<<Township Rebellion

[danny cole]

Now freedom must be fundamental
In Johannesburg or South Central
On the mic, 'cause someone should tell 'em
To kick in the township rebellion

Among all of the happy-go-lucky teens, the wanna-be baddasses, the dramatic emo kids, and the snotty preps, enter Danny Cole. He walked past all of these little groups, these little cliches, and felt his face sneer up in his trademark of showing disgust. But this wasn't to simply piss someone off, or scare them, but he really was irritated by this school. Already. A few days in and he was planning on how to bring it down, ideas swarming in his head that would have made the principle expel him on the spot if he were a mind reader. But he were not, and Danny sort of wished he were, so that they would let him go home and continue the life he had left behind. Here, he stuck out like a sore thumb, and there, well... he still stuck out like a sore thumb, but at least he was known there, and avoided. No one even bothered to glance his way or snicker at his choice of clothes back there. But now, he was the new hot topic of conversation; "Have you seen that new kid? No, he isn't hot! He's terrible! Look at his clothes! Lolololol!" Danny shook his head maddeningly and turned to glare at two girls who had been cracking jokes behind his back. They fluttered away, obviously frightened by the intensity of hatred in his gaze. That cheered him up slightly, but not much.

Sick of the jeers and laughs that were directed his way, he slipped Rage Against the Machine into his CD player and blared it so that it was heard well around the hallway, despite the loud voices that rang through like some annoying car alarm. He sighed in apparent peace when the band began blaring away angrily in his ears. He loved the age in which Rage had been present - there was so much rebellion, and anything the goverment did was met with a thousand screaming teenagers, determind to show the president that he wouldn't ever win with them. But they had all grown up, gotten fat and old, and those just became amusing memories to tell their children. His face tightened in frustration, for that wouldn't ever be him. He had been this way his whole life and he couldn't see, nor did he want, to be any other way. This was him. This was Danny Cole.

He wandered into the courtyard and blinked at the sudden light, detesting it. He prefered the covering darkness, which could wrap around him like some silky blanket and hide him from view. He glanced around at the crowded place and sat down on a decorated bench in the far corner, looking at the happening of the school with distaste. Fishing a pack of cigarettes out of his ratty old black backpack, he pulled one out and lit it, feeling the smoke push down his throat and into his lungs. In and out. In and out. Take a drag. In and out. He sighed, a tiny bit more content at the familiar act of smoking, wondering when he was to be told off for doing so. But it gave him satisfaction that he was tainting the school's air with his bad habits. Someone glanced his way, smelling the smoke, and glared, a stare in which he returned, intensified tenfold. They looked away quickly and pointed out him to her friends, all which laughed hard at his choice of outfit. Annoyed, he looked down at his skin-tight black jeans and old combat boots, paired with a long-sleeved faded blue button-up. He shrugged. Whatever. If they thought this was the worst of his outfits, then they weren't prepared for the rest of the year.

[Laken Rose Cullens]

Music was always best enjoyed with sunshine. Well, music was best enjoyed with anything. Laken Rose Cullens had her signature look of white buds from an iPod sprouting from her ears, the white cord slithering down to the pink thirty gigabyte Zune, holding a massive five thousand songs. It was set on random, as usual, Hold On by the Jonas Brothers played in her ears. Her little sister had gotten their CD over the summer and got her addicted to them. How annoying, right?

Walking through the hallways of the school, her destination would be the courtyard. It was bright, the air was fresh, and it was a great place to relax. Her music was loud enough to drown out most of the idle chatter of the students but low enough if someone wanted her attention or was talking to her, she would hear it. She never took her ear buds out for conversations, it was just how she was. Laken would never sacrifice her music for conversation, people had just learned to accept it.

Shoving the door open that lead to the courtyard, she squinted her eyes, shading them from the sunlight. She expected it to be light but she had to let her eyes adjust. As her bright blue eyes scanned over the yard, they adjusted, and she focused on one boy, smoking. Laken, being the rule loving person that she is, was slightly annoyed with the blatant disregard for them. Her rule loving side kicked in and she walked straight over to the boy and carefully sat next to him. She was careful to give him his personal space though.

"You know, you really shouldn't be smoking on the school grounds," she said. "Or smoking around people period. Three thousand people die a year from lung cancer because of second hand smoke."

Laken knew she'd probably come off as a prissy know it all who was a good two shoes and annoying. She didn't personally care though, her love of rules and people shoved all that away for her. She also knew she probably looked quiet strange sitting next to the smoker, being physically opposite from him.

Hanging from her hips was her white flowy peasant skirt, the end playing around her knees when she was walking. Covering her torso was just a plain light yellow wife beater that clung to her very small frame. Yes, that in itself was enough to look the polar opposite. It didn't help that her hair was in low pigtails, the pigtails curled in big loose spiral curls, and each one over her shoulder so the ends were in front. She looked like a regular popular.

Crossing her legs in a proper lady-like manner, her light yellow flip flop hung off her foot dangerously as she sat there, waiting for the boys response. Laken mentally prepared herself for a verbal beating. She knew how smokers didn't like to be told not to do it, she knew that boys like him weren't the nicest. His hair said it all. She could take it though; she was a lot tougher than she looked.

[danny cole]

Yeah, so you thought you could get with the hardlines
That fill your mind
Thoughts, battles fought
And lessons taught

Destruction. His appearance said it all. To normal people, it screamed get away, I'm dangerous, I'll rip your head off. Though that was probably something he would do, it had always confused Danny. So, he dressed different. Big fucking deal! No one had to be frightened of him for it, it wasn't as if he was brandishing a knife in their face, saying "Die, mortals, die!" And yet he might as well of been, from the looks he was getting. He laughed quietly to himself at the wussies that surrounded him, none of them dared to venture too close. Like a game of capture the flag, they put their toes over the line, taunting him to come nearer and tag them, but once he looked their direction they quickly stepped back over to their side and pretended nothing had happened. But that was the way they wanted to play the game, eh? Well, he really wasn't in the mood to pick a fight with them anyway. Besides, he was waiting until some horrible, hairy, and buff football or whatever the hell star to come up and laugh in his face, or beat him up or whatever. The thought made him chuckle again. What they didn't know about him was how fast and how sly he could be. If you wanted to cause mass destruction, that was they only way to be.

So imagine Danny's suprise when a frail-looking girl marched towards him with a determind look on her face. She wasn't toeing the line like the others, but stepping over it, heading over to him; a girl with a purpose. For a split-second his face showed shock, then he quickly compromised it into a sneer as she sat down next to him. He took another toke on his cigarette and listened to her babble about how smoking in school was bad, and people died from second-hand smoke. Hah! Like he cared. He just looked at her curiously after her little speech, wondering where this courage had come from. He shrugged, guessing she had more guts then any of them combined.

He spoke without looking at her, but rather glaring at a pair of giggling girls that had pointed at him. "But it happens to be kind of hard for me to feel compassion for people like that," he said, jabbing his head in the direction of the girls. "So I could really care less if they dropped dead on the spot, never mind the slow agonizing death of lung cancer. Who are they to me?" He asked his last question with a hard voice, glaring at her, daring her to defy him.

[Laken Rose Cullens]

Laken followed his glare over to the girls. They were indeed pointing and giggling, which she thought was kind of rude. Well, it was rude, not kind of. People like that annoyed her to no end, though she kept that little frustration on the inside. It was very uncharacteristic of her to openly be mean to people, though if the conversation of certain people came up about them, she would chime in.

A light laugh came from her. She supposed he was suppose to scare her, though that wasn't the reason she was laughing. No, she was laughing at his comment about the girls. She found it humorous because it was true. "Well, I see your point," she said, smiling at him, her amusement in her voice.

Laken wasn't afraid of the person sitting next to her. She wasn't the judgmental type, the kind of ridicule and and shun people on how they looked. She was always polite and friendly no matter what. That took some work sometimes when she encountered giggling girls like the ones her company referred to. Keeping her polite and friendly composure was hard and it took many years of practice to not scream, "Shut up and find some brains!"

"Even so, it would be nice if you stopped. Maybe if you were considerate of others, they would be considerate of you," she said calmly. "What goes around comes around, right?"

She looked back at the boy, unwavering and unafraid of his hard exterior. Laken would continue to be nice and friendly until she found a real reason to treat him like scum. A real reason meaning something he did to her, some personality trait that was just horrible and unbearable, or things of the like. She rested her elbow on her knee and cupped her chin in her palm, her bright eyes staring at him, waiting for his response.

[danny cole]

Shackle their minds when they're bent on the cross
When ignorance reigns, life is lost

He absent-mindedly flicked the ash off of his ciggarette and looked at the girl, no longer glaring, but rather questioningly, quizzically. He wondered what had motivated her to come yell at him when all the others were content to sit as far away as possible and laugh. And although she was laughing, she wasn't laughing at him, or his clothes, or his shitty attitude - she was laughing at something he had said. This astounded him slightly, although his face remained impassive, not showing a flicker of his suprise. Keeping a straight face was one of the many things he had accomplished - it tied in with being a liar, and he was a great one. Infact, he probably could have sit here and apologized, sounding completely sincere, and told her that he would quit and not taint the school's air with his smoke. But what's the fun in that?

At her words he smirked and laughed. It was an insane, quiet yet loud sound that most people would consider to be a madman's. His mother had always been afraid to say something funny infront of him, incase he would burst out laughing that terrible laugh and scare her out of her wits. But it didn't matter, anyway; nothing she said he had ever found remotely funny, and he wasn't polite enough to fake a laugh when he needed to. And so his green eyes were amused now as he looked at her, that horrible smirk-smile marring his face once again.

"These people will never be 'considerate' of me - I'm an oddity to them, something to laugh and point at and stare, even if I did stub this cig out right now. That's just the way it is, Missy." His eyes had changed, the amusement gone, replaced with sullen brooding. He turned away from her to stare out at the courtyard again, where a few people looked away hastily, stifling their giggles hastily, further proving his point. He glanced back at her, shrugged, took a last drag on the smoke, dropped it on the ground and stepped on it. It was done, anyway.

[Laken Rose Cullens]

The boy next to her let out a laugh. Laken felt a mixture of pride and joy as she heard it. Yes, it sounded a bit crazy. Yes, it was something that seemed slightly odd coming from someone who was glaring at her a second ago. Maybe that's the pride she felt, that the glaring boy had actually laughed. Maybe the joy came from just how crazy the laugh was; she was always fond of unique things, things people didn't see the beauty or value in. That is when she stepped up and found it no matter how long or how hard it was to find. It was something she did naturally, not really thinking much about it.

She smiled back at him as he laughed and smirked. She listened to him speak, say words that she didn't think were very true. Well, they might be true; people did seem to point, laugh, and ridicule him. They weren't fair words, which was something Laken wasn't very fond of. Though, it must be a teenage thing, noticing the bad in one's self. She did it too, she was quiet guilty of that, so she understood.

"I don't think you're an oddity, I think you're quiet lovely," she said in an upbeat tone, still smiling. "Maybe I will have to change the way things are," her voice confident as she looked back a head of her. Laken wasn't one to let things get in the way of getting to know something. Truly, the only thing that mattered to her was what was on the inside, which was too cheesy for her to ever say out loud.

As he dropped the cigarette, she noticed it was done. She knew what she said had no impact on the boy and she figured it would be that way before she even came over here. She watched him step on it, making sure it was out, then her eyes drifted back up to him. "Besides, it will be a challenge and I do love challenges," she said, raising her eyebrows a little.

Laken hadn't meant it would be a challenge as in it would be hard to get people to accept him, she meant it would be a challenge for him to get more... open, maybe, was the right word. No, she knew that getting people to accept him wasn't the challenge, that was the easy part for her because Laken Rose Cullens saw no boundaries when it came to being people's friend.

[danny cole]

You gotta die, gotta die, gotta die
for your Government
Gotta die for your country
That's shit!

She was an odd one, no doubt about it. She seemed rather... pleased at his outburst of crazy laughing that had most people shying away from him. He looked at her closer now, a frown instead of a smirk on his face, wondering if she suffered from some social disabilities or mental shit. But no, he had seen her wandering between the cliques, and she seemed quite welcome in all. Plus, it wasn't as if she was ugly or anything, Danny thought she had nice eyes. He smirked now, thinking of Seth and how he would make it his goal to have her in bed with him by the weekend. But he decided not to share this little tidbit of information with her. Infact, he decided not to share any information with her, since she seemed to damn determind to be his friend. Well, he wouldn't put her through that trama - no doubt her social status would plunge slightly. The room seemed to grow colder whenever he walked into it. Just shows how fucked up this school, and all the rest, really are.

Against his better judgement, his eyes widened slightly when she said she wanted to change things. Change the way things ran at this school, and every other school? Hah! The laugh erupted from him again, louder and more pronounced this time. He attracted more attention with this one, but at he didn't care - Danny was doubled over, holding his side, laughing at the girl's sincere certainy that she'd be able to change this school, or... him! That seemed so much more unlikely that he burst out in another round of laughing, his face flooding with color as he gave up the fight and succumbed to the endless laughter that seemed to echo around the courtyard. Finally, he resurfaced, his fast twisted up into a half-grin towards the girl that had just given him the best laugh he'd had all day. Danny couldn't wait to tell Seth about this.

"Hey, girl, you aren't so bad. What's your name? I'm Danny." He said to her, and he probably should have extended his hand to shake hers but, as he didn't feel like it, it didn't happen.

[Laken Rose Cullens]

Unsure about why he was laughing, Laken just sat back and smiled. She was sure it was something she said, though she couldn't find humor enough in her words to laugh. If he could, well, so be it. She would let him laugh without getting offended or bend out of shape about it. It wasn't like it was a bad thing, him laughing at what she said. She didn't think it to be a critical kind of laughter that was only being made to mock someone. Even if it was, at least she wasn't the one getting stared at and pointed at every where she went.

Thinking that was a really horrible thing to think, she mentally beat herself up for it. She really shouldn't be thinking that, even if it was for a brief second. Things like that lead to people being mean, people getting hurt, and bad things like that happening. Laken would not let herself be mean or anything negative like that. She'd worked hard on not letting that happen.

When he spoke again, she looked back at him, a small smile still on a her, though it grew a tiny bit bigger when she saw he had a grin on his face. Danny, she thought. Danny... she rolled it over a few times in her head, a mental image of Danny from one of her favorite movies, Grease. That fits, I suppose.

"Laken," she said, her voice still light and polite. "Laken Rose Cullens." Why she always told people her full name, she was never sure. She supposed it was because she just liked how it sounded, her three names together like that. Or maybe it was because in movies, all the fancy and upper class people said their full names when they were getting introduced. It was more than likely the first reason.

"It's very nice meet you," she said, sounding a little dorky. Yet again, just another quirk of Laken; too polite with all the wrong people. Only older folk appreciated the politeness and slight formality she used when exchanging names.