| Despite the light rain that has swept over Lantern Hill, the boardwalk is no less busy, the only difference is that rather than take their time moving from place to place, people rush in small groups, umbrellas or hoodies pulled to keep them dry. Others, like Amelia and Noah, seem content to wait out the rain in one place.
Copper Tap Coffee House is the location of choice, mainly because one can sit outside underneath the awning. Slumped at a table near the edge, Noah sits, his attention trained on his phone as he sends what appears to be a very very slow text message.
Rain, shmain. Amelia is English. Her skin shrivels if she doesn't get wet regularly. She looks up from the book she is reading (City of Bones) and over at Noah. "If you want I can send it, you just have to tell me what to write. Or you could try that voice ap again." She picks up her insulated paper cup and takes a sip of her tea.
Coffee, mm. It's what Saya's after, at the moment. She emerges from inside the restaurant, clutching her own insulated paper cup, and immediately spies the two kids sitting with each other under the awning. "Hey, guys," she says cheerfully. "What's up?"
Noah snorts. "I don't know what I want to say. That's the problem. And..I feel stupid talking to my phone like that. I keep waiting for it to yell back 'speak up and don't mumble'." He even mimics Siri's voice (the iphone robot) before he finally presses send. Just in time for Saya's approach.
She gets a grin as he looks up, "Hey. How'd the shopping go?" No, Noah was NO HELP. But to be fair, he's never any help. He also reaches for his drink, "Saya do you know Amelia?"
"Hello Saya." Amelia tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "We're just hanging out. Noah's taking me to get my new puppy later." Amazingly she manages not to squee over the idea but it's there, bubbling beneath the surface. To the boy she says, "Remember, I told you that Saya helped me sneak out and ditch Adam yesterday so we could still have our date?"
Saya gives Noah a blank look. "What shopping?" she asks. She glances at her empty hand, pats the little denim purse slung over her shoulder. Any confusion is immediately put on the back burner when Amelia mentions a puppy. "Ooooooh, a puppy?" she asks, her voice climbing an octave in her excitement. "Ohhh, what kind are you getting? Where?"
Noah just blinks, but he lets it go as his phone chimes I hand. It also earns a glare before he begins the meticulous effort all over again. "It's up to her. There's a pet shop down the street." Never one for many words, Noah offers little more, but he does send the girls their own, lazy smirk before he turns back to his phone. This lasts for a few seconds before he suddenly pushes off the chair. "I want a cookie..You want one?" Though, he moves on anyway, perhaps with his own perceived notion of the girls orders.
"I want something that won't be too big, but not a yappy dog. I don't like yappy ones." Amelia looks up as Noah gets up, "Yes please. One of those snicker things that I like." She likes them but cannot remember what they're called. "Nothing small enough to feed a ball python," she says to Saya with a grin. "What are you up to?"
Saya grimaces a little bit. "The pet shop?" she asks. "But... don't pet shops usually get their puppies from puppy mills?" Her eyes open wide in dismay at the thought. "Why not rescue from the pound?" she asks Amelia. "Those dogs will be euthanize if no one takes them home. Poor things. I always wanted a dog, but we're not allowed to have pets."
Noah groans, but there ya go! There's one in every batch. He slides the plate of cookies onto the table as he settles back. There's an assortment, and clearly it's missing three already. "Lantern Hill doesn't have kill shelters." He adds with a yawn, "And, rescued are fine if you want a mutt. I didn't want to get her a mutt. Even though I'm kinda relieved that she doesn't want a purse dog. I'll be shocked if we manage to leave without a hedgehog or a rabbit." He has so much faith in girls! "Anyway most pounds have big breeds more than small, and I already have enough going against me with her dads, I don't need to add a mammoth sized mutt to the checklist of why I need to be hit by a car."
"I'd rather not get a dog that someone else has taught bad habits to," says Amelia as she reaches for a snickerdoodle. "I prefer to teach bad habits to my own dog." She bites into her cookie as Noah explains things to Saya. The cookie gets washed down with tea. "Hedgehogs are cute, especially baby ones, but I doubt they have them in pet stores. Why can't you have pets?"
"Well, that's good," Saya says, looking rather relieved at the news that there aren't any kill shelters in Lantern Hill. "No every dog at the pound is a mutt, or huge. My cousin got a dachshund at the pound, once - and she was only, like, 8 months old. So. Cute." She shrugs at Amelia's question. "My parents don't want them, and as long as I live in //their// house, I have to live by //their// rules," she says, rolling her eyes some. "Hedgehogs are cute, though," she agrees with a grin.
Noah laughs, "That all said I don't have a problem with mutts or pet shelters. Or big dogs. I had a big dog. But he ratted me out to my dad." Darn cops having drug dogs in the house! Darn stupid teenagers for forgetting. "I thought we had something special to. Pitty." He shrugs gently, though it's clear by his bank expression that he's merely going through the motions. His attention is set on a cookie as he snags it. "Saya, you want a cookie?" Because it's /cookies/. "Sometimes I think parents get that lecture drilled into them while they're setting up the nursery. 'As long as you live under /my/ roof, you'll abide by the law. Anti-theft devices are not a challenge Noah Allen Goodman'." He even manages to get the gruff tone of his dad as he mimic him.
"Yeah, rules...we don't have much of those at my house. I mean, we're meant to have curfew, Roman and I but we pretty much break it regularly. And I wasn't going to get a car because I spray painted my room and black and with swear words but I still got one for Christmas." Amelia eats more of her cookie, unlike Noah she likes to taste her food not inhale it. "I figure I can milk the whole gay dad paparazzi shame for another year, just enough to get me off to uni and then I can do as I want."
"No, thanks," Say says to Noah at the offer of a cookie. She hasn't even sipped at her coffee, though she's been cradling the cup in her hands and occasionally lowering her head to inhale the aroma. Saya's eyes widen dramatically upon hearing about tampering with anti-theft devices and spray-painting bedrooms. "Oh, my gawd," she says. "If I tried anything like that my parents would disown me." She tilts her head a bit at Amelia's last tidbit. "Paparazzi, what?" she asks, blinking. "Da - ang, I'm out of the loop," she sighs.
"I live out of the loop." Noah allows with a faint chuckle. "Don't worry. But I will also state I've been good. I'm almost off probation. Plus..my dad can't disown me. He has no one to pawn me off on. And he's a cop so it'd look really bad if he gave up on his only one attempt at breeding." This amuses Noah, but he allows it to go unspoken. Instead he glances back at Saya. "You're parents own the Wok, yeah? That place is awesome."
"My dad was outted with his lover, who is now my step-dad, thanks to a tabloid journalist who kept following him around in London. I learned about him being gay the same time the rest of the world did." Amelia says it like it didn't happen to her and wasn't one of the most painful experiences in her life. She also eats the rest of her cookie and drinks some more tea. "We got take out from there yesterday. It was really good."
Saya looks rather nervous, now, knowing that Noah is on probation. She shifts in her seat and surreptitiously glances around, as if making sure her parents haven't materialized in the last few seconds. "UH, yeah," she tells him. "Thanks, I'll pass along the compliment." She gives him a polite, slightly nervous smile. She turns to Amelia and listens with amazement. "Wow, I can't believe he wouldn't have told you," she says. "That must have sucked atomic rotten eggs."
Noah watches the expressions shift on Saya's features with his own, subtle grin. "Don't worry. I didn't kill anyone. I stole a car. /One/ car. And there's extenuating circumstances around it." He takes a drink from his soda, through as Amelia begins in on her deep parental betrayal, he grows quiet. It's always a show stopper. And he enjoys not being stares at like a delinquent. It also frees him up to return the text he received moments ago. One letter at a time.
Amelia leans over and lets her head drop onto Noah's shoulder. "It was pretty shit," she admits. "My parents were still married. Mum went mental, like proper mental. She's in a clinic in St Kitts. My dad drug my arse over here and introduced me to my new family. Step-dad and stepbrother, both who knew him and all about it." She takes another cookie and breaks it in half, holding one half near Noah's mouth. "Weirdly, there is a kid from my old school here. Well, he has been thinking of transferring to the private one."
There's a sudden beep from Saya's phone, which she pulls from her purse and frowns at. "Ugh, my parents," she mutters. "I've got to go or I'll be late for dance class." She quickly texts back to them, and then puts the phone back in her purse. "Up for grabs," she says, pushing the untouched coffee toward the center of the table. "You'll have to tell me about those extenuating circumstances later," she says to Noah. Amelia gets a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, if allowed. "That truly sucks," she says. "If I were in your shoes, I'd have spray-painted something, too."
Noah chuckles, nodding as he listens. Saya's next comment to him earns a laugh. "Deal." He says simply as he turns to watch her pat Amelia's shoulder. She really deserves it. "See ya later, Saya. Have fun at dance." He returns to his text at that, and his soda which he takes a drink from. "Lia. We should go. They'll be back from lunch by the time we get there. And I have to meet Officer Petty afterward. To show her I'm still in the city and that I haven't joined a Mexican gang and taken up cocaine." He rolls his eyes.
"Heh, thanks. Bye Saya." Amelia eats her half of the cookie and nods to Noah and makes sure he can't get the coffee since he's got a limit on what he's allowed. "Come on, you master criminal. Let's go get me a super cute puppy. Maybe I'll find one cuter than you and dump your scrawny behind and go to the prom with my puppy."
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