Artistically Inclined

Who: Eben and Sammy
Where: Art class
When: Second period after lunch

Art class was always nice, but today art class was like a little oasis in the sea of rumors that were circulating around the school halls. The paint and crayon and just…art smells in general were calming and Sammy was just sitting calmly, ignored by all the other art students, working on a project that seemed to consist of a lot of wire and a rabbit totem, with maybe a couple of beads here and there. Not girly beads, just…cool, tribal type beads. The conversations rose and fell in pitch around him but for the first time today he ignored them, deciding he didn’t want to hear anymore rumors about Isaac and some random girl, or about Chrissy, or about anything. At least not from people who had probably heard it from a friend, who’d heard it from a sister, and whatever. The point was there was a lot of it and it all seemed to be continuing to mutate and form into even weirder rumors.

Eben was sitting at his table, going over prints he'd just gotten processed the other day, and he was choosing which ones he wanted to put into his portfolio. He certainly had a lot to choose from, a wide variety, as he'd had nicely willing models of late. So that was a plus. Either way, he glanced up when he noticed Sammy, and he smiled. "Hi!" he said brightly.

Sammy gave him a sleepy wave in reply, picking up his supplies and moving to Eben’s table – sitting with the other boy would be better than sitting alone, and it’d be easier to tune everyone else out as well if he sat with him. As he set his stuff down on the table one of his braids caught in the collar of his shirt and he hooked it back out as he sat down beside the chaos elemental. Hi, He finally returned, looking with interesting at the pictures Eben was going through.

"What's up?" Eben asked. "How've you been? Haven't seen you around in a bit, I was starting to worry." he added, smiling at Sammy again as he seperated out a shot or two into the 'maybe' pile.

Not much is up, if you don’t listen to gossip, but if you do, then a lot, He rubbed a hand at the back of his neck, eyes following the shots that had made it into the ‘maybe’ pile before flickering back to the others again. But I’ve been good, just…keep missing art class somehow, though I’d much rather miss math, or chemistry, you know? How’ve you been?

"I've been good." he said. "Some ups and downs, but life is full of those. And I keep hearing gossip, but I never pay that much attention to it." Eben admitted. "Though I did notice you were featuring, weirdly. No one's bothering you over things, are they? It's all just talk, no one's getting in your face or the like?"

Sammy stopped working with the metal and beads for a moment, shoulder rising in a noncommittal shrug at Eben’s question before he finished twisting off the wire he was currently working with before it could poke him in the thumb. Then he reached for his pen again. Only one person, but they were easy to ignore so it’s, like, pfft, whatever, right? Well, one, maybe two, maybe more people, and his English teacher’s glare had been worse than ever today. I’m not gonna let people make me feel bad when I had a good time. It’d be stupid.

"It would be! I'm glad you're not letting people get you down. They can be kind of moronic, this place in general kind of has that going on. But that's because they're not used to anything different, ever. I'm sure they'll get over it." Or, they kind of would. Eben knew from experience that he still occasionally got called things in the hall, he just never paid any attention.

“And if they don’t, it’s not like I care.” It was just…annoying. It was like they had nothing better to do, like worry about their own problems and issues. It made him want to turn up his music really loud just so he could block out all the stupidity around him some way or another. “You were at the dance, too, right?” He thought he’d seen him there, with a girl who smelled like a were as well the one time he’d been close to her. Not any type he’d smelled before, but a were nonetheless.

"I was!" Eben said brightly. "There's a new girl in school--really very nice, you should meet her. Drea? She wasn't going, and I wasn't going, so I asked her if she wanted to and she said yes. It was a nice time, she's a sweet kid." he said. "Other than weirdness, did you have a good time at the dance?"

Sounded kind of like how he’d invited Sasha, almost, except Sasha didn’t go to the same school – he didn’t go to any school, in fact – as they did, so that was different. But the whole not planning on going thing was practically the same, right? Sammy finished twisting another thing of wire around a brownish colored bead with etchings. Yeah, I did actually. I really like dancing, so that was awesome, and none of us were stressed since it wasn’t like we were in classes, and that was also awesome. Okay, so Chrissy had probably been stressed, but she hadn’t started out that way, she'd just wound up that way…

"Well, awesome then. A good time was had by all. Sounds excellent to me. How's everything else going with you?" Eben asked curiously, pausing to watch Sammy create...whatever it was he was creating. He often enjoyed watching others work, seeing what they put into things.

Everything else, aside from friends, sucks. Sammy admitted truthfully, looking back up at Eben, shrugging. I mean, I really don’t like my sister, and it’s mutual, so…yeah. It sucks. I make up for it by being out of the house as much as possible, and, He grinned, half of his mouth twitching upwards. …so far it’s working well.

Eben gave Sammy a sympathetic look. "That blows. Can you go stay someplace else?" he asked. "You wanna crash at my place sometimes? I mean it's not big and all, but you totally could. There'd be absolutely no problems with that." he said. With his parents...randomly having some other kid around wouldn't phase them. At all.

“She’s got custody, so it’s like she’s my parent without being my parent.” Sammy replied, shrugging. “If she wants me to stay with her, I really kind of have to, right? So it’s honestly not as bad as I’m making it out to be.” Right, totally not as bad. Lies, lies and untruths. Sammy grinned again. “But I might invade someday, since you gave me the green-light.”

"I don't know, depends on how old you are." Eben said thoughtfully. "Technically, at seventeen, even if you're not a legal adult yet, if you take off, the cops can't haul you back home." he said. It was kind of a loophole in the law locally. "But anyways, either way, crash over whenever you want, seriously, it's cool." he assured Sammy, and it was purely truthful. He really wouldn't mind. Might even be fun.

Won’t be seventeen until next year, Was Sammy’s answer as he made a partially disgusted face. But if I can find a way to get out of that house before then, I’m taking it. And…that was really enough discussion of things related to Helen and living with her for Sammy’s liking. He shifted in his seat, leaning forward so his elbows rested on the table they were using. Mind if I look at your photographs?