Solitude and reflections (open)

[Damon Malthus]

The sky was painted pink and purple, the boy smiled to himself. He was extremely happy that they had let him to go school. He let the breeze play across his unmarred face. It was freezing out but he enjoyed the outside so he didn't mind too much. The boy drew his hoodie closer around his absolutely tiny frame.

He swept the loose strands of raven hair from his shocking eyes, wondering vaguely why they let him come in the first place. Timothy was usually very careful about who he talked to and he was always monitoring him. In fact he was never even allowed to go into another room without being accompanied by someone. Timothy was a little strange like that, he always thought he would run away.

It had been extremely hard for Damon these days, keeping up with the other kids. The work was very hard for him, it wasn't his fault, Timothy, Rex, and Leon had kept him so very sheltered only teaching him the things that were necessary.

His eyes were adorned heavily with eyeliner, he rose from the park bench he had been sitting on. He smiled a small gentle smile, one of his favorite things now was picking out what he wanted to wear. His doc martin's made gentle thuds as he began to walk on.

Just looking at him, no one would never know what he's been through, where he's living... nothing. Now if they could see the many scars, bruises, marks, and cigarette burns littering his body they might catch an inkling. Still the blue-eyed boy remained happy for the time being, his naivety was simply the only thing keeping him content.

[Hayley Johnson]

Hayley was for once in a great mood. Her bipolar had caused her neither to be insanely depressive or even super, madly hyper. Instead she could be her normal self and these days were the ones she adored when she didn't have to try and calm her raging temper or stop herself from running in circles or leaping out the next window she saw. Her moods experienced major alternatives, from one extreme to the next. Her unpredictable behavior made her a little dangerous to be around but usually when she felt her spirits dramatically drop she would head off to be alone.

The girl's petite frame was clad in a pair of orange drain pipe jeans to match the flaming orange, red and bleached hair she fashioned. A black vest clad her upper torso hugging it like her very own secondary skin. Brushing back her neon hair with her ivory finger tips her blue-ish green eyes to reveal her decorated eyes. With black eyeliner she had drawn thick and dark around her eyes, at the edges the lines joined and flicked out to make them look more like cat eyes.

She gave a sigh though personally couldn't hear it. She was listening to her iPod and singing along to the merry tune that was 'hold my hand' by new found glory. Of course her singing stopped when she came near to the boy ahead of her. She flashed him a smile. "Hey." Her cheery self always had a tendency for saying hi to everyone and anyone.

[Damon Malthus]

Blue eyes looked over her, Damon smiled warmly. "Hi," he returned her greeting, his voice soft but audible. He was sure he had seen her around. He usually kept to himself of course so he was almost always overlooked. It wasn't like he tried to keep to himself it's just he wasn't sure how to interact with other people normally. He liked the girl's style a lot and her hair, he would have loved to dye his hair but he was forbid to do anything to it unless Timothy allowed him to.

He looked back to the girl, she seemed content, he wished he could be. Sure he was happy but the only thing he had to be happy about was that they let him come to school. He wanted to be happy for no reason for once but he just shrugged it off.

He thought it only polite to introduce himself, "I'm Damon by the way," gently he spoke. He smiled again, thats what normal people did... right? He hoped so. He wasn't sure of a lot of things but they had taught him next to nothing about life and how to function in a society.

[Hayley Johnson]

The song drained out and Hayley pulled out her earphones, allowing them to dangle freely above her chest. There was no point in putting them away she would probably use them at some point later on. Scanning Damon she titled her head lightly. Something seemed to catch her interest, he didn't seem like every other kid but she had sworn she had seen him before.

The most common answer would be in one of the school corridors but she often payed little attention to others walking down them. She either had her music at full blast and was concentrating at not dropping her guitar or she was rambling on at a few friends. She always appeared bright and happy although that would just be because if she ever had a 'bad' day she would stay shut in her room. Her downs could last anything up to a few weeks at time but the school was used to her not coming into lessons sometimes.
Along with her medical reasons the teachers didn't really want her around when she was in her depressive bipolar state.

A warm smile flushed over her pale expression. "I'm Hayley." She said in bright and colorful tones. "Nice to meet you." She bit her lip for a moment in thought, thinking of what to say.
"D'you go to East Valley?" She questioned referring to the school.

[Damon Malthus]

Damon nodded, "I do, I know you do I've seen you around." He studied the girls face, "it's okay, not many people pay attention to me," still his smile never faltered. "I don't mind though, I'm sort of new here." He left out the fact that he had never been to a school before and that Timothy, Rex (who was an awful teacher), and Leon had taught him everything he now knows.

Which wasn't much.

Rex, when he was supposed to be teaching, would often give up and toy with the young boy instead, he found it to be more rewarding. Damon shivered involuntarily, Timothy was a bit better but he too would become distracted. Leon was possibly the only one who could keep a level head and teach Damon, he would save the abuse for later.

Though they never did teach him about cell phones, nor computers... nothing like that. Instead a day or two before he left they gave him a cell phone and he got used to it. He has been struggling to learn how to operate computers but he has never given up. He turned his attention back to her.

[Hayley Johnson]

Tilting her head a little she watched him as he spoke. A bright smile tugged at her lips as she nodded lightly. "Yeah I'm pretty sure I recognize you. But then again I'm not the most observant of people you'll ever meet." In one means this was true but she was actually very observant...when it came to many insignificant things. She would totally skip over anything important but look at small chunks of things in detail. It was probably when pushed her talent in music writing, lyrics and art. She looked a hell of a lot deeper than you average person but sometimes that wasn't a good thing. She had a habit of over analyzing things.

To his comment she frowned a little. "How long have you been coming here?" Her tones were always light and happy, her Tennessee accent rather soft and subtle, it wasn't overpowering but it certainly was there. You could hear it rather clearly.

Tucking a few annoying strands of hair behind her ear only to watch it be blown from it's place she signed and gave up. There wasn't much point really in even trying. When it was windy her hair had a mind of its own. Slipping a hand to rest on her outer thigh it seemed a comfy place to place it and it balanced just below her iPod. She watched Damon rather carefully as she seemed to constantly study everything.

[Damon Malthus]

"Um," he stammered. How was he supposed to answer that? He had never been in a position like this before, "Umm I'm not too sure. Maybe a few months?" He looked down at his feet, swallowing hard. He was nervous, very nervous. He hoped it didn't show. He retreated within himself a bit, his pallid cheeks tinted pink a bit.

He pretended to see something interesting by his shoes. He didn't know what the big deal was but Timothy was adamant about no one knowing that he's never been to school and also that he lives with three men, none of them being his father.

Soft black hair fell into his eyes and impatiently he brushed it away. He wondered what she was thinking, probably that he was a freak. A freak that didn't know anything and that had to lie all the time. He blamed Timothy completely.

[Hayley Johnson]

Hayley noticed how awkward he turned but she couldn't really figure out why. She simply nodded. Her herself had been living here for a few years now but living in a whole different country hadn't changed her one bit. She still did exactly the same things as before just with a slightly more..british group of friends.

She still missed her old friends but they all kept in contact. Her old band that she drummed for now had a new drummer and were actually doing really well. She shrugged it off and turned her attention back to what to say. She had no clue what she could say. The whole awkward vibe just seemed to make the social side of her brain freeze up. She bit her lip lightly and frowned.

"That's cool." She commented in a half hearted way. She figured she would turn the conversation to something a little easier maybe. "So, what d'you like doing?" Hobbies were always a safe bet, even if you spent all of your life in a single room alone you were sure to have a few things you enjoyed doing.

[Damon Malthus]

Damon was more then relieved he turned his eyes back to her, "I love drawing." He did in fact and he was good, "I do that more then anything else I guess." He smiled again, even when he was in Timothy's room he'd sometimes wait for the man to fall asleep and begin to draw.

"I also like singing," he spoke softly. He didn't like it as much as drawing probably because Timothy made him do it a lot but he did enjoy singing things that he liked. He couldn't think of anything else he really liked doing. He hadn't had time nor was he allowed to do much else. "Thats about it," he spoke truthfully.

"What about you?" he was very interested to hear what Hayley liked to do. She was very interesting to him for he had never met anyone like her before. He tilted his head to the side just a bit in Innocent curiosity.

[Hayley Johnson]

Hayley's smile grew as she heard of his interests and she found herself listening intently to his question she thought for a moment. "I like drawing aswell but I do more photography than anything else, the only think I can actually draw pretty good are cartoon characters, anime and whatnot. Realistic drawings I suck at." She shook her head a wrinkled her nose. She really hated some of her art, she always tried to direct it to wards photography.

"Oh and pretty much anything to do with music, I play guitar, drums and keyboard. And I sing for a band." She smiled brightly. Hayley adored her music, she loved writing it, she loved playing it. She just loved everything about the culture of music. Almost everything in teenage life was based around music anyway.
"Then of course there's the parties and friends and stuff which I have to admit are pretty damn great around here."

Hayley wasn't one to miss a good night out. She could often be found in clubs and whatnot. Getting in was easy since she had played live at most of them.

[Damon Malthus]

Damon grinned, "thats absolutely amazing!" The boy was beginning to feel more comfortable. It was hard for him to do so, especially with girls. It had been many years since he had actually even see one. He smiled, she was very kind and seemed very happy.

"I've never been to a party," he confessed. Although he never had, he really wanted to. He thought it would be interesting. Timothy had his own parties but they couldn't be how real parties were.

Real parties sounded fun and exciting, not full of fear. "You're really cool," he chose his words carefully, choosing words he had heard other kids say. He looked out through his long curtain of black hair, happiness expressed in his eyes.

[Hayley Johnson]

Hayley smiled and shook her head. "Wow, that really is terrible." She herself adored parties and everything about them, the music, the drink and the whole social side. She had met most of her friends at random house and dorm parties. Usually with dorm parties the whole floor would be present and so there was plenty of room for more people.

"I'll have to give you a shout next time one's going on." She nodded lightly and then titled her head with a slightly questioning look. "Do live in the dorm buildings?" It would make it a whole lot easier to invite him to any parties if he lived pretty close by.

She couldn't help but laugh lightly at his comment. A simple shake of the head and she said in bright tones. "No I'm not...I'm secretly a massive dork but don't tell anyone." She smirked lightly.

[Damon Malthus]

"I won't," he spoke assuringly. He had taken the statement seriously at first but then saw that she was only joking. He nodded gently, "Yes I live in the dorms, Jesse is my roommate," he smiled.

"I'm not sure if I'm allowed to go to a party though," he spoke naively. Timothy had always told him that he would know what Damon was doing at all times so the boy was slightly paranoid. Still the idea of going to an actual party was too hard to pass up.

"But that's okay," he spoke quickly, "I want to go."He hoped she would let him know when a party would come up. Although he wouldn't know how to behave he'd figure it out and adjust, he was rather good at doing that.

[Hayley Johnson]

She smiled and then looked rather thoughtful. "Jesse?" She was sure she knew him and it soon struck her who exactly it was. "Oh, him. Cool." She had only briefly met Jesse and they weren't exactly best of friends but he seemed pretty decent. There was nothing stupidly bad about him.

Hayley tilted her head slightly, she still smiled as per usual but she had a somewhat devious glint in her eyes. "Don't worry, nobody has to know." She giggled lightly and just shrugged. Hayley was pretty much an expert at going to parties without her parents realizing but then again her Dad didn't give a damn either way. Now she had moved it just got that little bit easier though and she didn't have to make attempts at being a half decent kid just so her dad would look at her.
She spent several years being yelled at whist trying to perfect her musical skills but she reached a point where she just didn't care anymore. She was actually glad when he paid for her to move away.

[[baah brain dead!]]

[Damon Malthus]

((Lmao I know, it tis fine!))

Damon smiled, she seemed like the type for breaking the rules. "I do want to go it's just Timothy can never ever find out," he had a tendency of making it seem like everyone knew who Timothy was. They didn't though and Damon had to remind himself of that a lot. Just because everyone who had ever been in his life before feared and respected the man didn't mean everyone did.

In fact he had found out a lot of people didn't know who he was. Timothy rarely left Damon alone and Damon had never been able to leave the house before. People had known Rex though... even if not by name they knew him.
Eww that perverted man?
God he looks like a sex offender!
He tried to take my son, that was how most people knew him as unapproachable and extremely inappropriate.

So Damon never said anything like "Oh Rex, I live with him... yea he is perverted." No, never, he pretended that he had never met the man in his life because now Damon was normal. He was normal and he didn't know any bad men. No he was very normal, he went to school now and he had a roommate... no Timothy in sight.

"If he ever did I'd be absolutely dead," he spoke truthfully. Well maybe not dead but in a world of torment.