Posing

[Riley Coleson]

So, she could read minds. Didn't that mean she could simply scan through his thoughts and figure out that he wasn't a spy? He wanted to comment on it, but he figured it was better not to. He knew better than to not further insulting a woman when she was in a mood. At least he'd learned that much over the years, and it wasn't something he was soon to forget, it seemed.

And this was probably the worst situation for someone with a less visible, less mental ability to ever get into. Sure, he could start lifting heavy things, but would that really prove anything at all? He could ask her to hit him repeatedly and watch as he didn't even end up batting an eye, but he sort of figured that wouldn't be good enough either. Sighing, Riley waved his arms as if he was admitting defeat, ''All right, all right. Sheesh,'' he muttered as he took a look around the room; Trying to find anything to quickly prove himself not guilty of her ridiculous accusations.

Pushing himself up, the boy walked over to the locker holding most of the art supplies; Doing a quick check if it was grounded or not, he brushed his hands together. (He preferred not actually breaking anything) Riley planted his hands on each side of the locker, bended his knees and lifted the wooden 'closet' with ease. He then turned and walked over to place damned thing in the middle of the room, which just happened to be the same pedestal he had been standing on minutes earlier. Placing it down and making sure it wouldn't fall over, he turned around to face the Bellefonte Banshee; ''There, happy?''

[Elsa Bellefonte]

"Super strength," said Elsa, having obviously picked it up from scanning Riley's thoughts. "You have one of the least provable powers in existence," besides something like omnilingualism or something else that could just come off as being a really talented human. Riley had also thought of receiving what amounted to a tenderizing from Elsa too, the mental image of which nearly made Elsa burst out with laughter. She probably couldn't have done anything to him if he'd been one hundred percent normal in that regard, and they both knew it.

Instead, he opted to move a locker. Elsa watched, her face impassive. It struck her as extremely unlikely that he could manage that, at least so easily, given his particular build. He carried it as though it weighed next to nothing, and Elsa felt her heart sinking with each passing moment. Not that she'd been hoping to be right or anything; that would have been the only possible way this situation could've been worse, but because she was very quickly seeing that there was likely no way of her getting out of this situation without embarrassing herself at least a little.

"Not really," she said, flicking her eyes to meet his. "But this will do," she couldn't very well apologize...or should she? Was Riley useful to her? How many people were there with super-strength and a lackadaisical, nearly unreadable attitude? Was that even useful to Elsa or her plans? "I shouldn't have accused you of being a spy; that was paranoid of me," she said. there, that was a statement of her fault without actually apologizing for her actions. That felt right. Or at least acceptable. She looked back at the locker. "You should put that back now," she said, pointing at it and nodding. She certainly wasn't going to leave until he at least put it back where he got it.

[Riley Coleson]

''You think?'' Riley shot back with a roll of his eyes. Well, whatever. It didn't matter. If this didn't work, he could always go find a teacher, his roomies or someone else that actually knew him. He didn't even know why he bothered to play along with whatever this was, but part of him was a little intrigued, and maybe even impressed at how insanely and annoyingly stubborn this girl was. Hadley had been like that too, though the blonde had kicked up the notch with a few higher levels of crazy. Stalkery, even. He couldn't picture this deadweight for being the same.

Nodding in her general direction, Riley was pleased with how everything had turned out, and maybe he was supposed to gloat, if even a little; He wasn't going to do it. It wasn't in his nature to brag like that. He didn't need to further prove that he had been right and that she had been wrong. That was already implied, and if he was in her position, he wouldn't have wanted anyone to rub it in his face. ''Thank you.'' Turning towards the locker again, Riley did as he was told and returned it to it's former location. Pushing it against the wall and trying his best to put it in exactly the same place from where he had lifted it, though it proved to be harder than he had imagined.

Once finished, Riley turned to face the girl again. Walking over, he gave her head a pat very much like someone would have patted a child's, ''There you go, Sparrow.'' An amused grin formed on his lips as he chuckled, ''No hard feelings, ey?''

[Elsa Bellefonte]

"You're welcome," Elsa replied, keeping her tone even. She watched as Riley moved the cabinet back, setting it more or less into the same position. Again, none of this made any sense to Elsa, at all. Who acted this nonchalantly toward someone that had just accused them of being a traitor to their entire race? He patted Elsa on the head, which certainly didn't make her feel any better. She could feel more ice flowing into her already icy veins, her eyes narrowing again.

"Who does that?" she asked, turning once more to him. "Just blows off someone accusing them of something? Shouldn't you be mad at me? Why are you acting like this?" She just couldn't figure it out, and it bothered her. Elsa was sorely tempted to start digging around into Riley's mind until she could find something there that would tell her the truth. She already began moving down from simply skimming to more closely scanning, which was decidedly more noticeable. "And while I'm asking questions: why do you keep calling me Sparrow?"

Might as well throw everything out there at once, since subtlety clearly wasn't working.

[Riley Coleson]

Now, Riley wasn't dumb or anything close to the sense of the word, but he was laid back, and maybe even a little bit naive. She could have prodded his brain with a rake and he'd probably barely even notice. It took a lot for him to feel even the slightest form of anger, so if the girl had aimed for that, it was a lost game for her.

Gazing down at her with his hand still on top of her head, Riley shrugged. ''Why should I be mad? Tell me,'' he began, lowered his hand as his shoulder sunk slightly, ''Did you not believe you were doing the right thing at the moment? When you first asked me, or rather, accused me of being a spy?'' Pursing his lips, he didn't offer her much room to answer before continuing, ''I'm sure you had your reasons, and you stuck with them all the way through. I can respect that.'' And it did help that he wasn't one to get mad easily, for sure. Maybe it had frustrated him or even been a little annoying, but she had apologized. Sort of. Which meant it was water under the bridge.

Her next question had him chuckling, ''A sparrow represents commitment, loyalty, sacrifice and bonding. Anyone one those seem familiar to you?'' He looked at her and his chuckle turned into a sheepish grin, ''The reasons birds can fly and we can't is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings,'' he said with a short nod. He had remembered that correctly, right? Yeah, he thought so. Ack well, it got the message out there nonetheless.

[Elsa Bellefonte]

Riley already knew the answer to the questions he fired back at Elsa, so she didn't see the point in responding. Elsa was not one to respond to rhetorical questions, particularly those that the questioner already knew the answer to. Stuck to her guns, believed she was right, well, at first. Toward the end Elsa just knew she couldn't veer away from what she'd started and had to go through with it. But who seriously thought that way?

Apparently he did, complete with totally insane statements about sparrows that sounded so much like he was reading from a script that Elsa seriously didn't know what to do. She stared at him, her expression blank, just not quite believing that this guy actually existed. The reason birds could fly was because they have perfect faith? That had to be the biggest load of bullshit that Elsa had ever heard come out of someone's life. This guy was...

"You are unbelievable," she finally said, shaking her head, "and I don't mean that in the complimentary way," though you wouldn't know that from her tone, since Elsa couldn't shake free from the sheer disbelief that someone would at least talk that way, if not outright think it.

[Riley Coleson]

He didn't care if it wasn't a compliment. Heck, the insult had already gone in one ear and out the other. Shrugging, Riley chuckled, ''Thank you. I try,'' he replied smugly. And her deadpan reaction; Well, he couldn't decide whether it was adorable or simply comical. It was something. She reminded him more and more of a mindless little bird; Though she did in fact have a mind. And a very strong one at that. Humor though? Not at all. She was as grey as a pile of rocks.

The poor girl looked just as baffled as he had felt minutes earlier and as amusing as it was, he didn't want to push his luck. Even if a smack to the face didn't hurt him too much, it was still something he attempted to avoid. And he wasn't dumb enough to purposely piss of one of the Bellefonte princesses. He did very much enjoy his balls were they hung, thank you very much.

''Aww, cheer up, birdy. That frown could scare even the happiest baby into tears.'' Leaning down so their faces were on the same level, Riley nodded. ''Aw, not even a little smile? That's disappointing.'' He could have done something more ballsy to get a reaction, though he doubted she'd appreciate it much if the school's womanizer kissed her. She didn't really seem the type of girl for that kind of thing. No, her love was probably aimed towards books or something awfully stereotypical like that. Ruffling her hair, the boy sighed.

''Aren't you a jolly fellow?''

[Elsa Bellefonte]

"Now that I can believe," replied Elsa dryly as Riley admitted to trying. She was tempted to point out that he was, in fact, trying by the very definition of the word: trying her patience, trying her willpower, possibly trying too hard, and just sort of trying in general. She could still read a few of his thoughts, but they'd started drifting toward the more mundane, so she pulled back to simply skimming. She would've retreated entirely if she hadn't been worried about him pulling a move; she liked to be informed if someone was going to try something on her anytime soon.

And now his face was near hers. Elsa didn't flinch, simply arching her brows as he came close, wanting to demonstrate how utterly unaffected by this whole situation she was. Disappointing, and some thoughts about... kissing, well that was utterly predictable. Did she pick up something about her loving books? How cliche could you get? Elsa wasn't that much of a bookworm, just because she believed in treating school like the serious business it was.

The last though, when he ruffled her hair and called her a jolly good fellow, that had her sigh and rolling her eyes. "I'm not a fellow, though I could see how you could be mistaken. I don't exactly go around posing nude for art classes and such though, so you'll have to take my word for it," she smiled a tight smile at him, wanting it very much to say that she did, in fact, have a sense of humor. So take that, mister I like to strip naked and act weird.

[Riley Coleson]

''Oh, it's always the silent ones who have the most freaky side,'' he pressed. Whatever she had aimed for with her comment was lost on him. He didn't really see why he was even hanging around anymore. Or why she was too; Maybe that was why he didn't leave? Was he testing her patience? Was he curious as to see why she didn't smack him and storm off? Sure, she didn't strike him as that kind of girl. But that didn't change anything, really. Why was she here? Why didn't she leave? She had made it pretty obvious that he wasn't the best kind of person to be around, or even said anything remotely close to showing signs of her enjoying this.

So. Why?

''If you did, I think you'd get a lot more of a crowd than what I did. Despite the rumors - which we all know aren't true.'' He would know. ''There's several people around who would love to see either of the Bellefonte princesses naked.'' Himself included. Hey, they were both beautiful, had a killer body and seemed to be pretty intelligent. Though, this one clearly wasn't the party animal of the family.

''Why are you still here? You clearly don't like me, or find me even remotely interesting.''

[Elsa Bellefonte]

"Some of us are just quiet," replied Elsa right back, assuming that he'd been directing that comment at her. Now she thought that he might be roughly as confused as she herself had been a few moments ago, which pleased her far more than it rightly should. As did the compliment, though she was certain that most people would immediately think that she was her sister, seeing as that would certainly be a much more "Erika" thing to do. Though Elsa doubted that her sister would go that far, not unless there was a lot of alcohol and a boy involved.

Why was she still there? Elsa arched a brow. "You're right: I don't like you," she said, feeling it to be quite true, "but you're interesting, or at least diverting. Or you were," she smiled tightly at him, throwing a little challenge into those words. She wasn't even sure why she was bothering. Probably because everything had been tense lately, tense enough that she could use something to divert herself. If if that something was something that she'd half-invented on her own.

[Riley Coleson]

''Fair enough,'' Riley agreed with a quick nod. The brunette beside him didn't exactly strike him as the quiet type. However, she appeared more viciously cold and maybe even a lot more sadistic than what he had first anticipated. Calculating, even. There wasn't enough people like that, he noticed; Someone who managed to keep themselves cold and level-headed. It suddenøy dawned upon him why she wasn't the famous one of the two; She did seem more like the type who stood idly by and waited for her chance to strike. Sort of like a spider; Always watching, waiting for the perfect moment for an attack.

''Interesting and diverting, huh? Well, that's a first,'' he mused, though it didn't make him curious as to why. She had her reasons, he was sure and even if he did ask, she probably wouldn't tell him. So why bother? Exactly. The challenge didn't affect him either; He had an ego, but he wasn't proud enough to bite on a bait like that. Or maybe he just didn't care enough. That was likely too. ''I think most people prefer terms such as 'jerk', 'asshole', ''egocentrical', or my personal favorite; Unreliable.'' They were all true, so he didn't blame anyone who decided to call him either. But interesting? Ha, hardly.

[Elsa Bellefonte]

Not quiet, but cold and calculating, if Elsa was reading right. She had to keep pulling back, both so he didn't notice and so she didn't get tired. She could keep going for quite a while, talking and scanning, but she didn't fancy a headache nor did she particularly want to be less than her best while dealing with this guy; she had a feeling she'd need everything.

She did like the spider reference, which she caught before pulling back to the very lightest of her reads.

Elsa nodded as Riley repeated her words, wanting to point out that he was essentially parroting back what she'd just said to him. The list of terms that he threw out did surprise her though, seeing as, well, she might have thought several things: frustrating, irritating, puzzling, but none of them involved the words "jerk" or "egocentric" to some degree.

"Unreliable?" was the one that Elsa chose to repeat, quirking just one brow up. "That's not usually a descriptor someone cops to. Is that was this is? Some kind of twelve step program? Twelve steps toward being a better, more selfless you?" that she could actually believe. While it might be passably interesting, Elsa wasn't sure it was really enough to warrant her staying around to converse with him further. She left the reformed bad boys to her sisters.

[Riley Coleson]

''Maybe,'' he said with a light chuckle; He didn't have a clean slate and he probably never would. Though, he probably wouldn't go as far as calling himself a bad boy. He was honest, which was more than could be said about a lot of the other womanizers roaming around. Not once had he ever given a girl false hope or told her there was something more to be found than what he had offered; He made sure people were brutally aware of the fact. Though, even some decided to keep their hopes up even after being told this. He could name a certain blonde who seemingly never gave up even as often as he told her he could never be that kind of guy for her. ''Would it matter even if it was?''

So, maybe he wasn't as much unreliable as ruthless and honest. People often knew where they had him because he told them. He didn't want any girls, or boys for that matter lingering around thinking there was hope when it wasn't. That wasn't his style. He didn't lure them into some kind of trap only to break their hearts afterwards. He made his intentions clear.

''So, tell me; How can I satisfy your curiosity?'' If there was any left to satisfy that was. He had already made it obvious that he was no mind reader. Nope, he had been graced with the ability of lifting heavy stuff. Hurray.

[Elsa Bellefonte]

"It would explain some things," replied Elsa in that same level voice. Why did he keep dancing around questions instead of just giving answers? He clearly thought himself more charming than he actually was, but Elsa couldn't see a reason for being this evasive unless he was purposefully trying to get a reaction out of her. Still, this wasn't asshole or "jerk" behavior, Elsa knew, as she'd been dancing around the border of that for a while now.

"I'm not sure there's much left. I think I've pretty well figured you out," half-lied Elsa, smiling at the man. Some kind of player or ex-player on the road to recovery. He probably had dated someone who actually had some impact on him, which left him feeling like he should at least pretend like he was a better person now. Elsa was tempted to do some rummaging around in his head to see how accurate her guesses were, but in truth, he was slowly shifting toward boring.

"Still haven't figured out what kind of person would strip naked for a bet and then just shrug it off when one of the 'princesses' of the school caught him in the act," she said, soon adding a shrug, "but the answer could just be simply: you, which isn't that interesting, is it?"

[Riley Coleson]

''Oh? Well that's good then,'' he said, nodding. He didn't care to ask; She was entitled to her own opinion, whatever it was. It didn't really interest him; People said a lot of different things about him and he had been underestimated and judged more times than he could count. After a while you simply stopped caring. It was high school; Whatever happened here didn't really define you. It could if you let it, but he wasn't going to do that. Heck, he didn't have any excuses as to why he had started acting the way he had in the first place.

Sure, there was some angst with his mother and the rest of his family, so it had probably started out with him simply acting out, just like every other boring teenager had. In a way, that acting out had become such a large part of his personality that it had become him.

And then it wasn't anymore. He didn't know how or why, but somewhere along the lines he had stopped being what he was. It was because of a girl, or something even remotely major; It just happened.

''What makes you think you or your status should have such a huge impact on me, or anyone else for that matter. You might have a fancy last name that offers you a lot of benefits us 'peasants' could never dream of having, but does that really mean we should stop and turn whenever you walk by? I don't care about your last name or who you are. You are nothing more, nothing less than what I see standing before me; A girl. A girl with somewhat of an issue with her pride, but you know. Who doesn't?''