radio414

Peter listened as intently as he could as Charlie described their quote-unquote “ascent” to the captainhood of the team, not that he could understand it all that well. He was new and young, after all, and more brought up for dueling than dealing with whatever intra-team drama that caused Charlie to be pushed to the wayside until this year, so all he could do was nod along. The part, or “parts,” rather that did prick his ears up, though, were the two almost ancillary comments both captains made about his performance. “A little rough around the edges, but…” Charlie said. “...Yeah. Good job, kid,” Avriel said. It wasn’t like Peter wasn’t already beating himself up internally, of course. He had during the duel and now, even after he’d won -- after he’d won! -- his parents still sounded off in his head, scouring his play for anything they could lecture him over. He really tried not to think about that. Not now. And sure, it was his parents’ job and it was his captains’ job to make sure he did play as well as he could, but couldn’t he have, like, a brief moment of respite? There were other comments from the peanut gallery. “Ultra genius,” someone said. Another said, “Prodigy.” They were the type of comments that Peter both appreciated hearing and tried so hard to ignore. That was his reputation, and while they were certainly a nice ego boost, it wasn’t him. It didn’t feel like him, at least. Fortunately, that’s where Peter’s navel-gazing stopped, as it was interrupted by both Charlie announcing their pizza order and another person -- an upperclassman? Faculty? Peter couldn’t tell -- waltzing in and making snide remarks about that same food. The former was the more pressing issue. “Um, actually, just pineapple for me,” Peter said. “I don’t really like…” He trailed off. He could just pick off the errant pieces, right? Sure, it’d make for worse pizza but it sounded like the order was already being placed, and while Peter considered himself a lot of things, a bother wasn’t one of them. Not about pizza. The other interruption, well, it sounded like Makoto (Makoto was her name, right? All the stuff pre-duel felt like it had taken place a month ago) had already started the introduction chain again, so when conversation quieted down again, he walked over. “Hello, I’m Peter,” he said to the newcomer. “Nice to meet you.”

Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil. -Proverbs 4:25-27 (NIV)Melissa quickly found her attention divided between her constantly buzzing phone -- she really should have waited to text Gabby back -- and the boy’s story, and while she really tried to concentrate on the latter, she couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking, what he thought of her that her phone was going off at all. She tried to rationalize it -- it was such a normal occurrence, after all -- and yet, each vibration was like a klaxon, a loud alarm bell. It died down eventually, but not before its arrhythmic shaking had translated over a shiver in Melissa’s body. “Sorry, I did not mean to go into such lurid detail,” the boy said. Maybe he hadn’t noticed? “What might your name be, by the way?” Whatever wavering Melissa might have done, wherever her attention might have gone, it all snapped back the moment the boy stopped talking. She thought a quick prayer that she’d managed to hold onto every word, but she also wondered how she was supposed to tackle everything that she’d been presented. If it was a relationship question -- and it certainly sounded like it was a relationship question -- she was probably the worst person to ask. She didn’t know about relationships, how could she? Unless Gabby counted, and she wasn’t sure “you can try really hard and things will still go wrong, but hopefully, it’ll work out anyway” was the advice the boy in front of her wanted to hear. Still, she had to make an honest effort, right? No matter how bad of an idea it had been in retrospect, she’d forced herself into this kid’s life with an offer to help (and it wasn’t like she didn’t want to help, even now!) and had to follow through with it. Not doing so would be worse, for both him and for her. She decided to start at the bottom and work her way back. “My name’s Melissa,” she said, though through introducing herself, she noticed the boy hadn’t said anything about his name yet. “Um, Melissa Ashforth.” Wait, had he said, “gods willing?” Like, more than one? Melissa tried to replay his little monolog in her head, but nothing really came of it. It didn’t significantly change what little opinion she had managed to make of him so far, and really, she shouldn’t have noticed it at all, but she had, and it interrupted her thought process enough to spawn another series of vocal commas and hedging comments. “Sorry, I, um…” Melissa looked down and brought a hand up to her chest- up to the crucifix around her neck and rubbed her thumb along the lower prong of the cross. “If you- If you’re asking what it sounds like you’re asking, um, I’m not sure how good my advice is going to be here. I could reference the Theology of the Body if you like, but I don’t know it that well. “But, um, I also don’t think that’s what you’re asking? At least, I wouldn’t be asking random girls that. If you’re uncomfortable talking about it. Without that, though… I’m sorry, um, I don’t mean to pry more than I already have, but what’s the difference between what your heart wants and what your head wants? With me, I’ve found they’re often a lot more similar than I first thought.” Melissa looked back up at her benchmate. “I understand you want to be vague about it, I probably would be too. I promise I won’t judge if you’re more in-depth, but I won’t pry any more either. That’s about as much advice as I can give.”

First and third, nice And Take On Me is a classic, so good to see that one up there too.

Chris didn’t immediately see anybody he knew when he stepped outside, but that was okay; schedules were more of a suggestion to him, and enforcing discipline would probably have been seen as hypocritical. He wasn’t sure if waiting outside made him look impatient or if it just meant he was really ready to greet them, but either way, there he was. It wasn’t like he was about to change his mind, not after he’d already announced to Hector what was up. “Greetings, friend! Have you been waiting long?” And yet, even when he was keeping an eye out, Estellise still managed to sneak up on him. She was as chipper as ever, Chris thought. He wondered how he looked to her. Then he wondered why he wondered that. He didn’t really care what people- okay, he cared, but he didn’t… The thought went nowhere, and all he was left with was responding to the question posed to him. “No, I just stepped out,” he said. “You’re the first one here, anyway, so I wouldn’t say you were late at all.” Estelisse's arrival seemed to open the floodgates, and all the rest of the party flowed in behind her. The next one was Lana, who made some sort of joke about rescuing princesses? Nobody really laughed, and Lana backtracked on it almost immediately, which was, well, it was about what could be expected of Lana, wasn’t it? Joke or not, though, it was certainly something Chris had thought about. What could be an easier way to get back in his family’s good graces besides that? Last, but not least, was Sergei, who, like Estellise, asked if they’d all been waiting long. “No,” Chris said. “No, everyone else just got here too. Um, I guess you’re welcome to food if you want.” He thumbed at the Drooling Dragon’s entrance. “Hector just got a huge thing of eggs so that’s the special today if you’re interested.” He lead the way back inside, holding the door open for each of his compatriots before guiding them to a nice table where they could plan out the day’s dungeon foray.

try this one

hating system of a down's vocalist but what if