ennui, [noland]

[Rose Nichole Graham]

Rose was sitting on a fallen long just off the Path. She was leaning back against an upright tree right behind her, staring above her at the patches of sky that broke through the leafy canopy. Her fingers tapped against the log in tuneless rhythms. She didn’t know how long she had been sitting there, but she was quite relaxed. It was nice. Quiet.

Feeling slightly cramped at the camp today, she had wandered off to find quiet time. She didn’t know how she found herself at the Path (for there were probably more quiet places farther in the woods), but she just decided to stay. It was quiet enough. If somebody passed, they exchanged a friendly greeting and the moment passed. However, it had been awhile since anybody had passed. Rose guessed it was mid-afternoon.

Exhaling a breath she didn’t realize she was holding, she looked around her. To her right, the path went on a ways before gently turning, but to her left, the path almost took an immediate, sharp turn away from her. She couldn’t hear anybody coming. With a flick of her wrist, a small piece of rock, about the size of her hand, flew from the ground and to her hand with a sound almost like a crunch. She curled her hand around it and it smoothed into a perfect sphere.

Rose threw the rock at the ground, it went off the ground, hit a tree opposite, and arched back to land in her hand. It was a motion that people would almost do with a tennis ball against a wall, but doing it with a rock with small targets helped Rose practice her control. The small piece of rock almost looked like a painted tennis ball, from far away, the way it bounced. But, of course, Rose was just controlling it that way. Rocks don’t bounce, silly.

The motion was so repetitive and mindless that Rose suddenly felt her thoughts drifting, though her hands and functional part of her brain kept the rock in motion. Down, up and across the rock went and Rose’s eyes seem to glaze over with distractedness.

[Noland Avery Price]

noland price really did enjoy being in shape; both physically and mentally. it just made him feel so good. so when he noticed how close it really was to a few competitions, and how much he really spent on his arse, he had immediately started to kick his butt into high gear. he had realized how lazy he had been on the day before, and immediately went for a run, and the meaning of run for him was full out sprint. when it came to his body, he really made no exceptions. his body was something he never wanted to lose the shape of.

after waking up early in the morning, noland almost couldn't get out of bed; his legs ached so bad, but he had felt worse pain, like breaking his leg by doing a certain exercise wrong once. it had healed fine, but he didn't care, his legs were just legs, he could beat up everyone even seated. after stretching his legs out, he had immediately changed, intent on going out and being "overly friendly", which when it came to noland meant blast off everything that stood in his way. he started running at full speed for a few seconds. a few seconds turned into a few minutes, and a few minutes turned into a few hours. by then, his legs had started to heart, due to not taking a break, so he started in a jog.

he wasn’t a morning person. hell that was the nicest way to describe it. young, and attractive, noland price jogged down the camp with one goal in mind but not enough will power to turn and head home. the tall lanky frame in which only could be described as male, bounced down with determination and no destination in mind, he needed to get in shape. with competitions coming up, noland had to be sure he was in tip top shape; he needed to not only be good , bt be the best. he was bracing himself for the chilly weather of fall, for the changing leaves in which he would soon have to be raking up from the place where he had been living for a lot of years now.

oh how he loved to have a moment of pure bliss, ever since he had moved to this large camp he hadn’t had any luck with simply relaxing in fact the young man had hardly any time to sleep in general. so now, though he wasn’t on the most comfortable surface, the option to sleep was becoming harder and harder to ignore. his mind was beginning to cloud and his body was beginning to feel warm and relaxed. the only sounds that were heard were the soft voices of laughter in which came from a few fortunate children and the sound of birds. or rather nature, because there was a sound coming from a rock hitting a tree. noland stopped suddenly to watch a girl throw a rock which bounced back into her hand. realising who it was, noland cleared his throat. "Afternoon, Graham. Ready to get your ass kicked at the competition?"

[Rose Nichole Graham]

Rose blinked, realizing she had let the rock drop and it was sitting in the middle of the road. She cleared her throat, shifted her position on the log [for her legs were starting to fall asleep], and picked up the rock again. She paused, searching deep inside of her to know if she was ready to move and go somewhere besides her comfortable little log. Hmmm . . . no. Settling back against the tree, she continued her little rock motions. Rose could see, on the tree opposite her, a mark forming from where the rock kept hitting. Looking down at the path, she could also see a tell tale mark of the bouncing rock. She smiled; her aim was improving greatly.

She tried to reverse, throwing the rock against the tree and getting it to bounce down at an angle to hit the mark on the path. She could hit the tree in the same spot, but she was always off on her aim for the road. With her eyes narrowed, she focused on trying to get it right. She leaned forward on her log, her bottom lip came between her teeth--it was something she did when she was concentrating hard. She had picked up the lip biting from her mother, doing it when she was concentrating or trying hard not to laugh. There was a lot of her mother in Rose. Rose didn't think of any father in her, since he had left and she hated him for it.

With a sigh of defeat, Rose went back to ground-tree-hand. She wasn't in the mood for a challenge right now. The reason she was out here was to relax. Leaning back against the tree behind her again, she closed her eyes but still let her hand go. She wanted to see if she could, from repeating the motion so much, do it without looking. After a few seconds, she peaked. She was getting slightly off the mark. Curses. She readjusted and closed her eyes again.

"Afternoon, Graham."

The rock flew back to Rose's hand so fast it hurt. With a sharp intake of breath, she opened her eyes to find none other but Mr. Price standing before her, all smug. Her hands balled into fist, making the rock compact even more, no longer smooth. Rose stared at him, her eyes narrowing.

"Noland."

Her voice was even, and she plastered on a false smile.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I distinctly remember it being you who was going to get utterly whipped at the competition."

When the words irritating and fire came to Rose's mind, good ol' Noland's face popped up. Rose told herself to be calm. She had come out here to relax. Noland was not going to shatter that. Egh.

[Noland Avery Price]

He was happy he had moved here, he could tell from the first time he was going to like it a lot more than the city, the people were a hell of a lot nicer, the food was better, and there were so many interesting things he could see in which he had never been able to see until now. The city was diffidently lacking things, like a park for instance. But it’s not like he ever had any spare time anyways, he was always out with friends, partying and spending time with his family. Not a bad life if you ask me. But, those things were long gone. Pulling himself from his thoughts for a moment, he tucked his arm behind his head like a pillow while the other rested on his waist.

He was expecting a child to run up and ask him to play, a teacher to send him to class, hell even a younger man requesting him to move his lazy ass off the way so he could pass through. What he wasn’t expecting was for all the air to rush from his chest, as he saw the earth bender that he despised the most. All the earth benders drove him mad, but Rose Graham always pushed him to the edge. A blush coated his cheeks as he sucked in air in an effort to catch his breath.

Opening one startling blue eye and then the other, he found himself staring into a pair of blue eyes much like his own, only prettier. Her brown hair flowed around her face and the heat in which radiated off her frame was comforting, human… much like a blanket. With his arm still tightly at his waist he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of attraction. She was pretty after all, wait, scratch that. She could easily be beautiful.

Smirking slightly, he ignored the fact that he could feel the heat rising from her. "Probably, in your wildest dream, that is." he replied. He looked at her hands. There were clenched into fists, probably because he was already getting to her nerves. His smirk grew even wider. "Let us not forget that we won the competition last year easily, thanks to you earth benders. Without you there wouldn't be anyone else to bite the dust." he added.

[Rose Nichole Graham]

Rose stared at Noland, and her false smile slowly turned into her classic smirk. It wasn't a prideful, arrogant smirk. It was the "I am very prepared to argue with you" smirk. As he spoke, her head tilted to the side and her eyes narrowed. She tried to refrain from laughing out loud at his retelling of the events of the last competition. Some people's point of view was so interesting in life. Wrong, but interesting. She was really happy she had been relaxed before he came along. He still irritated her more than anything in the world, but now she was really prepared to fight against him with a more clear mind. Granted, that probably wouldn't be for long.

"Oh, Mr. Price, I don't know where you were fighting. Earth was the last standing against you, and we made it tough. Sure, you won, but that is because you do what you always do: cheat."

It was relatively true. Not all of the Fire cheated, but some did. Competition rules required a cease fight if the player admitted defeat, and protection for any player helping a down player off the field. Rose saw some Fire continue to fight against downed players, not to mention attack the helpers. She had complained, but nobody listened. Nobody every listened to the Earth, to the most logical people in the whole camp.

Rose shook her head at the memory. Standing up, she tossed the rock to the ground; with a flick of her hand, it molded back into the earth, and the ground welcomed the rock back to it's home with no sign except a few broken blades of grass. She sighed and wiped her hands.

"We will beat you. And you don't want to know my wildest dreams."

With a mocking wink, she set off down the path, having to pass him to go towards the camp. She stayed plenty clear.