Good Little Boy

Simon sat alone in the library, clutching his head in pain as he read through books full of words he just could not force his brain to understand. After he had read (And reread and reread and reread....) the same sentence seventeen times, he realized he was not getting anywhere with this chapter. He sighed and closed the book for a moment.

Somehow, his father could sound proud and ashamed at the same time. He was proud of Simon because he was his son, and therefore, had to be amazing. But he always seemed disappointed by the fact that his son, who had desperately tired to live up to every one of his standards, simply was not spectacular.

So Simon strode to succeed with books. Ladies, somehow he scraped by. Quidditch, he scraped by. But it was the books even his father could not master, and it was here Simon thought that he could finally impress his insatiable father. He rubbed his eyes and opened the book once more. Problem was, the apple did not fall far from the tree at all...

What a day for a hoodie. Instead of her uniform, Brienne wore her custom Ravenclaw hoodie. The fleece scraped under her fingers ever so slowly. It wasn't an unpleasant scrape, though. Just a soft, fleecy cloud like feeling. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was amiss. She was dressed casually; a hoodie with a plain black t-shirt under it, a pair of purposely torn up jeans. A brownish stain was on both knees, as well as grass stains. She rather liked these things, because it made her tomboyish. That was the one feeling she wanted to get from her dressing methods. She even specially requested slacks instead of a skirt. Skirts didn't seem to fit her. She wasn't able to put her legs together for a long time without them moving about. Something about the stains on her knees alarmed many, though, the fact that it clearly wasn't mud. It didn't look like anything else but dried blood. No matter how much she washed these jeans, the blood wouldn't come out. Time for new jeans, perhaps, but she didn't have the money.

She paused as she pried one of the doors open to the library. Simon? What was he doing here? This would certainly be awkwardly heart stopping. She had more than a simple crush on him, and it was hard to convey. She stepped forward inside, luckily she wasn't skittish or she'd be hiding behind a book. A huge book. Her heart was practically leaping hoops and knocking at her ribs. Outwardly, though, she appeared distant. Distant and not feeling well at all. Not that she felt well anyway. She'd just gotten over the flu, and still had a cough or two. Her boots clicked against the tile softly as she chose a book from a shelf. It was one of her favorites; a biology textbook sample from a muggle classroom. At her favorite table, she chose a random page to read from. She always read just fine, until now. She looked over at Simon, then back at the book as she attempted to read what was before her.

Simon had read the same sentence about eight times now, and he couldn't tell you what he even assumed it might possibly be about. He closed the book with an echoing, resounding thump and again rubbed his eyes, as though if he rubbed them hard enough he could rub away the words he had been reading and the headache that they had inadvertently caused.

He looked up and saw Brienne. He had only spoken to the girl once or twice after their date and had been too busy to schedule a follow up. In all honesty, he was considering leaving the dating scene, since he was having trouble enough focusing on his studies as it was. But right now, he needed a sound distraction. He stood and walked over to her, sitting at her table. "Hey Brienne."

Brienne's pulse quickened in her ears, it seemed to knock at the tympanum in each of them. All because of Simon. All because he was there talking to her. Granted, it was no confession of love, just a greeting, but she still felt it quicken inside her. She turned to face him, and smiled softly, "Hello". Her eyes seemed to catch the light in the library just right, a glint that betrayed not what she was thinking, but disguised it well. She was also thinking of Daniel. Daniel Cethin. The man that she'd trusted but then he snipped at her, told her she was unwanted. She'd take a while to forgive him for that, and in fact needed that time to gather her thoughts. The book she'd been reading, little did she know, was flipped to a page on reproduction.

She glanced back at the book to come to that startling revelation, but it didn't quicken her more, she somehow stabilized. A pulse that went quiet a minute bothered her. She kept cool and calm though. She was close enough to the exit to leave if something were to go sour. However, through the facade showed her more charming side. "Haven't talked to you much, anything new?" she managed to talk through it.