In A Rush (Open)

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina made her way to the bus stop and saw a bus coming up the road, damn they’d gotten lucky. It was never a sure thing with American buses whether you’d be at the stop for five minutes or two hours. Selina nodded, as that matched pretty well with Bellefonte’s prison like tendencies. Selina then glanced at Alex in open confusion, “They let the basketball and football teams out?” she asked. That didn’t fit as well with her assessment of the school’s tight rein forced on its students.


    Maybe she just misunderstood? And if they let the cheerleaders out to follow the others, then why not on their own? “Hmm, maybe I’ll actually force myself to go to a pep rally sometime,” she teased. She would though. She liked Alex so far, and Selina wasn’t one to pass up seeing an athletic event… even if it was a bit different in form and nature than most.


    Selina smiled at her and shook her head, “Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind,” she assured the girl. When the question was turned back on her, Selina paused for a brief moment to think. “I’m part of the self-defense club and I like swimming and running. I also know a little about cooking and enjoy studying languages… though not English ironically enough,” she listed off easily. “I’m a simple creature,” she added with a laugh as the bus stopped in front of them. Selina got on and paid her fee before making her way to two open seats and glancing up at Alex to see if she’d followed.

[Alexandra Lawson]

At first Alex was equally confused by Selina's question. Her head tilted curiously as she looked up to the taller girl. It took a moment for the reality of the situation to sink in and her eyes widened and a thin smile touched her lips. "Oh, I was making a joke." She explained with a light laugh and a playful bat at Selina's shoulder. "I mean, we follow the teams around and do some local stuff but the Academy doesn't send us on nationwide tours or anything." She gave a soft chuckle and shook her head. "I'm glad they don't. God, you know how hard those girls work on those national teams?" Alex's nose scrunched up in distaste. She was no stranger to keeping fit or practicing but she enjoyed her free time far too much to dedicate herself so strongly to cheerleading of all things.

"You should totally come to the next one!" The petite girl's features brightened in an instant at the possibility. "There's a lot of Manchurian Candidate-like chants, redundant cheers and pointless attempts by the school staff to be 'cool' and 'with it'." And, lo, there was a sigh and much rolling of eyes. "No, really, it's nothing special." She said quickly, though she offered a bright smile. As if Alex had any other type of smile to give. "I'm a cheerleader and even I get bored." She pursed her lips, brow furrowing as she gave her own words thought. "I almost feel asleep once." She admitted, her voice lowering just a bit. "I wasn't paying attention and fell off my partner's shoulders in front of the entire Academy." The brief story came accompanied by an exaggerated shrug and an idle wave of a hand. "But what're you gonna do?" She added.

Alex had, indeed followed Selina, handing over her own fee after climbing up the steps leading onto the bus. The moment the two girls were among the public, Alex's demeanor immediately stiffened. Gone was the tiny, easily excitable girl and left in her place was a rigid, subdued individual. "Oh!" She smiled again as her bright, expressive eyes focused upon Selina as the other girl spoke. "I have a friend back home who's big into that MMA stuff." She said with a nod. "He wrestles for Stanford." Which was obviously the extent of Alex's knowledge on the subject, though that didn't stop her from continuing to speak on it. "But I know he's also doing a bunch of that, uh... foreign language sounding stuff I can't remember."

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina finally nodded her understanding. She wasn’t entirely sure she fully got what had just happened, but she smiled and laughed with Alex anyway. It did make a lot more sense though, now that Alex had explained it. “Probably harder than I ever would,” Selina offered with a light smile in response to Alex’s comment on national teams. Selina also appreciated being able to spend time outside of the class, work, and the gym. As shallow as her mostly physical relationships were, they still took time and energy.


    Selina glanced down at Alex and couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her at the picture the girl painted of what sounded to be a rather dull event indeed. Selina wasn’t usually interested in teachers regardless of how badly they were trying to embarrass themselves, so she didn’t feel much need to attend an event where teachers were likely to be in abundance. “Sounds like you falling asleep was the most interesting thing that happened,” Selina teased gently. “In which case, perhaps I’ll take your advice,” she added with a grin.


    Selina noticed the girl’s change in demeanor but said nothing. Selina’s own ease and confidence at being around people in public like this came from putting up a bold front for so long that it’d almost become real. Besides, the way she acted on the bus wasn’t any different from how she acted at Bellefonte, as she didn’t feel any safer in a classroom than she did on a dark street late at night. So Selina smiled warmly at Alex and ignored the people around her with relative ease. “Stanford. That sounds like it’d be impressive,” Selina offered with a self-deprecating laugh. “I’m not as familiar with American colleges as I probably should be,” she explained. After all, she’d only ever had one choice, so she didn’t exactly waste time looking elsewhere.


    “I do some foreign language stuff too, but I won’t bore you with the details,” Selina replied. “Although, if you’re interested in Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan films, I’ll watch those any time,” she added with an amused glint in her eyes.

[Alexandra Lawson]

"Well, don't get me wrong." Alex said, only partially backtracking in her initial assessment of pep rallies and the like. "I know why they try so hard to push school spirit and all that stuff." She gave a faint shrug and peered upward toward the taller Selina. "Most of us didn't have a choice but to come here and had to leave home." Something she, as well as many others at the Academy, knew all too well. "Trying to make it feel like we're all part of something is... nice, you know?" She reasoned. It didn't mean the pep rallies worked, Alex simply understood the intent behind them was noble.

"Oh, yeah, duh." Alex offered a sheepish smile and even went so far as to give her forehead a lit bap with the palm of her hand. "Stanford isn't, like, known for its wrestling team or anything but it's division one... which is the top." She gave a shrug. "He's better at it than I'll ever be is all I'm saying." Though it was apparent while Alex did her share of keeping in shape and took her fitness level seriously, a grappler or fighter she was not. Especially with how she tended to get tangled up in herself when flustered or in a rush.

"Yeah?" Alex's eyes lit up at the mention of movies. It didn't matter what kind. Movies were one of the things she could use to connect with any like-minded individuals. "I've only seen Rush Hour with Jackie Chan." She admitted. "I'll trade you a lesson in American football for a lesson in Jackie Chan movies." She offered with a hopeful gleam in her large, brown eyes.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina nodded her understanding, “Yeah, the school tries in its own way, I suppose,” she offered with a slightly noncommittal shrug. She didn’t particularly care one way or another how the school tried to make up for the massive injustice of ripping school age children from their homes, but then, perhaps she was biased. Selina had merely been interested in a chance of supporting Alex, she didn’t personally give a damn about the school or its staff. Not that she felt any need to tell Alex that. Selina didn’t feel the need to be incredibly cynical all of the time.


    Selina grinned, “It’s alright. I’m not exactly proud of my ignorance,” she admitted with a half-smile. She then glanced down at Alex in slight surprise as she explained further, “Wow, that’s amazing,” she replied sincerely. Division One she’d definitely heard of. Being in the top tier of a nationwide league was definitely something to take note of.


    “I have a particular weak spot for Rush Hour, not gonna lie,” she said with a laugh. “And you’ve got yourself a deal,” she added after Alex made her offer. Watching Jackie Chan movies and learning about sports with another girl sounded like a great time to her. Maybe she could even convince her mother that she was starting to live a normal college life. Selina then alerted the bus driver that the next stop was theirs.

[Alexandra Lawson]

Alex couldn't help a painfully girly squeal of glee at the agreement. She even bounced a little in her seat and clapped her hands together. She didn't have the slightest clue what she was getting into by agreeing to go on a martial arts flick odyssey with Selina and she didn't care. So long as the Latin girl could put up with Alex's... quirks she saw no reason why they couldn't be friends going forward. "Oh, good." She replied with a laugh. "I was worried Rush Hour was, like, one of those movies everyone hated that Jackie Chan did... because it's so Hollywood, and stuff." She reasoned, though at least the two girls had one thing in common.

The moment Alex's sneakers hit the pavement she she lit up. While she spent her fair share of time indoors there was always something about breaking away and spending time outside. Especially since she'd only been fairly recently cleared to leave campus without permission. Every time she stepped outside the walls of Bellefonte it was a positive reminder of how far she'd come since she was a fifteen year old girl with a bad habit of setting something on fire whenever she sneezed. "Oh!" She said suddenly as she half skipped down the sidewalk beside Selina. "Jackie Chan was in Drunken Master, wasn't he?" Her eyes turned upward to look to Selina as the random thought that popped into her head was blurted out well after that topic had passed.