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Post new topic   Reply to topic Xeno's 100 Themes
Xenocena



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 PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:51 pm Reply with quote        
Welcome!

This topic is basically a compilation of short ficlets each ~500 words long which I wrote for a 100 Themes challenge. It's not quite completed, yet, but they will be organized into 4 posts of 25 each.

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Xenocena



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 PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:51 pm Reply with quote        
*1: Introduction

The boy frowned in annoyance as his gym shorts became snagged on a bush poking its thorny branches through the chain link fence surrounding the running track. Sighing, he pulled on the hem to no avail, rewarded only with the worrying sound of cloth ripping.

Running footsteps suddenly began approaching, and the boy looked up to see another student running. This puzzled the boy- most students didn’t stay after school to run, even though they were technically allowed to do so under the supervision of one of the gym teachers. The boy shrugged, and stared the other student, who was now approaching him.

“Hey!” The other student called. “Are you okay?!” The original boy frowned. Not only did he now have to suffer the humiliation of being practically glued to the fence by his gym shorts, but someone else had to see, too. “I’m fine!” He shouted back reluctantly. “My pants are just stuck on this bush.” Blushing, the boy belatedly realized how stupid this sounded.

The student jogged over. “I can help you with that.” The boy attached to the bush frowned at him suspiciously. “I’m Andre, by the way.”

The boy could only nod, surprised by the other boy’s sudden introduction, and watch as Andre knelt down to begin fiddling with the hem of the shorts impaled on the branch. He then suddenly remembered that he had to introduce himself. “Er… I’m Alex.”

Andre released the leg of Alex’s shorts, now disconnected from the thorn bush without too much damage, and stood up. “Hello, Alex.”

Following his statement was an awkward silence where neither boy really knew what to say. Andre shifted his weight slightly, leaning on his other leg, and Alex wrinkled his nose as he was suddenly hit with a particularly bad odor.

“Oh, sorry.” Andre grinned, tentatively sniffing his armpit and then making a face. “I smell pretty bad. I sweat too much while running, I guess.”

Alex could only stand there, not quite sure what to say or do. He couldn’t just reply ‘Yes, you smell bad’, although he couldn’t deny the statement either.

Andre noticed Alex’s discomfort and chose not to wait for an answer. “It’s getting fairly late, anyway, and you look like you were done running.” He paused, and Alex nodded. “Why don’t we go take a shower, then?” Andre suggested.

There was a moment of silence as both boys took the statement in and slowly grinned. “Wow. That sounded really dirty.” Alex finally spoke, laughing.

Andre chuckled and replied with mock indignation, “Well, if you don’t want to take a shower with me, I suppose I’ll just have to shower alone.”
Alex nodded as their laughter slowly died down, suddenly aware, again, of Andre’s putrid odor. “Yeah, you really need it.” He clapped his hands over his mouth, realizing what he had just said. “Sorry!”

Andre just grinned. “It’s fine. Let’s just go shower.”

This was followed by another moment of silence and an exasperated look on Andre’s face.

“Separately!”



*2: Love

Dry leaves skittered across the sidewalk as a fresh October breeze picked up, stirring up tree branches and bushes swaying in the wind. The sky was wide, empty, and warm sun shined on the backs of people walking in the street as if to prove to them that windy days didn’t have to be cold. Pedestrians, however, still walked briskly, eager to get home on the slightly chilly day.

Everyone, that is, except for one girl. Allison stood outside of the house where her family lived, oblivious to the warm sun and blue sky as she stared unseeingly at the red bricks.

Inside, her new big sister would probably be doing her homework while secretly texting the boyfriend her mother didn’t know about yet, while Allison’s foster mother would be working at the kitchen table or arguing with her husband.

Allison’s parents had loved each other. Perhaps on this day, 3 years after the day they had died, she might not remember them as well, but she was sure that they had never fought, ever. And maybe Allison’s foster parents loved each other, too, but not as much as Allison’s parents had.

Even so, while her foster parents might be arguing in the kitchen, they were alive and well, while Allison’s parents now lived in a graveyard on 32nd street. All the love in the world couldn’t have kept them alive.
The door to the brick house suddenly burst open, and a man stormed out. Allison knew without a doubt that this must be her new father, leaving to god-knows-where after another argument with his wife.

The door, however, stayed open, spilling warm golden light onto the pale steps leading towards the sidewalk, and a woman appeared under the doorframe. Allison had to admit that her foster mother was quite beautiful. She was young; too young, it seemed, to have any children, although she once told Allison that she had had Allison’s older sister at a young age. Her hair wasn’t an exceptional color- just a plain brown, not to dark or light. It fell down to her lower back, however, in smooth, perfect waves that Allison, with her ruler straight black her, always envied.

Now, her mother’s lively green-blue eyes lit up from the front of the warm, friendly brick house. “Allison! Hi, honey, how was school?!” Allison didn’t answer, but her feet began moving eagerly forwards of their own accord until she was wrapped in her foster mother’s warm arms. They were both silent for a moment as her foster mother rubbed Allison’s back in a comforting way, slowly, gently, before she began speaking. “The other kids were that bad, huh?”

Allison grinned at the attempt at a joke, softly squeezing her foster mother one more time before pulling back.

Maybe this was a different love than the one her parents had, but Allison was still grateful for what she had. And right now, while her foster mother ushered her into the warm, welcoming house, it was enough.



*3: Light

Matt stared at the light on the ceiling of the classroom, bored out of his mind. The light was flickering, too, as if it was also struggling to stay awake as the teacher’s voice droned on in the background. It wasn’t as if this was a boring class; well, right now it was, but he was actually usually interested in science. He was just so tired today that he couldn’t focus.

He had sat at his desk late into the night the previous day doing his homework until his eyes were dry and straining to read the words he put down on his paper. It was his fault, he supposed, for procrastinating, but that didn’t mean he had to enjoy it. Staying up late had made getting out of bed and going to school a struggle this morning, though.

Matt was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts by the scraping of chairs on the floor, and students began getting up and walked around. He got the impression that he had missed something distinctly important, and looked out of the room, trying to figure out what was happening. Then he was the sheet of paper on his desk. Ah. They were doing a lab.

He glanced around the room, disappointed to find that all his friends had already found partners. Matt was attempting to find a person in the room without a partner when a polite coughing from behind him drew his attention. “Excuse me, could you pass me back one of the lab sheets?”

Matt realized, to his embarrassment, that he still had two sheets of paper on his desk. “Oh, right, sure.” He passed one of them back to the girl sitting behind him.

The girl thanked him, but then asked, “Would you like to be my lab partner?” With this, Matt realized that everyone else had already found a lab partner. “Sure, I guess.”

He lifted his books and placed them on the desk next to the girl before sitting down and examining the lab sheet. “What’s your name?” he asked while reading.

When he looked back up, the girl had an expression of disdain on her face. “I’ve been sitting right behind you for two months and you don’t even know my name?”

Matt prepared a defensive reply before he realized that she had written her name down on her lab paper. Trying to seem inconspicuous, he peered down at her paper to read her name. “Now I remember! It’s Jennifer, right?”

“Jessica.” The girl replied. Matt stole another glance at her paper and realized he read the name wrong. “Right. Jessica. Sorry, the light was in my eyes.” He almost slapped his forehead once he realized that he had just told her he had read her name off of her paper.

Jessica sighed and said, with the better-than-thou voice that most mature girls learn to adopt, “Can we begin the lab already?”

Matt nodded, pulling a beaker towards him and silently cursing the flickering light above.

Xenocena



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 PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:52 pm Reply with quote        
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 PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:53 pm Reply with quote        
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