Chip's Office (JUMPED to the end of the schoolday)

[Cres]

It took only about the first three quarters of an hour for Chip to set up his office in a way that pleased him. He had his computer set up, all the illegal business password protected in a way that would require another hacker to get through them in any considerable time. He smiled to himself as he leaned back on his chair, stretching his hands and then sliding them behind his neck, smiling contentedly. This was all turning out very well.

His eyes drifted off along the walls of the office. It was small yet comfortable. He preferred these small spaces, where one could be practically forgotten to plot without being disturbed much. He wondered how busy he would be at the school. The teachers, especially the older teachers, tended to be pretty helpless with IT technology, and he suspected he'd be needed turning up their computers in the classrooms and all that sort of thing every fifth minute. In fact, he was surprised he had not been fetched for some minor thing already.

He glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed. It was such a darned long time until lunch. He had nothing to do for the moment. That was the problem of being simply tech support. You only had job when someone needed you. And Chip was not feeling like doing his other business right now. Tin would have to wait for his programs. Even geniuses don't work full throttle all the time.

Lazily Chip's mind drifted back to the blonde kid. Damn, he was a fine sight. And all that perfectionism rather appealed to Chip. Though by the way that Miss Lark had been talking, the boy had some serious issues. To Chip, that was not a problem. He still felt drawn to Ace. He only hoped the kid would let him close. Chip had to admit he was currently more in need of bodily closeness than anything else, but he wasn't about to jump into action with this one. He knew full well that rush spoiled many a good thing. And even after such a short acquaintance he felt he liked the boy too much to just go for his arse and then leave him to deal with the consequences. Chip was a player, he admitted to that, but he looked on himself as a respectable player. One night stands were nice only for as long as you never needed to see the other person again.

Besides, if he didn't treat the kid right, he might raise a law suit, and that would fuse Tin off. Chip did not want to fool around with Mr. Rosacci. He'd rather die.

He thought on that aspect a bit, then realised that he would in fact die if he fooled around with Mr. Rosacci. Ahh well. Point was there, though. He needed to be careful.

[Cres]

For some time longer Chip searched the walls with his eyes. Then he sighed and kicked himself up from the chair. He really wasn't made for standing or sitting still. He paced about the room a few moments almost nervously, measuring the floor with his steps. It was a funny sort of an office, but comfortable, he supposed. He stopped in front of the closed door, staring at it. He really had nothing much to do for the time being. Maybe he ought to get out and find some company. At first he thought of the blonde, then decided against it. Better not be too eager.

He opened the door and stepped to the hallway, a bit indecisive. Classes must have started already. So the teachers would be there. He sighed and scratched his chin, leaning on the door frame. Ah, what to do? Where to go?

[Cres]

Finally he decided to start walking down the corridor and see where he would end up. If he ended up out on the roof, then that would at least get interesting. He smirked to himself as he started walking.

Soon he found a door that looked awful lot like another computer lab or something. He recalled the principal telling him that there was another computer whiz around who was a little shy. Perhaps he'd find her from here somewhere and ask her for a cup of coffee or something.

So he leaned his shoulder on the doorframe and knocked on the door.

[Kat]

Riley Dorey was sitting behind the desk at the head of the lab, waiting for the computer to finish loading in her profile. Damn Windows always took forever, maybe Donley would let her install Linux on all the systems instead. As she thought back to meeting her boss again this morning, she thought to scratch that idea. He didn't exactly seem like the type who was interested in changing anything.

Just as it finished loading in she heard a knock at the door. Jumping a little as she hadn't been expecting anything she looked at her watch, certain that it couldn't be her next period class already. She got up and walked to the door, opening it and seeing a guy standing in front of her. She mustered the friendliest smile she could before speaking.

"Hi, can I help you with something?"

[Cres]

Chip eyed the girl up and down appreciatively. She was cute.

"You might help me avoid dying of boredom," he said with a friendly smile and then offered her his hand. "The name's Chip, and I've just settled in over there couple of doors down the corridor. I'm the new 911 for computer disasters."

[Kat]

Riley shook his hand, glad that he had shown up. Maybe he'd make for some good company. "Come on in, have you seen one of the labs yet? I'm impressed, wish my high school had had computers this new, we'd had old pieces of junk that took forever to boot up." She walked into the lab, letting him follow her in. "So, is this your first experience in a school too? I did a co-op term here last year and they liked me so much they offered me a position for my first year as a real teacher."

[Cres]

Chip smiled as he followed her in, listening to her words with half an attentive ear. She seemed nice, but she talked much. Not that Chip minded that, of course.

"I just graduated," he said with a shrug. "And this is pretty much my first job anywhere. I just got lucky I guess. Well, I've got this other job at a company, but I don't have to go to the office like ever, because it's mostly programming which I can do anywhere I like. So I'll be spending my time mostly here." He looked around with interest. "I was actually planning on asking you to join me for a cup of coffee so you might show me around a bit while we walk to the cafeteria." He flashed her a smile. "I'm really new here."

[Kat]

Riley smiled and nodded, walking over to the desk. "Sure, just let me get my purse. The cafeteria's back downstairs in case you missed it on the way in. A coffee sounds good right about now." Grabbing her purse she grabbed the lab keys from the desk as well, locking the door on their way out. They walked out into the hall, heading for the staircase. "So, this back wing is all dedicated to computers, pretty nice. Just across the way here on the right back there is a weight room, and this room here," she indicated towards a double door they were just passing, "is the a/v room, where the tech kids hang out and run things during plays and assemblies." She continued to point things out as they made their way down the stairs toward the back of the school where the cafeteria was.

[Cres]

Chip smiled and nodded at her explanations, making careful note of everything he might not have heard before. His mind kept drifting, however. He kept thinking about Dan, and then again Ace, and then back to Dan again. He decided that if Ace wouldn't contact him by the time he left the school that day, he'd catch Dan and spend the evening with him. Maybe take him nightclubbing. Dan needed to relax.

After a moment Chip realised he hadn't been paying much attention to her speech and hoped she hadn't said anything very important. He smiled to her as he descended the stairs with her. He had noticed that a good charming smile got you pretty far.

"I'm sorry, I'm a bit disoriented today," he said. "All the new stuff, probably. I just came back from Italy with my folks a week ago, and I'm still regrouping."

[[should we move this over to the thread with Chase and Chloe when we get to the cafeteria?]]

[Kat]

Riley looked at him with a shocked expression. "Italy? Oh wow, you're so lucky. You have family over there then? The only place I've ever been in Europe is Spain, and it was gorgeous. I'd love to go back." They arrived on the bottom floor, walking now past the art room toward the cafeteria doors. "Well here we are now, the coffee here is actually pretty good."

(okay you can move it to the other thread now:)

[Cres]

[[Ok. Cont. there then.]]

[Cres]

[[cont. from the cafeteria]]

Chip walked back to his office and shut the door behind him. He looked at the half-eaten muffin in his hand with a loathing expression and then threw the thing into the wastebasket. He had only brought it along not to cause too much suspicion.

Chip sighed and walked around the desk to sit by the computer. The screen saver was drilling holes into his screen with a laughing devil face, and he pushed the mouse so that the image cleared off. He wasn't in the mood for jokes at the moment.

He was happy to have his own office at that moment. It would have been a pain to put up a grinning face to a co-worker at the moment. He wasn't sure what had upset him so much. Perhaps it was just the bottleneck of emotions coming up for a minute. Moment or two in silence and he'd be fine again. With an absent-minded hand he rubbed on his other temple, the echo of a migraine looming there somewhere.

With hardly even noticing it, his fingers found the keyboard and the mouse. He clicked open a program and started typing. Might as well use the other half of his brain for work. Tin would want his programs eventually. Chip didn't know what he was going to do with them, nor did he care. As long as he'd get his paycheck in time.

[Cres]

[[Jump to the end of the day]]

Chip had been working pretty much the entire day on his projects. He had gone out meeting the rest of the staff on the lunch hour, but it hadn't been as much fun as he had hoped. Well, these teachers were pretty ok, but Chip had lost his sociable streak for a moment.

As the day neared on to its end, however, he cheered up again at the recollection of a promise of meeting Ace. So when the clock struck to inform that the last hour of school was over, he switched off his computer and stood up from behind his desk. Only then he recalled they hadn't exactly made any arrangements of meeting anywhere after school. Would Ace come knocking on his door? Or should he go out to the parking lot?

For a few moments he just stood there, pondering over this question.

[[In case Ace was planning on coming to knock on his door. In case not, I'll just have him make up his mind and leave for the parking lot.]]

[Kat]

(Have him go to the parking lot; Ace is downstairs and has no reason to go upstairs, and he doesn't want anyone to think that he is the one chasing after Chip, so he'd just wait for him in the parking lot;)

[Cres]

[[that's kind of what I thought ]]

Soon enough Chip's logic told him that Ace would probably not be coming up - he was too much in the cool to do that. So he checked he hadn't left anything in the room and stared out, locking the office door after him. You never knew, did you.

Then he went downstairs.

[[cont. err... elsewhere]]