Forums » General Roleplay » Being Human (1x1 with Sunset)

"Hey, Glasses, watch where you're going!"
"I suggest you watch your back while you're at it, too, before you end up with a shoe in it!"
"Loser!"
Shawn kept silent as he walked down the sidewalk, intent on getting home and ignoring the jeers and shouts of the idiots he went to school with. It was no use trying to stand up to them; they were much larger than he was and could snap him in two like a pencil if they wanted to. He had long since learned to keep his head down and stay quiet. Eventually they'd grow bored and go away.
But he felt something hard hit his head and he couldn't help the yelp that escaped his lips- rocks? Were they serious? Not this again. The scrawny boy quickly bolted away towards the safety of town, clutching his books to his chest as he left the group of bullies far behind. They were stronger, but he was faster, and that helped a lot.
Once he was certain he'd lost them, he leaned against a tree, carefully setting his books down and taking his glasses off. He ran a hand through his thick black hair, making sure he hadn't suffered any damage from the attack- it didn't seem to be bleeding so it looked like he'd gotten lucky. He started cleaning the thick lenses on his shirt, letting out a wheezing sigh and closing his eyes, not noticing anything around him. He was just tired, and as his heart rate settled back to normal, he was left with an awful feeling of loneliness.
It was rough, trying to survive as a nerd. Real tough.

Sunset was receiving her schedule when she saw the boy surrounded by some people yelling rude things at him. She frowned. Was he like an Exiled? If so, what had he done to deserve to be casted away by his own people? She walked away from the nice human lady that had assisted her without thanking her. Fey didn't say 'Thank you'. Ever.

Outside, she hid behind a wall and crouched, almost touching the ground with her head as she felt her limbs slowly growing thinner, smaller, sparkling, and most important of all, invisible to anyone who didn't have the Sight. It was much easier to follow the lonely boy flying. The small fairy took a look at his head, where the rock had hit him. It wasn't bleeding but it'd swell, and hurt. She placed one tiny hand on it and tried to help to ease his pain, at least a bit, then she flied to a tree branch just above him, sitting there with her legs hanging. Humans are so weird... Not everyone had been nice to her when she had been exiled from her world. Many had insulted her and tried to sell her wings, but if she hadn't defended herself then, they'd have never stopped. Maybe that's what he needed to do! In a matter of seconds she was human again, hanging upside down from the branch.

"Hello!" She said brightly. "Are you okay?"

Shawn jumped like he had recieved an electrical shock from the tree, tripping over himself in his haste to see where the voice came from and sprawling on his back. The glasses were roughly shoved back onto his face, almost gouging an eye out as they did so, since he wouldn't be able to see much of anything without them on. He blinked for a moment, looking around the base of the tree for a person, and then finally looked up.
How odd- where'd that girl come from? Was he seriously that out of it to not notice someone in the tree he had chosen to take refuge under? It was possible, but boy, that was pretty stupid of him. In any case, he wasn't good talking with people, and his shoulders instinctively curled forward as if trying to protect him from anyone trying to contact him.
"I'm f-fine," he managed to say, his large hazel gaze locked on a protruding root. He was shy, it was obvious, and it seemed the poor thing was just as scared of her as he had been of the ring of rock throwers. He was a jumpy little guy, to say the very least, and there was a reason he didn't really have any friends at school.
He adjusted his glasses when he felt them slip down his nose a little, running his hand through his hair again as if trying to cover the bump on his head up. He'd have to hide it when he got home or his mother would be all over him, and that was the last thing he wanted at this particular point in time.

Sunset's face was apologetic for having startled him, but she didn't actually apologize. The guy looked still defensive. What was he so scared about? She was the only other person there. In one swift motion, she jumped from the tree branch, landing with a soft thud on her feet.

"Are you sure? You don't seem so sure." She frowned and poked his forehead, peering at his glasses. "What do you use these for?" She took a few steps back and held her hand out to help him stand up.

He flinched slightly at the poke, although he didn't back off, maybe because she didn't seem like she wanted to hurt him, maybe because he simply wasn't on his feet yet. He carefully got to his feet, holding a hand out to say he was fine, and dusting himself off before looking her over for a moment.
"To see, what else?" he replied meekly, taking the glasses off and cleaning them again out of nervous habit. "The optometrist says my sight will get better as I get older, but I dunno. It's not getting any better as of yet." He shrugged his thin shoulders and put the thick-lensed glasses back on, shifting his feet uncertainly. He was horrible at this. "I'm fine."
Hopefully.

She wasn't used to interacting and helping humans so this 'conversation' was sort of weird for her too. She did taake it as an offense when he assumed she knew what the glasses were for, as if she was stupid. "Maybe it will, who knows?" She walked past him, her purple braid glowing slightly because of her annoyance. If he didn't want to accept he was hurt, then he could stay with the bump in his head and wince everytime someone touched it. It was none of her business. Sunset was walking right to where Shawn would've headed if he'd been going home.

Being the empathetic little dweeb he was, Shawn could sort of sense something he said put her out; what exactly it was, though, he wasn't entirely sure. Feeling the need to apologize, he scooped up his books and followed her from a distance- he was going home and she seemed to be headed in that direction too. That was his alibi if things went awry and she asked why he was following her.
"Sorry," he finally murmured, tucking his books into the crook of his arm and padding along silently behind her. "I said something wrong, didn't I?" It happened a lot.

The soft sound of his feet against the ground gave him away. She continued walking though, not stopping even when he spoke. "It doesn't matter now." Maybe it was common knowledge that 'glasses' were used to see. She didn't want to draw too much attention telling him she truly didn't know. "But it's okay." Sunset took a paper from the pocket of her new jacket, the first jacket she'd ever had, and read it, counting the numbers of the houses she walked by as she did so. She stopped in front of one that was actually Shawn's. "Is this the 37th? Hmmm..."

He had started to turn down the little sidewalk that lead to his front door when she asked the question.
"Yeah," he replied, his eyebrows furrowing slightly in confusion. "Why do you ask? This is my house." He glanced to the window as if to confirm if this was indeed his house, perhaps having wandered a little too far. No, this was it- that was weird. He looked back at her, still a bit befuddled but not wanting to pry too much.

Her mouth formed an 'o' when he said it was his house. "Uh that means my house is..." She turned around, facing the house across the street. "That one." She rocked on her heels and sighed. "We're neighbours." Thtough the years, she had saved a lot of mortal money and with that, an exiled half breed she knew, had been able to get her a nice house. And that was it. It looked a bit too big for just her, considering she'd spend most of her free time flying.

He looked across the street, his expression relaxing a little as she explained.
"Well," he finally said slowly and quietly, "if we're going to be neighbors, and going to the same school... I'm Shawn. Shawn Cadbury." The shy boy offered a large hand to shake, the faintest ghost of a smile flitting across his lips. The girl seemed nice enough; a decent neighbor. He still didn't know how she managed to hide so well up in the tree without him noticing, but he'd ask about it later, if there was a later. If she thought a friendship with him was worth pursuing, which, let's face it, wasn't really likely. Not a lot of people thought it was. He wouldn't blame her if she didn't. It wouldn't be the first or the last time it'd happened and he'd gotten used to it by now.

Sunset took his hand smiling happily. She had made a friend! Sort of... but still! It was something. "I'm Sunset. Sunset..." What had been the name she had chosen? Oh yeah, "Hayes." She took out her new house keys and wiggled them in front of his face. "I'll see you later!" That went well! She thought, pleased with herself as she turned back to head to her house. She stopped in front of her door and tried to open it. "How is this supposed to work? What kind of magic is this?"

He nodded, the smile widening a little as he turned and walked back up to his own house, pulling his keys from his pocket, unlocking the door, and walking inside.
"I'm home," he called to the house in general, slipping the keys back in his pocket and carefully closing the door behind him.
"Hey, Shawn, how was- YOUR HEAD!" was the first thing his mother said as she came around the corner. "What happened?!"
Dangit- he had forgotten about that! He winced as she quickly hustled him into the dining room to tend to the bump on his skull, half-heartedly resisting her advances. "Mom, it's fine," he told her, hissing as she touched it and plonked him in a chair. "Ow- it's fine, I just tripped and hit my head, that's all, it's fine- OW! Mom!"
There was a shadow in the corner of his eye, slipping away silently to disappear up the stairs in some dark corner of the house. Shawn didn't have any time to call hello or even help to his twin, the slightly older of the two already slinking off up the steps. Shawn probably wouldn't see him again for another hour or so, which was the norm in the household. Shane preferred to be alone.

She finally figured how to open the door and even did a mini happy dance because of it. There wasn't much furniture in it. She thought it lacked... green. There should be more plants. Maybe she could grow a nice garden outside, not just plain grass. Yep, that was a good idea. Sunset spend the rest of the afternoon moving things around and playing with the light switchs. They were amazing!

Next day, she rushed out of her house just in time to catch the bus. She had forgotten now she would have to wake up way earlier if she wanted to be on time. The doors were just closing.

Shawn didn't take the bus. That would just be asking for trouble. Buses were basically just traps designed to pin kids down and hold them with no way to escape from anyone who may want to cause them harm, and the driver was completely passive about things. So Shawn didn't take the bus. He walked.
His shoulders stiffened as he started to head up the main pathway to the school, catching the flashy red football jackets of the rock-throwers out of the corner of his eye. He doubted they'd pull a stunt like that now, but maybe later, if they felt so inclined. He'd have to keep an eye on them.
But behind them he spotted Sunset, and he couldn't help but smile ever so slightly. He shoved his glasses back up his nose and waited for her to catch up, provided she saw him. He didn't think that was too possible though, she seemed rather attentive to her surroundings.
There was something about that girl that was different, he just couldn't tell what. Maybe it was the fact that she was somewhat civil towards him; he didn't know. He'd figure it out eventually, he was smart enough.

Sunset was the new girl at school, a new face. Some people in the bus had tried to start a conversation with her, but given she didn't know much about anything, they were pretty short. Luckily, a girl that seemed to have the need to speak really loud all the time had done all the talking for her. Sunset had been okay with listening. It was easier and she learned more.

When she caught a glimpse of Shawn, she smiled. Though she wondered why hand't he taken the bus. Was't that what students normally did? "Hi Shawn!" She waved at him, vaguely aware of some guys laughing and clearly talking about him.

He waved back, turning with her so that he was walking with her up to the school. "Hi, Sunset. So you took the bus?" He twitched a shoulder in the direction of the faded yellow vehicle, an eyebrow raised slightly. "How was it-"
He wasn't able to fully finish his question since he was roughly bumped by one of the routine bullies, catching him by surprise and causing him to drop some of his things. Sighing in exasperation, he quickly started collecting his papers and things, reaching for the pencil but quickly pulling his fingers away when they got stepped on. "GAH!"
"Oh, sorry, didn't see you there," the offender said with a sarcastic smirk, nonchalantly kicking the pencil away and heading into the school before a teacher or someone saw. Grumbling unhappily to himself, Shawn adjusted his glasses and stood up to look for his pencil. He did have another couple in his pocket but those were emergency pencils; he'd prefer to use the other one, if he could find the thing again.

She had been about to say something when a guy accidentally bumped against him. She was confused, why didn't he apologize? Her answer came when the guy kicked away a pencil Shawn had dropped. He'd done it on purpose. This made her angry, very angry. "Hey, watch it asshole!" She yelled before he could stop herself. After having spend the last decades observing humans, she had picked up a few things. Squinting, Sunset spotted Shawn's pencil and went to pick it up. "Is it always like this?" Why it was only Shawn they pestered and not her?

A few of the more innocent freshmen shied away from the two after the girl cursed, although the majority laughed or simply went on with it like nothing happened. Shawn himself was a little surprised, but it was because of him, and the fact that someone was mad he had been jacked with gave him a really nice feeling. He didn't know exactly what it was but whatever it was, it was rather pleasant.
Skillfully hiding a smile, he took his pencil back with a nod of thanks. "Yeah, it is. Sometimes it's worse, they're just getting warmed up." He sighed silently, watching the retreating back of the accused 'asshole' fade into the sea of students getting to their lockers and heading to class. "I've gotten used to it by now. Honestly, I should've seen him coming."

Sunset shook her head. "I don't understand. You should't get used to it. It should't even happen. Like with your head yesterday. That must've hurt." She started walking again, following the flow of students, even though she didn't really know where to go, so she turned around. "Ummm do you have this thing... schedule too? I have one and it says class K101, what does these numbers mean?" She showed him hers. She also had a map but it wasn't helping her much.