Survival Of The Fittest

((Continued from Life is a Crowded Hallway))

His fingers played the piano gracefully as he tried to read the notes on the paper, of course he would stop at various moments due to the fact that he was still a novice at the whole music thing, but it didn't really matter, today was the first day he had actually played in the class, but that was mostly due to the fact that the girl who normally had the piano was late today. Though Blood Boy didn't seem to mind, normally he'd either listen to her or just do his homework for another class.

High school music classes where always rather uneventful.

It had only been a day since the fateful meeting in the hallway between him and Michael, but as quick as wildfire rumors where spreading and surprise surprise they had characterized Blood Boy as some irrational and mean time bomb just looking for a handsome boy like Michael Hardy to explode at. Trying to keep his sigh in as he once again failed the piece, he shook his head.

The elderly Mrs. Lindbloom was ignoring Blood Boy for the most part, but while this inhibited his instruction, it aided his wish to be left alone with his thoughts at the moment. Perhaps it was time to stop worrying about how people would react to his face and finally take off the mask that had built a proverbial wall up between him and his classmates, leave behind his fear and resolve to fight any tormentors who wanted to reek havoc on him.

Somehow the ever present throbbing he felt in his right temple along with the looming threat that the entire baseball team would be out to kick his ass lead him to believe otherwise.

At the moment though, piano stool, the one thing I should worry about is getting past the first measure of Beethoven's 9th.

((Continued from Fragments of Memories))

The door to the music room in the fine arts building squeaked open quietly as a chocolate-haired figure crept into the music room, rather late for class. She gripped a plain white piece of paper in her right hand as she precariously balanced her books in her right. The scribbled writing on the note was almost indiscernable, but it was meant to be an excuse note giving Lauren the okay for being tardy to music class. She'd been pulled into the office early this morning by the principal, who had some inquires as to what had happened between fellow students Michael Hardy and Blood Boy in the hallway yesterday. Apparently, security had been watching the fight on camera and had been on their way to intercept the troublemakers when the fight had ended quite abruptly. Lauren, having been on camera along with Adwin, Michael, and Blood Boy, was one of the first pulled into the office. The Principal wanted to get a few impartial opinions on the matter -- namely hers and Adwin's -- before addressing the two students himself.

Lauren made her way up to where the elderly music instructor was reclined in her chair, reading over some magazine or another while a few students played around with their instruments, others rushed to do homework they should've done the night prior, and still others were simply goofing off. She dropped the note on the teacher's desk, although miss Lindbloom barely paid it any mind. In truth, she'd already okay'd her star pupil's absence in her books. Lauren was one of the few gems in class, and Mrs. Lindbloom knew better than to think she would ever intentionally skip music. The old woman simply nodded at her as Lauren headed into the large but rather empty classroom. All the actual seats had been taken and all that remained were a few extra chairs lined up in stacks along the wall. She contemplated pulling a chair up to sit with the rest of her classmates, but decided it might be more distracting overall than it was worth.

Her eyes traced over her fellow classmates before falling to the one that currently occupied the piano she normally played. The figure that was hunched over the large piano was definitely trying, but somehow, the melody written on the sheet in front of him just wasn't coming into fruition as his fingers grazed along the keys of the piano. She frowned slightly as she saw him, and the thoughts of what Michael had told her yesterday resurfaced in her mind for just a moment. She couldn't help but think Michael had stretched the tale just a bit, even though all the rumors circulating around the school specifically stated that Blood Boy had attacked Michael. She didn't want to peg her ex-boyfriend for a liar, but she just couldn't see the gaunt-looking individual sitting on the piano bench purposely assaulting anybody. He never seemed angry to her, but even through the iconic smiley face mask he always adorned, he seemed sad... and lonely. More than anything, she felt sorry for him.

Hesitantly, she made her way over to the piano as well, leaning up against it ever so slightly. A faint smile crossed her features as she watched Blood Boy struggle to play the notes laid out in front of him. She couldn't help but think that maybe he could read the sheet music just a bit better if he'd remove that mask he constantly hid his face behind. She watched his hands as they travelled across the piano keys and when she saw him hit the wrong notes in a quick succession, she cleared her throat lightly and pointed to his hands.

"You're letting your fingers slide across the keys," she commented quietly, "That's why it's off."

Her fingers danced across the keys quickly, playing the line that Blood Boy seemed to keep messing up on.

"See?"

It was frustrating.

The piece that is and has he was about to give up and rise from his chair, he felt someone's presence from behind his form and before he had enough time to turn around he once again was greeted with the hands of Lauren Van Asche, it was funny how he never managed to ever start a conversation with her by looking at her face. Perhaps it was just a small bond that neither of them wanted to cross, she didn't look at his face and he didn't do the same to her, it was an act of respect on both their parts. Though has he noticed her soft fingers dance across the keyboard, he looked up at her and despite not being able to have his smile be seen, smiled quite largely.

"You've always been good at this Lauren," he said politely, his voice carrying some unsureness in it, but trying it's best to be confident, even though it was painfully obvious that the entire thing was a facade. He laughed a little bit to himself, it was ironic the ways that he kept meeting Lauren: he was either getting his ass kicked or destroying the ear drums of his music classmates, despite this she put him at ease. The whole thing just screamed cliché to him-the outcast falling for the beautiful yet artsy girl- but he noted that it wasn't going to go anywhere.

Hell, she didn't even know his name. In fact he barely knew his own name.

Following her instruction he managed to play the first few measures of the piece correctly before finding himself unable to read the notes, instead of wasting both his own and Lauren's time he opted to rise up from his chair hesitantly, unaware that has he picked up the sheet music his hands shook a bit as he daintily picked up the sheet music, he nodded to her.

"Thank you, and here is your piano back...I'm sure Mrs.Lindbloom and the rest of the students want you to get me off" , if he hadn't been wearing the mask Lauren would've seen his eyes widen as he corrected himself in less then a second, "I meant off the piano!"

He somehow wondered how he didn't make a fool of himself each and everyday.

It didn't really take much instruction on her part for Blood Boy to play the correct notes in succession. Maybe he just needed a boost of confidence from someone else to play the piece correctly. Mrs. Lindbloom wasn't doing him any favors, that was for sure. She was far too wrapped up in her arts magazine to pay attention to anyone in the class at the moment.

In addition, many of the other students seemed to be doing their best to ignore the skeletal figure sitting at the piano. Not that it was different from any other day. Whenever someone heard the name "Blood Boy", they tended to look the other way. She found it somewhat sad how her fellow classmate, despite never having done anything to harm anybody -- until yesterday, anyway -- had somehow managed to have so much infamy associated with his name. No, his nickname. Lauren didn't know what his real name was, and neither did anyone else in their grade, at least, that she was aware of. In fact, the only person to have seen Blood Boy's face out of the entirety of their class was Michael and perhaps Adwin.

She took his compliment on her piano playing with a small nod, and read the sheet music over his shoulder as he continued to play, keeping the beat with her foot. He made it through the first few measures okay, then began making small mistakes here and there before finally succumbing to frustration and rising from the piano bench.

He picked up his sheet music and edged away from the piano, thanking her for the impromptu piano lesson and stating that Mrs. Lindbloom and the remainder of the class would probably be glad to have her back on the bench instead of him... at least, that was what he meant, but his phrasing of the sentence came out awkward, at best. Had the students sitting twenty feet away been able to understand what he said through the mask, they probably would've busted up laughing, but because of the piece of plastic concealing his face, the words were muffled and hard to understand. Still, his embarrassment from his words was enough for Lauren to crack a small smile.

"So..." she stated quietly as she slid into her seat along the piano bench, "The principal called me in the office about yesterday... apparently they saw the fight on the school's security cameras. The whole thing just seems like a silly mess. Shouldn't have ever happened..."

Maybe bringing up the fight with Michael so soon after it happened hadn't been the best of ideas, but the truth was, Lauren didn't know what else to say to the student. The only things she really knew about him were vicious rumors that she'd been told by other people, and to her, the masked boy just seemed misunderstood. He seemed nice enough, and really, people just seemed to give him a hard time because of that mask. That was a stupid reason to judge other people. She frowned lightly as she thought about the more judgmental students around Southridge. A certain name fell in line along with the rest of them... the same person who had probably started the fight yesterday to begin with. She didn't understand why trouble seemed to follow Michael. And now, to add insult to injury, everyone was blaming Blood Boy for the fight, whether it had been his fault or not. She didn't really find it all fair.

"Yeah, well...it's probably my fault to begin with," he paused a little bit, "You know what they say, when people start picking on you, you should go tell an adult or something, but I don't know...when Michael grabbed my mask and lifted it over my head, I just got so angry...", his voice was softer as if he was trying to recollect the moment, though what got across was him pondering about his actions again, "So, when it came down to it I decided I wasn't going to let him pick on me and I bit him.", he shook his head a bit, "I think Michael just wanted to get some kicks out of the whole situation, but who knows, he seemed like a malicious prick at the time..."

He had to admit that even he was confused as to exactly what had happened the previous day, though if he had to pick between letting it go on and getting in trouble he'd pick getting in trouble. Things where simpler that way and has he figured that people just needed someone to blame for a lot of things, in that way the whole mythological presence that was his existence served at least some sort of purpose.

"But, yeah the whole thing is just a complete mess.", he then decided to quickly change the subject, "What song are you going to play? I really like it when you play -I don't even care what-, I swear that I wouldn't've made it through art my junior year if it wasn't for the music you play, I don't think a lot of people really notice...but, well I've always been appreciative of your music."

It was stated matter-of-factly as if it didn't really have a need to be said, but it felt good to get something like that off his chest, well conversation by itself was a very pleasant change of pace as he moved to the side a bit and found himself leaning against the non-lifted side of the piano.

Lauren was caught a bit offguard as Blood Boy declared himself responsible for the fight yesterday in the hallway. She could hear Michael's tale mirrored in what Blood Boy was saying, especially during his comment about how he got angry when he saw Michael holding his mask... only, Blood Boy's story was just a little bit different from Michael's variation, and even though he was trying to take the blame on himself, he was definitely depicting Michael as the villain of the story. She nodded softly as he concluded his sentence, still trying to blame himself for everything that had happened yesterday. In a way, she wanted to console her fellow student and tell him that it couldn't have been all his fault, but the truth was, she didn't know whose fault it was, what had really happened, or what to think about the entire scenario.

"He can be a jerk sometimes..." she mused offhandedly, a feigned smile tracing her features.

"Jerk" wasn't even the way to describe how he could be sometimes. She'd seen it with her own two eyes on more than one occassion. They had had a rollercoaster of a relationship even when they were together. It had a lot of ups and downs, and sometimes things were great, while other times, they were awful. Sometimes, he'd seemed like Prince Charming, and others, he'd been the ogre. She wasn't perfect either though. She'd probably done some things to hurt things further. He had been somewhat controlling in terms of their relationships, and he expected to get his way all the time. When it came to the major issues -- especially the one about sex -- he would get mad when Lauren wouldn't give in, and it generally lead to an argument and a huge fight.

"He's not always like that, though," she spoke up again, more trying to convince herself of that than her counterpart.

Blood Boy quickly changed the subject, as she assumed he would, and she couldn't help but feel some sense of relief at the fact. The more she discussed the events of yesterday, the more confused she became, and the more she sat here and actually talked to her fellow classmate, the more unsure she became of who to believe regarding the matter. He inquired as to what she was going to play on the piano, and she simply shrugged her shoulders. She'd been so involved in her own thoughts since yesterday that the last thing in the world she'd thought about was playing music. Maybe it was a good idea though. It had always been somewhat of a release for her, and she needed something to lighten both her own mood and her classmate's, as well as probably the remainder of the class.

She smiled lightly as Blood Boy complimented her piano playing. She didn't hear it very often. Among the few that had ever commented on it were fellow piano players, Mrs. Lindbloom, her now ex-boyfriend, and now, Blood Boy, so it was nice to hear the words come from someone else. The admiration in Blood Boy's voice as he stated how he'd have never made it through his junior year without her piano playing made her feel good, for just a moment. She nodded lightly in thanks before striking up a rendition of Falling Waters.

The music reached his ears and for a moment Blood Boy was in complete peace as visions of him holding the girl that was playing the music's hand and dancing around the room, both of them having a faint glow to them due to the fluorescent lighting, in all his time at high school he had never been as comfortable as he had been at that moment where Lauren was playing music simply for him. Although more than likely she was simply playing it to gain a sense of peace for herself. That though didn't matter as Blood Boy found himself following along lightly keeping a beat as he stood behind Lauren.

He resisted the urge to put his hands on her shoulders. He resisted the urge to take off his mask, lean over her shoulders and kiss her on the cheek. What he could not resist was the urge to ignore the loud speakers.

"Mrs. Lindbloom, could you please send...", the office aide sounded hesitant to say the name of the student listed on the paper and this second of pause obviously annoyed the now interrupted Mrs. Lindbloom.

"Who?"

The office aide's sigh could be heard through crackling through the loudspeakers, as the office aide began speaking once again.

"Could you please send Blood Boy to the principle's office.", the hesitation -along with the professionalism- was gone in an instant and after Mrs. Lindbloom thanked the office aide, she simply lifted her head up to the door, a signal for Blood Boy to make his departure. Blood Boy nodded solemnly as he predicted exactly where this whole thing was going and looked at Lauren a bit.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow", he tried to smile as he slung his book-bag over his back and walked towards the door and ultimately towards the principle's office. He made his lips into an o shape and blew out, changing the power of his breath and the shape of the o has he continued his way onwards. It was a weak sounding melody, but in the utter silence of the room people could make it out perfectly: falling waters. For a moment people considered whether or not they had mistreated the boy, the considered if the should continue being friendly to the kid.

Then he closed the door. The music stopped. And Blood Boy left the general populaces mind once more.

((Continued in Discipline))