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Post by madison on Jan 18, 2012 0:21:22 GMT -5
  Remember those little survey games, with questions like 'who's your favorite person in the room?' and 'what's one surprising thing about you?'. Well, Madison did, and today was a day where they were floating through her mind. One surprising thing about her? Well, even though she was a writer and a to-be-English-teacher, Madison Eager despised the library. She couldn't stand it, and she never had been able to. What was the use of reading a book if you had to return it a few weeks later? Books were like treasured dolls, to be played with one or twice, then left in a dusty old corner for a while until you rediscovered them and had twice the fun than you'd gotten out of them the first time. You couldn't have any of that fun if you gave the books back to some dusty old librarian, could you? That plus, well, Madison wasn't very good with deadlines. Most of the books she borrowed ended up overdue, or something like that.
No, she wasn't very responsible, but when had she ever been? Madison had been raised as a rather privileged kid, and even if she'd ripped herself away from her parents three years ago, she was still in the same habits that she had lived her childhood in. Okay, so no, she could barely feed herself these days, but she was still the same hyperactive and fun loving person that she'd always been. Fun loving, yet irresponsible. It was a fair trade off of personality traits, right? She was trying to become more responsible, but she wasn't exactly ready to give up her childish side just yet. After all, most of her students liked the few classes that she was allowed to teach on her own; wasn't that good enough for her? Most of the time, it was, but there were some times that she just had to buckle down and deal with the workload that she had on her shoulders. Temporary responsibility, that's what that meant.
Today was one of those days, which was why Madison was in a rather sullen mood as she entered the library. She had to do some research on mental illnesses, of all things. Maybe it would have seemed interesting if she'd actually chosen to learn about it, but the whole class had drawn a topic out of a tophat. A nice way of picking topics fairly, but this was the whole reason she'd graduated highschool. Yeah, she wasn't a student anymore, so why in the world was she doing the same research project as her students? Because she'd wanted to show that it wasn't just some boring old project that a teacher had assigned, and she'd sworn to herself that she'd try to have fun with this, but after finding a lot of books on her topic.. it wasn't fun. The stack of books was just barely managing to stay upright next to her, and after taking at least ten pages worth of detailed notes on the damned topic, she simply folded her arms on the round wooden table and put her head on her arms. Who was going to deny her rest?
notes feel free to wake her up using any means
words 527
credit text credit to RINA @ CAUTION
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Post by alec on Jan 18, 2012 17:38:34 GMT -5
Alec danced quietly into the library, his headphones crammed into his ears and hands shoved in his pockets. He had been all over the campus a million times over but didn't seem to spend much time at the library, it was so quiet, but the last time that he had been here, he had found something that made the library his new favorite place. Behind the nonfiction section in a small secluded corner was a small cabinet full of old records.
Making his way to the cabinet he saw a pretty girl sleeping behind a large pile of books. He looked at her for a while until he decided to not bother her, she looked to peaceful. Walking past her he found himself right in front of the record cabinet. He opened the door and found himself face to face with millions of his idols growing up. Picking out a few he took them to a near by table and studied them for a while, debating on whether it was worth it to beg the librarian to let him borrow one for the night. Alec loved dancing to modern music, but his fondest memories were in the garage of his childhood home. While his father tinkered with the parts of his cars he danced around him to the old records.
He narrowed his choices down to three of his favorites, setting them down on the table he piled the others into his arms. Heading back to the cabinet he glanced back at the girl, strangely hoping that she would wake up, so they could speak. As soon as he turned back around he crashed into another library goer. Making a huge crash he flew to the ground hoping to grab the records on their way down, thanking God that they had reinforced covers to keep them from breaking. Running back to the cabinet he carefully placed the records back in their places.
Looking down hoping that his long hair would shield the others from seeing his face that he was sure was more red than a tomato. He avoided looking over at the girl, almost sure that he had awoken from the loud sound and not being sure that he could face the humiliation. Seconds earlier he had wanted nothing more than to talk to her, but now he was not sure that was the best idea.
Shuffling to the records he grabbed them and looked at his three favorite artists looking at him in shame. Shielding himself from the eyes of the girl and singers feeling them burn at the back of his neck, hoping they that he could avoid being seen, being careful as to not find himself in another uncomfortable collision.
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Post by madison on Jan 18, 2012 20:14:58 GMT -5
When Madison slept, she slept. Next to nothing could wake her up, which had proved to be a bit of a problem over the years. She'd been late for meetings, school, work, fallen asleep during important lectures.. and she was like an irritated bear when she woke up in the mornings. Luckily, she was only half asleep when Alec slammed into someone else, making a large noise that caused Madison to automatically jolt to the waking world and stand up, luckily not sending her pile of books toppling to the ground. They probably would have fallen directly on top of Alec, anyway, so it was a very good thing that she'd jumped in the opposite direction. Her reflexes weren't the best, and her reaction time was poor, so she wouldn't have been able to recover the books if they'd fallen. The luck was on her side today, at least? She wouldn't have known what to do if it hadn't been, so she silently thanked whoever had helped her avert a catastrophe, and spread the books out on the table so they had less of a chance of falling over. Luck never seemed to work twice, so it was better to take precautions, right?
Once that was done, she looked back over at the guy that had caused her to wake up, smiling. He just looked so.. pitiful, his face as red as a beet. If she was being honest with herself, Madison might have called him cute, but she tended to like guys that were just a bit more mature. Like Fred, though she'd never tell him that he was her type. After a few moments, she walked over to Alec, pausing about a foot away from him. ”Are you okay?” she asked, stifling her laughter. She wasn't being mean by laughing; it was all in good humor. At least, she wasn't trying to be mean. It was rarely intentional when she hurt someone, so she wouldn't really have considered it her fault if Alec was offended by the fact that she was laughing at him. It had been funny to watch him slink around, acting so ashamed of himself, and she wasn't going to pretend otherwise. She wasn't blunt, but she didn't hide her thoughts either.
”That looked like quite a nasty fall. Not hurt, are you?” There was a faint tint of a Southern accent coating her words, but it could have been worse. When she'd been back at home, her accent had been her pride, but it didn't do her much good in France. She sounded like a standard American most of the time, but the laughing caused some of her control to slip. Hopefully, Alec wouldn't judge her for it. Madison had learned by now that a lot of the Europeans – and, honestly, a lot of the Americans – considered Southerners to be a little less civilized than other people in the USA. It was just one of those things that she didn't allow to get to her head, and she wasn't too offended by it. ”Do you need to go to the nurse's office or anything?” Madison was more than willing to help him, as she was with pretty much everyone, but that was before she was distracted by the open cabinet of records. ”Oh!” she exclaimed, a grin spreading across her face. For just a moment, her attention was diverted away from Alec. ”I can't believe I haven't seen this section before.. Do you like this type of music?”
notes madison is an old music nerd.. just maybe not as old as those records xD
words 586
credit text credit to RINA @ CAUTION
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Post by alec on Jan 18, 2012 22:01:34 GMT -5
Once Alec heard Madison's voice ring through his ears he felt like he was at home once again. Distracted by her voice to hear what she had said he returned her statement with an equally southern voice, "You're not from around here, are 'ya?" He wore a small smile on his face when he then realized what she had actually said.
He shook his head and pursed his lips slightly, "I'm fine. No pain no gain." Chuckling nervously, maybe it wasn't so bad that he had woken her up. Smiling at the girl he quickly gathered himself up and collected his confidence. Then quickly turning the corners on his mouth back down as to not seem so eager.
Alec lifted up the records in his hands, "Yeah, this is the stuff I grew up on. It got me into dancing." Looking down at the men that got the rhythm in his feet he almost felt like he was holding his first true love in his arm. He smiled down at the records and looked back up at the girl, "It's awesome, isn't it? You like this music?" Not trying to seem as surprised as she was at the fact that the girl in front of him had just gotten a few steps closer to being the girl of his dreams, not that he was looking for that at the moment.
Looking back at the girl he tried to shake out the ideas of romance with the girl in front of him. She was obviously older than him, he was barely a legal adult. And romance had never treated him well in the past and he didn't want that to get in the way of his dreams, especially not in Paris.
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Post by madison on Jan 19, 2012 12:46:15 GMT -5
There was one thing that Madison would never admit to anyone, even herself, and that was the fact that she was homesick. Hadn't she hated her family, argued with them after years of putting up with their antics before having a cold war and leaving? Yeah, she had, but she'd still loved the rest of Dallas. Her friends, her teachers, the various people around the city that she knew.. Even if she didn't miss her parents that much, she was still homesick, and would never admit it to herself. Madison had left everyone she knew behind, and finding a fellow Texan in Paris of all places just lifted her spirits all that much more. This was going to be interesting. ”No,” she agreed, laughing. ”I'm from Texas. Dallas, to be specific. Didn't expect to find anyone else in Paris, though.” Sure, Madison had left Texas to get away from the two people known as her parental unit, but she'd eventually started to miss the heat of her home, and the people in general. Alec was a nice blast from the past, and he seemed friendly to boot. The luck really was on her side today.
”What was the gain of falling down, then?” she asked, a rather teasing tone in her voice. She was normally this friendly with strangers, so it was nothing new, to be honest. ”Of course, you got to talk to me..” Once again, just a joke. She put her thumb on her chin and acted like it was something to speculate about, but Madison didn't have a big ego. She wasn't over confident, and she didn't believe that she was any better than the average person, but couldn't she still make jokes as if she did? ”No, I'm kidding,” she eventually clarified, as she normally did. Couldn't let anyone get offended if they thought that she was serious, right? That would leave her feeling bad, and Madison preferred to live a generally regret-free life. It just made everything so much simpler if you ignored the past and lived in the present, didn't it?
”So you're a dance student?” she asked, just trying to make conversation now. He didn't look anywhere near old enough to be a teacher, even a student teacher as she was, so of course she had to assume that he was a student. Probably in his first or second year, but when it came to details like that, she couldn't tell. Madison nodded slightly when he asked if she liked this music, gently browsing through the stacks of records. ”Normally stuff a tiny bit more recent than this,” she mumbled, once again distracted. ”But I think it's still in the same time period.. I used to listen to it all the time while I was writing essays for school. God, it annoyed my parents..” She straightened up after that, the mention of her parents suddenly tearing her away from the records. Madison normally didn't talk about that, but maybe having someone else from Texas to talk to just kind of made her babble. It was possible, and seeing as she'd never seen another Texan in Paris before, it wasn't like she would have any experience with it.
notes madi talks a lot
words 534
credit text credit to RINA @ CAUTION
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Post by alec on Jan 20, 2012 19:45:24 GMT -5
 ..Just..  ..dance.. 
"Well of course," Alec said with a laugh toward the comment about the "gain of the fall." He watched the woman as she spoke, she seemed very interesting and it was refreshing to see someone who wasn't going to rag on him too hard for his deep southern accent. "I lived in a small town an hour or so from Dallas, depending on how crazy you drive," Alec remembered driving to Dallas to go ice skating at the mall with groups of friends during the winter. He smiled remembering the old beaten up truck with four or five kids pilled in the bed laying down when the cops were in sight.
"Yeah, I'm a dance student, first year, as you may have guessed," Alec said with a laugh up down turned lips, damn his baby face. He had always looked younger than he was, and now that he was in college many people stopped him in the halls, either asking if he had an older sibling at the school, or was going on a tour, planning to come here in a few years.
"Your parents hated this stuff?" Alec said surprised looking down at the records in his hands. "My dad lived off this music, it was practically the only way we ever connected." Alec again turned the bottom of his lips down. Realizing how true that this statement was he decided to change the subject. "Is it that obvious that I dance?" Alec said jokingly turning up his toes in one swift move. Smiling widely at the girl. |
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Post by madison on Jan 22, 2012 13:42:04 GMT -5
”And most Texans drive pretty crazily, right?” she said, the weak joke accompanied by a tiny laugh. Where she'd lived, no one had driven too badly, but Texas was a big place. People tended to vary depending where you were in the state, and it was kind of impossible to group all of the Texans into one category. People still tried to do this – thus, the label of Texan – but it just made her roll her eyes. Being under the influence of her parents, Madison had never done anything too rebellious. She'd lived a rather boring life, to be honest. Even when she'd gotten mad at her parents and became pretty distant with them, she still hadn't done anything like teasing the cops or taking drugs, as most of her classmates had done. How much of a proper little princess was she? Too much for her liking, that was sure. Hell, she was even a writing teacher, though she made up for that by teaching pretty active classes and dying her hair every once in a while.
”Small towns are nice sometimes. Tighter communities, right?” Actually, Madison wasn't really sure what a small town was like, seeing as she'd lived in Dallas and then moved to Paris, and she was just guessing. She thought it was a pretty good guess, but Alec could correct her if it wasn't. ”Aw, it's not that obvious,” she reassured him, laughing. He did sort of look like a kid, but she'd seen third years that looked a lot younger than Alec did. ”Compared to some of the students here, you look downright manly.” That may have came out wrong, but she was trying her best, wasn't she? He didn't look at all manly, but when you put a relative aspect into it.. no, he was still near the bottom of the scale. But really, it didn't matter that much to her. He was nice and easy to talk to, so she liked him, simple as that. Madison was judgmental sometimes, but she tried her best not to be. It was her mindset that everyone should be free to do what they wanted, and that you shouldn't judge on that, even if it was an eighteen year old that looked more like a junior in highschool.
Maybe she'd said the wrong thing. Her parents hadn't hated the music, exactly, but they'd doubted its ability to give her the will to write essays. They'd suggested classical music, opera, anything but this. This kind of music, she could listen to when she wasn't working, and they would never mind. Maybe that was why she'd listened to it when she was working; an unconscious need to break away from their rules, even before the huge fight they'd gotten into. ”No, they didn't hate it,” she said slowly, trying to think of the right words. Wasn't the ironic? She was a writing teacher, or as close to one as she could be at this age, and she was looking for words. ”They just didn't like me playing it when I was working. They were very.. proper. I have no idea why they lived in Texas.” Right back to the jokes; that should have been predictable. Madison was the queen at lightening the air when she got to a serious topic. Even around her best friends, it was a very light relationship. Not superficial or distant, but happy. There were never any deep discussions or telling each other problems, or at least Madison never started those types of things. Maybe if her friends wanted to tell her something, she'd listen, but the type of friends that she picked never tended to be the type to start a conversation like that.
She'd dug a rut for herself, but Madison was very happy in it.
”Yeah, it kind of is,” she said, a small smirk spreading across her face. It was obvious that he danced, but she honestly had no idea why. He'd been clumsy enough to run into someone else, after all. ”You look very.. rhythmic.” Madison tried to keep a straight face, but failed about two seconds later, collapsing into laughter again. ”I'm sorry,” she giggled, wiping her eyes. ”But it really is obvious. In a good way.”
notes sorry, it's bad. too much muse ruined it
words 710
credit text credit to RINA @ CAUTION
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Post by alec on Jan 22, 2012 18:07:08 GMT -5
..Just.. ..dance..
Alec raised one eyebrow inquisitively as she spoke, he wasn't sure how to react to being relatively "manly." Avoiding the subject for the moment, "Rhythmic, I can live with that." He laughed loudly with Madison. "I'm not offended, I do look young, I hope it comes in handy when I become older. But you're not the first one to realize how young I look, so many people have stopped me because I look like a lost younger sibling. I blame my mom, she looks a lot younger too, she's usually mistaken for my older sister." Alec stopped speaking hoping that he could stop himself from embarrassing himself even more.
"What do you study?" Alec said curiously looking at the books that had been in front of her before. "I don't think they offer medical degrees," he said joking about her study material. Alec really liked talking to the girl. She was sweet, kind of rude, but in an innocent way. "Smaller towns are good for the community but sometimes it's more of a burden than a blessing, everyone is always into your business." Alec said remembering what she had said about small towns.
Alec imagined going to school in the Dallas district, that had to be hectic. "It couldn't have been easy growing up in Dallas, there are too many people there, it would have been crazy, but it probably helped with the transition to Paris, I'm still in culture shock," Paris still like the circus to Alec, he wasn't sure he'd ever get used to it. |
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