[IC] Out of Sight, Out of Mind (Blitz x akela)

[akela]

“It’s okay, Dad, go. I’m a big girl, and we like living so close to the school for a reason,” Alice sighed, holding the door open for her father. James Conway looked the part of a business man, making his daughter wonder for the hundredth time why he had to be at work practically ten hours a day if he was a supervisor. Watching people work shouldn’t be that hard, and yet he came home so exhausted, grateful his daughter had learned how to cook dinner over the years. Oor at least order take-out when needed.

“I know it’s a short walk, but it’s raining,” James groaned, having to speak over the splatter of water falling from the roof onto the front porch steps. “I promise we’ll go car shopping soon, okay?” He’d promised her one over the summer since her grades had been so satisfactory junior year, but he never did get to it.

“Dad. It’s fine, I like walking. Man made hoodies and jackets for a reason,” she grinned, waving him out the door. He had suitcase in hand and was ready to go. “You’re late.”

“I know, I know…bye Alessia,” he muttered, giving her a small nod before rushing out the door, leaving Alice alone with her thoughts and need to get ready herself. While her dad did a good enough job as a parent, neither had never been much for ‘I love yous’ or hugs, kisses. It was just the way things were.

Alice shut the door and went upstairs and showered, getting ready in her usual hour long ritual. She left her hair down for the day, dressing in dark jeans, pink rainboots, and a loose green tanktop with a jacket over top. It wasn’t the first day of school at East High, it was actually the second, but since she’d been getting over a cold the day before her dad had made her stay home. Well, that was her excuse, anyway. Honestly Alice had been having trouble keeping her mental shields up, and wasn’t sure if she could take the rush of emotions that would fill the school hallways on the first day. Everyone was either excited or angry to be there, and if she wasn’t on top of her game it could get overwhelming.

Today, however, Alice was ready to take on the world…or at least her classes. With one last run to the kitchen to grab a breakfast bar Alessia went outside, thankful for her boots as soon as her footsteps splashed in the first puddle. It was only a few blocks, but still she walked as quickly as she could without looking like what she thought to be an idiot. Soon enough she reached the school grounds, looking up at the large brick building. Everyone was running from either the sidewalk or parking lot, careful to not slip on the wet tile floor just within the glass doors. Hopefully it would let up before they all left for the day.

[Blitz]

Lucas loved the rain. He sat in his driveway with the car running for a few moments, just listening to the rain patter against the fiberglass roof. Unfortunately for him, the electrical storms of the summer were probably over. They usually filled him up with a kind of euphoric energy, like an instant cup of coffee mixed with Red Bull. This storm looked like it’d just be rain.

Thankful that he didn’t have to walk in this weather, Lucas shifted the car into reverse and began to back out of the driveway and head toward school. It was the second day of school and he was already sick of it. Although, it wasn’t really all that bad. Most of his teachers were nice and he had friends in just about every class. Maybe he was just upset about having missed the deadline to join the football team. He had been in Cancun for the week during the tryouts that took place before school had started, an unfortunate turn of events. Now he had more time than he knew what to do with, and a lot of his friends couldn’t hang after school because they had practice.

Lucas had his iPod playing over the radio quietly as he drove through the gloomy streets. Normally he played his music at a much higher volume, but today he was deep in thought. Well that wasn’t quite it. He just was having trouble focusing.

Out of nowhere, Lucas slammed on the brakes when he realized a line of cars in front of him had stopped for a red light.

“Holy shit,” he said as he took a breath to calm his now racing heart. He blamed the school’s schedule for his drowsiness. Waking up at six every morning was inhuman. It was only a matter of time before some idiot sued for getting in an accident while driving drowsy.

A few minutes later, Lucas pulled into the school’s parking lot and found his assigned space which was near the school, a desirable asset. He sat in his car for a couple more seconds, partly to listen to the rain again, but mostly to find his hoodie and put his hood up. It wasn’t exactly water proof, or even water resistant, but it should do for the couple seconds he’d be exposed to the downpour. He then reached over to the passenger seat and grabbed his backpack and made sure all its zippers was tightly shut before he opened up his door.

Thinking running would look silly, he made his way toward the front doors with a semi-fast pace. As he pushed open the front doors, he heard the first bell of the day ring, signaling the students to head to their first period.

Damn, he had no time to meet up with his friends before. Oh well.

Leaving his hood up, Lucas made his way through the labyrinth of hallways and entered his first period class—psychology. He had heard it was an interesting class the year before, but apparently the projects were pretty annoying. He half expected one to be assigned that very day. He stifled a sigh and found his assigned desk that was toward the back and took a seat.

[akela]

By the time Lucas got to their shared class Alice was already at the front by their teacher’s desk, profusely apologizing for missing the first day and asking if any work was given. As usual it had only been a boring day going over the syllabus, something he handed to her while pointing out a few things on the papers. He was great about it, and she wondered if it was just because she looked like a wet puppy standing there in her rain boots and soaked jacket.

“Thanks again,” she muttered, wanting to get a seat before the room got too crowded. The worst past was everyone probably already picked her seat, and Alice was paranoid about taking one someone had already “claimed”. Some students could get so weird and possessive about things like that. “Hey, where should I…?”

“Oh. We did things in alphabetical order, but we skipped you since you weren’t here. Just sit in the back, Ms. Conway,” the teacher said with a wave of his hand, leaving her looking for the last seat.

“Hey, uh…” Alice shrugged the messenger bag strap off her shoulder as she walked to the back of the class, passing row after row of seats quickly filling up. What was this kid’s name? They’d had class together before, she should remember… “Reed, right? Are you the last in class? By name, I mean. Last name. For seating arrangement,” she rambled, letting out a weak laugh at herself. “I’m just trying to figure out where to sit. I’m behind everyone else, which looks like it might be beside you.”

[Blitz]

Lucas had been resting his hand on his cheek on his fist, feeling his eyelids beginning to slowly shut. The teacher hadn’t started his lesson yet. It sounded like he was talking to someone. Slightly curious, Lucas forced his eyes to open a bit more and looked nonchalantly over toward the teacher’s desk. A girl stood there, drenched from head to toe in rain. She held the syllabus that the class had received the day before and the teacher was pointing some things out to her on the paper. She must’ve missed the first day of school or something, but at first glance she didn’t look very familiar. Was she a new student?

The teacher turned and gestured to the empty desk that was beside him. It wasn’t the only empty desk at that moment because not everyone had arrived, but the day before it was the only unoccupied desk. It looked like she was going to be sitting next to him from now own.

Lucas tried not to stare at her as she slowly and somewhat nervously made her way over to the desk. Instead, he turned his head and seemed much more interested in the blank Promethean Board at the front of the room.

Finally she came up next to him and started talking to him in short, anxious sentences. He turned his gaze to her and chuckled at her uneasiness. At first, he was surprised that she knew his last name, but having gotten a better look at her face, he realized she was not a new student. He had in fact had a few classes with her in the past. Her name was Alicia, or Alyssa, or Alison or something, right?

Lucas took a look around at the desks when she mentioned the seating arrangement and shrugged. “R” wasn’t quite at the end of the alphabet, but it was very possible he was the last on the list.

“I’m not really sure, to be honest,” he answered, looking back to her. “But that desk was the only empty one yesterday, so it’s all yours.” He smiled at her, trying to come across as friendly.

“What’s your name again?” he asked casually. “I’m terrible with names. I only remember faces.”

[akela]

“Ah that’s okay. I probably didn’t look like a raccoon after running in the rain the last time you saw me either,” Alice laughed, taking her hood off and letting the bag drop to the floor beside her desk. She assumed her eye make-up was probably messed up after getting wet, when in reality it wasn't bad at all. Next she let the jacket lay on the back of the chair, hoping it would dry by the end of the day. Sleeveless shirts hadn’t been allowed when she was younger, but thankfully the school had let up on silly rules like that in recent years. “It’s Alessia, but only my family calls me that. Alice is what you would remember,” she smiled, already pulling out a notebook and pen. “What’s your first name?”

Not a few seconds later their teacher, Mr. D as most called him, was starting on the day’s lesson. Alice gave Lucas one last smile before turning forward and immediately focusing. There was so much going on around her it was hard enough to concentrate, she didn’t need distractions by talking to the boy beside her. He was nice enough, though, and his healthy, friendly attitude was nothing but relaxing to her. Most didn’t feel so calming, which was why she didn’t seek out the company of others unless she could subtly use her powers to help them out.

Mr. D, by the middle of class, had informed them of their first group project. Or partner project, actually. Everyone groaned, and while Alice didn’t say anything out loud she wasn’t terribly happy about it either. Group projects meant being put with someone who wasn’t going to do their share of the work, and if they did it would probably turn out horribly. “I’ll just put you with the person beside you, starting with Tara here in the front with Sam, and so on until you’re all coupled together. There’s an even number here, so that should take care of that.” Next he passed out papers detailing what their project would consist of, each couple getting one copy.

“Looks like we’re together,” Alice said, looking at Lucas. “I promise I don’t bite, if that helps. And I signed up for this class out of my own free will, so I think it might be fun. What’s the project over?” she asked, scooting in her seat to face him.

[Blitz]

Lucas curled his nose in disgust and resisted the intense urge to slap his palm to his face when Mr. D announced the project. Of course he assigned a project on the second day of school. This was complete bullshit… But it wasn’t worth throwing a fit over. It was just a huge pain in the ass. But maybe if he got a good grade on it, he’d have a good foundation for the rest of the quarter. Yeah, yeah, that was it.

Lucas somewhat curiously took the paper that Mr. D handed to him and turned to look at Alice before getting to read it.

“I think we have two very definitions of fun,” he replied, laughing rather darkly before looking back at the paper to read the assignment and began to read it out loud.

“The purpose of this project is to perform your own simple psychological experiments and to give you an introduction to the power of the mind,” he read. He squinted and frowned but continued. “Each group will receive a different topic that I want you to either discuss in front of the class or perform a small experiment or poll and present the results.”

Lucas shrugged. “Well, I guess it’s not that complicated,” he concluded. “Let’s see…” He skimmed through the words quickly. “The topic I have chose for you is psychics.” He stopped and furrowed his brows, tilting his head in slight confusion and disbelief.

“Uhh…” he let out hesitantly, but he tried not to give off an air of suspicion. “And here he gave us some ideas we could discuss… ‘Do you know any psychics personally?’ ‘What is your opinion on them?’ ‘Are they an asset or a liability?’”

He finished reading and set the assignment down on his desk. He leaned back in his chair, holding in a tired sigh, and turned to her and shrugged his shoulders again.

“It’s definitely an interesting topic, yeah?”

[akela]

Alice sat up straight while he spoke, a stark difference to his laid back, relaxed way of sitting. At his mention of their project subject, however, she became even more ridged. Lucas may have a great poker face, but she didn’t. “What?” she breathed, quickly leaning forward and snatching the paper from him. With quick scanning eyes she read the project instructions herself, tuning out everything around her.

Psychics were in the media and were “coming out” more and more every year. It would only make sense that it would be brought into the schools, specifically a psychology class. “Do you think others got this specific topic too, or it’s just us?” she asked, giving him back the paper by slipping it onto the desk.

Cool off, Alessia. If you keep acting like this he’ll know something’s up… “I just- it’s a very controversial topic, don’t you think? I wonder if we can switch. To something easier, you know,” she said, adding a shrug and avoiding eye contact. Everyone else was already talking about options for their given projects...why couldn't it be that easy?

[Blitz]

Lucas was a little surprised by her reaction, but not very. Psychics were indeed a very interesting but pretty controversial topic. Lucas craned his neck and peered around the room and tried to listen to the conversations among the other pairs of students, and although he obviously didn't hear everything, there wasn't anything about psychics being discussed.

Lucas turned back to Alice and shrugged. “I think we're the only group with the topic,” he deduced. In his own opinion, he didn't really want to switch. As far as everyone else was concerned, Lucas was completely normal. Sure the topic was a bit disputed, but it still intrigued him greatly, mostly due to the fact that he was one himself. He actually never had done any kind of research on the topic before. It's not that he was trying to convince himself that he wasn't a psychic or anything, but the idea just never occurred to him. He wondered what kinds of things he would discover about himself. The idea both excited and scared him.

“I dunno Alice, why don't we keep it?” he suggested with a reassuring smile. “I mean, it's a pretty cool topic, don't you think? These people are, like, modern-day superheroes, straight out of the comic books.”

[akela]

Alice waited impatiently for an answer, praying he would agree with her. Why couldn’t this be a group project? That way she could for once sit quietly and not participate, only occasionally throwing in small comments. Sure it would probably get her a worse grade than if she did it herself, high schoolers could be so lazy, but it would be well worth it.

And then he did the worst thing possible- suggest they keep it. Alice was about to dismally slump back into her chair and accept defeat when Lucas added the most peculiar comment. “I mean, it's a pretty cool topic, don't you think? These people are, like, modern-day superheroes, straight out of the comic books.”

The girl stared at him, tilting her head to the side a bit. “You really think so?” she finally asked, scooting to the edge of her chair to get a look at his paper again. “I’m not sure the teach will agree,” she laughed, reading over the questions. “That might hurt our grade, but I suppose we could fight for it. It is all opinion, and the media has certainly made theirs clear.” Why couldn’t they as well? “Hm, that first part. Do you know any psychics?” That would be the tricky part in all this.

[Blitz]

Lucas agreed with her. It was unfortunately very true that the media had recently been portraying psychics in a particularly negative light, despite their very limitless potential. He assumed normal people probably felt like psychics had an unfair advantage and could perhaps be powerful enough to overpower the normal people. Lucas always found that idea laughable. First of all, psychics were extremely low in number, and at least half of them couldn’t even inflict physical pain with their powers. He supposed, however, that someone like him could go off hurting people with his powers, but that did not mean he was invincible in any way. On the other hand, he did occasionally wonder if there were evil psychics out there, ones with much more formidable and lethal abilities. For that reason, he respected the negative opinion of the media, but he personally found the concept of psychics pretty amazing. No matter how you look at it though, sometimes the most awe-inspiring things were in fact the most dangerous.

He frowned at her question even though he knew she was going to ask it sooner or later. He knew he couldn’t tell her the truth, but at the same time he’d feel bad about lying to her. But that was his only option at the moment. If she ever found out the truth, she would surely understand… But he wasn’t planning on telling her anything.

“I don’t know any psychics personally,” he answered, his poker face flawless. “I think I’ve met a few people that do though, I’m not sure.” He shrugged and figured that was a good enough response. “What about you?” he inquired.

[akela]

Oh, if only Alice were as good at hiding her feelings as Lucas was. She blamed it on her powers. Keeping a mental block up from everyone around her could get exhausting, so by the time she needed to hide her own emotions poor Alessia was exhausted. Besides, it wasn’t unreasonable to assume that with emotions being her main focus that everything she strongly felt was more powerful for her than the average person. What was that saying, a person wears their heart on their sleeve? Well that was Alice, except it was pretty much both sleeves and probably her entire outfit for all to see.

“Hm, I have a friend,” she said casually, giving a small shrug, It was a bit chilly in the room, her arms were getting goosebumps. She should have packed a dry hoodie in her bag to wear inside.

Alice wanted to lie, say she didn’t know anyone, but then where would they be? With nothing for the project when she had loads of information and opinions that were sure to give them pages to write about. Besides, she could keep up the act. It would be fine. “She has a couple abilities. But she’s very shy, she won’t want to talk to you,” Alice quickly informed him, putting her hands behind her head to pull her wet hair into a messy bun. “Um…do you want me to do this project myself? It would save you the trouble of meeting outside of school. I know you have football practice, and I’d be happy to do it.” Why did she remember that? Probably because she remembered him always hanging around that same group of guys. Athletes always seemed to think they were something else, but he gave off an okay vibe. So far, anyway.

At any rate, this was perfect. He would leave her alone outside of school so she could block everyone out in the evenings like she usually did, and she wouldn’t have to give any details about this “friend”. Alice smiled, proud of herself for such a flawless plan. What boy wouldn’t be jump at the chance to get out of a school project?

[Blitz]

Lucas winced at Alice’s bringing up football practice. Now very grateful for having a good grip on his powers and not letting a spark slip out from his subconscious, he forced a carefree smile. As much as his blossoming senioritis urged him to lie and say he did have practice, or hell, even let her do all the work, he felt inclined to contribute some. He was especially interested in Alicia’s psychic friend. Though she was apparently shy and he doubted he’d get the chance to meet her or find out who she is, he would love to find out more about her and her powers. For once, a school project was actually proving to be a helpful learning experience.

“I, uh, I’m actually not playing football this year,” he replied in a low voice so others wouldn’t hear. “I missed the damn tryouts. So I’ve actually got a lot of free time on my hands.”

Lucas turned and looked at the clock to see that class was almost over already. He turned back to Alice and smiled again. “Why don’t you come over to my house? I’d be happy to help out with the project.”

He reached down and pulled a binder out of his backpack and opened it. “I have a car,” he was saying as he rummaged for a piece of scrap paper. He picked out his calculus syllabus and tore a thin strip off from it. “So if you need a ride, you can meet me after school, or just meet me at my house if you got your own car.”

After returning his binder to his backpack, he uncapped his pen and scribbled down his cell number on the strip of paper and handed it to her, just as the school’s electronic bell system resounded throughout the school.

“The project’s due on Friday,” Mr. D called out to the students who were already beginning to leave.

“Shoot me a text if you wanna meet up or you need my address,” he told her as he stood up with his backpack hanging form one shoulder. “Oh, and the name’s Lucas by the way.” He gave her a subtle wink and a chuckle before turning to leave the class.

“See you around,” he said as he went.

[akela]

It all happened way too fast. Lucas inviting her over, giving her his number, and finally a name. The bell rang and chairs shuffled against the tile all around her, a few people groaning when they found out the project was due so quickly. If she wanted to get this done, they really did need to meet quickly. Hopefully one meeting would do it.

“Yeah, okay,” Alice nodded, stuffing the number in her jacket. And that wink…why did guys do that, anyway? It was a habit of her father’s too, but she had a feeling it held a very different meaning her dad doing it as a “hello”. To her it was just code for ‘I think I’m hot stuff and can’t leave the room with a simple wave’, but maybe that was her reading into things too much. Alice had a tendency to do that.

“You’re asking for a smack to the back of the head,” she muttered to herself with a grin, gathering her own things and rushing out the door. With a quick look at her schedule Alice went to the next class, glad to see she knew a few of the girls from last year, and had actually seen a couple during the summer. The rest of her classes were the same, and it turned out she didn’t have any otherswith Lucas. Probably a blessing. If she saw him any more than necessary it would only remind her of his cocky attitude. Or at least the one she assumed he had in her head.

Alice waited until the very last class to pull out her phone beneath the desk and text Lucas, and even then she waited ten minutes before sending it. After a full day of school her mental shields were shattered, and if him or his parents caused any trouble it would certainly be hard for her to keep a straight face. Hopefully he would stay as mellow as he had during class. Let’s meet today if u can. don’t have a car. meet me at in front of prking lot? Send. Finally.

Half an hour later, once school had let out and she’d stopped by her locker, Alice showed up with her bag over one shoulder and her still wet jacket in her arms. Thankfully the rain had let up for the time being, but the sun still wasn't shining like she would have liked.

[Blitz]

The rest of the school day was more or less uneventful for Lucas. He was, however, now more keen on trying to figure out who the other psychic in the school was, or psychics, for that matter. As far as he knew, no one was open about it at East High. He wondered just how many of these seemingly normal high school students were hiding a secret a big as his. Instead of zoning out in his other classes, he quietly observed the other students, trying to pick out anything abnormal about them. Unfortunately, his efforts proved fruitless, but with the fruitless results came a sense of assurance that no one would suspect him of being a psychic either.

A few couple of his friends noticed Lucas seemed a little out of it, but he told them he was just really tired. He decided it would be a bad idea to bring up the subject with his friends. They probably didn’t even care, anyway, which was fine by him.

Before he knew it, the bell rang, signaling the end of school. He stood up from his desk and nearly forgot about his meeting with Alice because his phone had been on silent. Feeling guilty about almost leaving her at school, he quickly pulled his iPhone out from his pocket to see she had sent him a text about a half an hour earlier, informing him that she’d meet him at the front of the parking lot.

He quickly typed back a response: I’ll be there.

He stopped by at his locker to grab all the books he’d need to finish his homework, which was, thankfully, at a minimum that particular day. On his way out, he encountered some of his friends and couldn’t resist having a little chat with them. About five or so minutes later, though, they all had to leave to get ready for practice.

“Aren’t you coming?” one of them asked him.

Lucas shook his head. “Nah, I’m not on the team.”

“Didn’t make tryouts?” another teased with a laugh.

“No, dipshit, I was out of town,” he explained, not feeling anger as insults were always thrown among him and his friends. “I have to work on a partner project today, anyway… Actually, she’s probably waiting for me.”

“You? Doing a project? What?” one of the scoffed.

“Who’s your partner?” someone else asked.

“Umm… That Alice girl in our grade,” Lucas answered.

A nearly simultaneous “ooooh!” rose among them.

“Alice Conway? Damn!”

“Dude, she’s so hot!”

Lucas raised an eyebrow at his riled-up friends.

“Really?” he asked with a small, nervous laugh. “I never really noticed, I guess.”

“Are you blind, son?”

“God, she’s so smart too. How often do you meet a girl like that?”

The group laughed in agreement.

“Anyway, Lucas, we gotta go. Good luck with your ‘project.’”

Lucas crossed his arms and shook his head as they all took off toward the locker rooms. He turned and continued to the front door, swearing under his breath for being late, as usual. At least it wasn’t raining.

As he exited the building he caught sight of Alice standing in wait with her still drench jacked under her arm.

“Sorry I’m late,” he offered with an innocent shrug and no other kind of explanation.

[akela]

Alice turned at the sound of his voice, yanking on the cord of her headphones to pull them out of her ears. “Oh, hey,” she smiled, digging into her pocket to turn the music off on her phone. “No problem. Would you believe me if I told you I never get bored?” she grinned, gesturing for him to lead the way to the car.

“I just think it’s a silly concept. There are a thousand things to watch, especially when you’re around people. Have you ever gone to the mall and just people watched? It’s incredibly entertaining, I promise you that,” she went on, walking right at by his side. “Then, even if there isn’t anyone around there are a hundred things to think about. Like what I want to paint next, or what if a dragon lived in that forest,” she said, pointing into the distance with a grin, finally looking at him.

“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?” she giggled, putting her head down as if embarrassed, though she really could care less what he thought of her. “Whatever. Which car is yours? It better not smell like stinky boys.”

[Blitz]

Lucas listened to her talk nonchalantly about how she kept herself entertained. In a way he understood what she meant with having a hundred things to look at or think about, although Lucas had to admit that he had never gone to people watching at the mall before. He was too much of an extrovert to sit still like that for such a long time, though. Or perhaps, not so much extroverted as slightly hyperactive. It was probably a good mix of the two.

“Only a little bit,” he answered her question about her sanity. He pulled his keys out from his pocket and hit the unlock button. A black SUV park a few spaced down lit up and honked in response.

“That one,” he added.

He came up to the car, which he had received as a present for his seventeenth birthday, and dropped his backpack in the backseat instead of on the passenger seat. He quickly scanned around the car and was relieved that it wasn’t a mess, mostly because his sports gear wasn’t littered all over the ground.

“Well,” he said, shutting the door and getting into the driver’s seat. “I can’t guarantee it won’t smell like boys, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t stinky.” He laughed and when Alice had gotten into the passenger seat, he revved the car and pulled out of his space.

For the first few minutes, Lucas tried to make small talk with her, but as they barely knew each other, try ran out of things to talk about rather quickly. Thankfully, Lucas didn’t live very far from the school, so they were pulling into his neighborhood by the time things fell quiet.

“So, what’s our plan?” he inquired as he turned down his street. “Are we gonna do some research and just make some kind of small presentation? I really don’t feel like conducting a poll.”

Just then, they pulled into his driveway and he cut the gas.

“Actually, let’s talk about this later. I can't think on an empty stomach.” He laughed and hopped out of the car, lead Alice in through the front door, and immediately walked into the kitchen after dropping his backpack by his shoes.

“Help yourself to anything,” he said from in front of the fridge. “With someone like me in this house, there’s a ton of food.”

[akela]

“Wow, an SUV? I love it,” she groaned, jumping up into the passenger seat. “Dad keeps saying he’ll go get me something, but I don’t even know if I’ll get what I want. I’m jealous,” she grinned, sliding down to get comfortable.

Riding with Lucas was a bit awkward, but Alice thought that was probably her fault. She didn’t usually hang out with guys alone unless she was dating them, and that hadn’t happened in a while. Being a reader of emotions could make relationships a little complicated.

At any rate, he tried to start and continue conversation and for that she was thankful. When he asked what she thought about a presentation for the project she sighed inwardly, nibbling on her bottom lip.

“Actually, let’s talk about this later. I can't think on an empty stomach.”

“What? Dinner is in a few hours, you can’t wait?” she laughed, following him inside. “I’ll just take a coke, if you have any. Or gummy worms, but I doubt you have that,” Alice added, tossing her bag to the side and sitting at the table with a yawn. “I always take a nap when I get home, so no snacks for me.”

Alice looked around, admiring the décor. There was definitely more than her house had. Her dad was the usual bachelor, barely keeping pictures on the walls, much less anything else. “Do your parents work? Oh, and do you have any siblings I should expect to walk through the door?” Alice asked, looking out the window. “You seem nice and all, but I don’t know if I could handle you and a mini you in the same room,” she joked, leaning with her arms over the back of the chair, watching him. Yeah, she was already poking fun, but he seemed the type that could take it.

[Blitz]

Lucas shut the fridge door and unwrapped a piece of tin foil to reveal a piece of pizza left over from a few nights ago. He quickly grabbed a plate and put it in the microwave, setting the timer for a minute and thirty seconds. He then walked over to the pantry and searched around for either a room-temperature or some forgotten bag of gummy worms. Alicia was right; he didn’t see any gummy worms lying around—as Lucas surely would have eaten them already—but he did see a small carton containing about ten cans of Coke. He plucked one out, walked back over to her, and placed the the can on the table in front of her.

“All we got is Coke, sorry,” he told her. “It’s probably warm—wait I’ll grab you some ice.”

He turned and rummaged through the cupboards for a clear, glass cup and filled it halfway with ice from the dispenser on the fridge.

“There you go,” he said, placing the glass next to the can. “Bon appetit.”

Just then, the microwave went off, signaling that his pizza was now reheated.

“Yeah to the parents working part,” he said to answer her previous question, opening the microwave door. He reached inside but quickly pulled his hand out, muttering a swear under his breath and shaking his hand out. He walked over to the sink to grab some napkins that would serve as makeshift oven mitts.

“My mom’s a nurse at the hospital, and my dad’s an accountant for a firm in New York.” He carried his plate with his hands now shielded from the heat back to the table and sat down a cross from Alice. “As for siblings, I have none,” he answered, looking down at his pizza and deciding he better not touch it now.

“I know it’s kinda a big house for a family of three,” he said with a little chuckle and a shrug. “Guess I kinda take it for granted.” He lowered his head and blew a couple times on the steaming slice.

“Anyway,” he said as he straightened back up. “What were we talking about? Oh, the project, yeah… Uh…” He thought for a moment.

“Oh! What are you friend’s powers?” he asked, leaning forward curiously in his chair. “Do you know?”

[akela]

Alice would have much rather gone on talking about his life and family, or really anything other than her “friend”, but it could no longer be avoided. He’d given her enough stalling time with the pizza, for which she was grateful. “Oh, right. Yes, I know.” But which ones to tell him? Surely not all, he would think less of as a freak with each one of them.

It wasn’t necessarily uncommon to have more than one power, but when having one was frowned upon, surely more would be even worse. Lucas may seem cool about it, but in his mind he was probably picturing the ones shown on tv the most. Levitating, reading minds, the pyro and ice stuff… Nothing like hers.

Personally, Alice had never spoken about her powers to anyone except anonymously online, and even then she held back. She wasn’t exactly a conspiracy theorist, but the idea of the government being able to hack into websites for information wasn’t that farfetched to her. But Lucas, telling him a few details wouldn’t hurt anything, surely. Afterall, he thought it was someone else. “She can read emotions,” she finally answered, pouring her coke into the glass. Alice hesitated in going on, watching the fizz go down before pouring more. “It’s called telepathy. Not thoughts, mind you, that’s different, but emotions can tell you a great deal about what a person’s thinking. She can read them, and with a little more effort put her own emotions on others as well. But she never does that, of course. That would be wrong.”

Alice avoided looking at him, moving her glass around while looking into it, the ice clinking around inside. “It takes a lot of work for her to control it, block people out with mental walls and all that. It um…it makes being in crowds exhausting, overwhelming. Makes her look shy when really she’s just trying to hold onto her sanity.” Her heart was aching, and they hadn’t even touched the surface of what she felt every day.

[Blitz]

As Lucas listened to her speak, he felt less and less interested in the pizza. He quietly let her keep speaking, and it was visibly apparent that she had a hard time talking about it around others. He found it appropriate that her friend’s powers were more mental based, as opposed to his, but he frowned and felt a growing pity inside him for the anonymous girl. Sure, Lucas also needed some degree of mental control and stability to keep his unpredictable powers in check, but the way Alice had put it… Well, she made it seem the girl’s power wasn’t so much a gift as a curse.

When Alice finished talking, Lucas kept quiet for a few seconds more to make sure she was done and also to make sure she wouldn’t break out crying or something because it looked like she was about to do just that. When neither happened, though, Lucas sighed deeply.

“Wow,” he said without much emotion at all, not wanting to make eye contact with her. “I didn’t know having powers could be such a… burden.” The atmosphere in the room now was completely depressed, almost on the verge of draining.

However, he was glad that Alice was telling him all this. It gave him the chance to reflect on his own powers. He began to realize that having powers wasn’t really as fun as it seemed; it was like a full time job. After all, electricity was dangerous, unstable, and sometimes lethal. He couldn’t bear the thought of hurting anyone with them, which is why he only ever played around with them in isolation.

“It seems like your friend tells you a lot,” he said, giving an attempt to keep the conversation going just a little bit longer.