I'm Okay, Kinda... (Open)

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Marcus was running some errands for one of his teachers. Not voluntarily of course. He and her had gotten into a tiny little spit so his punishment was to help her move and deliver stuff for the day. Classes were out for the summer, but there was apparently still things that some teachers had to do before they could call it quits on the academic life. So Marcus was hauling Mrs. Battybeans'(no that was not her name just what Marcus called her) papers and graded papers from the classroom to her office and delivering some files down to the main office and blarga-blarga-blarg #yolo I-don't-know-what-the hell-these-teachers-are-thinking tasks that she probably invented just to keep the shifter busy.

Marcus sighed, about 20 seconds after having recovered from one of her infamous sneezing fits that didn't end until a good 10 body-jerking spasms later(luckily she didn't drop anything during that bout which would only have increased the level of inconvenience). She blew her long blonde hair from her face. Then shook it, as the blowing seemed to help about as well as [insert clever simile here]. Well, the shaking didn't seem to help much either, so Marcus essentially gave up and continued to transport the stack of papers down the hall and to the stairs half-blind.

Half-blind and now a good 5 inches shorter(ugh, fml). It didn't seem like much for the naturally tall girl, but it was enough to leave a good 3 inches of her wide pant legs dragging on the ground behind her, just waiting for Marcus to lose her orientation from the sudden height change and tumble over forwards after tripping on said dragging pant legs.

Right in front of the stairs.

While life was maliciously yodeling a good trolololo from somewhere in the netherworld.

Papers, a lot of papers, flew about and drifted down like giant pieces of confetti. Marcus had no choice but to toss them up like that, because no stack of papers was worth tumbling down the stairs over. Didn't mean she was entirely saved, however. The moment the slip came about her feet, the shifted girl let out a very high-pitched yelp and she twisted herself around to hopefully catch the railing to keep from sliding and falling even further down the stairs. Which left the long-haired girl hanging awkwardly for dear life from the hand-railing, one leg stretched out down the stairs with her other knee bent up into her chest as the sole if her shoe balanced on the corner of the step she was hovering over.

Marcus held that position for a good 30 seconds before degenerating into an awkward flurry of nervous, relieved chuckles that probably made her sound just a bit touched in the head. She didn't care.

[Salem Hirch]

Ah Summer break, the time when most kids and teenagers had plans of relaxing and being away from school as much as possible. Most kids and teenagers, except Salem. (more than likely a few others as well) He did have plans, but they were for later on in the summer, and luckily wouldn't involve a large mass of people. At least, that's what he hoped. Salem strolled down the halls of the school, mostly out of sheer boredom and the fact that it was almost completely empty. The teachers were still there of course, but that didn't bother him. They were too wrapped up in their own business to even pay him much attention. One or two said hello to him and asked him what his plans were for the summer; to which he responded. "As much T.V. and video games as a young brain can handle." This was usually replied to with a laugh and a pat on the shoulder.

Salem suddenly had a feeling to duck down or hide and he couldn't figure out why. Until he finally decided to look up. There, coming down the hall; head in a stack of papers, was his math teacher. Now, Salem got along with most teachers and adults in general, but his general lack of interest in math (see: Hatred) seemed to upset his math teacher and prompted the most dull lectures of how important math was and how Salem should try harder. Fearing that he may be suddenly assigned summer homework, the blonde boy quickly ducked into the nearby stairwell.


Almost at that exact moment, papers drizzled down on him like sharp snowflakes and he heard a shriek. It was in his nature to help people, so without stoping to think he rushed up the stairs to find someone clinging to the railing and sitting in the most peculiar position. From his angle he couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl, but it didn't matter to him, they needed some form of help and he was there. Even if the chuckles the other was producing seemed a bit...off-putting.  Calmly he walked up the stairs and held out his hand.

"Looks like you could use some help." He smiled. 

[Deleted]

Okay…yeah…Marcus was a little dizzy and maybe that was why she wasn’t pulling herself up quite immediately. Well, it was also somewhat of an awkward position, she was just a little bit afraid of losing her step again and tumbling the rest of the way down the stairs…

Marcus turned her head. It was…a long way down…kinda. And ended right into a wall before making a u-turn right into more stairs.

She hated how this dumb little transformation made him unnecessarily clumsy.

Making matters worse, and quite easily turing her face a brilliant red, was the offering of a hand. O-shit-damn, someone had seen! Marcus stared at the other blonde boy like…like a girl who was being offered a hand by a good-looking blonde boy, seriously what was this? A chick flick? A teeny-bopper film? Whatever it was, it was making the femme-Marcus look like a stupid teenage girl and that was making Marcus want to crawl in a hole even more.

She took a breath. “Uh…yeah!” she replied in a husky voice. Deeper than most girls, but still recognizable as female. She reached out her free hand to grab onto the the boy’s offered hand, a weak grip with slender fingers. “Thanks, man.” As she pulled herself up, of course, her mis-coordination caused her to slip once again and tumble straight into the other boy. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” she exclaimed, now panicking for being such a doof.

[Salem Hirch]

Inside Salem couldn't help but chuckle a little. It wasn't like he had never been in the exact same position before, in fact he lost count of how many times he had ended up just like this. The girl seemed like she had just lost her footing though and wasn't a total klutz like he was. Smiling as she took his hand. Now why couldn't he act this way with guys? "Hey, don't mention it..." That was all the blonde boy was able to say before the girl came forward a little faster than anticipated.

In a moment of instinct that Salem never had, he managed to brace himself on the steps and flung his arms open so he could catch her. It worked, even if he staggered a bit from the impact. In this process he had basically just hugged a stranger and that alone made his cheeks flush a bit. He chuckled though. "It's okay, I think I stopped us from receiving any permanent damage..for the moment." His mouth made an awkward little smirk as he attempted to take a step back and help balance her at the same time.

"So um, bad timing..but my name's Salem." It was really all he could think of to say as he watched to see if she would fall again.

[Deleted]

Ugh, Marcus was just going to…to….well, probably nothing, but Marcus sure felt like either vomiting or imploding, which ever came first, or whichever ensured that the girl would no longer exist during this moment in time. Well, theoretically, either could get her out of this situation, but the imploding had a guaranteed chance of dying and the vomiting had a guaranteed chance of mortal humiliation. As opposed to the immortal kind of humiliation, of course.

It had been hard enough for Marcus to get used to walking around as a tall, lanky bean-pole without tripping over his own feet, but with the girl-changing thing going on whenever the universe decided it needed a good lol, Marcus had become a lot more clumsy than s/he needed to be. And this clumsiness….bah, it sucked having it witnessed by such a cute dude!

Bah, he’d probably be like a lot of other guys though. Wigged out to find that Marcus was essentially a she-male. Because in Marcus’ experience, guys either liked one or the other and didn’t appreciate having to deal with both.

Anyway, back to the present and away from the inner musings of a breath-taken, clumsy girl who’d just fallen on her savior like a ditz. Her heart was thumping. “T-thanks…” she squeaked. She laughed nervously at his joke and tried to re-affirm her balance on the steps. Marcus looked up…or rather, right in the eye of the other blonde. Yup! Total hottie! Even if he was a few inches shorter and they only met eye level with him on standing on the step above hers. “I’m…I’m Marc! Marcus, actually.” More nervous laughing. Her brain had fizzled.

“Um…Thanks…again, for the help,” she said…again. As if she couldn’t say it enough, but Marcus was a little bit at a loss for words and needed to stall while she thought of some.

[Salem Hirch]

"Well, this is awkward." Salem thought as he held the blonde girl in front him. Granted he was only still holding on to make sure she could get her footing and be okay. Several thoughts ran through his brain in those moments of silence between their dialogue and some of them were silly. Like, how the way he was holding her looked like a scene from a romantic comedy, or an anime. To which he wondered what it would look like if someone were to see them. Their faces mere inches apart.

"If a kiss happened, at least she's pretty." The thought almost made Salem laugh, but he didn't want to seem like a jerk. Because, randomly laughing at someone and not being able to explain why, was a pretty jerky thing to do. She spoke a very stammered "thanks" and the blonde boy smiled again. "Oh, just what us Prince Charmings do I guess." The look of a mental facepalm was instantly plastered on his face and his cheeks flushed. "Er, sorry....just a nickname from a friend...hehe." Finally thinking he had her settled in one spot, he slowly started to let go. He kept one hand near her waist though, just in case.

When the girl spoke her name he wrinkled his nose and tilted his head in a little confusion. "Well, that's an odd name for a girl. Granted, not much odder than Salem really." He chuckled a little and looked around, feeling like a total idiot. Wait...why was he feeling like and idiot around a girl? That never happened. "I uh, um...really like the name though. It's cool, and um...different." He nodded with a sweet smile. "This is going smoothly Salem old boy." He thought to himself. "Grrrrreat first impression. Hi! I'm Salem and I'm a total weirdo loser."  His blue eyes focused on her again for a moment as he thought of what to say and/or do.

[Deleted]

Ack! He was still holding onto him! This guy, this….blonde stud still had his hand on Marcus’ waist even though he didn’t really need the stability any more. He didn’t, right? Marcus shouldn’t pretend to trip again just to get this guy to catch him again, right? No no no, that would be wrong and just wrong. Besides, if anybody was watching, they would probably see right through the ploy and start cat-calling the two of them, wouldn’t they? Because people did that when two people were standing as close together as these two were.

“Prince…ah. Ah ha ha ha!!” She laughed maybe a little too forcefully at the joke, though if it was true then it wouldn’t really be much of a joke, wouldn’t it? “Oh, a friend? I mean, I can see how you’d get that name, you do kinda look like one of those Disney Prince’s, like maybe…” Nope, Marcus couldn’t even think of one right now, and the more she thought about it… “Actually, if you really think about it, most Disney princes are brunette, aren’t they?” Somehow Marcus had never noticed before. But as soon as the words came out, she rapidly tried to save…herself. “I mean, not that you aren’t Prince Charming-ish, or anything, actually I already said that, but you really do have that kind of aura about you, not that I’m saying you’re charming, because maybe you are charming, but I don’t really mean anything by it at least not in a weird way or anything…”

Marcus kicked herself again. And yearned to go bury her face in the sand somewhere .

Marcus should just shut up and stop talking before she made an even bigger fool of herself. And she tried. Marcus lowered her head for a moment, certain that her cheeks were a full-on flush after that last rant, she almost didn’t hear what Salem had said about her name. Marcus lifted her head again, confused. “Girl…?” she muttered with a slight tilt in her head. She blinked then slowly looked down over herself.

“….THAT’S RIGHT!! SHIT!! I’M A GIRL!” she exclaimed, as if she were expecting something else. Though she was, Marcus had completely forgotten somewhere back there that she was a she and not a he right now. She snapped her head up again. “I mean, I’m not a girl! I mean, I am a girl, but not all the time, just right now. Most of the time I’m a guy! Because I am a guy! And…I’m totally weirding you out right now, aren’t I?” Marcus backed away slightly, mortified at her stupidity and of course forgetting that there was a 6 inch drop behind her followed by another several 6 inch drops. She lost her balance(yet again) and flailed out to catch herself. The only thing she managed to catch, however, was the fabric of Salems shirt. Whether that was enough to keep her(and him) from tumbling down was up to the will of the gods.

[Salem Hirch]

Salem chuckled softly at her slightly obvious nervous laughter, though he didn't exactly understand it. Well, he understood it a little. She was acting the way he normally would around boys, maybe boys just make her nervous. "Yeah, one of my best friends. Kailin Bishop? Don't know if you know her.." Another blush ran across his slightly pale cheeks as she said he looked like a Disney Prince. "Yeah, most of them do have brown hair as opposed to blonde." The young man had to chuckle again at her nervousness, it was actually kinda cute. Most of the girls he knew didn't get flustered like this, especially around him. Even when they were meeting him the first time.

This had to be why everyone said he was cute when he got flustered too and he had to wonder if he acted like this as well. Though, something was different here. The way she looked confused when he said "girl", in fact she said it like it was the oddest thing for him to say. Her sudden exclamation made him jump a little, but he smiled. Salem wasn't exactly sure what she was saying, she was a he? Wait? Was that even possible? Duh, of course it was. He knew the drama teacher could do that, so there had to be others. Then wait, that means he wasn't holding onto a girl, but a guy? His face turned a dark red. "No, no..you're not weirding..I mean...it's odd..but. I'm not gonna look at you weird." This was basically all he could get out while Marcus was speaking.

He didn't have much time to react to this information though, because he shirt was grabbed and he stumbled forward. The shorter blonde did his best to keep his balance, but it was a complete failure. His grip was still on Marcus as they tumbled down the stairs a little, and all Salem could barely do, was to keep them upright. Landing on the solid floor, but still moving, Salem spun himself so he would slam into the wall. Which he did with the utter most lack of grace and slid down it. Accidentally pulling Marcus down on top of him. With his cheeks a deep crimson he chuckled nervously. "Um...you...you okay?"

[Deleted]

Kailin Bishop? One didn’t have to know her to know who she was, not if she had the name Bishop attached to her like that, thought Marcus had had classes with other Bishops before, Mainly Katy and Gaige when he was still going to school. It was kind of hard not to know at least of of the clan, and if you knew one, then you probably had heard of the rest. Marcus couldn’t say she was friends with any of them(maybe Gaige, he was kind of a cutie), but she knew them. “Yeah! I know her, well, of her, I was classmates with one of the Bishop brothers.” Yeah, that made them sound like they were some sort of vocal group, like the Doobie Brothers, or the Jonas Brothers. Introducing the Bishop Brothers now performing live at the Globe Theater right here in Pilot Ridge, come get your tickets today!!

Marcus mentally smacked herself back into the conversation. She really needed to remember to take her adderall.

“Yeah, I think they should do something about that, don’t you? Like, that guy from Frozen, he was blonde, right? They need to induct him as the Disney Princes already and fix that.” Because that was relevant. Marcus continued to huff out silent, nervous laughter, her face still a blooming pink over her apparent idiocy.

Well, seemed like Salem was taking the news of her wonky gender a lot better than she imagined some might. But she was so involved in her own embarrassment, Marcus only vaguely noticed Salem’s own face turning red at the new information. And she was going to vomit out even more unnecessary information, but then Marcus found herself plummeting backwards, this time with Salem tumbling with her. It was kind of madness and adrenaline pumping and crazy, Marcus hardly had an idea of what exactly happened by the time it was all over, but when it was, she found herself practically laying on top of the blonde hunk of guy, her face mooshed right into that broad chest of his. Her face was flaming by this point.

“Y-yeah…” she stuttered out, which then became a long drawling wail. “I’m so~rry~! I didn’t mean to—I was just trying to—this wasn’t supposed to happen!!” And now she didn’t know how to get up without making things weird again, especially since her hands were still gripped tight to the fabric of Salem’s shirt.

[Salem Hirch]

Okay. This situation could not get anymore awkward could it? Sure Salem had heard Marcus' ramblings about Kristoff but that subject seemed a moot point at the moment. There was someone on top of him, someone who was just as awkward and sorry for this moment as he was. "Marcus, it's fine....honest." Salem tried to chuckle through his growing nerves.

It wasn't until that moment he thought about how she looked, and if she was this good looking as a girl, she must be even better looking as a guy. That thought alone sent his stomach into summersalts. He tried his best to ignore it,but the hand still clinging to him was also enough. Enough to make him blush. Right now though, it was time to consider how to move with causing certain areas to touch.

"Just hold still...I'm..." Salem started to push himself up the wall and hold onto Marcus at the same time. This proved to be a mistake. Halfway up, he started to feel his elbow giving out. He tried his best to push through it, but he knew his stamina wouldn't last. "Almost got...it." The smaller blonde grunted as he almost managed to make it to a sitting position. Then it happened. Salem slipped.

He had no chance to give any warning, as he slipped forward and their heads collided. In a rush to avoid it, Salem's head tilted in such a way, that when they touched...so did their lips.

[Deleted]

As if things couldn’t get any worse…no, that’s not entirely true, they could always get worse. Like someone could happen upon them and make assumptions as to what was going on. Someones like that girl Safia, who would probably assume that Salem was assaulting her and end up throwing him through a window…

Well, Marcus wasn’t completely sure that she would go that far, but she certainly give off an aura of somebody who could do that.

“Okaay,” Marcus tried to say, though it came out a little more like a whine than a word. She was basically stiff….incredibly stiff….and he was….DAMMIT DON’T THINK ABOUT THINGS LIKE THAT NOW LOOK WHAT YOU DID!!!

Marcus wasn’t certain her face could get redder…but somehow it did with those unclean thoughts now circulating through her skull. So her being rigid(really no! stop that!!) probably didn’t help Salem that much as he tried to hoist the slender girl, along with himself, to her feet. Marcus was beginning to think she was home free…!!

It was probably her own fault for thinking that that this happened. There was a slip, weight was not distributed and balanced the way it should have been, and before she knew it, they’d met up right into a kiss.

Though it was less like a kiss and more like a collision of teeth.

Still, their lips touched, enough for Marcus to feel his soft lips against hers. Remember that thought she had back there about not being able to get any redder? Well you can just throw that idea out the window again, because right now her face was so on fire she was positive her head was going to straight up explode! (Really, you’d think a person who’d long since lost his/her virginity would be more composed, but nope. Marcus was a blubbering, flustering pile of nerves every darned time.)

With their limbs tangled with each other’s and a kiss having been shared between them, yes, Marcus was completely frozen now.