Tamara and Clarice | Backdated 08/07
Sep. 14th, 2017 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ax_mainThe roommates share ice cream and compare notes after the events of the student field trip.
It had been--to put it mildly--one hell of a day. And while Clarice wasn't sure what she could have done differently, she was torn between wishing she been more proactive and wishing she'd been able to defuse the other students' tempers. Was she pissed off that the news outlets seemed to be spinning the whole bloody mess into mutants assaulting peaceful protesters? Hell, yes. But it wasn't like it was a surprise, either. When you were on the outside looking in, every action you took became a deliberate social disruption.
She needed company, and, luckily, she happened to know exactly where her roommate was at that moment. Tamara still divided the majority of her time between the rec room and their dorm, and since she wasn't in the dorm ...
Clarice blinked into the unlighted rec room straight from the kitchen, two tubs of ice cream under one arm, and a couple of spoons in her unoccupied hand. "Hey," she said, waving with the spoons. "Figured you could maybe use some gal time. Decompress, 'ay?"
Tamara was the only one left in the rec room, still glued to the news. When Clarice appeared, she muted it gratefully - even more so when she spotted the ice cream. "Ohmygod, yes. You're a genius."
The lavender-skinned mutant stepped into the room, green pajama bottoms and tank top contrasting sharply with her normal skin tone. She tossed one of the tubs toward her roommate, and kept the butter pecan for herself--yeah, it was an old-lady flavor, but it was also her favorite. There was another blink and she appeared on the couch, holding the extra spoon out to the other girl. "How ya holdin' up, sweetie?"
"Um, everything hurts and the entire world is afraid of me..." Her shoulders dipped a little as she said it, wings stirring faintly at her sides. "So... pretty good, all things considered? ...not dead, at least?"
"Gal, sometimes 'not-dead' is the best we can hope for." Clarice popped the top off her ice cream and settled into the couch, vivid green eyes glancing at the television. "And nobody hates you. Nobody other than that frickin' noise-bag on TV, anyhow. And he would have hated you even if you'd gone around offerin' flowers at his punk-ass protest. He had his mind made up he hated all of us from the start, and nothin' we could have done--or not done--woulda changed his mind."
Tamara was grinning, tired but grateful, at her roommate. "Okay, yeah, I don't care about him at all, believe me." She glanced at her ice cream - cookies and cream, excellent - and pulled the lid off. "It just drives me crazy, y'know? I only pulled fire to keep them from coming at us, but they're making it seem like I just showed up and went inferno on them."
"That's how it is," said Clarice reflectively, shoveling a spoonful of frozen dairy calories into her mouth. "If you'd stood there and got torn apart, you'd be a martyr. But defend yourself, and you're a menace. Screw that. I'd rather you be a menace any day. We don' need that kind of advancement, the kind that means we have to get trampled on first."
"I make a better menace than martyr, definitely," Tamara said, nodding almost dumbly and then taking an oversized bite of ice cream.
"Dunno if I would have gone that far ... Just remember, you said it. Not me." Clarice grinned around her own spoon. That expression soon collapsed as her eyes flickered toward the television again. "If I regret anythin', it's that we pretty much handed a guy who would have prolly just been a blip in the local news outlets all the free air time he could ask for on the networks. Frickin' sucks, man."
"No kidding," Tamara agreed glumly, staring at the face of the bigot in question on TV. "...okay, I'm glad that we didn't hurt anyone," some of the idiots had trampled each other, but no mutant-made injuries had occurred, "but I kinda wish I could have tazed him."
"I wish I'd teleported him to the goddamn moon," Clarice grunted. "But it's done now. It's just annoyin' that the self-inflicted shit they're cryin' about on the news now came from their own mob-mentality. And we still gotta take the blame for it. It just ain' fair. If they'd been there to protest the existence of Asians or Native Americans, and either of those groups showed up, they'd be called shit-fuckin'-stupid for chargin' 'em like they did."
Tamara tore her eyes from the TV to grin at Clarice. "You've really got a way with words, you know that?"
The other girl blinked, and swallowed another mouthful of ice cream. "Can' say I ever heard that one before. But, hell, I'll take it."
"I just don't get why no one's speaking up for us, y'know? They showed up to hate us, why isn't that part of this story?" Tamara had gone back to staring at the screen, biting at the tip of her spoon.
"Is easier, I guess," said Clarice unhappily, digging around the top of her ice cream aimlessly with the tip of her spoon. "Easier to relate to the scared tax-payin', all-American middle-aged white guy than the kid who moves too fast to see. Or the half-Asian gal with wings and fire comin' out her hands. Frickin' sucks, but it is what it is."
"Yeah, but at first I was just a half-Asian girl with wings and a phone. Bet that's scarier to them than the fire was." Tamara considered for a moment. "If we could do it all again, though, I think I'd tell Tommy not to take their signs. Like, don't get me wrong, I'm super glad he came with us!" She glanced at her roommate, trying to feel out her response. "Just... I don't think that's technically peaceful counter-protesting, y'know? And we're gonna need all the high ground we can get with these fuckers." Not that Tamara was at all torn up about it - she'd loved watching them freak out, no question - but this was more about tactics.
"If we could do it all again, I'da 'ported us all back to the school, soon as we found out what that demonstration was all about." Not that hiding forever was an option--not really--but Clarice had been doing it her whole life. Angry as she'd been, running away seemed like a more natural thing to her than fighting. If the others hadn't been there, it wasn't likely she'd have made a peep. "Anyway, I doubt it'll come up again soon. After all that, we'll prolly all be graduatin' college before the Professor lets us out on another field trip."
"That would worry me a lot more if you weren't able to teleport us literally anywhere," Tamara replied with a smirk. Although maybe Clarice wouldn't want to anymore. "I'm glad you didn't port out, though - I felt way more confident with you there."
"I was scared shitless," Clarice admitted. "Scared what could happen to you, or me, or any of the others. Scared I might accidentally teleport one of those fuckers' top half to one end of the park, and the bottom half to the next. But I couldn't leave you guys alone, either. Not when there was even a tiny chance I could help, maybe."
"And that's why you're a badass," Tamara told her, gesturing in her direction with her spoon.
Magenta brows climbed a lavender forehead until they reached their uppermost limit, and, despite her lack of discernible pupils, Clarice's expression still managed to look skeptical. "Yeah," she agreed ironically, "I'm like the purple Samuel L. Jackson. Except I'll probably need some adult Pampers if we try anythin' like that again."
"What's that line, about bravery being when you're scared but you do something anyway? That's what I mean." Tamara took another small bite of ice cream. "And besides, you were amazing! You got us all out of there before anyone could get hurt. How kick-ass was that?"
Clarice snorted. "Girl, you was the brave one, walkin' right up to those fuckers and tellin' them about they ass. I don't know if I could ever do that. All I did was run away, like I wanted to do from the start. I just happened to drag everybody along with me."
Tamara raised an eyebrow at her roommate. "...didn't you throw that demon kid in the lake when he got in your face?"
The other girl's lavender cheeks darkened. "That ... was different," Clarice protested. Though she had to admit, she wasn't really sure exactly how. Unless it was a question of scale?
Tamara smiled. "That's all it was for me - more angry than scared." And it had felt... good.
"Yeah, well," said Clarice ambiguously, spooning some more ice cream into her mouth. "That thing at the park to day had me equal parts scared and angry. And maybe if it had been just me, I might have ... Doesn' matter. But it wasn' just me. It was you and Tommy and Terry and Gar ... I can't just be angry, in that kinda scenario. I also gotta look out for the others, as much as I can."
Tamara's smile went a little wry. "That's cool though. See, I think that's because you spent all that time with your family, all those people that love you. I'm from a town full of assholes - I've been standing up to people for years."
"Huh," said Clarice. She hadn't really thought about it like that before, at least not much. Her family had been loving, but she sometimes saw that over-protectiveness more as a hindrance than an asset. She'd never really considered what it be like the other way 'round, being able to blend in normally with other people, but lacking love. The sudden realization brought tears to her eyes, and she--very carefully, since she knew the wings were still sensitive--threw her arms around Tamara's neck and pulled her into a tight hug. "You guys are a really, really shitty replacement family," she told her, voice trembling with more feelings than she could put names to. "But I still got your back. Always."
"Um, thanks?" Tamara wasn't exactly sure what to make of that, but she hugged Clarice back all the same. Honestly, it felt nice to hug someone. "And you need anyone lit up, I'll be there."
"Heh. I'm kinda hopin' it never comes to that," Clarice replied, disentangling herself from the other girl as cautiously as she'd hugged her. "But, if it does, I could prolly just teleport 'em into the upper atmosphere and save us both the hassle. Or send they top half and they bottom half to two different continents." She was still a bit unnerved by her powers' potential for ... messiness. She preferred to think of them as a free pass to anywhere in the world she or her friends wanted to go. But today had pretty well proved there would come a day she'd have to defend herself. Maybe even do more than just defend herself. It wasn't a thought she wanted to dwell on much.
Tamara was grinning. "You're so hardcore, ohmygod."
The other girl chuckled. "I didn't mean I actually would." Probably. Depending. More likely, she'd run, like she had today. But it wasn't impossible that maybe one day running wouldn't be an option. She had to at least try to prepare for that eventuality. "I just meant I prolly could, if it ever came up."
"Relax, it was a compliment," Tamara teased her, sticking out her tongue impishly.
"I know," Clarice smirked. "You is just got some weird ideas 'bout what a compliment sounds like, Tam." She nudged her with her elbow to take any sting out of the observation, then went back to her ice cream. "I guess I just ... never thought I'd end up like this. Like I couldn' just hide forever. Like ... maybe I shouldn' want to?"
Tamara looked at her quizzically, not sure she was understanding. "Whaddaya mean?"
Frowning, Clarice tried to think her way through whatever the hell it was she was trying to say. "When I was livin' home," she explained, "hidin' was just a fact of life; didn' think much about it, because that was the way it had always been. Since I been here, though, and met all these other kids with the same problem I got, when it comes to blendin' in ... I dunno. I guess I realized hidin' all the time wasn' normal? And that maybe I shouldn' have to?"
Letting out a little breath of relief, Tamara smiled again. "Crazy, right? That moment you realize maybe the world's wrong, not you?"
"Maybe." She smiled slightly. "I guess you never had that prollem?" Clarice teased.
"Of course I did! No one's born woke," Tamara told her, sincere even through her smile. "I mean, yeah, I was mouthing off and getting in trouble anyway, but that was 'cause I was super insecure or whatever. But then I got on Tumblr and started seeing these amazing posts, and really thinking about things, y'know? And this was before I was a mutant, just like, racism and misogyny and shit."
That ... was a bit more than Clarice was ready to take on, just then; she was just barely getting the hang of mutant activism. "You're a fireball, Tam. I kinda have a hard time picturin' you insecure about anything."
That gave Tamara a moment's pause. "Not everyone's got a big loving family taking care of them like you," she said. It wasn't an accusation or anything, 'cause obviously there were some huge drawbacks to how Clarice had grown up (like, say, literally having to hide her whole life). "It was just me and my mom when I was a kid, and we were already different from the rest of my crappy little town. Her English wasn't very good, so she had to take shitty jobs, and dated a bunch of shitty guys to try and make sure we were okay. I mean, how do you grow up like that and not think there must be something wrong with you, y'know?"
Clarice quieted for a moment, digesting that; in truth, it was so alien from her own experience that she really couldn't process it. Family was supposed to be the thing that supported and protected you, not just another source of alienation. Her bright green eyes glittered suddenly, but she kept herself from sniffling. Somehow. "Hey," she ventured, when she was sure her voice was a reasonable approximation of its cool, normal tone, "you wanna come home with me some weekend? Not to the beach--we already talked about that. I mean ... my family does a big Sunday dinner every week, with all the cousins and aunts and uncles and thing and ... I would like for them to meet you."
Tamara blinked at her, a little confused. Clarice's looks were amazing, but sometimes made it hard to read her. "Sure? I mean, yeah, that'd be fun. I wouldn't wanna intrude or anything, though."
"You wouldn' be intrudin'," the other teen insisted. "You're practically part of the family already. And they'd love you; I know they would. You can teach my little cousins all about nail polish and makeup and thing."
Tamara laughed. "Sure, yeah! That sounds fun." Another big bite of ice cream was in her mouth before her faace clouded over. "Wait, you're not feeling sorry for me, are you?"
"Nah. Well," she chuckled, "maybe a little. But I feel sorrier for me. And, anyway, bein' sorry don't help nothin', either which way. Mostly I just thought maybe you'd enjoy it. And I'd enjoy it, too."
Nodding, Tamara decided that was pretty okay. Why not see what Clarice's family was like? Clearly they weren't mutant-averse, so that put them leaps and bounds ahead of her own family.
And after all the anti-mutant bullshit today, it'd probably be really nice. "They won't be mad at me over all of this or anything, right?" She asked, gesturing at the TV.
"I'll talk to them first," Clarice reassured her. "I mean, yeah, they weren't thrilled about the park thing, but Bahamians is biggedy people. Once I explain it in a way they can understand and relate to, you'll be their hero. Promise."
Tamara grinned. "Okay, I like the sound of that - hero with nail polish at a Bahamian bash. Sounds like fun."
It had been--to put it mildly--one hell of a day. And while Clarice wasn't sure what she could have done differently, she was torn between wishing she been more proactive and wishing she'd been able to defuse the other students' tempers. Was she pissed off that the news outlets seemed to be spinning the whole bloody mess into mutants assaulting peaceful protesters? Hell, yes. But it wasn't like it was a surprise, either. When you were on the outside looking in, every action you took became a deliberate social disruption.
She needed company, and, luckily, she happened to know exactly where her roommate was at that moment. Tamara still divided the majority of her time between the rec room and their dorm, and since she wasn't in the dorm ...
Clarice blinked into the unlighted rec room straight from the kitchen, two tubs of ice cream under one arm, and a couple of spoons in her unoccupied hand. "Hey," she said, waving with the spoons. "Figured you could maybe use some gal time. Decompress, 'ay?"
Tamara was the only one left in the rec room, still glued to the news. When Clarice appeared, she muted it gratefully - even more so when she spotted the ice cream. "Ohmygod, yes. You're a genius."
The lavender-skinned mutant stepped into the room, green pajama bottoms and tank top contrasting sharply with her normal skin tone. She tossed one of the tubs toward her roommate, and kept the butter pecan for herself--yeah, it was an old-lady flavor, but it was also her favorite. There was another blink and she appeared on the couch, holding the extra spoon out to the other girl. "How ya holdin' up, sweetie?"
"Um, everything hurts and the entire world is afraid of me..." Her shoulders dipped a little as she said it, wings stirring faintly at her sides. "So... pretty good, all things considered? ...not dead, at least?"
"Gal, sometimes 'not-dead' is the best we can hope for." Clarice popped the top off her ice cream and settled into the couch, vivid green eyes glancing at the television. "And nobody hates you. Nobody other than that frickin' noise-bag on TV, anyhow. And he would have hated you even if you'd gone around offerin' flowers at his punk-ass protest. He had his mind made up he hated all of us from the start, and nothin' we could have done--or not done--woulda changed his mind."
Tamara was grinning, tired but grateful, at her roommate. "Okay, yeah, I don't care about him at all, believe me." She glanced at her ice cream - cookies and cream, excellent - and pulled the lid off. "It just drives me crazy, y'know? I only pulled fire to keep them from coming at us, but they're making it seem like I just showed up and went inferno on them."
"That's how it is," said Clarice reflectively, shoveling a spoonful of frozen dairy calories into her mouth. "If you'd stood there and got torn apart, you'd be a martyr. But defend yourself, and you're a menace. Screw that. I'd rather you be a menace any day. We don' need that kind of advancement, the kind that means we have to get trampled on first."
"I make a better menace than martyr, definitely," Tamara said, nodding almost dumbly and then taking an oversized bite of ice cream.
"Dunno if I would have gone that far ... Just remember, you said it. Not me." Clarice grinned around her own spoon. That expression soon collapsed as her eyes flickered toward the television again. "If I regret anythin', it's that we pretty much handed a guy who would have prolly just been a blip in the local news outlets all the free air time he could ask for on the networks. Frickin' sucks, man."
"No kidding," Tamara agreed glumly, staring at the face of the bigot in question on TV. "...okay, I'm glad that we didn't hurt anyone," some of the idiots had trampled each other, but no mutant-made injuries had occurred, "but I kinda wish I could have tazed him."
"I wish I'd teleported him to the goddamn moon," Clarice grunted. "But it's done now. It's just annoyin' that the self-inflicted shit they're cryin' about on the news now came from their own mob-mentality. And we still gotta take the blame for it. It just ain' fair. If they'd been there to protest the existence of Asians or Native Americans, and either of those groups showed up, they'd be called shit-fuckin'-stupid for chargin' 'em like they did."
Tamara tore her eyes from the TV to grin at Clarice. "You've really got a way with words, you know that?"
The other girl blinked, and swallowed another mouthful of ice cream. "Can' say I ever heard that one before. But, hell, I'll take it."
"I just don't get why no one's speaking up for us, y'know? They showed up to hate us, why isn't that part of this story?" Tamara had gone back to staring at the screen, biting at the tip of her spoon.
"Is easier, I guess," said Clarice unhappily, digging around the top of her ice cream aimlessly with the tip of her spoon. "Easier to relate to the scared tax-payin', all-American middle-aged white guy than the kid who moves too fast to see. Or the half-Asian gal with wings and fire comin' out her hands. Frickin' sucks, but it is what it is."
"Yeah, but at first I was just a half-Asian girl with wings and a phone. Bet that's scarier to them than the fire was." Tamara considered for a moment. "If we could do it all again, though, I think I'd tell Tommy not to take their signs. Like, don't get me wrong, I'm super glad he came with us!" She glanced at her roommate, trying to feel out her response. "Just... I don't think that's technically peaceful counter-protesting, y'know? And we're gonna need all the high ground we can get with these fuckers." Not that Tamara was at all torn up about it - she'd loved watching them freak out, no question - but this was more about tactics.
"If we could do it all again, I'da 'ported us all back to the school, soon as we found out what that demonstration was all about." Not that hiding forever was an option--not really--but Clarice had been doing it her whole life. Angry as she'd been, running away seemed like a more natural thing to her than fighting. If the others hadn't been there, it wasn't likely she'd have made a peep. "Anyway, I doubt it'll come up again soon. After all that, we'll prolly all be graduatin' college before the Professor lets us out on another field trip."
"That would worry me a lot more if you weren't able to teleport us literally anywhere," Tamara replied with a smirk. Although maybe Clarice wouldn't want to anymore. "I'm glad you didn't port out, though - I felt way more confident with you there."
"I was scared shitless," Clarice admitted. "Scared what could happen to you, or me, or any of the others. Scared I might accidentally teleport one of those fuckers' top half to one end of the park, and the bottom half to the next. But I couldn't leave you guys alone, either. Not when there was even a tiny chance I could help, maybe."
"And that's why you're a badass," Tamara told her, gesturing in her direction with her spoon.
Magenta brows climbed a lavender forehead until they reached their uppermost limit, and, despite her lack of discernible pupils, Clarice's expression still managed to look skeptical. "Yeah," she agreed ironically, "I'm like the purple Samuel L. Jackson. Except I'll probably need some adult Pampers if we try anythin' like that again."
"What's that line, about bravery being when you're scared but you do something anyway? That's what I mean." Tamara took another small bite of ice cream. "And besides, you were amazing! You got us all out of there before anyone could get hurt. How kick-ass was that?"
Clarice snorted. "Girl, you was the brave one, walkin' right up to those fuckers and tellin' them about they ass. I don't know if I could ever do that. All I did was run away, like I wanted to do from the start. I just happened to drag everybody along with me."
Tamara raised an eyebrow at her roommate. "...didn't you throw that demon kid in the lake when he got in your face?"
The other girl's lavender cheeks darkened. "That ... was different," Clarice protested. Though she had to admit, she wasn't really sure exactly how. Unless it was a question of scale?
Tamara smiled. "That's all it was for me - more angry than scared." And it had felt... good.
"Yeah, well," said Clarice ambiguously, spooning some more ice cream into her mouth. "That thing at the park to day had me equal parts scared and angry. And maybe if it had been just me, I might have ... Doesn' matter. But it wasn' just me. It was you and Tommy and Terry and Gar ... I can't just be angry, in that kinda scenario. I also gotta look out for the others, as much as I can."
Tamara's smile went a little wry. "That's cool though. See, I think that's because you spent all that time with your family, all those people that love you. I'm from a town full of assholes - I've been standing up to people for years."
"Huh," said Clarice. She hadn't really thought about it like that before, at least not much. Her family had been loving, but she sometimes saw that over-protectiveness more as a hindrance than an asset. She'd never really considered what it be like the other way 'round, being able to blend in normally with other people, but lacking love. The sudden realization brought tears to her eyes, and she--very carefully, since she knew the wings were still sensitive--threw her arms around Tamara's neck and pulled her into a tight hug. "You guys are a really, really shitty replacement family," she told her, voice trembling with more feelings than she could put names to. "But I still got your back. Always."
"Um, thanks?" Tamara wasn't exactly sure what to make of that, but she hugged Clarice back all the same. Honestly, it felt nice to hug someone. "And you need anyone lit up, I'll be there."
"Heh. I'm kinda hopin' it never comes to that," Clarice replied, disentangling herself from the other girl as cautiously as she'd hugged her. "But, if it does, I could prolly just teleport 'em into the upper atmosphere and save us both the hassle. Or send they top half and they bottom half to two different continents." She was still a bit unnerved by her powers' potential for ... messiness. She preferred to think of them as a free pass to anywhere in the world she or her friends wanted to go. But today had pretty well proved there would come a day she'd have to defend herself. Maybe even do more than just defend herself. It wasn't a thought she wanted to dwell on much.
Tamara was grinning. "You're so hardcore, ohmygod."
The other girl chuckled. "I didn't mean I actually would." Probably. Depending. More likely, she'd run, like she had today. But it wasn't impossible that maybe one day running wouldn't be an option. She had to at least try to prepare for that eventuality. "I just meant I prolly could, if it ever came up."
"Relax, it was a compliment," Tamara teased her, sticking out her tongue impishly.
"I know," Clarice smirked. "You is just got some weird ideas 'bout what a compliment sounds like, Tam." She nudged her with her elbow to take any sting out of the observation, then went back to her ice cream. "I guess I just ... never thought I'd end up like this. Like I couldn' just hide forever. Like ... maybe I shouldn' want to?"
Tamara looked at her quizzically, not sure she was understanding. "Whaddaya mean?"
Frowning, Clarice tried to think her way through whatever the hell it was she was trying to say. "When I was livin' home," she explained, "hidin' was just a fact of life; didn' think much about it, because that was the way it had always been. Since I been here, though, and met all these other kids with the same problem I got, when it comes to blendin' in ... I dunno. I guess I realized hidin' all the time wasn' normal? And that maybe I shouldn' have to?"
Letting out a little breath of relief, Tamara smiled again. "Crazy, right? That moment you realize maybe the world's wrong, not you?"
"Maybe." She smiled slightly. "I guess you never had that prollem?" Clarice teased.
"Of course I did! No one's born woke," Tamara told her, sincere even through her smile. "I mean, yeah, I was mouthing off and getting in trouble anyway, but that was 'cause I was super insecure or whatever. But then I got on Tumblr and started seeing these amazing posts, and really thinking about things, y'know? And this was before I was a mutant, just like, racism and misogyny and shit."
That ... was a bit more than Clarice was ready to take on, just then; she was just barely getting the hang of mutant activism. "You're a fireball, Tam. I kinda have a hard time picturin' you insecure about anything."
That gave Tamara a moment's pause. "Not everyone's got a big loving family taking care of them like you," she said. It wasn't an accusation or anything, 'cause obviously there were some huge drawbacks to how Clarice had grown up (like, say, literally having to hide her whole life). "It was just me and my mom when I was a kid, and we were already different from the rest of my crappy little town. Her English wasn't very good, so she had to take shitty jobs, and dated a bunch of shitty guys to try and make sure we were okay. I mean, how do you grow up like that and not think there must be something wrong with you, y'know?"
Clarice quieted for a moment, digesting that; in truth, it was so alien from her own experience that she really couldn't process it. Family was supposed to be the thing that supported and protected you, not just another source of alienation. Her bright green eyes glittered suddenly, but she kept herself from sniffling. Somehow. "Hey," she ventured, when she was sure her voice was a reasonable approximation of its cool, normal tone, "you wanna come home with me some weekend? Not to the beach--we already talked about that. I mean ... my family does a big Sunday dinner every week, with all the cousins and aunts and uncles and thing and ... I would like for them to meet you."
Tamara blinked at her, a little confused. Clarice's looks were amazing, but sometimes made it hard to read her. "Sure? I mean, yeah, that'd be fun. I wouldn't wanna intrude or anything, though."
"You wouldn' be intrudin'," the other teen insisted. "You're practically part of the family already. And they'd love you; I know they would. You can teach my little cousins all about nail polish and makeup and thing."
Tamara laughed. "Sure, yeah! That sounds fun." Another big bite of ice cream was in her mouth before her faace clouded over. "Wait, you're not feeling sorry for me, are you?"
"Nah. Well," she chuckled, "maybe a little. But I feel sorrier for me. And, anyway, bein' sorry don't help nothin', either which way. Mostly I just thought maybe you'd enjoy it. And I'd enjoy it, too."
Nodding, Tamara decided that was pretty okay. Why not see what Clarice's family was like? Clearly they weren't mutant-averse, so that put them leaps and bounds ahead of her own family.
And after all the anti-mutant bullshit today, it'd probably be really nice. "They won't be mad at me over all of this or anything, right?" She asked, gesturing at the TV.
"I'll talk to them first," Clarice reassured her. "I mean, yeah, they weren't thrilled about the park thing, but Bahamians is biggedy people. Once I explain it in a way they can understand and relate to, you'll be their hero. Promise."
Tamara grinned. "Okay, I like the sound of that - hero with nail polish at a Bahamian bash. Sounds like fun."
