taking ``l a p s [boys?]

[ASTRID KOAL VUITTAN]

x x

i don't feel enough for you to cry
here's a lullaby to close your eyes

It had been a long time since Astrid had gotten to really enjoy herself. No consequences, no squirming just to get by, and no foster family to bitch at her about nothing important. So she was distant... so fucking what?! You would be too if your mom died when she gave birth to you, and your father fucking ditched you on the spot. Anger was boiling inside her now, white hot... the kind that left a mark every time she let it touch her. She needed a release... something to put her mind on that was calming. Something she had done all her life. She needed to swim some laps.

Donning her simple black bikini, Astrid did a quick mirror check. She had always been skinny, she figured it was genetic. The muscles, those were all hers. She had quit the swim team at her last school - a prep school called Saint Michaels - because of an 'urging' by the headmaster. See, they expected she was cheating. Her crowd didn't help, they were the pot heads and the stereotypical 'lost causes' that every school possessed. She had been their star, their shining knight, and their trump card. They didn't lose in the three years she had been on the team. After they kicked her off - or rather, she left before they could - they lost to the rival school, Laverne Academy. Sucks for them.

Picking up her towel, and slipping into a pair of her old team's sweatpants with the logo "SM" on the rear, she strode outside. On her way out the dorm, she tossed on her sweatshirt. Sure, it was February, but at least the pools were heated. Besides, swimming did things for her that therapy hadn't been able to. It made her calm. The anger just washed away, like dirt, from her. It was a magical feeling.

Finally reaching the pool area, she was relieved to see steam rising from the surface of the glass-like swimming pool. There were no lane ropes, but she didn't mind. She wasn't at a meet after all, she was just getting some well-deserved rejuvenation. Her clothes fell to the chair she had designated to place them in, her white cotton towel draped over the back of the chair. She didn't put her hair back, because she wasn't focused on speed today. She was focused on a rhythmic pattern of back and forth through the liquid. That magical feeling touched her again. Poetic, almost like a song.

She slipped her feet into the pool, barely disturbing the surface as the water rose to her knees, and then to her hips. Her pale skin glowed in the moonlight. She looked like a lunar creature, trapped here on earth as a punishment of sorts. Punishment from what? Who knows.

Liquid nitrate scanned the orb in the sky that lay dormant on the mirror surface of the water. Then, she walked to the side of the pool, lowered herself beneath the surface, and pushed off the side to begin her first lap.

Her strokes were even and mechanical, like she could swim in her sleep. It was here, swimming at night, that she felt most at ease. It was her niche, her place of belonging. As the water caressed softly over her shoulders, down her back, and rejoined the water, she felt her anger sliding off like impurities. She closed her eyes, using her senses to find the other end of the pool. She did a forward tuck, turned swiftly beneath the surface, and came up to start her new stroke towards the way she had come.

It was now, in this lap, that the thoughts would come. With each stroke of her arms, a new question was dredged from her tightly locked mind. Her father... what had she done to displease him? Was it because she had killed his wife? Because she had been a burden? Or was he just sick of her already, and didn't want to raise her? Whatever the question, she couldn't help but still grieve for her nonexistent relationship with him. To hide the pain, she would show anger, but it was no more than a facade. She always wondered what she did wrong... what crime she had committed to cause his displeasure and abandonment.

She had searched for it once, in the arms of other men. She had looked for love, and thought she had found it, but it had been snubbed back in her face. Then, she had tried the other approach. She had begun to keep guys around, dating whomever would ask if it would get her something in return. She would look for reputation, popularity, or money. To keep them around, she did whatever they would ask her to. She would give them money, drugs, and parts of herself that she didn't really want to let them have. But she felt as though she had to have them around, even though she knew they would just leave her for some other bottle-blonde who was about as deep as an empty baby pool. They hurt her again and again, but she didn't care. She felt like they were what she needed to be whole again.

Taking a deep breath, she went beneath the surface again as she reached the other side, doing another smooth twist and starting lap three.

Soon, the things she was giving her men found their way into her pockets. The drugs, the alcohol... it had torn her to pieces. That is, until she became used to it. At her private school, drugs had been as easy to get as playing hooky in the back of some jock's Porsche. Anything from crack to heroine, and anything else in between. It was the alcohol that really did her in. She was borderline alcoholic by the time her last foster family was sick of her. Figures. They were so close minded. So she had taken to living off what the streets would give to her, using any method she could to get what she needed. Withdrawal had been a bitch, but she was still alive. Though just barely.

A few more laps had passed without her mind even registering she was still swimming. That was how it got sometimes. Therapeutic... it was wonderful.

But where was she now? Who would she be able to reach for here? She couldn't stand on her own two feet, or four paws... what would she do in this strange place? Sure, she had Rae now, but there was still something else she needed. Closure? Not likely... but there was something missing in her. A spark. Real life.

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o o c ; ; az needs some one on one boy time. single, please.
w o r d s ; ; 1122

[CHASE RICHARD HARRIS]

It was late - most people were probably tucked away under their covers, their dwellings dark and silent. It was strange here...there were not that many rules, but it seemed that the majority of people still fell into the rhythmic night and day patterns that they would have if attending an actual school or job, early to bed, early to rise. So far, night life had been rather nonexistent for Chase. He seemed to be the opposite of everyone else. Even at this late hour, his need for excitement was still pumping, and sleep was the last thing on his mind. Moments earlier, the boy had been staring out of his dorm window, mesmerized by the clearness of the night, the bright stars up in the sky, and the full moon illuminating the earth below. He wanted to get out, to enjoy it, but most places would be far too cold at night to be comfortable. After contemplating his options for a bit, he finally remembered that the community pool was heated in the winter - perfect. From far within the bottom drawer of his dresser, he pulled out a blue, boy's, shorts-style bathing suit. After changing in the sink area of his room, he preceded to dig around for some sweat pants and a jacket. Once his attire was complete, he grabbed his towel and headed out the door.

The pool was not very far from the dorms, so the frigid air did not have long to grasp hold of Chase. Quietly, Chase opened the latch on the gate to the pool, then entered in, allowing the gate to close shut behind him. As he approached the pool, he realized he was not the only one with this idea. A handsome smile appeared on his face as he walked more towards the water, his hands in his pockets with his towel draped over his shoulder. "Looks like I'm not the only one who likes late nights...mind if I join you?" At that point, Chase began undressing down to his bathing suit. Luckily, the steam from the pool was also lending some heat to the surrounding air, so outside of the water did not seem to be as cold.

Instead of taking the rather cautious entrance to the water, as the girl had done, Chase stepped right up to the edge of the pool, then dove straight in. As he came back up to the surface, he shook his head from side to side, swishing his hair out of the way. Moving into a quaint back stroke, he looked at the girl in the water infront of him. "I'm Chase, by the way..." with that, he extended his dripping wet hand towards the girl, waiting patiently for a response, if she cared to give one.

[ASTRID KOAL VUITTAN]

x x

i don't feel enough for you to cry
here's a lullaby to close your eyes

She had continued swimming her laps, going back and forth between the ends of the pool for a long while. With every new twist, more thoughts consumed her. Then, breaking her from her thoughts, was a voice. She looked up, expecting at first someone to tell her to get the hell out, but she shook that off. The pool had been open, not in someone's back yard. She hadn't snuck in, she had walked in the open gate.

Astrid caught his words, giving him a smile for a greeting. "Sure, I don't mind at all," she said, swimming over to the shallower end so she could touch. He looked like he wanted to jump in, and thankfully she put her hands up just in time to keep most of the splash out of her face. She chuckled a bit, whether it was at the water or his enterance. Then, she placed her hands back into the liquid. He shook his head, much like a dog would, but she didn't think that was his shift. He dove in, which was very much not dog like. Most canines she knew would do a belly flop or something along those lines.

She looked the guy over. He was cute, in that 'good boy' kinda way. He didn't seem too much older than her, if he was at all. With the cute ones, they tend to look younger than they actually were. When he spoke again, however, she stopped her tiny little examination, happy to have someone to distract her from her thoughts.

"Hey Chase, I'm Astrid," she offered after he introduced himself. Chase... boy did that name fit him. She could see it now. Back at his old school, Az wouldn't bet that he didn't have half the girls chasing after him. Hell, maybe even some of the teachers. She resisted the laugh in her gut.

She began floating on her back, just being suspended by the water. Then she turned herself to face him again. "What brings you out here so late? I figured I was the only one crazy enough to go swimming in February," she asked, chuckling at the last bit. Sure, she had guessed that the pool would be heated, but hadn't known for sure. He must have been here longer than her mere four days to have known. Or maybe he had just asked someone, like she should have done. That would have been an easy way to figure it out, but Az didn't want to hint to where she was going. Especially if her fox roommate, Ivy, was going to follow her. Damn, that fox was annoying.

She kept her eyes on him, as would be polite, and waited for his answer. She tried to discern what shift he was by his appearance, but she couldn't place it. All she knew was he was no dog. That was one thing she was positive about.

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o o c ; ; let's just keep the setting in Feb. makes it easier. lol.

[CHASE RICHARD HARRIS]

Chase’s eyes moved with the girl as she continued to swim around, ”Astrid, huh? That’s an unusual name…I like it.” He chuckled, then paddled himself towards her in the shallow part of the pool. The girl began talking again, but this time, Chase was only half listening. Up close, she was extremely pretty, and a bit distracting, to say the least. He shook his head slightly, knocking his mind out of the daze. ”Well, my roommate was asleep, and so was everyone else…and I was bored, and actually a bit hot, so I just automatically thought of the pool.” He shrugged his shoulders, followed with another laugh. ”I saw a sign the other day advertising the heated pool, so I figured it be a nice place to relax and work off some energy…maybe I’ll be able to actually fall asleep tonight.” At that point, Chase spotted a diving board at the other end of the pool. He shifted over to the stairs and climbed out, his entire body dripping with water. He shuffled across the cold, stone ground over the board, rubbing his thick arms a bit at the chill.

”So Astrid, I guess the obvious question to ask in this place is, what is your shift?” Before she answered, Chase bounced up on the board, sending his body high into the air. He tried to complete a flip before entering the water, but failed to do so. Instead, he landed with a smack on his back, then his body sunk into the water. He allowed his feet to hit the bottom of the pool, then used that to push back up to the surface. As he emerged, the same laugh was emitted from within him, ”Oww, that one kindof stung a bit.” Keeping his eye on the girl in front of him, he swam in a breast stroke across the pool. ”Your turn!” With a gentle, playful motion, he pushed the girl in the direction of the stairs. ”Show me what you’ve got.” He winked, then held out his hand to assist her up the water-covered steps.

ooc - sorry its rather short, I’ll try for more next time =P