walk in the woods {Meera}

[thejokerlaughsatu]

For once, Nathan had a backpack. His sketchbook had ended up on the ground too many times lately, and his artwork had been ruined by the damp leaves. Today he was prepared. His colored pencils and his sketchbook were all safely tucked into the backpack, zipped closed and protected from the outside world. Even if Nathan met that Lucas boy again, or that idiot ghost girl, he could handle it. His art was protected.

As he started to make his way out to his usual drawing spot, though, he stopped. There were figures ahead, tall shadows that flailed about at the base of the tree. His tree. Nathan narrowed his eyes, and took a few steps closer. Voices floated back to him. Boys, probably around his age, but judging from their size, they could very well have been seniors. Probably having an illegal drink, if they'd come so far out into the woods. He weighed his options, then reluctantly turned back. He couldn't face all of them at once, especially not if the confrontation got physical. The thought of even one of them touching him... he shuddered.

Shouldering his backpack, Nathan turned back on the path, and started back for the school. He would have to draw some other day.

[littlewolf]

Meera went walking in the woods, trying to ignore the fact that she wasn't normal. She sighed, and stopped, leaning on a tree and making the platelets on her arm form up a protective barrier. She looked up at the sky with a sense of despair, she had lost her foster father, her mother, her father, and probably people she didn't even know because of what she was. To her, their death was her fault.

Her long hair covered the left side of her face as she began to draw a minx on a sketch pad she had just gotten. She loved to draw, and when she could, she did. In the middle of classes, in the dorm she shared, in the woods, just whenever she had an itchin' to draw, she did. She got finished, and put the picture on a tree, walking on by to find something else to do.

[thejokerlaughsatu]

Nathan again paused, in the middle of the forest. He was only about halfway back to the school now, but he could see another person in front of him. It was becoming something of a mild phobia for him, to meet people in the woods. The first time he'd met that Lucas boy, and the next time he'd almost been kicked by that stupid ghost-hunting girl. Now those idiots were out at his tree. The next person he saw was just as likely to hurt him or insult him as to leave him be.

Still, he couldn't understand why somebody would go for a walk at this hour. He was only out there to draw, and those boys were obviously doing something that they didn't want anybody to know about. Why else would they be so far out in the woods? Nathan adjusted the backpack on his shoulders and stepped behind one of the larger trees, keeping a careful eye on the girl around the curve of the trunk. There was something pinned to a tree ahead; maybe once she'd gone, he could take it.

[littlewolf]

Meera heard rustling behind her, and spun around, her entire body getting covered in bone platelets. She appeared behind him then, her purple eyes cutting through the darkness, but as suddenly as her fear had come, it left. She looked at him one time, and asked, "Are you an artist?"

She pointed to their matching book bags, and smiled, pulling out her art kit, "I mainly stick to graphite..." She flipped through her drawings, smiling.

[thejokerlaughsatu]

Nathan paused froze. Somehow the girl had seen him behind the tree... maybe she had x-ray vision. Everybody here had a power, after all, even if he tended to forget about that little fact. Slowly, he stepped out. She was strange, immediately asking a question like that, and he wasn't sure whether it would be better to satisfy her with the truth or not. Finally he replied, "No... what makes you say that?"

He followed her gesture to his backpack, then shook his head. She was a creep, definitely. Nathan certainly wasn't making any friends at this school. The one girl had tried to kick him, Kaiser had accused him of being gay, and Lucas had treated him like he was a submissive piece of dirt. Now this girl was already assuming he was like her, a freak, just because they had similar backpacks. "I was just going for a walk. All that's in here is a water bottle and stuff."

[littlewolf]

Meera sighed, and covered herself in bone platelets again. Her purple eyes cut through the darkness as she looked at him, and said, "I am Meera, Freshman..."She said nervously. She didn't like being the new girl, and she was just that. She looked at him, and thought he was kinda cute, however. She smiled a wide smile at him, and backed up a bit, bowing an apology.

"I am sorry. I truly am." She took out her art pad, and drew a squirrel that went racing by, and she smiled, as it climbed up on her shoulder, the platelets having disappeared to not scare it.

[thejokerlaughsatu]

Nathan raised an eyebrow. The girl kept making some sort of odd armor come and go, and it was quickly getting obnoxious. He wanted nothing more than to get away from this freak. All she was doing was playing with her armor and babbling on. Why couldn't he meet anyone normal at this school? Even somebody would would just sit and talk to him without starting a fight or accusing his sexuality.

"Whatever. Just don't do that again. People don't like being accused... of anything." He didn't bother to introduce himself. What was the point? He'd met enough people here to know that he wasn't going to have any friends at this school. In a way, it was a blow to him. Nathan was friendly enough when people gave him a chance to be.

[littlewolf]

Meera stood there awkwardly, and waited. She thought, Wow, this guy is cute! Wow, this guy is cute! Wow, this guy is cute! Over and over again. And jsut when she was about to say something cool, she blurted, "You're cute!" And hid her face, blushing. She didn't dare bring out her armor at the moment, it was affected by her emotional state, and at the moment, it would show a little too much skin.

She looked at the guy with her purple eyes, and said, "Why don't you tell me about yourself... I have made enough of a fool of myself for one day..." She blushed again, going back to her thoughts of, Wow, this guy is cute! Wow, this guy is cute! Wow, this guy is cute! ]/i]

[thejokerlaughsatu]

Nathan froze, his eyes wide. Had she... had she really just said that? He stared at her, not quite sure if he could believe what he was hearing. This girl had gone from being a total nutcase to calling him cute. Cute. She was obviously crazier than she'd seemed at first glance, even if she wasn't playing with that weird armor anymore.

He took a step back and shook his head. This was too much. He needed to get away from all of this insanity, let his mind clear a little bit. Besides, she was joking. Nobody could come out and say something like that so bluntly, especially not to somebody like him. He wasn't cute... and she didn't even know his name. "Yeah, nice try. Whatever. Nice... talking to you, I guess." He stepped past her and started back towards the school.

[littlewolf]

Meera sighed, and said, "Wait! Please... I'm new, and I have, like, no friends. I just want one, ya know? I know I seem crazy, but... I am a freshman girl, we are all crazy. I know I seem blunt, which I am, but I also really do think your cute. Please don't leave!" She sounded almost desperate as she slid down the trunk of a tree, hoping he would turn around.

Even as she looked at him, she was thinking, Wow, this guy is cute! Wow, this guy is cute! Wow, this guy is cute! She didn't understand why, just went with it. She sighed, and said, "All my life, I've been alone. I don't even know who my parents are. So, you'll excuse me if I seem a little socially lacking. I don't get the chance to talk to people often you know. Sometimes, when people talk, they do tell the truth."

[thejokerlaughsatu]

Nathan paused on the path, then turned back to her. A scowl was firmly fixed on his face. "You don't think I'm alone, too? Then what am I doing, walking around out here alone? Why am I at this school alone, while my dad's locked up? If you're the only one out here who's alone, then where are my friends?"

He took a deep breath, then turned back around, away from her. He hadn't meant to let himself speak to her again... but people like her pissed him off. "Poor me, I have no parents, I'm alone, at least talk to me!" He had no parents either, not as far as he was concerned, but the rest of the school didn't need to know that. As far as any of them knew, he had a loving family counting the days until they could visit him. "Now stop bitching."

[littlewolf]

Meera looked him straight in the face, and murmured loud enough for him to hear, "You may not like it... but I'm your friend... I am not much, a mere wisp of a girl, but... a friends a friend." her purple eyes tried to catch his, but he turned around, so she appeared in front of him, panting.

She walked straight up to him, and said, "A true friend is someone who against all odds with everything stacked against it, will help you climb mountains, swim oceans, and survive beyond the limits you have given yourself. Let me be your friend, and please be mine..." She held out a hand, and on the hand was the picture she had pinned to the tree, only it was different now, it had another cat on it, a tall dark-furred one next to the small light furred one.

[thejokerlaughsatu]

Nathan took a step back as the girl approached. She was too close, much too close, and now she was holding out a hand. Most people would have swept it away, grabbed the picture and crumpled it, but Nathan couldn't. He couldn't bring himself close enough to let her touch him, let alone touching her on purpose. That was completely out of the question. "Get out of the way. You're not my friend. I don't want to talk to you, and I don't want to be around you. If the first thing you think when you see me is that I'm cute, then I don't want you following me around and mooning after me. Get lost."

He rolled his eyes and stepped around her. She was spouting nonsense, anyway. Why would he want to be her friend? It was all sentimental nonsense about mountains and rivers and stars, things he didn't care about at all. He could take care of himself... at least, for now. When he met somebody who came off as normal, then he would let himself have a friend. Yeah.

[littlewolf]

Meera coughed lightly, and fell down, tears falling. She didn't want it to go this way. She wanted a friend. She looked at the ground, and said, "Please forgive me... I am not normal, okay, I get it. I am a freshman, why would you want to be seen with me, but please at least forgive me. Things between us can be fixed if we both try. I don't want to be friendless."

Her mind had gone to why is this happening mode, and she couldn't reverse it. "This is why I avoid people. They think they are so cool, so normal! Normal is overrated, Dude! If you want someone normal, then leave the school, and act like a human! Around here, you won't meet a normal person!" She wanted to shrink, to disappear, to blow away like sand in a storm, but instead, she stood up, and looked him straight in the eye after pressing herself against him in anger, and her platelets reappearing.

[thejokerlaughsatu]

Before he could move, she was on the ground in front of him, crying. Nathan rolled his eyes. What an idiot. She honestly thought tears were going to make him want to be her friend? Useless. "You think I care that you're a freshman? I don't care if you're not normal. I care that you're an annoying little-"

He stopped in mid-sentence. While he was speaking, she'd somehow got to her feet... and she was touching him. Not even a light brush, but a full-on, body-to-body, near-embrace. He could feel her skin on- no. That wasn't skin. Whatever her weird armor thing was, she was wearing it again, and her body was pressed full-on against his.

"WHAT THE HELL! Get off me, you bitch!" Nathan shoved the girl away and stumbled back, disgust clear on his face, but more prominent than ever in an attempt to hide the fear. Nobody touched him. His body was his, and his only. She wasn't allowed near him. Nobody was. He took a menacing step towards her and flung an arm out, pointing towards the school. "Go!" he screamed. "Get the hell out of here!"