Time to chat [Wally] on Library

Valentine Duell

November 14, 2021 12:10 PM

Time to chat [Wally] by Valentine Duell

He was here. He was here and alone. This was probably the best chance Val would get, and she'd promised she would do it. She'd seen the lone figure at the table out of the corner of her eye as she'd gone into the book stacks. On her way back out with a copy of Transfiguration and You: vol III, she confirmed that the person was Wally, and that he was alone.

She dropped the book off at the table where she and Bonabelle were studying without sitting down. "I'll…" she hesitated just a moment, "I'll be right back." She told her girlfriend. She almost asked Bonabelle how she looked, but was pretty sure of the response she'd get regardless of her physical appearance. That thought kindled a warm glow amongst the nervousness inside her. She smiled, blew Bonabelle a kiss and started back towards Wally. Along the way she primped up her hair a little.

Valentine slid into the seat next to Wally and gave him a smile, trying to hide that pesky nervousness. "Hi, do you have a minute?" She asked. "I thought we should probably talk a little about the ball... and such." Her voice shifted a bit with the last two words. Would he want to talk about kissing and things along those lines?

2 Valentine Duell Time to chat [Wally] 1490 1 5

Wally O'Malley

November 14, 2021 2:58 PM

Chat. Yes. Sure. That. by Wally O'Malley

The library was one of Sonora’s most excellent resources, in Wally’s opinion. It offered plenty of opportunities to gain knowledge, either to supplement a course or for the pure love of it. It provided a place to escape inside a book, academic or otherwise, for a few moments of peace and quiet. Quiet, perhaps, being the key word.

It was generally a Stanley-free zone.

The boys were back on good terms again, but even so, Wally occasionally found his twin brother a bit… exhausting. So he would spend some time in the library when he wanted to be somewhere Stanley wouldn’t find him but not feel like he was hiding cooped up in his common room. Sometimes Tommy would join him in the library for a quieter chat, as they had been today, but Tommy had left about fifteen minutes ago to meet up with Rosalynn. That left him alone in his novel.

Vulnerable.

He did not hear Valentine approaching and had no time to mentally prepare himself for her, to quietly scold his cheeks out of blushing. She was just here, asking him if he had a minute. Wally was not at the end of the page, paragraph, or even the sentence, but he immediately shut the book. A split second too late, he realized he wasn’t positive what page number he was on. Sigh. A struggle for the future.

“The Ball!” he croaked, his voice crackling through nerves and puberty. “Y-yeah, I guess we should, huh?” the Crotalus added, attempting to gain control of himself. “I think Bonabelle told us that you’re wearing pink, and I’m not sure if you’d want me to see your dress in advance-” That was a thing girls did, right? “- but if you can just, like, give me an idea of what shade of pink, I can try to get something to match it.”

12 Wally O'Malley Chat. Yes. Sure. That. 1492 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 14, 2021 8:31 PM

Chats are good, right? by Valentine Duell

Valentine was a bit surprised by the abruptness at which Wally snapped his book shut. Was he worried that she was going to see what he was reading? What might he be reading that he didn't want her to know about? Should she be worried about that? Not wanting to make an issue of it, she did her best to keep her eyes on his face and not the book. It wasn't too hard, his face was nice to look at, but she thought he looked a little anxious or worried.

His voice seemed to confirm those suspicions, and her eyes drifted down to the book he had so hastily closed. She pulled them back up. "Yes, of course." She replied almost cheerily. He'd remembered what Bonabelle had told them, that was a good sign, right? And he wanted to try and match. Val drew out her wand and realized all of her studying supplies were at the other table with Bonabelle. What else did she have on her? A quick check through her pockets revealed only a few loose dice she had crammed in there after a hurried clean-up of her last game prep session. If she recalled correctly, the d20 hadn't exactly been preforming well. She set it on the table, waved her wand, spoke the necessary words and the die shifted from the red with white numbers to pink with lavender numbers.

A thrill of delight ran through her, the transfiguration had worked without lots of prep-work. Maybe she was getting better. Val picked up the die and examined it before offering it to Wally. "This is pretty close, the pink might be a shade to light though." She frowned slightly at the die being obstinate as always, "Still it should work."

That was the easy part of what they should talk about. The Teppenpaw braced herself for the next part. "Bonabelle told me about your meeting in Tumbleweed, but there wasn't much to tell." She paused and thought about the whole Stanley and Bonabelle kissing concept for just a moment. "What do you think about all of this?" She asked with a bit of trepidation.

2 Valentine Duell Chats are good, right? 1490 0 5

Wally O'Malley

December 04, 2021 10:33 PM

Is that a trick question? by Wally O'Malley

Wally was incredibly grateful for the visual display. He thought momentarily about asking if he could hold onto the die, but then he remembered that Valentine would need it for her next game club meeting. Wally had thought about joining Val’s club - Stanley had gone for a while while they were dating, and even he, who would have previously touted any kind of table-top game as nerdy and lame, had enjoyed it - but after how weird things got with all that stuff, he had thus far not made any attempts to do so. For now, he just did his best to capture a very solid mental image of the color of the die. It also gave him a good excuse not to make eye contact with her, in addition to his usual excuse of having a major crush on her and being scared of pretty girls.

Her question definitely did not make it any easier, that was for sure. He felt his cheeks flush, and with the frequency that happened, he was beginning to wonder if she thought there was something wrong with his face, or if he just always looked exceptionally red. It was nowhere near as bad as it was in his head, of course, he just knew how hot it felt.

For a moment, he did not respond. How was he supposed to answer that? It was a dream getting to go to the ball with her, even under these…. albeit strange circumstances. “I just want you to be happy, Valentine,” he said at last, summoning all of his courage to look up into her bright and beautiful face. “If you want a boy to go with, I am more than happy to go with you. And, uh, no pressure to-... I mean, you don’t-....” his courage was waning, and with it went his words and any semblance of eloquence he could have managed. “I just want you to have fun and be happy.”

12 Wally O'Malley Is that a trick question? 1492 0 5

Valentine Duell

December 05, 2021 8:35 PM

I don't think so. by Valentine Duell

Valentine let out a giggle as Wally stared at the die as if trying to physically transfer the object into his brain. "Keep it," she said, "It's been misbehaving for me anyway, maybe it'll like you better." Then she gave it a playfully stern glare, "You be good for Wally or else I'll have to turn you into a four-sider." She gave him a wink, "I wouldn't take to long though, I'm not sure how long that color will actually last. Transfig certainly isn't my strong suit. If you can get the color to stick around longer, you may want to do it."

Wally seemed to think about her question for a few moments, she couldn't blame him. This was odd, Lavender had pointed that out clearly enough. She was asking a lot both from Bonbelle and from Wally, but... Her thoughts were interrupted by his response. In truth, she wasn't quite sure what to make of his words. He wanted her to be happy? If she wanted a boy to with with, he was happy to go? No pressure to...? To what? Was this the kissing thing? No pressure for kissing? Was that a polite way of saying I don't want to kiss? If you want a boy, I can be a boy. I'm okay with helping you have fun at the ball, but that's about it?

To Val it all sounded like something a friend would say. Something that Philippe might say if Freddie wasn't around. 'You want to go to the ball with a boy, sure I can go with you. We'll have fun.' Her hopes sank a bit. A fleeting thought ran through her mind to grab Wally and plant a kiss on his lips just to see what would happen, but she didn't. The thought of Philippe was a bit to strong yet, he wouldn't appreciate it, and from the sounds of it Wally probably wouldn't either.

Bringing herself around again she tried to reevaluate the situation. She'd asked what his thoughts were on the situation, and he'd given an answer. It was fine. She would have fun and be happy because he said wanted her to, and she wanted to help people achieve their goals. This wasn't helping though, and as such she was already making him not get what he wanted. Well, there was only one way to fix that.

"Wally, if you want me to have fun and be happy," she paused a moment, "Then you should know that I don't want to go to the ball with a boy. I want to go to the ball with a boy that wants to go to the ball with me." She remembered what she had told Lavender about making sure whatever boy she took would know darn well what he was getting into. "That boy needs to know that I love Bonabelle very much and I don't see that changing. But, I also want to love a boy just as much as I love her." And frankly in her ideal dream world the boy and Bonabelle would also fall in love as well and everything would be perfect and wonderful. She wasn't really holding her breath on that one though.

Val looked into Wally's eyes with a hopeful expression, he was nice, he was kind, and he was cute as well. "Do you really want to go to the ball with me?"

2 Valentine Duell I don't think so. 1490 0 5

Wally O'Malley

December 27, 2021 2:09 PM

I'll take it. by Wally O'Malley

It seemed like somehow, no matter what Wally said, and no matter what the situation, he managed to say exactly the wrong thing. All he wanted at the end of the day was for Valentine to be happy, to get what she wanted. But she was one of those gentle, soft-hearted people (admittedly, not dissimilar from himself) who wanted others to be happy as well. So she didn’t just want him to go for her. That was fair. That was kind.

In all honesty, Wally didn’t understand this relationship situation Valentine and Bonabelle were doing. He knew that sometimes girls dated girls, and that was perfectly okay. But to want to date a boy and a girl - at the same time - did sort of throw him for a loop. Still, despite the confusion of the situation, some other facts remained: Wally was fourteen and didn’t have to have all the answers; everybody in the situation seemed to be okay with whatever it was; and he had a crush on Valentine.

Her eyes had such a special sparkle - the way she looked at him threatened to unravel him at the seams. Then he would melt into a pile of boy goo and then no girl - not Valentine, or any other - would ever want to go to the ball with him. So he did his best to restitch himself, summoning all his courage to look deep into her eyes. “I would like nothing more,” he said at last. “I’m not sure if it’s strange at this point to formally ask, but Valentine, may I take you to the ball?”

12 Wally O'Malley I'll take it. 1492 0 5

Valentine Duell

December 27, 2021 5:42 PM

Excellent! by Valentine Duell

Valentine's face lit up at Wally's response. He seemed to have mastered whatever hesitation had been plaguing him. Perhaps he was just putting on a convincing front so that she would believe he did want to go with her, but she couldn't figure out why he would do that unless he actually did want to go with her. Not that she gave it a lot of thought. She beamed at him, happiness exuding from every bit of her. "Yes! I would love to go to the ball with you!"

Without giving it any thought, Val threw her arms around Wally and pulled against him in a tight embrace. Well, at least as good of one that can be achieved while sitting in library chairs. Her insides were aflutter with joy, she had Bonabelle and she had Wally and this was going to be the best ball ever!

True, she still wasn't really sure what Wally wanted in the long run, but they could figure that out as they went. At some level he did want to go to the ball with her and that was enough for now. Everything else would work itself out in time... or she could go ask Aunt Giselle.

2 Valentine Duell Excellent! 1490 0 5