Wind through Leaves(Odion)

[Roland Singleton]

The wind was chilly in the early October afternoon and Roland sat with his back against a tree in the nearly deserted courtyard. The chill had started out of no where and as fall edged ever closer it brought deep temperature drops. His left knee was propped up and a book he was supposed to be reading lay open upon it. He had been forced to wear his sleek black windbreaker to prevent himself from getting cold and it was zipped all the way to the top.

Classes had been a drag as usual and Roland was suppose to be researching a paper due the next day, but it was like the electricity in his body was working overtime in his brain, he couldn't focus at all and found himself reading the same lines of text over and over again. Eventually after countless pained minutes repeating this process he knocked the book off his knee and watched it fall into the grass beside him with a thud. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver and wood instrument from his pocket.

Roland loved music immensely, his mother had known many artist back in California and his father had been raised on the piano. It had almost been expected of Roland from an early age to pick up an instrument and after learning the basics of music he had chosen to learn piano and how to sing from his dad when he was six. The small object in Roland's hand was a harmonica and he had been learning to play it for a while now, and as he pressed the cool silver against his lips he felt a small spark of static electricity.

He played a soothing, calming song in contrast to his frustrated mood. The tune was a lullaby, he had read it in one of his music books and as the sound drifted through the leaves of the trees and passed over the grass around him Roland couldn't help but let the annoyance flow out of his body. It was like medicine to him, music always helped and Roland let his mind wander as the music filled him

[Odion Martins]

It was terrible outside, borderline freezing. After living in Europe’s unpredictable weather though, Odion was used to it. He hated being in his small dorm room, and it was time to leave. His homework was finished and he was utterly bored. He had checked his cell phone to make sure Rhett hadn’t said anything to him, and when not one message could be found, he sighed and put the device in his sweater’s pocket. There was nothing to do and he didn’t want to bother the blonde, so outside he went.

The pond was usually where Odion liked to go, watching the fish dart around happily. But he wanted to be alone today, go over some things in his mind. He had a deck of cards in one of his pockets, fingering the frayed edges gently. Alice still hadn’t gotten in touch with him about the little group he is apparently a part of. Not only did this frustrate him immensely, but it made him sad. Already he was starting to see the kind of ‘family’ she promised wasn’t exactly what the orphan had in mind. No matter, if they had dropped him life would go on.

Walking through the courtyard, Odion watched as a boy took out a harmonica, a smile on his face. It was a little cold to be outside playing music wasn’t it? The redhead was about to walk away and leave the lad in peace, but the music was intriguing, soothing. It put his mind at ease and rid him of all the conflicting thoughts he had been having over various parts of his life. The ginger approached the boy playing the music, taking note of his facial features should they ever meet again.

“I don’t usually do this,” he said once he was in earshot and in plain sight of the younger boy, “but uh, thanks, for playing. It’s beautiful.”

[Roland Singleton]

Roland had been so immersed in his playing he had not even noticed the boy walking towards him. He looked slightly older than Roland and his hair was bright red. Roland was glad he was holding his harmonica tight because he was so surprised to see someone out in this cold other than himself that he almost dropped it. The boy complimented his playing and looked sincerely appreciative to have heard Roland play. Roland lowered his instrument and sheepishly grinned at the boy. He hated compliments and never knew exactly how to respond to them.

"Umm... Thanks man, though I have to admit I wasn't expecting to find anyone else out here in this cold. Seems I'm not the only one dumb enough to not worry about catching a cold." Roland said as he scooped up the book he had discarded earlier and made room in case the boy wanted to sit.

Now Roland never knew exactly how to act when he met new people but he normally either said something sarcastic or something sweet. Normally it turned out to be the first one and as he noticed the boy was carrying a deck of cards he felt himself subconsciously choose which way he was going to go with this one.

"Well, I didn't know the Weasley family moved to Virginia, guess they left that part out of the books huh?" Roland joked as he sat up straighter and patted the grass in front of him to signal the boy to sit.

"How bout we play some cards, my names Roland Singleton. I'm a part time musician and full time card playing master." Roland joked, hoping to cheer the elder teen in front of him up. The guy obviously had something on his mind and who better to help than a random stranger under a tree.

[Odion Martins]

Odion managed a smile, “Yeah, I was expecting the same,” he said kindly enough, a bit of disappointment in his strangely accented voice. It was a combination of British and French sounding, but it was indistinguishable. The day wasn’t that bad, but there were a lot of things Odi wasn’t enjoying about it. Not only was the spot taken, but the music had stopped. That was truly unfortunate.

The ginger watched the boy scoot over – was that an invitation? He eyed the spot carefully, losing track of time as he thought about sitting or not. One, he didn’t have many friends, and two, the guy seemed nice enough, even though he was younger. So Odi sat on the dying grass, but not too close to the boy. He didn’t even know the kid’s name. He didn’t mind the weather, and as long as one was dressed for the weather, the elements were irritating at best. If anyone was catching a cold it was the brunette, not Odion.

For a moment the redhead sat silently as the boy made a crack at him, but soon enough his freckles were dancing around as he let out a boisterous laugh. “Not bad, didn’t think there were a lot of Potterheads around these parts,” he said in his accent again, this time coming out a bit Irish. Odion stared at the boy for a moment, pointing at his own eyes, which were a deep, dark blue. “I’m totally unrelated though, nice try.” Odion usually wasn’t like this with most people, but the kid had struck his fancy with his good sense of humour. The ginger had no problem playing the part of a friendly kid. He could make anyone believe anything he wanted them to.

“Nice to meet you Roland, which by the way if you switch the letters around becomes Ronald,” he said, shuffling his cards. Okay, it was a bit of a long stretch, alluding to the previous joke, but Odion was trying here. “I’m Odion,” he said, deciding not to give him a fake alias – that whole thing was starting to get messy around here. The older young handed the deck of cards to Roland, “You pick the game then, since you were kind enough to invite me to stay.” Sometimes Odi was a bit formal, but that was something Rollie would just have to deal with.

[Roland Singleton]

The redhead sat beside Roland and laughed in response to Roland's jab at him. That was a good sign, if you could take a joke it was a lot easier for Roland to get along with you. He noted that the boy had a strange varying accent, like he was from a dozen different countries and couldn't pick which accent to use. He shivered slightly from the cold punching through his light jacket and made a mental note to one day ask the boy to teach him different accents. Roland was a theater kid to the core, and any help with voice and diction would be welcomed.

"Yeah we'll you know Potterheads are a dime a dozen in this day and age, though you won't see me swooning over any of the actors or actresses, I'm a reader first." Roland said with a laugh.

The boy cracked a joke in return and introduced himself as Odion, a name that once again Roland couldn't fix a nation of origin to, it wasn't exactly French or British. Odion handed Roland the deck of cards and Roland couldn't help but mess with the older student a bit more.

"Roland to Ronald?" He said raising one eyebrow ridiculously."Ehh we might have to check with the judges on the humor scale, Judges?"

Roland looked off to the left of Odion as if in mock consultation with a panel of judged, after a few seconds,

"EHHHH!" Roland bellowed imitating a buzzer, "Sorry, it was a good effort but not quite there."

Roland smiled broadly to show he was joking and began to shuffle and deal the cards in the grass before them. 15 cards in front of Odion, 15 in front of himself, 10 in a pile, 10 in another Pile, and two stacks of one card.

"The games speed my good sir, and let me tell you I'm lightning quick." Roland said, inserting a small joke about his power that Odion still didn't know about

[Odion Martins]

Odion held his grin through Roland’s jabber, finding the boy amusing and entertaining. The redhead had decided already that he wouldn’t need to say much in order to keep this boy talking, which was fine by him.

The whole buzzer joke received an annoyed twitch of Odi’s eyebrow in response, but he still held his smile. This kid was a loud mouth, but it took all kinds to make up this... lovely, world. His dark blue eyes simply watched the other boy, still finding him pretty interesting, and a bit random. He was going to have to deal with the boisterous sense of humour in order to put with Roland, but he could see himself growing found of the younger lad, eventually. He wouldn't be cracking any more jokes any time soon, Rollie could attend to the humour while he worried about winning the game.

Glancing down at the cards being placed before him, a smug smile crossed the ginger’s face. He raised his head once more, fixating his eyes on the others. “We’ll see about that,” he said, letting his left hand hover over his pile of fifteen cards. “On three we’ll flip then. One, two...” By the time the boy said three, he had managed to unveil a Jack of Spades face up on the grass.

Looking over to see Roland’s cards, Odion already decided this was going to be a good game. The younger boy should just feel lucky he wasn’t cheating yet. Slowing down time had all kinds of perks, and Odi had no problem using them to his advantage.

[Roland Singleton]

Roland watched the teen across from him, he was incredibly hard to read. His responses to Roland were kind enough, but there was an air of reservation to him. Roland felt like a guy in a play, standing onstage facing someone who was being a character, and he couldn't help but wonder if the boy was being straight up with him. Roland didn't mind, some people were just more held back at first until you got to know them so he didn't blame Odion.

Roland listened to the count off and watched as Odion flipped his card in unison revealing the Jack of Spades. Roland's card was a 4 of Hearts and as he looked at his cards he quickly began placing cards as quickly as he could. His reaction time was pretty good so he hoped it went well for him, but you never knew what tricks someone had up their sleeve.

As Roland started playing he actually silently started to wonder what the kid's power was. Normally it was one of the regular introductory topics. "Hey, nice to meet you I'm a BLAH BLAH BLAH" but Roland never liked to ask, it was personal to him in a way and he figured he should know someone before going on to them about there powers.

[Odion Martins]

The game commenced and Odion played silently, his quick eyes darting around, but not nearly as fast as Roland. The other boy had already won the first round and the redhead was baffled. Usually he was the kind of cards, today just wasn't his day. "I must hand it to you, you're quite good at this," he said, watching the cards fly around between them, the round ending faster than he had expected. He hadn't unknowingly shifted time forward, had he? He glanced at Roland, wondering if he too was a time manipulator. Still, Odi wouldn't ask, nor did he really care. Everyone here was 'special', which was just another way of saying they were all freaks.

"New game," Odion said, shuffling the cards again in his hands. This game would take a little longer, and was totally chance instead of skill. But at the rate these two could play, it might be over in a flash. Cutting the deck in half, he placed both piles face down, one pile per played. "I assume you know war," he said, a small smile on his face. He was enjoying the company, and was actually pretty content with almost nothing being said. A bond was being formed by simply being with each other, and if Rollie was getting bored, he could simply leave.

Taking his pile in his had, Odi decided to add a small twist to the round. "Let's see how fast we can go then," he said, his eyes locking with his opponent. "First to obtain all cards, wins, on your mark, get set, go," he said simply, flipping the first card over on the dying grass to show a 2 of spades. He frowned, this was definitely not going to help his chances in winning.