I'm Gonna Live Forever!

[raven]

Raven scurried up from the depths of the subway, her hands clutching the straps of her backpack. She headed down 8th avenue and when she arrived at her new high school she took a deep breath, watching the mob of kids head inside.

Raven followed the masses up the front steps and into the cafeteria.

[Nate]

Nate sat on top of one of the long cafeteria tables in the middle of the room, his attention focused on tuning his guitar. He barely noticed the crowd of students that were now flooding into the room. His left leg dangled over the edge of the table while his right leg was tangled up in some sort of half-Indian style position underneath the rest of his body.

After strumming a few chords, he found the guitar's tuning to his satisfaction and, after licking his lips slowly, he closed his eyes and began to play.

"Burroughs!!" A gruff voice shouted from the corner. "Burroughs! Now, you can play in here all you want, but what have you been told about sitting ON the tables?"

The teacher's voice fell upon deaf ears, however. His eyes still closed, Nate continued to play.

[raven]

The kids in the room all began to smile and rolls their eyes. Nobody really listened to the teachers in the cafeteria. They had free reign over the space.

Raven smiled when upon entering the cafeteria all she heard was music. It just seemed too good to be true. She curled a piece of hair behind her ear and headed closer to the sound. She immediately felt like she was going to like it here.

[Nate]

Nate's fingers ran up and down the neck of the guitar furiously as he abandoned the song's original melody and chord progression in favor of improvising some blues-style riffs of his own. His back arched the more he got caught up in his song.

His eyes opened for a moment, very briefly catching a glimpse of an attractive girl with dark hair standing in front of him. Even though he had only seen her for a moment before he closed his eyes again, he was almost positive that he had never seen her around before. Without missing a beat, he carefully slid off of the table and took a step closer to her before finally ending his impromptu jam session. Damn, it felt good to be a guy with a guitar!

Once he finished his song, he opened his eyes and slung his guitar around his back on its strap. "Hey," he said, out of breath. "You new here, or have you just been hiding from me for the past 3 years?"

[raven]

Raven smiled at him and then laughed. "Wow...now if someone ain't cocky I dunno who is." She rolled her eyes. Rae started heading toward the stairs, she needed to see the prinicpal to make sure everything had been set straight and that she was ready to start classes.

She glanced over her shoulder to see if he was following her, "I'm new."

[Nate]

"If you think that's cocky, wait until you meet everyone else around here," Nate called after her with a laugh. He shrugged it off and climbed back up onto the table to tune his guitar again. "Nice to meet you, new girl. The name's Nate."

[raven]

She laughed and shook her head, "I'm Rae." She said with a smile. She could already tell that she liked him. Rae shook her head again, turning to go and then stopped. "Don't you have class?"

[Nate]

"Yeah, I do," Nate answered with a smirk. He carefully set his guitar down and let his fingers curl over the edge of the table. "Thing is, Rae, I can't just pack up and leave like this once inspiration hits. It's like... I don't know... it's like deciding to up and leave to have Burger King when you've got a fancy steak dinner already halfway done cooking."

Reluctantly, he slid off of the table, his smile growing as he watched this new girl. She was cute, he'd give her that. "What are you here for?"

[raven]

"You can't figure it out. I woulda thought you'd be up to that challenge," She smirked at him. He was keeping her attention, Rae would definitely give him that and he wasn't a half bad guitar player."

[Nate]

"Well, that's the thing about women..." Nate laughed and looked at her thoughtfully as he playfully stroked his chin. "You assume a girl's here for art, and she'll get offended that you couldn't tell she was a singer. You assume a girl's a singer, she'll get mad that you couldn't tell she was a dancer..." He paused, leaning forward so his hands were resting on his knees. "If I say you're a dancer, you're not gonna get mad that I couldn't tell you were an artist or something, are you?"

[raven]

Raven started smiling and then tapped his nose, "spot on, Nate. I'm a dance, ballet dancer actually." She smirked. "I start classes this afternoon, they want me to get situated first before they throw me to the wolves."

Honestly, Nate would have been blind to guess that she was anything else. Her posture was perectly erect and she stood with her heels pressed together, toes reaching out to the side. Her neck was elongated and she was thin, with long lean muscles.

[Nate]

"The wolves, eh?" Nate asked jokingly. "I may be a little bit cocky, but I'm no wolf!" He picked his guitar back up and finally started to put it away in its case. He looked her over again, his head nodding slowly. "Yep. You look like a dancer to me."

He let out a laugh before extending his hand to her, "Wanna see the stage?"

[raven]

She nearly started glowing, "Ooh yeah," Raven grabbed his hand and letting him lead her down to the auditorium where the stage was.

"So Nate, been here since Freshman year?" She asked him.

[Nate]

"Yep, this is my senior year," Nate told her with a smile. He pushed open the door to the backstage area and motioned for her to enter. "This place is great. The stage is huge, so you might wanna get used to it."

[raven]

She followed him out from the backstage area onto the stage. "Oh wow..." she said with crossed her arms looking out to the audience. "I'm only a junior," she said.

Rae couldn't help herself, she unfurled her arms, opening them outward to the audience, stepped out to the side and then curtsied elegantly to one knee.