Walking on Water (Mia)

[Tanner Larson]

It was a chilly day, even for mid-November, but Tanner was perfectly comfortable given his unusually high body temperature. It would seem there were perks to being a pyrokinetic, after all. As it were, the blonde boy was wearing cargo shorts and a tee shirt, which surely made him a sight to see among all the jackets and long pants. Although, he had to admit that he probably still didn't stand out in a crowd as much as his pink-haired friend, whom he was on his way to meet by the lake.

Mia had decided today would be the perfect day for some ice skating. This was an activity Tanner had never tried before, but he'd had nothing else to do and was already done with all of his homework for the weekend, and so he was game for it. Besides, he enjoyed hanging out with Mia, who if he had to be honest was one of the only students here at Hammel who was on the same intellectual plane as he. They studied together, challenged one another mentally, and it just worked. Frankly, he wished they'd met sooner. Also, he secretly thought her pink hair was freaking awesome, but that was beside the point.

Arriving at the lake, he found that he had gotten there first, and so he sat himself down by the lake's edge to wait for his friend to arrive. Normally, he wouldn't be caught dead so near the lake - as it was, this was one of his first visits to the area - but seeing how the water was all frozen over, it just didn't seem as scary to him as that large mass of water, lapping at his feet, waiting to consume him... The boy shivered, not because of the temperature, and stood again, looking around. He'd informed Mia that he didn't own ice skates, but she'd said she would take care of that. Hopefully she hadn't forgotten, or this would be quite the short endeavor.

[Mia Bell]

Mia yawned as she made her way to the lake. She was very happy it had gotten colder, a lot colder; but she hadn’t liked how the weather had change so drastically. She had gotten a cold because of it; she was just so used to it always being cold and the weather not changing very much at all. She didn’t know how she was going to deal with the weather change in spring, she didn’t want it to get hot again. She wanted it to stay cold, who knew she would miss Alaska this much; she knew anyone would think she’s crazy for missing the cold and snow.

Mia had just gotten off work and had to stop off at her Uncle’s; not the she had minded she liked spending time with her uncle and his dog. Maybe that was why she was running a little late, she had gotten side tracked playing with the dog. She had totally forgotten about Tanner for a good ten minutes. But it wasn’t everyday she got to play with a dog so she hoped Tanner would understand why she was a little late. Mia also hoped he hadn’t waited very long for her to show up or that he had got tired of waiting and just left the lake.

Grinning as she came to the lake and saw the blonde, she waved at him as she walked up to him. Mia was carrying her skates and her uncle skates. “Hey! I hope you don’t mind using someone else’s skates.. They’re my uncle’s so, yeah.” She was glad that Liam had let Tanner use them or she would be totally bummed out that they couldn’t go ice skating together. Mia handed Tanner the skates that were tied together by the laces, and then moved to hug him. “Thanks for coming out with me.” She really did need this time out away from the school.

Mia sat down on the ground and took her sneakers off; she would have usually worn boots or her knee high converse but she couldn’t take those off quickly so she opted to wearing sneakers. She moved to put her ice skates on. “Hey, have you ever ice skated before?” She looked at him and blinked, not remembering if she had asked that or not.

[Tanner Larson]

Tanner wasn't normally one to grow impatient too quickly; as it was, Mia was only ten minutes late, which in the world of teenage socializing really wasn't late at all. Smiling as the girl approached, his previous fears with regards to the lake melted away as he smiled and gave a small wave to the young lady.

"Not at all," he replied, as he accepted Mia's uncle's skates into his hands; he'd assumed that might be the case, as where else would Mia happen upon a pair of male skates? As it was, it wasn't like he wasn't wearing socks, so there was really nothing to worry about.

Tanner's breath caught in his chest as the pink haired girl's arms were suddenly around him; he didn't mind, and obviously wasn't the type of kid to flip out at unexpected physical contact, but he wasn't exactly the touchy-feely kind, so the hug was a bit of a surprise to him. "Uh, yeah, no problem," he said, color coming to his cheeks as he gave a warm smile in return. Any outsider watching this exchange might assume that Tanner had some sort of crush on Mia, for the hug seemed to elicit a blush from the young blonde. But blushing was practically his specialty, and just because the person hugging him was a girl didn't meant he was any more used to a public display of affection.

"Actually, no," he admitted, upon being asked if he'd ever skated before. It hadn't looked that hard, though. He slipped off his sneakers, shoving his feet into the skates (Mia's uncle's feet were surely bigger than his, but skates were always a tight fit, anyway) before tying the laces up. "Figure it'll be a nice challenge," he said with a grin, knowing how his friend liked a good challenge even more than he did.

[Mia Bell]

Mia was glad to see Tanner was still there, that meant he wasn’t impatient and that she hadn’t kept him waiting too long. Because she would have been miserable to know that he had just left and that she might have annoyed him by being late.

“Awesome, because I don’t have the money to buy you skates.” Because if she did she would have totally done it, if it meant she could skate with him. Or well she would by anyone skates if it meant she didn’t have to ice skate alone.

In the slight moment she hugged Tanner she had forgotten that not everyone was as affectionate as she was, as well as them possibly not liking it. But as it was Mia was really affectionate and like being so as well as other’s being affectionate to her, as long as you didn’t randomly kiss her she was fine. Mia was always to kind of person to be careful of how affectionate she was with someone and always remembered that not everyone was as touchy feely as she was. As it was now, she just completely forgot about Tanner’s comfort zone and didn’t realize he was uncomfortable with it.

Mia frowned at Tanner and then let out a long sigh. “I have my work cut out for me then..” She grinned, she did like a challenge and she figured it would be more fun this way. “I have never taught anyone how to ice skate, so bare with me on this.” She giggled as she stood up and then held her hands out to help Tanner up. “It would be a nice challenge, and I’m always up for one.”

[Tanner Larson]

Tanner didn't exactly blame Mia for hugging him without realizing he wasn't the type to enjoy receiving such affectionate gestures; as it was, most people just loved to be hugged, so he did know that he was the exception, not the rule, when it came for his general disdain for physical contact. However, as they were friends, it didn't really unsettle him too much; very few people could get away with things like that, and with the exception of Robbie and Zac (both of whom wouldn't have taken "no" for an answer, anyway, Lord knew), Mia was one of the only ones who could do so. He respected her a lot, for a variety of reasons.

"I had a feeling," said the blonde, responding to her grin with one of his own as she said she was up to the task. He took her hand, using it as leverage to help himself up, wobbling a bit as this was his first time standing on skates. He looked around; this wasn't like some sort of public ice skating rink, where there were plenty of railings to hang onto for beginners; no, this was just a frozen-over lake, and only his equilibrium was protecting him from landing on his ass on the cold, hard ice.

"So, er, how do we do this?" He asked, taking a few tentative, shaky steps towards the lake; he definitely liked it more frozen than thawed, that was for sure, for under no circumstances would he otherwise be so close to this body of water. "Do we just... hop on?" He would rely on her to get him going, but after all, he did like challenges of his own.

[Mia Bell]

If Mia would have known Tanner didn’t like physical contact she would restrain herself from hugging him or doing anything else affectionate. Mia just couldn’t help it, she liked being affectionate, especially when it came to close friends. But she always remembered to restrain herself from being touchy feely with everyone cause she knew not everyone was like her. Though she wished they were; she wouldn’t have to worry about crossing a physical line.

Of course, she was up to the task, she was always up for any challenge. If only someone was up for the challenge of figuring out the sixteen year old. Then maybe she would feel better about herself. Mia smiled as Tanner started walking, “Hmm.. I guess you already know that gravity is going to win a few rounds before you actually get the hang of keeping your balance.” She hoped that didn’t discourage Tanner but she wasn’t going to lie about it being a piece of cake. Everyone falls when trying something new, it was just how it worked. Even babies fall on their butts before they master walking.

Mia chuckled “No hopping is involved. Just think of it as wearing roller skates.” Has Tanner ever roller-skated before? She was hoping he would have, it would make explaining things a little easier. Mia held onto his hand, giving him the extra support. Mia merely started walking onto the ice. “Mostly it’s about finding your balance, once you find that. You pretty much got most of ice skating down.”