Hi, I'm Oscar!

He arched an eyebrow. “Bulk size? That’s a lot of ramen.” he commented, almost in awe. “I suppose it’s my civic duty to help you eat it all.”

“Yeah, Melinda likes to make sure that I am fed.” He said with a grin. Starting to pack up his things, he looked to the other. “It’s Brian, right?” 

Elsa watched as Oscar placed the glass of water on the ground and rocked slightly, unable to contain her excited to see her friend’s progress. As the snow began to slowly form her hands twitched a bit inside of her gloves but she quickly pulled her hands behind her back to keep herself from interfering with his work. A bright smile on her face she looked up to him and nodded quickly. “Keep going, you’re getting it!”

Chewing at his lip, he tried to focus his energy more. The glass vibrated a bit more as the snow took a more solid form, before moving back to a slush. “I swear I had it.” He huffed. Going to pick up the glass. “I guess, it just hates me now.” 

“I think we’re all broke. That’s basically the student life.” Brian joked with a little shrug. “But I guess I could eat.” Just then, his stomach growled rather loudly causing his face to heat up. “Ok, maybe more than ‘I guess’…”

“If we don’t want to go out and get food, I do have a care box with some instant meals we could handle.” He suggested. “Melinda always likes to send me like, bulk sized boxes of Ramen noodles.” 

Brian hesitated. On one hand, they really should get a head start. But on the other, they did already have everything planned out. And he didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot with his partner and seem like a downer. “I mean - I guess we could stop for now? And meet again in a few days?”

“That sounds like a lovely, lovely idea friend. But, you know I can think of an even better one, that I could use your help with.” He pointed out with a chuckle. “How about, you and me go grab a bite to eat? I’d say my treat, but sadly I’m very broke. So, how about it? Wanna get some food with me?” 

“Sounds perfect to me.” Brian immediately agreed. He was surprised that Oscar went along with it so easily. “Don’t worry, this will be the best power point you’ve ever seen.”

“I’m counting on you then.” Oscar said with a laugh. Turning his attention to the books for a moment, before letting himself easily get side-tracked he sighed. “You know, we’ve still got awhile before this is due. Do we really have to keep working today?” 

His eyes widened. “I didn’t mean to…” Okay, it was best to just quit while he was ahead. “Um, preferably anything that doesn’t involve presenting? Or speaking of any kind?”

“I can do the speaking part, if you want to do with the power point control maybe?” He suggested. Opening up his laptop, Oscar pulled up a word document to get some work done. 

At the thunk of the books, Brian looked up, startled. “Oh!” He’d kind of lost track of time there. “I mean… yes? Er… what I meant to say is no? I…” What exactly was the correct response here? He could feel his cheeks burning.

“You didn’t miss me?” He questioned with a laugh. “That hurts, right here.” Pointing at his chest, the boy went back to the book. “So, which parts of the project would you like to do? We’ve got quite a lot to do.”

The tips of Brian’s ears reddened. “I read a lot of historical fiction….” he muttered. But he blinked in surprise when the other boy got up. “Oh, uh, okay…. I’ll just… wait here…” he trailed off. Unsure on what exactly to do while Oscar was gone, he started to jot down notes in his notebook, zoning out.

“Hey, I’m not judgin’ ya or anything honest, it’s just cool that you study that sorta thing.” Coming back to the table he set the few books he had found done on the table between them. “Did you miss me?” He teased, Cracking open one of the books. 

“Hey - I’m a science major, not a history one, and you don’t see me complaining.” he huffed. “But we can do Nero. Fun isn’t really the right word, though. He kind of set fire to Rome just to make room for his new palace. He also had his mother and brother executed. And some say he used captured Christians dipped in oil and set on fire in his garden at night as a source of light. Fun guy.”  

Listening to him as he spoke, Oscar chuckled a bit. “And you said you were a science major. You know more about this guy then I do.” Grabbing two of the books that had been on the table, the boy got up to return them to the shelf and find more that focused on their subject. 

Brian paused, glancing up. “It’s supposed to be a group project, but I suppose I can throw some ideas out there.” He tapped a pencil against his notebook lightly, thinking. “Pericles. Socrates. Ramses. Nero - he was kind of crazy. Well, all the emperors were, really.”

“I know it’s supposed to be a group project. But, when half the group doesn’t know half of the things we are talking about, it gets a little difficult.” Looking down at his laptop, he quickly typed in the name of someone he had suggested. “How about Nero, he sounds fun, I guess.”