+ COULD USE A LITTLE SMILE (Vaughn)

This whole idea seemed completely bogus to Vaughn. Blind dates, really? What was the Riverdale staff thinking? This had to be the stupidest thing the boy had encountered since starting here in the fall. The Halloween dance had been one thing, and he thought that had been lame. And taking a trip to England? Wow, exciting. (Granted, the whole opportunity of being in his old body again was great, but he preferred not to consider that. It didn’t help his point.) But this, this was really just the icing on the cake. Vaughn didn’t date. He hated it. And they said if nothing romantic came out of this, then maybe you could get a new friend. Well, that was great, but Vaughn hated people.

The latter, obviously, was a complete lie, but Vaughn was just being bitter about this whole experience. It was the romantic thing that got him. He didn’t want a girlfriend. He couldn’t have a girlfriend. He couldn’t handle that. His first and last relationship had ended in such disaster that he didn’t think he’d ever even want to attempt that again. And that was why he had turned into such a total player in the past few years. He simply couldn’t handle it. He didn’t desire true love in the least. So many people spent this time of their lives just searching for true love. But Vaughn? He avoided it at all cost.

And as such, he wasn’t expecting much out of this night. He wasn’t expecting anything at all, actually. Maybe he actually would end up with someone that showed him a good time, whether in a sexual way or just in a regular old friendly way. Maybe he could actually make a friend out of this. But he sure as hell wasn’t going to put in a lot of effort to get even that. Vaughn walked into Hteb’s Mexican Diner a few minutes early. He had been informed that everyone was to arrive early, so he had tried his hardest to look presentable by this time. And looking presentable hadn’t meant much more than a regular outfit for Vaughn. He gave the waiter his information and he was directed to a table... a table with a girl already at it. And a young one at that. Cute, in a way, but Vaughn wasn’t looking for anything like that. Especially not with a.. what, a freshman? She had to be. Vaughn simply cleared his throat, announcing his presence. “Er, hi,” he said, his thick English accent showing through. The foreign exchange student took his seat across from the girl. “I’m Vaughn. Guess I’m your date..?” Hopefully that wasn’t a bad thing for her, right?

It was sort of odd how it had just ran through Vaughn’s head that maybe he should have dressed up for this thing. What would he have done if he showed up here and everybody else was in dresses and fancy clothes, and here he was in nothing short of his regular daily wear? Most people would probably be extremely embarrassed. And Vaughn, well, he probably would have felt a little bad, mostly for whoever his date turned out to be. How would she want to be paired with the one guy who didn’t take this seriously? And really, Vaughn didn’t. He already just wanted this night to be over. Dates weren’t his thing, no matter who he was paired up with.

And by the looks of it he’d landed himself with a freshman. “Yeah, I’m a senior,” he answered, as usual mildly conscious of how different he made himself sound from everyone else with his accent. He didn’t mind at all, though. In fact, Vaughn would probably be a little pissed if he went back to England at the end of this year with an American accent, and a North Carolinian one at that. People here didn’t sound anything like Vaughn expected Americans to sound. Sure, he knew that in England, people from different areas sounded differently, and that should be the same in America too, right? But the differences were astounding here.

Vaughn had expected to come to North Carolina and hear the typical American accent, the one you get out of movie stars out west. That’s what people should sound like, right? But the North Carolinians almost sounded... southern. And it was weird for him to adjust to. Hm, maybe that was why they were at a Mexican Diner right now, if everyone sounded so southern. It could happen. “You must be a freshman or something, hm?” he asked. “I have a feeling I would have noticed you around school more if you were older, after all.” Shit, what if she thought he was now targeting her for being a freshman? He hoped he wasn’t. He may not have wanted anything out of this date, but he hoped he didn’t make the night totally miserable for her, either.

Hierarchy was a funny thing. Though everyone was a freshman at one point in time, and everyone knew how much it royally blew, when they were older, they treated freshmen like shit anyway. It was sort of like since you had to deal with it, then the new freshmen should as well. Freshmen, fresh meat. All that jazz. Vaughn wasn’t so sure he had that right as a senior here at Riverdale, however. After all, he wasn’t from around here. If he’d been going to this school his whole life, it would be a little different. But as a foreign exchange student? Did he have the right? He didn’t feel it was always necessary, that was for sure.

Like this girl here. She wasn’t bothering him, and she seemed nice enough. Did he care that she was a freshman? No, not really, not at all. It wasn’t her fault she’d been born a few years after him, after all. “No, I don’t mind,” he replied, looking up at her from his menu. “You’re not bothering me or anything.” Vaughn smiled softly, amusement on his face. At least his date wasn’t going too badly. He wasn’t so sure he would call it that, though. Kodi’s word usage of ‘dinner’ sounded a lot better to him. Vaughn didn’t date. Ever.

It was sort of weird for Vaughn to be here on this blind date thing with a freshman. He may not have anything against the grade level like plenty of other seniors did, but that was probably because he was new here, too. He understood how they felt. Being new was hard. It sucked hardcore, and he didn’t feel like he had the right to treat kids younger than him like shit when he was new, too. But either way, he just hadn’t expected this. Vaughn figured he’d be with another senior, or maybe a junior. Anything but a freshman, really.

But again, he didn’t mind. This girl was decent; she seemed nice. He’d spend this dinner with her. “My interests?” he repeated initially, looking at her in slight confusion, but then he smiled and laughed softly. “No, it’s fine, it wasn’t lame... I, uh, well... I play a lot of video games, I guess... And I like working out... I want to go into the military someday.” He shrugged. There wasn’t really much else to tell her. His main hobby was poetry, but that wasn’t something that Vaughn generally wanted known to the public, especially not someone he just met if anything. “What about you?”