tour de mshs

who: eben and drea
where: MSHS
when: mid day

Eben was wandering the halls of MSHS after the bell had long since rang, half wondering if he wanted to go to the music room to write some of the tune he'd vaguely had in the back of his mind, or the art room to start looking at some prints. Either way, he was a little hampered, because his arm was still in a sling. He didn't count the fact that he was vaguely high from is pain meds as being terribly 'hampering'. Mostly it just made him feel slightly more disconnected than usual, and while he generally didn't go for that, it wasn't the end of the world. He was feelin pretty good, all said. He saw up ahead a girl he'd never seen before. She looked sort of like she was trying to figure out where she was going.

So! Eben decided to be of service. "Hello." he said with a serene sort of smile as he got closer to her. "Who are you, beautiful girl who looks lost?" he asked.

Drea and her father had arrived fairly late the night before, dumping their small amount of possessions in the empty living room and crashing out immediately. He'd gotten her up godawful early and insisted they go get her registered for school. Why that couldn't wait for a day or two was beyond her, but she went with minimal grumbling. "Gotta move fast here, kiddo. You school, me job, that's how it works," he'd said. So she went and they'd done that, and he'd gone on to go job-hunting while she wandered around the school until she decided to go home. As she didn't officially start until the next day, Drea figured it to be a good idea.

And then someone was talking to her. She turned around, eyebrows already raised at the word 'beautiful' apparently aimed in her direction. But she looked around just in case. "Huh?" she asked the prettyboy with the sling, looking confused.

He continued smiling as he walked up to her. "I said 'hello, who are you, beautiful girl who looks lost?'" he repeated himself for her. "Are you lost? If you're not, sorry for intruding. But if you are, I might be able to help you find where you're going, or something. I'm Eben." he introduced himself, holding out his good hand for her.

Okay that was twice then. She hadn't misheard him. Drea looked at Eben like he had two heads. She noted that he smelled interesting as he approached. Kind of like ... warm blankets and charcoal combined. She glanced down at his hand before she reached out and shook it with her own. "I'm Drea, hi," she said, trying to muster up some normalcy. God, not even her first day and she probably looked retarded. "I'm not ... I mean, I guess I'm lost, 'cause this is my first look around, but it's not like I'm really going anywhere specific, so maybe not."

He shook her hand, and then drew it up to kiss the back of it, just because he happened to be in a pleasant mood, and he felt like it. Then he of course let it go. "Pleased to meet you." he said, sounding very genuine. He liked new people. "If you need to know where anything is, I can show you. I'm not busy." Plus, he had a pass for the next hour, so he wouldn't get in trouble. Most teachers never even stopped to ask him anymore, he just haunted the art and music rooms, occasionally drama.

Drea had to bite her lip on a laugh when he kissed the back of her hand. Nobody had ever done that before, and it kinda tickled, and she felt his peircings when he did and that was kind of weird. This was quite an introduction to the male population of MSHS, fuckin' A. "Um ..." she said, at a loss for a second. Then pulled a folded peice of paper out of her back pocket and offered it to him.. "These are my classes, so ... I guess those would be the best place to start?"

Eben smiled happily at her, and took the schedule, awkwardly unfolding it with his one hand. "Oh these should be easy to find." he told her reassuringly. "Your third hour is just up the hall right there, the door next to the blue lockers." he informed her. "Let's see...this way." he said, nodding for her to turn back the way he'd been coming, to lead her in that direction.

She followed along, looking around as she did so. Part of her mind was still 'wtf'ing over the hand-kiss and 'beautiful', but she was starting to write it off as him probably just being one of those flirty kinds of guys. Nothing wrong with that, even if it wasn't aimed in her direction often. But she was in a new place now, he didn't know her like the boys she grew up with did. Eben. What kind of name was that? "I was just worried about getting here tomorrow and like, racing all around the halls trying to find shit," she said, for something to say.

"Well now you won't have to. So where are you from?" he asked curiously, pointing out another classroom to her, and again giving her a sort of marker so she could remember it better. This door was down from the cheerleading display. "Have you been in town long?" he asked. She didn't look injured, like he was, so that was a good sign. Maybe she'd missed out on all the other weirdness.

"Just got in last night, actually," she answered, making note of what he pointed out. "I'm from Chicago, actually. Which is like ... not that far and worlds away at the same time." She wrinkled her nose up a little bit, but wasn't going to launch into asking him why everything seemed like Mayberry gone to hell and the streets were mostly deserted so far. "What happened to your arm?" was her question instead.

"I've been through there before." Eben said. "We didn't stay though." he added. "But cool. It'll be an adjustment, going from a big city to around here though...there's really not a lot going on, and nothing nearby that does either. Which I'm sure you probably already noticed and all. Apologies if you're bored here." he said, sounding like he meant it, and he did. "And oh, there was..." he started, automatically going for the truth before he kind of figured maybe that wasn't so good. "There was a break in at my house, and my family got attacked." he said. Which was the truth! Only it wasn't a someone that had attacked, it was a something. And they hadn't so much broke in as came in through mirrors.

"Oh my god!" she said, sounding shocked about that, because she was. Sure, it happened sometimes in her neighborhood -- though most of the solid families there knew each other, it wasn't a terribly dangerous place -- but it was still kind of a big thing to hear. Especially here, despite the recent newsworthy shit that had gone on. From what she'd understood, that had been outsiders coming in. "Are they okay? I mean, like, your arm, but your family and stuff?"

"My dad got off pretty light, my mom was in the hospital overnight though." he answered her. "And it's okay, really. We'll all be fine. My shoulder got dislocated and my elbow's sprained, and I've got like...stitches everywhere but I'm okay. I've got good pain meds." he told her with a reassuring smile. He didn't want her to worry.

"Holy shit," she said with wide, worried eyes. Sure, she'd just met the dude, but that sounded awful. Maybe the meds accounted for the spacey kind of look he had. "All that for them like ... trying to jack your TV or whatever? Was that what it was? Goddamn man, people are fucked up sometimes, I'm telling you. I'm sorry to hear that, that's fifteen kinds of shitty."

"It's okay, we were all okay." Eben told her, sort of sidestepping the question on intent of the break in. "I'm not really one to dwell. I'm fine, I'll be a little laid up for a while, but I'm not dead or permanently damaged or anything, so I'm calling it good." he said. "So, thank you, but all's well. You're really very sweet, aren't you? That's nice, most people aren't anymore, but you definitely are. Where are you living? What do you do for fun?" he asked, pointing out another classroom for her.

Drea didn't think of herself as sweet. More like kind of a mouthy bitch sometimes, but that didn't mean she liked hearing about people's moms getting hurt. All moms should be like ... okay, all the time, for other people. So that had her blinking a little, again. "It's ... a couple blocks away, hell, I don't even know the name of the street yet. But walking distance, so I'll be doing a lot of that. Um ... I play hockey and skateboard and a little soccer but I'm not great at it. Like to go hiking and stuff. You?"

"There's the Iron Range hockey stuff going on, if you do that." Eben said. "If you got into it, I'd go to a game to watch you play." he added. "My friend Gabe plays hockey too. You should talk to him. I like to go hiking. There's a lot of trails around here. Really nice ones, if you ever wanted to go, we could. Might have to be soon though, snow'll hit sometime here." Then he paused and thought. "I'm an artist, I suppose." he answered. "Kind of everything. Music, painting, sculpture, drawing...everything."

Okay, either flirty or just ... really friendly. If he was offering to go to games to see her already, and go hiking with her. She wasn't sure if he was hitting on her or not, it was really hard to tell. It sounded like maybe an offer he'd make to anyone, but not insincere at the same time. "Really?" she said, trying to refocus. "Do you play anything? Instruments, I mean." She sang sometimes, though she wasn't going to admit it.

"Sort of? But not overwhelmingly well. If you want someone who's brilliant musically, talk to Thom Harkin. He's usually in the music room. He rewrites a lot of my music for the hell of it." he added. "I just write things he makes them better. I like playing different instruments, I just don't know that wide a range. Plus, currently instrument playing isn't in the cards." he said indicating his arm.

She tried to make a note of the name, but thought she probably wouldn't remember it. Maybe just that there was a guy in the music room who was a genius. Which gave her the funny mental image that he was chained up in there, forced to entertain people and rewrite their songs. "That's cool though, that you're into so much. I suck at art, stick figures are about as good as it gets," she offered with a wry little smile. " ... hope that heals up fast for you, though."

"Thanks. I'm sure it'll be fine." Eben said, giving her a genuine smile. "There you go being sweet and concerned again. I like you." he decided. He pointed out another classroom for her. "If you ever want to find me around, I'm in the art room, the music room, or the theater. At least, generally speaking. I spend most of my time there."

Drea had never had anybody really say it like that before. She looked at him sideways, a bit weirdly. Who said that? Just 'I like you', after five minutes of chatting? It was just something you realized was true, not that you said out loud to people you didn't know. Unless you were Eben With The Fucked Up Arm, apparently. She looked at the classroom and wondered if he was like this to everybody. "Well ... thanks. And okay, I'll remember that. I dunno where I'll be yet, but I'll be ... around."

"Cool. Did you want my number or anything? If you needed to know where something was, or just wanted to hang out, or whatever." he offered, not sounding like he was trying to push it, just that it was an offer should she want to take it. There wasn't any indication that he'd be offended if she didn't take it, either. "Your last hour is up there by the stairs." he added, pointing it out. "I don't think you'll have to do any mad dashes from one end of the school to the other, so that's probably good."

He was catching her by surprise way too often. "Um." She looked up to where he indicated her last class would be, and nodded a little. "Yeah, sure, why not. I don't um ... have one to give back, though. I dunno what our number's gonna be at the house." She looked a little chagrined at that, wrinkling her nose a touch. She definitely didn't have a cell phone. "Thanks, though ... for showing me around and everything."

"You're welcome." he said easily, smiling at her brightly. Then he paused and dug a charcoal pencil out of his back pocket, and he wrote his number and name on the back of her schedule, doing it awkwardly against a locker. "Here you go. That's my cell, in case you want to call me for some reason." he told her, handing both back.

She took it, looked at it, and nodded, carefully folding the thing back up where it wouldn't smudge all to hell. Then tucked it into her back pocket again. Did she leave now? Continue to pal around with him? Ask to see something else? He was kind of cute, in that really pretty way boys sometimes were. Not that that really meant anything, it was just an observation. He just looked like an artist. "So um ... you're not supposed to be in class right now?" she asked with a little grin.

He grinned back at her. "I was on my way to the art room, I was going to look at some prints I made, I think. Would you like to come with me?" he asked, offering her his non-injured arm. He wouldn't mind the company. "I kinda come and go through other classes, mostly I'm allowed to live in the art room." he informed her. "The dark room specifically."

"That's like ... nice of them," she said, eyeing the offered arm for a second. She took it after that hesitation, putting her arm through it a little awkwardly. That was possibly another first, at least when it wasn't a huge joke. But it wasn't like she didn't have anything better to do, so escorted all gentleman-like to the art room it was.

Eben started to lead her along, the art room not that far from where they were. "I've got pictures of my friend Anastasia to go through, you can help me pick out the ones I put into a portfolio for her, if you would like." he said, never minding outside opinions on anything. Plus, Eben was always willing to roll with whatever. "I know that I should go with color shots a lot, especially for her, but I like the black and white ones, so you might need to tell me to quit being monochromatic."

Monochromatic? she repeated in her head, and tried to think if she knew what that meant. Probably black and white, out of context. "Sure," she said with a faint chuckle. "Dunno how good my taste is when it comes to photography, but I'd like to see 'em. I always wanted to get into some kinda art, but I never knew like ... what to try that I wouldn't totally suck at." She looked around as she walked with him, thinking she probably looked ridiculous on his arm, but hey. It wasn't too bad.

"Try everything! Then you could discover that you're good at everything." he told her warmly, pushing the door open to the art room, and waving at the teacher and a few students as he walked her through to the supplies room. In there was the door to the dark room, and he walked in, seeing the door open. He turned the normal lights on. "Here we go." he said, starting to look for his portfolio against the back wall.

"Doubt it," she said with a faint chuckle. Drea blinked a little as they seemed to walk right in on a class and pass through, but at least like ... nobody was really talking or anything. And Eben seemed to know what the fuck he was doing, so she went along with that, trusting that either he did, or they were gonna get kicked out. She let go of his arm as they walked into the dark room, looking around curiously. She was far more acquainted with locker rooms, and was kind of wary of touching anything. "So ... are you a senior?" she asked, since he seemed to have a bit of freedom.

"Me? Oh, no. I'm a Junior. I just haunt the art departments of any description. I'm told I'm good, I suppose." he answered her. Then he found what he was looking for, and walked it over to the counter, setting it down and opening it up. "Now...let's see, what's actually looking halfways decent..." he said, starting to spread prints out. "Any catching your eye? Anastasia's interesting because her eyes are different colors. Or, that's one reason."

Her fingers linking behind her back, Drea made her way over to the table to look. An artist she was not, but that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate it when art was in front of her. And they were really pretty shots. "Oh these are good," she said in a quiet murmur, as though talking in her normal tone might upset the shots or something. She unhooked her fingers to point at one in particular that caught the sun and the pretty girl's eyes very well. "I like that one," she said, not getting anywhere close to touching it.

Eben smiled, watching her reaction to the shots as opposed to looking them over himself. "Thank you." he said. He only moved his gaze when she chose one, and he reached out and picked it up, holding it so both of them could see it. "Nice choice. I liked this one as well. But then I like sun flares. And she sort of makes it pretty easy for things to look great, since she does. I imagine any pictures I took of you would be the same." he added in a thoughtful sort of manner.

Cue more blinking. Drea looked over at his profile and felt a bit of color come into her cheeks. Then, as a cover, she snorted a bit of laughter and shook her head. "Nah, I'm not ... photogenic, really. I always end up making weird smiles, even if I don't mean to." She looked back at the prints, intent on pretending that little exchange didn't really happen. "That one should go in too. Her hair looks good." She wondered if this chick was his girlfriend or something. She looked a little older, but ... yeah, pretty. Girly-pretty.

"Lots of people do if they're just like...looking at the camera, being told to smile." Eben said easily. "I don't really do that with my subjects. I'd rather get shots that are a lot more natural? Not just a 'here look at me and say cheese' type of photograph. I want something a little..." he paused, trying to think of a good word. "Deeper." he settled on, though he didn't know if that quite was right. But it was what he had. He took the other shot she chose, dutifully.

" ... so do you just kind of follow her around and take pictures? Or like, anybody? I mean, like, saying all 'just act natural' and shit, like you see photographers doin' in movies?" She asked it with a hint of a smile, because she actually could see him doing that. Though she was still positive that she'd feel completely self-conscious if she knew there was a camera around that had her name on it. Unless she was playing hockey or something. ... which sounded like an idea he'd possibly be into, so she didn't suggest it.

He laughed. "Sometimes?" he suggested. "Not a lot. Most of the time, really, what I wind up doing is finding a subject, asking permission, then going anywhere they're most comfortable. Or someplace neutral, like the carnival when that was in town. The park, home, wherever. She chose her house. Then, I just kind of...let them do whatever. Sure I give little bits of direction, but mostly I let them come up with what's going on. She wanted to be outside, so we went to her back yard. That kinda thing."

"That's cool," Drea said, her smile spreading a bit. Yeah, not ever something she could probably do, but hey. If it worked for other people, that was awesome. "They really turned out well," she added, because they had. She linked her fingers behind her back again, just looking at what he had spread out. She'd picked out two, that was probably enough for her untrained eye.

Eben picked out a couple more, then put the rest back. "Thank you. Some people just make it really easy. All I do is capture a moment. They're really the ones who make the shot." he added. "Thank you very much for your help." he added to her, smiling again. "It's appreciated."

She chuckled a bit and shrugged a shoulder. "Nothin' doin', it was easy. I hope she likes 'em," she said, still half-wondering if it was a girlfriend of some description. Not that she cared. Because it didn't matter. Her fingers fidgeted for a second; she wasn't sure where to go from there. This whole getting-to-know-people-from-scratch thing was going to suck. "So hey, though, if I want cheap senior pics or something, I know who to come to, right? Unless you charge ... 'cause you could, not saying they wouldn't be worth much or anything, just those studios like to screw you as hard as possible and you don't seem that way and ... yeah." Whoo, ramble.

"Oh, I don't charge." Eben said immediately. "Would you even trust me to do that? I really would, I'd love to." he added, liking that idea. "So if you're serious, sign me up. No problem at all. I have my own equipment and such. I develop here, but...you'd be able to be in on the process and everything." he added. "So, that might be nice for you, I'm not sure. I don't do digital though." he added. Or he had one, he just didn't like it very much.

"Oh well I mean, I'm just a sophomore, so it'd be a couple years," she said with a slightly nervous laugh. Really, she'd only been half serious. There really weren't many pictures of her in her possession anyway, and she didn't think her dad would be chomping at the bit to get any. He just wasn't a ... portrait-having kind of guy. They took up too much wasted space in a backpack.

"That's a shame, I was kinda looking forward to that. Well, if you decide you want to humor me and let me take pictures of you, that'd be cool, just let me know?" Eben suggested, but there was a note to his voice that said he didn't in the least bit expect an answer right now. He wasn't putting her on the spot. "And if you need help navigating this place, I can do that too, if I haven't shown you where your classes are well enough." he added.

"You did a great job, I'm sure I'll remember for at least the first five minutes I'm here tomorrow, until I get hella-flustered and lost," she said with an amiable grin. "So if you're out wandering again and you hear me trying to find my way out of a broom closet, you can show me your mad directional skills again." She glanced down at her watch and straightened up some. "Shit, sorry to cut and run on you, but my dad's due back out front in like, five. So I'll catch you later, yeah? Thanks, uh ... for the offer and the tour and lookin' at pictures and stuff," she said, making a gesture toward his portfolio.

"You're welcome!" Eben said brightly. "It was very nice to meet you, Drea, and I hope to see you around school. If you're bored at lunch or whatever, I'm usually in here somewhere. See you around." he said, giving her a big, genuine smile.

"Yeah okay thanks, you too," she said, moving toward the door. God, not even her first day, and already there was a (cute) dude walking around calling her beautiful and offering to be a lunch partner and everything. "I'll be around, so I'm sure you will. See me, I mean. With the attendance." She opened the door and went to back out of it as she was talking, and ended up bumping into it instead. Drea let out a laugh and shook her head, going properly out. "Bye, thanks!"