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 Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:17 pm
Toting along his favorite blanket and a thermos of cocoa (despite the fall night being especially mild for this time of year), Pasha wandered towards his usual stargazing spot as if he were on a mission. In a sense, he was - he needed to keep himself incessantly cheery, and stargazing always made all of his troubles go away. If he were frowny all the time, his friends might not like him. He didn't want that to happen at all, especially since Audrey wouldn't be able to hang out with him whenever they wanted to anymore. If he lost Tallulah and the others he'd just met, it would be all lonely again. Lonely didn't work well for him.
He was glad that tonight was relatively clear, save the occasional translucent cloud here and there. Frustrating nights of only seeing light pollution reflected off of the clouds never seemed to make anything better. He could get that same experience by staring at the ceiling as he waited to fall asleep.
Maybe, he considered as an afterthought, there might even be some fireflies or pretty luna moths. Those were always really nice to see too.
Humming to himself, he spread out his blanket, wondering if Tallulah really would come. If she didn't bring a blanket too, there was plenty of room to share, as long as she had no qualms against excessively adorable bedspreads. He plopped down on the blanket and leaned back onto his elbows, closing his eyes and smiling into the sounds of the empty park.
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:40 pm
Tallulah had a box of oreos, a towel, and not much else. She had changed out of her school uniform into sweats and a pair of old running shoes and finished her homework with time to spare, so an excursion to go stargazing with a new friend was a welcome before-bed activity.
She crossed the playground quietly, managing to resist the silly and totally inappropriate temptation to go climb on the structure like a little kid and wound up in the field on the other side. She could see Pavel laid out a little bit away, and walked over.
"Hi," she said, tossing him the cookies, and then followed it with, "Oh my god, I have the same blanket," and flopped down beside him. Soul mates. Definitely. The towel flopped aside, utterly forgotten and unneeded in the presence of a comforter with cartoon cats and dogs on it.
"Nice night," said Tallulah, after a moment of contemplation.
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:03 am
By the time Tallulah reached his stargazing spot, Pasha was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice she was there until her greeting. Startled, he jumped a bit, and laughed at how silly he was being. Since when did monsters say "hi"?
"You made it!" he said with a smile, waving at her. "And brought the Oreos, hooray!" A short pause as the excitement of COOKIES dissipated and the recognition of the other half of her greeting sunk in. "Really? You do? It's so comfy and cute, don't you think?" He was going to have to start bringing snacks, he realized, biting into a delicious creme-filled cookie. "You can have some of my hot chocolate, if you want," is what he tried to say, but a mouthful of Oreo made it come out more like "yecha vv shma shoca, fwnt". Hopefully she understood Oreospeak; if not, he'd gestured to the thermos anyway.
Thankfully he finished eating before trying to speak again. "Yep! It is really nice out. You can see tons and tons of stars, too." Temporarily satisfied with cookie consumption, he leaned back again, pointing upward. "See? Even the tiniest ones."
He didn't usually talk this much while stargazing, but Tallulah was here, and that changed everything.
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 2:28 pm
Tallulah took a bite of cookie and nodded. She spoke Oreospeak fluently. "Fanes," she said. Anyone familiar with Oreospeak would know this meant thanks and would respond accordingly. She swallowed and leaned back, looking up at the inky sky. The longer she stared, the more pinpricks of light became apparent.
"Uh huh," she agreed.
"So, do you know constellations and things like that?" she asked a moment later. Despite all of her useless trivia about things on earth, she had never had much reason to learn constellations and planets beyond what was required in school. Based on the indication that Pavel did this often, though, she almost expected him to.
"Can you show me any?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 2:58 pm
Pleased that she'd understood his statement through a mouthful of cookie, he smiled at her before glancing back up at the sky, squinting to see which constellations he could recognize. A long time ago, when he'd first started stargazing, he had to carry along his chart and hold it up at the sky with a flashlight, hoping he was at least getting them kind of right. Now he had plenty of practice, and immediately recognized some that might sound familiar to her.
"Yeah!" Leaning towards her, he pointed upward towards a brighter cluster of stars. "Right there is Taurus." He 'connected' the stars as best he could, hoping that she'd get the visual, before moving slightly to the right. "And there's Aries," he moved directly north. "and there's the Little Dipper! That one's really super easy to remember." He stopped pointing to reach for another Oreo, gnawing as he spoke. "My favorite is Pyxis, but you can't really see it 'cept for the summer."
Finishing off his cookie, he fell to lay flat on his back. "Do you have a favorite?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:37 pm
"Oh," said Tallulah, and blushed. "Not really. I've never been much for star gazing. Never had a chance to learn the constellations and things."
She ate another cookie contemplatively, or as contemplatively as it was possible to eat an oreo. "I think it's really neat that you know them," she added. "Did you teach yourself?"
This was relaxing. Maybe she'd have to find time in her schedule for star gazing more often... or fit it into her schedule. That was an idea.
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:49 pm
"Well, you'll have to find one!" he insisted, grinning up at Aquarius. Having someone to stare at the stars with him was kind of nice; it was generally reserved for time alone, but he had way too much of that here. Time with friends was way better by far.
"Yep, I did! I wasn't really good at anything 'cause I don't pay much attention in school, but we didn't have astronomy in school. So it was something new that I really liked, and it's not super hard to memorize if you really try." He stifled a yawn, refusing to cut things short for bedtime so soon. "What are you really good at? We could have a trade! I can teach you about constellations and stuff, and you can teach me about something you really like." It seemed fair to him, and it meant more time to hang out.
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 5:05 pm
"Swimming," said Tallulah bashfully after a moment. "And organizing things." Sort of dorky hobbies, she thought ruefully. She'd never considered that before. "If you need any help with either of those, I'm your girl. Not much else, though," she sighed.
"I always did like Sagittarius," she said, looking upwards again. "That's my sign."
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:02 pm
Glass being perpetually full, Pasha found exciting possibilities with the hobbies she mentioned. "Oooh, really? I don't know how to swim very good at all, and you should see my jewelry drawer...s..." There was no hiding how huge his collection of terrible jewelry was, if anyone were to inspect his everyday wardrobe, but it sounded so excessive when he admitted more than one drawer full.
"Sagittarius is a good one! And see, he kinda looks like he's gonna shoot Scorpio. Isn't that cool?" He pointed at the arrow and made what was possibly the most hilariously terrible shooting noise, tracing its path right into the center of Scorpio.
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:38 pm
"Oh," giggled Tallulah. Pavel's enthusiasm for everything was absolutely contagious. "I guess I could help you with those. I don't know much about jewelry..."
She was the girl who had traded her Pretty Pretty Princess board for a science kit in first grade, after all. When you were that kid, you didn't question the boy with several drawers of jewelry.
"Oh, yeah, he is!" she realized. There was a huge difference between seeing diagrams of constellations and seeing the stars.
She shoved another cookie in her mouth.
"Fanes'or infi'in ee."
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:25 pm
"You have really good taste in hairclips, though!" He sat up and pointed at one of his own, a little gold star, and to the star in her hair, laughing. "It's okay, I know mostly what goes with what. I just don't have enough space for it all when I lump it all together! And it also gets all tangley and takes me like an hour to get five necklaces and maybe twenty bracelets out in the morning." He sighed. It was a really difficult life to have to go through such an ordeal every day.
"Mhmm! I'm really glad you could come. I kinda needed the company. I think my thoughts might have eaten me up if I were out here alone tonight." It was possibly the most profound thing he'd said in months, though he hadn't exactly meant it as more than an innocent observation. "Wanna maybe come other times I go out here?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:53 pm
"Yes!" said Tallulah, propping herself up on her elbows. Did he even need to ask? Really? Really? This was the most relaxed she'd been in weeks. Between school and homework and volunteering and clubs and swim team she didn't have time to stop and breathe.
"What're you thinking about?" she asked. Sometimes it made it better to talk... and sometimes it didn't. But usually it did.
He was probably gay, she realized, but decided it was more polite to wait until you had some sort of evidence than to just bring that sort of thing up out of the blue. But at least he had good taste in hair clips, since they matched.
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:25 pm
"Okay, you have to make a pinkyswear that you won't miss out on them. And you should have my cell phone number, so it's easier for us to know when to meet!" He simultaneously held out his pinky and offered her his charm-laden phone, which conveniently had his number set as the home screen banner.
"Ummm! Right now? How I'm glad we're friends." Hesitant, his wide blue eyes glanced over at her, wondering if she felt that they were close enough friends for him to babble about what really was bothering him. He sure hoped so, because he took the leap. "But before...I dunno. I have another really good friend here - her name is Audrey, but she's transferring from our school. And I'm scared of that, 'cause I transferred here and left my best friend behind...and we don't talk a whole lot anymore. Which makes me sad, since we spent almost every night together."
Suddenly worried, he froze. "You aren't transferring away too, are you?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:33 pm
"No," said Tallulah as she took out her phone. "I'm not transferring." She typed in his number and explained, a bit bitterly, "I applied but they didn't want me."
"I guess it's all for the better," she added quickly, cheering up a bit as she sent a quick text message so he'd have her number as well. "Because now I get to stay at Meadowview with you!"
This did not make up for the sheer amount of insult done to her pride by Barren Pines's rejection, but it was a start. She leaned over when Pavel's phone buzz and said offhandedly, "That's me."
She picked up another oreo, and this time she pulled it open and ate the cream first.
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:47 pm
Following her lead, he reached for another cookie, "unscrewing" it to also get to the creme filling first. As he ate it, he thought about what she'd said - she'd applied to get in. Despite his best efforts not to, he had a sinking feeling in his stomach about Audrey's transfer. Maybe she'd also applied, but she'd been accepted. And beckoned, really.
"That's silly of them. Maybe they were just really full and picked people from a hat. I dunno why someone wouldn't want you," he said, adding her into his phonebook as "Tallulah (:". "But I'm really glad you get to stay at Meadowview, too! You can just be the best of the best there. And you still get to have the most awesome Model U.N. meetings there ever were!"
He could tell that he probably wasn't making it much better, but at least he could try in his awkward little way.
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