Love and Lineage

Dannie sat outside and prepared to study for some of her upcoming classes, sitting on the edge of a hiking trail with a good course book for her major and blue backpack on the ground to hold all of her materials. The wind tousled her blonde hair a bit as she looked for a good place to sit that would give her a good view of the world around her while giving her the peace she needed to complete her studies. It was another nice day at the early college and boarding school known as Boone Early Institute - the sky was as clear and blue as Dannie's eyes, without a single storm cloud in the atmosphere.

Above her head were a few trees with various beautiful leaves. Various brown, yellow, red, and orange leaves descended from these native deciduous trees and lightly landed on the ground, telling everyone who came by that mother fall was now here & father summer was no longer around, falling into slumber until next year. Since her school was located in the mountains of the United States of America, with various forests and trees dotting these mountains, these colors covered all of these mountains with colorful patterns from these leaves, turning the horizon into a beautiful landscape that looked like something out of a postcard.

Dannie found a nice boulder to use as an improv chair that gave her a great view of nearly the entire campus - and even the dorm building that she was staying in - from a distance and several beautiful peaks that overlooked the boarding school. She used her hand to brush off some of the dirt and leaves that covered the boulder - she did not want to get her white skirt too dirty when she sat down - before taking a seat and starting to read her textbook on sociology.

Dannie liked going to school at Boone Early Institute - it was a nice place away from home where she could start over and enjoy life as a brand new person without having any of the baggage of her past. Don't get her wrong - she was very proud of who she was and her heritage, but she liked being able to interact with people and make friends with individuals who could truly like her for who she was as a person. She was able to meet other people with a true fresh slate. Here, Dannie was just any other prodigy or bright young mind thirsty for knowledge at an early college or any other student who was taking their time to get through their studies. Since this school was not even on the same continent that her family was from, and most people here did not know or care anything about European lineage, it was pretty easy for her to go on living as an average person.

That was the benefit of going to this boarding school instead of some kind of fancy legacy school back in Europe. Her clan - the Dankworth European family - was not that well-known and was not as plentiful as some of the other former royal families, was still pretty affluent and still had a decent amount of money in their bank accounts & history tied to their family name. There were not many people left when it came to this family name, but Dannie was still around, as was her father, Alex, and her mother, Ellia.

Sure, her father was suffering mildly from a sickness, but it wasn't like they didn't have a whole bunch of medication and proper medical staff to keep that at bay and her mom was as healthy as a horse without a single sign that anything negative was happening with her health. All things considered, things could be much worse and her parents seem to be doing well off and as their only child, Dannie worked to be good at her studies & do them proud.

Dannie took off her white shoes and socks before letting her feet hang off the side of the boulder as she continued to read while enjoying the view and the sounds of nature around her as ambience. With each paragraph, she could catch the sounds of a light gust of wind, moving the leaves and slightly tickling the follicles of her shoulder length hair. Which each chapter, she could catch a few of the Autumn birds that were still around and hadn't left for migration yet singing in the distance. Every couple of chapters, she would look away from the book and be able to see the landscape once again, providing a gorgeous view that she never got tired of, no matter how many times she looked at it.

While she continued to read different parts from her textbook, she heard someone approaching along the same hiking trail that she had taken to get up to this perch. Dannie pull their nose out of the book and looked up for a moment so she could see who was coming her way.

"Hi Dannie," the person said as they got closer to her.

"Hey Wesley," she replied as she recognized the voice before recognizing the features of the young man as he came around a turn on the trail.

Wesley was a decent guy who helped to show her around campus and the different locations to hangout at when she first came to the school. Even though he wasn't a sociology major like she was, he did share a few elective classes with her and even helped her study for a bit for those lessons when they start to get a bit difficult so she could pass those courses.

The two of them even went to a few movies together and also attended a couple of on-campus fun time events, which were pretty fun affairs. Overall, he seemed like the pretty good person to spend time with and be a friend with. She had only been around at this boarding school for about 6 months, but Wesley was able to help and make that transition much smoother than it would have been if she had to navigate everything with this early college all by herself, and Dannie was truly grateful for that.

Wesley had brown milk chocolate skin, eyes that were around the same amber color, short black hair on the top of his head matted on top of his head in tiny curls.

"How are you doing?" Wesley asked as he walked up to the boulder she was sitting on.

" Just enjoying the view and reading some stuff for my sociology quiz tomorrow. What are you up to?"

" Oh I am here to try to take a break from studying and was going on a relaxing walk. I had to do something to take my mind off of coursework for a bit." Wesley said as he wiped some sweat from his forehead.

"Oh ok, well you seem pretty tired. Why don't you rest for a bit?" Dannie questioned as she patted a portion of the boulder she was sitting on with her hand, offering him a seat next to her.

"Sure, I might as well," Wesley said as he accepted the offer and sat on the part of the boulder Dannie gestured to.

The two of them spent about a minute relaxing and simply enjoying each other's company in the pristine mountain environment before Dannie decided to spark up another little conversation.

" So how are things going right now with your major?" Dannie asked.

"Fine - well not fine, but they could be worse...it is hard to explain. I enjoy learning about computer engineering, but sometimes it is hard to wrap my head around all of this stuff and it feels it like my brain is fried anytime I try to comprehend anything interesting from that class."

"Oh I get it," Dennie replied, "You have a subject you really like learning about, but all that stuff is really hard to get a grasp of and it kind of fries your brain a bit."

"Yeah, I guess that is the best way to explain it." Wesley retorted, "But enough about all that. I'm out here trying to distract myself from thinking about anything computer engineering related for a bit. Is there anything interesting in that sociology book you're reading?"

"Yep. A lot of interesting things in here," Dannie said while using her fingers to tap on the cover of the textbook, "Right now, I am on the section all about the brain and things related to courtship, dating, and failing in love."

"Oh cute. You reading that for any specific reason like to help you get a boyfriend or something?"

" No, not really. Just something I find interesting and something that might be on a future exam for the class."

"Oh alright."

Dannie was about to go back to reading her textbooks and exploring more about sociology and dating, but that was when she remembered that she had something to ask Wesley.

"Oh Wesley, by the way, you do know about that local fair that comes around once a year that's going to be in town starting tonight right?"

"Oh yeah, I think I saw some flyers posted around campus about that." Wesley said.

"Well, my roommate and a bunch of other people were thinking about heading to the fair tonight. Are you thinking about coming?"

"Maybe." Wesley answered, " I don't really have anyone to go to the fair with and I'm not sure if I'm going to have enough time to go there and prepare for midterms at the same time."

" Well, you don't really need anyone to go to the fair with, you could probably have a great time by yourself. Besides, if you decide to go, maybe we can meet up and do something." Dannie stated, "Besides, you could go to the fair for one night without losing much study time. It's not like a single night not studying is going to cause you to fail the exam."

"I guess your right." Wesley considered while he stretched a bit, "You know what? I'm going to have to think about it. I might be able to come, but I'll just have to see an have some time to think it over."

"Fair enough."

The pair of students continued to spend the next forty-five minutes talking about various different topics while enjoying the outdoor scenery and each other's company. The topic of conversation rotated from discussions about coursework to talks about which teachers were the best and worst to have classes under to the best places to visit in downtown Boone and a bunch of other topics they could come up with.

After spending about three quarters of an hour shooting the breeze, Wesley looked at the cheap watch on his left wrist and his eyes began to widen.

"Dannie, it has been fun chatting with you, but I need to get going."

"Aw. Leaving so soon?" Dannie asked in a bit of a teasing manner.

" I'm afraid so, but hey, I'll see you later. Either at the fair or somewhere else when I've got time." Wesley said as he hopped off of his sitting area on the boulder and got ready to go down the rest of the trail.

"Ok. See you around."

So Wesley waved goodbye to Dannie one last time and started jogging down the rest of the trail. Dannie watched him disappear down the trail before she went back to reading her sociology book and getting into the section all about the history of relationships and how courtship dynamics were handled throughout different parts of recent history - riveting stuff for anyone who was was interested when it came to sociology or psychology or just interested in how romance worked in the modern era in general.

Dannie was starting to get lost in the text she was reading all over again, but she suddenly got a phone call...