A Tale Of Winter Memories

K

kuroshimodo

Guest
Original poster
It was like any other winter morning after the Sunday everyone left to spend Christmas vacation with their families. The snow always laid peacefully, basking in the slight rays sunlight. The familiar red brick clock tower stood in its colossal aged glory over looking the campus. Everything from the tranquil silence, to the freezing touch of Jack Frost was usual for the winter morning after the Sunday everyone left. Nothing was out of the ordinary, just the same world occupying the same space as usual.

Sitting on the top of the bleachers in the balcony that peered down at the pool, sat Lance leaning against the cool brick wall. Her eyes pasted to the bare ceiling above her. As if mesmerize into a deep trance, her thoughts were lost in their own little world. Her hands rested in the pockets of her khaki cargo pants, where her lighter and a pack of generic cigarettes were stored. Inside the pool area, everything was peaceful silence besides the calming swishing sound the water made frequently. The pool area was Lance's own private sanctuary and her winter home when Christmas vacation arrived.

Lance took out her lighter and pack of generic cigarettes without her eyes leaving the ceiling. She let out a slight sigh then looked at the objects in her hands.

"I probably should quit but damn isn't it challenging." with a faint chuckle, Lance pulled a cigarette out of the pack then put the pack back into her pocket. She placed the tobacco between her lips and then lit the tobacco with her lighter. With one motion, she stored the lighter back into her other pocket. She took a small drag of the cigarette before blowing its smoke upwards.
 

Shouts of the boys sliced through the air, vicious loud sounds that not even the drape of snow could blanket. These shouts could be traced to a grouping of young men near the gates to the school. This group had formed a ring around two boys who were scuffling and fighting in the center of the circle. The fight seemed evenly matched until a decisive blow was landed - one boy slammed a vicious kick into the other's stomach. The other boy, a tall redhead, staggered backwards and fell.

Standing victorious, surrounded by bloody snow, a pale headed youth pulled his hand to his lips to lap up the blood. The group dispersed, many of them heading to the gates to leave. One of the boys helped the redhead to his feet, leaving Christoph alone. From Christoph's pocket, he extracted a bundle of bandages and began to wrap his hand in them.

Christoph walked determinedly toward the pool area, a quiet place where he sometimes went to bandage his wounds after a fight and smoke a cigarette. The holidays were coming, Christoph reflected, and he did not know who he would be spending the holidays with this year. Probably no one. Christoph was hardly focusing when he walked into the pool area, fumbling in his jacket pocket for his cigarette and not even noticing that there was someone on the bleachers.
 
Acoustic guitar could be heard outside the door of the music room, nothing crazy, just some random chords. Eventually the chords organized and a song came out, slow and sweet. For a few moments it was just guitar, but soon a voice joined in. Through the door the words of the song weren't recognizable, but they sounded sad. The guitar and singing continued for a few minutes then stopped. A few more minutes of shuffling around and the door to the music room swung open.

Cordelia stood in the hallway outside the music room looking around. "Where to now?" She mumbled to herself quietly. In one hand she had her guitar case and in the other she had her song book. With a small sigh and a stretch she padded down the hall towards her room. Lonely or not, this christmas was going to rock.
 
Drag after drag of her cigarette, alternating between long inhales and short inhales, random thoughts skidded across Lance's mind. Anything ranging from how her observations of how her fellow peers acted to the dark demons she had struggled with for ages gone by. Puff after puff, the smoke left her lips in small stream-like clouds. Each cloud of smoke resembling the scattering of ash coming from the pyre of her inner thoughts. Her blank stare into the distance betrayed the intensity of the introspective inferno roaring inside her gray matter.

The sound of footsteps brought her senses back into reality. Each step echoed throughout the pool area. The resonating sound of footsteps peaked Lance's curiosity slightly. But the curiosity most associated with an animal's territory being invaded. Lance reached into one of the many pockets of her cargo pants. She pulled out a small narrow onyx colored tube that was the length of half a pencil. She stuffed her dead cigarette into the container and flipped its lid back on.

Lance leaned forward just a tad but her sight couldn't readily identify the stranger. From where she sat, the stranger appeared as a blurred phantom. Sighing to herself and thinking that she may need to get her eyes checked, Lance rose from her perch and proceeded down the rows of bleachers. Row after row of stepping down the bleachers, the mysterious figure took shape in her focus. From her initial observation, she could guess the gender of the stranger was a male, a rugged looking individual.

Reaching the last row of bleachers assigned to the balcony, Lance took a seat on the bottom row facing the railing. She cupped her hands in her lap and watched as the ruffian looking stranger reach into his jacket.
 
Travis sat in the library, an advanced Chemistry book propped up in front of him, a notebook open and with some written notes beside it, and a comic sitting in front of him. He glanced down at the comic and read a page before looking up at the Chemistry book and reading a page and writing down any notes he thought he'd need. It may be break time for the school, but he still had holiday homework for some classes. After a few more pages of textbook reading, Travis began to focus more on his comic. It was getting rather interesting, and he had all break to work on the homework after all.
 

The clacking sound of footsteps on the bleachers brought Christoph's attention sharply to the girl sitting on the bottom row now. Favoring the bandaged right hand, the knuckles turning the snowy white bandages crimson, Christoph took a drag from his cigarette with his left hand. Turning to face the girl as he exhaled tendrils of smoke, Christoph smiled grimly.

"I didn't expect to have any company here. Shouldn't you be running back home to mummy and daddy?" Christoph turned away again, facing the water as it reflected the light. The sight here was truly beautiful and much more calming than anything at his house right now, he was positive. Despite the fact that at his home, there would be exquisite Christmas duck and beautiful decoration.

Amidst the eggnog and the festive ribbons, there would be endless pressure. There would be lamenting the death of his brother. For Christoph, there would be endless slurries of questions about why he wasn't as perfect as Xavier. Subtly, Christoph flexed his muscles. There was more to him, he thought with long-faded annoyance, than there had been to waif-like Xavier who only studied because he was too sickly to go outside.

Sleepily, Lolita raised her head off of the library table. The library was practically empty and everyone seemed to have left. That was, until Lolita noticed someone in the room reading comic books with a chemistry book in hand. Lolita smiled up at the person but they were much too engrossed in their comic book. Not like Lolita should mention anything about it, since she had just been dozing on her math book.

Lolita gathered up her things and stuffed them all haphazardly into her ivory bag. She lovingly brushed her fingers over the embroidered brown horses across the bag before slinging it over her shoulder and nearing the person with the comic book with a wide smile on her face. She peered over his shoulder but had never read a comic book before and was entirely out of her element with it.

"Whatcha reading?" she asked still, knowing full well that she would have no idea what it was when he answered her. If he answered her. He was very focused on the book.
 
After putting her guitar and notebook safely in her room Cordelia stepped back out into the hall. She drummed her fingers on her hips before glancing in the direction of the library. Catching up on her music history couldn't hurt! She pulled her ipod from her pocket and tucked the earbuds into her ears. A quick song selection and she was on her way walking down the hall towards the library.

Pulling open the door to the library she immediately made a b-line towards the music history section of the library. She was moving quickly to the beat of the song she was listening to so she hardly even glanced up at the other person in the library. Without a word she disappeared behind some bookshelves.
 
Travis smiled and decided to humor the young girl, lifting the cover to show off the cover of a Superman comic.

"Superman," he said happily. And then he looked back at his Chemistry book. "Oh, and I'm studying... Or should be..." he added with a chuckle. "What are you doing still here at school?"
 

Lolita's eyes scanned the cover of the comic, her gaze flicking across the brightly rendered images. It was pretty, this artwork, and Lolita was surprised to see that this was something that was a dime a dozen. It was so pretty! Lolita pushed the curtains of hair away from her eyes, smiling with one finger pressed to her lips.

"Well.... my house is really boring. And stuffy. I thought that it would lots more fun staying here instead, and it's easier on my grandparents. Why are you still here?"

Lolita pulled out a chair at the table where the boy was sitting, her attention being captured by the girl who walked past, if only briefly. "Why are you still here, then?" she inquired, her eyes alight with curiosity still.
 
Travis's smile turned a little sad for a moment before he laughed it off. He didn't see the girl enter the library, and though his eyes followed where Lolita's went for a moment, he still didn't see anything or anyone.

"Let's just say, I'm not really a fan of home right now," he answered. "Besides, I can concentrate better here on... school and stuff." His mind went to the bass resting in its soft guitar bag, and then his gaze went to the Chemistry book before sighing and closing it up. "What's your name?"
 
Tawny orbs gleamed from the darkness of the shadows, blunt claws etching furrows into the dirt of the timberland, which existed in a patch beside the school (? srry if I'm being bold :x this is all new for me). Amidst it's fallen leaves the young Xyft lay, curled on his side, head on his paws, watching the action on the bleachers idly. Jerkily his tail twitched around him, belying his utter boredom with the scene, though he made no move to get up and intervene. If he did, shyt would go wrong, most likely.
 
The teenaged boy woke with a shiver. He groaned and pulled the comforter back over him that must have fallen during the night. Slowly with a sigh, he rolled onto his side to face the window. He watched as slow, lazy, fat, cold flakes of white floated around in the air. They seemed carefree, until they touched the ground where they would be doomed to stay till spring rolled around and relieved them of their miserable existence. Slowly he sighed and sat up, keeping the comforter pulled around his shoulders. This Christmas was going to miserable. His parents never showed up to take him away back home. Of course why would they…? It was a struggle to get him here in the first place. It was true, if he ever got the chance to step outside the gates of this place, he would never come back. But It was only one more year…only one more horrendously long year. Jiro’s muscles shook in protest as the comforter slipped off his shoulders and he slipped on his grey hoodie; one that was about one or two sizes bigger than was necessary. Then ever so carefully pulled on his jeans and snatched a pack of cigarettes from his hidden stash before making his way out into the hallways towards the pool area. The bleachers around there was just about the only place anyone could get a smoke around here in peace. Normally he wouldn’t…he knew the consequences of the nasty habit but he was going to start stressing out if he didn’t. Better to have a few now…then a whole pack later.

As he made his way over towards the pool he passed the music room as was stopped in his tracks, his attention peaked at the sound of a beautiful girl’s voice and guitar. He stood still, listening until it stopped. Jiro turned around as a girl stepped out of the music room into the hallway. She said something, almost as if she said it to herself and then walked off. All of a sudden he lost intrest in his smoke break and decieded to follow the girl. She went to the library, darting off towards the music history section of the library. Jiro used to come here to Skip class. The librarian never even knew he was here anyways…so it didn’t hurt. He headed towards the music history section as well, slipping into the next asile over of books, occasionally peeking through the gaps in the books, watching the girl. Carefully he picked up a book and headed towards the end of the book case. The teenaged boy slid to the floor next to the book case, now visible and opened the book. Starting to appear to be reading it.
 
A young teenaged boy slowly walk through the gates, looking around a bit shyly and shivers from the cold. Looks up at the building in wonder, stuffing slightly dirty hair down jacket as it begins to get to heavy to be comfortable and slowly wanders around the ground.
"So... this is what a real school looks like?" He murmured softly, breath making a thin cloud of mist in the air. He pulled a map from his pocket, scowling at the smudge of dirt his dirty hands left and tried to hold the nearly clean and new map gingerly, slowly heading towards the pool area, a deep curiosity burning in his heart to learn what a "pool" was.
As he walks inside, he blinks in surprise at the sight of all of the bleachers and pool and gasps in awe, shimmering lavender eyes flashing with childish glee as he slowly walks forward, dirt smudged face schooling into a look of indifference at the sight of three figuress accross the pool from him but can't help gravitating towards them, hiding his odd eyes in his choppy charcoal black hair and pulling his baggy hood up to hide himself more, even though half melted snow slides down the back of his raggedy shirt.
 
Cordelia hummed and grabbed a book, never noticing the eyes watching her. With a stretch and a sigh she was about to take a seat on the floor but something caught her eye. "Oh my gosh!" She gasped spotting Jiro and jumping back. "You startled me! I didn't see you there!" She was holding the book she had chosen firmly to her chest now, as if she was trying to protect herself from the guy on the ground. She settled herself for a moment and blushed. "Sorry I jumped I just turned around to sit and there you are. Were you there the whole time? I swear I didn't see you when I came in." Silly Cordelia, she hadn't seen anyone when she came in she was too focused on her music.
 

"I'll bet it's easier to concentrate here than at home, I feel that way all the time. I mean, like, my grandparents have this big library for me to sit in and do my homework and all that but it's really lonely, you know? And sometimes it gets even worse because they'll stare at the work while I'm doing it and make me really nervous and when I get something wrong, like a math problem, they'll say something right away and make me feel even worse and.. Oh!" Lolita just realized that the boy had asked a question of her and she smiled warmly, sticking out her hand.

"You can call me Loli, it's good to meet you! What's your name? Are you really good at chemistry? I'm taking chemistry too, but it's really hard. Especially since I have to sit still for so long and memorize the formulas and stuff like that - so hard!" The boy had seemed glum and if there was one thing that Lolita didn't want to be around her entire holiday, it was this sort of glum attitude. She was much happier to know that he had perked up and asked her name and as such, she tried to shut up long enough to let him talk too. It was not easy for her to keep her answer to him even reasonably short.
 
Travis laughed at her bubbly responses and pat the seat next to him. He didn't feel so down at the moment, with someone to talk to. He didn't have to think about how his parents probably weren't missing him by now, and how mad his stepmother probably was at first that he wouldn't be there once again this year.

"I'm Travis. It's nice to meet you Loli," he said. "And I am pretty decent at Chemistry. I'm in an advanced Chemistry this year."
 
Lance sat up from her seat on the bench. Her focus was on the man wearing a jacket so she didn't realize that there might be added company.
"I'm sorry, I assume I was being a bit rude. I just didn't expect seeing anyone here." responded Lance as she stuffed her hands into her pockets. As her words drifted down to the figure below, Lance was already making her way to the stairs that lead out from the balcony and into the hall.
 

Happily taking the seat next to Travis, Loli tried to jitter as little as possible for fear of annoying him. At best, she kept herself to only tapping her foot on the ground, which seemed reasonably harmless in comparison to anything else she could be doing. With that thought in mind, Loli decided that it was all right for her to tap her foot on the ground.

"It's not bad, it's just soooo hard to sit still and memorize formulas when there are other things I could be doing than just sitting... You know what would be awesome? Some way of learning chemistry while I rode horses or just ran around. That would be really cool. I'm sorry to bother you, by the way, but you seemed a little bit sad and it's almost the holidays so you shouldn't be sad and all that. Where are you from? I'm glad I didn't have to make the super long train ride all the way back to where I live, it's always so dull and they always have to check and make sure that I have all the right paperwork and everything..."

Lolita hadn't realized it until she stopped talking but she'd been curling her fingers in the short waves of hair that surrounded her face. Trying to appear less ADD than she usually seemed, Lolita dropped her hand and smiled up at Travis, waiting for his answer.
 
Jiro chuckled and looked up from his book.; smiling charmingly.

“It’s all Cool…People tend to not notice me. But yeah, Just catching up on some music history. Don’t mind me.”

He noticed the blush across her face and patted the ground next to him, scooting out of the way.

“Sorry If I’m in your spot…I usually don’t come here when there are so many people in here, but I couldn’t stay away. Needed to get my mind off of having to spend Christmas here…”

He felt a bit guilty for not telling the whole truth but…he was interested in this girl.

“And I love music…So I thought: Why not…?”

Jiro moved a bit of his pitch black hair out of his face so it wouldn’t look like he was trying to hide anything.

“I assume you like music too..?”
 
He paused at the sound of voices and chickened out, suddenly backing away and quickly leaving. He couldn't face anyone right now... He still had to find his room anyways. He just hope the two hadn't noticed him, or wouldn't recognize him later. But who would remember the soggy, scrawny kid wondering about in a jacket nearly to small for him. He ran accross the courtyard, biting his lip as he ran into whatever building he figured would be empty. At the sight of more people he scowled darkly. He walked further into the room, scooting around a few people, casting an irritated, longing look at two people who chatted happily, one twitching constantly or talking quickly. He slipped down one isle, watching the chattering girl and tripping on a pile of books, sending him sprawling over two laps with a pained grunt as books and knee's jammed into his stomache and ribs. He struggled to draw in breath and push his long hair from his face to apologize to the two he'd landed on.

"S-sorry..." He wheezed out, voice cracking a little and making him flush a little, deciding to hide his face from the two he'd landed on. "I... I wasn't paying attention... sorry..." He murmured.