"What? Like as a group project? How does that work? I write about your dream?" Astrid gave a look of disbelief at Hana for her apparent thought process, but Astrid shrugged. "I guess, having a partner would help. Somehow." Even someone as continually spaced out and living in the world as much as Astrid could pick up on the faulty logic there. She thought about it for a bit. "Well, I've been room mates with my brother for a while now. It was cheaper than trying to afford a place on my own. But I haven't really had time to do any cleaning, so your place might be better." Astrid began to put away her books and pencils into her satchel as she got up to leave the classroom.
I give Nathan a sad looking smile as I feign being disappointed. "Sorry, that sounds great, but April and I are backlogged with schoolwork, so I won't be able to go out tonight." I shrug. The guy is certainly handsome, but he's a bit...soft for my tastes. Besides, despite the fact that April doesn't like most people, I get the feeling that it's extra for Nathan, for whatever reason. "Maybe some other time?" I say, fully intending for there to never be another time.
“Oh, h-hi, Derrick,” Oh, great. This guy again... Nicole mentally sighed even as she politely greeted the bully. “W-what? I don't know where you heard that, but you should not believe everything people say...” Her face turned pink at the question. “In any case there's nothing wrong with... eating pussy. You should... give it a try sometime. Your girlfriend might like it...” She tried avoiding the question. Of course, first you need to get a girlfriend, you loser... She added in her mind while trying to think of a way to get rid of the bully and his friends.
Meeting new people WAS nice, it was true and he DID need to think extra hard on some of his homework sometimes. Still, he would have been happier outside than in but at this point the best course of action was to just prepare to get it over with. He gave Ms Berkley a nod of resigned understanding and went about his day. Jackie smiles a little to himself as he sees Eve. Well, at least he won't be suffering alone and his temporary companion in misery is easy on the eyes, so that's something. He pulls a book of his own out of his backpack, a Social Studies text he's expected to finish two chapters of for tomorrow and starts reading... or at least trying to. Eve's curious glances are a bit of a pleasant distraction and when he looks back he positions the book to cover his face as he whispers back, "I was... kinda sorta late one time? You?"
"Well, I guess it is a bit foolish." Hana giggled at herself awkwardly, "but I thought that it'd be interesting for us to learn a bit more about how our minds work. Let's go." You and Hana head to her place. She lives in a relatively unremarkable home with her parents. Although you've never taken much time to get to know her parents, you have spoken and interacted with them. Today, things seem to no different as her parents aren't even home. Her bedroom isn't large, it has a single bed and a dresser along with a desk with a drawing pad with it. The walls are adorned with some mythological artwork as well as (to your surprise) some that you yourself have done. Once she enters, she sits her bag down next to her bed and lays down on her belly. She pulls out a notebook and motions at her desk chair. "so do we want to start with your dreams? Or mine?" "Ugh..." Eve groans and rolls her eyes and keep her voice hushed, "Ms Berkley is such a cunt...I can't believe that she'd punish you for being late once. Doesn't she have anyone else she can punish? I mean, April and Ellie are always late, but they never seem to get in trouble...But you do because she was the one who caught you?" It seems like Eve has a pretty hostile attitude towards Ms Berkley and the reason becomes obvious as she answers your question, "I swear she's talking me. It's like the fifth time she caught me smoking in the bathroom this month..." Derrick's friends chuckle at one another at your awkwardness and his grin widens. "Maybe I should. How about you and us find a nice and secluded place and you can show us how..." His suggestion causes his two friends to break out in crass grins. You're pretty sure that any foray with the three bullies would lead to more than just pussylicking... Nathan frowns and follows along behind the two of you. "Well, if not tonight, then how about this weekend? I hear there's a party going on and everyone's going to be there." April whirls around and snaps at him, "Get lost, loser!" "April, this has nothing to do with you. I'm talking to Ellie, not you. It's not a crime." Nathan grimaces at the angry girl glowering at her. "Ugh...whatever. Your face is a crime." April turns away from the confrontation and stomps on ahead and past @moonblack Nicole being bullied by her locker.
Ellie suppresses her irritation at the situation. "Yeah, sure, maybe I'll go to the party, I guess." She gives an intentionally non-committal answer.
"She can be pretty intense," Jackie agrees, "Sometimes I think she's just kinda frustrated and needs a better way to... let it all out." He paused before adding with a little grin, "And my condolences getting stuck in her cross hairs. Though I can see why someone might have a hard time taking their eyes off you."
Nicole's blush intensified and she forced herself to not look away from the bullies. “Um... thank you for the offer, Derrick, but I'll have to pass... You've picked a bad time – I really need to be going... Why don't you ask someone else, like April?” She pointed at the girl that had just passed by, trying to make the trio focus on someone else. As far as she was concerned there would never be a good time to go with those three.
She had to admire the artwork, from both, an imaginative and a technical viewpoint. A lot of those techniques employed were much harder to do than they seemed. She had to question why a lot of these scenes looked identical to ones she did before. Even a few of them that weren't even really basic themes or creatures that weren't by any means standards. It wasn't uncommon for two artists to have the same idea or draw something similar in concept, but as she saw that lion headless crab thing she never did have a name before, it was looking like art that was way too specific to be circumstantial. It seemed more odd since some of these weren't even sketches that Hana had seen her do before. She weighed on it, but it strained her head to think about. Hana was no plagiarist. It still seemed like there was a bit too much overlap for coincidence but she didn't know what it was. Astrid inwardly questioned if she had actually based off things off Hana's work and honestly just didn't even remember. Whatever the reason, it was too difficult to question throughouly. "I think we may was well do yours first. I don't really know what your thought process is. I only know what I think."
"I'll swing by and pick you up saturday night then" Nathan calls after you. You aren't sure if he knows where you live or anything like that, but your walking takes you past Nicole who is still dealing with her bullies. Who also don't seem to like taking 'no' as an answer. Derrick gives you a crude smirk, "why would we talk with her when you're right here and clearly available." Eve gives a gentle chuckle under her breath and looks up at Ms Berkley to make sure that her attention still isn't on the two of you talking, " Your girlfriend must be quite happy if you're that fast of a smooth talker....But no, I just think the bitch needs to get laid. Maybe Ms Berkley is overcompensating because she wasn't pretty in school or something." "Well, we can talk about my dream last night, but it is a little embarrassing. " Hana looks off in the distance for a moment and thinks before starting, "You and I were alone on a deserted island and we had to work together to survive. You did a lot of the hunting for food while I made us a little camp out of reeds and stuff. The nights got cold so we had to stay close together to stay warm. After awhile our clothes started getting torn up from the environment, so we ended up having to lose them....but...uhh...The nights were still cold, so..." during her narration, Hana's cheeks slowly got pinker as she blushed, but now she turns a bright red, "so we had to do some more things than just stay close..." Her hands cover her face and she gasps awkwardly as she finishes what was clearly an erotic dream involving Astrid, "ohmygod...I didn't realize how hard that was, or how bad it was until i had to say it out loud."
Ellie gives Nathan a non committal gesture, as she walks down the hall. @moonblack Spotting the new student in distress, the pink haired girl shoves her way past the bullies, ignoring them. "Hey, Nicole, ready for that shopping trip we talked about? C'mon, let's go." She takes Nicole's hand, guiding the girl around the bullies.
Jackie raises an eyebrow at Eve's prognosis. "Could be. She's certainly not bad looking at all NOW, so she could probably find someone if she really wanted to." He pauses to give Eve another visual once over before adding, "Also... I don't have a girlfriend right now, so I tend to focus on making whoever I'm with happy. If they want to be, of course."
“Mmmmm. How could I hunt though? You know how bad I am with blood. Plus, I get lost super easy.” Frowning, Astrid seemed more focused on other details than the obvious implications. “I’m not a psychologist, but…sounds like a kind of a emotional dependency developed on your friends after a long time. It makes sense. We’re always going to be friends anyway. But getting too emotionally dependent on someone can hurt your ability to act for yourself and mature. Or something. I dunno.” Astrid began to scribble something down as they talked, not showing what exactly she was writing, but pausing to stare at Hana for a moment before she continued writing until she finally stopped. “Okay. My thing.” “I saw this city. Made of gold and magic, but also weird technology where they had airships and steam powered pirate robots. I’ve had a lot of weird dreams about weird places. But really, I like them more. They’re less scary than what I usually see.” She took a moment to pause before speaking again. “A battlefield that’s nothing, but a barren waste. Soldiers trying to hold off the barbarian invasion. Tactics versus savagery. Every square inch, either an enemy on your left or right, all the while, everybody is tripping over the deformed mass of bodies. Nobody thinks it could get worse…then the clouds darken and lightning strikes. And….something comes from the sky. I don’t know what. But they come. The surviving warriors try to stop them, but they can’t. A mist washes overs the land as the things land….then they snatch the bodies before returning to the sky. No explanation. No warning. It’s seriously creepy.”
Nicole was starting to get really annoyed with Derrick and his friends. “Well, I am not going anywhere until I get my stuff, so...” Taking advantage of Derrick being focused entirely on her Nicole managed to open her locker and get her stuff. “Ah, yes, I'm ready!” Though she was a bit surprised to receive help, Nicole did not hesitate to play along, letting Ellie lead her away from the trio of bullies.
@merkros "Derrick." Ellie says simply by way of greeting as she walks away, an arm slipped around Nicole's waist, utterly ignoring the trio of bullies.
"Huh...Really?" Eve gets a devious look in her eyes...almost as if she was plotting something "How does a cute boy like you not have a girlfriend?" One could almost hear Derrick's ego deflate as Ellie steps in to help Nicole. He erupts an irritated huff and lets both @Tjf ellie and @moonblack Nicole pass. "Maybe I do have a bit of an emotional dependency" Hana mutters awkwardly, but she seems relieved and maybe slightly disappointed that you didn't realize the exact implications of her dreams. She mulls over the details of your dreams and how vivid it was as she changes the subject to that. "wow...that....Is way more detailed than mine. I know there's some weird stuff in my dream, and i guess that's normal. Your head kind of fills in the details or ignores things that don't make sense. Yours sounds almost like you're remembering it." She takes some notes in her notebook "I guess that's part of why your artwork is so good. Even your dreams are creative"
“Thanks, Ellie,” Nicole gave a grateful smile to the girl that had come to her aid once they were far enough from the bullies, “I was starting to worry that I would have to do something that would get me suspended from school to get rid of that idiot. Some guys...” She sighed and shook her head as the two of them walked toward the school's exit. @Tjf
"They're just assholes." Ellie agrees. "I'm a little sad they didn't try anything, though. I wouldn't have minded kicking their faces in." She grins. "So, want me to walk you back?"
“That would have been fun to watch, actually,” Nicole returned the grin, “As for walking me back... sure, if it's not a problem for you... it'll be nice to have someone to talk to for a change.” She accepted the offer after a little internal hesitation.
Ellie falls into step with Nicole. "So, tell me, you're kinda a loner, right? How's a pretty girl like you not popular? Surely you have a boyfriend hidden away somewhere, or something?" Despite her words, Nicole doesn't detect any mockery in Ellie's voice. The pink haired girl seems legitimately curious.
