hangin' from the edge of heaven; [open]

[aclark]

Anais Penelope Clark

”Yeah, mom I’m doing just fine. You shouldn’t worry so much, it makes you sound crazy.” Anais sat crisscross applesauce on the floor beside her bed, leaning her head against the mattress and pressing her phone to her ear. The distant sound of her mother’s voice floated out from the device, the distress in her voice quite evident. Anais could understand her mom’s concern. She would probably act the same way if her only child was on the opposite side of the country, surrounded by unfamiliar people. Anais might as well have been in Thailand, as far as her mother was concerned. Amelie Clark always worried too much. Biting her bottom lip, Anais listened, her own concern blossoming in her chest. Hopefully her father would figure out some knew way of keeping her mom busy, ”I promise, the break will come sooner than you think, and then you’ll get tired of me and ship me back.” The soft, chime-like laugh made her relax, and a smile spread across her lips. The two said their good-byes, Anais wiping away a shiny tear of homesickness. But that was that. She quickly wiped the wet off of her finger and stood, mentally pondering what she would do today. She’d already gone for her morning run before her mom called, and just sitting around was out of the question… so without really knowing the full plan she began digging through her closet.

By the time she pushed through the main entrance doors, Anais still didn’t know what she was going to do. She hadn’t spent much time exploring the area, and so she wasn’t even sure what all there was to do outside of the school. However, she had heard a few students discussing the local café, and decided that it would be a good jumping off point. Plus, her stomach was growling angrily. The granola bar she’d gobbled down for breakfast apparently wasn’t cutting it. There was one problem, though. She didn’t have a car, and she wasn’t exactly sure how far away this place would be… or even where it was. Thankfully she was able to pull up directions on her phone. The distance wasn’t as far as she imagined, and the weather was beautiful, so she just decided to walk to the café. Anais set off with determination, singing under her breath and taking in the scenery. Eventually she became board and began to play. She plucked daisies without laying a finger on them, made a handful of leaves twirl in the air like a ballerina, and set pebbles flying in zigzag patterns down the road.

Eventually she arrived in town and tracked down the café. It was a cute little place, and it smelt wonderful. Anais ordered an iced coffee and a sandwich, chose a free table, and began to people watch. It was quite entertaining, to be honest. In fact, the girl almost had a fit of giggles because of a fat little man whose arms were loaded down with bags filled with what looked like very frilly dresses and a couple of wigs.

tagged: open - words: 516 - outfit: here

template by eliza @ shadowplay

[Serinity Dawson]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,450,true][atrb=background,http://i56.tinypic.com/20hldp2.png,true] Serinity Dawson sighed heavily as she sat at her desk. The book lying before her spouted out Chinese in the form of Algebra while the paper was heavily decorated with doodles. There was only one actual math problem on the paper. Grey blue eyes flickered from the book to the paper as a hand furious scribbled down the problem. It took a good couple of minutes for Serinity to figure out the problem. Once she was done the blonde turned to the back of the book to check her answer. “Wrong?! I swear I had that right! UGH!” Throwing her pencil down in frustration Rini sat back in her chair with a look of dismay. “Effing math. How I loath thee!” Grumbling to herself, the girl slammed the book shut and stood up turning to look around the room. “Weeeeeeeell, I guess I’ll get some photography homework done. At least that’ll go better than stupid math.” After donning on and pushing up the sleeves of her maroon Gryffindor jacket, the blonde grasped the handle of her grey messenger bag and threw it across her opposite shoulder letting the bag rest against her hip. Inside lie precious cargo. Ok, so Rini wasn’t quite so attached to the fancy Canon camera yet, but it was expensive none the less. Once she got the hang of how it worked, she’d feel more of a connection to it. Maybe. It had a habit of acting up and her missing a great shot. Stupid camera. With a word of goodbye to Alex, Rini was out the door and heading to the campus’ garage to release her car from its holding cell. The poor thing didn’t get out a whole lot. “Miss Scarlet! You better have been behaving yourself.” Smiling, Serinity lovingly brushed off a stray leaf that had somehow been blown in by the wind and got inside her Pontiac G3. Boy did she love her car. The trip to Willowbrook was dull an uneventful. Along the way, Serinity happened to pass a blonde chick walking toward the town. Under normal circumstance she might have at least stopped and offered a ride, but a frustrated Serinity was not a kind one. So, instead, the woman flashed on into town hoping she could catch a couple of good shots for her Photography I class. Parking was relatively easy, especially for where Serinity wanted to go. In fact, all she had to do was pull up into one of the spots and bam! Parked and ready to go. Rini eyed the small town park looking for anything subject worthy. Trees. People. Dogs. Clouds! If there was one thing she honestly loved taking pictures of, it was clouds. Strange, huh? As she walked out further into the park, the girl grabbed her camera and focused it skyward. She took a couple of practice shots, almost ran into someone, and then finally got a good enough shot. The cloud just so happened to be in the shape of a bunny. It was too good to pass up. For almost an hour, Serinity walked around the park just snapping pictures here and there. One particularly good shot was of a young couple walking holding hands. As expected, when Rini previewed the picture, it had such a tranquil feeling to it. “Excellent,” she breathed with pride. It was slightly unoriginal, but who cared. If anything, it made her long for what the couple had. If things progressed with Daniel, maybe she would. “Alright, break time!” Trotting off closer to the downtown area, Rini gratefully opened the door to the Sweetwater Café. It was by far one of her most favorite places in this stupid town. “Hey Bill. The usual, please.” After coming here enough times (and Bill having learned she was the Headmistress’ granddaughter), the owner of the café knew her and her order well. Her presence alone demanded a venti iced white mocha to be made! When the order was complete, Serinity went to sit in her favorite chair. The camera’s battery needed to be replaced again. The cursed thing seemed to drain battery juice like a vampire drained blood. It only took a moment to replace the battery, but it took a moment more to make sure it was placed in correctly. Holding up the camera, Serinity snapped a test shot. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she realized what her camera had just taken a picture of. Sitting across from her was a young lady who appeared to either be daydreaming or people watching. Honestly, there wasn’t much of a difference. Stuttering to clarify herself, Serinity muttered something along the lines of, “Oh geez! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take a picture of you. I mean, you’re very photogenic, but I was just testing my camera! Crap. Sorry! It’s a good picture, at least.” Biting her lip, the blonde put her camera down and took a sip from her drink in a nervous habit. Her eyes had looked away from the blonde, but some how she striked Serinity as being slightly familiar. “Hey, wait, aren’t you in my Photography I class?” Well, at least this girl should hopefully understand Rini’s camera troubles. Hopefully. Outfit - Link Car - Link

[/justify][/td][/tr][/table][/center]

[aclark]

Anais Penelope Clark

Anais munched on her sandwich slowly, savoring the ballet of flavors. Tomato, basil, and a slab of mozzarella cheese nestled between two fluffy pieces of sourdough… sheer heaven. It was a favorite, but one that she rarely found in small bakeries, so it had been quite a surprise that the Sweetwater Café had it on the menu. Her coffee was good too. It wasn’t as strong as she would have preferred, but most businesses never met her high standards of potency; it was a small thing she had learned to accept. Anais continued to observe and listen, hoping to scrape up some more feedback on other sources of entertainment around Willowbrook. Of course, she had left behind some homework that needed to be done this weekend, but the thought on confinement yet again made her skin crawl and her muscles ache.

Also, she wasn’t going to find any new friendships hiding away in her closet. She had made a few half-hearted, uncharacteristic attempts at talking to the student who’d sat beside her in biology, but the boy had looked like he would have rather disappeared through the floor than carry on the conversation. So now poor Anais’ social meter was becoming seriously close to being empty, which was making her a bit crazy. Her phone calls back home were far from rewarding and only left her feeling guilty for choosing to go so far away… even if she knew she had made the right decision for herself. The only logical solution was to stick out the loneliness until she could convince somebody she wasn’t crazy.

She bit down on her bottom lip and pulled an emerald green pen from her shorts pocket and a napkin from the dispenser before beginning to sketch. They started off as loose, abstract loops but soon began to take the forms of the pedestrians waltzing down the street beside the café. Anais continued to doodle, only pausing to look up as the tinkle of bells announced the arrival of another. She looked familiar, and she was sure that she had seen her around the school… no she was positive she had. This girl was in her photography class, and by the looks of it, she was either on her way to finish up their latest assignment, or had already done so. Anais watched as she ordered, envious of her familiarity with the man behind the counter.

The urge to run over and cling desperately to the girl, whose name she vaguely remembered was Serenity, and plead for a decent conversation was quickly hog tied and thrown into a closet. She was trying to not seem crazy, for crying out louad. So instead she turned her head back to the busy sidewalks. The silly man had long ago disappeared, but there were plenty more, and her pen was busy scribbling comical renderings across the thin paper. The familiar swoosh of a camera’s shutter made her head pop up, curiously. Was her classmate taking pictures of the beautiful concoction Bill had created? She loved browsing through foodie blogs with similar images, but alas it was not so. Instead, the lens was pointed in her direction… her eyebrow lifted, curious.

”Oh geez! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take a picture of you. I mean, you’re very photogenic, but I was just testing my camera! Crap. Sorry! It’s a good picture, at least.” the poor girl seemed nervous, and a little embarrassed. However, Anais broke into a smile and shrugged, ”Don’t worry about it. You get used to having your picture taken whenever you look so glamorous.” Anais hoped that the other girl would catch on to the joke and not take it as arrogance. But, it was half true, she was used to cameras. Her mom kept scrapbooks and scrapbooks full of pictures, documenting nearly all of Anais’ life. She nodded in response to the other girl’s question, ”Yeah, I recognized you when you came in… but I didn’t want to weird you out. The last person I tried talking to looked at me like I had a horn sprouting out of my forehead.” She eyed the camera, ”Are you working on the assignment?” her images were already on her computer, waiting to be edited. Anais was a bit of an overachiever, but for the most part it had be attributed to her lack of a social life.

tagged: Serenity Dawson - words: 731 - outfit: here

template by eliza @ shadowplay

[Serinity Dawson]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,450,true][atrb=background,http://i56.tinypic.com/20hldp2.png,true] God, Rini, I mean really! Of all the place to take a test shot, you chose there! What were you thinking. You weren’t. That’s what you were thinking! Gah! Now she’s going to think I’m a total creeper, and I’m not! If Serinity could, she would have deflated into a little balloon, whizz around the room, and land in the trash. To ease her pain, a little, the other girl replied and shrugged off the candid shot. Her comment made Serinity smile and chuckle. In fact, Rini made to say something back. Her mouth even opened and everything, but instead of saying something, she just closed it and kept her thoughts to herself. Great job, Rini. Tell the pretty girl sitting across from you that she does indeed look quite glamorous. Make her think you’re hitting on her, too, because that’s all you need now! Although, she was quite beautiful now that the blond bothered to really take in the other girl’s appearance. Anais went on talking causing Rini to refocus her eyes on Anais’ blue grey ones. It surprised Serinity how alike they looked. More or less. While they weren’t twins, both shared roughly the same blonde hair and grey blue eyes. Anais may have been more athletically built than Rini, but the two girls were also about the same height and size. The only difference that Serinity could tell from them, other than actual physical looks, was age. She couldn’t be sure but, Anais looked slightly younger than herself. Chuckling again, Serinity flashed a brilliant smile at the girl. “Well, to put your mind at ease, you do not, in fact, have a horn protruding from your forehead.” So far things were going well. So far. There was still plenty of time to screw things up somehow. “Oh, yeah. I got most of the things in the little park area here. I want to get a couple more shots done before going home, though. Just to be on the safe side.” The blonde peered down at her camera and picked it up. When the incident had occurred, she quickly placed it down feeling guilty for holding such incriminating evidence. “I’m convinced my camera hates me. It seriously has something against me. I bet when I get back that there’ll be something wrong with at least half of the pictures. Stupid camera.” Placing it back down, Serinity frowned at the bulky object. Maybe calling it stupid wasn’t the best thing to do. Oh well. “Are you done with your assignment yet?” The assignment was due in like two days. Or so she thought. Of course the other girl would be through with it. Serinity was a procrastinator. Not the extreme kind, but she was one none the less. Fortunately, the blonde did have a knack for taking photos and editing them. Editing them was her favorite part. The class didn’t call for a whole lot of computer editing, but in her spare time she spruced some of the pictures up and threw them up on an art site. They didn’t get much attention, but she didn’t ask for much anyhow.

[/justify][/td][/tr][/table][/center]

[aclark]

Anais Penelope Clark

During the brief and slightly awkward pause that passed between the two girls, Anais finished off the last few bites of sandwich. She fought with herself, trying to dig up some sort of wittiness to bestow upon the girl that would win over her friendship. Unfortunately, her brain was drawing a blank. She would have eagerly accepted the compliment without even stopping to consider it a come on, and would have replied with a similar comeback for the girl. Anais had indeed noticed the similarities between herself and Serenity, thinking that the other girl could have easily been an older sister. The thought nearly made her giggle, for some weird reason, but she held back and instead reached out and took a sip of her coffee.

It was times like this that made Anais really wish she’d had a knack for conversation. Usually, her tongue would become all twisted and her brain would simply refuse to work. It always left her feeling awkward and unsocial. Really, how difficult was it do drag up a piece of gossip? But she had never really appreciated what her grandfather had fondly referred to as ‘chicken cluck’. Anais hardly cared who celebrity A was fooling around with, or if celebrity B was having twins with her ex-boyfriends pool boy. The same applied with ‘reality’, too. She tended to avoid rumors, and kept secrets to herself. For this reason she’d preferred the company of guys in high school… they were happy to talk nonsense.

Anais fiddled with the rim of her coffee cup as she waited for either Serenity or herself to brave conversation. Her eyes lifted upwards at the sound of the opposite girl’s voice and she allowed her easy smile to return before feinting relief and touching her forehead, ”Well, that’s a relief!” Laughter followed as she allowed her hand to fall gracefully back to the tabletop where she absentmindedly began playing with the pen she’d drawn with earlier. A bit of a guilty look crossed her face momentarily, ”I probably owe that kid an apology now. I might have made a pebble hit him in the back of the head.” She felt really childish admitting that she had misused her powers, but at least it hadn’t been a boulder, right?

The conversation had definitely taken a turn for the better, and Anais was quite enjoying herself. Her attention was once again fully captured as talk began about photography, and the upcoming project. She nodded, wishing she’d have thought about using the park for a few of her images. Instead, the surrounding campus had been shot, and she felt as if that had probably been done to death. But she couldn’t help but laugh at Serenity’s comment about her camera, and how she imagined it hated her, ”I’ve felt that way about mine more than a few times. It seems to malfunction in very important situations… like my cousin’s wedding.” The blasted hunk of plastic and metal had been ‘busy’ just as the kiss was taking place. Thank goodness she had just been an observer. She was sure the professionals knew how to make their own contraptions behave.

”Yeah, I just have to do a bit of editing. Not much, though.” She paused, suddenly feeling the need to address that she was not an overachiever, ”I probably wouldn’t have been done so quickly, but I didn’t have anything else to do.” Anais bit her lip, and looked around momentarily before gathering up a handful of brevity, scooping up her coffee cup, and standing to walk over to the girl’s table. She slid into the seat and tried to seem natural, ”Hope you don’t mind if I join you?”

tagged: Serenity Dawson - words: 615 - outfit: here

template by eliza @ shadowplay