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It was the beginning of spring. That awkward in between snow and the promise of warmth that left the ground looking like murky water. Leaning against the bleachers, the blonde had to wonder if the high school teacher was punishing his students by deciding to have today's P.E session outside. In the mud, nonetheless.
A large group of teenagers, mostly college students, had gathered to watch the high school class playing dodge ball out on the field. He didn't have to worry about P.E after enrolling into college classes, but he'd had the same P.E teacher before he had. He remembered exactly how much of a hard ass he'd been.
As the class neared its end, the students on the field looked like they'd just survived a war. Mud everywhere and some even carried crazed looks. He didn't blame them, of course. He'd noticed one of them, though. One more than the rest: A rather pretty looking thing with eyes that promised violence. Perhaps that was just the mud, though, he wasn't sure.
And yet he couldn't help himself.
Holding out a clean towel for her, he offered her a loopsided grin. "What did you guys do to piss the teacher off this badly?"
Unlike most people, Adena absolutely lived for P.E. It was the one class where she could whip the shit out of her classmates and not get in trouble for being so brutally good at sports. She'd been mad about the fact that she purposefully wasn't allowed to be a team captain, and that was fine, because she was definitely the MVP. No one needed to tell her that.
Adena ended the class covered in mud and probably the only student willing to stay and keep going. But the class was over, and she jogged when her classmates slumped their way back towards the showers. When her steps slowed again, it was seconds before a towel was offered to her.
"What, you think that's torture?" She asked him quickly, then she eyed him up and down, "Pretty boy like you would."
Even he couldn't help the chuckle that pressed its way past his lips at the girl's bluntness. He had to give it to her: She was both brutal and had keen eyes. It did nothing to deter him, of course.
"You're right about that." He tossed the towel in her direction. "I am very pretty." He'd been right in his assumption, it seemed. Even now, after the game had ended, she still looked like she was ready to go on a murder spree. It was refreshing in a way, he supposed. Unlike most of the angry people he'd met, at least this one was honest about it.
When the towel was tossed in her direction, she had no choice but to catch it. Crisp material curled between her fingers, instantly stained by the matter on her hands.
"Sure are, doll. Like, you literally look like one; prettier than most of the girls out there, anyway."
Dragging the fabric across her face, she worked most of the mud off her skin as she spoke. When it was gone, smeared as it still was, she tossed it back to him out of curiosity. "You keep it. To remember me by."
"That's quite a feat." He mused, with a dip to his head. He wondered if her jabs ever worked the way she intended them to. Perhaps she was too used to pushing people away to really care.
As she moved to make an attempt at cleaning her face, he took the moment to look her over: She was a petite thing, though that was hardly a challenge given his own height. She was far too small to carry such boldness on her shoulders. He grabbed the towel with ease as it was tossed his way, fingers digging into the dirty fabric. "A sentimental thing, aren't you."
"Not really, they're all a bit hideous." Adena pointed out, despite how girls wandered past her within earshot. She wasn't even looking at them anymore. She didn't need to to know she wasn't wrong.
"I thought you might be a sentimental girl, actually, cause you picked me out of all people." Clearly the myriad of dumb girls nearby would have fallen to pieces at the sight of his eyes on them. "And I'm probably never gonna talk to you again. So, like, enjoy the dirt. Just don't give it back to me when you're done with it."
A hand came up to cover his heart. "You wound me." He shook his head faintly. The glances the other girls within ear shot, shot the girl wasn't lost on the blonde. He only offered them a brilliant smile, which seemed to confuse them. He turned his gaze back to the spitfire; She clearly wasn't very popular among her peers.
"You're still here. I take that as a win." He wasn't arrogant enough to think she'd stay for much longer, but he considered it a win nonetheless. Whether or not his charms - or his attempts to - worked, didn't really matter at this point. "But that's a fair trade. I won't give it back. I promise."
Hold up; was he trying to hit on her or something? Adena raised a messy hand and dragged it across the top of her head, reeling back to pull her ponytail a little tighter. That was weird if he was.
"Who are you anyway?" She had to ask. The way he acted made her think she was supposed to know his face. "What do you want from me? Aside from a towel covered in face sweat and dirt."
Who was he? There was a million ways he could have answered that single question. Instead, he opted for something simple: "Isaac." He said with a single-shoulder shrug. He didn't expect any bells to ring from his name alone. Either people knew who he was by a single glance - or they didn't. "And you? What's your name?"
A chuckle pressed past his lips and he leaned back against the wall of the bleachers, head tilting as he looked at her. "Do I need to want anything, other than just to talk to you?" Was she not used to people approaching her? While she surely was a force to be reckoned with, he could only see that as a reason for people to seek her out, not avoid her.
Isaac? Nope, didn't ring a bell for Adena. But then, she wasn't one to pay attention to school gossip, else she might have known him just for his name.
"Claire." She replied, with a slight smile.
She knew he wasn't trying to trick her, but that he was probably just trying to drag this conversation out to prove a point. "Pretty sure no one ever talks to a stranger unless they want something." She pointed out, crossing her arms.
"Pretty sure that if no one ever talked to strangers, they'd never make any friends." He countered with a small smile. She was awfully cynical for someone seemingly so young. Though, maybe it was less life being hard, and more her having a lot of anger. Though, at what, he couldn't read.
"Do you mind me talking to you?" He asked, curiosity tinting his blue eyes as he rocked back on his heels.
Adena eyed him curiously then. It was probably the first time she'd looked at him with anything other than a blank stare. Really, she was trying to size him up. She was pretty sure he wasn't looking for friends like, ever.
Rather than addressing his question, she kept her attention focused on his former statement. "Umm, isn't that wanting something?" She asked him with a small turn of her head.
"I suppose you're right." He said, waving a hand in the air as if the thought hadn't ever crossed his mind. It had, though, he was simply glad she was actually talking to him. He supposed he'd consider that a win.
"Is that such a bad thing, though?" He asked her then. She was a curiosity, a conundrum.
Boom. Adena shook her non-expressive face to give him a grin instead. If nothing else, she liked it when someone admitted they were wrong; more when they told her she was right.
Rocking back a step, she her eyes didn't settle out of their curiosity just yet. Was he looking at her the same way? She couldn't really tell. She made a point of not getting this invested in anyone.
"People trying to be friends with you." Of course, there was people who claimed they didn't need friends, but humans were social by nature.
"I once ready that if you deny a newborn baby human touch, it'll die." He continued. "You can give it everything else it needs, but if its human needs aren't properly filled, it'll cease to exist." He didn't think she would really care, but it was food for thought.
He offered her his arm then. "Let's go for a walk."
