Study HM-01: Neighbors -Part1-

"God, this is so BORING!"

Ellen tapped her fingers against the edge of the hospital bed which she found herself confined to after she had her foot surgery. Everyone in her family had gone home and left her alone for the time being, and she was not incredibly accustomed to entertaining herself since she lived in a neighborhood where something always seemed to be going on at someone-or-other's house, so there was always somewhere to be.

"Boring, boring, boring!" she chanted to herself as she pressed a button on the remote to the tune of each respective "boring", trying to change the channel on the TV.

Ellen shook the remote and held it up to eye level, examining the light on the front. "The damn batteries are dead," she muttered to herself as she opened the battery compartment. "Maybe I ought to page someone about that..."

Eh, they've probably got more important things to do, she thought. What do you wanna bet they'll say "sure, we can get you some batteries for that" and not come back until... well, never! "Oh well, I'm not gonna waste their valuable time—"

Just then, someone who did not look familiar wandered in. He looked about her age, possibly a little bit older, with dark hair and a tall, skinny structure. "Uh, hey," he said so quietly that she could barely hear him. "What's up?"

"Uh, hi?" Ellen greeted in a question-like way. "Who are you?"

"Can I get you anything?" he asked her, completely ignoring her question.

"Yeah, actually, now that you asked," she said, ignoring the fact that he ignored her question. "This thing's batteries are completely dead—I think it takes Double-A's. If you could get a new set of batteries for me, well then that would be awesome."

He nodded and headed for the door. "So, do you work here or something?" Ellen called after him.

"I'm staying in the next room over," he replied without looking back. "So we're neighbors now."

She stared at his back as he left. "Neighbors, huh?" she wondered out loud. "Didn't look like there was anything wrong with him... he just looked like your standard-issue pale, skinny nerd."

She glanced over at the untouched tray, poking at an unknown substance with a plastic spoon. "That... really looks disgusting..."

The boy who had come into Ellen's room earlier was back within five minutes, holding up a new pair of batteries.

"Wow—that was really quick!"

"Yeah, I just got a pack the other day, so it didn't take me long to find them." He held out his hand for the remote, and she put the remote in his hand with a clap sound.

"Oh, so those were your batteries?" she asked as he took the battery cover off the remote and shoved each battery in.

"Mm-hmm." He closed up the battery compartment and handed it back.

Ellen smiled at him. "Well, thank you... um..."

"You're welcome," he said, not picking up on the fact that she was wondering what to call him.

"Oh no, I was wondering what your name was." She held her hand out. "My name is Ellen Hester."

"Nice to meet you." He returned her handshake hesitantly. "Linus Sanders."