That's what snow is for.

That's what teenagers use snow for, anyway.

Jess and Mari are quarreling.

This is why they're aiming snowballs at each other's heads.

And insulting each other in ways that wouldn't make sense to anyone else.

It's a twin thing.

And I think they're fighting over a boy.

They have the exact same taste in boys. This causes problems, especially when the boy isn't one they can agree to stalk and daydream over.

This is actually one that they might be able to date.

One of them, anyway.

See the trouble?

Matteo is simply an innocent bystander here. He's trying to get past the girls without getting hit - he could detour around them, but with a peculiar singlemindedness he's blundering right into the middle of the girls' snowball fight. Keeping his head down, he skitters hurriedly past them, crouching a bit to avoid the round projectiles.

If he manages to dodge one of these, it's almost certain that the other one will get him. Both girls threw a snowball at the same time.

They're wet and big and the sort of snowballs that get in your ear, and inside your clothes, and are highly unpleasant to be hit with.

The girls gasp in unison when they realize there's an innocent bystander in the way.

That doesn't stop the flying objects.

Wh-whap!

One snowball hits him in the neck, and pieces of it fall down the back of his shirt and inside his coat.
The second snowball hits him on the side of his face. Matteo gives a startled yelp and seems to shrink, holding his hands to his head and whimpering gently. Teenage girls can throw hard, and getting hit in the face with a snowball thrown by a teenager is extremely unpleasant. It's like getting punched by an ice storm, with a bit of windburn thrown into the mix.

"Oh, god, I'm sorry."

"Are you okay?"

If he can understand that, I shall be impressed, for they spoke at the same time, saying completely different things.

Quarrel forgotten, the twins rush to his either side.

"Here, let me help you."

"I didn't mean to hit you, I'm sorry."

And again, speaking at the same time, different sentences.

"Mmm,... no, I'm alright, I'm alright," Matteo protests in a tiny voice. He tries to back away from the girls, but as he still has his eyes squeezed shut, he's not sure exactly where they are. Still bent over, he carefully removes a hand from his face, giving a soft hiss. "Oww..."

Jess catches one arm, Mari the other.

"Really, I'm sorry."

"Well, so am I."

"I'm sorrier."

"No, I am."

... they're quarreling over his head.

That can't be comfortable.

It certainly isn't.

With a slight bit of difficulty (he no longer has full use of his arms), he prods his cheek experimentally. It stings, and he pulls his hand quickly away. There's a wide red mark on his face where the snowball hit.

"It's alright..." he offers weakly, wide green eyes darting from one twin to the other, "Really, it's alright. Just an accident, no harm done,... let go?"

He's cute.

Ahem.

They're teenage girls, all right? Hormones are running rampant.

"That looks awful."

"Let me look!" Half a second. "It really does."

"Come on, we'll take you out for hot chocolate."

Not that he has anything against hot chocolate, but...

"Um. Nnnno,... I don't - it's really not necessary," Matteo protests anxiously, straightening up and trying not to look hurt, "Just a bit of snow, n-no harm done. It's alright."

He doesn't try to struggle away from them, despite a look in his eyes that says just how much he wants to. Instead, he waits patiently for them to release him.

"No, really. I was throwing way too hard."

"We've got to do something to make up for it."

(And anyway, he doesn't look too old, and if one of them can settle on him, that will completely erase the trouble they were having before. Doesn't that make perfect sense? They think it does.)

They're not letting go.

"No...I..."

He sighs. The girls are not. Letting. Go!
Matteo slumps a little between them and manages a hint of a resigned smile.

"...if you insist," is his final, hopeless protest.

"We do."

Stereo sound, anyone?

And they promptly start marching him through the park.

Matteo has no choice. Never did.

"Um. Alright, then,... I guess..." he says, bemused.
This is a new experience for him. It's definitely not every day he gets accosted by teenage girls who want to take him out for hot chocolate.
It might not be a bad thing, either.

Matteo gives a small cough. "So,... um,... what're your names?"

"I'm Jess. She's Mari."

"Actually Jessamine and Marigold--our mom has a thing for flowers--but only when we're in trouble."

Grin.

Jess adds, "Which we're probably going to be if our mom finds out about us throwing snowballs at each other's heads."

"What's yours?"

He gives a small shrug.
"Well, I'm not going to tell."
(Of course he isn't.)

"Mm,... mine? ... Matteo," he replies, glancing between them and tryng to decide which one had said she was Jess, and which one was Mari.

Jess is the one with short, spiky hair. (She would have piercings, but hiding those from her mother would involve magic, and anyway, she isn't legally old enough.) She's also the one who looks like a punk-rocker-wannabe.

She doesn't have 'Rebel' stamped on her forehead, but close.

Mari, on the other hand, looks wholesome and sweet, which she is.

"Matteo what? We're Turner."

"Uh... Pace. Matteo Pace," he falters. He can't go ten sentences without an an 'um' or 'er' in there somewhere.

Out of nervous habit, he glances over his shoulder. On the path, there are a lot of footprints. His own cloven hoofprints meld very well into them. No one would notice unless they were looking for them, and he's pretty sure the twins aren't doing anything of the sort. Satisfied, he faces forwards again.
It unnerves him to be trapped by the girls as he is, but if he's careful, he should get through it without any untowardness.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Jess!"

Mari seems genuinely shocked at her sister.

Never mind that the question was hovering on her own lips, and only because Jess is far bolder did her sister say it first.

Nevertheless, it is a prying question, and somebody has to be shocked and horrified, so Mari will be.

Mari can continue to be horrified; Matteo can take care of the shocked bit himself.
His jaw drops, and he's unattractively openmouthed for a good few moments before an answer forms in his frazzled mind.
"I've - well, no, but... um,... " he stammers, then stops himself and bites his lip, looking pained by his own awkwardness.
"Just, ...no," he finishes.

"Aww, why not?"

He's cute when he's stunned.

However, neither of them are nearly bold enough to save his dignity by, say, stopping his mouth with a kiss.

... come to think of it, that wouldn't do his dignity any good at all, now would it.

"...I don't know," he shrugs, looking as uncomfortable as he feels.

Maybe because there's no such thing as a female faun, and human girls want nothing to do with me?

Not entirely true. He wouldn't be in existence if it were,.. and if I remember correctly, he's the one shying away from everyone. It's not all that surprising that he doesn't have a girlfriend.

Silly little boy.

You'd think he'd have noticed by now that he's remarkably appealing to human girls. At least in that they notice that he's cute. (So far, there's been Taryn, Jetta--all right, that's not necessarily a good thing, and he hasn't actually met her, which is a good thing--Vi, and the twins.)

"That's silly. You should know."

Jess is doing most of the talking. Mari is continuing to pretend shock and horror at her sister's lack of manners.

"Well, I don't."
There isn't the slightest trace of offense in him. Mainly it's just the shock slowly subsiding.

He looks sideways at Jess, raising a not-very-skeptical eyebrow (he can't seem to pull of a decent skeptical look, no matter how he tries).
"Why do you want to know?"

"Why shouldn't I want to know?" Jess challenges.

"Jess!" Pause. "We're just curious."

Really. That's all.

"Mmm," Matteo mumbles. "Okay."
He doesn't quite believe them, but he's not about to argue. Not when they still have a hold on him.

"What about you two, then?"
Not that he really wants to know, but he doesn't want to talk about himself... "You have boyfriends?"

"We're not allowed."

At least, not by their mother. Amanda's answer on boys is generally a no.

This is of course why Jess never asks. (Mari is mostly a good girl, but sometimes the hormones are irresistable.)

"Ah. I see."

Strange girls...
Where does he get off calling people strange, I'd like to know.

"...um. So. What were you fighting for? Earlier, I mean. With the snowballs."
Here he points to the snowball pelt mark on his cheek, as if to remind them.

"Jared."

Again, this is in unison.

"If I can't date him, she shouldn't."

"And I think she's just jealous that I've got the guts to ask him out."

... wait, I thought they weren't allowed boyfriends?

Matteo thinks so, too - and says so.
"I thought you weren't allowed?"
Just like that.

And he's in the middle of their fight again, only this time they aren't throwing snowballs.

"We aren't."

"But that doesn't mean I can't go out with a guy. Just once."

"And I think Mom'd kill her just for that, and completely ruin my chances of ever having a boyfriend."

Silly 'Teo. Don't you know you should never try to understand girls?

"Oh, I...see."

He knows now, but now is a little too late. His attempt at understanding them has (figuratively) made his head hurt.

"Can't you,..hm... take turns?"
He's kidding, but it really doesn't sound like it. Humor isn't his strong suit - unless it's physical humor. He falls on his tail at least once a day.

"That only works when it's a guy who's way too old and impossible some other way. Then we share. But Jared's only seventeen, and he's in my math class."

"Well, he's in my chemistry class, so there."

If the girls were cats, their backs would be arched and they'd be hissing.

As it is, the air between them--yes, where Matteo is--seems charged with electricity.

This is because they're both witches.

Matteo lets them get on with it, preferring not to interrupt.
And,...oddly, his fur seems to be crackling a bit, as if with static. It's annoying, as well as unnerving, so he makes a token effort to pull his arms free of the girls and fall back so that he's not between them anymore. It's proving to be an unsafe place to be.

Does anyone really want to hear the details of a fight between two teenage girls?

... I thought not.

After a little longer of sniping at each other and arguing about which one of them has more right to Jared--despite the fact that Mari is simply not capable of sneaking around behind their mother's back--they remember that 'Teo is there.

"Jeez, don't you ever say anything?"

That was Jess. If you couldn't tell from the rudeness.

"Um,... no?"

Matteo's becoming more and more eager to slip away, the longer this goes on.

"Heh, I... I,... maybe should be on my way, I think," he says timidly, and stops.

Oops.

"But we were gonna take you out for hot chocolate!"

Because they hit him with a snowball.

Remember?

How can 'Teo possibly resist those sweet, pleading faces?

"Well,... um, yes, but..."
The 'but' never comes.

He can resist the pleading faces, really he can!
But he doesn't.

"...I'm kind of in a hurry, so... maybe we can go quickly?"

They brighten immediately.

"Okay."

And then they grasp his arms again and start to run.

It's a bit awkward running through snow, but they manage anyway.

Matteo givesa small "Eep!" sound - running without the use of his arms to catch himself if he falls is kind of freaking him out.

Especially as he's so clumsy.