It felt awkward looking him the eye, but it might be ruder to avoid eye contact, when they were so close together. She looked down and realized how close she had come to hurting him, and she felt herself flush. That would have been even more embarrassing and awkward. She expected that he would make noise, and her mother would come in to check on them. She would wonder what had happened in here. Besides that it would have been embarrassing to touch right there, and it would be embarrassing to clumsily hurt him like that.

She knew that it made it more awkward if she acted off, but she had a hard time reverting back to normal. She did try her best. "Nice to know you were really serious," she said in a slightly teasing manner. She hoped he knew that she hadn't doubted him, it was simply that he had gone beyond not wanting her to get hurt. He had done a good job of stopping that from happening. Her eyes widened at the first option, "Ooh. That would be fun." She froze for a moment trying to come up with more ideas for what to do.

She stalled by turning off the tv and the wii remotes. Would talking be too boring, because that was all that was coming to mind. She would let them get more acquainted before she suggested that they critique each other's writing. That could become serious and personal. She wanted to seriously make sure that they were both ready and could handle that. She smiled at the idea of shooting. "We should do that while my arm is still broken. It'll look so much cooler, when I totally beat you in my condition," she teasingly back talked him.

She had no idea if he had any idea the capacity of her basketball skills. For all she knew he may take her seriously. In reality she had no doubt that she would lose to him whatever game that included basketballs or baskets. Not only was she shorter, untrained, weaker in the arms, and could only use one arm, so her aim would be further off and harder to do correctly, but she was beginning to get a psychological disadvantage, because she acknowledged all of these facts. If she kept on like this, she might lose the will to win.

"We could try Horse if you want or we could do the drawing first. We might even get both in. I doubt we'll last at Horse. I'll be even worse than usual. You'll probably get bored of me after one round. I won't be any match for a basketball player." She realized that she had no idea what position he played, and she didn't really know much about basketball. Any game they played with horse, they could declare him the automatic winner, because she had never been particularly skilled at it before.

"I can either bring down art supplies to the kitchen table or we can go to the park to play," she told him. She kept her art stuff in her room, because her mother didn't like to clutter the rest of the house. Art supplies could easily spread and multiply. They took a while to clean up and put away. If they chose option B before they left she would have to grab some pain medication just in case this hurt more than she anticipated.

Friendship? he wondered silently as she spoke. She wants to actually be friends? He couldn't explain the feeling that fluttered through his chest at the moment. It was a bit of glee, and he was happy that this wasn't just a one time thing. She wanted to be friends with him. He just grinned at her, afraid to speak. He didn't want to say anything that would ruin this feeling, that statement.

He looked nervously at the ground at her slightly teasing remark, but kept a small grin on his face. He was pleased that she seemed to like the coloring idea, and after she shut the tv and wii remotes off, she seemed to kind of like the idea of shooting too. He chuckled at her words. "Oh really?" he said back, giving her a sly look. Unknowingly, his voice almost came across as flirty. "You think you can beat me?" He inched closer to her, looking down at her and giving her a teasing smirk.

She said that they could do either, and perhaps still have enough time to do both, and then proceeded to say that he'd get bored of her after one round in Horse. "I won't get bored of you." he said sincerely. "I could never get bored of you. It's not like we'd be playing to the death, just a fun relaxed game." He smiled at her gently, feeling the urge briefly to take her hand in his. But that was foolish, and right now he needed to get his priorities straight. The little incident that had just happened had kind of messed with his senses, throwing him off. That sort of thing wasn't supposed to have happened, and he had never imagnied having her be that close to him when not dating.

It had sort of screwed with the order in which things were supposed to happen, and he was glad she hadn't landed on his crotch for more than one reason. It had been brief, but it had still happened, and he couldn't ignore that. "If you'd like we could grab the art supplies first. Maybe then we can have time to play at least one round and I can just walk home from the park if your parents come pick you up. Unless you want me to walk you back here." It didn't really matter what they did first, he would be happy doing either. But he didn't know what she wanted to do more. "I'm fine with doing either though." he said. "We can go to the park first if you like, it doesn't matter to me."

She was the lady, he'd let her choose. He wasn't a pushover, but he did respect her and wanted to do the things she wanted to do rather than the other way around. She would always have first pick of things as long as he was with her, and he just wanted her to be happy. He didn't want to try and change her, because she was perfect in his eyes the way she was. Eric wasn't going to force her to do the things he wanted to do, and he wouldn't be offended if she wanted to do something other than the things he'd suggested.

He found himself wondering if they would still be friends by the time school was let out for the summer, and if they were, if she liked to swim or not. He personally loved to swim, and if she liked it well enough maybe he could invite her to go with him. It would be a fun little activity they could do.

Before she totally told the truth, she might as well do some bragging, since she knew it was all a farce. "Uh. yeaaah.....I can totally beat you. Have you seen me play? I will tear you a part and you won't be able to live your team down, when I tell them how completely I beat you. I just might steal your spot on the team." At this point she couldn't help grinning at how completely a lie that would be. She looked him in the eye and deadpanned very seriously the smile wiped off of her face, "I know you'll get bored of playing horse. You'll get tired of always winning. Perhaps you won't get bored of me, but you'll be ready to go draw or do something else after one game. Of course, it might take more than one game to get bored, because I'd imagine they'd be relatively short," she conceded.

She had meant for it to be funny, but she had a feeling that it had fallen short. It sounded like she was telling the truth and not that she was trying to be funny. "I'm going to be so bad, that I'm going to have to do crazy shots to mess you up," she decided after a moment of thinking. "Perhaps I will win," she gave a hopeful devious smile. "I do like to be concise and conserve resources," she decided after thinking a moment. "We only have a limited amount of time, so we should use that wisely."

She wouldn't want to waste everyone's energy even though it wouldn't hurt them. Besides, she also needed to conserve time. "I'll go get the art supplies. Meet me in the kitchen?" she added a questioning tone to the end. She didn't want to sound bossy, but she did expect him to go there. She headed off toward her room. It took her a while to rummage through her supplies. Finally, she found her nice colored pencils. She didn't normally get them out for friends to use, but she trusted him.

After all he was supposed to give her a coloring lesson. She had to push more things around searching for the paper. She wasn't planning on drawing a masterpiece, so she grabbed some normal paper. It was nothing of any particular quality. It annoyed her now that she thought about it. She wasn't allowed to bring him to her room to help her transport stuff, but with only one hand she wouldn't be able to only make one trip. It would take several trips. She rolled her eyes, because she was filled with annoyance. While rolling her eyes wasn't polite, she would probably get in less trouble for that than if she said something unlady like.

"Isn't that unconvenient," she muttered to herself, as she tried to figure out how to do this. She stuck the papers under her arm and she put the pencils in her hand. Hopefully, she would make it back to the kitchen. As she was walking, she could feel the supplies slipping. Even though it might panic everyone in the house, for some reason she refused to let the stuff she was carrying fall on the floor. "Eric!" she called her voice becoming higher pitched with demand, "Please come here and help me. I'm about to drop some things."

She was half way to the kitchen, and she had to stop or more of it would slip out. She felt silly, but she didn't care. It was too late, so there was nothing she could do about it now. She could hear her mother moving around. "Kai! What are you doing? Are you okay?" she heard her mother's footsteps coming toward her. Kai wasn't sure which was worse. Eric coming or her mother. She saw the situation that Kai was in and took the supplies out of her hands and chuckled at her daughter.

"Where did you want these?" she asked now that she was here to help.

"I'm taking them to the kitchen table," she explained.

"Don't forget to clean up when you are done," her mother reminded.

"Here we are," she gave a shy smile toward Eric realizing how silly she had been. "Ready to start?"

He couldn't help but belt out a laugh. He didn't know how good she was at basketball, but he did know that she sure wasn't on the girl's team, since they all rode the same bus. So he knew that she didn't play, which in turn meant that she probably didn't like it all that much, she didn't have much skill, or both. He knew she bluffing to tease him, and he found that cute too.

"Okay, okay," he said. "I have never seen you play, but if you think you have that much game....when your arm gets better...you better believe we'll be doing some one on one." he said. "Then we'll see whose spot is still secured on the team." His words were threats, but they were empty ones. He was joking with her, playing her game. From the view of others it could be seen as flirting, and maybe it was. But to him it was just simple play and friendly banter.

She suddenly became serious, and it took him a moment to realize that she was joking. He grinned at her and shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe your crazy shots will mess me up and you will win." He raised his eyebrows briefly at her in a teasing expression before turning away. He walked over to the table and picked up his glass of water, taking another drink as she said that she was going to go get the supplies.

He nodded to her saying to meet her in the kitchen. He took the glass with him and started heading out of the room, but then stopped. Maybe she would still want her water too. He went back and grabbed hers so she wouldn't have to make a trip in here again, then made his way to the kitchen table. He set the glasses down and pulled out a chair, sitting calmly down to wait.

A few minutes went by and Kailey's voice shouted out desperately for help. He hadn't been expecting it, and it had honestly given him a jolt of shock and fear. At first he'd thought she'd hurt herself. His entire body tensed, being shot with adrenaline, and he shot up out of his chair into a standing position. He started to move, but then heard Lisa's voice calling out in response. He saw them come into the room, and he was aware that he probably looked like he'd seen a ghost. His bright eyes were wide, but his entire body seemed to relax upon seeing that she was okay.

He returned her shy smile, his heart still pumping at a furious rate. "Yeah," he said, his voice gentle as usual. "Yeah, I'm ready." He swallowed and let out a nervous chuckle. "I thought you fell or something." he said to her, running his hand through his hair. He slid her glass of water towards her as a subtle gesture that told her she didn't have to go back for it, and then made his way around to her side, politely pulling out the chair for her to sit in.

"So," he said, helping push the chair back up to the table as she sat down. "Do you have an idea of what you want to draw, or do you have something already drawn that you don't mind practicing on?" he asked, moving and sitting back down in his chair. He scooted it closer to hers so that it would be easier to see what she was doing and vice versa.

She waited a moment before waving a hand, "Kidding...kidding. I suppose I could have waited and let you see what skill I posess for yourself before I begin telling you all about it." She crossed her arms and gave him a look, "Um....You are the only one on a basketball team, so you are the only one whose spot will be in danger. They really should have height classes in basketball the way they have weight classes with wrestlers," she muttered to herself knowing that wouldn't stop a game of 1x1 between them.

"Have you ever considered cross country or track?" she asked him. "I do that. I can do those year round, so I don't get out of shape like you do when basketball seasn is over." She had a feeling that he would be able to match her pretty easily. After all he was an athlete. "We could go running some time," she pointed out. Here was a friend who would actually be able to keep pace. She did have a few running friends, but this might be fun to do with Eric. "We need to have a conversation about music. If we don't like the same kind, I don't see how we can be friends," she deadpanned.

She gave him a teasing smile hoping that he knew she was kidding. It was a fact that she preferred that they have the same taste, especially, if they went running together. She liked to blast music while she was running. It gave her an extra boost of energy. "I like to blast music while I run. It helps me think about something else other than the pain," she explained. "Either way that's something that I think we'll be more evenly matched. More competition," she gave an impish smile.

"Thanks for bringing my water," she thanked him and then stopped. "That is my water right?" she doubled checked. Most of the glasses that they used were exactly the same so it was hard to tell. "Sorry for scaring you. I was trying to carry too many things at once. I didn't want to drop them," her voice took on an annoyed huff. She smiled a little and started giggling. "Awwww. You are so sweet. I don't think I've ever had a guy besides my dad pull out a chair for me," she felt a little silly.

It was a small thing, but it was such a sweet gesture. "Sorry," she was blushing a little, "I probably made that unnecessarily awkward." She sat down and let him push her in. Slowly, she drew in air, trying to stay calm. She always sort of disliked it when her art teacher wanted her to figure out what to draw. It felt like when somebody asked that question every idea she ever had disappeared. "I guess I can draw one of my cats," she said doubtfully.

He raised a brow at her first story, knowing full well that that was complete bull. There was a freshman on the guy's team, about 5'3, and he was a STARTER. He was one of the best players, even better than Eric himself. It was rare to have a freshman on varcity, but John Rothrock was stunningly good. He simply smiled at her next few comments. He didn't doubt that he would beat her if he actually tried, but if they did end up going to shoot he wouldn't be doing his best. It would be just for relaxation and fun.

She asked if he'd ever considered cross country or track, and he shook his head. "No." he said. "Well I mean...that's not true. I've thought about it, but track meets are so long, and so hot. I wouldn't want to be outside all that time, and running for a good hour isn't exactly my style." he chuckled. "I'm pretty sure I would die doing either of those." She suggested going running with him sometime, and he nodded. "That'd be fun." he said. "It would keep me in shape for next season for sure." Eric knew he never really stopped doing physical activity, so he was always prepared for the next basketball season. He stayed sharp on his shooting skills, went for a daily morning run, and lifted weights at home and took a weights class.

She deadpanned seriously, talking about music, and for a second he was worried. Was she being serious? Her teasing smile gave him a big relief, and he let out a breath, giggling softly. "I mean I listen to a lot of different genres." he said. "I'm sure I'll be good with almost anything."

He nodded to her as she thanked him for bringing her water. "Yeah it's yours." he said. "I made sure." He wasn't a germaphobe, and he didn't mind drinking out of the same glass or eating off of the same fork or anything like that, but he knew some people didn't like it. He wondered how germaphobes were able to kiss. It was a strange thought, but a thought nonetheless. If they were so afraid of getting someone else's germs, or freaked out by the very idea of it, how were they okay with touching their lips to someone else's? Especially if it got intimate and for lack of a better word...tongues were used?

He'd personally never kissed anyone, and he certainly had never french kissed anyone. Unless he wanted to count the little peck on the lips from a girl in his class in kindergarten, but in his mind anything under highschool did not count. She also apologized for scaring him, and he shrugged. "It's fine, as long as you aren't hurt. At least I can say I was prepared to run in and save you." His voice took on a teasing lilt, but part of him was serious. He had been about to sprint into her and make sure everything was okay. That was just his nature, and the kind of thing he would do.

He gave her a shy smile as she called him sweet, commenting on how no male but her father had ever pulled out a chair for her. He kind of tilted his head, a bit surprised. His mother had always taught him to be polite, and he'd grown up just assuming that it was a normal thing to do. He didn't do it for everyone, but it was something that always popped into his mind. He saw her slight blush, and in turn that made him blush too.

"Awkward?" he questioned, sitting down and scooting his chair over. "You didn't make it awkward." He grinned as she said she could draw one of her cats, and so he took the liberty of drawing a cat on his paper as well. Not specifically one of hers, but a cat form and body with the right proportions and such. It was just a sketch and not incredibely detailed, which is exactly what it should be.

"Yeah that's good." he said. He tilted his paper a bit towards her, showing her his light sketch. "You did good by not shading or doing too dark of lines." he said. "When you want to color one of your own drawings, it's really important not to use your pencil or pen or whatever you're drawing with to shade. You always, always want to shade with the colors. Or else the pencil can be seen beneath it and that's what makes it sloppy." he swallowed, not wanting to sound too teacher-like. But this was something he was very good at, and pretty passionate about.

He'd always kind of been happy with the idea of being an art teacher someday. He put his paper back down and slid over some of the colored pencils. "I don't know if you want to color this to look like one of yours, but I probably won't. I'll do something more simple probably." He kind of let out a chuckle. "Believe it or not, even just a simple black cat can be one of the most complicated to color. Because of lighting showing the different shades within the black like browns, greys, and white." he shrugged. "So I'll just do something like a tabby or saimese." He carefully took out the colored pencils.

"With these, they blend decently easy, but not as well as some of the other brands. But that's okay, you can still make some awesome art with these." He slid the container over to her, letting her pick out her colors. "What I always do is take the base color, which will be the main body color you want the cat to be, and just...shade it really lightly over the sketch." He demonstrated, making sure to leave the places where white markings would be blank, and leaving the eyes blank as well. "If the cat has markings that you want to be a lighter color or white, make that design with the base color and leave it blank so you know where the markings will be and can avoid it." He knew it was common sense, but he knew better than to leave out simple details. He knew Kai was smart enough to figure that out, but others wouldn't be.

This in a way was practice for something that he wanted to be one day. "Sorry if I sound too bossy or something." he apologized in advance. "I think it would be fun to be an art teacher, so I guess I kind of just snapped into that mode." he chuckled, lightly filling in the sketch. "Oh also, if you want to make it a bit more realistic you could try and move the colored pencil in the same pattern as the fur would go, but you don't have to do that. It's just something I do sometimes."

He waited for her to finish before saying anymore, and falling silent in case she had questions.

She was curious if anything like that happened to basketball players. "If you run with me, all of those basketball players will be tired waaaaay before you. What is it about basketball that you like?" she asked, deciding that that was an obvious question. She wasn't sure if she would be able to answer about running, but she was curious what his reasoning was. "It is really hard to find anyone who likes country music. My mission is to convert people. With me around you will become an avid country listener," she told him.

She had no idea if she would be sucessful, but she was going to try. She prefered not drinking out of other people's glasses, but she wouldn't make a big deal out of it. She might complain to her family, if they did it to her. With her friends she often felt peer pressured and she wouldn't do something that would blatantly push others away. She'd considered what she would do if someone tried to kiss her, and she didn't have an answer. Supposedly, with the right person, you didn't care.

It wasn't like she went around encouraging that kind of behavior, so that shouldn't be a problem. She couldn't remember, but she might have kissed someone when she was younger. It certainly hadn't been a serious kiss. She shook herself out of her thoughts, when she realized how distracted she was. She felt that she had overreacted, so she decided that she wanted to move on from that moment. She did like that he was willing to run in to help her though.

"I mean...I've had guys do nice things for me, such as opening the door, but not pulling out my chair or pushing me in," she shrugged. "With other guy friends there is more chance of us being mean to each other or playing a prank than actually doing something nice," she hoped that didn't make her sound like a terrible person. She leaned over slightly to see his example. They had different styles, but it was technically the same thing. She nodded her head and then rubbed her hand down her face, "Urrrgh. Golly. That was one dumb thing I probably did. I shaded with pencil, and then I decided I wanted to color it. It was a very gray drawing."

She'd already learned one thing, and she felt like it was a pretty rooky mistake. Would he believe she had any common sense or artisanal talent? She felt a mild annoyance at his tone. She wasn't a little kid, but after that first dumb error she could see why he might need to spell everything out for her. (See. Kai is being a normal person. She's keeping her thoughts to herself unlike Arroyo and Pandora. XD) "I think I'll color mine to look like Possum. None of the others have enough colors on them. If I wanted to do a gray cat like Polly, I could have used a pencil." She didn't want to challenge herself with a black cat.

She needed little steps. She was hoping she didn't need baby steps. She supposed she would either leave it white or start with a light white/cream color. She did want to give an idea of where the fur was going. While she wouldn't put it in the exact correct way, she wanted it to go in the general direction it was supposed to. "Right now we're practicing. We can save our awesome art for when I am not learning new things," she pointed out. She was a little puzzled how to do this. Possum was mostly white, but he had a few tan tints on his back and his ears, legs and tail were brown.

Perhaps she shouldn't have been irritated with him. Apparently, she needed step by step careful instructions. She looked up in surprise, "You aren't being bossy. You might be treating me like I'm a few years younger than I am, but I've found that I need those detailed step by step instructions. Apparently, I am easily confused," she sighed. "You'll be a great art teacher. Well....I think so as long as you are patient. You haven't been impatient, but I haven't had a chance to test your limits yet," she told him. "Soooooo....." she felt a little foolish because she already had a question, "What if the cat is mostly white? What do you do then?" she asked him. Was this a dumb question? Would he get tired of her?

Eric admired her so much that it was stupid. Everything she said was either funny, smart, or just all around weird. She was quirky but in a cute way that he really really liked. She was a go getter, and she obviously didn't let things like a broken arm slow her down. "You know, you basically listed all the reasons why I wouldn't want to." he said, giving her an ornery smile. "But yet hearing you say it makes me want to do it too." He glanced at the floor for a second, biting his lip nervously before looking back up at her. "We should, sometime."

She asked him what it was about basketball that he liked, and after a moment of consideration all he could come up with was a shrug. "I mean I've played it since I was a really young kid." he said. "It was the first sport I ever played and the only one I seemed to be good at." He let out a few small chuckles as he ran his hand through his hair again. "It's just so satisfying to hear the sound of the ball going through the net and seeing the points rise. It's not constant running, it's not constant tackling, I don't have to worry too much about my footwork, and...I don't know, it's just fun." He shrugged, smiling. "It's also just one of those things that I've always just done, that I'm comfortable with, and that I'm good at."

He made an amused face at her when she said that he'd become an avid country listener. He wasn't too sure about that one. He would listen to it when with her for sure, he wouldn't tell her to change her choice in music. But country was just on of those genre's that he just didn't connect to. He wasn't sure what it was about the style that he wasn't attracted to, but he just wasn't. Same went for rap. He just didn't get it.

But he wasn't going to argue with her, and he wasn't going to try and get her to change her mind. If she wanted to listen to that while they ran, it was perfectly fine with him. It was just music, and it would be more time spent with her. That's all that really mattered. More so than the running or music itself. Time spent getting to know her better.

He laughed quietly at her comment about her and her guy friends being more likely to be mean to one another or prank each other rather than being polite. It didn't shock him. Eric was a lot different than most of the guys here, but he wasn't ashamed by it. He still had that ornery streak in him, he knew he did. He still was one for rough and tumble, pranks, mischevious ideas, and talking about girls. But that was a side he didn't get the chance to show too often because of his shyness and the fact that he had very minimal amounts of friends.

"Yeah, that sounds right." he agreed with her. "That's not hard to believe at all. Believe it or not I have a side like that as well. The 'typical male' side. You just have not been so lucky as to see it yet." he joked, bumping her with his shoulder lightly. "That side takes a while to come to light." he said softer.

He gave her a smile as she admitted to making the penicl error. "Don't be upset about it." he said, giggling. "That's how you learn, ya know?" He nodded at her decision to color the drawing like Possum. He smiled at her point. "That's true." he agreed. "I get ahead of myself with stuff like this." he said, chuckling. "Probably because it's one of the few things that actually make me super excited." He gave a self depricating smile.

He couldn't help but giggle at her comment. He hadn't meant to make her feel younger than she was, it had just kind of happened. "Yeah sorry about that." he said. "Slap me if I start sounding like a professor. And I don't think you're easily confused, I just think I speak really complicated." He shrugged. "I'm not an impatient person when it comes to most things. So I doubt you'll be able to push me past my limits."

She asked a question, and by her facial expression it seemed as if she was thinking that it was a dumb question. It really wasn't, it was pretty valid and if not asked there could potentially be a "mistake."

"If you know where the darker points are, then you probably don't have to mark it," he started. "I think....I think what I would do is take your lightest color and just lightly shade in the parts that aren't supposed to be white. You don't have to worry about shadows or anything, just the basic color and pattern you want."

He waited for her to do that, in this case those points being Possum's back, ears, legs, and tail. "After that, I tend to go to the eyes. I don't know why, I just do." he giggled. "They're fun for me I guess." He reached over and grabbed several shades of green pencils. "I guess the entire 'rule' here is always start with the lightest color and work your way darker." He licked his lips, and then used the lightest shade of green to color in the eyes. He used a darker shade to outline the iris, and black to outline the pupil.

"I wouldn't worry about crazy details right now unless you want to." he said. He always did, but just because eyes were the most fun and the easiest for him personally to do. It had taken years of practice to get down the shading, the different lines, the points of light, but now that he knew all of that it had become second nature and very easy for him. He could do it quickly without really thinking too much about it, and it was always one of the first things he did.

"With the spots that you lightly colored, you can start taking different shades of similar colors, and just working them darker and darker in the specific spots you want, until it looks the way you want it to." he said. "That's...that's really all it is. Light sketch with light pencil lines, start with the lightest colors and work your way to darkest, outline the sketch in darker color, add details if you want, add shadows if you want, and then boom. Finished." He didn't do all of these steps, and he didn't expect her to either just yet, he'd just been naming all the things that could potentially make it better.

He'd made sure to keep his tone lighthearted and friendly instead of reverting to the tone he liked to call the "teacher voice." He'd gone in and added a few details like lighting and shading, and he'd gone in and made the eyes look rather realistic, but other than that he hadn't gone out of his way to make the entire thing look super realistic or anything. After all it was a tutorial.

He took a black pen and put his signature and date near the base of the drawing, a habit that he'd picked up on. He slid it over to Kailey. "I don't need it." he said. "You can keep it if you want, or throw it away."

His explanation was pretty much what she had been expecting. She was curious if he was planning on making a career at this or at least playing in college. "Do you like it enough to make it your career? Are you going to try to play in college?" she asked him without thinking about it. In her heart of hearts, she doubted she could entirely convert him, but she felt that she could find a few country songs that he would like. She would probably look for music that was more energtic than country music for running. She wasn't sure what she planned on playing.

"Normally, when I first meet a guy, they'll be quieter and more behaved. They'll use thank you and please more often, and they straighten up. They normally don't do nice things for me," she tried to explain not sure if that made anymore sense. "I figured you weren't totally devoid of that side, but I still felt that it was unusual," she shrugged. She rolled her eyes and bumped him back, "Oh dear! I just can't wait to see you act like everyone else. How unlucky am I right now? Woe is me. I won't feel like we're truly friends until we reach that point."

She already felt like friends. Her rant had totally been filled with sarcasm. "I suppose the best way to learn is to make mistakes, but it's still annoying," she commented as he giggled. "Have you ever tutored someone in anything before?" she asked him. It did take practice to learn how to do this kind of thing succintly without confusion. She shrugged, "There is nothing wrong with sounding like a professor. I think it is a little harsh to slap you," she pointed out. "I am not really worried about pushing you past your limit. I'm just saying that's a good quality in a teacher. Not many people work well with an angry bull breathing over their shoulder," she used an interesting metaphore to make her point.

She wanted to finish most of the body before she went to the eyes. She didn't do many details, because she wasn't familiar with it in coloring. After she finished the eyes, she gave a satisfied smile. You could tell what kind of cat it was supposed to be. The markings were a little blurred together, but there was shading, the fur strokes went in the correct direction, and the colors were in the right place. The eyes were pretty good, because that was the one thing she knew how to color. She was a little obsessed with Possum's blue eyes.

"How does that look?" she asked him. It was far from a master piece, but it was obviously a cat, and it was a decent piece. She found his lighter more friendly tone more encouraging. It kept this session more fun. She didn't really want it to feel like an art lesson. She signed her name at the bottom in a very flourishing curly fancy fashion. She gave him a goofy grin, "Neither do I!" she pointed out. "I'll keep this one, but I don't need this one," she pushed her drawing over to him. "You can keep it if you want or throw it away," she quoted his words back at him.

"I've got to show your work off to my other friends like any good friend," she teased him. She decided that she would get her mother to help her clean this up later. "Ready to go to the park?" she asked. She was boared already, and she wanted a little bit of active movement. She tidied the place up a bit, so her mother would be patient with the mess until she came back. She didn't want to have to reject Eric's help, if he offered, as she struggled to put everything away again. He said he would go home from the park, so she wouldn't have to worry about it.

He smiled, "Of course you haven't." he said. "Running isn't going to scare me away, we do conditioning in basketball every practice." He mused, making a very sarcastic but good natured teasing comment. "Now country music...country music will scare me away." He chuckled after to let her know he was just kidding, if his teasing lilt hadn't been enough.

She asked him if he liked the sport enough to play in college, or maybe make it a career. Eric shook his head. "No." he answered. "I mean I know I'm good at it, but I don't think I'm good enough to make it on a college team, and I sure don't love it enough to make it a career." He shrugged. "Good question though."

He nodded to her explanation, kind of understanding. He could see why guys did that, and he was pretty sure most people in general did that too when meeting a new person. "That makes sense." he said. "I was just taught to do stuff like that from my mom." he grinned. "Guess that's one of the things I actually listened to her about. I loved her so much, still do, but I did not listen very well when I was little. Props to her for still loving me as much as she did. Moms are the best." He grinned at the floor, his smile a bit sad with memory but yet happy at the same time.

He started to giggle as she went on to a ridiculous sarcastic rant full of teasing. "Pretty darn unlucky is what you are," he responded between giggles. "I'm dangerous, is what I am. Dangerous, crazy me! Look out world here I come." He shook his head, a huge grin on his face, and rolled his eyes at the mere thought of him being even remotely dangerous. He was a strong young man, and he knew he could win a fight if it came down to it, but that wasn't the kind of dangerous he was talking about.

He shook his head at her question. "No, I haven't tutored anyone before." he answered. "There isn't really opportunities for me to help other students in art on my own time. I don't really talk to anyone in my art class except for the teacher anyway." He said honestly. "I'm not exactly on par with a lot of the other students in the important subjects like math or history, so there's no way I would be eligible to tutor someone in either of those." He shrugged. "Just gotta be content with rockin that C average I guess."

He gave her a gracious smile as she said there was nothing wrong with sounding like a professor, and that it was a bit harsh to slap him. He'd been slapped enough times in his life through anger and drunken blindness, so a teasing slap from someone like Kai wouldn't matter that much at all. He wouldn't mind a slap from her as long as it was a teasing or joking slap or punch. He wouldn't know what to say or how to feel if he ever made her mad enough to earn an anger slap.

"Well thanks," he said, dipping his head respectfully towards her before clearing his throat slightly. "That's an interesting image." he said in response to her metaphor. He gave her a smile and bumped her shoulder lightly with his own in a small teasing manner. "But you're right. Not many people do."

When she was done with the drawing, she asked him how it looked. "That looks great." he said, genuinely proud of her. "You learn quick. Like I said, it's pretty simple. But you got a lot of the stuff I said, and you did it really well. I like it. Good job." He watched her sign it, her signature pretty, and she repeated his words back to him. "Well I'm sure not throwing it away." he said to her, grinning. "Thank you." He smiled at her comment about showing his drawing off. He wasn't one that really showed anyone his work, but the drawing was hers now, and he didn't care what she did with it.

He nodded as she asked if he was ready to head to the park. "Yeah, I'm ready." he answered. As much as he loved art, his body was practically screaming at him to do something active. He watched her start to tidy up the supplies, and he helped her, holding the box that the colored pencils went in, and helping stack up everything nicely in the center of the table. He made sure to go back into the game room and grab his hoodie.

Eric wasn't sure if she was going to let her mother know where they were going, but he made sure to call in to Lisa and thank her for allowing him to come over. Once Kailey was ready, he walked at a bit of a faster pace in order to get to the door before her so he could hold it open.

"We can swing back my place to grab a couple basketballs." he said. "I have to put my jacket back anyway." It was hotter now than before, but the wind was cool and helped battle against the warmth of the sun. Since it was a quicker route anyway, he stopped by his house and grabbed a couple of basketballs for the two of them, and walked next to her the whole way there. He found himself dribbling the ball slowly as they walked, a steady rhythmic beat.

It didn't take too long to get to the park, and he made sure to check his watch when they got there. He had about half an hour left, so that would be plenty of time to get in a game or two of Horse. "You ready to face off against a star?" he said teasingly. He gave her an ornery grin, then reverted back into his regular voice. "So I assume you know how to play?" he questioned, just to make sure.

Once everything was established, he shot first, semi close to the basket so she wouldn't feel like he was putting her on the spot. He was kind of impressed with himself, for the first shot didn't even hit the rim. It went straight through the net, making a satisfying swish. His practice was paying off. He grinned at her, and the two continued to play back and forth. He made most of his shots, but he missed a few, some of those few being quite embarassing misses.

But he always laughed it off, and overall it was a decently relaxing time despite the physical activity. He made sure to stop and ask how she was feeling, because he didn't want to overwork her arm or make her sore and want medication. Overall he thought it had been fun, and he was very thankful that she seemed to like him. It was odd, having a friend like this and feeling such trust already. He felt weird, and that perhaps he was being naive, but he felt like he could trust her with anything.

When it came time for him to leave, he waited until her parents came to pick her up so he knew he wasn't just leaving her stranded in the heat. He thanked her for inviting him over and talking with him this morning, and waved to her parents before leaving the park and heading back home. He made it home in time, and let Gunner in. He fed him, watered him, and let him up to his room.

He still wasn't hungry, which wasn't uncommon, so he didn't eat anything. He ended up not eating until late that evening, when his father was already in bed. He thought about texting Kailey, but he wasn't sure if he should. After all, he'd spent all morning and afternoon with her. Eventually, after several minutes of debating with himself, he caved in.

He was laying in bed, the window cracked open and the night breeze filtering through. It wasn't too late, only 9:30, but he still wondered if she was up and would appreciate the text or not. He opened the number that she'd given him, and laid, staring at it for another good five minutes before biting his lip and texting her,

Hey, just wanted to say thanks again for everything you did today, it really meant a lot. Goodnight :)

He laid his phone over on his nightstand, and grabbed a book that he'd been working on reading. He read for several hours, finishing the book, then drew for several more, finally falling to sleep around 3am, Gunner sleeping softly at his feet.