You're not in the band if your the roadie...

[Hunter Sommer]

"Yeah, and if we clone you, then we'll have so many more of you to love, right? Ophelia can have one for whatever her devious plots are, I can have one to make me coffee, and Sera can have one to play soccer with," Tatum explained, nodding her head in agreement with her own words, as she moved over to the nearest garbage can to drop off her current pile of empties.

"And we'll just auction the remainder on Ebay as mail order brides."

Really, sometimes she wondered when Ophelia's craziness had become contagious.

[Leigh O'Conner]

Leigh pondered Tatum's speech, carefully wiping down the espresso machine as she did so. "Does original me get a count of the profits, or am I going to be your own personal slave, Ophelia's, or Sera's? And given a choice, I'll be yours. We've already said that your coffee is my favorite to have to make, and if you give me to Sera, you know she'll have me making that damn mocha all the time. Or, on the other hand, are we just gonna knock me off to make sure that all the clones develop without my rebellious nature? And if you are planning to off me, damnit, I'm voicing complaint before you do."

[Brody Rogers]

"I didn't think it through that much. But you do bring up a good point, having to share the money.. and that rebellion problem.. I like you a lot, so I'll keep you for myself, just so I can say that I have an original model, you know? Like a collector's edition Leigh O'Conner. I have the original, even if you aren't in your original packaging, and has thus depleted some of your original value," Tatum suggested, complete with hand gestures as she explained, tossing more cups out. She headed over to duck behind the counter with Leigh for a moment, just to grab up a damp cloth, before going over to the now clear tables, beginning to wipe them down.

"I think Sera might want some part in this debate. I think she'd enjoy this, auctioning off her best friend and all.. you know, she'd dig that."

[Leigh O'Conner]

Leigh laughed. "You know she would," she said. "But we have to consider the Sera-quality of said auction! She would do it bigger, better! I would somehow come out at some astronomical profit that no one but her understands, and then, somehow, she'll have managed not only to get all the money, but also keep me for her own evil deeds."

[Brody Rogers]

Turning to look over at Leigh, Tatum smiled again, shaking her head slowly as she continued to wipe down her current table. "You know, sometimes it is actually scary how well you know my sister, I'm just tossing that out there. A little bit scary, hon."

[Leigh O'Conner]

"Well, given how often I'm with her, is it really a surprise?" Leigh asked. She wrinkled her nose, a facial expression that she had a tendency to make when words escaped her -- she wore it a lot. "And I'm not gonna stop," she said firmly, grinning broadly. "She might be a megalomaniacal genius with future plans of global domination, but she's Sera," Leigh said the name insistently, as if it explained everything. And to Leigh, it kind of did.

[Brody Rogers]

Tatum nodded, as she finished wiping up her table, before moving onto the next one. Leigh did have a very good point; the two had been inseparable since they were kids, after all. Leigh was one of the first friends Seraphim had made at school, someone outside of her siblings to play with, sort of like Tatum had been with both Ophelia and Hunter, and the fact that the two knew each other inside and out was no shock. She smirked slowly at the younger girl's expression, a familiar one. "Oh, I don't expect you to stop. I think Sera really would turn into an old spinster without you, you're the only one keeping her from actually reverting into herself completely."

She glanced over toward Ophelia, who seemed occupied with flipping up chairs now, before she glanced back at Leigh once again. "You guys would be such a cute couple, you know. Ophi totally agrees, we've discussed it, you see."

[Leigh O'Conner]

Leigh blushed a shocking red. It wasn't like her to blush normally, but she couldn't help it. "You and your girlfriend have discussed me dating your little sister?" she asked, suddenly finding a spot of chocolate melted onto the counter to be endlessly fascinating. "I couldn't date Sera," Leigh said firmly, without waiting for an answer. "I mean, of course I could but still I can't, because what if it messed things up?! I mean, Sera's never said anything to me, and...um..." Leigh broke off, still flushed, and scrubbed the counter. "What if she didn't like me?" Leigh asked, looking up at Tatum again, cheeks still flushed. "Sometimes there are things a girl doesn't necessarily need to know."

[Brody Rogers]

"Frankly? There are very few things my girlfriend and I haven't discussed. You know how Ophelia rolls," Tatum shot back, motioning over her shoulder with her cloth, toward the other girl. At least the blush was a good sign though, wasn't it? She really did think they'd be quite cute together, even if Leigh did bring up a very valid point. Ruining their friendship would definitely be a potentially bad side effect. Leaning back onto her palms, against the now cleaned table, Tatum listened to Leigh run off onto her tangent, until she finally came to a close and looked up at Tatum again, still looking incredibly embarrassed.

"Leigh, she likes you more than she likes anybody else. She treats you like a human being, which is a lot more than she treats the general population as, right? So you're already a step in the right direction! And of course she hasn't said anything, she's about as stuffy as they come, she's a seventy year old professor in disguise of a sixteen year old girl's body," the redhead explained. "Couldn't kill you to ask, would it? I mean, just prod around a little? I'd help! Since I do owe you that favor, and you're looking pretty embarrassed, and I'm pretty sure that is the same exact look I used to get when people used to ask me about Ophi when I was your age.. I mean, god, that makes me sound old now, but you know what I mean."

[Leigh O'Conner]

"You leave Sera's sixteen-year-old professor's body alone, it's just fine!" She defended her best friend almost automatically. Leigh scrunched her nose again, as if realizing the words that were coming out of her mouth. "Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt to ask, I guess." She scrubbed absently at the counter again. "But you have to promise to help me, Tatum. If Sera ends up never speaking to me again, I'm making the first issue of our newspaper every embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you! With pictures!"

[Brody Rogers]

Tatum grinned, eyebrow raising instinctively at Leigh's immediate defense. "It's fine, is it? See, this is just proof that my gaydar is completely spot on. I knew I could break you down," she teased, as she turned back to another table, beginning to clean it up, and grabbing up a half empty coffee up from it's surface as she did so. "I will help you, honest. Between the two of us, we know exactly how she ticks, we'll crack her. And she could never stop speaking to you, she'd shrivel up and die, and her cell phone would be unused. Also, your photo threats? Not so scary to me," she added, turning back to Leigh with another smirk.

"First of all, my entire life has been embarrassing. Second, I'm the photographer, remember? I'm not actually going to let you get your hands on any of my less than satisfactory shots. Unless you intend to go through the family albums.. which you could do.. and why am I giving you ideas again?"

[Leigh O'Conner]

Leigh offered a feral sort of grin that bared all her teeth. "Because you love me!" she cheered triumphantly. "Although Sera's phone going unused isn't exactly the threat of the century, either, Tate. I swear, she only carries that thing around to get annoyed at it when it interrupts her...or unless I have some kind of emergency..." Leigh drifted off. "But anyway, yes. Um. I'll try to talk to her later...tomorrow, maybe, when all of this insanity is over. And you can be my backup!"

[Brody Rogers]

"Oh, she likes to act annoyed when you interrupt her, but I bet there is some affection under there somewhere. She secretly wishes you'd call her~" Tatum mused, teasing a bit and speaking in a sing-song tone. "Anyway, you got it, kiddo. I so have your back. Just wait until she finishes that test tomorrow, before you drop any bombs on her, or she might actually kill us both and impale us on the soccer nets or something.. we'll get her at lunch time, or after school? I know she has club, she always has a club, but we can grab her before she runs off."

[Leigh O'Conner]

"I can probably get her at lunch," Leigh mused, and then smiled as she nodded more firmly. "Actually, I'm pretty sure I definitely can." Leigh coughed a little, and promptly began working more quickly, as if working faster right at the moment would bring the next day a little faster. She rinsed out the rag she was cleaning with and then looked out again. "And, uh, Tatum?" She paused for a moment, and then whispered, "thanks."

[Brody Rogers]

Just giving a rather knowing little smile, Tatum nodded her head, before turning around to continue scrubbing at her own table. She was actually quite happy with how this had turned out, really; it had started on a whim, just a bit of teasing. She hadn't actually expected Leigh to crack, although she had been sure there was some crushing going on there for some time. She'd do anything she could to help this along; her sister needed to loosen up a bit, and beside that, Leigh was like family, like all of their friends were, and as long as she was happy, Tatum was happy. "You're welcome, sweetie."

Ophelia was coming back from sweeping the front now, and Tatum glanced over at her, smiling some. "Done already?"