Humphrey's POV
"Hey..." A soft voice spoke up. I looked up from my page to see one of my more quiet classmates leaning toward my desk looking sheepish.
"What's up?" I whispered back, firing her a small grin.
"Can... I borrow your ruler?" She asked quietly, pointing at my foldable ruler sticking up from my pencil case.
"Yeah sure, so long as I can get it back." I smiled, picking it up and spinning it between my fingers before holding it out to her.
"Thank you." She said with a wide smile and a nod, taking it carefully from my pencil case and going back to her work.
Vanessa had us working on more posing practice, but instead of the basic shapes we were doing yesterday, we were working from photos of ourselves. Now, I'm one person who has quite a lot of confidence in their body, but even I feel a little weird looking at pictures of myself standing in strange poses. I look like such a mega prick, but artists have to do humiliating shit to get good results sometimes- all in the job description.
I fired a brief glance up at the clock, '11:56'. Not long until lunch. I want to try and find Kate, and not in the sense I'm actively going to look for her, but I want to try and wander around the campus a bit and see if I don't run into her. Sure, I know she doesn't have many friends if any, but that's not really the reason I'm doing this, as much as I'd like to help change that. I mainly just want to see for myself the sort of person she is. It's not that I don't trust what Nikki tells me, because I do. However, I also like to form my own judgements of people.
As I made what would be a small start on another pose, I couldn't help but wonder what it was exactly that happened to Kate in college. Again, it's something Nikki has mentioned, but she's never gone into detail. Although, it isn't really any of my business so...
"How's it going?" Vanessa's voice met my ears now, and she craned over my shoulder to look at what I was doing.
"Better than yesterday, I think," I said with a sideways expression, looking over my different drawings critically.
"Well, they don't look like wooden dolls, so that's an improvement." She grinned. "It looks good. Well done, Humphrey." She smiled, rubbing my shoulder before getting up and continuing her rounds of the class.
This is why I'm glad I know Vanessa well. She might be really kind, but she's also not afraid to speak the truth, and if she thinks I've improved then that's a compliment I'm definitely taking.
It was then that the musical school bell rang out, signalling the beginning of our lunch break. It had barely gone off and already the class had started clearing their things away, and some people were already leaving.
"Here, Humphrey." The same girl spoke up, startling me from my thoughts as she held the ruler at me.
"Thanks. Have a good lunch." I grinned, taking it and placing it back into my pencil case as she and two other girls left the class, all giggling to each other as they left. After clearing up all my things, I slung my bag onto my shoulder and made my way out of the classroom, firing a smile at Vanessa as I went.
As I reached the main entrance building of the uni, I looked down over the balcony of the top floor to see Hutch in the 'Vibes Corner', lounging right back in one of the bean bags with his fingers dancing around in the waterfall wall behind him, chatting to some of his friends. That reminds me, I promised Nikki to keep checking in on her at lunchtimes to make sure everything's okay, which means it's time to do that.
I pulled my phone from my pocket, unlocked it, and opened up mine and Nikki's conversation, typing the small message of 'Hey Nicks, I hope ur having a good day at school. Remember I finish at one today, so let me know when u finish and I'll come get u xxx' After hitting send, I pocket my phone and continued down the last few flights of stairs to the bottom floor.
"Yo Hutch!" I called after reaching the bottom of the stairs, grabbing his attention.
"Oh, hey bro." He grinned back, waving me to come over, which I was clearly already doing.
"What's smackin' big man?" I asked, ruffling his hair and firing a smile at Jackie, Harvey and Keil.
"Not much. We got let go a little early so just been waiting for you before we get lunch." Hutch responded with a shrug. He made them wait too? He didn't have to do that.
"Oh, thanks, bro." I smiled down at him, offering him a hand and hoisting him up from the bean bag, shortly followed by Jackie, Harvy and Keil. Jackie was an online friend of Hutch's from their school days. She lost her mind when she found out he was coming up here- in a good way.
Harvey reminds me a lot of Mooch, being that he was slightly overweight, had sarcastic humour, and was usually the one to talk a bit of sense. Then there was Keil. We met him at the last car meet I went to when I first brought the VXR. He's pretty chaotic and clumsy, but he's super down to earth. I think he's got an old RX-7, last time I checked, and I think he still has it too.
"So, Humphrey, you comin' to the car meet tonight? I promised Hutch I'd got with him this time." Jackie asked, her usual Texan accent shining through as strong as ever.
"Oh, thanks for reminding me, I still have to ask Nikki if she wants to come. It depends on how college goes today really." I said, clicking my fingers and pointing at her. "What about you, Keil, you coming?" I asked, firing the question back at the absent-looking, brunette-furred wolf.
"What?" He asked, shaking himself and looking up at me. I still can't get over how short he is. I think he said he was five-six or something like that.
"Oh, the car meet. Uhhh, I don't know man, I got a wad of coursework to do at home so probably not. Make sure you take some pictures for me though." Keil explained, looking disheartened, before pointing a finger at me with a stern expression.
"I will, I will." I sighed, chuckling and shaking my head as we headed through the double doors below the first staircase and into the large cantine.
The canteen, like the rest of the building, is super modern. Everything is painted bright white and beige colours, with the back wall covered in awards and photos from some of the universities performances and exhibitions. There's a circular area at the back with each wall holding a massive window, and there's a little outside grassy part too, but no one in their right mind's going to be using that in this weather.
"I'm so jealous of you and ya sister. I wish I got on with my sisters like that..." Jackie complained.
"At least you've got siblings. Being an only child sucks ass." Harvey complained.
I was only present in the conversation to catch that part of his sentence, because whilst we were standing in the queue, I saw Kate walk past us. She was staring down at her food rushing to get out of the canteen, at least it seemed she was by the speed she was walking.
"Pint-Size Predator caught your eye or something?" Hutch asked quietly, gently elbowing me in the ribs to get my attention as the queue started slowly moving.
"Uhh... N-No... I know her, Nikki's best friends with her sister." I responded, shaking my head and firing a glance over at where she had been. She had gone, unsurprisingly, but I could probably find her. The only things on that side of the school are the performing arts classes and the terrarium.
"Ooooh, you've got connections to the Pint-Size Pred, do you?" Keil asked, smirking up at me.
"No, not really." I chuckled, rolling my eyes at him. "I'd just like to try talk to her myself. I hear a lot about her but I don't like judging people without meeting them myself first." I explained needlessly.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that's right. I'll betcha just have a taste for feisty girls, huh? Too bad I didn't get to ya first." Jackie said, folding her arms and putting on a half-faked look of disappointment.
"You couldn't handle me." I joked, looking over at her and baring my teeth, before playfully snapping at her. Jackie let out a flirty growl in response before laughing, shaking her head at me.
"You want to talk to her? She's, like, one of the most agro, bitchy girls in the University." Hutch changed the subject back to Kate, tugging lightly on my sleeve.
"So I've heard. Like I said though, I want to form my own opinion of her." I responded with a little sternness. Hutch stared at me before turning his mouth down in a heavy exaggerated way, shrugging.
"Suit yourself." He sang, before we took another few steps forward in the queue.
I really can't believe she's as bad as they're making her out to be, it has to be just rumours, surely. She really doesn't seem like the sort of person who would act like a bitch and treat people badly. Then again, I've thought that about people before, and I've been proved wrong...
Oh well, not like it matter right now. I'll catch up with her in a sec and see if I can't get on her 'good side'.
As we continued waiting, my brain began distancing itself from my friends conversation, and creating hypothetical scenarios for what may happen when Kate and I finally ran into each other. Maybe she would recognise me, and me being her sisters best friends brother might give me some brownie points. Either that, or she recognises me and still treats me like shit, or she doesn't recognise me, and treats me like shit. Either way, it's a it's a one in three chance of being a good reaction. So far, I'm not liking my odds.
What I should have done that would have helped, now I think about it, would've been to plan out what it was I was going to say to her. Right now, I'm drawing a big, fat, juicy blank, and I feel like once I catch up to her, that situation won't change. Go me bro, bonus points for preparation. I know literally nothing about her, so how in God's name am I going to draw a conversation from that?
"Dude, what's with you- you want a burger that bad?" Harvey spoke up, startling me from my thoughts.
"Huh?" I asked stupidly, as if I hadn't heard what he said.
"You've been glaring at the burgers for the last five minutes..." He elaborated, raising an eyebrow at me. I glance over at the counter where the precooked burgers were sat, before looking back at him.
"Oh, right... Nah, I was just day dreaming." I said with a shrug as our time to purchase this universities rather fine cuisine finally arrived.
I won't lie though, the burgers do look real good today, so I guess that's my lunch sorted. Thankfully, I was first up, so I could get my ass in gear and no lose Kate. If all goes to shit with this 'plan', then I'll just make my way back to Hutch and the others, because I know for a fact they'll be in the exact same place I found them.
"Burger, please." I smiled up at the lunch woman. She fired a small grin back before plucking up a lightly pre-buttered bun and a burger with a pair of tongs, placing it into a foam take-away box, before handing it to me.
"Here ya go hun." She grinned.
"Thanks." I replied simply, smiling and nodding before turning one-eighty degrees to the tills behind, setting my burger down on the small counter and pulling my wallet from my pocket.
"That's all?" The guy behind the counter asked. tapping something into the till screen before I'd even replied.
"Mmhm." I hummed, pulling my card from my wallet and pushing it up against the reader, waiting until it beeped before retrieving my food, and starting towards the doors.
"Where you goin'?" Jackie asked.
"Walk. I'll be back in a minute." I put my thumb up at her over my shoulder, before leaving the Canteen and starting in the same direction I'd seen Kate walking. I'm willing to put money on the fact that she's gone to the terrarium. It gets surprisingly humid and stuffy in there considering its ventilated, but since it's usually quiet, she's probably gone there. I know that when I want a bit of peace and quiet, that's where I go.
Sure enough, I spotted Kate heading down the hall towards the door to the Terrarium.
"Yo, Kate! Wait up!" I called, jogging after her. She turned and quickly looked over her shoulder with a stoic expression.
"What do you want, mutt?" She snapped as I finally reached her. Talk about a first impression.
"It's me, Humphrey..." I started with a smile. "Nikki's brother?" I added hopefully. Surely she knows who I am, right
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Why're you following me?" She asked with a frown, pushing open the door to the terrarium and stepping into the humid glass dome. I followed close behind, a hot flush coming over me at the sudden change in temperature.
"You're always sat on your own, so I thought I might come say hi, see if you wanted someone to eat with." I responded with a smile, continuing to follow her down a small path that led to a bench next to the man-made indoor waterfall, shaded by trees.
"Did it ever occur to you that maybe I want to be on my own?" She asked sharply, swinging her bag off her shoulder and sitting heavily on the bench. I stood staring at her for a moment. This kind of attitude definitely wasn't what I was expecting, that's for sure...
"You can't knock it till you try it, right?" I replied with a grin, removing my own bag and sitting down beside her as she set her small fries down on the empty space next to her, and unwrapped the six inch sub she'd been holding.
"Whatever..." She scoffed, taking a bite of the sub before resting her hands in her lap with a sigh. I watched her out the corner of my eye as I opened the lid of my take-away box and retrieved my burger.
"So... You come here often?" I asked with a smirk, taking a bite of my own food. Kate let out another side and looked up at me from the corner of her eye, not looking very impressed. A few seconds of silence passed before she turned to me looking quite frustrated.
"What exactly are you trying to do? What do you want?" She repeated, staring me in the eyes with a raised eyebrow.
"I just told you that? Did you forget?" I continued joking. "I thought it'd be nice to just sit together. All the time our sisters have known each other, we've never hung out or even spoken ourselves." I explained, shrugging and taking another bit of my burger.
"Riiight..." She sang sassily.
"What, you think I've got some ulterior motive or something?" He asked with a half forced chuckle.
"Most likely." She responded dryly. Upon hearing this I stopped chewing, slightly stunned, before taking a deep breath and letting out a sigh.
"Well I don't. Hard as it might be to believe, no everyone's the same." I said with a shrug, leaning back in the bench and taking another bite of my burger. I love the smell in here, it's always so fresh and pleasant.
"Tch... I'm sure you've heard about me before haven't you." She grumbled, looking at the floor.
"Bits and pieces. I know people call you Pint-Size Pred and stuff like-." I started, before she looked up at me with a face like thunder.
"You better watch your mouth, dog." She snarled.
"You called me a mutt. If you're going to speak to me like that, then you get what you give. I'm trying to be nice, here. Besides, you asked." I responded sharply, keeping my expression cool.
Kate let out an annoyed growl and looked away from me. I waited a moment, expecting her to get up, cuss me out, and leave, but she never did.
"I think we should be friends." I said with with fake thoughtfulness in my voice, watching her from the corner of my eye as I tried my best to supress a smirk. I actually find her snappiness quite amusing, albeit it's annoying too. I feel like what could really work between us, is giving her back the attitude that she gives me, but in a jokey kind of way, if that makes sense.
"What makes you think I want to be friends with you, you mutt?" She asked with a baffled, sideways smile.
"Why wouldn't you?" I fired back with a grin.
"Because you're annoying." She grumbled, as if that should have been obvious.
"Aww, well shucks, if you say so." I replied, exaggerated. Kate let out another annoyed sigh, bringing her legs up and crossing them on the bench as she continued eating. Again, she's still not walked away or really snapped, so I'd say this is going well.
"What classes do you do?" Kate asked quietly after a few minutes.
"Hmm?" I hummed, taking a moment to let what she'd said sink in. "I do art." I replied warmly.
"Huh..." She breathed thoughtfully, before we fell into silence again.
"What about you?" I replied finally, trying to lightly push the conversation to continue.
"Creative Writing." She replied quickly, not looking at me.
"Oh, cool... So, you write like, books and stuff?" I asked. I'm actually quite surprised she does that of all things. It really doesn't seem like her sort of course. Then again, I wouldn't have been able to even hazard a guess as to what she was enrolled in.
"I want to." She replied, before lifting her hand and clicking her fingers. "Now shut up, I want to eat." She ordered harshly, before leaning on the arm of the bench and continuing her lunch.
Charming... I chuckled to myself, shaking my head as I started on my food again. This is going pretty good, I would say. As we ate in silence, I watched Kate subtly out the corner of my eye. She was firing an occasional glance at me, and it looked almost like she had a little smile going on.
"What do you usually do out of school hours?" I asked, finishing the last of my burger. Kate was silent for a few seconds before her eyes went wide, and she looked up at me.
"What?" She asked coldly.
"What do you usually do out of Uni?" I repeated.
"I don't know... Game? I don't really go out too often unless its with family, but I'm sure you already knew that." She responded with a shrug, and a small sprinkle of agro in her voice.
"Well shit, if you ever want to hang out sometime, Lily's got my number," I suggested. "Or, I can give it to you now." I added, reaching for my phone before Kate held her hand up.
"I don't think so, Jackson. I don't take random guy's numbers." She said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. I stared at her for a moment before letting out a sigh, and leaning back on the bench.
Some random guy? I repeated to myself. I can't be that much of a stranger to her, can I? Maybe getting her to trust in my will be harder than I thought... I was expecting the fact that our little sisters are best friends to give me at least a few brownie points, but the bakers been on strike today it seems...
"I'm gonna head back to class. I'm basically done anyway." She said after reaching the last bite of her lunch. That's a little disheartening considering we've only been here for about fifteen minutes, if that.
"Really? Why not stay here, surely its nicer than a classroom." I spoke up with a smile.
"Nah, I'm good. Later mutt." She said carelessly, waving her hand over her shoulder as she swung her back onto her back, and started back out of the Terrarium.
"Yeah... Later..." I muttered, staring after her for a few moments before leaning back against the bench again. I not going to lie, I didn't expect her to be so bad tempered, but it's not like I wasn't told. Honestly, it could have been a lot worse, and I think there's hope for a friendship with her and I. Besides, it's not like we're on a time limit here. Best thing to do is just take it slow, I think, and we'll be just fine.
It was then that I felt a buzz in my pocket, and I squirmed around before finally retrieving it. It was a message from Jackie that read, "Hey Humpster, Where you at? X" I unlocked my phone and quickly typed back a response.
"I'm in the Terrarium, heading back now x"
I pocketed my phone again, but didn't bother getting up. I just want to enjoy the ambience for a little longer. We can't have a place as amazing as this and just not use it, especially on cold days like these.
Kate's POV
With the end of the day only around the corner, my mind started wondering again, back to Humphrey. Usually people would just snap back with some pathetic retort and leave me the fuck alone, but Humphrey didn't do either. What's his deal anyway, his my sisters best friends brother, like... I don't know... Why would he want to talk to me?
These thoughts marinated in my mind as Alex ended the class. I can't really figure him out, no-ones been insistent enough to actually want to spend time with me before. Finally the bell chimed signalling we were allowed to leave, so I quickly lifted my back onto my shoulder, and started out of the class, snaking and worming my way between the rabble that was now forming in the hall.
I don't know why I'm even thinking about it this hard, honestly. It's one day where he came and sat with me for a few minutes. I'll ask Nikki what days he's in, and if our days area similar, and he comes to sit with me again, maybe I'll consider hanging out with him a little more. Even then, I'm keeping him distant for now.
As I headed down the stairs towards the main entrance of the Uni, I pulled my phone from my pocket, and opened up my texts with Nikki.
'Hey Nikki, just wanted to ask what days your brother comes into Uni."
As soon as I hit sent, I quickly closed my phone and pushed it back into my pocket. I've already heard enough of Humphrey today. If anyone's going to be able to give me some real insight into Humphrey, it's Nikki, but the last thing I want is to come across as too eager, because I'll never hear the end of that. Just have to take it easy, I guess...