Time Warp: Not So Easy This Time

[Elisia Lark]

Set 2011

Thank goodness the auditorium wasn't filled with the dance team or someone just practicing a routine of some sort. Of course if the dance team was practicing, she'd be there anyway, but they weren't. She was here for her own reasons that didn't include a bunch of other people around her trying to make small talk with her. Gosh, that was the worst. She didn't dislike people, not at all, but if she was able to avoid talking to anyone, she did. It was nothing personal, she was just trying to get through the year without turning into a bumbling mess of foolery. Elisia was a wallflower, the one that saw things and just understood that keeping it quiet was the best thing for her to do.

The only time she ever expressed any kind of emotion or anything seriously close to her was when she was working through music. It wasn't just because music was self-expressive though, it also had a lot to do with her ability as a music psychometrist. She felt what the writer of the song she was playing felt when they wrote it. It was the same upon hearing it. Typically she stuck to happier music because she didn't like where the solemn music took her. It was too dark, too gloomy and so unlike her. Granted, nobody really knew that because, well, nobody really knew her. The extent of the people she talked to was...Robbie. Her big brother who was trying to get her to be a little more social. How she'd even managed to talk to him was a mystery.

Sure there were her roommates too, but the only one she ever paid any attention to was the girl with brown hair and brown eyes and a bubbly personality. Adrian was her name. At least, that's what Ellie thought. Anyway, she seemed nice and was always offering up to help her with anything in dance, but Ellie wasn't capable of reciprocating the same enthusiasm.

She sighed as she walked up to the piano set up in the auditorium, it had been there for a choir concert the night before, so she was happy to find that they hadn't moved it. She sat down and stroked her fingers along the keys gently. Piano and guitar were her two favorite things to play, but piano would always hold a special place in her heart because of her father. As she started playing around with the different notes and melodies she'd written in her head, she closed her eyes and hummed along with it. Ellie wouldn't admit it to anybody, but she was actually a song writer, in her own time. She didn't think she was any good though.

[Carter Chevalier]

A seventeen-year-old Carter Chevalier was every bit a man as he was in a few years time. By 2011, he and his brother had a perfectly budding reputation. People knew the surname Chevalier - as they rightly should have.

However, just because he was a busy man didn't mean he didn't have time for the essentials. The things that kept him grounded. Level. Thankfully, he knew when to find the auditorium empty.

Or, he thought he did.

When he walked in there was already someone playing. It was difficult to see from this distance, so Carter took tentative steps as he made his way down the aisle. The closer he got, the more he realised that this girl - whoever she was - was incredibly in depth when it came to the music she was playing. He saw that her eyes were closed, and immediately knew that the moment he spoke or made a sound, she'd be startled.

And if she didn't, and she opened her eyes and saw him, she'd still be startled.

"Excuse me," Carter called from halfway down the aisle.

[Elisia Lark]

Elisia was engulfed in the music she was playing, like she often was. When she heard the boy's voice, she jumped and practically fell off the piano bench, but luckily caught herself. She chewed on her lower lip and placed her hands back on the keys, trying to decide what exactly she should do. People talking to her wasn't something she was really used to unless it was in a class or something. This was just strange and awkward and she was going to have a panic attack or something if she kept thinking like this.

Ellie took a deep breath and gulped back her fear of talking before she turned to look at the boy again. When she looked at him, she found that he was older, if only by a few years. His hair was unusually blonde and his features were rigid, not in the tensed up way, but they were so structurally sound. She was a strange girl though, one that often looked right past anything that had to do with attractiveness. Maybe it was the fact that she was so absorbed in not being noticed that she didn't let herself think that way, but whatever it was, she found him pleasing to the eye, but not in the sense that most would think.

"Uhm, c-can I...can I help you with something? Do you need the piano?" God, could she sound like more of a dunce. She fidgeted in her seat and toyed with her hair and bit her lip all at once because she just didn't know how to react. This was weird. Why was he talking to her?

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter stifled the urge to chuckle when she nearly fell right off the chair. He was thankful that she managed to catch herself all the same. At first he made it a point to stop walking, his hands folded together behind his back.

She sounded uncomfortable. More than simply awkward.

"Not at all," He replied, holding his hand up as if to physically stop the thought from reaching him, "You were here first. As it stands, you have every right to use it." Surely, that made sense to her. But what wouldn't make sense was why he was still choosing to stand there.

[Elisia Lark]

Ellie was more than simply awkward. She was a klutz, a total bumbling fool when it came to talking to just about anyone. She wasn't entirely sure how she came to be such a socially awkward girl seeing as how neither of her parents were like this. Patrick was suave and full of enthusiasm that was simply contagious. Margaret, well, she was...a strong presence. Ellie didn't have anything pleasant to think of her mother, but she knew that her mother was able to hold conversations easily with people, if anything she was commanding, and very intimidating, but still fantastic with speaking to people.

So how Ellie came from either of them, she wasn't sure.

His response to her stuttering and stammering made sense because sure he was right. She had been there first, but that was only because she had been sure no one would be there. How was she supposed to know if someone reserved the auditorium for practicing for some kind of recital or anything? In fact, that could have been a very good possibility. But clearly by his answer he was not there because he had a recital. That didn't explain why he was lurking though. It was a little weird, not creepy, just...strange.

"Uhm, o-okay. W-well do you need something? Or uhm..." How was she supposed to ask why he was just standing there?

[Carter Chevalier]

Truthfully, she almost looked confused at what Carter had said. As if the information and the logic behind it was worth questioning. He couldn't say any of that with certainty, but he had a relatively decent inkling.

Wallflowers. He'd met many before, and he'd meet many more in his time. The assumption was that they weren't special individuals. Given his experience, he could confidently say that was a broad misconception.

"Do you mind if I-?" He asked, indicating to a nearby chair, "You played beautifully. If you don't mind, I'd like to listen."

But of course, where were his manners? Surely he hadn't forgotten simplicities so easily. "I'm Carter. Chevalier."

[Elisia Lark]

He motioned to a nearby chair, starting a question and she just stared at him. He thought she was good at playing the piano? Okay, she knew she wasn't bad because she'd been playing for years, but someone like him wanting to listen was just odd. She didn't even know him. She wasn't sure she'd ever heard of him. Not that she paid attention to anyone worth paying attention to. She liked keeping to herself.

"I don't mind, it's a free space..." She trailed off and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear again. Why did everyone make her so uncomfortable? Even the most easy to talk to people made her stutter and trip over everything. Perhaps that was why, but she really wished she could just forget all of her discomfort.

She trailed fingers along the keys and sideways glanced at him as he spoke his name. Carter Chevalier? No, she couldn't say she'd heard of him. "I'm E-Elisia Lark. Uhm, Ellie works too I guess," She shrugged and glanced back at the piano. Now what was she supposed to say?

"Do you play?"

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter had to nod his head to the logic she used. It was a free space, but it didn't change the fact that she mightn't have even wanted him there in the first place. Still, he took her answer as a genuine one, and opted to sit down.

She was uncomfortable. Anyone could see that. And most people would likely walk away. But few - if any - stood up in comparison to a Chevalier.

"Ellie it is, then." Carter replied, offering her a small, genuine smile. He purposely chose not to drive the conversation - let her do it on her own merit. In her own time. It was easier than barraging her with questions anyway.

He nodded initially to answer her question, even if she wasn't looking at him. "I do. It was my mother's idea." He replied honestly. Few people ever got to hear about a Chevalier's parents. Had she known that, and no one really did, she might have thought to count herself lucky. "I suppose I'm grateful for the decision. Starting at a young age makes it somewhat easier." Not that he was ever overtly invested in it. But a skill was a skill, and they all had their uses.

"How long have you been playing?"

[Elisia Lark]

Elisia took a deep breath as he sat down and stroked her fingers along the ivory. Such a nice instrument to play, soothing to the touch and such a beautiful sound. She just focused on that and her nerves settled a little. It was just like playing a private concert. She didn't get nervous performing in front of people, she never had. It was conversing and small talk that she failed at so miserably.

His smile was pretty. Very pretty, though small. She tilted her head a bit when she took note of it. People didn't always smile outwardly, and blindingly, but she tried, if she ever smiled, to make it a big one. Most people were happier when others smiled wide at them right? God, she didn't know. The more she thought about it, the more her head got muddled with a million things all at once and she was sure she looked like an idiot with her head tilted and a look of complete concentration on her face. Staring at him.

Shoooot!

Ellie felt like hiding under the piano when she realized what she was doing. Slowly, as to not completely out herself, she righted her head and sat up straight, with a neutral expression this time. He spoke of his mom and she could have scrunched her nose at the idea of her own. She didn't though, and instead just thought of Tim because he was practically the only mother figure she wanted in her life. "That's pretty true, I heard that little kids have sponge-like minds so that's how we absorb so much as children. Ya know like walking, eating, speaking and everything," Her eyes widened and she closed her mouth, pressing her lips together in a tight line. There went that rambling of hers.

"Uhm, about ten years," She said meekly, still shocked by her little outburst. "How about you?"

[Carter Chevalier]

When she chose to stare at him, Carter didn't flinch. He didn't shift uncomfortable underneath her gaze. Truthfully, he was used to being stared at. But when she snapped out of it, it was more obvious than the staring itself how much she wanted to move away. But evidently, he found a neutral topic to converse on, and she seemed to open up. At least she managed to talk to him in a way that offered more than a basic sentence.

"You might be right." He agreed, in his own way. It was a means to encourage the simple fact that she was talking to him.

He rested his hands against the keys, though he didn't press a note. Rather, he allowed his fingertips to take in the details of the keys beneath them. His eyes followed suit, running across the black and white on instinct. "Eight." He replied, glancing across at her again. "You must have a thing or two to teach me."

[Elisia Lark]

Elisia felt pretty ridiculous 99% of the time that she spoke. Honestly she was pretty normal once she got past all of the pent up weird that came with first meetings. And second meetings. Maybe even third meetings at times. She just had trouble relaxing around people because there was a possibility of harsh judgment that she couldn't handle because she didn't like confrontation or being judged. That being said, she could withstand quite a bit of assault to her face. It wasn't until she usually was alone that it all hit her. And even then, she found that she wasn't much of a crier. In short, she was afraid of talking to people because they all terrified her.

His answer was so...aloof. Or indifferent. Like he wasn't disagreeing, but he wasn't completely agreeing either. Ellie tilted her head again, but turned back to the piano to keep from making a fool of herself again.

Elisia laughed a little nervously and shook her head, "Uhm, no. Probably not. I mean I was really young so I didn't do anything more than press keys and hope for the best. Nothing special. I'm sure you've learned just as much as me." Or she hoped because the idea of teaching someone something on the piano kind of terrified her. She could sing and play piano in front of tons of people without difficulty. Teaching someone...one on one...was a disaster in the making.