If Only Malls Had Bellboys...(Open)

[Liam & Logan Griffiths]

Liam and Logan were sitting in the food court at the mall checking out a new sushi place their mother had suggested to them. While eating, they were taking the time to look over the books for the classes for their upcoming semester. Liam was balancing a Neurobiology book on his knees, while Logan reviewed their Behavioral Psychology II book between bites of his spicy tuna roll.

Taking a break from his chapter, Liam looked up to see a person walking through the mall carrying several oversized bags. He reached out his hand to point the person out to Logan. The twins often played a game of guessing what people had in their bags. But Logan had already turned around to look before Liam had even touched him, almost as if he had read his mind. Something that was happening more and more. Although the twins were getting used to it, it still caught them off guard sometimes.

”They seem to have purchased - ” Logan began. "A little more than they can handle." Liam finished. Both twins shook their heads disapprovingly. They never understood why people didn’t think things out in advance. People could be so foolish. They would save so much trouble for themselves just by planning instead of doing things on a whim. Still, they felt as though they should help.

Closing their books, they stood and walked over to the weighed down person. “Need a hand?” ”Need a hand?”

[Ann Hudgins]

Dressed

Ann didn't go on 'shopping sprees.' She didn't have a huge paycheck to spend. All her money goes into a college fund, for next year. However. Ann's dorm roommate decided she wanted to join a sorority, and one of the sorority sister's let loose a raccoon in their dorm and destroyed all of her clothes. Not just a shirt or two, but no, all of them. When Ann found out, she told the RA immediately, went to the student office, filed complaints, demanded something be done about it. Ann was prepared to go to the sorority house and murderlize every single one of the bitches until someone stepped forward and admitted who did it. There was an investigation pending about the entire thing, but Ann's roommate, refused to testify as a witness in student court about it (her clothes weren't injured)--she had money, she could replace her clothes. Ann, had to yell and scream and fight, until finally she got some attention and a negative light got shone on the sorority, parents were notified.

Ann got a large chunk of hush money.

It bought her a whole new wardrobe, with still some left over but Ann was still pissed about the entire thing.

Arms laden down with some bags of clothes, she tried to make her way through the food court, but as it seemed everyone and their brother was at the mall today. She sagged sideways and let out a grunt of frustration. Upon hearing a voice, the brunette looked away from the person she was currently glaring a hole in the back of their head and towards those who spoke.

"If...well no, but..." Okay, she did, the combined weight of the bags on one of her arms was cutting off her circulation. She held out the said arm for them to take with an appreciative smile. "Thank you so much." She did mean it, even if she was stressed and pissed beyond belief. One great part about being an empath was the ability to just let some emotions go; like the overwhelming urge to punch all things that move.

[Liam & Logan Griffiths]

The twins reached out to take the bags from her, each carrying them easily with one hand. They noticed the girl seemed a little upset and felt like they should be able to offer something more. ”Were you planning on getting something to eat? Liam asked. ”We’ve already set up on a table over there,” Logan continued as the twins both pointed to where they had spread out their books. ”You’re welcome to join us.” ”You’re welcome to join us.”

Knowing that the logical solution was for her to at least sit and rest a moment, the twins walked over to their table to lay down the bags. They pushed their books to the side making room for the girl to sit. ”I’m Liam.” ”I’m Logan.” As each twin introduced himself, he reached out his hand for her to shake. ”You like sushi?” Liam asked. ”The new place right there is fairly decent.” Logan continued.

As the twins sat down, it occurred to them they had seen this girl around before. Probably from school. From her age, and the style of clothing she had purchased, the deduced that she was probably a sorority girl from the university. ”We go to school with you.” ”At the University of Vermont, correct?

[Ann Hudgins]

Ann had heard of Gestalt pairs before. She'd come across some research papers whilst she spent her time down in the basement of Hammel--for training and experimenting on her own powers to see her limits and what not--the power interested her to no end because it was so hard for her to wrap her brain around it. Two conscious' becoming one. So strange.

Her initial curiosity subsided when they took the bags from her and the blood flowed back to her arm. She maneuvered her bike helmet out of her arm pit and sighed faintly. She felt their concern and realization about her being upset (their combined emotion being the same thing, and standing so close to her made them pretty easy to read), and smiled faintly at their kindness. When they invited her to their table, Ann figured why the hell not? She no longer had that fear of meeting new people; working as a secretary for the summer months sorted that out.

She followed them over to their table and sat down, though I'd call it 'collapsing.' She turned her attention to the sushi that they suggested but she shook her head a little. Ann didn't eat a lot of things, unknown parts of raw fish and sea weed were on that list. "No thanks. I just need a moment to focus." She answered their question before their greeting, "and I'm Ann. Nice to meet you both." She wasn't particularly hungry anyway. She'd spent more money than she liked--even if it wasn't necessarily hers.

When one of them (Logan? No wait, the other one was Logan)--identical Twins were Ann's worst nightmare--said they went to school with her, she thought immediately of Hammel. Of course they did. Metas in this area (the U.S. and Canada) went to Hammel--unless they went to Kocher or something, but then how would they be here now?

Oh yeah. University. Duh. Ann scratched behind her ear and tried to think through all of her general education classes (starting easy) in case she might have a class with either one of them, but she just didn't recognize them. "Uh yeah, I go to the University. I just started this semester. My first day was like...last week or something." It seemed like ages since she had free time. "I don't remember seeing either of you around though, sorry." She did feel a little bad. She was just terrible with names and faces.

[Liam & Logan Griffiths]

Liam and Logan were glad the girl had decided to take them up on the offer of sitting to rest for a moment. It really troubled them when people couldn’t understand that their suggestions were usually the right choice to make. ”Focus?” Liam asked. ”On anything in particular?” Logan continued. They almost smiled, almost, at idea of focusing for only a minute. To the twins, focusing was a full-time job.

Although Ann had confirmed their belief that they knew her from University, they felt like they knew her from somewhere else as well. ”Are you a fellow Hammel graduate as well?” ”Are you a fellow Hammel graduate as well?” they asked in unison, assuming that to be the only other place that would make sense. After all, the twins hadn’t spent much time in the public school system before their powers became apparent. They wondered if Ann remembered them as the constant bickering brothers they were in their youths, instead of the tag-team they had become.

”No need to apologize,” ”We take a lot of upper level classes,” they explained. ”Not many students would recall us from class.” ”Not many students would recall us from class.” The twins started looking around at the other choices that the food court offered. They still felt as though Ann should take a moment to eat. Even if she was against sushi, there were several options close by.

“So Ann, have you chosen a major?” Or are you still debating? Their fellow students thought process on choosing a major interested them. Even though with some students it could be a touchy subject, they could never stop themselves from bringing it up.

[Ann Hudgins]

"For my power--" Ann realized that they didn't know all about her empathy 'problem,' she laughed softly to herself for her lapse in thought and vaguely gestured with he hand. "If I don't keep my feelings in check and concentrate all the time, my power will short circuit and it won't be fun for anyone." Severe mood swings, for absolutely no reason, would ruin anyone's day. Ann would feel pretty shitty if she emptied the food court because everyone was so, so terribly mad they couldn't keep their hands from shaking.

"Hammel, yeah," she confirmed with a nod of her head. It didn't take any meta with a brain to know that Liam and Logan were a gestalt pair. The only ones she had ever met (or seen) before was at the graduation, with those two Operation Patriot or whatever it was. "I graduated at the beginning of the summer." She still could hardly believe that she had passed her training well enough to move off campus and attend college full time--her trainer let her know she was ready about two weeks before graduation. Ann was stuck smiling for at least three days.

Ann's eye twitched at their suggesting she hadn't seen them because of their upper level classes. Like she wasn't smart enough? Ann did take the difficult classes, she just didn't oogle at every single male (or female) that was in her class---she was also just terrible with remembering faces and names.

She realized her anger flared up, at this little tiny thing and she let out a slow breath and smiled faintly. She did not need to take her anger out on these two nice boys. She was glad when they asked her a question not pertaining to their previous rude assumption, "Counseling." She nodded faintly. It only made sense. She wanted to help people, like how Dr. Neville helped her. Her power of empathy would greatly help in this field (almost as good as being a telepath, she figures). Sure, it would take her quite a while, but if she can afford the schooling, it was worth it--even if it did take eight years. "I thought maybe once I got my masters, or Doctorate, I could return to Hammel." Ann didn't think she could do a normal public school--Ann wanted metas and non to integrate and accept each other just as much as the next meta, but she also didn't want to have to deal with those that didn't. Ann had no patience for bigots like that. People are people.

"What about the two of you?" Or since they are a Gestalt Pair, did that make them one? Ann was always confuse about that. Maybe she'd ask them.

Probably not though.

[Liam & Logan Griffiths]

The twins nodded along as Ann semi-explained she needed a break because of her power. Although the twins were still not exactly sure what her power was, even though they were both sorting through their memories from Hammel for a clue, they understood the reasoning behind it. Most metas found it necessary to relax and re-group for a moment to keep their abilities in check. With the word ‘feelings’ they assumed that Ann was either a telepath or an empath. But then again short circuiting refered to something more electric related. ”So you’re a telepath?” ”Or perhaps an empathy?” the twins asked, deciding to simply give it an educated guess. They didn’t both to inform her of being a gestalt pair. Even the new students at Hammel could guess that much. Being identical twins and all tended to give them away.

The twins noticed Ann’s slight twitch, but assumed it was because she was tired rather than from something they had said. ”Would you like us-“ ”-to get you some water or something?” they offered.

The twins smiled faintly as Ann told them what she was studying, a rare occurrence for them. ”We’re working on Psychology majors as well.” ”We’re working on Psychology majors as well.” They brothers agreed with Ann on her view that dealing with metas instead of non-powered individuals would be the right fit for them. They considered offering their services as tutors, but decided that there would be time for that later if they saw that it might be needed. ”Guess we’ll be seeing you around the school then,” ”Are you living on campus?”

[Ann Hudgins]

"Empathy...yeah. Good guess." Ann smiled a little. She wouldn't lie. It was a little weird and hard to follow them both when they spoke at the same time, but it was also kinda cool. She didn't have any siblings, but her and Aiden sometimes got on the same level and didn't have to speak in complete sentences to get what each other was saying. She could hardly imagine actually sharing a brain with him though. That was just far out.

When they offered to get her a water, Ann almost took them up on it, but she felt bad for considering it. Here they were being nice to her, helping her with her bags and just generally being friendly and there she was getting offended and being short with them. "Oh, no thanks. But thank you for offering." She did mean it, even though their words of insulting her intelligence still stung.

"That's cool. What do you want to be after you graduate?" Counseling pretty much answered that question for herself anyway, but she was curious as to what a Gestalt Pair would do with a degree in Psychology. "Yeah, that would be nice to know someone already the first day of class." The chances that they would be having a class together, with the same majors, was pretty good, she almost liked the idea; a part of Ann, however, like the anonymity--no one bothered her in class. "Yeah, I do. I'm beginning to regret it, however. Who would have thought college girls were actually like college girls on TV? I was hoping it was a myth." Ann really just could not understand how girls paid all that money to get into college and have a dorm, and then just spent the entire time partying and drinking, and wasting all their time. Ann just couldn't understand it.

[Liam & Logan Griffiths]

Liam and Logan smiled, knowing that their conclusion about her ability had been more than a guess. They felt a little uneasy when she declined their offer for water, but only because they weren't sure what else they had to offer. Luckily the conversation swung towards another topic.

"We'll firstly we decided to pursue this degree because we wanted the opportunity to help other young metas adjust to their lives as we were once helped," Liam started.

"But also, the human mind is so complex and intriguing. We've found it to be one of the only subjects that really captivates us." Logan contiuned.

"It's our passion." "It's our passion."

The twins considered showing Ann the notebooks they had been compiling data and observations into for the past few weeks. They were hoping to publish the results of their study by the end of the semester. For the time being, they decided to hold back. After all, she already seemed a little overwhelmed.

"It's a sad truth." "It's a sad truth." The twins said after her statement about college girls.

"Sowing their wild oats, perhaps," "At least the Amish refer to is as that."

"Still we agree, it doesn't make it any less annoying." "Still we agree, it doesn't make it any less annoying."