Lily, also known as Lilth but since Penelope likes to refer to her as “Lily” instead, had decided to let Penelope off at the park. It was not the first time. Though it was probably illegal to just dump the child at the playground and wander off to run errands, it was probably for the best. Lilith tended to be skiddish around Penelope. The young girl didn’t know why! She was sweet and fun and she always came up with the best games. Really, there was only one reason why Penelope’s sister wouldn’t want to hang out with the young girl…

A reason that had the name of Mrs. Jezebel Tickle.

Penelope could feel the pull at the back of her mind, of something or someone trying to punch through into her head at the thought of the name. But Penelope managed to restrain it, sighing as she tugged and pulled at the ears of her bestest, stuffed friend Mr. Tickle. The worn out looking bunny flopped in her grasped as she strolled, dancing and singing around the playground with the buds from her myPod still in her ears.

Penelope giggled as she collapsed onto a bench, smirking at the silly song that had come on. She pulled out her pink MP3 player and hummed to herself as she shuffled through the songs, trying to find a good one whose name she just couldn’t remember.

A happy sigh fell from her lips as she looked up at the rest of the kids playing happily. It was sad that she couldn’t join them. They were mostly boys and boys played too rough. Penelope couldn’t allow that; not when Mrs. Tickle had been inching to come out for days.

But she couldn’t think about that. She wouldn’t. It was a bright, shiny, day, her myPod was packed with all of her favorite songs, and was just having a grand time, singing and dangling her legs over the bench, swinging them softly.

Today was a good day and she hoped it would continued to be such…

Gemma made a habit of taking her son to the park on a fairly regular basis. Sure, there were kids at the Mansion, but there weren’t a lot of kids Chase’s age. Chase had about… oh, six to ten friends, and that encompassed all of the pre-teen inhabitants at Xavier’s thus far. You simply got bored of seeing the same people—that is, if you were an extrovert. Chase was not. Chase hung upside-down on the monkey bars, occasionally dangling by his legs, but reaching up to grab the bars with his hands, when too much blood began to rush to his head and the world began to warble and darken in the corners of his eyes. Chase was playing a game with himself, a game where you couldn’t touch any of the ground planes—either on the play structure, or on the actual ground. He’d just fallen on the little bridge, so he had to restart. Thus far, he’d made it to the monkey bars.

Chase closed his eyes, his tiny hands catching the bar in front of him. Maybe he should wriggle his way onto the top of the bars, so that he didn’t pass out from all his blood going to his head.

“BEEP BEEP!” another boy shouted loudly, stirring Chase from his thoughts, “Outta the way, blondie.”

Chase huffed quietly, pulling himself up with his arms and slowly uncoiling his legs from the bar behind him. Because he was so thin, he managed to slither his way onto the top of the bars with ease. He sat for a moment as he contemplated how to maneuver out of the way.

“Move!” the other boy yelled impatiently.

“I’m working on it!” Chase huffed in annoyance. The blond child maneuvered onto his stomach. His legs were too short to step aside, and his balance wasn’t nearly good enough to balance on one of the side beams. So Chase opted to instead slide off of the edge. His hands caught the side, and he dangled there for a moment, before dropping to the ground. He looked around for a slightly less-crowded area to climb. Now he’d have to start all over again. He spied a girl, but quickly looked away from her. Girls were weird. Big League said you could catch cooties just by looking at them.

“About time,” the other boy grunted.

“Your momma needs to teach you manners!” Chase snapped curtly, “You’re nothing but a rude doodoo-head!”

Oh yeah, Chase had dared to go there, in a moment of righteous indignation. The older boy just laughed and said something about that insult being a stupid insult.

“You’re stupid,” Chase retorted under his breath. He adjusted his shirt and shuffled towards the swings. No one was really over there, so maybe he could try climbing those in peace.

>> “Your momma needs to teach you manners!” Chase snapped curtly, “You’re nothing but a rude doodoo-head! You’re stupid,”

Penelope bobbed her head as the music on her myPod reached an end. She was just about to change to a different playlist (or play the same one over again since she liked those songs), when she heard the proclamations echo out into the world. The young girl was so startled by the shout that she almost squeaked and jumped a little. Her heart raced a tiny bit but it was not enough for it to cause…bad things to happen. It was just a little jarring.

Blinking, the young girl looked up and noticed a blonde boy, around her age, shuffling away from another young kid and heading towards the swings. She frowned a little when she saw the expression on his face. Why was he so mad? It was such a pretty day out to play.

She sighed, sadly, as she shook her head. Though Lilith always taught her never to talk to strangers, surely she could ask the boy’s name and then they wouldn’t be strangers anymore, right? That would work perfectly! Then maybe she could cheer him up a litt—OH!

Quickly she turned and fished around in her pink backpack and found an unopened Kit-Kat bar. Chocolate that was conveniently broken up to be shared was perfect for such an occasion, right?

She nodded boldly in answer to her own question.

Silently, Penelope stood up, wearing jeans and a tie-dyed t-shirt, hefted up her small backpack and held Mr. Tickle tightly under her arm. The smile on her face was full of confidence and joy as she strolled to the swings. She would make a new friend and, in the process, brighten his day! It was a win-win situation!

Her butterfly stamped sneakers walked across the concrete, then through the grass, until finally she came up to the swings, just outside of the boy’s field of vision. She stood there, head tilted slightly, as she watched him swing. It was not until he finally noticed her that she smiled her brightest smile and waved.

“Hi!”

Chase made his way towards the swings, stepping onto the seat of the swing and steadying himself by grabbing the chain that connected it to the cross beam. He’d climb in a little while, for now, he’d just swing and look around.

He swung with his back to the playground, using his arms (as well as the rest of his body) to swing back-and-forth. He didn’t get very high, or swing for very long, until growing bored with that. The little nine-year-old took a seat on the swing, instead, still facing the same direction. Tiny hands once again anchored to the chain, and the child began to test his limits. Chase leaned back, as far as he could go, turning the world upside-down from his perspective.

Only to spy the girl standing right there, looking at him. The girl stood there, bunny in-arm and tie-die shirt glaringly bright in the New York heat. The swing dipped suddenly, threatening to tip over, and Chase sat up again quickly to avoid getting a face full of woodchips.

>> “Hi!”[/i]

-- the girl greeted chipperly. Chase could feel his stomach knotting. It wouldn’t be polite to ignore her, but she was a girl. Girls were weird and different from boys. But seriously, what boys were playing with him today, anyways? Chase shyly stood and reoriented himself on the swing so that he was facing the girl. His eyes lingered on his shoes, before hazarding a glance towards the girl.

“Hi,” Chase echoed, the returned greeting hanging awkwardly in the air, for a moment. He had to say something else, but nothing else came to mind. So, he uttered an observation, “Your shirt’s really colorful.”

Maybe it was supposed to be a compliment. Chase didn’t know, he was too busy staring at his shoes.

The boy was weird. He was trying to dangle from the swings instead of sitting on the seat and actually swinging. Maybe he just didn’t understand the concept of how a swing worked? It was okay if he didn’t, not everyone had a knack for playing properly, but she was not going to say anything about it. Instead she held Mr. Tickle close as she tilted her head and smiled at him. It took a second but finally he seemed to acknowledge her presence…upside down.

A giggle fell from her lips as he suddenly bolted into a sitting position. It took him a minute before he would finally raise his eyes to look at her. Penelope didn’t understand why. Maybe he was just shy about meeting strangers?

>> “Hi…Your shirt’s really colorful.”[/color]

“Thank you!” she responded in a perky manner. Obviously that was a compliment, what else could it have been?

Idly she toyed with Mr. Tickle’s ear as she continued to watch the boy. He was…interesting. He seemed really shy and really didn’t want to meet her look but the thought of breaking through that had already entered the back of the little girl’s head. Again, pretty day should equal a fun day! There was no reason to be sulky or sad. Her mission was set.

Casually she walked over to the neighboring swing and sat on it. Gently it swayed her back and forth as she tilted her head.

“Why were you yelling?” she asked, referring to when he was over at the monkey bars. She was referring to when he was over at the monkey bars because, obviously, yelling means that someone was having a bad day. Mrs. Tickle yelled a lot.

Ahem. She blinked as she continued to focus on the boy. She was not going to allow herself to think about her[/b] today. Instead she blinked at the boy, waiting for him to respond as she fished around in her backpack for her wayward Kit-Kat bar.

The girl laughed at him, which only made Chases’ cheeks adopt a slightly deeper tint of pink. But at least he had managed to say something before his nerves had gotten the better of him. His observation was taken as a compliment, and earned a chipper word of thanks. Good. Things went momentarily quiet again, and the nine-year-old lifted his head. She was still standing there. Staring.

Chase looked at himself in mild confusion. What? Did he have something on his shirt? Was one patch of skin the wrong color. Anxious orange eyes ran over his pale skin, before the child realized that there wasn’t anything wrong with him at all. The girl was just staring.

“Um…” Chase mumbled absently. He couldn’t make another observation about the girl’s outfit, so now he was left floundering for something else to say.

Rather than departing, the girl strode over to the swingset and plopped down on the swing beside Chase.

>> “Why were you yelling?”

“Yelling?” Chase echoed, trying to jog his brain into working properly, “Oh, you mean… on the playground?” He kicked his legs absently and pulled at the swing, which responded with a casual swing, “The bigger boy wasn’t being very nice. He was telling me to get out of the way. And he was very impatient.”

The outburst didn’t seem wholly justified, in retrospect, but Chase couldn’t let the older boy totally push him around. He had to talk back at least once in a while. He watched as the girl rummaged through her backpack.

“I’m Chase,” the nine-year-old announced uncertainly. Names were always a good way to go, when you didn’t really know what else to say.

Penelope continued to dangle on the swing, idly moving back and forth, not really pushing herself to swing any harder at the moment. She was content simply sitting next to this potential new friend, smiling sweetly and trying to pull from him answers. It seemed like more and more people she ran into lately were unhappy; yelling and storming away while on the playground was definitely a sign of someone being unhappy.

But she could help with that! Chocolate solved everything! If only she could find that tricky candy bar in her backpack.

>> “Oh, you mean… on the playground?”

The young girl nodded with a smile. It was a simple enough question so it shouldn’t be too hard to answer. After all, he did something so there should have been a reason for it.

>> “The bigger boy wasn’t being very nice. He was telling me to get out of the way. And he was very impatient…”[/color]

Penelope listened carefully in-between searching for her candy bar. When she heard the reason as to why the boy was upset, she made a stink face; the ultimate kid expression of disapproval. Her nose wrinkled and her eyes narrowed, she eyed the bigger boy that was still visible on the playground.

“He’s stupid,” she responded matter-of-factly. She then turned back to her satchel and beamed when she found her prize. The red and foil colored wrappings, the smell of chocolate, it called to her. Small fingers wrapped around it as she began to pull it out when suddenly she heard the boy’s name.

>> I’m Chase,”[/color]

She grinned.

“I’m Penelope,” she smiled as she pulled out the still wrapped chocolate bar and held it out to him. “Now we’re not strangers.” The smile on her face seemed ever present as she waved the candy bar in front of his face. “You want some?”

The little girl wrinkled her nose at Chase's explanation, and agreed with the sentiment that persisted throughout Chase's story-- the other boy was stupid. Chase smiled back at the girl shyly, ducking his head as he introduced himself. The girl answered back-- her name was Penelope.

"Penelope," Chase echoed, "M-maybe Penny for short?"

Penny rummaged into her backpack and pulled something forth, holding it out to Chase's face. The boy recoiled momentarily as the girl announced that they weren't strangers. Oh, she was going to give him something?

"I guess not," he said in agreement to the "now they weren't strangers" sentiment, holding out his hand. He then realized that a question had followed the offer, and it almost sounded like he didn't want candy. Chase fumbled to revise this, "Um, I mean, yes please."

Chase smiled lightly, and gave a more assured, "I mean, if you don't mind. Yes please."

>> "Penelope…M-maybe Penny for short?"[/color]

Penelope tilted her head. She had not been called Penny in a long time…since her mother. For a second that thought had the fear with it of dragging her down into the depths of memories she didn’t want to remember, but she was quick to get herself out of it. She focused on the stuffed rabbit that she held tightly under her arm. Through the material of her shirt she could feel the soft warmth of the stuffed creature and it was enough to calm her down. She needed to stay away from such subjects…

But she smiled as she nodded. She would allow him to call her that right now. He seemed nice and only nice people could call her Penny.

>> "I guess not…Um, I mean, yes please… I mean, if you don't mind. Yes please."[/color]

She grinned. He really was silly and seemed to always be tongue-tied. Chase just had a knack for tripping over his own words, but people only did that when they were nervous. But what did he have to be nervous about? Was he still upset over that bigger boy making fun of him?

With a shake of her head, sending her hair bouncing around, she sighed. Boys are so weird. But once he agreed to partake of the chocolate, she beamed brightly as she started to unwrap the candy bar. Careful to not touch the chocolate (since she didn’t know how he would react to someone else touching food he was about to eat), she broke it half and offered him the piece that was still in the foil wrapper.

“Here you go!” she smiled before he took a bite from the chocolate and peered out across the playground. That irritating boy was still laughing and joking around with his friends on the playground. She turned back Chase thoughtfully. “Maybe you should tell your parents. They could talk to that boys’ and get him grounded.”

It was a good plan.

It was impossible to talk to girls. And the fact that Penny was so good at talking made it even harder for Chase. Yet, it was also easier. That meant Chase had to talk less, which was probably for the better. His mouth couldn't seem to catch-up with his brain, which made it very difficult to speak coherently. Penny broke the chocolate in two, taking half for herself, and offering the wrapped half to the boy beside her.

>> “Here you go!”

"Thank you," Chase said mildly, managing a smile. At least he could say "thank you" without getting all flustered for no apparent reason. Chase broke off a small square of chocolate and munched on it. It was a little hot and melt-y from the New York heat, but it wasn't totally liquefied... just the right amount of melt-y.

>> “Maybe you should tell your parents. They could talk to that boys’ and get him grounded.”

"My parents?" Chase echoed, breaking off a second square of chocolate. He paused, and then matter-of-factly replied, "I dunno. I mean, wouldn't telling my mom be tattle-taling?"

If there was one thing the nine-year-old didn't want to be, it was a tattletale. And Chase seriously doubted that the kid would get grounded just for being rude. Chase ate the second square of chocolate pensively, munching on it and swallowing before stating, "It's nothing. At my old school, I dealt with kids like him all the time."

>> "My parents? I dunno. I mean, wouldn't telling my mom be tattle-taling?"[/color]

Penelope shrugged. She really didn’t care if it was called tattling or not. It got results, didn’t it? After all, wasn’t that better than handling the issue yourself? She was too well-versed in what happened when things were handled like that. There were plenty of opportunities in which she had to stand up for herself, especially after moving to New York. Sadly these all ended badly.

She shuddered at the memories of those and turned her attentions back to Chase.

>> "It's nothing. At my old school, I dealt with kids like him all the time."[/color]

She frowned silently. He had been picked on before? That…was not nice. She hated it when people were intentionally picked on. Bullies were just stupid and didn’t know how to by nice. That was why Penelope was friendly to everyone, less people to pick on her. Not only that but it kept herself from being picked on. Unfortunately, not everyone was as fortunate as her.

Out of the corner of her eye she watched Chase as he nibbled on chocolate. He seemed like such a nice boy. Why would anyone want to pick on him? Maybe because he was nice? Seemed silly but bullies like to use silly things as excuses. She shook her head as she reached over and patted his shoulder.

“Bullies are stupid,” she announced with a nod of her head. She the grinned and giggled a little at what she said. A little laughter helped any situation feel better. With a push, she began to swing as she kept her gaze on Chase. “You’re nice.”

Chase swung normatively for a while, going up only a little bit high, before catching himself with the tiptoes of his right foot, the momentum propelling him into a spin. Chase beamed, catching himself by hooking his foot onto the beams, and peering at Penny as if what Chase was doing was completely normal-- for boys, it was. Chase was incapable of swinging properly for extended periods of time. Eventually, he'd get bored with just swinging and start doing more abnormal things, like twisting the chains so that he could spin like a top.

Chase's gaze meandered towards her, and their gazes locked. Chase let his eyes wander off shyly, shortly prior to Penny's observation and casual compliment.

>> “Bullies are stupid.”

"Super-stupid!" Chase agreed, laughing along as he proclaimed such a profane statement, and rose another square of chocolate as if to raise a toast, before popping it into his mouth.

>> “You’re nice.”

Chase grinned, his eyes rapidly transitioning from the mildly annoyed teal-flecked-orange to a flattered, delighted royal-blue.

"Thanks, Penny," Chase said, "You're really nice, too. For a girl." Wait, that wasn't right, "-I mean, you're nicer than most or all boys, but girls aren't usually nice. They're weird. But you're kind-of.... not. You're nice." Goldenrod swirls of embarrassment started to seep in once again.

>> "Thanks, Penny,"[/color]

Penelope grinned as she watched the boy use the swing for every other movement than simply going back and forth. He seemed to be rather enjoying himself, just spinning in circles or latching onto the legs of the swing before causing him to spinning in another direction. She had to marvel at his prowess for swinging in any way but traditional. She giggled a little when he finally unwound the chains enough to face her.

>> "You're really nice, too. For a girl."[/color]

She tilted her head. That seemed like a compliment but it quickly could have been taken has offensive. But Chase seemed to catch himself as he stumbled over his own words…

>> "-I mean, you're nicer than most or all boys, but girls aren't usually nice. They're weird. But you're kind-of.... not. You're nice." [/color]

She beamed a bit in response.

It was nice to know that the boy looked at her as being nice. She was happy for that. She had run into girls before and a lot of times, they really were weird. They giggled listening to songs by that Justine Beaver person and liked to make friends with one another that were mean to everyone else. Of course that was not all girls, but it did seem to be the trend these days when she was in school. She made the stink face again at that thought.

But she pushed it away as she turned to Chase. He really was nice.

“We know our names and we had chocolate,” she grinned. “I guess that makes us friends? Wanna be friends?” she asked, rather bluntly. But one who dressed as colorfully as she did had a right to be blunt. Besides, it made sense, they were both nice and they could be nice together!

Chase smiled at Penny’s proposal. As they had shared chocolate and exchanged names, that made them friends, right? Shouldn’t they be friends? Chase nodded his head. Wow, after all of his awkward fumbling with and tripping over his words, Penny still wanted to be his friend.

“Yeah!” Chase agreed openly, smiling, “We could be friends.”

Chase swung a bit more normatively after nearly swinging into lane that Penny was swinging in.

“I haven’t been friends with a girl before,” Chase confessed. Obviously, since he couldn’t hold conversations with them, it’d be impossible to befriend them. He fastened a scrutinizing glance upon Penny, his brows furrowed, “What do girls do for fun? I don’t have to play with dolls, do I?”

Chase wasn’t the sort of boy to fly into a blind-rage and behead any Barbie within a ten-foot-radius when the word “dress-up” was uttered, but either notion was a taboo concept in his mind. He would not dress-up nor would he play dolls, for such things were degrading to a boy.

>> “Yeah! We could be friends.”[/color]

Penelope beamed happily. She loved making new friends! Though she and the boy just met, he seemed extremely nice and Penelope prided herself in surrounding herself with nice and helpful people. Too many bad things happened in her life to think about them and good people were always a wonderful distraction.

She sighed as she finished the last of her chocolate, not really wanting the candy to end, but it must. Still, that last bite was glorious and it sent a little shiver down her spine. Already she was anticipating the next time that she could having candy all to herself; well, maybe not ALL to herself. She would be happy to share with Chase if he ever wanted to.

>> “I haven’t been friends with a girl before…What do girls do for fun? I don’t have to play with dolls, do I?”[/color]

A lyrical giggle fell from her lips.

“We don’t have to,” she said, a little laugh still on her lips from his comment. She did have a collection of dolls and stuffed animals already, but she knew that was not something that boys were interested in. “We can do other stuff.” Penelope was actually a pretty adventurous child so she was sure that they could play outside or play games. It was a world of possibilities.

She continued to swing just a little higher. Chase had been whipping about so erratically that a couple of times he almost bumped into her. He seemed to catch onto this, though, righted himself, and continued to swing normally. Her lips stretched into a smile as they began to swing in tandem. Fingers wrapped around the chains, she peered at Chase, chuckling whenever they caught each other’s eye and turned away to look forward.

It was only when she did this that she caught sight of that “stupid boy” that had been making fun of Chase on the monkey bars. He was watching the both of them and sneering; quickly he elbowed his friends and nodded in the direction of Chase and Penelope.

The girl only stuck her tongue out at him as she continued to swing. No, that wouldn’t have repercussions at all…