Bad Timing (Open)

[Rory Hartt]

Rory twirled her keys in her hand as she wandered the campus of the school that was going to be her home for the next few years. The keys (aside from her room key) were mostly just for show, since she couldn’t get her license until she was 16, and whenever she went home her sister had house keys, but they made her feel… cooler. Or maybe just more comfortable. They were something familiar and grounding to her while she was thrown into this odd new environment. Plus, truth be told, it was a nice little fidget for her play with when her thoughts were drifting.

The day was gorgeous: a beautiful Vermont summer day, free of summer storms, if a little on the warm side. Rory tugged the side of her gym shorts unconsciously, glancing around and acquainting herself with the scenery. She had been hoping to maybe find an outdoor basketball court – and basketball to use there – but so far her search efforts had been fruitless. Maybe she’d have to choose some other solo-but-could-be-multiplayer sport to engage in in a totally nonchalant meeting-people strategy. Damn. Basketball was usually a good one at her old school, people were usually up for a pick-up game.

An errant beetle flying into the side of her head made Rory jerk in surprise, slapping it away. *Plop!* Damn bugs, getting up in her face…

Oh, shit.

Rory glanced around at the ground.

Really? Already? She hadn’t even been at Hammel for a whole week and already she was losing-

As Rory’s eyes settled on the pond, her lips curled into a wry expression of resignation. Of course that would happen. This must her shitty time. Once a day she her fortunate improbabilities turned to unfortunate improbabilities for about half an hour or so. Usually it was later in the day, but she couldn’t really control when her power decided to flip the switch. She briefly considered just waiting half an hour before she went searching for her keys – once her luck was back in order, they’d be a lot easier to find, for sure – but she didn’t know what water might do to an electric key fob. Besides – she glanced around – there wasn’t anyone around at the moment. Maybe her luck was just switching back to normal* and it’d be a quick dip with a satisfying conclusion.

With that optimistic outlook, Rory peeled off her t-shirt (some shirt she’d won from an amusement park back when she was ten or eleven – too big back then, but a snug fit five years later), revealing her orange sports bra, pulled off her sneakers and socks, and took a breath before jumping in.


* it wasn't

[Deleted]

Yuuup, Marcus was just a guy. A guy taking a walk. To the pond. For why, you wonder? Well, the sketchbook wedged under his harm might give you a clue.

He was pretty surprised at how cleared out the campus was. Maybe everyone had detention at the same time or something? Couldn’t be, because they forgot to invite Marcus and he had a certain petchant for getting himself into detention, usually for refusing to yield to the authority of the teacher or whatever and actually turning in a completed assignment for once without talking back when the teacher decided to reprimand him for that.

So Marcus didn’t like school? Sue him! So he didn’t have “motivation” or whatever? He had it where it counted and that’s what mattered!

Besides, Marcus was excited because it was his birthday in just a couple days and his mom had called to say she was going to be in town and they were going to go out and have a time of fun! It’d been a while since her last visit, so Marcus was pretty stoked!

He’d already told Dad that he wasn’t going to be available for whatever he had planned because of it. His Dad sounded disappointed, but wasn’t much he could do. Marcus was technically an adult! Dad couldn’t tell him what he could and could not do!

So, Marcus was actually going to the pond to sketch out a surprise for his mom. She’d always encouraged his artwork, so he just knew that she would appreciate seeing something new, to see how much better he’d gotten. Marcus sauntered (or practically skipped) out to the clearing where the pond was, rounding the corner with a jolly bounce in his step just in time to see….ohhh, myyy he heard Takei’s voice resound in his ears from nowhere. Yup…that was a shirtless girl if he ever saw one(and he’d seen plenty mind you, including himself). Was she gonna—?

Yup. She jumped into the pond with a splash.

Meanwhile, Marcus was just standing there like a gaping idiot watching, and waiting…waiting for what? For her to resurface and realize that she had an audience?? In a panic, and certain he was seeing her start to surface, Marcus dove into the bush next to him. Unfortunately for the 6’2” boy, his legs were about 3 feet too long for the bush and stuck out quite noticeably and awkwardly. He listened for a moment, not realizing that he was not the great stalker he thought he was.

[Rory Hartt]

The first dive was a fail. Resurfacing and spluttering the water from her mouth, Rory pushed her wet bangs aside and rubbed her water-filled eyes. "Fuck," she groaned, trying to feel around for the keys with no success. She could barely see at the moment, her vision all blurry from pond water. Not that she had a problem with pond water, where most girls might - it was a little dirty, sure, but that was just how nature was.

As she tread water and regained her breath, her thoughts were instead on her powers - those that doomed her into this situation in the first place. She wished there was some way of controlling when the switch flipped, and being able to choose when her luck ran out. She'd been thinking of some way to game the system, but doubted her theory of dice-rolling would work. She shook her head to clear the water from her ears, and was about to dive down again for another look when she spotted the blurry sticks protruding from a bush a few feet away. With another wipe of her eyes she raised her eyebrows in confused surprise.

"Um... I can see your feet," she called out, not angry in the slightest, just a bit confused. Maybe he had some sort of key-finding power that would be useful. Or maybe he was just being a creep. If it was the latter, she'd just have to kick his ass, that couldn't be all that hard. (She did tend to overestimate her ass-kicking abilities, but the scrawny legs peeking out behind the bush didn't seem to pose much of a threat.) In either case, she wasn't ashamed to be caught in the pond. Maybe a bit embarrassed to have lost her keys, but her bra was modest enough that she didn't feel underdressed for swimming. If anything, her baggy shorts tangling up around her legs made her feel a bit overdressed.

[Deleted]

Marcus flinched when the girl’s voice reached his ears. Oops…she had seen him…? Or had she…? Maybe she was talking about someone else’s feet? Like someone in a tree who was dangling his or her feet from the bottom branch?

It could happen, right?

Probably not, as Marcus was the only person he saw around when he arrived, aside from the shirtless girl who decided she wanted to play deep-sea diver in a koi pond.

The girl’s silent assessment was correct, however, about Marcus’ fighting abilities. His legs were as skinny as bamboo sticks and his arms as floppy as noodles. With the amount of exercise he didn’t do, it really was a wonder why he flabby and fat, instead of just flabby and skinny enough to hide behind a tree.

Sheesh, there was a tree out there, wasn’t there? Marcus should have gone for the tree instead of the bush.

Oh well, hindsight was 20/20 and his heinie was was easily about to get prodded by a million twigs as he attempted to roll and wiggle his way out of the bush, of which he was failing miserably at. Why did he think this was a good idea again? Marcus managed to find some leverage within the brambles and cautiously popped his head above the foliage. “….hi,” he managed to squeak out with a nervous smile. “Nice weather we’re having, huh? Perfect day for a swim, right?” Marcus winced. Why did he say that? Now she probably thought he really was a voyeur.

[Rory Hartt]

Rory raised an eyebrow at the violent rustling of the bush as she tread water, wondering if she should just dive again to look for them, as he wasn't appearing any time- ah, there he was. And he looked... girly. Kinda sounded girly, too.

“Nice weather we’re having, huh? Perfect day for a swim, right?”

Was everything he asked going to be a question? Rory blinked at him before her face morphed into a look of pure incredulity. Did he actually think she had just decided to go swimming in her clothes? ....Well, judging by his behavior, she'd guess yes.

Yeah, she was judging a bit heavily, but her unlucky moments always brought her mood down.

"Sure," she deadpanned, "I love losing things in unfamiliar waters." Her lips twisted and pursed and she added, "Yippee." But wait, why was he-? "What's your deal, anyway?" She asked, losing the monotone as curiosity leaked into her voice.

[Deleted]

Marcus had no idea what he was trying to do or say anymore and he was 99%(or maybe 199%) certain that he was just making himself look like more of a creeper with every word he spoke.

As for what he thought…Marcus wasn’t even sure himself what he thought. He hadn’t the faintest clue why a girl would strip down to her bra and jump into the koi pond in the middle of the day when anybody could see her.

He kept up the bright eyed look of innocence along with the awkwardest half-smile he could muster. “You…Oh! You lost something! Yeah, okay, yeah, I guess that makes sense. Sorry.”

Marcus blinked at the question. “Huh? What do you mean? I mean, I was just walking along, you know, and thought ‘hey! let’s check out the pond!’ and then I saw you, and before I knew it I was dive-bombing head-first into the bushes because I didn’t want you thinking I was spying on you on purpose…” By the end of his little rant, Marcus’ shoulders had drooped along with his head, his eyes inspecting the world of the grass below. Ooo, an ant….!