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 Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 12:40 pm
The bookstore was not exactly a favored place of Caspian's - but studying was, most unfortunately, a necessary aspect of schooling, little as he liked it. He needed a new textbook, and they were cheaper in the little shop down the street instead of at the university, though Caspian would have preferred not to buy anything at all - except maybe boarding supplies. Or junk food.
Arms loaded with his new book, several bags of various sour candies, and a pizza he'd picked up on the way, Caspian left the shop and headed towards the nearby sports field. It wasn't the park, but he didn't really want to be at the park at the moment anyway.
The sports field was wider, greener, and more fun to people watch, at least today. Caspian lounged at one of the little brown picnic tables, chewing on a slice of pepperoni and counting how many times the team of inept soccer players would miss the goals with each attempted kick.guine HAVE A TROUBLEMAKER AGAIN
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 1:05 pm
It was one of those uncommon days that Ilian did not have work, and could take some time for himself. He loved being outdoors, and it was finally starting to get warm enough to really soak in the sunlight. He found a place near the sports field, under a large oak near some picnic tables to work on his music. A messy folder of papers covered in lines and scribbles was set in his lap as he drummed out a potential rhythm on his leg.
A soccer ball, whether on purpose or not, suddenly hit him hard in the side of his face, and he sputtered and coughed, his folder knocked out of his lap. He looked around dazedly for the owner of the ball, but a familiar voice made it obvious, and his naturally dark face paled.
"Hey Lilian," he heard the other teenager sneer, a couple of his minions flanking him and adopting similar mocking expressions. "I thought you finally killed yourself since you stopped showing up to school."
Ilian felt his blood boil, but did his best to ignore them, focusing instead on collecting the scattered papers. He didn't realize his nose was bleeding until a drop fell on the folder, but he quickly wiped it off.
He hoped that he would never have to see this kid again after leaving Hillworth. He was your typical bully. He was muscled, but not quite good enough to make the varsity team in any sport, probably had low-self esteem, and not a great home life, seeing as he was at Hillworth. His favorite hobby was to bully and torment anyone not quite as Aryan as he was.
"Or deported back to Mexico," the thug added, as Ilian expected he would, despite knowing (and not caring) that he wasn't Hispanic at all, and his buddies cackled annoyingly. "Or died from AIDS."
Ilian glared and stood to his feet despite himself as his temper cracked. It was a bad choice, because the thug took it as an invitation to step forward and shove Ilian against the tree.
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 11:46 am
He'd eaten two and a half slices of pizza and drunk half a bottle of Coke when he saw the soccer ball go flying.
It wasn't exactly unusual - this was a sports field, after all, and there were soccer balls all over the place, as well as a variety of other sports equipment. Caspian himself had almost gotten beaned in the side of the head with a Frisbee on his way over from some little kids running around.
What was unusual was the fact that the soccer ball had not just smacked into some poor unsuspecting guy a short distance away, but that it had seemed on purpose. Which, granted, Caspian had done once or twice (or three or four times) in the past, but it took all of three seconds of observing to gauge that this was not just friendly squabbling.
Caspian slid off of the bench, plucked his skateboard up, tucked it under an arm, and casually wandered over, hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans.
"Yo, dudes, what's hangin?" he asked conversationally, beaming a grin around at them all. "Are we having some sort of party? Can I join in?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 4:07 pm
Ilian’s back hit the trunk of the tree, the breath knocked from his lungs. He was still a little dazed from being hit with the soccer ball, but wasn’t going to just take whatever they were going to throw at him. After regaining his balance on the exposed roots of the tree, he lifted his fists in defense, which prompted a roar of laughter from the other boys.
When the dark haired young man approached, Ilian felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach, highly doubting he could handle himself against one of these guys, much less four. He was very much not a fighter, and that was obvious by how easy it was for people like these kids picked him out to beat on. And while he did want to defend himself, he was also cautious about potentially mangling his hands.
“Nah, we’re good,” one of the crownies waved the other kid off with a smirk. They clearly didn’t expect anything to come of others potentially getting involved. Ilian felt a shred of hope in that maybe, just maybe, this other guy might not be there to torment him, too. “We’ll take care of the f**, but thanks for offering!” <******** you,” Ilian finally spat, ignoring the blood that dripped from his nose and down his face. The others didn’t miss a beat. Before he realized what was happening, a fist was making contact with his stomach, and as he keeled over on himself in pain, another fist landed against his cheek, sending him to the ground.
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 5:14 pm
Caspian's demeanor was entirely relaxed, shoulders a little slouched, hands still tucked into the pockets of his jeans. In his vibrantly neon green and blue hoodie, paired with an obnoxiously yellow teeshirt underneath, and the fact that he was several inches shorter than most of them, he looked less like his own age than ever.
"Oh, sure, sure," he said airily, waving a hand. "I'm sure you don't need any help whatsoever, you look like you've got it all under control. I just figured I'd offer my assistance, you know, an extra helping hand since of course everyone's having all the fun over here."
He pulled his skateboard out from under his arm and gave it a casual flip between his hands, smiling broadly.
And then, without a split second's hesitation, Caspian swung the board abruptly sideways and whacked it into the back of the bully's head with a resounding smack.
"This just in," Caspian deadpanned, pulling the board back and taking aim again, "You're all a bunch of ******** class="quote">guine
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Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 11:36 am
Ilian was in the process of scrambling back to his feet when all of a sudden the teen who had punched him was suddenly knocked to the ground with him. Shouts of distress and surprise replaced hysterical laughter, and Ilian looked up with wide eyes to see the dark haired young man standing with his skateboard in his hands. Had he stepped in to help him?
"What the ********?!" the bully groaned and pushed himself up, lifting a hand to rub at the back of his head. He looked dazed and had blood on his fingers when he pulled them away. "You little b***h!!" he roared, giving up on Ilian for the moment and lunging at the other, shorter guy in the bright colors.
The other two seemed like they were going to follow suit, but Ilian jumped forward to tackle one of them to the ground. The third went for the skateboard guy, aiming a punch to his chest.
Of all the things Ilian had planned for the day, he did not expect on getting into a full blown fight. He would have accepted being kicked with the soccer ball, and even getting beaten up a bit, but when someone decided to step in and help him, he couldn't just let that go and risk the other getting hurt as well.
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 8:17 am
It wasn't even that he was some sort of magic white knight coming to anyone's rescue; and in fact, Caspian was not exactly a shining example of All Things Great and Wonderful. But picking on a kid with three to one odds - well, he couldn't just stand by and do nothing.
Besides, there was something relatively satisfying about smacking someone with a skateboard.
"Oh, please," Caspian scoffed, lifting a foot and slamming it into the bully's chest as he lunged towards him, successfully preventing him from colliding with him. "You're the ones picking on someone, I'm pretty sure that makes you guys the little bitches - oof - "
One of the others had cracked a punch against his side, sending him staggering. Caspian felt the wind knocked out of him, but swung hard and managed to slam a blow against the guy's side with his board. He went down with a howl of anger.
"Dudes," Caspian wheezed, and kicked at the bully's stomach again. "Get your lame asses outta here."
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Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 4:31 pm
It only took a couple of times getting hit with a skateboard for the guys to realize that they were probably going to be outmatched in this situation. Despite being shorter than most of them, the young man with the dark hair seemed to have the advantage with his skateboard for a weapon.
Additionally, the scuffle seemed to be gaining a bit of attention from the other kids playing in the field. The bullies seemed to notice and probably figured they would do best to cut their losses.
With pointed looks in Ilian’s direction and non-verbal threats to continue with the confrontation later, with less witnesses, the three teenagers picked themselves up, collected their soccer ball, and left with their tails between their legs.
Ilian, finally catching his breath after tackling one of the guys to the ground, looked up to see if the other guy left or not. When he saw him still standing around, he felt his cheeks heat up with embarrassment and he quickly ducked his head down, focusing instead on collecting the pages of sheet music that had been thrown around and torn up in the scuffle.
“Thanks,” he mumbled sheepishly, pausing when he came to a particularly torn up page of music and tossed the papers back down onto the ground in frustration, while angry, embarrassed tears filled his eyes. “******** class="quote">kuropeco
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Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 9:13 pm
By the time the group of thugs had decided there were other things more worth their while, Caspian had successfully managed to bruise almost all of them, and the last of them limped as he ran away - a rather nice, solid kick to his ankle had done the trick for that.
Caspian let out a low whistle, one hand shading his eyes, the other resting on his hip as he watched them all skedaddle.
"Talk about pathetic," he said airily, in reference, not to the young man now gathering up his scattered papers, but to the cowards hastily making a retreat. "Three to one, that's just stupid. Probably didn't have anything else to do with their afternoon."
He turned, and just barely caught sight of the expression on the guy's face as he flung a handful of papers down. Caspian's brow rose, and he padded over, plucked up the discarded, torn, slightly squashed sheets and held them up, squinting.
"Oh, music, that's pretty cool," he said casually, as though they had not just been brawling with a group of morons. He tried to piece the two halves of the paper he held together, brows drawing together in concentration. "So you're some sort of musician, then? What's your name?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2016 8:49 am
Ilian could see the guy approach out of the corner of his eye as he crouched down on the ground, burying his face against his arms that were crossed over his knees. He didn't say anything in response to the young man's comments, but after running his wet eyes against his sleeve, he looked up with an unintentional scowl. His nose was still bleeding a little, and he was sure he was going to have a horrible bruise on his face later, but it could have been a lot worse.
He watched skeptically as the dark haired guy picked up a couple pieces of the torn pages to try and match them up.
"Sort of," he mumbled, almost tempted to try and grab the pages as if they would reveal some secret if the guy looked at them for too long, but it wasn't as though he expected the other to be able to read the scribbled notes. He hesitated again when he was asked for his name, not wanting to risk having one more person making fun of him.
"Ilian," he finally said, pulling his arms away from his knees so he could go back to trying to collect the pages. "Sorry. About those guys, I mean," he said softly, embarrassed that someone else got involved in his personal issues.
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2016 10:42 am
In spite of his lack of filters most of the time, Caspian at least had the sense of mind not to try and press the guy for anything. It was bad enough that he'd come across him getting beaten up; the last thing he probably wanted was to be called out on his wet eyes and small frame.
Not that Caspian could talk much about the latter, considering he was, in fact, shorter. But older, if he was judging by the youthful looking face - unless it was a case of simply looking younger, as Caspian himself did.
"I was never good at making music," he said now, tone entirely relaxed, even with the guy's glowering scowl in his peripheral vision. "Listening, though, is pretty awesome, I love music. I tried drums once upon a time, and that was pretty cool, maybe I should pick it up again."
The sheet music was refusing to go together again, and Caspian gave up, but didn't drop them, instead just neatly stacking one over the other and gathering up another that was threatening to float away on a breeze that sifted through the air.
"Oh, it's cool, no worries," he said lightly, flashing a grin at the guy's - Ilian's - direction. "People are stupid shitheads sometimes, plus it was kinda fun hitting someone with my board. I'm Caspian, by the way," he added, thrusting out a hand towards him. "Nice to meetcha."
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:56 am
Ilian wasn't entirely sure what to think about this guy as he talked about how he loved listening to music, but wasn't good at making it. Ilian didn't think that was a bad thing. It wasn't as though Ilian was very good at anything else.
He eyed the aforementioned skateboard with piqued curiosity, but his attention was pulled away when the hand was offered to him. Awkwardly, Ilian shuffled the pages into his hands to free up one, and then reached out to take Caspian's.
Still a bit shaken from the confrontation, Ilian finally collected what was left of the pages and shook off the dirt that he could, and carefully stuck them back into the folder he had with him. He was still wary of what the other might say about him, so he felt a little more reserved than he usually did. Typically he had no problem with meeting new people, but... he was pretty sure this guy could see that his eyes were still red from tearing up in frustration.
"You skate?" he finally asked, figuring that the answer was obvious, but it was still pretty cool. He wished he had more coordination to skate. Or do anything other than music.
"Are you any good?" he wondered out loud, using the bottom of his shirt to lift up and rub at the drying blood on his face and chin.
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Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 2:10 pm
He shook Ilian's hand with a loose sort of strength and then dropped his hands, stuffing them back into the pockets of his jeans. The other was gathering together all of his fallen belongings, quiet as he went about his business, and Caspian watched him curiously, not saying anything just yet.
At least not until he was directly asked a question, and a smile broke out across his face.
"All the damn time," said Caspian with a laugh, his eyes twinkling. "I like to think I'm pretty good, yeah, but I guess it just depends on perspective or whatever. I have fun with what I do, so that makes me good, right? Oh, dude, don't, here - "
He reached out and grabbed ahold of Ilian's wrist, propelling him forward, back to the table where he'd been sitting before.
"I've got napkins, those are better for cleaning up," said Caspian over his shoulder. "And pizza, if you want that," he added thoughtfully. "And maybe some Red Vines."
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Posted: Sun May 01, 2016 9:32 pm
Ilian hadn’t expected Caspian to grab his wrist, and nearly jumped when he did so, but stumbled up onto his feet, grabbing the folder of pages to bring with him as he went. His stomach gave an embarrassing sort of rumble at the mention of food, but he didn’t comment on it, hoping Caspian didn’t hear. He was already embarrassed enough as it was.
“Red vines?” he couldn’t help but repeat in curiosity as he took one of the offered napkins from the table and sat down, using that instead of his shirt to clean himself off. He spared a couple nervous glances over his shoulder to make sure no one was going to come and bother them again, before turning his attention back to Caspian.
“I’ve never skated before. My piano teacher said I should be careful about doing dangerous things,” he explained, although his tone clearly made it obvious that he didn’t always listen to that advice. It sounded strange, saying something like that out loud. He didn’t like that he sounded as though he wasn’t willing to take risks or not do something just because it was considered dangerous.
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 7:18 pm
As obnoxiously blunt as Caspian had a tendency to be, he knew at least one thing - how to adapt. And right now, that meant not making a huge deal out of what had just happened, and especially not drawing attention to the redness of Ilian's eyes.
Besides, he couldn't say he hadn't been in his fair share of squabbles every now and then.
"Yeah, Red Vines!" said Caspian, tossing a grin back at Ilian as they neared the table. "They're kinda like Twizzlers, except better. At least, I think so, and that's all that matters, right?"
He winked playfully at Ilian and sat down at the bench beside him instead of across from him, straddling it so that he could face him. Caspian dragged the pizza box over and flipped the lid back open, gesturing for him to help himself to whatever he wanted.
"Oh, because of your hands?" he asked, around a mouthful of pepperoni he'd taken himself. Caspian swallowed, tapping a finger against his cheek. "I mean, I guess I get that, but you can't spend all of your time being that particular, right?"
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