Storm away [Arlo]

[Anette Blackwood]

She pissed. So very pissed, and a storm raged outside from the fact of it. Her phone lay open on the table and she was staring at the text her friend had sent her. The boy, who was supposedly her boyfriend, had cheated on her. He had told her he would wait for her until she got back. She slammed the phone shut and became even more pissed.

Anette was only thirteen years old and it seemed like she was letting the boy get the best of her. And she was. Her phone rang once again and this time it was Liam, the boy who cheated on her. He was normal and sixteen years of age. Her blue eyes glared at the thought of her brother finding out that she was dating someone so much older than her, but she was known as to be reckless.

Babe, please talk to me. Your friend is a moron.

She slammed her phone shut again and the wind outside picked up. It was blowing so hard, that some of the well rooted trees were bending in submission to it. “How could he do this?” she said coldly to herself, watching lightening strike randomly through the sky. “He thought he was good enough for me? He thought he could cheat on me and get away with it?” Something in her mind told her, imagine him. Strike him down, put him where he belongs. “Gah!” she screamed trying to get her “gift” under control before someone got hurt.

[Arlo Pecatti]

Arlo walked silently into the library noticing the weather outside changing from one thing to another and finally settling on windy. He guessed it was a weather manipulator in a bad mood and glanced around the room as if trying to tell who it was who was controlling it but from what he initially saw, there was nobody there. How could he tell anyway? He barely noticed when his own power was playing up unless he passed out. Then it was pretty obvious.

He took a few steps into the library and then heard the sound of something being slammed on a table and he automatically turned slightly to look in the direction of where the noise came from. So he wasn't alone there then. There was a girl there, not much older than him, and she seemed to be in a bad mood.

Cautiously, he walked closer to her, trying to decide whether he should attempt to start a conversation with her or not. His English was pretty bad at the best of times, or so he had been told, and if she was in a bad mood already it could more than possibly make it worse to be talking to someone who made no sense. Nonetheless though, she did seem pretty annoyed at something. Maybe having someone to talk to could help?

"Hello," he said quietly to her, not wanting to scare her if she hadn't realised he was there and annoy her further. "A-Are you okay?" he asked somewhat nervously, given that she seemed pretty angry and he knew that if the books inside got wet from rain, if she was indeed a weather manipulator, they would quite possibly both get kicked out. He didn't want to annoy her further, he wanted to help her.

[Anette Blackwood]

Anette noticed a boy behind her, smaller and thinner than she was. Her surprise overrode the anger that was boiling in her veins and the storm stopped almost immediately. “Oh, hello,” she said slightly uncomfortable. There was one thing she hated most and that was other people seeing that she was capable of such anger. It tended to leave injuries everywhere, but he had surprised her more than anything.

“I...I’m fine. Well, I will be,” she answered his question looking at her abused phone, Liam’s name blinking on the screen. “Just a little problem with home that’s all.” She gave him a smile. “I’m Anette, Zaeric’s little sister. What’s your name?”

The phone vibrated again and she checked it really quick trying not to seem rude.

You’re a bitch, you know that right? I hope the government kills off you and the rest of your “race.” Almost instantly, hail started beating against the glass.

She could see his look of concern, probably for the first storm. “Don’t worry. I only control the weather, I couldn’t make it snow in my room if I wanted too,” she said giving him a small smile, but really that hid the anger boiling deep within her soul.

[Arlo Pecatti]

Arlo silently watched her, not really approaching her any more or saying anything, just watching. He didn't want to seem rude but she seemed angrier than she was saying she was. It wasn't his place to pry though so he would stay out of it if she wanted him to. "Home problems?" he repeated and nodded a little, somehow understanding. It made some sense that home problems would be hard to cope with there so far away from home. Was she far from home? He didn't even know. "Well I hope that it can be sorted. It seems to have upset you," he commented, more pointing out the obvious there than anything else. "If you wanted to talk about it, I can listen," he added, smiling faintly at her. He would listen but would he understand? He wasn't entirely sure. He understood quite a lot of English but there would always be some things he had to learn still. "Zaeric? I don't think I know him yet," he told her, smiling a little again. "I only been here since two months," he added, not wanting to sound like he was unsociable or weird or anything. He just hadn't met everyone there yet. "Anette is a nice name," he commented, "My name is Arlo."

He noticed the phone going off again, although it seemed to be on vibrate which was probably a good thing given that he had heard the librarians were strict when it came to noise in there. He had never seen them though. "The message is bad?" he asked with a small frown. He didn't have a clue what was on it of course but he had a feeling it wasn't something good at all.

[Anette Blackwood]

Anette gave him a grin and noticed that the hail was continuing outside. “Well then, if you’d like. I was dating someone three years older than me and was naïve enough to think that he would actually wait until I was of age. Well, he didn’t. He had sex with three other girls as soon as I left town. My brother doesn’t know about this and I sure as hell hope he doesn’t hear.” That was the most she had said ever since she had gotten to the Institute and every bit of it was true. “Arlo’s a nice name too, are you Italian?” she asked cocking her head at him.

She was crushing the phone in her hand when she forced herself to relax and answer his question with her eyes closed, “Just Liam being a butt like he always is.”

Anette took a good look at him, his small frame and black hair and the green eyes. She bent down to take a better look and grinned again. “How old are you?” she asked straightening her back and putting the phone gently on the table. The hail had stopped and was replaced with a little bit of wind, her anger disappearing faster as the boy spoke more.

[Arlo Pecatti]

Arlo listened to her talking and nodded a little to her words. He didn't sound like a very nice person to cheat on her as soon as her back was turned. "Well, then, he doesn't deserve to be with you if he won't wait," he said, frowning slightly. He did sound like the sort of person who wasn't worth being with anyway. But then he supposed everyone was different in some way and maybe he just liked to be with more than one person at once? He couldn't understand that viewpoint at all though. He was the sort to be loyal himself, or so he thought he would be. He was loyal to friends and family anyway.

"Italian?" Arlo grinned. Most people didn't guess where he was from so fast. "Yeah, I am Italian," he nodded. "I moved to America with my brother and then this place stole me," he smiled. He liked it there though. It was nice. "Where you are from?" he asked curiously.

Arlo frowned when she said 'Just Liam being a butt like he always is'. It seemed like he was far from the nicest of people, although he didn't really want to say that because she clearly must have cared about him once or they wouldn't have been together. He just nodded slightly rather than responding with words. It made more sense that way to him.

Hearing her next question, he found it to be somewhat strange but he decided to answer it anyway. "I'm 12. Why?" he asked, although he somewhat wondered if it was because he was short and thin and looked somewhat out of place there. He thought she was a little older than him but he wasn't sure whether he should ask or not.

[Anette Blackwood]

Anette nodded in agreement and smiled at him. “Yes, I know. I can be a little naïve at times,” she said shaking her head in shame and then popped it back up again, the look in her eyes was far off and thoughtful.

“It’s amazing! I guessed right. I’m from the north east. My mom sent me up here as soon as my ‘gift’ started to show itself.” That day had terrified her and she wished she could take back the tornado and be friends with her again. It made her wonder though; could she conquer up snow and wind storms in buildings such as this? She had only been able to change the weather along with her mood, but hadn’t been able to make it rain when her heart was happy.

“You look about fourteen. I wasn’t sure if you were older or younger than me,” she said peering at him and smiling again. There was something about this small boy that she trusted instantly and knew that she would make a great friend with. “Your very trust worthy,” she observed looking out the window again.

[Arlo Pecatti]

Arlo frowned slightly, "But you can learn from it, yes? So not all is bad?" he smiled a little at her, hoping that his positivity wasn't a bad thing. He was just trying to help her feel better. He didn't want her to be sad because her being sad seemed like it didn't fit her somehow.

"The North East?" he repeated, smiling. "It is not as far away as Italy.," he laughed. Italy always felt millions of miles away when he was in other countries. "It is nice there?" he asked curiously. He hadn't had a chance to look around the country much at all yet. He planned to do so one day though. "You like it here?" he asked when she seemed to be saying that her 'gift' was almost unwanted and had changed her life. He could understand that part, having been taken away from the person closest to him to go there, but he had grown to like it.

"I do?" he repeated, looking down at himself, then back up again to look at her. "My brother said I look about seven," he laughed. "I have grown I think though," he commented as he realised he could actually see onto the next shelf up on the bookshelf now. He hadn't noticed it before. Maybe finally he would grow to be the same height as everyone else. He liked that idea. He heard her say he was trust worthy and he smiled, "Thanks. You seem trust worthy too," he nodded and smiled as he realised he might have another friend. He still wasn't used to the idea of making friends really.

[Anette Blackwood]

Anette laughed and nodded. “I can.”

“No it’s not that far, but I miss my home. It’s okay here at Hammel, I mean, no one’s treated me badly so far, it’s just I lost one of my closest friends when my ‘gift’ had shown itself because she was caught in the middle of it. I suppose she was lucky to get away with minor injuries, but still, I was lucky that her parents didn’t sue me. They’re anti-meta-human. And, I get to see my brother more often so I like it here.”

“Your brother’s a dork,” she teased. “And I’m glad you’ve grown,” she said burrowing her eyebrows and laughing. “I’m glad I seem trust worthy and you’ve seen me while I’m pissed off and what my ‘gift’ can do and that didn’t scare you away.” She sat on the table and swung her legs in the empty air looking thoughtfully out the window.

He was just like her in some ways, uprooted from the one place he knew and put in his Institute, she supposed it would’ve been different had she been an older age, but being thirteen and basically on your own was a little scary. Perhaps even scarier for him.

[Arlo Pecatti]

Arlo slowly nodded to her words. It must have been pretty hard to have lost one of your closest friends over something like a power. Really, he was perhaps lucky he hadn't had friends there in America when the powers had manifested? He wasn't sure. He would have liked to have met friends there before because then he would have learned more English and things would have been easier for him there in an American institute. "It is bad that you lose your friend but it is good to be with your brother. You are close to him?" he asked. It seemed they were both close to one particular family member. He liked finding others with similarities like that.

Arlo smiled when she said his brother was a dork, "He is 6 foot 6 tall though so I don't argue when he says I am as big as a seven year old because he might squash me," he laughed. It was true though, Arlo was pretty small and Silvestro was massive. People had often said they thought Arlo was Silvestro's son when they were in fact only 5 or 6 years apart in age.

Arlo tilted his head to the side, glancing back outside and then back at her again. So it had definitely been her that caused the weather to be odd. "I don't want this to sound... Mean... But... I prefer the cold weather. So if you are happy and it is sunshine, I think I would dislike that. So it is better to be scary than hot weather," he laughed a little. "My power is heat resistance. So when there is sun, I can pass out," he explained, not wanting her to think he didn't want her to be happy. He did. He just didn't want to be ill again.

[Anette Blackwood]

Anette didn’t say any thing, she just let him talk. She loved to hear other people talk. She didn’t know why, but it was a comfort thing. She smiled when talked about his brother, and then opened her mouth to answer his question, “I suppose we’re close. I mean, ever since he moved here, we only talked on the computer and it was hard to tell what he was thinking. I can read him like a book when we’re in person, but computer is the worst communication there is and it’s hard to tell when he’s being serious or joking around.”

“Well, I can completely understand that and when I get a control on my ‘gift’ and we hang out, I’m going to make it cold and sunny. So, then you won’t pass out, but you might want to dress warmly!” she said grinning at him and looking at the window.

[Arlo Pecatti]

Arlo nodded, agreeing with what she said. He could entirely understand the concept of not truly understanding how a person felt through a computer. He got that quite a bit with his family. He simply had no idea how most of them were, really. They all said they were fine but whether they really were or not, he wasn't sure. "It is good to see people with real life not with computers," he agreed. "Sometimes you know they seem not to be right on a computer but it could be the way it sounds when it's typed," he added, pretty much repeating exactly what she had said.

Arlo grinned at that idea, "That sounds nice," he told her. "And when I am contolling my power, I can... Erm... Stop you being burned?" he suggested, shrugging a little to show he wasn't really sure if that would be helpful but wanting to help her in return somehow.

[Anette Blackwood]

She gave a laugh and grinned at him. It seemed that she made a very nice friend in this quiet library. She looked out the window thinking, the sun shining through, a sign that her temper was gone. Ever since Anette has scared off her best friend by her “gift”, she had been scared to make any friends, but here was this boy who was telling her that it was better to be scary than to be in a good mood. It made her laugh on the inside and the clouds disappeared. She was in a truly good mood.

“Can you do that?” she asked looking back at him. Arlo was a tiny thing, but she was pretty sure he could do some harm if he wanted to.

“Do you speak English well?”

[Arlo Pecatti]

Arlo watched her silently for a few seconds before returning his gaze to the window as well where the weather seemed to have changed dramatically. Had she made it sunny now? He wasn't sure. Weather manipulation seemed to just happen and could be controlled by anyone with the power in the area. It was nice that the weather could change like that but when you were the one caught in it without the powers to change it, it was an entirely different matter.

Arlo looked back at her when she spoke and he nodded a little, "I think so. I dropped hot oil over my brother and myself. I passed out from the power but he didn't get burned," he explained, shrugging a little. Whether he had caused that or his brother was just lucky, he wasn't entirely sure. He liked to think it was the power though because that meant he had helped his brother for once rather than the other way round.

"Sort of. Normal conversation is okay and I learn to speak it fast. But if it is specific about something I don't know, then it is confusing," he said, trying to think of an example. "I can understand things such as recipes but reading paint ingredients, I wouldn't understand," he finally stated, smiling a little.

[Anette Blackwood]

Anette felt a huge urge to hug him. “I can help you with your English if you’d like. And don’t worry, I’ve grown up in America and I can’t even read paint ingredients.” And then she did it. She gave him a hug, her long arms wrapping around his small, lanky body.

She pulled away and turned bright red in the face. “I...I’m sorry. I don’t know what that was,” she stammered turning away from him and looking at the nearest bookcase. She was mentally laughing at herself and trying to calm down her heart rate. She was excited and happy. Outside, the gloom disappeared, the clouds disappeared, the wind picked up suitably, but enough to keep it under eighty outside. That’s how happy she was.