Golden Afternoon (Alex)

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh was feeling great. It was nice out and he was trying to spend as much time outside as he could. His wings fluttered and he scooted himself along with wind currents on his borrowed skateboard. Smiling, he was feeling lighter than air. Things had been well made up with Nao and he’d just come from a doctor’s appointment and he’d gotten his cast off finally! His wrist was in a brace and the doctor simply put it on and said, “you know what to do.” And indeed he did know. Tonight he would take it off and do the wrist exercises and in a couple more weeks he would be one hundred percent again. And then he would be completely free and he could stop hearing from his parents how much he damaged himself by being stupid. No, he hadn’t told him how this one happened, they would probably literally die if they knew he’d gotten into a fight. Well, not really, Nao did most of the fighting…

That had been such a stressful time, and so much miscommunication happening all over the place. He was glad that Nao had chased him down to get him to talk. He still hadn’t had the courage to tell Nao about Jack, there had seemed to be no reason for it when they’d concluded on such a high note. Though Ray was terrified, what if Nao decided he wanted more? What if he was hurt when Raylaigh didn’t want that? How was Ray supposed to tell Nao, that he was afraid that becoming more than friends would be detrimental to his health. Nao wasn’t Jack, but he hadn’t been afraid of Jack at the beginning either. Jack had just been shy and afraid of people finding out about them. It had started so gradually that even going back, Ray probably wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the moment when things became abusive. He shook his head. He wasn’t going to think about it today. No sir!

He kicked off with a foot to catch a little more speed and the music in his earbuds changed. Sliding around the courtyard without much of a care, Ray was just content to be going nowhere. The flyer rounded a corner and caught sight of his best friend. His face brightened significantly and he leapt from his skateboard and used his wings to carry him the distance. Sailing through the air with little effort, the skateboard rolled and bounced out of control without a guide into the bushes nearby. Ray spread his arms out to take hold of his friend. He grinned wickedly and waited until just the right moment to ambush his blind friend. “ALEX!” He cried and landed on her. His momentum slammed his light frame into Alex. Ray flung his arms around Alex. He was light but he was also coming in fast and he wasn’t altogether sure she would hold him. This was probably that thing that his parents were talking about. Not thinking before he did things was his signature thing and frankly it was far too much fun no to do.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex strolled down the hall, keeping close to the wall as she headed for the Courtyard. Usually the Courtyard was less crowded, or at least, more open. Less crowded and more open meant less noise and echoes of noise. Less noise and echoes of noise meant less headache. Less headache meant... well, the obvious. Essentially, the Courtyard, right now, meant a good mood. Not that she was in a bad mood now, but she had a feeling she would be pretty soon if the noise didn't calm down. She massaged her temples, then retrieved one of the several clicky pens she kept in her pocket.

Click, click.

She sidestepped something laying on the floor-- backpack maybe? Instrument case?-- and pushed open the door to the courtyard.

The fresh air hit her like a breath of... well, fresh air. She gave a wry smile as she took a deep breath, pausing for a moment to take in the outdoors. Someone was skateboarding, there was no mistaking the rumbling clack of those wheels. There was a faint buzz of music as well. Headphones, probably.

That aside, it was sunny for sure, and the warm rays felt good after the shady halls.

Click, click.

She twirled her pen and started walking again. A nice peaceful day. Almost boring, actually, though peace and quiet usually was. Maybe she should call over to the skateboarder to see who it was.

Wait. She put her head to the side, listening. The skateboard sounded too light now, as if no one was on it. The rustle of bushes a moment later confirmed her suspicion. Where had the person gone though?

Click, click.

Wait, there was something hovering in the air, just there. Maybe--

"ALEX!"

Alex yelped even as she recognized the voice and was bowled into. The combination of Ray's speed, and her own being caught off guard, ended with her promptly toppling over with a shout.


"Freakin'... Ray!" She whacked in the general direction of his head-- more of a friendly swat than a revenge whack. With the initial surprise past, she have a snort of amusement. "You brat."

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Watching his prey, Ray was feeling giddy. Alex was completely unaware, clicking at her pen. He was sure she heard the skateboard, but she wouldn’t know it was him who was on it. It was a well timed leap and he had his wings to help her. He waited, the whole world seeming to move in slow motion as she seemed to catch the sound of his wings and the sound of the pen clicking off of his body. Now! He was already laughing as he tumbled down with her. Probably not the smartest idea in the world for a boy just free of a cast. Oh well, Ray wasn’t known for being the brightest bulb in the box.

His whole body shook with boisterous laughter as he laid half on Alex. Her reaction only brought out more giggles. There was a solid impact on his head but even that was not enough to stop his laughter. He sat up next to Alex and wrapped his arms around his torso, tears streaming from his eyes. “S-s-sorry,” he said, struggling through giggles, clearly not very sorry at all. Ray wiped at his eyes as he started to recover. His shoulders shook with residual laughter. His grin was beaming and despite the fact that she couldn’t see it he gave her a mockingly innocent expression. “You love me,” he told her. Oh what a great day! He was ecstatic about running into Alex, he felt like they didn’t hang out enough. He hopped energetically to his feet and brushed off his jeans.

Crouching he touched his hand to hers, indicating he would help her up if she wished. Though knowing Alex chances of her accepting that help was just about as likely as her tossing him into the bushes for his bad behavior. “How is your life, Alex? Have you been having a good summer?” He chattered on as if nothing had happened. He would have to retrieve his borrowed skateboard and get Alex to take a break from… whatever it was she was doing and hang out with him. He glanced over his shoulder, yep the skateboard was sticking out of the bushes, luckily he hadn’t been going that fast and the skateboard wasn’t completely buried in the bushes. He hated when that happened and he practically had to climb into the bushes to retrieve it.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex rolled her eyes at Ray's laughter, though barely holding back her own. The little twerp. "You are just so sorry." She gave a wide grin. "But don't worry-- you will be. Paybacks're sweet, dude." Her grin morphed to a saintly smile as she sat up and smoothed her hair back out of her face. Oh yes-- paybacks were lovely things. And he'd just earned one from the Prank Master. Poor him. She snickered to herself.

She clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, focusing for a moment as she worked to locate her pen, which she'd dropped in the surprise of the moment. Ah, just there. She reached out, grabbed it, and gave it a couple clicks to ensure its proper working order. Pen clicking was easier to maintain than the tongue clicking. Mostly because tongue clicking interfered with talking. And it was just weird. She'd bet money she would get ten times more stares from walking around clicking her tongue than walking around clicking a pen. Pen clicking might be annoying to some people, but at least it was pretty normal.

When Ray offered to help her up, she actually decided to take him up on it, grasping his hand firmly as she got to her feet. "Good one," she said, patting his shoulder with an innocent smile, before stepping back to dust herself off.

"Life's been life," she said, shrugging a bit. Really, it'd been pretty chill. Though it had been nice to visit her family. She smiled. "Went home'n'visted the family. Hung out with old friends, got told I needed to take up life as a vigilante like that new TV show with the blind guy." Really, her friends sometimes. Not that the idea didn't sound a little appealing. "Little brother starts middle-school next year, too." How the kid grew. Seemed like only yesterday her parents had been worrying over his diapers. She shook her head. "Went to the beach, too," she added. Though that hadn't been exactly the highlight of the summer, or year even, it was catch-up talk.

"What about you?" She cocked her head to the side, thoughtful. "And what'd you do to your poor arm? It sounds funny."

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray threw his head back and laughed. “I am!” He protested weakly, failing spectacularly at sounding apologetic. He put an arm around her shoulder, undaunted by her threats. “I look forward to it,” he teased. He was already in a hole, he might as well keep digging. Jumping Alex may have not been his best idea ever but Ray wasn’t exactly known for his smart decisions. Alex was the person who had taken a Ray who was afraid of getting in trouble and together they had painted walls. Raylaigh was still so impressed that they hadn’t gotten caught for that, especially when he went to retrieve his shoes. Luckily he didn’t wander around in the dark often enough that people noticed the fading glow of the paint.

He stayed quiet as she clicked her tongue. Honestly if she hadn’t told him he would probably have figured it out eventually. But in his defense, Alex was very aware of her surroundings for someone who couldn’t see. She definitely noticed some things that Ray didn’t. He didn’t make noises as she regained her bearings. If he had any capacity to feel guilty about pranking the Queen of Pranks he probably would. But Alex was tough and he was pretty sure she could kick his ass without very much effort. Back upright, Ray smiled and gave Alex a sweeping bow. “I learned from the best.” He was glad he’d run into Alex, it felt like forever since they had hung out. He smiled broadly and dusted himself off and shook himself off. It was a good thing he’d landed on Alex. Nothing hurt more than usual.

“That’s deep,” Ray joked. He nodded along as she listed the things and the shook his head. “What? What show is that?” He asked curiously, a blind guy vigilante seemed like quite possibly the most awesome thing on television. “You could kick some butt.” He said with a definitive nod. “Oh wow, that’s crazy! I didn’t know you have a little brother. Do you have any other siblings?” It was crazy how fast they all grew up. It didn’t feel like that much with him because well, he had been there and grew up. But with Andrea going into high school now it pretty much blew his mind. That wasn’t even touching how strange it was that Van had just graduated from college. “Oh, which beach? I love beach,” he chirped. He wondered if he could convince his parents to go again this year, it had been so nice to be all together. His dad no working and actually spending time with them.

“Ah ha, yeah, I was clumsy and didn’t stick a landing,” he said, holding up his arm, “I guess it had gotten banged up a little bit before cause it just kinda snapped.” And it had been extremely painful. He left out the part where it snapped probably because of that guy that Nao got into the fight with basically crushing the bones in his wrist. “Anyhoo, that was a while ago, it’s in a brace now so I’ll be good as new in a couple weeks! Other than that everything’s been going good. I am on route to graduate this year which is… terrifying as hell! But I think I’ve decided to go to art school so, yeah ton of work to do.” He grinned at her, “Maybe you can be my model.”

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex chuckled. "Not sure it should be something you should look forward to," she mused, attempting to sound as ominous as possible. "Your lack of disturbance disturbs me, young one." She drummed her fingers together, unable to hide a faint grin.

Learned from the best? Ahahaha... "Darn straight you did," she quipped, smirking. "And don't you forget it!" She took a step over to him and poked him as close to the middle of his chest as she could figure. Really, it had been too long since she last had hung out with Ray. Not because of anything intentional, of course, just summer and getting back into school had a way of messing with friend time. And time in general, really.

Alex brightened a bit more as Ray asked about the blind vigilante show. "You haven't watched it? Dude, come on, get with the times." She gave a dramatic sigh. Not that she had any room to talk-- there were plenty of things her friends back home had been appalled she hadn't kept up with. "It's called 'Daredevil'. He's some superhero that has super-senses and goes around fighting crime and being otherwise epic." She grinned. "Too bad it ain't the real world." Of course, she couldn't let on how much the idea of being a vigilante really did intrigue her. Like any student, she'd struggled with the idea of what to do when Hammel life was in the past. Possible struggled a little more with it, because a lot of places were skeptical about hiring a blind, fresh out of high-school kid. And she didn't want most jobs she could get. That, combined with her penchant for adventure and adrenaline, made vigilante life rather appealing. But that was sorta illegal, unfortunately.

"Nah, just the one brother." She waved a hand. "He's cool, but I'm glad I don't have anymore than him. And we went somewhere in Cali. I forget where exactly. Somewhere hot, sandy, and crowded." She gave a flat smile. "You get to the beach at all?"

Alex wrinkled her nose. "'Just kinda snapped'. You make it sound so simple. I swear, one of these days..." She shook her head. Honestly, she wished the meta power sleuths could come up with something that would strengthen bones for people who had powers like Ray's. She didn't like her friend breaking random bones on a regular basis.

"Art school! Good!" Alex grinned, quite pleased with this. "I'm glad you're actually doin' somethin' with your art. Where you going?" She didn't want to directly address the part about him graduating. Just as she didn't want to talk about any of her friends graduating, or herself graduating, or graduating in general. It meant they'd all scatter and mutually not know what they were doing. Misery possibly loved company, but she was pretty sure confusion didn't. "And I'd love to be your model. So long as you don't get my nose wrong-- I'm very sensitive about that." She nodded seriously.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray laughed, despite Alex’s efforts to seem menacing. She was diabolical, certainly, but she was also his friend. Did he expect to end up in deep trouble? Yes. Did he think he deserved it? At this point also yes. Raylaigh cackled at her, “Being insane does have it’s positive sides, you know.” He pointed out, wishing she could see his wicked grin. Instead he waved a hand around his head in a clockwise manner to indicate he was as sound as a Cuckoo Clock. Well, at least Cuckoo clocks were more or less regular, if terribly annoying. Ray grinned at his friend and was glad to see Alex. It had been far too long since they’d hung out and he was missing his wicked blind friend. He had so much to tell her!

He laughed and swayed dramatically at her poke to his chest. “Ow,” he grumbled, his voice tingling with laugher, clearly not at all damaged, in body or in pride. “See, now you’re gonna have to figure out how show me up, eh? Lest the student be surpassing the teacher.” He giggled. “I am after all, brilliant, brains of a bird and all that jazz,” he said then paused, “wait… never mind.” He laughed, recalling brains of a bird didn’t exactly spell brilliance, rather they spelled the obsession with shiny things and running over and over into windows. Nope, birdbrain was not what he was thinking, he was special. He embraced it. Why not? Being smart only got someone so far, and he would much rather be having fun.

“Sorry!” Ray cried with a laugh. He paid attention when she started describing it and he bit his tongue to resist asking the question of how she watched the show if she herself was blind. “I don’t know, I feel like you could be pretty badass if you put your mind to it, Alex,” he said, nodding his head and considering her as a vigilante. “You’d have to let me make your costume!” He exclaimed excitedly, already imagining her as a Batgirl, Harley Quinn badass. “It would be awesome. I mean you’d have to be careful right, ‘cause what if a bad guy was really a good guy in disguise and you just screw everything up.” He wondered randomly if that was a real think or if he had been watching far too many movies.

“Oh man, you’re lucky. I got two older brothers and an annoying little sister. We went down to Virginia Beach this summer. I love that place, the beach is always the best place in the whole world. I love it!” He grinned at her and immediately ducked his head. Okay, ‘it just kinda snapped’ didn’t exactly sound all that good. He laughed, “Eh, no harm done right, see… I mean, you can touch it, its healing right as rain.” He held out his arm. So he couldn’t roll his wrist yet or anything like that and putting weight on it was a no no but it wasn’t like he’d never broken a bone before. “It’s not gonna be the last one,” he shrugged nonchalantly and laughed, “Oh come on Alex, you’re starting to sound like my parents!” He shook his head. So his parents were worried he would break into a million little pieces. And well, they weren’t that far off, but he was fine, he could heal.

“Uh… that’s a good question, I haven’t really started looking, I mean I know I should will applications and stuff coming due. I’ve been chatting a bit with Mr. Wentsworth and trying to find schools. I also need to convince my dad it’s not a horrible idea.” He shrugged, “How about you, you’re graduating this year too aren’t you?” Raylaigh’s expression lit up with excitement. “You can count on me, Alex! I’ll make sure to give you the best nose ever! I’ll even make you a sculpture, so you can see it!” He said excitedly, not even realizing he’d again used the word ‘see’. It was a good thing Alex didn’t get easily offended. “Ugh, I just wish we didn’t have to do all this stuff, you know. Like I wish we could stay here forever, but you know at the same time, not in high school.” He sighed wistfully and rested his head on her shoulder. An act that made him slouch extremely and probably made him look like a crumpling rag doll.