It Just Had to be Physics (Lani.)

[Elisia Lark]

School wasn't a hard thing if you put your mind to it. Really, it was the same for every class, study, work hard and you succeed. So why was it that physics just had to be different? Okay, maybe it wasn't different, but to Ellie it was. She excelled in all of her classes, all but one. She was a straight A student, but this physics grade was hanging over her head at a B+ and she just couldn't have that. If she was going to get into one of the best art and performance schools in the country, she had to keep her grades up and continue to sing her heart out. This grade could determine whether she went to Juliard or not, though she was still a year or so off from actually applying for colleges. And maybe it was an over exaggeration that this B+ would ruin her chances, but that's just how it felt to her and she couldn't let it continue to slip.

The worst part of physics was the constant equations and understanding what was going on when the equation was applied. It was one thing doing it repetitively on a worksheet, but then the teacher threw in labs and well, that was what kept getting to her. It didn't help much that her lab partner did absolutely nothing because it was just one of those types of people, but even if her partner did help, it wouldn't help her much. Elisia was determined to get an A on this lab report because if she didn't then she would probably just give up altogether. Physics just wasn't her friend and there was pretty much no one that could help her with it because most of her friends didn't particularly pay attention to school. Jack could have, but she didn't want to bug him with her tutoring business.

So she was in the library, by herself, working diligently on a lab report that she had no clue of what she could possibly be doing. It was stupid and annoying and she was about ready to just be done after about two hours of this nonsense. That's what it was too, nonsense.

[Lani Hunter]

Physics took a different kind of brain. It was a class that wasn’t just memorization or plug and chug formulas. One had to know why in order to succeed. If it weren’t for his power Lani probably wouldn’t understand physics half as well as he did. Either way Lani was enjoying the class from a distance. It was probably infuriating his teacher as he showed up for tests and passed with flying colors. It wasn’t hard to do equations, but applying the right equations required the proper thought process. It was a puzzle and one that Lani loved playing with. Physics was the explanation of the whole world and even most of the equations were ideal and most of them were theories. The whole thing was a living breathing science that was constantly changing. The lab for Lani had been a simple one. All collisions and transfer of energy.

He was walking to the library to take the quiet time to write up the lab report. The equations were being a little finicky but they were so much easier to work with when they were derived. When they were derived it was easy to see where things came from and what the different parts did. He had his bookbag slung over one shoulder as he walked. He hadn’t been in the library since he had almost destroyed it but it was about time for him to head back in and stop acting like a criminal. After all, he had put it back. Mostly. And no one knew it was him anyways. He walked to the tables by the window and blinked. That girl looked familiar. She looked like she was hard at work on something and as Lani neared he realized where he knew her from. She was working on the same lab report he was. Which meant she was in his class. He smiled and standing a polite distance away asked, “Hey, aren’t you in my physics class?” It was surprising that he remembered her at all since he was hardly ever there.

He wondered if she was working with her lab partner. There were enough people in that class that Lani usually found it very easily to pass into and out of lab without much detection. He moved a little closer to glance at her work. “How’s it going?” He asked, “Do you mind if I sit?” He did so anyways without waiting for her answer and pulled out his own notebook and lab report. It was surprisingly neat and organized for someone who was usually disorganized, at least to the not-Lani-eye. He looked up at her and frowned. What was her name? He must have heard it once or twice. He wondered if she even knew he was in the class. Of course the teacher made a point to thank Lani emphatically for attending class in which Lani would reply ‘you’re welcome’ and piss of the teacher rather well. But the amount of times that happened were so few he still wondered.

[Elisia Lark]

Different kind of thinking and brain was an understatement. Ellie was not a physics girl, she could do chemistry all day long, but physics just didn’t like her. Why did she even need physics? It wasn’t like her ability had anything to do with physics and she didn’t need physics in order to sing and dance. So why did she even bother with it? Oh right, because if she didn’t her fathers would be unhappy with her. She had to go to all of her classes, if she ever skipped a class, they’d never let her live it down. It wouldn’t be screaming or punishment; it’d be the disappointed faces that would get her. Totally unfair.

Before she completely gave up on the whole idea of physics, a boy that was maybe a little older than her walked by and stopped beside a chair at her table. She looked up, her whole expression drained of anything besides exhaustion. On top of that, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to really act all that sociable at this point because she was flustered and just not in the mood to do much. But then he said something that made her perk up a bit. And that was when she remembered him. He was the guy that always, consistently got A’s on their tests and yet never showed up to class. Every time he came into the room and aced the tests, she wondered if he had the weird ability of being a genius. Nodding slightly she just looked at him. Her social skills were sorely lacking.

Watching him get closer, she curled in on herself a little more, still painfully uncomfortable to be talking to yet another guy. What was it with her always running into guys? “Honestly, i-it sucks,” She said with a frown, her hand running through her hair in frustration. “Go ahead,” It wasn’t like she could stop him anyway if he wanted to sit. Besides, if this guy was a physics genius, why would she say no? Ellie scooted away a little from the chair that he had motioned to, just to keep a personal distance between them. Her personal bubble was a little smaller since she was so uncomfortable around people.

[Lani Hunter]

Everyone needed physics. She would see that as soon they got to sound waves. Lani really didn’t have much of a care to go on to a class of things that he already knew. Things that his power made him have to know. He had books and Lani knew a lot of people couldn’t just learn from a book but not a lot of people as well could take a ball and examine the forces around it just by touching it. A lot of people said telekinesis was moving things with their minds. And it was. But it was manipulation of forces and that was where a lot of people got lost. That was where Lani got lost. Because he was so focused on the why that he never examined what actually happened. He didn’t try it himself for he was afraid. So no he was not going to sit in class and calculate what he knew.

Lani wouldn’t say it was never. More like rarely. He wasn’t surprised when she didn’t initially give him a second glance and then slowly the recognition dawn on her. He smiled despite thinking she was probably cursing him. But as far as he knew only a few people knew that he was acing the tests. But either way she would probably come out with a better grade than he would. One had to do more than ace tests if one wanted to get an A in the class. If he knew she thought he was a genius he probably would have laughed. It surprised some people that as much as Lani could be thick he could understand something like that so easily. But that was because he didn’t stop until he understood it. He was thick and it came off like that because he didn’t just accept things. He had to dissect them and examine them in every light. That was why he didn’t like going to class because often times he left with more questions than answers and it was better to just read a book. “Oh really?” He gave her a wincing face. “I’ve been working on it for a little bit too.

“Thanks,” He said taking a seat next to her. He just raised a brow as she scooted away but didn’t say anything about it. He dug out his own report and placed it on the desk. “Do you mind?” He asked as he pointed at her lab. He wouldn’t look at it if she didn’t want him to but he was pretty sure that he could help with a few of the concepts. Collisions were not the most fun of topics. Mostly because you had to take a moment to think about things colliding in vectors and mass and it was a little strange. But it all came down to force and vectors. That was the brilliant thing about physics. It could all be derived from the same equation of motion. The sum of the forces. While those forces were different they were all inherently the same for inertial frames of reference. But Lani was digressing. “What are you having problems with?” He asked politely hoping that she didn’t think she was dumb. Physics was hard. It was only by fluke that Lani got it at all.

[Elisia Lark]

((Sorry this took me so long Izy! We can make this set like now if you want instead of trying to think back to what happened in January! And I apologize for the shortness!))



Ellie would never really like science or math for that matter. Her brain was for the arts, not logic. She liked having her own opinions and theories that couldn't be proven, but were interesting to think about. She hated the concreteness of math and how everything always had an answer. Where was the imagination in it? Where was the fun in knowing the answer to every little thing that was asked? It just was boring. She got frustrated by these things easily and she wasn't one who got frustrated. Put her in front of thousands of people and have her sing something, she'd do it happily. Make her do this stupid lab report and turn it in within a week of getting it? Impossible.

If this guy in front of her could actually help her to understand it, he'd be a miracle worker.

"Go right ahead, you'll probably have better luck with it than I am," She said with a frustrated sigh. Even if he didn't go to the classes often, he clearly knew what he was doing. Seriously, who got an A on every test without even going to the class! Ellie wanted to just bang her head against the desk. The teacher must have been nuts to understand all of this junk. Force of gravity, force of friction, net force, force after force after force! It was just so confusing!

Elisia looked up at him and frowned, "What am I not having problems with is more like it. I just don't know what I'm supposed to be finding. I mean what is up with this? I'm all for history and English where all I have to do is memorize stuff, but this...ugh." She felt incredibly stupid trying to explain to this guy what the malfunction was with her brain when it came to physics.

[Lani Hunter]

(No worries! But lets do that. It'll probably be easier.))

It was definitely not like Lani to be worried about assignments. But after what had happened recently graduating had become very important. He needed to be out of Hammel so he had freedom to move where he needed to be. Not that he didn’t get the freedom to run wherever he pleased, but he still had to sneak past Hammel security. Without having to do that he would be much better off. At least he was taking interesting classes. And he was passing. Not with flying colors, by any means, but passing. He wondered if most of the people in class knew that he was in the class or just wondered if he showed up to take the tests for fun. Whereas English and history might come easy to this girl Lani could never quite get it. He would much rather have a math problem or science question. It was like solving a puzzle there was an intense satisfaction upon finishing one of those problems.

He smiled and turned the page to look it over. He looked through her work and her reasoning and quickly identified where she went wrong. It seemed easy, a balance of forces is what it all boiled down to. What made it complicated was that every force had a different equation. And god forbid one left an inertial frame. “Okay, so you just have the conservation of energy and momentum here.” He said to himself pointing to two of the equations that she had written out. She at least was moving in the right direction. Lani had a sneaking suspicion that she knew what was going on and was just getting herself tripped up on little things. That was the problems with most things in this class. Equations were so long and work so tedious that it was easy to make a mistake at the beginning and have it be carried through the whole problem. It was an infuriating thing to have happen. But that was why people had erasers.

Lani looked up from her work and gave her a sympathetic look. She looked like she was just about at the end of her rope. He could completely understand that. And if she cared as much about school work as Lani did letting anyone else be hurt by his ex-boss they were like two peas. Lani chuckled lightly. “I’ll see if I can help you out. But don’t beat yourself up too much. I’m about as lost as a rat in a maze when it comes to history and English.” He admitted trying to make her feel better by tearing himself down and letting her know she wasn’t the only one struggling. They were just struggling with different things. He turned the page a little so she could see. “You’re trying to find the transfer of kinetic energy from this moving ball, to the stationary one when they collide.” He pointed to one and then the other.

“You actually have the final velocity of the second ball, you should have gotten that in lab. So since kinetic energy is conserved the sum of the first and the second ball after the collision is the same as the kinetic energy of the first moving ball.” Lani said, he resisted saying it wasn’t so bad because it could be for her. Who was he to say it was easy because it was easy for him. It was also easy for him to get into a jewelry store without being spotted, clean them all out and be gone. He doubted that was easy for most other people.