Fourth Floor Common Room; Saturday Evening.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

His weekend, Cal decided, was just going to be full of new sorts of things, and he decided to stop being lazy in his room and go down to the common room to be lazy there. The common room had the added benefit of television, and he realized that he really hadn't bothered watching much modern TV.

...After a little while of flipping through the channels (after another while of trying to figure out the remote), Cal understood why he hadn't bothered. It was a weekend of new things, but he decided that watching TV wasn't one of them, and he soon turned it off, leaving for his room and coming back with a book and his script for the play to just do some good old reading.


[[ open as common rooms are! ]]

Comments

[withoutverona]

The fifth floor was out of the cereal Romeo favored, so he made the oh-so-lengthy trek down the stairs to see if it was in stock on four.

He glanced around the quiet common room, taking a moment to realize what seemed odd to him. "The television is off," he announced to Cal.

Somehow, this passed for a greeting in his head.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"I know," Cal stated, and then held up his book for Romeo to see. "I'm trying this crazy new thing, it's called reading. You should check it out; it's a real trip."

[withoutverona]

Romeo squinted at the book, swallowing his grin. "So those strange markings on the page talk to you? I've not heard of this; explain."

He located the cereal and poured it into a bowl.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

After a moment of looking at Romeo and trying to decide if he was serious or not, Cal lifted a hand from his book to tap his forehead with a finger. "In here, man. The words talk to you in your head; that's what's so trippy about it."

[withoutverona]

Romeo wondered if Cal had thought he was serious; that was almost depressing, but more than possible at this school.

"So you look at the papers and you get voices in your head," he nodded. "And without pharmaceutical assistance."

"That is ... trippy." The slang was unfamiliar on his tongue.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal nodded, very sage-like. "Exactly. And the words, they make stories, about things. Sometimes, there's even pictures!"

[withoutverona]

Romeo made an impressed face, then looked for the milk. "Are there pictures in that one, then?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Unable to maintain the sarcasm for too long, Cal let a slight chuckle escape him as he shook his head. "Regrettably? No."

[withoutverona]

"What is it, then?" Romeo queried, settling into a chair with his dinner.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal marked his page, folding it down in the corner in a way that used to drive his mother crazy, and then offered the script of Much Concern About Nothing over toward Romeo because the mun is too brain dead to bother with picking out something else to read. "The play we're doing this time over at the Boards. I've actually got a good part of it already memorized, but it never hurts to go over it, especially since Tennant's a nightmare about asking questions about every little detail. I study more for that damn play that I do any of my classes."

[minnesota-teen.livejournal.com]

Amber poked her head in looking for a particlar someone and when she saw that particular someone, she grinned and skipped on over to him, plopping down right beside him. "Hi."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

And how could Cal respond to that with anything other than a grin as he shifted his attention from the script toward Amber and greeted her back. "Hey."

[withoutverona]

"Shakespeare," Romeo said slowly, reading the proffered page. "It's odd, my brain turns to static when I try to read that for too long. It's part of why I didn't try out, though I did end up taking your part when you were, ah, indisposed."

"It doesn't sound like it's a decision I should regret." What Cal was describing sounded like work.

[withoutverona]

Romeo waved slightly to Amber. "Good evening, it's been a while."

[minnesota-teen.livejournal.com]

She glanced at the script. "It's Saturday night, why're you studying?"

[not-fangirl.livejournal.com]

"Reading again?" Temari asked, walking into the room to look for something palatable to eat.

[minnesota-teen.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Romeo. How're you doing?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal tilted his head at Romeo. "You took up my part that night I turned into a hyena?"

[withoutverona]

"It was a complicated week," Romeo told her. "But it seems to be over, and I have cereal, so I can't complain too terribly. And you?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"I'm not studying," Cal argued lightly. "I'm just enjoying one of the fine works of one of the English language's greatest poets."

There was a slight pause, a slight shifting of eyes.

"Plus there's nothing good on TV. Modern television is weird."

[withoutverona]

"All ten lines before he died," he nodded. "Geoff dragged me to the theater and I decided to give it a go."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"I like reading," Cal answered, figuring that was a good enough response as any and, besides, his attention was put more into peering over the top of his book at Fanbutt in a very displeased fashion.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"The man's crazy," Cal said, but he grinned, "but that was cool of you filling in. I could have still done the death part, I think, but the lines would have been a little hard in that form."

[not-fangirl.livejournal.com]

She wasn't looking back. "Is there a problem, Sparkles? Other than dating a pre-teen boy?"

[minnesota-teen.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," she replied, glancing over at the TV. "SNL comes on late and it's always good for a laugh."

Reading a play was boring on Saturday night.