Shelvington Academy (Slice of Life RP): NEW DAY

[gotMLK7]

Jackie sighed as she tried to contain her own temper. She didn't feel like having an argument with this Yo guy so early in the morning. She got a little red in the face over Karen's comment, though, and she lightened up a tad after being complimented. "Uh...thanks, I guess...Ya seem pretty cool yerself..." She went back to sorting through her flip-phone.

When the headmistress mentioned that classes would be announced via social media and phones, she froze and stared at her crappy phone. The thing barely got texts, let alone had social media. "U-Uh...right. Got'cha..." She closed the phone and pocketed it. "Dammit, got up this early and for just this..."

As Simon approached the group, Jackie couldn't help but giggle a little. "S'up, Bike-Shorts, welcome to the party," she said to him. "Well, party in the sense of standin' around like a bunch of sign posts, but y'know, same thing."

[Calvinball]

Shirley looked a little dodgy at some of Jackie's comments and "harrumphed" a bit when Yo called her "Ms. Detective," but otherwise remained calm and neutral, electing not to say much. At Cloverfield's remark about how information would be disseminated at Shelvington, she quickly pulled out a new smartphone before pocketing it again. Much as she hated to admit it, her parents had been right that even a disciple of the nineteenth century bound Sherlock Holmes could use a dash of modern technology like a smartphone.

(Theory that mother can predict the future would appear to be holding water thus far...) Shirley thought idly to herself. By that point Yo had approached and was greeting the others, and Jackie had actually laughed a bit, her coarse exterior seemingly revealing a sense of fun beneath all that prickliness.

So long as the new student's attention was on the group, Shirley decided that now was as good a time as any to introduce herself; she stood and walked up to the bike-shorted young man and waved, holding her bubble pipe at the ready in a pose somehow reminiscent of some visualizations of the original Great Detective.

"Hello!" she said. "As Mycroft and Jackie here have implied, and as you've most likely assumed, we're a few of your fellow students at Shelvington. My name is Shirley Homes, descended from the late, great Sherlock Holmes himself!" She seemed to have that line memorized, if her greetings thus far were any indication. "And what might your name be, tardy bicycle enthusiast?" she asked, the gleam in her eye seeming to have returned from earlier.

[Ami]

"I'm not a student." Ami sluggishly side-eyed Shirley, a small grin. "I'm Mycroft because I control everything and am better than Sherlock, just without the drive to actually work as hard." Ami had hoped the girl had gotten the reference a bit better, but it entertained her to break the news in this way. "I'm the headmistress, welcome to Shelvington, biker-shorts." A brief pause.

"Biker shorts are cool. Mostly because Persona is cool."

[lazyplague]

On the bench, Yo remained just sort of in a huddle sitting form. He tried to tune everything and everyone out, and it's for the most part working, but he needed to calm down. He took deep breaths, and his back visibly moved as he did so. He grips his hair tightly, pulling on it. It's a distraction, sure. Not them, not the others. Yo breathed slower, trying to gradually get into a rhythm. He closed his eyes, envisioned something... He chose a piece of toast. Toast was nice.

He tried to envision the scent, smelled... toasty? He didn't know how to describe other than it smelled like toast. But that was fine, he knew what toast smelled like. Then he pulled a hand away from his head, and rubbed his fingers together. He tried to replace that feeling with the feeling of toast, which was coarse. Next, was the taste and texture. Toast was crispy, if you added butter, butter-y, and the feeling of his teeth cutting through it was that it was crunchy. Better. This wasn't so bad.

He finished it, the sound of the toast being crunched was obviously... Crunch.

And he opened his eyes. As he had calmed down, he has subconsciously come out of his hunch, and his grip on his hair had laxed. He took a few more deep breaths- His counselors at Anger Management had taught him this quick way to distract himself. He was glad he had it but... He was already making a show of his irritation. The frustration he felt when trying to keep himself calm didn't help him either.

He just leaned back on the bench, and sighed.

Maybe it'll get better.

[Ami]

Ami notices this, and suppresses her want to dance. Yo didn't cope well the last time he was here, but now he was finding ways to cool down. In these situations, other students tend to zero in on what frustrates you the most and pokes at it as hard as they can. It looks like Ami moving the conversation away from Yo and his temper helped things a little. Good on you, kid., she thought to herself.

[Calvinball]

Shirley turned a little sheepish upon hearing Cloverfield's clarification of her status at the school. With a look that was not blanched, but perhaps more simply embarrassed, she said "Right, that was bad on me. I was well aware that you are the headmistress, it was merely the imprecision of my wording that suggested that I didn't know -- well, imprecision and inefficiency of language are unacceptable in this line of work anyway, aren't they? It really is bad on me. I suppose Great-great-great-great Grandfather Holmes would be upset," she said, blowing on the bubble pipe in what might've been a brooding fashion.

"The Mycroft metaphor merely surprised me since I wouldn't have expected any headmistress to so readily associate herself with such apathy," Shirley said curtly, continuing to explain herself. "But I suppose while Baynes was just as good as Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft was indeed better," Shirley admitted, a curious look coming over her face. "Which is fitting, yes. The confession of apathy seemed odd, that's all."

Out of the corner of her eye (she was staring right at him), Shirley couldn't help but notice (she could, but didn't bother) Yo going through an entire process. It wasn't hard to tell that it was anger management related. Remembering their earlier interaction, though, Shirley concluded that it'd be best not to mention it and looked away and simply puffed on the bubble pipe again. For a moment it clogged, and after that moment had passed a sudden spurt of bubble solution burst from the pipe, causing Shirley to cough and splutter a little.

Shirley frowned and checked to make sure she hadn't gotten wet, and she hadn't. So there was a little lost dignity, but nothing more than that.

[Gombarry]

As Simon approached the group, Jackie couldn't help but giggle a little. "S'up, Bike-Shorts, welcome to the party," she said to him. "Well, party in the sense of standin' around like a bunch of sign posts, but y'know, same thing."

Simon smiled at the nickname, It was something he could get used to at least if she was going to call him that.

"Thanks, Shorty." Simon said with a smile. "Although we're pretty far from a bunch a sign posts to everyone elses perspective."

The girl in tweed started to speak up, but not before she put in some bubble pipe in her mouth. She's really dedicated to this cosplay.

"Hello!" she said. "As Mycroft and Jackie here have implied, and as you've most likely assumed, we're a few of your fellow students at Shelvington. My name is Shirley Homes, descended from the late, great Sherlock Holmes himself!" She seemed to have that line memorized, if her greetings thus far were any indication. "And what might your name be, tardy bicycle enthusiast?" she asked, the gleam in her eye seeming to have returned from earlier.

Really dedicated.

It was an odd way of introduction, but cute. It would probably be best to just play along.

"The name's Simon." trying to be gentle with his tone. It just seemed the proper way to handle things. "And I'm hardly tardy, I arrive precisely when I mean to. I could've taken the shortcut and have gotten here a good half an hour before any of you on your cars or planes or whatever you use."

For some reason, the air was feeling tense at this point, Which seemed to be emanating from the slightly-pissed teacher. Simon never liked these kinds of enviroments. So he decided to break the tension

"Speaking of traveling, I know some great places for food and drink. If any of you guys want to hang out after school with me I'd be more than glad to show you."

Simon had his phone at the ready, just in case he needed to dial numbers quick.

[gotMLK7]

Shorty.

Jackie jolted forward and punched Simon in the stomach.

"CALL ME THAT AGAIN AND I'LL FEED YA YER OWN EFFIN' PANTS, ASSHAT!"

She was not happy with the nickname Simon chose for her.

[lazyplague]

Maybe this would upset me more if I wasn't thinking about toast. Either way, now I have ammo for if that situation ever arises again. I can be extremely petty, but she's hypocritical. That's nice. Yo thought to himself. Relaxing.

[Fantasyhunt]

"CALL ME THAT AGAIN AND I'LL FEED YA YER OWN EFFIN' PANTS, ASSHAT!"

"GAH!" Karen quiet literally jumped back at the sudden, flaming comment Jackie had spat out. The landing was no more graceful, as Karen barely landed on her heels and fell to the ground.

Thud!

Against her will to look strong, Karen let out a pain-filled whimper, her back screaming in pain to her mind. "Maybe you should be wearing the Edward Elric cosplay rather than me, Miss Jackie," she commented while she pushed herself into a sitting position with her elbows. "That or you could dress as Allen Walker... Either would do."

Oh no... NO! I made unnecessary anime references! And what if no one gets them! Karen gulped.

[Calvinball]

Shirley reacted faster than even she suspected, rushing toward Simon and Jackie and simultaneously pulling them apart and standing between them before either got any ideas about hitting each other (if anyone would do anything like that, though, it would probably be Jackie; Simon was a little busy being in pain from the blow). A small voice in the back of her head seemed to say "Fencing lessons in youth finally paid off." (She had once tried fencing, in order to emulate Sherlock Holmes, but it just wasn't really her style and she quit eventually).

"WHOA," Shirley said, still surprised by the turn of events and by her own reaction. "I'm sure we can settle this all peacefully, right? Simon, are you alright? Do we need to get anyone to help?" While Shirley felt tempted to tell off Jackie, making sure Simon wasn't too badly hurt was probably the top priority. Nonetheless, Shirley made sure to keep Jackie visible in the corner of her eye. As she spoke to Simon, Shirley tensed up a little, ready to defend herself physically if it came to that. It was apparent to Shirley that Jackie was more sensitive than she'd thought about certain things about herself (her height in particular, it would seem), as well as more physically violent then she thought. Still, she had no desire for an enemy. Could the situation be defused?

Shirley struggled with what the words should be for a moment, and then tried "I'm sure we can all promise that no one will call you 'Shorty' again," Shirley said while making gestures of offering to help Simon stand up. "Though I don't know what you hoped to accomplish by punching someone in front of Mycroft." She returned the majority of her attention to Simon, waiting to see if he needed any further assistance. If the blow was worse than she thought, she could call for an emergency medical crew, though Shirley hoped that would be unnecessary

[Gombarry]

Well this was unexpected.

That was the last thought to go through Simon's head before taking a blow to the gut. The blow was enough to make him keel over on to the floor. Now with the feeling of the cool pavement against Simon's face, he began counting his breath.

"1.... breath.... 2.... breath.... 3.... breath.... 4...."

As simon recovered, he slowly began to stand up. He started feeling a bit lightheaded and couldn't see, all thanks to the void of oxygen in his lungs from the blow. Once simon regained his vision, he noticed that everyone was standing around him, save for the punk rocker. Understandable, considering the situation. Simon had never liked these tense situations, so or him it was time to defuse whatever was left.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." Said simon with a pained grin "Just a bit winded. You know, like when you take a really long run and you gave your all for some reason? That kind of winded."

He had started looking for his cell phone which, no doubt, had flown from his hand. He found it and picked it up. There was no real damage, just a bit of scuff from sliding. Quick to forget what just happened, he turned back to his original offer.

"So, anyone want food after school? I know a great place down the road from here." Said Simon trying to keep a cool demeanor. He looked over towards the offender. "Considering, I just greatly offended you. I'll pay for you if you want to come. I never really meant to hurt your feelings or anything like that."

Hopefully the situation is diffused now. Simon thought to himself, now fully recovered and back to his gleaming grin.

[Calvinball]

Shirley blinked several times, astonished by Simon's cool-headed reaction. He didn't even seem the slightest bit upset with Jackie. It seemed so impossible so as to be actually a little admirable... as well as a little stupid. Was he really going to just let Jackie push him around like that? Shirley hoped not.

"...I'd be glad to go out for something to eat after school," Shirley said, still a little uncertain about how she felt about this progression of events. If Simon was going to ignore it, though, she supposed it would be rude to press the issue on his behalf. "While I usually only eat out at the Diogenes, it'd probably be good to expand my horizons a little." It was true, too. There was literally a restaurant near Shirley's home called "Diogenes." It was a coincidence she'd always loved. Home was far away, now, though, so expanding her horizons was something of a necessity.

While speaking with Simon, Shirley maintained a careful watch of Jackie out of the corner of her eye. Hopefully Jackie wouldn't try anything else, but Shirley wanted to be ready in case she did.

[gotMLK7]

Jackie suddenly realized everyone was staring at her after she lashed out, and her face went bright red. She looked to the ground to avoid eye contact and took a step back from Simon.

"I...uh..." She ran a hand stressfully through her hair. "....S-Sorry, I didn't think 'bout that much...uh...If was dumb of me, and...uh...y-yeah. Sorry."

Embarrassed with herself, she took another step back. "I...guess if ya really wanted me for food for some reason I'd be cool to go...t-though I can pay for myself, don't worry..." She seemed a bit humbled once she was the one in the center of the glares. "And uh...Sorry again."

Spoiler : OoC :

gonna be at the con most of the rest of the day so don't expect posts from me till much later.

[Calvinball]

Shirley frowned for a moment longer, and then she shrugged and "puffed" on her bubble pipe. The situation, it seemed, was well and truly defused. Jackie's apology appeared to be sincere enough, if only because of how embarrassed she was. Maybe no one would be suspended after all.

"Well, not that that's settled," Shirley said, addressing Simon. "You know who I am, and you seem to already know Mycroft -- Headmistress Cloverfield -- and Jackie's introduced herself sufficiently." She then gestured to Karen -- who it seemed was still on the ground. Shirley seemed to either not notice or not particularly care -- and Yo. "The other girl is Karen and the fellow is Lestrade -- Yo Guerra."

For a moment Shirley stared at Simon to try and "deduce" something -- but she soon gave up and returned to standing more neutrally. Then, to break the silence, she added

"Anything that anyone's particularly looking forward to this year?" she asked. Her voice was curt, as it generally was, but the tone seemed sincere as well. She was honestly curious. "I'm not sure what to expect myself, though I'm told there will be a lot of events outside of school, which sounds interesting. This coat's meant for traveling, after all!"