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Itzel laughed as she watched Ritz walk away after calling a very naive Josiah "zaddy." Oh, this was hilarious! The poor man didn't know what it meant, and Itzel certainly was not about to tell him. She could tell Josiah didn't find it odd and actually seemed to enjoy it, but not in the way Ritz had meant it. "Is no one going to tell him?" Itzel glanced between Josiah and Aria while trying to keep her giggles suppressed.

"On, no you are not!" Jonah approached the group, arms crossed. "You are not about to poison his innocent and naive soul!"

"Jonah! C'mon it would be funny! I mean Ritz is not wrong."

"He is not wrong. Jonah agreed with a small shrug and a glance at Josiah. "It's nice to see you two-- although we haven't really met." He shook both Aria's and Josiah's hand with a small grin. "I'm Jonah from 2A, it's a pleasure to talk to you finally."

She glanced over at Aria after Josiah's words, keeping the big smile in her lips. "Anyway, Josiah is right! The more you practice the better you'll get. Besides, I have quick feet so when we dance you won't be able to step on me even if you wanted to." Itzel winked at Aria to match Josiah's. Itzel was sure that if Aria really wanted to, she would be able to dance as good as the next person. Maybe not as good as her-- but at least she wouldn't step on other people's toes. "Besides, I bet you're not the only one who doesn't know how to dance, ain't that right Jonah?" She glanced up at the man with a smirk.

"Look, my skills are in my mouth--"

"That's what she said!"

"--ha ha ha. How funny Itzel." Jonah rolled his eyes and cleared his throat, ignoring Itzel's giggled. "I can dance, I just, uh, what do you American's call it? 'White boy' dance?"

"I call it to flail like a fish out of water." Itzel rolled her eyes at him and waved her hand in front of her. She had been out with Jonah before to some of the local gay clubs in Silvervale and Jonah, even when slightly drunk, was unable to dance. Aria had hope-- Jonah did not. She had tried so many times to teach him even the basics of movement and even just swaying his hips, but that man was hopeless! Maybe he was right, maybe all of his skill was in his mouth. Haa! Talking about those who were unable to dance...

"Simon!" Itzel pushed Jonah's protesting body to the side to greet her roommate. She heard a faint rude from Jonah, but he knew she was just playing with him. "Didn't know you were gonna be able to make it! I was getting a bit worried you weren't gonna come and meet the other tenants." Itzel was glad that he had been able to make it. For one, she would be able to get maybe the chance to drink with him and maybe start the progress of teaching him how to dance, and she wanted to know more about him. He usually came to the apartment tired from work and left early in the mornings. Itzel saw Simon a lot more than Robin, so it was nice seeing him again. "My day has been pretty shitty. Got shitty customers for their shitty weddings but you know, the usual. Anyway, forget about work! Simon, this is Aria and Josiah." Itzel pulled him into their little circle. She wanted him to feel welcomed by the other. "And this British dude here is Jonah. He is very skilled with his mouth, ya know."

"I didn't say-- well, I did but that's not what I meant." Jonah cleared his throat. "Jonah Zhu, from 2A. Very nice to meet you." Jonah shook his hand, tilting his head to the side. "Are you from Ireland? While Jonah had not met many people from Ireland while he had been living in London or the states, the Irish accent was always very easily recognizable and Jonah quite enjoyed the sound of it.

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"Is no one going to tell him?"Itzel asked, glancing between Josiah and herself while trying to keep her giggles suppressed. A confused expression graced Aria’s features at what she was talking about for a split second before her eyes widened in realization and a head shake was shortly followed. No way was she telling her roommate what ‘zaddy’ meant! The other two were right, Ritz was absolutely not wrong in his bold statement and even worse, Josiah seemed pleased which made her wonder if he knew or not. She thought about it, glancing up at Josiah before thinking....no....probably not. It was probably better that way. It was very tempting to ask but she bit her lip instead. A wave of relief rushed through her as Jonah changing the subject by introducing himself and she could have hugged him in that moment. ”Aria, 4B, it is great to finally get to meet and chat with you.” she greeted, shaking Jonah’s hand with a soft smile.



"I'm sure it's not that bad." was what echoed in her mind as she thought it was sweet Josiah believed in her and suddenly felt proud of herself for not blushing at said comment. Aria was about to pat herself on the back for that one until he winked at her and that progress flew out the window. Heat instantly rose to her cheeks and her hand unknowingly made its way to the tips of her hair out of nervous habit. Why did he have to be so charming? She quickly tried to think of anything else to stop the blush on her cheeks only to have Itzel speak up which just deepened her blush and the extra winks just made it worse! Aria had planned to reply and now it just died on her lips as she knew what would happen if she spoke, stuttering would happen at being flustered by the sweet comments.

The banter between Jonah and Itzel calmed her flush face a bit, the two causing her to giggle a bit here and there. It put her at easy that she wasn’t the only dance challenged one and if Jonah stayed away from dancing then she would at least have someone nice to chat with. ”W-We will see, just know you both have been warned.”she stated before an Irish accent caught her attention. That was a voice she could happily listen to all day long. It seemed that Itzel and Simon knew each other pretty well or at least were comfortable with each other so she guessed that the two were roommates but wasn’t certain as they could just click well. Aria smiled brightly at the introduction, finding it endearing that Itzel was easily placing Simon into the conversation. She waved gently when her name was said with a quick, ”Hi Simon, nice to meet you.”

As the party became more and more active, the young woman began to slowly lose concentration in her book. Submitting to a change of plans with a light huff, she once more bookmarked her page and closed it shut; resting the book in her lap as she folded her arms over the cover. Now, her head was up and looking around at each and every occupant on the rooftop setup. Try as she might, it was obvious that the wallflower wasn't (or didn't) know how to imperceptively glance at everyone without locking into an uncomfortable six-second stare. She couldn't find the will to break her people-watching spree to get up and interact with the others. The only exception to this rule was if anyone experienced an acute injury or illness in her presence. Glancing around to the various wine-coolers, food, drink and karaoke stand, Pepper almost immediately deduced that something would happen tonight. Perhaps that's how she'd make friends. Someone says 'Hold my beer and watch this!' and seconds later she's gathering their vitals and learning all about them from a patient-Medic relationship in the heat of the ensuing accident. She sighed, turning her head back to look at all of the other individuals again with a ghost of a smirk on her face. In all seriousness, however, it was back to people-watching.

Her main focus was unsurprisingly on the most talkative people of the group. Though eavesdropping, Pepper learned of new faces to match with the names- or those she'd at least seen before at a passing glance. Aria, Josah, Itzel.. Jonah and Josiah were the others she'd encountered before. It put her at ease of mind to know that no-one here was hostile toward one another. Everyone was friendly...



With a squeak, Pepper jolted upright as her phone vibrated in her pocket, catching her off guard. Face reddening from embarrassment, she quickly fished the phone out of her sweater pocket and checked the notification on the Lock screen. Chris. Usually when he texts her, it's something important. Biting her lower lip nervously, she unlocked her phone and opened the Messages app to read the beginning of the conversation.



Pepper's alertness promptly relaxed into light confusion. As she read down further, she let out a soft growl of irritation. 'Peps' was something Chris had began calling her after she'd previously snapped at him for calling her 'Doctor Pepper'. Glancing around, she took the moment of solace to dance her finger across the touch-keypad as she replied to his message.





Pepper paused at the message and mulled it over. She already knew who she had to speak to to get such a permission. Fingers flying rapidly once more, she typed her reply.



Sighing, she pressed the power button on the side of the phone as a clicked shut with its infamous locking sound. Pocketing it, she now had a new objective. Swinging her legs up and over the lawn chair, the pale ghost of a woman proceeded to stretch momentarily as she tucked her book underneath her right and arm scanned the immediate area for Josiah.

_{Victoria Bouvelard}

_{Redwood Rooftop}

_{Interacting with Junhoe}

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Tori furrowed her brows as she attempted to recall the moment they had met. Coffee shop? What-oh! Coffee shop!

Flashback to a couple weeks ago...
The darn coffee was taking forever to be brewed. Tori sighed, resting her face on her chin. Might as well start on my book, then. She pulled out a large copy of Finders Keepers, one of her favorite Stephen King books. She became so immersed in the book, she missed the mug of hot home brewed coffee being placed in front of her. A male voice started her out of her own little world.
“Mind if I sit here?”
Tori glanced up, catching the eyes of a very tall guy. Feeling a bit intimidated, she nodded, going back to her book. The male sat on his phone for a while before his coffee came. She grinned, pointing it out to him. He responded in a friendly manner, and they conversed for a while until he was cut off by a phone call calling him away. He apologized for cutting the conversation short, then left the shop. Amused, Tori returned to his book, only now realizing she had never asked for the man’s name.
Flashback end...

She grinned, bowing back to the guy. “So that was you huh? Nice to finally get your name, coffee man! I’m Victoria, though most call me Tori. You teach at Silvervale? It’s surprising we haven’t crossed paths then. I’m a student there, as of the moment.” Recieving the compliment, Tori just smiled. “I did pose, coffee man. I guess I’m just not cut out for stuff like that, heh. I’m really sorry for messing up your picture though. If you want, I can help you take it again, though I’m sure you know much more about photography than me.”

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Junhoe smiled as his eyes glanced down to meet with the girl's eyes as he stood upright, he honestly never thought he would see this girl again after all that time, if he visited the coffee house at the same time as he did that day it would hit is work schedule pretty hard. He couldn't keep still, he was always fiddling with his fingers or shuffling his feet around. The girl then spoke, "So that was you huh? Nice to finally get your name, coffee man!" Junhoe smiled at the sudden nickname given to him, though he didn't seem to hate it; hell it even looked like he liked it. Coffee man? Well I do like my coffee. Junhoe thought, but then the girl continued. "I’m Victoria, though most call me Tori." And when she said that, he bowed again as another form of introduction, he would have said something but the girl was quite talkative and opened her mouth before he even had the chance to say something. "You teach at Silvervale? It’s surprising we haven’t crossed paths then. I’m a student there, as of the moment." Junhoe then nodded, before speaking, "Well, I teach one photography class in room 302 in the east wing, and I am relatively new to Silvervale, like new-new, like 2 weeks new."

Tori politely offered to help Junhoe retake the picture after apologising for messing it up the first time, but Junhoe was quite happy because he now had a subject to work with, he had taken hundreds of pictures of the city from this exact spot so it wouldn't be anything new. "Well, you could start by standing riii-" he then held her lightly on the sides of her shoulders and shuffled her in frame, somewhere around the rightmost part of the actual shot, "-iiight, here." Junhoe continued, he jogged back to his camera, moved the whole thing back a few inches and adjusted the camera setting. "Now you can pose for real this time." Junhoe said as he picked his head to the side of the camera, giving her a thumbs up as a go signal.

Whatever it was, he felt that this would the start of something or maybe it's because she's the first girl he's met so far in the city. That time they spent together in the coffee shop carries over to their time as friends now, it just had a slight pause when Junhoe forgot to give out his name.