Bucket Math (o)

[Brea White]

Brea was settling in for some intense studying. This wasn’t as easy of a task as it sounded. There were a lot of distractions in the school, and Brea didn’t get a lot of studying at home because she would hang out with her family members and have discussions with her parents and with her brothers. Not so this time. She was going to actually focus on her work. And in order to do so, she had taken steps.

Okay, so they were kind of drastic steps, but still. She’d put a bucket full of cold water above the door and had balanced it there with a string, set to tip it over when it opened the door. That had taken some stretching and a major amount of engineer planning, and she’d only managed to set it up on one door anyways, because setting it up on two would have been tricky.

And so okay, maybe it wasn’t helping her with her studying. Maybe she was watching out of the corner of her eye to see if it fell on anyone. But who could blame her? When you did a trick like this, you wanted it to turn out right. But in the meantime, there was algebra to study.

[Aisling MacGrory]

In a school such as Hammel, there was roughly a 13.6% probability that someone would do something to a door, or that a door would be generally dangerous. Aisling didn't often stop to consider such things, but her mind had a tendency of working without her permission anyway. Perhaps it just loved providing unusual statistics. Or perhaps that was simply how Aisling worked. Regardless, there the number was.

Yet she opened the door anyway. 86.4% struck Aisling as being within the "acceptable risk" change. Had she known that someone such as Brea was in the area, she perhaps would have stopped to consider. The sound caught Aisling first, her brain instantly flinging up numbers to remind her of the chances. Her head jerked up, and again, more images and numbers flitted through that mind. So many options, so many methods of remaining wet or dry. It overwhelmed Aisling.

So she wound up being completely soaked. Aisling blinked. She reached up, wiping at the water with the edge of her sleeve. At least she had a wool sweater on; that had to help. But why set up a trap? Aisling looked at it, did some quick math, and let her eyes travel. There, someone studying.

Aisling nodded then. It made sense. She pointed at the girl, then pointed above her head, as if asking. It was more curiosity than anything else, though being soaking wet was leaving Aisling feeling rather out of sorts. She looked even smaller than usual. Not that she'd even think of blaming or something.

She still shifted, clearly trying to figure out whether or not she should be praising or protesting.

{I am slightly confused though. What door's outside?}

[Brea White]

The sound of the door opening would have almost dragged Brea’s attention away from her equations. Had she been a less experienced prankster, it definitely would have. But Brea knew her stuff, and when you knew your stuff, you didn’t make an obvious mistake like going to point and laugh at the person being pranked. You kept on with what you were doing and kept a straight face, although it was hard when the bucket tipped over like it was from a cartoon. It was textbook. Brea wanted to squirm in her seat at the satisfaction of a job well done.

The person who the bucket fell on was not a teacher. Or she didn’t think it was. The girl who stood there, blinking and wiping away water, seemed a little too young for it. And she wasn’t a boy either. That was disappointing. Brea liked playing pranks on boys. They never expected it from her. In fact, the girl took silently. She just wiped herself down, not even looking that surprised, and then pointed at Brea.

Uh oh. Looked like she’d been caught. But how? She thought she’d done everything right…

…except that she’d studied alone and hadn’t thought about a fall guy. Whoops. Oh well. You took your lumps graciously. That she’d learned from her mom (not from her mother’s character, mind, but from what her mother had put her through. Some of those punishments just weren’t fair).

“I was trying to study and didn’t want to be bothered,” she explained calmly enough. The other girl—woman? Whatever—hadn’t gotten mad at her so far. So why get upset and flustered? And no point in denying it either—she seemed to have figured it out. “That, and I like pranking people. Want a jacket? I brought a spare.” She pointed to a neat pile of clothes on the bench. “And a towel.”

Just because you pranked people didn’t mean you couldn’t be gracious about it. Besides, Brea had been using it to bundle herself up. It got kinda cold sometimes.

((Faaaaatte.>> I am sorry for the delay.))

[Aisling MacGrory]

{is okay, you pretty much said "Is gonna be a while"}

Trying to study, so Aisling's hypothesis had been correct. She couldn't help but smile at that, though she was still dealing with the unpleasantness of being quite wet. She kept trying to find dry patches of sweater to use to mop up the not so dry pieces of Aisling, and was doing fairly well. A towel would make things better.

And lo, Brea did produce that very object! And a jacket. Aisling nodded, walking over to the pile, searching for an eventually pulling out the towel. She spent a few seconds checking for a jacket, glad that she was drifted more toward the smaller side. While drying, Aisling looked back at the door, her mind doing the computations for her. Probabilities and patterns lined up for Aisling, drawing the full picture for her. Quite impressive.

Curious, Aisling looked back at Brea. She tilted her head, then turned to point toward the door. Brea had pretty well admitted to it, but Aisling was more curious about details. Usually her studying traps involved a lot of patterns and planning, the stuff of which Aisling could only manage thanks to her gift.

So while toweling, Aisling tried to point and ask, even trying a little sign, experimentally. After all, she was quite aware that it was her fault that this had happened; she'd fallen into the trap, after all.

[Brea White]

This girl was taking it pretty calmly, all considered. Although Brea did wonder why she wasn’t saying anything. It was kind of unnerving. But maybe she just didn’t like to talk, or had lost her voice or maybe…well, maybe she just couldn’t. The way she expressed herself seemed like she was pretty practiced at this. So Brea just watched, sitting up on the table to make herself taller, as the girl toweled herself off. She propped her elbows up on her knees and her chin on her folded hands and, once she was done, waited for the anger she was sure was coming.

But no. She still wasn’t upset. Instead, she thought that Aisling was trying to ask how she’d done it, or something like that. When she tried to sign, Brea nodded to herself. Oh. So she’d been right. Okay. Well, she didn’t understand sign language, but she could work with it. She wrote down all her plans first and filed them away anyways. Once she found the appropriate apprentice or had kids, she’d pass them along. They were too good of works of art to just get rid of them! She worked hard on these things!

“I do it all the time,” she explained, picking up the binder that was almost the same width as she was and rummaging through it. “I have two older brothers. They always used to bug me. Now I bug them.” Her smile was a satisfied one. “But here.” She found the right plan and offered it to her. “What’s your name? Are you a student here? I don’t know sign language, but I could find a piece of paper, maybe…?”

((I can still be sorry.^^*))

[Aisling MacGrory]

Aisling continued toweling off, her mind processing information as it was given. She supposed a part of her should be upset about the whole getting wet thing, since it wasn't exactly standard. Yet, she just couldn't help but find herself at least equally responsible. Rather hard to blame someone for setting a trap just because you walked into it, especially one with such a high chance of happening.

Do it all the time; had two older brothers. Aisling had siblings herself, though she hadn't seen any of them for some time. The logic made sense though, so Aisling nodded along with it. She also took the paper when offered, looking it over. Aisling's mind instantly displayed what it would look like, laying it out and pointing out the various intricacies. Brea certainly had a knack for these things.

Questions, and a request for paper, along with an explanation; Aisling nodded to them all, pulling out her phone and trying not to look too discouraged. She realized that people were so desperate for some form of words when communicating; they were just too reliant on it, really.

At least Aisling's fingers moved fast now:

My name's Aisling MacGrory. I'm actually a researcher at Hammel, analyzing patterns and studying probabilities. What's your name?

Aisling felt like she should be asking more questions too, but settled for just that, for now.

[Brea White]

Brea would have been incredulous, but impressed, had she known that was Aisling’s thought process. She was more used to her brothers, who had thrown her over their shoulder and had carried her around until she’d promised—with her fingers crossed—to behave. Then she’d grumble and figure out how to prank them worse. It was fun. A lot of fun. C’mon, who didn’t enjoy tormenting their brothers?

She did notice the discouragement on the other girl’s face. Huh. Okay. Well, if she wanted to try nonverbal and non-word-style speech, Brea would work with that. She liked a challenge, and besides, she liked this girl (and yes, for Brea, it took that little time to decide this: she was just that good of a judge of character). She only put effort in for the people she liked.

“I’m Brea White,” she said proudly. She liked the associations that came with her name—like her dad, the English teacher. “That’s cool. How did you get that job? You don’t have to use the phone if you don’t want to. I’ll try to figure it out.” She settled herself on the table better and tilted her head to the side. “Why aren’t you angry?"

[Aisling MacGrory]

White? There was an English teacher at Hammel with the same last name, and somehow, Aisling didn't figure that this was merely a coincidence. Though the name White was fairly common, the probability that two of them would show up in a limited area with a relationship that was semi-clear was fairly unlikely. Perhaps with some paper Aisling would have determined the exact probability quicker, but even as it was, her brain more or less told her that she was talking to the descendent of White, the English teacher.

How was Aisling supposed to not use her phone and not use sign language to communicate something like that? Really though, she supposed it was easy enough. She tapped the side of her head, scrunched up her face as if thinking hard, and then smiled, nodded, and tapped Brea's shoulder. Reaching down, Aisling grabbed onto a pebble, then took careful aim at the nearest tree. There were several awkward seconds of staring, before Aisling flung the pebble. It hit a tree branch, jostling it just enough for some loose leaves to fall. Aisling grabbed Brea's hand and extended it up, just in time and position to catch the leaf.

Sometimes Aisling's power could be very, very cool.

{and now Fate really hopes that he was right on their being outside, or he's going to have to rewrite that somehow ><}

As for the next, here Aisling was getting out her phone, regardless of the previous suggestion, more typing, then a show:

I set up traps like that too, though I usually have to use my power to get them to work properly

[Brea White]

Brea hadn’t really thought that Aisling might be frustrated by the lack of sign language and words. For one, she was thirteen. And while she knew she was smart and smarter than other people, she also thought that it was silly for people to think she already knew everything. That would be stupid. How would you learn if you already knew everything by the time you were thirteen? What would be the point of growing up?

But might have also been her way of thinking so she didn’t look stupid. She just would never admit to it. Besides, Aisling might have been a telepath or something. How was she supposed to know?

She watched as Aisling thought, then turned her head obediently as Aisling took aim at the tree. She watched as it hit it, then allowed the girl to lift her hand to catch the leaf. Her lips spread into the admiring grin of a mastermind watching their equal at work.

”Cool.”

That was her power? Where had she been when that was handed out? Life wasn’t fair.

She leaned over to read the text, then nodded, calming down again so she could just look calmly interested. Inside, she bubbled with excitement. Oh, the things she could do if she had that power. It would be awesome.

“I always just guess,” she admitted. “And use geometry a lot.” Brea liked math. You had to in the prankster world. Then she smiled at Aisling, a rare sign of approval. “Like what kinda traps? With that, you have to do more than just a bucket. Spill.”

[Aisling MacGrory]

Cool? Aisling supposed. She'd always wished for a power that had a little more flash. All hers did, really, was make her very, very good at math. True, that seemed more practical than being able to change the color of your skin or something, and it did occasionally lend itself to moments of awesome, but mostly, it just made you a giant nerd.

Who apparently made trap-setters grossly happy. Aisling's eyes widened at Brea, and she almost took a step back, wanting to retreat from the girl's sheer intensity. Aisling somehow managed to resist though, instead smiling and blushing a little. She started tapping out on the phone again, knowing that you couldn't really describe this in gestures, when she remembered that there were pictures. So she backed out the notepad function and switched over. Then, she tilted the phone, showing Brea.

This particular one had been set up in the library. At first glance, it didn't look like much: some bits of string tied about so that they'd be difficult to walk around. But Aisling flipped, and showed the details. The steps would tug the string, which would pull along a line of other strings. It would result in a few books shifting over, an obvious sign, and then tug at Aisling's sleeve. Simple, true, and hardly the mouse-trap design. That came directly after, where yet another of Aisling's library traps had been set.

The first picture was simple enough: a book set out on the floor in open space, just a few feet away from an alcove. The next picture showed that if you lifted the book, there was a rubber band tied around a paperclip underneath. This could flip up, which would then hit against another rubber band on a shelf. The vibration would be enough to set off a system, wherein books would fall simultaneously all around the person, effectively trapped them in a perfect ring.

Yes, there was video. It also included a curious Aisling watching and recording the details, until the person noticed and headed for the phone.

Yeah, sometimes people weren't nice to Aisling either.

[Brea White]

Well, yes, it certainly did make her very happy. The reason that she was so happy was because she was envisioning all the tricks she could do, all the pranks she could pull on her brother. She would never have a prank that failed to work again. Although, to be fair, she was doing better at that. Her pranks failed less and less these days. That was the good thing about Learning, or so she told herself. Quite proudly too. But she was freaking Aisling out, so she settled back down and just shrugged.

“I mean, if you like that kind of thing.”

She thought it was cool. But she was also thirteen. Her sense of “cool” was much different.

She leaned over to look at the video as Aisling showed it to her. Her brows rose, and she smiled in admiration again. Mind, if it was her, she would have made something more embarrassing. Thirteen again. And used to being embarrassed by her older brothers until she could manage on her own and get them back. She shook her head as the person tricked advanced toward Aisling and sighed. “Oh. That happens. That’s what I thought you were going to do to me.”

She wondered again why the girl couldn’t talk, then shrugged it off and looked over at her. “So you do that a lot? That’s cool. I don’t have any videos. I just keep my plans in my binder. Plus, I do most on my brothers, so they wouldn’t like it if I filmed it.” She tilted her head to the side. “How did you get into pranks?” Was that too much to type? Probably. But Brea couldn’t help it. She wanted to know more. Always.

[Aisling MacGrory]

While Aisling certainly wasn't an expert on reading people, she was pretty sure she understood what was going on with Brea. The younger girl seemed to admire Aisling, and that alone was enough to make the older girl shift and feel extremely nervous. People rarely noticed her, let alone showered this much attention upon her.

The video played, and both girls watched. Then Brea commented and Aisling shrugged. However, as Brea continued, Aisling began to realize that there was something decidedly different about their strategies. Brea seemed to be "pranking:" doing this for fun and entertainment. Aisling, on the other hand, did it as an alert system. Things fully fell into place as Brea explained her own situation, and Aisling ended up nearly panicking. The older girl shook her head, and drew out her phone, hastily typing out a message:

No, I don't do this for fun or anything. I do it so I know when people are going to be bothering me during study sessions, or possibly in order to see if I was correct about a certain theory. I'm not really a prankster,. Aisling paused for a moment, staring at the screen and thinking. Then, belatedly, she typed in a quick "sorry," making sure that Brea saw the screen all the while.

Oh, why couldn't the younger girl just know sign? it would make this whole communication thing much less awkward...

[Brea White]

Oh. She’d scared her. Brea resisted the urge to sigh. Why was it all the brilliant people had to be so timid all the time? So Aisling had come up with an ingenious way to prank someone and she did it to have an alert system? Why not just do a trip wire, then? People tended to make noise when they tripped over something, especially if it was about knee level—that would make it hurt more. Then again, that could also hurt people, so maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.

“I’m sorry,” she said politely. “You don’t need to apologize. I mostly set them up for study traps, but I prank my brothers. Correct about a theory? That sounds fun.”

Then again, that might make her more worried. “I mean, interesting, “she corrected. She didn’t want to alienate the other girl. She was too cool for that. If she could have, she would have followed Aisling around and bugged her until she acquired Aisling’s power. But that wasn’t possible. Darn. She’d have to think of something else.

“So…how long have you been doing that?”