Like a home away from home, minus the spiders

[Allen Macenroe]

If one thing could be said indeed about planes, it was that 1) they were far too small, and 2) they were boring as fuck to sit in for near eleven hours. And if you didn’t develop some sort of mild claustrophobia whilst on it, you were probably already mad.
Or dead. Either way.

This brings us to our current situation. That is, a slightly delirious Allen wandering down the white dorm hallways looking for his dorm room. While pretty sure his room was somewhere along this floor, he couldn’t help but notice how damn.. well, white the walls were.

What was this, greylands or something?

Regardless, he did quite like the place. While not as ‘shiny’ as the third floor dorms (which he had passed earlier after taking a wrong turn that included a broom closet, a vase, and a very confused bird of some kind), it felt quite used and worn in.
In other words, ‘pre-loved’.
Which suited him just fine considering his place back home was built sometime in the 60s’.

But... one thing that left him a little embarresed was how damn well everyone was dressed. Sure, he inherited alot of his clothes from his siblings, but damn! These guys were probably rolling in money.

And, a fleeting image of posh blonde kids sitting around a fire while smoking cigars made out of money and eating odd golden disposable plates, flitted into his mind.

Which he quickly dismissed as a product of the lack of sleep on the plane.

But hey, if these guys didn’t already hear the whispers of a barreler scoring a scholarship somehow (even he wasn’t sure how it had happened. Divine intervention?), then they’d probably come stodging around soon enough.

Hitching his backpack a little more on his shoulder, he turned around and started back down the other hallway that he was pretty sure his room was at.
Maybe he should’ve gotten a map or something?

[Adam Cayden]

Eddingborough School For Boys had certainly been a wake up call to Adam; the place was huge. He had been officially attending the school for the past week and he still got lost. There were so many hallways and classrooms and floors and dorms... it was impossible to feel completely at home here. At home, he at least knew where the fucking bathroom was.

Okay, so he was being a little over-dramatic; Adam knew where the bathroom was for crying out loud, but that wasn't the point. The staff told the boys to 'make themselves at home' here, but that was impossible. Sure, they provided a place to sleep and eat like home, but they did not provide the atmosphere that most boys experienced at their home. These people who thought otherwise were out of their minds.

Adam walked down the first year hallway in his stiffly pressed shirt, tie and pants; the uniform enforced by Eddingborough staff. He hated the clothing that they were forced to wear here; Adam didn't care for conformity. He would be much more comfortable in hand-me-downs for crying out loud; they at least didn't feel like he was wearing cardboard.

Money didn't flow very well in the Cayden family; it was somewhat of a surprise that Adam managed to attend Eddingborough. Through a lot of kissing up and dollar bills, Adam stood here today. Now, he was coming to second guess this whole thing. Adam had liked his home; and now he missed it now that it was gone.

He was yet to make any friends here; he hadn't even been assigned a roommate yet. No, wait, he had been 'assigned' a roommate, the guy just wasn't here yet. And there was no telling when he was going to meet his roommate. The boy could be sitting at his dorm already without Adam's knowledge, or he could be on the other side of the planet.

Adam wasn't really sure exactly what he was doing in the hallway; he was just trying to kill time, he supposed. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. So, as he saw a boy wandering down the hall, Adam approached him. He attempted a smile; but for what reason? Adam wasn't normally a very social person, at least to strangers. "You lost?" he asked quietly. "I can help you if you know your dorm number or something. I'm Adam Cayden, by the way." He lifted his hand to offer a handshake; it was the universal form of greeting anyway, even if it wasn't his style.

[Allen Macenroe]

Being from such a place as Australia, home to loud, in your face people; Allen had farewelled his acute sence of hearing years ago. From animals, to tractor horns, to loud music and people, his poor ears didn’t stand a chance. Leaving him to also develop into a loud, in your face person.

So it was that he thought he heard the whispers of a presence behind him. His sleep deprived mind chalked it down to ghosts, but the rational side (who was not yet comatose) pointed out that firstly, ghosts didn’t exist, and second, that the person in question was in front of him, not behind.

The person was, in his opinion, a small bloke. He also looked like a quiet one, which may explain his lack of volume. But he at least looked like he belonged in this part of the school. Rigid, and overly uncomfortable in the uniform.
Poor bugger.
Scrabbling his thoughts for what could have been said, he picked up something along the lines of ‘Need help?’ and ‘Adam somethinsomething’. The latter he supposed was the other’s name.
Or at least half of it.

In any case, Allen plastered on his trademark grin and ignored the hand in favour of slapping the other on the back in good spirit.
“Hey mate. Adam huh? Nice ta meetcha. The name’s Allen Macenroe, and I’m a bit lost.”
As far as introductions went, that was probably the most proper one he’d ever given in his life.

Shrugging his backpack off his shoulder, it landed with a dull thud on the floor as he proceeded to rummage through it.
“Eh, I think I’m on this floor anyway.” He continued, searching for his placement paper. “I’m just not sure where the bloody hell my room is.”

Finally, the sacred paper of placement was retrieved, and he stood and squinted at it for the moment.
“Eh... room 4C I think? Rooming with a Mr. Cayden.”

[Adam Cayden]

To be honest, Adam had never really thought much of his voice in the past, but he really wasn't the quiet, shy type that he was acting out now. He knew he had many different 'types' of voices, if you will. This was just his 'polite stranger' voice. His roommate and/or friends would come to find that Adam had a loud, boasting voice whenever he was happy, and more of a quieter one when his temper flared.

When it came to size, Adam knew he was on the smaller end of the scale; he hated it. So, if there was anything you wanted to do to really get him going, pick on his size. It was one of his biggest insecurities. No one admitted out loud or in his face that he was short unless they didn't care for him.

Blinking as his hand was declined, Adam smiled at the other gesture. The pat on the back Allen offered instead was different, but friendly. Adam didn't think much of it at all; he liked it better than the dull hand shake thing. Adam also noticed the other's accent right away; not only was it different from his own, but also the other boys whom he had met here.

Accents were funny things really. While everybody had one, no one really noticed their own way of speaking until they met someone different from themselves. So while Allen's Australian accent stuck out to Adam, the same probably occurred from Adam's American accent. Not that it mattered... it was just interesting to think of.

“Eh... room 4C I think? Rooming with a Mr. Cayden.” Adam's smile gradually became bigger through these words. So, finally he was going to have a roommate? "You weren't far off from our dorm at all," Adam said as he led the way down the hall. "It's just a little bit further. Hey, yeah, here it is. Trusty ol' 4C." He approached the now-familiar dorm easily and then began to search his pocket. Where could he have put his key? He normally wasn't the type to misplace small, important objects especially. His hand flurried through every pocket provided on his uniform; pants pockets, breast pocket and then the inner and outer jacket pockets. The most that he came up with were wrappers of gum and one old detention slip.

"Hey, they wouldn't have happened to give you your key already?" He hoped that it went without saying that he had locked himself out of his own dorm because he was far too prideful to admit the stupidity outright. He didn't remember leaving or forgetting his key... but maybe he had just forgotten that he had forgot his key after all.

Without so much as a glance to his new roommate, Adam bent over and took off his right shoe. Inside, the little silver key winked at him. He plucked it up with a small smile. "Wait, wait, wait," He said as he placed the key in the lock and then turned it. "I've got it after all... that was a close one," He offered a short chuckle.

The door swung open and Adam entered without pausing. He spread out his arms, as if displaying the Taj Mahal, or at least something more grandiose than the little two bed dormitory with half-nude pictures taped to the walls. "Welcome home."

[Allen Macenroe]

One thing could be said for the little bugger, his smile took up almost half his face. And was horribly infectious. Allen'd probably have mimicked his grin if he weren't doing so already.
Our dorm eh?

Seems as if he'd be rooming with the little guy. Not that he minded in the slightest though. Back home, there were more cases of bunking with someone than not. His house back home wasn't overly huge, so it was the girls in one room, and the boys split into two rooms.
Served for very impressive 'steal the bedroom flag' campaigns in any case. Especially when a staircase was all that separated the sexes.

As the little bloke rummaged through his pockets and turned to ask him for his key, he absentmindedly patted his own pockets, before recalling something about having thrown the key into the dark recesses of his backpack. But before he could rummage through it, Adam seemed to have remembered where he put his.

In his shoe.

A trick Allen admittedly hadn’t used since pre-school. Which, in itself, probably said a lot about his roommate. In any case, he was turning out to be a lot less of the ponce Allen expected. He was a bit of a galah really. But weirdos tended to make life interesting, didn't they?
As the door swung open, his line of vision caught the sight a slightly-more-spacious-than-back-home room, furnished with two beds and other such things to make life more bearable.
He made a beeline for the draws by the bedside, and immediately pulled one open to empty his backpack into. He'd sort it out later.

Probably.

"Heh, thanks mate. Good to get all my crap off me back." He said, kicking his suitcase under the bed for later organisation.
It was only then did he note the pictures on the walls. And while no stranger to that sort of thing, he couldn't help but stare at them a little blankly.

"Like brunettes then do ya mate?" He asked with a wolfish grin.

[Adam Cayden]

This first impression had been the best so far, and it was the most important as well. Who cared if he didn't get along with boys in his other classes. As long as he got along with the boy he would be around the most often, life would go by pretty easily. Well, until they came to some bumps in the road at least.

And as for the little key-in-the-shoe trick? Adam had been doing it since preschool. Being the youngest of the family, he wasn't often trusted with valuable objects; small valuable objects especially. That kind of duty and responsibility always went to his older brother. And how Adam envied him for it sometimes when he was younger; Trent had gotten to do all of the 'fun' things for Mom and Dad: Babysitting, cooking, driving... Adam realized now that these things weren't necessarily perks, however.

As Adam had begun to think of his home and brother especially, his smile dropped into a straight line on his face. It was an unconscious reaction since he wasn't on the best of terms with his family at this point. He hated his brother; he hated to think of him. Or, perhaps hate wasn't the right emotion since he was saddened and also angered. Maybe 'confused' would be a better word.

Adam sat down on his un-made bed as Allen right away began to put his things away. Weird, was he? That word didn't offend him like others did, but he would think it was... well, weird for Allen to think of him as 'weird'.

Adam once again smiled as Allen awoke him from his trance; he had barely realized how deeply in thought he was getting. "No problem, man," He could probably get used to this Allen-guy pretty fast. He seemed like an alright person. And, besides, it wasn't like Adam was that picky of a person at this point; he just wanted someone to talk to.

At that moment, Allen's eyes seemed to glaze over before lighting up again. "Like brunettes then do ya mate?" For once, Adam had vaguely forgotten of the nude models that decorated the walls; he blushed as he remembered. "Eh... uh, yeah." Although Allen's smirk didn't seem disapproving or mean at all, Adam couldn't help but grow a little more red in his cheeks. "I, uh, can take them down if they bother you. I haven't had a roommate so..." He swallowed. Why was his throat suddenly so dry. "So, I just made myself at home." Adam attempted at a weak smile; this one certainly didn't even take up a forth of his face this time.

"You... you can do the same, if you like," Adam said now; he didn't seem to have the ability to shut himself up. "As long as you don't put up pictures of naked men on the walls... I won't care." Oh, smooth. Two minutes with his new roommate, and he had already made it clear that he was a homophobic pervert.

So much for this first impression?

[Allen Macenroe]

((Derp, derp. Sorry for the late reply))

Now, while Allen regarded himself on the likeable scale of things, it seemed to be common that people from his neck of the woods automatically thought everyone like them. This made his childhood rather enjoyable, as his 'no worries' attitude managed to attract the masses. But thus somewhat naive opinion of the world, more often than not, caused him to unwittingly be the source of ridicule from certain persons.

Problem was, he just didn't notice it. And the only reason he'd notice at all is because someone would end up telling him.

This did nothing to minimize his optimism nor his automatic friend radar.

As such, Allen thought his interactions with his roommate was going very well so far.

He watched with slight amusement as the bloke colored and started to splutter at his comment on the scantily clad ladies plastered in his own side if the room. Having two elder brothers with similar tastes, this sort of 'creative photography' did not bother him in the slightest.

"No worries mate, I don't mind. Not like I haven't seen stuff like that around the shops, hey?"

And scattered about the chicken run when dear ol' mum found dad's collection.

"But no worries, the only thing I'll put up is landscapes. Miss the wide spaces, ya know?"


What his usually oblivious brain did pick up was the slight aversion his roomate seemed to have for male type posters. Things like gener difference never really bothered him much, laregely because it wasn't something he'd normally worry about.

"Eh... Naked men? You against the 'naked' bit, or the 'men' bit?"

[Adam Cayden]

No problem at all. (:

Although Adam had doubted that many boys would be offended by the pictures he chose to post to his walls, he knew that some might. Strong church-going people might be offended... Or homosexuals might be offended... Hell, at this point, Adam was doing his best not to offend anyone. The way he decorated his room certainly wouldn't fly back home; at home he had to tape the pictures to the window and have the blinds down to cover them in the day. Whenever he wanted a little look-see, he had to roll up the blinds and then remember to put them back. Now that he didn't have his mother coming in and out of his room with laundry or anything else, he didn't feel the need to hide it as much.

"But no worries, the only thing I'll put up is landscapes. Miss the wide spaces, ya know?" Adam relaxed as Allen spoke differently; he somewhat chuckled even. "I don't know much of wide spaces," he murmured. "I'm from the city... it's a long drive to get anywhere away from tall buildings and noisy city streets." So Allen lived in the country where he was from? Which, now that he thought about it, where did Allen come from? His way of speaking and acting was a major tell, but it was only polite to ask. "So, where ya from?" Adam asked, laying down on his bed but keeping his head turned towards Allen.


Adam was as perfectly at home as he ever was in his dorm; at least now he had someone to talk to. His content smile fell from his cheeks, however, when it appeared that the last of his own comments hadn't erased away from the conversation. "Eh... Naked men? You against the 'naked' bit, or the 'men' bit?" Once again, Adam's cheeks lit up and he looked away. He supposed it wasn't the 'naked' part that bothered him... as long as it was a naked woman. Then 'men' bit didn't upset him much either... as long as they were clothed and interested in girls as well.

"Uh... I guess it's the combination I don't like." Adam's voice was small once more. He offered a timid smile as he once again looked to Allen. "But your landscapes should do just fine. Just fine, I'm sure. So we won't have to worry about nothing of the sort. Nothing at all,"[/b] he spoke quickly, and then closed his eyes briefly. God... he hoped that he and this boy got along well together; Adam knew however, that if his roommate was homosexual, that things would not work out for the pair.

[Allen Macenroe]

"Me? I'm from the other side of the planet. Australia. But if ya want details, a small farm in Margret river. Eh, that's the Wine area by the way."
True to his nature, he'd spent a great deal of his life in the country. Small country schools, festivals, harvest season… In fact, the only real time he had extended exposure to the big cities, was when the food and wine festival was held in Perth.
And even then, Perth isn't very big as far as cities go.

As such, the sheer size of the school was sure to overwhelm him as soon as he was aware enough to realise how huge it was.
But following that areareness, he'd more than likely run out and take the first bus into the city. And promptly get lost.

Curse his bad sence of direction!

"Uh... I guess it's the combination I don't like."

While things like that didn't really bother him in the slightest, he was no stranger to 'gay weirdness' at all. So, he simply shrugged at his roommate, smirk still on his face.

"Eh, no worries. I get that. My brother signed up for some dance thing with his girlfriend, and the amount of guys there totally freaked him out. Ass against the wall for the rest of the class and shit."
Upon reflection, it was funny as all hell. Especially the freaked out expression he wore for the next two weeks.

"So yeah, I don't get why non-fags think they're gonna get hit on, but I get where you're coming from." He paused, and sheepishly scratched his head.
"But, er.. I'm not on either side of the batting cage, so you don't have to worry about me."

[Adam Cayden]

Austrailia? Adam smiled somewhat as the boy continued. It was kinda cool, he thought, to meet someone from 'the other side of the planet' as Allen called it. While Adam didn't really flourish in diversity, he did think it was interesting.

As for the city life, Adam was used to neon signs, flashing lights and noisy night life. Even though his own home was featured in a quiet neighborhood, Adam had never, ever in his whole life experienced the sort of life style that Allen was accustomed to. And, frankly, he probably would go insane in the country; he hated the quiet life.

"Eh, no worries. I get that. My brother signed up for some dance thing with his girlfriend, and the amount of guys there totally freaked him out. Ass against the wall for the rest of the class and shit." Even Adam laughed as Allen spoke; he had to admit, that was pretty hilarious. But, he had to say, if he was in that situation, he didn't think he would react any differently. He wouldn't want a faggot to get the wrong idea...

As Adam calmed down from laughing, he smiled. "You got brothers? How many? Older, younger?" Frankly, Adam didn't know why he was filled with questions; he didn't even really want to talk about his own home life.

"So yeah, I don't get why non-fags think they're gonna get hit on, but I get where you're coming from. But, er.. I'm not on either side of the batting cage, so you don't have to worry about me."

Oh, Adam totally got it. Hell, even if he was a straight guy, he knew what it was like to be turned on by a hot girl being in the room... not that he would go up and rape her or anything like he feared out of gay men... Really, it was an misunderstanding. Adam just knew that he would not tolerate anything...

Allen's last comment, however, left him confused. On either side of the batting cage? What was that supposed to mean? His brows furrowed. Was the guy saying that he didn't like girls or guys? "Are you saying you don't like sex?" Adam immediately flushed red once he realized what he had said; he really needed to learn to think before he spoke.

Instead of trying to correct himself this time, Adam fell into complete silence. Really, he was still waiting on an answer.

[Allen Macenroe]

"Well, when you grow up on a farm, it gets really fucking boring. So my parents had to keep themselves occupied, yeah?" He grinned, opening the messy draw and rummaging through it to produce a well-loved photograph.

"Eh, there's eight of us all up. Ma and Dad, Big sis Emily and her twin Brandon, the freaked-out-by-gays Laurie… And then there's me, Sammy and Chris. Short for Christina actually. So what, that’s…" He paused, frowning for the moment to count it off in his head.
"Two older brothers, one older sister, a younger brother and a younger sister. Big family, hey? But it's heaps more fun when there's alotta people around."

If there was ever a true thing to be said about Allen, it was that he was rather dim in terms of love. Not that he didn't know about it or anything, it was merely that he was frightfully slow to catch on when he liked someone, or someone liked him.
This probably tied in with his lazy attitude actually.

So in the grand scheme of things, love was another subject that he did not really ever worry too much about. Largely because it didn't really make scene to him at all. Attraction and the urge not to be alone he understood (all too well), but the whole mess that came afterwards and in between did his head in. And trying to wrap his mind around the concept of sex and kissing and stuff?

Sounded messy. Even if his older siblings crowed from the rooftops about their flings.

In other words, the concept of intimacy didn’t scare him, rather confused the fuck outta him. Which is why Asexuality sounded better than anything else.

"Eh, wouldn't know. Haven't done it. But the whole thing sounds bloody messy. And 'sides, I don’t think you'd die without it, right?"

Ah, straight to the point and as blunt as a stump.

"So I guess if ya wanna tag me as anything, it'd be completely not interested."

[Adam Cayden]

"Well, when you grow up on a farm, it gets really fucking boring. So my parents had to keep themselves occupied, yeah?" Adam instantly grinned and chuckled under his breath. He certainly understood what that meant.

"Two older brothers, one older sister, a younger brother and a younger sister. Big family, hey? But it's heaps more fun when there's alotta people around." Adam's eyes grew wide. "Holy shit," He said quietly. Sure he knew that his family of four was tiny, but he was still amazed. Eight kids?! "Damn, and I thought that my one brother was annoying... Shit... eight kids..." Adam slowly shook his head and chuckled.

"Eh, wouldn't know. Haven't done it. But the whole thing sounds bloody messy. And 'sides, I don’t think you'd die without it, right?" Adam was really suprised; well, this proved something for diversity. He hadn't even heard of a guy being so nonchalant about sex. And, hell, Adam thought he might just die if he didn't have sex... although he was yet to have sex with either gender. But God knew that he was looking forward to it.

"So I guess if ya wanna tag me as anything, it'd be completely not interested." Not interested?! What kind of guy said that... every guy had a sex drive, didn't they? This perplexed Adam to no end. "Well.. uh... okay." Adam would at least tyr to pretend that he didn't think it was all that weird. Besides, what should it matter to him if Allen wasn't interested?

"So, Austrailia, eh? I'm from the United States." he shrugged somewhat; he didn't think his home was as much of a big deal at all compared to Allen's; the other's home life seemed more interesting. "I've only got one douche for a sibling... so I guess I lucked out?" Once more he laughed, somewhat awkardly.

[Allen Macenroe]

He grinned widely, crossing the room to settle on Adam's bed ans pat his sympathetically on the shoulder.
"Eh, like I said. Heaps more fun with more people around. Hell, we could've had our own cricket team, ya know?"

Which was more or less accurate. Whenever they went somewhere, it was like a force of nature approaching. They weren't a family, they were a mob.
In your face, exclusive group discounts!

As predicted, his new mate became slightly unnerved when he realized Allen's somewhat ambiguous colloquialism. This seemed to be the general reaction when one outed themselves as uninterested. Shock and/or surprise was usually followed by 'are you sure?' or 'Psssh. Yeah right', or 'I wouldn't be a cracker if you were gay yaknow.'
However, Adam surprised him a little by changing the subject entirely, rather than pursue it with curiosity of disbelief.

Now, the only things he knew about America was what he learned in school and from Hollywood. So it was a little interesting (well, to him at least) to meet someone from that overly large (if a little paranoid and highly strung) country. And if the others accent didn't give him away, at least now Allen had some solid evidence that Adam was from the damn place.

"The States? Nice. Always alot more happening there than down in Oz. Kinda shit that you lot get games and stuff alot earlier than us. I mean, we're closer to Japan anyway, right?"
He shrugged, and sighed with mock despair.
"Ah well. At least all the de-bugging gets done on your lot, hey? No red ringers for our 360s."

"I've only got one douche for a sibling... so I guess I lucked out?"

"Wait, you two don't get along? I thought it'd be easier to be mates with just two kids..." He trailed off with an uncertain glance at his roommate.

[Adam Cayden]

Adam was only somewhat surprised as the other came to his bed and touched him; sure, Adam wasn't the touchy-feely type, but he wasn't suspicious or anything of Allen; the guy was 'uninterested' not 'gay'. "Eh, like I said. Heaps more fun with more people around. Hell, we could've had our own cricket team, ya know?" Wouldn't that have been nice? To get a simple game of soccer going on at his house, he had to invite the whole neighborhood, including the girls. Which, at the time when he still played the sport, was less than ideal. Girls were icky back then.

Really, if Adam didn't think it would effect how he and his roommate got along, Adam would have been pouring out questions. He had never, ever heard of a person thinking like this!


"The States? Nice. Always alot more happening there than down in Oz. Kinda shit that you lot get games and stuff alot earlier than us. I mean, we're closer to Japan anyway, right?" Adam chuckled lightly. "Trust me, I'm glad we at least get that, even if we have terrorists up our ass and a dumb ass President." Adam knew little to nothing about politics, but he did know his video games. So, Japan was one of his favorite, dearest countries after all.
"Ah well. At least all the de-bugging gets done on your lot, hey? No red ringers for our 360s." Adam smiled once more and shrugged. "But we'll get the new one's before you do... even if they do suck..." Hmm, maybe the States were on the wrong side of the video game traide; they got it first, but a lot of the time the games and systems were defected by some thing or another. By the time Allen got them, they were perfected, but considered 'old'.

Adam could have gone on to talk about video games for hours; he would have had his very own Play Station 3 with him on campus if his mother would have let him. Instead he had to settle with the little dinky hand-held Play Station Portable (which was nothing compared to the real deal.)

"Wait, you two don't get along? I thought it'd be easier to be mates with just two kids..."
For a moment or two, he had forgotten that he had ever mentioned his brother; he sorta wished he hadn't. Thinking of Trenton resurfaced all of those memories, good and bad, along with his emotions and insecurities. Adam again became withdrawn. "Well... we used to get along just fine. He just became an official 'douche' in my book like..." Adam trailed off as he thought. "Like... last month when he enrolled in the mother fucking military." Adam's eyes narrowed, but wasn't looking towards Allen. Okay, he supported his country's military, don't get him wrong, he just wasn't crazy of thinking of his brother going out to get his ass blown to bits. Not to mention that Trenton had told them the night before his departure. That was what Adam resented most; his brother left him and didn't even leave him any time to realize it before he was gone.

He trailed off with an uncertain glance at his roommate.

[Allen Macenroe]

For the most part, Allen had spent most of his life surrounded by people. In this respect, he was slightly shocked at the fact that his new mate only had one sibling that he knew of.
One? Yeesh, poor bugger!
And they didn't get along? Even worse! And... perhaps a little interesting. Though he may have had all the gentleness and tactility of a moose on rollerskates, even he knew when to just leave something be.

And, it seemed that maybe he should let this line go for the moment.


And then politics came up. He sighed, ruffling his hair irritably.
"Mate, at least your prime minister din't get stabbed in the back by his own deputy. And he was a good bloke too! So fuckin dissapointed, hey?"
While politics on the whole didn't tend to interest boys in his age group, he had begin to take an interest when his sister got a job in Perth's house of reps. In other words, she was merely a few steps away from running herself as an independent rep.
Which meant that more times than not, the house was flooded with important looking, and hard to read pages of stuff.



But when the topic switched again from the pollies to games, he grinned and puched the other on the arm.
"Oi! Don't be like that! We're not that far behind ya. Keep that up and I'll chuck me DS at ya."
Unable to part with his portable item, he had dragged it along, much to the anoyyance of his mother.
Ah well.


And, as it always came to be, the topic of war deflated his grin.
Now, Allen couldn't really claim to understand what it was all about, or what people really did in the midst of battle, but if anything...
His poor old granddad's stories spoke volumes to him.
"The army, eh?" He started slowly, finding the floor a hellava lot more interesting.
"Poor bloke. Off somewhere shooting at people you don't even know are doing anything wrong, hey?"

And yaknow Al m'boy, the damn Turks weren't so bad at all! It was ceasefire between sundown and sunup. Swap rations and shit, maybe play some footie... Then we'd be back shooting the fuck outta each other in the morning! We didn't even know what for by the time those bloody English bastards decided they landed us on the wrong fucking beach!

Poor Anzacs...