LIFT IT UP LIKE A BANNER [haylee]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Ugh, research was one of the most boring things Sandra knew of. Except maybe with very very very interesting subjects (and sometimes not even then) the girl was unable to handle doing it in any capacity. This had been a problem for her in a good number of her classes in the past, but few of them had required as much research as her Global Issues class did. She guessed that it made sense. There were news articles and the like to look through because most of this was, after all, things happening in the world right at that moment, so most of the stories were fairly ongoing. It wasn't that Sandra didn't care about the world, because really she did and she did enjoy some of the things in the class (finding the stories completely engrossing, honestly, depending on how messed up the Earth really was) but it was... it was still difficult. Sandra just didn't have the necessary discipline and focus to be able to do these things. Honestly, the girl didn't do that much schoolwork in general -- and it was a lucky thing she was smart, or smart-ish enough to be able to get by, or else she'd have probably flunked out at this point judging by her work ethic.

Today in the library, when she was supposed to be doing research for a class discussion the next day, she seriously wanted nothing more than to sleep -- but no! She must not sleep -- she had to do this research and get it to class tomororw. Also, she must not sleep because dinner was in a few hours, and if she fell asleep in the library at this hour then there was no way she'd be able to wake up in time. Sandra could nap for really long stretches of time. This research was so horribly boring, though... She was sitting with her laptop at one of the tables in the library, but now she looked around. Hm... Was there anyone around she could talk to? Oh! Spotting Haylee at just the next table (seriously, when had the girl come in? Sandra felt kind of bad for not having noticed earlier) she waved and whispered loudly, "Hey hey, Haylee Baylee." Smiling in amusement at her own ridiculousness, she scooted her chair over a little bit to be closer to where the other girl was sitting. "Whatcha up to? Doing homework?" Sandra would talk to anyone to avoid doing this research, but it was lucky that she actually did consider Haylee a friend. Then again, Sandra thought everyone was a friend.

[HAYLEE EUNMI ROSE]

Haylee grabbed her math text book and walked toward the library. She didn't really like to do homework in her dorm room and there was some noisy activity going on in the dorms anyway. She didn't really stop to see what it was. Haylee knew herself to well, knew that if whatever was going on was interesting enough she'd sit on the fringes and observe for as long as it went on, or something else came up. She was too distractible, and she wanted to get this homework done, at least mostly. But goodness, she hated math. Haylee was not math brained, that was for sure. Give her a paper to write, and she'd do fine. Ask her to solve any of the problems in her math homework, and be prepared to watch her struggle with it for far too long. She couldn't even get the equations she was supposed to have memorized by now to stick in her brain.

Haylee looked around when she got to the library, looking for a place to sit herself down and get to work. She saw Sandra sitting at a table, and for a second she entertained the idea of going to sit with her and strike up a conversation. But Sandra looked like she was focused on something, and Haylee didn't want to be a bother. Instead she found a place to sit elsewhere and opened up her book to the examples page for her assignment. Examples pages in math textbooks were her best friends. They did a good job of helping her solve her homework problems. Most of the time, anyway. Still, she was struggling with the concept they were currently learning in math, so she knew it would take her a while. Luckily, they were long problems, so there weren't very many in the homework.

Someone whispering her name startled her, but Haylee smiled as soon has she realized who it was. "Hey, Sandra." She looked down at the math assignment when Sandra asked about homework. Some of the math problems she'd actually solved, but mostly she'd been doodling in the margins. Also, making her calculator say boobies using numbers, because apparently she had the maturity level of a thirteen year old boy at that moment. "In theory?" she answered. "It's what I came here for anyway," Haylee added with a laugh. "What about you? You seemed like you were really concentrating on something when I came in. I didn't want to bug you."

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Sandra smiled and waved a little when Haylee looked her way. "Hey," she said again as she leaned over across the space between their tables to peek at what Haylee was doing. "Ooh... Math, huh?" Sandra couldn't say that she was a big fan of math even though, actually, she was pretty decent at it overall. The problem was that it was so much work and all of it was tedious. Ah well, that was alright -- it wasn't like Sandra did most of her homework anyway... much to her brother's chagrin, she was sure, but hey, Sandra still pretty much just did what she wanted. "In theory is good enough. And wouldn't you rather waste time with me anyway?" she asked, trying (but probably failing) to waggle her eyebrows. She giggled a little even as she glanced at the nearby librarian. Luckily she wasn't being yelled at yet or anything. She wasn't always loud, but she could definitely get there... and she had been kicked out of the library before. She didn't mind that much, considering they usually forgot about it by the next time she went there, but she wouldn't want to get anyone else in trouble too.

At Haylee's question Sandra glanced back to her laptop, which was still open to the last news article she'd been reading... or trying to read. "This thing for Global Issues," she answered, turning the laptop a little so that Haylee could see it. "S'pretty boring, though..." She heaved a long sigh. No, the issue itself wasn't boring, but there was only so much reading Sandra could do on this! Discussing it in class was much better, but when she was expected to actually say half-intelligent things in this discussion, a little bit of background research was apparently necessary. Even so, Sandra was smart enough to know how to make enough stuff up in class should she actually fail to finish reading up on this... which she probably would because the girl was lazier than anyone. "But nope, not concentrating. Maybe trying to figure out why the words on the screen keep moooving," she said, dragging out the word to show her exasperation. No, of course they hadn't, but she'd gotten distracted and unfocused and her eyes were swimming from all that staring at a screen trying to focus on stuff. "But I will persevere! Would suck to fail in my last year or something." She yawned and stretched her arms over her head, but she was exaggerating. Sandra wasn't anywhere near failing, thankfully. "How about you though, how're the numbers coming?" She reached over and tapped the girl's work with her finger a few times, smiling.

[HAYLEE EUNMI ROSE]

Haylee made a face at her homework when Sandra mentioned it, unable to hide her lack of enthusiasm for the subject. Not that she needed to. Sure, Haylee liked school. But this was math. Besides, it was homework, and nobody liked homework. Nobody sane, anyway. "I'd rather be doing anything. Wasting time with you is just bonus." Haylee lowered her voice, following Sandra's gaze toward the librarian. Haylee had never been kicked out for being too loud before, but she'd seen it happen. It always struck her as a bit odd, like a cliche scene out of a book or a movie, though she supposed the idea of the totalitarian librarian who demanded quiet had to come from somewhere. She only knew that if the librarian ever happened to kick her out, Haylee's face would probably turn beat red. She wasn't in trouble often. She was a "good kid." It always embarrassed her when she did get in trouble.

"Global Issues?" Haylee asked, leaning a bit to glance over the article on Sandra's laptop. It didn't seem too boring, but then anything could be if it was something you had to do. She laughed. "Ah, Sandra," she started, her voice light with humor. "I hate to break it to you, but these words aren't moving. It's all in your head, dear." She tapped Sandra lightly on the forehead. Her voice was serious, but her face gave away that she was just being a brat and teasing her friend. "Take a break and distract me from these wretched equations." Haylee knew Sandra well enough to know that the other girl was at least passing all of her classes, and that she'd graduate just fine, so she let that comment go, simply nodding and voicing her agreement. Haylee yawned as well, infected by the sight of Sandra's yawn, and grimaced at her homework, unable to avoid the groan that came out of her mouth at the thought of the equations she still had to do. "Don't mention them. I can't understand math. Something about numbers. Why is everything so complicated? Do you want to trade homework for a little while? I'll read your article, and you solve my equations. We can rub our heads together afterward to give each other the information through osmosis or something," Haylee joked, though she half wished that were possible. But Haylee wasn't the type to cheat, and she'd probably end up throwing out the homework and starting over, or ratting herself out, if anyone ever did her homework for her.

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Sandra gave her friend an evil grin. "Then, my friend, you're in for an adventure, because I am the queen of wasting time." Admittedly she could waste time just as efficiently (haha, "efficiently") on her own, but being such a social person, she never found this to be nearly as fun as she did with friends being involved. Nope, nope. She did feel kind of bad that she was in a way dragging Haylee down with her into the pits of hell reserved for lazy people or something, but... ah, the girl was asking for it and she was there anyway and -- whatever, it didn't even matter so much! Sandra was going to continue doing things her own way whatever people thought about it, and Haylee would hopefully at least have fun... while getting nothing done. "Yeah, Global Issues," she confirmed with a nod, then she giggled a little bit as Haylee tapped her forehead. "Hey you, don't make me out to be some kind of insane person or something, I'm not imagining things." She knew that the words weren't really moving, but it was pretty hard to believe this when she was so distracted from what she was supposed to be doing. She reached over and tapped Haylee on the forehead right back, laughing.

Technically she'd been taking a break for a while now, or at least her brain had zoned out long before she'd started talking to Haylee, but she nodded as if this was a brand new idea. It was much easier to waste time when she had friends convincing her to do so -- Sandra would do it anyway, but when she had people like her brother nagging her to do work, it did get pretty annoying. "This is a perfect idea, you know." She picked up her laptop and her bag (where it had been on the ground beside her) and moved over to join Haylee at the otherwise unoccupied table. It was much easier this way, and hopefully they could stay quiet enough to at least remain undetected by the librarians. "Sweet, I love learning through osmosis. Like when I take a nap on the textbook and all the information seeps into my brain," she joked, nudging Haylee a little bit. "Anyway, math's super boring. Let's not do that. How's life otherwise?" she asked, changing the topic with a bright grin.

[HAYLEE EUNMI ROSE]

"Sounds fun," Haylee answered, grinning back and giggling a bit at the image her brain provided of Sandra dressed up as a queen with a cape and scepter. And crown. So perhaps the image was more king than queen, but details. "Will you take me across the sea of responsibility, deep into the land of procrastination?"

[/b] she asked, which was admittedly lame and a bit awkward. When she was around friends, though, Haylee liked to pretend that her awkwardness was part of her charm. After all, they seemed to all like her well enough despite it. Most of the time, anyway. Haylee thought about sparing a moment to feel bad about stopping her productivity streak, but she was about due for a break anyway, and she really just wasn't getting these problems. Sure, if she could figure out which equation she needed, plugging in the numbers wasn't bad, but she couldn't quite figure out how you knew which equation went with which type of problem. Mostly she was employing the trial and error method, and choosing the answer which made the most sense. Which would not work when the test came around. She'd have to hunt down her brother later and see if he couldn't shove some understanding into her math stupid brain. Haylee laughed when Sandra tapped Haylee's forehead back. "But," she started, putting on her most earnestly innocent voice. "I'd never make you out to be something you're not, Sandra." Haylee stuck her tongue out at the older girl.

Haylee snickered lightly when Sandra started to nod, as if the thought of a break hadn't already passed through her mind and been employed by the time she had spoken to Haylee. "I know. I'm full of nothing but perfect ideas," [/b]Haylee nodded, laughing lightly. She began gathering her things into a neat pile as Sandra gathered her own things to join Haylee at her table. No use having her papers out if she wasn't going to be working on them. She'd just lose them otherwise. "Ah, does that method work? I've been meaning to try it,"[/b] Haylee nudged Sandra back, grinning. "Life is life. Not much is going on. Just homework, studying, and art when I've got the time. Nothing out of the usual for me. I'm super boring lately. How about you?"[/justify][/blockquote][/blockquote][/size]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

It actually was fun, if Sandra could say so herself -- there was nothing wrong wtih wasting time, not at all, except for this entire thing about having tod o work so that she didn't fail out of school and wind up pushing a shopping cart around downtown, as her English teacher liked to point out frequently. Luckily for Sandra this didn't seem like a very legitimate fear, so hey, she'd take her chances as long as she was able to have fun. According to all her older friends, college was going to grill her hard, but Sandra was deadset on living life while she could. "Yes! Where we'll explore the vast jungles of pastimes and drink from the river of bad habits," she carried on. This conversation was kind of ridiculous but then again she was a ridiculous person, and pfft, Haylee was just too cute for words. "And good, because that'd be lying and --" She stopped when she realized what Haylee had really meant. "Heyyy, I take offense to that! I am quite mentally sound, thank you ver much." She wasn't at all offended in real life -- she heard this kind of thing way too often.

Did it work? Well, Sandra didn't really know, honestly. She was pretty sure that scientifically and logically it held absolutely no water, but at the same time... she wasn't failing despite never doing work, so she had to be doing something right. Sandra tried, alright, it was just that at this point she didn't see the need anymore when she really just needed decent grades and she didn't need or want to do a crapload of work. Maybe she was onto something with this studying by osmosis thing. "You should! Works best when you're in class and you're supposed to be doing something else," she said, grinning a little. Oh yeah, Sandra was a terrible influence at least when it came to this -- the rest of the time she was a very good kid, thanks. "So boring," she whined a little, not that she had the right to complain about other people's lives, jeez. "You should do something exciting! Like like like... I don't know, but something exciting. At least art is fun though!" She hummed a little as she packed her stuff away too, following Haylee's lead. "Not much! Hanging out. Not doing homeowrk or studying!" She had been spending much of her time with Devin, but Sandra wasn't That Girl who just talked about her boyfriend all the time... unless someone asked, in whic case she could go on for a while -- but to be fair Sandra could blab for hours about clocks or cheese or something. "Come live on the irresponsible side with me!"

[HAYLEE EUNMI ROSE]

Haylee's imagination went a bit overboard with the images Sandra provided of jungles and rivers, and suddenly in her head she was an explorer traveling through dense jungles and discovering new things. She laughed a bit at the ridiculousness of the images she had conjured up. "Ooh," she said, smiling brightly. "Will we wear explorer outfits and cut our way through dense foliage with machetes?" She giggled a bit when Sandra took her brattiness seriously, and then laughed a bit brighter when she got it. "Sure, whatever you say." Haylee stuck her tongue out before relenting. "Nah, I'm just kidding. I know that you are the sanest of the sane."

Haylee raised a single eyebrow at the idea of her sleeping in a classroom. She was just too much of a goody two shoes. She'd never do it. Not that she couldn't use the nap sometimes, but she just couldn't. She'd napped once, on accident, in the middle of a writing assignment. Haylee woke up when she had been smacked lightly on the back of her head by the teacher. He hadn't even said anything to her, just gave her a look while he continued his walks up and down the aisles of students. It had been embarrassing enough for her though, and she saw the way some of the other teachers handled it. One teacher had smacked down so loudly on the desk of a sleeping student once that it startled her, and she'd been awake. She'd probably have shrieked awake if she'd been the sleeping student.

Haylee just smiled when Sandra started wining about how boring Haylee's life was at the moment. Perhaps she should have been offended, but this was Sandra. Haylee knew there wasn't any bad or rude intentions behind it. "I told you I've been boring. What do you want me to do? Climb up on this table and start dancing the macarena?" She laughed. The idea was ridiculous and extreme, and she knew it was not anywhere near what Sandra had meant. And nothing she'd actually do, she hoped. She actually had a good rapport with the librarians, and most of them knew her by name since she spent a good amount of time in the library. She didn't know how they'd react to her climbing on a table and dancing, but it probably wouldn't be good. "Tell you what, I'll spend a day on the irresponsible side with you, and then we'll say about moving. You can't just buy the first house you see on market, you know. You've got to explore the area and tour the home first."

((sorry it took me so long to get this done for you. :/))

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

The mention of explorers always made her think of Dora the Explorer, and of course she didn't look like much of an explorer at all. She was just a three-year-old girl dressed in pink and orange who had a bunch of animal friends, and while it did seem that she got up to adventures, Sandra was pretty sure that it wasn't much compared to real life exploring. "That's right! Those cool safari hats and stuff... or whatever they're called." This seemed much more up Diego's alley than Dora's, but Sandra should not be questioned as to why she knew so much about children's TV shows. "Maybe I shouldn't be trusted with a machete, though, but we can totally swing like... safety scissors or something." She actually made herself sound far clumsier than she was in reality, but it was easier this way. She really didn't want to actually hurt someone or anything like that, which could ptoentially be a very real threat if someone trusted her with sharp, pointy objects.

Sandra hummed a little bit, then grudgingly admitted, "Okay, maybe not the sanest of the sane. Maybe just in the middle somewhere. Not quite totally all there, but not super bananas either." She did after all have some really incredibly dumb ideas sometimes, though msot of the time these were just harmless things. It was more that her mind went off on tangents itself and sometimes these things also came out of her mouth -- her mouth filter really wasn't very good. Still, Haylee was a really nice girl and she hadn't thought that she would have been serious when saying such things, but it was always nice to hear her friends say that they did not, in fact, think she was crazy. "Now that would be interesting, I say you go for it! The Macarena is one classy dance move, missy." Sandra wouldn't do that, though, so she didn't really expect other people to. Apart from being a slacker -- refusing to do her homework, sleeping in class, and the like -- she was a fairly well-behaved adolescent, thanks very much.

They seemed to be coming up with plenty of strange scenes and sort of metaphors today, and she couldn't say that she was complaining. She had fun with Haylee! "Only a day?" she asked, sighing a little and then clucking a tongue as if trying to scold her friend or tell her off. Sandra would do no such thing, of course. "Well, you're welcome on the irresponsible side any time, so there's plenty of time to figure it out! But today... today let's start with finding something to do. Wanna get out of here?" The library was, after all, no place to have any kind of fun, except for the very very very quiet kind... and that wasn't very much fun at all for her. Well, she could make her own fun just about anywhere doing anything, but when friends were around it was a different story.

(don't worry about it! :3)