Sitting in the dark, as usual. on Cascade Hall

Jose Santoro

June 02, 2009 4:58 PM

Sitting in the dark, as usual. by Jose Santoro

Jose Santoro was a Sixth year now. It was a bit strange of him to think of himself as such considering it meant he only had one more year left of Sonora and then after meant living his life trying to make a name for himself. And possibly being married to Danae. Which, he was completely okay with doing, but it would also be very strange to have such a relationship with her. Not a bad relationship, just not one he would have been expecting.

Of course, that was if it all went down that way. Josh still believed that Danae would find someone better to marry in the long run.

He sat in a remote corner of the school, back against the wall and his bewitched parchment in his lap, etching into it each detailed line of that hallway that he could see from his current position. This was what he did in his free time. This was what he just loved to do. Matt didn’t understand that, which was probably why the two of them were rarely around one another. The summer had caused another rift into their normally healthy sibling relationship. Matt had branched out when it came to girls… or ‘females’ in general and Josh didn’t agree with his choices. Especially since he seemed to be enjoying having Eavan into him. But then, Matt didn’t agree that Josh could commit himself to Danae if Josh wasn’t going to admit to anyone exactly how he felt for the girl.

This wasn’t to say that they didn’t still hang out and get along because they did. Matt would always be Josh’s best friend and vice versa. It only meant that they were going down two extremely different paths and they didn’t agree with the one the other had chosen. He wasn’t exactly sure when that had happened. When they had split. But as time went on, their personalities became more and more apparent as being the exact opposite.

Now that his CATS exams were over and Josh’s RATS weren’t for another year, he was going to devote more time to his map. This had originally started for pranks that his brother wanted to pull, but as they went on in years, Matt cared less about pranks while Josh took care in his future plans as an Architect. When he wasn’t studying or hanging out with his small group of friends, Josh enjoyed his time in the semi-dark quiet halls of the school. This was his project. He had read over some of the expectations schools for Architecture required and many of them expected some sort of project to be submitted with the application. This was what he planned to submit. This was his future.

Halfway through finishing the hallway, Josh heard a noise. Possibly a sneaker against the floors, but it was hard to tell with the small echo. Lifting his wand slightly, Josh lit it and peered into the darkness at the other end of the corridor. “Hola?” Josh called out, forgetting to switch into English as he often did. “¿Alguien allí?”

Translation:
Hola – Hello
¿Alguien allí? – Anyone there?

6 Jose Santoro Sitting in the dark, as usual. 90 Jose Santoro 1 5

Danae Dupree

June 13, 2009 7:48 PM

Joining in sitting in the dark. by Danae Dupree

Ever since school had started back up, Danae had begun to spend more and more time in the library, which was proving to be excellent for her studies, but not so excellent for her friendships. She was partially hiding out in the library to avoid Eavan. She was afraid that if they ever really got to talk all she would do is ruin their friendship completely by telling Eavan why she was so angry with her. But at the same time, she was spending time in the library in the vain hope of talking to her. They hadn’t talked, really talked, since Elly’s sixteenth birthday, which was sad since they were supposed to be best friends.

Of course, as a result of her time in the library, she hadn’t really hung out with Josh either. She wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not, because she liked being around Josh, but she didn’t want to end up admitting that his counterpart was causing an indirect problem in her friendship. And yes, she blamed Matt while knowing that it was completely irrational to do so. But she was jealous of the way Eavan fawned over the boy. Oh, it wasn’t that she wasn’t happy that Eavan liked someone, but it was tiring when it seemed like it was the only thing her friend cared about anymore.

She had also decided to officially give up in repairing her friendship with Eavan. If Eavan wanted to talk to her, she would come find her. But for now, she had another friendship to work on repairing and Danae knew exactly where to find him. On nearly any given day, Josh could be found in some corridor or another working on his map. He was also more than likely to be in the same spot that he was the last time they had hung out. She silently cursed when her shoe made a sound against the floor, worried that if he were working that the unexpected noise would startle him and cause a mistake in his work.

“Sorry, sorry. It’s just me,” Danae apologized as she sat down near Josh. She was quiet for a moment, staring at the floor, before shifting her attention to his face. “So, um, hola.” She wasn’t quite sure where to begin with her actual apology and instead leaned over to get a better look of his map. “It looks amazing.” Quiet again. She glanced around the corridor. Back to him and out it spilled. “Josh, I’m really sorry that I haven’t been around lately. I don’t know if you noticed or not, you probably didn’t, but if you did, I’m sorry for ignoring you. I’ve been hoping to try and talk to Eavan, hasn’t really happened though. Anyhow, I’m sorry.”

0 Danae Dupree Joining in sitting in the dark. 91 Danae Dupree 0 5

Josh

June 14, 2009 8:45 PM

Welcome to the dark. by Josh

Josh lowered his wand when the voice answered; the familiar feminine pitch immediately told him that it was Danae. He returned to his work as she approached him. This was all very predictable for the two of them and was, in fact, how they had even formed a friendship to begin with. If Josh hadn’t taken a liking to map making or Danae hadn’t wandered around, the two of them probably would have never spoken to one another and the future they had set upon one another would have never been made. It was odd to think about now, but having been only second years when they met, who knew this is where everything would take them?

“Hola, Danae.” Josh spoke lightly, not taking his eyes off of the map. They rarely said much to each other while in the dark corridors. Mutual companionship in the silence, he guessed. He didn’t mind it so much though. He didn’t mind it when she became a chatterbox either. Josh found her amusing when she was nervous and couldn’t seem to find a way to quiet herself, so she would ramble.

He glanced up at her when she greeted him. Her words were all well and good, but the slight hesitation was what had him looking at her. Obviously something was bothering her if she was being awkward with him in just her greeting. “Thanks.” Josh commented with a small grin at her compliment. He was a perfectionist, so taking compliments when it came to his work was hard for him to do because, no matter what, he always saw some flaw. But, he was trying to be better about it all. He didn’t know how he even managed to get all his homework done since he was constantly rechecking everything. Mateo always said that Josh was OCD with the little things. Josh should probably work on that too.

Josh stared somewhat dumbly at Danae when she started talking again. He was aware that she hadn’t been around much since the start of school, but he had only assumed that school work and Eavan were the reasons for that. After all, in the past that had been the reason for her lack of participation in the mapping. He never took her disappearances personal, she had her own life, but he could never quite figure out why it seemed to upset her so much.

“Try and talk?” Josh asked, picking up on her choice of words. “Wasn’t Eavan the one you were spending your time with?”

0 Josh Welcome to the dark. 0 Josh 0 5

Danae

June 18, 2009 10:51 PM

Why thank you. by Danae

Danae gave an inner sigh of relief at Josh’s question. It meant that he wasn’t upset with her. Why she always thought he would be she didn’t know when he never was. Maybe it was because she always assumed the worst. Sometimes she worried over her own pessimism and wished that she could be more like her sister the eternal optimist, but then she did have every right to be pessimistic when nothing ever worked out the way it was supposed to and never for the better including her best friend at the moment. And leave it to her other best to pick up on what she had said.

Biting her lip, she nodded slowly in response. There was no point in denying what she had said and she didn’t really want to. She needed to talk about it and with Josh, she had a safe place to do that. At least, that’s how she felt and because of that, it just came pouring out in a storm, “Eavan and I haven’t really hung out since Elly’s birthday party last year, really, and then it was with everyone else. It’s like she got eyes for Matt and she has blinders on about anything else. What’s so great about Matt anyway?” She asked grumpily as she tucked at her shoelace.

Realizing what she had just said, she looked up quickly at Josh. “I’m sorry. I didn’t really mean that.” She cursed her big mouth. It was one thing for Josh to say anything about Matt since that was his brother. It was another thing for her to be negative about him. Plus, she was being truthful when she had said she didn’t mean it. “I’m just frustrated. They aren’t even dating. Okay, maybe they like each other, but is that any reason to completely forget all the other people in the world?” She might have been exaggerating on the last part, but her emotions weren’t accounting for reason.

0 Danae Why thank you. 0 Danae 0 5

Josh

June 26, 2009 3:16 PM

Why, you're very welcome. by Josh

Josh set his map supplies down away from him and gave his full attention to Danae. She was obviously having a crisis and she deserved to have his undivided attention. He knew that Eavan had some weird crush on Matt; it wasn’t like the girl didn’t make it obvious to the world how she felt about him. It was as though the moment Matt came into the picture, no one else existed. Josh could understand how that would make Danae feel.

He was also well aware that Matt knew that’s exactly what was going on with Eavan and he often used that to his own advantage. Girls were Matt’s weakness and girls who were fond of him were even better. Josh only hoped that Eavan would open her eyes at some point and realize that Matt was only having fun and nothing would come of it.

He shrugged at her question about his brother. “I have no idea.” And that was the truth. Over summer, Matt had all sorts of females following after him. It got him into trouble more times than not and eventually, Matt found one who had given him the adventure of a lifetime. One in which Matt had repeated to Josh as often as he possible could. It now felt like an adventure had been on and not his brother. It was actually quite gross if he thought about it. Which he tried very hard not to do.

It was obvious how upsetting this whole thing was making Danae. Eavan was her best female friend and not someone whom she is currently in a deal with in regards to marriage. Eavan was the person Danae turned to when Josh’s opinion just wouldn’t work for whatever situation she was in.

Josh wrapped an arm around Danae and pulled her in for a one armed hug in an attempt to comfort her. “Well, when you do run into Eavan, which you’re bound to do, what exactly do you plan on saying to her?” Josh asked. He knew it wasn’t completely fair to blame Eavan’s crush, those sorts of things just couldn’t be helped, but he didn’t want them to end their friendship because of his brother.

0 Josh Why, you're very welcome. 0 Josh 0 5