rootless (private)

Danah wandered into the lake, sighing heavily. She was so utterly bored of camp that she was so close to reminiscing about something to any innocent camper she would have the opportunity to talk to. But she quickly decided to cancel that idea, not really wanting to creep anyone out or sound like some boring, lone elder. After all, the last thing she would want to do is make a bad impression on some of these new campers. With another (annoying) sigh, she sat down next to the lake, staring blankly at the glistening water. She just really needs to reunite with her old friends or meet some new people. Danah just hoped there would be at least be some intriguing people out of this new bunch.

Analeigh wandered absentmindedly toward the lake, lost in thought and not even having realised when her feet had taken this direction. Blinking as though slightly surprised at where she was, Analeigh came out of her reverie and halted in her stride, to become aware of the perfectly still lake ahead of her. It was a good thing she'd came to when she did because in her present state she might have walked right into the lake which was alarmingly still, just like any other portion of flat land in camp. Shuddering slightly at the thought of the chilly water, Analeigh changed direction and walked parallel to the river instead subsiding once more into her disturbing thoughts. It was the second prom since she'd gotten to camp and here Analeigh was, at the lake, alone. The night of prom wasnt the best of times for any single person but it was doubly hard for Analeigh, for whom the circumstances were rather different. Rather complex even. she thought miserably, kicking a stone in front of her as she walked against the wind, her long mahagony hair blowing ominously behind her.

Danah looked up from the body of water that she has been observing for way too long, and directed her gaze at some other people she saw close by. Unfortunately, her shoulder length chestnut hair kept blowing into her face, and she immediately regretted not putting up in a ponytail or something. She tried to tuck most of it back behind her ears, but some strands refused to stay in place. Well, at least she could see properly now.

After Danah dealt with the whole hair mayhem, she spotted a girl walking in her direction. Danah was about to wave to her, to strike up some sort of conversation, but worried that the girl might give her some looks after witnessing her whole hair craze. She shrugged off the thought, and decided to just go for it and say hi. Or maybe she was more of a hello person. Was that even a thing? She pretty much hesitated before saying it:

"Er… Salutations?"

Analeigh raised back an eyebrow at the girl with the crazy hair, Salutations?!, "Uhm, greetings kind stranger!" Analeigh responded, flashing the spock sign with her 4 fingers split evenly apart briefly. Then realising she might come off as rather douchey, Analeigh smiled kindly at the girl, her lips twitching as she thought back to how the girl had been wrestling with her hair. A few stray strands flew across the girl's face, apparently held their by the chaotic wind. Analeigh's own long brown hair was being whipped around by the wind but mostly seemed to leave her face alone, she would've considered that nice hair was an Aphrodite blessing, except the way looked when she woke up most days definitely ruled that possibility out.

"Do you need help with that?" she asked the girl politely, nodding toward her wayward locks. Not that Analeigh often wandered around the lake looking for people she could make-over, it simply happened to be the time and the place to be..and why not?

Danah's face quickly turned red. She was definitely repentant of her choice of words. Do people even say "salutations" nowadays? This wasn't the middle ages or whatever. This could've been her chance to gain a new friend and Danah's certain she just blew it, all because of this one word that slipped out as a sign of nervousness.

She silently hoped that the girl with the flowing hair hadn't heard her, and decided that she should just forgo this opportunity to befriend her, but it was too late. Unfortunately for her, she already caught the girl's attention. She probably did that by slipping out the "salutations" or maybe the extremely messy hair did the trick. Not a good first impression.

"Do you need help with that?"

Danah smiled weakly at the girl, quite relieved that she offered to help her instead of simply mocking the state of her hair. She grabbed the strands of hair that kept being blown by the wind and tried to keep them in place behind her ears, but it was no use. She thought accepting help from a stranger would be weird, but she was seriously desperate. Plus, this girl's hair still managed to flow perfectly behind her, not a single strand seemed to get in a way. She thought she could definitely get some hair tips from her."Uh, yeah, I guess that would be nice…" Danah responded, "If you don't mind, of course. But I promise you, I don't always look like this. I guess the wind just really hates me for some reason."

Analeigh laugh made a pealing sound like the ringing of bells, she smiled kindly at the girl and walked forward taking a spare scrunchie out of a pocket from her shorts as she did. Positioning herself behind the girl, Analeigh used her fingers to comb through the girl's locks and then smoothly tied it up in a high ponytail. "There", she said looking rather pleased with her handywork, "Is that better?" she asked thinking about how now the hair had been taken away from her face the girl's clear cut features were revealed and her beauty enhanced. "You have very pretty eyes" she noted conversationally, still looking at the girl in a rather appraising manner.

Analeigh stepped back from the girl so that they were no longer at an uncomfortably close distance, for conversation atleast. Most people tended to get embarrased when Analeigh brought up their looks and having already done so, Analeigh hoped this girl wouldnt mind, not too much atleast.

Oh gods. Even this girl's laughter sounded like ringing bells. Danah was so close to asking this girl if she was even a real person. With the perfect hair and laughter, she reminded her of some kind of Disney princess or something. She watched as the girl walked up behind her, and made a sheepish face as she felt the girl tie her hair into a ponytail. When Danah's hair was finally tied, she twirled a strand of hair with her finger as she nodded at the girl, "Thanks for doing that. I guess you saved me from my bad hair day, huh?" she chuckled. This was probably the nicest thing a stranger ever did for her. Danah smiled as she complimented her eyes, "Thank you, again. You have pretty… everything." Yeah, this girl was definitely a child of some beauty god/dess.

The girl moved farther away from Danah, probably since there was an obvious lack of personal space. "…So, what's your name?"

Analeigh shrugged a little awkwardly, embarrased at the girl's gratitude, "Oh, it was nothing" she said, pausing to consider whether to ignore the second part of the girl's sentence, the compliment, completely. Deciding against this, she answered, "Oh uh, thanks. Your hair is a very nice colour." as she absentmindedly placed a hand on the nape of her neck.
"…So, what's your name?"
A simpe enough question, to be expected infact. However for an instant, Analeigh wondered whether to lie, to make it all up as she went along, for no particular reason. The thought was over rules almost in the same second as its birth, she wouldnt be able to do that. She just, couldnt and not leas because her burning cheek would give her away in an instant. "Uhm, Analeigh. Analeigh Snow. What's yours?", she said, mumbling the last bit a little shamefacedly.

Danah smiled in response to the compliment. She didn't exactly get compliments from people every day, so this felt pretty nice. She listened as Analeigh introduced herself, but frowned when she noticed that Analeigh was mumbling a bit as she did so, seeming to be quite… ashamed? She didn't know how to put it, exactly. Maybe it was something else that was on her mind. Even though Danah was about to ask her what was the matter, she shrugged it off. Hey, these two girls just became acquainted with each other, so asking Analeigh something that might be a bit personal didn't seem exactly appropriate at the moment. "That's a pretty name. I'm Danah. It's nice to meet you, Analeigh." Danah grinned.

Analeigh was pleasantly surprised at how the girl politely glossed over Analeigh's social faux pas, most people tended to be extremely nosy, abhorrently so. Smiling back at the girl, she found herself at a bit of a loss as to what to say, ofcourse there was the standard camp conversation to fall back into but at the moment, Analeigh found the possibility appalingly monotonous. "So which cabin are you in?" "how long have you been in camp?", literally every camper had been asked or had asked these questions, one time or the other, admittedly it was only natural but still, Analeigh felt as though she would gladly tatoo the answers on her forehead to avoid slipping into this track of conversation again. "So", she said simply and shrugged, lifting her shoulders slightly before she let them fall back in place limply.