ArchivedLogs:Treehouse Talks

Treehouse Talks
Dramatis Personae Sophie, Kelly
In Absentia	2013-11-01 Teen treehouse chatter!
Location <XS> Treehouse
Built by enterprising students of yesteryear, this treehouse has weathered generations of Xaviers' students coming up here to study -- or escape from studying. A cozy retreat, its wood planks are sturdy and well-sanded, fit snug together to keep out draft. Snacks occasionally find their way up here, and the roof keeps the rain off well enough to pass a night -- so long as the teachers don't catch any students at it. For anyone agile enough to make the jump, a lucky leap juuust might carry them from here to the school rooftop, so long as they're careful of the drop... Not too long after classes have let out for the day, the treehouse is mostly empty save for Sophie, who has retreated up here with some schoolwork. Astute eyes will see that she's got a history textbook open on her lap, though she also doesn't seem to be all that /interested/ in what she's glancing over. Today, the girl is significantly less ghostly than she was yesterday; dressed in a black skirt, some mottled purple leggings and rainbow socks - her shoes are on the floor next to her - and a gray sweater with rainbow stripes on the sleeves. She has the textbook open on her lap, but more of her attention seems to be focused on a tangled-up ball of yarn in her lap that she's indignantly plucking at. Kelly pads along outside as well, his own shoes in his hand, letting his feet touch the chilled ground, revealing a patch of bark on the top of them. If someone were to squint, it would almost look hobbit like. Or wearwolf-like if it were fur. But its considerably less fluffy. He has his jacket off as well, even though he keeps his arms crossed rubbing for warmth. The vines on them wrapped around the arms like green sleeves of their own... the thorns all turned where the least of them poked his own skin. The rest of his clothes were the same exact rags he wore the day before, with a few new holes added, but they smelled better a bit. He wasn't looking for anything in particular. Just exploring, and the tree house seemed like a perfect place for a curious boy to check out when he layed eyes on it. And so slowly he started to climb up. Sophie isn't quite so into what she's doing that she doesn't hear footsteps heading up the tree, though at first her only reaction is to perk her ears up a bit. However, she also sets the yarn aside after fussing with it for one more moment, closing the textbook and setting it over there as well, and then she proceeds to roll onto all fours, crawling across the floor of the treehouse to poke her head out the door. Hair dangling down one side of her head, she grins brightly when she sees Kelly and offers an equally bright, "Hey there!" She also realizes quickly enough that she's in the /way/, there, and so tucks her head back inside, moving to sit to one side of the entryway until the boy makes his way in. "Hey!" Kelly smiles back, wide and friendly as he looks up at the side ways girl. He doesn't sport a glance of recognition though, and soon he's scrambling up into the house proper, tossing jacket and shoes ahead of him. But something about that voice DOES sound true... "Wait a minute... say... 'Boooooo...'" he requests as the last time he saw her, she had a sheet on, after all! Sophie rubs the back of her neck, sticking her tongue out through a grin. "Oh, right, I forgot about that." She shakes her head a few times, still grinning, but moves back towards her pile of things to lean against the wall, getting comfortable again. "Back when I first got here I wasn't very great at controlling when I go ghosty and for a while people thought I was haunting the school. It was kind of annoying but it's funny now, y'know?" Folding her legs under herself, she leans forward curiously, looking Kelly over. "You getting used to the place yet?" Kelly winced a little when he heard that. "I'm sorry, I thought it was just a costume." the boy said stretching out a bit and getting comfortable himself even as goose bumps trickled up and down the bits of his skin he exposed. "Well, not really, its kinda big, but I think I can make it to my room, the shower, and the kitchen. That's the imporant parts, right?" Holding a hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle, Sophie shakes her head hurriedly. "No, just-- the /sheet/ part was. Sorry, I forgot you weren't in on the joke. Um. My power is like... it's kind of like astral projection. Or I guess maybe it... is. I guess it's sorta something not a lot of people have so not even the teachers are really sure how it works." She shakes her head a few more times, holding her hands up, palms-out. "Well /anyway/. Those are the big things, yeah," she agrees with a grin. "The treehouse is nice too. Weekends it's pretty full but if you catch it when there's nobody up here it's really like... peaceful, you know?" Hearing that Kelly shrinks back a bit sheepishly, his toes clenching on his kicked out foot, and a blush washing over his face. He looked out the window, letting his hand catch some of the sunlight... and then let out a small giggle of his own. "I'm sorry, I didn't think about that, I can totally take off if you want some alone time to..." he looks at the book, then the yarn... "Study?" Tilting her head to one side, Sophie doesn't seem to realize the implication she mistakenly made, but once she does she gives another hurried shake of her head. "Oh, no no no, it's okay! I've been kinda keepin' to myself too much lately and, uh..." There's a sheepish little grin, there. "...I /really/ don't like History. It's modern history so it isn't /as/ boring but it's still pretty..." and there's a blush. "I can't really get into it." "Well, they're just stories, right? I know the books are like, horrible bad, no one cool is writing them like I dunno, real authors and stuff." Kelly says as he wiggles his way a little closer to get a decent look at the book. "But then I guess it would have a lot more vampires and zombies in it. But I used to get by in class by pretending that those movie narrator guys were telling the story like a trailer." He cleared his throat to demonstrate, his southern accent ruining some of the effect, but at least he gets deep enough: "In a world on the brink of nuclear annihilation... one president is all that stands in the way. JFK stars in... The //CUBAN// //MISSILE// //CRISIS//... OpeningOctober1962inAPopQuizNearYou..." Rushing the last bit in super fast announcer voice. Sophie actually laughs at that, grinning widely. "I guess I never tried thinking about it like that." She does pass the book over; it has a fairly generic 'history textbook' title, and a very patriotic cover. "The class is 'U.S. History, 1941 to the Present'. It's actually the third history class I've taken, I'm kinda trying to get them all out of the way as fast as I can. Like a bandaid." She frowns, sticking out her tongue slightly in disgust. "I still have three more to do after this one. Do they have you in any classes yet or -- I guess winter term starts pretty soon, so you're probably waiting for that, huh?" Kelly picks up the book and starts to flip through it curiously. Smiling at some of the stock pictures used. "I have to start classes on Monday, actually." he answers as he studies it, shifting to lay down on his belly instead of hunching over the book, legs kicking up behind him. "But, it looks like its uhm... well, remedial classes mostly. I kinda haven't been to school in a long time." The last admission a bit sheepish. "I hope the other kids don't think I'm dumb or anything..." Sophie tilts her head for a moment, quiet for a moment, but then she suddenly lets out a quiet little, "Oh!" and blushes, covering her face with her hands for a moment but eventually letting them fall to her sides again. "Oh jeez, I'm sorry. No, nobody's gonna think you're stupid, you, um.. You should meet Ducky! I mean, she's not-- stupid she just-- she's sorta new too and um. She was out of school for a while and. I mean I probably shouldn't talk about her without asking but-- but she can probably help you with like. Adjusting. Because of that." The girl's face is still pretty red, and she's doing her best to avoid any eye contact, just kind of looking up at the ceiling but trying not to look like she's looking at the ceiling. Kelly holds a hand up to try and calm the girl down a little. "No, really, its ok!" he begs, still in a good mood himself, hoping that his smile showed he meant it. "But your friend sounds neat, I hope I do get to meet her. The librarian was telling me that there were a few kids behind like me." he offered, his own earlier embarrassment fading as he tried to calm hers. "Besides, I don't need to worry about that til Monday, right?" Sophie does manage a smile at that, and even lowers her gaze a bit. Not quite eye-contact again, yet, but at least she isn't staring upwards. "Yeah. I just-- sometimes I forget not everyone's... I'm pretty lucky. I pretty much just came here like I was transferring to a new school and didn't really... I haven't really had anything bad happen to me, you know? So, um, I'm sorry if I was rude." "Its... its ok, really." Kelly said, growing only a little more quiet himself at that. "Besides, I can't blame ya for not having had a hard time. I mean, I'd be a pretty bad jerk if I did. Especially since you're really nice." And while he says this in a disarming voice, he has lost a bit of his earlier joy in his voice, having to think about his own circumstances again. "Besides, I kinda like knowing that sometimes it can be a happy thing." Just as it was starting to fade, Sophie's blush comes back again with the comment about her being nice, and she runs a hand over her hair, fidgeting idly with curls. "Well, um, anyway, if you do want to talk I'm always happy to talk, I just don't really... have experience there, y'know? But honestly a lot of the kids here... haven't been really lucky either. But the school's kind of a fresh start, yeah? And all of the teachers are really happy to talk too, if you ever want to talk to a grownup instead." "So your mom and dad know? Know what this place is and about... the ghost thing? I didn't even know this place existed until they found me." Kelly wondered, trying to shift the subject a little, his hand flipping through he book until he got to one of those staged 'kids of every country' kinda pictures near the end. America's diversity was the chapter and he sighed as he looked down at it. A bit of a lump in his throat. "Oh..." Kelly said, taking back quite a bit of his enthusiasm once he heard that bit. "I never really could tell my dad, I tried to a few times but... well, where I'm from its still ok to hate three kindsa people, and I didn't wanna make a clean sweep of it." he says dipping a little into his mood, but shakes his head, jabbing at the picture. "I wonder how many years it will be before someone like you and me needs to be in a picture like this?" "It should be now, if you ask me." Sophie's tone sounds a little irritated - not at Kelly, but at the idea that her opinion isn't the rule already. "I always kind of feel guilty because I can pass for 'normal', and even if my power did go crazy, as far as I know nobody would get hurt." She shakes her head, idly twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "Do you, um.." She points with her free hand, but she's cautious in picking her words. "Does that just.. happen naturally, or do you control it?" Kelly smiles at her fierceness, pulling out a pencil out of his pocket. Well, half a pencil, snapped in half and nearly used to a nub. But he uses it to draw a second set of eyes on the blonde headed boy in the picture. "There, now its today." he says triumphantly. But the question kinda catches him cold. "Uhm... I can put my jacket on if you want?" he says, as if he needed to apologize for her seeing them. "I, well, I can move it on my own but... I can't make it go away." he explains. Sophie grins at the addition to the textbook, settling in a little more comfortably, but then shakes her head a few times at the offer. "No, no, it's okay! I mean, um... I think it's cool. Sometimes I kinda wish I looked different too," she adds, blushing again there. "Which.. I mean, I know that's stupid because then maybe other people would be jerks to me. But... anyway. Anyway, I think it's cool. And /I'd/ be a jerk if I wanted you to cover it up. Any if anyone here tries to tell you you should, then.. then /they're/ the jerk." Nodding curtly, she suddenly moves to pull her shoes on, glancing towards the school building. "Do you want to go inside? I can show you how to get to the game room." "I think you look fine just the way you are." Kelly says honestly forcing a smile once she manages to bolster his own confidence a bit. "And yeah, that sounds good. Its kinda cold out here, and I think I've got enough sun today." The last part added as if it were a vitamin or a homework assignment. A chore to be taken care of.