Survival Of The Fittest

((Aaron Hughes continued from Too Good for Prom))

Aaron was sitting on the grass, for once in a good mood. Sure, his normal spot at the gazebo was taken, so he couldn't set up his chessboard and trawl for challengers. Sure, he'd just failed a math quiz. It didn't matter.

Graduation was so close he could taste it. Mr. Alpert could go die in a hole. Aaron didn't need to pass his class to graduate anyways, and besides, he was pretty sure he still had a C.

And it was almost graduation. He just couldn't shake that thought. Here he was, at the culmination of thirteen years of public education, sitting on the lawn, and only a handful of days separated him from the end of it all. Would he be going to college? Probably. He could easily get into one, as soon as he bothered to apply. Right now, he was taking a year off. He would use that time well, writing a roleplaying game, or maybe just a world book, and hopefully getting it published. He was full of ideas. He just wanted to share them.

And who knew? If he did well enough, perhaps he wouldn't need to go back to school. Maybe he could become a professional, or a freelancer or something, and sell his ideas to various companies. Maybe he would never have to do any real work. It had happened before. If that Paolini hack could get lucky, surely a qualified and skilled writer could too.

Aaron picked up his bologna and cheese sandwich, and took a big bite. It was dry and grainy, but he didn't care. Nothing could wreck his mood right now. Hell, Jacquard Broughten could walk right up and sit down next to him and he'd just turn around and go back inside, smiling the whole way. If that wouldn't drive him up a wall, nothing would.

Aaron smiled. The end of the year. The end of school. The end of an era. The senior trip was coming up. He didn't like his classmates much, but this one last hurrah would be just fine. He would bring a bunch of dice and pencils and paper, and he would corner Will and Bounce for a D&D game if nothing else came up.

The sun was shining. It was good to be alive.

((Sarah Xu continued from The Dance Must Go On (or a possible following post-prom)))

Sarah dragged her feet as she crossed the school grounds. That last test hadn't been fantastic, she hadn't been able to concentrate on it nor the practice she was meant to have done. Sure, she'd probably get special consideration because of the head injury... but that felt like cheating.

The expression she was after was probably dejection, but her face seemed to have gotten stuck in neutral. She was starting to feel like she was falling back into her old habits, working scattily, having trouble sitting still for 5 damn minutes, doodling absentmindedly over everything. Not that there was much time to remedy the situation before finals...

Ugh. Finals. At least that'd be the last of the stupid, useless, pointless high school tests. She had college to look forward to! Somewhere. The money these places were asking for was craaazy. Maybe she could get a scholarship. Or go to Germany and get nigh-free education. But that'd mean leaving behind so much and bleh.

Bleh bleh bleh. All of that was just distracting her even more. School was almost over, that was meant to be fantastic! And yet, she almost wanted to go back and start it all over again, rather than leaving all her friends and experiences and total lack of responsibility behind. She still didn't know everyone in her form, she'd started making a bit of an effort to be more outgoing recently, but still. How much were these exams worth even? Really? She could easily do well enough to get into college, or uni as the case might be, and then it was just a matter of transferring if she wasn't happy... She thought it a bit ironic that she wasn't questioning the worth of her effort until after it was almost over. Maybe she could have spent those years better on being sociable.

Well, there was a boy from her class sitting by himself. Maybe she could make up for a little lost time. Now if she could just remember his name...

She shuffled over and stood next to him, bag slung over her shoulder.
"Hey, uhh, Aaron? Mind if I join you?"

A girl ambled over to Aaron, and asked if she could sit down. She was somebody he didn't know too well, which wasn't a surprise if she didn't run in the D&D and chess circles. Normally, it would have been a bit annoying. Aaron might even have found an excuse to leave. Today, though, he just smiled and said, "Go ahead."

He took a couple more bites of his sandwich, chewing thoughtfully. Here he was. This could be the last time he ever ate lunch here, if the gazebo was clear the next few days. This spot on the lawn was his backup, the second best location. Now, he wished he'd spent a little more time here. It really was nice. Aaron normally didn't appreciate natural beauty, much less the aesthetics of green lawns, but today he couldn't help it. His future looked bright, but he was still feeling almost nostalgic.

It's so much better here than it ever was in New York...

Then, completely unplanned, a rarity for him, Aaron turned to Sarah (whose name he just barely remembered) and said, "So, how're you doing today? Getting excited about the end of the year?"

That was... odd. Aaron never made small talk willingly, not about boring, trivial matters. What was he doing? He sighed quietly. He was just enjoying the day, taking things easy, not worrying. It was surprisingly nice.

He would have to do it more often.

((Ericka Bradley continued from Summer in Paris, Light From the Sky))

Ericka breathed a sigh of relief. Today was normally the day Ericka volunteered in the library, but it wasn't as busy as it had been for the past few weeks, so the librarian decided she could handle things herself, and let Ericka take her shift off. Checking out a book, Ericka decided to head outside to read it. She told herself it was because of the nice weather, but deep down she knew that the fact that she had been working in the library in the (very busy) past few weeks had probably impacted her decision.

She looked around for a place to read. The gazebo was in use... the tables and chairs appeared to be taken as well...

'Sitting on the grass isn't so bad,' Ericka thought to herself, 'I probably would've done it anyway, but where should I...'

Scanning the quad again she noticed a couple of people talking. Since the boy seemed relatively comfortable it must be a decent spot, and Ericka had promised herself that she would try to be more social.

Approaching slowly, she eventually made her way up to them, and barely choked out the words; "I... uhm... ca-, can I maybe, possibly, join you too...?"

With Aaron's go ahead Sarah dropped her bag and sat cross-legged next to him. She took a little while to fish around for her lunch before pulling the bag behind her as a makeshift back rest.

The sandwich she pulled out had lettuce and mayonaise and cucumber slapped haphazardly between a couple of grain slices, luckily soggyness hadn't set in yet. She hadn't been inspired to make it any more interesting that morning. Probably for the best, she didn't think she could stomach meat or anything after that test.

She slowly ate it, blanking out as she contemplated the scenery. It was just the school grounds, like always, the same she saw nearly every day and had even drawn a couple of times... but now that she looked set to leave it it looked prettier than ever. The way the sun was bringing the greens out so vividly they looked almost golden. An old train of thought came back to her, how it'd never look quite the same again, as much from the changes in her own mind as the subtle changes in the environment.

Aaron's question tugged her back to reality. "I'm okay I guess... I'm... not sure about the end school though. It's like... I'm excited about the next step, but I'm sad to leave this one... you?"

Sarah looked up as Ericka came over, it seemed a shame she only knew her as the cute quiet girl in her English class who read a lot. Another friendship missed, unless they took similar paths after graduation. Sarah nodded reassuringly as she asked if she could join them. She would have said "sure" but she remembered her mouth was full for once.

"Yeah," Aaron replied to Sarah. "I'm not in too big a hurry to find out what's next, though. I'm going to give it a little time, figure out what I want to do. There are just so many choices..."

Anther girl wandered over, Ericka. Aaron had seen her around the library, he thought, but didn't know much of anything else about her. Bayview was full of quiet people. Loud people too, but Aaron liked the quiet ones far better. They never got on his nerves, never caused problems. They were all just content to live and let live. Aaron thought the world would be a better place if more people could keep their mouths shut and just leave each other alone.

Not like he particularly good at that. He liked talking, especially about his interests. Luckily, they were things other people tended to be curious about too. He didn't have much trouble finding an audience most days. Sure, he didn't have many close friends, but there just weren't that many people worth spending much time with at Bayview. And he could always bug Will and Bounce, even if they weren't always thrilled with him.

"Sure thing," he responded to Ericka's question. "Have a seat. The more the merrier."

The clichéd phrase of welcome sounded so foreign to Aaron, the sort of thing he would normally have said mockingly, or while pretending to be some character, perhaps a naive but benevolent king. Now, though, he genuinely meant it. Maybe Ericka would turn out to be cool. She could even be the sort who shared some hobbies with Aaron. She hung out in the library, so that meant she at least liked books, and most bookworms Aaron's age liked fantasy, it seemed. That was easy common ground, something he could bring up later if the conversation stalled out.

For now, though, best to start with the basics.

"We were just discussing the end of the year," he said. "You excited too?"

Ericka sat on the grass cross-legged, upon getting permission to join the discussion. The place the group sat seemed to be a pretty good spot.

She glanced at the book she held at her side. It would be rude to read it in the middle of a conversation, and she had a few days before it was due. The boy's question got her attention.

"Um... yeah, I guess... I'm more excited about the senior trip, though, are either of you planning on going?"

((Aileen Borden continued from La ignorancia es atrevida))

Well then. Time to study like a good girl.

Aileen wandered out onto the lawn, with her bag slung over her shoulder and a textbook in one hand. It was testing period, and even though she was done with a good portion of her tests, she still had a fair amount to go. She was pretty sure she knew most of the material already, but... you know. She had to make sure.

And besides, she genuinely liked studying. It was basically an excuse for her to read something, after all. And... well, she always found that there was a bit of information that wasn't covered in class, but mentioned in the textbooks, for some reason. It was fascinating, really. And she would not be able to touch the textbooks again, since she was going to be graduating.

In fact, it wasn't too far off at all. There was only the remaining tests, the class trip, and the ceremony before she would be out of here. The tests were stressful, but were not too bad. The class trip? Her mother, despite her encouragement to get her to socialize, originally didn't want her to go. But, eventually she gave in, and allowed her to show up. And the ceremony... well, it was just a ceremony. Nothing too special, besides, you know, the graduation part.

So, these were her last few days on the campus, huh?

The reason why she was going out on the lawn was because the gazebo, for some reason, was crowded. And she didn't want to study in the noisy cafeteria, for obvious reasons. She would have preferred a table or something along those lines, but she had to make due with what she had.

Her mind lost in thought as she went on the lawn, she sighed to herself.

Well, might as well enjoy this last few days- wait, what? Is it popular here too?

She could see that a trio of students had the same thought as she did, and were now talking amongst themselves. One of which she recognized as Sarah Xu. If she remembered correctly, they both participated in peer tutoring, though Aileen hadn't seen for a period of time recently. She did not know why. Another was a girl she had seen around a couple of times. It would seem that they have similar interests, based on where she often spotted her, but she really did not know her very well. And the third... Hughes? Was that his name? Probably. But, she had no idea what he was like, either. Oh well.

But, what were they doing on the lawn? She had absolutely no clue. Perhaps they were trying to get away from the gazebo, too? Most likely. Heck, for all she knew, the lawn was going to become just as full as people.

But, oh well. They weren't too loud, at least. From what she could hear, they were talking about the trip, and basic end of year related topics. They seemed to be thinking about that, too.

Aileen casually sat herself a few feet from the trio and opened her textbook, flipping it to a certain page. If they wanted to talk to her, they could just ask. She probably couldn't contribute much to the conversation, and heck, she was expecting someone to shout "Go away Aileen!" in the worse case scenario, even if she was trying to mind her own business. But, oh well. Might as well try to study, right?

Aaron was right about there being so many choices. Sarah had a sort of love-hate relationship with choice. She loved having it, hated losing it, but hated making decisions. And there were so many to make over the next few months. Where to go, what to do, should she get a job, how was being with Reiko going to change her plans... The more she thought about it the more a gap year seemed like a good idea. She could do some reading on her own without the pressures of college, concentrate on her activism and political education, have much more time to do artistic stuff...

On the other hand, If she didn't have the pressure and focus of formal education, would she even do anything? Would she just waste a year? was it better to just get college done and out of the way? It'd be so nice if someone else could make the decision for her.

At least one decision was provided for her: answering Ericka's question. "Yeah, looking forward to it. I haven't gone camping in aaaages."

Now that she thought about it, the last time had to have been around 2 years ago. That'd been with family in the nearest national park though. Before that? Scouts maybe? God she'd hated that. Nature? Fantastic. Camping? Fun. RPG-esque rewards system? Kind of cool. Religious overtones, incompetent, self important leaders, bullying and the Jungle Book? She could do without that.

Lost in her own thoughts she completely failed to notice Aileen approach and sit near the three.

Ericka stated that she was excited about the end of the year, specifically mentioning the Senior trip. It had been on Aaron's mind, too. Camping wasn't great, but he wasn't unfamiliar with the outdoors. It would be just like a LARP, only one that went overnight and didn't include any costumes or interesting games, unless he was able to draft Bounce and Will.

"It should be fun," he said, after Sarah answered. "I mean, unless we have some sort of wildlife disaster and camp in an ant nest or attract a bunch of bears or something. That would be a pain. Really, though, it should be good. I spend so little time with my classmates outside of an academic setting."

Aaron didn't mention that this was very intentional. He didn't say that most of his classmates disgusted him. Even though these two seemed to fall squarely into the category of people he could actually tolerate, there was still a chance he'd alienate them by speaking poorly about their peers. And besides, he wasn't in the mood to put anyone else down today. Well, maybe Jacquard, if it came up, but then, that was a given in life now. She'd probably forgotten all about the incident. Aaron couldn't even remember the specifics, just the lingering bad feelings and mistrust towards the girl. He hadn't been to chess club since it happened. Maybe he'd go again this week, though, and just stay away from her. No reason to hide.

He noticed Aileen walking up and sitting near them, her nose in a book. He'd seen her around school a good deal, usually immersed in reading. That was enough to positively dispose Aaron towards her. Again, on account of the sheer niceness of his day, he smiled and waved at her, saying, "Good afternoon!"

He hoped he wasn't dragging her out of her comfort zone, but, then again, he was stretching his limits today, and if it helped him it would probably be good for anyone, right?

So, both of them were going on the trip too. Good! Even though Ericka's friends were going it would be good for there to be other people she could potentially relate to going as well.

She was about to speak when Aaron called out to the girl sitting nearby. Ericka looked over and saw the girl reading her textbook.

"If you want to join us," Ericka jumped in, "feel free. We were just discussing the end of the year, for example are you going on the class trip too?"


((ooc: Sorry for the sparse/late post, I just couldn't think of what to write))

Aileen had begun to reintroduce herself to the contents of the textbook when she heard someone greet her. Good afternoon, huh?

She looked up from her book for a few seconds, and gave the boy who greeted her a small, quick wave, before placing her head back down to read. If they wanted her to join them in their conversation about the trip, they had to ask.

Wait, that other girl had just done so, and had asked her about the trip too.

The trip? It was going to be alright, she was guessing. Sure, lots of hiking, and, well, Aileen was never too fond of physical activity, even though they always said it was good for you. On the other hand, she wanted to see nature up close. Perhaps she could read up on the wildlife in the area, and be on the lookout for them? It would help.

Closing her book with a loud thud, Aileen lifted herself off the ground and approached the three. Well, she could at least try to be social, just this once. Even if it turned out awkward again, at least she tried? Although she really didn't want to talk that much...

And so, after going closer to the group, she placed herself on the ground, and answered the question the one girl she didn't know gave her.

"Alright... the trip. I'm going. Kind of neutral on the whole thing, though. My mom didn't want me to go at first, but she kind of... well, she wanted me to socialize, so in the end... yeah", she started, and then went on. "Personally, I don't want to bunk up with my classmates, since who knows what would happen when a good portion of the Bayview senior girls are... you know... in the same cabin room?"

She paused, readjusting her seating position a bit. She mentally answered her own question with "mischief".

"But yeah. Nature is nice, though. I hear there might be bats out at night. Not too unlikely, though someone will probably be scared of them for some reason."

Aileen knew bats were not that bad. They ate all sorts of pests, including mosquitoes, after all. Yet, people were always frightened by them. In a way, Aileen liked bats, however. She remembered once seeing a picture of a flying fox in a book, and it was actually quite adorable.

Wildlife disasters? That would be kind of cool, though the most likely, and probably most annoying thing that could happen would be to end up with that ONE FUCKING MOSQUITO in her tent buzzing around her head incessantly. And it was bound to happen. And then she'd get no sleep and be all groggy the next morning. No, this year she was going to be ruthless, every Diptera Culiwhatever was going to DIE. Or at least be fumigated with canloads of insect repellant. Not that that ever did anything but add odour to her misery.

When Aaron and Ericka called out to someone she twisted around to see Aileen coming to join them. Which was good, she liked Aileen. She waved to her before turning back into the little circle they'd started to form on the grass.

Aileen was going too, not that that was anything too amazing, she wondered if anyone wasn't. There were a few people she probably preferred not to be there, but that was just wishful thinking. She'd be fine as long as she didn't have to bunk up with them again. On that subject, cabins? She thought they were going camping camping. Not "camping". Though she guessed some of her peers probably couldn't handle it. She'd never had a problem with roughing it, as long as she wasn't wet or freezing, but it wasn't for everybody she guessed.

In other news, Bats, Woo!

"I really don't get why people are afraid of them. It's like being afraid of… rabbits. Or squirrels. If they had wings. Really big moths maybe… So uh, I didn't realise we were in cabins, who're you guys bunking with?" They probably had to write a list or something, stupid bureaucracy. She'd have to start working on that. Knowing her luck it was probably already due a month ago and she'd get stuck with... People she didn't really really like. Or something.

"I've got no idea what the sleeping arrangements will be," Aaron said. "I imagine they'll be segregated by gender, though. Anything else would be a recipe for total disaster. I haven't seen a list or anything. Actually, I don't know much about the trip at all."

This was mostly because Aaron hadn't cared enough to ask around. He figured it was a class activity, and after shunning most of them (especially Prom; thank goodness he hadn't been involved in that mess), he thought he might as well have one outing to show school spirit. Or, well, maybe not—he didn't really care for Bayview enough to be patriotic—but to have something in common with his classmates. Something to look back on nostalgically at their 50th anniversary reunion, when they'd all forgotten what really happened and replaced it with moments from movies.

Tuning back into the conversation, Aaron added, "I like bats pretty well. You have to be careful with them, though. They're some of the biggest carriers of rabies, and you don't want to get that. The shots are a nightmare, I hear." That was putting it fairly mildly, but whatever. Aaron had better things to worry about than rabid bats. At least bats would be exciting.

"I don't have any cabin buddies yet," he said to Sarah. "I'll probably try to set something up with Will, though. We can get a big D&D game going at night or something."

That said, Aaron yawned and stretched some. The nice day was, aside from putting him in a good mood, making him a little sleepy. That was okay. He could afford to slack a little. He was smart enough to keep his grades consistent, and the teachers would understand if he stared blankly through the afternoon lectures. Half the others would be doing the same.

((Allen Birkman debut))

Allen exited the school building and was greeted by the brilliant sunshine, the sudden change in brightness practically blinding him and causing him to nearly bump into someone standing by the doors. After quickly mumbling an apology to the person, he pulled his shades out from his shirt pocket and slipped them on.

‘That's much better, now, what to do?'

To be honest, Allen knew exactly what he should really be doing, and that was study for his physics final that was to take place in a couple of days. But after a math quiz in which he just scraped a pass and the fact it was a beautiful day out, he was in no mood for revision right now. He was more content to just do, well, nothing for the time being. Maybe relax outside for a bit in the sun, who knows? The physics text book was still in his bag that he carried round his shoulder, so if he had a sudden change of heart, or for some reason got incredibly bored outside, it was within easy reach.

Then he saw the four students sitting on the grass just ahead of him. Lifting up his sunglasses to get a better look, he recognized one of them as Aaron (‘Aaron, that is his name, right?') from his math class earlier on in the day. The other three students sitting with him however, they drew a blank. He'd passed them in the hallways between classes before, but couldn't remember their names. If he even knew them to begin with.

‘May as well go and say hello,' he thought as he approached the quartet.