Unlikely Partnership (Oriel)

[Deleted]

"Yeah…school's got a dance team. We show off sometimes, nothing major though." And he'd been suspended from activities for fighting, so he missed the performances for last semester. But he was determined to give it his all this semester, and join the recitals or whatever this time. Which meant keeping his grades up somehow and, even tougher, keeping out of trouble. Oriel could probably do cheerleading too though, at least the physical part. He didn't have any school spirit, so there's no way he could have stayed peppy enough for it though.

Oriel eyebrows shot up when Carleigh announced that she'd signed up for the modeling gig too. "Well, fuck. And here I though I was doing something unique or something." He chuckled, shaking his head as he lowered his gaze with a smile. "Thanks…but I uh….nowhere really. Yet. That was the only thing and the fucking ritzy sales-guy talked me into it."

Really, Oriel didn't think he was going to get it. But it did give Oriel an idea of where he wanted to go in this hunt. Customer service was not going to be his thing, ever. Oriel was far to vain and self-centered and attention whore-y to care about serving others. Performance was definitely where he needed to look, he just didn't know where to start with that.

After all, he was good at it. Putting on a show for people. Carleigh didn't even suspect that he was just putting on a strong face so that she wouldn't worry. Inside, though, his stomach was in knots. "Yeah," he agreed, though Oriel didn't offer her any more on the subject. They had plenty of time for that.

He gave her a sneer when she asked again. "No, I changed my mind. Let's do the mistreatment of space aliens in a militaristic society. 'course I'm sure! Now let's get this shit started already." Oriel laughed and crossed his arms, trying to cover up his unease. If he'd truly been alright, he'd have come up with something more clever than space aliens.

[Carleigh Davidson]

Carleigh felt kind of bad, completely unaware of the dance team and their respective performances. "Maybe I should come by and watch sometime then." she said with as smile. The girl opened a new tab and typed in more information regarding foster care.

She chuckled, shrugging. "Seemed like it would be something fun. Maybe we'll hear back and find out we won or something." Carleigh could dream right? Cause how cool would it be to win? She frowned. Getting a job sounded really hard... and it sounded like a lot of effort only to slave away for someone else and get paid minimum wage. "I know you'll get hired somewhere. There are places that are always looking for extra help." She said with a nod, as if she had any personal experience with this sort of thing. 

Tilting her head to the side in confusion, it took the blonde a moment to figure pace hat Oriel was kidding around. Wasn't like the entire thing was coated with sarcasm... Carleigh chuckled, a bit of a delayed reaction, before turning back to her computer screen and multiple taps on the foster care system in North America. "That was a close second for our topic choice." She joked, opening one of the Wikipedia articles. "You're a funny kid, Oriel." Carleigh smiled to herself, eyes glancing at the article with a sigh. Now was the boring part.

"Looks like a lot of negative stats..." Carleigh mumbled with a frown. That was depressing to see.

[Deleted]

Even if Carleigh had been to those performances for the dance team, she wouldn't have seen Oriel there. Not with the amount of trouble he's been in. But…hopefully that would change come the end of this semester. He hoped so, Oriel had been doing his best to stay out of troubles. No…terrible fights so far. At least none that he'd started. Oriel smiled, resting his head on his side against his folded up arms. "That'd be nice. Think I'd like to see people I know watching." It would bring him some form of encouragement, at least.

"Yeah….Might be cool to work together." Though Oriel wasn't sure how long the gig was or if he was even going to get a call-back. But at least…it was a start. It gave him an slight idea of where he wanted to go, where he should be looking. He knew where he wanted to be eventually, Oriel just didn't know how to get there. "But…you like that kind of stuff? I don't know, why'd you apply?" Oriel knew why he was doing what he did, but….somehow he wondered what other's reasons were. Whether or not the correlated with his own, or if he was just crazy, dreaming the impossible dream, as Don Quixote would sing.

Oreil chuckled into his arm. "Thought so, but….man, guess we're going to have to go with this one instead. A shame, really. Could've done a lot with the aliens, you know?" Oriel continued to look over her shoulder at the computer screen. She was skimming through it too quickly for him to get a hold on what anything said, but he was sure that Carleigh at least knew what she was looking at. He gave her a smug little smile. Of course he was funny.

But that smile faded when she commented on the article they were supposed to be looking at. "Yeah….you know, I hear 'em talking a lot," he stared to explain, taking a deep breath as he delved into those memories. "They think a kid don't know what's what, but…fuck, we listen. Know what's up. The social workers talk over coffee n' shit when they think we ain't listening, 'bout which kids're more likely t'be adopted an' which ones're too fucking broken. They…make a lotta impressions….'ssumptions….'member a state bitch once said I was jus' gonna age out right into prison. She didn't know I stranding right outside the room." As Oriel spoke, he didn't even notice that he'd fallen back into New York accent, something that had lightened out over his years at Hammel. He chuckled. "Guess they gotta make jokes 'bout it so it ain't so depressing."

He shook his head then jerked it slightly towards the screen. "What else it say?"

[Carleigh Davidson]

"Then count me in. Look for me in the crowd." Carleigh smiled, seeing Oriel smile from her peripheral vision. "Hell, I'll even bring ya a bouquet of roses or something."

"Strut our stuff together." Carleigh's smile widened, as she clicked through a few more links online. She scanned the details, keeping the informational tabs and closing the less helpful ones. The suspense of waiting for the news was killing the blonde, as she really wanted to win this, moreso for the chance to showcase her style. Modelling was a nice bonus. "I applied mostly to show Pilot Ridge my style. I've dabbled a bit in modelling, and figured, can't win if I don't enter." She shrugged, still smiling. "Looked like it could be a fun thing to do."

Chuckling, Carleigh shook her head a little bit as she narrowed down the opened tabs. "It's... unique, for sure. Would have given us the edge against everyone else. Not to mention how much information is laying around on the world wide web." Finally satisfied with a variety of online sources, Carleigh turned to face Oriel again.

Her face fell as he shared his personal experiences with the foster care system, almost in tears by the end of it. She didn't know why she was sensitive, all of a sudden, but regardless, felt for her partner. Clearing her throat, Carleigh opened her mouth but didn't even know where to begin. "That's... it's just so heavy to even think about." She ran a hand over her ponytail, stuck with the image of a younger Oriel, heartbroken as some woman talked shit about him. "I'm... I'm real sorry." She knew there was nothing she could have done, but still felt terrible.

"Hmm." Carleigh mumbled, musing to herself. "It stresses here that they try and keep foster care children somewhere where they can continue their lives normally. Like, either other family members adopt them... a coach, or family friend. That sort of thing." She rambled. "They strive for continuity and basically don't want to mess their lives up, I think. So that could be a positive?" Carleigh didn't know. She was just reading Wikipedia.

[Deleted]

"I'll do that. If they let me, I'll even wave to you." He could probably get away with that, right? "Then I'll take them roses and march around the stage like Miss fucking America."

"Exactly," he agreed. "And…" He leered down a little behind her. "I bet you got plenty of "stuff" to strut, if you know what I mean." Oriel let out a short cackle as his cheeks turned a twinge of red. Oriel was known for making dirty jokes all the time, but he couldn't say that he'd made too many towards Carleigh. After all, while they were on friendly terms, they didn't hang out enough for him to have tried that on her yet. Meh, Oriel probably just saw her as another one of those 'pure and innocent' girls that he would defile if he dared to bring her into his world. But…Carleigh was proving to be a lot tougher than he thought. And very balanced. He envied her. "Could be. And even if we don't…fuck, think I'll probably be going to you for fashion tips from now on." Because who didn't like fashion? Just because he couldn't afford it, didn't mean he didn't care.

Oriel's hair was a testament to that. One of these days, Oriel was going to tell the story of how he learned to take such good care of his hair. He could go on for hours about it's perfection, it was his pride and joy.

Unfortunately, even that story was one that would probably bring up sympathy and judgement from people. Yeah, Oriel had a shitty life. He knew that. He'd seen enough looks of pity from people who never actually cared. Or rather…it wasn't that they didn't care, it…well, Carleigh said it right. It was just heavy to think about. Most people he met had lived with fortune and privilege all their lives, the concepts were about as foreign to them as their lives were to him…at least when he was a child. Oriel had a better idea now. And that had turned him….resentful. Envious. It easily made him angry when pity was thrown naively in his face.

These were some of the issues he was trying to work on. So…he took a breath and nodded. "Thanks." Oriel forced himself to be okay. Even if he wasn't.

Oriel tried to just focus on the matter at hand though, instead of getting lost in his memories. "Yeah…you know, now I think about it, that was a thing. Sometimes. There'd be like, four or five of us at a time in a home sometimes, but someone was always leaving and being replaced by someone else. Sucked, 'cause sometimes you'd meet someone really cool. Then, couple days later, they're gone off to grammy's or something." Basically a lot of turnover. The advantage those kids had was that they already had families and relatives. The edge of Oriel's thumb went into his teeth where he started to idly gnaw on the skin. "What's….what's it way 'bout siblings? Like, do they split 'em up?" It was an obvious question, but....Oriel still felt a pang in his stomach, feeling guilty still for using this project as an excuse to find out more about the system he hated.

[Carleigh Davidson]

Carleigh let out a giggle at the thought of Oriel walking across the stage, with a bouquet of roses in one hand and waving with the other. "The thing is, I don't even doubt it. That you would do that." She laughed again, shaking her head with a grin.

With his next sentence, Carleigh's entire face turned pink, then eventually red in response. That had probably been the most pointedly vulgar thing Oriel had ever said to her. It took a couple seconds for her to rebound, but she replied "Guess you'll have to make that judgement call for yourself, dear." Nothing wrong with a little innocent flirting, right? Carleigh smirked at Oriel afterwards. She was just glad that she was confident enough to retort with something, instead of stammering. Oriel seemed to hesitate over his choice of wording... not that she blamed him. The colour didn't fade from her cheeks, as the blonde was... yepp, still a virgin. Still innocent and pure. And while Oriel was cute, Carleigh doubted that anything would come of it. "We can totally share fashion tips. And hair tips. Cause yours is too die for." She raved, looking at his locks. Even tied back, they were pretty stunning.

Carleigh couldn't help but reacting as most people would. Raised in the upper class society, she had certain views on the world that influenced by her upbringing. She was trying, though, and liked to think she was doing an okay job at it. Carleigh wanted to just make Oriel feel comfortable, not awkward or anything. "No problem." She added, swallowing hard. It was an eye opener, seeing someone else's life and how they were brought up, without riches and privilege. The usually bubbly blonde was quiet, subdued in her own thoughts. She was realizing that, no matter how dysfunctional, Carleigh had a family in the flesh. People that were still around. She swallowed hard, thinking of how long it had been since she last spoke to them. She needed to change that.

But, she wasn't going to make it about her family issues today. Today was about the foster care system and Oriel's personal experience with it. Carleigh pushed aside the thoughts for now, listening as he recalled another memory. Her teeth raked ove rher lower lip, shaking her head slowly. "Honestly, I can't... I can't even picture this." A group of kids, always interchanging. Never the same. Broken kids. "I'd consider it a negative."

"Hmm.. siblings." Carleigh mused out out, clicking between a few of her links. "Ah, there we go." She glanced through the article, nodding. "Okay, so this site say one of the common reasons is lack of resources. I can check other sites too, but there's one reason. Like, a lot of families only can provide for one child. "Or for certain needs. If they feel a child can be raised in a better suited environment away from their sibling, then they do it. Apparently it's a really hard decision, which is kind of a duh." She rambled, tilting her head to the side as she weighed the pros and cons.

[Deleted]

As a boy who loved attention, Oriel didn't doubt it either. "'Specially if I got to wear the pretty dress too." He stuck out his tongue, though Oriel was really only half joking.

Oriel eyes brightened to see the flush of pink invade Carleigh's pretty round cheeks. That just made him want to poke her more and see if he could get a record going with how long her face stayed that pretty shade of pink and red. Even more to see just how easy it was. On a scale of 1 to 10, that comment was maybe a 1. There was a whole lot more offensive where that came from. He reached out a finger to poke at her rosy cheek. "Trust me, I seen plenty enough to know what I like," Oriel said with a wink. "And from where I'm sitting, you got plenty enough for me to like." Carleigh wasn't one of those thin twig girls that he avoided either. If she were that kind of person, Oriel probably would've already spent a night in her bed. Though the thought that that possibility wasn't even an option anymore, now that he was trying for the whole exclusive business wit Phoenix, did make his stomach sink slightly in disappointment. Oh, well. He could deal. "Heh…'course it is." There was no doubt his hair was the best.

Oriel offered Carleigh a smile, hoping to put her a little more at ease. Oriel didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. Even if he was feeling a little sick over this subject, that was no reason for him to bring her down with him. Carleigh was a nice person. It was nice that she was trying, but it was probably better for her to remain as ignorant as possible about the true nature of the world. Honestly, if Carleigh wanted to talk about her own family troubles, she probably could've gotten away with it. Oriel liked her enough to let her talk about her troubles. She was always so cheerful and bubbly, Oriel wouldn't have thought that she even had any family issues to talk about. And he would continue to be ignorant of that. He himself didn't understand that even the "privileged" had real problems too.

"I'd say so too," he agreed softly. Kids were coming in and out of that particular home so fast it was often better to just not bother learning their names or trying to be friends.

Oriel was quiet as Carleigh read off the words in the article to him. That was the one thing he never understood, why they thought it was okay to separate him and his sister. Before, he thought it was because there was something wrong with him. After all, that's what he always heard the adults saying. And that's why the couple who took his sister decided they only wanted her and not the violent, feral-like boy with chronic behavioral problems. They thought he would hurt her…..at least that's what they said. But he would never….

Oriel dipped his head into his arms again. "Sorry…I gotta stop," he mumbled, trying to hide the distress in his voice. "…can we continue tomorrow or something?" This had definitely been a bad idea.

[Carleigh Davidson]

"But of course, darling." Carleigh said with a haughty accent, ending with a giggle. "Think you'd be able to fit in my dresses, if you're so inclined." One, because she figured they were joking around and two, since Carleigh figured Oriel wouldn't take it that extra step.

She was thrown a little off guard with Oriel's comments. Normally, Carleigh didn't turn pink and was use to flirting advances from boys. Yet, unlike the others, he was more direct. Blunt with what he thought. There were no cheesy pick up lines or beating around the bush for Oriel, and that's what was making her feel... flustered. So incredibly flustered. Again with the directness, Carleigh's cheeks flushed even brighter, almost the same shade as her shirt. The shirt that she was now subconsciously tugging at, wondering if it was revealing a little bit too much. Wasn't her fault that clothing stores never compensated for the fuller developed. "Well..." Carleigh began, chuckling. "I'm flattered. Not so bad yourself." She said, giving Oriel the once over herself with a grin.

Trying to focus back on the assignment, Carleigh opened her email address on the computer to save a few of the more helpful links as a draft in her inbox. She forced a smile back at Oriel, trying to give him that impression that she was doing okay. Was she alright? Sure, after the two go their separate ways, Carleigh would probably try and do some other homework before attempting to nap. But the subject would still be pressing in the back of her mind, probably for a few hours. Then, they would meet again to further research and she'd be back at square one. No, there was turning back. She'd probably never look at Oriel the same again, either. "You... you think there are other foster kids in the area? We could interview them too, if it's not too much of a sensitive topic." Her voice was barely above a whisper at this point.

It grew quiet, almost silent for a few minutes. Carleigh listened to her heavy breathing, irregular. She tried to steady it, keeping it at a constant rate. She tore her eyes away from the blurry screen, looking at Oriel again. His head was back in his arms again. Reaching out, the blonde lay a gentle hand on his shoulder, frowning. She rubbed it back and forth, nodding. "Of course... if... if you want, we could give it a couple days?" Carleigh suggested, not even aware if they had the time. There should be. "I'm sorry." She apologized again, still rubbing his shoulder.

[Deleted]

Carleigh underestimated just how fucking-gay he could get. A dress was definitely not outside his realm of weird.

Oriel liked what he saw when he saw it and he was never afraid to say it. Well, maybe he was a little. Sometimes. To certain people. Guess it was a hit or miss thing. Some women he practically undressed and sexed when he barely had a chance to learn their name. But those were typically the women. The ones who had about as much experience as he did. Which was great for him, honestly. But the inexperienced were the ones he cooed and blushed up with silly jokes, childish arrogance, and the occasional flattering remark. To be honest, he hadn’t met so many of that sort before coming to Hammel. Carleigh was beautiful, and even more so when her cheeks were the color of roses. Oriel wondered how long it would take before she finally told him to back off. “Thanks.” He’d have to anyway, wasn’t like anything was allowed to happen…

Sigh….

“Maybe…I know of at least a few roaming these halls.” Like Xavier. They shared a foster home for a while. But that guy liked talking about his past about as much as Oriel did. Like, not at all. Then the Stewart twins. And that geek Alex who had some kind of “in” with Hay-lin. Clearly they were around. The real problem was justifying their need to be invasive assholes and getting them to open up. “Think the teachers would give us records on that shit? There’s probably a lot more out there than we think.”

Oriel wondered what their experiences were. Were they anything similar to his own? Was he really just some twisted case that was fucked up? Did everyone else come out shitting rainbows? Was it the system that fucked him up or would it have happened anyway? There were a lot of questions he wanted answered and yet he was scared to hear them too. Oriel shook his head, feeling like such an ass and whiner over all this. He didn’t want to make this about him, yet he did anyway, even insisted that he was fine. Well, he would be. “It’s alright…I’ll be alright tomorrow.” He’ll have had time to steel himself again, rebuild the wall, hopefully stronger this time, and get Phoenix to reinforce it. Oriel lifted his head, his eyes seeming tired. “Thanks,” he said with a transient smile.

[Carleigh Davidson]

Carleigh's cheeks continued to stay rosy for a few more minutes, the heat slowly diminishing from her skin now. Since she wasn't all too close to Oriel, the comments came as a bit of a surprise. Of course, it only inflated her already big ego, not that he had to know that. She straightened up in response, a small smirk on her face. She finished adding more links to her email, saving the draft in a folder before turning to face her partner again.

Before Oriel, Carleigh hadn't known anyone who had been in the foster care system. Then again, it wasn't something she asked people when meeting them. Didn't seem like a good conversation opener. Had he not brought up the foster care system, Carleigh would've remained ignorant to the effects and consequences from being brought up at the hands of foster care system. It was an interesting and new perspective the blonde was kind of glad to see. Kind of, since the subject was incredibly depressing and the bubbly girl didn't enjoy that sort of thing. Carleigh tapped her pen against the table, thinking. "Hm... I don't know. Is there something against doing that? Like, is it private information? Guess it wouldn't hurt to ask." The worst that could happen was that whoever was in charge of that sort of thing said no. "Exactly. And the more people, the more opinions we get and then it's more realistic." She added with a nod.

Tomorrow. Carleigh nodded in agreement, only to remember that Oriel wouldn't be able to see that. "Tomorrow, gotcha. Sounds like a plan. Do... do you want to meet back down here or somewhere else?" She asked, taking her hand off of his shoulder. Carleigh gnawed on her lower lip, a look of concern flashing across her face. Even if they weren't close, she still was concerned for his wellbeing. Meeting his eyes, a genuine Carleigh smile lit up her features. "No problem, least we can do. M... maybe go take a nap or something. Relax."

[Deleted]

“I don’t know. Maybe…” If it was private information, then there was no way they could find out. Oriel honestly thought that this project would work better with first hand testimonies to refer to, not just the drivel they fed you on the internet. “Yeah….maybe put up a flyer or some shit. Just ask around?” Thought that meant going around and actually initiating contact with people which Oriel was…not that great at doing. Carleigh was good at that, so maybe he’d ask her to do that….but then again, she seemed pretty….something, it was a lot to take in all at once. Oriel wasn’t sure if he wanted to do that to her.

But they didn’t need to think about that right now. Tomorrow was another day and they had…plenty of time to get this done. Oriel rolled his shoulder in a sort of half shrug. “I’m good for here. We need a computer and I don’t got one. Don’t know if you got one though, in your dorm?” Actually, if she did that would be a lot better. Oriel would rather do this kind of emotionally exhausting stuff out of sight from people. Oriel returned the smile, feeling relieved that they could stop for the day. He needed to re-energize. “Yeah…think I’ll do that.”

[Carleigh Davidson]

"Guess if we never try, we'll never know. Go down to the office and ask. Say it's for a school project." It wasn't lying. Carleigh figured that she could be in charge of that. Maybe she'd be able to access the files and take a quick peek at them. "I can do that later." She promised. "Or that would work too. Is... is it kind of insensitive to ask that though?" Frowning, the blonde drummed her fingers on top of the desk. "I don't want people to think that... that we're rude or something. Maybe we should go together. I can do the talking, you can be the familiar person who understands what is going on." She rambled.

But he was right. They could discuss it further after a break from the emotional day. "I have a laptop, yes." Of course Carleigh did. She was privileged, and the fact kind of made her feel a little uncomfortable. Who knew, maybe she was growing up. Carleigh still sweetly smiled, nodding. "We can do it there if you'd like."

"I'll see you tomorrow then. We can meet up after class." With that, Carleigh began tidying her supplies. She stood up, and with a small wave, said "See you tomorrow, Oriel."