Every Good Tree

[RecAgenda]

A role play between

@RecAgenda and @razorstar

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The bell signalling the end of first period finally blared through the halls of Vernon Carter. All of the students, sporting the private school's navy and satin-grey uniform, began to pour into the brightly-lit halls to start making their way to their lockers and next period class. Two students in particular, a red-haired boy and a blonde girl, approached one of the vending machines on the academy's second floor.


Cole Reese pressed in on the final button of his two choices to the machine and listened for the drop of the cold packages in the bin below. Reaching down, he plucked the ice-cream bars from the cradle and handed one of them off to Serenity Dale, who stood next to him eagerly awaiting her vanilla bean flavored treat.


"Thanks," she cheerfully exclaimed, taking the wrapped ice cream bar from Cole.


"Sure," the boy replied, already tearing open his own. The two friends began to walk away and Cole asked, "What period do you have next?"


"AP Chemistry with Dr. Fields," Serenity answered with a stressed sigh. "My grades are starting to slip now that we're getting into deeper stuff about compounds and components, or... Gyah! I can't understand any of it! You're smart with science, right?" She batted her eyes and poked the corner of her lips up to form a cute smile and ran two gentle fingers through the fallen strands of her golden hair.


Cole licked at his ice cream for a couple of seconds while they walked before asking, "Why don't you just go to his after-school tutoring sessions?"


The girl teasingly tapped the edge of her soft ice cream bar to Cole's cheek, "You can't take a hint can you, kid?"


Quickly side-stepping away, Cole escaped her ice cream attack and reached his hand up to try and wipe away the mess she had left on the side of his face. "Hey, come on!" he pleaded with an innocent face. Serenity, finding her friend's reaction to be quite amusing, went for another attack, skipping towards him. Cole responded by dodging once and then breaking out into a light jog through the hallway while the girl pursued; both of them giggling and hackling as they weaved in and out of the crowd of students.


"Hey! Pay attention!" a random student barked after Cole had inadvertently bumped into him. Despite the warning, the redhaired kid kept going, or else Serenity would come close enough to land her ice cream -- the same one he had so generously bought for her -- right into his hair. Although, he never was good at minding his surroundings. Cole had made the fatal mistake of looking back to judge the distance between him and her. Before he knew it, the boy had abruptly smacked into someone, bringing his momentum to a complete hault.


"Gah-!"

 

[razorstar]

Daniel Crowe stepped out of his Statistics class, his mind spinning as the numbers tried to straighten themselves out. He hated math, so why had he signed up for one of the most difficult math courses? He didn't even want to work in a field involving math. He wanted to study theater and Shakespeare and, hopefully, get a job as a drama teacher. Or, of course, and actor. Not that that option was very likely, but a boy could dream, right?


The teen boy started heading towards his next class, Drama, before hearing someone call out his name. He instantly went and stood by the wall, trying not to be in the way as a familiar girl darted towards him. Her raven black hair and calm face immediately betrayed the fact that the two were related, even if Danny was just over 6 feet tall and she was just over 5 feet. Twila wrapped her arm around her older brother's, a smile on her face as she started pulling him along. It was the same thing that the two did every day. Twi would walk Danny to class, Danny would stand with the younger Crowe in the lunch line, they would team up during P.E., and then walk home together. The two were practically inseparable during school, although at home they couldn't get far enough away from each other.


Twila had just started chatting about 'This One Guy In Biology Who Makes Awesome Puns' when she saw a semi-familiar form running through the crowd towards them. Was that Cole? Well, of course it was. Who else had hair that red that didn't come out of a bottle? She broke off her grasp on her older brother to get out of the way, but Danny didn't quite catch the memo to move and was plowed into.


Danny grabbed Cole, grunting a bit at the feeling of the impact and swaying on his feet as he struggled not to fall. He wasn't exactly easy to knock over, but run into a guy fast enough and he's likely to take a tumble. He wrapped his arms around Cole, almost using him as a counter balance to keep upright while also making sure the redhead wouldn't fall to the ground.

 

[RecAgenda]

After the two boys managed to regain their footing, thanks to the taller one's quick reaction time, Cole straightened out and instantly backed away with a bright red face full of embarrassment. "Uh! S-sorry!" he glanced upward to properly look at the person he had so rudely smacked into and immediately recognized his longtime friend, Danny. The young man's height was suddenly very intimidating, casting Cole underneath a very uncomfortable shadow. The boy thought he had royally messed up...


Until another look at Danny's eyes said otherwise. Cole was hardly able to muster any more words beyond "sorry" and he felt a growing warmth on his cheeks from a furious blush that refused to go away. For years, he and Danny had always been good friends; with the other having a talent for the liberal arts and a braun that the much more fragile and egg-headed Cole could duck behind. They were polar opposites in their academic tastes, like two revolving gems; a sapphire and ruby.


Cole couldn't recall ever having come so physically close to Danny as he had done just now, even though it was on complete accident. They never even shook hands before, as a matter of fact; or done so much as fist bumped each other. The two boys only ever shared the same volume of space, like opposing magnets, simply laughing and talking.


Clutching his hand a few times, Cole realized something was missing and hesitantly looked down to find that his ice cream bar had popped right out from his grasp and onto the floor. Some of the melting cream had splashed onto Danny's shoes and Cole felt awful.


"Oh! Crap!" he exclaimed. "I'm so sorry, Dan! Let me get a towel!"


Cole tried to move around the taller boy, but in his one-track-minded race to fetch something to clean up the mess, he had already forgotten exactly where that mess also was. His tractionless sneaker stepped down onto the spreading puddle of slosh and couldn't keep a hold on the tile below. The same foot immediately slipped forward and kicked up toward the air above, with Cole now finding himself in freefall with his back parallel to the ground and his eyes looking up at the ceiling. His mind could only process everything in slow motion.

 

[razorstar]

The taller boy's mind was filled with something akin to static or mist. Thick thoughts slowly whirled around in his mind, making it difficult to function. It was difficult for him to even register what had happened, but he put on a warm smile anyway, ignoring the slight embarrassed tint his friend's cheeks had gained. Well, not exactly ignoring. One of the few thoughts that was able to shine through the mist was simply the word 'Adorable', accompanied with a picture of his friend. Danny had always thought his friend was good looking-who didn't think the best about every aspect of their close friends?-but this was a bit different. He was beyond aware of the empty gap between his arms where Cole had fit so perfectly. He felt his own face turn red, and his smile went from forgiving and friendly to a tad nervous.


Still not registering the ice cream, Danny's misty mind was cleared once he saw Cole slip. Without even thinking, he swooped in, catching Cole and holding him bridal style as he avoided stepping in the ice cream himself, his mind finally saying 'Hey, that's a thing to avoid'. The last thing he needed was to slip while holding Cole and end up with both of them on the ground.


The nervous smile on the dark haired boy's face grew into one that was a bit teasing as he studied the redhead in his arms. "Did you have a nice trip?" He chuckled warmly, able to hear Twila's sigh behind him as she started complaining about his awful joke.

 

[RecAgenda]

Every muscle in Cole's body became furiously tense when his mind caught up to process what had happened and his sight registered Danny's... charming face looking down at him. The redhead's hands were held closely above his chest, like a fragile little thing too afraid to move and too flustered to speak; although he did attempt some form of human speech in response to Danny's humiliating question.


"Er-huh? Wha-? I, uh..."


In the middle of his stammering, he heard Serenity's obnoxious voice from behind them. She had come bursting through the crowd, still gleefully thinking that their game of tag was still on.


"Cooolllle!" she cried. "Found you- Oh! What do we have going on here?" The floaty girl stopped in her tracks and raised a finger to her smirking lips. "I see... Maybe you aren't so dense after all."


Cole tilted his head back, still lying in Danny's strong arms to look at his other friend with a confused expression. "Huh?"


Her grin turned into a disappointed frown and she replied with an air of agitation, "Or maybe you are."


The boy finally shifted awkwardly in his taller friends arms to stand on his own two feet. His face was nearly as red as his hair and he glanced all around them to see that a crowd of students had gathered in a circle. Whispers could be heard coming from every direction. Unable to look up at Danny again, Cole tucked his head low and stammered out, "I- I'm sorry! I gotta go!"


Trying to hold back a flurry of confused emotions that were starting to boil over, Cole took off and ran past Danny's sister, Twila. There was an unfamiliar lightness in his chest, and the image of Danny's eyes and charming smile was implanted at the forefront of his convoluted thoughts. He wanted to yell at everyone that was starting gossip in their hushed whispers that they were just friends; that what happened wasn't awkward or suggestive of anything at all.


Right? His mind had been thrown into full on panic mode. Sure, Danny's handsome... very handsome, but... Wait... Why am I thinking about all of this right now?! He slowed down and eventually came to a slow stop outside one of the band rooms.


He glanced through the small window in the door to find that it was vacant. The lights were all turned off, letting only natural sunlight bleed through the windows on the far wall. His hand quickly reached for the handle and Cole ducked inside his temporary sanctuary to get away from any onlookers that he illogically feared might be following him.