Quiet Friendships (Peregrine x CJListon)

[Peregrine]

"Chenara? Chenara Arbor?"

Chenara lowered her phone and glanced up at the woman who was calling her name. She was slightly pudgy, with the round face that was always associated with friendliness and mothering. It wasn't really surprising that she had been put in charge of getting the new volunteers set up and on their tasks. Chenara stood as she tucked her phone back into her pocket, before walking over to the table. No one would call her steps enthusiastic, and there was a sort of resigned weariness plastered across her face.

"Good to meet you, dear," Annalise, or so her nametag proclaimed, said. She didn't seem the least bit offput by Chenara's obvious moodiness, or the fact that Chenara didn't say a single word to her the whole time they were talking. "I'm the organizer on Saturdays, so we'll probably be seeing rather a lot of each other."

Saturdays. Why did it have to be a Saturday? Chenara didn't particularly want to do community service any day of the week, but Saturday had always been her gaming day, the day when her parents wouldn't interrupt her for Church or some work or family activity. She wished she was just waking up now, slowly crossing her room to the large, widescreened monitor on the other side of her room, listening to it whir as she drowsily pulled breakfast out of her minifridge, before logging in. She'd had to tell Jacob that she wouldn't be able to start today, too. The man already didn't know anything about her, didn't think a kid could offer anything, and she had to go and prove him right. But her parents wouldn't hear of her backing out. This was too important, after all. Yeah, right. Important to who?

"You and one other girl have been assigned to helping a man in the neighborhood repaint the side of his house after it was vandalized by some neighborhood boys," Annalise continued, apparently (but probably not really) oblivious to Chenara's lack of interest. Instead, she smiled. "The sooner you get the job done the sooner you can leave. It's only one task a day. But you'd better do a good job. If not, you'll have to redo it next week, and then work some other job. All clear?" She waited for Chenara to speak, and grinned wider when she didn't get any response. "Excellent! Your partner is over there, by the sign with the information on your task. The client will be here to pick you guys up in a couple minutes. Don't worry, it's plenty safe. The police take any attacks against our organization very seriously, and we vet every job before giving it out."

Chenara rolled her eyes, and walked across the courtyard and away from the smiling Annalise towards the other girl who was standing by the sign.

 

[SilentxChaos]

Kira idled by a huge yellow and green sign, colors she imagined were picked to seem happy and welcoming, but the neon yellow proved hurtful to the eyes and the green faded to a pukey olive tinge. The space underneath had been the first she spotted empty. After a week of shutting herself in the room with six, equally loner, foster siblings, Kira welcomed isolation like a cream orange popsicle. 'What I wouldn't give for one of those!' she thought and her mouth began to water. Her stomach growled with need and she sighed.

Beside her lap, remnants of a cheese sandwich and banana were picked at by ants and one curious bee. Kira watched them remorsefully. Finny had warned her to save the meager meal for lunch, as that was all she could scavenge from the kitchen until she and some of the older kids went grocery shopping today, but Kira had never felt quite so famished! Chewing on one of her colorful feather hair clips, as if the motion of her jaw would placate her hunger, Kira peered about her.

Wesley, Brianne, Harold and Justin all huddled in one corner behind the woman in charge- Anna- Anne- Annebelle?- Annewhateverhernamewas, the other kids from the foster home forced into volunteering duty for the week. They talked quietly and threw nasty glares at anyone who ventured close wearing hopeful smiles. Kira couldn't say she envied their group but seeing them reminded her of how lonely she was. Her gaze quickly shifted... until resettling on a blonde girl who appeared to be walking towards her.

"Is she coming over- oh dear, she's coming over, act natural, act natural!" Kira muttered to herself and decided frantically looking anywhere but at the approaching girl was the logical action.

 

[Peregrine]

Still feeling frustrated and more than a little indignant at being forced out of her room to participate in a charity organization she didn't even give the smallest of craps about, the already antisocial Chenara certainly didn't intend to start interacting with people out of the blue. All she knew was that she was going to have to work with this girl for as long as it took to repaint the side of a house, and then she would be able to get back home and get online. Of course, Chenara had been raised well enough to keep obviously disrespectful grumbling to herself, but that didn't make her particularly inclined to be polite.

Instead, she promptly leaned herself against the bright sign which declared, in over-colorful letters, that this was the location for "house repainting on 3639 E Westerly Ave". She was about to pull her phone out of her pocket when she realized that the sign was not as firmly planted in the ground as she thought it was, and managed to pull herself away and grab the sign before it toppled to the ground. In the process, her cell phone slipped from her hand and dropped to the ground. She was quick to scoop it back up again, being careful not to look at the girl sitting next to her and hope that, if she didn't say anything, neither would this stranger.

Instead, she planted herself firmly on the ground, before lightly resting her thumb on the home button to unlock her phone. The article she had been browsing before Annalise had disrupted her popped back up. It was an overview of a new MMORPG that had just come out two weekends ago, and was offering a free month's play to new subscribers to gain interest. Chenara quickly picked out the spot where she had stopped reading, and started scanning again. Far more than any charity case, Chenara considered this her true work. It was certainly a lot more meaningful than anything she'd be able to do here.

She took a deep breath to try and cool some of the frustration at her parents she felt rising inside of her once more. If she stayed focused, this would only take a couple of hours. Then she'd be able to get home and get to work. Her parents wouldn't stay interested in this for long, and then they'd let her off the hook. Nothing ever captured their attention for very long.

 

[SilentxChaos]

Kira grinned as the new girl stumbled against the sign. "Glad to see I'm not the only clumsy one!"

The girl scrolled on her phone.

"Alright, little awkward, no big deal," murmured Kira to herself before pulling on a bright grin, "Hi there! I'm Kira Langely! What's your name? Do you volunteer here often? I'm sorta new here, ya know? First time volunteering for, like, anything so…"

Kira's voice died off as the girl was obviously more infatuated with her phone. She shifted, uncomfortable yet wanting to make a good impression on someone. For once. That's what Finny's been telling her right?

Listen, the first best step forward for you is to embrace the world again. You can't get around continuing living so why not just face head-on? So go out there, make some fucking friends, and stop hoarding all my bedamned Cheetos!

Sighing at the memory, Kira gazed at the girl critically. "Right, so, how do I get you to notice me?" she mumbled.

Her eyes drifted to the phone.

"Hey!" she nearly shouted from excited and leaned towards the girl's shoulder. "Whatcha reading…something about MMO's?" Kira tilted her head, trying to get a better look without hovering too close.

 

[Peregrine]

Finally realizing that ignoring the girl next to her, Kira?, was not going to be an option, Chenara turned aside, as her screen locked with a faint click. She set it down on her thigh, before turning to look at the girl, hoping this not-so-subtle hint would cause her to back up a little bit.

Up until this point, Chenara hadn't noticed all the bright strips of color that had been artfully layered into her hair. She studied them casually for a moment, before turning back to look at her eyes. "Chenara," she offered with a vague sort of smile, purposefully leaving out her last name. Considering the fact that her family owned the company that supported most of this town, and the factory was named after the family, the name Arbon wasn't something Chenara was particularly fond of throwing about unless it was absolutely necessary. It tended to cause more hassle than anything.

"And, yea." Chenara gestured towards her phone. "It's called Depths: Caverns of the Earth. Not the most original name, but, then again, which ones are? They just finished the beta a couple weekends ago and opened it to the public. So far it's gotten some pretty solid reviews, although the interest in it has been rather limited. So they canceled the subscription fee for the first month for players who sign up in the next week to garner some interest."

 

[SilentxChaos]

She's talking to me!

Kira's excitement compounded. She may have hugged this stranger, this Chenara, if basic etiquette didn't stop her. Still…could she be a friend? A first friend? Too soon? Kira's wandering thoughts nearly distracted her from Chenara's reply and she bit her lip guiltily.

"Oh, really? That's awfully nice of them," Kira responded though, in the back of her mind, she wondered if games allowed free sign-ups regularly or not.
Kira glanced at Chenara's phone, wondering if her turning it away from Kira just meant she was a very private person, then grinned back at her.

" 'Depths: Caverns of the Earth' huh? What's that all about? Exploration in the Krubera Caves?"

 

[Peregrine]

"Kinda," Chenara agreed, before resigning herself to the fact that she probably wasn't going to be able to return to her reading any time soon. It didn't matter too much. Jacob had already told her the basics of the game, so she knew how to play and what she was supposed to do. However, she had been hoping to get an impression of the information that was commonly available before she started playing. Oh, well. She'd learn quick enough as she played, and could always finish reading it tonight just before she fell asleep.

"There's this group of tribal peopel who are living on the surface of a planet, except one day the ground starts shaking and splitting open. These monsters come out of the cracks of the earth, and attacking the people. Luckily, killing these monsters starts granting the people new powers through these gems they have in their hearts, and they send the strongest of their warriors into these fishers to explore and fight back. There's all sorts of stuff down in the caves, and it kind of becomes an arms race between the various tribes, who still don't get along, and the demons, who are looking to take over the surface. From what I've read the caves also procedurally generate as you play, so every single crack in the earth leads somewhere, although jumping down may not always be a safe idea, and the further you explore the caves, the more territory opens up. The developers have said there's the potential for over 5 million miles, and I say miles in the vaguest terms, since distances are a bit hard to measure in a game, of tunnels in the planet, which means it is possible for pretty much every player to find something new, since there's just so much to explore."

Chenara hadn't really intended to talk that long, but had found herself, as per usual, entering into a happy rant as soon as she started talking about games. She shrugged, turning away from Kira again. "The quest system is a little vague, though, so a lot of people haven't been playing long enough to get to the cool parts, whatever that might be. That's why they are offering the free month, so that people don't feel like they are wasting their money with the slow start."

 

[SilentxChaos]

"Whooooa," Kira's eyes sparkled, "That's so cool! Games like that really exist?"

She meant it, fervently, as her mind pictured the endless adventuring one could do in this game. At the foster home, all she ever saw were the boys playing crappy shoot 'em-up games, or sports, which Kira found stupid since they could just easily play it outside and in person. And before coming to Finny's...she'd always been too busy to think of video games. Lately though. Kira found she had too much time on her hands.

Getting on her knees, she crawled around Chenara so they faced each other, and exclaimed, "Where can I find it, huh? How do I play? Can you tell me more?" she smiled excitedly but a tinge of longing, or perhaps desperation, lingered in her voice.

 

[Peregrine]

"Ummm..." Chenara knew about getting enthused about games. She'd often had her parents break her off mid discussion, or perhaps monologue would be a better term since she was usually the only one talking, or had her younger brother break into a bout of name calling and otherwise unwelcome teasing. All the same, she found the sudden excitement of this stranger more than a little bit unsettling. It wasn't that she didn't like talking about these kinds of things, it was simply that she wasn't used to someone she didn't know pressing in so close to her all of a sudden. "Well, I mean, you can just, like, google Descent, and it'll probably be one of the first three results. They'll walk you through the instructions on how to download it, and then you..."

Chenara was saved from this rather uncomfortable discussion by the sudden arrival of an old, rusted ford, who rolled up onto the grass and parked right near their sign. A middle aged man with a pot-belly and a baseball hat stuck his head out the window. "You the kids that gonna repaint my house?" he yelled, despite the fact that they were right there.

"Ummm," was all Chenara was able to say, again.

"3639," the man stated. "That's me. Damn shit's been on my wall for nearly a month, and I ain't gonna waste any time listening to you guys babble. Get the paint and the spray guns, and get them in the truck."

"I guess we'll continue this conversation later?" Chenara didn't really mean that when she said it, but it seemed like a polite thing to say, and she didn't really know what else she could say. Hopefull Kira would forget once they were in the midsts of repainting the house. "Do you... know where the paint is?"

 

[SilentxChaos]

"Nope!" Kira answered gaily as she waved to the man they were meant to help. She'd listened to Chenara with rapt attention till he pulled up, suddenly eager to dive into something new and unexplored. And, hopefully, a lot less awkward.

Kira offered to go ask Anna-what's-it, not quite waiting for an answer, but zipping off quickly, eager to be helpful. She faltered when she got to Annalise and found her foster siblings just leaving the woman. They carried small metal pikes, trash bags, and look less than enthused. Brianne sneered at her as they passed. "No fair! How come the new chit gets the better job?"

"Maybe they were afraid that gap between your teeth would scare people off," taunted Justin, who laughed at his own jokes.

Brianne whirled and full on punched him in the shoulder. Though she was even shorter than Kira, she used to take karate and made a point of practicing every morning 5 o'clock sharp. She packed a mean kick- and a crueler tongue. She willingly sharpened it on anyone who so-much looked her wrong (except, of course, Finny. But no one messes with Finny.) and Kira was only thankful Justin became her target. Kira still felt her skin get hot and prickly whenever she thought of the first time Bri went off on her. Kira had felt as if she'd been stripped to the bone and Bri's "intiation", as she called it, ended with Kira having a broken arm...but she still felt smug when she remembered Bri's black eye. Not many people landed a hit on Brianne the Bulldog.

As the Bulldog sank her teeth into Justin and the others laughed mercilessly, Kira skittered around and managed to ask Annalise about the paint and spray guns. A minute later, she jogged back to Chenara and the man, awkwardly caring the equipment and dropping things. She muttered a curse and kicked a fallen spray can, accidentally hitting Chenara's leg. Her face flushed as she gasped, "Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hit you, I just- so clumsy- frustrating ya know- and- you okay?"

 

[Peregrine]

Chenara nodded quietly in agreement when Kira offered to go find the tools, before entering into awkward conversation with the man. Luckily, it only took one sentence on Chenara's part, asking what the vandalism on his house was, for the old man to launch into an unexpected, but luckily lengthy, rant about the "damned mess of paint" that had been defacing his house. Chenara gladly tuned him out, only paying just enough attention to nod or make a noise of agreement at the right moments. Instead, her thoughts turned back to Descent. What kind of character was she going to want to create? It would have to be something versatile, almost undoubtedly a damage dealer. Otherwise she wouldn't be able to handle high level encounters as she dug deeper into the cave system by herself. She'd need to find a quick way to level up, as well. It wasn't that she objected to taking the time to level up normally, but Jacob had made it clear exactly how much was resting on this. They'd have to take the game offline for several months if they weren't able to figure out what was causing these unexplained glitches, and that would cost the company millions of dollars. Whatever the problem was, it wouldn't be visible until they reached the higher levels. That's what all the beta tests had shown. Chenara had a limited length of time before the other players started breaking into a field where they might be at risk from the bug as well.

Wrapped up in her own thoughts, Chenara didn't notice Kira approaching again, until she suddenly felt something metal crashing into her shin. Chenara let out a yelp, interrupting their "client" mid-rant, and quickly reached down to rub the sore spot. There was a small lump, and Chenara knew it would likely bruise later. All the same, she swallowed her pain and offered Kira a tight smile. "I'll be fine, I'm sure. Where's the paint?"

 

[SilentxChaos]

Oh, gosh, I did it again Kira thought, watching Chenara pull a tight smile and knowing that it wasn't really fine at all. She swallowed another apology, though, not wanting to press the issue and ruin the chance to hear more about this Descent game.

"Oh, okay, well it's just around that corner to the right. Pass Ann- Anna- the lady who's organizing everyone. I'll help you in a minute, yeah?"
Kira smiled weakly before turning to the man and erasing it with a bright, if slightly forced, grin. "How you do? Where would you like me to place these things? Name's Kira by the way! What's yours?"

 

[Peregrine]

"Rich," Chenara heard the man bark as she quickly began to walk away. "And just get em in the back of the truck And make sure they are tied up, you hear me? I don't want them sliding around all over the damn place."

At that point she pretty much got out of earshot, and focused on finding some paint. In the end Kira's directions proved just as easy to follow as they sounded, but she did end up having to check in with Annalise about exactly how many buckets of paint she was supposed to take.

"Just one, dear," Annalise replied, looking happy that Chenara seemed to be getting into her task somewhat. "Five gallons will be more than enough to paint one house side. Make sure you bring back whatever's left, okay? Don't let him keep it. There will be someone here to clean up the paint guns, but make sure it gets to them. If you just leave them lying somewhere they'll clog up and we'll have to buy new ones. Okay?"

"Yeah," Chenara casually agreed, completely missing Annalise's satisfied smirk when she got an answer.

Dragging the five gallon bucket was no easy task, as it turned out. Chenara was not strong, having spent most of her life playing around indoors, and being encouraged to pursue more intellectual activities rather than physical ones. Therefore, by the time Kira had finished loading up the truck and tied everything down, she had only managed to make it about halfway over. Her arms were shaking with both hands wrapped awkwardly around the little metal handle, but there was a stubborn look on her face that said she would get this bucket to the truck without asking anyone for help, goddamit.

 

[SilentxChaos]

"Yes siree, er, I mean sir. Mr," Kira giggled to herself and set about her task with a skip in her step.

Finally, something to do with her hands! Kira had always been a restless child. Never at peace unless she could move around or at least keep her hands occupied. She blamed that on her parents. With her dad owning the bakery, and her mother the bookshop, in a town Kira discovered no one could place on a map, they were constantly bustling about with orders and upkeep and finances. Kira helped in any small way she could, but she'd grown up knowing only to sit still when food was on the table or a good book rested in her hands.

Ever since she arrived at the foster home, though, her hands had been...quite empty. And dining at the kitchen table proved impossible when it only six of the twelve kids living there could fit. She genuinely felt bad for Finny, who said she was harder to pin than a hairless cat junked up with catnip, but maybe this is why Finny put her on volunteer-duty. Getting Kira out of the house? Check. Making her do things? Double check. Done deal.

After ensuring the paint equipment wouldn't sliding willy-nilly, Kira gave it a satisfied slap and turned to look for Chenara. She found her, alright, struggling with a five gallon bucket with a strained yet determined face. Kira started towards her, hesitantly. Chenara didn't really look like she wanted help at the moment... but it never hurts to offer any, in Kira's experience. "Hey! Need another set of hands?"

 

[Peregrine]

Kira's words offered Chenara the perfect out without losing face. She set down the bucket, concealing her hands behind her back as she rubbed the red imprints on her palms against her thighs. "Sure," she said, casually. "Can't hurt." Inside, though, she couldn't help but feel relieved. She had not been looking forward to bringing this bucket all the way to the truck, and certainly not actually lifting it up there! However, with Kira's aid, the two girls would undoubtedly be able to work together to lift it up and get it in place.

Rich never said anything, and certainly didn't offer to help out. Instead he lounged back against the door to the driver's seat, watching the two girls slowly wobble their way across the grass, the bucket of paint carefully balanced between them. "Might've actually gotten something good this time," he muttered, obviously loud enough for them to hear it. Chenara ignored him. They were the ones doing all the work, and he had the nerve to question whether or not he'd gotten something good? Hmmph.

In the end they did get the bucket up onto the back of the truck, and quickly roped it in with the spray guns. Rich moved away from his lounging position just long enough to double check the ropes were secure "Don't want things sliding about back here," he repeated pointedly, before getting back towards the truck.

"Kay. Get in. Both o ya. It's less than five minutes to my house, but I ain't having you girls sliding about in the back either."

 

[SilentxChaos]

Bouncing in with small salute, Kira sat on her hands and leaned towards the window. The torn fabric of the seats itched her palms and she looked around absently as the others got in. She ignored, or simply didn't notice, Rich's flippant attitude towards the work they were doing for him. Instead, Kira exuded elation as she smiled merrily and generally looked like the only person enjoying herself.

Kira leaned forward as Rich got in, asking him, "So sir, Mr. Rich, how long you've lived here? What do you do? Got any pets?"

 

[Peregrine]

Unfamiliar with old cars, unfamiliar with most cars other than the luxury sedans her parents bought and the sports cars her brothers favored if she was being brutally honest, Chenara didn't realize there wasn't a back seat in the truck until she had already crawled inside after Kira. However, before she had a chance to say anything or scramble back out, Rick was climbing up after her. Chenara found herself awkwardly sandwiched in between the two, trying her best to not even move an inch so that she wouldn't escape the boundaries of this small center seat and touch the people on either side of her. Growing more and more uncomfortable with every second, there was something sticky in the fabric of the seat and beer cans were rolling around by her feet, Chenara had to struggle to remind herself that it would only be a short drive. Only five minutes, she repeated to herself, over and over. He said it would only be five minutes.

"Pets?" Rich repeated, seeming to only hear, or at least only focus on, the last part of Kira's question. "Ain't got no pets. Thinking about getting a dog now. A proper dog, mind you, not one of those little foofy things that you could step on. See if them boys even think about getting close to my house again, with a rottweiler snarling at their heels! Honestly, kids these days. You'd think they'd lost all respect for their elders."

Kira's questions had probably been posed out of innocent curiosity, but they were more than enough to send Rich into another tirade about the people who had defaced the side of his house. Chenara may have never been to a poor part of town by herself, but she had been lots of places online. She knew the kinds of crude things people could do, and began to mentally prepare herself for a wall of vulgarity. She pressed in on herself a little closer. Maybe if she told her parents that this group had her riding in a car that hadn't been cleaned in a year between two strangers, painting over dicks drawn on some old man's house, they'd realize what a bad idea this was.

Rick suddenly broke off mid tirade as his car bounced up over a curb, tossing Chenara into Kria's side before almost throwing her the other way into Rich as well. Chenara winced and looked at the floor, only for Rich to proclaim. "We'r here."

What met Chenara's eyes was not what she had expected. The small house, weedy lawn, and litter, yes, but not the mural that had been artfully painted on the side of the wall. It was a mass of colors and indistinct letters, that seemed to spiral on the side of the house, always drawing her eyes towards the center. For a moment she looked over the rest of the house, unable to imagine why anyone would want to paint over such a colorful work of art, before eventually concluding that, yes, that was what she had been sent here to do.

 

[SilentxChaos]

Through the whole ride, Kira nodded empathetically to Rich's rant, partially imagining herself in the same predicament. Another part couldn't looking out the window. She could feel the age of the neighborhood as they passed through. Every house suffered damage in some way. Most was water damage- her hometown had problems with floods and she recognized the ruined foundation. Kira also spotted poorly patched roofs, broken gutters, and boarded windows. Some houses looked so vacant she wondered at the last time they'd felt life within their walls.

Kira saw the graffiti the same moment as Chenara, and sucked her breath in. "Whoa. It's so pretty!"

"Pretty!?" Rich scoffed. "Mor like ugly ta me. You girls better do what your damn well told, and do it well!" He got out of his truck, slamming the door shut and leaving the girls to get out on their own.

Kira managed to open the door on her side after hitting it with her shoulder a few times, the unused passenger door having rusted. She left it open for Chenara but didn't wait for the other girl as she ran to the side of the house and stared at the mural open-mouthed. It looked out-of-place in this drab, broken down neighborhood, but she felt it's beauty doubled because of it. "Who'd ever want to get rid of a beautiful thing like you?" she murmured at the mural and ran her hands along scrawling, bold lines of what she assumed were letters. After a moment, she took her phone out and stepped back, then shuffled to one side, trying to find the best angle to take a picture.

 

[Peregrine]

While Kira moved to go get a closer look at the mural, Chenara hopped out of the truck and moved her way to the back, unfastening the straps that had been used to secure the buckets of paint and slowly dragging them over to the edge of the bed. Once they were in position she began to lower them down to the ground. Getting the buckets back down was much easier than lifting them up, and the task was quickly completed. It was only at that point that Chenara finally turned around to look for where Kira had went, and spotted the girl struggling to backup far enough to get the entire mural in a photo without running into the neighboring house.

Not mural, Chenara reminded herself. Graffiti. As pretty as it might be, someone had painted that on this man's house without asking permission, and he didn't want it there. Besides, the sooner they got this over with the sooner Chenara would be able to go home, and standing there admiring it wasn't going to get the work done any faster.

Not to say she was irritated at Kira for wanting to take a piture, but that didn't stop Chenara from turning around to face the other girl, hands on hips. "Are you going to come help, or are you just going to stand there all day?"

 

[SilentxChaos]

Kira gave a pout, but a glimmer of amusement played in her eyes. "Ok ok, I'm coming."

She managed to click a few pictures before helping Chenara carry the buckets of paint. "It's a real shame, isn't it? Having to get rid of something artistic?" she asked the other girl after they maneuvered the buckets closer to the house. Kira went back and fished the rest of their tools from the back, spotting Rich peeking out his front door with a beer can in hand. Somehow Kira suspected most of Rich's days involved peering suspiciously through his door and always a much needed drink in hand. It was rather a boring picture and she shook her head wonderingly. Think I'd go star-crazy without something important to do, she thought and smiled sadly as she returned to Chenara and laid everything neatly in the untrimmed grass. Must've gotten from Mom and Dad.

Releasing a tiny sigh, she opened one of the buckets of paint and wrinkled her nose. "Ugh! That's a horrendous color, isn't it?"