Still Not Perfect [Open!]

[Alex Grayson]

Alex wasn't doing very well, to be honest.

He'd had a long couple of months at Hammel. He liked the setting and the town - it was a nice place, really, but he didn't feel like he fit in as well as some others did. He had a few friends - Kevin and David, and his roommate AJ seemed like a nice person, along with the other boys in the room. He was just a quiet person who was intimidated easily by new people, and tried to feel comfortable around people before actually started hanging around them - what if he had a random vision of the future? He felt insane, like Trewalney from the Harry Potter series, and felt like an outcast, to be honest.

He'd caught up on schoolwork, which was a huge plus. No longer did he worry about being behind, and felt much more comfortable in class, though he was still very quiet, which was something that might have been bothersome to some of his teachers. He diligently did all of the homework that he could remember, and tried his best to organize his paperwork, but it didn't always work out in the way he wanted it to. He'd found a new trainer, but he still hated going to training, dreading the migraines that he'd get after his sessions.

Things still weren't perfect.

Sighing, he plopped down underneath a tree, hugging his knees into his chest. Alex stared out into "space" - and barely noticed someone coming towards him.

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia was getting back into the swing of things at work. She hadn’t been back for more than a day or two, but she had gotten used to being able to do as she pleased. This meant that if she wanted to have a cigarette then she could have a cigarette, and she could do it almost whenever she pleased. Because of that she was currently itching for one, but there were two good reasons why she wasn’t actually partaking in one. First of all, she was on school grounds, and she didn’t feel like leaving them. Secondly, she did want to be a good influence on the kids and if they were preaching about not smoking then puffing on a cigarette was grade A hypocrisy.

Instead, she decided to take a walk around the grounds to try to kill the craving and get some kind of air, nicotine or not. The grounds were fairly empty, given the cold it didn’t surprise her. She walked briskly, wanting to warm herself up physically before the cold could seep in and cause her slightly stiff leg to behave more poorly than usual. She managed easily enough, breaking into a more even and relaxed gate. As she got closer to the pond she saw a slight splash of color near one of the trees.

As she got closer she could see him better. It was a boy, and from the look of him he couldn’t have been much more than thirteen, and even that felt like a bit of a stretch to her. There was something about him that started to set off her internal alarms as she got closer. Maybe it was what she could see of his expression from the side, or maybe it was simply because he was out here alone and that was enough.

“Hey there,” she said. “Are you alright? It is pretty cold out here, are you warm enough?”

[Alex Grayson]

Alex was slightly alarmed as Yulia approached, but managed to not show signs of surprise. He didn't really recognize Yulia, but figured that she was probably one of the staff at Hammel, probably a trainer or a teacher of a class that Alex didn't take. He hadn't been here for long, but the teachers at the high school he'd attended for all of 3 days weren't half as caring as the ones here at Hammel. Trust wasn't something that Grayson gave out easily - years of being the outcast had took its toll, and fake friends were something that he tried to avoid, though something told him that she probably wasn't any sort of person who was pretending to care.

He made eye contact with the trainer, thinking of what to say for a moment. He wasn't too cold, really, but he was regretting his choice of not wearing thicker clothing. Although he'd had cold temperatures living in San Francisco, these were warm compared to the ones in Pilot Ridge. The town was a nice one from what he'd seen, but for the most part, he stayed on campus, even though he was old enough to venture into town.

"I'm fine," he replied in a hurried voice.

[Yulia Sokolov]

One of Lia’s eyebrows arched up. Sometimes it was very easy to know when you were being lied to, and this was one of those instances. She wasn’t mad though, she couldn’t blame the boy after all. He was young, she was a stranger to him, and clearly he had come out here for some space. Still, being able to understand why he was out there didn’t solve the problem behind it all. So Lia did what she felt was best. She sat down next to him on the cold, hard ground. She rubbed her gloved hands together almost idly.

“Try again,” she said to him. “Boys who are fine do not sit outside alone in the cold. What is the matter?” She was a direct person, and that was evident at the moment. She did not mince words, and whether that came from personality or the fact that she was wary of English since it was not her first language, well, she did not even know. She did have a feeling that she knew what was the matter, simply based off of what she could guess when it came to his age. She spoke more gently when she phrased her next question.

“How long ago did you come here?” She reached up and tugged her scarf free, holding it out to him.

[Alex Grayson]

He sighed, frowning visibly. He had assumed that Yulia wouldn't suspect anything, which hadn't been one of his best decisions, thinking about it. Alex didn't want people knowing he was homesick - people would probably laugh, because none of the other 14 year-olds seemed like they were upset over being away from their homes. People had told him that he'd get over it, at least that's what they said when he first arrived at Hammel. Three months later, he still missed home, his parents, and his brother - though his sisters weren't as missed.

"I'm homesick," he admitted in a quiet voice. The directness was a bit scary, but it made it easy for Alex to pick up that English wasn't her first language. He paused at her next question. "A few months." He didn't take the scarf, however.

[Yulia Sokolov]

His answer was not entirely unexpected. It seemed like that was a fairly common problem here are Hammel. “You know, that is a good problem to have here. If you are homesick that means you have a home to go back to, and that won’t go away.” She hung her scarf back around her own neck. “I used to get homesick too, but being here is being home for me now. You’ll get there, but it will take more than a few months.” She didn’t want him to feel like she was pushing ideas on him.

“Where are you from?” She paused for a moment and then continued. “And if you don’t mind, what can you do?” It was a sensitive question, or at least she had always thought so. Then again, not everyone had a power that made people flinch. She was still a little surprised to see him out there if he was homesick. After all, why not just go in and call home?