I'm not a hardship. I'm awesome.

Maybe making a hasty exit from the mixer at the community center hadn't been the greatest idea, but Kate had felt it had been the only choice. Yes, she could have gone and found Bod and gotten the truth about the situation, but under the circumstances, it had seemed like either way she would have lost.

If it would've turned out Silas had been lying, like she was so adamant to convince herself he had, her going over to embarrass herself in front of Bod would've only given the man the satisfaction of seeing he'd gotten to her with his cruel little stunt.

And if it would've turned out Silas had been telling the truth... Well.

( It had taken Zach a good couple of hours just to get Kate to calm down. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC-okay.]

Kate had ended up packing a lot of clothing options for her fancy date. She hadn't been able to help it, she wanted it to go well and she wanted to look good and mature, and forget everything anyone may have said about anything yesterday. She'd spent the morning busying herself with outfit selection, even going so far as to go through her aunt's wardrobe just in case something there happened to catch her eye, though she'd highly doubted it.

What she'd eventually decided on was all her own: a Lunch at Cartier's inspired ensemble, with the little black dress from the dance, a nice belt that made it less of an evening wear look, and a black headband. And for the finishing touch, she'd borrowed a pearl necklace from her mother.

"Don't forget to be yourself," Tara had said, sincere and smiling just a touch, after Kate had told her about the date to get the piece of jewelry from her, and all Kate had been able to reply with was an amused "Ha, ha, and ha, Mom" before going off to do her makeup like a good little old school glamour girl.

( But then she's dramatically overdressed. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC-okay as these things are wont to be! Taken with mild tweakage from USoT S02E11 'To Have and to Hold'.]

Yesterday's lunch date had turned into going to an art museum, which had turned into having coffee, which had turned into aimlessly wandering around in the unusually warm for a January weather of KCMO way into the evening, talking. And kissing. Kate had made the first move on that, though only because she'd been able to tell he wanted her to. It didn't feel quite as good as she remembered it feeling, but she knew why that was (though she was determined not to think about it) and that was something she thought could be gotten over by practicing, and practice they did. Once you got the hang of it it was hard to stop, and she'd missed doing things like that more than she'd realized.

And today, all that had turned into Zach taking Kate out to play tennis. She couldn't believe that was something that was actually happening in her life, but she wasn't objecting. They needed to make the most of the time they had with each other all face to face, since she was heading back to Fandom tonight, and tennis just sounded like fun. And she happened to even own a white tennis outfit, as he found out when he came to pick her up, since she was just pulling a coat on when she opened the door. She'd had to hurry when she'd seen him pull up to their driveway; she didn't really feel like inviting him into her house yet. He should've just been glad she didn't exit her house even quicker or they may have been a collision.

( Of tennis and money. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC-okay! Taken from USoT S02E10 'Open House'. I'm also quietly modding the weather in the midwest for my own nefarious purposes, bwahahaa.]

Kate's mood was a seriously fickle thing. Generally speaking, she was probably doing better than she had last week; she was largely doing fine when she was with people (provided none of those people were Bod), mind comfortably occupied, but relapses into severe gloom were still far too easy when she was alone. Like right now.

It had started when she'd been cleaning up her half of the room since even Bobby had bothered to do it yesterday, and she had come across a certain notebook that had just brought all the stupid hurt back. Having shoved the notebook away again, she'd seen all her Princess Valhalla crap and one thing had led to another, and now she was sitting on her bed in full costume (with a matching pink scarf around her neck), with the laptop in her lap. She hadn't bothered with squirrelproofing the room, not this time. Doing this right now had been a snap decision, and she didn't have any rum at hand. And she couldn't quite bring herself to care anymore, about whether word got out or not. She didn't see any consequences worse than the ones she'd already suffered through.

Still, having made her presence known online, she declined all requests from the guys she knew for sure would skeeve her out, meaning anyone she'd already done things for. She didn't think she could even stomach seeing their faces, to be honest. But then, then there was someone whose nick was just a normal name, not a scifi reference she didn't get or a desperately suggestive piece of utter failure. So, she clicked on 'Accept', and watched her newest acquaintance show up on her screen. He looked to be in his late twenties, with shortish brown hair and a nice face. And she actually remembered meeting this guy: it was easy to remember him, seeing as he was the only conventionally attractive guy she'd seen her entire time at the comic book store. Not that she'd paid his looks all that much mind back then. She'd been in love, but that was over now, so she was letting herself pay more attention to the fact that this guy was actually kind of cute.

( Once more with feeling: I'm your Princess Valhalla Hawkwind, and your wish is my ultimate command; Or, Meet Zach. )

[ooc: Door is closed, but the post is open, and the girl is a lot less moody than text outside the cut may suggest! If you want to try and catch her in costume, this is most likely your last chance. This is also completely broadcastable since she doesn't give a damn anymore. Taken and twisted into a funky mashup from both USoT S02E08 'Explosive Diorama' and S02E09 'The Family Portrait'.]