Not the best day (Ryder)

[Acacia Black]

Acacia'd had a lousy day at school. She hated the place some days. She'd had a load of dumb old jocks knock into her, she'd forgotten her lunch, and in art class, some loser had knocked water over her work. She'd spent the last hour with a hair dryer trying to salvage it. At least she'd saved the majority of her work. That was something.

She walked along with two art books, one under each arm. She wasn't really looking where she was going, she was too busy focusing on what she needed to do to catch up in art, when one book slid out of the back of her arm. It hit the pavement, and pieces of paper scattered everywhere. She stood there for a moment with a heavy sigh, before springing into action - the slightest gust of wind and it would be gone. She had got all but one piece back into her book - still completely flat when the last piece was blown up into the air. She ran after it, trying not to knock into anyone but focusing on her work. Whilst it was in the air she saw that it was one of her charcoal sketches. This one depicted the back of a human, with dark shadows showing the contours of the body. She wasn't sure she'd be able to draw that one again. She raced after it down the street, she realised that she must look quite foolish, but didn't care right now.

[Ryder Carpers]

Ryder was walking through town, he was feeling quite good today because today was the day where he was allowed his weekly shower. He was feeling a little dirty having had an earlier wash in pond water, he did it quite often only this time it wasn't so clean and usually he washed in the stream; his hair was almost perfect for a comeover the amount of grease which was salvaged in it, but soon he could take a five minute shower and be presentable and clean. A small smile licked upon his lips as he looked up at the sky. It was rather beautiful today, it would be a good night to sit outside of his tent, maybe even entertain someone but dates were something which were of a rariety to Ryder, not very often at all. So perhaps he would date himself, eat a healthy salad and wine and dine himself into the morning.

As the wind picked up he blinked suddenly, almost as if trying to shield his face from something as a piece of paper hit him smack bang. Ryder sighed quietly as he reached up for it, his wave of thoughts hinting towards some nasty prank - people did like to prank him an awful lot. But what he saw was something else, a drawing. He blinked once more, only this time a lot softer as he paused to take in what he was seeing. It was really quite remarkable and he assumed it belonged to the girl who was running around like frantic. He felt a little bad for her, he could emphasize with those movements. "Hey there, is this yours?" he asked her patiently as he held it out, his grip firm yet gentle upon the fragile paper. "You know it always amuses me how people make art from art. Although it's a lot better use than a Bible - most people rip them up nowadays, I think they're best left not printed. The same with all books really unless on request. People would take a lot more care of things if they had to request to have it made, things would be a lot more precious." Ryder mused maybe to himself, but either way he let his voice drift into a small chuckle as he went to hand the picture over to the girl.

[Acacia Black]

She saw it hit someone, she was half pleased - at last it had been caught. Though she felt bad. Once he had removed the paper from his face, she was glad to see that he wasn't a prep. Unless it was Ashley, she suspected tat those guys wouldn't give it back, or rip it up or... she was just pleased that it wasn't one of them. She actually didn't recognise this guy, she'd never seen him before at all. Maybe he wasn't from round here? She didn't know right now, all she knew is that she was grateful.

'Yes, thank you' she said a little out of breath. She never realised how unfit she was. She took it gratefully and tucked it back inside one of the books. She didn't really look where she was putting it - she wouldn't be able to find it later.
His thoughts were intelligent, measured, and in this instance, she completely agreed with him. 'Everything is cheap now, and people just don't seem to care,' she said, in agreement. Though she wasn't sure her work would be counted as 'art.' She always thought of art as something grand or amazing, she wasn't sure any of her work qualified as that. 'I'm Acacia,' she said with a smile. 'I would have been in trouble if I hadn't got that back, it's fairly important for my art course, I don't know if I could do it quite the same again,' she said in explanation. She wondered if she should buy this guy a coffee or something as way of thank you.

[Ryder Carpers]

Ryder smiled as she agreed with him. It was always nice to have a rant about society with a stranger these days, it made him feel like Professor Dumbledore especially. It seemed like he would do something like that. He held out his hand as she introduced herself. Ryder was something old fashioned and he liked to be a gentleman, especially around young girls. He also decided that it was the easiest way to get sex but Ryder wasn't really about sex much, he preferred relationships and treating a girl well. Being a gentleman seemed to come under that. "My name's Ryder. Acacia, I like that. It's unusual, I like that too... only because I'm a bit too weird and it makes me feel better about myself," he said playfully. Well he wasn't lying, he had chosen to live in a tent of all places. He was starting to warm up to Acacia though, she seemed nice, and she really appriciated him giving her back the art work. It was the little things in life that mattered and she had really made him feel good about things. "Well I'm glad you have it. I like art, I love how you can look at a painting and get something from it and the person next to you can get something completely different from it too, and then you look again and you can see something else. Art's amazing, although then again I think everything's art. I prefer nature to buildings but even so they're pretty amazing when you look at all of the details, and people. I love people, though I prefer it when people are less made up, less fake," He mused. Ryder could probably talk for the world, he could drone on and on about anything and never get tired of it, even if no one was listening. "I'm sorry, I must be boring you. Ignore me, I told you I was weird." he said with a small laugh as he kicked at a rock on the ground, nervously. He was quite a confident guy but sometimes he said too much and people would judge him and sometimes they'd be nasty to him or laugh at him because of what he said. That was when he became insecure.

[Acacia Black]

People always commented about her name. But this time, he said something complimentary, so she didn't mind. Usually people thought it weird or unpleasant.

She agreed with him about art, she had been standing next to some preps once, looking at a painting on a school trip. They plainly saw what was on the surface, whilst she tried to understand the metaphors, she tried her best anyway. She listened intently, her train of thought was only stopped when he stopped too. She shook her head, 'no, don't apologise, I think you're right. I especially like the ink-blots, where you can see so many different things. It really lets you see what a person is like with what they see,' she said. She hoped to study them firther one day, perhaps a college degree in art or psychology would allow that. 'Ha, if you don't want fake people, you should avoid my school at all costs.' Other than a select few, they were all weird, and fake.

She then thought back to what he said. 'You don't seem weird. People think I'm odd though, and I don't think that... So what do I know?' she said with a little laugh. She thought she was positively normal and boring, she wasn't what people percieved her to be.

'Would I be able to buy you a coffee?' she asked. 'As a thank you for saving my work?' she thought he might decline. He was probably busy, but it was only proper to offer.

[Ryder Carpers]

Ryder smiled, an amusing smile fluttering on his face as he listened to her. ”We once did ink-blots when I was in school, only all I saw was bats. My teacher was pointing out all of the sexual things... to be honest I don’t think they really show much at all.” Ryder admitted. He didn’t want to put her down or her ideas down he was just giving his opinion on them. He liked this girl though, she challenged his thought processes to be deeper, and he liked it. He could actually have a conversation with her. ”Oh, really?” he asked playfully. He could imagine people at school being really superficial, probably more so than those at college. Ryder shuddered, ”I would not fit in at your school then. I’d be the loser who sits in the corner, or in the bin.” He mused. He hoped she wasn’t one of those people, it could be quite a sensitive topic being tortured. Ryder didn’t always fit in during school but one of his best friends was pretty popular so he wasn’t hated either.

”Well if you got to know me a bit more you’d probably understand that I’m weird. I don’t think it’s bad though, I’m the way I am due to my own decisions, I’m who I want to be and if people can’t accept that then that’s not my problem,” he stated honestly. It was how he felt about things, he wanted to change the world and being normal wasn’t the way to do it. You needed to stand out from the crowd, to make a difference in life and to help people and things. Ryder tilted his head to the side, looking at her with a gentle smile. ”No, but I’ll buy you a coffee. I like to treat a girl.” he admitted honestly. He preferred to buy girls things rather than them buying him things. ”You don’t need to thank me anyway, it’s only the right thing to do. I didn’t really have much choice in the matter anyway,” he said softly with a gentle smile. ”Will you let me take you out for a drink?”

[Acacia Black]

She laughed, sure, some of things could be sexual. It depended on what you saw, but on the hand, she didn't know enough about them yet to comment. Yet.
'In the bin?' she asked, quite surprised, but then understanding dawned across her face. She had seen it enough in her own school. 'Oh.'

She nodded, 'Quite,' was all she said, but she completely understood. She could have gone blonde, and worn high heels, and branded clothes, but she didn't want to. Some people wanted everyone to conform to their ideals. She just couldn't bring herself to be a sheep though. She wasn't about to tell him that she was exactly the same though, he would think she were a sheep and merely agreeing with everything he said.

She frowned a little, but it didn't seem like he would budge on the topic, but whether either of them liked it or not, she did owe him. 'That'd be nice,' she said with a smile, 'but I do owe you one sometime,' she said definetly, she wasn't about to let that fly. She was still smiling. It was nice, these says she had a lot to smile about, which was good. At one point in her life, she wondered if she would ever smile again, looked like it was happening already. She straighted her books under her right arm, so that nothing fell out the back, and looked to him to see where they were headed.

[Ryder Carpers]

”Oh yeah. Well I live in a tent anyway so I can imagine some people would put me in the bin,” he said, frown lines creasing across his forehead. He really talked far too much, especially to new people. No wonder he didn’t fit in much, Ryder was far too open, far too naive as he thought everyone would think what he thought or accept it anyway. He thought his way of life was pretty interesting but most people just thought he was a freak. ”I should probably be gagged, I don’t shut up.” he cringed. He deserved a bit of gagging, most people would probably appreciate it, especially in his politics classes. ”Well I mean you’re probably right, it would be a lot easier if I looked more normal. And I do sometimes, I need my hair cut and usually when it’s shorter I can fit in more but then last time I got it cut I looked like some army kid virgin or something,” Ryder laughed, he just wasn’t very good with things like that. Maybe he needed an image consultant.

”No you don’t, I’m scared of coffee anyway!” Ryder stated, he wasn’t really but he was cautious of it. When he heard that pigs went into McDonald’s ice cream he was a lot more aware of what went into his mouth. ”Let me carry some of your books for you, they look heavy and I’m carrying nothing.” Ryder pointed out as he took some of them off of her, he wasn’t taking no for an answer. Although he was very polite he was also very stubborn and it took him a lot to shift on his ideas. ”Where would you like to go? Your choice, as long as it’s not a carvery I’m cool with it.” Any bets she was a massive meat eater, he tried to hold his mouth when it came to his company eating meat but sometimes he couldn’t help but point out the source in which it came from. He’d been told off on numerous occasions for putting people off of their food, but he did try not to say those things it just seemed wrong not to though. ”I’ll get your some food. I’m hungry.” He admitted before taking her hand and heading towards the food stretch. Ryder had a habit of holding people’s hands. Some people were uncomfortable with physical contact but Ryder loved it, not in a pervy way, more like just an accepting way. He believed people should hold hands more often.

[Acacia Black]

She nodded, and didn't bat an eyelid when he said that he lived in a tent. It seemed kinda neat to her. She only looked up when he said that he should shut up. 'I don't want you to shut up, I think you're quite interesting actually.' She hoped he wouldn't think her weird for havng said that.

'I didn't mean it like that,' she said hurriedly, not having meant to do him down at all. 'All I meant was that the girls at school think I'm weird because I don't wear high heels or wear lipgloss or something,' she said frowning a little at the last bit. She hadn't actually ever bought a lip gloss.
'I think your hair's quite nice,' she said with a little shy nod.

'Oh!' she said with a little bit of surprise, what with a StarBucks being on every corner, she had just assumed he liked coffee, along with everyone else. 'I...' she was a little embarrassed. 'I'll get a different drink some other time then,' she said, recovering a little.

'If you're sure, I mean, they're just bulky, not that he--' but he'd already taken one from her. 'Thank you,' she said, instead of protesting. 'I think there's a cafe down the street?' she was fairly sure, and she was positive there would be a vegitarian alternative. She wondered if he was vegan?

She smiled as he held her hand. She tried not to be beaming, she'd never held hands with a guy since being in her teens, and before that it was on school trips when you had to be in pairs. She knew it probably wasn't a huge deal for him, but it was for her, just a little bit. 'So are you a veggie?' she asked him as they started walking, she just had to confirm her suspicions.

[Ryder Carpers]

Ryder smiled as he tried to battle growing a blush on his cheeks. He didn’t often get compliments but when he did he took them well, he liked to appear modest and he couldn’t help but show a bit embarrassment. He replaced his hands into his pockets, shrugging slightly. ”Thank you, Acacia. I’m glad you think I’m interesting, I guess that’s because I kind of think you’re cute.” Ryder admitted softly, blushing further. But he tried to hide it, he wasn’t very good with calling people cute or anything, and he was really too polite to go into things further until he really knew someone. ”People think you’re weird?” Ryder questioned, glad for a change of topic. Maybe Mister King of the Weirdoes attracted them, his last girlfriend had taught him how using condoms was wrong so surely that was weird. ”Well you don’t need to wear high heels or lipgloss,” he pointed out as if it was obvious. If she wore high heels and lip gloss she’d be fake, not natural like he perceived her as now. To Ryder he thought she was quite beautiful in this state because she was a natural form that he could admire. He ran his hand through his hair, brushing through it but instead it seemed to have the opposite affect by messing it up. ”Thank you. I think it needs washing but I try to do good by the environment which means I don’t get to wash it as much as I’d like to.” It was a nice way of saying his hygiene wasn’t that good. He didn’t smell though, he often took baths in a local stream but it was more difficult to wash his hair that way.

Ryder frowned, he didn’t like it when people didn’t understand his beliefs and ways of life. I was annoying but he couldn’t exactly educate them on it because then he got wrong for preaching. But he was very stuck in his ways, it was why people found him so difficult. ”No, no, we can go to a coffee shop.” Ryder assured her. Girls came first and he could always drink water. He didn’t like making people feel uncomfortable but it was hard for him to watch someone eat a greasy steak. Coffee however was easy. Ryder drank coffee, he was just wary about it and everything else bought somewhere. ”Oh yeah, probably.” Ryder said with a nod of his head. He watched her, she seemed fairly comfortable with holding hands with him. And he felt comfortable with her too. Seeing her not pull away kind of made him smile, he’d only known her a few moments but he could feel a crush developing. ”A vegetarian? Yeah I am... you weren’t supposed to know that though,” he mused with a gentle smile. He supposed it didn’t really make much or any sense. ”What I mean is I’ve been working on keeping my opinions to myself but sometimes they just slip out a bit... I get wrong for that a lot.” he explained, hopefully making himself a bit more clear.

[Acacia Black]

Her cheeks burned pink. She thought she quite liked him thinking she was cute. She hadn't been referred to as cute since her Mom had bought her and Nyree mathing sailor suits for a cousins wedding. They had been about five at the time though.

'My sister is...' she left the sentence hanging and just shrugged she didn't want to go into it right now. She continued. 'They tar me with the same brush - they think we have identical personalities just because we're twins,' she elaborated. She and Nyree were very different, especially at the moment.

Her cheeks got a little pinker when he told her she didn't need that stuff. 'If you could tell that to them, that would be great,' she said, if only to hide her embarrassment.

She nodded, her hair need washing quite frequently, because it was so long, she frowned. She hoped she wasn't doing the environment too much harm.

She wasn't planning on having coffee, jus because she didn't want to offend him. Quite a few of them did natural juices, so that would be a good bet. It was too warm for a hot drink anyway.

'It doesn't bother me,' she said with a shake of her head, her hair following her as she did so. 'I don't eat a lot of meat anyway.' She never had, even from being small, she didn't really like the taste. 'But my parents make me every now and again, vitamins or something,' she said with a shrug. She thought about what he said about opinions. 'Well, I think opinions are interesting, and last time I checked, it was a free state, and everyone is allowed one.' She hoped he wouldn't be afraid to tell her anything, she fund him quite fascinating really. She gave his hand a little squeeze. She hoped her own hands were alright, they had a few marks on from art class, but other than that she supposed they were alright - for hands anyway.

[Ryder Carpers]

What a pair they looked, Ryder thought to himself, both blushing on the sidewalk, allowing people to pass them as they appeared to be doing their daily routine. But this wasn’t Ryder’s daily routine and he was quite happy about that, routines were not his preferred thing. His eyes widened at the mention of her sister, and twin. ”Oh my God, that’s so cool!” Ryder exclaimed enthusiastically, ”Tell me about her. I have a brother, he’s called Ryan, he’s a few years older than me too. We’re quite different, I mean he’s totally cool and everyone can see that. I mean he’s a bit of a jock but,” Ryder shrugged. If Acacia met Ryan he would probably mess her about, insult her quite a bit so in that sense Ryder couldn’t stick up for him but he and Ryder were close and Ryan was respectful of his brothers beliefs. He liked hearing about family situations. Ryder didn’t exactly have the most conventional family but he loved his dad and his brother and as for his mother she was already disowned. It wasn’t something he really dwelled on too much though, it was his life.

”I will tell that to them!” Ryder said with a nod, ”But then I’d have to insult them in the process and I’m too soft to hurt people’s feelings.” he admitted, pouting softly. He didn’t like to insult people unless he was in an intense argument about things he believed in. Other than that though he was generally nice to people. ”I don’t eat a lot of meat either,” Ryder teased. He didn’t really want of her to think of him as that weird veggie boy or anything so he was trying to down play it. ”Well meat’s high in protein, I don’t eat enough protein. I sometimes get bad joints from it I think. My dad couldn’t make me eat meat, he’s pretty pro environment but he does eat meat... I guess that would be my worst nightmare. It’s like... cannibalism.” Ryder shuddered, he knew he’d said too much, he knew he’d be putting her off her future food. Maybe he should be though, maybe it was right if she didn’t eat meat. ”Opinions make things difficult though and I don’t like offending people. I feel bad if I go on and on and put people off their food and make them feel guilty but then if I can change someone’s mind then that’s what I want... it’s really conflicting though.” He smiled softly as she squeezed his hand. It was comforting, it would probably be strange if he took her out for a date, took her out for a meal. She would be eating a greasy steak and he would have a salad or whatever since vegetarians weren’t very well looked after in restaurants. He was lucky if a salad was available. ”Tell me about yourself anyway. There’s far too much that I’ve said about me, I can’t shut up, I must seem very vain. What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?” Ryder asked her curiously. Finding out where a person wanted to be in their life, their goals and ambitions, he thought it told you a lot about a person. He liked holding her hand. He glanced around at people as they passed only hoping that they would think he and Acacia were dating.

[Acacia Black]

'She...er,' she didn't know how to say this really. It was a bit of a sore subject. 'She isn't well at the moment, she hasn't been for a while, she's sort of gone somewhere to be looked after for now,' she didn't really want to talk about this. She wanted to talk about her other sister even less, so didn't bring her up.

She nodded. Her gran especially would give her and Nyree a hard time about being so thin and pale, and she would blame it on their lack of eating a great big steak once a week. Acacia wasn't even sure if she could keep a steak down.

She smiled when he said that he'd talked too much. 'You don't seem vain, you seen passionate and enthusiastic,' she stated. 'I'd love to be an artist, but... but I'm not sure I'd make it. So I've been thinking about doing something with English. I can write quite well, I guess I just don't know what to do with it,' she said as far as what she was going to be. As for who she was, she wasn't sure of that. She didn't know what to say.

[Ryder Carpers]

Ryder nodded his head, seeming to pick up upon the sensitivity of the topic. He wondered what was going on in her life, in her family for her to seemingly be embarresed about talking about her sister. "Oh right, what's she called?" Ryder enquired, a name couldn't hurt too much. He wondered if maybe her sister was a bit like his mom. Maybe they could join an anti whore group. Ryder copied from her nod, he used to be a lot thinner as a child but he'd always seemed to be somewhat muscular and lean, it was only recently that he'd bulked up a little bit but he was still slender. People seemed to always thnk that vegeterians were really skinny which in Ryder's case was true but he knew that a lot of veggies did some times gain weight due to the little amounts of what they ate... but then again meat eaters in some cases were often overweight. He didn't think he'd met an obese vegetarian.

"Of course you can make it," Ryder scolded her and the thoughts of it, or rather of not achieving. He always liked to keep a positive mind. Ryder stopped by Starbucks and turned to look at it. "In here right?" he asked her.

[Acacia Black]

'Nyree,' she said with a smile. She always had quite liked hers, and her sisters' names. They were unusual, without being too off the wall. 'She isn't well...' she thought about it for a moment, and then tapped the side of her head to suggest mentally. 'At the moment, she believes herself to be called Amethyst,' she said scrunching up her nose. She wished all the time that Nyree would get better. She realised that she hadn't been to see her in a while. She would most probably be mad at her.

'You sound so sure.' Yet he had only seen one of her sketches. 'I guess what I'm saying is that, I need a Plan B, just in case,' she elaborated. 'Besides, I guess I haven't figured it out.' She paused, and then added 'yet.' She would get there sometime.

'As long as you don't mind too much,' she said eyeing him a little. She didn't want to compromise him in any way. She definetly didn't want to make him feel unomfortable either. 'I tell you what, next time, you pick where we go,' she said, hoping he wouldn't be too freaked out that she had said about them meeting up again. She just smiled, and tried not to notice what she had said. If she didn't draw anymore attention to it, he might not notice either.