A Tale Of Winter Memories

Jiro relaxed some when he saw her smile at him and settle into the chair between them. She promised to do her best to judge them, so see how close to the actual song they could get. Falling Down by Atreyu...he knew that well. It was one of his favorite songs. He nodded an ok to Travis and paused in thought before beginning to pick out all the cords to the song, right in tune. He listened as the song started to form. His heart rate picked up a bit in nervousness as the first verse arrived and he began to sing. To his surprise, his voice rolled off his lips smoothly, as he sang along to the song in his remarkable tenor voice. Soon be became lost in the music, as he continued to belt out and pick out all the correct and in tune notes. He had almost forgotten that Cord and other boy were in the room...one playing along, the other listening intently....
 
Once his cue came up, Travis began playing the notes in time with Jiro's chords when necessary. It wasn't too difficult of a song, especially since he practiced daily when he could, but he was doing his best to keep from varying the notes and playing some of the more difficult techniques that would have made the song sound a little more authentic. Travis didn't want to over shadow Jiro's playing. It seemed like the guy was honestly trying to show off to his new girlfriend.

They finished the song, and Travis grinned up at Jiro. "You're pretty good, Jiro. I wouldn't mind playing again sometime if you want."

Travis started putting away his bass. "I'll let you two go back to doing your coupley things. Thanks for letting me play here though."
 
Slowly he walked off, following Lance's instructions until he walked in front of the building he'd been searching for. But he had no idea what to do now! He hung his head, shoulders slumped and sat on the ice cold stoop, shivering from the cold breeze that blew by and decided maybe he could wait. a strong gust made him stand and he looked around to get a good feel of the place and then headed back towards the library. Maybe he could already start learning things?
As he walked past the cafeteria his stomache growled loudly and he grimaced at the tight clamp of his muscles. Maybe he could ask for stale bread or something?
When his stomache gave another sharp growl he gave a resigned sigh and slowly walked in, schooling his face into a cold stare.
 
Elena didn't hesitate in replying.

"I think I'd like you to take me to the closer ones, please," she said, sheepishly digging her hands into the pockets of the hoodie. "And, um, are you sure you don't want this back? It is really cold in here - we can trade off, if you want," she offered, apparently unaware that doing so might grow a bit tedious.

As the high-schooler had continued to show herself to be kind, Elena was gradually shrugging off her initial shyness, beginning to expose the bold personality that lay hidden underneath.

"I'm Elena, by the way," she said, her voice stronger than before. Her smile was no less genuine, but was growing with her confidence. All in all, she considered herself very lucky to have found such a nice girl to befriend, and on holiday, too. She wondered briefly if they'd stay friends after the holidays, but the thought was quickly replaced with the trouble of having to call her mother.

That reminded her...

"Do you think that we could go back to the rooms afterwards, too?" Elena asked. "I'm sorry for causing all this trouble... I've just never been here before."
 

On his way to the art rooms, there was really no option but to pass by the music rooms. Ordinarily, they were silent of at least playing hush pieces on piano that reminded him distinctly of home and irritated him a little bit. However, this time when he passed, he heart one of the catchy rock songs playing on guitar and a muffled voice singing the lyrics.

Curious, Christoph paused and made a detour toward the door to the music room. The song quieted as he got there, and when he opened the door, one of the guys was standing there. Taken aback, Christoph had no intention of talking. He was only curious to see who had been playing the song and if it wasn't this man...

Christoph moved around the man, not bothering to say a word. A girl and a guy that he'd never seen before. Somehow, he felt as though his curiosity were sated, despite the fact that there had been no point in finding out who was playing the music. Christoph frowned, realizing that he had managed to put himself in an awkward place. He was about to storm away when he saw how happy the girl looked with a guitar set next to her on the ground. Assuming that it was the girl's, he smiled. It reminded him of himself, with his art. He wanted to be a part of this, someone else being so simply happy.

Turning to speak directly to the girl, indicated the piano in the corner of the room, the only instrument that he knew how to play. "Would you want to accompany me?" He couldn't care less about the guy standing there.
​


Suddenly left alone in the library, Lolita didn't know what to do. Apparently, she thought, she'd been poor company. With a shrug to herself in the now silent, dusty room, Lolita readjusted her bag over her shoulder and pulled a pair of headphones out of it. Placing them over her ears, she flicked a few buttons on the mp3 player attached to the headphones.

With the soothing music of violins beginning to rise in her ears, Lolita exited the library. She had very little idea of what to do, since she had managed to finish most of her homework before falling asleep. After pacing around the hallway for a bit, she decided that she was going to go back to her bed and write some letters to her grandparents for the holidays.

With this goal in mind, Lolita headed in the direction of the girl's dormitories, her eyes half-closed. Lolita was hardly paying attention to her surroundings at all, which was not terribly important since there was no one here to run into.
​
 
Cordelia listened and tapped her feet happily. Her finger tips tapping together and her head bobbing back and forth. She hopped up when they were done and gave them both a lovely round of applause. "That was wonderful!" She squeaked, smiling and biting her lip.

Cordelia's face turned bright red as Travis said something about them being a couple. "Oh...Uh..." She turned to Jiro then back to Travis. "We just met today!" She found herself explaining. She shut up and shook her head, changing her approach. "You're welcome to stay and play some more if you want, you're both very fantastic!"

She was itching to play, but she couldn't just grab a guitar and go for it...or could she?

"You know what you two, I'm gonna go grab something from my room and I'll be right back." She said while heading to the door. "Stay right here, I won't be long, I swear!." And with that she scurried out of the room and down the hall towards her room.

Her heart was pounding as she grabbed her guitar case from her room. Ok, so she lied to Jiro, but she really enjoyed how he and Travis played and she couldn't sit around and watch them have all the fun. "I'll just tell him I'm not a fan of playing in front of new people. I'll just be honest." She said to herself in the mirror. "Oh gosh."
 
Lance felt some of the ice around her heart melt a little. She didn't know why but something about a little girl's smile always made her feel a little less distant from the outside world. Lance stood up with her smile intact.
"How rude of me not introducing myself, Mademoiselle. It is a grand pleasure to meet you Elena, my name is Vivian however please call me Lance" said Lance finishing with a slight courtly bow. "And no worries, I can brave the cold; after all I am a big girl" as if to prove her point, Lance flexed her muscles. She sighed realizing how awkward she must have been making Elena feel. Though when Elena asked for more assistance, Lance responded more appropriately.
"No worries, it's the duty of the upperclassmen to help their fellow lower clansmen. Besides, I need to go to my room anyways."

Lance lead Elena the way towards the bathroom. To her the whole school was her home so she took the time to learn where most of the rooms were. Lance looked to see if Elena was keeping up with her pace. Suddenly she collided with something and felt herself fall to the floor. 'Ouch!' she thought to herself as she regained her senses. Greeting her sight was another little girl but this time this little girl apparently was listening to music judging from her headphones. The pain immediately subsided and Lance quickly went to the other young girl's aid. Luckily for Elena, the collision occurred outside the restrooms.
"I am so very sorry."Lance said genuinely sorry and scolding herself in her mind. "Elena, the restrooms are right here" she pointed to the two corridors in the walls with a small sign designating which gender belonged to which. "I'll be outside waiting for you."Lance with that said Lance redirected her attention to the other little girl she was helping. "Again I am so sorry miss."
 

Smiling sheepishly, Lolita tugged the headphones away from her ears and looked up at the other girl. The girl seemed to be apologizing and was leading another girl around the school. Getting to her feet, Lolita dusted off her khaki skirt with one hand and with the other, she reached into her bag and clicked off the mp3 player. When the older girl had directed the younger one to the bathroom, she returned to Lolita's side.

It was with a freshly apologetic look that Lolita greeted the other girl now that she was on her feet again. She couldn't believe that she had been so careless after all, walking through the hallways. The last thing that she needed was for someone to be angry with her because she was being stupid. Lolita frowned entirely then, her mouth turned down into a frown.

"Don't be sorry, it's all my fault. I hope you're not mad..."
​


As though completely oblivious to the fact that Christoph had said anything at all, the girl left the room. Christoph was left standing there, his attempt at being kind floating in the air. The sides of his mouth turned sharply downwards and his eyes flashed angrily.

"My apologies" he spat, storming out of the room. He was in entirely no mood for this and his day seemed to be going increasingly downhill. It proved, he thought furiously, that attempts to be kind to others were entirely wasted. Christoph did not bother with niceties, he slammed the door behind him on his way out.

Christoph fumed all the way to the art room. It took him less than five minutes to retrieve a canvas and some of his paints and brushes. Christoph's anger did not carry to his treatment of his equipment and despite how he felt, the strokes from his brush were surprisingly gentle.
​
 
Elena delighted in the discovery of Lance's name. Somehow, being with this older girl made her feel older and more confident as well, and so she happily followed Lance down the halls.

It seemed that Lance knew exactly which turn to take which, Elena realized, actually made sense, considering that the girl had been attending the school. It wasn't that bad of a school at all, actually, now that being with one of the upperclassmen had taken some of the lonely scariness out of the equation. The halls were roomy and windows high, so that sunlight could fall across the masses of students trudging their way along the corridors to their classes. The lockers were a bit dull - in fact, their color rather matched that of most of the clothing Elena's parents had packed her -, but, she supposed, that was appropriate; school was supposed to get boring in high school, according to television.

A loud wham! shattered her reverie. Elena blinked and was horrified to see that she had accidentally let her newfound friend collide with another girl!

"Oh my gosh, are you all right?" Elena gasped, forgetting her inherent shyness. "I was daydreaming, I'm sorry, I should've been paying attention!"

"I am so very sorry," Lance said to the other girl. She was wearing headphones and seemed older than Elena, for sure; she, like Lance, was also sporting a short hairstyle. Another brief thought passed through Elena's mind - maybe it's dress code? - before she shook off the silly thought. Two more important urges were calling, and she wasn't entirely certain as to which she should attend to first: the girl's, or mother nature's.

"Elena, the restrooms are right here," Lance said, indicating the bathrooms. "I'll be outside waiting for you."

Well, Lance seemed to be handling the situation pretty well. Elena ran inside, performed the necessary duties, and scurried back out, hands scrubbed clean so hard they were pink.

"Does she need the nurse?" she quickly asked Lance. Another thought ran by. "Oh my goodness! Do you need to see the nurse?" Her cheeks suddenly flared red when she realized that she was acting like a mother to someone older than her.
 
At the sight of the little girl's frown, Lance grew one of her own. One of the things she wanted to avoid in her life was making someone sad, especially a little girl. Then Lance did something out of character for her, she bent her knees to be level with the little girl and tilted her chin up. Lance's eyes made contact with the other girl's. With a smile and a voice resembling the sweetness of honey, Lance said without realizing her words "It's okay, I'm not mad
In fact I don't think I can forgive myself for harming you."

The words floated in the atmosphere for awhile before realization struck Lance. Standing up, a slight blush grew upon her cheeks and a foreign sensation of nervousness was conjured in her stomach. Lance rubbed the back of her head; one if her many nervous habits.

"Um. . . my name is Vivian by the way but um please call me Lance. Um um is there anything I can do to make up for bumping into you?'

A voice in the back of her mind was telling her to stop talking and make a run for it but she couldn't leave Elena. Besides, Lance felt herself enthralled by the little girl and what resistance she could muster was quickly put down.

At the sound of Elena's voice, Lance found her nerves to calm for now at least.

"Um I'm okay Elena but thank you for your concern" she said with smile directed towards Elena.
"If you want we can take you to the infirmary, there is a first aid kit there."Lance she said towards the little girl in front of her.
 

Not noticing anything out of the ordinary, Lolita reached up to rub her own forehead, her smile slowly returning. Much as she might deny it, her smile was incorrigible. Within just a few seconds, she was smiling brightly, fingers massaging her forehead. Her other hand moved without her meaning to, straight for her hair to curl strands around her fingers.

"Ah, no, it's ok really! I don't need to go to the infirmary, I'm not really hurt at all. My skirt got a little dirty, not like you can tell anyway because my skirt is khaki. And it's not your fault, I told you that, right? You didn't hurt me after all, so I don't want you to be upset either. I should pay more attention to where I'm going but with that music goin', I just sort of zone and I feel at peace with everything. That music is really calming - have you heard Vivaldi? What am I saying, I'm sure you have. I should be more careful walking around all zoned out though."

Lolita's hand flew to her mouth, realizing that she was talking to much again. It always annoyed people when she talked so much and so quickly but sometimes she just couldn't help it. Her cheeks flushed red and she lowered her head a little bit. Inside her head, she was practicing what she was going to say next so that she didn't babble. She took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Thank you for your concern, Lance. I'm Loli."
​
​
 
Elena was quiet for a moment, warily observing this new phenomenon - a high-schooler acting like one of her classmates. It was refreshing and unusual at the same time, and Elena was briefly enthralled by her.

The moment passed.

"Oh, sorry about your skirt," she said meekly. "I have plenty of others like it if you want something else to wear." She tilted her head so that she could look into Loli's eyes, and couldn't help but smile - the girl's positive energy was absolutely contagious. She loved the way Loli talked, too - it was like watching a movie, except with her ears. Elena fancied that Loli could tell excellent bedtime stories - but no, bedtime stories were for little kids. Elena was a bit older than that.

"And I like Vivaldi, too. Mostly I listen to songs by Rachmaninov and Lady Gaga, though." She paused. "Um, my name's Elena, by the way, and we - I - we were just heading to the dorms." Somehow her cheeks found more blush to color themselves, and she bit her lip.
 
Ruin frowned and sighed. He wasn't so desperate for food he would beg for crusts. He turned, scowling darkly and began to wander aimlessly, pausing and peering in every room curiously until he stumbled upon Christoph in the art room and stood silently in the doorway and looking around. It was neat but messy all at once. So interesting...
 
For some odd ball reason, Lance's focus shifted to the fingers Loli were wrappinf strands of hair around. In her years of being here at this school, she noticed that some girls had also twirled their hair around guys that they fancied. The mere prospect of this little girl , who listened to Vivaldi, could possessed a similar kind of attraction towards Lance, made her feel all the more nervous. Try as hard as she might, Lance found that her tranquil mind was slowly turning to chaos. Though when Loli talked, Lance felt herself hanging onto every word that escaped the little girl's smile.

"Vivaldi you say, well I only have listened to his songs of the seasons. I'm more of a Chopin kind of gal. And don't thank me for being concern about you Miss Loli, as an upperclassman it is my duty to look after the lower classmen; be them damsels or not. And like my friend Elena said, we're heading to the dorms so if you're heading that way, feel free to join us." offered Lance sweetly.

No longer was Lance aware of what she was saying. Her nervousness played on her impulses. For the first time in her life, she was craving the company of another.
 
Tawny relics rolled once, before settling once more on the bustling campus activity. So many people . . and it was snowing! The young Xyft regarded it as foolishness, never even thinking to ask himself if he would've stayed inside if he'd been in their place. Of course not; he was far better built for such conditions. For Chrissake, he had ice in his bones.

Simply the mental mention of it had irrational excitement pricking his veins. On juvenile impulse he raised his head, tipping it back, already feeling the howl prying his jaws apart, reverberating out into the crisp atmosphere, strong and rich.
 

The fact thait Loli was being paid attention by two people was a new experience for her in that she didn't feel the urge to run away. Lolita glanced between the two girls, a glittering smile on her face. Both of them were talking to her and she glanced between them both, eyes bright with excitement. It seemed that her talking had not scared her away and rather, they seemed to be talking more as well.

"Hi Elena! It's nice to meet you! You don't need to worry about my skirt, it's fine. A just penance for walking around half-asleep anyway! Chopin is good too, I like him. They both have some really great songs! I'm most in your debt for looking after me then, I haven't seen so many duty-bound upperclassmen. You guys are going to the dorms? That's so funny, that's where I was going! Maybe it was, like, luck that I ran in to you! It seems like we might be fated to be friends! We're friends now, right? I mean, if we're not, that's ok too. But I'd like to be friends. I don't have tons of friends..."

Lolita gripped both of their hands, Elena's left hand in her right and Lance's right hand in her left. Lifting both hands and pointing in the direction of the dorms, Lolita cheered at both of them.

"Let's go!"
​
​
 
The mere contact of Loli's hand against hers, cause Lance to involuntarily gulp. Throughout out her body, her nerves ran amok. Taking a deep breath, Lance tried to calm herself and keep from shaking too much. On top of her personal space issues, she was dealing with a new form of nervous phenomenon. Trying to keep the most of her composure the best she can, Lance stared down at the joyful little girl between her and Elena.
"Well then off we go." she tried to say with a smile however her grin came across as a nervous smirk. "Though who is leading?"Lance asked, this time able to keep her composure.
 
He only watched for a few moments befpre he turned and slunk off, feeling a little exausted he decided maybe he could go find somewhere warm to curl up for awhile. He nodded to himself a little and continued down the hall and out in the snow, the sudden coldness making his body feel weak.
He hugged himself tightly, feeling a little more dizzy and he decided he would havve to sit down. He walkd a few steps more before slowly slumping into the snow, yawning and shivering from the cold. He twitched at the sound of nearby howling but maybe he'd deal with that later....
Sleep called to him and stupidly he laid back into the snow, no longer shivering and his lips a pale blue. Just a quick nap...
 
The only thing that snapped Jiro out of his music like trance was the round of applause by Cord. When he did come too he was greeted by Cord's rather cute smile. She praised their playing and his singing, then was suggested by Travis that they play together again sometime. He agreed, but Jiro needed to brush up on his playing and technique. All of a sudden, Travis excused himself so Cord and the teen could go back to doing coupley things. The boy's face flushed red a bit. Couple...? He thought they were a...couple? Cord glanced back at him for a moment before back to Travis and informed them they had just met today. Her face flushed red as well.

He watched as she shook her head and then offered to let Travis stay and play more. She then excused herself, saying she would be back and scampered off. Jiro looked away as he felt the warm blush across his cheeks. It was not something he was used to...but somehow it felt kind of nice...He smiled a bit as the blush began to fade. Jiro began to quietly go back through cords, trying out more complex cords he remembered from playing in the past. He quietly sung a tune to himself as he picked away, waiting for Cord to come back. <o:p></o:p>
back.
 
Travis looked at Jiro. "I'm gonna go anyway. I'd like to play more, but even if you just met today..." Travis shook his head with a chuckle. Then another young man entered and walked to the piano, asking if they'd play with him.

Travis hesitated before grinning.

"I guess I can do one more song. What about you Jiro?" Travis asked. Then Cord left and the young man that entered stormed back out. "Eh- Well, I guess that answers that..."

Travis turned back to Jiro. "Well, tell the young miss it was a pleasure to meet her, and you as well. I shall be heading out now."
 
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