A Chance Reunion

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The day was almost over, but Apollo wasn't sure if he was going to make it. The math teacher, an ancient man with an impressive mustache, droned on... and on... and on about various equations. While Apollo had an excellent memory, that wasn't helping him grasp these new concepts. It was a futile battle, retreat was the best option, but the bell was three minutes away. Just then, he felt something slide past his hand; looking down, he saw that it was a paper note messily folded into a square. He didn't look for the sender for fear of giving himself away, instead he placed his arm in front of the note while he unfolded it.

u see tht new grl?

New girl? Apollo reached down for his satchel and fished out a stubby pencil. From there, he quickly jotted down his reply.

What new girl?

Discreetly folding the note again, Apollo carefully slid it to the edge of his desk. He waited for several agonizing seconds while the note was read and answered. He tried to remember any news of a new student, but he only drew blanks. Soon enough though, the note returned. Its answer, of course, wasn't too helpful.

blond. 17. hot.

Resisting the urge to glare at the sender, Apollo wrote down his response. His patience was beginning to wane. He couldn't really fault the sender though, the guy didn't know how little Apollo cared about appearances.

Name?

The note came back as quickly as it was sent. What Apollo read next made his stomach drop. He'd never thought that he'd see her name again.

charlie.

Charlie, or as she hated to be called: Charlene Rudolf. Images of that rowdy, rambunctious, rebellious blond and the antics she'd drag him into came crashing to the forefront of Apollo's memory. Apollo never forgot anything, and he'd certainly never forget his best friend, one of the only people he could honestly stand to be around, the one reason why it was so hard to leave Star City. But now she was here? The last time he saw her, they'd been little kids. He couldn't see her entertaining the idea of running all the way to Jump City, even if he family was a little... much.

Apollo was ready to come up with another theory, but the sound of the teacher loudly clearing his throat snapped him out of his thoughts. "Mister Carter, would you like to share the contents of that note with the rest of the class?" A wave of snickers from the amused students reverberated through the room, and Apollo silently cursed himself for not looking inconspicuous enough. Then, mercifully, the obnoxious BR-R-R-R-R-ING![/b] of the school's bell sounded off. Not wanting to wait for the teacher to detain him, he snatched up his satchel and dashed out of the room along with the other students.

(I need to find her, how could I have MISSED something like this?!) Thought Apollo, who was practically shaking with excitement. His first choice was to head towards the school's entrance, where most of the students would congregate at the end of the day.

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The ‘rowdy, rambunctious, rebellious blonde’ was having a great first day of school. After the tour with Alex, and Kaie, Charlie went to class after boring class but now she was sitting in one elective she managed to choose for herself. Choir. The people were not only friendly but the teacher was eccentric and a lot of fun! She did fun vocal exercises that sounded like a bird squawking or an ambulance siren wailing by. Starting quiet and then slowly get louder until they began to get quiet again. Charlie couldn’t help but giggle afterwards with a couple of other classmates. When the real singing began she followed along with the music she was given, music was something that came naturally to her of course when she was younger Charlie didn’t know how to sing exactly and ended up sounding off key or hurting her throat. Now she had learned and enjoyed it more and more.

When the bell rang she walked out of the classroom with a few of her classmates to her locker. They were chatting about their favorite bands and musicians when the subject eventually lead to them asking more about Charlie.

“So why did you come to Jump City? Was it the parents that made you move?” Asked Martin, a baritone with a good sense of humor and a nice face to match. He was a really nice guy with an equally nice girlfriend by the name of Gwen who was an amazing soprano. After dispelling some of the rumors about herself they warmed up to Charlie.

“You could say that,” she replied not giving anymore details than needed. Charlie didn’t want people to know her rather well off family. It was none of their business and she thought it would change how peopled looked at her. The real reason she left Star City was because she ran away in some sense. Ran away from the empty house that meant nothing to her now that Harris was gone. She still felt her heart clench when she thought of him. So like everything else she didn’t like, Charlie shoved it to the back of her mind. She was good at avoiding things she didn’t like.

She glanced around at the faces in the hall, looking for a familiar one amongst them. Maybe he’s at a different school? How many schools were there in Jump City? Charlie scratched her head in slight frustration, but smiled when the conversations continued its way out the door and to the courtyard. She looked back into the school again to see someone run out of the doors. Immediately her face lit up when recognition struck and she started jumping up and down waving her arms, “Polly! Polly!! Polly!!!”  She bolted towards him weaving past a few students until she eventually ran into him, quite literally and hugged him.

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As Apollo stood a few feet in front of the school's entrance, he watched each and every person who walked out. None of them were looking like the Charlie he knew, or rather, the Charlie he'd known as a small child. How could he even tell it was her even if he somehow did find her? There were a lot of girls named Charlie, and it seemed too much to hope that he'd run into his Charlie. Still, he wasn't going to let his doubts dissuade him from even trying; he'd stomach his disappointment if things didn't work out.

Of course, that was when he heard a shrieking voice exclaim his most hated nickname, a name he'd buried in Star City. Of course, only one person had used that nickname; a girl who'd been highly amused by his parrot imitation. With a grin, Apollo turned around and was promptly hit full on by a girl who gave him one of her patented bear hugs. Glancing down at her wild tufts of sunny blond hair, he felt that he could safely assume that he'd found his old friend. Sure their reunion was starting off with the resurfacing of an embarrassing nickname, but that was Charlie for you.

"H-Hey, Charles!" Apollo said, choking back a laugh as he hugged Charlie before gradually unhooking her arms from around his waist. Stepping back, he couldn't really help but look her over, she'd changed so much and so little after all these years. Sure, she definitely looked older (something Apollo was close to blushing over for noticing), but she was still acting like her young and excitable self. He wondered if she would notice how mature he'd become...

He quickly realized that he hadn't said a word after his hastily given greeting, and a dozen passing students were giving Charlie and him funny looks. Rubbing the back of his neck, Apollo found himself at a loss for words; the situation was just so... unreal. What could he say that would make up for so much lost time? "Um... You look... different." The words practically fell out of his mouth, and afterwards he was immediately hit with the desire to punch himself in the face.

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He was a lot taller than Charlie remembered and thinner, then again she was about seven when she last saw her best friend. For a moment she wondered what would happen if this wasn’t actually the Apollo Carter from her childhood. But that thought was extinguished when he called her by the nickname he gave her and started hugging her back. She didn’t really want to let go but Charlie complied and beamed up at him. He seemed at a lost for words for a moment but quickly made up for it with an awkward observation that made Charlie giggle. It really was like they were kids again. Polly never was much of a social person but that’s part of what made Polly her friend.

“Yea growing up will do that!” She laughed. What had it been? Ten years? Charlie had grown taller in that span of time, and she supposed she looked more like a girl now more than ever. Yet she still acted like she did when she was a kid, because being a kid was fun and she wasn’t quite ready to grow up mentally just yet.

Charlie gave Polly a friendly hit to the shoulder. “Look at you! Last time I saw you I remember you being shorter and your hair was black,” she laughed. He had really grown a lot taller and he was pretty nice to look at with features grown and his hair a dark bluish color. Which was really cool! Maybe I should dye my hair green or something… she thought to herself. Might give her more of a rock star image.

The excitement of seeing her childhood friend had her bouncing. She hadn’t realized how great it was to see the boy she went on all sorts of adventures with when they were kids. “How are you? You a detective yet? Why’d you dye your hair? How’s Donny?” She shot of question after question at him, unable to control her enthusiasm. Charlie never was very good at control, probably why her powers were still hard to grasp. Should she tell him about her superpowers?

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Apollo barely registered the light punch, but he started to smile once Charlie went off on one of her (in)famous excitable tangents. He didn't bother to remind her that she'd seen him last as an eight year old, thus he'd have obviously been shorter. Antagonizing her with minor corrections was the number one way to tick her off, he found. Instead, he simply listened with a big dumb smile on his face as she rapid shot off questions that were fairly easy to answer. Once she was done, Apollo gave her a good ten seconds to remember anything else before responding.

"I'm fine, turned nineteen recently. I'm still in school, so no. I thought it looked nicer with a bit of blue. Donny is... fine." He said, knowing that his hesitation to answer that last question wouldn't go unnoticed. He may have been good at catching lies, but he was never any good at telling them.

Truth be told, Donny wasn't doing all that well. What started as a clean adjustment to a new life in a new city had turned into a bitter reminder of what the world had taken from him back in Star City. It wasn't rare for Apollo to see his older brother staring hard at a worn picture of his parents, or aimlessly leaving in the middle of the night to do some work at his mechanical shop. Apollo didn't want Charlie to know any of this, seeing as how she and Donny had been fairly good friends back in the day. She'd already given him sympathy over his parents' deaths, having her worked up over his older brother would only make him guiltier.

Figuring it a good idea to divert the subject from falling on Donny, Apollo retorted with questions of his own. "How are you? Mab still hating me? How's Harris? Why the heck did you move all the way out here?"

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It wasn’t hard to catch how Polly hesitated when Donny came into the conversation and Charlie wondered what was wrong. She knew very well the reason they left Star City in the first place. It was a reason Charlie now held in common with them in some ways. To leave behind bad memories of someone special lost and start a new life in a new city, now Charlie wondered if his hesitation had something to do with the outcome of that choice. She still grinned at him brightly, the feeling of joy overwhelming any others that may surface. 

“Dude, your hair totally looks better with blue in it. I’m great! Mab does not hate you and I moved out here cause I didn’t want to deal with my parents anymore,” she rolled her eyes at the last part. It wasn’t a lie but that wasn’t the main reason she left Star City, yet Charlie was also a terrible liar mainly because when they were kids Polly would catch them every time she tired. She had learned that she was better at hiding the truth by dancing around it subtly, which was why she said nothing of Harris’ death. Charlie didn’t want a reminder or any pity from her old friend, “I moved to the summer house out here with Mab and transferred to this school for Phase 1 of my plan to become completely independent.”

Ah yes, her three phase plan which had very little details and was still in the process of being formulated. Charlie wasn’t very good at planning she worked more by instinct than anything. So far all she had was leave Star City for Jump City, get enough money on her own to support herself and eventually leave the summer house for her own place. The hard part was not using any of her trust fund, but Charlie was currently enjoying her new form of income. Something she wasn’t going to tell Polly about so easily given his sense of justice, yet she knew he’d find out one way or another. But it didn’t have to be right now.

“OH! I forgot about Martin and Gwen!” Charlie spun around and searched the diminishing crowd for them yet it looked like they had left with many of the other kids. “Dang they’re gone already,” she turned back to Apollo. “Well then I’ll just hang out with you, we need to catch up anyway!” She smiled.

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Charlie's answers were given in a very Charlie-esque way; that is to say rapidly fired, short, and to the point. That last answer though, that was a little off putting. (She isn't with her family?) Thought Apollo incredulously, seeing as how Charlie was only seventeen and none too liable to hold down a job on her own. Still, he didn't voice his concerns, there was probably... some kind of explanation, but he was a little suspicious...



Before Apollo could question Charlie about her plans to become independent, she'd tried to go get two people he assumed were her new friends. All the while he had the sneaking suspicion that she was hiding something. But there was a time and place for questions like the ones he had in mind, and a ten year reunion wasn't the time or place. Brushing his suspicions aside, he put on a smile when Charlie decided to hang out with him. He thought back to the days spent exploring abandoned buildings and old train stations while she insisted on carrying a yappy little puppy that clearly wanted to bite his face off.



Of course, once he noticed that Charlie was waiting for him to say something, Apollo realized that he didn't exactly know a good place to hang out, being something of a social shut-in. Exploring old buildings was out of the question, they weren't exactly kids anymore, even if one was in their mind. A cafe was quiet, relatively small, ergo a sort of perfect place to go! The fact that he had an impressive sum of cash on him -- spoils from plenty of afternoons working with Donny -- only motivated him further. There was only one problem... he didn't know any good cafes.



...Ah well, he could improvise, right?



"Okay, I know this great cafe. Serves the best coffee you'll ever taste." Said Apollo, not even bothering to hide his love of coffee.

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Apparently the habit Polly had of staying in his head too long hadn’t been broken in ten years. Probably one of the reason’s he never had many friends when they were younger. He looked a little unconvinced when she said the independent thing but Charlie wasn’t surprised. Polly was a skeptical kid and she doubted that he had changed, Charlie was convinced it was part of his nature. She might have to prepare little half-truths if something she didn’t want to share came into the conversation. Anything to do with Harris was off limits and she’d rather not have Polly know about her pickpocketing hobby that sort of doubled as a source of income.

The thought of hanging out with Apollo again brought up memories of them going on adventures and one of her trying to pull Mab off of him when she accidentally let go of her leash. Charlie found it odd that Mab didn’t like him much, usually Mab was a bundle of love to everyone. Polly was one of the only few she ever barked or growled at.

“Great! Although I’m more of a hot chocolate gal, still haven’t gotten the taste for coffee,” she said making a face. Charlie had tried coffee a few times and never liked the bitterness, plus it seemed she could always taste it no matter the amount of sugar and cream she diluted it with. She wondered what cafe he was thinking about, from what she hear from her friends there were three nearby. One was very fancy, another which was the complete opposite and the third was rather normal.

“Lead the way Polly!”

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The duo wandered around the city for a while, and all the while Apollo felt that his reassurances that he totally knew where he was going weren't working on Charlie. She may be scatterbrained at times, but she was never stupid, a trait that was both a blessing and a curse. While making their way downtown, Apollo caught a glimpse of a little sign dangling above a door. On it was a picture of a black cat curled around a steaming cup of coffee, with the words "Cozy Cat Cafe" printed above it. "Ah, here we are," said Apollo, pointing at the sign, "sorry, it's a little hard to find sometimes."

The inside of the cafe was simple looking, and nothing particularly stood out aside from the various pictures of cats adorning the walls. However, several furry faces appeared, either out of holes in the wall or around corners. Once Apollo got over his shock, he realized that he was staring at an entourage of black cats, big and small. (This was... unexpected,) he thought, while giving Charlie a knowing look, like he was familiar with the cafe's gimmick. "Oh, and they have cats, surprise!"

Yeah, definitely not fooling her now.

The cafe was mostly vacant, and the waiters and waitresses that cleaned the tables did so without paying any attention to Charlie or Apollo. The cats, on the other hand, were starting to gather around the two strangers, rubbing their bodies across their ankles and mewing quietly. "L-Let's take a seat," said Apollo, who wasn't used to so many cats in one spot. He headed towards a small table beside a window that gave him a view of most of the street outside. Naturally, the cats were following him too.

Great.

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During the walk Charlie couldn’t help but smile as they seemed to wander. He may be able to pull off a confident walk but she got the sense that Polly had no idea where he was going. Not much had changed since they were kids, always got them lost just to look cool. Then again that was every guy she’d ever met. Oh well, getting lost was always fun. Never knew where you might end up! Besides, if they got really lost Charlie would just climb onto a building and look for one of her landmark buildings. Something she did incase of these situations, well not these exact situations but ones like them. Worked well for when she was out late hanging out with people or up to some thievery mischief.

When they arrived Charlie said nothing and tried to hold back her laughter. Despite how hard he tried, Polly wasn’t very good at acting. She let out a small ‘Aw’ as the cats flocked around their legs. Charlie even let them sniff her hand until she was allowed to pick one up and scratch under it’s chin. The cat purred happily at the attention and closed his eyes as she continued. Sure she was more of a dog person but there was nothing wrong with cats when they were this cute.

Grinning she followed Polly and his posse of cats to the small table by the window. She took a seat and set the cat she’d carried onto her lap. Somehow as she was petting it Charlie felt like one of those old school villains who sat behind a desk with a cat in their lap as they told their henchmen to ‘take care’ of someone or something. The cats seemed to really like Polly, as they had gathered in a rather large number at their table. “I think I should call you Polly the Cat Prince, or maybe Polly the Purr Prince would sound better,” she laughed.

The waitress came by quickly and Charlie ordered a hot chocolate with marshmallows. While Polly ordered she found another cat had made it’s way to her lap and she gave it an affectionate scratch behind the ears. “So Polly, what else is new in your life. Other than this place, since this is obviously your first time here.” She scratched behind the cat’s ears and grinned at the blue haired boy across the table.