By the Statue

[Penelope Greene]

Penelope walked along the grounds until she found the statue. The statue was of the three founders of the school, each of them using their powers. It was strange for Penny to see someone's power locked in time like that. She sat down on a bench on the other side of the path and stared at it, looking over all of the details.
Penelope wondered if one day she would be important enough to have a statue made of her. The image flowed through her mind as she thought about it more.

[chelsea]

There was a figure looming up in the distance. It looked bulky, wider than it was tall and as if there were three different people stuck together. Only thing, it was three people stuck together, their likeness embedded in stone, set there forever for the rain to wash away. Then their images would be ruined forever. How nice.

It was actually a pleasant thought, surprisingly. Whoever those people were, they obviously did something memorable and if they were heroes, who really gives about them? They all do the same thing, saving people from impending doom, blah, blah, blah. It was so obvious that seriously, people should have known that there was no point shoving them up there for the world to see. Oh how she would love to destroy that statue, steel cutting through marble and marble falling to the ground, ah, a pretty sight.
Only, her parents would get a big bill for that.
That was the only part wrong with that plan.

Anyways, Chess walked closer, hands stuffed in her pocket as usual. Even if today was a Friday, it wasn't anything to have fun about. It was a normal school day--a school day that she had every intention of bunking.
And what was that girl doing there?
It was that girl from the infirmary yesterday. She called herself Penelope Greene or something like that. She was the one who had forced her to use polycarbonate. Chess still had the polycarbonate with her, coiled above the coils of steel thread. She could take the girl on if necessary.

"Disgusting," Chess muttered, gazing up at the statue of each of the founders looking oh-so-heroic. "All the same shit, hoping for people to worship them," She turned to Penelope with a lazy smile. "Don't you think so?"

[/color]

[Penelope Greene]

Penelope looked up at the girl who had spoken to her. She remembered her from the infirmary yesterday, her name was Checkers or something like that.
"Not really," Penelope said. "You're saying that you don't want people to worship you?" Maybe Backgammon had never been worshiped, but Penelope had, and she loved it. She looked closer at the girl and wondered who she was. Penelope had never seen her before yesterday, and she clearly thought that she was some bamf, but for some reason, Pen just didn't buy it yet. She needed proof. Hard core proof.

[chelsea]

"You're saying that you don't want people to worship you?"

Strange, Chess had thought that Penelope would have more sense in her. Maybe everyone in this school was like her family. All disgusting, all needed to be gotten rid of. That was no problem, she could take on the job without complaint. She would love to do it, actually.

"Worship and respect are two different things." She told Penelope, nodding towards the statue. "Worship is like demanding attention, respect is what people naturally give." Chess glared at the statue. "I like being myself. I don't need anyone to try--and fail to be like me." Or like those stupid school founders either. Best to let people have their freedom.

"And you want to be worshiped?" She asked Penelope, raising her eyebrow skeptically. Liars and cheaters. That was all that she had thought of those who were worshiped. Yeah, so they did some good deed, so what? That was just the norm. The norm was not something to be proud of. Heck, it wasn't even badass!

[/color]

[Penelope Greene]

Mancala had made a good point, but Penelope wanted more than just respect. "Respect is something you get from... whoever. I have no problem with people giving me their coats to walk on, or wanting to kiss my feet and the very ground i walk on," Penelope said to her. "Whenever I do something truly great and powerful, I want people to worship me, like a freakin' God," she said.
"Some people, however, don't deserve the worship they get," Penelope said, thinking of all the 'heroes' out there. She wondered if Monopoly was one of them.

[chelsea]

Chess wrinkled her nose. Step on their coats? Have them kissing her feet? Filth like that? Probably not. Somehow, she didn't see the logic in that. It was a simple dislike for the human race. They seemed to actually worship her wherever she went, mostly the drunks, but others too. Couldn't keep their hands off what's different from them.

She curled her fist, unable to suppress that surge of power that she felt. Almost involuntarily, she let just a little of her steel thread slice up the gravel before her, turning them into fine sand. A slightly sadistic smile crept up upon her face as more gravel turned to dust. Yes, if the whole world turned to dust, it'd be pretty damned awesome.

"Those people... who don't deserve the worship," She repeated. "They should die. What honor is there in devouring the weaker souls when you can devour the world? Only you can't." She turned to Penelope, "It's just like Serbia taking over Bosnia and thinking they can take on the whole world." Of course, a reference to history class was always handy. "Everyone thinks Franz Ferdinand was the hero, no one respects Princip, a man who could take action and actually earn himself a name," Chess lifted one hand out of her pocket, slicing up the gravel a little faster than before.

[/color]

[Penelope Greene]

Penelope watched as the board game girl turned the pebbles into dust. She barely held back a small scoff, the girl clearly could not control her powers at all.
"Who says I can't devour the world?" Penny asked. "And when I do, people will know my name for centuries."

[chelsea]

Chess raised an eyebrow? The ground in front of her was successfully turned to dust and almost nothing on her sneakers too. That was great, really. Only, next time maybe she should turn the statue to dust--once her family had no way of finding out. "Remind me to destroy that statue later," She murmured half to herself and half to Penelope as she raised her hand, retracting the silver threads to coil around her wrist.

"And once you do devour the world, give me the pleasure of destroying all these useless things." She pointed to the statue, glaring at it for one last time. "And when they do, there's always another to trip you up. The continuous cycle of time. The usual." She shrugged indifferently. "Unless reincarnation in a matter of hours actually does exist." She added as an afterthought. My, she was speaking quite a lot today, wasn't she? Hate was such a beautiful emotion. Couldn't deny that.

On a second thought, how would Penelope devour the world. Surely it couldn't be a single handed job, and if it was, she would have earned Chess's own respect too. Did she have an inner circle of allies that she trusted? Fools that were infatuated with the cause? What was it?

[/color]

[Penelope Greene]

"You've made the same mistake that you made yesterday; You seem to think that there are people who are capable of stopping me- of killing me," Penny said. Penelope had heard her say something about destroying the statue, and said, "What if those three people did something that you liked- something that you might aim for one day? Would you still want to destroy it?" She asked her.
Penelope wondered what time it was, but decided that she should probably go anyway. "I look forward to talking to you again," Penelope said, as she stood up. "You seem at least like a somewhat intelligent human being, and I don't have a particular desire to kill you." She said goodbye and walked away from the statue, not really sure where she was going to go next.

[Cora Hendricks]

There was one thing that always threw Cora off, being here. She was used to rain by now--it was November! Cora was watching the forecast early in the TV room this morning, with a bunch of her peers who were checking to see what it was like back home. Cora decided to do the same, and saw that parts of the Northeast has welcomed winter with open arms. On November 1st, it was skimming freezing. She had trouble dealing with the summer-like weather. Her roommates could obviously see her hesitation as she reached for a sleeveless dress and shrug, her eyes cast longingly towards her jeans and sweaters. Oh, how she missed Vermont.

Cora moved about the grounds, her nose crinkled at the summery smell. November, she snorted, more like June. Cora stopped in front of a stone mass, a statue. She raised an eyebrow, a breeze tossing a lock of hair into her face. She rolled her eyes at it and studied its features: those of the founders. She had read about them in the library, which was beginning to become her second home. She sighed, touching the first founder. The stone was grainy and rough under her fingers.

Cora sat down on a bench, pulling "Jane Eyre," her current leisure book, and also the subject of her English class, from her bag. The frowned at the beaten cover. She'd read it before, however. She flipped open the book, beloved by many, including herself, and began to loose herself to the works of Charlotte Bronte.

[༺Robyn Dupont༻]

Robyn walked alone through the grounds, her footsteps echoed loudly in her head. She came across a statue, one that she'd never seen before, and a bench across the path from it. Robyn sat down and looked at the statue of the founders of Oceanside. She wondered what it was like when it started, and she wondered when people first gained powers...

[Cora Hendricks]

There is nothing wrong with speaking out, Cora hissed in her head. At least she thought she had done so. Though, the faint echo of her own voice traveling from her lips and raining out into the open air told her differently. She thought it best that she was alone now; other nameless bystanders would have stared and openly judged in their own mind--and possible behind her back--that they thought her mad. Cora knew she was not one whit mad. She was inevitably angered by some of the sophomore student body. Expressing one's opinion is not a crime and should not be shunned! On the contrary, their rude, irrelevant, and utterly foolish comments they pin upon words and literature--these delinquents twist these words--all in the repulsive hope of squeezing a laugh from their equivalent peers! Cora, instead, had placed upon her opinion on the topic of Nikola Tesla's sanity. She had merely stated that all the hours he spent fagging away at his work, pulling and training objects to do as he wanted. If it were not for him, power lines would still be blocking out the sun! She said this passionately, it seemed, for few received this as she did. Half the class wondered in awe. One student exclaimed: "Ooh! Kitty's got claws!" Cora had glowered at him while the teacher replied a simple acknowledgment before moving to pry the students from the topic.

Cora shook her head in exasperation: no one seemed to appreciate her efforts and thoughts. They thought her an empty person; they thought her lifeless! She was not as cold as her hostile looks emit; not a grave as her body language made it seem. She was focused on her work, and timid too, but not what the student body in that class thought her. She was not mad or icy. She was not...she was not...

Cora perched herself on base of the statue, her new favorite place to go. She dug her elbows into her thighs, setting her face in her hands. She was capable of chuckling, indeed! She was! Cora, felt a pang. She found herself fatigued of the subject, and moved onto the subject of the weather.

Where was the snow? It had snowed while she was home! She missed the smell of hot chocolate that never would make her feel sick (only could it lighten her heart and fill it with happy memories). She yearned for her cheeks to become rosy and for her toes to numb from the chill. She wished for her winter coat and boots, still!

Cora glanced at the ground, then turned her head upward to the sky. Patches of sun draped over the campus, as if to reassure her. It did not. Heck, it was nearly 70 degrees Fahrenheit! Cora wore her jeans and a polo with a thin long-sleeved tee shirt over it. It was all she could manage without sweating.

Cora found herself bored and stood, she needed to get to class. Biting down on her lip and mustering up her icy facade that the students were used to, she stalked quickly to class. Hopefully she could slip in without being notice. And, even more desperately, she hoped that no one was talking behind her back.[/font]