Jordan and Cid did go bowling later that night. The bowling alley was pumping out some disco music and the bass was so loud that you could feel your heart beat in rythm of the music. In the celing neon colored lights rotated, creating disce feeling to the whole place. Jordan looked around and smiled but was still feeling a bit shy and nervous because she had never tried bowling before.
Cid just frowned upon the music and the atmosphere and wondered to himself why he had suggested this in the first place. He enjoyed the company of Jordan, that much was clear, but he detested the sims who usually went to this kind of places. And he especially disliked this kind of places. Luckily for him, but unluckily for Jordan, the bowling alley was rather empty this evening.
Jordan didn’t mind and the mere sight of the lanes and the pins made her heart skip a beat. She smiled.
She took a small step forward and tried to release the ball on to the lane but her fingers seemed stuck in the small holes in the ball and Jordan’s entire body followed the ball and landed with a thud on the lane. Only then was she able to let go of the ball and she laid on the lane, elbows aching from the fall, and watched the ball slowly rolling towards the pins. She knocked down a few of them and despite the embarrassing fall she smiled.
Cid suppressed a smile and asked her if she was okay and Jordan instantly jumped up and nodded eagerly as a response. She was very much okay and this was already the most fun she had had in a long time.
“Okay, my turn” Cid said when Jordan had thrown her second ball, this time without falling. Jordan took a step back and watched Cid as he confidently strode up and released the ball with ease. It seemed to go perfectly straight but just before the pins it turned slightly to the left and two lonely pins remained wobbling in the further end.
Cid was happy with himself, he hadn’t bowled much before and for some reason he wanted to impress Jordan. It was a good thing he hadn’t fallen himself.
Jordan went up for her next try. “How do I do?” she wondered and Cid did his best to come up with some kind of help. Not that he knew whether the things he said made any actual sense because he did not know how to bowl well, but because he figured that Jordan needed something, rather than him saying he didn’t know.
And it did help Jordan. Just getting some advice boosted her confidence and she smiled when she released the ball. Cid stood behind and couldn’t help but to look at Jordan’s cute little butt. He didn’t usually check out girls’ behinds but he just couldn’t help himself now. It was so incredibly cute in those little shorts.
“YES!” Jordan screamed and jumped high up in the air. One would have thought she beat the lane record if you heard her, but she simply knocked seven pins down. She was proud of herself. Not just because of the bowling but because she was having fun – with another person. She started to realize that it didn’t matter too much if he had blue or brown hair – the important part was that he made her feel good about herself and have fun. And Cid did.
Of course, Cid did not know that Jordan had these thoughts and the entire evening he wondered why she never left his side to go speak to any of the jocks at the place. He had done everything he could to help her get close to their kind and Jordan just kept ignoring it. It never crossed his mind that maybe she was happy in his company, because even if he enjoyed hers – they were so different. They weren’t meant to be friends.
She was one of them.
When she pedaled home that night, Jordan felt truly happy. For one night she had forgot everything about the stupid scar and actually enjoyed herself. She realized that Cid was perhaps the best room-mate she could have possibly got because he didn’t care about her scar or her past, he was relaxed and straight-forward and funny. She giggled for herself when she realized that she liked him and wanted him to be her friend. Who would have ever guessed her first friend on University would be some guy with blue hair who collected old road signs?
—
No matter how weird it was, it became a fact that Jordan and Cid were friends. They didn’t always spend time together and when they didn’t, Jordan was mostly on her own. She didn’t mind though, because she knew Cid would be there to talk to in the end of the day. And she was still shy around the rest of his friends because they still looked at her scar in a way that made her feel uneasy. In a way that Cid never did because the scar was really no big deal to him.
And Cid was still trying to understand why Jordan never approached anyone else, why she was so determined to be on her own all the time. He did understand that he had managed to break through some kind of shell with her because she often smiled and laughed when they talked. But she was still so quiet and insecure whenever she was on her own or out among other people. He wished there was something else he could do, but he didn’t know what.
And truth was, in Jordan’s eyes, she didn’t need any more help or rescue. She was fine with how it was. She knew she would never get her own life back and with the friendship of Cid, she started to accept that. She was a different Jordan now, and perhaps that wasn’t too bad.
When she wasn’t spending time with Cid, Jordan kept working on improving her drawing skills. She had a secret dream. Even if she would never again be comfortable (or pretty) enough to stand in front of a camera, she still wanted to work with fashion. She knew it was something she was good at, even if her life had to change. That was why she had signed up for arts in the first place. With a good sketching technique she would eventually be good enough to design her own clothes, or at least come up with ideas for outfits for other people.
Maybe it was stupid to still dream about a future centered with looks, but that was what she wanted. And the scar couldn’t change everything, could it?
Her teacher only seemed modestly impressed with anything Jordan did. She said it was “too main-stream”, “not bold enough”, or that Jordan needed to “challenge herself”.
Jordan didn’t know what she did wrong, but she tried drawing new things but was always met with the same response. It was too boring.
Every assignment they got Jordan tried to come up with a new bold idea and even when she felt happy about it herself, it wasn’t bold enough for the art teacher. Jordan wasn’t used to think outside the box in the way her art teacher demanded and she was really struggling.
“Oh, you have Mrs. Noetal, don’t you?” Cid asked when Jordan shared her shortcomings with him. She nodded. “She’s a bitch” Cid said and remembered how his classmates had struggled when he was enrolled in art. He never had that problem because he had always thought outside the box, and usually had trouble keeping himself within it instead.
“Don’t worry” he said and placed a hand on Jordan’s shoulder. “I have an idea. Grab your sketchbook and I’ll prepare a model for you.”
Jordan nodded and ran out of the room to get her sketchbook and prepare herself. She was so grateful for befriending Cid – and realized that it was probably one of the best things she had ever done.
She had not expected to come back in to the room and find Cid completely naked, with a huge grin on his face. Jordan looked away and blushed. “What are you…” she stammered and felt ashamed of the whole situation.
“Oh, I know Mrs. Noetal” Cid grinned. “She’ll love this!”
Jordan shook her head and didn’t dare to look at her friend too much.
“Oh come on Jordy” Cid teased and grinned again. He was not the slightest embarrassed himself and found it a bit funny how much Jordan blushed. “It’s just art. Just draw already.”
It took Jordan lots of time to become relaxed enough to actually be able to draw properly but once she managed to think beyond the fact that it was her friend that was naked – and that it was socially awkward – it went alright.
She perfected every single line and focused on getting the proportions right. She had never draw nude people before and it was a lot harder than one would think. In fact, this was the complete opposite to what she was used to draw. She usually drew clothes – the thing people used to hide their nudity. And now, Cid stood before her without as much as a thread on his body.
When she was finished she stood up and showed the sketch to Cid. She was very nervous about his reaction and she didn’t know that Cid was used to model in the nude. He had been doing that ever since his first term at University just for the extra cash. He didn’t think too much about it – it was just a body after all.
When he noticed Jordan’s insecurity he couldn’t help but to play her a trick, though, and he pretended to be furious. “God’s sake Jordan! What is that?”
Jordan stammered a bit and took a small step backwards and lowered the sketch. “I, I…”
She could never finish what she meant to say because a huge grin spread on Cid’s face again and he took a step closer to her. “It’s a lot bigger than that” he laughed and Jordan hit him over the head with her sketchbook. He was such a lunatic.
Cid was right. Mrs. Noetal loved the assignment and Jordan had earned her first really good review because of it. She couldn’t help but to find it funny. Perhaps Mrs. Noetal had a weak spot for Cid. It wouldn’t be too surprising, seeing as she always searched for the bold ideas outside the box. Cid was certainly bold and outside the box.
He wasn’t like anyone Jordan knew.
The friendship between Jordan and Cid kept growing and even though they had very little in common they enjoyed each others company. To Jordan, Cid was someone she could feel relaxed with. There was no need to put on a show and she found herself relaxing more in his company than she had since she and her twin sisters were still young and played in the sprinklers of their backyard together. Cid seemed to like her for who she really was, and not for the person she looked like.
And Cid, he learned that sometimes a person isn’t what you first think they will be.
The relation was a lot more important to Jordan than it was to Cid because right now he was all that she had. It wasn’t easy coming out of your old pattern and start hanging out with new kinds of people in new ways. At least, it shouldn’t be. But it was, with Cid.
He had even introduced her to some of his other friends. Jokingly, they called themselves the Rebels but it was mostly because that was how others looked at them. They didn’t fit the social standards and kept experimenting with herbs and looks and just didn’t care what others thought of them. They were so far from what Jordan had always been that she instantly liked them just because of that fact.
They did teach her quite a few new things, too. Not that Jordan understood what good it would do to know that different herbs caused the fires to sparkle in different colors. It looked nice, though.
Cid, who still didn’t believe that Jordan was completely happy in his company and that she was still searching for something else, kept trying to make a way for his friend in to the jock community. It wasn’t that he wanted to get rid of her or anything, he just wanted her to be where she belonged and be happy. He knew she wasn’t a rebel – even though anyone could fit in their little group. As long as they wanted to. And he was quite sure Jordan didn’t want to fit with them.
Several years of University had earned Cid a few friends even in other social groups and he had pulled whatever strings he could to prepare a way for Jordan.
When Jordan got a text from Danny, who was a very good-looking jock, asking her out she cried out loud. She was happy with the rebels, but going out with a jock was like a dream coming true. It was like her old life, before the scar, coming back to her.
The whole night she kept talking about what to wear and how to keep her hair, not even noticing that the rebels didn’t care. Looks was not important to them, and the fact that some people focused so much on it made them laugh. To them, the insides of a person was a lot more important and while Jordan kept talking they just shook their heads.
Cid thought that Jordan was being silly, too. He knew she was like that, he had known from the start. But over the course of their friendship evolving she had started to loosen up and care less. To him that was a good thing and he didn’t know what to think about her sudden fallback.
One date.
That was all it had been. And honestly, Jordan wasn’t sure if it could even count as a date. Danny had talked about himself the entire time and when he finally stopped talking about himself it was simply to state that her scar was unfortunate. Unfortunate?! Jordan knew that it was, she was the one living with it after all.
She had felt rather down afterwards. It was simply proof that she would never again be her former self. Cid tried to cheer her up, he tried to tell her that beauty wasn’t just about looks and that she was beautiful and that the scar made her beautiful and unique and that she should look more for a person’s inner beauty.
Cid even tried to get her to focus her attention on the upcoming exam but Jordan felt much too sorry for herself to care about it.
Once she had tried her best at writing the exam she regretted this though as she had failed with a capital F. It was safe to say that her university experience hadn’t turned out like she had hoped for.
“How did it go?” Cid wondered carefully, knowing that his friend was fragile right now. It surprised him, because he could rarely sense how other people were feeling and if he did he usually didn’t care enough to adapt the way he spoke.
“I failed it” Jordan said and shrugged. The initial embarrassment had worn off by now and she just didn’t care. As long as she got her points in the end it was all good.
“There is one thing I like to do whenever I failed an exam” Cid responded. “And I’ve failed many.”
He then slid his arms around Jordan’s neck and pulled her in to kiss her. Jordan was surprised and her initial reaction was to push him away but when his soft lips met hers she relaxed. It felt good, she thought, and returned the kiss.
The two later took it up to the room, where Jordan’s double bed got to play a major part. Jordan was surprised herself, this wasn’t like her. And it certainly wasn’t how she had imagined it would be to lose her virginity. But it felt right.
When the final score of the term came in and Jordan realized she had failed the entire class she didn’t feel as sad as she should have. The last few days she had realized that University was a lot more than the classes you took. It was about the friends you made, about the fun you had and the memories you made.
And what she would miss once she went home wasn’t the classes, it was the memories she had of Cid. Everything he had done for her.
The last night before Jordan would leave to go home, she and Cid challenged each other. Whoever won their round of paper-rock-scissors would get to color the hair of the other one, in whatever color they thought fitting.
“Godzilla beats everything!” Cid screamed and made a growling sound. Jordan should have known that Cid always plays the Godzilla card.
“No way” she complained. “That’s not fair when there’s so much at stake!”
“Sorry hun, Godzilla beats everything. You know it’s true.”
He followed her in to the bathroom, carefully hiding the hair dye behind his back. He could not wait to see his friend in the finished result. When they got in to the bathroom Jordan took a long last look at herself in the mirror before turning towards Cid, “Come on, let’s play nice and fair. No Godzilla?”
Cid shook his head and grinned. And to be honest, Jordan didn’t care too much. She found it rather exciting to have her hair colored by Cid.
“It’s… Pink!” she said out loud once they were done and she was allowed to look at herself. Cid just grinned behind her back. To him, this was the most fun he had had during the entire term. He could have never guessed that the uptight girl who walked in to his room by the beginning of the summer would walk out of there with pink hair.
She looked a lot better in pink to him.
“Do you think I look good in pink?” Jordan asked and winked. Cid pulled her in to his arms and kissed her on the forehead.
“If you look good? You look downright sexy, that’s what you do” he replied and Jordan returned the kiss. She liked kissing him. His lips were soft and his breath always smelled of some herb he had used to spice up his food. Cinnamon, this time.
—
“I’m going to miss this view” Cid said and inspected Jordan’s butt as she bent down to fold the bed. Jordan started laughing and dropped the bed on her feet. He was such a crazy and weird man.
It was hard for Jordan to pack her things and tidy her part of the room. She kind of regretted not signing up for more terms straight off as it was tough to accept the fact of someone else coming here, to stay in her room. With Cid. She would miss it.
The dumpster, as she had initially thought if it, has become her home during the past months and the weird guy with the blue hair had become her friend and lover. She didn’t know how it would be possible to leave it behind and go home.
“One last picture” Jordan said and kissed Cid on the cheek with her eyes closed. Of course, Cid could not just look normal and so he stuck his tongue out and acted like the lunatic he was. Jordan smiled when she saw the picture. It was perfect.
She waved her friend goodbye and walked down to the car that would take her back home to Appleloosa Plains. Tears stung in her eyes, she wanted nothing else but run back up the stairs and throw herself in Cid’s arms. After all, that was where home was now. She belonged with Cid.
She didn’t turn back though, and Cid didn’t go after him even if he also felt empty after she had left. That was the life of a University student. Friends came and friends went. Some kept in contact and some faded to faint memories. Only time would tell what would happen to him and Jordan – but he hoped that she would be one of the keepers.
Okay, that’s everything of Jordan’s story for now. I will get back to Kevin now. Sorry for keeping you waiting. 😦
I nodded, showing her that I understood what she had just told me even though I wasn’t sure if I did. Dad wasn’t my dad, but yet he was my dad. It was confusing.
The first thing to happen in high school, according to both Jordan herself and Madison, was that three guys had complimented the looks of ‘the stunning blonde gal’. If the girls told the truth, her looks was also something that most girls seemed to be jealous of.
Oh Lord Legacy 