Parents Day (open rp)

[Wade Braddock]

Parents Day. Wade wasn’t exactly sure what time his family was due to arrive, but he knew their train arrived at around nine that morning. So they’d probably be at Westbrook later that hour. Supposedly, he was going to receive a text when they were on route from the train station. Hopefully his little sister, Lanni, remembered to remind his parents. They were both pretty behind the times with technology.

Wade awoke to his phones alarm as it started to blare out the sweet sounds of Bombs over Baghdad by Outkast. Five thirty in the morning. After a week it was getting easier to not stab at the snooze button a few times. He lay in bed for a moment and mentally rocked out to the beat before rolling off the mattress to begin his morning push ups.

“Asher!” Wade called out after hitting the one hundred mark in his push ups. “Let’s do this! Six miles. I’m betting we can do it in forty-eight minutes this time!”

Wade continued doing push ups until he hit two hundred and fifty then sprang to his feet and looked over at Asher’s bunk. He was still a sleep. One day, Wade figured, he’d have to give in and come with him. But it wasn’t going to be that day.

An hour later and Wade was done with his run and starting his work out in the Bunker. The hand to hand combat program was pretty cool so far, and Wade had even progressed from level zero all the way to level one. He’d be a regular Chuck Liddell in no time he kept telling himself. After that he hit the showers then the Cafeteria for his four bowls of oatmeal and fresh fruit. He was just finishing off his banana when his phone went off. Checking the message he saw that his family was due to arrive in about half an hour.

For Wade, parents day was about to begin.

[Eternal-Equinox]

Sam got dressed and pulled her phone off the desk. She looked at the time, Juan had invited her to watch him do some swim practice. It was the first day of the parents weekend but she had talked to her dad a few days ago and he said he wouldn't be showing up till later in the day. He drove up and had told Sam he was going to be making a few stops along the way.

She knew she had more then enough time to hang out in the morning and not worry about having to show him around. She dumped he school books out of her bag and tossed a towel and her bikini into it. Slinging the bag over her shoulder she looked over at the sleeping Willow. Best to leave her a note just in case dad did show up before she got back to the room, she really didn't have any plans but something could always come up. She grabbed a pen and the note pad on the desk and left a simple note.

'Wil, went down to the pool to watch swim practice.'

She made sure the note was where Willow would find it. With that out of the way she left the room and made her way to the pool. She smiled as she passed kids escorting their parents around. She was glad that wouldn't be her till much later in the day. She jammed her stuff in a locker as she got changed. Grabbing her towel she made her way into the pool area. She stopped, expecting to see a few members of the swim team but seeing only Juan wadding in the shallow end of the pool.

((OOC note : There will be a part 2 to this, I'm working with Juan to write it))

[Chris Sloan]

Chris was on the roof, singing. He already had the spell practiced, so he didn't need to actually cast it, he just felt like singing it. The soft yet melancholy tone carried across the roof.

“Hoc terram ubi angeli concinunt. Et daemonia ludere eorum impiorum ludorum.” His mom was coming, and he didn't really know what to do. He was looking forward to seeing her, but it wasn't like he couldn't go visit any time he wanted.

“Terra ista de gaudia, dolorum luxit. Ex lacrimis caeli, et occulta diebus.” He hoped he didn't get embarassed by her, but knew she wasn't the type of person to do anything like that. He had been wanting to introduce her to Holly as his girlfriend, but that wasn't possible anymore either.

“Di luc-” He was cut off by another voice, a softer female voice, a familiar voice.

“Di lucis umbram aquae et igne. Adtendas orationem, et dona nobis pacem.” The new voice sang from the heart, like that line held special meaning to her. After it was finished a woman sat next to Chris.

She stood at eye level with Chris, average height for a full grown woman. Mildly curved with a tan skin tone, she wore a pair of black jeans with a blue tee shirt. On her right wrist was a large copper bracelt that seemed to just barely hang on over her slender hand, which still wore an old wedding ring.

Chris smiled over to her and laughed just a bit. “Hi, mom.”

His mother smiled back softly, “Hey Chris. Practicing your dad's old spells still?” Chris nodded and she ruffled his hair a bit. “Good for you. Figured that was what it was when I heard about the odd weather around here last week.”

Chris smiled back, “You got here early.”

“Yeah, got off work and figured I'd drop by. How are you liking this place?” She asked curiously.

“It's great. Come on, let's head down to the dorms, you can meet the other kids.” He nodded to the dorm building.

She smiled, and held out her right hand, the bracelet glowing and flying off her wrist, growing into a shining platform for them to stand on.

“Always the show-off...” He laughed. They climbed onto the platform and lowered to the ground, where it returned to being just a bracelet on her wrist, two sizes too big. They made their way into the commons.

[Wade Braddock]

“What was that!” Wade’s mom asked with a perplexed tone.

“What was what?” Wade asked trying to stay casual.

“It looked like a lady and a boy on some kind of floating circle.”

“Mom… seriously. I told you, like ten times already, there’s probably going to be a few weird things happening today. Try not to freak out.”

“I think it’s cool!” Wade’s little sister chimed in as she pointed her phone towards Chris and his mother and snapped a picture.

“Lanni, god damn it! Quit takin’ pics already! This isn’t the freakin’ zoo!” Wade exclaimed as he grabbed for her phone, but she dodged behind their dad. Who was giving Wade a stern look.

“Wade, watch your mouth. Lanni, behave please.” His dad barked in the familiar tones of parental authority.

Wade sighed and looked skyward for a moment as if asking for help from a higher power.

So far the tour of the campus was going pretty well, if you excluded his mom’s jaw dropping every two minutes, or his sister treating it like she was at Disneyland. Wade was just glad his dad had decided to come after all because even as weirdly awkward as this had started out, he did enjoy the feeling of a family bond. His parents seemed to have really adjusted well to the fact that Wade was a meta-human. At the very least, he was happy to see that his dad had lost the constant scowl of disappointment he used to look at Wade with. Yet something else was visible in the way Wade’s dad looked at him. He just couldn’t place what it was.

“Come on, the commons are over this way.” Wade nodded to indicate the direction and continued with the tour.

[Chris Sloan]

Chris and his mother arrived in the commons not long before Wade and his family, and had been sitting on on of the couches, talking with each other about the school and the students who attended it. Chris's mother seemed happy that he was coming out of his shell.

When Wade walked in, Chris waved to him, "Hey Wade. That's your family I take it?" His mom looked at Wade curiously for a moment, and then smiled and waved to the group herself.

[Sarah Pilgrim]

Sarah wasn't in the best of moods as Parents Day reared its ugly head...then again, most people at Westbrook probably wouldn't have known the difference anyway. She was aware that her peers were avoiding her. She'd tried using it as a bargaining chip to get out of the school, but so far the argument wasn't winning out. She'd thought she had it all figured out too. Her dad and her psychologist back home had thought a change of scenery would help her to thrive. It stood to reason that if she wasn't happy and wasn't fitting in, things could go back to the way they were before.

Problem was...things would never be normal. Hell, they hadn't been normal in years. Susan had pretty much blown normal clear out of the water.

So here she was, very keenly feeling like a freak amongst freaks, making her way down to the commons. She checked her phone for a text message from her dad. He said he would let her know when he got on campus, and had diligently been messaging her since he'd got out of his morning meetings as to his status. As if on cue, another message hit her inbox.

Stuck in rush hour. Will keep you posted.

She didn't reply back. She just stuck her phone in her back pocket. He'd text again in five minutes....and every five minutes after that until he got there. She looked around, saw Chris and his mother and Wade and his family. Despite the gruff way she tended to speak to people, she actually thought Wade was a pretty decent guy....even if he had this crazy thing with jumping high places.

The smile creeped its way on Sarah's face before she could even stop it as she watched the exchange between Lanni, Wade and his mother.

[Wade Braddock]

Wade looked around when he heard Chris' voice then returned the wave and brought his family over to introduce them quickly. Thankfully his mom seemed to remember her manners and was actually quite pleasant. Wade inquired if Chris and his mom were planning to catch Mr. Herrera's planned talk about the histrory of Westbrook that was supposed to begin in the common's soon.

As if on cue, Mr. Herrera entered the Commons area and began greeting the parents who had already arrived.

Wade's sister seemed to sense an opportunity to ditch her parents and tugged on Wade's arm to get his attention.

"Hey, isn't your room here too?" She asked.

"Yeah, upstairs." Wade responded.

"Can I see it?"

"Uh, sure. Come on." Wade checked to make sure that his parents were occupied with Mr. Herrera before motioning for Lanni to follow him.

"Good meeting you, Mrs. Sloan. See ya 'round, Chris."

[Cadabra]

Cassandra rolled over in bed out of her sleep, with heavy eyes that couldn't quite open yet. With a waking yawn, she reached an arm out to her cell phone set on the bed post on the corner of her bed frame and flipped it open. The numbers were too blurred to read, so she closed it, set it back down, and rolled back over; pulling the covers up over her head.

Then leaped out of the blanket, sitting up, grabbing her glasses from the same post and looking again at the time. It was almost an hour past when she wanted to be up. Throwing the blanket aside, she dropped from the raised bed to the floor with all the same grace as the falling blanket before her. Getting back on her feet she stretched her arms up over head, arching back until she felt the satisfying crack and pop of her stiff joints, then put yesterday's pants on which she had left balled up on the floor on her way into bed while making her way to the study desk.

There she had left a piece of amate which she had marked with a sigil the night before. She took a pinch of salt from a collection of spell components and sifted it through her fingers over the amate, where it began to shrivel and combust in a pale blue fire.

So much for that idea, she thought. It was supposed to work as an alarm clock. It didn't. Don't ask her why she didn't use her phone like she had every night before, she wouldn't tell you. Couldn't tell you. It may have been that today was Parent's Day, and with her family having spent all that-- Parent's Day, right!

She needed to get ready.

Her dad had said he would catch the latest flight he could last night, so he would be here in the morning; and he was bringing some of her brothers with him. He didn't mention which ones, though.

She was excited to see them all again; any of them. It had only been a few weeks since she left, but this was her first time more than one night away from home.

The school dorms were as loud and busy as their rooms were at home, maybe busier, but no one was as cramped or close as she was used to. She did not even share her room with anyone but an empty second bed. She missed the company.

Once she finished getting changed into her uniform with a fresh sweater vest; no milk stains or anything; and had her makeup done perfect, she made her way to the small grove out-front of the school, seeing all the other students guiding their early arrived parents around as she passed. She missed her family.

In the grove she waited, sat at a bench with her book bag beside her and her mother's grimorie in hand, glancing over the pages. It was hard to concentrate. She would flip open her phone to check for any calls she may have missed each time she turned a page, even though she had the ringer set as high as it would go.

She watched Chris with a curious smile as he came down from the roof on a copper circle with a woman she assumed was his mother. She looked like a nice woman. She had raised a nice son.

She checked her phone one more time. He would call soon, she knew it. So she closed it and set it to her side.

Then she checked it another time.

[Chris Sloan]

Chris had waited until the lecture was over, and dragged his mom to her feet. “Come on, someone I want you to meet, mom.”

His mom laughed as she got up, “I'm coming I'm coming Chris.”

He had seen Cass outside, but knew that the lecture was on a schedule so couldn't stop to chat for too long. Now, however there was nothing else planned for a while so he walked his mom out to meet her, still at the grove where she had been waiting, and still checking her phone every other minute. He put a finger to his lips to signal his mom to be quiet and snuck up behind Cass, taking a deep breath before saying...

“Cass!” He shouted to her from no more than ten feet behind her. She jumped up with a start, instinctively grabbing the pendant around her neck.

"Chris! I didn't know you had an outside voice!" She laughed at him, loosening her grip on the pendant but not letting it go. She smiled to him, and then turned to his mom, “You must be Miss Sloan, Chris has told me.... well not that much really.” She smirked, more towards Chris than anyone else.

Chris's mom looked accusingly at him, “Sorry, mom! Been busy lately.” He smiled back to both of them.

“Yeah, well, call me Mary.” Chris's mom smiled down to Cass. “And you must be Cass, the crazy girl my son has been seeing.”

Cass shot Chris a look, which wasn't too convincing with the smirk that accompanied it. “Seeing a lot of me walking away maybe. Yeah, that's me. Cass or Cassandra, but not Cassie.”

Mary looked at her curiously for a moment, “Okay, I can live with Cass. So, Chris tells me you're a witch?” She asked with a well-intentioned smile.

"The Wicked Witch of Westbrook," she says with a self satisfied smirk. Finally she releases her hand from her pendant.

The pendant instantly grabs Mary's attention, and she bends down, putting her nose practically against it as Cass jumps back nervously, “My, what is that? It looks positively magical.” She grinned with a keen interest. Cass looked away and covered the pendant with her hands again as Chris walked up to Mary.

“Bad mom, bad. No harassing the new girlfriend.” He laughed and mock swatted her as she stood back up with a laugh of her own.

“Sorry, sorry, occupational hazard.” Mary smiled back to Cass.

She spoke with a raised brow. "...Okay.” Finally, she started to relax again, giving Chris a wicked little laugh with an even more wicked stare. “Girlfriend?" She lingered with that stare for a moment, then turned back to Mary. "What occupation did you say that was?"

“Oh, he hasn't even told you that huh?” She shot a look at Chris, “I work for MAGI. I identify artifacts they acquire and occasionally made a few myself for their vault.”

“So... you're a caster too?” She smiled again to Mary.

“Not quite... I'm a mage, but I don't cast spells. I'm what you could call a craftmage, or an artificer. I can sense the magic in items more easily than most, and identify individual properties. I can also imbue items with abilities, given I know enough about the ability.” Mary informed her.

Cass nodded, trying to keep up, but her smile grew wider, whether she wanted it to or not, “Wicked.” Cass looked over Mary, her eyes settling on her right hand as she could sense the magic from that area. "So, what does that do?” She nodded towards the bracelet, assuming it the source of the energy.

“Ah! This is a bracelet I made myself. It can turn into a platform and carry people across long distances. Really saves on gas.” She smiled and showed off the bracelet, but not activating it.

Cass grinned at the bracelet, and finally remembered to check her phone. “So, my dad and brothers should be here before too long," she started, while flipping it open. "Mind waiting with me untill they arrive? I promised Chris I'd soften his punishment from meeting all of them to only the ones who show up today.” She smiled softly to Chris, and he smiled back.

Mary and Chris looked between each other, nodding, and Mary spoke up, “Sure, we can stick around.” She leaned down and whispered something to Chris, that Cass couldn't make out. But she saw Chris turn slightly red, shake his head quickly, and turn to his mom.

She couldn't help but laugh, “Oh? Come on... spill.” She tried to get Chris to talk.

“Nothing! It was nothing!” Chris spoke quickly, and him and his mom sat down beside Cass as she waited for her dad to arrive.

[Wade Braddock]

“Wow. You’ve really improved your style!” Lanni said as she poked through the clothes hanging in Wade’s closet. “Did mom and dad buy all these for you?” A note of jealousy entered her voice with that last question.

“Uh, no. I kinda found myself a job.”

“Is this a real suit?!?” his little sister asked in feigned shock.

“Yeah. Like it?”

Lanni just nodded approvingly and drifted away from the closet as she looked around the room Wade shared with Asher. It really hadn’t been decorated yet, so it must have seemed pretty plain to a girl who had posters and pictures covering most of her walls back at home. She didn’t comment on the decor but moved over to the window and looked out then sighed. “I’ve got to get out of Dulls Plain.”

“You will, if you want to. ‘Sides, the way mom was going on and on, I figured you must be pretty happy there. Up and coming queen bee it seems. Honor role and what was it, a cheerleader?”

“Oh Em Gee, Wade. That was like last fall!”

“Oh… so…” Wade trailed off.

“I’m into real dancing now. I guess it’s like ballet, but we focus more on hip-hop and modern moves. Plus I’m taking voice lessons.”

“Singer and a dancer, huh? You fixin’ to be the next Brittney?” Wade asked with a hint of good natured fun. His little sister was becoming quite pretty, now that Wade took notice of her. She’d begun wearing make-up and dressing more like an older teenager. She wasn’t all that tall, maybe five foot one, but he could tell that the dancing she’d been doing was going a long way to keep her in great shape. She probably had guys calling her twenty four seven back at home. That thought caused a sudden pang of guilt in Wade. He should be at home, he should be the one making sure his little sister was safe from all those horny guys Falls Plain seemed famous for.

“Maybe? I dunno. Anything that gets me outta town is a good thing, ya know?”

“Hear that.” Wade responded and nodded towards the door.

He took Lanni back down stairs and entered the commons area of the dorms. Looking around he spotted his folks still grouped around Mr. Herrara as he rambled on about the history of Westbrook to a small assembly of parents. Tapping Lanni on the arm Wade directed her to the side near the doors and took up a spot leaning against the wall. Lanni fell in beside him and leaned casually against the wall as well. Wade glanced down at his sister and couldn’t help but chuckle. He was sure that his massive frame standing next to her tiny one would be a comical sight at best.

Lanni glanced up at Wade with a questioning look then extended her fist and drove it into his side, just below his ribs. Wade flinched a little bit and grinned. Lanni winced as she pulled her fist back.

“Ouch. Forgot you were Beef.”

“God… don’t start with that again. Worst nickname ever.”

“Thought you kinda liked it? Maybe the guys here might wanna hear about it?” Lanni teased with a mischievous smile.

“Hey! I have things on you too, brat. Things that could easily make their way onto MyFacePlace.”

“Ok, ok… Truce!” Lanni laughed.

“Herrara looks like he’s about to wrap it up over there. What do you wanna see next?”

“Do we get to eat at that cafeteria? I’m starvin’.”

“I suppose. Actually, there’s a better place. Westy’s Firehouse. We can go there next.”

Wade continued to lean against the wall as he waited for his parents to escape Mr. Herrera’s tractor beam of boredom. The day seemed to be getting better and better, maybe Parent’s Day wasn’t such a bad idea after all.