From: Kitten
Guys, its time. get over here. me n Lizzy have cookies.
~*~Kitten~*~
ew.
kitten. it was a loaded nickname. whenever jarek got a text from ariel he felt like he was some sort of daddy dom since she called herself that. in any case, his disgust was no matter right now - that text was what brought a ringtone from hell to wake him up. sure, it might be his fault for sleeping in so late through the day, but hey; no one was ever around to judge him for it. school was relatively unnecessary at this point, considering his parents didn't bother to enforce his attendance. he made fine enough grades when he did come in for testing and major exams, thanks to an abundance of personal books in this massive place's library. say, it might be appropriate to make a literary reference, then: the 'massive place' in question quite resembled a certain jay gatsby's home from a certain f. scott fitzgerald's jazz age novel, minus the gold accents. jarek could just hear that owl-eyed man from gatsby's libary peering through the pages of books with wonder:
"they're real! they're real!" what a man. of course, jarek didn't trust half of the information from his parents' library since everything was outdated, but the books were all still real.
none of that was relevant. he was being summoned, and if he didn't come, he was likely to miss some grand announcement from the cookie girls. jarek flopped on his
drama queen-sized bed to grab his cell phone and examined it suspiciously, jerking his head back once the bright light of his screen illuminated the dark room. it smelled faintly of marshmallow vodka, by his own fault. might have spilled some on the sheets once upon a time... once upon two nights ago. jarek scowled at the smell and then rolled again, sitting up so he could yank up the blinds of his window. christ! it was bright out, and he thought it was only morning. yet another roll and jarek was off his bed and on his feet, stumbling towards the wall, only just barely balancing himself against it. he hummed a nonsensical tune to himself whilst he yanked on a shirt, shivering in the freezing temperature that haunted his room, then a heavy jacket adorned with various unnecessary (but nonetheless collected and cared for) pins and buttons. his jeans, jet black, skinny, and almost too tight to pull over his jutting hipbones, were much less exciting, however.
without the heart to call for a chauffeur, either one of his friends or one of the many nurses under his parents' employ, jarek found that he was stuck with a bicycle. that was fine enough. it's not like he had a driver's license yet, like the majority of his friends -
you're far too destructive, mr. wilhelm, or,
you're a danger to the other drivers, jarek, or
you totally wrecked my goddamn car, like hell i'm going to let you drive your own, asshole; you know how the story goes. jarek took that type of unfortunate news elegantly, though, and figured he could just look sick as hell skateboarding everywhere. all right, truth be told, jarek with his baby face and unimposing silhouette kind of looked like a seven year old riding to his friend's house to play pokémon, but still - it was a form of transport, and it worked well enough. he was terrible at it, though, so he stuck with his bike this time. thank god for the relatively short distance between his own monster of a home and ariel's - jay was never all that athletic.
quite literally sliding down the stairwell (indeed, ass on the railing and feet out so he could glide without getting caught on anything), jarek was downstairs within minutes. as usual, the bottom floor of his home was empty, leave for an ancient cat who he'd decided to name 'scratch' after a nasty old scar it gave him a year back. he thumbed the claw mark, still faintly visible, that ran down his arm, before lifting the cat in the air and rolling his eyes at the disgruntled hiss that followed.
"old man," he mumbled accusatorily, then set scratch on the counter so he could feed him. and what of feeding himself? well... jay spun round, took a clementine from the fruit bowl, examined it, and then decided he didn't need any food this morning. afternoon, whatever. instead, he opted for a bottle of water, sipped from it, then shoved it into the inside pocket of his jacket. decidedly, this was enough nutrition to get him all the way to ariel's house - hey, there are cookies there, anyway. jarek grabbed his backpack, traipsed outside, hopped on his bike, and began his trek. evidently, he didn't need to leave a note.
not like anyone would come looking, he thought cynically.
a familiar coupe was ahead of him, and jay decided to let jamie's car lead him so he could zone out all by his lonesome. it occurred to him that there was a myriad of things he'd forgotten to do in his haste to leave, such as, y'know, shower. he grinned to himself - of course he'd remember to feed that damn elderly cat and then forget to actually clean himself. no matter, he bathed last night; hopefully the scent of men's dove still lingered. just to be safe, jay held onto his handlebars with one hand and dug through his coat pocket with the other, struggling to free a stick of gum from its pack without dropping the entire thing on the asphalt. eventually he did, and a piece of spearmint was in his mouth soon enough. praise god for his seemingly fluid supply of chewing gum. there was plenty in the knapsack over his shoulder, lest his stash be stolen by a
certain group of friends prone to habitual kleptomania. there's that cynicism again... but with good reason!
he'd lost the R8 simply because he wasn't as fast as the four-wheeler, but jarek made it to ariel's house anyway. and, apparently, last of them all. he didn't let that fact affect his mood, though, since that was pretty typical of him. it smelled suspiciously of cookies around here, and jay, a serial food-hater, disapproved heavily. he eyed the exterior of the house for a good spot to plant his gum just to make his hatred clear, but that seemed a little
too evil. deciding against being a douche just yet, jay approached the door, raising his fist as if he were going to knock on the door... then just pushing his away through.
i've never been to a beach... the first thing he heard was, of course, from jar jar binks himself. jay smiled, holding the door knob and very gently closing the door so that he didn't interrupt. his entrance was unusually clandestine this time around, but that was just to help his sneak attack be more successful.
carefully, jay approached the kitchen, following the scent of baking (which he assumed was only cookies, but now there was a hint of banana - strange). his eyes landed first on the one kid he knew best. jarvis
moore, as he liked to say, 'cause what's better than disconcerting people by using their full name? completely unfazed by the population of the room, at least for now, he stepped up to jar and wrapped his arms around the other boy's waist. an innocent hug, no less! but not really - jarek continued to lean back, using his own gangly legs as leverage to try and lift jarvis up slightly into the air.
"guess who-o-o," he cooed, obviously quite pleased with himself. these kinds of shenanigans were the type he only got up to with someone as timid as jarvis - anyone else would have retaliated by now, but lil' jar either didn't care or didn't have the guts to confront jay about it. while he assumed it was the former that was true, jarek wouldn't be surprised if jarvis felt the latter. people were, more often than not, afraid of triggering a little outburst in jay. god knows why - they're buckets of fun! allowing jarvis to touch the floor, jarek stood on his toes and aimed to rest his chin on his friend's head. decidedly, that was completely appropriate.
"am i interrupting something? what's this about a beach?"his gaze was inquisitive, but he was curious about more than the topic of conversation. while jarek was a fairly popular kid, especially for being one of the youngest in the little group gathered here, he wasn't close to everyone - especially specific parts of his immediate company. the quietest of all was the one he knew as alex, although alex's appearance was completely mismatched to his personality. typically the dusty-blond kid with conventionally attractive features - angular jawline, brooding gaze, muscular figure - was the kind of kid to be brash and outgoing, but alex didn't seem to match up with that cliché. he was generous, for sure, always putting a smile on peoples' faces, but he also very rarely spoke and behaved in a rather reserved manner. perhaps it's just the fact that jarek was terrible at reading people, always placing his judgment on appearances first... what's that saying, 'never judge a book by its cover'? yeah, jarek doesn't follow that. he rather liked to make cut decisions. one of them was a little dream that perhaps alex wasn't as innocent as he seemed. to be fair, jay thinks that about every quiet kid. hell, he even thinks jarvis could kill a man.
equally intriguing was the 'cheese steak' kid, as everyone so lovingly had taken to calling him. jay personally preferred 'ivy,' or 'poison ivy,' if he was feeling particularly playful. nothing was distinguishing about his appearance necessarily, or at least not to the extent that alex was at, but phil met every conventional standard for beauty; why not be extra exuberant and ultra fun at parties? come to think of it, jarek was pretty sure he'd never seen phil having a good time by his own free will. he was almost surprised that phil came here in the first place, but not really - the friendship between him and liz was no secret. they were like two peas in a pod, literally. 'ivy' remained somewhat of a wet blanket, though, so why risk his own happiness by coming along? jarek realised this was a perfect opportunity to challenge both himself and phil's limits. this trip could be how he drags an unwilling and unprepared kid out of his shell.
ha. jay made a mental note to give himself some more credit.
theodore - jay preferred 'teddy,' personally - was another story, but somewhat similar. he was quiet like those three, sure, but he was also obviously not shy. he was uninhibited in social interaction, almost constantly engaged, and, hell, he was holding banana bread. that was a sure sign of social success, right there. jay knew theo to be somewhat of a high-seeker, too, with all his nigh self-destructiveness (hey, sounds familiar) and his daredevil sportsmanship. personally, jarek envied that. he could only get physically wild in the same way theo did when he was having some sort of manic episode - which was kind of pitiful in itself. 'teddy' was admirable in more ways than one, though. most obvious was his insane height. six feet tall may not seem like a great feat in many peoples' eyes, but the average-height jarek felt it was a gift from god and looked up to theo - both literally and metaphorically. next was his confidence that bordered on even being arrogant. jay's famed for his self-criticism and persistent self-examination, but he's never given himself a positive score. it's probably for the best that he doesn't get too cocky, though.
a sweet girl lives in elizabeth jones. in jarek's eyes, she's somewhat trapped in a broken individual's body, peering through the cracks every once in a while but unable to completely wrench herself free. that's too poetic a way to put it, though, considering how ugly it can be to have issues revealing one's true identity. jay figured, since liz never addressed it publicly in front of this group of friends, that he was simply overanalyzing her. instead he paid more attention to that vibrant-ass
to die for hair, or whatever; it's more like she's the only person younger than him here that he knew of. approximately four months younger, that is. jay likes to take whatever chance he can get to throw that fact in her and everyone else's faces. there's also the lovely fact that he's a full nine inches taller, so jay makes a point to stand near lizzy whenever he gets the chance just to look a lil' more like a giant and less like a dwarf in the presence of the rest of the males here. not that he got along spectacularly well with liz like she did with phil - in fact, he found himself far too obnoxious to mingle with her more delicate personality.
she's not the only one who bottles things up. he catches glimpses of it in ariel, too, when he takes the time to look at her long enough (it's just so hard - jay constantly tells her she needs to grow out of that emo/scene phase, lightheartedly of course, and always earns a little chuckle from himself at the least). ariel was more self-assured it seems, considering she sometimes has a bit of bite in her words, some might even say she's a tad
snarky. it was admirable, honestly. ariel was more clever than jarek could be, with his probably lower-seventy intelligence quotient. her wit was quicker, her pace more jaunty; truth be told, jay knew he needed to stop comparing himself to his friends, but she was just a perfect target for self-criticism. dunno. the need to disprove oneself arises at the strangest times.
cassandra rowley was a different story from everyone, a completely separate entity in this room by comparison of personality. she was loud - which was why jarek was rather fond of her, honestly - and uninhibited, two traits you might associate with an obnoxious person, but cass was somehow able to differentiate. she had a way of making herself interesting, not
in spite of her volume, but because of it. jay envied it, to tell the truth; he himself could get quite annoying after too long, unfortunately. maybe he'd just end up asking cass how she could pull it off. although... that might be a bit difficult, considering she intimidated him just slightly, and for no good reason at all. for two people who were fairly similar, he found it a challenge to spend too much time around the unpredictable girl - maybe it's just that he feared himself.
how pretentious, he thought, a faint smile lingering on his lips.
ada was equally unpredictable, although jarek didn't observe her nearly as well to deduce the length of it. she was as reckless as he was -
oh, but i bet they let her
drive a car - and more antagonistic about it, too. like most of the others in the room, though, she seemed devoted to the little group they had gathered, always able to crack a smile in another kid with ease. jay wasn't nearly as generous. he's fairly certain he's seen her 'bad side' once or twice, however, and if memory serves correctly it wasn't the prettiest sight to behold. short tempers are never fun, obviously, but with ada that fact proved ten times worse. despite her diminutive size (she was just barely bigger than lil' bitty lizzy), ada could turn into something of a monster if you set her off. now, jarek had never considered himself a very careful person, but if his naturally annoying personality could set her off, he wouldn't mind taking his time to step over landmines.
the kid he'd followed halfway here was just as extreme, but in different measures. jarek based his knowledge of jamie off of secondhand word-of-mouth, which meant the most he knew about the kid was that he was a player (jay typically laughed off the rumour, citing that if you weren't sleeping with all genders, then you weren't truly a player; no matter, he could mess with jamie all he wanted). it was believable, in any case, because jarek couldn't see jamie in a long-lasting and serious relationship. his personality was something of a mess, as far as jay could tell; who would stick with that for too long? he was as in love with adrenaline and taking dares as theo was, it seemed, and didn't seem to have an 'off' switch. the one redeeming quality jarek could make of the male was the fact that he didn't appear to ever be actually angry, unlike a
certain little blonde in this room. that was just as well, though - jay was certain that if jamie actually got angry, he'd live up to the wordplay in his surname.
it's not like his observations were always very spot-on, though. jarek raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the group once he was through with his scrutiny, eyeing the bowl of cookie dough in particular. that thing must have every kid's nasty saliva in it at this point. jay made a poont to turn his nose up at it to show his disgust.
