Eighties Revival (tags Dylan)

[Russell Cloy]

Russell bounced through the cafeteria, elated with how well his weekend had gone. Even having to share a locker with Shelby didn't seem so bad, now that he knew she was a Grant -- and while she'd sort of glared at him, she hadn't said anything to him about not being good enough to date her brother. So Lucas was able to tell people about them, even if it was just Jonell and Shelby, and they'd been able to spend the weekend goofing off and hanging around.

The cold weather and muddy ground discouraged most of the school from going outside, but Russ was not at all daunted -- his hoodie (black with neon splatters) was warm enough, and a little mud never hurt anyone. He dropped his tray gracelessly onto the first picnic table available, not at all put off by the fact that the table was occupied by someone he'd never met. "Hey!" He chirped in greeting, spearing a nugget with his fork. "Nice day, innit?"

He shoved the nugget into his mouth and regarded the other boy more closely. Around his own age, but unrecognized. A Gould student, then, he assumed. He swallowed his food before extending a hand, "I'm Russell." He offered.

[Dylan Katz]

After his morning faux pas with Jefferson, Dylan found himself shying away from interacting with any of the other students. It seemed like he spoke a totally different language than they do in California and no matter how kind he tried to be everything he said was an insult in their language.

Day one and he already had a violence psycho for a locker mate and he had made enemies with a football player that he had actually liked and it was just lunch time. He slunk into the cafeteria hoping not to attract any hostile attention. He got a sandwich and some soup because there weren’t many kosher choices in the hot food line. His mother would have an embolism if he had the corn dogs that were the main choice for the day. He showed his lunch card and went out to the quad thinking he would be less likely to offend anyone out there.

He began to read one of his new Dragon magazines and only looked up when he heard a friendly greeting. “Hi, yes it’s great, it’s snowing back in New York.” He was glad that he was missing that. It wasn’t that he hated snow, but by this time every year, he was feeling cabin fever. “I’m even thinking of going skating after school.

[Russell Cloy]

"I want snow!!" Russell replied to Dylan's proclamation upon New York's weather. "Then we could build snowmen! Have you ever built a snowman? I haven't. I don't think snow really exists, it's just something the weathermen make up. We only get boring stuff like rain here." At least the rain over the weekend hadn't been a problem for him; he hadn't planned on going out anyway.

"Skating is awesome!" He agreed, shoving another chicken nugget into his mouth (which did not prevent him from continuing his excited chatter) "What kind of skating?" Was what he meant to ask, but it came out muffled by chicken. "Ummm, what kind of skating?" He repeated once he'd finished swallowing. "Like at the skating rink? With the kick ass disco ball? I love the skating rink, that'd be so cool, I'll bet Wynn'd wanna come, too! And Mom, cause she's awesome, have you met her yet? She's so cool!"

He glanced curiously at the magazine the other boy was reading. Dragon. That definitely sounded like something that Wynn would read. "Hey, watcha readin'?" He asked, straining to see over his companion's shoulder. "It's about dragons? Is it like that Cat Fancy magazine or whatever, only about dragons? Man, that's sweet, I wanna dragon! What kind of dragon breeds they got for sale?" He laughed.

[Dylan Katz]

Dylan grinned at Russell’s enthusiasm about everything. It was really nice after Jeff’s negativity. “I figured either a skating rink if there is an ice rink or just take my skates to Venice beach. I used to speed skate in New York and I miss it a lot. Maybe we could plan an outing and they all could come. I could bring a big thing of hot chocolate with marshmallows. It would be nice to have music so the rink would be better. Next time it snows in the mountains we should drive up and have a snow party. Sled and ski and snowmen,” he suggested. If they didn’t leave until sundown on Saturday then his parents wouldn’t object.

“This is a Dungeons & Dragons magazine. It has new monsters, classes, spells, etc. Though a pet dragon would definitely be cool. I have a silvertipped chinchilla Persian cat. Her name is starlight and she is pretty cool, but nothing like a dragon. I want to be a veterinarian someday. Would you like to come skating with me and invite your friends too?” he asked, afraid of rejection, but not wanting to never have tried either.

[Russell Cloy]

"Ooooh, yeah, that'd be awesome!" Russ enthused eagerly at the idea of a snow party. "I dunno about ice skating, but there's the roller rink..." He suggested. Few of his peers had been there since middle school, he knew, but he didn't care; he loved it, anyway! And he knew that at least Mom would be willing to attend even if everyone else turned the offer down.

"Oh, you play Dungeons and Dragons? That's so cool! One of my friends does that, too. I wanna go sometime, it seems fun! I was gonna go this weekend, but I had umm other plans." He explained, turning red. As much fun as Dungeons and Dragons seemed (or at least the snacking and goofing off part) playing around with Lucas was much more enticing. Even if Lucas did win at Clue every single time. Thank you, Liz, for being my alibi! He needed to thank her in person; maybe she'd agree to go skating...? That seemed pretty unlikely, though.

"Yeah! I'd love to go!" No Basketball practice, no plans with Lucas, so he was free. He'd invite Emily and Wynn and Mom. Liz, even if he didn't think she'd want to go. "Uh, what's your name again?"

[Dylan Katz]

Dylan chuckled ruefully. "Sorry I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Dylan Katz, I'm new, first day and all. I went to Anderson's house on Saturday to play. He was very nice,"he said, thinking this new boy was nice too, friendly, fun to be with and cute as well. "I would really like to meet your friends especially if they are as nice as you are."

Dylan had planned on looking for a job, but that could wait. He would rather make some friends since he was having a very hard time at that so far. He hoped his brother and sister were doing better than he was.

[Russell Cloy]

Russ extended a hand when Dylan gave his name, "Dylan, huh? Nice to meetcha! Oh, you were there, you must've met Wynn already, then!" He grinned, unaware that his friend hadn't attended the last DnD session and thus Dylan would not have met him there. "I don't know Anderson that well, though, cause he's Gould. But he seems okay. And Wynn is friends with him, so he must be."

He laughed when the other boy complimented his friendliness. "They aren't, they're much nicer!" He assured Dylan. "Especially Mom. Her real name is Marrianne, but Mom is what everyone calls her. She's the nicest girl in the whole world." He explained. Even the bullies who tormented him and his other friends left her alone. He just hoped that Dylan didn't mind getting shoved into lockers on occasion; otherwise he was gonna drop Russ and his crowd.

"So are we gonna meet up at the roller rink? Oh, wait, you don't know where it is, do you? Uhhh I can ask my mom to take us, though. But then Thomas would have to agree to take you home with us and I dunno if he has room." After all, he had to fit three siblings into his car -- Irenke, Emily and Russell. And all their books and bags, too. "Uhh I guess you can just get your parents to drop you off or something."

[Dylan Katz]

"I have a car, a small one. Eco friendly, you know? If you could ride with me we could meet up at the rink and you can show me how to get there. The only place I have been so far was a gaming place,"he said feeling kinda stupid for being so ignorant. He was terrified he might offend Russell like he had Jeff. He liked Russ a lot and really wanted to be friends with him and his friends. So now he had to do his best not to try too hard and mess things up. "Are you dating anyone, Russ?" he asked in a low voice since things had started to go wrong with Jeff around the time they started talking about relationships.

[Russell Cloy]

"Sure, sounds awesome!" Russell agreed, not at all worried about riding with someone he'd only met all of five seconds ago.

His first instinct upon being asked about dating was to sigh dreamily in memory of the weekend with Lucas. "Yeah, I....NO. What?!" He yelped as his brain filtered just what he was doing; he turned bright red and looked wildly around to make sure that Shelby and Jonell were nowhere to be found; the two girls surely understood why this had to be secret, but he still felt guilty lying like this. Nobody had ever directly asked him about his love life before -- probably most people assumed that as he was one of the school losers there wasn't anyone who would want to date him.

"No! Nonononono." He shook his head in vigorous denial, stomach clenching with guilt at this lie. He wished he could tell everyone, but he'd kept this from even Wynn and Liz. "Ummm. But it's just high school, anyway, right? I mean, being single's not that unusual, right? Why? Did you like, leave someone behind in...wherever you're from. Where are you from? I forget already." He admitted, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

[Dylan Katz]

Still sensitive after the morning debacle, Dylan looked at Russell with wide eyes feeling the boy's extreme reaction meant he had messed up badly again. "I am from New York and no I wasn't dating anyone. I didn't really know what I wanted until I moved here. Is dating such a sensitive topic here. I won't talk about it anymore I guess. It's all so new to me I just am really interested in it. He hoped that Russell would understand and he hadn't made another enemy.