((OOC: Oh man do I just love writing on two different timelines at the same time.  :-) ))<br/><br/><strong>Esther:</strong><br/><br/>Billy's smile turned predatory - more than it had been, anyway.  "I don't think you understand.  If I wanted to sample your charms," he pointedly looked her up and down before meeting her eyes again, "I could have you any time I wanted."  There was something about his gaze that held her in place, something terrifying.  Esther imagined that she was probably feeling very much like a mouse felt having a staring contest with a snake.  But there was something more too it than that; the truly frightening part was that nothing about his attitude said that he was boasting.  He wasn't trying to impress or intimidate her, he was just stating a fact.<br/><br/>He held her in that penetrating gaze for a long few seconds, and then with an abrupt suddenness his whole demeanor shifted and his smile was almost friendly.  "But this isn't about what I want.  It's about what<em>you</em>want.  Tonight.  The abandoned train station next to the school.  Meet the others there, then sneak onto the football field.  Be there by midnight."  Without further fanfare he turned and walked away, his boots sounding heavily on the floor.  As he rounded a corner in the hallway, the lights suddenly flickered, momentarily plunging the cafeteria into darkness.<br/><br/>The power flicker immediately became the cafeteria's conversation topic of choice, but Esther didn't think of it as more than a coincidence... Until she had a chilling thought.<br/><br/>The instant the lights had gone out, Billy's footfalls had simply ceased.<br/><br/>--------------------<br/><br/><strong>Mike:</strong><br/><br/>As Mike surveyed the stadium, a figure suddenly stepped out from behind the scoreboard and began making its way towards him.  As it approached, it resolved into the shape of a boy about Mike's age, one he recognized from rumor if nothing else - Billy Weird.<br/><br/>Billy was smiling, but the dark sunglasses hiding his eyes made the intent of the smile impossible to determine.  He began to slowly clap, and when he spoke his voice was intent and vibrant - a salesman knocking out the bullet points of a product.  "Mike Newton.  Star of the football team.  The Unstoppable Man.  Midwest High's number one golden boy."  Billy spread his arms, seemingly for dramatic emphasis.  "The boy who has everything."<br/><br/>Suddenly his arms fell to his sides.  "Except a father, that is."  He shook his head, mock-sadly.  "It's a sad story really.  A poor single mother, forced to raise her son as best she can.  His only hope for a better future resting on a football scholarship."  The smile came back, definitely condescending this time.  "Which by all accounts you've got in the bag.  But is that really what<em>you</em>want?  What do you want, Mike?  Has anyone ever stopped to ask you that before?  Let me take a wild guess.  Is it to make that bastard who abandoned you and your mother pay for all the SHIT she's been through?  Just tell me that, Mike.  Tell me what it is you want most of all in your life.  Because I'm here to make sure you get it."<br/><br/>((OOC: I mentally picture Billy as having a voice and demeanor much like Hazama/Terumi from BlazBlue, if anyone is familiar with that game.  :-) ))