Winter can be Warm l Open

The air was still a bit cold, winter hadn't quite finished itself off. But Lady sat on a bench on the courtyard bundled up nice and tight with his face glowing red from the cold biting at his cheeks and nose. He was bopping side to side from the song stuck in his head, as if he had earbuds in and was playing it at that moment. The movement warmed him and the puffs of warm air coming from his lips indicated this. As he bopped he worked on something, sitting with the notebook on his lap.

Charlotte walked out to the school's courtyard, hugging her oversized pink cardigan closer to herself when she was met by the cool wind that blew through the yard.  She had resolved to try and make friends as best she could; after all, she knew all too well how awful it feels to be alone in a new place.
She used a hand to push up her red glasses and scan the courtyard for pontential candidates.  Nearly everyone she saw either didn't look friendly or was too busy with something else to notice anything.  Charlotte sighed, letting out a small puff of steam into the air in front of her.
Finally, she decided to sit next to a lone boy on a bench who seemed to be working on something.  She sat down on the bench almost as far away from the other student as it would allow and looked over at him.  He was absorbed in his notebook but Charlotte proceeded with a greeting anyways.
"'Sup?  I'm Charlotte, I'm, uh, new here,"  She tried her best to be polite; people often got the wrong idea about her because of her New York accent.

The wind was still bitter and cold, but Lady didn't mind in his thick, black cardigan, bright pink sweater popping out from underneath. His white scarf topped it off with his classic jeans and black converse, making sure his outfit matched completely. He wasn't immune to the cold this way, but it certainly had less of an effect on him.

For a moment he didn't notice the person next to him, but he knew he would have felt bad if he knew she had been there. But he was working on some very hard homework and concentration was key in this kind of situation. However, he was interrupted by the sound of an unfamiliar voice and he just had to know who it was.

"Hi! I'm Laden, but everyone calls be Lady. It's very nice to meet you. Did you arrive just now or have you been here a day or a few hours or something? His question was phrased awkwardly, but it was clear he didn't mind sounding awkward. He was confident in who he was and was glad to be making a new friend. He needed a break from his work anyway.

Charlotte crossed her legs and hunched over a little, holding her cardigan together to protect herself from the chilly air.  She squinted up at the student next to her as he introduced himself and asked a question.
"Lady, huh?  Cute nickname.  I suppose I'm not really new new here but I've only been at Beata for a couple weeks.  Haven't even got a house yet," She scoffed a little before asking him a question herself, "Whatcha up to?"
Charlotte shifted again, stretching her arms above her head.  She was rather tired; the cold weather had always made her want to just curl up in some blankets and nap all day.  Restless as usual, she began wiping off her glasses on her shirt even though they weren't exactly dirty.

The chilly air bit a bit at Lady's cheeks, but he ignored it. His arms were warm and that was really all that mattered. Though his hands and fingers felt like they might fall off any second, they were so numb he almost couldn't tell they were still attached.

"Thank you. Bullies from elementary school came up with it." He responded with a smile that clearly said that it was a nickname he embraced himself. The whole thing had started off as a joke, but now it was a nickname he would probably have for a long time. "Ahh, that's cool. I've been here since fall, but no house does mean you're still mostly new." He said with a small wink and a laugh. He remembered not having a house. It was boring.

"Just some homework. I figured I would be able to concentrate better out here. For the most part it's working, but I can no longer feel my fingers." He said with an awkward laugh at the end. Slowly he closed his notebook, tucked his pencil into a pocket, and rolled his sleeves up around his hands, balling them into fists and then tucking them under his arms and into the warmth of his armpits.

Charlotte replaced her glasses on her face and watched the student with renewed interest after his responses.  She leaned over and placed her chin on her fist as she continued the conversation:
"Heh, must be nice to be able to brush off bullying like that," She was all to familiar with bullies and her thick skin still wasn't resistant enough for her to be free of her insecurities brought upon by said bullies.  His seemingly rather nonchalant approach to such things was somewhat admirable and Charlotte couldn't hold back a smile.
She laughed a little at Lady's comment about his inability to feel his fingers, "Ah, no need to be a wuss, it ain't really that cold outside ya know,"  Charlotte had never been a fan of winter or the weather outside, but it never really bothered her.  In fact, her own fingers had begun to numb but she didn't bother to pay attention to them.
"So, uh, what house are you in then, Lady?"

The whole thing with the bullies and the nickname had been so long ago, he no longer viewed it as hard or difficult to do. But, if he recalled correctly, it hadn't been too easy as a kid. Though he had been an outgoing and friendly person as a kid, so it wasn't too big of a deal. "It wasn't all easy. I don't really remember how it went, but I actually liked it better than the nickname my dad gave me. He would call me lad, like Scottish people call their sons. I didn't like it that much since it suggested I was manly." Lady laughed at this. "I knew who I was and that I wasn't manly even when I was a kid, I guess." He said with a chuckle.

He also didn't like the word wuss, but he brushed it off as best he could and gave her a small smile. "There's only one problem there: I am a wuss. I fully embrace my wussiness." He said, mocking a proud tone and trying to pretend he didn't hate the word wuss. "I guess you might not think it's cold, but I definitely do." He thought temperature was a matter of opinion. Not the actual temperature, of course that was fact. But whether a temperature was cold, hot, or warm was really up to the individual person. Plus, Lady had no insulation and was easily cold.

"I'm in autumn. Is there any one house you hope to get into?" He asked, curious. Sometimes people did have a preference, he wondered if she did.