Usually called Stitch

It clicked when he mentioned racing one another, a bright smile on her face as she tucked the strands of hair behind her ear. “Stitch! I remember now, we used to race back in school–I mean then it was just go-kart’s but still.” She said with a soft laugh, looking at him. “You look different now.”

His smile matched hers as she mentioned go-kart racing, finally recognizing her and thanking his memory that he still remembered her. “Vanellope! Guess we’ve both upgraded to the real deal,” he says, chucking lightly. “Well I mean, I’d hope so. I’m 21 now. Not 17 anymore. I see I’m still taller than you though. At least that’s the same,” he teased.

“That’d be nice. Yeah, I post mainly cover videos and the occasional Q&As. I’m Anela624 on Youtube, it’s silly but people like it and I haven’t changed it since.” She shakes her head and blushes when mentioning her Youtube name. “I’m sure, I’ll let you know when you go overboard. Yeah, so much to learn about with scales, notes and everything else in-between. That’ll be a sight to see. you dancing, and what kind of dance would you do? I’m studying singing and guitar.” Anela said, closing her journal that was on her lap. “What do you usually track down? Places, food, people?”

“Anela624...got it,” he repeated slowly, trying to commit it to memory; even though there was a pen and paper in front of him. Hearing her name again, sounded weird to him. He didn’t know why. He knows it’s her name, but it felt off. He swears he’s heard it somewhere before. “Like honestly, why is there a Lydian scale? This girl named Lydia in my class was starting to get ego after learning that. And then there are jazz scales and...something else I can’t remember. --You know. Maybe I will switch to dance. Next semester...it’s too late to drop classes at my school now,” he says, mostly joking and chuckling lightly. “Well, I used to do ballet, believe it or not. And I know the basics of hula dancing thanks to my best friend. So maybe ballet or maybe contemporary. Though I don’t know how majors for dancing works so,” he admits, now wearing a shy smile. “Uh, well,” he started to say, moving the workbook from his lap to the table. “It depends on what I remember. The first time you met me, I was trying to track down my favorite cafe from a few years ago. But I don’t know if I’ve found it yet, to be honest.”

“A ‘W’?” She raised an eyebrow. “Well I need to get to Brooklyn, so I’m supposed to the the subway that goes Downtown/Brooklyn…” Sophia said, while doing gestures with her forefinger, like she was mapping where to go. “Right?” She looked at him confused. “Are you from here?”

Steven nodded back to confirm. “Well, just about all these lines except...maybe five or six of them will take you to just about anywhere in Brooklyn.” He gave a small smile to her. “Kind of. I used to live here a couple years ago. I’m trying to get familiar with everything again.”

“Ok, now you need to move your hips, but this time faster, to resemble the ocean’s waves.” Moana instructed as she started to dance faster, motioning for the students to follow her on hula.

Steven knew it had been a long time since he did hula, but he never heard that analogy and for whatever reason, it threw him off a little. “Is it really supposed to resemble the waves?”

“I’m heading to starbucks, I want frappuccinos, you can come with me and you can explain what’s the matter.”

“What? Nothing’s the matter. Why would you assume something’s the matter?” he asks, slightly defensively and resisting the urge to grab at his necklace. “Maybe I just want a frappuccino, too.”

Gus lay, splayed out across a blanket in the middle of the park. Sunglasses covered his eyes, red circles surrounding them. His limbs spread out meant he lay in a star position. It was the afternoon and he’d been smoking week since about 8am this morning. He had no meetings at all today and had planned to make the absolute most of it. Thankfully because he was keeping himself to himself, he wasn’t too worried about any fans of his YouTube channel causing a scene. All he wanted to do today was chill and forget. That was often all he did.

A shadow loomed over him. At first thought, he presumed it a cloud. But when the dark patch didn’t move, he slowly sat up with a groan. Gus’ sunglasses slid down slightly with the movement anyway which allowed him to get a place at the person in question. “What do you want?” He grumbled, words almost slurred into one. Perhaps there had been the odd drink between the weed. It had been a long day so far. He couldn’t remember.

Steven was doing his weekly run around the park when he saw a figure lay on the grass. Not thinking much of the person, he ran on by and went on with his own business like usual. But it wasn’t until about the third lap around the whole park when he saw the same person still just laying there. Curious and concerned, Steven walked over to the guy. “Sorry. Just you had me worried for a minute,” he replied. “You’re laid out like you passed out and I wanted to see and make sure if you were still conscious.”

“Say you’re dating someone and you’ve never kissed, would you really be dating?  Like you wouldn’t be a proper couple would you?  If you haven’t kissed you wouldn’t expect it to be exclusive or anything would you?”

Steven furrowed his eyebrows together, thinking over the question. “I mean...yeah. Kissing doesn’t exactly define a status of a relationship really. That’s like saying having sex determines whether or not the relationship is serious or not. --Did that make sense?”

“Just give me a sec. If I don’t write it down somewhere, I’ll never remember.”

Stitch nodded. “Wouldn’t it be easier to like, write it on your phone though? Like text it to yourself or something?”

“Yeah, hopefully I have a solid good original song. Maybe I’ll post of video of it on Youtube.” Anela smiles, tucking her pen behind her ear and sips her drink. She listens attentively to Stitch going on about his school work. Yeah, the subject matter wasn’t generally entertaining, but she liked hearing him talk. She missed hearing him talk; it’s been years since his accident and she hasn’t heard a word from him since then. A word coming out from his mouth was music to her ears at this point. “Oh no no, feel free to ramble, I’m a great listener. I can help you on the scales if you like? There’s plenty to know about, but I know a few. I’m a little curious on what you’re investigating for your project, is this detective work or something? Sorry, I keep asking lots of questions.” She said before biting her bottom lip.

“I’m not all that great with lyrics, but I can probably help with the accompaniment if you need it? Oh you’re on YouTube? That’s pretty cool. I might just look up your videos later then.” He felt a bit of relief washing over him as she said she didn’t mind his rambling. “Are you sure? I ramble quite a bit sometimes. Just a fair warning. But help on the scales would be great actually. I didn’t realize how difficult being a music major would be. Kind of wishing I went into dance. I can pick that up more easily. But I mean it makes sense. Especially since I’m in music production. --Are you studying anything?” He chuckles lightly and waves off her concern. “I don’t mind all the questions. I’m quite used it actually.” He tapped his fingers against his notebook, deciding whether or not to tell her his little project. Thinking he was just some random guy she met at a coffee shop one day, he chose to vaguely tell her about it. “Kind of yes. I’ve got a pretty curious mind and I’m trying to track down something or someone. I”m not really sure yet.”

“Oh, just writing. I’m trying to write a song, but the words aren’t coming to me. What about you? What’cha working on?” Anela asks him while wiggling her pen between her index and middle finger. 

“Ooo, song writing. How exciting,” he says with a smile. He looked at his work and was about to respond, but was interrupted by a worker bringing over his drink. Thanking them, he picked it up and took a small sip before speaking again. “Just some homework on music theory. --I never realized how many different kinds of scales there were. I thought it was just A through G, major and minor,” he says, slowing sinking into his chair. “I’ve also got a few essays to write already, and I’ve got this side-project thing I’m investigating.” Taking another sip, he realized how lengthy his answer was. “Sorry. I kind of ramble sometimes. You were probably just wanting a short answer.”

“Ah, a meeting. Sounds official.” Vanellope replied with a slight raise of her brows, looking over at him with arms now crossed over her chest. “Thanks, we don’t get too many visitors during practice runs.” She said with a small smile, peering at him through the few strands of hair in her eyes. “You look really familiar too..have we met?”

Steven only nodded, not really wanting to talk about his purpose there. “Oh uh...maybe?” he replied, studying her face a little more when asked if they had met. “There are two possibilities here. A) We’ve raced against each other once, and met briefly before the race or B) you’ve heard of my family -and team- name, McLaren, and I just really look like my parents. Unless it’s outside the racing world then there are numerous possibilities,” he says, chuckling lightly. “Either way. Hi, I’m Steven McLaren. But I kind of just go by Stitch now. Nice to meet you.”

Getting in the Metro Station, Sophia started walking faster. The train, that she was supposed to take, was leaving in exactly 7 minutes. “All of this because of this… thing.” she said, mumbling to herself while looking at the phone. “Why did you have to betray me like that today?”. Seeing that now she had only 5 minutes, in despair, she started running as fast as she could.

Bumping in basically everyone, the brunette saw a train leaving feet away, making her try to run faster, but now was too late. The train has left. “Damn it!” She said to herself, while trying to get some air in her lungs. “Okay… Calm down, this is not as bad as it seems.” Sophia put her hands on her hair. Looking around, the girl saw someone, standing around nine feet away from her, on their phone.“Excuse me.” She nudged the stranger’s shoulder.. “By any chance, do you know which train has just left?”

Steven arrived at the metro, but with no idea which line he needed to take. He wasn’t in a rush, only wanted to go to to the Rockefeller Center and maybe on a hunt for the best cupcakes in the state. So when he saw a train leave, he didn’t feel so worried. He pulled out his phone and started to look up the schedules when a person came up to him. “Oh um...I think...I saw a ‘W’ but I’m not too sure. I just got here like a minute ago.”

“Look, I didn’t question how you burned yourself, so how about you just not question what I give you to fix it? Not that it’s necessarily some huge top secret thing, but there’s a lot that goes into it. Just trust me, it works. You’ll heal quick and will barely even have a scar.”

“Okay, okay. Sorry. I just have a curious mind,” he replied, holding his good arm up in surrender. “Can you just tell me how to use it again? Or is it like a one time thing and I’m good for now?”

Anela’s smile grew wider when she sees no other than Stitch in front of her. “Hi, again.” She chuckles to herself softly knowing that even up to this point, her ex-boyfriend -who now lost his memory- gets awkward around her like he did the first time they met. “Do you want to come sit, before someone else grabs that table? It can get crowded here real quickly. I won’t bite.” She offers him to sit at the small empty next to the armchair she’s sitting.

“Oh..r-right. Yeah, I’ll sit. Uh, thank you.” Steven chuckled lightly and nervously, mostly to himself, as he took a seat. He wasn’t sure why he started to get awkward. But he was thankful that she wasn’t teasing him about it like most people he knew would. He started to unpack his things and looked over at her again. “So um, what’cha workin’ on?” he asks, trying to continue some small talk as he waits for his drink and mentally prepares for the homework he’s about to do.

“I think the tire’s got a small hole, the control wasn’t too great out there.” Vanellope said as she slid her helmet off, shaking her short locks out as she looked at the the few members of the pit crew taking care of the car and gave a nod before walking back to the stands, someone approaching her. “Are you..supposed to be here?” She asked with a small raise of her brow, seeing as the team was only there for test runs that day.

Steven had gotten a text from his parents telling him to go to the track near him for some meeting. He didn’t want to, but he knew there was no longer a way he could avoid any of this when he made his choice a few years ago. He had gotten there early, just wanting to explore the place and possibly reminisce his racing days. To his delight, he heard the roar of an engine and followed it, slightly happy to see the place wasn’t empty and just watched. When the driver was done, he checked for the time and thought he had just enough time to make some small talk and walked towards the girl. “Technically yes,” he says, responding to her question. “I’ve got a meeting in one of the conference rooms in a bit. Thought I’d explore the place a bit though before I went. Glad I did. You’re pretty good.”

Berlioz had found one of Toulouse’s old skateboards while going through boxes to unpack the apartment and decided to borrow it since he doubted his brother would mind or even remember he owned it.  He wandered around the city for a while before finding a skate park and started messing around with the board.  He was doing pretty good until he got distracted by a cat sitting on a fence.  He lost his balance on the board and slid down the half pipe on his back.  “And this is why I’m not the athlete in the family,” he mumbled catching his breath before getting up and noticing someone else was there.  “You saw all of that didn’t you?” he asked embarrassed.

Walking about the city for a while, Steven had come across a skate park and curiously wandered in. Now, he wasn’t much of a skater, not anymore anyways, but the sport still fascinated him. He found a spot where he could just sit and watch all the talent. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, maybe an hour or two, until he saw someone looking like they were about to fall. But before he could warn the person, it was too late. Quickly, he went to the edge to see if they were alright, but the boy had already gotten up. “Yeah...kind of,” Steven replied with a slight chuckle. “Need any help?”

Anela curls up barefoot on the arm chair in the corner at her favorite coffee house near Juillaird with her journal on her lap and a mocha latte in her left hand. She’s spent her afternoon writing words, phrases, or sentences that can be potential song lyrics. She has been wanting to write an original song of her own, but hasn’t found the write words. Anela was getting somewhere with her song until she spots someone coming up to her. “Oh, hello.” She looks up at the stranger who suddenly came up to her with a smile.

After a long day of classes, Steven stopped by one of the coffee shops on his way back to his apartment. He figured he’d get some homework done here as well, knowing very well he’ll mostly likely just sleep once he gets back to his place. So after ordering and while looking for a place to sit, he spotted the girl he saw singing not too long ago. While debating on greeting her or not, he soon realized the only other available table was near her. So he went up to her, but waited for her to notice him after seeing she looked a little busy. “Hey,” he greeted her back, also smiling. “S-Sorry if this is like, really random. I just saw you and wanted to say hi. So, um, ...hi..again.” He was stumbling on his words, but he didn’t know why. Probably because you suck at communicating, Stitch, he thought to himself.