Peas in a pod

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Elise look after the girl without moving a limb. Going after her now seemed pointless. She had made her case very clear. Still, Elise felt crushed. Her heart hurt. A few tears ran down her cheek and she dropped the melting ice cream to the ground to get her hand free to help brush the tears off.

"Are you okay?" An old lady asked. "Where are your parents?" Elise didn't want to deal with some old woman thinking of her as an unfortunate child, so instead she took the extreme maneuver and disappeared from peoples view. The old woman was clearly shocked and had no idea what was going on. Maybe she understood that it was a mutant. Maybe she thought she might have seen a ghost. Maybe she thought it had been a trick played by her own mind. Either way, she left almost immediately after some confused stares and some shocked noises.

Looking down at the ground, Elise finally saw the poster that lied close to her feet. She took a look closer, pretty certain that it had been the poster the other girl had been looking at. "Free food...." She mumbled. That girl had reacted pretty well on a promise of food before, so this might be exactly what she was searching for. Was it that smart to seek her up again though? Probably not, but for some reason she just couldn't let it go yet. As she entered an alleyway, Elise changed her appearance to a more adult one, a woman in her twenties with brown hair and slightly tanned skinned. "Third times a charm." She whispered to herself. Sure, they had already met three times, but it was only two times that had been meant as a peaceful meeting.
 
Once far away from the girl Xan sighed in relief and sat down on a nearby bench. Looking around ze studied the park hir had entered. The expanse of lawns were neatly manicured with some trees scattered here and there, giving shade to those that were relaxing underneath. There were flowerbeds along the footpaths that stretched across the small park and the ambiance was so happy and peaceful that Xan got even more irked and just left.

Spending the next hours just walking around town Xan started to calm down and think about the encounters. While knowing ze had gone too far it wasn't something the teen honestly regretted, it was better for hir to be alone and care only about how to survive until ze could be free.

With the money earned the previous day Xan was able to stock up on food to last a few days, and even had a little to spare. More assured ze was no longer in a rush to find a fence and the calm would do well in finding a reliable one.

Back at hir newest residence Xan stocked the empty shelves with the food and started ransacking the drawers of the shrink's old desk. Finding nothing of real note beyond old candies and paperclips Xan just grabbed the paperclips and went ahead with exploring the building.

When evening had fallen Xan had found nothing of value beyond some furniture and left behind books. There were some boxes of sweets hidden in a supply closet that was still edible if the due by date was correct. Happy ze brought the stash over to what was slowly becoming hir base.

The following days went just like that, exploring the building, scoping out houses, searching for a fence and picking the occasional pocket. During the same time period Xan also made the effort of reading the psychology books left behind. It wasn't easy.

When the next weekend came around it had been five days since the disastrous last meeting with the illusionist and Xan had almost forgotten about her. Entering the fabric store ze looked around in genuine curiousity, the teen had never been in any kind of fabric or crafts store before. Ze usually found hir supplies at hardware stores.
 
One week passed before the event on which Elise hoped to meet the strange girl that somehow fascinated her started. Her life was perfectly normal during that time. She worked in four different places in the course of five days and had had no less than three different appearances during that time.

Now it was time to change again to make sure no one could recognize her. It was definitely overly paranoid of her to change every other to every single day, and she probably reused old appearances more often than she thought, but she couldn't help it. Staying in the same skin felt uncomfortable. It made her worried that the wrong person would notice her.

Taking a look in the mirror, she watched those strange deep blue so unlike her own. What color did her eyes have again? Who really knew. Pulling a hand through her white, short hair, Elise was sure she had seen that appearance before. It probably didn't matter though. Last time she had that appearance might have been when she had traveled around somewhere in Europe, and then it was very unlikely that someone there would recognize her.

Elise put the necklace around her neck and pushed the pendant underneath her pink shirt. In reality the shirt wasn't pink, she didn't have many different clothes, so to make sure that wouldn't give her away she also changed that together with her appearance. An old worn out grey T-shirt that once had been white was now a fabulous pink long armed shirt with a hood. Clothes had never been her top priority when it came to choosing what to buy for her money, and since she easily could change their appearance it wasn't too necessary for her to keep up to date with the fashion, or to pick something appropriate for a job.

Soon Elise was on her way to the event. She weren't sure if she would be able to speak to that girl or if she would even be there, but at the very least she could try to have a fun time and take a look around.

Forty minutes later, she arrived at the fabric store. It wasn't something she had never seen before, actually she had had a few temporary jobs in such stores, but she was quite tired of tasteless noodles so the food would certainly be something to rejoice over. Then her eyes stumbled upon that girl again. So she had come. Now the question was, how would she approach her? Could she approach her without pissing her off? Probably not.

She walked closer to the other girl, pretending not to see her. She even put the necklace on the outside of the shirt just to make sure that the other girl could get a chance to notice Elise first. That way she could simply say that she had no idea that the girl would come there and it was just a pure coincidence. If Elise wasn't the one starting the conversation, then maybe they could get onto a good start this time.
 
Munching on cake and drinking coffee Xan was looking at everything with a cat-like curiosity. When looking around ze spotted the white-haired female, ze didn't take too long to recognize the pendant around the girl's neck. Blanking out Xan turned and left towards the refreshments. There was no way ze was going to talk to her again.

Looking over the assorted treats Xan wondered which to try next, ze had only tried two as of yet and that was because ze had been too intrigued by the usefulness of sewing. Wanting to learn how but realizing the difficulties of dragging around a sewing machine from town to town ze settled with just watching a bit more before it was time to leave.
 
The plan failed miserably. The other girl didn't seem to care for her at all. Not even a 'why are you stalking me' comment. Couldn't that be a requirement at the very least? Not because Elise tried to stalk her or anything, she just wanted to talk... Okay she was kind of stalkish, but who could blame her? ... Probably everyone, but that was not the point.

Shaking the thoughts of her stalking behavior aside, she finally decided to walk up to the other girl. Butterflies was trying to break out of her stomach as she approached her. This could only end in failure, just as all the other times, but she refused to give up.

"I didn't think you would be the kind to be into sewing." Elise said while walking up beside the girl. A normal conversation starter. That would be a good start. Hopefully.
 
Glancing up at the girl Xan was clearly not impressed. Taking a piece of the carrot cake ze wasn't about to answer her either. Why did this girl insist on buddying up with hir? Ze had tried to steal her pendant, there was no reason at all that this girl should be trusting hir, especially if them both were on the run from something. Anyone would protect themselves when getting down to it.

About to take a step away from the table the teen didn't get any further as a much older lady approached them both. Having heard the question the woman was beaming the smile making the laugh lines more visible. The woman's brown hair was in a ponytail, greying at the temples and her similarly brown eyes were filled with joy aimed at the two youngsters that had visited the store. "I'm so glad that more young people are interested. So, what caught your interest?" Cheerful still the maternal woman had her eyes on both.

While sorely tempted to say 'free food' since that had been the original bait for hir Xan paused awkwardly, completely at loss on how to deal with the type of person right in front of hir. "... It... Looks useful." While it was the truth ze was wondering why now the woman in front of hir had reached out to them. Giving a light glare at the illusionist ze partially blamed her for catching the attention of the older woman.
 
Elise smiled warmly as a glare hit her. It wasn't like she could control what that woman was doing, so it couldn't be her fault. Except if that woman was an illusion made by her of course, which in this case wasn't true.

"Oh, I love sewing. I've worked with it before, but only on small stuff and I want to broaden my knowledge." She replied excited. It was somewhat true. While she couldn't say she loved sewing, she certainly wanted to broaden her knowledge so she would be able to get more jobs in the future.
 
"Oh, how wonderful. We hold some sewing classes here if you'd like to sign up. What better way isn't there to learn that through classes?" Still smiling the woman gestured to some sheets of paper by the register, more than happy that there were two young teens interested in sewing.

Xan on the other hand was more tempted to flee, but the thief did have some common sense and was looking for a good way to excuse hirself. "I can't really afford classes..." Trailing off ze spoke the truth, but for some reason the truth felt more like a bitter admission about hir vagrant life than just being a broke teenager.

Taking a bite of the cake ze hoped the words wouldn't cue the illusionist further in on hir life. The girl had found hir here even and it did little in easing the unease ze felt when it came to having met her so often already. The town wasn't that small.
 
"But if you're that interested you should certainly go." Elise interjected. "It would be bad to miss out on such an opportunity just because you don't have money." She then continued and seemed to think about it for a moment. "I know, I can pay for you. It's funnier if you're two anyways, right?"

It would certainly take a blow to her wallet, but so far she had been able to get jobs rather easily in that town, so it shouldn't force her to skip dinners or so. "And don't worry about paying me back, I owe you one after all. It's just fair that I do something for you." She then added before the other girl could say anything. There was many things one could say she owed her for. loosing the game, loosing the game on purpose, letting the other girl buy her ice cream, stalking her around. Yep, she definitely owed her.
 
There was no way Xan was going to let the illusionist pay for hir, no way. Ze didn't want to get indebted to this strange girl, not by a long shot. About to reject the offer ze was soon cut short by the energy of the older woman, who was clearly the shop.

"Nonsense!" Shushing the girl the woman returned to smiling. "No need for either of you to empty your wallets for the class." Smiling happily she ushered the two over to the register and picked out two sheets of paper, handing one copy out to each of them. "We're running a special offer on beginners classes today as a part of the events today."

Accepting the flyer Xan looked it over and read the details, glancing up at the woman ze wondered if there was any point in accepting the offer. The classes would run over three weekends, that would mean Xan had to stay in town for three weeks to make full use of it. They offered free food... But there was this 'material costs' that made the teen frown. "What's with the material costs?"

At the question the woman nodded in understanding. "Since we're using the fabrics from the store those costs will be in addition. Of course using the cheapest fabrics when learning is something we encourage so nothing like that will be brought out during the lessons."

"Huh..." Thoughful Xan looked at the flyer, deep in thought about the pros and cons of taking the offer. A more frustrating issue would having the illusionist around, that girl was really good at getting on hir nerves.
 
Three weeks huh. That would be a waste of money if she would have to run out of town suddenly. It did happen that she had to leave without notice. On top of that, she would have to use the same appearance each time she came there, which would make it easier for the wrong people to notice her. It was definitely risky, but some times you just had to take risks.

"Come on. It will be fun, and can be useful for the future. I wouldn't want to be the only one my own age there." Elise pouted. "And there will be free food." She then pointed out, trying to reel the girl in.
 
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Giving the other girl a blank stare Xan felt a certain unwillingness to cooperate with this girl, but still, she had some good point. Pausing Xan glanced down at the course flyer. Free food, learning a new skill, actually doing something more normal for once... Sighing softly the teen gave in, ze had to suffer with an annoying illusionist for now. Besides, all that girl knew about Xan's powers was that ze had some. The abilities was best kept as a trumph card since both could be pre-empted easily. "Fine, fine. Sign me up." Resigned to the inevitable company and having trackable movements for a while Xan gave direct accept of the offer.

Cheerfully the older lady got out a clipboard from behind the register, with a pen in her hand she was eager to note down the two participants. "Wonderful, so what are the names of you wonderful young ladies? Oh, and a cell phone number in case we have some changes..."

Xan almost grimaced at the several points of trouble, but schooled hirself carefully. "... Alex... Preston. I'm between cell phones right now so I lost my number." Lying almost smoothly Xan hoped it would do. Just going with the surname ze had read on the plate on the office the teen currently occupied ze hoped it was common enough to not make any odd connections.
 
It wasn't often things went so perfectly according to plan now a days, so Elise was more than happy. Now she would have three weeks of opportunities to talk to this girl, and hopefully they could find some common ground. She was pretty certain the girl was using a fake name though. She didn't seem to be the type to just give away her real name to anyone.

"Erica Thompson." Elise replied, being perfectly used to using fake names herself while jumping from job to job and appearance to appearance. "My cell died a few days ago when I dropped it in water and I must save up some money before I can buy a new one." Elise shrugged with an innocent 'shit happens' kind of smile on her lips.

"We'll just have to hope no changes happens I guess."
 
Frowning in worry the older woman looked at the two youngsters in front of her. "Oh dear... I hope you get that fixed soon. You young ones can barely live without a cell phone nowadays." Noting down their names she remembered one more thing. "Oh, right! I'm Melanie Reynes. I'm the owner of the store and will be holding the course."

Xan was positively certain that the other girl had done the same as hir and given up a fake name. For some reason it felt strangely comforting for the teen that the illusionist was just as willing to lie as hir. "Yeah, looking forward to it." To a degree, but at least ze would gain another skill during the next three weeks.

"The course starts Friday at 6 PM. I'm looking forward to seeing you both." With them both signed up Melanie proceeded to inform them about payment, that it would occur after each lesson night, and about the contents, the basics like operating a sewing machine and the most common sewing techniques.

While listening Xan thought about how to gain the needed money, and deciding on which of hir found fences to minimally trust with stolen goods. Ze had yet to break into any houses around town but it was only a matter of time. Scoping out the different areas and houses ze had already reduced the list to three areas and potential houses in those areas. While preferring to do things neat, clean and with as minimal traces as possible it had sometimes been impossible. The teen was getting better with each time though.
 
"I can barely wait." Elise said cheerfully to the woman after having signed the papers and gotten all the info. It would be nice to be able to get closer to this Alex. Sure it most likely wasn't her real name, but it was something to use for now.

"I'll be looking forward to seeing you again next Friday Alex. It will be fun to learn this together." She then said as she turned to the other girl. "And if you need any help with extra money, you can just ask. I know lots of people who can give you easy jobs for a day or two." She just wanted to be helpful. The girl might not wish to be indebted to Elise, but just helping out finding a job shouldn't be too much. Hopefully her stealing business would go badly for a while and she would need to take the better route. Maybe Elise would help a tiny bit to make that happen.
 
Giving this girl, Elise, a mildly sceptic glare ze blanked out and shrugged lightly. "I'll think about it." Getting indebted to the girl wasn't on the top of hir list though. If it was something the teen had learned fast then it was to avoid having debts anyone.

"I got some stuff to do now, so bye," showing a little politeness the teen gave hir farewells to the store owner and, as a result, Erica. Turning ze walked outof the store, leaving the friendly and chatty mood of the store in favor of the sunny outdoors. Slipping on a pair of sunglasses Xan walked away.

Melanie didn't seem to mind, she was soon busy in store matters and an event that was going to happen. There was a model show coming up, but one of the girls had fallen ill suddenly, leaving them in a bit of a pinch.
 
The other girl left quite hastily and Elise looked after her. Should she follow? If she made sure the girl couldn't get any money from her 'business' she would most likely get an earnest job. But if she tried to trick the girl again, and then got figured out, Alex might just distance herself even more. Though this wouldn't be like the dance thing. A small illusion showing her nothing but empty wallets and worthless junk as she pickpocketed wouldn't lead her to suspect Elise... Or would it? Elise was already on the radar.

Before she had decided what she should do, she noticed that the woman she had spoken to seemed to be in a bit of a distress. While she were too far away from the woman to hear anything that was said, the expression on her face couldn't be mistaken.

"Is something wrong?" She asked as she walked back to the woman whom had given Elise a chance to meet the other girl more times without seeming like a stalker. "You seem to be troubled. Bad news?"
 
Melanie smiled appreciatively at the helpful girl that had come to talk with them. "It's nothing too bad, just one of the models for the fashion show in half an hour called in sick. We just need to find a replacement and we'll be okay." Turning to the other woman she was clearly intent to ask the person to call around.

From what could be seen of the event it was mostly women around as guests, and none of them seemed remotely close to being a journalist or investigative beyond being a meddling aunt. While Elise was the youngest she soon stopped standing out as two girls entered the store and was heading towards Melanie and the other woman.
 
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Help out or leave, that was the question. It was a fashion show. Who knew when someone would throw out a camera and the wrong person found the picture. Though as far as she knew, she hadn't had that appearance before, or at the very least, in very long time. Even if someone recognized her current appearance, it would be from a meeting years earlier, and most likely that person would be too far away to get there in time to catch her. Not because anyone would wish to catch this form of her. As far as she knew, no one had ever suspected this appearance to be Elise.

While she wanted to find reasons to leave, it seemed like her mind only could come up with reasons to stay. "Uhm, miss Reynes." Elise started hesitantly. "If no one else is available, I wouldn't mind helping out." It wasn't like her current form looked bad, and even if the clothes didn't fit her real body, she could always use her illusions to make a copy that did fit her fake body.
 
Pausing the older woman looked at Elise in utter surprise. Softening to a gentle smile mrs. Reynes was clearly appreciative towards the kind-hearted girl. "That would help a lot dear. Are you sure you have the time?" Clearly concerned if she would trouble the young girl her attention was at the girl in front of her.

The other two girls that had entered was talking with some of the guests of the event, they were almost drowned by the number of adult woman chatting with them about all kinds of small things. From the level of familiarity it was clear the girls were familiar with the patrons and the store, possible close relatives of any of the store employees.
 
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