Swimming Summer Fun! (Open.)

[Haley Shapiro]

Haley laughed at the absurdity of the situation, delightfully charmed by this boy who has no idea what he had gotten himself into, trying to befriend her. As he neared her and actually got to her, she jerked away. Oh she was ticklish all right and she could feel that tickle all the way down to her toes.

He could not find out about that.

His question sounded simple enough and she looked at him incredulously. "No. I mean...it's just a really fun thing to do." She responded with what could only be described as child-like innocence. Haley was genuinely confused as to why Kevin would even ask that.

"Seriously? You're that guy." She grinned out of surprise mostly. It would probably be her upbringing that she didn't understand how people didn't judge other people instantly. She gave him a funny smile and shrugged. She didn't completely believe him but she didn't have any base to argue with.

"Well I know you're new since you had to ask about libraries and stuff." She gave him a sympathetic smile. The mention of her hometown, or rather...the place she grew up in, put Haley back to the times where she sat on her top bunk bed wondering when she could leave. She shook her head and looked away.

"Harry Potter is that rabbit right? Who liked to steal from the farmer's garden?" She asked, remembering the picture books she used to steal from the orphanage library to read to herself at night. Of course, she got the author's name mixed up in her mind but she did remember Potter.

Which was why when Kevin mentioned wizarding robes, Haley was baffled. "The rabbit was a wizard? I did not remember seeing that in the book." She scratched the back of her head in pure confusion.

[Kevin Bailey]

Kevin grinned a bit before backing off. He knew now that she was ticklish. He didn’t need to rub it in. He tucked that little piece of information into the back of his mind for later.

“I think we like doing different things for fun,” he said, a hand to his face. There had to be something they had in common, other than liking to swim, which was already a big plus in Kevin’s books. Big enough to cancel everything else out. “What do you and your friends do when you’re not in school?” He asked. There, that was a better question.

Kevin smiled sheepishly. He had no idea what she was talking about.

Haley didn’t want to talk about where she was from. Alright, no problem, Kevin had a million and one ideas running through his head. “So, you do know where the library is in town?” He assumed the school had one and wouldn’t ask about it.

“I think that’s Peter Rabbit,” he corrected, scratching his head. If Haley was trying to make fun of him, he wasn’t catching on. “Harry Potter is about a boy who finds out he’s a wizard when he’s eleven.” Kevin was smiling like man. Really, he was a bit old to be accepted into Hogwarts, but that hadn’t stopped him from hoping. Being a meta was a close second though.

Kevin laughed. “There should be a new story about a wizard rabbit,” he poked Haley, “you should write it. I could draw some pictures for it, but I’m a terrible drawer.”

[Haley Shapiro]

"We do. I mean...besides swimming yeah." She shrugged. She didn't mind the differences. She could not be any more different than Henry or Estelle or Lani or even Sammy but they got along great anyway. Mostly because she thought of them as bodyguards. Kevin could be her bodyguard too. He was a little on the scrawny side but he will have to do. There's no such thing as too many bodyguards either.

"Friends? I don't have any." Again, her tone of voice sounded so matter of fact. It was the truth too. Or rather, she genuinely believed that it was the truth.

"I saw this grey building that said library in the middle of town. I can't remember exactly where but it's there...somewhere. You could explore this town if you'd like. I'll even come if you want. I can show you the alley I saw this telekinetic slammed a rubbish bin on to a guy's head. Turned out the guy was trying to steal from her. How cool is that?" Haley grinned before adopting a confused look on her face when Kevin talked about wizards.

"Huh. I see." She played with the water a little bit before Kevin's suggestion made her laugh. "And I'm a delightful closet." She joked. "Okay so, I'm getting cold." She announced and stepped out of the water and sat by the banks. "Do you have a dorm yet?" Haley asked as she laid on the grass with her arms outstretched.

[Kevin Bailey]

“We’ll just have to swim together a lot. I don’t mind that, it’s pretty much my favorite thing to do anyways,” he said, shrugging it off. Maybe in time they’d find other similarities, but he knew that smashing things wasn’t something he’d like to do for fun.

Kevin grinned. “I’ll be your friend.” He wasn’t trying to taunt her. In fact, he was being quite genuine. “There’s loads of fun things to do outside of class, I mean it doesn’t take much, but still. I always stop paying attention in class, it’s always so boring.”

“Yeah! That sounds like fun.” He said, wondering what else could be found in that back alley. It was funny that she could remember a back alley, and yet, not where the public library was. “Libraries shouldn’t always be grey, it makes them seem boring.” He said, wishing that when people thought ‘library’, something colorful and wild would pop into their minds instead of something that looked like it was supposed to be a bank.

Kevin shook his head ‘no.’ “Not yet. I mean, I do, but I’m living with a friend and his family right now, trying to get all my stuff here.” Kevin followed her out of the water like a puppy, sitting a bit away from her. “Room 501, I think that’s what my papers said.” He frowned. His memory was horrible.

[Haley Shapiro]

"That's cool. I'm down for that." Swimming wasn't as big for Haley than it was for Kevin but she did very much enjoy it so she didn't mind being offered that.

She frowned when Kevin offered to be her friend. She didn't quite know what to say to that so she said the first thing that popped in her head. "The hell you wanna do that for?" It was an honest question. The wording may seem a little...harsh but it was still a question laced with honesty, curiosity and a little bit of hope.

"Well, I do that too. I mean a lot of what we're learning won't apply to what I wanna do later anyways." She shrugged.

The library bit of this conversation was kind of boring Haley but for some reason, she kept at it and she briefly wondered why. "Cool, I'll raid your dorm for ya. So you share it with anybody?" She asked. Upon hearing which room he was in, Haley nodded. "Just above mine I think. Thas cool. I'll just climb your window or something." Haley nodded and sat up on the grass. "Hey, you got money on ya? I'm hungry."

[Kevin Bailey]

Kevin’s eyebrows rose as he smiled. “Uh, I don’t know. You’re fun and funny and you talk to me so, why not?” It wasn’t a matter of why, but why not? Until she did something to totally offend him, he’d want to be her friend, and would keep asking. Kevin was weird that way – he had to ask what the status of the relationship was.

“No, I think I have the room to myself. Do you have a roommate?” Kevin asked, sort of wishing he did so that he could have someone to talk to no matter what. “I’ll leave the window open,” he said with a grin, excited for such an adventure.

Searching around his swim shorts, Kevin slapped his forehead and stood up. “Yeah, be right back!” He said, getting up to get his backpack, which he left somewhere in the shade. He was pretty sure he had twenty bucks in one of the pockets.

[Haley Shapiro]

"Huh." Haley cracked a small smile at Kevin and shrugged. "Okay. Fine. We'll be friends." She nodded and continued with drying herself. Although truth be told, there could be quite a few things later on that she may let slip that could potentially be very offensive. Poor Kevin.

"Man, that's cool. I share with this punk-ass girl who gets on my nerves." Haley sat up and shook herself off. "Good. That'd be much easier for me to scare ya at night." Haley snickered.

She laughed at Kevin patting his swim shorts and shook her head in amusement. "What a nerd." She waited for him and stuck her hand through her jeans pocket.

"I'll pay you back for the food and stuff. I don't got change." She shrugged as she walked over to where Kevin had disappeared. "I'm jonesing for some hot dogs. With mustard, and relish and onions...aw man I can just imagine it now."

[Kevin Bailey]

“Score,” Kevin said with a smile. His first friend in Pilot Ridge! Huzzah!

“Well you can’t really scare me if I know it’s coming,” he said, but he was planning already. He’d stuff his bed with pillows, and when she tried to scare someone who wasn’t there, he’d sneak up behind her and scare her. It was the perfect plan.

“Hey, nerds are cool!” He said over his shoulder, reaching his bag. Kevin shrugged. “I don’t mind, hot dogs can’t be that much.” There was a hot dog stand somewhere on the side walk, he’d seen it when he first got here. He stood up with the crumpled twenty in his fist, making his way for the stand. “You think they have Dr. Pepper?” He asked. Her version of a hot dog did sound good.

“Two hot dogs, and...” Kevin looked over all the stuff the makeshift concession stand had. There was ice cream and chips, and as luck would have it, Dr. Pepper. “You want anything else?” He asked Haley, before looking at the man taking their order. “And I’ll have a Dr. Pepper too. And, whatever else she wants.”

[Haley Shapiro]

Haley laughed, greatly amused by his enthusiasm. Who knew there were people who actually would be happy to have a friend?

"And you'll live your life being paranoid, thinking when I'm going to strike." Haley gave him a smug grin, wriggling her eyebrows. Oh would Kevin be in a whole lot of pain if he actually managed to scare her.

"Says the nerd." Haley quipped back, laughing. She followed him over to the hot dog stand and nodded at his inquiry."Yah. There." Haley pointed to the row of soft drink cans. "Uh...Dr. Pepper's fine. And uh...could you make the hot dogs two for me? Thanks." Without turning to Kevin she shrugged. "What, I'm a growing girl. I need my food."

Once they got their food, Haley grabbed hers and thanked Kevin through a full mouth. She walked over to where they had first sat and dangled her feet into the water. "So you have a family?" Haley asked candidly.

[Kevin Bailey]

“I live my life without fear!” He said, but he was totally joking. There were plenty of things worth being afraid of, unfortunately for Haley, she wasn’t one of them.

“Well, you heard her,” Kevin said, in a polite tone of voice of course. The guy handed him two pop cans and three hotdogs and Kevin passed one of the former and two of the latter to Haley. “Bottoms up,” he said, grabbing the ketchup and pouring it over his dog. Yum.

“Yeah, I have family,” he said, biting into his hotdog, cracking open his can on the ground. “I mean, they’re living in the capitol city, only a few hours away.” Kevin smiled at her. “Where did you say you were from again? Your parents?” He swore she had said something about them.

[Haley Shapiro]

Haley laughed. "Okay, hero. We'll see about that."

Watching Kevin squirt the ketchup on to his hot dog, Haley ate hers, happy enough with the mustard and relish.

"Must be nice." She murmured under her breath at his mention of family. "Huh?" She sounded, her mouth still full of hot dog. "Oh," she shrugged and continued chewing on her food. She should have anticipated the turnabout question but Haley was not good at multitasking.

"I was from Chicago and I don't have any parents. Change of subject. So how about Rhino Boy right? Being all naked like that." She laughed awkwardly. "The hell is his problem right?"

[Kevin Bailey]

“They are really nice! You should meet them some time,” he said. Being friendly just came naturally to him. But then Haley changed the subject and he looked at her quizzically.

“Did I say something wrong?” He really hadn’t meant to. “Because I must have if you want to talk about someone you hate.” He shrugged, taking another bite of his hotdog. He really didn’t care about some older boy, walking around naked. “It is weird.”

Kevin clapped his hands together, ridding them of the bun crumbs. Ha ha, bun crumbs... “Are you going back to Hammel now? Maybe I could walk you.” Kevin reached a hand out to her and waited. It’s not like he had anything else to do today.

[Haley Shapiro]

"Hah...no sane parent would wanna meet me, dude. I'd wreck their china or summat." Haley chuckled, stuffing her face with the rest of her hotdog.

"Eh? No. Nothing wrong." She shook her head, her mouth still full. She chewed on it as long as possible before swallowing, taking her time, stalling. Although she supposed him not bringing up the fact that she didn't have any parents was a good thing. "Just wanted to point out a fact that's all." She shrugged in nonchalance.

As she started on her second hot dog, Kevin's offered hand was looked at strangely. Who did he think he is, Prince Charming? "I'm not a cripple. I can walk myself thanks." She said, jumping up from her seated position, not even pausing to brush herself off. She bit into her hot dog and looked at Kevin.

"You're awfully chipper, you know that?" She commented before taking a huge gulp of her soda. "And...what happened to your clothes?"

[Kevin Bailey]

“China’s replaceable,” he said with a grin that said he was holding back a secret. He couldn’t do it for very long though. “I’ve broken a lot of china before, so, that’s why I know.” Kevin said, wondering if she could want to come visit now. It would be fun!

Kevin nodded a couple times, swallowing his hotdog. “Okay, but just so you know, I don’t believe you.” A little grin appeared on his face then. He wasn’t a mind reader or anything, but he could tell when someone had something on their mind and didn’t want to say. Again, lots of practice with his parents and other friends.

“Oh,” he looked down, obviously disappointed, “I never said you were a cripple...” He shifted his backpack on his shoulders and gave a small smile. Haley, she was going to be a tough girl but he was going to be an even tougher boy. They would have amazing adventures, and rise above all the stupid Rhinos.

He smiled a bit. Chipper, what a great word. “I didn’t bring any, my friend’s house isn’t too far away.” He nodded it’s general direction before giving her a hug goodbye. He surprised her with it mostly because he didn’t want her to have time to react. “Bye Haley!” And with that, he gave a little wave and trotted on towards his makeshift home. Soon, soon he’d be at Hammel, and already he had a friend. It made him smile.

[Haley Shapiro]

Haley snorted at Kevin's form of reassurance and shrugged. Meeting parents, what a concept. At least she wouldn't have too much hopes pinned on being adopted this time. It was just a casual, easy thing. But still...what an odd concept.

"I don't care if you believe me or not, man. I'm not trying to prove anything." Haley said, getting a little defensive, as she was wont to do. She didn't mean to snap at Kevin though, he was such a nice guy. But as she was also used to doing, she didn't apologise.

As she stood up, she noticed the other meta's smile and felt a tinge of guilt for snapping at him. She shook her head and tried to let it go.

"Oh...right. I forgot you didn't live in Hammel yet. Well ok-HEY!" She exclaimed when she was hugged. Her first instinct was to punch him away but he has already moved away and she was a little too shocked to do anything. "Loser!" she stammered before turning around and smiling a little. "Shit." She shook her head and walked back, finishing her hot dog.

[OOC: And that's a wrap!]