Survival Of The Fittest

"Wait!" John called to the girl who walked past. She had dropped her paper on the table while on her way out. She was beautiful, and so was the sketch she had down. John looked at Meri, and back at the girl. She was older than Meri and more his age. Who was she? Where'd she come from? John hadn't even notice her walk in.

"Excuse me," He said to Meri as he tried to get past her. He hoped that he would be able to catch up to the girl and talk to her. They already had something in common, which was sketching. There was just something about her.

"Wait! You dropped this!" He tried calling once more, while picking up the paper to bring it with him.

"Dont worry Meri, I'll be right back." He gave her a sincere grin and left the booth.

Julia heard someone yelling. She stopped outside of the shop, maybe wondering if it was one of the people from that table. She wasn't exactly sure if she should see who it was or if she sould go onwards liek some mysterious figure. She decided the latter would only feel stupid. It wasn't some superhero flick, it was real life. And perhaps things might get better.
Maybe.
She looked at the doorway and then to her watch. She had time to spare. Then, she saw the young man.
"Wait! You dropped this!"
Julia smiled. He thought she had unintentionally left the paper there. Silly. Anyways, she waited and only replied.
"It was a gift. You can have it. It doesn't matter, I have plenty more pictures in here." She tapped her messenger bag. It's worn cloth flapped around as she made a connection with it and the few random buttons and pins on it jingled around.

"A gift?" John asked. "That's weird. You dont even know me, or my friend I was sitting with, and it seems to be her." He couldn't help but to laugh slightly at the oddness of the situation.

"Hi," He continued. "I'm John, I'm here just sitting, sketching and talking with a friend. Do you want to join us?"

John thought to himself for a second, He Really wanted to talk to this girl and find out more about her. It wasn't that he was snuffing Meri, it was simply that, in the once glance he got from her when she walked by, he saw something unique about her.

"Let me rephrase," He added. "I'd really like if you joined me for lunch. My treat, you can order what ever you want. I'd like to see more of you're sketches, and I'll show you the ones I have with me."

John walked slowly towards the door, hoping to edge her closer to it so that she'd join him inside.

"Come on, it's a harmless lunch. What ever you want."

John held out his arm like a gentleman to walk her back in with him, hoping that she'd take it. He was excited to meet someone that was alittle closer to his age with something in common with him.

Maybe this would turn out to be a good day after all. he thought.

Come on Jules... you have a golden opportunity right in front of you. A guy wants you to go eat lunch with him. why? To see your once unimportant sketches.
Julia whisped her thoughts for what seemed like moments, in reality only a few seconds. She then looked into the honest eyes of the guy and nodded.
"Alright. I was just gonna go home anyways, so why not do something worth while."
She joined the young man and made her way back to the seat that they had been sitting at. when she got back to the table, she saw the girl who seemed to have a kind of confused look on her face.
Oh, if this is his girlfriend, I should try not to flirt or anything... not like I really know how. He just wants to see my sketches... and know about me... and kiss me... no, shut up Jules.
She took a place at the booth, smiling shyly at Meri.
"Hi," she mumbled with a certain flutter in her voice. She was a bit shy when it came to odd situations.

pleased to see that the girl took him up on his offer, John lead her back to their table, where Meri was still sitting. After they took their seats, he pulled out his sketch book and opened it to the first page. It was a picture of old woman feeding the geese by the pond near his house. She was a family friend, so she had offered to pose for the picture.

John considered himself a serious drawer and he really took pride in his work. he was excited to see the girls work, so he could compare.

"Oh, This is Meri, Meri, this is..." It dawned on John that she hadn't even give him her name yet. "Sorry," He continued, "You didn't tell me your name."

"Julia. I don't mind Jules sometimes." She looked at the picture he had shown. It was drawn so skillfully, giving a surreal yet real glance at this old woman's gracious being in feeding the geese. She loved the way it was drawn, with each line and mark. It was superior to her pictures. She didn't know if she should show him. She decided to anyways. What else whould she have to do at this table anyway?
"Here," she said as she pulled her sketchbook out of her messenger bag. It was about her 18th sketchbook she had filled out of all the onces she had gotten over three years. She opened the creased and pencil-dirtied pages until she found one particular drawing that she had fogotten about.
It was of an icecube melting on a table, with her sister's eyes peering over the surface of the table. It had been drawn a few months ago. It was precious, as her sister was only six. "It's my sister. She was so surprised to see that ice cube melt so fast. It was hot... like..." she bit her lip, "Eighty-nine degrees? Something like that." She smiled at her haphazard reply, but just answered herself moving her long red bangs behind her ears.

"Wow!"

John awed at the picture, it was beautiful. He wished he could draw someone in his family, but there was no one to draw. He didn't have any brothers or sisters. and he knew that if he drew his mom, he wouldn't even be able to look at it.

"That's awesome," He continued. "I wish I had a little brother or sister. Hey, I wish I had anyone in my family, other than me and my mom. So, what brings you here?"

John had never wanted to know as much as he could about anyone in his life. He was instantly drawn to Julie's personality, and he hadn't even been talking to her for more than 10 minutes. He flipped through acouple more of her pictures, taking sips of his water inbetween.

"They're amazing. You're really talented." John said.

Julia felt kind of uncomfortable sitting at a table with two complete stranger, one of whom was trying to find out about her. She quickly glanced back at Meri. She really wasn't sure what her relation was to John, but she hoped that she wasn't being rude. Just to be careful, she smiled at Mari. It wasn't a "hah-hah, he's talking to me" kind of smile, but more of a "I'm sorry, I'm not sure what's going on" kind of smile.
With out further ado, she sighed in her thoughts and bit her lip, feeling something hurt that time.
"I came here because class got out. I was thirsty so I decided to go here. I haven't been here much, in fact, this might be my third... fourth time if you count this time." She looked at her sketchbook, wondering if it had some kind of magical social powers. As he fondled through the dirty penciled pages, she smiled again. She cursed at herself in her mind and thought of how stupid she was being.
"I'm sorry to have intruded on you like that, I kind of drew a random picture and wanted to leave it somewhere. It's not that I was trying to get attension..." She rubbed her cheek with her finger, feeling some kind of hidden embaressment. "But I'm glad you like my pictures."
She turned to Mari.
"Do you draw too? I won't be mad if you don't; I'm just curious."
Good, she thought to herself. Now she'll feel welcome into this odd conversation. Julia herself was not a very social person. She would do her work, once in a while feel giddy and crack a joke, but only to one person who was sitting next to her. She felt alright talking with these people as John didn't seem to be judging her badly, and Mari was still a blank in what her mannerisms were. Maybe she was mute? Julia looked down at her watch and noticed she had to be home by 7:00 PM. She could make it. It was only 4:36 PM.
"Anyways, yeah, my little sister goes to private school for the school year. I don't see her until the summer. I know you're wondering, how did a six-year-old get into a private school and not me? Oi, I don't care for uppedy schools. I just want an education without the frilly decorations, you know? She loves it though, and she'll grow up without any bullying problems. Hopefully. As long as she keeps her weird habits of saving every living object a secret when she's older."
Julia laughed, then continued.
"I mean, she'll go outside in rainstorms and collect slugs, snails, worms, all sorts of things and put them in a jar until it's dry out. She thinks they'll drown if she doesn't. Anyway, I kind of get side-tracked with my little sis' not around. And not to mention my dad works late night shifts, so I'm pretty at home doing nothing, most of the time. I paint and draw in my studio "slash" room, but nothing out of the ordinary with just living, eh?"
Julia pictured her talking on and on for what seemed like hours and decided maybe she should take a breather, see what this guy had to say.
"I'm starting to sound like a bad review of a book with all the author favorites. So, what about you guys?"

"I'm here because I needed to get out of my house for a while." He said. "My mom is usually on my case about everything, since this is my first year going to a public school. I've been homeschooled my whole life up until now. Since I'm 18 now, I was able to decided what I wanted to do. You know, the whole 'Adult' thing."

John looked at Julie, to Meri and back to Julie again. It dawned on him, that Julie might think tht Meri is his girlfriend. Oh shit... He thought. Never really being any good when it came to awkward situations, John excused himself to the washroom.

"I'll be right back.." He said as he smiled at both of the ladies. He planned on being gone only for a moment so that the girls could talk.

hopefully them talking will clear something up...

Julia watched as John got up and left to go do something momentarily. She looked at Meri. This was a chance for her to talk with her, seeing as she relly had said much before.
"Hey, um, so, are you his girlfriend or his friend?"
Good job, Jules, she thought. You sounded like a complete retard. And now for the prize.
She hoped she hadn't been too forward. People are always talking about how you should be vague so people don't get the impression that you're rude or too fast about things, but Julia was just curious to hear about this girl's position in the world.
"Let me try again, sorry. I meant, what brings you here," Julia smiled. She knew this still sounded odd, but she thought it was a whole lot better then the previous question.

Okay, this was a little, uh, on the odd side. It was beyond creepy that some girl had decided to draw a picture of her, let alone without her permission. Then, she just got up and left, that weirdo. Ugh, but then John brought her back to sit with them. Things turned art appreciation hour as soon as Julie, Jules, whatever, brought out her sketchbook. That was about the time when Meri just about removed herself from the conversation completely, looking away from them and over at some other table entirely. Any questions directed at her went right over her head, that is until John left the table. She looked Julie directly in the eyes, smiling amusedly at her question.

"No, I'm not his girlfriend or friend, obviously." Meri waved her hand. "You go on ahead, I don't really care right now." The other girl wasn't stupid, so she'd know exactly what she meant by, 'go ahead'. "To be quite honest, I'm not hugely into him. I just wanted to have a boyfriend." She shrugged, leaning back in her chair so far that it was on two legs instead of four. "And that's what brings me here, yeah," To complete the image that she was creating, Meri crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "I'm just looking for a lotta kicks and a batch of cheap thrills. Is that so much to ask?"

It kind of was, but she wasn't expecting John to be so difficult. She could name tens of twenty guys whom would say yeah. Sure there'd be slight questioning at first. That was only because they'd have to figure out if it were some sort of weird prank. The situation was sort of the same here, however, he could've just said no. Artists, you could never get a straight answer out of any of them. This girl included, most likely. She probably fit right into the stereotype. Let's test it and see...

"So, why did you draw me, exactly?"

Julia didn't understand why this little girl was trying to intimidate her, but she instead kept friendly instead of laughing at her huffy face.
"I drew you because I was bored and you were there. I was just looking for a model and you fit an ideal for what I wanted to draw. That alright with you?"
Julia was sure this girl was a little mad at her for blowing her chance at getting John to "go out with her" but Julia was sure she had saved his dignity a bit when she realized this girl was looking more for a sex accessory. Probably a snobby frosh or something... not that I care.
"Look, I didn't come to this table in the first place to "take" him. Anyway..." Julia began with a bit of a bitch streak starting to rise in her attitude, "... he doesn't seem to be the "cheep thrill" type."
She wanted to get up on the table and dance all over this little bitch's face, laughing like a queen among kings. Instead, she really just looked over towards where John had gone and started to wait for him to come back.

John had felt better after coming back from the bathroom. He had left simply because he had to take his medication and he didn't want to be taking pills infront of the girls. He had wondered what he had been talking about, but at the same time, he really didn't.

Girls had always had this way of talking about stuff and blowing things out of the water. Cat fights, as he remembered, was what they were called. Thoughts were running through his head, of excuses he could use to have some alone time with Jules. but at the same time he didn't want to be rude. If there was one weakness John had, it was that he hated to see girls cry, or remotely sad. He was like that because of all the stuff he'd gone through with his mom.

He approached the table where the two girls were sitting. Meri looked somewhat pissed off while Jules looked almost amused. From that, he had decided that asking them what they talked about would be a bad idea. Desprate to break the silence John sat down next to Jules (yet not to close so that it wouldn't look like anything was going on) and smiled at both the girls.

"So," He said. "Miss me?"

"Welcome back."
Julia looked over to Meri, her face still in a twisted look. Julia wasn't too sure she wanted to talk to her anymore, and from what she got out of Meri, she wasn't anyone she would have volenteered to talk to anyways.
"So, I was thinking of heading home. I gotta go do some stuff, I had fun though."
She looked at John for a quick glance. he was sitting next to her, but she didn't really know if it was just because he picked a random seat or he really was woozy for her.
"Uh, um, if you wanna talk sometime, here's my number."
She took her sketchbook and ripped out one of her pictures. She then wrote her phone number on it in neat handwriting.
"Here, enjoy." She then waved silently to Meri and scooted out of her seat to head for the door.

Meri leaned forward the right way, landing her chair back onto four legs with a loud schmack. She puffed out her right cheek, furrowing her eyebrows. There was something in Julia's tone that she really didn't like. No need to start anything, unless, of course, she was willing to fit the role of being one of her enemies. They didn't go to the same school, so constant cliche conflict between the two would be easy to avoid. She was about ready to voice this when, quite suddenly, John returned. Meri relaxed her face to some amount of normality, struggling somewhat due to the fact that John had chosen to sit next to Julia instead of her.

Artists, artists, artists. They were all fickle and flakey. And weird, all of them. Meri's eyes narrowed slightly when Julia passed her number over to John.

"Yeah, and I've got to go, too." She flashed him a thumbs up. "It's been rad, catch you later." There was no offense to him, or even Julia, but she had to get out of there. The atmosphere was too choked and she had to get out and breathe. Leaving no number behind, she quickly escaped out the backway, opposite of the exit Julia was headed to.

The first thing she did when she was outside was saying the phrase, "hair chair".

((OOC: Out. Continued in x.))