Fantasy Reasonably Romantic {Caffeine Freak & Believing Heart}

[Caffeine Freak]

[IC/OOC]
​

 

[Caffeine Freak]

To say James Hendrick had woken up on the wrong side of bed would be inaccurate, for he had not woken up on his bed at all.

Rather, in a shock that pulled him right out of his usual tired dismissal of his alarm, he had woken up to find himself floating on thin air, his bed several paces across the room.

As he jolted with surprise, whatever was holding James afloat vanished, and the boy crumpled to the floor with not shortage of discomfort. After several seconds, he braced himself on a hand and rubbed at his temple. Had be been dreaming and just fallen out of bed?

The rest of his routine was otherwise as mundane as it was supposed to be, save for his walk to his university, in which he was so busy trying to beat a stage in Geometry Dash on his phone, that he didn't notice the speeding car as he stepped onto the crosswalk.

The car's horn blared, and James looked up at the last second to realise that Geometry Dash killed him. Or, at least, should have.

For when he reflexively braced and gritted his teeth moments before the impact - nothing happened.

Confused, James straightened back out - then jumped at a audible crash just a few feet away. On the other side of the crosswalk, the car had swerved and smashed into a traffic light. It was as if the vehicle had just... passed through him.

He ran the rest of the way to uni.

MJ ._.

 

[MJ ._.]

The first period was scripting which she wouldn’t risk missing. Lillian had left home sooner than necessary and was on her way toward university. A usual, she met one of her friends on the way and they walked the rest of the way together while chatting about latest book, movies and events of the world. The only surprising scene they saw was James running to the uni. Both girls looked at each other in puzzlement.
“Wasn’t he James?”
“Surely, he was.”
“Why was he on a rush? We’ve gotten enough time before beginning of the session.”
“I’ve no idea. He’s not the type to hurry for classes… maybe he has made a mess and is running away from it?”
They shrugged and went to the campus, forgetting about James. Even after reaching the class, they sat beside each other and kept chatting until the prof arrived.

Caffeine Freak

 

[Caffeine Freak]

James sat in class, trying not to shake. The professor hadn't arrived yet, and he realised with no shortage of surprise that he actually turned up early for a lecture. Today was unusual indeed.

Soon enough, Prof LeBlanc took the stage as the rest of the students took their seats. James focused with all his being to pay attention to what the professor was saying.

At first everything seemed normal, until James decided to make notes on something the prof had brought up. He reached for his pencil, which shot out between his fingers as if it had been doused in oil, only it slipped so quickly that it whistled across the room and embedded itself in the whiteboard Professor LeBlanc was gesturing to.

Miraculously, the Professor managed to trace the pencil right back to the source, apparently unfazed. "Mr Hedrick, I'll be seeing you after class."

This couldn't be happening.

 

[MJ ._.]

Lillian was scribbling; taking notes from the lecture. She wrote them on edges of her book. Usually nothing could distract her while she was in this state, but his time bothersome noise of a pencil hitting the board had her look up from her notes. She traced back LeBlanc’s gaze and met James’s eyes at the other side of the class. The was in trouble for sure but why he would have done something so stupid? She wondered. This was his second strange behavior in that day.
When the class was over, she told her friends that she was going to join them later. She waited till most of students had left the class, and then approached him. “Not a nice day, is it, James?” She asked him regularly. “Are you going to meet LeBlanc in his office? I can accompany you there if you’re afraid to go alone!” She joked without even smiling. “What happened, really? I don’t get it; why would you like to strike the old man with your pencil? Don’t tell me that was a assassination attempt…” This time she smirked slightly.

 

[Caffeine Freak]

James was vigorously checking his hands when Lillian popped up behind him. "I- I wish I knew what was going on." He replied shakily. "It's been a weird sort of day."

"Mr. Hedrick." Professor LeBlanc beckoned as he walked past. Jame's shoulders slumped.

"I'll catch you later." He half halfheartedly tried to match Lillian's lively tone as he walked off.

As James walked into the office, he was surprised to see Professor LeBlanc look confused as he sat down.

"Mr Hedrick?" The prof called. James opened his mouth to reply, but the professor spoke up again. "Mr Hedrick? Are you out there?" LeBlanc got up and walked right past where James was sitting. Confused, James looked down.

To find out that he was, in fact, invisible.

Rather than freak like he was initially thinking of doing, James hurried out of the office, LeBlanc still calling for him just beyond the doorway. He waited out in the boy's bathroom until his body finally re-appeared, in which he stepped back out into the corridor. He made a point to avoid the general vicinity of LeBlanc's office.

 

[MJ ._.]

“Surly, today is so different from yesterday… but that can’t be too bad. You came early for a class and it’s nice.” Lillian tried to sooth James since he looked very nervous. Maybe that was the reason for him to throw his pencil. Still, the source of his anxiety was unknown. The boy preferred to go to the office alone and said that they were going to meet later so she stood behind. “Cry out my name out loud if prof scared you. I’ll be there to save you~” She said as he passed her to go to LeBlanc’s office.

The second period was PE. She had changed and was doing warm ups with rest of girls when the coach asked if James was going to show up since he was going to have the football team practicing. It wasn’t fair for James to lose his practicing time because of LeBlanc, so went back inside to check on him. But luckily, before arriving at the office she met him in the corridor. “Where have you been? The coach’s been searching for you…”

 

[Caffeine Freak]

James jumped for the second time that day. It seemed like Lillian popped up whenever something weird happened to him, which would make his attempts at being discrete a little more difficult. "Oh, well you how strict the professor can be... heh..." He chuckled nervously. "Did the coach send you to look for me?" James looked at her quizzically. "Well, uh, here I am! Let's head back. Very quickly." He turned the corner as LeBlanc appeared on the other end hallway he'd just left.

"I'd better get changed fast." James nudged the changing room door as they arrived. "Thanks for looking out for me." He gave Lillian a nod of appreciation as he disappeared inside. It'd take some explaining to the coach, but hopefully he didn't miss much.

It was after he'd already changed that James looked in the mirror to find himself searching for his own reflection. Now that he'd had a chance to come to terms with this apparent ability, James wasn't so freaked out as he was astounded. With a thought, his reflection re-appeared.

"I can turn invisible." He muttered. An idea entered his head that he immediately dismissed before he could think it, and burst outside to join the others.

 

[MJ ._.]

Lillian shook her head. “I told him that I want to come after you. You can be left behind your team.” She replied casually as they took a turn and left the corridor. She left him before arriving at boys’ changing room and separated from him with a simple your welcome.
During PE class, Lillian was so busy with her tennis practice that didn’t look out of the red ground to see how James was doing. She was going to meet him again after lunch in theatre class, where they had to work on ‘midsummer night’s dream’.
Fortunately, they didn’t need to change clothes or wear make up for practicing. They had placed some benches to seat on but they had to use imagination for trees and buildings. Lillian read her part again before everyone was ready to start. She’d gotten role of Hermia which made her wonder if it had happened because she was shorter than rest of the girls in that class which was a blessing if had brought her a main role in the performance.

 

[Caffeine Freak]

James had avoided the stares from his teammates as he strode quickly back to the changing room following the football that had deflated when he kicked it into the net.

His role in Theatre had ended up as Lysander, most likely because of both his performance and resemblance, though James suspected it was just his rugged good looks. He'd scrolled through his lines over and over, though he was pretty familiar with the play after all the time he'd spent studying it. While he preferred more modern scripts to act from, his delivery was exceptional none the less - if not a little rusty around the archaic English lines. Being more of a method actor, James sought after the cast list to find the individuals that crossed scenes with him. His eyes stopped at Hermia's role.

"Hey, Lillian." James greeted her as he walked over, paperback in hand. "You wanna read our lines together? I'm going back through act one." Looking her up and down, James wasn't too surprised she'd ended up as Hermia.

 

[MJ ._.]

Lillian winked as James approached and greeted her. “What’s your role? Don’t tell… Lysander?” She said then pointed at the list of actors. She already knew and waited for him to show up. “Thanks for offering. I’m almost ready for my first act… ” She flipped through the pages backward. “Here… when we all are meeting Theseus. Have you memorized your lines?” She asked the got to her feet and tried to imagine herself in the palace which looks like a court, being lectured by her father and the duke. “Now, Theseus tells me that my father should be as a god to me… and that Demetrius is a good man and I say…” She pretended a bashful but brave teenager girl with flames in her eyes and spoke clearly: “So is Lysander.” She flipped the pages rapidly again. “Sorry… the first act needs Demetrius and Egeus to be actively involved… should we skip to the end of this scene when everyone else leaves the stage?” She asked. “If so, then you should start the conversation with: My love! Why is your face so pale? ” She noted.

 

[Caffeine Freak]

James nodded, rapidly flicking through the pages of the first act to the precise page. Once he had recounted his notes, he tossed his paperback aside and struck up a concerned expression. "My love, why is your face so pale?" Lysander stepped closer, delicately placing the back of his hand to his lover's cheek. "How chance the roses there do fade so fast?" His hand gently brushed down the side of her face and came to a close above his own heart. James stopped being Lysander for a second. "Was that good?"

 

[MJ ._.]

Lillian giggled. "Too cheesy, but perfect for students." She replied. She was wondering that James's touch was so gentle that was going to impress the viewers but she wished that he wasn't going to do so too many times or it would be spoiled. She decided to not mention that issue yet and shifted to Hermia’s role. She looked up into his eyes with hope and regret at the same time then looked down and at a side sadly. “Perhaps it is from lack of rain. Only my tears water them.” She uttered with broken low voice as if was about to break into tears. Even her eyes looked somehow wet. She didn’t move from that state and waited for James to play his part.

 

[Caffeine Freak]

James grinned, an expression that melted as Lysander cried "Ay me!" And responded with, "For aught that I could ever read, could ever hear by tale or history, the course of true love never did run smooth. But either it was different in blood—" His words ran off as he awaited Lillian's reply, words he already knew were coming before she even said them.

 

[MJ ._.]

Lillian ignored the grin from James and was about to lament as Hermia but hesitated and frowned. “Wait a minute… aren’t you using the old version? Say, haven’t you received the new script?” She held her copy up to show it to James. “Mine has been simplified. Dialogues are easy and fluent to be understood by everyone. We’re going to take it out to the street, after all…” She said then looked at other actors playing their parts. “Or… maybe we should check with the rest of class to see which script is going to be played.” She suggested.

 

[Caffeine Freak]

James shook his head. "I've already gone through the new version." He shrugged. "Something about it's just too easy, y'know? Delivering the original text takes more finesse, and I feel like I'm improving at something when I'm reading it." Of course, he naturally preferred the modern text - archaic English wasn't his strong suit - but it was the challenge he reveled in and that inspired his stronger delivery.

 

[MJ ._.]

“I get it… but we should act in harmony with the our team. Have you spoken to them?” She asked then looked back at other students who were talking about their roles. “As long as you can convince them all, I have no objection.” She said and put her copy aside. “Unfortunately, I’ve not memorized the original text. I’m going to borrow a copy from the library… meanwhile; you can try convincing them to play the archaic dialogues.” She suggested before leaving the class and heading to the library.

(he has a chance to do something maughty while she is out of the class. )

 

[Caffeine Freak]

James nodded, watching as Lillian left the classroom. He turned on his heel and approached his classmates, encouraging them all to gather around. "Sorry to interrupt guys, but I was thinking of performing from the original text, y'know, like as a tribute to my man SP." James might have been determined, but he wasn't such a great reasoner.

One of the students, a chunky dude that James recognised as the guy playing Oberon, stepped forward slightly. "I don't know, we've all sort of agreed that the modern edition would be much easier to deliver from."

James met eyes with the dude, not realising his own lit up as he did so. "Oh, you're Oberon, right? Well-"

He didn't get a chance to finish as the dude suddenly spoke up in a unnaturally dramatic voice. "Hark! Where art my queen?" He started drawing stares from his fellow classmates. James suspected he might had just turned his classmate into Oberon. It wasn't the first unnatural development of the morning, however, so James didn't hesitate to respond.

"She's... just over here, my dude." James quickly strode over and led the boy out of sight from the rest of his classmates. He looked the dude in the eyes again. "You're not Oberon. Go back to normal."

Oberon responded, "What ho, sir, fetch me my queen or I shalt sever thine head." He reached for his immortal sword, then began searching his own clothes as he realised it wasn't by his side.

James hushed the dude. Perhaps he needed his name. "Look, just chill here and don't move, alright?" He quickly hopped off the stage and went to go find the name board.

 

[MJ ._.]

“James?” Lillian called as returned to the class with an old copy of British scripts. She couldn’t find her partner where she had left him so went the others instead. “Did James talk to you about the script? He wants to play the old version…” She said doubtfully. A girl nodded in reply. “Yeah… but Brandon didn’t like it. He even played Oberon with accent of 16th century, which was actually funny, but they left to discuss alone.” She explained then pointed at a curtain covering the backdoor. Lillian thanked her classmate and followed her guidance to the back door. Behind the curtain, the door was open and she could see Brandon waiting for someone. “Hi Mr. Brandon… your friend told me that Jake is here with you… where is he now?” She asked then thought that the boys might have gone on each other’s nerves. “I understand why you prefer the modern version of the script. I say… we should have an election about it. What do you think?” She spoke convincingly.

 

[Caffeine Freak]

Brandon whirled on Lillian. "Draw, maiden! Thou shalt return thee to my immortal domain!" It was at this moment James re-appeared around the curtain.

"Brandon!" James recalled from the board, eyes flashing as he spoke the next few words. "You're Brandon, not Oberon!" Brandon indeed appeared dazed, and his strange posture slackened to his regular over-worked student slant.

James sighed, then began to wonder how long Lillian had been behind the curtain. "Uh... how much of that did you hear?"

 

[MJ ._.]

“Huh?” Lillian uttered defiantly and was about to scold Brandon for not taking her seriously and tell him that she wasn’t going to take it as lightly James would, but the mentioned guy returned in time to speak a few irrelevant words and leave Brandon in a haze. It’d look like children’s games if she hadn’t noticed the sudden glow in his eyes. He sighed and gave his attention to her: “…how much of that did you hear?” He asked but she wasn’t in the mood to be questioned since had more important questions to ask. “What was that trick of glowing eyes about? How can you do that? What are you trying to pull?” She asked him seriously, looking daggers at him which meant he was going to be in trouble if refrains answering her.

 

[Caffeine Freak]

James balked at the stare the girl shot him. "N-Nothing." He stammered, putting a hand on Brandon's shoulder. "Come on dude, we better head back." He said quickly, leading him back around the curtain. As Brandon walked back to the group, a little confused, James faced Lillian's unnerving stare. "Okay, you're not going to believe this... but..." He took a deep breath. "I might have accidentally turned Brandon into Oberon with mind control." It sounded just about as ridiculous out loud as it did in Jame's own head.

 

[MJ ._.]

Lillian assumed that whatever prank the boys were about to play, it had been spoiled and James was trying to make it look otherwise, since his excuse wasn’t enough even for a joke. Although, if they were primary school kids he could be counted as funny. “Oh… why not? You’re the good boy who is always honest, right?” She told him sarcastically the stepped closer. “Now that it has come to this, we should find a place to hide you in for rest of your life. Don’t you know that you’re going to be in a big trouble if CIA finds out about mind control thing? You should run and through away all electronic device like; cell-phone, computer, e-cards… or even lined phones. Are you ready for you new life style?” She whispered threateningly.

 

[Caffeine Freak]

James took a step back, he was pretty sure Lillian was messing with him, but her tone was unnervingly serious. "Knock it off, Lilly. I'm s-"
He was what? Serious? About turning his classmate into Oberon? No, she'd never believe that. James changed tact. "-I'm ssurprised...?" He tried to sound convincing, though really anything other than his previous statement worked better. "...Surprised that you caught onto our prank so quickly... heh..."

 

[MJ ._.]

Lillian shook her head and laughed. “Brace yourself, big boy!” She said before casting a look at her wrist watch. “Forget it. The milk has already been spilt… and we have lost our practicing time. I’ll be going home then. What about you?” She asked casually. If James didn’t have another class to attend, then they could go home together since they were neighbors and it seemed to be natural.