Monster Stage Fright Bus

[ĸara вelova★]

The Monster Energy and Stage Fright bus departed from the school grounds at 8am. The atmosphere was a muted excitement, as most of the competitors liked to enjoy sleeping in on weekends. However, the sacrifice would hopefully be worth it, if they could win the competition.

The bus was air conditioned and comfortable, with televisions attached to the ceiling and plush pillows cushioning the seats and headrests. There was a fridge in the middle, right under the emergency escape, and a washroom at the back. Everyone on the bus was permitted to sit anywhere they liked.

The driver was an amiable man, always cracking blond jokes when he was given the chance. He had a strange accent, and he promised to buy anyone who could guess it a coffee at their next stop.

A news report interrupted the movie playing on the televisions. On it was a reporter with a bunch of excited students from the Academy and University, holding signs up with their friends' names.

"I'm here at The Academy with a number of students, all anxious for the Stage Fright tournament to begin. Earlier this morning, everyone competing in the competition departed in a bus for Las Vegas. Here are the students who opted to stay behind." Following this was a series of students back home, and eventually the news report dissolved into incoherent yells of support. The reporter chuckled and signed off, and the movie resumed on the bus. The driver was grinning.

"You're all gonna be famous!" He declared, and he honked the bus at some poor people passing by.

[veronica]

Nervousness ate into Veronica like acid, and the rowdy bus didn't help. Veronica was sitting next to Morgan, a student of hers that she had barely ever said a word to. What was her power again? Muscle Memory? That makes the most sense...

Veronica had her legs crossed and her head turned. She was staring out of the window, unable to watch a meaningless movie out of nervousness. A bottle of some soda was in her one hand (Coke? Diet?) but it was mainly for show and not for drinking.

The streets flew by them, and Veronica was imagining herself phasing through the side of the bus, taking a taxi home...

Maybe it was a supernatural form of Jeopardy? Not likely, but it would be nice.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

Leo was in an odd situation. On one hand he had noticed Kirien, and had flashed her that annoying and stupid grin of his. Now that he'd heard a bit about her, he knew what to expect out of her a little bit more.

But there was also Morgan on the bus, and that was an old situation he'd never resolved. So it was by luck he'd slipped into the seat infront of them. He then stood and propped himself on his chair back, glancing at Morgan, and...his teacher? Oh that was just hot.

"Why hello there ladies, fancy seeing you here?"

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

"Hey look, it's Jon!"

Kenneth exclaimed, pointing to the tv closest to him. On the tv Jon was holding up two signs, one with his name, and one with... "Morqun? Who's... oh! Hey Morgan!" He smacked the seat in front of him, and the headrest snapped off. He didn't seem to notice. "Jon's on the tv!"

He didn't know Veronica, as she had joined the teaching staff after he graduated, and he just assumed she was another student. He didn't recognize Leo, who was peering over the top of his seat, and he just gave the guy a friendly wave.

[Amy/Kayla]

The headrest that Kenneth so kindly broke off was Amayla's, who didn't appreciate being woken up by a flying piece of chair.

"Hey! Watch it, kid!" Amayla turned to Kenneth and shouted. Clearly, she looked younger that him, so the sight of her calling him kid was an odd one. She knew that she would be unable to fall back to sleep, so she stretched and yawned loudly. The loud, annoying people behind her seemed to be having a conversation, so Amayla turned towards them as well.

Also to see the face of Mr. I break headrests and wake people up.

[Kirien Melantha]

Kirien was the last to trudge onto the bus, donning a cute red-and-white ankle-length skirt and the black tank she normally slept in. She looked good, though half-asleep; even her messy bed-hair looked oddly fashionable.

She glared at friendly the bus driver and did her best to ignore the others as she randomly selected a seat and collapsed into it. Kirien enjoyed sleeping until 3, and waking up with the sun put her in an exceptionally foul mood.

Luckily, she was too tired to terrorize anyone for making her get up so early, and instead opted to tune them out. She curled into a ball, intent on going back to sleep.

But alas, the combination of the screaming fans on television and all the nearby chatter made it impossible, and she groaned in frustration. She tried everything she could think of, from clamping her hands over her ears and lying flat to sitting with her feet above her head and counting sheep, but nothing helped.

She opened one eye and stared sleepily at the television, hoping there was at least something sleep-inducing on. Spotting a few nerdy boys she had never seen before, holding signs in support of her did nothing to improve her mood. And the announcement that she was now famous made her groan loudly and bang her head against the back of the seat.

Could her morning get any worse?

Something sounds annoying. Must be Leo.

She banged her head against the seat more enthusiastically.

[morg]

"I'm surprised Jon even remembers my name," drawled Morgan. She'd managed to prop her feet up on the seat and plaster a grin onto her face. Months of being stuck in Cairo or whatever hellhole her family chose to live in next, waitressing of all things, and her brother had even told her to lay low, and now Morgan was finally getting out, with the people she knew.

Plus there was the whole entering another tournament thing.

"Jeez, vanish off the face of the planet for months and I get a 'how ya doin'? You people suck," teased Morgan. Still she grinned, throwing what looked like a gum wrapper at Kenneth's head while turning to look at Leo. He was an a**, sure, but he was a Gifted a**, and about now Morgan would kiss anyone who could do something halfway cool. And her Gift(s) made her look perfectly normal.

"Seriously, you people should have known I'd have come to a shindig like this. Hell, this is going to be the most fun I've had all year. Oh, and Ken? you're welcome to come to the house to celebrate my stellar win. Leo's allowed as long as he brings something. I'm thinking booze," she adjusted her feet again, waving both back and forth. Too much fun, just, too much.

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

"Remembers your name? Girl, that boy has been working his ass off all summer. I wouldn't be surprised if he whipped out an engagement ring when you come back. You are coming back, right? You know how important your education is, young lady?!" Kenneth was the last person you'd expect to give the education speech, and alas, he was grinning too much to be serious. However, he failed to mention Jon's brief summer 'fling'... Morgan didn't need to know about that.

Then Amayla turned and hissed at him, and he sneered back, although he was in too good of a mood for it to look evil in any way. In fact, he was mocking her. "Watch yourself, half-pint," he warned, but flashed her a wink nontheless. There was no real threat behind his words, as he had no intention of hurting a little girl. He may or may not have flexed his muscles though to show how capable he was though. Then Morgan was tipping her nose to the roof, and he was engaged in their conversation again.

"Ha! You know what, how 'bout I send you a postcard from the Bahamas?" He taunted back once Morgan unleashed her 'I'm already the winner' shpeal. He reached over and ruffled her hair, knowing full-well that regardless of how tomboyish Morgan was, she was a girl at heart, and she would fuss over it like the feminine beauty she was. Oh gawrsh she was so cute!

[Amy/Kayla]

[red]Kayla looked long and hard at Kenneth, trying to decide whether or not to subject him to the combined fear of a thousand hells. She didn't like the way he treated her like some child to be mocked. She was centuries older than this fool, and could snap his infantile mind like a twig.[/red]

[pink]Oh calm down Kayla. He's just having some fun. Watch. Amy stuck her tongue out at Kenneth, then laughed with a sunny smile on her face. Spontaneously, she stood up and did a cartwheel. She looked at the confident Morgan. "What makes you so confident? What can you do?" Amy's blond hair was down, and spilling all over her shoulders messily. [/pink]

[red]You disgust me sometimes. You know that?[/red]

[veronica]

Veronica looked at Leo quizzically, trying to remember his name. She had only been a teacher for a short time; how could anyone expect her to remember every student of the University and the Academy. She gave Leo a noncommittal nod. "Hey! Wow, you're in the competition?" Veronica smiled, hoping that Leo would decide to introduce herself.

She caught Morgan's words, and pursed her lips. She gave a little cough, and raised her eyebrow at Morgan. "It's so nice you're going to give alcohol to all the overage and legal contestants. It's sweet that you want to spend that much on something you won't even enjoy yourself." She was still a teacher, after all. Inviting your teacher to an underage drinking party was probably not a good idea.

She gave a quick glance at the passengers of the bus. There were only a few people of legal drinking age here... nothing could be too dangerous with contestants this young.

[morg]

"Yeah, I'm probably coming back. Can't say what Kennedy's planning for sure," Morgan shrugged. Her brother and her weren't attached. She just had to keep telling herself that. Two different people, two different goals. That and one of them wanted to hide in the middle of no where and "raise a family" while the other wanted to become famous.

Tied together.

"Like you care about my education anyway," finished Morgan, taking a half-hearted swing at her ex?-boyfriend's friend. She then twisted in her seat to grin at the girl. "I copy things, mostly. It's a family trait. Though my dad was a healer, so I guess it didn't go that far. Aaaand," she twisted again to grin at the woman who was apparently a teacher, "I might buy the old people something to drink too. You know, if you're nice and all. Seriously, shouldn't you be teaching or something? Doesn't matter. Look: I'm not in the Academy right now, got unregistered. Means that you're not my boss. Still," she shrugged, "have to respect you for coming here. I'm Morgan Cavan. Yes, I'm Kennedy's little sister and yes, I was kidnapping and yes I've been missing for months and yes I do plan on getting smashed and Kenneth and Leo are probably going to be doing shots off my navel at some point. I spent five months in Hell, I'm ready to go."

Another cocky grin, and she again shifted so her feet were propped up. "'sides, even if I don't win, the publicity and training ought to be quite enough."

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

Ken didn't perceive Amayla as any threat, and her adorable little cartwheel merrited a round of applause from him. However, someone mentioned doing shots off Morgan's navel and his head snapped around as though he'd been slapped.

"Huh?" He said stupidly, wholly wishing he hadn't been distracted for this conversation, "Who's taking shots off whose navel? Morgan, you better watch that mouth or you'll make half the bus partially aroused." He was joking, but he wasn't lying. The guy was going through the biggest dry spell of his entire sexual life, and any vaguely suggestive material got him riled up. He inconspicuously shifted his position so he looked more comfortable, more relaxed, even if he was anything but. He had a reputation of being cool, he was not going to blow it during the coolest tournament of the century.

"What do you want all that publicity for, little tyke?" He poked Morgan, obviously not understanding her angle for the competition. Everyone knew Ken's aspirations - become a successful singer/entertainer. Morgan... he wasn't entirely sure where her passion lay. He knew she was some sort of karate girl, but he generally tuned Jon out whenever he started ranting about her accomplishments.

[veronica]

Veronica stared at Morgan. Unregistered? Surely she, who indeed was kidnapped, would know better. Underage drinking wasn't all that harmful, but some teenager with no control over her abilities was a threat to the entire Gifted community. "Why on earth would you drop out? You need to have finer control over your gift, you need to understand what you are! Don't you realize you are a danger to yourself and others? At the very least, the Academy will give you protection! Those criminals know who you are now!"

The name Kennedy Cavan echoed in the back of her mind, like she should know who he was.

[morg]

Kenneth's words rang a few bells in Morgan's mind. Why would he be that upset about he teasing him? The guy had to be doing the sheet tango with Kellan often enough, unless she hadn't given in. Which, Morgan had to admit, would be rather hard. there were times...

"Looks like Rae rubbed off on me a bit. Comes from knowing the crazy, lesbian rock star," she replied, sticking her tongue out at her old friend. she followed soon after with a brief explanation: "I fought professionally, remember? Second place and all that? Publicity moves me out of the s**thole and into the limelight, which kind of works for me, you know?'

She rolled her eyes to the teacher, smirking slightly. "It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out these Gift things. And the Academy is hardly that x-mansion thing. When you get kidnapped and written off, you can argue, mmmk? 'sides, I'm not really all that worried; I've got a giant sponge for a brother."

she shifted then, arching to get a better look at the front of hte bus. "Don't they have free energy drinks or something? You'd think Monster would want to push us..."