Stepping out of the Box on Cascade Hall

Brianna Japos and Josh McLachlan

October 06, 2012 4:57 PM

Stepping out of the Box by Brianna Japos and Josh McLachlan

(OOC: This post was co-written by the authors of Josh McLachlan and Brianna Japos)

Brianna was never really someone who would be considered bold in any part of her personality, but she was really trying this year to get out more and meet people. Maybe even make a friend or two. Michael she enjoyed hanging around because they both sort of understood what it was like to be the underdog and having been picked on for having his hearing disability, Brianna felt like he was the person who would get her the best. She was also starting to get comfortable around Linus too. He had been her date to the ball her first year and had since been kind enough to keep her busy whenever she seemed to be alone. Gareth was sort of on the same line as Linus, but she hadn’t seen much of him this year.

And then there was Josh. She had met him in Charms and he had seemed nice enough. It wasn’t until after her encounter with him that she had heard the rumors about him being rude and standoffish, but since he wasn’t those things to her, she just put them to rest as rumors. Since then, if Michael wasn’t around, or Attoria, or Valerie, Brianna took to eating meals with Josh. Sometimes she just quietly ate with him and other times she would try to strike up conversation (only when she felt she wasn’t bothering him too much). She was awful at small talk. She didn’t know how people did this.

“Hi Josh.” She greeted, giving him a smile as she sat down across from him. She put some eggs on her plate. “I saw a new bulletin this morning. I guess the Teppenpaws are throwing a Holiday party. What do you think of it?”

Josh looked up when Brianna sat down. The first time she had sat with him in the hall, he had been surprised and didn’t know what to talk to her about. It had become more of a familiar occurrence now, though he did notice that she seemed to split her time between him and her other friends. Sometimes Josh felt a strangely jealous possession over the only girl his age who was actually attempting to befriend him, but most other times he didn’t notice, being too immersed in whatever he was reading.

The bulletin hadn’t seemed too important, so Josh hadn’t paid much attention to it. A party of any kind was not Josh’s usual scene. He was more of the in-the-library-twenty-four-seven kind of guy. “I didn’t really think about it,” Josh replied as he closed his textbook. “I wasn’t planning on going. Are you going?” He wasn’t too familiar with parties at school in general. There had been parties back at the New Zealand Academy, but he usually just hung around Cecilia and his former friends and left early. Then there were Christmas parties that his uncle threw sometimes, but Josh always stayed at home while his uncle and his friends went to the beach. “Which holiday are the Teppenpaws celebrating?” he asked. “I didn’t really look at it.”

Brianna couldn’t help but feel a little saddened by the fact that he hadn’t paid the notice any attention and really had no desire to go to the party. She had never been to a party... well, aside from the one the school threw back when she was a first year when she had gone with Linus. She had dressed up so nice and pretty in a time-piece gown that her mother had put together. Brianna had felt like a princess that night and she had even someone to go with. Of course, the negative part of her brain had been calling her a fraud the whole-night, but she had managed to block it out.

She tried not to look disappointed when he told her he wasn’t planning on going. “Well, I had wanted to.” She started, looking down at her plate. “I was never invited to the ones back home and I always wanted to go.” She gave him a hesitant smile and a half shrug. “The poster said that they are celebrating all the holidays, from Halloween to Christmas. It’s a costume party too, so maybe it could be a lot of fun?”

It wasn’t hard to see that Brianna really did want to go, and Josh felt a little bad for her. It wasn’t like he had been invited to the parties back at his old school. Cecilia and his roommates had always dragged him to those things. Josh had a very strong resolve on most things, but it was weakening just by Brianna’s serious desire to go to this thing. Josh didn’t see anything special about it. Costumes parties did not sound like fun in any way, shape, or form.

“I don’t know,” he replied, still watching her face carefully for her reactions. “I’m not into dressing up. Don’t you have anyone to go with? Any friends? Girl friends?” There was a pause as he allowed Brianna to answer, and then he grit his teeth in thought, studying the hardcover of his textbook.

Brianna felt her face heat and she knew she was blushing. He was asking about her friends. He seemed upset at her for some reason. She had only mentioned the party. She hadn’t meant to upset him or anything by it. Maybe he wasn’t a fan of the Teppenpaws? She really had no idea what his dynamics were with everyone; unless the rumors were true and he and Ms. Parker really did butt heads and now the Teppenpaws were against him as much as he was against them. “Er...not really.” She admitted. “I don’t really know if I have friends.” Brianna was still watching her plate of eggs instead of looking at him. It was very hard for her to admit that she had no one. “The people I talk with have friends but, I’m sure they’ll go with them because they’ll have more fun that way.” She really just wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere because it was entirely too embarrassing having said that.

As soon as Brianna confessed that she didn’t think she had friends, Josh didn’t know what to think. It was true that sitting with a group of people didn’t make them necessarily friends. Josh wondered what Brianna thought of their relationship, then. Josh pitied her just a little, but he could relate to her. They were in the same boat, though for different reasons. He let out a sigh and put his hand over the textbook as if shielding it from what he was about to say next. “If you really want to go that badly and you can find absolutely no one to go with, I, that is, I’ll go with you.” This was turning into “Cecilia” all over again, but that wasn’t a path he wanted to take right at this moment. Or ever. Josh wasn’t sure if he was going to regret his decision or not. “But I won’t stay long and I won’t dress up,” he added adamantly. That was a position he was not going to change on. He watched Brianna’s face again carefully to goad her reaction.

Brianna didn’t know if she should be happy or not that Josh said he’d go with her. There were restrictions (did this mean that she actually had to go ask people?) and he wouldn’t stay the whole time, which would mean that she would end up leaving early too. Her face did a weird contortion act when she looked up at him as it struggled to find the appropriate feeling. She was happy that he cared enough to say he’d go, but she didn’t know if he was saying it because he felt sorry for her? She didn’t need or want a pity date. She really wanted to go to this party, but... “Thank you, but I don’t want to force you to go. It’s okay if I don’t go. I’m used to it.”

Brianna’s facial expression was amusing, but Josh didn’t allow that amusement to show on his face. He didn’t want to be asked out of pity either, so the feeling was mutual in that sense. Her last comment made him think she was trying to tug on his sympathetic heart strings, but he didn’t know whether it worked or not. It had been a long time since people had asked him to go to events with them. He met her eyes and pursed his lips in a ghost of a smile. “If you really want to go, I’ll go with you. You wouldn’t be forcing me. I just may not be as much fun as your other...acquaintances.” She had a right to know what she was getting herself into, asking him.

He had agreed to go with her... Brianna’s face lit up. It was still rare for her to smile, even after the whole Charms class, so it felt a bit foreign when it was a real one. “Great! it’s a date.”

The word “date” made Josh feel uncomfortable, but he knew that word didn’t always have to be defined that way. It was good to see Brianna happy about something though, so he nodded, unwilling to open his mouth and say something to ruin it.

0 Brianna Japos and Josh McLachlan Stepping out of the Box 0 Brianna Japos and Josh McLachlan 1 5