did you forget that i was even alive? ( BEN )

[noelle cecilia delacroix]

Today was pretty much an epic fail. Reighleigh and herself got in another heated discussion that actually ended up in the Dean visiting their dorm room. Apparently some of the neighboring room's occupants made a complaint about the noise and feared for somebody's life. Damn straight, they'd better be afraid. If Noelle Cecilia Delacroix got through the semester without murdering her roommate, it would be an immense compliment to her ability to restrain herself.

Noelle had received a voice mail message that explained that her parent's weren't going to pick her up for the weekend spend a few days in their home in the Hamptons, as a family. Having two parents that lived in the United States was hard, especially when you got the privilege of seeing them only when the school forced the parents to pick up their children during the winter, spring, thanksgiving, and summer break. At least those that had a home to go to, which ruled out some of the opals. One canceled vacation trip wouldn't be too horrible, but this was the 4th in a row. Honestly, she had to stop getting her hopes up so high.

So, in order to help herself not want to shed a tear, Noelle decided to go to the indoor swimming pool, where she was surrounded by water. However, it was locked this late at night. Like that was to stop Noelle. Pulling a small ring of keys from her clear coach waterproof bag, Noelle quietly opened the surprisingly non-squeaky gates leading to the heated indoor pool. Locking the door behind her, Noelle padded silently towards the pool of water. Taking in a deep breath and shoving her depressed thoughts to the back of her mind, Noelle began to shed her accessories. First, Noelle slid off her beaded dress, revealing a strapless one-piece. She chose a one-piece for this occasion for two reasons. 1.) She wasn't trying to impress anyone, 2.) Bikini's screamed horny beach-lover, while a one-piece whispered elegance. That is, the right one-piece.

Then, the girl placed her bag, jewelry, hat, sunglasses, and shoes on a gently floral lounge chair at the pool's edge. Headband still secured around her hair to keep it tame, Noelle placed the rest up in a high bun on her head, protecting it from water's harsh chemicals. A sense of serenity washed over Noelle as she submerged a toe, then a foot, then a leg, then her whole lower body into the gently warmed pool. Suddenly, however, Noelle's emotions that she was working so hard on ignoring noticed that she was suddenly vulnerable and marched towards her forcefully like an army. A sinking sensation could be felt in the pit of her stomach as Noelle's mind raced furiously. Did her parents not want to be around her? Did they not love her? Did they not enjoy her company? Did anyone?

A salty tear slid down Noelle's porcelain cheek, shocking the girl a bit. Her soft hand rushed to her cheek to touch the tear in surprise. Was she honestly crying right now? Noelle hadn't cried in months, she hadn't allowed herself to. Certainly not in a public place, however deserted it might be at that particular moment. No. Noelle Delacroix kept herself guarded and protected at all times. She was surrounded by a bullet-proof wall that kept out all intruders and unwelcome visitors. There were holes in this wall, now, holes that the enemy could look into and discover their opponent's weakness.

the ensemble

[camille]

watch me show you what you never expect.

Benjamin Monreau was a complicated guy. He seemed to confuse a lot of people just by doing several things a guy apparently would not normally do. The thing was, he didn’t care. Ben was Ben and that was all he would ever be as far as he was concerned. Sitting in bed, Ben stared at the roof for what seemed like forever. He couldn’t sleep, that much was obvious. Propping himself up, he didn’t feel like even sitting still. The night had begun and people around him were sleeping soundless, though there was someone, oh yeah, right to the left of him snoring. Rolling his eyes, that roommate always seemed to be doing something new each night. The night before he had been sleep walking, and the one previous to that he had been sleep talking. He was an odd one alright; Benjamin was not sure whether to guess he was faking or if he was just plainly messed up in some way. Not daring to ask, Benjamin had better manners than that: he kept all the thoughts that were in such pretense within the safety of his own mind. He was not asking for a beating if the guy really did have problems, he liked his face the way it was, thank you very much. Benjamin was not full of himself, he just knew he was not ugly. No harm done there, right?

Heading over to where he kept all of his clothing, he searched and searched until he found what he was looking for. Picking up a pair of swimming trunks, he smiled. No matter what time of day or night it was, he had the want to go into the water for quite awhile now. Getting up, Ben merely just dropped his pants and slipped the on, thinking the others were sleeping but not caring either. It was their fault for looking his way! Chucking his pants onto his bed, he let them lay there as he walked out of the room, wearing nothing but his swimming shorts and a shirt now. Listening to his footsteps on the ground, they were light but not muted because of some rocks that were getting picked up and thrust forward by the movement of both his feet. He tended to drag them when he walked, so this was not something new that was kicking in because he may be tired – though he was far from that. Getting to the gates, this was not the first time he had gone against one of the rules that the school had in store for them. The term ‘rules were made to be broken’ was true in some cases in the current one. Picking the lock, he quietly shut it behind him, not waiting for a squeak he knew wouldn’t come. Moving forwards, Ben stopped for a moment.

Another figure was in the distance but not a teacher’s one, a teenagers. It was a girl, to be exact. She seemed to only have her lower hair of the body in the pool, her hair tied up as high up as it could go. Snickering to himself, what was with girls and their hair? He never got it at all. Not noticing that she was sad, he decided to let her be and just come here what he had come to do. Swim. Placing his finger tips on the edge of his shirt, Benjamin lifted it to reveal a well-build chest. Throwing the shirt down to the ground, Benjamin didn’t want to be a prissy person but he couldn’t help what happened next. Running full speed ahead, Ben jumped into the water, holding his knees up tightly to him, forming a canon ball pose. Rising out of the water after a big splashed soaked and echoed around the room; he grinned to himself and lay on his back, floating there peacefully. This was the first time someone else was there so if she had a problem with him he would do anything to fix it. Anything but leave, that was. Benjamin was a gentleman when he could be, but he was not in any way a push over. That was a laughable matter he had always avoided without a bother. This was not just your everydaay guy, he actually cared about something in the world that was not the opposite sex. Though he did find them interesting also.

Growing up, Benjamin had always been around those who were straight to the point and boring. His mom was a stay-at home mom that was fragile looking, though very strict. He learned not to judge a book by its cover right away with her in his family. His dad on the other hand worked rather hard and was the type who, if he let someone down, would let everyone know that he was utterly sorry. He was the same way. The difference between this father and son was that Ben’s dad did not actually ever mean it, he said it just so that he was out of trouble and had time to fix it: and then there was Ben. Benjamin always did the things to his best ability, he liked to show what he could do, but if he did happen to screw up he apologized before doing what his goal had to be twice as good before completing it fully. He loved his family, though he only saw them on holidays around the year, and thanked them for making him who he was to this day. He did not have a perfect family though, he rarely ever talked about his sister when mentioning how proud he was to be a Monreau. That seemed to be harsh, but it was true. It had been awhile since he had even attempted to speak to her. What was the point? Right now, there wasn't one.

He hated her with a passion.

Looking up from where he lay, Benjamin glanced at the girl once more. Tilting his head upward a bit so he could see her slightly better than before, it was then that he noticed what had made him stop at the door. Well, one of the two things. First off it was her appearance. Her long, brown hair and tanned skin made her give off the same look as his sister at one glance, but at a second they were entirely different people. Odd how that happened, wasn’t it? The second was her posture. If it was one thing he had learned growing up it was that if a girl in the higher class slouched, nothing good was coming out of it. Having seen her clothes before cannoning balling himself into the pool, it was obvious she was in one of the wealthier classes than he himself was. Whatever, Ben did not care about money at all; he only cared about what mattered. Okay, money mattered but not as much as everyone now a day’s seemed to think it did."Are you okay?" he asked, listening to his voice move around the room. He was breaking the silence between them only because she looked down and if it was one thing he was unable to do it was try and cheer up a lady who was down about one thing or another. He did not mean anything by it, or even want anything, he was simply just being himself.

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[noelle cecilia delacroix]

Staring mindlessly into the corner of the pool she had swam to, like putting herself in time-out, Noelle automatically dulled her senses. The only thing she was listening to were her own thoughts. The only thing she could taste were the remnants of three wet tears that had slid down her face and she had not bothered to wipe away. Noelle could not see anything but her own secluded corner. The only thing that she could feel was the gentle caress of the chlorinated water against her well-moisturized skin. Her sensitive nose was only registering the slight stench of chlorine that flowed through the otherwise harmless water. Noelle had done what most people with mental issues do at some point, she had put herself in her own little world where nothing could harm her.

That is, until buckets of water came hurled in Noelle's direction, shattering her safe and secure bubble. Rage flooded through Noelle as she turned slowly to face whoever had dared to ruin her hair. Did they have so idea what kind of intense conditioning she'd have to do tonight? Seeing a dark haired boy, and nothing else, Noelle didn't even try to make him wish he'd never been born. She didn't have the energy. No. She didn't even search through the rolex in her brain to look for his file with all of the dirty secrets about his family, his permanent record, and his list of past relationships. No, right now, Noelle didn't even care. Noelle's lower lip involuntarily twitched as a new bundle of tears gathered in her eyes once more.

Noelle Cecilia Delacroix didn't cry. And she sure as shit didn't cry in front of anyone else. Turning slowly and returning to her corner, Noelle placed her arms on the cement pavement surrounding the pool, and she could feel the texture of the semi-precious stones gently placed all around the pool. She was no longer in her safe bubble. Really, this sudden awakening from it was a bit of a metaphor. When you're already down, someone in life will find a way to make it worse, even if they're unknowing of the harm their doing, which was clear as the boy floated on his back in the pool without a care in the world.

Then, however, he asked if she was ok. Letting one last tear fall, Noelle drew in a sharp break and wiped the remnants away furiously. That was enough of that. Turning to face the boy, Noelle rose a perfectly groomed brow and placed a hand on her hip in the water.

"I was perfectly fine until somebody decided to ruin my hair. Do you have any idea how much conditioner I'm going to have to use tonight? Let alone that disgusting swimmer's shampoo."

Noelle explained, glaring slightly at the boy. She had discovered the few times she had let herself cry, it helped clear her mind pretty efficiently. This time was no different. Now the boy clearly registered in her brain. Benjamin Monreau, a sapphire, year nine. Nobody that Noelle felt she needed to make amends with.

the ensemble

[camille]

watch me show you what you never expect.

Benjamin wasn’t in the mood to argue with people or even sit there to annoy them, he had come to be with himself and listen to his thoughts echo from one side of his head to the other. When it was quiet, everything was peaceful and that was how he liked it some of the time. Every day was different for how he liked to have his surroundings as it really depended on what mood he was in. When he was in a good mood, surprisingly enough, he loved being around people and talking non-stop. Having a great time was another good way to put it. Next would be his bad moods. Right now was him in a bad mood, actually. Sitting there hating at himself for even thinking about his sister was being angry. He found it hard to get mad at others, not because they didn’t do anything, as they did, but merely because he didn’t like raising his voice unless absolutely needed. Weird, but really true. Benjamin was the first guy who you’d come across in a long shot that didn’t like things like weapons, wars, video games and all of that ‘guy stuff.’ He was more into reading over video games, sports over weapons and fooling around with friends as wars.

What had surprised Ben was that since he was not the only one in the room that when he had done the canon ball into the water she had not said a word, actually, he hadn’t even seen her head turn towards him. He also doubted that in the time it took him to swim up it had. Oh well, that was probably for the best, but it proved another point towards his view on not ‘judging a book by its cover.’ If he had, Ben would have thought her to be stuck up and just the type that wouldn’t put up with anything she didn’t like. It seemed the people who had more money around this school were like that. Rolling his eyes, he hated when people thought they were better than he was just because what they had in the bank. It was pointless, but apparently not everyone shared that thought. Continuing to star at the roofs tiles, he allowed thoughts of his sister to come back as they pleased. It seemed he had been holding them back for a little to long, he was ready to explode and this was not how he usually was. Ben preferred to stay calm and not let anything bother him. Apparently that couldn’t always happen in his lifetime.

Picturing every time his sister had come home in the middle of the night smelling like smoke and alcohol, sometimes even sex, he found himself with his eyebrows pulled together in frustration. Every single night his parents had just gone to bet, oblivious that their daughter was even out doing whatever the hell she wanted to and then there was Ben, waiting right inside the door for hours on end listening to music quietly until she came home. He felt like a total mother for doing it, but he had cared for his sister and felt the need to protect her. It seemed that he was too late to do much more than make sure she was safe after she returned home. It was true, his family was really messed up here and there, but she made it to the higher level on any scale of messed up. The last time he had raised his voice at her was right before he finally gave in and just told his parents what was happening, hating himself for it but having perfect timing because of what had happened the next week. Bringing his hand down hard and splashing the water nice and hard, which was when he blocked out the problems and relaxed his face, making his way over to the other girl within the room where he was.

Sighing when it seemed his thoughts about before were right, he ignored her tone and just took it all in, not believing her for one second. Did she think he was stupid? Underneath her eyes were a little puffier than usual, getting to the point of red. She had been crying, why wouldn’t she just admit that? Whatever, if she didn’t want to point it out he wouldn’t either – right now anyway. The last thing Ben did after being told off was give up; he was rather stubborn that way. ”I am sorry about that, you have to make a good entrance in a room, though. Surely you can understand that much.” he replied when she was done, noting her stuck-up posture. He was slightly amused by it; she just seemed to think she was quite great. Looking at her, he had seen her a few times walking around. She went by the name of Noelle Delacroix, a diamond from the eleventh year. He didn’t expect her to willingly give him the time of day to even have a conversation with, and her glare assured him of that, but he didn’t care, she would even if she didn’t want too. Usually he would respect her want for him to leave, but right now he wanted to try for some reason, try to actually make her talk a bit. He liked to set his goals at a challenged aim. Wasn't that much obvious?

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