you're the lucky ones [cole!]

[MICHELLE AMELINE PRIDEUX]

WE ARE THE RECKLESS WE ARE THE WILD YOUTH CHANGING VISIONS OF OUR FUTURES
ONE DAY WE'LL REVEAL THE TRUTH THAT ONE WILL DIE BEFORE

Chelle had had a fantastic day. Since she usually had good days, that wasn't anything too crazy, but today hadn't been busy, which was wonderful. Chelle was someone that was always doing something, somewhere, and that didn't include relaxing. She loved her job, she loved her friends, but today was one of those easy days that came so rarely, that she enjoyed probably because they were so rare. She'd started off at work - it was a Monday after all, best day of the week! - which, her boss hadn't been in since she was dealing with buyers for a shoot a week ahead. Because her boss hadn't been there, her boss' assistant had said that she wouldn't be needed, and after she took care of anything that had been left over from the weekend, she was free to go. After getting coffee for a few of her fellow interns, filing things, organizing a bit, and making sure everything was perfect for tomorrow, she headed out. From there she had called her father, who hadn't picked up, and that had been a bit of a downer. However, after she left a message, she called her boyfriend and asked him if he was free.

Turns out, he could pull lunch. The rest of her friends were busy for the rest of the day, which she found out as she called them from the bus, on the way to the restaurant near her house that she was meeting her boyfriend for lunch at. She wondered if he was really in the neighborhood or if he was just trying to be sweet - which didn't happen too often - and figured it was probably the former. She was already planning the rest of her day when she got there to see him already sitting down, and having ordered for the both of them. Maybe he was in a good mood today. Over food and light conversation, the two of them got caught up, which wasn't something that got to happen often, lately. He was always busy with work, and she was always caught up with things that she had to do to help her boss prepare for summer shoots. If it was summer and they were already this crazy, she didn't want to think about late August, and even worse, September. Fashion Week was hard on all fronts, especially since it was everyone's time to shine. Being in New York meant that she was in another fashion capital - Paris and New York, man, was she a lucky girl - and that meant that things would be crazier here than they would in the cities that didn't host shows. It was all dizzying, but she loved it.

After promises to head over to his apartment the next day after work, she was heading out, back to her apartment. She'd be planning on a nice, steamy bubble bath - scented candles, music and all - and then, she could maybe catch up on a bit of television. She was glad that she had a DVR, because she knew that she could never be around to catch them all at air time. She was sure she was at least two episodes behind on Covert Affairs, and maybe even more on Burn Notice. She was a crime TV buff - it wasn't her fault. Her life had never been overly exciting, and watching shows with spies and gunmen and all sorts of things was a thrill. She would never want to be one - if she could, she'd want to be a Bond girl. He was way too charming for his own good, in her opinion, and who didn't have a crush on James Bond? He was ultimate crush material - but it was fun to watch when she had nothing else to do and a perfectly functioning microwave that could pop movie theater butter popcorn. She brushed her hair back off her shoulder, and turned a corner. She usually walked a bit home, since her apartment wasn't too close to a bus or train stop, and she was pretty used to hiking it in heels by now, so it wasn't really a problem - until she bumped into a little girl, walking by herself. She balanced herself, not exactly quickly but it was better than falling, and looked to the girl. "Hi, sweetie, are you okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there!"

T A G G E D ? ! cole~
W O R D C O U N T ? ! seven forty eight
M U S E ? ! bouncing around like a kid in a candy store
N O T E S ? ! sometimes her energy traumatizes me. it might traumatize cole, too. oops?
C R E D I T ? ! graphic credit goes to ROBB STARK. of caution two point oh. lyric credit goes to daughter with the song youth.

[SUNSHINE COLE IRIS]

~ we're just a million little gods causing rain storms ~
TURNING EVERY GOOD THING TO RUST
>>> <<< >>> <<< >>> <<<

Cole's day had been more of a mixed bag, but then that was nothing unusual either. She tried not to think of things in terms of good days or bad days. It didn't change the fact whether they were good or bad, after all. Days were just... days. Now that she was with Fordham, they were certainly more interesting, but in the end, still just days; or at least that's what she tried to tell herself.

She was more used to the new routines now, but then again, still not entirely. In some ways, being a child spy wasn't so different from being a foster kid -- people still told her where to go and what to do; her life always belonged to someone else -- but in the details, the two experiences have started to diverge quite a bit, now that Cole was more properly settled. Her training had started in earnest, and she had to admit, it was hard.

The only similar experience she had to compare it to was school, which she'd always found way too easy -- especially the crumbling public schools she'd been sent to. And with school, passing or failing didn't really seem to matter all that much. She was never going to go to college, and hell, graduating high school wasn't even a high priority. But with training, passing or failing could mean the difference between life or death. And quite aside from future missions, Cole wasn't too keen to find out what happened to recruits who couldn't handle the basics.

So, perhaps for the first time in her life, she'd had to start actually working hard at things. Mental tasks were easier, but the physical ones were where the real challenge lay. She wasn't in terrible shape, or at least she hadn't thought so, until she'd been put up against kids who had been prepping for this for years. It left her feeling frail and weak, but in a way that was good, since it only pushed her to work harder.

Today's session had felt almost interminable, but Cole had pushed herself right up until the very end, refusing to show her exhaustion even as she showered and changed back into civvies to head home. Only once she was out of site of her fellow recruits and agents did she allow herself to sag a little.

On this particular day, she'd opted to walk home, figuring she could do with the extra exercise if she ever wanted to catch up to -- and eventually surpass, of course -- the others. Feeling tired but still a bit hoped up on adrenaline and endorphins, she wandered the city streets alone, amusing herself by walking with one foot on the curb and one foot on the road, whenever the parked cars would allow for it... which was, admittedly not all that often.

She'd just stepped back up off the curb, looking over her shoulder at some of the garbage that had collected in the gutter, when she was suddenly run into from someone coming the other way. She stumbled and only just managed to catch herself on one of those parked cars that had been interrupting her game. As she stumbled back into it, however, the lights started flashing and the horn went off, as the alarm sounded.

Wide eyed, Cole quickly straightened up and moved away from the car. "That wasn't my fault." She nodded towards the vehicle, making sure the woman's story would align with hers; sometimes it was still hard to shake the mentality of a foster kid, and she assumed if anyone caught her, they'd be quick to blame her and give her no end of grief over it. "But yeah, I'm fine, I think," she replied as she squinted up at the woman.

((OOC: Hope the alarm thing is all right by you. Couldn't resist. XD ))

[MICHELLE AMELINE PRIDEUX]

WE ARE THE RECKLESS WE ARE THE WILD YOUTH CHANGING VISIONS OF OUR FUTURES
ONE DAY WE'LL REVEAL THE TRUTH THAT ONE WILL DIE BEFORE

Chelle was not a creature of habit. If anything, she was more spontaneous than anyone she knew. The only routine she kept to was following her work schedule, because that was work, but that was different. She could go anywhere or do anything or anything of the sort at the drop of a hat. She wasn't one to sit around and wait for people to do things with her, she was perfectly content to go shopping or to a movie by herself. However, she was usually surrounded by at least one friend, or her boyfriend, at any time. Even though she could handle being alone, she did better around people. She was someone that was outgoing, and that little fact, along with the fact that she was easy to get along with, meant that people were always around her. Her friend-making efforts didn't usually go unnoticed, and she'd become used to just being around people all the time, by this point. Quiet days were good too, sometimes they were just what she needed, but most of the time she needed to be up and moving and doing something fun or exciting. It was a blessing and a curse.

Chelle wasn't one for physical exercise. Really, sweat and dirt sounded absolutely disgusting to her, and she didn't really want to be involved in anything that involved them. That had been one of the reasons that she dieted - she wasn't going to hit the gym or anything of the sort. She did a lot of walking, but what New Yorker didn't? She was in shape, but that didn't mean she could do anything more than walk a good distance. She couldn't run, and sports were just an absolute no. She'd been home schooled, she'd never had to go through physical education, as normal students did. She could barely catch a ball, much less throw it, or even worse, hit it with a bat in baseball or a stick in hockey. Then again, Chelle was a girly girl. She liked fashion and makeup and the shopping channel. She was an intern at Vogue. She was pretty much the opposite of any physically capable person her age, though she was completely fine with it. After all, with the amount of walking she did in heels, that had to be counted as something. She probably had really strong legs - wasn't kicking part of defense, or something like that?

When the little girl bumped into the car, Chelle winced. She hadn't meant to cause that. Talk about a domino effect. When the little girl quickly jumped up and started to become defensive, Chelle nodded almost dumb-struck. She had been the one to bump into her after all, and it really wasn't her fault if she'd stumbled due to Chelle's mistake. Though, she wondered why that mattered. Car alarms went off all the time in the city, usually not even due to someone trying to break into the car that was making the loud noises. NYC cars and their car alarms were hypersensitive. Car owners probably thought that that would help, but really, it was an annoyance. The alarm went off on it's own, but Chelle figured that it belonged to one of the people in the houses on this block, and they hit the button on their car's remote after looking out their window and seeing that no, no one was trying to break into their car and yes, their dumb alarm was going off again. Chelle was so glad she didn't own a car. Not knowing how to drive was another story for another day. "It's fine, it was totally my fault." The strawberry blonde eyed the younger girl, raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure you're alright? What are you doing on the street by yourself, anyway? It's a bit dangerous to be by yourself in such a big city." Chelle said as kindly as possible. She wondered where the girl's parents were, and why she wasn't with them/they weren't with her. "I'm Chelle, what's your name?"

T A G G E D ? ! cole~
W O R D C O U N T ? ! seven oh two
M U S E ? ! should be here more, but what can you do
N O T E S ? ! omg no it was totally fine, chelle's sort-of like 'holy crap defensive child much?' but other than that xDD
C R E D I T ? ! graphic credit goes to ROBB STARK. of caution two point oh. lyric credit goes to daughter with the song youth.

[SUNSHINE COLE IRIS]

~ we're just a million little gods causing rain storms ~
TURNING EVERY GOOD THING TO RUST
>>> <<< >>> <<< >>> <<<

Cole wasn't really a creature of habit by choice, but she was used to routine. She preferred it in a way, albeit on a subconscious level. Orderly things made her feel more in control. When things were left too free and loose it was like being back with her absolutely terrible parents and their remarkable absence of parenting skills. To that end, free time was usually put immediately to a productive use, although rarely a state-sanctioned sort of use.

Really, the truth of it was, she was just too uptight to sit back and take things as they came. Now that she was with Fordham, this was more true than ever. She was already coming to accept that she was never going to learn all the answers, and even getting some answers was going to be a way huger challenge than snooping around in her social worker's bag. But she was determined to learn all she could about what made the organization tick -- not with any malicious purpose, but just to figure out how to keep herself safe and perhaps even get ahead.

But right now, Cole was more worried about avoiding harassment from cops than getting ahead at work. Only when the alarm shut off, seemingly of its own accord, did she breathe a little easier, although she still cast a careful look up and down the street to make sure no one was heading angrily in their direction. But no, the coast was clear, so she was free to return her attention to the woman, Chelle as she introduced herself.

"Cole," the girl replied, dealing with the last question first. She was still a bit guarded and her answers came slowly as she considered her words. "I'm all right. And I can handle myself," she assured Chelle, a slight stubbornness to the set of her jaw. "I'm just walking home. I do it all the time." It was sort of the truth. Granted 'all the time' was stretching it, but still. The city streets didn't scare her. All right, so her self-defense wasn't exactly top notch yet, but even before she'd been a spy for a criminal organization, she'd been quite confident that she could take care of herself if trouble called -- probably by avoiding it through hiding or running, but hey, those were perfectly valid options.

"I mean, I'm not the one running into people," she added, looking over at Chelle as she made a point of dusting off her clothes and tugging them straight. She might have only been thirteen, but to her mind, of the two of them, she'd so far proven herself more capable here. At least she wasn't being overly bitchy in so pointing it out, but still, she wasn't being subtle about it either.

She could tell that Chelle was well-intentioned about her questions, but still, it rankled a bit on her fierce independence. Then again, it was hardly anything new. The problem with being young and blonde and so delicate looking... Granted, she'd learned to often use that to her advantage as well, especially when people underestimated her, but still, sometimes she was tempted to shave her head or dye her hair black and see if people still fretted over her well-being quite so much. Then again, in the group home, she would have fit in better looking like that, and now... well, she imagined that sort of look would make it a real bitch to get away with anything undercover. Besides, although it wasn't something she ever really admitted, she kind of liked her cornsilk hair. It would have pained her to destroy it completely.