Feel the heat (open)

[Mia Bell]

Mia stood in front of her bathroom mirror and bit her lip. Looking over her new bathing suit, she had bought the other day. This was her first time wearing one and she wasn’t too sure about it. She sighed, she will have to get used to it. It wasn’t that she was insecure about her body, she was quite happy with how she looked. She just wasn’t sure about the whole bathing suit thing in general. She played with her hair a little, teasing it to make it look more ‘poofy’. She walked out of the bathroom and went to her bed to put her shirt and shorts on. She grabbed a beach towel and stuffed it into her messenger bag. She sighed as she put the sun tan lotion into the bag also. She was planning to go to the lake and sunbath; since she couldn’t swim all she could do was try to get a tan.

Mia went to put her shoes on and then walked out the door, looking back to say bye to her pet snake. She closed the door behind her as she placed the strap to her bag on her shoulder. She walk out of the dorm building into the sunlight, she looked at the sky and smiled. Thankful that it didn’t look like it was going to rain. Mia started to walk to the lake. She wondered how many people would be there.

After quite a while of walking, she arrived at the lake. She found a nice sandy spot next to the lake, almost as if she was at the beach. Seeing the ocean was one of the many things she wanted to do. Swim in it was something she didn’t want to do, and could live without doing. She was too afraid to drown. She slipped off her shirt, shoes and shorts after she had placed the beach towel on the ground for her to lie on. She placed her shirt and shoes in her bag and took out the sun tan lotion. Mia sat down and started putting the lotion on, making sure to get everywhere she could manage. Mia looked out to the lake when she was done and sighed, watching the others swim.

[Odion Martins]

Odi still didn’t understand why some people were so stupid. The most obvious of things could be right in front of them and they chose to ignore it. Oh yes, they knew what was going on, but they chose not to know. Ignorance could only be bliss if you didn’t actively ignore something to begin with. In other words, he was in a bad mood, and instead of drinking, he decided going for a walk was a healthy alternative.

Arriving at the lake, Odi wondered if this was just a natural response. Open water, while he didn’t like swimming in it, did sooth him. He straightened his black fedora a bit, trying to relax his fists. His life felt like it was in restart mode, and he was still putting the pieces back together. Everything had changed, well, mostly everything. One couldn’t be an orphan when a family member appeared out of nowhere. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know this brother of his. Of course, Lani still frustrated him, as always.

His dark blue eyes swept over the lake and its occupants. One in particular stood out, pink hair all ablaze. Force once no one would give a damn if he had red hair, since he was the one usually put in the spot light. Good. But even without the hair, that swimsuit was also drawing attention.

Odion went in for the kill. He stopped time and walked through it, the girl with pink hair statue still. After rummaging in her backpack and finding nothing really of value, he settled on the thing that would probably mean the most to her – a notebook. He tucked under his shirt and walked away, and didn’t let time go back to normal until he was about a block away. A deviant smile drew his lips. There was nothing like robbery to brighten his mood. Some things, wouldn't change.

[Mia Bell]

Mia didn’t care that her hair made people stare, it was better than what people were staring at her for before for the past year. She rather not have the attention but she was never the type to change anything about herself for other people. She started dyeing her hair because she wanted to look a different way not because it would make people stare at her. The swimsuit was just her style; it wasn’t as bad as some people who wore bikini’s. Maybe in a way she wanted the attention, since for a year now she had always gotten negative attention; the somewhat positive attention was a very nice change for her.

Mia didn’t realize anyone had came up to her let alone went through her stuff. She was utterly confused when she felt cloth on her hand; she turned and looked at her shirt and then her bag. She looked around there was no one near her, who could have been able to get so close to her and then so far from her without her noticing? She looked in her bag and her eyes widened when she realized what had been missing, there was nothing of real value in her bag, unless her count her journal; which was the most valuable thing to her in her life. She quickly put her shirt on and stood up.

She was starting to panic, she ran both her hands through her hair. This wasn’t happening to her, everything was in that notebook. Her lyrics, those crappy drawing she did, and it was also her journal. There was stuff she had written in it that she didn’t want anyone to know about. She would die if anyone read it and then shared it with everyone else. Mia scanned the lake and around the lake, there were too many people around to figure out who had taken it. “Damn it..” she mumbled. She needed to start keeping the thing in her room now, if someone could easily get to it in her bag because of their powers.

[Odion Martins]

Those that changed things about themselves wanted attention, and that was that. Whether it was to be ‘different’ or whatever other excuse they couldn’t come up with didn’t matter. Being different meant you were seeking attention. It was like women who wore low cut shirts for themselves and then became angry when people stare at them. Attention was attention, positive or negative. That’s why Odion stuck to the shadows, and would rather not be noticed for anything at all, even his accomplishments.

Once Odion believed he was far enough away, he stopped at a public bench and paged through the journal. There were some not bad drawings, but what really got his attention were the songs. Most of them were quite good, some he could even relate to. His nimble fingers caught suddenly as he found a date at the top of the page. Seriously, who was stupid enough to keep all of their work and their journal in the same notebook? He laughed a bit before scanning through it. Something about a boy who was in love with someone else.

“Ah, that would explain the lyrics...” he said to himself, his eyebrows knitting together. Whoever this pink haired girl was, she was interesting at least. And then he read something that made his eyebrow rise. She cut herself. She was seeing Dr. Neville... “Oh fuck.” He said to himself, closing the notebook as if it were poison. This girl went to Hammel.

[Mia Bell]

She did want attention, mostly from her mother; but she wanted people to know she was still around. She wanted people to see her; not see what she was going through. In her town everyone knew everything about everyone, she also had been just a bit rebellious. She was hurting, what else could she had done? But she was so tired of the negative attention, even though the pink hair did bring some negative attention most of it was positive and she liked it. She did want to be noticed, not because of what she had done or was doing to herself but herself in general. That was all there was to it.

Tears started finding their way to her cheeks. Mia was a mess now, she was in yet another mess and this time it was all her doing. This time she couldn’t lash out at anyone, she had no one to lash out at other than herself and the unknown person that stole her notebook. Dark clouds appeared over the lake, thunder and lightning; all signs of how emotionally stressed she was. It also started raining; this was what her fourth time being stuck in the rain since she had moved to this school? She didn’t know if she could even handle what was written in that notebook getting out. Her feelings about Cameron get out; she would be mortified. Her suicide attempt, her self-mutilation in general; she didn’t know how she could handle the past re-writing itself. What would Cameron think of her then? He was the closest person she had now that she didn’t have her father and brothers. This time it would be worse, she knew it. Would the person who stole her notebook have the sympathy to leave it? To not let any of it get out?

Mia looked around as everyone rushed to get out of the water. She tried to look for anyone who was reading a notebook; she was the dumbest person alive. But she never wanted anyone to see anything in that notebook, not her drawings, not the lyrics, and certainly not the journal part. She ran her hands through her, yet again soaked hair and pulled on the pink strands a bit. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her. She gathered her stuff, placed the strap of her bag on her shoulder, and put her shoes on. Mia started walking, looking out for anyone that was carrying a notebook; which was hard to do in pouring rain.

[Odion Martins]

Mia's hair was kind of like a magic trick then. Like someone who really knew what they were doing, the hair would distract viewers from what was really going on within. Still, Odion didn't know anything about this girl until he read her thoughts on paper. Sometimes people were scarier than he could ever imagine. And they were also scared. Behind the rebellion and stupid color in hair was a broken girl, who owned all kinds of masks.

Odion would use what she had written to his advantage if there was a point in blackmailing her in the first place. Otherwise what he had read wouldn't get out to anyone. He was curious and now knew, but he didn't have anyone to tell. He didn't even know who this Cameron person was. He disliked most of the student body anyways, so the boy this girl was writing about, Mia it was signed on the bottom of each page, was probably just filed under the same category as most everyone else: not worth my time.

And then it started raining. Odion shuttled the notebook under his shirt and stood, seeking out shelter. The rain made things hard to see. He couldn't tell if he was going back towards the lake or in the other direction. Either way, he wasn't sure what to do with the journal other than throw it into the trash, which is exactly what he did before ducking into a nearby alley to make sense of his surroundings. He knew Pilot Ridge like the back of his hand, and was planning the best way to get back to school.

[Mia Bell]

Mia was very much broken, after everything that had happened to her how could she not be? But she didn’t want anyone to know that, she didn’t want people to see how emotionally damaged she was. She really was trying to get better; with the help of Dr. Neville. However, it wasn’t that wasn’t that easy and she knew she will always carry the weight of her Father’s and Brother’s deaths on her shoulders. She also owned many masks; everyone owned at least one. But there was only two people who seemed to have been able to get past some of her masks.

That was what Mia was afraid of; the person using everything she wrote down as blackmail, she really hoped this person didn’t go to Hammel. It would make her life so much easier. But with her luck the person did go to her school; she hated this. Give her another reason to hate her life; the bad was really starting to outweigh the good now. She really didn’t know how much more she could take. First everything in her past that she was still dealing with, having feelings for a guy that loved someone else, and now this? This was the most horrible thing that could ever happen to her.


Mia walked into the same alley the red haired boy went into, to try and escape the rain. She pushed her hair out of her face; she wasn’t able to find the person who took her notebook. She looked at the boy and blinked; she wasn’t even sure what to say. She just awkwardly stood there “uh.. Weird weather, huh?” She gave him a weak smile. Really how was supposed to know this was the boy who took her notebook and then threw it in the trash!

[Odion Martins]

Honestly, Odion didn’t really care that Mia was falling apart. It was interesting, but it was interesting like how book characters were interesting. You may even connect with them, but your life always moved on and it was just a sad story. Sympathy wasn’t something Odi had when his life had been a living hell. In his opinion, if he had survived, so would everyone else. Masks were Odion’s specialty though, and he would have fun barreling through her masks like he did with everyone else’s.

If this was the worst thing to happen to her, oh, she was in for a treat once she confronted Odion.

Odion held both of his elbows with opposite hands. “Yeah, bit of a flash flood,” he agreed, his British accent slipping through. He smiled a bit at Mia. His emotions didn’t betray him, and he didn’t look guilty. He just looked like someone caught in a storm. “Can’t see a damn thing,” he said, his eyes never leaving her. How did she know he wasn’t some kind of perverted freak? The kind that did terrible things to women in back alleys. “Martin,” he said, extending his hand in a way to break the ice. Step one was to see if she would lie about her name like he had.

[Mia Bell]

Mia nodded “yeah..” Her powers tended to do that, she was going to get a major migraine after this. She was going to have to remember to stop off at the store to get more Advil. She really hoped she could learn how to control it soon; she was getting sick of the headaches. She gave him a sheepish smile in return “Yeah. You really can’t; makes it hard to get where you want to be.” Or to find something, because she was trying to find something. But of course the person was probably long gone by now and there wasn’t any use in trying to look for it anymore. The question was, what was that person going to do with the information in that notebook.

Mia was apparently the stupidest woman alive. Then again, you couldn’t blame her, she grew up in a city where you didn’t have to worry about that stuff. She didn’t grow up having to worry about some guy taking advantage of a teenager in a ally; there weren’t even any allies where she was from. It was mostly open space. The most you had to worry about was hungry polar bears and frostbite. “Mia” She moved to shake his hand; she didn’t like shaking people’s hands. If she wasn’t worried about being raped, she defiantly wasn’t worried about her name. She didn’t give out her last name though, she never really did. She was starting to feel creeped out that the boy wasn’t looking away from her. She kept her eye on him, never turning away from him. She was starting to feel uncomfortable.

[Odion Martins]

Odion found it highly ironic that condoms were so readily available at Hammel, but simple things such as Advil were not. If Odion could, he would run the place differently. As it was, the staff were fools. Why did students have to buy their own medication from power training, when the school required it? Odi loved his power, it suited him just fine, perfect in every way, and he was excited to learn how to use it fully. “We’ll just have to wait it out I suppose,” he said, not wanting to give away his destination.

If Odi knew just how naive she was, he would’ve felt even less sorry for her. Odion had been through many trials and tribulations, and perhaps had lived a lifetime more than any of his peers. Hungry polar bears would be pretty formidable though. He smiled politely and gave a nod. “Very pretty, suits you,” he said nonchalantly. He wasn’t into women, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t notice their appearance. She hadn’t lied about her name. Getting away with this was almost too easy. Unfortunately for Odion, time was an object, and he never felt awkward during an ‘awkward silence’.

Carry me to the sky
Our dreams will come true
Hold onto my heart
I’m giving it to you

A sinister smile spread over Odion’s lips as he remembered the lyrics. The rain wasn’t letting up, and Mia was terrible company. “Maybe I should take my chances out there,” he said amiably, smirking at her a bit, like he found something funny, an inside joke between him and himself. “It was nice meeting you,” he said, slipping past her without making much movement or sound. It felt like déjà vu.

[Mia Bell]

Mia was pretty sure the school had Advil for students, but she didn’t like nurses, or doctors, or anything having to do with either of those two or hospitals. So She rather go to the store to get Advil than the school doctor or nurse; especially since she really did have no clue what power they would have, they probably could tell what was physically wrong with someone and that is what she was most afraid of. Them knowing she was hurting herself. But then again what did she know? She had only been at the school for a little over a month.

Mia nodded “I guess so” Or she could make it stop, but she didn’t think that would happen, she was still very much upset about the situation she was in. If she wasn’t in one situation she was in another. She was really starting to hate this; couldn’t life give her a break?

Mia blushed a little at the compliment “thank you.” She felt a bit awkward, not many people complimented her name. It was a simple three letter word. She couldn’t say the same for his name, Martin; she just didn’t like it. If she had a baby boy that would be the last name, she would call him.


Carry me to the sky
Our dreams will come true
Hold onto my heart
I’m giving it to you

Those lyrics meant more to her than even Cameron knew, and he was the guy she had wrote them with. But he had wrote them for a different reason than she had; even if she hadn’t known it at the time. It was killing her knowing someone knew about those lyrics and what they had meant to her; it killed her knowing someone knew everything about her. She looked at the pouring rain, and lightning, she knew it wouldn’t let up anytime soon; not till she calmed down. “Alright.” She couldn’t blame him, she wasn’t in the mood to be friendly. “It was nice meeting you too.”

She watched him and waited till he was out of sight before she walked out of the ally. Might as well try to find her way back to the school; though she was pretty sure she would get lost. Mia felt like walking in the pouring rain; it went with her mood she might as well embrace it.