New person in my spot!

[Lonnie Detamore]

Lonnie was in a surprisingly good mood - something that rarely happened! He drifted off into a dream of some kind as he listened to his I-Pod. It may have been designed for muggle use, but it was pretty darn awesome! He paced up the hill - with his camera around his neck, sketch pad under his arm and a selection of pencils in his back pocket - toward clearing in the woods, where he spent most of his free time taking photos and drawing.

His good mood was probably down to the fact that his foster mother - who is his opinion was the biggest b!tch in the world - was away for a week seeing her mother, a muggle who was recovering from a hip operation. Which automatically gave Lonnie a whole lot more freedom to do what he wanted and go where he pleased without having to explain in extraneous detail dates, times and places!

As he approached his spot by the river, he noticed another guy sitting near to Lonnie's 'spot', he slowed down, not usually seeing anybody else this far up the hill. Giving the guy a nod as if to say hi, how are you, nice to meet you - or something like that - and went and sat down, close to the water's edge with his sketch book open on his lap.

 

[Kenneth Hickman-Vallender]

Kenny was having the day off work. He'd worked at his pub almost non stop for nearly a year and had decided that today was his day off. He was pleased with the way the pub was growing and wanted a break from there. Only one day. After all, he loved his job and was glad he could do it they way he did. He was friends with everyone there and very rarely had to bar anyone. It was one thing he loved about having a pub in Oxford. The few drunks there never went so far that they had to be barred.

Kenny looked around the river and smiled at the scenery. It was a nice day - especially for autumn. Usually by now the sun was gone and the clouds were starting the rain. It was part of the reason he'd decided today to have a day off. Get the last of the sun while it was still around. Not that he had much of a tan though. Spending all his time indoors had stopped him getting one this year. He didn't mind though. It never cared for sunbathing.

Kenny turned his head when he heard someone behind him. The guy was fit. Kenny looked him up and down a few times before he sat down. He recognised him from somewhere. School perhaps?? "Hey. Do you go to Durmstrang by any chance??" It was a rubbish conversation starter but it was better than nothing. It would have been awkward if the two of them were just sat there in silence. Plus, Kenny was a sociable person who liked making new friends. Yet another reason why he loved his pub.

 

[Lonnie Detamore]

Lonnie had just started sketching the view from the river - making up parts to make it more interesting and surreal - when he heard the guy start speaking. At first he didn't quite make out what he'd asked, and turned a little pink when he realised he'd just been starring at the guy like a startled rabbit! "Oh uhh, yeah. 4th year now, transfered there a little while ago. I recognise you, you go there too doncha?" he spoke light-heartedly and closed his sketchbook with his pencils still inside. "well, s'nice to meet'cha mate.... whats your name?" he turned round to face the guy a little more.

 

[Kenneth Hickman-Vallender]

Kenny nodded at the guy's question. "Yeah. Well...kinda. I graduated last year." Ken was glad he'd graduated. He liked school but he'd been bored of all the stereo-typing and the fact he had no freedom. Plus, homework was a killer when he knew none of it was ever going to do anything for his future. Pub owners only needed social skills and he had enough of those naturally. "Kenny Hickman-Vallender. What about you??" He never seemed to introduce himself as Kenneth any more. It was an annoying name and he hated his parents for thinking of such a stupid name in the first place.

 

[Lonnie Detamore]

Lonnie vaguely recognised the name, but just as one of those things you here floating around in conversation. He didn't really mingle that much at school, he had a small group of friends, and quite a large group of people who were too scared of him to come near him again - he did have rather a bad habbit of punching people in the face if they p!zzed him off!

He shuffled along a bit and held out his hand for the other guy to shake, "Lonnie Detamore. I've not been at Durmstrang long, was at Hogwarts New Zealand before. Honest to God I'm so glad for the change!" His time at Hogwarts wasn't the best, he'd been in detention more times in a month than he had fingers and toes to count them on! And there were a whole lot more people there who hated him.

"I come up here all the time, but you're one of the first I've seen here too. Definatly the first to steal my spot!" He joked and gave the guy an un-serious glare! "Where abouts you from then?"

 

[Kenneth Hickman-Vallender]

Kenny shook Lonnie's hand with a smile. "Nice to meet you Lonnie." He had to admit, he'd never seen someone wear as much make up as Lonnie - any male any way - especially in that style. He loved how artistic it was. He expected Lonnie had the same problem as Kenny had. Teenagers stereo typed. They would probably take the mik out of Lonnie's make up saying he was an emo or something like that.

"I've never been anywhere near Hogwarts which is odd seeing as I used to live quite close to it." Kenny had gone to Durmstrang all his school years and found it to be an okay school. He had a feeling there were probably others that he would have preferred to go to though. Durmstrang was good for results but most of the people there were stuck up snobs.

Kenny shrugged. "I grew up mostly in Oxford with nannies because my parents were always at work. I'm glad though. Some of the nannies were great fun where as my parents stereotype more than any other person I have ever met. I would hate to have turned out like either of them." Ken liked most of the nannies he'd had which is why his parents fired most of them. They wanted a nanny that would teach him things instead of play games.

 

[Lonnie Detamore]

Lonnie sat quietly for a second, thinking of what to say. He wasn't normally very good at being 'nice' to new people, and hardly ever bothered to instigate a conversation, but he was bored, and this guy seemed alright. "Think yourself lucky! That place is shockingly boring! Plus the people there are insufferable most of the time!" Lonnie had even fewer friends at Hogwarts, and even if Durmstrang pupils did tend to be too far up there own backsides to smell reality, at least not so many of them had bothered with starting on him yet.

"Oxford. Ain't that in England?" He wondered why someone from all the way across the world would be in New Zealand, "Well, How come your all the way out here then?"

 

[Kenneth Hickman-Vallender]

Kenny nodded. "Yeah, I've heard that from a few other people as well. I seem to be one of those people who can get along with just about anyone who talks to me though." The only people he didn't get along with were the guys who were in his year that took the mik out of him for being gay but he had a feeling if any of them turned up at the pub for a drink then he'd serve them and act like a good friend. It was just the way Kenny was. He couldn't help that and in a way he liked it.

Ken laughed slightly. "I grew up in England but my parents moved here when I started Durmstrang." Kenny remembered how glad he'd been that his parents were moving even further away from him. "I live in Oxford now owning a pub but I decided to take the day off to visit the area again. I used to come here a lot in the holidays when my parents dragged me out of school to look after the dogs."

 

[Lonnie Detamore]

Lonnie could never understand why people would ever want to be nice to other's who blatantly didn't deserve it! But a guy like this, someone who looked, and sounded like he couldn't stand up for himself anyway - in Lonnie's opinion - he kind of got it, "Fair play to you mate." he said bluntly, going a little quieter.

"You really don't get along with your family do you?" he turned slightly toward the guy, "I've never had that problem" he faced back at the river, "Moved about so much, hated them all mind, but at least it was different all the time. New people to mess with!" He chuckled to himself.

 

[Kenneth Hickman-Vallender]

I guess it comes with being gay. I'm the stereotypical gay. Kind, caring and completely sensitive." Kenny may have been sensitive but it was usually only with other peoples' problems. He could cope with his own problems quite well. It was probably because he was used to his problems and he'd grown up with them where as he wasn't used to everyone else's problems and it upset him that people had to live like that.

Kenny shook his head. "They think I'm too childish to say whether I'm gay or not and when I told them they said I should grow up and take my head out the clouds. It just annoys me that they can't accept me for who I am. They have to have the perfect son and if they don't have it then they pretend otherwise." Ken shrugged. He was used to his parents being stuck up and just got on with life like that. "It must be fun moving around a lot. You get to see the world while you're still young and wanting to explore then you can settle down when you finish school."