Unwind with snacks and a movie?

[VEIL]

Maddy took a deep breath, walking across the hall to the room at the end of the hallway. She had another bowl of jalapeño poppers that she just made and a large thermos of her sweet tea in her hand, her bare feet stepping softly across the carpeted floor. After her first and very... eventful practice. Maddy found herself quite torn on the whole thing, cause she really liked both Jocelyn and Niki. Jocelyn was a lot of fun, and Maddy was constantly laughing around her and it was just plain out fun, but Niki was just, well cool. It was like meeting a kindred spirit when she first met her, and for whatever reason she just felt comfortable with her.

The whole blow-up at practice was really shocking, with Ian being as sweet as he was, the last thing she expected was for him to blow up like that. Maddy hadn't known what to say or think when it happened at all, since she didn't understand how Niki could not like Jocelyn, but the most she could think was to each their own. Still, she felt bad how everything went down and she wanted to at least check on Niki to make sure she was okay.

Maddy heard all the warnings about going to the corner room on the end of the hallway. Apparently Niki's roommate was really particular about neatness and visitors and few have even seen what the inside of that room. Still, she wanted to at least take a chance and try. Raising her fist, she knocked on the door softly. "Niki Cher? Yah dere? Ah made some jalapeño poppas' an' Ah am gonna a'watchin' dat movie Wanted in mah room. Wanna join meh?" Maddy called through the door, hoping it was Niki in there and not her roommate since she heard shuffling.

[Haven]

All told it was one sad evening for everybody's least favorite little lady. Cyclops had taken her aside right before Ember had been promoted to tell her that she would have to be moved out of the room she shared with her before the inspection on Thursday. It hadn't put a damper on her friend's glorious ceremony after the meal but it had left her feeling odd so she had kept to herself throughout most of the meal. The practice, which she had hoped would give her a chance to blow off some steam in a constructive way, had not been anything like what she was expecting and with everything on her mind from Rumble and Sabretooth to having to move and losing her friend to the X-Men she was in no mood to cooperate.

After Ian's blow out, which she didn't understand and was of half a mind to end it with him over, she just stood there in that stupid log circle for like ten minutes. She hadn't been yelling or busting knuckles on anyone's head or even balling her hands up in preparation for a throw down, she was just trying to come to some kind of middle ground. Too bad it all blew up in her face, she really hated Colossus right about then, him and his fluffy feel good ideas. There was nothing fluffy about Haven and as fate would have it she did not 'feel good' at all this night.

Fate was rarely her friend.

The time since practice consisted of returning to her room and sharing a bit with Aideen, though in truth she didn't spill too much since she knew her girl had a lot on her own mind, she listened more than spoke. When it came right down to it Niki had very few soft spots, her heart held one for Beast and one for Ian but there was no denying the one she had for Ember.. and after hearing her friend's concerns for her man Niki had encouraged her to follow through on her idea to go after him. There was hardly any talking the firebender out of it since her mind was all but made up anyway but it was Niki who pointed out that 'now that yer an X-Man you really could leave if ya want to. So... what're ya waitin for?'.

The moment the door shut behind her all Niki could do was feel that empty feeling inside. The same one she always felt when she had to move on or when life changed the rules on her. She'd been looking around the coziness of the room taking in all that it meant to have a friend as incredible as Aideen, and a place as wonderful as this school to live in. Colossus' words rang in her ears, and the thoughts she imagined of growing up with a family and a home where you didn't have to worry about being loved even if you weren't someone's real kid.. like Jocelyn had done right in this school.

Oh how she hated her ~ how she envied her.

The knock at the door snapping her from her trance of self pity and the voice out in the hall, unmistakably belonging to Maddy. What's she doin here? I woulda thought the whole team had me on their shit list.. a movie? She wasn't sure what she looked like or if she had been crying but her hands and face were moist and that wouldn't do to show anyone that kind of weakness. "Uh, I'm here .. hold on." She quickly went to the sink to splash some cold water on her face and take a look at herself. Uggh.. pitiful.. girl are you gettin fat? she thought and toweled off her face before heading to the door. "Hey," she opened it "I'm not sure what kind of company I'd be, you sure you want ME to join ya?"

[VEIL]

"O'course cher, Ah gotta thank yah fo' last night's dinner somehow," Maddy said with a wink and smiled. "Sides, Ah heard yar de girl Ah gotta talk t'if Ah wan' some insight on dat cute German blonde guy." She was joking, but she figured it might loosen things up a little bit. Niki's pretty white face was red and she couldn't tell if it was from crying or the ungodly heat that came from the room. It wasn't too bad for Maddy, since she was used to the moist heat of the Bayou, but she never thought that anyone liked it this hot on their own. "Mah, mah Cher, Ah like warmth as much as de next person, but you ain' jokin' around are yah?"

Smile on her face, she couldn't help but peek into the immaculately neat and cozy looking room. "Well mah roommate Donna, Ah dun got the slightest idea where she migh' be, but Ah had a cravin' fo' some mo' hushpuppies here since Jax ate all o'mine earlier. Bein' dat Ah know yar a fan a'spicy food, Ah thought yah migh' like t'join meh," Maddy said with a smile, holding up the large thermos and shaking it lightly. "Ah made some sweet tea too... C'mon Cher, yah look like yah could use some spicyness an' watchin' some good ol' violence an' senseless sex t'cheer yah up." She cocked her head to the side to indicate the direction of her room, her chin length hair falling across her face in the process.

"Or hey, we can jus' stick to wearin' pajamas, piggin' out, an' gossipin', whateva' yah want Cher. De point is yah look like yah can use a distraction. So let's go Cher." Maddy smiled at her encouraging and gently wiggled the bowl and the thermos as if to tempt her further. She knew what it looked like when someone needed to chill, and she figured Niki needed it now more than she'd probably admit.

[Haven]

"Yeah, well I wouldn't know the first thing about all that with the gossiping and the other stuff" she said swirling a finger around through the air in a sorta circular manner. "But I loved your jambalaya, so I could get down with some more of your spicy ass cooking girl." Niki tossed out a half smile.

It was the best she could do with all that was weighing her down, but it was sincere and lent a touch of human vulnerability to her for a split second. "It can get a little hot , yea, but I got my forcefield if it get's really sweaty." She didn't bother to mention that in the night it would come back on after she fell asleep anyway. It still took her concentrating on it for it to stay peeled off of her, and some days she'd even get a dull headache from all the concentrating. Such was the price to try and be normal.

Noticing Maddy looking into her soon to be ex-room she opened the door a little bit for her. She did it almost without thinking and almost with a touch of defiance to inspire the action. "What're ya lookin for?" Niki looked behind her in the room "All my skeletons are in there" her head nudged toward the closet "and I put all my voodoo dolls away."

She read the reactions to her little macabre jokes on Maddy's face as she stepped backward and held up her index finger. "Gimmie a second will ya? I'll blow out these candles and get my pillow." Moving with a purpose and yet with an easy flow to her steps she went around dousing the candles. Then with a practiced movement of her foot she pulled her own bed out from under Aideen's and bent down grabbing her pillow.

She didn't want to be without something to rest her head on and she was not going to feel comfortable without her own pillow. The idea of someone she didn't know using her pillow, even if Aideen said they could -not that she would- well that just wouldn't fly with Niki so she wasn't about to have Maddy speak for her room mate's pillow. Besides Niki's was broken in nice now and the new pillows felt a little stiff, at least they looked like they felt a little stiff because back then she couldn't turn off her forcefield at all, so she'd imagined they felt stiff... and scratchy. It would just be better to bring hers with her than deal with all the shit that could rise with Veil's room mate, so with a shove of her heel she pushed her bed back to it's storage place.

"Movie sound cool and all.. who's gonna be there?" She asked not wanting to think about Maddy in the middle of any conspiracies but knowing she might be in for some kind of rude awakening. She'd been betrayed by people she'd known in the past and the truth was that she didn't know or trust Maddy all that much but she just had to get out of that room and away from the thoughts clawing their way out of the insides of her head.

[VEIL]

"It jus't meh an' yah bebe," Maddy said with a wide grin as she walked with Niki back to her room. "Mah roommate Donna, she migh' drop by a lill' lata' but Ah think she said somethin' 'bout explorin' de place a bit. She's a kinda a character, but real sweet anyways." She grinned at Niki as she pushed open the door to her room, grimacing a bit at how messy it was compared to the catalog showroom clean that Niki's room was, well from what she saw of it. "Sorry 'bout de mess Cher, we're still unpackin' an' all," Maddy said sheepishly, tossing her crazy clothes to the floor so there was room for Niki to chill on her bed with her. Her laptop was open with it's 17 inch screen glaring with the opening menu to Wanted all ready.

"Help yahself, Ah'm jus' gonna get de lights so we can watch it like it's a movie," Maddy said going to turn off the lights before she plopped down on the bed next to her teammate. "Ah really love dis movie. Somethin' 'bout guns, an' though Ah ain' de biggest fan a'James McAvoy, he's certainly somethin' in dis movie. Mah favorite Ah gotta say is de Repairman. Yah'll see 'im lata, but Ah got a thing Ah think fo' blondes dat look good wit' a gun." She giggled and shuddered a little bit inwardly, recognizing her own signs of moving as far away from those dangerous looking guys with dark hair and wicked dark eyes. Been there, done that, and she was going to stay as far away as she could from the wickedly dangerous ones, the scars reminding her well of the consequences.

Maddy stared at the screen for a moment, watching the movie as she dipped a jalapeno popper into the 'melt the paint off walls' hot sauce that she made to go with them, staring intently at the screen. "Yah know, Ah can kinda get what Wesley was goin' through," she said reaching over to pour Niki and her some of the sweet tea in the plastic cups Donna said she could use. "One minute Ah'm livin' mah life day t'day, crazy house full a' mah brothers an' sisters an' de foster kids, an' next thing Ah know, Ah'm here an' nearly got turned int'an ice cube on mah first day." She looked up at Niki and smiled, handing her the drink. "Thanks fo' dat bai de way, Ah owe yah one."

[Haven]

"Naah, you don't owe me shit girl," she said dipping a popper into the sauce and trying it out. "Mmm, but you can tell me what's in this sauce cause it is niiice and hot." Niki was no stranger to spicy, hell hot sauce is how she lived off dumpster diving- half eaten and mostly rotten food is nasty unless you convince yourself that you killed the germs and the tastiest way to do that is with hot sauce. Not to mention her Latin heritage made her like genetically immune or something to spicy foodstuffs. "It's got this smokiness or somethin to it that would go great with my Bacalaitos. That's like a fried kinda snack too- like a little fish fritter, now that would be great with this sauce."

"You know, I don't cook too often. I used to and I loved it, I still do but, well.. you know why I cooked last night?" She took another hushpuppy and held it while she sipped her tea "Oh, that's good too.. hey thank you for this. I really don't know why I'm tellin you this, but maybe it's cause you seem like you're ok, like you could be a friend. I mean you said you were in the system right? Foster care?" She took another sip to wash down the first hushpuppy and dipped the one she held.

"I was too until I ran. I couldn't take another night of it, you ever get a home like that? I mean I had run and got caught a couple of times, got sent to lots of different homes and only one of em was ever any good and even that one turned bad after a while but whatever, I got smart quick and I learned. I was ready for it all too, and the last time I ran I never looked back. I learned you need to do for yourself, get for yourself.. you know, get what you needed to survive and money was the key. Not that that was easy to get, but you do what you gotta and when the money is scarce you do worse, and damn if this sauce wouldn'ta made life better back then." She popped the whole popper in her mouth and chewed, a smile coming to her face at the warmth and the flavor.

"Oh that guy?" she asked. Hearing the name 'Repairman' on the movie had drawn her attention back to the screen. "Hey, he sounds sorta like the GEICO lizard doesn't he?" Niki looked at Maddy with sightly shocked bewilderment playing behind her eyes. The kind of look few had ever seen from her since she never opened up to many. "He is cute, if you're into the blond thing.. which.. you did say you wanted to know about Jasper. So, what up wit dat chika? You got a thing for old wingless huh."

[VEIL]

Clicking her tongue ring against the back of her teeth, a small smirk came on Maddy's face, althouth it turned quickly into a softer smile. "Wingless huh? Ah jus' know him as Jasper, but dat works too. He caught mah eye somethin' fierce," She said grinning full out as her eyes left the movie to look at Niki. "He's all grumpy an' all dat but Ah seen him smile, an' wow it knocked meh back good. "Sides Ah always had a ting fo' fellas wit' eyes like dat." She was a major sucker for blue eyes, and he had these light ones with a dark blue ring around it that were just gorgeous.

"As interested as Ah am though, Ah don' think Ah'm his type," Maddy said looking back at the movie with a shrug. "His heart belong to someone else, dat friend a'yars Ah'm guessin'. A fella don' look at a girl de way he looked at her at dinna' unless he's head ova' heels fo' her." It was a little bit disheartening when she saw how his face lit up when that pretty fire girl was called on stage, but she could understand it. The girl was drop dead gorgeous, and she would think that it would be easy to fall for someone that pretty. "It's a'righ' dhough, Ah can't say Ah'm surprised eitha'. Yar friend is some kinda gorgeous, an' a hellova heartbreaka' if dinna's reactions said anythin'."

Maddy pushed the short blood red strands away from her face and sat back to watch the movie, feeling a bit disheartened again even if it wasn't realistic to feel that way about this situation. Jasper had been here much longer and had a sufficient amount of time to develop feelings for someone else, and she shouldn't at all be surprised that it happened to be feelings for one of the prettiest girls she personally had ever seen.

"Ah tink dat Wesley was an orphan too am Ah righ'? Cause his pop ran out on 'im. Damn he got de good life lata' on dhough. Well... sorta. Ah'd love t'go anywhere where de Repairman was," Maddy added with a giggle and sat back to watch the rest of the movie with Niki. She was glad that she asked her, and found that just as she thought, people needed to give her a chance before they came out with calling her a bitch and all that. Personally, Maddy was hoping for the start to a new friendship.