it's a very small favor! {wilbur}

[wendy]

Matthew had gone a week without ditching school.

Addison still couldn’t believe it. She should have. Really. He never passed up a good challenge. In fact, Addison was sure this was a tougher challenge for him than her not paying attention in History was for her. It amused her sometimes, imagining Matthew actually sitting through each and every one of his classes. Of course, she’d felt guilty afterwards for laughing at his misfortune. Addison had decided that she would do something as a reward for his making it through the week. He probably expected something anyway, but this way it would be a surprise. Unfortunately, she wasn’t very good at planning surprises and Matthew was rather good at interrupting her mid-planning. Luckily, he’d become fast friends with Wilbur Hicks.

Addison still wasn’t quite sure how she felt about the boy. He was rather rude, though, and he had yet to really redeem himself. Nonetheless, he was probably her only way of keeping Matthew busy. She could’ve gone to Torrence but… well, the very thought frustrated her. Having asked another boy which dorm was Wilbur’s, she made her way to it with purposeful strides. All she needed to do was get in, ask, and get out. Hopefully, it would be as simple as that. Addison wouldn’t have been surprised if he wanted something in return. It wasn’t even like she was asking for a huge favor! He would hang out with Matthew anyway, so what difference did it make if she was asking him to do it?

Reaching the door, she knocked quite loudly, in no mood for waiting. “Wilbur?” She called through the door, “it’s Addison. Can I come in?” She certainly hoped he wasn’t busy or not in the mood or what have you. Addison really just wanted for him to agree to this so she could leave to go start her planning. Which!, Addison decided, she would tell Wilbur nothing about because he would most certainly go and tell Matthew everything. That was the last thing she wanted. It would be completely wasteful to have gone out of her way to keep Matthew distracted only for him to discover her surprise before it was finished.

outfit; pretty~

[WILBUR HICKS]

Wilbur was excited about this science experiment. For the very first time in quite possibly his entire life, Wilbur had stumbled upon a school assignment that promised to be at least a bit of fun. Now, he didn't want to send the wrong signal here. It was CERTAINLY not the actual learning that would be interesting or exciting or exhilarating. God no. Wilbur could care less about the actual reasoning behind doing the experiment. The only thing that promised to make this worthwhile was the fact that Wilbur got to attempt new and death defying activities while in the process.

Sure, there were probably other "safer" ways to test the effect of fear or whatever on heart rate, but Wilbur knew that those ways were reserved only for sissies and adults. Needless to say, the only way he could figure to adequately simulate the correct amount of fear and adrenaline necessary for his project was to hang by his knees from his second story dorm window.

So far he'd been at it for about five minutes, and all he'd gotten was a rush of blood to his head. that was it. There was no fear, no pump of adrenaline, no overwhelming sense of fear or terror at the prospect of falling to what would certainly be death should his head crack open on the cement below. It was just... well, what Wilbur thought was going on - no, what he HIPOTHERSIZED was that he was just so used to this sort of thing that his body had kind of just given up on sending him signals to stop. It was like his body and brain had just decided to send up a big white flag of surrender and call out collectively "HEY! WE GIVE UP! DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH YOUR BODY. WE HONESTLY COULDN'T CARE ANYMORE!"

Wilbur was just starting to contemplate whether or not he should switch to just hanging by his feet when there came a knock on the door from inside the dorm room. "WHOEVER YOU ARE," Wilbur yelled into the general direction of the window, "YOU CAN ONLY COME IN IF YOU PROMISE NOT TA FREAK OUT. THE DOOR'S OPEN THOUGH, SO COME IN IF YOU SWEAR NOT TO."

[wendy]

Addison was very impatient today. She didn’t want to waste time standing outside Wilbur’s door, waiting for an answer. She’d begun to tap her feet only seconds after knocking on his door, hands on her hips. She looked very annoyed. Thankfully, though, it didn’t take him long to answer. Apparently, he had only heard the knocking and nothing she’d said. Addison rolled her eyes, opening the door and stepping in. She’d been friends with Matthew long enough to not freak out over things. He did all sorts of reckless things and she was sure he did even more reckless things with Wilbur. If she freaked out every time she hung out with Matthew while he was doing something dangerous, he probably would’ve dropped her as a friend long ago.

Where was he? Addison looked around for Wilbur, expecting to have been doing something wild and crazy, not playing hide and seek. “Where are y—” Addison had started to say before catching a pair of legs by the window and… that was it. For a moment, she was confused. Why could she only see legs when what you normally saw of a person standing at the window was the back of them? Not just their legs. Just… Addison gave a sudden shriek of horror and rushed to the window. “What are you doing?!” She cried, peering out the window from the side, shock written all over her face. Instead of waiting for an answer, she leaned down and grabbed hold of the front of his shirt with one hand and she reached back pressing down on his ankles with her other hand.

It probably wasn’t any safer than what he was doing now nor was it probably the best way to get him back inside. But she was absolutely freaking out and she was glad she hadn’t sworn not to. Thanks to her tree climbing and other outside adventures, she managed a bit of arm strength and finally pulled him back into the room. She staggered back a little, regretting her force, because next thing she knew, they were both on the floor in a tangled mess of limbs. “Get off,” she said almost immediately, a bit out of breath, “I have to ask you something and I’d like to get it over with.” Yes, she was certainly very testy today.

[WILBUR HICKS]

Now, Wilbur DISTINCTLY remembered specifying that whoever it was who decided they needed to knock on his door could only come in if they SWORE not to freak out. Now, it may have just had something to do with the fact that Wilbur was raised differently down South and had been taught a different set of manners and definitions for things like "freak out," but he was fairly certain that shrieking like a banshee and running over to a window that someone was hanging out of and pawing at them like a crazy person constituted "freaking out."

God, he didn't even know what the matter was. Couldn't a gy hang above the pavement outside his window anymore? It was a free country! People shouldn't be allowed to just burst through doors and wig out like they were the window police or something. There oughta' be a law against people like that, protecting innocent window hangers from the injustices of such crazy people.

"Hey- hey, whaddaya think yer doin'? Hey, let go, whats the big deal?" was realy all Wilbur had time to sputter out as he suddenly got manhandled and dragged up out of his scientific experiment and back into his boring old dorm room. Now, he wasn't particularly one for paying attention in science class (or any class, really) but he was pretty sure that this would count as a point in the experiment where the validity was compromised. God, he was going to have ta go back and do it all over again.

As he tumbled back in through the window, he got his first look at the person who was responsible for all this insanity. Addison. GOD - it WOULD be a girl who went and ruined a perfectly legitimate scientific study. Why couldn't she just mind her own business and read a book or something boring like that like always? He swore, girls were always at the root of every problem. There was just something about them that was particularly.... problem-tastic.

It was only at this point, after he had trly had a chance to contemplate the propensity females seemed to have to cause trouble, that Wilbur noticed he was positively straddling her. He would have been happy to sit there and interrogate her about her reasoning for pulling him in through the window, but there was something about her tone of voic that made him think otherwise. "Fine, fine, I'm gettin' up, gosh," he grumbled, dusting himself of as he stood up. "Y'know, if you'd wanted me in so badly you coulda' just ASKED."

Remembering that she had promised to ask him something though, he got a bit grumpier than sual. Great. Questions. She probably thought he could help her with science or something, because her female mind clearly couldn't handle all that stuff about physics an gravity and stuff. She was gonna make him explain ALL about it, and it wasn't gonna be one bit of fun. "Whatever it is, this question had better be good."

[wendy]

It was stupid of her to expect him to help her up and yet it annoyed her that much more when he didn’t. Scowling, Addison stood and adjusted her beret. Why had she let her roommate dress her this morning? This outfit was so not her and she was uncomfortable and—it just wasn’t helping. Addison glanced around the room. Messy. That didn’t surprise her. “Why were you hanging out the window?” She asked, looking back to him with a scrutinizing glare. That hadn’t been her question and knowing Wilbur, he’d probably only allow her one question. Then again, was she going to ask anything in the first place? She had sort of been planning on demanding that he distract Matthew.

Addison shook her head and crossed her arms. “But that wasn’t my question. I’m just curious.” Curiosity killed the cat. But cats had nine lives so she was probably okay. “You and Matthew should go adventuring,” she started slowly, doing her best to make it seem as simple as possible. She was sure that if this sounded anything like a request, he’d either say no or relentlessly pester her about it and she wanted neither of those to happen. “You know, get away from the school for awhile. I mean, it’s such a dreadful place, after all.” Addison forced a smile as if to say ‘you understand, right?’ It’s not like she found school to be dreadful; she was just saying what she needed to say. She thought it was going quite well.

Feeling rather successful made her feel a bit better and she lowered her arms, looking around the room some more. She quite liked seeing how others put their room together; what decorations they used and how they set it all up. Addison wandered around a little bit before she arrived at the window he’d just been hanging from his knees. It was very nice out. Certainly not a day to fall out of a window on the second floor. She turned back to look at him, looking a bit too hopeful. “Well?”

[WILBUR HICKS]

"Well, I figured that such a girl like yourselfwould UNDERSTAND that I was hangin' out my window in the name o' SCIENCE, because science is something that's really girly and boring just like you." Wilbur honestly didn't say it to be mean. He was just pointin' out facts. He figured that Addie would understand, because the truth o' the matter was she WAS a pretty borin' girl. It wasn't her fault, Wilbur figured, because most girls were. She probably already knew it, too. Wilbur didn't think it was possible for a person to be so boring and not know it.

Shrugging, Wilbur turned around and shut the window. He couldn't have any birds or squirrels comin' in the room again. The dorm inspector said that he'd get kicked out the next time there was a critter roamin' around like it was right at home. Leaning against a wall, Wilbur nibbled on one of his fingernails and inspected Addie. She had a distinctively girlish posture, tryin' ta be all prim and proper. It was disgustin' to look at, though he had ta admit that she was perhaps better lookin' than most dumb girls. She at least didn't have enough makeup on ta make her look like a clown or a raccoon, which was somethin' that Wilbur positively despised.

His eyeing her up was broken into by her suddenly suspicious proposal. Now, Wilbur was perfectly happy to go out adventurin' with Matt any time he pleased, but he perfectly flat out REFUSED to do anything just because he was told to. It was unthinkable to have him listen to orders, especialy from some GIRL! No, if this girly girl Addie wanted him to adventure so badly then Wilbur would NOT do it. He would sit in his room all by himself for an entire week, no, MONTH, just to make Addie know that Wilbur didn't take orders from nobody.

Wilbur turned on his heels to face away from her, arms folded across his chest to make sure she knew he was not pleased with this idea. He didn't care HOW much flouncin' she did across the room, he wouldn't do it, no way no how. " I don't think I FEEL like adventurin' any time soon, and especially not just on account of you tellin' me to," he huffed. Glancing over his shoulder at her, he saw her peerin' out the window. Well, THAT hardly could be allowed to happen! First she came in here and ruined his adventurin' plans with Matt and NOW she was about to ruin all his science-y plans!

Stomping over, he took her wrist and pulled her away from the window. " And there'll be no window time for you! Window time is specifically reserved for esteemed and honored guests, and you're none of those things!"

[wendy]

For a moment, she was speechless, opening and closing her mouth, trying to find words. Finally, she shut it, grinding her teeth in frustration. Firstly, science was hardly girly, especially since any girls in her science class never wanted to do said experiment of the day. Second, she was not boring! Okay, well, maybe she was a little. But that didn’t mean Wilbur could say she was. She only took that from Matthew and that’s because he was her best friend. Wilbur was not her best friend, she wasn’t even sure if she could call him a friend, so he had no right whatsoever calling her boring. Addison wanted so badly to tell him off but she knew she had to be nice if this was going to work.

So, instead, she forced a smile and pushed the insults away, to be dealt with at another time. Maybe by poisoning his food or something. She gave an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. “Let me guess. You don’t FEEL like adventuring because I suggested it?” Addison shook her head and rocked on her feet, “that’s a shame. I know of such a wonderful place, too.” Of course, she knew of no such place but with a little searching on the internet, she was sure she could find something. Something that wouldn’t get them killed like hunting for baby sharks. He’d actually turned away from her like they did in movies when somebody was saying no; it kind of surprised her and it really amused her. Addison grinned, fighting back her laughter. The last thing she wanted was for Wilbur to think she was laughing at him.

She was suddenly being pulled away from the window. Addison blinked, confused, before she realized Wilbur was… was it scolding? That’s what it sounded like. While she imagined this would be the last straw since she was so annoyed, Addison only found it funny and she laughed out loud this time, not even trying to hold it back. “You’re silly,” she said, hardly caring that he’d called her not esteemed/honored. “Right then,” she started, tugging her wrist away. “Do you want to know about this secret awesome place or not?” Addison put her hands on her hips, waiting patiently, giving him a look that just said trust me, you want to see this place which she thought rather impressive since she had no idea what place it was anyway.

[WILBUR HICKS]

Wilbur was havin' none of this girly nonsense. he wanted to be left alone in his fortress of manly manitude, so that he could get on with his amazin' science experiment and maybe even get to see whether or not gravity was just a big ol' elaborate hoax thought up by the government n' such to keep people from flying like they were supposed to. He'd had it all figured out. The government couldn't keep people from commitin' crimes n' suchlike if they were flying around like birds all through the solar system, so they had to convince people that there was this whole thing called gravity that kept 'em pinned on the earth. Wilbur was sure that if he just had enough time to experiment, and maybe if he started from a high enough place, he'd be able to expose those phony governmental types for the lying scumbags they were.

He couldn't get to all the fun experimentin' if this girly she-devil didn't leave though! He was quite sure that he had explained in no uncertain terms that it was now the appropriate time for her to leave. Hell, he'd even been polite. He was sure he hadn't raised his voice too high yet. She ought to have been thanking him for displaying such gentlemanly procedural behavior. It was downright ridiculous that she wasn't picking up on any of the outright hints that Wilbur was sending her way. He figured it was just another reason that womenkind were so much less ferior than menfolk. They just didn't understand how to communicate properly. Everythin' went in one ear and out the other with them.

He had to bite his tongue when she started talking about her super secret awesome place, however. He wanted to shout at her that he obviously knew all about ALL of the awesome places in the entire fifty mile radius. He knew about the docks, and the zoo, and that one little awesome hallway in between the gym and the cafeteria that only the staff were supposed to use but he used it anyways, and he knew about loads more than that, but his brain was so full of them that he couldn't remember all of them a the moment. He wanted to know just who the heck she thought she was, implyin' that she knew about a super secret place that he didn't know about. It was infuriatin', was what it was.

However, Wilbur couldn't help but wonder.... what if she did? What if she knew about some super secret place that even HE didn't know about? What if she was hoardin' it all for herself, and the only way he could find out about it was if he gave in and listened to her? WHAT IF SHE HAD KIDNAPPED MATT AND WAS HOLDING HIM HOSTAGE!? Wilbur had heard about girls going CRAZY and taking people hostage and tying them to beds and such, obviously the worst of all possible tortures. Everyone knew that being stuck in bed all day meant you couldn't go exploring and adventuring. It was the cruelest of all punishments for a boy.

"Well," he grumbled, wary of this obviously insane girl who was trying to entice him back to her bed-laden lair, "What's so special about this special place anyway, huh? Cuz' I ain't goin' if it ain't SUPER secret and SUPER special."

[wendy]

For what felt like an eternity, Addison either rocked or bounced or shifted on her feet and looked around the room. It didn’t seem like he believed her and she wouldn’t have been surprised. He probably thought he knew of all the secret awesome places. In fact, he probably did. He probably knew of more places than she did. Then again, she didn’t go out of her way to find such places. That was a waste of time, in her opinion, when she could be… well, she stopped that thought right there at the risk of sounding boring which she was not, thank you very much.

However, her patience seemed a roller coaster today. She’d been entirely impatient, not in the mood for his attitude. Then, she’d been patient enough, ready to wait if she’d had to. Now, she was growing tired again of waiting. Was this what if felt like to be restless? If it was, she didn’t like it one bit. “Oh, come on now.” Addison looked at him with a hint of annoyance. He seemed to be giving in, though. Oh, but if he did agree to her request, she would have to be going out of her way to find such a place anyhow, wouldn’t she? Then again, she could always just give him an address and send him on his way. By the time he figured out it was either a place he knew of or somewhere not interesting at all, she’d be finished with her surprise. … That was dreadfully mean, though, wasn’t it?

Finally, he said something. He didn’t seem too pleased that she knew of a place he didn’t. That was to be expected, though. She raised her eyebrows, acting surprised that he didn’t believe her. “Why would I lie about something like this?” Addison shifted on her feet, feeling almost uneasy. She needed to hurry up and get this over with. Lying was not her specialty. “It’s beyond super secret and super special. It’s positively absolutely perfect.” There, that should do it. Now all he had to do was agree and not ask any more questions and she could be on her merry way. “Well?” Again, her expression was one of the trust me looks. She was getting rather good at that, at least.

[WILBUR HICKS]

Wilbur didn't like to admit that he was, for this ONE time in his life, in a position inferior to that of some kind of glorified girl who thought herself special just because she knew about some stupid secret awesome place that nobody else did. Wilbur knew that he had to level the playing field again. No, he had to make it right again. He had to make sure that HE knew about this sper secret place too, that way she wouldn't be able to consider herself especially special anymore, and then he could turn it into a super manly fort of manliness so that she could never even go there again! yeah! That would be the perfect thing to do! Then Wilbur would have taken her girly cave of girl stuff away from her and then see if she ever tried to show up WIlbur ever again!

"Fiiiiiiiiine." He said after a while, dragging it out to make it seem like he hadn't REALLY made up his mind yet and was still thinking even thoug he'd made up his mind ages ago and had finished thinking then too. Girls were stupid as a pile of sticks, but it always paid to talk like them, stupid and slow, so they didn't lash out at you like a frightened, cornered animal. That was what Wilbur had found through a lot of trial and error. huh, he ought to have just done that for his science experiment! Whether or not talking slow to stupid girls made them understand you better! There was TONS of science in that! He cursed his luck for not having thought of it earlier.

"I guess I'll go explore your stupid place, HOWEVER, in return you gotta give me something. You know, collateral. I can't hardly give you back the amount of time it takes for me to go adventurin' and whatnot, so you gotta give me somethin' that can't be given back neither." Wilbur was slightly surprised by how official he sounded. he didn't know why people paid so much money to go to lawyerin' school. It was plumb easy to make use of all that official tone and such and make people think you knew what you were talking about! Now Wilbur just had to figure out what she could give him and he'd be all set. Somethin' she couldn't give back....

"I GOT IT!" He shouted all at once, jumping to a start with the energy and ferocity of this new idea! It was perfect! It was marvelous! It was absolutely darn right wonderful and fantastic and the best idea ever thunk by any person ever. Not even Einstern could come up with an idea more perfect and wondroustastic for this particular siteration.

"You gotta give me a.... a kiss!" He pointed his finger wildly at her, eyes wide and absolutely grinning like an idiot.