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 Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 7:47 pm
One snowflake hit her forehead, followed by another on her eyelash. The flakes started to fall faster, and Castille wrapped her red and blue scarf around her neck tighter, pulling one of the loops up over her mouth and nose. There wasn't much of a breeze in the night air, so the flakes fell almost straight down. She shivered once and blinked a couple times to rid the flakes from her eyelashes, blue eyes squinting as the melted water blurred her view. The sounds of merriment and music from the shopping mall were slowly fading away as she made her way home, two bags in each red gloved hand full of Christmas presents for her family and friends.
She took a right at the end of the parking lot, walking down a nicely shoveled sidewalk until the next crosswalk. Straight across the street and she would pass by the park. The glow of the orange street lights made the snow sparkle and it reminded her of orange creamsicle ice cream. She sighed and watched her breath form a cloud of fog around her face.
At the entrance to the park she paused, staring into the trees. A walk through the park right now would be lovely, all winter white and glittering. She thought about her camera laying in her room and regretted not taking it with her this morning. But no matter. She could always scope it out for next time. She looked both ways, crossed the street and made snowy footprints to the front gate of the park.
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Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 8:04 pm
Nathan wasn't a fan of the winter. And what the hell was with the snow? He had no snow-appropriate clothes, and he was certainly not going to wear the sweaters and pants Tony had thoughtfully bought him. They were dark and moody, and probably something Nate would have liked if he had picked it out himself, but since they had come from Tony he was in no way inclined to like them. At all. In fact, they were the worst clothes he had ever seen in his life.
And he made sure to let Tony know that.
So, as punishment, Nate had left that morning with Tony's cane in hand. The man was going to have to limp to work today. The younger Darrow would probably swing by around noon to drop it off, but only if he was feeling charitable. He had a bad habit of being particularly mean to his father. Maybe because he knew he could get away with it.
He was in the park today, but hadn't brought his usual paintball gun for any of his usual brand of fun. Instead, he was essentially just taking a walk, in an effort to be completely idle and waste the day doing absolutely nothing of importance to anyone. Just how he liked it.
He spotted the girl at the entrance and watched her, like a hawk watches a mouse. He had to decide if she would be worth talking to, or bothering, and what kind of a bad day he could give her.
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Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 8:33 pm
She shivered again but, ignoring the cold, walked into the park. As she suspected, it was gorgeous inside, the trees and bushes covered with snow. Some places, tiny little leaves could be seen poking out of the white, while in others the bushes were a mass of tiny hills and valleys. Bare ground sat like shadows under the thick boughs of the evergreens and everything came with a muffled sound.
At the first corner by a group of trees, she spotted a shadow close by. In she snow she was able to recognize it as a person, though from her distance age, gender and any sort of features were not noticeable. She stopped, red boots crunching to a halt on the gravel walkway. She could turn around and leave.....
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Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 10:48 am
Nate, missing how pretty the trees might have been, or whatever allure snow had for other people, watched the girl and noticed that she seemed on edge. He was prowling a bit, of course, so he couldn't really blame her.
Moving from under the shade of the snow covered tree, Nate walked over to her, grinning broadly, in as friendly a way as he could. Unfortunately, there was always something slightly edgy about him, like he was constantly plotting trouble.
Which, in a way, he was.
"Hello there. Sorry if I scared you," he said, swinging his cane leisurely. "Just doing some people watching."
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Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:24 pm
First, she noticed, it was a boy older than she was. Second, she noticed, he had a cane. Why did he have a cane? Weren't those for old people?
She felt uneasy as he walked over. It was dark, there was no one else around. But the uneasiness started to evaporate once he got close enough for her to see his face. Now he was human, and humans meant conversation!
"It's alright" she said brightly, shaking the snow out of her hair, which was done up in two buns on the sides of her head. "You didn't scare me at all. But isn't it a little late to be people watching? And aren't you cold? You have no jacket or anything!"
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Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 1:35 pm
Nate watched her, tilting his head at her flurry of questions. He was certain she wasn't legitimately concerned, but rather just letting all the words in her head fall out in a rush. He shook his head, shrugging his shoulders at the same time.
"Never too late for people watching, you know? I mean, as long as there's people. And here you are. What are you doing here, anyway? Not up to trouble."
He grinned, tapping his cane against his other palm in a completely non-threatening-unless-she-was-threatened way.
He was still deciding what kind of trouble he wanted to start.
"Cause if you were, you're be on my turf, which is never good."
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Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 3:48 pm
Castille watched the bouncing cane with a twinge of concern before looking back at the boy. He seemed to either be a legitimate troublemaker or someone pretending to scare her away. She doubted the first option, and either way he wasn't very much in the Christmas spirit of things. She carefully adjusted the bags of presents so that they were hanging more behind her though, just in case.
"I wanted to go for a walk. I have a photo shoot I am thinking about doing. So I guess you could say it was a scouting expedition."
She stared at him with wide eyes. "And who said the park was your turf? I thought it belonged to everyone?" She smiled sweetly. "And since there is only one person to watch, wouldn't it be person watching?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:15 pm
Nathan blinked. She had a point.
"Person watching then," he said, shrugging his shoulders. He dropped the cane down so he could lean on it, watching her. He noticed she was keeping the bags in her hands behind her. Did she think he was going to steal them? He might have, if he had thought of it sooner, but now it was expected and that wouldn't be fun.
"Christmas shopping?" he asked, just to keep her on edge about her bags. He smirked a bit, trying to look friendly. Kind of. In the same way a wolverine might try to look friendly.
He tilted his head.
"Photos? Of snow in the dark?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:25 pm
"Yeah." she said, lifting one hand with a small purple bag and a large blue and white spotted bag. "Got most of it done early so now I don't have to beat people over the head with my bag to get something for my sister!"
Castille laughed a little and then added. "My camera can take some pretty good pictures in the dark, if I adjust it right. And the orange lights on the snow looks very interesting behind leaves and such..." she trailed off, looking around at the trees. So many photo opportunities...
"Hey!" she said suddenly, head snapping back to look at the kid. "My name is Castille."
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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:09 am
Nate frowned. He supposed that was what people did when they went Christmas shopping later in the month. He had never really gotten in to the holiday, and no one in his house had ever gone shopping last minute. Usually hand-me -downs or things stolen were what they passed around. Not that he minded, to him that was normal.
This was going to be his first Christmas with his dad.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"I guess you didn't get me anything, eh?" He said, knowing full well she didn't. Unless she was one of those people who... randomly bought extra gifts for strangers, just in case. Were there people like that to be one of? Eh, it didn't matter..
"Nate," he said, since she had introduced herself. "What else do you take pictures of? Neighbors? Weird things? Or just... plants?" He wasn't sure why he was asking, but it seemed he was interested so he rolled with it.
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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:51 pm
And with that last, seemingly simple question, Nate opened the floodgates.
Her blue eyes lit up when he asked her about her photography. He was interested?? "I like to take pictures of all of those!" She said smiling, "I like landscape photography, and nature photography , especially animals. They are always so unpredictable and that makes for good shots if you have your shutter speed high enough. But I also like portraits, but mostly of children. When they look at the camera, they never hide anything so you can tell right away if they are sad, happy or sleepy. But for humans in general I like candid shots because they bring a whole new level to something like a party or a wedding. They aren't all pose-y. I hate that. The only problem with weddings is that they change so rapidly from indoor to outdoor sometimes, and it's hard to change your aperture and ISO quickly so that the picture stays sharp. That's why I don't really care for taking senior pictures, even if I do get paid for it." She paused and shifted her weight by crossing her right foot over her left so that she was standing with crossed feet. "I suppose anyone likes to take pictures of strange things so that they can look at them later with their friends and be all -Hey, check this weird thing out- only to find it was a bird or something. And my neighbors are boring, so unless they are stealing something from my family or eachother, I don't care much to take pictures of them!"
There she stopped, because Castille realized that she was rambling. Something she did on occasion. Usually with photography or music. She pulled up her scarf to cover her frozen mouth, and to hide the embarrassment creeping up her cheeks. This was a stranger that she met minutes ago! And here she was rambling on about pictures, ISO and shutter speeds. She might as well be speaking Japanese to him!
"Sorry..Nate" she muttered through the scarf "I don't mean to talk a lot, but photography is one of my favorite things in the whole world."
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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 10:31 pm
Nathan stared at the girl in front of him as she looked at him with such a happy face. What had he done?
When she stared talking he realized she was one of those people. Not the ones that had extra gifts, as it turned out, but the ones that loved to talk. And talk. And talk some more. And even though Nate had only half been offering a fake kind of interest, she ran with it.
He watched her.
How could someone have so much to say about taking pictures? Maybe if she was talking about paint ball or even music, but no. Pointing a camera at something and clicking made this much of an impact.
At least Nate wasn't unused to rambling. Tony did it all the time.
"I would never have guessed that it was one of your favorite things in the whole world," he snorted, shaking his head. But he seemed oddly soothed and no longer inclined to do anything mean to her. Maybe because she was just so... enthusiastic? He actually wanted to talk to her more about photography, but he didn't want to let her know that.
"Do you take classes?" he asked instead, meaning photography classes. He put his hands in his pockets.
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Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 12:37 am
She couldn't tell if he was mocking by her repeating what she had said. Granted, it was a little childishly phrased, but not worth mocking. He must not have been, because he asked her a little more about it. This Nate kid was interesting. One minute, he's basically telling her to "get off his lawn" and the next he's asking what classes she'd taken!
Castille decided that Nate was one of those people who threatens first and asks questions later. The kind that seems gruff until he realizes that there isn't a threat to be had. And the way he looked at her while she rambled, Castille guessed he also wasn't the kind to hold extended conversations.
As long as he wasn't threatening her or ignoring her, Castille didn't mind.
"I've taken one class so far, and am in the process of taking another." She said, "But there is only one class over at Meadowview, so after that it looks like I'm on my own. I don't mind. I think all art, like photography and music are much better if they are self taught. Do you do any kind of art?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 11:13 am
Nate listened to her, wondering if he should take up photography to see if it was as interesting as she had made it sound. No, it wasn't. No, he wouldn't. That sorted, he nodded his head slowly, shifting and digging his hands into his pockets. It was rather cold out.
"I paint buildings some times," he said, grinning. By 'paint' he mostly meant 'vandalize'. But it was still art, in its own way, wasn't it? Of course, he didn't do it to be arty, as some people might have done. He did it because it was fun, which was essentially the reason behind most of his actions.
He frowned, shaking his head and offering a more legitimate answer.
"I try to play some instruments, I guess. But I'm not very good. I just do it 'cause, you know, whatever," he shrugged. He had been trying to learn piano recently, and guitar, though it was difficult to do when he felt like he was competing with his father, who had an interest in music.
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Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 10:53 pm
Castille nodded, looking down to switch two bags over to her other hand before flexing her free fingers. The cold was starting to bite and if she didn't want Popsicles for fingers, so would have to warm them up soon.
"Buildings? Like murals?" she asked, tilting her head to one side. She had always wanted to try her hand at painting, but the permanence of paint was something she always was a little scared of. She much preferred drawing with pencil. At least if you messed up you could fix it.
"I wish I knew how to play an instrument!" she exclaimed "My mother tried to teach me bass guitar once, but i guess my fingers are too clumsy for it." she laughed at the memory of her 9 year old self holding a purple bass guitar taller than she was while her mother tried to teach her to play.
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