Write On! (261 views)

Todd’s Outfit

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Todd was fortunately early for his class. Especially this one. His Writing I class was taught by a pretty daunting professor, and there was nothing Todd hated more than it disappoint people by showing up late. He’d been one of the first three students to arrive and sat on the far left side of the classroom, clothed in a blue button down shirt and some tan pants. As the class slowly trickled in, Todd didn’t know any of them particularly well. He opened his notebook and stared at the page, not wanting to sit through another hour and a half of Writing. Gavin was picking him up that night to take him to a shoot, and Todd wanted to go to his suite and take a nap.

Chad had had another girl over last night, and now the entire suite was beginning to realize just how difficult rooming with Chad Richardson was. Todd couldn’t let himself look too tired for the shoot tonight.

When he heard the chair next to him move Todd turned to his right curiously, blue eyes blinking profusely as he friendly face took the seat next to him. He smiled as a gesture of hello before the professor walked in and Todd felt his nerves skyrocket. Especially when the professor told them to partner up… oh no… Todd inwardly groaned. He hated partner assignments!

The rest of the class broke off into pairs. As the class had been going on for a while, most people knew who to work with… except Todd. Every time he’d bene the awkward plus-one in the group of the boys in front of him, but those boys were already across the room at someone else’s table. Todd bit down on his lower lip as he noticed the majority of the room getting into position… except the girl beside him.

Normally, she took a seat on the other side of the room, so he didn’t notice her. But she didn’t look like she had anyone to work with… and she arrived late. Todd cleared his throat, looking directly at Leanna.

”U—uhm… I’m Todd. Do you… do you want to work together? I—I mean, if you don’t have a partner, that is.” He stuttered out, trying to look as friendly as possible.

When Leanna expressed interest in working with him Todd sighed of relief. Now he wasn’t alone or the awkward third wheel, at least! He wondered if Leanna had any set ideas for what to write. When the professor said that it was a comedy script, Todd sighed again but this time from weariness. Oh… he hated writing scripts…

He glanced over at Leanna and put the smile back on his face, when she pulled out her notebooks with her work. He wondered if she was good at this class. He kind of hoped she had her own ideas—then he could bounce his off of hers and just go with it! Though she did ask for him to think of one, and Todd hesitantly opened his folder. The class rubric sat on the left of it, and he glanced at the rubric as though it was going to tell him all the answers. It didn’t.

”Well… uhm…” Todd cleared his throat. ”Maybe if he wants a comedy, we could do something… er, slapstick?”

That was a term they learned a few classes ago, right? He was pretty sure… well, he knew what it meant beforehand either way. When she mentioned prompts, Todd nodded.

”Yeah, uh, maybe we can base it off of one of those. If you don’t mind.” Todd said, thankful he didn’t have to come up with a unique idea off the top of his head. He was always worried that anything he came up with without help would be completely wrong.

Todd watched as Leanna opened her notebook, glancing at the thing based on Midsummer’s Night Dream, feeling relieved she seemed interested in the assignment. It would be particularly difficult working with someone who didn’t care about the assignment, or someone who just told him to do whatever.

When she said she had another story option, one she’d written herself, Todd smiled and decided that if she wanted to put it out there, he’d entertain that! Even though her comments about a cynical sense of humor kind of scared him. What did she mean by that? Todd’s sense of humor was lighthearted, and he didn’t know if he’d get her story… but no… she put effort into it so no matter what he really thought, he had to laugh! Right? But what if he laughed at parts that weren’t meant to be funny…?

”We, uh, we can use your story if you want! I mean, if you wrote it, you might, uh, you must want to use it for something… r—right?” He spoke as a question.

”I—I’m not uncomfortable with it, I—I mean it’s fine, I just don’t really, get it.” Todd admitted, his cheeks flushing. He hoped he didn’t make Leanna feel bad about suggesting her story in that case, but he wasn’t going to push her to use that if she thought he wouldn’t be comfortable with it. So, he glanced at the one she offered to him.

At her reminder that other people were in the writing process, Todd started to panic as he looked around the room. Oh no, he hoped they weren’t too far behind! But then again they couldn’t be that far behind… it was only about five, maybe ten minutes into class…

”I’m sure it’ll be fine! I’ll read it!” Todd said, shooting Leanna a friendly smile when she touched his arm. She seemed really nice, he was glad she was his partner for the assignment.

Todd nodded when Leanna said she’d be finishing the script, okay with that. If she knew what she was doing then she could do most of the work! Though he did feel slightly bad about making her do the work.

Todd watched as Leanna wrote scripts, nodding again when she said she enjoyed writing scripts but preferred to write stories. He smiled a little. Stories were fun to write, well, sometimes. Truth be told Todd wasn’t really a writer or a storyteller. He glanced over Leanna’s story. It was pretty good! Sure, there were a few lines he was kind of fuzzy on, or the humor of which he didn’t understand, but for the most part he thought it worked really well.

”M—me?” Todd asked when Leanna asked about him, thinking back. What writing did he like to do? Well… he supposed saying he didn’t really enjoy it that much would be counterproductive so he decided to just say what he liked the most… if he had to pick anything. ”Well, I mean I do like stories. Short ones… happy ones… usually.”

In fact, most of his stories were about dads and their sons, now that he thought about it. Usually revolving around his favorite sport—baseball. He wished his dad had played with him when he was a kid. Occasionally characters reminiscent of his little sister Clementine would appear. ”I like to use… baseball as a plot. I mean, I know about baseball, so it just kinda… works.”

”You want to read one? W—well, I don’t mind, but… but I’m not very good. As a warning…” Todd said, figuring he wouldn’t pull out a story now since Leanna seemed pretty keen on writing their current assignment first. Perhaps after they were done, if they had time left, he’d pull out his work. But until then he wouldn’t bother Leanna with his work.

When she asked if he was any good at baseball, a sheepish grin stretched across Todd’s face, which seemed to light up when he remembered his favorite hobby. When she called him a pretty boy Todd was caught off-guard for only a second before he laughed. That wasn’t the first time he’d heard it, and since he knew she was joking, he didn’t mind. Though… on numerous occasions less-than-kind people had taken to calling him that as an insult.

”I er… well, sort of. I mean, I’m not the best… but I have bene playing since I was a kid, well, for fun. I mean I can’t really play too much… after all, sports are kinda dangerous… and I can’t risk anything happening to my face. B—but… yeah… I’m not bad.” Todd rambled a little, glancing at the paper Leanna was writing.

”It does kind of suck but… I mean, well, it’s not like I don’t like my career as a model. I… I do collect cards, though.” Todd trailed off. He had a binder full of baseball cards in his room. It was thick and heavy and one of Todd’s favorite things to do was purchase new baseball cards – though nothing was more gratifying than finding older ones at flea markets he went to with Gavin or received as gifts from his friends.

When she mentioned something happening to his face though, Todd blinked before his cheeks started to color, and he laughed nervously.

”Er… thank you. It… well… it is kind of my career, so it’s kind of… g—got to be cute.” He stumbled over his words, realizing about halfway through the sentence it might make him sound vain. ”Not… not to be vain or anything…”

Yes. Because that made everything better. He sighed a little, hoping Leanna didn’t start to think he was rude.

”Thanks. I don’t want to come off too… to, uh… weird.” Todd said, scratching the back of his neck as the time they had in class ticked on. Many students looked done – or close to it – but were doing their best not to call attention to that fact lest the professor decided to make them all present their work or something. He was caught off guard when Leanna asked if he wanted a coffee or something. He furrowed his brows.

”Oh, like after class? Well, I don’t have a course after this. I wouldn’t mind getting a drink! Or… or something.” He said, not quite understanding or thinking that Leanna meant anything other than going to the coffee shop as friends.