^*smile like you mean it {[Wild

[tommy]

A pair of brunettes were lounging on the lawn, near the dorms. The first was a girl. She was on her back, brown hair loose and partially splayed around her. A worn copy of Breaking Dawn was open across her chest, marking her page. For the moment it was abandoned. One hand rested across her forehead, the back of her hand down, palm up, finger loosely curled. The other was just limp at her side. Her legs were bent at the knee, forming an obtuse angle. Her shorts were athletic in style and red in color. Her tank top was a light blue in color. A silver purity ring - her only jewelry - circled her left hand ring finger. Her white, rubber flip-flops were a few feet from her, having been kicked off. No make-up enhanced her features, and her brown hair was left it's normal, waving self. She sighed, content. Sunshine. She loved the warm weather. Her lips tugged up in a smile, eyes still closed, at the thought of the note she'd been passing Carson that concerned the sunshine.

The other teen was male, and looked to be older. Which he was. He was sitting with his back against a tree. A textbook was open on his right, his calculator beside it. Her binder was folded back on itself and was in his lap. His knees were bent into a more acute angle than the girl to support it so he could write. His brown hair was neat, and his face was clean shaven. His brown eyes flickered up, then back down, then to Nikki, then up, then down, lingering the most on his paper. He was dressed in loose fit blue jeans, faded with wear. His shoes were brown Converse, matching his tee. The tee shirt was sung, but not overly tight. A watch circled his left hand wrist, and a purity ring wound its way around his left hand ring finger. Other than that, the boy wore no jewelry. He looked down, pencil flying across the paper as the equation that had been evading him finally popped into his head.

The teens were Nikki Hartwell and Thomas Hartwell. While they were really only adopted sibling they looked very much alike. Unless one looked closely. Nikki had wavy hair, Tommy: perfectly straight. Nikki had green eyes, Thomas had brown. And Nikki's features were more angled, while Tom's were more softened. These were only minor differences, so they were mostly taken for biological siblings. Which was how Nikki wanted it, and therefore Thomas left it that way. As far as he was concerned, Nikki was just as much a sister to him as if she had been born into the family. "You just gonna lay there?" Tommy asked Nikki, tone teasing. "Shut up," the sophomore responded without moving anything but her lips. Thomas chuckled. As he looked away from Nikki, he heard footsteps. The senior looked up with bemused brown eyes. The pair weren't usually the center of social life at school, and could generally spend an afternoon without being interrupted.

[Heather May Wilson]

The blonde teen pursed her lips, they were rose petal pink by the way. Her lips had a tendency to make people jealous, just like her bright green-blue, over-sized eyes, not that she gave any care to what others thought of her. Heather licked her lips quickly, flipping her notepad closed and rising to her feet, pencil getting stuck into her messy bun. She was thoroughly convinced the girl she'd been drawing was related to her roommate, they had similar looks and some of the same features. She wouldn't point this out to anyone, but it was just another fact in the bank in her head.

Heather was a tomboy. It was made abundantly clear by her appearance and how she generally acted. She wore just your average boy's basketball shorts, black in color with three thin white stripes running down the sides, with a run-of-the-mill Yankees tee, this item was light gray in color with the word 'Yankees' in red with navy blue outlining across the chest. Both articles of clothing were baggy on her slim body that she kept well hidden, a habit her brother and Dad had bore into her long ago when they'd helped her get dressed every day. The teen wore no makeup, she never did. And jewelry never appeared on her body either along with her strict objection to anything perfume-like being sprayed on her body. She was wearing Converse, black in color and scuffed from being in the garage all the time.

Itching to go to the garage and fix a car or two, Heather walked calmly, head ducked, in the direction of off campus. She was stopped short at the sight of the girl she'd met before, Nikki is she remembered correctly which she usually did, laying in the grass and laughing with some other teen that shared somewhat of a resemblence to her. The sophomore's lips pursed again, something about them didn't look blood related. Shrugging, the curious teen walked over to them. Just be friendly. Ty and Dad want you to make some friends. She coaxed herself mentally upon arriving at the pair. She stood closer to Nikki, feeling like the girl was somehow the safer route. "Uh, hey, Nikki." She greeted, biting her lip and twisting a loose lock of hair around her finger absently. She wasn't generally an outgoing person. She stood with her ankles crossed, shifting weight between the two, and clutching her sketch pad to her side with both arms, sans of any other items.

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[tommy]

Nikki opened her blue eyes, squinting for a minute, and propping herself up slightly to find the person who'd said her name. Other than Tommy, who had been bugging her enough to make her laugh. Odd how that worked... "Oh, hey Heather," the sophomore greeted the girl with a half-smile. She wasn't generally out-going, but she figured it was time to expand her friend circle. What better time to start that the present. "Have a seat," she invited, smile broadening a degree, gesturing with a nod of her head to the ground between herself an Tommy. Though she didn't really care where exactly the girl chose to sit. She pulled her arms out from under her, flopping back down.

"This is Tommy, but the way. My brother." "Tom..." Thomas corrected. Tommy was generally reserved for people who knew him well. Nikki had mentioned Heather to him, and he wasn't unduly concerned about this relationship. Friendships he could deal with. Now Carson. Carson posed a threat to Nikki, and therefore to himself. But as it was, Tommy watched Heather with curious, and wary brown eyes. There was still a strong hint of friendliness in them too. He looked back down to his notebook, unconcerned as he went back to figuring out complex math problems. 'Saving the world one math equation at a time' he thought, cracking a smile that just barely parted his lips at the thought

[Heather May Wilson]

Heather smiled somewhat sheepishly, plopping down where she was, a foot or so away from Nikki and facing the other girl. She wasn't trying to shut the older teen out by any means, but she wasn't exactly thrilled with getting to know him in any way. The blonde plucked a piece of grass from the ground, setting her sketch pad down beside her and holding the other end of the blade of grass between her thumb and pointer finger of the other hadn. She watched it rather intently before Nikki spoke to her.

She looked up, somewhat lost before the boy spoke. She wouldn't know the nickname. "Oh. Nice to , uh, meet you Tom." Her smile faltered a tad and she looked back down, twisting the piece of grass before dropping it beside her, looking to the book Nikki had. "Breaking Dawn?" She questioned never having heard of the book. She figured, by the cover, that it was somewhat related to the Twilight franchise, but she had never bothered to read the series. She didn't enjoy reading about romance, what was the point of reading it and watching it if you can't have it. She groaned mentally about that. It was just something that ran in her family, Tyler had had a couple of dates, but never really girlfriends and her dad was still crushed.

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[tommy]

Nikki closed her eyes again, soaking up the sunshine. It got cold in the winter. And while there would be weeks of warmth still - in hopes - she was trying to take advantage of it. Tom noticed that she sat away from him and half smiled, looking down. Nikki turned her head to look at him, opening her green eyes. "What?" she demanded, wondering what his expression was about. Tommy's gaze flickered to Heather momentarily, then back to his homework, shaking his head and smiling. "Likewise," he replied to the blond without looking up, tone friendly enough. Nikki sat up, looking at Heather incredulously.

"You've never read the Twilight series?!" she squeaked, the topic of books bringing animation to her expression and countenance. She couldn't fathom it. Edward was...well...the kind of guy she wished her father had been. Or Carlisle, or Emmett, or Jasper. Or even Jacob! Any of them! They were all loyal, caring... Still firmly looking at his work, Thomas rolled his eyes. "Heaven forbid," he muttered under his breath at his sister's exclamation. "How - why - wh-" Nikki spluttered. Tommy flashed Heather an easy, apologetic, and comforting smile. "She gets this way sometimes," he explained with a laugh. Nikki scowled at him, and he just raised an eyebrow back at her. Still scowling, Nikki looked away, now scowling at her feet. Breaking Daw and slid off her lap and had landed - closed - on the ground next to her. It didn't bother her. It was already beat up.

[Heather May Wilson]

Heather watched the siblings passively before looking down at the green grass beneath her. The interaction made her miss Tyler more than ever.The goofing off the two used to do and their matching head of blonde hair. She prayed for him to visit soon, she missed getting to work with him and the guys more than anything though. She thought that the fact the the guys thought she wouldn't be able to keep guys off was an amusing thought. She more like repelled them. She glanced up at Tom with a small and subtle smile touching her lips before it flitted off, dancing across the grass in the light breeze.

"Uh, no." It was more of a question. It just never appealed to her. The blonde watched Thomas and Nikki before pursing her lips and looking down, studiously taking another piece of grass to examine. "I got it." She answered Tom. She scowled mentally at the name, that was so formal. She didn't say anything, instead, Heather dropped the piece of grass. "Alright. Why don't you tell me why I need to read the most rediculous romance?" She sighed, falling onto her back and turning slightly so she could just tilt her head to see Thomas and look straight ahead to see Nikki.

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[tommy]

Tommy's lips twitched at Heather's 'uh, no' that had an implied question mark on the end. Nikki sighed, exasperated. "I connect with it for different reasons that most. So I'd say that's why you read it. It actually has some meaning to it versus just being a 'ridiculous romance'." Thomas pushed his binder aside, flipping it closed, and leaning his head back. He knew full well what Nikki meant by that fact that she related to it in a different way than most girls. He and his sister didn't have many secrets from each other. Nikki hadn't even been able to keep Carson a secret, much as she'd wanted to, knowing Tom's protective tendencies. Nikki picked up Breaking Dawn and smoothed a page that had gotten bent before putting it back down. She remained sitting up, brown, wavy hair falling over her shoulders.

"So, what were you doing before you ended up here?" Nikki asked, looking to Heather. She looked away again, tilting her head back just slightly and closing her eyes to have her face completely in sunlight again. Ah, to live in California. The East Coast sucked for warmth during winter. Hence why she hated winter. Tommy picked up his phone when it vibrated, checked the caller ID, and put it back down, letting it ring. Only if it had been Mom or Dad would he have picked up with Heather and Nikki with him. He was a total gentleman. It was just the way he had been raised. Nikki had manners too, but she had a bit more of a toughness about her than Thomas. Thomas held just a bit more innocence than her. His past had been easier, with one exception.

[Heather May Wilson]

Heather struggled to not explode. She listened to the other sophomore with open eyes, blinking once. She closed her eyes and bit her lower lip. "I don't...read o-or watch romance." She said softly. She hated how much her past haunted her, but she missed her mom too much. She missed the way her parents would look at each other and she just couldn't handle anything that reminded her of that. She always thought their relationship had been magical and it was painful to see her dad on their anniversary, her mom's birthday or Heather's birthday. His face would twist. The blonde cringed at the memory, her face showing the pain for a fleeting second before she composed herself.

Heather pressed her lips together, picking up her sketch pad and opening to the picture of the quad, setting it before the other girl. "Drawing." She explained simply, biting on her lip and twisting a strand of hair around a finger. "There's more too." She added, the next few pages had drawings from that day including the one of Chrystina. She didn't care if Nikki saw, she just drew what she saw. If she weren't talking to Thomas and Nikki she probably would've been drawing them right now. It was her habit and her only connection to the world outside of the garage and it's customers. Heather glanced up at Tom, curious as to what he was doing. She didn't ask though, she never pressed for things, especially not with people she didn't know.

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[tommy]

Nikki narrowed her eyes slightly. "If your aversion to romance has something to do with your past, I get it. I saw romance shattered at one point. But the book still holds other value." She shrugged on the last part, expression lightening again. Her biological parents had been madly in love for a while...until it all got to be too much. The thought of them didn't make her cringe anymore, but she still wished she could just forget everything before age six. Now she saw a strong romance in her adopted parents that had everything her biological parents' had been missing. She'd learned from both. Nikki leaned forward to look at the drawing. "I should have been able to guess." She tentatively reached forward to pick up the sketchbook, flipping through it slowly.

Tommy had perked, curious, but he wasn't going to invade on anything. So he just relaxed back again, reaching into his messenger bag for his bio chem binder. "You ever considered this professionally?" Nikki asked, still looking through pictures. Tom worked on the homework until he felt Heather's gaze. He looked up, already smiling. "Homework," he answered the unspoke question. "Nerd," Nikki muttered. She was smart too. In some of the same areas as Tommy, and in some very different ones. He hated to write, she loved it. He loved dates, facts, battles, treaties - history. She hated it. But math. They could agree on math.

[Heather May Wilson]

Heather bit down hard on her lip, cringing slightly. "The past." She simply choked out, she couldn't ever let it go. Not when she loved her dad and had to see the pain in his face all the time. She knew that their family would never forget anyone that had died that day. She pursed her lips, relieving the pain ebfore smiling sheepishly. "What else would I be doing." She muttered, getting to understand why he brother saw her as being obsessed with drawing things and everything. He was always a much more 'get into the action' type of person while she would rather sit off to the side and draw the action. She had a critical eye as a result.

Heather's eyes widened, "No. The only thing I plan on doing perfessionally is working in the garage." She almost snapped the first part, almost repulsed at the idea of using drawing to make money. She was pretty sure that would ruin the enjoyment in it and then what? The blonde nodded. "Not a nerd. Someone who cares about their future." She'd basically bashed herself there, not that she cared. She didn't like homework, she was smart, but she didn't like to use it. In everything, but science and history. She sucked at boht of those. Tyler used to tutor her, but she didn't see him enough anymore to use him. She pursed her lips, taking the sketch pad and pulling her pencil out of her hair causing it to fall down in waves over her slender shoulders. Rolling onto her stomach, she opened to a new page and started sketching the picture she'd seen of the siblings before she'd interupted their previous positions. She bit the end of her pencil, pausing and glancing up at Tom and narrowing her eyes, making a face before looking back to her paper, erasing something and fixing it.

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[tommy]

Nikki half-smiled at Heather's strangled two words. She'd been like that once. Finally her adopted family had loosened her up, and she'd told her entire story. Tommy had convinced her to try to be a bit more outgoing, her new mother had taught her to cook, her father had helped her with math homework, and Cody was so cute in that he just didn't get that she was adopted. The people she'd been surrounded with - including Jesus - had pulled her through it. Her smile brightened as Heather's response. She set the sketchbook back down, still smiling. "It's good to have a hobby that you can always do." With her writing, when she got an idea she could just start scribbling it down, since she almost always had paper with her in some form or another.

Tommy's expression changed to one of interesting, gaze falling on Heather. "You like cars?" he asked, shocked. Nikki rolled her eyes, falling onto her back. He ignored the statement about him caring about his future. Nikki had closed her eyes, but still rolled her eyes. Right. Tommy cared a bit too much sometimes. He was a worrier. Through and through. He watched the blond change position, then look up at him. He raised an eyebrow, smiling, amused. "Something about my looks not appeal?" he teased. He was far from arrogant, he was flat out teasing. Nikki made a face without opening her eyes, then relaxed her expression once more.

[Heather May Wilson]

Heather bit down, hard, on her lip and looked to the grass. Sometimes she wished she could just disolve right into the ground and join nature rather than having to be a stupid human. The sophomore groaned inside, she got annoyed with people always complimenting her drawings. "I suppose." She stated modestly. "And only if I have my pad." She added as a joke. Her lips pressed together and her brows furrowed slightly, the look of thought. Her face smoothed just a second later and she smiled instead while her mind played one of her favorite songs over and over again in her head.

Heather's head snapped to look at Tommy. She tilted it. "Duh. It's the only place I fit in." She muttered the second part. The blonde still couldn't grasp the concept that girls didn't like cars. She loved them, especially when she got to work on them, that was the best part to her. Heather looked back up to Tommy, slightly confused. She bit her lip, shaking her head. "No, not at all. They're just...I don't usually draw guys except my brother and my dad and the guys at the shop. Your structure isn't anywhere near theirs." She explained softly, erasing another part to change the look in the older teen's eyes in the picture.

Nikki was easy, she'd met Nikki before and even drawn a picture of her before, but it was hard for her to grasp onto another new person. For Chrystina she just drew what she saw, but with him...she kind of knew more about him and felt compelled to incorperate that into her drawing. The sophomore set the pad down on the grass before her, lips pressed together in a tight line and eyes scanning over the page critically. She had Nikki laying in the grass, her arm over her forehead and all, and she had Tommy against the tree with his school stuff surrounding him...somewhat. She gave a small smile of approval at her work, she could always make changed later.

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[nikki]

NIkki smiled softly. "That I definitely get. I can write wherever I am...so long as I have paper." She smiled to herself, thinking of when she'd been on a trip with the Hartwells, on a plane. She'd written a whole spiral notebook on that trip of a story she'd invented about the person she'd been sitting across the aisle from. They were long flights, and long layovers. She still had that story in her 'archives' back in DC in case she ever wanted to turn it into a full novel. She stretched, sighing. "We should go for a run before it gets dark Tommy." Tom groaned. He was in shape thanks to Nikki, and running with her was fun, but he still liked to put up a fight when she said they should run. He liked to think he had better things to do.

Tommy raised an eyebrow. "That's not a 'duh' worthy question if you ask me," he pointed out. "You're a girl. You like cars. You ought to know as well as I that that's rare." He worked down at an auto shop and loved cars. His truck looked brand new and ran like brand new thanks to all the work he'd out into it. He'd rebuilt the engine, fixed the dents, the paint - everything. "I get it," he responded to the blond with a smile that just parted his lips. He pulled his homework back into his lip and bend his head forward to focus on it. He could get distracted easily, if the distraction was interesting enough. Unlike Nikki, would would take almost any distraction and run with it.

[Heather May Wilson]

Heather nodded in response to Nikki before becoming bored. She was starting to get bored more easily these days, she didn't like that. she used to be able to entertain herself for hours on end and now...well, that didn't happen anymore. The girl looked up, her blue-green eyes going immediatly to Tommy when he groaned. "You don't like running?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him, curious. She pursed her lips anyways, running a hand through her loose hair and shoving it behind her ears, she hated when it got in her way.

Heather's expression was confused once again. "It's a 'duh' question when it comes to me. Working on cars saved what's, you know, left...of my family." She bit her lip, looking pointedly at her sketch pad and looking over. "Anyways, I don't get why people in general don't like working on cars. It's rather fun." She sighed for no real reason known to the outside world. The sophomore smiled back at Tommy, somehow, she felt like she could relate to him better than she could to Nikki. "So you guys aren't blood related are you?" She asked it rather passively, looking up from the sketch pad afterwards, curious as to who would answer her simple question. She'd guessed, but she wanted comformation for some reason.

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[nikki]

Tommy laughed. "No. I love running with her. I just like to be difficult about it," he responded, smiling, brown eyes sparkling. He ran a hand through is brown hair absently. There was something about running that was just appealing. It was like...freedom almost. Nikki smiled softly. She loved it too. For more than one reason. And for her it was a hobby. For Tommy is was partly hobby, and partly just a way to keep in shape. "But I don't know you. You can't expect me to guess off the bat that you work with cars - it's too rare in girls." His expression wasn't as light as he defended himself, but there was still a joking expression to it that made it evident he wasn't very serious about the whole thing. He just ignored the 'what's left of my family' part of her sentence, as did Nikki. Both knew - from experience in different ways - not to pry. If she wanted to tell them, she would. If not, that was fine too.

"You should see his car if you're so into it. It's freaking old, but he literally made it into brand new. I helped...with certain parts." Nikki couldn't pretend to understand engines or anything, but she had helped get it in shape anyway. She knew the basics of car repair, but didn't care all the much for the whole car thing. Even if she could appreciate a sleek convertible with some serious power...she wasn't sure if that counted. Nikki's whole posture tensed at the question. "No," she quipped, forehead furrowed, hands clenched. Tommy looked down, not responding in anyway. He looked completely intent on his homework. He was avoiding the topic. This was something he left up to Nikki - whether the truth came out or not. It was her past, her choice to tell it. Though hers was intertwined with his, he always skimmed details, just casually mentioning that then Nikki became part of the family. Most people took it as biological. No one looked too closely at the siblings to see the differences - not usually at least. Nikki's close friends new, and Tom's close friends knew. That was about the end of it