Goody Two Shoes

[Kaylee Miller]

"No," the brunette announced to the crowd of students sitting about the lounge. "We're not doing strip poker." She sent the boy who'd suggested it her so called "pixie eyes" for even suggesting something as stupid to a bunch of teenagers with self esteem issues (and other issues). They'd gathered here and it was fairly late - after curfew, when people were supposed to be locked in their dorms. She'd, naturally, told her father why she'd be coming home late, but many of these kids lived at this school and couldn't afford getting in trouble.

Said the girl who had a perfect GPA and was a star athlete for her lacrosse team, anyways. Sure, it might not have helped that she was the daughter of a detective either, but that didn't make her a goody two shoes. Nope.

She was just being mature and s m a r t. Something some of these kids seriously needed to learn. Life wasn't a game. In a few years, they'd all have to start thinking about their future, college and careers. Was it so bad to be prepared?

Well, apparently; someone had come up to her with a pack of condoms and suggested the two of them went into one of the dark classrooms and Kaylee had had it with this crowd. She was now standing outside the student lounge, practically fuming. Then, someone stepped up to her and she immediately swung around; "Is it so bad that I'm actually being a responsible person here? I mean, that doesn't make me a stuck up, goody two shoes does it? No, it does not. It makes me SMART!"

[Jace Webster]

A group of teenagers, after curfew, in the student lounge with no supervision. Things were bound to be a little out of hand. The group of boys around the table were all the football team, a few guys from the swim team and just a few others that Jace didn't recognize. The girls he didn't recognize hardly at all because although the boys always tried to point all of the 'worthy' ones out to him, Jace was too embarrassed to really look at girls the way that all of his friends did. The only one that seemed to really understand how Jace felt was his best friend, but Nate had transferred to a different university in a different state and now Jace was left with the rest of the guys who thought he was too much of a goody goody. Really he just felt it was respectful not to be a jerk.

When the running back that had replaced Nate on the team walked up to one of the few girls that Jace had recognized, he frowned and chewed on the inside of his cheek. He reached out to the new guy and focused as much as he could Lay off, dude. She's not interested and that's not a very good way to get someone to do that with you. The guy looked back at Jace and rolled his eyes. Jace shrugged and looked up as Kaylee stood up to push out of the crowd.

He bit his lip and stood up from the group, all of them saying their piece about letting her go and he waved them all off. As he rounded the corner of the student lounge, she whirled on him and he held his hands up, his eyes wide. "S-sorry Kay. I was j-just ch-checking to see if you were o-okay. I didn't m-mean to bother you." Jace offered her a sheepish smile and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Don't w-worry about those guys. They're a-all gonna end up s-staying here well past high s-school."

[Kaylee Miller]

Pointing her finger at him, Kaylee smiled. "You, my good sir, are so right," she said, clearly agreeing with him. Well, then again, when Kaylee first put her mind to something and honestly thought she was right, she'd agree with her worst enemy if they said anything similar to agreeing with her point of view. Jace, however, was far from being her worst enemy. In a way, she wondered why he bothered hanging around those people; he was clearly far too nice.

"You're not bothering me," she said, much calmer this time. She didn't have to project her anger on the poor boy. He'd done absolutely nothing wrong. And with that stutter, well, the boy clearly didn't need anymore hardships. Not that she thought it was much of a hardship, but everyone had their demons, after all. Then again, he was already with the it crowd...

"Hey, thanks," she began, "For coming out, I mean." She appreciated it - really. Not a lot of guys bothered when she got like this. She was part of the "it crowd" too, but she had far too many opinions for a lot of them to actually like her. Well, at least when she got like this. She was a rumored party pooper.

[Jace Webster]

Jace's face brightened a bit when she smiled and he knew he wasn't going to be tossed against the wall or something. Kaylee was a nice girl, sure, but she had an ability that terrified Jace. She could literally toss him at a wall. All he could do was telepathically yell 'no' and hope that she stopped. Although she had a terrifying ability and her dad was a detective that owned guns, Jace liked Kaylee just fine. His friends always told him that she was too moody and sensitive, or on the crazy side because she flipped out too easily, but Jace didn't look at it that way. Kaylee was just passionate, she felt things with her whole heart good or bad. Jace's mom told him that passion was not something to overlook, it was something to be drawn to.

"W-well good! And it's n-no problem. I just wanted to m-make sure you w-weren't p-plotting his death o-or taking h-him seriously. Neither of which a-are good ideas," Jace laughed and shoved his hands in his pockets. He cleared his throat and chewed on his lower lip, his mind drifting and catching onto the string of hers. Party pooper was the string that he caught onto and he snorted out a laugh before trying to cover it up with another cough.

Jace looked up and back down again before his mind reached out to hers and he shoved his focus into what he was trying to say, {i]You're not one, ya know? And people do like you, Kaylee.[/i] He didn't mean to be intrusive, though his ability definitely didn't give him much choice. There were times when he heard things, and times when he didn't. Maybe for some reason he was more in-tune with her because she was familiar, but it wasn't as though they were best friends. He couldn't place why he could catch her train of thoughts, but he didn't know how she'd feel about him knowing either.

[Kaylee Miller]

"Plotting his death? Nah, I wouldn't survive in jail," she offered with a small smile. Still, her father was a detective, she was sure she'd get a milder punishment... Or, she could hope, anyways. She wouldn't want to put more trouble on her father's shoulders than what he had already. He'd yet to come over the fact that Kaylee's mother had left only a few months ago. The snort had the brunette cocking her eyebrow; it was easy to forget his power sometimes. Well, she supposed she was hilarious, then.

The voice in her head had her wrinkling her nose; not out of disgust or displeasure, but more so because she wasn't overly used to it, which, naturally, was ironic, given the school she was going to. "I'm not one what? There's plenty of things I'm not," she said matter-of-factly. She wasn't entirely sure what he was referring to; she thought a lot of things about herself. "I know," she added with a sigh; she was liked, to some degree, anyways.

She then continued to lean against the wall, folding her arms over her chest. "I guess my awesome is just too much for some people to digest," she added with a smirk; she was only half joking. She wasn't another teenager with self-esteem issues, but that didn't mean she was overly confident either.

[Jace Webster]

With her father being one of the detectives in Kalispell, Jace couldn't quite see Kaylee actually ending up in jail. Even for murder. Besides, "You're too p-pretty for jail," Jace said with an answering smile. He wasn't making any advances on Kaylee because he didn't quite know what advances were, he just stated his mind and whatever came out was what he stuck with. The fact that she was pretty just seemed obvious, so if anything his comment was redundant because it was so blatantly in everyone's face. Of course she was too pretty for jail. Duh, Jace. He noted her wrinkled nose and he wondered if he'd accidentally projected his own thoughts onto her, but then he realized that it was what he'd said to her before his mind began to wander.

Her response made him a little nervous, he most definitely had intruded on her thoughts and now she was probably mad. Jace kept his mouth shut because he knew his stutter would only be worse if he tried talking with his nerves spiked. Party pooper, he answered in her mind a lot quieter than the first thought had been. He was sheepish now, worried that he'd overstepped a boundary even though it wasn't quite his fault. He was still trying to figure out why his ability worked at some times and didn't at others. She sighed and he chewed on the inside of his cheek, uncertain of what to say to make her feel better. That's what he'd set out to do by following her. And here he forgot that he was shy and awkward and had a stuttering problem.

Her joke had him relaxing and he laughed, "Th-that's obvious. H-he's just annoyed b-because he w-w-wishes he had as much awesome r-rolling off him." Jace shrugged and smiled at her. He happened to thoroughly believe in her words. She'd always been very nice to him, ignored his stutter without any jokes at his expense and didn't look at him like the 'in crowd's' charity case the way that he sometimes felt. Jace was confident in everything besides his voice, which was why he relied so heavily on his ability, but if it didn't work then he was forced to stammer his way through what he wanted to say. "Y-you gonna go b-back in there?"

[Kaylee Miller]

That made the brunette laughing. "Aww, aren't you quite the charmer," she gooed. She was tempted to pinch his cheeks, but decided against it. She didn't want him to feel embarrassed, after all. She might be a goody-two-shoes and annoying, but she wasn't cruel. Not towards someone who showed her nothing but kindness. She liked Jace - she always had. He was nice, and despite his crowd, they hadn't managed to turn him 'evil'.

That showed strength.

"Oh, that," she smiled ruefully. "Thanks," she added honestly. She was glad he'd followed her. She could have been a lot more unlucky. Jace was a good kid and she appreciated that about it.

Looking at the door, she considered his offer then shook her head. "Nah, I think I've had my fill," she said with a small smile as she shrugged. "You wanna go do something else?" She didn't know how eager he was to return, but the least she could do was offer him a way out if he wanted one. She was leaving one way or another and she could do with some company that wasn't trying to dumb her down by saying stupid things that made her lose her brain cells.

[Jace Webster]

"Uh, no?" Jace laughed and scrunched his own nose. Charming he was definitely not, he had never been the prince type, he hardly even was a superhero type. And that was what he'd strived to be, a superhero. Sometimes he had qualities that made him feel pretty superhero-like, but that was only because he stuck up for people against his lame friends like in the current situation. His mom had always told him to be strong, to be himself and to stick up for those who needed it, even if they didn't want it always. Kaylee didn't need saving from his friends, or for anyone to stick up for her, but Jace knew what his friends could be like and he didn't think it was fair for her to have to deal with that on her own.

Jace smiled and shrugged, "No problemo." When she glanced at the door, he followed her gaze and bit his lip. If she said yes, he'd happily have joined her to be whatever kind of bodyguard she needed from those lame-os he called friends. If she said no, he wouldn't have blamed her either, he wasn't sure he wanted to return either. If he did, odds were that he was going to get hell about following her out there and questions about what they'd been doing. In which he'd answer with the truth and then get berated for not making a move.

He perked up when she offered him an out and took it without any hesitation, "Absolutely. Anything to k-keep me from h-having to go back." Jace laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, he really didn't mind it all the time, being around his friends, but sometimes even he needed a break from their antics. Especially without his own barrier of protection from his former best friend to save him.