I'm not falling apart; I'm just incomplete

[Pippi]

((Francis St. Ledger-Start))

It had almost been a perfect day for Francis. In the morning, a pair of soccer boots he'd ordered had arrived pleasantly early. He'd managed to focus on his lessons, whilst still communicating with his classmates. He'd received the results from a minor test in English, and had been pleased at how well he'd done. Heck, he'd even managed to get some practice done with Rene, and managed to show off a little in front of a small group of classmates. Francis had walked away from that with a broad smile on his face.

And then he just had to run into them. That group, his "friends". Goddamnit.

Of course, Francis didn't want to annoy or upset them. He'd known the guys since before he could remember, after all. So he'd gone along with them, to wherever it was they were actually going, forcing a smile on his face and laughing at their tasteless, offensive jokes. It was a facade he'd put on countless times before, and each time he did it, Francis felt himself getting more and more angry and moody. At some point, they'd noticed some kid they often decided to torment, and as it looked like they were going to do the same as always, Francis decided he'd had enough. He'd managed to make up some excuse about leaving his books in a classroom, and hurried away from the group as fast as he could.

Francis had ended up wandering the corridors of the school, far away from the group, but his good mood had completely evaporated. Goddamn it. God-fucking-damn it. Every time he saw them, he just felt like complete shit, but he just couldn't abandon them. It was a vicious circle, or something like that. Francis didn't really care about things like that at the moment. He didn't care about his new soccer boots, or how well he'd done on the test. He was just... pissed. At his "friends", at himself, at every-fucking-thing.

Francis came to a stop in a small corridor with lockers lining the walls. Most of the lockers were in the student center, but they couldn't fit all of them in there, Francis guessed. Sighing, he leant backwards against a locker, and tilted his head back so it made a small "klunk" noise against the metal locker. Francis closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of people walking by, talking to their friends, normal stuff like that. Francis hoped that Rene, or Tito or Mallory would come along this way. He just needed to spend some time with one of his, well... actual friends. Hell, he'd settle for anyone, so long as they weren't in that group.

Although, that means I'm gonna have to make sure I don't start yelling at them. Goddmanit, where the fuck is everybody, anyway?

Still with his eyes closed, Francis muttered, slightly louder than deemed necessary "God-fucking-damn it."

[Arscapi†]

(Kaliska Day start)

Kaliska walked down the hallway nearly deserted hallway, dressed in her bright blue choir t-shirt with a small pelican on it. She was in no particular hurry; she had plenty of time to get to her next class. Kaliska preferred to stick to these empty halls rather than fight her way through the main one. Fortunately there were stairs at the end of this hall and she could take them instead of the busy ones in the center hallway. She was surprised to find Francis there today. As she watched he turned and leaned his head against the locker. From the looks of it he was having a bad day. She wondered if she should just walk on by and leave him to his bad mood or see if he wanted to talk. It wasn't a hard choice for her, she put a bright smile on her face and continued forward.

"That bad already," she asked.

[Pippi]

Francis, with his eyes still closed, didn't see Kaliska walk up to him. As such, when she spoke in her always-cheerful voice, Francis felt himself jump slightly, still on edge from his earlier encounter. He opened his eyes and scowled at the girl, briefly considering yelling at her, something he often did in this sort of situation. After a moment, though, Francis simply sighed and leaned his head against the locker again. He didn't want to tear Kaliska's head off, not after she seemed to be trying to cheer him up or whatever, no matter what his mood was.

"Yeah, it's been... pretty shitty, yeah..." Francis said, before sighing again. "Everything was, like... awesome earlier, too. Then I just had to meet up with that lot, didn't I? Damn it!" Francis slammed his fist into the locker out of frustration. Just thinking about what had happened made him want to yell and lash out.

Looking around, however, he could see a few people looking round at his outburst. Francis felt slightly embarrassed; he was surprised that Kaliska hadn't run off by now.

"Oh, uh... sorry 'bout that..." Francis said, awkwardly fiddling with a loose thread at the arm of his hoody. "Didn't mean to, y'know... lash out like that. But those guys just... piss me off so much! Y'know who I'm talking about, right? That group of guys I sometimes hang out with?"

[Arscapi†]

Kaliska almost turned around and walked away as Francis opened his eyes and scowled at her. A moment later however, she decided it might be best to listen to him. He looked like he needed a friend, especially about whatever had just happened. So she listened to him ramble with a smile on her face.

"I know of them. To be honest I try to avoid them. Not my type of crowd," Kaliska answered. "What did they do to get you so upset? Or do you not want to talk about?"

[Pippi]

Kaliska did seem, for a moment, like she'd rather run off than stay with Francis any longer. To his relief, however, she stayed put, smiling as he spoke. Francis could have taken that as her being cruel, and laughing at how angry he was getting, but... it was Kaliska. She was pretty much the last person at school to do something like that.

Kaliska spoke up, saying that she did know of Francis' "friends". Then, she asked him a question-What exactly was it about them that annoyed him so much? A grin unwittingly formed on Francis' face. Hoo boy. You wanna pull up a seat, Kal? Cause I can see this takin' a while...

"Nah, I'm cool with talking about them." Francis glanced in the opposite direction, staring into space, thinking for a moment, before turning back to face Kaliska, and began to speak again. "Basically... the same thing they do, like... all the time. They just act like complete assholes all the time. They torment anyone who looks weaker than they do, stuff like that. Make stupid, racist jokes all the time, get drunk, start fights, and basically try to piss as many people off as they can" Francis let out a small, bitter laugh at this. "As you can probably see, they've done a good job."

"Only thing is, I've been friends with them for... fuck, before I can remember. No matter how much I hate what they do, I still have some loyalty to them. And because of that, a bunch of people associate me with that lot, which, as you can guess, ain't exactly an association I'd like."

Francis sighed, looking down at his shoes, before looking back up to Kaliska. "So yeah. That's it. Uh... sorry for rambling, and all..."

[Arscapi†]

She frowned as he listed his friends' offenses. Kaliska wasn't the most serious of students, but she applied herself. She knew that her parents worked hard to save money for her college education and she had to do her part. On top of which to stay in advanced choir you needed to have a 2.5 GPA. Kaliska wouldn't do anything to jeopardize her music.

She thought about their offenses further and found that she especially disliked the part of the racist comments. She was pretty sure that she knew just exactly who his friends were now. They'd called her half breed a couple times in passing. She really couldn't figure that attitude out. So for the most part she'd ignored them. Kaliska enjoyed her mixed heritage and found it gave her twice the topics to explore.

"I don't mind the rambling," she said, realizing that she'd probably been quiet for quite a while now. "Sometimes we all just need someone to listen. There's a bunch of what are they...idioms," Kaliska paused double checking her use of the vocabulary word. "Yes, idioms, for your situation. Books and covers and birds of a feather. I'm sure that probably didn't help much."

"Maybe you should do like I've been doing my whole life and disappear for the summer. See if you can't distance yourself from their reputations a little. Of course if you're going to college you could have a chance to totally reinvent yourself. Are you planning on going to college."

She stopped and laughed at herself. "See I can't mind rambling too much, I have a tendency to do it too."

[Pippi]

After a brief bit of what looked like thinking to Francis, Kaliska spoke up. She said she didn't mind the rambling, which was good, as Francis was pretty sure if she asked him anything else he'd probably start rambling again.

Francis frowned slightly as he listened to Kaliska speak. She seemed to be saying a lot about his situation, but none of it made any sense to Francis. Hell, it sounded as if she was rambling more than him. The frown quickly disappeared, however. The irritated feeling he'd had was quickly ebbing away. I guess that's what happens when you talk to someone who isn't a complete asshole. Even if they don't make a whole lotta sense.

Kaliska was now suggesting he disappear for the summer or something. This was more like it. Francis really had no idea what he was planning for the summer. Nothing to do with this group of friends, if he could help it. Simply going elsewhere for the whole summer did have an appeal to it. But then again, he had friends here, that outnumbered the people he disliked. Tito, Daniel, Mallory, Rene... Francis didn't want to alienate his friends, even if it did help with the group.

Oh boy. And as for college...

That was something Francis had absolutely no clue about. It wasn't something he'd really seriously thought about, something he was beginning to regret. It always seemed like something far off in the future, but now it seemed ridiculously close.

Francis grinned at Kaliska's last comment. "Well that's good an' all. I don't often ramble, but when I do, I seriously ramble. Like, non-stop and here I go again." Francis shook his head, glad he'd caught himself before he had really got into his speech. "Anyway, see, whilst I'd love to distance myself from those guys, I don't wanna do the same to my, uh, actual friends here. And as for college? No idea. I don't even have, like, any clues for what I'm gonna do next week! I'm pretty much all about what's going on now; deal with the short term first, then see about the long term."

[Arscapi†]

Kaliska's eyes widened in surprise as he confessed that he'd made no plans for college. She was planning on going to U-Dub, but had applied to several other colleges, just in case. "You know they're not going to invite you to go. You really should get on that. If that's what you want."

"You could always text your friends, or you know keep up with them on facebook. Come back and visit," she said with a shrug. "I made a deal with my parents that I could come back and visit as long as I had the visit planned out. But then you just said you don't like to plan things. So maybe that won't work very well." She stopped and glanced at her watch. "Well, now that we've established that we both have a tendency to ramble. Maybe I should stop talking now and get to class. I hope everything works out for you," she said standing and continuing on down the hall.

((Kaliska Day continued in The Only Sacred Ground))

[Pippi]

Kaliska seemed surprised at the fact that Francis had absolutely no plans for college. In fact, she looked positively shocked. Suddenly, Francis felt very nervous about the whole thing. He knew he should have looked into it earlier. But, like with so much in life, he'd put it off for later, dealt with things that had seemed more important at the time.

Sure enough, Kaliska suggested to Francis that he should get started on the whole college application thing. Francis was going to say something, agreeing with her, but Kaliska hadn't finished. She was now responding to Francis' comment on not wanting to abandon his own friends. Francis considered what she was saying. Sure, he guessed he could still communicate with his friends through Facebook and the like. It just wasn't the same as meeting them face to face, though. And Francis much preferred practicing dancing and stuff with Rene.

When Kaliska stopped talking, Francis was about to speak again before she resumed speaking, saying she needed to get to class. Francis hurriedly dug his phone out from his pocket, checking the time on it. Shit. He needed to get a move on if he was going to reach his next class. Kaliska was already on her way, wishing him good luck for everything working out. Francis called out to her "Hey, uh, thanks Kaliska!" before heading off to his lesson.

As Francis walked, he considered what Kaliska had said again. He really did need to get started looking for a college place. Damn it, that was going to be at the back of his mind for the rest of the day now, wasn't it? Still, it was actually kinda refreshing, having a different problem from the norm. Having that talk with Kaliska had definitely been a good thing.

((Francis St. Ledger continued in We Rule the School))