Electra

"Okay, it's your party," Stesha agreed with a laugh. "But don't say I never ran interference for you. At least if he tries anything, I'm packing heat." She patted the daisy behind her ear. "It would be more satisfying to see you throw him, though. I'll try and have my phone ready." They joined the end of the line of people waiting to get a spot. Many of them seemed to have books with the same guy's face and impressive biceps on the cover, so maybe there was an autograph session at the end.

Erin thought about mentioning that driving the car would be an excellent way to pass ten minutes, but decided to content herself with her ice cream and playing with the radio instead. She found a classic rock station and turned it up loud enough to play over the rush of the wind, then leaned back in her seat to concentrate on not letting her chocolate cone drip onto her shirt as the sun beat down on them. As they started to move out of city traffic and towards a slightly less populated area, she asked James, "So have you bought a car before, by yourself? Like this one? Or do you have people who do that?"

Stesha gave her a skeptical look. "If you want to, but I'm not sitting next to him that whole time. I foresee having a hand up my shirt before the first schlub-flipping. Hey, I've got it!" she suggested. "We could go out and buy some pepper spray, and solve both your problems at once! Nothing like a little bit of chemical warfare. I once made a flower that I thought would put people to sleep, but it turns out to only work on me," she admitted ruefully. "That's sort of counterproductive. Do you really want to go in there with him?"

"Well, I was mostly just trying to get rid of him," Stesha admitted, her Cheshire-cat smile fading to something more normal once he was out of sight. "We can always just say we lost track of him in the crowd if we decide to go in. But I'm always skeptical of those TV show guys and their self-defense moves. I mean, how often does somebody who looks like that have to protect himself, anyway? Plus, with so many people around, he's probably just going to toss some luckless schlub around the stage for all of us to watch. And while it would be entertaining if it was Drew, I'm not sure either of us are that lucky." She watched the people filing past them for a moment, then asked Taylor, "If he always acts like that, why don't you file a complaint?"

"I think she likes you," Erin stage-whispered to James, mostly to see if she could tease a reaction from Alex for that. For all Alex's preternaturally adult attitudes could be annoying, usually they were amusing and sometimes very helpful. And it was occasionally funny to see the normal young teenager peeking through. "Buy her an ice cream cone, and maybe she'll drop Mark for you."

"That's just professional reserve, silly," Stesha told him, giving his arm a light thwack and using that as an excuse to dodge his hand. "Never date coworkers, especially in an environment like a school. Why, I could tell you more horror stories!" She tsked and shook her head. "That's why I told Taylor she should keep her relationships off-campus, and it's good advice for everyone. In a place like Freedom City, why would a nice-looking young man like you keep his sights focused on one campus, anyway, let alone on the place where you work? I don't think Taylor's boyfriend has ever even been to a university. Oh look, it's starting!" she chirped as people started heading into the building. "I need to go to the locker room and change into my other shoes. You'll save a spot for us, won't you?" she asked Drew worriedly. "It's so busy, I'd hate to get shut out."

"Oh hi!" Stesha said with absolute cheerfulness, giving the sleazy librarian an absolutely brilliant smile. "It's so nice to finally meet you, Drew. All of my friends here have been talking about you. If the librarians back at my school were more like you, well, my library-going habits might have been very different." She gently nudged Taylor to one side, interposing herself between the two and getting closer to Drew, the daisy pinned behind her ear bobbing cheerily with the movement. "Are you here for the self-defense class? I thought originally it was a self-defense for women class, but obviously not, if you're here, because you're not a woman, and there are a few other guys here too, I see. But anyone can benefit from a good course in self-defense, I always say. Are you a student here?" she asked, not pausing for a breath. "I mean, you're at least 21, right? I always like to check, it's so hard to tell and you can never be too careful," she concluded with another clueless smile.

"Maybe you can practice on him," Stesha suggested cheerfully, but heeded the warning and steered towards the other side of the crowd. "I guess a lot of people are interested in learning this stuff," she observed, joining the edge of the throng and standing on tiptoe to look towards the doors. "But you know, maybe if you want something more powerful, you should try something a little more intensive. I was reading the other day about the martial arts that the Israeli army uses, Krav Manga or something like that. It's supposed to be really effective."

"I think that's obedience class," Stesha replied, taking Taylor's hand. "And if you don't want the ficus, I'll be happy to rehome it for you. It has lots of potential, just needs a little more sun and love. You could always get a plastic ficus and just dust it occasionally, or a cactus, so I could still visit." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, preparing for the oddity of Taylor's mode of transportation.

Stesha took a quick look around, relieved she'd zoomed in on the right place, then smiled at Taylor. "Hey, I still lived at home with my folks when I was in school. Some days I would've lived in a cardboard box if I could've fit a bathtub in there. So, are we ready for some defending of our selves?" Casually, she reached into her bag and took out the water bottle, pouring about a third of its contents onto the distressed little plant. The water, and a little infusion of power, had it looking much better right away. She knew she ought to ask first, but it was a mission of mercy.

"It's not what you run into," Erin said wisely, "it's what runs into you that's the problem. But if this is a secret hideout type vehicle, even that shouldn't be much of a problem. You have to be in a pretty bad part of town for people to start ramming into and shooting random cars and trucks. And don't talk about his mystique, you'll just give him a bigger head." She chuckled, able to relax more than usual when away from school and in the company of the two best friends she had.

"Sounds good." Stesha bumped up the schedule on her afternoon chores a little, to make time to pin up her hair securely and dig the workout clothes from where she had never quite gotten around to unpacking the moving box in the back of her closet. She'd been busy! Finally, with her hair braided and pinned up securely around her head, and dressed in a cheerfully bright sweatsuit covered with paintblot flowers, Stesha stuck a water bottle in her knapsack and checked her directions one more time. She wondered suddenly if she ought to bring the instant cold pack from her first aid kit, but decided it probably wasn't that kind of class. No one would actually get hurt. When she was sure of the directions, she pictured the city in her mind, zeroing in on the block, the building, and then on the apartment itself. Touching her fingers to one of Moira's bonsai trees for good luck, she disappeared, zipping through a world of green only to be regurgitated a moment later by a pitiful excuse for a ficus.

"Sure, that'll be fine," Stesha replied. She'd have to cut short her cloudy day fake-baking, but she could make it up to herself later on, especially if she got set on her butt a few times in a self-defense class. "If you have any plants I can pop right in, otherwise I can meet you in any place where people aren't going to be walking by. I'm not crazy about trying to drive into Riverside and park on a Sunday afternoon."

"Oh, tonight..." Stesha leaned up on a elbow and looked over to her Felix clock. "Sure, that will be fine," she told Taylor. "Derrick's working tonight, or we'd probably be doing something, but you know how it is. I can meet you someplace, or we can get together at the university, but I don't know where anything is. What time should we meet?" It was nice to be a little accommodating, she figured. Right now, she was just happy that Taylor was apparently not holding onto any hard feelings after the conversation about Jack.

"Yeah, I could see that," Stesha agreed thoughtfully. "If you're good, you tend to be very very good, and anyone who isn't good has different skills. If you want to try and brush up, I'd be up for that. I'm not exactly good at any of that stuff," she admitted as though it needed to be said, "so it would probably be good for both of us. When is it?"

Stesha felt a little bit awkward at just getting up and going, but it seemed like lunch was done, and a quick glance at her watch revealed that the afternoon could easily get away from her. Despite Ace's suggestion of a bubble bath, she had more than enough to keep her busy at the shop, even without any time off. She picked up her purse, a universal "I'm ready to go" signal. "I really appreciate that," she told him. "And thank you for inviting me out. I feel a lot better than I did."

"Self-defense?" Stesha repeated, honestly baffled. "But... what do you need a self-defense class for?" She was a little leery of saying too much secret information over the phone, but trusted Taylor would get the gist. "I mean, you've got plenty of ways to defend yourself, don't you?" She didn't bother to deny that she herself might need a little brushing up in that area.

Just a few miles away, Stesha was stretched out on her couch with her hair under a sunlamp when her phone started playing "Think of Me." It took her a moment to remember who that was for, but she chuckled when she remembered her own cleverness. But what would Taylor be calling for? Stesha opened her eyes and rolled over to pick up the phone from her coffee table, shoving her hair back from her face with her free hand. "Hello, Taylor," she said into the phone, "what's up?"

"There's a whole sliding scale of difficulty," she told him, "you can do the tester until you find someone who's hard to fight, then work on that level. It's pretty easy to figure out." Erin reached out and touched his arm, just for a split second. "You'll do fine," she told him. "All the standard stuff will come. It's why they make us go to school for years, instead of just a summer." She dumped her tray on the conveyor. "Anyway, catch you around," she told him, then left before she could feel embarrassed.

"I don't have any idea," Stesha admitted, "but it'd be good if we could find out. If he's doing anything shady, it's probably important to know about it. Especially for Taylor, but any of us could get in trouble if he gets caught doing something." She folded up her napkin and set it where her plate had been sitting. "You'll let me know when you find anything about Moira, won't you?" she asked one more time.

"If we haven't crashed it," Erin added pragmatically. "I mean, look at Chris's flying machine. There's nothing else in the sky with it and he managed to crash it. Something cheap with extra airbags might be better for the way we tend to work." She rested her arm on the windowsill as James pulled the car into traffic, quieting down to enjoy the ride.

Erin nodded at that, idle curiosity satisfied. "If I see anything that looks promising on the Doom Room menu, I'll let you know," she told him. "I probably better get going though, I've got to get up to Marquez's office before he rolls out after me." She piled her empty dishes on the tray and gathered up her knapsack again. "See you later?"

"A scooter?" Erin asked with a grin. She resisted the urge to tease Alex any further, and instead tried to give the idea some serious thought. "I guess... I guess you could ride in on the sidewalk and avoid traffic," she said, somewhat dubiously. "And plug it in at night to avoid gas prices. But really, you're better off with a motorcycle if you want something with two wheels instead of four." She buckled in as well, from sheer force of habit, and brushed her hair back out of her face. "Just don't forget your helmet."

Erin, disdaining the need for a costume, began walking over in the direction of the waterpark, looking for whatever it was that Mark had seen. She wasn't good at reading random passers-by, but maybe everyone did look a little more tired than they should've been, even after a day in the park. In any case, if there was something out there, it was better to confront it head-on than to wait for everyone to get their playclothes on.

"That's what I've been trying to say," Erin agreed, looking up at the Chevette's open top. "But he keeps saying no!" She gave James an arch look. "If you want to have a cool team ride, you should ride in a convertible. Do we really need a truck or a van or whatever when Mike can just carry whatever we need? And catch the car if someone drives it off a cliff, if it comes to that."