Life had been dry since the shooting. On one hand, Gina wouldn't go into detail about specifics on what had happened, so the Xavier's gossip-chain had gradually forgotten it as newer, more exciting rumors hit the network. DocProf had healed her wounds to the extent that they were no more than ugly scars, so there weren't bandages to remind the gossipers that anything had ever happened.

Also, the whole experience had made Gina more cautious. She couldn’t stop flying altogether, but had restricted her flying radius to just outside of the perimeter of Xaviers’ grounds, over the park that surrounded it. She didn’t actually go out into the city without company. And, if she didn’t have to be outside (either to burn off energy or just go somewhere or do something), she was inside the Mansion, rather than wandering about the city in the way that she had formerly done. Sure, this was normal behavior for most teens, but totally bizarre for Gina-- she felt caged.

Fortunately enough, Locke had dropped by, with Zombieland in-hand and asking if Gina was game for watching it. He wasn't busy, she wasn't busy, and anything beat being all cooped-up in your room, by your lonesome, or studying elsewhere. Gina agreed, and said that she'd meet up with him in the living room.

It was one of those cold, quiet nights where the air was so crisp and still, it seemed to mute the city noises. Even student life was in a lull, and the halls were quiet. It was one of those casual nights where jeans were exchanged for warm, baggy pajama bottoms, and cute blouses were switched-out for t-shirts-- such was Gina’s attire when she came trotting into the living room. The living room was quiet, with two people studying at the table, in the corner, and Locke in the vicinity of the television. Quiet night, indeed.

“Hey Locke,” Gina greeted chipperly, darting into the kitchenette. She’d stashed a bag of M+M's in the pantry, earlier, tucking it back so nobody would find it. It was still there. Good. She retrieved the untouched candy, before jogging over to the couch and flopping down on it.

She’d swallowed the uncertainties about Zombieland from earlier—it was a horror film, but it was darkly humored. And, those people that she knew, those that had seen it, spoke kindly of it. Gina decided that her paranoia about the film was uneccesary.

“How are things?” Gina inquired lightly, depositing the untainted bag of M+M's on the unoccupied cushion beside her. She gestured at them casually, "Got some M+M's. Hope you like chocolate?" Because there was no way she'd be able to eat the whole bag on her own. Hell, there'd still probably be some leftover after the movie.

Locke had heard the stories about what happened to Gina, but didn't know what he should do. No doubt that flowers would have been a cheerful gesture, but where could you get flowers at this time of the year? Also Locke only knew about roses, and that knowledge was strictly limited to the fact that they were suppose to be like diamonds. Halmark cards were also a classic to give, but Locke had been hospitalized before and a card really doesn't say anything other than "I don't know what else to do." The way he figured it, she had to be going out of her mind when it first happened with everyone wanting to know all the details and having to set people straight. So Locke had kept quiet at first, finally asking her if she was up for Zombieland.

"Hey Gina," Locke answered back, pleased with how casual he sounded. On his lap he held his writing notebook, a pen tucked behind his ear. Tonight he had flown through his homework, which meant that he probably had done the math wrong. Whatever. It was a Friday night and he didn’t want to think about equations until Monday morning. At his feet was a CD binder he kept his DVD collection in.

”Yeah, M&M’s are cool,” he said, bending over and flipping through the binder’s pages, ”You know some people actually think the different colors taste different.” Personally Locke couldn’t tell the difference. He knew that M&M’s were made by the same people who made Skittles, so if a green M&M had its own individual taste wouldn’t it be more like a green Skittle?

Locke popped the DVD in and let it run through the previews. ”You know what this needs? Popcorn,” he said with a grin, ”Orange soda for you right?” It was his turn now to head into the kitchen. To be honest he had been wondering if Gina was actually going to show up. She said that she would, but Locke was far from optimistic. ”We need a bowl for the M&M’s anyways.”

>> "Yeah, M&M’s are cool. You know some people actually think the different colors taste different."

"Really?" Gina mused, "I can honestly say that I've never heard that. Huh." She would have to put that theory to the test. As Locke got up to start the DVD, Gina broke the seal on the bag of M&M's. She dug in and withdrew an M&M of each color out, depositing them into her palm. She glanced up to spy Locke vanishing into the kitchen.

>> "You know what this needs? Popcorn."

"Right on," Gina agreed, "Hey, we'll be like our own, personal movie theater." Heck, with the candy and the popcorn. All they needed was--

>> "Orange soda for you right? We need a bowl for the M&M’s anyways."

The guy was a freaking psychic. Gina beaned, turning her back on the advertisements to look at Locke. She was flattered that he'd even remembered her soda preference, "Yes, please."

It didn't take a genius to notice that something looked different about Locke. And, being a woman, Gina was in-tuned to this sort if thing. Locke had gotten a haircut. The style worked for him, and was a drastic improvement from that sheepdog-look he had sported. He looked younger, more clean-cut, and kind of cute. It also called attention to certain things that Gina hadn't noticed before, namely the pale eye and enormous scar on his face.

She would have said something earlier, but when Locke had dropped by, their encounter had been too brief to converse.

"Love the new haircut, by the way," Gina complimented casually, turning back around once more and sinking back onto the couch, "You look good, Locke."

She meant it, too. Even the scar and the wonky eye that accompanied it gave him an air of mystique. Gina was smarter than to say such things, though.

"For the lady," He said holding the cold soda can to the back of his arm the way that he had seen waiters offer bottles of wine. His good mood could be blamed on the fact that he was about to watch one of his favorite movies on a screen bigger than his laptop. Watching it with someone made it all the more better. All in all Locke was feeling happy, something that didn’t happen often. ”Popcorn will be ready in a minute,” he let Gina know before taking his seat and wiping his hand off on his jeans.

Locke put down the bowl he had been carrying in addition to Gina’s soda. Gina had opened the bag of candy already and had a handful. He figured that she was trying to see if they really did have different flavors. Gina complimented the haircut and Locke felt his brain and body come to a halt. There still was a desire to hide behind his bangs, which was stupid since he had chopped off all his hair so he couldn’t do that. ”Uh… thanks.” Personally Locke thought he had done a rather sloppy job with the hair cut. There was only so much that he had been able to see in the mirror. ”You look good as well.”

And she did. Just how badly she had been hurt Locke didn’t know, but with the way some people described it he half expected her to be covered in bandages with an IV drip. Although Gina was happy to walk around in her pajamas Locke was still in the clothes he wore to school that day. He had no eye for fashion and the mixture of flannel pajama pants with a plaid pattern clashed horribly with his caution sign yellow and black checker print bathrobe. Instead he had on a Hawaiian print t-shirt, a gray shirt with what looked like a turtle spaceship, and a navy thermal shirt. As if that wasn’t enough he also had a thin jersey jacket.

>> "For the lady."

Gina chuckled as the can of orange soda was ceremoniously proffered to her. She delicately plucked it up.

"Thank you, kind sir," Gina replied lightly. She mopped up any remaining condensation with one of the throw pillows. It was too cold to hold a damp can.

>> "Popcorn will be ready in a minute."

"'kay," Gina hummed, polishing off the last-remaining M&M in her grasp. They all tasted the same to her. Hm. Maybe her taste simply wasn't that discerning.

>> "Uh… thanks. You look good as well."

Gina cracked a smile at the hesitant reply. As if it were unexpected. Gina tossed a shrug.

"No problem," she replied simply. And then, he turned the compliment back on her. Oh please. She was running around in what was essentially her pajamas, she didn't have any make-up on, and her hair had been wrangled into a loose, messy braid. And, she had tired eyes. She hadn't been sleeping well. But, Locke was polite enough to turn the compliment back on her... perhaps she did look good, all facts considering.

"Thanks, Locke," Gina replied genuinely, "That's kind of you."

She looked towards the advertisements, which seemed to be losing steam. They had come to the movies that would be coming out on DVD. That meant that it was nearly movie-time. Gina couldn't help but be a little bit excited. She was nervous, too, but more intrigued than freaked out.

The microwave beeped obnoxiously, announcing that it had finished.

When the microwave started beeping Locke stood back up. Really, he should have just stayed in the kitchen until the popcorn was done. It would mean that he would have to do less back and forth. ”I got it, you press play ok?” Locke informed Gina. Now that he thought about it he would have had to go back to the kitchen anyways. He had only been able to carry the bowl and one can of soda, so even if he had stuck around he would be making multiple trips anyways.

Locke pulled down a large bowl and grabbed the bag of popcorn. No matter how often he made popcorn, or what the bag said, he always forgot how hot it was when it first comes out from the microwave. ”Ouch,” he said and waved his hand to take the sting out of the burn. From the living room he heard the electric guitar version of the national anthem playing, signaling that Gina had in fact started Zombieland up. He’d seen the movie so many times that he didn’t mind missing the first little bit. There was the belch that signaled the transition into the rules.

”Oh…” Locke started to swear before bolting back to the living room. He had totally forgotten that with in the first two minutes they start talking about everyone having guns and zombies started getting shot. The problem with the zombies was that they looked human, minus the whole strange liquid pouring out of their mouths…

"You got it, boss," Gina answered, giving Locke a phony salute. Locke went to retrieve the popcorn, while Gina waited for the main menu to load. Once it was finished, she plucked the remote off of the coffee table. The DVD asked if she was ready to start the movie, to which Gina pressed "OK".

Here went her first zombie-movie ever. Here went nothing. Gina tossed the remote control aside, to the couch cushion on her far right, as a slightly off-key version of the national anthem met her ears. No turning back, now.

The movie began with the American flag. As the camera panned out, one could see that the flag was attached to a black, overturned SUV, which was toppled in the streets of Washington, D.C. Man, it looked like a bomb had been dropped, with all of those overturned cars. Out of nowhere, a zombie came bolting towards the camera, which was apparently being toted by a cameraman.

"Ohmigawd, run!" Gina shrieked with laughter, "Run, run, he's going to get you." Yeah, Gina was the sort to talk to the television. She bounced as the zombie got closer and closer, before finally catching the cameraman. Thus began Zombieland. This led into the rules of survival.

Now, anyone with any experience with zombie-movies whatsoever could have safely informed Gina that guns were a given. Gina had never seen a zombie-movie, though. Even so, she should have expected it. The rule about the double-tap didn't send Gina into a breakdown, but she did frown.

It spoke of how you always shot something twice to make sure it was good and dead. Well, there was a note of truth to that... Gina's stomach flopped, but she attributed it to hunger. She fished into the bag of M&M's, pulled out a small handful. The gunshot had been so brief, it hadn't consciously bothered Gina. Locke came running back into the living room, as if he had forgotten something.

Gina chuckled dryly at the little zombie-girls in the princess costumes-- God, that is so wrong -- before glancing up at Locke. He looked a little freaked out. Gina arched a concerned eyebrow.

"Is everything alright?" she inquired, frowning lightly as she popped a few M&M's into her mouth. Nothing seemed amiss with Gina. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying herself. Locke, on the other hand, seemed to be panicking.

Nothing was wrong with Gina. Locke did a half laugh to see her calmly watching Zombieland. Other than to yell at people to run from the zombies. She wasn’t looking stressed over the gun shots on the screen, or too worried about the zombies. In fact he was probably more frightening to her having suddenly rushed in like that. ”Y..yeah. Everything’s cool,” he stuttered and wandered back into the kitchen. Gina will be alright. I mean this is Zombieland. It’s not that frightening really. The whole thing’s too funny to be taken seriously.[/i]

He poured the popcorn into the bowl, no longer at risk of burning his fingers on the hot bag. What had he been thinking rushing in like that? ”Did you think she was going to be freaking out?” he asked himself as he pulled a soda out of the fridge for himself. Geeze what an idiot he was sometimes. Not only did he not think about showing her a movie filled with guns, but he didn’t think that given how funny the movie was that Gina would be ok. When he first told her about it he thought she could handle it. Now just because she had gotten shot she wouldn’t be alright?

It was stupid he knew. Locke couldn’t help but worry about Gina. She had been nice when they first met and wasn’t making a fuss over the way he looked. Watching out for his brother and sister had him always looking out for disaster. Maybe he was more paranoid than Colombus. ”Should have ordered a pizza,” he joked upon coming back with the popcorn.

>> "Y..yeah. Everything’s cool."

Gina nodded. She didn't believe Locke, for the panic had been blatantly apparent, but she gave him the benefit of the doubt as he meandered back into the kitchen.

"If you say so," Gina trailed, watching the credits absently. There was the occasional chuckle, or a groan of disgust, as the scenes of zombies pursuing people in various situations flickered past. The fireman getting chased by a flaming zombie made Gina cackle in-spite of herself.

Locke returned with popcorn just as the credits ended, and the scene opened up onto a quiet gas station.

>> "Should have ordered a pizza."

"Oh please, this is enough of a feast as it is," Gina countered, grinning, "This is plenty good-" She let her gaze flicker to the screen, where the main character was cautiously leaving his car and heading towards the building, "Quiet gas station, never a good sign."

Something was going to happen. The boy reached for the door, and hesitated... Lo and behold, a zombie burst forth. Gina shrieked with laughter and squirmed, grabbing a throw pillow from the corner of the couch and squeezing it tightly to her chest.

"Run, run, run," she chanted under her breath. A second zombie gave chase, "Ohmigawd, ohmigawd."

Yeah, Gina was getting into the movie.

Locke settled back into the couch and allowed himself to relax. He had missed the part with the little girl zombies, but Tallahassee would be coming up in the future, and that was all the better. One of the best parts of the movie was the crazy actions of the gun happy guy, and he loved the fight inside the grocery store. Gina seemed to be enjoying the movie too. Either that or she really liked to talk to TV’s.

Smiling Locke opened his soda can. There was a desire to tell Gina to relax. Clearly Columbus knew the rules of surviving horror movies. After all some of his first dialogue was just that. Her frantic chanting was delicious. Was she really frightened or just caught up in the movie? Who cares! The movie was great and Gina was watching without hiding her face. ”It was a joke,” Locke explained about the pizza, enjoying his feast.

Columbus managed to get into his car and was driving it. This was the only bit of the movie that gave him any problems. When Columbus crashed his car, sending the zombie in the back seat Locke always winced. He could easily watch the rest of the movie but seeing the crash reminded him of his own.

Yeah, when it came to kneejerk reactions, particularly in the case of movies, Gina was a relatively open book. She wasn't the sort to sit by passively and keep all of her commentary and reactions to herself.

>> "It was a joke."

Gina grinned a sheepish, apologetic smile. Leave it to her to take him so literally. She chuckled, and murmured, "Sorry, Locke. I was being too literal."

After running a few laps around the parking lot, with two zombies on his heels, the main character made it into his parked car. Gina ceased holding her breath. Ah, he was clear. And then, a freaking zombie turned out to be in the backseat. Gina sqeaked in alarm, and began squirming all over again.

"It's going to get him!" Gina gasped, bouncing. Had the pillow been a living creature, it would have probably suffocated and died with how tightly Gina was clinging to it. The car swerved before colliding with a curb and coming to a halt. The zombie was launced through the car's front window, and into the store. Well, that took care of that.

"That was a close one," Gina mumbled. As if on cue, the zombie got back and bolted towards the window. It lunged towards the car, and Gina yelped, squirming.The boy fumbled for his gun, pulled the trigger, and fired, shooting the zombie at point-blank. Gina went quiet.

It wasn't dead yet, though. It was writhing on the ground. Gina held the pillow close, and held her breath. The kid cocked the gun, and fired a second time, finishing the zombie. It had been a do-or-die situation. If the guy hadn't killed the zombie, he would have died. Gina couldn't help but relate to the kid, having to do some unimaginable things to protect himself, but she related to the zombie, too. Sure, the zombie had tried to kill the kid, which gave him license to fight back... damn, just like that, and it was dead...

Before Gina had too much time to work the scene over in her head, or get too panicked by it, the movie did her a favor and rolled to the next scene, where the main character was walking down a highway choked up by abandoned cars. Gina hmm'ed, and grabbed herself a small handful of popcorn. Okay. This was easy enough. There wasn't much to scream about, so she watched quietly, munching on her popcorn kernel by kernel.

This time Locke did an actual laugh. The last time he hung out with Gina in the living room he had taken pretty much everything she had said at face value. Now Gina was doing the very thing that they had pointed out as a flaw in him. ”Now that’s different,” he said to Gina, ”Flighty Gina being grounded?” He chuckled to himself and popped a few pieces of popcorn in with a handful of M&M’s. All it needed was a few peanuts and raisins and viola! Trail mix.

It was a pity that Zombieland didn’t get made into a TV show after the movie. He would have loved to see more of Columbus’s rules and Tallahassee’s zombie killing prowess. It would also be fun to see the different crazy ways that they awarded Zombie Kill of the Week. That was something he still hadn’t figured out. Was there a radio broadcast in Zombieland who said who got it or was it from the very first outbreak?


Locke fell into a silence, content to just munch on the candy and popcorn. Where Gina was the type to try and interact with the characters as she watched the movie, Locke was the type that watched with very little blinking. The more that he was getting into a movie, the quieter he got and the faster he forgot where he was. So, once Tallahassee stopped for a Hostess truck, and the two male leads drew closer Locke took the chance to ask Gina a question. She had stopped trying to give advice to people who clearly couldn’t hear her. ”Good so far huh?”

>> "Now that’s different. Flighty Gina being grounded?"

Gina rolled her eyes, inclining her head at Locke.

"Really, Locke? Really?" she demanded, smirking. Had he intended on the pun, or was that just a fortuitous word choice? "You're so punny." But she did chuckle, because it was so true. Absolute role reversal.

Not a lot was happening, so Gina was quiet, or as quiet as she could be. Occasionally she translated what sparse dialogue there was into how she would say it... Sarcastically so, more often than not. She was good at keeping it to a minimum, though.

Gina nibbled the popcorn in her hand tentatively as acquaintances were made between the two guys on-screen. Tallahassee was obviously going to be the alpha-male in the story. Already, Gina could tell he was made of little more than raw testoserone and awesome quips.

The Escalade in which the two characters rode banked to the side, and tentatively made its approach towards a Hostess truck.

"What?" Gina chuckled.

>> "Good so far huh?"

"Yeah," she agreed faintly, smiling. This was a piece of cake. And as the tough guy began throwing a tantrum and smashing the Snowballs (because he wanted Twinkies, dammit!), Gina cackled. This was nothing. Heck, it was even funny. She could handle this, "Good so far."

”He’s got a point you know,” Locke interjected as Tallahassee started to rant about snowballs, “Twinkies are better than snowballs.” Although neither was his favorite snack cake Twinkies were better. There was something about the mixture of sponge and cream that just tasted odd to Locke. He was more of a fan of the cosmic brownies.

Columbus tried to lie about a girl he hooked up with. It made Locke feel better about himself to know that he hadn’t been so lame as to do that. Nobody cared if he dated a girl anyways. Chris didn’t try finding out about his dating life and Gina so far hadn’t shown any interest either. Couldn’t he have thought of a more reasonable girlfriend?[/color] Locke pondered over Columbus’s possible girlfriend and the character’s chance of getting a date in real life, assuming of course there was no zombie apocalypse. The odds were probably more in Columbus’s favor than his own.

”My favorite part,” Locke said as they entered the grocery store. There were several fights with zombies throughout the movie, but this one was, in Locke’s opinion the best. If he were to ever find himself in a world full of zombies he would want to make a stand in a Walmart thanks to this movie. Just seeing someone summon the undead by playing a banjo was epic, and Locke laughed. ”Told ya it wasn’t really a horror movie.”

>> ”He’s got a point you know. Twinkies are better than snowballs.”

"I'm impartial," Gina admitted with a smile, "But I like the Snowballs because they're pink. Twinkies aren't much to look at."

Gina chuckled at Columbus' attempt to seem more manly to Tallahassee by boastfully speaking of a nonexistent romantic encounter with some girl. That was so typical. Her youngest brother Dante had often told wild tales about girls practically falling all over them, even though most girls found him annoying as heck, and would never do such things. Yeah, Dante was really an acquired taste.

The movie rolled onward, until eventually, Columbus and Tallahassee came to a supermarket.

>> ”My favorite part."

Tallahassee strummed a few notes on the banjo, and Gina giggled preemptively. Lo and behold, here came a zombie.

"Oh dear," she breathed.

>> "Told ya it wasn’t really a horror movie.”

She watched the entire fight, in the same sort of stunned silence that overrode Columbus, a small grin on her features and not much else. All though, when Tallahassee absolutely destroyed the banjo by whaling the zombie in the face with it, Gina did comment, "Well, there goes a perfectly good banjo."

The scene quieted, and Tallahassee found a box of Twinkies. The box had been punctured by a bullet. Oops.

"Aw,"Gina sighed, chuckling.

A pretty young woman darted out from the back of the store, pleading the boys for help. Gina inclined her head. Where did she come from?