Sittin' In a Tree

[Jude Sheffield]

"Ho my gosh..." Jude pulled her hair up into a ponytail, securing it messily with a black scrunchie, leaving a few strands falling into her face that was slowly turning slightly pink. The weather wasn't hot but without the breeze, she was getting a bit flushed.

Deciding that she needed extra time to practice on her own without everyone around to make her forget her lines, she picked a quiet spot in the courtyard that was away from people but not too isolated. She needed to scream out her lines and she didn't want to bother other people so being on her own was the only way to go.

Even though she was prepped to enter the zone, her mind kept on drifting to thoughts of Eddie. She wondered how he was doing, surrounded by girls who were probably adoring him right then. She wanted to adore him right then. After their 'date' in the storm and a couple of make out sessions at her house after, they hadn't spent that much time together. Which was a waste.

The little accidental bumps in the hallway and shy waves and smiles were all good but Jude had finally found out how good it was to have a boy hug her and hold her and kiss her...oh did he know how to kiss her.

Snapping herself out of the very disturbing thoughts in her head, she tried concentrating on her lines.

[Eddie O'Flaherty]

The school always seemed so eerie after most all of the students had left. Eddie stood at his locker, gathering his things as he waited for his rehearsal to begin. He wasn't needed until after the ensemble had run a large group number a few times, and he had about an hour too kill. It would have been nice to have someone to sit around with (especially a certain someone) but the halls were empty.

Or perhaps not. A voice echoed down the hallway, and though it was faint by the time it reached Eddie he thought nonetheless that he could investigate. He quickly slammed his locker shut and began to walk down the hallway in the direction of the ghostly voice.

As he turned a corner, he felt a breeze. At the end of the hall he could see that someone must have propped a door open, and the cool air from inside the school was rushing to balance the warmer exterior air. He heard the voice again, this time a little clearer, and his ears perked up. His footsteps quickened, and as he reached the doorway, a small smile appear on his face.

Her back was to him, but he knew that ponytail all too well now. It was something he watched for every time he passed in between classes, hoping to spy it and catch up to its owner. Eddie crept slowly the last twenty or so feet to the spot Jude had chosen to run lines, hoping to surprise her. The fact that he was about to interrupt her work didn't even cross his mind. He was much too excited.

As he neared, his hopes for a surprise we dashed as Jude turned, the reasons unknown to Eddie. Still, he wasn't disappointed.

"Hi there," was all he could manage as the grin on his face was impossible to stop.

[Jude Sheffield]

Jude had gone into the zone by the time Eddie reached the school door. She was chewing on the ends of her hair while singing a couple of bars from "Hopelessly Devoted" when she felt someone creeping up behind her. The closer that person got, the more familiar he was to the blonde sophomore.

Pulling her hair out of her mouth, Jude wiped any excess perspiration on her face and neck and hoped to Venus that she didn't look in shambles in her plain light green t-shirt and a printed cotton skirt that pouffed out a bit. She turned and the smile on Eddie's face disarmed her for a moment before she too produced a smile similar if not bigger than his.

"Eddie," even saying his name gave her the tinglies. She moved to get up before heading towards him. She wanted to hug him but didn't think it was appropriate. Was kissing appropriate? Not a lot of people were around anyway... She knew she was overthinking the greeting too much so she just dove right into it and pecked Eddie on the cheeks before she changed her mind.

"You smell nice." Jude said before her previous smile dropped. Did she really just say he smelled nice? Gulping inaudibly, Jude gave a little nervous chuckle as she bit her lower lip. "You look good..." no better, but it will do for now. She really needed some advice on this whole interacting with boys you are insanely in like with.

[Eddie O'Flaherty]

The feel of Jude's slender arms around his waist made Eddie all the more glad he had trailed the spectral voice in the hallway. He was not expecting the kiss on the cheek, however, and he couldn't help from blushing just a bit. “Thanks,” he replied through he grin still plastered on his face. “You smell nice and look good too.” Eddie could feel that Jude was slightly nervous, but he didn't get why. He pulled back from the hug slightly, just enough to be able to look at Jude's pretty face.

“I'm glad I ran into you,” he started, still refusing to let the girl out of his grasp. Not that it seemed she wanted to go, but he wasn't taking any chances. “I've got some time to kill around the school for a bit. You aren't busy, are you?” Eddie glanced over at Jude's stuff, hoping not to see a big sprawl of homework that would keep her from wanting to hang out with him. :I just don't really want to be bored.”

He was hoping Jude would want to hang out, perhaps just sit and chat for a while, or perhaps something more fun. Eddie recalled the different places he and his friends would take girls to make out at his old school, and realized he didn't really know anywhere like that at Gould. There were always empty classrooms, but you never knew when a janitor or someone might stop by, and it wouldn't be a good idea to get caught.

Various places ran through Eddie's mind until he forcibly had to stop them. Jude was a very nice girl, and Eddie knew he shouldn't be expecting her to just go around making out with him wherever he wanted. Eddie especially had the feeling that he was a little more experienced than Jude, and the last thing he wanted to do was weird her out and come off as some kind of creeper. They had made out a little bit, but he didn't know what she might think was appropriate or not.

He came up with a different plan, instead. “Hungry? We could go get some snacks from the vending machine. My treat!”

[Jude Sheffield]

Eddie's blush was unexpected but it further enforced Jude's idea of Eddie being the sweetest guy she had ever met. Though they had only been with each other for a few days, she already didn't see herself being with anybody else for quite some time. She didn't want to think of the possibility that he didn't think the same thing. She was just that blissfully ignorant of reality. So this was what happened to people in couples, she thought to herself idly. She rather liked the feeling.

His compliment made her chuckle shyly. "Thank you," she replied with an equally shy grin. The fact that his arms were still wrapped tight around her didn't escape her and she was feeling rather hot at the moment because of it. For awhile, her mind drifted off into what seemed to be the starting of a really cheesy romantic scene in a B-grade movie, that she almost didn't catch Eddie's question. "There's a reason why it's called home work, Eddie." She gave out a small laugh before sliding her arms around his neck almost instinctively. "You're supposed to do it at home."

When he zoned off abit, Jude wondered what he could be thinking about. And as her mind concocted different thoughts of what that was, his exclamation of getting food came close after her tummy rumbled. Oh how embarrassing! Of all things to happen in front of the boy she had just started dating! She hoped he didn't catch that. She wasn't really to blame though. She only had one piece of egg sandwich for breakfast and a few mints in class so right then, she was pretty starving.

She tried to cover up her tummy rumble by laughing at Eddie's gracious offer to treat her to vending machine snacks. "That would be awesome. I'm going to grab as much snacks as my hand can carry. It's not everyday a girl gets treated to snacks from the vending machine." She joked before pulling her arm from around his neck to take his hand in hers. "This is nice..." she remarked as she looked down at their linked hands.

With her busy schedule, she had never had the time to even consider hanging out, let alone dating anyone. But with Eddie, it seemed easy. It was a bonus that she had left her hectic life behind in Georgia and was now just settling into teenagehood. She could get used to this. And to think it was only a few weeks ago that she met Eddie. Things were going pretty good for the pretty girl.

[Eddie O'Flaherty]

Eddie couldn't help but chuckle when Jude's stomach rumbled. The girl was just too cute for words, and Eddie felt like the luckiest guy in the world that she seemed to really like him. He made a mental note to hopefully never screw it up.

“Hey, I'd buy you as many bags of Cheetos as a vending machine could hold, if that's what you'd like!” Eddie let Jude's hand slide into his, and he had to agree with her that it was a very nice feeling. He grabbed onto her other hand with his, then pulled both of them around behind him, bringing her even closer. He pecked her on the lips quickly, and though he really wanted to give her a kiss that was much more meaningful, he didn't know if she'd be comfortable with it out in the open courtyard. Instead, he dropped her hands and took a few steps back. “I'll get your stuff, you lead the way!”

Making sure to keep her stuff organized, he collected it up and placed it in her bag, then slung the pack over his shoulder and motioned for his very pretty girlfriend to lead the way. He most definitely did not mind walking after her, but he caught up to her side quickly nonetheless. As much as he liked to steal glances of her very well-proportioned body parts, he also wanted to resume the hand-holding that had the not-so-subtle effect of making his heart thump louder than a timpani. Plus, he didn't normally get to walk down the halls hand in hand with his girl. He smiled to himself.

Jude was his girl.

[Jude Sheffield]

Okay so he heard her stomach rumble. Embarrassing. It's okay, she thought to herself with a shake of her head. "Don't laugh at my tummy," she poked Eddie in the arms. "I haven't eaten since this morning." She tossed her head back before smiling at him. "Cheetos is my favourite, by the way." Tilting her head slightly to the left and bunched her nose up a bit. Just as she was about to say something about heading somewhere else to eat, Eddie's kiss completely interrupted her train of thought. It wasn't the kiss she had wanted from him but wowie.

When he let go of her, Jude didn't think it could actually disappointing but it was. As he cleaned her stuff up, a part of her wanted to yell for him to stop. it just reminded her of what happened not too long ago when she was a supposed celebrity. It wasn't so much a big deal but she didn't like people doing things for her. But what if he took offense? She didn't want him to think she wasn't grateful or whatever. So she did the next best thing. She bent down and helped him. Trying hard not to notice how close they were with each other, she tried to keep the blush from her face when every now and then their hands or shoulders bumped.

They got back up when things were in order and as she made a grab at her bag and found it wasn't there but on Eddie's shoulder, she gave a little nervous chuckle. "Um...Eddie...may I have my bag back?" She held her hand out for her bag with a little smile on her face. "I appreciate you doing all this but uh...don't?" She felt the urge to tell him about her celebrity but no...she's not about to weird him out. It was an embarrassing time for her anyway.

She took her bag from his shoulder, maybe accidentally on purpose touching him longer than she was supposed to. Holding her hand out for his, Jude looked up at him with a smile. "Shall we?"