{EDCT} Over My Head

[Penelope Adams]

A Hero - is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. Penelope snorted to herself. Now, she wouldn't go as far as claiming that she was some kind of hero, but she could in some ways relate to the saying. After all, here she was, on her way to the middle of nowhere, without access to anything she needed to live - a shower, her computer, her pad, internet... She wasn't exactly the outdoorsy type. Never had been.

Had she told her dads about this, signing up, they'd likely laugh and tell her it was way past April 1st.

She had her eyes closed as she leaned the side of her head against the cool glass. She'd positioned herself as far away from the gathering crowd as she possibly could and no one seemed to be in a hurry to take the seat next to her. Good. She wanted to be left alone. She wasn't here to socialize.

However, the sudden shift in the seat next to her had her eyes opening lazily and she cast a glance to the side from the corner of her eyes and almost audibly groaned. Him again.

He just wouldn't give her a rest. Was he some kind of sadist taking pleasure in her obvious annoyance? Sighing, she closed her eyes once more. "Paige."

[Trevor Paige]

Trevor was walking on air. With a bounce to his step he dutifully signed in, placed his duffel bag under the bus and all but leapt up the steps and started down the narrow aisle. This trip meant a lot of things to him, the least of which involved money and possibly illicit goods but that was hardly on his mind at the moment. He'd managed to procure a copy of the student manifest before the trip kicked off and there was one name on the list he mentally circled. And she just happened to be sitting by herself as far away from anyone else as she could possibly get.

"Me." Trevor replied without missing a beat. He didn't suspect for a moment that Penelope wouldn't know exactly who it was slipping into the seat beside her. He put on a bright smile that, for once, was actually indicative of how he really felt. This trip was going to be glorious on so many levels and he could scarcely contain his excitement. "You know, since we became partners I really was hoping you'd at least start calling me by my first name." He pointed out, though it was obvious he didn't much mind either way. He was already busy digging out a packet of peanuts and pulling it open. He shook a few out into his hand and popped them into his mouth before offering the pack to Penelope. "Peanut?" He asked. "Honey roasted."

[Penelope Adams]

"I prefer using your last name. It throws off any notion of us being friends." Also because Penelope didn't like being personal with, well, anyone. Save for maybe her fathers, but even with them there was a limit to just how personal she got. They'd grown used to her dismissive nature and rarely asked for her to be anything but herself. Well, except for the few times they asked her to be more social and not get so buried in her own head.

"I'm allergic," she replied dryly, her eyes still closed. Though, she supposed she could see a small victory in that. At least, that was something he didn't know. It might have been small, but at this rate, the brunette would take whatever she could possibly get. Even if it was something small and barely anything at all.

[Trevor Paige]

Trevor's eyes narrowed as Penelope gave her response. He gave a moment to contemplate whether or not she was being truthful or just messing with him, something she did far more often than she may have realized. Finally he gave a shrug of his shoulders and shook out a few more peanuts into his palm. "So, what's the deal?" He asked before pausing long enough to pop in the peanuts and chew a bit before continuing. "You don't come off as the outdoorsy type. Someone convince you a weekend roughing it in the woods would be a good way for you to get out and meet new people?"

And with that Trevor crumpled up the pack of peanuts and tucked them back into his pocket for later use. He brushed his hands off on each other before repositioning his pack on the floor so he wouldn't step on it. As if he couldn't take the hint that Penelope was wholly uninterested in talking with him, he withdrew the flyer announcing the camping trip and scanned over it even though he'd already committed the document to memory. "Ooooh." He said, pointing at one line, turning the page so Penelope could see it as well. "Archery lessons. I think I'll stay away from that one." He chuckled. "I get the feeling you might try and use me as a target."

[Penelope Adams]

"No," she replied with a tired sigh. She didn't really see any point in telling him why she was here. She was here for the sake of research and as simple as it may have sounded - after everything - she didn't want to repeat what had happened the other day and the best way to do exactly that, was pushing him away. And she was going to do that. In fact, she was going to fight for that.

Finally, the brunette opened her eyes, offering the boy a dry smile. "I'd say that's a pretty accurate assumption, but I don't exactly have the upper body strength to even use a bow. But fret not, Paige, the forest contains many other ways for me to get you." And with that, the brunette's eyes slid closed once more.

[Trevor Paige]

Trevor's eyes shifted sideways toward Penelope as she spoke. The smooth, natural way in which her words escaped that was damn near therapeutic. Despite Trevor's laid back, seemingly lazy ways he possessed a mind with few equals. To have happened upon someone largely by accident that could match his wit barb for barb was refreshing. Still, he wasn't one to go out without a fight or at least a snarky retort.

"Does that mean you're out to 'get me', Miss Adams?" The smirk on Trevor's face deepened as he watched Penelope, his eyes gleaming mischievously. It was even accompanied by a faint quirk of a single brow as he finished his counter. "Because I assure you, that's nowhere nearly as difficult as you're making it out to be."

[Penelope Adams]

Shrugging, the brunette made herself comfortable in her seat, with her head rested against the glass. "Answering that wouldn't do either of us any favors," she said without missing a beat. "And I can tell from the faint hint of excitement in your voice that you'd rather find out on your own anyways." She decided to leave it at that. Though, she also realized she'd done anything but keeping the boy away.

She supposed that perhaps that was for the best, then. Give him something to hope for and when she finally ended up disappointing his hungry mind, he'd grow bored and finally, she could get her much craved solitude.

[Trevor Paige]

Trevor couldn't hold back the short laugh that followed Penelope's reply. His head shook, the laugh quickly trailing off with a light sigh. She had no idea how true her words actually were. What she didn't seem to understand, though, were the reasons behind both his determination with her and his excitement over the upcoming trip. But that was simply Trevor in a nutshell. Constantly changing and keeping those around him guessing. He found it an amusing little game even if some refused to play along.

"Oh, I don't know about that. Nobody likes being kept in the dark." Trevor paused as he caught movement from the corner of his eye. He glanced up at a diminutive girl with dirty blonde hair quietly shuffling her way along down the aisle with a small duffel bag clutched to her chest. Trevor's gaze shifted back to the brunette sitting beside him, his expression and tone seemingly skirting the line between utter farce and pure seriousness. "Because that's where the scary things live." Trevor paused, then nodded faintly and added. "And stubbing your toe on the coffee table is never a pleasant experience."

[Penelope Adams]

"And yet you seem rather adept at doing that yourself." She had opened her eyes again at this point, watching his gaze drift away, only being able to roll her eyes before she looked back towards the window. "That's also where all the unseen possibilities and opportunities lies," she replied silently. She wasn't afraid of the dark, not the theoretical or the practical one.

In fact, in some ways, she'd come to enjoy it. The dark was a place where no one could see you coming. You could walk through it, being invisible to the rest of the world. And that was exactly what Penelope desperately wanted. "I guess it comes down to how you choose to look at it."

[Trevor Paige]

Trevor nodded contemplatively, taking in Penelope's words with a bit more intent than needed in order for him to commit them to memory. She had a point of which he wasn't going to counter. Perspective always was a pesky little thing he often didn't take into account when going on his random flights of fancy. The response he received did tell him far more about the young woman he had set his sights on than she may have wished, though. He fell silent for a moment as he continued nodding to himself.

"Is that how you see it?" Trevor finally asked, glancing toward her. His tone had lowered and the mirthful exuberance he'd had just moments ago had been replaced with sort of quiet, genuine curiosity. "The dark isn't to be feared but rather... embraced, in a way?" He studied her features carefully as he spoke. "What is it about being in the dark that's so comforting?"

[Penelope Adams]

At last, the brunette finally met the boy's gaze. Her expression was serious, though void of any deeper emotion. She realized then that she had been underestimating him all along. He understood a lot more than she gave him credit for. Perhaps she hadn't wanted to give him that credit. Mostly because up until now she felt he hadn't deserved anything but a dismissive shake of her head.

Looking away, she stared at the scenery outside the window. "Because the darkness is the only place you can venture alone without being seen," she replied, her voice carrying a silent, almost distant tone to it. 

[Trevor Paige]

When Penelope looked to him Trevor stopped, catching her gaze and studying her eyes intently. He'd touched maybe not a nerve but something personal and for those brief, few seconds he debated mightily whether that was going to ultimately be seen as a good or bad thing. After all, he didn't know Penelope nearly as well as he let on and it wasn't as if she was giving him much to work with.

Trevor didn't answer immediately nor did he look away when Penelope shifted her gaze to the window. He sat in quiet contemplation for a long while as he analyzed her response. Penelope's words carried so much weight but where the burden truly lay remained a stark mystery. In a rare showing Trevor chose his words carefully before daring to speak, his voice staying in the low, sober tone that he'd previously adopted. "Do you truly think we're ever completely unseen?" He asked. "Even in the dark it's hard to get away."

[Penelope Adams]

She remained silent for some time, the noise coming from around the bus almost engulfing them in idle chatter that neither of them really cared much for. Then, the brunette shrugged. "At the end of the day hope's the only thing we're left with and we're clinging so hard to it, the truth doesn't really matter because we're no longer capable of admitting it."

Talking about the two of them as if they were the same, or even equals left a bitter taste in the brunette's mouth, but this time, she chose to meet it with a sort of acceptance rather than the constant attempt of pushing it away. It hadn't exactly helped her thus far, why would it now?

[Trevor Paige]

Something just wasn't right. All the mirth and merriment had drained out of the idle conversation like the air being let out of a balloon. Trevor fell silent, listening to the methodical hum of the bus along with Penelope in what was, arguably, the first thing the two of them had ever willingly done in concert with one another. It wasn't merely what she said that shed just as much light on the inner workings of her mind as it did spread shadows across her true intentions, but how she said it. It was all adding up to something, Trevor just had to put the pieces together to find out.

"Is that why you do what you do?" Trevor said finally, lowering his eyes to his lap where his hands sat and fidgeted almost nervously. This was all getting way to deep for his tastes and yet he couldn't resist seeing how far the rabbit hole truly went. "A never ending pursuit of the truth?"

[Penelope Adams]

"No," she replied simply. "The truth doesn't always contain the safety of the dark. Some things are better left there to rot and fester." What, exactly had pushed her in the direction she'd picked wasn't a search for truth. It was a search for understanding. Understanding the world around her. Why people do what they do. Why they make the choices they make.

And at the same time, it wasn't. At all.

"Much like the people living within it." She wasn't really sure where Trevor wanted to go with this. In a way, she didn't think he knew either. And that was by far the most unsettling feeling she'd encountered with the boy thus far.