{SB} Hellfire

[Lucy James]

Wearing her strapless, black bikini, Lucy lay besides the pool area on one of the sunbeds. Most of the students seemed to be busy with something else, so the pool area was mostly empty. They weren't too far away from Mexico, so it was fairly warm. Warm enough to lick some sun and enjoy the change of weather. Montana was still somewhat cold around this time of year, but Mexico was something else entirely.

Gazing at the various people passing her by through the shield of her sunglasses, Lucy remained perfectly still. She wasn't really one for licking sun, but she didn't have much else to do. At least not until they arrived in Mexico. Once they did, she would start mapping out the area to make her escape. Hopefully, she'd get far enough away before anyone noticed that she was gone, and then she'd be free at last.

Reaching for her glass, the brunette sighed as she noticed that it was empty. Pushing herself up, the brunette stretched her arms and looked around for a server; there didn't seem to be anyone in sight. Great, just her damned luck. Turning, the blue eyed girl, made her way towards the stairs. Her eyes gazed over the ocean as she was struck with the familiar sense of a power nearby. Slowly, her eyes moved towards the top of the stairs and her lips pressed into a tight line.

"I'd hoped you'd be in jail by now," she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Can't win 'em all, I 'spose," she slurred, her Southern accent more apparent than usual.

[Taylor McCarthy]

Taylor hadn't spent much time inside during the trip. His roommate was cool enough, but he seemed sort of tepid and only wanted to talk about his girl all the time and that just wasn't really Taylor's bag. Instead, the ever curious boy opted to explore the ship, converse with it's crew, people watch, and generally just wander around as much as possible in hopes of stumbling upon something interesting. It certainly didn't help that most of the interesting things on the ship happened to usually be clad in very revealing bikinis and summer attire.

One such bikini, a black strapless number, had caught Taylor's eye for a very different reason than the subtly curvy body it was barely covering. He'd idly wondered if the girl who's name he still didn't know was going to be among those making the trip to Mexico. After the night of heavy petting in the manager's office of some shady club in Kalispell, Taylor had the girl pegged as a mutant. There was no way a normal human reacted that quickly. It was as if she'd absorbed his power somehow and used it to jump one step ahead of him. It all just made too much sense.

"Oh, yeah, you know." He said, his tone light, allowing his own accent to shine through cheerfully. "I did a nickel up in Chino." Taylor's grin was ever present as he moved beside the girl. Much like many of the other denizens of he ship, he was clad in just a pair of shorts and sandals. A t-shirt was tucked into the waistband of his shorts and hung off to the side.  "I got out early for good behavior."  He glanced in the girl's direction.  "That was quite a trick you pulled that night."  He admitted, not angry at all.  In fact, he sounded almost impressed.  "I know when I've been bested."  He then revealed the tumbler glasses he had in each hand, both filled part way with ice and a deep, brown liquid.  "To the victor goes the spoils."  He said, handing one of the glasses of whiskey over.

[Lucy James]

Studying the boy ever so cautiously, Lucy's lips pursed in something similar to that of a vague smirk. "Chino," she nodded, "And suddenly it all makes a lot of sense." Though, she was hardly one to judge bad neighborhoods, considering how she'd been raised in a trailer park in Alabama herself. But with that, she knew exactly what to be expected when venturing into neighborhoods, like say, Chino. "That's a shame," she noted. Well, at least she knew for sure that the boy was a student - or a teacher; she seemed to have a luck with running into those, but the boy hardly had the authority that usually followed with being an academy official.

"Good," she replied, "Better get used to it." Though, in all honesty, Lucy had simply been lucky and mimicked his power without meaning to. She didn't have many cards left for surprise. At least, not like that. At least now, the boy knew what he was dealing with and she didn't doubt that he would be a lot harder to trick the next time around. If there ever came a next time anyways. Taking the glass as it was offered, the brunette lifted it to her lips and downed it in one go before handing the glass back.

Though, the brunette had no interest in lingering around the boy for too long, considering what had happened the last time. She didn't enjoy people reading her as easily as the boy had. Thankfully, the sunglasses offered some protection from exactly that. Moving a few steps further up the stairs, Lucy looked at him over her shoulder. "I heard they're giving away potatoes for free down by the kitchen. Better hurry along before they give them all away."

[Taylor McCarthy]

"Oh, yeah?" Taylor smirked. He was always smirking, or smiling, or grinning. It never ended. He didn't come off as a particularly cheery boy, quite the contrary, he always seemed level and even-keeled. Even when running from irate club owners he barely broke a sweat. It was as if he understood that whatever was happening in front of him at any given moment was exactly what was supposed to be happening. "Well, then, I guess I need a little more practice, wouldn't you say? I can't very well go around losing all the time to a girl." Another playful grin turned in Lucy's direction.

Lucy's empty glass was accepted and, without missing a beat, Taylor simply placed it upon a small, decorative fixture positiononed just above the railing of the stairs and moved to slowly wander along beside her. "Oh, I already visited that." He replied coolly. "That's the whole reason I came here, you know? I heard about the free potatoes and thought maybe I could nick me enough of them to send back home to my mother." He took a deep breath and sighed wistfully on the exhale. "Because Lord knows my poor family could feed themselves for a week with just a few potatoes."

But Taylor was quick to switch the conversation topic. "What about you?" He asked curiously. "You're still insisting you don't like people and then working it out so you happen to always be around them, I see. What gives? You don't seem the type to be lounging around on beaches watching the sunset."

[Lucy James]

"Guess you'll just have to get used to losing," she replied simply. She had no intention of losing to him - or even going head to head again. For all she cared, she didn't even have to meet the boy again. She would have been perfectly fine with that. But unlike the others, the boy wasn't quite as easy to piss off and that probably annoyed her even more than what their previous interactions had. It would have been so much simpler if he found her annoying like everyone else did.

And of course, he didn't take the hint and instead, decided to follow her. Rolling her eyes, she shook her head as she continued up the stairs. "Would be a shame if someone put poison in them before they arrived at your home- actually, no, that would be rather amazing," she commented absentmindedly.

"I'm not," she replied simply and left it at that. The boy had no need to know of her plans, and she had no interest in sharing. Continuing up the stairs and over the upper deck, she hoped the boy would lose interest at that, but knowing him, he probably wouldn't. She was just that lucky, it seemed. 

[Taylor McCarthy]

"Yeah, suppose I might." He said simply. Taylor preferred not to think too far ahead. It was entirely possible the girl would continue to remain one step ahead of him. He'd have to give her credit for it, if she managed to keep it up, after all, Taylor wasn't one to be easily fooled twice. He could now internally admit to being fully drawn to the girl, even though it would take a bit more thought to figure out why. For all he knew it could have been the bikini that hugged her body and pointed out all the tourist attractions.

"Oh, you don't know much about us Irish, do you?" Taylor replied, chuckling softly. "We've iron stomachs. Comes from all the potatoes and whiskey." And with that he lifted the glass he was carrying to his lips and followed suit, downing the drink and placing it on the closest fixture as they continued up the stairs to the top deck. "Has anyone told you you're quite lovely when planning the murder of a family?"

"That's a shame." He said, moving along without missing a beat. Lucy could throw out all the one word answers and scathing remarks she pleased. She could hide behind her sunglasses, try to get away, but Taylor saw through it all. He'd gotten just a glimpse of the girl before and there was something that had stuck with him. An itch he couldn't scratch. "You should try it. There's few things in the world more relaxing than that."

[Lucy James]

"Really interesting," she replied blandly. God, he just wouldn't stop, would he? And that stupid accent too; whoever found that charming was clearly delusional. It sounded like he was choking on a damn potato every time he opened his mouth. "Not as often as when they compliment me when I actually go through with it." She tossed him a glance at that, the corner of her lips tugging upwards into something of an absent smirk.

"That's debatable," she replied. As Lucy was the type to find most people annoying, she didn't enjoy crowds of them all that much. "I mean, if they're on the floor, bleeding out, I might have found it a little more relaxing." She could think of one person she'd like to execute first... Now, she had to survive the trip until they arrived in Mexico. She could totally do that. Without killing anyone. Right?

[Taylor McCarthy]

"Yeah?" Taylor asked, his voice taking on an almost curious and serious tone as he spoke. His eyes shifted to look at Lucy again as they walked. She continued to be evasive and attempted to be menacing in some sort of way but it wasn't working. She'd have to go a long way to convince him she was actually capable of mass murder, as it were, and he found it all to be a very amusing game. "Bleeding, you say? That doesn't sound like poison is your weapon of choice. You seem like a knife kinda of gal. Up close and personal. Like you want to look them in the eyes while you do it."

Or she was simply spouting complete bullshit in an desperate attempt to get a rise out of him. It was almost as if Lucy seemed to think everyone was the same while she was the unique one. Like she didn't realize people did things for entirely different reasons and not everyone was going to get riled up over some mindless ramblings. "You're feisty, I'll give you that. May be you can tell me more about your plans for murder over a couple drinks tonight?

[Lucy James]

"Maybe that's just what I want you to think." Though, had she known what he was thinking, she would have agreed. She wasn't capable of murder. Sure, she was capable of violence - to some degree, but actually killing someone? She didn't know if she'd gut that. Sure, she had seen her fair share of people OD in front of her, and although she had been through various "adventures" before being picked up by the school, actually killing someone wasn't one of those things. At least, not that she knew of.

His question had the brunette stopping in her tracks. Turning her head, she looked at him with furrowed brows. Was he serious? It brought a sudden laughter from the girl and she shook her head slowly. "Either you're incredibly dense, or you simply don't give a fuck. Either way, you should probably go try that charm with someone more willing. I saw this blonde bombshell down on the lower deck, she'd probably be more than interested in throwing herself your way. You're barking up the wrong tree here, son. Move along."

[Taylor McCarthy]

That was the thing about Lucy, that Taylor suspected. She didn't know what he was thinking while he had a pretty good idea what was running through her mind. Her silence, her body language, the way she abrasively responded to his every word. It all spoke volumes. It all gave Taylor a surprisingly easy to read image of who she really was and every time her mouth opened it did nothing to deter his pursuit, but served to spur on his curiosity. "Oh, so now you're admitting to caring about what I think?" She probably hadn't meant to let that little tidbit show but Taylor was quick to pounce.

When the stream of words began to spill from Lucy's lips, telling Taylor where he should be 'barking', to use her own term, Taylor could only grin. It was a grin that slowly spread across his face the longer she spoke. Lucy had said a great many things and she was right on a couple points. He truly didn't give a rat's ass, he actually should be spending his time more constructively, and he'd seen the blonde Lucy was talking about and probably could play the girl like a fiddle, especially if alcohol was involved. There was one, huge, glaring omission in Lucy's rant, though, that had Taylor seem to think he'd actually made progress.

Casually, Taylor looked at the watched upon his wrist. He had already made plans that needed tending to. The girl had only been a welcome detour on the way to his originally intended destination. "You didn't say no." He pointed out, his dark, expressive eyes lifting to catch Lucy's. "I've got to run." He said, starting to back away from the girl, his hands finding the pockets of his shorts. "There's a small party area near the front of the ship that's off-limits at night. It's easy to find." He grinned, moving to start back down the stairs, gaze remaining locked upon Lucy's. "Meet me there right after sundown." And with that, Taylor turned and started off on his way.

[Lucy James]

Rolling her eyes, the brunette shook her head. "You wish," she replied. He clearly enjoyed twisting her words to his own benefit. That much was obvious. Everything she said he seemed to take in stride and make some stupid conclusion out of, when it was rarely meant as anything other than her simply being rude. He was frustrating and she wanted absolutely nothing more to do with him.

Clearly, he didn't have the same idea as she had. "I might as well hav-" she began, but stopped as he continued talking. Really? Really? "You'll be waiting a very long--" and then he turned around without any regards of her response. A frustrated groan escaped the brunette's lips. Apparently, her rude remarks hadn't been clear enough. There was no chance in hell she would go to the party.

Nope. No chance. Never. Ever. No way.