The Rivals - Roleplay

Maith stiffened, having thrown things into his room already he hadn't expected anyone to actually talk to him. Admittedly he didn't even know the male's name. Sure the guy didn't seem bad by first impressions but he certainly was.. cheery? Perhaps that was the right word for it. Maith always had struggled with names. At least the cabin was shaded compared to the outside and he was able to set his luggage down. That was at least some relief for him, but now he was thrown into challenge two. People. Three of them in the same cabin as him- and this cheery guy who didn't even seem to recognize him as the local jerk recluse is one of them. Did they even share any classes together? Well, they probably had to in order to end up on this retreat together. 

His eyes narrowed slightly, as he rubbed his arm almost.. nervously? This guy was lucky he only had one of the earbuds in so he could even hear what he had to say. " ...Hello. " Now that niceties were over he hoped this challenge he created in his head would be over. He certainly wasn't the most friendly guy in the world. His gaze slowly falling away from Damien instead to the parchment in his free hand. The schedule. " Great.. more time outside. " his last statement was more of a grumble under his breath than any statement directed towards Damien, but hey, toss the guy a bone right? Unsociable of the year tm. 

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Veles was delighted when his eyes made contact with another human being. Sure the guy he didn't know well always seemed like the shy type in the class, but he certainly didn't seem like he would fall over dead if he approached. In fact, Veles almost could feel it in his bones that if he didn't do something about taking this poor introvert under his wing that he would feel.. all around miserable for the camping trip. Besides cabins were filling up fast! Might as well grab somebody before all the spots had filled up. Not that Veles would particularly do bad with any setup for the cabins really. Either way he'd be the same he always was. Loud, boisterous, hoping for some stupid movie version of love. The usual, really. He had certainly built himself a reputation for that.

" Hey! " He called out to Grayson as he made his way through the crowd, face absolutely beaming. Approaching the man who probably wanted nothing to do with him he, gently mind you, smacked him on the back. " You look like you could use some company. You looking for a cabin too? Hey we can look together! " He certainly was.. overly excited to say the least, barely giving Grayson anytime to protest. " The names Veles, we've shared a class together I'm sure. I don't tend to forget faces. Names on the other hand.. those escape me all the time. Whats your name? " 

Grayson bit the corner of his lip as he heard the guy from earlier call out to him. His whole body tensed and he forced himself to turn around, looking up at Veles with nervous blue eyes.

He jumped in surprise when he felt his hand connect with his back, albeit lightly. Still, it shocked him. A lot. He slowly balled up his fists and released them, doing this a few times out of sheer anxiety.

He nodded when Veles mentioned something about looking for a cabin, opening his mouth briefly, only to close it again when he continued talking, his heart beating against his ribcage aggressively.

When asked for his name, he cleared his throat and shoved both of his hands in his pockets, taking a teeny step away from the talkative boy, making a bit more distance. "M-My name is Grayson." He said, offering him an incredibly awkward smile.

Maybe, just maybe, you could not be so weird and make a friend? His mind chided him, but he pushed the internal voice away, looking into Veles' eyes for a split second.

~ ~ ~

Aspen stuck close to his brother's side as the people walked around, pretty much glued to his arm like he had been the whole time they were walking there. He would feel better if he knew more of these people, but his small friend group had gone to the front of the crowd when making their way there and probably already had a cabin with all of them together.

He messed with the little self-made bracelet on his wrist, looking down at the ground, yelping in alarm when someone walked into him and didn't say anything. I'm disliking this already. He thought, helplessly looking up at Oliver.

"Not big on the outside are you?" Damien asked cheerfully as he placed his stuff down in one of the empty rooms and fetched a small book and a pencil out of his backpack. "My name is Damien by the way. What is yours?" he asked, the smile never leaving his face.

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Luna gulped as she made a decision. She held Luka close still before stood up and placed him down "Stay" she ordered before she walked out off the room and closed the door behind her, and headed out of the cabin, she retrieved her phone from her pocket and quickly typed out a text to her parent explaining the situation and that she would explain it to Headmaster Sinclair. It didn't take long for her mom to text back that her parents would be happy to come retrieve Luka if the Headmaster allowed it, making Luna sigh in relief, now she just had to hope for the best with the headmaster.

She took a look around quickly scanning the area, asking others if they had seen the Headmaster and was pointed in the right direction, she knew the Headmaster was strickt but Luna was not the type to normally go breaking the rules and she hope if she explained that she hadn't know Luka was even there in the first place and she hadn't intended to bring him at all the Headmaster would be kinder otherwise....well Luna wasn't sure all she knew is she wasn't going to let Headmaster Sinclair hurt Luka, she would rather run away into the forest with him than let that happen

Oliver rearranged his glasses, his uncomfortable expression clearly seen on his face. Glancing at Aspen, he sighed a little. "Let's go find a cabin," He said brightly, studying each cabin.

Eyes fixing on a cabin a bit to the side, he carefully entered the cabin. Sure enough, it was empty. "Choose a room for yourself," Oliver said, opening the doors. He slipped into the closest room. "I'm taking this one."

Bored of just lying on the bed, Nadia takes out her headphones just in time to hear her roommate slip the drawing under her door. She bends down and carefully picks up the paper, her eyes widen very slightly, barely noticeably, but her eyes are very obviously frantically and admiringly moving across the painting taking every detail of it. She takes in a breath and with great care to not wrinkle it puts it somewhere safe.

After that she takes out a small spiral notebook that works as a planner and rips out a page in which she write a thorough thank you note, which says:

"Thank you so much for the drawing,

it was lovely, you are a great artist.

Do not be afraid to ask if you need help with anything.

- Nadia"

She does the same as Violet and passes it under the girls door. After that she returns to her room to message her parents to tell them she has settled in and show them photos of her room.

Seeing the paper being slipped under the door, Violet stuffed her headphones into her bag. Crawling across the wood floor, she picked up the paper and smiled.

Someone thought her art was good. Her heart warmed at the compliment. Eyes travelling down the paper, they rested on the girl's name. "Nadia," She whispered. "Her name is Nadia." Neatly folding the note, she slipped it in her folder. She would keep that as long as she lived.

Returning to her sketchbook, she leafed through her sketches. Maybe this was enough to apply for the art program. A proud smile spreading on her face, she hugged the folder to her chest.

Aspen nodded nervously and quickly followed after Oliver, letting out a sigh of relief as they entered the cabin. He took off his backpack, dropping it down to his free hand, his other one tugging his suitcase along.

"Alright." He gave his older brother a tiny smile before looking at the remaining rooms carefully. He liked the layout of the one to the right of Oliver's, so he chose that one.

He set his backpack down and instead put away all of his clothes into the dresser, happily relishing in the coolness of the room. He paused in front of the mirror and tapped his arm nervously before looking away, starting to take things like his laptop and writing notebook out of his backpack.

Maith shuffled awkwardly, crossing his arms over his chest. He hoped it would end there, and he could feel his cheeks start to heat up in embarrassment when he realized his previous statement was overheard. Casting his gaze to the ground since he'd rather look at literally anything but the person talking to him, he only grumbled out a " Not particularly. " in response. He sighed in relief when he heard the footsteps retreat into their own room, finally allowing his gaze to lift as he went about examing the cabin he would be staying in. It was.. cramped and stuffy- to say the least. Certainly wasn't up to his tastes, and would make studying very hard. The school did assign summer reading after all. He frowned as he went about the cabin- gently swiping his finger over the window pane to pick up a small amount of dust. Perhaps he was.. spoiled, to say the least.

However, his comfortability didn't last long. He could feel his body tense as the door opened and the unnamed man in his head walked back out- seemingly still keen on speaking with him. He slowly turned to face Damien, who's name he finally caught once he had introduced himself. He tilted his head ever so slightly as he seemingly just stared at him for a good awkward minute before responding. " ...Maith. My name is Maith, and I have no intentions of befriending anybody here. You are better looking elsewhere. " his facial expressions still remained completely blank as he finally turned away once more in favor of staring out the cabin window. Inwardly, he scolded himself.. but this was simply how he operated. What he knew to do best. He wasn't really cut out for friends or anything else anyways. 

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Veles offered him the best smile he could in return, pulling back for a moment to let the poor guy breathe even if just a little bit. The poor thing obviously seemed overwhelmed- probably just wasn't expecting the attention really, but never fear. Veles intended to take good care of his now claimed camping buddy TM. He nodded, running a hand through his hair as he shifted where he stood. " Well its great to meet ya' Grayson! I'm sure we'll get along just fine. C'mon we should probably go find us a cabin, huh? " His smile slowly turning into a grin.

Having given Grayson a very brief respite, Veles swung an arm around Grayson's shoulder playfully to keep him moving. Mainly so he didn't stand rooted in place out of fear and they could actually get to the cabin picking and what not that was supposed to happen. " Don't worry though, I don't bite or anything. Promise. " While he may look like a school delinquent, he hoped Grayson could see through the punk exterior even a tiny bit through this short chat. He led the surprisingly slightly shorter male into one of the unclaimed cabins before he released his hold on his shoulders. " Right! Well, I'll let you pick out a room and I'll see you in a moment. " cue the cheesy fingerguns before he simply went for the nearest door to go put his own stuff down. They did have activities soon after all...

Grayson nodded as Veles mentioned finding a cabin through all of the chaos. They'd be stuck having the remains if they didn't do something sooner or later, anyways.

He flinched slightly as the guy put his arm across his shoulders, but he understood why. In his eyes, at least, he may have thought Grayson would just run away. The thought had truly crossed his mind to do so, but where would he run to amongst all the people, and better yet, how would he outrun Veles if he did decide to chase after him?

Now, that'd be devotion in regards to becoming a friend to Grayson if he did run after him. He decided with an internal sigh to follow Veles with no refusal or restraint, making the walk a tad more comfortable for them both.

The blue-eyed boy gazed up at Veles while he was busy talking on the way to the cabin, studying his face closely. Yes, he remembered seeing him quite a few times. Didn't he run for the track team, even? He wouldn't be surprised. The one thing his eyes did widen at was the extra layer he had on. How had he managed to walk with that in the heat?

Must be used to it. He shrugged and looked around as they entered the cabin. At Veles' words, he turned and gave him a similar smile to earlier and looked in the other rooms. He picked the one across from Veles' for closeness to the entrance and the movability inside.

So, he went in and unpacked his stuff. He sighed with relief when he got his backpack off, rolling his shoulders. He felt a lot lighter now. When that was all finished, the only thing he grabbed was his phone, stuffing it in his back pocket as he left his room and looked across at Veles' door with a hint of nervousness.

~ ~ ~

Aspen opened the door to his room, his headphones resting on his neck. He had changed into a pale blue and white tie-dye shirt with some white shorts, nothing fancy. He just wanted to feel a bit... nicer after the trip.

He looked to his right, over at his brother's room. He wondered if their rooms would look the same way they looked at home.

Home... if he could even call it that. He shook his head, sighing softly. His father basically ignored him for deciding to go trans, while his mother gave him extra attention, constantly raving about how she always wanted a daughter.

He fidgeted with his phone before picking a song on his favorite playlist made by one of his friends, slipping his phone in his pocket. He messed around with the teal bracelet on his wrist. It had little white wooden beads on the top, which were very nice to play around with or distract himself with.

Oliver, come out soon. Aspen willed, looking back up at his brother's door.

When she had initially heard about the camping trip, she was beyond excited to go. She loved being out in nature, even better that she would get to go with her school and, by extension, her best friend. Nora's hopes of spending a month out in the woods with a friend were dashed, though, when she was told that the other girl couldn't make it, too preoccupied with family drama. So that left her to go on her own. While her excitement had dampened, she was still intent on going, certain that it would be a fun trip with or without her best friend at her side. There was little else that was better than spending time outdoors.

The walk to the campsite was no big deal for her. In fact, she was enamored with the trees and plants around them, resisting the urge to run off and explore the woods. She would probably just end up getting lost. Once they reached the cabins, Nora couldn't help the pang of longing she felt while watching students laugh and group together with their friends, wishing that she hadn't come alone. Still, she tried to keep up hope. There was plenty of time to meet new people and make new friends!

Adjusting the straps of her backpack, which was considerably heavy given everything she packed for her first long trip away from home, she surveyed the choices of cabins before deciding on one that was closest, the one that Nadia and Violet happened to be in.

"Hello!" She calls out while opening the door, poking her head in to study the interior. "Is there room in here for me?" She remembered people coming in, though she wasn't exactly sure how many. Besides, it would be rude to invite herself in, which is definitely not the first impression she wanted to have.