nothing like we'd ever dreamt * [brooklyn + paul]

[andi !]

and maybe i don't need saving after all
and maybe i'm tired or maybe she glows

Paul didn’t have very much variation in his life. You could call him consistent. He tended to do the same things every day, could always be found in the same places, was almost always doing the same things. And music tended to be the cornerstone of his consistency. When he wasn’t in class or his dorm, he was in the music room. When he had nothing to do or was going from one place to another, he was listening to his iPod, and inevitably singing or humming along. So it should come as no surprise that as he shut the door of his dorm room behind him, headphone wires peeked out from under his mess of black curls, trailing down past his brown tee and grey zip-up sweatshirt into the left pocket of his jeans. And it should be predictable that he was singing along under his breath to The Shins’ “So Says I.”

“Because it was nothing like we'd ever dreamt.
Our lust for life had gone away with the rent we hated
And because it made no money, nobody saved no one's life.”

Predictable, predictable Paul. But he liked the consistency. He liked that, when class wasn’t in session, there were only so many places to look if one wanted to find him. He was currently headed from one to the next: He was gradually putting distance between himself and the closed door of his dorm, walking down the hall towards the cafeteria. Because he was starving, and too lazy to go find food elsewhere. It was a lazy sort of Saturday, with no homework of any pressing need and not much to do. He had overslept, woken up with a growling stomach. He’d dressed rather quickly after a record-breaking six-and-a-half minute shower, and had found only a ten in his wallet. Which was another reason he’d stuck to the cafeteria food.

Halfway there now. His stomach grumbled impatiently as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, quickening his step. It had been quite the boring week. He had had a brief run-in with Allie, but other than that, had yet to see Dee or anyone else. Which left him with classes and an annoying, unsanitary room mate. Not much in the way of fun.

“In our darkest hours, we have all asked for some
Angel to come sprinkle his dust all around
But all our crying voices they can't turn it around
And you've had some crazy conversations of your own.”

He stopped at his locker. He had yet to use it, and it was currently empty. But it was on his way, and he was curious as to whether or not he remembered the combo accurately. So he paused, turned towards the metal door, and turned the black knob, tapping his foot absently.

[rcbcbsn. (ℓ)]

*

[/color] light the fuse, flip the switch ,[/size][/font]
- - - - - - - - - baby hold your ground .[/size][/center]

coming back to stewart had been a close call for brooklyn - her parents had wanted her to stay with them in australia where they were currently stationed, but brooklyn wanted to come back to stewart. california couldn't really compare to the beauties of australia, but the friends brooklyn would make in australia wouldn't be able to compare to the ones that she had made at stewart. so, the majority of brooklyn's summer had been spent arguing with her parents to get them to allow her to come back to stewart for at least one more year. one more year and maybe she'd be ready to say goodbye to the friends she had made. although the likeliness of that happening wasn't very good. but brooklyn wasn't going to push the subject. she had won the fight for now, and that was all that mattered. she was back at the place that had been her home for two years, and she couldn't be happier. because stewart had become her home; it had been the longest time that brooklyn had spent in any one place and she wasn't ready to let go of that just yet.

as it were, brooklyn arrived a little late for the school year. she had managed to convince her parents to let her come back in time for the tuition deadline, but they hadn't been able to book brooklyn a flight in to start school on time. so, brooklyn had missed the first three days of school, arriving late on friday afternoon. she had just made it to the guidance office to get her schedule and other information before they left for the weekend. since then, brooklyn had been busying herself with unpacking and getting herself all prepared for the coming year. the thing about setting up your dorm room was very tedious work. it got boring spending hour after hour unpacking all your clothing and trying to get it all to fit in the allotted space you had to make it fit. not to mention frustrating. so brooklyn had decided to take a break from it. instead, she had picked up her schedule and locker information and decided to do the nerd thing and scope out the best possible route to all her classes and figure out how often she'd be able to stop at her locker, which would define how much she would need to keep in her bag at all times.

naturally, her first stop was the locker. she was strolling slowly down the hallways, counting down the numbers to her locker. her counselor hadn't been very specific in telling her the location of her locker, so brooklyn had been wandering all the hallways lined with lockers, searching and searching for the number she was looking for. and then, finally, the numbers were getting close to hers. and then it was her locker. if she had been alone in the hallway, brooklyn would have thrown her arms up in the air and yelled 'kazzaaam!' to celebrate. but, strangely enough, she wasn't alone. usually on saturdays, students avoided the class hallways like the plague, yet today there were two students in the same hallway. tilting her head to one side, brooklyn examined the boy who stood a few lockers down from her. he looked familiar. and then the name clicked in her brain and a grin spread across her features. "paul, is that you?"

ooc , this sucks, sorry. D;

[/size][/blockquote]

[andi !]

and maybe i don't need saving after all
and maybe i'm tired or maybe she glows

The first time was a no-go. Well, that was to be expected, he supposed. He paused, thinking for a moment, his hand loose on the knob. Then he tightened his grip again, only slightly, and tried again. This time it opened with a satifying click, only slightly audible under the hum of the music in his ears. But it was audible enough to cast a smile on Paul's face as he surveyed the empty space, repeating the series of three numbers to himself to corroborate them, so he wouldn't have to go through this awkward thoughtful pause when he was on his way from one class to another. Hopefully, now it would stick.

As he closed the metal door and the song came to an end, a familiar-sounding voice filled the moment of silence. Barely comprehending the words, Paul pulled the headphones from his ears and looked up, looking slightly perplexed. As he set to extracting the iPod from his pocket, his gaze landed on the speaker: A miss Brooklyn Bentley. A grin broke out onto his features. He hadn't seen her around earlier in the week, and after asking around and confirming that no one else had seen her, either, he had assumed that she wasn't coming back this year. Apparently, the saying was true about assuming, because he felt rather like an ass.

"Brooklyn!" he exclaimed, jabbing the pause button on his iPod and wrapping the cord of his headphones carefully around the slim device. After a moment of this, he stuck it back into his pocket and stepped towards her, closing most of the short distance in a few paces. "How are you?"

ooc|| Does not. ^^

[rcbcbsn. (ℓ)]

*

[/color] light the fuse, flip the switch ,[/size][/font]
- - - - - - - - - baby hold your ground .[/size][/center]

a grin spread across brooklyn's face as the boy stepped towards her. happily, brooklyn closed the gap of space between them and enveloped paul in a hug. finally there was a sane person for her to associate with! her roommate was absolutely nuts and rylee was going through some sort of asher-eqsue drama. brooklyn had been at stewart for about 26 hours and had yet to have had a normal conversation with someone. normal meaning not involving ex-boyfriends or rules for sharing soaps and toothpastes. yes, brooklyn had come to the conclusion that everyone at stewart was going to be absolutely nuts this year. apparently paul had escaped that grouping, though. he must have been avoiding the tap water.

pulling away, brooklyn shrugged. "i'm pretty good, i guess." she said, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jeans. "mostly i'm just glad to be back - my parents didn't want me to come back this year. but praise baby jesus, i made them change their minds with my awesometastic persuasion skills." mostly, she had just pouted and sulked and whined until they gave in. it was very un-brooklyn like behaviour and she had pretty much wanted to kill herself for acting that way, but it had gotten her what she wanted. and when it came down to it, that was what mattered.

smiling, brooklyn surveyed paul. damn, he looked good. had he gotten taller? and cuter? brooklyn wasn't even sure if that was possible. but it seemed like he was. "how about you? how was your summer and stuff?" she was glad that this was taking place at the beginning of the year - brooklyn was having a bit of a brainfart and wasn't exactly sure what to say to the miraculously taller than her boy. hurray for totally generic conversation.

[/size][/blockquote]

[andi !]

and maybe i don't need saving after all
and maybe i'm tired or maybe she glows

Now, Paul was usually big on the hugging thing. He was no pathological hugger, like might be said of Andrea, but he was perfectly comfortable hugging people and being hugged. But a hug from a girl he, quite honestly, had a bit of a crush on and hand't seen in a while was a bit different. He was practically grinning as she enveloped him in a hug, and almost disappointed when she released him. He offered her a grin, pushing these silly thoughts from his head as he ran a hand through his hair.

He chuckled at her explanation, smile widening a molar or two. "Then don't praise baby Jesus, praise those awesomtastic persuasion skills of yours!" He smiled. "I'm glad they let you come back," he added. "Why didn't they want you to?"

He shrugged nonchalantly as she asked about his own summer. "It was... interesting," he laughed. He wondered briefly if Brooklyn had met Becca during her brief stint at Stewart. If she had, then his interesting summer might not come as such a shock. "My sister's boyfriend broke up with her, so she ran away and moved into her friend's house." He chuckled, as if to show how typical this was for his sister. It hadn't affected him in the least - Becca did shit like that all the time. "So of course, I had to track her down and put her on house arrest. Or something. But on than that, a very boring summer." He nodded, shrugging. And then he thought of something, something which sent a defiant sort of grin to his features. "We never had our chocolate covered french fries!" he reminded her energetically, vaguely remembering a discussion in the music room and plans to engorge themselves on chocolate covered french fries in the near future, which was now the distant past.

[rcbcbsn. (ℓ)]

*

[/color] light the fuse, flip the switch ,[/size][/font]
- - - - - - - - - baby hold your ground .[/size][/center]

Brooklyn quickly realized that Paul was an excellent hugger. He didn't make it awkward - he welcomed the hug, challenged the perfection of the hug. He didn't seem scared to wrap his arms around her like most boys. Paul just went for it. And he didn't squeeze too tight or too loose, either. And there was a very fine line between the two, but Paul met it perfectly. Brooklyn made a not to make sure to welcome any other opportunity life might give her to give Paul a friendly hug. He was definitely the best hugger that she had encountered in a very long time. Everyone else seemed to have noodle arms and a fear of getting her germs or something strange like that. "Well, I don't think it was so much persuasion as it upset my dad to seem me sad." Brooklyn admitted with a chuckle. She shrugged. "They just wanted me to stay home. I think they miss me being there to diffuse fights between my brother and sister." There had been a lot of them over the summer, and Brooklyn was close enough to both of them to know exactly how to chill the situation out. Her parents probably missed that more than anything.

Brooklyn raised an eyebrow at Paul's tale of his sister's escapades over the summer. She had definitely never encountered something like that with her sister. Or herself. The almost sixteen year old found it a little strange that girls could get so worked up over boys. Brooklyn had never gotten that worked up over a boy... ever. Even when she liked them. She could still be calm, cool and collected Brooklyn even if she was nursing a crush. Girls who got shy and bashful annoyed the hell out of her, in all honesty. It really wasn't that hard to speak your mind and Brooklyn never wanted to bother wasting time around people who claimed to be too afraid to do such a thing.

"You're right!" The girl exclaimed, her jaw dropping in shock. She had completely forgotten about their promise to get together and eat chocolate covered french fries, like they did on the Weekenders, which was a mutual favourite cartoon of theirs. A grin was now plastered over her features. "Do you think we'd be able to convince the cafeteria ladies to melt chocolate for us?"

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[andi !]

and maybe i don't need saving after all
and maybe i'm tired or maybe she glows

Paul chuckled at her explanation, nodding his head. "Well, same thing," he replied. "How old are your brother and sister?" he asked, realizing how little he actually knew about the blonde girl before him. He hadn't even known that she had siblings, let alone their names or ages. And he was genuinely interested.

Yes, Becca's escapades were rather... eccentric. He couldn't get over how different Brooklyn and his sister really were. His sister's friend had had a crush on him, obvious enough that even Paul had picked up on her slight obsession. She was just like Becca - boy-crazy, materialistic, catty... annoying. He loved his sister, as annoying as she could be, but he would never date someone like her, or look for her qualities in a girl. Some people did that - he thought it was creepy. He preferred the exact opposite, someone more like... Well, if he was being quite honest with himself, someone more like Brooklyn.

Paul laughed. "It's definitly worth a shot," he answered with a nod. "We could get the fries here, so we don't have to get them from the supermarket and go cook them in the home-ec room. 'Cause I don't know about you, but I couldn't cook my way out of a paper bag." He paused, frowning for a moment, then laughed. "I never did get that saying. How could cooking get tyou out of a paper bag? Unless maybe you cooked a lot of Jell-O and then bounced out of the bag. But that would be one big paper bag..." He cut himself off, smiling at Brooklyn sheepishly.

[rcbcbsn. (ℓ)]

*

[/color] light the fuse, flip the switch ,[/size][/font]
- - - - - - - - - baby hold your ground .[/size][/center]

Brooklyn grinned. "My sister Amelia is seventeen. And my brother Jonathon is nineteen. I'm really close with both of them and can usually stop fights between them, only for the past two school years I haven't had to because my brother was going to military school and my sister was at home. But now my brother is done at school and he's taking a year off to work before he goes to college, so he and my sister are all at home and my mom and dad can't get in and stop them. So they always end up screaming at each other. They don't get along very well." She took a breath and grinned. Wow, that was a long winded explanation of her brother and sister. "What about your sister, how old is she?"

The girl laughed. "Well, I can cook somethings. But I definitely think that getting the caf ladies to do it for us would be so much better. Lazy people, for the win." She said with a grin. "And yeah, that is a stupid saying. So it 'I could care less.' because when you say that, you actually could care less. So it just doesn't make sense. There are a lot of stupid sayings like that. I think I had a list of all the sayings that I hated at one point. I get bored easily. But I think I lost it. I lose a lot of things, too. " She also had an ability to ramble on and on about nothing for a very long time. Brooklyn astounded herself with it sometimes, how much she could talk without someone else. It was possible for her to have an entire conversation with just herself - she had done it on more than one occasion. Generally, Brooklyn just needed someone to stand there and pretend to be paying attention for her not to feel like she was nuts.

"So, I say we go and harass the cafeteria ladies into making us chocolate covered french fries. What do you say?"

[/size][/blockquote]

[andi !]

and maybe i don't need saving after all
and maybe i'm tired or maybe she glows

Paul laughed quietly as Brooklyn went on about her siblings. "Does your brother know where he's going to college?" he asked conversationally, leaning against a locker. "Becca and I are twins. But absolutely nothing alike. She went here for a bit when I first started here, but she didn't take to it as well as I did. And I thought California would be so her, too," he explained with a chuckle.

"That's more than I can do," Paul laughed. He wasn't much of a chef. He managed to burn even toast, so he figured that melting chocolate or heating up fries was rather out of his expertise. "You can use your awesomtastic persuasion skills on the lunch ladies!" he exclaimed excitedly, beaming. He nodded as she went on about stupid sayings, one hundred percent able to relate. There were a lot of sayings that annoyed him, too. Most of them, actually. "There are a lot of stupid sayings," he agreed, running a hand through his hair. He grinned as she spoked of hos she got bored easily and how she lost things easily, losing himself a moment to thinking about how absolutely adorable she was. Then he stopped himself and laughed. "We could make a new and improved list!" he suggested, grinning.

"I say let's go!" he replied happily, pushing off the locker to reach his ful six feet again.

[rcbcbsn. (ℓ)]

*

[/color] light the fuse, flip the switch ,[/size][/font]
- - - - - - - - - baby hold your ground .[/size][/center]

"I have no idea. We don't usually talk about stuff like that. I think he mentioned going to Oxford once." Out of all the places the Bentleys had lived, London was the place that her elder brother had enjoyed the most; while Brooklyn had enjoyed the sunlight and the pasta and the boys of Italy, and her sister enjoyed living in the fashion capital if France. Each Bentley was distinct in their personality, just as they were distinct in their favourite places. Brooklyn raised her eyebrows in surprise. She hadn't known that Paul had a twin. "That is so cool. I always wanted a twin brother. I thought it would be so cool, you know, having a boy best friend around all the time. Because boys are the best best friends because they're so.. not girly. Like, they won't start stupid fights and stuff. And it would be so cool just to have that boy best friend in like.. the room across the hall from you." She paused, shaking her bangs out of her eyes. "I am definitely jealous of your sibling situation."

A laugh slipped passed her lips. "Awh, cooking isn't that hard. Especially french fries. Just buy them frozen and put them on a pan and cook them for twenty minutes and you're done! That's pretty much the extent of what I can cook. Along with Kraft Dinner and chicken fingers. Oh, and I can make spahgetti. I can even make a sauce from scratch! But it's really really hard, so I usually just buy Prego." She grinned at him, laughing again. "I doubt the lunch ladies will fall for the Bentley pout, but I guess I could try. You might have to pout for them." Because the bitter old lunch ladies were more likely to gave to a handsome young man like Paul, rather than her. Mostly because Brooklyn had ruffled a lot of feathers last year, ragging on the cafeteria for not having a more vegetarian friendly menu. Not that Brooklyn was a veg, or anything. She was far from it, but she had heard a friend complaining about it and that just wasn't fair. How hard was it to cook up a couple of veggie or Boca burgers on cheeseburger day? Not very.

"Alright, but you'll have to keep it. I don't want to lose all the fruits of our labour. That would just be downright upsetting." Fruits of labour? Was that even the right saying? Brooklyn wasn't sure. But if it was, it was probably going to end up on that list of theirs. Along with 'to say the least.' That annoyed Brooklyn beyond all others, simply because it had been her experience that people who said that weren't saying the least. They were saying a lot. And it was very irritating. Looking up at Paul (who, happily, was a few inches taller than her lanky self), she beamed. "Onward to victory, to Narnia, to other lovely places and mostly, to chocolate covered french fries that are surely to make us barf." Even if they couldn't convince the lunch ladies to melt some chocolate for them, Brooklyn figured they would be able to do it themselves. They could buy a couple of chocolate bars from the vending machine, steal some of the butter packets for bagels and throw it in a bowl and stick it in the microwave. Easy peasy.

[/size][/blockquote]

[andi !]

and maybe i don't need saving after all
and maybe i'm tired or maybe she glows

Paul laughed as Brooklyn commented on his sibling situation, shrugging one shoulder. "You might feel differently if you knew my sister," he remarked with a chuckle. Somehow, he couldn't picture Becca and Brooklyn hitting it off so well. Then again, hadn't Brooklyn been close with Nina? Paul hadn't ever really met Nina, but he'd heard of her and he had seen her around; she would probably get along with Becca. And if Brooklyn and Nina were friends, who was he to say she and Becca mightn't have been? Even if that sister of his had a catty streak a mile wide.

"I always wished Becca was a boy," he confessed, laughing. "She so, so girly, so when we were younger, she wouldn't play sports with me or anything like that. I started calling her Baxter, hoping she'd turn into a guy." Because Baxter had been the first male name he had thought of that sounded remotely akin to Becca. She detested him for this habit of his, of course. He grew out of it before middle school, but she still brought it up sometimes. When he was home over the summer, for example, he asked if she wanted to go for a bikeride with him. She said that Baxter might be into that, but Becca had plans to go to the pool with her friends and work on her tan. Lame.

He shook his head as Brooklyn tried to convince him that cooking was simple, a guilty grin on his face. "Brooklyn, you're talking to the guy that burns spaghetti and toast. Honest," he mentioned with a laugh. "I'd hit a wrong button and put them in for two hours, or something. Or make them stick to the pan. Or make the oven explode. Or something equally distructive." He laughed, smiling hugely. "They'd have to be made of stone to resist the Bentley pout!" he chuckled. "But we can hit them with a Bentley-Kessler dual pout."

He laughed again, grinning. "I'll hold on to it," he conceded with a nod. Though, he probably wasn't much more organized than Brooklyn. He somehow managed to keep track of things, but not by exerting much effort. It just usually worked out the he remembered where things were. "We can brainstorm on the way to the cafeteria," he suggested happily, following her towards the cafeteria, all the while chuckling at her last statement.

[rcbcbsn. (ℓ)]

*

[/color] light the fuse, flip the switch ,[/size][/font]
- - - - - - - - - baby hold your ground .[/size][/center]

Brooklyn laughed. "Well, maybe. If I was a boy who wished he had a twin sister. However, I am a girl who wishes she had a twin brother. And that twin brother would be happy to have me as a twin sister because I am the best freakin' sister in the world. Sometimes. Maybe. When I feel like it.... What were we talking about?" The most annoying thing for Brooklyn's non-existant twin brother would have been dealing with the fact that Brooklyn talked so much. That was something that her brother and sister sometimes got annoyed with her about. Sometimes she just didn't know when to shut up. Usually, all that you needed to do was throw something at her, or cover her face with a pillow. That's when she got the point that she was babbling far too much. And she would stop. Unless she thought she was talking about something that was really important. Luckily, that didn't happen very often and the young girl would shut up when told to shut up.

"Well I guess it's a good thing that I'm not very girly." Brooklyn wasn't a total troll - she had a fashion sense and could apply make-up and she liked going shopping and things like that, but it wasn't her life. Besides, Brooklyn would much rather spend her shopping time picking through the bins at a thrift store than shopping at American Eagle and Hollister. And, she did like a couple of sports - mostly soccer. But she did like bike rides. "Clever. Did you ever put bunny ears on her and make her eat lots sweets?" For some reason Baxter had gotten Brooklyn thinking about the cartoon that had ruled her childhood - Arthur. After all, Baxter was Arthur's sidekick. It was only a logical connection.

The girl laughed. "Really, you've burnt spaghetti? I didn't think that was possible." People who failed hardcore at cooking made Brooklyn happy. Because it made her look better at cooking. She could hold her own in the kitchen, but she was in no way good. "I think we could like take over the world with the Bentley-Kessler pout."

Brooklyn let a grin spread across her face as she lifted her legs in an over-exaggerated skip down the hallway. This was nice, actually hanging out with Paul. Last year they had only ever really seen each other a couple of times - mostly at play rehearsal. "Hmm. 'To say the least' bugs me a lot. Mostly because when people say they really aren't saying the least. They tend to repeat themselves over and over and over again until I want to punch them in the face."

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[andi !]

and maybe i don't need saving after all
and maybe i'm tired or maybe she glows

Paul laughed as Brooklyn got derailed, a grin on his face. "I lost track. I think we were talking about siblings. And I'm sure you're a great sister," he chuckled. He could talk a good bit too; he could never beat Brooklyn in a babbling competition, but he could hold his own. Sure, he got shy sometimes. But for the most part, he was very talkative. So her talkative nature didn't annoy him in the least; he thought she was a riot.

"No, I was focusing on making her a guy. I could tackle making her a bunny later," he chuckled. "Actually, I think the only reason she didn't like, excommunicate me for trying to make her a boy was because Baxter was her favorite character on Arthur. He was my second or third favorite. I think Francine was my favorite," he admitted, grinning sheepishly. It was true; he had gone through a phase of obsession with the show, so Becca had watched it, and she had a little crush on Baxter. Even though he was a bunny.

"Ohhh, it's possible," he informed her, nodding his head enthusiastically. "I guess I didn't stir it enough, or something. It stuck to the bottom of the pot and got a clumpy and gross. And then it turned brown. And then I ordered dinner from Domino's. I'm not going to be a chef any time soon, I think was my point... Yeah. So you can melt the chocolate... And I'll take notes. And we totally could!" He laughed as she started to skip, attempting the same gesture but with far less grace. He had decided that skipping didn't work well for the tall. Nor did guys pull it off nearly as well as girls. But hell, he was trying. And having fun.

Paul nodded his head in agreement. "That is a bad one. It's not really a saying, but I don't like 'R.S.V.P.' Because it's French, and like, three people in the whole world actually know what it means, and I know people - my mom - who are convinced that it's not really French and that it stands for, like, 'Respond Soon Via Post,' or something stupid. 'Remain seated... vaccuum...please.'" He laughed, realizing how stupidly that had come out. They were nearly at the cafeteria now, and Paul opened his mouth without really thinking about it. "Are you going to the fall formal...thing?" he asked, semi-casually. Or more so, attempted casualty. Which really involved slight blushing, so it wasn't all that casual. He never claimed to be anything akin to suave, now did he?