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 Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 2:16 pm
There would come a time Jude would hate himself for doing this. But, for now, while his memory was still as in the past as the past itself, he had to work with what he did know. What he knew was that he felt a tug, pull, dragging sensation to be near Hero. It was, mostly, in an unpleasant way. But...
But Jude just didn't have it in him to dislike a girl for no reason, and while her striking him may have given other guys enough of one, he didn't fault her for it and he'd felt it before that, anyway. He could then only assume that, God help him (again), he had a thing for this girl. For a curious optimist, it was easy to assume the best, yet question it at the same time.
He needed to know more about her, because somehow, it felt like learning more about himself. Right now, Jude desperately needed everything he could get about learning who he really was. He knew he wasn't a student. Not really.
Dramatics aside, making her go red, provoking her temper was just too big a thrill to not attempt again. It brought with it a surge of familiarity, victory and other emotions he didn't even think had names. (Not that he knew much about them, hence his complete misunderstanding of what was going on here.) Jude also didn't realize he may have had a one up on her, by having something less than her: shame.
Not an ounce of that as he set the portable stereo outside her door; finding which number was hers had not been a challenge in a place like Barren Pines. The time was afternoon, and while he couldn't be certain she was there, he was ready and willing to stand there and keep this up until she appeared, be it on the other side of the door or this one. Not like he planned to go to class or anything.
He hit 'PLAY' and stepped back, trying his hardest not to crack up at his own antics as the piss poor karaoke melody sounded. She thought the gentlemanly hand kiss was bad? Wait until she got a hold of him singing in the hall for her. His only regret was there weren't many people on this floor.
"DID YOU EVER KNOW THAT YOU'RE MY HEEEEERO?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 9:31 pm
There had been a sword, used in a play.
Hero had kept it for sentimental reasons -- it was simply a wooden thing, painted in what the costume department had found appropriately sword-y colours. A kind of disreputable matte silver. She'd been playing King Arthur. Enjoyed the role for what time she had of it; the critique laid at her incredibly wooden door was that although she was an incredibly successful orator, her acting left much to be desired -- she was fantastic if the role called for being Hero, but when it came to being anyone else she had difficulty. She had tried, God damn it. She had tried her damndest.
But she was Hero Barrett and had spent all her life being Hero Barrett. And so.
"YOU'RE EVERYTHING I WISH I COULD BEEEEEE!"
Jude Lawson's voice was a foghorn in the mist. She flung open her door like an avenging angel and pointed her wooden sword right at him as he launched into how he could fly higher than any eagle -- flame-eyed, furious, and unfortunately with the same blush she'd had the last time.
"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD," she bawled, approaching. "I SWEAR ON ALL THAT'S UNHOLY, MR. LAWSON, DO NOT CROSS ME OR I WILL BRING THE WRATH OF HEAVEN DOWN UPON YOUR SHOULDERS."
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 5:48 pm
Once he'd shut up, Jude's face, too, was red from ear-to-ear. Embarrassment? No. Shame? Hero could only wish that was somewhere on his emotional roster. The reason he was so scarlet in color was from trying not to laugh. He couldn't breathe without cracking up, and he couldn't hold his breath forever.
Maybe one day he would learn how stupid it was to laugh at someone threatening him due only to their gender, but it would not be this day. This day, Jude eventually would laugh, and laugh hard. It was, however, brief considered the volume of it; one would have expected a longer duration. With his fit of giggles no longer a looming threat, Jude grabbed the edge of the sword and forced it to the side, stepping forward with no fear of being struck. Forget that learning thing.
Sagittarius never learns.
"Oooh?" He made a very thoughtful, but painfully fake 'hm' noise, leaning just a little closer. Closer. Closer. Liiiittle closer. It was a fast motion, and by time he spoke again, she could smell his breath; not bad today--like cinnamon. "I guess I was right about you being an angel?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 8:51 pm
"You are -- " wrench, she really wasn't a pushover for being a woman -- "the most annoying -- " another wrench -- "incorrigible -- " wrench, "appalling individual in this ENTIRE SCHOOL, and that includes Del Rockham and ANDEON BOSKOVIC."
She finally wrenched the sword free, and with both hands on the hilt levelled it at him as though he were also a dragon terrorizing the village. Stepped away a little from him and the faint scent of Red Hots, eyes narrowed in distaste. "Don't think of me as an angel," she commanded. "You should think of me as your demon from Hell."
It was unfortunate that everything Hero Barrett said was only, to Jude, 'utterly hilarious.'
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 9:08 pm
Utterly hilarious. Hysterical. There were so many ways to say it.
"I didn't know you thought so highly of me, Missy!" Jude feigned a delightful sort of surprise, stressing the the last word to the point he almost sounded like a jolly snake hissing it at her. Ridiculous, perhaps, because who had ever seen snakes as a symbol for laughter? Then again, who would have thought Hero was this easy to turn the color of red wine?
He raised both his hands to "defend" himself from the "weapon", and damn him, there was that grin again. Though, just as quickly as it surfaced, it fled the scene, making way for look of disgust--obviously not directed at immediate company. Jude suddenly seemed to be staring past her, looking at something not there.
That damn woman on the track. All it took was the word "Hell" and there was her broken, battered face again. Her voice. Begging him. Trying to deny his problems wasn't working as well as it usually did.
"Look, Hero, while I did come here with some intention of stealing your heart away again, I do have something serious we need to discuss. Let's call a truce for like, twenty minutes, okay? If you do, I promise not to sing outside your door anymore." Something about the way he said it just left unspoken words hanging in the air: If you don't, I will sing outside your door every day.
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 5:47 am
She poked him in the chest with her sword, but then -- grudgingly -- let the point drop to the floor. The flush was fading, but Hero still looked what could only be described as 'mega pissed'. "All right," she said curtly. "Ceasefire, though what you've done to deserve that is what you'll be describing in the next ten seconds."
Hero Barrett looked skeptical. This was better than 'murderous', but only just. Her heavy glare meant business: but obviously something in his expression had touched her -- you know, the urge to not live every day with Jude Lawson singing 'No Matter What' at 3 PM every afternoon like clockwork.
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 9:00 pm
Jude was too blunt without trying to be, let alone when the situation called for it. Well, in his opinion. A wiser man might have approached the subject more delicately. Surely, anything would have been more convincing than his straight forward: "A dying woman fell on the track outside when I was with one of the teachers, and then she vanished. This school is some evil conspriacy and I think you feel it, even if you don't want to admit it. You know I'm right, and you hate when I'm right and you're wrong. I don't have enough experience with you to make assumptions like this, but I feel like I do. And so do you."
How many seconds was that? No idea.
How much sense did that make? Not much.
Nothing about him or this place was making a lot of it now. Not unless you were one of those extremely perceptive types. If only, Jude, if only. But, he at least had the foresight to bring evidence in support of his claim. From behind the boom box, he gathered the very shirt he had worn during the incident, now stained with the blood of a woman that proved to him--and hopefully Hero--he wasn't insane.
"This is mine. You know that, right? I was wearing this same shirt when we raced the other day. This is her blood on it. She spit it on me."
For once, Jude Lawson was using his Serious Business voice with a woman.
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:03 pm
The sword remained pointed down. Hero was looking at him now; looking at him with traces of skepticism, as though examining him for any point where he would reveal the practical joke. Where he would laugh. Where he would be, in short, Jude Lawson. When none of that happened, she brushed a lock of orange-red hair out her face.
And acquiesced, her eyes flicking down to the bloodied shirt and back.
"Yes," she said curtly. "I know."
She'd sheathed her sword -- let the hilt hang on top of her belt. "I've known for a while, Mr. Lawson," she said. "So did Miss Thorne. It would have been stupid to investigate openly. I had to take Miss Thorne's security into the matter. But don't think I don't know -- Barren Pines has something wrong with it."
And: "You're correct."
Which was like Hero saying "you are a wonderful person and I bow to your superior intellect."
She folded her arms again; classic Hero. "I know you wouldn't broach this with me unless you had a -- game plan, to put it colloquially," she said. "So stop singing and try me."
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:05 am
Plenty of times Jude had done stupid things without a "game plan", heavily depending on what you considered worthy of the title. Just rushing a door over and over with the logic in this school something had to behind it was a good enough start for him. For Hero? Maybe not. It didn't matter. He didn't like share time in kindergarten and he didn't like it now. Not with her. Not with any "her".
"Well, God damn, you should have said that before!" Not a second later, Jude paused, and then, "I'm sorry." Not for Hero--he was looking up when he said it. "Alright, I do have a plan, but that's not what I'm here for." He could not believe what he was here for. "If something happens, I need you to keep an eye on Marcel and Serenade. I won't be able to, obviously."
He need not tell her who they were. Everyone already knew. Neither did he realize the hypocrisy in denying her information because of her gender, then overlooking it to ask for protection on behalf of the only friend he would die for and a girl that was close enough for him to add on the list.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:41 pm
She'd cocked an eyebrow up so high that it was just about hitting her hairline: Jude asking her to take care of anyone? Jude wanting to take care of anyone -- let alone Marcel and Serenade? She said, "Of course," but if skepticism was next to godliness she would have been a saint. She didn't ask him to do the same for Miss Thorne: obviously Hero thought that if she wasn't around to look after Aurelia, nobody could.
"All right. If you're done being maudlin and asking me to take care of Miss Soriano and Mr. Delaney, tell me your plan."
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:49 pm
When he got worked up enough, Jude had a bad habit of forgetting the world beyond his mind could not simply look through a window and see what was inside. If that were true, Hero would have known he had no intention of telling her, and he'd have known everyone's last names as well; he'd forgotten Serenade's and only remembered Hero's from using it to taunt her, so was slightly impressed she could recite them all on a whim.
A thoughtful evaluation of the young lady before him consisted only of a once-over. A glance not intended to look as obviously skeptical as it did. She wasn't the only one who lacked faith in other people sometimes. Namely, him. He couldn't protect anyone anymore. "I'm going to take care of it, so don't worry about it."
Why did it feel like he'd said this before?
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:39 pm
"That's like telling me you're about to go and connect a nuclear warhead, but not to go and worry about it," said Hero. "Yes, I am going to worry. No, I disbelieve you can 'take care' of 'it', whatever it is, and frankly you should be letting me in on what it is -- for God's sake, Lawson, let me in on this."
She had clasped the hilt of her sword and was looking at him as intently as any Arthurian knight. That was Hero for you, all over. Complete with crappy wooden sword. She just about sounded persuasive -- "Let me in."
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:35 pm
Questioning his abilities irked him, but didn't send him into the frenzy a lot of guys would have fallen into. She had basically just insulted him. Of all the bad things one could say about Jude Lawson, when push came to shove, he had a better heard on his shoulders faced with disrespect. Or was it only with her?
Hero did seem mighty special, because any other girl would have been told no, and Jude would have walked away. Not this time. This time he just sighed, pursed his lips together, and eventually gave in. Sort of. "Fine, but on three conditions. One, you don't stay if things really go wrong. I mean it. Two, don't point that stupid thing at me anymore. Three... Don't hit me again."
The corners of his mouth twitching suggested he was visualizing the beat red girl screaming at him to "run faster" and trying not to grin.
Women.
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:40 pm
"I'm not going to promise number three," she said, and let the sword dip again -- was she grumbling? Honest to God grumbling? -- "I can only promise that if I am about to hit you, I'll give you ample warning beforehand. You can't expect better than that, Lawson."
She brushed one free hand through her mop of reddish hair, her eyes never leaving his -- and she wasn't even disapproving in the face of smiles. They had both come far. "All right," she said crisply. "I agree to your conditions. All except three, which I've offered an alternate solution for, which I hope you'll be amenable to."
Beat.
"And I'm not pointing this 'thing' at you any more."
Men.
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 6:32 am
Jude didn't take much downtime debating if he wanted to agree or not. It was the perfect opportunity to further harass her, and that alone was a good enough reason to play along. "That's fine." He nodded, and said it like there just had to be more coming. There was. "I mean, we already know I'm faster than you, so if you warn me first I'll be able to move out of the line of fire, anyway. It'll be the same as if you'd agreed to my version." One rare, cocky grin later, he ran his thumb across his nose and headed toward a door. Any door. If it was locked, he was sure it was a good enough candidate. Should they find nothing, he would gladly keep up his master plan until the diamond in the rough showed itself.
"Alright..." The hesitation and thoughtful look now shadowing his face suggested, like his voice earlier, there were still things being left unsaid. A real, well organized plan, perhaps? "Stand back."
No, that couldn't be.
Jude moved as far back as he could from the selected door, then ran forward and slammed his shoulder into it. For being a Sagittarius, he very much resembled the bull known as Taurus just then.
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