|
|
Post by stella on Sept 2, 2012 22:02:29 GMT -5
Pudding. Chocolate pudding. The indulgence was one that Stella absolutely loved, partly because growing up; she had never even had pudding. But the day she stepped into the Academy, she tried it out of curiosity and became hooked. She had discovered a sweet tooth that had been dormant for her sixteen years of life. Ella sat peacefully in the mess hall, snacking on a current cup of pudding. It was so cute hot they put pudding in little cups! Her bright eyes scanned the room, smiling softly as she saw everyone talking with people and not lonely. She was sitting alone, but she wasn’t at all lonely at the moment. She only got lonely when she saw people hugging others. Ella didn’t feel jealous, just sort of wishful that she could get out of the phobia’s grasp.
”Stella! Will you do me a favor?” a girl approached the table with a smirk on her face. It was nice to see someone in such a good mood! But they needed Ella to do something, so with a smile, Ella replied, ”Yes, yes, what is it?” The blonde had a bright, eager look in her eyes, wanting to do anything to make the girl happier than she was now, and the only way to do that was to help her. She put her cute pudding cup down and slid to the edge of her seat with a sugar sweet smile. The dark red haired girl in front of her dropped the smile and stared at her. This must be a very important favor. ”Do me a favor and read a book once in a while.” the girl said with a flat tone.
Confused, the blonde tilted her head and blinked a few times. ”Oh but I do read!” she broke into a smiled, nodding enthusiastically. She wasn’t understanding that the other girl was implying she was stupid. ”I read my Bible, I read my textbooks, sometimes even over and over but it’s okay, I sometimes read Percy Jackson books too!” she listed with a smile. Stella’s smile stayed, along with the other girl’s scowling look. ”You really are stupid.” she laughed. Stella’s smile dropped and her face transformed into a really hurt look. She knew she wasn’t smart, but she tried her hardest to be. She got hurt whenever people called her stupid, but they must call her that maybe to sort of try and make sure she was aware of her problem. They were really concerned that she needed to study more, so a harsh truth would open her eyes. But it still hurt her feelings.
She felt her eyes water a little bit as she sat there, looking up wt the laughing girl with a hurt look on her face. ”I-I know I’m not the smartest…” she started, but she didn’t have a chance to finish because the girl started laughing so loud. In fact, it was so loud that people started turning a heads. Ella looked down and started playing with a blonde wave, trying to avoid eye contact with everyone in the room. Suddenly, she felt lonely. ”...but I try…” she whispered, even though she knew the girl with the favor wouldn’t’ hear.
|
|
|
|
Post by NELL DOE DALE on Sept 3, 2012 21:09:13 GMT -5
 nell sat in the cubby, chewing on her lip. she didn't like small spaces, even when they weren't completely surrounding her. the cubby was just for privacy, but it still made her nervous, a tightness in her stomach that wouldn't go away. she looked over her shoulder and saw the tables were occupied by students, others like her who were most likely college kids like her trying to finish up a paper. she felt a kinship with them before realizing they had put her in the tiny space in the first place, but she didn't blame them for the fact that she could barely breathe. the girl tried her best to focus on the paper in front of her, half-filled with words, but her teeth were chewing at her lip again. she took out her phone and checked the time like she'd been doing obsessively for the past half hour. she'd told her friends that she'd be there for an hour and she didn't want to be a liar if she left, even if they wouldn't know. she liked to be responsible.
she shifted on the seat, taking a breath and convincing herself not to grab her bag off the back of the chair so she could leave. now that school was back in, she was feeling the pressure which she dealt with in grace. with a bright outlook on everything, she kept reminding herself that she should love the academy and all the work that came with it because this was something she'd never had before. this was an education she should have had as a child, an education that she'd never gotten because of the powers that be. and she liked learning, she was smart...most of the time. when she factored in common sense and wasn't getting herself into trouble because she thought and idea sounded great until she actually did it and that idea turned out to be not-so-great.
as she focused on the paper she let narrowed her eyes so she only saw the words and nothing else around her, letting her mind take charge until she finished it with ten minutes to spare. she hadn't wanted to leave too soon, but since she actually finished the paper, she deserved to get out of the little cubicle. nell pushed the chair back after tucking her paper into a folder, grabbing her bag and shrugging it onto her shoulder. she was about to leave before she decided to take out a book on a whim, and gave it to the librarian to check. it was about time for her to eat, even though there wasn't a time when she shouldn't or couldn't eat. it was just when she decided she could spare the time to go and dine.
she headed to the mess hall, smiling at some people she passed by. on the queue she got pizza and paid for it, along with a heaping amount of everything else she wanted to dine on before looking around. she had a lot of friends (she wondered if half of them even wanted to be her friend or if they were too nice to tell her to go away) and so she usually hopped around tables to talk with people, making sure she got to see everyone she could. but when she spotted ella she knew immediately who she would be sitting with, and she headed over, balancing her food and book and everything else she decided to carry with her. she paused when she noticed the other girl sitting across from her, wondering if they were in the middle of an important conversation that she shouldn't interrupt. but as she stood by and listened, she knew it was exactly the kind of conversation she wanted to interrupt.
there was a tightness in her chest when she saw tears in ella's eyes as the earth student tried to defend herself against the girl who had so subtly insulted her friend. she spoke like observing the weather. "you know what's stupid? having nothing better to do than make fun of other people in your free time." nell sat the tray on the table and continued in an assertive voice as she circled her lips with a finger, "so can you read my lips? you're in my seat. up." she didn't look particularly angry, she didn't get angry, but she was not pleased to see anyone mess with ella. it could be said that the girl's naivete just made her an easy target, but that didn't mean people should be ignorant or rude because of it.
when the girl left, nell rolled her eyes and sat down, sliding in with an easy smile, the reassuring kind that made it seem like nothing was wrong at all. she used it whenever she knew one of her friends were upset. "you okay?" she asked, and the redhead really was lucky nell was a genuinely nice person or she would have tore into her. unfortunately, nell's greatest insult in her repertoire was poopyhead, and that didn't get to the bullies. |
|
|
|
Post by stella on Sept 21, 2012 8:00:38 GMT -5
Stella was a easy, prime target for bullies even though she honestly did not want to be. After all, who enjoyed being bullied? The blonde never put up a true fight to try and defend herself because…well, she didn’t know how to defend herself. She had no backbone when it came to stuff like standing up for herself. But if it were standing up for others or trying to stop an argument, she had a backbone of steel. Her selflessness made her pretty weak, even though it was a trait many others found endearing. Her airheadedness, and how she wasn’t very smart also made it easy for her to be targeted by various insults in various forms. Ella knew that she was definitely not one of the smartest girls out there: she didn’t need a report card that was filled with a stream of C’s and D’s to know that one. People usually took advantage of the fact that she would not pick up on insults and sarcasm to use it against her for their own personal entertainment. Sometimes people would go up to her and confuse her as a dare, or to make other people nearby that were watching laugh too.
And even though Ella was a pageant winning girl for the majority of her life, and even though she was quite aware of one of her biggest faults, that did not stop the feelings of embarrassment to flood her mind. Being called stupid was the worst of insults in her book. Tears were flooding her eyes, threatening to spill over and run down her rosy cheeks. Her hands suddenly felt awkward, just resting on the table she sat at. Nervously and embarrassed, her hands floated up to the ends of her hair and they began playing with her wavy, bright blonde locks. Stella wanted desperately for the mean girl to leave, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask her to do so. She already knew what the answer would be, and there was no way Ella would be able to enforce her wish.
But that’s when a small, brunette interfered. Ella smiled and wiped her eyes, trying to get rid of any sort of tears that were evident. Nell truly was amazing, one of the closest people in her life actually. She felt flooded with relief as the older girl so fearlessly told the mean one to move and get out of her seat. Secretly, Stella wished that she was capable of being so strong like Nell was, so that she would never have to just sit and be terrorized helplessly by other students. The blonde’s bright green eyes followed the mean girl as she huffed and walked away. She made a mental note to avoid her if she ever saw her in the halls. But she knew that she probably wouldn’t remember: the mental notes of people to avoid were everywhere in her mind, and most of the time she didn’t remember who to avoid. It became a cycle of bullying.
”I’m fantastic.” Ella replied back to Nell, allowing her hands to fall back into a relaxed position on the table. ”Thank you, Nell.” she said softly with a smile. She looked down a bit, still slightly embarrassed that she was incapable of simply defending herself. Stella tried to imagine herself, defending herself against someone who was ruthlessly throwing mean words at her. But she couldn’t. ”How do you…” she faltered biting her lip a little. She looked up, looking at Nell’s eyes. ”How do you tell people stop without being mean?” she asked, adjusting herself in her seat.
|
|
|
|
Post by NELL DOE DALE on Sept 22, 2012 20:13:01 GMT -5
tears may have been nell's greatest weakness. she couldn't describe the way they wrenched at her, made her want to cry too. and she absolutely did not cry. only around josh, actually, and she could only think of a few times she ever shed a tear. before them, she remembered crying as she watched her sister die. other people's tears? she couldn't take seeing that. she would do anything to make that person smile, to see them happy again even if it was for a little while before more tears came. any sadness affected her greatly, and she always did her best to make it go away. that's why she volunteered wherever she could, mostly at the group home -- no one should ever have to be sad. no one should have to be hurt and made to feel like they're not good enough.
and no one should have been mocked for things they did not know. while others may have called stella thick or other words nell would never consider even thinking of calling her, nell described her as innocent. she was a kindred spirit, she knew what it was like to feel like she didn't know enough things. she did relatively well living on her own after running away, becoming a fugitive, but there had always been things that she just couldn't do. like not understanding certain stereotypes or not being able to work her washing machine. she remembered asking her neighbors to help, and even though they were clearly junkies, they were really nice people. that's why she could never judge a book by the cover. and stella, she was much the same way. she was just gullible, but that wasn't a bad thing. if anything, nell hoped she stayed that way, hoped that she could remain as innocent as possible.
nell searched her eyes for a moment before meeting the girl's smile with one of her own. she bounces back quickly. it almost made her laugh, thinking of it. she didn't think stella could stay down for long, she was like one of those inflatable clown punch bags. if you hit it, the thing just ricocheted back. and the fact that a lot of people had phobias of clowns, nell believed that it may not have been a very good idea for a children's toy. but that was beside the point. "good." she looked to the side for a moment before saying, "just checking to see if she left a yellow sulfur trail behind her." she shook her head. though she avoided confrontation all the time, she was more willing to stand up for other people than she was herself. it was what often got her in trouble with particularly spiteful thunders. unfortunately, she was prone to mistakes.
nell turned her attention back to ella to find her biting her lip and looking rather nervous. i want to hug you, can i reach across this table...? the earth graduate looked down at it before glancing up, deciding that it was a little too far to just randomly stretch across for a hug. besides, she didn't get touchy-feely with ella, their relationship always being strictly nonphysical. nell never really paid mind to it, she just accepted it as this being one fo those friendships where they just didn't touch. she chewed on a french fry as she thought. "stop without being mean," she repeated after swallowing. "depends on what that person is doing to you. usually you can just kill them with kindness." if you proved to someone that you were unaffected by what they were saying or doing, they would lose interest. it had worked for her before. "have you been having trouble lately?" nell asked, feeling the suspicion rising and her stomach twisted even thinking of anyone else giving the sweet high school problems. |
|
