fifty percent off [joshua!]

Caitlyn jumped a little bit when she heard someone's voice. It wasn't exactly every day that people decided to sneak up on her like that, after all. It turned out, however, that it was just Joshua, and she breathed a sigh of relief after she'd turned to see him properly, making sure to keep the sheet music in the corner of her eye just in case. (There was a lady with her arms full of music books already, who looked like she was probably eyeing that. Cait wouldn't consider herself a selfish person, but some things in life were just...special.) "Oh! Hey, Joshua," she greeted, smiling brightly. It had been a little while since she'd last seen him, considering both of their busy schedules. For Caitlyn, it was a little bit difficult to see friends in general. When she didn't have school she probably had homework, or a piano student tot each, and when it wasn't that there were volleyball practices (or games, less frequently for obvious reasons) or band rehearsals... or naturally, practicing on her own. That was a responsibility of hers much the way that homework was. "Were you waiting long? Sorry about that," she said, and she was genuinely apologetic too. Joshua didn't seem bothered by it, but Caitlyn liked to stick to plans once she'd made them, and she had arranged to meet him outside of Chapters after all.

She was a little bit relieved to see that he didn't seem angry or upset or anything. It didn't really do to get on her friends' bad sides when she so rarely had time to expend on little things like hanging out. Maybe it was sad that was considered a "little thing", however. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy it. Caitlyn pushed all of this aside to think instead about his question, though. She brightened up a little as the conversation turned to music, although it shouldn't have been very surprising considering they were standing in a music store. "Yeah, kind of! There's this thing of jazz... It looks a little hard, but fun," she answered, smiling as she picked up the book she'd been looking at earlier, flipping through the pages to show him. She wasn't sure if music (or more specifically, alto saxophone jazz solos) was anything Joshua was particularly knowledgeable about, of course, so there was the possibility that he didn't really have the same impression as she did. Already in her hands she had a number of other books as well, namely one of Disney songs for the piano (she'd thought somehow that she had all the Disney music there could be for her two instruments of preference, but apparently this wasn't the case). "Actually, there's a lot here, I think I'll have to be a little more candid than this." But she was horrible at saving money when unleashed onto a store like this, so that wasn't very likely to happen at all... It was either very fortunate or unfortunate that she probably couldn't afford all of these books anyway, fifty percent off or not. "Hm... That's totally up to you! I have a few things I need to get but I'm sure we'll wander by the right stores at some point. Did you need to go anywhere in particular?"

She smiled, glad to hear that he hadn't been too held off by her random disappearance into the music store. Even so, this was probably something that she shouldn't do in future. "That's good," she said anyway, though she couldn't help the, "But still, sorry!" that came out. She was apologetic by nature for those kinds of things, things she could control and help. It was her own fault this time, and there was no getting out of it, not that she would have wanted to for any reason. No, no. Caitlyn was perfectly alright with fessing up to her own mistakes. "Lucky that person was there though! Who was it, just a stranger?" she asked, turning around and craning her neck, but with all the people and such blocking her view of the outside there was no way she could have really seen anyone. She wasn't even sure who she was looking for anyway and so she turned her attention back to the music. "Nothing on beat," she commented, then left it at that and smiled. "That's right! There needs to be a challenge for you to get better." It was too easy to play through things she already knew inside and out. Luckily, Cait was well-disciplined when it came to her practice routines. She looked over at the book in question when Joshua tapped the cover, however, and brightened up. "Yes! You play piano?" she asked, a little bit impressed. For the most part, it was something kids started and never saw all the way through. She knew this from years of taking lessons and, now, a little bit less than a year of teaching them. Caitlyn liked when her friends showed interest in music, however.

Money wasn't an issue for Joshua, she knew. That sort of thing would have been difficult to miss. She also knew that he was a very nice guy, at least in Caitlyn's opinion (once she had given him a chance) and so it wasn't so much of a stretch that he would be pretty willing to buy something for a friend, particularly around Christmastime. Even so, she teetered, both metaphorically and literally on her feet. "No no, it's fine!" she said, shaking her head at him. She had to learn to manage money more responsibly! Her parents were more than willing to help out if or when rent and the like became an issue, but she was still trying to do this more or less independently, and that meant that the money she made from work was what she had to spend. Her face probably gave her away with the stack of six or seven books in her arms, however, and she ended up blushing as she amended, "Well...if it's a Christmas gift." She was already sifting through the books regardless of this, still trying to determine if she would be willing to leave anything behind. "Sure, we can definitely go into Chapters! I was thinking I could use a new notebook, actually... Some of the ones there are so pretty," she said, thinking of plain old notebooks from the dollar store. She liked things that looked nice...and this was probably why she lacked proper money management skills. "Let's go there and then we can just wander around, I figure." She smiled in response to his question. "I've been good! Just doing the usual I guess, but it's really nice not to have classes. The holidays are great... How are you doing lately?" It was better to cut herself off before she wound up going on.

She'd started hoarding music books quite a bit over the past couple of years. Before then, things had been pretty intense with piano lessons, considering she always had something or other to be practicing. Of course, that wasn't to say that she hadn't had her own things of interest to play, but it was different now that she no longer had actual obligations. For band, of course, she still had things to practice for her sax, but without anything to play really for piano, she'd developed a pretty bad habit of stocking up on whatever she wanted. It wasn't such a bad deal, though. Except for the fact that it made her pockets run on a little bit empty, it was kind of awesome. Admittedly, she had one or two whose spines she still hadn't even really cracked...which was a figure of speech, as those books didn't really have the same types of spines as an encyclopedia, for instance. Caitlyn just nodded easily at Joshua's words, though. That was true enough. "Definitely... Also bored if you push yourself too much, though, and you get frustrated," she commented lightly, because she'd done this before as well and she was sure that Joshua might have, only maybe not necessarily when it came to music. That was just what was on her mind. "I'd love to hear you sometime, though," she said, smiling, though she wasn't sure whether this would actually ever happen. Maybe Joshua had a piano! That did make sense, as she knew he had quite a bit of money, and if his mother had been the one to have taught him. "Do you play often anymore?" Many people learnt and then quickly decided it wasn't for them and gave it up, much as they would have anything else. That was fair enough.

Caitlyn blushed profusely. She didn't really mean to turn down offers rudely or anything, and definitely not from good friends, but at the same time, she had never wanted to be too dependent. It was perhaps the reason she insisted on paying rent herself, at least as long as she was at all able to, when it was pretty likely that her parents could have at least helped. If not that, she could also be living back at home... She did like home, but she had gotten very used to what she was doing now all the same. Joshua was offering this as a Christmas present, however. She hesitated another second before placing one of the books, one of the simpler jazz ones, back onto the shelf. "Would you mind if it's this one?" She smiled a little as she held up the book on the very top of the small stack she had now. "I think I can cover the rest." This would allow her a bit of spending money, too, for the rest of the day... With everything paid for by one of them or the other, and now a bag full of music books in one hand and her purse hanging lazily off of her other arm, she crossed into Chapters just on the other side. There was nobody hanging around here anymore, and she wondered where Joshua's inside tip as to where she'd been earlier was now. "Yeah, I think my Math exam could have gone a little better, but other than that it was good!" She'd done well enough in Math anyway, she thought, except for the two or three questions she'd blanked completely on. "Yeah, Christmas will be awesome! Do you have plans with the family or anything like that?" Cait smiled a little ruefully at the thought of his becoming a Senior now, however. "That's always an important year..." She remembered her final year of high school very well and could only imagine that college would be much, much worse. Hopefully she would be up for the challenge when it came... She was sure that Joshua was.

She certainly hoped that it wasn't a guarantee that she would fail should she stop trying for any brief period at any time in the future, but at least in her opinion, it was true what Joshua said. She had always been taught to work hard and strive to succeed, and while her parents had been fairly flexible in that sense, it was... advice, or a value, that she had always maintained. She did have the issue of overworking, however, and it could be a serious problem when she got sick or anything like that because she'd neglected to take care of herself. It wasn't exactly as if she could simply take off a few days. There were things that needed doing, and life didn't stop just because she was sick... She hated being sick, however. Normally she did an alright job of making sure that she ate all three meals a day, got to bed as soon as she could, and so on, but it definitely wasn't always possible when she was constantly running around. "It's always worth it to find that balance somewhere," she said, smiling a little. "But I feel like life wouldn't even be complete at this point without having something to do." She got a sudden image of both of them meeting up again in the future, only they were old in this image and they were at bingo, not at the shopping mall... Neither would have much to do at that point but play games and the like, she supposed. The entire thing sounded horrible, but so did growing old in general. "Still, I'm sure you're great! Whenever there's a piano around then, since I think we'd just be kicked out of here if we tried to commandeer this one," she said, gesturing to the large grand piano in the corner of the store. There were a few people looking at it, but an employee hovered around there just to watch over it. It was a beautiful instrument, however.

"Thank you," she said, smiling appreciatively at Joshua, but she didn't press it much further than that, unsure of whether or not it would simply annoy him if she made too much a deal of it. It sort of was for Caitlyn, however. While she wasn't quite as fiercely independent as some she knew, those who wouldn't accept a thing at all, she didn't like to be reliant. She shoved this thought aside, however, bearing in mind that she would have to buy Joshua something later as well if she could. Though she was normally pretty good about holiday shopping, getting things for people as soon as she noticed them rather than waiting until the weeks before Christmas, she hadn't had anything call out at her. Wealthy as Joshua may be, with enough money to buy himself whatever his heart desired, she was sure, gifts were nice. "I just had a bad day, I think," she said, shaking her head a little. She was normally pretty good at Math, actually, but exams were always a stressful time. "That's good, though! Was the physical test difficult?" They normally were. "Oh, that's sad... At least you'll have time otherwise with her this break though, even if it's not actual Christmas day," she said. "Good that you'll have your sister and your parents, though! I'm probably heading back home... I miss my parents. And the twins." She had only just finished her Freshman year, and it was the first year she'd spent in her own apartment, having to pay rent and do things on her own. This was kind of baffling. The twins, of course, were her younger siblings, in all their tiny, blonde cuteness, though she was sure that since summer when she'd last seen them they would have managed to grow about two feet or something ridiculous like that. "You can," she told him with confidence. "How were the MCATs?"

That was true, Caitlyn supposed. The exam really hadn't been that bad, all things considered. She'd blanked completely on several questions, but that was... all sort of to be expected, at this point, when she was going through stressful periods. But she was sure that, as always, she was just overreacting. The few questions she'd left blank or scribbled down nonsense or guessed on would probably be outweighed by the things she'd done well, and she was sure that there were enough of those too. "No, it wasn't as bad as it could have been," she admitted, nodding. She was the type to get panicky over small things like that when she messed up on them, however, and she wasn't likely to settle until she was sure that it really had been balanced out and made alright in the end. "And that sounds hard," she added sympathetically, "but I guess it's the type of thing you have to get used to, going to an elemental college and everything." She lowed her voice for the last several words. Though nobody seemed to be listening in and she doubted they would think much of it even if they'd overheard, she never thought it was wise to go shouting about the Academy to the world. "Mine weren't bad! The hardest one was just... dealing really specifically with endurance, but it was last so it was a matter of not getting worn out in anything before that." She'd skipped all her volleyball practices for the week, she recalled. It was too much strain otherwise.

This did make sense, Caitlyn thought, but she didn't know anything about engagements or anything like that. She'd been in a relationship... fairly recently actually, and it had even been pretty serious in fact, but nothing like having a fiancé. This was something else entirely. Plus... Joshua and Nell were together, and Caitlyn and her ex were not anymore, precisely because he'd demanded so much of her time. She was kind of relieved for Nell, in a way, that Joshua didn't seem to be the type of clingy that required their being together all the time. Then again, much like Caitlyn herself, Joshua probably didn't have time for such things. "This is true! Did you get her anything for Christmas?" she asked, eyes almost glinting with mischief. She wanted to know these things! "Sort of, yeah," she answered with a bit of a wry smile, "Edmonton, actually. I have my apartment here now, though, but... we'll see what happens after college is over, I guess." She supposed that she might want to be closer to her parents again when the time came. Her family had never anticipated her having to go away for high school, after all, as they weren't elementals themselves, but after some time she'd grown accustomed to the mild independence, and now essentially full independence. She did love her parents and younger siblings, however, despite being used to staying so far away. Caitlyn smiled to hear that he had done well. It sounded sort of terrible, however, having to take that kind of intense test. "Lucky you did! And lucky that you really won't have to take it again. That's so good, though." Joshua was certainly very intelligent.

Caitlyn honestly wasn't sure, some days, why she had chosen to attend the Academy for college as well. She could have gone elsewhere, she supposed, and in the end... really, her elemental powers weren't quite as important to her life as they might have been to others. It didn't have much to do with her main goal in life, at least. This may have had to do with the fact that nobody else in her family, as she was adopted, even had the gift. She'd grown up in a world without the need or even the existence of such things. "In my case... I think I just wanted to see it all the way through," she said, smiling a little. "Kind of weird though, I guess, that we put so much stock into it only to go off and become... anything else. Doctors and stuff." The doctor part was, obviously, referring to Joshua specifically, but of course elementals went onto all different walks of life, sharing nothing but a common high school and perhaps college. "No... that isn't fun at all. Earth and Fire, too," she said, smiling a little. Fire was so destructive in and of itself. It actually made plenty of sense then that the two elements wouldn't get along, one naturally of creators and the other destroyers. She nodded, however, at what he said. This was definitely true, without question. "Yeah... I think now that I probably should have waited at least until next year or something." There was much less structure to the college classes, however, compared to the high school ones. Nobody held their hands and told them what they had to learn when; it really was just an entire mix of things that they chose from whenever they wanted.

She had of course expected nothing less of Josh than that he would have gotten Nell something, but it was of course encouraging to hear his... enthusiasm, in a way, for it. She would have asked what the gift was, but it seemed that this would be unnecessary. "Hey, that's awesome! And my lips are sealed." She grinned. Nell was one lucky girl, and she deserved it. Cait knew how much she liked opera, how much she liked... everything, actually. That was the sort of wonderful thing about Nell, that she just liked everything and was so lovely in general. Joshua was one lucky guy, too. "What did you get her last year that was so flashy?" she asked. She was sure that she should have heard something about it, but she couldn't remember it now. Caitlyn could hardly remember what she had given or received last year, after all, so this was no real shock. "Yeah... luckily I'll just be driving to the airport and taking a plane, though," she said, laughing a little. While she wasn't a bad driver by any means, she certainly wouldn't want to drive quite that far all on her own, and she didn't expect her parents to come get her or anything like that. They were, however, paying for her flights as they always did. Her parents were quite well-off, actually, though they were by no means quite as wealthy as Joshua's family. "I usually worry about tests, too, but they almost always turn out okay," she replied with a quiet laugh. It was always the case. She glanced over cover after cover, not spotting anything she really wanted (or needed for the next year, either). This was normal, however. She didn't expect to find things she was looking for at first glance. But there was a corner at the back dedicated solely to journals and the like, and she wandered off in that direction, still keeping an ear out in case Joshua said anything. "It is pretty nice, isn't it? What do you have there?" she asked, leaning a little to the side to see the cover of the book in his hands. She giggled a little bit at the sight of Joshua feeling the breeze from the book, however, before spotting a fairly nice-looking journal on the top shelf. She stood on her tiptoes to get it and... still failed. Curse this (lack of) height of hers. "Do you mind grabbing that for me?" she asked, a sheepish grin on her face.