Riiicchhaaaarrddd... You need a new naaaammmee

The courtyard was always a great place to just hang out, especially when you didn't really know many people and all you want to do is just relax. The flowers made everything pretty and on a beautiful sunny day such as this, Richard couldn't feel more at peace. The grass was even amazing. As he lay on the ground, the soft green grass felt like a cloud underneath him and his jacket made a great pillow. Those awesome Aviator sunglasses really helped too. What better to wear when out in the sun? Oh yeah! His favorite t-shirt and just plain old khaki shorts. Man, he was living the life right now... although he was pretty sure he had been out here too long. His face felt a little warm-- probably from sunburn.

But, quickly his rest was interrupted by the sound of shoes crunching the grass. It wouldn't have been bad if the sound wasn't coming closer to him. Letting out a heavy sigh, Richard lifted up his head and began sitting up to try to look to see who it was. He was actually surprised to see who just happened to show up...

It was a beautiful day, which explained why almost everyone was out mingling or at least soaking up the sun. Verona herself was outside, she wasn't one who liked to miss out on things. Thus, she sat slyly on the warm grass, her large sunglasses propping her whispy sidebangs up like a headband. She was very content, not even caring about the fact she knew she failed her history test. History, shmistory- within the last few weeks she had a change in heart. Sure she might still love to read, but she wasn't about to sit around and study for some stupid test. History was boring, and quiet frankly she had her own memories and history to make. Unfortunately for her, the history she was about to make wouldn't be something she exactly looked back on and smiled about.

Another young woman was shuffling around the courtyard, going back and forth and humming to herself. Thanks to the heat, she wasn't in her most attractive state. Her long-sleeved uniform shirt was tied around her waist and was left with a loose tank-top on; not to mention the big, old gardener gloves. Her hat was backwards on her head as she trimmed the many bushes in the hard. Brailynn had gone and made a bet with Brendan, and she'd lost; so she was stuck out here working in the heat. Not that he wasn't merciful and he'd probably taken it back (knowing him. idk skia. xD), but she was determined to get it done now.

Ready for its next victims, the creature hid in the few shadows. Sadly, there were an odd number of people out, but it quickly came up with a solution. The more the merrier, right? Quickly rushing by, it brought out it's claws and nicked Vera's neck, spinning her towards Richard's direction in a rush.

Vera leaned back slightly, so that her back rested on the cool leather of her bookbag. She wasn't really in the mood to approach people, or atleast she thought so. Her view suddenly changed as she felt a sharp pain on the back of her neck. Yelping, she immediantly brought her hand to her neck and pulled it back to look at it. Oh great, blood- granted only a little, but blood was blood and Vera wasn't taking any chances. Applying pressure to the back of her neck, the brunette rushed to the Nurse. Only, as she looked up to get a sense of direction, her green eyes met Richard's and she stopped suddenly. A deep red lit up the apples of her cheeks, much like her father and much unlike herself. Pulling her hand down from her neck, she quickly pulled her sunglasses off her head and let her layers feather down to frame her face. Folding the vintage sunnies, she slipped it into her bag and walked over.
Vera had never been one to show her emotions and even now that her heart was beating quickly, her outside was calm and collected minus the color from her blush. Taking long breathes, she approached him with a friendly smile on her face. Stopping a foot away from him, Vera plopped down carefully folding her legs to her side. "Hey there Hot Rod," She said playfully, but her flirty intentions were clear. "I don't think I've seen you around, I'm Vera." She extended a pale hand towards him to shake at the mention of her name. Despite trying to be calm, her heart was racing and her stomach had the biggest butterflies she had ever experienced. Verona had never been in love, they had always been in love with her (not by her choice, but sometimes it was rather nice). Now here she was and she couldn't stop stealing glances at his deep eyes and the way the sun reflected off his shiny locks...

Edit: Sorry it ended up being a lot bigger than I had intended! ono

As soon as the girl had sat down, he could easily tell that something was up. Was she trying to flirt with him? Well, she looked nice. He guessed that if she seemed to like him, this could actually go somewhere. The thing was that he had no idea what he did to get her attention. He was just kind of sitting here. Maybe he looked better than he thought. Man, it was the aviators. Totally. He quickly gave her a slick smile before taking her hand into his and giving it a shake. "Hey there," he said. "I'm Richard. What are you doing this beautiful afternoon?" Well, if he had her attention, he had to keep the conversation going. That's how he was going to learn what she liked and who she was. Maybe this actually could go somewhere. Now he just had to play it smooth...

"Ow..." A sharp pain suddenly appeared in the back of her neck, which she quickly slapped out of instinct. Completely off guard, the hedge clippers fell out of her hands and ground with an ugly clan, making her leap backwards so they wouldn't hit her boots. Brailynn narrowed her eyes and brought her hand back down, looking at the miniscule blood on her fingers. Did something bite her? She glanced around, not seeing and bugs or anything. Maybe it was a spider - ooh, if it was, Lord help Lindsey.
The young woman sighed and turned to get back to work, before noticing moving shapes in the corner of her eyes. Some girl whose back was turned to her and - oh, was that? Yup. Her heart suddenly picked up the pace and she felt rather jittery. Well - um. She couldn't think very well at the moment, her mind went really fuzzy. Brailynn shuffled around awkwardly, as if she couldn't remember what she was doing or decide what she was going to do. How long had Richard been over there? What was he doing? Should she go say hi? But she looked so horrible, working all day and a mess - she was caught between running then and there or practically throwing herself at him. But wait, he wasn't alone, was he?
Her hazel eyes drifted over again, noticing the other girl again - her hand holding his. Jealousy suddenly started stirring in her chest. Well, she didn't have much of a choice now, did she?
Brailynn bit her lip and tugged nervously at the sleeve of her shirt, walking over to the two and putting an uneasy smile on her face. "Hey, Richard." she greeted, painfully keeping her voice light and her face near a bright red. Being this close to him made it hard to breathe, and he looked so amazing. Seriously, give him a white kitten to pose with and it'd be picture perfect. /shot "Uhm, who is this?" She couldn't bring herself to look at the other girl, but she wanted to slap the shet out of her.
'What is wrong with you?' she asked herself.

Suddenly Richard glanced up to see a very familiar face and his own face immediately brightened. "Hey Brailynn! This is... uh..." He paused a moment to look back at Vera. "This is Vera. I just met her actually. How have you been?" Okay now this was a little weird. Here he was trying to kind of flirt with a girl then Brailynn shows up. Well, she was a great face to see. It kind of relieved him because he actually knew her, but he didn't really know. He was confused. Normally he was just the lonely guy walking around the school. He didn't really know what to say to either of them. It was pretty obvious neither of them knew each other, so what was he supposed to say? He couldn't just introduce them like he and Vera were good buddies... such a strange predicament.

Verona grinned at him as he took her hand and gave it a small squeeze as they shook hands. She looked around the Courtyard, sending a flirty smile occasionally at the people- mostly boys- who would shoot glances her way, but after every smile she would shoot a glance at Richard to make sure he was paying attention. Verona had never done this before, but he was the cutest boy she had ever seen and she wasn't losing him anytime soon. "Nice to meet you," Vera greeted with a half-smile. "Enjoying all the sunshine I can get. But it's no fun being alone." She said with a playful laugh, studdying his face carefully to make sure her flirting wasn't coming across to hard.

Only, her smile quickly deflated as she saw another girl. Her eyes flickered from happy to hurt and back again so fast one had to be paying attention to her to notice. Was this his girlfriend? Judging by the dreamy look this girl had in her eyes when she looked at Richard, Vera concluded there was something between them and was suddenly extremely take aback. Her heart dropped and her head was pounding, how could this happen? "Hiya." She chirped bitterly towards this girl, suddenly angry for her to interupt their flirt-session. Being one who was good at masking her feelings, she forced a smile and waved at her.  

Narrowing her eyes, Verona gave Brailynn a once over- sizing her up. She was pretty and seemed to know Rich well. For once Vera felt threatened, sure she could end this all by making him fall in love with her, actually Vera could actually attract Brailynn in a friendly way and make her demand her every word. But this was more serious than a silly game. This was a competition and if there was one thing Vera believed in, it was winning fairly.

Deciding this was harder than she inticapated she turned back to Richard. "I'm sorry if I'm interupting something..." Vera said, a genuine look of confusion on her face as she touched his upper arm to draw his attention back to her momentarily. Vera shot him a small smile and looked down at the grass, fluttering her eyelashes to try and get a handle on her emotions. Verona had only once felt like this before and that one time had ended in the biggest heartbreak of her life. She wasn't sure why she felt this now or what caused it, but she did know that she suddenly really liked this guy and would do anything to be with him right now.

Brailynn felt a billion butterflies flutter around in her stomach when he said her name, unable to feel nothing but bliss as she grinned. And the look on his own face just made it all the better. The girl shifted from her left foot to her right, brushing a few strands of unruly blonde behind her ear, her smile dulling a little when he quickly made his introductions. Vera, so that was her name. Not one she'd ever heard before. Her gaze finally flickered downward at the girl, her greeting sweet an innocent - a little too happy in Lynn's opinion, or was she just imagining things? The young woman bit her lip. This other girl... Her hair, her clothes, her eyes... Yeah, Brailynn herself was pretty high-standard when she wasn't out working in the dirt, but this girl looked like she could be a model or something. She really was something, and that tore uncomfortably at her.
She looked down at her feet, swallowing hard. She didn't like this feeling. It was like there was this electricity in her heart and an air that left her light-headed, and it really did feel wonderful, but at the same time - with this beautiful girl she didn't know being around the boy who made her feel like that, it gave a sour twist to the entire feeling. And really, it was almost painful. She felt selfish, she felt really selfish in that she wanted Vera gone, right now. And it only got worse when she saw him touch his shoulder, making Lynn claw at her sleeve.
She knew she was nothing special, not her or anything really about her, so there really was no contest in her mind - but hell if she wasn't stubborn enough not to try. Brailynn wasn't sure where these sudden, intense emotions came from, but she'd lost hard before and she couldn't again.
"Hi." Lynn forced a smile, darting her gaze to the ground for a few moments before looking back up at Richard. "I've been - um - gew - good. Youknowschoolandall... yuck." She let out a cheesy smile, but was dying a bit on the inside, wondering where her ability to speak went. "You're not, don't worry." The spring interjected quickly, "Its just, I was wondering if Richard here wanted to... um... do an activity together...?" Flustered, yes, that was the best she could come up with.

Oh great. Now what was he supposed to do? Suddenly both of them seemed a little too interested in him. It wasn't very hard for him to tell. Both of them seemed to have trouble hiding it and he was sure his sudden interest in Brailynn didn't help. A lot of that was simply because he had talked to her before and she had actually gotten to know him a little bit. He had just met Vera so things were still a little weird, but he was sure after a little bit of talking he wouldn't feel so awkward around her either. Not that he really felt awkward. Well, he did now that the two of them had kind of met. He seemed to feel the slight tension in the air. Maybe phasing wasn't such a bad power after all, especially now that he knew he wouldn't get stuck in walls or doors. He could make a quick getaway. Just... right through the dirt. Bam. They could talk and get to know each other and be awesome and happy and he would be happy and everyone would win. But Brailynn's question kind of caught him off guard, but it seemed like a good idea until he looked back at Vera. He couldn't just leave her here like that. "Yeah! We can go... uh... do something." He quickly turned to Vera and gave her a small smile. "You want to come with us? I don't want to leave you here by yourself. It'll be fun!" Well, whatever it is we are doing... He thought. He didn't even know what Lynn might have had planned but it wouldn't have been too bad to have Vera come. Maybe now he could actually have some friends :'D

Vera sensed it and quiet honestly, his sudden interest in Brailynn made her heart hurt. Was she not good enough for him? Or pretty enough for him? Or... Vera turned her eyes to Brailynn momentarily... earthy enough for him? She was dissapointed and hurt, not enough to get overly upset; but the girl had the sudden urge to prove herself. To prove she was more than just some random girl, I mean she could go play with dirt if that's what it was going to take.

Her slight frown only deepened at the mention of going someplace with this girl who had just showed up. Especially when Richard had momentarily forgotten about her pressence. "Well..." Verona started, scraping her brain for any excuse she could muster. Yet, the more she stared at Richard and his little half smile, the more she wanted to go. To finally prove herself to him, maybe even make him realize who she really was. "Sure, I'll do it. It'll be great." She said, mostly to Richard and reassured him with a forced grin. Only, her stomach was slightly dreading it. Verona didn't want to do something with Brailynn too, she wanted Richard all to herself. Actually, just thinking about it made her cheeks fluster a bit and butterflies brush her stomach slightly.