Lighter than Air (Alex)

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

It was dinner time and if there was only place one was guaranteed to find Ray it was a dinner. Tonight he was running late, he was working on a project and he’d lost track of time. Which was completely uncharacteristic of him, but then he’d never been excited about a project like this. It was an art project and he’d spent the last three hours in the art room creating this project. It was a completely free project, one that he could do whatever he pleased with. He was currently creating a completely abstract creation that spilled over the canvas in no particular order. Unlike some of the class who started with a plan and a sketch Ray had just taken his brush and made stroke after stroke until something started to appear to him. This assignment was interesting because they were only allowed one canvas. No re-dos they had to deal with their mistakes.

Ray wasn’t the only one that was loving this assignment but there were certain people who were close to near break downs. Those people who were perfectionists who spent so much time erasing their sketch that they hadn’t even begun painting yet. Ray was basically just splashing it and now he had an idea of what it was. It was really just a cluster of a few straight lines and several nonlinear creatures. Anyways it was getting late and Ray’s rumbling tummy was finally to great for the flyer to ignore and he wiped his brow and set his brush aside for later. He hoped he would run into one of his friends in the cafeteria. Was it a little much to hope he saw Nao? He shook his head, things were nice and not complicated in that regard and he was loving it. Nao was the cutest and now also the sexiest person he knew and he could barely resist him, but resist he did but that did nothing to stop his imagination.

Which was on fire. Not always pleasantly. As much as he hated it he had to admit that part of him found Nao’s new appearance so alluring but he also found him more intimidating. He knew he shouldn’t, Nao was Nao and he would never hurt him, but there was always that nagging, he’d never thought that Jack could hurt him either. How wrong he had been. Ray pushed it aside, crushing on his best friend from afar was fine with him. He found his way into the cafeteria, (only tripping four times on his way!) and gathered as much food as he could pile on a plate. He stepped out and smiled widely as his eyes found someone. Alex! He felt like he hadn’t seen her in forever, if forever was like last week. “Alex,” he called when he neared, not because he didn’t think she could hear him, but because he didn’t want to be the one to get weird looks for screaming someone’s name across the floor. He set his tray down and plopped into a seat without asking permission. “How are you? I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever! Are you doing anything for Halloween this weekend?” Ray's feet wings fluttered and he rocked in his seat for a moment before he started stuffing his face.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex munched experimentally on her food as she listened to one of her audiobooks, via the headphones around her neck. She could never wear them directly on her ears-- they were too sensitive for that-- but having them at a slightly louder volume and around her neck worked just as well as if she had normal hearing and had them on like a "normal" person.

Anyway. She was glad to find that all her food was as advertised. Sometimes her classmates found it amusing, when helping her get her lunch, to tell her she was getting one thing when she was really getting something completely different. Typically they didn't mean anything bad by it, but she always found a way to get back at them, from plastic wrapped beds and dressers, to packing peanuts all over bedroom floors. You'd have thought people would learn by now. But then again, maybe messing with her was actually a challenge to see if she could pull off another creative payback.

But there would be no paybacks today. Alex chewed her expectedly pepperoni-laden pizza, somewhat boredly listening to her audio book. The Tale of Two Cities. She wouldn't have been listening if it weren't for a class, but it was, so she was, and that was that.

"Alex!"

Alex perked up a bit as she caught the sound of her name voiced amidst the noise of the cafeteria. She quickly worked to figure out whose voice it was, then caught the sound of fluttering around the other person's feet as he sat down.

Ray! The somewhat clumsy, but easy-going, and pleasant guy to be around. A previous partner in crime, and a good sport to boot. "Hey!" she grinned. "Doin' good," she stated, tugging her iPod out and clicking it off. "Oh yeah, it's been a whole week," she said, appropriately dramatic. "Gosh, how have we survived?" She snickered quietly a moment before considering his next question. Halloween... Not really her favorite holiday, truth be told. Too many people running around trying to scare other people. Not that she startled easily, but it irritated her when people tried to scare her. Proof? The last time someone had scared her, she'd punched them. Of course, that'd been more of a reflex than an anger thing. But she didn't like being startled. Unless she actually went to a haunted house or something, because that was obviously different. In those situations, she was expecting to be startled.

"Not really," she mused. "Might see if I can get a group rounded up t'get to a haunted house." She shrugged. Really, haunted houses were the only plus side to Halloween. She didn't particularly like sugar, and costumes didn't particularly excite her. "What about you?" she returned, curious. "Plannin' t'go to the dance or whatever?"

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray had gotten it into his head that there was nothing that Alex couldn’t do. It didn’t really seem like she struggled in anything. He didn’t think she had a hard time with food, though it made sense. Ray was also clueless and he hadn’t even realized she was blind beforehand. He should wear a dunce cap sometimes. He didn’t noticed she had headphones until he sat down and well, in any case she didn’t seem to mind putting them up. “What were you listening to?” He asked curiously. He supposed that there were certain things about the world that would have been lost to her if it weren’t for the creation of modern technology. He had wondered initially why she didn’t put her headphones in but stupidly he had missed the fact that her ears were how she could see the world. That one, he is proud to say, he figured out on his own.

He pouted at her, unable to keep himself from being expressive as always even though she couldn’t see him. “Far too long, dah-ling,” he agreed jokingly and giggled along with her. Sometimes she encouraged him to much and he couldn’t keep himself from smiling as he ate. Pizza was only one of several things on his plate, thick fries and delicious cheesy macaroni. There may have been a vegetable in there somewhere but it was well buried. One of these days his metabolism was going to give out on him and he would be a very large bird, and as Alex had pointed out a while ago, he might not be able to fly. After all, he had dropped a significant amount of normal weight when his wings grew, it wasn’t unimaginable for him to gain it back, but he would have to eat a hell of a lot more than he was eating now to make up for all of the calories he burned flying.

Raylaigh loved Halloween, it was the one day of the year when he could be someone else, and it was awesome coming up with a creative costume. He was working on this very elaborate Hermes thing. He couldn’t wait to show it off. Being artistic definitely had its benefits, it made creating wonderful things that much better. He looked down at his hands and smiled, he never thought they looked half as good when they weren’t smudged and smeared with paint or ink or graphite. He was excited to see what Alex was up to. Part of him really wanted to just get candy, but with Ray’s body and well just in general his energy level candy tended to make him bounce off of the walls, which could indeed be taken as it’s literal interpretation. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d gotten his head knocked around because he’d been stupid and hyper.

“Oh! That sounds like fun!” He said with a bright smile, “I don’t know if you want me in on that though.” He joked, he was really a ‘fraidy cat, not that she didn’t know that, she’d had him about ready to fly right out of his skin the first time they met. Ghosts and stuff like that? No thank you! Give Raylaigh candy and a party any day! He shrugged. “I don’t know, I mean I have a costume and everything but I don’t have anyone to go with." Thinking of Nao he giggled sheepishly, he'd told himself he should ask Nao but when the time came he chickened out. He would probably still go but chances of him actually having a date were slim.

[Genesis Kyland]

"Oh, just a book for class." Alex wrinkled her nose. "Tale of Two Cities. Can't say I can give it a glowing recommendation... You read it?" Really, sometimes she wondered if she really did have the upper hand, being forced to listen to books rather than read them. Because listening to an audio book seemed a lot more easy than reading one. You could listen to things, and still do other things. From what she'd gathered, reading and doing something else was a lot more difficult to do... and for her, multi-tasking was an act of God.

She nodded to his comment about the haunted house. "Yeah, they're usually fun. So long as you don't go with a screamer-- that's hard on the ears. So that'd probably rule you out, yeah." She grinned. Not that she'd ever heard Ray scream or anything like that, but he was an easily unnerved kid, so it didn't seem like screaming would be beyond the realm of possibility for him. And even if not, it was still fun to joke about. Especially since he was easy-going enough not to take offense at some teasing on that matter.

"What sort of costume you got goin'?" she asked, curious for the sake of knowing what her friend was going to be wearing. She rarely remembered the whole costume part of Halloween without being reminded, but everyone else seemed to think it was one of the best parts of Halloween. Well, that and the candy, which she could appreciate slightly more at least.

She couldn't help but feel surprise that he didn't have anyone to go with to the dance. She'd just automatically assumed that a goofy, friendly guy like Ray would have his pick of people to go with. "Huh, y'mean y'don't have a mile long line of people waiting for you to ask them to the dance?" she said, quizzical. "Hard to believe... Or is it just that you ain't got the nerve up to ask someone yet?" A faint smile flitted across her face. Really, she felt that more likely than Ray honestly not having anyone to go with.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray snorted and shook his head. He almost wished Alex could see the look he was giving her. Really, Ray reading a book? For class no less! It was laughable! “Nope, I hope I don’t have to, but I usually get by with sparknotes anyways.” He wrinkled his nose, especially if someone told him it wasn’t too good, he really couldn’t be bothered to try. “What’s it about?” He asked anyways. If it had at least a redeemable quality or two he might at least try. But why would he read when there were other things to be done. He couldn’t very well fly and read and he’d tried to read and be on the internet at the same time, but he had to be honest, he didn’t really expect that to work out too well in the first place. Raylaigh wondered if he could get into the audio book thing, maybe it would be better. But then he could get put to sleep…

“Psh, I am not a screamer!” He claimed putting an insulted hand to his chest. The flyer waved his hand nonchalantly, “I’m just the one clinging to someone and wishing that it was over.” He grinned. Ray was light as paper but it could easily get annoying to have someone jumping on top of them time after time. Chances were he would scream as well, but that was beside the point. He laughed out loud imagining the old Scooby Doo cartoon, he would totally be the one to scream and jump into someone’s arms. If Alex was there, chances were it would be her, unless Nao was there… but no that would never work, he’d probably knock the both of them down and then where would they be? The would be zombie food, that was where they would be.

“Prepare to be amazed,” he said and spread his hands as he paused in his eating to describe it to her. “I’m gonna be Hermes. So kinda easy, honestly, but I’m gonna have some of my old feathers to make one of those old time crown things,” he said not sure if she had any idea what he was talking about. She couldn’t see it, but he felt the need to have her imagine it. Its great, I’ve been working on it for the past week. It was honestly a reworked old shirt that he’d dyed and painted to look old and gold and then the embellishment of his feathers was where the real work was going. Not his working feathers, no way he wasn’t stupid. “It’s gonna be awesome. What are you gonna dress up as?” He asked curiously.

Ray grinned at his friend and stuck his tongue out at her teasing. “Oh don’t you know it,” he began arrogantly but she hit the nail on the head and he completely deflated. His face colored with embarrassment and he was really glad she couldn’t actually see him. He giggled nervously and scratched his head, letting that speak for itself. He was a lot more shy about this kind of thing than a lot of people gave him credit for. He was always in the social circle and hanging out with people, and he didn’t have a good definitely of ‘personal space’. He had very little confidence in actually making that last step, usually if he met a beautiful stranger he hoped they were good enough at picking up hints for them to make the first move. But then there was Nao, who was just as shy, if not more than he was. It was challenging everything he knew about asking someone out. Not to mention Nao didn’t seem like a one time kind of person, and well, to be honest, Ray didn’t want things to be so superficial between them. Oh hellfeathers, he liked Nao a lot more than he wanted to admit.

[Genesis Kyland]

"Cheater." Alex wrinkled her nose at him. "Not really big on books, huh?" Though really, if she'd been in his shoes, she probably would have done the same. Sounded a lot simpler than "reading" the whole dang book. "It's a historical book," she explained. "About French people and a crazy guy and... rebellion or something. " She shrugged. Really, she was having a little trouble retaining everything, since it wasn't really the most interesting thing in the world. "The crazy guy's interesting I guess."

Alex hmph'ed, grinning. "Yeah, you wouldn't be the best person to go to a haunted house with. If you kept clingin' on me I'd probably end up hitting you by accident 'cause you'd startle me. Better than screamin' though, I guess," she mused. Actually, she wasn't sure which would be worse-- a screamer, or a clinger. Though she was more used to clingers. She'd gone to haunted houses with clingers before. She actually hadn't hit anyone like that, but she liked to joke about it.

"Hey, that's actually pretty cool," she said, truthfully impressed. "Smart costume for someone who has wings on his feet. That'll be fun. And since you'll be a god, people'll have to wait on ya hand, foot, and wing, right?" She grinned. "Bring you plenty of food'n'stuff."

She considered his question about her own costume for a moment. Really, she hadn't put a whole lot of thought into that. Her friends were trying to convince her to be all sorts of things, from Mulan, to Cleopatra, to a random vampire, to Katniss, the heroine of some novel her friends were obsessed with and insisted she would look perfect dressed up as. Vampire was her favorite suggestion so far. Or secret agent... She shrugged. "Not decided yet. Some of my friends are dressing up as a bunch of Disney people. I'm thinking about doing some generic spy agent or someone though. Or maybe a Disney villain." She snickered.

"Ah, I heard that," Alex raised a finger, grinning. "There is someone you wanna ask, ain't there? I bet there's plenty of people waiting for you to ask, so what's the hold-up, dude?" Were she closer, she might have given him a playful shove, but as it was she simply leaned across the table in confidential fashion. "Need a hand to get set up?" She wiggled her eyebrows. Ah, the plot thickened.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray giggled sticking his tongue out at her, no remorse at all. “Ugh, no, I mean sure some are good but really they must pay someone to find the most boring books ev-er for English.” He shook his head and made a face. Sure books were okay, usually the short ones. “Besides,” he added, “You can’t read while you fly and flying is basically the best thing ever so…” He left it there, enough said. “How is he crazy?” He asked curious, and chewing contemplatively on his food as he waited for her answer. A lot of people were crazy if they were looked at by an outside eye. See, Raylaigh knew he was normal and awesome, but an outside observer might think he was indeed a few screws short.

The image of her turning about and slugging him made Ray burst into laughter. Which wasn’t exactly a good thing considering he had just eaten a fry. He inhaled some potato and started a strange coughing laugh. He flailed his arms for his drink and swatted it right off the table. “Shit!” He cried catching it with just enough to swallow and get his cough under control. He was a mess. “Sorry,” he cried and started piling napkins on the puddle. Luckily, he had swatted it away from the two of them instead of right into Alex’s lap. They she might really slug him! “You’re probably right about that, what if you just agree to carry me through the maze?” He winked at her and giggled. What? He was light, she could do it.

“Why thank you,” Raylaigh said preening, his wings fluttering and raising a little to look more impressive. As impressive as tiny wings on his feet could be. He laughed in surprise and then nodded his head. “Of course!” He affirmed, when he remembered she couldn’t see him nodding, “That sound glorious! I’ll just be practicing for my life under your regime.” He grinned, he’d definitely much rather have her than that dick Oriel. What a prick! Ray had never done anything to him and all of the sudden he’s crushing his drawings under his feet. Ray sighed and was glad she couldn’t see his expression change to one of confusion and hurt. It was quickly gone as he let it wash off his shoulders. He hadn’t seen Oriel since then, he must have decided Ray wasn’t worth it, and Raylaigh was okay with that.

“Oh my goodness you would be a great Disney villain!” He exclaimed. “I can totally see you going all Maleficent on us or something… or ohhh… you know what you should go as? You should be a badass version Snow White! Like the same dress and stuff but with a sword or something.” He grinned his eyes already dancing over her and wondering how she would look with a blue and yellow outfit and her hair dolled up sweetly. Only to have it juxtaposed with a pair of huge guns and a sword. Warrior Snow White. “Girl you have to let me know what you decide because I will make you look amazing!” He grinned, he’d done his sister’s makeup for Halloween for years and several of his friends girl and boy alike came and let him create whatever he could on their faces. He didn’t like makeup much but he knew how to wield facepaint like a boss.

He giggled nervously and shook his head, unconsciously leaning closer too. He knew he didn’t need to, she could hear him if he whispered but he’d rather keep it as close between the two of them as he could. “It’s just… this guy… I don’t know if he’s… ya know?” He shrugged and looked at her. Nao had to be the most frustrating and adorable person ever. Especially since he’d decided to go ahead and leave for the summer and return completely drop dead gorgeous! “Oh Alex, I dunno… oh you know what, if you don’t have a date we could go together,” He said giving her a smile and innocently hoping the subject would drop. Retrospectively he realized if he really wanted that he shouldn’t have said anything at all…

[Genesis Kyland]

"Fair enough." Alex was pretty sure that if she had a choice between flying and reading, she would have chosen flying as well. Well, so long as she could see, because she wasn't sure she'd enjoy flying blind, even if bats did it all the time. They were smaller, and so, less likely to run into something and kill themselves. Not that she would run into anything, of course. She was much too good at her power for that. But still... she wasn't sure she wanted to take the chance of being high off the ground and having something bad happen.

"He's obsessed with making shoes," she said in answer to Ray's question about the dude from her book. "Some PTSD or something. Used to be in prison, I think." She shrugged.

Alex flinched at the sudden clattering of cup on floor. From Ray's exclamation, she quickly drew the conclusion that it had been his cup, and gave him a wry look as she offered more napkins to him. "So graceful," she mused. "Maybe it would be better if I carried you through the maze after all. Or piggyback anyway." She'd want her hands free in case she ended up tripping over something, after all.

"Under my regime," Alex echoed. "Yeah, that's a good idea." She grinned, jokingly. Much as she liked to kid about how awesome she was, she had no illusions either. She knew darn well if everyone in the world was like her, or even a large percentage, things would go downhill quickly and end in a crash'n'burn style at the bottom. She tilted her head as she caught the sigh, thoughtful. "What's with the sigh?" she asked, in a gruff tone of course. She wasn't for the touchy feely, share your emotions things, but neither was she for ignoring her friends' emotions.

Hm... Badass Snow White had a certain ring to it. A favorite Disney character, but with a twist to make her more interesting. Maleficent would be fun too, but no way was she messing around with wings or anything. "Fixing a Disney princess to be more interesting would be fun," she mused aloud. "Badass Snow White. Pretty sure I'd only trust a couple people to try and pull that off right. If ya finish your costume ya should let me know if ya come up with anything for that."

Alex narrowed her eyes as Ray switched from "This guy..." to "if you don't have a date we could go together". "Uh-uh," she said, pointing her fork in his general direction. "Not until you've made an effort with this dude. What's his name? Does he.. you know, like guys? How well you know him?" And people said she wasn't at all girly...

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

There was a part of Raylaigh that was sad for all of his landlocked friends. Sure they could go in a plane, but it wasn’t the same as being able to feel the wind on his face and the thrill of challenging gravity. He could imagine flying blind would be terrifying, but then again bats did that all the time, didn’t they? Were they really all blind? He shrugged to himself unable to find the answer in his small brain. He cocked his head and gave her a confused look. Well, that would definitely run into the crazy realm. “Weird…” He was curious now. “You’ll have to let me know when you figure it out.” He wondered if it was the same sort of thing that people got when they habitually had to turn door knobs or something.

“Thanks,” he said taking her offered napkins and working on mopping up his mess. He still hadn’t stopped growing and every time he thought he might be used to his new limbs something like this happened to remind him he was not. He stuck his tongue out at her. He could be graceful when he wanted to, just not on the ground. Ray laughed. “It would probably be safer for everyone involved!” He giggled imagining himself riding on Alex’s back. He would probably be a mess of limbs with his face hiding in Alex’s shoulders. “It also might not be a good idea, in case I really need to run away.” He nodded with all seriousness. Ray’s bird brain had his flight response triggered about one hundred times more than his fight response. Chances were he’d hurt Alex and himself it something popped out at him and he tried to flee.

Raylaigh was glad to see her grinning. It appeared then that Oriel was the only person who actually took this ‘taking over the world’ stuff seriously. He was glad Alex didn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to think as highly of her if she did. Ray continued eating, munching on the delicious piles of carbs. He looked up, startled. He swallowed what he was chewing and his face flushed. He hadn’t realized he’d sighed, but well, she had sharp hearing, nothing got past her. He shrugged and put his fork down for a rare moment. “It’s nothing really, I think I’m thinking too much into it, honestly,” he said. He glanced around just to make sure, Oriel hadn’t bothered him in a while but if anything that made Ray more nervous. Like the calm before the storm. It wasn’t like Raylaigh had never been bullied before, it was just that usually people who bothered him didn’t stick around long, either Jack or Kyle would stick up for him. If pushed enough Ray could stand up for himself.

Alex would look great with her dark hair and features. She was a very attractive girl and thought Ray knew she couldn’t see it and probably didn’t care either way, he wanted to make sure she looked amazing. He could already see her standing strong, with a gun in one hand and a dagger in the other, daring some simple prince to come and save her. She would look like the kind of person who would force feed the witch her own apple. “Consider it done,” he said grinning, glad to have a new project, “Mine is almost done, so I’ll get a few ideas for you and then you’re going to have the most spectacular costume of everyone.” Ray giggled and touched a hand to his chest, “Well, except for me, of course,” he said teasingly.

The food on his plate gradually turned from a mountain to a pile then finally started showing the plate underneath. Even when in conversation Ray was inhaling food. He shrugged as if he had no idea what she was trying to get at. Ray winced, realizing if he didn’t know that then he probably didn’t know a whole lot about Nao at all. “I don’t know, it’s so hard to tell,” he lamented, “I don’t know if you know him. Nao? I mean… I don’t really know. We kinda sorta kiss sometimes, but I think he just wants to be friends and… I don’t know if he’s gonna be scared if he knows I like him, but…” I’m even more scared if he likes me back. Ray shrugged, “I just don’t want to scare him off.” He finished realizing how easily it had been for her to ask a simple question and he just spilled everything for her. If there was anything to fault him for, lying was not one of them.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex nodded. "I'll be sure to let you know when it's figured out. Or y'could just read it for yourself." She smirked. "Or read the sparknotes for it, since that's how you role apparently." She shook her head, amused at him.

"Psh, it's just a haunted out. There ain't nothin' to run from in there. It's just dressed up people paid to try'n'scare ya. If they actually hurt ya they'd get sued or somethin'." She shook her head. "But if you're gonna flip out then yeah-- I won't be givin' ya any rides. I'd rather not get smacked with one of your wings. Or get unbalanced and fall over on ya and hurt you," she added, remembering Ray's bone's tendency to break. Yeah, maybe the carrying him through the haunted house wasn't such a great idea after all. "Maybe you could just join up for ice cream afterwards or somethin'." She chuckled.

"It's nothing, really," he said. Alex hm'd. "Sighs don't usually mean nothin'," she stated. "Neither does you settin' down your fork," she added, this time with a good-natured teasing tone. "But, if that's the story ya wanna stick with, I ain't gonna try and drag it out of ya." She shrugged. She'd never liked it when people badgered her when she didn't want to talk about something that was bothering her, so she tended to extend the same courtesy to others. And anyway, she wasn't really keen on getting involved in other peoples' drama if they didn't want help. Unless it was obvious there was something really major going on, in which case she'd been known to bonk friends over the head and tell them to stop lying. This didn't seem to be one of those cases, though.

Alex gave an amused grin as Ray agreed to fix her up with a costume. She wasn't particularly surprised, and she had to admit she was really okay with him taking over the organization of her costume. He seemed to have a plenty good head on his shoulders about that sort of thing. His enthusiasm about it combined with the interesting costume idea even nudged her into being mildly excited about it as well. She giggled a bit. "Well of course I can't look as 'spectacular' as you. You're the master costume maker apparently, so obviously you have to have the best one here." She nodded "seriously", a faint smile flitting at her lips for a moment before becoming actually serious. "That's cool of y'though, to help me out with my costume, too."

"I see..." Alex sat back and crossed her arms, thoughtful. "If you ask him to the dance it wouldn't necessarily mean the two of you were dating, right?" She tilted her head to the side. "People ask friends to the dance without being an actual couple, don't they? I mean, y'asked me to the dance, and we ain't a couple. Do y'think this Nao person would think it was weird?" She pondered. "Maybe I could go spy and ask him."

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh looked at Alex as if she had just said something completely outrageous. “Psh, forget that,” he said with a laugh. Not only was she implying that he read but that he read something for school. Even worse. “That is definitely how I roll, Alex, and I love it.” He stuck his tongue out playfully. Ray was that person that took the easy way out every single time, if it could be simplified at all he would do it. Sure Ray might be curious for a minute but something new and shiny always came along. Ray flushed and ducked his head, well there were quite a few good points in there. He grinned and shrugged. “I like the idea of ice cream,” he said honestly. He was very much a fan of sweets. A lot more a fan of that than he was of being chased through a haunted house. “You should just text me whenever you’re done getting yourself scared senseless then I’ll meet you somewhere.”

The flyer flushed red and ducked his head feeling completely caught red handed. He looked down at his fork and narrowed his eyes. Betrayed, by being caught by his blind best friend. Well, that had to be a new one. Ray was foolish sometimes, especially in moments when he realized he’d underestimated someone he was close to. Ray’s face relaxed into a smile, truly relieved when she didn’t press the issue. “Thanks, Alex,” he said reaching over and touching her hand. “Really, I promise it’s okay, if it wasn’t I’d let you know.” It had been a while since anything had happened. Oriel hadn’t harassed him in a long time and he was beginning to feel hope that he was forgotten, which when Oriel was around, it was better than nothing. It was probably a lie that he would let her know if something was really wrong. He was happy to have friends again, he’d never realized how isolated he had felt until Jack was gone and he started talking to people.

Even when she was smiling, Ray could see it on her, a brilliant face of art that developed a character. Really, Alex was very beautiful, he wanted to make her look amazing. His artistic tendencies had bloomed since he started taking that art class. He loved it, he finally found something that he loved and wanted to work at. Not only that but he was good at it too. Not like he was with math or science or anything, it was something that he loved and he could figure it out like it was a puzzle. His art teacher had spied his doodles and instead of turning up his nose at the strange sketches he’d encouraged Ray to doodle his strange imagination whenever he felt like it and Ray had not only gotten better at drawing because of the practice but he had gained confidence in himself that he had long since forgotten. “I am and don’t you forget it,” he giggled. His wings hummed happily. “What are friends for? Alex I am going to make you the best costume ever. You’re gonna made all of the heads turn and when you have everyone attention you are going to cast your spell and everyone will be caught.” He waved his hands in a grand fashion.

“Uh…” Ray started and sputtered, his prepared argument dying in his throat. “I… uh, I guess you’ve got a point.” He saw her point and that annoyed him to the core, he wanted things to be easy, he wanted to just be friends and he wanted to have fun but his damn feelings kept getting in the way. “I don’t know,” Ray huffed slouching like a crestfallen bluebird. “I mean I think he likes me but I don’t know if he’d freak out if I asked him.” The bird brained boy perked up as soon as she offered. That could be his ticket, he could figure out if Nao really wanted to take this further or not. Things would be a whole lot easier if Nao didn’t actually have feelings for him. If that were so then Ray could shut his down and then they could have fun without the worries of those troublesome feelings. “Alex… you know you have super hearing. You could totally be a badass spy.” He beamed at her, smile from ear to ear excited about the idea of a kind of sting operation.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex was still grinning faintly in amusement. "Sounds like a deal. Ice cream after I get 'scared senseless'. If I'm still alive, of course." She snickered. "Y'never know-- one of them spooks might really be a murderer in disguise." She knew the comment probably wasn't particularly helpful in view of getting Ray to every go to a haunted house, but she had a feeling he probably never would anyway.

I promise, it's okay...

Alex nodded. That was good enough for her. "Welp, if it starts being not okay, let me know. No judgement." She paused, and, not wanting to come across too serious, added, "Unless it's something embarrassin'. Like a goose has been chasin' ya around or somethin'." She grinned.

"Yes..." Alex mused. "I'll cast the ultimate spell of catching. And everyone will flock to admire me and demand y'make them a costume, too. For a price, of course." She winked, then went thoughtful. "You think you'd wanna do clothin' design like that one day? Since you like it so much?" Because really, what was a job if you didn't enjoy it? Even if it didn't make a lot of money, why would someone want a job that brought in millions if they hated it?

"You know it!" She grinned, because, you know, of course she would've been a badass spy. She had great credentials, too, what with all her secret pranks and such. Of course, she'd never be able to be a spy, not with being blind. Too much of a risk... But then again, she wouldn't want to be a spy anyway. Too dangerous. She happened to want to live for a while. So, she would refine her sting operations to the much less dangerous challenges. Like spying on a friend's crush. "What's the guy look like, and what sorts of things does he do? Is he in any groups or clubs or anything?" As much information as necessary, that's what she needed for getting this to work out right.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh visibly shivered at the idea and shook his head like a dog to banish the images coming out of his imagination. “Don’t even say that Alex!” He scolded. If he were sitting next to her he would have wrapped his arms around her. Instead he reached forward and grabbed her hand. “You’re not allowed to die!” The flyer pouted and then his lips quirked into a smile. “After all, how the hell do you think I’m supposed to survive without you?” He might be joking but he was serious, he wanted all of his friends well and safe around him. He’d never lost someone and he didn’t know if he could handle it.

The flyer smiled warmly and squeezed her hand in thanks before letting it go to go back to eating. Immediately, without even realizing it, Alex was making him feel better. He laughed, “Hey! Have you ever seen a goose?! Those things are vicious!” He knew from personal experience and though he wasn’t going to admit it, he had actually been chased by geese. Hell, he’d been chased by a goose, mobbed by crows and been harassed by a very sarcastic grackle. Did he actually know that the grackle was sarcastic? No, but it had seemed to rather enjoy laughing at him while he was stuck upside down in that tree that one time. In all of his flying experience Ray had met with some interesting and magnificent creatures. Eagles were his favorite, the albatross was rather distinguished, but all in all Ray had decided that birds were jerks.

“You joke,” Ray said teasingly, as if sure that he was going to be the master. He winked at her even though he knew she couldn’t see him do it. The flyer shrugged. “I don’t really know, probably not. I mean I like costumes and stuff, and I enjoy making them but I like painting so much more. But like my dad says,” he pitched his voice low, “‘How do you ever expect to make money doing that? Pick a real job, Raylaigh.’” He laughed brightly and shook his head. His father really had the best of intention and didn’t say it like that. In fact his father was more suggestive of it. He was just trying to talk Ray out of it before he committed. The flyer was sure if he did decided to go that course that his father would still help pay for school.

Ray brightened and his eyes looked toward the ceiling as he described Nao. “He’s tall, not as tall as me. He’d Asian, he’s got black hair and creamy skin.” He was beautiful. “He smiled a lot and gets easily flustered. He’s got super speed, he’s on the Track team with me, I’m not really sure if he’s in anything else…” Now that Ray thought about it he wondered, Nao had never said anything about any other clubs but maybe some of his hobbies had clubs. “He works too hard, he’s always working on his class work, buuut,” Ray paused dramatically and pitched his voice low so only Alex could hear, “I did talk him into skipping once.” He laughed. Nao was such a hard worker, he made Raylaigh feel a little lazy sometimes, and while the flyer would absolutely agree with that statement, Nao was doing this funny thing where he was motivating Raylaigh to do work.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex snickered and squeezed Ray's hand. "Oh, I'll try not to die... Especially since your existence is so reliant on mine." She shook her head tragically. "I make no promises though, sorry." She paused, thinking for a moment, before grinning widely and continuing, "If I do die, though, I'll be sure to come back as a ghost and haunt you. Would that help?" She tilted her head with an angelic smile.

"Psh, I've seen a million geese," Alex snarked with a smirk. "One did bite me once though," she mused. "I was at a petting zoo feedin' goats or somethin' and the stupid bird thought it should have the food. I kicked it and it left me alone after that." She grinned. Of course, in reality, she'd only been eight and not very good at the blind thing yet, she tried to kick it. Tried, and then unbalanced herself and fallen backwards. Her dad had been the only reason she didn't crack her skull on the sidewalk.

Stupid bird.

Anyway.

What was this rubbish about "real jobs"? "Your dad sounds like a stick'n'the mud," she stated, matter-o-fact. "There's plenty'a stuff to do with painting. Portraits, teachin', pets, commissions for rich people." She shrugged. "Lots easier in this day'n'age to make a living off art than before. And anyway, I think that if y'take off it'd be pretty dang awesome to brag about a friend of mine bein' a famous artist."

Alex tilted her head as she listened to Ray's description of his crush, translating his visual descriptions into her own "world". Tall, not as tall as Ray... So a similar stride... Asian, so an accent maybe? Black hair and creamy skin? Yeah, not much to work with there, but super speed was something. "He got an accent?" she asked. "And how much shorter? And what's the guy's name?"

Alex clicked her tongue. "Convincing people to skip class... Shameful." She shook her head.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

“You should,” Ray retorted, “God, c'mon Alex think of other people.” He teased his voice bright with humor. “Well you might make no promises but you're not allowed to die, I won't let you,” he said crossing his arms and sticking his tongue out at his friend. Raylaigh shivered and shook his head like a dog, Alex knew how Ray felt about ghosts. “You're evil, you know that,” he said affectionately. Now if there were ever a chance that she might be haunting him he would definitely blame her. And he would be prepared. He'd seen those shows where the person come around with the ability to sense ghosts. It was strange though, even though it all seemed real he'd never even heard about someone seeing or even sensing spirits at Hammel. Ray would have definitely thought it was a power and now that he thought about it he was honestly surprised that someone out there didnt' have it.

Ray flushed and ducked his head apologetically, “Sorry.” Way to go Ray, he thought, ask the blind one if she's ever seen geese! A + for Raylaigh. “Oh no! Ouch!” He winced sympathetically. Geese bites were a lot more painful than people would think and those things definitely knew how to attack. Ray laughed, “I don't know who to feel worse for, you or the goose! I'm sure he never messed with you anymore. It probably told all of its goose friends not to mess with you either!” He laughed, he wished he had the courage to kick a goose, he'd met quite a few that deserved it. He also didn't want to admit that he had in fact had his ass handed to him by a bird.

“Yeah,” Ray agreed wrinkling his nose, but his dad did hold the money which made it kind of difficult. And the fact that his mother seemed to agree considering her novel writing career had been so difficult that she could only really do it on the side now made her less keen to the idea as well. “That's what I told him but he's not convinced. He's convinced that I'm going to end up living at home in my mom's basement or his and wasting my life away.” Ray shrugged, he had a lot more ambition than just staying home, if anything he'd at least travel or something like that. “That's true,” Ray agreed, “The internet does make it a bit easier. That would be awesome! I'd totally make you all kinds of stuff. I mean useful stuff, stuff you can appreciate.” After Ray had realized she was blind (after feeling incredibly dense about it) he'd decided to make her something. For Christmas he'd made her an image that she could feel, he wouldn't necessarily call it useful but Ray hoped she liked it anyways.

“Mhmm, not too heavy, but kinda like... Hi my name is Ray,” he said imitating Nao's voice as best as he could, it was actually terrible and most likely not useful at all. “Not too much, he used to be a lot shorter but that kid grew like a freaking weed!” He laughed, just like him. “Probably about to here,” he said putting a hand under his chin, “Oh! Derp! Of course, his name is Naozumi, he goes by Nao, not 'now', 'na-oh'.” He corrected since he kept mispronouncing Nao's name, though the little Asian seemed to just let it slide. Ray bit his tongue as he smiled wickedly. “I don't know what came over me, I think you're a bad influence on me.” He jabbed a finger at her accusingly and laughed. He took a bite out of his bread and shrugged at Alex. “You know we still need to get together and skate board sometime.”