Early in the Morning

[Endellion]

[ Julien Leblanc - Prom Start ]

Having found himself at one of those times when he had a free period, Julien revelled in doing absolutely nothing of any importance. He didn't think about prom, or how he'd most likely cross paths with a certain someone if he even found somebody to go with and whether he was sure if he even wanted to deal with that yet.

Not about going home either. Obvious reasons besides, however much the yawning void of his bedroom beckoned him descending into isolation wouldn't do anything in the end. No, it was better to find things to do instead.

Life had a way of going on all the same, lost friends or not, after all. And that was exactly why he was wandering around listening to jazz.

Julien sighed.

It was blatantly obvious to him that this achieved nothing. But before he could sink back into the hole that he'd dug for himself once more, he was fortunate enough to come across someone who could maybe help him out of it for a little while.

"Oh, hello Camilla. Sorry, I almost didn't see you there." He made an effort to perk himself up some as he said it, and briefly wondered what it meant if someone raised as he'd been was most comfortable confiding in someone that taunted him and punched him in the face before setting those thoughts aside. If he wished to ask himself that, this really wasn't the time or place.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

[Camilla Bell - PROM 1]

"Oh-"

Tripping over your own legs was an all too real possibility, and when you're tall, there's more leg to trip over. At least, that's how Camilla thought it worked- it was either wrong or she'd found her way around it considering she wasn't the kind to trip very often at all. Luckily this trip wasn't too obvious- maybe? It was a just a small stumble, the kind that she assumed Julien would forgive. At least, she should be grateful she caught his attention of all people, and not a less socially forgiving guy.

Straightening herself out, she turned to Julien with a smile and a nod. "Hello, how are you?"

Julien didn't seem to be doing much of importance- but perhaps, he might be thinking. There were an awful lot of things he could have been thinking about, and some of them might have been important. Though, Camilla assumed someone with a bit more finesse in the talking department would have an easier time following a train of thought and a conversation at the same time. Or do they? She could not know, for she was not a mind-reader or telepath. Would it be more or less easy for her to be a bit more extroverted if she could converse telepathically? Hm.

As for Camilla, she wasn't doing much important either. It was a lazy free period and her homework was all but done. The only thing she had to put much thought towards was keeping a little plastic tupperware box, full of cookies baked this morning, safe in her backpack. She had always suspected a member or two of the gardening club only came for the snacks, but hey, snacks were something she was good at.

[Endellion]

Julien had taken out his headphones when he'd addressed her, yet forgotten to turn the music off. Fortunately, he was used enough to his phone that he didn't need to look away to do it, and he had the same easy-going smile as usual on his face. "Ah... not too bad, thankfully."

What he saw seemed fairly indicative of what Camilla was like to him, if he ever had to sum her up. A little unwieldy, perhaps, but a good person to be around all the same.

"Seems like you're doing quite well too." It wasn't lost on him that it could come across like a jab at her given the circumstance, but he meant it; she was every bit her usual self from what he could tell.

It occurred to Julien that before he might have had some trouble thinking of something to say to keep things moving on. Camilla wasn't often the most talkative of people, after all, and there wasn't overly much she busied herself with here besides studying, her gardening club and occasionally Magic; hardly the easiest topics of conversation to work with. But now wasn't before, and it was all the better for it in its own way.

So he just took a shot in the dark. "Gotten up to anything special lately?"

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

"Special, special..." she pondered her head slowly swinging to the floor as she thought.

The truth was there was nothing special. Camilla often heard of drama going around the school, people breaking up, making up, getting beaten up, and she could only wonder- did she do something wrong? Right? Because it seemed her high school career was painfully drama-free, uneventful, all that stuff.

Of course, perhaps she'd have a more interesting time if she started talking to people sooner.

Bringing her head back up facing Julien, she shook her head.

"Ah, just the usual. The most special thing happening would be the gardening club today."

She still thought it was a miracle she got that up and running at all.

"You?"

Julien, Camilla thought, would likely have a more eventful life than her. He was friends with Faith, for crying out loud. Someone who was willingly Wyatt's side chick was bound to make a few interesting choices. Someone who chose to be friends with her, likewise, even if she trusted Julien infinitely more. Well... he wasn't a bad person- in fact a very good person in her opinion- but she thought he hated Wyatt. Though, relationships were complicated. Hm. Maybe 'may you have an interesting life' was a curse, after all. Maybe she should be thankful.

[Endellion]

He couldn't exactly say that the answer he got came as much surprise to him.

"Me neither."

Though it didn't strike him as being a particularly good one, from where he stood. Julien was hardly about to fault Camilla for thinking of gardening club as a highlight, especially not given her role in it, and he couldn't exactly say he had a single thing to look forward to in the near future—

Like that, the idea hit him. It surprised him that he found the idea so amicable, but a little thought cast enough light for it to make perfect sense. He saw no reason why she shouldn't have a little something more to look forward to, especially when he figured she'd likely been passively overlooked as even a consideration to the people who knew her well enough. The biggest obstacle that he could think of would be asking her in the right way to get the result he wanted.

"No plans for prom then, huh?"

Julien wasn't about to go being too roundabout, though. He wasn't going to jump straight there, yes, but meandering was out of the question as well.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

At the mention of the Cursed Event, Camilla froze in place for a hot second. If Camilla was some kind of honey-producing bee, prom would be a honey badger, perhaps a whole herd of them, except instead of giving no fucks, they gave far too many. That being said, she went once in grade 9, and it was... not totally awful, but a bit lonely. She mostly sat off to the side browsing embroidery artist pictures on tumblr, which only helped her withdraw into a pit of disappointment in herself. The pictures were super pretty though, so it was kinda worth it, maybe sorta. So yeah, the first thing was an exaggeration. This year she had friends! A somewhat functional social circle! (If your definition of a functional social circle was 'silence and/or being nerdy losers'.) Perhaps she could make do with that at prom.

"Well, no, not really," she answered Julien. "What about you?"

She figured he'd at least have some idea of what he would do and who he was going with, even if it was just a group of friends. Surely though, he'd have thought of asking someone out. The first choice that came to her mind was Faith, but that was out of the question since You-Know-Who was on her mind, probably.

[Endellion]

"Hmm... a few," he lied.

A bad habit of his was trying to hazard guesses at what might be going through other people's minds at certain points in time. It was still something that plagued him, but right now Julien was betting on being close enough to correct to count.

Riding through things by the seat of his pants was fun. Not as much so as seeing her near-guaranteed surprise would be, yes, but he did wish that he'd been a better judge about saying what he wanted to say long before now; as he'd thought earlier, though, now wasn't before, and that didn't cease to hold true just because he wanted to mope over his own shortcomings. So he just came out and said it.

So much for easing into things.

"I'm looking at my first choice right now, in fact."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Well that didn't surprise Camilla. She wasn't entirely sure of what- or who- that first choice would be, though. Would it be rude to intrude?

"Oh? What's that?" she questioned, adding in a "If you don't mind saying of course," in the midst of a mild internal panic.

Of course, there was the question of whether that would make it better or worse, as the 'mild internal panic' merrily continued on its way. To distract herself, she tried guessing at what the choice might be, which was mostly flipping through the names of girls who she vaguely remembered. Nia? Aliya? Mercy? The other Camila? Luca? She wasn't even entirely sure if all those girls were known to Julien, they sure weren't all known to her.

[Endellion]

"Why, you are, of course," he said, just as straight as before.

Julien was fairly certain he'd been quite clear enough about what he meant, so he was caught a touch off-guard by it. But some liberal application of Occam's razor helped him resolve that soon enough.

It was an understandable response, all things considered. Putting too much on her would go quite horribly wrong, so saying anything more than that at the moment struck him as being absolutely out of the question. Silence and waiting patiently for whatever was next didn't particularly seem the best of options either, but the ball remained in her court without any attempts at guilt-tripping or excessive pressure put on Camilla and that was what he'd have to settle for.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilal nodded her head at what she assumed to be some girl's name. A girl named Yu, huh? Never heard of-

"...excuse me?"

Now, hold on one second. Did Julien just admit that his number one choice for a prom date was her? Her? Was he mad? Mad in the head? Mad at someone and looking to spite them with a spite-date? Is that even a thing? It was probably very unlike him to do such a thing though, at least to hang out with someone with ill intent to someone else specifically.

It then clicked in her head what he was saying earlier. I'm looking at my first choice right now. Ohhhh, he was being literal. Still didn't answer the vast majority of her questions after she mentally slapped herself. The most important one being- Why?! What's gotten into you, Jules? Okay, he could have worse dates. At that thought she mentally slapped herself again. Though, Julien was a friend. It would be nice to go out with a friend sometime, perhaps.

Her mouth just hung slightly open all the while she was thinking, though she brought her hand up to cover it so she didn't look like too much of an idiot. Until of course, she decided she wanted to talk again.

"I... was not expecting this," she thought aloud, mostly to herself. "I mean sure, I'm sure it'll be nice-" Oh, she just said yes to prom. Oh, dear. "So yeah. I'll go." she finished, nailing herself in the coffin.

She finished her mini ramble with a small, probably crooked smile.

[Endellion]

"Thank you." Julien repaid her smile with one of his own.

And while bumping into Camilla here had certainly been a lovely coincidence, he would be lying again to say that he'd come entirely unprepared for this. "Well, now that it wouldn't be quite so awkward to do this..." he said, opening up his satchel to remove a thin, unmarked black box that he held out to Camilla. A hint of nervousness crept onto his face for the first time since he'd addressed her. "For you. I hope that you like it."

It had been a carefully considered choice, the last few days before this one dedicated much to mulling it over and browsing in search of a choice that felt just right. If he never had to hear a single commendation about whoever the lucky lady was again for the rest of his days, Julien would be content to think himself a lucky man indeed. Of course, that investment had paid off in the end.

I hope.

Silver chain, with a diamond pendant shaped like a flower. That was what he'd ultimately chosen to put in that box, and it certainly hadn't been cheap. The price had made him die just a little inside... not to mention his parents' questions when he arrived home and they naturally caught wind of what he'd bought.

"I would suggest keeping it nice and safe inside your bag for the time being, but if you want to take a look at it now be my guest."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilla blinked, staring at the unexpected gift in front of her before reaching out and taking it into her hands, looking to Julien with a smile and a nod. From the boxing, she could only guess it was some kind of jewelry- though would that really be a sort of present you'd give to a friend just for prom?

"Why thank you..." she replied a bit shakily, tapping her thumb's nail against the box lightly.

Daring to peek inside just to confirm her guesses, she lifted the box open just a bit- eyes widened, she shut it again, and immediately swung around her backpack, opening up the front pocket and tucking it in there. He was right, something that valuable should absolutely be kept nice and safe. No, even safer!

So Julien was the kind of person to give their platonic prom date a gift like that. Huh. She'd be reluctant to tell her mother a boy gave it to her for fear of the inevitable torrent of teasing that would come afterwards. Well, at least the pendant was certainly lovely, a glittering clear gem, literally. She felt she owed a bit more of an extensive thanks for it.

"That's... really generous of you, you know?" was the first answer to come out of her mouth that she thought of. Way to go, captain obvious.

[Endellion]

"Thank you. It's quite alright, though."

It seemed like the gift had exactly the impression that he'd hoped for it to. "It's hardly the least I could do, yes," Julien said, "but I wouldn't make for a very good prom date if I took half-measures, don't you agree?"

He'd be paying the cost off for a good long while but of course, there was no need for Camilla to be any the wiser about that. She would clearly be keeping it quite safe as well and besides, the whole thing was worthwhile enough that he could look forward to seeing her wearing it at prom. He did hope it would fit her well, but pains had also been taken to make sure that'd be the case.

"Well, I think I'll leave you to it, if you don't mind."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilla simply nodded, with a wider smile. Her hand moved back to her backpack while it was still in front of her, opening it up just to check on the two valuables within- the gift she just received, and gardening club snacks, which reminded her...

"Ah, I should probably get these to the gardening club's room before the end of the day."

Did she really? Well, it seemed Julien was fine with ending the conversation there. It was just a way to end off, if not a particularly graceful one.

"Well, I'll see you around," she signed off. "And at prom, of course."

And then she dashed off towards an uncertain chore.

[Camilla Bell - PROM 2, The Perks of Being a Wallflower]