Trying to Blend In (Open)

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Just keep a low profile, that's all she needed to do. Of course that wasn't usually her style, but today it was. All Adrian wanted to do was blend in. Sticking out was one of the things Adrian had always loved about herself, but today was so different. She pulled up the hood of her black sweatshirt and kept her eyes down as she made her way across the student lounge. She found an empty corner and sat down in one of the chairs. She held a book in her right hand and once she got comfortable she opened the book to make it seem as if she were busy reading. That wasn't the case. Instead of reading the poetry by Walt Whitman, one of her mother's favorite poets, Adrian had tears running down her cheeks.

She had just gotten the weekly phone call from the nurse and it wasn't good news that she received. Her mother's illness was just getting worse. She had stopped responding to the treatments that they had been using and she was taken back to the hospital. Adrian had waited just long enough for the nurse to get off the phone until she burst into tears. Her roommates had been in the room and she couldn't stand one of them seeing her cry again, so she decided to get out of the dorm and find some quiet place to 'read.'

The Student Lounge seemed good enough, mostly because people were all quiet in the lounge. It wasn't as crowded as usual either which helped Adrianna's case greatly. She just needed to get a grip on herself. Today she was trying to blend in with everyone else. She wore dark colors and a baggy hoody, which was completely different from her usual attire of bright colors and nicely fitting clothes.

Adrian sniffled and wiped the tears off of her cheeks as she tried reading. Of course it wasn't working too well because the poem alone reminded her of her mother.

[Braxton Carson]

Math. Human's worst enemy. At least Braxton's, anyway. During the course of the last couple of months, he had done no math homework at all and it was time to do them all if he wanted to graduate and get good grades. And so he found himself running away from the loudness of his dorm and from the dead silence of the library and into the student lounge. There weren't too many people, so it was neither quiet nor loud, it was perfect. The back corner was mostly empty except for a girl reading, so he went up and sat a seat away from her.

Here we go... Braxton placed his backpack in the floor and took his notebook and textbook, but kept looking for something else in it. After a few seconds he stopped and covered his face with the palm of his hand. Damn...

"Hey..." He turned to the hooded girl reading near him. "You got a pencil I can borrow? A pen's good too."

[Clarity Ryder]

♥ Clarity;;

Clarity hadn't been to the student lounge since the night with Anette Blackwood. She liked the other girl, really, but breaking down and crying in front of someone that was practically a complete stranger? Not cool, not Clarity. She really needed to work on containing her emotions. And on top of that, she'd been sort of avoiding Hope yet really wanting her younger sister to approach her. It was a method that she was hoping would work, leaving her be so that she would approach. Like with a stray dog.

She nearly laughed as she entered the room, realizing that she had pictured her younger sister as a dog. Then a lump came to her throat, which she swallowed, shaking her head. Squaring her shoulders, she stepped further into the student lounge, her hair up in a bun for once, nothing to hide behind. If the pencil fell out, though, the bun would completely fall apart. She noticed a girl, just about a year older than her by appearance, maybe older, sitting on a couch. It was not something she usually noticed, but it was the fact that she had met this girl before. Adrianna, at the Greek Feast. She was not dressed like Clarity was used to thinking of her, though. She was actually hiding in the open, acting as if she most certainly did not want to be seen.

There was a boy next to her, just a seat away, asking for a pencil or pen. Clarity pulled the pencil out of her hair and handed it to him, sitting down between them both and looking at the other girl with gentle concern. "Hey," She said softly, "Adrianna? Are you all right?" Clarity's assumption was right--she was most certainly crying.

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrian had gained a moment of control, only enough to speak, "Sorry I um, I only brought my book." She noticed how pathetic she sounded and hoped he wouldn't. Luckily Clarity had showed up to save her...or doom her. Why did she have to see that Adrian was crying? It just made things more difficult. Adrian looked down and away from Clarity, her dark brown curls falling in front of her face as a cover.

"Hi Clarity, I'm fine. How are you? It's been a while since I've seen you." Adrian was able to control her voice just slightly more. The tears on her cheeks dried and she forced back the water in her eyes so she could look up. Hell, she looked like utter and complete hell. The remains of her make up were now smeared on her cheeks and her eyes were slightly bloodshot.

Adrian didn't want to let Clarity see her weak, but it was getting harder to maintain her composure when her mother just kept getting worse. Adrian sighed and set her book down. She pulled the hood down and ruffled her curly hair so it didn't look quite so pitiful.

((OOC Sorry for the short post, I'm having some trouble describing things today.))

[Braxton Carson]

"Thanks." Braxton received the pencil from the newly arrived girl and proceeded to take a look at his math book.

Numbers, equations, more numbers. Where was I in math class this whole semester? Braxton shrugged and sighed as his attention wandered into the conversation just next to him. He turned his face quickly and took a the one apparently called Adrianna. No girl, you're not fine, you're crying. He turned his face back to his books after noticing the damaged make-up and bloodshot eyes. I smell some girl rivalry or something here. Usually girls just go ahead and cry everything at their girlfriends. That or she just doesn't wish to share... hmm

"Sorry, yeah, that's me." Brax said without taking his eyes away from his notebook. "My skin throws off this toxin that acts like a very weak nerve gas. It sometimes make people cry. It's harmless though, and it passes quickly."

[Clarity Ryder]

Clarity;; ♥

Clarity looked at Adrianna with a deepening line between her brows from concern, big-sister mode kicking in. This was an obvious case of the bad-news crying and the fine-just-fines. Either she had just been broken up with, or had been told something very bad, and she was trying to pull a Clarity and fake it. Clarity felt bad for thinking anything about her at the Feast, and realized that there was something she could do about the mascara lines on the other girl's face. She pulled the convenient packet of Kleenex she had been carrying because of allergies out of her pocket and pulled one fluffy white tissue out from the plastic, using it to wipe one of the streaks gently away. Her movements were slow, but sure, and she murmured to Adrianna(Trying not to let the boy hear), gently if a bit condescending, "This doesn't look a lot like fine, Adrianna." She paused, smiling at her. "But... it's good to see you. It has been a while." She successfully avoided saying anything about herself. Good thing, too.

Hearing the ill-prepared pencil-forgetter speak, Clarity jumped a little. Then cringed away and looked at him in horror, before realizing that there was no way that was true because (a)Adrianna had obviously been crying for a while, and the boy had hardly been here long enough to look at his math homework, and (b)Clarity had breathed the same air and nothing was happening to her. She shot as much of a glare as she could at him, although her pink-teddy-bear/kitten-ness was making her far ineffectual when it came to any kind of menacing. "Not Funny." She mumbled in his direction.

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrian looked at the boy and cracked a smile, "Nice try. Too bad no one bought it." She laughed lightly and looked up at Clarity who was actually trying to be nice. Adrian didn't really like being thought of as pathetic in anyone's eyes so she put her wall back up and gently, but firmly pushed Clarity's hand away. "I'm really okay. I've dealt with worse things before and I'll probably go through them again, but I don't need comforting."

Adrian didn't mean to sound nasty by any means because she just wasn't a nasty person, but the way she had spoken to Clarity came off badly. "I'm sorry for being so rude, but I mostly just wanted to be alone to suffer in silence, wallow in my own self pity." She said quietly in a nearly controlled tone. Adrian didn't feel threatened, but she had a feeling Clarity didn't like her before and was just trying to be nice to her face. Adri didn't like that sort of thing. She preferred people being honest with her completely, no lies, no fakes.

She wiped at her cheeks and straightened up in her seat. Her face was set in a calm and distant mask that she used when she was afraid to let someone in. Adrian's mother had taught her how to keep anyone from seeing through it. Trust wasn't one of Adrian's strong suits, she only let herself open up to a few people...and Clarity just didn't seem like one of them.

[Braxton Carson]

Women, love 'em, hate 'em, it's all the same. Braxton didn't retire his eyes from his notebook as he scratched his head.

"Hey, don't start complaining when the effects do start to kick in." He said with an inner smile. "Are any of you a senior? Or a very good mathematician?" Braxton hadn't taken very good look at any of them to see if he recognize them. Chances were he didn't anyway. He stretched his arm and showed them his book. "Differential Calculus. Anything? No? Because I still have no idea what this is, yeah." He turned to take a better look at them, it wasn't like he was sexist in any way, but these two girl just didn't look bright. At all. Maybe he was losing his time. "Or you know, forget it." He returned to his original position and started biting the pencil the girl gave her. "Probably you can't help me."

[Zachary LaRousse]

It’s been said far too many times before that the student lounge and Zac simply don’t mix well together. While the boy was excited upon hearing of such a place when he first came to Hammel, over the years that excitement turned to disgust, particularly when he noticed that though such a place would be a fun location to hang out in (it has vending machines, a flat screen TV and a couple of arcade games for starters), it usually gets stuffy and rowdy. How can he possibly enjoy a good game in the arcade if he has like a thousand heads crooning over him while he’s playing? And besides, if he wants to watch something on TV, he could simply do that in the comforts of his own dorm room. So really, as time went on, the allure of the lounge slowly waned from him.

Why is he seating on the lounge’s couch then, right hand tightly holding the remote as he lazily flipped through the channels? Well, he was on his way back to his dorm room when he received a text from Robbie asking if he could accompany the boy through town to pick up some supplies. He reluctantly agreed, telling the blonde that he should not be used to Zac being his chauffer at a daily basis. Since he’ll be coming from the classrooms, the boy figured it’ll be easier if they just meet in the lounge as it’s closer to the parking lot where Zac’s car is currently parked.

He’s already spent around half an hour flipping through the various shows American television has to offer, but so far none has piqued his interest. He barely noticed the hoodie-d girl enter the lounge, but he did hear her supposedly muffled sobs, making the egotistic heir squirm on the inside. Drama, as usual.

At least she’s not making much of a scene. Unfortunately for the smug teen, his celebration was short-lived. Within moments, two people crowded the girl already, their idle chatter apparently being a bit too loud that he even if he turned the volume about a quarter higher than it was before, he could still hear remnants of their conversation.

“Oh screw it,” he growled, turning the TV off as he turned towards the little troupe, “Lady, if you want to suffer in silence, you would’ve locked yourself in your room and cried pathetically there. The fact that you dressed up in dark clothes in such a hot weather, not to mention went to the place where people frequent to, just says that you do want attention.” Zac was naturally harsh and blunt, but he may have been just an extra bit snarky because Robbie’s making him wait for more than half an hour now. And the mimic’s anything but patient. “And please don’t try to deny it my dear. I know attention-hogging when I see one. I’m an expert after all.”

“In other news, I got an A+ in Calculus last year, so I might just be able to do your homework for you.” Hopefully that’ll help entertain him more than those stupid shows they show on TV.

ooc:
Woot. Hopefully it's not too late for me to join.^^.
Also, I apologize for the lengthy post. I tend to ramble in intros. D;
- Jam[/justify][/font]

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrianna stood up and threw her book down, "Okay what is your problem?! I don't even know you! I'm sorry that the people in my dorm wouldn't leave me alone so I came here. If you have a problem with that then leave! No one invited you over here anyway, so if you don't want to deal with it then there is plenty of room in the lounge for you to go do something else. I didn't ask anyone to come over here and talk to me. Some people are nice and want to help, but others like you don't care and I expected people like that to leave me alone." She spoke through her teeth. Adrian wasn't violent, but with everything that had been going on, she was sick and tired of people.

"Now if I'm disturbing you by sitting in a corner, taking up practically no space, then leave and go to the complete opposite side of me and tune it out. I'm not leaving because I don't want to. So bite me you arrogant prick." Adrian had snapped, she was off her rocker and didn't care who she hurt. This would have been a shock to her mother and well everyone that knew her. She never got angry, but the stress factor hadn't helped any. She was outraged that someone had the nerves to go off on a girl that was already going through hell. It didn't help that Adrianna also hated stuck up jerks, so that in itself just made things go sour.

((OOC: It's cool Jam, I appreciate long posts. Unfortunately my muse has been slowly dying so mine aren't as long. Oh and I apologize now for Adrian's flip out. I just thought it'd be funn XD))

[Braxton Carson]

Maybe it was the fact that Brax was highly concentrated in his homework or the fact that he is sometimes sort of a slowpoke (which is the main thing he had to train to manage his power well enough), but he did not saw the korean boy approach until he offered to do the homework for Braxton. The phrase was just too beautiful an outstanding to ignore, and as he opened his mouth to answer and really clear 'HELL YES', the hooded Adrianna snapped at the boy. Whaaaaaat. He was perplexed at the rage in the poor girl's eyes. Someone spilled a drama jar. He swallowed saliva as she continued and continued, not resting two bits.

It wasn't until she got off her chair in an attempt to, probably, slap, or something worse, the korean boy, that Braxton snapped out of the 'omg what's going on' trance and quickly twisted his wrists in an attempt to stop Adriana by reducing her momentum to zero and stopping her before evolving the verbal onslaught into a physical one.

"Hold your fires girl!" Brax stood up and quickly placed himself between the two. "I tell you, when someone proposes doing someone else's homework you don't go ahead and snap at him before he that happens. K?"

[Zachary LaRousse]

Yakkity, yakkity, yak yak yak. Zac didn’t even bother listening to what the girl in the hoodie had to say. She’d probably rant about not being a nuisance to people around her (as if!), her ‘solitude’ in the corner of the lounge being effective until he decided to notice her (oh please –eyeroll-), or something about him poking his nose into something that doesn’t involve him (well, that one might be slightly true). Regardless of what she’s saying though, unfortunately for her, no amount of shouting at Zac would make him listen. He simply yawned, both in boredom and in an effort to show her that she really meant nothing to him, stretching his arms out as he put them at the back of the chair. He even reclined some more, crossing his legs and smirking. “You done pouring all your drama juice on me? I mean, on everyone? Mind wiping it please? Juice gets sticky and icky when you leave it around for a long time.”

While he has heard footsteps from behind him, it wasn’t until he heard another voice, a male voice this time (the one that asked for his help, no less), speak up about not beating up the one that offered him help. So the girl was thinking of beating him up? Oh please. As if she could do that to him. “Dudette, I don’t know what you can do, but my advice, don’t even think about beating me up or whatever. You’d be defeated even before you can blink,” said the mimic as he turned his head slightly to face his would-be aggressor.

He didn’t really pay much attention to the people around him when he first spoke, so he was visibly surprised when he saw that the male voice he’s been hearing all this time came from a rather familiar figure. “Oh. I didn’t know you suck at Calculus too Xavie. I thought you only sucked (at) other things,” Zac added as he gave the boy coy wink, patting the space on the couch beside him. Hopefully that’ll be enough to tell the boy that should he want help, he relocate himself, not the other way around. And besides, with Drama Queen in that side of the room, heaven knows if they’ll accomplish anything.

“So where are you again anyway?” Operation ‘actively-ignore-the-raging-hormonal-teenage-girl’ is now in effect.

ooc:
Sorry it took so long. >.> I tried waiting for Ysa, but since she's posted an absence notice, I think this'll be ok, right?
- Jam[/justify][/font]

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrianna could feel the effects of Braxton's power. She was shaking in an effort to hit the other boy. She had never been in a fight so she knew he was probably right about him winning, but her anger was getting the best of her. How could someone be so heartless and cold? She only knew one other person that came close to Zac and she had dealt with him before. Then again, Lucah was much different, he at least was polite enough to ignore her at times like this. He had only ever made her hit him once and that was because he had said something much like Zac was saying, except he hit the nerve that had made her cry in the first place.

Adrian glared at Braxton as he kept her away from Zac as he continued acting as if he didn't care. If he didn't care so much then why had he even bothered coming over to start something with her in the first place? Adri repeated the question out loud, "If you don't care about anything I say or do, then why'd you even both coming over here to go off about me and my selfish ways?"

Her tone was a bit more controlled, but she was still seething behind the thin layer of composure. She shook her head and sighed, "You know what, don't bother answering that. I don't care enough about your answer. Now I'm going to go back to what I was doing before any of you tried making me feel better or worse. If you have a problem with that, oh well. You can sue me for sitting here and doing absolutely nothing. I'll tell you this much though, you won't get anything because I have nothing to give." She sat back down where she had before and opened her book once again. Fresh tears filled her eyes, but she pushed them back so they wouldn't give away how much his words had hurt her.

OOC: It's cool with me Jam. Thanks for posting.

[Braxton Carson]

It wasn't until the korean boy's mention of his middle name accompanied by a rather obvious innuendo that Braxton remembered where the boy knew him from. SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. Now it was him who was frozen and not being able to move as Adrianna continued her verbal fight with Zac, whose name was now being retrieved from Braxton's memory bank, from the room of blocked memories.

And so, as he started to sweat uncomfortably, he took a step back. Suddenly the poor girl could just go ahead and hurt the boy, but apparently she was not going to. Bummer. She took her seat and continued reading, while Zac had taken a seat far from her and waited Brax to come get help with homework. Now, decisions, decisions, they're always hard. On one corner going back to the emo girl and listen to her whine about pretty much everything, including the fact that some people are trying to help her. Weird, she is. And on the opposite corner the one thing that Brax is ashamed and regretful but could help him with his calculus homework. How is someone like him good at calculus? He has got to be lying.

"Ok." He walked up to Zac. I hope he isn't lying. He took a seat next to the korean boy and gave him his notebook and textbook with all the exercises that had to be done by the next day. "You said you could do my homework. Do it."

[Zachary LaRousse]

If it offers any comfort to Braxton, he should know that Zac’s just as clueless about that fateful night as he is. He only knows that he got so wasted at a party the night before and woke up on top of a (then) stranger (along with a few more details here and there, namely Braxton’s middle name). Would he have better hold of his powers back then, he would’ve tapped into an elephant (use the so-called perfect memory of such creatures) to remember what had just happened. He could do so now, given that he has more control and all, but since the event was eons ago, it would be too much of a strain in his mind (and body). Since Braxton seems a little too apprehensive about the whole thing anyway (immensely embarrassed whenever Zac brings it up and makes stuff up), the mimic’s rather satisfied with the whole thing.

The pompous teen simply shook his head when the girl with the hoodie spoke again. Useless crap. Yadda yadda yadda. Though the point about suing is mighty amusing. Not that he’d waste money on that though. “Good luck with that?” he shrugged, not really knowing what to say to the girl now. He’s said his point and she’s more than proven it already. “Don’t worry dearie, my work here is done.” Then he saw Xavie walking towards him. “Well, almost done,” he said, smirking as he sent a sly wink towards the boy.

He let out a slight oomph as Braxton just threw his book and notebook at him, feeling himself bounce slightly on the couch. “Gosh, you’re demanding,” he growled slightly before letting out a dark chuckle, “Not so different from that time.”

He might not look like he knows a lot, but Zac does pride himself for being part of the honor roll since he came to Hammel. While he does have innate smartness in him, for the most part, it’s due to him being in a constant battle to outdo his rival-turned-best-friend JD. He just can’t stand that some people are better than him, hence him trying his hardest to outdo the boy.

“This isn’t so hard,” he said blankly as he finished the first one and a half page. But then he saw the number of pages he needs to do. He couldn’t help but groan inwardly. “You sure I have to do all these? Can’t I just teach you how to do them or something?”

ooc:
Late, late AND late. I apologize. D;
- Jam