Ham sweet ham {Lydia}

[aidenbaxter]

Aiden drummed his fingers on the table as he waited outside the café for his sandwich, which he had ordered God knows how long ago. He was becoming more and more frustrated as the minutes passed, and he was beginning to wonder what kind of idiots worked there who didn’t know how to make a damn sandwich. It was his lunch hour, and it wasn’t like he had more than one of those. So, what was taking so long?? Finally, with an annoyed sigh, he stood and walked towards the door of the cafe, swung it open… and sent a young waitress’ tray of food toppling onto the ground. She appeared to have been headed outside, and since he was the only one outside, he quickly connected the dots.

The waitress looked utterly taken off-guard; she hadn’t seen him, and he hadn’t seen her. Aiden’s anger flared, for a moment he thought he was going to snap, but instead, he offered the girl his hand. She was cute, but he couldn’t muster the patience to do anything more than exchange apologies with her, and offer to clean up the mess. So, she was off to get him another sandwich made, and he was knelt down picking up ham and Swiss…

Mina was outside, her leash hooked to the table. She was eyeing the sandwich remains hopefully, and when Aiden returned to his table she bounced up happily, her tail going nuts and her ears perked up at full attention. He tossed out everything but the ham, and then stood in front of the puppy.

“Mina… sit.”

She continued to thump her tail, but other than that, no response. Her eyes showed no recognition of the command, they were simply watching the ham. “Sit! Mina, sit.” Nothing. They had been practicing this at home, with dog biscuits, and he thought she had finally got it yesterday, but apparently she hadn’t. He pushed on her back until she was in a sitting position, gave her a pat, then handed over the sliced ham, giving it to her in little pieces rather than whole slices. He sat down, still tossing ham pieces towards Mina, and watched her try to catch them.

Word Count: 405 (Short, sorry >_<)

[smoky]

x x

It was that time of the month again, the time of month that the Academy would let them board a boat and ride over to the other island. Why it was only once a month, 12 visits a year was beyond her. She didn't argue it though, since it wasn't exactly her favorite place to be. She usually just went along with it for the change of scenery, and the chance to be around someone who was "normal" rather than someone who could shift into another creature that could possibly kill/and or eat you or whatever you shifted into at a moments notice. God she was sick. Still, she was headed towards her favorite, and only haunt on this island. The population of the Academy was split. They either ran towards the amusement park, thundering along and roughhousing, or they headed to the cafe in hoards of shifters, acting like the mostly normal teenagers the appeared to be. The amusement park hadn't been up her alley, came with being a shifter, she supposed. She was jumpy like no one's business on those rides, ready to bolt out of her seat, which quite obviously would have been very, very, bad. No, today's point of interest was the larger island's cafe. She very badly wanted something to eat, a bagel or a sandwich or something. While she was at it, she might as well get a frap. They were another weakness of hers. A large regret of living on the island- no Starbucks. That hurt.



She went inside first, the man behind the counter smiling when he saw her. She'd been haunting this place once a month since 7th grade. "Lydia, it's good to see you. The usual?" The usual was a frap and a bagel with cream cheese. "The usual, Mr. Mora." She handed him the exact amount she owed, having come enough to know what it would cost. "I'll be outside." She opened the door to the little cafe just in time to hold it open as an obviously embarrassed waitress scuttled in with a mayo smeared food tray. There stood the victim of the sandwich mishap, a face familiar somewhat. It took a moment for her to place him, his name was something with an A... Aiden. They had met chatting over IM a few nights ago.

She tossed her hair back behind her shoulders and gave her outfit a once over before she walked towards him. She was wearing black shorts and a dark green halter top with flipflops. Simple summer attire for her, nothing special. Still, she didn't figure she looked too horrible today, she she strolled over and touched his arm lightly, trying to divert attention away from the young dog he was playing with and feeding the semi-ruined shreds of his ham sandwich to.

"Well hey stranger," she said grinning. She had expected a phone call, not a meet'n'greet in person on the mainland. Fancy meeting you in a place like this. She's cute.

[/size]

[aidenbaxter]

Mina's attention momentarily shifted from the small morsel of ham that was left, to the girl that had just greeted her owner. Normally, she would have been excited to see someone new, but the lunchmeat kept her enticed. Aiden, on the other hand, tossed the rest of the meat to Mina as soon as he felt the hand on his arm, and looked up. “Oh, hey!” At first, he had no clue who she was. He didn’t recognize her face at all, and he usually was good at remembering faces of people he’d met… he figured he must not have met her before, and concluded that she was that girl he’d talked to in a chat room. “Didn’t expect to see you here,” Aiden said, trying to remember her name and what they had talked about… the name escaped him, but he remembered a bit of the conversation.

“I was going to call you after work today,” That was quite the lie, but in an attempt to make it not as obvious, he added, “Would’ve earlier, but I guessed you’d want to be sleeping instead of talking, after that all nighter.” Considering that she had finally ended up getting offline around four when they last spoke, that was a reasonable explanation. But, that was right, he added her to his contacts on his phone… she was the last in his L contacts… Lydia! That was it.

“Its hard to deny, she is cute…” Aiden watched Mina sniffing Lydia’s feet as he spoke, then he stood and brought another chair over to his table. “It’s Lydia, right?” He asked as he gestured for her to sit. Now that the ham was gone, Mina first sniffed the spot where it had been dropped, then Lydia’s flip-flops, then hopped onto Aiden’s lap as soon as he sat down, and was now getting comfortable.

Aiden would probably be late for work if he stayed and talked… hell, he would probably be late if he waited for his sandwich to come out, but that would be his excuse: apparently making a simply ham and cheese sandwich is a long, complicated process. His boss liked him, said that Aiden reminded him of himself when he was younger, so an excuse with a joke mixed in would probably work. His boss usually saw right through him, but liked him enough to let him extend his lunch hour a little… or a lot, in some cases. But if she asked, talking to her was worth a reprimand from his boss.

Word Count: 473

[smoky]

x x

After she greeted him, Lydia's focus slid away from the owner and to the dog for a moment. She was cute, happily munching down the rest of the ham she had scored when Lydia had greeted the boy. The puppy looked up at her with, well puppy dog eyes as the greeting was returned by her owner. The boy wasn't quite elegant in his greeting, quickly spitting out a regular line about not expecting her to be there. Of course he didn't, hadn't she told him she went to a mysterious school somewhere on one of the smaller islands? Lydia had a built in lie detector that started flashing as soon as he said that he was going to call her after work today, but she didn't call him on the line. She was used to this kind of BS from guys, but she couldn't push her luck too far, after all she had met this guy online via the school's IM system. She hadn't know that mainlanders could get in, but she supposed it all made sense in the end.

He seemed happiest when he returned her comment about his dog. She really was cute. And she had been smart to give this boy the benefit of the doubt. He had gotten up to bring another chair over, as his happy little puppy sniffed at her flip flops with a cold nose. She felt the little tongue lick her as he gestured for her to sit down. She wasn't thrilled to death with being around a dog, but she knew full well that this puppy couldn't and wouldn't do her any harm no matter which of her shapes she was in. Not like she'd go panther in public anyway. He gestured for her to sit, double checking her name. She took the chair as she watched the now very happy puppy curl up in her owner's lap.

"That's me. So island boy, do you have enough time to spend some of it with the mystery girl you met online?


She'd fully understand if he didn't, but she was really hoping that he did. Besides, she was used to getting looks from guys, it came with the territory. This was a cute enough one to warrant her notice, perfect except for the problem of being on the main island and not being a shifter... And the dog really didn't go with her plan either, but they did live in a give and take world, something she had to just suck it up and deal with.

Lydia looked up in relief as her sandwich and frap made their way over, along with the replacement ham sandwich, all in the arms of the same ditzy waitress who managed to deliver safely this time. She took a sip off of the drink, and smiled at the boy sitting across the table from her. So tell me about yourself, Aiden. I'm wondering if there's more to your story than you and a dog on an island.
[/size]

Word count:572 w/ coding

[aidenbaxter]

At Lydia’s first question, Aiden responded with, “I’ve got time.” He shrugged, then added, “Besides, I’m a sucker for mysteries.”

To his surprise, the food arrived, being carried by the same waitress as before. He resisted saying something snarky, rolling his eyes, or doing anything else that would be indisputably rude. Instead, he nodded his thanks as the plate was placed in front of him. At the smell of the sandwich, Mina looked up towards the table, ears erect and nose twitching. She knew better than to go after it without permission, but there were no rules against starring at it longingly. For now, Aiden was going to let the sandwich sit there as he talked with Lydia.

What was she expecting him to say to that, though? His life wasn’t at all exciting, he was a chef at a run-down restaurant. His days were all exactly the same, to the point where they just mixed into each other, and it became difficult to distinguish one from the next. It was dull, to say the least, but he had discovered that lying about his life never went well, so he would tell the truth. Making the truth sound interesting, though, was his problem.

Struck with a sudden idea, he put Mina on the ground beside him, then stood, retrieving a small notepad from his back pocket. The notepad had a pencil inside its small rings, so he pulled it out and flipped the book open as he sat back down. He glanced up at Lydia, then lightly pressed the lead against the paper and started to draw.

“There could be more to me than some guy on an island,” Aiden said, not looking up from his work, “That’s for you to decide, though.” He continued to scribble away silently and intently for a few more minutes, looking up at Lydia twice more. He wasn’t sure if he had lost Lydia’s interest or not; she could be watching him sketch, or completely zoning out, for all he knew. It didn’t matter, at that moment, since he was mostly absorbed in his art. But, he was rushing it, just in case she did decide he was boring, and he finished the sketch pretty quickly. It was down at the bottom of the page, since most of the top of the page contained a grocery list, but it covered about the same area as a post- it note, so it wasn’t an extremely small sketch. He spun the notebook around, so it faced Lydia, and waited for her response.

Word Count: 476
Sketch:Click?