Struggling against the sweat stained shirt that currently entrapped her, Eliana grumbled darkly to the girl standing beside her, "Ah fuck this stupid piece of shiiiiiit--" A light tug against her chest and suddenly the world was visible again, the angry youths arms freed from the torture device that were her sleeves.

"Oh hey, nice, thanks for that" she chirped, grabbing the filthy shirt from her savior's hands and shoving it into her pack without a second thought. After an entire week's worth of sweat and agony at the hands of their drill-sergeant of a gym teacher's wishes, it was a welcomed relief to finally be able to wash the damn thing. Her "savior" chuckled lowly, shaking her head in mock disappointment at her friends' antics.

"Now that you've figured that oh so difficult trap out, are you ready to go? They're probably getting impatient waiting for your slow ass" the lavender haired girl mused, swaying on her heels absently as she waited.

"Technically, the bell hasn't even rung yet and anyways, it's not my fucking fault Coach Drake decided I needed to clean up all the stupid equipment" Eliana seethed bitterly, now having moved on to forcing her gym shorts into the already overstuffed backpack.

Sighing at her friend's immaturity, Gwen pivoted back around towards the door, throwing out a single retort as she started walking "well, yeah, that's true and everything, but you don't have to be such an ass about it you know, I had to help too, now hurry up." Jiang and Vimala had been released a good five or so minutes earlier at least, and though they'd offered to stay and wait in the locker room for them, Gwen had sent them off ahead to retrieve a part-time job application form for her. In theory, they were honestly probably still by the office, or just on their way back, but that still didn't mean Eliana had to take a year and a half changing--she had a schedule to uphold after all.

It was difficult enough trying to find time to hang out together as it was, let alone after she actually started working. There was like, an hour tops in her day she could normally devote to her friends, the rest was studying, chores, and most time-consuming of all, patrols. True, she was with Vimala for that part at least, but there's less room for socializing than one might think while patrolling, she'd be lucky to throw a few words her way before a witch or familiar was found. She really didn't have the time to be dawdling with Eliana, regardless of how much she liked the girl, it just wasn't practical, though she did feel a bit bad being so curt with the girl. Key word being a "bit".

The two had hardly stepped more than a foot outside, when Eliana caught sight of Jiang across the courtyard, Gwen too focused on her phone's screen to notice much of anything.

"HEEEEY! OVER HERE," she called out, arms flailing through the air in an attempt to gain their attention, "JIANNNNNNNG! VIMALLLLA!" Of course the attention she actually managed to get was from pretty much everyone but the two girls, half the students still on campus turning to look at the girl as though she'd grown two heads. Immediately she regretted her decision, nervously fiddling with her hands as she desperately tried to shrink into herself.

Gwen, ever the practical one, had already been halfway through dialing Vimala's number by that point in time, giggling lightly at her friend's expense.

Half a dial-tone later and Vimala answered the other end, Gwen immediately jumping in after the girl, "Turn around, we're across the way--no, not that way, over here-- we're over by the rose bushes, sort of, um actually wait just a moment" Jabbing her taller companion in the ribs with a stray elbow, she motioned for the girl to wave with her as she spoke. Always nice to have someone tall enough to actually be seen across the crowd of students flooding out of their classes. "Yeah, okay, so just look for Eliana, you should be able to see her now, I think."

Jiang & Vimala

"Okay! See you soon!" Vimala chirped, hanging up her phone. She turned to Jiang. "Gwen said that they're over by the rose bushes! We just need to keep looking for Eliana, and we should find them!"

Jiang nodded at her friend, looking over at the designated area, and soon enough, saw Eliana's waving hand. She gestured over to the spot to Vimala, and the two of them strode on over, eager to meet up with their friends.

"There you are!" Jiang beamed, smiling widely at the duo. "I was wondering if we'd have to go look for you ourselves. Oh, and here's your application form, Gwen. And something...else, I thought you might be interested in. Both suit you perfectly, if you ask me."

At that moment, Jiang held up said application form, and a rather...interesting flyer. Said flyer depicted a the silhouette of a woman wrapped around a dancing pole, with a small caption at the bottom proclaiming it to be the 'Heisenberg Gentleman's Club'. Below that, a small line of text read, 'Hiring Now!'.

How on earth Jiang got such a flyer, especially from a school of all places, wasn't readily apparent. For all they knew, Jiang had been carrying that flyer around for just such an opportunity...

"I think you'd be the star of the show, Gwen! You should really give it a chance," Jiang proclaimed, a cat-like grin on her face. Her eyes drifted over to Eliana. "Or how about you, Ellie? I'm sure you'd get just as much attention..."

"Or how about you, Ellie? I'm sure you'd get just as much attention..."

Mouth half agape and cheeks ablaze, Eliana struggled weakly for words, “I—that is—oh, you uh, think so? I thank--oh wait, no, that’s a joke of course, yeah,...a joke—“ Both hands had subconsciously worked their way up her body and nervously began to fiddle about, one scratching absently at her cheek, the other dancing across her other arm, never settling for long before it kept moving. Eye contact had been ruled out entirely, her spaced out gaze directed firmly over the heads of all of her much smaller friends.

It was at this point that Gwen, completely unfazed by the entire thing, decided to take some pity on the poor flustered girl and turned her attention back to Jiang. “You know me so well, it’s almost eerie,” she drawled, grabbing both flyers from the small girls hands and neatly tucking them into her bag in one fluid swipe, “but I think you shouldn’t be selling yourself so short, we all know you’d be the real star of the show here, miss ‘I-could-kill-a-man-with-one-look’”

How much saying any of that actually helped Eliana was arguable, the awkward teen still an anxious wreck as she watched her friends go on. The thought of herself as an exotic dancer?—terrifying, the thought of Gwen or Jiang?—also terrifying, but for much, muchdifferent reasons, most of which boiled down to “why am I thinking this about my friends? That’s so rude and disrespectful and wow they’re really attractive actually”.

“But enough about my potential career choices, that’s a joke for another time I suppose—Right now, I’d really appreciate a bath,” Gwen chuckled, poking Jiang squarely in the forehead as she spoke, “if a certain perverted little punk wouldn’t mind, that is.”

Jiang

Jiang gave a chuckle, and stuck her tongue out at Gwen for a brief moment. "Fine, fine. If you so insist. My Dad's picking us up, as usual. Should be here, now."

The smaller girl led the group over to the parking lot, and low and behold, Jonathan Creed, one of Jiang's fathers, was there, waiting for them in his minivan. Jiang took shotgun, letting the other three take the rest of the seats in the back. Jiang exchanged some pleasantries with her father, and they were soon off. Around ten minutes later they arrived at Jiang's house, a rather nice but modest looking two-story house.

Jiang dashed in with her friends once the door was unlocked, and they all traveled up the stairs to her room. Jiang tossed her backpack on her bed once they were inside, and turned to her friends.

"So, who's going first?" the Chinese girl inquired, gesturing to the bathroom that connected with her bedroom. "Since you're all my guests, I'm willing to wait! Or...we could always double up, on the showers. Make things go faster that way."

Jiang punctuated that statement with a suggestive wink, looking at Eliana in particular as she said so.