Survival Of The Fittest

Monique sat on the steps outside the multiplex and stared at her watch. The digital readout of her Timex Ironman read 9:47. She stood up, brushed the dirt off her bottom, and paced nervously. It was opening night, and they still haven't shown up yet. The movie starts in ten minutes, and at this rate they wouldn't have a seat together unless they hustled. The girl's night had been Monique's idea. She missed the time she used to spend with the girls, but knew it was hard to organize something on nights where they could all get together at the same time. Some had work, others had boyfriends. Monique herself had to skip out on track practice that night to be here. But now she wasn't sure if she would be regretting it.

"Where are they?" she mumbled under her breath. Her watch read 9:51, and she began to wonder if she should go in early and save some seats. She sat back down, and stared out into the parking lot for any signs of anyone familiar.

((Looks like I lied about profile order. XD Maybe I could toss Tanya in later.))

Monique arrived at the parking lot very likely in time to see a red Chevrolet Camaro pulling in to an empty spot and shutting off. The girl who stepped out seemed only slightly more spectacular as the car...and the car only had a V-6. She was dressed in a rather fitting black ladies' shirt and fit pants. It was a ladies' night out, and she was dressed to impress, but not to knock 'em dead.

That's what Tanya usually does...

Reneé Valenti - known to others as Rio - wasn't hustling, even though a movie she had a bit part in was already in progress at another theater. As she got out she ran a finger through her ponytail (just to make sure the headrest didn't mangle it) and looked around, spotting Monique. She waved to get her attention before checking her cellphone for the time. Not much of which was left before the movie started.

((I wonder what their relationship would be like. And what movie's playing? XD))

OoC- I declare thy thread...crashed.

"And if you want beef than bring the ruckus, Wu-Tang Clan ain't Nuthin' to Fuck With!", the radio from the 1988 Toyota Camry blasted with a heavily distorted bass that made the song sound a little bit more like static and inside the car was a bouncing Paul Smith, has he bounced from side to side he looked toward the movie theater, normally he'd go to the movie theater with Melanie and enjoy both a blow job and the resident artsy chick flick.

Melanie would swallow her pride and enjoy the movie.

With this in mind, Paul pulled up to the theater, noting the surrounding girls, which was fine. Melanie never really cared for other women and of course Paul was far to concerned with the fact that he was going to have a busting good time to care about some high school girls.

"So, Mel, ready?", Paul looked to his side and then realized something that had happened days prior, Melanie had left him for another woman. A summer away at college could do that to you apparently and now he was alone at a movie theater...yes, that was quite the pathetic scene indeed. As he looked at his car, he noted that it would be a waste to drive back home when he was already at the theater and thusly he'd have to rely heavily on that Paul Smith charm to make this a worthwhile night. Walking up to Monique, he smiled a bit.

"Well, it seems that my date for tonight hath abandoned me to my own vices,", he said calmly and eloquently, for the most part that was true, "And I was just wondering if it'd be to much trouble for me to intrude upon your hospitality and hang out with you this evening?".

Oh, Paul, you're to much.

Katie Nellt hadn't planned on walking to the theatre, but a disagreement and something of a ruckus with her father (who was supposed to be dropping her) and she had told him to forget and walked her way there. Yeah so she was late, but that was only half her fault, still, she hoped that nobody was worried about her taking so long to arrive.

As such, Katie was relieved when she found that only Renee (can't fugure out accent) and Monique were already here. At least she wasn't the last to arrive. Then Katie spotted a car pulling up, it looked familiar, and as the driver got out Katie knew why she recognised it. Paul Smith, looking like he was planning on being as outrageous as ever.

Katie rolled her eyes and nevertheless came to join the group. She had to admit, Paul was a funny guy. A little nuts, but funny. Hopefully he wouldn't disrupt the evening too much, especially as they'd have to hurry and get seats now.

Monique felt a rush of relief wash over her as Renee and Katie made their way to her almost at the same time. "It seems as though this little night may just come together after all" she thought to herself. "Girls!" she exclaimed with her arms out. Then the expression on her face dropped as soon as she recognized Paul approaching. "Oh no, what's HE doing here? This isn't how girls night is supposed to go down" she said to the other two.
"Well, it seems that my date for tonight hath abandoned me to my own vices, and I was just wondering if it'd be to much trouble for me to intrude upon your hospitality and hang out with you this evening?"" Paul said as he approached. Monique felt embarassed by his presence. She didn't know Paul well, but he was a guy, and that was well enough for her to know what was on HIS mind. "Uh, Paul..." she said, "I don't know. It's supposed to be a GIRLS night... last I checked you were only halfway there". She had a smug expression on her face from the burn she'd just dished out. "I hope he gets the hint" she thought to herself. "Look girls, we have to get inside, the movies going to be starting soon. I don't think you'd want to join us anyways Paul. It's kinda a chick flick, as you'd put it".

Reneé smirked her trademark smirk as Monique retorted to the "rock star" newcomer as she locked up her car and checked her pockets for her movie "loyalty" card before going up to Monique. If one noticed carefully, she was actually trying to keep her walk casual. She was used to walking (or "strutting") in a rather commandeering fashion and this was not one of those times to do so.

"I'll go on ahead, see if I can get some tickets," she said, before taking a glance at Paul. "Is he gonna get a seat?"

If she had built any connections in this town, it was definitely time to use them. Apart from the usual "loyalty" card points, she could probably nail them some free snacks and some good seats if there were any left.

Needless to say that Paul was...very confused by the girl's "burn" as he really didnt get how he was halfway to being a girl. Was she saying that he didn't have a penis? Well that certainly didn't make sense because he had been naked enough at school for people to know that he did have one (not to mention the number of times he had used said penis). Was she saying he had a girlish physique? No, because at 6'2" and two hundred plus pounds he was anything but girlish...and the only thing that remained was his hair, but once again said hair lacked the care that goes into a girlish physique and even if that was what she was saying...well he'd only be like 1/16th of the way there, lack of certain organs included.

So has he stared at Monique with a smile still plastered on his face, but his single eye still looking down into hers he was very confused.

"Well, while that is good..." he paused once again, "Now I'm lying to both of us, I really drove all the way hear for...nothing and I'm going to go endure a chick flick, purely out of tradition!", he said rather indignantly before going and slinging his arm around Monique's waist and bringing her close to his own body. He groped her a little bit (trying to get her into the position, not anything sexual), but aside from that focused mainly on using his strength (and he had a lot of it) to keep her in place.

"Now, that we've established that I'm only hear for a night out...with the girls!", he smiled a little bit to himself, "Let's go get the damn tickets." , he stared down at Monique hoping the false smile and sarcasm would get through to her.

Though probably not, she's probably so stupid that she'd think he was putting the moves on her or something.

It's no wonder women didn't get the right to vote till 1927.

((Continued in Easy Like Sunday Morning))

Trailing after Rio, Katie wasn't particularly bothered that Paul seemed to have attached himself to Monique. It didn't really matter, as long as the guy didn't screw up their plan for tonight. Of course she was worrying as usual, the priority being that they wouldn't manage to get seats at all. Hopefully Renee would help them there, she was organised enough to get them out of the trouble they could be in here...

"Look you two, it doesn't matter what percentage female Paul is or for what reason he wants to watch the movie with us. If we don't hurry we're not going to get to watch anything,"

"All right, fine," Rio added, feigning frustration as she made her way to the ticket booth, which thankfully had no queue. She fished out her movie loyalty card and placed it on the counter as she briskly scanned the schedule for the movie that was to start soon. Her eye was briefly snagged on the movie beside it - the one where she had a bit part - before moving on.

"Four tickets for Theater 2."
"All right...Miss Valenti. That'll be..."

Rio already had her wallet out, and was plucking a $50 out of that. She put it on the counter and put one hand on her hip, as if she really didn't have the time to put up with the lady processing the transaction.

"Okay Miss Valenti, looks like you've earned enough points for a free popcorn."
"Excellent," she replied in a rather sinister tone before turning to her friends. "Hey, you guys still want snacks?"

Monique became very aware of Paul's arm around her waist. Under normal circumstances, she'd freak out at him. If there was one thing in this world Monique didn't abide by, it was men feeling they had the right to touch her. "Easy Monique, he's not going to hurt you. Just wait it out. You can't freak out in front of your friends. Count it down... one... two...three..." she thought to herself, waiting for Paul to remove his arm. As he did, she felt instantly relieved, and not as angry as she thought she would. "Good, good" she could hear her school therapist's voice in her head "You're making progress, stay calm, there's nothing to fear here". After being noticeably flustered for a bit, she regained her composure and folowed the crowd inside to get tickets.

She glanced at her watch again. The movie was already 5 minutes in, no doubt held up by previews and commercials. But she began to sincerely doubt the ability of the group to get tickets and good seats. As soon as Renee opened her mouth to the ticket vendor, however, all worries were washed away. Monique respected Renee's accomplishments in life. They weren't the closest friends, but she always felt she could consider Renee a good role model. Monique had never seen Renee crying heart-broken over a boy, never seen her even take backtalk from one. This was what had eanred Monique's respect: Renee was independant on her own terms.

She now held the movie ticket in her hand and gave Renee a ten dollar bill to cover the expenses. As she stared blankly around the large movie complex lobby, she asked "so, shall we ladies?"

((OOC: If anyone wants to join, meet us now, or be seated in the movie already and flag us down, or you'll miss out))

Katie broke into the first smile she had managed so far that evening. It looked as if they were going to make it in time for the start of the movie after all. She was a little impatient to get going but knew enough not to let it show. Katie waved away Rio's offer of snacks; both because she wanted to hurry and because she'd had her meal prior to leaving.

"No thanks Rio, I ate earlier so I'm not really hungry,"

Katie gave Monique a sidelong glance; it looked like Paul's presence wasn't bothering her too much, which was good. If Monique could handle Paul being there (and putting a familiar arm around her) then it wasn't like either her or Rio could take exception to him.

"I'm ready 'Nique, Rio? How's it going over there?"

Now Katie could relax a little, despite how late she'd arrived things had started to run smoothly again. It was time to just sit down and enjoy the movie. (And hope that they didn't attract too much attention for arriving late).

((Continued in Out on the Town and Out of the Closet))

Rio handed the tickets over and took her partial repayment. The girls (and hopefully the token guy) looked grateful.

"Let's go, girls...we've got a movie to watch," she replied with a smirk as she followed them into the theater. The movie was 5 minutes in, but it wasn't a blockbuster, so they would definitely get some of the better seats in the house.

Rio was independent, but not quite on her own terms. None of them had seen her crying more than actress tears on screen or take any more than scripted backtalk from the boys she'd worked with on Lady Valentine. They certainly didn't see her screaming herself damned near insane in utter paranoia over the boy who backtalked to her over the airwaves on that disturbed tournament a year ago. The reason for that was practically the reason why she wasn't lording it over anyone at all, let alone the girls. If she and Monique both knew about what Rio did to warrant that fate, the latter wouldn't exactly consider her a good role model.

Still, that was the past. This was now, she was in a completely different environment with a relatively blank slate. She could start over with new friends, new opportunities for success, and with little risk of ending up where her nemeses.

Plus, she earned some free popcorn for the next time they visited the theater. That was a start.

((Gonna have Tanya Bonneville already in the theater as soon as I can finish her bio.))

((Continued in In Mind's Eye))