[Melody Newton]

Eclipse All my childhood heroes have fallen off or died + Madison Ardnell

Melody was almost more surprised by Madison's shock than she was by the arrival of the other student herself. She'd never seen the other boy look so discomforted. The boy in red meanwhile, had extended a silver wrapped box towards her. Taken aback, Melody slowly reached out and took the box. She jumped as he disappeared as swiftly as he had arrived, then turned to Madison. He looked panicked, words tumbled out of his mouth. She widened her eyes, wondering how she could have misjudged him so badly, until she realised exactly what was freaking him out. His power hadn't worked… Just how much of his confidence was as a result of his ability to always see trouble coming? Then Madison drew her attention back to the box she had taken from the boy in red. She hadn't recognised him at all, was he even a student here? She inspected the box. It was square, wrapped incredibly neatly, and with red ribbon completing the shimmering silver wrapping. It definitely looked like it had been wrapped by someone who had used a ruler and blueprints to assist them. Either it had been wrapped by an elf, or a serious anal-retentive. She ripped the wrapping open, discarding the ribbon and paper on the floor and opening the carefully packed box. There was a book inside. Pulling the book out, she dropped the box as well as she read the title. It was a self-help book. "It's a book. I think this is a Christmas gift…" It was the kind of thing her Dad would have gotten her. Except he would never have gone in for a secret Santa sort of arrangement. She stuffed it in her pocket. "Look, whatever it is, chill the f*&k out. Whoever that was, he's not gonna tell anyone is he? Even if he did all he can do is say he saw some kids hanging around behind the science block. We just need to go somewhere else.

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[Madison Ardnell]

It took a moment, but Melody's argument penetrated Madison's panic. She was right. As far as... whoever that guy was... was concerned, they were just two kids hanging out behind the science building. Of course, he might have seen them smoking, which would have been bad. But Madison's blood was cooled by the thought that there was a good chance the guy didn't know him. After all, he had asked for Melody and only gotten a second's glance at Madison. If Melody got reported for smoking, well, that was too bad, but it wasn't Madison's problem. The thought helped him calm down, and he smiled again. The way the guy had been able to appear without triggering his power was a little disturbing, but maybe the guy wouldn't show up again and it wouldn't be a problem. Someone who could monitor Madison's activities without Madison knowing it would be a problem, but maybe not an unfixable one. Madison looked at Melody.

“You're right,” he said. “Sorry, it was just freaky when my ability didn't pick him up.” He made his expression knowing and carefree, as it had been before. “But... we know he's the only one who can do that, now don't we?”

It had taken a moment, but Madison was in control again. “Right,” he said. “Now, I believe we had a covert mission to attend to.”

It wasn't the best beginning, but it was a beginning. And so, after a few moments more, he began to lead the way toward that night's objective of mischief...

Melody Newton

[Melody Newton]

Eclipse All my childhood heroes have fallen off or died + Madison Ardnell

Madison seemed to recover from his freak out remarkably swiftly. Calming down and moving back to the topic they had been discussing before the arrival of the strange, red dressed boy. It was strange that he did so considering how panicked he had been, but Melody dismissed the thought as irrelevant. At least is was irrelevant if he didn't panic if they got caught stealing booze. She frowned, "I don't know, you freaked out that much from one kid we didn't know showing up. What are you going to do if Buckley's wife is home when we're breaking into garage? I'm not sure I want to be doing something like this with someone that's going to lose their shit the moment they get caught." After all, clearly Madison was accustomed to not being caught in nefarious positions. If they got caught stealing booze would he just immediately sell her out? Melody was no snitch, she didn't tell tales about her friends, or anyone in fact. She was no longer too sure about whether she could trust Madison to have the same schoolchild sense of honour. Snitching was one thing she would never do. She could only hope that the unwritten code of school students would bind Madison to that same law. Taking a drag from the joint, she looked him up and down, clearly unimpressed. Slowly she blew out a cloud of the smoke, enjoying the gentle buzz that was starting to envelop her. She was quietly impressed by the joint, if not by Madison's lack of spine, not that she was a connoisseur but this was good shit. She took another drag, before finally asking what was on her mind. "I need to know that if we get caught you aren't going to snitch on me."

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[Madison Ardnell]

Dang. Freaking out in front of Melody had been a mistake. In half a minute he had gone from cool and in control to the questionable weakling, and the worst thing was that it wasn't his fault. His power had never failed before- how could she blame him for being freaking out? Still, it only took him a moment to regain control and turn a confident expression on Melody again. He hated that he had lost status in her eyes, though, even while he assured himself that it would only be momentary.

He could sense that she suddenly thought him a coward and that made him a little angry. He wasn't a coward! He'd love to see her in a situation where her eye beams suddenly failed and see how she reacted. But he hid that reaction too. He had to make an effort to steady his voice, but he managed to make it sound normal enough.

“We're not going to get caught. I only freaked out because my power didn't sense that guy coming, and that's never happened before, okay? I assume it's some power he has, but trust me, I can sense everyone at Buckley's house. I've tried. Look, you'd freak out if your power failed too, right? Cut me some slack about it.”

He waved at the cigarette she still held. “Hey, I'm no snitch. I know how this works. I'd never get anyone else to help with this if I told on you.” A thought struck him. “Besides, I've got way more to lose here than you do. You're one of the bad kids, remember? They expect you to cause trouble. Me? I'm one of the good ones. You know what would happen if they found out that Madison Ardnell, pet to teachers, perfect-grade-maker, straight and narrow boy scout was breaking in to steal booze? Was handing out pot? I'd be ruined. They'd never trust me again. I snitch on you and you're just one of the bad ones doing something bad again. You snitch on me and I lose everything I've made them think about me all year. So... how about neither of us do that?” He grinned slightly. “But we're not going to get caught, so it doesn't matter. Now... are you coming or not?”

Melody Newton

[Melody Newton]

Eclipse All my childhood heroes have fallen off or died + Madison Ardnell

Melody maintained her unimpressed look, but really Madison still had her hooked, maybe not on him right now, but certainly on the idea of the bottles of liquor that Buckley was no doubt concealing in his house. She hadn't had any alcohol since she'd come to the Evergreen Metahuman Boarding Academy, and Madison had already proven good in offering her weed. Unconsciously she patted her back pocket to check that the extra joints he had given her were still there. It wasn't as if they had gone far, but it was clear that getting more illicit substances to help her time here pass quicker was high on Melody's list of priorities. She took another drag on the joint before carefully dousing the end of it with a licked finger. They were fairly generous cylinders, and she certainly wasn't going to smoke the whole thing in one go, she'd have to ration it, especially if they got caught raiding Buckley's stocks. Carefully placing the joint with the others, she had to admit to herself that Madison had a point. She hadn't exactly gone joyriding here, but the staff knew her well enough, and her record, to know that she was no angel. Maybe being with Madison might even soften any punishment that came her way if they got caught. Or make it worse, she'd probably be blamed for leading him astray. She sighed, it wasn't as if they could have much of a lower opinion of her. "Fine... Lets do it..." She pushes off the wall and takes a step towards her new partner in crime. She glances around, it's still light. "Shouldn't we wait till it's dark though?"

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[Madison Ardnell]

Geez, how much reassurance did she need before embarking in a little prank? The odds of them being caught were low. Practically zero. And if they did get caught, he'd just blame her, so it would be just fine. Wasn't her dad rich or something? It wasn't like they would kick her out.

“It's not really a big deal,” he said. “It's more about paying attention to the house and knowing when people are watching than it being dark. Anyway, it'll be dark soon enough.” He shrugged. “We can wait a bit if we need to. Have you seen the old barn? It's where I was planning to stash the stuff. I can show you around there. There might even be some left over from last time.”

Madison had found the barn in his early days of exploring the campus and the area around it, and had adopted it as one of his go-to places for rulebreaking activities. He was surprised it wasn't more popular, especially for activities of the horizontal kind, but he supposed it was a bit of a walk and maybe people were worried about privacy. Madison wasn't; students rarely went that way, and teachers almost never did.

The barn looked like it had been used for horses in times distant past. Much of the floor was covered in old hay laid on sawdust. There was a very old, very rusted Model A car in the center aisle, and a few rusted tools in one of the stalls. It had a loft that contained boxes (mostly of nails and the like) and a place that must have been used to store hay, since there was still a lot of hay there. Madison had tested the old pile and found it to be surprisingly comfortable. A trapdoor in one stall led to a basement where Madison planned to leave the loot.

He was fairly happy with the plan. His only problem was that it wasn't romantic enough. If he wanted to score tonight he'd need to shift gears a little to get Melody's heart. Well, there'd be time for that after she was dosed with alcohol, he supposed.

Melody Newton

[Melody Newton]

Eclipse All my childhood heroes have fallen off or died + Madison Ardnell

Shrugging, Melody glances around the corner of the building, before starting to walk in the direction of the Headmaster's house. It was a not unimpressive building situated a little way from the main school buildings. Just as fresh as the rest of the school's architecture, it was obviously a major perk of the job. "Come on then. You're probably right, and I bet no one is home right now anyway." She started walking across the grass, they'd have to go around the school building's to get the Headmaster's house, which meant they'd also have to avoid being spotted through classroom windows. Not every classroom in the building was full yet, EMBA was still recruiting, still growing, but there were enough that it would mean crossing from one end of the campus to the other wouldn't be a completely easy experience. Although it would probably be much easier with Madison's ability involved. "I didn't even know there was a barn, I guess it must be left over from whatever farm this place used to be. I wonder if there's other stuff like that around here somewhere?" Melody picked up the pace a little as she realised what time it was. "Come on, before classes end or someone will see us."

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