An after school meeting

[TheLeakyFaucet†]

Laverne smiled at Brook as she swam over. He was a nice guy when it came down to it - or at least better than some of the other kids who picked on her. He was friendly, and even though there were very few traits that someone like Laverne Falciander could find decent in a person, she appreciated his blind willingness to strike up a conversation with anyone. It took a mixture of self-confidence, guts and stupidity in her opinion. Some people had all three. Others had none. Lots of people have none....

She tried to keep the smile on her face as she struggled to keep her heavy body afloat. Swimming really was good excercise. Maybe even better than gym in her mind. It had been decided that mainly due to issues of poor self-confidence and intense bullying that went on, physical education was only mandatory twice a week for Laverne. Her weekend jogs and after-school workouts made up for most of this; there was also the plus-side that she didn't have to deal with the kids picking on her when she changed in the locker room. Sure, they never directly did anything besides name-calling, but the cruelty was definitley implied. The other girls would poke their friends on the shoulders and then point at her as she changed, turning around giggling like hyenas as they shielded their eyes. Losers. Just a bunch of losers. Thank God showering in gym pretty much vanished during the twenty-first century...

Swimming was great though. It made you feel feather-light in the water and it cleaned you off. Along with that, it was a great way to work out. Looking around the pool, Laverne noticed another girl was swimming too now. She didn't seem to be taking much notice of them and only seemed immersed in swimming her lap around the pool.

"Another crappy day indeed", Laverne said as she looked back. She said it with a laugh that somehow didn't reach her eyes. She was staring at Brook coldly, surveying him up and down as she did everyone. He was in decent shape, especially compared to her, but she could definitley beat him in a lap around the pool. She could probably beat that girl who was swimming too. Beat anyone, Laverne. Keep that in mind. If you want to get better, you have to keep that mentality. Who cares if you're fat? You can beat them all...

She quickly made a mental list of everyone in the room. It gave her a feeling of control. If she knew who they were, maybe she'd feel better. Maybe she'd have some kind of power over the situation - even if it was just hanging out in the school pool. Nevertheless, she chalked up her list. Liam Brooks. Peter 'whatshisname'. That swimmer girl (Who is that anyway? I can't tell who she is from here....). And then there's you, girl: Laverne Falciander; the Hurricane of Bayview. Where's your place in all of this?

"Anyway", Laverne continued. "I'm just cooling off here. Swimming's a good stress reliever for me".

[T-Fox†]

Peter breached the water some distance down the pool from Brook and Laverne, just out of earshot of the conversation. His plan for the next hour or so was to do nothing more than just float around and relax, and that's just what he did. He lied back, gently floating over the surface of the water, every so often, kicking his legs. I wonder how long they plan on being here... He thought to himself, just before floating into a wall.

"Ow! God damn it..." The boy exclaimed, flipping over in the water and pushing himself off, before this time launching himself straight into Madeline. Right as he felt his head begin to brush against her, he flailed, attempting to slow himself down. An unintelligible noise emanated from Peter's mouth, bubbles pouring out of the cool water. It only took him a moment to right himself, but not before a slight panic that he may have hurt the girl. "I'm so sorry, are you alright? I wasn't exactly looking where I was looking..." His face was crimson, burning as the cool water rolled over his cheeks.

[blastinus]

What in the world?! How'd he get over here?

Before Madeleine was quite aware of it, one of the men had come from the other end of the pool to swim in the lane she was occupying. Focused as she was on making sure she didn't do a header into the end of the pool when she reached that part, she only noticed that he was there when his head collided right with her ribs, knocking her over to the side. Though she did brush against the side of the pool, they were mostly planed finely, such that all that happened was that she bounced off without any damage to her whatsoever. All told, no harm done, but the man acted like he had been assaulted by the equivalent of an aquatic bee before finally righting himself.

Maybe I wasn't too far off about the piranhas thing.

"No no no, I-I'm fine," she stammered really quickly in response to his apology. "A-Are you okay though? You looked hurt!"

Congratulations, you talked. Now let's work on the Porky Pig thing.

Sometimes Madeleine wished she could be this sarcastic in her regular speech. Maybe it'd make people stop bumping into her, accidentally or otherwise.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Brook had an interesting method of telling the passage of time, as loose as it was. Whenever he drifted from one side of the pool to the next, his head would lightly touch against one of the lined walls. He'd then redirect himself so his feet were touching the wall, push off, and then gently float back to the other side of the pool. It probably interfered with other people jumping in and he wasn't perfectly straight each time, but relaxation was the whole point of why he was at the pool in the first place. He hadn't hit anybody just yet, so it wasn't doing any harm.

After five touches to each end of the pool, however, Brook started to get bored and the serenity of his actions was lost in comparison to the sheere monotony of it all. Yeah... that's about enough of that. It's time that I headed out. Taking an unnecessarily deep breath, Liam pulled his feet under him and aligned his body back into a vertical position. Once he did so and opened his eyes, he saw that he was only a few feet away from Peter and Madeleine. "Huh... hey, Peter! Think I'm about ready to call it a day..." He looked from the shorter boy to the girl he had never really talked to, then back. "So, uh, yeah! Catch you tomorrow for morning classes!" Brook groaned from the cold of the air as he waded over to the side of the pool and pulled himself out, deciding to forget the ladder entirely.

Just need to get myself home and put these last few failures behind me. What a waste of my time this week's been so far.

((Liam "Brook" Brooks, continued in Tending the Flowers))

[TheLeakyFaucet†]

Brook left and Laverne half-heartedly waved goodbye. It was still pretty early after school so going home soon really wasn't an option. For the most part, home was one of the last places that Laverne wanted to be. Home meant having to go to your room and have no one to really talk to. Home meant having to push yourself to stay on top of homework - and worst of all, home meant the dinner table. If there was one symbol in the world fit to represent the repetitive, dull nature of Laverne Falciander's life, the dinner table would have served aptly enough. All you had to do was slide your heavy ass into a chair that was too small for you and feel like a pig as you shoved down mashed potatoes and peas. And worst of all, her sisters would be there. Amanda and Julie would prattle on about their boyfriends, their good test scores, the parties they were invited to and in general, the fact that they were succeeding in life while she was failing miserably. And while that was happening, all Laverne could do was force down her potatoes and gravy. Still, the pool's nice. Might as well stick around a little while...

She looked around and noticed that Peter was with that girl that had been swimming around. He wasn't sure exactly how he'd gotten there, and quite frankly, she didn't care. Laverne didn't like Peter. She didn't like the girl either. They were intruders more or less; intruders on her private time. Her meditation. Her time in the pool to relax. Are you crazy or something girl? Why do you always have to be so judgemental? They're just people. There's nothing wrong with Peter and there's nothing with that chick either. Stop judging everyone and maybe you'll like yourself a little more...

"Can't beat em, join em", Laverne muttered under her breathe.

Then she started to swim over to her two classmates.

[T-Fox†]

Peter finally felt his feet touch down on the cool pool floor. He seemed incredibly calm for someone who had just flailed in such a fashion as he just did. The weightlessness of the chlorinated water made it easy for him to make himself taller, standing on his tip-toes as the water helped to pull him up. "No, don't worry. I'm fine. I honestly didn't see you there." A faint blush creeping across the boy's cheeks.

He honestly didn't even seem to notice the stammering, as he continued to stand there. "Well, I don't think I've ever actually met you around the college. I'm Peter." He pulled his hand out of the water, extending it towards her to shake, smiling softly.

[blastinus]

"Oh...hi." With a hand extended towards her, Madeleine felt the uncomfortable revelation that she was obligated to shake it. Still, it was just a handshake. She'd done a few of those during orientation, so overall, she knew that they weren't too uncomfortable. Tentatively, she reached out her own hand and lightly took hold of Peter's, giving it a quick up-and-down motion before swiftly withdrawing it. His hand felt kind of warm, surprisingly enough, considering that they were all in a chilly pool.

Don't overreact now. It's only a handshake. It's not like he's proposing on bended knee.

"I...My name's Madeleine," she said, obviously a bit nervous. Just then, Laverne began swimming over to the two of them. Hastily thinking about how to properly deal with the situation, she asked Peter, "Umm...are you two.....friends?" She hoped that the glance she made over his shoulder and the question would clue him in that Laverne was approaching, otherwise that question would likely be a tad confusing.

[TheLeakyFaucet†]

Laverne fantasized for a moment that she was a mermaid. She wasn't treading water like some kind of whale girl – she was under the sea and caked under the light of the surface, her weight melting away and ceasing to matter just like the rest of her. It really was a cleansing experience. Not just for the body, but for the soul.

But she wasn't a mermaid. She was actually a fat girl gagging on chlorinated water, her body sloshing as she forced her way toward the two other occupants of the pool. She sniffled for a second, feeling like throwing up and unaware of the thick line of snot coming out of her nose. Her whole body was aching, and at only eighteen, this wasn't a good sign. How far was she going to make it at this rate? Twenty? Thirty?

Laverne shuddered and shook the thought – her greatest fear – away. It really was something she didn't want to think about. Swimming onward, she tried to think of things that made her happy. Smores. Stuffed animals. Trophies that she was never going to get. Great barbeque at every Falciander family reunion. Cute boys that were never going to date her.

Boys...

Her mother had dropped out of school pregnant with Amanda, Laverne's eldest sister, and Laverne was determined not to end up the same way. It really wouldn't be that hard – after all, most of the guys in school would rather joke about her than take a step anywhere near her. She wasn't going to prom, that was for sure. She'd probably just stay home, maybe bake some chocolate chip cookies and watch some of those tragic Hispanic television shows that her older sister had gotten subtitled into English. It wouldn't be the same kind of fun as everyone else, but hey, it was prom night. You had to live it up.

Laverne finally got a few feet away from the others. Praying they hadn't watched her whole struggle to get over, she flashed a smile with her gapped teeth and treaded water beside them. It was too late – the girl had looked over at her, and that meant she had seen her flaws. She'd mocked her. Laverne surveyed each of them up and down and grimaced. The girl was average in her eyes and so was the boy. Neither of them were really cut out for life in the real run. In fact, nobody at Bayview was really cut out for anything. They were all going to grow up and marry stupid people, have stupid families and have stupid jobs. Well, she was too, but she didn't like to think about that. It was so much easier to blame other people...

"Hey guys", Laverne said with a smirk. "How's it going?"

[T-Fox†]

Peter almost seemed to tilt his head at the girl's question, pretty oblivious to Laverne's approach, which indeed did make the question a bit confusing, which was evident in his voice. "Erm... What, you mean me and Brook? I guess you could say that, although I don't know him too well..."

As Laverne approached, Peter noticed the shift in water, and turned to look, and unfortunately for him, the first thing that his poor perception noticed was that line of mucus running out of her nose. He shuddered almost visibly, quickly looking around. He had absolutely nothing against Laverne. He didn't know her well, but he really wasn't one to judge. Just that first view he got of her... Well, it repulsed him slightly. Before Laverne had reached the two, He quickly bid adieu to Madeline, pulling himself from the pool. It didn't cross his mind once what this quick retreat may have said to Laverne though, given that she probably didn't know about her exact appearance at the moment. With that, he tried to look as casual as possible while strolling over to the locker rooms, quickly turning on the shower and closing his eyes, making an audible, disgusted groan.

((Peter McCue continued in Gotta Make the Grade.))

[blastinus]

"Hey guys. How's it going?"

As Peter quickly made his exit, Madeleine became aware that he hadn't actually responded to Laverne's greeting question. This meant that the obligation of responding to it fell on her shoulders, otherwise it'd be a great insult to her. Treading water, the young artist considered how best to respond to a question like that, considering that she didn't know Laverne at all. Finally, she responded with, "I could...I could be better."

The sight of a pudgy person wasn't too unsettling for Madeleine, despite the mucus. Nonetheless, she began to realize that she was alone with somebody after school hours. That was just asking for something to happen. And so, pulling herself up from the water, she walked over to the nearby locker room, stopping halfway there to say, "My name's...Madeleine. I...goodbye!" With any luck, she'd have the chlorine out of her hair and get herself changed before Laverne got out of the pool. The thought of being stuck in a locker room with one other person made her even more nervous than being in the same pool.

Relax, relax. Not everyone wants to do that to people.

Somehow, she still found it hard to relax, not until she got changed back into her street clothes and out into the school halls.

(Madeleine Smith continued elsewhere)

[TheLeakyFaucet†]

Laverne Falciander didn't know whether to feel offended or not. In the back of her mind, there was the omnipresent realization that she'd scared people away again. That tended to happen a lot; and if they weren't scared then, well, they'd probably just been disgusted like Laverne's thoughts and body had been encased in a greasy layer of slime. Laverne tredded water as she watched Madeleine hurry out of the pool like she'd just seen a ghost.

Never stopping to think Madeliene and Peter might have just had to go, she thought:

Fine! Who needs you anyway, you judgemental fucks? Everyone has the right to run for the hills when Heavy Leavy comes, huh? Does the sight of The Hurricane really piss you off that much? Can't handle looking at her, is that it? No? Well fuck you!

But that wasn't what came out of her mouth. Not in a million years. What really came out was:

"Bye!' Laverne called cheerfully. "See you later!"

Then she started swimming to the pool's ladder, one painful slosh of water and beefy arms at a time. She was, after all, a mermaid - or at least someday she'd be if things turned in her favor. She needed an opportunity - yes, that was it! She needed a roll of a dice, a quick chance on the wheel of fortune, to show them all how much it hurt. Make them just as ugly on the outside as they are on the outside. The whole lot of them....

But when would that happen?

Laverne got out of the pool, changed in the locker room and left, pissed that she'd even went to the pool in the first place.

((Laverne Falciander continued in A Few Administration Issues))