What a terrible travesty of time, he thought to himself as he locked his car door and headed towards the building where his court-mandated course of "driving improvement school" was to take place. The building was actually a local Holiday Inn. Apparently the school did whatever it did to commandeer one of the business meeting-like rooms for its classes. And, just his luck, his only available day had been this Saturday. Which meant, of course, there would be plenty of high school kids there. How he hated them. Only two years their senior, the bitter taste of high school still hadn't left his mouth. He never liked any of them when he was there, why should he now?
Eight fucking hours. Eight fucking hours! Damn it. Still, he resigned himself to the day's predictable events. He asked the clerk at the desk where the room for the driving school was. He got a bit irritated when he had to repeat his question because the fat ass clerk was too busy staring at his crazily styled dyed blue hair and multiple ear piercings to hear him the first time. He watched the clerk stare at his back via a wall mirror as he went down the hall he'd been told to. Finding the fourth door on the right, as instructed, he barely stopped himself from muttering a curse under his breath as he noticed the room was nearly full - even though he was about ten minutes early. He found a seat in the very back on the right. As he'd entered on the room's left, that put him further from the door than he wanted to be. He leaned back, closed his eyes, and waited for the instructor to appear.
A few moments later, he heard the chair next to him being pulled out from under the table and he knew someone was taking a seat there. He didn't bother to open his eyes; it obviously wasn't the instructor, so he did not care. Five minutes later, the instructor came in. He knew this from the announcement of a slightly high-pitched voice, which proclaimed, "I'm here at last." He opened his eyes to look at the instructor: a terribly thin man dressed casually who looked to be in his late fifties. He continued to stare straight ahead at the blank television screen as the instructor began setting up. He didn't want to associate with any of the people here, and he really just wanted to get this over with. Apparently, however, time was of no concern to the instructor, who announced there would be ten-minute breaks scheduled for every hour, along with an hour-long lunch between noon and one. Terrific. That meant almost two hours of time they'd be spending not getting the class taken care of. He'd much rather take it six hours straight than this intermittent eight-hour crap. Well, not much he could do about it. He sighed.
The person next to him shifted a bit, taking something from under her seat. Yes, it was a her, he noticed with immediate approval as he took a sidelong look at her. He was almost surprised enough to turn his head, but didn't. She had one side of her head shaved, the other side about shoulder length and in a ponytail. The ponytail was purple, but the rest of it was green. She was dressed not dissimilar from himself: plain black T-shirt, regular black pants, tall black leather boots and, he noted with a carefully suppressed smile, multiple piercings. He noticed her looking over at him as she placed her drink under her seat after taking a gulp.
He leaned forward a bit and sighed. The instructor's droning was almost good enough to make him fall asleep. But he didn't. Not with the back-of-the-mind distraction of the girl next to him. She was definitely attractive. Thin and shapely. The hair and piercings were excellent. It wasn't terribly long before the first break was called. He decided to stay in the room rather than mill about with the rest of the idiots. So did she. They kept glancing at each other throughout the ten minutes. It felt like ten seconds to him. He couldn't get enough of an eyeful to satisfy him. He noticed her looking at him quite frequently as well. When the break was over, the instructor again continued on and on in that nasal, annoying voice of his. When the next break was called, he stood up and fished around in his pockets. He knew he didn't have enough for the drink machine in the hall, but that was the point.
He sat back down, two quarters in one hand, and leaned towards her. "Say, would you happen to have a spare quarter? I'm thirsty and apparently the drinks here are really top of the line considering the price..."
She flashed him a quick smile, which revealed nice, even, bright white teeth. "Sure thing." She leaned back a bit in the chair and let her hand searched a pocket for a few moments before producing the item. "Here you go."
"Thanks." She placed the quarter in his hand, and her fingers lingered on his a moment too long to be polite. He sat there for a minute just looking at her. Suddenly realizing he was supposed to be buying a drink, he stood up and did just that. By the time he'd come back, opened his Coke and taken a few sips, the instructor had returned and was beginning on the next lecture.
When the next break came, he decided to try some simple conversation. He hated doing it, but he really wanted to get to know this girl better. Turning her way slightly, he noticed a small logo on her shirt he hadn't seen before. "Good band. ATR."
She looked over at him. "Yeah, I think so."
"That makes two of us... and the only two here I'll bet."
"No shit," she said. "All these high school kids and old people. This place is horrible."
"We fit in real well."
"Definitely," she agreed with a smirk.