A Million Ways ;; Open

[Hero McLaghan]

[O U T F I T]

Hero sighed as she walked through the empty third floor hall. She'd missed the bus home, and her aunt was working, so she was stuck here until her aunt got off work at 6. Not exactly how she wanted to spend the first part of her Friday night. But, it wasn't like she had anything else planned. Hero wandered around aimlessly, her sandals clicking lightly on the ground as she walked. She glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall. Only 2 and a half more hours to go. She groaned slightly, rolling her eyes.

Not knowing where else to go, Hero walked over to her locker, as if wondering if something had materialized in the ten minutes that she had last checked it. She searched through the piles of papers and books, eventually unearthing her copy of House of leaves, one of her favourite books. She sunk down against her locker after she closed it, setting the book on her lap as she began to read.

[James Kent]

Paying attention to what you were doing when you were walking was kind of overrated. It was something he'd always taken shit from people about. Right now, he head in headphones, and his phone was out in front of his face. He walked down the hall listening some sort of random, raging nonsense and thumbs furiously texting. He wondered how long it would take for old friends to stop talking to him. On one hand, he didn't mind the conversation; because that was something that was sorely lacking for him. On the other hand, hearing about what they were all doing was starting to drive him crazy.

But maybe there was something to paying attention to what you were doing. Just as he was about to hit send, his foot caught on something – something he hadn’t expected; or a better way to explain it: someone he hadn’t expected. The last time he’d checked his peripherals all he’d seen was lockers and of course the doorways and drinking fountains on the other side of the hall. Though he hadn’t completely fallen on his face, the person who was sitting and reading had definitely tripped him up. There was no one around; class had been over for ages.

“Whoa, sorry,” he said, lowering his phone and ripping out the ear buds of his headphones. Immediately he reached forward to where he’d basically kicked her –right in the shins. “Are you okay?”

.............................................

hey... hero
it's...jim
just kickin' in in my...outfit
inspired by..."Friends Don't Let Friends Dial Drunk" - Plain White T's
counting...239 words
other info/notes...-claimed- haha

[Hero McLaghan]

[O U T F I T]

Hero zoned out of the world around her, just focusing on the contorted pages in her book. She flipped the book upside-down, as some of the pages were written upside-down, so you had to flip the book every once and a while. Her brow furrowed as she flied through the pages. She'd read House of Leaves at least four times, and still wasn't tired of it. It seemed like there was always something new that she found that she had missed before. Hero looked up from her book for a moment to glance around the hallway. Something about the book made her oddly paranoid.

Sighing, Hero's gray eyes drifted back to her book, her fingers gently leafing through as she finished a page. Suddenly, her attention was averted and she snapped back into reality. A sharp pain hit her right in the shin, and she heard a slight thud. Hero let out a loud yelp, jumping violently. Hey, the book made her paranoid, and now someone had basically just fallen out of the sky onto her. She threw the book up in the air as she grasped the lower part of her neck, feeling her pulse suddenly increase to almost double what it was before.

Hero looked over to see an older boy, a senior, she thought, ripping earphones out and looking at her, concerned. She took a deep breath, trying to get ahold of herself, though she was suddenly kind of embarrassed. She swore under her breath, and then nodded, then winced. That hurt. "I'm alrigh'...scared me," she spoke quickly, her Scottish accent thick and apparent. "Are you okay?" Hero asked, looking over at the boy. She hadn't meant to trip him. Thinking back, she probably shouldn't have kept her legs out in the open like that, but she was kind of surprised he didn't see her sitting against her locker.

[James Kent]

"Shit, I'm really sorry," he said, lowering himself to a kneeling position in front of her and setting his hand instinctively on her shin. It was kind of an intimate gesture, but what could Jim say, he was a hands on kind of guy. He felt like an idiot for basically running her over. How long had she been there for? If she was sitting it was certainly long enough that he should have seen her. "Really, you're sure you're okay?" He asked again, just to be sure. "Because I do have collision insurance?" He offered. If he could make a joke out of it, maybe she wouldn't be totally pissed off at him. If she was, he probably deserved it.

Now that he'd had a second he took a look at her. He was terrible with ages; genuinely horribly, terrible. She was younger, wasn't she? It was hard to tell. All of the girls looked older these days than they actually were. He hadn't been at this school long enough, but long enough to know that there were senior girls walking the halls that looked like college juniors. On one hand, it was a good thing; they were definitely the kind of girls you wouldn't mind seeing come at you down the halls. On the other hand, it was intimidating. They made girls different in Arizona, apparently.

But the longer he looked at her, the more he was assured she was younger; and foreign. Accents were sort of a weak point for Jim; always had been, always would be. He hoped she'd answer him, as he was eager to hear her say more and place exactly where that accent was from.

.............................................

hey... hero
it's...jim
just kickin' in in my...outfit
inspired by..."Stef" - Linkin Park
counting...282 words
other info/notes...bah. it's shit.

[Hero McLaghan]

Hero nodded, then shook her head. The guy seemed to genuinely feel bad for nearly giving her a heart attack, and probably leaving a pretty nice bruise on her leg, so she'd let it go. It wasn't a big deal, and he wasn't being a jerk or anything. "Yeah, 'm fine," she said, smiling weakly, blushing slightly as he put a hand on her shin. Really? You're sure you're okay? Because I do have collision insurance. At this, Hero let out a very pretty sounding laugh. "Nah, 's okay. Might leave a nice bruise, but I'll be fine," she said, shooting the boy a smile.

Hero blinked, her gray eyes wandering around the hallway a bit. The boy who'd tripped on her seemed to have zoned out slightly. He seemed to be scrutinizing her in some way. It made her a little uncomfortable, but she shrugged it off. He probably just felt bad about running her over. Maybe he was trying to figure out who she was. Hero was fairly new. She was a sophomore, but this was her first year at the school, as she'd just moved to the United States from Clydesdale, Scotland.

"Um...you okay?" Hero spoke up, raising an eyebrow slightly. A small smirk flickered on the corner of her lip. He was a good-looking guy, now that she got a good look at him. Dark hair, nice eyes, kind of stubbly looking. He was definitely one or two years older than she was, but she was pretty sure they had a class together or something. If they did, she probably hadn't spoken to him. Hero was usually quiet during classes unless a teacher called on her, which they did quite often.

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[James Kent]

As she submitted that their little incident would render her with a bruise, he winced. But the killer smile she shot him as she finished made him realize that she was kidding the same way he had been and he smiled in response. Her eyes searched up and down the hallway as if she was searching for someone or something. It made him conscious of himself and he removed his hand from her leg. Realizing he’d sort of zoned out on her he grinned and shook his head. “Yea, I’m fine,” he assured her. Like a light bulb flicking on he remembered suddenly where he knew her from.

“You’re in my Algebra class, right?” He asked, fairly sure the answer was correct. In fact, he was pretty sure that she was the girl that sat in front of him. He’d done the best he could to find a seat in that class somewhere in a back corner where he wouldn’t be conspicuous, but instead ended up sort of in the middle behind what he assumed was this girl with long, softly curled brown locks. He did his best to not bring attention to himself in classes and so he’d never really said anything in her presence; neither had she in his. The longer he looked at her, the more he became sure of it.

“It’s kind of late, what are you doing here?” He asked her, turning and sitting down with his back to the lockers, putting them parallel. He met her grey eyes with his own green ones and continued to more subtly search for a sign of familiarity. As the seconds ticked away he became more and more sure that this was the girl from Algebra he’d been put behind.

.............................................

hey... hero
it's...jim
just kickin' in in my...outfit
inspired by..."Never Enough" - Papa Roach
counting...292 words
other info/notes...that's a little better... i think...

[Hero McLaghan]

Hero chuckled a bit, the pink hue in her cheeks deepening slightly as he smiled back. Hero tilted her head, furrowing her brow as he asked if they were in the same algebra class. She thought back to her math class, unsure if they were or not. Oh wait...didn't he sit behind her or something? His name was Jack or something...No, not Jack. Jim, that was it. Jim Kent, she was almost certain. "Uhh, yeah I think so. Science too, if I remember correctly," she said, nodding.

"Jim, right?" Hero asked, making sure she had the right name to the face. She chuckled a bit, at Jim's question of why she was still here. "Missed the bus, an' my aunt's working until 6," she said, shrugging. She could've probably walked home, if she felt ambitious, but the sandals that she'd worn weren't exactly the best long-distance walking shoes. "What about you?" Hero asked, raising an eyebrow. Being a senior, he probably drove to school and therefore had a car, so she wondered why he was still sticking around.

Hero watched as he sat against the locker next to her, smiling slightly. It'd be nice to have some company for a little bit, at least until he decided he had better things to do than talk to a somewhat shy bookworm like Hero McLaghan. Their eyes met for a moment, and she noticed the nice green colour of Jim's eyes. They looked nice with his hair colour. She glanced at the lockers at the other side of the hallway for a second, not wanting to seem like she was starring.

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[James Kent]

He didn’t remember her from science class, though he flicked through and realized he didn’t remember many of the faces from that classroom. Either he hadn’t been paying attention, or he’d been doing what he was supposed to and paid attention to the subject material. “That’s right,” he asserted as she recalled his name. Inside he panicked, having absolutely no idea what her name was. It was always awkward when someone remembered your name and you couldn’t remember theirs. He looked at her again, searching for some kind of sign, something to jog his memory. She explained why she was still sitting in the hallway and he grinned. She was definitely a sophomore because there was no way she was a freshman and that was the only class left that wasn’t old enough to drive.

“I was trying to get into Screen Writing class,” he explained. “They got me in, but I had to wait until after school to talk to the counselor.” While it would be easy to continue the conversation without asking what her name was, he realized how stupid that sounded as a prospect. “And besides being a jackass and running you over I’m also a jackass since I can’t remember your name,” he explained, hoping his self-deprecating words would be enough and she would not find further need to chastise him.

[Hero McLaghan]

Hero smiled a bit, glad that she'd remembered his name. Jim seemed to get an awkward glint in his eye. It was possible that he had no idea what her name was, and she wouldn't blame him. She hadn't been in Arizona that long, and she was kind of quiet. Plus, she had kind of a weird name. She'd been named after a Shakespeare character, according to her mother. Hero sort of liked her name, and she liked the character that she was named after, but she'd gotten made fun of from time to time because of her unusual name. It wasn't like being named Sarah or Amanda, or something ordinary.

Hero nodded. Screen-writing always seemed like a fun class, but she wasn't able to fit it into her schedule this year. Drama and choir were definitely a priority, and French, well, it looked good on college applications to have a language other than English. Besides, she knew Gaelic, and languages came easily to her being brought up on both Gaelic and English. Hero smiled slightly, not at all offended that he didn't know her name. She hadn't expected him to remember a sophomore, especially someone like herself.

"Nah, you're not a jackass," Hero shook her head. "My name's Hero. I wouldn't expect you to remember that," she said, shrugging slightly. It wasn't a big deal. She was fairly new, and didn't try overly hard to make a name for herself. The only people who really knew her were the ones in her drama class or choir class.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[James Kent]

"Aw, c'mon now," he teased. "I don't think a name like that is hard to forget," he added. "It's my fault for not remembering; I'll be honest, I really don't pay attention to much more than class, in class." Hopefully this was a good enough explanation for his actions. Normally he was pretty good with names, maybe the heat was throwing him off his game. "It's interesting enough to remember," he commented.

"Hey, do you want a ride somewhere?" He offered, realizing he should probably head out of the school. "It's the least I can do for breaking your leg and all - and I promise I'm a better driver than walker... If that even makes any sense," he continued to explain. She had mentioned being stranded until 6:00 because of a working aunt. Now that she was on his radar, he would pay more attention to details... Like the unique manner in which she dressed. It was the kind of outfit that his friend Michelle from Seattle would have called a 'cluster fuck,' sort of an eclectic mix of several things. But the whole thing suited her and came together well and you couldn't help but admire the creativity that must have been involved.

[Hero McLaghan]

Hero smiled slightly. "I don't think many people do pay attention in that class," she said, grinning at him slightly. He was a nice guy, it seemed like, and it wasn't a big deal that he didn't remember her name, or that he had probably bruised her leg pretty badly. "Oh, thanks," she said, smiling at him. Interesting was a good way to describe Hero's name...and a lot of qualities about her.

As Jim offered her a ride somewhere, Hero smiled slightly. Maybe he wouldn't mind giving her a ride back to her house. She had a key, after all, so it wasn't like she'd be waiting around outside. Besides, it was either that or sit in an empty school and read for two more hours. "Really? You wouldn't mind?" Hero asked, tilting her head at him, causing her long, wildly curly hair to fall in her face. She brushed it out of her eyes with her hand. It'd probably been years since Hero had gotten a hair cut. If she kept it short, it was basically a fro. If it was longer, though, the weight would cause it to be more controllable.

Hero glanced at Jim, noticing him looking at her clothing choice. It was kind of an obnoxious skirt, but she liked it. Nothing really matched, but it sort of went together in a weird way.

[James Kent]

"As long as you know the way," he explained, standing and brushing off his pants. He offered her a hand to help her up. "I just moved here about three weeks ago so I don't know where anything is except the school and my house - oh and the grocery store," he explained. "If you'd like, your chariot awaits," he said in a playful manner. Teasing, kidding and general badgering were all part of the normal Jim repertoire and he had no problem executing those types of behaviors now.

As he waited for her to join him, he glanced up and down the hallway. It was weird being in the school when no one else was around and he certainly wouldn't want to wait until six o'clock by himself in the building. There were certain places that just needed people in them, schools were one, parks and playgrounds were another. And when there weren't people to fill them they seemed vacant and strange. He abandoned this thought and gave her a smile. A ride was no big deal as far as he was concerned and he still felt pretty bad about hurting her. He wasn't the kind of person to perform a hit and run; at least not of this type.

[Hero McLaghan]

Smiling, the brunette stood up, brushing off her skirt as she stood. She ran a hand through her thick hair, brushing it off of her shoulders. She took Jim's hand to help herself onto her feet. Her shin didn't hurt too badly when she stood on it. She winced slightly, but she figured it'd probably be fine if she went home and took some ibuprofen. She had a pretty high tolerance when it came to pain in comparison to a lot of girls. "It's not that hard to get there from here," she said, again brushing her hair out of her face.

Oh, so Jim was pretty new around here as well. "Where'd you move here from?" she asked, curious as she joined Jim in standing up. She had to incline her head slightly to look at him, as he was much taller than her measly height of 5'1. If it weren't for her legs, she'd probably be about 4'9, but her legs were long for her small frame. While she waited for an answer, Hero gathered her things. She tossed House of Leaves into her backpack with the rest of her textbooks and other school things, and slung it over one of her shoulders. She opened her locker, grabbing a teal crocheted beret and her hoodie. She put the hat on her head, and carried the hoodie in her arms.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[James Kent]

Jim did not miss the wince on Hero's face as he helped her to a standing position. A surge of guilt filled him; he'd be sorry about this for a long time, he could tell. He watched her brush the hair out of her face with a practiced air and grinned. "That's good. The first time I tried to go to the grocery store I ended up in Scottsdale," he recalled the story with a cringe. It was annoying not knowing which highways ran in which directions and never being quite sure of where he was when he found new places. There was something to be said for familiarity when driving and Jim hadn't been out and about enough to obtain it.

"Evidently I was on the Piestewa Peak Parkway... Nobody told me," he added. His parents had had a good laugh. "My mom was surprised it took me about two hours to go to the grocery store," he laughed. "It was stupid, anyway..." His voice trailed off as she finally took a standing position. She was quite a bit shorter than he was, but that happened and she was younger. She was smaller in size, giving her an almost pixie like appearance; some sort of tiny girl trapped under a great mop of messy brown hair. It was cute; fitting for her personality. As she got everything together he noticed her struggle with her bag. "Do you need help?" He offered; chivalry wasn't dead after all.

[Hero McLaghan]

Hero smiled a bit. "I don't drive yet, so I'm not very good with directions," she shrugged. "But I know how to get to my house," she said quickly, not wanting Jim to think that he'd be driving her around aimlessly until she figured out where they were. She chuckled along with him, as he talked about getting lost and winding up on the completely wrong highway. She wondered if he had ever made it to the grocery store. Chuckling, Hero adjusted the shoulder strap on her backpack so it didn't fall off. She'd had a lot more books this year than freshman year, as far as she remembered, but she didn't mind. She liked books, even if they were for school.

Smiling, Hero looked up at Jim. He hadn't answered her question about where he moved here from, and she wondered if he had heard her or not. She knew her accent could make her hard to understand at times, especially when she spoke too fast. Or, because they had just met, he wasn't really used to trying to decipher her speaking voice quite yet. "Where'd you move here from?" she asked again, trying to speak a bit more clearly. Her Scottish accent sometimes caused her to slur her words together, especially the vowel sounds.

Do you need help? Hero was adjusting the other books and hoodie in her arms as Jim said this. She looked up, her gray eyes slightly wide. "Umm..." she trailed off, holding a pencil between her teeth as she tried to stuff her hoodie into her backpack, her bushy hair completely covering her face. She stopped, afraid that her bag might rip if she put one more thing in it. "Maybe," she said, a shaky smile forming on her lips as she took out two of her books and closed her bag again.