Jonah/Krystle: Regular Life

Things have gotten more normal in the neighborhood since things got weird with Leroy at a wedding.  Not necessarily more enjoyable - the long and short of it is that I like hanging around with Leroy a lot more than Larry, and might have enjoyed dating him, but he's not going to break up with his brother, is he?  I suppose it's possible, considering both the relationship I have with Karla and the one original-Krystle did, but I don't suppose it's really that common.

We still see him around, of course; heck, he was very excited about Moira's Moon Girl costume when she came around trick-or-treating a week ago.  I kind of wrapped the cape for my storm around my torso when I got to his place, not to be taunting, although I have to admit, it's getting kind of hard to remember if I would have been weird about a girl I liked walking around all sexy if things had gone wrong back when I was a guy.  I've been Krystle long enough that I don't have as many "yeah, I get that" moments as I used to.

Though I'm not really a girl any more, am I?  It was crazy enough with the move and everything last year that I didn't wind up doing much to celebrate the big 3-0 that the 1992 birth year on my driver's license would imply, which is fine, considering I haven't actually lived that many years, but I am on the other side of thirty now, as far as the world knows.  Working at the gym keeps me in good shape, but not like the Tulane students who come in and just look like they could all be Lululemon models or something in their yoga pants.  I'm kind of cool with it, although I am starting to get more inquiries from Momma Kamen as to whether there's anyone I might like to settle down with, because I'm not getting any younger (then again, I'll worry when I start hearing that from my mother).

Still, I feel pretty good about how I am, good enough that I wasn't looking to cover up when I made my Halloween costume.  And, yes, I made it.  It's not that fancy - I pretty much started with a one-piece swimsuit and put some gold trim on it and a pair of thigh-high boots that were on their last legs anyway (basically spray painted then glued together for the night and ready to fall apart right after), with the cape not much trickier, and the white wig can from a thrift shop.  But I had a bit of a laugh at myself sitting at a sewing machine making costumes - just so macho, right?  Well, wait until you've got an active little girl who regularly rips out seams or destroys the knees on her pants to the point where they are basically salvaged by making them into shorts; you'll learn to sew no matter what you thought about taking home ec back in high school!

But you know what - I really felt good about it!  This was probably the most fun I've ever had on Halloween; Moira is kind of the perfect age to really enjoy dressing up and knocking on the door of a bunch of neighbors that she knows without being ready to crash by the end, they had a little party at school, and she had knows all of her character's moves and poses and stuff, so she could be a little ham.  I know a lot of the other local moms & dads, so there was something to talk about.  And, believe it or not, it's kind of a totally different experience putting on a sexy outfit that you've made than one that you bought off the rack and which doesn't quite fit or seems like how someone else wants you to look.  You're more actively choosing to push your cleavage up and out or something.  Maybe.  I don't know how all that stuff works beyond feeling like I was under a lot less pressure than dressing up usually has me feeling.

(Although it's not lost on me that I might not feel quite the same way if I were still in Cambridge rather than New Orleans)

So, anyway, did Halloween, then the next day Moira went to school and I went to work and things were normal again, and it's kind of a pretty good normal.

-Jonah/Krystle

Lucas/Cora: Kids These Days (one of these days being Halloween)

Happy (Belated) Halloween from a girls' boarding school, which is certainly not a place where I should feel nervous during spooky season after I've already learned that seemingly placid places in New England have uncanny power!

Before I get into the expected/sort-of-sexy "wow, Halloween costumes and parties are crazy when you're suddenly a teenage girl" stuff, I just want to say that I am kind of finding myself with a new appreciation of what life is like for teenagers these days?  I've probably been as guilty as any man in his forties about saying that kids today have it easier than we did - and they do in certain ways - but I kind of feel like the subjects are a little more advanced than the last time I was a teenager, the expectations for extracurricular things are higher (and not just because we're at a fancy boarding school), with more homework, and the phone never freaking stops vibrating.  I feel like I had maybe a dozen friends in high school, but everybody in the cheer squad wants to be Cora's bestie, there are people talking to me in every class, and I've got no idea how many of the people I'm supposed to interact with online are close and how many could probably be safely ignored.  It's something like a hundred people!

It's made it hard to sit down and document all this, especially when you're already documenting the surface part of your life on Cora's social media.  And Halloween was something else again, as Marilyn got us together one night in early October asking what our Halloween plans were.  It seemed pretty early, but she and L.J. kind of laughed, saying that girls like us didn't just have one costume, and put a lot of effort into it:  We'd need one which was school-appropriate for the actual Halloween, one that was more playful for the in-dorm party the Friday before, and one that was pushing some boundaries for the off-campus one she'd accepted an invitation to on Juliana's behalf and that Cora and Leda were expecting me and L.J. to turn up at.

I was going to be Barbie at the last one, because a teenager with Cora's face, blonde hair, and figure couldn't not be Barbie at some point this year.  L.J. suggested some anime character that Marilyn could do as Juliana without it being weird, her being half-Asian and all, and said he'd borrow one of my cheerleader outfits for that.  A little easy for him, but I'm not going to suggest my 15-year-old son try and pull off some college girl's outfit.  We did Star Wars for the dorm party - Marilyn as a Twi'lek, L.J. as Rey, be with the original Star Wars Leia buns - and then on Halloween itself we attended classes in a Star Trek uniform (Marilyn), a sailor outfit with loose-fitting pants (me), and some simple kitten ears and whiskers for L.J.

I can't speak for the others, but it was very strange for me, especially the off-campus party where Marilyn put me in heels and did so much work on my hair and makeup.  I got hit on a lot, and I'm sure that a lot of them were probably college kids who shouldn't be hitting on teenagers.  It wasn't nearly as flattering as I presumed it would be, and it didn't seem very comfortable for L.J. either.  We left pretty early, though Marilyn stayed another couple hours, kind of amused when I suggested it was dangerous, saying that the boys were twenty years behind her.

Actual Halloween was more relaxed, although, as Marilyn looked at herself in her blue Starfleet uniform, she said she wondered if Juliana would mind if she kept it after we went to the Inn next year.  They're not far off in height, after all, and the girls' parents didn't seem to blink at the expense of some of these kind of fancy costumes showing up on their credit cards.  It's kind of nice to have these girls' money, even if we're not exactly in a position to take advantage of it at the school

So that was a weird situation.  Now to finish an essay between cheerleading practice and bed.

-Lucas/Cora