Water balloon (Open)

[Luxanna Viera]

Lux sat under a tree enjoying the warmth and holding a book in her hands. She closed her eyes and smiled as a sunbeam shone through the leaves and hit her face. This was the best part, this was what she loved about summer. Not especially the warmth or the beauty of nature, but the feeling of the sun on her face, the smell of cut grass and the sound of singing birds. She opened her eyes again and pressed her lips together as a group of students walked by. She looked in another direction. She hadn't gotten much friends since she came here, not that she minded, but she still couldn't help but feeling a bit of envy. ''It's better this way.'', she thought, trying to convince herself. She shrugged the thought of friends away and moved her gaze to the book now lying in her lap. She opened it and started reading.

The sun moved behind a cloud, and Lux could feel her eyes growing heavy and she shut the book, yawned and leaned further back against the tree. She closed her eyes and listened to the sounds around her. Someone having a water fight, some girls gossiping about the hottest football player and some angry kid complaining about another pimple. She couldn't help but smile. This place had a way of making everything seem safe and simple. Achievable. She sighed and re-opened her eyes.

She walked down the courtyard, not paying attention to anything around her. As she walked around the corner, a water balloon hit the back of her head. She blinked and turned slowly. She glared towards a few students running away, laughing. ''Oh shit! Did you see that?!'', one of them yelled. Dripping wet she shook her hair and growled. ''Stupid...''

[Kodah Pierce]

Kodah made his way through dorms over to the courtyard. He sauntered through the school until he opened the doors and felt the warm sunlight touch his face. He hated warm weather but he couldn’t stand being inside and the courtyard seemed like a nice enough place to stir up some trouble. Kodah was surprised at the amount of meta-humans he was surrounded by. He could see brief exposures of abilities, but other than that they appeared normal. When he was still in school he remembered learning about the adaption of the human race, how the body morphed and adapted for survival. Kodah wondered if the two topics were related. Were their abilities merely a mutation or an adaption for survival? The thought seemed too intelligent to be coming from his mind.

There were several students scattered across the courtyard, all gossiping and talking about things that didn’t concern Kodah. He wrote most of the students off, not making an effort to reach out to make any new friends. He had just arrived yesterday and already had Oriel, it didn’t seem like there was much fun around campus. He spotted a group of kids playing Frisbee and a few others have a water balloon fight. It was stupid, all of it. He couldn’t help but feel irritated at their carefree attitude.

He rolled his eyes as the water balloon fight persisted. Kodah was very obnoxious himself, but he was easily annoyed at other people’s irritating attitudes. One of the Frisbees landed at his feet and Kodah picked it up. “Hey man, throw it back!” One of the players shouted. Kodah shrugged his shoulders, “Nah, I think I’ll keep this.” The Frisbee player was more than annoyed, but didn’t ask again. Kodah wondered if his black wardrobe with his threatening spiked and studded jacket and ripped clothing intimidated the Frisbee player out of conflict.

The courtyard was too picturesque for Kodah, so he turned to make his way back to the building but when a miss thrown water balloon landed on a civilian Kodah decided to see what was going on over there. By the time Kodah strolled over to water balloon victim the boys were running off into the distance. Kodah turned the frisbee vertical and aimed at one of the boys, throwing it as hard as he could. He heard a distance “ouch!” He had missed his original target but he had still hit one of the boys. He turned to face the girl, every face in Hammel new to him.

“Try not to worry about them,” Kodah said, “besides, the look suites you.” He was joking but he couldn’t deny the girl was attractive. If he was a gentlemen he probably would have opened with a better line but Kodah didn't care.

[Luxanna Viera]

Lux looked at the boy who had approached her and scoffed. ''Ha, you're a funny one, aren't you.'', she said sarcastically and rolled her eyes. She studied his face and couldn't help but imagine him as a perfect fit for a lead singer in some random boy band. An insult, of course.

She held up her book, which was now soaked and probably ruined. Well, she didn't worry too much, it wasn't that much of a good read anyways. ''So, what's your name, funny boy?'', she asked rather annoyed as she threw the soaked book into a nearby trash can. She didn't really mean to come off as rude, since this boy hadn't really done anything other than trying to be nice. Well, kind of at least.

She quickly debated whether to apologize or not. Maybe he was dumb enough to not notice the rudeness in her voice, so she decided not to and instead wait for his reply.

[Kodah Pierce]

“I’m down right hilarious,” Kodah said, watching as the girl rolled her eyes. She was obviously annoyed at Kodah but it didn’t bother him. He wondered how much of a rise he could get out of her before she would storm off. Kodah loved pushing other people’s limits, seeing how far they’ll let him take it before they snap. That was the most common way Kodah got into fights and he was always happy to oblige. It was a bit different with girls however, he couldn’t hit a woman. It was a sexist viewpoint, but one that had been ingrained into his mind since childhood.

He looked down at the book the girl was reading with disdain. Kodah hated reading and didn’t understand how someone could enjoy something so tedious. He usually dismissed anyone who could pick up a book for fun but this girl had far too much potential to be written off. She wasn’t exactly his type but she was still nice to look at. Kodah usually went for dyed hair, punk-like girls that hated rules just as much as he did. Nina was a lot like that, he missed her a lot. It only been a few days but he knew they could never talk again, not after Kodah accidently burnt Jacob’s face.

“I prefer the term hysterical if you don’t mind.” Kodah said. “And I don’t appreciate your tone, miss,” Kodah dodged the question, poking fun at her impolite tone. “But since I’m such a nice guy, my name is Kodah.” He took a seat on the low stone wall, “I suppose you gotta name too?” He had his devious yet charming smile plastered onto his face. If he had one he would have flipped out a cigarette and started smoking, just to see if he could offend the girl any more than he already had in the first five minutes of them meeting.

[Luxanna Viera]

Lux raised her eyebrow and a slight smile could be seen on her lips if one looked close enough. She caught herself enjoying this. More than she should have. Well, she hadn't backed down from a fight yet, and she sure wouldn't start now. Not that her stubbornness would let her anyways. It'd annoy her for rest of the day. And since her reading material was down the drain, she could sure use the fun.

''Hysterical you say? Sounds pretty accurate, with that hair due and all that. Did anyone ever tell you it kind of make you look like someone who belongs in a lame boy band? Kind of creepy.'', she smiled innocently and flipped his bangs up with her finger. ''Well, that was lame.'', she thought to herself, turning away from Kodah, as he said his name was. She knew she should have tried to be nicer and all, since she obviously didn't have a lot of friends. But she kind of enjoyed this little... Game. A lot actually. It helped her blow of steam from the annoyance of the water balloon and those idiotic kids. She relaxed her body and took a deep breath.

''Now why would I tell you, since you've oh so politely given me the information I wanted?'', she smirked and looked at him, obviously challenging him.

[Kodah Pierce]

“Well aren’t you sweet?” Kodah said after she had dissed his hair. She leaned over, flipping part of his bangs up with one finger. Oh, is that how you want to play? Kodah thought, eyeing her mysteriously. Kodah was the type of guy that could easily be manipulated by any girl; as long as she was at least remotely attractive and had a small knowledge on how to flirt. He wasn’t sure if the girl was flirting with him, or just messing with him but either way he was having fun, maybe the visit to the courtyard wasn’t a total bust after all. The girl’s small smile drew Kodah in more than he already was. The tone of the conversation seemed to move as Kodah’s goals were beginning to change. Maybe this girl was his type, she certainly had the attitude that Kodah was attracted to.

“Well I was sort of hoping you might be just as nice as I am” Kodah responded. He leaned in his seat on the stone wall and continued talking. “You don’t like to play nice, do you? That’s fine, I don’t either.” If there was anything Kodah wasn’t, it was discreditable. He was shameless in most things, standing behind everything he said and every decision he made regardless of whether it was good or bad. He brazenly would flirt with any girl he thought was attractive, whether they were interested or not. He especially enjoyed the girls who had boyfriends; he wasn’t turned down often and a girl was always more fun when there was a chase.

This girl was strange though, Kodah couldn’t pin her down because she seemed a lot different than the girls he knew in New York. He was use to the girls with lots of piercings, tattoos and would party until after the break of dawn. Kodah had a lot of good times at the parties, although Nina would get jealous very easily. They had a complicated relationship; Nina would get with other guys but then get frustrated when Kodah would hook up with other girls. Kodah had liked her too much to cut it off though, he always found himself stuck in weird relationships with girls.

[Luxanna Viera]

Lux didn't have a lot of experience with guys, relationships, flirting or any of the kind due to her parents being highly religious. She had never really followed the trend that seemed to blossom in her city, believing in God and all that. Also, the fact that the townspeople saw her as a freak didn't help much on the dating front either. ''I'm a sweetheart.'', she winked. Inexperienced as she was, she didn't really mean to come off as flirty, she wasn't even sure she knew how to.

She was slightly caught off guard by his response and tilted her head. She had never met guys like him before. Well, at least not talked to one. Back home all the boys were properly raised by a strict and religious family, and they were well-behaved, had manners and acted like true gentlemen. What a drag. ''Sometimes it's good to be bad because the best memories comes from bad ideas.'', she said softly and smiled.

She bit her lip and studied him before turning away again and looking out over the courtyard, her gaze distant. His eyes were... She stopped herself. She didn't really like where this was going. She didn't want to get close, to anyone really. Being close means that you care, and when you care it's easy to get your heart broken. She didn't want that. Not again. It was bad enough that her parents had left her when she needed them the most. She could manage just fine alone. Right? A little loneliness never hurt anyone. She thought about her goals. Controlling her power and moving back home to her parents. Was it really that simple? She thought about it. When someone has been mean to you, why would you want to do good to them? Why was she striving so hard to be what her parents wanted her to be? She didn't really want to. That's what was making it so hard, because she knew she'd do it anyways. Or at least try to. ''Being good is hard. Much harder than being bad.'', she said and looked at him. ''I'm a good person. In most ways, but I'm beginning to think that being a good person in most ways doesn't count for anything very much, if you're a bad person in one way.'', she thought to herself.

Her face quickly lit up as she ruffled his hair and bent down in front of him. ''If you're so bad, prove it.'', she whispered and smiled deviously.

[Kodah Pierce]

“You can say that again,” Kodah laughed, shoving his hands in his pockets. Most of the ideas that Kodah had were bad ones, which led to a lot of trouble and interesting stories. He couldn’t imagine what would have happened if he would have stayed in Jersey. His existence would have been significantly less exciting than it was but would he have still developed his ability? He was pretty sure it was genetic but what if it wasn’t? He wondered how his mother first reacted when she learned her son was meta-human, did she cry? Kodah imagined she was just glad that he had been located and wasn’t wandering the streets anymore.

Her comment was softer but Kodah didn’t notice; he was too distracted. The tone of the conversation shifted toward a more dramatic mood as the girl looked off into the courtyard. He wondered what she was thinking about, but then again he could never understand a girl’s mind. He had tried many times before and it only resulted in failure. He couldn’t even understand the way his own mind worked let alone another person’s.

“Some deep conversation, eh? Here’s the way I see it,” Kodah straightened up and looked toward the girl directly. “There is no directive approach for living. There’s too much in-between for us to really define how to live a good or bad life. The whole world is made up in a million shades of gray.” He smiled deviously to try to lighten the mood, “But if society were to label me, I’d be bad. Really bad.”

And there it was; the challenge. It always started with a challenge or a dare. Kodah would do most anything to prove himself to a girl, even if it meant taking a huge risk or putting himself into crazy amounts of danger. “How about I show you how bad I am later tonight? Say, about two AM at this exact spot?” A plan was already formulating in his mind, he would need some spray paint and a good escape strategy.

[Luxanna Viera]

His attempt to lighten the mood clearly worked as Lux grinned. ''Really bad, huh. Well, if it all goes to shit you always have the choice to become some evil super villain who take over the world with your boy band.'', she said. Lux had seen a lot of movies and heard a lot of stories about girls falling for bad boys. She kind of understood it. Well, this type of bad boy at least. Maybe it was just her, but she enjoyed the remarks, the witty comments and the thrill of the challenge. And it helped that he wasn't that bad to look at too. Not that she would fall, she reassured herself. ''But I guess you make a good point.''

Following some random, shady guy in the middle of the night? ''All right, it's a deal.'', she'd had better ideas before. Well, she could always try shifting into a tiger or something and claw his eyes out. Yep. She was actually looking forward to it. She was curious. She'd always had a rebellious side to her. She liked playing with fire, she had always liked it. All though she knew her lucky strike was doomed to end soon, and she'd end up getting burned.