Browsing(Aerina)

[Colton Bryan]

Colton was running his hands along the edges of books thinking to himself with a bored expression, no, no, read that already, doesn't this school have anything besides the generic books that you can find anywhere? He continued looking through the shelves of books, trying to look for anything he hadn't read before. Finally he went through the entire shelf's line of books and he turned the corner to the other side, but he felt something bump into his chest as he rounded said corner.

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Aerina liked a good read herself and often found herself in the library looking for books. She’d get all sorts of genres too, from science to history to religion to your standard NY Times bestseller! There was hardly a subject that she didn’t enjoy…well, that wasn’t entirely true, Rina had a handful of subjects she didn’t enjoy much, but she needed them anyway because learning and that’s what students like her did! And she just needed to be the best student she could be.

Today, Rina was looking for a book to read for class. Classes had finally started for the Hammel school year and already the high schooler had homework! She didn’t have many classes at Hammel, thankfully, since she completed most of them prior to transferring out here, but she imagined that once college classes started up as well next month then she was going to find herself exceptionally busy. That’s why she needed to find time to have fun now, while she still could!

Anyway, Aerina was looking for a book, and amid her browsing she flipped open one that seemed interesting. She read a couple of lines. And then a few more. Just one more page, she kept telling herself. Maybe she should just go ahead and take this one then? Without looking up, Aerina started walking slowly towards the front, approaching a corner where another student, a boy, was rounding about it. “Oof!” she squeaked upon having bumped into the person. She kept a tight grip on the book, thankfully, but that still left her flustered at having run into someone. Again. “I’m so sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was going!” she pleaded, looking up at the taller boy.

[Colton Bryan]

Rubbing his chest as he looked down Colton watched the girl freak out a little for a second as she apologized for something that was, in his opinion, both of their faults. "Don't worry about it, though you may want to speak a little quieter." He said in a hushed voice as he accidentally slipped into Russian as he spoke, looking at her filing things about her away in his head, She is short, her book seems rather large so she must read quite a lot, and she sounds different from Americans. Mentally hitting his forehead after realizing he forgot some of his manners he said, "I'm sorry for running into you." This time unfortunately he had spoken in Portugese.

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Aerina tilted her head as he started speaking. The first part had been in English, yes, but the last part was in….something she was unfamiliar with. “Okay,” she said anyway, giving him a confused look. then he spoke again, and again, she didn’t understand a single word. Ah, he must be a foreigner like me, she concluded. But if she didn’t know his language, than how was she supposed to communicate? Aerina shook her head and took a nervous step backwards, holding up a hand. “Sorry, I don’t speak…whatever you are speaking. Do you happen to know English?” She would never assume that anybody outside of her homeland would speak either Hindi or Marathi.

[Colton Bryan]

Colton face almost became a mirror of confusion to the girl's own when she said okay, wondering if the girl fully understood what he said. He realized what had happened when the girl suddenly stepped back from him after he finished speaking, again hitting his forehead, this time physically, he thought to himself, not again. "I'm sorry about that, sometimes I slip out of English when I talk." Colton said in an exasperated voice, unfortunately his powers seemed especially de-synced today as he slipped into Hindi.

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The sudden use of Hindi surprised her, and when Aerina heard it, she almost didn’t recognize what he’d said, since she was expecting again to hear something she didn’t understand. “Oh…..” How did that work? she wondered. She gave him a regarding look, unsure of how to respond to that, until it finally clicked. “Oh! You’re omnilingual!” she exclaimed, also in Hindi, and again raising her voice just a touch too loud. Rina had been doing research lately on the different varieties of powers and their side effects. She wanted so badly to not seem like a dumb ditz by not knowing anything about meta powers, especially since she only recently manifested this past spring. “I’m right, aren’t I?” Aerina smiled up at him with hopeful eyes.

[Colton Bryan]

Colton was about to curse in his head as it appeared that the girl had yet again not understood him when the girl suddenly yelled her guess about his power. Colton put a finger to his lips as he looked around not wanting to get yelled at by a librarian or teacher about being loud, and whispered in Hindi, "Yes, you're right I'm omnilingual." When he looked back down at her Colton noticed how she was acting and decided to give her a smile in return for hers.

[Deleted]

Of course she guessed it, how could she not? Aerina presented a smug smile at her correct answer, as if she expected confetti to shower her in her victory. No such thing occurred, of course, but Rina could dream, couldn’t she? On the matter of the omnilingual boy, she hunched up her shoulders when he pressed his finger to his lips and giggled abashedly. “Sorry,” she whispered. Aerina continued to smile up at the boy. “That’s really amazing, I think. But does that always happen?” she asked curiously. “Speaking in several languages out of nowhere like that?” If they could pinpoint the whys and hows behind it, perhaps she could help him figure out how to prevent it? Not that it was any of her business…

[Colton Bryan]

Colton was about to answer the girl when she asked about how often he had his lapses in control of his ability, but he thought to himself, Why I am I telling her all this stuff? He decided to voice his thoughts after looking around for a moment, still worried that a librarian would come to yell at them from the girl's giggling and loud outbursts, he set his eyes back on the girl and asked in Hindi, "Why do you want to know so much about my ability..." his question dropped off in embarrassment as he realized he didn't know the girl's name.

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"Why wouldn't I want to know?" she said excitedly, her eyes bright and glistening. "I love learning about other peoples' powers. There's so many of them! I only just manifested myself this spring, but there's so much to know, I've been trying to learn all I can so I don't get left behind once school starts." Aerina giggled, completely unashamed of her rambling. She just loved to talk! That didn't mean that he had to talk, though. Besides, if he wasn't talking, then that meant that he was listening, right? "I'm Aerina," she offered with a friendly smile. "I can control butterflies. I can talk to them too!" She and her roommate had bonded over that shared ability of theirs. Even though it was a shared power, they were still different and unique and Aerina loved that. "What's your name?" she asked, tilting her head.

[Colton Bryan]

Colton said nothing as the girl explained her interest in others' abilities. Well she definitely enthusiastic, he thought to himself after she finished. "It's nice to meet you Aerina. I've actually met someone who could do something similar to your ability before." Colton said after the girl introduced herself to him, and with a small blush on his face as he thought about the French girl he had developed a crush on a few months ago. When she asked for his name he said, "My name is Colton, and you already know what I can do, so I won't repeat myself."

[Deleted]

"Oh, have you?" she inquired with a tilt of her head. A lock of curls fell over her shoulder as she raised it up inquisitively. "My roommate has an ability very similar to mind. I wonder if they're not the same person. Do you know a Rachel Kells?" It would be marvelous to find out if they happened to know the same person. It would be as if their meeting was blessed by Ganesh. It was true that they all attended the same school and it wouldn't be unusual for such a thing to occur, but the school was a host to all the developing metas in the Americas. While smaller than the Indian school in population, it was still rather large in itself. Aerina giggled. "Yes, I do. Simply a wild guess on my part, don't you think?" She was still speaking quickly, and a bit above a normal volume, but it wasn't as loud as she had been a few moments ago. The surprise had passed and calmed, after all. "Say, which language is your native? You speak so many, and hardly any accent in Hindi, I bet it's hard for others to tell where you're from, isn't it?" She gave him a playful nudge on his arm, smiling as bright as the sun.

[Colton Bryan]

After Aerina had asked him if he knew her roommate Colton shook his head and said, "I've never met anyone by that name." Colton did fill the name away in case he ever met that person, but unless they bumped into him like Aerina did he doubted they'd ever meet. The girl seemed to have an infectious laugh and smile as he gave a small, low laugh accompanied by a wide smile while he responded to her questions, "Yeah it was a pretty good guess." After Aerina asked what his first language was Colton gave another small laugh and said, "I'll give you a hint, it's the one I have the hardest time from changing." She was smart, so Colton assumed that the girl could figure out he meant English.

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Aerina was visibly disappointed to hear that he didn't know Rachel. "Aww, that's too bad. She's a real sweetheart. You really should meet her anyway." As in, he should let Aerina introduce the two of them. She was sure the two of them would get along rather well. Rina's smile brightened even more when he laughed with her. Oh, good, she thought. She was worried that she might have simply been bothering him. Rina smiled proudly up at Colton, the scrunched her nose as she attempted to guess the answer to her question. "I will say the most likely is English," she said with only a fraction of doubt. "After all, we are in America. That isn't to say you could not be from Europe, but it is the most likely. Am I correct?" she asked.

[Colton Bryan]

Colton saw Aerina's disappointed face when he mentioned that he didn't know her roommate and tried to think of something to say that would change that expression. "Well, uh, if I meet her I could mention that I met you. Or you could, um, introduce us to each other." Colton whispered the last part in a breathless tone as he stumbled over his words while he tried speaking quickly. Colton nodded as Aerina correctly guessed his native language and whispered to her, "You are right, I'm in fact an American." As he told the girl his nationality Colton thought of the fact he didn't know much about her and decided to ask, "Do you mind if I ask where you're from?" He had a pretty good idea where she was from, but he would like to be sure.