The Great Outdoors(tags Daniel)

[Julia Warner]

Julia dug one toe into the grass, having abandoned shoes in favor of wandering about barefoot. She ignored the clouds gathering overhead, determined to enjoy the great outdoors -- or the Gould quad -- until the last possible minute. She spread out her arms, attempting to twirl about, but she tripped over the sneakers she'd left lying beside her. She yelped, and clawed at the front of Daniel's shirt, dragging him down with her.

"Oops, sorry!" She apologized, deciding that she was perfectly happy lying on the ground now that she was there. "Think I'm just gonna stay here," She informed Daniel, in case he wanted to hurry and catch his ride home. She had met him on the way out after rehearsal; she hadn't questioned why he was still around, after all, there were plenty of other activities after school.

"Hey," She began, stretching out her legs and crossing one over the other, "You're gonna come see the play, right? When we perform it." She still was a bit uncomfortable playing her brother's love interest; she kept telling herself it was only acting. The same way it was only acting that Wynn and Haley were playing apart from one another, although at least their characters were siblings, not lovers! Even if Haley was dating Cam, it was still annoying that she had to be in such close proximity to Julia's crush. "It's gonna be really good!" She was trying to convince herself of this, as well, since she was half-convinced she would end up ruining things spectacularly. Unfortunately, Connor had been too busy lately to reassure her that this wasn't true. Well, she was busy with rehearsal, too, and if she'd been the one who had acquired the cute boyfriend she probably would have been just as eager to spend all her time with said cute boyfriend, so she couldn't really blame her best friend too much.

[Danny Alegressi]

Daniel laughed as they hit the ground, only wishing they had a hill to roll down like in the Princess Bride. He turned on his side so he could gaze at his true love admiringly and said "As you wish," as fervently as he could. He would go anywhere and do anything for her. "I would never miss the chance to see you perform, A'maelamin. He picked buttercups that were within reach and began to braid them together to make chain for her hair.

"It is good that you got the lead, you were definitely the prettiest girl there," he said, his dark eyes shining with sincerity. He was so glad he had sent his driver home after school and stayed around to see if Julia would like his company to walk home after rehearsal. Daniel had a good day. He had managed to avoid Bo all day so he only got the verbal harassment from the other jocks and none of the physical that day.

"Are you busy this weekend, milady? I was hoping I might be able to spend some time with you... perhaps go horseback riding on the beach?" he asked, his dark eyes locking hopefully with hers.

[Julia Warner]

Julia giggled into her hands when Daniel claimed she was the prettiest girl there. "That's not true!" She objected, not entirely inspired by false modesty, as she was sure that some of the other girls there really were prettier than she was. "All the boys love Trixie and Haley, and that new girl, Riley, she's gorgeous!" She sighed enviously.

Her envy quickly turned to amusement, however, when Daniel suggested horseback riding on the beach, "We'd be so sore later," She sniggered, trying to imagine what the other beach goers would think. "How 'bout we just stay in? You said you played the flute, right? Maybe we can find a violin and flute duet to practice," She offered, thinking that was a better alternative to being thrown off a horse into the ocean. And she absolutely loved playing her instrument, so having someone to practice with could only be fun! "Ohhh, you can help me run my lines!" She added, "Jere's too embarrassed to practice with me much, I think." She hadn't really asked, but she wasn't going to press the issue, either. Of course, it was possible he was embarrassed by how horrible her audition had been rather than by the fact they were love interests.

She flipped over onto her stomach, "I'm sure Connor won't mind, he's probably too busy spending time with Kian." She knew three Irish men, and every last one of them was gay. And two of them were dating one another. The other one was dating her brother. The stastical improbabilities were astounding, but then, life was made up of statistical improbabilities. "So, your place or mine?"

[Danny Alegressi]

Danny was astounded that Julia didn't realize how beautiful she was. "All those girls are too pale; you have a dark mystical beauty, Julia. They are like a sunny day, all can see them shine, but you are like a dark night in the forest, concealing your jewels for only those who can appreciate them," he said, waxing poetical.

He was a bit disappointed he couldn't show off his horseback riding, but the thought of making beautiful music together was very tempting. "We can play together and then I will help you with your lines. I think perhaps your house as my mother... well she is very clingy and I would rather be alone with you." He was sure her parents couldn't be more embarrassing than his. His mom would likely start planning their wedding and naming the grandchildren if she met Julia.

"Why would Connor mind? Are you two a couple?" Danny started to panic, not wanting competition. He had almost gone after her brother until he realized he was his brother and neither of them really wanted to kiss at all, plus Jeremy was dating another guy.

[Julia Warner]

Julia picked at the grass idly, watching a ladybug scamper on some unknown errand, away from her grasping hands. "Pffft," She snorted when asked if Connor were her boyfriend, "Are you serious?! Connor's gay." She'd had a sort of crush on her friend, it was true, but she had very quickly pushed it aside when she'd discovered that her friend was only interested in other boys. She supposed that her crush on Connor wasn't any more hopeless than the one on Wynn, but it waws easier to say but he'll never date me because he's gay than it was he'll never date me because he likes blonde bimbo cheerleaders.

"We just hang out alot. Used to," She corrected, "We used to hang out alot, when he was single." They still talked on the phone, though, because he had to give her all the details of his dates and how cute Kian was and how madly insufferably in love they were. She was happy for him, she really was, but it was still slightly irksome that both her best friend and her brother managed to get boyfriends with (apparent) ease while she had to have a stupid unrequited crush. At least Daniel was nice enough to tell her she was beautiful. The only other boy who said that was Connor, and since he was her best friend that didn't count. She just had to resign herself to the fact that being the nerdy, MMO playing orcha-dork was not going to attract guys. At least Daniel was cool enough, though, he didn't seem to mind that she was a huge geek; hell, he was one, too!

"Have you played any LotRO? I've got Connor playing, we could use another member for our fellowship. Maybe I can even get Levi and Lexy to switch from WoW, then we'll only be one shy of a complete fellowship. For the game, I mean, you can only have six members, not nine."

[Danny Alegressi]

Danny was very relieved when it turned out Connor was not a rival. Watching Julia he had discovered she liked someone, he just wasn't sure who. He was determined to find out, even though he wasn't sure what he could do about it if he knew. His father had finally brought the lesson home that he couldn't challenge anyone to duels anymore or shoot them or even cast spells on them. With his luck it would turn out to be Bo or someone similar who was quite capable of decimating him even without magic. He was getting rather discouraged though. This unknown male had all of Julia's regard, while he, Elladan, who spent all his time wooing the fair maiden was almost completely disregarded or treated as one of her girlfriends.

"LotRO? No I have not heard of this game... but if you wish me to learn I will," he said, thinking perhaps she might care more if he was a part of a fellowship rather than a Ranger and healer. If he was in her fellowship, he could protect her and show her how capable of being a provider he was. "I think my father made Frodo's fellowship nine to balance against the ring-wraiths... He was a bit confused as to what their mission would be, but it must be something different, maybe being a distraction.

[Julia Warner]

Julia clapped her hands together excitedly, "Oh, it's fun, you'll love it, the developers did such a great job!" She enthused when Daniel agreed to play Lord of the Rings Online with her and Connor. "I'm a Loremaster right now, but there's this new class that's coming out, and I might switch my main to that, but anyway, it's fun, and I love making rude gestures at Bill Ferny, even though it does no good at all, and they just have all these little tid-bits for use lore monkeys, but!" She warned, "You won't be able to use any names from the lore. I mean, you can use Sindarin and Quenyan for your names, which is good, because how could you have a Tolkien game where you couldn't? But if you use any actual names of his characters...and you can't use anything that has the combination e-l-f in it, either, which is annoying, because I wanted to name my bear Sereghelf, and it wouldn't let me, which was really annoying because helf is it's own word, but I guess there's not a good way to ban 'elf' and allow 'helf'."

She giggled again, "Yesss, omigod! You and I should have hobbits! I made a hobbit alt, and you know what, you get to see the Nazgul in the intro if you're a hobbit. Actually, all the intros are different, show different aspects of the world. It's really, really a neat game. Usually games based on Tolkiens world aren't that great, but this one they really know their stuff." She sighed happily.

[Danny Alegressi]

Danny found the explanation rather confusing as he was still having a hard time realizing she was talking about a game and not a vocation. His eyes glazed over a bit and he pulled out his comb which was carved from bone and began to comb his hair which usually soothed him. This time it didn't and he suddenly burst out. "Be a Hobbit! How can I be a hobbit? Is this some magic I have never heard of before this? Or do I just pretend? I know I am rather short for an elf, but I am much taller than one of the little folk."

He subsided when he realized he wasn't giving her time to explain which was rather rude. "I apologize, my lady. I should not be so impatient. I know you will help me to understand," Danny said, appropriately penitent.

[Julia Warner]

Julia found herself giggling constantly when Danny was around. He was just so funny! "It's a game, silly!" She told him, "Lord of the Rings Online, you make a character and run around in Middle Earth slaying giant spiders and wights and such. And the storyline is fun, too, you're kind of going alongside the real Fellowship. You can make multiple characters, so even though my main is an Elf I want to do at least one alt for each, and the hobbits are so cute and they have such a pretty area and the music there is pretty, too, so I like to just chill in the Shire sometimes, fish a little, kill some bandits, but we should make our characters related or something. You can adopt people as your kids, but you can't get married. It's kind of lame, they let you at first, like, way back in Beta, but then people complained that it wasn't fair that they didn't allow gay marriage and then other people were like but yeah, canon, hello, imagine Tolkien rolling over in his grave, cause it's not fair, so they nixed that instead of having an argument between canon purity and fairness, which I think is good, but some people were like ooooooh but we want marriage, but you can still give your characters the same surname and pretend, I mean, really, it's not that hard."

She sighed, then switched back to her earlier topic, "But anyway, I know you'll want your main to be an Elf, too, but if you do an alt make it a hobbit, please?" She attempted to bat her eye lashes at him, but couldn't without falling back into giggles.

[Danny Alegressi]

Danny listened very hard, though it was still bewildering to him. He caught enough that he was able to say with confidence. "If I make an alt, I will be sure he is a hobbit," he promised fervently. When she batted her lashes at him, he found he wanted to do anything she asked of him and found the giggles equally delightful.

"Is this something you do in the park?" he asked and had a sudden flash of insight. "Or is this one of those computer games?" He had a computer and could actually do enough with it to do homework assignments, but he had never really played with it, preferring to do more active things like shooting things and whacking at them with wooden swords.

"Is your main... married?" Danny asked, wondering if she would even consider them having the same surname. He was beginning to doubt she would ever see him more than a friend, but maybe being married in her favorite game would make her look differently at him.