* FEED OFF THE VIRUS, [daniel]

[NELL DOE DALE]

CAUSE YOU'RE MY GIRL

and that's all right,

IF YOU STING ME I WON'T MIND.

Nell had fallen in love with Timmies in recent times. Well, she had always loved Timmies, but long nights spent with stress meant a quick trip to the place in the morning. She had done suicide watch, which was quite a common thing over the break. She had more time than she did have with school going on, but still not much. She had work, and a lot of time was spent with her father. It was strange, the hours she stayed with him. He always asked her to get out of the house, but she wouldn’t allow him to leave. Unless he went on his own, but then she would track him down and drag him back inside. “You need to convalesce!” she’d tell him, and then he’d claim that he wasn’t sick anymore, and then it became a big song and dance. Always him. Why was he the one that managed to freak her out the most? She was usually completely calm and collected. This new development just brought it to light. Must be a parent thing… That had to be the answer, it didn’t make sense otherwise.

She put everything in her bag as she stood in the kitchen of the group home, Leana entering through the front door. ”Hola, Leanita,” Nell called out. The girl gave a half-hearted greeting in reply before entering the kitchen, coffee cup in hand. The Earth was definitely jealous. ”Suicide?” Leana asked as she set the cup on the table, replying in Spanish. That’s how their conversations usually went, Leana being Peurto Rican and Spanish being her first language. Nell nodded. ”I’m going to Timmies. Would ask you if you’d like to come, but you clearly already helped youself.” Her half-smile was jovial, and the darker haired girl wore a frown instead. She always had her hair down her back, and Nell could understand why. It was beautiful. ”Yeah…” she muttered, coughing a bit. She was a smoker. Nell shook her head, and told her, ”I have your Christmas present.”

The girl looked up, obviously surprised. ”Present?” Nell nodded. She reached into her bag and pulled out an oblong box, giving it to Leana. The girl looked at it as if it might bit off her fingers. ”Open it.” Nell encourage. Leana ripped the layer of wrapping paper off, blinking when she saw the black box. Opening it, the Earth girl explained, ”You said that you never had a piece of jewelry in your life. Well, now you can’t say that anymore.” The girl stared at it for a little while, running her fingers over the stone. It was real diamond. Leana didn’t seem to know what to say, and Nell could understand. She felt kinship with Leana, a girl who never owned jewelry or had anything to herself. She grew up in the slums, and Nell understood poverty. ”Thanks,” she murmured, and even though it didn’t sound it, Nell knew that it was sincere. The girl just wasn’t good at displaying thanks. Or affection. Or any emotion save for apathy.

She left with a wave, getting into her car and driving to Timmies. She got herself a sandwhich and a coffee, her eyelids heavy, pulling down every time she tried to keep awake. The coffee certainly helped, especially with the cold weather. She still sat in her jacket as she took the seat next to the window before focusing on eating her food.

i see a red light in june,

AND I HEAR CRYING

YOU TURN NEWBORN BABY BLUE.

[summers]

[/b][/color] he commented, stifling a yawn, ”I haven't seen you in a while. Do you mind if I sit down?”
[/size][/ul][/ul][/ul]

[NELL DOE DALE]

CAUSE YOU'RE MY GIRL

and that's all right,

IF YOU STING ME I WON'T MIND.

Nell was surprised to see her old teacher, so much so that for a moment she wondered if she was actually hallucinating due to lack of sleep. It had never happened before, but she wouldn't count out this being the first time. It was possible, wasn't it? Then she reminded herself how ridiculous it was to assume that this was a hallucination simply because of how much time had come to pass since they last saw each other. Coincidences like this happened, it was definitely within the realm of possibility. The coffee was helping her realize this, as a matter of fact, as she took dainty sips to brace herself from the heat of it. It was a nice reprieve from the chill outside, heat absorbed into her skin, reassuring and blanketing her. It reminded her of nights hiding with Tilly under the covers, flashlight and a book and staying up late, feeling sneaky because their parents didn't know.

She cast him a smile after a moment, realizing it was a bit of a delayed reaction, though one couldn't blame her for what she'd been through that night. Unfortunately, it had become quite the common ordeal. Work at the concert hall usually tended to be during the day, after school and the entire day during weekends. Sometimes she had to take other shifts, but that was on the occasion that someone may have been on vacation or sick. ”What, am I too young to be up this early?” she teased, though she understood where he was coming from. It was rather ungodly to be even outside. Which begged the question. ”What are you doing so early?” Other than the obvious answer of getting coffee, of course. Mr. Summers probably did not volunteer at a group home like she did, but who knew what else he did with his life other than teach. He could have done volunteer work that she didn't know about. She wouldn't be surprised. She had always thought him to be a nice man, though she thought most people to be nice, so it wasn't that surprising of her to think.

The girl gesture with her hand, said, ”Yeah, definitely, have a seat.” When was the last time she had a conversation with the man? It had been in school, she knew that. She tapped her finger against the lid of her cup and noted, ”It has been a while, hasn't it?” How odd to think that she spent only one year in high school, and it had gone by quickly enough. Maybe too quickly, considering what had been awaiting her at the end of her high school senior year. Others would be looking forward to graduating, to growing up and moving out and starting a life of their own. That was what graduating was a sign of for them. However, for her it had been the fear and devastation of a murder trial with the high chance that she would not get away with what she had done. ”I uh, volunteer at a group home and had suicide watch last night, so no sleep for me.” She gave him a crooked smile, her voice showing no signs that she may have been upset by such a thing. It was a part of her life now, she'd taken suicide watch multiple times. Luckily, there had been no incidents yet.

She took another sip of her coffee, trying to blink away the sleepiness that invaded her. ”So how have you been, Mr. Summers?” Or maybe she could call him by his first name since he no longer taught her. Would that be too unprofessional? She didn't even know, and didn't feel like going over that in her head at this point in time. When she got home she would be curling up for a nap before she had to go to work, since she had the evening shift for a theater production that night.

i see a red light in june,

AND I HEAR CRYING

YOU TURN NEWBORN BABY BLUE.

[summers]

[/b][/color] he teased in return, ”But I was your age once, and the way I remember it, sleeping in was usually the common past-time, at least in the mornings.” He grimaced at her question, his mind drifting back to the fact that there was still a huge chunk of writers-block in his path. ”Work, he told her in a not very explanatory answer to her question, ”Work and a need for caffeine to get my brain functioning.”

He smiled when she gestured for him to sit down and took the seat across from her, setting his coffee down. Taking a sip of it, he took a quick glance at Nel. She was certainly looking well – if not tired. ”You appear to be taking care of yourself.” he commented, both in observation and in response to the fact that they hadn't seen each other in a while, ”That's good. You had always seemed so pre-occupied back when you were in my class, it's nice to see that you seem to have settled down and gotten used to Maple Hollow.” As always, Daniel didn't pry into her business, even if he wasn't her teacher anymore, her personal life wasn't any of his business, in fact, since he wasn't her teacher, and since she wasn't even a high school student anymore, one could say that it was even less of his business; after all, he didn't have to watch out for signs of abuse or any of that stuff. Besides, Nel was a grown woman, and she had every right to privacy as the next person.

When she told him her exact reasons for being up so early, Daniel nodded. A quick study of her face told him that she didn't seem to be upset by what she had been doing however, so he figured that it went well and nobody succeeded in killing themselves. ”I wish my reason for a complete and total lack of sleep was more meaningful,” he told her with a half-chuckle, ”However my volunteer activities don't usually fall overnight, and when they do, I don't usually have to stay awake the whole night.” Daniel himself volunteered with a local youth group as a leader, so there was a meeting once or twice a week, and the occasional overnight camp or retreat, as well as the various volunteer activities the kids decided to get involved in.

Seeing as Nel had explained her actions better than Daniel had, he decided that it was a good idea to elaborate on what he had said before. ”I spent most of the night making lesson plans for next-years classes, although there's always a chance that I'll have to change them on the fly.” he paused to take a sip of his coffee and then continued, ”I spent the rest of the night working on my most recent endeavor as a writer, although I ran into a serious case of writer's block in the early hours, so here I am, trying to wake my brain up and hunt for ideas.”

”To be honest,” he told the Earth girl with a light-hearted smile, ”I had resigned myself to people-watching, but a conversation is a much better way to get the brain waves flowing in my opinion.”
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[NELL DOE DALE]

CAUSE YOU'RE MY GIRL

and that's all right,

IF YOU STING ME I WON'T MIND.

A brightness came to her otherwise dull eyes when he joked. The veil of sleepiness kept slipping further and further over her until she felt the pains in her body as if forcing her to completely shut down. The coffee would certainly help. "But when you sleep in, you miss so much of the day!" That's why she disliked suicide watch, because she was dead in the morning, took a long nap in the afternoon, and woke up by dinnertime completely delirious. "I guess not all teenagers think that way. You're right. Even though I dare say, I'm nineteen now and mere months away from adulthood." True adulthood, even though she reached what would be adulthood by America's standards on her nineteenth birthday. She could drink and smoke and do everything that nineteen-year-olds in America wished they could do. But she didn't indulge quite so much, so it was barely important. Her birthday never really took on an air of importance for her, save for the tattoo she'd gotten on her nineteenth.

Nell cast a bright little smile in her old teacher's direction. It certainly put her in good spirits to be talking to him again. she liked re-acquainting with old friends, even if they may have been teachers. "Yeah, I'm doing pretty well." Was it a lie? No, not really. Her life was rocky, but it always seemed to be. She had a brief reprieve after moving in with Josh, but that was short-lived. Life wouldn't be satisfied unless it gave her something to worry about. She chuckled when the man made his observation. "It was pretty difficult, considering I was loaded with tons of supplementary classes. And being from America, your strange Canadian ways confused me so." This was her humor, of course. It wasn't vastly different, though being from New York she could definitely feel out of her element. But she preferred it here where people said please and thank you instead of what the fuck are you doing crossing the road like that. There was something refreshing about Canada.

Suicide watch could be brutal on her nerves whenever one of the girls wanted to go to the bathroom, because Nell's mind went over all the ways she could take her life. They tried to prevent it as much as possible, but sometimes it couldn't be helped. Luckily, it hadn't been on her watch yet. "I do try to make it so that my lack of sleep is solely because of altruistic motives." She used to think that her parents got up early just because they were adults and that's what adults do. But she discovered with some people she knew that it wasn't a fact. She didn't like to sleep in much because she hated feeling like she was missing the day. "Where do you volunteer?" she asked curiously. She loved doing volunteer work, would do it all the time if she didn't feel the need to support herself with a job. She didn't have to, but she felt she needed it for self-validation. No trophy wife here.

She listened as Mr. Summers explained himself, glad that her brain still functioned well enough to process his words correctly. She feared that she might have to ask him to repeat himself on some simple matter, but she was faring quite well. "You're quite the busy bee. Teaching must be a hard job, especially when it's year-round, like the Academy." The breaks they had made it like a regular school year, it was just spaced out so it didn't feel that way. Then he mentioned writing, and she lifted her eyebrows. "What're you writing? A screenplay? A memoir? Your magnum opus?" In her mind, writing was always like playing a movie in her mind. It usually turned out to be a film noir for her, but she wondered what it was like for her old teacher. She knew he had a very keen interest in literature. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been teaching what he was.

Nell chuckled again, though it was strained from tiredness. "People watching is really fun, though. Especially when you can make up their back story and guess what they were doing in the hours before you saw them." She was the kind of person to wonder about the little things like that. For instance, why did someone choose the shirt they were wearing that day? Why did they wear that hat? What did they eat for breakfast? Did they read the paper, like she did? "I don't know if I have much energy for in-depth conversation at the moment. The caffeine will have me talking like a mad woman in, oh, about five seconds." It was a predication that always served to be accurate. It gave her a nice little boost, even though she came down by the time she got home and to her room.

i see a red light in june,

AND I HEAR CRYING

YOU TURN NEWBORN BABY BLUE.

[summers]

[/b][/color] he commented, pausing a moment to think about the quote. "Mind you," he added jokingy, "I don't think we quite fit the first part of that right now, unless 'early to bed' means going to bed so early that it's actually the next day." He raised an eyebrow at her next comment, but not in an actual manner of confusion or anything, it was simply an unconscious action that just happened. "Is that so, do you think?" he asked, "I mean, it does make sense, but I know when I was a teenager, I relished sleeping in as much as possible because I knew that that option wouldn't be available once I became a 'working adult.'

When Nel offered him a smile, he returned it with one of his own, glad to hear that she was doing well. It was always great to hear from old students, and even better to hear that they were doing well in life, after all it was one of those things you wondered about as a teacher, you taught all these students and got to know them slightly when they were in your class, so it was always interesting to hear how they were doing and what they had done with their lives. He chuckled at her comment about 'Canadian ways' and nodded. "Of course, after all, living in Canada, you had to make sure that you knew how to safely build an igloo to protect your self from polar bears and rogue moose right?" he joked. Daniel was well aware of the slew of sterotypes that went along with Canadian culture, including the one that everyone, everywhere in Canada hates Toronto, which, honestly, he thought was rather silly as he had grown up in the GTA, so he knew for a fact that that wasn't true. "Have you managed to settle in and find your place yet?" he inquired.

When she asked him where he volunteered, he looked up from his coffee at her. "I volunteer as a leader for the local youth group," he told her, "With the exception of the camps and youth retreats the kids set up, it isn't exactly something that goes overnight." With his job, which was pretty much year round, Daniel didn't exactly have time to involve himself in too many volunteer activities, although he did like to help out as much as possible. The youth group was pretty much all he could do, although they often got involved in things like food and toy drives as well as the occasional night helping out at the local soup kitchen, all of which Daniel got involved in as well. If he had time, usually when school was on break and such, then he would find other places to volunteer at temporarily. So Daniel did get his volunteer work in, although he wouldn't say it was his 'fair share' he didn't believe in there being a 'fair share' for something such as that.

"It may not exactly be a glory job, but it's well worth it." he told Nel in response to what she said about his job, "Although sometimes I feel like that silly joke about teachers living at school is true, especially when it's report card time!" he half-joked. He smiled at her question about his writing. It wasn't something he normally talked about unless asked, but he certainly didn't mind talking about it when asked. "I'm working on my most recent novel," he replied, "But I'm currently stuck trying to figure out a good way to move the plot along. I was hoping that some coffee would revitalize my mind enough to be able to think of something."

Daniel took another sip of his coffee and glanced around the shop. There was certainly a good deal of people there for it being early, but then again, there was an awful lot of people who were caffeine addicts - Daniel included - so it wasn't surprising. "You're right of course, it's great to let yourself wonder about someone and try to figure out their story, and it's surprising how much inspiration you can get from some random stranger."

"Waiting for the caffeine to kick in?" he asked with a chuckle, "and I wouldn't worry about a conversation being too in-depth, after all, a conversation is still a conversation, this isn't a class discussion."
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[NELL DOE DALE]

CAUSE YOU'RE MY GIRL

and that's all right,

IF YOU STING ME I WON'T MIND.

Nell grinned, resting her head on her fist as she listened to him. She was desperately trying not to drop her head on the table and fall asleep right there. Daniel had a lot to say, and that would be terribly rude. She wanted to listen to him! ”Always quick with the quote, aren't you?” she said, and unfortunately for her wit wasn't sharp at this moment. The coffee should help with that. She shook her head, saying, ”Can't be completely healthy all the time! The world is working against us.” Nell tried not to let the stress get to her, but her body certainly had a strain to it thanks to how weird her hours were. But working as a bartender since she moved her prepared her for this kind of havoc on her body. ”You're forgetting the teenagers with jobs!” she said brightly. ”I've been working since I was seventeen. And I've heard that most teenagers actually don't get as much sleep as they should. At least on weekdays.” Probably because their sleep pattern was screwed up by the weekends, and they were forced to fix it on the weekdays.

She couldn't help but laugh, albeit tiredly, at Daniel's words. Of course she was tired, though, there was no way she could help that, no matter how much coffee she drank. It could only do so much for the productiveness of her mental faculties. ”Please, I learned how to tame the polar bears to be my own personal servants. They give me Coke and stuff.” Like the Coca Cola commercials, but in her state, she didn't know whether or not she got that across. She took another large sip, and it perked her up almost instantly. She ran her hands along the sleeves of her shirt, shivering from the cold despite the heat inside. It was still pretty freezing. Thanks, Canada, she thought. She could thank New York City for its training. Anywhere north was just too cold. She wondered if she'd prefer to live somewhere like Mexico, but she wasn't going to try. She'd been to Spain, and she knew she'd love living there, but she had a family in the Hollow. ”I think so. After two and a half years, this is starting to feel like home.” She gave him a bright smile. It had always been home, she supposed. Her life was here, she had Josh and her family and she couldn't think of living anywhere else. Not even New York or Spain, places that could have been viable options for 'home'.

She lifted her eyebrows when he said where he volunteered. Volunteer work was always admirable, of course, but he worked with children! That was a soft spot for her, definitely. She loved children so much, and that's why she missed the daycare job she once had. ”Working with kids, huh? That's always rewarding. Though a lot of people find it difficult because...you know, kids and how they are.” She loved them, though, and maybe a part of her was just living vicariously through them. She never had a childhood, and she loved watching kids live their own. They could jump around and be free and happy and do whatever they like. But mostly, it was her maternal inner mechanisms. It was almost ironic, considering she couldn't remember having a motherly influence that had actually been good to her, had been the kind of person a mother should be. It was just the kind of person she came to be.

It seemed that Daniel didn't mind his job at all, and yes, she decided, he was quite the admirable man. She admired a lot of people, because there were just so many great influences out there, and this man was one of them. She aspired to be like the people she looked up to, but she knew she could never compare. ”As long as its worth it right?” That was what mattered, after all. ”Do you have a wife or any kids?” She wondered, not knowing that much about his personal life. She usually imagined her teachers as all having families of their own, just because they were adults and that's what she'd come to imagine.She was interested to hear more about this novel, though, floored by anyone with dedication like that even though she would love to write a novel. Perhaps on philosophy, since that had always been her love. ”I don't know about writing a novel, but going out and doing something usually gets my brain moving for studying.” She couldn't just sit down and study until she'd exhausted herself to the point of needing to sit down. That was the only way it worked for her.

She studied the people around them as Daniel spoke, a businessman with fancy cufflinks, a mother with two children flanking her, a group of teenagers. Some people you wouldn't expect to be there were lingering, and it did make one wonder about their story. It was interesting to hypothesize, at least, and it could keep the weary mind occupied. ”I'm sure it's good for getting creative juices for your novel flowing, right? Is that how you make characters?” She didn't exactly know how the process went. How did Dostoevsky craft his cast? He was one of her favorite authors, and Voltaire was another. She had more understanding of how he created his characters, however, because they were used for commentary on the day and age he lived in.

Nell nodded her head. ”Yep. And caffeine doesn't just energize me, it has the same effect as an electric shock. More frazzling than anything.” That was the best way to put it, actually, an electric shock. At least it left her hair looking better than that would have. ”And how am I suppose to know that you won't pull some sort of lesson into our conversation? What if you start asking me about Hamlet?” It would be easy for her, at least, being a huge Hamlet fanatic. Maybe not fanatic, but it was her favorite Shakespeare.

i see a red light in june,

AND I HEAR CRYING

YOU TURN NEWBORN BABY BLUE.