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ax_mainEileen takes Wanda's advice and reaches out to Pam and Alex. It's a pretty sweet reunion ... you know, by their standards.
Her cheap plastic serving tray piled high with Orange Chicken and fried rice from Panda Express, Eileen hunkered down at one of the small, circular chairs filling the mall food court and waited. Christ, she hated the mall. But she'd put that aside, taken Wanda's advice, and reached out to Pam and Alex. And, irritating as it was, the was the most convenient, neutral location for them to meet and have a conversation.
Not that Eileen was entirely sure what she was going to talk about--she was basically over being angry at their having left the team, could even begin to understand why they felt they'd had to do it. It still hurt, but that hurt was slowly taking a second place to making sure her kids were okay. Not that she'd ever let them know they were her kids. It was just one of those unspoken, understood things. Speaking it out loud was a certain one-way pass to Inverted-Digestive-System-Town.
Why were they here?
Wearing her own face without the add-on color, Pam held her tray full of Big Easy's bourbon chicken and waited a little uncomfortably for Alex to finish up at his food court restaurant of choice. She'd been surprised when Eileen had texted them after months of silence - surprised and relieved, until she realized she wasn't sure whether Eileen wanted to get together because she'd decided to forgive them, or because she wanted to just tell them off one last time. Given that it was Eileen, either was possible, but Pam was almost positive that if it'd been the latter, she wouldn't have suggested meeting at the mall.
"Ready?" she asked Alex as he stepped towards her.
"No," Alex told her honestly, his mouth twisted into something like a rueful smirk. His tray held a burger and fries, with a chocolate milkshake for added calorie support. He wasn't 100% sure, but this meeting could potentially be grueling. "But let's go, anyway."
He scanned the crowd for a moment before his eyes settled on a familiar blond in a secondhand t-shirt near the center of the food court. As soon as he caught her eye, she waved them over with an impatience so familiar it made his breath hitch a little.
"Over there," he said, nodding Pam in the right direction.
Pam turned to look in the direction Alex had indicated, her lips quirking up in a trace of a smile as she caught sight of Eileen looking...well, Eileen-ish, for lack of a better word. Nodding (and trying to ignore the annoying lump that formed in her throat) she started towards the other girl.
"I started without you," Eileen told them bluntly as they took the other seats at the table. She waved a fork over her plate in illustration, though it didn't look as though she'd done much more than pick at her faux-Chinese cuisine. "Since you decided to take forever, and all." Giving Pam a critical once-over, she added, "I hate this new look, by the way. This something they make you do at the school?"
Eileen doubted it ... but if it were a thing, she wanted to know so that she could intervene properly. And by "properly", she meant squashing the nutsack of anybody who didn't think Pam should look like Pam under her heel. She might even wear stilettos for the occasion.
"Please. I've seen TJ go out not just blue, but wearing less clothing than a Victoria's Secret mannequin." Pam retorted with a roll of her eyes and just a trace of a smile. Yep, Eileen was still Eileen, wasn't she? Fuck but she'd missed her. She set the tray down and slipped into a seat. "I'm just not into drawing that much attention. I figure this is better than randomly going invisible and leaving Alex talking to himself."
"People already give me looks, sometimes," he pointed out. "I'd rather they not think I was actually crazy, due to invisible Pam."
"Okay, fine. I guess that's okay, as long as it's just temporary camouflage." Eileen took a conspicuously large bite of chicken, and chewed with what was probably excessive vigor. "Anyway," she went on, once she'd swallowed, "you guys have been ... good? I mean, good as can be, bein' at the school instead of Asteroid M. Eating enough, keeping up with training, all that good shit?"
Pam looked over at Alex, then back to Eileen and shrugged. "Yeah, we've been ok." Leaving out certain things, anyway. "We went camping for a coupla weeks with Alex's brother and his girlfriend." She grinned, just a little. "It didn't totally suck. Y'know, for camping."
"Ugh, camping," Eileen wrinkled her nose. "No, thank you. I had enough of sleeping in ditches and having pointy rocks jabbing me in the ass for one lifetime."
"It wasn't that bad," Alex protested, looking to Pam for support he probably wasn't going to get. "Well, I had fun, anyway," he gave up. "Scott and Jean were pretty cool about the whole thing."
Pam cast Alex a warning look - she wasn't at all sure Eileen needed to know about what had happened with Cal - then turned back to Eileen. "Yeah, turns out his brother's not awful. And Jean helped me with the uneven eyeliner thing." She gestured towards her eyes. "See? I can get it to work with light now that I got it to work with the pencil." She smiled a little. "Fun might be overstating things. But I took out a few rabbits with knives, that was cool."
Eileen's mouth screwed up, and it was difficult to tell whether her current expression qualified as a smirk or a grimace. "I was never any good at girlie stuff like that," she noted, then shook her head. "But at least you got some knife practice in. Even the best need to work on keeping that edge." Heh. Pun.
She looked at Alex, then, who was focused on his cheeseburger with more than his usual ravenous-teenage-boy attention. Eileen hadn't missed the look, just like she didn't miss that the other blond at the table was trying to keep his mouth full of food so he didn't end up saying anything he wasn't supposed to.
For about a moment, Eileen considered not saying anything, either. If Pam didn't want her to know, maybe she should just let the girl think she didn't. Christ knew the girl deserved a break.
But that really wasn't her, was it? If Pam and Alex never expected anything else from her, they should at least know she would never bullshit them. Not even to spare their feelings.
"So. I heard you shanked a guy. That why you let Summers drag you off into the woods?"
"He fucking told Wanda?" Pam demanded. Because honestly, how else would the Brotherhood have found out? Tommy wouldn't have said anything, and she was pretty sure Billy'd never found out. She slammed her plastic fork down on the tray. "It was nothing. Asshole had my powers and wouldn't drop them. He healed up, I healed up, end of story."
"Who? Summers?" Eileen asked, not so much as blinking at Pam's show of temper; she'd seen it before, and could deal. "No. It was the other guy ... the archer. Cliff? I don't know. Anyhow, he and Wanda have been ... dating on the down low, or some shit. Honestly, I try not to keep track of who's swapping spit with who--makes me feel like I need to scrub down with Lysol, knowing those kinds of details." She shoved some more fried rice into her mouth.
"And if you got in a knife fight over it, then it wasn't nothing. But I'm not trying to make a fucking federal case out of this, or anything. I'm just ... glad you're okay. And I want to make sure you don't need any backup, or whatever."
Alex, very wisely, kept his mouth shut, and chewed his cheeseburger very, very slowly.
"I'm fine, " Pam replied sulkily. She retrieved her fork and stabbed a piece of chicken with it. "Cal hadn't started any more shit." She dodged the blonde's eyes. "And I'm seeing a counselor." Which, yeah, she still wasn't 100% on board with, but so far Billy'd been right. It didn't totally suck.
"You're sure?" Eileen pressed, then continued without entirely thinking her way through it, "Because you know I would wreck that place and everybody in it, if you need me to." She blinked, realized she'd said more than she meant to, and stuffed some more tangy-sweet chicken into her mouth. "If you want," she added as she chewed.
Despite lingering irritation (and seriously, Wanda was dating Clint?), Pam's lips quirked up just a fraction. "Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, it's not the base? But it doesn't totally suck ass." She popped her chicken into her mouth, then grinned a bit more. "Even got my own newbie, kinda. His name's Billy. Not Wanda's kid, a different one."
In spite of herself, one corner of Eileen's mouth twisted upward in an expression that almost mirrored Pam's. "Look at you, keeping the tradition alive. Maybe there's some hope for that school, after all." She poked idly at some rice. "Just remember you can come home whenever you want to. You can even bring your newbie. It's not like we've ever turned anybody away before. And it's ... the Asteroid just isn't the same, without you guys."
Pam glanced over at Alex, to see if he'd jump in and say yeah, it was time to go back - and realized it wasn't gonna happen. Not today, anyway. "We'll remember," she assured Eileen, unsure what else she could say without making Alex feel bad.
Alex seemed to be concentrating mostly on his food, but he did manage a, "Yeah, thanks." There was no missing the guilt underpinning his words, or the regret that he had answered with anything but 'yes'. "I'm glad you're not mad at us anymore."
That drew a snort from Eileen. "I wasn't ever mad at you," she insisted. "Either of you. Sure, I may have done a lot of bitching, but it wasn't about you guys. I was just ... angry. Angry at the situation." She jabbed a piece of chicken vindictively. "Angry at myself. But never angry at you two. I may not like not having you around where I can keep an eye on you, but that's my problem. You ... just keep on doing whatever you need to do to take care of yourselves."
She grunted irritably. "And if I don't stop with this after-school-special bullshit right now, I'm gonna need Pam to jab her fork in my eye. It's so not me."
Pam's lips quirked up into a smirk. "You can blame it on Alex. He's been getting sappy now and then; I'm pretty sure it's contagious. I'm not recommending getting stabbed by a fork, though. Fuckers hurt more than you'd think."
"I just need something to get me back to a baseline level of pissed," Eileen said. "Offset all this cutesy-poo crap" She arched a brow in Alex's direction.
"What the hell do you have to get sappy about?"
"I'm not sappy," Alex protested. "It's just ... not as hard as I thought it would be, getting used to the school. I like the classes, I'm getting to know my brother better, and everybody's been pretty nice to me, so far. It's no Asteroid M--not by a long shot. But ... it could be worse, you know?"
"Aaaand he's looking on the bright side. I'm thinking they put something in his water," Pam teased, but she reached over to squeeze his hand.
"I'm just saying it's not as terrible as it could be," Alex protested, though he squeezed her hand back. "That's not even close to looking on the bright side--I mean, that light at the end of the tunnel is probably an onrushing train, right?"
"Always, in my experience," Eileen agreed with a nod. "But you could probably stand to be a little less chipper, Summers. Make up things to complain about, if you need to. It's what I do."
"Fuck, you're saying Pietro was right about that all along?" Pam scowled at Eileen, but couldn't quite manage to hold it.
"It seemed pretty credible," Alex said, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin. "Except for the fact that it was coming from Pietro. So that's two legends you've gone and ruined, Eileen."
"I can't believe I actually baked for you two ungrateful fuckers," Eileen complained into her half-empty plate of orange chicken.
"Talk about ungrateful - we gave you something new to complain about," Pam pointed out with a smirk as she demolished another forkful of her own lunch. "Besides, the cookies were awesome."
"No, I mean I did it a second time," she said, pulling a repurposed grocery bag with a tall, covered plate inside and resting it on the table. "Brownies, this time. Pietro ... assisted with the recipe, so make sure you enjoy them in moderation." Her tone implied somebody else had told her to tell them that, an impression punctuated by a roll of her eyes.
Pam grinned. "You're the best, Eileen."
"Shit, I knew that already," she grinned. "I have to be the best, to put up with all the crap that I do. You could stand to say it more often, though. Just sayin'."
Alex was eyeing the bag with more than speculative interest. "Thanks, Eileen," he added. "You really are awesome. Even with all the made-up complaining."
"And hey, I said it. When do I ever say shit like that?" Pam pointed out.
"Like I just said: not often enough," Eileen grunted back. "But what the hell? I guess it's grown on me." She nodded toward the bag. "Lemme know how they turned out. I may try out Maximoff's recipe again--something to take the edge off while you're studying for your big Algebra test, or what the fuck ever."
"Sure you don't just want one?" Pam offered.
"What makes you think one of 'em's not behind my sudden taste for cheap Chinese mall food?" Eileen smirked back. "Or my totally fucking zen attitude this afternoon?"
"She ... does seem kinda zen," Alex muttered to Pam, hiding his mouth behind his hand. "You know. For Eileen."
"Fuck you," the blond said, though her smirk hadn't diminished in the slightest.
Pam pretended to eye Eileen askance. "Pretty sure it might go beyond brownies. You think maybe it's Tommy's brother's boyfriend fucking with us? Y'know, the whole alien shapeshifter thing..."
"I will tie you two little shits in knots and leave you here for the goddamn school to scoop up later," she threatened, giggling despite herself. Then Eileen blinked. "Wait. What alien shapeshifter thing? This is the first I'm hearing about an alien shapeshifter thing."
Pam blinked. "You giggled," she accused. "I think my brain is broken."
"Don't change the subject, Shit Number One," Eileen returned, her mouth still turned up a the corners. "Shit Number Two, do you have anything to add about this alien shapeshifter business?"
Alex suddenly found something extremely compelling to look at on his tray, and made a show of dragging one of his fries across the glob of mustard he'd deposited next to them earlier. "Uh. No. You know. I cannot confirm or deny any rumors of extraterrestrial life which may or may not have accidentally leaked from a person or persons who shall remain nameless."
"Except that they're green," Pam tacked on.
"Of course they are," she drawled, shaking her head. "Does the weird shit at that school never end?"
Pam looked over at Alex, then back to Eileen, and shrugged. "Pretty much not?"
Her cheap plastic serving tray piled high with Orange Chicken and fried rice from Panda Express, Eileen hunkered down at one of the small, circular chairs filling the mall food court and waited. Christ, she hated the mall. But she'd put that aside, taken Wanda's advice, and reached out to Pam and Alex. And, irritating as it was, the was the most convenient, neutral location for them to meet and have a conversation.
Not that Eileen was entirely sure what she was going to talk about--she was basically over being angry at their having left the team, could even begin to understand why they felt they'd had to do it. It still hurt, but that hurt was slowly taking a second place to making sure her kids were okay. Not that she'd ever let them know they were her kids. It was just one of those unspoken, understood things. Speaking it out loud was a certain one-way pass to Inverted-Digestive-System-Town.
Why were they here?
Wearing her own face without the add-on color, Pam held her tray full of Big Easy's bourbon chicken and waited a little uncomfortably for Alex to finish up at his food court restaurant of choice. She'd been surprised when Eileen had texted them after months of silence - surprised and relieved, until she realized she wasn't sure whether Eileen wanted to get together because she'd decided to forgive them, or because she wanted to just tell them off one last time. Given that it was Eileen, either was possible, but Pam was almost positive that if it'd been the latter, she wouldn't have suggested meeting at the mall.
"Ready?" she asked Alex as he stepped towards her.
"No," Alex told her honestly, his mouth twisted into something like a rueful smirk. His tray held a burger and fries, with a chocolate milkshake for added calorie support. He wasn't 100% sure, but this meeting could potentially be grueling. "But let's go, anyway."
He scanned the crowd for a moment before his eyes settled on a familiar blond in a secondhand t-shirt near the center of the food court. As soon as he caught her eye, she waved them over with an impatience so familiar it made his breath hitch a little.
"Over there," he said, nodding Pam in the right direction.
Pam turned to look in the direction Alex had indicated, her lips quirking up in a trace of a smile as she caught sight of Eileen looking...well, Eileen-ish, for lack of a better word. Nodding (and trying to ignore the annoying lump that formed in her throat) she started towards the other girl.
"I started without you," Eileen told them bluntly as they took the other seats at the table. She waved a fork over her plate in illustration, though it didn't look as though she'd done much more than pick at her faux-Chinese cuisine. "Since you decided to take forever, and all." Giving Pam a critical once-over, she added, "I hate this new look, by the way. This something they make you do at the school?"
Eileen doubted it ... but if it were a thing, she wanted to know so that she could intervene properly. And by "properly", she meant squashing the nutsack of anybody who didn't think Pam should look like Pam under her heel. She might even wear stilettos for the occasion.
"Please. I've seen TJ go out not just blue, but wearing less clothing than a Victoria's Secret mannequin." Pam retorted with a roll of her eyes and just a trace of a smile. Yep, Eileen was still Eileen, wasn't she? Fuck but she'd missed her. She set the tray down and slipped into a seat. "I'm just not into drawing that much attention. I figure this is better than randomly going invisible and leaving Alex talking to himself."
"People already give me looks, sometimes," he pointed out. "I'd rather they not think I was actually crazy, due to invisible Pam."
"Okay, fine. I guess that's okay, as long as it's just temporary camouflage." Eileen took a conspicuously large bite of chicken, and chewed with what was probably excessive vigor. "Anyway," she went on, once she'd swallowed, "you guys have been ... good? I mean, good as can be, bein' at the school instead of Asteroid M. Eating enough, keeping up with training, all that good shit?"
Pam looked over at Alex, then back to Eileen and shrugged. "Yeah, we've been ok." Leaving out certain things, anyway. "We went camping for a coupla weeks with Alex's brother and his girlfriend." She grinned, just a little. "It didn't totally suck. Y'know, for camping."
"Ugh, camping," Eileen wrinkled her nose. "No, thank you. I had enough of sleeping in ditches and having pointy rocks jabbing me in the ass for one lifetime."
"It wasn't that bad," Alex protested, looking to Pam for support he probably wasn't going to get. "Well, I had fun, anyway," he gave up. "Scott and Jean were pretty cool about the whole thing."
Pam cast Alex a warning look - she wasn't at all sure Eileen needed to know about what had happened with Cal - then turned back to Eileen. "Yeah, turns out his brother's not awful. And Jean helped me with the uneven eyeliner thing." She gestured towards her eyes. "See? I can get it to work with light now that I got it to work with the pencil." She smiled a little. "Fun might be overstating things. But I took out a few rabbits with knives, that was cool."
Eileen's mouth screwed up, and it was difficult to tell whether her current expression qualified as a smirk or a grimace. "I was never any good at girlie stuff like that," she noted, then shook her head. "But at least you got some knife practice in. Even the best need to work on keeping that edge." Heh. Pun.
She looked at Alex, then, who was focused on his cheeseburger with more than his usual ravenous-teenage-boy attention. Eileen hadn't missed the look, just like she didn't miss that the other blond at the table was trying to keep his mouth full of food so he didn't end up saying anything he wasn't supposed to.
For about a moment, Eileen considered not saying anything, either. If Pam didn't want her to know, maybe she should just let the girl think she didn't. Christ knew the girl deserved a break.
But that really wasn't her, was it? If Pam and Alex never expected anything else from her, they should at least know she would never bullshit them. Not even to spare their feelings.
"So. I heard you shanked a guy. That why you let Summers drag you off into the woods?"
"He fucking told Wanda?" Pam demanded. Because honestly, how else would the Brotherhood have found out? Tommy wouldn't have said anything, and she was pretty sure Billy'd never found out. She slammed her plastic fork down on the tray. "It was nothing. Asshole had my powers and wouldn't drop them. He healed up, I healed up, end of story."
"Who? Summers?" Eileen asked, not so much as blinking at Pam's show of temper; she'd seen it before, and could deal. "No. It was the other guy ... the archer. Cliff? I don't know. Anyhow, he and Wanda have been ... dating on the down low, or some shit. Honestly, I try not to keep track of who's swapping spit with who--makes me feel like I need to scrub down with Lysol, knowing those kinds of details." She shoved some more fried rice into her mouth.
"And if you got in a knife fight over it, then it wasn't nothing. But I'm not trying to make a fucking federal case out of this, or anything. I'm just ... glad you're okay. And I want to make sure you don't need any backup, or whatever."
Alex, very wisely, kept his mouth shut, and chewed his cheeseburger very, very slowly.
"I'm fine, " Pam replied sulkily. She retrieved her fork and stabbed a piece of chicken with it. "Cal hadn't started any more shit." She dodged the blonde's eyes. "And I'm seeing a counselor." Which, yeah, she still wasn't 100% on board with, but so far Billy'd been right. It didn't totally suck.
"You're sure?" Eileen pressed, then continued without entirely thinking her way through it, "Because you know I would wreck that place and everybody in it, if you need me to." She blinked, realized she'd said more than she meant to, and stuffed some more tangy-sweet chicken into her mouth. "If you want," she added as she chewed.
Despite lingering irritation (and seriously, Wanda was dating Clint?), Pam's lips quirked up just a fraction. "Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, it's not the base? But it doesn't totally suck ass." She popped her chicken into her mouth, then grinned a bit more. "Even got my own newbie, kinda. His name's Billy. Not Wanda's kid, a different one."
In spite of herself, one corner of Eileen's mouth twisted upward in an expression that almost mirrored Pam's. "Look at you, keeping the tradition alive. Maybe there's some hope for that school, after all." She poked idly at some rice. "Just remember you can come home whenever you want to. You can even bring your newbie. It's not like we've ever turned anybody away before. And it's ... the Asteroid just isn't the same, without you guys."
Pam glanced over at Alex, to see if he'd jump in and say yeah, it was time to go back - and realized it wasn't gonna happen. Not today, anyway. "We'll remember," she assured Eileen, unsure what else she could say without making Alex feel bad.
Alex seemed to be concentrating mostly on his food, but he did manage a, "Yeah, thanks." There was no missing the guilt underpinning his words, or the regret that he had answered with anything but 'yes'. "I'm glad you're not mad at us anymore."
That drew a snort from Eileen. "I wasn't ever mad at you," she insisted. "Either of you. Sure, I may have done a lot of bitching, but it wasn't about you guys. I was just ... angry. Angry at the situation." She jabbed a piece of chicken vindictively. "Angry at myself. But never angry at you two. I may not like not having you around where I can keep an eye on you, but that's my problem. You ... just keep on doing whatever you need to do to take care of yourselves."
She grunted irritably. "And if I don't stop with this after-school-special bullshit right now, I'm gonna need Pam to jab her fork in my eye. It's so not me."
Pam's lips quirked up into a smirk. "You can blame it on Alex. He's been getting sappy now and then; I'm pretty sure it's contagious. I'm not recommending getting stabbed by a fork, though. Fuckers hurt more than you'd think."
"I just need something to get me back to a baseline level of pissed," Eileen said. "Offset all this cutesy-poo crap" She arched a brow in Alex's direction.
"What the hell do you have to get sappy about?"
"I'm not sappy," Alex protested. "It's just ... not as hard as I thought it would be, getting used to the school. I like the classes, I'm getting to know my brother better, and everybody's been pretty nice to me, so far. It's no Asteroid M--not by a long shot. But ... it could be worse, you know?"
"Aaaand he's looking on the bright side. I'm thinking they put something in his water," Pam teased, but she reached over to squeeze his hand.
"I'm just saying it's not as terrible as it could be," Alex protested, though he squeezed her hand back. "That's not even close to looking on the bright side--I mean, that light at the end of the tunnel is probably an onrushing train, right?"
"Always, in my experience," Eileen agreed with a nod. "But you could probably stand to be a little less chipper, Summers. Make up things to complain about, if you need to. It's what I do."
"Fuck, you're saying Pietro was right about that all along?" Pam scowled at Eileen, but couldn't quite manage to hold it.
"It seemed pretty credible," Alex said, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin. "Except for the fact that it was coming from Pietro. So that's two legends you've gone and ruined, Eileen."
"I can't believe I actually baked for you two ungrateful fuckers," Eileen complained into her half-empty plate of orange chicken.
"Talk about ungrateful - we gave you something new to complain about," Pam pointed out with a smirk as she demolished another forkful of her own lunch. "Besides, the cookies were awesome."
"No, I mean I did it a second time," she said, pulling a repurposed grocery bag with a tall, covered plate inside and resting it on the table. "Brownies, this time. Pietro ... assisted with the recipe, so make sure you enjoy them in moderation." Her tone implied somebody else had told her to tell them that, an impression punctuated by a roll of her eyes.
Pam grinned. "You're the best, Eileen."
"Shit, I knew that already," she grinned. "I have to be the best, to put up with all the crap that I do. You could stand to say it more often, though. Just sayin'."
Alex was eyeing the bag with more than speculative interest. "Thanks, Eileen," he added. "You really are awesome. Even with all the made-up complaining."
"And hey, I said it. When do I ever say shit like that?" Pam pointed out.
"Like I just said: not often enough," Eileen grunted back. "But what the hell? I guess it's grown on me." She nodded toward the bag. "Lemme know how they turned out. I may try out Maximoff's recipe again--something to take the edge off while you're studying for your big Algebra test, or what the fuck ever."
"Sure you don't just want one?" Pam offered.
"What makes you think one of 'em's not behind my sudden taste for cheap Chinese mall food?" Eileen smirked back. "Or my totally fucking zen attitude this afternoon?"
"She ... does seem kinda zen," Alex muttered to Pam, hiding his mouth behind his hand. "You know. For Eileen."
"Fuck you," the blond said, though her smirk hadn't diminished in the slightest.
Pam pretended to eye Eileen askance. "Pretty sure it might go beyond brownies. You think maybe it's Tommy's brother's boyfriend fucking with us? Y'know, the whole alien shapeshifter thing..."
"I will tie you two little shits in knots and leave you here for the goddamn school to scoop up later," she threatened, giggling despite herself. Then Eileen blinked. "Wait. What alien shapeshifter thing? This is the first I'm hearing about an alien shapeshifter thing."
Pam blinked. "You giggled," she accused. "I think my brain is broken."
"Don't change the subject, Shit Number One," Eileen returned, her mouth still turned up a the corners. "Shit Number Two, do you have anything to add about this alien shapeshifter business?"
Alex suddenly found something extremely compelling to look at on his tray, and made a show of dragging one of his fries across the glob of mustard he'd deposited next to them earlier. "Uh. No. You know. I cannot confirm or deny any rumors of extraterrestrial life which may or may not have accidentally leaked from a person or persons who shall remain nameless."
"Except that they're green," Pam tacked on.
"Of course they are," she drawled, shaking her head. "Does the weird shit at that school never end?"
Pam looked over at Alex, then back to Eileen, and shrugged. "Pretty much not?"
