A Crazy Bad Boy

[mai]

[Closed to Jonsey]

With a sheet of paper in hand and a sullen expression, Vance made his way to the “side yard” which he had deemed the property of those who were too intimidated to use the soccer field for whatever they planned to do in the open grassy area. His hair fell into his face as he walked, conveniently hiding his eyes from anyone who decided to pay him more attention than they ought. He had to admit, he was the picture of a high school emo boy walking alone, looking pathetic. It was the hair. His clothes gave no indication of the depression he felt. Vance wore bootleg black jeans, a thin t-shirt that fit his toned body well, and black combat boots. If anything, he ought to be able to throw in a leather jacket and call himself a badass…but as it was, the seventeen-year-old felt ashamed of the other stereotype his mind associated him with. The possibility of those things not existing—stereotypes, that is—did not occur to him. He knew they were everywhere.

Entering the side yard, Vance scanned the place quickly with his shadowy hazel eyes and was content with the little to no presence of other delinquents. He found a cozy spot of grass to sit in, and did just that.

It was evening. Dinner would be soon. Vance was hoping he could get away with not going. He had plenty of food he’d hoarded in his room. It would be more convenient to not be around all the other students right now. He really wasn’t feeling social interaction. He had other purposes for coming to the slab of land.

Taking the paper he held between two hands, Vance eyed it, and then ripped it vertically so that he held a slip about 2 inches by 11. Putting it onto the ground, he pulled up some grass and then sprinkled it onto the slip. Without further ado, Vance rolled—yes, rolled—the paper around the grass strands until it was a tidy white blunt of grass. The corners of his lips turned up.

With a habitual air he placed the “grasserette” between his lips, mimed lighting the end, and then relaxed back onto his forearms. Periodically he would take the object from his mouth and blow, and then back in it would go. He was the picture of a bad boy relaxing in the grass with a cigarette…a crazy bad boy.

[jones]

Jonsey actually had her nose in a book for once. The blond level three was walking around the BAD school with a book in her hands, not paying any attention at all to where she was going. She didn't care what anyone else thought of her by doing this, and wasn't about to be intimidated by taunts either. Anyone that dared walk up and say something about it either got a forceful shove into a wall or a nasty glare as she would walk away. Jonsey didn't put up with bull, and when she was reading, she could get aggravated easily sometimes.

It was a new release in a series she and her mom had been reading. After her mother was finished reading it, she sent it to Jonsey to keep her occupied after class. The people who had looked through it to make sure there wasn't anything trying to be sneaked into the school had damaged a corner, but Jonsey didn't really mind. As long as they hadn't damaged anything that was majorly important, she could keep her cool about a little dent.

Jonsey found herself about to walk into the side yard and she stopped for a second to turn the page and blink her eyes, looking around briefly. Not enough to actually see if there was anyone else there, but enough to get her eyes adjusted to the new light. She started walking into the side yard, about to take a seat when she had tripped over someone sitting in the grass. She was able to catch herself on her hands, but realized her book had flown out of her hands in the process. "God damn it. The hell..." She moved away from the kid she had tripped over, looking around for her book and finding it right next to the kid she had just stumbled over. She sighed, thinking about going off on him, but then rethinking, knowing it was her fault for not paying attention. "Sorry." She mumbled as she grabbed her book, sitting a bit away from the kid. He looked familiar, but she couldn't really remember from what.

[mai]

Vance saw the girl with her head shoved in the book moving towards him. He knew that if she didn’t look up or if he didn’t say anything, she would walk right into his legs and probably fall onto the face she was hiding. Pulling the fake cigarette from his mouth, he parted his lips, and then closed them again, not a sound coming out.

She tripped.

Unlike most, it was not Vance’s first reaction to reach out his arms to catch her. No, the boy watched her fall. From his advantageous position he got a good view of the curves of her body, especially in the moments when she remained perched precariously on her hands. Vance did not restrict his peering eyes, but he did avert his gaze once he knew she had regained herself. His expression remained emotionless.

“You’re okay.” He told her simply, glancing at her face for a hot second before turning his gaze to…well just not her. He managed to not make himself look nervous and instead relayed an air of apathetic coolness…or something like that.

Inside, Vance squirmed. He felt extremely awkward with her just sitting there, having tripped over him seconds before. What was he supposed to do, make conversation? His eyes found her book. He should probably ask about it, or make a joke so that she would be interested in him and stay to talk. A second look at her face revealed that this was the blonde girl from a lot of his classes. Was she loud and peppy or quiet? He couldn’t remember. Did he care? Uhm, he didn’t really know…

Vance looked down at his own hand and the object in it. People would think he was a freak for having it. A stupid freak pretending to smoke grass.

He put it back in his mouth and turned his head towards his company, very intentionally looking at her as if she’d told him she had something to say.

[jones]

Jonsey was now intentionally hiding her face with the book in her hands since she had gone slightly pink from a little embarrassment of just falling over this random kid. He hadn't bothered to help her or ask if she had been alright as well, but she guessed she shouldn't have really expected that from the guys here. By the quick glance she had gotten earlier, he looked like he probably didn't even care that she had fallen over him, or if she had any damage. She chewed on the inside of her lip slightly, trying to concentrate on reading again, but something was really bugging her.

She took another glance up and realized what was pulling at her subconsciousness: he was just sitting there, staring at her. What was weirder was that he had a piece of paper with...she was pretty sure that was grass in there, and was just holding it between his lips, looking as if he was taking a normal smoke and waiting for her to continue some fascinating story she was interrupted from telling. She blinked and put the book in her lap, staring back at him for a second. She still couldn't seem to remember where she had seen him.

When he hadn't said anything for a while, she finally rolled her eyes and sighed. "If you want me to leave, you can just tell me to instead of staring me down like I'm some show." It sounded a bit snippy and annoyed, but that was just her tone of the voice half of the time. And at the moment, she was a little annoyed that he was just staring at her with nothing to say. Her fingers twitched and a slight scowl appeared on her face. Reaching over, she plucked the piece of paper out of his mouth and flicked it across the lawn, looking back at her book. The fake cigarette had been annoying her and he looked completely retarded with it just hanging out of his mouth, not even lit.

[mai]

When she started staring back, Vance got all antsy inside. He was no good at playing the ‘Let’s stare until someone blinks or looks away from the pressure’ game. He would most certainly lose. Luckily, she made it so that he didn’t have to.

He did not shy away when she reached towards his face, but he did blink—rapidly, for that matter. He just knew she was reaching to touch his hair that a lot of girls envied for some odd reason. People found a strange and unlikely fascination in moving it out of his face, either to be oddly sentimental or to get a better look at his features. Vance braced himself for her contact.

It didn’t come.

Pluck and away went the cigarette. His hazel eyes followed the thing dejectedly. He avoided meeting her eyes after that.

“Yeah…sorry.” He said glumly. Without much consideration the words he’d been looking for earlier found their way to his lips. “What are you reading?” He didn’t care about the book so much as he cared about hearing her talk to him.

[jones]

Jonsey raised her eyebrow at his question, taking a while to think about it. She her time answering, picking a long piece of grass from the ground and placing it in her book as a bookmark, closing it. She showed him the cover , then leaned back on her hands. She left the book at her sides, just shrugging. "The fifth book of Septimus Heap series I've been reading. Fantasy." She said, not really explaining more that that. Jonsey wasn't much of a talker unless she was mad. Then she just went off, saying anything she could think of as if she had held in all the words until that point in time. She moved a piece of hair out of her face, looking him over. She sighed, it was annoying her that she had no idea where she knew him from.

"Alright, do I have any classes with you? You're familiar." She tilted her head a bit, a habit when she was talking to someone and trying to think at the same time. She thought she might have one or two with him, but she couldn't think of them right now, she'd been so caught up in her book today that even one of her teachers had to hit her desk to get her to pay attention for some bull lesson in Chemistry. She didn't much care about that class anyways, she got in trouble in it all the time, along with her Social Studies class. Maybe that was where she had seen him, Social Studies. She didn't know, he could've been a face in the hallway for all she knew or cared at the moment. It was just bothering her so badly that she decided since he was sitting there anyways, she might as well ask him and get the thought out of her head.

[mai]

If Vance wanted to be completely honest with himself, he’d admit that this girl not remembering him from their classes hurt, just a little. It was another reminder of his insignificance. He wished he had the gall to call her out by pointing out that they were in multiple classes together, and she even sat in front of him in one. He wanted to show her that he was offended by scowling and making a rude remark. He didn’t do any of these things. Vance averted his gaze to the grass in her hand and shrugged his shoulders like a confused vulture, thinking that she had, at least, called him familiar. That was enough, right? At least he wasn’t invisible yet.

“I guess we do…you look familiar too.” He feigned ignorance. Vance was well aware of every class they had together and where she sat in each one. He was like that with everybody. Instead of paying attention he constantly scanned the room, observing, inferring, and moving on. It was strange being in the face of someone who was oblivious to things just beyond her nose.

Sitting in the grass, staring at grass, trying to overcome the infection in his mind that begged him to get away, Vance let their conversation fall silent. His people skills were underdeveloped. If this interaction was going to go anywhere, it would have to be a result of the blonde’s prodding.

[jones]

That was it? 'You look familiar too'. Well that helped none in Jonsey's memory and she let out a short huff of mild annoyance. If she was at all familiar to him, she would think he would be the type of person to at least give a small hint of where they might've seen each other. The main reason she never really remembered anybody if she hadn't properly met them was because she wasn't observant. It wasn't that she was completely ignorant and didn't notice anything going on around her, but that she just didn't want to be. She had a habit of getting curious about people and when she would look around her classroom, she would usually get distracted from her lessons and try to figure everyone out, from remembering their names and levels right down to what types of socks they wore everyday. She chose to be nonobservant because otherwise, she would get way too overobservant.

She looked him over again, the gears all starting to turn in her head as she tried to figure everything out about him. Quite, isolated, dark hair, eyes, and clothes, and short-winded. She sighed, sitting up and looking straight at him. When Jonsey couldn't get a question off her mind, she was determined to have it answered. "Tell me your class schedule, since that seems to me the only reasonable place I would actually bother to remember your face from." She was more demanding it than just letting him slip by and play cool and silent. She was going to figure out who this kid was and where she had seen him, even though it wouldn't have been that big of a deal to anyone else. Any other person would've probably just brushed it off and let him stare at the grass. But she wasn't going to do that; she wanted his information, and she also didn't want him to decide to make another fake cigarette.

[mai]

Inwardly puzzled at her persistence, Vance squinted his eyes and lifted his hand, counting his classes off with his fingers.

“Trig, forensics, American Lit, Ancient philosophy, HTML basics…uh, art, and I’m a mechanical major.” Honestly, he was impressed with himself for remembering all that. He was certainly glad it hadn’t turned into an ‘uhmmm’-‘errrrr’-ing fest like lots of his conversations concerning school did. Vance’s brain often didn’t care to remember certain things when the time for them was necessary.

He looked down at his white shirt and briefly wondered if he’d have a grass stain from laying on it. Probably not. He wasn’t a cheerleader up to no good. He’d only been laying. Still, he reached over his shoulder and brushed as far down his back as he could reach, just in case.

“Do you have any of those?” He asked her after he was done, looking at the girl through his hair. He thought that if they knew each other’s names it might help jog her memory. Still, he would not be the first to offer his. If she wanted to take this meeting of theirs that far, by all means he would accompany her, but Vance would not lead.

[jones]

Jonsey watched him count his classes on his fingers, making her sigh softly. When he listed his classes though, she counted the ones they had together on her fingers and her eyes widen slightly. "Wow we have four classes together. Jonsey wiped off her hand on her pant leg and rubbed the back of her neck. She felt a little stupid not remembering him if they had that may classes together. "My schedule's Trig, Forensics, Greek Myth, World History, HTML, then minor in music and major in Mechanics as well."

Jonsey licked her lips, thinking for a moment. She thought she could remember him sitting behind her in class, but she wasn't sure because looking behind her was one thing she avoided. You never knew what creep could be staring at the back of your head, or what thug would take offense if they thought you looked at them funny. Jonsey knew when not to cause trouble and it seemed staring straight ahead would work wonders for her. She wouldn't get in trouble with being distracted and also wouldn't get threatened if she looked at the wrong person at the wrong time. "Sorry if i never noticed you. I tend not to look around the room for good reasons." She said with a hint of a smirk on her lips. She looked down and playing with the grass a little, her mind starting to drift.

[mai]

Vance shrugged at her apology. It wasn’t like he could hold anything against her. He was quiet. She wasn’t very observant. They both had their distractions and that was that. It puzzled him that she should feel bad. Maybe…maybe she noticed him now for the first time and truly regretted not having gotten to know him just yet? Or maybe she thought he was attractive and wished she’d acknowledged him so that they could have been flirting in every class up until now. Whatever reason she felt sorry about, he was unaware of it.

She’s spacey. Vance noted, watching the girl as she looked down at her grass. He distantly wondered if she would ask his name. Maybe he should give it without her having to ask. Wait, did he want her knowing his name? If not he could make something up. She’d probably forget him before they had class again, so it wasn’t a big deal. He certainly didn’t need hers, he knew it already.

“Jonah, you don’t have to keep sitting here if you’re bored with me…” Yup, he was letting her off the hook. He hadn’t asked for her company anyway. Sure, he’d like it if they were able to have good conversation and leave each other feeling happy to be alive, but he was well aware that he made situations awkward and couldn’t keep his words flowing like social butterflies could. If she had better things to do (or read) then he wanted to let her know that she was more than free to go do them. He would…sit here and most likely think of all the things he should have said instead of letting her get away.

[jones]

Jonsey was still thinking to herself, wondering how she could notice some friz haired psychopath, a spacy girl, or a tough high class princess, but she couldn't spot out his normal(Normal looking at least) guy who didn't seem to mind her being there.

Jonah, you don't have to keep sitting here:..

Jonsey looked up, first catching on that he was talking to her and said the wrong name, second, seeing he was trying to give her a loophole to leave. He either thinks I'm keeping myself here, or he wants me to leave. "I'm Jonsey. Not Jonah. Good try though. And I'm at somewhat of a boring spot in my book." it wasn't exactly a lie, but she wasn't in much of a boring spot. Just one of those where they put way too much detail in one spot to fill up a few pages and try to make it interesting. "I can leave if you want me to though." She had gone back to playing with the grass when she had started talking, but she looked up at him again. She wasnt trying to make him feel awkward, like she did with some people, but she did give him a penetrating stare when she said "You haven't given me your name yet either." Jonsey didn't care how brutal a person could be, she liked to know people's names. It was polite