just another picture to burn (matt!)

[CHARLEY HARPER]

state the obvious

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I didn't get my perfect fantasy[/color][/font]

Charley walked into Biology class ten minutes late, of course. The last time she had been on time for a class was, well…actually, she couldn't remember. That probably wasn't a good sign. After mouthing 'sorry' to the teacher, she sat down at the one empty desk in the front corner. It's not like she had any friends in this class who were waving her over, so she might as well sit alone. Everyone else in the room were juniors, Charley was only in the class because she took the required sophomore science over the summer. She thought the whole idea of summer vacation was stupid, it was originally only put in the school year so kids could farm with their families during the summer months. This was Manhattan, so obviously nobody was farming. Whatever. Charley figured if she had to deal with summer vacation she might as well spend it doing something useful, like getting ahead in her life.

Charley realized that she had once again completely zoned out and tuned back into what the teacher was saying, "…and I've paired you up for this lab, and you will work with this person for the rest of the year…" Fan-fucking-tastic. She always got paired with the class idiot for these stupid things. Charley always felt that group projects were a waste of time, she was always the one who ended up doing all the work and she had to share the credit with some idiot who couldn't spell their first name. Oh wait, the teacher was listing the lab partners now, let's see which idiot she was paired up with, "…Samantha Conroy with Jason Rowe, Delia Jenkins with Nora Williams, and Charlotte Harper with Matthew Peterson." Wait. Matthew Peterson. Where had she heard that name? Was he on debate? No, she would have remembered that. Was he in another one of her classes? No, she didn't think so…wait. Oh no, now she remembered. He was that guy from that chat room who she called out for having no life aspirations or something. Well…this was going to be awkward.

[/color]◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
tag: [/color] mattyy
words:[/b][/color] 351
notes:[/b][/color] sorry for the shortness/suckiness
lyrics:[/b][/color] picture to burn - taylor swift
credit: mehhh i'm not even sure i want to give myself
credit for this one[/size][/center]

[MATTHEW PETERSON]

I'M THE NEW CANCER

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•• N E V E R • L O O K E D • B E T T E R ••[/i]
A N D Y O U C A N ' T S T A N D I T
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Biology was easily the most boring class any sort of nimrod of a teacher could have ever possibly come up with. Well, maybe apart from Chemistry. Or Physics. Science just sucked in general, in Matt's professional opinion. So it shouldn't have been of any surprise to the rests of the room's inhabitants that he'd collapsed, sound asleep, onto his desk in the back corner within mere minutes of entering the room. It wasn't that he was tired, even--sleep was just infinitely more entertaining than learning could ever hope to be. And it had been a great dream, too; something about an oversized marshmallow chasing him down a tunnel Indiana Jones-style, he was pretty sure. Then again, that could have been last night's. He didn't particularly care. The dream, marshmallow infested or otherwise, quickly dissipated into the recesses of his subconscious as he received a sharp kick to the back of his chair, startling him awake unceremoniously. "What the hell-?!" he stopped short of reprimanding the kid sitting behind him as the sound of names being called from the front of the room caught his attention. Partners. So maybe this class wasn't going to be too horrible. If he got lucky (which, oftentimes he did), he'd probably end up being paired with some sort of busybody who's only purpose in life was to complete mundane schoolwork; and if that was the case, he could probably manage to humor himself elsewhere, doing more productive things like...well, not attending class.

"...Charlotte Harper with Matthew Peterson..." Matt groaned loudly to himself at the mention of the names, not entirely sure why he'd done so in the first place. Maybe he'd heard the girl's name before? It sounded vaguely familiar, but then again, so did a lot of the things mentioned in this class. Nagging familiarity didn't make things important. Shaking his head once as if to clear out the fog of his midday nap, Matt stood up from his seat slowly, stretching as he did so. It was only after glancing around the room twice in search of his partner, hoping for some epiphany to befall him as he laid eyes on her (what was her name again? Carlisle? No, that couldn't be it. Charlene? Chameleon? Nope, definitely not that.) that he noticed a particularly uncomfortable-looking girl standing in the front corner of the room, utterly partner less. Everyone else had their partners, didn't they? So this had to be her, then. Candy, or whatever the hell her name was. There was something familiar about her face too, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what that was. He smiled as he approached, taking the time during his nod in her direction to read the name on top of her notebook--probably an obvious move, put people hardly ever called him on things like that. "So uh..." he cleared his throat as his eyes widened in momentary shock, suddenly aware of where he'd heard the name before. She was the bitch from the chatroom. "...Charley, right? Well, at least we don't need to bother with introductions." There was a certain tenseness in the way Matt set his jaw that made it ever-so-obvious he would have been much happier had his lab partner's name been "Chameleon."



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• B E C A U S E Y O U S A Y S O •
UNDER YOUR BREATH[/b][/size][/font]

544 WORDS | COMPLETE/INCOMPLETE | TAGS | OUTFIT
LYRICS BY PANIC! AT THE DISCO | TEMPLATE BY ARRO
NOW GIVE THEM A NICE NOTE HERE!

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[CHARLEY HARPER]

state the obvious

[/b][/font][/color][/size]
I didn't get my perfect fantasy[/color][/font]

"Please don't remember, please don't remember," Charley muttered to herself quietly as she waited for Matt to head over. Okay, she had to think about this logically: what were the chances that he'd actually remember her from a chat room? I mean, her icon thing was pretty small, and she probably only said her name once. Really, the chances of him remembering were slim to none. Charley took a deep breath to calm herself, and started writing her name and the date on the top of the page. She could act like a normal person and pretend not to recognize him. It was all going to be fine.

As she spotted Matt heading over, she furiously wrote more stuff on the page: the class, the teacher, the hour…whatever it was to make her seem busy. He finally reached her table, and she noticed him looking at the top of her page. Charley knew from various former lab partners was the way they 'cleverly' remembered her name. Did he actually forget her name? The teacher said it two seconds ago…did he have the attention span of a fly? She vaguely remembered him forgetting her name in the chat room too…this kid must have some serious ADD.

"...Charley, right? Well, at least we don't need to bother with introductions."

Fantastic fantastic fantastic. He remembered her. Brilliant. This right here was the reason she hated internet chat rooms: moments like these. Now this was going to be five times more awkward than it should have been, plus she knew from before that this kid was going to put absolutely zero effort/anything of value into this lab. Well, she might as well get this over with.

"Forget my name again, Peterson?" Charley said, finally turning around to look him in the eyes. Wow, he looked exactly like his icon. Except maybe a bit more disheveled. And angry. Did she piss him off that much? She didn't even think she was that mean in that chat room, she was just being honest. People need to learn the difference between cruelty and honesty, jeez. "Just so you know, your role in this partnership is equipment holder. You will hand me the things I need to do this lab and won't add your personal opinions about any of the results, because they're probably wrong. Are we good?" There, that should do it.

[/color]◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
tag: [/color] mattyy
words:[/b][/color] 401
notes:[/b][/color] SORRY FOR THE EXTREME DELAY!
lyrics:[/b][/color] picture to burn - taylor swift
credit: mehhh i'm not even sure i want to give myself
credit for this one[/size][/center][/quote]

[MATTHEW PETERSON]

I'M THE NEW CANCER

[/B][/size][/font][/size]
•• N E V E R • L O O K E D • B E T T E R ••[/i]
A N D Y O U C A N ' T S T A N D I T
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There was just something about Charley that set his teeth on edge. Not the God-I'd-do-anything-just-to-see-your-throat-ripped-out kind of on edge, of course, or even the my-stomach's-in-my-chest sort, but simply the uncomfortable kind. They type that made the bottoms of his feet a little itchy and the look on his face maybe the slightest bit more ornery than normal. Especially when she spoke.

"I didn't forget. I double-checked. There's a difference," said Matt slightly irritably as she turned to face him. He despised when people called him out on such things, even more so when they could very well have been right. Even more so, however, he hated when people told him what he was and was not going to do. Never mind the fact that simply handing Charley equipment would have been his first choice of roles to assume; he hadn't come up with it, and therefore it was an order; being an order, it now quickly became something he had every intention of disobeying. Besides, in Matt's opinion, Charley really needed to lighten up. A lot. Maybe, if she wasn't such a bitch, he could help her in that department; he hadn't failed thus far.

"You honestly think I'm gonna just sit there and watch you have all the fun?" scoffed Matt lightly, throwing Charley a look emphasizing how apparently insulted he felt at the suggestion. "And now that you mention it, I think I'll commentate the whole thing. C'mon Harper, what's a science experiment without a little mishap? Live a little," Something told him she wasn't going to take that comment all too lightly. Oh well. More fun from a reaction, right?




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• B E C A U S E Y O U S A Y S O •
UNDER YOUR BREATH[/b][/size][/font]

277 WORDS | COMPLETE | CHARLEY | OUTFIT
LYRICS BY PANIC! AT THE DISCO | TEMPLATE BY ARRO
Sorry it's so short! D:

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[CHARLEY HARPER]

state the obvious

[/b][/font][/color][/size]
I didn't get my perfect fantasy[/color][/font]

Charley laughed quietly as Matt tried to defend himself about the name thing. He was too easy to read. "You're a horrible liar, you know," she said, lining up her pens in color order on her desk. Red, green, blue, purple. She looked at her desk for a couple of seconds as she wondered where that purple pen came from. She didn't do brightly colored pens. Post-its, yes, they were essential for organizing. But pens came in a variety of colors that weren't so bright and girly, so therefore weren't necessary. Where in the world did she get that? Unless she'd become a kleptomaniac over night, she'd must have picked it up thinking it was hers. Oh well, thinking about this stupid stuff didn't deserve her time. Wait, Matt was talking. She was zoning out again…she needed to stop doing that. Especially in class.

"And now that you mention it, I think I'll commentate the whole thing. C'mon Harper, what's a science experiment without a little mishap? Live a little."

Live a little? LIVE A LITTLE? He thought that messing this up would be LIVING? Did he even know what living was? Living was working towards achieving your goals in life. What was living for him, ruining everything? The idea of it infuriated her. He was going to let his nonsense ruin her life. Absolutely not. If he wanted a bitch, well, congrats, he was going to get one.

"Newsflash, Peterson: we aren't in preschool anymore. Fun and games don't apply to this situation. We're sophomores in high school…actually, you're a junior, so this applies even more to you. It's time to start thinking about our future, and where we want to go in life. This may be somewhat of a shock for you, but in two years, one year for you, we're going to be legal adults. And although this may seem like just a biology lab for you, for me, messing this up could mean a drop in my GPA and that would mean no Yale and no law school and the life that I've dreamt up in my head would be shattered. So you can go and live in your fantasy play land for now, but real life is going to come around some day, and I'm going to be the one prepared for it. So could you please shut up and pass the tongs, please?" Whoa. Where the hell did all that come from?

[/color]◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
tag: [/color] mattyy
words:[/b][/color] 410
notes:[/b][/color] i was in a horrible bitch mood when i wrote this,
so sorry for the horrible bitchiness xD
lyrics:[/b][/color] picture to burn - taylor swift
credit: mehhh i'm not even sure i want to give myself
credit for this one[/size][/center][/quote]

[MATTHEW PETERSON]

"What're you doing that for?" Matt asked suddenly, tilting his head in the direction of Charley's rainbow of pens. Anything to get off the topic of his being a bad liar, really. That and her actions genuinely confused him. "You're just gonna use 'em in a minute anyway, so why bother?" girls always did weird stuff like that; stuff that really only ever crossed Matt's mind as idiotic, and not worth commenting on. But there was still something fun about getting under Charley's skin.

She reminded him of his mother. Not the real one, of course, because he had no memories of her, but of Michelle; the one he preferred to think of as "Dragon Lady" at the best of times. It wasn't that Charley's lecture was unfamiliar by any means (in fact, it was one he could probably have recited back to her, albeit worded slightly differently, if she'd asked), it was just unexpected, particularly from another student. And annoying. More annoying than her general presence, in fact, and that was hard enough for Matt to believe. He merely blinked at her for a few seconds, otherwise frozen as her tone seemed to echo about his brain like a particularly loud air horn. Instead of countering with something equally as snappy, however, Matt simply responded to the only part of that rant he'd really been paying attention to--the bit about what she wanted to do when she was older. "Why would you want to go law school?" he asked suddenly, a bit snippier than his usual. It did sound like an awfully boring profession, though. He shrugged. "Eh. Maybe eventually, but I don't think the real world's coming to collect any time soon, so I'll stay right where I'm at, thanks. Without passing you the tongs," he added as an afterthought, a rather smug smirk coming over his face as his grabbed the things, dangling them just out of Charley's reach. She couldn't get any more mad at him, right?

[CHARLEY HARPER]

state the obvious

[/b][/font][/color][/size]
I didn't get my perfect fantasy[/color][/font]

This kid was ridiculously curious…why did he care how she organized her pens? "So I can color-coordinate the lab notes. I've organized them in this order for years, so now I can grab a pen without looking and know what color it is." She looked up at Matt like this was the most obvious thing in the world…didn't everyone do that? Besides him and other irresponsible people, of course. With that, she turned back to her biology notebook and started writing down the instructions the teacher had just given in her new purple pen. Which was still too bright for her, but whatever, it was the least of her concerns at this point.

He listened to that entire speech and all he asked was why she wanted to go to law school? Did this kid pay attention to anything ever? "Because I want to be a lawyer, which surprisingly requires you to go to law school." Charley said, her voice dripping in sarcasm. It seemed that the more words that came out of his mouth the more frustrated she became. It was like he was from another planet, they really couldn't be any more different. How could he not know what he wanted in the future? Could he really just live life 'in the moment' and not give a thought to what was ahead at all?

And jeez, did he think he was five years old? Was he really dangling tongs in front of her? "You want to do the lab? Fine. What's the first step, Mr. Responsible?" She would have bet money that he wasn't paying attention to the instructions the teacher was giving before, and then he'd have to give her the tongs. If not, she'd just get new tongs, it wasn't like they were rare stones or something, there had to be more around here somewhere. She just wasn't in the mood to deal with his childlike games.

[/color]◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
tag: [/color] mattyy
words:[/b][/color] 324
notes:[/b][/color] short and sucky grrr
lyrics:[/b][/color] picture to burn - taylor swift
credit: mehhh i'm not even sure i want to give myself
credit for this one[/size][/center]

[MATTHEW PETERSON]

Color code the lab notes. Color code the lab notes?! Why on Earth would anyone ever want to do a thing like that? Why would anyone even want to take the lab notes, first of all, let along color code them? It wasn't even good coloring, like the book kind. "That's weird," he said, once he'd gotten over the stupidity of it all. "Why don't you just...write them? You know, without the colors. But I like that one, I guess," he replied in what could have been an attempt at some sort of twisted apology for all the questions. But this was Matt, and "apology" wasn't exactly anywhere near the realm of his vocabulary.

Matt hated sarcasm. Absolutely loathed it, perhaps even more than homework, and consequently was constantly waging a war against the stuff by pretending it didn't exist. Whether or not he believed that by ignoring it it would simply go away, no one could really tell, but he had been hell bent on ignoring the stuff ever since he was old enough decipher just exactly what it was. "I don't know why anyone would want to be a lawyer. Sounds like an awful lot of sitting around and complaining to me," he shrugged absentmindedly, silently congratulating himself on avoiding the stupidity Charley was spreading.

Twirling the tongs around and around again over his finger, Matt's vicious grin fell for all of a second. Unfortunately, so did the tongs. He straightened up at the loud clatter they made as they his the table. "I never said I wanted to do it," he replied quickly. "I just said I wanted you to lighten up. Completely different. But you, uh, you put that" annoyed as ever at the possiblity of being wrong, Matt pointed to one of the glass beakers resting on the bench. "Over there," he nodded in the direction of the sink, quite literally saying the first things to come to mind. "It's easy."

[CHARLEY HARPER]

state the obvious

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I didn't get my perfect fantasy[/color][/font]

"Because then it's easier to organize into categories when you make them into flashcards two weeks before the test." Jeez, was this kid an idiot? Actually, why was she even asking herself that? Of course he was an idiot, at this point he'd made that perfectly clear. But…at least he was being semi-nice to her now. Maybe she should be nicer to him? How do you be nice to a complete idiot? She couldn't compliment his intelligence or anything like that. Hmm…damn it, she was spending too much time thinking about this. She just had to pick something and do it. Well, he did just say he liked the stupid purple pen…"You like this one? I found it on the floor…I thought it was mine but apparently it wasn't. I don't really like it…you can have it if you want, I guess." She put the cap back on and held it out towards him. There, a peace offering.

Of course she thought that too soon. There he went again, critiquing her life goals. Considering he had no aspirations whatsoever, it seemed a bit hypocritical for him to be judging her. "Only because you meet people from all walks of life, you can pick and choose where you want to live, the law field is growing and secure, you are constantly learning, you make good money, and you get to make a difference in people's lives. Are those enough reasons for you?" It wasn't often that she had to defend her choice to pursue a career in law, but every so often she did get asked, so she always had her list prepared in her head. The fact that she had to list them for this kid was made her want to explode. He didn't know anything. Could he get any more infuriating?

Apparently so. Did he ever stop moving? Every time Charley glanced at him, which was much too often for her taste, he was doing something ridiculous. Like now, he was twirling the tongs. What the hell was the point of that? It took all of her self-control to not reach over and grab them from him, and then sit him down on a stool and put duct tape over his mouth. Well, at least there was no way he'd know the first step of the lab…wait, what? "That's actually…right." Damn, how'd he get that lucky? "So, are you going to do it or just stand here and talk about it? You do know the phrase, 'actions speak louder than words'? Why don't you go implement that while I set up the rest of the lab according to the lab packet, since I assume you didn't read that last night."

[/color]◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
tag: [/color] mattyy
words:[/b][/color] 460
notes:[/b][/color] sorry it's total shit/late. Also, I got the reasons to be a lawyer
from some reasons to be a lawyer website.
lyrics:[/b][/color] picture to burn - taylor swift
credit: mehhh i'm not even sure i want to give myself
credit for this one[/size][/center]

[MATTHEW PETERSON]

"Flashcards? People actually make those?" Matt gave Charley a skeptical look. All his school years, Matt had honestly thought teachers' suggestions to do so had been horrible jokes of some sort; then again, that was what he thought of most things to come out of teachers' mouths. At the mention of a gift, even if it was something she just plain didn't want, Matt perked up. He bit his lip slightly, looking between Charley and the pen as if trying to decide whether it would explode once he clicked it or something. "Really?" a grin slowly began to spread across his face. Obviously he'd deemed the situation safe. The random act of kindness certainly caught Matt off-guard, but he was as powerless as ever against the possibility to gain a new trinket, however random.

He snatched the pen expertly, pocketing it without so much as a second glance. In lieu of any sort of thanks (although it was about as close as Matt could possibly ever get), Matt simply furrowed his brow, knowing all too well what people usually wanted when they gave you something. "I haven't got anything for you..." he frowned, offering her an apologetic shrug.

She didn't seem to care, however, as she'd gone into another long rant about why she wanted to be stuck behind a desk all day doing absolutely nothing. Surprisingly, Matt had actually listened to the whole thing. He pondered it all for a good two seconds before sticking with his gut. He nodded. "Well, I guess maybe the last one. I mean, if that was really why ya were doing it. Then it might be sorta okay," shrugging, Matt was completely oblivious to exactly how livid rattling off that list had apparently made Charley.

"It was?" Matt was unable to hide the question in his voice as he perked up. Quickly, he shook his head, clearing his throat in an utterly failed attempt at collectedness. "I mean--I know," he looked about ready to burst with the excitement of proving her wrong. Every movement after that was jittery, in that sort of prideful, I'll-show-you-how-great-I-am sort of childish way. Still, he couldn't help himself. "'Why don't you go impliment that...'" Matt mumbled to himself in a high-pitched, uncannily accurate immitation of Charley as he thrust the beaker under the faucet and began to fill it up. Once he was finished, Matt thrust the thing out in her Charley's direction, speaking calmly at first "I've got better things to do than--OH NO! QUICK, BEFORE I DROP IT!" he cried out, letting the beaker slip ever so slightly between his fingertips without dropping it. Oh, how he loved reactions.