Looking for trouble - Ryu (open tag)

[Ryu Kobayashi]

Ryu slowed down a little and took time to enjoy the rest of his cigarette. He continued walking - god alone knew where as he was pretty much lost by now - finding himself in a reasonably unlit section of town. Residential and looking pretty well to do but unlit regardless.

School today had been beyond boring and he was more than happy that part of the day was over... Not that any such happiness was reflected on his face. Emotionless as befitted his normal expression, the Japanese youth headed away from the other bane of his life... Namely home.

It wasn't that he disliked his parents (or his younger brother) but, quite simply put, it wasn't Tokyo. Not even remotely CLOSE to Tokyo. Sure, he only had himself to blame for the Kobayashi family's move but that wasn't exactly a thought that could soothe his current mood.

The road he was walking along was deserted... No... Not quite. A shadowy form could be seen jogging across it and heading towards him.

Right towards him, in fact.

"Baka mitai!" he called out in a warning but he was a lifetime too late as the form's shoulder smacked into his, sending him stumbling backwards a couple of paces and causing the other person - a girl around his own age, it seemed - to drop whatever it was she'd been studying.

"Watch it!" She snapped, bending down to pick up the book.

"Me?" Ryu frowned down at her, his scowl rising with her as she straightened once more. He knew her. Not her name but her face. They shared a couple of lessons earlier in the day. Well, they would do if Ryu didn't have a habit of missing most of period 1. "If you looked where you were going perhaps you wouldn't half run people down," he stated, eyes narrowing slightly against the smoke that curled from the remains of his cigarette. He drew deeply on it before pinching off the burning ember and flicking the stub into a nearby trash bin.

[Dani Johnson]

Dani was on her way home, from Gasp, the bus. Eww, gross, eww, gross. Dani would need ten showers after that. Now she might not always be the priss she pretends to be, but no matter what, riding the bus was disgusting for her. It wasn't the people, it was the conditions of the bus. The unknown fluid on the floor, the gum on the seat and not to mention the odor. It was awful.

Dani's car was in the shop and her mother had left this morning without thinking of her daughter. Dani could have called a taxi or a limo, but arriving at school in a limo was just screaming look at me the attention whore and a taxi, well Dani did not want to be alone with a creepytaxi driver. So bus it was. She was lucky to even make it to school on time.

So now she was walking down an unlit area. Nothing knew. The city could pay for everything it appeared except to fix street lamps. So Dani walked with her head down and fast. She didn't even look to see where she was going. So it was no surprise when she collided with another person, sending the book she had been holding to the ground.

"Watch it." She snapped.

Dani snorted. "And if you stuck to our side of the side walk we could have easily passed one another without having this awful meeting." She retorted back. He looked familiar, which meant he probably went to her school, but she was new so she barely knew anyone there, so it was more of a guess then a fact.

[Ryu Kobayashi]

Ryu’s eyes narrowed impossibly more when the girl started to berate him! Was she insane? He hadn’t been the one with a book glued to her nose! “If you think this is awful you aren’t seeing it from where I stand! Awful doesn’t come close!”he hissed. “And if you learned hos to walk with your eyes on the footpath then I wouldn’t *need* to dodge around to avoid a collision!

Had she been gracious enough to apologise rather than snarl then he would probably have met her half way. But now...? No, that wasn’t going to happen! She clearly thought she had a right to use as much (all?) of the pavement as she saw fit.

“You don’t own the path, chiisana hime,” he added... and she was acting that way... Like a right little princess!

[Dani Johnson]

"Listen Oscar, maybe if you actually walked on the right side of the sidewalk we would not be having this problem." She siad to him. Oscar coming from Sesame street, meaning oscar the grouch, not that this kid would get that reference, but she didn't understand what he said anyway. "And you think speaking in your native tongue of japanese is going to influence me some how..." She said in her little teasing tone.

If there was one thing Dani hated, it was looking like a fool, which was happening right now, so of course Dani was digging a deeper hole for herself. Dani had not meant to bump into this kid, but she was being Dani and not accepting responsibility for her part in this.

"Try this..." Dani said doing something in sign language. She basically called him a smart ass in sign language, but like he would know that, which was the point. Yeah dani could have just said sorry, but he started it by snapping at her. At least thats how she was justifying it in her mind. "What did you say anyway?" She asked, not expecting an answer, but she figured why not anyway. Dani did have a thing for languages.

[Ryu Kobayashi]

Oscar? Not a word Ryu had come across before but given the tone in which it had been uttered he could only assume it wasn’t all that complimentary! “Ah... so you were unimpressed by my Japanese? As I am with your...” he waved his hands around. “What is that anyway? Some kind of Jedi mind trick?”

Her curiosity bested her and Ryu almost (not quite) smiled. “Chiisana hime,” he repeated. “It means... aaah...” He thought hard for the right translation. “... liittle princess. Like someone who is used to having things all their own way.” He narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. “The name suits you well.”

[Dani Johnson]

"A jedi mind trick? Really you had to go with a Star Wars reference. I mean, come on. Next time go for Star Trek, its a much better science fiction show. Believe me." Dani commented, "And it's called sign language. If I wanted to Jedi Mind trick you, believe me, thats not the way I would do it, but it does give me a few ideas." Dani said with a smirk.

"Little Princess. I like it. Just like Oscar suits you. Ocsar the gouch, is from a TV show and I think its perfect." She said with an equally sarcastic tone to her voice. "But some how I doub you meant yours as a compliment." She said with a slight chuckle at the end. No way did he mean that comment as a compliment. That was like when she was called Diva on set. Dani knew how she could be and would not apologize for that cause that was her facade.

A facade no one had broken through yet. No one knew the real Dani, no one had seen the real Dani and Dani had kept it like that for a long time. "I guess you are to new to America, or else you would have know which side of the side walk to walk on."

[Ryu Kobayashi]

Ryu’s scowl somehow darkened... and a small part of his brain told himself that he WAS a grouch so why would he find that name so annoying? Probably because of the way the girl had uttered it, smiling in that way at the same time.

Damn her.

“No, it wasn’t meant to compliment,” he replied and in reference to his ‘princess’. At least she hadn’t taken it that way. That would have been awkward! “So in America there is a right side and a wrong side to walk?” How dumb was that? That said, for all he knew she’d made that up to cover her ass for running right into him. Ryu made a mental note to ask his parents to clarify that particular situation as there was no way in hell he’d ask the chiisana to explain!

“I am new,” he admitted. “That is obvious as I still have retained my manners. Give me time and I will be as rude as you and everyone else I seem to have met!” Not quite true as a couple had been friendly but on the whole... not particularly so.

[Dani Johnson]

"Well I am taking it as a compliment." She said just to annoy him. "So even if you did not mean it as one, I accept." Dani chuckled. She wasn't sure if what she just said annoyed this kid of not, but it annoyed people in the past. People on set would call her a diva and everytime Dani said she would take it as a compliment, cause that went along with her diva personality, but the people never meant it as that, yet it annoyed them for Dani to say that. Dani was mostly annoying to keep people from getting too close.

"I was using sign language. Its when people talk with their hands." She told him. Not that he asked what she had said, so she felt no need to reveal she called him a smart ass, unless he asked.

"Welcome to LA. If you have only met a few people who are rude then you are lucky. Or could it be it you who is rude. And people are just responding to the rudeness." Dani said. She had that little smirk on her face. "Manners? What manners? You have yet to apologize for causing me to drop my book." She pointed out. "I will say sorry when you admit some part of this was your fault." She commented. "Welcome to California." She said. "So this is your first time in public school I bet."

[Ryu Kobayashi]

She was worse than a princess. More closely resembling a devil! He kept
silent, though, pretty sure she was trying her best to draw a response from
him. It took all of Ryu's willpower and inner fortitude!

"Sign language? So you have a hearing problem as well as a sight one?" he
replied, mentally cursing himself for letting her draw that from him! "And I
said that everyone I have met is rude... " Up to - and including - her!
"None of this was my fault," he countered. "You were not looking where you
were going and so the fault for your book hitting the floor is your own. I
refuse to apologise for that although I am sorry that you feel the need to
blame someone else for your being so prone to accidents."

He scowled anew when she suggested he had never been to public school
before. "You think I didn't go to school in Japan?" he demanded. "Are you
trying to insult me?" If Ryu was honest he'd admit he escaped as many
classes as he could get away with but to call him illiterate was
intolerable! "Do you attend a class to be this insulting or is it a natural skill?"

[Dani Johnson]

"I assure you the only one with a problem here is you. And it seems to be more mental then physical if you ask me." She retorted back. "Seems to me someone is a little arrogant. Blaming everyone but yourself." Dani commented. She crossed her arms over her chest. If this guy wanted a verbal sparring match, she would give him one. She could be just as rude as he was. "I am not the only rude one here." She pointed out. He was obviously getting to her too.

"I never said you didn't go to school I just asked if this was your first time n ublic school. There is a difference. And this is America and not Japan. So the schools I'm sure are way different. I'm sure it's an adjustment for you. But I bet you don't need any help with that adjustment." Dani was not trying to insult his intelligence at all, she was more insulting his ability to get along with other people.

"It's a skill to be this tolerant of someone who obviously needs to go learn some manners." She said back to him. "I would be happy to teach you." She said to him with a smile. Her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Are you always this mean to people you first meet?" She asked.