Here It Goes! (tags Fel, any)

[Patch Kimball (aka DJ Fluff)]

After a lunch spent nodding absently when asked about school work -- yeah, yeah, it's done (because Nick felt responsible for Patch's grades and did it for him), whatever, no, I don't have any tests, I'm fine, didn't I tell you it was done? -- Patch and K.B. had headed out to the park to kick soccer balls around.

For reasons utterly perplexing to him all his friends were busy -- Evan had a jam session with people who actually played instruments (Patch had to admit that despite an obsession with the indie scene he didn't actually play anything, so unless they needed a tamborine or his parents agreed to start paying for lessons for....some musical thing or other, he probably wasn't going to be invited along), J.J. was (as always seemed to be the case these days) with Mallory, and Kian was off doing some geek thing with Connor and some of Connor's friends. He had a difficult time keeping track of Mike -- who largely ran with a different crowd -- and he'd forgotten to actually get Christophe's number to invite him over for anything.

Not that many people were out on the green proper, so if he wanted to send the soccer ball flying he could safely do so without fear of hitting anyone and then boy and dog would chase the ball down together. This wasn't quite as exciting as playing with another human, but he really did love his dog's company; K.B.'s affection was unconditional, and the dog never questioned his asexuality or teased him about his love of shoegaze.

"Ha! Fetch, boy!" He grinned, kicking the ball out from under K.B.'s nose so that it flew across the field, rolling to a stop at the base of an old oak. Patch and his dog raced to see who could arrive there first, and both stopped short upon seeing that there was someone else there. K.B. was the first to approach the stranger, tail wagging with interest. Patch moved more hesitantly, stooping to pick up his ball. "Uhh, sorry, didn't see you there."

[felipe]

Felipe had decided to make good use of the half decent weather by taking a book and his ipod down to the park with the intention of kicking back and relaxing for a while. He was still unsure what had happened at Jessica's house earlier. Ok, so he knew he'd met her mother and that she and Jessica didn't seem to get on all that well but the naked girl? The French stick? No... it had all been a bit too much to comprehend but Felipe was glad he'd made his visit as he'd soon ascertained that Jessica was fine and they'd gone on to spend the rest of the morning picking out a new phone for her. Add to that the fact that she'd agreed to go bowling with him tomorrow and the day had started out well. Far better than he'd expected.

Rufio had been left back at the house for once, allowing Felipe to completely immerse himself in his book. With his ipod firmly plugged into his ears he wasn't even remotely aware that a ball, a dog and a boy were heading his way. Not until the dog pressed a wet nose against the back of Felipe's neck.

He looked up in surprise, greeting by a lolling tongue and furiously wagging tail. Feluipe reached a hand up to ruffle the dog's ear. "Hey," he said and the tail wagged harder. He glanced up at the boy.

"Não é um problema," he replied with a smile. "You have a handsome dog," he added. "And friendly too. I'm Felipe. I've seen you around school. I think we have a couple of classes together..."

[Patch Kimball (aka DJ Fluff)]

Patch struggled to come up with what class he might possibly have with the other boy, but failed. "Yeah?" He replied uncertainly. Did that mean he was supposed to know the other guy's name? Crap! He didn't! He couldn't even remember seeing him before! "Hunh."

He proudly scratched K.B. behind the ears at the compliment. "Thanks. Yeah, he's a little too friendly sometimes." He admitted. "This is K.B. Err, he's named after Kevin Barnes. From of Montreal." He clarified, though he didn't expect the other boy to know the band; few enough of his peers did, and he wasn't sure if this fact pleased or annoyed him in greater measure. "Umm, I'm Patrick, but most people call me Patch." He offered, hoping that he wasn't supposed to know this guy's name and that it would therefore be given without accompanying dirty looks for his inability to recall even the first letter.

"So whatcha listenin' to?" He queried, noting the earbuds. Probably an (shudder!) iPod; sometimes he felt certain that he was the only person at Gould who used anything different. He was hell-bent against resisting the evil that was any and all Apple product, however, even if it meant being the only student sporting a sansa sandisk. Not that this was a problem -- he felt this was a badge of individuality and a big F.U. to Apple all at the same time -- because Apple cared about one snotty indie fan.

[felipe]

Felipe laughed slightly. "A dog can never be too friendly... Just too trusting." He reached a hand up to the other boy in greeting. "I am Felipe," he provided. "Felipe Vila Nova." He glanced down at his ipod. "I am listening to an advanced spoken English course," he told Patch. "Well, its more American slang phrases than anything else. If I am to be living here then I will need to know what's being said to me... right? For instance, I have just discovered that 'rubbing someone the wrong way' isn't a sexual reference as I first thought!" He threw Patch a grin. "I can see I still have a long way to go if I am to hope to survive in the USA."

He brushed himself off as he got to his feet, blades of grass and small leaves dropping to the ground. I'm more or less finished here so do you feel like some company? Perhaps you can help me to understand a few of these terms... like what is spacing out? Even with the explanation I'm struggling to grasp that particular one!" An understatement, to be honest but Felipe was determined to finish the download and hopefully then be able to comprehend some of the words he'd heard around school.

[Patch Kimball (aka DJ Fluff)]

Patch shook the proffered hand. "That sounds an awful lot like learning," He informed Felipe when the other boy explained exactly what he was listening to. "I try my best to avoid anything like that." Then again, if he found himself in a foreign country he might actually have more impetus to learn another language, at least with more dedication than he had for French, which was only useful insofar as it helped him understand certain bands.

"So where're you from?" He asked. The second foreigner in as many days! He was impressed; while LA had a very large immigrant population, he kept more or less to his own group of friends, and while Kian was actually from Ireland Patch tended to forget this fact and considered him purely American. "Yeah, sure, I can always use company!" He accepted, and K.B. wagged his tail in agreement.

He scratched his chin, trying to come up with some way to clarify the meaning of spaced out. He'd never really considered how difficult American slang must be for someone born somewhere else; it seemed so self-explanatory to someone born and bred on American soil. "Umm. If you're spaced out then you're not with it, you could say Oh, I spaced out and forgot or I wasn't paying attention cause I spaced out or something." He offered, hoping this was helpful. He wasn't very good at the whole tutoring thing; that was more Nick's territory. "I dunno, it's hard to explain when you use something all the time." He apologized, "Like tryin' to teach someone how to breathe."

[felipe]

"What you call learning I call a need to survive," Felipe replied with a grin. "I mean, if I want to stand of hope of fitting in here I have to understand what's being said... and to be able to reply properly." He lifted his shoulders. "Without that I'm a lost cause!"

He'd climbed to his feet by now and the two boys - plus one canine - continued deeper into the park, chatting as they went. Felipe listened carefully as Patch explained as best he could what 'spaced out' meant. "I see I still have a long road before me," Felipe commented. "As for where I'm from... Brazil. Sao Paolo. Its a city not all that far from Rio de Janeiro." People seemed to have heard of the latter more than they had the former. "Have you heard of Sao Paolo?" Patch might be one of those rare few. "Or been to Brazil? It's nothing like California at all... and in more ways than just the language. But I've been lucky in that I quickly met some frienly people and have already started to feel at home. In fact, I have been invited to go bowling with a group of Kian's friends tomorrow. Is Kian someone you know? I have asked Jessica Pruitte to go with me as my date," he finished with a contented smile. He had a feeling Jessica saw him more along the lines of two pals spending some time together but the word 'date' sounded nice.

[Patch Kimball (aka DJ Fluff)]

"Sweet! Your team was freakin' awesome last year!" Patch said excitedly when Felipe mentioned being from Sao Paulo. "Except for the Libertadores Cup, you kinda sucked. I dunno what was up with that. My dad and I actually went there in November, oh man, I thought Brazil was gonna lose for sure at first, no offense, but they really turned things around there at the end! It was so epic, getting to see Brazil face off against Uruguay live." He gushed, hoping that the stereotype of Brazilians as soccer fanatics would prove true.

"Dude, you met Kian?" He grinned, excited that they apparently shared some friends in common. "Know him? We've been friends for ages, til he moved to New York. It's pretty much awesome having him back." He laughed, but his delight quickly turned to dismay when Jessica Pruitte was mentioned.

"Shit! Psycho chick is coming?!" He blurted out, shocked that anyone would ask that she-devil anywhere. Sure, he and Evan might have burned down her house, but they'd tried to apologize! She didn't have to attempt to bite them to death! He was really glad he hadn't seen her at school the last few weeks, especially since she was supposed to be his locker partner, which would have been nothing short of hell had she bothered showing up.

Some more choice curses followed, then, "I have to warn Evan." She'd kill them if she came, witnesses or no. He wondered if they could reschedule on such short notice, but Evan had told just about everyone in the school and there probably wasn't a good way to get the message out to all the guests that they had to take a rain psycho check.

[felipe]

Felipe was overjoyed when Patch started talking about his favourite subject.

Football.

No, he reminded himself. It was called soccer here."I can't agree more!" he replied. "São Paulo's premier team is still top of the Brazilian league but Grêmio is coming up fast. São Paulo is facing Rio's Flamengo this afternoon," he continued. "Not quite a local derby but the two cities are always battling for supremacy at the top of the championship table. It's great to find someone as passionate about Sul futebol americano as I am." Felipe leaned a little closer. "No one else knows this but my goal is to play for my national team. Of course," he continued as he straightened once more, "... it's an impossible goal but what is life without a few challenges... right?"

Felipe smiled when Patch said he was friends with Kian. "Yeah, we met at a fencing academy. I went there to enrol and Kian and I ended up fighting. Not in a bad way," he quickly clarified. "He was trying to convince me that the sabre is the best blade." Felipe laughed. "I still prefer my foil."

Felipe's eyes widened when Patch reacted in a totally different way to Jessica's name. "Psycho? What do you mean? Does she and... Evan not get on well?" Felipe didn't think he'd met this Evan... yet. He wasn't 100% sure what 'psycho' meant but had an inkling it translated to psicótico... Psychotic... and he knew very well what that meant. "Jessica is sweet... really. I get on well with her... Should I tell her we aren't going bowling?" He knew Jessica wouldn't mind - as long as they did something else together instead - but he'd hoped to use tomorrow to make even more friends... as well as chat more with Patch (if he was there) about football. That said, he didn't want to be the indirect cause of trouble...

[Patch Kimball (aka DJ Fluff)]

Patch was pleased that Felipe was, in fact, a fan of soccer. He knew that soccer was huge in South America, much more popular than it was here, but he supposed he could have met one of the few Brazilians who actually didn't follow the sport.

"Playing professionally would be so cool!" He enthused in agreement. "It's not impossible, somebody has to get on the team." He pointed out, figuring that Felipe had as much chance as anyone. He'd have loved to play pro himself, preferably for The Chicago Fires, but any team at all that would take him would do.

He looked warily at Felipe when the other boy expressed confusion over his reaction to Jessica's promised presence. He couldn't imagine the she-devil ever behaving in a manner that could be called sweet. She had remained utterly impervious to the most heart-felt of apologies, so obviously she wasn't capable of anything nice such as forgiveness or charity. The girl wasn't human!

"Not get on well?" He repeated incredulously, "When did you move here again? Did you miss the day she tried to murder us in the cafeteria?" And then some random guy had jumped in to help her; he still didn't know who it had been though, had assumed boyfriend. But if Felipe was taking her on a date then that was most likely incorrect. Unless the other guy had dumped her because she was crazy.

"Being bitten to death is really not fun, and it's hard to defend yourself when you can't hit your opponent," He added, shuddering at the memory. He and Evan had certainly looked a sight after she'd got done with them -- or rather, after they'd managed to escape momentarily.

"And if she attacks me again I'll be benched. It's not fair, we didn't even fight back." He complained. His parents had been quite furious that the school had called, though, grounding him for what had seemed an eternity. Evan's mother hadn't been thrilled with the news, either, and forced him to go help out at the nursing home on the weekends, although for Evan that wasn't much of a punishment; he got on famously with all the senior citizens.

Of course, if it ever got out why Jessica hated them so much they'd have worse than grounding or fights to deal with -- fortunately for them, Jessica had her own secrets and outing the two would have meant revealing herself as well.

[felipe]

"Jessica?" Felipe looked - and felt - astonished. "Jessica Pruitte?" Perhaps there were two girls at school with that name as he couldn't imagine her acting in such a way. "Surely she didn't seriously try and murder you," he added. "I'm sure she would have been joking. She jokes around a lot!"

He listened as Patch detailed the 'attack', finding it hard not to grin at the mental image of Jessica sinking her teeth into someone. He wouldn't have minded...

Felipe dragged his thoughts away from where they were struggling to take him - and with no small amount of effort. He made a note in his head to ask Jessica what had happened. He knew that if something like that had taken place there would have been a reason for it and yet Patch seemed very amicable. "I will talk to her," he assured Patch. "And if we do come tomorrow I'll make sure she doesn't bite anyone," he added with an even broader grin.

He peered at his companion, eyes narrowing slightly. "Unless..." Suspicion started to surface. "You aren't trying to scare me off her so that you can ask her out for yourself... are you? If so please don't feel you have to hold back as I have no hold over who she goes out with... really!"