Players:
Summary: Nicholas asks Fiona for directions in the mall.
Date: March 8, 2012
**Log Title:*PG
Westchester - Salem Center Food Court
Entering the mall brings its visitors right to the Food Court. A wide open area with tables and chairs sprinkled around it, its edges lined with a wide variety of fast food choices. Pizza, burgers, ice cream, chicken, Chinese, smoothies, you name it, you got it.
It is somewhat of a long trek from Hell's Kitchen up to Westchester, but the girl seems to hang around here pretty frequently. Maybe the mutant kids she meets up here are normally nicer than the people from her new 'home' part of town. Whatever the case, she is alone as usual, reading some dusty boring old book while she slurps on a bright pink slushie. She looks slightly bored.
Having to pick up a few things at the Target in the mall, Nick has gotten completely lost as to where it is. He finds himself wandering not to far from where Fiona is. He stops at one of the mall directories but just can't seem to figure out where he needs to go, he just isn't good at reading maps. Finally he decides to stop and ask someone and recognizes Fiona from last night. Awkwardly walking up to her he greets the girl with an "Uhhh, hey."
Fiona peers over at Nick, the voice sounding familiar before he eyes get to him. She pauses midslurp, awkwardly trying to say high with a mouth full of slush, before gulping it down, "Hi!" she smiles, seeming a little bit more cheerful than last night. Certainly less terrified! "It's you again!" Fancy that!
"I really didn't mean to scare you last night, Sorry just, I recognized you and I'm horribly lost in here." Nicholas admits with a bit of embarrassment. His eyes glance downward as his hand rubs the back of his head. "Do you know where the Target is in here? I can't seem to find it."
"Huh, really? It's… right there," Fiona blinks, pointing down the mall a ways. It's fairly far off, but visible at the opposite end. "You okay?" she wonders - it being unusual for a boy Nick's age to get lost in a mall, of course. He doesn't /look/ mentally disabled or anything to her, however.
There's a bit of an annoyed scowl at being asked if he's okay. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just get lost easy is all, okay." He says as it's a bit embarrassing for him to admit that to a complete stranger and he doesn't look happy about it. "Thanks though."
"No problem," Fiona answers a bit awkwardly, feeling kind of mean, or maybe dumb for asking a question like that now. She goes quiet, glancing back down at her book. "You here alone, then?" she pipes up again.
"Yeah, didn't really want to bother anyone to come along so…yeah." Nicholas says. "Just moved to the area and needed a few things so I came to Target." He says shruging a shoulder. "I'm Nicholas by the way, or just Nick."
Fiona smiles a little, "My name's Fiona," she offers, curling one leg under the other and shifting her chair to face him - the book gets closed as she leans against the table idly. "I'm kinda new around here also. Actually, I've lived in the city all my life, but, I mean, not hung around this far out too much…"
Nicholas takes a seat at the table and nods. "Isn't this the city? Well not -the- city but a city?" He asks since he's never been to New York City yet. "I'm from small town North Dakota, real different." He says looking around. "Came here to go to school."
"Well, kinda, not exactly, I mean this is more of a suburb," Fiona nods, "I mean I'm sure you've seen pictures. Big tall buildings. Central park. Alla that. The five burroughs. You know, like in the Beastie Boys songs," she taps her cheek lightly, wondering if she's explaining it properly. "I mean I'm sure this LOOKS like a city compared to some places out there, but, I mean," she trails off…
"I've seen it in a couple of movies but it's the same as seeing California in a movie, it's a movie." Nicholas says. "It's a place you never actually get to see, not if you're from small town North Dakota where the cities population is thirty five people. I mean, I've been to Flordia but not New York City."
"Well, you should go sometime! It's only like an hour to the main part, and you can ride the train. That's how I got up here, in fact, it's not like I have a car or a license or anything," Fiona nods. Or any real… proper form of identification.
"Maybe when my friend gets back, I get lost trying to find Target, I'm kinda afraid to go somewhere bigger than the mall." Nicholas says sheepishly but there's a definite aura of depression about the teen. "I have a drivers license but no car anymore. I miss my truck."
Fiona blinks, "Why not bring it with you? I mean, I guess, there's not that much room for it if you lived in the city proper but… out here?" she glances out the window of the food court at the parking lot. Seems to her there are plenty of cars there!
Nicholas looks down at the table as if he's trying to figure out a way to explain it and he doesn't look at Fiona when he speaks. "Well….it's a private school so, the don't really allow us to have cars there. It's still back in North Dakota so, I'm stuck learning the bus system." He says as it's not really a lie.
"Oh…" Fiona trails off, thoughts meandering to which particular private school she keeps running into people from - the same one her boyfriend goes to. Seems so ubiqitous. "Well, that's kinda lame, I guess. I was looking forward to getting my license and driving someday. I dunno if that's ever gonna actually happen though."
"If you want it to happen just learn how to drive and take the test." Nicholas says. "I mean, it's not that hard to drive, at least it wasn't back home. There weren't too many roads." He admits with a bit of a look. "If you want to learn some day, learn."
"I'm sure at some point… I mean, it just requires someone with a car, neh? I don't actually… know anybody who's got one," Fiona goes a bit red in the face, "Though, one of my friends does ride a motorcycle. I doubt she'd let me ride it though!" the sorceress smirks.
"Your parents don't have a car?" Nicholas asks and closes his eyes for a second before taking a breath. "My Dad and a close friend of the family taught me. I know they probably…." His voice trails off and he closes his eyes for a bit. "It was easy cause, school was forty five minutes away there." His voice gets quite and it's like he's forcing himself to finish the sentence.
Fiona laughs, "Well I mean they do, it's just, I don't really see 'em anymore, you know?" she drums her fingers on the table nervously after admitting that. "So there's that. But maybe at some point I'll have enough money to buy one of my own. Though," she bites her lip, "Definitely I wouldn't want to own one in Hell's Kitchen," she grins sheepishly.
"What's Hell's Kitchen?" Nicholas asks as he's heard of it, it doesn't sound pleasant but he's not sure and anything to change the subject away from the mention of parents.
Fiona thinks about that for a second, "It's just a neighborhood in Manhattan. It's like, um, Detroit or East St. Louis, maybe. It's not really THAT bad, there's just a lot of crime, people tend to mess with things like cars, or if you're walking alone at night… or unsecure apartments. I dunno. I'm just sayin someone would probably vandalize or steal a car.""Manhattan?" Nicholas asks as to him New York City is New York City. "Yeah back home we never locked the door to the house or anything, there never was much crime. It's one of those everyone knows everyone places."
"Oh…" Fiona rubs the back of her neck, "Places like that exist? I thought that was just a saying." Heck, she didn't even know most of the people in her neighborhood all that well… "That's kinda crazy. I'd never leave the door unlocked." Not that it would matter, with Donna's spells.
"Thirty five people in my home town, one school for the county, I miss it." Nicholas says as he rests his head on the table. "Crime was something that didn't happen back in Martin. I mean if you picked your nose, your neighbor knew. And on top of that I had about ten kids in my class."
"Wow… I don't know, I mean, where did you buy things in a town that small? Where's the coffee shops and stuff?" Obviously a city girl here - kind of a spoiled on at that. Slightly. "I did take a trip recently and see some small towns but…" she shrugs, "I guess I never really thought about it."
"Well my girlfriends family ran the gas station, mechanic, grocery. Not like anything extensive but if you needed milk or eggs it was there. Then there was the restaurant bar in the area." Nicholas says. "For more stuff there are the stores in McClusky and then places like Target was an hour or so away. Just how it was."
"An hour? WEll, I guess it was about an hour to get here…" For that special generic-mall experience. Go figure. She looks down into the bottom of her slushie, seeing that it's almost empty, and sucks up the last little bits.
"Yeah, small town." Nicholas says looking around at the various eateries. "Uh, anyway I should probably be going, pick up what I need and get back to my school before curfew. I guess I'm glad to know you're not thinking I'm this horrible person anymore."
"Ohh, yeah," Fiona nods, giving Nicholas a little wave, "Well, goodbye, Mr. Terrible!" she giggles, snapping her book shut. "I should get going too," she murmurs, tearing open a portal and tossing her belongings on the table into it. You know. In broad daylight. Donna would be furious! … Maybe. "Later!" she nods, heading out.
