Attempting Algebra (Open)

[Aaron Walker]

AJ had spent the last half hour staring at the same problem. Although it was a beautiful day outside, he was forcing himself to stay inside and catch up on his Algebra. He was sitting in the library at a table next to an open window so he could at least see the blue sky, even if he wasn’t out enjoying it.

Why does math even have word problems? he thought to himself.

He pushed back his math book and slouched in his chair. Math has never been one of his strengths. AJ reached into his pockets and dug around to find a piece of gum.

When am I ever going to use this?

Using his gum wrapper, he folded a mini paper airplane and threw it out the window. Done with that distraction, he searched though his pockets again. He found a lime green bouncy ball and started bouncing it on the table. Still gazing out the window, he lost control of the ball and it when rolling across the library.
Crap. That was one of my favorites.

AJ slid of his chair and started to crawl around on the floor to look for it.

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny had, perhaps, picked the wrong time to visit: her father had the flu and her relationship with her step-dad was now strained, to say the least. So instead of harassing either men in their offices/classroom, she'd camped out in the library.

She'd been delighted to find an entire section devoted to Redwall, her favorite series ever. It might not have been cool for a college girl to want to read about squirrels with swords, but look at her dad; he wasn't cool by normal standards, but he had the most awesome job ever.

She was deeply engrossed in an epic quest to find medicine for sick rodents when something smacked against her foot. She glanced down in time to see a rubber ball rolling away from her; she stuck her book upside down to keep her place -- her father would have been horrified at her treatment of the book -- and reached one leg out, trapping the ball under her shoe.

She snatched it up, scanning the library for the owner, eyes lighting on a young boy on hands and knees, obviously searching for something. Something that was probably not a book, as he was looking at the floor rather than the shelves.

"Psssssst," She hissed, trying to get his attention, "looking for this?" She waved the ball at him, grinning.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ looked up to see girl waving his bouncy ball at him. She looked a bit older than him, but then he was small for his age so everyone tended to look older than him. But she was grinning, so AJ grinned back.

“Thanks,” he said still crouched on the floor. “That one likes to get away from me.” He stood up and walked over to where she was sitting, holding out his hand for the ball.

AJ looked down at the book she had been reading. He thought he remembered someone talking about it before. Maybe one of the boys at his old summer camp. Something about rodents with weapons. AJ had never been much of a reader. He got distracted too easily to ever make it through a page, let alone an entire book.

“I always thought it’d be interesting to have a pet squirrel. But I probably wouldn’t give mine a sword.” He laughed at the thought of trying to teach a squirrel how to duel. Maybe it would be safer to start one out with a Q-tip. The thought made him laugh harder.

Remembering he was in a library, he stopped laughing abruptly and looked down at his sneakers. When he looked back at the girl was sure he had seen her around before, but chances were he could be wrong about that. Maybe she was new.

“How long have you been at Hammel?’ AJ asked.

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny followed the boy's line of vision to her book, grinning more widely when he mentioned squirrels and swords. "You read Redwall?" She assumed that he must. "I don't think I'd want a squirrel for a pet, my dad's cat would eat it and that would just be sad." She placed one hand over her heart, sighing melodramatically at the inevitable demise of the hypothetical squirrel. "but dude, just think, you wouldn't give it the sword. The spirit of Martin would be all wooooo, you must follow in my footsteeeeeps." She tried to sound creepy when she said this, wiggling her fingers to signify that she was being a ghost. "And then there would just, like, be a sword in your cage. Or something."

The boy's unexpected laughter caused a frown from the other students quietly attempting to study, but Ginny didn't really see any reason to coddle them. She would whisper if Eli told her to, but not a moment before that. AJ, on the other hand, seemed susceptible to glaring, as his question was whispered so quietly she almost didn't catch it.

"I don't go here."

She bounced the ball in the palm of her hand, not ready to give it back quite yet despite AJ's outstretched hand. She idly wondered how old he was; Jean's age, maybe? Maybe a bit older.

"My dad works here. I'm just visiting."

And with that she dropped the ball back in his hand.

"So what are you doing, throwing balls around the library, anyway? Eli starting a baseball team for the bookworms?"

[Aaron Walker]

“Um,” AJ started as he ran a hand through his unkempt hair. “I never actually read that book. I just heard someone mention something about it. Sorry.” He felt bad for making the girl mourn over an imaginary squirrel and a tad confused when she started speaking like a ghost. He actually took a step back, thinking she was a little insane. But at least insane people were interesting.

“Oh” he said when she placed the ball into his hand. He started to roll the ball around in his palms as he spoke. “Did you ever go here? I mean are you…” he lowered his voice and leaned closer to her. “Are you…normal?’ He didn’t say it like he was trying to talk down to her, more like he was slightly jealous. As he leaned back waiting for her reply he returned his gaze to the ball in his hands.

“Eli?” he cocked his head to one side, thinking for a moment. “Oh, the guy who works here. I’m not sure he’s into baseball. But I can ask if you want.” He started to look around for Eli, wondering if the girl would be able to play even if she didn’t attend school here. Sarcasm was not something AJ picked up on easily.

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny raised an eyebrow at the whispered question. "Normal?" She scoffed, shoving her hands into her jean pockets. "Now that is a subjective question if I ever heard one."

She rolled back on her heels, staring at Aaron with some amusement. He sounded envious; so many of her friends at Hammel seemed to think their powers were a curse instead of looking at all the advantages they had. "But naw. I'm not meta, I'm baseline." She shrugged easily; She knew there were some privileges that came along with that. "Like I said, my dad works here. Dr. James Campbell, recruitment."

She glanced toward the check-out desk, half expecting Eli to come thundering out from behind it. "I'll ask him later." She laughed. "He probably knows all about it, even if he's not that into it."

Since the librarian didn't appear to be looking at them she moved her book to one side, hopping up onto the table she'd been sitting at, swinging her legs. "So I guess you do go here, huh? Whadda you do? Anything cool? Care to do a demonstration?"

[Aaron Walker]

AJ couldn’t help but think how interesting Ginny’s position was. She had one foot in two very different worlds. He was so deep in thought considering the possibilities, that he almost missed her telling him who her father was.

“Dr. Campbell. I know him. I didn’t know he had any kids. I guess it’s kinda hard to picture him as a dad and all. But not really I guess, I mean he does work at a school with kids and all, but um…” AJ stopped suddenly, realizing he was rambling. He went back to rolling the bouncy ball in his hand.

“Well…um…good luck with makin the team.” He was still hoping that the girl would be able to play on Eli’s baseball team. He almost dropped the ball again. He caught it but almost fell over in the process.

“I’d show ya, but I can’t,” he hung is head and started softly kicking his foot against the table. “It’s not really…safe.” This time when the bouncy ball slipped out of his fingers again, he didn’t bother to try to stop it.

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny snickered at AJ's commentary on her dad. It was true, her dad was so fussy that imagining him with children was shocking to people who didn't know him well. Nevertheless, he had her. And Nikki. For those who did know him well, the importance family played in his life made children an obvious choice. He probably would have been seriously depressed without a family of his own. "Yeah, he and my mom are divorced." She shrugged nonchalantly. They'd been divorced for as long as she could remember, so it didn't really bother her. Much. Besides, better sooner than later; if they hadn't divorced early on then they would have later, once her dad couldn't stand being in a sham marriage anymore.

"....thanks." She narrowed her eyes at the boy, not sure what to say beyond that. And then his body language changed entirely, going from interested to defeated. Oops, touchy subject.


"Nnnnnnokay," She hastily fished about for a different subject; she liked teasing people, but unless they were an obnoxious creep (like Zac) then she didn't want to upset people. Not like this, anyway. This wasn't a funny reaction, this was a depressing one. "Definitely don't wanna do anything dangerous. Oh, hey, wanna ditch the library and toss this around?" She asked, diving for the rubber ball he'd dropped once again. "Or we can get a bigger one from the gym or something."

[Aaron Walker]

“Oh,” AJ said after hearing that the girl’s parents were divorced. He didn’t understand much about social norms, but experience had taught him that divorce was usually a topic to stay away from with most people. Relationships in general confused him, especially adult ones. He wasn’t sure if what his parents had would be classified as “happy marriage” but it was all he really had to go by. And even what they hardly made sense to him.

He was glad the girl didn’t press with questions about his power. He didn’t mind having a power; he just wished he had some measure of control over it. Even if it was just a little control.

A smile broke out on his face the moment she mentioned ditching the library. “Could we go outside? I really like it outside.” He was already picturing himself out on the sun, preferably a little dirty from messing around. His Algebra homework never had a chance.

[Ginny Campbell]

Had Ginny known that AJ needed help with Algebra she would have offered; she loved math. Give her numbers and formula and she was in her element. Fortunately (or not), she hadn't any idea she was drawing him away from study. Play was almost as much her element as math, maybe more so, and she'd found someone to drag along with her so she wasn't the least bit interested in figuring out why he was in the library.

"Yeah! Good idea!" She grinned, glancing out the window. "It's nice out." And it was; the sky was a cloudless blue and the weather temperate, not so sticky with humidity that lounging indoors was a better option. She didn't bother putting her book away as she darted toward the exit expectantly.

(OOC: shall we move our thread to the great outdoors?)

[Aaron Walker]

As soon as the girl agreed with his idea of going outside, AJ’s thoughts started whirling around like the energizer bunny on drugs. “Do you like climbing trees?” he said, hopping from one foot to the other. “Maybe we could set up a rope swing near the pond. Unless ya don’t wanna get wet. Or maybe we head down to the lake in town. Ya know feed the ducks or something. Or if ya want we could play soccer. I’m not that good but I…” he stopped suddenly, realizing that his speech was probably getting to fast for her to understand what he was saying. He also need a moment to catch his breath.

Still bouncing around on his feet, he waited for her reply. “You know me, I’m up for anything. Well actually you don’t know me, but I’ve heard people say that before so it must be a thing people say.” The random collection in his pockets were clinking and jingling as he hopped around, creating soundtrack for his excitement.

(OOC: Yeah, sounds great. Did you wanna stay on the school grounds or not?)

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny could barely keep up with AJ's numerous suggestions; he was worse than she was about bouncing from idea to idea. She managed to catch something about soccer and the lake, though, and as both were ideas she liked she gave the younger boy a smile in return.

"Dude, anything is good with me. We could do soccer by the lake. You on the soccer team?" She hadn't heard his caveat about not being good at it. "I have a few friends on the team. Jean Manne and Gerri Sharpe." They were both somewhere around AJ's age, she reckoned.

"But unless you got your own ball we'll have to borrow one from the gym and their stuff isn't that great." She wasn't the least bit concerned about taking school equipment off campus; they would bring it back, after all.

(ooc: I say to the lake we go ;D)

[Aaron Walker]

AJ was ecstatic that he found someone willing to have some fun. Sometimes the other students seemed too serious, like they were in such a hurry to grow up. Although AJ had to admit sometimes he had bad days too. But even then he’d rather go kid around than discuss the latest drama.

“I’m not really good enough to be on a team. Besides, people don’t always like having me around. I think.” To tell the truth, AJ had no idea why his friendships never worked. They just seemed to dissolve after a time. But it never really bothered him.

“I’ve got a ball up in my room. I’m pretty sure it’s got air in it. If not I’ll run by the gym. Ya got a car we can take? I’ll meet ya by the main doors in a bit,” AJ said as he ran off to his room, yelling the last bit over his shoulder. He was so excited that he didn’t even bother picking up his Algebra book on the way out of the library.

(OOC: Sounds great? Ya wanna start up a thread at the lake? I’ll meet ya there.)

[Ginny Campbell]

Continued Here