Smoking Ain't Allowed In School

[Quinn Wiley]

Quinn had experienced cold before coming here. He knew what snow looked like and understood the value of a warm coat. Still, he wished the cold wave would be done already. Especially when he had to go out to smoke a cigarette. It was criminal to force kids to freeze for a puff of nicotine.

He supposed he could smoke in his room if he wanted. He’d just have to open his window a bit to let the smoke out. It wasn’t like his roommates could complain. Especially Jack. He was doing far worse in his room. Well, Quinn couldn’t know for sure but it was Jack, so he could safely assume bad things were happening in this room of his. It was not a bedroom, it was a portal for Hell. Smoking a cigarette was a small offense in comparison. But with the recent fires, no doubt the tolerance would be very low for anyone who risked causing another one. Smoking anywhere else in the school would have the same effect. So Quinn bothered putting on his coat and gloves before heading outside.

You’d think this would convince someone they might quit. Not to add that Quinn still had to pay for his cigarettes, he had no parent to steal them from. But quitting smoking was one of these things that were easier said than done. And Quinn was not even ready to say he would quit. The boy had a sack of gas with a similar effect to napalm attached to his lungs, what damage could cigarette do in comparison? Still, now that he was resting his back against the cold brick wall of the school, inhaling deeply, he did wonder why he still bothered spending what few money he had in cigarettes. “Can’t it be Spring already!” Quinn muttered under his breath, exhaling some of the smoke. No one better come and tell him he should be smoking further away from the school. He thought he was already being nice going out in the cold to do it.

[Deleted]

Adrian had spotted the smoking guy the second she had rounded the corner. And you'd probably think that a non-smoking, somewhat hyperactive blonde would share her two cents about how dangerous it was to be smoking, but luckily for the boy, Adrian was far too accepting for something like that, and aww, the boy looked so lonely all by himself. He looked like he needed a big ole hug too, but she knew better than to hug someone with a cigarette in their hand. She cared about her hair after all.

Skipping over, Adrian offered the guy a beaming grin, waving her arms in the air until she reached him. "Howdy!" she greeted him, her arms folding behind her back as she rocked back and forth in front of him. "Boy, does that look cold," she mused, tilting her head somewhat to the side. "You know, I had this aunt who used to smoke. She said that the worst part about smoking was when all her friends quit, because that meant she had to smoke all alone. I felt really bad for her, so I used to keep her company-- at least, until my parents told me I couldn't anymore, because they didn't want me to get cancer-- but you can consider me your new best-smoking-friend-who-doesn't-even-smoke-yay!"

Clapping her hands together, the blonde moved to lean against the brick wall next to him, still rocking back and forth as she started humming a song she'd heard recently. Of course, that didn't last very long, with her attention span. "The winter is so much different here," the Brit began. "I mean, it's still winter, obviously, but with the nature and all-- I'm not used to it-- I come from London, which you probably guessed from the accent---oooh I like your curls."

[Quinn Wiley]

Quinn was fine being on his own. He was used to it. He could think without being disturbed by anyone. You’d think he was growing lonely, being on his own most of the time. Perhaps he did, but Quinn would never admit to that. He understood he was the one making things awkward and pushing people away. Still, he considered he was better off on his own.

He was trying to forget about the cold by mentally reviewing the work he had done so far. He needed some new inspiration. It seemed like the artistic genius in their photography club was Zoe and while he liked her work he also envied how easily it seemed to go for her. Quinn really needed to set his priorities straight and determine what kind of photographer he wanted to be. One thing for sure, he left the more artistic ones to Zoe. He didn’t want to be compared to her and, worse, find out people liked her work more than his. It would truly suck.

It was where his thoughts had taken him when he heard a voice. At first, he didn’t think she was talking to him. Who would talk to him? He still opened an eye, just to see who decided to come out and disturb him in his moment of peace. It was how he realised she was talking to him. When she opened her mouth again, there was only one thought that popped in Quinn’s head: why was he attracting all the weirdos? With his luck, he bet this one was lesbian too. Not that he was really thinking about that. He studied her. “And who are you exactly?”

Was there a sign above his head suggesting people to come and talk to him? No, there was not, only a brick wall and the occasional windows. He looked at the nature as she talked of it. Yeah, different. It had been different for him too. This was not Boston. But then he grew with the rest of his family and even though it was not entirely the countryside, he had seen trees and nature. He was about to nod absentmindedly about her accent when she switched the subject to his curls. His curls!? He turned his head to look at this girl. She was not a weirdo anymore. She was more than that. An alien, or a goldfish, maybe. “You always jump from one topic to another like that?”

[Deleted]

Clapping her hands together, clearly excited about yet another chance to introduce herself, because obviously she hadn't done that nearly enough the past few days -- it was almost amazing that she hadn't grown tired of it yet. Then again, Adrian hardly grew tired of anything. Ever. She was like a battery powered talking machine who just happened to adore meeting new people. Not exactly the kind of person you threw at introverts, but hey, clearly either Bobby or Mel are cruel, horrible human beings.

Pointing at herself, she did a waving gesture with her other hand. "Name's Adrian Brody Kosta-- and yes, I'm well aware that it's a boy's name-" she began, with an almost childlike tone to her voice. "--but you see, my parents expected a boy, right? And I guess they just got too lazy to change it once they figured out that wasn't the case-- not that I mind, because I think it's cute, and cute obviously fit me," she said as she did another theatrical wave with her hand. "I'm a new transfer! From St. Bethany! And in case you didn't notice-- I'm a born and bred British gal--well, only half so, as my dad is from Greece, but you can hardly see that--unless you look at my brown eyes, which I got from him--my mom's eyes are green, but brown beats green, so there ya go!" She almost furrowed her brows slightly, but it was quickly replaced by yet another wide grin.

Because clearly being excited wasn't enough. She had to act like a five year old high on sugar as well.

"Yes!" she said, beaming. "I do! They call it-- uhm, something about being unable to focus or concentrate on something long enough-- basically, I'm easily distracted, which actually leads me to this really funny story about how I spilled chocolate milk all over my friend's blouse last year-- she wasn't too thrilled about that, but-- or that time I crashed into that one teacher-- he laughed though, so it wasn't a big deal. I taught myself how to sleep with my eyes open too, but as you can imagine--" she took a deep breath and waited a few seconds as her chest heaved before continuing. "--it makes your eyes sting, and lemme just tell you right away that it isn't a pleasant experience to go to the school nurse and ask for eye drops!"

[Quinn Wiley]

That hand gesture was kind of odd. It was what Quinn thought as she both pointed to herself while waving at him. “... Like the actor?” Quinn didn’t care if she had no idea who Adrian Brody was but it was the first thing he thought about as she told him her name. It did sound more of a boy name. He never heard any girl called Brody, so it had to be a last name right? Like Brody-Kosta.

Why did she think he cared about her life story? She wasn’t even asking for his name or anything, she just went on about her parents wanting a boy. Good for them. He wasn’t sure if cute fitted her. She was pretty to look at, he supposed. If cute was a synonym for ‘I shall bug you but my big puppy eyes will prevent you from lashing out at me’ then yes, he supposed she was cute. “Adrian is kind of androgynous.” Mostly male, but hey, if she wanted to be called Adrian, Quinn would just shrug at it thinking once again what a weird creature she was.

The details of her lifestyle didn’t end here. He even got the joy to hear about her Greek father who gave her his eyes and her British mother who gave her everything else, as if English people couldn’t have brown eyes. Quinn had green eyes. He couldn’t remember his mother’s eye color though so it probably didn’t mean anything. Now and then, Quinn remembered details about his mother. It just popped up, like this. Her eye color, however, didn’t want to come up to his mind. Maybe he never took a close enough look to really notice. He had never been that close to her.

She was trying to find the proper term for herself. “Attention deficit disorder?” Yeah he could totally see her having that. He knew her for only two minutes and he could already tell. The most impressive was not how easily she could jump from one topic to the next, it was how much words she could say before taking a breath. Saying she was weird would be an understatement. And she might even agree and like it. “Okay... Why you decided to come over here in the first place?” He sort of lost track too now, with all that he heard.