An Early Morning Run-in (Mathis & Ryan)

[Ryan McCarthy]

The sun was only beginning to come up, bathing the school's grounds in orange, picaresque light. The birds hadn't even begun to chirp, and the air smelled of the dew which covered the ground. Ryan loved his early morning walks – it was just a shame he could rarely get up in time to enjoy them. He would have enjoyed strolling by the lake just outside of Pilot Ridge even more, but that was much too far if he was actually going to class today. Fortunately, the Hammel Institute's property was large, and provided plenty of places for Ryan to stretch his legs.

He had begun by wandering around the dorms, and made sure to bring his bag to avoid a second trip there before class. He has circled the main building shortly after this. Along the way, he'd also been to the koi pond. Ryan recalled his aunt having a pond similar to the one here, and he was always fascinated with watching the colorful fish as a child. Fortunately, unlike Ryan's aunt, it like the staff here was capable of keeping the fish alive for more than three months at a time. He couldn't criticize, though; he could hardly keep a goldfish alive for more than two weeks. Perhaps it was best he stuck to plants.

Now, Ryan strolled casually through the courtyard. At this hour, there were few making their way through here aside a few runners and a couple early birds like himself. It was quiet too, and the scenery basked by the sunrise was enjoyable. Had Ryan heard correctly, the gardener here could manipulate plants like he could. If that was the case, it was understandable that the courtyard always looked so good.

[Mathis Reeves]

Mathis was in the habit of getting up with the sun. Well.. Getting up before the sun, really. He loved to lace up his shoes in the morning to go for a jog around campus to keep in shape. Not like he didn't already do enough to keep in shape. Between basketball, running in the mornings, weight lifting with Vrases, and the occasional swim in the pool it was a wonder Mathis had the amazing social life that he did. And boy did Mathis have a social life. He was pretty sure that apart from the object of his recent mind confusion, Cameron, he might be the most popular kid on campus.

Speaking of the object of his confusion... Mathis sighed softly and shook his head quickly to dislodge whatever thoughts might have been trying to start up. He didn't need that so early in the morning. The mimic quickly shoved on his usual jogging attire of blue sweatpants and a thin t-shirt before leaving his dorm. After that he proceeded to skip through the stairs with a reckless speed, bursting through the doors. He slid on the earbuds he'd gotten from Antosha last weekend as well as the I-pod ((a belated birthday present from Matthew)), throwing on the shuffle with a quick flick of his finger before heading through his usual jogging route.

The Trouble With Girls was playing in his ears as he headed through the courtyard, barely focusing on the path ahead of him as his mind wandered back to a certain manipulator raced through his head again. Blue eyes shut suddenly as he attempted to jerk his thoughts away from that train once more, and in that rather long moment he felt his body collide with another one. Once shut eyes flew open immediately and Mathis yanked his earbuds out of his ears to look down at the red headed boy he'd just knocked down. "Oh lord! Are you a'ight? M'real sorry 'bout that!" He rambled quickly and stuck out his hand to Ryan, eyes wide in embarrassment as he waited for foul language and well... Anything. Most people didn't like being assualted so early in the morning. "Really. I ain't mean ta knock ya over. Y'see I wasn't payin' attention and I had ma eyes shut and... Are ya a'ight? Do ya need ta go to the infirmary? I can carry ya if ya can't walk. Man! I'm sorry!"

[[His accent gets worse when he's scared I guess? And when he's tired... I dunno. It's a weird thing.]]

[Ryan McCarthy]

It took Ryan a moment to realize what had happened and why he was looking at the sky. Both his head and butt throbbed, but not nearly enough to make him think he'd been injured. “What...?” He was in a daze as he spoke slowly, having finally become aware of a fast-paced voice with an obvious Texan accent. He missed most of what they said, but managed to piece together the gist of their message. Had their eyes shut? Take him to the infirmary? He almost cracked a smile when he heard the stranger offer to carry them!

Ryan took the hand offered to him and lifted himself up. It took him a moment to regain his balance. “No, it's fine. I mean, really.” Now that Ryan was coming back to his senses, embarrassment began to wash over him. “I mean, I wasn't looking where I was going, either.” He added, quickly stumbling on his words. A couple people in the distance had stopped to look and he imagined he looked pretty silly to them. Did he have dirt in his hair? Ryan went through the red locks at the back of his head to check, hoping it simply looked like he was rubbing the area he'd bumped. Ack! He did! He tried to, as casually as possible, throw what he'd found to the ground. A few blades of grass. Phew! His cheeks were flushed pink at this point - hopefully the orange light cast by the sun would hide this.

“Well, I guess I should have heard you coming is what I'm saying.” Ryan rubbed the back of his head once more, finding relief that all he felt was hair. “So, don't be sorry.” He finished, cracking a smile to try and lighten the mood.

Ryan was about to leave and went to adjust the strap on his messenger bag, but found that he was grabbing at nothing more than air. Uh oh. He turned his attention to the ground behind him, and found the bag open with it's contents strewn about. “Crap...” His voice was almost inaudible as he swore. A couple binders had fallen out, but had thankfully remained intact. Ryan wasn't as lucky when it came to his pencil case, though. Strewn about were pens, pencils, erasers, a calculator, and a sharpener among other things. Then, inside the middle of the mess was his silver Nentendo DS. It's placement was so perfect, it looked like it had been purposely set. The screen, which flipped open as it fell, was bright and clearly displayed the Pokemon battle Ryan had left off at last night. The volume was low, but it didn't matter – there wasn't much noise to drown out the music the game played.

Ryan grabbed his Nintendo DS first and then began scooping his belongings into his bag.

[Mathis Reeves]

((Sorry))

When the male took Mathis' offered hand, the mimic wasted no time in grabbing the other's elbow in an attempt to keep him from losing his balance or any such thing. His face was torn into a hesitant smile as the male apologized as well. Matty wasn't fully sure he could accept that the person he ran into was the one apologizing. "Naw! Wasn't your fault at all! Really. I ran inta you. I have to apologize. Um... Umm... Are you sure you're a'ight?" His fingers left the male's arm as the other tried to brush the back of his head. Mathis' eyes narrowed and he cocked his head to the side. "Your head hurtin'? Then we really should head to the nurse."

However he easily returned the smile of the red haired male, nodding quickly as though agreeing would make it all better. It's not as if the mimic would stop being sorry anytime soon anyway. He reached out to stop the man from leaving, wanting to offer cookies or something to make up to hurting him. As he did though his foot hit a binder on the ground and he looked down with interest, partially confused as to why there were school supplies. However it only took a few moments before the mimic realized that everything currently scattered about the ground belonged to the male he knocked down. Attempting to make amends, Mathis quickly dropped to his knees and started picking up the various pens and pencils. When he went to grab the Nintendo, though, he was surprised to have it snatched off the ground. The male hadn't grabbed it fast enough that Matty missed what was on it and he looked over at the guy with his usual cheek-splitting grin.

"You play Pokemon???" His voice was a harsh whisper of excitement and it was easy to tell the excitement was genuine, if his bouncing knees were anything to go by.