White Dove // Black Crow [Open]

[kyla]

Out of his two statements, she responded to neither of them. She only shrugged it off and glanced at the floor in front of her. Her eyes rested on her book that had fallen at some point and kicked it a little as she shifted to place her feet on the floor. Shuffling the book away from her might have been seen as stupid, but she wanted to get up anyway. For some reason today she was really… fidgety. It was probably still the nerves about being new and such. She had yet to really meet someone where she could hang out with and have fun. She needed a good friend. In this school however, it would seem highly unlikely. As her thoughts went on like this, she sighed, told him her name, and then stood up to retrieve her book. She glanced at James to see him looking at his phone and then returned her attention to picking up her book.

Crouching down to pick up her book instead of bending over, Ky took the book in one hand. When James said her whole name, her eyes snapped up to him from her position on the floor. How the hell did he know that? Sure the teacher in classes would have called roll using first and last name, but that didn’t give him an excuse as to why he knew her middle name. As she recalled her doings for the day, she had not told anybody her middle name either. Scowling, she brought herself back up to stand very slowly, the book clutched in her hand.

Come on, tennis, don’t fail me now, she thought as she threw the book at James with that scowl still in place, not really caring where it hit him. If she were next to him then she would have swatted at him with it. To play off her little tantrum, she asked, ”If you knew, then why bother asking?” Directly facing him now, she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. She was scared at the fact that he knew her middle name, but played it off as being angry at him. In a way, she was. It made her whole little quote (however out of context) from before to be useless.

[james thomas leroy]

James sat back comfortable. This was all just a game to him and it was only there to keep him entertained. So far it was doing a very good job of it. She was an easy one to mess with just a bit, but then the new students always were. He didn't want to make more enemies but it did spice up his day just enough to keep him from doing something drastic on his search for entertainment.

James had started with a few crazy acts but those had slowly ceased and he actually hadn't hurt a single living creature after Eliza. He had no interest in doing so either thanks to the distraction that Emma provided and this was all a step up from what he was capable of. This was a marked improvement so shocking a girl by showing her he knew her name was nothing compared to what he could have been doing.

Her reaction did make him smile though. He liked reactions like those, seeing someone when something unexpected happened. Though the tables quickly turned when a book came flying by his head. James had barely dodged it but at least it hadn't hit him and he laughed a little at it before leaning back in his seat. This time he didn't care to come up with an elaborate lie. For once honesty was good enough.

"I didn't until 30 seconds ago," he admitted. "It pays to know the right people," he told her, lifting up his phone to indicate where the information had come from, before putting it back down. He had access to information. He had shown her that, what she thought was it, he'd like to know but he wouldn't ask.

"Clearly you're not happy about that, so how about I give you the same information about me?" he suggested. "I know your name and your phobia, so I'll even the score a bit. I'm James Thomas Leroy and I have anger issues and mild OCD," he told her. "Better now?" he asked, looking up at her to see if she had calmed down a bit. Anger issues and OCD was his go to conditions. It was the perfect cover and just like Cameron, he didn't like telling anyone he had ASPD, it gave way too much away about himself.

[kyla]

She couldn’t believe it, she had missed him. Granted she had not cared where the book hit him, but she wanted it to hit him somewhere on his person. In response to this, she made a frustrated groan-like noise in the back of her throat and threw back her head to look at the ceiling. It was such a disappointing little factor, she had played tennis and sometimes you had to throw the ball back to a person so her aim was not that bad. If she had in her hands a racket and a tennis ball, then things would probably have worked in her favor a little bit better. In her mind, she already made a note to hit the gym to use the wall for target practice since anywhere else she might get in trouble for hitting a ball against the wall and the noise would be a ‘disturbance’.

Shortly after her little noise, she returned her head to its normal position (instead of looking at the ceiling) and gave James her attention. She gazed at the phone with a scowl on her face. It pays to know the right people… She supposed that was true, but to have someone else give you the information. ”Cheater,” she called him and crossed her arms in front of her chest. That was definitely cheating in her book. It was surprising though that someone, well now at least two students, knew her full name and her phobia at this point in time already. She was new to the school after all.

When James offered to give information about himself, she just let him talk. The frown on her face was probably still there, but more of a pout now and her arms were still crossed as she listened. Anger issues? Woops. Maybe throwing that book had not been a good idea, but he did end up laughing at it, so she was assuming that she was off the hook for that little thing. She would not apologize because throwing that book towards him because it was not an accident and she was only sorry that the stupid book did not hit him. Those anger issues though still nagged at her and made her think that she should just leave the topic alone and retrieve the book a little later.

He asked if things were better now and she ducked her chin and nibbled on her bottom lip. Mild OCD, huh? Grinning, she looked up suddenly and flashed those pearly whites before saying, ”Yep,” and popping the last consonant. She took one of her hands and motioned towards his own book. ”So… is that even remotely interesting?” Shouldn’t hurt to ask and the retrieval of her book would have to wait until later when she was not tempted to give throwing it at him another try.

[james thomas leroy]

James just smiled when she seemed frustrated about missing. now was probably the wrong time to do it but he just couldn't help himself. Anger never really helped in most situations, it only made you a lot less rational and thus not likely to resolve a situation reasonably well. He knew it but even he would succumb to the emotion from time to time.

When things annoyed him, he got anger and usually went a little over board, like stabbing Eliza for letting Aleksei take advantage of her. It wasn't his finest moment but James didn't particularly care, he had his reasons and that was good enough for him.

"I narrowed it down to phobia and addiction. I just needed someone to clarify," he told her. He had gone part of the way on his own at least so that was enough. James had put in the effort and he was fine with it.

James nodded. Good, at least that was out of the way. Leaning over he picked up her book and looked at it. [[What's she reading again? lol]] "Much more interesting than yours," he told her as he stood up only to hand her the book before sitting back down. His book were most notes and he found it incredibly interesting, partly because he wrote it, though with how neat everything was, you could probably copy it with his hand-writing and just sell it the way it was. Even the diagrams were perfectly scaled down. James took great pride in his work but then that was to be expected. This was after all his obsession and despite leaving it for the most part (thanks to various distractions), it was still always there in the back of his mind.

"And no, you can't have a look at it," he told her before she even got the chance to ask. Picking up and holding his book, James wasn't going to tell her anything about it. It was be much too revealing. Why would a seemingly normal guy, aside from the OCD and anger issues, have a book filled with notes on science and animal anatomy and dissections along with diagrams... It just wasn't normal.

[kyla]

Concluding to resolve her current aim issues later, she only glared when she saw that smile on his face. He would not think it was funny when she “accidently” hit him with the tennis ball sometime… Of course, that would be a time when he has recently gotten on her nerves or something of the sort. She liked to think of herself as a rather nice person, but she was determined not to let others walk over her unless she allowed it. Why she would even allow it, she did not know- proving to be an interesting situation if that ever were to happen.

Even if he narrowed it down, she still thought it was cheating. If it were on a test, he would have a 50/50 chance, but since there were different phobias and addictions, she viewed the “clarifying” part as cheating. Deciding to let him know her view on it again, she moved her head to the side and tilted her chin up a little in a slightly challenging way, ”I still call it cheating and I possibly could have an addiction too you know…” She trailed off, wondering if it would have caught his interest. Some people in this school probably had more things going on with them than the school actually knew about so having some other “issue” shouldn’t be that much of a shocker. Some people were just better at hiding it anyway or thought of it as something different.

When it came to her book, she moved to accept it from him and frowned. ”You speak as if you’ve already read the book and if you haven’t read To Kill a Mockingbird, I can assure you that it is interesting.” Out of all the books she was forced to read in her classes growing up, she actually hadn’t minded this one. Near the end of the book, the class held a discussion about it and at a certain part, most girls had “awed” while the guys remained indifferent. Then again, most of the guys in her class probably didn’t even read the book.

She moved to sit on the other end of James’ couch and no sooner had she sat and placed her book in her lap did she raise her hands in mock-surrender, though she did not bother to look at him. ”Probably wouldn’t want to anyway… Lord knows what you boys read.”” Coming from a rather country-like town, Ky had used a very faint Southern accent when she spoke the second half of her statement. It was a little tease and the corners of her mouth drew up in a smile as she lowered her hands and drew up her book from her lap. She leaned back a little on the couch, testing the waters per say and murmured, ”I do believe this is more comfy…” It was more to herself than anything and she picked another random page in the book to start reading again.

[james thomas leroy]

James looked her over. Addiction had seemed less and less likely. She appeared to be very fit, took care of herself, she wouldn't go getting herself in a situation like that. No, this was one was bordering on 'normal', how ever vague the definition for that was.

Having taken a good look at her, as though he were analyzing a painting, James finally spoke. "No," he said simply before turning back to his book. She wasn't an addictive, she didn't seem the type. It was just highly unlikely and he wasn't even going to entertain the idea until he had further proof or reason to doubt.

"I have read it," James told her. "In case it isn't obvious by the fact that I'm sitting here with a book in my hands instead of running around outside or finding something else to do, I like to read," he told her. How can people live like that? A lot of things hinted at the sort of person he might be, surely she was capable of taking the pieces and putting it together.

James couldn't understand it. He analyzed everything he saw and he couldn't understand how other people didn't when it was all right there in front of them. To him it took effort to ignore these little hints so for her to even assume he might not have read such a popular when chances were he had, was just ridiculous, but then James didn't think much of most people. If they weren't like him, or useful, they weren't really worth his time.

James looked up as she moved up and sat down on at the other end of the couch. He turned to look at her as she spoke. "Yes, you wouldn't," he said, turning back to his book. It was all very neat and perfect but it was just his old notes. There was nothing terribly scary in this one. Only a few dissection, a lot of notes on anatomy and diagrams. Nothing terribly evil or worrying.

"It's just a few of my old notes on animal anatomy," he admitted. Usually James wouldn't bother but he wanted to see what her reaction would be. Everything in that book was so neat and precise. He was miles ahead of anyone else in that area but then he did have his faults as well.

Actually, James could probably study vet medicine right now and complete the course in half the time. He already knew a lot about it, having researched it in his own time but people interested him too so medicine was an option as well, along with research, science etc.

James took note of the accent as she spoke, putting all the pieces of her together. It probably wouldn't be all that important but it was nice to have it there should he ever need it.

[kyla]

Feeling his gaze on her, she squirmed uncertainly. The feel… she reached up to rub the back of her neck in a nervous gesture. He did not take the bait when it came to possibly having an addiction and she let it drop with a shrug of her shoulders. The topic changed to the book though and she gave him some of her attention while she played with the pages of her book. She sat down on his couch a little after he was done speaking. As what he said sank in a little, she gave him her full attention and her eyes narrowed a little in thought.

She let out a breath in a huff and settled back to gazing at the book and running her thumb over the edge to make that peculiar sound it had. ”Just because you would rather read than play outside doesn’t mean you have read all the books out there in the world or even comprehended what you were reading.” Her tone was rather curt and she still did not look at him. Besides, some people read books, but they did not always comprehend them. Her mother used to do that. She would finish a book and three hours later Ky would ask her what the book was about and she would only be able to remember tid-bits of the information. The thought of her mother had her left fingers shifting to take turns pressing into the cover of the book. It was similar to the motion of fingers being pressed down on a string to play a note on the violin. A pattern began to form as she recalled the notes to play a certain song on the violin. At this point, she was rather lost in her thoughts and vaguely aware of things until she brought herself to comment on the things boys read these days.

James had agreed and she only waved it off with a slight gesture of her hand. If it was that kind of stuff then she did not want to know. Actually, if that is what boys were looking for nowadays then they could pick up a few good romance novels. Many of times Kyla had sneaked a book from her mom’s stash and the romance books normally had good plot lines, but there were certain scenes in there she skipped over… most of the time. Her thoughts broke off as he mentioned what he was reading. ”Oh… sounds like biology,” briefly she recalled back certain memories from that class and their weird science teacher. Come to think of it, most of the science teachers she had were weird or crazy in some kind of way. Back to the memories, she decided to share some with him, ”Had to dissect a frog before-not bad, but the smell was horrible- and uh… we managed to get a cow eye. Those did not smell nearly as bad and out of the two, I liked that the best.” Her mouth had ran away with her thoughts and she shook her head and spoke once more, ”Sorry, guess I’m rambling. I’ll stop now.” Unless he wanted to talk some more or ask her questions, she was not going to ramble anymore.

[james thomas leroy]

James shouldn't have done it but he got a little insulted there at what she said. Sure, reading all the books in the world would be a ridiculously impossibly notion but he had read quite a lot.

"It's one of the most popular books out there. If you were talking about non-fiction and someone out age reading it then yes, chances of them knowing it would decrease significantly, but you're not. We're talking about fiction and although I hardly expect anyone else at this school to have read Tolstoy or Chaucer, let alone be able to understand it, something like To Kill A Mocking Bird is just a little bit different. That's one that most if not all well-read students would know," he told her, looking back at his own book but not quite being in the mood to re-read it now.

James didn't say anything but a smirk played on his lips as she spoke about dissecting. He had done a lot of that. but he didn't want to say anything. He couldn't help but think of how interesting it was, all the blood, the sounds, the sharp knives he used. It was good and the slight smirk would have changed into a twisted smile if he wasn't careful so he stop and pushed those thoughts aside. Now was not the time to reminisce.

"Yes, let's not talk about that," he told her. If he did, he'd risk getting much too involved and showing signs that he actually enjoyed it. Wanting to keep the facade of a fairly average student, James was careful to avoid that. He didn't need one extra person thinking he was utterly insane with his cruelty and torture.

"What do you play?" he asked, starting a new conversation. "My first guess would have been the piano but it doesn't fit," he told her, the way her fingers moved before, that wasn't the piano, it didn't the same and it was just one hand, so that limited the possibilities significantly. "It has to be a string instrument. Violin perhaps?" he asked, taking his first guess, using one of the more popular instruments.

It was yet another sign that James was just that little bit different. He saw things that others would miss and he took it all into account. All the little details was helping him put the pieces together and this wasn't even the start of it. There was more he could tell about her.