Asking for trouble {Blake}

[Zack Fall]

English was a breeze for Zack.
He knew he must look a bit smug, sitting leaned back on his chair, hands up behind his head, dark hair falling over his eyes, but he didn't care, the subject always made a little too much sense to him.

But that wasn't exactly what he was so happy about. He'd managed to meet up with Yuna, however brief their little reunion had been, he was glad for it. At least she was okay, but.. she refused to tell him just how she'd managed to get to England. He'd been a little upset when he'd found out she hadn't come to find him when she first got to the school.. she danced around the subject when he'd asked, saying something about meeting her room-mate. Then she'd given him the drawing she'd promised to send, and it sat on the top of Zack's textbook. It was only a sketch, but a good one, of Yuffie, from one of the many video-games they'd played together. The anatomy on the picture was a little off, but Zack couldn't care less. Things had finally started to get a little better for him, and he thought it was about fucking time too.

The class was due to start in about fifteen minutes, and like always, the students were beginning to find their seats, while mostly absorbed in conversation, Zack however, had yet to find a decent classmate that he'd be able to befriend.
He still sat alone, whoever sat with him, sat with him. He couldn't care less either. He had everything he needed. He hated making friends, even if he was good at it, he still hated it.

He made a mental note to record Yuna's email a bit later, so he'd have more of aways of keeping in contact with her.
He shoved his books over the free desk to his right as there were only a couple seats left. As long as there weren't any new students here today, then things would go as they normally would, and he'd be able to keep to himself again. It was unlikely though, he was still classified as the 'new kid' so, he doubted there'd be anyone else.

Boy, was he wrong.

[Blake Andrews]

At this point, Blake would kill or die for a break long enough to have a smoke. The last cigarette he had was after landing here in England, and that was an insanely long time ago. His right hand was repeatedly slapping a pack of Winstons against the left. The familiar motions of packing the tobacco in the smokes alleviated some of the withdrawal symptoms, but didn't lessen his hunger for the tobacco. To say the least, Blake was irritable.

Although it was the first day he had gone to this class, Blake walked in like he owned the room, and everyone in it. Annoyance bred authority, and Blake was plenty annoyed. School made a smoker's life way too hard. He dropped his bag under a desk and sat in it, ignoring the kid on his right. Glancing at the drawing on his books, though, made him somewhat interested. Is that Yuffie? he asked himself.

He sat there casually looking at the picture, packing his smokes, and drifted in to his own thoughts for a while.

[Zack Fall]

'aaaand things never seem to stay stagnant for long, neh?'
He looked at the kid beside him with a bemused smile, he seemed so twitchy, and frankly, it amused Zack a great deal. Especially the way he'd walked in, similar to how Zack did as well.

He noticed the other boy's eyes on Yuna's picture, and moved it from his desk, shoving the books up against the wall. He leaned his arms over his desk and cast a sidelong glance at the boy.

"Nice to meet you too," he smirked dryly, throwing himself back in his chair and running a hand through his dark hair. He laughed, even though there was nothing at all amusing about the situation, just that so many things had already happened and he'd only been here for what? A few weeks?

Zack tilted his head slightly, "and I'm Zack." he grinned with his introduction, "Never seen you before.. takin' it your new too then hey?" he laughed again, "You'll love it here." he shook his head.
'Ohh... the irony!'

[Blake Andrews]

Don't kill him, he didn't mean it. Don't kill him, he didn't mean it. Don't kill him, he didn't mean it. GOD I need a smoke!

"Well. I heard America was the least cultured civilization in the world. Is that how we're supposed to act? I never knew." His voice was laced with cruel sarcasm, and he began to pack the Winstons with increased vigor. "The name's Blake." His black hair seemed to move back and forth with the motion. "In case you hadn't noticed, I'm having a bad day."

Blake put the cigarettes away, and began cracking his knuckles one by one. He certainly didn't mean it as a provoking gesture, but he had to do something with his hands, and if he packed the cigarettes any more, he'd just have crumpled paper with bits of tobacco every where. His leg was still hurting him, and more over, he was still very pissed about what that little bitch had done to Aries. Blake was still fuming about that.

[Zack Fall]

He chuckled again, amused.
"Well... I've never been there, wouldn't know." he rubbed his hands together and grinned over them, the lash in the boy... Blake's voice only lightened Zack's mood. He lowered his hands and shrugged in understanding, "It shows."

Green eyes followed the packet as Blake returned them to his pocket, and Zack cleared his throat. 'Oh man... why... fucking why?'

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen, removing the lid he slid it into his mouth, sucking the air through the hole, he closed his eyes, pretending that air was hot... and burning his throat as it passed.

Eyebrows shot up as Blake proceeded to crack his knuckles, and Zack grinned through the lid, "Smokes do generally help with that though, won't lie to you there." his eyes fell on Blake's hands, light scratches covered them, as if he'd held onto an angry cat a little too tightly, "First days go well for no-one, believe me, I know." he thought back to Sarah with a sigh, and rolled the sleeves of his jumper back over scarred arms, he nodded to Blake's hands, "'Parrently thats good for your hands, cracking them." he removed the lid for a few moments and grinned, "Buut.. you're American... so that's why I was slightly.. confused."

[Blake Andrews]

At this point, Blake turned away a bit. He wasn't horrified by any means, he just finally realized that he was being a little too touchy. He forced himself to focus, to calm down. This kid did not deserve what Blake wanted to do to him right now, and that wasn't a good state for Blake to be in. This kid was a little rude, and too talkative. His accent, unlike Yuna's, was just grating on Blake, though it might be the nicotine withdrawals talking.

"Look, man, I don't want any problems. Just not used to people giving me hell over admiring art. You draw that picture of Yuffie? You're not bad." He tried to possibly ease the tension with a compliment, though he couldn't help but stretch his fingers to relieve the stress. He didn't like this kid, this Zack, but Zack was in his class, and therefore, Blake tried to play nice. He'd have to be dealing with this kid alot.

[Zack Fall]

Zack leaned back a little, passing an impassive smile, "I'll be glad to give you none too." he frowned a little to the second part of the sentence, giving him hell? He hadn't meant too, maybe he was a little forward... he had that effect on people sometimes, and so, he ducked his head with a sheepish smile and murmured a "Sorry, mate."

He looked up again at the comment on Yuna's picture, and smiled, "No. Hell no." He grinned and yanked it back from his book, letting it settle in front of him, "It was a gift from a friend. She knows how much I like Yuffie." he smirked slightly, and cast the boy a sidelong glance, eyes glinting over with relief, "You've played Dirge of Cerberus?" he shook his head and looked back to the picture, "sorry, don;t worry... It's still kind of weird for me... people knowing these games and all..."

He caught sight of Blake's hands, and tilted his head, "Besides the bad day thing, is anything else bugging you?" He was good at reading people, teaching Yuna how to speak better had payed off.

[Blake Andrews]

Oh good, he CAN be reasoned with. Blake thought, with a small inward sigh of relief. "Nah, no worries, man." He said, with a grin. "I've just got a bad case of a nicotine fit. Been killing me. Do these guys not believe in smoke breaks, or what?" He said, half to himself. His voice came easier as Zack became less and less of a threat, and started calming down a bit.

"Haven't played Dirge, but I'm a huge Final Fantasy fan. Video games kinda raised me after my mom died... Dad was too busy with the Army to play house with me." Blake idly began rubbing his sore leg. His fall from that tree was still bothering him. "So you've been in this class, right? What's it like, pretty easy?" He began fishing through his black back pack, pulling out his notebook and pen.

[Zack Fall]

He laughed at Blake's words and ran his hand through his hair again, "I know what you mean there, at least back home, the teachers were oblivious to half the things we did. But here?" he threw up his arms, "Teacher 'round every corner!" he laughed again.

Then, "But... if you ever get time, and y'know need a lighter, come find me." his eyes flashed with pleading, it had been a very long time since he'd had a smoke, it ws impossible for him to get his hands on any back home, you had to be over twenty-one to buy them.

He nodded to Blake's words about Final Fantasy, grateful that he'd met someone with even slightly similar interests to himself, he fingered the picture for a moment, then slid it back under his book cover, "It's a good series." he agreed.

After Blake finished the rest of his sentence though, Zack's eyes flashed with understanding, "I'm sorry to hear that."

He was grateful that Blake had managed tot urn the topic around so quickly, but he figured that he must not want to talk about it much, "Yeah, it's pretty easy, just stare at the teacher and you're set. You won't miss much.. he's not very intelligent himself." Zack flashed the boy beside him another grin, "Or you could just lower your head, close your eyes and make out that you're staring at your book, that's what I normally do." he chuckled.

[Blake Andrews]

Blake thought to himself for a moment, undecided only for an instant. Reaching in to his pocket, he deftly unwrapped the pack on Winstons and drew out three of the cigarettes and held them out for Zack to take. Grinning, he knew he had just made a friend. It wasn't hard to tell. "Listen, man, you don't have to wait for me to need a light to bum a smoke."

Blake found himself in considerably better humor, now that Zack seemed to be anything other than an ass. A true, honest to God friend helped to put his mind at ease a bit, even if only to assauge his hunger for the nicotine. Now that he wasn't busy hating Zack, he realized that Zack gave him the same feeling Yuna did, the same feeling of alliance between two foreigners who didn't belong here. He thought he might have a friend in someone like Zack. At least, it was possible.

[Jeremy Fox]

A glance at his wrist watch told Jerrry that besides the little hold up in the teacher´s lounge, he was still well in time. He had another five minutes for lessons to start which gave him the oportunity to make a detour around the English department to get the Shakespeare editions of various plays he had let the students introduce in the previous lessons. He had explained then already what they were going to do with them - adapt them to something more modern - rewrite parts of them. Hopefully that would be more motivating than just blatant, dull interpretation which he himself wasn´t a friend of either.

With a box of books under the one arm and his bag under the other, he entered the classroom. Just as usual, he didn´t look much like a teacher on the first sight (whatever the typical looks of teachers might be), wearing a casual pair of jeans and sneakers, a shirt and leather jacket he had still on from a short trip to town with his bike earlier to get breakfast. Placing his load on the teacher´s desk, he turned to face the class. "Morning." he said. "don´t worry, I´m early, we´ve not yet started." he added when he saw some of the students give him confused looks that told him they hadn´t heard any bell. Taking his writing things and chalk out of his bag, he casually scanned the classroom, noticing a new face. A boy he had not seen before was talking to Zack. Which was as unusual as it was good because the boy (at least from his own perspective as the boy´s teacher) seemed to still be struggling to make friends - if he even wanted to. He raised an eyebrow as he recalled the boy´s name from a memo the school secretary had given him about a new student earlier.

"Mr Andrews," he said in a normal tone, nothing that would be considered as agressive or annoyed, but with some self confidence. "I´d suggest you put these away till the break."