the sound of an orange menace |open|

[Darien Gabrielle]

The gym. An extremely unlikely place for Darien to be found. Usually he was only here if he had gym. Usually. So what was the purpose of going in now? Darien didn't really know why himself. He just felt it was time to at least try to be athletic. He knew he was going to fail miserably at whatever it was he wanted to do, but it'd been worse if he didn't try at all.

To help with his lovely coordination, Darien felt basketball was a good place to start. On the far end of the gym was a basketball rack filled with orange and dirty basketballs. With the normal aura of doom floating around him, he walked across the gym with his head down. This wasn't exactly going to be fun. When he got to the rack he picked up the first ball he saw.

Carefully he tried to dribble it. For a few seconds he had it going, but it hit his shoe and bounced out of reach in front of him. Darien sighed now knowing that this was going to be near impossible if he couldn't even dribble a ball properly. Before it rolled away too far, he ran a little and picked up the ball. Holding it under his right arm, he looked around for a basket. The nearest was a few feet away from him. He walked in front of it and looked up, trying to dribble the ball. Darien picked up the ball and threw it at the basket. It ended up hitting the side board and bouncing out of sight behind him.

How wonderful, Darien thought as he went to go retrieve the ball.

[Loren Ramos.]

Aah, the gym. Usually Loren wouldn't mind getting physical every now and then - it was healthy, right? As much as she'd like to rant about she's not one of those athletic people, and how her body was just not made for sports, she is - at some point - credible in most sports. She at least tries to be anyway, it's not as if she was awful with no effort. Physical Education might not be a favorite subject of some, but Lor found it incredibly invigorating. It was some way to pump her energy or release it, either way after a bad day, P.E. might actually be her refugee - most days anyway.

So it's no wonder she's a bit of a familiar place in the gym in P.E. time and out. For now, the reason why she might just be in the secluded - she guessed - gymnasium was probably because the cafeteria was full, and the only place she can be alone - without her 'croonies' (her clique, the wannabes) - was the gym. She internalized on the way there, random thoughts filling up the vacant void in her mind. Finding one myth about her sex true; that females can be left alone in one place and can entertain themselves - introspective in a way - in comparison to males, if often left alone, well, they'd get easily bored.

Whatever was on her mind by that time was interrupted by the sight of a dirty orange ball that came into view. Loren then picked it up, and dribbled it slightly before she gave the ball back to it's owner. She looked up from her previously down-casted gaze - a habit of hers, looking down while walking that is - and searched for whoever it may be that seemed to be playing. Her celery green eyes meeting with big blue ones, her expression she tried to keep neutral as she remembered this was one of the 'geeky guys'.

Granted, Loren's one of those kids in high school that never cared much for labels - well she acted like it anyway. She just happened to be unfortunately sorted into a clique, one that wasn't much up to her liking, but she can't do anything anyway. But there would be times when she'd stereotype someone once in a while. 'You're such a damned hypocrite!' she scolded herself mentally. The memory of Elisabeth (or as she insisted to be called Lisie), the supposed queen of their wannabe clique, orienting Loren on who's who at school and pointing out this particular dude as the "biggest" nerd in school had played in her mind.

Loren cringed inwardly.

It was one of the most memorable memories Loren had in this school. Not exactly the worst - she had more of those but with other people - yet not exactly that great either. The wannabes had welcomed Loren with open arms, heck, they were practically the only group willing to take her in. Other groups feared she's just not up to their standards, or that Loren's... rather scandalous background with the popular sect of the school would ruin their peaceful way of living. Either way, Loren was thankful for these seemingly friendly people, even if she can only sense a few of them actually sincere and genuine with their welcome.

In the midst of all this, Loren decided that she wouldn't be judging people based on what clique they're haplessly sorted into. So she tried to react indifferent anyway, tried. Though whether she was believable and convincing, she was doubtful. She held out the ball to his direction, still quite skeptical as to whether he's the one actually playing.

"Yours?"

Loren tipped her head to his direction and asked.

[ooc; sorry, got carried away.. XD ][/sup][/color]

[Darien Gabrielle]

Darien looked behind both shoulders as if there was someone else who could take the ball. But there was no one. He wasn't exactly planning on looking this person in the face. He hoped that if he could ignore them long enough they might leave. What he did notice was that this person, a girl it appeared, was slightly different. She was actually offering the ball back to him. Normally people would throw it at him or throw it farther away than where it had originally been. But from his last encounter with someone, he knew he couldn't be too trusting. It may be thrown back in his face, literally.

Finally he looked back at her and sighed. "Yeah...it is." His voice was quiet and had a very small hint of fear. Still, it never occurred to him to actually take the ball back. He just stood looking at her with his hands in his pockets.

He turned the other way to go back in front of the basket. When he put his head down he realized he had no ball. Instantly a pink color flooded his face and he looked around a moment or two. She was probably going to think he was a real idiot. It wasn't that Darien cared so much about what people thought of him, he just didn't want to get hurt. Sometimes when he didn't use his common sense it would lead to a physical injury.

Grinning as though nothing ever happened, he walked back to the girl and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"I uh...suppose I'll be needing that," Darien said smiling, but did not proceed to take the ball from her.

[Loren Ramos.]

Loren's forehead were etched with inexistent lines. She was confused. What is up with his reaction? His despaired attitude, the sign that came before his reply as if he didn't want to deal with her? Oh wait, of course. Lor slapped her forehead mentally. Of course he was reacting that way. He didn't want to be associated with her, the "Other Ramos kid", the girl that had just spent a few days in Banting and already she was alienated and taboo. All the work of Lindsey Ramos, the oldest Ramos girl; part of the 'populars' clique, a bright student (you have to be if you want to survive in Banting), attractive girl and could be nice if she wanted to. But she was nothing but a bwitch to Loren.

"Uhm," Lor uttered.

She was still confused, yet a little enraged at how he reacted. She could understand why he wouldn't want to socialize with her, but really, turning your back on someone without even formally ending the conversation -- and her intentions were nothing but good, she was returning his ball for Pete's sake! -- was just downright rude. What's more is that this was a geek doing that to her. But she really shouldn't focus on that.

'Have you forgotten? Wannabes are lower than the geeks in the social ladder.'

She reminded herself, and if she were to look back on this later, she'd be irritated on how caught up on this whole high school labels thing she was too.

"Hey!" she called out, her temper getting the best of her. "Aren't you going to get this back?" she referred to the ball in her palm.

What she didn't expect though when the guy had turned to meet her was the flushed expression in his face. 'Yeah, that's right! Be embarrassed, you should be!' A strange happy feeling then swam in Loren's gut. Victory. Feeling all sorts of cocky and confident now, Lor smirked when he came to get back the basket ball. And now they were a flushed grinning man and a wild-haired brash woman... and a basket ball.

"Yeah, I thought so."

Loren replied, still swaggering with a smile on her face that was mocking and acerbic. As much as she wanted to stick out her tongue in such a mature manner, all she did was give him the ball. And later on, when he had proceeded to dribble it back to the point of shooting, she felt strangely... lonely.

"So umm,"

She paused for a moment, debating whether what she was about to do was right. Would he be freaked out? Would he say 'no'? Why would he say 'no' anyway? She gave him back his ball. Anyway, she continued anyway.

"You have anyone to play with?

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