For the people all said "Sit down, sit down you're rockin' the boat."

[Yugikun]

((Jeremy Frasier, continued from  The First Mistake))

It was a Tuesday afternoon. Jeremy Frasier was finally exiting school after the longest fucking math period he'd ever been in. He remembered once reading a book that his perception of time was actually based on when and where you were, and if you were noticing the time or not. There was a saying, "time flies when you're having fun" that kinda summarised it, in a way. When you were doing something that completely absorbed you into it, you weren't noticing the time, causing the brain to speed through it, in a way. When you were doing something you found boring, though, and if you were looking at the time to see when it ended; it slowed down, since you were noticing the time and every single second of it. It had been a while since he had read the book though, and he was sure he had gotten something about it wrong. He was still pretty sure he had the main gist of it, though.

Even if he had gotten it wrong though, it didn't matter. School was finally over for today, and he was finally going home to see what the internet had gotten up to. Except he wasn't actually going home for a while. His dad had told him that there was a work thing that he had to do around that time, meaning that there was nobody who could pick him up from school for half an hour. Oh well, it wasn't so bad. Normally he'd be really fucking annoyed at his parents for making him stay after school, but he was actually okay with it for some reason. He understood why they couldn't be there for him and hey, it was only half an hour, he could manage. He had been to the library earlier today and he had gotten something that he was interested in, so all was good.

Right now, he was walking across the grounds with the other students of Cochise, about to go to the school entrance in which he was supposed to be picked up from.  Again, things could be worse for him. It could be raining, or he could be waiting out the half hour in the maths class with Mrs. Brown. Part of his personal life philosophy was making the best of a bad situation, and if something bad happened to him, he could point at something else and say "could be worse." He wasn't really expecting it coming, though, so that was part of it that he fucked up.

He looked down, and looked at the book he was going to read. Paper Towns by John Green. John Green was someone he looked up to, in a way. He was the dude who made Crash Course, which was a YouTube program that he used for History and other things. He knew that Paper Towns had a movie coming out soon, so he decided to read the book to see if it was any good. He figured that reading from different authors would help him with his writing style, so that wouldn't hurt, he supposed.

He was at his exit now, he found a place on the grass, and sat down.

It was going to be a long half hour.

[Emprexx Plush]

((Ty Yazzie continued from Pool Slingshot))

Oh fuck me.

There was a short list of people Ty really didn't need to deal with today. People Ty really shouldn't deal with until he had some time to chill and decompress. On a scale of 1-10, Jeremy was a solid 8.5 on that list, easy. They didn't fight as much these days, mostly because he tried not to fight at all, but they'd gone at it a few times before. Ty'd never hit him...yet. God though, there'd been a few times he'd wanted to. He'd wanted to real bad.

It'd be a real bad idea to just walk up and start chatting with the guy right now, state he was in. Neither of them would enjoy it, and it might set off some sparks. Yep. It'd be nothing but trouble to just stride right over there and strike up a conversation, knowing it'd only lead to them biting at each other. Only a complete idiot would get mixed up in that mess.

"Hey," Ty called down from over Jeremy's book. "How's it goin'?"

[Yugikun]

So apparently everyone gets a miracle, according to this book? Huh, that was an idea he kinda dug. There was probably something that made every person on this Earth unique, even if it was something completely meaningless. It'd beat his viewpoint in that people were chained to society and got stuck in a wheel. Looking at it, nothing had happened that made him special, at least not yet, so it seemed that he hadn't gotten his miracle yet. He'd just have to work for his. Write a novel, get the fuck out of here, and live life the way he wanted to.

...Wait, this dude's miracle was living next to some girl? Yeeesh, that kinda soured his expectations rather quickly.

Still, aside from that, this book was pretty good so far. Protag felt like an actual human being, talking about his life and actually being panicked upon seeing a corpse. Writing style was alright, he could learn something from this. It seemed that John Green was okay at creating characters so far, although things might change since he was still only in the prologue. Book made him smile a bit too, with the thing about Dr Jefferson Jefferson. This was actually pretty good, and he wouldn't mind staying here for half an hour if it meant reading this. Sure, there would be the jackasses who'd speed past where he was and call him a "retarded faggot" or something like that, but he could manage that, it was unlikely that he'd remember them tomorrow and he was probably smarter than them anyway.

Someone called out to him, said hi.

Oh boy, it was Ty Yazzie.

They did not get along. For whatever reason, Jeremy doing his normal daily routine of telling jokes during class set Ty off for some reason, and he was often treated coldly by him. Despite not wanting to hate anyone, he really wasn't going to treat anyone who treated him like that with respect, and it all went downhill from there. So when somebody who visibly hated him came up and said hi, he wasn't really seeing it as a peace offering. Still, he shouldn't burn the bridge yet, he might actually want to say sorry. Jeremy looked up from his book.

"Hi," he said, a little more blank and cold than he wanted it to be.

[RC†]

((Conrad Timothy Harrod continued from Night Shift))

Conrad looked on the screen of his cellphone, when he heard an awkward conversation coming up. He looked around and saw Jeremy on the grass, while Ty looked into Jeremy's book. If Jeremy actually stood, Ty might've not been able to do that.

It was odd to know that Jeremy was taller than Conrad and Ty was shorter than him and yet Ty was more...well, he had history. Anyway, it looked like nothing good would come out of this. Conrad knew that they weren't best friends. Jeremy, a class clown, was reading a book, while Ty, a bully, was starting an awkward conversation with him.

Conrad wouldn't have thought Jeremy to read much. Reading was one of the most boring things you could do in your freetime. And the book he read didn't seem like a school book, so he was indeed reading it just for fun. Yet, Jeremy didn't seem like a boring person. Never judge a book by its cover.

While sitting on a bench he eyed the two of them and quickly looked back to his phone. He promised his parents to drive Henry home, so he had to wait. Flappy Bird's a way more interesting way to wait than reading a book. He had read enough today in school.

[Emprexx Plush]

Ty rolled his neck as he looked down at Jeremy and his book in the grass, letting the tension pop and crack out with the movement.  He was so close. School was over. He could bail out here, hole up in the garden with Chaplin, and let what was left of his anger bleed out without any trouble. Just give the kid a nod and walk on by. Nobody needed to start anything today.

There was a pair of nagging needs gnawing at the back of his consciousness, though. On the one hand, he'd never really made up with Jeremy for all the shit they'd started. Never wanted to, even though he needed to. Jeremy was up there among the people that deserved some kind of apology, probably, but the guy got under Ty's skin, so he never got around to it. Maybe today was the right place, right time. Show that he wasn't the asshole, and that he could leave the school with some good karma under his belt.

Then again, there was that other desire burning to get out. The need to express the negativity he felt, to let it out in some visceral way and pass the anger on to someone else, let them bear its burden while he walked away emptier. It had dulled from habit to temptation over these long months, but it still made his head ache every time he fought against it, the possibility of release almost dancing behind his eyelids. It'd be so easy to snap and never have to deal with this feeling again. To just throw away all the progress and let the urge start taking him again.

He didn't head either way, for now. Tipping one or the other was just too much to deal with. It was better to just orbit and find some footing. Ty cocked an eyebrow and kept his expression neutral as he glanced down at the cover of the book, looking for an in.

"Whatcha readin'?"

[Yugikun]

Ty asked him what he was reading. Jeremy had to turn his head again in an awkward position so that he could look him in the eye. It was something that was forced upon him by his parents ever since he was young. If he didn't do that, he'd get shouted at. There were other rules, of course. Don't say something bad about a shop when you're in it, always say please and thank you. It was common courtesy, and he was glad that his parents had put it into him.

But it was hard to show courtesy to someone who didn't show it back to you. He had tried reaching out to him before, but it didn't work. Seemed that Ty just didn't want his sympathy. The best bet was probably just to ignore him, treat him as if he wasn't there; but there was something about him that called him to respond, to argue with him. Jeremy knew that he was right, that he was better, so what was the problem with that?

So when Ty asked him what he was reading, he figured something out. He could just avoid this confrontation, ignore him.

Walk away.

But he didn't, he wasn't sure why. It was probably because of the casual nature of the question. It seemed, again, that Ty actually wanted to make things up. Jeremy wasn't going to let that opportunity pass, they probably weren't going to be friends at the end of this but it would probably help both of them out a little. It'd mean that he'd be able to pass Bernadette in the halls without her staring at him like he was the antichrist. He answered the question truthfully, turning himself around on the grass, and holding the book up so he could see.

"Paper Towns. John Green. It's pretty good so far."

[RC†]

John Green? Poor guy, that sounds like the most boring and unrecognisable name. Like Jack Black or Jeff Smith. Okay, Conrad actually knew the actor Jack Black. Maybe not Jack Black as a "unrecognisable name", rather a Jack White.

Actually, he'd heard of John Green as well. That guy was mentalfloss, right? Nah, there were probably dozens of John Greens and Jack Blacks and Jeff Smithes.

Conrad's name was okay. It was kinda special. Not something like Alex. Geez, how many Alexes does he know? One, two, three, four...

Whatever, he wanted to know why Jeremy was reading a book called "Paper Town". Sounds like a children's book. What was the plot? Was the book well written or is it just garbage? Why is it pretty good so far, Jeremy?

He turned to Jeremy and Ty in the grass.

"Hey, guys. I think I've heard of Paper Town", a lie, "a friend told me it's a good one."

Conrad raised an eyebrow.

"What is it about?"

He stopped playing Flappy Bird. He couldn't play and talk at the same time, after all. Well, he could, but he would fail then.

[Emprexx Plush]

New guy snapped the question right out of Ty's mouth when he wandered into the conversation. He didn't have a whole lot to add beyond that, either. John Green wasn't someone he was real familiar with, just knew he did videos online and shit. From what Ty understood, he was a real positive sort of guy. The type that got a lot of outsider glances into tragedy and tried to spin things out nicely anyway. He probably would have hated the dude not too long ago, if he put that much thought into it. Now, he just seemed kinda naive.

Didn't seem like there was much point in dragging all that out though. He gave the newcomer a glance and tried to place him in his head. He knew him from somewhere around school, that was sure, but he couldn't really put his thumb on him. They ran in different circles, not much crossover, that kinda shit. Still, maybe he'd help stabilize this whole deal. Third person meant they couldn't go off to hard on each other out of nowhere, hopefully.

Ty shifted a back and leaned against the tree while he waited for Jeremy to answer the question, staying out of the line of sight between the two of them. Wasn't a whole lot he could do until then.

[Yugikun]

Then a new guy turned up, asking what "Paper Town" was. Jeremy kinda recognised the guy. Conrad, was in student council. He didn't know much more than that, though. He was apparently pretty ignorant, though, he didn't even get the name of the book right (somehow he managed to get the plural as a singular, who manages to do that?). The tenseness of the situation with Ty awkwardly shifted to Conrad, and Jeremy jumped a little bit in surprise because of it. The situation changed, and rather than two enemies having a tense standoff, it was now somebody jumping in and acting ignorant. Probably for the best, though. It might have became ugly if it was still just him and Ty.

He was still a little surprised, though. Three people all having to stay back for a while meeting in the same place? He was pretty sure that wasn't a natural occurrence. He had his reasons, and he imagined that they were pretty fair (thank god it wasn't raining, he sometimes had to stay back because his parents forgot to pick him up and he never had a raincoat or umbrella). He didn't know what the others' reasons were, but that didn't really matter to him that much. What mattered now was that Conrad had asked a question to him.

"Uh, firstly it's Paper Towns." He said, placing emphasis on the end of the word. He hated it when people were ignorant, he had to say the same thing over and over like a broken record just so they could understand what he was saying. He knew that he did the same thing in his mind though, sometimes repeating the same basic expressions like "it didn't matter, what mattered was [x]" or sometimes just repeating the same ideas. When he became aware that he was thinking, he had a ripple effect, in a way. The words that he was actively focusing on became slower to imagine as other voices and what he was planning on thinking finished the sentence or thought beforehand, making his overall thinking process much slower.

He also realised that what he said was somewhat rude, but considering that he said it to a person he barely knew and to a person who still hated him at the moment, he figured it didn't matter too much. And there we go, he thought about something not mattering again. He'd probably hit a hat trick soon, how exciting.

And with that out of the way, he continued what he was saying.

"I'm not sure what the total plot is so far," swinging his hand up and around a bit so that he could show that he was only a couple of pages into the book, "but so far, this dude named Quentin's miracle is that he lives next to a girl named Margo and when they were nine they found a dead body." He moved the book to show the back cover. "According to this, though, apparently him and Margo are going to go on a rampage and then Margo's going to disappear, or something. Haven't gotten that far yet."

[RC†]

Wow, that was annoying. Paper Towns. Really, who cares? Conrad got it. It's like Game of Thrones or Games of Throne. It didn't matter.

He got the right name of the book, but not the plot. It didn't seem very interesting. Like, what.

Conrad hummed.

"Ah, cool. That sounds interesting. It's a thriller, right?"

[Emprexx Plush]

Ty cracked his neck a bit as he rested against the tree. New guy helped ease the tension some between him, it felt like. Wasn't really sure where the conversation was headed, but at least they weren't yelling yet. Seemed like an improvement over the usual.

The synopsis Jeremy supplied sounded kinda scattered, but maybe that was just the timing of it all. All he did was shrug and nod as he listened on, trying to think of something to add. Maybe this was it. Maybe this was all they needed, just a sorta civil conversation, and then he could bail out. Might resolve whatever the fuck he came looking for over here. "Mmhm," he mumbled, "sounds like a packed one. Can't say I've heard of it, or too familiar with the Green fella. It any good?"

[Yugikun]

...Yeah, Conrad was either ignorant or just not getting it. Jeremy supposed that his summary of the blurb could have sucked, but he didn't think that that was the case. He looked at the back of the book for a second, then recalled back on what he'd said. Nope, he hadn't missed anything, it seemed. It was Conrad, rather than him, who was wrong. "It's a romance?" Jeremy didn't really understand how what he had said was a thriller. He supposed that since he had left out the romantic elements in his summary it couldn't easily be interpreted as a romance, but interpreting it as a thriller was a pretty silly conclusion and it made him question Conrad, for a bit.

Of course, again, he could have been the one wrong and the one who sucked at explaining things, but his mind immediately told him no, it's Conrad's fault and he couldn't really form up something against what he had just thought. It was oftentimes hard for Jeremy to feel that he was wrong, that whatever happened was his fault and that he should back down, which was a problem for him. He argued because of this, and didn't back down because in his mind, he was correct and he was going to prove it. That was problematic; he would probably have to count on both hands the people that he had pissed off or run the wrong way due to it. Ty, Bernadette, Clarice, Adelaide, his parents, others that he couldn't remember or didn't want to remember.

But really? Fuck them. He didn't really see why he had to change it and he wasn't going to. Plus, the idea that he was always right provided him with a little bit of short term happiness, which wasn't a bad thing.

Besides, he was currently liking Ty. Jeremy turned his eyes to him, and he was resting against the tree. It had been a couple of minutes and they weren't full on shouting at each other yet, so either one of them was trying to make an improvement or Conrad's arrival had changed something. Probably the former, with Ty trying to make an improvement, considering how he seemed to be going for civil conversation right now.

Jeremy swung the book around again, with it opening on page eight. "Not sure about the overall thing yet, considering I've only finished the prologue, but it seems okay so far. Protagonist seems a little creepy, though." Ty was actually being pretty calm about this conversation, so he may as well respond in kind.

So don't mess with the bull, and you don't get the horns?

Yeah, that seemed about right. There was probably a better metaphor (?) for that, though.

[RC†]

Oh, of course. Discovering a corpse, how romantic. Conrad grinned at the statement that it was not a thriller. Jeremy was a class clown. Maybe he meant it ironically. Or not. It doesn't matter, Conrad grinned.

"Oh, sorry. It is a romance, of course. Sorry."

And then Jeremy said that the protagonist was creepy. Oh, who doesn't find creepy protagonists romantic? It's definitely not a thriller, nono.

Now that Conrad thought about it, the creepiness of the protagonist actually made him believe that it was in fact a romance. After all, the main characters of many romance were creepy. Stuff like 50 Shades of Grey or Twilight and other stuff noone would ever want to read. Except maybe Jeremy.

"Do you like romance novels in general?"

He looked at Jeremy. The question was asked in a calm way, without a mocking expression. After all, he asked due to his curiousity.

[Yugikun]

Conrad grinned at his statement and apologized for the assumption. Wait, was that sarcasm? Sounded like it, at least. Huh, Conrad was a little more interesting than he thought. Jeremy grinned a little back, it seemed that he had made a bad assumption, and he knew what assumptions did. Made an ass of you and me. Yeah, he was pretty sure that was how it went. Conrad then asked him if he normally read romance novels. The answer was a definite no, but it wasn't really a no, in a way. He did read some, but it was either because it wasn't really a romance or because it was an ironic masterpiece like 50 Shades. It was really the same of anything else really, he read it because he was interested in it, regardless of the genre.

"Not really, not any more than any other genre. I'd honestly read anything so long as it was good or if I was interested in it."

At that moment, Jeremy heard a car come up behind him, he turned his head. Familiar car, familiar colour, familiar numberplate.

That was a pretty short half hour.  Maybe they were overestimating things. Wouldn't have been the first time that happened.

"Well, it seems like my ride's here, so I guess this is goodbye." Jeremy started to stand up, and walk away. He turned his head back a little. It wasn't really fair to just dump these people, considering that he had actually gotten somewhere with Ty and Conrad. He decided not to invite them to chat online later, though, that just... wouldn't seem right. "See ya," he waved a hand into the air, getting into the car.

Maybe it wasn't the best thing to do, but it felt right. He was sure that they'd talk again, anyway.

((Jeremy Frasier continued in TROUBLE))

[RC†]

As Jeremy went away, Conrad waved at him. Soon after, Henry finally came, the two of them drove home. Not before Conrad said a "See ya!" at Ty, of course.

((Conrad Timothy Harrod, continued in Aurum Fuscum))