Anchor (lxngdon and MaryGoldRound)

[MaryGold]

@lxngdon

L U C A S


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"I hate Mondays," Lucas muttered, voicing his thoughts and speaking to no one at all.

It was true, though. He did indeed hate Mondays. Tuesdays were alright, Wednesdays could be better, Thursdays were intermediate and Fridays? Oh, sweet Fridays, they were the absolute best. After all, they always meant the last day of school until next week. While Mondays meant the beginning of school for this week. Basically, what anyone would get from this was that Lucas Remington-Brooks hated school.

He hated having to go to. Every time he went, it reminded him of how alone he truly was. Watching other students talk, laugh and play with each other. Always socializing. What was most bothersome was the way they behaved toward him. They clearly avoided him, talked about him behind his back, he would say they treated him like dirt,but that would mean they actually interacted with him. Newsflash, they didn't.

Not that he cared to have any friends, after seeing how cunning a deceiving these kids were. He actually preferred to be alone. They, themselves talked behind one another behind each other's back. It was amusing, to say the least. And reminded him of why he liked being by himself, that and his own...problems.

Currently, the dark blonde was sitting at his own table in the cafeteria. It was lunch, and that meant it was noisy. The room was filled with chatter, yelling, and laughter. He could barely here himself if he didn't speak up. But there was no real point in doing that, he didn't have one person to talk to.

So, instead, he pulled out his mp3 player from his jean pocket, scrolled through his list of over three hundred songs, and searched for a nice feel-good song. Something to lift his spirits, to comfort him. It was a difficult search, but not a long one.

He found just the song. With a soft smile, he tapped the song and put on his earbuds. Now listening to O-O-H Child by The Five Stairsteps, Lucas unwrapped his lunch, which ,by the way, was a subway sandwich.

Who needed friends at lunch? All he needed was his food and his good ol' mp3 player. And he was all set. Simple as that.

Staring ahead and watching the room as he bit into his sandwich, he found himself watching the popular kids. It's sounded stereotypically, but there was really no other way to put it. Not that he liked them or anything, but, he found himself watching them as often as anyone else and knew all of their names.

Though, that shouldn't be a big deal. He practically knew almost everyone's name in their high school located in their town; Chairmane, Vermont. And they knew him, not because they like him or anything. But because of rumors, that, were true, not that they knew.

 

[lxngdon]

c l a u d i a

I hate Mondays, thought Claudia.

She had no real reason to justify this negative reservation against the innocent day, but it was true, Claudia hated Mondays. She was the only person who thought of this, but to Claudia, Mondays were the days she was most vulnerable. Her popular friends sat around their large table, talking about their weekends full of parties and sex and alcohol, while Claudia sat between them, silent, thinking about the books she had read and the movies she had watched. Luckily, her friends were arrogant and self-obsessed enough to not even notice that Claudia never contributed to the conversation. She just sat there, listening, silently hoping the bell would ring.

"Claudia," said Crystal, nudging the blonde until she looked up at her. "Look."

Claudia's eyes followed Crystal's gaze to the boy who was always alone -- the schizo, the psycho, the kid who, according to legend, had been responsible for the fire in the principal's office and the dead cat on last year's prom queen's front door. He was always alone. Claudia felt sorry for him, even if he was crazy.

"He's such a loser," scoffed Crystal. "Can you imagine what it'd be like to have no friends?"

Claudia could not. She liked having friends. She would hate to always be alone. She felt that her friends were being unnecessarily mean to the kid. "Have you ever even spoken to him?"

"Fuck no, Claudia." Crystal looked at her like she was absolutely insane. "I won't let him touch me with a ten-foot pole. He'd probably hang me with my own intestines or something."

The popular group laughed and began to stand to make their way out to the field. Usually Claudia followed and stood to the side while the rest of them smoked. Today, she lied, saying she had to go see a teacher about an assignment. Once her friends had left, Claudia walked up to the boy's table.

"Hi," she said kindly, giving the boy her best smile. "I'm Claudia Lightwood. You're Lucas, right?" Of course she knew his name. "We have AP English together. Do you mind if I sit down? We could work on that poetry assignment together."​

 

[MaryGold]

L U C A S

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Lucas saw her coming his way before she even reached his table. At first, he simply dismissed it, thinking that she was heading behind him where some of her companions might be, or anyone else that wasn't him. He realized as she came closer her friends had already headed out and she was looking at him. Shocked and confused, he was.

Why would Claudia Lightwood, be coming over to him? The outcast, the loner, the loser, the psycho. How was he supposed to feel about this? More importantly, what did she want?

Before he could rack his brain for any ideas, she was there. Standing in front of him, smiling at him, talking to him. And not as if he was a weirdo, but a fellow student and maybe a potential friend. Which was even more confusing, so that he scratched that theory.

Lucas opened his mouth once and then closed. He wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to talk with her. Not only for him but for her. Didn't she care about her image?

And though, he was suspicious of her, sending her off would be rude. Besides, it wasn't like he had anything better to do and he could use the help with the assignment. He'd just take this with a large grain of salt.

He as spaced out for at least thirty seconds, thinking all of this, before he was able to answer. "I guess." Lucas shrugged a shoulder, playing it cool. "Sit wherever you like. As you can see, there is plenty of space."

Gesturing to all the empty seat with his sandwich in one hand, he set down it down after realizing he was still holding it. Embarrassing.

 

[lxngdon]

c l a u d i a

Claudia smiled and sat in the seat beside him. She could feel eyes on her, but everyone that mattered was out of the room, so she ignored them. She extracted her English exercise book out of her bag, opened to the bag on which she had written the assignment and put it on the table. "So we have to pick a theme and write a poem based on it," she reiterated. Claudia turned the page and read out the themes the teacher had given them. "Love, hate, misery, lust, secrets, insanity, family and wrath. It's not due for another four weeks, of course, but I figured it's best to get a head start on it."

Claudia chewed the end of her pen as she watched him. She had heard terrible rumours about this boy, but here he was, sitting, looking completely normal. Had he really done those terrible things? He looked so innocent right now. But, of course, no one was completely innocent. Claudia's innocence had been taken away from her a few years ago.

"Which theme did you go with?" she asked. "I'm still not sure. I'm torn between love and misery ... but, with Mrs Edwards, does it even matter? We could literally copy and paste something from Romeo and Juliet and she wouldn't notice," Claudia joked. But, seriously, they needed a better English teacher.

Claudia wondered what her brothers would do if they saw her sitting with Lucas Remington-Brooks. They were all still in high school but none of them were in the cafeteria. Tate was a senior and ate lunch at the diner. Quentin was in the library, studying something ridiculously difficult that Claudia already knew, probably. It was a race between Quentin and Claudia to get academic scholarships to Yale first. Brogen was smoking with her friends on the football field. None of them would be happy if they saw their baby sister sitting with the town crazy.​

 

[lxngdon]

c l a u d i a

Claudia smiled and sat in the seat beside him. She could feel eyes on her, but everyone that mattered was out of the room, so she ignored them. She extracted her English exercise book out of her bag, opened to the bag on which she had written the assignment and put it on the table. "So we have to pick a theme and write a poem based on it," she reiterated. Claudia turned the page and read out the themes the teacher had given them. "Love, hate, misery, lust, secrets, insanity, family and wrath. It's not due for another four weeks, of course, but I figured it's best to get a head start on it."

Claudia chewed the end of her pen as she watched him. She had heard terrible rumours about this boy, but here he was, sitting, looking completely normal. Had he really done those terrible things? He looked so innocent right now. But, of course, no one was completely innocent. Claudia's innocence had been taken away from her a few years ago.

"Which theme did you go with?" she asked. "I'm still not sure. I'm torn between love and misery ... but, with Mrs Edwards, does it even matter? We could literally copy and paste something from Romeo and Juliet and she wouldn't notice," Claudia joked. But, seriously, they needed a better English teacher.

Claudia wondered what her brothers would do if they saw her sitting with Lucas Remington-Brooks. They were all still in high school but none of them were in the cafeteria. Tate was a senior and ate lunch at the diner. Quentin was in the library, studying something ridiculously difficult that Claudia already knew, probably. It was a race between Quentin and Claudia to get academic scholarships to Yale first. Brogen was smoking with her friends on the football field. None of them would be happy if they saw their baby sister sitting with the town crazy.​

 

[MaryGold]

L U C A S
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Lucas watched her every move warily. He knew she wouldn't her, physically and maybe, just maybe, not mentally. But he wasn't sure if he'd hurt her somehow. The thoughts, the visions, they came at random. The only time he could predict them was when he was feeling immensely stressed, anxious, or in pain. But even then it took a lot to control himself.

Luckily, he wasn't feeling any of those. Right now was just uncomfortable, puzzled and suspicious, very suspicious of the beautiful, yet popular, Claudia. She didn't usually hang out with kids not from her group especially not him.

What did she want? It kept gnawing at him. Did she want a kick, a scare by sitting with the psycho kid? If that was the case, he would not be entertaining her at all. Neighborhood kids were the same. They often bothered him, testing him, to see if he really was as crazy.

And he was sure her friends would not approve of what she was doing. Oh! And of course her brothers as well. Hopefully, they wouldn't all pester him about this later. But he'd play along for now and be nice until she leaves him.


"Oh yes, good old Mrs. Edward. That's exactly what I did last time." Lucas smiled a little and sighed."She said I was going to be this generation, William Shakespeare. If only she knew. If only."​

 

[lxngdon]

c l a u d i a

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"Well, maybe not Shakespeare, but I've seen some of the photos that have been printed in the yearbooks," said Claudia. "They're so good! You're a great photographer."

The bell rang, and Claudia jumped. She had been so caught up in their conversation that she had forgotten where she was. And that she was not meant to be talking to him. She had an image to uphold, but she didn't care.

Claudia wanted to know why everyone hated this kid. He had been nothing but nice to her, and she was beginning to suspect that everyone had exaggerated the rumours about him for the sole purpose of entertainment. And that was awful. She could not imagine being in Lucas's situation.

Claudia began to gather her books, but slowly, because she didn't want to leave. "We have History together, too, don't we?" she asked. All of Claudia's classes, except for gym, were AP classes. She was glad. It was hard enough to act stupid around her friends. She would die if she had to keep up her image in class, as well. "That's now. Would you mind if I sat with you? I don't have any other friends in that class."

Claudia was very selective with the words she used; she wanted to be his friend, because he was interesting, she wanted to prove everything wrong and she wanted him to not be alone all of the time.​

 

[MaryGold]

L U C A S

Lucas stood from his seat and gathered his things. "If you want to, who am I to stop you." He answered, shifting his weight onto one foot as he pushed his seat back into the table.

So she really wanted to be his friend? Questionable, but he was starting to become a little more loose around her. This girl hadn't spoken to him ever until now. But, she acknowledged his existence. Not as an insane kid but as a person. Of course, he could be wrong.

But it still made him sort of happy. No one commented on his talent as a photographer except a few adults. His parents, and some teachers. That was it. Even though he took the pictures for the yearbook, great pictures as he was told, not a single soul asked him to sign it nor did anyone ask him to sign theirs.

He was so tempted to throw his own out, but he decided to keep it after all.

"Walk with me?" He asked, carefully. They were both headed in the same direction. And they were conversing, so it was a normal thing to ask. She was still on another level than him. More gossip could spread. Then again, she already asked to sit with him. "I mean, you don't have to, I'd understand. With you being you and me being...me." He shrugged a shoulder, unaware of his babbling.

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[lxngdon]

c l a u d i a
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Claudia smiled. "Of course I'll walk with you." They started walking to History. Claudia frowned at his next sentence. "You know, I think what everyone says about you is really unfair. I greatly doubt any of it is true. You don't strike me as the kind of person who sets cats on fire and smashes windows with baseball bats."

Claudia suspected that this was the first time anyone had ever spoken to him about these rumours. Well, unless they were doing so to taunt or antagonise him. Claudia frowned. What had happened to this kid that caused him to be treated so cruelly? Her own best friend was one of his biggest bullies. Claudia was starting to wonder who was in the right here.

They reached History and Claudia sat beside Lucas, as she had said she would. She extracted her many textbooks, some of them from her own collection and not off the booklist, and set them on the desk before her. Claudia loved History. Well, she loved all of her classes, but it was nice to take a step back in time and learn about other people rather than deal with the airheads she called her friends.​

 

[MaryGold]

L U C A S
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Lucas could hardly focus on anything their teacher, Mr. Ives, was saying. His eyes were on the board, but his mind was elsewhere. Up in the clouds. Claudia believed he didn't do anything. It was such a foreign concept that if she didn't say it herself he wouldn't have even let the thought cross his mind. What was this girl exactly?

If she didn't think the same thing as everyone else, why was she hanging out with those posers? They were absolutely the worst and if you asked him, he'd openly answer that he hated them. And seeing how sincere she was being, it confused him how this person was included in their circle douchebaggery. She was an enigma.

Laying his cheek in the palm of his hand, he tried very subtly to look at her, as if that would solve all the mystery surrounding her. Suddenly, he smelt burning. At first, he wasn't sure what it was, whatever it was smell horrible he could practically taste it in his mouth. Something was on fire. Wrinkling his nose, he turned away to find the source and found that it was Mr.Ives. He was on fire.

It was enough to make him jump in his seat a little and soon after recognize it as an illusion. Why now of all times, during class, sitting next to the one person who was friends with his bullies. He quickly composed his face and dug his nails into the palm of his hands.

Most of the time, pain brought him back to reality. What was real.

And he wanted to close his eyes to block out the horror in front of him, but that would make him suspicious. Instead, his nails pressed deeper into his skin, almost at the breaking point. And he repeated a mantra in his head.

It's not real. It's an illusion. This is not real. He recited over and over in his head, his lips moving to form the words silently.
​

 

[lxngdon]

c l a u d i a
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Claudia jumped when Lucas jumped; she looked over to him, an expression of true concern on her face. "You okay?" she whispered.

She knew that this was probably why everyone thought he was crazy, and she should be scared but she wasn't. She was just concerned. Claudia was the kind of person who wanted to help everyone.

"Is there an issue, Miss Lightwood?" Mr Ives asked, noticing that Claudia wasn't paying attention. Claudia sat up straight and turned to face the teacher.

"Not at all, Mr Ives. I have a question, however..." Claudia continued to ask an in-depth question about the topic at hand -- medieval royal hierarchy -- and everyone was distracted from Lucas's jump.​

 

[MaryGold]

L U C A S
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'You okay?' Her voice was faint to him, but he heard her all the same through his horrors. He didn't dare look at her in fear that she too may be in flames.

The sound of the classroom was very quiet almost silent to the roaring of the fire. Lucas heard her talking more, but not to him, but to the teacher. About, he wasn't too sure, because he wasn't paying that much attention. He took this moment where everyone was distracted to move his hands, which he had finally drawn blood from underneath his desk for no one to see.

And since no one was still looking, he closed his eyes, just for a short while. When he opened them again, the smell, the heat, and the fire were all gone. He was back. Lucas let out a low sigh of relief, leaning back into his seat.
​

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[lxngdon]

c l a u d i a
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The lesson ended and Claudia turned to Lucas. "Hey. Are you okay?" She put her hand on his arm to comfort him.

Claudia could feel the eyes of her classmates on them as she spoke to Lucas. She could hear their whispering. She didn't care. What she did care about was whether Lucas was okay.




(sorry its so short I was stuck kinda)​

 

[MaryGold]

L U C A S
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(It's alright, it happens.)

"Yeah." Lucas nodded his head, his tone a little shaky. No one ever asked him if he was 'okay' before. If he were to completely honest, he wasn't 'okay' at all. He never was. Quickly recognizing the obvious lie in his own voice, he corrected his mistake by clearing his throat and nodding once again."Yeah." He said more firmly this time.

Looking from the corner of his eyes he saw others looking their way. It wasn't anything new, but of course, they were sets of eyes than usual watching him. And that was because of her. But, he didn't mind that that much, or at all. It was foreign but nice to have someone concerned about him, asking for his well-being.

"I just..." Lucas paused and licked his bottom lip, becoming a bit on the nervous side. He wasn't going to outright tell her 'oh, I just had another wild hallucination. Right in the middle of class, ridiculous, am I right?

So, he went with the alternative. Which wasn't a lie at all."I just need to wash my hands. And, uh, do you have any band-aids? If you don't that's cool too, I forgot to bring my own because I hadn't needed them in a while. But, shouldn't have done that obviously." ​

 

[lxngdon]

c l a u d i a
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"Um, no, I don't have any band-aids ..." Claudia trailed off when she saw his hands. How could she not have noticed what he was doing to himself? And why had he even done it? "Shit. I'll take you to the nurse's office."

She lead his down the hall to the office in question. "Are you alright? That looks pretty painful ..." Then again, Claudia had an awful pain tolerance.​

 

[MaryGold]

L U C A S​

"Oh, this?" Lucas laughed, hoping to lighten the mood."It's nothing. I felt worst." He's done worse, to himself. He was in a lot more control than he was back then. Pain helped him sometimes, cleared his mind. Sure it hurt, but it was the only thing he had.The only thing that brought him back to reality.

"When I was younger,I'd always get myself into trouble. Danger-prone Lucas, is what my parents called me." Lucas half smiled at the memory and pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants to hide them from anyone else. "Anyway, thanks."

 

[lxngdon]

c l a u d i a
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Claudia gave a small smile. "When I was younger, my brothers and I used to bash each other over the head with toy blocks. I was always the roughest, because I was the youngest and the only girl and I had to show them up." She smiled fondly at the memory. "Now, it's only Tate that bashes people up. He does judo," she explained.

Claudia thought for a moment, contemplating whether what she was about to say was appropriate. Or a good idea. "I'm sorry about my friends, always saying terrible things about you all the time. They're nice people, mostly." She knew that wasn't true. She knew that her friends where bitchy and mean and she was only hanging out with them because that was where her brother, her best friend, was. "Okay, that's bullshit. I only talk to them because of my brother. But I am genuinely sorry." She scratched her arm.​

 

[MaryGold]

L U C A S
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Lucas couldn't help but smirk a little. At least she was honest about it."You don't have to apologize on their behalf." He shrugged a shoulder."It's not your fault they're all assholes." Originally, he was going to withstand openly stating his strong dislike towards them, but she admitted their horribleness first.

Anyway, he didn't want to dwell on this subject anymore. It was not as if he cared what they thought, they just made his life difficult. And for what? What had he ever done to them? He didn't even bother with them.

"You must be close with your brother, to even stand hanging out with them, huh?" Lucas asked.​

 

[lxngdon]

c l a u d i a
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Claudia smiled. "Yeah, we're really close." Claudia was quite fond of all of her brothers, but Brogen was her favourite, and for so many more reasons than them being twins. "He's my twin and my best friend. We know each other like the back of our hands. He's been the only one who really gets me our entire lives. Though, unfortunately, he hangs around with the wrong people."

Brogen had an even more potent thirst for popularity than Claudia. Claudia just wanted people to like her; Brogen, on the other hand, wanted everyone to like him. If Claudia had to name her brother's biggest flaw it would be his ego. He needed attention and generally did whatever he needed to to get the popular kids to like him. Claudia feared for his future, but she didn't want to dwell on that right now.

"Do you have siblings?" she asked Lucas. They were nearing the nurse's office, meaning that their conversation would be cut short very soon. Claudia wanted to squeeze as many questions in as she could; she liked talking to Lucas and wanted to get to know him better. She wanted to prove people wrong.​

 

[MaryGold]

L U C A S
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Lucas couldn't help but feel jealous as she talked about her relationship with her twin brother. It reminded him of his own brother, Newton. Their connection was similar to Claudia's. Well, maybe he and Newton were a bit closer. They stuck together, always, and chose one another over anyone no matter what happened.

It was probably their situation that drove them to become so close. Their parents married young, had children young and since they still attended college, the two were always dumped off at someone else house to be babysat. Sometimes they were even left home alone.

The two were best friends. They would be together all the time. Always and forever. Newton would tell him that. Who would have known 'always and forever' would be so short?

"I have an older brother," Lucas told her. He didn't like telling people about him, or it was more that there was no one to tell about him. The subject was very touchy for him, it was almost as if it was a secret. He didn't want people talking bad about his brother because of him. But he was sure Claudia wouldn't say anything bad.

"I mean, I had an older brother." His eyes fell to the floor, his insides feeling empty. It was too painful to think about."He passed away years ago."

And that was about all she was getting out of him on that topic. In fact, he hoped she wouldn't be asking any more questions at all. His whole life was a complicated mess and he didn't feel like delving into it.

So he shut his mouth and walked passed her into the nurse office, hoping the nurse wasn't there at the moment. He knew how to bandage himself and didn't want her reporting any of his injuries to his legal guardian. It was a hassle to deal with back at home.