Group Effort; Something by Joy Everlasting and Jelly Bean

Joy_Everlasting · #1 5th April 2007, 02:30 PM

NOTE: Please only post in this thread if your name is Joy_Everlasting or jelly_bean. Thanks.

Joy Maloy took a deep breath as she walked into the coffee shop. Today was the day; she could feel it. All her efforts of the past months would be payed off. The short young woman walked to the counter, her orange hair drawing stares from strangers, and ordered a small, plain, black coffee. The boy at the cash register smiled as he printed out her receipt and handed her the hot styrofoam cup; this was a daily procedure. He watched, amused, as she took a deep breath and dramaticly took a sip of the strong black drink. A terrible, green color flooded her face, as she forced the liquid down her throat.

With a sigh of disappointment, Joy turned to order again. The young man had anticipated her; a latte was already sitting on the counter. Still sighing every couple of seconds, she paid him, and took the second cup. This time she went straight to a booth in the corner, stopping to set the first cup down in front of an older woman who was reading the newspaper in the second booth to the door. This set up had been worked out long ago, ever since the woman, a Mrs. Kelding, had commented on her watefulness when she threw the un-drunk coffee away.

Joy sat down in her corner booth, and took a sip of her latte as she stared out the window. She had been so hopeful, and all for nothing. But one of these days, she would be able to drink a whole cup of black coffee, and then she'd join the ranks of the other people who liked black coffee, without all the creams and sugars. Not that there was anything wrong with cream and sugar; Joy liked her cream, but most people did, and it was boring to be like most people. So she would continue her effort to be able to drink black coffee.

jelly_bean · #2 5th April 2007, 02:55 PM

Geneva "Jelly" Bean looked up from her small drawing tablet to see Joy in the middle of her morning ritual. She watched it every day; and every day it was the same. Geneva herself had a morning ritual, and that was watching Joy along with ordering one bagel, plain, with too much butter on top. She wondered if she would ever have any success with that black coffee, she always ordered it but never took more than a sip. Geneva well recalled her own days of futility in black coffee; she thought that anybody who was suave, sophisticated, and tough drank their coffee black. And perhaps it was true, but she had given up ever hoping to be one of those people. She had not weakened to the point of most people, adding oozing whipped cream, expensive coffee, sugar, cream, candy-flavoring... just a dose of cream and two tablespoons of sugar gave her what she needed. Even though she knew that wasn't enough cream and too much sugar, that's just the way she took her coffee.

Taking a hefty bite of the buttery, soggy bagel, she gave a left-handed wave to Joy, hoping to catch her attention. They were long-standing friends after months and months of talking about such things as song lyrics, oddities, insanities, and stories. Joy probably was unaware of Jelly's latest quirk, though, which was to try and become ambidextrous. But so far, all she had managed to do is make her writing illegible.

Even so, she wondered if there was something interesting happening in their quaint town, for her sparkling antannae((think: two glitter balls held up by springs on a headband)) were bobbing more than usual and that meant there was important news to be had. Besides having antannae sprouting from her head, Geneva appeared normal with her hair in need of cutting(her short hair not quite even), normal height and weight, and wearing a red shirt which said "NEBRASKA: COME PLAY". Regardless that they were not in Nebraska and she was not from there.

Joy_Everlasting · #3 6th April 2007, 01:06 PM

In between taking sips of her latte and looking straight into the sun - Joy could never remember how that had become part of her sunny-day daily routine, but it had - Joy noticed Geneva waving at her from her booth. At least she guessed that it was Geneva; every day the spots from staring into the sun made it rather hard to see much of anything. Once there had been an embarassing incident in which she had thought she'd seen Geneva waving, and it had turned out to be her great-aunt Ellen. But usually it was Geneva waving, so Joy grabbed her half-full latte and dashed over to Jelly's table.

She had barely sat down before she burst out, "You'll never guess what happened, Jelly! Remember that shopping sweepstakes at the hardware store? Well, I won third place! I get a ten second shopping spree. So I get anything I can get into my cart and bring back to the door in that time. I'm so excited, but I don't know what to get. Do you want to build anything?" The last question was spoken in a breathless gasp, which was probably because Joy was completely out of breath.

After a deep breath, she went on, "And you know who won the grand prize, the ten minute shopping spree?" Without waiting for a reply, she went on, "The mailman! I wonder what he's going to buy." Having told all her news, she stopped to take a drink of her latte. But since she was so excited, she forgot that the latte was hot, and the hot contents burned her tongue quite badly.

jelly_bean · #4 6th April 2007, 01:31 PM

Geneva knew there was a 50/50 chance of being not seen by Joy, especially since she always first sat at that table which was full in the sun. But she knew that she would be acknowledged eventually; she usually was. Besides that time she went one table too far and got her relative... Fortunately, today Joy saw her immediately and made her way over, bursting out with what Jelly had suspected--news.

"You did?!" She exclaimed at the news. "Congratulations!" She shouted, yanking her headband off and flung it in the air, as you would a hat. It banged the ceiling before dropping to the seat besides Geneva. Of course, whilst that was happening, Joy was still continuing on. "Well, the only thing we need right now is more paper. The tic tac toe gang has forced me into writing some epic novel of how wonderful and smart they are, but I have no writing paper left. Plus you'll probably need some soon, as lots of people have been contacting you for song lyrics lately. I knew that your song would be a hit--a one-hit wonder, if I may add." Was what she added to the conversation, which was ignored as Joy told her about the first place winner.

"The mailman?! He won?! How could they let him win, though? He'll most definitely clean their store out; have you seen that man sprint to make a delivery admist being chased by a dog?" Geneva proclaimed, eyes wide. "Oh, come now. First he'll hit all the math work books they have, give them to little kids later. Then he'll probably get all the coffee mugs he can hold." At that point, Jelly finally took a break from being astonished and such, and took another hefty bite of her sogging bagel. "When do you get your ten seconds?"

Joy_Everlasting · #5 8th April 2007, 06:18 PM

While Jelly was speaking, Joy was only half-listening. That's the way she usually was; her short attention span required it, and she'd learned at the age of twelve and three months that half paying attention was better than trying for a few minutes to pay complete attention, and then completely losing any focus whatsoever. That lesson had come when she started singing happy birthday at her cousin's wedding. Joy had a loud voice, so the song had been heard by everyone, and the glares she'd received from the preacher, the bride and groom, and pretty much everyone at the service, had alerted her to her mistake pretty quickly.

So while Jelly was talking about the mailman, Joy was off swimming with fuzzy polar bears. The water in the Arctic was really cold, so Joy was shivering a little, when the ear that was listening to Geneva - her left ear; the right one was still listening to the polar bears - took in everything the Jelly was saying, which took a little longer because of her divided attention. Of course, when she heard it, she immediately began talking again, leaving the polar bears for a little bit. He'll probably look at the calculators first though. Of course, I don't know if there are any calculators that are better than the one he has; it's almost like a computer!" She took a quick sip of her latte, to keep her warm when she started thinking about polar bears again, but her return was delayed by Jelly's question.

"I don't know. They said something about today or tomorrow, but that was yesterday. So I guess that would mean today. But the store doesn't open for another four minutes, so I can't go quite yet. Do you want to come with when I go?" Joy twirled one of her orange curls around her finger as she asked, before randomly saying, "I wonder if the word orange comes from Latin, or Greek... Or maybe Italian."

jelly_bean · #6 11th April 2007, 04:21 PM

When Geneva caught sight of Joy's first shiver, she figured Joy was pretending she was a refrigerator. It wasn't unusual for Joy to not pay attention; when they had met again for a second time she had taken her aside and warned her that she often paid half to no attention to events that were going on, and that was fine with Geneva. She often paid too much attention to things and ended up boring people to sleep with details like how many ceiling tiles were in room 106 at the dentist's office, so Joy was a nice relief from normal people. "Calculators! Of course. He'll most likely snatch up the T1-83. You know, the $199.98 one? He could probably replace his cell phone with that thing." She exclaimed, taking a sip of her own bad coffee.

"Of course I'm going to go. What better things do I have to do besides make a large batch of soup no one likes? Orange was probably come up with by an overly intelligent group of kumquats. Well, better 4 minutes early than never, as they always say. Let's go!" She said, finishing her bagel but abandoning the coffee. Not even waiting for a reply, she stormed out of the store, completely missing the sighs of relief the rest of the customers and management gave at her leaving the store.

Realizing then what Joy had said about the time, she stopped in her tracks. "If she was told today, yesterday, wouldn't the thing have been yesterday? And if it was yesterday, why are my antannae going haywire? I wonder if there are other important events occurring as I speak! I need to check this out!" She said to herself, right in the middle of the street.

Joy_Everlasting · #7 15th April 2007, 05:48 PM

"What?" Joy exclaimed, her attention returned because of Jelly's mistake, "No, the TI-83 only costs $98.49. He'll want the TI-93." The words were barely out of her mouth before Geneva was replying to the rest of what she'd said, and was on her way out the door. "Wait, what?" was all that she could say, as her mind pulled itself out of its near-hypothermic state, and registered what had been said. Downing the last few drops of her latte, Joy pushed it into the restaurant's trash box-thing, the flap of which pinched her hand as it swung back. Why did garbage's at restaurants have those flaps? The question had always confused her, but there was no time to think about that now; she had to go to the hardware store.

Dashing past the random sighing customers, and out of the store, she realized only too late how stupid it was of her to run, as she tripped and fell on the pavement, scraping her knees and accidently getting her hand caught in the strap of a woman's purse. The purse-holding woman looked at Joy in what Joy thought was a look of horror and concern for her knee, but was really horror at the attempted theft of her purse and concern for how she would keep the criminal there long enough for the police to come. Joy unkowingly solved the problem by handing the woman her purse back, and running after Jelly, who was standing in the street for some strange reason.

jelly_bean · #8 16th April 2007, 05:50 PM

"I wonder where Joy went? I miss her. Why did she leave?" Geneva pondered, scratching her head for a couple seconds before finally making her way off the street. She had, in her excitement, forgotten that she was the one who did the leaving and the wenting. She made her way quite aimlessly to the Everything Mart.((that's what I have officially named the store.

)) "Why should I even come, if Joy isn't here? She should've left me a letter as to where she was going before she just left like that. It's rather rude to leave unexpectedly!" She said to herself, before shouting, "Yoohoo, Mr. Postman!"

He was there, waiting for his ten minutes, as he noticed Jelly in all her weird glory. "I keep telling you, my name is Fred. Will you please call me Fred instead of Mr. Postman?" He replied. "But Mr. Postman fits." She answered matter-of-factly. "Be sure to pick up a T1-83, Mr. Postman. They're over $100 off as of late! It's quite marvelous. But the T1-93s are nice, too." Geneva continued, nodding as she spoke. His eyes glowed at the mention of the T1-s. "That they are... such magnificent inventions, those calculators! Did you know that having one of those babies is going to make me the talk of the math club? Oh, how jealous they'll be! They'll have to exponate--" was all Jelly heard before she tuned out what sounded like math related talk. The fact was, she hardly ever heard what Fred said, because a lot of what he spoke about had to do with math.

"Where's Joy? I know she won the ten second run, and you two are usually together. Is she off getting arrested for jaywalking or something?" He asked, after taking a break from his mouth off about math. Usually, that would be quite a rude question. But she and Jelly were compulsive jaywalkers, Jelly even more so, so if one went missing for over a day, it was the first guess that they were down at the station talking themselves out of jail time.

Joy_Everlasting · #9 24th April 2007, 06:01 PM

Just then, Joy dashed up to the pair, gasping for breath. "Hide me! I didn't think anyone was looking, so I switched the tics and the tacs in someone's tic tac toe game, while they were inside eating cookies. But someone saw, and the only way to get away was to jaywalk and..." The rush of words was cut off as Joy ducked behind a nearby orange garbage can.

The reason for her sudden flight was made apparent by the appearance of a tall policeman with brown hair and a moustache biking across the parking lot, despite the many screeching brakes and honks he was receiving from cars. It was soon very that he was looking for someone, or at least not looking where he was going, as he rode right into the curb next to Jelly and Fred. His bike fell over, and he went with it, hitting his helmet hard on the pavement. The wheels spun for a couple seconds, slowing down with no one to pedal, and no ground to grip. But the policeman wasn't hurt; after only a second or two he was up, brushing off his now-dusty uniform, and glaring at Jelly, Fred, all entering or exiting customers of Everything Mart, and even the store itself.

"Have you seen a little orange-haired girl?" he asked Geneva and Fred, barely waiting for an answer before continuing. This was a new policeman, or he would've realized that Joy was quite nearby, since Jelly was there, instead of going on about her terrible deeds. "That little troublemaker... You know what she did? Well, first she dared to disrupt a game of tic tac toe," the O with an X through it badge on his arm testified to his adoration of the game, "And then she had the nerve to jaywalk through MY territory! As soon as I find her, she's going to be in big trouble. I'm going to make sure she doesn't get out of prison for a year!" Realizing his complete lack of reason for sending Joy as far as prison, the policeman amended, "Or at least jail overnight."

jelly_bean · #10 25th April 2007, 11:59 AM

"Joy!! Welcome back! Why on earth did you lea--you did? Score!!" Jelly cried gleefully, switching from about five different emotions in two seconds. She wasn't fond of the tic tac toers either, and often did just as Joy did, if not worse. Sometimes she even went around in a wig and moustache, challenging people to a game and then sabotaging it. But she instantly realized what that meant, and whirled away to avoid looking like she was speaking to a garbage can. Not that it wasn't normal for her; but she was trying for normal normal.

Geneva watched with unconcern as the policeman zoomed up from nowhere, jayriding recklessly up from the street onto where they stood. She watched with even less interest as he made a crashing stop. But when he hopped up unharmed and dusty, she tried to make herself look concerned and like a good, law-abiding citizen. The fact that he was glaring and not shouting was a good sign to Jelly, and so she smiled. "Mr. Postman" Fred looked shocked, before also turning to glare at Jelly. Except she was all he glared at, because Joy was hiding and he would've felt silly glaring at a garbage can. "I have more important things to do then stand around and watch you and your shenanigans again. I'm not part of this and I won't be arrested for it! I have too many mathematical discoveries to make. Good day." He said, the frown evident behind his own moustache as he walked away even as the officer asked them a question.

Jelly was relieved at that, for she knew he may take revenge for her calling him Mr. Postman all these years. Or Mr. Post-It.... "I have. And she was very suspicious looking, with her hair as orange as a radioactive carrot!" She said, as she knew a normal person might say. Geneva knew full well he was new(as she didn't recognize him and he didn't recognize her) and didn't know about J&J yet, and she was going to take advantage of it. "She did what? Oh, the outrage!" She mustered with all the theatrical talent she had. "And jaywalking too? Why, someone like that should be lined up and shot! Sir, if such a person was nearby, I'd have her under citizen's arrest immediately. But she left quite quickly, probably searching for another poor soul's tic tac toe game to spoil." But his last comment was what made Geneva nearly break character. Prison for a YEAR?! He can't... he can't do that! Even if he does have a glorious moustache. She thought to herself, realizing she must do something different, perhaps switch tactics. She made up her mind to try and reform her jaywalking ways; she was getting tired of being a near-jailbird. Maybe I'll get a moped.

"Sir, I'm just absolutely sure she didn't mean any harm. I got a good look at her, and she looked innocent as an angel, even with her suspicious hair. ...By the by. I noticed that darling badge on your shoulder, and I must say, does there happen to be a tic tac toe club? I just adore the game. But I'm not very good. Can you help me?" She said, trying to be as charming as possible, even forcing a southern twang in her voice. She quickly latched on the policeman's arm and started trying to lead him away, her antannae bouncing as she thought, RUN, Joy, run! Scoot! He's new enough not to know to cart us off on-sight of a street! Jelly wasn't sure if Joy could get the message, as she wasn't wearing similar antannae, but she was smart and would figure out what Jelly was trying to pull.