out of place

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe smiled a little anxiously as Ryan asked her question. Yes, she had, technically. But, well, Zoe definitely didn't want to point it out. even now, when Ryan mentioned it, Zoe didn't really want to talk about it. She simply nodded, wanting to agree with the mention of socialites and so forth.

"Um, thank you?" she managed to squeak out as Ryan offered her apology. Should she say something about accepting it? That felt a little condescending, and Zoe certainly didn't want to say that. She did think she could find a compromise for Ryan's insistence about being included in the show:

"Well, I do sometimes use art to promote? Maybe we could put things together that way? I also like the idea of, um," she gestured with her hands as though needing extra words, "putting lots of mutants' arts together? They did that some last year at the carnival, but maybe something with a theme?" It really wasn't anything that Zoe had thought all that specifically about, clearly.

[Ryan Alexander]

"A promotional exhibit...that could work." She took a sip of her juice box and looked at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"And as long as you picked a theme far enough in advance, I could even probably manage to unveil a new piece or two to go with whatever theme's decided on. It would be good if we could get some other mutants in on it. Maybe we could both ask around and see if there's any artists. Or someone in the music department who wanted to participate. I could probably phone and ask my parents if they'd pay for a caterer too. They love it when I manage to make new friends so they'd probably be happy to cover the cost. And my mum loves parties anyways, so it would be beneficial to her as well."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

the suggestion worked: Zoe nearly sighed with relief. It seemed to almost work too well, as Ryan kept going, talking about the theme and thinking about putting together some sort of officially catered show. Zoe's eyes widened, her mind trying to process that. She'd barely managed to get things together for her own show. What would something like that entail?

"Well, um, like I said, they did something like that at the carnival last year?" she managed, not able to quite keep the question out of the sentence. "It might be best to just, um, go through the art department? We could probably come up with some kind of theme that could use a few different types of student work and go from there?"

Zoe fiddled with her drink box again, trying to even process this, let alone figure out how she'd suddenly gone from standing alone at a party to nearly planning an exhibition of several artists' work.

[Ryan Alexander]

"A carnival is a decent idea. More casual observers. But you might do better financially if we reached up higher. The people my family knows kind of have deeper pockets. And they know their stuff. Getting even one of them liking your work would lead to a lot more sales. Not that art is about money, but you know what I mean. It's nice to have the money." She shrugged.

"And you honestly wouldn't have to organize it much, just put in your input. Then again...maybe we should go through the art department. Could we potentially get in trouble for making our own show? Because I JUST transferred from St Bethany's and I'm trying not to get in trouble. Kind of difficult for me though, as per the usual."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe reluctance clearly didn't slow the other girl down at all. She just kept going, talking and throwing out ideas and plans and leaving Zoe feeling as though she'd been slowed down or maybe this girl had been put into hi speed or something along those lines. There was talk about deep pockets and making money and Zoe found herself shaking her head. "I don't---that's not really the goal," she tried, but she barely managed that before another barrage of words came firing at her.

Zoe effectively ended up looking like a deer in the headlights, frozen in place and staring wide eyed at the other girl. There was talk about the show and setting things up and Zoe seemed to vaguely remember her own show but she wasn't sure how to mention that and she'd honestly lost the thread of the conversation with all those words that came flying at her.

"Maybe we should talk about it later?" she tried, smiling nervously, not sure what else she could really say.

[Ryan Alexander]

"Yeah it might be cool to do a show together. We might have to talk more about thi-" Right in the middle of her barrage of words, Ryan just quit and looked around silently. She unzipped the pack strapped to her hip and took out a cheese sandwich, eating it. After she'd finished half, she looked at Zoe blankly.

"What was I talking about again? Were we still talking about the punch, the apologies, the show or did I blather on about another topic completely?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

it almost seemed as though Ryan hadn't even really heard Zoe's admittedly feeble attempts at adding to the conversation. The sentence ended before finishing though. Zoe found her brow furrowing with confusion as Ryan paused and... and took out a sandwich/ What was even going on there? Zoe fell into silence to match Ryan's, letting her sort things out.

"Um," Zoe said, flushing, "it was about maybe doing a show?" she tried. "Are you... okay?" She wasn't sure whether she should be taking a step forward or a step back at this point. "You... are you feeling alright?" she chewed her lip, feeling a little uneasy, and almost scared at this point.

[Ryan Alexander]

"Oh. Okay. You know, cheese sandwiches are good. But they really don't compare to burritos. I prefer to eat those whenever possible. Stinking consequences be damned." That was the thing about Ryan. She could be off on a tangent about something one moment, and then go in a completely different direction the very next moment. She heard Zoe ask if she was okay and she cocked her head slightly the side as she looked at the other artist.

"Why wouldn't I be okay? All I did was change the topic. Why are you complaining? I'm not as completely oblivious as it seems. You seemed very uncomfortable so why are you complaining about a topic change?" She was genuinely baffled about that, actually.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Cheese... burritos...? Zoe stared at the other girl, not even pretending to understand what was going on. There had been her query as to whether the girl was okay or not, but Ryan didn't even seem to understand. Zoe couldn't help but take a step back, half expecting the unpredictable girl to try something odd or even mean again.

"Um, ah," she managed, before looking around. She pointed. "I think I see a friend, so I should probably, um, go and talk to them?" she started edging that way. Zoe really had thought she'd seen Liz, and she would definitely be willing to talk to her about this, get everything sorted out. Zoe still kept her smile on and directed toward Ryan though, definitely not wanting to be one who got a drink dumped on her or anything.

[Ryan Alexander]

"Aw damn. I've scared someone off again. I really wish I knew what I was doing wrong." She shook her head and sighed, taking a sip from her juicebox and finishing off her cheese sandwich. She didn't know why people didn't generally like hanging around her.

"And the way people back out of conversations..." Her face betrayed the hurt she felt.

"They seem to think they're sparing my feelings, but in reality when they use excuses it hurts so much worse. Because they think that I wouldn't be able to deal with it if they were completely honest. But when you can see through people and read them like books, even lies meant to be kinder alternatives hurt like hell." She leaned against the nearby wall, sighing again.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe only caught the last bit, the scared someone off thing. If she'd heard more, if she'd noticed the hurt, she would have stayed. Ryan did unnerve her, almost scared her, but Zoe wouldn't have purposefully hurt anyone. She knew what it was like to be rejected after all, between her rough coming out and simply being a mutant, and everything that DL did to her...

but she'd instead headed off. And it had been an excuse, to be sure, but it had also been a chance for her to talk to Liz, to find out some things, to find out that her friend would be heading off for months...