Lazy Days (Ricio)

[Damia Owens]

It was only early afternoon and Damia was out of things to do. At least, things that she cared to do. There were always moods like that, when she just didn’t want to bother with things to keep herself busy let alone even think about being productive. They were difficult simply because she didn’t feel like actually doing anything.

What do you do when you need to do something but don’t want to do anything? Sleep would have been a good answer but chances were that lack of sleep was a strong contributor to the weird mood and, unfortunately, there wasn’t much she could do about that inability to fall asleep.

So Damia found herself wandering the school . She walked at random, letting her feet take her wherever they willed. The nice part of it was that she could let her mind wander a bit. At this hour of the day her thoughts came slower and it was almost like they were less…. Vivid. Not so much quieter as softer, dulled. That was nice. Damia liked that about daytime. If only it could always be like this.

And so her thoughts wandered as she meandered the school’s grounds, finding her way to the courtyard where Damia finally came to a bench to sit. Maybe later she’d go wander the town… or the lake... or she could just sit here. That was good too.

[Ricio Miller]

Ricio tried not to make too much of a habit of wandering around the grounds at Hammel. After all, he didn’t have any siblings or children who went there. And although the staff never seemed to mind when he showed up to walk around his old stomping grounds, he sometimes left with feelings of nostalgia so intense that they bordered on depression. For all his talk about how much he loved his life now, there were times when he wondered if he had been happier as a student. And maybe things would have been different if he had could face his fears.

But all that aside, Ricio had wandered up to the school with other plans in mind that day. Since the day he had met Damia on the sidewalk, he had kept an eye out for her on the streets in downtown. Since had yet to see her, he found himself starting to worry. He couldn’t really explain it at first and explained it to himself by saying that something in her had brought out a sort of protectiveness in him that didn’t surface often. Sure, he cared for his brother and even his sisters, but he had always been the one that needed looking out for. It was odd for him to be on the other end.

So he had decided to walk up to Hammel, with the hopes that maybe she would be outside enjoying the nice weather. He had been there for about an hour sitting under a tree by the pond, when he was starting to wonder if maybe he should start asking around for her. He didn’t want to seem like a total stalker, though and decided to maybe just come back another day. But as he was walking away, he noticed her sitting in the courtyard. He started grinning even before he had reached the bench where she was.

“Hey there,” he said, his grin growing as he stood next to her. “Mind if I sit with you?”

[Damia Owens]

Damia found herself watching the sunlight as it was scattered by the leaves of a nearby tree. It was fascinating, the seemingly random interaction of light and leaves and how it created patterns of reflection and refraction that moved and shifted in the light breeze. Such a wonderful array of light waves and intensities. Before she knew it, Damia was lost in the paths the light took to create the spots of highlights and shadow that danced on the ground beneath the tree. She didn’t even notice Ricio’s approach. It was only when she heard his voice that Damia was brought back to her spot on the courtyard bench.

Her eyes lit up as she saw him. ”Ricio.” Damia acknowledged him with a small bout of excitement. There was a polite but genuine smile on her face. It had been a while since they had met and while they had agreed to meet again neither had said anything about when or where that would be. As such it probably shouldn’t have been a surprise to her that it had taken a while to see him again. Damia was prone to reclusive habits. Simply running into him in the first place had been out of the ordinary for her. Still, she couldn’t help but have missed him and now that he was here she found herself wishing they had run into each other again sooner.

Sliding over to give him room, Damia nodded for him to take a seat. She tried to think of something to say but found herself at a bit of a loss. Either she was still recovering from having been so absorbed in the light of the tree or the daylight was slowing her down… ”Wait, um, this is the school.”… or both. Probably both.

Of course Damia didn’t mean anything by it. She was just confused, and curious.

[Ricio Miller]

Ricio was glad when Damia returned his smile. He had worried for a moment if he’d made the right decision in seeking her out. After all, there last meeting hadn’t gone smoothly. Perhaps she wasn’t really interesting in seeing him again and that was why it had been so long. But one she smiled and slide over on the bench, Ricio pushed his doubts to the side. She had run off once before, so he was sure she could have chosen to do it again if she didn’t want to see him.

He smile widened at Damia’s question. Something about the way she voiced her curiousness made him want to hug the younger girl. “Yes it is,” he said. “It used to be my school too. The staff is fairly lenient about old students stopping by. Besides, I haven’t seen you around town. I was…worried.” The confession felt odd to him. It wasn’t until he voiced it that Ricio realized just how much he had wondered about what Damia was up to. And how much he hoped she was okay. It was an odd feeling for him. It went against his free-spirit nature. “I mean…I…uh….How have you been?”

He started to fiddle with the edge of his jacket, wishing he could light up a cigarette. He wasn’t sure that would be a great idea, even if Hammel didn’t mind alumni stopping by from time to time, he had a feeling they wouldn’t look kindly on him smoking. He would have to check into the rules on that later. For now, he found a pack of gum in one of his pockets. “Want a piece?” he asked, before grabbing one for himself.

[Damia Owens]

”Oh,” She said at the news that old students were allowed to stop by. The word came out with what might have sounded like disappointment. The comment wasn't directed at him. She was just let down that she hadn’t realized what must have been an obvious thing sooner. However, that train of thought was cut short by his admission that he had been worried. Worried? The girl raised a confused eyebrow a little. What was there to be worried about? Her lack of understanding wasn’t helped when he jumped topics. At least, that’s what it seemed like to her.

Still, she shrugged and tried to answer the question. ”I dunno, alright I guess.” Damia had never been good at questions like that. She didn’t know if the answer should be relative to how she usually was or how she had recently been… or some sort of absolute scale. That was, if there even was one. It didn’t help that the subject of her life and her troubles was one she preferred to avoid altogether. So she turned the question back on him. ”You?”

Ricio looked as happy as he had when they’d met, maybe even happier. Although, truth be told, she found it hard to judge with that enthusiastic grin on his face. However, even as she felt the contagious need to smile back, Damia noticed him fiddlewith the edge of his jacket and had to wonder if there was something wrong. She thought to say something but didn’t. Instead, she nodded and took a piece of the offered gum. Damn… now she wanted to fiddle with something too.

To distract herself, Damia turned her gaze back to the light coming through the tree, her eyes darting back and forth a little as she traced the dancing light. After a moment she remembered Ricio’s presence and turned to him with a gleam in her eye. “Isn’t it awesome-” He was an artist. Maybe he couldn’t appreciate it in the same way her powers allowed her but he had to in his own way, right?

[Ricio Miller]

"Yeah? Just alright?" Ricio asked. He had to force himself not to fire off any more questions. True, this was only the second time the two had spoken, but he got the feeling questions weren't really her thing. And oddly enough that was something he could understand. Maybe that was why he had thought about the young girl so often. Because she was one of the few people that he actually did understand. He had found that he didn't have much in common with the average Joe. And although he wasn't one to usually go out of his way to try to connect with others on a deeper level, it sometimes got him wondering.

And in a way she reminded him of himself when he had been in college. When everything had started falling apart.

He smiled when she returned the question to him. "Pretty good actually," he said. "It so much nicer when it's warm enough to everyone to be out and about." Of course Ricio was always out and about, but it got a little lonely during the colder months. Not many people felt like stopping to chat or listen to his music when there toes were freezing off.

"So what are you up to today? More math games?" he asked, starting to fold his gum wrapper. He was still smiliing at her as his fingers folded and creased the wrapper until it took the shape of a bird.

He watched her eyes darting, assuming she was watching the leaves moving in the light breeze. He wondered if she would let him draw her again, but decided to wait a bit to ask. Last time it had caused a bit of trouble or something. Ricio still wasn't exactly sure what had happened, but he was hesitant to cause her to run off like she had the other day.

"Yeah," he said, following her gaze. Still thinking she was watching the leaves on the trees, he smiled to have found a fellow nature lover. "It's my favorite."

[Damia Owens]

Damia shrugged, then thought a moment and nodded a little. There was nothing wrong with being ‘just alright’. If anything, it was fairly good. Things could always be a lot worse.

It was nice to hear that Ricio was doing well though. She may not have known why it was nicer for him during warmer weather but it was a sentiment she could understand. Little changes in the weather could make a difference. Damia knew that personally.

At the mention of math games Damia shook her head, but she smiled at the memory of when they had met. “I don’t know… I was just watching the light.” She had just turned her eyes back to the tree when her thoughts suddenly came together. Ricio – Math Games – Light. Damia sat up straight. There was something she had to show him!

”Come on!” She announced. As she stood, Damia grabbed Ricio’s hand and practically dragged him to his feet with an energy she hadn’t had moments before. There was a glee on her face as she hurried from the bench. ”I found it a couple weeks after we met. Don’t know who took it- guess I could have asked. Maybe I still can. I didn’t really think about it. Normally I don’t really spend much time around the photo lab… or the art studio… definitely not the dark room, which could be really cool, but I- well, I guess I overheard someone say something…”

Damia was still rambling with no clear point in sight. Her mind was focused entirely on reaching the photo lab as she turned and started to drag him up the steps to the building. She was positive he'd love what she had to show him.

[Ricio Miller]

Ricio smiled as Damia shrugged. Although inside he was wondering if she was ‘just alright’ because of something that was bugging her. Then again maybe she really was okay. Just because she hadn’t been wandering the streets lately (at least not that Ricio had seen) didn’t mean something was wrong. IN fact most people would consider that as a sign that things were as they should be. Of course Ricio wasn’t most people.

He grinned as she mentioned the light. She might not consider herself an artist but anyone who could appreciate lighting was okay in Ricio’s eyes. Too many people went through their days not noticing the beauty in every day. It pleased him to see the quality in someone else.

“Yeah it looks great coming through that tree,” he said, pointing “I was just thinkin—“ He stopped short when she grabbed his hand. “What? Come where?”

Although it was great to see the younger girl so excited as she started to explain where she was leading him, Ricio felt himself tense up. He stopped to a halt when they neared the door to the building. “Why don’t you just tell me about it instead?” he offered, taking back the hand she had been dragging him by and running it through his hair.

[Damia Owens]

As much as she would have normally loved to discuss the light through the tree, her new thought had superseded all others. Damia was so caught up in her ramblings that she hadn’t taken any notice of Ricio’s questions or the distinct lack of clarity on her part. All that mattered was getting him in to the photo lab.

In her mind, she was already there. It was only when he pulled his hand free that she snapped back to the present.

Damia was confused by the halt, but she took no notice of his hesitation. “It’s just- you have to see it.” It frustrated her that they weren’t already there. The pause in their trip only made it worse. She doubled back a couple of steps to him and took his hand again. “Come on-” she insisted and pulled him toward the building again.

Unfortunately for him, Damia’s mind was focused solely on her objective and her usual difficulty at picking up on social cues was made much, much worse. She wouldn’t realize something was wrong unless he made blatantly obvious to her.

[Ricio Miller]

“I…” Ricio stammered, his voice fading out as he took a step away from the building. He was starting to feel that coming up to the school was not the greatest of ideas. He found himself trying to remember why it had been such a great idea that morning. Oh right. The girl.

He tore his eyes away from the doorway to look at her. She seemed so excited and he hated to bring her down with his own troubles. He should tell her, he knew he should. How else was he going to get out of this? But he didn’t want to seem weak. He didn’t want to disappoint her, or show her just how messed up he was. Not that he usually saw it that way, but there were times such as these that made it hard to ignore the facts.

He snatched his hand back, blurting out the first excuse that came to his head. “I’m not allowed inside,” he said, hating how the lie felt in his mouth, but unable to stop himself. “I’m not a student, or a relative, or whatever. You understand, right? It’s just rules.”

He turned away, unable to look at her reaction, his hand reaching into his pocket to clutch his pack of tobacco. Ricio was usually strongly opposed to lying. It just didn’t mesh well with his world view. Stretching the truth for a joke or to pick on his siblings was different. But he couldn’t make himself confess his fears to Damia. Taking another step back, he forced himself to breathe normally.