Partners? (Addie)

[Oliver Barnes]

Ahh, the library. It was a familiar scene for Oliver, who loved spending his free time here. Whether it be assignments, reading the vast selection of books or filling his own pages, he was here at least twice a week. Now, he had to meet a girl for a group assignment in English class. They were partnered up and briefly discussed a meeting place, agreeing on the library. The good news, was it was a writing assignment. Bad news, it involved pictures. And Oliver wasn't exactly the artistic type. Thankfully, the girl, Adaryn, had assured him that she would take care of all of the drawings and Oliver decided that he liked the girl.

He walked through the library doors, binder and his own personal notebook in hand. Students sat scattered at the tables, Oliver's eyes searching for the semi-familiar girl. He weaved through the bookshelves, finally noticing the pretty dark haired girl sitting there.

Slipping in a seat across from her, Oliver smiled sheepishly. "Hey, sorry I'm late." he apologized quietly, placing his belongings on the table. He had been in the gym, practicing his shots. While basketball season might be over at this point, he still needed to keep in shape in the off season. After that sweaty workout, Oliver wanted to shower as to not leave a negative... and smelly... impression.

He flipped open his binder, opening up to the criteria sheet. It was a simple assignment. Write a minimum 30 page children's book, with at least 15 pictures and at least a two sentence average per page. Oliver also grabbed some pieces of lined paper, smiling at the girl. "Soo, you have any ideas so far?" he asked, tapping his pen.

[Adaryn Breslin]

He was late, but Addie didn't mind. The time alone in the library was soothing. With her mental block up, the emotions were at bay. All she felt was peace and calm, with a slight amount of nervousness. She had only spoken to this boy once, and well, she had always expected him to be the snob or jock. She was quite surprised when she found his tone of voice was relatively quiet, and his eyes tended to stay downcast.

The world never stopped amazing her.

She was sketching a simple sunset when she heard a voice greet her. "Hiya," She breathed, giving him a short, half smile. "Don't worry about it." Adaryn's hands instinctively closed the sketch book, though she didn't have to. It was sort of instinctual, really. When sketching, it was usually pretty private. But she brought an empty sketchbook instead of her personal. Her body didn't realize that.

"Well, animals are usually a good start," She nodded. It was all she had so far.

[Oliver Barnes]

Oliver noticed that she shut her book right away when he got there, but didn't comment. Of course, he was curious but knew better than to demand what it was from the girl he barely knew. He tended to keep to himself in classes, only doing the bare minimum for participation marks. And she struck Oliver has the same way.

She didn't seem too concerned about him being late. Oliver had been ready to defend himself and his usual timely manner, but dropped the subject. Why worry about it? He spread out the pages, dividing it up equally between the two.

"Animals are classic." Oliver agreed. "Since you're taking on the responsibility of drawing, I'll let you decide." He said. Personally, he thought a simply designed, easily recognizable animal would be best, like a duck or a cat. "Because if I draw I'll ruin our grade." Oliver joked, gently laughing. His eyes between her sketchbook and their assignment.

It was funny how group work was a main feature. Guess the school wanted everyone to get to know each other. Oliver preferred his high school back in Minnesota. He'd always work by himself, or with AJ. No exceptions. This girl gave off a comfortable, relaxing vibe though, so Oliver didn't mind spending the afternoon with her.

[Adaryn Breslin]

"Dogs and Cats are typically the winner," Adaryn said, thinking back to the few animals she usually had. Plus there were plenty of options to choose from. Dogs and cats had so many breeds and color variants that could allow her to be playful with the pictures. She didn't want to use the typical 'spot' and 'garfield'. Maybe have a Abyssinian and an Irish Wolfhound as the main characters? They, with the varying colors and the unique breed usage, well, Addie felt it could be a humorous children's tale.

"I, uh, have an idea about maybe having a dog and a cat as the main characters? But the dog would be one of the bigger breeds, like the size of a horse. And the cat, well, it'd be a normal sized." She wasn't used to taking charge and talking so much, so there were some pauses and um's inserted in between.

Her cheeks heated up because of her mid sentence pauses. She laughed nervously, "Sorry. Just, I'm not very social." Her hand reached up, running her hands through her brown locks.

[Oliver Barnes]

Pen in hand, Oliver jotted down what Adaryn said in point form on one sheet, his neat handwriting slowly filling in the page. He was giving her full attention, which he realized soon after probably made her uncomfortable. He cleared his throat with an awkward smile. "Oh, no... it's fine, really. You're doing fine." Oliver assured her. If there was anyone in the world who could match Oliver in awkwardness and reserved behaviour, it would be this girl.

"Nothing to be ashamed of. I'm not all that social either. In fact, usually I'm dead silent or rambling a million words a minu-" He stopped talking mid-sentence, realizing the irony. Composing himself, Oliver sent the girl a shy, and slightly embarrassed smile. He wish this was for show, but this was the type of person he was around strangers. A rambling idiot.

"The dog and cat could be friends." Oliver offered, running a hand through his hair. Maybe if he talked more the two would feel a little less awkward and uncomfortable. "Good listen for the kids, you know."

[Adaryn Breslin]

"A bit cliche, but it's what kids like the most. Happy endings and sappy friendships." It almost sounded as if Addie were insulting her own idea, but she truly wasn't. It was the fact that the idea was something that she could have had, in a sense. Her words were bitter, but she shoved her emotions down the minute they began surfacing. A nervous cough escaped her, and Addie tried to mask her discomfort with another smile.

"Sorry, I guess somebody in this room is pretty angry." Of course she'd blame her power on such things. The thing was, her mental block was up, so she wasn't susceptible to the emotions around her at the moment. It was a decent excuse.

"But yeah, I like the idea. Promise. But I'm not the one writing it, just simply drawing. So ultimately, it's up to you." At this, she gave him a quick nod with another shy smile. She really, really hoped she didn't screw this up before it started.

[Oliver Barnes]

Lifting his eyebrow up, Oliver opened his mouth to say something, then snapped it shut. Adaryn sounded bitter, almost resentful. He decided against bringing it up as it was their first time meeting out of a classroom setting and wasn't proper social etiquette. Oliver would know, as he had read it in a book before.

"Oh, your power responds to other people's emotions or something?" Oliver asked out of curiosity. That would be a pain. Unlike most kids, he thought his power was pretty cool. Not to mention it was helpful in avoiding a certain someone...

He let the thought trail off. A smile spread across his face. "Awesome, then let's get started." He took one of the blank sheets of lined paper, laughing. "And I owe you big time for drawing. Otherwise, we'd have a bunch of stick people." Oliver began writing down sentence ideas, ones that were simple and direct. That's what kid's books were. No metaphors or similes. "Cat and dog meet where...hmm." He mused out loud, staring down at the sheet of paper in thought.

[Adaryn Breslin]

"Yeah," Adaryn said quietly then, a bit nervously. She'd never really openly spoke of her power in such a way, but since she had made it her excuse, she figured she might as well explain. "I'm a 'unique' Empath, you could say. That's what my power's trainer says, anyway. I can manipulate and read emotions. Well, I can attempt to manipulate them, but most often they manipulate me."

However, his pleasant smile seemed to ease her nervousness. He legitimately seemed like a... good guy. It wasn't that she hadn't met good people, it's just she always had this inner fear that everyone was too good for her and therefore would treat her poorly. This stemmed from other issues the girl had. But for now, she was in the presence of a nice person, which felt great.

"Let's be cliche and say a junkyard?" Adaryn offered, her own teeth peeking out from behind her lips in a soft smile. "Junkyard pals for life, yeah?"

[Oliver Barnes]

Oliver nodded thoughtfully before answering. "Ahh, sounds... what's the word. Anyways, it sounds hard to deal with." He smiled sympathetically at the girl before turning to look at the paper again. Oliver considered himself lucky in terms of the whole powers thing. While other people got ones dealing with emotions and thoughts, his was fairly straight forward and didn't come at a personal cost.

Already, he was talking a lot for past interactions. Although, it made Oliver a little self conscious. Was he talking too much? Was he annoying Adaryn? Oliver quieted down until she answered him, then looked up at with a smile of his own. "Junkyard sounds plenty good to me." He said with a chuckle, scribbling down on one of the pages. "So, maybe the dog is tied up at the junkyard, as some sort of guard dog. And let's say the cat has no home. So the cat goes there trying to salvage shelter and possibly a meal?" Oliver rambled off his suggestion. Although he was still speaking quietly, Oliver felt more at ease and comfortable around her.

[Adaryn Breslin]

"It makes for great art," Adaryn said, though her tone suggested that the conversation was over. There was no more talking about power's. Not now, anyway, since they had a project to speak of.

"I kind of like if the cat maybe sees the dog is chained up as a guard dog and teases him, talking about how he can move around and the dog can't. So he sits himself up on a trash mound, more specifically a piece of rotting plywood and teases him from there." It was already a visual in her head: The cat climbing up a trash mound, perching himself up on an unstable and rotting piece of plywood, and the dog is just sitting there bored. The dog was able to move since the chain had broken a long time ago, but he chose to allow the cat to tease because it was simply not worth the energy to fight. "But the plywood ends up breaking and the cat falls--there's the conflict--and the dog ends up saving him despite the fact that the cat was rude to him because he wasn't really chained up in the first place."

What was the moral of the story though? That was the big thing that their English teacher wanted. A clear moral that would teach kids something in the long run. "And the moral, I think, is that everybody is worth saving, even if they did something bad at one point in their life. Forgiveness is key, and there are good people everywhere who are waiting to save the ones who aren't and to teach them how to be the best they can be."

Well, she spoke a crap-ton. Adaryn realized how much she did speak and hope she didn't cut him off at any point. Upon looking down at her sketchbook, she realized that there was a forming picture on the page; The cat was looking apologetic, while the dog was simply smiling at the feline because he was clearly sorry and embarrassed. It was a cute story that just seemed to pop into her head at that very moment.

[Oliver Barnes]

Peering across the table at Adaryn's drawing, Oliver sweetly smiled at the girl. "Well, I can tell." he said, gesturing with his head towards the sketch. How was she able to put such expressive facial expressions in a drawing? He could write an intricate story detailing... everything he felt looking at the drawing. But, this was a children's book that called for simple and direct sentences. No metaphors or anything of the sorts. "You're really talented." He complimented, still shyly smiling.

Patiently, Oliver heard Addie out, nodding and smiling along. He liked the idea, a lot. As she detailed the summary, Oliver jotted down a few brief sentences, detailing the plotline of the story.

At the moral of the story, Oliver zoned at the thought. Everybody is worth saving. Would AJ forgive him and take him back? Maybe not romantically, but at least so they could be on a talking basis again. He missed her friendship. "Yeah... I like that." he answered after a long, silent moment, shaking his head. "Sorry I... I just got thinking about... something." he mumbled, writing down a few more ideas for sentences.

"You didn't have to save me," said the cat to the dog

"I know." said the dog. "It was my choice."

"Maybe we can go play?" asked the cat

"I'd like that." answered the dog, tail wagging as they trotted off.

He tapped his pencil against the piece of paper, licking his lips. "We make for a good partnership." Oliver said, smiling at Adaryn.

[Adaryn Breslin]

"Thank you," Her head fell, trying to hide the blush that formed on her cheeks. But she didn't feel bad about it, just a bit embarrassed. In fact, once she did pick her head up, she was smiling. "You don't need to apologize. I get lost in my own mind a lot too."

It was not just 'a lot', it was 'every day' that the girl found herself zoning out because of something someone said. She could feel the sudden uncertainty and slight sadness that emanated from Oliver, but chose to say nothing regarding it. She didn't want to pry since she had just met him that day.

When he smiled again, relief washed over her. He was fine, and he wasn't angry at her for whatever reason. "Yeah, I think so too." Adaryn returned the smile. "Can I see what you wrote?"

[Oliver Barnes]

Oliver smiled in return at the soft spoken girl. He liked her, a lot. Not romantically, but it was nice to talk to someone who understood what it was like being quiet and shy. She didn't prod at him to speak louder or talk more. It was extremely comfortable being with Adaryn. He chuckled in agreement. It was easy getting lost in your thoughts and head.

He would definitely remember Adaryn next time an English assignment rolled around and they had the chance to choose partners. Their partnership was effortlessly simple, bouncing ideas off of each other and dividing the task up. Smiling, Oliver nodded and handed over the scrap piece of paper that had the basis of the plot down, in simple sentences. "Think I got most of it there."

[Adaryn Breslin]

“Simple, I like it,” Addie said, skimming the lines with a thoughtful gaze. It was supposed to be a child’s book, so no elaborate analogies or varying sentence structure was necessary. It’s what she enjoyed most about children’s books. They were direct, but they were colorful and always had a moral.

“So maybe we can get together again later after I buy the blank book?” Adaryn knew that they were relatively inexpensive at office supply stores. If anything, she would only be using a bit of her paycheck to get it. Maybe she could also go out and get some better art supplies at the same time? “But I don’t get my paycheck until Friday, so it will have to wait until then.”

[Oliver Barnes]

"Thanks." Oliver said, watching Adaryn skim through the idea. "The illustrations are going to be the best part though." Anyone could write a children's book, with a moral and simple sentence structure. The art was going to stand out against the page, complimenting the words with vivid imagery.

Then again, it was a children's book. What did children even look for in a story?

Oliver brushed aside the random thought with a sweet smile. "Yeah, yeah that sounds good to me. Do you want me to give you some money for the cost?" He asked, instantly feeling bad that Adaryn had offered to buy it. Even if it was an inexpensive purchase. "Friday works. Still gives us plenty of time to get the project done."