Going Swimmingly [Benton]

[Clement Evans]

Ever since Jesse had mentioned Hammel having a pool, Clement had been mildly curious. Not curious enough to go look for it right away, but curious enough that it qualified as something to do while he put off doing his homework. He was so tired of reading. It seemed like it was all he was doing, and it took him so fucking long. And he still got half the words wrong.

Outside there were too many kids clogging up the sidewalks to skateboard, and some team was using the gym (and he didn't know where Lyra kept the hockey stuff). That meant his two latest pastimes were out. The ones left kept him in his room, and Ty was locked up, so... out it was. Clement didn't want to swim, but he'd never seen a swimming pool indoors before. In Cali he'd only seen the public ones, from behind their chainlink fences. They smelled funny. Kind of like a sneeze.

He hadn't asked any directions, and the few signs down low enough for him to almost press his nose against had him in the right general area, but this only meant he was in the correct half of the school. Still, it wasn't like it was a pressing need, and he only had homework to go back to, so he wasn't in any sort of rush.

The cooler temps were also not going well for him. Clement only had t-shirts with his jeans, and anytime a door or window was opened and a gust of that cold air hit him, the gooseflesh didn't seem to go away for hours. So however bad the pool smelled, he hoped since people ran around half naked it would at least be warmer.

Standing with his hands in his pockets and a half-irritated, half-that-sort-of-constipated-look-lost-people-get expression on his face, Clement considered. He... sort of knew where he was. Meaning... within the school. But where the pool was from here... not so much. Not that he was going to give up, but that it was probably going to take longer than he figured. He looked left, then right, then back again. Where had that last sign pointed?

[Benton Barrett]

Having worn that look regularly for the past bunch of days, there there was something comforting about seeing it on someone else's face. He knew the feeling there - the frustration of being lost, the hesitance to admit to yourself ( or anyone else ) that you were lost... he was feeling just a bit of sympathy. After all, he doubted it would be the last time he himself was lost on this giant maze of a school.

So, the excessively warm Benny approached him, hands shoved in his hoodie pocket as though there were something lost deep within it. He had a towel thrown over one shoulder - it wasn't as though he was going to be particularly out of his way, approaching him.

"Hey - uh, everything okay? You look kind of lost. I'm an expert on getting lost in this place, so I kind of recognize the look." He added, mostly to try and ease into a conversation. He wasn't a jerk - he wasn't going to laugh at him, or point out his inability to get where he was going... after all, he might be new here, too. Benny wasn't exactly the sterling example of 'veteran', with only a handful of days under his belt, but he had a half-decent idea where certain places were.

He could get to the cafeteria and the pool now, and had a small radius of stuff around them - like restrooms and the like.

"I'm Benny, by the way." He added, just to get that out of the way. The air was cooler than he was particularly thrilled to be out in - he needed to find something thicker than his hoodie and a thermal shirt to wear, and soon. Maybe he'd have to ask if there was a campus store or something where he could just buy a bunch of sweaters.

Maybe he'd get one for this guy, who - surprisingly - was actually almost half a foot shorter, and apparently had Scarecrow genes somewhere in his family. Dude was skinny. He brushed those thoughts away, though, and smiled a bit at him, because that's what you did when you were trying to be helpful and not a dick.

[Clement Evans]

Clement did not pay any attention to the big kid, still trying to figure out where his dorm was from wherever he was (he was thinking... to the left...), so he was more than a little startled when the kid was in front of him and talking. To him. It took a moment to process that. And then he had to try and remember what the kid had said.

Gah. This was why he didn't interact.

...Lost. Something about lost. Right. Well... it was too late for his usual 'fuck you', plus the guy had offered to help and that didn't deserve that sentiment right off the bat. Plus... Clement squinted and thought the guy had something hanging off him. He didn't have enough life experience to guess what it was and had also never come in personal contact with a beach towel.

"I'm not lost," he said finally, and a little gruffly. "I just haven't found what I'm looking for yet."

Okay, out loud that sounded like a lame excuse, but it was the truth. Being lost meant you cared about finding your destination. And if Clement didn't find the pool today it just meant he'd have to go back to his math homework... and also find his dorm. Now if he was doing that he'd be lost.

It was also surprisingly hard to not automatically be an asshole, but the kid was bigger than he was and probably also outweighed him by at least fifty pounds. It was difficult not to be standoffish when he judged people by how much damage he thought they could do to him (meta armor notwithstanding).

And then the guy introduced himself, continuing to thwart Clement's normal discussion techniques. If he started to look a little frustrated and confused around the eyes... he was. This wasn't exactly unknown territory, but it was the first non-confrontational conversation he'd had with another male student in the five months he'd been here and he wasn't sure how this all went.

"Clement," he replied.

And then, "...Are you lost now?"

Well. He's trying.

[Benton Barrett]

He grinned, unable to hold it back. At least the guy had a sense of humor, though he sounded a bit rough when he said it. "Fair enough. I can completely follow that sentiment." Because it was true. No one liked being lost, and if there were any way to get out of being lost, most people would take it. Even if it didn't change how lost they were ( or were not. ) Benny had noticed Clement squinting, though - maybe the guy needed glasses? He filed that information away for later - he wasn't going to call a stranger on his squinting. He was finding that a lot of behaviors here in Hammel rarely had a 'normal' reason - and this might be no different.

"Nice to meet you, Clement." He replied, evenly, as he glanced around. Was he lost now? It took him a second to reaffirm his direction, because though he knew where the pool was, and where he was coming from, it was never a bad idea to double check.

"Mmmm, not this time. I know how to get from my room to the cafeteria, the infirmary, and the pool. I want to get extremely chlorinated right now." He said, with a smirk. Pulling a hand out of his pocket, he tugged on the towel, by way of explanation. "So I am pool-bound. What about you? Heading any place specific?" He asked, since, after all, the guy hadn't found what he was looking for yet. 

Benny tilted his head thoughtfully - because it seemed like the other boy was a bit... confused. He wasn't entirely sure why - after all, it was just a small conversation, in the middle of a hall. It wasn't like they were discussing homework ( otherwise he'd probably have a confused look on his face, too ), so he could only speculate at why the other guy seemed so uncertain.

Hammel was a strange place, so it could easily be just that. After all, nine times out of ten, when he was uncertain, it was directly related to how weird some aspect of Hammel was. For instance - a lot of people suffered from migraines, and he didn't. So it was weird for him trying to figure out how best to interact with someone who was clearly in pain. 

"I can point you in the right direction to... well, okay, just those places. Or I can totally walk with you somewhere, until we find what you're looking for. I'm in no rush to get wet."

[Clement Evans]

There was a flash of reflective white that meant a smile, though Clement didn't know what he'd done to deserve one and didn't smile back. The latter wasn't meant to offend, not that the other boy didn't know; Clement just didn't smile. But he gave Ben an expression that was his version of close, a sort of neutral that was almost pleasant. He also didn't know what 'sentiment' meant, but he gathered from the words that he was agreeing. Clement didn't mind being lost. He didn't like it, but he wasn't against being so, since it usually meant he was getting out of something else. Like math. Or reading. Or going home.

...'Nice to meet you'? People actually said that? Seriously? So, what, did he say it back?

GAH.

"Uh. You too."

He didn't know what 'chlorinated' meant either, and hoped it wasn't some sort of new term for high. Not that he cared if the guy wanted to drug up or drink, but he didn't want to be around when that happened. But then... 'pool-bound'. That... okay.

"I was... going to the pool to. I've..." Stupid mouth. Well... he couldn't figure out what else could put there except the rest of what he was going to say. "...never seen a pool inside a building."

He shrugged, hoping that wasn't a weird thing to say. He'd seen them on the computer, but that wasn't the same thing. There were pictures of cats holding guns on the computer too. Except that Clement was confident indoor pools existed (since seeing that episode of Explorers of the Human Body) and no so much about cats who owned/could fire weapons.

"You're going swimming?" Clement looked at what Ben was wearing and was curious enough that he had to ask. "Are you going in your jeans?"

At camp, Clement had swum in his clothes, but wasn't sure what a pool would do to them. Jesse had offered to buy him a swimsuit, but Clement still wasn't sure it was necessary. Maybe Ben would know.

((ooc: You can start them off, Clement would trail just a little behind him to see him.))

[Benton Barrett]

He seemed a little confused by the way Benny said it was nice to meet him – which was a bit weird, but it wasn’t the weirdest thing he’d ever seen. He was going to a school for superpowered children. So if being a little socially awkward was as strange as Clement got, he had a lot going for him.

Clement expressed the fact that he was heading to the pool, too, and Benny just nodded a little bit. Again, his reason was a little strange, but Benny had never seen a boarding school before he came here, so who was he to judge? “Cool. Well, since we’re both heading to the same place, we can walk together.” He said, though for a second, he wasn’t sure if the other guy wanted to. If he didn’t, Benny would understand…

So, he did the only thing someone in his position could do. He turned a little bit, nodding with his head the direction of the pool. “It’s not too far off here, so it works out.” So he started walking, a little bit slower than he might, normally, but the other kid was plenty shorter than he was, so he wasn’t going to be a jerk and take off unless he was sure the other guy could keep up with him.

“Definitely swimming. It’s one of the few ways I can relax, even if I can’t do it for too long.” Of course, the question about whether or not he was going in his jeans made him lift a brow uncertainly. Casually, he reached down to his waistband, and tugged his jeans down a couple inches, revealing bright red swimming trunks.

“Nah, I can’t walk around in my swimming trunks after I’m done swimming, so I wear jeans to get there, and I have something to wear on the way back, too. I just wear my swimming trunks under them.” He explained. “Usually I’m carrying something else, so it’s just habit, now, to wear them to the pool.” Tugging his jeans back up around his hips proper, he kept walking, glancing for one of the mental markers that would point him in the right direction.

Pretty soon, the scent of chlorine would be strong enough in the air to smell, which meant they were close.

“What about you? Going to swim in your jeans?” He asked, curiously. “It’s no big deal if you do, but I think the chlorine in the water does something to the denim if you keep doing it. Once shouldn’t be an issue.” It was a fair guess on his part – since Clement clearly wasn’t wearing his swimming trunks under them, otherwise he would have assumed the same thing about Benny.

“So have you been going here long, Clement?” He asked, curiously. He wasn’t sure how much younger Clement was than him, but since he was apparently a ‘late bloomer’, even the younger students seemed to have been at Hammel for a good while.

[Clement Evans]

Social awkwardness was probably a mild enough term for what Clement had that it verged into inaccuracy. On the one end there was his current struggle to carry on a civil conversation, on the other was the fact he had no idea how to use a telephone. But hopefully Ben would not find out about those other things during this encounter.

At the offer to go together, Clement shrugged and nodded. Might as well. Following a guy would be a lot easier than following signs he couldn't see. When Benny started walking, Clement took a spot that was on his left and just a little behind, so he could see where he went.

As far as he knew, swimming was hard work. So how it could be relaxing, he didn't quite understand, but he wasn't going to say anything, not as someone who accomplished the same thing cleaning the bathroom. Clement didn't question the other part, the bit about not being able to do it very long. He figured only those Olympic people could swim for hours and hours.

When Ben's hand went to his pants, Clement didn't understand what the guy was doing or what he was being shown till the kid explained. He vaguely remembered kids shucking clothes at camp before jumping into the lake (and staring at him when he didn't), but he hadn't paid much attention.

"...They fit under your jeans?" Clement had never worn a swimsuit, didn't know underwear wasn't worn under them. Ben's pants looked loose, but not quite loose enough to fit a pair of swim shorts and a pair of underthings. Maybe he was skinner than he looked.

As they rounded a few corners, the sharp cleaning-product scent of the pool wafted toward them. It made Clement wrinkle his nose a little. Now that it was too cold for outdoor swimming, the pool probably saw more use, those fresh out of it perfuming the hallways outside it. "Oh. No, I'm not going swimming. I just wanted to see the pool."

"Since June. This year. You?" Clement lived a fairly insular life at the school. To class, to the cafeteria for meals, and back to his dorm. Sometimes to the gym to play hockey with Lyra, sometimes out with Mia, sometimes visiting or being visited by Jesse and Ty, sometimes out on the sidewalks to practice skateboarding. It had a lot to do with his poor vision; if there was nothing to see, going places lost a lot of appeal. He'd only been into Pilot Ridge three times, and one of those times didn't count (as it was to the hospital and thus not much of a sightseeing type of thing).

"Where are you from?" He hadn't been planning on asking that, but found he wanted to hear the answer. Spontaneous speaking felt a little strange with a bigger kid (the Korean in him, he supposed), but as one who'd come from as far away as he had, within the continental US, anyway, he liked hearing where the other kids had been shipped in from. So far, the kids he knew about were either pretty close, like Lyra's Boston, or as far or further than himself, like Jesse's California or Mia's Alaska. Or the Hura kid's Japan. He supposed he'd get the question turned back on him, so he said, "I'm from Los Angeles."

[Benton Barrett]

Clement was an odd duck. Benny had more or less decided that, at this point – not that it was a bad thing in the least. Clement wasn’t a dick ( at least, he hadn’t been thus far ) and he was mostly just curious and confused. Those two things together weren’t out of place here – but something about Clement… the things he was confused about? That was where the ‘odd duck’ sensation came from. He ran his tongue over his teeth, and nodded.

“Yeah, so long as I’m not wearing boxers under them. Unless you’re wearing something really thin that it goes all see-through when it gets wet-“ Something Ben couldn’t figure out one way or the other. Who in their right mind thought that was a good idea? It was always so awkward when someone was unintentionally showing off because their white swim trunks were basically nonexistent once they got out. But, he’d seen it on more than one occasion, so clearly, it wasn’t that outrageous. Maybe he was just a prude?

Nah.

Of course, when Clement said he wasn’t swimming, Benny turned a little, so he could see him. He was slightly behind him, which again was a bit strange, but he didn’t object. “Not going swimming?” He asked, curiously. “The pool’s big enough to be awesome to look at, sure, but all the fun happens inside.” He grinned, easily. “But if you’re not into it, that’s cool.” Benny sure as hell wasn’t going to force someone into a pool, though he thought just wanting to see it was yet another check in the ‘odd duck’ column.

Clement had been there since June – he had Benny by a few months. Who knew? Benny almost asked him why he was lost, if he’d been there so long. But, then, if it wasn’t a place that he frequented, in a place this large? It would probably be pretty easy for him to get lost or turned around.

“About two weeks now.” He replied, with a little shrug. “I’m apparently on the ‘weird’ side because I just got my powers, instead of getting them a few years ago like most people.” ‘Late Bloomer’ was so derogative… but accurate.

The other kid’s question was a good one – of course, when he said he was from Los Angeles, Benny had a hard time not getting all twenty questions. It had to be awesome living out there – and that much more depressing that he was now stuck here in this place. “I’m from North Dakota, pretty close to the Canadian border. Not a big city by big city terms, but it’s pretty nice most of the time. What’s Los Angeles like?” He asked, as they finally hit the double doors that lead to the pool proper.

It was almost hard to not just make a beeline for the pool, but that would be rude to just jump in, mid-conversation, right?

[Clement Evans]

"...So you don't normally wear underwear with a swimsuit? Unless... why would anyone wear a see-through swimsuit? Or is that... the... thing?" He supposed it might be some sort of weird fashion fad, to wear a swimsuit that let everyone see everything. He could name several kids at Hammel who'd go for that. There were people in L.A. who wore the clothing version of that, shorts that were little more than denim thongs or jeans so low-riding that they sat mid-thigh, and tops sheer enough not to count.

To Clement, seeing the indoor pool was like a field trip that he'd initiated himself. Just beholding it would be enough, going in... would be too much. Not forbidden, but breaking the informal rules of the trip. Besides, Clement didn't know how to swim, not really. In the lake at camp it was okay, he could wade at the shoreline and and the water got deeper gradually. In the pool he knew it started out deep and just got deeper. He didn't know how deep, but he was pretty short and didn't put any money on it being kind to a noob swimmer.

"I'd just drown," he said, and left it at that.

The comment on his powers made Clement blink a little and squint at him, trying to see exactly how old he looked. Which... was not very. "It's not weird to get your powers late. Some people just do. Who cares?"

Clement had gotten his at roughly fourteen and a half, though he had an event that had precipitated his manifestation. Had that not occurred, it was likely he'd have gone as long or longer than Benny manifesting naturally. Benny looked maybe sixteen to Clement, but his perspective was skewed as someone shorter than average and from a lower economic class. Sixteen was on the older side, sure, but for a guy especially it wasn't out of the question. And really, it didn't matter. He was meta. That was odd enough all by itself.

North Dakota. Clement's strong suit was not geography (as evidenced months earlier when he hadn't known where Vermont was) but when Ben said it was near Canada that gave him a slightly better idea. Up.

What was L.A. like? "Crowded. Loud. Kind of smelly. Hot."

Unfortunately for Benny, if he was looking for a sunny view of the City of Angels he was asking the wrong person. Clement had lived in a trailer park in South Central with abusive, alcoholic caretakers, and had only ever been to the beach once, for a school science day.

Through the doors, Clement stopped, not stunned exactly, but taking it all in. The pool room had a weirdly high ceiling and echoed strangely. And the pool itself was huge, circled with textured concrete to prevent slipping. Doors leading off to locker rooms and showers (though he didn't know that) sat on one end, and benches lined one side.

"Wow."

[Benton Barrett]

“If it is, it’s a thing I’ve never gotten in to. Give me red any day.” He said, with a soft shake of his head. It only took a little bit of decency to know that the point of clothes was to keep things covered. To basically be wearing invisible clothes? Totally didn’t count in his book. “But no, you don’t usually wear underwear under’em. They have this like… netting? It’s hard to explain, but it’s basically like underwear built in to them. That way there’s no slippage.”

He was surprised the kid had never even worn swim trunks before, but that was just another thing that he experienced that someone else hadn’t. Like car stuff. Pop the hood of a car, and it was like a maze of things Benny couldn’t comprehend, even though that was what was considered ‘normal’ boy stuff. He wanted to learn to drive, not how to change an engine or whatever.

Glancing over at Clement, he shook his head.

“I may not be a lifeguard, but I’m not evil, either. I wouldn’t let you drown. If you wanted to swim, I’d hang out in the shallow end with you.” He replied, though again, he wasn’t going to push it. He just didn’t want Clement to think that drowning was an option, so long as someone was hanging out with him. Or at least, if Benny was hanging out with him.

He mulled over his answer about LA – it wasn’t exactly the streets-paved-with-gold attitude a lot of people had, but that was okay. It was more down to earth. “Sounds about like most big cities – temperature being a little different, probably.”

Once inside, Benny glanced around. It was mostly empty, which didn’t bother him in the least. Clement’s utterance made him grin and look over at him.

“Yeah, it is a pretty awesome pool. I’m totally a fan. It’s probably my favorite part of Hammel, though the soccer field is pretty nice.” He replied, as he dropped the towel on one of the benches, and shucked his shoes. “So what do you usually do for fun?” He asked, curiously. “I’m still trying to find different things to do when I’ve got free time. I’m sure there’s stuff I haven’t found yet. Got any suggestions?” He asked, as he continued to undress.

[Clement Evans]

...Built in underwear? Why didn't regular pants have that? Clement didn't know what Benny meant by 'slippage' but guessed it was a problem the trunks solved. It didn't make him any more eager to wear one himself, though he supposed someday he might have one.

Clement also did not know how a car worked, even though his father had been (among other things) a mechanic. Nor was he interested in learning. As a kid who'd never been to any of America's big box stores, seen very little Western TV, paid little attention to his peers, and had filled his spare time with chores, drawing, and journaling, Clement didn't have much of a handle on 'gender-specific' stereotypes, and didn't care, either. His own areas of interest were rather obscure, but he'd never spent time worrying whether or not they were masculine. (And even if he'd known that word, masculine, he wouldn't have wasted time thinking about it.)

He shook his head. "No, it's okay. I don't want to swim."

"...Does North Dakota have winter?" Clement thought it might, being... north. He shrugged. "I never saw any other city, till I came here."

Favorite part of Hammel? Huh. Clement walked up one side of the pool as Benny pulled off his clothes. It was pretty nice, for a pool, though Clement didn't have much to compare to. It was bigger than any other pool he'd ever seen in person, and the reflections of light on the water made pretty patterns on the ceiling.

Clement was also not the greatest person to ask for things to fill spare time. He hung out with his very small circle (...triangle?) of friends, did his homework (of which there was a great deal), did detention (of which there was also a great deal), cleaned the dorm bathroom, and wrote letters. But. Fun stuff.

"Lyra's teaching me how to play hockey. Halloween's soon. I skateboard." Nodding at the pool, he added, "Go in. I'll just walk around."

Manners? Right. "Uh. Thanks for showing me where to go."

((wrap?))

[Benton Barrett]

He nodded, gently, as the other boy politely declined swimming again.

"That's cool." He replied, as he finished stripping down, wearing nothing more than his trunks, now. The air was a little cool - for him, at least. That'd be okay - once he started swimming, he'd keep himself warm. He just had to watch out for when he got back out again.

"Yep! Lots of it, actually. I like the winter, for the most part, but it sucks when you can't go out and play soccer or something. I go a bit cabin fever-y when I can't get out on the regular. School not counting as regular." Oh, it might be nice to have now, though. He could always go to the pool if he felt stir-crazy.

"Dude, you skateboard? I've always wanted to try that, but I have this intense fear of faceplanting. It sucks enough in grass - cement has to really suck." He muttered, shaking his head a little bit. At Clement's insistence, he nodded. Stepping up to the edge, he took a couple of deep breaths, before he just... dove right in. He'd do some laps in a minute. In the meantime, he pushed himself back up to the surface, shaking his head to clear his now-soaked hair from his eyes.

"Hey, it's no problem. Listen, if you ever want to hang out, I'm totally down. I'm up in 507." He grinned, as he continued to tread water. "No pressure or anything." He added, because 'pressure' seemed to be a common, pervasive theme here at Hammel.

( Sure, we can wrap. n_n I demand another thread in the future, though. )