[for petre]

[umbralla]

[The weather's already starting to edge past "cool" toward "cold," but that just means Ghyslain puts on a coat before going outside. Everyone needs fresh air sometimes, and while he's not big on the garden area (fall allergies can be as bad as spring when it comes to flowers), there's lots of rolling grass on which he can sit or stretch out, trees under which he can tuck himself.

He's got a book with him today, along with an Mp3 player and earbuds tucked into his ears, keeping the world at bay for awhile; if he doesn't, he'll listen endlessly for the text chime on his phone, and that's the last thing he needs to be doing. They agreed they needed time. He still needs the time. Being antsy is just ridiculous.

But he is, ridiculous or not, so he's outside bobbing his head to a song and barely skimming over the words of his current assigned reading for English Lit. It may have been a bad choice of course, in retrospect, but one of his advisors said it would give him a more complex understanding of English. Complex is about all that's correct in that statement so far.]

Comments

[nowheres]

[He really shouldn't be interrupting, he knows. When someone has pages to look at and earphones to boot, that's pretty much a giant 'do not disturb' sign. There's the added factor of his gift, one Petre has been more inclined to call a curse ever since it (he?) first manifested, too. It has cost him a lot of interactions and possible friends in a place where he's already such an outsider, but it will occasionally be far away enough to let him have a little courage all the same. In this occasion, it strikes him on top of curiosity: for another boy who looks just like him, for another boy who came to this school barely able to put two English words together.

It could be some... gateway in. Whatever that means. Or it could just be some excuse to find out why they're so similar in looks. Doppelgangers aren't really a concept when you live in the middle of nowhere.]

... hello.

[He stands just a couple of meters to his side, just outside the shade cast by the tree. He looks small, shoulders inched up a bit, eyes anywhere but on Ghyslain's, shy and meek.]