Survival Of The Fittest

((Alessio Rigano, Start))

Al was dreaming.

He dreamed about going home and to play some game. He needed to finish Rebirth badly anyways. He hasn't unlocked everything yet.

But before school could end, this lunch period must end. And then he had to go to class. After that he was free.

Alessio sat on a chair and had his green lunchbox on the table. There wasn't anything in the lunchbox anymore, though, as he just finished eating his cheese sandwich. His mother made this sandwich for him and man, he loved cheese. Bringing food from home definitely was more worth it than going to the cafeteria. It was cheaper, quicker and more delicious.

If Al had to spend money for food or coffee, he'd go to Vacanti's or at least Diamondback. But he'd just do that after school, cause lunch time usually was not enough time.

He looked around and had no idea what to do now. He stared at the clock and realised that he actually had enough time, way too much time.

Then he pulled out his 3x3 rubik's cube from his school bag, while putting his lunchbox back in. After shuffling it, he tried to solve it with one hand. Well, he was certainly not as fast as Zemdegs or Cantin, but he certainly improved since he began practising with one hand.

He began to silently hum "7 e 40" and stared at the cube which slowly began to be solved.

((Ty Yazzie, Deployed.))

Bee hadn't been free for lunch today. Truth be told, he couldn't catch sight of her. He made a mental note to check in if he didn't see her sometime between classes and make sure she was alright, just in case there'd been a flare up. Until then, he figured it was best to wolf down the pinto bean, brown rice, pico and lettuce bowl he'd whipped up that morning and take a spin down to the library.

He kinda loved this place. It was quiet, and the wide array of windows made it feel bright and inviting on days like this. Big, enclosed indoor spaces usually weren't his thing, but there was something natural and comforting about the environment of the library. The spacious shelves loaded with dusty old books probably helped some, didn't seem as grim and foreboding as all the fancy libraries you see in movies and shit. He remembered one from when he was real little, Pagemaster, that always drove Atsa wild, especially when the whole library went to Hell and started chasing that poor scrawny bastard from...

Fuck, what was it called? Where the kid gets left behind, and there's that shit with the doggy door and the BB gun...

That was gonna bother him all day. Maybe he could pick at Clarice later and she'd refresh his memory. She had a head for that kinda thing, while he mostly just watched whatever Atsa picked up on. For the moment, he decided to clear his head with some light reading.

The library didn't have much in the way of literature on Taoism, but he'd been able to find one or two books with some references to its history and general synopsis. Not exactly depth reading, but fine for his itch. He was starting from square one on the whole thing, but he'd read something on the net a few nights back that made him curious to give it a spin. Something about connections between Taoism and anarchist social structure that seemed like it might be interesting to dig in to. Besides, it'd been awhile since he'd picked up anything new in the vein of spirituality, so it could be a fun distraction to occupy his thoughts until he heard from Bee, or had to head back to class.

Near the shelves that Ty wandered out of was a small row of desks, empty save for a squat guy hunched over the remains of lunch and one of those puzzle cubes. Al, if he was remembering his name right. Didn't know the guy real well, but he seemed deep in thought over his toy, so he gave him a wide berth. There was a nice little spot at the edge of the next table down for him to wipe the rest of the dust off and get to work.

Aaand finished. The cube was solved, the problem was solved.

Alessio looked up and saw a guy. Huh, when did he come here? Al had not noticed him.

That guy was the some kind of scarier looking Mr. T in his school. Is that what his haircut can be called? Mr. T cut? His name was something with T, as well.

He wasn't in his grade, though. But he definitely had a noticable appearance, Al thought. He noticed him since joining Cochise, at least. Well, avoiding him seemed like the best idea to Freshman Al. And Sophomore Al. And Junior Al. And other students did that as well, so he assumed that it might have not been the worst life choice.

Taking a closer look at the face, there was much metal in his face. Everywhere. Eyebrows, nose, ears and...underneath his mouth? That must've hurt. Alessio couldn't understand why anyone would do piercings anyways. He could understand why people had tattoos on their skin, they looked awesome, but piercings? They must be bothersome and might lead to nasty infections.

While continuing to stare at the piercings, he shuffled the cube again, into randomness, this time with both hands.

Al was staring. He wasn't being real subtle about it either. The whistling had stopped, and while he was still messing with the cube, his eyes were locked on Ty's face. On a running guess, he was staring at his piercings.

He'd grown used to the stares over the months he'd had all his work done. Looking unusual was kinda the whole fuckin' point, so it'd be weird to get tense over it. Something in him still twitched every time he felt eyes for too long, but he'd been working on that. He'd been working on a lot. He could handle this kind of thing.

Ty leaned back from his book and rested his back against the chair, turning his head in Al's direction. "Somethin' on your mind, bud," he asked with a slight smile and a cocked eyebrow. He didn't want to antagonize the kid, but he'd kicked down the door with those eyes of his. If he didn't want to engage, he'd go back to his puzzle, or bail, or any of number of things that'd let Ty dive back in to the text without being a sideshow, and if he did, well, a little conversation couldn't hurt for killing time, now could it?

Oh god, he noticed him. And asked him a question.

"Uhm, uh, ye-, n-, uh. No."

Mumbling. Alessio shook his head in case Ty did not hear his reply. He then quickly looked at the cube again. While facing the cube, he tried to smile.

"Uh, neat piercings."

It was a lie, but a compliment. Ty probably was not so amused at staring at him. So better not piss him off with doing something wrong. Example given, saying nothing or saying something insulting or so.

Al was no person who minded to be around with other people, no matter who they are. Well kinda, cause the big Ty was kind of intimidating.

Or was that smile on his face friendly?

Alessio did not look at Ty's face again, however, observing the cube instead. Figuring out, which moves to make there.

[Fiyori Senay, continued from Don't Call It a Comeback]

So they did not notice her, huh?

Fiyori was totally reading a book about history or something (it was actually a burrito) as she noticed Ty entering the library. She was sitting on one of the various chairs placed near the shelves, and her eyes followed Ty around the library's rows. It was a pretty easy thing to do, given how many of the shelves were under-equipped, allowing Fiyori to look through the spaces of air that seemingly made up the majority of the sections.

He picked up a book, moving towards the center tables. Fiyori stuffed another bite of her lunch into her mouth and with that the burrito was history. Well, now that food time was over she guessed she could try and find some entertainment. Maybe he wasn't in the mood for talking, but Fiyori figured she could sit next to him or something. Learn together like proper students and all.

Yeah, needless to say Fiyori wasn't really the library type. Nothing against books, but Fiyori didn't come for them. The large windows were nice, with all the light they brought in. It was a pretty nice atmosphere, so she enjoyed eating her lunch there. If she wanted to read a book, you know, she went to somewhere which actually could deliver something that didn't reek of decade's worth of student's tears.

It turned out that there was already another boy sitting near Ty. Some guy called... Guy for now. He was apparently deep in thoughts, or maybe concerned with something in his hands. Fiyori couldn't see from behind, but she did see Ty, whom she greeted with a finger on her lips - a sign to keep quiet.

Eventually, she was directly behind Guy's back. She lowered herself so that her head was directly behind his ears.

"Hi."

Good talk. Lots of  camaraderie going on here. I'm really feelin' the love.

Ty chuckled to himself a bit as Al looked away. He was pretty rattled for a wannabe puzzle master, but maybe that was just his perspective. He might feel kinda guilty about how jittery the guy was if they had some kinda history, but he didn't remember sticking it to him at any point. Al seemed way too quiet to be the kinda guy he would have gotten in a shouting match with way back when.

He was about to turn back to his book when Fiyori caught his eye. She had slunk out from god knows where, and seemed fixed on catching Al by surprise. He hid his grin behind his hand and tried not to stare as he gave her a short nod. In the back of his head, he figured this was probably the sort of thing he couldn't be encouraging, but he couldn't help himself. It was gonna be too damn funny if it worked out.

Ty pretended to pour back into the text while keeping the corner of his vision locked on Al's shoulder, waiting for his reaction.

Whoa! Where did she come from?

Alessio did not expect that. He cringed a little, then turned his head around to see who had surprised him. He still held his cube in the hand, having not dropped it.

Fiyori? That was her name. She was also somebody Al could recognise in the school. She wasn't someone to sink in the mass of the pool of students of Cochise. Not to him, at least. The cyan glasses were certainly notable. Who else had them?

Did his hair touch her, while turning around?

"Sorry!"

Just in case.

"Sorry?"

The guy cringed a bit, and hastily turned his head to meet Fiyori eye-to-eye. Now, she kinda expected a blood-curling scream as well as a small toy cat in her face, but she guessed the guy was a bit too old to be scared. Maybe?

Fiyori returned the gaze, just one inch separating the two people's pairs of eyes. She continued for a few seconds, studying the guy's brown eyes and trying to understand why the fuck he said sorry. It was such a dumb habit of some people around those parts. She did something polite society frowned upon, and all they do was saying sorry. Jeez, it was such a dumb thing and it irritated Fiyori.  

"Don't say sorry if you don't have to."

She broke eye contact, tilted her head slightly to the side so that she could look at Ty. Her semi-frustrated expression changed into a small smile as she stood up and jumped on the table. There was a bit of burrito still left on her right hand - how bothersome - which she quickly tried to get rid off by smearing it on the edge of the table before eventually jumping off, but on the other side.

"Sup?" she said to Ty, sitting down next to him on a chair.

Ty watched Fiyori's head-games with amusement. They were mostly harmless, and Al didn't seem too shook up. He couldn't tell if the guy hadn't been around her enough to figure out the score, or if he was just so used to her at this point that stunned apologies were all she could get out of him. He was a tough little guy to read.

He turned his head as Fiyori made her crash landing behind him, casually nesting into the chair beside him. "Y'know," he chuckled, "one of these days you're just gonna...I dunno, walk through a door and wave, like normal folks. Probably give me a heart attack while you're at it." He gave a nod down to the book in front of him. "Just killin' time. You?"

Al seemed to be fussing with his puzzle again, out of the corner of his eye. Between the two of them, the guy seemed pretty off his game. Maybe he wasn't much of a people person.

Fiyori told him that he shouldn't apologise. Alessio guessed that nothing happened with his hair. That was good.

"I said sorry cause, uhm,"

Fiyori walked away.

"uhm, nothing."

Whatever, explaining his thoughts would just make everything even more complicated.

He looked toward Fiyori and Ty. Well, they were friendly towards each other. Of course they were, they were at the same grade. Something was said, he didn't listen that properly.

He shouldn't stare too much. Looking down at the multi-coloured cube, he was thinking. A quick look at the clock, then looking at the cube again.

Which moves did he have to do again? He forgot. So he kept observing the cube, till he could try to solve it again.

There we go.

Now, giving Ty a heart attack wasn't exactly what Fiyori wanted. More incentive to not act like those mysterious normal folks people talk about all the time, huh? She gave him a smile instead. One that Fiyori would call genuine even. That was one of the many things she liked about Ty. She knew; she was not the average high school student or something. Her parents told her. So did her teachers, and so did probably every second person she met. Ty, however, when faced with all the thousands of little oddity's of Fiyori, he handled them with an incredible ease. Few did as good as he did.

"Excuse me though, I just waved politely at a cat earlier this morning. Counts as an adult point."

She looked over to the book he was holding. Ah, religion. History. Something like that. Seemed to be something East Asian based on the cover? Well, she'd figure it out. Maybe. If she grew curious.

"Actually the same with me. Ate lunch, now gotta kill some time. Figured I bug you."

Funny, Bernadette thought as she carefully put her bag down at the edge of the nearest bookshelf, that is exactly what I was thinking.

Then without a second thought she dove forward, arms wrapping around Tyler's shoulders, squeezing lightly as if to say ‘not a threat' belatedly. Then she simply rested there, comfortable and happy, making no secret of her mischievous smile as she turned her attention, outwardly, elsewhere.

"Hey Fiyori," she greeted as she stood behind her boyfriend, as if she had done nothing out of the ordinary. She was not particularly close to the girl sitting beside Tyler, but she at least knew her name and liked her because she refused to try and fit in. Never mind that it was simply polite to say hello when you had just interrupted someon-

Oh well, it was a bit late to apologise now. It was a minor thing and she hoped that Fiyori would not mind too much.

"A cat? C'mon now, you know you only get half points for animals n' plants n' shit, otherwise-"

Instinct and Ty had a complicated relationship with each other. Take, for instance, his first thought when a pair of arms crossed around his shoulders without warning. Now, on instinct, his first reaction was to take those arms and try to flip whoever was attached to them over the table before things turned rough for him. Maybe put some distance between whoever came over and him if time allowed before they got back up, or just dive right in to maintain control. That was how you stayed on your feet. How you survived.

A brief flinch gave his leaning away before he buried the notion deep, especially as he felt the comforting squeeze he'd grown familiar with over the last few months. Bee. He figured she'd be around here, somewhere. Nothing to worry about at all. His hands came up and crossed over hers, squeezing back gently and smiling over his shoulder. "Hey, Bee. I was wonderin' where you got to."

The first layer was solved.

His ears catched the word "cat". Oh god, they weren't gossiping about him, were they?

The second layer was solved.

Suddenly a new girl appeared. Al looked up and then quickly back to the cube. That girl did not stand out from the crowd as much as Yazzie or Fiyori did, but she apparently knew both of them. Her name was Bee or something like that. Gunnerson? Or somebody else? Al was not sure at all.

Just some moves more. And it was done.

He put the completed cube back into his bag. Solving the cube another time, especially with so many people nearby, was silly. Leaning forward, resting his head on his arm that was on the table, he stared at the clock. This time he'd listen what the other people would say. Maybe they were talking about something that was interesting? Or maybe they were talking about him.