{SCE} A Bee Where You Pee

[Charity Croft]

Charity came sprinting out of the pit latrine squealing and waving her hands through her hair. She'd at least taken the time to pull her pants back up around her waist, though she was only just now getting to the whole actually buttoning them part of things. Except that she hadn't quite gotten to that point yet, what with all the screaming and flailing and general panic and all that good stuff.

Charity being Charity, her flailing foot managed to collide with a log, sending her tumbling to the ground. Her hair caught several leaves and bits of dirt, eventually pulling her to a stop. unfortunately, her capris kept going for a bit, resulting in her lunging down to grab them, which meant that she ended up feeling the pull on her hair and falling back, letting out a loud ow, wincing and reaching up to rub at her head.

Soon Charity was wiggling and moving, eventually pulling herself mostly to a sitting position, looking around. As soon as she spotted someone, Charity felt it necessary to explain herself, twisting to point at the latrine: "There was a bee," she said, "or a wasp: I'm not really--something that buzzed and head a stinger." Which was all you really needed to know about the situation, right?

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina smirked and knelt down to get eye level with the woman she’d quickly come to despise above anybody else here, “Aww pobrecita,” she mocked gently her voice holding zero sympathy. “Do you need some help?” she asked with a cruel smile. God, it was so worth waking up today just to see this. Her blatant joy at Charity’s misfortunes didn’t worry her in the slightest. Bitch had it coming as far as she was concerned and she had to take what good she could find, right? After all, "troubled" students needed as much optimism as they could get... or something

    Selina then paused, as if in deep thought, “Oh, but wait… what was it you said? Something about me being ‘trouble’?” Selina sighed as if greatly saddened by the remembrance, “Guess that means I have to live up to your expectations… wouldn’t want to disappoint such a bigoted puta, now would I?” Her overly kind and concerned features parodying a matron saint. What the fuck did she care what the consequences could be? This woman was of literally no interest to her, but Selina was having fun making her day slightly more miserable… and now that she knew the woman feared bees… well, that was just a bonus wasn’t it?

[Charity Croft]

Wonderful, it was the Hispanic girl who hated Charity for reasons that the trainer did not quite understand. She looked up at the girl. Again Selina sounded almost pleasant, offering Charity a chance to get up. "That would be---" Charity began, only to stop as Selina started talking, again flipping things. once more Charity found herself sighing with resignation, knowing that she was in for yet another jab and...

trouble? Charity's brow furrowed. "What? I never--" she tried, but Selina was going on, insulting Charity further. The trainer let out a "hey!" struggling to get her pants into a decent position and getting upright. "That's no way to talk to a trainer!" she insisted, wishing that she wasn't struggling with her pants at the same time she was attempting to sound authoritative. Then again, it seemed as though Charity was always fighting against something.

"And we haven't even met before the other day," Charity pointed out as she got to her feet. "So why would I think you were trouble? They gave me your name when I propositioned this trip," Charity was fumbling with her button, looking out for another bee attack, and attempting to look at the student at the same time, not at all helped by her power giving her all sorts of gut information regarding how Selina's water manipulation worked. "I mean, I have a file on you just like everyone else, but you seem like one of those who--- is that the bee?" Charity was already starting to duck again, desperate to get away from anything that could hurt her.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina raised a brow at the trainer’s denial. “So, you’re either a coward or just ignorant… not much of an improvement,” Selina stated before absently waving a bee away. She’d been stung before, and it really wasn’t that bad. Why this woman was so terrified of a damn bug was beyond her. Selina then looked over the woman before her carefully, trying to judge whether or not she could have been wrong about her. Selina had a tendency to overreact to teachers mumbling anything when she walked past, particularly anything regarding “trouble”. She’d been harassed and bullied by teachers before when the man who’d assaulted her claimed she was a liar so her paranoia wasn’t exactly ill-founded.


    Selina took an interest in what Charity was saying and paused, “I seem like ‘one of those who-’ what?” she asked warily as she made no move to help the woman in front of her. Charity would get no quarter from Selina until Selina knew for sure what was going on… and maybe not even then. This woman wasn’t exactly the most likeable person Selina had ever met, and she held no pity or sympathy for Charity’s struggles. Selina’s wrath wasn’t something that would just fade in a span of minutes.


    “And who’s ‘they’?” Selina asked, curious as to who had suggested she come. If this was solely the result of her past actions, she would be furious.

[Charity Croft]

Coward or ignorant? Charity stared at Selina, wondering yet again what she'd done to get this sort of tongue lashing form the young woman. Charity swore she kept seeing motion behind the girl, but she also couldn't quite pull away from her power working. At least she could tell that Selina probably couldn't do much with her unless some water appeared out of somewhere. Well, anything that would have involved mutant powers. Charity wasn't entirely sure that Selina couldn't have just outright kicked her butt.

There was a question, and it caused Charity to nearly jump, focusing back on the student. "One of those who's trying," she said flatly. Charity pulled again, getting her shorts fully on and stumbling to her feet. They definitely did not pay her enough for this, and if she didn't actually care about most of these students.

Charity knocked some loose bits of earth and leaves off her knees, frowning as she worked. "They," she repeated, looking away for a moment, knowing she'd need a bit more focus, "as in the administration. I had to get this trip approved for people and they," she looked back at Selina, willing herself to keep going, "gave me a list of people that I had to make sure went along. You were on that list. But your file says that you haven't done anything lately. You and, um," Charity's brow furrowed, "a few others. Like, uh," Charity closed one eye to think, "the quiet Hispanic kid? There were a few who are just here for a positive experience," Charity shrugged, then stretched to look over Selina's shoulder. "You sure you don't see the bee coming? Because I swear he was right behind me..."

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina glanced at the woman in slight surprise at her first answer and stayed silent until Charity spoke again. Her eyes narrowed as Charity continued and Selina huffed in disbelief as she stood up next to Charity, “Seriously? You believe I’m trying, yet I’m still sent here because the administration wants me to have a ‘positive experience’? I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you,” she added with a disdainful glance. “Or is it perhaps that retrograde Kalispell can’t handle the idea of non-white students not being ‘trouble’?” she asked with an antagonistic glare.

    “You say that the both of us are here on a trip that purposefully labels its students as bad, just for fun? Do they have any idea how the teachers and other students are going to look at us? How we’re going to be treated?” Selina’s fury at the woman, the school, and life in general was preventing her from saying anything further. She was quite literally speechless and she needed to hit something before she ended up hitting this woman.

    I thought that this school would actually be an improvement, but clearly I was wrong, she thought as she turned and paced, trying to calm herself before she ended up charged with assaulting another teacher. She certainly didn't need to confirm any stereotypes this woman or the school had about Latino violence, because as fucked up as it was, her actions could end up reflecting on her entire ethnicity, regardless of how many white students had done the same or worse. Of course, she could be entirely wrong, and part of her desperately wanted this teacher to allay her fears, but Selina wouldn't dare hope for that.  

[Charity Croft]

oh great, now Charity was getting more of the third degree. She wanted to just crawl into a hole, or maybe explain how she really wasn't judging the student based on appearance or anything. She'd just been given a file and a set of orders and she really didn't have any shot to say no. A no would have meant that this trip didn't happen, and Charity firmly believed, even with all the evidence to the contrary, that this would be a positive experience for everyone involved.

"This is supposed to be an enjoyable, different, character building experience," Charity tried to explain, remembering what she'd said to pitch the idea. "The idea is to give you all a chance to try things out in a new environment, to see what it's like to be out in the outdoors, away from everything."

Yeah, that definitely sounded like what Charity had said to people. It didn't seem to be having too much of an effect on the angry girl. How they were going to be treated?

"No one besides a few staffers knows why you're all here," Charity said bluntly, pulling herself fully upright and managing to dust herself off. "Like I said: we actually had a few students who volunteered. So the only reason anyone would think less of you is if you told them," Charity felt like smiling at that, but she instead braced for more anger, just knowing it was coming.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina studied the woman carefully, but she didn’t notice anything hinting that Charity could be lying. Selina sighed as she wasn’t completely unable to be reasoned with, but she still felt like there was something… off about this entire trip. She wasn’t sure what though. Selina then shrugged and absently stared as the bee flew over to a nearby flower bush. She felt her anger slowly draining, but that didn’t mean she liked the woman in front of her any more than she had a few seconds ago.


    Selina glared at the woman’s smug expression and was tempted to wipe it off Charity’s face with her fist, but she didn’t. Punching teachers had never worked out well for her in the past, and she wasn’t about to get violent just because she was angry. She knew better. She was just… tempted. “And those staff won’t put anything on our permanent record?” she asked, just to verify. She really didn’t need anything else going against her at this point in time. Besides why the hell had she said "our"? Was she feeling protective of a kid she barely knew? He could take care of himself. Selina just wrote it off as solidarity… or something. Nothing worth getting distracted by right now at the very least.

[Charity Croft]

Well, at least the girl didn't seem too violent. Charity was still putting her threat level above the bee that had driven her out here in the first place, but it didn't seem like her life was in any immediate danger. The question was one that she hadn't quite expected though.

Charity shifted her stance, working her lips while she thought. "I don't think it would? It might be mentioned that you attended this trip but, like I said, they're not going to mention why. Well, it might be on some slip somewhere that you were recommended by the school to go along, but it's not like that's really going to count against you. If anything, it'll count for you. Assuming that there's not, like, a bad report or something..."

Charity trailed off there, realizing what she'd said too late. Technically it could come off like a threat, like she could totally write a report that would do something to Selina or whoever this "our" was. She hadn't meant it like that, but she wasn't sure how she could make that clear...

[Selina Taylor]

Selina glared at the woman, her gaze gone cold as she stood up to her full height as well. Everything had shut down. There was nothing left of her except for what was needed to keep functioning on the most basic level. Charity had touched a chord that Selina hadn’t dealt with in years. “I see,” was her only reply to Charity’s threat, before she turned and started to walk away.


    The only thing she could focus on was getting away and getting out. Selina had no other thought in her mind. She was walking normally, as if nothing in the world was wrong, because any signal to her enemy that something was off, would work against her. Charity looked nothing like the teacher who’d threatened and sexually assaulted her, but the situation was close enough in nature to trigger her.


    Selina was hyperaware of Charity behind her, and should the woman make a move Selina’s entire body was tensed for fight or flee. There was rage underneath at all, and fear she would never admit to. Either way, she now realized just how far she had to go before this particular wound healed enough to scar.

[Charity Croft]

There was that cold glare, and then the one word. One word was all it took to make Charity flinch. How could she respond to that, really? It felt like the girl had taken Charity's statement precisely as Charity had dreaded she would. Well, it might be putting her foot further into her mouth, but Charity couldn't just let the comment lie.

"I wouldn't," she said, moving to follow Selina a little, at least enough to explain. "I mean, I would if you, like, actually did anything, but you've done nothing but sort of snap at me, which, like," Charity rolled her eyes, "everyone here does, so it would be kind of stupid to-- look," Charity finished, sighing, "I'm not your enemy, or, I don't want to be."

She couldn't help but sound a little defeated at that. This whole experience had started with humiliation, and Charity was really beginning to feel like she was just destined to keep failing at this over and over...

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina tensed slightly as the woman followed her, but controlled herself and forced herself to keep walking as if nothing was wrong. Selina barely heard what the woman was saying, so focused was she on not reacting physically. But she understood the basis of it and her tension eased a fraction as she realized the woman wasn’t going to physically attack. Not that she’d truly expected it, but in her mindset, she’d been prepared for anything.


    Selina remained silent for a while as she thought over Charity’s words before speaking, “Can I go now?” was her only response. Selina would be able to fully process Charity’s words once she was away from the current situation, but right now she couldn’t think past her basic need to fight or run. Her adrenaline was so high, she couldn’t focus and her mind was clouded.


    The severity of the particular trigger that Charity had unwittingly stepped on was not allowing her to be rational. Selina needed a few hours to herself to be able to pull herself together, or else she was going to snap.

[Charity Croft]

Something was going on there. Charity didn't know for certain, but she'd definitely been trained in all the signs. For that matter, they'd refreshed all the training for the signs right before leaving on the trip. Being stiff, not liking the touch, the terseness, the utter rejection...

...suddenly Charity was feeling a lot less sorry for herself and wondering a lot more if there was something she could do for this girl. Except that she had this feeling that if she tried now, if she stuck around, if she tried to say something, she'd just make things worse. Too much and there would be too wide a gulf between them.

Charity didn't want that; she'd said as much. Still, she hesitated for a few moments, standing there, waiting. she nodded after a few seconds though. Charity didn't have to leave; she just had to give permission. Let Selina leave; she probably needed that... and maybe report this incident, see if there was something she could do about it later.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina was grateful the Charity woman had let her go, if she'd known that Charity was thinking about reporting anything, she probably would have reacted in a far more drastic manner, but as it was she didn't have the ability to read minds, nor was she even capable of thinking about future consequences to her current actions other than the fact that she needed to leave right now or else there's be a lot more to regret later.

    Selina walked away, forcing her pace to remain even until she got out of sight before running for the lake. The water. Her element. She didn't even think as she walked into the water. Her clothes getting heavy didn't bother her in the slightest. She ducked under and held herself there for a minute before coming back up for air. She would change out of her clothes later, but for right now she simply remained where she was until her thoughts could calm.

    She would return to her tent and the camp in time, but for right now she just needed peace and quiet. Selina then walked up to shore and sat down on a rock to drip dry as she stared listlessly out over the water, allowing her racing thoughts to slowly ebb away and to start processing everything that had just happened.