love shot { J R }

Tomie skipped over some fallen branches lithely, then up onto a rock that jutted out from the incline. She scanned the faces of students as they climbed up past her, looking for one face in particular amongst the hikers. She turned her cap from front-ways to backways, squinting against the sun.

“Hey, JR,” she called suddenly, bouncing down from the rock she’d been waiting on and landing lightly on her feet, her hand suspended in a half-wave. “Can I borrow you for a sec?” The brunette gave him and the person he was walking with a grin, then tapped him lightly on the arm. She jerked her head to indicate he should follow her as she snuck off from the path, following a thinner, less travelled-looking one up the trail.

“Having fun?” she asked lightly, turning to face him as she walked backwards. Tomie wasn’t naturally a morning person, but over the past year, early mornings had become her norm. She’d been doing some ridiculous morning workouts – she could do real pushups now, not just ones from her knees – over the year, so by now it wasn’t too horrible. Plus, she liked the physical activity, it made her feel more energetic. She turned again, walking forwards this time as she fished in her pocket for something.

“Um. So Shelby said that Wendy gave her this to give to me, and Wendy said that Bean had said Simon… Wait.” Tomie frowned, her gaze darting off to the side for a second, “No, Wendy said that Bean had given it to Archie to give to Wendy... or Rion...?” she trailed off, “Benny had it at some point, because of the hippogriff…” She shook her head, then waved a hand dismissively, “Anyway, Shelby gave me this and was told it’s from you but…” She held the note out for him to see, and kept walking. “I think something got lost in translation.”

The sun was bright and he could feel it warming his face, in the good kind of way, not the sunburn-y kind of way. Not that he usually had to worry about that with his darker skin. JR loved being outside and even though this camp didn't allow the use of magic and that was a bummer when he found out, he was still enjoying it more than he thought. All of the outdoor activities and sports and games really suited him. Except when he lost. That was the worst.

So when he had heard about a hike that morning at the breakfast table, he had made sure to sign up with Teddy, waiting rather impatiently as a group of giggly girls had asked him question after question. JR was convinced they were just trying to get the counselor's attention. He had eventually piped up over the girls, asking when the hike was, Teddy had smiled and told him the time and meeting place, and JR had ran off to go climb the rock wall, determined to beat Kitty to the top.

He and Bean had been some of the first few to show up for the hike and they had set off down the trail, JR wearing a pair of red track shorts, a white tshirt with the camp name on it that they had all been give on the first day and a pair of sneakers that had seen some adventure in the past week at camp. Little drops of sweat beaded on his forehead as he bent his knees, swinging his arms behind him, ready to catapult himself across the little divide between two giant rocks. He stopped short as he heard a familiar voice and turned to see Tomie there.

Tomie. Shoot. He put a flat hand just above his eyes trying to block the sun glare as he looked over at her and forced a bit of a smile out of habit. He wondered if Wendy had delivered his little note already. She had assured him that the normal response was the note returned with an answer, but maybe she was turning him down or something. He was going to leave camp tomorrow if that happened. He didn't care how much he liked it. He didn't think he'd live down that embarrassment. "Yeah, sure, of course," he answered as light as possible, really sweating now and less from the heat. Walking down the path with her, moving away from the other campers, he tried to play it cool, but it came out short and terse. "Yeah, fun." He tried to soften it with a smile, watching as she walked backward, so easily changing directions, the movement reminding him of her skills on a broom.

But as she started talking, a confused look formed on his face as he tried to understand what the heck she was saying. What did Benny and Archie and Rion have to do with this? But then he saw the note in her hand and he felt his cheeks get hot, grabbing it from her hand as his eyes bugged out. It was.. covered in lots of writing. Not just what he had written to her, but it seemed like everyone had gotten in on the note. Doodles, hearts, a drawing of a hippogriff, even a maybe box?? He grumbled the note, balling it into a little irritating blob and crossing his arms in front of him as he glanced at Tomie and then at a tree over her shoulder. Then back at her again, real quick.

"Oh uhhh.. yeah. That's not- I mean, I didn't write that," he told her. Then he amended as he felt a little more flustered. "Well, I did write it, but apparently everyone else felt the need to write something too," JR muttered, intending to go find Benny and wrestle him until this feeling went away. Or maybe a hole would just appear next to him and swallow him up so he didn't have to talk about this anymore. "Just forget it.." he grumbled. It was ruined now anyway.

“Oh,” Tomie said, “Sorry then,” she gave him an affectionate bump with her elbow, accompanied with an easy half-smile and a bit of an eyeroll. “I dunno why they said it was from you, that’s what Shelby was told is all –” She stopped when he corrected himself, glancing at him with a bit of a puzzled expression. Looking at him instead of the path ahead, the girl kicked a rock hard and tripped over, landing on her hands and knees.

She dusted herself off as she got back to her feet, giving him a bit of an embarrassed smile. “What’s up, Hawkins?” she asked, being direct. She faced him again, walking backwards up the hill and forgetting immediately about her little fall. “You know, in Indonesian, mie means noodles,” she added helpfully. Not that literally any of the others probably knew that. Her eyes had been drawn to the indonesian word amongst the others.

“You okay?” she asked, squinting against the sunlight and reaching up to face her cap forwards again. One thing that had happened this year was that she'd found herself checking in with her friends now and again in a way that not all of her yearmates did. Maybe that was why some of them – Benny, Shelby, JR, a couple others – saw her as more of a leadery type.

Her affectionate bump of her elbow and her good-natured 'sorry' made him feel even worse. He felt like the poser that his sisters always called him. JR frowned and glanced down at his shoe, scuffing a hole into the dirt with his toe before he glanced up at the little commotion. "You alright?" he asked as he took a step toward her after she fell, but she was up and dusting herself off before he even got the chance to help.

"Uhh.. nothing, I guess. Beat Kitty on the rock wall today," he told her with a little smile, watching her walk backwards. It was completely true, they had pretty much tied, Kitty maybe beating him by one half of a teeny tiny second, but it was close enough. He gave her a confused look as she brought up noodles and the Indonesian word, having no clue why she had mentioned it. "Mie? That's cool. Do you.. uhh like noodles?" He wasn't being much of a conversationalist but mostly because the note 'he' had sent her felt like it was burning a hole in his pocket.

He wanted to take another look and see if he could decipher the handwriting, wondering who had written what, and why they had all chosen to butt in to a note that was clearly meant only for Tomie. Then he started thinking.. everyone knew he had meant to ask Tomie to the dance. They had all seen the note. But now she didn't know that he had tried to ask her and he didn't want to say anything to her in person because it felt easier to jump off a cliff than ask that one little question. But then if he showed up at the dance without Tomie, everyone would think that she turned him down. And that would be embarrassing. Maybe he could send her another note? Deliver it to her cabin while she was at lunch or something? It felt the opposite of brave, but at least it might work?

JR was so in her head that he didn't realize she had asked him something. "What?" he asked dumbly, shielding his eyes from the sun as he glanced at her.

“Really?” she asked, a little impressed. “Nice one.” Tomie really liked Kitty, but her friend was one of those people who Tomie thought was a bit... too good at too much different stuff. They had a lot in common, but sometimes she had to stamp down on some small flickers of inadequacy in her roommate's presence.

Tomie glanced his way when he asked if she liked noodles. “Uh, yeah?” she answered, a bit confused. “It was on… the note…?” She trailed off. JR was usually such a confident talker. Maybe she’d taken him away from an important conversation or something; the thought made her feel a little bit bad. “Do you?” she asked, trying to smooth over the weirdness and get back to normal talk. They’d been friends since basically the first day of school, even after they’d been sorted into different houses.

He was only half listening to her though. She frowned when he spoke again, feeling a bit foolish for rattling on while he wasn’t really listening. Tomie wondered if she was the one having an off day. She kept walking, because it would be weird to stop now, but she did glance at him. “I just asked what’s up,” she said. “You seem a bit… Did I do something? Or interrupt something?”

"Thanks," he said with a little shrug of one shoulder, glancing away as if he didn't care when really the compliment felt nice. Even if he and Kitty had tied. Or pretty much tied. Same thing.

"On the note?" he asked, more confused than ever. He fisted the note in his pocket, wanting to take another look at it, but not wanting to at the same time. Because that would bring up the whole 'I meant to ask you to the dance but everyone ruined it' thing and it was too embarrassing now. But he hadn't really gotten a good look at it, he guessed. Especially if there was something about noodles on it?? "Uh.. yeah. Sure. Noodles are my favorite." They weren't. He didn't know what even made him say that. He sighed and glanced skyward. He would almost rather lose a quidditch game than keep doing this whole awkward weird exchange. Why couldn't he just be cool about it. Just look at her, right in the eyes, and say, 'Tomie, will you go to the dance with me.'

But he felt the words drying up on this tongue as she glanced at him. Her big, brown eyes focused on him. "No, no, no, of course not. No," he assured her, realizing belatedly that he was saying 'no' way too many times to be cool. Alright, chill mate, he told himself. He smiled at her purposely and nodded toward the trail that leaded higher. "Think this leads to an outlook. Wanna go?" he asked with a nod toward the well-worn trail.

Tomie frowned a little, feeling very uncertain when he said ‘no’ a million times. Almost like he was making up for something, wasn’t it? JR was an interesting one, she thought. He seemed so laid-back, almost all of the time, and then sometimes she felt like she could see a bit more of the way he worked, and then it was gone again. A part of her liked getting that little look into his head, but she didn’t mind too much; they were mates, she liked him however much he wanted to open up about things. It wasn’t like she was out here talking about her insecurities all the time or anything.

“Yeah sure, sounds good,” she answered, sensing that he was clearly a bit off-kilter and deciding to just go with it. Maybe she could try cheer him up.

He indicated a fork in the path and the pair started hiking up that trail, the incline getting steeper and steeper until she found herself actually using her hands to help herself climb the various large rocky surfaces and overgrown tree roots. This climb was a much more strenuous workout than the one that Teddy was leading the group along, and she was kind of thrilled by the fact. When they reached a little plateau, Tomie paused to catch her breath, wiping the sweat from her brow with the back of one hand.

“Just up there, you think?” She asked, a little breathless. The brunette dusted her hands off on her shorts and gestured up at what looked to be a clearing up ahead. It was pretty steep now, a proper climb. She looked back down the way they’d come, but there were too many trees to really get a good sense of how high they were. Tomie pushed her short sleeves up her arms and tied the bottom of her shirt into a knot so she could cool off a little, then she started climbing again.

When they finally got to the next part she’d indicated, her body was tired. It felt good. She climbed up the last step onto a large, flat, rocky surface, and was rewarded by a strong breeze cooling her off. She took her cap off and fanned her face with it as she focussed on making her breathing more even.

"Great," he muttered, a little thankful that she decided not to call him on being weird, a little disappointed in himself that he couldn't just man up and ask her the question he had been thinking about for the past few days since he had heard about the stupid dance. Maybe he just wouldn't go at all. Maybe he'd tell all of his friends that it was dumb and he didn't want to go. He sighed as he started walking behind her, knowing that wouldn't work.

JR hadn't realized that the trail was a little rougher than the work Teddy had taken them on. It was filled with boulders and little places where the trail winded what looked like straight up, requiring climbing and more sweating than he had anticipated. He felt drips of sweat working down the middle of his back as he clambered easily up some rocks after Tomie. The way she handled the trail was admirable. She was breathing heavily too just like him, but no complaining about the dirt or the difficulty or anything. "Yeah, looks like it," he agreed as he thought the outlook was just ahead.

He followed up the last bit and wiped his hands off on his shorts and standing straighter, looking out at the view that looked endless from this vantage point. It was all green, hills and forest reaching up to touch light blue skies. He stood a step behind her, glancing at her as she took her cap off, the sunlight catching on her dark hair, still wishing he could say the words that were on the tip of his tongue. He started listing off the pros and cons in his head, looking more at Tomie than at the view.

Still fanning herself, thought she was cooling off quickly now that they were standing in a fairly strong breeze, Tomie took in the view. “Good call,” she said, still a little breathless. From up here, they could see quite far; lots of forest, lots of other mountainy bits too. She took a couple of steps towards the edge of the lookout and craned her neck, trying to see the camp.

Tomie took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, feeling a rush of endorphins from the exercise. She spun back to her friend, giving him a grin. “Way better than Teddy’s stupid stroll,” she said, throwing a little eye-roll in there for good measure. “Sweating so much though,” she commented, lifting up an elbow to give her armpit a little sniff. She wrinkled her nose at him – it was for show, after all – and then broke out laughing. She felt bouncy again, like she could climb even higher.

He nodded in agreement as they both took in the view. The slight breeze made the summer sun bearable. It would have been sweltering if the air was just hanging there, hot and dry. JR followed with a bit more caution to the edge and glanced over, but the steep outcropping promised just what he thought: a long way down if he took one wrong step. He backed up half a step just for good measure.

"Not surprised he didn't think to bring us up here," JR said, nodding and grinning with her statement. He was glad she wasn't one of the girls who kept going on and on about how 'cute' Teddy was. JR had seen him play quodpot the other day with some counselors. He wasn't that good. How could all of the girls like him so much with those dreadful skills?

He slid his gaze toward Tomie as she sniffed her armpit and he gave her a 'you're crazy' look as he took a step back and held up his hands as if in defense. "Peeyouu," he said playfully, waving a hand in front of his nose as if he could smell her from there. "Don't girls wear deorderant?" he tried to ask coolly but ended up laughing halfway through with her.

"Yeaaah, probably half the group couldn't make it up anyway," she commented, turning her hands up in a what-can-you-do kind of shrug. That was something she liked about JR, she thought. He was physical in the same way she was. She would have been bored on the leisurely stroll they were supposed to be on right now, and a part of her thought JR felt the same. "Teddy's nice and all," Tomie said with a big sigh, "but did you see him play quodpot the other day with the older students?" she asked. She sucked some air through her teeth and adjusted the neck of her t-shirt, like she was nervous or cringing. "Carla's way better."

Despite making the joke herself, Tomie’s jaw dropped, a sort of fake-shocked-open-mouthed-smile, at his comment. She laughed delightedly, unable to hold the mock-offended expression for very long. As he was laughing, she darted forward and punched his arm. “I’d still smell better than you, even if I didn’t,” she teased, bouncing back a step in preparation for any retaliation, biting her lower lip. She shifted her weight from foot to foot like a boxer.

"True," he agreed, thinking of the hard hike up and how not everyone, especially a pair of boys muttering in French about not wanting their shorts to get dirty. He grinned as Tomie mentioned the same thing he was thinking. "Yeah, he was terrible," he said, smirking. It was funny that he and Tomie sort of lined up on a lot of things. It was nice to find someone so in tune with him. Too bad he wasn't as brave as she was with something as simple as asking her to the dance.

JR grinned wider at her reaction to his joke, a nervous, delighted sort of laugh escaping him. He wasn't used to telling jokes and having them land well. His sisters usually just rolled their eyes at him and he was certainly not the class clown in their little friend group, but it did feel good to make her laugh. She was quick too! He knew that from the pick up games they had played, but even now it surprised him and he tried to take a half step back to avoid her swing, but she still clipped him. "Not today, you don't," he joked again, waving his hand in front of his nose and grimacing in a fake bad smell sort of way before he balanced on the balls of his feet and brought his fists up in front of his face, mimicking her boxer's stance.

He threw a fake jab, pulling back so that he didn't actually hit her, but playfighting instead. He wasn't sure what the hell he was doing, but it felt better than worrying and fretting over the dance thing. Maybe he could just ignore the whole thing.

“Carla, though,” Tomie added, pointing a finger at him, eyebrows raised, making sure Carla’s name was not dragged down with Teddy’s.

She bit down on her lower lip as she darted to the side, enjoying the physical play. When they’d first started hanging out, JR never did this sort of stuff with her. Only with Benny. She’d kind of hated it, of course, but it had been a challenge too – not to let him see her as weak or whatever. So naturally, she’d just started shoving him around until he’d shoved her back. It seemed to work, she thought. They got on really well now.

He threw a fake jab just then and she skipped to the other side, dodging around him. But she’d misjudged the width of the jutting rock, or been distracted or whatever, because she stepped onto… nothing.

There was a second there, or a fraction of a second really, where she realised that she was about to fall. Her eyes were wide, her arms out, trying and failing to balance. And then she was tumbling backward, falling through branches and bumping things – all turned over – and then that part ended and she hit the ground a dense sort of thud.

She was winded immediately, a foreign sensation that left her gasping for air as she stared up at the sky, feeling shaky. For a second, she was just shocked, and she didn’t try to move. When she did a moment later, though she let out a yelp of pain. Her left arm hurt. “JR?” she called, her voice panicky as she looked at it, kinda swollen, her skin already starting to bruise. Tears sprung to her eyes.

"She's great, right?" he asked, nodding, laughing quietly as she pointed a finger at him. He wasn't surprised at all that she had noticed how Teddy was terrible and how Carla had skills he hadn't expected. He wondered if Carla would play on his team in the pick up game he and Benny were planning. She technically wasn't someone in their year like everyone else was, but still. She would make a great teammate.

JR grinned at her as she darted quickly and he turned with her just as agilely. He loved roughhousing with Benny, but he felt like Tomie challenged him more at times. She was dodging and weaving and JR threw another few fake jabs, his smile quick and bright before his expression faltered as she took a step too close to the edge. It felt like he was moving in slow motion as her arms flailed and he couldn't move quick enough to grab onto her to pull her back. His heart was in his throat as she went over the edge and he called out her name in fear.

He heard rather than saw the thud and panic enveloped him. "Tomie!!" he yelled as he slid over the cliff, trying to control his slide down but gravity doing more of the work. Rocks and dirt and tree branches scratching at his arms and legs as he felt his heart beating at his chest. He was still trying to get to her and her panicked voice calling him name should have made him feel better because she wasn't dead, but he had never heard that tone in her voice and that scared him all the more.

Finally he slid to her, covered in a thin layer of dust, scratches on his shins and forearms turning red with little cuts from his scramble down the cliff as he slid in next to her, kneeling beside her. "Tomie? Are you ok? What hurts? I'm so sorry. This is all my fault," he told her, question after question falling from his lips as he looked her over, unsure where she was hurt, unsure how he could help.

She gasped for air, feeling like her lungs just weren’t getting enough or something. Weird sensation. Her heart was beating fast and her face was scrunched up from the pain. She could hear JR coming back down quickly, and she hoped he didn’t trip over too. She took a few more deep breaths, getting her lungs to a more normal place. She made sure to relax her expression before he got there, not wanting him to worry too much, but she didn’t have time to wipe the tears from her face. It wasn’t long before he was there, kneeling beside her. She pushed herself up onto her elbow, then used her good hand to push herself up into a sitting position.

“No no, it’s fine,” she reassured him, meeting his eyes with a bit of a half-smile waving her uninjured hand. “It’s totally - ah!” She’d tried to wiggle the fingers of her left hand, then winced with the pain. She squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m so dumb,” she said, an amused smile coming to her lips despite the tears on her cheeks. Tomie took a deep breath, her smile fading into a frown as she tried to focus on anything other than her throbbing left hand. She shook her head at herself and opened her eyes, which were wet with fresh tears.

“I messed my hand up, I think,” she said, holding it up gingerly. A couple of tears spilled down her cheeks. “My wrist.” Being left-handed, she felt a bit clumsy only having her right one at the moment. “Not your fault though,” she added giving him a watery smile; it was her first instinct to try and reassure him, make sure he was okay.