Time Warp: Everything Moves

[Amber Krasenski]

2009

One of the most reassuring aspects of Hammel, in Amber's opinion, was that there were still sports teams. It didn't matter that they were only intramural; they were still sports teams, and he was thus able to do something that was utterly normal.

Something normal that wasn't school work.

He didn't mind being meta; he only wished that his power was something less icky.

On the soccer field, that didn't matter. He was just a soccer player, equal with everyone else.

Of course, playing soccer wasn't the only reason to like soccer; he also got to meet new friends! For instance, the red-headed girl who had just joined the team. He thought she had been in some of his classes, but they hadn't much to do with one another.

Now they had an excuse.

Or rather, now that practice was over he had an excuse to bounce over to her, pushing long brown ponytail out his sweaty face.

"Hey! Coach Kilbourn said your name was Ayla, right? I'm Amber! Lookit that, we're both A names!"

He grinned madly at that, as if it were particularly amusing.

"How long've you been playing?"

[Ayla Simpson]

Things were looking up. Ayla had managed to settle in to her new surroundings, come to terms with just what she was, and why she must live here. She still didn’t like it, but she could at least understand that it was necessary. She had managed to make a friend, or had the friend made her? Either way, she didn’t feel quite so alone.

She had finally joined the soccer team. She had always loved the sport, but hadn’t been able to play it until recently. Not very well at any rate. It had come as something of a shock to her that there were sports teams here just like everywhere else, and that these students were all allowed to compete despite their potentially dangerous powers.

Her own power, though more beneficial in these circumstances than dangerous, still caused her frustration. It helped, certainly, but seemingly at random, and often when it was the only thing that made a difference. Would the others mind if she beat them only through accidental use of her power? They seemed alright with it though, but then this was only her first time, and it wasn’t like she’d done anything extreme.

The practice had certainly been fun, Ayla was glad to be getting into things like this, it made this school feel a bit more like her old one. She hadn’t played any sports much back then, but she had always wanted to, now she had the ability. It was pretty amazing, even after all the running about she had just done she still felt full of energy, ready to go again.

Her hair was back in pigtails to prevent it from getting in the way. Normally she was pretty fine with letting her hair fall naturally, giving it just the little care it needed. When she was on the field though it became more of a hindrance.

Though she was still full of energy, she was also starving. Luckily she had already come to terms with this little side effect. Stashed away in her sports bag was a lunch box containing an apple and a turkey sandwich. The small girl practically sprinted over to it, grabbing the apple from within and biting into it ravenously.

She almost didn’t notice the girl approaching her, so absorbed was she in devouring her apple. A month or so she wouldn’t have said a word to the girl, but things were looking up, or at least looking less and less terrible by the day. Why shouldn’t she be friendly to people? It’s not like she has to let them too close.

”Mhmm, That is my name.” Her voice was slightly muffled, and she realised that it might be better to swallow her mouthful before speaking again. ”Amber’s nice. A is totally the best letter for names, it’s the first letter after all.”

She certainly seemed friendly, and it was nice of her to come over and introduce herself like this. Ayla couldn’t help a smile made slightly awkward looking by the fact that she had just taken another mouthful of apple. She at least made sure to swallow before talking this time.

”Haven’t been playing long. Wasn’t very good before. What about you?” She looked the girl over as she took another bite of her apple, shame that so much of it was gone already.

Words: 558
Tagged: Amber
Notes: Pretty pleased with this post, even if it took like five hours. Distractions…

[Amber Krasenski]

"Yeah! Go A names, high five!" Amber stuck out the palm of his hand before it filtered through that Ayla's hands were full, and he immediately dropped them back down, hooking thumbs into the band of his shorts.

"I started playing when I was nine." He explained, because obviously everyone else should automatically know how old he was, and thus do the math for themselves. Otherwise he would have to embarrass himself and count it out on his fingers; he didn't really like admitting how hard that sort of task was for him to mentally perform.

"It's okay, you'll be totally awesome in no time!" He reassured her, "Coach Kilbourne is the best."

He had nothing but admiration for the coach, even if Chase did have the ability to take control of his mind. Like a wasp.

That thought was less than encouraging, and he began to fidget uncomfortably. "You seemed okay during practice. Hey! How long've you been here? Weren't you in Ms. Barnes science class with me last year? You sat by the window?"

Mrs. Barnes was ancient, and kind of scary. Someone said that she was married to a police officer; probably the police force had the only man in all of Vermont who could interact with her without fainting.

"Dissecting frogs was kind of gross, I don't know why we need to know something like that."

[Ayla Simpson]

Though she wanted to return Amber’s high five, Ayla was at first unable. Her solution was to utilize her mouth, digging in to the fruit with her teeth and holding it there to free up a hand. By this point though Amber had already lowered her hand. Ah, such a shame to miss an opportunity like that. Still, it might be for the best; Ayla was a bit of a messy eater, especially when fruit was involved, her hands had managed to gather a fair bit more apple juice than you’d expect.

Another problem now occurred to the girl. With the apple now lodged in her mouth she was left with no option but to take an exceptionally large bite, pretty much finishing the fruit in one bite. It was so large she found it hard to chew, and probably looked a bit silly for a moment or two as she struggled with the food in her mouth.

She couldn’t respond to Amber for a little while, so she just let her talk, nodding a little to show she agreed. The coach did seem pretty nice, though Ayla hadn’t spoken to him much yet. There was plenty of time for that now though, and Ayla was just happy she had been allowed to play.

”Oh, I can play just fine,” Ayla said now that her mouth was finally free again. ”It’s just working out how to play with a team and stuff like that. And I kinda overdo it sometimes.” It had been strange playing again for the first time since her power had been discovered. When she first found herself able to play properly it was brilliant, like she was suddenly good at something. Then they had sent her to a doctor, and found out it was because she was a meta. Since then it had felt weird to do sports, like it wasn’t really her who was playing. She had been a little nervous to get back into the game, but it had turned out alright.

Alya had spent most of her first months at the school just going through the motions. She hadn’t gotten into it, she hadn’t paid attention, she had been closed off and unhappy. But she still remembered Mrs. Barnes’ science classes. She had very nearly gotten into trouble a few times because of her reluctance to apply herself in class. It was only her slight fear of incurring that particular teacher’s wrath that had kept her from trouble.

”Yeah, that was me. Didn’t think anyone had really paid attention to me in that class, I spent a lot of time staring out that window.” During that first yeah Ayla hadn’t paid much attention to anything, and hadn’t expected anyone to pay attention to her. It was actually kinda nice to know that someone had taken notice, even if it was just passing.

”I actually thought the dissecting frogs part was the best. I mean, it was gross, but it was like, we were doing something, not just the boring stuff like usual.” It didn’t take long to work out that Ayla was a more action-oriented person. Even before her power kicked in she had preferred to do something physical rather than theoretical. ”Maybe they’re, like, preparing us for a war with the frog-people in the future or something.” The redhead joked. There probably was a reason they made students dissect frogs, but it almost certainly wasn’t that. Still, it was fun to imagine.

”So, if you don’t like cutting up frogs what do you like to do?” Her tone was still half-joking here, as though there was nothing else worth doing.

Words: 608
Tagged: Amber
Notes: I’m not feeling too into it at the moment, sorry.