Revenge of The Creep

[Quinn Wiley]

Quinn was no paparazzo. Just because the subjects of his pictures weren’t always aware someone was taking their photograph didn’t mean he was looking for something shocking to show everyone. There were some exceptions, however. Like, let’s say, when some jock chose to humiliate him during gym class. Then, he was totally fine with stalking the guy until he found him doing something embarrassing to humiliate him in return. It wasn’t like he had any other way to fight the guy, at least none where he’s still be alive at the end.

It wasn’t that easy, stalking someone. The following part was easy, doing so while remaining unnoticed was a whole other matter. He didn’t want the guy to see him always nearby and start getting suspicious or, worse, think he had a crush on him and humiliate him further. He had to be discreet.

This was also very boring. The guy went to the student lounge and Quinn had not moved from there since an eternity, watching him from a corner playing pool and laughing around with friends. He was about to give up for the day when he finally decided to leave the lounge. Quinn meant to dash out after him, only to bump into someone really hard, making him lose his balance and fall to the ground. Ignoring the person he hit, he got on his feet real quick and looked outside but couldn’t find the guy. “You made me lose him’” he grumbled at the other person, putting all the fault on them. Now he wouldn’t get his shot.

[Olivia Chance]

She'd just been thinking about how to better concentrate to use her powers when she mistakenly bumped into someone. She was about to apologize but then the guy grumbled and it just made her feel like he didn't deserve her apology.

"If just bumping into you could make you 'lose' somebody, then you didn't 'have' him in the first place. Quit being a jerk. It's your own fault if something happened because you weren't looking where you were going." Her temper was flaring for nothing, and she really didn't know why. She was normally fairly nice. But this guy made her not want to be. It was kind of a disconcerting feeling, Olivia had to admit.

[Quinn Wiley]

Quinn could be polite. The fact he acted like a jerk with this girl had nothing to do with who he really was. But Quinn was on a mission and nothing else mattered right now than to get even with the guy. Bumping into someone was not part of the plan. Worse, it could draw attention on him. Not that it would be that important, the guy was already gone. It was frustrating because now Quinn will have to look all over the school for him. He knew it might just be the best moment to give up and move on. Jerks were all around, he couldn’t take revenge on them all for making fun of him. Especially since Quinn thought he was very easy to make fun of.

The first comment she let out, about the fact he mustn’t have ‘had’ him to begin with meant nothing to Quinn and he barely listened to her but he flinched when she called him a jerk. Well, he supposed he acted as such but Quinn hated being told that he was. The worst part was that he couldn’t argue back, he knew he was at fault here. That didn’t mean he wanted to let it slip. He grumbled, trying to find something to reply to her, something she would not downright turn back at him as she just did. “I didn’t see you, ok. It was important and now he’s gone,” he finally said. He tried to put some venom in his tone since there was very little in his choice of words. He frowned, looking at her. “What were you doing here anyway?”

[Olivia Chance]

"Oh well if it was important, that makes all the difference. Definitely not a jerk anymore. Now you're an idiot." She rolled her eyes with a dismissive shrug.

"I'm here because I want to be. The student lounge is a good place to think and to focus, both of which I could've used but now I'm pissed off and I don't know why so damn it all thank you for that." Why was she getting so annoyed? Something about him just irked her to no end. Why? She was normally very forgiving, even of people who were rude and putting venom into their tones as he was. But he annoyed her.

[Quinn Wiley]

Moving from jerk to idiot was not an improvement, far from it. He still would have preferred her to think he was a jerk if idiot was the other option. He took a deep breath, wanting to lash out on the girl but at the same time Quinn was not exactly the violent type. He was more the spiteful one who would get revenge over the time or hate you until you stop breathing because of what you said or did. “Oh yeah, right, like you would know what you’re talking about,” he retorted which, of course, made him once again realise he was losing the argument. But he couldn’t anymore. She insulted him.

“Hey, don’t blame me for your personal issues. All I did was bump into you. If that pisses you off without you getting it, then you don’t need a lot to go out of hands,” he let out. No way would he let this be his fault. Maybe she could be upset about this little accident but she would know why. Everyone would know why, and get over it after a while. If she didn’t know why she was so pissed off, it was not all his fault.

He groaned, knowing that finding his target was out of the question now. He lied down against the wall closest to them, feeling quite down. All this time wasted and for nothing. If someone should be frustrated here, it was him.

[Olivia Chance]

"Of course I know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you." She shrugged. She glared at him.

"I know to keep my temper under wraps but for some odd reason you piss me off! Maybe it's you bumping into me and immediately taking out your attitude and firing on all cylinders!" She shook her head. The vase with flowers in it nearby shattered. She'd accidentally frozen the water inside, causing it to expand and break. She glanced at it and sighed.

"And now I'm going to have to pay for that friggin' vase because you got me so worked up I'm subconsciously freezing stuff."

[Quinn Wiley]

This argument was leading nowhere. Both of them wanted to have the last word but neither of them seemed to really know what to say to achieve that. He thought she was really overreacting here. Maybe he acted a bit as a jerk, not that he admitted it, but he had not been cruel enough to deserve that treatment. This girl had trouble managing her anger.

Quinn couldn’t help a cold laugh at her choice of her. To say his temper was fiery was to the boy rather funny and not in the way you want people to consider you funny. Of course, she might not be aware. Most people probably weren’t, since Quinn preferred to keep to himself most of the time.

Quinn startled when he heard something breaking. He looked around to see a vase on the floor, shattered. “Oh great, now blame me for your lack of control,” he exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. “What do you want, an apology? I’m sorry I bumped into you.” Of course, said words would have been more believable had he used a different tone to say them.

[Olivia Chance]

She wrinkled her nose. This fight was leaving a bad taste in her mouth. She was normally such a pacifist, but now she was angry and feeling like she had to fight. It certainly wasn't an emotion she relished.

"And I'm so sorry I bumped into you, professional stalker. Too bad you can't have real friends instead of that bloody camera you're clinging to!" She laughed condescendingly. This totally wasn't her, but she couldn't help it.

"I wonder. If I froze you solid, would you be an honorary X-Man, being Iceman and all?"

[Quinn Wiley]

Quinn startled as he was called a stalker. Worse, a professional stalker. He was enough of a creep already without needing someone to add this title to his name. “I’m not a stalker! I’m a photographer,” he let out, offended that someone might consider him so lowly. He liked to pretend he couldn’t care less about people’s opinion but it was always nice to hear them like you just like it was painful to be the weirdo no one wanted to be seen around. Even though he probably acted so he could be said weirdo no one wanted to be seen around.

Stating he was a photographer probably didn’t change the fact he could be a stalker. Paparazzi were photographers. And they were stalkers. And they had a camera like the one he was showing her to prove that he was a photographer. He wasn’t hurt right now however, he was insulted. Mocking him the way she did, who did she think she was? Now he had a better target to go after, completely forgetting about this idiot who made fun of him before.

He had a dry laugh when she said she could freeze him solid. “That is if I don’t burn you to a crisp first. You want to try? You’ll be a pile of ash at my feet.” Honestly, Quinn would never dare to do it. He didn't want to hurt people with his power and feared too much that it would go out of control. His inside might be able to take the extra heat and the gas needed to start a fire but his body was not immune to it. He would likely burn too. And the satisfaction of her foul mouth being doused by napalm was not worth dying.

[Olivia Chance]

Wait...he was a fire manipulator?

"That explains why you piss me off. You control the opposite element." That didn't change the fact she wanted to give the guy frostbite of course. However, she didn't have good power control, evidenced by the stupid vase shattering.

"A camera does not prove you're a photographer. Tourists have cameras too, but they're really just shutterbugs. Of course, that's better than the paparazzi who are more like mosquioes. I really doubt you're a true photographer. Photographers are artists, and you're just stalking a guy with a camera in your hands. Big deal."

[Quinn Wiley]

Quinn frowned as she claimed the reason she was so angry at him was the fact they had opposite powers. He thought she pissed him off because everyone did. He didn’t need a particular reason to dislike her. “I don’t really control fire,” he admitted in a grumble. “I just make some.” One could argue it was the same but Quinn just liked correcting her for the sake of correcting her. Still, he supposed saying he could breathe fire sounded better than throwing up combustible gas than igniting it.

He looked down at his camera. He knew that his attitude might make him look more of a paparazzo than a great photographer. But what choice did he have? He barely knew anyone at school and they knew him even less. He doubted any would agree to let him take their picture if he asked. “I think that’s what it means. In Italian,” he pointed out when she compared paparazzi to mosquitoes. He was insulted though when she refused to take him seriously. “I am a photographer,” he argued again, with more strength in his words. Zoe was not the only one whose work should be liked by all. “This is... just a different project,” he added, looking away from her. Yeah, he had been stalking this guy but that didn’t mean he had no talent and was no artist.

[Olivia Chance]

"Whatever. You can make some. I control water and I'm connected to it...like through my spirit or something. And they're opposing elements. Therefore even if it doesn't affect you to the point where you get pissed at me, I'm pissed at you. And I'm normally in control of my emotions!" And she was kind of a control freak about it so this was extremely annoying. She gave a small growl of frustration, raking her fingernails through her hair, annoyed.

"And that project involves following around a guy taking pictures. Are you a professional stalker or just an amateur one? You're not paparazzi apparently...so I guess you're an amateur. Maybe you're gay and have a thing for that guy?" Why did she say that like she had something against gays? She was attracted to both genders herself. Things were just slipping out of her mouth without her permission.

[Quinn Wiley]

“If you say so,” he said with a shrug. He didn’t think the way he acted or who he disliked less had anything to do with power compatibility but if she wanted to believe that, it was her problem. Quinn knew he was not what people expected of fire manipulators. For some reason, they seemed to think they had to be warm-hearted and energetic. Those were not the words you’d use when referring to Quinn. His personality matched more that of water elementals, or ice maybe. Again, it wasn’t like he cared. “I’m more of a dragon,” he still felt like pointing out. But yeah, as she said, he could make fire, so he supposed he was connected to that element.

He looked at her and his expression clearly showed he had a hard time thinking she controlled anything, let alone her emotions. He had to admit, that vase breaking because of her created its effect. The fact a human body was mostly made of water crossed his mind for a second. Would it be just as easy to hurt someone that way? He preferred not to think about it. Not like it stayed on his mind long when she kept humiliating him. “What!? No, I’m not gay!” he defended himself. The question did offend him, even though he had nothing against gay people, but it was mostly the implication that he would be stalking a crush like a creep that he couldn’t take. “You don’t know that guy. He’s a jerk. Why do I even bother trying to explain to you? You decided that because we have opposite powers you can’t like me, it’s not like I should expect you to understand anything I say.”

[Olivia Chance]

"You're calling him a jerk? Firstly, are you sure you know what he's been through? He could be a jerk for a reason. Also, you calling someone a jerk is the pot calling the kettle black!" She shook her head.

"I didn't decide that my powers meant I couldn't like you. I am being extra mean right now though, when usually I'm not. And usually I'm in complete control!"

[Quinn Wiley]

“I’m not a jerk, I’m...” But Quinn stopped. Explaining to her would be way too time consuming. Not to add that he wasn’t quite sure what he was. Ugh, this whole conversation was so frustrating. As expected though, she took the guy’s side, even claiming that he probably had a good reason for acting the way he did. “His reason is that he likes to go after smaller and weaker people and make them even smaller and weaker so he could feel powerful,” he stated, spite in his voice. Of course he hated guys like that. He had three cousins who were like that and loved to remind him he was not a jock and would never be popular. As if he cared about popularity! Alright, maybe a little.

“Really?” he let out when she argued again that she had perfect control of herself normally. “Because if me bumping into you causes you to lash out like this, I’d say you don’t control a lot,” he pointed out. Quinn decided to shrug, ignoring her for a moment, looking around at the other people and even the door he wished to get through right now and leave her behind. “Look, I don’t care. Hate me all you want, it’s not like it will change anything to me.”