midnight surprise ; katie

[Chris Gordon]

"Fuck."

It was one word, but it was enough. Chris stood outside the girl's dormitory at Bullworth Academy, feeling like an idiot. This whole thing was stupid really; he should have just let her go. A couple of months ago when Katie dropped the bomb on him that she'd be going to Bullworth it was like his whole world had been pulled out from beneath him. Katie (and Hannah too) consisted of pretty much Chris' entire social life. It was hard to admit that at fifteen the only people that mattered to him in the whole world that weren't family were the two girls he hung out with, but it worked out all right for him. One thing he was sure of was that if Katie got away to Bullworth, he'd never get the chance to tell her how he felt.

"So stupid," he told himself again, now his eyes busily scanning all of the windows, waiting to see the face of the girl that he had grown up with. The last couple years had been interesting; they'd transformed him from the lovable best friend to the best friend in love. It had always been slightly awkward - Hannah, Katie and Chris together... But somehow it had worked. In favor of not jeopardizing things - or at least that was the public statement - he'd never told her how he felt. The truth was worse than that though; so much worse. He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind as he anxiously searched the windows for that familiar face.

What if she doesn't look? he thought to himself. So fucked... he repeated. There was no part of his brain that now believed that this was worth it. Everything he'd done since she left was culminating to this moment. He was going to tell her everything; about how depressed he'd been in New York without her (and Hannah, too) and how he wasn't going to be such a chicken shit and tell her the truth about... Everything. "Where the hell is she?" He said softly, to no one as he waited under a tree in the darkness on the Bullworth grounds. Idiot, idiot, idiot, the mantra repeated over and over again in his head. In his hands was a giant bowl; all right, not giant, but large. It was filled to the brim with salad; field greens with all kinds of vegetables, no dressing. It was sort of an inside joke and he hoped that she would get a chance to find it funny before security came around and yelled at him.

[Katie Morgan]

She was about to ask "Why" when Chris logged off. Why did she have to look out her window? Suddenly though she was floored with excitement, could it be? Was he outside? She ran to the window from her bed practically knocking her laptop to the ground. She looked around and saw nothing. Her hopes crashed down when she saw something by a tree it was dark so it was hard to see, but there he was, bowl in hand. Christopher Gordon.

She ran out of her room at top speed and flew down the spiral staircase out into the front of the dorms to the tree where Gordo was. She had a huge smile on her face "Gordo!" she cried crushing him into a hug. The bowl hurtfully in the middle. She kissed his cheek and then let go. "What the hell?!" She was beyond happy, it had been far too long since she'd seen her old friend.

"Is this for real?" She asked him, hoping it was. "Does Hannah know? Don't tell me you saw her first" she warned. She was giddy practically bouncing. "I was just talking about you too" she said thinking of Jamie's invite to play video games one day.

[Chris Gordon]

It was like she knew; but of course she knew – he’d told her to look out the window, so she did. At first all he saw was a dark shadow, but it was definitely her face. The same, slightly sharp features that he’d looked at fondly for so many years. She was gorgeous; just as much so as when she’d left New York, maybe more. Being at Bullworth had been good for her, which was hard to deal with. He hadn’t wanted her to suffer or anything, but he’d sort of hoped that she’d at least seem a little worse for the wear.

Before he knew it, she was upon him, arms squeezing tightly, causing the bowl to cut into his stomach. “Ow, Katers,” he said, hoping she hadn’t drawn blood. He slid the weight of the bowl to one hand and gave her a decent squeeze back. It felt good to hold her again, even if it wasn’t exactly under the circumstances he’d hoped. His grin was broad and he looked pretty pleased with himself for surprising her. Katie was a hard girl to surprise and this had been one of the most elaborate surprises to date.

“Of course it’s for real,” he said, still holding on to her. The nighttime spring air whipped around them a bit and sent the scent of her shampoo toward him. It was a smell he’d missed and it caused a bit of a shiver down his spine. Chris gave her a look of disbelief as she questioned if he’d seen Hannah first. Why would he go see Hannah first? And then it became clear that she had absolutely no idea what this whole thing meant. He had planned to tell her tonight; but maybe it was better for another time. On the other hand, she was thinking about him late at night, that couldn’t be a bad thing either.

“No, I came and saw you first,” he said, shuffling his feet a bit and still regretful that eventually he’d have to let her go from this little embrace. His cheek burned where she had kissed him and he was thankful for the cover of nighttime. “In leiu of flowers, milady,” he said, bowing deeply and offering the salad to her. “I thought it should still be some kind of plant,” he said awkwardly, making excuses for the presence of the large bowl of vegetables.

[Katie Morgan]

"So you're a Bullworth student now?!" Kate had never been happier the three amigos were back together, it really had been too long, and when Hannah came back it just made her miss Chris more, Sure having her back was great but she was still missing an important part of her, her homeboy Chris. He was like a brother to her, more than that, she was sure he was her soul mate - in a totally platonic sort of way.

Kate believed you could have more than one soul mate, a friend type and a lover type, she already had the friend type, and if she never found the lover type, she was fine with that because she thought a friend soul mate was much better.

But still for some reason all she could think about in this moment was what Jamie would think, and how much she wanted to make him a part of the threesome. She wasn't exactly sure what that meant exactly, she had just met the guy and she was already thinking about him randomly?

"I'm in shock!" she laughed taking the salad bowl from Chris' hands, took a piece of lettuce and munched on it. "You know me too well" she told him. "Let's take a walk" She took the bowl in one hand and in the other took Chris' hand leading him a way she knew no pesky security guards would be.

"I didn't think it was possible to miss somebody this much." She said and immediately regretted it, some things should be left unsaid... "Sorry, Cheesy" She muttered and let go of his hand to grab a tomato. "So what have I missed?" She wondered what he'd done when she was gone. A part of her thought time would stop in NYC. That with out her things just kind of floated, but that was self centered and selfish of her, of course he had to move on with life. She knew that.

[Chris Gordon]

All Chris could do was nod as she asked about his enrollment status with Bullworth. It hadn’t been any easy thing to convince his dad to let him go to school halfway across the country. Financially, it hadn’t been an issue; but the two Gordon men had spent a fair amount of time discussing the practicality of moving halfway across the country for a girl at fifteen years old. In the end, Chris had convinced his dad of the merits of the school regardless of the fact that Katie Morgan could be counted in its population. He did know her too well – well enough to know that something like flowers would be totally unappreciated but something like salad would be welcome with open arms. “Those are radish roses you know,” he said with a grin. “I’ve been watching the Food Network.”

He had gotten to the point where the physical nature of their relationship, things like her reaching for his hand or her leg brushing up against his when she sat down next to him that didn’t bother him so much. He remembered the few weeks that had followed his stark realization that he was in love with her being some of the most painful of his life. Everything Katie did put him on edge; he would inhale sharply as she would take his hand, or rest hers on his thigh. Now as she took his hand he still felt those sparks, but his face did not show any hint of his excitement just to be near her again; or no more that was to be expected.

It was then that she admitted how much she had missed him; those words took him by surprise. The way she had left, Chris had expected her to take over Bullworth the same way she had New York City. Sure, there were probably a couple million people in New York who didn’t know the name Katie Morgan, nor the amazing girl the name belonged to but New York wasn’t New York for Chris without Katie. He winced at the nickname… It was one from childhood that evidently was going to stick for much longer than he had anticipated.

“Kenny placed again for the spelling bee,” Chris commented. A mutual friend of theirs named Rakender Jayaraman was a nationally ranked spelling bee champion. In the wake of Hannah and Katie’s absence, Chris had cemented a pretty good friendship with the guy, who was completely understanding when it came to Chris’ reasons for leaving New York. “He was worried that you’d changed and perhaps you wouldn’t be so Lilliputian. I’ll tell him it’s not an issue,” Chris said with a little bit of dislike. Ken was always using words that no one else quite knew the meaning of, though with Katie’s literary references, this one was sure to not pass her by.

“But other than that, New York is dull… It’s not the same without you, Katers,” Chris added, perhaps admitting just how much he had missed his friend; but there was of course the obvious gesture of transferring schools that probably told her the answer to that. “What about you? What about Bullworth? Have you taken it by storm yet?” He asked her, stuffing his hands into his pockets and adopting a posture that was familiar; sort of slouched over, not particularly confident looking – almost a sort of standing cocoon.


OOC: Hope you don't mind, I invented another random friend for us.

[Katie Morgan]

"Nice workmanship" Katie appraised Chris' radish roses and took a bite of one. "Needs salt" she said putting the rest of the radish back into the bowl. She was still suprised to have Chris back. A part of her was wondering whether or not her imagination had gotten the best of her. It wouldn't be the first time.

Katie smiled at the thought of Kenny, ever the charmer with such words as Lilliputian. "I don't recall ever being six inches tall?" she joked. "One day that boy's brains are gonna implode" she laughed. She wondered what the two boys did without the pressance of her or Hannah. She wondered how Chris could stand Kenny for too long. He was rather pompous and arrogant. But there was slim pickins from the students at their old school.

She nodded sympathetically at the thought of NYC being dull without her. She kind of figured. Chris was a rather withdrawn person and he wouldn't go out and make new friends just because his old one's were shipped away. To be honest she'd done the same. With the exception of James she really had not gone out of her way to be social.

"No storm here," she shrugged. "light showers maybe" Her mind instantly was invaded by thoughts of things they would do now that they were back together. Raid the mall, break curfews, and all sorts of school codes. She'd instantly be known by the administrators as trouble again.

She remembered her first day at Bullworth, they warned her to be on her best behaviour, as they'd be "watching" her. She didn't care at first after all what could she do alone?

"You really should stand up straight" she told him. She was always the 'mother' of the group, trying to get them to eat healthy, study and just like now not slouch. "It'll kill your back" she warned.

[Chris Gordon]

Every word was praising; even about his stupid salad. They talked a little more about Kenny, but he was really just filler conversation for now. To be honest, Chris wasn’t sure he’d ever really get the chance to talk to the guy again. He’d been nice to have around as a friend in the absence of Katie and Hannah, but certainly not any kind of replacement for the two girls. He also didn’t believe in things like cell phones, computers or the internet; which was weird when you considered the kind of nerdy guy he was. Though he professed a desire to visit the Bullworth Academy campus, Chris doubted very much that it would ever be a wish realized.

He ignored her comment about his posture and remembered the sort of weak attempt she and his dad had made to get him to stop it. He couldn’t help it. And while they both insisted it was a commentary on his self-confidence, Chris couldn’t concede to the fact. He was a pretty happy guy that wasn’t really ever depressed about his life or the cards he was dealt in it… So their little theory couldn’t be possible. There was only one thing that made him feel bad about his life and it was welling up now; like a lump in his throat.

It was late; after midnight on the somewhat abandoned grounds of Bullworth. She was clutching that stupid salad and looking as good as she ever had. The moon was out, as well as a few stars. It was perfect. It couldn’t have been more perfect if he had choreographed the whole thing. It was hard to deny mother nature and the elements when it seemed like the cosmos aligned; but Chris could easily talk himself out of anything and this was definitely one of those things. So, instead of telling her why he’d moved, how he felt and taking her in his arms and doing something he’d only dreamed about, he just laughed.

“C’mon? No broken hearts? No broken school property?” He mused. “I mean, you and Hannah have been here for what… A little over a month now? Frankly I was kind of surprised there weren’t several large sets of char marks where the buildings of the school used to be.”