Solitairy Confinement {Nell}

[HAYLEE EUNMI ROSE]

Haylee had absolutely nothing to do, and she was bored out of her mind. Okay, that was a lie. She had plenty to do. There was always plenty to do. She had homework, and she laundry, and she had to work on her anniversary present for her parents and... You get the picture. There were plenty of things she should do, but Haylee wasn't feeling productive. She considered going and finding her brother and bugging him, but decided against it. He probably was up to his own things, and she didn't need to cling to him the way she had when they had first come to the academy. Instead, Haylee searched through a drawer in her desk until she found a pack of cards. Perfect. She sat herself on her bed and set herself up with a game of solitaire. She was... okay at the game, but not very good. Nevertheless, Haylee won about ninety percent of the time. Mostly because she only played by the rules ten percent of the time. Haylee tended to only draw one card, and to put cards back when she didn't like a move she had made. It wasn't honest game play, but it wasn't like she was hurting anyone else when she did it. Only herself.

Haylee played through half a game before she decided that it wasn't working. Not necessarily because she wasn't playing correctly (though she wasn't), or because she was already losing interest (which she was), but because while she was holed up in her dorm room she was less likely to find something else to distract her. So Haylee gathered up the cards, despite being in the middle of a game. She was losing anyway. She put them back in the box, grabbed her mp3 player so she wouldn't look as pathetic as she felt she might, and headed to the common room. There was already plenty of people in the room when she arrived, but nobody that Haylee knew well at all, nobody she'd feel comfortable walking up to and inviting to a game of cards or something. And that was alright, she'd been expecting it, really. It was why she'd brought the mp3 player. Because she knew how she was.

There was a loud group off to one side, which seemed to be made up of earth students from a couple different grade levels. She wondered what was going on, but not enough to step outside her comfort zone and go ask one of them. Instead Haylee plugged one headphone into her ear, leaving the other out so that she didn't completely close herself off and people could talk to her. She found a couch as far away from the group as possible, and pulled one of the tables up to it so that she could set up her solitaire game in the common room. She curled up in the couch and began to play, humming softly along to the song playing on her mp3 player.

[NELL DOE DALE]

[atrb=style, width: 300px; height: 20px; background-color: #908184;] [atrb=border,0,true] [atrb=style, border: solid #000000 4px; width: 300px; float: center; padding: 10px;] tiny vessels. today would be one of those days where she could have time to herself, and nell thought that was magnificent. she didn't often have days like this. and so, when her high school friend asked if she could give her a lift home after school because her aunt was in town, nell agreed. her morning classes ended some time before the other kids', so she needed to find something to do in the meantime, but she had a lot to do. she had homework, and training, and whatever her brain could cook up to entertain herself. she ended up getting a book from the library, and it being one of her favorites, she had to read it while walking. it was voltaire, she couldn't help herself. if she were good with directions, she would have been expert at getting to the earth dorms by now. as it were, she was not, and so she got lost quite a few times before reaching the door. reading while walking did not help whatsoever. and this was also why, after she entered the dorm, she tripped over her feet and fell. luckily her books stayed in the messenger bag, and she was wearing jeans so there could be no more added embarrassment. not that she was really embarrassed, it was hard to get that kind of reaction out of her. but there were a lot of people. oh joy. she rolled over on her back. ”i feel like a turtle,” she mumbled before standing up and brushing herself off a little. that's what she got for not watching where she was going. at least these were her allies, and a lot of them she knew well. she kept a wide circle of friends, but she paid an equal amount of attention to all of them. she had a lot of love to give, and she often expressed that love through food. unfortunately, she only had a bag of chips in her bag right now, not enough to share with everyone. one of her friends was clapping from the corner, and she gave a bow. "thank you, thank you," she said. nell bent down to pick up the book and walked to find cards going on. her interest was immediately piqued. this was how she stayed for hours at the casino, she just loved card games too much. "whoa whoa whoa, solitaire," she said as she side-tracked herself. "you wanna set up a game for two? i'm stuck her for a little while, and i don't have a dorm, so it'd be nice to have some form of entertainment..." she realized that she was talking to the cards and not the actual girl and scratched the back of her head, smiling. "i'm nell. college student." it was why she didn't have a dorm, as a matter of fact.

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[HAYLEE EUNMI ROSE]

Haylee hadn't been playing for very long at all, when her plan actually worked. She looked up, eyes wide, when someone she didn't know began talking to her. She was probably doing her best impression of a deer caught in the headlights. No, okay, she was not allowed to freak out because somebody she didn't know was talking to her. That was the whole point of coming out into the common room to play solitaire in the first place. Well, the "somebody" part, anyway. Maybe not necessarily the "she didn't know" part. Still, not being alone was the goal, so she didn't really have room to complain. Besides, all of the other earths she'd met were nice enough. She didn't know what she was scared of. "Of solitaire?" she answered, so quiet she wondered if the other girl could even hear her. "Isn't the point of solitaire that only one person plays it? If it were a two person game it'd be like... Duotaire or something, wouldn't it?"

And then Haylee was blushing and embarrassed, because she realized the other girl probably meant a two player game, and not a game of solitaire for two. That made so much more sense, and Haylee felt like a fool. Goodness, she was so awkward. She was probably going to scare this other girl away, and she'd probably deserve it if she did. Plus, she was fairly certain that what she'd just said sounded like a dismissal more than an honest question stemming from her misconception. "Oh. Oh, I get it now. Yeah, a two person game would be fine," she finally said, her voice still much quieter than normal. "What did you have in mind?"

[/b] Haylee honestly didn't know very many card games outside of go fish and war. And old maid. But she was a quick study, most of the time, and as long as whatever game the other girl offered didn't involve math, she figured she'd be able to pick it up quick enough.

It took the other girl, Nell she now realized, introducing herself for Haylee to realize she hadn't offered up her name either. Not that she'd had much thought to, what with all the panicking over meeting new people and all. She still was uncomfortable, but she figured she'd get over it. At least with a card game she wouldn't have to do much talking. In theory, anyway. And if there was a lot of talking going on, well, she'd just try to get Nell to do the most of it. "Haylee,"[/b] she said, offering up her own name. "Grade eleven. Why are you stuck here? Do you have another class later?" Haylee knew that the college's classes weren't as strictly scheduled as the high school's, and that some students had long breaks in between. Haylee gathered all of her cards back into a deck and started to shuffle, getting ready for whatever game they'd play.[/justify][/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[NELL DOE DALE]

[atrb=style, width: 300px; height: 20px; background-color: #a5a5a5;] [atrb=border,0,true] [atrb=style, border: solid #ffffff 4px; width: 300px; float: center; padding: 10px;] tiny vessels. maybe nell should have phrased that better, but she wasn't prone to interrupting people when they were speaking. It wasn't until the girl caught on herself that she bobbed her head, a little smile dancing on her lips. ”hey, we can come up with a game called duotaire where we're like...battling out for the aces and whoever has the most on their aces win.” she punched out her fists to mime the 'battling' part. And nell had no problems with innovating like that. It was actually an interesting idea that the girl unknowingly planted in nell's head. ”but spit's pretty similar to solitaire in the way it's set up.” and that was pretty much it. Solitaire truly was a one-man game. Or in this girl's case...one woman game. Haylee seemed flustered by her misconception, which was just plain cute to the elder earth. The sophomore figured that she could have phrased it better. Too late for that. ”but you know, it's all right if you'd rather be...solitary.” luckily she agreed, and nell smiled, clapping her hands together. It showed by the way she got too excited over someone playing solitaire that she really liked card games and she almost wanted to ask her company if she had the same passion but wondered if it was a normal thing to be passionate about if you weren't a ramblin', gamblin' man in an old blues song. ”i can play anything, so it'd probably be better if you name one you like.” she didn't want to overwhelm the other girl with listing off every two person game she could play. And from all voer the world, too, she had quite the repertoire. Nell pulled over a chair and sat down, reclining feeling pretty good after her little spill. Hopefully no one remembered that. She didn't even sense that...haylee, so that was her name!...may have been socially awkward in this situation, she was just happy to talk to someone. ”nice to meet ya.” and not she felt like that overly-friendly stranger who picked up conversation with you while waiting in line at the convenience store and actually did wonder if she was making the earth student uncomfortable. ”uh, my friend, actually, asked me to drive her into town after her classes,” nell said. ”i'm in college, and I usually have morning classes. I don't haunt the dorms as much as I used to.” information like this used to be more awkward to talk about, but she was slowly getting better in talking about little things like this. She still didn't like it, however, but it was more subconscious than anything. She folded her hands patiently, and said, ”so you board here, I guess. I never got the chance to, really. But do you like it?” and again, there went that overly-friendly stranger deal that she used to be so self-conscious of. At least she'd gotten better.

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[HAYLEE EUNMI ROSE]

((sorry it took me so long to get to this. >.<))

Haylee was... Intrigued, for sure, by the idea of creating a game out of her duotaire quip. She didn't know enough card games, so making one of her own might be interesting. In the past, making up their own games had always been a good recipe for a fight with her brother, but Haylee was older now, and much more mature. Also, she doubted she had it in her to fight with Nell. She hardly knew the girl. A minute of conversation was not at all sufficient, not for socially awkward Haylee Rose. She smiled a bit when the other earth girl mimed a battle, eyes crinkling in a silent laugh.

The older girl seemed so excited by the idea of a card game, Haylee couldn't help wondering if she had really been that bored, or if she just had a love for cards Haylee would probably never understand. Haylee preferred board games. Like Life, and Monopoly, and Scrabble. And Jenga. Haylee was the reigning Jenga champion back at home. She liked cards, alright, and they were a good way to pass time. She figured maybe she'd like them more if she knew more than the basic games, but then maybe not. Her brother was always going on about the math of card games, and probabilities and all that mumbo jumbo. He made everything sound so complicated. But then her brother was very math brained, and saw numbers where she couldn't so. Maybe it was mostly just ramble. She couldn't guess.

"Um..." Haylee started, going through the list of games she knew. War seemed okay, but it didn't involve a lot of talking, and she didn't want things to be awkward, but Old Maide and Go Fish seemed too childish. Which was probably silly, but whatever. Also, she didn't remember enough rules for Crazy Eights, and you needed at least three for 21. So war it was, then. "How about War?" she asked, already starting to deal out the cards equally. She could just gather them up if Nell didn't want to play that particular game. It was no big deal to her.

"Nice to meet you too." Haylee smiled. It was sort of late for the formality, but details. Haylee nodded as the other girl talked. "That's really nice. I don't drive yet, though technically I'm old enough. I'm never home often enough to learn." She blushed a bit as she spoke, not because she was embarrassed by what she was saying, but just because talking to people she didn't know well yet had that sort of effect on her. Haylee nodded when the girl started mentioning boarding. "Yeah, I board. My parents live in the states, so it's not like I can stay with them, and they don't want me working while I'm in school. They've been thinking of moving to the Hollow, but they're head honchos at their business, so it's hard for them to just up and leave. It's nice, boarding though. I'm forced to talk to more people than I would, which is probably a good thing. Why didn't you board, if you don't mind me asking?" Haylee was so quiet. She really needed to speak up more. And stop talking to the cards, and start looking at the other girl more than a few seconds at a time.

[NELL DOE DALE]

[atrb=style, width: 300px; height: 20px; background-color: #a5a5a5;] [atrb=border,0,true] [atrb=style, border: solid #ffffff 4px; width: 300px; float: center; padding: 10px;] tiny vessels. as much as nell naturally empathized and understood other people, she could be pretty oblivious sometimes. especially when she took cues wrong, but she was a person to simply take everything a person did at face value. it may have been naive, but she'd rather trust people than stay in a shell of some sort. "war sounds like a great idea!" nell said, and then in a piece of corny horrid joking that she enjoyed, she added, "the game. the game war sounds great." and of course she couldn't help but laugh afterward. she supposed it was better than the god awful puns she loved to crack. in any case, she began setting up the game, because as said she knew pretty much every single one out there. though she liked to be surprised by new ones, because considering how sheltered she'd been, she could never claim to know everything of anything. nell didn't abide by formalities often, because by the time she's spoken one word to someone, she's already decided that they're bffs and therefore introductions aren't needed. "i can totally teach you," nell said when haylee expressed the fact that she hadn't learned because she wasn't home enough. it made sense, such were the woes of boarding students. she chalked the sheepishness up to the fact that she was embarrassed over the fact she hadn't learned yet, even though that wasn't it. still, it gave her incentive to help someone in need of a license. well, it was actually mostly a joke, because she knew that people didn't usually like getting taught things like that from strangers. but that's how she learned, from a "friend" she'd met on her way to canada. running from law enforcement, of course. "i'm an awesome driver. though i can't say i have an awesome car, so i might just spare you having to even view my pt cruiser." she had a nice car in the works, a pontiac in the garage slowly coming together under her hands. it would take a while, though, and in the meantime she was still driving gwen, the silver cruiser that she had actually come to grow a fondness of. she supposed it happened when you named a car, it became your baby. she was one to talk over anything, so she had no qualms about conversing during a card game. if anyone ever complained to her about it, though, she was more than compliant about shutting up. she listened to haylee speak of her parents and the fact that they couldn't necessarily move, something that was more than understandable. "head honchos, huh? what kind of business do they have?" nell wondered about other people's history and life and parents and a lot of times she kept it to herself when she believed that it was topics that someone may not want to talk about. but she could never help the curiosity, that was for sure. it was a good thing she'd gotten better in the reverse, meaning she was able to answer some questions about herself. she didn't really like talking about herself because that wasn't something she was good at, but she would indulge with questions like haylee's. "that was because i was already living in the hollow, and i decided that it would be easier to commute considering i did have a job back then. some students can do that, but boarding is always easier." sometimes she stayed in the dorms, but it was on rare occasions. she much preferred the "freaking mansion", as she'd grown fond of referring to it in her head.

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