Brilliant Beginnings [Dannica]

[drjive]

One gray April morning...


Ever heard that cute, li'l dickey bird of a saying; waking up with a face like thunder?
Ringing any bells?
Yes?
No?
….Not quite?...
No. In all fairness, not many other people had either. Even Nino was on shaky grounds as to whether it really existed or not, despite the words having popped so naturally and casually into his head. Thinking they belonged like that, the cheeky beggers! Like vocabulary salespeople! Getting their heel in the door, all of a sudden becoming a very real part of his life and letting him sample the very product that very morning! Oh the generosity!
'Six AM' the alarm had cheerily reminded him with a few screams-- a violent bash or two upside it's little, time-telling head gave it reason enough to shout-- it even rattled the batteries clean free who hit the ground running and made a break for it under the bed. Too damn tired to so much as hum The Great Escape theme for them let alone retrieve the things, Nino had retreated back into whatever sanctuary he could muster from the blackness behind his eyelids and let the rising tides of doziness tug him under.

Another five minutes. even in his head the words sounded all groany and groggy! For the love of God, another five minutes!

As the rest of the dorm started to slowly come around, twitching and stretching awkwardly into life, boys groping around the floor at the foot of their beds for whatever clothes were at hand, shrugging them on (sometimes backwards), lurching off to the bathrooms, grunting the odd edgy syllable at one another, kicking off sheets, sleepily mashing buttons on their phones and checking dog-eared, half-chewed timetables, Nino, the slinky lad, disappeared into his bedding like a tortoise, only a lump of blanket and a pluff of blonde matted roadkill sprawled across his pillow gave him away.
Someone threw something at him and it hit his makeshift roof with a muted thunk. Maybe balled up socks, they seemed the convenient kind of bedroom projectile... Nino groaned in reply, already the dull promise of a headache was kicking up a fuss just beneath his scalp, served him right for his 3AM binge...

“Oi! Princess! Your alarm's been and gone already...” a finger jabbed at his exposed scalp and it wasn't his own.

“Ah know!” he snapped back swatting at the hand like a mosquito. It may as well have been for all the irritation it was causing, just didn't buzz as much that was all! He listened closely as it's owner sighed irritably and stalked back off to their own corner of the place.
Alright, he'd admit it! Some kind soul, that really didn't belong in the Dorm so much as they belonged in harp-playing, Bible-bashing, toga-wearing Heaven, was making the effort to see to it that the little blonde dear wasn't late up and he didn't appreciate the effort. They'd gone out of their way, bless whoever they were and certainly didn't deserve the sharp lip Nino handed back in return, but sleep deprivation was a body snatching, invading kind of monster.

A pale set of toes twitched from beneath the sorry huddle, “lak! See 'm awake! Jeeeeez-us!”

“Right,” his assailant replied incredulously, “And I'm a purple lama.... Get up Nino.” It wasn't even a suggestion, the tone was so grim the kid may well as held him to gunpoint.

“Nyyuurreeegghhh,” And like Frankenstein's monster unto the world, Nino sat up, hair exploding at every angle, baby features twisted in a murderous scowl, an unnoticed string of spittle snaking over the corner of his lips, just short a few bolts in his neck... “'Oo we got first?” he croaked wilting forwards, dragging his hands across his eyes.

“Shit Ni,” the other student raised an eyebrow, seemingly missing the question altogether, “you've got a face like thunder,”

--And there it was. The magic words! He woke up with a face like thunder! He'd mashed two unsuspecting sayings together, like a dab-handed, wedding-hungry auntie does single daughters at a social outing !
Ha! Brilliant! With creativity of that magnitude he was was either destined for genius or madness!


Six Lessons, three Coca-colas and too many hours for his little brain to comprehend later...


…. and the saying was still playing on his mind. Partly because the mood had held it's ground and throughout every lesson Nino had ended up planted on his desk at some point or another, the flesh of his cheek almost fused to the old graffitied things, part man part furniture part 'KAZ WOZ ERE'. Bloody hell, what a hybrid that would have been!
A grin pulled at the corner of his lips as he skimmed the corner of the corridor as he considered that he may well have just created the most original superhero ever. The feeling was short lived as the small group accompanying him spotted a spattering of opposing elementals ahead and shrugged him off with a couple of awkward excuses.
He scowled like the Sultan of sulk, but left them to it, things... well... they'd been the same since the war had... it just...Argh! Nino didn't know! He couldn't hold his hands up to knowing an awful lot about these things, he avoided day to day miseries like the plague! And who would blame him! Life was hard enough as it was! But it was still disheartening... particularly given the lack of shut eye.
Exhaustion fed every emotion until it sat in a bloated, tumorous lump in his throat, it magnified every passing feeling, expanded on every glancing idea. Right now, it felt a bit like a betrayal. Nino stuffed his hands in his pockets and rolled his baby blues back in their sockets, “Sure thang. 'Ave a good'un fellahs!”

He carried on up the stairs and slipped uncharacteristically silently into the large expanse of the library.

Sadly a bad mood wasn't a get out of jail for free card for a book report. At least he'd arrived at the best time of day! The place was as silent as the grave, beautifully so. Across the lines and shelves sat books of every colour, books fraying at the edges, books shiny and still smelling like plastic and new paper, hard backs, paper backs, copper plated back, books hidden by pot plants, books left open and on display, big print, small print, illustrations, photographs, books on birds and on planet, on fashion and on fine art, books on tables, books losing their print for thumb erosion, books being written in--

--Nino paused.

He wasn't alone after all! Perched at one of the desks, jotting scripts to My Little Pony or whatever it was young girls wrote these days was... did he know her? Maybe he did... He definitely knew her face...
AH!
He almost snapped his fingers in celebration if it wouldn't have given him away.
She was the girl from the Wind Common Room. A relatively new little thing, a dainty little thing with a heartshaped face and the kind of nose that should have been pressed up in the window of a sweet shop, she always seemed like a warm kind of person, had that giveaway endearing air and a sunny smile, he was willing to bet good money this one ended up patronized to hell and back...

Nino folded his arms across his chest, perching against a shelf weighing the pro's and con's of introducing himself, in the end curiosity won him over, threatening to bite at him till he at least asked the girl her name. Besides, anyone with a face like thunder needed the company!

“Pssssst!” he inched forward grinning cheekily, thumbs hooked through his belt loop, “Wat'chya writing wee lady?”

NOTES| Sorry it's so damn long! ^^' This is my first Nino post! I'm trying to get into character a little! Takes a bit of warming up!
OUTFIT|White shirt rolled up at the sleeves and black slacks tucked into a pair of Doc Martens.
WORDCOUNT|1308

[dannica]

Back at the library again. Woop-de-do for her. She's become great friends with this place. It's quite sad really, but it's the only place where she can get some peace and quiet when doing her work. She would do her homework in her own dorm like a normal person, but thanks to her loud roommate and her loud and obnoxious friends, that option was a bad one. So here she is now, busy writing away at her math homework...

Speaking of which, how in the world is she going to finish this? She had no idea what she's doing. She raised her hand in class, asking the teacher to explain a little, but that was no use. He just repeated what was said. That didn't help at all. She would stay after school for extra helping sessions, but the last time she went there, she hardly had any one-on-one with the guy. So she gave up on that.

Let's see...linear equations. Now, does the X go over the Y or... Oh this is useless. She needed to find a tutor and fast, but where would she go to? She had a few upperclassmen friends, maybe they would help her. No, that won't do. They're probably busy doing stuff.

Unable to concentrate, she ended up taking out her cellphone to check her messages. A new voice mail blinked at her, so she dialed the number and put the phone to her ear. Oh, it's just her parents checking up on her. Now that she remembered, she hasn't spoken with them in a while. Was it...three days ago? Yeah. It was. Because that was when I told them about my new boyfriend. A bright smile appeared on her face as she thought of Alex. He's so sweet and kind and nice. Just what she wanted in a friend. Not to mention he's cute. She felt like texting him right now, but he's probably in class, and she didn't want to get him into trouble. So she sat there, looking out of the window.


Wow, it's depressing outside. Well, it matched the mood in here. There were hardly anyone in here. She didn't mind the silence, but she came to find comfort in the murmurings of students all over the place. She turned her head to get a good look at who's here. A red-head she has in a class is steadily focused on his laptop. The blur from the screen is reflected off of his glasses as he squinted his eyes. It's like his glasses didn't do much for sight. Focusing her attention to someone else, she eyed an African American girl twirling her hair and chewing on a piece of gum, looking at a magazine. She looked older, so Dani figured she was a graduate. Then she turned to her right to eye a blonde boy. He had...some sort of word on his cheek she couldn't make out and it looked like the poor boy was having a bad day. She felt for him and wanted to reach out to him, but her homework's calling her, so she forced herself to back to the desk and grab the pencil.

She scribbled problems and what she thought were the solutions down and sealed it with a question mark. That was a note for the teacher to let him know that she had no clue to what she's doing. He might go on and say that she can go to one of his sessions after class, but she'd decline, saying that she had other things to do. It was true, but she didn't feel like competing for his attention with other outspoken students who always spoke louder than herself.

It sucked being the quiet ones at times. That automatically meant that you were smart and knew all the answers. That's partly true for Dani in certain subjects, but not in math. For some reason, the other kids didn't get that and still asked for the answers. She'd show them her test grade, which would be a "C", and they would still ask her for the answers. She pitied them and let them copy her paper, but now she's starting to think it's just pure laziness. That idea is starting to sound good right about... She shook the idea out of her head as soon as it came. Cheating's wrong...but wasn't she doing the same thing by helping them out. She put a small hand on her head as a head ache occurred while she thought this thing through. Then a voice interrupted her thoughts so she turned to see who spoke.

“Pssssst!” “Wat'chya writing wee lady?”
He asked her. It's the same one she saw earlier, the one with the mark on his cheek, leaning against shelf, except now he's closer. Quietly and shyly, she replied. Well, nothing special. Just math formulas and stuff. She looked back at her book and sighed. I don't think I'm getting it right though... She looked back at the boy with a curious face. She's seen him before, but where? She thought for a moment the smiled. She's seen him around the dorms. He's an older Wind student. He's a very active and open person, and she always enjoyed watching his humorous remarks and sense of fashion. She always wanted to meet him, but she's too shy to go up and say hi. He made the first move for her, and she's glad for that. Hey, I've seen you around the Wind dorms. You're...Nino, right?" She smiled up at him brightly, awaiting his answer.

[/SIZE][/b]; nino!!!!
STATUS; Complete!
WORD COUNT; 938
OUTFIT; Red shirt with a white sweater and white pants with matching flats.
NOTES; -pants for breath- i did it!!!
CREDIT;
template made by paty @caution
lyrics are from rihanna ft. david guetta[/color][/font]
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[/center]

[drjive]

Getting down and cosy with the Blonde

Nino recoiled like he'd been hit by a fist not a question-- an innocent one at that.

“Dammit woman! Bang! You got me!” he shook his head, burying his hands deep in his pockets. Air whistled through his teeth as he drew a sharp breath and slipped on his best 'whoops' scowl, “That ain't fair! See,” the skinny devil perched himself on the edge of her desk, “now I'mma feel doubly guilty fer not knowin' yours!”
Naturally, Nino broke the sacred boundaries of the 'comfort zone', sliding so close to her and the books he could allow himself the pleasure of nosying. It was a trade secret he imposed on all his company, the 'little bit too close' game, but never enough to give anyone the excuse to shuffle away. The trick was to catch it at precisely the right distance and to angle yourself ever so slightly away from your compadre, don't look too interested; it broke down that starchy outer shell sensation of being strangers, but kept the soft, gooey center of appearing rude and intrusive at bay. It tended to put shy folk on edge, but it was the ghost of the emotion, never the fully fledged, ugly arsed real deal, it gave the illusion of friendship and kept people on their toes. Normally it effectively wired people into the conversation, unable to drift away or lose focus on the grounds of his being close enough that even their skin was aware, yet not know why, gave him the 'intriguing company' factor without actually putting in the effort. The plan was to make every last first meeting a somewhat memorable experience.
To be social, he mused, was to perfect a feck'n fine art!
And he intended to keep it that way, all full of little rituals precisely times gestures. To perfect natural graces!
Or at least that's what he'd been taught when he worked back in the Midlands Traveling Fair. Dealing with strangers on a day to day basis-- or more so getting one up on strangers on a day to day basis was the trade. You had to trick, flaunt and tease yet still manage to maintain a clean faced and cheeky-charming exterior or you wouldn't sell. You didn't sell, you didn't make money. You didn't make money, you didn't eat. Simple.
… And after all of these years it was as natural to him as breathing, like every pull of his lungs, there was no thinking involved.

“Y'll forgive us, wouldn' ya?” he pouted down at her, jutting bottom lip, eyes like saucepans, the works. Not that he gave the poor girl time to answer, “Y've good 'earted written all overr ya! Course y'will! So go on, who are ya?” he grinned widely and dragged her textbook over with the tip of one long, well manicured digit, “Also,” he added, “What question you on, babulam?”

Helping was the least he could do after forgetting her name, or at least he figured so, somewhere in his twisted sense of justice, plus--
--Aww heyall! Not these again... he scowled as he eyed up the questions. Looked them up and down in the same way two cats fighting territory over one bin lid might look at one another. Oh he remembered these bloody things! He'd struggled on them himself.
Amongst the many things he was, a mathematician was not one of them. In fact, he was downright lousy at anything that involved numbers, equations-- in fact, anything that involved letters! The academic side of life gave him the heeby jeebies! In his defense he was blonde after all!
Nino was best suited looking pretty, smiling sweetly and sharpening the knives in his 'Backstabbing' collection. Stick with what you know!

But... well... he hated seeing anyone else struggle as much as he had! It just... wasn't necessary in this day and age to struggle at all! Not with technology being what it was! He didn't know why schools so insisted on making people suffer for the no good reasons it did! Honestly! When equations saved him from being eaten alive by a bear or inner city gang members or something then and only then would he thank them! Until that day arrived there was nothing in life that you couldn't learn from the bottom of a shot glass and a binge on the Discovery Channel!

On top of that she was a darling little critter! All pluffs of dark hair and lonely twirls of her hair! How could anyone in their right mind resist the levels of Cute radiating from her!

“Le's 'ave a looksee!”

NOTES| He goes off on tangents... ^^' Yeah... sorry about that!
OUTFIT|White shirt rolled up at the sleeves and black slacks tucked into a pair of Doc Martens.
WORDCOUNT|1308

[dannica]

She looked up at the boy with a slightly confused smile on her face. What did I do... the girl wondered as he acted as if she committed a heinous. But wait, is he the one who's mad at himself? One of the things about this guy she enjoyed watching was his reactions towards everything. They usually put a fearful smile on her face...like right now.

Ahh, so he didn't know her name. Well, that's nothing new. A lot of people didn't know her name let alone who she was. It's one of the perks of being the quite, shy girl in class. She brushed it off with a wave of her hand. "It's nothing. A lot people don't know me. Don't worry too much on it." She hoped she relieved him just a little of his worries. "I'll give you a hint. It's starts with a 'Dani' ," she said with a wry grin.

Then he sort of...made himself a little too comfortable with her. His body was a too close for comfort, which got her tensed up almost immediately. She wanted to scoot away, her whole body is telling her to do so, but she fought against it and stood her ground so to speak.

She laughed then nodded at his request. "Of course. Again, I'm used to it. It's no biggie." His wording caught her off guard, so it took her a moment to register it. She was about to give him the textbook to show him when he took it upon himself to get it himself. Umm, okay.

She looked in the book with him, then looked back him to see if he understood it. The look on his face told her he didn't. She started to get frustrated at the fact that they both couldn't understand this. "I don't get why they give us this stuff. We won't use it later on in life anyway...so what's the point?"

It was a waste of time if someone were to ask her. So many numbers and symbols and letters. Why were letters in math anyway? She definitely was not going to be using this stuff when she grows up.

[/SIZE][/b]; nino!!!!
STATUS; Complete!
WORD COUNT; 364
OUTFIT; Red shirt with a white sweater and white pants with matching flats.
NOTES; sorry it took so long >.<
CREDIT;
template made by paty @caution
lyrics are from rihanna ft. david guetta[/color][/font]
[/ul]
[/center]