Survival Of The Fittest

[Kristian Sorenson - Continued from Passing Slowly Through the Vector]

Kristian walked out of science to the hallway, swinging his head around to try and seek out Riley. It wasn't that difficult; her hair was a pretty dead giveaway. There was maybe a small handful of other people in the same hall at any given time with scene-hair like that. Imagine how easy the Where's Waldo? books would have been if everyone else either was wearing a blue shirt or was Odlaw. After a few minutes of searching, he spotted her and started making his way down the hall. He waved and smiled to a couple people he recognized as he pushed them aside, but he didn't make note of whether they greeted him back or not.

"Yo, Riles!" he called as he got closer to her. He waved one hand in the air and cupped the other around his mouth. He had some Japanese song stuck in his head now. It was the theme song to some anime show or whatever - he wouldn't know. He didn't watch those types of shows; he just knew all the theme songs. He always got some sort of anime song stuck in his head with Riley. He didn't even know if she liked anime, but it wouldn't surprise him if she did. She was always into all that kind of stuff.

Bomb A Head! Bomb A Head! tomerare naisa atsuitamashii!

He had no clue what the fuck that meant, but it was catchy.

[Passing Slowly Through the Vector ==> Riley Moon]

In her customary hurried shuffle, Riley made her way out of the physics room. It was a weird sort of motion, the kind where she certainly wants to be out of where she previously was, but doesn't really want to get to where she's going, simultaneously hurrying away from one place but dragging her feet to keep from reaching her destination. Or at least, when she occasionally dwelt on odd things like her gait on trips between classes, that's how Riley rationalised it, not that it even made that much sense to her, it just seemed like the only reasonable explanation for subconsciously picking such an odd way to walk.

What did she even have next to be reticent about getting to, anyway? Urk, couldn't even remember her own class schedule, and she'd been back in classes for how many weeks now? Then again, that could pretty easily be explained by the same reasoning, she doesn't know what her classes are because she doesn't want to know. Then again, if it were literature or one of the arts she took, she probably wouldn't really mind being there.

"Yo, Riles!"

Who where!? Oh, Kristian. Still hot a what baabhabhiat as always. Heheh, that stupid comic. But still, damn, how'd she ever manage to let him go so easily? Oh yeah, because of reasons. By which she meant I have no damn idea, we just didn't feel it any more. Oh well, past's the past, and at least she kept the awesome bromance part of the deal. If girls can even have bromances, Riley was never really all that clear on that one, the internet tended to agree that girls could indeed have bro-status if they were particularly bro-like, but bromance was a touchy area, and it just wouldn't do to mess with something potentially sacred. Good friends, then, Riley got to keep a really awesome friend.

"Kristian!" she exclaimed, meandering past a few bystanders to grab her friend in a jocular embrace. A couple of seconds of hug, a pat on the back for good measure, then release before it gets a little awkward. "How's things?" she asked, gesturing towards the way she'd been going to suggest they walk together.

Riley heard Kristian as he called out to her, and turned around to see him. "Kristian!" she called out, running up to him against the grain of the other students walking to class. Kristian imagined that every time he walked against the grain in the hallways, it caused some sort of natural disaster in Russia. Like the butterfly flapping its wings and causing a tornado in Japan, or Ashton Kutcher time-traveling to save his girlfriend and ending up without arms or legs in the present. There wasn't any time to think about that today though because whoa, okay, suddenly being hugged.

He should have come to expect this from Riley by now, but it still somehow caught him off-guard. "Alright, alright, hug her back. Couple seconds. She patted you on the back. That's a good sign, right? Wait, good sign of what? Oh shit, she's releasing the hug. She's going to see your face. Straighten up so she doesn't realize how bent out-of-shape you are." He looked at her and smiled as naturally as he could manage, and she motioned in the direction she had been heading. "How's things?" she asked.

Every six seconds my body star- Goddammit, O-Town! Why must you be so catchy!?

He shook the song out of his head as best he could. "Things is good," he said. He stepped forward to join her in walking to her destination. As they joined the flow of traffic once again, he could feel in the air that an earthquake somewhere in Russia had ceased and Ashton Kutcher scared his girlfriend into ever speaking to him. Everything was stable again.

So things were apparently good. Standard response, Riley paid it almost no attention at all. After all, the greeting "How's things?" isn't really anything other than that, a greeting, a rhetorical question that needs no answer, unless things are remarkably good and then by all means regale the asker with the good news, or remarkably bad and you're close enough to the asker to regale them with the bad news, then by all means do that. Well, maybe once somewhere more private than a crowded hallway full of people trying to get away from all the science. Heh, away from the science, like as if Tony Stark and Bruce Banner had gotten together and SCIENCE!! had happened and now everybody needed to run the hell away before the school exploded.

The girl chuckled, outwardly it was entirely out of the blue. Given that Kristian hadn't said anything, a few odd looks were shot her way courtesy of the closer members of the crowd. Speaking of odd looks, Kristian himself did look a bit odd, but then again, he did seem to look kind of distracted most of the time these days, at least at the times that Riley saw him. That not quite "faraway" but certainly not "here" either look, like he was concentrating on something much more important than the trivial matters at hand, like walking to class or making superficial small-talk with a friend. In all honesty, it was part of what had attracted Riley to him in the first place, she was embarrassed to admit it to herself but he'd looked so deep and brooding the first time she'd seen that look in his face, before it became obvious that he was usually just thinking about something random that had come to mind, much like she herself had been known to. These days of course, Riley didn't find it any more or less handsome than his usual look, which is to say, she still thought of him as rather attractive, just more in a bro-ish "I can admit he's a good-looking guy" way than a fangirl staring at Sherlock "hnnnngh do want" sort.

By that point, they'd both taken on that absent look, and looked quite the gormless pair, meandering along the corridor not really taking in anything more than what was necessary to navigate their way out. Eventually the green-haired one broke through the fugue, wondering aloud "So what do you have next again? I mean I can't even remember my own timetable at the best of times."

Kristian walked down the hall with Riley for a little bit. Whenever he molded into the habit of his activities and had time to let his mind wander, he often pondered the heavier things in life. He asked the questions that society was too afraid to ask themselves. "Why has 'I Want You to Want Me' been playing so much less on the radio lately?" he would whisper into the wind, the cold breeze kissing his lips, "Is it weird that whenever I'm playing a Sonic game, I always just end up thinking about the fact that Knuckles poops and pees out of the same hole? 'Cause, like, echidnas totally do that. It's weird. Nature's so weird."

Just as he approached an epiphany on the subject of monotreme biology, Riley reminded him that he was having a conversation. "So what do you have next again?" she asked, "I mean I can't even remember my own timetable at the best of times."

He smiled, "Calc." It was his favorite class. He then stopped suddenly for a split second, his thoughts from before he left science class catching up to him. "Oh, wait!" he said excitedly, "I totally forgot! I'm going to be making an announcement at the station tonight!" He ran forward a little, practically skipping, and turned around to face Riley again, grabbing her shoulders and smiling from ear to ear. "It's gonna be awesome! You should tune in! Be my own little crazy fanbase or whatever."

"Calc." -ulus, it took Riley a couple of seconds to remember that one. Never was quite sure why it was called calculus, wasn't all mathematics about calculating stuff? There was probably a reason, she just didn't care enough to find out, and thus every so often would stop and wonder about it for a little while. It was accompanied by a smile, which was odd, but then Riley remembered again, Kristian was one of those oddballs that actually liked maths. Perhaps somehow, some day, she might know why a particular subset of it was called calculus, but the girl's pretty sure she'll never even begin to understand how anybody could enjoy numeracy. Far too dull for her taste. The only numbers she's ever really held an interest in have been her characters' stats, and then they always fell secondary to how cool they could look.

Before Riley could make a snide comment about how boring Kristian's favourite subjects were, however, he stopped as if something of great importance had dawned on him, going utterly blank for a fraction of a second before his face lit up with excitement. Something of great fun-portance then. No that's a terrible portmanteau stop.

"Oh, wait! I totally forgot! I'm going to be making an announcement at the station tonight!"

If she had the muscle control to do so, she would've cocked an intrigued eyebrow at the simultaneously vague and compelling statement, but unfortunately for her, she'd never managed to get one eyebrow to go up without the other one joining it. Regardless, Kristian had managed to tell her exactly what he was going to do in a specific sense, and yet nothing at all about it in terms of detail. Maybe it was a surprise? Probably a surprise.

"It's gonna be awesome! You should tune in! Be my own little crazy fanbase or whatever."

Crazy little fanbase? Fun choice of words there, almost as if he were intimately aware of her tendency to get a little too passionate about the things she enjoy, which, oh wait, he very much was. Note to self, check if he's still following my blog. Could be embarrassing. Outwardly of course, Riley just grinned, adding "Do ho ho, you know me too well. But yeah I'll be there, well, in audio and in spirit, at least." And a cheesy thumbs-up.

"Do ho ho, you know me too well," Riley said, grinning, "But yeah I'll be there, well, in audio and in spirit, at least." She gave Kristian a thumbs-up, which sort of reminded him of those commercials for that online survey thing. He would've chuckled a little at her expense, but his dad told him that he did the exact same cheesy thumbs-up all the time, and he wasn't in the mood for calling the kettle black or any other such color. Besides, this was great news. Riley was going to hear his broadcast. He officially had a fan.

He smiled himself. "Sweet!" he said delightedly, "You remember the station, right? 102.5? Just switch to that a little bit before 7:15. That's when I'm scheduled to make my announcement. It's just for a radio contest or whatever, but it's gonna be cool." It was at this moment that he realized his hands were still on Riley's shoulders and that might be kind of awkward I guess maybe dammit I'd better stop doing that now okay I've stopped okay alright fine.

He stood looking at her for a second and smiling before speaking again. "So," he said, looking down the hall, "Where is your next class anyway? Or, like, what is it, I guess?"

((Timothy Abrams Continued from Passing Slowly Through the Vector))

Timothy exited Mr. Davidge's classroom, shuffling his feet as he walked. He had a free period next, which would be an ideal time to get caught up on his physics homework - especially important, since he hadn't done any for the past couple of days. However, Timothy's thoughts were elsewhere. Not just anywhere, but on a person who just happened to be in his class. Someone named Riley Moon.

I wonder what she's doing right now-what kind of things does she like to do?-her hair's pretty cool... These thoughts came to an abrupt halt as Timothy felt a brief flash of embarrassment at the obsessive nature of his thoughts. Once more, he was glad that nobody around him could read minds. However, his thoughts soon drifted back towards Riley.

I wonder if she's still at the classroom. Maybe I might be able to talk to her... With that in mind, he turned around and headed back towards the Physics classroom.

As he turned the corner, he felt a brief flash of happiness as he saw Riley standing outside the classroom, which quickly faded when he noticed who she was talking to. The hallway seemed to swim for a moment as Timothy's heart pounded in his chest. Each of their smiles and laughs quickened his already racing pulse.

Who's that guy?

He eyed Kristian nervously as he stood for a few moments, paralysed. Without thinking, he quickly strode up to them and offered his hand for Kristian to shake.

"Hi, how are you doing? My name's Timothy."

[Oh yeah, guess who still exists. If you guessed someone other than me you're probably right anyway but the answer was me, I am still a person that exists.]

"Sweet! You remember the station, right?"

Oh how could she forget? It wasn't like Kristian was fond of mentioning his radio career all the time or anything. Riley rolled her eyes as the boy reminded her of the frequency, the sarcasm within her internal monologue so very strong that she was almost certain Kristian could somehow hear it by way of seeing her expression.

Well maybe he would if he wasn't so wrapped up in how excited he was to have an official fan. In fact it was kind of adorable to Riley, he was like a kid in a body several sizes too big, so damn happy with the news that he's going to Disney World or something. She didn't really notice the awkward undertones to the way her ex was holding her ever-so-slightly-too-close until he let go, and by then it was, well, it was over and a bit too late to really mention it without admitting that there had been anything there. Staying friends with sexy exes, why oh why...

And so then there was that awkward pause where the pair just sort of looked at each other, expecting the other to have something ice-re-breaking to say, or at least Riley was expecting that, until eventually Kristian took the initiative and threw in a nice casual question, what class did Riley have next? Very well played, topical and hinting at the need for them both to go elsewhere, if that had been his intention, at least.

"Oh yeah, shit, I gotta get downstairs for English, I'mma jet!"

"Hi, how are you doing? My name's Timothy."

Or not. Mysteriously slighty-aggressive-introduction all of a sudden, made it feel sort of weird to just walk away. Wait a tick, was that... Timothy?

"From that Karen chick's game thing?"

Timothy stood there for a moment, staring like a deer caught in headlights. His ears burned. He had no idea what to say, and things were getting more awkward by the minute. He tried desperately to think of some way to extricate himself from this conversation, but nothing came to mind.

Fortunately for him, he didn't have to think for very long. The ringing of the bell for the next class startled him out of his ponderings, and he ran off down the hall. He quickly waved to the two behind him as he tried to focus on getting to his next class as quickly as possible.

((Timothy Abrams continued on the V5 Island))