Oops I Did it Again (Ayla)

[Aaron Walker]

Although when AJ had first arrived at Hammel, he had worried constantly about harming another student while using his power, he had developed a bit more control since then. So while he sometimes worried (usually late at night when he was trying to fall asleep) it wasn’t usually in the forefront of his thoughts. Although he had a close call the other day in the pool with his new friend Kevin, he didn’t really think that counted because A) Kevin could breathe underwater and B) he was so excited about his new friend that forgotten about the initial risk he’d put the other boy in.

So yet again, he was setting out to experiment with his power some more. He’d initial gotten the idea when he had tried to fly by sending out soundwaves with enough force to keep him in the air. Unfortunately, his that plan had backfired, quite literally. Instead of keeping him up, he’d sent the soundwaves the wrong way, causing him to plummet to the ground on top of another student. Still it had given AJ something to think about. What if he shot the waves straight down? Would it cause him to launch into the air?

So standing next to the pond (his plan was to use the water to land in), he closed his eyes trying to concentrate. He’d spend the morning listening to loud (and slightly annoying) music. Even now outside, he was drawing the sound into him. He tried, pitifully, to remember what his trainer had said about meditation and concentration. But already his mind was wandering. Man, I should gotten someone to come watch, he thought. Maybe they could have filmed this. I wonder if any of my roommates have a video camera. Or a tripod…

A sound behind him broke what was left of his concentration, startling him so much that he shot out the soundwaves in that direction. The force knocked him off his feet a little. Standing up, he had a moment to regret that he’d just wasted a majority of the sound he had built up that morning. But then he noticed what had caused his distraction in the first place. There was a person in that direction. “Oh…no…” he said, running towards them.

[Ayla Simpson]

How was it possible that all of her friends were busy? True, Ayla didn’t have all that many friends as such, at least not proper ones. But still, there was usually at least one of them available to hang out or do something with. Not today though, today they all had plans, or were busy, or just didn’t answer their phone. That was rather rude in the redhead’s opinion. She had half a mind to go round and sort them out.

Luckily the girl had decided against that. It couldn’t be helped if they were all unavailable, coincidences did happen sometimes. Of course, that still left Ayla with a lot of free time and no one to spend it with. Some people would have a quiet day in, maybe catch up on some homework. Not this particular redhead though. She couldn’t stand the idea of spending the whole day inside.

She had been out for a few hours, and was already running out of things to do. The day had started with a short run that had turned into a rather long run. The problem with her power was that she didn’t ever feel the need to stop. Well, not until she crashed in the evenings, that is. Getting up tomorrow morning was going to be pretty hard. It had been bad enough this morning. Ayla was anything but a morning person, and it had taken a good hour and a couple of bowls of cereal before she was fully awake.

Now that she was up and running, so to speak, she had been going for a good few hours. She had taken a quick break to buy some water and grab a quick bite to eat, and then she was off again. She had left the school grounds when she first set off, not wanting to tread the same ground too much, but now she returned, slowing her pace a walk.

She made her way leisurely across the grounds, her thirst for activity quenched for the moment. Her thirst for water, however, wasn’t. Downing the last of the water from her bottle, she felt the cool liquid pour down her throat, and realised just how warm she was. Luckily the grounds had a rather nice pond not too far from her current location, she could dip her feet in there for a while to cool down.

When she arrived she found she wasn’t alone. There was someone else stood by the edge of the water. Alya wasn’t sure what he was doing, but he had his back turned. From her point of view he was just stood, motionless. Was he just staring into the water? Maybe meditating or something? It didn’t look like a very comfortable way to meditate. Wouldn’t it be better to sit or lie down or something?

Her curiosity was piqued by this solitary motionless figure, and she made her way towards him. Should she call out to him? Maybe that would ruin his meditation, he probably wouldn’t be pleased with that. But then, he probably wouldn’t be pleased if she just stood watching him until he was done, it might come off as a little creepy.

She had just decided it would be best to make her presence known when the empty plastic water bottle slid from her grasp. She hadn’t been paying attention to it, and had let her grip loosen to the point where it simply fell to the floor. Or rather, it would have had her foot not been trying to rise from the exact same spot. This resulted in her kicking the plastic container as it fell, making a slight hollow clunk and sending the bottle forward a foot or so into the grass.

Barely a second later was hit by some invisible force, sending her flying backwards. She had been poorly balanced, with one foot half in the air. The force was so great that even if she had been braced and ready for it she’d have been swept off her feet. Her small frame flew backwards a short way, bouncing upon impact, and ending up face down some way away.

She didn’t move for a moment, in awe at what had happened. Had that boy done something? Whatever it was, it was certainly powerful. A normal person would be aching terribly after taking such a hit, they might even have some more serious injuries. Luckily Ayla was resistant to such forces.

She heard the sound of feet rushing towards her, and looked up to see the boy making his way over pretty quickly. He didn’t seem angry, which was good, it meant he hadn’t deliberately attacked her for interrupting his meditation. ”Was that you?” She was a little winded having just been flung across the field, and her words sounded rather breathless. There was an air of excitement to the question too though. Ayla hadn’t met anyone who could throw someone about like that without even seeming to try.

Words: 830
Tagged: AJ
Notes: Gyagh, dunno how I feel about this one. Took too long, muse came and went… hope it’s ok.

[Aaron Walker]

As AJ raced towards the other person, he kept up a constant monologue of his worries about what had just happened. “Oh man, I did it again. I’m gonna get in so much trouble. They’ll probably lock me up in a steal vault or something. I hope maybe I can have visitors. Or maybe a pet. Like a little mouse I can train to sit on my shoulder…”

As he reached the girl, he fell down on his knees beside her. “I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you bad?” he asked, his eyes filled with worry. He didn’t notice the excitement in her voice as he looked her over. She didn’t seem to be bleeding or broken, but he was still obviously worried. “Do you need to go to the infirmary?”

Still worried that she was hiding some internal injury, AJ started chewing on his thumbnail as he waited for her replied. “I do hope I at least get a mouse,” he said, thoughtfully.

[Ayla Simpson]

Ayla stayed there on the grass for a short while longer. Long enough for the guy to reach her and drop down to his knees next to her. He really did seem pretty worried. The look on his face told her that much. He looked like he’d just done something awful. Whatever it was he had done was pretty powerful, probably powerful enough to hurt a normal person a fair bit. Luckily Ayla wasn’t a normal person, nor was she the kind of person to bring up what could have happened when it clearly didn’t.

Don’t worry, I’m fine. See…” She lifted her torso off the ground, tucked her legs under and sprang to her feet, bouncing once or twice to show she wasn’t hurt at all. There were a few grass stains on her shirt and arms from where she had first hit the ground, but nothing more. ”…fine!” She grinned down at the kneeling boy sincerely, as if to reassure him that there really was nothing wrong with her.

”When are you getting a mouse? That’s pretty cute.” It didn’t seem to have anything to do with what he’d just done to her, but then maybe this boy was one of those people whose minds wandered from topic to topic as and when it pleased. ”And you probably shouldn’t eat your thumb, you need that for stuff.” Ayla had known people to bite their nails when they were nervous or scared before, she had never really seen the point of it. Did eating a bit of yourself somehow make you braver?

Now that she was stood properly she got a better look at the boy. He looked a little younger than her, and fairly short, though she wasn’t one to comment on that. He had pretty messy hair too, the kind you get when you don’t tend to it after waking up.

”So anyway, what was that thing you did? Was it like a force field or something? I didn’t see it coming. Maybe, like, an invisible force field. Or… are force fields normally invisible? You’d know that wouldn’t you, unless it wasn’t a force field. Was it a force field?” Some people like to take time to phrase their questions before speaking. Not Ayla. She was very much from the school of ‘ask whatever pops into your head.’ ”Well, whatever it was it was pretty awesome. Could you do it again? Can you do other things with it? Does it, like, tire you out or something, I know some powers do that.”

Ayla wasn’t normally so quick to quiz someone about their power, but then she wasn’t normally hit by it by way of introduction. There was just something about being blown backwards through the air that got her interested. Maybe it would be the same for other people too if they weren’t likely to be more hurt by such things. Ayla was sure she’d feel a few aches and pains by the time evening rolled around, but she was certain to fall asleep a few minutes later so it wasn’t a bother to her.

Words: 518
Tagged: AJ
Notes: for once it didn’t take me 5 hours to write a post

[Aaron Walker]

“Really?” AJ asked as the girl sprang to her feet. He grinned up at her. “Sorry about your shirt,” he added, noticing the grass stains. But a few grass stains were way better than broken bones. Although girls could sometimes be weird about their clothes, she was smiling so AJ figured she wasn’t about to kill him for ruining her shirt.

“A mouse?” he said, forgetting where his thought train had taken him. “Oh…I guess I don’t need one now. Since you’re okay.” Cuz yeah, that made perfect sense. He blushed a little when she called him out on his thumb-chewing. He shoved his hand into his pocket to stop himself. “Yeah…like hitchhiking…and giving thumbs ups…and I can’t think of anything else.”

“Oh it was a soundwave,” he said, shrugging. “An invisible soundwave.” His trainer had told him that he should get more educated on the science of sound. That it would help him to develop more control over his ability. And although he was usually one for learning new things, he was easily side-tracked and usually ended up trying to think of new things to try out with his power instead of working to control it.

His grin widened at her rapid fire questions. He hadn’t met someone this interested in his ability since he’d first bumped into Jared. “I get all headachey if I keep doing it. I’ve been trying to use it for something other than knocking stuff over. You know like flying or something. Cuz flying would be awesome.” He paused to sigh, dramatically. “But so far I’ve only managed to knock over myself…or other people.”

“So are you a student here?” he said, looking at her closely as if she might be wearing an ‘I belong at Hammel’ button pinned on her shirt. “I guess you must be…since you’re here…and all.” Suddenly it occurred to him that if she was a student than she would have a power as well.

“So what can you do…talk to ferrets? Turn yourself into a giant ball of fire? Or…” he paused remember that he had just knocked her to the ground and she didn’t have a scratch on her. “Are you one of those invincibility people?”

[Ayla Simpson]

Ayla had barely noticed the grass stains on her shirt. And really, it wasn’t like she’d never had dirty clothes before. She brushed the fabric a little with her hand, as though dusting herself off.

”Oh, don’t worry about that, I’ve had dirty clothes before, it’ll be fine.” Ayla most certainly wasn’t the kind of girl to obsess over her clothing, and especially not her light and simple running clothing that she had thrown on today with barely a second thought.

His next comment caused her no small amount of confusion. She stood for a moment, her expression changing to a slightly puzzled frown. For a few seconds she was silent, trying to work out the connection between her and mice. Both of them were small, but that probably wasn’t it. Was it because of his power? Like maybe he had wanted a mouse to experiment on but now that she was ok he could use her. Well he could at least ask her first. No, that probably wasn’t right either. She gave up before long. It was far easier to ask when you didn’t get something.

”What do you mean? Why don’t you need a mouse now I’m ok? I’m nothing like a mouse. Am I?” Ayla had never considered herself particularly mouse-like, but maybe he saw something in her that she missed herself. Or maybe he was just a little crazy. He didn’t seem to be happy about her noticing him eating his thumb judging by the embarrassment he showed when she mentioned it. He wasn’t very good at naming things that needed thumbs though. ”And playing computer games, and thumb wars, and eating big sandwiches, and holding drinks and stuff, it would be so hard to do all that with no thumbs. See, they’re very important.”

”Are sound waves normally visible?” It seemed like a valid question to the redhead. She couldn’t remember ever seeing a sound wave in person. Maybe ‘in person’ was the wrong word to use there, but never mind. Either say it sounded like a pretty amazing power to her. Making sound waves into a force so powerful they could send things flying. ”Oh wow, so you can fly with that? That’s so cool. Or, it will be when you do it. I mean, knocking yourself over is kinda flying… downwards… for a tiny bit. But what if you used it to send yourself upwards really high, then used it again when you were about to hit the ground, so it didn’t hurt. That’d work, right?” Already amazing images were running through her mind, images of the boy shooting through the air, up and down, bouncing on sound waves.

”Yep, I am a student here. My name’s Ayla, what’s yours? Oh, and talking to ferrets would be so cool. Turning into fire wouldn’t be though, fire is never cool… get it? I’m not really invincible. I’m… sort of like rubber. Like, you can hit me and it won’t hurt much, and I have a ton of energy inside me. I can like, run for hours and never get tired. I wish I could fly using sound though, that’s so cool, even if you haven’t actually done it yet.” In reality her power was a little more complicated than that, but giving detailed explanation was never one of Ayla’s strong points. Hopefully it would be good enough for this boy.

”So… are you gonna stay on your knees like that? Should I sit down? Or are you gonna get up? Could you do that sound thing again so I can see?” The grin was still plastered to her face. It would be pretty amazing to see such in interesting sounding power first hand and without being caught by it unawares.

Words: 626
Tagged: AJ
Notes: First post in too long. Sorry about the wait.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ grinned as she dismissed his worry about her clothing. He was glad that Ayla was one of those few girls in the world who didn’t freak out if they got dirt under their nails. AJ was usually covered in some sort of outdoor rubbish at all times. It was a hazard of enjoying himself and one that didn’t concern him in the least.

AJ was confused at her confusion. For a moment he couldn’t remember how all of this mouse talk had even started. Surely she had been the one to bring up the subject in the first place. “Well you are small, but then again so am I…” he said, trying to figure out exactly what was going on in this conversation. Then suddenly it hit him. “Oh,” he said, laughing as he realized the mix-up. “I don’t need a mouse cuz I didn’t hurt you.” There, that should clear things up…maybe.

AJ nodded along to her list of thumb-related activities. “Wow, you’re good at that,” he said, a little in awe and embarrassed at his pathetic list. He didn’t have long to worry about it though because he was busy wondering if sound waves could ever be visible. “Well…actually I don’t think you are. Unless you’re underwater. But even then it’s just the water moving around that’s visible.”

“Flying downwards, yeah!” he yelled, a little excited that technically he could fly. Well sorta. “I’ll half to work a little more on the upwards flying thing.” Truthfully, it was very doubtful that AJ would ever succeed in his quest. Even if he got down the physics of it all, he wasn’t the most coordinated individual in the world.

“I’m AJ. It’s great to meet you. Good thing I knocked you over,” he grinned. Maybe he should make a habit of this more often. Then again not everyone had a power like Ayla, so maybe that wasn’t such a great idea. “Rubber? That’s awesome.” AJ felt her explanation was good enough. And it did sound awesome. It would really come in handy, or so he thought. Falling down happened a lot, especially to him. It would be so great to not get hurt every time.

Laughing a little, he jumped to his feet. “I’m up,” he said, stating the obvious. “I can try, but I’m not that great at sending it in the right direction yet…And after a while I kinda run out of…energy or whatever.” Hopefully Ayla would understand what he meant. He wasn’t that great at explaining the details of his power.

Taking a step away from her, in the hopes that this time he wouldn’t knock her over AJ closed his eyes in concentration. Aiming for a nearby tree this time, he shot out another sound wave. Luckily this one hit the mark. The small tree swayed a bit, sending some of its leaves showering to the ground. “How was that?” he asked Ayla, grinning like a maniac.