,,getting to know you,,nicolai

[derrick hirsch]

-- derrick was seriously regretting giving himself a couple days off. the ache in his muscles reminded him he should at least stretch or do some kind of exercise every day. the ache was familiar though. even when he did work out everyday, he still pushed himself. but today wasn't that kind of ache. it was the "i'm lazy and didn't work out in two days and now my body hates me" kind of ache. derrick grabbed some snacks from the cafeteria, and headed back up to his dorm to get caught up on his homework, or just watch pointless youtube videos and catch up on the latest facebook gossip. probably a little of both, actually.

-- derrick's half the dorm was tidy, hardly any personal possessions, besides a couple pictures of germany and his old house and stuff. he also had a couple pictures from his first recitals. they always made him laugh. to think how far he had come since he began dance lessons. even being as modest as he was, he realized the great accomplishments he had achieved and strove to be even better. his parents always cautioned he needed to slow down and enjoy life some more, and he was, but dance was his life. but he realized how much he needed friends. since he had gotten out more and started letting people drag him from his shell, he had fun doing something other than dance. derrick was slowly getting over his fear of finding something he loved better than dance.

-- he plopped himself on his bed, and changed into some shorts and a tanktop and threw his smelly and very sweaty clothes into the hamper at the foot of his bed. he really needed to do laundry sometime in the near future. derrick was kind of glad for the peace and quiet, he didn't really know his roommate very well, but knew him enough to know he wouldn't wake up to find nicolai looming over him with a knife or anything, which was definitely reassuring. he also knew they had the same major and minor. but they hardly ever talked or hung out of anything. he did manage to bring up an essay he needed to finish, and then brought up facebook. needless to say, his essay didn't get finished.

[nicolai ivan glazcov]

not only had the boy just eaten, he had just eaten with a few girls from his russian class. it was considered a study group, with him - the russian - at the head. Nicolai could decided whether they had wanted him there so that they could actually learn from him, or if they wanted something else from it. Since no girl had gone further to ask for his number, in case they needed help with their russian, the boy had decided that it was just a study group, no matter how many undertones that he picked up.



the walk back to his dorm was calm and peaceful. the wind was blowing, not gale force winds, terrible whirlwinds that took trees down;but merely a soft breeze that would tickle your nose and send a shiver up your spine if you weren't used to the cold. nicolai was. if anything he was trying to get used to the normal warm weather that he was getting here. the good thing about what nicolai was, made sure that he was never cold, but on the filp side it meant that any other time, that it was warm, and perfect for the oter island goers, he was warm - hot to say the least. it was two sides of the same coin. he had to live with the annoyance, to get the few months of sanity in the winter, he was just lucky this time around, seeing as it was now winter. perfect weather. the feeing of his feet hitting the ground brought him back to reality, to look at his dorm room door, and crazy enough, he could almost feel it look back. silently the door stood gazing at him before nicolai shook his head, "i am going insane." he murmured before openeing the door with his free hand to see his roommate sitting on his own bed, looking over something.



All of the sudden nicolai had a strange feeling telling him that he should probably leave. the last thing he wanted to do was bother him, when he was clearly trying to work on something on his laptop. Sadly - he just tossed his book on his bed and realized how little he knew him - derrick. Sure, he was an aquaintence, but anything more would be a stretch in anyone's eyes. They had both the same major and minor. it wasn't every day that something 'strange' like that happened. First off, nicolai knew he was german, from his accent - not from a talk - and second off, from watching him around school it seemed like he had more girl friends than guys. Of course he felt bad - he didn't want him not to have a guy friend, so of course nicolai had to help.



the two sides of the room were different in ther persepctives, but the same all together. they were both clean, derrick's more so than nicolai's - but neither dirty. his side had little of his family, whereas nicolai's wall was covered with pictures of his family, his friends, both from school and from russia. he had pictures that he had done, and ones that his sister had done for him. His violin was tucked neatly at the edge of his bed, which had his dance bag - book bag - and a pile of painting supplies that he has been meaning to put away.



"you look sore, did you pull something...? lie. of course it was just something he said to start off the conversation, but if anything it should get the ball rolling, "dance can be a bitch if you forget to stretch one little muscle." he remembered the one time, when he was little, it was when he had just started working point, and he hadn't flexed his foot enough. His ankle gave out on him and he fell flat on his face. "what are you working on...? it looks absolutly exciting." nicolai mused, pulling his shoes off and tossing them to the floor.

[derrick hirsch]

-- derrick was creeping on someone's pictures. the girl obviously thought she was god's gift to ballet, but she had horrible form, but of course he couldn't just put that in a comment on someone's pictures. he wasn't that mean. whoever created facebook should be hugged. he had no idea how he would keep up with useless information otherwise. but it was a good way to keep in touch with his parents. it was simple enough for them to use and somewhat figure out by themselves. derrick had just brought up his essay when the door to the dorm opened. he was in the middle of a sentence so he didn't look up right away.

-- the silence was awkward, and derrick wondered if he should say something first. luckily the two had the same major and minor, so if the conversation did get slow, they always had those two things to talk about. and nicolai was from russia, so they were both far away from home. he wondered why nicolai chosen this school. he wanted to get to know his roommate. he was sick of it being awkward between them, feeling like they were interrupting each other when they walked in. they had been roommates for a while, so derrick was going to suppress his shyness and strike up a conversation.

-- luckily nicolai spoke first. derrick looked up from his boring essay, which he couldn't care less about. if his parents weren't so strict about grades, he probably wouldn't do it. "i don't think so. i was just lazy for a couple days, so i decided to hit the gym. i really need to stop doing that." derrick replied chuckling. "oh i know. i've learned that lesson that hard way more than once." he continued. "some dumb essay. it isn't due for a while, i thought i'd get a head start on it so i wouldn't be doing the whole thing the night before it's due." derrick confessed.

-- so he only had the intro paragraph. that was good enough, wasn't it? he decided it was and saved it and closed out of it. "how's your other classes going?" he asked politely. why ask about dance classes or art classes. derrick wanted to get to know nicolai more than just the other guy in his dance and art classes. and it would be nice to have a guy friend. it seemed he had more girl friends than guy friends. he really needed to change that. too many hormones flying about. luckily, he had managed to avoid any girly type things, but they couldn't be far off.

[nicolai ivan glazcov]

His roommate was obviously into whatever he was doing on his computer. Eyes glued onto the screen and there wasn’t much moving from him. If Nicolai didn’t know any better, he would have said that he was paralyzed at his laptop in the dorm that they shared. Of course he did know better, and knew he was probably just on facebook or another site that seemed to grab others attention. Yes, Nicolai did have his own facebook, but he didn’t get on all the time. There were other things that he would rather be doing; fixing his technique, painting, talking face to face with people. Facebook was good for the times that he just wanted to stay in his dorm, but those times were slim to none.


The awkward tension within the room didn’t seem to retreat as he took off his shoes. Things like that really should just go away, but they should also know each other a lot more than they do by now. If anything, they should be really good friends. They had so much in common, he didn’t see why they weren’t friends yet. Derrick was a bit shy, not that in any way that was a problem for Nicolai, he would happily help him out of that .


“Oh, yeah – ouch, that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.” Nicolai shook his head and took his jacket off, “Maybe next time I could tag along with you to the gym? I go anyways, but it’s not as boring when you have someone with you.” Step number one completed. Set up things to do. Nicolai laughed, “it seems like dance knows how to do it to everyone, and makes sure to do it when you aren’t in the best of places anyways – but it makes you strong.” Leaning against on open part of his wall he watched his roommate and then remembered an essay of his own that he had to write, but of course that was in russian and was in no way hard. “what is the essay on? If I may ask?” he grabbed his Russian book and put it up by his pillow. His green eyes trailed up to him and he sighed, “my classes are going alright. Dance is probably the best, though I have this thought in the back of my head that all my technique is starting to dwindle. Even soo, im practicing more, which is cutting back on the time for my acrylics class, and I have an assignment I really need to start for that class.” He looked over to his paints, and then back too the book, “and I have a Russian paper, but its so easy I don’t even want to do it. I really should have gone to Russian five.”


Stretching for a moment, Nicolai looked back over, “what about yours?”

[derrick hirsch]

ooc;; soo sorry, finals just got over and i've had to go see my horse everyday this week. lol. i should be back to posting regularly now.

-- derrick felt kind of bad he hadn't made more of an attempt to get to know nicolai. after all, they had been roommates for a while. they were both dancers, but it seemed they just had way different agendas. of course they talked, but derrick didn't know the first thing about nicolai. it was always awkward when they were in the dorm together. it was like they both were trying to come up with something to say, but it never really worked. since they were both fairly busy, these times were minimal, so they never really worried about really getting to know one another.

-- derrick chuckled. "you've got that right." he was, however, surprised that nicolai offered to go to the gym with him. they had never done anything before. maybe nicolai was feeling the same way derrick was. it would be nice. "sounds good. it would be nice to be around another guy for a change. it's not fun having mostly girl friends." he confessed, laughing heartily. surely nicolai was aware of this. derrick didn't mean to, he was just one of those guys that attracted girls who were just friends.

-- "exactly. i love it and hate it." but the girls loved the muscle. "eh, something for english class or something. i'm just kind of winging it." he had only half paid attention in class. it wasn't like it was that hard or anything. "good. i go through that occasionally. you still have wonderful technique, from what i see in class. you obviously have a gift and a passion for dance." he told nicolai honestly. if he wasn't honest, he would've come up with some generic compliment so he wouldn't have to tell him he sucked.

-- "ugh. i have a couple painting assignments to do as well." derrick said. he really needed to get a planner or something. he found it hard to remember anything that wasn't dance. his mom would be mad at him for slacking in his art classes though. he just hadn't been as motivated lately. maybe he should take some of his art supplies to the beach. "they're good. can't complain really. i've been lacking inspiration for my art classes." he spoke his thoughts to nicolai. maybe he would have some advice for him.