Now time for chapter two. As I said before, I meant to submit this at the
same time as chapter one but I didn't have time. So if chapter one seems
kind of open ended and pointless, you know the reason why. What can I say,
I just wrote it and submitted it, I really can't help the way I write.
Anyway, this chapter is where you meet Tidus, hope you like it.
Disclaimer: Same thing as before, I don't own any of the characters (unless I decide to make some up)
"Tidus, get your sorry butt out of bed! The last thing I need is to show up late on the first day," Wakka yelled as Tidus felt something slam into him. He was up like a shot, looking to see what hit him. He immediately spotted Wakka standing next to his bed with a pillow in hand.
"What's the big deal Wakka, afraid the preps will start without you?" He glanced at his clock and realized it was only 6:40 in the morning, which meant that he still had an hour and twenty minutes. "Jeez Wakka! Just because you're paranoid about the new school doesn't mean you have to wake me up at the crack of dawn!"
Tidus expected Wakka to realize his mistake and look embarrassed, but he continued to look at Tidus with a look that definitely said "hurry up!" This wasn't Wakka. Normally, Wakka and he would wake up with maybe a half an hour to spare and speed out the door with ten minutes left. They were never worried about being late.
"Tidus, what are you clueless?! Besaid starts an hour before Zanarkand did. Didn't you read the information packet?" In all honesty, Tidus hadn't even bothered to read the information he was given. He wanted as little to do with Besaid High as possible.
Muttering silent cuss words, he glanced at the clock, and realized how little time they had left. He shot out of bed, demanding, "Well why didn't you wake me up?!"
Wakka looked a little sheepish and returned with, "Well. I kind of forgot to set the alarm clock, I just woke up." He scratched the back of his head and an uneasy grin spread across his face.
Tidus rolled his eyes and went into the bathroom. "Do you even know where we are supposed to park?" He checked his hair in the mirror and after determining that it didn't look completely awful, he went on to brushing his teeth. He never was too concerned about his hair. When it was somewhat messy it actually looked better than when he tried to comb it. Besides, he didn't have time anyway.
Wakka walked into the bathroom next to him and started combing his hair into his usual "spikey" hair due. "I think they have a private parking lot or something." Tidus actually found himself snickering as Wakka fought with the gel to get the look he liked.
"Oh of course," Tidus said in a mocking tone, "why wouldn't the preppies have their own private lot." It almost made him sick how pampered most of the brats were. If it were his choice, he wouldn't even be here, he'd be at some public school where he could get along fine. Unfortunately, it wasn't his decision because Wakka's mom had told Wakka and him, "You're are going to Besaid High and that's that."
For the past ten years, Wakka's mom had been the closest thing he had to family. Ten years ago, his dad had disappeared without a trace. Shortly after, Tidus's mom died after getting hit by a stray bullet in a drive by shooting. Thus, he was left to fend for himself. He had evaded the social workers and police for months, while living on next to nothing. Then he met Wakka while sneaking in to watch a professional blitzball game.
Wakka was at the game with his mother and actually saved Tidus from getting thrown out by offering him the extra seat they had. During the game, they found that they both loved blitzball. After that, they had met frequently to play blitzball and cause mischief. Within three months, Tidus had a new family and a home that he shared with Wakka, Wakka's younger brother Chappu, and his mom and dad.
The apartment they shared wasn't much. In fact, it was barely big enough to house four people, so five was a bit of a stretch. Tidus elected to sleep on the couch and even though they objected, he spent most nights there. He was actually surprised when they were actually able to legally adopt him. Apparently there were already too many orphans and the city was almost desperate to give some of them homes. So it was, that for the past ten years he lived with Wakka, working and doing anything he could to help them make ends meat.
He never really liked talking to anyone outside his adopted family. It wasn't that he was shy, in fact it was the complete opposite. He didn't want to get too attached to anyone. The last thing he needed was to loose more people in his life. He had suffered enough over his parents and he refused to let anything else get to him.
Tidus finished brushing his teeth and ran to get his backpack and put on a new shirt. Normally, he slept in his clothes, probably because he always wanted to be prepared to bolt if as quickly as possible. That was probably due to the time he spent on the streets. But, in times like these, he was actually thankful for his tendencies. He chose a black shirt for his black pants and put on a pair of sneakers.
He glanced at the clock and hollered at Wakka, "Wakka get moving, we've got fifteen minutes!" As he stood by the door, he watched as Wakka flew out of the bathroom, grabbing his pack and following Tidus out the door. They both flew down the stairs and entered the apartment parking lot. He glanced around and spotted his piece of junk car.
They both sprinted for the car, with Tidus sliding over the hood and unlocking the door in one swift motion. After opening the door for Wakka and throwing his pack in the backseat, he popped his keys into the ignition and twisted. The engine purred to life, well, more like rattled and clanked, and Tidus squealed out of the parking lot.
He sped through the streets cutting one person off. That earned him a loud honk and an obscene gesture to which he just chuckled. It was hard to get him angry because whenever someone did something that would normally be upsetting, he would just laugh and shrug it off. It had earned him more than just a couple of enemies, but it also gave him a sort of "bad boy" image. The image, he didn't really care about, especially since it meant most people distanced themselves from him, and the enemies usually didn't matter anyway. He could protect himself just fine. After months of living on the streets, he had learned more than his fair share of fighting and he had the scars to prove it.
As he entered the freeway, he looked over at Wakka and noticed he looked a little tense, to say the very least. "Wakka, relax will ya." Wakka shook his head and let out a sigh. Tidus didn't have to be a psychic to read his mind. Regardless of how much Tidus denied it, he too was a little nervous about what the new school was like. Zanarkand High was one thing, but Besaid High would probably have dozens of pointless rules and expectations.
Once again, he regretted even being here, but it seemed that fate had destined it. Last year he and Wakka were "star" players of Zanarkand High's blitzball team as well as the two students with the highest GPA. Of course the GPA didn't mean much to them because there wasn't much competition at Zanarkand High. Most of the kids didn't care whether or not they flunked, they were there because they had to be.
When the end of school came, Zanarkand High got closed because of its "unsanitary condition" and all the kids were going to be bused elsewhere. But, to Tidus and Wakka's surprise, they both got a letter from the Spiran government saying that apparently they were trying a new program that paid for the best and brightest of "underprivileged students" to enroll in better schools by providing scholarship money.
So, Tidus, Wakka, and eighteen other students from Zanarkand were given scholarship packages and allowed to choose where they would attend. Both Tidus and Wakka had opted for Luca because of their blitzball team, but Wakka's mom thought Besaid would give them a better education, so she basically shot down any thought of another school. Reluctantly, Tidus and Wakka agreed and used some of their scholarship money to rent an apartment in Besaid with two bedrooms and a bathroom. It wasn't much, but then again they weren't use to much anyway.
'So here I am, on my way to prep central,' he thought to himself and shook his head in disbelief. He didn't really have any sort of grudge against Besaid. As a matter of fact, it was entertaining beating Besaid's blitzball team senseless. Every year, there was a big rivalry game between Besaid and Zanarkand and every year Zanarkand would stomp them flat. What made it more entertaining was the fact that the Besaid players loved to taunt Zanarkand, talking about how they were going to stomp Zanarkand flat, when, in fact, Zanarkand could have beaten them with no goalie and fifty pound weights strapped to every player.
The only real reason he hated Besaid High was because they were so cocky. Even after being beat around like little children, they would shrug it off and say, "You were lucky." For the past three years, Zanarkand had been unbeatable, they may not have been the smartest school in the world, but they could have rivaled some of the professional teams of Spira. Wakka jokingly came up with the theory that Zanarkand's closing was actually a government conspiracy to give the other teams a chance.
Tidus took the exit that led to the school and was almost instantly uncomfortable. The neighborhood surrounding the school was very "royal," as Wakka put it when he referred to rich people. It was the type of neighborhood that somebody like him didn't have any business being in and after living in apartments for almost his entire life, he found himself awed by some of the lavish houses.
"Jeez," he commented as they passed a house that looked like a miniature palace, "got enough money people?"
"I'd say so," Wakka returned as Tidus turned to see Wakka staring at another mansion in the distance. Both of them continued to watch as they passed house after house until they came in sight of the school. Tidus pulled into the parking lot in front of the school. The school itself was enclosed with a gate that everyone had to walk through. It looked like it had a guard shack as well, with one person inside.
He parked the car in the closest parking spot he could find and quickly came to the realization that the entire parking lot was like one magnificent car show. It was surprising and yet kind of funny. As he got out of the car and locked it, he realized that his beat up piece of junk was parked between a Ferrari and a Viper. The sight of two brand new sleek sports cars sandwiching his clunker actually made him chuckle as he walked towards the entrance. It kind of amused him that he had even bothered locking the door. 'Anyone stupid enough to steal my car in the middle of all these show cars, should get his eyes checked, in fact, they probably need to be kicked upside the head a couple of times too.
He glanced at Wakka to see he too was chuckling at the sight behind them. They both walked towards the gates at a brisk pace. As they approached, he noticed two girls walking through the entrance. One had blond hair and was chatting away with a brunette with short brown hair. Before he control himself, he found himself impressed with both of them, particularly the brunette. She had a sort of quiet strength that emanated from her, but she didn't seem like the type to abuse it. It didn't hurt that she had an excellent figure and a smile that he could catch from a mile away.
'I wonder who.' he interrupted himself by hitting himself upside the head, 'What are you thinking, you idiot. She's everything you hate about this school. She's rich, pampered, cocky, and she wouldn't give you the time of day if your life depended on it.' He continued to debate it in his head and by the time he reached the gate, he had himself convinced that she was just like every other person in this school.
As Tidus and Wakka approached, the chunky little guard came out of his shack and said, "Sorry, no visitors during school hours." It had to be the sorriest excuse for "Sorry, you look too poor to be here," that Tidus had ever heard. Usually, it was much more blunt.
"Uh, we're new here, we just transferred from Zanarkand," Wakka stated as they came to a stop in front of the security guard. As if on cue, a group of kids walked through the gates, laughing at Tidus and Wakka as they tried to reason with the guard.
'Yeah, that's right, laugh it up, pricks!' Tidus looked down at his watch and noticed they had just under five minutes left to get to class.
"Well." the guard said with a look of disbelief, "can I see your ID's?"
Tidus and Wakka pulled out their licenses and handed it to the man. He took one look at it and shook his head. "No, I mean your school ID."
Tidus felt like hitting the guy but he forced a stoic face. 'What are you, an idiot!' "We haven't gotten our school ID's yet, we need to get into the school to get them."
"Okay." he said hesitantly, "I'll just go call this in then."
The guard turned and started to walk back to his shack. 'Great, four minutes,' Tidus thought to himself as he glanced down at his watch. 'Time is wasting and I'm stuck fighting rolly polly here to even get through the gates.'
The man talked on his walkie talkie for a little bit before walking back to Tidus and Wakka and saying, "Okay, you can go in."
He stood there waiting for them to go through the gates and a look of confusion passed over his face when they didn't. Tidus spotted his unanswered question and spoke up. "our licenses?"
A look of realization passed over him and he said "Oh" as he turned to walk back to his shack. He fumbled around inside it as the seconds ticked by.
Tidus was getting exasperated by this guy, 'That's right, creampuff, it called a drivers license, its small, its white, and it has a nifty little picture of us of it," Tidus thought to himself sarcastically. The man continued to turn his shack upside down in his search as Tidus's patience ran thin. 'Where could it be, where could it be,' he internally mocked the man, 'oh, I know why don't you search up your.'
His thoughts were interrupted when the man snapped his fingers and seemed to remember something. He reached down into his pocket and pulled out their licenses. 'Could you possibly be any more of an idiot,' Tidus thought as he shook his head. Slowly, he brought them to the two teenagers and when they had them, they both took off at a sprint that would have made most any sprinter proud.
As they approached the main entrance, they threw open the doors and rushed in, only to come face to face with yet another security guard. Behind him, were two sets of metal detectors that he obviously was supposed to man. This particular guard was tall and skinny, as opposed to the short fat one they met outside. He did an impromptu version of what the first guard said and they found themselves again waiting for him to check their ID's. Luckily for the two boys, he wasn't quite as clueless as the first one, because he had their ID's back to them with a minute and a half to spare.
After a weak thanks, Tidus and Wakka headed off to their classes, both not even knowing where they were going. Unfortunately, they didn't have their first classes together so Wakka set off in search of science class and Tidus set off for math. As they waved goodbye to each other, both of them set off, unknowing of what they'd find.
Well, that's it for the introductory chapters. I hope you liked them. Like I've said before, all the characters are going to seem out of character at some point, I just hope that doesn't ruin it for you. If you want to, review and tell me what's wrong or right. The next one will be out whenever I can brainstorm a good idea of how to write it.
Disclaimer: Same thing as before, I don't own any of the characters (unless I decide to make some up)
"Tidus, get your sorry butt out of bed! The last thing I need is to show up late on the first day," Wakka yelled as Tidus felt something slam into him. He was up like a shot, looking to see what hit him. He immediately spotted Wakka standing next to his bed with a pillow in hand.
"What's the big deal Wakka, afraid the preps will start without you?" He glanced at his clock and realized it was only 6:40 in the morning, which meant that he still had an hour and twenty minutes. "Jeez Wakka! Just because you're paranoid about the new school doesn't mean you have to wake me up at the crack of dawn!"
Tidus expected Wakka to realize his mistake and look embarrassed, but he continued to look at Tidus with a look that definitely said "hurry up!" This wasn't Wakka. Normally, Wakka and he would wake up with maybe a half an hour to spare and speed out the door with ten minutes left. They were never worried about being late.
"Tidus, what are you clueless?! Besaid starts an hour before Zanarkand did. Didn't you read the information packet?" In all honesty, Tidus hadn't even bothered to read the information he was given. He wanted as little to do with Besaid High as possible.
Muttering silent cuss words, he glanced at the clock, and realized how little time they had left. He shot out of bed, demanding, "Well why didn't you wake me up?!"
Wakka looked a little sheepish and returned with, "Well. I kind of forgot to set the alarm clock, I just woke up." He scratched the back of his head and an uneasy grin spread across his face.
Tidus rolled his eyes and went into the bathroom. "Do you even know where we are supposed to park?" He checked his hair in the mirror and after determining that it didn't look completely awful, he went on to brushing his teeth. He never was too concerned about his hair. When it was somewhat messy it actually looked better than when he tried to comb it. Besides, he didn't have time anyway.
Wakka walked into the bathroom next to him and started combing his hair into his usual "spikey" hair due. "I think they have a private parking lot or something." Tidus actually found himself snickering as Wakka fought with the gel to get the look he liked.
"Oh of course," Tidus said in a mocking tone, "why wouldn't the preppies have their own private lot." It almost made him sick how pampered most of the brats were. If it were his choice, he wouldn't even be here, he'd be at some public school where he could get along fine. Unfortunately, it wasn't his decision because Wakka's mom had told Wakka and him, "You're are going to Besaid High and that's that."
For the past ten years, Wakka's mom had been the closest thing he had to family. Ten years ago, his dad had disappeared without a trace. Shortly after, Tidus's mom died after getting hit by a stray bullet in a drive by shooting. Thus, he was left to fend for himself. He had evaded the social workers and police for months, while living on next to nothing. Then he met Wakka while sneaking in to watch a professional blitzball game.
Wakka was at the game with his mother and actually saved Tidus from getting thrown out by offering him the extra seat they had. During the game, they found that they both loved blitzball. After that, they had met frequently to play blitzball and cause mischief. Within three months, Tidus had a new family and a home that he shared with Wakka, Wakka's younger brother Chappu, and his mom and dad.
The apartment they shared wasn't much. In fact, it was barely big enough to house four people, so five was a bit of a stretch. Tidus elected to sleep on the couch and even though they objected, he spent most nights there. He was actually surprised when they were actually able to legally adopt him. Apparently there were already too many orphans and the city was almost desperate to give some of them homes. So it was, that for the past ten years he lived with Wakka, working and doing anything he could to help them make ends meat.
He never really liked talking to anyone outside his adopted family. It wasn't that he was shy, in fact it was the complete opposite. He didn't want to get too attached to anyone. The last thing he needed was to loose more people in his life. He had suffered enough over his parents and he refused to let anything else get to him.
Tidus finished brushing his teeth and ran to get his backpack and put on a new shirt. Normally, he slept in his clothes, probably because he always wanted to be prepared to bolt if as quickly as possible. That was probably due to the time he spent on the streets. But, in times like these, he was actually thankful for his tendencies. He chose a black shirt for his black pants and put on a pair of sneakers.
He glanced at the clock and hollered at Wakka, "Wakka get moving, we've got fifteen minutes!" As he stood by the door, he watched as Wakka flew out of the bathroom, grabbing his pack and following Tidus out the door. They both flew down the stairs and entered the apartment parking lot. He glanced around and spotted his piece of junk car.
They both sprinted for the car, with Tidus sliding over the hood and unlocking the door in one swift motion. After opening the door for Wakka and throwing his pack in the backseat, he popped his keys into the ignition and twisted. The engine purred to life, well, more like rattled and clanked, and Tidus squealed out of the parking lot.
He sped through the streets cutting one person off. That earned him a loud honk and an obscene gesture to which he just chuckled. It was hard to get him angry because whenever someone did something that would normally be upsetting, he would just laugh and shrug it off. It had earned him more than just a couple of enemies, but it also gave him a sort of "bad boy" image. The image, he didn't really care about, especially since it meant most people distanced themselves from him, and the enemies usually didn't matter anyway. He could protect himself just fine. After months of living on the streets, he had learned more than his fair share of fighting and he had the scars to prove it.
As he entered the freeway, he looked over at Wakka and noticed he looked a little tense, to say the very least. "Wakka, relax will ya." Wakka shook his head and let out a sigh. Tidus didn't have to be a psychic to read his mind. Regardless of how much Tidus denied it, he too was a little nervous about what the new school was like. Zanarkand High was one thing, but Besaid High would probably have dozens of pointless rules and expectations.
Once again, he regretted even being here, but it seemed that fate had destined it. Last year he and Wakka were "star" players of Zanarkand High's blitzball team as well as the two students with the highest GPA. Of course the GPA didn't mean much to them because there wasn't much competition at Zanarkand High. Most of the kids didn't care whether or not they flunked, they were there because they had to be.
When the end of school came, Zanarkand High got closed because of its "unsanitary condition" and all the kids were going to be bused elsewhere. But, to Tidus and Wakka's surprise, they both got a letter from the Spiran government saying that apparently they were trying a new program that paid for the best and brightest of "underprivileged students" to enroll in better schools by providing scholarship money.
So, Tidus, Wakka, and eighteen other students from Zanarkand were given scholarship packages and allowed to choose where they would attend. Both Tidus and Wakka had opted for Luca because of their blitzball team, but Wakka's mom thought Besaid would give them a better education, so she basically shot down any thought of another school. Reluctantly, Tidus and Wakka agreed and used some of their scholarship money to rent an apartment in Besaid with two bedrooms and a bathroom. It wasn't much, but then again they weren't use to much anyway.
'So here I am, on my way to prep central,' he thought to himself and shook his head in disbelief. He didn't really have any sort of grudge against Besaid. As a matter of fact, it was entertaining beating Besaid's blitzball team senseless. Every year, there was a big rivalry game between Besaid and Zanarkand and every year Zanarkand would stomp them flat. What made it more entertaining was the fact that the Besaid players loved to taunt Zanarkand, talking about how they were going to stomp Zanarkand flat, when, in fact, Zanarkand could have beaten them with no goalie and fifty pound weights strapped to every player.
The only real reason he hated Besaid High was because they were so cocky. Even after being beat around like little children, they would shrug it off and say, "You were lucky." For the past three years, Zanarkand had been unbeatable, they may not have been the smartest school in the world, but they could have rivaled some of the professional teams of Spira. Wakka jokingly came up with the theory that Zanarkand's closing was actually a government conspiracy to give the other teams a chance.
Tidus took the exit that led to the school and was almost instantly uncomfortable. The neighborhood surrounding the school was very "royal," as Wakka put it when he referred to rich people. It was the type of neighborhood that somebody like him didn't have any business being in and after living in apartments for almost his entire life, he found himself awed by some of the lavish houses.
"Jeez," he commented as they passed a house that looked like a miniature palace, "got enough money people?"
"I'd say so," Wakka returned as Tidus turned to see Wakka staring at another mansion in the distance. Both of them continued to watch as they passed house after house until they came in sight of the school. Tidus pulled into the parking lot in front of the school. The school itself was enclosed with a gate that everyone had to walk through. It looked like it had a guard shack as well, with one person inside.
He parked the car in the closest parking spot he could find and quickly came to the realization that the entire parking lot was like one magnificent car show. It was surprising and yet kind of funny. As he got out of the car and locked it, he realized that his beat up piece of junk was parked between a Ferrari and a Viper. The sight of two brand new sleek sports cars sandwiching his clunker actually made him chuckle as he walked towards the entrance. It kind of amused him that he had even bothered locking the door. 'Anyone stupid enough to steal my car in the middle of all these show cars, should get his eyes checked, in fact, they probably need to be kicked upside the head a couple of times too.
He glanced at Wakka to see he too was chuckling at the sight behind them. They both walked towards the gates at a brisk pace. As they approached, he noticed two girls walking through the entrance. One had blond hair and was chatting away with a brunette with short brown hair. Before he control himself, he found himself impressed with both of them, particularly the brunette. She had a sort of quiet strength that emanated from her, but she didn't seem like the type to abuse it. It didn't hurt that she had an excellent figure and a smile that he could catch from a mile away.
'I wonder who.' he interrupted himself by hitting himself upside the head, 'What are you thinking, you idiot. She's everything you hate about this school. She's rich, pampered, cocky, and she wouldn't give you the time of day if your life depended on it.' He continued to debate it in his head and by the time he reached the gate, he had himself convinced that she was just like every other person in this school.
As Tidus and Wakka approached, the chunky little guard came out of his shack and said, "Sorry, no visitors during school hours." It had to be the sorriest excuse for "Sorry, you look too poor to be here," that Tidus had ever heard. Usually, it was much more blunt.
"Uh, we're new here, we just transferred from Zanarkand," Wakka stated as they came to a stop in front of the security guard. As if on cue, a group of kids walked through the gates, laughing at Tidus and Wakka as they tried to reason with the guard.
'Yeah, that's right, laugh it up, pricks!' Tidus looked down at his watch and noticed they had just under five minutes left to get to class.
"Well." the guard said with a look of disbelief, "can I see your ID's?"
Tidus and Wakka pulled out their licenses and handed it to the man. He took one look at it and shook his head. "No, I mean your school ID."
Tidus felt like hitting the guy but he forced a stoic face. 'What are you, an idiot!' "We haven't gotten our school ID's yet, we need to get into the school to get them."
"Okay." he said hesitantly, "I'll just go call this in then."
The guard turned and started to walk back to his shack. 'Great, four minutes,' Tidus thought to himself as he glanced down at his watch. 'Time is wasting and I'm stuck fighting rolly polly here to even get through the gates.'
The man talked on his walkie talkie for a little bit before walking back to Tidus and Wakka and saying, "Okay, you can go in."
He stood there waiting for them to go through the gates and a look of confusion passed over his face when they didn't. Tidus spotted his unanswered question and spoke up. "our licenses?"
A look of realization passed over him and he said "Oh" as he turned to walk back to his shack. He fumbled around inside it as the seconds ticked by.
Tidus was getting exasperated by this guy, 'That's right, creampuff, it called a drivers license, its small, its white, and it has a nifty little picture of us of it," Tidus thought to himself sarcastically. The man continued to turn his shack upside down in his search as Tidus's patience ran thin. 'Where could it be, where could it be,' he internally mocked the man, 'oh, I know why don't you search up your.'
His thoughts were interrupted when the man snapped his fingers and seemed to remember something. He reached down into his pocket and pulled out their licenses. 'Could you possibly be any more of an idiot,' Tidus thought as he shook his head. Slowly, he brought them to the two teenagers and when they had them, they both took off at a sprint that would have made most any sprinter proud.
As they approached the main entrance, they threw open the doors and rushed in, only to come face to face with yet another security guard. Behind him, were two sets of metal detectors that he obviously was supposed to man. This particular guard was tall and skinny, as opposed to the short fat one they met outside. He did an impromptu version of what the first guard said and they found themselves again waiting for him to check their ID's. Luckily for the two boys, he wasn't quite as clueless as the first one, because he had their ID's back to them with a minute and a half to spare.
After a weak thanks, Tidus and Wakka headed off to their classes, both not even knowing where they were going. Unfortunately, they didn't have their first classes together so Wakka set off in search of science class and Tidus set off for math. As they waved goodbye to each other, both of them set off, unknowing of what they'd find.
Well, that's it for the introductory chapters. I hope you liked them. Like I've said before, all the characters are going to seem out of character at some point, I just hope that doesn't ruin it for you. If you want to, review and tell me what's wrong or right. The next one will be out whenever I can brainstorm a good idea of how to write it.