Eyes on Fire

[Penelope Adams]

Opening the door to the bookstore where her cousin worked, Penelope's brown eyes immediately fell upon the bombshell blonde standing in front of the counter - with her charming cousin working his magic fingers. Penelope rolled her eyes and with furrowed brows, she stepped forward and placed herself right next to the gorgeous blonde.

"Hey Patchy," she said, her tone even. She turned her head to the blonde and gave her a quick smile. Then, she turned back to her cousin and placed a plastic bag (which only contained lunch for her favorite cousin, naturally). "Here you go. You know, it's for your little problem... down there," she said, nodding to somewhere behind and below the surface of the counter.

Turning to the blonde, Penelope cupped her mouth and whispered. "The poor thing's got a severe case of the crabs." At that, Penelope shrugged as if saying 'what can you do'.

Patch Adams

[Patch Adams]

"So I'll see you tonight at the bar?" Patch grinned at the girl who smiled shyly at him and shrugged. "Maybe." She responded before sliding his phone towards him. "You'll have to call me first." She said just as another person entered the conversation. It happened to be his younger cousin, Penelope.

Her jab at his non-existent problem had the blonde eyeing Patch with a bit of confusion and disgust. Patch snorted and slid the paper bag closer to him and looked in. "Oh so you already took the pregnancy test? Who do you think it is, Jake? The football team? Oh no, don't tell me it's the lacrosse team?" Patch feigned horror before rolling his eyes.

The blonde was now completely confused. "My cousin's always been jealous of the girls I talk to. Either she wants me for herself or she doesn't like the competition." He shrugged the same shrug Penelope did and the blonde's eyes turned to Penelope and then she hurried out of the store with the purchase.

"Aw, Nelly. I liked that one."

[Penelope Adams]

A smirk painted the brunette's lips; she enjoyed the banter. "Well, you know me," she shrugged and even added a heavy sigh for dramatic effect. "Can never be too sure. I mean, there was an orgy. But you know what they say. What happens at church camp, stays at church camp." She looked over at the blonde and offered her an apologetic smile.

The funny thing was that Penelope was a prude, one hundred percent autentic virgin.

"Yes," she said, nodding in agreement. "Very jealous. The last girl that went out with him, suddenly woke up without hair..." She let the statement hang in the air and watched as the blonde took her departure before turning to face her cousin once more. "Please," she snorted. "She's way out of your league."

She walked around the counter to the side Patch was standing on and hoisted herself up on top of the counter and crossed her legs. "Have you gotten any new books in lately? I finished my last batch."

[Patch Adams]

"I'm still convinced the only reason your parents sent you to church camp was so that the counsellors there could compel the demon out of you." He paused, letting the blonde just stare at them both. "I mean, they obviously didn't do a good job of it but, really, you can't kill the devil when it looks like an angel." Patch reached out and ruffled the younger Adams' hair.

Patch slipped his phone into his back pocket and sighed, waving to the girl before rolling his eyes. "You wound me. I mean, I got her digits. We're going out tonight." He knocked on the cashier counter and slid a little to give her space. He took out his lunch from the paper bag and started digging in.

"Mom said we'll be getting a new batch by this weekend. I'm worried about you, Nels. You need to get out more and not bury yourself in those books of yours." He said after swallowing his food. He was joking of course but the younger mutant already knew that. He could not play the concerned older cousin even if he tried.

"Emma misses you. She keeps asking for her big cousin Pennelpy." He grinned. His baby sister was still trying to sound out words properly and Penelope's name was a mouthful for her.

[Penelope Adams]

Penelope tried to move away from the touch with a grunt. "Well, at least they tried," she shrugged. "Can't really blame them for failing." Although, the ironic part was that her parents, her dads, were probably the most loopy people she'd ever met. She hadn't inherited much from them - at least not when it came to personality traits. They were like living cartoon characters.

"Wow," she said, widing her eyes mockingly. "You got yourself a crazy one. Congratulation." She would never really understand people's facination with each other. Or rather, she didn't understand the desire or need to... Date.

Penelope rested her hands in her lap as she let her brown eyes slide over the floor behind the counter. "I don't have time for people," she said matter-of-factly. "Other than my dear cousin, of course," she added with a smirk. He was probably one of the few people she genuinly enjoyed being around for a longer amount of him. He'd ought to consider himself rather blessed, but in truth, Penelope didn't crave human connection the way her peers seemed to.

"Oh yeah?" she said, nodding. "She's getting big, isn't she?"

[Patch Adams]

Patch snorted, knowing that the running joke between him and Penelope about church camp was exactly that, a joke. They've embellished the joke more and more everytime it came up and it was always around the people Penelope was trying to scare off from Patch.

"Oh shut up. She's hot." Patch rolled his eyes and looked out the window and waved when he saw the girl looking back. She looked weirdly at them both before walking away. "Well, there goes the dinner." He shrugged and ate another bite of the lunch Penelope brought for him. "Thank you for this. I was going to just eat cake for lunch." He said with his mouth still full.

Nodding, Patch gave her a grin. "She still thinks my name's cool though. So not...that big. We still have to wean her off calling me Batch." He chuckled. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be in school? Are you skipping? Should I call Uncle Lou over here?"

[Penelope Adams]

"There's more to-" she began, but cut herself off and rolled her eyes instead. There was no point, she figured. People often took someone's apperance in account before even considering their personality, and Patch seemed to be no different. She could hardly blame him though. The girl was hot. "I could always cook you something," she said with a shrug. It wasn't as if she often got the chance to cook for anyone anyways.

And she supposed it was some sort of conselation prize. She wasn't exactly a hot blonde and the two of them was related, but hey, at least it was better than no cooked dinner, no?

"Batch," Penelope snorted. "Now that's cute," she added with a grin. Batch. She had to remember that. However, Penelope's attention was pulled towards the boy once more. "Me, skipping? Please," she snorted once more. "Free period." She didn't think she'd ever skipped a class in her life.

[Patch Adams]

Oh Patch was definitely someone who judged a book by it's cover. Aesthetics helped a lot in his decisions to flirt. Not that he would pass anyone up if they were receptive to the flirtation but it did help when the recipient of his charms were attractive.

Penelope's offer to cook him something for dinner was met with a coo. "Aww, Nelly! You're so sweet. I'll take you up on that offer. Mom and dad brought Emma to visit some friend and won't be back until tomorrow so it was either takeout or starve. But I'll only eat if you eat with me."

Rolling his eyes when Penelope agreed that Batch was cute, Patch shrugged and continued with his lunch. Knowing that she spent her free period visiting him had him cooing again. "You're all kinds of sweet today. You want money, is that it?" He teased.

[Penelope Adams]

"As if I'd bother cooking for you if I'm not going to eat it myself," she snorted with a roll to her eyes. She was fond of her cousin, sure, but she wasn't quite so fond of him that she'd give him free food without having a taste of it herself. Well, save for the lunch she'd made for him, of course.

Laughing, the brunette threw her hands up. "A million dollars would be nice. You know, to pay off my future student loans and all, but I doubt you have that kind of cash lying around." The dream walker slid down from the counter and stretched her arms.

"I just realized something earlier, you know?" She looked off into the distance, staring at nothing in particular. "You'd starve without me," she added with a smirk.

[Patch Adams]

Patch chuckled as he pushed aside the lunch for a bit when a customer came up to the counter. He patted Penelope aside so he could ring up the purchases, being as friendly as ever to the customer who walked away with a smile on his face.

"Jesus, Pen. I thought you needed pocket money to buy magazines and lipgloss." He laughed and continued to finish his lunch.

Turning to face her with a raised eyebrow, he couldn't help giving her a look of agreement. "I would. Although I mean...I do know how to cook. I just...can't be bothered to do it unless mom's tired." He shrugged. "And, you know you'd be miserable without having someone to cook for so we're like symbiotic or something."

[Penelope Adams]

Penelope moved out of the way to let Patch handle the customer. In the meantime, she let her eyes run over the cozy bookstore once more. She'd always liked this place. The smell of books and the various interior felt... Comfortable.

"Mm-hm," she replied distantly. "That's exactly the kind of things I'd waste my money on. You know, since there's so many starving people and animals out there, the world surely needs yet another self absorbed teenager."

She nodded in agreement. "I would be," she said. "Besides, I'd... Like the company." Most of her dinners and lunches was spent alone. She wasn't sad about it. Not really. But sometimes it was nice having someone to chat with, you know?

[Patch Adams]

"My cousin, ever the philanthropist." Patch chuckled. Like his uncles would actually raise such a teenager. Although as well-adjusted Penelope seemed to be, Patch still worried that the girl was not properly utilising her youth. Of course, he wasted his but he was slowly trying to catch up.

Smiling at her response, he nodded and ate his last piece before putting the trash into the paper bag and rolling it up. "Where you heading next? Back to school or scamming on some bros?"

[Penelope Adams]

Looking over at her cousin, Penelope shrugged. "Back to school," she said. "I have a deadline for the newspaper that needs to be finished before 11:59 AM," she added with a sigh. She honestly couldn't wait for high school to be over.

Running her fingers through her hair, Penelope rounded the counter and leaned against it. She rested her chin against the palm of her hand and pouted. "You're so lucky you're done with school." She didn't think this was much of a career, but at least he wasn't stuck in high school.

[Patch Adams]

"Today?" Patch asked, looking over at the clock and grimaced. "Yikes. You should go. I mean, I like when you hang out because you're like a designated wingman for me but...jeez why do you even have such a tight deadline? I'm surprised you didn't pass it up like three hours ago." He shrugged before mimicking her act of running his fingers through his hair.

He nodded at her statement. "I am. School wasn't for me anyway. I was surprised they even gave me a diploma. I'm assuming you're going straight to an Ivy League?"

Patch didn't really have a vision of his future. The fact that he was in this bookstore was only to make his parents happy. They had signed over the store to him and he was keeping it until they passed. What would come after that, he didn't even know. But he wasn't going to hold on to this place.

[Penelope Adams]

Sighing heavily, the brunette felt more like sulking than anything. "Because it's stupid. They had me writing about Bellefonte's fashion. And we're all wearing uniforms," she said with a shake of her head. That wasn't the worst part though; Penelope had no interest in writing about fashion. That wasn't why she was doing this.

The next part had the dream walker smiling though; That was the dream, wasn't it? She only wished she could get enough points to actually do it. "That's the plan," she replied with a small smile. "But I'm not keeping my hopes up just yet."

Although, she wished she wasn't as determined. She had little time for anything other than school. Of course, she didn't care much for having a social life, but sometimes she wondered if she was missing out on something really amazing.