Bring May Flowers.

No flowers here.

April already has reading for class.

So she's reading.

On a bench.

She's a girl dressed in leggings and t-shirt and a ponytail (she's been growing it out).

And she's not very interesting or remarkable.

And she is, for the record, in most all of Dr. Barclay's classes she qualifies for this semester. She got a note from the Dean to allow her to take the extra credits on top of her required courses.

She has, if you haven't guessed, given up any hint of a social life.

It isn't that lonely....

That's alright. Music doesn't leave room for a social life, either, when you're as dedicated as Joellie. She almost literally spends every waking moment with her cello. Who knows what will happen to it if she doesn't?

Sadly, though, she had other classes she needed to study for. A literature class, as it so happens, but she thankfully got to skip out on the good Doctor. Too many horror stories for her liking.

Joellie is a girl who is slightly interesting and very remarkable, if you ever get the chance to hear her play. Right now she's having difficulty with symbolism. It's different when she's working with music, but she gets entirely lost when dealing with words.

She's wearing a pink button down shirt with a baggy pair of jeans and flip flopps. Her unruly red hair is pulled back into a low, fluffy pony-tail. She has her Baby Cello on her back and a few books in her hand, today being a light day in classes.

She could really use some apple juice right about now. Yes, she's addicted to it. But in order to get a drink at the moment, she has to put down her cello case and get it out. What better place to do that at then a bench? It was a little on the small side, but it would do.

She sits as far enough away as she can without looking skittish and begins to unbuckle the case and reaches in for the blessed bottle of amber liquid. Her eyes stray over to the book the other girl's reading.

"Doesn't Barclay assign that book?"

April glanced up, pulled a half-smile, and glanced back down at her book again. "Yeah.. have I seen you in class..?"

April doesn't mind social interaction.

She just doesn't, y'know, do it.

"Phshaw, no," her face says 'what, are you kidding?'

"I wouldn't be caught dead in one of his classes. I've heard way too many horror stories. Are any of them true?" Alright, so she went from 'omg, Barclay is evil' to 'is he really all that bad?' Well, maybe it's the apple juice lightening her mood. By the way, she's downing about half the bottle.

April snorted. "Pfff, no. I mean, he's not a nice teacher, but he teaches. You learn stuff." She glanced down at the book again (she'd been enjoying it). "It's not like he's unfair or anything. He's just..." She didn't know what he was. "You either love hi-" half second pause "-s classes or you hate them."

She almost said 'love him'.

Bad, bad April.

Bad.

No teacher-crush for you!

..okay, maybe a little one.

"I'm April." Since they haven't met before, and all.

Joellie wouldn't have thought anything of it if April had said "love him." She would have assumed she meant as a teacher, not as a person. Joellie has also heard that he's a scary person.

"I'm Joellie. Nice t'meet'cha, April."

Well, yes.

But loving a teacher was creepy and stalkerish.

Having a crush on a teacher was acceptable and normal and didn't require therapy.

So it was a crush. Nothing more. Ever.

"You too. Where're you off to?" Hopefully you don't have a class in five minutes, because actually talking to someone for the first time in a week is a welcome change....

"Hm? Oh, I was just going to go pick up some music from the store. No big deal," she could always go later.

"Were you planning on reading that book all day?"

"Oh, cool. What kind of music? And, heh. Probably will." But April stood, marking her place with a finger, belying her own words. "'s interesting enough." Just not interesting enough to not bore her to sleep every tenth sentence.

Literary works do that.

"A POPs piece for an independant orchestra I'm in. Gotta love Pirates," of course, Pirates of the Carribean. It had an awesome cello part.

"You got more patience than I have. I couldn't do that much reading if I had to."

"I don't have much else to do, really. Besides feed my cat, I mean." Silly cat.

In conclusion, April is not a party girl.

Neither is Joellie, really. She tried it once and definately found it against her liking.

"Oh I'd love a cat! What's its name?" She really, honestly sounded interested. Not the everyday interest but the 'I've never had a pet before and I really want one' type of interested.

"Turtle. He's a sweet little tortoiseshell I brought from home. He's insane."

Well.

Being a turtle and being turned into a cat will do that to you. He's a tad neurotic.

Mostly, it's because he doesn't like having the longer tail. It gets stepped on. Also? No shell. Completely unprotected.

It makes him a twitchy kitty.

The closest Joellie's ever had to pets are her parents. Not because they act like animals but they sometimes turn into them. Literally. They're snakes; nagas. At least they're descrete. She doesn't like snakes though: bad experience.

"Oh that's cool."

She put the apple juice container back into the case and buckled it up before leaning against the back of the bench.

"So where was home?"

April flapped a hand dismissively. "Tiny middle-of-nowhere town. I'm not planning on going back. Ever. You?"

"I'm a Townie, I admit it. I've lived in Bayfield for eleven years, maybe eventually I'll go to Chicago or Hollywood but for now I stay here. I even live with my parents still, if you can believe it."

"Oh, cool. I love this city. I have an apartment, 'cause of the cat." Cat + dorm = no.

She has a tricky time with rent, but it's slightly cheaper than other options. She has a part-time job to help with it. (She did an internship over the summer. Yay resume padding.)

Joellie wholeheartedly agreed. There were some odd characters in Bayfield. For reasons unknown it probably housed the largest initiate population she'd ever heard of.

"Yeah, it's a great place. So how long have you been here? I could show you some nice, quiet places to study, if you like." Simply because April seemed like a nice girl and if you didn't know the ins and outs of the city you'd be S.O.L. really fast.

"Technically? I'm a sophomore. Not that you could tell, really. I don't get out much. When I'm not in class, anyway."

April is just fine with making fun of herself.

It is a bit ridiculous, y'know? The crush, the schoolwork, the cat... she lives a silly life.

"What kinds of places?" April is a curious kitty.

"Uhh.." she's thinking, dredging up a few, "There's a small, personal library off of Creole Drive...there's also a rock climbing facility that's got a small hang out perch about half way up. Not a lot of people know about it and it's really comfortable."

She shrugs, not able to think of many now that she puts her mind to it. "Sorry I can't think of more right now. Sucks how things never come to you when you need them to, right?"

"Those sound really cool."

Not that she'll take the time to visit them unless she's prodded into it - but they're still cool sounding.

Yeah. They are cool sounding. Joellie looks around while a gust of wind comes from behind.

"Well," Joellie prepares to stand, "I don't want to keep you from your studying. You've probably got a heap of other things you've got to do too, right?"

April rolled her eyes. "Don't remind me...."

"See you around?"

April hopes so. A friend would be nice.

"Of course!"

Yay for friends! Heaven knows Joellie could use them.

"When don't you have class, we can have a girls' night or something." Or get to be better friends.

"That sounds awesome... umm... I have english tutoring later, but meet up after? We can stay up late and play truth or dare or something."

..April has no clue what girls do on girls' nights.

"Heh," she laughs and smiles. It's nice to know someone without an alterior motive. ((::cough::the entire cello section::cough::))

"I think that works better with more than two people, but yeah! Can't wait! D'you need my phone number?"

"Yeah, that'd be good.... Cell phone?"

April has one, which is good. She can call as soon the tutoring stuff is over.

She has no idea where she keeps paper.

Paper, paper...

and for that matter, a pencil...

...narg...

it can't be that hard to find a pencil.

"Yeah. You know if want to give me yours I can just plug it into mine, I've got it right here." In her cello case. Ahh, the many wonders of pockets.

"That'd be great, because my backpack hates me and refuses to divulge its secrets..."

April shakes her head and gives the other girl her cell number.

"I get out of class at 6:30 ish.. I'll have to figure out something to eat after, but other than that, I'm all caught up for the evening.."

As far as she knows.

"Alright! Cool! So I should call you about 6:40?" The number is logged into her cellphone and she hoists Baby Cello onto her back.

"Perfect. Talk to you then."

And April turns back to her book (not that she'll be able to concentrate, but ah well...).