Realistic or Modern Mad House.

[Trignome]

"Headmistress...hm." Isadore thought back to anybody he'd met recently that might have fit such a title. "You mean, the banshee that I heard yesterday? That was a person?" Sighing, Isadore slid into a chair across from Aaron, draping his arms over Jamie's math homework. "Entertain meeeeeeeeeeeeeee." His mouth was drawn back in a flat line, reminiscent of a frog's.

 

[Sandra]

Ruby thought the kid was very weird. But she was weird herself. She shrugged. Ruby turned around and walked back down stairs and curled back on to her bed.


I'll introduce myself to him tomorrow..

 

[ChronosDesine]

''Yep''Answered Aaron. He looked at Isadore and decided to just sit again. When Aaron heard Isadore's question, or better said demand, he tilted his head. "Well... Go watch TV or something" Aaron debated with himself if he should give him his N64. After a second he decided that the answer was obvious. No.

 

[Pine]

Nick sat on his bed, legs crossed one over the other as he hunched over a textbook. His eyes flickered across the lines with vague interest, occasionally having to shift his position a little due to the glare cast down on the page from the overhead light. He straightened for a moment, pushing his shoulders back, mouth open in a deep yawn, rolling his neck until it popped before he slumped forward again, pressing his fingers deeply into his neck.


He had been like this for a good while. That weekend he had been busy trying to get a job. Consequently, it was just an excuse for him to push his homework back, and now that it was dinner time, he was finally settling down to force himself to study. While the teachers would cut him some slack for missing the first week, more or less, he knew that there was only so much waiting he could do, only regarding his advanced classes, of course, before the work load became overwhelming. Nick couldn't have that, particularly if he wanted to do well at the track meet and actually get a job.


The biggest and most persistent issue, however (and the focus of Chapter whatever), concerns the relative contributions of biology and experience. Thus nature-nurture debate is longstanding. Do our human traits develop through experience, or do we come equipped with them? The whatever philosopher Plato assumed that character and blah are largely inherited and that boring ideas are inborn. Aristotle replied that there is nothing interesting in this paragraph...


Nick shook his head, clapping his hand sharply against his cheek. Just finish this section, then you can go eat. The boy picked up the textbook, cupping his hand over the spine before sliding back against the wall and slumping. He rested his elbow on his stomach so as to rest his cheek against his fist, though not before pushing his knuckles until they cracked.


Plato assumed... that certain ideas are inborn. Aristotle replied that there is nothing in the mind that does not first come in from the external world through the senses. In the 1600s, philosophers rekindled the debate. That one guy also rejected the notion of inborn ideas, saying that at birth... No, wait, there's probably going to be some stupid test on who all these people were. How many guys was that just now? Two? Where the hell is all the interesting stuff?


Nick thumbed through the rest of the pages, glancing at chapter names. Great. Psychological disorders isn't until chapter fifteen. He flipped back to where his fingers held the last page he was on. And what are those kids wearing, anyway? No one dresses like that anymore, except maybe Orion and Isadore. How old is this book? He flipped back to the front. 2001, and who knows how long it took them to make the book? He sighed deeply through his nose before attempting to continue on with his reading.


Plato... Aristotle... John Locke... the mind is but a tabula rasa - a blank tablet - upon which experience writes. René Descartes disagreeded, believing-


"Screw it." Nick closed the book with a sharp clap. I kinda' missed lunch, so a break is fine, he excused himself. Without any more delay, he proceeded down the hall at a quick pace. He could vaguely make out some pieces of a conversation floating up from down stairs.


"How ya' doing?" Who was that? Not one of the Sunny Brook kids. "And who is this beautiful girl?" Ugh.


"Ew," the girl responded, almost perfectly echoing his thoughts. The statement was too short for him to make out who it could be, but the rejection amused him nevertheless as he proceeded to jog down the stairs. There were other voices, too, but they were much softer and he could not pick out the individual words, though he could easily enough recognize the listless tone of his roommate.


He skipped the last step of the stairs before gripping the doorway and swinging into the kitchen. Instantly, his eyes lit up in delight, and a nasty smirk twisted the corner of his lip. Nose ring guy? Hitting on Felicity? Nick snickered softly. You're so not her type. Aside from them, there was Isadore, like he had expected, stretched out across some papers Aaron seemed to be working on. Am I still mad at him? Has it been long enough for me to treat him like a decent human being? he pondered, proceeding through the kitchen, before deciding that forgiving him would be too boring.


"Hey nub," he greeted nonchalantly as he passed Isadore on his way to the pork chops, lightly rapping the other boy on the head with his knuckles. Nick grabbed a plate for himself and slid it onto the table next to Isadore before embarking on his epic quest to find which drawer held the silverware.

 

[spectro]

"Hey Nick, this is Jamie. He's an asshole," She smiled sarcastically at him and ate a piece of her dinner, "I mean, that's what I've gathered so far." She went back to her dinner.





"I am not an asshole, I'm just Jamie. Good old Jamie." He leant back in his chair. He was learning things about these kids; This girl wasn't down for flirting, Isadore thought he was the leader, which was opposite from the truth. "Don't listen to her, Nick, was it?"

 

[Pine]

The boy tossed a look over his shoulder at Felicity's introduction of nose ring guy. "Oh, an asshole?" Nick reflected her smile, feigning an intrigued, conversational tone. "Hey, asshole." A part of him was now determined to never call this boy by his name now, instead opting to perpetually call him an asshole. In a sense, it almost helped him remember his actual name. Still, is that what she thinks about every guy who has ever hit on her? Good luck getting a date that way. Nick considered the possibility that he had missed something earlier, but at the time, he was much too amused by her reaction to care.


He looked back over to the drawers as Jamie attempted to save himself. Rather unfortunately for nose ring guy, that only steeled his resolve. Nick slid the third drawer open, head tilting a little to peer into the contents. "Mhm," he responded simply, his smile beginning to drop as he moved on to the next drawer, the likes of which rolled out smoothly. It's weird not having to yank them all out, he mused silently.

 

[spectro]

Jamie saw Nick almost yank the drawer of its hinges. "I get the feeling you didn't have a very stable home at your last house?" He remembered Aaron saying that he couldn't believe they ate in the house. "It's like no one cared about you in your previous house or something." He knew he was treading on thin ice, but her was tiptoeing, acting like he didn't know he was being rude.

 

[ChronosDesine]

Aaron looked at Jamie and tilted his head. ''I guess you could say that'' He looked at the table and yawned. Tomorrow would be a long and boring day so he kinda wanted to go to bed early. Not this early, but you get what I mean. Still, he said that he would help Jamie with his homework so he will. But than again, why would he help someone else with their school-work if he didn't know to what school he had to go. He hoped that he would go to his old school. Because starting all over again and making new friends is kinda not his thing.

 

[spectro]

"So," he cracked his neck and looked at the girl again, "What is your name?" He smiled.





"Well, if you must know, it's Felicity." She stood up and put her plate on the counter.





Jamie stood up and smirked behind her, "What a gorgeous name." He saw her smile. And then thought it was the perfect time to slap her behind. He was wrong, oh so wrong.





"You pig!" She turned around and returned the favour with a slap around the face.





Jamie nursed his cheek as Fliss went and sat on the couch a few meters away from them, in the living room.

 

[Pine]

Nick had only stayed vaguely tuned into the conversation as he dug through the drawers. The dick hasn't even thought of mentioning where it is. Whatever. He slipped open the last drawer. Aha! Nick retrieved the exalted fork and knife from the drawer, as he had never known pork chops to be tender enough to not need two utensils.


The boy turned to the side, using a lazy combination of both his hand and hip to slide the drawer in when he saw Jamie approach Felicity from behind. Nick's eyes widened in barely suppressed rage, his nostrils flaring wide as a heated exhale blew through them. Before he could react any more, Felicity had whipped around and struck him on her own. He couldn't tell if she had done so harder or about the same when she had slapped him, but that didn't matter. Nick set the silverware down next to his plate before gripping the back of the chair and leaning somewhat in Jamie's direction for emphasis, awarding the boy with his most furious stare. "Try something like that again and see what happens," he snarled. Nick kept his unwavering glare for a short while after that before pulling out the chair and seating himself.

 

[spectro]

"Oh, I apologise, Nick. I didn't think she was your property." Jamie looked amused at Nick's rage. He loved to provoke people and Nick's answer gave him ample opportunity to do so.





Fliss sat on the couch and turned on the plasma screen tv. It reminded her very much of her old one.. In fact, she was almost sure it was the same width. She smiled at the memory and put on some random evening tv show, not really watching, but listening to the guys in the kitchen.

 

[Pine]

Nick half turned in his seat, since his threat obviously did not suffice for the other boy to drop the matter. "She's not anyone's property, dipshit. She's a human being." He had been right about this boy from the start. He was absolutely contemptible. Obviously full of himself, though he was too dim to take a hint that Felicity wasn't into him at all, then he was ignorantly picking fights. Don't you know I'll beat you to a bloody pulp?

 

[spectro]

That's it, get angrier. "And so am I! I am attracted her beauty, it's my human instincts!" He said loud enough so that Felicity could hear.





Fliss couldn't help but smile a little at the fact that Nick was trying defend, a little poorly she might admit, but she couldn't let this go any further. She got up and walked into the kitchen, standing as upright as she could and looked at him. "I have no attraction towards you Jamie. Although you face and your torso are aesthetically pleasing, your way of speaking to women is appalling. So, thank you for the compliment, but it isn't needed, okay?" She crossed her arms.





Jamie looked at Felicity, a little bewildered. No girl had ever spoken to him like that. They usually just took his compliments and giggled an annoying high pitched giggle. "I like that." He grinned, "The fact that you aren't afraid to stand up for yourself."


"Take the hint you flirtatious bastard. I don't like you." She mimicked his grin and stole a cookie from the cupboard before going back to the couch and the boring evening television.

 

[Pine]

Worthless piece of primitive douche bag. Poor excuse for a no good... Nick had put his hand on the back of his chair, squeezing until his knuckles blanched to a pale shade. He was about to rise out of his chair and demand if he had been asleep during the twenty-first century when Felicity appeared in the kitchen once more. Nick forced himself to stay seated, swallowing his spit and drilling a glare into the side of Jamie's head, his lip threatening to twitch into a sneer. Aesthetically pleasing? Damn it, don't say that. Well, he probably doesn't even know what that means, so whatever. He forced himself to calm, at least the best that he could manage, and turned back to his food, his ears the faintest shade of red. He took a moment to shake his head across at Aaron, though that boy was so spacey he wouldn't be surprised if he had completely missed that exchange, before proceeding to drive his knife roughly through the meat.

 

[Trignome]

Isadore sighed, slowly sitting up in his seat and watching the drama unfold. Butt slapping, and what-not besides...we're probably the only species with such an unproductive mating pattern. "It must be the hormones," Isadore murmured into his sleeve, as he cradled his head on the table. His question was still bouncing around in his head, and he was running in proverbial circles, trying to figure out where he'd be going to school tomorrow. I wonder if we're going to a new school. Since I never met any of these kids at Keller High, it means they go to a different place, which means we're probably going to a different place, since we're one of them, now. More entrance exams and stuff...blarrrrrgh. Feeling the surface he rested on shake a bit, Isadore tilted his head to the side and silently observed Nick's wrathful butchering of his dinner. Reaching out a hand, he patted his roommate on the shoulder. "Calm down. It's already dead."

 

[ChronosDesine]

Aaron stared at the TV. Not even pretending that he was paying attention to the conversation. Even though he stared at the TV, he wasn't watching TV. He was thinking about school. Which made him think about the word boring. Which made him think about the word stupid. Which made him think about stupid nicknames. Which made him think about the word Princess. Which made him think about Nick, in other words the person who gives stupid nickname. Which made him think about his other nicknames. Which made him think about Bill and Natasha. Which made him think about....

 

[Pine]

Nick's shoulders stiffened at the other boy's touch. "Shut up," he responded automatically, rolling his shoulder forward in such a way to half-heartedly throw his hand off as he drove the knife in harder. Aaron wouldn't notice and Isadore wouldn't care. If you're butchering people for the hell of it, what concept of rights could you possibly have? He breathed out a long exhale then, ceasing his mutilation of the pork chop and sank back in his seat, shutting his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. Okay, that was harsh. I haven't seen him do anything like that, and either way, he isn't stupid.


Finally pacified, he decided it would just be best to ignore whatever else nose ring guy might have to say. This is why I didn't want to deal with these people. "Yeah, whatever," he spoke again, a little softer. Nick considered following through with his typical response to this situation, in which he would have found various ways to shake the table in an effort to annoy either of the other boys in his company, but he wasn't in the mood, and instead sat back up to just eat his meal.

 

[spectro]

"So, she thinks I'm good looking." Jamie sat down. "Do you think if I pretend to be different, she'll like me?" He looked at the three boys at the table and rested his hands on the table.

 

[ChronosDesine]

Which made him think about video-games. Which made him think about the fact that he should buy more consoles. Which made him think about money. Which made him think about his job. Which made him think about the headmistress. How could she afford all this? Why does she work here? She doesn't look, and act, like a friendly person. Why do you want to spend your time raising children if you're never there. Maybe he doesn't know what the normal amount of time is. But right now she only talked to them because of dinner and a drug-problem. Maybe she should have chosen a job that fits her personality.

 

[Trignome]

Isadore would have felt a bit annoyed at Nick's behavior, if only he wasn't so exhausted with life. The emotional aspects of the teenage life seemed so shallow and irritating after work. At least he's calmed down. But before he could resume his speculation on where his future education would come from, the dark-haired boy with the nose ring came over to the table and sat down, asking about playing pretend, and differences, and the midget's affections. It's definitely the hormones talking. Isadore propped his head up with a palm to the chin and gave the boy a derisive look. "I don't think you'd even be able to change yourself. Idiots are idiots were idiots will always be idiots."

 

[spectro]

"Oh, I see. You're one of those little boys who thinks whatever his best friend thinks." He had already seen Nick and Isadore sharing a room, he knew they were close. Then another insult came to his head. "Anyway, I thought you two were gay, why do you care so much about Felicia, or whatever her name is?" He rubbed his hands together and waited for him to blow.

 

[Pine]

Nick glared down at his plate, attempting to go along with his plan to ignore Jamie. It wasn't working too well. God, just drop it. What a pig head. He bit down a little too harshly on his fork, opting to stay as silent for as long as he could manage. A small, rational part of his conscious was attempting to enlighten him that this boy was either provoking him or was such an idiot that he shouldn't be bothered. Just leave. Maybe if we ignore him... never mind.


Nick was somewhat pleased with Isadore's eventual input, allowing him to return to his dinner in peace... until Jamie responded. He dropped his fork, metal clattering loudly against the glass plate, and he looked over at the boy with a smile that was anything but friendly. "Hey, pretty boy. How about I rearrange your face and then we see what she thinks about you?" he blurted, his tone far too sweet.

 

[spectro]

"That sounds great, how about you try." Jamie straightened up and looked down at Nick, who was smiling grimly. Jamie returned the smiled. He looked over at Isadore who was not yet reacting. Perhaps he agreed with him, maybe he knew it was true.

 

[Trignome]

He was still considering the boy's commentary about his relationship with Nick. "Gay?" Isadore rolled the word around in his head, considering it a few moments. Then he leaned forwards and stared, unblinkingly, at the nose-ring guy. "I don't think it's unnatural to love someone platonically. Imagine how lonely everybody would be if they were only capable of loving sexual partners." Isadore smiled mirthlessly. "Especially in your case, 'asshole'. You'd die alone."

 

[Pine]

Nick turned his face back down to his plate, his smile broadening as he snorted lightly in laughter. Not a good idea. Not a good idea. Not a good idea. Not a good idea. The mantra kept looping in his head. As much as he wanted to jump over the table and pound him in the face, that would just be giving him what he wanted. I could take this guy easily, he reassured himself. And if not, I can at least break his nose. Nick's rational side became all the more prevalent after Isadore's eventual response. He managed to wipe the smile off of his face, looking at the other boy with wide, blinking eyes. "Wait. Use small words, he might not understand," he urged in a whispering tone, though he made sure to be loud enough for the other boy to hear.