After School With You

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Dragonlovinggal

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Original poster
Synopsis:
One day Vincent Himuro, the popular new guy, gets paired with Amelia Mariano, the loner, on a school assignment. As they work together they begin to grow closer and have feelings for each other, but things like this are never easy. Jealous girls, peer pressure, gossip, and a whole lot of high school drama keeps tension high. After all, high school has never been easy.

Vincent played by @Risani
Amelia played by @Dragonlovinggal


~~~

It was another normal day of school, and luckily it was half-over. The crowd bustled around Amelia making her uncomfortable. No one bothered to say "hi" to the darkly dressed girl as she carried her books to her next class- biology. Her eyes stayed straight ahead as she power walked to get out of the masses. She flicked her bangs out of her face as she spotted the door to class room A11.

Walking in, she took her usual seat at the back. She placed her books in the compartment under the black lab tables and pulled out a poetry book to read while she waited. She flipped to one of her favorite poems, and let herself be absorbed into the writing. Amelia was oblivious to the chattering around her. Instead she let the writing take her away.
 
"Hi Vince! My name is Natalie and I will be showing you around today, let me see your schedule~" Vincent Himuro felt very uncomfortable as the very energetic student office aide guided him around the school building. Her long coffee brown brushed against his arm and she stood much too close. Keeping his face fairly expressionless despite his inner turmoil, Vincent was able to survive the tour without mishap. "And that wraps up the tour! Wow, just in time for first period... Oh!" Natalie glanced at Vincent's schedule in her hand, we have the same first period!!"

Breaking a smile for the first time, Vincent took back his schedule. "Thank you, Natalie, let's head to class then."


~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~


Vincent leaned back against the wall in the cafeteria. He was lucky to have the same lunch period with Natalie, somehow she had picked him out of the hungry crowd that fought to reach the lunch lines first. As the waited in line silently, Vincent took some time to fully absorb everything that had changed in his life. Coming from Japan, it was so different in America. Rather than the teachers switching classes, it was the students. Instead of eating lunch in the classroom, lunch was broken up into sections and everyone ate in a cafeteria. The one thing that really felt weird though, was that Vincent was surrounded by people that mostly... looked like him. Growing up in Japan with foreign blood, he couldn't help feel a bit ostracized.

After lunch, they parted ways and Vincent made his way to classroom A-11 for Biology.

Upon entering, Vincent navigated to the teacher's desk to introduce himself. It took him a few class periods, but Vincent had realized that bowing was quite unnecessary and usually a handshake was more than enough.

"Welcome, Vincent, let's see, please sign these and also have your parents sign here, and you can just bring it back to me tomorrow... and hmm... ah, there is an open spot next to Miss Mariano... Amelia!" The teacher called out to get her attention. Pointing for Vincent, the teacher then handed him a thick stack of papers. "These are the notes since the beginning of the semester, it's a lot to take in so don't fret too much about it, feel free to ask me if you have any questions or your fellow classmates. Amelia is quiet, but she is a good student so don't be shy to ask!"

"Thank you." Vincent answered as he settled into the open seat next to the dark-haired girl introduced as Amelia. "Hello, I am Vincent Himuro, nice to meet you."
 
Amelia's head popped up out of her book when he heard her name called. Noticing the new kid, she assumed he was to sit in the empty seat next to her given the circumstance. She raised her hand a tad to signal to the new guy that she was the girl the teacher mentioned. She felt a little bad for Vincent, since he came in the middle of the year like this. Biology wasn't exactly the easiest class.

She left her book open to the poem she was reading, but pushed it to the side as the boy walked up. Class would be starting momentarily anyway. "Nice to meet you too," she replied simply with a polite smile.

The bell rang. "Okay class," she teacher started pushing his glasses further up on his face. "Today we will be starting a project. You will be working together with the other person at your table." Mostly groans issued from the mouths of the students, though there were a few who simply said nothing. Amelia was one of the silent ones. The teacher continued talking while passing out a paper of requirements to each of the groups. "You and your partner are to decide on an animal to research and together a presentation on. The details of what all must be included are on she handout I gave you. You have class today to decide on an animal and tell me." With that the teacher went to sit down at his desk.

Amelia turned to Vincent. "I guess we're partners," she said simply, looking over the handout. It was about what would be expected: habitat, food, endangered or not, family, genus, species etc. The list kept going.
 
Vincent politely nodded to Amelia when she commented that they would be partners. He didn't really look at her for very long earlier, since he didn't want to be rude, but Vincent couldn't help secretly note how long her hair was. Everyone seemed much louder in the classrooms even during actual class, and he was still getting used to the complete lack of formality between people. It would be quite a place to get used to.

Catching himself, Vincent quickly averted his gaze back to the paper handout in front of him. Stacking it neatly on top of the pile of notes the teacher handed to him earlier, he skimmed through the contents. The material wasn't new to him, so Vincent was relieved he wouldn't be a complete burden. However, his curriculum didn't go much into depth for biology. He would be sure to study some in the library after class.

"Baby, I'm preying on you tonight~
Hunt you down~ eat you alive~
Just like animals, animals, like animals-mals!!"

Vincent couldn't help raise an eyebrow at the strange girl singing quite obnoxiously further back in the classroom. Instead of with partners, a bunch of students had all gathered around a table in the back. Vincent was reminded of some of the delinquents back in Japan.

"Hey... is it always like this?"
 
Amelia made a face when the girl started singing, and rubbed her temples. "Unfortunately," she responded. The noise was giving her a headache and she didn't have the luxury of distracting herself with a book this time. She removed her hands from her head and shot a glare in the direction of the crowd before turning back to Vincent.

"So, what kind of animal should we do our report on? A few ideas would be maybe a type of bat or sea turtle or owl... What do you think? Any ideas?" she asked. She was fighting the urge to throw a book at the group, and the teacher was doing nothing about it as always. She smiled at Vincent and hoped that actually focusing on the project like they were supposed to would keep her distracted.
 
"Owl... I like the owl, if that's okay." Having recently read the first two Harry Potter books as practice for reading English, Vincent had taken quite the liking to having pets during school. Of course, he knew it was fantasy, but if he could have one for school, it would have been an owl. It would be wrong to say he loved owls or was obsessed with them, but the timing of the biology assignment and his most recent literature escapade made the owl the top choice for him at the moment.

"Um, of course I have other ideas if that is not satisfactory... I am not too- EXCUSE ME, would you please stop that singing?!" Before he realized it, Vincent had loudly addressed the group in the back, causing a sudden lapse in noise. All attention had shifted to Vincent before some had returned to their discussion. The girl in the back singing raised an eyebrow and smiled apologetically. Vincent turned back around with a calm face, but could hear some snickering among the group. Sigh... looks like even here I am a target for delinquents... I better not get too close to anyone in this class... they might get targeted too...

One thing Vincent liked though, was that due to the sheer population, different class periods, different lunch periods, it would be only this certain class that would be problems. However, he still had a few more class periods to go.

"Ah, sorry about that, would reporting on owls be okay with you?"
 
Amelia was about to answer right when Vincent snapped at the girl behind them. The more surprising part was that the girl actually stopped. Amelia tried to stop her at the beginning of the school year, but it only served to get her ostracized from the rest of the class, and the girl decided to sing louder to boot. That was not a great day for her. In fact, that whole first week of school had been pretty suckish. She was better off on her own with her books.

"Wow... she actually listened to you," she said, giving Vincent a congratulatory look.

"Anyway, owls are great." She too found the idea very appealing due to a recent read. Not five minutes ago she had been reading A Barred Owl by Richard Wilbur. It was poem from the book she left still laying open on the table. That was in fact the reason she suggested owls. It was not uncommon for her interests to be swayed by her most current readying material.
 
Glad that Amelia agreed to his idea, Vincent gave a short, but genuine smile. Looking at the assignment in front of him, he realized that the project would be quite a hefty portion of the grade for the semester. He was grateful his partner seemed to be a good person. She also seemed very quiet, kind of like him. Glancing at the clock in the classroom, Vincent saw that barely any time had passed. There was no rush to speak to the teacher, and it would give more time in case any of them changed their minds.

There was some silence as Vincent observed the classroom. He felt like he had met the whole school through his classes, yet he knew that it was likely he had only met a small portion. The day was still only half done. Ending up looking at Amelia's side of the lab table, he noticed that she had a book open. "What were you reading?"
 
Amelia was beginning to like this guy. Not in a gushy way, but like she actually thought she could get along with him better than the other people in the school. She didn't really have a very high opinion of most of her classmates. He was quiet, but he piped up when he needed to. She applauded him for that.

"Oh, it's just a poetry book. I was reading A Barred Owl by Richard Wilbur before class," she replied simply, pulling the book over and putting it between them so that he could see the poem if he wished. It wasn't anything fancy, but she liked it. The poem said:

'The warping night air having brought the boom
Of an owl's voice into her darkened room,
We tell the wakened child that all she heard
Was an odd question from a forest bird,
Asking of us, if rightly listened to,
"Who cooks for you?" and then "Who cooks for you?"

'Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,
Can also thus domesticate a fear,
And send a small child back to sleep at night
Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight
Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw
Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.'
 
Vincent quickly read it through to be polite, but found himself re-reading it again a bit more seriously. Though he was never interested in English poetry nor poetry in general, mostly due to a slight language barrier, the poem before him was fairly simple in usage of word. "I like it. The first part feels somber and peaceful... the second seems a bit ominous and darker. Are you reading it for a class?"

He remembered that he had English class after, and though the chances were probably slim, Vincent wouldn't mind if they were in the same class. Amelia was quite pleasant to sit with in class, not rude and not talkative. The only other person he seemed to know and remember was Natalie. He was quite grateful of her attentiveness to him as a new student.
 
Amelia smiled. He actually read it. In her experience most people would glance at it and start talking about something else. Few people appreciated the simple beauty of rhyme and rhythm in a non-musical format. Instead they preferred the poem's musical counterpart, the song. It made her very happy that Vincent took the time to humor her.

"Unfortunately no. This is for my own amusement. My English class has been focusing on essays rather than poetry. It's quite sad that poetry doesn't get a bit more attention," she replied with a half-smile and a shrug. "Have you had English class yet today?" she asked curiously.
 
As if his thoughts had prompted the question, Vincent didn't react for a moment before he realized Amelia was asking him whether he had English class yet. "Ah, not yet... I have it after this class... what about you?"

"Huh-hey! New guy!... how's it going?" A stocky guy with short brown hair eased onto the table with his bottom close to Amelia's side of the table. "How about you come join us over there in the back, Jenny's got something to say to ya abou-"

"Corey!! Shut up!! And get back here!!"

Vincent peered over slightly, not wanting to turn directly. It turned out "Jenny" was the girl singing earlier. She was glaring at the guy who came over with a fury unmatched.

"S-so yeah, how about you think on that... and uh, yeah, b-be right back!" Corey awkwardly left and Vincent turned back around, not caring to see whatever drama was about to unfold in their little world.

"Huh... wonder what that was about... want to go tell the teacher about our decision?" Vincent asked Amelia.
 
"Same actually," Amelia replied with a smile. It was kind of nice having someone to talk to, and while she wasn't sure how long it would last, she intended to enjoy it.

It was then that a boy from the other group shook her from her thoughts. She looked up at him as he spoke then glanced at Vincent, and then at Jenny, the girl from before. She seemed pretty angry. If looks could kill that boy would have died instantly. It was a bit of a funny thought to Amelia.

"I don't know," Amelia mumbled quietly, more to herself than Vincent. She then fully turned back to him and replied, "Sure," to his second question.

Amelia got out of her seat and headed up to the front of the room. "Excuse me," she started, getting the teacher's attention. "Vincent and I will be doing our presentation on owls," she said simply. The teacher nodded and wrote it down.
 
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