In Our Bones

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

[Meilin Zhou continued from ...But I just can't place it]

On this wonderfully more-blessed-than-usual day, Meilin had brought five separate notebooks to school.

To be fair, three of them were fairly small- at least in comparison to the other two with full-size A4 paper. The biggest was a 3-subject-er! After it was a 1-subject notebook. Then there was a smaller one that would can hold in one hand but it's more meant to fit in the front pocket of your bag- probably? Well in any case, it was the size of a phone-book, but it had a decent amount of space for real, meaningful writing. The second-to-smallest one was just a bit smaller than that, and it was her favourite, covered in sequins and with a little red ribbon for bookmarking her page. It was so cute, and convenient too! The smallest one, tiny enough to just barely cover her hand, was actually in her purse, not in her backpack like the other four. Then again, two of them were in the main pocket, and one was in the front.

Where was the last one? In her hand! And where was her other hand? Holding a pencil with a woefully abused eraser on one end, over the notebook, in her other hand!

She had barely touched her thermos of ramen, still open with the fork stuck in it, when she decided to take a look at her notebook. This one wasn't just her favourite for aesthetics- its contents were of utmost importance. The workings of a great mystery were untangling themselves in there, ready to be re-tangled for a reader's amusement some time in the future, probably. She'd divided the book into halves, with the first half being keeping track of the details a writer needed to keep track of in order to keep things making just enough sense, which is even more important for a mystery than anything. The other half was for the actual story she wanted to tell. She often found herself flipping between the two halves, checking over names, weeding out-of-character moments out, all that lovely stuff. With patience and diligence, she'd be able to edit, type out, and post this chapter online tonight. Tonight! Wasn't that an exciting thought?

First though, she had to get the editing bit done. Pressing the pencil in-need-of-sharpening tip against her lips, she wondered if she should get out her phone and put on some music. Maybe something from the old days of composers in wigs would help her out, or would that put her in the wrong mood? She could try and catch wifi down here and find some orchestral covers of music that fit? Hey, maybe she should just listen to the fitting music as-is. What kind of music did they play for those detective stories and mystery movies anyway?

Huh. For all the novels in the genre she knew, she realized she hadn't watched that many movies in the genre. She'd have to fix that soon, wouldn't she?

As she contemplated her next move, she looked up, from her notebook, around the cafeteria. It was kind of early for lunch, she figured, but she was sure more people would arrive soon. They always did, and she looked forward to seeing who would arrive next, and hoped that maybe one of her good friends would come along. A fresh pair of eyes was a boon for editing, after all!

[Buko]

Beats' Beats: Musiq Soulchild - Just Friends (Sunny) With a nod of his head and a skip to his step, Ace Ortega would not be not lying when he said that he walked the halls of G.H.H.S with a certain level of confidence. It was confidence that had been earned thoroughly on the football field and thems were the rules weren't they? You go to high school, become the star running back and you're pretty much guaranteed the easy mode of social interaction...or at least that's how it should be. Beats was likable enough and friendly with enough people to not be totally doomed by high school social Darwinism. That didn't mean that things were easy, more often than not quite the opposite.

He was a babbling, overexcited and overenthusiastic ball of energy coalesced into human form and totally entranced by whatever the big interest of the day was, whether that was music or athletics and er...pretty much that was it. He was a simple kid,Ace, that was for certain.

((Ace Ortega continued from Bargain Basket Baller))

What wasn't simple was lunch.

The brown paper bag filled with two PB&J's and a bag of salt and pepper chips paired with a lukewarm can of Coca-Cola not withstanding.

Pretty basic lunch Momma...but I happen to like basic. Like attracts like and shit.

What wasn't simple at lunch was the whole sitting down and eating thing. Ace didn't like to sit still and he didn't really like to spend too much time with one group or the other. That meant lunch was usually spent quickly shoving sandwiches down his gullet and then proceeding to listen to music attaching himself to whatever group he happened to sit near that day. More often than not it was his teammates and that was fine but if you heard one Wyatt joke you heard them all. He'd rather be friends with Wyatt and Connor and the other football players than not...but Ace didn't fully identify with them either.

He scanned the lunch room with a tactical glance before finally settling on one table, his grin expanding instinctively showing off his pearly white teeth as he raised the hand with the bagged lunch and waved it.

"Hey! Meilin!"

He had known Meilin Zhou since his Freshman year when she first arrived to George Hunter. Ace had grown up in Chattanooga so there were a lot of his classmates whom he had also gone to elementary and middle school with...Meilin wasn't one of them. She had been a new student and new to the area at the time and Ace still remembered how she was those first few months and how different she was after. He didn't know if he would've handled the situation like that. Ace had always admired her for her dedication to her interests and studies to boot and he could empathize in it being hard to integrate in a new place. Mei had done it better than Ace had. Throughout the years Ace and her had interacted a lot just by having classes together and general crossover just both being athletes. She had always been a pretty good friend to him in school and there were certainly worse he could spend lunch with. She was nice and friendly and generally a friend to all and she was smart and fun loving and goodhearted and pretty cute but not in like a totally in your face way and, and, and...

And you should probably get your shit together, huh?

Never!

As was his way, one headphone was in his ear and the other seemed to bounce lackadaisically against his chest. Music was a constant companion and he found himself loving the armor it provided in avoiding unpleasant social interactions. This wasn't one of those, hence one ear was exposed, but even something as simple as lunch needed a soundtrack.

"Hey, wassup!"

He sat down with a plop and placed his bagged lunch on the table across from Meilin before cracking open his soda and taking a large sip.

"Whatchoo workin' on today?"

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Finally, her eyes darted towards the cheery greeting that could have only come from Ace. A grin lit up her face, because this was just what she was wishing for at that very moment! Plus, he knew a lot about music, probably. Okay, maybe not like, movie scores. Though, he at least knew how to set a mood, and that was just the kind of expertise she needed. She'd get a trial audience to go with it, too!

"Heya, Ace!" she called, waving to him with the pencil still locked between her fingers.

She put the pencil down, and took her fork, taking a few scoops of ramen to eat as he walked over and sat down across from her.

Ace was definitely someone who fit the criteria of a good friend, and he had proven that in the first year she knew him. He proved that to anyone who was a friend, and a lot of people who weren't that close, for that matter! Outside on the field, online on Soundcloud, was there anywhere Ace was where he wasn't, well, an ace?

"Ah, I was working on that mystery novel project thing, did I tell you about it earlier?" she replied to his question, while picking up her pencil again.

Okay, maybe those chapter-a-week stories on Wattpad weren't really novels, per se. Still, novel was spur-of-the-moment word, and she doubted Ace would be the one to nitpick on details like that. Though she was also preeeeetty sure she already told him about this particular project. Then again, she was looking for a pre-reader, wasn't she? Well, let's see how Ace would do as one... in a bit. She wanted to talk a bit first. Hm, and maybe get some ideas on where to look for in terms of mystery-writing music.

[Buko]

This is why he liked hanging out with Meilin so much...

She had passion and like dreams and shit!

She didn't let herself get boxed in, she was always working and chasing creative outlets while still being good and balanced with athletics and academics and general socializing. Ace struggled to find that balance within himself. To see someone portray it to the outside world so...naturally, not effortlessly, because he was sure Meilin tried hard...but you could also tell she was genuine. Anyway.  It struck Ace a certain way. It was very cool. He understood it even if he couldn't do it all the way himself.

"I think I remember you talkin' 'bout it while back, like when you first started outlining somethin'," he pointed to the notebook, "You make a lotta progress with it? Looks like you did."

He took out his first sandwich and for a moment studied it in the Ziploc bag with a certain amount of appraisal--Ace was a creature of habit and enjoyed things being a certain way. He hadn't made his lunch today because his Mom said she had already done so but looking at the sandwich...he could tell it was his father who had made it. You could tell a lot about a person with how they spread jelly on their PB&J's and Ace was certain that his father was not good with his money based on how he spread the spread. He was too liberal with the jam, needed to calm his wrist down, preserve the preserves. Still, only thing Ace would have to worry about would be some sticky fingers...his thoughts on his father's character based on jam excluded.

He took a bite of the corner end of the triangle piece of bread and chewed a little loudly before taking a sip of his soda, swallowing heavy before speaking a little anxiously...

"What ya got so far?", he asked curiously, "Anythin' to share yet? Or still master planning it up?"

He could relate to that idea if it was true. He had been making beats and rapping for nearly six years and everything on his computer seemed to be just one-shots and half finished projects. He had sold a few beats here and there and had somewhat of a following on SoundCloud...but the cohesive and complete project eluded him. He blamed it on life experience, but whatever, he wasn't about stressing or rushing himself over things he thought would come naturally. C'est la vie. Que sera, sera. It was what it was. Take your pick. He'd been creative his entire life, he'd make something worth sharing eventually. No use beating himself up over the struggle. So much of success, especially in art, was based on luck and time and place. The other half was actually doing the work. Ace understood that or so he told himself...

Basing your personal happiness on success in artistic pursuits seemed to be like a recipe for disaster. Only a crazy person would do that...

Yeah, say that often enough and you might just end up believing it.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Meilin nodding, trying to pinpoint the moment in her memory when she may or may not have told Ace about her little project. She could vaguely recall gushing about it to him that one time a really long time ago. He was a pretty good listener, considering how many unnecessary to the plot details were involved in the original summary a long time ago.

"Yep, it's come a long way! Enough to make me think about going back and rewriting the first few chapters to better fit the later ones, you know?" she mused out loud.

She put her pencil down once again for the fork, and took a bit of ramen from the thermos, a big clump attached to the fork, and delivered it to her mouth. It was basically just cheap convenience ramen, but hey, what could you do with 20 minutes to make your lunch at 6 AM?

Then, when Ace asked if she had anything to share, her eyes lit up. First though, he asked what she had so far!

"Well, I've basically finished this chapter, I'm editing it right now though. This part is pretty important, since it reveals that the red her-" she stopped herself, and looked up a bit, gathering her thoughts.

It would be a shame to spoil the story to her intended audience, wouldn't it? So instead, she went for a less specific account of events, just enough to obscure the actual events.

"Basically, there's some big reveals." she said, looking back to Ace with a nod. "I was hoping to post it tonight!"

That was when it occurred to her she hadn't asked anything about Ace so far! That was a little bit odd, don't you think? Test-reading can be held off for a bit.

"So, how've you been? Anything fun you've been getting up to?"

[Buko]

"That sounds awesome Mei!", he said with no lack of excitement, "You must be pretty hyped up then!"

He could only imagine, actually completing a project must be so stressful and finally deeming it good enough after editing and revision to release it? Ace wasn't a drinker or a smoker, a life as an athlete'll do that sometimes, but he could imagine the feeling being similar to a high. He was certainly picking up a contact high through osmosis and just being near Meilin.

She flipped the script on him though, didn't she?

What could he say? Meilin was always working on something whether it be music, writing, school or something else. What did Ace have to show off? Another half made beat? Some freestyles where he talked a lot about nothing at all? The fact that he could run fast? Yeah, that was a real accomplishment.  It was enough to make him more than a little insecure. What fun had he been getting into? Well mostly going home and playing drum lines on his coffee table while binge watching The Wire. That wasn't really good conversation, though he might've appreciated Meilin's commentary on whether Season 2 was even worth it.

"Er...well, y'know me, just vibin' and survivin'," he said with a grin, "Actually trying to begin a little project of my own, my Momma came through with the hard copies of my Senior pics recently and like, I dunno, they're cheesy and all but that's sorta the deal, ain't it?"

He shook his head: a rambling over-sharer, get to the point, eh Beats?

"I thought the whole cap and gown get up would be good for an album cover, kinda derivative and junk, but you only graduate once, ya know?", he asked more the air, "Should prolly have an actual album before I work on album art, but whatever, everybody's got a process, right? I picked up some stuff from O.T.R to sample so we'll see how it goes and shit."

He chuckled and quickly took another bite of his sandwich to shut himself up.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

See, this is why they were friends. Meilin had lots of energy, Ace had lots of energy, and they way it just bounced back and forth somehow made the total mood of the scene go up and up and up!

"You bet!" Definitely, this was the hype-chapter. Well, one of them, anyway.

She nodded thoughtfully as Ace described his deal with the album cover. She giggled a bit at the whole thing he said about having a process- it was all too relatable! She'd often figure out the weird little details like favourite colour and zodiac sign while making and fleshing out a character, extra scenes before the meat of the story, that sort of habit seemed pretty common, didn't it? As long as you eventually rolled up your sleeves and did the hard work, where was the harm in having a little fun?

"That's pretty cool, Ace!" she noted with bouncy enthusiasm.

It was genuinely really awesome that he could make his own music at all- and Meilin had tried, herself. Messed around with Musescore for a week, and boy did her respect for composers go up a hundredfold after that. She would be jealous, if she wasn't just so proud.

"I'd love to have a listen through when you do finish it!" she added, taking her fork again.

Maybe hip-hop wasn't her most favourite genre in the world, but she was sure curious to see what Ace had in store! What she'd heard from him so far was pretty respectable, she had to say.

[Buko]

Beats' Beats: J.Cole - Land of Snakes
"Oh! Yeah! For sure!", he said as the music changed in his headphones and he forced another bite of sandwich down, "Without a doubt, when I finally get something done, you'll be the first to know!"

Is that? Could it be? Motivation?

He felt his cheeks tighten and his heart pitter-patter as he tried to smile at her without giving her an eyeful of PB&J mouth. It required too much concentration and focus, he took a large swig of his coke and tried his best to swish around the liquid in his mouth--which seemed to have gotten as dry as the Sahara desert. He swallowed again, hard...was that a gulp? Well, maybe technically, but being technically right was the best sort of right there was! Ace doubted that was the case in this situation but he tried to force his insecurity down with the sandwich and save the debate about semantics for later.

"What trouble you been gettin' into lately?", he said with a playful glint to his eye, "Y'know, when you're not writing the next great American Mystery."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

As Meilin dove into the thermos for more ramen, she could hear the spoon scrape against the bottom as she took out another clump of the glorified insta-noodles. Huh, she'd made less than she thought she did that morning. Oh well, she'd get herself some extra snacks on her way home from school or something.

It was the moment when she noted the change in music. She'd gotten used to hearing this kind of stuff while Ace was around, he seemed to constantly have something playing. Well, he's learning from the best! Perhaps? I mean, she's not the judge of who's the best in hip hop, it wasn't really one of her main genres, and just blindly copying someone successful isn't a good way to learn, and- well, he has a wide pool of knowledge to draw from! That was it.

The next thing she noticed was his smile, which only made her own smile widen. Happiness really was contagious, especially around friends. She'd once heard her brother compare making people happy to a perpetual motion machine- and there certainly was a grain of truth to that!

Swallowing her food, she huffed at Ace's comment on her writing, her smile still tugging at its corner, as wide as it could be.

"I don't know about the next great mystery novel," she commented "But did you hear about that big sparkly 'accepting all your thoughts' box in the auditorium?"

[Buko]

He felt warm and like his grin had been permanently plastered to his face...

When he was younger he was told making faces for a long time would cause them to stick like that forever. He didn't know about that but the smile on his mug was probably the closest thing to concrete evidence backing that hypothesis. The music in his ear was bouncy and happy, the lyrics were raunchy but were colored with the paint brush of nostalgia. It brought out good feelings within Ace. Everything, even something as simple as lunch, needed to evoke emotion. Music was the key, it communicated emotion better than anything else in the world. Soundtracks, however mundane, were integral to the whole human experience thing.

They allowed Ace to set the tone when the world did not.

"I've heard folks talkin' 'bout it here and there but I haven't gotten to see it for myself yet, I dunno what to make of it to be honest. Might be a little high brow for me but that's art sometimes ain't it?" he said with a degree of casualness, taking the last bite of the first half of his first sandwich, chewing a few times and then taking another large sip of Cola, "You got the inside scoop on the box though?"

He pulled out his small bag of chips, opening them up and throwing two in his mouth before extending his hand towards Mei and offering the bag to her. Purely out of courtesy and politeness. Totally.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Meilin scooped the last clump of ramen out of the thermos, and brought it to her mouth. She chewed as she listened to Ace talk, which wasn't very long. Swallowing, she continued on her knowledge of the thoughts box- which wasn't an awful lot, hardly the inside scoop, but he asked for information, so she was going to deliver some information!

"I wouldn't really say inside scoop- heck, I don't even know who made it. I guess it's like one of those suggestion boxes, except the variety they put up for mental health purposes, if you've ever seen one of those." she started off, with what she imagined was the premise.

"A bunch of people writing down their thoughts and feelings and putting them in there. At least, I imagine those are their thoughts."

Well, of course they're thoughts! You had to think about them to write them down, right? Well, hopefully Ace would get what she meant, right? Now it was on to the fun part of her story, though!

But then, an open bag of chips was extended towards her, in offering.

"Why thank you!" she chirped, reaching her hand in and grabbing a couple of chips. She held them in one hand, and picked up one with the other, bringing it to her mouth. She then continued her story.

"And get this- someone put a whole book in there! Before you ask, no, I don't know why."

Right after she said that, she popped the chip in her mouth, reveling in its crunch and salt. Well, she imagined whoever put the book there did it to represent their own thoughts, but assuming was a fool's game, you know?

[Buko]

"Hmmm...it's interesting, I'll give it that...hmmm...I wonder..."

He thought out loud with a large amount of theatricality. Like a suggestion box for mental health? What was the purpose of that? Wasn't the whole thing about writing something to share...to share it? How could you accomplish anything of that sort without putting your name on it? What was worth saying if you couldn't say it yourself? Or at least have someone listening to you. Ace was naturally a homebody, he was a friendly person but he was also fairly private. His inner thoughts and feelings were his to keep and he hoarded them with miserly greed. He couldn't see a reason to write his thoughts down and then put them in a random box of all things.

"Hmmm..."

He placed the bag of chips on the table and  folded his arms for a moment before closing his eyes and  raising one hand to his temple tapping it in contemplation. He supposed, the more that he thought about it, there was value in writing thoughts you didn't want to be heard but that you did want to be shared. Little goals and declarations and mantras for the world. In this age of social media maybe there was something quaint in writing down your thoughts by hand and sharing it with a box than typing it on your phone and sharing it with the entire internet. There was a purity to it, at least in his mind. He couldn't just write the box off as he had initially.

Still now he couldn't help himself and couldn't stop himself from wondering...

What would he have written?

Some motivational schpeal?

A declaration?

A confession...?

Yeah, okay, why don't we nix that idea before it really starts to take hold? Don't go being a prisoner of the moment or of good company.

He opened his eyes and reached out to the table for the chip bag again putting another one in his mouth and then shrugging.

"Yeah, unsurprisingly, I got nothing on the box or on why someone would put a book in it," he chuckled to himself, "You put anything in yourself?"

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Ace clearly put a lot of effort into his thinking, though Meilin wasn't quite sure what exactly he was thinking about- probably the box, or why someone would put a book in it. Her theory was proven correct when he spoke again, the tiniest sense of 'I knew it' crept into her smile, so fleeting that it vanished just a moment later. She was pretty sure she was the only one who even noticed it, in all likelihood. Then, she picked up another chip from her hand and munched on it.

Once she swallowed it, she started to talk again, on her own contribution to the box.

"Eh, nothing much. It was a recommendation for the song I was listening to when I came across it."

She let out a sheepish chuckle. That was a lot less, uh, profound than what she had played up the whole concept as. It also sounded a lot less jarringly not-profound in her head. Hm, would he ask what song she was talking about? Well, would it even be right for him? Well, O'Loughlin really was a good composer, but Ace was more of a hip-hop guy, you know? Still, everybody needed a change of pace and style sometimes. Besides, she'd set aside her usual go-to genres for hip hop and rap a couple of times, thanks to him. Wouldn't be nice to return the favor, so to speak?

"Hey, it's still a thought, isn't it?" she went back to the subject of what she added, in an attempt to justify it to herself, mostly. Things were easier with Ace, he wasn't really the guy you needed to justify things to.

[Buko]

Beats Beats: Big K.R.I.T feat UGK - Ride Wit Me His music changed again...but he wasn't really paying attention to it.

And he smiled at her again and he did so nearly to the point where he felt his eyes painfully squint. A pattern of behavior thoroughly established. Of course she did something like that! Meilin was actually smart.  A song would say it all wouldn't it? And without saying too much. It made sense she came to that conclusion. She was a trained musician, like, a real musician that could play a real instrument. Ace could play some of the piano and he could drum with the best of them...but Meilin could actually read sheet music! That wasn't anything to sneeze at.

"Yeah...," he said with a degree of wistfulness, "You had the right idea, the right song can say a lot, y'know? I sometimes think these musicians speak for me better than I speak for myself and shit. A little silly, but y'know me! A life without music ain't one worth living!"

Maybe that's what whoever put a book in there was trying to say? That the book spoke for them more than they could? It was more relatable than it was profound. Maybe he was projecting? It wasn't worth thinking about. Meilin's own contribution to the mystery box was much more interesting to Ace.

"So what you recommend? Something with a dope clarinet solo?"

He knew Meilin played Orchestral music and while it wasn't Ace's bag, he was starting to practice sampling melodies and beats from other songs for the purpose of creating his own. Orchestral music was nearly always instrumental and that was good for butchering using songs to build new ones. The catalogue of classical music was much more expansive and well studied than the pantheon of rappers Ace found himself listening to almost exclusively. It would be good to diversify his tastes a bit!

And, er, he wanted to know about the stuff that Meilin liked as well. He respected her musical taste!

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Meilin nodded along with Ace's profound interpretation of her actions. Well, it was quite possible that sort of thought process was going on, like, subconsciously, but it wasn't really something actively on her mind, you know? Oh heck, who was she to rain on his parade? Besides, he was right- a life without music isn't one worth living in!

"Well, it's an orchestral piece my middle school band played- Primal, by Sean O'Loughlin. I know, I know, it's simple in terms of how easy it is to play, but it's big, and energetic, and just overall pretty fun!" She explained her recommendation. "I guess there's a bit of nostalgia in for me too..."

At that, she trailed off a bit looking into the distance at nothing in particular, with a fondly reminiscing half-smile. Those were good times, sitting together in the music room with all her old friends in middle school- a choice few stretching all the way back to first grade. That's not to say the bustle of GHHS' social scene wasn't an absolute blast, because it was! Besides, it lead to her meeting Ace, Leslie, Lucas, and a whole bunch of generally great people. Really though, wasn't it perfectly possible to be content with your current situation but also wish for old days?

She then snapped back to the present, and brought her attention back to Ace, her smile widening to what it was a few moments ago. Not really feeling there was much else she needed to say, she gave a single friendly nod to him, prodding him to respond.