Sleepwalker

[Pippi]

((Amy Bachelor continued from Clouds Up))

God daaaamn, this was not a good idea...

Amy had been walking around the Lone Pine Mall for about half an hour now, in what could only be described as a dazed and confused manner. She was incredibly tired, and even that was an understatement. Exhausted was probably better. It was her own fault, and she knew it. She'd stayed up chatting on Facebook until about two o'clock in the morning. That was fairly normal for her, but instead of going to sleep like a normal person, she'd decided to watch a couple of episodes of Supernatural and Doctor Who. One had lead to another, and before she knew it, it was 6 o'clock.

Her dad always went to work at that time, so Amy had scrambled into bed, and fallen asleep almost instantly. An hour later, however, and she'd been woken up again, by Lilly and Destiny, who had managed to break into Amy's room somehow. So that was one hours sleep, following a week of going to sleep at two to three in the morning.

Amy had spent the rest of the morning in a daze with a massive headache. She'd taken some pills, and had tried to get some homework done, but her sisters just kept on distracting her, and eventually she'd decided to get out of the house for a bit.

It hadn't helped at all, not one bit. The general noise and bustle of the mall meant that Amy's headache had flared back up again. She hadn't really planned on buying anything, so she'd spent most of her time trudging round, expecting to drop any second. Not to mention the fact that she'd almost been hit by a car crossing the street to the mall itself.

Amy was now quite hungry, and thankfully, she'd ended up in the food court. Amy fished around in her jeans pockets for some spare change. She dropped a handful of coins on the floor, and she bent down to pick them up, wincing as the pain in her head flared up again.

Amy strolled over to the nearest shop, Subways. She wasn't entirely sure what she ordered. She was pretty sure she'd just mumbled something or other to the guy behind the counter. Whatever. It didn't matter, she just needed something to eat. Exiting the shop, Amy noticed the Starbucks located nearby.

OhhthankGodcoffeethankyou. Coffee. Just what I need.

Putting the sandwich in her bag, Amy went into the Starbucks, and ordered a coffee in a similar fashion to before. Once she'd gotten her drink, Amy looked around for a place to sit. She walked over to the nearest metal seat, slumping down in it, before exhaling deeply and stretching out her legs.

Amy took a sip of the coffee, barely registering the taste. It was slightly too hot, but she barely noticed that either. Opening her bag, Amy took out another packet of headache pills. She removed a couple, and swallowed them with the help of another sip of coffee. She placed the packet back in her bag, and replaced it with a book. Gone, by Michael Grant. She'd read it about three times before, but it was a really good book, so that didn't matter. Amy opened the book up to page 3, and tried to focus on the words. They all started blurring together, however; Sam's lines mixed with Quinn's, and Amy realised that she'd read one line three times in a row. She blinked to try and sort her vision out. The next thing she knew, her head had slumped forwards, and was resting on the open pages of the book.

[Aster]

(Natalia "Koala" Kowalski continued from Tôi sử dụng Google Translate cho bài tập về nhà của tôi)

The mall wasn't the best place to relax on a weekend, but Jessica was out with friends and Rebecca was at home, bored out of her mind. And when Rebecca was bored, she picked fights. When she picked fights, someone or something gets broken or hurt.

A very good excuse to spend the day at the mall.

She strolled into the food court and scanned the various storefronts to see what she could eat. There was a plethora of restaurants, and the one that caught Koala's eyes was a small sushi joint in the corner. The Polish girl was developing a taste for seafood, and now was the perfect time to develop a taste.

After getting some good sushi, Koala slid into a metal seat and began to munch on her meal. Before she could eat it, she noticed a girl about her age slumped over the table in front of her. The girl was a redhead (but the brown roots atop her head said otherwise) and shorter than Koala. A name began to form in her head, the name of a certain fangirl who also attended Aurora High.

Amy Bachelor.

Koala knew her on sight, and was well-aware of the girl's erratic sleeping schedule. As opposed to Koala, who slept at the exactly 10:00 pm every night, Amy probably stayed up until 3 am or some other time, maybe even later.

Amy was sound asleep, and in a mall, no less. Falling asleep in public places could cause some troubles, such as theft of objects or hurting yourself. Plus, you don't know whether a gang of pranksters is walking around, waiting for another victim. Koala was going to be a 'good person' and wake her up.

Taking a pack of tissues, she decided that she was going for the head. Koala gently tossed the pack, and it bounced off Amy's head. Not to look suspicious, Koala looked down as she began to eat her sushi.

[Pippi]

Amy was having a rather odd dream. She had just woken up, which she noted in her dream as being rather ironic. She'd walked downstairs, opened up the freezer, and taken out the last Calypso. She had just ripped off the lid (which took a stupidly long time), when her mum walked in, and started yelling at Amy. Apparently, taking the last ice lolly was a crime in the Bachelor household, and before she knew it, Amy found herself thrown outside, the door locking behind her. As she stood up and dusted herself down, she noticed that the sky was a deep purple, and a huge bunch of debris was drifting through the air down the street.

One of these pieces turned out to be a giant marshmallow. Unseen by Amy, it flew down the street, and flumped against the back of her head.

Amy jolted awake, with a startled and less than dignified "Buh?" noise. Her eyes were bleary, and it took several seconds of blinking and rubbing them for her vision to clear. She was still in the busy, noisy mall, although thankfully her headache seemed to have ebbed away. She had no Calypso, and there was no random debris flying past. Although she couldn't be entirely certain it hadn't been a giant marshmallow that had woken her up...

Wait wait wait, whoa... woke me up? Did I-Oh God. Did I just fall asleep in the middle of the mall?

Amy felt her face reddening slightly. She had actually managed to pass out in a public place. She was incredibly grateful that the food court wasn't more packed today. She would probably have died of embarrassment if a whole bunch of people had seen her.

Quickly, Amy checked her bag and pockets to make sure everything was still there. iPhone, check. Purse, check. Sandwich, book, coffee, check check check. Tissues, che-what.

Amy frowned at the pack of tissues that lay on the table in front of her. She didn't remember taking them out of her bag. Unless she'd done it whilst she was asleep. Christ, that would've been weird. Amy looked closer at the packet, almost touching it. Nope, they weren't hers. So apparently someone must have dropped them at her table, somehow. Or perhaps...

A light turned on in Amy's mind as she took another sip of coffee. Maybe someone had thrown the packet, and it had hit her, waking her up. If so, I couldn't have been sleeping very heavily... Actually, yeah, I am kind of a light sleeper. Makes sense, I guess. So long as no-one interrupts me though, I could sleep for days...

Amy looked around the food court to see if anyone would respond to her having woken up. There weren't many people in her vicinity, although she did see a couple of smaller kids giggling at her a few seats away. Amy stood up, and looked behind her. She recognised the girl at the table directly behind her own. Koala Kowalski, or Natalia as she was actually called. Amy liked her. She was pretty chill and friendly, and they shared a mutual dislike of PE.

Koala didn't seem to have noticed Amy though, appearing more engrossed in the sushi she was currently eating. Still, it was better to ask her than some random dude. Amy walked stepped towards Natalia's table, swaying slightly.

"Hey, Koalia" Amy said, before shaking her head. "I mean, uh... Natala... Koala, that's it. Was, uh, that you?" Amy raised the packet of tissues with her right hand, shaking it. With her left, she took another deep swig of coffee.

[Aster]

Koala hoped to be anonymous, but Amy waltzed over ad asked her if she was the guilty party. Cursing herself for not leaving, the Polish girl looked up, smiled, and replied:

"Yes, yes it was me. Well in my defense, you were fast asleep in a mall, and somebody, say Owen Veveris, could just come over and take your purse, or your copy of Gone."

Koala then noticed that Amy seemed to be staggering, and she was taking deep swigs from her coffee. It looked like Amy didn't get any sleep at all, and she tried to go out in public?

"Hey, er, Amy, did you get any sleep last night?"

[Pippi]

Amy smiled as Koala revealed that, indeed, it had been her that had woken Amy up. Amy was perfectly okay with that. She liked Koala, after all; it was much better that she'd woken her up than Joey or someone like that. And it least it had only been a packet of tissues, rather than, say, a brick. Although Amy wasn't sure why Koala would carry a brick around... or anyone, for that matter.

Amy looked round at her bag to make sure they were still there. Really, it was lucky Koala had woken her up as soon as she did. Amy knew a bit about Owen Veveris, some good, some bad. His habit of stealing things was most certainly on the bad spectrum. Thankfully, her bag was still propped up against the table leg, and Gone was still lying open on the table itself, slowly closing now that her head wasn't resting on it.

Amy took another sip of coffee, and was about to grab her stuff, when Koala asked her a question. Amy swivelled back round, slightly off balance, and twirled a strand of hair with her finger. She had to consider the question for a few seconds; her memory was pretty hazy at the moment. Lessee, I was talking on Facebook... then did I get sleep? Yes, I think... oh no, wait. Doctor Who and Stupernaural thing. Yeah.

"Er, I did actually get some sleep, yeah." Amy said with a rather sheepish grin. "For about an hour. From 6 til 7 in the morning. Destiny and Lilly decided to wake me up." Amy shrugged then. "No biggy; least I didn't do it two nights in a row. And least it wasn't a school night."

Taking yet another gulp of coffee, Amy went to pick up her bag and her book. It required a bit of shuffling around, as she was already holding her coffee and Koala's packet of tissues, but she managed. She walked back to Koala's table with her bag slung over her shoulder, the book and coffee cup in each hand, and the tissues balanced precariously on top of the coffee.

Amy tried to speak, but she wobbled briefly, and the packet flew off of the coffee cup onto the table, in front of Koala. Amy also managed to drop Gone, which fell to the floor, making an intriguing Kerfluffle sound.

"Aw, shit. Sorry 'bout the tissues." Amy said, bending down to pick up her book, whilst continuing to talk. "But do you mind if I sit here with you?" Amy poked her head back up, grinning rather stupidly. "You can wake me up if I fall asleep again."

[Aster]

Well, 1 hour of sleep isn't enough, especially for a high school senior. Koala couldn't help but wonder why Amy came to the mall in the first place. Wait, what? She's sitting here now? She didn't have any trouble with it, and she was willing to shake her awake of Amy nodded off.

"Sure, I'd be happy to oblige."


Koala wasn't sure whether Amy knew what 'obliged' meant, but she used the word anyway. It made her feel smart. As Amy sat down, Koala took out ear buds and pumped MIKA into her ears. Smiling at Amy, she began to eat her sushi.

[Ghost Of Ravenstar†]

((Gavin Hunter - Continued from It's Traditional To Nap In Gazebos))

It wasn't often that Gavin visited the Lone Pine Mall. The place didn't have much to offer him. It had no gun store, and the other shops didn't have anything he couldn't buy more cheaply off E-bay or some similar site. Really, the only reason he frequented the place at all was to visit one small restaurant that sold professionally cooked Indian food. The price was always high, but the food good enough that Gavin was happy enough to save up the allowance his parents gave him in order to enjoy the place on weekends.

Today's visit had gone much like any other at first. He'd gone in, had his meal, then gone out after giving a particularly generous tip to the good-looking waitress that had attended his table. Gavin always felt a pleasant air of superiority after dining at a high-quality restaurant, it felt so much purer then piling into the nearest takeaway like so many other teenagers.

Now he whistled softly under his breath as he slowly traced his way through the food court. It wasn't hard to negotiate the traffic; few people wanted to get in the way of a six foot two young man wearing an expensive leather trench coat. Gavin would've happily worn that trench coat everywhere, it added a great deal to his presence, not to mention his confidence. It also had plenty of pockets, and Gavin was of the firm belief that one could never have too many pockets.

Normally he wouldn't have stayed in the Mall after having his meal, but the good food had left him feeling unusually sanguine, so instead he lingered inside the food court. His eyes travelled lazily over the tables and chairs, barely registering the occupants. He was in fact thinking about how many spare magazines he had at home. Perhaps after his meal had gone down he should see about ordering some more .45 calibre ammunition.

Hey, stop thinking about your surrogate metal girlfriends for two nanoseconds and pay attention to the visual feeds!

Gavin's train of thought put on the air breaks. He shook himself free from his reflections and dutifully focused on his surroundings, his wanderings had brought him near the local Starbucks, and he suddenly realised that two of his classmates were sitting close by. His subconscious helpfully sifted through a few condemned memories and assigned names a few seconds later. It was Amy and Natalia, two girls that he knew little about besides the fact that one of them was nicknamed after an Australian marsupial.

Not exactly the best foundation to start a relationship, he thought while digesting that information.

It isn't as if you'll be doing anything else today but playing Dwarf Fortress and plinking old tin cans.

He sighed. It was true that this weekend hadn't been big on stimulating conversation. Taking a moment to adjust his jacket so that it hung a little more pleasingly on his shoulders, Gavin approached the two. He smiled as he walked up, wanting to defray a little of the intimidation factor that usually accompanied his size and bohemian dress sensibilities.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," he began pleasantly "but I noticed the two of you while I was wandering around the court and I wondered if you wouldn't mind a little extra company."

[Pippi]

Amy, book in hand, smiled at Koala when she stood up. She yawned, and stretched a little, before saying "Cool beans", and sat down on the bench opposite Koala. Amy placed her book in front of her, and the coffee cup just to the left, after taking another swig. It was nearly empty, to her annoyance. She still hadn't woken up properly, if at all. Amy sort of wanted another cup, but that required money and getting up and effort and bleh.

Amy noticed that Koala was eating her sushi, and was reminded of the fact that she still had her sandwich in her bag, which she'd also forgotten to dump on the ground. She did so, and took the sandwich out before taking a large bite. The flavours were, mostly, unidentifiable, although there were brief tastes of chicken or lettuce.

Amy looked up to say something to Koala, but the girl seemed to be absorbed in her music, so Amy let her be. She rested her elbow on the table, and her head in her hand, and re-opened the book. She made a slightly annoyed face as the character of Astrid was introduced. She was an okay character later on in the book, when Little Pete was introduced, but right now, Amy disliked her.

Amy managed to read the first page before the lines started blurring again. She tried blinking a few times to stop it, but there seemed to be a lull in the noise of the mall, and sure enough, Amy felt herself drifting off aga-

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything..."

The sound of the newcomer shook Amy out of her stupor. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and mentally chastising herself for almost falling asleep again, she looked up at the new guy. To most people, she supposed Gavin Hunter seemed like some sort of giant, but Amy knew quite a lot of tall people so that didn't really bother her. His speech and clothes, however, did slightly confuse Amy. Gavin sorta acted like he was a middle aged gentleman, rather than a high school student. Still, Amy guessed he was an okay guy, mostly.

"Yehsure, s'cool." Amy mumbled in response to Gavin's question. Wait. No. That was stupid on many levels. "Shaking her head, Amy finished off her coffee, and spoke again.

"Um. Sorry, uh, sure it's okay, I guess?" Amy looked over at the girl opposite. "It cool with you, Koala?"

[Aster]

She's the meanest hag that has ever been
Pulled out my insides with an old safety pin
I'm the sorest sight, now I feel like trash
Clothes are made rags and they don't even match

Humming the tune of Toy Boy to herself, she finished off her sushi and belched silently. Muttering "S'cuse me," to Amy, she pushed away her empty plate and used her chopsticks to play the tune of Toy Boy.

Da da daaa daaa daaaaada da da da da da, da da daa da da da daaa daa daa daa daa...

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but I noticed the two of you while I was wandering around the court and I wondered if you wouldn't mind a little extra company."

Koala barely registered what the British accent said, and was still absorbed in her chopstick ditty. Closing her eyes and muttering the lyrics to herself, she cruised along with the tune, not stopping until Amy said her name, causing her to stop at 'On a long lost day when you're gray and old'. Taking out one of her earbuds as We Are Golden came on. Apparently this guy wanted to sit here, and Koala was happy to oblige. She recognized the boy as Gavin Hunter, and he looked rather odd in a trench coat. Koala didn't recall ever meeting him, but she had heard his name and seen him in the hallways. Gavin did give off a posh and aristocratic air, and the British accent only added to that.

Lazily smiling, she responded with a "Sure, it's fine." and slipped the chopsticks into her pocket. She blushed as she realized that she was just drumming with chopsticks while he watched, and immediately concentrated on her music.

We are not what you think we are
We are goooolden, we are goooolden~!

[Ghost Of Ravenstar†]

With their permission granted, Gavin slid carefully down onto one of the chairs, making sure not to crease his trench coat on the hard metal. He sighed appreciatively as he settled into a position that took pressure off his full stomach. There was an audible clinking noise as his pockets bumped against the seat.

It wasn't often that he met his classmates outside of a school setting, so for a few moments he found that he nothing much to say. He grinned at Natalia as she blushed self-consciously, but in truth he didn't find anything odd about her game.

Seeing as Natalia was obviously engaged in her own thing, Gavin turned his gaze from her to Amy. Then he glanced over the table and noticed the book she had with her. The minimalistic cover art told him instantly what it was.

"Hey, is that the new series by Michael Grant?" he asked politely, pointing the book out.

"I've read up to Fear. It's one of the few teenage novel series that I'm actually interested in at the moment. What do you think of it so far?"

[Pippi]

Koala was indeed cool with Gavin sitting with them. The boy sat down, and Amy smiled lazily at him, before looking back down at her book. It had closed itself during the period of her almost falling asleep and Gavin arriving. Amy made a tutting noise, that came out louder than she intended, as she flicked through the book to find her page, managing several times to go far, far past it.

For a few moments, the table was silent aside from the soft ruffling of pages being turned, and Koala's chopstick-drumsticks, which had stopped after a while. Eventually, Amy found the page she'd been reading originally, and had just started reading again, when Gavin asked her whether it was the series he thought it was. Amy looked up from Gone, and nodded.

Gavin then mentioned that he'd also read the series, and a smile appeared on Amy's face. Gushing about a series was always more fun when it was directed at someone who understood, although Amy really wasn't in the mood for rambling at the moment. Amy was going to reply to Gavin, but she had a sudden need for something to eat. Holding up a finger to tell Gavin he needed to wait a second, Amy took a large bite from her sandwich, trying to eat it quickly so as to not hold Gavin up.

"Aaactually," Amy said, after swallowing her mouthful of sandwich. "I've read all of 'em too. I'm just reading Gone again because... I can, I guess?" Amy shrugged, and idly prodded her coffee cup so it fell over.

"But yeah, it's great. I guess I like it cause they're kids, so they're easier to relate to or something. I dunno. Sorry, brain's kinda bluh right now." Amy took another bite of sandwich before speaking again. "Who's your favourite character, by the way? I think mine's Edilio, I think. As of Gone, at least."

[Aster]

This music was good, and Koala was easily engrossed into the song. She had just began to hum Touches You when her battery died.

Shit.

When was the last time she had charged her iPod? About 3 days ago, and she hadn't used it up until now.

Ugh.

Sighing, she leaned back and listened to Gavin and Amy talk, waiting for the conversation to go to something else.

[Ghost Of Ravenstar†]

Gavin waited patiently while Amy finished the mouthful of her sandwich. He had begun to notice just how tired she seemed to be. So while Amy chewed, he appraised the situation. His best guess was that Amy had been up all night, and that Natalia had noticed her condition and stepped in to keep an eye on her. Something irked him about the whole thing, though. Seattle didn't exactly have serial killers lurking behind every third lamp-post, but Gavin would never dream of going out in public in such a state.

Still, it wasn't his place to judge such things. If the worst came to the absolute worst, he was well equipped to deal with any potential troublemakers that might and take advantage of Amy in her exhausted state. With all relevant data apparently gathered and correlated, Gavin returned his focus back to the real world just as Amy asked her question. He mulled her words over for a moment. It had been quite a while since he had read the series, catching the last book on release and finishing it in less than twenty-four hours.

"I'd have to say that I don't have a favourite character at this point in time," He began. "They change a lot over the course of the books; I even liked Caine more than Sam at one point. It depends on the situation, really."

Figures that you'd like the brooding dark character with nearly unlimited telekinetic powers and a pseudo god-complex. Project much?

Shut up.

Just as his subconscious finished needling him, Gavin noticed Natalia suddenly stop humming along to her music. The information didn't mean much to him until she leant back in the seat and seemed to pay more attention to the two of them. He momentarily broke eye contact with Amy and raised a finger as she had done earlier so that he could shoot a quick aside to Natalia.

"Your iPod run out of charge all of a sudden? I might be able to fix that for you."

[Pippi]

Amy nodded lazily as Gavin answered her question. She had to agree. Choosing a favourite character was always a hard choice, especially when there were a whole bunch of them to choose from. Edilio was generally a great character, but there were a lot of others. Caine and Sam were both powerful, complex characters, both with their positive and negative sides. That was good. Amy didn't want any Mary-Sues in her books. Everything changed over time, as well. On her first read through Amy had taken a huge dislike to Quinn, but after the next three or so reads, she began to definitely appreciate his character; hell, he was standing up a lot better than she would if she was in that sort of situation.

Amy's thoughts drifted to what that would be like; living in the world of Gone. In her case? Pretty shitty. No parents, and three younger siblings to look after, not to mention the constant fighting and growing lack of food. If she had a power it might be able to help, but it really depended on the power; something like Brianna or Taylor's, not that one girl who only turned invisible when she was really embarrassed. Even then, having to keep an eye on Destiny and Lilly every second of the day would probably literally drive her insane.

Amy decided to broadcast these thoughts to the table, but she noticed that Gavin was pausing, and telling Koala he might be able to fix her iPod. Amy was still tired, and she didn't know how long Gavin would take, so she stood up, taking a couple of steps to steady herself.

"Kaay, so, whilst you're doin' that, I'm going to get some more coffee. Watch my stuff for me, please?" With that, Amy made her way back over to the Starbucks, narrowly avoiding tripping over a table leg. She was still sleepy, but at least white lights weren't appearing every time she blinked. Another cup, and she would be right as rain. Or something to that effect.

Amy ordered the same as before, surprised that she was actually able to remember her order. When it was ready, she grabbed the cup, barely noticing the heat, and strolled back to the table, before crashing back down on her bench, taking a deep swig of coffee.

[Aster]

"Are you serious?" Koala asked, astonished that Gavin would know how to fix it. She had yet to know exactly how he was going to fix it, but Koala was fascinated anyway. "That's pretty cool, unless you are going to siphon some power off of yours. That would be unremarkable. No offense, but it really would. But if you, like, jail-broke it, it would be cool."

It really didn't cross her mind that Gavin could somehow royally screw this up and break her iPod, she was too in awe to notice it. It wasn't her habit to think about the cons of life, it would inevitably cause her to think about a lot of things. She absentmindedly muttered "M'kay" in response to Amy's request to watch her things while she hobbled over to Starbucks. Turning her attention to Gavin, she smiled and handed him her iPod.