Time Warp: Splish Splash (Anthony)

[Olivia Baker]

February 12, 2012
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Olivia Baker dipped her toes in the cold pool water. It was colder than she would have liked, though that shouldn't be a surprise considering this was Vermont and it was winter and even the best indoor pools couldn't compete with the freezing temperatures outside. Hell, she couldn't remember the last day that it was above freezing outside. It was depressing. 

Swim team wasn't something she'd anticipated joining when she got to Hammel. She'd never been on a sports team before, her only organized activity outside of school being Ballet from the time she was small up until she manifested when she was 13. The blow to her dance career that Hammel gave her nearly killed her mother, she'd invested so much time and money into her daughter living out her own dream. But alas, the only thing the dance lessons did now was give Liv her lanky limbs, which made her look like an unfortunate baby dear learning to walk with braces on. It wasn't a good look. 

"Eat a hamburger." One of the older girls chuckled as she shoved Liv on her way to the locker room. Liv looked down at her skinny body, she was completely flat, no hips, nothing but skin and bones. She ate though! Despite what the other kids thought... Her arms quickly crossed over her chest in an attempt to hide her body as she waited for her team to come out. Her arms weren't enough she quickly made her way to the bleachers where her towel sat, she unfolded it, wrapping it around her body. 

[Deleted]

Anthony had never actually been on a swim team before, but he was now simply because he needed the exercise. He would probably try out a few clubs to see which one worked out best for him, since Hammel didn't have a ROTC program, which quite honestly sucked pretty bad. Then again, it was a private school and private schools didn't tend to have those kind of programs. Outside of their extracurricular and elective selection, Anthony actually thought that the school was pretty good, pretty adequate, from the few months that he'd been there. It wasn't too hard to make friends, though he still got the expected reaction and pokes and prods about his name and his ability, but that was just middle school all over again and he was more adult than to let that kind of stuff bother him anymore.

Yup. Anthony was an adult and he didn't care when called him McBurger or Plushie King or Seizure Boy anymore...nope. Not at all.

A low grunt escaped his throat as he exited the locker room and it resounded throughout the pool...which was generously noisy it was easily swallowed up by the ambient chatter. Anthony heard the comment though, and he instinctively snapped his head towards the person who said it with another throaty growl that may or may not have been heard. Another girl rushed by him. Pretty skinny. Oh...was she who they were talking to?

Anthony blinked, keeping his eyes on the girl as she went to grab her towel. He had his own towel folded and hanging over his right shoulder. With a shrug, he headed to the bleachers himself, speaking up quite casually. "What was that about?" he asked without hesitation, thumbing to the offending girl. Then he realized first things first. "You're uh...." he trailed with a finger pointing at the skinny girl, hoping she'd finish his sentence. "I'm Anthony," he provided as encouragement.

[Olivia Baker]

Liv settled into the bleachers deciding not to move until she absolutely had to. Her entire body felt like it had deflated in the wake of the bitchy carbon copy barbies who decided it was in their jurisdiction to decide who was a freak and who wasn't. She wished she had a cool ability, like freezing or fire, she'd love to set their hair on fire and see how pretty they felt after. Probably not very.

"Nothing." She answered without missing a beat, tucking a strand of hair that had managed to escape her ponytail behind her ear. She hadn't realized anyone had seen what had happened and the fact that someone had made her sink into herself even more. She glanced up at the boy who'd come over, she didn't recognize him which was odd for this school.

"Olivia." She answered when he didn't know her name, going to ask his but he'd taken care of that. "You're new." She stated, happy that this could pose a transfer of topics away from how pathetic and embarrassing she was. She would keep the towel clutched tight around her shoulders regardless.

[Deleted]

It sounded like bullying to him, not just "nothing" as she said. But if she didn't want him to pry any further, than Anthony wasn't going to. He himself knew the effect stupid words could have and didn't like seeing it happen to other people. Though there wasn't much he could do, despite the fact that had fought back in the past when he reached his limit. Well…Anthony would rather nobody having to reach their limit.

Olivia. That was a pretty name. And she was pretty sharp it seemed. Anthony gave an awkward nod that seemed to rock to the side more than foreword. "Yeah. Pretty obvious, huh?" This was pretty much his first day trying out the swim team. He'd already tried track and it didn't take. Anthony was hoping swimming would. "You're on the swim team, right? Is it any fun?"

[Olivia Baker]

"Not at all." she lied, it was pretty obvious, new kids always had this weird vibe about them and were much more likely to just walk up and start a conversation. "I just don't recognize you being here." That was also true though, and it made sense as he explained that this was his first day. "Yeah I'm on it." She didn't know why, she didn't even really like swimming, it was more about being part of something, she was much better at things like dance, but the dance team hadn't been the most welcoming either. "It's pretty fun... well except the early practices and the barbie bitches who seem to like to tell you about everything that's wrong with your body." She chuckled awkwardly attempting to make some kind of fun out of the situation. 

"Anyway... where are you from? What's your power? Mine's time manipulation." These were the normal starter questions for anyone new at Hammel.

[Deleted]

Anthony totally bought her suggestion, being somewhat oblivious to how obvious he was behaving as a new person, but then again, Anthony was naturally obvious about his presence in any setting. Because Anthony was just that awesome!

He nodded, biting his lip with a smile on his face. "That's cool," he commented, feeling pretty good about the answer so far. If she was on it, then it meant there were other girls on it too. Anthony looked back behind him at the "barbie bitches" that had walked by prior. "You mean those?" He tried to follow along with her and muster out a chuckle before snapping his head back to the girl, a twitchy kind of movement.

Anthony rocked his head back. "Uhhhmmmm. Well, right now my parents live in Phoenix, but, mmm, I've been all over really. Air Force dad. Spent most of my time on military bases." He shrugged scratching his temple awkwardly. "Uh, my power is uhh…..mmmrurmmrmm manifestation…." Mumble mumble.

[Olivia Baker]

She nodded in response to the other girls. It seemed that Hammel not only had super human students, but also super human students with seriously good looks. She only prayed she'd grow into her own considering the competition. Maybe this was some kind of weird evolution thing, that was one of the theories behind why they existed anyway, evolution. But seriously, everyone over the age of 14 looked like they belonged in magazines in movies and here they were, twitchy to her left, and her, gangly. 

"Your power is what?" She chuckled not quite catching that, "Still manifesting or getting others to manifest?" She'd never heard of that... she didn't think anyone came to Hammel before manifesting either, it wasn't exactly a guaranteed thing to manifest at all. 

[Deleted]

Well, this was probably the more embarrassing part of being a meta. His power. He couldn't have gotten flight or something. Or super intelligence. Or the power of awesome....wait, he already had that.

Even more than his sporadic twitching and eye-blinking and guttural throat clearing, all of which he'd learned to ignore the attention they might bring, Anthony was a little more than self-conscious about the unusual nature of his power. How was he supposed to impress the girls with a power that just screamed effeminate? Anthony wasn't a girl! He didn't have any need for stuffed animals, except maybe his teddy from when he was five, and the little wind up airplane when he was 3, both of which were tucked neatly away in his dorm closet....along with his blankie....

"It's um...." No, he wasn't still manifesting.... Did he have to say it? "It's....plushie....manifestation...." Anthony said the word still in a mumble and not quite above a whisper.

[Olivia Baker]

Liv raised a brow. "Plushie Manifestation...." She repeated slowly more so that she could comprehend because she honestly had never heard of it before and hadn't expected that. "Wait." She chuckled, a smile creeping onto her lips. "So you can turn into like... a teddy bear?" She questioned trying so hard not to laugh at him. It wasn't funny. It wasn't but it was just so odd and she could clearly see why he wasn't so eager to show off like so many others.

"Well... I mean it could be worse." she said trying to make him feel better, placing a cold hand on his shoulder "It could be...." She was drawing a blank "You could have the ability to become naked at any given moment or uncontrollable flatulence that smells really really bad." 

[Deleted]

There was a faint(or rather obvious) color of red tinting Anthony's cheeks as those words finally left his lips, and he could feel the heat flush up his neck, making the damp, cool air of the pool feel more pronounced on his skin. With Olivia's small laugh, he could feel it even more, and turned his head all whilst keeping a small pursed smile on his lips. "No…" he said with a sigh and slight of irritation in his voice. "I…mmnnnn….I don't turn into one." He threw his hands up shallowly from his sides. "…I can make them."

Anthony wasn't really comfortable explaining his power to someone he'd only just met, but at least she was doing her best to make him feel better. He huffed some breathy laughs from his nose and shook his head, his smile getting broader, even if still strained. "Nggg….Yeah, I could take over the school with that last one." He twitched his head into his shoulder. "King of Stink Bombs, right?"