Freedom!

[Hiro†]

((Charlie Beckwith continued from Sparse))

"...of the Commons is a concept attributed to famous ecologist Garret Hardin, who first presented..."

Charlie's mind was fading in and out of reality as he stared blankly off into space, his cheek nestled comfortably against the olive-green fabric of his hoodie sleeve. One moment he would catch a word or two of Mrs. Young's lecture, and the next moment he would be watching Gordon Freeman beat the shit out of headcrab zombies. It was hard for him to concentrate when video games were on his mind. Come to think of it, it was hard for him to concentrate period. He never was one to learn much from lectures or presentations or any other waste of time that the teachers subject him to every class. As far as he was concerned, he would do his own thing, and let his grades speak for themselves. And considering his A- average in practically every class he had, it appeared to be serving him well so far.

Holding his hand in front of his mouth, he stifled a long yawn before slipping two fingers under the frames of his glasses, rubbing his eye. Mrs. Young was still rambling on about individuals acting in their own self-interest and destruction of shared limited resources. Resting his chin on his folded arms, Charlie stared blankly at her, not hearing a single word she said.

Why did I choose Environmental Science again? he pondered to himself.

But before he could ponder the question, a long, loud ring echoed through the classroom. Charlie could feel the tension instantly lift from the room as kids began to get up from their seats and pack up.

"Don't forget about your homework this weekend!" Mrs. Young called out to the class. Charlie doubted half the kids heard her, much less listened. Rising from his seat, he slung his backpack over his shoulder.

"Friday..." he absent-mindedly muttered to himself. "No volleyball practice, but...work." A dejected sigh escaped his lips. It wasn't that he hated his job or anything, it just wasn't very high on his list of ways he'd like to spend his Friday evenings. But unfortunately, he was required to work at least three days a week if he wanted to keep the job, and as much as he liked to complain, he loved money too much to quit.

Tucking his old, tattered binder under his arm, Charlie held back, waiting for the initial congestion of dozen of students trying to cram through a door all at once to disperse.

[landlocked†]

The minute she had entered Mrs. Young's classroom, Natalie knew that she wasn't going to be able to pay any attention whatsoever to anything that was said. Never mind the fact that the class was Environmental Sciences (she still wasn't entirely sure what that name meant), never mind the fact that it was the last class of the day on a Friday and nobody's mind was on schoolwork, she hadn't slept at all last night, choosing instead to stay up painting, and it had been an effort just to stay awake in all of her other classes today. She wouldn't have come in today at all if it weren't for the fact that she had already gotten detention a week ago because of her poor attendance. Freaking tightasses, it wasn't her fault that spending the day in the art wing was more stimulating than listening to a teacher drone on about something totally irrelevant to her life. To top it all off, she had work right after school, too, but at the very least she could make up for her lack of sleep with a few cups of free coffee.

None of that concerned Natalie at the moment, however. What concerned her was the towering hamster just outside the window - it wouldn't stop bumping into the side of the building, the windows were going to break, the glass was shattering, desks and students were toppling out the window, everything was a strange shade of purple and red and someone was yelling, the hamster had stuck its face through the shattered window and it was gigantic, but no one understood, they just had to talk it down, it didn't want to hurt anyone, and there was a ringing sound, was that-?

Natalie was suddenly jerked awake by the school bell - after putting her head to her desk in bored sulk, she had found herself unable to raise it, and shortly fell dead asleep. There was a dry and sour taste in her mouth, and she could feel cool, wet drool on one cheek. Adjusting her glasses, she looked around the room at the students packing up, eager to get out of the school as quickly as possible. Mrs. Young gave her an exasperated glance, but didn't say anything as she watched Natalie jerk awake - the fact that Natalie had come to class at all was a big enough deal.

Having forgotten her textbook at home, it didn't take very long for Natalie to pack up, and as soon as she was done, she reached into her pocket, pulled out her cell phone, speed dialed home and left a quick message before abruptly hanging up once again.

"Hey, guys, it's Natalie, you know the deal, working at the coffee shop right after school tonight, please send someone with a vehicle to pick me up when it's over. Peaaace."

That free coffee could not come soon enough.

[Hiro†]

As the crowd of students at the door began to disperse, a nearby voice caught Charlie's attention. Turning his head towards the voice, he caught sight of one of his classmates, Natalie Williams, leaving a message on her cell. She was one of the co-workers at the coffee shop where Charlie worked. The two of them didn't talk too much at school, but from what he'd thus far gathered, she was the mellow, laid-back type. And judging by the paintings that she kept having their boss Richie hang up in the shop, not to mention her..."unique" way of dressing, he judged that she had an artistic streak too.

Charlie paused for a moment, just watching her as she finished up her message and stashed her phone away. The two of them had been making the same commute from school to work every Friday for...he wasn't sure how long. And yet they had never actually went together. Charlie had never really considered walking with her, and he was pretty sure that she hadn't either. She didn't seem like the type who would care either way.

Shrugging to himself, Charlie adjusted his backpack strap against his shoulder and walked over to Natalie. Screw it, he thought.

"Hey Nat, you wanna walk to work with me?"

What's life without taking risks?

[landlocked†]

No sooner than she hung her phone up, Natalie heard that she was being addressed - Charlie, one of the guys she worked with. A bit slow to react due to fatigue, Natalie did not take in what he was saying to her immediately, staring a bit blankly. It must have come off as somewhat odd, but Natalie wouldn't have minded even if she was fully conscious.

Charlie... it was odd that she didn't know all that much about him. After all, they both worked the Friday shift together, they both took the same route to get there, it wasn't like they'd never spoken at all before. But then again, their interests were certainly different, as well. Charlie had always come across as a bit of a nerd to Natalie, and television and video games had never really interested her much. The fact that he definitely seemed to be better off financially than Natalie also made her a bit skeptical of him. As she thought about it a bit more, however, Natalie realized that she was often not paying much to her surroundings, simply going through the motions when she worked on Fridays - it was one day until the weekend, until she got to sleep in, she had so many other things to think about, and she supposed she just never really bothered to talk much more than she really needed to.

She continued to ponder, still staring oddly at Charlie. Interests and money aside, it's not like Charlie had done anything in particular to prove he was an asshole - he was usually pretty polite, especially considering how zoned out Natalie tended to be at work sometimes. What reason did she have to say no?

"Yeah, all right," she said, finally breaking her own silence, "We might as well, right? The more the merrier and all that. It'd help keep me awake, anyway..." She stifled a bit of a yawn as she spoke. "Aaah, sorry about that. Late night..."

[Hiro†]

Charlie blinked, watching Natalie as she stared at him with vacant eyes, as though she were staring right through his head. There was a long pause as they stood there, Charlie waiting for Natalie to answer, and Natalie doing...whatever the hell she was doing inside that head of hers. Charlie could feel his heart begin to beat faster in his chest as anxiety slowly crept through his body. This...is not a good sign.

However, after a long, awkward moment, Natalie finally answered. Relief instantly flowed through Charlie's body, his shoulders relaxing and drooping as though a great weight had been lifted from them. Thank God...

"Don't sweat it," he said to the late-night remark. Making his way towards the door with Natalie, he kept his gait slow and steady, making sure not to walk at his usual speed and leave her in his dust. "Had lots of homework or somethin'?"

[landlocked†]

Natalie noted that Charlie seemed slightly uncomfortable by her staring, but didn't particularly care much. "Or something," she answered him, smiling and nodding a bit, "I guess it wasn't technically homework, I mean, it was a painting for Studio, but I want to hang it up in the cafe, too. Like, I've been having all these really trippy dreams lately, and they all seem to have hamsters in them for some reason. I have no idea why. But I've been doing a painting of just a giant stampede of them, like, I found a bunch of photos in National Geo for reference and my sister has a pet hamster, too, it's going to be so great."

Natalie continued to ramble a bit about her painting as she walked out the door at Charlie's side, partially aware of the fact that she wasn't making herself seem any less bizarre, but still not caring much. It was sort of nice to babble about the idea she had had floating around in her head for a while, even if Charlie wasn't the artistic type.

"I don't even know why it's hamsters, you know? Maybe they're like, supposed to represent domesticity or something, I mean, that's something that I've been thinking about a lot, you know, like... I dunno, entrapment. Spinning around on a hamster wheel or... something, maybe my subconscious just really likes hamsters. But like, the colors are really vivid in my dreams, too, and..."

She finally stopped herself as the two continued their walk.

"Ha... sorry, I get a little excited about this kinda thing... least I'm a little more awake... Um... You got any particular plans this weekend? Besides that assignment that we just got." It sounded a little awkward, but hey, she was trying to make conversation. Better than walking the entire way in silence.

[Hiro†]

Charlie just walked and listened as Natalie rambled on about painting and hamsters and painting hamsters. It was admittedly a rather strange topic, but Charlie couldn't help but feel glad that he was walking with someone who had stuff to talk about. Being the boy of few words that he was, he often relied on those around him to do most of the talking, only piping up when he deemed it completely necessary or saw potential for comic relief.

Just as he was pondering how patently silly it would be to have a painting of stampeding hamsters hanging up in the cafe, Natalie cut herself off and apologized. But just as he was about to tell her that he didn't mind, she threw a question at him. Caught off guard, he stumbled mentally for a moment.

"Er...not really," he answered. "Just, y'know, working and stuff. You?"

[landlocked†]

Charlie didn't seem particularly responsive to her hamster ramblings, but Natalie supposed that was to be expected. He didn't seem particularly responsive when she tried to include him in the conversation, either, though. Eh. Oh, well.

"Not a ton, either. Probably finish the painting if I can get enough work in, I think I might be working the Saturday shift, too, though. Don't know exactly when I'm going to fit all this homework into my schedule, but... eh, details." She laughed a bit as she said this, though it matched her sentiments towards homework pretty well.

She continued to walk with Charlie through the hallway and out of the school's double doors, continuing with the idle chitchat on occasion, and still babbling a bit about painting every once in a while.

((Natalie Williams continued in Sing Us A Song.))

[Hiro†]

"One always finds time," Charlie responded to Natalie's comment about homework, as he followed her through the school. At least for him, this was always true. He could procrastinate all he wanted, but at the end of the day, some hidden drive within him would push him to complete all his homework on time. It had been that way for him ever since elementary school when, left with nothing to do but sit around at school for 2 and a half hours waiting for his mother to come pick him up, he would breeze through his homework. It was a habit that he was most thankful to have developed.

Stepping through the double doors with Natalie, his eyes immediately turned towards the ground as afternoon sunlight flooded his vision, making his eyes sting with discomfort. Watching the ground in front of him, he continued his trek with Natalie towards the mall.

((Charlie Beckwith continued in Sing Us a Song))