Post by Victor Fries on Sept 20, 2020 11:16:45 GMT -7
Because the dorms at the boarding school did not have private rooms, the library was Victor's sanctuary. Though it hadn't failed to escape the attention of the people in charge just how much he was isolating himself, spending nearly all of his free time either working on schoolwork or studying things for his own pleasure was hardly something that could be misconstrued as bad or wrong so he merely had to ignore it whenever anyone attempted to convince him that perhaps he should diversify his activities.
Not that anyone ever tried very hard - his parents had not been deeply concerned about dumping him off on a boarding school that boasted about how caring the staff was. Their only concerns were sending him somewhere that was able to house him permanently so that they never had to see him again, and also it had to be good enough so that they could brag to their friends about the school they could afford to send him to. Neither of those had anything to do with ensuring his well-being.
And so he could spend nearly all the time he wasn't asleep or in class in the library where he didn't need to worry about what his dormmate or anyone else was doing. He didn't care about any of them anyway. But though he wasn't the only one to feel this way and there were other regulars at the library and the other regulars eventually became friends because they had that in common, he didn't join them either. He'd learned that people simply weren't worth the trouble, and he didn't need them either.
Any time he started to question that stance someone would prove it correct. by attempting some cruel prank or do some other form of bullying. But he never got upset when it happened - he simply carried on as dispassionately as before and that proved to be so uninteresting to the culprit that they usually left him alone. Thus his days were spent mostly in glorious isolation - just because there were other people around didn't mean that he wasn't alone, and he liked it that way.
Not that his life was empty, at least in his opinion - instead it was rich with knowledge. He enjoyed learning new things in school, and when he was finished with his homework he enjoyed learning more about all the different subjects that were touched on in his classes. He wasn't equally interested in or good at all of them, but his mind was constantly full of science, math, technology, engineering... It would be impossible for him to run out of things to learn more about.
Still, though he paid as little attention to his fellow students as possible, he didn't fail to notice one particular girl. She must have started at the school at the beginning of the new school year. Though the beginning and end of the official school year didn't mean much to him because he never went home either way, he didn't fail to notice that he had begun his senior year and that she'd begun to show up in the library at roughly the same time. But though he noticed that much, he didn't bother to pay any more attention.
Or at least he tried not to - though that became difficult when he noticed that she always chose to study at the table next to him. That was not a problem as he could easily tune her out and focus on his work even with her there, but it was a big library and she could have chosen to study anywhere else - including near any of the other, much more social students that were also regulars. He decided that she enjoyed the quiet of his usual spot, which was his usual spot for that very reason. He could accept that.
However, the next thing that he noticed is that she was really quite attractive. That only made him want to ignore her even more because he knew that such girls were not for him. Attractive girls always ended up being fought over by the more attractive and popular boys and he wanted no part of that. She probably had a boyfriend already and at least one other guy trying to steal her from him already, and the mere thought of that only made his disinterest in her grow. But he couldn't get himself to ignore just how cute she was - not with the way that she'd give him a shy smile whenever she sat down at her table to start studying and then again when she left. It still didn't matter that she was cute for the reasons already mentioned, but he did notice.
But she otherwise left him alone so it was easy enough to simply grow accustomed to her presence, just as he had with all other aspects of the library. At least until the day that she quietly whispered, "Excuse me? Sorry to bother you, but I'm not getting this and I noticed that you're further along in algebra that I am... Do you mind helping?"
For a moment Victor frowned at this blatant violation of his sanctuary and was about to say that yes, actually he did mind. ...Only, much to his surprise, he didn't mind. She was actually putting some effort into her schoolwork this early on in the semester so he couldn't imagine that it would be more complicated than giving her a few pointers so what harm could it do to help her for a few minutes. Besides, the pleading look in her eyes only made her that much more beautiful and he didn't want to refuse it. "Okay, sure," he said, sliding his chair over so that he could see what she was looking at.
She rewarded his agreement with another one of those shy smiles, and he felt an unaccustomed twinge in his chest. "Thank you! My name is Nora, by the way," she said.
Feeling all kinds of disconcerted by the many not entirely pleasant emotions that smile was causing, he simply stated, "Victor." Forcibly turning his entire attention to the math book, he let his mind get absorbed in the formulas found there - they wouldn't do weird things to his heart when he looked at them. Helping her would be no trouble at all, he just couldn't look at her while he was doing it.
Not that anyone ever tried very hard - his parents had not been deeply concerned about dumping him off on a boarding school that boasted about how caring the staff was. Their only concerns were sending him somewhere that was able to house him permanently so that they never had to see him again, and also it had to be good enough so that they could brag to their friends about the school they could afford to send him to. Neither of those had anything to do with ensuring his well-being.
And so he could spend nearly all the time he wasn't asleep or in class in the library where he didn't need to worry about what his dormmate or anyone else was doing. He didn't care about any of them anyway. But though he wasn't the only one to feel this way and there were other regulars at the library and the other regulars eventually became friends because they had that in common, he didn't join them either. He'd learned that people simply weren't worth the trouble, and he didn't need them either.
Any time he started to question that stance someone would prove it correct. by attempting some cruel prank or do some other form of bullying. But he never got upset when it happened - he simply carried on as dispassionately as before and that proved to be so uninteresting to the culprit that they usually left him alone. Thus his days were spent mostly in glorious isolation - just because there were other people around didn't mean that he wasn't alone, and he liked it that way.
Not that his life was empty, at least in his opinion - instead it was rich with knowledge. He enjoyed learning new things in school, and when he was finished with his homework he enjoyed learning more about all the different subjects that were touched on in his classes. He wasn't equally interested in or good at all of them, but his mind was constantly full of science, math, technology, engineering... It would be impossible for him to run out of things to learn more about.
Still, though he paid as little attention to his fellow students as possible, he didn't fail to notice one particular girl. She must have started at the school at the beginning of the new school year. Though the beginning and end of the official school year didn't mean much to him because he never went home either way, he didn't fail to notice that he had begun his senior year and that she'd begun to show up in the library at roughly the same time. But though he noticed that much, he didn't bother to pay any more attention.
Or at least he tried not to - though that became difficult when he noticed that she always chose to study at the table next to him. That was not a problem as he could easily tune her out and focus on his work even with her there, but it was a big library and she could have chosen to study anywhere else - including near any of the other, much more social students that were also regulars. He decided that she enjoyed the quiet of his usual spot, which was his usual spot for that very reason. He could accept that.
However, the next thing that he noticed is that she was really quite attractive. That only made him want to ignore her even more because he knew that such girls were not for him. Attractive girls always ended up being fought over by the more attractive and popular boys and he wanted no part of that. She probably had a boyfriend already and at least one other guy trying to steal her from him already, and the mere thought of that only made his disinterest in her grow. But he couldn't get himself to ignore just how cute she was - not with the way that she'd give him a shy smile whenever she sat down at her table to start studying and then again when she left. It still didn't matter that she was cute for the reasons already mentioned, but he did notice.
But she otherwise left him alone so it was easy enough to simply grow accustomed to her presence, just as he had with all other aspects of the library. At least until the day that she quietly whispered, "Excuse me? Sorry to bother you, but I'm not getting this and I noticed that you're further along in algebra that I am... Do you mind helping?"
For a moment Victor frowned at this blatant violation of his sanctuary and was about to say that yes, actually he did mind. ...Only, much to his surprise, he didn't mind. She was actually putting some effort into her schoolwork this early on in the semester so he couldn't imagine that it would be more complicated than giving her a few pointers so what harm could it do to help her for a few minutes. Besides, the pleading look in her eyes only made her that much more beautiful and he didn't want to refuse it. "Okay, sure," he said, sliding his chair over so that he could see what she was looking at.
She rewarded his agreement with another one of those shy smiles, and he felt an unaccustomed twinge in his chest. "Thank you! My name is Nora, by the way," she said.
Feeling all kinds of disconcerted by the many not entirely pleasant emotions that smile was causing, he simply stated, "Victor." Forcibly turning his entire attention to the math book, he let his mind get absorbed in the formulas found there - they wouldn't do weird things to his heart when he looked at them. Helping her would be no trouble at all, he just couldn't look at her while he was doing it.