Art Swing (1x1 remade. Spartan x minus)

[minus infinity]

Fiona's next class was World History, which was only a medium-length walk away from the once-again snowy lunchcourt. As they were on their way, Fiona lightly fiddled with her bag slung over her left shoulder; she was still the tiniest bit (well ...) shaken from what had just happened, but she was trying to look on the brighter side of things as her parents would have told her to do had they had been here. Her parents. It was then that she heard Nicholas' question to her and she nodded before stopping infront of the door to her classroom and saying, Yeah, ... um, but I'll see you next period anyway ... see you then? Trying to retain normal conversation (whatever that was) Fiona realized she sounded more akward than usual, more shy, but not reserved (That term always made her think of hotels.) This boy was her best friend, and it had been that way for years - past, present and quite hopefully the future. And then she looked up at him, he was slightly taller than she was. When he had fallen into her lap his eyes were dull and lifeless as they usually were, but now ...
She risked it all. With a sudden beaming smile that was like the sun coming out, she leaned forward a little and hugged her friend - something she couldn't remember having done for years. It was just a symbol of friendship, right?
So after a second she let go, smiled again, and dissapeared inside her classroom.

 

[spartan309]

Nicholas stood there as Fiona hugged him, as if a statue. He hadn't had a hug in what seemed like forever. In fact, his last hug was seven years ago. He felt something weird inside him, something fuzzy. He couldn't describe it and didn't know if he should say anything. Before he even had a chance to, she was already gone into her classroom. He would see her again next period sure, but he didn't know if he could wait that long to see her. He went back to the fuzziness he felt before. It was warm, welcoming even. He sat down in his own desk in his own classroom, the thought just soaring though his head. 'I have to draw this feeling...' He thought, quickly getting out a paper to describe it so he can have a little more reference.  

[minus infinity]

Fiona just barely concentrated for the length of her World History class, taking notes when the teacher looked or when she honestly felt compelled to. But at the same time, she was doodling senselessly in the margins of her notebook - her cheek resting on her hand and smiling like she knew something that nobody else in the class knew. Something was happening to her, and in a way she knew what it was but wasn't entirely aware of it and the complexity it harbored. Well, maybe one of these days.
Fiona thought about how Nicholas had reacted when she had hugged him. He had stiffened enough to put a statue to shame and as far as she knew, when she had walked into her classroom he had stayed the same way. She knew he had gone to class by now though, what was he thinking about?
Her own thoughts scattered away like frightened butterflies when the girl sitting next to her lightly tapped her arm and told her that the teacher had just asked her a question. Fiona blushed, hoped she wouldn't be in too much trouble, and silently counted down the minutes left until the bell rang again.

It was like her body was waking up after an ancient slumber when the bell rang (finally) and Fiona stood up to leave class and go to the next. It was the last period of the day and she unfortunately remembered she had to head straight home afterward, but she realized she was excited to see Nicholas - as it was she enjoyed the company of her best friend but now there was a spark of something else too. Holding her notebook close to her chest, Fiona made it to her class even though suddenly her legs felt like warm jelly.

 

[spartan309]

When the bell rang for the last period, Nicholas was strangely the first one out of his desk. In fact, he bolted off his desk and head straight for her next class, the thought of stopping non-existent. He found his chair and sat down on it, waiting impatiently to see Fiona. That fuzzy feeling was back and it only felt much fuzzier and even warmer. What was going on? He looked at the notes he took for his drawing. This drawing was going to have everything. He wanted to make bigger, put some color, and even frame it as well! All of this because Fiona gave him a hug...  

[minus infinity]

Fiona sat three rows away from Nicholas due to the seating chart the teacher had, so she was fairly distanced from him; but she was still able to see him and talk to him every once in a while. When she saw him she chirped a Hi! with a beaming, almost hyper smile on her porcelain-skinned face. She was able to see from here that he had his sketchbook out, but tried as she always would to make sure she (and sometimes classmates) didn't try and peek. So for this reason and another, after saying hello she blushed and turned her head away in what almost looked like a flirty way as she pushed up her shoulders and rested one side of her head on a shoulder. She wondered, would she be able to participate in class today? It was like the world was turning slower around them and when the teacher walked up to the front of the classroom, at first she only heard droning like a malfunctioning radio. She had to focus. So she let her shoulders relax, tried to will herself to return to her normal color and tried her best to listen to what the teacher was telling them.
If only she could listen. Her thoughts buzzed so loudly in her head every other sound just seemed to cancel out. Much as she enjoyed this new sensation she felt, she hoped it wouldn't last long enough to prompt certain parent-teacher conferences. All she could do was hope and try her best right now, right? An 'A' for effort.

 

[spartan309]

Nicholas looked up from his notes and gave a little wave when Fiona said hi. He didn't say anything, but the fact that he waved was something at least. He went back to his drawing notes, trying to describe what he should draw. He just wanted to get to work on it, but... something else is getting in the way of his thought process... Fiona... Every time he tried to work, all he thought about was Fiona! He didn't know why though! Ever since she gave him that hug, his head had been filled with Fiona. He wanted class to be over, he wanted to walk to the park and think. But he also wanted to spend time with Fiona. She was her only friend after all... He looked over at the clock, the seconds ticking away so slowly. It seemed as if time just decided to stop just to make him stay in class even longer. He hated that feeling.  

[minus infinity]

Tick, tock. Even the clock was going in slow motion. Ticcccccckkkkk ... tocccccccckkkkkk.
Fiona wasn't sure if she could last any longer without screaming when suddenly the loud chime of the bell jolted her out of her boredom and ... into the realization that she was expected to come straight home. Well, maybe it was for the best - she assumed both of them needed some time to clear their heads and to think; if only her rational mind would join her again.
The majority of the class bolted out in the first tenth of a second as the bell rang, Fiona was just packing up her doodle-infested notebook back into her bag as it rang. And maybe it was a little strange how she couldn't wait until the bell rang and when it did she still had to pack up and act patient, but Fiona was just a quirky girl. She stood slowly, making sure the weight of her bag didn't topple over the desk as it sometimes did. Then her bag went on her shoulder, her feet connected to the ground ... but she didn't move. Not for a moment, at least. What exactly was happening to her?
Slowly the girl walked out the door, blinking a few times in the suddenly abundant sunlight - was the snow still on the ground? (Yes, but it was getting dirty and melting into puddles again.) She stopped by a nearby tree, looking around for Nicholas.

 

[spartan309]

Nicholas was slow to put his stuff away, but he walked outside, looking around for Fiona. He then spotted her by a tree, looking around as well. He walked up to her with a hand raised with a slight wave. "I believe you were looking for me, is my accusation correct?" He asked, that fuzzy feeling in his stomach back again. He looked in her eyes, something different about them from before. No, nothing changed, but how he saw her eyes did change. They looked stunning.  

[minus infinity]

Fiona's beaming smile when she saw Nicholas was just about enough to light up the shade she was standing in. Hi, she said to him, I ... She noticed that Nicholas was looking her in the eyes. It wasn't something she was unused to, but having this boy in particular do something like this wasn't something that happened very often. Wait, what was she going to say to him again? In her thought of how some sort of possession must have been overtaking them she had forgotten what she was about to say. Well, she'd remember by tommorow. Right now she was just remembering that she had to head straight home. With that, she finished her unfinished sentence with I'll see you tommorow, okay?

 

[spartan309]

Nicholas followed, not wanting to leave her just yet. "May I walk with you? Dead Park is in the same direction as your household." He asked her, his fuzzy feeling starting to fade for how quick she stopped her sentence to say she had to go home. He was going to ask her about his fuzziness, but was now a good time? He never really calculated this at all. Something told that it was not a good time to ask, the percent being at eighty-five. He still wanted to walk with her though. It's not like she never not walked with him or anything.  

[minus infinity]

Fiona smiled a little when she saw Nicholas catching up to her and asking whether he could walk with her. Sure, she replied happily, You might just have to remind me to stay away from the slide. Her smile widened a little and she even giggled as she remembered the elation she had felt when she realized the slide was still in slightly good condition, even after all these years. What a feeling that was -- almost like what she was feeling now? She had been positively jubilant last night, like she was stuck in some strange time warp and suddenly she was four years old again and the slide was her favorite thing in the entire world. Now she was actually feeling a tiny bit shy and a little akward, but she still felt happy and hyper. She momentarily wondered, maybe it was just the cold getting to her? Some part of her figured that it could be a logical explanation for her strange moods, but still another part of her knew it was the feeling that would go unnamed for now.
Since the school, Dead Park and Fiona's house were surprisingly close together (her parents said a park and a school nearby was pretty much a young couple's dream house) it wasn't very long until they reached the empty park. Fiona couldn't help but smile, stopping for a brief moment as they came right in front of the land littered with leaves and sometimes, wildlife. (Once she had seen a family of rabbits.)
I'll see you tommorow, but you can come over if you want to. My parents love having guests. Fiona even blushed a little in giving her invitation, but it was entirely the truth that her parents loved having guests. They cleaned the entire house like addicts and put on their best clothes and brought out everything fancy they owned. Because that was just how much they enjoyed guests in their home.

 

[spartan309]

Nicholas walked at her side, looking at the different puddles of water that was snow before. The clouds were starting to clear a little, but he could tell that they would be back in the evening, a prediction that he calculated to be ninety percent accurate after looking at some weather charts.

The walk to Dead Park seemed to only happen in a flash, feeling like he just started walking with her. After hearing her invitation, he nodded to her. "Of course. I thank you for your invitation but I must put it on hold for another day. I have three projects that I have conducted and need to create before the hour of eleven and need my swing to work with." He said to her, looking over at the swing, a gentle breeze pushing it slightly. "It is a shame that you cannot stay out here at this current time for the weather is significantly appealing to the eyes currently for the clouds are beginning to clear, yet they will arrive again in the late evening." He said to her. He didn't know why he was talking so much, it was unlike him to do so.

"I should let you go. Keeping you here would be against your fathers instruction." He said to her. He was hesitant at first, but he then gave Fiona a hug, just as she did to him at school.  

[minus infinity]

Fiona nodded with understanding and then a bit of reluctance to leave Dead Park as she listened to Nicholas, once again admiring the formal tones he spoke in. There was no doubt that it was going to snow again tonight, and her thoughts returned to how last night she had barely even noticed him getting cold in freezing weather. She looked over at the swing for a moment - it was moving slightly in the breeze as though to beckon it's regular occupant. Well, there was no use in arguing with him to try and get him to come indoors ...
And then he hugged her.
She remembered he had been so surprised by the previous hug he hadn't responded to the contact, and now he was - Fiona beamed as she accepted the hug and slowly pulled away afterward.
Having already said goodbye, Fiona wore her beaming smile with confidence and slowly left to head back home for the night.

 

[minus infinity]

(Bumper lumper, maybe we can timeskip to the next morning? I think I have a slightly cliche idea, like some people might suddenly start visiting Dead Park because they want to turn the land into ... whatever or something. It's an overused idea, but it is in fact an idea.)

 

[spartan309]

(Ok. I'll go with it. Sorry I haven't posted. Been drawing a blank on this one)

Same time, same place, same routine. Nicholas was back at Dead Park in the early parts of dawn, the snow still slowly falling. He continued to draw the fuzzy feeling in his stomach, the work so detailed it looked as if it took weeks to draw, yet he had yet to even hit the half way point of his idea. He still needed to color and frame it still. He would stop for about five minutes over periods of times just to take a breather, the cold air visible to his eyes.