supernova

  It was difficult for her to take his answer and not help him with at least   a bandaid but she didn’t have much option. So she let it go, slinging her   backpack over her shoulder. The comment caught her off guard and   she scoffed. 

        “Are you SERIOUS?! You sound like my father!” 

  She was not oblvious to the way he looked at her skirt and then her   legs. It was short, sure, but it covered everything that it needed to and   that’s what mattered. 

       “I can bend over and not show off my ASS, it’s not hard.” She               grumbled and, to prove her point, she knelt down to touch               the grass and straightened back up. 

         “It’s ’cause it’s TRUE.”

   No matter what he said, she was sure to prove him wrong. That was    more than clear by the irritated tone of her voice. Doing just that,    proving her point, the fiery haired girl bent off and Jim couldn’t help    his wandering eyes as they moved to her behind, that tiny smirk still    on his lips. Brown eyes flickered back to her when they came face to    face once more, though his head was still slightly tipped to the side,    a bad ogling habit he’d picked up.

         “Take it from a professional male, it DOESN’T matter.”

        “You DEFINITELY were but you’re forgiven.”

  She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, inspecting her knees for   himself as well. It would have been easy to fix with a bandage if he let   her. Then again, she couldn’t force him to let her. 

         “Are you sure?” 

  She hated to see someone hurt, even if he had been a jerk and hurt   her to begin with. At his words, she narrowed her eyes, looking down   at her skirt and back to him. 

      “What’s WRONG with my skirt? I’m quite skilled and picking        things up, the skirt has nothing to do with it.

     “I’m POSITIVE.” 

 Injuries were never a big worry for him, they were always a minor  problem, one for a later time. Her reaction caused him to laugh a  small laugh, one corner of his lips pulling up. 

    “It’s short. I wouldn’t recommend      bending over, not around here.”

 His eyes flickered down her legs, following the hem of the skirt. He  couldn’t lie and say he wouldn’t have ENCOURAGED her to bend  over any other time, but not now.

  She was more than happy to hand the tools over once he had   said please. With her hands empty, she rested them back in the   water and watching him curiously, wanting to watch what he   was going to do.                    “Are they enough” She asked. 

 Looking over the tools in his hands, he was skeptical if he COULD fix  it, but he would surely try. Without it, he was stuck and even so, he   would want the solar surfer because it was something he did when he  wanted to get out and relax or de-stress. 

     “They should be, thanks.”

 Glancing over his shoulder, he looked at the shore, knowing the surfer  had crashed into a rock there. He was still out in the water, though, and  he wasn’t a very good swimmer, having not had much experience with  water. Montressor wasn’t known for its lakes.

   “Did you WANT anything else, or can I clear your table?”

          “You did so sarcastically so it didn’t count. And it’s fine now.            Thank you for apologising. And getting my papers.”

  Her thanks was heartfelt because the last thing she wanted to do was not   hand in her homework. Not only would her teachers get angry but her father   would as well. Sometimes there were better things to do than homework.   Like being outside or adventures. She carefully piled all her papers together   in a neater bunch before placing them in her discarded backpack. One   quick look at his knees and she shot him a skeptical look.

        “Are you SURE? That one’s bleeding quite a bit.” 

      “It WASN’T... Okay, I guess it was.”

  His gaze followed hers, taking in the damage. There were smears of red   but nothing terribly bad. It would clot soon enough and he’d only have to   wipe it away His mother was sure to notice whether he bandaged it or not.

      “I’ll be fine, coulda been worse.”

  Jim had gone home with far worse injuries than a bleeding knee. It would   take nothing short of a broken limb to stop him.

      “If you see any more papers I missed flying around, let me        know. SKIRTS aren’t the best choice for picking up papers.”

            “PLEASE, and here.” 

  You were meant to say please before you say thank you but   the boy didn’t seem to have many manners. She wasn’t sure   if the tools were what he needed but she had seen sailors   use them.

   “Please.” He echoed, still trying to stay on her good side,         if possible. The tools she handed to him were... strange,         rusted and not exactly what he was hoping for, but it was         better than nothing. 

  It was a sudden change from ignoring her completely to being kind   and collecting her sheets. She smiled, looking down at his board   before looking up to meet his eyes again. It was almost sweet of   him, a drastic change from his snarky attitude. 

     “Maybe I just wanted an apology because it’s POLITE, especially       when someone knocks you to the ground when you’re minding       your own business.” 

  She carefully took the papers out of his arms, organising them into   a neat pile in her own arms. Now that he had done something kind   for her, she was happy to return the favour. 

     “Do you want some? I carry them around?” 

     “I DID apologize but... sorry. I shoulda been looking.”

  His mother would had punished him until he was a hundred if she saw   how he was acting. There were many things she gave up punishing him   for, but not for being rude. With the papers taken from him, he picked up   his board again, tucking it under his arm and shoving his hands into his   pockets. 

     “Nah, I’m fine. It’s just a scrap.”

  She was quick to give up on her homework as it was blown away by   the wind. The entire day had become an unmitigated disaster. Already   she was late home, her homework was gone AND she was bleeding.   Her father was going to kill her. Or at least get angry at her and, in turn   she wanted to take it out on the bane of all her problems.

                   “Oh YOU…!” 

  With a huff, she decided that there was no point in cussing him out,   the boy wouldn’t listen anyway. Once he showed actual concern, her   anger lessened considerably. Her arms crossed over her chest and   she shrugged, trying to see nonchalant. 

        “No, I’ll be okay. YOURS looks worse than mine. Do you          have any band aids?”

  As he came back around her, he saw the paper scattered around   the sidewalk, some blown down to the corner and others across   the street. Placing the board on the sidewalk sideways beside her   so it wouldn’t roll away, Jim jumped into acting, running across the   cement retrieving the papers. 

   “You just yelled at me for getting you hurts, and now it’s 'OKAY’?”

  Papers collected awkwardly in his arms, he walked back to her.   He’d attempted to sort them but he was more likely to drop them   if he tried any more. 

     “I don’t carry band aids around with me, no.”

      “Do you want your TOOLS or would you rather keep         trying to tell me I’m wrong?”

  She huffed, running her fingers through her hair. It worked just fine   as a brush but if he wanted to keep arguing with her she didn’t know   why she should help him. 

  As much as he wanted to explain how wrong she was, he’d   much rather get to work on his solar surfer.

   “I’d like the tools, thanks.”

         “NO! It’s a dinglehopper!! Scuttle told me so!”

  Maybe that fall had knocked something loose in his head because   he didn’t seem to understand anything. The concept wasn’t hard, it   had prongs just like a comb did and it made her hair smooth.

     “I think Scuttle’s as CONFUSED as you are.”

  He really shouldn’t be arguing with a siren, especially when   she can outswim him if he tried to bolt for shore. She didn’t   seem that dangerous, though. 

  It took some effort to get to her feet, wiping down her knees and   hands, cringing at the sting from the scrapes that the boy had caused.   And he was STILL very rude.

 “I don’t feel like reciting the multiplication tables.” She grumbled, glaring     at his back. He was just some boy at a skate park who did not deserve     her attention and yet, she wanted to wait and get her apology. Especially     since her homework was half way across the park and her knees were     scraped and bleeding.  

            “It’s FINE.” 

  She huffed but it clearly wasn’t fine at all. The skateboard was more   important that a persons well being and that just wasn’t right.

           “Are you seriously more concerned by that stupid board?             I’m bleeding because of you!” 

  There are two ways for things to go, a person could get angry    and walk away, OR they could stay around to yell at him. Jim    always preferred when people walked away, he got enough     yelling, or at least angry talking, from his mother. He was a    screw up, he knew that, why couldn’t people just NOT waste    their time trying to remind him of that fact.

     “Then go to a doctor!” He barked back.

   With a heavy sigh, he tucked the board under his arm and    carefully moved back towards her. Most people didn’t hit him,    but he wouldn’t put it past her. He could see her knees were    scrapped up and immediately started to feel bad. 

        “Is it bad?”

  The pain in her knees subsided slightly. There was an obscene boy   on the sidewalk beside her, cursing. Not only was he rude enough   to knock her to the ground and not even bother to apologise for it, he   hadn’t bothered to acknowledge her all. She, huffed, scrambling to   get her loose homework papers as they began to fly away before    speaking up.

          “You’re incredibly RUDE, you know.”

  With a groan, he pushed himself up off the cement, arms scrapped   and stinging. 

    “Tell me something I DON’T know.” He grumbled, brushing off           his arms and elbows as he got to his feet. His board was           probably broken if not thrashed, he wasn’t in the mod for           some prissy school girl to yell at him. 

   “Sorry for running into you, okay?”

 It was all Jim was going to say on the matter, immediately walking  past her to pick up the skateboard and check it for damage.

puzzlemaps;

         “Oh my GOODNESS!”

   Without warning, she fell to her knees after someone had knocked    her over. Books and pens went flying in the air as pain shot up her    legs.

                      “Ouch!”

  Having a board again felt like freedom and all he’d done for the last   hour was skate around. Apparently the time without one had caused   him to forget to watch where he was going, rolling backward on the   board until he crashed into someone falling forward off the piece of   wood and sending it flying in another direction. 

          “FUCK!”