little j. (belikeyou) wrote in beyondwonderlnd, @ 2008-10-06 20:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | dan humphries, jenny humphries, sunnydale, sunnydale high school |
RP LOG: Dan/Jenny -> WAY BACKDATED.
Who: Dan Humphrey and Jenny Humphrey.
Where: Their house!
When: Saturday, September sixth, afternoon. / BACKDATED TO... A MONTH AGO. Or it can be right now. Same thing.
Why: Because they're siblings and interaction is pretty much unavoidable!
Rating: PG?
Status: Complete. FINALLY.
Dan was perched upright in a chair at the kitchen table, his new laptop open in front of him but he wasn't using his journal at the current moment, he was on 'commonapp.org'. It wasn't as if Dan had entirely neglected to do any work on his applications this summer, but for the most part he had only filled out the most basic information about himself and he hadn't clicked on any of the supplements, shying away from anything that required any true amount of effort. Dan had been extremely uninspired this summer, and uncharacteristically unmotivated. In fact, there were a lot of words that began with the letters 'un' that could describe how Dan was this summer. For the first time in his life, he had found himself more or less incapable of writing anything halfway decent, and so he hadn't even really touched the feared College Essay.
Now, however, Dan didn't really have much of a choice but to get to work. He was going to have to fill out and finish these applications now, and he was going to have to somehow balance it with the massive amount of homework he was absolutely positive was coming soon, and all because he had been determined to be so incredibly undetermined this summer. At the very least, Dan felt as though he had snapped out of whatever procrastination funk he'd gone through this summer and he was, more or less, ready to get to work.
Dan whizzed through the Dartmouth supplement. It wasn't anything particularly difficult 'Name, address, school, how did you learn about the school, personal interests, blah blah blah'. Admittedly, it was pretty boring filling out these questions over and over again, but it wasn't difficult. The difficult part would be writing that essay, and Dan would get to that. Eventually. With a few clicks of the mouse, Dan printed out the 'Peer Evaluation Supplement'. As he got up to pick it out from the printer tray, Dan was glad he didn't have to fill this out himself. It was filled with those somewhat wishy-washy questions like 'Describe this person, what does this person mean to you, etc.' Dan would probably end up dumping it on Vanessa. He slipped back into his chair and opened up a new Word Document in an attempt to get a start on his essay, but for a good five minutes all Dan did was stare at the blank page. It was a routine he had done many over the summer.
Jenny was doing nothing in particular, really. She was just glad there hadn't been too much homework yet, but she wasn't really interested in the classes this year. Her goal, however, was to work harder -- at least harder than last year. Last year she had been... well, let's just say, she had been too preoccupied with beating Blair at everything. The game had gotten a bit too involved for her taste, although she hadn't realized this at the beginning. Dan warned her, she remembered. And. So did Blair. Jenny had thought a lot about the previous year, especially during the summer and during the internship with Eleanor Waldorf. At the end, she decided to just ignore it and focus on the present although it had been hard with Blair's comments to her. Just stay calm, she had told herself. It would work. The only "exciting" thing she was doing was fiddling around with the laptops that had been given to the whole of Sunnydale and Forks High Schools. She was still skeptical about it, but hey, she had a laptop! And a free one at that. How could someone refuse a gift like that? And all she had to do was update in it a few times and comment and well -- they were actually sorta fun. The layout of it was neat and well, some people were -- or well, seemed -- nice.
She finished taking another look on the site and decided to get up and walk around the house, although there was more than likely nothing to do again. Last night, Dan and her had commented back and forth... even though they were in the same room. See how lame she was? See how lame they were? With her laptop closed, Jenny got up from the couch and walked to the kitchen, in hopes of finding Dan. Dan would entertain her, she thought. "Oh, Daniel!" She called to him once she spotted him sitting at the kitchen table. Jenny opened the refrigerator, trying to find something to eat. Or drink. Aha, water. Boring, but it'd suit her. "Are you still working?" She asked, already knowing the answer already. Her brother always worked too hard and too much. Although, during the summer, he hadn't been working as much and truth be told, it was really surprising to her, especially considering how much she worked on her designing this summer. Dan had his schoolwork and Jenny had her sewing to keep her interested. What was Dan working on anyways? Jenny figured that it was something to do with college -- he was a senior now and being a senior sucked in terms of college finding -- but what? Ah well, he'd tell her soon.
By the time Dan had heard Jenny, the only thing he had written was "I". He wasn't even sure if that was the best way to start the essay, and Dan was positive that he didn't know what else to write beyond that. Dan couldn't understand why this was so hard for him. He loved writing, he wrote stories and different things for fun, why did he have to come down with writer's block when it was time to write his college essay. Dan set his fingers down on the keyboard and added a nice "I dfpoi74u" to the page in annoyance. He wasn't really annoyed at Jenny interrupting him, if you could really call it that. Truth be told, there wasn't much to interrupt. Dan really hadn't progressed much at all. He looked away from the more or less blank screen and focused on Jenny.
"Yeah, if you can call it that," he said and pinched the bridge of his nose. How would he be able to explain his inability to write this essay to Jenny? Writing was his thing, there was no logical reason as to why he should be having all these problems. Of course, this wasn't the only thing he had tried to write and found himself incapable. He never was able to write that piece for his own summer internship. The fact that he majorly messed up that opportunity wasn't something he liked to think about too often. "I'm trying to write my college essay," Dan explained and then cracked his knuckles. "But I have no idea what to write about," he admitted.
She took a drink of her water before setting the bottle down on the kitchen table next to some papers. She peered at his laptop screen, reading "I dfpoi74u" and smiled to herself. That was a lot of progress, there, wasn't it? How long had he been working on it? Hopefully, the answer was "not so long" because it wasn't like Dan to have only that much done. He was the hardest worker she knew and if there was a project that was due in a week, he'd get it done extra early. Just where did he get this hard working thing from? "It's very unlike you to not be really working, Dan," she said, trying to give him some advice. Jenny knew her brother pretty well; after all, they were two years apart and had spent most of their childhood by each others' sides and... did consider him one of her close friends. Not best friends, though, just close. It was nice, considering that she knew people who weren't close to their siblings at all. Jenny really couldn't imagine not being close to Dan.
So it was something college related. But why couldn't he write anything? She didn't know much about what to do when it came to applying for colleges but it was about himself... right? "Why not? What do you have to write about? And you're like a major writer, so this is weird. You haven't changed on me, have you?" Yeah, that was her attempt at a joke. Jenny Humphrey really did come from a lame family. Even her attempts at jokes weren't funny. "Maybe I could help?" She asked with an accompanying shrug of her shoulders. At least she could try. She could helpfully supply her "Dan is a great guy" quotes to be added into the essay. Recommendations were always good, right? Just, probably not from family members.
"I know," Dan said and let out a sigh of frustration, backspacing over the 'I dfpoi74u'. It wasn't as if that was really getting him anywhere with this essay. Dan minimized his word document and opened up the commonapp.org window, and clicked the writing portion of the application where it listed the various essay topics: 'Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you, Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you, Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence, Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence, A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you, or Create a topic of your choice.' Dan could write about virtually anything, and yet nothing was coming to him and he didn't understand why. Well, Dan thought he might know why, but he wasn't willing to accept that possibility or really think about it much at all. This wasn't because of all the things that happened last school year, Dan told himself. He was perfectly fine. He was just stressed out and it was blocking his creative flow, that was all, it would pass.
Dan shrugged his shoulders in a defeated sort of way. "I don't know," he told Jenny and looked over at her. "I guess maybe I'm a little stressed out with school and everything," Dan said, offering the feeble and not entirely truthful explanation he had made up in his head only a few moments ago. Dan laughed a little bit at Jenny's attempt at a joke, "No," he said. "No, I'm pretty sure this will pass eventually, it's just that I would really like it to go away now," he said. "Maybe," Dan said. He was pretty positive Jenny didn't know much about college essays, but when all was said and done the topics really weren't all that difficult. You didn't even have to write that much, just about two pages or so. Anyone could write about them, and normally this should have been incredibly easy for Dan. That only made him more frustrated over the fact that he was having so much trouble with this. Dan turned the computer screen so that Jenny could see it better. "These are the topics we can write about, and then obviously that last one pretty much leaves it open to anything," Dan explained.
"Already?" Jenny asked, "You're already stressed with school and it's just the first week? Dan, I know you're the hardest worker ever but there's also something called having fun. Try it." Everyone was supposed to enjoy their senior year because it'd be their last time in high school and she was sure her brother would have everything under control sooner or later. He was never one to put off assignments and projects to the last minute. Hopefully, if all things went well, she wouldn't have to stress like Dan was at the moment over her college applications. Which was why she decided to work harder this year. If she was on the right track, she'd get things organized quicker. Another lesson she learned over the past year. It wasn't so bad of an experience. Minus the utter humiliation and selfishness and finding out Asher was gay and having her entire reputation ruined, it was pretty changing. Yes, changing. That was a good word. It was a good example of what she'd tell her future kids not to do when entering high school -- changing yourself to fit in and getting completely caught up in the world of high maintenance. She took a look at the screen, reading the writing topics to herself. They were pretty generic topics and some had even been used as writing prompts before in English class. Shouldn't be too hard.
Jenny bit her lip in thought, "I think you could write about any of them and even make up one if you wanted to. You can relate to all of them." It was said matter of factly because it was sort of true. Or was completely true. One of them. She took a look at her brother, taking in his frustrated expression. He was entirely too stressed out about this and it was not good for him. Right now was about one of the only times she had thought about Dan and Serena's break up -- if they were still together, she'd take his mind off of this and things would be absolutely dandy fine again in the world of the Humphreys. But since they were broken up, Jenny had to take his mind off of college applications in case he exploded over the frustration. "You need a break, Dan. Sitting there forever staring at a screen is definitely not good for you. I'm sure Dad would say the same."
"Huh, 'having fun'," Dan said with a mock expression of thoughtfulness on his face. "You know, I think I might have heard of this 'having fun' thing before, in fact, I think there may have even been a point in my life, many years ago, when I actually did have fun," he teased and grinned lightly at Jenny. Dan was hoping he'd get his act back together sooner or later. The summer had really thrown him on a whirl, and he still didn't feel quite right. This wasn't exactly the most convenient time in his life to be having these sort of problems. Still, Dan was sure he wasn't the only one of his classmates who was having trouble with their college essay, but he was also sure he was the only one who couldn't pay for someone to write his essay for him or give him one-on-one coaching, so really, they weren't exactly all in the same boat.
Dan looked back at the screen. "Yeah," he said, and Jenny was right. He could easily talk about any of these topics, but some of the things that came to mind for some of the questions were things he didn't really want to have a complete stranger read about. "Maybe I'll go with the creative work one," Dan said and pressed his finger against the fourth option. "But I don't know," he said and stretched his arms over his head. When Jenny said he needed a break he looked over at her, and then back at the computer screen. He let his arms flop back down to his sides and decided that she had a point. What was he really accomplishing other than giving himself a headache? Besides, it wasn't as if he had done nothing entirely. He had filled out some things, and he had printed out those forms to give to Vanessa. That was progress, right?
"Alright," Dan agreed. "Maybe I do need a break," he said and closed all the web sites and documents he had opened, and then finally snapped the laptop shut. It was an oddly liberating feeling.
"No, you're wrong. I don't think there has been a time where you had fun," she shot back. "Always focused on work, my big brother, and shaming the rest of his classmates and not to mention, his darling little sister over their work ethic. Shame on you, Dan Humphrey!" This was why she loved her brother. They could tease each other without getting mad at each other. Oh, and he was nice and stuff. That helped their relationship a bit too. She was sure her father would've torn his hair out if they fought every day. Poor, poor father. He already had enough to worry about, raising two teenage children and managing his career. She watched him debate her question to take a break. "Yes, go with that. I think you'll be able to whip something up in no time. Just work on it some other time when you... don't have so much on your mind." Jenny was pretty sure that was the reason. Who didn't have a lot on their mind these few days?
As he closed the laptop shut, she grinned. Victory! If she could get her overachieving brother to stop working, it'd very obviously be one more step on her way to ruling mankind! Ta da! "Now. Uh, what do we do? My plan fizzled out from there." This was true, she had only planned up until he shut his laptop off, but after that, she hadn't calculated any ideas. This was why she stuck to fashion. "We could be two of the coolest people in Sunnydale and walk around, looking for something to do, or..." She trailed off, thinking to herself. "We could just stay home and watch movies and make fun of them! Feel free to pipe in with your ideas. They'd help." Jenny looked around at the tv in the other room and the bottle on the kitchen table, Dan's laptop on the table, and her laptop somewhere in the living room on the couch. This was a hard question. Should the Humphreys stay home or find entertainment elsewhere?
"Ooh, ouch, harsh words, Jen," Dan said jokingly. He chuckled lightly "Ok, I'll try not to work so hard so that the rest of my classmates, and of course, my darling little sister can feel better about their own inferior work ethics," Dan teased. He nodded again, agreeing with Jenny. Well, maybe Dan didn't agree with Jenny so much as he hoped what she was saying was true. He really hoped he'd snap out of this writing funk soon, because it was getting to be pretty annoying. Maybe he'd swallow his pride and check out some of those 'writer's block' web sites later. Dan always thought most of those sites were kind of stupid, but who knows, maybe they'll help.
Dan arched an eyebrow, "I was hoping you had a plan, considering you made the proposition," he said and then listened to her ideas. "Well, walking around being the coolest kids in Sunnydale might not be much of a challenge. I mean, it comes kind of naturally for us, doesn't it?" he said, trying to keep a nonchalant demeanor, but his face ultimately broke, Dan couldn't help but crack a sideways smile at his sister after that remark. Dan thought for a moment. What did he want to do right now? Nothing specific came to mind, and that was usually a problem when one had nothing specific to do, as it tended to be the leading cause of boredom. There had to be something Dan wanted to do, and when he really thought of it, there was. Dan was actually kind of hungry. He got so caught up in his college application frenzy that he hadn't eaten since breakfast. "Are you hungry?" he asked. "Want to grab something to eat? Now that I don't have the trusty Common App to distract me I'm actually kind of starving," he said.
"Hey!" She said, acting like she was deeply hurt by his comment, "I resent this attack on my work ethic. We can't all be like you." She applied herself! Just... on things she wanted to apply herself on and what if her applying herself took a little longer? Everyone had their style. This was very obviously hers. "But of course, I do wonder why people don't ask us why we're just so cool. Is our coolness too overwhelming? Should we tone it down? These are all important questions, Dan Humphrey!" Jenny nodded her head in a semi-serious way, mock thinking over her questions as if they were end of the world type questions. The truth was that they weren't the coolest people in school or in Sunnydale but pretending was fun. So was ridiculing the situation. People always said laughter was the best medicine, right? That quote applied to their lack of cool. Being depressed over that wouldn't do anything. Now that she thought about it, her thoughts drifting away from her station in life and her popularity (or lack thereof) at school to her stomach, she nodded again.
"I am hungry actually," Jenny said, already getting ready to walk to her room to change her clothes and grab her bag. "Where are we going?" She said loudly so he could hear it from her room she was currently occupying. Bag, bag... where was her bag? Aha! Got it. "Just wait for a minute, okay?" She quickly rummaged through her closet and searched for something to change into. Jeans and a t-shirt would work well. It wasn't like this was a fancy-schmancy dinner. The Humphreys didn't do fancy dinners often. They were done rarely. Less than rarely, really. Grabbing her bag from her bed, she tied her hair up into a ponytail and walked out of her room to meet Dan. "Okay! I am ready to go eat. So quick! Let's go, I'm hungry!"
"Ah, yes, unfortunately you all can't be like me, but what a perfect would it would be if you could," he teased, wrinkling his nose slightly at the thought. In all honesty, Dan wouldn't like it if everyone was like him. After all, there was something to be said about individuality. Dan laughed "I don't know," he said. "Maybe we intimidate others with our coolness, and that's why the likes of Blair Waldorf feel the need to try and convince themselves that they're cooler than we are, when really, they're not," Dan joked, but kept a perfectly straight face. "Maybe we could tone it down just a bit. You know, to make others feel welcome and all that," Dan said with a sage nod.
Dan grinned "Good," he said. Upon hearing Jenny's question, Dan took a moment to think. Where were they going? In all honesty, there weren't that many options. It more or less boiled down to the Crashdown Cafe or Doublemeat Palace. It didn't really matter much to Dan, so he called back "Uhhh...Crashdown Cafe? That good?" Dan didn't really need to get changed or anything. As far as he was concerned, he looked presentable enough to go out to lunch with his sister. However, he did need to put on shoes and so Dan grabbed a pair of stray, slightly faded black converses from the closet and slipped them on. "Right-oh, wait, hang on a sec we need money," Dan said and crossed the living room, making his way into his room where he grabbed his wallet. "Alright," Dan said as he opened the front door.
"Oh yes, that's exactly it," she agreed, "That's why Blair and her friends ignore me every time. Because they're not as cool as us. I get that logic," Okay, so maybe there was a bit of her bitter side in that comment. It was justified, though. Every day at school, it was like she didn't even exist even though last year, she was the most popular girl at school. It really made her think about how things could change just like that, especially when messing with one Blair Waldorf. Good lesson learned. She waited until he put his shoes on and grabbed the money before sliding out the front door that was held open by Dan. "Crashdown Cafe we go!" She exclaimed as they headed towards the general direction of the Crashdown Cafe.
"Aren't you just in the mood for some Green Eggs with Moon Rock Hash?" Jenny asked with a slight smile. The names of the food there always amused her, but it only came with the alien theme. Sunnydale was so weird at times but she had lived here for her whole life and gotten used to it. Besides it wasn't really Moon Rock Hash (or was it, dun dun dun?) so it wasn't like the food there was terribly life threatening. It was pretty good actually. Especially if you were in the mood for some alien cuisine. Okay, veering off the topic here. Sorta.
"Acknowledging our existence would be too painful for their delicate egos," Dan said casually. "But really, Jen, don't worry about those girls. You don't want to be friends with their sort. I mean, forgive me for being so cliche but I'm pretty sure this phrase was invented to describe girls like Blair and her minions; who needs enemies with friends like that, right?" Dan pointed out. He realized the whole popularity thing was an infinitely larger issue for Jenny, and girls in general for the most part, than it was for him, so he couldn't really understand how Jenny felt about these sort of things. Sure, Dan didn't exactly fit in with his classmates either, and he could relate to her about five times over on that front. Still, although he frequently wished the guys he spent the majority of the school day with weren't such blatant ass holes, he definitely did not want to be one of them.
Dan laughed "I'm always up for some Green Eggs with Moon Rock Hash," he said. Dan knew the names were apart of the whole gimmick of the restaurant, but they were still ridiculous at best and unappetizing at worse. However, the food itself was more than edible, even if there was a lot of unnatural greenness involved. Dan locked the door behind Jenny and then turned onto the sidewalk, heading in the direction of the Crashdown Cafe, infamous meeting spot for tourists and bored locals.
She listened to Dan, although she had heard every variation of these words since the end of last year. There had been a lot of that with her father. And that wasn't fun at all. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't listen to them, mind your own business, you're better than them," Jenny refrained from adding in a blah blah blah after that because that wasn't very mature of her to do. "But I have the internship to worry about instead so I guess it's easier to just forget about Blair and her group when I'm running around getting errands for Eleanor." She really enjoyed this internship, often forgoing relaxing weekends to help Eleanor work on a design or just simply, fetch accessories for Laurel and Eleanor. Everyone knew that Eleanor Waldorf was one of the top designers in Sunnydale and if working for her ensured an easier way to the top of the fashion industry, she'd do it. Besides, she really liked the woman, despite the fact that she was strict sometimes and often just delegated useless work to Jenny. But she'd take it anyways.
Jenny walked in relative silence, passing some people on the street that were heading either the same way or walking home the other way. Sunnydale usually bustled with activity in the night, for some odd reason, but that was something she had noticed over the years. They reached the Crashdown in a few minutes and she snickered at the waiters and waitresses in their fancy costumes before waiting for someone to approach the two of them.