You are my sunshine {OPEN}

[mason]

There were still places to LA that Mason had never been and he figured that there would always be. However, the park was definitely not one of them. He had found this one spot, away from all the runners and games going on, that truly gave him the time to think to himself and write music. It was all he practically did during the day. The peace of nature gave him peace of mind which is what he needed.

Mason stepped out of his car, guitar case in one hand and a pad of paper in the other. He started the trek down to his own secluded area that always seemed to be further then it really was. It wasn't out of the normal to the people around him to see someone with a guitar in hand so they just kept on going with their own lives. Slowly, the number of people around him tapered off so that it was just a dedicated runner here and there. He veered off the normal path and sighed in happiness as he saw where he belonged.

Walking just a little bit further, he set his guitar case down on a large rock as he took his light black jacket off. It was too warm for him to have it on anymore. The wind blew through his turquoise shirt as he sat down in the grass and began writing. Every so often, he would take a second or two to stop and reread what he had so far. It wasn't his best stuff but it was alright. Just getting things down on paper was enough for him. Mason got his lightly blue guitar out of his case after awhile and started experimenting with different chords.

[kyle]

The park was calm and silent except for the singing of a few birds that flew above and sat on the tree branches, waiting for someone to drop their food so they eat the crumbs. The sun was up in the sky, as it was the hottest point of the day, which meant that more people would be coming, like little children on fieldtrips to the playground, but not many runners because most of them ran in the morning or the evening when the sunset.


Kyle walked always the curvy path, enjoying himself on his midday stroll. It was odd for him to not be spending all of his time at the beach, but there was some big boat fest going on, and he didn’t want to bother with the crowd, so he decided to take a nice break and come to the park for once.


He was dressed in a blue and black checkered button up shirt, which was unbuttoned, showing off his basic white shirt underneath. He wore jeans as well; though he was going to regret it because he was get too hot in them. Then paired with that was a pair of black worn-to-the-sole converse that he loved.


Kyle stopped in his tracks when he heard a guy began to dabble on the guitar. He normally didn’t stop because there were always guys playing instruments, but this guy didn’t look homeless, and he looked close to Kyle’s age. He walked past the guy as sat in the grass a couple of meters away, and pulled out his phone from his back pocket and began to text.

[mason]

Mason continued to try other things but nothing seemed to really be working. He somehow always knew what the right sound was for each and every one of his songs. It was one of the only things that he could say he was really talented at. Some people couldn't understand how it came so naturally to him but it did and for that matter, he didn't really understand it himself. He didn't really care either though and would just keep on writing. People would tell him that he should try to make it in the music business but to be honest, Mason never really wanted to. He felt it would take away all of the fun that he had with it.

After a few more minutes of trying to figure at least something out, he gave up for the moment and wrote down what little amount he had liked. Mason had been there for awhile and it was starting to get a little too hot for him even if he was used to the weather. Sighing, he got up and placed his guitar back in its case to be used at another time. He snapped it shut and turned to walk away.

Only then did he notice that someone else had been by him. It seemed that whenever he played, he would go inside of his own little world and become immune to everything going on around him. Mason hardly ever saw anyone else around him when he was here so he went over to introduce himself. "Hey, I don't normally see anyone around here. The name's Mason, he told the guy sitting in front of him, extending the hand that wasn't holding his guitar.

[danielstevenrhodes]

Danny was sitting at the edge of the park, snapping shots of his friend for her senior pictures at school. It was a little favor he owed her. The student who sat across the bench in the purple dress looked up at him and said "Do you hear music?" Danny nodded. "That's the great thing about coming to the park, there is always a talented musician right around the corner. Welcome to LA." She laughed and changed poses as Daniel continued snapping them with his camera.

After he was finished, he needed to go somewhere secretive after every photoshoot to write down in his log, as well as clean out his camera. He found a little turn and followed the short pathway to the opening with a few big rocks, a bunch of trees, and a tiny little pond. Two guys where already there so he just nodded at them politley and went to a shaded area that was away from them a bit, taking a part his camera a piece at a time.

[caleb]

Caleb put on his green under armor mesh shorts and tied his shoes to get ready for his daily jog around the park. Music blaring out his headphones he begins to head toward the park.

When Caleb arrived to the park not even 5 mins after leaving his townhouse he begins running through the park. As he looks around he sees people playing a game of flag football while other sit on the benches and read and drink their coffees. While on his jog he had the random urge to take a different path than usual. As he ran he noticed a path hidden behind a patch of bushes, almost like it was meant to be a secret. So out of basic curiosity he pushed his way through the bush onto the path and continued to run.

About a few minutes later he stumbled upon an area that looked somewhat secluded. He noticed two guys, one with a guitar and pad. And then another guy who looked like he was taking his camera apart. Photography had always been a weak spot of Caleb's. There was just so much you could catch in one photo that you couldn't see with the naked eye. So since the other two guys were already into what seemed like a deep conversation he decided to head over towards the guy with the camera and check out what this dude was about.

He paused his music and slowed down as he came up on the blonde with the camera. "Hey what's up? Sorry to interrupt but, the names Caleb."

[kyle]

As Kyle scrolled through his texts he checked his facebook, thanking the iPhone for having internet attached to it. He looked up for a minute when he heard a voice, and it was not the muffled talking the musician was muttering before when he was playing a few strings on his guitar. Kyle normally didn’t talk to strangers right off the back, but this guy was close to his age and seemed alright. Most of the “strangers” he spoke to were the surfers, but they were all his buddies because they hung out so often. Ky thought for a moment before answering, because he was new around the park area, not Los Angeles, but the certain park, and he didn’t mean to disturb the guy’s peace.


”Uh, hey. Yeah, I mean I’m normally at the beach at this hour, but there’s a boat feast going on, and I do not want to handle that crowd with my surfboard,” Kyle said, scratching his head. He grabbed Mason’s hand and smiled a tight smile. ”Kyle,” he said as he shook the hand and then brought his hand back to himself.


The wind whistled through the leaves of the trees as a few more guys came over to the /more/ silent area of the park where fewer people where. Kyle looked over at them, at the guy who was snapping pictures and then the random stranger who asked out of the blue “what’s up” to him. It was a little odd that the guy would be all like “what up” to the photographer, but they could have been buddies of something.


Ky looked back to Mason and then slipped on his classic black Ray Bans to protect his eyes and waited for Mason to respond.

[danielstevenrhodes]

Danny jumped a bit when the guy came over and held up his hand. "Watch your step!" He warned, a bit overworried about his camera. The only reason he came out in this spot was so none of the tiny pieces would get lost or broken or stolen. He then looked up at the guy and raised an eyebrow. He wondered why the guy would apologize to him for no reason, and then say hey and introduce himself. "Umm.....Hello?" He said, looking a bit confused before going back to his business, being very careful to put the pieces together corectly. The guy was really hot, but he was dressed in dark green and his hair was unbrushed or anything of that sort so Danny immidiatley classified him as straight as an arrow, so he would not attempt any sort of flirting. Besides, he had his eye on someone else. He sighed as all these thoughts ran through his head as he connected the tiny silver piece to the large black piece.

[mason]

Mason nodded a little as the guy told him why he was here and then introduced himself. He nodded a little, understanding exactly what he meant. "Yeah, I try and stay away from a crowd which is why I normally come here but it seems to be getting a little busy here too. It seems like there’s no place in L.A. that doesn’t ever have a crowd," he said, glancing around. Whenever Mason would come here, it was uncommon for him to even see one person. It wasn’t that he minded, he was just surprised that other people would take the time to actually find a place like this. To say that it was ‘off the beaten path’ was definitely an understatement.

He set his guitar case down and cracked his knuckles even though his sister always scolded him for doing that. Mason didn’t think that there was such a thing as being over-friendly which is why he was so talkative at the moment. He loved meeting new people and the only way to do that was to talk to them. Hoping that he hadn’t made Kyle uncomfortable at all by coming over to introduce himself, Mason picked his guitar case back up.
He cleared his throat and tucked one hand into his pocket. His jacket was laid over his left shoulder and Mason took it off of there, placing it over his forearm.

[kyle]

Kyle knew exactly what Mason meant when he said that he tried to stay away from crowds and busy places. The beach was always crowded on a hot day, but it was more spaced out, and not everyone was in one place at once like the boat feast that seemed to take up the whole beach. Kyle guessed that this area of the park, which was secluded, normally wasn’t this crowded, if anyone cared to call it crowded. There were only a few other people at this area of the park: Kyle, Mason, and the photography guy and the other very friendly man.


Kyle felt his phone buzz in his back pocket as he sat on it, and then it vibrated again with meant either it was ringing or someone sent a long text message that took up two separate texts. He pulled it out of his pocket and typed it in his password to unlock is phone, which was a hassle, but if anyone ever tried to steal it they wouldn’t want it because they didn’t know the password. He checked it, and it was just an old friend from home, checking up on him. Ky put it back in his pocket and then looked up to Mason. ”Sorry about that,” he said, even though he wasn’t in a deep conversation with the dude.

[mason]

Mason watched as Kyle checked his phone. He also brought his out rather quickly just to check the time. It’s not like he actually had to be anywhere specific at the moment, it was just more of a habit then anything else. A lot of people had thought him to be rude because of it but he hardly ever wore a watch so it was his only way of being able to know. ”Oh no big deal. Don’t worry about it,” he replied, not really minding at all.

”So have you been LA awhile? Mason asked, trying to make small talk. It wasn’t much but there was always some way to get to know other people. Kyle had to have been there for a decent amount of time since he obviously hated crowds like Mason did. It wasn’t something that normally bothered new people since they just wanted to see the sites.

[caleb]

Caleb knew he'd just thrown himself into an akward postion by just up and introducing himself out of nowhere. He cycled through his head with things to say to put a stop to the akwardness. He payed a little attention to the camera and decided to go from there. "So, you're into photography? That's pretty cool. I always liked taking pictures and what not."

Caleb was hoping that he had broken the silence between them. Maybe they could be friends maybe they could be enemies. Caleb wasn't one to make enemies to often so hopefully this would turn out the way he would like it to.

As he carefully stepped around the pieces of the guys camera he pointed to an empty space right next to where the guy was sitting. "Mind if I take a seat?"

[kyle]

Kyle thought about Mason’s question about how long he had been in Los Angeles. He hadn’t been in L.A. for too long, but he had lived in California his whole life. He could have left if he wanted to, but he would miss the waves, the people, and the top notch Mexican food. He had always thought about moving to Hawaii though, since it had good surfing, but he could never do it. He loved California too much and his friends and family, since all of his family lived there.


”Yeah, I’ve been here for about three years, but I’ve lived in California my whole life. I’m from Santa Monica,” Kyle explained with a sharp smile. ”Are you new?” Kyle asked. He didn’t mean to be rude of anything, but the guy seemed a bit newer than some, and Kyle was getting some vibe from him the said he wasn’t a native.

[mason]

Unlike Mason, Kyle was a native to California. He nodded a little as Kyle told him that he had lived in California his whole life. As he was asked if he was new, Mason tried to think of how long it had been since he had been practically kicked out of the house. "I'm not exactly new but I haven't been in California, or Los Angeles, my whole life. I was sent to boarding school out here when I was fourteen from Maine and then came to Los Angeles for college. So it's been about four years since I've been here. Yet people can still see that I don't quite belong here at times," Mason explained, laughing a little at his last statement.

It wasn't that Mason was completely different from everyone around him, he just had a few different mannerisms from a lot of people that were native to the area. Some people were able to pick up on them, some it took a little bit longer. Eventually it always came out that Mason wasn't from around there. There were people that would not believe it and others that would say that they could tell. Mason was never exactly sure how but sometimes it made things interesting.

[kyle]

As Kyle waited for a reply he picked up a small rock that was beside him and chucked it. He watched as it hit the pavement of the walkway, scaring a few birds and making them fly away. There wasn’t a single person walking there, so it wasn’t like he hurt anyone. He nodded to what Mason was saying, but felt sort of bad for asking if he was knew even though he had been there for four years. He just seemed like he had been there for a year or so that was all. Kyle had actually lived in Los Angeles for a lesser time than Mason; it was just that he had the California vibe going on. He tried to chuckle with him, but it probably sounded a bit fake because he was trying so hard to laugh.


”Boarding School? Really? What was that like?” Kyle asked, getting amused. He had heard of boarding school, but when he thought of it sometimes it sounded dreadful, like the ones he saw on cliché movies. Though, who couldn’t like a boarding school when they were in sunny California? Kyle couldn’t imagine not living in California. He would miss going to Disneyland and using his season pass, going to six flags, and most of all the people and the beach.

[mason]

Mason smiled weakly as Kyle laughed ever so slightly. He could tell it wasn't an actual laugh but it didn't offend Mason at all. It's not like he haad made some hysterical comment that deserved a true laugh. Plus he had just met Kyle and sometimes it took a little while for people to understand him. He kind of figured that Kyle had thought that he hadn't been in LA all that long. Mason wondered how much of his 'hometown' was still with him ever since coming to California eight years ago.

Kyle had asked him what boarding school was like and Mason had to think about it for a little while. At first, he had just sulked in his room being mad that his father had chosen some woman over his own son. It eventually moved on to him mostly playing music in his room or hanging out with the few friends that he felt like making. "It was pretty good, not as bad as they make it seem in movies I think. I know some guys that would say that it was even worse then the movies though, he said with a small shrug. It all depended on the person. Mason managed to make the best of it after getting over his father's betrayal, or at least that's what Mason had taken it as. He wouldnt' be that annoying person who would feel pity for themselves.