Bad ideas come in packs [Open]

[Genevieve Duval]

Genevieve was sitting on the edge of the pool, her bare feet deep inside the water while her skirt rode up her knees to keep it from getting wet. She usually disliked being near water, considering she couldn't swim, but just wetting her feet wasn't all that bad, right? Besides, it was so peaceful here. Sure, there were people around, but for someone who usually lived inside her own head it wasn't a big deal. 

The girl hummed a random tune under her breath, smiling down at the bee on her hand. She turned her hand, letting her little friend walk up in a hurry to stay on top, making Genevieve smile and giggle in delight. Sure, the insect girl felt lonely, but that didn't mean she was alone, right? There was Vivian with her after all.

Making friends in Hammel had proven far more difficult than in Kocher. Perhaps it'd been a bad idea to come here, considering how neglected she felt by her brother and most people around. Not to mention the language barrier. Sure, Genevieve did speak English or at least had learned it properly at school, but it was very different to hear a French teacher speak it instead of a native language. And there was always having to translate whatever you were thinking onto another language, leaving her talking slowly and mess up her words... No one had the required patience to deal with the insect girl. Well, there was also the fact of her lovely friends following her around and they tended to scare a lot of people away. 

She didn't say any of this of course, always smiling on the outside, still playing with her Vivian. And her little game was getting a tad out of hand. Vivian had started to fly away and come back, seemingly trying to annoy Genevieve as much as she'd been trying to annoy it too. 

"Vivian!" She squealed, still playful, as Genevieve turned, still sitting on the pool. "No! Stop- AH!" She made a quick turn, losing her balance and falling onto the pool.


..Did I mention she didn't know how to swim?

[Deleted]

Jackson, like most boys his age, turned into a kid(or more of a kid) at just the mention of swimming. There weren’t a lot of places with a pool back in ABQ, so living(or semi-living) in a place that had one right there at his disposal had him running around excitedly whenever he found the urge(and the time) to venture out to it.

He showed off somewhat toned torso that was still padded by the thinnest layer of baby fat as he walked through the halls of the changing rooms in his hawaiian patterned swim trunks and finally out into the pool proper. It wasn’t terribly busy, but that was okay. It just mean that there was more room for him to be silly in the water, instead of having to keep out and away from those serious swimmers who only lapped back and forth in the designated lanes. Now, Jackson had no problem yielding to those guys, if they wanted to practice, then that was clearly more important than Jackson fooling around like a 5 year old. But, man, if he didn’t enjoy that childish fooling.

Jackson saw a girl sitting on the edge of the pool and smiled thoughtfully, wondering what exactly she was doing. She seemed to have her eye on something, but he couldn’t quite make it out. It just showed that he really did need glasses, but that was an expense that was going to have to wait a little longer, since his eyes weren’t really that bad. At least not yet.

Otherwise, he would not have seen the scene of the same girl falling into the pool after having lost her balance from following whatever she had her eye on. Jackson snickered. He wasn’t one of those horrible people who would laugh and point and holler over someone else’s misfortune - after all, she could have been really hurt from it - but it was true that the awkwardness of it all tickled his amusement. His interest piqued, Jackson started over to investigate and make sure she was okay. Maybe even help her out of the pool when she surfaced.

Jackson squatted and looked down into the water, waiting for exactly that.

[Genevieve Duval]

Genevieve fell into the water and her eyes widened as she saw the surface get further away. She tried waving her arms, kicking her legs, but she still was too sporadic and messy to actually manage to float. She saw a shadow over the light and she blinked her eyes as the chlorine started to hurt. She then felt the bottom of the pool under one feet and she tried kicking it to get to the surface again. She managed, just slightly, to kick herself up and wave a stretched out hand, splashing the surface and her face rose slightly, gasping for air barely, but drinking in water in the process. "SSC-hH-wrgghg-Secours! ghhww"

Outside was Vivian, buzzing close over the water and near the boy that seemed to be looking at Genevieve. It buzzed and moved in zig zags, sporadic like Genevieve's movements. And then, just as the girl's panic rose, more bees joined the same spot, buzzing above the water, unable to help when her powers told them to.

[Deleted]

Jackson took a squat down next to the edge of the pool and waited expectantly, with his elbow resting off his knee and chin cupped in his palm. He pushed his eyebrows forward when it started to seem like she had been down for a little bit too long. He finally saw that the shadow was coming up and when she surfaced….Jackson watched her flail for about five seconds before it finally registered what was going on. The bees weren’t doing anything for his confusion either and the fear that one might sting him settled in him as he thought to reach out his hand to grab hers.

The boy dropped to his knees, his skin scraping slightly on the course concrete surrounding the edge of the pool, and he stretched his hands out towards the flailing arms, trying to grab hold of at least one of them to pull the drowning girl to safety.

[Genevieve Duval]

She saw a guy leaning down, stretching his arms as she gasped for air, but drank water. And yuck, did that taste bad! She flailed and moved, managing to grab one of his arms and her panic lessened slightly. She pulled herself, "Help?" She asked as her head was out of the water enough not to drink water in the process. Genevieve looked up and saw her bees flying above her and she sighed in relief. At least none of them had been silly enough to dive into the water for her.

[Deleted]

Jackson’s own arms were flailing just a little, but clearly not so much that the girl couldn’t find one and grab hold to it. Jackson flexed his arm, giving it some stability and making it more like a rod she could hold onto while she caught her breath. “I…I got you! Just don’t let go!” he exclaimed. His other hand was reached behind him, to stabilize the both of them and hopefully offer more weight to ground them. It’d do neither of them any good if he fell in too. Mostly for her, if she couldn’t swim. Jackson slowly started to inch himself backwards, scraping his knees more on the rough surface of the pool-room floor. While he was moving, Jackson thought that this might be a good time to engage in some "lighthearted" conversation. “Uh…so they’re not gonna sting me, are they?” he asked nervously.

[Genevieve Duval]

"Oui!" She hadn't even realised she was speaking in French when he pulled her, still panicking with her bees flying above her. Genevieve gasped, moving her legs as well as she could in her wet skirt to help him get her to the side of the pool. In her panic she barely heard him and she blinked in confusion. What? Sting? What was he talking about? She blinked a second time and then glanced up at her friends. Oh, that.

"Non." She shook her head, moving forward until her arms finally reached the border of the pool and leaned forward. "Merci...merci..." No, that was French. She shook her head, "Thank you." She panted, resting against the edge of the pool for a moment, thanking whoever that this boy had been there. "Thank you." She turned to smile at him gratefully, trying her best to get over to the floor with the tangled mess that was her long wet skirt.

"Forgive me." She added sheepishly, "I was not paying attention."

[Deleted]

Jackson didn’t register right away that she was speaking French. But just the same, he wasn’t in any position for him to be confused about why she was saying “we” or whether it was something else entirely. Funny how that worked. In emergencies, suddenly the brain became able to generally get what the other person was trying to communicate regardless of the language. Maybe that was an evolutionary thing or something…?

Whatever! This wasn’t the time to be thinking about evolutionary linguistics! He had a damsel to save!

Jackson finally managed to pull her to the edge of the pool, where she thankfully was able to grab onto and keep herself from sinking any further. And also, keep from pulling her savior in with her. “Yeah, it’s no problem,” he assured her. “I couldn’t very well let a pretty lady like you drown, y’know?” The boy shook his head. “No. No…it’s fine. No problem at all! I kind of feel like a jerk for not jumping in to help sooner.” Instead of just sitting there and watching her drown with a smile on her face. “Can you not swim?” he asked.

[Genevieve Duval]

Genevieve was gasping still but managed to smile through her pants of breath. She slowly made her way onto the floor, as well as her weak arms would allow her to push her weight up, slowly crawling until she was sitting by the side of the pool instead of floating inside. Her clothes clung to her and she was starting to feel far too cold, but at least she was breathing.

"Thank you." She repeated for what felt the tenth time, still smiling weakly at the boy. He called her pretty though and her eyes widened, her face suddenly flushed. No one but her parents had called her pretty before. "Um..." She wasn't sure whether to deny it or accept the compliment. She certainly didn't feel pretty, not in comparison to most girls in Hammel, much less now that she was all wet, with her messy curly hair went and clinging to her face, but still she smiled shyly, looking down at the puddle of water she was creating on the floor. "Thanks..." She muttered once again, unsure of what else to say. Not only a hero but also complimenting her. It took her little bees flying closer for her to break her trail of thought and turn her attention elsewhere. A single bee flew to her, landing on her cheek and she let out a breath. Vivian was okay. Good, she wasn't sure what she would've done without her.

He was asking her questions and she blinked at him a couple of times before her brain caught up with what he'd said. Swim? She flushed again, this time in embarrassment. "Ah- non. No. I do not can." She said in her broken english, letting out a breath and sending a glare to the pool next to her. "I should know better. Not getting close to pools." She moved, sitting up and squeezing the water out of her long skirt, stealing a glance at her saviour. A saviour? That was a good way to describe him, right? Wait! It was!

"You saved my life." She said in sudden shock at the realisation, her eyes growing wider and a smile breaking her face. She leaned forward, suddenly very interested in the boy. He was a hero after all! "What is your name?" Her english was weird considering her thick accent, but she was trying her best to control her French. She needed to know after all, just to know who to thank.

[Deleted]

Another thank you came from the girl and Jackson simply smiled. Let her get out as many as she could, he thought. It was nice to hear, however, if somewhat awkward. He could only say “no problem” so many times before it just became a battle of courtesies. Then they’d never get anywhere!

His smile grew in amusement at her reaction to his simple compliment. Jackson had really just said it casually, nothing in particular special. It was pretty commonplace where he was from to tell a pretty girl she was pretty. A general courtesy, actually. There may have been a bit of flirtatious air sometimes, but it was typically just a guy being a gentleman. Still, it was pretty cute seeing her blush over something so small. So much, Jackson even let loose a short chuckle when she thanked yet again. “It’s really no problem,” he assured her with a light shrug. “I’m just telling the truth.”

Jackson’s eyes followed the bees that had come to her “rescue” as they zipped around her, one even landing on her round little cheek. “Are they yours?” he asked, curious. “Like, do you control them?” It must have been something to do with her power. After all, he’d never seen bees behave in this sort of manner.

Aww…there, she blushed again! So adorable! Jackson’s grin widened again, his own cheeks rounding up under his eyes. “Well, you didn’t know you were gonna fall in, and it’s nice to just sometimes dip your feet in, so I think you get a pass on the ‘knowing better’ front.” He chuckled again, raising a hand to rest his chin in it’s palm. Jackson tilted his head casually to the side.

Oh…! And there was the smile! It was a surprise enough to have Jackson straighten up in awe…and then he leaned back slightly as she was suddenly in his face. This time, it was his cheeks that were growing ruddy. “Uh…” His name? What was it again? “Uh…O-osiris…” No, that wasn’t—! “Jackson!” he corrected quickly. “Uh…Osiris Jackson…” The flustered boy looked down, suddenly feeling very shy over the simple issue of his name. “W-what’s yours?” he asked, bringing his eyes up to meet with hers.

[Genevieve Duval]

He wasn't help at all by saying that. The truth? Really? She smiled shyly, unsure of what else to add. She wanted to deny it, since it was obvious he was just being nice, but she wasn't sure how rude it would be to refuse a compliment. People didn't like that, did they? Maybe it would be rude. Ah, he asked a question and that she knew. She smiled and nodded. "Yes, I do. Sort of." Not very well, but she tried. They'd responded to her panic and had come to her, but just as she calmed, her little friends did so too and dissipated, leaving the lone bee on her cheek once more.

She looked up at him as he dismissed her mistake and she smiled thankfully again. Wasn't he nice? "I guess." She said, feeling a tad better about having fallen in. "It is." That was one of seeing it, right? Besides, it wasn't like she purposely wanted to keep causing trouble for others, that just sort of... happened.

He said his name and she nodded. "Osiris." She repeated, staring at him, "Osiris. Osiris." What a peculiar name. She was sure she wasn't going to forget that. She forgot the Jackson part already, but as long as one of those two stuck there was no problem. He asked for her name and she smiled gently, leaning back to sit on her knees. "Genevieve." She said, ah but he'd given her his full name. "Genevieve Duval." Was that the proper way to introduce oneself? She should remember that for next time.

"You saved my life, Osiris." She said slowly, as to not let her accent butcher the words and let him understand what she was saying. "I am indebted to you." She owed him her life after all. "You are a hero." Her hero. Ha, that had a nice ring to it.

[Deleted]

“Ohh,” he said, nodding when she answered his question. Sort of? “Is it part of your power? That really cool, actually.” She could control her own bee army! Not that he expected a sweet girl like her to want to do that, but it was a possibility, right?

Right, a clumsy girl who fell into a swimming pool because she wasn’t paying attention and couldn’t swim was going to be the doom of us all, with her army of bees parading behind her! That image made Jackson stifle a laugh with no clear explanation of where it came from.

He wasn’t laughing anymore, though, when he accidentally gave the wrong name(his real name) and she was sitting there being adorable and repeating it and committing it to memory. But with her staring right at him, as if she could see right through him, Jackson couldn’t bring himself to correct her. This was going to nip him in the butt later, wasn’t it? “Genevieve,” he repeated, much like she had with his name. “C-can I call you Ginny? Or does that sound too much like a…like…” Like an old-lady name? Darn, he didn’t want to say it, that would be rude, wouldn’t it?

Gosh~ Her praise was going to make him blush ’til his head exploded! Jackson could feel it welling up with every word. And talking was becoming harder. “Ah-ha-ha…not at all, I…” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Really, it’s no….” Her hero. Jackson didn’t think he’d ever heard someone call him that before. It was…nice. “It’s….it’s my pleasure,” he finally managed to get out, smiling back at the pretty girl. He wondered how red his cheeks were?

Jackson shifted and started to climb to his feet, offering out both his hands to help Genevieve up as well. “Um…let’s say we get you out of those wet clothes. You must be freezing.” It was the middle of fall, after all. “You didn’t bring a change of clothes with you, did you?” Probably not, since she hadn’t intended on swimming in the first place.

[Genevieve Duval]

Cool? Genevieve's eyes went to his in shock. "...Cool?" She couldn't believe it. First Colton, then Alanna and now this boy. Americans surely were very different. "You do not think it is..." what was the word? "Odd? Um... gross?" Because everyone back in France thought so. Who wanted to be near the girl covered in insects? But then he started laughing, or holding back laughter, and she flushed again, pouting at his reaction. Was he making fun of her? That wasn't nice. Had the cool part been a joke too? "Mean." She said, still pouting and looking down at her hands, making tiny fists. Yet, she'd never seen anyone laugh at her powers before. What was so funny about them? "You-you have powers too, yes?" She asked, still annoyed that he'd laughed at her, "You do not want others laughing, no?" She wanted to get across that it wasn't nice to laugh at others for having powers, no matter how lame they were, but it was so difficult to translate that to English.

When they exchanged names her anger was gone, remembering he'd saved her life. It was only fair to let him laugh, right? And then that last part. Genevieve's eyes went wider in excitement, another bright smile making her forget herself. Ginny... Ginny! A nickname! She hadn't had a nickname in ages! Much less here in America. "Yes!" She said far too loudly and excitedly. She didn't even catch the last part, nor cared about it either. A nickname was what friends gave each other after all and that meant he wanted to be friends. "Ginny, yes, thank you!" Coming to America was starting to be worth the trouble. It took months, but next time she saw her brother, she wouldn't have to lie about having friends in Hammel. Genevieve smiled to herself, proud that she'd so slowly accomplished what she had intended to do when changing schools. Three friends! And counting if she had anything to do with it. She probably spent far too much time grinning like an idiot, lost in her mind though...

It took her remembering he was a hero to take her out of her mind. He tried to deny it and she shook her head, "You are!" She insisted and he stuttered until he agreed, making her smile brightly again. "Thank you!" But then his face was so red. She wondered if it was because he got wet when she fell in. What with this weather? And she was still wet too... the reminder made her sneeze, and she covered her face with one hand as he spoke.

Her clothes? She looked down at herself, her long skirt a wet mess on her knees and her sweater heavy from the water. "Uh... non." She wasn't supposed to get wet after all. She could run to the dorms though and grab something to wear. The way would be very cold though. She looked up to see him offering his hands and she smiled gently, grabbing them and pull herself up, almost tripping on the wet mess that was her skirt. "Merci" She was still dripping and shuddered. Now that she was standing, it was easier to feel the cold. "I should go to the dorms." She said in disappointment. She didn't want to leave just yet, but he was right. It was far too cold to be standing around with wet clothes.

[Deleted]

“Gross?” he echoed in confusion. Jackson shook his head. “No.” Though thinking about it, he supposed some people didn’t take too kindly to bugs, but there were tons of powers out there that were unusual. He couldn’t name any off the top of his head at the moment, but he was sure they were there.

He felt bad for laughing though…but he couldn’t stop. The image was too amusing. “Sorry…” he chuckled. “I’m not…trying to be mean.” He hid his laughing smile behind his hand, though the mirth was still obvious in his eyes. “I was just thinking…that powers are…well, they’re not always what we expect them to be. Like…” He tried to think of a way to explain it. “Like…I’m telekinetic, for example.” He gestured towards himself. “But…y'know, in the movies they always make telekinesis a trope for being very…um…emotionally unstable? Like Carrie, or Jean Grey from the X-Men? Doesn’t exactly fit my image, right?” Jackson had his own trials, of course, but he wouldn’t call himself unstable or emotionally suffering like those people.

Jackson smiled again. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.”

Her excitement over the nickname was unexpected and Jackson nearly fell backwards in his surprise. She seemed so happy. And here Jackson was worried that Ginny wouldn’t like it. But honestly, he liked it. For her. “Ha ha…I, uh…you’re welcome? I’ve never seen anyone get so excited over a nickname before.” It was cute though. “I’m glad you like it,” he said with a smile.

“Salud,” he said in response to her sneeze. Jackson laughed again. He really shouldn’t be laughing so much, but she was just so much fun to watch! “You’re gonna get sick if you stay like that much longer,” he pointed out. He looked off in the direction of the dorms, thinking. “And it’s a long way to be walking in the cold.” What could they do…? “Um…I have a change of clothes in my locker if you don’t mind that.” He looked down with a smile, a little embarrassed over the offer, then lifted his eyes again. “It’s not much, but it’s better than walking around in wet clothes, y’know?” Jackson could make due with his gym sweats for a while.

[Genevieve Duval]

He was still chuckling and she was still pouting, feeling more sheepish each second. It was funny though, now that he was covering his mouth she could see his eyes rounded up when he smiled. She wondered if hers did too, though she doubted it. It was... what was the word? Noticeable? Interesting? But then he explained why it was funny, bringing her out of her thoughts. "You do not think I look like my power?" She wondered. It was weird, since she couldn't imagine herself doing anything else.

He said he was a telekinetic and she moved closer, leaning closer to his face. "You move things!" She said in excitement, "With your thoughts, non?" She didn't know who she was talking about, but she'd heard X-MEN somewhere before. She nodded along, even if she didn't understand what he was talking about. "You do not- ah." What was the word? "deal with problems?" What a weird way to say it. What she'd meant was if he didn't have any problems with his powers like she did. For instance, underneath her heavy clothes her skin was covered in marks from mosquitos and bees she attracted unwillingly, not to mention that little episode before, with bees floating about when she'd panicked. "I do not know what a unstable person looks like." She admitted honestly. Was she unstable? What did that even mean?

Genevieve shook her head at his apology. "It is alright." She said, not knowing how else to accept the apology. "I suppose that it is a little bit funny." Though why she couldn't tell. She had a bee on her cheek all the time. That was sort of funny, right?

She smiled widely again, feeling energised at her nickname. "A nickname is a sign of friendship, yes. It is- ah, closeness?" English was so difficult! And her thick accent made things worse. "It is not the name, but what it presents." She meant to say 'represents' but the word was close enough. But then... maybe she thought it wrong? "Does it not mean we are friends now?" She wondered shyly, afraid that she got it wrong. Maybe she had and it was just common for people to give names all about.

She nodded in acknowledgement when she sneezed. "D'ans" came her very nasal voice as she covered her nose with her hand when she tried to thank him. She was going to get sick, wasn't she? He offered her his clothes and her eyes widened.

"Ah..." She looked down at her feet, lightly tapping the puddle she'd created. "I have never worn boys clothes before." She admitted with a blush. Wasn't it a bit... weird? But they were friends, right? Weren't they? "Please!" She said then, looking up at him, although she was still blushing, "If you do not mind." The lockers? Where were they again? Oh, and "Thank you!" How many times was she going to thank him anyway? Well, it didn't help that he kept doing nice things for her. Weird as they were, she was really starting to change her mind about Americans. They were all so nice to her! Mostly so in comparison to her experiences in Kocher. And then, adding in her brother in the mix of French people she knew... well, it was best not to think of that.