for @polemical - clandestine tavern meetings or something like it

[ccunningham]

Chris had left a carefully folded character sheet slipped into Eddie's locker, something he'd had to do quickly on the way past between classes. He hadn't put his name on it, though that was more out of concern of someone else finding it than anything, since he was reasonably sure she'd know it was from him.

The thing was, the character was technically good, in that all the technical aspects were balanced and correct, if a little hastily scribbled. All of it was hastily scribbled, really, as he'd been filling it out under the guise of taking notes during a church fellowship outing to one of the parishes out in Indianapolis. The character backstory made it painfully obvious that Chris had only rarely -if ever- been encouraged to use his imagination for anything.

Milo Overhill, a halfling bard who had formerly been a noble, but had been disowned for reasons unknown, and who had a habit of settling arguments via headbutting contests. Chris wasn't entirely sure that part fit, but the book had suggested an interesting quirk, and he hadn't been able to think of anything except what he himself had been banned from Sunday nursery lessons for when he was younger.

Really the best part of the character sheet -aside from those technical parts being correct- was the sketch in the frame, looking a little bit like a children's book illustration of Johnny Appleseed, but beardless and with a much fancier mustache.

There was no note to go with it, but as it was Friday afternoon, he had track practice and wouldn't be that difficult to find.

Comments

[ccunningham]

He was still smiling, even as he shook his head again, "That would probably be good, because then nobody else has to suffer through me being there for more than a session or two." He shrugged, "I know your other friends don't like me much." It wasn't the same as the obvious dislike of Jason and the rest of the basketball team, but he knew that the fact that he was still friends with Jason put him on a lot of Eddie's friends' shit-lists.

"And hey, if it doesn't work out I'll just have to join the yearbook committee or something. At least I won't have to make excuses up for that one." His mom wouldn't encourage something like that, but she wouldn't be wholly against it the way she would be with Hellfire.

[polemical]

Eddie can't help herself from leaping forward to defend Chris...to himself. "Oh, that's not true," she protests, even though she can't quite keep the conviction in her voice steady for all four words. He's not wrong. Chris himself is kind of neutral, as far as jocks go, but he's notoriously close with the blow-hards that have tried to come forward to fill the gaps left by King Steve and Billy fucking Hargrove.

"They just don't know you," she settles on, which is only partially true. Not everyone in Hellfire is a senior, but enough of them are that they've absolutely had more than one class with Chris over the course of their academic career; they know him alright.

Eddie's still convinced all it'll take is a little time together and all her friends will be friends with each other and then they'll hold hands and sing Kumbaya or whatever.

"If it doesn't work out you can tutor me or something. Surely your mom won't complain about tutoring." Well, she would if she knew who he was tutoring, but that's a detail she doesn't have to know.

[ccunningham]

He arched a brow, but didn't argue, instead just asking: "How much revision is going to be needed before the guy is playable? Like, be honest." A pause, considering, brow creasing just a little as he did, "And how prepared should I be to make it so they'll be less cranky about me being there?"

He was willing to put in the work to make a good first impression, or, whatever number impression this was going to be, since 'first' had passed a long while back and he knew it.

A twitch of a smile followed, mellowing into an actual smile even as he replied, "And tutoring is an option, too. That's definitely less likely to be something she'll have a problem with, helping the less fortunate." It would absolutely blow up in their faces if she ever found out just who he was supposedly tutoring, but that was beside the point and unlikely to happen.

[polemical]

She does him the courtesy of actually thinking about her answer before giving it, looking him over but resisting the urge to pull out the sheet from her jacket pocket. At the moment, them just sitting together is fairly innocuous, but she doesn't want to give the jocks too much ammunition. She's used to them making her life difficult, but Chris doesn't need them to hassle him for talking to her.

"Maybe a little bit," she admits. "But we can work on that together. Like I said, I've made do with a lot less. As for making them less cranky... You could bring snacks, I guess?"

Beer would probably go over better with the 'big kids,' but a large portion of her club are freshmen now, and technically none of them are of legal drinking age, not even Eddie. Plus she can't imagine Chris getting his hands on beer, not without there being a party involved.

[ccunningham]

Chris was pretty sure there were only a couple guys on the team, maybe three or four tops, who would actually give him any trouble for it. Coach on the other hand probably would, and the news of who he was hanging out with would definitely get back to his mother, though it would at least be a day or two delayed, but even that would be too much.

He nodded at the answer, "I've usually got at least an hour while Jeremy's in the library, on the days he hasn't arranged to walk home with somebody else, I mean." A small smile emerged, "And snacks I can do." It would probably be chips, but if he made sure to clean up after himself and practiced his excuse that they were for an after-school get-together, he could probably wing a batch of cookies while he was at it. But he wasn't going to say as much since he wasn't sure he'd actually be able to manage.