[Echo and Matt's Room] First Night on Pecari Commons

Saul Pierce

September 24, 2007 4:49 PM

[Echo and Matt's Room] First Night by Saul Pierce

He hadn't expected Connell would let him change houses just so he could share a room with guys his own age. He hadn't wanted to leave Pecari anyway. His ideal situation was the first one he suggested: moving in with Echo and Matt. This was marginally better than moving in with Connor for two reasons: (1) he was better friends with Echo, and (2) Connor was older and would graduate first and then Saul would be stuck with this same problem in seventh year, too. Though, it would have been cool to share a room with a guy who had the same last name Saul did. Well, that was his fallback plan in case Matt objected. (Saul figured Echo wouldn't have a problem with his proposal.)

He knocked on the third year guys' dorm and hoped they weren't asleep yet. They shouldn't be. It wasn't that late yet. The conference with Professor Connell had only taken a few minutes and he'd gone running to her the moment he walked into his room and had found nothing in there but his own stuff. And his shouting of Michael's name ten minutes ago probably meant anyone who had been sleeping, wasn't anymore.

"Hey, Matt? Echo?" he called, pushing open the door after he figured they'd had enough time to pull on pants if they'd been changing. "You guys like me, right? Can I share a room with you? Professor Connell needs you tell her it's okay with you before I can, but she's totally okay with it if both of you are."

1 Saul Pierce [Echo and Matt's Room] First Night 82 Saul Pierce 1 5

Matt Santoro

September 27, 2007 4:26 PM

Well, this is a new one. by Matt Santoro

After the feast, Matt had bid farewell to his brother and made his way back to his House. Like the two years previous, Matt decided to spend his evening unpacking all of his junk. He never felt comfortable in his dorm room without his familiar things. On the walls were posters of his favorite Quidditch and Quadpot teams, as well as various bands.

He was in the process of putting away his clothes when the knock on the door sounded. Matt glanced at Echo, figuring the knock was for him. He was the one that had all the friends in Pecari. Returning to his unpacking, Matt didn't look up again until he heard his name in the mix and the door opening. It was Saul.

His first question drew Matt's eyebrows up in wonder. What sort of question was that? It was as weird as Echo's question had been about needing glasses. The second question brought his eyebrows into a knot. He had no idea what was wrong with Saul's room that he needed to share and from the way it sounded, it wasn't just a one time thing either. That made Matt nervous. If it was only for one night or even once a week, Matt would be okay with it, but forever?

It wasn't that Matt didn't like Saul, because he did. Saul was friendly and after having played Quidditch with him over the summer, Matt got to know a little bit more about him. But, it was for the fact that Echo and Saul were really good friends. He didn't want to have to deal with coming into the door to the two of them whispering about something and then stopping because he had come in. He didn't want to find that they were having a good time and he wasn't invited.

In fact, Matt was pretty sure that he was only included in the Quidditch game over the summer because they all felt obligated to include him in on it, being a Pecari and all. Even though he had had a good time playing, he couldn't shake the feeling that they had all felt sort of sorry for him. That they were humoring him.

He didn't want that in his own room too. He had grown used to Echo just wandering off to hang out with Mere and Elly and chose to ignore it as Echo being Echo. He didn't think he could grow use to Echo and Saul wandering off together to do a group thing.

"Why?" Matt asked, even though he just wanted to come right out and say no.

0 Matt Santoro Well, this is a new one. 0 Matt Santoro 0 5

Saul Pierce

September 27, 2007 5:59 PM

See, the thing is... (wotw) by Saul Pierce

For a few moments, the two younger boys seemed to be processing Saul's request. He supposed it came a bit out of the blue, but then, so had Michael's absence. Echo didn't look about to say no, but Matt was harder to read. When he did speak, though, it wasn't a refusal. It wasn't permission, either, but Saul would take what he could get.

Of course, now he had to explain why. He opened his mouth and realized how wussy this was going to sound. It hadn't mattered with Connell. Connell was a teacher and the closest thing to an Aunt he had at the school. That made it okay to tell her that an empty room freaked him out, but Matt and Echo were different stories. They weren't just fellow guys, but younger guys. His open mouth was only able to make one sound, "Um," before he closed it with a slightly panicked look in his eyes.

Okay. He could do this. He was never afraid to talk before, now was not the time to clam up. He could yammer on and on and on about subjects he didn't know the first thing about, but he couldn't explain why he really really needed to move in with Matt and Echo? That wasn't gonna happen. He opened his mouth and just let the words tumble out.

"Well, see, the thing is, I'm from a big family, right? Like, a really huge family. Not just a mom and dad and a couple siblings - which, actually, I don't have any, but that's not the point - the point is that I live with my mom, dad, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, second cousins, third cousins, fourth cousins, I think Simon and Neil are third cousins twice removed. Anyway, there are a lot of us and we live in tents and there's no such thing as privacy and I've been by myself, like, twice in my entire life, and now Michael's gone and it's just me in there and I can't do it."

There, that didn't sound entirely unreasonable, did it? Assuming, of course, that he hadn't been talking too fast for them to understand. He tended to do that when he got excited and right now he was definitely far from calm.

1 Saul Pierce See, the thing is... (wotw) 82 Saul Pierce 0 5

Matt

September 28, 2007 7:04 PM

Mmhmm... by Matt

Matt stood rather impatiently for Saul to explain to him why it was that he wanted to room with them. While waiting, Matt started to wonder why the kid didn't ask to room with the fifth years. Matt had never heard of an older kid willing to hang out with a couple of younger kids. Granted, they were probably only younger by a few months, no more than a year, but of all the people he knew and from his siblings, Matt had always gotten the impression that if one could be with older kids, they would.

Of course, that could also go towards Matt as well, but Matt had his own reasons for wanting to say no. He wouldn't have minded Saul staying if he felt that they were friends on the same level that Saul was friends with Echo, but since that wasn't the case... Having Saul stay with them only made Matt feel awkward and uncomfortable.

It was moments like this that Matt wished Josh was in Pecari. Josh was the sort that could answer this with logic.

Saul's answer was one that Matt could actually sympathize with. Matt came from a large family, every holiday his family gathered from around the globe, every summer they stayed at various houses for reunions. He could understand that being stuck in a room alone would be lonely and very creepy. But Matt still was very hesitant about allowing him to stay.

"Listen, I like you and all, Saul, you seem like a nice enough guy. But... I already feel like the outcast amongst the Pecaris in my own year and I don't think I could take to feeling like an outcast in my own room too." Matt said all this in a level, casual tone, but his eyes darted between the two boys. He had never actually voiced his opinion outloud before and he figured declining Saul's stay might put Echo in a foul mood with him, which would just end up making everything awkward anyway.

0 Matt Mmhmm... 0 Matt 0 5

Echo Elms

September 28, 2007 10:13 PM

Toughie by Echo Elms

It was funny how, for a second, Saul reminded Echo of one of kids he met this summer. His expression was the un-Saul: desperate, scared, out of place. It was hard to imagine saying no to him. First, Saul was one of his best friends and he might make the room more friendly--Echo wasn't sure Matt even liked him--but on the other hand, it was also hard to imagine living with Saul.

Saul was social man all the time, and Echo needed a reprieve from that once in a while. He did his homework in his room. Would he be able to concentrate with Saul there? Would living with Saul be too much Saul? Some days, having a roommate at all was hard enough. Back home, Echo had his own room twice over. One in his mom's house. And one in his dad's house. Plus, he had the tree. Here, this one side of the room was all the space there was that was his and it wasn't even surrounded by walls.

And then Matt had a good point. At this point--beginning of their third year--it was unlikely that Echo and Matt were going to become great friends. If it hadn't happened by now, it probably wasn't going to. Not even with throwing Saul into the mix. Matt had his own friends he did things with and just wasn't interested.

Echo had two possible solutions for this dilemma: Matt and Saul could switch, or Echo and Saul could switch. He wasn't sure he wanted to throw either idea out there, though. Switching probably wasn't even an option, anyway.

"You can always hang out with us. I mean, like, if you want to. I just thought you weren't interested cause you're always with Josh and them," Echo put in, in response to Matt's comment about his outcasted state. It wasn't like his group was the cool people who only accepted the other cool kids. Echo himself was an awkward geekman, Brett was a wannabee, Elly was a loudmouth, Meredith was a giggle queen, Saul was a circus kid, Caedence was freaky scary, Irene... well, he hadn't quite figured out what was wrong with her yet. Hyana was always second guessing herself. Maybe that was the problem: maybe Matt was too cool for them.

21 Echo Elms Toughie 93 Echo Elms 0 5

Saul

September 29, 2007 1:37 PM

Guess I'll go eat some worms by Saul

This was not looking promising. Matt hadn't outright said 'no, absolutely not' - yet - but his words were certainly leaning in that direction. Even Echo was wavering and looking doubtful. Maybe he'd have better luck with Connor? Did he have a roommate? Yeah. Whazzis name? The Adam that wasn't Adam Brockert. Saul hadn't even ever met that Adam unless you count exchanging a pair of 'hi's as they passed by each other in the Common Room or in the halls. He'd much rather be with Echo and Matt. He'd give this one more go.

"Look, I know I'm asking a lot. Changing roommates is a big thing, especially if you don't have to, but I'll try really hard not to be too annoying." Neil told him all the time he was irritating, but Neil was family and two years older so Saul was supposed to irritate him.

Because the only voiced concern had come from Matt, Saul turned to him to address it, "And I swear I'll borrow random junk from both of you equally and not play favorites at all no matter who has the cooler stuff. And I promise I'll regale you both equally with my tales of woe over which Teppenpaw Redhead I'm currently in love with." He grinned and winked at Matt conspiratorially, "I mighta let you off the hook on that one, but Echo will probably be relieved to share the burden, and besides, he's rooting for Briony and that's hardly fair to Pepper."

1 Saul Guess I'll go eat some worms 82 Saul 0 5

Matt

September 29, 2007 11:26 PM

Say, Huh? by Matt

"Que?" Matt blinked at Echo. Who exactly did he mean by 'them'? As far as Matt was aware, he had no 'them'. He had Josh and maybe a random classmate if they happened to be sitting near someone. But he certainly didn't have a 'them'. Sometimes Bella would humor them and hang out with them in the hall, and if Bella was around, it usually meant Ben was around. Matt could deal with that. There were also times when Jake would welcome them into his group of friends and Jennifer (in Matt's opinion) was close enough to family to have to deal with them too. But, Matt and Josh certainly didn't have a 'them'.

But Matt didn't have time to explain to Echo that he was wrong in his assumptions because Saul was back to pleading with them about sharing their room.

It was a good thing that Matt was from a large family and had a twin, otherwise he might have been even more put off from allowing Saul to stay with them when he stated he'd borrow his things. Matt was used to his siblings or cousins randomly taking his things and really, with a twin, his things were also Josh's things.

"Sorry?" Matt question when Saul finished. He had no idea who Briony or Pepper was. Though, if he recalled the many times that Jake talked about his Quidditch team, Matt believed Pepper to be the Keeper. But he wasn't positive and he had never been close enough to the girl to know who she was in a crowd.

0 Matt Say, Huh? 0 Matt 0 5

Saul

October 05, 2007 10:37 AM

Huh. by Saul

Saul had evidently confused Matt. He hadn't thought he'd been particularly obscure, but people sometimes didn't understand him even when he though he was being clear. Plus he was still talking faster than normal so maybe Matt just plain old couldn't understand him.

Saul took a deep breath and tried it again, slower this time (which meant he was now talking at almost normal-speed, maybe just a tiny bit faster). "I was just saying that being roommates would automatically make you a person I'd talk to about just about anything, and Echo will probably be glad he's not the only guy who gets the play-by-play on whether it's Pepper or Briony I want to ask out on any given day. See, I like them both, a lot, and I can't decide."

And since it was a given that Echo was desperately in love with Elly, this posed a question that Saul couldn't keep back, even with his living situation still hanging in the balance. "So do you have any girls you like that I can tease you mercilessly about? I just gave you my two, and Echo's got Elly, of course."

1 Saul Huh. 82 Saul 0 5

Matt

October 24, 2007 10:11 PM

Nice. by Matt

OOC: Sorry, I assumed Echo was going to post first so that's why I waited so long. My bad. BIC:

Matt's focus went between the fourth year to the third year, and back to the fourth year as Saul spoke. He had no idea why Saul felt the need to explain his romantic triangle (whatever it was called when one person was infactuated with two separate girls) to Matt since Matt barely knew him and didn't know the girls at all aside from maybe passing them in the hall or sitting near them in class.

The last part of Saul's longwinded speech ended with a question posed to Matt with a comment made on Echo. Matt's gaze returned to Echo for a moment as he thought. Matt still believed Echo fancied boys, even if no one else believed it too. Josh thought Echo and Elly were dating, but Elly stomped that one out last year when Matt and Josh had made mention of it. Matt currently wondered if Echo was aware at all of the fact that Elly had no intentions of dating him.

At least, none at the moment.

Probably not, the more Matt thought about it. Echo wasn't the type to bring up something so personal as that. Three years of living with the kid was enough for Matt to realize that and Elly was too nice to say anything to him either. How awkward that must have been for the two of them. Matt felt real bad about Meredith too, since she was stuck in the middle of the two of them.

Looking back at Saul, Matt shrugged. "I don't like any one girl in particular. Mere's cute, but then, so are Amber and Helena." Matt admitted. He supposed that must mean he had a wide variety of tastes when it came to the female gender. "If you really want someone to pick on, Josh would be better. He has this thing for Danae Dupree."

0 Matt Nice. 0 Matt 0 5

Echo Elms

October 26, 2007 7:05 AM

Ice. by Echo Elms

(OOC: Yeah, sorry. I couldn't think of what to say. The outcome of this conversation is pretty much between Saul and Matt since Echo is not about to take sides).

Echo had long since given up on correcting Saul on the Elly issue. They weren't going out and the only way Saul was going to accept that was if they broke up. He had considered asking Elly if they could stage a breakup in front of Saul, just to get the current record straight--but that would have been admitting to a relationship that wasn't there in the first place.

And there was a little wishful thinking on Echo's end, too. It wasn't like he was opposed to the idea. Elly was his favorite person in the universe and he'd been crushing on her for two and a half years. If dating didn't seem to necessarily involve touching... well, it did, and that meant he couldn't handle it, so he'd managed to convince himself (most of the time) that it was good that Elly didn't feel the same way about him.

This was not the sort of thing he talked about with Matt. Matt didn't care; he was too serious, too cool for anything--looking down at both of them, keeping his distance. Echo was surprised he gave away as much information at he did. Maybe if Matt let Saul stay, the older kid would be a good influence, get him to loosen up a little.

And maybe get Echo to loosen up a little around Matt?

21 Echo Elms Ice. 93 Echo Elms 0 5

Saul

November 11, 2007 12:20 AM

Three blind mice. by Saul

Saul nodded thoughtfully, taking in the information Matt provided with all the due diligence his teachers would wish he could display towards his schoolwork and their lessons. He didn't really know Josh outside the fact that he was Matt's brother, and Danae (though Pecari) had somehow managed not to ping very strongly against Saul's radar. Still, it was a good piece of information to know, should he need it.

The rest was the more interesting part. Matt and Mere. Matt Santoro and Meredith, um, Lail, yeah, Lail. MS+ML. Not quite as obviously destined as EE+EE, but it definitely had potential. Amber wasn't bad looking either, and Saul could definitely support that choice as well. She wasn't as pretty as, say, Briony, but she was up there. He wasn't entirely sure which girl Helena was, but Matt seemed to have good taste, so he assumed she was a valid possibility as well.

Clapping his hands together once and pointing all ten fingertips at Matt, Saul said, "Excellent options. I'm probably a lousy choice to help you narrow the field, but I can totally commiserate on the oh-gosh-they're-all-great! front." Then, without warning for the change in topic, Saul raised his eyebrows and gave Matt a pleading look, "So, can I stay with you guys?" He glanced over at Echo, too, since he'd been unusually quiet lately (he hadn't even protested the Elly thing, which Echo usually did because he was all embarrassed about it even though Saul thought it was totally cool).

1 Saul Three blind mice. 82 Saul 0 5

Matt

December 01, 2007 12:34 AM

Slice by Matt

OOC: Sorry, got behind again. BIC:

Matt, despite himself, was curious to see Saul's reaction to his admissions. He knew Josh would kill him if he knew that Matt had spilled the beans on his crush to a fourth year and to Echo, who hung out with just about anyone who was considered anyone (and by that, Elly and Mere were Danae's roommates). Still, Matt enjoyed giving his brother more life amongst those who didn't know him. It gave them a better perspective of the two of them.

Saul's reaction to the girls with whom Matt found a liking too wasn't so surprising. He was, after all, a guy who seemed to like multiple girls. His wording was slightly odd though and reminded him a bit on something Adelita might say. But he wouldn't tell Saul he reminded Matt of his nine year old niece.

And then he changed the subject again. Matt couldn't prevent himself from sighing. He was really set in the way things were at the moment. There was the possibility that Saul could fix whatever rift there was between Matt and Echo. But there was even a bigger possibility that he could force the rift even bigger. There was even a possibility that the two of them might force Matt to take Saul's not abandoned room, which Matt wouldn't take or the two of them going off to share that room together and leaving Matt in this room alone.

Neither option Matt was very fond of. The possibility of being alone actually worried him. He had never been alone. He had always had Josh or his various siblings there. "It's fine with me." Matt finally said, he looked over at Echo to see how he decided on all of this. It was, after all, his room too.

0 Matt Slice 0 Matt 0 5