—- &. toughest fighter.

Emma had already conceded her losses and looked forwards, to the future, where she and Jet were dancing and happy and most likely keeping their adventure a secret from Ada. “Alright, no frat party, then! But that one was the only one I’d heard about, so the rest is up to you.” Admittedly, she didn’t have the best detective skills; and besides that, most people assumed Emma was too much like sunshine for any real fun. "No drugs,” she agreed with an emphatic nod, “and no guns! But that’s it, I think. And the people throwing the party have to be nice! And cute boys. I know you don’t care about that, but try to imagine them from my eyes.”

Emma’s comment had Jet snorting even before they could come up with a respond regarding to their party planning. “That, dear sister, is unfortunately something I’m not sure how to do. Or if I want to do it, anyway,” she said, lips curled up into what was between an amused grin and an exasperatedly look. “I don’t like thinking about boys in general — you know that. I don’t want to imagine them from your eyes, thank you. But yeah, no drugs and no guns. I can do that.” They made a note to try look around for possible parties to go to from someone other than Darius, considering that well, Jet was aware that Darius’ party tastes would probably not be Emma’s. “No peppy parties, though, yeah? You know I can’t deal with those. They’re like kid birthday parties.”

“Sorry to say I haven’t. Not since the training session today.” He shot Jet a smile, though if Darius or Samson were around, they would label it strained. It was just that Ryoji always felt scrutinized under Jet’s glare, and he — hated? — disliked being judged. “He might have already left campus if he’s not in his dorm.” 

Her shoulders lifted in a shrug at Ryoji’s response. Both Darius’ “brothers” confused them to no ends, — for different reasons — and Jet hardly ever knew how to act around them. Their lips pursed, before saying, “Thought so. He’s probably in the skate park or something. Are you going anywhere?”

“Not moving, Jet. Staying right where I am. Serves you right for implying that I should wait. I’m not the waiting type, as you’ll learn to know, because I have found it my duty in life to make this my seat for the rest of semester, just to piss you off.” Caellum replied lightly, already starting to lose interest in the conversation. In actuality, Caellum talked to all of the Utonium sisters, but he talked to Jet the least out of the three.

Their teeth greeted at the boy's response. Not only was he infuriatingly pretentious, but Caellum fucking Darcy was also unbelievably entitled and arrogant. There was a reason why Jet tried not to strike up a conversation with him whenever it was possible — said reason being that spending not even a minute in his proximity made her already want to punch his jaw and knock him out. "How anyone puts up with you is beyond me," she snarled, fist closed around the pen in her hand to stop it from flying across Caellum's jaw. 

Her eyes narrowed at Jet’s taunting, lifting her index finger into their face. “Hey, little one. I could seriously kick your ass. Don’t test your elders,” she said, wiggling her finger a bit, but not going so far as to invade Jet’s space or touch her. She wasn’t actually looking for a fight and she wasn’t stupid enough to think that she’d have an easy time fighting with Jet – even powers not being considered. 

“Pick a fight with someone your own size, Kali,” she retorted, though she leaned back on the couch a little more as she spoke, indicating to the older girl that they were backing down and weren’t really looking for a fight either. Regardless of what Kali was capable of, Jet would rather fight with her than against her — unless it was for training and sparring purposes, obvious. She made a good ally, and the last thing Jet wanted was to be on her bad side. “Besides, you’re only like, not even five years older than me. You barely count as an elder, unless you want me to think of you as an old person.”

“Of course, you’re going to say that, you have the bigger appetite. Anyways, eating a heavier meal for breakfast always leave me feeling bloated, so I’m going to stick with my parfait and you can stick with your eggs and bacon. ” Ever since Ada developed her enhanced stamina, her body was able to function for about a week on a light meals and a low amount of sleep. As long as Ada properly rested and recharged on the weekends, she avoided overstimulating her brain and building up of lactic acid within her body. 

She shrugged her shoulders in response. True, Ada did have a lesser appetite compared to them because of her powers, but it also came down to preferences. Jet being Jet, preferred a larger breakfast, a moderate lunch and a smaller dinner on days when she knew that she wouldn't be able to crash and sleep at any time she wanted. After all, she needed energy to get herself up. That, and a good cup of coffee. "Do they have pancakes?" she asked. "I'm actually feeling that instead of eggs and bacon this morning."

“What would make me happy,” Emma insisted, “is you and me going to this party together.” But even as she said the words, Emma knew better than to hope for Jet’s agreement; a frat party was the last thing they would be found at. As an optimist, though, she had to try; there were too many good looking fraternity boys to not give it a shot. “I guess that sounds alright,” she conceded, “but I have to approve. No weird parties in sketchy apartments.” It seemed, to Emma, the perfect compromise — so long as they were nice, of course, and as long as she had her sibling by her side.

Jet rolled their eyes at Emma's cliched response, using their words against them. "You're not allowed to use that against me. I didn't mean that I'd willingly do like, anything for you. Even I have limits," she retorted, though there was no anger or irritation in her words. Emma was one the people she would protect with her life and one that Jet couldn't help developing a soft spot for, — they had gone as far as training themselves to not lash out on their sister when they could help it — but there were still some things ( namely, going to a frat party ) that she still refused to do even for Emma. "Sounds like a good deal, then," Jet went on. "Any restrictions? No drugs? I don't know, you tell me what you want and I'll ask around to see if there are any we can go to."

“My voice?” He immediately talks a lot louder than before, but he’s not done just yet. “What do you mean?! What’s wrong with my voice?!” He leans forwards, a grin on his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jet!!”

God, she was so close to kicking him off the couch. Using their leg to push Shade aside, Jet covered their ears with their palms and scowled. “Shut the fuck up, Guerra. Or you can get drunk somewhere else before I use my Hulk strength on you and kick your stupid ass.”

“I don’t mean the beer, idiot,” she retorted, kicking his foot away with a flick of their own. “I meant you talking to me in that voice. Loudly. You know what I mean. Just shut up, Shade. Drink your beer and leave me alone in peace.” 

With her earphones in, Ada sat at the table working on the task at hand. It was common to see her working on something at 3AM in the morning in the common room while everyone else was asleep. She realized she had hit a road block in calculations and took a moment to drink from her water bottle giving her time to ponder how to address the issue.  

Well, fuuuck. 

Samson barely manages to pull out of the way of a blow to the face, wonders momentarily how many bones would have suffered from it. With the movement her grabs onto Jet’s wrist, pulls them as he takes a step around them, smoothly switches to being behind them rather than in front. He’s not quite sure if he can hit harder. Strength has never been something he puts time into, but-

Turned out Sam wasn’t as bad as he made himself out to be too. Despite not being used to physical training as he claimed to be, his mind worked fast. And his body followed suit too, reacting to Jet’s movements faster than she thought he would. The sidestep wasn’t as smooth as it should be, but they hadn’t managed to hit him yet. That counted as something. 

“Oh —- hi, I didn’t think I would see you. You heading out for the night too?”

“Was looking for Darius, actually. Seen him anywhere?”

Kali couldn’t even find it in herself to be bothered by Jet’s attitude. They were clearly irritable, but she didn’t sense any malice in their words. “Aw and here I thought I was giving you a sweet pet name,” she teased with an exaggerated pout. “I’m not scared, I just figured a little morning exercise would wake you up a bit.” At her statement, Kali wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Ooh, barely slept? Busy night?” she glanced at her nails briefly before returning her attention to Jet. “I don’t expect you to do anything, pumpkin. I just know you like to be there whenever I start trouble.”

Had this been anyone other than Kali, Jet would’ve probably left the place already to find somewhere more peaceful. Or connect their fist with the person’s jaw. But they knew that Kali didn’t mean any harm and understood that she wasn’t awake just yet, so she merely shot the girl a glare. “Shut up. Argue with me later when I can actually argue. Unless, you know, you’re scared to pick a fight with someone who’s actually awake.” At Kali’s next words, though, Jet leaned back on the couch and let her glare drop. “Think I just need a few more moments to keep my eyes shut,” they said. “Morning exercise can wait another hour — it’s not going anywhere.” 

Due to their busy schedules, Ada always tried to grab breakfast or brunch with her siblings at least once a week to keep up with their lives and to check up on them without coming off overbearing. “I wish you would quit dissing yogurt, but no, I was thinking we try The Beehive, the new place that opened on Main Street,” she explained as they walked down the hallway and went down the elevator to the main lobby. “I heard from Heather that their food was delicious and the coffee is supposed to be the best in town. The best part though is that all of their ingredients come from local farmers so all of their dishes are all organic and natural and I heard they even donate part of their earnings to charity.”

“Hey, in my defence, no one’s dissing anything. All I’m saying is that just fruits and yogurt’s hardly enough for breakfast.” Jet themselves didn’t mind yogurt in the slightest, but having been used to a more irregular sleep schedule the six months or so they had off before their term started at Bellum, meals had also became irregular for her, making her used to a heavier breakfast meal whenever needed. Well, breakfast was sort of a loose term for it, considering that sometimes waking up was three in the afternoon and ‘dinner’ for them was seven in the morning. But either way, she was an athlete even before that, and as someone who often had to play in soccer matches as early as eight in the morning, both protein and carbs were a staple to her diet. 

Resting his heavy head on his folded arms placed right in front of him, Darius had his eyes closed – obviously resuming back to the sleep he was rudely woken up from, no matter if he was in a fucking coffee shop or not. The day was much too early for him and seeing as he had already decided to skip classes for the day, and is slowly warming up to the current time and the God awful sunlight, he couldn’t wait to spend his day at the skate park. Despite the boy looking exhausted and reluctant to start the day with his given body language, it was near impossible to fall back asleep from the amusing conversation above him; that is clearly about to turn into a riot. He couldn’t help but eavesdrop; the tip of his lips slowly curving into an amused grin as he listened to Jet shooting back down every chirpy comment leaving the other poor guy’s mouth.

Thank fuck Darius cut in the conversation just before Jet gave in to the urge to whack the guy over his head. God, this guy was annoying. Her eyes met Darius’ over the other guy’s head, and she gestured for him to sit down with a flick of her head, silently thanking him for rescuing her from this conversation with her eyes. Their attention immediately shifted to Darius as soon as the elder boy arrived at the table, completely ignoring the irritating asshole who couldn’t seem to take “no” as an answer. “Took you long enough,” she said, eyeing the coffee cup he placed on the table. Not for the first time, Jet was glad that they spent a lot of their late nights together with him. It meant that he was aware of their irregular sleeping schedule without asking her too many questions about it — just readily gave her what she could potentially need. 

“Right, exactly. College is a new phase for me but I’m looking forward to all Bellum has to offer. You heard that?” He laughed (fake, of course), into his phone. “I decided not to. Princeton has a quidditch team. I admit that I’m blessed with my intelligence, but that doesn’t make me a nerd, necessarily. Yes, I did build my phone… and I don’t have a boy band as my ringtone. Just because I met Five Seconds of Summer at the American Music Awards doesn’t make us best friends. Simply another rumor, feel free to dismiss it.” Relaxed on the outside, Caellum darted over closer to the clock outside of his next class (forgetting to bring his glasses was the most regretful mistake of his life). Shit. He was going to be late to another lecture. “I have to go now. No, thank you! I enjoyed this interview as much as you did, I assure you.” His teeth ground against each other, reflecting his pissed off mood. Slowly opening the door, he made his way up to the back of the room, where he could code his part of the app he was creating with Ada in peace. 

She had actually made an effort to attend a lecture on time. Not that she was bad at that, but if she wasn’t allowed to skip out on lectures or attend it thirty minutes late, then no one else should have that right too. Jet couldn’t believe that they tried this time, only to find this fuckhead waltzing into class ten minutes late without having anyone telling him off. And having the audacity to plop down onto the chair beside hers without waiting for an answer. How more entitled could this brat be? 

Jet didn’t entertain Emma’s childishness often, so when their finger wrapped around hers, Emma beamed with pleasure. “Good things happen to those who trust their sisters,” she said, as if she were reciting an ancient adage that wasn’t made-up. “I can listen and talk. I’m a girl of many talents,” Emma said with an exaggerated flip of her hair. She bit down on her lip cautiously as she considered Jet’s question, knowing she wouldn’t quite like the answer. “Okay, don’t cut it down before you consider it, okay?” Looking at Jet with a pleading expression, she said, “It’s a frat party, but! Free booze, and we can always leave to go to another one if that’s not your scene!” Her hands clapped together and Emma gave her sister the best puppy-dog-eyes she could manage. “Pleeeease? I don’t want to go alone!”

“Hmph, whatever makes you happy,” Jet said, snorting and shaking their head. By now, she had learned better than to argue with Emma when she was busy rambling about a million and one things, and though there were times when they still couldn’t help but stop themselves from dropping their own additions and remarks here and there, Jet had gotten used to letting Emma think whatever she wanted and just absentmindedly agree to it. At the mention of the frat party, however, her brows rose. That, she wasn’t going to just so easily say yes to. Her lips pursed as she grounded her teeth together before making a decision. “Okay, compromise,” they finally said. “We get to go to a party this weekend, but not that one. We can get free booze elsewhere too, you know. How does that sound? You still get to go to your party, and I don’t have to be in the company of sweaty and annoying frat boys.”

“Put the claws away, kitty,” Kali smirked, plopping down on the sofa chair in the lounge area. “Only ten means that the gym is just calling our name. Or, well, it’s calling mine. I wanted to see if you wanted to join me … Be there before I get into trouble and start a fight,” she winked, playfully, and crossed her legs as she made herself more comfortable. “Clearly someone is not a morning person. I thought I was bad.”

Jet’s already irritated expression morphed into a deeper scowl at Kali’s reaction to her whines. “Fuck off,” they grumbled without missing a beat. “Don’t call me kitty.” At the mention of the gym, though — oh, how Jet wished that they were more awake already. Heading over there sounded like a good idea — except she could barely pull herself out of bed this morning, let alone work out. “Maybe later. But I’ll drop in if you’re so scared of getting in trouble. And it’s not about the morning, it’s about the waking up bit. I barely slept, what the fuck am I supposed to do? Jump around and wave good morning to everyone even if I look dead? Let me live.”