To: [email protected] (Alex McLean)
From: [email protected] (N. Carter)
Date: January 19, 2003 09:42est
Subject: Need advice and my body is revolting
Alex,
What�s up, man? Sorry I haven�t really been responding to your emails. Tryouts are kicking my ass, but they�re doing main cuts Tuesday. I should get on. The pitching is decent, but I�m better. The way the coaches talked, I�m a shoe-in, but I�m not going to believe that until I see it on paper.
I know I probably owe you six emails by now, and once again I�m just emailing for advice. There�s a girl. She lives across the hall. A really smart girl, always studying or reading. She�s in my lit (and fights with the teacher the entire time) and advanced web design classes.
I�ve never talked to her. I�m afraid I�m going to come off as stupid no matter what I say to her. I�m creative and athletic, but I�m not smart. I� she intrigues me. Everyone I talk to seems to know her and tells me the exact same thing - really sweet, really smart, and really into school and her job.
So Dr. Love, tell me how to introduce myself without looking like a complete goon. The advice would be greatly appreciated and I promise I�ll start responding to your emails.
-Nick
To: [email protected] (Nicky)
From: [email protected] (AJ McLean)
Date: January 21, 2003 14:38est
Subject: Re: Need advice and my body is revolting
Carter,
First off, why is your body revolting from tryouts?! Did you get that out of shape in two years? And it�s good to know you�re still confident in your skills. Tell me when your first game is and I�ll be there. I�ll bring Howard-Tony (he�s having a mid-life crisis and identity issues *grin*).
You do owe me some emails, but it�s okay. I�m busy working on this demo. Yes, I�m still trying for a singing career, and I�m going to have one, damn it! I�ll send you a copy when I�m done.
So I�m Dr. Love now? What happened to you thinking I curse all relationships I meddle in? This one hasn�t even started, and you want me to meddle. Makes lots of sense, man.
The way you talk, this girl is completely out of your league. You need a bubbly model type, who has the intelligence of a peanut. Smart girls aren�t worth the work; you always have to be on your toes and thinking, so they don�t make you feel like a complete idiot. That�d be too tiring, and then you have no energy for sex at the end of the night.
Is she at least cute? I�m going to pretend she�s cute �cause that makes it easier to give advice. You have two classes AND she lives across the hall? I assume you see her a lot. I�d start off by saying, �Hi, I�m Nick and I�m in your lit/web design class. I was wondering if you could help me/give me the assignment/make out with me after class.� Wha-la. She knows who you are, and now you have the right to say hi to her every time you see her.
Or you could just smile at her. That seems to always get you girls.
And that�s all the advice I have right now. Tell me if it works.
-The Love Doctor
Monday - January 20, 2003 (9:17am) - Liberal Arts Building, Room 214
Nick slouched into his chair absentmindedly pulling his ball cap lower over his eyes as he glanced at Robert, who sat in a similar manner next to him in the large classroom. Class had started barely twenty minutes before and Mr. Jamison had already pushed Skye�s buttons to the point that she�d begun to fight back, her voice getting louder as she got excited by the point she was trying to make.
Their advance modern literature class was small - with fifteen people on the best days - and almost every class was spent listening to a heated discussion between Skye and their professor. Sometimes the conversations would get so loud, any stranger who made the mistake of walking into the room would probably think Skye was a disobedient hothead who was about to attack Mr. Jamison.
�Oh, come on! What about Rodya from Crime and Punishment? How is he not an archetypal tragic hero? He�s mentally unstable yet he�s still trying to save Sonia from poverty, ends up hurting his mother and sister, AND ends up in Siberia.�
Nick turned his head towards the middle of the square made of tables and smiled, loving the way Skye�s eyes lit up whenever she could argue books with someone who could argue back intelligently. Her cheeks were turning a light shade of pink as she stopped to listen to the teacher�s come back.
�But what does that have to do with Brave New World?� he asked, trying obviously to hide his smirk.
Nick and Robert both bit back a laugh when she rolled her eyes at their professor.
�John is clearly a tragic hero! He�s taken away from the only world he�s ever known and placed in a totally alternative universe full of people building babies instead of having them��
Something flashed on the screen of Nick�s laptop that pulled his attention away from Skye.
heatanddamage56 (9:27am): wipe the drool off your chin.
�And he�s only trying to save them� maybe even open their eyes to reality instead of the clone society��
BaseballAce_8 (9:29am): i am not drooling.
��and he ended up hurting everyone he�d come to care about.�
heatanddamage56 (9:32am): sure you�re not. that's why you just casually checked.
BaseballAce_8 (9:33am): no i didn�t!
�But in the end didn�t he do it for his own reasons? In hopes of changing their society into something like what was in Shakespeare�s plays? A world of passion and love and feeling?� Mr. Jamison asked, turning away from Skye in an attempt of getting a few other people involved in the discussion. His tries were hopeless since no one was willing to join any argument over books with her in fear she�d begin attacking them.
BaseballAce_8 (9:40am): what�s her sn?
heatanddamage56 (9:41am): who�s? Skye�s?
BaseballAce_8 (9:41am): yeah
heatanddamage56 (9:43am): antiglitterprincess - and she�s on; finally going to attempt to talk to her?
Nick ignored the last question as he glanced up, seeing Jamison once again preoccupied with Skye, who�d started ranting about immorality of personal perceptions or something else way over his head. �But�� squeaked a quiet blonde kid who sat across the room from him, fearful of Skye�s passionate wrath.
She stopped mid-sentence and turned to the guy who�d attempted to interject. He immediately began blushing when she smiled and waved her head for him to continue. �Go ahead,� she said pleasantly, the slightly demonic look she�d had on her face instantly gone.
�Well, it�s obvious that John�s perception of the dystopia is going to be different; he grew up in a society that was the complete opposite�� the boy began carefully.
Skye listened to him, genuinely interested, until a blinking blue screen that appeared on top of the Word document of notes she�d abandoned earlier distracted her.
BaseballAce_8 (9:51am): keep him talking. i didn�t read the book. :)
Confused, Skye squinted at her computer, never having seen the screen name before. Nick watched her out of the corner of his eye as she stared at her screen before quickly running her eyes over everyone in the room and then typing something.
antiglitterprincess (9:53am): i'll try.
Not knowing what else to say, he went back to watching her as she now argued with the shy boy, making sure to keep her voice from becoming mean.
�Yeah, I understand what you�re saying and totally agree, but I don�t believe that completely rules out the idea that John was a tragic hero. He believed he was attempting to help this society that he wanted to become a part of, and in his attempts to make it better and �freeing� the lower castes, he destroyed his friends lives and ended up banished from London.�
The quiet boy started to respond until Mr. Jamison interrupted. �Why aren�t you this nice to me?!�
The class laughed as Skye turned to him and grinned. �You wouldn�t know what to do with me if I was nice to you.�
He rolled his eyes at her and turned to the blonde boy. �Jason, you want to respond?�
The same boy who had the guts to jump into the middle of Skye�s earlier diatribe nodded his head and started talking again, a little more confidently.
BaseballAce_8 (10:03am): how are you so smart?
Skye glanced down and smiled, instantly knowing her answer for the anonymous questioner. Leaning his elbow on the desk, Nick rested his chin in his hand and discreetly looked at her, his stomach flip-flopping when he saw her sucking on her bottom lip and blushing slightly.
antiglitterprincess (10:06am): i do my homework -grin-
��in the end, the only life he ruined was his own. He shouldn�t have left the reservation to begin with,� Jason ended as Skye�s attention snapped back to the conversation.
�But the entire concept of a tragic hero isn�t how he got into a situation, but how he reacts after he�s in the situation,� she responded, smiling at him until his fair skin turned red again.
Nick grinned, believing that he too would be bright red if she would smile at him that way.
BaseballAce_8 (10:09am): heeeeeey� i've been working.
BaseballAce_8 (10:10am): and tryouts.
�But does a situation make a tragic hero or does the character naturally evolve into a tragic hero?� Mr. Jamison asked.
Skye glanced down at her screen quickly before doing a double take and furrowing her forehead, allowing Jason to answer first.
antiglitterprincess (10:14am): tryouts?
BaseballAce_8 (10:15am): yeah, baseball (notice my sn?)
�Miss Masterson?� Mr. Jamison prompted.
She looked up, her eyes wide in surprise before she regained control of herself. �It depends on the author�s intentions,� she began. �Since the character is all in the writer�s imagination, they ultimately choose, and we, as readers, can only speculate the writer�s intentions for their characters. I personally believe John turned into a tragic hero when the opportunity arose rather than the opportunity turned him into a tragic hero.�
The classroom grew quiet again as everyone watched Mr. Jamison check his watch. �On that note, get out of here. Skye made me tired. I�ll see you on Wednesday. Make sure you have everything read. We�ll have a test or a quiz or something. And Jason� I appreciate you having the guts to challenge Hurricane Skye. Maybe some of you others can learn to speak up every now and again.�
As everyone began packing up their stuff and leaving, Skye glanced around, wondering who�d popped up on her instant messenger. Shaking any possibilities she�d come up with out of her head, she typed up some final notes until she knew everyone was gone besides Mr. Jamison.
�Get out of here, Skye. Take a rest and let your brain cool down. I don�t want your head to explode this early in the semester. I might need you to teach the class every now and again. You know, about the evilness of literary stereotypes and the proper way to portray women in a twenty-first century novel,� he said, smiling teasingly.
Returning his grin, she shut off her computer and slipped it into her backpack before standing up and heading towards the door. �All right, see you Wednesday.�