Tabs in the Wind (Anthy)

[Matt Davis]

The roar of the crowd filled his senses as Matt stood at the front of the stage. His fingers sparking as if his hands were made of metal as they hit against the strings. He could feel the heat of the fire burning into the calluses of his fingers. Panties and bra’s hit against the stage while lighters outnumbered the stars of the open topped arena.

That was the dream. A dream, at least. He’d be fine to win three super bowls and replace Manning. But really, why couldn’t both be possible?

Matt shook his head and leaned forward and rolled into a seated possition, pulling himself off of the grass and setting his fingers to his guitar.

“It aint gonna happen if you just dream about it, boy.” Matt said with a smile in a bit of a more gravelly voice. Words from his grandfather, kind words even when the tone was harsh. Matt cleared his throat and looked down at the guitar tabs he had printed out from the library. “Alright, first up...Kansas.” He knew most of it from sound alone. Learning by listening to the fantastic song, though he needed to refresh it and make sure his fingers were truly in the right place.

He put the tabs beside of the amp and his backpack, leaning them against it before he started to play. He cleared his throat and belted out the song as the lyrics would’ve come in. He wasn’t that bad! He wouldn’t be a vocalist, however he might be able to perform in a dive bar.

"I close my eyes only for a moment, and the moment's gone

All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity

Dust in the wind, all they are is dust in the wind

Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea

All we do crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind, all we are is No no no crap!”

Suddenly a gust of wind ended his session as the first three pages of tabs were lifted up into the air and tossed about. “No! Damnit, no! Kansas!” Matt lifted up to try and grab them, but in his bit of a fit he tripped over the connection between his guitar and amp. Both the amp and guitar fell with an ear piercing noise. The pages twisted together with the breeze, moving further away from the music making meta.

[Anthy Blacksmith]

The events of the day before were still lingering in her mind and Anthy continued to feel a bit guilty about how things had went with her first meeting with Lucas. Guilty on a few levels for a few different reasons actually. A couple of reasons that stood out though were the fact that she had put him into possibly danger of either being blinded or burned... which was never fun and more than likely never welcomed, and the other reason was how she had left the way she had. He'd been trying to be nice to her, but she ended up running away crying. Not the best first impression, she had to admit. Though, the way they had met hadn't been exactly the smoothest introduction either.

Anthy sighed and tried to put it out of her head. At least for now. Right now, she needed to focus on staying calm and relaxing, as she was out in the sun to absorb light, not to just burn it all off and leave herself all worn out. After yesterday, she needed to recharge in a way. So far, today had been going pretty good as far as her control went. She hadn't had one flash or glow-spot all morning and that had put her in a decent mood. It had also given her the confidence she needed to not worry too much about the fact that other people might be in the courtyard when she went out there.

Music. Alright, so there were others here right now. Someone with a nice singing voice too. Though she didn't plan on approaching the guy, she did move so she could hear a little clearer. Alas, plans, or lack there of, could change at the switch of the wind it seemed. A shrill sound pierced the air, causing her to cover her ears for a moment and wince as the guy had a less than graceful moment with his equipment... And his papers were blowing away and she happened to be in the direction they were going in. It would have been pretty mean to just ignore it, or turn around and go back inside, and Anthy clearly wasn't that type to be like that.

A soft "oh" escaped past her lips as she dipped down to catch one of the papers. The other was caught with her other hand on her way up. Pressing the two papers into her left hand, Anthy hopped slightly to catch the third one but missed it the first try. She ended up having to take a few hurried steps before hopping again and catching it this time.

But now that she had the papers.... it kind of meant that she'd have to go to him, didn't it? As, it'd be a bit odd to just pin them under something and walk off. Oh this would have been easier if it had been a girl... Or at least someone she knew...

Anthy bit her lip a little as she made her way over to where the musician was trying to get himself together.

"I... I caught these.... Are... are you alright?" She asked, stopping a few steps away.

She hadn't seen if he had fallen or not, as her attention had been on the flying papers, but now that she was there, she figured she would ask. It was only polite after-all. That, and she genuinely wondered if he was okay.

[Matt Davis]

Matt had gotten up pretty quickly after his stumble. He knew how to take a fall. What mattered to him most, even beyond the tabs, was to pull his amp and guitar out of the dirt. He leaned it together before turning and getting ready to take off until he spotted something else to draw his attention: A new cute little blonde thing that wasn’t there a few minutes ago. His eyes quickly dropped to her hand as she offered out the papers and his eyes went wide.

“Y-You got'm? Hah! No way, thank you!” He took the tabs and beamed brightly at the papers, and then down at the new girl. “Me? Yeah, of course. I’m perfectly fine. I know how to take a fall or a stumble… though I don’t normally just fumble over my own feet.” He laughed, a little nervously though it didn’t show any. He reached up to brush back his hair as he looked down to her. “Ahh damn...you saw it. Believe it or not, I can be more graceful than a hippo.”

[Anthy Blacksmith]

His eyes were wide as he went from looking at her to looking at the papers she held. Anthy briefly wondered how he might react to her having grabbed them. Would he be calm and collected like Koty, would he have a sudden almost angry-like outburst like Lucas had had at times? She was somewhat anxious and more than a little nervous. That was, up until he exclaimed a thanks and smiled oh so brightly.

She found herself smiling too, it being contagious it seemed. And the smile continued as the yet to be named musician went to telling her he was alright. His laughter gave her the impression that he was more of the light-hearted type. But, she wouldn't set her mind to that just yet as she had learned yesterday that there were people who could just suddenly change at the drop of a hat.

As he went to commenting about being more graceful than a hippo, she found herself giggling some.

"Oh believe me... I've.... I've got no place to talk when... when it comes to the topic of a clutz moment..." She stammered out softly, her eyes slightly downcast from her natural shyness.

"At.... at least you didn't end up all wet and... and taking someone down with you." She said in amused tones as she stepped a little closer and held out the papers.

[Matt Davis]

"Ahh, you? No way you look graceful. Cheerleader?" He asked with the continued smile. Matt had met a few girls back at school, and the ones that he usually ended up speaking to, and the ones he found to be nicest, were the cheerleaders. He took the papers from her and continued to beam down his bright smile. It was much wider than average thanks to his large lips.

"I don't really get the wet thing… aint even raining. Oh! You mean it coulda been worse?" He shrugged some, ever present smile turned back down to try and see the brown of her eyes. "Well yeah, that's true. And a good outlook I guess… Guitar and gear are all good, and the papers are in good condition."

"An' I met someone new." He extended his hand out to her. "Sounds like a good day. I'm Matt."

[Anthy Blacksmith]

As he asked her if she was a cheerleader, Anthy giggled and shook her head quickly. Oh now she knew he was nice, saying something like that when she clearly wasn't. She had a little too much around the middle for something like that, even if she wasn't completely obvious about it. That, and cheerleaders tended to have the perfect smiles, be yay high and more blessed in the front side, right?

As he spoke of his confusion about the wetness comment, she blushed a little, realizing she might need to explain it further. Though, she didn't get to speak just yet as he was continuing. And the more he spoke, the more she was seeing that he seemed to have a rather positive outlook on things. Not too bad for someone she'd just met.

"My... my name's Anthy... Anthy Blacksmith. Nice.... nice to meet you." She said.

Oh how she wished she could speak more fluently to strangers. Though, he wasn't so much a stranger but more of an acquaintance now, wasn't he? They'd exchanged names after all.

"And... with the wet thing... I... That is.... I was more of thinking out loud about a recent adventure... than anything. I had a moment of clutz yesterday, actually... tripped over someone and we both ended up in the pond."

The bottoms of her feet were glowing. She was so glad she wore closed in shoes today. More than a little glad, actually. But, she was nervous about it spreading. Trying to be subtle about it, she took a relaxing breath to try to keep herself calm enough not to have an "outbreak" of light.

[Matt Davis]

That stuttering is cute. It was something Matt needed, truly. A nice little ego boost to have a sweet little girl like this almost to the point of tripping over herself. His eyes dipped over her, just to take in her whole form and her stance.


“Anthy Blacksmith… that’s a pretty awesome last name! I’m Matt Davis… aint as interesting as a name as yours, but it’s easy to remember.” When she started to talk about the -real- reason for the wet comment he realized he much preferred her answer to his.

“Alright, you win with the clutz thing then...I may have fallen over my feet, but I didn’t bring anyone down with me.” He let out a heavy laugh as he took his the tabs back and motioned over toward his guitar and amp. “We’re obviously not very stable on land, are we? Le’s sit down so we don’t go floppin’ on top of each other.” Matt turned toward his gear and over exaggerated his steps playfully, just to pretend like he could be a clutz himself. Also he really, really didn’t want to trip again in front of the girl before doing anything positive.

“On the same topic, though… I used to be a star quarterback known to have good hands and -you- pulled a rescue out of me. So maybe that makes up for the other day, yeah Anthy?” Matt moved to the ground, sitting down with a thud and motioning for her to sit beside of him.

[Anthy Blacksmith]

When he complimented her on her name, Anthy bit her lip some as the shyness threatened to bubble over and consume her whole. It wasn't the first time someone had complimented her on her surname, and she was beginning to wonder if it was the polite thing to do. Well, she supposed it wasn't impolite or indifferent, so the process of elimination pointed towards the answer being a yes. Even if it hadn't been something she'd been taught in school or anything like that.

As he took the papers back, he commented with an amuse tone about how she'd won the clumsiness contest, though she hadn't meant to be competing, she'd just... well, been trying to spare him some embarrassment, she supposed. Though, he seemed perfectly fine and practically overflowing with confidence. She couldn't help but to giggle a little at his joke about them flopping on top of each other. It was funny enough when said, but were it to happen in real life, she'd likely blush and blind herself to death. He was helping to distract her from those thoughts though with his playing around.

Her feet were cooling off a little. Well, that was good. And she didn't feel any other parts of her heating up to tell her that her "power" was trying to creep it's way into the conversation. This caused her not to get nervous all over again. Though, her shyness did spike up when he went to sitting down and motioning for her to sit next to him.

He.... he was pretty friendly, wasn't he. She didn't know what to do right away. Shifting a little nervously to have her weight on one foot then the other, she thought it over before telling herself that she really did need to open up more. Then, she gave a little swallow before taking a seat. Though, not too close as her shyness refused to let her.

"I.... I wasn't ever one.... A cheerleader, that is. I... I think I'm a little too... "quiet" to be one, actually." She told him somewhat timidly.

"You.... you play nicely.... The guitar, I mean... I heard you when I came into the courtyard."

[Matt Davis]

Matt smiled even brighter as she finally started to move closer to him and took her seat.

“You can move over if you want, you know. I’m not going to bite. Unless you happen to be made out of something delicious. I had a dream where I was talkin’ to a giant hot pocket. Lured it in like that… But you’re good.”

Matt nodded his head at her cheerleading comment. He had seen a few girls about her size cheer lead. They were never the captain, never the top of the pyramids, but they were nice little things like her. Good christian girls. Matt turned some in the grass and pulled the guitar onto his lap.

“I don’t know… when you get girls cheerleading, their voices kinda meld into this really high pitched...noise. So… Quiet ones aint that bad, you know. Something to consider.”

At the sweet compliment he turned his attention fully back to her. “Well then you -did- see a bit of my goodside before...you know. That side was turned brown as it fell into the dirt...I don’t have any on me now do I?” He asked while turning his head to the side. There was, in fact, a few bits of dirt and grass on his shoulder and on his cheek and brow.

[Anthy Blacksmith]

When he invited her to sit closer, she couldn't bring herself to. No, it was like she was rooted to right where she was. Even with him teasing about how he wouldn't bite. The teasing made her a bit more shy while his telling her about his hot pocket dream amused her. It was like a little seesaw was going on. At least her friend was being quiet right now. She hadn't heard a peep all day. There were those quiet days though, so there was that.

As he mentioned how the cheer-leading squad ended up sounding like a squeak, Anthy grinned a little. She hadn't really thought of that until he'd pointed it out. Not that she had had much time to hear such a thing. It had only been in the frame of time that she had been in a public school for, and that'd only been for a school year. Minus the sick days of course. Fortunately, she hadn't had many of those, but still it counted.

Her attention was brought back to him directly when he went to asking her if he had any dirt on him. Anthy looked him over before smiling a little.

"Well, you've got a bit... there." She said, pointing towards his shoulder.

"And... and a little on your face. Not too much but..... but it's... around this area." She told him, tracing the area on her own face to try to give him an idea.

[Matt Davis]

Matt started to move his hand across his face, purposefully missing a few times just to see her keep tracing it over her own face. He couldn’t keep from doing it long before he started to laugh and wiped away the dirt and dew across him.

“Alright...do I look as clean and shiny as I did before-... well you didn’t see me before the fall. Well, I didn’t have a bunch of stuff on me before, and I had the kind of face that could be described as ‘mildly attractive with a bit of whimsy.’ “

His playful smile only grew as he sat back into his seat, not expecting the little shy thing to really answer. He hadn’t dealt with a lot of shy girls. He aproched few, and by virtue of shyness, they seldom approached him. But everyone liked to play!

“So give me a song, hmm? What kind of stuff do you like to listen to? Dust in the wind do alright for you?”

[Anthy Blacksmith]

She bit her lip a little when he kept missing the spots, adjusting her hand so to try to guide him with what she was doing on her own face without having to reach out and help him out. But, would it be so bad to do so? It wasn't like there was some kind of taboo when it came to that. She supposed it was just her lack of openness when it came to people she had just met. Still, in this situation it should have been alright, right? He had already showed that he didn't have a problem with personal space... Anthy was just about to ask him if he wanted her to help, but the moment before she would have, he managed to get it himself, a bit to her relief.

When he asked her if he looked as clean as he had before, then went to describing himself when he was normally clean, she was about to comment but paused as she could tell he was about to speak again. There were certain things people did when continuing with dialogue. The tiny movements in their face, and sometimes some people leaned forward or towards a person a little but. Little, like, a really little bit. She normally didn't notice that part but she did this time, seeing how she was looking directly at him.

As he asked her her to give him a song, then asked what kind of stuff she listened to, she thought for a moment. But he spared her the worry of having to sort it out too much as he brought up the question of if the song he had been playing before would be alright.

"D-dust in the wind would be nice. I... I do like that song.... As far as.... as how you... well... described yourself..... I..... I think it's nice that... that you have that much confidence." She told him.

"Not... Not that I'm saying you're not those things!" She quickly cleared up in almost a gasp as she realized how that could have been taken.

"I mean... I didn't.... Um..... That is.... I...."

She was just getting herself in deeper, wasn't she?

"Please don't think that I... I wasn't making... But at the same time I wasn't..."

Oh this was going nowhere fast. Anthy ended up just putting her hand over her mouth to stop herself from embarrassing herself any more. It was probably a good thing, seeing how the inside of her throat was burning and if she had said anything else, she'd been unintentionally pretending to be a dragon with the glow that would have been coming out.

[Matt Davis]

Matt just watched her for a minute as she started to ramble off. She was so cute, choking up and worriedly trying to backpedal. He had gotten like that before. It was hell. You went to a bad place quickly, thinking you made a fool of yourself and smacking yourself internally. He wouldn’t let her roll around for long.

Well… not too long, at least. He smirked widely as he listened to her ramble, and he really hoped that those tiny fingers would drop and start going again. Mayyybe he’d even hear a nice compliment then.

He leaned forward, closer than she may have wanted to before his lips parted.

“I clooooseee myyyy eyyyyeees… Only for a moment, and the moment’s gone.” His fingers started to strum as he leaned back, smiling to her while playing the calming music… hopefully well enough and soothing enough that she might actually calm down some.

[Anthy Blacksmith]

He didn't say anything. Nothing to interrupt her, and most certainly didn't shout out anything at her. Anthy didn't know why she kind of expected something like that. So far, out of all the people she had ever met, Lucas had been the only one to do that. She supposed the shock factor had left an impression that had lasted until even now. Though, if one were to think about it, it really hadn't been all that long so it wouldn't be a surprise that his somewhat unstable personality had still lingered. It had been less than twenty four hours.

Matt again was doing something to draw her attention to be purely on him a little after she had shut herself up. He was leaning forward. As in, leaning very close. Close enough so their faces were a mere foot apart if that much. Anthy's eyes widened and it was all she could do to keep from blinding the poor guy. If anyone would have looked closely, they would have seen light coming through her shoes some.

Fortunately, he'd begun singing, and that helped her to not have a shysplosion just yet. The beginning of the song was soon followed by him leaning back to a normal distance and playing his guitar. That, also was a good thing. She took a slow breath through her nose, even if she kept her hand firmly clamped over her mouth for a bit longer until the warmth began to leave her throat enough for her not to be too self conscious about it anymore. A couple more and her feet were calming down too. Oh how glad she was it hadn't happened anywhere else on her body.

This song was her father's favorite. So it held a special place there in her heart. Well, her father was her favorite person in the world, so that would make sense.

"You're.... you're really good." She told him once he had finished.

[Matt Davis]

He smiled down at her mid song, delighted by her sweet compliment. It wasn’t exactly what he was expecting, or hoping for, but it was still incredibly sweet.

“Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea

All we do crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see… 

My taaaaabbbbs in the wind…

Anthy saved my tabsheets in the winnnnd…” 

He laughed a little to himself as he dropped the guitar into his lap and gave a small, though exagerated, bow towards her.

“Thank you! That means a lot. I’m really into singing… Used to sing in my choir, and some at school. Nothing I pursued as much as guitar, but…” He shrugged and leaned back enough to remove the guitar from around his body. He sat it down beside of the amp, letting the chord coil near it, before leaning into the grass. He propped himself up on his arms while looking over her. She looked so shy and embarrassed. Sweet and pristine. A nice bit of company. 

“I’m new here, by the way… To…” He motioned back over the entirety of the school, not really wanting to describe it or even say its name. “Probably why we haven’t met… But I’m over in room 201… You with the co-eds?”