dance to the finish {JASON}

[Marisol Parker]

Marisol had stayed after school today for a good hour or more, trying to finish a prop she'd promised to paint for one of the school's plays. The thing had been done for quite a while, but something just didn't seem right to Mari. It might have just been the perfectionist part of her thinking this, but either way, she wasn't satisfied. Each stroke of her paintbrush just left her more and more unhappy with the prop, so after a while she just put her paints down and opted to finish it later. She never did this, so by doing it she knew she must really need a break.

She stood and stretched for a few minutes before leafing through some papers in her schoolbag. She found what she was looking for soon enough- the lyrics to a song she really liked. She began to sing,

"I need another story, something to get off my chest...."

Marisol began to be lifted by the music, and of course, being the born dancer that she was, was soon lifted off her feet into her own little dance. She held her arms out to her invisible partner and did a quickstep, then a slower waltz, even a foxtrot.

"Tell me what you want to hear, something that'll light those years... Sick of all the insincere, I'm gonna give all my secrets away."

Notes: A sucky first post, sorry Mandi. My muse failed me XD;; Lyrics were from One Republic's "Secrets", just so no one can sue me or anything. >_>

[Jason Martin]

Once the final bell rang, releasing all of the students to go home Jason Martin let out a groan. You see he hated his home, for good reasons. Reasons that revolved around one man, his father. The boy would come to school with many different cuts and bruises, but he was use to it. And besides, it would only be a few more months before he had enough money for an apartment and the first few months of rent.

Jason decided to stay after and help with painting different back slabs for the next play. He preferred the behind scenes more than acting, then again he loved music more than acting. Making a left turn and readjusting his back pack on his shoulder, he paused when he heard somebody singing. Sure it wasn't usual to hear that at Hollywood Arts, but school was over. So he figured people would go practice at home or something.

Slowly and quietly, Jason stood. He didn't want to be seen right away, then all of the fun of watching somebody dance with an invisible partner would be gone. Yes it was very entertaining, and Jason decided to keep it to himself. He wasn't the type of guy to record it and put on The Slap. He only did that to his brothers.

After a few minutes, Jason couldn't take it. He had to say something to her. "Nice song" he said to her, awaiting to see her reaction.

* * WORDS;; 246
* * TAGGED;; Marisol
* * NOTES;; Yay for invisible partners
* * WEARING;; Here!

THIS TEMPLATE WAS MADE BY ARRO AT CAUTION 2.0

[Marisol Parker]

Mari's song was practically over and she could already feel the creative juices starting to flow again. It seemed a quick break was really all she needed. But then, right as her song ended, she spun and faced the door to see someone standing there. "Nice song," he said to her. Marisol's first thought was to be embarrassed, since she was a bit self-conscious of her singing in general. But it had been a nice song, she loved that song, and so instead, she gave the boy a big grin and said, "Thanks!"

At first she wondered what he was there for, but then thought that perhaps he was also there to help paint set pieces for a play. Mari wasn't really the acting type. She could do it fine, she supposed, but she definitely preferred singing, and of course, dancing. So when there were musicals around she'd help with the music end of it, and would sometimes get asked to either do or to help with the choreography. It was a lot of fun to teach the students about dance and to see their reactions, whether or not they were good already or needed help practicing. Sometimes they ended up realizing that they were good at dancing and pursued it too, but that was a little more rare.

Marisol put her sheet music back into her bag, giving herself plenty of time to blush and recover from being heard before turning back around and walking over to face the guy. "Are you here for the painting, too?" she asked cheerfully. "I was just taking a break from mine. You can use my paint set if you don't have one." she offered, a smile ever present on her face. Singing always made her happy, and so did dancing. So it wasn't a surprise for her to be cheerful, after all.

[Jason Martin]

He was hoping to see the girl either jump or freak out a little, but no. She seemed perfectly fine with a total stranger complimenting her singing. Walking over to a table, Jason set his backpack down and looked around. None of the back slabs were around, so they were probably by the auditorium.

Hearing her question Jason nodded his head. "Uh yeah." he said and picked up a random prop that had a note saying it had to be painted white with blue polka dots on it. When she had said that she could her paint set, Jason smiled some. Hey he didn't have to go and get paint, so all was good. "Thanks." he told her.

Now Jason had seen the girl before, well obviously. He was pretty sure that they had a few classes together. And he was pretty sure that they were in the same grade. But he wasn't an extremely social boy. Sure he talked to people when he had to work with them, but that was it basically. Rubbing the back of his neck, Jason began to felt embarrassed as he couldn't remember her name if his life depended on it. "I'm Jason by the way. Jason Martin."

* * WORDS;; 210
* * TAGGED;; Marisol
* * NOTES;; Dead muse, sorry
* * WEARING;; Here!

THIS TEMPLATE WAS MADE BY ARRO AT CAUTION 2.0

[Marisol Parker]

Marisol could tell that the boy felt a little awkward, but that was okay. Not everyone was as outgoing as she was, she'd noticed over the years. It could be awkward when you weren't like that and then were suddenly confronted by a person who was... now that she thought of it, Mari felt a little bad for being so peppy and cheerful all the time. It must have made people nervous a lot more than she had originally thought it would or had even realized it would. In an effort to reconcile and make up for her over-excitableness, she changed her smile to a more gentle one and went over to get her paint set. She set it in the center of the room, on the floor where there was plenty of space, after setting newspapers under and around it, unfolded to catch any dripping or spilt paint. She didn't care about being this mess-free in her own house, but it was only polite when in a classroom.

After the newspapers and the paint set were set out, Mari lined up some paintbrushes alongside it with many different sizes and shapes. She then carefully picked up her own prop on the dry end and placed it on the newspapers, and then gestured to a space she had left for the boy, whose name she now learned was Jason, to paint his own prop at.

"Nice to meet you, or at least, uh... nice to... know your name." she said, realizing they technically already knew each other from class. She stood as it seemed more proper when offering names. "I'm Marisol Parker. You can just call me Mari if you want. It's easier. Or Parker, a lot of people call me that, too. But that's probably a lot to remember, I'm sorry." she rambled. By trying to be calmer she had ended up just rambling a lot. She grinned sheepishly before sitting back down at her prop and picking up the paintbrush she'd been using. "I still have to finish mine, too. I hope you don't mind sharing. But I'm almost done... I think. Plus I left plenty of room so don't worry!" she said happily, and dipped the paintbrush into the silvery mixture of paint she'd just made not too long ago. After spreading it in nice, neat, thin lines, she quickly took another paintbrush and spread silver glitter on it. It was a rather large set piece, a moon and night sky. The lines were the outline of the moon, which she'd already painted out most of. She just needed to finish the shading... which with her perfectionistic ways, could end up taking a while.

[Jason Martin]

Jason nodded his head. It was nice to know that somebody could remember his face instead of pretending to. "I think I will stick with Mari. Parker just seems a little weird is all." he told her. To be honest he felt bad that she had set everything out while all he did was nothing.

"Don't worry about it Mari." Jason said as he sat down. Grabbing a paintbrush that was wider than most, he dipped it in white paint and began to paint the bottom of the vase like object. That way he could set it down on it's top and then continue to paint it while the bottom dries. Genius.

Jason looked over at Mari. To be honest she didn't really seem like the type to be sitting down and painting props. It seemed out of place for her. "So why are you here painting props with me? Should you be out rehearsing lines and singing or something?" he questioned her. He never really looked at the roster for plays and musicals. He only knew who had the lead of a play was because that person who would brag about it and it was always the talk of the school.

* * WORDS;; 208
* * TAGGED;; Marisol
* * NOTES;; Dead muse, sorry
* * WEARING;; Here!

THIS TEMPLATE WAS MADE BY ARRO AT CAUTION 2.0

[Marisol Parker]

Marisol nodded a bit when Jason mentioned that it would be weird to call her by her last name, Parker. She agreed of course- she had never asked anybody to call her by that. But for some reason, they did. She thought that perhaps they didn't know her well enough to be comfortable calling her by her first name, but she couldn't be sure. She was a bit perplexed by it to be honest- calling someone by their last name for a nickname was just strange. But hey, they were talking to her, so she wasn't complaining.

Marisol finished painting the silvery glitter onto the moon and then put her glitter paintbrush back down and picked up her other brush. She dipped it into a mixture she had made where she'd darkened the silvery paint just slightly to make it greyer, and began painting it into the moon for contrast with deep swirls and lines. She did this for a while, but hearing Jason's question, slowed just enough to be able to multitask without messing something up.

"Nah." she said, "I'm not really the acting type. I love to paint, so I prefer just staying behind the scenes either doing set props or choreographing. If it's a musical I might audition for the singing part, but other than that... choreography and painting is about all I do with these plays and stuff." she said cheerfully. It was true, she might not seem to be the type to paint and do something so calmly, but hey, appearances could be deceiving, couldn't they? Though it wasn't that deceptive, she did often go to class with paint all over herself, but she supposed that people were so used to seeing it or at least used to seeing strange things in general at Hollywood Arts that they didn't notice. "So," Mari started curiously, stopping her painting for a few moments in order to face Jason when asking him a question, "what are you doing here, painting? You don't really seem like the type for this kind of thing, to be honest." It seemed that most people would see it as unlikely for either of them to be painting set pieces, apparently. This was interesting, and that made Mari wonder.

[Jason Martin]

Jason chuckled at Mari's comment about him painting. Sure painting wasn't what he normally did, but he didn't mind it. It was still art. "Well they don't need a lot of people to draw out any pictures or on any of the back drops." he explained to her. Dipping his paintbrush into the white paint once again, he went back to painting his prop.

"But if you mean it differently, acting isn't my thing." he told her. Yeah Hollywood Arts mostly dealt with singing and acting. To get in he showed the principal his drawings, his musical skills and even did a monologue that took him forever to memorize. So yeah, Jason was now sure that he was done with acting.

"I prefer music over memorizing Shakespeare." he told her. Finishing his prop, he set it down. He figured he would let it dry before he paint blue dots all over the vase. Then he had no idea what he would do next. Probably doodle or paint another prop. Who knows. Looking over at her, a question arose to his mind. They were in the same grade and probably shared a lot of classes together. So how come this was their first encounter with one another?

"How come this is the first time we ever spoke to one another?" he questioned her.

* * WORDS;; 230
* * TAGGED;; Marisol Parker
* * NOTES;; Sorry for the late reply
* * WEARING;; Here!

THIS TEMPLATE WAS MADE BY ARRO AT CAUTION 2.0

[Marisol Parker]

Marisol nodded slightly in understanding as Jason explained to her why he was here- it was true, fewer people could paint than those who could draw. She stood up, miraculously not getting as much paint or glitter on her as she'd thought she would originally, and carefully picked up her prop and carried it over to the wall with the others that were drying. She balanced it there so that it wouldn't fall and then turned and went back to her little station of sorts that she'd set up and started to clean up. She then heard Jason mention that he preferred singing to acting, which ironically sounded a lot like her. She couldn't help a grin spread on her face as her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, "Really? Me too! I'm not really that into acting, either."

She was glad she wasn't the only one- a lot of people thought she was strange; the vast majority of people here at Hollywood Arts were actors. But Marisol liked being different. She wasn't too worried about what others thought of her; as long as she was happy with herself and her environment, she didn't believe she had much to complain about. Seeing that Jason was momentarily done with his painting, she picked it up and gently sat it down near her own, as it was the best spot to dry things. She then finished picking up, putting everything away except her paints and paintbrushes; those she set aside, covering and taking care of them, so that Jason could use them again if he needed them when his paint was dry.

Finally finishing and no longer preoccupied, Mari heard Jason's question and answered it. "I'm not sure. I talk to pretty much anyone, actually, so it is kind of strange that I haven't spoken to you before. Are you new here or something?" she questioned curiously. That might have something to do with it; Mari tried not to bombard new kids too much for the first few weeks or even months because she didn't want to freak them out any more than they probably were in a new school such as Hollywood Arts.