Issue 1 Downtime

Chloe was walking across the Quad, heading to the cafeteria to get some lunch after her last class.

Derek, coincidentally, was also walking across the quad from another direction. "Oh, hey Chlo," he said as he came even with her along the way.

"Hey Derek." Chloe said, smiling at him, only a little awkwardly "Have you been keeping well?"

"Yeah, been doing pretty well. No one wants to get hurt with finals coming up, I guess," he said, grinning.

"Yeah." Chloe said "I was so happy when I found out I'd have the time to actually get everything done."

Derek chuckled. "See, that's why you don't actually get behind on your stuff," he teased.

"I couldn't be off on a mission and at class at the same time." Chloe said, giving his arm a friendly punch.

Derek scoffed, grinning as he pushed her back. "Pff. Excuses, excuses."

"I'll show you excuses." Chloe said, poking him in the stomach.

Melody was, herself, walking out of the Xub and back down the quad after getting herself some lunch while Derek and Chloe were talking. As the quad was rather peppered with trees, she didn't really come into really clear view of the two of them until she was about 20 feet away. She slowed down as her mind processed what she was seeing, and ground to a halt once they started playfully hitting each other.

Flirting. With. Each. Other. a voice in the back of her head growled.

A scowl spread across her face, and her eyes burned ahead. She adjusted her backpack on her shoulder and closed the distance between herself and that backstabbing whore.

"I'm sorry. Was I fucking mumbling the other day?" she said to Chloe venomously, completely ignoring her boyfriend at the moment.

"Beg pardon?" Chloe said, turning to face her "You told me to avoid him, and I have been. But I wasn't about to not talk to him if we happened to run across each other. That would be rude.'

"Wait, wait, you told her to avoid me?" Derek said, looking between the two, feeling like someone who'd walked into the middle of a movie after missing the beginning.

"It's one thing to talk, bitch, and an entirely different thing to poke each other and giggle and laugh like you don't have a fucking care in the world. It's called flirting, honey, and it sounds like it's the same shit that got you into the mess the first time."

She whipped around to face Derek, and for the first time in their relationship, he got to see her bitch-stare. It was unnerving to say the least. "Since she can't seem to fucking control herself around you, yeah, I did."

"We weren't flirting." Chloe protested "We were just talking, in a friendly way. Like friends do." she looked at Derek "Were you flirting? I didn't mean to be flirting, so I don't think I was. I'm quite certain I didn't mean to."

"Oh, sure," she said, turning back to Chloe, "I believe that. What the fuck were you thinking? Not even a week after this shit happens, and you tell me about it, all feeling terrible, and begging for me to not be angry, and now you fucking do this? Let me clear this up for you," she hissed.

"He," said Melody, thrusting her finger towards Derek, "is mine. After already making out with him, one would think that you might, oh I don't fucking know, not touch him!"

"I didn't touch him." Chloe said "I poked him. Like this." she made to poke Melody in the stomach.

Melody grabbed at Chloe's hand before it could get to her, "Do I look like the fucking Pillsbury Doughboy to you? Newsflash, moron: poking someone involves TOUCHING them."

"Hey, hey, hang on, I think we're overreacting here," Derek said, looking cautiously between the two of them.

"Derek, this doesn't concern you." Chloe said "Yes, I touched him, but i didn't touch-touch him. Poking him is different."

"Shut up," she snapped, not letting go of Chloe's wrist, which she held rather tightly, "I'll deal with you later, Derek."

"It leads to the same god damn place, which is apparently you making out with him. Do you just go up to other people's boyfriends and poke them? Do you think you'd like it if I just started poking your man?"

"That depends." Chloe said "Would you be doing it as a friend to Simon, or because you think that just because I made a mistake, you're allowed to steal my boyfriend?"

"What the... no one's making out with anyone or stealing anyone's boyfriends!" Derek protested, sadly sure that they weren't listening to him.

Yeah. Not even listening.

"That's not even the point, god damnit!" she yelled. "You're as stupid as the pigeons that walk around the city, I fucking swear. I don't want your boyfriend. Unlike you, I'm pretty fucking satisfied with the one I have, and don't need to try and steal other girls' men."

"Pigeon!?! How dare you compare me to those filthy things, you spray-tanned bint!" Chloe said, her face reddening with anger.

"Hey, wait, that's a natural ta- oh, who am I kidding, you're not listening."

Was someone else talking? Must just be the wind.

"Bitch, this is all natural. Not that you'd know anything about that, since it looks like some gangbanger tagged your fucking head with spraypaint."

"Its the same colour as my feathers!" Chloe squawked "I had to, so people could tell me from Jess. What is you're excuse for dyeing your's?"

"Don't have one, because I don't dye it, pigeon!"

"Don't call me that again." Chloe said angrily.

"Pigeon!" she spat venomously. "Stay the fuck away from my man, god damnit!"

And that was when Chloe slapped her.

Derek groaned, knowing he couldn't get them to listen before it got worse.

"You fucking whore!" she screamed, shoving Chloe as hard as she could, "I'll rip you to shreds!"

"You bitch!" Chloe said, launching herself at Melody.

"Hey, hey!" Derek said, panicked, trying to get between them to break it up."

Chloe's dash moved them easily out of the way of Derek's attempt to intervene. The poor guy just couldn't win today.

Melody was knocked back by the rush, and tripped over the edge of one of the paths criss-crossing the quad. Feeling herself about to fall, she tried to pull Chloe down with her.

And Chloe was happy to go down with her, kicking and scratching as she landed on top of Melody.

"Hey- HEY! STOP THAT!" Unphazed, Derek moved to try to pull Chloe off of his girlfriend.

Chloe was less eager to be pulled off Melody, and as she struggled, her elbow slammed into Derek's eye.

Chloe managed to put a nasty-looking scratch along Melody's cheek as they tumbled around on the ground, screaming, kicking, and scratching. Seeing an opening as Derek tried to pull Chloe off, Melody landed an uppercut right into her stomach.