Dinnertime

Cordelia had collected her cottage pie and sat down in a quiet corner of the room. She was in jeans and a hoody and could hear people talking about her.

In fact, it may be better to call her a him.

He was all alone for a reason, or was it two? Cordy had no friends, he had no one he could ask to sit next to and people didn't usually recognise him out of the school uniform.

He wasn't particularly hungry. He'd gone through nearly seven years at the school and never once had he picked up a friend. No one had asked him out...or shown any interest in him. So, he had no reason to be hopeful this year. His last year. It made him sad. It meant that uni would be tough for him...especially at Oxford where he aimed to go.

(OOC: this is for V to reply to )

(OOC: no fair! Chard is his friend!)

Rosalinde was tall, like her brother Marshall. She had the same golden hair as he did, but she had fine features like Philip and his pale skin. She had a few freckles, long hands and ribbons pinned to both lapels of her blazer.

A blue ribbon, for protest to child abuse.
A red ribbon, for HIV/AIDS.
A black ribbon, for abolishing the death penalty.
A yellow ribbon, for the International Suicide Prevention Program.
A green ribbon, for environmental matters (and legalizing medicinal cannabis).
An orange ribbon, for human rights in Tibet.
A purple ribbon, for Alzheimer's.
A brown ribbon, for banning tobacco.
A pink ribbon, for breast cancer.

As well as this, she had ribbons twining all up her arms. She had changed her skirt, letting it right down and adding fabric until it was a gypsy skirt. Her hair was tied in two plaits. There was something so fresh and bohemian about her.

(OOC: yeah but she's younger than him. he has no friends who are as mature as him etc. etc.)

Cordy sighed. The cottage pie looked absolutely gross!

Cordy slouched further into his seat. He could hear the whispering about him.
"Who is he?"
"He's a girl?!"
"I heard she's got a mental illness..."
"really? I heard she's just gay!"

Cordy looked down at his food, raven hair hanging in front of his eyes.

Rosaline tapped the boy's shoulder.
"Hello?" she said, and smiled gently. "Hey, are you okay?"

Cordy looked up and blushed bright red. Whoa! She was stunning.

"H-hi...um...yeah...I'm fine..." Cordy muttered nervously in his husky voice. "A-am I sitting at your table? Do you want me to move?!"

"No, I don;t have a table. Can I sit here?" she asked.

Cordy let his hair hide his blush. "Yeah, sure...be my guest..." Cordy cursed himself after saying it. His guest?! Oh god...

"Thanks," she smiled, putting down the basket that hung off her arm and opening it. Inside was her food.

Cordy blinked. Peculiar. "You not like the school lunches then?" he asked huskily, drinking from his glass.

"I'm a vegan," she explained with a smile.

Cordy pulled a face. "Whoa..." he shook his head dismissively and put his glass down, picking up some cottage pie on his fork. "See, now my food looks ironic."

Rosa looked at it.
"Red meat has a lot of iron in it, so it might be in that sense. The rest of it is just some gung, right?"

Cordy laughed handsomely. "There's some potato in there...to be honest I don't even think this is real meat." he shrugged, putting it in his mouth.

"I won't try and contradict you," she said, and pulled out her first item of food. Homemade bread, and homemade jam sandwich.

Cordy sighed, there was even more chatter about him now that Rosa had sat with him. He turned to her. "You know...you'd be better off sitting further away from me..."

Rosa looked around.
"No, I like sitting here. You don;t mind, do you?"

"Only if you're okay with rumours being spread about you..." Cordy shrugged, eating some carrot.

"The people who listen to rumours aren't the sort of people I want to be friends with," Rosa smiled. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Cordy...yours?" he asked, extending a hand.

"Rosalinde," she smiled, and shook his hand.

Cordy felt a jolt go through his whole body as their hands touched. He withdrew his hand and smiled, going back to his food.

Rosa finished her sandwich.
"Cordy's a cute name. Is it short for something?"

Cordy blushed. The moment of truth.

"Cordelia."

"My nanna is called Cordelia. It's a nice name."

"No. It's a girl's name. It's disgusting..." Cordy muttered, looking down at his food.