Birds of a Feather [ Deer & UnknownRunner ]

[radio]

There was an energy in the air when the seconds before the bell rang ticked by. The kids in the classroom were dying to get out of it, escape the dull lectures and lessons. It was always this way, always had been, from the beginning of the year to that point, especially when the class was filled with seniors just wanting to be freed from the clutches of school. In grade 12, nobody gave a fuck, unless you really wanted to go somewhere prestigious and high-and-mighty.


But let's be honest - half the kids in that room had no idea what they wanted to do with their future, and Jasper was one of them. Impressively, as the monotonic, droning buzz of the bell blared through the speakers, the spry girl was out of her seat and through the door in the following five seconds, managing to get ahead of the storm of other seniors now fighting to squeeze through the door themselves. She slowed when she got to the halls, glancing back with a very confident smirk on her face. Take that, she thought in the rush of freedom that lunch time granted her. She adjusted the strap of her trusty, beaten-up backpack on her shoulder and started walking with a new energy in her step.


The school was mostly an indoor place. Pinewood Academy was a maze of hallways and classrooms, with a central outside quad and an outer grassy section surrounding the main building. Jasper had gotten into the habit of going out into the central quad to the bench on the left corner, where she met with one of the best friends that she had ever had, her little, not-so-little Tommy boy. Occasionally, some of her other guy friends would show up and hang around, but Tommy and Jasper were always the Dynamic Duo of the friendship circle. You couldn't separate the little buggers for anything.


As usual, the girls' off-white blonde hair was pulled up into a messy, lamely-made bun. She had on her lovely Tycho shirt, a tan, loose T-shirt with the logo of one of her favorite ambient artists, and dark gray skinny jeans. Her black Converse sneakers looked as if they were just about ready to fall off of her feet, yet they seemed to hold together each day. Her expression was relaxed and slightly excited. The same as every day, she was a pretty girl, with a very noticeable dosage of 'I don't give a damn' mixed in somewhere with it.


She entered out into the quad, finding herself breathing in the fresh air deeply. God, it was so stuffy inside of the building. It wasn't too bad when she first entered the building every morning, but after a while, it started to get worse. It was like being freed from a prison. Her eyes scanned the area and almost immediately found the familiar bench, where it always was, in the top left corner of the grassy area. She did a small jump down the concrete steps to the grass and briskly walked to the location, her eyes flickering to and fro in search of Tommy, and perhaps another of her dude friends.
​

 

[Lady Odyssey]

The seconds passed, each one closer to the lunch bell ringing. It was agonizing, even for him. Everyone was on the edge of their seat, their eyes flickering towards the clock hand as it made it's last movement. The bell had, finally, rung. Its blaring song rang through the classroom, echoing down the corridors of the high school. Relief washed over the room, mixed with an energy and urgency to flee the room and boring lectures. Chatter erupted, along with laughter and small talk. It surrounded him. Engulfed him, as he made his way through the river of seniors, juniors and hungry students. It was crazy, even though it was a supposedly small school in a small town.


Tom could finally breathe. Room 206 was always stuffy and thick with body odor; the A/C had broke a long time ago in that room. The school, of course, didn't have the means to replace or repair the air conditioning. So, it often left several of the rooms hot, stuffy, and smelly ─ which made him want to gag half the time. People ran past him, obviously unable to contain their excitement for forty-five minutes of leisure and eating lunch. He was just glad to be out of the classroom, and away from everyone else. Quietly, he walked towards the central quad. Echoes of gossip bounced off the building walls. Heartbreak and jokes reached his ears. He moved on, not slowing down.


The blue backpack was heavy against his right shoulder. The straps dug into his skin, irritating it and making him roll his shoulder. God. He hated being here. It wasn't too bad, but at times, he wanted nothing more than to go home, and forget about it all. Forget about the assignments and dead lines. It sounded too good to be true. Someone shoved into him from behind, nearly causing him to stumble forward.


"Move it, Brit," the guy muttered.


Thomas couldn't help but to roll his eyes. He kept walking. One foot in front of the other. One step at a time. Just breathe. He caught sight of her. Jasper. His annoyance, frustration and irritation evaporated. It was as if it never even came to existence. The outside air was clean, crisp. Smelled of grass and pine wood. The sun was gleaming down on them, warm and bright. The sky was alive with large fluffy clouds building far in the distance. It was supposed to rain that night. Not that that was unusual. It almost always rained here. It reminded him of home. Of London. Of course, in London, it was a large city. More streets, more shops, and more people. Busy was the name of the game in London. Not here.


Tom had slightly messy brown hair, dark moons circling underneath his eyes. He had been dressed in a plain black t-shirt that fit nicely, some pair of old jeans too. Nothing special or fancy. He normally didn't give two thoughts as of what he would wear in the mornings. He just threw on whatever he had available, and whatever was the cleanest. He had a pair of his favorite red Converse shoes on, dirty and beat up. He didn't really care, either. His mother had tried to get him to clean the shoes up, but he had, as always, refused to.


"Hey," he said nonchalantly, a small smile curling his lips as he sat down beside her, in his usual spot. Wordlessly, he pulled out his lunch, and tossed her a package of Gushers. It had been her favorite snack as a kid. He glanced at her, his eyes lingering just for a split second. Then he looked away, and unpacked his lunch.

 

[radio]

In an almost practiced motion, she slid the backpack from her shoulder and practically threw it onto the bench, landing with a thud on the seat. Her hand came up to her shoulder, an indication of annoyance flashing briefly across her features. She'd had that backpack for more than a couple of years, and even then, it still managed to give her a pain in her shoulder when she carried it. With a deep breath in and a huffing sigh out, she sat herself down on the bench and placed her arms on it's surface, her chin resting on her forearms. The air smelled very faintly of rain, among the usual scents that she had grown accustomed to in her hometown. Though she loved to watch rain and listen to it, she hated being in it. Getting soaked just wasn't her thing.


A couple of minutes passed, in which Jasper found her thoughts wandering away. It wasn't until she felt someone sit next to her that she snapped back to attention, her head lifting in the same second and glancing beside her. For a fleeting moment, she thought it was someone else, but the appearance of her Tommy boy couldn't be mistaken when she laid eyes on him. Her heart felt lighter the second she saw him; you could practically feel the tension rolling off of her shoulders. One corner of her lips pulled up into a small half grin as she responded to his casual hello, "Hey to you, mister." Her elbow moved to the side and nudged his arm lightly. Her greeting was in a genuine voice, with her very own sarcastic edge that seemed to be a part of her at that point.


As he started unpacking his lunch, he tossed her a Gushers package, to which she took casually, as if she had done it many times before - which she had. The kid knew that she loved the little fruit snacks, and he had brought a package of them to her when they were still little toddlers and tweens. The trend carried into high school, and now here she was, still accepting them as if they were in kindergarten again. She didn't have to say thank you; she had said it so much in the past, there was no need to speak it for it to be heard. She tore the package open and picked out a blue one, her favorite type, but she didn't take out any lunch of her own. Ever since freshman year, Jasper had stopped bringing lunches altogether. At first, it had concerned Tommy, since she was as skinny as she was already, but she had assured him about a thousand times that she wasn't starving herself, that it was more of a bother to pack a lunch every day and that she could survive till after school. It was funny, really. He noticed these things and pointed them out so often. It was nice.


After a little bit of silence, Jasper broke it, "Sooo. How's your day been, dork?" Her dark eyes flickered over to his face as she took out an orange Gusher next. "Shitty, I assume, as it always seems to be with school?"

 

[Lady Odyssey]

One turkey sandwich with Swiss cheese, lettuce, and mustard. A bag of potato crisps. A bottle of blue Gatorade. His paper bag was empty. He crumbled it, and tossed it with ease to the trash can a few feet away. Thomas could hear the birds happily singing their songs from the trees, creating a chorus of birds throughout the forest that surrounded the school. A gentle wind made the tall pine trees wave, their leaves rustling as the sun poured down. It was definitely going to rain. The air was cool, light and a bit damp. All the signs of rain were obvious; the clouds, the damp air, the warm sun. It made him smile slightly, but then he frowned, realizing if it rained that night... that meant he wouldn't be able to take his night runs he usually took. Well, he could if he wanted to, but who wants to get drenched in cold rain? Tom wasn't that crazy to do so.


His lunch was now in front of him, laying against the wooden surface, rough and offering nothing more than splinters. Thomas unwrapped his sandwich, took a bite into it, and at the same time he opened his Gatorade. The last warning bell for the lunch period rang, startling him for a brief second. The mustard and turkey meat splashed his taste buds. He'd been making himself a turkey sandwich, the same one, every day for the whole year. His mother had, almost every day, asked him if he ever grew tired of it. He answered with a simple 'no'. And it was the truth. He never got tired of it. Even his brother, Brendan, had found it a bit odd. But he didn't care, really. Sure, it annoyed him sometimes to have to answer the same question every day, but he never would let it get the better of him.


Jasper was the first to speak. She usually was, too. He was too quiet to even begin thinking of ways to open up conversation with his best friend. He felt guilty about it at times, but he wasn't about to change who he was. After all, it was who he is, and always would be. Nothing could change the solid fact that he'd be forever quiet, alone, and thoughtful. He hated being too thoughtful at times. It sucked him in half the time, and he, in turn, lost valuable time, or just missed out on something important or fun. Every time he tried to stop himself from thinking, he made it worse. So, in the end, he just gave up, and let himself think whenever he needed to think. It was better that way. Jasper knew all of this, of course. She knew almost everything about him. Almost.


"Yep," he let out a small laugh, smiling at her. "Shitty. But... not terribly shitty, I guess. Could have gone worse, but it could have gone better." Tom looked at her, finishing his sandwich. He had always been a fast eater. It had often annoyed his parents while at the dinner table, though he wasn't sure why. Thomas spotted him. His twin. Some people would think he would get used to seeing his identical twin. But he hasn't. It was as if he was watching himself. Brendan looked exactly like him. They had the same smile. The same eyes. The same dimples. Everything was the same. Except, Tom had a few scars that Brendan didn't have. He took pride in the scars. He took pride in anything that made him different from him. He looked away, and instead looked at Jasper. "How about your day?"

 

[radio]

Jasper's expression lit up a tad at his soft little smile. She swore, the kid had the cutest smile, even if it did look a bit tired. She understood why. He had insomnia, something that kept him up at night without his permission and took away a lot of his sleep time. It was a terrible thing, in her opinion, to occasionally be unable to sleep at all. She had long accepted this, and many other strange pieces, of Thomas. He wasn't an ideal kid, and the two of them both knew it. She was just happy that she was able to make him smile. He responded to her question in an 'ehh' sort of way that seemed reasonable. It was a better way to describe school days than shitty. Not horror, but not heaven. Just ... mediocre. Yeah, that was a good way to put it.


She kept her eyes on him as he returned the question. Her lips pursed slightly and her shoulders rose and dropped in a dismissive shrug as she replied, "Pretty much the same. Except something funny happened in first period. There was a kid who thought it'd be funny to steal the teacher's favorite pen, the fancy fountain pen - you know Mr. Cleves, the crotchety old guy who has his favorite Post-It notes, for God's sake - and he stopped the lecture demanding someone come up and give it back. Nobody did, so he just gave up and started lecturing again, 'cept he promised that whoever did it would get some nasty hell when he found 'em." She paused for a second as she ate another Gusher, continuing, "It was Brandon who did it, Brandon Marlen, the dude who carries that damn skateboard with him just about everywhere. That kid's a troublemaker, but he's got some guts."


She paused her talking, glancing over at him without realizing that she practically just overthrew his rule and became president of the conversation - again. She was quiet for a second before saying, "Sorry, I thought it'd be cool to tell. Barely anything happens on any other day." Her smile was crooked and genuine as she finished off the Gushers, crumpling the package and glancing over at the trash can nearby. Her eyes focused in on it, and she chucked the crumpled package towards it, landing the package in. She'd done it so often, she had gotten good at slam dunking her trash from far away. She looked back at Tommy, her arms folding on the table again and her cheek resting down on her forearms, head tilted so that she could still see him.


Quiet started again. She broke it after several seconds once more, asking him, "You wanna do something after school? It's Thursday, but Fridays are kinda loose anyways, so we should be okay." By that, she meant that both faculty and students were very relaxed on Fridays. Teachers would give less homework and it was always more positive in the air on Fridays, so there wasn't much to expect going on. "If you've got a bunch of work to do, I can understand." Generally, Jasper was the one that offered to do things with Tommy. He didn't speak up much. But when she spoke up with something fun to do, he'd go along with it happily. He was funny like that - not a talker by any means, but get him into something he likes and he'll hold a conversation without much trouble. This ease in conversation might've just been for Jasper and not for other people, but she wasn't entirely aware, if that was the case.

 

[Lady Odyssey]

The wind began to pick up. The sea of trees waved toward them, happy and warm from the sun's rays. The clouds were brewing in the distance, building higher and growing darker within each passing moment. A butterfly or two flew freely in the air past the two best friends. Thomas personally loved the summer over any other season. Jasper knew this, too. He enjoyed the warm breeze, the hot sun, and the wild storms that brought forth pounding rain and roaring thunder. He loved being at the lake, feet int he water, hands resting on the green grass. The crickets would chirp during the night, the fireflies and bugs coming alive with the night air. Summer made and brought so many memories. He loved every second of summer. Spring wasn't too bad, either. One step closer to summer and fireflies.


Jasper's shoulders moved upward in a light, carefree motion of a shrug. Her lips were pressed together, something she always has done while thinking of what to say. A brief few seconds ticked by. Tom watched her with a small amount of anticipation. She always had something exciting going on, even if it was small, it seemed. She always had some new story to share about some daring kid in class, or some new piece of gossip she overheard. It always piqued his curiosity, and always made him laugh some way or the other. Jasper had always been a bit easy to converse with. She knew what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. Thomas, on the other side, often thought too much about what he was going to say, or didn't say much at all. He was just glad Jasper understood and didn't try to change him because of it.


At the end of the small story, Thomas was laughing. Mr. Cleves was well known throughout the school ─ some loved him, and others hated him. Thomas liked him. Didn't really hate him, but didn't absolutely love him, either. That was how it was with him for most of the teachers. Well, except for Mrs. Cruiz. She was the music teacher. It was, and still is, his favorite class. He loved her, and everything about the class. "Poor Cleves," he muttered somewhat sarcastically. "You think the guy's gonna get caught?" Thomas was still looking at Jasper, his chocolate brown eyes meeting her eyes. The silence slowly, but surely, grew between them. Usually, the silence didn't last long between them. Today was an exception, in his mind. He hoped she didn't mind too much.


"Sorry?" he smiled a bit. "Nothin' to be sorry for."


He was exhausted. He spent most of the night pacing around his room, looking at the clock every few minutes. It had been agonizingly slow. It drove him out of his mind. Well, at the time, that's what it felt like. He had been fairly certain he would have gone insane last night. Tommy rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands, blinking. As if that would help anything. He let his hands drop flat against the wooden surface. He wasn't that hungry. He put away the rest of his lunch away, telling himself that he'd eat it while doing homework or studying. "Sure," he paused, collecting his thoughts. "I don't, actually. Maybe we could hang around the lake, or something. Anything you want to do is fine with me. Just no chick-flicks or sob-story movies. Please." The last part was him teasing her. He smiled.