Jogging

[chibinanashi†]

It was a beautiful day for a jog. The sun was shining through the trees creating small pools of light along the dirt trail. The only sounds that could be heard were that of the birds in the trees and the buzzing of busy insects. The other sound was that of feet hitting the ground in a jog.

The jogger was a young woman about seventeen years of age. Her dark blond hair was worn in a tight braid going down to her waist. Her pale face was slightly tinged red from the sun when she had jogged a clearing. Clad in a pink tank top that was worn tight to her figure and blue shorts that reached down to her mid thigh, Raine Schwarz was getting her morning exercise.

She was in deep thought. Tests, projects, ordinary thoughts distracted her from the jog. Raine didn't seem to notice the log in the middle of the trail. With a loud cry, she tripped over the log, twisted mid fall and landed on her bottom. Cringing, Raine tried to move her foot and found it to be in sheer pain. Had she twisted it?

[KingKamor†]

Ridley was walking down a path under some trees, resting from his earlier running and taking in what little of nature was able to before he had to go back to reality. He planned to start up again after the current song on his ipod was finished. He was singing along to it with all his worth, oblivious to whoever might have been listening. Tied around his waist was an old brown jacket, and matted to his chest from sweat was a shirt that said "Talk nerdy to me." Not the most fashionable outfit, what with the cargo pants and all, but he was comfortable, and that was what counted.

So far, Junior year was turning out to be fairly uneventful. Not that he minded, but he hadn't gotten in a fight in ages, and he was at least itching for some kind of excitement to come around.

Without a care, he sang, "I don't know what I'm up against. I don't know what it's all about. I've got so much to think about! YEEEEAAH!! I think I love you! So what'm I so afraid of? Afraid that I'm not sure of -- a love there is no cure foooor..."

It was "I think I Love You," remade by Less Than Jake from some old show that he hadn't ever heard of. He kicked a rock that had been resting on the ground in front of him, and kept kicking it as he walked along. Then the ending line came.

"D'you think you love meeeeee? Ya I think I love yoooo-uuu!! Ya I think I love YOOOOOO-UUUU! I THINK I LUH-UH-U-UV YOU!"

Just as the final cymbal crash resonated between his ears, he heard a high-pitched yelp from up ahead of him. Deciding to let his headphones rest around his neck, put his hands in his pockets and quickly walked in the direction of the yelp.

[chibinanashi†]

Raine heard someone singing from quite some distance away. Her panicked mind wondered if whoever it was had heard her. Another part of her mind wondered if whoever this person was would try to bring her harm, rob her or do anything sick minded.

She moved uncomfortably over to a tree to her right and gripped onto its bark to pull herself up. A piece of the bark snapped and with another yelp, Raine fell back to the ground. Pouting, she then glared at the tree like a child would.

"Mein Gott." Raine muttered under her breath, deciding to wait for whatever fate brought her.

[KingKamor†]

As Ridley approached the area which he believed the scream came from, he saw no one on the path. After a brief look around, however, he saw a girl sitting next to a tree with quite the sour look on her face. Upon closer inspection, he kind of recognised her from somewhere. She IS a teenager, so she might have gone to school with him.

With a wave of his hand, he calls over to her, "Hey, you alright?" He turned his ipod off with his other hand and slid it into his pocket. As he began to walk over to her, he followed up with, "I heard someone yell. Was that you?"

[chibinanashi†]

Before answering, Raine looked the boy over from head to toe. She remembered him from the school. Actually, she remembered once taking a picture of him like she did many other students to add to her own yearbook. It wasn't like Raine was a creeper or anything, she just admired how he looked when he was practicing his self-defense and she was too shy to ask him to pose for a painting.

He looked like a jogger and definitely not threatening. Relenting, Raine nodded her head. She reached up with one hand to wipe the sweat from her brow. "Yes. I tripped over that log. I...was jogging and I guess I got distracted by my thoughts." She admitted with a shy smile. "My name is Raine, yours?"

[KingKamor†]

'She's actually kinda cute.' Ridley thought to himself. He wouldn't ever say it aloud, though. He's never been the champion of talking to girls, anyway. Now that he was looking at her more, he remembered seeing her around campus all the time with a camera. Maybe she was in photography? The more he looked at her and observed her, the more he was afraid that his eyes would wander in the wrong direction, what with her tank top being as tight as it was. What could he say? He's a guy. He had to give her points for wearing such a color combination, too.

"I'm Ridley. Looks like we both have pretty weird names, huh?" He extended his hand to her to help her up. "Too bad about the log getting you. Those things can be nasty. You okay?"

[chibinanashi†]

Raine felt her heart skip a beat. Was he looking over her too? Drawing in a deep breath, she fought to remain calm as she took his hand and was helped up. Now the lack of distance between them really felt weird to her and quickly she took an awkward step back.

"I...I think I twisted my ankle." Raine remarked as she looked down to her right foot. She had been trained in first aid but now that it had happened to her and Ridley's appearance she had seemed to forgotted what to do. Was she that smitten or fatigued?

[KingKamor†]

Ridley scratched his head and said, "Yeesh, I know how one of those feels." He stays quiet, just waiting for something to happen. It wasn't until a few seconds had passed that he realized that the silence had grown awkward. "Uh, sorry, I mean... It's kinda funny. My mom's a physical therapist, but I don't know the first thing about fixing people." He lets out a futile laugh.

"If you can't walk, I can help you get home if you want." He wanted to kick himself for always being the gentleman. He had some homework to do, but he didn't seem to really give a shit at the moment. Any distraction was good enough, especially if it involved helping someone out on a shitty day.

[chibinanashi†]

Raine's face seemed to have darkened in a crimson shade. She cast her blue eyed gaze to the grass below and seemed to have taken a shy stance. Raine wondered how she could pay Ridley back for helping her and she supposed a first gesture of kindness would be to stop being so shy around him.

Taking a step closer, Raine nodded her head. "Thank you, Herr Ridley." She replied, her habit of addressing people by Herr or Frau coming out. Her mother had always said that to others and Raine felt it sounded right considering she had the same accent. "Please accept my apology for disturbing your jog." Awkwardly, Raine wrapped her pale arms around his left arm and leaned against him for support.

Despite the sweat, Raine found that Ridley smelled pretty okay. Like it was natural for him to be like this. She felt safe and had no reason why to back up that feeling. Perhaps she should let that be? Yeah, it would be best to let that be.

[KingKamor†]

Somewhat surprised that he didn't even have to ask her to let him shoulder her for support, he began to help her to get back onto the path. He hoped that she didn't mind that his headphones were still around his neck, but he decided to drop it before things turned awkward.

Upon approaching the log that he assumed she had tripped over, he hooked the toe of his shoe under part of it and flipped it off of the path. "And stay there." He said, making a face at the log. Being funny wasn't his strong suit.

"Anyway, uh, which way to your house?" He asked without looking at her, and instead electing to look down the path to either side.

[chibinanashi†]

"Umm...."

Raine didn't want to go home right yet. Her father and her stepmother would be up right about now getting ready for work. Raine hated them both very much and did everything she could to avoid being at the house. This had led to her morning jogs and after school jogs and swims.

"It's to the right." Raine whispered relucantly, not wanting to admit she didn't want to go. She had already become a trouble for Ridley and she didn't want to push her problems onto his shoulders. She was already using them! Instead she occupied herself with counting the leaves on the dirt trail.

One....Two....Three....

She didn't get very far.

[KingKamor†]

"Okay, cool," was all he could say. He wasn't the talkative type unless it was to a friend, but that didn't stop the silence from sending a cold sweat up his back. Even after a few steps of nothing but zipped lips, it didn't go away. Well, shit. What if she could feel the sweat? That would just end in a weird way, wouldn't it?

To distract himself, he decided to look up at whatever scenery he could. In his line of sight, all he could see were the trees that he had grown to love over the years. They kept him occupied for a good distance down the path, but even they lose their interesting qualities after a few minutes.

'Fuck it,' he thought to himself. "So, you German?"

[chibinanashi†]

"My mother was." Raine answered, thankful for the broken silence. Shyly still, she stole a glance to his face before turning away blushing deeply. "My father is American. So...I guess that makes me a second generation half-wit as my father likes to call me."

"What about you?" She turned the question back to him, trying to ignore how the few spots of sunlight seemed to bring out the best in his eyes. "Are you American or are you something else as well?"

Her limp still persisted. Raine paused in her step to give it a small rest before walking along with him again. She hoped this conversation would keep on going without either of them thinking of anything else.

[KingKamor†]

"Half-wit? That's not something a dad should say to his daughter. The hell's his problem?" Despite the small bubble of anger growing inside him, he decided to suppress it for the sake of the conversation. Getting pissed and starting up a rant wouldn't do him any good. When he felt her come to a halt, he let his lifted foot fall back down so that he could stop along with her. Relieved to see that she was only resting, he started up again.

"In any case, I'm born here in America. All I know about my heritage is that I'm fourteen percent Swedish. That's it. I'm thinking that if you take a map of Europe, put it on a wall and throw a dart at it, you would probably hit a country that's part of my ethnicity in some way. Having an accent would be cool, though..." He smiled smugly and pretended to stroke what little hair he had on his chin as if in thought.

[chibinanashi†]

Raine seemed to smile, comforted by his outburst and take on his own ethnicity. Ridley seemed to be a funny guy and she appreciated how he used his humour to cheer her up. "Perhaps," Raine started with her face lighting up. "...you have some German in you too, Herr Ridley."

She felt more comfortable in his presence now. How could this be happening so quickly though? Was it because he expressed hate toward her father like she did which made them alike? Was it their somewhat shared ethnicity? Or was it something that ran deeper than she imagined?

"You...seem very kind." Raine said softly after a minute of silence. "I wish we had met sooner not and under such circumstances." She then nodded towards her ankle.