The Biology of Dissecting Information [Open]

[Keith Richards]

The old man came out of the back, wearing a pleasant grin and a black and gray stubble quite proudly. He had seen Keith take quite a few girls to the back booth, but usually they were a bit more. Well, they shared his attitude. Although he didn't hold much hope that he could keep such a girl around. "Here you go, and Keith you better pay up this time, you hit your tab's limit last week." Keith looked up as the glasses were thunked down lightly, the thick frosted glass with the trade mark Pepsi label written in white. "I didn't have the cash on me, I told you that. Besides, it's fine, the girl'll pay." He said without the slightest hesitation, not even bothering to eye the girl to tell her to just play along. He meant it.

"Some gentlemen you are," The old man laughed and slapped Keith's shoulder in a friendly fashion before turning to return tot he kitchen and make up their chosen pizza's. Keith turned his head to follow the old man, curious to see if he had someone out back or not. Every month he would try a new employee, just for the hell of it, and them fire them a week after because he got sick of training them. Surely enough a rather timid looking girl came up and started talking to him, the front of her white apron stained red with pizza sauce. "Keith," He offered his name after his curiosity was sated. Bringing up a leg he planted his foot on the bench, his knee resting against the back of the seat, sitting on the bench like it belonged to him. His left arm came up and he rested it along the table, eyeing the kitchen as though it should produce food faster.

"So, you know why you're here. Anything else you wanted to know, or did you forget to use your 'amazing' conversation skills to pose a question?" He turned his dark brown eyes to her, the slightly raised half circles under his eyes shaded heavier than the rest of his face, and adding the impatience in his dark eyes. "I'm not saying it's abnormal for girls to follow me around like puppies, they do frequently enough, but I should've pissed you off enough to dissuade you of such infatuation. What do you want?"

[Alyssa]

Brown eyes fanned by the flicks of long, mascara eyelashes, turned to the stubbled old man, watching as he placed the glasses infront of them. A slight look of annoyance simmering onto her face, as Alyssa eyed the pepsi glasses...she'd asked for coke dammit. Hopefully it was just the glass advertisement, but if he thought she couldn't taste the distinctive taste between coke and pepsi, he was about to be severely wronged. But, she let that slide for now, simply because of the assumptions that slipped from the caveboy's mouth. Ugh... she should've guessed. Some gentleman indeed! Not that she'd ever assumed him to possess any manners, but she was a girl of the twenty-first century! She appreciated her independance, but still expected old-fashioned manners, at times. Really he should've gone halves with her! Her eyes rolled, but other than that, her expression remained nonchalent. Perhaps if she was a 'normal' girl she might've thrown a hissy fit, and that was probably what the boy was expecting from her. It wasn't her desire to play into his hands like that however, this was her game dammit, and he would play it her way.

Nodding slightly as he finally told her his simpleton name, Alyssa simply watched as 'Keith' made himself more comfortable, acting like he owned the damn booth. Honestly, she doubted she'd ever met someone this impossible to work around. Usually the bad boy facade faded when she used her charms...though to be fair, she hadn't really taken that approach with him. Plus he was twisting her words to give them some, entirely different meaning! Now she couldn't stop the furrowed brows of a very confused frown, or the narrowed eyes that followed as she glared at him momentarilly. She? An infactuated little puppy? Oh please. He really needed a pin to pop that ego. What bothered her now though, was the fact he'd dealt quite a harsh and unexpected blow. He was definately a challenge, but she had no idea which personna to use against him now. Condescending? Charming? Cute? Mothering? If she kept switching from one extreme to the other, he'd either clock on or just...well, who knows...Was it worth the risk?

"If you think this is an infatuation, then you are really quite mistaken." Alyssa spoke with a rather amused smile, but it was warm and endearing simply from the slight curve of her plump lips, which gave an air of comfortable confidence despite her situation. "Please do correct me if I'm mistaken, but it was my understanding that an infatution develops over at least a week. Whereas...I only just met you, today?"

She paused to half-chuckle at her own statement, and also to re-affirm her pleasant smile. "Perhaps I should be flattered...you poor starving boy, singling little me out like this, to feed you? Good. I needed a little entertainment after such a boring day."

She was grinning now, quite deviously, and eyeing him like a predator staring down a victim. Now she leaned forwards though, to place her elbows on the table, and create a bridge using her fingers, for her chin to rest on. Hopefully she wasn't using too many big words for his puny brain to comprehend.

"So if you want me to pay, then I in turn, would like a better reason to stay. Right now daytime television or even detention is sounding like a better, so-called 'infatuation.' Fact is, let's just say, I'm broadening my horizons."

[Keith Richards]

Keith seemed interested, momentarily, by her quite apparent change of attitude. She had been mocking and earlier, and now she was talking as though they were just going to be the best of friends. Or at least that's the way it sounded when she was talking in that confident tone while no longer trying to directly mock him. Although she was calling to question his intelligence, which he didn't much care about. After all it was something he didn't mind the general public thinking. It left him with an advantage. If he was intelligent and viewed as an idiot then he would be all the more at advantage.

"What can I say, us boys don't know how to feed ourselvs. Please, oh please, empowered woman of this generation feed this starving little boy," Keith put on his best mocking pout, his eyes becoming doe-like as he pulled off the maneuver with a boyish idiocy that likely had it coming across as half serious. But it dropped a moment after. Her eyes caught his attention. Why did they look so familiar? He knew nothing of the girl, and he certainly didn't know any prissy bitches for more than a few minutes unless they wanted his penis, and she apparently didn't.

"So, you want a reason to stick around and pay? How about this, I urge you, for my own amusement, to walk out of this joint I brought you to without paying for the pizza and soda you already ordered." There was a grin showing through as he spoke the words confidently. If she wanted to be entertained she came to the wrong damn place, he was there to eat. And he'd get his meal one way or another, even if he had to hang her out to dry.

[Alyssa]

It didn't take a rocket scientist to realise that Keith was mocking Alyssa, but her stare refused to falter in spite of his rather cheeky retort. Only when she realised she'd, for some reason or other, gained his absolute attention, did she reward him with her prolonged, rather devious grin. The test pretty much complete, by now she'd examined and cross-examined his personality, to determine that he wasn't lacking in intelligence afterall. Despite the brute-like appearance, he was far too witty, too sharp on the ball, and he was definately finding it far too easy to surprise her. This was a factor Alyssa did not like. Either she could make an ally out of him, which was what she ultimately preferred, or he was going to make a rather dangerous foe. Again he dealt a surprising blow, and this time, her exterior personna slipped out of her control. The smile faded, and eyes narrowed slightly as she glared him down. Damn idiot was grinning at her, though she hadn't quite found a reason to be amused in return, yet. One sided jokes weren't exactly her fortay, unless she was the one laughing, and right now, she wasn't.

"Well, what can I say." The retort calm and the question rhetorical, she gave her shoulders a little shrug, yet her piercing gaze refused to falter. One thing Alyssa had learnt in life, was the importance of eye contact. Many people hated it, or simply practiced it because it was a formality. She on the other hand, kept eye contact because she wanted to. It was beyond a habit, but more of a way of being, like one might breathe or walk without thinking about it. "You're...puzzling enough. I suppose that alone is endearing enough. Sorry to disappoint you, but I've been convinced to stay."

Almost as though it was a chore now just to spite him, though from the way he twisted things to suit him, she wasn't sure how he was going to take it. Contrary enough, she supposed she twisted things too...and that probably wasn't a good thing in the long run. Finally, she found a reason to laugh, though it was really just a short-lived little chuckle. Not by any means a giggle, though she did possess quite a 'sweet' pitch to her voice, it wasn't high enough to pass as a pre-pubescant, giddy little girl. The laughter forced her to move her hands from beneath her chin, and instead clasp them on the table infront of her, as she sat forwards slightly. Taking the stance of someone quite intrigued, she also claimed dominance over half the table. It was the type of stance business associates often took, and since he was sitting like he owned the chair, she would sit to own the table.

"And trust me, I already have a reason to stick around and pay. For my own meal at least. What I was looking for, was a reason to play." Her voice lifting at the last two words, as if she openly doubted he had any idea what she was talking about. Since she'd seen how straight to the point he was, she figured she might as well just leap in there and get to the point. He seemed the type who lacked patience and attention, so rather than lose both from him, she figured she would have to grab his attention...constantly. Besides, she only had so much time to make an impression, before the pizza arrived.

"For example, let's take a little step back. Did you really think it neccessary to beat our biology teacher to a pulp? What I mean is, did the benefits of other methods ever, cross your mind?"

[Keith Richards]

"I get fed either way," He said with a simple shrug, not liking the way she was moving over the table to stare at him intently. Was it because she was so focused, or was it something else that had him wanting to reach out, grab her head, and smash her face into the table? Shrugging without purpose he decided that it could wait until the pizza was paid for. After all, he did bring her along for free food. So he'd humor her, for the moment, but he was still having trouble getting her to actually pay for his food. She said she would pay for her own, not his, quite pointedly.

"Beat him to a pulp? Obviously you're new here, so let me tell you how I started off my first day as a Sophomore." He turned and slammed his fist onto the table an inch away from her arm, which he then casually drew across the front of her so it would be swept away and she would lose her possession of the table. "I picked a fight with a Junior and proceeded to smash his face into the locker, then the ground, and then the locker again," His eyes held the dark humor that left no room for guilt. "Then took his girlfriend off on a little date, after kicking him in the ribs a few times."

Keith leaned over, his lower body turning so his legs went underneath the table, eyeing her with the cold humor still. "Do you think I really care that I pushed around some teacher who put a bruise on my hip?" His head tilted back and he barked out a single 'ha' before looking back toward the kitchen. 'Where is my damn pizza,' he thought with annoyance before continuing. "It's why I love this school. Students are cowards, teachers are idiots, and you can get anything you want with the proper amount of fear or pain. So I said all that to say this; why the fuck would I damage my well earned reputation for some fat ass drunk?"

[Alyssa]

Ah, finally! The caveboy was opening up a little. That had only taken...twenty minutes counting the biology lesson? Well, Alyssa mused how this was a start at least. Although, she didn't expect him to be spilling his life story yet, at least he was contributing to the conversation. Half of her jumped slightly, when he slammed his fist down onto the table. The action unexpected, by catching her off guard it made it easy for him to sweep her hands away from the centre of the table. Oh dear, had he not liked her intrusion on his territory? Inwardly, she was laughing so bad at this point. He really was a caveboy. Yet on the outside, she merely casually re-clasped her hands infront of her, acting relaxed yet still determined to claim her half of the table at least.

Both eyebrows quirked as Keith begun to tell her the tale, of his first day as a sophomore. She was still rather sketchy on the whole American high school system, but only because she was classed as a 'sophomore' could she easilly determine his age in relation to the story. Now, despite the violence of the story, he spoke of it as though it were an everyday occurance. An normal person would probably only share such a story, out of pure guilt and remorse to a very close and open-minded friend. Yet here he was, using the story as some sort of, deterence. Or so she gathered. Was he expecting her to be weary of him in light of this? Honestly, he'd succeeding in shocking her, and that alone was unsettling. Few things shocked Alyssa, but this story about him beating some random boy up and then dating his girlfriend? Obviously he hadn't quite figured out what kind of person he was dealing with here...and neither had she. The further revelation of his character caused her to shift slightly, for all the wrong reasons. She crossed one leg over the other under the table, attempting to re-settle herself after being caught off guard, again. It was a similar shock to seeing him beat up a teacher; unexpected but, intriguing nonetheless.

As he sat up, Alyssa refused to flinch or budge any further than how she previously had. It was sometimes amazing how still she could be, but it was a defying ignorance she'd mastered over the years, to again become a second nature to her. At times people found it comforting, others found it unnerving. She wasn't really sure what Keith was thinking, but judging from the way he'd claimed the table off her and now stared at her with darkly, ironically humoured eyes. Well, she figured he wasn't comfortable knowing she wasn't just some rich girl looking for a sleezy night with a tough rebel guy. As was the fashion these days. But, here came the interesting part. He spoke of the school using the word 'love,' and very few people would relate that word to such an establishment. And he didn't finish the statement there, but went on, to explain why he loved Hircine High. She honestly couldn't help the excitement this knowledge invoked. The tough reigns she held on her emotions slipping, as her lips parted slightly to gape lightly at the blonde brute. See, she knew he was worth her attention afterall. Right now, she was treating this as some sort of, twisted job interview. Such revelations as these, only gave him credit.

"Quite." The response rather, typically upper class British. It referred to an agreement in those issues he'd suggested; the well-earned reputation, the fat ass drunk, the fear and the pain, everything in his last statement. But Alyssa had met people like this before. Those who thought they shared her ambitions, only to realise they didn't have the guts, or the heart, to truelly get involved in her precarious deeds. "I did notice you had quite the, reputation. I'll confess that much. The atmosphere of the classroom certainly changed the moment you walked in." It never hurt to subtley inject someone's pride and ego a little, and it wasn't like she was oogling at him like some, besotted fangirl. Infact, she shrugged her shoulders as she spoke. "And the overall senseless gossip was the icing on that particular cake." On second thought, she added, "though I am surprised the girl would date you after, what you did."

It was at this point where she finally tore her attention from him, as her eyes scanned lowered to her drink, and her mouth found the straw. A slight break in the conversation, she needed the ice to send a jolt into her brain, to figure out what she should say next. When she'd taken a long sip of what was thankfully coke, she let her eyes linger to the menu, as opposed to just staring down the boy again. As she inspected the desert list, her fingers dodging the tomato and grease mark on the paper, her voice rang out clearly again, the question more-than casual, almost like a random thought. Except she'd planned it all out; rarely did Alyssa ever let her thoughts just, slip off her tongue, without conscious reason beforehand. "Just out of curiousity...why didn't you ever run for that, erm." She played the unknowing new girl, and that gave her the motive to look back at him. That and, they didn't have her favourite ice cream flavour apparently. "The pillar system?"

[Keith Richards]

"I'm glad your ears work," He said with a simple shrug of his shoulders. Not looking all that pleased that she said she had noticed, it was like she had said something utterly obvious to him. Of course she noticed! Keith would have smacked her around if she needed proof. Luckily for her she didn't need any proof. "You're a bit naive." Keith thought quietly because she was oblivious to his implication.

"Hm, you actually asked something interesting. So I'll do you a favor and pretend you actually gave me a pizza already." Keith leaned forward, grinning as he stared at her instead of looking out toward the kitchen, he was still hungry, damn it. "I will be in the pillar system, as soon as I can actually find one. As far as I know there is only one, and I haven't heard much of him so far." That's when he heard something from the kitchen, a loud ding followed by two bangs as the oven opened and closed. "You are going to shut up when I'm eating, right?"

[Alyssa]

Naive? Chocolate-brown eyes narrowed, questioning and somewhat, lightly insulted by such an accusation. Her nostrils flared as she inhaled a sharp breath. Naive indeed! She tapped her foot to a silent beat, as she stared at the accusational one under her heavy fringe. At least, he swiftly moved on to kind of, praise her questioning. That was reassuring at least, but Alyssa still wasn't sure what to think of the caveboy, or what he thought of her. So far she still had the inkling of her providing him with a free meal and nothing more. This was going to turn out into a little project, she could see it happening already. But dare she wound her own reputation by following him around like the infactuated puppies she detested so much? Besides, that would mean his opening comment about her would be correct, and she didn't want him 'one up' on her.

As the blonde brute leaned forwards, she refused to convey any feeling of intimidation, and therefore stood her ground. Her shoulders square and slightly stiff, Alyssa merely lifted her stubborn chin, eyes fixated on the one and only target opposite her. For once, she had his full, undivided attention; a trivial pleasure seeing as he seemed more fixated with the damn kitchen doors most the time. Hah! Maybe on second thought, she'd play on the naivity a little more. Perhaps he was one of those weirdos who liked the innocent, naive moron. Sure, she could do that, minus the moron of course. So as he darkly grinned with a hint of cheekyness, her mouth formed a slightly pouted 'O' shape, to convey her intrigue. So, he had thought about the pillar system. A lot it seemed. Manipulating him in that sense was now off the agenda. Pooey...that would've been fun. Alas, all was not lost. Say he was a pillar. That would be the perfect contact to have on her side of the board. But if he was going to make an enemy out of her, then she would just have to make sure he never became a pillar...

Ah yes, the rather delicious plot was forming in her mind. It was hard not to ruin her naive approach with a cheeky grin but, she supposed the stubborn grin could be excused. Though it widened into a cheeky smile when Keith asked if she was going to be quiet. Now that was just plain rude. Her eyes lowered, briefly considering her response, before she looked back to him and gave a little, nonchalent shrug of her shoulders.

"That all depends...Are you going to ask me nicely?"

[Keith Richards]

"Ask nicely?" Keith asked as though she had just spoken something she should have known already, a condescending glare amplifying the tone he applied. "Sure, I'll ask nicely, right after I offer to smash your face in the table if you don't." A free meal or not, no meal was worth sitting through if someone intended to talk. The only reason he put up with it at the lunch room was because it would be too much trouble to smash around everyone just to eat in silence. But school riots usually had the cafeteria empty, those had been nice days. And free food.

The old man had the pizza's, one in each hand, a mit under the metal pizza pans. They were placed on the table in front of either teenager. Without pause he turned around and went back into the kitchen, only to return a few moments later with each respective drink. "I'll drop the bill on the table in a few, no rush."The old man spoke, although he was clearly reminding them that someone should pay before they decided to just sit there after eating the whole thing. Keith stared across the table, waiting to see if he would need to 'ask nicely' for her to shut up as he ate.

[Alyssa]

The corners of Alyssa's mouth twitched in reaction to Keith's sudden threat, and though part of her snapped to dare him to even try that, her logical nature convinced her that a broken nose wasn't very attractive these days. The only thing keeping her from walking out at that very moment, was the special fact that this boy wanted to be in with the pillar system. That meant power and a worthy ally, or enemy, in the major scheme of things. She needed more information, and above all; she needed to make a better impression. Reclining backwards dejectedly, she sat all the way back, to let her posture mould against the hard leather cushion behind her. One eyebrow quirked purposeley at Keith, as she maintained her firm glare underneath her heavy fringe, as if to say 'so now what will you do?'

If the ultimate prize wasn't so promising, Alyssa would've found that, as the pizza's were next to arrive, this would've been her perfect time to bail. Imagine that; annoy him with smalltalk and then bail the moment his food arrived. That would've been perfection at it's best. She'd take a different sliding door of fate though, and instead smile politely at the pizza shop owner, as he placed the steaming, greasy food infront of her. Inwardly, her stomach turned at the thought of all that grease and recycled oil no doubt. If that wasn't bad enough, the stupid man made a point out of who was paying for the bill. Money was nothing to her, but she didn't appreciate the way in which he treated his customers. Despite the caveboy demanding silence, she supposed leaving a cell phone message wasn't going to hurt. So retrieving her phone from her bag while she shop owner was still in earshot, she pretended to dial a number. Acting the perfect little socialite, she put on a smiley face, watching the shopowner as he tabbed the bill at the front desk.

"Hi daddy!...Oh I'm fab. Listen, how would you like to own a quaint little pizza shop?" The owner froze to stare at her as he listened more carefully to the posh snob voice that rung over the current radio tune. "Yes of course I'm serious daddy! It would hardly leave a hole in your pocket, and you could hire some people to run the place....Oh I'm sure the current owner would be easy to persuade." All the while, she stared at the current owner as she spoke, still smiling. "Yes I understand. Please think about it, for me?.....Love you too daddy. Bye now. Mwah." She even made the fake kissing sound. As the call was ended, the shop owner had thought twice. He either faced a prospective sell-out, or could earn a lot of money haggling over a price.

"Pay when you're ready."

Alyssa nodded with false gratitude, but finally turned her attention to her cooling pizza. Correction: greasey pizza. Stiffling a groan at the prospect of eating such badly made food, she took a napkin and began to dab at the top of the cheese, taking off as much grease as she could while Keith, no doubt, had already tucked in.