welcome

[shayla & shannyn deprice]

Out of all the places in the town, the park was probably the one Shannyn hated the least. School was lame, she was never hungry, and Bounce was overrated. Here, she could find a secluded place and smoke, taking time to just zone out and chill.

Or she could think, which kind of killed the mood. She could think about how she was wasting her life, how she was killing brain cells, blackening her lungs, poisoning her kidneys and leaving her stomach permanently empty. For this reason, she preferred to zone out.

Lighting up a cigarette, she leaned back against her favorite tree. It was out in the open, but a ways into the park where not a lot of people walked by. If someone happened to, they paid no attention. Exhaling, Shannyn smiled sadly. No one ever pays attention to the girl who needs it the most.

[nathan callahan]

Nathan wandered slowly through the park, taking in his surroundings. He wasn't going anywhere in particular--he'd just wanted to explore Harrow and the area surrounding it. He hadn't met many people at Harrow yet, but he wasn't particularly worried. He always found someone (or a lot of people) to hang out with.

As he walked, he noticed a slightly goth-looking girl sitting alone and smoking. His first thought was that she was cute, but not really his type. His next thought was that she looked bored as hell and lonely. Maybe he should introduce himself or something. Why not? he thought as he started in her direction. It wasn't as though he had anything better to do, and he was always up for meeting new people.

"Hey, I'm Nathan," he said, ambling over to the girl and shooting her "the" smile--the one that never failed to charm women, from the grumpy school secretary to his three-year-old cousin (although she liked just about anyone). "I'm new at Harrow."

[shayla & shannyn deprice]

Shannyn looked up at the guy. "Shannyn," she said back, even though she was thinking, and am I supposed to care? She was in what was becoming a permanent bad mood. This town was depriving her of everything she had been used to, and she wanted to go home. Getting kicked out was an option, but she knew she'd probably be shipped somewhere else if Harrow didn't work out for her. Oh, joy.

[nathan callahan]

"Nice to meet you," Nate said, even though it really wasn't. He had been trying to be friendly, but this Shannyn girl apparently wasn't interested in making friends. Or at least, she hadn't said much so far. He tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, but something about her attitude just annoyed him. Why couldn't she be friendly? It wasn't like it was a huge thing to ask. He was the one going out on a limb by walking up to a random person and trying to begin a conversation. It wouldn't kill her to volunteer a little more information in her reply. "So, do you come here often?"

He immediately felt like a jerk for having said that. Wasn't that kind of a line that guys used a lot? Immediately after having that thought, he wanted to kick himself. What was wrong with him? He wasn't usually this self-conscious or this much of a jerk. Maybe the air at Harrow was bad for him?

[shayla & shannyn deprice]

"Only when I have nothing better to do." That wasn't technically a lie. Shannyn spent most of her free time here, and some of her time that wasn't supposed to be free. She estimated that she'd hung out at the park more than she had actually attended class. "So yeah, pretty much."

[nathan callahan]

Nathan began to feel slightly better. Maybe she didn't plan on giving him only one-word answers after all. "So you never have anything good to do?" He found the concept kind of funny, and he smirked slightly as he spoke. He didn't intend to look smug.

[shayla & shannyn deprice]

"Well, school sucks. And I've only been here for like a week and a half, so I'm not exactly rolling in friends." And no one wants to be friends with a girl like me, she added mentally. Well, Dylan was pretty cool. But other than that, she was pretty much sinking on her own.

[nathan callahan]

"That sucks," Nathan said. And he meant it. Though he'd never really had a time in his life where he hadn't been, to borrow Shannyn's words, "rolling in friends," he could imagine, and it didn't sound like fun. On the other hand, he could kind of see why Shannyn didn't havea lot of friends. In some ways she intrigued him and caught his interest, but in other ways she was slightly scary and standoffish. He hated to admit it, but he could see why people didn't want to spend time with her, especially if she acted this way around everyone. Most people didn't want to risk their own social chances by talking to someone that everyone else might not accept. "Think you've done anything to deserve not having friends?"

The instant the words were out of his mouth, he regretted them. They made it sound like there was something wrong with Shannyn, like it was her fault that she hadn't made friends yet. And even if he kind of suspected that was the problem, he shouldn't have said it. Now she was probably going to think he was a total asshole. But he couldn't take it back without stumbling over himself and seeming like even more of a jerk than he already did. His social skills were definitely way under form today.

[shayla & shannyn deprice]

"This place is pretty much conformity-city, and I'd like to have friends that get me and are into the same things that I am, not people that look at me like I'm some kind of freak because I'm not dripping in Prada and Chanel everything." She might have been being extremely rude and crabby today, but she hadn't lied yet. At least to this guy. Shannyn would've given anything to be at home with Brett and Carmen, ditching lunch to go smoke some weed behind the McDonald's dumpster across the street from Bethesda High.

[nathan callahan]

"So what are you into?" Nathan asked, trying to understand this girl. At this point, it wasn't that she wasn't volunteering information--she was actually being fairly transparent, from what he could tell. He was pretty good at understanding people, and she didn't seemm to be lying to him. She was just . . . strange. And a little scary.

[shayla & shannyn deprice]

"What do you think I'm into?" she asked curiously. She wasn't saying it like it should've been obvious, she just wanted to know how far off base this guy would be. Shannyn always thought it was interesting how so many people could tell the kind of person she was just by looking at her. Or at least, they thought they knew the kind of person she was. It was rare that someone could actually figure her out.

[nathan callahan]

Nathan shrugged. "I don't know. Something bad?" He lifted an eyebrow humorously--he hoped it was kind of funny, anyway. "Has anyone ever told you you're hard to read? Because you are." He was usually pretty good at figuring people out, but he was having definite trouble understanding Shannyn. She was standoffish and unfriendly, but she didn't seem like a mean person or a bad person. Just messed up, mostly.

[shayla & shannyn deprice]

"I've gotten that more times than I can count. Apparently I'm like, written in another language or something." Shannyn seriously hoped that Nathan got what she had just said, otherwise he'd probably think she was psycho on top of everything else.

[nathan callahan]

Nathan nodded slowly. He understood what she was saying. He thought. He wasn't quite sure why it mattered to him so much to connect with this girl, but it did. "People just don't get it sometimes. Especially if a person is a little different, like you."

He resisted the extremely girly urge to slap his hand over his mouth. What was with his verbal vomiting today? He couldn't seem to stop himself from saying things that should be offending Shannyn. She seemed to be taking it well so far, but he was rapidly approaching a point where he was afraid she'd slap him and walk off or something. Maybe he had misjudged her and she wasn't as standoffish as he'd thought. She was obviously incredibly patient and had a tough skin.

[shayla & shannyn deprice]

Shannyn thought about that. It wasn't really an insult. "I've never tried to stay inside the lines of 'normal'," she offered. She never really stayed inside any lines, especially the lines of 'legal'. Stamping out her cigarette on the side of the tree, she sat up a little straighter. Her head didn't hurt so much now.