Ch. 3 [ Edited ]

[Kat-NE]

So, I'm back with Ch. 3.  Warning:  It is long.  I am dividing it into three parts, so that maybe it won't be so bad.  Please leave a response (anything).  This is probably the last full chapter I'm going to post for awhile.  Ch. 1 & 2 are still on the board if needed.

Note:  Most of this is in a different person's perspective, for those who read the other chapters.  Hope you enjoy.

Ch. 3

Unlike Olivia and Evan, one block away, Peter Marshall was having trouble starting his day.  He had a terrible time in turning off his alarm; so in consequence, the clock lay on the floor after he threw his pillow at it to stop that extremely annoying sound that was cutting into his sleep time.  Also in consequence, when he finally opened his eyes, the sun was shining brightly through his window and upon picking up his clock off the floor, he saw that he only had five minutes to meet Evan and Olivia to walk to school.

He only had time for a loud groan and to launch his clock across the room before he hurriedly gathered what were probably dirty clothes off a pile on his floor, threw them on, and then went into his bathroom to brush his teeth and take a look at himself.  Even though he had on the same green shirt that he had on two days ago (only now it was very wrinkled) and the jeans he wore while mowing the yard and working in the garden behind his house (the grass stains may have been passable, but the dark stains that the dirt and mulch left behind were everywhere and highly noticeable), he shrugged at his reflection, flattened his hair down the best he could, then raced to find his bag, left his room, went down the stairs, and burst out the door.

He looked around on his way across the lawn to the sidewalk and saw that his dad’s car was gone already.  His dad, a real estate agent, usually left at around the same time Peter did.

How nice of him to check to see if I was up, Peter thought bitterly, as he grew tired of flat out running and decided that a brisk walk would suffice, knowing they would not take off without him.  It would have taken maybe two seconds to knock on the door before he left.  But no.  I have to always run late.

He knew it wasn’t completely his dad’s fault, but it was nice to blame it on someone else every now and then.

The air was muggy, almost suffocating him as he continued down the sidewalk.  Light was trying to break through, but dark gray clouds covered the sky in patches, threatening rain.

It would be just my luck, he thought darkly as he looked up at the sky, daring the rain to come.

As Peter turned on the corner of Walnut St. and Main St., he began to look around for Evan and Olivia, who always met him in front of the local diner on Main St.  He did not see either of them until he got all the way up to the diner’s entrance.  He almost passed right by Evan Price, who was sitting on a bench at the side of the diner with his cell phone out.

“You don’t need to call me, I’m here,” he said by way of announcing his presence.  “And I’m not that late anyway.”

“Really,” Evan responded as he looked up.  “I wasn’t calling you.  I was playing Tetris.  And my level 14 game would like to challenge your ‘I’m not late’ statement.”

“Oh come on,” said Peter, rolling his eyes.  “It’s barely past eight.  We have plenty of time.”

Just then, Olivia came out of the diner with a small Styrofoam cup in her hand.

“Finally,” she said as a greeting.

“I’m not that late,” Peter said in exasperation.

“This is my second cup of coffee, I’ll have you know,” she replied as she grabbed her bag and started to walk toward the sidewalk, now seeming impatient to any further delay.  “Come on Evan, turn it off.”

“Yes, Mom,” he grinned and turned off his phone and slipped it back into his bag as he went to join them on the walkway.

“Call me ‘Mom’ again, and I’ll break your phone.”  She smiled at him in a sweet, mocking sort of way, not really taking offense from the comment.

“Ooohh.  Watch yourself Pete.  She’s in a mood today.”  They still had two more block to go before they would reach school, but they were walking fairly slowly, with Peter in the middle of the two as they made their way down the street.  “She almost took me down with one hit this morning.”  He tried to keep a serious tone to his voice but the hint of a smile on his face gave him away.

Olivia did not take the bait, drinking her coffee as she walked, pretending not to hear a word he said.

“Oh yeah.  You think you can take me on Oly.  Or do you prefer to beat up people about three times bigger than yourself.”  As he said this, he nudged her arm with his elbow; luckily she did not spill her coffee on herself.  If she had, she would have tried to beat him up right there in the street.

This brought a smile to her face and she turned to him and said “You know how it is.  You don’t provoke me and I won’t make you cry in front of all your little friends.”

Then, her nose scrunched up and she said “What is that smell?”

“Oh, uh, that’s me.  Sorry.”  Peter pulled his shirt up to his nose, but he couldn’t smell anything.

Olivia stopped walking and looked at him, taking in his rough appearance and rumpled clothes in for the first time.  “Didn’t you just wear that shirt?”

“Yeah, a couple of days ago.”

“And have you washed it since then?”

“Well, no.”  Feeling slightly uncomfortable about all the attention his outfit was receiving.

“Oh my God,” exclaimed Olivia, looking at his jeans now.  “Did you decide to go play in the rain last night?  Look at all the mud.”  She was now looking at him with concern, as though he had to be mentally disturbed to voluntarily leave the house looking like that.

Peter was about to go on defending his homeless looking appearance when Evan jumped in and said “Calm down, Oly.  People wear the same clothes two days in a row all the time.  And I’m sure that there are other people at school that will smell just as bad, if not worse than he does.” He finished, winking conspiratorially at Peter.  “I got your back man.”

“Thanks, man.” said Peter, slightly relieved.

Olivia rolled her eyes up to the heavens in exasperation.  Her face now turned away from Peter, as though that would make the smell go away.  She finally said, in a resigned sort of way, “Well Evan, I’ve changed my mind.  I will walk with you this morning.”  She then moved from Peters’ left side to Evans’ right.

“I knew you would come around. Now, moving on,” said Evan, throwing his elbow up onto Olivia’s shoulder as they continued their walk and turn back to Peter. “What did you do last night Pete?”

As Peter contemplated his answer, Olivia tried to push Evan’s arm off of her.  Finally giving up, she allowed his arm to stay there, only looking slightly disgruntled by its weight and presence.

“Well, first I drove my shiny red 2010 Camaro to my five-million dollar mansion, went swimming in my Olympic size pool, bowling in my private bowling alley wrote another great American novel (which only took two hours to complete, by the way), then I found out that my current novel is now a New York Times Bestseller and it’s on its way to becoming a movie.  It should be out at the theaters right about the time I graduate from high school.”  He finished enthusiastically and turned back to Evan.  “What about you?”

“Kind of a slow night for me.”  He began.  “First, I won the NCAA championship almost single-handedly for the Bruins (which is amazing, considering I’m still in high school), and then, after being offered a spot on about ten different professional teams, I decided on Florida, who offered me a nice little signing bonus that will buy me a house almost as big as yours and a nice shiny car of my own.  A little sun, a little surf; nothing wrong with that picture.” 

Their highly exaggerated stories made Olivia smile, reminding her of the tall tales they used to tell their parents when they were growing up.

“So what did you really do last night?”  Olivia asked looking over at them, raising her eyebrow in curiosity.

Peter let out a sigh as he answered.  “Went home.  Mowed the lawn.  Got some more flowers planted in the garden.  Finished my paper for English.”

Evan followed his answer with his own, “I worked out after school at the gym.  Then I had a four hour basketball practice in preparation for Friday’s game. When I finally made it home, I was too tired to do anything else, so I went to bed.”

“Huh,” she answered, throwing her coffee cup away in a nearby trash can as they finally reached the front of the Baler High School building.  Making their way up the steps toward the front door, she burst out laughing.

 While trying to keep a straight face, but failing miserably, she said, “I probably would have lied too if my life was that boring.”    

She was still giggling about it when they entered the building and was now headed in the opposite direction from them to get to English, her first class.

“See you guys later,” she called over her shoulder as she moved through the crowd of students on their way to their own classrooms.

“Bye Oly.”

“See you at home, Ol.”

They continued together down the hall until they had to enter separate rooms; Calculus for Peter, History for Evan.

By the start of Peter’s third class, his last one before lunch, he was ready to be done for the day.  For his first class, Calculus, there was an exam that he had completely forgotten about.  To make the matter even more depressing, for the last half hour of the test, they were allowed to use their books.  Since his book was currently lying by his bedside, it really did nothing to help him.

His second class, Art, was uneventful.  That did not necessarily make it better.  Sleep triumphed in his boredom and he managed to fall asleep twice throughout the class period.  He did not think Mrs. Burks saw him, but then she had never really paid much attention to him anyway.

Earth Science, his third class, usually found some way to peak his interest, but today, Mr. Vargis decided to put on a video about the ‘global warming crisis’ and what students could do to help the environment.  Already seeing this video twice in the previous year (once in General Science and once to prepare for a debate in Speech), he took advantage of the hour for another nap.  He woke up again when the lights were turned on.  As students around him were gathering their things, he heard Mr. Vargis shout over the din that there would be a quiz over the video the next day.

Brilliant, Peter thought sarcastically; not having taken any notes on the video, he was completely unprepared.  He cast a glare over the other students in the direction of Mr. Vargis, knowing the teacher would not see or care about his reaction.

He was amongst the last to leave the room.  He stopped by his locker to drop off his bag and then headed to the cafeteria for lunch.  As he walked down the hall, he noticed that people walking next to him were giving him a wide berth; some actually stopped and let him pass first.

Huh.  Maybe I do smell.  Well, there’s nothing for it.  They can just keep their distance.  He continued to walk, trying to ignore the heads that turned in his direction and the whispers going on around him.

By the time he reached the lunch room, grabbed his plate of pizza (pepperoni, maybe?) and Dr. Pepper, payed, and found Evan in the crowded room, he was even more irritated with his fellow students.  As he sat down, he saw the table behind him grab their lunches and move over to a new table away from him.  

Fuming, he turned to Evan as he sat down at the table and asked as calmly as he could, “do I smell that bad?”

“What?”  Evan asked.  He was busy highlighting his notes, not looking up until Peter had spoken to him.

“Do I smell?” He repeated, not quite as calmly as before.

“I can’t smell anything.  It’s all in your head, man.”  As he said this, he returned to his notes, his barely touched lunch all but forgotten.

“Really!   Then explain why everyone is treating me like I’m a carrier for the Black Death.”  Picking up his slice of pizza, he shoved half of it in his mouth and swallowed it, not really worrying about chewing at the moment.

Looking up again, Evan took in his appearance and replied, “maybe it’s because you look like you’ve just murdered somebody.  What have you been doing?  You look more ragged than you did a few hours ago.  And what’s with your hair?”

Putting his hand to the side of his head, he felt his hair was sticking up at all angles and upon further investigation, found that he had laid his head in some slightly wet paint that had to come from art class and was now dried in part of his hair and on the right side of his face.

“That’s just great.  Damn it, this day is not getting any better.”  He got up from the table, scarfing down the other half of his pizza as he took off for the bathroom, hoping that he could do something with it his disheveled look.

“Peter, what happened?” 

Hearing the slightly alarmed voice from behind him, he turned to find Olivia, sitting with her friend Abby.  They seemed to be going over class notes as well.  What is it with everyone and their notes today?  She looked at him, alarm plain on her face.

“Are you bleeding?”  she asked.

“What?”  He put his hand in is hair and discovered that the paint was red.   “Oh.  No.  It’s just paint.  I’ll tell you later.” 

He then continued his way out of the room, people bodily pushing others in order to get out of his way as he went.

[Kat-NE]

“What’s his problem?”  Abby Lovington asked Olivia, who had continued to watch Peter until he made it out of the room.

Olivia and Abby were sitting their usual table in the cafeteria, close by the entrance.  They had been quizzing each other on Spanish verbs for a test they had next period.

Olivia smiled and answered, “With Peter, I don’t think we’ll ever know.”  She looked down at her notes, ready to continue down the list.

“To drink?”  Olivia looked up expectantly.

“Now wait.”  Abby leaned in toward Olivia.  “You were telling me about your latest dream.  Did you get your happy ending this time?”

“Oh yeah.  Well…”

The next few minutes were spent telling her dream.  When she was done, Abby sat back in her chair, a thoughtful expression on her face. 

“Well, at least he didn’t try to kill you this time!  Definitely an improvement.”  Abby leaned back in her chair and took a sip of her water.

“An improvement would be the dreams stopping altogether,” Olivia grumbled as she took a bite of her now cold Mac-and-cheese.  “Maybe after the presentation today, it will finally end.”

“It’s not like he’s going to vanish after the presentation is over.  You’ll still see him in class.”  As Abby said this, she looked at a table toward the center of the room behind Olivia, so that Olivia had to turn to see who it was.

Ben Martin was sitting with his girlfriend Claire and several members of the basketball team.  The loud group was drawing the attention from surrounding tables; especially when a small food fight broke out at the table and several onlookers had to run for cover.

Olivia turned back to her notes and responded “I’ve decided to give him up.  It’s not like it would have really happened.  We’re too different.”

“Really?”  Abby looked at Olivia in amazement and then shook her head as though to clear it.  “Well I must say I’m impressed.  That’s the fastest you’ve ever given up on a guy.  Is flighty little Olivia finally growing up?”

“Just trying to be realistic.  And I think it’s too soon to tell if I’m growing up.  Let’s just give it a week before you plan the party.  I’m sure there is plenty of time for me to change back to my old, irresponsible ways soon enough.”

“True.  It is just Tuesday after all.”  Abby said, dropping the subject.  She started to pick up her notes, then put them back down, apparently not in the right mood for studying.

“Are you going to the party after the game?”  Abby asked in tentative manner, as though the thought would upset her.

“I doubt it.  Not much for the parties.  Were you?”

“Yes.”

Now it was Olivia’s turn to look amazed.  Abby was even more of a recluse than she was, staying away from all society as much as possible.

“Why?” asked Olivia, not bothering to hide her surprise.

“Well…”  She paused, clearly hesitant to say it out loud.  “Denny asked me to go.”

“Denny?”   Denny (or Dennis) Bradley was in Spanish and Choir with them.  They never hung out with him outside of school or singing competitions, but he was a good guy with a nice voice.  Olivia had always suspected that he liked Abby.  Always going out of his way to talk to her and she sometimes caught him staring at her for long periods of time.  She knew that they would be great together if he would be brave enough to take the next step and ask her out.

Beaming, she said, “That is so great.  When did he ask you?”

“Yesterday.  I didn’t want to say anything.”  She squirmed in her chair, looking as though she wished she hadn’t brought it up.

“Why?”  Olivia couldn’t think of reason for her to hide such information.  It’s not like she wanted to date Denny.

“Oh, you know.”  She seemed reluctant to continue.

“No, I really don’t.  Why?”  Olivia took Abby’s notes away from her so that she would have nothing to distract her from answering. 

“Well, it’s just that you haven’t had much luck in that department lately and I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.  I mean, are things getting any better with Craig?”

Ah.  Craig.  She had asked the one question that Olivia had no answer for.

It was her turn to glance around the lunch room in search someone.  She found him sitting with his friends at a table at the very back of the room; almost so that they were hidden from view.

Her “boyfriend” for the last two years, Craig, was sitting at the edge talking to his four friends, apparently in the middle of some story; his friends had all leaned in and he looked like he was speaking very fast, they way he did when he was excited. 

“I don’t know, honestly.”  Olivia was the one to squirm in her chair this time, looking just as uncomfortable with the new subject as Abby.

“You know, maybe if you just ended it, you wouldn’t have to fantasize about other guys, because you could be in a relationship with one of them.”  Abby said in a serious tone, obviously concerned about her friend being in such a situation.  After saying this, she took her notes back and pretended to study them, so that Olivia could think over what she said.

They had started dating at the beginning of their freshman year.  Olivia was at the time, slightly overweight (and her height did not help the problem), with long stringy hair that she had refused to have cut, and wore baggy clothes in desperation to hide her weight.  So at that time, she was not feeling that great about herself, never really excelling in anything, cutting herself off from other students because of her insecurities, never really talking to anyone but Evan and Peter.

After about a month at school, her life was really not getting any better.  He steady wear of baggy clothes deemed her “the bag lady” by those who did not know her name, which was mostly everyone.  She was doing okay in her classes, but nothing extraordinary.  She had very little to look forward in her days.

One day, she was on her way to Algebra, head down and her mind already on the weekend, when walked straight into someone.  The person she hit stumbled forward down onto his knees, while she feel backward, being carried down by the weight of her book bag. 

People around them watched them, but no one came forward to help.  Tears building in her eyes from embarrassment, she started getting up.

“I’m so sorry,” she repeated a couple of times, never looking at him as she picked up her notebook that had fallen to the floor.

“It’s okay.  Are you alright?”  He asked, confusing her tears of humiliation for tears of pain.

“I’m fine.”  After discovering that he was okay and did not seem angry by the encounter, she started toward the classroom again.

“Aren’t you in my Algebra class?”  He came up beside her and started to walk with her to class.

“I guess, that’s where I’m going now.”  Olivia kept her face forward, quickening her pace.

“Yeah, I thought you looked familiar.  I’m Craig.” As he said this, he extended his hand. 

Not knowing what else to do, Olivia extended her own and put it in his.

“Olivia.”

“Yeah, I remember now.  You sit in the back right?”

“Yes.”

They had now made it to the classroom.  She went in first and headed for her desk in the back of the room.  To her surprise, Craig had followed her and taken a seat next to her.

“I hope we don’t get too much homework for the weekend.”  He looked over at her expectantly for some kind of answer.

“Oh.  Me neither.”  Completely confused by his continuing attention to herself, she turned to the front of the class and tried to listen to what Mr. Briggs was saying about fractions.

About five minutes into the lesson, a note appeared on top of her notes.  She opened it and read it silently to herself:

Is it just me, or did Mr. Briggs get dressed in the dark?

Looking up toward the front again, she took in Mr. Briggs appearance for the first time (ever).  He was wearing a bright yellow striped shirt with a black tie with red dots on it, a dark brown pair of slacks slightly too short for him, showing off his dark green socks inside what looked like a pair of loafers.

How did I not see that before?

Fighting back a laugh, she wrote her response under his question:

I dunno.  Maybe he’s just color blind and can’t help it!

She passed the note back over to him and again turned her attention back toward the front.  She heard his quiet snort of laughter after reading her answer.

The note-passing continued throughout the rest of the class and they left the class together, him walking with her to her next class.

As they walked, now continuing their written conversation in a verbal manner, she started to feel something like hope.  Maybe tomorrow won’t be so bad.

The next day, she did not see him at all that morning.  She looked for him at lunch, while sitting with Evan and Peter, but saw no sight of him.

Disappointed, she headed back to her locker to grab her books.  She exchanged her books in her bag for the ones in her locker and turned to set off for class.

There he stood, waiting for her not three feet away.

“Hey,” he greeted her.  “Did you get your homework done?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t that bad,” she answered, slightly flustered, but smiling.

And so the trend had continued.  He would wait for her at her locker and they would walk to class together and leave class together.

During the next few weeks, she learned that he had just moved from Montana with his mother a couple of months ago, after his parents got divorced.  His mother was born in Baler and decided that she would return there so that they could have a fresh start.  He did not have very many close friends back home and now that he was in a new place, he did not have any friends at all.

After a while, their acquaintance grew into a friendship, and then into a relationship.  They began “dating” about halfway through the school year.  Of course, for two kids living in a small town with no form of transportation, no movie theater, and no other form of entertainment, “dating” meant that they hung out at school, took walks in a nearby park, and talked on the phone frequently.

She left plenty of time for Evan and Peter, though.  She thought about having them all hang out together a few times but decided against it.  She liked spending time with both of them, and this way, she was in control of who she wanted to hang out with and when. 

Besides, Peter never really cared for Craig.  He would never say why; just that they had nothing in common.  Evan never really showed an interest in getting to know him either.  So in keeping them separated, she became quite busy, barely having time for homework that first year.

As freshman year turned into sophomore year, several changes occurred.  Olivia began to come out of her shell; dressing better, trying to be more interactive with the other students, and getting more interested in school.  She even gained a new friend, Abby, in the process. 

She became more interested in music, joining the school’s choir with Abby, feeling free and powerful when she sang.  It also helped with her self-confidence; singing in front of a cheering audience made her feel happy and she knew she had found her calling.

Craig had also gone through some changes.  Even though he had started out with no friends, by the end of the year, he had about a half a dozen.  All who were interested in cars.  Building them, fixing them, tearing them down; new cars, old cars, it did not matter.

Olivia tried to be interested in it too, but that went about as well as her playing sports with Evan’s friends.  

They were still together, but with all of their separate friends, new hobbies, and school to occupy them, they saw less of each other.  They still made an effort to call each other and go out every now and then; as their schedules allowed.

But now, in the beginning of their junior year, it had gotten ridiculous.  They had barely had any time together in the past few weeks.  She hadn’t even talked to him since last Friday, and even then they had not made plans to do anything together.

In the distance, a bell rang, bringing Olivia back to the present.

Abby already had her notes put up and was leaving the table when she turned back to Olivia and asked her, “Are you coming.  We can’t be late again.”

“You’re telling me.”  As Olivia said this, she gathered up her own notes and they headed out together.

They were about halfway to class when Abbey said, “So, did you want to go to the party with us?”

Olivia smiled wryly as she answered.  “I don’t think Denny would appreciate me tagging along on his date with you.  I’ll pass.”

“He’ll get over it.”

Ha!  “No, he would just pretend to be okay with it.  I’m not going to be the ‘third wheel’ on your date.  I wouldn’t want to ruin it for you.”

Abby was about to continue the argument, but they had reached the classroom by this time.  Hurrying to their seats next to each other, they passed Denny, who greeted them each with a smile.  Abby smiled back, slightly flushed in the face.  Olivia, however, beamed at the two of them, happy that they had finally gotten their acts together.

As the hour passed, Olivia saw Denny glance at Abby continually when he thought the teacher wasn’t watching.  Olivia’s somewhat bad mood was gradually brightening in the glow of their new relationship.

[Kat-NE]

Denny caught up with Olivia and Abby as they headed out of Spanish. When they reached the hallway, Abby and Dennis went left, while Olivia had to go right to get to World History.  Olivia waved goodbye to Abby, not wanting to interrupt their conversation, and then made her way through the sea of students trying to get to their own classes on time.

As she walked in the room, she saw that most of the seats were still empty.  Making her way to her seat in the very middle, she passed by some girls she knew on sight, but did not know their names, who were chatting in very low voices; obviously not wanting anyone else to hear them.  They stopped talking and stared up at her as she walked by, looking startled by her entrance.  They waited until she got to her seat to continue with their conversion. 

Must be some good gossip! 

Olivia began pulling out her books, trying to be discreet when she let her gaze sweep over them.  They soon tired of their subject and started talking about their plans after the game Friday, causing Olivia to lose interest. 

In the few minutes she had before class started, she looked around at all the maps that covered the walls as students continued to filter into the room.  This classroom was her favorite because she liked to think about all the places in the world she would like to see once she left Baler after graduation (staying definitely not being an option).

Her full attention on a map of India that hung by the door shifted suddenly when Ben entered the room and took his seat in the front row.

She watched him as he unloaded his backpack and talked to his friend—it started with a J. 

Jackson?  Jacob, maybe?  Oh, never mind.

Ben was wearing a dark green dress polo shirt, with what looked like brand new jeans. 

Much better than the dream.  Olivia thought as she continued to watch him.  He was now taking out his note cards for his part of the presentation.

Starting to feel nervous, she rummaged through her bag for her own note cards.  After finding them, she went through them once to make sure they were in order and then set them on top of her notebook. 

When she looked up again, Ben was looking in her direction.  When he caught her eye, he gave her a nod and a confident smile.  She felt a little flutter in her stomach and was suddenly nauseous at the thought of standing up there with him, in front of all those people.

A buzzing in her ears prevented her from hearing the first group that went.  When the first group finished, she could hear a round of polite applause from those around her, but the noise still seemed far away.

When the second group had finished, she had finally calmed down enough to clap along with everyone else. 

Time seemed to speed up as the third group got up to present.  They had barely stood up when they were sitting back down again, and Ben was now standing up and walking to the front.

Feeling completely lost and sick once again, Olivia stood up (discovering as she moved that she had been sweating quite a bit and was now wet and cold) and stumbled her way up to the front.  Ben stepped aside for her so she could get to the podium and then stood behind her, waiting for his turn.

Olivia set her cards on the podium, looked out into her audience, and tried to smile as her legs shook under her and her cards slipped in her hands.

“He— hello,” she began in a stutter, trying to keep her smile on.  “My name is Olivia and I’ll be discussing the beginning of the Cursades—um, Crusades.  Um…”

As she began to outline the causes of the Crusades, her audience’s attention began to dissipate.  From her vantage point she could see a few students had their cell phones out texting and playing games, some in the back row were using the time for a nap (whether they had been sleeping through all of the presentations was unknown to her), and some were whispering to their neighbors, even their teacher, Mrs. Bryant, was inattentive; she was grading the assignment they had to turn in the day before, trying to get them done before the end of class.

Finishing a few minutes later, her hands were shaking now and a feeling of light-headedness taking over the nauseous feeling, she stepped away from the podium as gracefully as she could with her face as red as a tomato and her legs feeling as heavy as lead.  Ben took over, adopting a positive, confident voice that grabbed most of the audience’s interest back to the presentation (those who were asleep, however, continued to miss out) and at the end, he received an almost lively round of applause.

Olivia took her notes off the podium and walked as quickly as she could back to her seat, trying not to cause further attention to herself.  She then sat in a daze, waiting for the class to end, not even bothering to pretend to pay attention to what was going on around her.

Mercifully, the bell soon rang, bringing an end to her misery.  Feeling exhausted and dry-mouthed, she stood up to leave.  Ben passed by as he was leaving and said “Nice job, Olivia.”

“Thanks,” she said in a very croaky voice that brought the blood rising to her face again.  “Yo—you too.”

“Thanks.”  He then walked away, and she knew from past experience that she would probably never get the opportunity to speak to him again.  She was slightly happy about this because she knew the dreams would stop, but sad because she missed out on a really good guy.

No use crying over it, Olivia.  It’s time to get on with life. 

Her need for water overpowered her sadness at the moment, so she headed out to find a water fountain.

She had just left the room, stuffing her note cards in her bag, when she walked right into Peter.  Stumbling backward in surprise, she said, “Sorry” as he reached out and caught her by her shoulders to stop her from falling completely in her weakened state.

“Hey, kid” he greeted her, then seeing the look on her face, frowned in concern.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, Peter.  I’m fine.” 

He was not fooled.  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Well, you looked like a mass murderer awhile ago.”  As she said this, she studied his appearance, finding him in the same tattered clothes, but without the crazy hair and red substance he had on his face and in his hair was gone.  “You look almost normal now.”  

“Ah, gee.  Thanks, I guess.”  He gave her a sheepish smile and started to walk with her.

“So, what’s wrong?”

“Oh you know, I always forget I hate public speaking until I’m already up there in front of people.”

“Did you eat before hand?”  He held open the classroom door and leaned on it as they talked.

“Yes, but luckily it was not as eventful as last time.”  The last time she gave a speech, she ended up fainting, then vomiting all over the teacher’s desk.  Not a shining moment in her past she liked to think about.

“Yeah, so see, it wasn’t so bad.  Look, I have to get to class.  You gonna be okay?”  As he said this, the warning bell rang.

“I’ll be fine.  Thanks for walking with me.”

“Anytime.  See you tomorrow, Oly.”  He started walking briskly down the hall while Olivia entered the classroom, ready to get her last class over with, shutting the door behind her.

[Kat-NE]

Wanted to throw a question out here:  Do the characters seem to work together so far?  I know there isn't alot there to consider, but are the characters believable together?