`chasing butterflies | [ended]

[sarah randall]

SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE ME BUTTERFLIES
I DON'T KNOW WHERE IT IS, BUT SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE

The change between classes was longer than most public high schools, which gave their students four minutes to run from one end of the school to the other and still be late. At the Chicago School, there was between five and ten minutes to actually give the students a chance to try to make it to class on time and stop at their lockers if they so choose or catch up with some friends. It also made things easier on the teachers. Time to go to the bathroom was always nice or run for a coffee refill in the teacher's lounge. Just to take a nice break before getting into the next class, which was more times than not just repeating what you've said from the previous class. Unless, of course, the next class was further ahead then the previous one, or further behind.

The time between the class change was also a great time to make a run to the copy machine. That was exactly what Miss Walker was doing with the free time. In her previous class she had just handed out a homework assignment asking the students to write a full page or two essay about themselves. She told them it was their time to brag and be selfish. It was also one of the few times she would give such a simple homework assignment, although she did hear some exasperated sighs after she handed out the rubric. They would get over it once they started writing. Sarah never liked writing about herself either because she didn't find herself very interesting and really had nothing to write about, until she started, then it was hard for her to stop. The main reason for giving out this assignment was to learn more about her students writing habits and abilities. Writing about oneself was always easiest to show off your writing talents, or lack thereof. It was also a great way for Sarah to get to know her students better and hold onto names. Even if she would forget the name she could just say "you, the one who collects Matchbox cars", sometimes knowing that was better than remembering a name.

At any rate, the reason Sarah was heading for the copy room was so she could run off more of the rubrics for the assignment. Apparently she had horribly miscounted when she ran them off the first time, but she wasn't a math teacher so she was able to get away with it. Or she might have even left them lay in the copier, as she sometimes did. Holding her binder to her chest, she weaved through the halls filled with students and faculty out of the English department and toward the math department where the copy room was. Of course when she got there all of the three machines were taken up so she just waited and chatted with the freshman math teacher, while going through her minder and checking to see if she should copy any other items while she was already here. By the time a copier was free, she found three other things to be copied.

The copy room was empty by the time Sarah was on her last thing. She opened up the machines and placed the form face down near the green arrow, closed it, and pressed 'Start'. While seventy copies of the required reading list began to file out, Sarah made sure she was completely finished and stacked the four different assignments, with seventy copies a piece, oppositely. The rubric for the personal essay started with being vertical then the worksheet on proper essay structure sat across the rubric horizontally, so she could easily separate them later. After the reading list was finished, she finished off her pile and set her binder on top of it all, ready to head back to class. The bell was certainly soon to ring. However, before heading out the door, Sarah stopped at the table near the door when she saw a stack of papers sitting on it. Leaning over the table she groaned when she realized they were the rest of her rubrics. She did leave them in here before!

Sarah set everything in her arms down on the table to grab the extra rubrics and put them in the appropriate pile, just as the late bell rang. "Crap." Now she was late for class and her students were probably in chaos, living up the free time they were getting. Lifting the over-sized pile from the table and pressing it against her tightly as not to lose anything, Sarah dashed out of the copy room back to her classroom, although 'dash' wasn't really the correct word, because if she were to 'dash' she would more than likely drop everything she had all over the hallway. She...hastened... back to her classroom.

`TAG ryan perry
`WORD COUNT 817
`LYRICS something's gotta give by leann rimes
`AVATARS livejournal with a slight manip by me
`OOC im sorry that took about two days longer than expected. lol!

[melody]

I CLOSE BOTH LOCKS BELOW THE WINDOW,

[/color][/font]
I CLOSE THE BLINDS AND TURN AWAY.[/b][/font][/size][/center]

Ryan started the day like any other, got up around five, showered, and got dressed and grabbed his work uniform since he wouldn't need it till he went to work. This was his first year at the Chicago school of Performing and Visual Arts and his first year back in the city. Ryan's past is a little rocky to say the least and now, more than ever he has been trying to hide it from people. A side of him is ashamed of his parents and wondered how they ever messed up their lives and another side of him is angry with them for doing half the things they did. It was almost like they wanted to mess up or something. However, Ryan was glad that he got away from them, well actually his mother sort of left and his dad is locked up somewhere, but all the same he was happy that he got away. His brother was still out there somewhere, he left when he was eighteen which means Ryan was around sixteen. That was a whole other thing but Ryan and his brother were never close. They never wrestled and horsed around like other brothers, they just simply lived in the same house and shared the same family. They had a few good times in the past but since life at home wasn't that great they both just went out with their friends and most of the time spent the night at their houses.

Ryan walked inside the school building, since he was still 'in training' he didn't need to be at the school until nine which gave him time to hit the gym and then take a quick shower. There wasn't much that you needed to learn to be a security guard and Ryan wondered why he even needed training since he was a police officer for the last two years but still he dragged through it. He usually was stuck in the security room watching the monitors since his 'trainer' was always sneaking out but sometimes the others would let him go up to a classroom if their was a problem with a student which was more often then people would think. In the mornings they would him let him check bags but someone would have to monitor him. He was thankful that after this week was over, he would get to do things without someone standing over him.

He walked past the main office and opened the door to the security office where two security guards were busy watching the screens to see if any students were getting in trouble. "Perry, we actually have a job for you."

[/b] one of the two guards said while reaching for his coffee. Ryan recognized the voice and gave a half smile. The voice belong to Thomas Jacobs, he was around Ryan's age and just started last year. Him and Ryan became friends the very first day of work. The two just instantly cliqued and soon they found that they liked the same things and had tons of stuff in common. "Oh, and what would that be?" Ryan replied while grabbing his security keys and replaced them with his car keys which most guards did. "Student disturbance.. room 432, the room next to the copy room."[/b] Thomas said after sipping his coffee. "On it." Ryan said walking out the security room.

Ryan couldn't help but to smile, he knew this was suppose to be a job for someone else and knew if it was any other security guard would of got the call they wouldn't think about asking Ryan since he was sill in training. He liked helping out people and felt great about it, knowing that he actually made a difference in someone's life. He made his way up to the room which many people couldn't find since it was hidden in a small hallway and was sharing the hallway with a closet. He went up staircase after staircase, he wondered why the security guards didn't get elevator passes, it would get them to where they need to go faster and in some cases thats a good thing. He only knew of one guard that had one and he let Ryan use it a couple of times. The guard didn't look ill or hurt in any way so Ryan figure that he must of injured himself then kept the pass to use.

Ryan finally reached the floor and opened the door to enter the hallway, he stepped out into the hallway not knowing that someone else was rushing past.

tag. sarah walker
word count. 774
lyrics. shadow of the day by linkin park
icons. livejournal
notes. no problem.[/size][/blockquote]

[sarah randall]

AND THERE HE GOES, SO PERFECTLY,
THE KIND OF FLAWLESS I WISH I COULD BE

The bell had rung and yet there were still students wandering about the halls, taking their sweet time getting to class. Sarah wasn't one of the teachers that yells all down the hallway for students to get to class before they got written up, but she didn't allow them to just do as they pleased either. "The bell rang guys, get where you need to be." She said loud enough for the nearest students to hear her. If they weren't in her general vicinity she didn't bother with them. "Rogers, get in here!" Pausing in her journey back to her own classroom, Sarah stopped in the hallway to look back at the teacher who had just yelled. Of course it was Mr. Krawley the senior math teacher. She gave him a distasteful look for screaming at his student like he just had. There was really no need for that, especially since the young man he was speaking to wasn't more than five feet from the door.

"Morning, Miss Walker." Mr. Krawley waved heartedly, his voice suddenly normal and welcoming. Sarah's face didn't soften much, but she nodded in response, not bothering to wave for fear of losing what she was carrying. "Mr. Krawley." She did know his real name was George, but to call him that during school hours would be inappropriate and more than likely show students it was okay to call their teachers by their first name. In some cases, it was, depending on the teacher. However, administration was not supportive of this. The administration wasn't very supportive of anything, actually. To take a class on a field trip was like pulling teeth; making sure it was 'educational' in some way, timing out when to give permission forms so the students had enough time to hand in their money by a deadline, and have the right amount of appropriate chaperones. It was just so frustrating and tiring that most of the staff didn't even bother anymore. Which was taking away from the students more than anyone. Sarah still tried to get field trips in, even if it was one or two a year, but the bigger ones that used to go on every year, like the weekend camping trip in May with the art classes hasn't been scheduled for the past two years.

Thinking it was time she had better get moving again, Sarah began heading for the English hall, looking ahead as a student appeared from a classroom carrying a red hall pass. The door to the staircase opened just ahead of her and Sarah moved to the other side of the hall to make room for whomever was coming. Out of habit she waited to see who it was and when he appeared she felt her eyes grow slightly wider and her pace slow. It was a security guard, one she had never seen before, but hoped she would again. A knot formed in her gut and she suddenly felt as if the world was moving in slow motion. She didn't know what about him caught her so, he was handsome, definitely but it was more than that. Maybe the way he carried himself, she didn't know. But she was mesmerized.

Unaware of how stalker-like she must appear, Sarah continued to walk slowly toward him. They passed each other and she kept looking ahead for a split second before turning her head around to watch him walk in the opposite direction. Yes, she was looking there and found it very cute. Definitely a four, if not a whole five. Heat rose to her face and she began turning until she was almost walking sideways to continue staring awestruck. She couldn't help but think she had turned completely invisible since he didn't appear to have noticed her. In a way she was thankful, since then he wouldn't have seen her in an awkward teenage moment. Before she began walking backward, Sarah literally had to tear her eyes away and force herself to face ahead again.

Her eyes saw the locker opening but her brain didn't register it fast enough, still paralyzed from the previous encounter. Her mouth opened to make noise, but nothing came out before she walked smack into the open locker door. She fell backward onto the floor, everything in her arms tumbling out to cover the hallway around her. "Miss Walker!" The student whose locker she had just walked into had jumped back in fright when their locker was slammed shut on them. They looked down at her in shock and fear, afraid they had been the cause of the accident instead of their teacher's uncoordinated self and mushed up brain.

`WORD COUNT 804
`LYRICS teardrops on my guitar by taylor swift
`AVATARS livejournal with a slight manip by me
`OOC hehehe -laughs at sarah-

[melody]

I CLOSE BOTH LOCKS BELOW THE WINDOW,

[/color][/font]
I CLOSE THE BLINDS AND TURN AWAY.[/b][/font][/size][/center]

So far, Ryan liked the Chicago school. It was not like any of the public schools though, it was actually better. Kids at both schools were the same, always late to get to class and always hanging out between periods but the kids at this school same to have better manners except for a select few. The building was defiantly cleaner then the public schools but then again he has been out of school for a few years now and he did not even go to high school in Chicago. The public high school in California was some what better then the middle school here in Chicago. They had better lunches in California, but being a guy Ryan would eat anything no matter what it tasted like. A part of him wishes he could go back to school, it was so much easier to do school work than paper work which security guards have to do surprisingly often. Most of the paper work is just about students who they had to correct, most of it is pointless but still was required. Ryan, himself did not do the paper work which he was thankful for. He did feel bad for the others that are stuck all day with the work though.

Ryan was not the type to yell at kids or to get upset if they were hanging around in the halls since he did the same thing when he was in high school. He did not think that it was such a big deal if a kid was a couple of minutes late for class, but then again the students did get a full ten minutes to get to their next class which Ryan did not have since he went to a public school every year he was in school. He would hate it when the teachers would make him or another student go to the office to get a note because they were late. Usual Ryan went to the bathroom in between periods and most bathrooms closer to him were locked thanks to the kids that like to smear soap all over the place and it just wasted more time to go get a note. He remembered the ladies in the office, they were always typing on their computers and never looked up to see if someone was waiting for something. Even if you coughed they would not budge then they got upset if you just walked up to them.

The teachers he had met seemed to be okay, though. Some of them always looked tired and disorganized, he guessed that this was their first or second year teaching and were not yet use to the swing of things. Most of the student teachers always looked energized and excited but they were only student teachers and did not have to worry about most things that a teacher would have to worry about like giving tests and grading things then handing them back and all that good stuff. Ryan did see a few teachers that looked hard just by the way they looked or dressed, sometimes you can just tell what a persons personality is like just by looking at them. He was some what good at reading people but always looked to much into things so now in days he just goes with the flow. But sometimes it is hard to drop the habit of trying to figure out what the other person is thinking, especially if you like them and you want to know if they like you too, or something like that. No one would guess it but Ryan is always nervous around women he likes since when he has a crush on a woman he always twists his words or does something out of character.

However, Ryan walked out into the hallway and glanced at the women standing at little distance from him. At first he just thought that it was another teacher going to their room but then, once he caught another glimpse of her, he started to think that she was very beautiful and he felt his skin start to sweat. He ignored it though just thinking that the school was getting warmer since the weather is suppose to be nice today. He came up with about a dozen reasons why he felt hot all of the sudden, after all he was one to hide his feelings and never admitted to liking a girl and on top of that he was very stubborn. He was one to make up excuses on why the sky was falling and ignored the real reason. Anyways, he continued walking to wards the room where he should of already been at until he saw another security guard talking with the teacher and he guessed it was about the student that was giving her trouble. Ryan let out a long sigh, he was angry at the guard since this was suppose to be his first job that he would get to do by himself but then he just let it go.

He turned back with his hopes crushed and started walking back down the hall to the staircase. Once he took a couple of steps he heard a student yell and saw the papers flying everywhere until they hit the floor. Ryan looked past the white sheets and saw a student looking down at the teacher, the one that he saw while walking to wards the room. A part of him wanted to run down the staircase since he was sort of embarrassed for looking at the teacher but he could not do that after all his job was to help out the students, teachers, and faculty. So, Ryan walked quickly over to the scene and held out a hand for the teacher who was still on the ground, ”You alright?” he asked.


tag. sarah walker
word count. 975
lyrics. shadow of the day by linkin park
icons. livejournal
notes. lmao, a four?

[/blockquote]

[sarah randall]

I'M OVER HERE LOOKING AT YOU
YOU'RE OVER THERE WATCHING ME TOO

Watching the stack of papers she had so desperately tried to prevent from dropping, come loose and flutter around her she could only groan and think about how long it would take her to pick it all up again and reorganize. If she wanted to, she could most likely get the student whose locker she had smacked into to help. They seemed to be already thinking that they were going to get into some sort of trouble, even though it wasn't their fault at all. What was worse, though, was now that she looked up at the student's horrified face, she recognized it was one of her own. Josh...something. Or maybe it was Jake. Well, it started with a 'J' she knew anyway. The expression he was carrying was going to be forever engraved in her mind, and she was sure that this moment would forever be in his. It was sure to get around the classroom the second they returned, but now Sarah would gladly take her time clearing the hallway. She might as well just pop her head in and say 'Class dismissed' because they probably weren't going to be getting anywhere today.

"Miss Walker, I am so-" He stopped when Sarah lifted her arm and waved it back and forth, telling him to hold his apology. "Not your fault, Jake" "It's Josh." "Josh," She knew it! "I wasn't paying attention." Finally sitting herself up, Sarah got a better look of the mess she had created, which Josh was now beginning to help clean up, clearing the papers that went furthest first. At the sound of footsteps behind her, Sarah closed her eyes and imagined herself disappearing. If it was a student, who knew what their reaction would be, and if it was a teacher, god help her. She pressed the heel of her palm against her eye socket, waiting for the headache to come. Her other eye peeked over to the legs that were now next to her and rose to the hand that was extended in offering. Removing her hand so she could see with both eyes she looked up to see who was standing over her and wanted to lie back on the floor and melt into it.

At any rate, another part of her was eager to grab his hand but she controlled it and grasped it firmly just to pull herself up. "Yeah, I'm fine. Wasn't the first time I've found myself on the ground." When she was standing normally again, she could feel herself pulling away, and yet her hand didn't move right away. However, to avoid an awkward moment, not that this wasn't one to begin with, she forced herself to let go. Was it possible to die of humiliation? Maybe she wasn't meant to be humiliated but grateful to fate that it was him. She had hoped to see him again after all, this hadn't been exactly what she meant, but she couldn't complain. Sarah wiped any dust that might have gotten on her from the floor, there probably wasn't much though. The floors of private schools seemed to be a lot better kept than those of public, maybe the budget was simply large enough to employ people who actually cared about the cleanliness of the school instead of a paycheck.

Opening her mouth to say something else, she stopped as if she had forgotten. Shocking, considering she was the type of person to babble about anything to fill the silence of an awkward moment. To avoid looking like an idiot with her jaw dropped, she filled it with what she was probably thinking before anyway. "Oh! Thank you!" She bit her tongue afterward, realizing that the way she had said it sounded like it was an afterthought to something else. She smiled at him to emphasize her thanks, and because it was hard not to. She knew she was going to get into her stalker-like staring mode soon if she didn't look away so she forced herself to crouch down and begin gathering up the papers she could reach, just piling them without bothering to sort them out. She could do it later, right now she wanted to get out of this hallway before she did something else ridiculous and embarrassing to make him think there was something wrong with her.

`WORD COUNT 753
`LYRICS say somethin' by mariah carey feat. snoop dogg
`AVATARS livejournal with a slight manip by me
`OOC out of 5, that's pretty good! lmao!

[melody]

I CLOSE BOTH LOCKS BELOW THE WINDOW,

[/color][/font]
I CLOSE THE BLINDS AND TURN AWAY.[/b][/font][/size][/center]

Ryan met some of the kids while he was in the lunch room the other day. One was a senior and the others were juniors. He doesn't even remember how he got into their conversation but he did. He didn't want to be one of the security guards that just yell at the kids to get off the wall or to yells at them to get to class. Other kids he met actually say hi to him if he's in the hallway and he was glad that he wasn't ignored like the other guards. He thought that if you were nice to the kids then they will actually respect you instead of ignoring you. He knew that he never listened to any of the security guards in his school or he would pretend to go to class then when the guard left he would turn around and go out the fire exit. Ryan doesn't want the kids here to do half the things he did when he was in school and so by befriending them first he hopes that they will listen to him later.

He didn't understand why most security guards were so rude to the kids. They spend half the year with them so why not try to be friends with them. Well not exactly friends but just to get along with them so they actually respect you. Thats what some teachers needed to learn as well, how to you expect a kid to listen to you if you treat them like their nothing but a kid in your class. Ryan did butt heads with a few of his teachers by talking back but he had one math teacher that he was cool with and he never interrupted his class or spoke out and he actually did great in the class. Just the other day he heard a teacher complain that one of his students were talking about him behind his back and Ryan had talked to the teacher the other day and he did seem like one those teachers who gave students a hard time. But he kept his mouth shut, the last thing he needed was to get fired from this job because he and a teacher got into an argument.

However, once the beautiful teacher grabbed his hand he felt the heat come back to his skin. "Yeah, we all had our falls." he said after clearing his throat that seemed rather dry at the moment. We all had our falls?! how stupid does that sound! he thought. Ryan always found himself nervous around a girl that he liked, most people would think he would be the type to be in control or whatever but truly he wasn't. Well he seemed to be in control on the outside but in the inside his thoughts were bouncing off the walls. One thing was for sure and that was that he was now glad that the other security guard had showed up.

Ryan looked at her smile and couldn't help but to smile himself, "It's no problem." he said thinking a little more clearly now. Then he started to help picking the scattered papers up. "If you want, I can pick up the rest of the papers and you can get back to your class." he offered while standing back up from leaning over.

tag. sarah walker
word count. 565
lyrics. shadow of the day by linkin park
icons. livejournal
notes. no muse today :[ sorry for the random rambling :]

[/blockquote]

[sarah randall]

CAUGHT UP IN THE TOUCH
THE SLOW AND STEADY RUSH

Trying to decide whether she wanted to magically end this disastrous moment, or find her voice again, Sarah stopped gathering papers and slowly aligned the pile she had to hide her astray thoughts. She could stare at the papers in hand, making it seem like she was focusing on straightening them out, rather than out into space or at the security guard (which would probably be the case). Say something funny. She didn't know any jokes good enough. Say something interesting. President Roosevelt married his cousin. That's not interesting. That's borderline repulsive! Say something! On the inside she was yelling at herself, throwing all sorts of ideas forward but none of them continued on the path to escaping her lips. Whatever she thought either sounded too generic, questionable, or just plain stupid.

What else was stupid was her girlish attitude at the moment. Sarah felt as if she had traveled back in time to high school and Craig Landon, which wasn't really that long ago. The circumstances were different though. Craig was who most would call 'obnoxious' and greatly enjoyed acting out for attention. I guess you could say 'class clown' but it wasn't the title Craig was really associated with. Anyway, he wasn't one to keep his feelings to himself and voiced his attraction to Sarah all the time, which just embarrassed and annoyed her. Especially since she was attracted to him too but refused to let it show. Whenever they happened to run into each other when no one else was around things were awkward, like they were now, and Craig wouldn't really say anything to her and they would go on their way. It was an odd thing really, Sarah never understood it. But like I said, this was a different circumstance.

Sarah fell out of her trance when the attractive security guard offered to remain behind and clear the hall of the mess. She went back to clearing the papers around her, slowing after his offer. She tried to think quickly but the pause was a smidgen too long. "I probably won't be getting much accomplished anyway." Leaning back on the balls of her feet, Sarah sifted through the stack of papers to separate the rubrics for the personal essay until she had a handful. "Josh?" The student stopped what he was doing and headed to his teacher, handing her a stack he had collected. "Thank you. Do me a favor and hand these out to the class, you can use the rest of the time to get started." She knew the time wouldn't be used for working, except by the dedicated, but at least she couldn't get into trouble for allowing her class to have a free block, even if that was technically what she was doing.

After watching Josh disappear into her classroom and waiting for the door to close, Sarah set her handful aside and made more room to gather some more papers. "To be honest, I would rather hide out here. My room is probably in chaos." Not to mention the story was sure to be going around by now and, more importantly, a few more weird and potentially uncomfortable minutes with a hot guy wouldn't kill her. Leaning over the floor to reach for a reading list, Sarah's fingers skimmed over the guys and an instant blush rose to her face. "Sorry." She murmured, embarrassed by her reaction more than anything. How can she be blushing over a guy she had just met minutes ago. She wasn't ever sure it could be considered 'meeting' since she didn't even know his name! But how to bring it up without sounding cliche or stalker-like was something to figure out.

`WORD COUNT 649
`LYRICS breathe by faith hill
`AVATARS livejournal with a slight manip by me
`OOC awe, cute awkwardness. lol! sorry for the uber long wait! i wanted to get this done cause i have a project to do tomorrow that may take all day, im not sure.

[melody]

-so after ryan hands sarah the rest of the papers the bell rings for the end of the day. since its the end of the day the kids are wonded up and so the halls get crazy. caleb kennedy comes from behind and pulls ryan away from sarah and once the halls clear sarah is left alone not even knowing who ryan is except that he is a security guard of course.