Thursday November 5th, 2009
Sniffles and colds were starting to become more common throughout the campus. Luckily Joey hasn't been infected with either yet. He was actually on time for class so there was no rush. Me And My Dick was a success, so the director says, and he was generally in a good mood. Today he wore his grey beanie, a dark green sweater and his glasses. It was almost winter; which meant that he could finally dress comfortably. He focused on his feet as they shifted beneath him. "Hey," Joey perked his head up to see Kaylee wave and walk past him to her building. Her hair draped around her face in locks of orange. "Hi," He stopped for a second and found himself turning completely around and in her direction at her side.
"So what do you do? Like, as a major?" He asked, looking at the right side of her face as he tried to engage in conversation.
"Well I've always wanted to make my own comic book, so I enrolled in the drawing courses here." She explained before taking a sip of what smelled like coffee from her thermos. "Well that's nice!" Joey grinned and Kaylee looked up at him for a split second, "Hey, so maybe later on today, do you want to get lunch with some of my friends? They're a bit weird at first but you'll learn to love them."
She nodded, and her ginger hair bounced with it. "Where should we meet up?" Kaylee asked, looking at their surroundings to find some kind of landmark for them to remember. "Do you know your way around yet? Like the back of your hand? Because you can get lost in here pretty easily." Joey smiled when she sheepishly shook her head and looked down.
"That's fine; I'll just meet you right outside when you're done, okay?" He pointed to a tree close next to them as reached they reached the entrance. Kaylee nodded and opened the door. "You should probably start heading back – you have less than five minutes to get to class." Joey's smile slipped off his face and he broke out in a sprint back to his own class, waving over his shoulder. His binders in his bag shifted from left to right with each step. Leaves were kicked up on the way and then taken away by the wind that almost snatched his beanie, too.
Joey couldn't remember the last time he'd ran like that to class - probably because he'd never really explored the Art & Design area enough to realize the distance between there and his school. He yanked open the front door and bolted up the two flights of stairs to his class. Discreetly twisting open the doorknob, he took his seat next to Darren. "Where were you?" He asked Joey, who was still panting.
"Walking a friend to her class. She's having lunch with us, too." Darren instantly took interest and rested his head in his hands, a dopey smile on his face. "What's her name?" He questioned in a girly tone. Joey only glared at him, already knowing what Darren was thinking. "Her name is Kaylee and she is a friend, Darren. Just try not to scare her away when you meet her." Joey resumed to what he had originally been planning to do, which was to find the goddamned pencil that fell into the bottom of his bag. Darren gasped and dramatically placed a hand over his chest.
"I would never! I actually want to help you get lai-"
"Darren! She's a friend!"
"Well Jesus Christ, who's the lucky lady in this situation?" Joe snuck up behind the two and let his arms hang over their shoulders. "This girl Kaylee. She's coming to lunch with us and we need to give her a warm welcome." Darren looked over to his right at the new addition to their group to spread the juicy info. At this point, Joey had given up. So what if it's been a while since he had a relationship? Maybe he doesn't need one. There's never anything wrong with having another friend who just so happens to be a girl.
However with these guys it's just all suspicions of secret relationships.
"Jaylee, huh? I ship it." Another voice came from the other side of him. "Lo! If anything it better be a BrOTP." He hissed at Lauren, who stood slightly taller than he in his seat, ruffling his hair playfully. "I call being captain of this!" Brian Holden raised his hand voluntarily from the other side of the room. Joey let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose where his glasses once sat, knowing that it was going to be a long, long day.
Looking back down at his pencil a few hours later, he had noticed the indents made by his teeth. Joey frowned at the missing chips of paint, knowing they had most likely fallen into his mouth. His eyes darted over to the clock near the door; twelve-thirteen. Only two more minutes and then he'd go meet up with Kaylee outside of the Art & Design building near the tree he had pointed to. He kept his gaze on the clock, even though it seemed to make time pass more slowly. Once the longest hand passed the twelve again he began to pack up – sliding in his binder and aimlessly dropping his pencil into the depths of his bag.
Joey was the first one out of the class and he jogged a good portion of the way to try to avoid his friends from following him. He could see Kaylee sitting against the trunk of the tree, drawing something on a sketch pad. Her hair covered her face as she intently made the outline of a person. He loomed over her and watched for a second before disturbing her from her work. "You ready?" He leaned against the tree beside her.
"Oh, yeah." She carefully placed the sketch pad into her bag and tucked her mechanical pencil behind her ear, "So where are we heading to?"
"This place near the campus, Red Hawk. It's great; they have the best onion rings." Joey shoved his hands in his pocket and slowed down his pace a bit for her. Keeping their gazes ahead of them, they walked in silence for the majority of the way. "So what were you drawing back there?"
"Oh, our assignment was to try out different styles of characters to see what suited us best. Pretty much like testing our skills and stuff… And I guess you do theater?" She brushed stray hairs out of her face as the wind gently blew.
"Yeah, I like acting and pretty much performing in general." They came closer to the School of Music, Theater & Dance and all of Joey's friends were impatiently waiting outside, doing stupid things to pass the time. Joe Walker was giving Lauren piggyback rides up and down the street; Dylan, Brosenthal and Jaime shared a pack of Skittles, sitting cross-legged against the brick wall of the school; and the rest of the guys chatted near the curb of the sidewalk, keeping a lookout for Joey.
Joe returned from his journey to the end of the sidewalk and let Lauren down when he caught a glimpse of Joey and the new addition to the family known as Kaylee. It physically hurt him to try and keep a straight face as he and his friend had a silent conversation, using only facial expressions, as they crossed the not-so-busy street. "Hey," Joe simply greeted the newcomer who obviously didn't know how bizarre all of them could be yet, "I'm Joe." She nodded and shook his hand in response, "Kaylee."
Joey led her around the group of people to introduce everyone. Thankfully, no one started any bullshit. Lauren and Jaime fired away with questions about her favorite things, hometown, and college experience so far on their way to the restaurant. "You will freaking LOVE the food here. I mean like, I like all kinds of food but this is fantastic." Lauren exclaimed and made herself even more hungry by thinking about food. Joey walked on the other side of Jaime and listened intently to their conversation since the rest of the group remained pretty much silent. The buttons on Kaylee's bag made a faint rattling noise as they walked. Jaime studied them, and noticed a Gryffindor button facing her side. "Do you like Harry Potter, Kaylee?" She asked.
"Yeah, I love HP. And Star Wars. And Doctor Who." The ginger smiled and glanced at the other buttons that climbed all the way up and down her bag straps. "I'm quite the nerd."
"Well we are too!" Dylan called enthusiastically over his shoulder with a thumbs up, "Embrace the nerdiness." Joey saw that Kaylee looked a lot more relieved after knowing that they had fictional obsessions as well. "Did you see the Harry Potter musical we did last year?" Brosenthal slowed down to join the small social circle. "No, my first year sucked – never again will I enroll in all AP classes. Too much work." She sighed and shook her head.
The group had seemed to take interest in her and chatted about their fandoms and ships for the whole way. Once seated in a round booth in the corner, everyone knew what to get since they were regulars except for Kaylee who didn't take that long to decide. "So do you guys know what musical you'll be doing in the spring?" She kept the conversation going between them with a new subject to chat about. "That's actually a top-secret surprise. We're kind of forbidden to speak about it because then it wouldn't be a surprise." Brolden explained from four people down. Joey was sandwiched in between Kaylee and Jaime on the left end of the table.
Conversation flowed fluidly around the table with a few laughs before drinks came. Their waitress with dark braids and skin carefully placed each of the glasses with the right person, having their orders almost memorized since they were regulars. They all nodded when she asked if the wanted 'The Usual', which left Kaylee to order. "Can I have a cheeseburger with bacon? No toppings or condiments." Kaylee requested and handed her menu to the waitress after she had written down the order.
Joey admired her simple taste and kept note of it. She wasn't a salad girl either, which made everything seem so much better. She could get used to his friends pretty easily, especially Lauren. "So what school do you go to, Kaylee?" Darren asked from across the table. She looked up from her Cherry Coke and set the wrapper from her straw right beside it in a crumpled ball. "I'm in the Art & Design School; for the drawing courses." She explained after swallowing a sip of her drink.
"What do you draw? Anime?" Brosenthal questioned, taking interest in her drawing ability. "A little bit of everything I guess." Kaylee pulled out a brown sketchbook from her bag that was placed between her feet. "These are just freestyle ones that don't really apply to anything in particular." She added as Brian, Dylan and Lauren peeked through the pages.
"Aww, this clown is adorable!" Lauren exclaimed, pointing at Kaylee's drawing of a slender woman with thick makeup, short burgundy hair, and a very flashy outfit, sitting with her legs crossed.
"That's actually Columbia from Rocky Horror. It's one of my favorite musicals." She smiled and took a sip of her Cherry Coke. "What's Rocky Horror?" Jaime asked, "Like I've heard of it, I just never got around to watching it."
Kaylee furrowed her eyebrows and concentrated on the table in front of her, pondering of how to explain it. "It's… I'm not even sure how to explain it. It's very, very strange. So there's this couple, Brad and Janet, and it's basically like Hansel and Gretel except that the witch is a transsexual Transylvanian and instead of being eaten they get fucked. It sounds weird, but it's great."
Jaime's mouth opened and she tilted her head to the side. She brushed some of her blonde hair out of her face and began laughing to herself. "Sounds fantastic, I'd watch it." Jaime readjusted herself and Lauren nodded in agreement to her statement, handing back her sketchbook when the food was served by their waitress. Joey found Kaylee to be quite intriguing; not many people had the fandom obsessions like how they had. He picked up his steak and cheese sandwich and took a bite since his stomach began to growl at the smell of it.
Every once in a while he'd glance to his side where Kaylee sat, contently nomming on her burger. Her relaxed brown eyes fixed on nothing in particular, just zoning out on the waxed wooden table. Joey didn't say much for the rest of their lunch break and walked Kaylee back to the Art & Design School.
"They weren't too creepy, were they?" He smirked to the girl beside him and she shook her head and smiled.
"If anything, I thought I'd be the total weirdo but we seem to be on a similar level of insanity." She shrugged and brushed her bangs off of her eyes when the wind blew. "Thanks for inviting me out, again." They came to the front doors of the school and faced each other before parting.
"Any time," Joey beamed with his crooked jaw and slowly began to take steps back, "You're part of the group now, so welcome and I guess I'll see you around!"
She gave a polite wave and disappeared into the building that was so foreign to him. He turned and dashed back to his next class before the bell rung.
