When You're in the Zone

[Kallistos Rolleston]

There was never any warning to when creativity was going to strike him, and when it did Kall knew that he cold be lost for hours. Sure, he could ignore the ideas that were running through his head, but then he'd find it difficult to concentrate on anything else, not until he got whatever was plaguing him on paper, even if it was nothing more than the physical description of a person, their life history, or the plot for an entire story.

Today he was sitting in the common room of the Green House... well, to be honest, he was lying on the sofa with his ankles crossed over the back of it as he scribbled down notes into one of the stack of spiral bound notebooks that he had been given by his mothers for Christmas. He grinned as he remembered opening the box of six notebooks; the women knew him so well.

He tapped the pen against his knee, in time to the music that was playing on the stereo, as he read through what he had just written, nodding the plot line of a new story was slowly starting to come into place. He used the pen to scribble out a few lines and reworded it down the bottom with an arrow showing where it was supposed to go and then continued writing where he had finished off. It appeared that his latest story happened somewhere in the future on a whole different galaxy... this one might be interesting.

The Books

[Anna Jones]

Anna sighed heavily as she walked down to the common room, book in hand. Sunstruck had been sore for the past few days, limiting her ability to take him out for a ride. So, she had spent these last few days reading and catching up on her homework. She was looking forward to a hopefully pleasant afternoon in the house common room.

Coming inside the room, she immediately went over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of lemonade before moving to the couch. It was then that she noticed a boy was lying on the sofa. Sure, she had heard the music, but she assumed that maybe whoever was there had left.

"Hi," she said softly, so as not to disturb the boy as he seemed relatively deep in concentration.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" she said, motioning to another spot on the sofa.

[Kallistos Rolleston]

Kall looked up at the girl who spoke, before his eyes moved around the room at the other sofas and chairs that she could have sat down at before he shrugged his shoulders. "Sure you can." He replied before his attention went back to what he was writing. "What are you reading? Be right back." He knew it was just because he saw the drink that she was holding but he was suddenly thirsty.

Closing the book, he pushed his feet off the top of the sofa and flipped up to stand on his feet - he knew there was a reason he did cheerleading - and made his way over to the fridge to grab himself a soda. After taking a drink, he put the bottle on his bag before walking behind the sofa and sliding back into the position he had been to start off. "How're things going?"

[Anna Jones]

Anna's cheeks flames ever so slightly when she saw the boy's eyes dart around the room at other sitting objects. When he said that it was okay for her to sit there, though, she immediately did so. She heard the boy's question, and looked over at him as she spoke. "1984. George Orwell. It's definitely one of my favorite books." She replied, holding the book up. She then looked at the notebook that he was writing on when she came in the room. "What are you writing?" She just hoped that she had correctly assumed what he was doing.

She watched as he came back to the sofa and into the exact same position. Anna shrugged when he asked how things were. "The same as always, more or less. What about you?"

[Kallistos Rolleston]

Kall nodded as she said the name of the book. While he hadn't read it, he had seen it in his mothers' bookshelf, so he might need to get them to send it to him, or read it during the summer... if he could wait that long. "Just something that was stuck in my head." He replied evasively to what he'd been writing. While it wasn't a secret that he enjoyed writing small stories, it just wasn't something he shouted out to the world either.

He got comfortable again as he opened the notebook once more and continued from where he had left off. "Same old, same old, more or less." He replied with a grin. "I can't wait until the weather begins to warm up!"

[Anna Jones]

Anna raised an eyebrow at his evasive response as to what he had been writing. Who was she to judge, though? She knew plenty of people who weren't exactly forthcoming about their hobbies...but those hobbies were probably a lot different. She just shrugged, however. "Well, whatever it is, I'm sure it's interesting."
She replied with a smile.

She laughed at his ver similar response. "I actually like the winter more than the spring. Strange, I know. It's just really cool. The warmer heat makes things a lot better, though."
Anna stated, reminiscing slightly at memories of winter. She took another sip of lemonade and began to read before looking back up at the boy. "So tell me, how long have you been here at Blue Ridge?"

[Kallistos Rolleston]

He shrugged as he scribbled a large part of what he'd written out and began writing again. "I hope it'll turn out that way." He replied, or else it was going to be another notebook that would spend the rest of it's life in a box in the back of his closet.

He grinned at her laughter and looked over at her, enjoying the position he was in so that he was looking up at her rather than her looking up at him. "I'm a Florida native, so it's either warm or I may as well be in the Arctic." He joked. "I've been here for about a year and a half now." He replied with a grin, still finding it hard to believe that he had spend an entire year here already and was months away from finishing another. "How about you?"

[Anna Jones]

She cocked her head at his response. He sure seemed hidden about his writing, didn't he? "Well, one can always hope," she replied, giving him a reassuring smile.

She laughed at his Florida joke. "I'm from Connecticut, so I'm pretty much used to the weather being cold." She stated, thinking about her family and friends back at home. "That's a pretty long time, isn't it? I've only been here for about 10 months myself." She said, shaking her head as she thought about it. "Do you like it here?"

[Kallistos Rolleston]

Kall gave Anna a sideways glance and grinned. "It may not even make it past the plotting stage, so I don't want to say too much about it yet." He confessed. "You know, the whole star wars, in a galaxy far, far away... thing, so far it's based in the future, in a completely different galaxy." He raised eyebrows as he heard his own words and pulled a face at the whole idea, wondering if it suddenly sounded like he was ripping off Star Wars. With a sigh, he closed the notebook and dropped it on the ground.

He pretended to shiver as she mentioned where she was from, and pretended to blow into his hands for extra warmth. "It's pretty cool here." He replied. "I have my horse, and I've made a few good friends. What about you?"