Pas De Chavel [{^OPEN^}]

[Jimmy St. Clair]

Jimmy was lounging, skipping class. He had only been here for three days, and already Jimmy had cultivated a loyal posse of the coolest, funnest, wildest kids on campus. They had invariably elected him their king...and Jimmy hadn't done anything. Really, the way people threw themselves at him scared Jim sometimes. So, to hide from a mob of fourth-year girls madly infatuated with him, Jimmy found a tree near the edge of the Quidditch pitch and easily scrambled into the branches. It was a good place to hide, and besides keeping up his pretty-boy act was sometimes hard. So, leaning back, Jim pulled out his paperback copy of "Much Ado About Nothing," and began to read. Reading Shakespeare was not something Jim would do in front of his posse. But here, in this tree, he was perfectly content.

(((Title references a Panic! At The Disco song)))

[Max Function]

Max wandered through the halls. She'd made the mistake of going to class today, and her teacher had given her the task of taking something somewhere. She'd gotten out of the classroom, and already forgotten where it was that she was supposed to be taking the something. so she'd ditched the parcel and was now walking around aimlessly, listening to her i-pod. She bobbed her head in time with the music, mouthing the words to Camasido. Nate had gotten her hooked on Panic! at the Disco recently, Whenever she thought she heard a teacher coming, she would duck behind a pillar, then, when the teacher passed her, she'd whisper a jinx and the teacher would fall to the ground, legs tied. Of course, they would look around for the culprit, but by the time they could turn to the spot where Max had been, she was already long gone. Absent mindedly, she decided to go hang by the Quidditch pitch. Maybe she'd go for a spin on her new broomstick. She was near the edge of the pitch when she saw some guy sitting in a tree. She squinted a little, and realized that he was new. Also, that he must be skipping class. she smiled, thinking she'd probably get to like this guy. She shrugged and started to walk past him, figuring she'd meet him later.

[Jimmy St. Clair]

Jimmy was completely absorbed in his book. It was as if the outside world had just faded away, and he was really in Messina, Sicily, with Beatrice, Benethingy, Claudio and Hero. He turned the pages, finally reaching his favorite scene-- when Leonato, Don Pedro and Claudio trick Benethingy into thinking Beatrice loves him. Without thinking, Jimmy began to whisper teh lines out loud, his voice rising as the scene wore on. Jimmy never considered himself an actor, but he did have an incredible natural gift. '"It seems her affections have their full bent," he read aloud, from Benethingy's monologue. "Love me? Why, it must be requited."

[Max Function]

Max's music was so loud it probably would've busted any normal person's eardrums. Be that as it may, she still managed to hear the guy in the tree saying something. Thinking that he was talking to her, she took off her headphones and turned around, still not saying anything. She realized he was reading a book out loud. Sounded like Shakespeare. Not that she would have known that if Kareem hadn't tried pounding that information into her head for a test. She moved a little closer, listening to his voice. She itched the side of her nose, "What are you doing in a tree?"

[Jimmy St. Clair]

Absorbed in the book, Jimmy didn't notice Max come up to the tree and listen to his reading. In fact, he didn't really notice anything that was going on outside his tree. The cast of Gone With the Wind could be out there doing a strip tease to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and Jimmy wouldn't have even registered it. But, then, Max's voice broke through to his consciousness, surprising the hell out of him. Jerking up in shock, Jimmy lost his balance, sitting precariously on the tree branch, and with a shout, fell. Crashing through several layers of branches, Jimmy landed flat on his back on the ground, banging his head rather uncomfortably. He lay there for a moment, eyes shut, trying to keep from saying a choice few explicatives. With a wince, Jimmy gave the red head a thumbs up, and, quoting the Star Trek remake, said, "Good job, Chekov."

[Max Function]

Max watched the guy falling without any interest. She'd fallen off taller stuff without hurting herself. She leaned over him and sorta watched him for a second until he opened his eyes and gave her a thumbs up and quoted the new Stark Trek movie. The one she'd just seen with Raoul. Raoul was the able-bodied gardener of the school grounds. He was only 20 years old. Max rolled her eyes at the new kid and made the Spock hand-thingy. "Live long, and prosper," She recited, wondering if he knew the correct response. The only reason she did was because her sister was an avid trekkie.

[Jimmy St. Clair]

Jimmy opened his eyes, and sat up. His head was pounding, but nothing felt broken. He glanced at the red head, surprised to find that she was cute. She was one of the few girls in school that hadn't been throwing herself at him. In fact, she hadn't seemed effected by him at all. Jimmy found that slightly annoying. Flashing the Vulcan hand greeting, he finished the quote. "Peace and Long Life, babe." Babe was his name for all girls.

[Max Function]

Max, relieved to see she hadn't accidentally killed someone, smiled. Until he called her babe. She grit her teeth and fumed, "My name isn't Babe!" She crossed her arms. She'd only known this guy for about three minutes and she already hated his guts. She hated his perfect hair, she hated his awesome sunglasses, she hated his...his...HIM! She narrowed her eyes at him.

[Jimmy St. Clair]

Jimmy shook his bangs out of his face, ignoring the pounding in his head. He looked up at the redhead, and rolled his eyes. Jesus, what was with her? It bothered him-- in an incredibly shallow way-- that she didn't seem to be effected by him. Hell, she seemed to not even know who he was. Jimmy's incredibly large ego was now bruised, along with the back of his head, and he was irked. "Jesus, don't blow a gasket. Chill, red." When she fixed his with her glare, Jimmy felt his irritation rising. He stood up, quickly snatching up his paperback copy of "Much Ado About Nothing" and shoved it into his jeans pocket. "Thanks a plenty for knocking me out of my tree, and ruining my afternoon," he said. His voice dripped with enough sarcasm and acidity to burn through steel.

[Max Function]

Max chilled out a little. Red was an improvement from babe. Hatred still fumed from her like water from a firehose. She backed up when the guy jumped up, putting the book into his pocket. For some reason he seemed especially irked, though knocking him out of a tree was plenty reason, but he didn't seem this pissed off before. Inwardly, Max shrugged. What did she really care? Max smiled mockingly at his comment, and sarcastically bowed and said, "You're welcome, your majesty." And with that, Max turned on her heel and headed toward the castle, already late for her next class. She wouldn't have gone, but there were a few hot guys in this one. "Ciao," She said as she was walking away waving her fingers, not looking at him.

[Jimmy St. Clair]

Your majesty? Oh, hell no. There was no way Jimmy was gonna take that kind of crap from some...angry, random, red-headed babe! He was used to dealing with stupid comments and all sorts of insults, but there was something about this girl that drove him absolutely crazy. It was...well, actually, it was about as close to hating someone Jimmy had ever come (other than the jerks who used to tease his sister). He opened his mouth to verbally smack her senseless, when she obnoxiously waved and skipped off, making "ciao" sounding more like screw you than he had ever heard it. That was it. Glaring, he snatched his sunglasses off, and stormed after her, fuming. "You obnoxious, stupid...who the frick do you think you are? Get over yourself."

[Max Function]

Max rolled her eyes and turned around. She almost burst out laughing, he was funny when he was angry. Seeing him without his sunglasses was a little weird now, especially because he had pretty eyes. Quickly, she shook herself free of any notion of cuteness about him. She put on her best mocking face and smiled sweetly at him, "Me? Well, I think I'm Max, but who knows? Maybe I'm Minnie. I can never tell those two apart."

[Jimmy St. Clair]

Oh great. So this was that obnoxious Max girl everyone was talking about. He had been told that she could give him a run for his money in the Class-Jerk department. And she was the only girl in his year he hadn't been able to flirt with yet. Not that he even wanted to now. She was rude! And incredibly annoying! Though there was something about her-- he tough talk, or maybe the careless vibe about her-- that Jimmy almost-sort-of-kind-of-a-little-bit respected. But not really. At the moment, being annoyed at her won out. "Okay, listen here, hot shot. You've got guts, and you're tough as hell. Congratulations. Great job at being queen of your own delusional little universe. But this is the real world, babe, and here, you gotta know your place. Savvy?" He asked, sliding his shades back on.

[Max Function]

Max completely ignored him while he was giving his little speech. She examined her nails or looked around at the birds. When he called her babe, it irked her a little, but by now she was in the "loss of interest" mode. It was when she pretended that she hadn't a care in the world about him. And she was d**n good at it. When he finally finished, she looked at him, "We done here?" And without waiting for an answer, she immediately waltzed away toward the castle again.

[Jimmy St. Clair]

Jim tipped his sunglasses down so she could see his eyes, and gave her a look. "I'm done," he said, sliding the shades back into place. This Max girl was impossible. She was driving him crazy. He gave a very sardonic two-fingered salute, then turned and stormed off, actually looking forward to facing a mob of infatuated 4th years. They were more easily handled than this firecracker of a red-head. What he didn't realize was that his book had slipped out of his pocket.

(((Please have max keep the book!! She can blackmail him with it!! )))