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Post by josh philips on Mar 18, 2011 18:00:38 GMT
Josh had always felt a little bit weird about parent and toddler groups. He always felt singled out and excluded because single fathers were always a minority at these places. But Josh needed to suck it up, he had lived in Wardenstown for almost eight months and he was yet to make any friends outside of work.
Gathering up his messenger bag filled with snacks for his son and his wallet, Josh took Rodney by the hand and left his parental home in order to attend the gathering of the next generation. He was wearing a plain navy hoody and a pair of black jeans with skater shoes and black cap. Rodney was clad in a black and blue striped jumper and a pair of blue trousers with tiny little Converse that Josh had bought him for Christmas.
Rodney always seemed like a socialite when he was left to his own devices – the quiet boy had a way of commanding the attention of the other toddlers without even trying. Rodney had no use for Josh, forcing Josh to look for someone to talk to. Josh looked around the room and saw the groups of all the mothers chatting and gossiping amongst themselves – it would be too hard to integrate him into that sort of situation so he looked for someone on their own.
To his delight, Josh saw a pretty young girl sitting by herself with a cup of tea. Gathering up his courage, Josh walked over to her and stood awkwardly beside her for a couple of seconds before he walked over and was given a cup of tea by an old lady who smiled at him in a way that unnerved him slightly. Josh then walked back to the girl who he had probably freaked out a little with his hovering and said, “Which one is yours?” As if that was the most normal opening question he could have asked. He coughed slightly, “Can I sit?” He asked, gesturing to the seat beside her, “Please?” He added hurriedly. ‘Smooth, Josh, real smooth.’ He thought to himself.
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Post by ana czarnowska on Mar 18, 2011 19:44:40 GMT
Anastazja looked at the clock in the kitchen of her living room and groaned. It was ten to two, which meant she had ten minutes to get her son ready and down to the mother and toddler group. She absolutely dispised the place; the other mothers were rude to her because of her age compared to how old Kaspar was, and she was fairly certain they disliked her for being Polish too. Ana would have stopped going long ago, but Kaspar was enamoured with the place and she didn't want to be the bitch of a mum that didn't let her kid have fun. She went into the living room to find Kaspar with a handful of playdough halfway up to his mouth. "Really Kaspar? Do you have to be that weird kid who eats playdough?" Slowly he set the playdough down again, the grinned at her. Ana sighed and got her son ready, and by five to two they were out the door and on their way.
Half an hour later and Kaspar was sitting happily playing with some blocks with a little girl. As usual, all of the women that Ana had nicknamed the stepford wives were congregated around a couple of tables having a good gossip, and Ana was sitting at a table on her own, quietly sipping a cup of tea and playing with her phone, occasionally glanced over to make sure Kaspar was okay. It got pretty tiresome to be on her own, but she didn't have the balls to try and infiltrate stepford. She went back to playing tetris on her phone, and only glanced up again when she heard the door opening. It was unexpected, because all of the regulars were there already. A quirky looking guy walked in following a little boy. The younger quickly run off to play with the other children though, leaving whom Ana presumed to be his father standing awkwardly near her for a few minutes.
Ana wasn't sure whether or not she should say hello to the stranger. In her mind it seemed out of place to talk to anyone but Kaspar and the tea lady when she was at mother and toddlers, so she wasn't even sure of what to say to him. A small relief came over her when he walked off again, which made her feel quite bad that she was that anti-social at a place she should have been making friends. She went back to playing tetris, only looking up again when the newcomer returned and stood beside her. "Which one is yours?" Ana looked up at the newcomer's face and smiled, "The little boy with the flip tone hair and black boots." She took a sip of her tea and glanced over at the children, "The one who appears to be fascinated by your little boy." Kaspar was staring at the new child with his head cocked to the side and furrowed brows, trying to figure him out before eventually holding out a block to the little boy. Newcomer coughed and then asked her if he could take the seat beside her. ana was confused for a moment, wondering why someone would sit with her at the group. He added 'please?' and she snapped back to attention, nodding and smiling at him. "Of course, of course, I'm Ana by the way."
word count 557
outfits ana & kaspar
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Post by josh philips on Mar 20, 2011 13:51:04 GMT
Josh bit his lip and smiled at her nervously when she looked at him for a second or two – Oh God, he thought to himself, Perhaps I was too forward... He thought to himself. Then the girl smiled at him and answered his initial question. Josh followed her line of sight and looked at his darling little boy speaking to what looked like a complete rebel. Josh couldn’t help but smile at Rodney’s confusion when he was handed the brick, his dark brown curls were streaked with paint and his little hands were still covered in purple paint and he felt terrible that this girl was looking at his son who he hadn’t bothered cleaning since he left the paint room. Josh wanted to say, “He has good taste.” But he didn’t have the guts, so instead he settled on, “Rodney has poor social skills.” He wanted to slap himself across the face as soon as he said it. Who actually said that about their own child? Rodney didn’t have poor social skills, he was shy. “That came out wrong,” He spluttered, “I mean, he’s shy.” He corrected himself, he could feel his cheeks burning red. She had already said it was okay for him to sit down, he couldn’t leave now.
Josh awkwardly sat down beside her, his long fingers were scalded slightly by the hot tea that spilt out of the cup. She introduced herself as Ana and Josh nodded fervently for a few seconds before realising he hadn’t introduced himself, “Oh, I’m Josh. Josh Philips.” He told her, then cursed himself for including a surname when she hadn’t. He sat for a few seconds that felt like hours and sipped his tea that had already hurt him and thought desperately of something to say. He couldn’t cope with silence but he was the worst conversationalist that he knew. That used to work when he was a teenager, but it didn’t work in the adult world. “Rodney.” He said suddenly, “Rodney is my son’s name.” He rubbed his hand on his legs and then looked at her, “What is the name of your son?” He asked more awkwardly than he knew it was possible to pose a question – what was he? A robot?
wordcount three hundred and seventy five
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Post by ana czarnowska on Mar 20, 2011 22:46:03 GMT
Ana smiled and tried to hold back the laugh that wanted so dearly to escape her lips. She wasn't want to laugh at him in a bitchy way, more that she found his awkward manner endearing and it made her happy enough to laugh, as odd as that sounded. She followed Josh's gaze and watched their sons sitting together; Kaspar insisting on Rodney taking more bricks and Rodney accepting them, probably feeling bewildered about why the fuck he was being handed bricks. Kaspar was quite a forceful sod at times. 'And odd,' Ana added as an afterhtough, wondering what Kaspar's plan was in giving the other little boy the blocks. She quickly glanced back round when Josh declared 'Rodney has poor social skills.' She raised an eyebrow in curiosity, wondering why he would tell her such a blunt fact about his son. He quickly backtracked and tried to explain it in nicer terms, instead describing the child as shy. Ana felt pretty bad for the newcomer; he appeared to be getting nervous and his cheeks turned a bright red. She smiled softly and tried to think of something to say that may ease him. "They could be the original odd couple; Kas is as cocky as they come."
Ana tried not to let it come through in her expression, but she filled with dread when he told her his name was Josh. She often struggled with the letter j and pronouncing it, and there were only a handful of words beginning with the letter that she could pronounce properly. Josh was not one of them. She had a brief mental struggle to think what she could reply with that didn't involve saying his name, but all she could come up with was 'pleased to meet you, friend' and that would make her look like even more of a creep. She decided that if she just grabbed the bull by the horns and said it quickly, maybe he wouldn't notice her difficulty with the letter. "Pleased to meet you, Josh." It had been said. It sounded like 'yosh' but there was nothing Ana could do about that now. Instead she went back to sipping at her cup of tea and begging the blush creeping onto her cheeks to go away. She calmed her accent woes just in time for Josh to speak again. He suddenly came out with 'Rodney' and she looked up, puzzled. He explained that was his sons name and Ana nodded politely. "Rodney's a nice name, my son is called Kaspar." Ana loved her sons name, but since she had moved to Wardenstown she dreaded telling people because of the odd looks she had gotten for it. "How old is Rodney?" She decided to ask, thinking it would be a good route of conversation to take.
word count 467
outfits ana & kaspar
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Post by josh philips on Mar 20, 2011 23:00:14 GMT
Josh couldn’t take his eyes off the interaction between Kaspar and Rodney. The former boy was handing the latter brick after brick and after attempting to cradle them in his arms, Rodney eventually tossed them onto the table and began to pile them, one on top of the other, like he and Josh did at home. Josh couldn’t help but smile as he watched his son building a tower and felt that he was extremely intelligent to be able to balance the blocks so well. Ana made a comment about them being like an odd couple and Josh, who was painfully conservative on some matters, tried not to recoil. “Oh... yes.” He said awkwardly, and hoped that she wouldn’t make any other comments about it as he wouldn’t know how to respond. Then he smiled and said, “Some people mistake confidence for arrogance.” He wasn’t sure if this was a helpful comment in reassuring Ana that he son wasn’t cocky, but he also didn’t want to come across as saying she didn’t understand her own son, so he quickly dropped it.
Josh had suspected from the beginning that Ana was foreign. He didn’t know what it was, he had just been able to tell that she wasn’t a native of the small portion of the island that he was. It was confirmed, however, when she made an attempt at saying his name and it came out as something different. He tried not to correct her, as was his custom when people made the mistake of trying to call him “Joshy” or “Joshua” or some other ‘original’ nickname and sipped his tea quietly. “Kaspar is an interesting name.” He said with a smile after she didn’t make a joke out of his failure to communicate. Josh wasn’t usually so socially awkward. He was better when he was in control or some position of authority. And also when he wasn’t faced with a beautiful girl. “Rodney is four.” Josh nodded, then he looked over at his son absent-mindedly, “How old is Kaspar?” He returned the question, and took a sip of his tea. The Tea Lady then put out an array of pancakes and biscuits and Josh decided that he wanted one. “Would you like a chocolate biscuit?” He asked her politely as he got to his feet.
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Post by ana czarnowska on Mar 20, 2011 23:50:03 GMT
Ana took a sip of her tea and then glanced at Josh, noticing he was watching the boys again. She glanced over and noticed that Rodney had started to build a tower while Kaspar kept on handing him bricks. Although she trusted that her son could just be nice and normal with other children, she couldn't help but have the worry that he would let Rodney build the tower so high and just destroy it. Not that she thought her son was that horrible child that tried to ruin everyone elses fun, but she knew Kaspar could be funny about things like that sometimes. And she was enjoying talking to Rodney's dad, however awkward her was, and didn't want him to go away thinking she was a horrible person and bad mother for letting her son be like that. She couldn't help but smirk when Josh suggested her sons cockiness may just be confidence. "Kaspar is one of those kids that sits in the middle of confidence and arrogance, occasionally swaying to either side. Probably his way of coping with our move." Ana presumed that was why; he hadn't been so confident back in Warsaw.
Ana was quite glad that Josh didn't say anything about her mispronounciation of his name. In a perfect world he wouldn't have noticed at all, but she was sure he was just being polite since they had only met. She took another sip of her tea, thankful she had got tea that morning since it was now giving her something to focus her attention on. The liquid was getting quite cold and she started to wonder if she should go and get another cup off the tea lady. She smiled at Josh when he said that Kaspar's name was interesting. "Thanks. I quite like it. Well, obviously, or I wouldn't have called my son Kaspar. I like it's meaning too; it means 'he who guards the treasure.' Makes me think he'll have some awesome career when he's older to do with its meaning..." Ana had no idea why she gave Josh that little lecture about her sons name, and she doubted he even cared. She gave a short, soft laugh to try and ease any awkward she may have caused with the schpiel. She was glad when he went on to answer and return her question. "Kaspar is four too. Four and a half now actually, since half birthdays obviously matter..." She trailed off and grinned, wondering if he would think her weird for her love of half birthdays.
It worried Ana slightly when Josh stood up, and she wondered if she was that boring of a person to sit with that Josh was going to give up and go join the stepford wives. She was relieved when he asked her if she wanted a chocolate biscuit and so she instead realised the tea lady had put out the snacky things for the parents. She nodded and smiled at him, "Yes please, if you wouldn't mind." As Josh walked off to the snack trays she slouched back in her chair and smiled to herself. She finally had a friend at mother and toddlers. And better than that; she had a friend who was an extremely attractive and adorable chap. Even if she did feel like a total child thinking about it like that.
word count 556
outfits ana & kaspar
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Post by josh philips on Mar 21, 2011 0:16:14 GMT
Josh nodded when Ana told him that Kaspar was not just confident and wondered what he should do with the information she had given him when she mentioned a ‘move.’ Should he ask her where she had moved from? Should he ask why? He didn’t want to offend her or make her uncomfortable with too many personal questions. Were those questions even personal? He didn’t really know. “That makes sense.” He replied wisely, and then looked over at his beautiful little boy, who kept wiping his runny nose with the sleeve of his clean jumper. The little boy looked up and smiled at his daddy, a large toothy grin and then pointed at his tower until Josh pretended to applaud. “Did you move recently?” Josh asked, in a moment of bravery. He thought that most people wouldn’t ask that question, they’d ask where from, so it couldn’t be offensive to her. Right?
For a few moments Josh mulled over the implications of Kaspar’s name. He couldn’t even remember what Rodney meant. It meant something stupid, like island or something. That was a terrible name if you were working on the principal of meaning. “Maybe Kaspar will go into banking.” Josh said stupidly, taking treasure a bit too literally and then wanting to slap himself in the face for suggesting it. He tilted his cap down slightly and took another sip of tea before turning to the matter of Kaspar’s age. He smiled at the half birthday comment, he had never really taken any notice of his half birthday, even when he was young, “I find half birthdays are difficult to calculate.” He said, doing his best robot impression again. He wanted to slap himself in the face – maybe if he was drunk he wouldn’t be so stiff. If he was drunk, he definitely wouldn’t be at a parent and toddlers group...
Josh spent a couple of moments deliberating over what biscuit to get for Ana. With him, it was a done deal whenever he saw Fox’s Classics were on offer. But he didn’t want to send out the wrong message with his biscuit choice. KitKat said ‘let’s take a break’ as in from the conversation, he didn’t want that. Taxi seemed to say ‘let’s leave’ and either that could be taken as ‘get away from me’ or ‘let’s leave together’ which seemed too forward. Echo implied she was repeating herself. Chocolate Digestive seemed boring. Eventually, Josh decided to man up and lifted her a Jammy Dodger. It seemed a little forward because of the red heart in the centre, but at the same time, he wanted to communicate that he liked her. “Here you go,” he said with a small smile, handing it to her without making a scene and then feeling a bit strange about it all, “Or would you prefer this?” He suggested, offering his Classic.
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Post by ana czarnowska on Mar 21, 2011 20:06:00 GMT
Although she hadn't mentioned the fact she had moved to specifically be asked about the change, it occured to Ana after she said about it that Josh would ask about it. She was used to the subject now, but it had bugged her a lot when she had first moved to Wardenstown. Had it not been for the iota of politeness she retained she would have started telling people to mind their own damned business. It was quite nice that he asked her if she had moved recently, rather than where from and giving her the cynical 'you're stealing our jobs' look she had recieved from a couple of people. "We moved about nine months ago. July of last year." After she replied, Ana started to wonder if Josh had moved to Wardenstown from somewhere else. There was something about his accent that was odd compared to the towns natives. "Have you moved to Wardenstown?" She asked. "You don't have an accent like the other people I've met here." Only after the words came out did it occur to Ana she was incredibly rude asking it that way, and had no place to comment considering her roots. She tried backtracking, but rather hopelessly. "I mean, I know that sounds silly and rude coming from me since I'm Polish, but your's is different, and- I'm digging myself in a hole here, aren't I?" She stopped talking and laughed at herself, hoping Josh wouldn't think her a mad woman for her rambling.
When Josh suggested that Kaspar could be a banker when he was older, Ana copied her sons mannerisms for a minute and looked at Josh with a slightly cocked head and ponderous face. She hadn't thought of it like that. Ana had also pictured it meaning Kaspar would be a bodyguard, or some sort of Indiana Jones figure. Although he went searching for lost treasure rather than protecting it, didn't he? "I never thought about banking. That could be a nice little career for him. Although if Kaspar is anything like he is now when he's older it will probably be too tame and boring for him." Her son was a little tasmanian devil. Ana sometimes wondered if he got that from Andreu, although much to her disappointment the memory of his personality was starting to fade. "There's an easy solution to that; just take the month that your half birthday would fall in and celebrate for the whole month," she said with a smile. The creep in her had wanted to say that she'd take him out to celebrate his next half birthday, but the normal part of her thought that may not be the best thing to say to someone she had just met.
Ana looked up when Josh returned and smiled as she took the biscuit he was holding out to her. She wanted to say something about how adorable he was when he smiled, but again thought she may come across as a weirdo. "Thanks," she said, taking the biscuit and putting it on the saucer of her teacup."No, the Jammy Dodger is fine. It's in my top three favourite biscuits, so good choice!" She replied with a grin, and thought to herself that she probably looked like a big biscuit pervert by having a mental list of favourite biscuits. "So Josh," Ana cursed herself in her head as she said his name and mispronounced it again, "How come you haven't come to mother and toddlers?" In her head she had added 'because you're my social saviour here, you beautiful man.' That was again one of those creepy comments she kept to herself.
word count 605
outfits ana & kaspar
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Post by josh philips on Mar 21, 2011 21:04:43 GMT
Josh smiled at Ana as she explained that they moved to Wardenstown nine months ago. He smiled because she had moved at approximately the same time as him and Rodney had moved. He nodded slightly and then laughed a little bit when she returned the question, identifying his Ballymena accent as different from the classic Wardenstown accent that seemed so similar to the Belfast accent to him. “Yes, I’m from Ballymena.” He explained, blushing a little bit when she began rambling about being rude, “You aren’t being rude, don’t worry about it. My accent is very... distinct.” He laughed a little bit. He loved that Rodney had a Ballymena accent. He smiled at her and then laughed at his own accent for a few seconds because he wasn’t really sure what to do.
Josh nodded at her thoughts on Kaspar’s career options because he knew that she had a great understanding of her own son. He wondered, occasionally, what Rodney would do when he was going to be when he was older. He seemed to imagine him in some sort of writing career – he was so quiet that he would be a deep thinker or something like that, a creative soul. “He seems like a very enthusiastic child.” He told her as he watched the children playing together and he noticed the light in Kaspar’s eyes as he watched Rodney create something so excellent by towering his blocks on top of each other. Josh laughed out loud at the idea of celebrating a half birthday for an entire month, “The whole month?” He laughed, “That is intensely debaucherous.” He informed her and was pleased to see that he was getting more relaxed around her so that he could say things like that without feeling bad.
Josh had always felt a little bit self conscious about his smile because he showed so many teeth and so much of his gums that he felt like it always looked fake and insincere. He didn’t like coming across that way but sometimes it just happened to him. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling when she told him that she loved Jammy Dodgers and he tried to ignore the feeling of butterflies in his stomach. Why did he always feel like a fourteen year old girl when he had a crush on someone? He looked at her as she addressed him, mispronouncing his name in a way that made him feel like it was a pet name rather than a mistake. “I’ve been working a lot and my mum looks after Rodney most mornings.” He told her with a mild shrug, then he leaned towards her slightly and lowered his voice, “These places make me feel a little uncomfortable.” He added, biting the side of his lip and then looking over his shoulder towards the other mothers.
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Post by ana czarnowska on Mar 21, 2011 23:21:00 GMT
Ana felt a rush of pride for herself that already she could distinguish accents in Northern Ireland. She was intrigued when he said that he came from Ballymena. It sounded stupid because she was living in a small country now, but she didn't have the foggiest idea where that was. "Whereabouts is Ballymena?" She asked, and then blushed slightly at her own stupidity. She smiled in relief when he assured her that she wasn't being rude in her comments about his accent. Ana nodded when he said his accent was distinct, but she wasn't quite sure why. She then said, "I like your accent, it sounds nicer than Wardenstown accents."
Ana let out a laugh that was louder than she had initially intended. "Enthusiastic is an understatement." She glanced over at their two children playing together. She had considered a couple of times having him testing for ADD, but then she thought that might seem like she just didn't appreciate her son's lust for life. It was good for him to be a handful anyway; her work hours were part time and it upset her sometimes that she had no permenant adult company since her family were in Poland. "It would be quite nice if he could take a leaf out of Rodney's book and be timid. He must be a dream to look after." That couldn't be misconstrued as telling him he had a boring son, could it? Ana was almost certain Josh would know she didn't mean it that way, she's wouldn't be that much of a bitch. She grinned mischeviously at Josh when he described a month of half birthday celebrations as debauched. "That, my dear, is the entire point," Ana replied. "Unless you celebrate with kids," she added, nodding in the direction of the children, "In which case it's a month of cake, candy and games." Kaspar had been the only one she had to spend her half birthday that year with, and that was exactly what it was filled with. She had never felt nausea quite like it, except for her morning sickness.
Ana took a bite out of her Jammie Dodger and chewed as quietly as she could while eating a biscuit as she listened to Josh's explanation for not coming to the mother and toddler group sooner. She instinctively leaned over and he leaned to her, then glanced subtly over to the group of mothers still gossiping and cackling like geese. "I can't say I blame you," she replied, trying to keep as quiet as he had, "The stepford wives can make it very uncomfortable here. I've been coming here for five months and this is the longest conversation I've had with someone so far." She leant back and returned to her normal volume, "So what do you work at?" Ana asked. She had wanted to ask why Rodney's mother didn't look after him in the mornings, but she didn't really think that would be an okay question to ask since she had just met him and wasn't sure of his situation.
word count 507
outfits ana & kaspar
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Post by josh philips on Mar 21, 2011 23:56:12 GMT
Where was Ballymena? How do you describe that to an outsider? Josh bit his lip and looked at the cup of tea in his hand for a moment or two. “Ballymena was in Antrim. Do you know where Antrim is?” He asked, then his hand went absentmindedly to his mouth. That was a rude question, wasn’t it? He didn’t know for sure. It sounded rude. Maybe not rude, maybe just cheeky. But offensive nonetheless. He laughed slightly when she said that she liked his accent better than the Wardenstown accents. “Most people in Northern Ireland think the Ballymena accent is one of the worst!” He scoffed slightly and rubbed his hand on his leg. He set his cup of tea on the floor and unwrapped his biscuit and began to munch it down.
Josh felt slightly taken aback by her sudden laughter at his comment that Kaspar was ‘enthusiastic’ so he just took another large bite out of his biscuit and waited for something to happen. She went on to say that Rodney must be a dream to look after and Josh considered this for a moment or two. He supposed that Rodney was an excellent child but at the same time he felt he was occasionally the most difficult child in the world. “Yeah, he’s pretty excellent.” Josh agreed, smiling at her and then looking lovingly at his son. “He’s a little angel.” He whispered, almost to himself and then licked his lips and scratched his nose and finished off his biscuit. He laughed at her idea that having a month-long party was a good plan, “I wouldn’t have the stamina for that.” He said, then immediately blushed at the idea that it could be taken in the wrong way. “Rodney is afraid of balloons.” He laughed slightly and then looked at his little boy who was now looking alarmed as his tower began to shake precariously.
Josh drained his cup of tea and then leant a little bit closer to her again, he was pleased that she as confiding in him about her feelings about the parent and toddler group. “Five months? These people don’t have any taste.” He told her indignantly, more passionately than he expected. He ran his hand through his hair making it stick up at a more bizarre angle; his cap was on his knee. He smiled at her when she expressed interest in his job and scratched his cheek and leant back slightly. He was sad that the intimacy of their conversation had passed but he didn’t want to show her, “I work at McDonalds.” He told her, quickly followed by, “I’m a crew trainer there. I’m going to be a manager some day.” He smiled slightly and then put his hands over his brim of his cap while he looked at it carefully. “Do you work?” He asked her, assuming that was a rather safe question.
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Post by ana czarnowska on Mar 22, 2011 19:17:18 GMT
Ana thought for a moment, trying to picture one of those county maps of Northern Ireland in her head. She roughly could, but wasn't sure which county was which other than Down. "It's the county above Down, isn't it?" She felt a little bit like a hesitant eight-year-old in a geography class as she tried to work it out. "What made you move to Wardenstown from there?" Ana asked, figuring it was a logical follow on from the discussion of where Ballymena was. She made a 'psshh' noice when he said that his accent wasn't one of the most favoured ones in Northern Ireland. "Well, Northern Irish people just don't know a beautiful accent when they hear it." Ana's stomach dropped when she said that, realising it could sound like she was being a complete failure at flirting with him. Of course, she would happily flirt with Josh because she was fond of him already, but about accent? It was quite cliche in her books.
Ana watched Josh as intently as she could without looking like a weirdo as he answered her and then looked at his child. She thought it was quite adorable that he would look adoringly at his son; it was nice for her to see that a father her age could actually care for a child as much as Josh cared for Rodger. Andreu didn't even know what Kaspar looked like. Or his name. Or even that Kaspar was a boy. She gave a sad sigh as she thought about it, and then snapped back to attention, hoping Josh wouldn't take her sigh as a sign that she found him boring or anything. Ana choked back a laugh when he said that he wouldn't have the stamina for a month of partying, wondering if he took it in a perverted way too. She found it cute when he said that Rodney was afraid of balloons, "Aww, I didn't realise kids would be afraid of balloons. Kaspar is afraid of pumpkins, oddly." She finished her cup of tea and set the cup and saucer on the ground, remembering with an amusement she shouldn't have had the first time he had seen a pumpkin when he was two. It was Hallowe'en and she had just brought one back to her flat. It wasn't carved or anything that would have made it obviously scary, but the little boys face dropped and he screamed as he saw the orange fruit sitting on the kitchen counter.
Ana was quite glad that they were having to lean into each other for part of their conversation, even if it was in a completely innocent way. She gave a small smile when it was declared the stepford wives didn't have any taste. "Thanks. They can be pretty harsh sometimes, mainly with the looks they give you; sometimes it's like you're just a piece of garbage to them." Ana felt quite embarassed that she was sharing so much of her annoyance about the group with Josh; he hadn't come to the group just to hear some irritated girl complaining about the prejudice she faced from the other mothers. She sighed again and then listened as he told her about his job. "That's pretty awesome," she grinned as he told her about the potential for the future within his job. Ana had worked briefly in a place like McDonald's as she worked through her degree and hated every minute of it, so she had a great deal of respect for anyone who could happily do the job. "Mhm," Ana nodded when he asked if she had a job. "I work at the tech as an administration assistant. It's probably one of the dullest jobs in the world."
word count 619
outfits ana & kaspar
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Post by josh philips on Mar 23, 2011 16:05:20 GMT
Josh smiled at the accuracy of her geography. He couldn’t believe she actually knew where he was talking about. He hadn’t known where anything was in his country for many years – he was still extremely shaky on his knowledge of the location of places, “Yeah, that’s the one.” He nodded his white blonde head and then looked down at his hands. What made him move from Ballymena to Wardenstown? How should he answer that question? There were two main reasons: Rebecca wasn’t in Wardenstown and his father had been offered a job there. He didn’t want to appear so juvenile that he had moved because his daddy needed to, but was it okay to bring up Rebecca? “I just fancied a fresh start.” He didn’t exactly lie, that was what he’d been selling Wardenstown to himself as from the moment he left the safe-haven of Ballymena. A fresh start where no one knew him as the guy whose girlfriend tried to murder their illegitimate child.
Butterflies began flapping around inside Josh’s stomach when she complimented his accent and he found himself blushing again, he wanted to put his hands over his cheeks to hide the burning red but he thought that that might bring more attention to the fact that he was blushing, “You don’t sound Polish, exactly.” He said matter-of-factly and then he put his hand to his mouth suddenly, surprised at his own outspokenness. He had begun to feel comfortable around him faster than he had anyone else before. “That is to say, not entirely Polish. Did you live somewhere else?” He asked her, biting his lip slightly and then coughing nervously. He’d met a number of Polish people in his time and none of them had an accent quite like hers. He laughed out loud at the idea of Kaspar being afraid of pumpkins, “I’ll bear in mind not suggesting a day to the pumpkin patch then.” He said, and then wished he didn’t, why did being nervous make him say stupid things?
Josh shot the Stepford Wives a disdainful look at the news that Ana felt like they looked like her like she was a piece of rubbish. He hated people who were like that – he’d met a few of them in his time being a single, teenage dad. For some reason, people were more accepting of his parenthood now that he was twenty but before that he’d been met with a lot of prejudice. “I’ve experienced that, too.” He empathised quietly, a look of sadness flooded his features and then he shook his head, and like an Etch-a-Sketch his expression was suddenly blank. He looked up at Rodney and saw him beginning to rebuild his block tower as a pyramid and he smiled, that boy would go far in life. He smiled when she showed her approval of his job opportunities and then grimaced slightly when she described what she did. “That sounds… fun…” He said, then he chuckled slightly and smiled at her, “What do you want to do as a job?” He asked her, crossing one of his impossibly long legs over the other and smiling his ridiculously wide smile at her. He loved to hear about people’s dreams.
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Post by ana czarnowska on Mar 23, 2011 20:12:16 GMT
Ana was quite proud of herself that she got the right county that Ballymena was located in. It was probably a fluke and she wouldn't know where it was from memory next time, but she was going to take the victory while she had it. "How come you picked Wardenstown?" Of course the wanting a fresh start answer could be applicable here, but really that wasn't much of a reason for picking the town itself. Although they both had completely different circumstances, it was intriguing for Ana to hear why another young parent was picking Wardenstown to raise their child in above every other place they could have went. "Did Rodney's mother move down with you, or did you just move with your parents?" Either of those answers could have made Ana awkward up the conversation. All he had mentioned was his own mother, and she presumed that both his parents and Rodney's mother were still in the picture. Although it was a good way of finding out if he was single, she couldn't help but wonder if either were a social faux pas on her part.
Ana raised an eyebrow when Josh declared that she didn't sound fully Polish. She was surprised when he picked this up; normally people wouldn't have known different Polish dialects let alone realise that her accent was different to the usual Polish persons. "You have a very good ear," she replied with a smile. "My accent is not entirely Polish because I'm not entirely Polish. I'm half-Hungarian. I spent half of my childhood between Poland and Hungary until I was ten, and the Hungarian kick in my accent never really went away." Part of Ana was flattered that Josh was listening close enough to pick up the distinction in her accent, and she got an odd feeling in her stomach that was either terrible wind or a fluttery feeling. She hoped it was the latter, because the first could have ended very embarassingly if she were to burp straight in his face. She smirked and tried to hold back her own giggles when Josh laughed and said they shouldn't go to a pumpkin patch. She found the idea quite hilarious, but didn't want to show it in case it made her seem like a terrible mother. "I wonder how badly traumatised they would both be if we got a balloon pumpkin made..."
Ana gave a sad smile when Josh empathised with her treatment from the stepford wives. Although it bummed her out that he had been treated badly for, she presumed, being a young dad, but at the same time she was glad someone could actually empathise with where she was coming from instead of just saying 'oh I understand' when they didn't at all. "I guess all you can do is hold your head up and say people are dicks, right? Still, at least you're here now." Although it wouldn't surprise her if their new found friendship struck up gossip at the stepford rumour mill. One day, Ana promised herself, she would gather up the nerve to go and give them a piece of her mind. She stared off thoughtfully for a minute, wondering what her dream job actually was. Before Kaspar came along she had wanted to be a freelance journalist so she would have an excuse to travel the world. After him, she had chose a degree she knew she would be good at but with no real future. "I guess I want a job that I can use my degree for, so it wasn't a waste of three years. It's be amazing to work as a translator. If I hadn't moved to Northern Ireland I probably would have moved to Russia so I could be a translator there." She would have gone to Russia like a shot, but would have rather had Kaspar speaking English as his second language than Russian, so it was Uk-a-go-go.
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outfits ana & kaspar
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Post by josh philips on Mar 23, 2011 22:29:35 GMT
Josh paused for a couple of seconds, contemplating how to respond to her question. He was so desperate not to appear childish in the reality that he was only in Wardenstown because his parents decided to move for his father’s career but he didn’t want to lie to her. Lies were not okay, especially when it was for the sake of ego. He decided to suck it up, “My father was offered employment and there were better promotion opportunities for me in Wardenstown.” He told her, biting his lip slightly as he awaited her reaction about his father. Then she asked him a question that made him want to recoil. She asked about Rodney’s mother. What should he say about Rebecca? “She tried to kill my son so I fought her for custody and won?” “She’s dead to me?” He settled for the diplomatic, “Rodney’s mum is no longer in the picture.” He said evenly, but he had a feeling that his face was so expressionless that he was giving his emotions away. He looked over at his darling little boy who was waving at him and smiling his toothy grin and he waved back and returned the smile. That kid was his life. He hated her so much, “What about Kaspar’s dad? Did he move from Poland with you?” He asked, assuming it wasn’t a rude question because Ana had asked basically the same thing of him.
A chortle escaped Josh’s lips at her surprise in his recognition of her accent. He was proud of himself for noticing, it made him look like he had some sort of talent. “One of my school friends was Polish. I went to a lot of parties with him, met his extended family.” He explained, gesturing with his left hand towards the table as if that explained everything. He nodded as she explained her different accent and wondered what it must be like to live in more than one country. The furthest Josh had ever been was Scotland. He laughed at the idea of a pumpkin balloon, “That’d look cool. But the kids would die.” He looked at Rodney again who was now touching the side of Kaspar’s head – feeling his hair and then feeling his own. He put his hand against the paint and then looked down at it, disgusted and looked to Josh for a baby wipe. Josh was quick to avert his gaze – he hated indulging Rodney’s obsessive cleaning tendencies.
Josh scratched his head and replaced his cap, putting it on so the peak was slightly off-centre and then he smiled at her when she said “at least you’re here now.” He had a feeling that she was as relieved to meet him as he was to meet her. He wanted to think of something charming to say, something that would sweep her off her feet and make her like him as much as he liked her. But Josh Philips had never had a way with words. “Ditto.” He mumbled, his cheeks burning bright red once again. He mentally cursed the gods for making him this way. He listened to her dream and wished that he had had one at one point in his life. He’d never had time to think of a career. He was so busy being in love he forgot to think about anything past the coming weekend. “I’m sure there’s opportunities for translators in the courts in Belfast. You should ask around.” He suggested, trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about but it was clear that he was unsure.
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