Skipping Rocks on the Sidelines (open)

[Milo Grant]

It was fairly quiet today so at the moment Milo was taking a break from guard duty and hanging out by the lake. He picked up a rock from nearby and tested the weight of it in his hand before sending it soaring over the surface of the water, skipping it across. The rock skimmed the surface a ways before sinking down to the depths of the pond. It was a nice day out today and Milo was dressed in a navy blue tee shirt and a pair of jeans that looked a bit worn out. He had a pair of faded black converse on his feet that were more gray then black now and the small black earring studs in his ears caught the refection of the sun just barely.

It hadn’t been that long since he had come back to Vermont from his home in Texas but he already missed it. He missed the smells of horses surrounding him and the smell of the country and his brother’s cooking. But he knew that his brother could handle things back home especially now since Milo’s brother was getting married soon since he was engaged when Milo had gone back for their parents’ funeral. Milo was thinking about if he could go back to Texas for the wedding when the two decided on a date. If they ever did decide they were still talking about it and hadn’t even figured out the month yet when Milo had left. He was happy for his brother though; happy Christian wasn’t going to be alone with all those horses to attend to by himself.

Milo sighed as he picked up another rock and skipped it across the water with it landing with a plop as he wondered what he planned on doing today.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani didn’t know why he had started to show up around the pond recently. He hated water. Hated large bodies of it especially but there was something calming about listing to the calm lapses of the tiny waves and the motion of the fish within the pond. As long as Lani kept his distance he could listen to that and the wind and find himself feeling that gloriously small feeling he loved so much. It was right, it seemed, that the world was created with thing that would make a man feel humbled for all of the technology and engineering if mother nature had it in her mind to destroy something she would. Lani was wrapped in his old hooded sweatshirt. It was pathetic but it had also become a comfort, a safety blanket of some sort.

For all of Lani’s current soul searching he was coming up rather empty. Perhaps he was only meant to be a liar and a trouble maker. He had gone through and done a little bit of weeding in his own file recently. Without much trouble he examined the amount of unexcused absences, the documentation of failure and the countless write ups for this thing or another. He had taken a few less noticeable detentions and torn them. It looked better if the number didn’t look so great but he did have the thickest file on record. That gave him a little bit of pride. Teach them to take him away from his family when they needed him. But what Lani was really looking for was not there. His meeting with Dr. Neville was not documented. Lani narrowed his eyes. He was sure this was some sort of trick he didn’t want to know the truth that he could trust the man. So unsatisfied the following morning he made his way to his favorite place to think.

A place under the open sky where he could dream of the time when he had had wings and had joined the birds in the air. Really the sky was so much more spectacular filled with stars but Lani didn’t mind. Sometimes he wondered if he should have taken the chance to vanish when he had wings and the means to do so. It would have been better for everyone. Adrianna and Odion, and Lani had done nothing but screw up and he was no good to either of them. He sighed and silently scolded himself, he was relapsing again. He needed to stop letting the dark thoughts get him when he was alone. A splashing sound called his attention and curiosity was a greater force in Lani than caution and he rounded the corner. A young man was skipping rocks Lani wasn’t sure if he was a student or not. Lani smiled a little, his idea had been stolen. He picked up a rock with his power and brought it to his hand and tossed it past the person. “This pond is rather popular lately,” he commented with a pleasant smile, “But there is nothing more calming than throwing rocks is there?”