Tensor

After Dinner

The internet was a great thing, but having too many pages open confused him and more than once had destroyed hard work when the wrong red X was clicked. So Jono was taking some of his miserly hoarded money and using it to buy a good Spanish-English/English-Spanish dictionary before he tossed his laptop out the window. A good thick one. Maybe even a heavy one, to see if his arms could gain any muscle.

He'd tried to get down to the bookstore in the Activities Center during dinner to avoid the crowds and clubs and noise, but with the three people he shared a bathroom with out, he'd decided to take a shower instead. When one did not sweat or become oily or use the toilet, one did not have to bathe as often, much to his surprise. Jono had thought he'd have to bathe more because he was... dusty or something. But his hair didn't even become stringy or flaky. It was a pleasant surprise.

Still, unwrapping was a private thing he didn't let anyone see, and he had to when he bathed.

In his uniform minus his tie and blazer, sleeves rolled up, shirt untucked, top button undone, Jono had slunk into the bookstore and into the reference section. None of the foreign language dictionaries had that comforting heft but several of them looked good and meaty. He flipped through them, looking for ones with definitions he understood easily. He hated those dictionaries where a single word definition, when looked up, was the first word he'd been trying to define.

Eyes still on the various definitions, Jono stepped back to let any others around easy access, but bumped into someone behind him.

*Oh, god, terribly sorry,* he murmured.

Who: Kevin and Josh
When: Tuesday, 3/1 immediately after the lake party
Where: On the way back to the dorms and in Josh's room
What: Dealing with fallout

( It's not okay! It's never going to be okay! )

Jay tossed his bag against his bed and tugged his tie off. It had been a very, very long day. He couldn't get those poor people out of his mind. He was looking forward to eating dinner with his family and just taking the time to be together under one roof for a while. His back was also at a breaking point and he was just about at his overall.

Shrugging out of his blazer, he unbuttoned his shirt and draped it neatly over his desk chair. He'd hang it up later. He'd do his homework later. His whole system was set to crash, and stepping back to his bed, he dropped into it chest first with a heavy sigh that was immediately swallowed by his mattress.

Jared had enjoyed playing some basketball with the other students but always wandered around when meal times popped up. He'd wait until things had died down a little and then he'd strap the zapper to his face and find something to convert to energy for himself. More than likely he'd go with something boring like wheat bread or oatmeal. His body seemed to function best when it was given a lot of carbs. Watching other kids munch down on grub--or worse watch him with his damn bug zapper food converter thing--made him anxious. When Jared was anxious, he got angry. When Jared was angry, he picked fights with people. Random, stupid fights that didn't have any sort of rhyme or reason behind them. It was still way too early for him to be getting into trouble at this school.

"Give it at least a fucking month, Corbo," he muttered to himself as he wandered down the corridor, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his hoodie.

Then he caught site of a face he thought he recognized. "Hey. You're Kitty, right?"