She's not exactly one to admit she doesn't have a lot of friends outside of the Agency and the people she knows through her father or the courts.
But, aside from Jinxie, she doesn't have many. (Read: none.)
She tries, though. Good god does she try. She is nothing but smiles at school, offering to help with homework or doing most of the work on a project for class, giving away her lunch if someone doesn't have theirs. Trucy's even offered sets of tickets to her magic show as a prize for the school's annual silent auction. That doesn't seem to do much, though, and nobody really talks to her outside of school- and homework-related things.
Which is why going to this school dance was so important to her. It wasn't quite prom (she wasn't old enough to go, anyway, it was junior/senior prom for a reason) but a school-wide spring formal type dance that Trucy had been anticipating for weeks. She just knew if she was extra nice and bright and bubbly, a boy would ask if she'd enjoy going with them. She'd finally get in a circle and have friends she'd made all on her own.
The day of the dance, nobody had asked her yet, boy or group of people.
She kept her chin up, though, didn't let it bother her. Surely she'd be okay with just finding a group that liked her once she was there and hanging with them, right? That transfer student, Cody, he seemed nice. Maybe he'd be at the dance. Maybe Caroline and Heather from Chemistry would let her join their group...? Maybe she should just call Pearl and Jinxie, maybe Vera if she can get to her quickly, see if they could go.
Apollo and Athena have been watching her with interest as she bustles around the office, muttering to herself and being more driven than usual. It's a rare occurrence.
"What's got you so excited, Tru?" Athena asks, grinning and leaning forward over the pile of paperwork she's been actively avoiding all day. "Special show tonight?"
"Nah, she'd have said something about it." Apollo chimes in, turning back to his own work, expression one of disinterest. "Trust me, if it's a big show, she'd be talking our ears off about it."
Trucy bops him on the back of his head lightly, since she knows he's teasing her, and says, "Spring Formal at school tonight. I'm trying to make sure I'm completely prepared."
"Spring formal? Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, is that a dance~?" Athena gushes, sighing happily. "Wow, I'd love to go to a dance like that..."
"Well, if you're so intent on going, you can trade with me. Mr. Wright signed me up to be a volunteer chaperone." Apollo's not really happy about it--knowing Phoenix, he did it without asking the younger attorney first. "Seriously, trade with me, I'd like to have a night to myself."
"Why, to go on a date~?" Trucy said, poking Apollo's cheeks and giggling.
"Apollo, on a date? I'd pay to see that."
"HEY!"
"Anyway," Trucy said, huffing and crossing her arms, "I do need someone to walk with me, Apollo, since they don't have the bus or anything and it'll be too late to go alone." Apollo gives her a look that clearly reads, Kill me now, don't make me go back into a high school, and Trucy adds, "I'll do your toilet duties for a month."
An eyebrow raise.
"And a half."
"...Deal."
Being the daughter of a lawyer has given her surprisingly incredible negotiating abilities.
"Wish I could go..." Athena mumbled, looking upset.
"There's a new samurai movie out. I bet I know someone who'd like to go see it~"
Athena turned pink at the ears, but only nodded--looked like she'd be giving a certain prosecutor a call later. With that settled, it seemed as though everything would go practically perfectly.
--
Apollo came to walk with her about twenty minutes before the dance was supposed to start, and she waved goodbye to her dad (who had reminded her, once again, to not leave her drink lying around or anybody could slip something into it and be sure to go to Apollo or another chaperone if somebody was touching her and okay Daddy jeez I get it) before falling into step beside Apollo, like she did all the time when they went investigating together.
The walk was a quiet one, listening to the city at night for a bit before she said, "I'm sorry this is going to be boring for you."
"Eh, it's alright. I've got my phone, I'll find something to do."
She nods, and that's the last of the conversation until they parts ways at the gym door. Apollo waves to her, says he has to go sign in so people know he showed, and that he'll see her later.
Trucy nods, then turns to watch the crowd of teenagers in the middle of the gym.
It takes her about five minutes to locate someone she knows pretty well--it's Heather, from Chemistry, and seeing at least one friendly face is a good thing. Heather's nice, and waves at her and gushes over how pretty Trucy looks in her blue and black dress, and invites her to be with her friends.
This--this is perfect. She might be able to do this after all. Trucy might manage to finally set down some roots at school.
"So--I heard Caleb is going to spike the drink bowl when he gets here." One of Heather's friends--Denise, Trucy thinks is her name--says, grinning at one of the other girls, Sofia.
"Really? No way--" Heather starts, giggling. "Oh, I'll definitely have to go for some of that~"
"Do you see what Lauren is wearing, she looks like--"
"Ugh, seriously why did he ask her of all people, he knows she'll just end up making out with someone else tonight--"
The conversation is going in so many different ways that Trucy's having a hard time keeping up with it all.
"--that older guy you came in with, Trucy?"
The magician blinks, having missed the beginning of the question. "H-Huh?"
"Who's the guy with the..." Denise gestures for two things sticking up at the top of her head.
Oh.
"Uh, that's Apollo. He works for my dad, and he's just here to--"
"Apollo?"
"Ohhhhh, that's such an exotic name--"
The girls she's with go on gossipping about Apollo for a bit, making up fantasies about how he's really buff under the blazer he's got on and has a deep sexy voice--which Trucy cringes inwardly at because Apollo's voice is more raspy than anything most of the time--and then someone's asking her another question and she misses it.
"Huh?"
Sofia rolls her eyes. "I said, are you trying to get in his pants or something? I didn't peg you for being into the older types."
Trucy flushes so deeply it makes the girls laugh, and she feels like she wants to melt into the floor. "N-No, h-he's like a brother to me--a-and I th-think he's already dating someone..." She trails off, feeling foolish.
All of the girls in the group look disappointed, and after a moment, Heather says, "You know, I'm gonna go find the bathroom, I really shouldn't have had that soda at home--"
And, one by one, all the girls leave her standing on the outskirts of the crowd, waiting patiently for them to come back.
Ten minutes later, she's still not given up hope that they're going to be back, and she clasps her hands behind her back. Apollo waves at her from across the room, and she waves back, her smile bright and cheery and hopeful. Then the crowd moves again, blocking him from view, and that's the last she sees of him for a while.
She catches sight of Heather, and jogs off to catch up to her--and that's when she sees she and her group of friends are busy talking to a bunch of boys, and don't seem to notice her at all. Trucy was crushed, if the expression on her face was any indication. Given who they were talking to--and how Denise was letting a boy touch her in all the wrong places and Heather was sidling up to one--it seemed likely they'd never really been interested in Trucy, but in who she'd arrived with.
So. They'd only talked to Trucy to find out about Apollo, the "older guy". Figures.
It was thoughtful of the dance organizers to leave chairs around for people to sit in, though it looked like the only one using them were the freshman boys who were glued to the phones and a couple of band kids. Trucy found an open chair, away from anyone, and plopped herself down, head in her hands.
This wasn't how the dance was supposed to go. Not how she'd thought it was supposed to go.
She's there for countless songs, happy ones, dancy techno ones, slow ones. She doesn't even feel like singing along to the few Disney songs they play, and Trucy loves Disney.
"And here I thought you were going to dash into the middle of the floor and belt Let It Go at the top of your lungs." Trucy looked up to see Apollo, who holds out an unopened soda for her. She takes it and fiddles with the cap. "Okay, c'mon, Ms. Grumpy Gills, tell me what's wrong."
"'m not grumpy."
"Well, then, Sulky, why aren't you out there, dancing your butt off the way you do around the office. You looked like you were having fun a while ago--"
"I was."
Apollo runs a hand over his face, clearly asking himself why me before sighing. "Okay. Why aren't you having fun now?"
"...I got ditched."
"I thought nobody asked--" Trucy cuts him off with a dirty look, and he seems to understand. "Right."
A moment of silence.
"Okay, Trucy, let's blow this joint." Apollo stood abruptly, taking her arm gently and tugging her up as well. "Neither of us wants to be here anymore."
She doesn't argue, though she's pretty sure someone is going to be mad if Apollo just up and leaves--honestly, though, she's in such a terrible mood now that she just doesn't give a shit at this particular moment.
It turns out that the dance was almost over, anyway, but they've got time before Phoenix is expecting them back. They wander their way back towards home, not saying much but not really needing to--they're pretty close, and Apollo probably figures that breaking the silence to get Trucy to open up about what she's feeling would probably be pointless anyway.
They're passing People Park when a familiar harmonica tune filters its way towards them.
"How about a late night snack?" Apollo asks, nodding his head in the direction of the music, and Trucy nods--Eldoon's noodles is one of her go-to comfort foods.
Eldoon seems a bit surprised to see them out so late in kind of fancy clothes, but doesn't really question it until he's giving Apollo his bowl of too-salty noodles.
"You sure do get prettier every day, Trucy-doll." He gives her the next bowl with a wink, smile just a bit protective of the girl he's seen grow up. "Blue like that is sure to make the boys swoon."
"Yeah, well, it didn't."
Apollo and Mr. Eldoon both watch her as she stares glumly into her bowl, obviously expecting her to continue. When she doesn't, Apollo briefly explains they'd come from a dance, and nobody had asked her to go with them.
"Ah." Mr. Eldoon says, nodding a bit. "Teenagers these days. Nobody really has class anymore. In my day, it'd be shameful not to ask a girl to a dance."
Trucy doesn't say anything for a bit, chewing and swallowing, before adding, "Yeah, and they don't normally ditch you, either, when they find out you can't help them get in with someone."
Apollo seems to get it. "The girls you were with." Trucy only nods, and he's got his answer. "Let me guess--older guy, wanted to know if he's taken?"
"Yep."
"And they ditched you when you said you didn't know?"
"I said I thought you were."
Mr. Eldoon sighs. "My sister, she's got a girl your age, comes home every night from school upset because girls pick on her. Girls your age are just terrible to each other. I don't understand it."
"It's because we're girls. It's like an unspoken rule or something."
Apollo doesn't say anything, focusing on the last of his noodles, and Mr. Eldoon sighs. "At least you're loads classier than they are, Trucy-doll." A wink, and he holds out three fortune cookies, more than the usual two she gets for being one of his favorites. "Don't let them get you down."
They finish off their noodles and say goodnight to Mr. Eldoon, then finish the walk home.
"See you, Polly." She says at the door, waving as she unlocks it. Apollo waves back, knowing she's safely inside, and heads off to his own apartment.
Phoenix is surprisingly awake, doing paperwork with the Steel Samurai on in the background. He glances up as Trucy comes in, kicking off her shoes unceremoniously.
"So--how was the dance?"
As she disappears into her room, she decides to leave the worst part of her night out for now.
I also enjoy getting caught in the rain. I am NOT into yoga and I like to think I have an entire brain. I dunno about the whole—sex in the sand thing, but I guess I wouldn’t mind if I had a blanket.
Actually, if he thought about it, it hadn't ever happened.
He'd been minding his own business, really, walking down the street that day. There was nothing to do, and no one was trailing him. He was good at avoiding such things anymore. So his mind had been off elsewhere, the only things he was aware of were the feelings of his feet hitting the pavement and the bodies moving around him.
His feet, he could feel every grain of rock on the sidewalk even through his shoes, his toes longed to curl into the dirt and the grass and be free, but here was not the place and now was not the time to seek such freedom.
The bodies around him, however, he could feel the energy off of, the heat, the cold. The hairs on his body rose with the electricity each person gave off, body swaying away from the paths of other bodies as he walked carelessly along.
Music was deafening him, but he didn't care, he never cared. It wasn't even at full volume but he could feel the bass beats in his veins, pounding along with his quick heart.
He felt his heartbeat quicken as a familiar and yet strange smell flooded his senses. Now, he didn't make a habit out of smelling the people he was passing, but this, he couldn't ignore it, couldn't deny what it was, turning into the crowd and disrupting the traffic as he stared after the young man walking away from him down the street.
People continued to bustle around Klavier as he stood and considered what to do before giving in to his instincts and curiosity and following after the man.
He knew the smell, he knew it, but it had changed. He bit his lip and chewed it, huffing and sniffing as he tracked after the guy who had melted into the steady stream of people.
It wasn't long before Klavier caught up to him, walking down a much less busy street. At first he fell into step behind him, before moving and slipping past him and turning back around, walking towards the other to get a good look at him. Brown eyes, soft and distant. Brown hair, with an interesting style. He was dressed relatively nice and seemed to be heading... probably home, by the looks of him and by his own scent (he'd been out for a while, the scent of city clogged his own natural smell and flavor). He made no effort to sway out of the way of this one, fumbling and 'tripping' over his own boot before stumbling into him, jumping back in time to keep either of them from getting off balance and hitting the ground.
"A-ach! I'm sorry! D-... do I know you?" Klavier looked him over from up close as they spoke, holding on to Apollo's arm and feigning as though he'd seen him somewhere before. However his own resemblance to the young man's extremely pale mentor was a bit shocking. His eyes were the same, but bluer, his hair was the same blond, but a bit brighter, and cut short instead of worn long... His face shape was almost exactly the same, though this stranger's chin was rounder, cheeks fuller...
