Rose woke up slowly before the alarm; she wasn't in the mood to hear it. She laid there glancing outside her window at the blue sky and bright sunlight at least it was a nice day.
She heard David whistling an old Proclaimers tune on the other side of the wall. Rose was always amazed at what a morning person he was.
She stretched before getting up for her shower. Rose stepped inside the tub and turned the shower knob, standing under the shower head letting the warm water soothe her then suddenly she heard her phone ringing from outside the bathroom.
"Damn it!" She grumbled shutting off the water after getting out and quickly putting on her robe she stepped out into the chilly living room.
She picked up the phone and realized she was dripping water on the floor. "Great." She mumbled before answering her phone. "Hello?" Rose sighed.
"Hello, sweetheart it's mum." It was Rose's mother Jackie.
Rose perked up. "Hi mum."
"Hi, how are you?" She asked.
"I'm fine just getting ready for school." Rose replied.
"How's school going and how are your grades?" Jackie asked.
Rose bit her lip nervously; she didn't have the heart to tell her she was doing great in everything but journalism class.
"There, there fine." She stammered. Rose cringed; she hated lying still it was only half a lie.
"I'm glad sweetheart and how's David? Is he still driving you crazy?"
She groaned and paced the floor. "You have no idea, mum!"
Jackie sighed. "I'm sorry honey but don't you think you're being hard on him? I think you should give him a chance. At least get to know him."
Rose scoffed at the idea. "No way! David is a big kid; a regular 120 pound, six-foot kid. He's goofy, loud and weird."
"And he can hear everything you're saying!" His voice interrupted loudly through the wall.
Rose rolled her eyes and placed her hand over the receiver. "Excuse me but it's rude to listen to other people's conversations!" She replied back.
"I know that but for the record I weigh 127 pounds, thank you very much and tell Jackie I said hi!" He shouted back.
She could hear Jackie giggling on the other end of the phone.
"Mum, don't encourage him." Rose whined.
"Sorry, sweetheart. Look I've got to go but I'll call again later. Have a great day in school."
She smiled and bye to her mum but after hanging up she wiped her eyes. Rose always felt slightly homesick after talking to her family but she composed herself and went back to her shower.
During class Rose wasn't sure why, maybe it was boredom but she found herself staring at David's drawing during Professor Wallace's math class.
She was trying to figure out what it was when suddenly Professor Wallace called David out for not paying attention.
"Mr. Smith?" His voice boomed.
David glanced up. "Yep?" He smiled.
"I see you're quite fascinated with your notebook." The Professor frowned.
He shrugged. "Well, I don't know about fascinated but it is a rather engaging notebook."
Rose and a few other students muffled their giggles.
The Professor scowled at everyone and strolled towards him. "Then you don't mind telling the class the answer to the problem on the board."
He looked at David menacingly but he wasn't intimidated.
"Alright." He grinned.
David cocked his head and looked at it for a moment.
"Well, Mr. Smith?" He said impatiently.
"21.1999." David replied confidently.
Prof. Wallace's mouth dropped. "That's uh, correct Mr. Smith. I obviously assumed and for that I apologize." He said.
He wasn't quite sure why the Professor was apologizing but he nodded."Okay." David replied.
Rose scowled in annoyance. She couldn't believe he got that right just by looking at it and poked his shoulder.
"Ow." He hissed. He turned and looked at her."What did I do this time?"
"Clever clogs." She frowned.
"Oh, thank you." David grinned.
Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Oh, brother." She muttered.
The day was almost done and Rose was in a hurry when she was stopped by her journalism teacher Miss Jones.
"Rose, can I speak to you for a moment?" She asked in a cold tone.
She felt her heart dropped; Rose knew this wasn't good.
Rose went inside and sat and waited in front of Miss Jones's wood desk with knots in her stomach. She knew what was coming.
Miss Jones's heels could be heard clicking on the tile floor outside until she appeared and seated herself at her desk like a queen.
She shoved her glasses up her nose and gave her a disappointed stare while showing Rose her grades. Rose then sat there listening to the same old lecture about how she wasn't applying herself and needed to show more passion.
After several minutes Rose was allowed to leave but Miss Jones advised that she accept some help with her next assignment.
Rose promised that she would but mentally her fingers were crossed. She hated the idea of somebody controlling her work.
After school Rose just wanted to get outside and go home and hide.
She didn't understand it; she felt she was applying herself and she didn't need any help. It wasn't fair.
David's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She glanced at David, Mickey, Matt and Rory sitting on the under an oak tree working on a notebook together. It looked like they were having fun; laughing and talking. There were mentions of gathering supplies and collecting discarded crayons.
She knew what that meant, another art project.
"Great." She muttered. "More noise at night."
Still Rose had to admit it was nice of David to split his earnings with them for their help but she could never figure out what he did his share cause' he almost always stayed broke.
Watching them was making her feel depressed so she hiked up her backpack and walked home.
Once home Rose tossed her backpack into the corner and plopped on the couch and closed her eyes; she couldn't face homework, yet.
But her eyes kept gazing at her laptop over on the desk it seemed to be shouting at her to work on her article.
She sighed and forced herself up and started working at her laptop but after only a few minutes the sound of boxes dropping interrupted her.
Rose already was stressed out and this wasn't helping.
She abruptly got out of her chair and stepped out into the hall just as her foot hit a box of old crayons.
Rose groaned loudly. "David!"
David opened the door while playing with a paddleball. "You called?"
"Yes, why are there old crayons in the middle of the hall?" She complained pointing at the boxes.
He continued to concentrate on the toy. "Because they were wet from being outside so I'm drying them out before I start working."
"Seriously?" She replied. She couldn't take another sleepless night.
"Sorry but I've got a buyer who wants a picture made out of crushed crayons. You can help if you like." He replied not noticing her glare.
Rose was done and had it with him. "No I don't want to help."
"Then what do you want?" He asked.
"I want you to stop it! I mean this is ridiculous!"
"What's wrong with ridiculous?" David asked.
Rose ran her hand through her blond hair. "Ugh, you are the loudest strangest neighbor ever. When are you going to grow up?" She snapped.
David scoffed. "Oh, you never want to grow up. That's the worst thing to do." He replied.
Rose was getting irritated with that toy and him.
"You do realize you're twenty, right and not five? And that you look daft playing with that thing?" She said a bit harsher than she meant to.
He sighed. "And do you realize that I honestly don't care what you think about me?" David shot back.
"Sorry?" Rose replied slightly shocked at his sudden rude tone.
David paused from his toy and turned to her. "Rose this is who I am and I'm not changing and since the other tenants don't complain I'm going to keep creating art. Now if you ever feel like getting to know me instead of judging me you know where my address is." He said calmly.
"By the way don't except me to dash inside and slam the door. I pay my rent too." David added resuming to play with the toy.
Rose continued to stare at him as he kept playing. She had never seen this side of him and realized sometimes under that silly strange personality it was easy for her to forget David was a person, a person with feelings and she just hurt them.
His nonchalant expression hadn't changed but the light and sparkle in his dancing brown eyes was gone and now they looked hurt and dejected.
Jackie's words about giving him a chance replayed in her head as Rose slowly went back inside her apartment. She glanced at him and hoped it wasn't too late to do that.