like my second mutant power. It's like," she held up her hand, "eating, then packing. So I'm totes set for college."

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

''My roommates,'' she added. Well, rather corrected, but whatever. She was sure the girl had gotten the memo and was only teasing, but one could never be too sure, so it was better to expect that she hadn't and rather take it with a smile, ''It's horrible, trust me,'' she said again with another laugh and shook her head. It was preferably something she didn't enjoy remembering, especially not after long nights of being unable to sleep because of it. The images made her want to shiver and hide under her bed.

Maybe she was only being a party pooper by thinking about such things. Heck, she knew she was being one, and that was rarely a good sign. Okay, maybe it was better to just push the worrysome thoughts away and rather take the troubles as they came, yeah? Maybe they were lucky enough to avoid any trouble like that. Maybe no one would end up falling overboard, and they wouldn't have to go get the help of a teacher. Or maybe her telekinetic ability was strong enough to pull someone out of said water and they'd be saved? Doubtfully. And she really had to stop being so darn negative too. It was sad. So-so sad.

However, Frank's next words had Erika blushing. She looked at the hyperactive squirrel with wide eyes and burning cheeks, ''I suppose you have a point there,'' she said slowly, pursing her lips. Nope. Nope. Nope. She wasn't even going to go there. Nope. Not at all. Totally not picturing him, nooooope.

Coughing, Erika turned her gaze towards her own collection of clothes and dilly dallies, ''I know the feeling,'' she laughed and walked over to her closet, pulling out one of the drawers containing her curling iron, ''Rather, I know the curse,'' she said with a overly dramatic tone before sighing, ''I find it amusing that you admit to it with such ease,'' Erika felt slightly more embarrassed about her 'luck'. People tended to view you differently the second they knew your last name or knew how many zeros your bank account contained.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

Frank normally would have been distracted by, oh, well, anything, really, but the moment Erika mentioned her having a point, the rich girl's attention shifted. She watched carefully, veeeeeeery carefully as Erika pursed her lips. There was something going on there; Frank could nearly feel her Pinkie sense tingling just looking at the other girl. And you'd better believe that Frank was gonna find out, and sooner rather than later.

"Yeah, it's such a burden, being awesome," Frank said, flipping her hair, she stopped for a moment, as various gears grinded in her brain. Her eyes widened. "Wait, are you, like, like me!?" she stood, walking over to Erika. She gripped the girl tightly on either arm, leaning slightly toward the girl, her eyes wide. 'It's okay," said Frank, her voice deadly serious, "you can tell me the truth. You're..." she looked to the left, then to the right, then finished: "you're a mutant, aren't you?"

Deadly serious. Okay, she sounded deadly serious. So that sort of counted.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Erika's eyes widened slightly at the sudden change of pace and before she knew it, the other girl had her gripped in her arms and was looking at her like she was some kind of piece of meat. From the outside, the entire thing probably looked incredible hilarious.. Okay, from Erika's point of view it looked pretty damn hilarious too and it was obvious as the brunette couldn't keep a straight face, ''Yes, but hush, hush. No one can know my deep, dark secret,'' she said with a low, hushed voice, ''I don't want them hunting me with torches and pitchforks, y'know. I prefer my hidden identity. The whole, normal girl during the day, awesome superhero during the night. It totally works for me,''

Her grin widened even further, ''The deck it is then,'' she nodded, wriggling herself out of the girl's grip and ransacked through her clothes for something, anything to wear. It was too cold for a dress, wasn't it? Yes? Maybe? No? Oh whatever. She'd rock it no matter what she wore. She always did.

''Did you check the temperature outside?'' Quite honestly, Erika didn't even know where on the sea they were located. She hadn't paid attention to that little fact. Nope, her attention had been entirely drawn towards a certain someone else who just happened to be on the boat too.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"It's cool," said Frank, keeping her voice totally level, "I'm one too. A mutant, that is, not really superhero. I would be the crappiest superhero ever."

Or the most awesome. The Amazing Mouth! Frank was going to have to see if this was somehow possible. She could probably buy a comic company and force them to make some kind of comic for her. That felt a little like abusing her money and stuff, which did make Frank have a little internal battle with her conscience, which may or may not look like a talking cricket wearing a top hat and carrying an umbrella.

This did make it easy for Erika to break free of Frank. There had also been a confirmation of Frank's deck plan, which probably meant that it was Fated for someone to fall overboard. Because Fate just had a way of making these things happen, especially if it meant that Frank (and Erika) got to see a guy taking off his shirt (just hope that somehow Frank doesn't figure that out between now and then, else Erika might find herself in the water to be boldly rescued).

"Wha? Naw," said Frank, shrugging, "but they gotta be taking us somewhere tropical, right? It's Spring Break; not like you go to the Arctic for Spring Break," Frank dove back to her own suitcase, where there were several outfits that soon sort of went flying around her. She soon came up with a dress, holding it up for a few moments, obviously considering it. "Yeah, this will totally work. But we should probably save the pretties till after we set everything up. Which is gonna take, like, ten minutes or something," said Frank, tossing the dress aside and reaching for another case, which appeared to be filled with party supplies. And what looked like enough junk food to feed a small army of ten year olds.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

''Hey, some of the coolest superheroes doesn't even have powers other than their creativity and capability to actually do something about it, so if I were you, I wouldn't give up so soon,'' Erika said with a smirk and gave the tiny squirrel a wink. Then again, Erika had never viewed mutants as superheroes. Maybe it was the fact that she had known of their existence her entire life, and that had kind of ruined some of the awesome-effect it tended to have on some.

Well, if anything, someone falling out into the water wasn't the end of the world. Especially not if there were going to be a lot of people around and several possibilities of at least one of them being sober enough to go on a rescue spree. The thought just made Erika want to get as drunk as possible. She'd rather not be the one having to jump into what she assumed was ice cold water. And then there were sharks, orcas and whatever else was lurking down below to worry about.

Joy.

''I wouldn't keep my hopes up,'' she laughed. It would be so typical of the staff to bring them on a full-paid spring break and take them to the coldest location on earth. You know, that would surely prevent the whole go crazy, let your hair loose, party on a beach and get pregnant with several STD's less likely to happen.

Leaning over further, Erika watched the girl with amazement. Such energy in such a tiny body; Sure, Erika wasn't exactly big herself or anything, but Frank's personality just reminded her too much of a child's to even consider her as 'big'. ''Aye, aye Captain,'' Well, at least years of perfecting her party planning abilities with Ellen would pay off with this - and maybe it would give her an opportunity to find out if this kind of business was something she could actually go for?

''Who brings junk food as luggage?'' Erika laughed.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

Frank heard the comment about the superhero thing, which was probably a bad thing. Mostly because this made her think for about ten seconds about BatFrank, which was pretty much Frank dressed in a brightly colored Batman outfit fighting crime. It only took about ten seconds before Frank's nose crinkled up and she said: "Nah, I don't wanna train with ninjas."

Frank kept working at tugging the bag full of party supplies out. She stopped to rummage through them, mumbling about what was there. She'd have to go raid the ship's supplies again, but fortunately, she had someone to help this time. Maybe Erika had an ability that would be a little more useful than biting off the doorknob had been. Frank did look up at her roommate as Erika pointed out the snacks. Frank's head swiveled to it, saw it, and then she chuckled.

"That? That's my emergency rations," Frank grabbed a chocolate coated granola bar and bit into it. There was no unwrapping or opening, mind, but just a bite, yanking the packaging off, chewing it up, and swallowing. Frank had long since discovered that to be the most efficient. She took another bite, talking around it with such mastery that it barely sounded like she had a mouthful of food: "I gotta eat, like, all the time. My metabolism's all janked up because of the whole eat anything business. Anywho," Frank yanked the party supply bag, tugging it up over her shoulder. She bounced off the bed with about the same motion, her feet barely touching the floor before she was upright again.

She nodded to Erika, then headed for the door. "C'mon," she said, pausing to take another big of bar, "we're gonna need to raid the supply closet again before we head up an' pretty up the deck a little. Shouldn't take more than, like, ten minutes."

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Noticing the fact that the girl didn't even unwrap the chocolate, Erika cocked an eyebrow, figuring it was better not to ask. Erika had learned that by now, that people doing odd things at a school filled with mutants wasn't exactly news. It happened all the time and she always felt rude questioning it. And she kind ended up answering her questions anyways, or so the brunette assumed, with the whole 'eat anything' thing. ''I see,'' Erika chuckled and gave the snacks another gaze before shrugging it off.

Erika watched the girl jump off the bed with a faint smile and only shook her head. Frank's energy level were starting to get to her as she could feel her own energy rise. It was rather refreshing, especially after 'what-should-not-be-mentioned' had happened and she'd been feeling a little angsty ever since. It was so much joy in such a tiny creature.

Wonderful, just wonderful.

Pushing herself up, Erika walked towards the girl with a sheepish grin on her lips, ''I'm coming, I'm coming.'' she laughed. Well, this could surely be interesting. She didn't doubt that and as long as she managed to keep the alcohol away, nothing could go wrong, right? It wasn't like she'd end up barging into certain someone's room and... Nope. No alcohol. At all. Ever. ''Ten minutes, huh? We'll see,''

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"Right, so don't go nomming on my snacks, cuz if I get hungry in the middle of the night, I'm like, unstoppable. I'll chew right through your underpants like that," Frank snapped her fingers and then took another big bite of her food. She was actually a little nervous about the food situation. It was alright when they were on the shore; there was food all over the place. Here, if Frank ran out, she was in a lot of trouble. She wasn't sure exactly how many calories she needed, but she knew it was at least quadruple a normal person, probably higher. She chewed on the energy/chocolate bar, pushing aside anything resembling a gloomy thought out of her head.

There was partying to be had.

Okay, technically there was prepping for partying to be had, but that was just a mess in the details. "Righto, follow me; I already raided the supply closet once, so we're good. 'sides, I think my family, like, owns this cruise liner or something," Frank looked around, trying to see if there were any hints that this might actually be true. She was pretty sure her family owned a cruise liner of some kind, and it would make sense for them to volunteer a ship for the school Frank attended.

She was already bounding down the hall, practically skipping and somehow managing to not choke on her food while she moved. "So Erika, you wouldn't have, like, checked the weather or anything. I'm not gonna freeze my adorable tushy off, am I? 'cuz that would suck, only a lot," said Frank. She turned and started walking backward, not missing a step and somehow still going in more or less the right direction. clearly, this was something else Frank practiced, though Frank alone really knows why.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Grinning, Erika shook her head and crossed her hear, ''I won't, I promise,'' she said with a chuckle. No, Erika was just fine and dandy sticking to the meals served at the boat, and if she felt the need for a snack, she could always see if they had any machines for that. She wasn't exactly one to steal someone elses food, that was a little beneath her, even if she was sure Frank hadn't meant it seriously. Ish. Okay, she wasn't sure. At all.

''Really?'', Erika let out, simmering through her brain to see if she could remember exactly what company the school had rented the ship from. She couldn't. Those were usually details she didn't bother to learn. ''What do your parents do anyways? If you don't mind me asking?'' Honestly, Erika wasn't really sure what her family did besides owning the school and having some kind of business on the outside. She never really cared to know, or maybe her mother never felt it was something she needed to know.

Following the girl with a sheepish grin on her lips, Erika folded her arms behind her back and blew away a few strands of her hair that kept falling in her face, ''If I remember correctly, I already asked you the same thing,'' Erika pointed out with an amused smirk, smacking her tongue against the back of her teeth, ''I honestly have no idea. I guess we'll find out,'' As they continued down the hall, Erika took the opportunity to peek outside one of the windows, smiling faintly, ''The sky is clear. That's always a good sign, no?''

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

The really made Frank look over her shoulder for a moment and grin, "Really, really," she said, nodded, and turned her head. "They, like, own stuff. And dabble in trading or something? I really never asked. I just know we're stupid rich, like, own a small island and construct it as a supervillain lair rich,' she giggled. That was seriously something Frank had been considering doing. She was fairly certain that her parents realized this and would situate it so that Frank's money came out in little trust bursts and was pretty well left in the hands of someone who actually thought ahead and knew what to do with gross sums of cash.

Frank remember something? Yeah, because that was gonna happen. She just shrugged, turning to look out the window for a moment as they walked. Because going backward clearly wasn't enough. "Yeah, I guess, though I suppose if I'm too cold I'll just have to guilt someone into giving me clothes. I bet there's a guy or two that we could do with seeing shirtless, amiright?" Frank winked, and then had the misfortune to bump into a wall. After an "omph" she rolled about, stopping and looking.

"Yeah, this is totally the supply closet I raided earlier. C'mon, we got stuff to grab," and with that, Frank flung open the door and went inside, consequences be damned.