Chapter 1 - Glances.

[confessionsofamask]

Jess scratched her head with both hands while her professor talked. She idly wondered if she would talk in class today. She didn't mind talking, but her standards for when she should do it were high. She would get downright embarrassed listening to her classmates let out whatever thoughts happened to wander into their heads. Avoiding that was priority number one, some days.

She scanned around the room. Too familiar, as she had had a class here the previous semester. A very different class with very different people, she realized. She jotted down more notes while considering the number of people who had passed through this room over the years. During times like this, she went through what she knew of her classmates, how much she had actually come to bond with them and in what fashion, and considered, mathematically, just what the odds of finding someone with whom a real connection could be forged with were, out of all those people. She had to take into account the demographics of the type of people who would be at her school in the first place -- age, income, background -- of course, and ponder just what the likelihood of being able to breach the ever-impenetrable walls of social disguises and isolation masquerading as friendliness was to even gauge whether this was a worthwhile social avenue to travel down.

Hmm, she thought. Hmm.

She glanced at the girl across the room. Not directly across, but just to the left of the one whose eye contact she perpetually made by virtue of the circular arrangement of chairs. Just to the left.

Comments

Any old time, you keep me waiting.

[tickingclocks]

Pyralis went through song lyrics in her head, drifting off into her own world a little bit while the teacher took a break between lecture. She doodled something in her notebook, liking it enough that she considered making it a finished piece. She wrote lyrics above it: "Living just to keep going, going just to be sane." She tended to use song lyrics in a lot of her works; whether it be in the actual medium or inspired by it. Still, enjoying music wasn't something that was that uncommon.

She sighed slightly, tapping her fingers on her desk, a habit she'd had since grade school. Her brother said her brain ran too fast with ideas for her to pause, and she had to agree with him. Sitting still was one of the most difficult things for her to do. There was just... so much to do, and never enough time in the day.

She glanced around the room carefully, just to distract herself. There wasn't much of interest... the same people she'd seen and known since she began school, with a few new faces. No one she was particularly close to.

Oh, but who was that? She caught the eye of the girl sitting towards the right side of the room to her. Her name was... Jess? Was that it? Since they made eye contact, she managed a small, shy smile, before pulling her ponytail over her shoulder and looking in the opposite direction.

Re: Any old time, you keep me waiting.

[confessionsofamask]

Jess felt her eyebrows waggle upward in a waggly motion. More thoughts pooled in her brain. To say this girl "caught her eye" was perhaps not the most accurate statement. As far as Jess was concerned, her eyes had caught her, as they cast a net amidst the current that was a college classroom, hoping to find some fish.

Jess reflected on the unexpected violence of her internal metaphor for a moment.

Who was this girl? She was definitely pretty, but didn't seem to know it. No, that's too cliche. And judgmental. She wasn't showing off, though. She wasn't wearing any makeup and had her hair up in a rather conventional ponytail. It wasn't off-putting by any means.

Jess kept looking at her, even as the girl had looked away. Jess was attempting to remember her name (it was weird, right? Something to do with onions... no, but it began with a V? A P?) but was also simply interested in looking at her, it seemed.

Jess spent the rest of the class attempting to recall her name but couldn't quite summon it. As the professor announced the end of class, she decided to avoid wasting time and went up to the girl.

"Hi. I'm Jess. I can't remember your name. I'm sorry if I stared at you, I didn't mean to. Want to get food with me?"

Re: Any old time, you keep me waiting.

[tickingclocks]

Pyralis zoned out a little for the rest of the class, since the teacher was doing review and she understood this subject a lot. Still, her mind tracked back to Jess. The girl seemed... different to her. In a good way, of course. She always thought people who were different from the cookie-cutter way were better.

She seemed very aggressive and forward, from what she heard from her in class. Also very smart. Pyralis admired her strong spirit, even though in some ways it was the opposite of hers. There were certainly different ways to be strong though.

She packed up her books when the teacher ended the class, shifting through her notebooks to make sure they were all in her bag and in the right place. When a shadow drifted over her desk though, she looked up, catching the eye of the girl she was thinking about earlier once again.

She registered what the girl said to her and let a small smile cross her face, answering. "Oh, it's Pyralis... if you want you can call me Rose though... a lot of people do, it's easier to remember. And you weren't really staring, I looked too. It's ok." The invitation to eat took her by surprise, but she wasn't going to deny someone who asked her something nicely. "Oh, um... sure. Is it alright if I get sushi? I know some people are bothered by it..."

Re: Any old time, you keep me waiting.

[confessionsofamask]

Jess put a finger to her pale lips and turned her head. "Hmm! Sushi... you know what, that sounds fantastic!" Her eyes seemed to gleam as she looked back towards Pyralis. "I like your name! Can I call you Py or is that rude? I won't if you hate it!"

Jess found herself becoming oddly excited at the prospect of eating with her. Jess had a very particular way of discovering whether she felt it was important or worthwhile to continue conversing with people. The number of times she had entered into a conversation only to stop it dead after a particular point of contention or irritation. Her reputation for brusqueness and anti-social behavior was not helped by this tendency.

Jess' eyes were so drawn to Pyralis' face that she began to suspect there was some hidden reminder or puzzle buried within it. It was an entrancing situation that confounded her expectations.