The Innuendos meet Innocence

Will made his way to the lounge, bored. It was a quiet summer day, and he was glad for air conditioning. He had stepped outside to get to the lounge and the heat was nearly unbearable. Opening the door, he headed in, looking around. The last time he had been in here was the time he played Truth or Dare with a bunch of other students, with Dakota being the only one he'd known there. Oh crap. He still needed to pick up a few things so he could make Dakota those pizzas he had promised her when they met up at the bakery. He noticed that there wasn't anyone else in the lounge, which was nice. He enjoyed the peace and quiet, but at the same time he wanted people talking all around him. He preferred the hustle and bustle of teenage life over the quiet times when no one was around. The Autumn made his way to the couch and flopped onto one of the cushions. He picked up the TV remote and flicked on a random comedy that seemed overplayed. The boy didn't seem to mind how often it had been shown, as he laughed at all the jokes he'd already heard hundreds of times over the years.

Larissa had been busy doing almost nothing all day long. She sat in her room reading a book, watching movies and relaxing. It was one of the nicer days at Beata among the crazy students that she had no fond memories with. She wasn't trying to be killed today, so that was a plus. However, as the day progressed, she grew hungry and the only snack machine available was in the lounge. Grabbing some money off of her desk, she slipped on some slippers and walked down the hallway, opening the door without a second thought. Normally people weren't in here at this time of day, but as she practically barged in, she froze in the doorway when she saw that someone else was, in fact, inside and watching television. Immediately thinking she was interrupting something, she looked at him apologetically. "Oh, sorry!" she said. "I didn't think anyone would be in here..." She was, however, still determined to get that snack.

Will's head turned when he heard the doors open. "Oh no worries! I'm just watching a little TV. Don't let me stop you. In fact, you can join me if you'd like." he said, shrugging. She was cute, in an innocent way. Maybe he could charm her. He hadn't had the best luck with girls since he'd gotten here. It was probably because he didn't make it public that he had a lot of money. He turned the volume down on the TV in case the girl did decide to join him.

When he had said that it was okay, Larissa began moving again. She just figured she was going to get her snack and be on her way. Nothing too hard. She moved to the machine and inserted her dollar, waiting for it to load and register the money. As she did, she listened to the boy speak and instantly froze when he had suggested she join him. Wait, what? Did she hear him right? Suddenly forgetting all about her snack, she turned to face the boy once again, taking in exactly what he looked like. He looked nice enough and at least somewhat sincere about his offer. "Oh, uh, me? You sure? I don't want to intrude on your show or anything," she told him. "I mean... I'm not... Um, as long as you, uh, promise you won't try to fight me? I don't think I could deal with that again..." she rambled, sinking down between her slumped shoulders the longer she spoke, almost in an uncertain or self conscious kind of way. She had been and seen way too many fights since she got here which wasn't too long ago. Now she barely went anywhere without her twin brother. This just happened to be one of those off chances she met someone by herself since her fight with Freya.

Will thought that request was strange. Fight her? Why would he want to do that? "That's an odd question, but no, I won't fight you. Not sure why I'd want to, you're cute." he said, laughing. Getting up, he headed over to the vending machine, grabbing a dollar from his wallet and buying a bag of miniature chocolate chip cookies. He pulled open the bag as he grabbed a cookie. "So whaddya say? Care to join me?" he asked, winking.

As soon as he answered her, she realized just how stupid that question sounded. She tried not to show the sudden embarrassment that flushed in her cheeks, forgetting about her question as her brain tried to comprehend the fact that he just called her cute. Looking down at herself to figure out what made her look cute, she glanced back up to see him getting off of the couch and walking toward her. Oh great, did she do something wrong? What was he getting up for? He was getting closer... What was she supposed to do? Instead of doing anything, she simply froze in place as he walked closer and just as quickly passed her to get to the snack machine. With a small sigh of relief, she stepped out of the way so that he could get what he wanted. After he had gotten his cookies, she could only look at him bewildered as he was still pretty set on her joining him. Well, that was until the clanging of coins in the machine snapped her out of it. "Oh, um, thanks? I, uh... think my dollar was still in the machine..." Reaching down quickly, she grabbed the quarters from the coin return and quickly shoved them back in, grabbing a small bag of fruit snacks. With a small breath, she closed her eyes and smiled timidly. "I-I mean, if you're okay with it. I think I can sit down for a little bit. Not too long, though. I need to get back to my room."

Will hadn't realized that the girl hadn't gotten her snack before he heard quarters smack the coin return tray. "Whoops. Sorry." he said, shrugging. "And it's no trouble to me, I promise. I welcome company. Especially company that's pretty like you." he said, moving back over to the couch. He munched on a few cookies as he sat down, patiently waiting to see if the girl was going to sit down with him.

Her gaze shifted to the ground for a moment as he spoke, but she quickly looked back up at him with a small smile before he moved back to his spot on the couch. Only when he began walking away did she actually catch what he had said. Her face suddenly turning a bright red, she had to keep her place just to make sure that she didn't do something stupid and make him see her like this. It was weird. For just a moment, she felt her heart flutter, but she couldn't figure out why. Was it the attention or...? She couldn't have already started liking this guy. They'd been talking for all of two minutes. "Oh okay," she said, slightly anxious as she shuffled her feet across the floor with the fruit snacks held tightly in her hands. She walked around to the other side of the couch and carefully sat down, carefully glancing at Will as she did so but making sure he didn't see her looking. When she was sitting, she pulled her knees tight against her chest and fiddled with the bag until it popped open. "S-So--" she paused, clearing her throat. "So what's your name? I'm Larissa."

He could tell by how she was acting and by the way she was talking that he had made her flustered. He smiled and looked over to Larissa. "I'm Will. It's nice to meet you." he replied. Grabbing the remote, he started flipping through channels. "Is there anything you like to watch? There's not much I can find." he asked her, munching on some more cookies. He tossed the remote to be closer to her so she could choose.

That was a nice name. It was a common name, but it just seemed to fit him. She didn't think too much on it, though, before he tossed the remote her way. Turning her attention to it, she simply stared at it for a short time as if she had never seen a remote before. She really had no idea what to watch either. I like to watch a lot of movies," she told him. It was true. She never really watched actual television shows. She preferred Disney movies and other cute, happy, or romantic films. Nonetheless, she picked up the remote and began flipping through the channels herself, finding almost nothing of interest. Well, that was until she managed to pass by a channel playing a movie that caught her attention. "Oh wait! What was that?" she quickly flipped back to it, finding a cutesy little movie that she had seen a couple of times. She was pretty sure she last saw it when she was little, but it was interesting. She got into it pretty quickly before she remembered that she wasn't alone. Glancing over at the boy she just met, she shrunk back slightly. "Oh, uh, is this okay to watch? You were here first. I don't want to just... take over or anything."

Will shrugged. "This is fine with me." he said. He leaned down onto the cushions of the couch so his head was almost touching Larissa. "So. How's your time been here at Beata so far?" he asked, winking. He glanced over at the movie, pretending to watch it. Most of his attention was on the girl. She seemed really nervous, so he was trying to get her to open up a bit. He felt like he could have some fun with Larissa.

For a second, Larissa didn't think much of him moving until he asked her about Beata. She glanced over and saw him not on the other side of the couch but lying practically right next to her, staring up at her with a wink before he had turned to look at the movie. With the sudden lack of space between them, the summer tensed up as her mind and heart began to race. She really had absolutely no idea how to deal with this. Should she go along with it and hope he was being sincere about everything or call him out on crap he's trying to pull? "It's been, um... pretty terrible, actually," she finally said, ultimately giving Will the benefit of the doubt. "Classes are kind of boring and... basically everyone I've met has tried to kill me, so..." Her voice trailed off, not really knowing how to finish the sentence. Instead, she grabbed a handful of her fruit snacks and quickly popped them in her mouth as her toes curled in on the edge of the couch. She was pretty uncomfortable in her current situation but as she spoke, her voice began to relax.

Will frowned when she said her time at Beata was bad. "Wait, people have tried to kill you?" he asked. "What sort of psycho would try to kill someone, especially someone as nice as you?" He couldn't believe what she had said. "Where were the prefects? Or any of the teachers? Or Nathaniel effing Wright for Christ's sake!" he added. What kind of school allowed their students to fight to the death in the middle of their school? What kind of school allowed students to fight outside of regulation areas? He was flabbergasted. He couldn't understand the lack of authority at Beata Academy. "That's just... ridiculous!"

Larissa glanced over at Will with a bit of surprise covering her face. She wasn't expecting that kind of reaction at all. At this point, she had been pretty sure that fighting was just a normal occurrence at this school. His shock was shocking to her, but it was nice that someone felt the same way that she did. "I wish I knew," she replied, talking about the teachers and prefects. "There was almost a fight that broke out on the roof once... There were a bunch of people there. Some girl had electricity and there was ice and some girl who was able to pull weapons out of nowhere. That was the same girl who had... uh, she had forced me to 'spar' her after I first got here." It was obvious that Larissa was finally beginning to relax. Her whole body seemed to sink more comfortably into the couch as her gaze shifted to the ground. "Since then I've tried avoiding people... and sticking with my brother. I can't exactly control my power just yet, and I don't want to hurt anyone."

Will sighed audibly and shook his head. "That's ridiculous." he repeated. How could the staff members allow this? At least she had a brother. They were always super protective of their sisters. Which might cause a problem if he got this night to go the way he wanted. "So this brother of yours, does he protect you from these fights? Or does he prevent them altogether by just being around you?" he asked.