Itch [open]

[jess1z1]

"La la la. Lalalalala!" They chased her out of the classroom and down the corridor. She'd turn left, they turned left. Then right, and again right. "Shoo. Leave me alone." She wouldn't even look at them but merely wave her arms in a futile attempt. Sometimes Anne would forget just how persistent young people can be. She herself had been a hard one at thier age. The girl had even taken it to teach herself how to drive after her parents had stated that she was too young. Man, any kid of hers did that and she'd have them skinned.

The reason she ran away from her students now was pretty trivial, though. They wanted a grade changed but unfortunately for them Anne had made a new vow that week to change herself. Yet again. For one thing, this time she was going to quit smoking, and also she was going to start taking this teaching gig seriously. The latter meant no listening to pleads and moans and asskissing. She did love the asskissing. But no. Tough woman, now. Life's a bitch. Now so was she.

In the end there was nothing else to do but turn around and face them. Otherwise they'd surely follow her to her living quartrs and quite frankly, the sound of their voices was starting to annoy the shit out of her. There was a reason they were dancers and not singers.

"Jane!" She addressed one of them. Both young students had halted in their tracks the moment she'd turned on her heel, noses almost touching. "I'm sorry, honey, but you obviously haven't been practicing. No more second chances. Get your head out of your ass and start taking this seriously 'cause your parents are paying a shitload of money so that you can be a hippy for the rest of your life." She turned to the other one. "Same goes for you, Mr. King of the Keg. Yes, I hear stuff. Good day."

Even though they had stopped following her after that, Anne didn't slow her pace. It had been a long morning and it was cold and now she wanted a cigarette. She slowed a little and noticed the door of the music room to her right. Without further thought she entered it.

Actually, the band room was perfect for not smoking. Not only was it strictly forbidden but she would never, ever dare to expose the fine instruments like that, so hanging out in there would help control her itch.

She closed the door gently behind her and made her way to one of the chairs by the window, feet pulled up so she could comfortably sit on them, her shoes were soft enough to allow this.

[brandy]

Work was not one of his favorite things to do anymore, and that was a tough reality to adjust to for Jake. For so long he had looked forward to getting up in the morning and heading to the garage, where he could restore antique cars with others who appreciated the quality automobiles. Now he could not wait for Friday nights when he knew he was free for the next two days. Each day he came to this school of arts and had to mow lawns, trim hedges, and pick up trash off sidewalks from lazy students. The pay was not too bad, but the uniform was hideous. Brown dickies, a long sleeve button down khaki shirt, and lucky him he even got his name stitched onto the pocket. He reminded himself that it was only the beginning of the year and to get over himself. Plus, he got to work inside in the air conditioning for a little while today too.

For whatever reason, maybe the janitor was sick or something, Jake had been told to come into the band room to fix a panel. Some kid had come along and decided that ripping three pieces of wooden panels off the wall would be fun. Nw they had a gaping hole in the wall that looked hideous, and made it more difficult for to cool the room down. So Jake brought in the three new panels from the back shed and some tools he dug out of a maintenance closet. He was kneeling on the floor after already putting up one panel, and searching for another nail when someone walked in. He turned his head slightly to see who it was, administration told him this was a free period so he could do the work now.

It ended up being Anne, a woman he had met a few days ago. She was a ballet teacher, but he knew little about her from the short, but polite conversation they had outside the main entrance when she came out to have a cigarette. She seemed a little stressed out for some reason. He offered her a smile, turning to face her completely. "Hey Anne, running away from your students?" He asked sarcastically, Jake could not help but be friendly and joke around. Afterall he was the only groundskeeper, which meant no one to talk to outside when he worked.

[jess1z1]

A split second after Anne had found the comfortable position in which she was now, the first notes of a male voice took her by surprise as they greeted her. Perhaps it had been the friendly tone which avoided her from jumping out of the seat as she was concentrated on the window before her and what was outside. Her head jerked towards the owner of the voice, whom she had completely missed when she had walked in the room, eyes wide and attentive and relaxed considerably upon seeing who it was.

She laughed a little.

"Yeah, I had a couple of them act like douchebags today." She replied amicably. "I know I was fifteen once too but man, it sure is easy to detach oneself from those days, isn't it?"

Actually, having a persona there was a blessing, especially someone with Jake's character, because distraction is what she looked for and distraction is what she was getting. Suddenly feeling much more at ease, Anne sunk in her chair a little and leaned back to more comfortable position.

The downside was, of course, that she in turn would become a distraction to someone who was actually in the middle of something and as this thought ocurre to her, Anne sat back up.

"Shit, I'm your way, aren't I?"

[brandy]

He turned back to his work for a moment, picking up another panel and lining it up with the baseboard. He found the nail he had been searching for before he noticed Anne, and hammered it into the wood. Later whoever usually did this could putty over the nails and sand it smooth, but he was not wasting anymore time searching for that wood putty, he already wasted twenty minutes doing that. He slammed the hammer onto the head of nail six times before it was all set, and then started on the second one. He paused after finishing the third, hearing Anne respond. Jake turned back to look at her. He could not help but laugh, the deep sound echoing in the not too large band room. "Sure is, I only keep in contact with a couple buddies from back then too. At the time you never think you'll lose track of everyone so quickly." He shook his head slightly. That was part of the problem with teenagers, they thought they had it all figured out. But when they graduated, real life was a slap across the face. Jake did not see all teens as this, plenty of them were polite and well aware there was more after high school. But there were the select few he noticed around campus who seemed to think this was the peak of their possibly 100 year lives. It was crazy.. four short years counted for so much.

He finished putting up the second panel and shook his head. "Nah, your fine. Trust me I don't mind having someone to talk to. Being alone outside gets pretty damn boring" He said, urging Anne to stay while she could and keep him company. His days were extremely boring, at least tomorrow was Friday and he had the weekend to enjoy himself.

[jess1z1]

"I bet." Anne replied softly and she leaned back in her chair. "We should switch sometime. Whenever you're about to strangle anybody who writes on the walls and whenever I'm about to strangle anybody who... anybody."

They say the downside of doing what you love is getting to actually know the dark side of it. Anne liked that quote because if you really thought about it, everything in this world had a dark side. It was just that sometimes, the dark side was worth it. Hey, look at that, she thought to herself, I'm already functioning like a decent human being and I'm not even smoking. She stayed quiet for a few second.

"What were you like as a kid, Jake?" She rested her chin on her palm and her elbow on her knee and looked at Jake. "I bet your mom liked showing off with the other moms. Did you ever want to be a fireman? I wanted to be a CIA agent when I was seven. Random, I know. But I was just thinking about these kids and those few who actually have the heart and then those few who actually have the discipline and I know that a balance is ideal, but that's just the problem, isn't it? Ideal isn't real."

She straightened up and waved a hand as she turned to look out the window once more. "Mmh, never mind. Don't mind me, I quit smoking today."

[brandy]

Jake nodded, another grin creasing his face. "Sure, you go outside and mow the lawn, and I'll go teach a bunch of students on a subject I know nothing about!" He responded, still chuckling under his breath. He wondered if Anne really got that frustrated with her students, if so it must be a very long five days until Saturday. The room became quiet for a few moments, and he turned back to the panels. Grabbing the last board he lined it up against the bottom beam to make sure it would fit correctly like the others, then placed it back on the cold white tiles while he searched for two more nails. No way was he running out when he was almost done, there had to be at least two lost somewhere on the bottom of the tool box.

When Anne spoke up the change of subject was unexpected. Him as a kid? Jake did not answer right away, but decided not to worry about since she seemed to have more to say anyways. A CIA agent... somehow it seemed to fit her perfectly. He could totally picture the brunette walking around like those agents on a late night TV show investigating some crime. He did not really get the 'showing off' part about mothers or something... since his mother insulted him plenty of times, or stayed in the house, he was sure that did not count as 'showing off'. So jake decided to returned to the first part of her question. "A fireman, no... but it sounds like a damn good job now. Maybe I should look into that. But yeah, I wanted to be a rock star when I was younger.... crazy ideas you get when your young..." When you were a kid there were no limits to your dreams, no lack of money to hold you back from what you desired. For Jake plenty of other things stopped him from pursuing a musical career, but he tried not to bother himself with thinking about it often. "Oh, and you could totally pull off the CIA thing. You certainly bad ass enough." He said, winking at her with a smile still on his face. Yet he had not found those stupid nails yet.... it did not matter really, he supposed it meant he could hang out and talk longer instead. "You quit? Good for you. And your not talking crazy or anything, I mean, discipline certainly is not enough. I could practice playing the guitar until I blue in the face and never make it onto a stage. I guess I'm out of balance too..." His failure with music did not dampen his mood since he was too busy enjoying their conversation. "So why didn't you go out and solve crime?"