Survival Of The Fittest

The bells of school were a welcome comfort to Oscar Trig. First of all, it meant that it was the end of school, which meant it was time to relax. Second of all he could get out of the stuffy classroom and wouldn't have to listen to Mr.Shigen ramble on and on about The Tempest, which meant it was time to relax. Finally, it would allow him to stop his right leg from bouncing up and down like a jackrabbit.

He really needed a cigarette.

He let out a low sigh as he guided the door open, cringing at the loud clanging sound that it made against the little metal doorstop. Oscar always forgot about that little knob, and how annoyingly loud the sound of metal on metal was. Though whether it was loud because he wanted that smoke so badly or that it was just loud on principle, was a mystery to him.

Blinking for a moment, Oscar got adjusted to the bright afternoon sun shining at him and pulled his baseball cap as low as it would go without forcing him to stare at the concrete of the parking lot. Smoking was explicitly forbidden in the confines of the parking lot itself as evident by the three or four signs that loomed around its edges. But he, like many other students(not to mention the odd staff member) had little problem once you got to the sidewalk. The agreed upon line seemed to be a pleasantly tacky chain link fence that divided the school from Seattle proper.

It wasn't exactly the most glamourous place, just an old chipped sidewalk with a small patch of green grass and the busy street separating it. But when it came to smoking, Oscar wasn't picky.

Oscar tossed his backpack against the fence. It bent back for a moment against the sudden weight of hidden textbooks, before pushing the bag into the grassy patch below. He reached inside his front pocket, fumbling around for a moment as his hands brushed against lint and spare change before he grasped hold of his lighter. Oscar was practical,  a blue tube with a simple shroud to cover it. His feeling being that you didn't need any fancy Zippo lighter with decals, Chrome finish, name engraving, you were just using it to have a smoke after all, lighters didn't have to cost 20 bucks, unless they came in bulk.

He then dug into his other pocket and drew out a thin package of Newports. Flicking open the package he saw that he had only a handful left.

"Well, shit."

Oscar probably had enough cash for another package, but he had hoped that this pack would last him out till the weekend. He took a mental note that he'd stop by the Quik Stop on his way home and get himself one so he had his reserves stocked up. Maybe it was a better idea to buy those in bulk instead.

He shrugged, before taking a quick glance behind him to see if anybody would be joining him for a smoke. Alas, it looked like there was nobody immediately coming out to take part. Sighing, Oscar placed the thin tube to his lips and let it hang out, it looked like he was going to be going solo this time.

Elias Vandirer pushed his way through the school's unforgiving metal doors and into the parking lot.  Elias awoke with a screaming headache, and only barely managed to get to his first period class on time. It didn't stop staff members harassing him in the hallways to the point where he was far more late than he would've been. A semi-coherent, tedious English class was the very last thing he desired to top off his less than enjoyable day. Normally Elias had a high degree of tolerance for undergarment-starching bureaucrats, but Mr. Shigen's presence in particular was beginning to grind upon Elias' nerves. The man docked him marks on an essay for using eleven-point Estrangelo Edessa as opposed to twelve-point Garamond as a font. Awkward grammar was one thing given that the english language wasn't exactly his forte, but being that stuffy about font?  It was a good thing no one around him spoke German, lest they understand the kind of things Elias cursed under his breath.

As much as the fresh air helped relieve him of the stagnant air of the school, he wanted a cigarette.

The cold air tossed Elias' hair in front of his eyes. It was bright out, but still too cold to really have any great desire to be outside. He was used to harsh weather, but by no means did he enjoy it. Elias pulled  his gloves, a pack of Belmonts, and his Zippo from inside of his coat before quickly zipping it up. It was a new pack, and Elias wasted no time putting a cigarette to his lips. Before he opened the lighter, he looked back at the school. When he'd started smoking back home, not many people really cared how old you were or where it was you smoked. Here it was a bit different. Elias still forgot that people actually enforced anti-smoking laws in North America.

A piss-poor healthcare system, terrible food, and one of the poorest environmental track-records the world over... but whatever you do, don't smoke! Especially not in front of all of those innocent high school students, who of course would never otherwise put themselves in harm's way at all! No, of course not!

"Americans..."

Obliging the many signs indicating that there was to be no smoking anywhere near the school, Elias skulked past the chain-link fence to the sidewalk. There weren't any signs designating it as a smoking area, but this was basically it. There was another student there. Oscar Trig. Elias sat a few rows behind him in English. As he looked out at the street, Elias subconsciously kept distance from him. He was trying to avoid making it so very obvious he was avoiding human contact. For whatever reason, that just drove people to want to talk to him even more. No, he didn't need to be told he looked interesting. No, he didn't need someone to talk to. Elias found himself at odds with others on a good day, and this REALLY wasn't one of those.

There was that tell-tale metallic click of his lighter flicking open, and Elias pushed down on the flint. Only a few meager sparks. With his hand cupped around the lighter, he pushed down again. Not even a tiny little blue flame. No fuel. Elias had bought a zippo because he always lost the cheap, plastic lighters or somehow broke them. Zippo lighters were durable, and it was too heavy for him to forget about in a pocket. The downside was that they didn't exactly last all that long.

Elias sighed and thrust the zippo back into his pocket. About two meters to his left, Oscar stood on the sidewalk. As much as he really just wanted to not deal with anyone, he wanted a cigarette more. By no means was he a heavy smoker, but it certainly helped alleviate pent-up frustration with anal-retentive teachers and high school students who didn't even seem to register as functional human beings to him, given their penchant for being mind-numbingly stupid.

He shook his head and brushed a few strands of hair out of his eyes, and then looked over at the other student. This actually would count as probably the first time he'd actually spoken to anyone other than Mr. Shigen all day. Elias slowly turned to face him, hesitating to speak at first.

"Do you have a light?"

Elias stared at Oscar, but the other boy didn't seem to notice him. Perhaps he'd been too quiet.

No matter. It was starting to rain, anyways. He might as well pick up a box of matches from a convenience store on the way home. He seemed to snarl under his breath, and then turned to walk away.

((Elias Vandrier continued elsewhere.))