Live a little (Open)

[Olivia Baker]

If there was anything good about going to Hammel, it was how Vermont looked mid October. Liv was pretty positive that nothing was more breath taking than the lake, with the leaves changing, and the air smelling of dead leaves and cold. It gave perspective to her life, that there could possibly be more outside of high school and their unrealistic expectations. It made her long for adventure, to maybe, for once step out of line and do something crazy. Of course, she'd never be able to do that. To let loose and let go was so out of her comfort zone that every time she tried it just didn't work. 

It wasn't that she was unhappy. She was quite happy, most days at least. She had friends, she had good grades and was involved with enough clubs to keep busy which was her favorite thing to be. But it was in these lulls of activity that she found herself pondering deeper about who she was, who she wanted to be, and who others expected her to be. All these being different people. 

Where she pictured herself was something more adventurous, maybe a photographer or a documentarian. She loved documentaries, especially animal ones. She could just imagine herself in safari with a camera crew, or maybe the arctic.  

The wind blew bringing her back to reality as she plopped down next to a tree, leaning back on it just taking in the scene as she skipped a rock onto the calm water. 

She wondered how cold the water was. Couldn't be too cold, they'd had a warm front just the week before she thought as she slipped off her black combat boots and socks, rolling up her jeans and stepped into the water letting out a squeal. It was actually pretty cold. She didn't stop though, instead she waded further, not sure what she was doing, but stepping out. 

[Deleted]

Flynn did not care too much about the different seasons. What he probably liked most was summer, simply because he could dress lightly and girls would do the exact same thing. Eyes would feast on this and full days could be wasted just doing nothing while using the heat as an excuse for this. With autumn having arrived, it wasn’t too much of an option anymore. He did dislike the constant threat of rain… but he did like being able to shift into a panda to remain warm. Not that the guy ever needed a decent excuse for doing that, but you know. Today, however, he actually had made an effort to dress up warmer. Nothing too spectacular; a simple dark blue jeans and a dark red hoodie on top.

While it was not too cold out, Flynn did not consider it worth taking a dip in the lake. When he was approaching it, blue eyes did settle on someone who seemed to be taking the risk of stepping into the water… and his first thought was that whoever this person was, they had to be crazy! The squeal confirmed his suspicions. And yet the girl did not stop wading further. This definitely amused Flynn as he stepped closer, intentionally approach the location where she had gotten into the water.

“I think you’re walking in the wrong direction.” Flynn called out to the dark-haired girl as hands tucked in the pockets of his hoodie. Blue eyes briefly scanned her from behind… deciding it would probably be worth it to wait for her to turn around. Hopefully it would be: beautiful from far, far from beautiful. That would place him in a very awkward situation.

“That, or you should have taken off the rest of your clothes as well.” He added with a little grin.

[Olivia Baker]

She should have known that she wouldn't be alone for very long. The lake was never quiet, it was too popular and for good reason. It was perfect. Liv hoped that she'd one day actually have a house on a lake, though it would kill her parents. They wanted her to stay in Manhattan with them and her brothers so they can be the driving force of NYU and philanthropies throughout the city. Who ended up joining her was something she did not expect.

“I think you’re walking in the wrong direction.”

“That, or you should have taken off the rest of your clothes as well.”

What? What did this person just say to her? Olivia's happy place had been shattered in only a few words by some gross jerk! She spun around and saw him. She recognized him from school, she was pretty sure his name was Flynn but she didn't actually know him. 

"Really? That's gross." She said, her face disgusted but still somehow rather friendly? She didn't do distaste very well. 

[Deleted]

What had Olivia expected? For him to encourage her to soak her clothes? Her reply made his grin slightly bigger and then he smirked, shaking his head. “Isn’t being seen in underwear the same as wearing a bikini?” Clearly he wasn’t the one with his mind in the gutter. She was the one who assumed that he was talking about nudity. Flynn never mentioned it out loud, now did he? Why else would the girl label it as gross?

“What are you doing anyway? You do realize that there aren’t any spare clothes laying around, right?” Not that the guy minded of course. He just wished this girl would be dressed in all white. Now that would be an image he would not forget any time soon. Flynn could tell his first statement had rubbed her the wrong way, so he would have to try to approach it differently and more careful now.

“Do you need a hand?”

[Olivia Baker]

“Isn’t being seen in underwear the same as wearing a bikini?”

Liv felt her eyes rolling. "Yes, but swimwear is designed not to show... things." She said not wanting to talk about nipples. She shuttered at the word. Something about certain words always really made her uncomfortable and that was one of them. That word, moist, tube. Uhg tube! That was the worst! Then that made her think of her neck which a teacher once explained as a tube full of tubes. She almost gagged. 

Then he spoke again,  “What are you doing anyway? You do realize that there aren’t any spare clothes laying around, right?”

Finally she turned to actually look at him instead of ignoring him. "Yes, I know that." Damn this whole living a little thing was difficult! People just didn't understand. "I'm just... I don't know." Trying to feel something new is what she wanted to say, but it sounded so dumb. 

“Do you need a hand?”

She signed, the chill of the water was starting to hit her and she nodded. "Yeah, I guess." She said extending her hand to him to pull her out of the water, it was slippery and she almost lost her balance. 

[Deleted]

Flynn smirked. To him it remained the same. Both hardly left anything up to his imagination. He opted to keep that remark to himself though, able to tell that this girl was not entertained by the personality coming from him. Instead he tried to show interest in whatever Li v was doing, and it seemed to be a success for she no longer ignored him. She couldn’t explain what on earth she was doing, but eh… he could deal with that.

Instead of remarking on it, Flynn offered his hand and clearly this was effective as well. When the dark-haired girl moved over, his hand reached for hers before gently trying to pull her out of the water. When she, however, almost lost her balance, the guy’s first reaction was to step forward for his other arm to hook under her armpit to prevent her from falling. It didn’t seem to be necessary in the end… but Flynn was standing with his shoes in the water nonetheless.

“… awesome.” A little sarcastic tone joined in as a spoke. Other than that, he didn’t speak. Instead he stepped out without letting go of Olivia’s hand. Only when she was out as well, did he retrieve his. Blue eyes then fell to his soaked red converses.

“I probably deserved that to have called you out, mh?” Smirking lightly, Flynn kicked foot by foot in the air, having drops of water flying in every direction. Not that it would really help to get them dry though.

[Olivia Baker]

When his hands caught her under her arms she found herself blushing. It was stupid, but she hadn't paid attention to boys really until now. She'd been too conditioned to ignore them, to focus on her studies, to block them out completely. It was what was best, at the time. But even though she really wasn't sure she liked this boy at all, even on a basic human level of interaction, he was still close to her, so close at this moment that she could feel his breath on her neck, even if it was only for a moment. And only one other boy, who hadn't been family, or a friend coming in for a hug so quick she didn't notice, had been that close to her. 

"Oh shit." She said seeing his shoe in the water. That wasn't going to be fun, Liv herself was barefoot and would be dry once out for a few minutes.  She smirked. "You know, Karma's a bitch." She winked playfully. Pushing away the stupid fluttery feelings that had been there moments before and replacing them with pure sass. 

"Hey!" She chuckled when his kicking splashed water on her. "You're going to get me all wet." She was kidding, she had a half a mind to just push him in. But with the sun going down, it was starting to get colder already and within an hour she was sure it'd drop at least 10 degrees. 

"So what brings you here Flynn?" She asked raising a brow, "Besides coming here to harass me.?" She then noticed she was still holding his hand and quickly revoked it, embarrassed, shoving it in her pocket. 

[Deleted]

Flynn was used to being close to girls. This didn’t exactly intimidate him. It actually was soothing since it always felt right, especially when a pretty one like Olivia was involved. Oh, and the blush… he caught notice of it by being so close. It gave him a little ego boost – one he managed to keep hidden since he had an idea that the dark-haired girl would not appreciate this. At least his unintentional move of ending up with shoes in the water had released her of some tension. He smirked. “Glad to know that my misfortune is amusing to you.” Shaking his head, he could hear the slurping sound while walking away from the water. Shaking his feet might not be effective, but it was worth Liv’s lit up features.

“Karma’s a bitch.” The panda shifter replied with a bright grin as she began to complain about the water drops flying around. Yup, he could easily retorted that statement in this case. As for the question that followed, there was no real explanation. Other than a joking one. “Oh… I thought that coming here to harass you would have been a decent enough reason.” He chuckled. “Just going for a stroll, I guess. And obviously saving you from quite the embarrassment.” By which he meant her ending up completely soaked.

“Speaking of which, does that not deserve some sort of reward?” Flynn wasn’t going to be specific. He would leave that up to her. Even though his preference went to a kiss, whether it be one on his cheeks or lips. Not that he really expected to receive either from the girl though. “Or a simple thank you could do the trick… for now.” Because, you know, he had to create the impression that he was not that much of a player. Not the superficial kind who immediately wanted too much. maybe Olivia would buy it.

[Olivia Baker]

“Oh… I thought that coming here to harass you would have been a decent enough reason. Just going for a stroll, I guess. And obviously saving you from quite the embarrassment.”

"You're so thoughtful, sir." She said with an over exaggerated tone, still playing with him. 

“Speaking of which, does that not deserve some sort of reward?”

Her smile faltered. A reward? Did he mean like a kiss? Ohhhh no not that again. Last time she'd kissed someone it was met with a very unappreciated "Um." Clearly she wasn't very good at it and she was not in any position to try it again. She felt her heart starting to race when he added. "Or a simple thank you could do the trick… for now.”

Oh, good. She felt her heart rate starting to fall back to a normal place and she laughed, recovering. Surely, for now meant nothing. Granted she was probably over analyzing, she tended to do that. 

"Thank you... for now." She said both mocking and... flirting? Flirting. It was such a foreign concept and she had no reason to flirt with THIS boy. This boy who she didn't really know other than his name and his abilities as she knew most everyone at the school at least at that level. Granted, the school wasn't that big and it was pretty easy to keep track of who did what... he was some kind of shifter. What specific animal she wasn't sure, perhaps a wolf? No... bear of some sort? 

The wind was blowing, causing all the dry autumn leaves to rustle so loudly it almost sounded like thunder. With the wind it brought the smell of rain, accompanied by the first drop that landed right on Liv's nose. 

"I guess being dry isn't in the cards today." She then realized she was still holding his hand. "Oh... Sorry." She said taking her hand and casually tucking a loose curl behind her ears. Her stomach was turning, she was so uncomfortable, but was having fun, but this was all weird. "Hey I'll race you!" She said taking off before he could answer. Run away. That was the smart choice. 

[Deleted]

Well, of course. Flynn was the most thoughtful guy around Hammel. What else did she expect? He even ignored her exaggerated tone to caress his own ego even more. What he did detect, however, was the fact that her smile seemed to falter some. Perhaps it was why he opted to give the situation the little twist. It even seemed to be effective! Because, hello, did she just flirt back? It brought a small grin to his face, and he just couldn’t help but to base his response on that again. “I can live with that… for now.” Way to go Flynn – his own mental shoulder pat.

As for the hand, he didn’t exactly mind. Especially not because it clearly had kept her standing there. His shoes were soaked already; he might as well get caught in the rain. But yeah, since Olivia opted to race him, he was not going to ignore the dare.

Heck, he even considered transforming into his panda form, but he knew the chubby bear would be slower than a human being. Flynn did opt to give her some time advantage though. At least for a couple of seconds. Eventually the boy took off after her, not even too sure where they were running to. Did she plan on reaching Hammel within the next five minutes or so? Because if that was her goal, she better ran even faster than this.

Putting some effort into it, the guy eventually found himself close behind Olivia. He only barely had to raise his voice for her to hear. “Race me to what?” At that moment he could feel more raindrops starting to hit him as well. No way on earth they would make it out of there completely dry.

Speeding up a tad bit more, Flynn ran next to the girl within seconds. “Not giving up yet? I am quite impossible to escape from, just so you know. I’m one of those amazing things that stick around.”

[Olivia Baker]

The ground under her thundered under her feet. Her long legs pushing her forward, running faster and faster. She wasn't sure if she had done this so she could run away from Flynn, or so she could run to safety. But that was life. Always running from something and to something else, and here she was somewhere in the middle. She wanted him to catch her. She wanted him to... kiss her? She'd been watching too many chick flicks. That was stupid and not going to happen.

After a few minutes she heard him catching up and then finally asking her where they were running to. "I don't know!" SHe laughed, she probably sounded half out of her mind. The school was getting closer though and at that moment she decided the one thing she didn't want to do was go inside, not unless he wanted to. She looked over her shoulder at Flynn, her smile still on her face, mystery and excitement in her eyes for the unknown and she thought she saw something that matched in his. She only hoped she was right, because she took a left and started running towards the path.

She slowed down to let him run next to her. "I have to warn you I can run forever. I'm not stopping until you make me stop." A challenge. What the hell was she doing? She wasn't even sure what she meant. He could of course just stop her by mentioning he wanted to go in or expressing that he was tired, or picking a new direction. But the way she put it. She was being a jerk.

[Deleted]

Flynn chuckled and gave his head a little shake as eyes trailed after the dark-haired girl. He didn’t really care nor mind that she had no idea what she was running towards. The smile on her face was enough to keep him intrigued and to not declare her crazy. What he did not expect, however, was for Olivia to make that turn and to avoid entering Hammel while the rain began to fall down at a faster pace. As for the challenge that got worded the second the panda shifted caught up with the girl… That one lured a smirk on his face. Make her stop? He had no freaking idea how, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try.

Tackling Liv would be too drastic though, so instead Flynn opted to test her empathy towards others. He kept running next to her for a couple more minutes, not really saying anything, before an ‘ouch’ could be heard and he began to fall back, pretending to limp as he faked having strained his ankle. Both hands went to the knee of his left leg as the guy slowed down, letting a little whimper escape from his lips. “Fuck”, he cursed, simply to add to the drama.

“Don’t worry about me!” Flynn called. “I’ll be fine. Just… I don’t know.” Make her feel guilty if she were not to check on him. Or maybe he was just exaggerating this to the extent that Liv would catch on to it being a joke.

[Olivia Baker]

Liv had been in a full out sprint when she heard Flynn starting to slow down. Oh no. She could hear him expressing his pain and when she looked back over her shoulder her face fell seeing him confirming her thoughts, he was in pain. Crap. Now he was soaking wet and broken. Just what she was sure he needed.

"Are you ok?" SHe asked as she slowed down so he could catch up. "Did you trip?" She hadn't seen anything happened but he could have pulled something. Liv often forgot not everyone was as used to running as her. She found herself running most days and had developed a pretty impressive endurance.

"We can go back. I'll take you to the nurse." She was so serious, it was a mix of cute and pathetic how gullible she was.

[Deleted]

Flynn wasn’t going to attempt to catch up… other than limping over to her until she moved over the remaining distance. “Strained my ankle”, he groaned. If there was one thing guys were the best at, it was at faking sickness and pain. Often it was obvious just how much they were exaggerating, but the panda shifted liked to think that he had developed enough skills to flawlessly pull it off.

He shook his head at her offer, pretending to struggle as he straightened his back again. “I’m fine. No worries. The nurse is a guy… I don’t really like that. Unless it are pretty girls like yourself…” With some luck, he would offer to take care of him. Flynn wasn’t too sure about just how high that success level might me. Or, rather, how low.

If not, he would probably tell her to get the nurse anyway, simply so that he could run off in the opposite direction and to have control over the situation again.

[Olivia Baker]

Liv found herself blushing when he complimented her. "Oh you think I'm pretty do you?" She asked raising a brow. SHe was getting a bit more daring with her flirting lately, but it was easy to do with a cute guy like him flirting back. She shrugged though. "Unfortunately I'm not much of a nurse... If anything i'd make it worse." She thought back to when her roommate was sick and she gave her too many crackers making her ultimately vomit. Oops.

"Let me take a look anyway though." She said going down by the bottom of his pants and carefully rolling them up three times, her fingers skimming his skin. "Looks fine..." She was shocked, there should at least be something. "Hmm." She said carefully examining. "I think you're being a woss." She said teasing, if it was really hurt she'd go get the nurse for him but she had brothers, four of them, and she'd played this game before, and she could at least see if something was really bad and if it was he'd be swelled by now.