Her mother scoffed loudly. "tripped. Suuure. I must have given birth to the clumsiest child ever, then. She's been tripping since she was 13!"

Juniper was staring at her friend, partly because he just flat out lied to cover for her, and also because it had been just... terrible.

"It's okay, X. I get in fights all the time. They're fully aware of that." It left a sour taste in her mouth saying that, but changing her mom's mind was about as easy as building a space faring rocketship in your garage.

Cindy didn't linger on it though, pleased to hear Juniper admit it, and moved right back along to pimping out her wears as fast as possible.

"Perfect! I think I have a few in your size. I won't charge you a dime for it, a favor from me to you, but you need to make sure you tell everyone that asks where you got it from!" The woman barged past Juniper, delicately sidestepped Xavier, and dug out one large acrylic bracelet from the depths of a bag that seemed to be piled with other items to sell. She pressed it into X's hands a moment later with a glossy business card attached.

"By the way, dear, you need to move that Cactus in your room out of the window sill! It's right by the heater and it doesn't like it. It would much more prefer to be on the dresser across the room, where your last plant died. And keep that mongrel of yours from trying to chew on it!"

Juniper's soured even more. "I hate it when you do that...."

Her mom looked all too proud of herself when she straightened back up and marched back over to reclaim her seat next to her husband.

"Well maybe if you took better care of your plants I wouldn't have to. They can't water themselves you know!" She re-folded her arms and settled back in.

"Now, back to what we were talking about before. I want you to write Keith a letter to formally apologize and let him know that you are ready to let bygones be bygones. Is that so hard? I know you can write, I taught you myself."

"Do we really need to talk about this right now??" Jesus @#$%in christ, her best friend was standing right next to her!

Cindy huffed, "And why shouldn't we? If he's aware of your immature need to get in scuffles all the time, surely he's already aware of your tendencies to lie and make up stories." Cindy's green eyes flicked over to Xavier and squinted. "Are you aware? If not then you are welcome. If I hadn't brought it up now you might have gone years believing whatever tales she's spun for you.

... It was coming. Juniper could feel anger boiling in her gut and her jaw was clenching so hard the bruise hurt like it was fresh all over again. Cindy had a way of just constantly pushing her buttons.

"You seem like such a nice, polite boy too. I am loving the manners! Mrs. Brown. Ma'am! I haven't been treated this well in quite a while!"

"...Hard to imagine why." Juni ground out through clenched teeth.

"Knock knock."

Was she surprised to find her boyfriend over at his weird neighbor's house when she came to visit him? No. Apparently, that was going to have to be a norm until he figured out what a shmuck she was himself. Was she surprised by Juniper's sudden hair change or the tone of the conversation going on as she slunk in? Also no. The girl didn't seem like she had much of a head on her shoulders on a good day, so sudden changes in appearance or temperament weren't exactly going to catch her off guard. Emotionally volatile people were like that sometimes.

"Oh good! I didn't know this place had any hired help. Can you take our bags down to the parking lot, we're almost done here."

...

Was she surprised that the short alcoholic had racist parents?

"Sure thing ma'am." Without missing a beat the teen stooped to pick up the closest bag, walked calmly across the living room, pulled open the still cracked window the rest of the way, and hurled the suitcase outside and over the balcony wall.

"What are you DOING?!" The racist shrieked, while Elke headed back for another bag.

"Taking a short cut to the parking lot Ma'am."

She flung another fairly expensive-looking package out before the big one she was going to assume was the daddy stood, bellowing something in a deep baritone that she was going to assume was redneck speak, and started for her with his shoulders squared and fists clenched.

Bad idea.

Elke popped him solidly in the gut the moment he stepped within her range, and it dropped him immediately with a wheeze.

"Oh my god! Oh my god, Juniper DO something!"

"Yeah, Juniper, do something." The Native crossed her arms and waited.

"Uhm... But... you don't get in fights all of the time... I mean, you've helped me out from time to time..." Xavier's look toward Juniper was one of the utmost confusion. Juniper wasn't the type to go looking for trouble, as far as he knew. If anything, being around him had gotten him into more trouble than anything else.

Ope! They were off to the races for the knick knack jewelry. Okay. This was fine. It would get her mom off of her case. He pocketed the business card quickly, and slid the bracelet on without a thought.

She started yelling about plants. It was then. Just that very second... That Xavier decided Juniper's mom wasn't his favorite person. I know. Shocking. But it took a lot for him not to like someone. It wasn't as if he actively disliked her, but he certainly wouldn't choose to be around her.

When she started to talk about Juniper making up stories, his hackles rose just a little. He looked to Juniper for any form of explaination. She had never told him anything he hadn't believed... Well... there was the part about going to dinosaur times... Then again, hadn't the Masochist been there? Did she... make that all up?

He blinked as he was called polite, and put on a smile. "Thank you, Ma'am, it's nothing, really. I just figure why not be polite when ever you get the chance to, right?" Please?

And that was when things escalated. Quickly. Why? Elke showed up. Fire, meet gasoline. He didn't even get a chance to say hi before Juniper's mother chimed in, confusing Elke for... a servant of time sort?

"Oh- uh, shes-" He was cut off by the sure thing statement, and his brow instantly furrowed with worry. And then Elke started chucking their luggage out of the window.

His jaw hit the floor.

It was... What? What even was anything? Holy crap. He... He adored this woman. How could she be any more perfect than in this one moment?

She punched Juniper's dad. "OOOOOKAY! Hey! Let's- let's just... Settle down." He stepped inbetween Elke and the collapsed father.

"Oh pshaw! She would come home with some variation of that same bruise at least once a week, if not more! She and those little stray friends of hers were always out getting into trouble."

Juniper stayed quiet. Both because trying to defend herself was pointless and because bringing up anything related to her old friends was a very painful subject.

She also kept quiet as her mom went off on manners and how much more polite X was than her, and... he thanked her for it. She couldn't lie to herself that it hurt just a little but shoved it away to be dissected and internalized later.

A fifth unwanted party dropped in and she didn't have the energy to care. It didn't matter that it was elke. Didn't matter that her mom's passively racists tendencies popped out, didn't matter that shit was about to hit the fan. she watched it all with dull eyes in an uninterested manner.

Xavier stepped in, which allowed her dad to get back to his feet and for her mom to rush to his side in a flurry of panicked squawks and curses.

"You'll be hearing from our lawyer!"

She didn't even move out of the way as her parents hurried past. "I can't believe the people you still associate with people like that, Juniper! I thought you would have learned your lesson after what happened last time you hung out with hooligans and thugs!"

Cindy cast the evilest eye she could muster back at Elke, and then Xavier, and huffed loudly. "Some manners!"

They snatched up the rest of their belongings and fled, with Cindy worrying over David loudly all the way out to the elevator.

Juniper just.... stood. Listening to her mom's loud, grating voice as it gradually faded away, welcoming the silence the followed.

She glanced up when Elke cleared her throat and found the girl staring her down, her large, dark eyes foreboding and angry.

"Your hair looks like sh*t."

... The dam broke. Big sloppy tears spilled out and Juniper reached up to touch her mop of chunky, haphazardly cut hair.

For once, Elke looked a bit surprised.