[Surrey Monroe]

The school day was out and, only fifteen minutes after she had left the school building, caught a ride, and made it to her home. And that was just the start of it. Picking up the mail from the mail box as she jogged to the porch of her house, Surrey Monroe opened the door, which wasn't locked so that her little brother's didn't have to deal with walking around with keys after one of them had lost three sets of them, and shouted "Hello!" to whomever in her family might be there at that time of the day, running up the stairs and into her room instead. There were a few responses, but Surrey had better things to do than stick around and chat with her family. It was the first day of the school year and everyone who was anyone had planned to go the pizza store, Pie in the Sky, also known as P.I.T.S. And Surrey definitely included herself in one of the 'anyone's. Perhaps she wasn't the most popular girl at Bennet Academy, but she was well known primarily for two things; she was a jokester and constantly made jokes to make others laugh and she was a bit of a flirt. But she couldn't really help it, now could she? She was a Valentine's baby, after all.

Surrey closed the door of her room and started to unbutton the buttons of her blouse as rapidly as she could and throwing it over the back of her computer chair. She then kicked off her shoes, pulled off her socks, and stepped out of her skirt, adding that to her shirt on the chair; she'd throw them into the laundry later but she had emptied it the night before and, as a result, her laundry bag wasn't in the hamper where it was supposed to be, but in the laundry room in the basement of her house. And Surrey was in too big of a hurry to go and get it. She pulled open the doors of her armoire and pulled out a gray polo shirt, a black vest, and a pair of black skinny jeans. Putting them on, she glanced in her floor-length mirror and frowned; something was missing. She strode over to the top of her dresser and picked up a black and white checkered scarf, wrapped it around her neck, and then picked up a black fedora with a white feather in it and placed it promptly on her head. She walked back to the mirror and nodded at her reflection; she was no ready to go out. She grabbed her wallet and cell phone from her book-bag, stuck them in her pocket, and started to head to her bedroom door. And then started to laugh at herself as she realized that she wasn't wearing any shoes. As she laughed at herself, Surrey walked over to her dresser, opened a drawer, and pulled out a pair of socks. She sat down on the black and white checkered duvet cover on her bed and put the socks on her feet before reaching for a pair of the original black-and-white Converse and slipping her feet into them. Finally fully dressed, Surrey left her room and bounded down the stairs, taking it two steps at a time. She ran to the front door, shouted "Bye!", and left the house, running down the street. Although she could drive, Surrey didn't always have a car open to her and her primary mode of transportation was a bike or hitching a ride with someone. That day, since it was nice out, Surrey decided to hop on her bike, which was propped up against the garage door, and started peddling down the street.

Within ten minutes she had reached the parking lot of P.I.T.S and stopped in front of an electrical pole. The girl pulled off the lock and linked her bicycle and the pole, fiddling with the combination so that nobody could see what she had last entered. The only other person who knew the combination was her twin and after one evil prank which almost rivaled one of her own, when he 'stole' her bike and made her go face her parents, telling them that she had lost her bike and needed a new one, he would never dare pull something like that again; she had gotten him back so badly that he wouldn't even imagine it. Once the lock was secure, Surrey made sure that her hair wasn't all over the place due to the ride over, and then laughed at herself because all of her brown locks were stuffed into her feathered cap. With a smile on her face, Surrey walked over to the side walk of the strip mall where Pie in the Sky was located and started to walk past the various stores of the area. Finally, she reached the pizza store and pushed open the door, the bell above her head jangling as she did so, announcing her presence.

There were several people in the room, some of whom Surrey could definitely sit with and as she approached the counter to order her food, some people said a quick greeting to her, which she replied with a wave or a smile. Upon reaching the counter, Surrey placed her hands on it and peered over the class which encased the goodies. The guy behind the counter glared at her as she peered a bit too long, but she simply smiled sweetly. After a moment, the girl finally looked up. "Could I just have a slice please?" Surrey watched as the guy's eyes narrowed slightly, irritated over the fact that she hadn't ordered any vegetable slice or anything, such as what she had been looking at, and Surrey just shrugged; what was she supposed to do? None of it piqued her interest that day!

[Adrian Bayles]

Stitch reached out and gently pulled the door of his home, delicate and quaint from the outside, a jumbled mass of books and boxes and tottering piles of decade-old junk from the in, ajar to allow himself access. He called out from the hallway to see if his mother was home (which she rarely ever was these days; although she loved her son, and he knew that well enough, she did get so terribly lonely with him at school all day and Charlie not around, so she spent what seemed like every available moment of her time at the auction house that lay just beyond the border of Totorri), and, on getting no reply, strolled into the kitchen and helped himself to a swig of orange juice and an apple. His first day back at school had been pleasant enough, he supposed, with nobody trying to kick his head in for “being a complete freak” and the work being fairly easy to get through, but at the same time it hadn’t been anything special. The people around him had been the same old cretins as before and the teachers, however unbiast toward any member of their student body they claimed to be, still seemed to hate him. Come to think of it, though, perhaps pretending to practise witchcraft and creating fake voodoo dolls of his physics teacher at the back of the classroom hadn’t been the smartest of ideas if he wanted to cut down his detention figures this year…

About twenty minutes after his arrival home, Stitch was already feeling antsy. Nobody had given him any homework to attempt on the first day and he felt far too energetic to pick up a pencil and begin a sketch, so he had been reduced to sitting on the edge of his bed and fidgeting like a not yet toilet trained toddler. He watched his feet, sitting snugly inside a pair of ratty old converse all stars, as he drew circles around the dirty beige carpet beneath him, but he soon grew bored of such a childish pastime. He knew that just a short drive away from his home every popular boy or girl from Bennett’s and Darcy’s would be crowded around that little pizza shop, PITS, mingling and socialising like they hadn’t seen each other in years, the girls weeping and hugging and laughing like there’s no tomorrow and the guys flirting and joking and failing miserably at taming their roving eyes, but he, Adrian Bayles, wouldn’t be seen dead at an affair like that. Would he?

Oh dear God, what is wrong with me? That was the first thought that entered Stitch’s head as he slammed the door of his 1964 Ford Falcon, filthy due to the fact that it had only been washed twice in all the time that it had been “alive” and slowly falling apart due to the fact that, well, he had paid a mere two hundred dollars for it shortly after the move to Totorri. The closer he got to the shop itself, his feet dragging along the ground as he realised that no amount of boredom should have ever driven him to such drastic measures, the more looks of bitchy astonishment he was pelted with. He didn’t fit in with any of these people, and he certainly didn’t like any of them, and they all knew it just as well as he did. So why an earth, he could see them asking themselves (not to mention hear a few of them asking each other), was he there?

“Well well well, if it isn’t little miss ‘I have to be seen at every social event ever to be held otherwise I won’t be cool anymore’. I figured I might find you here.” A smile crept its way onto his face, tugging at the edges of his mouth, as Stitch stepped inside the building and caught site of Surrey Monroe standing over by the counter, pissing off the rather sullen looking cashier in front of her if he wasn’t mistaken. He began to pick up pace as he walked over to where she was, smirking in that trademark Adrian way, his lips slightly parted and his eyes narrowed in an almost sinister squint, but he was undeniably glad that she was there. Perhaps her presence would stop him from resorting to full on suicide attempts after another forty minutes of being crammed inside the little shop with his eardrums begging for mercy as he was forced to hear yet another Bennett girls first-day-back gossip.

[Surrey Monroe]

As the cashier put a slice of pizza into the oven to heat up, Surrey smiled coyly. Really, people had to stop getting pissed off about little things like this! If everyone stopped letting the little things bother them, they'd have more time being bothered by the big things in life, such as war, and try and stop them. However, it was kind of fun to see just how much she could irritate someone before their boiling point. Really, if simply looking irritated the pizza guy, she'd hate for him to ever try working at an ice cream store when she decided to sample flavors... Yes... Going to get ice cream with Surrey didn't just take a few minutes; it took at least a half hour for her to decide even on which flavors to chose. And yes, the girl had managed to get kicked out of some stores for being such an irritating little nuisance. But really, if she wanted to see the reactions of the staff members, how else was she to annoy them by doing something legal? Not that she always tried to be annoying but, well, when she was in one of her moods... Moods which were really her personality... So perhaps her moods were actually the true Surrey and her 'normal' behavior was really her moods... How odd.

As the guy started to ring up her purchase, Surrey reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet, from which she removed a handful of bills. "I'm also going to have a bottle of Sprite," she added as the guy continued to ring up her purchase. He took the money and gave her the change, which she placed into her pocket. As she waited for her order, Surrey decided that, in order to stop herself from becoming completely bored, she would continue tapping on the edge of the counter. But, just as she got a good beat running, she heard a familiar voice and smiled as she rolled her eyes. Really, what in the world was he doing here? He wasn't one who would show up at PITS's unofficial annual first-day get together. Although, she did want to speak to him and here what he thought of his teacher's for the year. Knowing Adrian, Surrey would be able to think of a lot of fun tasks which he could carry out in order to irritate the oh-so prestigious professors at The Darcy School.

Turning around, Surrey couldn't help but laugh at how out of place Adrian looked. Really, this was not his scene at all. Nevertheless, "you're here!" she squealed. And yes, Surrey Aphrodite Monroe squealed upon occasion. It was noticed that she did more so than usual around Adrian Bayles but hey, if she was trying to see how far she could push him before he actually got angry at her, that was her prerogative. Not that she really wanted to find out; she just wanted to know if Adrian was actual as evil as he thought he was or if it really all was a show. Because if it wasn't then he was one going to snap. And when someone snapped, that was always when you saw the truth of their person. And even though she was close friends with him, Surrey didn't really think that she understood him. She knew a lot about him, like why he did certain things to push people away, but she didn't really know why he wanted to push people away. But as his best girl, she wasn't going to do something over the top, such as pull a real prank on him. That would just be cruel to the extreme and even Surrey couldn't bring herself to do something like that.

As Surrey processed Adrian's words, she pouted and stuck her hands on her waist, "now that's just mean. You make me sound like I'm some social climber or something. Do I look like a blonde bimbo to you?" As she asked the question, she flicked her dark brown hair to prove the point. As Surrey did so, she noticed a sophomore nudge one of her friends and point at Adrian and then at Surrey, causing the brunette to frown. Really, people were idiotic; she recognized that sophomore as one of the girls whom had asked her if she was dating Adrian. Come on! Did a guy and girl have to be swapping spit in order to talk to one another casually? He was like the brother she never had. And she had three of them so saying that she wanted another one definitely meant that Adrian was exactly like a brother to the junior.

[Adrian Bayles]

She squealed. She really, truly, without so much as a hint of irony in her voice squealed. The smirk that played almost mischievously along the line of his lips ceased to disappear, even in his moment of complete and utter despair, but his brow did furrow into a subtle frown. Why did she have to do things like that in front of him? She knew who he was, she knew that he was like, yet still she insisted on doing things like that; she was a perplexing being, that was for sure, and sometimes Stitch cursed himself for not having the heart (and yes, contrary to popular belief, a heart had always been present in him, beating out a tune inside his chest) to tell her where to go and just walk away, but he knew that he loved her too much for that. Never once in his life had he wished for a sibling or a cousin, or even a niece or a nephew to keep him company, but having Surrey around was, in some respects, like having a sister. She was irritating, true, and he wasn’t always best pleased with her, but he could never just cut her out of his life. Things didn’t work that way.

He waited patiently, or as patiently as his temperament would allow, for her to finish posing on the spot and giving him a probably well deserved verbal finger wagging, apparently unimpressed by his new nickname for her, before closing the gap between them and leaning an elbow against the counter. She was looking as good as she always did, he noted quickly, with a chequered scarf wrapped around her neck and that silly black fedora of hers atop her head; ever since the day she’d bought that hat he had given her nothing but grief about it, never failing to make some sort of ridiculously sarcastic comment at every one of their meetings, but in all truth it didn’t look half bad on her. It just so happened that the day he saw it he was in both a very bad mood and lacking any sort of mental stimulation, so voila. Her and her new fedora became the subject of his constant mockery.

Today, however, he decided to let it slide. There would always be another time and another place for such jokes, and with some awful girls making shady gestures in reference to his relationship with Surrey catching him out of the corner of his eye, he wasn’t feeling particularly light hearted anymore. Little things like that had always been the ones to get him riled up the most, and he could see, by watching where Surrey’s gaze fell, that she had noticed her fellow schoolmates too. He doubted that she’d be exactly ecstatic at their twisted observations either.

“Blonde, no. A bimbo, well…” He paused for a moment to shuffle around slightly, turning his back on the two girls who had now been hastily added to his mental list of people to make suffer around Totorri, and then grinned smugly at Surrey. “Y’know, I think it might be the skinny jeans. They do give you that look…”

[Surrey Monroe]

Hearing Adrian's comment simply caused Surrey roll and then promptly narrow her eyes in his general direction. "You know, if I'm a bimbo, you're a bimbo's sidekick. And you're blond. So... What in the world does that make you?" She simply couldn't resist. Really, he was a blond; she just couldn't allow him to insult her without making some sort of comment about the color of his hair. Sure, it was good natured bickering but Surrey couldn't exactly let it be one-sided bickering on his part, now could she? That would just be a bit unfair on Adrian's part, since Surrey knew just as well as anyone in Tottori that Adrian Bayles without someone to make feel bad was simply an unhappy Adrian. Not that Adrian was often happy but, well, Surrey liked making him smile so she would keep him company for as long as he was an ass. After he became a normal human being, well, that'd be up to him. And yes, Surrey Aphrodite was quite the fairy godmother, thank you very much! She was a little cupid who just wanted to make the entire world happy. And why not? Laughing was so much more fun than crying, after all!

"WHAT?" Surrey demanded sharply as she glanced down at her pants. The guy behind the counter held out her tray with her slice of pizza and bottle of Sprite and Surrey took it from him, whirling around and walking several feet where she slammed it down on the table. She looked up at Adrian and beckoned him near; he was not going to make her sit alone. "These jeans are not the least bit bimboish..." she muttered, more to herself than the blond standing by the counter immediately before she took a bit out of her slice of pizza."Ow!" yelped the brunette as she dropped the pizza back on its plate, finding that the bite she had chewed was quite a bit hotter than a normal slice of pizza one could buy at PITS. Glaring over her shoulder at the back of the guy behind the counter, Surrey opened her soda bottle and brought it to her mouth to take a sip. Really, people were becoming as devious as she was and that was not going to bode well for the community of Tottori if more people decided that playing practical jokes was alright.

Crossing her arms and glaring down at her piece of pizza, Surrey wondered if Adrian had any mind to sit with her. Then again, she was probably the only person in PITS at that moment whom he could stand... She was half tempted to get up and force him to sit down beside her so that she didn't look like the loser she truly was deep down inside, her dark hidden secret, but instead she just reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone and decided to text her brother to see where he was. She placed her phone back down on the table and literally ten seconds later it started to ring her tone for messages. Picking it back up and glancing at the screen, Surrey pouted slightly; he had yelled at her via text message for waking him up from a nap! Well, if the moron was stupid enough to leave his ringer on while napping, he deserved it. And Surrey sent that message back to her twin via text and then slammed her phone back down on the table. Really, was every male who she thought of as a brother or brother-like equivalent going to be more PMSy than she was that day? Not that it was unusual for Adrian but...

Finally, bored after sitting alone for about a minute, Surrey turned back to where Adrian still stood. "Hey, Adrian! Bring me the red pepper flaky stuff, please and thank you!" she shouted across the noise of the restaurant. Really, teenagers were quite loud when they got together in a small place. And that was saying a lot for a relatively loud girl.

[Adrian Bayles]

A bimbo’s sidekick, eh? Adrian had to admit that, despite the fact that his reputation as a regular jackass and a total creep had earned him many a nickname in his time, that was one that he had never encountered before. He chuckled lightly to himself as she continued her rant, his gaze following her every movement but his feet still stuck solidly to the floor, and slowly mulled over her words; he wondered, casually, whether or not anybody did consider him Surrey’s “sidekick”, or whether he was actually allowed his own identity in the queer old world that the popular kids inhabited. He knew for sure that none of them ever seemed particularly fond of him (okay, talk about an understatement. He knew for sure that they all seemed to pretty much loathe him, on the odd occasion that he ran into them around the town, although how much of that was their quick judgement and how much of that was his own damn fault he wasn’t sure), but to them, was he just the weird guy who followed Surrey around a lot? Was that the only way that they knew to tell him apart from all the other loners and geeks around the town, or were some of them familiar with his name, his face? Had he managed to earn himself a reputation with them, however pathetic that reputation was, or was he reading far too much into the whole thing? Did they even know who he was?

Stitch shook his head gently, realising that he had been tuned into his own futile thoughts for far longer than he usually cared to be in public, and then glanced up at Surrey just in time to catch her question; the red pepper flaky stuff, she wanted. Please and thank you. He cocked a thin blonde eyebrow and reached out to grab the object of her desire, suddenly amused by his earlier thoughts. He didn’t care whether or not they knew who he was, so why had it even crossed his mind? It was stupid to have even asked the question, and he knew as much. Oh, what strange tricks boredom could play on the mind.

Slowly whirring into action, his shoes squeaking slightly as he dragged them across the floor, he made his way over to where Surrey had chosen to sit and handed her the pepper. He stood with his back to the table for a moment or two, silently debating whether or not to join the ever-growing queue back at the counter and buy himself something to drink, before turning back to the table and pulling up a chair. There was no way he was thirsty enough to waste the next twenty minutes of his afternoon standing in that line.

“So, how was your first day back?” He sounded ever so slightly more serious than he had done previously, having remembered that he still hadn’t managed to ask about her day, and reached out to take hold of her soda. “Managed to get yourself expelled yet?”

He held the bottle to his lips and poured a little into his mouth, completely aware that he hadn’t asked permission before taking her drink or, he reached out after replacing the bottle on the table and nipped the end of her now much cooler pizza, stealing her food, but she’d survive. It wasn’t like she was starving or anything.

[Surrey Monroe]

When Adrian actually brought her the pepper, Surrey gave him a questioning look; he was listening to her? That was a new one... He must really have taken her words regarding him being her sidekick to heart! Not that it really mattered, if he hadn't brought it to her Surrey would have just retrieved the spice herself. Shaking it atop of her slice, Surrey touched it tentatively once more and then, when discovering that it wasn't searing hot any longer, she lifted the pizza to her mouth and took another bite, savoring it as she put the plate back down on the table. "Mmm..." she sighed softly. Bennet Academy had half decent meals but Surrey could never bring herself to eat when surrounded by girls who were practically starving themselves so a lot of the time she went for hours without a decent bite of food. It wasn't the fact that Surrey was starving herself or anything because, really, did she look sickly? But when sitting alongside people who thought a whole container of yogurt was excessive tended to make one lose their appetite. Often. But really, it was simply just sickening to see girls freak out about eating a carrot stick!

Hearing Stich's question, Surrey just rolled her eyes. 'I haven't ever even been threatened with expulsion!" the brunette protested before taking another bite of her pizza. She paused and then added, "well, just that one time when I was suspended for a day. And had to buy the gym new basketballs... But really, I swear, that gym teacher deserved having all of the basketballs float away from her because she was psychotic." And yes, basketballs had floated; Surrey had filled them up with helium. ((I'm not sure if this would actually work, and I seriously doubt it, but shh...)) "But the rest of the day was fine. Class. Break. More Class. Lunch. Some more Class... You know, the usual," the girl responded with a shrug of her shoulders. And then she started to reach for her soda bottle but Stich beat her to it. Surrey frowned slightly and rolled her eyes. He was lucky she didn't mind because she knew girls who, despite the fact that they would make out with just about anyone, flipped out if someone drank from their bottles of water. Heaven forbid that they buy a bottle of soda for once in their life.

"Stich," Surrey said slowly, drawing his name out. "You know that there's such a thing as people having possessions, right? Asking is much better than just becoming a thief. After all, my sidekick can't be known as the Scary Sprite Scavenger or anything..." And then he took a bit of her pizza, causing her to roll her eyes. "Fine, I hope you're not sick or anything," Surrey finally gave in. After all, it was Stich! She couldn't just let him starve! That'd be much too cruel...

"What about your first day back?" she couldn't resist asking, although she had a feeling his response would be even shorter than hers had been. "Scared any of the new freshmen?" And the sad, and slightly hilarious, part was she could most definitely see Adrian setting out to scare some of the little underclassmen.

[Adrian Bayles]

Stitch snorted a laugh as he thought back to the first time he heard about Surrey’s little basketball escapade, not long after the crime itself had been committed, and realised that it was one of those stories that never lost it’s charm. It had been funny when she’d told it to him the first time, and now, if possible, it was even funnier still. It didn’t hurt that Surrey herself had knack for putting a comical spin on things like that, nor that he could picture vividly the psychotic gym teacher’s jaw dropping to her ankles as she looked into the sky and saw her beloved basketballs floating away toward the clouds, but the story itself, and the pure genius of the idea, was enough to extract a chuckle from just about anybody. Even somebody as infamously sullen as Adrian Bayles.

“Oh, damn, did I forget to tell you about the terminal and very infectious Mediterranean flu I picked up over the summer?” He took another quick nibble of her pizza, pulling a piece of cheese from the edge with his teeth, before setting it back on her plate and locking his gaze with hers. A smug smile teased the corners of his mouth. “Sorry about that.”

Using his tongue to wet his lips slightly, Stitch leant back in his chair and opened his mouth to answer his companions question, pausing momentarily to look back on the day behind him. He could distinctly remember following one little red-headed kid around the hallways during the slight locker break between second and third period, tailing him closely and burning a hole in his back with a fierce glare, before dropping back and, eventually, disappearing altogether. It had been fun for a while, watching the boy squirm around as he got more and more uncomfortable, hitching his pants a little higher and clutching his books to his chest as he scampered through the hallways, a little too afraid to look behind him and see exactly who it was sitting in his back bumper, so to speak, but after a while it had started to become tedious. Plus, making freshmen cry always landed him in the principles office, and then ultimately in the detention class after school, and for his mother’s sake he had promised to try and cut down on that as much as possible. Last year she’d received so many detention slips to sign that every so often Adrian would be told to simply fake a signature, claim it was a grandparent’s and leave her out of the whole damn thing. He complied without so much as a word of protest; faking signatures was always a good skill to try and perfect, right?

“I think I managed to scare a few. Nobody cried though.” He pointed out with a dry laugh, as he drummed his fingers lightly against the table. It was a force habit more than a sign of boredom or impatience. “But hey, you can’t have it all. And there’s always tomorrow.”

[Surrey Monroe]

A grin formed on Surrey's lips as Stitch laughed at the note of her little basketball escapade; see, she was having some impact on the usually sullen guy. Not that she wanted to change him or anything, but smiling was just a good thing to do so if she could get him to smile, that'd be great. But really, if Adrian didn't go around scaring people than Surrey wouldn't love him half as much as she did; it simply made him Stitch and she would never be friends with him any other way. Well, no, that was a lie because Surrey tended to be friends with a lot of people... But that was completely besides the point! Surrey was friends with Adrian because he was Adrian and that was that. End of Story. The End. Fin. Etcetera.

As soon as Adrian said 'oh damn', Surrey thought he was going to say that he had mono or something and quickly dropped the slice of pizza she was about to take a bite out of. When she heard the end of his query, the girl rolled her eyes and picked up her pizza once more. As she looked him in the eyes, she moaned quietly, "Adrian's killed me..." She put on a sorrowful face and then put her hands on her face, as if she was crying. "You're gonna show up to my funeral, right?" came her muffled question through her hands. Stitch was so mean to her sometimes... Removing her hands from her face, she pouted slightly, "that was absolutely hysterical." Her words were dry and as she said them she rolled her eyes again before picking up the pepper shaker and shaking it at Adrian.

Hearing Adrian's response caused Surrey to get a slightly worried look on her face. And then she just laughed; freshmen were supposed to be teased, anyway. "Are you upset that nobody cried?" Surrey couldn't resist asking because, well, it was Stitch and she had a feeling that it had been his goal from the very start of bothering whichever poor freshman he had decided to pick on. She got her answer in his next sentence and rolled her eyes again; she did that a lot whenever she hung out with Adrian. "Hmm... I wonder what would happen if you did that to some of my freshman... You'd probably make them die of fright."

[Adrian Bayles]

“Now, see, death is something that I’ve never managed to achieve.” He paused for a moment to run a hand through is hair, pushing back the dirty blonde flyaways that had been bugging him ever since he had arisen from his bed in the morning, and heaved an overly dramatic sign in Surrey’s direction. “I guess I’ll just have to try a little bit harder this year.”

Adrian’s lips wavered into a thin smile and one of his eyes fluttered closed in an effortless wink, hopefully proving to the young brunette across the table that he wasn’t entirely serious with the words that he spoke; with the bland, almost monotonic tone that his voice had adopted during his last little speech, he could see how the whole thing could turn into a great big, very unwelcome ordeal, involving police cars and psychiatrists, his screaming mother and more than a couple of sedatives, and although Surrey was definitely smart and usually sharp enough to tell the difference between when he was being his horribly sarcastic, verbally sadistic ass of a self and when he was speaking with a genuine sincerity, but he thought it best to make sure. Just to avoid any sort of sticky situations arising.

“And as for how hysterical I am,” He began with a slightly broader smile, picking up on Surrey’s earlier comment and deciding to respond to it, after having simply brushed it off with a roll of the eyes and a vague shrug before. “you don’t need to remind me. You know, some kids at school actually call me Mr. Chuckles.”

He gave his neck a slight crick, flicking his head to the side and ridding his eyes of the hair that had, once again, chosen to fall flat in front of his face, and then tucked it firmly behind his ear. All fucking day that had been bothering him, all day, and he still he had no idea how to stop it from interfering with both his vision and his ability to… well, his ability not to appear like a ninth grade cheerleader in the middle of a slap-fight with another ninth grade cheerleader who stole her, like, totally, like, hottie of a boyfriend and, like, didn’t even say sorry. Pretty soon he was going to have to resort to getting somebody to lend him hair-ties or elastic bands during the warm summer days, or actually venturing into a hairdressers and seeing about getting his hair cut, he realised with a slight shudder.

[Surrey Monroe]

Surrey snorted, yes, snorted at Adrian's words about murdering a freshman. Or scaring one to death, at the very least. "Uh huh... Well, there was one freshman who thought that she could mess with me today so if you want, feel free to be the cause of her demise," the brunette said with a slight shrug before picking up her soda bottle and taking another drink from it. A lot of people wondered why Surrey never drank Coke or Pepsi or Dr. Pepper even but the fact was that Surrey thought all caramel colored drinks tasted revolting and would only drink them if forced, but when she had the choice she'd generally pick something like Sprite, Sierra Mist, or Seven Up. Why? Not just because they looked cleaner but just the fact that they tasted more refreshing.

And it wasn't as if Surrey was often in need of caffeine. Sure, she liked coffee but she generally drank decaf anyway...

Stitch winked at Surrey as he spoke and Surrey just smiled slightly, acknowledging his movement without having to say anything. After all, it was extremely amusing for her to have people wonder if they could bother her or whether or not Adrian Bayles would decide that he had to protect his friend with one of his infamous death glares. Of course, the people who wondered that were complete and utter idiots; those people obviously had no idea just with whom they were dealing with. Surrey Aphrodite Monroe needed nobody to stick up for her. Sure, if someone decided to say something in her defense, she wouldn't clamp her hand over his or her mouth but really... She could fight her own battles. And, in fact, she did. Often. They weren't quite as serious as Adrian's, for the guy never stopped glaring at people who pissed him off, but even when Surrey smiled and joked, she could make someone feel like total shit. She didn't do it often but... Well, it had been known to happen.

As she swallowed another sip of her soda, Stitch mentioned the line about Mr. Chuckles. And Surrey then promptly spat some of the soda out of her mouth. Laughing at both herself and Adrian's words, Surrey reached for a pile of napkins and started wiping up the disgusting mess; no, Surrey Monroe was most definitely not a girly-girl. "That'll be the day," the junior said as she threw a ball of napkins into the nearest trash can. And made it in. "Score!" Looking back at Adrian to see his reaction, she saw him adjust his hair and grinned. "You know, I have a great hairstylist."

((Sorry for the shortness))

[Adrian Bayles]

Oh, how very ladylike his choice in company was. Stitch couldn’t help but stifle a small laugh as the frothy white liquid flew from Surrey’s mouth, spraying the skin along his jaw line with a unpleasantly sticky mixture of saliva and Sprite, but he soon made sure that any trace of a smile was gone and a deeply set frown was evident on his face; she’d already managed to get him giggling with her helium filled basketballs and the psychotic gym teacher, so he couldn’t possibly let her grab him again with something as silly (and gross) as spitting soda all over the place now, could he? If she wanted to see him smiling again, then she was going to have to damn well work for it.

“Charming, Surrey. Just… charming.” He brought a hand up to his face and gently rubbed a finger or two over the spot where she’d managed to hit him, slowly wiping away the bubbles that lingered along the side of his face before moving a little further back in his chair, positioning himself just outside the line of fire. The next time Surrey Monroe decided to go on a Sprite spitting rampage, he would not be the target. “I’ll tell you what. If you give me the details of your great hairstylist, I’ll give you the details of somebody I know who can help you learn how to keep things inside your mouth. How about that?”

The frown lifted slightly and gave way to yet another teasing smirk, complete with a pair of narrow eyes, currently a little bluer than their usual tone of misty grey, and a subtle tilt of the head. His arms were folded tightly across his chest, giving the impression of either impatience or irritation, although neither of them were particularly present in Adrian, and he shuffled his feet around for a moment or two underneath the table, trying to find a more comfortable position to leave them in. He couldn’t find one.

A couple of Darcy boys who he recognised, vaguely, as being juniors in the year below him had for some reason decided that about a quarter of a metre away from where he was sitting was the perfect place to stop and have their little reunion chat, and as Adrian sat and awaited a response from Surrey, he could see the two of them edging gradually closer to where their table was out of the corner of his eye; without so much as a break in conversation, they were backing down towards the table where Surrey and Adrian were sitting with quite obvious plans to lean against it and use it as a prop-up for their badly supported, bony-ass little backs, and Adrian knew exactly what he was going to do to stop them dead in their tracks. He subtly shifted his arms, still crossed, to the side and then quickly settled into his new position, now ready to give the first boy who went to sit down a nice, gentle (haha!) prod to let him know that their table wasn’t there for just anybody to use.

…What? He didn’t like being crowded.

((That's okay, it wasn't too short at all.))

[Surrey Monroe]

Merely shrugging her shoulders at Adrian's response to her oh-so lovely show of spitting, Surrey just smiled wryly; if he had been extremely disgusted by her, Stitch would have just stood up and walked away. But he loved her too much to do so. After all, she was probably one of the only girls at Bennet who didn't spend hours every morning making sure that their outfit matched. Despite the fact that there was a uniform! Surrey's philosophy? Roll out of bed fifteen minutes before she had to leave for school each morning, throw on her uniform, pull her hair into a pigtail, apply some eyeliner, and then flee the house for school, occasionally taking a bit more time if she had a desire to miss first period. This year Surrey had lucked out with first period; double AP biology and she was not looking forward to it. Really, who needed to know about stupid coacervates and archaebacteria? Well, unless you were going to become a biologist of course... But that was most certainly not Surrey's future profession.

Seeing Stitch wipe away some of her spit, Surrey gave him a sheepish look with a tilt of her head to the side, two motions when combined together let it seem as if Surrey was trying to apologize. Which she was but there was really no point in apologizing after the fact. "Oh, you know you love me," the brunette responded to the blond's adoration of her habits. And then he started to mock her causing her to crumple a napkin and throw it at him. "Hey! I can do that just fine on my own! Except when I laugh..." Which, sadly for Surrey was a problem because she was constantly laughing... "Anyway... I'm going to text you my hairdresser's number when I get home." It was an executive decision because, really, Stitch was in need of a haircut. After all, everyone should get one about once every six weeks and Surrey had a feeling that Stitch, with his lovely blond hair, was slightly overdue.

Surrey watched as Stitch shifted around uncomfortable and grinned; at that moment, she knew that he was actually enjoying her company that day. With Adrian, Surrey never was quite sure... But the fact that he didn't just get up and leave but instead was trying to become comfortable in the extraordinarily hard chairs of PITS. And it kind of made Surrey feel all good about herself; she was getting through to him!!! Someone ought to throw a parade or something.

But then some guys from Darcy, who Surrey happened to recall as juniors because their class and her class often had interschool activites together, decided to move a bit too close to Adrian. Quirking an eyebrow slightly, almost in question but perhaps in interest, to see what Adrian did. But however interested Surrey was in Stitch's evil ways, she had some pity on the guys. "Come on, Stitch. Maybe they're here to flirt with me or something. Or even you," she said, taking one large, final bite of her pizza. Looking down at the empty plate, Surrey frowned slightly. "Your turn to buy something!" she decided, motioning for Stitch to go to the counter to order something else that she could take some bites out of. Yes, Surrey Monroe was just a teeny bit of a glutton when it came to good food and despite the fact that a lot of people complained that PITS was the only pizza store, it did truly have goood food.

[Adrian Bayles]

Well, even though Stitch couldn’t deny how interesting and possibly rather amusing the chain of events that the two young Darcy boys strutting over to the table and attempting to flirt with him could well turn out to be, he wasn’t honestly buying a word of it. They simply wanted a place to rest their backs and use as shelter from the noisy hustle that the rest of the shop had to offer, and as far as Stitch was concerned, that meant that they both needed a very harsh little wakeup call. His table was not a free-for-all, thank you very much, and he didn’t need anybody foolishly kidding themselves otherwise.

“Trust me, Darcy boys aren’t your type. You wouldn’t want them flirting with you if they were the last living males on the planet.” He stated curtly, a hint of would may possibly have been defensiveness running lightly through the undertones; although he would never openly admit it to anybody, Stitch actually felt a strange sort of compulsion to protect Surrey, especially when it came to things like boys and bad experiences. It was probably all due to the fact that for the last year or so of his life he had fallen quite comfortably into the knowledge that he held the place of an older brother figure in Surrey’s world and she felt to him quite like a sister would, had his parents ever cared enough about each other to repeat the mistake that had led to his conception, he imaged, and as the two boys edged ever closer he felt that it was all becoming just that little bit too noticeable. He really didn’t need Surrey catching wind of it and for the teasing that was inevitably to follow to, well, follow.

Oh, his turn to buy food, eh? His turn to buy himself something tasty looking, put it down on the table and then look up to see Surrey with a great mouthful of it spilling from her lips after a millisecond of having his head turned away, more like. This wasn’t his first time sharing a table with Surrey Monroe, nor was it his first time being ordered to go and buy himself something to eat by her, so he knew exactly how this little drill worked. He’d be a lucky sod if he actually got to taste more than a crumb or two of his chosen snack.

“Do you want me play along and start getting my wallet out now, or can I cut the pretence and just ask you what you want me to get?” He shook his head slowly and his mouth creased into a delicate smile, painted so faintly onto his face that it was barely even visible, before straightening his back against the chair and giving a shallow sigh. He wasn’t quite sure how long the two of them had been sitting there, or exactly what the time had been when he’d first entered the shop, but he noticed with an irritated flare of the nostrils that nobody was beginning to even look ready to leave, let alone put on their jackets, say goodbye to their selected cliques and make for the door.

It wasn’t that he was having a particularly bad time. No, it wasn’t that at all - if anything, in fact, he was actually having a slightly more pleasant experience than he had anticipated, but him and Surrey could very easily continue their conversation (banter, bickering, whatever) out in the parking lot or back at his place, away from all the noise and the commotion and the… people, and at least then he would be able to relax his twitchy eyes and focus a little more on the matter at hand. Still, he had no doubt that Surrey would want to stick around until the bitter end, so he supposed that he was just going to have to get used to it.

[Surrey Monroe]

Well, not that Surrey wouldn't generally disagree, for most of the Darcy fools pissed her off most of the time, it was a bit harsh of Stitch to say so. Then again, he liked torturing people, so really it was just like every other day. And he hated the average Darcy guy, Surrey wasn't even sure if he had any friends there, so... Glancing over at the guys, Surrey saw one looking at her chest and the girl narrowed her eyes; that was not alright. Sure, she had nice sized breasts but... Really! Some decency. That was all she asked for; a little bit of decency. But noo... American males were sex-obsessed pricks. Then, looking at her friend, she changed her mind; most American males were sex-obsessed pricks.

"Hey, Stitch... What if I happened to have a crazy, mad obsession with you?" the girl asked, her face and tone as serious as she could possibly make it. She looked him straight in the eye for a moment and then, not being able to keep a straight face any longer, burst out laughing. "Trust me, if they were the last living males on the planet, even you would prefer if I repopulated the world with one of them," the brunette retorted to his words; after all, even Adrian didn't hate people that much. Then again, maybe he did... [b]"And some of them are pretty to look at," Surrey said after a moment. She then glanced at the aforementioned Darcy guys and then at Adrian. "Unfortunately none of the good looking ones are here today," she pouted.

Oooh... Stitch knew Surrey and her games a bit too well for her liking. Crossing her arms over her chest, Surrey frowned. "Way to take the fun out of all of it,"[b] she glared at him before eyeing the order counter once again. [b]"And really, it's just the fact that that pizza guy is a total arse," she explained, turning her glare to the evil, evil pizza guy. Pizza was supposed to be comfort food; not cause strife! Her expression changed suddenly and she smiled sweetly. "Onion rings would be lovely," she hinted. Alright, not hinted; more like demanded. But hey, Stitch adored her so if he knew what was good for him... Not that she really wanted onion rings or anything; Surrey wasn't that big of a pig. But the fun at Pie In the Sky had just started for that day and it was always fun spending time with Adrian. She had the oddest feeling that he wanted to leave but, well, Surrey wasn't in the mood for that. School was out for the first time of the year and it was just a fun-filled social event at PITS. Surrey had no desire to miss it. Miss the first night of idiocy of hers and Adrian's respective schoolmates? Now that would just be horrible...

How else in the world was she to know who she could pull a practical joke on the next day? After all, it wasn't as if she was cruel enough to joke with a girl whom had broken up with her boyfriend the night before or anything like that... In those cases, Surrey would tend to run far and fast; she wasn't good with those types of situations. She wasn't really good with anything regarding relationships and her; it was why hers rarely lasted. That and the fact that Surrey Aphrodite Monroe was a much better matchmaker and sideline observer than player in the game. So when people came to her crying, she tended not to know what to do. Her part was only in setting up people and watching love; she was in love with love and hated when her preconceptions were proven wrong. It was simply... Sad.