Big mouth, small stomach [Karalie]

[Karalie Heise]

She hated that he was basically telling her that it was a common occurrence in his past to have gotten bullied.  She didn't specify who had been picking on him, because in the end it didn't matter.  He was right; it was in the past.  Past or not, the images were still haunting her and finding their way into her mind, nestling between other memories that either did or did not belong to her.  

Luke gave a little cough and she watched him with taught lips.  That's when he dropped a strange little bomb on her.  He could forget things? Didn't he just say he remembered everything not that long ago? How could he suddenly be forgetful? She heard him out, her brows rising as he further explained.  One of the drawbacks to his power, no doubt.  He could easily learn muscle movements, but it seemed the ones that come naturally can be forgotten.  Her head swirled with confusion, not sure if she was supposed to feel bad for the boy or not.


"No.." Her voice was soft and her face tight.  "I can't say that I do." She drawled softly, looking down at her supper.  There were always drawbacks.  "Sometimes when I'm workin' real hard to stop a vision from comin', I get nosebleeds."  She looked back up at him with a sort of hopeful look, explaining her own weaknesses.  "Like, really concentratin' hard." She continued, licking her lips.  It had been a while since she'd really told anyone this stuff.  So seldom were people curious.  "But the worst part I guess is that I never forget any of the memories.  They're all up in here." She patted her temple and then shook her head.  "An' after uh a while I don't know which one was mine an' which one was yours. They're so real, so in the moment, yah know? I see things through other peoples eyes." Karalie gulped suddenly feeling off about the conversation.  It was starting to get serious, and serious wasn't something she wanted to be.  Not with some boy she barely knew.

"Anyway," She brushed off, her whole demeanor changing.  "Ya'll haven't forgotten how tuh eat just now, right? 'Cause I'm tellin' yah right now, there is no way I'm feeding yer sorry behind."

[Lucas Blacke]

''Well,'' He began as he sat back with a smile. ''we're going to have to fix that then.''

He threw a wink at the girl. He chose to ignore the drawbacks she had for the time being asd everyone had some degree of them around here. Besides, Luke wouldn't forget as Karalie was pretty much burned into his retinas by now. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her silhouette.

In fact, this was the longest 'normal' conversation he had ever had with a girl. He had never simply talked like this before. Well, okay, there were two other girls, but Luke wasn't really after them in the fashion he was Karalie. He genuinly liked her, bordering on like like.

He shook his head slightly and picked up the fork he had been neglecting for quite some time now and used it to pick up some stray leaves from his plate. He had no intention of mimicking the girl as she hadn't picked up on it. ''So,'' Luke began as he played around with the fork a bit. ''what exactly do you do outside of sitting around with boys you barely know?''

''Also, is there anything going on here I should know about?'' He said as he plopped a leaf of lettuce in his mouth.

[Karalie Heise]

He brushed off her comment and moved on with the conversation, inquiring about what she did in her free time.  Karalie was about to answer when he asked if anything was going on he should know about.  She offered a curious look, not really sure what he meant by that.  "I don't know what yah mean, so probably not." She explained, a thought suddenly coming to her.  Did he mean between them? Was something going on with the two of them? Because it most certainly wasn't! They'd just started talking.  No, he couldn't have meant that.  It was too soon to be asking about that.  Right?

"An' first of all, for your information, I don't usually hang around boys I barely know.  You just happened tuh corner me durin' meal time." She insisted with a nod, taking a bite and chewing it up before continuing.  "An I do stuff." She smiled a little with a shrug.  "I like tuh run, and I'm in SAC.. uhh.. Play online, listen tuh music, watch TV, shop, go out... I don't know, just stuff!" She took a sip of her water and shrugged her shoulders again.  She used to be better at answering questions..  She made a point not to bring up her interest in pageants.  Not that she did them anymore, but she was still interested in what was happening with them; Miss USA and Miss America.. It was all her guilty pleasure keeping track of what they did.  It had once been her goal to become Miss Universe! Not likely to ever happen.  She didn't have half the poise those girls did.  Then again she had a few years until she was old enough to do that.  Maybe she'd try and get back on the circuit 

"An' what about you?" She inquired, pointing her fork in his direction. "Surely there's somethin' you enjoy doin' besides hittin' defenseless dummies an' stalkin' yer classmates."

[Lucas Blacke]

''Funny.'' Luke replied as he just took a sip of his own drink which actually resulted in him downing the entire bottle in one go despite it being nearly full. Moderation never did appear in his dictionary. ''You don't strike me as the kind of girl who lets herself get cornered.'' He said with a raised brow as he put his bottle back on the table. He had that little voice in the back of his mind that told him there was a deeper meaning to this girl still willingly staying in his vicinity, not really a big list of people who had done that existed.

He nodded sheepishly as Karalie went on about all that she did, and some of them actually sounded fun to Luke. Common ground. Yay. But after a while she just.. shrugged and stopped talking. Luke wondered why when suddenly the question was returned to him in a slightly different form with a fork pointed at him.

''I-'' He considered his training dummy for a moment and did agree that they were a bit defenseless. ''Well, if I didn't train on dummies, defenseless as they seem, who would I train on?'' He'd be lying if the thought of a sweaty Karalie hadn't crossed his mind, but in the end she didn't seem like the type for it, aside from all the touching.

''And I don't stalk my classmates.'' He sat back on the bench and crossed his arms over his chest. ''I'll have you remember I didn't even know we were in the same class.''

''But for the other part, if I have time I do lots of things. Mostly to train my ability. I play guitar, piano, even some violin if you ask me nicely, and pretty much everything else you can show me a video of.''

[Karalie Heise]

He made a good point when he mentioned if not for dummies, who could he train on?  She had to grin a little at that and shrugged her shoulders a bit as she ate her salad.  Then he mentioned he wasn't stalking and she had to snort a little.  No way he didn't realize they'd had classes! She was about to call him on it when it struck her that he may actually be telling the truth.  He wasn't the kind of guy to pay much attention, that she'd already picked up on, so it was quite possible he never even realized she was sitting near him in class, not unless he was specifically looking at her or for her and since he wasn't staring at her in class, he probably didn't notice her until earlier today.  Odd, since she'd gotten the feeling he maybe liked her.  Why wouldn't he have noticed before? Unless he wasn't looking before.. hmm..

Luke's ability to play music intrigued her and made her mind stop thinking about whether it was possible he ever noticed her before.  Her mind suddenly raced through the endless possibilities of things he could learn!  What a neat ability to have! Sure, it had its drawbacks as he'd discussed, but still, that was pretty interesting.  

"So, ya'll can do anythang? Really? Just by watchin' uh video?" Her excitement was apparent in her tone and the way her accent came back harder than usual.  She didn't always twang so hard, but when she got angry or excited, it tended to come out a bit thicker.  "Now that's somethin' I'm just gonna have to see for myself." He'd mentioned all she had to do was ask nicely.  "Whadya think?"

[Lucas Blacke]

Luke nodded at the girl acting all excited at his comment involving being able to do stuff he'd witnessed. ''Really.'' He replied with a grin.

He really could do anything he saw in a video. Or even just seeing someone else do it in real time. This actually made him something of a good actor as he was able to actually move like people he had never even met. The voice was something he'd never be able to change but the need to had never come up. He tried to think of all the times he had used his ability, and realized that most of the times he had actually used it was because he liked something.

It'd tire him out, he knew that much but he had trained for quite a while with the whole martial arts and such. And while he still did experience general drowsiness it was significantly less noticeable now that he had some solid hours into his training, and this would make for some extra training so he didn't mind all that much.

The thought of him being all tired and puckered out around an enthusiastic Karalie made him smile from ear to ear, or at least he thought it did.

''Just by watching a video.'' He replied with a wink as he leaned in a bit as he took another bite of his salad. He almost chuckled at the girl exclaiming she'd have to see it for herself and asking if he was up for it as he sat upright again, throwing the fork in his hand into the air and caught it quite easily. ''So what did you have in mind?''

''A word to the wise though,'' He said as he put the fork down on the table. ''I only really use my ability for things I like.'' He looked around a moment and coughed. ''Take that as you will.''

''Just means I like ya.''

[Karalie Heise]

He asked what she had in mind and her brain immediately started to rapid fire off all the things she would have liked to see him do just by watching a video.  There were skateboard tricks, but that meant having a skateboard, which she didn't, and didn't know if he did.  But if he did then clearly he had tried and that was training.  No, she needed to be more creative.  "Hmm..."  Lucas mentioned that he never did something unless he really wanted to, but that didn't stop the stupid ideas from slipping into her mind.  And then he said he liked her.

Just like that the ideas stopped flowing as she focused on those last five words.  Liked her? Liked her, like.. like because she was fun? No, he wouldn't know anything about her.  He never even noticed her before.  Karalie felt flushed but made herself stop.  They were acquaintances at best, not even really friends yet.  Well, maybe sort of friends now.  As of like five minutes ago when they started to really talk.  She refused to think anymore on it.  "Thanks.." She crooned sweetly with a little smile, her polite, trained answer to any compliment. As a girl her momma pushed politeness and as a girl she would sing a sweet little "Thank yooouuu." sweetly to anyone who complimented any part of her, which happened often when she was just a tot.  She'd been a charismatic little thing and cute to boot.

She pushed those silly words of his from her mind and looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling.  Then it hit her.  "Cheerleadin!" She chirped before letting out a little laugh, covering her mouth with her hands to hide some of her amusement.  Just thinking of Lucas jumping up and down made her want to squeal with laughter.  He didn't like that idea and she waived her hand, as if to brush the idea away.  "I'm just kiddin', I'm just kiddin.." She assured him, her tone still delighted.  "Hmm.. Oh, ya'll ever see that parkour stuff? People flippin' off uh trees, an' climbin' buildings like it's nothin' at all? Cool stuff." She nodded.  "They do all sorts a jumpin' an' runnin' an' flippin'.. ya'll could even do it holdin' pom-poms." She teased, biting her bottom lip to try and hide how tickled this made her.

[Lucas Blacke]

''Cheerleading..?'' Luke repeated in a questioning whisper. Did she by any chance lie about the memory she had seen? Did she somehow see or otherwise know that cheerleading was somthing he was challenged to do when he first met Marnie? In any case, he had to admit that the thought of it was quite upsetting. He'd still do it, but with some reluctance and definitelty not the same routine he had used to impress Marnie with. At least Karalie got a laugh out of it as Luke cracked a weak and forced smile as his finger began drawing circles on the table. Then she brushed it away as a joke and although Luke didn't know if it was because she saw Luke's hesitance or something else he was majorly relieved.

And just as Luke's mind was going over the whole Marnie issue Karalie cracked open a jar of parkour, asking if he knew of it. Although paarkour was something he really liked, it remembered him about the time he snuck out past curfew to meet up with Marnie, which resulted in him getting his first kiss. He wasn't sure what to think at the moment as he picked up the fork and started playing around with his food.

''So, that memory you got from me,'' He asked slowly and without looking at Karalie. '''what was it actually about?'' Again, he woudldn't really mind Karalie knowing he had a thing with Marnie, but he couldn't stand being lied to.

[Karalie Heise]

Luke's entire demeanor seemed to change suddenly and she felt an uneasy twinge in her stomach.  She'd only just been joking about the cheerleading! And why would he have an aversion towards parkour? It seemed like something he would be into.  Luke pushed his food around and the smile in her cheeks  dissipated.  Suddenly he was asking about the memory she saw.

Karalie felt a knot grow in the pit of her stomach.  Why would he think she was lying? She knew by the way he looked at her and the sudden drastic change in his demeanor that she had struck a chord with him.  Her initial reaction had always been to apologize, but the chip on her shoulder brought on by being who and what she was had changed that part of her.  She hated being accused of lying, hated when people didn't trust her, and she was suddenly very aware that Luke was no different than anyone else.  He was the same.  He didn't trust her any more than anyone else did, and all his bull about trust before was nothing but lies.  What was his angle?

"I told yah." She snapped, not able to hide the anger in her voice.  "Couple uh boys were pickin' on yah, couldn't be more than nine or ten."  There was a cool bitterness in her tone that had been absent up until now, but she didn't bother holding back anymore.  He'd gone and offended her and there was no going back.  She suddenly didn't feel so hungry, or interested in being in his presence.  "'Sup to you if ya'll wanna believe me or not.  Either way I don't think I'm very hungry anymore."  She stood up and grabbed her tray, a memory flashing instantly into her brain like lightning of some older woman placing the tray into a dishwashing machine, which only served to piss her off more.  Visions were far more likely to come through in her current state and she knew she had to get away from him if she had any chance of cooling off.

What a jerk.