"Nice to meet you." "Charmed." (summer&zack)

[ZACK CHARMING]

A couple of years ago? What was she, a senior? So she would’ve been a sophomore reading Wuthering Heights. Impressive, if she’d understood any of it. “Really? That’s cool, because not a single person I’ve talked to here has read it. I’ve actually just finished it, and I’ve been absolutely dying to talk about it with someone. I mean, Bronte’s pretty high level stuff, am I right?” The chick-lit-worthy dialogue was making him want to spit. But he kept his act together. It had actually been a couple years since he’d read Wuthering Heights as well. But it would be interesting to see how she played off of this.

“I mean, I really struggled with the apatheticity of…oh, I’d say sixty-nine percent of the characters. I mean, take Catherine. Her singularly high sense of self-worth irritated me greatly. Oh, and not to mention Heathcliff. Is he supposed to be a metaphor for sex? Because I honestly could not perceive his purpose in the story.”

Taylor Lautner fanboy? He rolled his eyes. It’s called sarcasm, honey. “Oh yes,” he drawled in reply. “I just can’t keep my eyes off that sexy ass.” He stood up abruptly and trudged over to the trash can towering over the center of the lunchroom, dumping his empty plates and cups in the bin and depositing the tray on the counter in a single fluid motion. Then he returned to his seat, and was pleased to find the girl still sitting there.

“So what about you?” he asked passively.

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

Summer mentally groaned. She hadn't expected him to actually TALK about the book. She barely remembered a thing about it. She remembered that there had been a lot
going on. That Heathcliff guy Zack mention had been all brooding and revengeful. And Catherine had loved him... right? Yeah, yeah. But she married some other guy. It was
started to come back to her, bits and pieces. Still, though, what was she going to say? 'Oh, I just remember that there was tons of drama.' Yeahno.

Whoa, wait, had he just said 'sexy ass?' What the hell? Oh, was he talking about Taylor Lautner? Well, jeez, hadn't he been sarcastic. She scowled at him as he walked to the
trash can. She rolled her eyes. It was hardly fair that she had to think about a reply and listen at the same time. Summer wasn't very good at multi-tasking. Ah, he was back. And waiting for a reply.

"Heathcliff was stupid. All his revenge was a total waste of time and pretty much pointless. I mean, suck it up, she didn't marry you. Oh, and speaking of Catherine, she was a brat. I did not like her or Heathcliff, really." Summer paused. Where in the world had all of that come from? It was probably in no way a real answer. It was her opinion, something she came up with on the spot. It made a bit of sense, to her at least. Characters in the story were important and if she didn't like them, she tended to not like
the book. But it's not like he would get that. Summer cleared her throat, shrugged. "From what I remember," (which wasn't much, she thought), "I just didn't like it in general."

(this is a super epic fail post Dx
i know nothing about Wuthering Heights
and SparkNotes certainly didn't help.
Go easy on Summer, please >___<? )

[ZACK CHARMING]

"Heathcliff was stupid. All his revenge was a total waste of time and pretty much pointless. I mean, suck it up, she didn't marry you. Oh, and speaking of Catherine, she was a brat. I did not like her or Heathcliff, really. From what I remember, I just didn't like it in general.”

So basically, you’ve just seen the movie, Zack summarized in his head. He considered yanking another book out of the air, but he could tell from the girl’s beseeching expression that he was probably interrogating her a bit past breaking point. Okay. It was a real pity, he thought. He had honestly been looking forward to sharing his recent analysis of the motives and entreaties of Les Miserables with someone who had actually understood the implications of the text. But that was okay: he was pretty sure the AP English professor had a study hall next block anyway. No matter.

So. An uncomfortable silence ensued, and Zack listened for a second, losing himself in the drone of conversation around him. Conversation over? He opened his book again, scanning the pages for the section he’d been critiquing.“So,” he began distractedly. “besides reading, what else are you into?”

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

Summer felt pretty stupid right about now. Why did he have to ask about that book? She was so checking it out later. Now that it'd been brought up, she felt this urge to read it and so she would. Eventually. Now, though, she was feeling restless again. And sort of curious. All she knew so far about Zack was his name and that he was some sort of genius. What grade did that make him? He looked a bit young to be a senior but he could've been a junior. Maybe. Did she really want to ask though? Not now. Maybe later.

Besides reading? What else could she say? Making lists, cleaning, working? Well, she did do a lot of working. Ever since she'd began at the Last Petal, things were just a little bit hectic. She usually went right from her free period to there. This left less time to even begin to understand whatever she was being taught. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to mention that she was a bit of a neat freak. That was probably a good thing to let people know when first meeting them. Otherwise, you might go crazy on them with your constant nagging about cleanliness. Well, she wasn't really that bad. It just bothered her a little bit. It wasn't like she was going to go on a cleaning spree of their room.

"Running." Wait, what? Had she really just said that? Part of her was hoping she hadn't and the other part knew that it was true. She went every morning and on those days where a book just didn't cut it. Running was one of few things she really enjoyed, actually. The wind in her hair, music in her ears. That 'I can take on the world' feeling. Sounded really good right about now, actually. "Uhm, yeah. Right, running. And I guess I'm into cleaning, if that makes sense. I'm sort of a neat freak." Summer shrugged as if this were no big deal. It wasn't. Really.

[ZACK CHARMING]

"Uhm, yeah. Right, running. And I guess I'm into cleaning, if that makes sense. I'm sort of a neat freak."

Zack almost rolled his eyes, but resisted with difficulty. “Were I in the slightest ebullient with any classification of athletic endeavor, I would potentially be more inclined to comment on that.” He cleared his throat, as the fact that he’d just derelicted his vocab filter hit him forcefully over the head. “I mean, I’m not, uh, sporty,” he translated diffidently.

Zack rubbed his face wearily. This surplus of social interaction was seriously draining the functionality from his cerebral cortex, and his dignity was paying the toll. That must have been the thirty-seventh time he’d let his vocab filter slip, and the thirty-seven thousandth time he’d let his mind roll off on fortuitous tangents, erecting barriers around his awareness and persona that he could really do without right now.

He really needed his void, he realized as propped his elbow against the tabletop and leaned his head against his fist. Visits to his void of dense, sempiternal numbers, esoterically labyrinthine calculations, and limitless spectrums of vocabulary and abstractions floating around in an expanse of time and space that Zack knew only his exceptional brain could fathom. His void was the one place that was truly his, the one place where he could be truly alone with his thoughts.

He closed his eyes for a brief second and could almost feel the chaos of fortuitous calculations, answers to conundrums he hadn’t even consciously acknowledged yet rushing at him like a strong wind. He could feel the familiar sensation of serenity, peace, and belonging that he never experienced anywhere in the physical world. For a single instant his frontal lobes teetered on the top of a thin fence, begging him to push them over into the land where Zack could truly relax into a state where nothing made sense, and yet, everything made sense.

“From chaos, order,” he stated quietly. Did I just say that out loud? The concrete idea was like an enormous weight in his brain, sending Zack plummeting back down to the physical world. As his eyes shot open, he felt constricted and cramped, as if his mind were being tightly compressed back into a box that it didn’t fit into.

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

Summer almost laughed. Was he implying that she was sporty? Because that’s the last thing she was. Okay, she rocked at running. She was the best she knew. Stifling a snicker, she looked away, trying to decide what she could say next. Okay, so she was in Cross Country. She’d also loved the Track (not Field) part of Physical Education. Still, she’d dropped that as soon as she could. Jumping, climbing, and kicking were all things she failed at. She was sometimes alright at Soccer if she hung out near the goal, attempting to defend. She hadn’t minded Floor Hockey. That was it, though. Running and Floor Hockey. Sporty was definitely not a word to define her. Bookworm, for example, or determined were words that worked with her. Maybe judgmental because, as of late, she’d been judging books by their covers.

Summer turned her gaze back to him and realized he didn’t look well. What was up with him? He’d seemed alright just a minute ago. Now he looked like this was the last place he wanted to be. Summer felt her eyebrows furrow together in a confused sort of expression. Did she want to ask if he was alright? Would that interrupt his thinking, though? Did she want to do that? Not really. But it’d probably be nice to ask if he was okay… Just as she’d been ready to check, he muttered something she’d barely caught. Chaos… order? What? Eyebrows still pulled together, a tiny smile tugged at her lips. “Are you alright?”

[ZACK CHARMING]

Zack’s eyes shot open, and he almost laughed. “Alright? Yeah. I’m awesome. Amazing…”

He sighed contentedly and stared up at the sky, gazing into the swirling blue with fluffy white clouds every so often permeating the blue surface. This was nice. Really nice. Although he was probably freaking this poor chick out a tad. No matter.

His iPhone vibrated in his pocked. Ugh, Academic Bowl Practice. Was it 3:45 already? Time had gone by so fast this afternoon. So much had happened in a single conversation. He shot the girl a regretful glance. “I need to go soon,” he remarked.


(epic fail post. because zack is running out of things to say. I'm very very sorry!!!! :/ I'll try to do better next time)