signed_sabrina | after practice [caleb]

after practice [caleb]

Practice wraps up, for both the team and the cheerleaders, and after permitting the attentions-- for about five minutes-- of the very girls who had been involved in her admittedly impetuous audition, Sabrina heads toward the stands where a lone black cat sits.

"I can't believe you're so into this game," she tells Salem. "Is it a goblin thing? Is that why it makes sense to you?"

Mrrrrr.

"Yes, yes, I did this all for you," she says, barely hiding her giggle. "But come on, you're not here just to see the stunning athletic prowess of the Petros High Pterodactyls. We've got someone to introduce ourselves to."

Salem rises and stretches, and then bounds off of his spot, trotting over to where one Caleb Micheals is preparing to leave. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, Sabrina goes to catch up, trusting that Salem's proven method of sitting in one's path and meowing will give her the time.

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Caleb doesn't notice the cat right away. He's surrounded by the press of his team, after a really weird, but also weirdly productive, Drembleydrop practice. His gear is off and halfway into his duffel when Clint pulls him aside — because of course the Petros High quarterback is also the star position in Drembleydrop, too — and murmurs softly to him. They kiss, then Clint goes off to hit the showers.

Caleb slings his bag over his shoulder and uses a towel to wipe his forehead off. He doesn't shower in the locker room. That's... not a good environment for him. He turns towards the parking lot, only to be stopped by a slender black cat sitting in his path.

"Aww," he says, and crouches, hand extended. "Hey, Buddy, what're you doing out...?" He trails off, unable to finish the question, because... that's not a cat. If it were a cat, he wouldn't be able to feel its feelings. Caleb's ability doesn't work on animals. He draws his hand back slowly, like the thing might lash out and grab him if he moves too fast.

Mrrrr.

"Hush," says Sabrina, as she comes up from behind, looking-- she hopes, only somewhat intimidating in her uniform, haloed by the late afternoon light. "And be polite. We're trying to make a mostly good impression."

She's talking, of course, to the cat.

"Anyway," she says, changing her focus, "are you Caleb? Rosie's friend?"

Something about her feelings... crackles, like lightning, and it catches Caleb off guard. She looks a little like a chick Draco Malfoy, with her pale hair and her green and gray outfit, and talking to the not-cat like it's a familiar doesn't help.

He straightens up from his crouch, adjusting his bag strap on his shoulder.

"Uh... yeah?" he says, maybe a little suspiciously.

"My name's Sabrina," she says, smiling, bending down to skritch Salem behind the ears when he comes trotting over. "Rosie's talked about you some, and I've seen you with her, and I just wanted to meet you."

She doesn't mind the suspicion.

She is someone who ought to provoke suspicion.

That information should have him relaxing, but all he can feel is the not-so-gentle, crackling prodding of her feelings.

"Oh, right," he says with a nod.

He knows there's some kind of rumor going around about Sabrina, but he honestly has no idea what it is. Ever since Caleb started hanging out with Rosie between French and lunch, the team have stopped talking about her around him — probably because he'd almost gotten into a fight when one of them had picked on a freshman who'd skipped eighth grade. Caleb knows he's got a bit of a reputation for getting into it with bullies.

There could be worse reputations, honestly.

"Um, hey," he offers, kinda lamely.

Sabrina keeps most of the worst rumors tamped down herself, though she knows she's created enough fear in certain gossips that she doesn't have to worry as much as she did. Still, she has some worries, and most of them about what could be said about her mortals.

She's pretty sure she's freaked him out, and has accounted for this already. Sure, she could probably have tried harder to avoid that-- then again, she's pretty sure she's just always going to freak people out at some point.

"Maybe," she says, carefully, trying to feel him out, "you could walk with me for a bit?" Salem makes a noise. "With us."

"Um, sure," he says, still a little uncertainly.

She wants something, he just can't figure out what. She's trying to puzzle something out about him, and he wonders if she thinks he's just trying to get into Rosie's pants. He tries not to feel too indignant when he thinks about that — just because he's a jock doesn't mean he wants into the pants of every pretty person that walks by.

Still, he steps to the side a little, giving her room to walk beside him, if she wants to. Her weird not-cat, too.

"I'm parked in the student lot," he says, a little redundantly, given that he's pretty obviously a student.

Hm, she thinks. Am I coming off too much like a serial killer?

Have I spent too long embracing my Morningstar nature?

So she tries for something that's less Path of Night.

"Oh, you drive? That's cool. It's on my to-do list to learn, but this place has a way of enforcing its own priorities." Salem mews again, and so she scoops him up to carry while they walk, if only to whisper in his ear that they are trying a softer approach.

"Anyway," she says, "I just-- I wanted to meet you. Rosie thinks highly of you, and I think... the world of Rosie." The affection seeps into her tone.

Caleb's getting ready to ask her to cut the bullshit when she brings up Rosie. Yep, definitely making sure he's not just trying to get into her pants, then. He wonders if she somehow just didn't see Clint kiss him a few minutes ago, or if she realizes that that doesn't make Caleb totally gay.

But the affection that she feels for Rosie is genuine, so he decides to stop holding it against her. He'd be doing the same thing if anyone else suddenly started talking to her, he realizes. He takes a breath, then smiles.

"She's great, right?" he says. He has to pretend that the not-cat is really a cat, because he has no idea if Rosie's told Sabrina about his ability. "She's been really great, since day one, just... helping me settle in and figure this place out."

Sabrina seems to relax, marginally, and some of the crackling energy that's just her eases too. "She's been my best friend since... well, nearly since I got here. Over a year ago." That there's more to their relationship doesn't seem like something she can bring up just yet, even if it might help make more sense of things.

"She happened to walk into my room at the Home when Salem here had just arrived," she adds, lifting Salem up a bit. "He's from-- well, it's not home anymore. But at that time, he was from home."

Salem. Sabrina. Something about the names together feels familiar, but Caleb's having a hard time placing it. He nods a little, though.

"I guess if you've been here a year, you kinda start to think of this place as home, huh?" he offers. He's not there yet, himself, but there are definitely parts of Darrow that he thinks he'd miss fiercely if he were to leave tomorrow.

"I don't know if it's the place as much as the people," Sabrina says, softening, warming a little bit. "Rosie, and Nick, and Charlie. More than them, too. There's more freedom here, too. Maybe not for everyone, but I'm glad not to have to live under someone's thumb."

Or cloven hoof, for that matter.

It occurs to her, only a moment later, that she's not sure if she should fully explain why she's so fiercely devoted to Rosie. Not that it's a secret, but it feels like something Rosie should get to decide on, the revealing of it.

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after practice [caleb]

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