What Idiot Invented This?

[Katherine Lorelia]

Kitty was not having a good day. Neither, come to that, was she having a good week or even, if one got right down to it, a good month. Things were just not going her way, but then she supposed that she had to expect that when this time of the year rolled around- and it kept on doing that, no matter how much she wished that it wouldn't. If only they could skip out the entire month, she would be far happier, back to her usual bubbly self, but as it was... Nope. She was stuck with it, and she was just going to have to get a grip on herself and get on with it. The Irish girl pointed this out to herself as she made her way down to the recreation centre.

"OK, Kits. So your laptop won't work. Big deal. Get a hold on yourself, get on with it, get back to bed. No problem." The girl ignored a rather strange look from a boy heading in the opposite direction. Kitty was well used to strange looks.

Computers were not the Irish girl's forte any more than tap dancing or playing the harp, but she was willing to have a go even in her current state. However, only five minutes in, she was one step away from throwing something across the room.

[Wesley Gould]

Wes had still been waiting for his father to arrive with Iggy, so he found his day to be quite dull. He had gone to the gym this morning, wandered around campus some to get used to the layout, yet he still had plenty of free time. The least he could do was hit the computer lab, rather than sit in his room all day with his laptop or a book.

As he found his way into the computer lab, he noticed there weren't a ton of people there. Wes clearly felt his shoulders loosen up a bit as he took a seat. In front of him, he loaded up a page that he had been visiting lately. Enough of his friends from home used it that Wes figured he'd be able to catch at least one of them online.

No luck. Not one person he knew was online. He sighed and sat back in his seat and looked around. The blonde girl not far from him had a similar look on her face that Eira did when she got annoyed. "For the sake of the computer's life, are you okay over there?" He grinned and tilted his head curiously.

[Katherine Lorelia]

Kitty breathed an exaggerated huff of a sigh, turning to face the boy with despair in her eyes. Technology was a long, long way from being the blonde's best friend; in fact, if it had more than about two buttons on it then she was totally lost, and when confronted with anything more complicated than a hoof pick, she had to put some considerable thought into its operation.

It was a good job she was blonde; otherwise she wouldn't have had any excuse.

"The computer has a life?!" she asked in genuine surprise, blue eyes opening wide. "No one told me that! How am I supposed to get anywhere with the stupid thing if no one tells me these things?!" It had to be said in her defence that she had not been sleeping well at all just lately, and was consequently going through life in a sort of daze which made things even less comprehensible to her than they were normally- and, as an Irish girl in an American school, that was saying something, because there were times when she felt as though the rest of the world around her was speaking a totally different language to her own.

[Wesley Gould]

When the girl replied, he couldn't help but notice her accent. Wes almost genuinely started to smile until he saw her face. The sincerity made him choke back the laughs building. "Oh, um, that was a joke. Sorry." He rubbed his hand against the back of his neck, cringed a little bit at her and then looked down at his desk. It was bad enough he thought the joke had gone over her head and now he felt slightly guilty for it.

He smiled again, lifting his head up quickly. Wes put a hand on his bag, rubbing the handle between his fingers. "What are you trying to work on? I'm pretty decent with computers." Normally, he'd have laughed at her and gone back to his work but she looked like she was actually in need of help, so he sucked it up.

[Katherine Lorelia]

"I am trying to persuade this stupid machine to open a word processor for me!" the blonde returned, entirely exasperated. She was fully aware that this should have been a simple task, but it was not manifesting as such, and so that knowledge was only adding to her frustration. Technology was not her sphere, and it was just as well that she entertained no delusions of entering mechanics or engineering, because she would never have stood a chance. Mathematics was another subject that she struggled with; she could have told you the height of any horse in the yard in an instant, but addition and multiplication were quite beyond her.

[Wesley Gould]

Wes genuinely grinned at the poor girl. Her struggles were quite amusing to say the least but he couldn't help but feel bad for her. With a quick heaven, he was on his feet, smiling a but more. "Well, luckily I'm a knight in shining armor," he drawled sarcastically and walked over to her computer. Leaning over the desk, he pointed out and clicked on a word processor.

He sat down in the chair next to her, leaning back almost as far as he could to get comfortable. His fidgety fingers tapped against his arm methodically, in a pattern that was familiar but he didn't know what song it was from. "So, what class are you writing for?" Wes rocked gently in the chair, bouncing one leg to keep him going.

[Katherine Lorelia]

"And very wonderful you are too," the blonde returned with a wide grin. "I would offer you half my kingdom and my hand in marriage, but somehow, I'm not entirely sure that you'd accept." Kitty shrugged. She was well aware that not everyone was a fan of hers. In fact, she was something of an acquired taste. So to speak. Still, she had her friends. She didn't need to get on with everyone.

"English," she told the boy, poising her fingers over the keyboard and taking a moment to remember which key was which, what they did, how the English language worked... It really had not been her day.

[Wesley Gould]

Wes smiled and shrugged. "Well, honestly running away to an Irish castle wouldn't be worst thing ever." His shoulder dropped at the thought of all the stress he was putting himself through but his face didn't give him away. It wouldn't take much change to make him happier but the starting over business was not fun at all.

He grinned and slowed his rock down so he could see straight without getting sick. "Ahh, the dumbest language to learn, huh?" Wes chuckled and leaned forward. "What are you supposed to be writing about?" He loved English and would have no problem helping her further if she needed it.

[Katherine Lorelia]

Kitty giggled. "Sadly, I don't have a castle to offer you," she admitted with a rueful grin, flicking her hair back over her shoulder. "But I do have a stables and a riding school, if that's any consolation?" It would be for her, she knew, but then not a lot of people were particularly like her; she was unique, and the blonde took a great deal of pride in that. It was just how she was.

"Oh, I don't know..." she hedged. "I think you might change your mind if you'd ever had to learn Gaelic." It was not a pleasant language to speak in, and Kitty, despite years of lessons, had very little idea of what any of it actually meant. "I'm writing an essay on the use of metaphor in Macbeth."

[Wesley Gould]

Wes grinned at the girl when she laughed, feeling slightly better about his socialization skills as the time passed. "Darn,"he smiled softly, "the stables sounds heavenly, though." The more horses the merrier. Of course he loved Iggy, but she could always use a new barn buddy.

Any language sounded better than English to him. Wes couldnt imagine trying to learn it as a second language at all. ""True, but hopefully in Gaelic I dont have to close the door to get close to the fire." He bobbed his head mockingly as he spoke, loathing the weirdness of words.

"Oh Lord!" Wes placed his hand on his heart and threw his head back dramatically. "I feel for you, I really do." He had on his most appalled face. "Good story, but gross. So dramatic." He shook his head and shuttered.

[Katherine Lorelia]

The blonde nodded eagerly. "I mean, I grew up there, so they're always going to be amazing to me, but honestly, there's nowhere better than a nice stable." She shrugged. "Just my opinion!" But no one was ever going to persuade her otherwise, no matter how hard they might try; those stables were HER stables; they were where she'd grown up, where she'd lived for years, where she'd spent all her free time for God knew how long, and so far as she was concerned, there really was nowhere better.

Kitty shrugged. "Couldn't really tell you, to be honest," she admitted, happily enough. "I never really managed to get my head around it." Languages were not exactly her strong point; she just spoke the one, but she liked to think that she used that one enough to make up for all the others that she didn't.

[Wesley Gould]

Wes smiled, entirely agreeing with her. He couldn't imagine the thought of having his own stables. "Oh, you're right." Not that he minded riding schools and public stables, but having a barn in his own 'backyard' is as close to a dream as it comes.

He nodded, imagining how hard any language is to learn. "I gotta give you credit though. I never bothered to try and learn another language." He shrugged. "All we had at my last school was one year of mandatory Spanish and I only passed because of Google Translate and a half-blind teacher." It wasn't his proudest moment, but he hated Spanish with a passion. He felt too old to be learning a new language as a freshman.

[Katherine Lorelia]

Solemnly, the Irish girl inclined her head. "It does happen every once in a while. I guess even a stopped clock is right twice a day." After a moment, she allowed her natural grin to break through the thin facade. "Honestly, I don't know how I'd ever be able to live without a few horses just down the stairs. I'd go mad." Horses had been a part of Kitty's life ever since she'd had a life.

She giggled. "Sadly, I quickly found out that Google translation is of very little use indeed when it comes to Gaelic. So... languages aren't really your thing, then?"