| I Realistically by Chiharu Disclaimer: SfoC is by Tricycle, who is made of awesome. Theme Eleven: Tattoos/ Piercing “ACKH!” Scotty poked his head into the joint bathroom before frowning. Christian was knelt down on the ground, crawling around the floor in search of something. He looked up at the blonde’s entrance, hitting his head on the edge of the sink. “OWWW!” Scotty paused, glancing around the bathroom. The sink was over flown, and bottles of detergent and soup were knocked onto the ground. “Eh, I hate to ask, but what are you doing?” “Help me find the clutch! It fell on the ground when I was putting my earrings in!” Chris pouted. “I couldn’t get it through my ear. GAH! Now the earring is gone too! Where did it roll to?” The blonde sighed, picking up a small object around his foot. He pushed his glasses up on the frame of his nose, squinting chocolate brown eyes. “Piercing earring?” “Yah.” Chris stood up, setting the earring clutch onto the sink counter. “I’m piercing my ears. Cool, right? Want me to pierce yours?” “Your ears are already pierced. Twice, I think. ” “I know.” The dark-hair boy grinned. “I think the cartilage one closed up, so I’m re-piercing it. Do you have a needle or something with you?” He rubbed his left ear cartilage, wincing slightly. “Aww. Now it’s bleeding again.” Scotty shrugged, throwing a towel towards Christian’s general direction. “Sit down”, he ordered the other boy as he looked around the room, pulling a bottle of liquid from the cabinet. “What’s that?” “Hydrochloric acid. The alcohol will disinfect your ears.” The blonde paused, pulling a safety pin off of his jeans –he usually safety-pinned ripped jeans due to the fact that he’s lazy, and sewing was for girls and gay men-. “Where do you come up with all that stuff?” Chris squirmed from sitting on the sink counter, eyeing the other boy. His eyes were wide, full of suspicious and excitement. “The same place you get your snail grease.” Scotty grinned. “The school store?” “Wha?” “Well.” Christian leaned over, poking Scott’s strawberry earrings. At this angle from sitting on the sink counter, his feet reached the floor and he was no longer a foot taller than the blonde. “I got that stuff from the chemistry teacher in the third wing. I heard they’re doing experiments on genetically mutated cats! Isn’t that cool?” “Yeah.” Scotty held onto Chris’s arm, sliding the safety pin in place. “Maybe if you ask nicely, they’ll give you some for free.” “Oh, I don’t eat cats.” Christian grinned. “I stopped after getting indigestion.” “You’re such a goon.” Chris smirked before wincing a bit. “Ouch. That was quick.” He swung around, looking into the mirror. “You should start an ear piercing service!” Scotty grinned. “Maybe I should.” “Pierce my belly button now?” “Uh, no.” Theme Four-teen: Expensive Jewelry “Free response question of the day.” Mrs. Pacman spoke up, flipping the dry erase board over to reveal the other side: completely covered in equations. “A jewelry store has been robbed. I will provide you with the data and you will need to find the equation used to break into the vault, the escape route through this maze, and exactly where the culprit will strike next on this map. This is due tomorrow. Show your work, and you may work with one partner.” “Scott, let’s work together. “ He didn’t need to ask for permission; he never did. Not when it came to Adrian. Adrian always knew what he was doing. Which is what confused Scotty the most. He never thought of it as weird. Perhaps it was some odd form of hero worship. Perhaps it was just a silly obsession, a phase, a fad he was to grow out of. But at some point –whether it be soccer or not- the blonde realized he was absolutely infatuated with Adrian. At some point or another, he thought Adrian acknowledged him, acknowledged it. Why wouldn’t he? Everyone else knew. Everyone: Christian, Felix, and probably everyone in the class. “I think-” “Yeah.” And then Adrian would smile at him, purple eyes flashing in almost a pure shade of grey. “I know.” Did he really know? Adrian was always right, and Scott took this to heart. Adrian, however, would never give any clues as to what he’s thinking. He never pointed the obvious out, and he never needed to. It was as if everyone already knew that Adrian was all-knowing. “Scott and Adrian.” Mrs. Pacman smiled. “You two are working together again, I see. Keep it up; you two make a good team.” A team. Yeah, right. Scotty would come up some weird equation, like always, burying himself in trying to find multiple solutions. Adrian would smile, nod, and wait for Scott to realize his mistakes before pointing out an easier way to find the function. It was the same outside of class. Scotty would always be the one talking; babbling on like an idiot. He knew it too, but he couldn’t stop. Because when Adrian was around, his mouth would always run, and even when he knew he was making a fool of himself, he couldn’t stop. Adrian never voiced anything would directly; he would just chuckle and give off an amused look. In the end, Scott would never know what he was thinking. That was what worried him the most. Theme Seven: Fan boy/girl The regional semi-final game is big news around the school. That week, it almost seemed as if the student body recognized the soccer team for the first time. Guys cheered them on and patted them on the back upon entering classrooms, and teachers congratulated them in every class. It was if everyone knew they were going to win even before the game. Scott supposed it was big, but between the test in Calculus and the projects in English, he never really paid much attention to it. Christian was much excited about it then Scott was. He turned in his bed at night, unable to sleep and insisting that Scott stop pretending to be asleep so they could talk about their opponents in the game. Chris mentioned that his mother was coming to see the game, and Scott assumed that other parents were coming as well. He just didn’t expect her. Adrian introduced her before the game. “Guys, this is Amelia.” He doesn’t make it clear, but the teammates doesn’t fail to notice that he held her hand the entire time. Amelia is gorgeous and elegant to every degree. She smiled gracefully and easily learned everyone’s name. The boys loved her. Scott hated her from the beginning. Adrian never explained his relationship to her. He merely waved it off and told everyone to stretch before the game. Scott isn’t convinced because he notices the way Adrian touches her arm and the way she smiles back at him. And suddenly Scott sees her golden hair and his purple eyes on their future child, how perfect they are for each other. It makes him feel sick. Theme Eight: Team Uniform The game is a flash of blur in Scott’s eyes. He plays horribly and misses the easiest goal of the season. All he remembers is the rain drizzling down on the soccer field, the grass turning into mud, and the way everyone slid into the ground, determined to make the goal, win the game. The referee runs into the field at halftime, blowing his whistle and waving his arms. The game is postponed because of the rain. The crowd complains, but the team complies indignantly, emptying out of the field slowly. A couple of teammates went to the stands to talk to their parents, and Adrian –slowly but nevertheless- makes his way to Amelia’s seat. Scott sees this, but whishes he never did. Instead, he lies on the bench in the changing room, shaking his head when Christian asks him to come along to dinner with the team. “No thanks guys, I don’t feel so well. I’ll just go back to our dorm and sleep it off.” When everyone leaves the locker room, Scott lays back down on the bench, his jersey covering his face. He’s in denial about Adrian, and he’s in denial about the fact that he’s crying. “Hey, did you see my wallet?” Felix comes back into the changing room, causing Scott to fall off the bench. He sees Scott’s wet cheeks, despite the blonde’s attempts to wipe it off. Felix bits his bottom lips, pausing. Instead of speaking up, he grabs the wallet out of his locker and leaves. Theme Twenty: Gypsy “Look at this!” Christian comes back into the dorm after ten, holding onto a miniature figure of a gypsy. “Look what I got from the vending machine in the restaurant!” He stops when he sees Scott, curled up in a ball on the bed. The blonde expects him to run out of the room; pretending that he never noticed anything wrong. It’s what Felix did, after all. Instead, Christian set his bauble down on the desk, taking a seat at the edge of Scott’s bed. “Hey… Are you okay?” “Yeah, I’m fine.” “They’re just friends, you know.” The freckled boy explained. “She was a shock to the rest of us as well; Adrian’s never mentioned her to anyone… But he said there was nothing going between the two of them.” Grinning, he patted Scott on the back. “Come on, be happy!” “That has nothing to do with me.” Scott mumbled from under the pillow. “I’m tired, so don’t bother me anymore. I’m going to sleep.” Christian frowns. “God, I feel like I should get you one of those duck soup for the broken soul books or something.” “…. It’s chicken soup.” The blonde cracked a smile. “Heh. Chicken, duck. Same thing.” “Sure.” “Are you sure you’re okay?” Chris kneeled down next to the blonde’s bed, poking him on the side. “Did you eat anything?” “Yeah.” Scott lies. “Oh. Okay.” Christian doesn’t push the issue any further because he knows he can’t do anything. He’s used to a cheerful Scott; he’s used to it when Scott argues with him about hair dye, hiding his books, and stealing his earrings. He’s not used to Scott wallowing in his own pity. “You’ll get over it.” The dark haired boy speaks up after awhile. “You’re just in a phrase, the Adrian phrase. Everyone is charmed by Adrian at first, but you’ll get over it.” “Did you go through an Adrian phrase?” “…. No.” Christian frowned. “But you can’t just hide in your bed all day. Of course there’s gonna be tension now, but eventually you’ll get over it.” Scott nods under the pillow, but he doesn’t know if Christian is talking about Adrian or Felix anymore. Theme Two: Stripes “Hey, what happened to your striped stuff? Why are you wearing that boring shirt today?” A classmate asks him. Scott mumbles something about most of his cloth being in the Landry basket. He’s too tired to dress up in colorful clothing when he doesn’t feel cheerful. Adrian doesn’t say anything, which is normal because Adrian was never the extremely talkative one; Scott was. Instead, all there left now was an awkward silence between the two during Calculus. Practice is even worse for him. Instead of the usual jokes and dirty remarks, even Felix avoids meeting his eyes. Christian is the only one who attempts to cheer him up during break, patting him on the back and laughing. “So is Amelia coming to the next game too?” Someone says out of nowhere. “After all, we have to finish that postponed game, right?” “Yah! I want to see her again too!” Someone else chips up. Scott tightens up and Chris frowns at him worriedly. Adrian smiles slightly. “Maybe. She has a lot of things to do too.” “Well, did you tell her?” “Yeah! I bet she would come! She promised to bake us cookies too!” “Oh! Those butterscotch ones?” “Yeah and-“ “SHUT UP.” Felix suddenly speaks up, a little too loud. “We need to stop standing around and practice more. What’s the point of her coming is she’s just going to see us lose?” The team quiets down, resuming practice. Chris pats Scott on the back, running back into the field after the soccer ball. Scott turned around, frowning at the sight of Felix talking to Adrian near the water fountain. He’s not sure what to think of Felix, but pushes the thought to the back of his mind and goes back to practicing. |