Red - Part One, Chapter Two

No secrets: Peter and Nick meet Hara.

Pawns May Only Attack Diagonally

 

Peter, in a very un-Peter like move, had decided to skip out on clubs that day to go and scout out the new students. Then again, maybe it was a very Peter thing to do.

“She’s hot.”

“She’s taken.”

“How can you tell?”

“Something in their body language. Notice how he is trying to come on to her but she’s completely giving him the cold shoulder?”

“She may think he’s a creep or something.”

“Nah, I still say she’s taken.”

Peter turned to stare at Nick, who was lying on his back next to him under the tree with his feet resting on the trunk looking at the rest of the world upside down.

            “I guess you would know what a girl acts like when she is taken.”

            “You are the one that is girls shopping all the time. I’d think you’d realize a difference in attitudes.”

            “Dude, Nick, don’t get all smug just because you wound up with your childhood sweetheart. It doesn’t work the same way for people like me.”

            “You try too hard. You are so focused on trying to impress and you aren’t concerned with the girl.”

            “I will have you know that my method of working is in no way inferior. I have picked up girls before.”

Nick sat up on his elbows and cast him a disapproving glare.

            “What, I have. Remember that girl at the winter banquet a couple years ago?”

            “She was a diabetic, you gave her a sugar high, and as I recall, she ended up in the hospital.”

            “I got her phone number.”

            “And she hung up on you every time you called her.”

Peter groaned. He did have a point there. Most of the girls he had hooked up with over the summer or at the winter banquet had all dismissed him in one way or another.

            “What about that one?” Nick asked, pulling Peter out of his stupor. He looked again out at the lawn as they watched a pretty girl with short red hair walk past. “She’s single and she’s a virgin.” Nick continued.

            “How can you tell?” Peter asked as he continued to watch the red head.

            “The walk, dude, it’s all in the walk. Everything is about body language.”

            “Is that so?”

            “If you don’t believe me, go ask her.”

            “Yeah, I can see it now: ‘Hello miss. Are you a single virgin?’ That sounds like a beating waiting to happen.”

            “Don’t say it like that, a*****e. Offer to walk her back to her dorm or something. She looks kind of lost anyhow.”

            “Eh, you do have a point there.” Peter said as she circled past the two again. “Well? Shall we?”

            “Yes, I do believe we shall. Excuse me, Red!!” Nick called. The girl turned around, rather bewildered at being sought out by someone.

            “You look a little lost. Can we help point you in the right direction?” Peter asked, trying not to sound like he was leering or perverted.

            “Um, yeah, actually, I was just trying to find Horton House. It’s funny, I move in and then after I leave, I can never find it again.” she laughed. Nick chuckled.

            “The campus is kind of big, and it is easy to get lost.” he said consolingly.

            “I don’t know how I’m going to function when I get to college. I’m going to be walking around all the time with my nose in a map!” she giggled.

            “Well, it kind of depends on where you go to college.” Peter mused. 

            “It’s always been my dream to go to an Ivy League school. Neither of my parents went to college so they are really pulling for me.”

            “Wow, that’s interesting.” Peter said, slightly floored by her openness.

            “They are both so learned it never really occurred to me that they never went.”

            “People can be smart without going to college. There are plenty of people we know that are pretty smart here.”

            “Yeah, I figured that out really fast. This is such an amazing school. Makes me feel like John Gunther, except I’m not dying of a brain tumor.” She laughed. Peter noted that it had a very musical quality to it, like birds singing. And her smile seemed to radiate everything around her.

            “You’re too pretty to die.” he said, rather inadvertently. She looked at him curiously, as if she was unsure of the meaning behind the statement.

            “What he means is that your boyfriend is a very lucky guy to have a girl like you who is smart and good looking.” Nick said, trying to recover from the fact that he was also enamored by her laugh and her smile. The girl laughed again.

            “Me, with a boyfriend? That’s funny.”

            “You mean you aren’t taken?”

            “No, I’m not. Why would I want to be?”

            “Well, I suppose if you found the right person, then you would be inclined to spend more time with them and get to know them and all that.” Peter implored.

            “Well, I dunno…”

            “Really though,” Nick continued. “Finding the right person is half the battle. You might have to go through a few undeserving creeps to find Mr. Perfect, but everybody has somebody for them out there somewhere.”

            “You’re taken, aren’t you?” she asked, facing him.

            “Um, yeah. It’s really that obvious?”

            “Just a tad.” she said holding up a hand and putting her forefinger and her thumb inches apart to emphasize her point. “Then again, my friend isn’t taken and she tells me the same thing.”

            “Well, you have a very smart friend.” Peter nodded in agreement.

            “She has her moments anyway. Like today, I met this red head that got an eyeful of me, but he was so…normal about it. He was really apologetic and he seemed so nervous, it was hard to not feel kind of sorry for the guy. So I told her about him and she thinks he would be good for a ‘test run’ (she put this in air quotes), whatever that means. She said I should really give him a chance especially after I sent him to the nurse’s office with a nosebleed and he survived.”

Peter only caught half of what she said after she mentioned meeting a guy with red hair who was apologetic and nervous. It sounded very much like someone he knew….

            “Really?” Nick sounded surprised and interested. “Describe him to me and we’ll see if he has any potential.”

            “Well, he’s probably about your height (she motioned at Peter), red hair, like I said before…broad shouldered…skinny but not twiggy, well-built I guess you could say….Not much else to him.”

            “Hmmm…” Nick stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Does this mystery man have a name?”

            “Yeah, he said his name was Lee.”

Nick and Peter both looked rather dumbfounded. Peter began wondering wildly what she had done to send Lee to the nurse’s office.

            “You have got to be kidding.” Nick exhaled.

            “No, I’m pretty sure his name was Lee. Lee Anderholt, actually. Do you guys know him?”

Nick grinned manically; Peter was still stone faced from hearing Lee had been to the nurse.

            “Well, Pete, looks like our little Melee has gone and gotten himself someone to replace Iron Maiden.”

            “He likes Iron Maiden?”

            “More than you know.”

            “Huh. He didn’t seem like the Iron Maiden type to me.”

            “Honey, everyone is the Iron Maiden type. Just not everybody likes and admires Iron Maiden like Lee does.”

            “Go figure.”

            “So, what did you do to Lee to send him to the nurse, anyway?” Peter asked, unable to contain himself. The girl turned rather pink.

            “Well, he saw me.”

            “I see you too. You’re not invisible.”

            “No, no. Not see me, SEE ME.”

            “I’m still lost.” Nick looked at her, confused.

            “Okay, let me put it this way: it would be the equivalent of you revealing yourself to a girl.”

They thought about this for a minute but came up drawing blanks.

            “Nope, still confused.” Nick shrugged.

            “Guh. Never mind. You’ll stop thinking so hard about it and it will come to you. Oh, look, we’re here.” she exclaimed, surprised. 

They had indeed, arrived at Horton House. The girl thanked them and was halfway to the door of the dorm when she turned around again.

            “Hey, do you think it would be alright if I called you guys up sometime?”

            “Sure. I don’t see why not. We live in Gregory House, just up the hill.” Nick shrugged and gestured offhandedly towards the house on the hill.

            “Okay, sounds cool.”

            “It’s extension 5544. Give us a call before you come over so we can put our pants on.” Peter grinned.

Her eyes widened presented with a mental image she didn’t particularly want.

            “I’m kidding. But do make sure you call.”   Peter called as she ascended the stairs. As they walked back up the hill, neither boy looked at each other until they reached the door to the room.

            “Well, what do you think?” Nick asked as he searched for his key.

            “I think Lee is a nutcase.”

            “Dude, he was already a nutcase when we met him. Now he’s like…a head case or something.”

            “You have to give him credit though, surviving a flashing.”

            “Oh is that what she did to him? I never did figure it out.” Nick mused. Peter laughed.

            “It’s all in the body language.”

Reviews

[Beth Elaina]

Love the dynamic between Nick and Peter. Very realistic; and you have several poetic analogies in here (Life being like drinking tea in stages...that's awesome!) Keep it up!

[Shawn Drake]

*sighs heavily* You make this whole revision thing incredibly hard, you know that? Lets see... Cultural note, as someone with a passing familiarity with Kendo, "kendo outfits" are actually full suits of (now) plastic/resin armor. The image I believe you are going for is Iaido outfits. (This can all be explained to you in further detail on Wikipedia). Kendo is a full contact martial art which approximates Samurai training. Ruroni Kenshin, for example is loosely based more on the practice of Iaido which is a more practical art.
I do have a tendency to ramble, don't I. All about a clothing quibble. Anyway, aside from this and a few other minor details, I was utterly floored yet again. Your dialogue manages to be witty and intelligent without sounding terribly stuck-up. 'grats. Write more, damn it.

[Kaitlyn M.]

Uh, I pretty much love you. The end.

[Harish Jackson]

Now, what would a critique be without a grammar correction?

"...wooden sticks like he had thought previous, they were actually..."

Previous should be "Previously". Tis an adverb. Previous is an...adjective? A preposition? Anyways, it's only an adverb with the "ly" added.

Other than that, this chapter's great. It most definitely carries the feel of the first one (some stories are otherwise, which is saddening). I look forward to reading more! I really want to discover the background story (with Himura and whatnot). It promises to be interesting.