Adapting The Orchid Thief

[ThePureLight7†]

[Jesiree Merridew - Continued from F Is for Finance and Future]

Jesiree walked into the Student Center with what was left of her bag lunch in her hand and her backpack around her shoulder. She had been eating alone in the cafeteria for the first part of lunch and was frankly sick of it. She didn't know who exactly she expected to find eating out there, but it would probably be better than no one. She could handle being alone most of the time, but today was different. She figured it probably had something to do with the fact she was in a cafeteria. Cafeterias always felt empty to Jesiree. She imagined Hell was actually a cafeteria with infinite little rows of empty gray tables leading back towards a little lunch counter where Satan stood with a hairnet and a dirty ladle.

She looked around the student center and saw Claire sitting down talking to Gray. Claire was pretty cool. She was one of the few people in the school to whom Jesiree would actively speak. She never really spoke to Gray outside of the times he was hanging out with Claire, but he wasn't usually insufferable. He was usually injured, though. She hadn't tested it yet, but she was fairly certain you could get the kid to do anything for you if you threw "I bet you couldn't" in front of it.

"Yo, man, I bet you couldn't go rob that bank and give me all the money." "Psh, you're on!"

She chuckled a little. She figured those two were her best bet for an intelligent conversation. She walked over to where they were sitting and sat down. "Hey," she said, "What's up?" Her backpack slumped to the ground beside her.

[Pippi]

((Amy Bachelor, continued from Sleepwalker))

Sometimes, Amy just wanted to get away from the crowds and the noise of the school cafeteria, read a little, and be alone with her thoughts. Today was one of those days. The past two days she'd tried to eat in the cafeteria, and they had not been Amy's highlights of the week. Yesterday, she'd been nursing a small headache in the morning, which had steadily grown into a proper migraine once she'd stepped into the lunch hall. The day before, she hadn't found anywhere to sit except for next to a bunch of preppy girls. They'd ignored Amy, for the most part, but the constant stream of dull, repetitive speech that came from their mouths was enough to drive her insane.

In light of this, Amy had decided that avoiding the cafeteria for a while would be a good plan. So instead, she'd headed towards the student center. The room was normally fairly quiet, and especially so at lunch; people didn't often want to spend more time than deemed necessary in a study room.

Amy had been planning on eating a little, doing a little homework she'd neglected to finish, and read The Fault in Our Stars yet again. As she pushed through the doors of the student center, however, Amy noticed a small gathering of people around one of the benches; people she recognised, one more than the other two. Jesiree was kinda cool, seeing as they both had a fair amount of similar interests (although their tastes in shows and such diverged quite a bit). Gray was also a cool guy; he was the sort of person who'd break their arm in some stunt, and shrug it off like it was nothing. He had been at the centre of the food fight a few days ago, but Amy couldn't hold it against him. For one thing, she hadn't actually been in the cafeteria when it had happened. For another, it had, from what Amy had heard, been mostly aimed at Adonis fucking Alba, and that was most certainly a-okay in Amy's book.

Claire Monaghan, however, was someone Amy definitely knew well. She was basically Amy's best friend in Seattle, and they'd pretty much been that way since they'd first met. The two shared a ton of interests, and liked many of the same shows/films, although their opinions on characters definitely varied. A lot.

Any ideas of reading were now thrown out the window. Talking with friends would be a lot more interesting and fun.  Adjusting her bag on her shoulder, Amy made her way over to the group, quickly, but not running. Running was not a word in Amy's dictionary. Nor was jogging.

"Heeey, Claire!" Amy said, smiling and waving as she did so. "And Gray, and Jesiree!" Amy was almost tempted to give her friend a hug, but decided against it. It would be kinda awkward, seeing as she was currently sitting down. Instead, Amy simply asked the group at large; "So, how's it going? Whatcha all doing?"

[Deamon]

Claire had quickly sketched out her idea for the opening of the demo tape and was in the process of explaining it to Gray. All in all the idea sounded good and Gray did remember that part of Inglourious Basterds, so for once he knew exactly what Claire was referencing and it sounded much more interesting than their earlier ideas. Plus it seemed fun and Gray always preferred to have fun with his skating rather than being serious all the time. It was one of the reasons he always accepted a challenge to perform a stunt, that and he always wanted to know if he could actually do it.

"That's the best idea. Only thing we'd need to decide is the style of the text." He said when Claire asked what he thought. "As for the appropriate music I was thinking that we could do a section after the intro in slow-mo using Clubbed to Death and then cut into a song by Rise Against."

As Gray thought of anything else he could add to the ideas that he and Claire had already given, someone sat down and greeted them. Gray recognised Jesiree Merridew, not that he talked to her much but it wasn't like he'd never spoken to her before. She hadn't seemed as bad as some people made her out to be but Gray did try to avoid judging people based off what others said. It was one of the reasons he knew some of the people he did. He didn't care what others thought about him or what they thought about his friends. It had worked well for him so far in life.

"Not much." He said in reply to her question. "Just planning a video." Gray wasn't sure exactly how much he wanted to say about the demo tape because he didn't want to make too big a deal out of it. When he thought about it his skateboarding probably seemed like a big deal because he constantly walked around with his board, but that was more because he didn't want to leave it in one of the lockers, it both cost a lot and meant too much to him. Plus it was his transport home as well so he needed it for that as well.

He was again taken out of his thoughts when he heard someone else greet Claire, looking over he saw Amy Bachelor waving in their direction. She then greeted him and Jesiree, Gray knew Amy through Claire since the two were good friends and Gray was friends with Claire. So in a roundabout way he had talked to Amy before but like most times Claire was always present. It was funny in a way.

"Going pretty good." Gray said as he raised a hand in greeting. "We were just pitching ideas for a video." Again Gray didn't say too much, he didn't want to end up boring people with talk about his skateboarding plus he always felt weird when he talked about himself too much. He had a reputation as a guy who would attempt any stunt and he would because he had fun doing it, but everyone seemed to forget that he was actually a competent skateboarder and routinely entered competitions. He'd never really thought much about how he felt about that but the truth was he didn't really mind either way. His friends were aware that he competed...at least he hoped they were and at the end of the day his reputation didn't matter much outside of Aurora anyway. So he didn't have any reason to mind.

"How're you two?" He thought he might as well make polite conversation.

[Laurels]

Gray seemed pretty cool about her ideas for the opening, although he seemed to have questions and ideas about the text and music.

"Yeah, those are things we can experiment with when we get to the actual editing process. For font, we are probably going to want a color that isn't apparent in the shot, probably with a black border. Music will definitely be something we play around with."

Claire then heard someone calling out and saw Jesiree Merridew. Jesiree had very similar interests to Claire, being a vocal geek on the internet. As Claire greeted Jesiree, Amy Bachelor also approached the group. Claire was happy to see her. Amy was a friend Claire made when Amy moved to Seattle. Amy was a really cool girl with very fun interests. They could disagree, but Amy was someone Claire could enjoy getting into discussions over.

"Hey Amy. I'm just helping Gray plan a demo tape he can send to sponsors. It's still rough, but I plan on really creating something awesome after filming tons of footage."

"So, what brings you guys to the student center?"

[ThePureLight7†]

Gray was the first to respond to Jesiree, followed by Claire. "Not much," the former said, "Just planning a video." Jesiree remarked inwardly about the amount of vivid detail that constantly peppered his speech. The sheer specificity of his explanation of context was mind-blowing. The Word of Gray rivaled the Word of God in power and depth, and Jesiree could almost feel her own brain falling to pieces as she tried to arrange the various intricacies of his response in a way that made sense to mere mortals like her.

Planning a video... she marveled, I understand entirely. She quietly let loose an exasperated sigh.

She was about to ask more about the video because she was genuinely interested - Claire's shit was usually pretty airtight - when she heard a familiar voice. "Heeey, Claire!" the voice of Amy Bachelor called out. Jesiree turned around to see Amy excitedly approach with her typical speed-walk. Amy was that one hot girl who decided to hang out with the outcast ensemble. She was the kind of girl who spent every weekend cosplaying as Katniss Granger from the BBC hit Doctor Sherlock. She had a smile that said "I am blissfully unaware that some nerd on /co/ is jerking off to a picture he took of me at some convention!" All in all, she was a pretty okay chick. Her usual brand of sunshine was rather helpful on particularly gloomy days. She cheerfully inquired, "So, how's it going? Whatcha all doing?"

"Hey Amy," Claire said, "I'm just helping Gray plan a demo tape he can send to sponsors. It's still rough, but I plan on really creating something awesome after filming tons of footage." Jesiree perked up a little at the mention of what Gray's pseudo-secret project was, but said nothing. Claire directed her next question towards the two newest members of their group, "So, what brings you guys to the student center?"

"Nothing really," Jesiree said, pulling an apple from her backpack and taking a bite, "It's just that when the cafeteria food becomes sentient and tries to overthrow its human creators, I want to be as far from it as possible."

[Pippi]

((Aaah, sorry for lateness. I blame a sudden influx of schoolwork))

Amy listened to the trio talk about what was going on, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet, unaware that she was actually doing so. She was just in a really good mood, for some reason. There was no particular rhyme or reason, but really, the days when you just felt happy were the best, weren't they?

Gray and Claire were apparently planning a video together, which didn't exactly surprise Amy. Claire was always running around making videos about whatever caught her interest. Amy could definitely see the appeal, but for several reasons, she'd never been able to actually make any videos at all. She couldn't hold a camera straight or anything, or stop it from focusing just off of what she intended it to. And when it came down to actually being filmed, that was a no-go too. Amy hated being filmed even more than she hated having her photo taken without warning. It was a little odd, seeing as she enjoyed photography so much, but that was just how things worked, she guessed. Claire on the other hand seemed to have been born with a camera in her hand. Apparently the video she and Gray were planning now was a demo tape of some sort. Amy knew that Gray did a lot of skateboarding and stuff, so she guessed it would have something to do with that.

Jesiree, on the other hand, was in a fairly similar situation to Amy; she just wanted to go somewhere that wasn't the cafeteria. Amy definitely couldn't blame her. She was honestly fine with the food there most of the time, but when it was bad, it was really bad. Amy laughed a little at Jesiree's remark about the food.

"God, don't you just hate it when that happens?" Amy responded to Jesiree. "But yeah, I'm good! I just came here to get a little peace and quiet, and avoid all of the yelling people. I kinda planned to do some reading, but then I saw you guys, and I'd much rather talk to you than do that, so here we are!"

"So, what's that video going to be all about, then? I'm guessing skateboarding or something?" Amy asked both Gray and Claire. Amy wasn't a huge fan of skateboarding, but maybe Claire could spice it up a little by making Gray get chased by a car or something.

[Monad†]

((Megan "Meg" Gassert - Start))

Meg liked to take her sweet time with lunch. That glorious hour that hung between Physics and Contemporary American Lit was prime time for rest, meditation, incessant chattering and sating her appetite. Most days, she was content to sit amongst her friends with a salad, orange juice and some variety of Hostess snack. She was on a diet, after all - a word that, to her, denoted the general space between "eat healthy" and "don't eat garbage." She ate very little at school on most days, and instead poured the whole of her attention on gossip and other pressing social matters.

This day was not like most days. This day she was cutting herself one of her craving breaks with a slice of pizza, the usual snack and a can of Coke. A little fearful of being "caught" by her friends - but mostly, very fearful of being teased by her enemies - she retreated from the lunch room in double-time. Her plan on such craving days was often to hide away at some corner of campus, maybe outside somewhere nice, and generally avoid being noticed. Of course this went entirely against the grain of her being as a vibrant chatterbox, so she wasn't very good at staying unseen. Especially when she happened upon one of those friends she was originally setting out to avoid.

As Meg passed by the door to the Student Center, Amy Bachelor drew her attention with an emphatic greeting. Not to her, of course, but to someone she knew. "Heeey, Claire!" Meg told herself she had no particular opinion on Amy Bachelor, that their interests did not overlap and that she was really just Claire's friend. However, the truth was that she and the Brit had plenty of things in common, Meg just...didn't want to try. She couldn't really figure out why, or maybe she just wouldn't try there, either. Regardless, at hearing Amy hailing her good friend Claire, Meg was halted in her tracks and pulling the awkward shuffling half-step of indecision. Go in and say hi to Claire, stay out and find another place to eat? Maybe she could oh my goodness hold the fuck up that's Gray Emerson isn't it. Her shuffling stopped, and instead she pulled a subtle(or, at least, subtle by her standard) approach to the Student Center's arched doorway, lingering outside. It was hardly inconspicuous to those inside, what with her thick arm hanging slightly in the frame of the door while she fumbled to set her soda down and withdraw her phone.

Meg was well aware that she entertained herself with silly things. She was also aware that nothing was worth doing unless it was undertaken seriously. Therefore, Meg was always one hundred percent serious about very silly things. One such thing was the "Gray matter" - a pun she literally just concocted at that very moment and couldn't wait to use sometime. It would not be now, but sometime. The Gray matter was exactly what it sounded like; "What's the deal with Gray?" Her thumb emphatically clicked key after key on her woefully outdated flip phone.

A few moments later, Claire's phone would register a text.

"oooo cloudy w a chance of Gray EMERSON >:7"

Of course it was stupid, but it wasn't the first time she had suggested something between her and the skater boy. There wasn't anything there to make fun of, but that was what was fun about making fun. Sometimes you just have to make it out of nothing, and hope you don't annoy anybody.

[Deamon]

Jesiree didn't appear to be doing anything if what she said was anything to go by. That and she had said "nothing", which was a good indicator of when someone wasn't doing anything. Like most other people who went to the Student Center for lunch it was because she didn't want to be in the canteen and that was understandable. Although Gray was sure that she had different reasons to his because last time he checked he was the only person that had started a food fight recently. Then again not many people had. Amy had the same reason as Jesiree and played along with the joke about the cafeteria food becoming sentient. Considering what it looked like some days Gray could see where the joke came from, although it did end up looking like something from a different planet fairly often.

Amy then asked what the video was going to be about. She had guessed skateboarding and Gray assumed it was because he was involved with it, it was a fair guess if he was honest since most of the things he did involve a sport with a board. This time Gray decided to explain what the video was going to be about.

"Yeah a demo tape is basically a promo for the skater." Gray rubbed the back of his neck before continuing. "Basically it shows the skater at their best and pulling off good tricks. The idea being you send it to sponsors and they then sponsor you. So every skater wants a good demo tape." It was a definition of a demo tape, although Gray left out the part about a lot of skaters who wanted to turn pro only sending out demo tapes, they always seemed to forget that sponsors won't want to sponsor someone who isn't competing in competitions.

Gray adjusted his beanie when he finished speaking and took a bite out of his sausage roll. It was slightly warm but he'd left it too long. He'd gotten distracted with the talk about a demo tape. It didn't really matter though, food was still food and the small cafe he bought the sausage rolls did the best ones in Seattle...at least in his opinion. Plus it still tasted good so he had no reason to complain.

[Laurels]

Ah, good to know my friends and I think on the same wavelength. Stay the fuck away from the cafeteria and the food served there. Smart folks we are.

Amy asked about the demo tape, which prompted Gray to explain the details to her.

"Yeah," Claire began, "we've been discussing ways to show off Gray's skateboarding skills. I even drew some storyboards for the opening shot."

Claire showed the notebook to Amy and Jesiree.

"As you can see," she continued, "my auteur style can still be present while Gray grinds and shreds his way to the X Games."

Just then, Claire felt a buzz in her jacket pocket.

"Oh, 'scuse me."

She set the notebook down and pulled her cell phone out. "One New Message". Claire flipped open the phone and read the message.

Meg Gassert: oooo cloudy w a chance of Gray EMERSON >:7

"What the fuck?" muttered Claire.

She looked up and scanned around the Student Center. Meg had to be near by. That girl was always fond of messing around with Claire. Then again, their similarities are why they gravitated towards each other in elementary school. Of course she would send idiotic texts like this.

"Hey Meg!" Claire shouted. "Get your ass out here! I got your text, and I ain't texting you back."

Claire turned back to the three around her.

"Sorry guys, Meg clearly wants to be a wiseass. Still, let's be polite and welcome her into our rogues gallery."    

[ThePureLight7†]

Jesiree could sense what was about to happen. She could hear the ground rumbling under Amy's feet as they shuffled and feel the rush of the wind pick up as Amy opened her mouth and let out a single breath. She braced for impact - Amy Bachelor was about to speak. "God, don't you just hate it when that happens? But yeah, I'm good! I just came here to get a little peace and quiet, and avoid all of the yelling people. I kinda planned to do some reading, but then I saw you guys, and I'd much rather talk to you than do that, so here we are! So, what's that video going to be all about, then? I'm guessing skateboarding or something?"

Holy shit, Jesiree almost cringed, It's like she can speak for-fucking-ever. She was used to it by this point. She could handle it. If it were anyone else, it would've probably been annoying, but Amy could pull it off and just make it seem almost normal. It was just part of what made Amy... Amy. Sometimes Jesiree thought she let Amy get away with shit because just she's hot. She wasn't a lesbian. Or bi. Or at least she was fairly confident that she wasn't. What's the psychology behind that? she wondered, Do straight people let hot people of the same gender get away with stuff because they're hot? Just from personal experience, I can tell that they let hot people of the opposite gender get away with more. I should look that up.

Gray was saying something when Jesiree snapped out of her mental tangent. "So every skater wants a good demo tape."

Claire added to what Gray was saying. "Yeah," she began, "we've been discussing ways to show off Gray's skateboarding skills. I even drew some storyboards for the opening shot. As you can see, my auteur style can still be present while Gray grinds and shreds his way to the X Games." She showed off some of her sketches and then excused herself to answer her phone. Jesiree liked what she saw so far. She was actually kind of excited to see the final product, even though all she knew about skateboarding came from the Tony Hawk games.

Suddenly, she heard Claire mumbling something. She looked up, and Claire was already looking around the student center. Jesiree looked aroun with her, wondering what she was looking for. Claire called out for someone - Meg Gassert. Oh, the jolly green giant's gonna be joining us, she thought, Fun times. That was the first thing you noticed about Meg Gasbag - she was huge, in pretty much every sense of the word. Tall, big-boned (fat), big personality. If there was one word to describe her, it'd be "huge." Jesiree felt she wasn't much one to talk about weight, though. She had been packing on a lot of pounds lately herself. She actually checked her weight that morning and had already gained ten or so since the last time she checked - she was 162 now. At this rate, she figured if it weren't for her picking up her running more, she'd hit 200 lbs by the end of the year. Still, Meg was overweight right now, and if Jesiree wanted to be a hypocrite in her own head, who could stop her?

[Pippi]

Amy listened to Grey speak, whilst at the same time getting a bottle of water from her bag. Basically, Grey was trying to get money or whatever through his skateboarding, by showing off just how good at it he was. All things considered, it seemed like a pretty cool way of earning money or whatever it was Grey would get from these sponsors; doing something you loved, and all. If only people would pay her for sitting around and watching TV. That would be cool. But alas, for whatever reason, that wasn't considered a proper job or some bullshit. Honestly.

Amy smiled at her own thoughts as she took a sip of water. She'd had a couple of jobs in the past, but those had all been set up by her dad with friends of his for a couple of weeks, or as a summer job during the holidays. It was the actually going out to get a job thing that was the problem, and unlike Grey, she didn't have a hobby that she could also use as a way of getting money. Then again, she had no real idea of how good Grey was. She guessed he had to be pretty good, though, or else there wouldn't be much point in trying to put a video of how good he was together.

Claire brought her notebook up to show Amy and Jesiree, the pages filled with the apparent opening scenes of Grey's demo tape, before excusing herself to check her phone. They were not the greatest drawings in the world, but they were enough for Amy to get a sense of what Claire and Grey had planned for his tape. Again, Amy knew very little about skating and what the average demo tape looked like, but she thought it would be interesting to see the final product no matter what.

As Amy was looking over Claire's sketches, Claire suddenly shouted out to "Meg", who had apparently sent the text. Amy guessed that the Meg was Meg Gassert, and, unintentionally, a small frown appeared on Amy's face, disappearing almost as soon as it appeared. Meg was a person with a lot of very similar interests to Amy, but for whatever reason, the two had just never seemed to get along in the same way as Amy did with Claire. It was just one of those weird things in life, Amy guessed. If Meg was around here, though, then this would be a good chance to talk to her some more.

"Yeah, Meg, come on out and join us! Wherever you are!" Amy raised her voice to get Meg's attention, although not quite shouting like Claire had done. This little meeting was turning into quite a crowd all of a sudden.

[Monad†]

After sending her text, Meg clung to her conspicuous place just out of the door-frame; yet, when Claire called her out, it still caught her by surprise. She didn't expect to be drawn into the situation just like that but, in retrospect, it wasn't like she was fixing to just slip away and enjoy her lunch, either. Her curiosity wouldn't allow that. With a wide grin, Meg peered around the corner and saw both Jesiree and Amy looking her way.

Alright, this is fine, she thought with the mildest resignation. It would have been nice to simply tease Claire and be on her way, or possibly to have lunch with Claire alone, but Meg had time to be social. She slipped around the corner and into the student center, head and shoulders bobbing as if she were sneaking over to the group. She didn't know everyone present terribly well - not beyond names and faces, rough social characteristics that she never questioned or investigated herself - but that wouldn't matter as long as she kept up that veneer of the trickster. Besides, she was pretty sure that anyone who was Claire's friend was probably alright, even if Meg wouldn't take the initiative to open up to them.

"Hi guys," she said with a rasping mock-whisper, while gesturing a vague wave with her plate of pizza. She continued her play-whispering, "What are we all up to? Studying, huh...?" Of course she was joking. From where she had stood by the door, she had gathered that Claire was working with Gray on some kind of skating...thing. A video or something, for sponsorships? Meg had always thought sponsorships were for the likes of big name skaters(not that Meg knew of any big names except Tony Hawk), the guys who made a living out of it.

[Deamon]

Claire knew what the X-Games were. Gray hadn't been expecting that, sure some people knew but the vast majority didn't seem to have any idea of what the X-Games actually where. Then again she may have just heard the name somewhere, since Claire did watch a lot of different things so it didn't seem that far-fetched. She was busy explaining how the video was going to look to the others so Gray used the opportunity to eat some more of his sausage roll. He wanted to finish it while it was warm at least, after swallowing he took a long drink from his Pepsi. In the meantime Claire had stopped explaining the ideas she had for the demo tape to look at her phone; when she looked up from it she shouted for Meg to come out of wherever she was hiding. Amy also called out to Meg so Gray could assume she knew her as well. Gray didn't know who meant exactly but he got his answer when Megan Gassert stepped out from behind the door frame at the entrance to the Student Center.

Gray didn't like to judge people just by their appearance but he had to admit Meg was big in a couple of ways. One was her height, which looked to be around 6 foot if Gray had to guess. The other thing was her weight. Meg looked to be on the heavier side of the scale. Gray hated the fact that his first impression of someone was their weight but since he knew nothing else about Meg he could only go by physical appearance. It didn't help that she had a plate of pizza in her hand though. Judging by the way she was walking over though her personality matched her size; Meg was pretending to creep over to them like a burglar would in an old cartoon. Then once she had reached them she spoke in a mock whisper. Gray had to admit it was sort of funny the way she kept the whole act up and was committed to it.

"Not up too much really." Gray said "Just talking about my demo tape." He took a quick drink from his Pepsi. "Claire said she'd help make it as well. So it'll be awesome."

Gray finished off his sausage roll and crumpled the paper into a ball before throwing it at a bin.

"Food fight." He muttered as the ball flew through the air before hitting the inside edge of the bin and dropping down into the bag. It annoyed him that the even though the food fight had happened a little while ago it was still bugging him. Not so much the food fight when he thought about it, but what happened later when he was serving his punishment. He pushed the thoughts from his head though, since he was with others. It wasn't social.

[Laurels]

Claire watched as Meg appeared from behind an archway and made her way over to the group. Claire smiled as her friend joined the group. Meg was a bit kooky, but Claire was always happy to have her old friend around. At least Amy was pretty receptive to the addition of Meg to their small group. Jesiree and Gray didn't seem to have much to say about Meg at least.

Meg asked what they were doing, to which Gray explained the demo tape to her.

"Yeah, just a fun project I'm gonna help Gray with," Claire added. "It's still a bit raw, but I think we've got some good ideas, and plenty to work with."

"But other than that, I'm trying to plan out a new screenplay. I haven't started, but I'm getting some ideas down."

"But what's up with you?"

Yes, Meg, tell me why I got a text from you that includes a poor pop culture reference and implications of anything between me and Gray. That should be fascinating to hear.

Claire made space on the bench and patted it.

"Come join us. Drink the kool-aid."

[ThePureLight7†]

Jesiree turned back to her food and sat calmly as the others looked around for Meg. Once it seemed like they found her, she turned to look with them. Meg walked around the corner and made her way towards them hunched over like she was the White Spy and the rest of the gang was the Black Spy, ready to launch some convoluted plot to hit her over the head with a frying pan. The scene would end with Meg looking towards the camera with a single sunny side up egg dripping down her forehead. Then the egg would explode. "Hi guys," Meg said with a mock-whisper that was entirely unnecessary, "What are we all up to? Studying, huh...?"

Gray and Claire took turns explaining the demo tape to Meg. It was the third time Jesiree had heard the exact same description of the project, so she just kind of tuned it out. Claire mentioned that she was working on a screenplay. Jesiree started to ask her about that, but Claire had already changed the topic to what was going on in the life of Meg Gassert, and unless Meg was actually planning on building a rocket and going to the fucking moon to fight space-Hitler, she figured that this was not going to be half as interesting a topic as Claire's movie.

How much longer is lunch? She wanted this day to end as soon as possible so that she could go home and see if she could torrent the entirety of Veronica Mars. Then again, that was her view towards most days. She looked up to Amy and said, "Hey, Amy, do you know how long it is until lunch is over?"