Time Warp: Autumn Leaves {Nory}

[Lany Bishop]

Hammel wasn’t as much of a shock to Lany as it might have been to other new students. She came from a long line of meta-humans; she grew up knowing she would eventually come here…at least, she hoped to be. Lany couldn’t have imagined living without meta powers, surrounded by brothers and sisters that had them. When first she whipped up a breeze all on her own, she was very much relieved to have her power show itself at last. The eddies of wind currents felt wonderfully refreshing.

Not so much during an unseasonably chilly September day, though. Lany was as eager as anyone to get out of the cold and into the warm dorms, and, of course, to check out and settle in. She wasn’t worried; she had many family members here to help her. She could have just stayed at home, of course, but Lany had begged and begged them to let her stay in the dorms, at least for one year – she wanted the full experience.

So here she was. She wasn’t anticipating any conflicts to arise between roommates. It was rare that Lany fought, with anyone at all.

She’d been putting up posters, and organizing her clothes, when she heard the suite door open. Lany turned to face the newcomer. Wiping some hair from her mouth, she smiled, and hopped down from the chair she’d been standing on.

“Hi,” she said. “I guess… we’re gonna be roommates.”

Lany blinked at her; she looked so young.

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

Nora Marie woke up that morning with a smile on her face. Today was finally the day! Today, the dorm monitor had informed her, she got a new roommate.

While Ms. Rivera walked the class through dividing fractions, Nora Marie tried to figure out whether she should play her Taylor Swift or Owl City CD first for her new dorm buddy. During band, she played the same two notes over and over on her trumpet while she imagined what movie they would watch during their first sleep over in the common living room. At their second-to-last counseling session, Dr. Neville could tell very plainly that she was thinking not about her brother or anxiety coping strategies, but best friend secret handshakes.

Finally, at 4 o'clock, Nora Marie burst from Dr. Neville's office like a thoroughbred from the starting gate. Down the stairs, past the front windows, through the main hall and up into the girls dorms she raced, pausing only to check for mail. Outside her room, she slowed to a walk and made an attempt to catch her breath and a pat her hair down. Then, with a nervous grin, she pushed open the door.

For all the time that she had spent fantasizing about what they would do together, Nory had devoted very little thought to what her new roommate would actually be like. On a chair past the living room that she had forgotten to clean that morning, she saw a girl not unlike herself. Small, round-faced, smiling. Nory was thrilled.

"Yeah!" Nora Marie bounded forward. "My name's Nora Marie! I hope you haven't been here too long, I just got back from class. Can I help? What posters do you have? You just got here today, right?" She wiggled out of her backpack and halted in front of Lany, looking ready to explode from excitement. "I'm so glad you're finally here!"

[Lany Bishop]

Lany held a half-curled poster to her chest. She looked stunned for a second, frozen in the face of her new roommate’s enthusiasm. “Oh…” she began, softly, “I – I didn’t realize you were expecting me?”

Still, she smiled, and held out a hand. “I’m Lany,” she said, putting her faith in the hopes Nora would reciprocate with her name.

Unlike Nora, Lany was as soft spoken as could be. She was friendly, but quiet, and she rarely if ever showed great excitement for anything at all. Her body language was tucked in – her toes facing each other, her arms folded over the half-curled poster, as if to take up as little room as possible. She had always been this way. She had weathered numerous attempts to tell her ‘just to let go’ or ‘just have fun’ and each time it had failed to help her. The girl had build an impenetrable shell and there was no signs of her coming out soon.

“Well,” she began. “I suppose you can help, if you like,” she said, still blushing avidly. “But you really don’t need to…you’re so…” Lany blinked. “Well, you’re so young. Did you just get here?”

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

Nora Marie beamed at her. "Yeah, the dorm monitor told me yesterday, said I should clean up a little." She looked back over her shoulder into the common living area. "...Yeah, sorry, I forgot to do that." She turned back to Lany with a sheepish grin and shook her hand. "Lany? Nice to meet you! I'm Nora Marie, but everybody calls me Nory."

Though clearly still excited enough to jump out of her skin, Lany's hesitation scaled Nory down a few notches. For example, instead of bursting into tears or rushing to get her photo album when Lany asked about how long she'd been there, she merely pushed her bangs out of her face and said defiantly, "I'm not that young. I'm twelve, and I've been here more than a year. There aren't a lot of other people here my age, though." Nory's eyes dimmed, and she looked suddenly crestfallen. "Especially when I first got here, I was one of the youngest. But that's why I'm so happy that you're here!" As quickly as it had come, the gloom vanished, and she ran off with a cry of, "Here, I have some more tape!"

The girl reappeared in a twinkling, carrying a box of thumb tacks and a roll of tape. "Can I help put up posters? Or do you need to move furniture or anything?" About a dozen other offers, like showing her around the dorms or cafeteria or introducing her to teachers or braiding her hair, clamored in her head, but Lany was obviously a bit bowled-over and Nory didn't want to her new roommate to think she was pushy.

[Lany Bishop]

It wasn’t that she found Nora off-putting – in fact, she rather liked having her new roommate so enthusiastic about her arrival – but she often faltered in the face of such – well, hyperactivity. She always wondered if she could do enough to entertain them. Her twin brothers, John and Jacob, were much the same…and Lany couldn’t say she handled them too well. In the end, they were simply too much to put up with.

But she did want to put in some effort with Nora, and she seemed sweet besides. Lany wondered about her, being so young, without family here at the school. Maybe they were even in different states. It must have been a little overwhelming for a girl her age to be fending for herself…though Lany could have been jumping to conclusions. “Sorry,” she amended, with a small smile. “You’re right. I just don’t see many people your age. That’s all.”

“My furniture’s all here,” she said. Carrying the poster in her arms, she walked back from the common room into hers. There was the bed already made up, a dresser, a TV; luckily for her, too, the view from the window was ideal. Some posters were already up – most depicting horses. “Well, I have about three of these left,” she said, indicating some more rolls of posters lying on her mattress. “Just put ‘em up side by side.”

After a pause, Lany cleared her throat. “So, Nora…how do you like it here?”

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

"It's fine." Nory hoisted her jeans a little further up her skinny hips. "There's not a lot of us. I'm an early bloomer," she said with a crooked smile.

Nory followed Lany out of the common room and into her bedroom, still chatting. "It's really not that bad, and I know more people are going to start showing up. So it's only uphill from here. Oh what cool posters! I love horses!" She dumped her armload of tape on the bed and carefully unrolled one. "I'd love to help!" She climbed onto the bed, sending a roll of tape flying in the process, and took one of the posters and spread it out against the wall. "These are so pretty! Have you ever gotten to do any horseback riding? I never have, we lived in the city, but I always wanted to." She paused and bit her lip as she measured the poster out as straight as she could manage. First one, then two tacks pressed into the wall. "There!" She reached for another.

"Oh, it's great!" Nory beamed at Lany. "All the teachers are really nice, and the food's good and the classes are fun. I can show you around, if you want." Her chest puffed in pride. She imagined herself taking Lany under her wing and showing her all the best places to eat and her favorite spots on campus and the best teachers. Sooner or later the illusion would be shattered when she found out that Hammel was anything but uncharted territory for one of the Bishop clan. "I hope you get Mr. Batista, he's my trainer and he's the best," the young girl continued. "Oh yeah! What's your power?" Nory sat down on the bed with a grin and wrapped her arms around her legs. "No, let me guess. Shifter?"

[Lany Bishop]

Lany smiled at her as she put the posters up. Nora could have put them in any way, skewed or not, and she would not have paused to correct her; she just seemed so thrilled to help. Besides, it looked like she was doing fine on her own. “Yes, I – do a little work at the stables in Pilot Ridge. They have them right down the street where I live. They’re a lot of work, you know.” Inwardly, Lany winced. She couldn’t go and treat Nora like a kid – she supposed it was just habit, being around someone as young as her, and having as many siblings as she did. “They let me ride Knight. He’s a big guy.” Lany flashed her another smile. “He’s gray, and he’s got a black nose.”

Lany could have gone on and on and on about him. Horses were her favorite subject – though she tried to keep a lid on it, for the benefit of those around her, and only rambled on when prompted.

“Oh, if you’d like,” she responded. Her cheeks were becoming red. She had thought to ask one of her siblings around, but…why not Nora? They could get to know each other better. “I’ll try to keep up,” she giggled.

Lany mimicked her, folding her legs on the bed. “No, not that. That would be nice, though, wouldn’t it?...But I’m an aerokinetic. I can…I can move wind, I suppose. Air.” She shrugged. “I would have liked to fly. My sister can.” Lany’s smile was soft and sweet. “How about you?...And I don’t have a trainer – do you like him? Maybe I can ask…”

[sorry it took so long!]

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

[no problem ^^]

Thrilled was a good way to describe it. From the general buzz of her demeanor, Nory looked like she would have listened ecstatically to Lany talk about Swedish horticulture. "Really?" she looked under one armpit to grin at the other girl as she pinned up the posters. "I've never gone to see those! I would love to visit sometime! Do you think you could get permission or anything? Maybe I could meet Knight too! Is he sweet? Is he fast?"

Aerokinesis sounded like a great power, and Nory couldn't help a little burst of envy. "Really? What can you do? Like, could you move the papers by the wastebasket over there?" She pointed to a few wadded-up pieces of homework by the trash can. "Man, I bet you can do great stuff with kites."

Her own power was a lot less interesting. Nory scratched the side of her head. "I can do this chemistry stuff. Radiation manipulation. Like, nuclear stuff? It's really boring." She laughed. "Like, when I do it you can't even tell, except I get sick sometimes." She pointed at the metal bracelet on her wrist, which looked like the ones people with life-threatening allergies sometimes wore. "That's why I have to wear this thing. But Mr. Batista is the best." The sudden cloud of gloom vanished as quickly as it had come. "He makes you run laps but he's really nice and really smart. Who does your sister have? Who is your sister?"

The questions, it seemed, never ended.