Brain v. Brawn

He laughed aloud when she jumped. "Mean?" he chuckled.

When Izzy squeezed his hand, he sighed gratefully. He got out of the car and they walked in the front door together. Everett closed the door behind them and slipped his shoes off, leaving them by the door.

His mom peeked around the corner. She opened her mouth to say something, but then she noticed Izzy standing with him and seemed to change her mind. "Oh good, you've decided to come home tonight," She said smiling. "Who's this?"

Everett immediately relaxed. He touched Izzy's back, smiling gratefully at his mom. "Her name's Isabelle," he said. He sniffed the air, which was full of rich smells.

"I made spaghetti earlier," his mom said as she walked into the laundry room and returned to her ironing. "I think there's a little bit left."

Everett looked to Izzy. "Do you want spaghetti?" Personally, he didn't feel too hungry for some reason. But he would have some if she wanted some.

@ diamond sword
Izzy smiled politely towards his mother, glad she didn't get the same reaction she had from his dad yesterday.

Feeling his hand on her back, she felt at peace. "No thank you. I'm not very hungry." She admitted.

Looking around, she didn't see any sign of his dad. She honestly hoped he wasn't around knowing how upset Everett got last time and even before school this morning.

Everett's eyes scanned over the house, happy that his father hadn't made an appearance. His parent's work schedules were too crazy to keep track of - there was a good chance his dad was at a meeting or had some weird hours today.

His mom hummed as she ironed. Everett nodded. "Alright well if you want food feel free to just take food," he said, waving his hand towards the kitchen. He knew sometimes it was awkward to be hungry when you were at someone else's house.

Then he remembered something and grabbed her hand, running up the stairs to his bedroom and practically dragging her behind him. "C'mon, I've got something I think you'll like," he said.

He entered his room, which was surprisingly neat, if you didn't pay much attention to the corner designated for dirty laundry. Everett wondered for a second about where they were both going to sleep, but figured that would be taken care of later.

Everett opened his closet and carefully lifted out a shiny telescope.

@ diamond sword
As he body was dragged up the stairs, she nearly tripped. "You almost made me fall!" She exclaimed with a laugh as they entered his room.

His excitement reminded Izzy of a small child. It was quite contagious really.

Seeing the root of his excitement, her eyes widened. "Oh wow. It's fantastic!" She said, her excitement now matching Everett's. "I too have a telescope though it is nowhere near as nice as this. It's pretty old. It was my Grandfathers." She explained.

"Come on. We have to use this now!" She exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with joy as she grabbed his hand to tug him outside so they could use the telescope.

"You bet it's fantastic!" Everett said, carrying it carefully back down the stairs. He led Izzy through the back door into their yard. Everett felt incredible - the main reason being that he could share this with someone. And she understood.

He walked out to the middle of the yard, opening up the stand and starting to focus the several different pieces. He hadn't used the telescope in a long time. The wonderful thing had been stored away - similarly to how he had stored away his intelligence.

"There," he said, stepping back from the eyepiece. "That's Mars," Everett said, gesturing for her to check it out.

@ diamond sword
With a small giggle, she followed him outside and watched him. He seemed so at ease when they did things like this. She has really began to get to know him these past two days, but it was nice. She loved to see who someone really was an this was Everett.

Nodding, she put her eye up to the telescope and a grin broke out on her face.

Not taking her eyes away, she spoke. "I always have trouble finding Mars." She admitted as she finally took her eyes away. "Did you know that Egyptians called Mars the “the backward traveler” because Mars appeared to move backwards through the zodiac every 25.7 months."

She then could feel eyes on them coming from inside the house, she didn't take much notice to it though.

"I didn't," Everett said, returning to the telescope. He started trying to find Venus, though the sky wasn't particularly clear.

While he searched, he spoke softly. "When I was little, I was dead set on being an astronaut. My family went to Disney, and there was some ride that simulated the pressure of going up into space," Everett said as he found Venus. He could barely see it, but it was there.

"That's Venus," he said, stepping back again. "Anyways I was so excited to go on the ride. But it was probably one of the worst things that I've ever willingly done. I barfed four times in different trash cans as we walked to the next line," Everett shook his head.

He glanced towards the house, his mom was in the window, looking out at them. He couldn't tell but it looked like she was drying dishes. As long as his dad didn't come home, it would be fine. But his dad was likely to snap the telescope in half.

@ diamond sword
Izzy laughed at this. "Well you seem very interested in the sky. Maybe you could still accomplish that." She shrugged as she went up to the telescope.

"Wow." She breathed in amazement. "Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus is the second largest terrestrial planet and is sometimes referred to as the Earth's sister planet due the their similar size and mass." She said automatically. She hoped she wasn't annoying him saying different things about everything hey saw.

She then began messing with the telescope herself. It took a bit to get the hang of it but she eventually found exactly what she was looking for. "That's the Andromeda Galaxy."

The sound of a car driving up could then be heard followed by the slam of the door.

Everett nodded and smiled. He knew these things about Venus. He was surprised at first when he began turning knobs, and he didn't say anything about how to work it properly. He figured she would get it - and she did.

"You're pretty great, Iz," Everett thought aloud. He wanted to just give her a giant bear hug. Space amazed him, but he had literally never had a friend who showed the slightest amount of interest.

Before he could look through the telescope, he heard the car and the door slam. He looked at the ground and closed his eyes, sighing softly. "Just ignore him, if he says anything, okay?" Everett urged.

Everett did not want his telescope harmed, so he gathered it up and handed it to Izzy. His dad was likely to shove him or something along those lines, but his dad was a tad sexist - and even if Izzy pissed him off, he wouldn't hit a girl.

Everett walked back into the house and guided Izzy back towards the stairs.

"Everett," his dad growled somewhere behind them.

"Just wait for me in my room, okay?" Everett whispered to Izzy.

@ diamond sword
"Well thank you Ev. I suppose I could say the same thing about you." She grinned as looked at him.

Now that his Dad was home, izzy could see his mood change almost automatically.

When he gave the telescope to her she nodded. She could tell how much he loved this telescope, and hoped she could keep it out of harms way for him.

Looking at him softly, she kept the telescope securely in one arm and used the other to give him a slight hug, the best she could manage with a telescope not much smaller than she was.

"It's gonna be okay. Don't let him get to you." She whispered in his hear and pecked his cheek, heading upstairs towards his room before his father made an appearance.

Everett nodded, turning around to face his father.

"Did you catch all the throws at practice?" His dad asked, his face dark, his priority always football.
Everett shook his head. "There was no practice,"
"No practice? What morons these coaches are," His dad grumbled. Everett shrugged. "So you wasted your day with that useless girl instead of lifting weights?"
"She's not useless," Everett muttered. "I went for a run," he said, staring into his dad's eyes.
"A run? Oh that's right, I forgot you were just the wimpy receiver," His dad sneered.
Everett curled and uncurled his fists, trying to keep his cool. "Whatever," he said softly.
"Don't you whatever me boy - "
"Bill!" Everett's mom cut in. "Leave him be." Then she slipped back to drying dishes.

Everett turned and ran up the stairs, his head hot. He went into his room and didn't say anything to Izzy. Everett basically fell onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling. No matter what he did, he would never be good enough for his father.

His dad already had one golden child and nothing Everett achieved would change that.

@ diamond sword
Izzy entered his room and out up the telescope where she saw him get it from. She then sat down on his bed, glancing around his room. She noticed so many trophies and such relating to football but even a few for academic achievements, but those were more off to the side, something's even covering them up.

When she heard the door open and felt him fall on his bed, she sighed softly.

"Hey." She said softly, moving to sit next to him, looking down into his eyes though they seemed a million miles away. "You know, there's this boy," she started off, similar to how he did earlier. "He is incredibly intelligent and so talented in athletics." She said, giving him a soft smile. "He helped me earlier today and I plan to do the same with him." She spoke with a nod.

"You told me earlier that If my mom doesn't realize how amazing I am that there's nothing I can do about it," she started then paused a moment before beginning again," same goes for you Ev. If your father doesn't realize how amazing and wonderful you are, you can't change that. You can try, but that's not worth you losing yourself because of it." She stated, looking into his blue eyes still, her hand brushing his messy hair out of his face gently.

Everett listened closely. Her compliments lifted his spirits, but there was still bitterness that lingered. Different emotions struggled to surface on his face, but he held them back. He looked back at her, breathing slowly.

As she brushed his hair out of his face, he closed his eyes and sighed. For a while he was silent.

And then, he relaxed enough to take her words to heart.

"Isabelle Emerson," he finally said, his voice low and quiet. "I'll bet you've heard before that you're brilliant," He opened his eyes, propping himself up on his elbows. "And I've told you before that you could be a therapist because you know the right things to say," he added, his voice getting even deeper and quieter somehow.

"But, and I might be mistaken," Everett said, sitting up and looking into her eyes, their faces inches apart. "No one's ever told you how beautiful you are. I mean inside and outside," He said quietly.

Everett pulled her into a hug. "Thank you, Iz. Really I mean it," Thanks for letting me use the scientific names of things, and being excited to use my telescope. Thanks for allowing me to see that it's okay to show intelligence, thanks for telling me I look good in glasses.

Somehow, when he was with her, Everett felt less alone.

@ diamond sword
Izzy watched as different emotions grazed his features, wanting to show, but nothing happened. He stayed silent, so she did the same.

Hearing her name roll off his tongue, she almost trembled at how much emotion his voice held as he spoke. He was so genuine.

With his last words said, she felt him tug at her heart string. It was a tough tug. Other than a few teachers, no one really cared about how smart she was much less anything else. She had never been told she was beautiful and hearing it from Everett was unexpected but not unwanted.

"You are very welcome Ev, very welcome indeed." She spoke quietly as she wrapped her arms around him, head resting on his chest. "And thank you as well. You truly are an amazing human being." She said, a smile forming on her lips as she kept her arms firmly around him.

Everett smiled and hugged her tighter. She was perfect. He thought maybe he should ask her out. But maybe he was getting ahead of himself.

He didn't let go of her, and still held her gently as he spoke. "Don't you need new clothes?" He wondered, trying to think if he had anything small enough that would be comfortable for her. "Feel free to look in my closet," he murmured.

"And you can sleep on my bed," he said, slowly pulling away from her. "I'll sleep on the floor," he nodded to himself. He didn't really want to make his back ache more than it did already from the night before, but he figured he might seem like a douche if he suggested they sleep in the same bed.

He got up and stretched out his arms and shoulders. "I'm going to shower," he told her, picking up a pair of sweatpants and heading to the door.

Izzy nodded, standing and beginning to look for something. It wasn't difficult.

She quickly decided on sweatpants that tied and a t shirt of his that she knew would be way to large. Good thing she liked oversized stuff. She would defiantly have to take a shower before she changed though. She knew she really needed it.

Izzy quickly shook her head at his suggestion as he headed for the bathroom.

"Oh don't be silly." She said with a roll her gray green eyes. "We can both fit in your bed. It is quite large." She stated with a nod, seeing nothing wrong with them sharing a bed. Her brain thought much differently than most. It's what makes her so unique.

@ diamond sword

"Alright sweet," Everett said, grateful that he wouldn't be sore for football.

Once in the bathroom, he stripped and stepped into the shower. Cold water rushed over him and he inhaled heavily. There was nothing that compared to an icy shower. Chills bounced through his body as he washed his hair.

Feeling immaculate, Everett stopped the water and stepped out onto the mat. He grabbed a towel and dried off, rubbing his hair until it stuck out in all different directions. He wrapped the towel around his waist and went to the sink, taking out his contacts. For a second, he looked at himself in the mirror, noticing the summer tan was fading. Everett hung the towel up to dry and put the sweatpants on. He picked up his other clothes and headed back to his room.

In his room again, he tossed the clothes into the dirty laundry pile in the corner. "Your turn," he smiled at Izzy, stealing a kiss on her cheek.

@ diamond sword
Izzy nodded and watched as he left the room. Feeling a bit nosey, she stood and began looking around his room.

She knew to respect peoples privacy so she only looked at his different trophies. Soon though she moved on to a few pictures. She picked up one in-particular. It showed Everett, around 13 or 14, with his brother a few years older. He was wearing a big smile. He looked happy.

Soon she sat back down on the bed, waiting for Everett to finish. When he returned she nodded. Feeling him steal a kiss she rolled her eyes, but still had a smile. She then left the room and entered the bathroom.

Once inside she stripped and quickly stepped in, the scalding hot water running over her skin. She enjoyed hot showers rather than cold. Not just normal hot.

With her pale complexion, by the time she was out of the shower her skin had a bit of a red tint. She quickly dried and put on the sweats and t shirt. The sweats were rather large and long on her so she had to tie them big time. The shirt however, there was no helping that. It swallowed her but she was comfortable still.

Returning to the room, she shut the door behind her, a yawn escaping her lips as she laid down in the bed.

"Do you mind us stopping by my house in the morning? I just need to change into some clothes and grab my things. It won't take me long."

When she left the room, Everett dropped onto the bed. He lifted a book from his bedside table, Stephen King's The Stand. He immediately submerged himself into the book, though he'd read it several times. Everett's favorite genre of book was horror with no shred of doubt. Something about the way King wrote made Everett get goosebumps.

When Izzy came in, he set the book down again, after shamelessly tagging his page with a dog ear. He stretched his legs out and closed his eyes, thinking about how cute she looked in his clothes - which were obviously way too big for her. Then he moved over, making room for her to lay down.

"Of course, just remind me in the morning," Everett said through a yawn. "Did you know, that if you yawn because of other people yawning, it means you have a higher sense of empathy than those who are less affected?"

He sat up to grab the blankets that were tangled at the end of the bed, pulling one over himself. He offered the other half of it to Izzy. "Want some?"