Manicures and glitter

[Nicole Victors]

Nikki was taking advantage of the winter break, and was curled up on one of the sofas in the Blue common room, dressed to the nines and going through one of the many gymnastics magazines that she was subscribed to - mainly looking through articles on the best kind of hair glitter to use.

She was slowly getting used to the place, and even the equine classes weren't so bad, as long as all she had to do was talk about horses, and look at pictures of them. If she had to touch them? Yeah, no way, she was out of there.

Reaching for her mug, she saw that her nails were in serious need of a good manicure, and she wondered, in this hick town, where did one go for a decent mani-pedi?

[Tara Macmillan]

Tara hummed softly to herself as she made her graceful way down the stairs. It must, she thought, be nearly time for lunch; she was absolutely starving, and yet breakfast didn't seem to have been so long ago... It was probably the exercise; she'd been out with Jenny for much of the morning, and the usually compliant mare had been an absolute pain in... well, a number of areas, most of which were still aching despite the hot shower she'd had on getting in. In fact, her thighs were complaining stridently as she finally reached the ground floor and, on a whim, made her way into the lounge. She'd expected to find it empty, but the surprise at finding that it wasn't was a pleasant one.

"Well, hey, gorgeous," was her subtle opening gambit as she curled up in an armchair.

[Nicole Victors]

Nikki's attention was drawn from her study of a hairstyle in the mag when she heard someone enter the room, though she didn't give them anymore mind.

She glanced over the mug as she sipped at the now barely luke-warm chai as the new occupant spoke, a smile curving her lips. "Hello yourself." She replied, with just a touch of a purr. She'd been doing gymnastics long enough, and checking out other girls while she wasn't that way inclined, to know when another female was attractive. "I can't believe, with the amount of money we pay to attend this school, and I have to refill my own cup!"

[Tara Macmillan]

A smile curled the blonde's lips as she surveyed the other girl thoughtfully. She was entirely open with her regard- unlike the room's other occupant, she had neither a magazine nor a mug behind which to conceal herself, and neither did she want to. Tara was quite happy to be seen while she looked someone up and down; besides, she was entirely of the opinion that her own appearance was something which she couldn't possibly hide. That would be to deprive the world of an all too rare treat, and she couldn't possibly do that with a clear conscience. It would be an atrocity.

"Well, I hope you don't expect me to do it." Her voice was soft, low, sultry. "I pay as much as you do- and besides, if I went to refill your cup, I'd have to take my eyes off this wonderful view." Something which she had no intention of doing at any time soon.

[Nicole Victors]

Nikki rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't expect anything of the sort." She replied. "I just felt that you would be someone who who would understand the issues of not having staff." She gave a quick smile before she rose to her feet and walked over to the kitchenette where she dumped the last drag of her drink,check the temperature of the kettle and made herself another. "While I don't make a habit of waiting on people, as I am here, can I make you a drink?" She could have easily just taken her drink back and sat down again, but this gave her a chance to stretch her limbs.

[Tara Macmillan]

"It's a hardship," Tara agreed with a melodramatic sigh. All this business of making her own bed, cleaning her own boots, tidying her own room... It was not what she was accustomed to, or rather, not what she had been accustomed to. Coming here had been an education in more ways than one; it had been an education in the way that the other half lived, and Tara had learned from the experience that she never wanted to be one of the other half.

She returned the girl's smile as she left the room, sighing inwardly at the loss, momentary or not, of a pleasant spectacle. "Well, if you don't mind..." Tara murmured. "Coffee, please. Americano."

[Nicole Victors]

Nikki pulled a face at the other girl's choice of drink, though she grabbed another latte mug and began to put the drink together. Sure, both of their drinks contained caffeine, which really meant she shouldn't be having a second, but there was something about the smell of coffee that made her not want to drink it.

Opening the bag of gummy bears that she had left on the counter earlier, and arranged them onto the other girl's saucer, and repeated the process on her own, making sure they weren't too close to the hot mug, and then carried them back to the seating area. "My dear." She said with a bright smile.

[Tara Macmillan]

"Thank you!" the blonde returned brightly, setting down the saucer on a coffee table and wrapping her hands around the warm mug, inhaling the scent of the coffee for a moment before sipping at it. Tara liked her coffee piping hot, which was how she rather liked her friends too. For a moment, the girl closed her eyes, feeling the warmth spreading through her, before returning her attention to the room's other occupant.

"So, what have you been up to today?" she enquired. "Out on the trails? It had been really rather pleasant out there today, with not too many people clogging the place up, and she'd quite enjoyed it.

[Nicole Victors]

Nikki sat down again, mug in one hand - saucer resting on the cushion beside her - and the magazine she had been reading in the other as studied the picture she had been looking at earlier. "Me, trails? Eww no!" She said with a shudder. "I don't ride and I wouldn't even risk my ankles using them for endurance." She had been on the trails a couple of times, and they weren't too bad... that is, if it weren't for all the horses!!

"I had gymnastics this morning, and then again this evening. Pretty much just enjoying the downtime, 'till classes start up again." She gave the other girl a bright smile. "What about you, hon? What has your time been filled with?"

[Tara Macmillan]

The blonde raised an eyebrow, curling her legs up underneath her and shifting around in the seat to face the other girl. "You don't ride?" she queried, genuinely surprised. People came to this school solely for the purposes of riding; she couldn't imagine why anyone who didn't ride would be here in the first place. Still, it wasn't for her to question... At least this girl improved the aesthetics of the place, she supposed, if she didn't contribute much to the equestrian scene.

"Not a lot," she conceded, happily enough. "Just hanging about the place, riding, reading magazines, trying out makeup techniques... Admiring the scenery..." Tara winked.

[Nicole Victors]

Nikki gave her million-dollar smile. "No, unlike the other sheeple here, I joined the school for the gymnastics coach who will take me where I want to go, not for the ability to learn how to eat dirt." Her eyebrows rose slightly. "Chalk tastes so much better, and doesn't stand out so much on your teeth." At least she didn't want it to come off that she had been sent here against her will, and she was intending to use Coach Hoefflin for all the contacts he could give her, as she had plans of Olympic glory, and if the gymnastics coach here couldn't give her what she wanted, he would know someone who could.

She examined the other girl as she sipped her chai. The other blonde was slim and athletic, the were both in dance class, but Tara was obviously not a gymnast. "Do you do other sports, beside the equine ones?" She couldn't help the sound of distaste that came with the word equine.

[Tara Macmillan]

Tara examined the other girl with more than a hint of amusement in her eyes. "This may come as a surprise to you, honey, but most people do come to a riding school to improve their riding." The clue was kind of in the name of the school, after all, but she wasn't one to judge; she didn't particularly care why the other blonde was here- the point was that she was here, and as such, was making a definite improvement to the average attractiveness of the Blue Ridge students. To which she would never have any objection.

"There are other sports?" she teased. "No, not so much these days. Dance, I suppose. I used to do figure skating, but I haven't done since I came here. What do you have to do to get that figure, honey?"

[Nicole Victors]

Nikki's smile turned somewhat sarcastic. "Or, you have parents that think you'll suddenly become a regular girl and fall in love with horses because of the proximity." She had no intention of ever going near another horse as long as she lived... well, not ride one anyway, or even pet it as though she liked them.

She rolled her eyes skyward at the tease, such a typical horse-girl reply! She shrugged and arched an eyebrow. "I'm a gymnast, so I eat everything in sight and then puke it up to keep skinny. So much better for me than starving myself." She grinned and shook her head, a gymnast with an eating disorder was so stereotypical, and so not her. "The gymnast part was true, the bulimia, not at all. To get a figure like mine, you sell your soul to one gymnastics coach after another and train for eight hours a day since the time you could walk." She placed a hand against in chest and released a heavy sigh. "It's so much work to look this good, but at least I didn't pay a doctor for it." She wasn't insinuating that the other girl had, but she read enough trashy mags to know the extent that a lot of the A-crowd went to to have the perfect face.

[Tara Macmillan]

The blonde flicked an eyebrow upwards. "Being regular is no fun anyway," she pointed out with just a hint of a smile. Tara would quite happily confess that she herself conformed to a majority of stereotypes, and she was quite content to do so; she was going to be who she intended to be, regardless of whether other people were trying to be the same. After all, she did it so much better than everyone else.

"Mmhm. And I'm a dancer, so I only eat three carrot sticks a day," she retorted. It took a lot to shock the blonde, and she was most certainly not going to allow this girl to do it. After all, Tara had her pride, and she was by no means willing to give it up by conceding defeat in even the smallest form; not to Nicole, at any rate. It wouldn't be so bad if the girl wasn't so hot. "And just for your information, honey, this is all natural. No doctor will ever be allowed to touch this- they won't be able to improve it, so obviously they'll just make it worse."

[Nicole Victors]

Nikki's eyebrows shot up. "Three carrot sticks?" She gasped in horror. "You're allowed that many?" She shook her head and laughed. All the fad diets were nothing new to her; the juice fasts, the salt diet, ever eating disorder under the sun. Pretty much, everything that seemed to go with the life of a competitive athlete.

Her eyes ran the length of the other girl's frame and she nodded. "I must concur." She replied with a warm smile. "I don't think there is a single thing about you that could get better. The only way you could be better, is that you were also a gymnast." She prused her lips and shook her head. "But then, that would be bad, because we'd be competition and I'd have to hate you." Nope, she was quite happy being able to like this girl.