6Dimples and Dragons (or, Dungeons and Doodles)
The first time they talk to each other is when Brenda is running late to English class (I fucking hate English class so fucking much who cares about The Scarlet Letter or dangling modifiers anyways) and she accidentally bumps into him in the hallway, like most cliches start. This, however, is not a cliche, as she finds out, when she looks up and Cameron is standing there, her books in his hand already.
"Here you go," he says pleasantly with a large smile on his face. "Lucky you didn't drop those papers."
He indicates the rest of the things in her hand, which are mostly just doodles-she doodles during class, though they're nothing special (besides, it makes her mind deviate away from volleyball and school-though deviating from school may not be such a great idea). She smiles slightly, but takes her books from his hands and starts to head off.
"Thanks," she calls behind her, "but I really need to make it to English, okay?"
Brenda then speeds off at the speed of light, barely making it in time before the bell rings. It's when she finally settles at her seat with all her schoolwork out, when she realizes that Cameron had caught her materials like he had known they were going to fall before they did.
Brenda has never known much about Cameron- she knows that he plays Dungeons And Dragons (and on the outside, she pretends she hates it-though at home, her geeky little brother plays it and wants her to join and she does, quite willingly) and hangs out with the weird kids at their school who are obsessed with Japanese card games. And she's never quite thought too much about him, until a few days later after she had run into him in the hallway, when she's at lunch and talking to all her friends, Cameron comes from behind her and taps her shoulder.
Brenda turns around, and all her friends stop talking and look at him as well. Strangely, Cameron seems extremely unfazed by this.
"I think you left your calculator in Mrs. Shu's room during second period," he says to her. "I saw it last period and it had your name on it." He holds it out to her.
Brenda blinks, looks down at the calculator, then nods. "Oh, um, yeah, I guess I did- wait, how did you know I had math second period?"
Cameron shrugs, a smile that reminds Brenda of the colors on a canvas during Art class. "I had to come to your class before, remember? Well, not your class, technically; I was making up a quiz during second period since I have study hall then, and you were in that class."
"Oh." Brenda doesn't know what to say. "Um. Well. Then. Thanks."
He sends her one last smile, before leaving the lunch table. Brenda turns around to meet five different pairs of wide eyes staring at her.
"What was that all about?" Patricia asks.
"Was he hitting on you?" Erica asks.
"Isn't he that geeky kid who plays weird board games?" says Roberta.
"What a creeper," Beatrice says.
"He's not a creeper!" Brenda can't help saying, defensively. "I mean. Not that I know him well or anything... but he doesn't seem that creepy to me. It was pretty nice."
Her friends roll their eyes and turn away, resuming their conversation, and soon enough, Brenda joins them. But she can't help but remember the way Cameron had smiled at her, with dimples so big that he might have just outshone the sun.
Eight days later-Brenda knows, she had been counting- she is in Physics class, struggling with problem number fifty-one on worksheet twenty-two, when suddenly she feels a poke at her shoulder and turns around to see Larry smiling at her.
"Oh god!" Brenda jumps in her seat. "You nearly scared me! What do you want?"
"Nothing, really," Larry says. "I was wondering if you wanted to work on this worksheet with me."
For some reason, when he says this, an image of Cameron's smiling face suddenly appears in Brenda's mind's eye. She hesitates, and while Larry waits for an answer, she doesn't move or say a word, until Larry urges, "Well?"
"Oh! Er. Sorry," Brenda says to him. "I just- I mean, I'd like to, but I usually do work better when I'm by myself." Though she knows that with her intelligence, she doesn't really accomplish much at all- she's mostly doodling, anyways.
Larry shrugs and returns back to his worksheet. But as soon as Brenda's attention leaves him, a small breeze passes by in front of her and Brenda turns around just in time to see Cameron making his way through the classroom. Surprised (but not entirely; had he crawled into her brain and found that she had been thinking about him?), she instinctively calls out, "Hey, Cameron!"
Cameron stops and turns around, slightly caught off-guard. But when he sees Brenda, he smiles that smile. "Hey," he says to her.
Brenda gawks at him for a moment, before realizing that he's probably waiting for her to say something- she had called out his name, after all. So she says the first thing on her mind.
"What are you doing here?" she asks. "I didn't know you were in any of my classes."
"Oh. Well, I'm in your APUSH class, but I'm only here to borrow a laptop." Cameron indicates the laptop cart in the corner of the classroom. He glances down at her worksheet. "Honors Physics?"
Blushing (why am I blushing?), Brenda ducks her head down. "Academic Physics," she corrects him. "Oh, um, do you know how to find the vector of this angle?" She points to problem fifty-one, which was still stumping her.
Cameron takes her pencil from her hand (she's fully aware when their skin brushes against each other) and draws on her paper. "See, the angle is facing that way, but if you draw the vector in the left direction, you just mirror it on the other side. See?"
For some reason, Brenda knows that this doesn't make sense at all, and yet, she completely understands. She takes her pencil back (and their hands brush again) and stares at the problem. "Yeah, I do see. Thanks," she says to him, glancing up and smiling in brief thanks.
Cameron nods, still grinning. "It's no problem." He turns around and leaves. Brenda returns to her worksheet.
But before he leaves the classroom, Cameron turns around from the doorway and looks at her. "Oh, and by the way, nice doodles."
The next day, Brenda looks around in APUSH to see that Cameron is, indeed, in her class. She kind of wants to go over and say hi (why have I been seeing him around so much?) but then remembers that Erica is in this class and will probably give her a weird look. Not that Brenda cares too much about her friends, but she cares about what they think of her own friends.
Still, she thinks it's a coincidence (and yet, knows it isn't) when class starts, the teacher tells them that they'll be working on an in-class partner project, and that she'll be choosing the partners- and Cameron ends up being her partner. Brenda is silently cursing the heavens (because I'm embarrassed?- no, because I hate him- but no, wait, I don't hate him- but why would I be embarrassed?) as Cameron walks over to her desk, the grin he's always wearing on his face, not so much as glued there, but wanting to be there like a clingy girlfriend. (Why did I use that metaphor?-I mean, simile)
"Hey," Cameron chuckles. "Fancy meeting you here."
"Yeah..." Brenda attempts to chuckle as well. "You too."
"Well, I guess we should get started now." Cameron sighs, plops his papers on Brenda's desk, and then says, "Bee arr bee."
As he leaves to the teacher to get the papers they need for the in-class project, Brenda can't help but watch him walk away. He's actually quite attractive from behind, she realizes, with his wavy brown hair that almost look like dreadlocks. His shoulders are broad and firm, and he's none too skinny (or too fat) around his body.
When he walks back, Brenda realizes that he's quite attractive from the front, as well.
"Here's our papers," he says to her, plopping them on her desk in the same manner he had put his stuff. "Ready to get started?"
"Sure..." Brenda isn't too excited, though she supposes that the work would be a lot tedious if she were with one of her friends. Actually, there wouldn't be any work done at all.
They divide up the work and write silently on their handouts, and Brenda's well aware of how close Cameron is to her. She concentrates on interpreting a picture of Babe Ruth, when her eyes end up drifting to Cameron's fingers which are scribbling neatly on his own paper.
"You're left-handed?" she says to him, in an attempt to make conversation.
He looks up from his worksheet, but smiles at her question. "Actually, I'm ambidextrous," he tells her. "And I can write backwards. Ambidextrously. Wanna see?" He grins.
"N-No, it's okay," Brenda says quickly. "You really don't have to-"
Please don't try to impress me please don't try to impress me please don't try to impress me-
"Oh, but it's so cool! Look!" Cameron takes her pencil from her hands without a question, and at the bottom of his worksheet, with both hands, he writes,
My name is Cameron noremaC si eman yM
"Isn't that awesome?" he asks with a grin, handing a pencil back to Brenda.
Brenda shrugs but smiles, slightly amazed. "I suppose so," she says, though a part of her really wishes that Cameron hadn't tried to impress her, because she would have been okay with whatever he did, anyways.
Though later, she realizes that his successful attempt was actually quite endearing.
A week later, Brenda has to stay after school to finish up her Art project, which is just a bunch of squiggles and lines on a canvas done with charcoal and paint- but Brenda thinks it's beautiful, because the lines are monochromic, never changing; but the squiggles and curves are kind of like Cameron's smile, animated, exciting, different.
She's coloring in the red on one side of the canvas when she hears a voice behind her say, "I thought I'd find you here." She turns around to see Cameron coming into the classroom, glancing around and observing the musty, but comfortable environment.
"C-Cameron." Brenda's slightly stunned. "Hey. What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I just had DND club after school, but I'm waiting for my mom to pick me up," he says to her.
Brenda would have thought that any other guy saying that he was waiting for his mom to pick him up from school was a loser, and yet, when Cameron had said it, she hadn't cared at all.
"DND?" she asks him.
Cameron smirks. "Dungeons and Dragons." He doesn't seem too ashamed-or ashamed at all, really-to admit this.
"If it's Dungeons and Dragons, then shouldn't it be DAD?" Brenda asks.
He shrugs. "I dunno. I guess. Though it'd probably be weird calling it the DAD club, don't you think?"
"I suppose." Brenda chuckles a bit, and then turns back to the painting on her canvas.
Cameron gazes at it as she works, and for some reason, Brenda isn't fazed at all by this. "What are you working on?" he asks her.
"Oh, um. Just abstract painting, you know?" Brenda laughs a little to herself. "Nothing special, really, just like, a bunch of doodles and stuff."
"Like the doodles you always make during class?" he asks.
Brenda shrugs. "I guess so."
"I like it. Or. Them, too," Cameron states. "I think it's kind of cool, you know. You have this whole jockish-volleyball front in school, and yet you draw so much outside."
"Yeah... I guess..." She's not sure how to respond to this.
They stand in silence for a while, Brenda still working on her painting as Cameron watches and waits. Then Cameron suddenly says,
"Brenda? Can I ask you something?"
What does he want to ask? Does he want to ask me out? Brenda's not quite sure why she's thinking this, but she turns around and responds, "Yeah, sure."
Cameron looks into her eyes.
"Do you play Dungeons and Dragons?"
Brenda's surprised at first. But then she laughs. She can't help grin at this question-even though she's not entirely sure why she's grinning-and answers his question.
"Yes," she replies, to his surprise and to her own. "I do."
Then suddenly they're kissing and it's not Brenda's first kiss, and she doubts it's Cameron's either, because he's sogood at it- but his hands are all of a sudden on her cheeks and he's holding her face tightly in his palms, and his lips are working so nicely and slowly against hers. And she kisses back, because she's always imagined kissing that mouth, that smile, and now she is, and it feels like the sun is glowing on her, warmer than ever.
When they finally break away, his hands are still on her and his blue gaze is locked into her own, smiling more than ever. And she can't help but smile back, and thinks for a moment that perhaps she can be as bright as he is. His cheeks are flushed with all the strength he has to make this smile, and it is much, much more colorful than the paint on her canvas.
"I knew it," he says.