Everyone is good at something

[Casey]

Art ducked his head to try and hide his embarrassment. She had a valid question but he figured Deacon or Miles would have told her about his situation. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at her shyly.

“Uh, actually,” he smiled nervously, “If I went the standard route, I would be getting out next summer. I graduated early Te.”

“Do you realize how much you sound like Aiden right now,” Art leaned back and raised an eyebrow, “Not literally, your voice is way too high. He said something like that when he caught me reading one of his books. Please don’t tell me, I gotta hear it from Yuki too.” He shook his head, “I’m not giving up anything Teagan, and I’m not giving up anything right now. If anything I just want to help.”

[Teagan]

"Really? That's incredible," Teagan replied, completely amazed. Art graduated early? Her respect for the kid who habituated corners in search of solitude suddenly rose. She had issues getting to college -and then getting through a week of college, for completely different reasons- and Art just whizzed past her like it was all nothing.

Wait a second-did he just say...?

"I do not sound like Aiden!" Teagan protested shrilly, smacking Art lightly in the arm. How could he compare her to Aiden? She was nothing like Aiden! "Don't ever say that again! I'm not a fun-sucker!" A round of laughter burst out of her. Her? Like Aiden? Please. Aiden was slightly emo-ish and serious. While not as tense as Yuki, they both took life way too seriously. Teagan, on the other hand, understood that if someone didn't take time in their day to joke around serious mental problems would ensue. Point in case? Aiden and Yuki. Mostly Yuki.

"Alright, fine. Help. I won't stop you," she shrugged, trying to contain the laughter building inside again. If he wanted this life, cheers to him. Teagan wouldn't get in his way. She would stop him from drinking and smoking and tattoos though. "Me like Aiden. Wow." Her laughter rang cheerfully across the field. "You've got some imagination, Art."

[Casey]

“Riiiiiiiiight,” Art rubbed his arm where she hit him. Overreaction, that is a personality trait to be noted. “And what the heck is a fun-sucker? It sounds like an evil vacuum cleaner.”

“If you ever met my mother you can thank her for the imagination,” he shrugged, “I’m sure she’d start beaming if you told her. She was worried that I was never going to be creative. Made me meditate with her and paint up until the sixth grade. Not as fun as it may sound.”

Privately, he sort of wished Teagan would never met his mom. She didn’t need to be traumatized like that, and Art would never live it down. He and Deacon had a rigorous screen process for anyone they let even think about meeting their parents.

[Teagan]

She stifled her laugh by covering her mouth with one of her hands. How did he not know what a killjoy was? It dawned on Teagan maybe he hadn't quite hung around with people like that. Or, maybe, that's all that surrounded Art in life. In which case, Teagan wondered if she should intervene and give him a lesson in what normal people were like. "A fun-sucker, young grasshopper," she said slowly and patiently, as if to a child, "...is someone who kills fun in life."

Examples, examples, she mused, eyes darting around the room in thought. As if the answers were waiting in a building she had never entered before. "Let's look at Yuki. She defines 'fun-sucker': no matter what you do, she glares. And protests. Aiden refuses to cut in line. Lines are not meant to be waited in, especially in movies! I mean, if they leave the back door open, that's not my problem, right?" Okay. Maybe she misinterpreted an employee taking out the trash as an invitation to enter the open door. Maybe. But it saved her $11! "And then there's Deacon. While I'm the first to say that your brother is amazing and awesome, don't get me wrong, but he won't let me pull anything! There's nothing wrong with putting something in Aiden's drink, but somehow he knew, ruined the prank and pinned it on me immediately! And that was the first day I met you guys." A brief flash of frustration rattled through her mind.

Deacon would pay for that. At some point in his life.

"Your mom sounds...interesting," Teagan wasn't quite sure what to say about that. Meditation? In elementary school? How...strange. "From what I'm hearing, Art, you need help. Still got that website address I gave you?"

[Casey]

“Uh huh,” he responded before rolling his eyes. Hopefully he wouldn’t be tested on this or anything. Teagan in rant mood, he never considered this a good idea, that was being confirmed.

“Deacon didn’t stop you because you were a funsucker,” was he actually dignifying the word by using it, he wondered, “he did it because he has a twisted sense of dignity and wasn’t going to let anything happen without him wanting it to happen. If he didn’t stop you it would have disrupted his frame of mind.”

“You could say that,” he smiled at the comment about his mother.

His face quickly adopted a less pleasant visage. She may have been around Yuki all the time but he didn’t care. Art sent his look that had been described by Deacon as, “they will never find the body”.

[Teagan]

"Ouch," Teagan winced at the glare, any laughter instantly vanishing at the intense glare. "Art. It was a joke, really." She put up her hands as a sign of innocence. "Scout's honor!"

Of course, Teagan hand never stepped foot into a Girl Scout's club meeting. Her mother had signed her up back in elementary school, thinking "it would be a keen thing to do", but the entire idea had the poor kid traumatized. All she knew about the Girl Scouts was that they sold cookies every year. In jest, her father commented that they were made with real Girl Scouts. Any hope was shot then and there for Teagan to ever cross that line and don the pale green uniform.

Hopefully her half-apology would work for him and she would proceed to never bring up the subject again. Unless, of course, she was fishing for a reaction. "You know Art, I've never seen this...intense of a reaction from you. It's slightly intimidating."

[Casey]

“Right,” he said with a raised eyebrow. No way in heck he was believing her but he was having a hard time staying mad at her. However he didn’t want to give her any satisfaction. Instead of letting out the smile that was threatening he looked back at the game. Being somewhat focused on the game he was able to avoid embarrassing himself.

He looked back lazily when she spoke again. Art narrowed his eyes and tilted his head in confusion before finally shaking his head. Funny girl he figured, and he gave her a button to push.

“Just because someone is socially inept doesn’t mean they want to be reminded of it,” he sighed, “even if they use self-deprecating humor. Also I have no interest in randomly dating some chick from across the country.” As for the intimidating part, Art figured she was just making a joke.

[Teagan]

"I swear!" Teagan protested, shrinking back slightly. "You're-well, you were in high school. Do you think I'd honestly expect you to do anything with the link?" No reaction...and now he turned away. Teagan sighed in defeat. Perhaps he felt more strongly about the gesture than she had expected. Did Art not recognize a joke for what it was worth?

Now why was he shaking his head? She wasn't used to people with whom she had issue reading reactions from. As a prankster, she thrived off of reactions and understood the connotations of the slightly twitch in the eye. But Art? It puzzled her that she couldn't understand him like everyone else. What made him different?

"You're not completely socially inept, Art," Teagan tried to persuade him. "It's a total cop-out to use a dating website. That just shows that one really has no social skills or ability to find someone in reality. So you passed a test....sort of. That proves something."

[Casey]

“I believe the phrase is, ‘it’s the thought that counts’,” he said. He was a little comforted that she hadn’t expected him to use the link. Still didn’t like that she had given it to him in the first place.

“Thanks,” he rolled his eyes, “that’s such a comfort. Thought I would be done with tests by now.”

“I should probably be getting back in the game,” he stretched, “Miles looks like he’s a combination of lost and exhausted. Talk to you when I sub out again.” He smiled at her before running onto the field and relieving Miles.

[Teagan]

"You thought, but since it's completely unfair that you're graduating early while the rest of the human population completes four years of high school, I figure Fate just thinks you should keep getting tests until half-way through June." Teagan thumbed a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. What she would've given to get out of school a couple months early.

"Good luck," Teagan called after Art. What an abrupt exit, she mused. Perhaps the link shook him a bit more than she expected. It might be a good idea to gage his future reactions to such pranks, and moderate accordingly. He was right about Miles, she supposed, eying both boys as they briefly chatted before switching. The youngest Rook did not belong on a professional soccer team, foundation for that argument based on his cheeks, which bore a strong resemblance to a tomato, and the sweat pouring down his face.

Teagan gave him a bemused grin. "You look like you need this more than the bench does." She picked up the towel Art had discarded and tossed it at him. "How'd it go?"

[Miles]

Teagan's evaluation of his physical being was a little exaggerated, although he was in fact sweating and his cheeks were a little flushed. Miles wasn't physically fit, at least not as much as he should have been. This, of course, resulted from the amount of time that he spent in front of the computer and other electronics, but once he became a hunter, he vowed to get stronger, faster, and have better endurance. He had made some progress, but he still resented Art waking him up at odd times in the morning to go for a run in which Miles was left in the dust.

During the game, he had angered his teammates by paying half attention, the other half focused on Art and Teagan talking. He would steal side glances here or there to try and confirm his assumption that there was something between them, or at least with Teagan. However, it had been one of these side glances that caused him to run into one of the other players and tumble to the ground. Luckily for him, Art and Teagan had missed that, but his teammates didn't and were calling for Art to join the game again.

Massaging his shoulder on the way over to the bench where Teagan sat, pain seared through it as he grabbed the towel, masking his pain from Teagan. "Not my best, but not my worst. Definitely not my niche, though," he said, his breath nearly on the verge of panting. "Scored a goal...by accident, but it still counts," he grinned. "How was your conversation with Art? Talk about anything interesting?" he said, careful not to place too much inflection on the last word.

[Teagan]

Miles was immensely lucky that Teagan hadn't concentrated on the game, because if she had seen him knock another player over her laughter would have echoed through the entire building for a good five minutes. That was given, of course, that the other player hadn't been injured. But that would only be possible if a stick could break a log. Last time she checked...it couldn't.

A wave of sympathy passed over her as the kid panted, wiping his face with the towel. "Maybe you should stick to the computer, eh?" His state concerned Teagan to a small degree. If he was worn out by a simple soccer game, she couldn't imagine what it would be like for him to be chasing demons or running from a malevolent ghost. She silently hoped he didn't have to step foot into that realm for a good while to come. "One goal? Hey, as long as the ball made it into the net, that counts. Although...if you put it in the other team's goal, that's in the gray area. We'd have to wait for the ref's decision on that one." Since no official referee was present, that could take awhile.

"Our conversation?" She tugged her hair, slightly embarrassed to say. "I discovered that Art is harboring um, a grudge for the dating website link I gave him back in summer. I didn't really think the kid had it in him to glare like that. He almost hit Yuki-status." She shook her head. "No one should ever try to mimic Yuki like that."

[Miles]

There was no way that the other guy was hurt, because the guy had kept running while Miles was the one sent to the ground. A few chuckled and one helped him up, but the fact that his mind wasn't in the game was probably a bad thing. He couldn't multitask in a physical setting like that, at least not a sport. Keystrokes, games and messaging systems, programs, taking things apart, he could do all of that at the same time just fine. Kicking a ball into a net while spying on his friends? Somehow that was the challenge.

"I would say yes, but if I ever get to go on a hunt with them, I need to be able to get around fast enough to survive," he said in a low tone, turning his eyes to the game. His mind was essentially on the same topic, but in his mind he was determined to be able to outrun a ghost. Demons, well, it was a different story when things could basically teleport, but still, the point remained he needed to get that endurance. "Hey! It was our goal, thank you very much!" he quipped, pushing her playfully. "I'm not that bad," he added, rolling his arm in an attempt to sooth his shoulder.

Art had a grudge? "Jeez, you are probably the only one that can get that kind of reaction out of him," Miles mused, not trying to press Teagan again. "I don't even think he holds grudges against Deacon. Maybe, past stuff I don't know," he continued, absentmindedly rubbing his shoulder. "The guy could use the emotion though, he gets so stoic at times," he said, looking back at Teagan. "How did you meet him, anyway?"

[Teagan]

Teagan laughed as Miles playfully shoved her, swatting his hand away. "C'mon, don't stretch the truth." Before he could shove her again, she raised her hands innocently. "Just kidding, just kidding." She didn't really think he'd be that dim to score in his own goal. He could surpass her in technology pranks and manipulation thereof; he light bulb didn't need changing just yet.

Miles's observation of Art was spot on from what she knew of the younger Rook brother. Every time she had previously seen him, he had a book and serious face that seemed permanently stuck. "I do try to get those reactions from him," she mused. "It bugs me that anyone would walk around life like that. He needs some cheering up, methinks."

How had they met? Teagan raised an eyebrow at Miles. What an interesting day that had been. Stormy, wet, cold...well, that was all after she had met them. "Short version? Don't run away from summer camp. No matter how boring it might be. Long version? I ditched my bus and was wandering around Keystone when Deacon knocked me down. You'd think people would watch where they're going these days. I was bleeding, so we went across the street to some coffee shop where a first aid kit was. Art was waiting for Deacon there."

Come to think of it...Teagan shot a suspicious look at Miles. "You know, maybe you and Art are related somehow. The first thing you both did was insult my height. What kind of sick family are you?"

[Miles]

Miles glanced at Art again, watching as he expertly stole the ball from the opposing team. "I won't stop you from trying, believe me. He needs the change. You're right, he's too serious for his own good. Oh, and while you're at it, tell him how much better technology is than books; he tried to tell me a book is just as valuable as the internet when it came to research. Correction, the whole internet. Don't get me wrong, books are good and stuff, but the internet is winning the information battle," Miles carried on, recalling the argument between them. Seriously, Art couldn't think that he was completely correct.

Miles' brows rose in surprise, her story seemed more normal than he had expected; he was waiting for some long story about how she had been hunting something with Aiden or something. "He made you bleed? What a jerk," Miles joked, finding it hard to believe that Deacon and Art would be hanging out in a tea shop. "Maybe we are, maybe I am Deacon's illegitimate son and he's really in denial," Miles said, looking at her with a mock serious expression on his face.

He sat back, gripping the edge of the bench with his hands. He let out a breath of hot air, and steadied his breathing. "By the way, I hope you west coasters are prepared for a real winter," he warned. "Negative temperatures here."