An Old Pal

Boreas scowled at his phone. He was sitting in the cafeteria, occasionally taking a bite of a carrot stick. Lord he didn't like this Rumor character. What was this guy's deal, anyways? Who got their kicks out of making other people's lives miserable? And why wasn't anyone doing anything about it? The brown haired male gave a sigh and put his phone down, choosing instead to focus on the carrot stick in his hand after taking another crunch out of it. He didn't really mind that people avoided him. Better for their reputations that way. Besides, who wanted to hang out with a 17 year old freshman? It was embarrassing. No one wanted to hang around with the stupid kid. Boreas's borderline orange eyes dulled a bit at the thought. He didn't know why he hadn't just run away already. Anywhere was bound to be better than Roulette. But...then Jasper would have to deal with their parents alone. And while they did treat his brother like he was a saint, Boreas suspected it was just because they had him to take their disappointment out on. If he was gone, what would stop them from taking their frustrations out on his sibling? Probably nothing.

Liz Taylor was a fairly plain looking girl. She had long brown hair that she kept in a high ponytail, dark brown eyes, and a sprinkle of freckles across her face. She was your average junior, aside from being president of the Newspaper Club, which was probably her greatest accomplishment. It hadn't been her first choice, but after she'd broken her ankle last year during a cheerleading incident, it became her back up and she'd been enjoying it so far. It was all thanks to Ryker Summers. Had he not offered her to come write for him, she'd have never found her one true calling. He would have been the President this year, but he'd ended up transferring schools. She missed him sorely, but they talked often enough.

The brown haired girl paused as she came into the cafeteria. Someone had told her that Boreas was in here, and she wanted to catch up. Originally when she'd heard the name in passing she'd assumed it was someone else, but she knew better. How many people were named Boreas. Rollr had confirmed it all for her, and of course she'd consulted Rumor. As out of control as the anonymous writer could be, they were helpful when it was important, like the article on Mr. King. Although, that could have been written better. There was no need to put the man's business out there like that. It was really difficult to keep the Principal from shutting them down and doing damage control with Ellie. The Class President was so sweet. Pushing those thoughts aside she grinned as spotted Boreas Juuichi. She hurried over and slid into the seat next to him. "I brought you a smoothie. It's still mango pineapple from seventh grade right?" Her dark brown eyes were shining with amusement.

Boreas nearly jumped out of his skin when someone was suddenly next to him and talking to him. He turned in his seat to see a familiar face. The confused expression on his face changed to one of surprise when he saw Liz Taylor sitting next to him. Liz Taylor from seventh grade. They'd been friends back then, but just like all his other friends, she'd passed the seventh grade and moved on, while he stayed and failed twice. He hadn't seen her in years. Bright brown eyes looked down at the smoothie before looking back at the junior girl. "L-Liz?" Boreas swallowed and seemed to shrink in his seat a bit after taking a look around. "What are you doing? It'll be bad if people see you sitting with me. Even worse if they saw you brought me a smoothie..." he said with a small frown. Liz was a nice girl. He didn't want her reputation to be trashed because of him. He hadn't been in Roulette long yet, but he was sure Liz had a decent reputation to uphold. She was a smart girl. It was nice to see her again, but...he didn't want to be the one to ruin her social life.

"Yes, it is I," she said dramatically. "You know what would make this better? If I had vampire fangs so it'd be like some cheesy Dracula movie." She gave a laugh. She pointed to the smoothie. "You know, I got addicted to Mango Pineapple thanks to you. Now I'm like one of the Basic Bitches that frequent Moonbucks." When Boreas seemed to shrink in on himself, Liz rolled her eyes. "You're brainwashed. Let them stare, Rumor will eat it up." She smiled and took a sip of her own smoothie. "Come on, don't let it go to waste." She nudged it closer to him. "You know you want to Boreas." She looked up at him expectantly. "That was like 3 bucks, and I can't afford to damage my figure by drinking two smoothies by myself. Are you trying to make me fat?" She looked taken aback.

Boreas blinked a couple times at the dramatic way in which Liz spoke. "I...you..." Gods how he'd missed her. She'd always been able to make him smile. "You're the least basic person I know," he said, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," he huffed. "They'll end up ruining your reputation if you sit with me. There's something wrong with that person," he muttered, reluctantly grabbing the smoothie once she nudged it closer to him. He sipped it absently, glancing over to the brunette next to him. "Thanks..." He didn't get her. She'd ruin her rep by sitting with him. "If I remember right, you don't gain weight no matter what you eat, so I think you'd be fine with two smoothies." The brown haired male finally sighed and looked over to Liz. "So...you look good. How have you been?" If she wasn't going to budge on this, there was no reason to fight it. He just...wasn't in the mood to joke around with her like usual. And it had been like three years. For all he knew, she could have changed too. Though on first impressions, it didn't seem like it.

"Good to know," she said before taking another sip of her smoothie. "I was beginning to worry. All the basic girls follow people like Mickey Mutsu and Kymin Onihana. Have you met those two? They're the biggest playboys ever. One is your typical rich kid that thinks he's God. Seriously, he suffers from delusions of grandiose. The other is an idiot, to say the least. I get the life is short and all, but a moment of seriousness wouldn't kill ya, right?" She gave Boreas a big smile. "You know what, I've been meaning to do this since I heard you were here." She leaned over and gave him a big hug. "Yup, that's better." She sat back in her seat. "You're afraid of Rumor? You know they work for me right? I'm president of the newspaper club ya know." She grinned. "Cheerleading sort of ended when I broke my ankle last year. I had a nasty little fall. I thought my life was over, but not anymore. I write fashion columns, event columns, or whatever suits my fancy." She gave a small dismissive wave. "Besides, I don't see how you'll ruin my so-called reputation. What is this, grade school?" The freckle-faced girl motioned to towards all of the cafeteria. "The only way they can bother me, is if I care for their opinion." She couldn't speak for everyone else. "Oh, so you do remember that I am a bottomless pit," she beamed. "Very well, I shall drink your smoothie too," she teased. "I've been good aside from the broken ankle. I went to Beliz over the summer, and then worked with the newspaper thanks to a friend. Summer jobs are so boring, but I had a blast this time around. What about you? Tell me you've got some material for me to read."

"Mickey Mutsu and Kymin Onihana? I've only seen the names in the school paper. Don't think I've actually seen them in person. They don't sound like my kind of people, though, so I'll try my best to avoid getting caught up with them." He would try his best to avoid getting caught up with anyone in this school. "Besides, if mango pineapple smoothies make you a basic bitch, then I'm the most basic bitch around," he joked with a light chuckle. Boreas's orangish brown eyes blinked curiously when Liz said she'd been meaning to do something, then widened when she suddenly hugged him. It had been so out of nowhere that he just sat there in shock instead of blushing or hugging her back. He didn't know how to react. He didn't even remember the last time someone had given him a hug. Years, probably. His parents hadn't even hugged him after dropping him off at this god forsaken place. In fact...now that he thought about it, Liz might have been the last person to give him a hug, too. Back in seventh grade, after he'd failed, and she'd told him that it would be okay. That he would do better next year. By the time he came to his senses enough to know that he wanted to hug her back, she was already pulling away. Boreas cleared his throat lightly and looked off to the side. "I'm not afraid of them. Not for my own sake, anyways. I don't care what they write about me. Not like my life is some big scandalous secret," he said, giving a small shrug. He was more worried about what Rumor would say about those who hung out with him. "Yeah, well...the guy doesn't seem like the type of person to care who they write about. As far as I'm aware, high school reps are a lot more potent than middle school reps. But you'd know better than me, I guess. You've been here longer than I have." Boreas gave another shrug. "I dunno. Just figured you wouldn't want to be seen sitting with a failure," he joked, a half smile crossing his face. God he was shit. He wasn't tying to throw a pity party or anything, but why would Liz want to be seen sitting with him? He was trash.

"Alright, alright, if you say so. If it doesn't bother you, it doesn't bother me." Yeah right. He hoped Rumor wouldn't write anything nasty about this. He didn't want to see Liz getting made fun of for hanging out with him. Boreas blinked in minor surprise when Liz said she'd drink his smoothie too, before moving the cup closer to him. "No," he murmured, "I want it." Just to emphasize his point, he started sipping at the smoothie in front of him. "I'm glad you didn't just...give up after the fall. I read a couple of your articles in the paper. They're really good," he told her with a small smile. He gave a half shrug. "My summer was pretty uneventful." Full of yelling, but not much else. "Er...I mean...I've started a story? I have all the details, I just...I'm having trouble actually writing it." He paused. "I actually wanted to talk to you about this eventually, but...heh, nerves. I was wondering...is it...I dunno. Can I...maybe do an anonymous piece in the school paper? Like, a couple stories here and there? I need something to get over this writer's block, and some public feedback might be helpful. I think? But I don't want to put my name on it. Like, at all. I already have a small piece done. I was just...gonna send it in anonymously, but...since I'm talking to you now...well, I can show it to you if you want. It's not that good though," he added in a mutter, looking off to the side and sipping once more at his smoothie.

"They're all the rave. I myself wouldn't mind a piece of them if they weren't so…well, them." She rolled her eyes, looking quite amused with the entire subject. "You can't miss Mickey. He's got more piercings than should be allowed and Kymin, he's drop dead gorgeous, but that doesn't matter to you because you're not into guys. He's the one always laughing and smiling and getting a kick out of just about everything." Liz nodded. "I imagine they'd be too eccentric for you. You need mellow people in your circle, like Batsu Savage and Xen Reizei and and Clarissa Izumito and Cross Kiline, they're all our age. Batsu is pretty friendly with everyone, and Xen doesn't talk. We're not all that sure he even speaks English and the teachers don't force him, but it seems that freshman girl, Fara Farae I think her name is, is apparently friends with him. There's some speculation that he's a foster kid or something and she happened to be at the same foster home, so they might be like siblings or something, but that's not my job to figure such things out. Clarissa is an absolute sweetheart and bookworm. You two would make a grand couple, but I'd be uber jealous. Then there's Cross, who's dark and mysterious and a lone wolf, but he's nice in my opinion." She gave a small shrug and took a second to catch her breath.

She couldn't help but to laugh as he offered up a joke. "Oh man, I've missed conversations like this with you. I should have kept in touch," she said with a small frown. She hadn't meant to lose contact with Boreas, he'd been her best friend, but things had started moving so fast once high school started. His lack of returning the hug didn't bother her one bit. Not everyone was a hugger. She remembered the last hug she'd given him, way back in seventh grade. She'd wanted to hold onto him forever. No one wants to leave behind a friend. "But your life is a big scandalous secret and so is mine, it's all so, dare I say it," she said with a dramatic pause, placing her fingertips to her chest. "Scandalous!" Her laugh was light and bubbly. "Oh hush Boreas, you worry too much. Rumor is a special kind. I don't like everything they write, and I've had a few things published about me and the former editor in chief, but I take it with a grain of salt. Honestly, I spend way too much time doing damage control, but it spices things up a bit." She gave a small shrug. "And who cares if I've been here longer." She paused, her brows creasing. "You're not a failure," she said firmly. "So what if you flunked a grade, failures quit, and you didn't, so stop that."

Liz was 90% sure this would end up in one of Rumor's articles. She would talk to her mystery writer though, if only to save Boreas some hardship. Although, she doubted Rumor would be willing to hear anything she had to say after what went down all over social media. She sighed internally before she cocked a brow as Boreas pulled his smoothie closer. "You sound like a kid," she snickered. The blush came before she could stop it, and she turned her head away. "Oh, thanks," she said a bit bashful, which was definitly uncharacteristic of Liz Taylor. "I just, you know, try to keep the people happy," she said with a few too frequent nods. She seemed to recover at the mention of a new story. "I'm already dying to read it!" Her voice was nearly a squeal of pure delight. "I'm hardly a person you should be nervous around, but go on, I'm listening." And listen she did. "Everything you write is always brilliant. I suggest you write a piece for the drama club. Anywho's you're definitly welcome to publish whatever you need in the paper, and if it's anonymous you want, then anonymous you shall have. Oh, I love it! The student body is going to eat it up. Ratings love, we're talking ratings," she said as she rubbed her hands together as if she were thinking of money. She gave Boreas a wink. "You can email me whatever you write and I'll publish it for you." She pulled out a mini notebook and pen. "LizBTaylor_Press1@rmail.com," she said aloud. She slid the paper over to him. "Email me sometimes. By the way, we're hanging out this summer."

Boreas raised an eyebrow. "Would you now," he questioned flatly. Well, most people in high school were interested in that sort of thing, he supposed, so he really shouldn't have been surprised. Not that he was judging her for it. If they were all the rave like she said, then it was probably for a good reason. And she was joking, so that was another thing. "I thought this school didn't allow anything but pierced ears. For girls. Are boys even allowed to have piercings?" If they were then he was putting his earrings back in. He kinda missed his cubic zirconium studs. His parents were wealthy, but they'd never let him have something like diamond earrings with his grades and attitude. Hell, they disapproved of him having earrings anyways, but decided to let him have that small liberty to show that they weren't all bad. He nearly rolled his eyes at the thought. Yeah, right. Not all that bad. They'd be more 'not all that bad' if they would leave him alone about his grades. "I mean, I can appreciate looks," he said with a shrug, when Liz mentioned this Kymin character being drop dead gorgeous. He could appreciate someone being hot. Didn't mean he wanted to sleep with them though. "Oh wait, was he the one that got thrown into the pool the other day? I think I heard something about that. Pretty sure I saw him walking around, too, if it's the guy I'm thinking of. He's not bad," Boreas admitted with a small shrug. Orange eyes blinked when Liz started gossiping to him about some foreign kid who couldn't speak English and some other girl who was supposedly a foster kid. And...yeah, he wasn't following. "...yeah. Okay. Seems like a job for your anonymous d-...investigative journalist," he said with a small frown. What he was going to say was 'anonymous dickweed', but he was sure Liz wouldn't appreciate his colorful wording in this situation. Boreas gave a small smile. "You would be jealous if I went out with her?" he asked, chuckling lightly. "No worries. I'm not really into dating, so you won't have anything to be jealous of anytime soon," he told her, sipping casually at his smoothie. When was the last time he'd had one of these?

"Honestly, I wasn't planning on making too many friends while I was here," he told Liz honestly. "I didn't even know you went to this school until the other day." Boreas chuckled lowly when the brown haired girl had to stop and catch her breath from gossiping too hard. "Nah, it's okay. I can get why you didn't," he said with a shrug. It was hard to keep in touch when you were moving forward and your friends were falling so far behind. He rolled his eyes. "So scandalous. Your life is more scandalous than mine, I'm sure. You're a lot more daring than I am," he said with a slight grin. "You shouldn't have to do damage control. The guy should be able to control themself." His smile faded slightly and the light in his eyes grew a bit duller when Liz became frustrated with him. He gave a small shrug. "Two grades." He brought the straw to his lips before muttering "And it's not like I hadn't thought about it." He'd thought about running away. He'd thought about dropping out. He'd thought about turning to drugs. He'd thought about hurting himself. He'd thought about burning his house down while his family was away doing things without him. He'd thought about quitting. He'd thought about giving up. He'd thought about things he was ashamed of admitting having thought about. In the end he'd talked himself out of all of them. Because who else was going to talk him out of it? Liz had been gone. Jasper didn't get it. His parents were disgusted with him. They couldn't even stand to look at him. They would talk to Jasper when they ate dinner together. Would ask him about his friends and about school. He guessed Jasper had more to talk about anyways. Boreas took another sip of his smoothie. He was getting too deep again. He was falling too fast again.

Liz's snickering at his apparent childlike behavior was what pulled him out again. The blush on her face and her uncharacteristic blush pulled him back to reality and out of that deep, dark cavernous hole. Boreas gave a light smile. "That's just like you." He couldn't bring the light back to his eyes. He liked Liz, but he suddenly found himself wanting to be alone again. He shouldn't drag her down. She was obviously doing so good right now. She seemed to like where she was. Her excitement for his story came as a bit of a shock to him though, and it brought a bit of life back into his eyes. "You get any louder about it and it won't be a secret," he told her with a small laugh. "Okay, so...I'm not sure how to explain it honestly. Let me just...hold on," he said, turning and unzipping his bookbag that sat on the ground under the bench he was sitting on. He knew that he could have kept his bag in his room, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to go back to his room to get his stuff and chance running into that little purple haired kid. "For the drama club..? You know, I was going to suggest you try out for the drama club actually. You're really good at drama," he joked, pulling out a notebook and flipping through a few pages before coming to a stop and handing the notebook over to Liz. "Please, judge as harshly as you like. If you like it, I'll type it up and email it to you." Boreas blinked. "R-ratings? I'm not looking to go that big with it," he muttered, a small shade of blush suddenly on his face. He rubbed the back of his neck before taking the paper with Liz's email on it. He fell silent. "I'm...not sure if that's a good idea, actually," he said with a small frown. "I, uh...I'm not even sure if I'll be around this summer," he told her with a forced chuckle. It all really depended on his grades. If his grades weren't great, he probably wouldn't be allowed out this summer. And he didn't anticipate passing.