Jack Sharpe
Feeling a bit robotic as he goes over his options, Jack realizes that he is mentally being a bit too methodical. His gut isn’t involved, and he needs to also trust his gut here. But the rubric is useful and he can do that sort of thing while splitting his attention, due to how fast his mind works. Considering things he retroactively decides to refine his girl choices a bit before making any romantic overtures of any sort, and that would require that he rubrics out all of his classes. He’d do that tonight while Aunt Marlene was sleeping.
Stopping at his locker to drop off his hoodie, Jack pre-emptively decides that he might benefit from not covering up his muscles so much. If he was going to get himself a girlfriend and make friends, he should be seen as a prize and his clothes were not going to convey that. He just looks poor if one looks only at his clothes. So, he just lets his arms and chest do the work of distracting from his ugly shoes and hand-me-down clothes.
Regarding the lines, Jack pays attention to the opinion of his fellow students. Looking at the barbecue sandwiches he makes his way towards the burritos. It’s not like he needs lunch, but if he’s going to try to be normal, he needs to look normal. Not just sit down with these people without anything on a tray. Though he feels like a bit of a lemming for doing it, since he could just not finish the food if he doesn’t like it. But at least for now, Jack wants to fit in. Be normal.
So, burritos it is. As he stands in line, thinking about his options of both a food and girl variety, he is also keenly aware that regardless of what he might choose, unlike the food choices, he might get rejected and while rejection wouldn’t really bother his ego he’d prefer not to be seen as the guy who gets rejected a lot. So his approach at this point in the year is going to be to more of a fishing expedition than a hunt. He needs to see if there is any interest at all, when he finally gets near any of the girls.
But not yet! He needs to stop trying to think of how to approach them. One or two days to have at least met and seen all of the girls in all of the classes, plus those outside the class, try to figure out basic personalities and interests, and then he’d start going down the list. Preferably he’d find a girl his type with a good nerdy personality and interests, that tended to be the sort he found most attractive. Not that he has a lot of (or any) experience with this sort of thing, he knew himself well enough to know that a well-shaped nerdy girl was his type.
Darja is the only one he’s even somewhat certain he wants to befriend at this point. The rest were just tentative friends for study purposes, like the red-head and the Chinese guy in Zhao’s class. He’d pay attention and figure out if they were his kind of people. Friendship optional, project partner likely. Then he’d sit by them if the option was there to move around.
All of that sorting itself in its head, he finally gets his burrito, some rice and beans, and a carton of chocolate milk and pays with cash.
Now, where to sit. The Fillipino girl (or whatever she might be) is a good option, and so is Abigail. Abigail because she was a good project partner, albeit not of the cutest variety possible. Dan is a poor choice. Jack doesn’t mind befriending the guy down on his luck, but not as an opening move. He’d wait until he’d secured himself at least a bit of credibility as a “cool guy” or whatever people might label him, and then he’d try to see if he couldn’t befriend Dan a bit more.
But in the end, he opts to sit near-ish to the Fillipino girl and her friends. Not because he wants to necessarily pursue her, but because she, like Abigail, Darja, and others, was also likely to be good to go to for notes and projects. It also would make her feel less like he was forcing his presence on her, since she had her friends.
He doesn’t sit so close that they should feel like he has inserted himself into their conversation, more that he has simply chosen to sit somewhere nearby. By himself.
And he starts to eat.
Thanks! I’m trying to channel a teenage boy who can think as fast, orderly and clearly as Jack does, but I’m worried I might be over doing it. I might try to tone back how much I’m sharing, but I figure a few posts where we see his mentality, like the sort of girls who rate highest (cute top heavy nerdy girls) and what sort of things catch his eye are good to establish and then I’ll pull back on how much I share and just how he approaches.. That being said, I hope anyone who reads understands that I’m just trying to give an honest representation of condensed super-powered teenage boy thinking. :P
This message was last edited by the player at 07:39, Tue 10 Dec 2019.