Rainy day OPEN

[Zachary LaRousse]

"Oh right. You got me there. No sense using sarcasm if it's true, right?" Zac laughed as he cleverly overtook the rather slow black car in front of them. Contrary to popular belief, Zac knows that he’s a bit too conceited and selfish for his own good. He knows he loves himself a little too much, that he is indeed a huge pain in the butt, and that he should care about others more. He claims to know every bad thing people say about him and more. But like the great big ass that he is, he just lets them be. He knows he’s a jerk but instead of changing his attitude, he embraces it more. Imagining himself being nice and warm and cuddly and fuzzy gives him the creeps. He’s an ass and he’s here to stay. “After all, if I’m not self-centered, then I wouldn’t be the Zac that people would’ve come to know and love right?”

He gave Annaleigh a light punch on the arm when she rambled about him ruffling her hair. “My, my getting touchy are we? Caffeine high wearing off already? That’s fast.” He chuckled when she suggested he tell his father about how worse other students are compared to him. He couldn’t believe it’ll come from the once-reserved Annaleigh. It was so unlike her. “I’ve tried that trick before. It didn’t work,” he explained, “Asked me why the hell does he have to know about how the other students are doing. Apparently he didn’t get what I was trying to do back then.”

And with one last turn to the right, Zac found themselves being welcomed by the Institute’s imposing gates. No matter how many times he’s passed through it, it always gives him that weird feeling of entering an old haunted mansion. “All-girl dorms right?” he asked, turning left so that he could park to the space allotted for the residents of the said dorm.

[Annaleigh Valentine]

She looked at him when he laughed after his little talk about sarcasm. “Well yeah that and it’s not always the best way to express yourself.” She said as she pushed her hair back slowly. Anna wasn’t used to people who thought so highly of themselves, she was used to people who just plodded along really. But Zac wasn’t like that and though she’d spent quite an amount of time with him today, she still wasn’t fully used to what he was like. When he said about him not being him if he was self centred, Anna just frowned a bit. “Well it would be a bit nicer if you weren’t self centred and stuff.” She said simply, she wasn’t going to get into an argument about it but still she thought she should tell him.

A frown appeared on her face (but it seemed to be constantly on when she was with Zac really) when he punched her arm lightly. Ow, that was something stupid. She didn’t say anything, but when he asked if she was getting touchy she didn’t say anything. The truth was she probably was, her usual caffeine intake was a lot higher than how much she’d had today. Of course she crashed pretty heavily after some of the caffeine intake, but right now because she was slowing down on caffeine she was getting rather grouchy. Plus he’d ruffled her hair, who the hell does that?!

When he spoke about his father Anna just shrugged. “Maybe he has a point like, I mean maybe he thinks that because you’re his son you have to uphold his reputation.” Anna didn’t know about his family bar how much he had said and from what she’d heard of his family his father seemed pretty businessman like. Which meant that he probably had a big reputation that would have to be upheld. Business was business in and out of the office right? Or at least that’s what Anna had been lead to believe from silly tv shows and from word of mouth.

“Yeah, all-girl dorms.” She confirmed as she saw the institute come into sight. Anna kinda liked the place, not as much as she liked home, but she had to admit that now that she’d been there five years of her life it felt like a sort of home to her.

[Zachary LaRousse]

Zac simply shrugged when Annaleigh tried to tell him off for loving sarcasm a bit too much. That, and the fact that he’s extremely proud about it. How many times have people talked to him about that particular attribute of him already? Ten? Twenty? A hundred? Seems he’s already lost count (he did try to count; he stopped when it reached fifty). He’s been told about it for so long that it just doesn’t affect him anymore. It didn’t bug him when his dad scolded him, he doubts it coming from Annaleigh would change anything. “If I become all nice and sappy, what would then distinguish me from your all-brawn-no-brain Neanderthals and run of the mill Homo sapiens? That would be a disaster.” Zac never really saw himself as part of the general populace. He’s always above them, always better and never dull. He’d rather stay alone and stand out than blend in and be unnoticed. His pride just can’t take being in the background. “And besides, don’t chicks dig the ‘bad boy’ type? That you girls like having a ‘little project’ to work on?” Yup, he’s not shy nor embarrassed to admit that he is indeed a jerk. There’s no point denying it really. A word of caution to those thinking of making Zac their little science project: the chance of your experiment succeeding is almost zero.

Then he heard that word again. Reputation. If Zac had a switch that would utterly throw him off his game, it was that. Ever since he was young, he’s been scrubbed with that word. He never heard it from either of his parents, but he frequently heard his aunts and uncles talk about it and how he should be told how to act like he isn’t an earshot away from him. Perhaps they just assumed that Zac’s too young and dumb to understand anyway. If calling him a jerk or an ass or an egotistic bastard who’s depth of character would not even be enough to drown an ant would evoke no emotional response whatsoever, telling him to get his act straight as he’s tarnishing his father’s reputation would surely work. He could feel his blood boiling really. His fists clenched on the steering wheel rather tightly, his eyes desperately trying to keep their focus. “I think Dad’s PR people are enough to keep his record clean,” he said in between deep breaths, trying to remind himself to keep his cool. Annaleigh said that remark in good faith. She knows nothing about his situation. It’s not her fault.

He promptly found a parking spot and simply reached out to open Annaleigh’s door. He’s in no mood for gentlemanly acts for the moment. “So I’ll guess I’ll just see you around?” he asked, trying to bring back his former cocky smiles. It’s working, kinda. “I had a nice day today Lei. Hope you did too. And try to nibble on at least five of the cookies before throwing them out will you?” he winked as she got out of the car.

[Annaleigh Valentine]

What Zac said didn’t make sense at all to her. She wasn’t going to say anything because…well she knew that it was stupid to argue with someone who was obviously insanely stubborn and set in their own mind. So she just kept quiet. Then when he said about girls having a little project and girls liking bad boys, Anna just looked at him confused. “Uhm, if girls like that then it’s not anyone that I hang around with, because the bad boy thing just makes me slightly scared and nervous.” She said. It was true, Anna was a wuss, and if you were a bad boy, she’d probably attempt to get away from you as quickly as possible.

He said about his father’s PR people and Anna could see that she’d said something wrong. Better to keep silent than question things. If he got angry and what she said she thought maybe she shouldn’t press anything, and just let him try and calm down. Glancing at his hands as he sat there driving, she could feel the tension now. She definitely wasn’t going to ask anything now, she was far too scared he’d lash out at her or something similar. Who knows what would happen.

Looking back at him, Anna smiled kindly. “Thanks for today, it was nice meeting you and stuff. And yeah I’ll see you around sometime.” She said kindly before going to get out of the car, when he said about the cookies, she rolled her eyes lightly. “I’m not stupid enough to throw out that many cookies.” She said before grabbing the box of cookies and the bag with her wet clothes in them. She didn’t know if she’d go and talk to Zac again at any point, but she didn’t really care at this point, she wanted to get into her dorm room and relax a little. After the slightly tense car ride home, she kinda wanted to go and relax.