|
|
Post by Kayla Whitaker on Jan 25, 2010 1:16:18 GMT -5
It was Saturday morning and for some reason Kayla woke up oddly early. Okay...maybe not. She tended to be so used to getting up early each day at school that many times on the weekends she woke up too. Rolling out of bed Kayla pulled her long brown hair into a ponytail and made her way to the bathroom to brush her teeth and then back to her room to change. She pulled on a pair of blue running shirts and a sports bra, throwing a white tank top over it--you could see her bra through it but it was just a sports bra and she was just going running so she really didn't care so much. Then she pulled on her socks and pumas and headed downstairs.
In the kitchen she quickly ate two bowls of cereal, knowing she could digest on the ride over. Kayla liked to run every morning. Usually on school days she just went running around her house, but on the weekends she liked to go running by the beach because she had more time. So once she finished breakfast she headed out and leisurely rode her bike to the beach, so she could digest on the way. She liked riding her bike, but there was nothing quite like running.
Once she got to the beach, she locked up her and made her way to the sand. Before she started she sat down on the sand and spent 15 minutes or so stretching out her muscles. With one last stretch, Kayla headed towards the water where the sand was matted down and even, thus easier to run on. She ran for awhile, all the was down the never ending beach. However, after awhile she stopped, deciding it was probably time to turn back. First, a stop for some gatorade though, or maybe a vitamin water if they have one that she liked. She headed up the beach and towards a small convenience store on the boardwalk to grab a beverage before heading back.
With her drink in hand Kayla leaned against the wall that separated the beach from the bike path, resting for a few minutes as she hydrated.
Tag Any
|
|
|
|
Post by christophe on Jan 25, 2010 2:35:09 GMT -5
The weekend.
An entire two days of nothing much to do other than laze around and relax.
To some that might have seemed glorious. Heaven right here on Earth... but not to Christophe Broussard. He was used to spending his spare time out on the water, tracking orcas... porpoises... pods of any shape, size, manner or form. Hell, he'd even have been happy to follow a group of sealions. A heron.
Anything.
But instead he faced two days of nothing much to do. Ok, so that wasn't really true as this afternoon he was to meet up with Lia but logic wasn't allowed to take part in his mood right now.
"Fantastique," he muttered and the word was devoid of any of its intended meaning. It was anything *but* fantastic.
He pulled on a t-shirt as he headed downstairs and he raked his fingers through his hair to try and straighten it a bit once more. It helped... but not a great deal.
"Je vais aller à la plage pour une promenade, mama," he said.
"In English, Christophe," his mother gently reminded him. She knew precisely why her son felt restless and when he got thta way he always reverted to his native language.
"Going to go for a walk," he repeated. "Down to the beach."
His mother nodded and watched him leave with a mildly concerned look on her face. The sooner he found a job and saved up enough money to buy that small boat the happier they would all be.
* * *
Christophe leaned over the railing that edged the bicycle path, hands clasped as he peered down at the sandy beach. He heard someone jogging close by and shot the girl a glance. Christophe had only been attending the school for a couple of days but he felt sure he'd seen her there. She drank from a bottle and he waited for her to finish and had been about to say something when Renard pulled at his leash. He barked at the girl and caught her attention. "He's a terrible attention-seeker," Christophe commented to the girl with a friendly smile. "But harmless."
|
|
|
|
Post by Kayla Whitaker on Jan 25, 2010 3:05:46 GMT -5
Kayla was finishing off her Vitamin Water. Then she'd wait a few minutes and then start her run back to where she'd left her bike. That was the plan at least, when the dog ran at her barking. Kayla didn't mind dogs, she liked them even, but when they ran at you barking...it could be a little scary. She jumped but before she could get away the dog had pressed his face in-between her legs and was licking her knees. She laughed, petting his head with her free hand and scratching behind his ears.
She looked up to see the blonde boy, who owned the dog. "It's alright," she said. "I like dogs." Kayla tended to be on the friendly side. She didn't often jump into conversations with people she didn't know. She wasn't really shy though...it just usually took the other person to coax her into the conversation a little bit, unless they were one of her friends. And Kayla didn't recognize him from school. Although she didn't know it, he was a senior at Gould and new--and she was a sophomore at Silver. They weren't really conditions that would have caused her to recognize him. Plus, with the schools combined there were so many new people to take in each day that she could hardly remember them all.
But he stood there smiling, looking expectantly even, and she was petting his dog, so she pressed on, forcing herself to be a little more talkative than normal. "What's his name?" she asked, leaning back a little, shocked as the dog stood up on his hind legs, his paws reaching toward her lap, trying to jump up and get her attention. "Man, he is a friendly one," she laughed.
|
|
|
|
Post by christophe on Jan 25, 2010 3:16:31 GMT -5
"Renard," Christophe replied. "It means 'fox'.... mainly because he is as sly as one! See how he managed to get you to fuss over him? Sly and very sneaky," he added with a laugh. "I'm Christophe," he added. "Christophe Broussard. New to town. In fact I only arrived here on Thursday. "Renard, descendez! Reposez-vous!" Christophe reached down to grab the scruff at the back of the husky pup's neck. "Descendez!" he ordered and Renard reluctantly obeyed. "He doesn't understand English and most of the time chooses to ignore French," he said to the girl. "I hope he didn't scratch you. His claws can get a bit long as he doesn't get out a lot at the moment. He really won't hurt you on purpose, though."
Christophe looked down at the petite girl. "He might push you over, though, as he can get a bit excited." Christophe tugged back on Renard's collar, making sure his leash was securely attached. "Do you run every morning?" he asked. "I mean, along this path... I am hoping to find someone who knows if there are any orcas off the coast around here. Have you ever seen anything like that?" Christophe offered the girl a wry smile. "I like to study marine life," he explained.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kayla Whitaker on Jan 25, 2010 3:29:21 GMT -5
"Renard," she said repeating the name. It was an odd choice for a dog's name, she thought, but his accent and the whole speaking to the dog in French made her realized that maybe Renard was a normal dog's name there. But then again people tended to name their dogs all sorts of crazy things so she was no one to judge. She laughed when he mentioned getting her to fuss over him. "Well, I'm sure he gets lots of people to fuss over him," she commented. "He's sweet."
"I'm Kayla," she said when the older boy introduced himself, before yelling at the dog in French. "Is that where you're from, France?" she asked. She wasn't from LA originally either, but she was just from the East Coast. Plus. she'd been living in LA for 3 years now. "Nah, I'm fine," she assured him, brushing off her knees. There were some light scratches but nothing major or that she cared about so there was no need to worry him.
"I think I'm okay," she added, steadying herself as he pulled Renard away a little. "Along here...usually only on weekends," she said about the running. "During the week I just run around my neighborhood because I don't have the time to come all the way out here because of school and stuff," she explained. Smiling when he explained his interest in Marine life she nodded. "No orcas," she said, "but I've seen dolphins in the distance before. You should go to Sea World, down in San Deigo though. It's only like a 2 hour drive and they have that whole Shamoo show. Those are orca's right...the black and white whales?" she asked, to clarify. She didn't want to sound like a complete idiot suggesting he go see Shamoo if he was talking about something else.
|
|
|
|
Post by christophe on Jan 25, 2010 3:43:23 GMT -5
"Its a pleasure to meet you, Kayla," Christophe replied. "And yes, I'm originally from France. Paris, in fact. We moved here from Canada though, having emmigrated from Paris a few years ago. We used to live in a place called Whistler... north of Vancouver. I guess I'm finding it hard to let go of my accent," he added with a wink.
Christophe's face fell slightly when Kayla told him she hadn't seen any orcas. Dolphins were good, though... but not quite the same thing. He'd heard of Sea World, of course, but had no real interest in watching whales in captivity. "The black and white ones, yes, those are orcas. You know they are very social animals and tend to live in nuclear and extended families. Pods. At the social heart is the orca mother. She and her children... even her adult sons... stay together throughout life. If a mother is alive and she has no surviving sons, she too may be found swimming with her daughter and grandchildren. Adult daughters who have their own offspring may separate from their mother to some extent in order to take care of their children's needs, but will usually be found travelling nearby. That's what makes them so interesting. Other than humans its unusual to see such a closeness after maturity. I was following a pod up north... gamma... It was really hard to leave them behind when we came here."
Hard? That was putting it mildly as Christophe had built up a good relationship with the alpha female.
"As you can see I can talk endlessly on the subject and I find it interesting to see how long some people can stay awake as more often they are snoring by the time I reach this stage." He dipped his head slightly. "I give you credit for your manners," he said with a grin.
"Have you lived around here all your life?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Kayla Whitaker on Jan 25, 2010 4:07:48 GMT -5
He winked at her and it made Kayla a little uncomfortable only because she never knew how to react when people did stuff like that to her. She tended to be kind of awkward with it really, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that she was struggling with her sexuality, something she hadn't really admitted to anyone yet, and hadn't even completely admitted to herself. She smiled though, hoping that her awkwardness wasn't too apparent. She liked to blame it on the fact that she was quiet, but deep down she knew that there was more to it all.
She kind of enjoyed his babbling on the whales...mostly because it didn't include any winking or flirtation toward her. He was a good looking guy, but that was part of the problem. It was easier when they weren't good looking or were her friends. It would have been worse had it been a girl though...she was more uncomfortable with her attraction to the same sex after all. But the whole thing sort of came off like she just wasn't interested in anyone usually, like she was asexual or whatever. Luckily she could hide in what most people considered her tomboy side since she was athletic and liked watching sports.
"Um...well, just because you can't see them from the shore, doesn't mean they aren't out here. I honestly don't know. I think they have like whale watching boat tours you can take...but I've never been on one so I don't know what sort of whales you might see," she explained. "I know we have a lot of dolphins though." Those could easily be seen even from the sure. She'd heard sometimes they'd swim all around the boats but she'd never been out on one so she had no idea.
"It's okay. You seem really excited about it," she said. "Just listen to me go on during playoff season and I'm probably way boring to anyone who doesn't follow sports." Kayla followed a bunch of different sports and usually tried to catch the majority of the games but sometimes there got to be too many, so even if she missed some here and there she always made sure to watch during the playoffs. Right now she was getting ready for March Madness in a few weeks so it was all about college basketball. Kayla liked to favor Villanova from back east and favored USC on the west coast.
"No, I haven't," she said. "I grew up on the east coast...in Philadelphia, but I've been living in LA since I was like 12," she explained. "Do you like living here? It must be really different from Paris and Vancouver." Kayla had never been to either but she was pretty sure they were really cold. But then again, it was relatively cold back in Philly too, at least during the winter months.
|
|
|
|
Post by christophe on Jan 25, 2010 8:30:13 GMT -5
"Its not too bad here," Christophe admitted. "But its hard to compare it to either Montmartre or Whistler. You should see the Sacré Coeur at sunset," he went on. "The orange of the dying sun when it hits the basilica... It can't honestly be described. The stone is so white and no matter how many centuries pass it still remains that way. Our home was nestled beneath the basilica and so it was the first thing I saw every morning. Whistler, though, is very different. Modern where Paris is so old. Full of life but mostly that brought by tourists." He shrugged ruefully. "My heart will always belong to Montmartre but my life now is her and so I am determined to get as much as I can out of it."
He leaned back against the handrail that seperated the cycle path from the drop down to the beach. "What do you do at the weekends for fun?" he asked. "For myself I have so much to learn and could really use your advice." Perhaps Kayla would know of some places he could take Llyria later? That might help to make him look less like a stranger later when he picked Lia up.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kayla Whitaker on Jan 25, 2010 15:22:55 GMT -5
He seemed really passionate about everything he talked about. Kayla wasn't really that way. She could get really passionate talking sports sometimes or rooting for the teams she followed...but a sunset, while pretty, was nothing more than just something nice to look at for a moment to her. She wasn't really much of an artist. It could be fun and all, but it wasn't something that she cared to do all the time. She could only guess he was an artist by the way he was describing the sunset or maybe not because he wanted to be a marine biologist or something, she assumed by his interest in the whales. Did artist and marine biologist go together? Not really, but she supposed anything could go together as long as the person enjoyed the different activities. Sure she still loved her hometown too, but the only thing she could think to say about it at the moment was that they had really killer cheese steaks but she kept that to herself since it didn't really compare to the whole sunset thing.
What did she do for fun? "Ummm...I hang out with my friends and stuff?" she said with a shrug. She wasn't really a big party goer or one of those people that always had plans. She usually tried to make plans for the weekend but it didn't always happen. She didn't really have any plan for today after her run. There was a Lakers game on later that she'd probably watch unless one of her friends called her up to see if she wanted to hang out. "We go to movies and the the mall and do normal stuff I guess. Sorry, I don't think I am the best person to be giving you advice about what there is to do," she admitted, wondering if her life was really that boring that she couldn't even think of things to say. She decided that it wasn't. Maybe she wasn't always at a party, but she had fun. And sometimes she and her friends didn't really do anything, they could just hang out watching TV and talking or whatever and have a good time.
|
|
|
|
Post by christophe on Jan 26, 2010 5:31:57 GMT -5
"The movies? I like the movies too. But I will do as you suggest and ask around. I'm sure there is something to do at the weekends." Llyria might know. He'd talk to her about that later.
Renard chose that moment to bolt after a seagull that had dared land nearby to feast on some discarded scrap of food. Christophe was taken unawares and the leash was tugged out of his hand. "Renard!" he called but the husky pup had far more on his mind than his master's shout.
Christophe muttered something in French beneath his breath before throwing Kayla an apologetic smile. "When he sees a game then nothing will distract him," he said. "I think I will have to go after him... I won't be long." He hoped! With luck Kayla would still be there when he got back - Renard back under control - or she might well use the opening to make a run for it herself. Christophe wouldn't blame her if so as not everyone enjoyed talking with complete strangers. For himself he didn't mind but then again, most people here were complete strangers to him.
He sprinted after the husky, finally catching him at a small rock pool where a shiny shell had caught his canine attention. The seagull made good its escape and Chrsitophe grabbed the trailing leash. "Idiot," he said with affection and with a slightly damp pup in tow he made his way back to the bike path.
Would she still be there? He couldn't tell from the beach...
|
|
