good girl goes BAD (open)

[Axelle Flint]

She was descending into delinquency (her words, no one else's). Axelle also had to deal with another round of her papa's "Talk" about boys and sex and she was starting to think she was going to have the entire thing memorized soon. All because of Benji, well not really all his fault, it had been a rather strange chain of events that had led her to pushing this ridiculously ancient grass cutter across the soccer field in the dying heat of summer. It had started with them making out in the courtyard earlier that summer and now here she was...mowing grass. Because she'd thrown him into the lake when she found out that he pretty much supported the false account that they had somehow managed to have physical relations in the courtyard. Someone had seen her toss his scrawny butt into the water and ran off to tell a teacher. She'd been given detention and her papa had been informed and then she had to explain why she'd tossed Benji into the lake and that meant finally telling the truth about her make out session with him.

Which had prompted a scolding from her father in addition to the "Talk" and a few condoms to keep in her purse. The last part was new and she'd been so embarrassed she'd started crying. Her papa freaking out and apologizing afterwards had done little to quell the fact that her father had given her condoms...that were apparently not expired. Which meant that unless he was hiding a girlfriend (or boyfriend...or both??) from her he had gone out specifically to buy them in anticipation that she would be sexually active at some point. She was dying of embarrassment.

Dying.

So here she was on this disgustingly muggy afternoon after school, pushing the grass cutter across the field, trying to get done quickly but also well since if she messed up she'd have to go over it again and she really didn't want that. She'd cut the grass, check in with the teacher and go home to dwell on how her life was spiraling out of control. What if this lead to a drug dependency?! Once you did something bad you never really stopped right?? SHE WAS GOING TO ~

Hold up there cowgirl….freaking out again, focus on the grass, angst over your future later.

[Alexei Kondratyev]

America got hot this time of year...

Alexei was used to being out in the elements, he really was, but this? This was ridiculous! He'd never sweated so much in all his life, he was almost certain. He fanned his shirt--he'd actually gone back up to his room to change from T-shirt to sleeveless after stepping outside ones--in an attempt to cool himself where he sat under a tree near the training field. He'd thought practicing his reading out here would be less distracting than inside, where there were students causing distractions (intentionally or not), but that wasn't proving to be the case.

Had he mentioned it was HOT outside?? Not just hot, but sticky, hardly able to breathe hot? He'd been determined to stick it out, because surely he'd dealt with worse, but he'd just about made up his mind to go back inside, to the wonders of glorious air conditioning, when he realized someone was mowing the lawn in this horrible heat.

What on earth! Were Americans insane?? He scuffed to his feet, tucking his English book under his arm, and started toward the training field. The person mowing looked to be almost done... but... That person also looked like a girl. Who would have a girl be doing something like that in this sort of heat? He was certain it must be nearly a hundred and fifty degrees or more out there...

What would be the right English phrase to use in this situation? He cast around for a moment, then finally opted for just waving his hands to get her attention. "Excuse me! Er... Miss!"

Oh dear, he hoped this wouldn't be some horrible breach of etiquette or something of the sort... It would be unpleasant to get in trouble for something already in just his couple of weeks there. But surely, there had to have been some mistake for this girl to be mowing the training field on a day like today. He'd just find out... It wouldn't hurt to ask about it, right?

[Axelle Flint]

Axelle looked up curiously as she heard someone's voice close by. She stopped pushing the ancient mower and straightened her back, a hand coming up to wipe across her brow as sweat dripped down from the ends of the bangs that had been previously plastered to her face. "Yeah what's up?" she asked, head tilting to the side inquisitively as she took in how hot he looked. She was getting really hot herself, she was allowed to take breaks if she felt like the heat was too much but the lawn had to be done before 5 PM.

At least talking to another person would distract her from the wailing in her head about not having a decent future and somehow winding up running the entire underworld of Vermont. She wasn't sure how her becoming a mob boss would happen but she was certain it had more to do with her staunch refusal to be bullied by anyone...which meant she would have to be at the top of the food chain...all the food chains. Currently though she was thinking that the blond boy was rather cute. She liked cute things.

[Alexei Kondratyev]

Ood, the girl didn't look too distressed about the whole lawn mowing thing... At least, her reaction to his getting her attention didn't seem to be of the terribly distressed type. Unless he was misreading her. Which seemed to happen with increasing frequency whenever he changed cultures. Ah well, he was sure that eventually he would pick things back up. He'd started to again after he'd been at Kocher for a while, after all.

"It's... It's hot out here," he called to her. "Very... Why are you mowing de lawn?" He was perfectly ready to offer to do it for her, if her answer did not seem solid enough for a girl to be pushing a mower around in the dead of summer. It wasn't that he considered girls to be weak creatures, in capable of doing anything themselves. He knew for a fact they could be quite capable. But there were two factors that made this situation give him pause.

1) This girl had likely not been raised in anything more than comfort. She was American after all.
and 2) Even a strong girl was typically weaker than the average man. So obviously that meant they should be protected to some extent, right? Even if just from a mower on too hot of a day.

[Axelle Flint]

"Oh!" she looked at the mower and thought that it must look pretty strange that she was out here mowing all by herself. "I got detention because I tossed Benji into the lake," she explained brain just assuming that he would know who Benji was and why she had to do what she had done. "So anyway I have to mow, I'm kinda almost done...kinda...almost half-way!" she added brightly. "What are you doing out here if it's so hot?" she asked curiously, swiping her hand over her forehead again and nonchalantly wiping the sweat on the back of her shorts. She was hot, but the garage back at home was also hot and it was expensive to run the air-conditioning for the open space so usually they regulated it to the house and ran fans in the garage with the windows open.

She looked at the blonde boy expectantly, wondering if he'd only interupted her to talk about the weather...which was still rather cute.

[Alexei Kondratyev]

Alexei blinked. This girl had... tossed someone into the lake? He found that hard to believe, but then again, he lived in a hard to believe school. At least, for him. Before he'd manifested, he hadn't known about metas much at all, beyond very bare-bone basics, and even those basics had been cast in the light of something mythical. He hadn't quite believed it until he began moving things around without touching them. With his mind, apparently.

But whether this girl had managed to toss someone into the lake or not, this seemed an unjust punishment for the weather. Before he could protest it, however, the girl had asked him what he was doing out in the weather. A good enough question...

"I thought it would not be this hot," he answered. "I was going back inside..." he trailed off, thinking for a moment before venturing, "I can mow for a time. I don't care." Or had it been "I don't mind"? Ah well, he was sure either sentence would get the point across.

[Axelle Flint]

"Hm? Nah! It's totally fine, this mower is kinda tricky, it's in bad condition so it's not that easy to push," she explained. She didn't want another person doing her job for her, especially because she wasn't sure if that would count towards her punishment and she only wanted to spend one afternoon in detention thank you. "Although I mean I guess if you wanted to walk next to me while I mowed I wouldn't say no to some company," she suggested as she went back to the mower and began to walk it across the grass a bit.

She thought it was odd that he said he didn't care but assumed that might have meant it in a "don't care either way," type situation. A lot of students in Hammel were from different countries so one got pretty good at reading between the lines or "translating" someone's meaning from their English. He didn't seem mad or anything like that, or even flippant so the chances were high that he was trying to be genuinely helpful.

[Alexei Kondratyev]

The mower was difficult to push and tricky? All the more reason a girl shouldn't be doing it... Alexei frowned and began to articulate a retort, but the girl went on before he could. She was, apparently, unworried by any of this. These sorts of things must have been normal here. Sure, there were such punishments for detention at Kocher, but it wasn't this hot in Switzerland typically. Perhaps she had some sort of power that helped, too. So, despite still disliking the girl's situation, he decided not to press the issue. It wasn't as if he wanted to cause trouble or offense, after all.

He fell in alongside her as she continued to walk, not sure what else to do. It would feel strange to just walk away now, it seemed. Or maybe it wouldn't... Either way, he wanted to avoid as much awkwardness as possible, so for now he would provide company.

"My name is Alexei," he offered, realizing he'd forgotten to introduce himself. How rude of him... Of course, the girl hadn't seemed particularly offended, and he was generally good at reading people, so it must not have been a huge deal to her, he decided with relief.

[Axelle Flint]

Axelle was glad to have the company now that she was busy pushing the mower again. She didn't think that the blond would get in trouble; it was his choice to join her after all. Honestly she was surprised that he stayed, but again, not that she wanted to complain. When he introduced himself she smiled. "Hi Alexei, I'm Axelle," she returned his introduction with a nod of her head and a smile, forgoing shaking his hand for obvious reasons. She had an excuse though, she was still pushing the mower...the rusted beyond acceptable limits mower with blades almost as dull as the poetry class she took a few years ago. She'd sharpened them up a bit before taking the mower out and was convinced that the only reason the thing was working in the first place was because she had the muscle to push it. Though to anyone else it looked like a regulr mower going at a regular, lazy pace because this was detention and why would anyone go any faster in this heat?

"So, what were you doing outside?" she asked again, realizing that he had never answered her question from a few moments ago before he joined her.

[Alexei Kondratyev]

Alexei still felt as if he should help the girl with the mowing, as it felt rather awkward to be walking alongside her while she did the work. However, neither did he want to get her in trouble. So, he made do with what wouldn't get either of them in trouble.

As the girl put the question to him again, he quickly began putting a reply together in his head. First in Ukrainian, then, more painstakingly, in English. "Thought it would be good study weather," he finally responded after a few moments. He gave a mild shrug. "It looked good from inside."

Yes, looking out from the pleasantly air conditioned school, it had looked wonderful. Really, objectively, it did still look beautiful. It just didn't feel beautiful.

He considered a moment before venturing, "Why do you toss 'Benji' into the lake?" She'd mentioned it flippantly enough, he figured his asking wouldn't be taken badly. And anyway, he was curious as to what would cause a girl enough anger to throw someone into the lake, or rather "toss", as she had put it.

[Axelle Flint]

"I hate when that happens. You look outside and you think "Ah, the weather can't be THAT bad and then you either freeze your ass off or sweat through all your clothes because looks were mega deceiving...yeah, totally been there, done that," she nodded. They kept walking and got closer to the other end of the field so she could turn the damned mower around and start another part of the field. She was going to soak herself in the tub when she got home. Then Alexi asked as to the why she has tossed the hapless boy Benji into the lake. She cringed because she regretted it now, even without the detention she would have. Even understanding that she had been righteously furious still didn't excuse the fact that she could have really hurt him. Thankfully he was the forgiving sort but she still beat herself up about it whenever she had a free moment.

"AH...well...he kinda told everyone that we had sex, but we ONLY made out. I'm still totally a virgin," she complained grumpily. "And someone saw us in the courtyard kissing and started saying that we had sex and that I was pregnant and he totally didn't deny it. WHY WOULD YOU LET PEOPLE ASSUME YOU'VE HAD SEX WHEN YOU DIDN'T? It's totally stupid," she continued as they finally reached the end of the field and she turned the mower around so she could start on the next line of overgrown nature.

[Alexei Kondratyev]

Alexei nodded as he processed his fellow student's words, sympathizing with his explanation of being out in the heat. "Exactly so," he murmured. He kept his attention predominately on the grass before him as he walked, English book still securely tucked under his arm. Even so, he noticed the cringe from the corner of his eye, and took note. Apparently it was either a sensitive subject, or she just wasn't proud of her actions. Since she'd commented on the happenings so nonchalantly earlier, he doubted it was the former.

As she proceeded to explain the situations surrounding the boy's being tossed into the lake, he became even sure it wasn't the former.

"Ah... I see," he mused slowly. Yes, that was most definitely a valid reason to become angry. People allowing rumors to be spread about yourself was far from acceptable behavior. That didn't mean he thought it worth throwing someone into a lake over, but of course, he wasn't about to say that. Instead, he would voice agreement with what he did agree with her on.

"That is stupid," he stated, choosing to imitate her wording in an attempt to make his English more native. "It can be very... stupid when people make up stories like that." He wasn't sure stupid was the right word-- angering, infuriating (though perhaps that was too strong a word) sounded more correct to him, but a native speaker had used "stupid", so he would do the same. "Did you tell the school leaders?"

[Axelle Flint]

"AAHHHH, WEEEELLL..." Axelle trailed off as she continued to push the mower, shrugging her shoulders. "I did of course, I mean pretty much any way to justify my actions at the time but honestly...even though he did those things and I got THAT MAD about it, I shouldn't have thrown him into the lake. I shouldn't do that...touching people is not really something I'm able to do," she sighed, wiping some sweat off her forehead.

"ANYWAY," she said in order to change the subject away from why she was mowing the lawn and the weather she decided on the only other thing she could think of which was. "Where are you from? Originally I mean, lots of people come from out of state and stuff, but I grew up in the town," she explained. "It's interesting meeting people who aren't used to small town life, or at least life here....sorry I ramble." she apologized as they just passed mid-field. She enjoyed that she had some company though, otherwise this job promised to be tedious and frustrating with the amount of sheer boredom she would have suffered without the company. She hoped they wouldn't get in trouble for some interaction.