Early Boredom [Open]

[nak]

When he got up this morning, he would have never known that he would have arrived one hour earlier than expected at school. Thing is, why did his alarm clock suddenly decided to show that he was nearly late for class. If it was just to spite – or even troll – him, then it had achieved his objective with success. Of course, Vince did not even take the time to notice that no one had prepared a car for him, ending with him rushing to Ouran like a total madman. It obviously took a long time to travel from his home to the main building, and there he was breathless near a fountain in the courtyard with the usual cliché slice of bread in his mouth an hour earlier than usual.

It took him exactly twenty seconds to notice that, and it was all because of his wristwatch. Vince was okay with the fact that he arrived an hour earlier than he always does; he was only berating himself for running like a madman, when he could have just walked. Now he had nothing to do for a long time.

And thus, a teenage boy was now searching for a way to kill time. The only thing he came up with was putting earphones on and listen to music. Well there was also dancing; might as well fuse the two activities and practice some moves while there was nearly no one, and even then they were not about to pay attention to him for a while as they were chatting.

After refreshing himself using the water from the fountain right beside him, he reached for his left pocket and got his music player out of it along with a pair of earphones. Putting them on, he switched to the first tune that was catchy enough for him to practice. It was at that moment that the fun began, of course.

Left step, right step, ninety degrees spin, place fingertips on headband and put your other hand to the front. Tap your left foot to get some style, point toward the audience and smile while looking at them from the corner of your eyes. Headspi- Wait. Spinning on asphalt is extremely bad for the hair as well as your scalp.

This kind of thing lasted for nearly half an hour until Vince got bored of repeating the same thing. Upon "regaining conscience" of the world outside, he noticed that he had brought forth a small audience during that time, something he greatly appreciated as he was the kind of person that entertained people. Of course, the only thing he did was pointing toward the audience by using gun motions. He thanked them for watching him, and to come see him again whenever they could; rich people always had free time after all.

And it was back to boredom. Sitting on the border on the nearest fountain, the boy once again refreshed himself with the water inside it. Having done with the refreshing, the boy lowered his headband, which had to be removed due to him not wanting it wet, at its usual resting place.

It was with an inaudible sigh that Vince was stuck, again, at wondering how to kill time. Sure, a light nap would be quite appreciated due to having missed some sleep because of that alarm clock, but if he did sleep he would be late.

"Oh, and what the hell."

He lied down on the border of the fountain and merely closed his eyes just to pass time.

[honoka]

Honoka had no problem with getting up early in the morning. In fact, she was so used to it that she didn't even need an alarm. She didn't need to sleep for very long either - it was just sort of automatic. However, she still needed to get at least four hours of sleep during the night or she would be a train wreck until she got more sleep. Her morning consisted of just eating during the weekdays, which was rather boring. She would prefer to go and work in the stables for a bit, but it took about an hour to get to Ouran. And her mother always told her she would be better rested for school if she did not do much in the morning. It was true though, so Honoka saved her efforts for the weekends.

The car rides were always long. Too long. Sometimes Honoka would have wished she had a home in town, but she knew that her parents and she herself would hate that. They would be too far from the stables if anything happened. She was pretty sure that her mother also enjoyed the quietness of the countryside. It helped her think more clearly. Honoka always ended up fiddling with something: her fingers, her dress, the seat belt; anything to take her attention from being bored. Eventually she had found refuge in books, and was today reading about a cowboy from the West in the age of horses and guns, who was born half white and half Indian.

The ride seemed much shorter than usual. Honoka almost frowned as the car was pulled up near Ouran High's main building. She wanted to read more. But, she still stuffed the book into her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Rather un-ladylike, but she didn't much care.

It was quiet. School wouldn't start for another hour or so perhaps. More time for reading would do her mind good. She hated going through a day of school, waiting for it to be over so that she could finish a book. The thought of the book left her mind quickly though. Something was going on - something enough to cause a little crowd of Ouran students to stand about it. Instinctively, Honoka was interested. She wandered over to the crowd and saw that a student was dancing alone, seemingly for no reason.

'Outgoing, isn't he?' Honoka thought as she watched him. She had to admit, he was good at dancing. She figured he had to of learned it from somewhere else, because those weren't the usual dancing styles she saw.

He soon stopped, and his audience dispersed. He seemed to have nothing to do after that, so he laid down by the fountain, probably to sleep. Honoka blinked. She walked to the fountain and sat down just a few feet from him and set her bag on the ground.

"Where'd you learn to dance like that?" Honoka asked, looking at him from the corner of her eye.

[nak]

It appears that his moment in silence was not extremely long. Even with his eyes closed, Vince could hear the sounds of incoming footsteps from nearby; the light tapping on the asphalt ground started getting a little bit louder as someone approached the laid-down Caucasian. He adjusted himself to a more proper position to see who was coming to see him; he placed himself on his back, bent his knee to a ninety degrees arc and placed both his hands behind his head so it could rest on them. He took the opportunity to take a look at the stranger.

Raising an unseen eyebrow he noticed that said stranger was in that small audience of earlier, and had quite the pretty face when looked at from the side. He watched the girl set her bag on the ground as she sat nearby. Were he a more self-centered person he would have said that he was not accepting autographs, but that would be quite out of character for a carefree nice guy such as him.

He was about to lift his hand to greet the brunette, but was stopped as she suddenly started talking. When he thought that she would greet him first, he received a question instead. He blinked. Oh well; not that he minded receiving sudden questions. Hell, it happened quite often recently. And for the first time in a long time it was not about his headband.

Vince promptly sat up from his laid-down position and replaced himself so he could adopt a more comfortable way of sitting on the border of the fountain. With a smirk on his face the blond slightly turned his head toward the girl just enough to look at her from the corner of his eye. However, he had quite the difficulty to see her from this angle due to the headband covering his eyes, and so had to lift his head up a little.

It was quite the question indeed. From what he remembered, dancing was the most used element of his past as he learned to do that art at a young age along with other trades; he had to learn those things because of his former family “business”.

“Pretty much on my own,” Vince confessed after placing his hand right under his chin. “My old man taught me quite a few things at the beginning of course. You can also say that watching old music videos from the eighties and nineties helped quite a lot.” Hell, even some from the seventies were valid reasons to take on dancing. Even if they looked cheesy at times due to overuse in the Medias of nowadays.

“Otherwise, it was all self-taught. I still have a long way to go, though.” He concluded. Vince is quite the modest person when talking about his own skills, thinking that he was never perfect, and thus, need some more practice.

[honoka]

Honoka sat for a moment. The fountain's side was fairly uncomfortable, but she could feel the coolness from the water in the stone. It was a warm morning, she had just noticed. She liked it. She dreaded the half hour passing by. Sitting and talking seemed more interesting in some way. Of course, she would almost always prefer to be at home and working in her family's stables. For the first time in a long time, Honoka wanted to talk to this person who seemed to catch everyone's eye as he danced.

She looked at the man again, still from the corner of her eye, examining him quickly. The headband was certainly different, but she would not ask about it. It was obvious he probably had plenty who asked about it already, and she supposed he had it for his own reasons. His jacket was unbuttoned, and the tie was missing. He certainly didn't seem like the regular Ouran High student. It was a bit of a surprise that the school even let him wear his uniform as he did. Honoka's lips curled up at the edges to a faint smile.

Her question was answered briefly, and her eyebrows raised a bit. When he said he had learned on his own, Honoka was astonished. He could dance so well, so uniquely, and he taught himself mostly. She had never really watched music videos because she hardly ever watched television or anything like that. She figured he had learned like how she had as well, only she learned how to raise a horse. It seemed that his skills might get him further in life though.

"A long way to go seems shorter from the stands," Honoka commented quietly. She thought for a short moment, tugging at the bottom of her dress somewhat, and realized she had not even introduced herself, nor did she know his name. They were mingling strangers. There was nothing wrong with that, however. Strangers could provoke interesting conversations; it happened all the time.

The girl smiled, turning to him in full. She twisted her body a little so that her legs hung awkwardly on the side of the fountain. It was much easier to look at him now. He seemed to be looking at her the same way she had him. "I'm sorry, I haven't even introduced myself yet. My name is Honoka Matsuki." She held her hand out to him to shake his.

[nak]

Vince laughed a little at the compliment – well it sounded like it – the girl told him. Maybe he was underestimating himself a little when it came to that, but at least he was not boasting about how good he was, or that he was the best; being modest is always a good thing. With a “Hmm”, the boy stayed still for a while as he sat on the border of the fountain. He was a little glad that he was not about to pass the next half-hour to an hour wondering about what he should do to kill time, appreciating the fact that someone came to talk to him. He placed his hands on both sides and pressed them on the cold surface, enjoying the difference between the warmth of his hands and the coolness of the stone.

"Maybe it is," He said. "Maybe it is."

Turning his head to get a better look at the newcomer, Vince merely stared quietly from under his headband as she turned her body toward him with a smile. It seems that her face was not only pretty when seen from the side, but also from the front. Even if those kinds of faces were common in this school, she had that distinct appearance that others may or may not have. He couldn’t place his finger on it, though.

The boy shook his head at the apology the brunette said about not introducing herself. “No problem with that.” He stated before she resumed her introduction. The girl was named Honoka. Honoka Matsuki. Vince immediately stored that name inside his memories for future reference.

"Honoka, mh?" He mused aloud. "It has a nice ring to it. Mine's Vince McDowell, nice to meet you. Oh, and please call me Vince." After finishing his short introduction, the American boy took the hand offered by Honoka, accepting the firm handshake with a grin on his face. Her hand was pretty soft just as he expected it to be.

After a few moments he let go of the handshake, replacing the used hand back at its former position pressed against the cold surface of the fountain. Again, it was quite the refreshing feeling.

"So, what's up?" Sure, these words were the kind of thing that only good friends or good acquaintances would say to each other, but it was a nice way to start up a conversation with someone, whoever they were.