Trying to Fit in...Addy Attn: Any

[addison]

It had been just over a month since Addison had moved to LA and quickly, she was starting to realize that he upbringing, was well, less than typical. Sure, she was still naive about a lot of things, but she'd also learned a lot, including keeping quiet. When she didn't know about something she'd keep her mouth shut and look it up later on her own time. It was really for the best anyway...it allowed people to think she was less of a freak--something she'd realized was a good thing.

Addy also started to eat better. Sure, she was still terribly thin, but she'd tried a number of delicious things that she'd never dreamed of before when she'd been growing up with her grandmother. Different foods were just so tasting! Standing in the lunch line, she grabbed some pizza, which was one of her new favorites. She'd also learned the school did not have the best versions of these foods, but compared to what she'd grown up with, she didn't think the cafeteria was all that bad.

Heading towards the back of the cafeteria, to sit by the window, she did have to admit to herself that today was rather...well interesting. Valentine's Day. From what she gathered, it was a holiday for couples. Well, Addy wasn't part of one of those. She'd never been with anyone at all. She couldn't help but wonder what it would be like. Maybe she should make more of an effort to talk to people...when she'd first arrived she'd been quite friendly but the more people gave her strange looks or laughed at her for the things she said, the more she reverted into a loner. Only she didn't really want to be a loner. She wanted to talk to people...

She looked around the room. Maybe she should move tables and sit with someone new. Considering this for a moment, Addison let out a small sigh. Maybe she'd try that tomorrow....

[Thad Cotton]

Thad had forgotten what day it was, and he was very much regretting that. He could have come up with something good to wear, attached roses all over himself or something. But he wasn't even wearing the proper colors. It was too bad, there was nothing like an excuse to look like an idiot because it was a holiday. Not that he ever needed an excuse, and most people would probably say that the heavy guyliner and mascara he was wearing were idiotic without any additional attempts. He didn't care, he thought he was cool, and as long as people paid attention to him he didn't care what they actually thought. Except that since he hadn't dressed for the holiday most people were not paying attention to him, and that bugged him.

But now it was lunch, so maybe he could find someone willing to give him the attention he craved -- without disrupting his classes. His teachers did not appreciate that, and therefore neither did his mother. She had promised dire consequences if he were sent to detention for disrupting again, and he did care what she thought even if he said otherwise. Getting on his mother's bad side was too inconvenient, anyway, he needed her approval to do most anything that was actually fun so he had to keep her happy. Or at least happy-ish. She still did not think he was respectful enough of her wife, which was true, but he couldn't bring himself to even try to like his new step-mother.

He found himself near the back of the cafeteria, trying to see if he could see either of his sisters. He liked to bother them at lunch, sometimes, especially Sid, but no such luck. There was a shy looking girl, though, and that was good enough for him.

"Hey hey," He greeted her. He hadn't seen her in any of his classes, so decided she must be a Sophomore. She didn't look old enough to be an upperclassman; he was still in awe of how adult and mature the upperclassmen were! They were so cool! If he'd had any inkling that Addie was an upperclassman he probably would not have talked to her, or at least would have fawned more. As it was she was just some girl he could bug. "So what's up! You mind if I sit here?" He asked, but he might as well have not bothered, since he immediately dropped into the seat beside her without waiting for an answer.


ooc: I am too lazy to make a wiki page for him right now...so I'll just shove his outfit here. cause it is super important and all.

[addison]

Addison looked at the boy sideways as he say across from her. Her first thought was did she know him? He seemed to greet her like he did. But she was pretty sure that she'd remember him if she did know him. After all, not many boys wore makeup. It seemed to be less socially acceptable for boys to wear makeup than girls. Addy had some makeup now that her Aunt had given to her but she hadn't tried to use any yet.

"You can sit here..." Addy began, but she was too late. He'd already sat down and honestly she didn't know what to think of it. She thought it was odd...but she didn't really know if it was rude or not. Maybe it was okay to do stuff like that. Addy had learned a lot in the past month but she was still learning. One thing she was very careful about was manners...she always tried to be extremely polite when she could help it.

"Not much is going on," she said, looking across the table at him. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail and she twirled the ends of it with her fingers. "How are you doing?" she asked. She was wondering if she should introduce herself but it was hard to figure out if that was what she was supposed to do or not because he was acting like he already knew her.

She also kind of wanted to ask him why he wore makeup. She honestly didn't see what was wrong with it. If girls wore makeup why couldn't boys? But the rest of society seemed to think otherwise and Addy kind of wanted to understand why. Everything was just so confusing and she wanted to understand it all. However, she learned quickly that he questions just invoked strange looks and people saying not so nice things to her. So she learned it was better just to keep quiet.

[Thad Cotton]

"Really? Not much? That's too bad," Thad commented. "And it being Valentine's and everything. You should have something going on. Oh, well, I don't, either. I kind of....forgot," He admitted. "Yeah, I know, right? How could I forget it was chocolate and hearts day? It's not like everywhere hasn't been advertising it. Not payin' attention, I guess."

He tried to cram as much of his pizza into his mouth as possible, which turned out to be only about half of it. That was disappointing; one day he would be able to eat a whole slice of pizza at once. He just had to practice, right? "I'm Thad," He told her through a mouth full of pizza, so it wasn't very clear. He swallowed, and licked his fingers of the delicious -- for a school lunch -- tomato sauce and grease that had oozed onto his hands. "Mmmm. Pizza. Is it possible to ruin you?" He sighed blissfully.

"So I don't think we've met," He informed her, "You're not a Frosh, are ya? Sophomore?" If she was a sophomore then she would probably know Fallon, although that particular sister tended to blend into the crowd more than either of the other two Cotton children did. And this girl seemed real shy, so she might not know that many people. "If you are a Frosh, sorry, pretty sure I didn't see ya at orientation or nothin', but I was kinda distracted by how big everything is. I still get lost, it's like a maze or summin'. Huge, right? And then the upperclassmen, I feel like a pip squeak when they're around!" He laughed.

She was about the same height as he was, but then she was also a girl, and girls were supposed to be smaller, so she was probably used to feeling short compared to everyone else. Or compared to the guys, anyway. It seemed like all the upperclassmen ladies were not much taller than the underclassmen, they were just curvier. From what he could see, not like he'd actually bothered to verify that and he doubted anyone would appreciate it if he made the attempt. They looked more adult, anyway, but the height difference only seemed an issue for the guys, which meant there was no denying he was a Freshman. Oh, how he hoped he would gain a few inches before the year was out.

[addison]

"I didn't really know it was Valentine's Day either," she admitted. She'd kind of been aware of it thanks to the store windows and all of the advertising but she hadn't realized it was so wide spread. From what she'd gathered the day was all about couples so she hadn't realized that everyone celebrated. She had worn pink today...which might have looked planned...as if the hot pink shirt she wore was in honor of the holiday...but really it was a coincidence.

"Sorry," she said when he introduced himself. She couldn't really make out his words through the chewing. "What was that?" She took a bite of her own pizza. She did like pizza. It was good. Even the school's pizza. But she didn't talk to her pizza or take such large bites. Although she didn't dismiss him for doing it either because for all she knew, his behavior was completely normal.

"No, I don't think so," she said shaking her head. "I'm Addison," she told him. She wasn't so much shy as quiet. She wasn't afraid to talk to other people...or at least she never had been. Any new fear she'd acquired when it came to conversing with others was due to the odd reactions she seemed to get when she spoke. She was slightly confused by what he was talking about at first...frosh...what was that...but when he went on about sophomores and upperclassmen, she figured it out. "I'm a junior," she said. Although she was terribly behind. She probably should have been in a lower grade even if her age suggested otherwise. "Are you a...frosh?" Was that another was of saying freshman? She was pretty sure it was...she'd have to take note of it and look it up later.

[Thad Cotton]

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Name's Thad," He held out one newly licked clean hand to the girl. "Short for Thaddeus, but nobody bothers with the full name, so just Thad is cool. Or Hershey, if ya want," He added, "The teachers prefer Thad, ya know? They're kinda borin'. Most of them. Actually, I've discovered that when teachers are excitin' it's not such a good thing." For instance, when your teacher was having an inebriated make out session with your mother on school grounds, that was not boring. It was also far from a good thing, in his mind, especially because now they lived far away from his dad. On the other hand moving meant that nobody here knew the truth, and while the truth had meant lots of attention he had not much appreciated the constant reminder that his existance had been founded on a lie.

"A Junior? No way!" He gaped at her, surprised. She looked so much younger than that! But maybe that was just because she wasn't wearing any make up that he could tell; make up tended to make girls look older. "Hey, do you know Sid, she's one of the sisters, got pink streaks in her hair, real pale, wears fangs sometimes. Not the crazy Senior with the hot pink hair and the wild clothes, Sid is more gothtastic than that." He grinned; there was nothing better than siblings, they were so awesome, even when they were crazy. "You got any sibs, Addison?"

He nodded vigorously,"Yeah, Frosh here, go class of two thousand eleven!" He cheered before shoving the remainder of his pizza into his mouth.

[addison]

Addy wasn't quite sure what to do. The fact that he'd licked his hand clean didn't seem, well appropriate. But she didn't want to be rude. Maybe this was normal. It wasn't anything she'd ever thing to do but....there were so many things that she had not witnessed that she'd never dreamed of before... It sucked having no knowledge about so many things, especially things that involved socializing. With hesitation, Addison, too his hand. "Nice to meet you, Thad." she said. She didn't know what Hershey was or what that had to do with the name Thaddeus, but Thad made sense so she went with that. It was sort of how Addy was short for Addison. Hershey didn't make sense.

"Yeah...I am," she said, wondering if she stood out in her classes that much. She thought maybe she did look young for her age, especially when she compared herself to her cousin or some of the other girls in her class, but him being so surprised by it made her wonder just how old she did look. "How old did you think I was?" she asked. Maybe she would have fit in more in a younger grade. She didn't really feel like she fit in anywhere yet. And it wasn't as if the younger course loads would be too easy, not for her at least since she hadn't learned most of it properly.

"I might know who she is," Addy said. There was more than one girl with strangely colored hair in school so she could have been any one of them. She didn't really recognize the name, so she couldn't really go from there, but then again Addy knew way more people by face than she did by name.

She shook her head. "No. I have two cousins who I live with though," she said. They sort of felt like siblings at least.

[Thad Cotton]

"It's cool," Thad assured her, "I thought for sure you were, like, the same age as me or summin'. Well, not zactly, cause y'ain't in any of my classes, so ya can't be my grade, but like...sophomore, right, I guess it's not such a big diff or nothin'." He laughed, "You skip a grade or what? Man, I'd love to do that, skip a grade. No, skip the whole damn system. When I can sing Alice Cooper for the last time, that'll be a day worth celebratin'." He gave a far-away sigh, eyes glimmering with hope, reveling in the future moment as if it were happening right then. One day he would be free of the shackles of education, would be free to live on his own -- he conflated these two eventualities; in his mind graduation and independence were essentially the same event.

"Yeah, man, you know her," He informed her, because it was unfathomable that anyone would be able to miss his oldest sister. It was almost as unfathomable as people not noticing himself -- something he worked hard to prevent. Everyone ought to know who he was! He wanted them to know, needed them to. He fed off the energy of other people, all their emotions. Without people he was lethargic, uninspired, miserable.

"Whatcha live with the cousins for?" He asked, leaning closer to her, brown eyes sparkling with curiousity. Was her home life as screwed up as he was convinced his was? Were her parents unable to care for her, or her cousins' parents unable to care for them? Or did they live in one of those extended families, like so many in the lower class areas did? That didn't sound much fun, all those people to compete for attention with. "Who're your cousins, they go here, d'I know 'em?" As though she would have any idea if he knew her cousins or not; he hadn't even met her until today!

[addison]

"No...no I haven't skipped any grades," Addy said shaking her head. "Trust me...I'm really behind actually," she admitted, deciding that perhaps the school should have put her in a younger grade--especially if she looked young on top of being behind. She wondered how the other girls looked so much older than her....maybe it was the makeup. Callie wore a lot of makeup and she did kind of look older when she had it one. Yeah makeup...maybe she should try that. Her grandmother had always told her she didn't need makeup and that putting it one was a waste of time, but like many of granny's teachings had turned out to be...Addy was wondering if this one was also incorrect. She'd have to try it sometwim.

Addy tried to picture the girl when Thad said that she knew her. Addy didn't think she did, or at least she couldn't picture her in her head now. Maybe if she saw a photograph or something she'd recognize her.

When he asked why she lived with her cousins, Addy frowned. "Well...my mom passed away when I was really little and I was living with my grandmother but she got...really sick," she said, "so I moved in with my Aunt and Uncle who live here." She didn't really like talking about her family. She loved them of course, but it made her sad to think about her grandmother's stroke, how she never really knew her mom, and her cousin Charlie's disability. "My cousin Callie goes to Gould," she went on, only because he asked. "She has short blonde hair. She's a senior."

[Thad Cotton]

"That's okay," Thad patted Addie on the back, "They ain't gon' teach ya anythin' useful in school, anyway, you should be glad you're gonna get out early without havin' to listen to all their lies." He did not think much of the education system, particularly as it annoyed his mother and her girlfriend. Especially her girlfriend. There was nothing sweeter than rebellion when it actually irked the proper people.

Her family life was not one he envied; as angry as he was at his mother he have been quite devestated had she actually passed away. And he didn't think he wanted to live with any of his aunts or uncles, they would all surely try to send Fallon away again. Although maybe if they lived away from the step-harlot she would actually take her medications. He always had to check to make sure she was taking them, because otherwise she would conveniently forget. He didn't blame her for not wanting to take them, but she could be down-right scary when she wasn't on them. Her tantrums even rivaled his own! And he just couldn't have that, she was supposed to be the sweet one in the family.

"Oh yeah," He nodded, "So y'ain't from 'round 'ere, then? Me, neither. California sucks." He opined with more vehemence than was necessary. California might not be too bad to visit, but home would always be the lush forests and sparsely populated towns south of Atlanta. It had been a few years since they had moved, but he was not any happier about it.

"A Senior, huh? That's cool." Thad didn't really know too many of the seniors. There were the ones who were in theater, of course, but most of them seemed so remote and mature and cool. He kind of wanted to hang out with them, but it was easier to torment people his own age. "Lucky, she's gets to escape soon."