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 Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 11:27 pm
 Naois had been hard at work for the better part of a hour. When he had picked up the job to come and clean up a indoor park, he thought 'How bad could it be?' He had figured maybe there would have been some candy wrappers strewn about, maybe a few cigarette butts tossed into the mulch. He honestly had not thought many people would visit a heated indoor garden in the middle of winter. He must have been very wrong though.
"Gneh..." He groaned as he pried some still sticky gum off the bark of some sort of flowering tree. "This is so gross." He lamented. The gum clung to the plastic gloves he was wearing for the clean up. As he tried to scrape it off he felt the gloves rip at the tips.
"Aw come on." He grumbled once more. Naois fisted his hand and tore the glove off with the gum left on the inside of the glove. He tossed it into the plastic baggie he had been given to him for the purpose of the clean up. Shaking his head he pulled out another and wiggled his fingers into the little plastic sleeves. "People are so nasty...."
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:45 am
 "This section's all done~" The brunet wiped the sweat from her brow. There was so much to do and she was only done with a little part of the whole indoor garden. It was strange that she hadn't actually been to this place before. It was probably because this place was in such bad shape. But from the flyer that she had come across, this place was well deserving of a good clean up. She grabbed her trash bag and put on her gloves moving to a new part of the heated building. Her clothes were already smudged with dirt and her hair, though a bandanna covered her head, were decorated with leaves. She passed others working on their own little part of the place when she came upon a boy who was working on his own. She overheard the last snippet of his sentence. "I know, they have no love for their environment." She picked up some trash that was left behind.
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 1:34 am
Hearing someone actually chime in caused Naois to glance up. The speaker in question seemed like she'd been working for the better part of an hour as well. She had more dirt smudged on her then Naois had at the moment. Perhaps because she knew more about what she was doing? It didn't seem like it would make much sense, but it did to Naois. If someone was good at gardening, they had to have dirt on them, it was a sign of being involved or something. He formed a half smile and swept some thin branches back so he could search inside the leafy center of the tree for some callously tossed wrappers. Picking up a straw paper he flopped it in the air between his fingers.
"I do not know if it's a lack of love. But it certainly is a sign of laziness. I mean, there are trash cans all over the park, how hard is it to toss a piece of paper in? Of course..." Naois rubbed his gloved hand over one knee before he pushed himself up to his feet. "If I used that means of thinking at home the dishes would be done every night and my room would be so much cleaner." Naois gave a faint and slightly awkward laugh at his own joke. "So..Hi. My name is Naois."
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 9:33 pm
"I dunno," her boots crunched fallen leaves as she came closer, "We sure do have a lot of lazy people then." It was true, trashcans were all over the place, but people seemed to prefer to use the ground. "It really is a shame that most of the people who made this mess aren't here to help clean it up." Paige gave him a slight grin, "But at least we're here, right?"
Her smile turned into a bit of an embarrassed frown, "Where are my manners?" She pulled off a glove from her hand, "I'm Paige." She held out her hand for him to shake, "It's nice to meet you."Even though the leather glove had been protecting her from sharp objects and the gunk she had to pick up, he hands were still covered in dirt.
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Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 12:11 am
Naois did not hesitate to reach forwards and take Paiges hand. Shaking it firmly he smiled at her. "Your manners are fine, and it's nice to meet you Paige." He politely returned. After a few shakes of his hand, he released her palm and knelt back down to resume searching his general area for rubbish. "This job isn't half so bad despite my earlier complaint. I cleaned up one of the fountains in the park once. Now that was pretty bad. The algae stained my jeans and I smelled of old water for hours afterward." He amiably chatted away. His blue eyes lifted to look at Paige thoughtfully.
"So you volunteer for jobs like this often? I think this is the first time I've seen you around. I think I'd recognize you if we had worked on the same projects before." Naois paused to wipe his brow with the length of his sleeve. It was good to have someone friendly near by to chat, and since he had managed to make friends with Indigo he found himself feeling a bit more open to the thought that, hey! Maybe he could have a normal teens social life after all. Making friends would be good, and Naois enjoyed the comfortable feeling that came when he was around girls in general.
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Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 3:52 pm
The hand shake made her smile, but what didn't? She giggled a little, "That must have been a pain." She looked around to see if she could spot the mentioned fountain before turning back to him. She remained idle, watching him clean while that chatted, offering him a cool grin when their eyes met. Then she snapped out of her sedentary state and began to help him clean the mess Naois was working on.
She turned to him with a slight head quirk to his question as she placed a food wrapper into her bag. "This is my first time volunteering." She thought for a moment, "And it's my first time here." She had never done something like this with others. Sure, she would feel the need to pick up some trash at the local park if she saw it, but never has she joined up with others to help. "I could get into this." She nodded thoughtfully. "I'm guessing you do this often?" From his previous statement, it seemed quite obvious.
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Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 4:33 pm
Naois shifted back on his heels and sat for a moment in the mulch he had cleaned out thus far. Looking around, he supposed he could say he'd done a good job. He didn't see any trash in his immediate vicinity. Yet there was that nagging doubting feeling he probably missed something somewhere. "It had been, but when I was done the fountain looked real nice. So it was worth the trouble." He replied thoughtfully.
Naois glanced over to where Paige busied herself cleaning as well, and he half grinned at her. "Yes. Normally I work through a temp agency, but sometimes you can find postings looking for help on the community boards. I figure that all of this will look real good on my future resumes for work and scholarships. Plus the extra cash is good to have. That's not to say the reward of seeing the places looking nice and clean isn't a good enough of a motivation." He moved his hand to brush some red bangs from his face. "There is a lot more work to be found in the summer then in the winter though."
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Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 10:26 pm
“Extra money is always good to have.” She wiped her brow with a heavy sigh. “And working hard to get this place clean is good too.” He eyes scanned the cleaner surroundings. There must still have been work to be done. “This place does seem like it would be beautiful with just some more love and care.” She sighed, “People tend to just get lazy in the summer. I know I do.” It reminded her of her own garden. It took her a while to spruce up the horrid place called the backyard when she moved out her years ago.
She smiled, sitting next to the red haired boy. “This temp agency you say you work for…” She played with her hands nervously, “How is it?” She inquired curiously, hoping she wasn’t pestering or being a bother. “If it isn’t too much trouble, I might like to join in on these tempt services.”
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Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:37 pm
Naois found himself rather enjoying this brief break. He seemed to be making more and more friends the more he took his time to just..well..try? He let his eyes wander over the plants around him before answering Paige's question. "There are a couple different agencies to tell the truth. I rather like them all. You can pick your own job.It's good if your not relying on it for support though." Naois nodded his head faintly before continuing. "On good weeks I make about a hundred and fifty dollars, when I want to be lazy I may make fifty bucks. it all really helps my uncle though." he tilted his head slightly towards the inner city area. "You could always just pop into the one on main street. They usually have the most jobs available, though I warn you. Some aren't easy. I spent a weekend mowing the cemetery lawn once. They had a old push mower, it wasn't even the gas powered kind."
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 1:17 am
Paige giggled, listening to his story contently. She played with some rocks nearby with a slight smile on her face. She didn't need to rely on this job for money. It would for a rainy day fund or to replace some of her over used gardening tools. "An old push mower, huh?" She turned to him, trying not to laugh too much. "I don't think I've seen one of those in years." Her smile grew wider.
"The really must have been hard work." She nodded, as if just talking to herself. She looked around, their work almost done. "This was a hard job too, not as hard as mowing a whole cemetery, but difficult enough." She thought for a moment, before speaking up again. "How about we get some ice cream for our hard work after this? You could tell me more about the agency and stuff."
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:40 pm
"I'll be happy if I never see one again. I had blisters on my hands from pushing that awkward thing around the stones. The only good thing was that the grass was short to start with so it wasn't too hard a job to cut through the new growth. It was just all the exercise involved...and the fact the cemetery is huge." Naois had to admit it had been exceptionally hard to mow around the flowers that others had planted on the graves too. He had ended up taking a pair of scissors and trimming the blades down just to avoid accidentally crushing them. Naois looked at a small clump of some sort of pink flowers nearby and nodded his head.
"Yeah this wasn't easy either, but it feels more satisfying then a easy job." He blinked as Paige would mention getting ice cream, and allowed a faint smile to pull at his lips. "Sure, that sounds nice." Naois brushed his palms against his pants thighs and started to stand up. "I honestly think we've done enough to call it quits. I just need to talk to the guy in charge and have him sign my timesheet."
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Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 10:30 pm
"Great!" Paige jumped up, gathering her things. "Let's get all this stuff put away." She looked over herself, seeing a few muddy streaks on her shirt and pants. She shrugged, her braided hair dancing behind her. She had seen worse done to her clothes in her garden. She didn't mind the smudges of dirt that caked her. "I can come along with you if you'd like. I wouldn't want to lose track of you!"
She beamed him a brilliant smile as she skipped to his side. The excitement had gotten her giddy and bubbly and ready to go. "I don't think there's a place too far from here..." She thought for a moment, placing one hand to her chin and the other on her hip as she carried gloves and materials. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure." Pretty sure wasn't certain, but it was close enough.
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 3:06 pm
Naois scooped together his gear and stuffed it all into a plastic bag he had kept in his pocket as he worked. Tying the top shut, he found himself chuckling in amusement. "Keep track of me? With hair as bright as mine I think that won't be a problem." Uncaring of the fact his hand was streaked with dirt, Naois ran his fingers through his bright red bangs and gave his hair a little flip upwards.
He waited long enough for Paige to get her own things together, then wandered over towards the heavy set man in charge of overseeing the clean up process. Naois didn't waste much time pulling out his sheet and pointing to where the signature was needed. Once he had his name on the line, Naois smiled and waved to someone else who was busy attempting to get a plastic bag disentangled from a bush, then turned his attention back to Paige. "Alright then. I'm all set. I just need to get my bike. It's locked up near the entrance of the park though." He lifted a hand and pointed towards the main gate. "So this ice cream place, do you go there often?"
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Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 11:31 pm
Paige didn't miss a beat, she nodded and followed Naois as he made his way to the main gate. It shouldn't be far at all, she thought with a small smile. She looked over her companion before she began her answer. "Well, you can say that I go there often enough that some of the people know me." She smirked, even though she herself would forget the faces if she saw them on the street. It was thanks to their name tags that she actually knew who she was talking to.
"They sell this delicious mint chocolate chip!" She was practically drooling already. "I get that most of the times when I'm there." She liked all of the flavors- and they did have some odd flavors- but she found herself liking that particular ice cream a bit more than the others. "Do you have a favorite ice cream?" She was itching to get to the shop from just talking about it.
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Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 11:54 pm
Naois casually strolled to the front entrance of the park. As they approached the bike rack, he dug into his pocket for the small bike key he needed to unlock it from the sturdy metal bars. It amused him some, to learn his park cleaning friend was also a fan of ice cream. "I can't say I have any sort of favorites when it comes to ice cream. I do like chocolate and sweet cream though. So maybe I'll get a chocolate with marshmallow cream on it. That is a pretty good flavor." He mused while unlocking his bike. He glanced at the tires quickly, just to make certain no one had messed with it while he had been away. His bike was pretty old.The paint, which had once been red, had faded so light it looked a bit more pink then red. It was chipped off in multiple places and he had ended up using black electrical tape to cover the chipped parts. In order to keep the metal from rusting due to exposure to the elements.
The bike began to click as he pushed it along. A annoying squeak that came when the front wheel completed a full rotation. he knew there was a slightly bent spoke in the wheel, which tapped the bar the wheel was attached to. "Though the mint ice cream sounds sound sort of refreshing after all the work we've done today. Do they have lemon sprinkles?" Naois found himself smiling happily as he let the simple question of what flavors would taste well together occupy his mind.
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