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 Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:05 am
The first two floors had proved to be devoid of anything resembling food, or even food-in-process. This discouraged Gray very much, as he'd been out practicing his routine for several hours, and now he was too tired and unmotivated to bother cooking something for himself. He was sweaty, a little sore from attempting a move wrong and wrenching his hip, and overall, not in the mood to put much effort into anything.
Okay, so that wasn't so different from any other day. Still, he was getting to the point where, if he couldn't find food here, he'd go get his wallet and venture out into public - in his sweaty clothes, with his hair all limp and unstyled - for a hot dog. In fact, a hot dog sounded absolutely great. He knew just where he could get one, too, if the third floor's kitchen didn't pan out.
Rounding the corner, he took a moment to stretch, lifting his arms high above his head and bringing his hands together as he did. As an afterthought, he sniffed, pleased to discover that while giving every appearance of being a sweaty, smelly teenage boy, he was, in fact, not smelly. That ought to win him points if anyone was cooking and felt generous.
Dropping his arms, he wandered into the kitchen, looking around amiably for signs of life. Nothing was being cooked, per se, but there was a girl there. Maybe she was thinking of cooking something? Only one way to find out.
"Hey." His voice, a lazy drawl at the best of times, was especially languid that afternoon. "You wouldn't happen to be getting ready to cook, would you? I'm starving."
Hopefully, he smiled, patting his stomach as he spoke. Third pitch was up, so either he struck out and went home, or got lucky...
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:02 am
This was his lucky day. The dark haired girl stood in front of the microwave with a small disposable Tupperware container partially filled with water and (ironically) some uncooked hot dogs. Many people felt that cooking in the kitchen was a timely process, but Yvette was one of those girls that had mastered the art of cooking something fast and just as efficiently as if she had done it the right way. She knew she didn't need a pot to boil water, for a pot took much longer to heat up.
As she had plucked out a hot dog from her little baggy of uncooked ones and was about to set it into the Tupperware when a boy's voice reached her ears. Her ears almost seemed to perk up, for this boy sounded like he needed ol' Yvette to save the day!
Spinning around on her heels, she soon enough found out who needed her help. It was just Grayson, the infamous leech. He was lazy, and almost everyone at school knew that. Still, company is company. She called out in his direction, but her voice was too quiet for such attempts to be called "calling out."
"Oh! It's you, Grayson!" She smiled a bit, then pointed to her quick fix. "I was just getting ready to make some dogs." The polite person would have offered him a hot dog. However, they were Yvette's hot dogs. Even if giving one away wasn't the most drastic thing in the world, even if hot dogs were REALLY cheap in the scheme of things, they were still hers. He just needed to go and get his own!
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:10 am
While Grayson had a reputation around the school, he didn't seem to notice, or care, much. He rarely paid any mind to the negative comments about his laziness, because he worked hard at what he did work at, and he felt he deserved as much down time as he liked. Sure, he pinched food here and there, but if people left it in the kitchen, they were asking for it. Anything he left out he certainly didn't mind if someone else partook, especially if they were hungry.
Actually, for every instance where he'd nicked someone else's food, there was at least one to be said for him offering up something of his own. He was incredibly generous, to the point where even if they didn't exactly overlook his habits, most people didn't speak up to him about them. Gray had, on more than one occasion, split his lunch fifty-fifty, or offered his jacket, or his bed, or really, anything that was needed, on the whim of the moment. He liked helping people, and generosity was second nature to him. He could only assume it was the same for others; when he was mistaken, it baffled him, and he wondered how people could be so selfish.
Case in point: Yvette - he thought her name was Yvette, right? Probably - had a bag of hotdogs. She had more than enough. She was about to cook them. It only made sense to him that she'd pop another one in for him, which would tide him over until he went out and did some shopping for munchies.
So, he walked over, leaning on the counter and propping his elbows up on it. His smile was easy and slow, and he nodded toward the tupperware container, completely unashamed in his obvious goal. "Hot dogs are my favorite food. Can I have one?"
Nope, Grayson wasn't shy in the least, nor did he see any problem with asking a classmate to share some of what they had. It was just the way humanity ought to work in general.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:20 am
Before giving her answer to the boy, she opened up the microwave, set her Tupperware and hot dog into the dish in the middle, then closed the door. As she punched in the time of 3 minutes, she replied in a quiet voice which commonly could be mistaken as her being uncertain.
"...no..."
The microwave got to work, the inside light turning on and the plate spinning slowly, turning the contents around in a circle.
Even though she had rejected his notion of free food, Yvette, as always, enjoyed having others around. Hoping to strike a conversation up, she asked "So how are your classes going this semester, Grayson? Any subjects giving you a hard time?" She smiled sweetly, seeming to forget she just denied the boy food.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:25 am
Well... darn. Though Yvette had more than enough to share, it didn't seem like she subscribed to his life philosophy. His brows knit together a moment, the beginnings of a frown clouding his face, before he mentally shrugged it off. Oh well, not everyone was generous. If they were, the term itself wouldn't be able to exist. So she wanted to keep her food to herself - oh well. He'd just go find something to eat elsewhere.
No sense chiding her on it, because she was certainly old enough to know how to make up her own mind, and that aside, it wasn't his place to scold someone else. For all he knew, she'd had a hard life and she'd learned to guard the things she had carefully. Gray had been blessed with comfortable living since he'd been born, so he'd never really known hardship, and hoped that he'd never have to.
"I'm doing all right." The truth was, he had a stack of homework as high as his desk, but he'd get to it eventually. When he needed to. When Pop called and threatened to rip the skin off his back. "I'm pretty hungry, so I'll be going."
Pushing back from the desk, he said amiably, "Enjoy your hot dog. It was nice talking to you."
Because, even though he was walking away empty handed, it had been nice to interact with someone for a few moments. She seemed nice enough, anyway.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:44 am
Even though she had just refused the boy a free meal, she still felt sympathetic to his situation. It wasn't like she didn't know what it was like to be hungry. Everyone experienced hunger at one point or another. It was human nature.
So as he began to walk away, the girl called out in her tiny voice "I'm sorry, but I hope you find something to eat!" Now as the boy was wandering away, she felt bad. Had she done something wrong? All of these worries began to chew on her from the inside, now second guessing her decision to keep her hot dogs for herself.
When the microwave beeped, signaling that the food was now cooked, Yvette popped open the door and pulled out her meal. Rearranging her things so she was able to carry the steaming Tupperware and her baggy of hot dogs, she left the kitchen area to go back to her room. She now had to think all this over, and perhaps a bit of time away from other people would allow her that chance to think.
[FIN]
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