First Floor Lobby, Tuesday Late Morning/Early Afternoon

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

There are still six days left to go before classes start, and Anders has stationed himself in the first floor lobby with . . . a book. (He's quite shocked about it too, actually.) Yes, he's actually reading.

Granted, it's a book on baseball history that Cally gave him for Christmas. But the important thing here is that he's reading. Voluntarily. And not for class.

And he kind of wants people to see this. Just so they know he actually can read, and isn't afraid of books. Hence his presence in the first floor lobby instead of one of the common rooms.

Not that he'd be averse to a conversation if anyone were to stop by.

[OOC: It is deader than dead at work today. Entertain me. I beg you.]

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/___lily_evans_/]

Lily walked in the lobby and headed for the stairs but stopped when she saw... Anders. Yes, that's his name. She was intrigued to see someone who appeared to be studying over break, so she smiled and waved.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders looked up, attempted to wave with the hand holding the book, and promptly dropped it and lost his place. "Hey," he said, a little red-faced as he scrambled to pick the book up and find the page he'd been on. "What's up?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/___lily_evans_/]

Lily politely ignored his lack of grace and said, "Hullo," as she walked over to where Anders was sitting. "Not much... trying to enjoy every spare minute of free time before the new term starts." She looked down at the book he was holding and added, "I'm sorry - I didn't mean to disturb you. Good book, is it?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Pretty good, yeah," he replied enthusiastically. "Gift from my girlfriend. And naw, don't worry about disturbing me. The quiet gets to me after a while."

He gestured vaguely with the book and explained, "I sorta discovered baseball a couple of months ago and got hooked on it, and now I've got all this baseball stuff that people gave me for Christmas. And . . . football, and a bunch of other Earth sports, too, since I guess nobody would know how to get a hold of any Pyramid stuff around here anyway. You're Lily, right? You were in my math class? How's your break been?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/___lily_evans_/]

"Yeah, Lily," she confirmed, offering to shake his hand. "And you're Anders? I knew I recognized you from somewhere. Maths was actually a lot of fun last term, I thought."

She sat down in the chair next to his, looking at him curiously. "That's really cool that you're learning - Since I went away to my old school, where all they play is Quidditch, it's been several years since I've talked about normal sports - baseball and football, and of course football in Europe is different than football in America too, so... it's just a bit confusing all around for new people." Lily realized she was rambling and attempted to focus. "'Pyramid' is it, where you're from? What's that like?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders took Lily's hand and gave it an enthusiastic shake. "Yeah, that's me. And it really was a fun class. I even got an A, which is, like, amazing to me. I never do that well with numbers, usually."

"Pyramid is . . ." He thought for a second, making odd gestures with his free hand. "A little bit of American football and a little bit of basketball, only with a triangular court and one goal. Get the ball into the basket, keep the other team from scoring, tackle them if you have to. Pretty simple, really, but when you've got full teams going it gets kind of crazy on the court. I'm from Delphi on a planet called Caprica, part of the Colonies of Kobol. It's pretty far away from here. Don't ask me how to get there from here, either," he added with a self-conscious laugh.

"What's Quidditch? I've never heard of that sport." Anders got that overly-enthusiastic sports-maniac glint in his eyes.

[http://users.livejournal.com/___lily_evans_/]

"Oh wow," Lily said after he described his home. "That's incredible. I... yeah, wow." Again, focus. "Pyramid sounds really fun."

"Quidditch is... well," she looked uncomfortable, never sure of how people would react to learning about magic. "I'm a witch, you see, and quidditch is a sport played in the international wizarding community - seven players on each team - three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and one Seeker, all flying on broomsticks. There are three hoops on each end of the long rectangular field, so there it's a bit like European Football, where one person from each team guards the hoops, and the object is to get the quaffle - the red ball - through the hoops to score points. The Chasers work on passing the quaffle to try and score, and all the while there are two balls called bludgers, which are charmed to fly around and try to get in the way - knock people off their broomsticks and the like, and the Beaters are there to try and keep the bludgers from doing so much damage to their teammates. And the seeker flies around looking for the fourth ball - a tiny gold one called a snitch. When the seeker catches the snitch the game is over and the highest-scoring team wins. It's a bit of fun to watch, and interesting to play, but sometimes people get really injured, which is just like any other sport, I suppose."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders's expression grew more and more fascinated as Lily explained the sport. "Whoa," he said finally. "That sounds way cool, and way more complicated than Pyramid. Not that less complicated is bad, really, but that just sounds like a lot of fun. Wish I could see a game of that."

His eyes glazed over for a moment as he tried to imagine Pyramid on flying broomsticks -- yeah, you'd definitely need a much bigger court for that, but wow, that could be cool. "Sounds really high-speed, too, so yeah, injury's always a possibility. Pyramid's pretty rough that way too, with the tackling and everything . . . the friend I was training with blew out her knee during practice a few weeks ago, and now she might never get to play again." He bit his lip, looking vaguely troubled at that last part.

[http://users.livejournal.com/___lily_evans_/]

Lily smiled at Anders's interest in Quidditch. "I have a few books about Quidditch you could borrow, if you wanted - complete with moving pictures, which might give you some idea of what it's really like. When you're done reading about baseball perhaps," she offered.

Her expression changed to one of concern as she added, "I'm really sorry to hear about your friend. Is there a chance of recovery, at least?"

[demonbelthazor]

Too restless to wait in their room for Phoebe to return to the dorms, Belthazor headed down to the first floor lobby area. He most certainly was not pacing anxiously. He most certainly was not obviously eager to have his girlfriend back. He did nod in greeting to Lily and Anders. "Hey," he said.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Hey, dude." Anders looked up and blinked, noting that for someone who certainly wasn't pacing, Belthazor sure looked like he was. "You okay?"

[demonbelthazor]

"Yeah, I'm, uh...." Well, no sense hiding it. "I'm waiting for my girlfriend to get back to the dorms," Bel said with a sheepish grin.

[http://users.livejournal.com/___lily_evans_/]

Lily smiled sympathetically and gestured to a nearby seat, if Belthazor wanted to sit. "That's great - she'll be here soon, I take it?"

[demonbelthazor]

"She's supposed to be," Bel said, taking the offered seat. "I saw her on New Year's Eve and all, but...this is the first time we've really been apart for long." He laughed a little. "I must sound so pathetic."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders grinned; he was pretty sure he'd had that same expression on his face before. "Yeah, man, I can understand that," he told Belthazor sympathetically. "I mean, I get kinda twitchy when my girlfriend's gone for a few hours. Gettin' kinda twitchy now, actually, so I might be more pathetic than you. She been gone pretty much all break? Wow. I'd go kinda crazy if it was me."

[demonbelthazor]

"The entire break," Bel confirmed with a nod. "She's been at her grandmother's, while I was stuck here. Somehow taking care of Dr. Grissom's bugs while he was away just didn't fill that void." He grinned.

[http://users.livejournal.com/___lily_evans_/]

Lily laughed. "No, I can see how bugs aren't the same at all. I don't think you're pathetic at all. I moped around for an entire week before my boyfriend - well, you know Draco from JA, I think - told me he was planning to stay here for break!"

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

On her way to meet Angela for the IKEA thing, Rory wandered through the lobby. She stopped, and tilted her head curiously at Anders.

"Hey, Anders. What are you reading?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders looked up and grinned. "Hey, Gilmore! Baseball book Cally gave me. I gotta learn all about this sport while I can. Where you off to?"

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Isle of Ikea," Rory replied. "And do you have a favorite team yet?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Oh! You're going on that trip with Angela! Listen, do me a favor and give this to her for me? I was gonna do it last night and forgot." Anders dug out his wallet and fished out a couple of twenties. "I asked her to get me some stuff, and forgot to get the money to her."

He leaned back in his chair, tapped the book against his chin, and said, "As for a favorite team? Haven't really seen enough to tell, but I kinda dig this Angels team for some reason. Maybe it's the logo. Cally keeps gettin' me jerseys and stuff of theirs."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Sure," Rory agreed, pocketing the twenties. "How come you're not going?"

She arched a brow. "Angels, huh? They're good. I'm a Yankees fan. Mostly because of proximity - I grew up near New York."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Eh." Anders shrugged. "Didn't really feel like it, I guess. Maybe if you guys get to go another time, though."

He scrunched up his face and puzzled for a moment over the vagaries of U.S. geography, then gave up completely. "See, that's the thing that I'm still completely confused by, with baseball and stuff. I have no idea where any of these teams are, except by Eastern, Central, and Western divisions. That's like, as much geography as I know around here."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory smiled. "Yeah, I can see it being complicated given how we've got fifty states and all. We ought to take a roadtrip at some point to New York or something. I know Professor Cregg took a group there. We could go see a Yankees game. And we could stay in Stars Hollow!" She bounced excitedly, eyes lighting up with the idea.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"See a real baseball game?" Anders practically started bouncing up and down in the chair himself. "That'd be an awesome field trip idea. You could even call it a cultural thing for us non-Earth people!"