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Name: Crescent City Institute
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Crescent City Institute - Solitude in Numbers
11:59 am December 12th, 2010
jools
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Solitude in Numbers
Characters: Jools and Bobby
Setting: Friday December 10th, during the dance, student lounge
Rating: Probably SFW
Summary: An unlikely pairing hang out in the student lounge instead of going to the snowflake ball

Jools figured that campus would be a lovely ghost town during the holiday ball. Usually she holed up in her room, but on those nights when there was a campus wide event she ventured out to enjoy another vacant spot on campus where she could spread out a bit.

Tonight it was one of the student lounges. She was working on a brain teaser puzzle, some little 3-D puzzle bobble her mother had picked up for her over Thanksgiving break. She didn't think anyone else would be around. She felt confident enough to curl up on the couch with her legs tucked under her and her skirt pulled over her knees.

She was surprised when a boy wandered in, looking for all the world like he was in the mood to avoid the dance too.

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Comments
Thread started by Bobby Eisley
From: [info]spiceitup Date: December 12th, 2010 04:20 pm (UTC) (Link)
Bobby really thought he'd be the only person left in the dorms tonight, especially seeing as his roommate had gone to the dance. Ben never went out voluntarily, so if he was out, obviously everyone else had to be too. He did consider going, but after he'd been ambushed at the homecoming dance? He'd learned that there was no place safe from Emilie Devlin. Except, so far, the Sonnier lounge.

He jumped a mile when he saw Jools on the couch out of the side of his eye, as if that one safe place had suddenly been breached. But he calmed quickly when he noticed it was a girl too tall, too normal-looking, and far too harmless to be Emilie.

"Oh, hey." He offered quietly. "I thought everyone was at the dance."
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jools From: [info]jools Date: December 12th, 2010 07:55 pm (UTC) (Link)
"Can't be bothered," she replied simply. She almost had the puzzle pieced together. It seemed like one piece was off somewhere, enough so that she couldn't slide the last chunk in.

She didn't know who he was exactly, but she knew he was a Sonnier. That was like a solid recommendation so far as she was concerned. "And you?" she asked after a deeply awkward moment. She decided it was rude to ignore him and while that didn't ordinarily bother her there was no real need to be that way tonight.
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From: [info]spiceitup Date: December 12th, 2010 08:02 pm (UTC) (Link)
"Um... hiding." He decided the truth was the way to go. "There's a Lalaurie out there jonesing for my blood. So uh... if a green-haired girl comes to the entrance..." Run. Run very far away and hide. "Yeah." He shook his head.

"It's. Julian, right?" Bobby was sure there was a senior girl with a boy's name in his house.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
jools From: [info]jools Date: December 12th, 2010 08:21 pm (UTC) (Link)
"Smart boy," she said with the tiniest hint of a smug smile. "I should tell her I haven't seen you then?"

That little bit of smile was rubbed out almost immediately. "Jools, please and thank you." She couldn't fault him for knowing her name, but what an agitation to be called Julian. "And you are?" she asked if only to change the subject from herself.
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From: [info]spiceitup Date: December 12th, 2010 08:29 pm (UTC) (Link)
Bobby smiled awkwardly. Obviously she didn't like being called Julian-- he understood though, whenever someone called him 'Robert' he felt like he was in trouble.

"Sorry. Jools. I'm Bobby. And thanks." It was a little embarrassing that he was getting girls to defend him against Emilie, but, hey, if it worked... He turned to leave, but then stopped, unable to help himself.

"It's the bottom piece, by the way."
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jools From: [info]jools Date: December 12th, 2010 08:36 pm (UTC) (Link)
"You don't have to thank me, Bobby." Chances were that if the green haired devil showed up she wouldn't say anything to her at all.

"I'm sorry?" she asked forgetting for a moment that she had a puzzle in her hands. She pulled out the bottom piece and turned it 45 degrees before sliding it back into place. The last piece fit now and she let Bobby see one of her rare, genuine smiles. "Thank you."
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From: [info]spiceitup Date: December 12th, 2010 08:43 pm (UTC) (Link)
He smiled back at her, a little crookedly. Some of his housemates could be particularly bitchy if you tried to help out with a problem or offer critique. It was a kind of pride that came with all of the housemates shared intelligence. Bobby tried to stay out of it mostly, but sometimes he just couldn't hold himself back. Jools took it well, and he decided he liked her.

"It's cool. I've got a stash of them in my room if you want to try them sometime."
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jools From: [info]jools Date: December 12th, 2010 08:50 pm (UTC) (Link)
She probably would have figured out the puzzle eventually. Ordinarily she'd have been annoyed at someone offering help without her asking for it, but she seemed to be in an odd mood tonight. The help wasn't ingratiating for once.

"It's just something my mom picked up," she said holding up the puzzle to examine. "I spend more time playing sudoku and doing crosswords. Chess is my forte." It was no secret, Jools was aces as chess and an integral part of the chess club.

"Up for a round?" she challenged with an uplifted eyebrow. She had a nice chess set in her room she could go fetch.
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From: [info]spiceitup Date: December 13th, 2010 04:43 am (UTC) (Link)
"Um, sure! I'm not really good at it though; you'll cream me so fast you won't even have fun."

Actually, Bobby was pretty good at chess, on a normal scale. But in Sonnier House, and especially when compared to a champion of the Chess Club, he was a complete amateur. He could never see enough moves in advance to give them the slightest challenge.

Crosswords, though. "It'd be cool if they could make word games and stuff multi-player or team sports. I'd kick ass in cryptic crossword Olympics." Now that was a ridiculously awesome idea.
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jools From: [info]jools Date: December 14th, 2010 02:05 am (UTC) (Link)
"Maybe I'll have fun creaming you," she replied rising from the couch.

She smiled back at him. "How about competition scrabble?" She waited for an answer before dashing off to her room for the chess set. She returned and set it up on a small end table between two chairs. "Black or white?"
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From: [info]spiceitup Date: December 15th, 2010 12:42 pm (UTC) (Link)
"That'd be awesome." Awesome was 12 points. 62 if it was the first word on the board and you used all of your tiles to make it. Even more if you hit a score square.

When she returned, he scooted instantly into one of the offered chairs, folding his legs up underneath him protectively. "I like white, but it's your set. Your call."
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jools From: [info]jools Date: December 15th, 2010 09:26 pm (UTC) (Link)
"I'll play either." She ended up playing either side often enough. She flipped the board and opened the little drawer on her side. Pulling out all the black pieces she set her side up for play.

"You can go first," she offered. It was the nice thing to do if she was going to end up kicking his ass anyway.
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From: [info]spiceitup Date: December 16th, 2010 02:48 pm (UTC) (Link)
"I tried to teach my sisters chess once," he told her conversationally as he moved a pawn forward. "They don't get it though. I tried to make it interesting for them, and told them about how the little farmers went off to tend the fields, and the bishops would come around all like 'hey you didn't pay your tithe' and then the knights would have to defend when the other farmers tried to barge in on their land--"

He stopped suddenly, mortified to realize he'd just told her about the ridiculous stories he'd made up about the inanimate chess pieces. At least he hadn't spilled that they made him play Pretty Pretty Princess with them instead.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
jools From: [info]jools Date: December 17th, 2010 12:02 am (UTC) (Link)
Jools grinned at Bobby's silly story. She laughed kindly and moved her pawn to counter. "You know Lewis Carroll wrote Through the Looking Glass drawing strongly on chess movements in his imagery and the progression of the novel. It's pretty brilliant to write a story following such a storied author." It was about as close to a compliment as Jools ever got.
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