Anything You Can Do (Jalen)

[Jalen August]

It all happened too fast for Jalen to react. She had a plan, the plan was to defeat JD with her superior weapon, and in the blink of an eye, Link was superior as was his sword. There was nothing she could do to stop him, and her whole thought process was truly overdramatic. He was victorious, and rightfully so. The blonde wasn’t smiling, but she wasn’t upset either, not visibly anyways.

“If only I hadn’t fallen off the edge...” she muttered, putting down the controller. She was done playing, and she knew it would take a while before she ever played videogames again with JD. Jalen could only handle small amounts of defeat at a time. She wasn’t used to losing, and his attitude about winning wasn’t helping her. If she was a sore loser then he was a sore winner.

Still, she accepted the terms of the bet and sighed, and stood up from the ground with his help, only to flop down on the couch, taking up the whole thing with her long body. “Next time, you shall be my slave,” Jalen said, the corners of her mouth turning into a small grin. Her eyes were sad, but in a few minutes she would be happy again. Really, he was her friend, and she wouldn’t mind cooking him something. “You’ll have to tell me what you want so I can make it,” she said, looking up at him from her spot on the couch – he was sufficiently tall.

Now Jalen’s eyes were smiling, “I play once in a while, I think I’m just good by nature, you know, winning for me is flukish,” she said, knowing that ‘flukish’ wasn’t really a word. There was just no other way to explain her usual good luck. Today just must not have been her day. Really she was being humble about videogaming. “I wouldn’t want you to think I spend all my time playing videogames or anything,” she said, testing the waters. The truth was, she spent most of her summer playing videogames, both on her own and with her brother.

Laying her hands over her stomach, she wondered what had prompted his thought process. “You don’t have to apologize, I like hanging out with you,” she said simply. Now she was just lying on the couch in JD’s dorm, and she wasn’t sure what they should do next. Should they do anything else?

“Anything else you’d like to beat me at JD? Or should I make my leave?” She asked, leaving it up to him. Jalen assumed he didn’t spend a lot of time with girls one on one, and it might be best to leave on a high note.

[JD Paerson]

JD smiled down at Jalen, flopped on the couch. "Sure thing. We'll see which way the luck falls next time." He was willing to admit that part of his victory was due to luck. "Food? Uh, I like just about everything. I'm sure whatever you make will be good. I like steak, though, if you're up for it." He shrugged, then lifted up her feet so he could sit down on the end of the couch.

"I already know you don't play videogames all the time. You still make time for smashing windows, right? And doing homework, and exploring the woods..." He grinned at her. "Of course, video games aren't all bad. I've got to have something to do when I'm locked up in my room all the time."

He was a bit embarrassed now by his question. "Well, I guess that's all right, then," he said slowly.

"Oh, uh," he said, surprised at her next comment. "No, I, I didn't have anything else. You can leave if you want." He'd probably done something stupid to make her want to get out, and she likely wouldn't want to talk to him for a while. He could understand that--most people only wanted to hang out with him for short periods of time. "It was really great of you to come by. And I hope the notes help you. Feel free to drop those off again whenever." Later he could try to figure out what he'd done wrong so that he wouldn't mess up again and make her want to go. It was probably his stupid question, which would teach him to open his big mouth.

[Jalen August]

“I can do steak,” she said, grinning at JD sitting next to her after moving her feet. She really did like spending time with him. Was that such a bad thing? She wouldn’t even be questioning it if he wasn’t so unsure of himself. If there was one thing he lacked it was confidence. “When do you want it?” She asked, trying to think of what else would go well with that kind of meal. “I’ll make maybe two or three, especially after seeing how much you ate at lunch,” she said with a grin, teasing the boy.

She smiled, nodding at his bantering while she brought her arms back to rest behind her head, getting a better look at JD. “Yes, I still make time for all those fun things, even though I really do enjoy gaming,” she said.

JD seemed hurt, and Jalen sat up to place a hand on his arm. “It’s not that I want to leave, I just, I dunno, you seem like you like having time to yourself,” she offered him a quick smile, “I guess I’m just trying to say that I’m trying to be polite,” she said, finding herself to be quite intrusive when it came to relationships. Never mind her current proximity to JD or that she was holding his arm.

Still, she stood up and put her hands in her pockets, glancing at the pile of notes in the crate she was supposed to take back to her dorm. The blonde picked up the heavy crate and smiled at JD. “I’m sure they’ll come in handy. Just e-mail me a date and time and I’ll bring over some awesome food for you okay?” She said, turning to walk out.

“Mind getting the door for me?” Jay asked, looking over her shoulder at the speedster. He needed to hurry if she was going to get back to her room in one shot.

[JD Paerson]

"Uh...next week, maybe? I don't know. I'll send you a message and let you know. Don't worry about it for now. Though having a couple steaks might be a good idea. Depends on what sides there are, I guess." He knew his appetite very well, and he'd gotten over being embarrassed about it.

She was...thinking of hi? And respecting him? JD was surprised by this enough to not really say anything about how he didn't really mind having her around. And so the moment slipped away to try to continue their time together.

"Here, let me get that," JD said when Jalen was staggering toward the door. He threw open the door, grabbed the crate, and gestured for her to go ahead of him. "I'll just walk you back." He didn't bother running with the crate, because he was too worried everything would fall out. "Thanks for the game. And yeah, I'll just shoot you that information, then..."

When he got to her dorm he waited for her to open the door, then placed everything just inside. "All right, that's it then. I guess I'll see you around." And with a small smile he headed back to his own dorm.