Closed No longer a stranger

Ruben Right

Triplet| Moody| Friendly| Stubborn
 
Messages
704
OOC First Name
Ruben
Blood Status
Mixed Blood
Relationship Status
Single
Sexual Orientation
Bi
Wand
Straight 12 1/2 Inch Flexible Elm Wand with Dragon Heartstring Core
Ruben was heading to the Courtyard. He had never been there before as it was a space that wasn't noticed by many and it was located on the ground floor, and the ground floor only meant one thing, eating.
He was exploring this new space when he noticed that this wasn't just a space to hang out but also to do other things like skating. He didn't even knew that skates were allowed here or that there wasn't anything magic related created to replace those muggle things since they were at Hogwarts.
There wasn't anyone he knew in there so he just decided to take a seat and enjoy the sun watching as the other people hung out and skated. He had never skated, mostly because the only time he did tried to he fell right on his face and swore he would never try it again but three years had gone by since, he'd give it another try someday.
 
After a semester in the castle, Flynn had come to find that the courtyard was the best place to skate outside just zipping up and down on his skateboard in the corridors. So there he was one more nice day outside, skateboard under his arm and ready to get some extra practice in. There were still some tricks he had read about in the latest addition if the skating magazine he subscribed to that he wanted to get right. Setting his board down for just a moment, Flynn rummaged around in his pocket for the rolled-up magazine, pulling it out and flipping to the correct page, thankful that he had bent the corner of the page so it was easy to find again. There, the instructions on how to pull off the tricks were listed with images and Flynn scrunched his nose up slightly as he read over them. Then he paused, thrusting the magazine towards another boy who happened to be sitting nearby, "Does that look like the board is flipping to the left or to the right to you?"
 
Ruben's sunbathing was suddenly interrupted by a voice, a boy's voice. In front of him was a first year, he remembered him from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes so he was probably a Gryffindor since he didnmt remember seeing him at the Slytherin's common room.
Ruben found it weird that the boy approached him like that, he would never have the courage to be so upfront to someone he didn't knew but he wouldn't mind that some people were like that.
The Slytherin boy took a look at the magazine, that looked like a different language and the images were definitely ambiguous. Ruben wondered who even did that, those were supposed to be simple skating instructions not something that looked like it came out from Ikea and was showing you how to build furniture.
"Hum..." the boy said looking at the picture, he honestly didn't get it too but he wouldn't make a fool of himself by telling the boy that the instructions were too hard to understand "Well, clearly the images are not the greatest but" he said with a chuckle "if I had to bet I'd say that it's flipping left" he finished with a smile. He honestly hoped that the boy wouldn't get hurt because of him.
 
Maybe asking some stranger who probably didn't even like skateboarding for advice on the subject was probably not the best idea he could have. But he supposed he was only asking for an opinion on what a picture looked like, not for any technical advice or anything. And as the other boy responded, Flynn looked between him and the picture he had been holding in his direction, wrinkling his nose up as he peered closely at the image on the page. "Mmm, s'what I thought as well," he agreed after a moment, nodding his head as he straightened up and held the magazine up in front of his face, just to make extra sure. "It's just not a very good picture and half of it is covered up in writing so I couldn't really make it out properly. Needed a second set of eyes was all."
 
Ruben felt proud knowing that even though he knew nothing about skating the other boy's opinion was the same as his. The Slytherin boy just smiled at the other boy when he said he needed a second set of eyes, there were a lot of people in there and yet he turned to him, the young boy couldn't help but feel happy about it.
"Don't take me wrong but if you needed a second pair of eyes you are still a beginner, no?" he said asking innocently "I mean...clearly you must know more than me. The first time I skated I end up tasting the concrete" he said laughing reminding himself of that funny experience that at the time was extremely painful, his face hurt for two whole weeks especially when he was chewing, his sister even mocked him saying he should have a liquid diet because of it and for a moment his parents actually considered that.
He looked at the other boy and suddenly stretched his hand for him to shake "I'm Ruben Right, you can call me Ruben, Ben, whatever is easier for you really" he said keep looking up at him and giving him a shy smile.
 
He was so absorbed with looking over the pictures in the magazine that he almost missed it when the boy called him a beginner. The absolute audacity. Mouth hanging open just a little, Flynn pulled the magazine out of his face, staring long and hard at the other boy for just a moment. "I am not a beginner," he huffed rather definitely, not wanting this guy to think he was such a thing for one-second longer, "I've been skating for years. This is just a new trick I'm trying to learn." Even people who had been skating since they could walk still learned new tricks, but that didn't make the beginners. "So, obviously I know more than you do." He had just been struggling to work out what the blurry picture had been trying to show him and needed someone else to work it out for him. But then the guy was thrusting a hand in his direction and offering his name, though Flynn didn't take any steps to actually accepting the offered hand. Instead, he just shrugged a shoulder, "Flynn. 'm Flyinn North."
 
Ruben starred at him with his eyes open wide, that was exactly the type of reaction he was trying to avoid, he didn't meant to insult anyone by calling him a begginer "Sorry, didn't mean to offend" he said trying to calm the other boy, the last thing he needed was a young Gryffindor mad at him over a silly misunderstanding.
"That's really cool! You wanna be a pro skateboarder or is it just a hobby?" he asked trying to make the boy to open up a bit, people at Hogwarts all seemed extremely reluctant about opening up. "Obviously you do" the Slytherin boy said, the other boy wasn't wrong but the presumption on his voice was a bit annoying but Ruben tried to see past that.
He eventually retracted his arm as he saw that the boy did no efforts no return the hand shake, Great..., he thought, the ice breaker didn't exactly worked. Actually the ice might have just gotten thicker "North, that's a really cool last name" he said genuinely, another ice breaking attempt but also the truth.
 
Flynn just huffed a little, "If you don't wanna offend someone, then don't call them a beginner when they ain't one." It was just a baseless assumption which was just completely incorrect. If he were a beginner he wouldn't even be able to attempt some of the tricks he could pull off and would just be falling off his board the whole time. "It's just a hobby," he didn't really have dreams about skateboarding for a living, but he supposed that might be a cool idea. But, to be truthful, Flynn didn't really know what he wanted to do with his life just yet. That was all in the future and for now, he just wanted to focus on the present and not worry about any of that stuff for at least a couple more years. But this guy thought that North was a cool surname? That was a bit... weird. "It's just a surname," he offered with a rather uncaring shrug of his shoulder, "Belonged to my dad. Nothing special about it." In fact, he was pretty sure one of the Professors had the same last name. No relation, obviously.
 
Jeez, this guy certainly was a bit of an overreacter, did he never accidentally said something that he did meant? He was making a big deal of something that was just not worth it so Ruben decided not to answer to that topic anymore as he had apologised already and move on.
"Nice" he said looking at the boy that was clearly being a bit too dry. He was running out of conversation topics and this was clearly becoming a little weird. "Pretty sure most people's surnames come from their dads" he said chuckling a bit. He didn't cared what Flynn said, North was a cool name, at least for Ruben. Clearly the other boy didn't shared the same taste as him.
 
The conversation was starting to bore him ever so slightly now. He'd only started it to get an opinion, and now he had figured thins out he would much prefer just getting back to his skating. Not standing here having a chat. "Not if you don't have a dad it doesn't," he did have to point out, "A lot of orphans just get given random surnames because they were just left as babies with only a first name. Sometimes, not even that." And he knew that from experience from living in different orphanages for the past three years since his parents died. But he would rather not be thinking about the 'dumping ground' right now, he'd much rather push that out of his mind. Thinking about the fact he didn't have parents anymore just really brought down the mood.
 
Ruben suddenly panicked, he didn't knew Flynn was an orphan. He didn't exactly said that but by the path the conversation went down he just presumed he was "Yeah, that's honestly awful. I couldn't imagine something like that happening to me" Ruben did hate his parents but they were better than growing on a orphanage. There was never something missing, except for the emotional support and all things emotion related, but when it came to essential goods, basic conditions and material goods there was never something missing as his family was always very economically comfortable.
Ruben gave the Gryffindor boy a compassionate smile, he didn't exactly knew what to say to comfort him so he decided to show empathy through a smile, hopefully that would somehow comfort him.
"Show me that new trick you were going to try" he said to change the subject and hopefully to bring the boy's spirits up and to actually let him do what he came here to do in the first place, skate.
 
"Happens a lot more than people would like to think," he found himself muttering, shifting his skateboard slightly under his arm. No one really thought about how many kids ended up abandoned and unloved with only a first name and no idea who their parents were. That was just a depressing thing to think about, but it was one he had almost grown immune to over the past couple of years thanks to his current situation. But then the conversation switched back to skating, something than Flynn could appreciate as he finally dropped his board at his feet, already putting one foot on it and rolling it back and forth a little as he continued to stand there. "Well it ain't going to be good, I'm only trying it for the first time. So it probably won't even work." Most likely he'd end up landing on the bottom or stumbling or not even managing to get the board off the ground correctly.
 
Ruben was now sure that Flynn was an orphan, the way he talked about it was pretty clear to him but he decided not go into it as he knew it was probably a sensitive topic for the other boy.
"Well with such negativity I'm sure it won't." he said ironically. Ruben belived that if he wanted to achieve the best results he had to have encouraging and positive thoughts. "Just try it carefully?" he added with a confusing tone, it was a question but also a request.
He was kind of regretting encouraging the boy so much,if he fell he would probably blame it on Ruben and that was the last thing he needed.
 
He frowned, shaking his head from side to side, "I ain't being negative. Just saying this is a hard trick and no one is gonna be able to get it right first try." Not even a professional trying out new tricks managed to do every single one perfectly the first time they ever attempted it. But that was what practice was for. Though when he was told to try it carefully he did have to scoff somewhat. Careful was no fun. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered, before hopping up onto his board with both feet, scooting his right foot back just a little before popping the board up into an ollie. And he did manage to make the board flip as well, though just as expected, the ollie hadn't been high enough off the ground and the board didn't make the full twist, Flynn awkwardly stumbling and almost tripping right over as he landed, though he was impressed he managed to stay on his two feet. Then, he turned to Ruben again, "told ya."
 
Ruben felt the urge of suddenly getting up when he almost saw Flynn falling but once he noticed the boy was okay he felt a little more calm "You okay?" he asked to make sure the boy was fine.
It was impressive that he did manage to do part of the trick, at least for Ruben was since he could never do better than that. "Well, see the bright side, you did better than I would ever do. First because you almost did it, second cuz i wouldn't be able to stay on my feet, I'd land with my face straight on the floor. Probably even eat some concrete" he said laughing try to cheer Flynn's spirits. Ruben knew it was unlikely that that happened, Flynn seemed a very suspicious person and probably did not trust Ruben at all and that was why he was so hard to make smile. Ruben was like that too, deep down he didn't really trusted a lot of people but he was sure he was a little more friendly to strangers than Flynn, at least as a first impression.
 
"Course I'm alright, I ain't a baby," he had fallen off his skateboard many times in the past when practicing and had gotten far too many scraped elbows and knees. And this time he hadn't even fallen over properly, just stumbled a little. And he could tell that Ruben was trying to cheer him up for failing, though Flynn did feel as though it was a little unnecessary to do so as he didn't even feel bad about failing the first time. He hadn't been expecting to succeed, anyway. Though he did pause, looking towards the boy and then back to his board again. Using a foot to flip the board back onto its wheels the Gryffindor straightened up, finally turning his eyes back to the Slytherin, "wanna have a go then?"
 

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