Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Revival - Chapter 3: All's fair in Love and War

As close as they were, Jason and Fay were about as different as a brother and sister can be. Jason was a few inches taller than me and fairly well-built, but liked to make himself as small as possible. Fay, a diminutive 4'10", filled the room with her personality. She flirted incessantly with everyone, but had no desire for a boyfriend (or a girlfriend for that matter, though people did talk). I've never met anyone more confident in their own attractiveness - which made her all the more attractive. I never really felt that way about her, but I can't say I never thought about it.
Jason, on the other hand, had until a few months ago had trouble talking to anyone he didn't know. He seemed to have gotten over that and was now hopelessly trying to romance a very attractive young woman with whom he had no chance whatsoever. What was amusing was the zeal he put into it. It was as if instead of creeping out of his shell like most shy people do, he had done a complete one-eighty into being a vibrant dynamic personality. He had lost all inhibitions and no longer cared what anyone thought about him. So far in his quest to win her heart had had tried everything from making her a new origami animal every day for a month to writing a song in four part harmony and mustering a quartet to sing outside her window. The girl, her name was Marissa, was either incredibly dense or just had a cruel sense of humor- she appeared to be totally oblivious.
Anyway, Fay and Jason were already sitting at the lunch table when I got my tray. Jason was looking, as always, across the table to where Marissa was sitting talking to her friends.
"How's it going?" I asked him
He sighed plaintively. "Nothing's working," he said eventually, "I've tried gifts, singing, quoting the Bard... even baking cookies. No luck,"
"Everything short of, you know, asking her out," answered his sister.
"Not my style," he answered, "I mean, eventually, of course, but first I have to win her over. She'd never say yes now,"
"How do you know if you haven't tried?" I asked.
"If I try and she says no," he explained, "I'll have to try again later, and asking for a second date after you've been rejected is just pathetic,"
"And following her down the hallway reading sonnets isn't?" asked Fay.
"I should go on a quest for her," said Jason suddenly, ignoring his sister, "Too bad there's no more dragons to slay,"
"Half-Dragons?" I suggested.
"Look," Fay cut in, "Jason, here's your problem. Well, one of many problems. Every attempt you've made has been anywhere from a few decades to a few centuries out of date. If you want a quest that will impress her, you need something modern,"
"That's it!" cried Jason suddenly, as if an idea had coming flying from the sky like a meteor and hit him in the back of the head, "I'm going to steal Harvey!"

2 comments:

Nathaniel Cornstalk said...

Who is Harvey? How does Jason intend to steal him/it? And what does any of this half to do with the story? Find out next time I update!

Erin said...

Yay, update! I like the new characters. At the beginning of the chapter, I was going to suggest dialogue, but then there was dialogue, so nevermind. And it was good dialogue. Convincing for geeky kids who are perfectly cool in my book. :)