2010-03-14: The Ground Rules

Starring:

Hallis_V4icon.pngJamie_V4icon.pngTrent_V4icon.png

Date: March 14, 2010

Summary:

Sydney leaves the children in Hallis' incapable hands… they get treated to the rules of the house.


"The Ground Rules"

Hallis' Apartment

When Hallis finished talking to them earlier, she left Jamie (and thus Trent who came in on the second trip) watching TV. And she did watch for a time, watching the afternoon cartoons while Sydney left for the last trip. Not much of a TV watcher, though, Jamie didn't last long at that activity, and she's found some other entertainment. Barefoot, she stands by the door, facing the step up to the upper half of the apartment, having chosen a thin path clear of furniture ahead of her. Biting her lip in concentration, she goes running forward. Using the step like a springboard, she launches herself forward and high enough into the air to flip forward, covering quite some distance (for her size, anyway) in the process. She catches the floor again with her hands and tucks into a roll, her momentum carrying her forward until she ends up back on her feet, with only a tiny bounce to disperse the last of her momentum. She frowns a little, though, looking back, as if not quite happy with her display of gymnastic skill.

After his things are unpacked, well a few things anyway. Without the amp plugged in, or any power source at all, he's sitting on the floor, off in a corner somewhere away from Jamie's acrobatics, just plucking away at his guitar. With one of the tabs music books in front of him. However, without the amp or anything, and his finger movements very light, the guitar sounds more like an acoustic, maybe even a bit softer then an acoustic. He's bound and determined to learn the particular song he's working on.. He's not doing too badly, but he's not exactly a pro either. He misses a few notes for sure. But he's determined. Looking up to watch Jamie a bit and grins, and though he is not a judge of such things. "Looking good there sis."

The door to the bedroom opens up just as the young girl goes flying through the air toward the tiny socialite and Hallis lets out a shriek loud enough to make a banshee jealous. Her blue eyes are wide with fright, panic, and a small amount of anger. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Without Sydney here to control them, the young blonde is left without a nanny or some kind of caregiver for the pair of wards.

"Into the living room, now." She commands, her tone of voice indicating that she's not going to put up with any argument. "We're going to go over the ground rules." With that, she places a hand on the shoulder of the girl and leads her back toward the lavish great room of the apartment.

Jamie jumps and spins back around towards Hallis at her shriek, startled. She blinks at the question, "I.. I was just practicing." Biting her lip, she follows along with Hallis' lead, walking with her into the living room. Her shoes and socks are still there on the floor, but she makes no move to put them on, just looking towards Trent and then back up to Hallis.

Trent peers as well, last time he heard anyone yell like that was when he was on the streets yet. He tucks the guitar back in it's case, carefully. He's then on his feet which are also bare. But pretty much the second he walked into the apartment, his shoes and socks came off. He's following along, not too much further behind the pair then it took for him to put the guitar away. And he never closed the lid.

Very carefully, Hallis moves around the zebra skin fur that lays in the middle of the living room floor. "Rule number one, no walking on the zebra." She points down to the fur and then looks at both of her temporary charges with a stern eye. "This fur? Is hot lava. Hot hot hot lava. You play that game, right?" The celebutante has actually no clue what kids play, it was as though she went from 5 years old to adult. Waving her hand dismissively, she shakes her head and lets out an exasperated sigh. "Of course you do. Alright, rule one is no walking on the fur. It's expensive. I had to go all the way to Africa and overheat on a safari in order to watch someone shoot it. I'm not planning on going back there."

Jamie's eyes widen slightly as she looks down to the fur, "That's from a real zebra?" She looks a little lost at the mention of a game but she nods quickly to the rule, "Won't forget." She looks at the fur a moment longer, as if trying to imagine it alive, but then looks back up to Hallis.

Trent spots the zebra and just frowns, but doesn't say anything. He steps around it, then just takes up a spot on the carpet somewhere. Casting Jamie a look.. that probably clearly says, they're not going to have any fun here at all.

Hallis makes a motion toward the 50 gallon fish tank where the two little goldfish reside. "This, is George Three and Adam II. They are my fish. This is their home." Her finger gets very close to the tank without actually touching the glass. "Rule number two? No tapping on the fish tank. It makes goldfish deaf. I like my fish to be able to hear me when I'm talking to them, so no tapping on the fish tank."

The dainty doll strides across the zebra fur and stands in the middle of it, clearly ignoring her own rule to stay off of it. "Now, rules number three, four, and five are pretty much all the same. No digging in the closets. No wearing my clothes or trying on my shoes. No playing with my makeup." She gives a pointed look at Trent with the final one. He's a guitar player so he obviously will be wearing makeup one day. "Understood?"

Jamie shrugs a little to Trent, and steps to sit by him. She looks to the fish tank and wrinkles her nose, "Tapping scares fish, I wouldn't do that anyway." At the last rule she nods quickly and says, "Yeah, wouldn't do that. I gotta wear special types of clothes, so they don't shrink or anything when they get wet. Makeup doesn't like water much either." She doesn't seem as bothered, at least so far, as Trent. Of course, she probably just gave Hallis a clue of more stuff she'll have to consider in her rules.

Trent watches Hallis, "My Aunt had one.." pointing at the rug, "But her's was a tiger. I kinda learned that one the hard way." then looks at the fish tank, "Oh they're cute. My parents had fish." he says, "So I learned that one a long time ago." Then at the mention of makeup not realizing, if hegoesprohe might wear some. But at his age, he doesn't see it. "Well girls wear makeup, so you don't gotta worry about that with me either." Peering at Jamie he leans over and murrmers a bit too loud, but he tries to whisper, "And this is what it was like at Aunt Muriel's house. Only worse."

Two thin arms cross over the tiny woman's chest as Trent whispers, her sharp blue eyes narrowing just a little. "Rules six and seven… No going into my bedroom, EVER. When my bedroom door is closed, no noise. None. Even the contractors don't come over until I've finished with my beauty sleep. And speaking of the contractors, no bothering them. They'll be finished with your rooms when they get to it. Okay?" There's a very polite smile at the end of that little part, strained by the obvious tension that Sydney's little friend feels by being trapped with the two.

"No peeing on the toilet seat, that's rule number eight. Number nine is the toilet seat belongs down. Not up. Down. If there is pee on the toilet seat or it's left up, you get to scrub it with your own toothbrush." Then the young woman's hips sway as she sashays toward the kitchen. "Rule number ten, no drinking my special water. It's the kind in the bottles marked carb free and low calorie. Don't drink it, I'm the one on the diet."

Now the rules are starting to add up, Jamie doesn't look quite so cheerful. Especially at the 'no noise' rule. "How are we supposed to do anything not making any noise? Even watching TV makes noise." She looks to Trent and says, "Well, Sydney will be here too, not like there." Then she stands up to follow Hallis into the kitchen, and says, "What's so special about your water? Water's water, except when stuff's added to it. Can't take stuff away from it."

Trent makes an odd face, "Well I don't do that stuff anyhow. And always put down the seat." He seems a bit indignant about that. But then he's rising and following them to the kitchen. "We gotta have a little fun though, that's what being a kid is all about." He's usually not snippy, but at the mention of the water now.. "And with all the stuff they add to that water, it wouldn't taste very good anyway."

"Rule number eleven! Don't ask me any questions. If you have to ask, the answer is just 'no'. It doesn't matter if it makes sense or not." Hallis is winding her way around the kitchen, through the dining room, and back into the living room. Her steps are light and she seems graceful enough as she leads the pair of children back to the room where they're not allowed to step on the hot hot lava but once again… she crosses it.

In the corner stands a harp, not just any harp, but an actual orchestral harp that's been either gilded or painted gold. "There are a lot of expensive things in my house. Don't touch them. If it looks expensive, it probably is, so don't touch it. If there's a fingerprint anywhere, I'll know you've touched something." Her fingers run along the strings of the instrument, letting them hum out a soft chord before she looks toward the girl and boy. Then she smiles, "So… any questions?"

Jamie frowns at rule number eleven, but shuts up. For the moment anyway. She sits down again when they get back to the living room, and she immediately starts asking questions when asked, "What about my acrobatics, can I do that? What about baths? You do have a bathtub, right? Does Sydney have to follow all the same rules?"

Trent sits next to Jamie again. Letting her ask all the questions. "Well she better have a tub, or at least a shower and let us use it, or we'd stink up the place." Grinning at Jamie, he leans in and whispers something to her.. this time quiet enough that Hallis won't hear it. "That's an awful lot of rules. We're not going to have any kind of fun here."

"There's a gym down on the fifth floor of the building or something… When Mister E. or Andra comes back they can show you. Mister E. is my chauffeur and bodyguard, Andra is my personal assistant… so… You can ask them questions." The socialite pauses for a moment before she regards the whispering boy with a straight face, a general air of displeasure looms around the young woman. She's never had to deal with a boy his age before. In fact, aside from shopping excursions, Trent is likely the first one she's actually had to deal with first hand. "Baths, yes, showers, yes, just don't touch my makeup. Don't use all of the shampoo and conditioner without letting someone know that we need more. Don't bother Andra's dog, he's big and will likely eat your arm or something. That should be all of the rules, for now. If you will excuse me, I need to study my lines… I'm auditioning for a part in a few days and I want to be perfect."

Jamie nods quickly in agreement with Trent, though she brightens immediately at the mention of a gym. "Really? Ok! At Fred's building I had to use the roof." Then she asks, "Does Mr. E and Andra know about powers? Oh, and where are we gonna sleep? Gotta be waterproof, I sometimes change into water during bad dreams." Then she nods a little again, and says, "Won't bother him, and good luck on the audition!"

Trent grins and snugs Hallis. He then peers at Jamie, at the mention of a gym. "Wow, that would be a good place for you to practice, and maybe I can buff up too." he at least is smiling now and flexing his arms, as if he were some body builder type.. already. "That way I don't have to worry about bullies so much." He then looks to Hallis, "They got self defense kinds of training there?"

Hallis' knee jerk reaction to being hugged by the child is to freeze and emit a whine akin to something you'd hear from someone afraid of snakes at one is crawling toward them. "I don't think either of them do but they might recognize you from the video anyway." Slowly, she removes herself from the grip of the boy and takes a few steps back. "I don't know, I don't go down there, but if you need a self defense class just tell them that I sent you down and they can bill me." How fortuitous! "As for sleeping arrangements… I don't know. I'll leave that up to Sydney. I have one extra room, it's about the size of Andra's so all three of you won't fit. I will probably go sleep at George's at night so Sydney can have my room… She can do whatever needs to be done about the rest. Waterproofing… I think maybe Andra has a plastic sheet on her bed for some odd reason."

Jamie giggles just a little at Hallis' reaction to Trent's hug, but then she nods quickly. "Maybe I better tell them. 'Cause, I'm not very good at hiding it, and I hate hiding anyway. And they'll probably have to know why we're here too, with Sydney coming home from the library every day and everything." Then she says, "It's ok, then, Trent and I can share the spare bedroom." She doesn't seem to have any issues of wanting her own room.

Trent nods, "Yup we can share, I can make a bed on the floor, or something." He doesn't seem to care if he has his own room or not either. He nods though at Hallis' words, "Well I'll look into it. If it's not available, I can at least try to buff up a little." As much as a boy his age can anyway. At least it's something to do here…

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