x o x o | VERY OPEN~

It was Valentines day, a holiday full of all of that lovey-dovey, mushy-gushy crap. But for some reason people seemed to really buy into it. They bought chocolates. They bought flowers. They bought teddy bears and heart shaped anything. Verona just hoped people were gullible enough to hopefully buy kisses. You see Verona had just blown off all of her money on a few coffee rounds and a new bag she had found in Rosebury. Afraid to call her parents and sure as hell not daring to be in debt to her brothers, Verona thought up a little scheme.

She had schmoozed her way into making a few fellow Beata girls help her with making the poster and also had made a small booth to sit right next to the student hotspot. The task was easy, kiss as many boys as possible before the day was over. Make some cash and also have a little fun. The girl didn't really think much of it other than a simple kiss. Never did it even cross her mind that she could catch some sickness like mono. But Verona figured that majority of the people here were descent and hopefully had never had mono before.

Verona checked the booth vigorously again, smoothing out the red cloth that had been draped over a wooden table. It was adorned with red heart-shaped beads and a poster labeled "Kissing Booth: One Dollar" in large pink and white letters. Verona herself was also dressed for the occasion. She was wearing a light pink pea-coat and white and pink heart gloves, because it was still cold outside and a fresh powder still dusted the ground.

The bell would ring any second now and everyone else would be released from gift mastery class for the rest of their days. Verona of course figured going to that class would be useless, especially considering that this was technically using her gifts. It gave her extra time to set all of this up and figure out what she was going to do. Now all she had to do was wait, it wouldn't be long now...

Once the bell did ring, one of the first people to zip out of class was Penny. Valentine's day was probably one of her more hated days. Although, with this being her first Valentine's where she actually had some freedom, it could be very different. As she walked out of the hallways and across the courtyard, she quickly stopped as she saw the pink and white letters catch her attention. What in the world would something be doing out here? Turning to look, she saw the kissing booth and almost laughed from how peculiar and actually pretty interesting it was. Too bad she couldn't partake. That was what sucked the most about her power. First kiss? Nope. Never. But since she had been away from her family, she'd been seeing plenty of different guys. Thankfully she hadn't killed anyone yet.

Walking up to the booth, she tried to see who all was there. Actually, it looked as if it were only one girl that had everything set up. At least she looked like she was going to get quite a bit of money if she were selling kisses for a dollar. She definitely had the looks for it, but unfortunately Penny couldn't really help her out. Or, at least, she couldn't get her money's worth out of it. "Hey there. Great idea for Valentine's Day. Had any customers yet?" Penny asked Vera before moving to stand out of the way of the front of the booth. It would be kind of strange for a guy to be held up in line behind a girl that couldn't kiss anyone anyway.

The students shuffled out of the training room, stretching and yawning, some feeling rather exhausted than others.
Jason shrugged off the day's work, ready to go grab a bite to eat and work the rest of the day off in the gym. It was hard to miss the bright pink, red, and white stand with blaring banners just begging for attention. Even more so, it was hard to miss the beautiful young miss standing behind it, running the entire show. She did seem like the type of girl to pull something like this. After all, what man could resist the temptation? And just for a dollar. It sounded horrible, but come on. With a small chuckle, he wondered if she had ditched class just to set this up. "If she hasn't, she's about to get her first." He answered, though Jace wasn't certain who has asked. It wasn't until he approached the booth that he saw it was Penny. Suddenly, for whatever reason, he felt uncomfortable and felt the urge to back out. But no, he couldn't do that now... The young man pulled his wallet out of his pocket and pulled out a clean bill. "I don't imagine you have change for a twenty?" He winked.

Another student, Brailynn, came walking out of the class with a trained blank expression and a huge headache. She wasn't one to try and ditch the classes, but it was easy to say that ever since the new teacher came into the school the class had been more miserable than ever. It was easier when Spion paid her no mind and she could keep to herself. To make matters even better, she saw the girl who she thought was her friend standing behind her own little "kissing booth". It made the girl laugh a little and she stood quietly several feet away in the middle of the passing crowd, watching Verona closely and wondering if she should go up and say hi or something, but there an uncomfortable feeling that told her otherwise.

Verona watched the cheerful blonde approach her booth and raised an eyebrow at her. She wasn't serious was she? She didn't want to kiss her right? I mean this was certainly not what she had had in mind when it came to a kissing booth. And then when she realized who it was her eyes grew a little larger. This was Penny, (Verona knew this through the countless number of hours she spent in everyone else's business.) as in her roommate Penny. As in, they slept in the same dorm, which was totally nasty if she was looking to get with Verona because Verona was totally not swinging that way. And oh jeez, how awkward would it be seeing Penny in her dorm room after knowing that Penny was like into her or something?

Only, as Verona learned about what Penny was really interested in knowing, she relaxed and let out a great exhale. "Oh, I know right?" Verona said, not with the slightest hint of modesty and then leaning closer to the girl she added. "You're not interested in kissing me though, right?" But at the sound of Jace's voice Verona looked up and raised her eyebrows. "Oh Jason, what a surprise," Verona lied, she had a feeling he might show up sometime soon. After all, they were in sort of a competition of seduction at the moment and what was a better way at getting ahead than a kissing booth?

Verona shot Penny a curious glance. She didn't understand why she was still standing there, but she wasn't in the mood to ask her to leave. Maybe if there was a long line, she would've asked her to leave, but Penny was an okay person, she guessed, and having her here wouldn't make too much of a difference. The brunette turned her attention back to Jace, her eyes glancing at the twenty in his hands and this caused her to raise her eyebrow. "Well blondie, I'm afraid you're out of luck." Verona said plainly, pausing to look around and flash a few people smiles. "But if you come back later I'm sure I'll have something for you."

She could've sworn she spotted Brailynn and her stomach knotted up. Verona knew she couldn't stay mad at the girl, but the thought of her with Richard at the dance still infuriated her. And really Brailynn didn't do anything to Verona intentionally, but if she had really listened to her the times she tried to vent to her about Richard she might have thought before just bopping along to the dance with him. And dammit, Verona hated that she even felt a little jealous of Brailynn and that made her even more mad. Sure this wouldn't last forever, but now it was probably best that the two kept their distances.

When Verona leaned in, Penny was slightly unsure as to what the girl was doing until the question came out of her mouth. Almost instantly, the blond began to laugh and shook her head. "No, I'm just visiting. Unless you do want a kiss, but then you'd die." But she quickly quieted herself as Jace came to the table. At first, she was a little surprised, but it didn't bother her too much. After all, these two were dates at the dance. Actually, she didn't care at all. It was just fun getting attention like she did at the dance. That was what that dress was meant for and it served its purpose.

"Ooooorrr...." she quickly butted in after the two exchanged a few words. She had the biggest (and probably pretty goofy) smirk on her face as she glanced in Jace's direction. "Ten kisses for her, ten for me. She can keep the money. How does that sound?" It was Valentine's Day. She was going to make the best out of her most awkward and worst situation. Of course, she couldn't hold a flirty face for long and quickly began to laugh again. Like that was ever going to happen.

Jason smirked. "A pleasant surprise, I would hope." He said, leaning slightly against her little set up table. To be quite frank, he hadn't seen a little get-up like this in quite a long time, if ever actually. He wondered why she was doing this. What exactly she up too? You would think that the majestic Queen of Beata would have a bit higher standards. Still, she kept her appearances up, for certain. The thick, but warm clothes have her more of a 'cutsie' appearance; the pink definitely helped with that. It was such a change, he had to force his gaze to wonder again to not stare. Having the gift of attractiveness, how fucking fair was that?
He cast another curious glance aside at Penny. And why was she here? She couldn't have been a part of this little charade, being as he had just come out of class with out... Unless she was here for the same reasons he was... Did she maybe roll that way? Admittedly, that would be a little disappointing.
The Autumn raised an eyebrow at her little comment, "Well, well..." He mused, "That sounds pretty damn tempting. Do I get a down payment, though?" The blonde threw his lame little line out, winking still as if he were completely serious. Still, it was hard holding back a laugh.

It got even better when Penny put in her little jibes in. Grinning, he turned back to her. "You know, I really like that idea." Jason said, taking a few steps and leaning closer to Penny, well aware that Verona was still there and watching. For a heartbeat, it looked like he was about to go in for the kiss, but instead his cheek brushed hers and he whispered in her ear, "I might have to take you up on that."

Verona looked at Penny shocked? "..but then you'd die", the hell? "No worries," Verona informed with curt look at the girl. "I don't have a death wish and I wouldn't be caught dead kissing a girl." Verona said, slightly startled and mistaking what she meant. She prized herself in knowing all of the drama that happened in Beata, but she didn't know EVERYTHING about people who went here. In fact, she had no clue about Penny's gift. That's why when Penny said her statement, Verona flashed her a look that showed how taken aback she was.

However, Verona's confusion was short lived and suddenly her face changed to stone. No longer was she smiling at Jace or Penny, but her mouth was gaped open slightly. That bitch. Penny's big goofy grin made Verona want to throw up or even pull this stupid blondes hair, but Verona was very, very careful on how she reacted. She just stood there with a small smile on her face, as if Jace was a total stranger and having another girl kiss him would make no difference to her. And it wasn't even like her and Jace had anything going anyway, just a small unspoken competition and shared reign over Beata's Winter Formal. Trying to act natural Verona threw out a laugh and matched Penny's reaction with an equally wide smile.

Her composure was even harder to keep when Jace seemed to be really into the idea. Her smile drooped a little bit, but she still seemed carefree. "That's a great idea Penny," Verona said, trying as hard as she could to sound sincere. Ugh, she was dying here. "As long as I get the money, I couldn't care less!" She added, a playful laugh ringing out into the air. Once again, her composure became harder to hold as he swooped into kiss her. "Whoa, hey there~" Verona said, her voice a little frantic than she had wanted. Jace didn't kiss the girl but seemed to whisper something in her ear and Verona rolled her eyes. "You could atleast pay me first."

And then she spotted a boy approaching the booth and Verona thanked her lucky stars, if she was going to be forced to watch Jace flirt with Penny for a second more she would've thrown up. "Hi there!" Verona said to the guy, who just so happened to be the same boy Verona had charmed in the hallways during her rather unforgettable encounter with Richard. "One dollar please." She informed emphasizing the box to her left. "Penny, since you were so interested, you can deal with Jace. I've got this guy." Verona flashed Penny a falsely appreciative smile and turned her attention back to the tall boy in front of her (She still had no clue of Penny's gift). After he had paid his money, Verona shot a glance at Jace before wrapping her arms around the boy and planting a light kiss onto the guys slobbery lips. Once again, Verona had to use all of her force to pretend that the kiss was okay, even though the guy was a painfully awful kisser.

At first, Penny was very surprised that he seemed to want to take her up on her offer. That was definitely not something she had planned for. As Jace's face grew closer, she began to look away until she realized that instead, he was just getting closer to her ear. Almost instantly, she froze, holding her breath as he drew near until he whispered softly into her ear. "I might have to take you up on that." Was he crazy? That was not a good idea. Not a good one at all. She had no way of controlling her power, but then again, she should have seen that coming. After spending just a short time with him in this very location before they took a tour, she should have known that he was just about as flirty as she was, if not more. It wasn't too long that she was able to catch her breath again, but it was long enough to be noticed. Although she was scared more for his sake than she was for hers.

Calming herself down, another smile crept onto her face as she placed one of her hands on his chest and slowly pushed him a good distance away. Enough to put a decent amount of space between them as a sort of rejection. "Alright, keep it in your pants, big boy. This is her booth, not mine. If you want a kiss, get it from your queen. Unless you're asking for a death wish." But when Penny turned to see that she was already smooching on another guy, it got just slightly awkward. She didn't really want to take over the booth to help Vera. It's not like she could anyway. But after a moment, she just shrugged. She had actually not even realized that no one really knew what her power was. She had always been kind of outcast because before coming here, as soon as one person knew, it spread like a wild fire. Surely someone knew about it by now and told everyone else. But, maybe not. "Well, looks like you'll have to wait in line now~" she said with a bit of a laugh.

Couldn't care less, huh? Jason supposed that should've been easy to believe, but he had a gut feeling that that wasn't entirely true; he wasn't about to place money though on it, however. It was hard to hide his small smirk as satisfaction when she tried to speak up. Was that worry he had heard? He smiled against Penny's cheek, "Sorry, Sweet Pea." He flicked the twenty out of his hand and into plain sight, he crumpled it up and leaned over slightly, pushing it into the little box. He didn't take his attention away from the pretty blonde in front of him still.

At least, not until she put a firm hand on his chest and pushed him away. For a second, he looked completely confused - and even a bit nervous for a split-second. In a few moments, though, he snapped out of it and a large grin grew on his face. "Damn, girl." He mused, taking a few steps back. "You never struck me as the violent type." The young man raised an eyebrow, totally misunderstanding her. Still, his pride hurt, he tried to shrug it off like it was nothing.

Jace turned around, seeing an approaching customer (he looked like an even bigger douche than he himself) walk up and kiss his Queen on the lips. Honestly, it forced him to shutter - wondering if this guy had ever kissed a girl in his life. It was so messy, Jason got a bad case of second hand embarrassment for Verona. He swore he could see the guy's drool. "Yeah, I request you use some mouth wash before I take in my order?" He muttered under his breath. The blonde shook his head, laughing quietly to Penny. "Fuck that, I should've taken my chance while I had it."

As she pulled away from the slobber mouth, she had to force a smile as the boy stared at her with big, puppy eyes. She tended to have this issue with boys, although it was kind of funny watching him fall all over themselves. He leaned in for another kiss and Verona's eyes grew wide and she did a movement similar to Penny and lightly pushed him back. "Now, now. You only paid one dollar." And to her relief the boy didn't seem to have any more money, and instead offered her a weak, "Call me sometime, okay Verona? Maybe we can pick up where we left off?" But Verona only rolled her eyes, as the boy strolled back to his friends, who stood there obviously wishing they themselves had money of their own.

Once he was out of sight, Verona picked up a tissue and pretended to wipe something on her chin, when she was in fact wiping away the slobber. That. Was. Disgusting. Hearing their commentary, Verona rolled her eyes as she reapplied a new coat of lip balm onto bottom lip and rubbed her lips together. "Obviously you didn't have to wait too long," Verona said slowly, staring at the two with a raised eyebrow and as much of a smug smirk she could muster. (Which was a pretty weak one considering that kiss was nothing to be proud about.)

"So why is it that you two aren't all over each other?" Verona said coyly, leaning over to where she could prop her head up on the booth with her elbows. Not to say that she wasn't glad to see the two not kissing, but she would think that with the interest she had seen from Jace they would've at least locked lips. Granted, she had a pretty good idea what had happened, but she had been distracted by kissing the slobber-mouth to pick up on anything else. Besides, judging by Jace's slightly bashful face he was probably rejected and if that was true, she wasn't going to just let the situation go unnoticed.

Oh, so they didn't know yet. Well, this was about to get a little awkward. Penny's gaze quickly turned to the ground before she realized how suddenly embarrassed she had become. Pulling her head back up, she kept her eyes off of Vera and she was kind of shying away from Jace, but thankfully this wasn't terribly noticeable. "Well, you see..." she began before subconsciously crossing her arms in front of her. "My power isn't something very usual. I don't control elements, nor can I fly or lift cars. No, my 'ability' is something that I can't even figure out in the slightest. I apparently was born with a peculiar gift of poison touch... the only issue is that I can touch anything just fine. Weird, right? Yeah, the catch is that my body creates its own poison like a snake. And where does the venom in a snake come from?" she asked before rolling her eyes at how stupid she probably sounded. With a loud sigh, she continued. "Basically... my spit isn't spit. It's my body's own special kind of venom. So, kissing... really really bad idea..." her voice trailed off as she waited for their reactions. Surely they were either going to laugh or completely freak out.

The young man could be practically seen wincing as Verona wiped her mouth, "If not mouthwash, a breath mint then... Or a tic-tac?" He threw out there with a crooked smile on his face. It was hard to tell whether or not if he was exactly joking. The autumn felt the urge to reach into his pocket and pull out a fresh stick of gum, chewing some himself and offering a piece to Penny.
"Well," Jason had started to pull out a smart-ass remark for Verona's snarky little question, but it seemed that Penny beat him to the punch with an actual, legitimate explanation. "Damn, that's gotta' suck." He said quietly, "Well, when you learn to control it, you should be a pal and let me know." Jason winked at her with a small grin, glancing back Verona.

As to why Jace had to emphasize the already awkward moment more, Verona wasn't really sure. Of course, she did set herself up for some humiliation by kissing the boy, but was his commentary really necessary? Although she did have to admit, it was pretty witty. "Calm down Blondie," Verona said with a payfull roll of her eyes. "I don't need a tic-tac for a slobbery mouth." But suddenly cautious of the possibility of smelly breath, she popped a small mint into her mouth when she thought no one was really paying attention to her. A few other boys looked over at the table nervously, almost if they were scared to approach Verona as she truly was intimidating. But Verona really wasn't in the mood for any more costumers, because she really wasn't interested in chancing if people kissed like a dog or not.

The girl couldn't help but have her mouth go slack and to mover her hands away from their close proximity to Penny's infectious touch. "Ew, that really sucks." Verona added to Jason's statement as sympathetically she could muster, even though she really didn't care if it sucked for Penny or not. But it seemed that Jace didn't seem phased by this chick who was basically walking poison and it frustrated Verona to see him still hitting on her. Although, she didn't really do much other than roll her eyes and offer up a small, extremely forced laugh.

ooc: I might add a bit more later, but it'll only be more detail. Sorry guys I just knew I needed to post this even though my muse is shot~

It was almost embarrassing to watch the two react the way they did. Yeah, it did suck, and Verona's reaction didn't help much. Yeah, she was poisonous, but it wasn't like she could accidentally kill someone. Not only that, but she had absolutely no poisonous touch what-so-ever. She had tried before just to see if she could do it but she had no luck. It wasn't like it was something she wanted either. Honestly, her entire ability was just embarrassing and it had almost made her an outcast for quite some time. She really didn't think it would be that big of a deal here at Beata since everyone had some kind of power, but there was Verona moving away like Penny had the plague or something. Ever-so-slightly narrowing her eyes at the girl, she quickly turned back to Jace to hide what hurt she had felt so suddenly and gave him a small smirk. "Yeah, like that'll happen." With a roll of her eyes, Penny crossed her arms in front of her.

Jace shrugged, a small smirk on his face at the Kissing Booth's patron amd her sassy banter. A little something was better than nothing, wasn't it? He was honestly a little surprised himself at Verona's reaction over Penny's gift, though for some reason, he felt he shouldn't be. He honestly felt bad for Penny, in a way, though he'd never straight up say it - and certainly not in public. The consequences there were unpredictable.
"Give it time. They all come around." Jason said lightly, turning away with a smile and looking back at Verona. He supposed it was rude to neglect her at her own establishment any longer.
"So, since that dog is gone, guess whose next in line Sweet Pea?" He mused with a crooked smile.