Rebel Mind (Roleplay Not Reserved)

Started by MagsCael, August 17, 2017, 10:53:39 PM

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MagsCael

Author's Note: Here's some background on this roleplay's concept: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=273130.msg13431464#msg13431464

Michael Underwood wore a smile of contentment -scratch that- pure satisfaction as he walked up the campus sidewalk.

It was only a few short years ago that the thought of something as normal as attending post-secondary school was anything but for Michael.
Highschool and a negative time seemed to be the stereotype and, much as Michael hated adding weight to those, that had been his experience too. Topped off with missed days for reasons not to his fault, Michael had fallen behind. But one thing he knew how to do (amidst all that it seemed he didn't) was how to work hard.

Giving it his all when his personal circumstances at last allowed him to, Michael set his sights forward in earnest. Breaking through the lack of encouragement from the faculty -well, most of the faculty- who seemed to think his efforts warranted only the proverbial pat on the head, Michael pulled up his grades adequately; a track scholarship bringing him the rest of the way.

"I wanna' thank everyone who ever told me 'no'," he sang quietly to himself before he strode towards the doors. . . . . .

* * *

That had been a few months ago now and Michael was singing a distinctly different tune. "When it comes to brains you got the short end of the stick."

Sitting at a table in the library for who knew how long, Michael was looking over an assignment he'd been freshly handed back with the grace of a do-over (perhaps from pure sympathy) as his thought expression had been notably sound -that was something, since thoughts didn't always come to him clearly- but he had, apparently, completely misunderstood what the assignment was supposed to be.

He had his carrier bag on the table to his right and a textbook open by his left arm. A piece of paper with the assignment copied down on it played the part of a bookmark. He probably seemed pretty old school for being all low tech in this century, but looks could be deceiving. In truth Michael kept his finger on the pulse of the tech world but didn't trust it for everything - too many glitches and power failures (okay, blame the latter on his memory) caused him to divorce his schoolwork from the computer. They had to meet occasionally, but did so on shaky terms.


Lifting the assignment page from the book, Michael held it in a lose fist by one corner and uttered under his breath as he read the words over again, carefully, as if dissecting the meaning of each one in strategy to tackle the whole.

His seal brown eyes shifted to the multiple pages in his other hand (fingers curled behind them instead of held flat) as he soundlessly read over his opening paragraph. . .His eyes narrowed as if just asked to find the difference between two circles and the next moment, Michael let everything fall from his hands to the table, running one of the former through his short yet full choco-coloured hair. "If failing this class means the end to my future, shoot me now."


lillyeyes

#1
Florence Vesly had finally gotten her family out of her dorm room, each having insisted on helping her move into her new home. She asserted to her parents, siblings, cousins, and all the rest of her family that she had it handled. Only two hands were needed to set up the dresser and hang the pictures, and find places for the small plants that could be moved from her garden. But she had caved at letting her mom and dad come along, agreeing that yes her father was better at setting furniture together then she was, and of course her mother had a key eye for interior design. Then she caved at letting one of her sisters come along, just to get a peek at where she would be staying, and once that got out then all the sisters wanted to come, then all the brothers. Which still could have been manageable if not necessary reasonable. Then one of her brothers had tried to rope one of their cousin into babysitting his son while he visited, which broke the dam of the rest of her family spilling into her new home.
    Finally she manged to shuffle her family out the door, saying yes yes she'd call every day, and oh don't worry she would not misbehave just because she was away, oh no she would not skip meals. She went to shut the door before anyone tried to get one more hug or kiss on the cheek in, but she wasn't quit quick enough and one aged, bejeweled hand slunk in and griped the edge of the door. Tempting as it would be just to close the door anyway, maybe slamming one of her grandmothers hands in the door just because she was frustrated would be a touch unreasonable. Just a touch mind you. She reluctantly opened the door wider and her grandmothers face pressed into the crack.
"Nana i'm sorry but im a little tired and there's class in the morning-" she was cut of by her grandmother poking her in between her eye.
"Shush little flo I'm not going to nag you over classes or boys, i'm just going to nag you over something more important." She said before slipping something into her hand and shoving it into Florence's face. Flo backed up a bit and saw it was a silver rosary, looking like the one her grandmother used every morning.
"Oh nana I can't take th-" she just manged to get out before she was prodded between the eyes again.
"If I wasn't sure about this I wouldn't have handed it to you. Now get some rest, you can't be a crab-apple on the first day.'
"I'm not be-" once again Florence was cut off, but this time with a kiss on the forehead. Her grandmother smiled gently one last time and closed the door, letting silence settle over her dorm. Florence sighed and admitted to herself that she was going to miss her family while she was away, but still getting time to just be her own person for a few years sounded like absolute heaven.


***months later***

Florence sighed and finally manged to get off the phone with her mother, and if she was really lucky she would get a few hours to study in the library without any interruptions. Scanning the crowd she noticed Micheal with his school work and made her way over to his table. She glanced over at him and noticed his expression.
"If you glare at that those papers any harder your eyes are gonna pop out" she teased.


   
   

MagsCael

#2
Michael got startled but recovered quick enough to quip: "Maybe that would help. Get an even closer look at things."

With a sigh, he added right afterwards: "Maybe I should just bag this class. Every other time feels like a new solid wall I'm bangin' my head against." He had ran his hand through his hair which turned out to be yet another mistake as his fingers involuntarily closed around his locks just as he was pulling away - pulling them instead. "Ow!" He gave a slight growl afterward, although with a glance back at the papers it was hard to say which he was growling at.

Michael really didn't want to drop a class. His scholarship didn't cover all expenses and though he had contributed what he could, even selling his prized bike, there was no forgetting the bulk of things was being covered by his parents, with supplement from his fraternal twin brother, even....As such, Michael had vowed to make the absolute most of his time here. Much as he enjoyed it for the independence, priority number 1 was learning. He would apply himself wholly to every class and get all that he could out of them.

But it was the story of his life all over again: application was only half of the formula.

"And how is your confidence fairing?" he asked in a lighter tone which belied his struggles, shifting the focus to Florence as much to take it off himself as to be considerate; moving his things aside some to welcome her with more space.

lillyeyes

#3
    She plopped her books down at the table and pulled at chair next to him, looking at him from the corner of her eye and tried to hide a grin. "I'd say a little better then your hair is doing right now," she joked and reached to smooth down his freshly pulled hair. She glanced down at the papers and squinted down at them.
   "I can't say I blame you though, If I were you i'd probably take my aggression out on something too." She tilted her head to the side a grimaced. "In fact I probably wouldn't have any hair left. Is that even English?" She began straightening the papers out, trying to add some element of order in the chaos, a trait left over from her mother and enforced by her grandmothers.
  "Have you tried asking anyone in your class if they can make heads or tails of this?" She asked given one last shuffle to the papers setting a some-what neat pile of papers back on the table.

MagsCael

Michael's mouth turned up on one side from her joke; a proper smile crossing his face as Florence took it upon herself to smooth his hair.

At her following comment though, there was more a trace of thoughtfulness in Michael's expression. Taking out his aggression hadn't been the cause of his hair pull, but he was glad she thought so.

Then he sat up straighter in attention, misunderstanding her "Is that even English?" to be in reference to his own paper. Michael was close to retorting when he realized she was talking about the professor's instructions, instead. He answered with a shrug: "Everyone else already did, as far as I know...leastwise I didn't see any of them handed their paper back. But I appreciate your confusion," Michael wasn't sure if she had been faking it, but appreciated it all the same.

He then surveyed the tidier desk, looking like he didn't mind Florence's automatic actions in the least: "Any assistance I can provide to you?" he asked with a new little smile.

lillyeyes

"Assistance?" She questioned before looking down at the table and seeing it ordered, she huffed out a breath. "Ugh I swear i'm possessed by my grandmother, last night I went to get something out of my fridge and while I was searching it I started alphabetizing my drinks." She glanced over at him "Really if anyone needs assistance it's probably you, do you think I could help you with your work at all?"
She reached into her bag and brought out her phone, unlocking it "So far my family hasn't called me so if were really lucky and god is kind I can focus completely on you for like,,,maybe a half an hour." She joked.

MagsCael

He laughed at the possession/fridge story.

Before answering about his own needs, Michael commented: "Though your family might freak out at the prospect, maybe you should inform them that at certain times of the day your phone will be off so that you can, I don't know," he spoke lightheartedly, "do what you came here to." He tapped a book in reference to learning.

"As for me, if you really can't understand this any better than I have," he gestured at a loss towards the instructions, "I'm probably beyond helping. Or, like you suggested earlier, I'll have to go to one of my classmates. Prahdesh always has a handle on things and seems friendly." Michael frowned. He hadn't really gotten to know any of his classmates and wasn't thrilled at the prospect of having to approach one out of the blue like this. "Or," he spoke aloud his third option, "I'll have to go back to my professor and ask for a break down."

That prospect didn't appeal to him much better.
The only one in the class who needed further instruction? But, if his professor didn't succeed in getting the material across, it was Michael's responsibility to seek clarification. This he knew.

"I'll figure it out later," he decided, replacing that assignment, the instructions and his subject book in his bag before extracting material for a different class; the sole class he and Florence happened to share, in fact.

lillyeyes

She blew a raspberry when he tapped the book, not like she could argue about it all that much her family had as much boundary's as water did, but that meant explaining something to them which sounded like it would be a century long affair. Still he was right, she would have to do it. Tragic.
"Well maybe I could help you if I had another look at the papers?" She suggested before eyeing them a second time
"Or maybe pushing that off would be a better option right...." She trailed off before brightening when he pulled out the papers.
"Finally a class that makes honest to god sense." She said with a trill of glee in her voice.
"I've gotten so many highlighters" She said excitedly digging through her bag and grabbing two large handfuls of highlighters all colored tacky shades of neon yellow, turquoise, and lavender; and bringing them out of her bag and duping them onto the table.
"I'm not quit sure what we can use them for but professionals use highlighters so somehow they must work in our favor."           

MagsCael

He was glad when she didn't push the subject of looking at his report another time. Michael was starting to feel a little self-conscious about showing his potentially grandiose stupidity. Sure, it seemed Florence didn't get his professor's instructions much better than he had, but what if she got Michael's interpretation of it even less?

He watched her dumping out the highlighters in shades that would make the 80s proud (well okay, they were missing hot pink) and raised a brow in amusement of her comments on them. "You haven't met my Mom. She hasn't been in a professional workplace for almost as long as I've known her yet is the biggest highlighter user I know. Actually, she could be a professional at that," he smiled lightly at his joke. "I guess they're used to shortcut attention and organize things on the page. Kind of like bookmarking a chunk of information on a page instead of the whole thing..." he was looking over the highlighters while absently continuing, "...letting you see at a glance where the temperature and time information is..."

Michael looked up in realization. "Sorry. My Mom would always highlight the cooking instructions when she left us dinner. This was after she returned to working outside the home--" He suddenly realized something else. "Is it Wednesday?!" At Florence's confirmation, Michael checked his watch; a cool black piece, digital, with a silver stripe running through the middle of the band which ended in an ellipsis shape at the base. His expression creased as if to say 'I've been here that long?'.

"I forgot it's my Mom's day off today. It used to be Tuesdays, so- She always calls me," he was looking in his bag for something, "she'll be wondering where.." he added nearly under his breath.

Soon Michael frowned. "Man. Left my cell in my dorm." He considered for a moment. Even if he kept his conversation with Mom inconsiderately short, and made to return to the library while talking -which would cause distraction at least for him if not for her, depending on hall crowds and noise; never a good thing when talking to your Mom- the studying hour would be spilling into dinner. As meal skipping didn't tend to agree with Michael, he was done at the library for now.

"Do you have an evening class?" Michael asked, returning his attention to Florence while packing his bag back up.

lillyeyes

Flo fidgeted with the highlighters as Michael spoke, adding it into her information on them. Which up to this point had been ((Little tubes of colors, sometimes scented)) She looked up as Michael's voice switched tones, becoming less conversational and more absent. She started when he abruptly changed topics, asking for the day.
"Unless there's been a reschedule, i'd say it's still Wednesday," She teased,before hearing about the unfortunate lack of phone and the even more unfortunate implication of a ditched mother. The one thing that can bind any mother together is the rule that you should always be there when they call. Always
Or at least that's what every mother she'd ever met had said, if the stars had aligned for Michael maybe his mother was a little more lack with the rule.
"Yea I have horticulture during the evening, but it tends to let out early so we could meet up after that."She said grabbing her purse. "Want me to walk you back to your dorm?"She offered.

MagsCael

#10
Michael was considering his answer to meeting up later when Florence offered to walk him back. "Nah, I better hurry. Later sounds good." He touched her hand with his knuckles in a kind of 'see you later' gesture, then said of the highlighters: "Good luck with those," before departing from the library.

*

When "later" arrived, Michael realized he had left before discussing where their meeting would take place. Back at the library? His cell was now charging so he couldn't fire off a text.

The course of action he decided on was to head towards horticulture and if it turned out he missed her, then he would hit the library with the hope that she would have the same "last place" thought...

~

A classmate of Florence's paused her when class let out. "Hi! Interesting stuff tonight, huh?" She was really stalling as she worked up more nerve than she already had, having never spoken to Florence before asides from the occasional lesson related comment in-class. "Um, so uh..I've seen you hanging out with that um, that Michael guy from Political Studies? Yeah well see, like my cousin was up visiting me last week," she became more conversational now, "she spied Michael, wondered what he was doing here. Apparently they were in the same highschool. So anyway I told her he's a student and she was all surprised, like surprised to see him in university I guess. Apparently he was like a trouble kid in highschool. Missed a lot of class by what she told me. Seemed weird sometimes and well," she paused briefly, considering her next words as she neared her point.

"Well, by his looks you'd think he would've been pre-tty popular, except he wasn't. For long. My cousin said a few girls tried to like, get to know him since he was shy, but then it seemed like something switched," she made a switch-flicking motion, "and they weren't interested anymore and not very many other girls were either. By word of mouth, I mean. I reason if he was some regular bad-boy heartbreaker, us girls are supposed to be into that kind, right?" She rolled her eyes, clearly not having gone through that phase or not wanting to admit so, "but the fact that it wasn't really like that makes me -well my cousin first, but I agree- that it must've been something more major. You know, like maybe he was into something? Maybe he knows someone on the faculty here and it's some arrangement how he got here....My cousin didn't think his GPA could possibly be adequate.."

She seemed to go into her own thoughts a moment before remembering herself, with a shake of her head, "anyway! Sorry. I just..you always seem really nice," she smiled, "and I thought, if there is something weird about him, well, I just thought I'd give you all the facts." Her bright smile sustained, she clearly thought "facts" were what she had given instead of rumour. "I'd want the same--"

Before she could finish -and before there was time for an answer from Florence- the classmate's cell went off. "Oh--who could that--" she grabbed it from her pocket and answered, then added to Florence in a low voice "see you next class!" as if they had just been having a totally normal conversation.



Michael didn't meet Florence coming out of horticultural studies. He was back in the library, standing at a shelf this time.

lillyeyes

   Florence glanced back at the table and saw the sprawling mess of highlighters she had made and let out a huff before she moved to set them all into a neat pile, and returned to studying. After a few minutes she realized she wasn't going to be able to concentrate and headed to her class early. Maybe she wasn't the most professional when it came to highlighters, but a -real- professional showed up to class early. Probably.
   As other students began filling the classroom Florence noticed out of the corner of her eye one of her classmates staring at her. She shifted her gaze to stare at her straight on but she jerked her head to the front of class. Florence figured she had just drifted off and wasn't staring at her on purpose so she didn't think anything of it. Until the girl's head drifted towards Flo again, and again Florence tried to make eye contact only for the other girl to look away. Florence made a game of it, seeing how close she could come to making direct eye contact with her. Would have continued doing that for the rest of class if not for a pointed cough from the professor. Florence ducked her head and decided maybe play greenlight-redlight with stranger in a college level class wasn't in the best form. She kept her gaze locked onto the chalk board, and it seemed a truce was settled between the two classmates, since the other girl kept her eyes away from Florence for the rest of class.
   As class ended and Flo shuffled her notes into her bag and she began leaving the class she was stopped by the stranger. At first she felt happiness curl in her gut, it seemed like the girl just wanted to talk to her and the feeling grew when she mentioned Michel. At first. Then she began feeling a bit apprehensions as she kept talking and before she could give voice to her worry the girl left to answer her phone leaving Flo in the middle of the hallway. She turned away and began walking towards the library her thoughts a bit troubled. She began running a list of what she knew about Michael in her head. Well she knew that he was sweet, funny, interesting and that he had the cutest smile she'd ever see- she stopped that trail of thought before it went any further, feeling her face heat up a bit. That was all current stuff, but anything about his past she suddenly realized, she'd never asked him about. A bit of guilt crawled into her gut over that before she shook her head. It wasn't like she'd never get the chance to see him again she could just ask him. She pushed open the doors to the library before she realized that she didn't know for sure if he'd be there. She went to grab her phone to text him before she saw him standing near a bookshelf, and she made her way over to him.
  She slapped him on the back in loo of a greeting and grinned at him, "Hey Mike wanna get some food?" she asked, deciding to ask him a few questions about his high-school self over dinner. She'd have to be careful that she didn't interrogate him, after all the only thing she'd heard from the girl in class was all third hand accounts. It was probably not anywhere near that serious, it was just like a game of telephone she used to play with her siblings when she was a kid. The actual message became unrecognizable within a few rounds of the game. In the same vein accounts got garbled within a few people witnessing events when they had no direct interaction with the events. Still she was curious about Michael, and wanted to know more about him.

MagsCael

Are you kidding yourself, Mike? continued an inner-dialogue Michael had been having with himself. "What are the chances..." he spoke beneath his breath, just before Florence appeared by him.

The slap on the back greeting came as a surprise, though he didn't startle this time. "Uh, food? Sh-sur-re." Michael had already had his dinner but he'd leave that fact out for now. Be present, Mike, he mentally advised himself as he walked with Florence out the door.

At least her positive greeting had him feeling decidedly better than he had a few minutes ago.
After a moment of walking in silence towards the food area Michael said: "So uh, it was all cool with my Mom." It was a lame opener to a conversation but he decided he wasn't going to ask Florence about class. "I had missed her call but she'd figured studying was the reason...I mean she was worried a bit, but once I explained...Did the usual Mom thing, though," he added with a laugh, half-honest half-self-conscious, "said about 3 times throughout the conversation to try and not forget my phone again." This time Michael gave a totally honest laugh, "and man, look here I am without it again. It's charging," he explained before joking "guess I'm not helpin' myself."

Scratching at his jawline a second, his inner dialogue started up again: Yeah, no kidding. Maybe you're not helping yourself with this whole thing...It's not what you came here for..okay, it was a little..finally some new chance. What are the chances?

He was taken from his thoughts by Florence's voice, which he became aware of in a delayed fashion.

Be present - you're not helping yourself!

lillyeyes

    Florence's smiled grew at Mike's stutter, and she tugged at the edge of his arm as he led him out through the door. The cold air nipped at Flo's cheeks, turning them first a blush pink, then a deep scarlet. She blew into her hands as the pair of them walked towards the restaurants and she looked at him from the corner of her eye. He seemed a bit..fidgety to her, like a kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It would have made her a bit concerned if not for the words coming out his mouth contained the word 'Mom.' She kept her face straight and closed the sympathy laugh safely behind her teeth, seemed universal that moms had that type of effect on their progeny.
     "Well of course, mom lecture's have a stronger effect of turning off whatever part of the brain that stores memory then liqueur does" She laughed. "Maybe we should get them to get coffee together, they can swap tips on how to tell when their kids are misbehaving." She breathed into her hands again, her smile edged around her mouth. It slid off a little when she didn't get a response, and so she tried again. "Doesn't have to be coffee, maybe a more mom activity, like window shopping or making those little decorative soaps your not actually supposed to use." again the joke didn't land and just trailed off into silence.
      Florence turned fully towards Michael then and suddenly got the impression that he was far away, and not in a dreamy head-in-the-clouds kind of way. Something more weighted and less flighty, her mind popped in the word 'haunted' into her mind without her consent on the matter. Now now don't be dramatic she thought in her Grandmother's voice, it was as bad as all that. She snapped her fingers a few times, "Earth to Mike, You feelin you in there buddy?"She giggled, masking her concern with a joke.     

MagsCael

He looked away from the snapping fingers, seeming embarrassed. "Sorry." He wanted to explain away his inattention but what excuse did he have? Michael didn't like lying and wasn't about to give his truth yet.

Looking at her properly, he noticed her cheeks and acknowledged for the first time the cold against his own, and his hands; they clenched.

Michael spoke again; calm if not still with an air of being in his head. "It's colder than I realized." He regretted saying that as soon as he did. "I mean, the temperature changed a lot from this afternoon. More than the regular evening dip..." Mentally he sighed, rolling his eyes skywards when Florence's were no longer on him.

"Were you asking me something?" Michael asked more to get Florence talking again so he wouldn't dig himself any deeper; a touch of his self-annoyance coming out in his tone.

lillyeyes

Florence kept a smile on her face, although the tone of Michael's voice put her teeth slightly on edge. She waved her hand in the air, waving his question away. "Nah I'm making fun of our mom's is all" she touched the crook of his arm and tugged slightly towards a cheap Italian restaurant, "Let's head in here we can warm up and I can keep joking about out moms'"she laughed and pushed open the door to the restaurant, letting the warm curl around the two of them.   

MagsCael

He sported a curious expression at her answer of making fun of their moms. The surprise of it erasing his annoyance. A half-grin appeared on his face at her direction into the restaurant.

Almost automatically he sniffed the air when they walked in. The warmth felt great and the scent was tantalizing. Pasta, cheese....Oh man.. now -sporting a subtly silly kind of expression- Michael wished he hadn't had dinner already. He was beginning to do a mental calculation of his budget but brought his mind back to Florence just in time to not be caught in space again.

"Blood orange Gelato sounds good," he decided with another little grin.

"So, what was your Mom like when you got accepted?"

lillyeyes

Florence breathed a sigh of relief-on the inside at least-at the loosening of Mike's demeanor, whatever had bothered him seemed to had slipped out. Maybe she'd ask about that later but she figured getting a good meal into the both of them would put them both in a more conversational mood. If she was being honest with herself she'd say she was putting it off, but for now she put that little niggling thought on the back burner for now.
"My mom's reaction? Oh geez she went through the whole five stages of grief over a weekend when she found out how far away it was." She giggled. "Calmed down when I said I'd call every day so it's better then the reaction my oldest brother got when he moved away to college, you'd have thought he'd disowned the family." She carried on as a waiter began walking towards them to get them seated.
"On a scale of throw a feast to lamentations what was your mom's reaction to you going away?" She asked.   

MagsCael

#18
Michael raised his brows in amusement. "No way!" At the bit about her brother, he breathed out a puff of breath like he couldn't believe it, while they walked to their table.

The waiter left once they got there. Michael had to laugh at Florence's turn of speech and pulled her chair out before taking his own. "Well my Mom was ecstatic when I got accepted, threw a little party. Once reality hit though," he swept his hand across the air in front of him, "completely different story. Almost like she'd never see me again, and saying sadly how it'd be the first Thanksgiving without both her boys." Michael quieted the briefest moment, his smile lessening just that much as he saw the moment playing out as though it were a fresh scene projected onto his mind. "It's funny, it almost seems parents never think of that happening, even though they work with you to get there," his disposition was still light and into the making fun, but there was a thoughtful outline to it. Like he was feeling his Mom's side of the situation a little while he recounted it.

Their waiter returned, introducing himself as Paul: "Can I get you two anything to drink?"

Michael let Florence go first, then: "I'll have a screwdriver, sans the alcohol."

The waiter hesitated.

"Just an orange juice," Michael clarified. "Guess I need to work on my material," he added in an undertone when the waiter left again; taking up his menu. I was sure I saw blood orange advertised back there!.. he thought. Lowering the menu, Michael looked to the centre of the table where those little specific menus -dessert, alcohol- stood, seeing if more gelato was advertised as a limited time only kind of thing.