Is There A Draft? -Open-

"The most wasted of all days
is one without laughter."
-- E.E. Cummings

This town was fascinating!

Melissa Matthews skipped down the streets of Pallet, Colorado with a wide grin on her face. This was her first tour of the town that she had taken by herself. She hadn't gone on a school tour yet, but she was going to. She just wanted to be familiar with everything beforehand so that way when she went on the school-guided tour, she could listen and learn new information, but today was just for the sights and to gain familiarity. She wanted to find her way around so that way she could rely on herself - and besides, she didn't like getting lost, although it seemed hard to get lost in this town, since it was pretty small. It only had a few thousand residents, not counting a lot of the students who attended the boarding school from other parts of the country, and sometimes the world! Melissa hoped she could meet someone from another country - now that would be really cool! Maybe they would teach her another language. She knew a few words of German, Spanish, Latin, and Chinese, since those were very important languages, but she'd love to actually learn the languages. Why not?

Her barreling train of thought charged through her mind as she took in views of the stores, shops, and restaurants that lined Pallet's streets. She just had so many thoughts, so many ideas, that it was difficult to remain focused - that's how Melissa liked to explain her constant fidgiting, high-speed and cheerful rambling, and her inability (without medicine) to stay focused for more than a few minutes at a time. Today, fortunately, she had taken her medication, so she was reasonably calmer, and able to focus for much longer stretches. It didn't do anything to diminish her playful, naive, and overtly cheerful personality, though, or her constant desire to learn, and so Melissa looked at everything with a keen interest.

But then she saw the ice cream shop. Or was it shoppe, spelled fancily with the extra 'p' and 'e' on the end? No, it seemed more like a shop, but it was cute. The outside was white and blue, and upon seeing the sign that proclaimed that they sold fifty different flavors, Melissa was ready to enter. She nodded, agreeing with her judgment that ice cream was delicious and she wanted some. She walked in, and heard the tinkling of bells overhead as the door swung open to permit her entrance.

"Mew..." Melissa breathed out in amazement at the wall of flavors behind the counter. She saw a blond-haired boy, but he wasn't of her concern just yet - she had to pay attention to all of the magical delicious options advertised on the back wall. She saw many appealing (and some less appealing) flavors that she was interested, but decided what she wanted rather quickly - she didn't like to put too much thought into decisions that were not of vital importance, because that meant waiting for something that was probably good, and she didn't like delaying good things, or fun things either! She stepped up to the counter and spoke while reading off of the menu.

"I'd like a Black and Blue Berry Blast with strawberries and chocolate sauce, and -- ooh, and M&Ms please! Yum! Doesn't that sound good, mew?" She finally managed a full look at the boy serving, and noted that he was wearing a dress. Not just any dress, either - a frilly, pink and white dress. She stared, but only with amused interest. "Wow. I like your dress. It's kind of cute, and pink. I like pink. And it's fluffy, I like fluffy things too. Do you normally wear dresses? I mean, it's kind of funny, mew. I mean, mew, guys don't normally wear dresses, but hey, 'to each his own,' right, mew?" As she progressed, her words came out faster, as though trying to keep up with her thoughts, which was a difficult thing to do. Once she finished, she giggled, putting a hand up to her mouth to try and restrain herself. But he did look pretty funny - what else was she supposed to do?



Summary:

"The most wasted of all days
is one without laughter."
-- E.E. Cummings

Melissa watched the boy scoop out her ice cream with wide, sparkling eyes. She didn’t really notice his discomfort as he moved about in his pink, frilly dress, because obviously the ice cream that he was handling was far more important than whatever he had chosen to wear that day. Mew always thought that people could do whatever they want as long as it didn’t hurt anyone, physically or mentally. It seemed like that was a reasonable enough request, at least to her. He laughed when she asked about his dress-wearing habits, and so she assumed, as she smiled back, that he normally did not wear such attire like he was now.

She tilted her head to the side as he replied that if he had any say, he wouldn’t be wearing the dress. “Then why are you wearing it? That seems sort of silly.” She commented casually. She heard a sing-songy voice call out to her server – whom she now knew was called Nicky (or was it Nick?) - teasing him about the length of his dress. He stood up straight and Melissa decided not to tell him that she had seen his black underwear in his sudden movement. It seemed that the embarrassment was the point of his ensemble, and she felt bad for laughing earlier. She wrinkled her nose briefly toward the giggling girl and her friends. There was no need for her behavior, even if she did seem to be the source of Nick’s discomfort.

She was quickly distracted, however, by the appearance of her luscious blue and purple ice cream with red strawberries and liquid chocolate across the top, not to mention the scattered pieces of M&Ms. Nick pushed the ice cream toward her and asked for two dollars and fifteen cents. She tilted her head slightly in confusion, her pigtails following the movement. “Are you sure it’s not two-fifty? I added the M&Ms, and that’s a little extra.” She asked as she did the math in her head. It also included the tax, but it was always possible she was wrong. She didn’t mind admitting it – it just didn’t happen all that much when your IQ was 140 points.

He murmured to her that she was to forget the incident, and she shrugged. “Ok. Am I not supposed to mention it to anyone at Pallet High? Is that where you go, too? I’m a freshman this year. It’s so exciting!” She smiled broadly as she pulled out her pale pink, silver sequined wallet and pulled three dollars from within it. Now that she had idea in her mind, though, her mouth took off running. “Do you go there? What do you study? Is it a nice school? It looks like a nice school. Do you like it? Are there mean people there?” She spoke lightly and quickly as she placed the money on the counter. She intended to have all of her questions answered, and she made this point clear by leaning on the counter (off to the side, so she wouldn’t get in the way of future customers) and starting to eat her ice cream. She moaned with pleasure as she took the first bite. “This ish good.” She added between bites. “Whasyer favorite flavor?”



Summary: