Dance Myself Brand New • •

[Tennessee Rachel Cooper]

A year hadn’t felt like very long to Cooper now that she was back in New York. Her apartment with Vaughn still looked exactly the same as when she had left, the streets were still filled with the same tourists, businessmen and crazies that had been there long before she had left in the first place. Still, she was happy to be back now, hoping to use the summer to catch up on those missed adventures and tales that had only been told to her via phone calls and text messages. Cooper hadn’t told anyone but her brother when she would be returning to the city, so right now most people probably thought she was still on the west coast. She had wanted to rest up and sort her things out first, getting a new job and speaking to the university admissions about picking up her studies again.

She had only been back three days, but she was itching to go and catch up with Jack from the moment she had seen the familiar skyline as she drove her now well used car back towards New York. Cooper had forced herself to wait though, at least until she had seen her brother and told him everything she had to, omitting the part about why she had left to travel in the first place and what she had found. The trinkets she had brought herself were now homed in the apartment, her wardrobe washed and sorted through and the boring things she needed to sort out were done; Coop could go back to getting her social life back on track again!

After breakfast that morning, she had changed, bid her brother goodbye as he left for work and then glanced at the bag resting by her bedroom door. She had sent Jack a few little gifts along with the regular postcards, but there had been other things she had bought for her friend along the way; things that either screamed ‘Jack’, reminded Coop of one of their adventures or had seemed like a great idea after an afternoon of drinks with the friends she made along the road. Each gift was wrapped neatly in tissue paper, but all piled up still waiting to be delivered. Her coloured lips were drawn into a typical smirk and she grabbed her car keys, the bag and her jacket, shoving her feet into the well-worn Chucks. Without sending the photographer a text message or any other clue of her visit, Coop made her way across to her friend’s apartment, grinning the whole way about how brilliant a reunion this was going to be.

Using the old key she still had on her key chain for “emergencies”, Cooper let herself into the building easily enough. Normally, it was their back-up key for those drunken adventures or whenever Jay was carrying that much equipment that finding her own was a challenge in itself. Coop made her way up to Jay’s floor, running her fingers through her shorter hair, still not quite used to the new style. She had opted to have her outgrown locks cut off when she was in San Francisco and incredibly frustrated with how unruly it had become during her road trip, cascading further down her back than she was used to by that point. Still, she liked it and welcomed the small change to her appearance. Knocking loudly, just in case Jack was still asleep with some monstrosity of a hangover, or with Leander, Cooper stepped back so that she could get a good glimpse of her friend’s face when the door opened. If her other half was with her then he could go and find something else to do; Coop wanted her best friend to herself for the day!

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• • •

TAGGED! Jack!!
WORDS! 657
OUTFIT! Tomboy Cutie!
LYRICS! Bulletproof- - - Steel Magnolia
NOTES! <3

[Jack Makenzie Greyson]

The last year had passed in a bit of a blur to Jay. There was just so much that happened and yet not really anything at all. Until recently anyway, when it seemed fate wanted to throw her entire life upside. She went to the doctor again the day before to get the results and she didn’t know what to do with them. She’d thrown herself into her work for since the first appointment and now she was left pacing her apartment, running across town to feed a bird and wondering why she was the one feeding Dexter and not Leander. She hadn’t heard a word from him in nearly a week. Two more days and it would be official. Jay didn’t have the slightest clue where the man ran off to, but when she tried to go back to Leander’s place she couldn’t get in and he wasn’t answering his phone. She knew she’d hurt him when she practically pushed him out of the limo, it had killed her just as badly. But Jay knew Leander had a lot on his plate and she had thought at the time it would be a good idea to just let him have the night to himself, do whatever it was he needed to get done.

It was days like this that had Jay freaking out and wishing more than anything Coop was back in town, or she had a way of getting a hold of her. She loved the postcards and little trinkets from her friend’s travels but she really needed her best friend, her adoptive sister. She was sitting at the island in her kitchen nursing a cup of tea and looking through the photo albums of the duo’s reign of terror. It was going to be a while before she was going to be able to run the city like that again. She sighed, kicking her foot against the island as she flipped the page, continuing her trip down memory lane. She should be happy, ecstatic about it all, but she was depressed instead. She didn’t know what she was going to do with herself. She hadn’t told a soul about anything and barely spoke to anyone outside of work unless it was through text messages. She hadn’t wanted to see anyone in the off chance someone saw through the work ethic.

Jay was getting up to fetch herself another cup of tea to wallow in and pout over when she heard a knock on her door. She knew she didn’t let anyone in, and the building was secure, so it had to have been one of the neighbours. There were only four of them on the whole floor; she didn’t know the other well and two of the neighbours she shared the floor with weren’t even in the city at the moment. Rolling her eyes at what kind of trouble the only neighbour left had gotten up to. Logan was in his early thirties and as forgetful as someone twice his age. It never failed, at least once a week Logan was at her door asking for the spare key she kept for him or to borrow her laptop because he left his at work. “You would lose your head, Logan,” she said, opening the door as she searched through the little basket for his spare key. She didn’t actually look out the door until she found the key and was holding it out. Her eyes widened immediately and she barrelled into the hall without a thought to wrap her arms around the one person she needed most of all right now. “Coop! You’re back! Oh, my, let me look at you,” she said, leaning back and taking in the sight of her best friend. “Your hair is so nice,” she said, pulling her fried into the apartment. “I’ve missed you,” she said honestly, dragging the poor girl along to the kitchen. “I’ve got the kettle on, if you’d like,” she said, rambling. She knew she hadn’t really stopped talking but she was afraid if she didn’t stop talking about trivial things, she would start talking about seriously things. As much as Jay needed to talk about it all, she didn’t know how yet.

Tag || Coop!!
Words || 706
Clothes || Reunion!
Music || Young --Kenny Chesney
Notes || <3

[Tennessee Rachel Cooper]

Coop had weighed a lot of things up before she had taken her abrupt gap year and left the city. One of those things had been Jay’s wellbeing. She knew her best friend could take care of herself, but Cooper wanted her to be happy. If Jack had been going through anything bad or things were bothering her right before Coop planned to leave then the English girl wouldn’t have even started packing her bags. Things had been alright though; Jay had Leander, seemed happy with everything else and Coop knew that the man was crazy about her Irish “sister”. She had half expected to find him here when she knocked on the door and planned to throw him out by his shirt if he was the one to greet her. Cooper got on well with Leander, but today she wanted her friend and not the couple package. She had no doubt she’d have to put up with that more than she would like to since Leander had popped the big question that had melted Jay’s hopelessly romantic heart.

Coop was still a cynic when it came to love and the whole fairy tale ideal or thoughts of Prince Charming brought out her sarcastic side in full blazing glory. Her friend seemed to have found the guy who filled that part of her life though and Cooper had been happy for her; she still was, providing she was given no cause for concern. She might have been on the smaller side of the New York residents, but she was one the last people to underestimate. An English rose she may look like, but she had a short fuse and no one seemed to enjoy seeing what happened when she snapped. Luckily, these days she could channel that into her lacrosse games, but it still appeared whenever someone threatened her or anyone she cared about. It wasn’t always a lecture and a punch either; sometimes, Cooper put her intelligence to use and found a way to really get a person where it hurts. It just depended on what they had done to make her an enemy in the first place.

She had to raise a perfectly shaped eyebrow at her friend’s unusual greeting, but she laughed and easily returned her best friend’s hug. “I am! I wasn’t aware I had changed my name though!”

[/color] She much preferred Logan over her own given name, but she had come to terms with her dislike of that a long time ago, which was why she went by her surname! She laughed and reached up to touch the short locks again. “I’m still getting used to it; it was the result of morning cocktails in ‘Frisco.”[/color] She confessed, though she did love the style change. The psychology major didn’t need her studies to tell her something seemed different about her friend’s attitude, but after being away for a whole year, Cooper couldn’t quite work out if there was something bothering her or if it was just the result of the past year and everything that had happened while Cooper was out of the city. “You know how I take my coffee.”[/color] She said with her usual smirk as she perched on the seat at the island. “I also have a bag of goodies for you from around America.”[/color] She held out the bag and grinned, knowing they could have a good laugh over some of the things in there. “I’ll admit that old habits are hard to break and several of them were intoxicated purchases.”[/color] She forewarned, knowing that some of the trinkets she couldn’t even explain, other than they had been on the table in wherever she had been staying and bore a sloppy written note that just said “Jack” or something that suggested the Irish brunette. One morning she had been greeted by a neon pink post-it note that had “For my sister from another mister” scrawled on it in what appeared to be dark red lipstick.
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• • •

TAGGED! Jack!!
WORDS! 699
OUTFIT! Tomboy Cutie!
LYRICS! Bulletproof- - - Steel Magnolia
NOTES! <3

[Jack Makenzie Greyson]

When Cooper had left, Jack had been so happy for her to be getting out and travelling. Jay did so much of it herself, and sometime, when it was possible, dragged the English girl along for the fun. When she had left, it was like everything in Jay’s life was going good. And as much as she knew she would miss her best and closest friend, she also knew the other girl had to get out of the city for a while and find herself. But a year passed by and things sort of went downhill all of a sudden and Jay was left floundering wondering what she was going to do, being all by herself. Leander was missing, and she didn’t know where he was. And the young photographer didn’t want to ruin her best friends’ trip because she was having a really bad week. Her hopelessly romantic heart wasn’t going to freeze, she was too hopeless for that, but she was a teeny, tiny bit more cynical; she was praying that would change.

Jack brushed off her mistake, laughing at her own silliness. “Sorry!” she said, adding. “The guy down the hall moved in about nine months ago. Really sweet, but would lose his head if it wasn’t screwed on tight enough. He has spare apartment keys in all four apartments on the floor, just in case.” The new neighbour was a scatterbrain but adorable and harmless. Jay closed her eyes thinking about mimosas on Saturday mornings. “Mimosas,” She said slowly, savouring the word because that was as close as she was getting to it for a while. “It looks fantastic, Coop. Really cute,” she added, lifting her own hand to play with the chopped locks.

Instantly, Jay pulled the jar of instant coffee from the cupboard as soon as she stepped into the kitchen. For the last week, Jay had been drinking tea nearly constantly. It was her go-to drink when she was stressing, which was why she had an entire cupboard filled with boxes upon boxes upon bags of tea. She got herself a cup of tea, pushing her oversized mug to the side before taking down the matching mug and doctored the instant coffee to Coop’s preference. She brought the steaming mugs over to the island and pulled out a stool to fall onto. Jack clapped her hands, adding a happy dance to her excited gesture. “I love travel goodies! They're always so silly and absolutely perfect,” she said, continuing to dance to the beat of a song only she could hear. “Are there any other kind of travel gifts?” she asked, laughing and holding her hands out for this bag of goodies Coop had brought along with her. “What’s in the bag?” she asked, unable to wait to peek herself.

Tag || Coop!!
Words || 466
Clothes || Reunion!
Music || Young --Kenny Chesney
Notes ||Urgh -__- <3

[Tennessee Rachel Cooper]

Jack had been so happy with her life when Cooper left, that the English girl barely imagined that anything could go wrong, especially not when she had told her about the ring she now wore on the finger reserved for romance and happy endings. Coop was still as cynical as every when it came to love, even after the year she had spent “finding herself”. Coming so close to actually meeting her dad had definitely changed the young girl, even if she still had to approach the man someday to introduce herself properly. She had seen so much and experienced so many things as she made her way across the country, frequenting festivals and events across the country she had moved to only two years before. She was still sort of the same girl who had left, but she knew that Jay of all people would notice the subtle changes in her. Most of all, Coop felt more free-spirited now after seeing so much and living the way she had for the past year in motels and hostels, sometimes even just crashing in her car at some truck stop.

“Is he cute?”

[/color] Coop joked, peering down the hall as though he’d appear any minute now. She was by no means crazy about the opposite sex, but she did enjoy laughing about it and teasing Jay like this; she did it all the time, even when she wasn’t remotely interested. Laughing, Cooper shook her head. “Try Tequila Sunrises, at sunrise. We got a little carried away.”[/color] It had still been a great idea and an even greater morning all the same, but it was certainly something that couldn’t be repeated. It was one of those memories that was best only happening the once, regardless of how much fun it had been. Cooper wanted to keep most of the memories she had from her travels as unique as she could because they made it all the more special to think back. “Thanks, I love it. Vaughn kept staring though and telling me it was weird without it falling down my back. I’m pretty certain my brother has a hair fetish.”[/color] She loved him dearly, but her brother did have a way of saying some things that left Coop either laughing or confused as hell.

Cooper did notice how her friend poured tea for herself and coffee for the English girl. Mentally, Coop was wondering whose ass she got to kick as her welcome home gift, but she left it for now, just wanting to enjoy the time with her best friend for a little longer. “Let’s face it; between you and me, most things are silly.”[/color] Other than a handful of conversations they had when life threw unnecessary drama their way, the girls were rarely serious and spent more time acting daft and enjoying their youth in the city that was so different from the places they were originally from. “Some of them are legit! Your fridge will be beautiful by the time you’re done looking in there.”[/color] She had bought a magnet from every stop she made, purely as a joke to drive Jack a little crazy, though there were some funny ones in the bag, wrapped. Rolling her eyes, Coop sipped at her coffee and smirked. “Johnny Depp. You have to assemble him.”[/color] She sarcastically teased. “Take a look.”[/color] She sat back to enjoy her coffee and Jay’s reaction to half of the gifts. Some were cute dream-catchers and handmade jewellery sets, but others were insane things, like a nodding head surfer dude for the dashboard and some Malibu themed dice. Half of the stuff Coop rarely remembered buying, being on a semi-drunken prowl at the time, but she figured Jay would understand all of that.
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• • •

TAGGED! Jack!!
WORDS! 663
OUTFIT! Tomboy Cutie!
LYRICS! Bulletproof- - - Steel Magnolia
NOTES! <3

[Jack Makenzie Greyson]

Everything had been going good and Jay sometimes sat out on her patio and wondered if it was all Coop’s fault. She thought it teasingly, of course, but it seemed like she was Jay’s personal good luck charm and with her off figuring things out, Jay’s fun times went with her! Her life turned to drama city, population, everyone she would never expect. “He is and he’s thirty-two and just as clueless as he is gorgeous,” she said, smirking being honest with her closest friend. Her heart may have belonged to Leander, wherever the hell that man was, but she still had eyes and could appreciate a good looking man when she saw one. “It’s been forever since I’ve had any drinks at sunrise!” Jay said, reveling in the memory of those as well. The last time she’d pulled that was the week Coop had left for her trip. They’d spent the entire night out partying, and then found themselves having drinks at sunrise with a handful of people Jay couldn’t honestly remember the names of!

Jay shook her head, laughing at the image of Coop’s twin brother staring like his sister had lost her mind chopping off those pretty, long locks. Jay loved the new look, it was fresh and suited her best friend so well. “Vaughn can suck a lemon and buy a wig if he misses it that much,” she said, teasing. The young photographer had spent some time with her friend’s brother while she’d been away. They both missed her and whenever one of them got something in the mail, they usually met up that Saturday for brunch and relayed any new information the other hadn’t heard, unless Coop said otherwise. It kept them both from missing Coop while she was out figuring her life out. She had to admit though, there were times with Jay didn’t know how to take Vaughn; like his sister, she either ended up really confused or teary eyed with laughter.

Jay hated being stressed out. The irony of that and what she did for a living did not go unnoticed by the Irish girl. Stress and drama were her enemies and yet for the past little while, that was all her life seemed to be filled with. Leander hadn’t told a soul where he was going. When the fundraiser for the hospital was over, Jay had decided it would have been better if she went home to her own place for the night instead of going back to Leander’s. Jay had wanted to give her fiancé some space to deal with whatever it was he had going on. It annoyed her, like it always had, that he kept everything bottled up. She wanted some insight and she was never getting any. He always just brushed it off with a smile, a kiss and a wave of his hand before changing the subject. The fact that she had tea and not her usual coffee wouldn’t go unnoticed by her newly returned friend, and Jay knew it. But she didn’t want to start that conversation. She wanted to enjoy this welcome back moment with Coop, opening the surprise bag her friend had dragged along.

Jay waved her hand, laughing. “Well, it really wouldn’t be any fun if everything was serious and dull all the time, would it?” Jack liked that she was still young and had everything ahead of her. Things were going to change and a hell of a lot sooner than she would have liked but it was all part of the grand design of things. “I love magnets,” Jay said, grinning as she took a quick sip of her tea. She had next to none on her fridge, the stainless steel aside from a few pictures she’d wanted to see every time she went into the fridge for something. Jay’s hands slammed down on either side of the bag as she looked across at Coop. “I really don’t want to find Johnny Depp in this bag,” Jay said, sounding like she could be disturbed at what she would find if he was really in the bag. Finally though, she pushed her tea out of the way, in case things went flying and pulled the bag closer to peek inside before taking things out and looking at them before setting them aside and digging through the bag again. “I love these,” she said, holding a pair of purple earrings to her ear.

Tag || Coop!!
Words || 742
Clothes || Reunion!
Music || Young --Kenny Chesney
Notes || <3

[Tennessee Rachel Cooper]

During her travels, Coop had kept herself too busy to really think about everyone she had left in New York. They passed through her mind often enough, but she didn’t want to find herself in some hotel room in a town she had never even heard of, missing New York like it was a limb. Vaughn had already lectured her about not calling often enough for his liking or leaving brief messages on the machine when he hadn’t been around to pick up. She still felt terrible for not telling him the real reason why she had left the city in the first place, but she was his big sister, even if it was only by twenty minutes, and she felt like it was her duty to protect him. She had steeled herself enough to hear that their father may not want anything to do with them, but Vaughn was much more emotional to the rest of the world than she was and she didn’t want to be responsible for his own grief. She shrugged lightly and then smirked at Jay with a twinkle in her dark eyes. “I could take older and clueless. There were far too many teenage boys thinking that they were all that.”

[/color] Cooper may have had a fake ID of her own, but the success to making it work was to act like it was no big deal. The eighteen year olds she had bumped into on her travels seemed to think it gave them ultimate power and that a wink of the eye and a not-so-smooth line would do the trick to get a girl home with them. There was no guessing required as to how long it took the English girl to put them in their place when they tried it with her. “Seriously, my liver is going to hate me for this last year. I’m surprised I was ever able to walk, let alone drive.”[/color] Every time she had met someone new there had been a party not long after and the whole experience was wonderful, but extremely exhausting.

She let out a warm laugh at Jay’s response and nodded her head in agreement. She loved her brother and would do anything for him, but there were some drastic differences between the two of them that did cause them to clash from time to time. Vaughn seemed to loathe change while Coop embraced it eagerly enough, even if it was only something minor. “Yeah, I should probably be worried that my brother was more concerned about getting my hair cut than he was about the fact I have a new tattoo.”[/color] He had barely batted an eyelid at that, only asking her when he had caught a glimpse of the top of the design one day. Her brother had quirks she would probably never understand and she assumed he said the same thing about her to some of his friends, too.

Coop would turn a blind eye to Jay’s obvious problems for now, but she would corner the Irish girl before this afternoon was over and get her to confess to whatever was pushing her towards the tea, rather than the coffee the girls usually shared when they spent their afternoons together. She had missed this and wanted to get one thing out of the way before they moved onto something she suspected was a little more serious than magnets and baubles. “When am I ever serious and dull?”[/color] She arched an eyebrow and smirked at her friend, sipping at her coffee. Cooper saved the smart stuff for her psychology class and even then she managed to turn most of her seminars into debates between the different theories and the believers of those theories. She was surprised her professors hadn’t found a way to silence her already. “It’s okay; he outran me and my axe.”[/color] She waved her hand as though she was often found chasing celebrities about with a weapon like she was some kind of maniac. Laughing, Cooper nodded and shrugged once more, admiring the earrings too. “I have a pair in blue. For some reason, I see purple and think of you.”[/color] That really was why a fair few of the purchases were of that colour. Vaughn had ended up with endless amounts of forest green things too, though his gifts were a hell of a lot more practical than most of the things Jay had in that bag.
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• • •

TAGGED! Jack!!
WORDS! 776
OUTFIT! Tomboy Cutie!
LYRICS! Bulletproof- - - Steel Magnolia
NOTES! <3

[Jack Makenzie Greyson]

Coop had been gone a really long time and there was plenty that had gone on while she’d been away. Jay wished she could have called Coop a hundred times when things went south, but she wasn’t about to ruin the road trip her friend was on. She had gotten along well without her best friend before they met, she could get through a short space of time without her to run to. Contrary to popular belief, Jay did have other friends. She hardly saw any of them with work being the way it was. Things would be slowing down again soon enough so she would be able to push work aside here and there to spend time with people but in these busy weeks and months, there wasn’t much time at all to do much more than eat, sleep and work. Jay rolled her eyes, knowing all too well what Coop was talking about. “See! This is exactly why I’m even more thankful,” she said, not letting it show how far she felt like she’d fallen in just a few days.

Jay didn’t honestly know what she was going to do with herself. She fell so fast for Leander it was a little mind blowing and now he’s gone and she didn’t have the foggiest clue where he disappeared to. She had a few months to get over and right now that was where her mind was sitting. “The last year? Honey when did you get that ID and when did we meet? Both of our livers are going to hate us by the time we’re twenty five!” Jay hadn’t had as many nights out since Coop left on her trip but she did get out. But that was what these years were all about, having a good time, meeting new people and figuring the rest of life out. Jay started out earlier than a few people who actually waited until they were old enough, but where was the fun in that? She already had a good job in an industry that she wanted to work in, she had her own flat that she paid for with her own money and she had another life to take care of in Avie. She needed those nights out to make up for all the grown up things she was doing.

“You have new ink and you’re just telling me now? And I thought we were friends,” Jay said, faking disappointment. She was a little disappointed, but not at Coop, of course. She was annoyed at her situation because there was another favoured thing she couldn’t do for some time. Life was certainly going to be pretty dull for the next little while. Serious and dull were two words that would never be used to describe either one of the girls. “Never,” she admitted, grinning behind her larger than average mug. Jay held her hand to her heart. “Oh, thank goodness. I love his movies and with him in tiny pieces in my gift bag, he wouldn’t make any more!” Jay grinned, looking around her kitchen. The room itself wasn’t purple but the cookie jar was among a few other bits and bobs. Her living room on the other hand was a dark, lovely purple. “I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact it’s my favourite colour?” She asked, laughing. She reached into the bag, pulling out a bobble head toy. “How many drinks came before this?” she asked, teasing, setting the toy on the table top and tapping her finger.

Tag || Coop!!
Words || 592
Clothes || Reunion!
Music || Young --Kenny Chesney
Notes || <3

[Tennessee Rachel Cooper]

If there had been any problems with Vaughn or Jack, or any reason given to her at all to return to New York early, then she would have done, probably earning herself several speeding tickets along the way, too. She might have been able to charm herself out of a few of them, but patience was not a virtue of Coop’s and if she had to be back in NYC, then nothing would stand in her way; not even the flashing lights and men in uniform. She could be having all the fun in the world, and at times she had been, but one call and the people who meant the most to her would come before everything else. Besides, she didn’t have the confidence to go through with the actual reason why she left New York so it really had been sort of an unproductive year. Her grandparents would never let her hear the end of that, but if she told them the truth then she would be lectured and there was nothing Cooper hated more than getting lectured.

Cooper shrugged her shoulders and reached out for the cup in front of her. “Hey, I’m English; my ID was actually legitimate for six months.”

[/color] She said, as though it made up for the fake ID she carried in her purse for whenever alcohol was around. She had been acting against her age since she could, though, and people could shake their heads and scold her for doing things “she wasn’t ready for”, but that wouldn’t change how the blunt girl acted. She only got to live this life once and her youth wouldn’t last forever. Someday, something would happen to stop her from frequenting the clubs every weekend and there would be another life she had to lead instead of this one of care-free student. She didn’t want to grow old with regrets and wishing she made more of her time when she was in college and travelling. Coop would rather live it up now and leave the whole back seat ride until she was approaching thirty and couldn’t pull off the revealing outfits so much. However that day would come from her own choices and not because someone gave her a lecture or told her that she should do it.

Smirking, Cooper dropped the denim jacket from her arms and twisted in her seat to show Jay the new permanent work of art between her shoulder blades. It had been an impulsive decision during her travels, but she never saw anything wrong with getting some new ink added to her pale body. She loved it and wouldn’t rule out getting a fourth piece added to her collection at some point in the future. “I’m sure Tim Burton could rebuild him and make a movie out of it.”[/color] She said, smirking and resting her head on her right hand. It had been too long since they had just relaxed in the kitchen like this, but Coop had a feeling the relaxing wouldn’t last for long; Jay was drinking tea and Coop wasn’t the kind to ignore such obvious signs of trouble. “Possibly.”[/color] Glancing over the bobble head that emerged next, Coop had a hard time keeping the hot liquid in her mouth. “I don’t know. I woke up and it was on the nightstand, just nodding at me.”[/color] There were too many nights that she didn’t remember and too many odd purchases brought on those same nights.
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• • •

TAGGED! Jack!!
WORDS! 612
OUTFIT! Tomboy Cutie!
LYRICS! Bulletproof- - - Steel Magnolia
NOTES! <3

[Jack Makenzie Greyson]

The past year for Jack had been a bit of a blur simply because she’d had to do without the Louise to her Thelma. She’d made up for the loss of her troublemaking best friend while she’d been off finding herself, with Chloe, Leander and the lot but there was a large part of her that had missed the English girl every time she went out. She had a shot for her friend every time she was out for drinks and dancing because it just wasn’t the same without her. And now that she was back, things wouldn’t change all that much; she just hadn’t figured out a way to say that yet. And that alone was killing Jack. She was already beating herself up for everything she’d done for the past while. She knew she’d been clueless but she felt like she should have known something was up. And yet, she’d been just as in the dark as everyone else. But she’d spent enough time crying over it the last twenty four hours, now it was time to make plans and figure things out. But, she would wait until after Coop left again. She just didn’t know how to tell her best friend and the closest thing she’d ever had to a sister.

“Oh, of course, however could I forget that fine detail,” Jay said, her words dripping with sarcasm. She had moved just before getting any ID in Dublin, so she couldn’t use the same excuse though she truly wished she could. The pair hand bonded quickly over their shared dislike of the rules. Jay loved bending them to fit her needs and often enough breaking them entirely. It wasn’t always just for the thrill of it, though the adrenaline played a part in the fun and games. Since she’d been old enough to walk and talk, she’d been twisting the rules around. When she was older, despite not being able to get out often enough for her liking, she still bend and broke the rules to suit her whims. Her parents always knew, she couldn’t keep it from them even when she told them she was spending the night at a friend’s house, they knew. But they were good parents and had raised her right. They trusted her to at least not get caught doing what she was going to do anyway. Jay wasn’t entirely sure how long before she’d woken up with a stop sign in her wardrobe they knew about her antics, but after that, it wasn’t difficult to guess they were aware of their only daughter’s late and eventful nights.

Jay leaned across the table to get a closer look at Coop’s new ink. Tattoos were one of Jay’s many loves. She was constantly searching for something new she would love for a lifetime to add to her pieces. She was careful with her work, to get things that meant something to her. The next she was thinking about was a date; just two numbers, a month and a day. It was nothing outwardly important to anyone at all but one of the most significant days of her life; that is, if Leander ever came back. “Nice,” she said, sitting back down again. “Wherever you had that done, they did a marvellous job of it,” she added, picking up her mug again. Jay shook her head laughing at the thought of a movie like that. “He would if he could and I would be the first in line to see it,” Jay admitted between the giggles. She could easily picture herself camped outside the cinema for the entire night before just to be the first to get a seat for a movie just crazy enough to be a Tim Burton film. Jay looked across at her closest friend at the single word reply with her brows pushed together. Not a second later, she was shaking her head with a playful glare replacing the confusion. “You didn’t even remember what colour that was when you picked these out, did you?” Jay asked, trying to bite back the laughter that was threatening to leave her. Holding back the laughter didn’t last long though before it was erupting from her loudly. It was the first real laugh that came from Jay in too long, she thought. It felt good to laugh like that again. And she knew if Leander never came back, it would get easier to laugh; it would just take a little time. “That has me worried about what else I’ll find buried in this bag,” Jay said sounding cautious as she put her hand in again.

Tag || Coop!!
Words || 772
Clothes || Reunion!
Music || Young --Kenny Chesney
Notes || <3

[Tennessee Rachel Cooper]

It was probably a good thing that Cooper had taken the year off and travelled alone. If Jay was with her they’d both probably have arrest warrants out in several states and even more photos and memorabilia of nights that they couldn’t remember. If she had chosen to be an honest “big sister” and tell Vaughn the truth and bring him along, then he probably would’ve spent the entire year chasing after Coop and dragging her back from half of the trouble she managed to find as her car crossed state lines and borders. If Vaughn had joined her at all then it was almost a guarantee that only one twin would have returned to New York and the other would probably be buried in a desert somewhere; she loved her brother, they lived together because they enjoyed the company, but if they were confined to a car for that long them one of them was bound to turn crazy on the other. It would probably have been Coop, too, and there would probably have been a hangover involved.

There had been so many orders of “don’t do this” and “please, do that” in Coop’s life that it hadn’t taken very long for the young girl to find her rebellious streak. She might have been able to hold her halo in place long enough to fool her grandparents and some of the teachers at the expensive boarding school, but that was about it. Vaughn, more than anyone, knew the mischievous streak of his sister and just how bad it could get, but when she was in the company of Jack, he didn’t even attempt to intervene. She might have been different if she had ever known a real functioning family in her life, but with a flight risk mother, a faceless father and grandparents overly trying to make up for their past mistakes, Cooper found the rebelling to be the best way to deal with everything that life managed to throw at her. “I’ve only been gone a year; it’s really not good enough.”

[/color] Coop shook her head and tutted, pretending like this was such a letdown. It was a rare moment when the two girls shared a legitimately serious conversation since both of them seemed to favour sarcasm and dry wit over anything else they knew.

Coop peered back at what she could see of the ink work from the angle she sat at. She loved it and had told the artist just as much when he had finally finished the piece. “It was on some little bay in San Francisco. I spent far too much time compared to everywhere else.”[/color] It was true, and it was also where she had kicked back and relaxed the most. Other places had stimulated her mind and her thoughts just as much, but there was something about the people she had met in ‘Frisco and the time she had spent there that had just helped wash away all of the worries that she hadn’t even realised she was carrying. If she didn’t love New York so much then she would probably have stayed out there, but it would certainly be the place she headed whenever she needed a break from the school stresses. “Better not tell him. I’m sure he’d find a way to do it.”[/color] She smirked, brushing the hair from her eyes as she twisted back around in her seat and settled again. Hitting Jay with a playful glare and eye roll of her own, Coop waved the suggestion away with a flick of her wrist and reached for her coffee again. “You were probably lucky if I remembered the day of the week or even my own name. Oh, there was this one kid in Miami who refused to call me Cooper. He kept demanding that I give him ‘a real name’. Guy was lucky he left the bar with all of his teeth still in his mouth.”[/color] She told her tale before raising the mug to her lips. It was no surprise to hear that Cooper lost her temper more times than she could count while crossing the country; it happened on a regular basis without her so much as batting an eyelid or contemplating an apology. She was stubborn, cynical and had a mouth that could shock most people and Cooper never really found herself wanting to hide any of that from anyone. “Unfortunately, the hot Italian guy from Maine refused to sit in the bag for three months, so I couldn’t gift him to you.”[/color] She sighed dramatically as though her original plans had been hopelessly dashed.

Coop leaned back and allowed Jay a few more minutes to laugh and search through the bag of random goodies that probably had no real life application at all. Then, leaning forward until her weight was on her elbows, the young English girl fixed her friend with a hard and knowing look. “So, are we going to keep going through the warm and loving reunion or can we cut to the part where you tell me what’s wrong? I know there’s something biting you in the arse.”[/color] Jay could deny it if she liked, but Cooper wouldn’t buy it and she would push the matter. She hadn’t returned to New York to pretend like nothing was the matter. If there was something wrong in Jay’s life then Coop wanted to do what she could to fix it, especially if it meant yelling at someone or getting to play dirty. It had been too long.
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• • •

TAGGED! Jack!!
WORDS! 961
OUTFIT! Tomboy Cutie!
LYRICS! Bulletproof- - - Steel Magnolia
NOTES! <3

[Jack Makenzie Greyson]

There was a part of Jack that had wished she’d known her best friend was going on that road trip of self-discovery. She would have tagged along, with or without Coop’s agreement. There were plenty of people that wouldn’t have cared if she’d gone for a little while to figure things out before coming back and facing reality. Her parents would have gladly taken care of Avalanche for her. Her boss knew she could do her job from anywhere, at least part of it. The only one that would have had a problem with it was Leander and now even he wasn’t around to say anything about it. She was foolish and reckless and sometimes it was like he didn’t see her; see who she was. She wasn’t some docile little thing, willing to do whatever asked of her. She asked questions, she got into people’s faces and she demanded answers. So maybe it had been a good thing Coop never said anything until she’d already left the state. The trouble the two of them would have gotten into would have landed them in all sorts of hot water. And still Jay managed to get into all sorts of trouble without the Louise to her Thelma. “Only a year? Is that all? I thought it was a lifetime,” Jay said keeping up with the dry tones. The brunette photographer really hates serious conversations. She always felt like someone was in trouble and it almost never turned out well.

“San Francisco is great. I love it there,” Jay said, remembering the week she’d spent there only a couple years before for work. She didn’t have the chance to see much when she’d been there since it was work nearly twenty-four seven for the crew, but it had been fun all the same. Jay was always planning on going back when things were clear for work and she didn’t need to be in the office nearly every day or out scouting; when she could take some time out of her busy schedule to actually explore the city. “I’m sure Tim Burton would be too busy to take a call from little ol’ me,” she said smiling. She was determined and could talk herself into or out of nearly any situation, only now realising there were just some things she couldn’t talk herself out of. Jay’s mug made a loud clunk noise as it slammed into the surface of the table. “You let him walk out of there? I’m shocked Coop. Shocked and impressed and stunned,” she said, running her finger absently around the rim of the mug. There had been a few nights that Jay could remember that had the young photographer practically dragging her best friend from the beginnings of a fight. If the guy deserved it, Jay let Coop go a few rounds with his face before she pulled her away. Jay let go of her mug to hold both her hands to her mouth. “Italian is my favourite! How dare he not cooperate for you!” she said sadly. Jay was by no means an actor of any kind but she could keep up a charade long enough to get her way.

Jack was scared. That’s what everything came down to. She was a scared little girl with too much of the world weighing down on her. Leander was gone with nothing left behind to keep her from fearing that he would never come back; and all because of her and the silly, useless fight they’d had. She felt like if he never came back it would be all her fault. “Could we go through the warm and loving reunion a bit longer?” she asked, already knowing the answer and sighing because she knew the answer. “Leander’s gone,” she said dully, into the steam coming from her tea. “Almost a week now.” She started with the easy stuff because it was just easier to say, easier to spit out because she’d already come to terms with it. He’d been gone almost a week now with nothing to tell her he was okay. At this point, she was just waiting for Chloe or his mother to show up looking for the things he’d left.

Tag || Coop!!
Words || 703
Clothes || Reunion!
Music || Young --Kenny Chesney
Notes || <3

[Tennessee Rachel Cooper]

Coop’s reason for the secrecy had been so that she didn’t actually have to reveal why she was leaving the state in the first place. Okay, so in the end she hadn’t gone through with her original plan, but the fiery English girl played it tough for a reason and she didn’t want someone whispering encouragement or pity in her ear. Things might not have gone as she had planned, but she had known all along that she couldn’t predict the outcome. Maybe she would try again and maybe she wouldn’t. The only future Coop worried about what was bar this weekend would be starting off in. Plus, by not telling anyone, there was no one to try and talk her out of it. Not that it would’ve changed her mind at all. Cooper was stubborn enough to stick to something once she had decided on it, regardless of how many people argued against it or told her otherwise. Sometimes she truly believed in her choice and other times it was just too much fun to piss people off. “Trust me, in some of the towns I stopped in for snacks and directions, I think a year might have been a lifetime.”

[/color] There really were some odd looking places out there, and only a few miles from a signpost Cooper could easily recognise as listing popular tourist destinations on it. Certain ones had her glad she had, slightly randomly, decided to take her Lacrosse stick with her. That thing combined with Coop’s swing could probably clear off any of the creeps if they had even dared try to follow her.

“Mmhm”[/color] Coop agreed, nodding her head. “If I ever need to change my identity and go on the run you can bet your sweet arse that I’ll be there, sipping mimosas with breakfasts and living under some exotic alias.”[/color] She made it sound like she already had it all figured out. The again, Coop had spent most of her life making lists of the names she would change hers to if she had the chance. Very few people discovered the given name that her mother had thought whimsical and a good idea. If she hadn’t gone out about having a drug-free birth with the twins, Coop might have blamed them, but instead she could only sigh and roll her eyes at the flaky woman who had actually brought her and Vaughn into the world. Coop didn’t even want to imagine how she might have turned out if Annabelle has stuck around to actually raise the both of them. “I don’t know. I think the man might have spidey senses about Johnny plans.”[/color] She added a slight wiggle of her fingers to make it seem more eerie, but the chuckles got the better of her. A smirk twitched at the corner of Coop’s lips before it extended across her face. “I said he left the bar with all of his teeth in his mouth. I said nothing about him walking out.”[/color] She had ‘accidentally clipped’ him with the heels she had been wearing at the time and sent the idiot to greet the floor with a nice face-plant. In her expert opinion she didn’t think he had broken his nose, but he had been screaming differently as the bouncer escorted him out. “I know! I told him how disappointed you’d be, but he just wasn’t having any of it. I think their might have been a language barrier there.”[/color] She sighed again and waved her hand as though she had no more words, but Coop couldn’t even remember a time in her life when she had been rendered speechless.

Coop shook her head and gave a one shouldered shrug. “While you might like to, I only have so much warmth and love to give out and I’ve hit my quota. If we go any further I’m scared feelings might appear.”[/color] She wasn’t really as cold as she made herself out to be, but it was a long running joke now and one that she returned to without hesitation each and every time. It was probably why new people she met were either intimidated, confused or a little weirded out by her. Her sarcastic habits didn’t do much to help there, though. Arching her eyebrow, Coop’s back straightened and she fixed Jay with a hard look. “By ‘gone’ you better mean dead. Because otherwise that’s exactly what he’ll be when I get my hands on him.”[/color] She said, already jumping to her protective and aggressive mode. No one got away with hurting the people closest to her. She had taken on Vaughn’s ex-girlfriends before and Leander would be no different if he broke Jack’s heart. Just because Coop didn’t believe in the idealistic fairytale romance, it didn’t mean she would sit back and let others lose their hopes, too.
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• • •

TAGGED! Jack!!
WORDS! 845!
OUTFIT! Tomboy Cutie!
LYRICS! Bulletproof- - - Steel Magnolia
NOTES! <3

[Jack Makenzie Greyson]

Jack didn’t know why Coop left and she didn’t care either. She was just happy her friend was back. There were a lot of weekends they needed to catch up on and though certain activities would be out of the question for the time being, she could still get out there and do what she loved most; dance and have fun. She could still get into some trouble and until she couldn’t, she was going to. There was nothing that could be said that would stop her of that. She was young and healthy; she could get away with it. There would be too many years coming up when it wouldn’t be possible to play like now. Ten years down the road, there would be too much life going on to run from the authorities like they did now. [color=ac22ec“I could just imagine,”

[/color] she said, laughing as she shook her head. There were enough road trips under her own belt for work to know there were places that should just stay off the map.

“Good to know where I’ll be able to find you when you take off, leaving your ID behind. Make sure you grab a new one for me, too, would you?” she asked, grinning. It wasn’t like before now she felt like she needed a getaway. With everything happening the way it had over the last week and a half, it was a wonder Jay was sane. First the fight when they finally found time to laze about together after her trip to Ireland, which had her in hospital the next day getting a cast put on. And when she had been done there, she wasn’t in the mood to be dealing with Leander and whatever he was holding back from her so she’d gone off to work, only to be told there was nothing to be done, especially since she couldn’t cart around equipment. She had thought maybe, when the ball came around, things would have settled, but then she put her foot in it again and Leander left in the dead of night. Jay shook her head, bringing her cast clad hand up to brush away the hair falling into her eyes. “Then my call should go through immediately!” Jay said, laughing, Coop’s gestures getting the better of her as well. “There’s the Coop I know and love. I was starting to wonder if I had to make a call to Vaughn,” she teased, giggling. Jay nodded her head, seriously as though the conversation was completely normal; and for them it was. “Such a shame you never took those Italian lessons when you had the chance. That fake Prince was really into you,” she said as if it were lesson learned and too late to go back to it now.

“Heaven forbid we have actual feelings show up uninvited,” Jay said, holding her hands to her chest in a shocked pose. By now the long standing joke was more habit than anything else so both girls ran with it for a few minutes before another topic took hold of them and the conversation shifted. “Chloe hasn’t shown up with tears in her eyes and unintelligible ramble so I’m pretty sure he’s alive and well somewhere. I just don’t have a clue where. No one does. As far as I know, he didn’t tell anyone where he was going when he left. He just packed up and went,” she said, lifting her mug to her lips for a couple slow sips to calm herself down. She was already over the depressing stages of what she thought was abandonment. She was at anger now. “I was going to go by his place tomorrow to pick up the rest of what I’ve left around there,” she said with a sigh. She’d been slowly picking things up since she went over the day after the masquerade ball and found him gone.
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Tag || Coop!!
Words || 652
Clothes || Reunion!
Music || Young --Kenny Chesney
Notes || <3[/size]

[Tennessee Rachel Cooper]

Cooper never imagined herself with the white picket fence and the happy little family. She just didn’t fall for that happy illusion that was apparently the thing most girls were supposed to do. So, in her mind, there were no thoughts of calming down or living a modest, routine driven lifestyle. She enjoyed her freedom and while her grandparents constantly told her one day her opinions would change as she matured, Coop refused to believe them. And, even if they did change, she was the last girl you’d find fussing over Mr. Right, wondering about wedding dress styles and little suburban houses. Her and Jay may joke about their differences on the matter, but they really did exist and Coop honestly thought that the teasing and the playful taunting was the only way that one could put up with the other when it came to these matters. “Yeah, well you’re not about to find me living in some little backwoods town, sipping iced tea in my seventies.”

[/color] She said, as though it needed to be thrown out there into the cosmos as fact.

“Sure thing. I’m thinking crazy stripper names would be the best way to keep the mystery.”[/color] She joked, as though this conversation was actually happening. They had evaded too much trouble so far in their young lives and Coop didn’t think it was a skill that she would lose overnight. Besides, most of the time she spoke without thinking and that alone usually silenced people long enough for her to walk out of the middle of whatever had pissed her off in the first place. It happened too often to count, but Coop didn’t have room in her life for petty squabbles and silly cases of drama that seemed to follow folk from the high school corridors. She’d rather say what other people were thinking and end the matter sooner rather than later, even if it did earn her a few enemies along the way. “Vaughn’s first reaction when I appeared at our door was to ask how many arrest warrants there were. I’m relatively sure the boy expected worse from me.”[/color] There was no playing the angel around her twin, and he already knew too much about what she was capable of. Smiling a falsely sweet smile, Coop flicked her dark eyes across to look at Jay. “I’m sure the things I usually say are universally understood.”[/color] Even if the language barrier was there, people could usually detect the blind rage in Coop’s dark eyes, or she made her opinion very clear with less than polite gestures. Most people found themselves a little shocked by the English girl who appeared, at first, to be a polite country lady, like her grandmother had hoped for.

Keeping her expression blank, Coop sipped at her mug and then lazily let her gaze move around the room. “I don’t think I have feelings for that to happen.”[/color] Her wit was as dry at ever, but even at times when Coop did feel emotional, she rarely let it show. Her sarcasm was as much of a shield as it was her general state of humour. Reaching for her phone while she listened, Coop ran through her contact list. She wasn’t best pleased with Leander right now, and that was putting it politely. “Well, she’ll be crying by the time I’m through with him.”[/color] She mumbled, quickly sending a heated message to the cell number she had for him. He might not want to talk to Jay, or anyone else, but Coop’s persistence only grew when the people she cared about needed it to. Eventually, he would talk, he would give an explanation and then she would thank him with physical pain. Looking back at Jay, Coop rested her phone on the table and shook her head. “I’ll help, but I’m also breaking things there.”[/color] She was also thinking of worse things to do, but she would keep those to herself. Coop’s imagination was a dark place to be at times.
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• • •

TAGGED! Jack!!
WORDS! 706!
OUTFIT! Tomboy Cutie!
LYRICS! Bulletproof- - - Steel Magnolia
NOTES! <3