Chance Encounters - Jude tag Kye

[Jude Sheffield]

She didn't think waking up early would have been possible after talking to Eddie the whole night. They only hung up the phone at about two in the morning, talking about nothing in particular. She did remember a lot of giggling on her part. Eddie knew just how to make her blush. But she did manage to wake up for breakfast and in a good mood to top it all off. And the sun was shining brightly, matching her mood to a T.

Funnily enough, she was reminded of that silly kids show she used to be on when she was seven. She played the role of a sun and she was dancing and singing happily alone and suddenly a group of kids come out, singing and dancing too. There was even a choreographed dance and everything. That was how she was feeling, to be honest. Happy.

Not wanting to be cooped up in the house and not wanting to disturb Eddie either, Jude decided to go out and let off a bit of her energy elsewhere. She mindlessly drove around Hollywood before entering Santa Monica boulevard. She decided to park her car at the pier and get something to drink and found a bookstore cafe carefully tucked in the corner. She entered and took a deep breath, loving the smell of old and new books.

After buying a cup of chocolate shake from the cafe, Jude walked through the aisles, checking the titles and a book caught her eye. She took it to the small corner with a table and sat down to enjoy her read. The bell tinkled at the door, signaling a newcomer so Jude looked up and saw a rather familiar beanie. They haven't spoken before obviously. Jude was way too shy to just approach people. Especially since he was a junior.

But today felt different. She wanted to get to know people from school. She needed friends and although being with Eddie alone was pretty awesome, it made sense that Jude would like some other company. She didn't want to end up hogging Eddie's time too much and seem too clingy. She wanted him to like her for goodness sake. So gathering up her courage, Jude approached the junior with a somewhat shy smile. "Hi. Um...you go to Gould right?" not a good start but it was a start.

[Kye Whittemore]

Kye was really glad that it was Saturday because he really hated school. Only, oh wait, he had to get that stupid book for class. Kye wasn't much of a reader and he wasn't particularly good in school. He usually got by with C's but he was doing especially bad in history right now. Since he'd been doing better earlier in the semester, his teacher had given him an extra credit assignment to help him catch up. Kye was really sure that the teacher thought he was doing him a favor...but extra homework...not so much... Still, Kye didn't want to fail so he figured it wouldn't kill him to at least attempt the thing.

Only he needed some book first. He got in his giant VW bus and drove it over to a book store he'd found online that carried the book. It would have been easier to just order it online, but of course it was due Monday and Kye had waited until the last minute to even think about it. Luckily though this store had the book he needed, even if it wasn't the closest store to his house.

Kye parked in the lot and walked toward the school, not particularly enthusiastic about going into a book store. He was dressed in a light blue graphic tee with a pair of headphones printed across his chest, a pair of jean, sneakers and of course the black knit beanie he always liked to wear, his brown hair sticking out at the bottom. He looked around the store and immediately felt overwhelmed so he decided to distract himself and get a coffee first. He walked up and started to look at the menu and decide what to get, still in sort of an awful mood about the whole school work on the weekend thing, when Jude approached.

Kye stared at her for a second, blinking a few times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. He also looked around him to make sure she wasn't talking to someone else. No...she was definitely talking to him. She, a completely gorgeous girl, was going out of her way to talk to him??? And he wasn't hallucinating...hmmm "Um...uh...yeah, I do. Why?" he asked, not the most polite greeting, but the poor boy was startled. He wasn't used to most people noticing him let alone girls talking to him.

[Jude Sheffield]

Jude found the boy flustered as he stared at her like she had two heads instead of just the one. Was he as shy as she was meeting new people? He did seem a bit quiet mostly in school. Then again, Jude never talked to anyone besides Eddie and the one time with Mike. For all she knew, he was just taken aback by her suddenly approaching him like this.

"I'm Jude. I go to Gould too. I'm kind of new and I've seen you around school..thought I should introduce myself." She said with a small smile. "Unless you were busy then I should just go." Taking a step back, Jude waited as he made his decision. She was starting to wonder why she even bothered. The boy probably thought she was random coming up to him to introduce herself.

"But...I've got a table over there and I just started on my drink. If you like you could join me?" She gestured to the table in the corner, hoping that he would actually consider sitting with her. She wasn't exactly desperate for friends but she could use a few friendly faces to look forward to when she got to school. And having a junior as a friend might help too.

[Kye Whittemore]

Jude...so this gorgeous girl who seemed to actually be talking to him was Jude. He still could hardly believe that someone that looked like her would talk to him. "It's...nice to meet you," Kye said. "I'm Kyler, well Kye, everyone calls me," he said with a smile. "No...no, don't go," Kye told her. "I'm supposed to get this book for this extra credit thing but am kind of putting it off anyway, so trust me, distractions welcomed," he told her.

He glanced over at the table. Wow, he was only going to be hanging out with someone from school, that was completely unrelated to his sister, but it was a girl. "Yeah, that sounds great," he said. "Let me just get a coffee...and why don't you go take the table before someone steals it," he offered. "You want anything else?" he also offered, being overly polite (or at least for him he was) on the account of how excited he was about this whole thing. Just wait until he told Landon...she probably wouldn't even believe him.

Kye got in line and ordered himself a coffee (OOC: assume he's ordering anything Jude asked for as well, BIC:). Once he got it, he headed back to the table and sat down across from Jude. "So...what are you doing here?" he asked, wondering if maybe she was one of those bookworm chicks. This was part of Kye's problem...he came off as such a nerd, yet he wasn't really one. He wasn't interested in reading, not even comic books, and he wasn't particularly brilliant either. People tended to assume he must be or must like that stuff because he was a nerd...but he didn't. That was his problem...he didn't really fit in with anybody.

[Jude Sheffield]

Smiling when he introduced himself as Kye, Jude's smile grew when he insisted she stay. Jude thought this was great. She was making progress too! Yay for friends making! It wasn't so hard...she just had to take the first step if no one else was going to. "I'm a pretty good distractor. If that is even a word," she giggled at herself. She knew it was sort of lame but she was nervous! She thought she was handling herself pretty well given the circumstance.

"Yeah, I'll hold down the fort." She said even though she saw no one around anyway. It was nice of him to get something for her and she thought a bagel wouldn't hurt. "Sour cream and onion bagel? They're my favourite," she felt the need to point out a random fact about herself for some reason. She nodded at him before going back to the seat.

Jude was pretty pleased with herself that she was on the way to making a friend, and he was a good guy to boot. When he came back, Jude made room for him and thanked him for her bagel. "Would you like to split it?" she asked as she started to slather the butter and cream cheese over her bagel. "What am I doing here? I dunno...just needed to get out of the house I guess. Found an interesting book so the day's shaping to be a good one." She gave him a little sideways smile.

"What book are you looking for? I might be able to help." She offered.

[Kye Whittemore]

"Sure, thanks," Kye said, taking half the bagel. He hadn't really eaten yet anyway. She was sort of familiar but Kye just assumed he'd seen her around school before and didn't give it a second thought. "Oh...its just some book for history," he said, "I wrote it down," he told her reaching into his back pocket to dig out the post it he'd wrote on. Locating it, he dropped the crumbled piece of paper on the table.

Kye looked at her sideways as she smiled. He let out a laugh. "I think I figured it out...who you remind me of," he said, he was sure she'd think he was an even bigger loser now, but he was taking the chance that she was as nice as she'd seem and not make fun of him. "It's probably mostly the name...but your smile too...when you were little, did you ever watch that show? The Kiddy Carnival?" he asked. "Okay, don't look at me like that...I was a little kid when it was on, its not like I own it on DVD and still watch it or anything," he told her. "But the girl on it...her name was Jude too. You remind me of her...or any older version of her at least," he told her.

Jude didn't look too happy about the comparison and Kye hoped that he hadn't ruined things. He cautiously took a sip of his coffee, hoping she didn't just tell him to go or make fun of him for even bring up a kids show. Maybe he shouldn't have, but she didn't seem like the kind of person that would care. It was like she was pretty without being really mean, which Kye found was rare in girls.

[Jude Sheffield]

She pushed the plate close to Kye before taking a bite out of her portion. She smiled at the taste, licking her lower lips as Kye dropped the paper on the table. Jude was reading the title when her companion said the words that made her freeze.

And as he reminded her of the horrible show that pretty much engraved her name in stone as that has been child starlet, Jude wished she was elsewhere with someone else doing anything else but listen to her new friend talk about that kids show that had launched her career many years ago.

She wasn't exactly prioritising his feelings at the moment, which was kind of rare for Jude who cared more about others before herself. All she wanted was to crawl into a hole and die. It was beyond embarrassing that he knew! And she was supposed to say something...anything in response but she couldn't think of anything to say!

Jude was so caught up in her emotions that she didn't realise that she was making a face at Kye. After a really long pause as her cheeks returned to the normal pinkish tinge that she was pretty much famous for, Jude finally looked at Kye and chuckled nervously. "Thanks for that comparison. But I have no idea what you're talking about. Lots of girls have names like Jude. Or maybe you got mixed up with June or something. It's been done before. I forgive you for making such a mistake. Oh I know the title of this book I think it's in that aisle over there! Let's go look for it!"

There was seriously no other explanation for her stupid behavior and she didn't know what Kye must be thinking of her. The pink in her cheeks turned an even hotter red when she realised that in her 'excitement' to grab Kye's hand to go and get the book, she had knocked over her chocolate shake which was now dripping down the knee of her jeans. "Oh wow...oh this is..." Jude stretched a bit to grab some serviettes to wipe away the smear that was running down her leg.

[Kye Whittemore]

Kye didn't get it. Was it really that bad that he remembered the girl from a childhood show? He couldn't have been the only one who watched it everyday as a child. But Jude seemed to get really offended by this, which didn't make sense because she claimed to have no idea what the show was. Why get all huffy and start making faces at him if she didn't even know what he was talking about? It just didn't add up.

"Right...sorry," Kye said. He pulled out his blackberry and pulled up the internet, wanting to look up this show on imdb. There was more to this, he thought, but mostly right now he figured if he showed her what he was talking about that she'd see that it was no big deal.

As she went on about the book, Kye simply nodded, waiting for the page to load...why was phone internet so slow sometimes? Just as the page loaded, she stood up and knocked her chocolate shake all over herself. "Oh no," he said, grabbing a napkin and handing it to her. "You don't need help...do you?" he asked, blushing a little at the thought, of touching her legs, even if it was just to clean them up.

Kye took this chance, as she cleaned up to glance down at his phone. He didn't want to be rude, it was just a piece of information that now had him curious and he knew it would bother him till he could look it up. The girls name was Jude, and seeing the small picture of the child, she looked just like the Jude that was standing in front of him with chocolate on her leg. Not telling her what he was looking at he put his phone away but left the screen open. "Hey, random, but what did you say your last name was?" he asked. "I think my sister's mentioned you before...but there could be more than one Jude..." he said, taking a chance. His sister of course had never mentioned such a girl but Landon talked to pretty much everybody and knew a lot of people so there was a good chance she knew this girl.

He didn't want to be mean about it...he really did kind of feel bad about trying to trick her now, but she was the one that got all weird when he'd made the comparison...

[Jude Sheffield]

If only Kye knew how much humiliation she would feel if word got out that she was the Jude Sheffield from that ridiculously named show The Kiddy Carnival. She just hoped he wouldn't hold it against her for her silly behaviour. Truthfully, she shouldn't even be so embarrassed. It was such a long time ago and really, nobody actually remembers kiddy shows or who was in it.

But Kye did. What if he thought she was super lame for being in it? She didn't even think about the fact that he used to watch it all the time, all she was afraid of was what Kye thought of her being affiliated with such a silly show. And what if he told his friends and his friends told their friends? She'd be the laughing stock of the whole school.

Now, it didn't even help that her jeans were soaked with the liquid part of the shake. Kye helping her made her feel better but not by a mile. "No, thanks." She didn't even realise he had taken his phone out. She looked up at the counter lady and asked if there was a bathroom around the area and she directed Jude to one that was right in the back. She thanked the lady profusely before excusing herself from Kye just for a bit to wash the sticky substance off.

When she came back, she cleaned up a bit on the table with the serviettes she had brought along with her. Kye was talking and all she could hear was last name, sister and Jude. Distractedly, Jude answered but froze in the middle of saying her name. "Shef..." It was too much information already. Not a lot of last name have 'Shef' as the first syllable. She couldn't lie now. And she knew Kye would figure it out.

Her cheeks heated up and she bit her lower lip. "Okay so I lied. I'm Jude Sheffield, star of the once hit kiddy tv series The Kiddy Carnival. Please don't tell anybody. I'm really embarrassed about it. Promise you won't tell!" In her pleading, she unconsciously gripped Kye's hand tightly. "I don't want to be a laughing stock of the school. I mean I got into Grease and I don't want this axe hanging over my head and if anyone found out about this, it would really put a damper on my performance. I mean I don't know what it would mean for me if anyone found out but what if people made fun of me while I'm on stage? Singing and dancing from the show, calling me Sunny Jude and singing that Beatles song over and over...please don't tell anyone...!"

[Kye Whittemore]

As she began to say her last name, Kye smiled...he'd caught her...she totally was the girl! But then she stopped and proceeded to somewhat come undone before him. "It's okay," he told her. "Honestly, I don't think anyone would care if they knew...especially since most people watched that show as a kid...I did," he said. "But don't worry, I won't say anything to anyone," he said. "The only person I'd really have to tell is my sister anyway," he said, "although I imagine she would have a lot of people to tell," he mused, "so I can see your point."

While Kye didn't really have an abundance of friends, his sister did, or if not friends lots of acquaintances...after all, unlike Kye who usually didn't speak unless he was spoken to, Landon talked to everyone and anyone. She was completely non-exclusive in that way.

"So, you're in Greece," he said, "that's cool. What part did you get?" he asked. Kye didn't mind theatre...he wasn't like really into it but he wasn't one of those people who thought going to see them was lame or anything. He'd seen a few on Broadway during trips to New York to see his grandparents and while he wasn't going out of his way to fine more to go to, he'd enjoyed everything he saw. And knowing that someone like Jude was going to be in the school play, it definitely made the idea of going to see it much more favorable.

Kye smiled at her, hoping to help her calm down. He couldn't believe that someone so good looking was so concerned of getting made fun of. People like him got made fun of...not people like her. "I must admit I do like that Beatles song though...but I guess I imagine you'd hate it, it being your name and all," he said. "I'm lucky there aren't really any songs for my name," he said. Kye knew that his name was very unique. When he gave people his full name people usually assumed that he meant Kyle or had said Tyler and they'd miss heard. Then he'd have to explain that it was sort of a combination of the two names. His mom had gone sort of crazy with the names, giving him one most people never heard of and giving his sister a boy's name. Oh well, he supposed he'd rather have the name Kye than say the name Mike or something equally boring and common.