Where Are Parents When You Need Them? [Elise/Cal]

[Cornelius Dennis Cox]

While Cornelius had a busy life, being on the Leader's Panel of RSOR, he did have moments of "free time" away from the school. Now...wasn't exactly one of those moments. He was at home, but he was working on homework of all things.

He was working toward a goal, however. He figured it was the best way to motivate himself. If he finished up with his homework, he could go riding on his horse. He also had a bit of work to do for RSOR, but that could wait. There were five other leader's panel members, and he had to do most of the work for that at school anyway. He hated the idea of doing anything for RSOR at home, out of fear that his parents or Elise would come upon it. As RSOR security was of utmost importance to this Leader's Panel member, it wasn't even an option.

Especially given the news he'd received from Isabella about Elise. Not only was she bad about poking her nose into his business, but she now had a reason to. She was involved with Anti-RSOR, the group ever so dedicated to solving the puzzle that was RSOR. Cornelius couldn't say he entirely blamed them, but at the same time could not deny what a nuisance they were. The fact that his own sister was amongst their ranks made it even worse, as now he would have to deal with the pestering at home. That much being said? Elise hadn't brought up the subject at all to him yet. It might be the fact that the two of them were usually busy with other things. It might be the fact that their parents were usually home. Regardless, she hadn't brought up the subject, and Cornelius wasn't about to bring it up to her unless she brought it up first. Their parents weren't home today, and Cornelius wasn't sure if Elise was busy with anything.

The reincarnated prime minister turned his attention back to his homework. He'd struggled with school the first time around, though thankfully found it easier in his second life. It helped that most of this was review. It also helped that he had his own reward dangling over his head to push him along. Being self-motivated was a must for him, and setting a reward for himself seemed like a good way to push himself that extra bit. Therefore, he was doing a good job of plowing along on his literature assignment. He was halfway done, and figured he had about a half an hour to an hour to go. This wasn't taking into consideration the distraction that was about to walk through his door and make his quest to finish his homework a lot harder...

Word count: 458
To: Cal/Elise
Notes: None

[Elise Alexis Cox]

Elise was definitely a busy girl, and as such she didn’t quite get to irritate her brother as much as she would want to. There was also the fact that their parents would probably get mad at her for doing so and she didn’t want to deal with that nonsense. Thus, today she was determined to come up with something to annoy Cornelius. She knew right now he was probably working on homework so she would have to come up with something fast in order to make sure she caught him before he finished. She also had to bug him about that silly club he was in too at some point being that as his sister and a member of the Anti-RSOR it was basically her job to do so. After all she was curious, and what was the harm in being a curious sister? Besides, as far as she was aware he wouldn’t be aware of what she was using the information for anyway. Unless, of course, someone found out and told him already somehow. Either way though, a few innocent questions, about what he was up to, would be no big deal right? Besides he didn’t have to tell her flat out what was going on, just a few little things for her to report about some strangeness or whatever would be good.

After another few moments of pondering she was given an idea by the fact that one of her cats came up and decided to sit all up in her face. While she did love the poofy thing it was, in fact, in her thinking space and thus would have to move. It was also meowing at her and rubbing against her face thus distracting her until she realized she could convince the cat to do so to her brother as well. Thus she picked up the pretty kitty and wandered her way to Corny’s room. She then proceeded to set the cat on top of his homework and the fluffy thing curled up and sat on it before meowing at the boy. Elise then skipped out and grabbed another cat before returning and setting this cat on the homework as well. ”Fluff o’gram” she stated with a giggle and a grin at her brother. She had a feeling he would not be amused, but she certainly was at the cats just staring at Cornelius while sitting on his homework.

The girl skipped out once more to return with one more cat that she held and petted while it purred at her and being that she was standing next to her brother it was probably purring in his ear. ”What’cha doin Corny?” she asked innocently while petting one of her fluffy babies. It was definitely an innocent enough question and should open the conversation a bit for start at least. Hopefully she would get more than just a ‘get out’ or something rude. Then again she doubted he would think he could get away with just that being that she would go whine to their mother about it certainly and probably get her way with enough pouting.

----------------------------
words: 535
tag: Mandee/ Corny
note: pft fluff o'gram indeed.

[Cornelius Dennis Cox]

There was more than one reason Cornelius hadn't brought up his sister's involvement with Anti-RSOR. For one, he didn't want to bring it up unless she brought it up first. Being the first to bring it up would give her license to pester him about it, and she could always throw that one in his face. He knew better than to give her that advantage. The other reason was Alison.

He greatly appreciated what the freshman was doing for RSOR. Between Alison's undercover with, and Lucien and Rudy's pestering, they'd made quite a few moves toward Anti-RSOR as of late. Lucien and Rudy would likely rile them up more, but that might almost be for the better. If they were riled up, they might make more mistakes. That would make it easier to keep them away from the truth. Cornelius had to admit that he was more worried now than he'd ever been as a result of Erika Martens. So far, it appeared they'd gotten lucky with Erika. She showed no signs of wanting to go to Anti-RSOR with the information, or revealing the secret to someone else outside of RSOR period. Still, she'd figured them out. The fact that one normal figured them out meant that it was a possibility that others could. That Anti-RSOR could. That was very worrisome to Cornelius.

Suddenly, Cornelius' concentration on his homework was interrupted by the visage of a cat where, just seconds before, there had been paper. It was followed by a statement by his sister and a giggle. He was torn between rolling his eyes and chuckling a little...and thus he did both. It was cute, he had to admit, but it was also interrupting his homework. "I'm trying to do my homework, Elise."[/color] He stated with a firm tone. Fortunately, he was pretty good at managing those. He had that sort of air about him, that conveyed authority. Unfortunately? Elise was his sister. It was in her nature to be immune to such effects where others weren't.

Once he'd scooted the cat out of the way (he didn't mind the cat on his desk, he just didn't want it on top of his homework), he tried to concentrate on his homework again. He jotted down an answer with one hand while petting the cat with the other. He'd always had a weakness for pets. He sighed under his breath as Elise continued to ask questions, but reminded himself that this was his sister, and that he could still get his homework done with her in the room. He kept his back turned to her as he jotted down another answer, but still proceeded to answer her question. "Like I said, working on homework. Don't you have homework to do?"[/color] At this, he turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. He was pretty sure he'd called her out on that one...

Word count: 497
To: Cal/Elise
Notes: None

[Elise Alexis Cox]

Yes, Elise knew exactly what her brother was doing, and no she didn’t care if it was important. She definitely had a knack for annoying the daylights out of people, but she was also good at pretending to be cute and good. Thus she was going to play cute and see where it got her. Hence why, the girl had decided upon cats to interrupt her brother with rather than anything else, such as a duck or a chicken. She figured he would not appreciate those running about his room even if he did like animals, but cats were cute and could be house pets without an issue so thus she figured he wouldn’t yell at her for having them in the house to begin with. She probably could have grabbed rabbits as well, but she was definitely partial to the fluffy babies she had over the bunnies. So her plan was to grab a bunch of cats and set them on her brother to see what happened, but she couldn’t quite carry all of them at once so it came down to her grabbing them one at a time and dashing into the room to place them. It didn’t work out quite how she wanted, but it still did have an effect of the sorts she was looking for.

It was certainly worth the look the cat got when it seemed to have replaced his homework while she scuttled out of the room to grab another. She heard him state that he was trying to do homework, and the key word there was trying. Thus she figured a distraction wouldn’t kill him. Well, it wouldn’t after all and thus she was totally doing him a favor right? When she returned he had managed to scoot the cat off his homework slightly and was petting the fluffy creature while trying to keep working. She walked over and leaned on him so that the cat she was holding’s tail would flick in her brother’s face occasionally. It was just innocent fun, and besides she could always say the cat was doing it not her, and it would be partially true. Then she started asking him questions and when he answered she rolled her eyes. ”No, I finished my homework already why haven’t you? Were you procrastinating?” she asked him simply with a smile while there was a tail flick and thus he got a face full of fluff. The creature in her arms was purring happily and she gave a coo or two at it before nuzzling it. ”The kitties say hi clearly.” she said and the one on the desk gave a meow as if in response before walking around on the desk while being scratched.

Now, how was she going to go about getting him to talk about the RSOR? ”You sure spend a lot of time away from home, why so much?” she asked. One club couldn’t take up that much time and why was everything so secretive? It just didn’t make sense to her and so she was curious and playing it off as normal sisterly curiosity. Also, she was a bit like a cat so she could pass it off as just in her nature anyway. Well, she would see if she got any answers, if not then well at least she was trying rather than letting him off easy. Which, she wasn’t going to do because she just wasn’t the type to do so.

----------------------------
words: 601
tag: Mandee/ Corny
note: pft fluff o'gram indeed.

[Cornelius Dennis Cox]

It was a good thing that Elise chose the animals that she did, because chances were he wouldn't have reacted the same way if she'd brought one of the actual farm animals into the house. He liked most of the animals, but his love for cats and dogs went back to his past life. And, indeed, she wasn't breaking any rules by bringing cats into his room. In fact, she wasn't even being all that annoying...yet.

Cornelius continued on with his homework, displaying that his motivation would not be so easily swayed. Even with a cat tail flickering in his face and his sister leaning in annoying close he forged on. This man led Britain through most of World War II - He was not about to be foiled by his sister and her cats!

Her next comment made him raise an eyebrow slightly in irritation, but he still managed to shrug rather than let what his sister was saying get to him too much. Yes, she was being annoying, but that didn't mean that he was going to give her the satisfaction of a reaction just yet. "Actually, I just received this homework today. I couldn't have possibly done it any sooner."[/color] He still doubted that she had her own homework done...unless she had no homework for the day, which he supposed could have been the case. She didn't have as many after school meetings and such as he did, after all. Before she joined Anti-RSOR she'd had no after school activities, but Cornelius didn't see fit to bring that up. Again, it was on her terms if she wanted to open that can of worms, not his.

He was almost positive that her remark about his staying after school so much was a transparent attempt to dig for information on RSOR, but Cornelius wasn't going to give in that quickly. "I have meetings to go to."[/color] It was a vague answer, and it was the truth. He knew she would only keep prodding more, but in reality RSOR wasn't the only club that kept his attention. He was involved in a few other school clubs as well. It was just RSOR that took up the most of his time out of all of the clubs he was in. Until Elise brought up RSOR and/or Anti-RSOR herself, Cornelius wasn't going to give it any more than a passing mention in his speech. That would only serve to fuel her attempts - good thing that Isa warned him ahead of time of what was to come. He wrote down another answer as he waited for Elise to respond.

Word count: 454
To: Cal/Elise
Notes: None

[Elise Alexis Cox]

Elise was about ninety percent sure that she had made a good choice by picking up the cats. She wasn’t breaking any rules, and there was the fact that they weren’t going to go insane because they were inside. The girl didn’t want him going and telling their mother she brought a flock of ducks in just to irritate him while he was doing his homework. Their parents definitely wouldn’t like that because they found school to be rather important, and missing homework was not good after all. Seemed he was mostly ignoring her though being that he continued to do his homework even with a fluffy tail flickering into his face and her leaning on him. Well, that was considerably less fun, but she did suppose that if it was that easy to derail him then it wouldn’t be much fun either. She would foil his plans eventually, but she would have to work up to it so he didn’t just get annoyed and kick her out in twenty seconds. No, she wanted to drag it out as long as possible to learn as much as possible. She had people to report to after all, and thus was going to continue to play the curious and annoying little sister for now.

As he replied she shrugged a bit and smiled. ”You could have done it in other classes, or during a meeting.” she said with a smile. The girl did already have her homework done because she didn’t actually have any and instead decided that today she was going to plot some way to get a little information from her older brother. Which, he probably could have done homework during a meeting unless the clubs now didn’t believe school was important. In which case, why were they a club to begin with if they had no educational purpose? Which, what educational purpose did RSOR serve even if it was just playing risk like some claimed? It didn’t make much sense to her being that all the game was was strategy and that was not that educational. Then again, she supposed it was somewhat equivalent to having a chess club. A chess club wouldn’t be kept secret though, and why was a supposed risk club then? There were a lot of things that just didn’t add up here, and she was curious as to why that was. You would think that they could come up with a better story as to why they have to keep it secret if all they were doing was playing a board game. Thus she was going to ask some questions to see if she could get at least something of an answer.

His response of having meetings to go to just got a raised eyebrow. ”Why? What could possibly be so interesting about a Risk meeting?” she asked simply in a way that made her sound as confused as she was. He couldn’t possibly find it that interesting it was just a bored game and why would you want to play the same game every single week? Maybe once a month, but once a week seemed a little bit much to her.

----------------------------
words: 546
tag: Mandee/ Corny
note: roar risk

[Cornelius Dennis Cox]

What Elise didn't know was that Cornelius had already been clued in about sister's allegiance with Anti-RSOR. He didn't intend to let her know either, but it made it a lot easier for him to hold out...and to know what to say and what not to say. For example, he wasn't going to bring the subject of RSOR up unless she brought it up first. He figured it was only a matter of time. She bugged him about it before even joining Anti-RSOR - It was only a matter of time before she began to pester him about it as a member of Anti-RSOR.

Cornelius shrugged. "I could have, but I try to pay attention in most of my classes. Maybe you should do the same."[/color] He couldn't say his attention span in class was completely flawless, but he did try to pay attention most of the time when in class. He wasn't the type of person to do homework in class, and of course he took meetings (especially RSOR meetings) too seriously to actually do homework during them. Again, he did not give this information to his sister. He wouldn't have anyway, but he was even more careful about what he was saying now. He couldn't resist the chance for a jab at his sister, though even this he went at in a roundabout way.

It wasn't long before Elise made her first direct reference to RSOR. Granted, she didn't use the name, but the 'risk' reference was evident. He found the remark amusing, especially with Anti-RSOR continued to use it. Obviously they didn't believe that was actually the case, but they kept bringing it up. Of course RSOR was going to keep playing along!

Cornelius snorted at Elise's next question. Well, if she was going to play that way... "There's a lot to it, actually. We have to plan out our strategies for the next round of games, and decide on who will be playing who. There's a lot of work to put into it."[/color] He chuckled lightly. Elise didn't think she was going to get information out of him that easily, did she? He doubted that she did, and was simply trying to warm up and move in gradually. This much he expected. It was the best way to go about what she was doing, and he had to give her credit for that much. Anti-RSOR was an annoyance, and by proxy so was his sister, but he could give credit where it was due. "Besides, I'm involved in more clubs than just that one."[/color] He was, and he also knew that Elise was zeroing in on that one club for a reason. Still, he felt as if this part needed to be said. He was trying to stand his ground, after all, even if he realized the real motive behind her actions. And now it was her move.

Word count: 490
To: Cal/Elise
Notes: None

[Elise Alexis Cox]

Elise just eyed her brother when he accused her of not paying attention in class. ”My teachers will typically give us time at the end of class if they get through their lesson quickly, and thus they aren’t exactly teaching and instead are just grading papers.” she said with a shrug. It wasn’t as if she just ignored some of her lessons for homework, and besides she also had a study hall instead of filling her schedule with classes. It let her work on big projects with a little extra time rather than having to spend it with all-nighters. Besides, she also needed to have a social life and now had club things to do. She still didn’t know how the others liked her much, and was hoping that some information would get her some more friends that she could use later. Which, she could see most of the anti-rsor doing the same, and so she had no problem doing it to them.

Then she started the questioning and waited for his reaction. She would start slow at first and of course make him believe she was legitimately confused. Why? Well, that would be due to the fact that she was actually confused. She heard him snort and just raised an eyebrow. He started to explain as to how there was a lot to it and they had to plan out strategies for the next round of games. She didn’t exactly believe him though because there were people in the attic that didn’t appear to have the mental capacity for such games. ”I doubt some of your fellow ‘risk’ players even could come up with strategies to save their lives. So that doesn’t really seem like that’s what you’re doing. Also, there is the fact that if it’s similar to a chess club, why can nobody sign up for it?” she asked before nuzzling the cat that was in her arms. She knew it wouldn’t be easy to get information, but she was going to at least do her best and try.

Then he mentioned that he was in other clubs. ”Those clubs you can openly sign up for though, and they don’t seem to take up as much time individually.” she pointed out. Well, it seemed true for the most part, and she found herself wondering how he explained it to their parents. Surely there was no reason for a club that wasn’t educational or even known by the majority of the teachers.

----------------------------
words: 437
tag: Mandee/ Corny
note: >>; nosy Elise is nosy

[Cornelius Dennis Cox]

Of course, Elise had a retort waiting. He had to admit that she had a point - There were plenty of teachers that just gave students most of the class period to work rather than lecturing. That said, he still had to give her flack for it. He was her brother, and besides, she was coming in here with the intent of annoying him, rather than waiting when he actually had some free time to chat. Therefore, two could play at that game.

Cornelius wasn't even trying all that hard with the 'Risk club' excuse. He knew that Elise really didn't buy it, and he knew that it was more of a joke standby than anything else. Nevertheless, it did keep the subject off of a more in depth question and answer session, and thus he was going to play along with it as long as he could. Cornelius pretended to look appalled at Elise's assertion about "his fellow risk players". "That's not very nice!"[/color]

He wondered when Elise would turn the heat up. He could go at this all day, but he knew that Elise was just starting out. It could be that this was the best she could do, but he gave his sister more credit than that. She might be an annoyance at times, but he did have a degree of respect for his sister. He also knew that even if she did lack the experience to poke and prod on her own (which he knew wasn't the case, as a result of having grown up with her), Anti-RSOR would take her under their wing and teach her various ways she could attempt to get answers. Unfortunately for Elise, she wasn't the only one who'd made preparations. Ever since Isabella informed him of Elise's involvement with Anti-RSOR, he'd been waiting for this to happen. It did make sense, though - Who better to start drilling for information than her brother?

Aha, she was finally starting to get a move on. Elise brought up the old standby of open sign-ups. He knew that this was coming. It always did with Anti-RSOR"It's invitation only."[/color] Cornelius admitted. Hey, it was true! RSOR was invitation only. He was only stating the obvious with this remark. It just wasn't a Risk club, and he knew that Elise knew that. Again, though, he wasn't going to give too much information unless provoked, and even then, not much. "Well, it's not like you'd know exactly how much time I divvy up to each club each week. You might be surprised at how my time is divided up."[/color] She was right, though. Cornelius invested more time in RSOR than in any other club - For reasons that were obvious to anyone in RSOR.

Word count: 459
To: Cal/Elise
Notes: Well that's her job. =P

[Elise Alexis Cox]

Elise should have expected her brother to give her a hard time about already having her homework done because she did it in other classes during downtime. Hey, she had a retort ready and thus just smiled and gave a small eye roll at how he didn’t think of that. Oh well, she supposed he was playing along nicely for now being that she was trying to irritate him. Eventually she was pretty sure he would kick her out, but until he did she was going to try and get as much information as possible.

Elise wasn’t sure if Corny was even trying right now or if she was just starting to get information. It really was hard to tell at times depending on the situation and how things were worded. Seeing the appalled look on his face she just raised an eyebrow and wasn’t sure he was taking himself seriously. Then he stated that it wasn’t very nice and she laughed. ”Me? Nice? Are we talking about the same person? Besides, you know it’s true. Some of them couldn’t strategize their way out of a cardboard box.” she noted with a slight grin. Hey, she was just telling the truth and he should really realize by now that she was not the nicest person on the face of the planet unless it benefitted her to be so.

She was sure that she could do this back and forth all day, and was curious as to if her brother would ever slip in the slightest. Sure he was a leader’s panel member and that meant he was better trained, but she was good at being obnoxious. After all she lived with him her entire life and thus knew about things that got to him and such. She rubbed the cat that was in her arms on his face. The fluffy would distract him and maybe it would derail him for a moment or two. It probably wouldn’t do that but hey at least it was a cute annoyance instead of just a normal one being that those would get old pretty fast and she might be booted from the room with her kitties.

Hearing his excuse for why people couldn’t sign up she rolled her eyes. ”How does the school allow that? It seems like there would be a lot of people in uproar because of exclusions for no particular reason.” she said with a raised eyebrow. Surely there were a bunch of parents that would not like that because they were nosy creatures and thought that their kid was amazing and had to be included in everything. Maybe they would have to start talking to parents of what were considered normal kids and see where that got them. She’d bring it up with Tamara and Errol when she saw them next and see what they thought. His next statement made her grin slightly. ”I’m pretty sure you divvy it up as two thirds to RSOR and one third to the rest of your clubs.” she pointed out with a slight shrug.

----------------------------
words: 533
tag: Mandee/ Corny
note: yes get the parents involved XD

[Cornelius Dennis Cox]

Keeping a watchful eye on his sister, Cornelius knew this was coming, and he was prepared. This also meant that he had no plans to kick her out of the house straight away. He'd give her what she wanted, and perhaps toss her a bone or two. He didn't have plans to give her any information that she could actually use, but leading her on a wild goose chase wouldn't be such a bad thing for RSOR.

Cornelius actually laughed at Elise's comment. "You're right. I must have you confused with my other sister. It's a shame they kept the evil twin rather than the nice one."[/color]

The good part about Elise knowing his weaknesses was that he also knew hers. Cornelius also had an advantage that Elise wouldn't realize - He knew that she was coming, and had ample chance to prepare for this slew of questions. He didn't go seeking her out, knowing that she would come to him, and that it was better for him if she didn't realize that he already knew she was involved with Anti-RSOR. He had to admit that the cat in the face was a low blow, and he did reach out to pet the fluffy...but that didn't mean that he was pulled completely from the subject at hand. She was correct in that it served as a distraction, but given the importance of keeping what RSOR was a secret, this took priority over the fluffy.

The next argument Elise presented was another common one, and therefore Cornelius had a retort waiting for that one as well. "Oh, there's a reason. It's just that most aren't privy to that reason."[/color] Again, Cornelius wasn't giving any more information than Elise already knew, yet responded to her prodding nonetheless. Now, bringing parents in would be a different approach, but Cornelius was sure that RSOR, along with reincarnate staff members, could cook something up to get parents off of their trail. Then what would Anti-RSOR do? There was even the possibility of disbanding RSOR at school and hosting it off of school property, or in a dorm room. It had been done in the past, and though it would put a thorn in RSOR's side due to the sheer size of the club (the attic was a perfect size for meetings, after all), it didn't mean that Anti-RSOR would win. Anti-RSOR grossly underestimated just how many safeguards and back up plans that RSOR put into place to protect their secret. Cornelius just shrugged at Elise's next words. "Maybe. I don't keep that close a track of how much time I dedicate to which of my activities."[/color] Yep, he would keep deflecting her all day and night.

Word count: 469
To: Cal/Elise
Notes: Nada

[Elise Alexis Cox]

His statement of having her confused with his other sister she grinned. Well, at least he knew well enough that she was not nice. ”Psh, you know it would be considerably more boring around here if I was the nice one.” she stated with a smile. Well, at least she was convinced it was a lot more interesting around the house with an evil sibling wandering about. It certainly made her life more amusing being that she wasn’t a cute innocent little thing unless she felt like being that way. Besides, she knew she didn’t have a twin and thus they were just joking about leaving the nice one at the hospital. ”Do you honestly wish you had a different sister?” she asked him with a pout.

As he reached out to pet the cat in his face she giggled slightly. He looked so ridiculous with a cat pressed against his face petting it. She hoped some fur would go up his nose or something. It would just be more amusing for her. Besides she wanted him to give in to the fluffy and just spew information. It wasn’t something likely, but it could happen maybe. Meh, she wasn’t going to count on it, but still it was something she could try. After all, she needed information and he was going to give her something eventually if she was determined enough. Well, at least she hoped he would because it would be horribly mean of him if he didn’t and she would whine at him until he did so. Because that would be horribly annoying and he would give her something just to shut her up and make her leave. Either that or she would get in a meowing contest with the cats in the room until he went insane and told her something.

His statement of people not knowing about that reason was an obvious one. ”Why?” she asked simply. Did he really think that counted as an answer to her question? It was probably one of the lamest answers on the face of the planet. At least in her opinion it was anyway, and she was hoping for some better ones from him. If he was going to avoid her questions he could at least do better than that right? Even if he lied to her it would be better than just the dodging he was currently doing. While she was hoping for the truth, just dodging was getting obnoxious. She wouldn’t be giving up any time soon even if she had to deal with the irritating question dodge that he continued to give. Especially with how he stated that he had no idea how he fractioned off his time. ”Gee Corny, I thought you had to be more organized than that to lead a club. Time management and all that how did you end up leader if you don’t even know how you spend your time?” she asked him innocently.

----------------------------
words: 510
tag: Mandee/ Corny
note: lawl. so annoying she is