Sally Hendricks And Jason Green
"Where the Hell was he, Sally thought as she exited the double doors to the institute. Stepping out into the sunlight, her eyes scanned the courtyard, searching for the other telekinetic at the school. The doors closed shut quietly behind her just as she saw him. Her face instantly lit up, but only for a moment. She hesitated, wondering if he would get upset at her for asking for his help. Some people were sensitive to their abilities, and she wasn't sure if he was one of them. Taking a deep, slow breath through her nose, Sally marched forward. Her destination? The tree he currently occupied.
As she neared, she noticed he was reading, whilst tossing stones at another tree. Multitasking. She couldn't do that. Each stone made a soft
thump against the tree as they struck. Sally watched as he tossed another, but her hand shot out and she stopped it just before it could hit the tree. Her eyes then went to Jason, the stone slowly making its way over to her.
"Hey," she greeted with a soft smile as the stone fell into her hand.
Although he hadn't been paying as much attention as he should have been, Jason's X-Factor was always going off, and he'd sensed Sally's presence the moment she stepped into his range. Of course, he hadn't been expecting her to say anything to him.
Surprised to say the least, the hooded teen's focus let go of the next projectile he was planning on tossing, and he shifted in his position to look down at his fellow classmate. Blinking rapidly, he assessed his situation, but coming up with no excuse for hopping out of the tree and leaving, as much as his X-Factor was tempting him to do so with it's damned silent alarm, he let his book rest on his left leg, his right draping over the sturdy tree branch he sat on.
"Hey, nice catch." His voice was a bit unpracticed, and it seemed for a moment like he honestly didn't recognize it.
Her smile instantly widened at his comment.
"Thanks, though I'm not near as good as you," she replied as she glanced down at the stone in her hand, then back up to Jason. She nervously bit her lip and exhaled. Might as well, cut to the chase.
"Do you..." Sally stalled and glanced down at the stone in her hand again.
"Could you help me?" She quickly looked back up at Jason and her eyes widened a bit.
"I mean, you don't have to, but i could really use it. Would appreciate it."Tilting his head to the side, he gestures towards her and merely asks:
"What kinda help? What could you possibly need my help with?"The confusion is evident on his face, but he had a pretty good idea as to what she could be referring to. Being the only other person with telekinetic powers in the academy, and there being few other reasons as to why she wanted to talk to him, Jason had already figured out what she wanted, even as he opened his mouth to speak.
Sally looked down at the ground, almost ashamed that she even asked. She toyed with the rock in her hand for a moment before looking at it once again. The stone suddenly rose up into the air several inches off her hand, and spun in slow circles. As soon as she looked up at Jason, it stopped and dropped back into her hand.
"I need to learn to control it. To make it stronger." Sally chuckled sarcastically, unsure if she should tell him what she was going to. She needed to. Clearing her throat, she closed her hand around the stone, tight, her knuckles turning white.
"I need help controlling it before it controls me."Control. Such a simple concept in thought, but much harder to actually put into action. Jason had to contemplate his next actions for a moment, before he threw off his hood, shaking his hair out a bit and running his fingers through it. His eyes moved back to Sally, the deep red staring down into the beautiful blue.
She wanted to improve, where as he had been slacking off. He could understand that, though it meant he would have to show others what he could do. He wasn't fond of that idea, in fact, being in any kind of spotlight for any amount of time downright terrified him, but she had asked, and he had little to lose from it.
"Well then, you want my help in that regard, alright, fine, I'll help you, and once this is over, I don't expect any "thank you"s, I just expect us to go our separate ways and leave it at that." The last part of his sentence was more reflex then intentional, but old habits were sometimes a far greater force than any mutation.(edited)
Sally stared up into Jason's red eyes, the orbs so different than someone else's, yet so similar. They held so many secrets and such mystery, that it was almost hard to look away from them. When she finally did, she looked down at the ground for a moment, replaying his words in her head. He would do it, but he didnt seen particularly happy about it. No thank you's. Separate ways. Sally swallowed hard and again, looked back up at him.
"Alright," she said softly as she nodded her head in agreement. She felt a spark of hope inside herself. It was small, the size of a pen head, but there nonetheless.
Gently shoving his book into his pocket, Jason hopped down from the tree, landing clean on the ground with a small thud. Stretching out a bit, he nodded to Sally,
"Right then, meet me at the field in about an hour, I'd suggest you try and meditate or somethin before you show up."Not waiting for her response, the red eyed teen pulled his hood back over his head, spun, and walked away at a rather leisurely pace, his hands in his pockets, as the sun overhead shone down on the both of them. One might have joked that Jason was like a vampire, hiding away from the sun, but in truth, he just felt self conscious.
That and red eyes tended to stand out. A lot.
Blue eyes watched as the red eyed boy hopped down out of the tree, the girl stepping back a bit to give him room. She bit her lip while she listened to Jasons instructions, again nodding her head in response. Watching as the boy flipped his hood back onto his head, Sally swallowed hard and looked down at the hand that contained the stone. Bringing it up, she opened her hand and stared down at it. She prayed that Jason could help her, and with that thought in mind, shoved the stone into her shorts pocket. Turning on her heel, she went back inside the institution and headed to her room. [Hr]
55 minutes later, Sally walked out to the field where she was supposed to be meeting Jason. She crossed her arms over her chest and sunk into her left hip. Sally stared off into the distance, her eyes losing focus, mind spiraling with thoughts, questions, memories. It was as if a hamster were running in a wheel inside her head and there was no end.
A hand on her shoulder made an attempt to awaken her from her stupor. Watching his classmate stare into space in a close to drunken state had gotten boring, so Jason had decided to get her attention. The young man had been standing in the field for over thirty minutes at that point, practicing crafting his energy into things he could throw at the target he'd set up.
When he'd detected Sally's presence, he'd hid, mostly on instinct, and couldn't help but observe her, at least for a minute. Sally was an odd one, at least, odd in terms of her powers. He'd never heard of somebody who was so fearful of their own powers controlling them, but then again, who was he to judge.
"Somethin on your mind?" His voice joined his hand in an attempt to pull her back to reality.
So deep in her thoughts, in her memories, Sally hadn't even heard Jason coming up behind her. The sudden hand on her shoulder and voice filtering through the madness in her head startled her, causing her to physically jump. With a soft gasp, she quickly turned, her eyes meeting Jason's. Sally's lips parted as if she were going to say something, but quickly closed them and shook her head instead.
"No! No, just... waiting for you." She stared at him for a moment before her features seemed to relax and a smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
"You scared the Hell out of me," she stated in a playful manner.
Her hand unconsciously went to the stone that still resided in her shorts, almost as if to make sure it was still there.
"So," she began as she yanked her hand away, letting it test at her side instead.
"Where should we start?"Gesturing towards the target, which was no bigger then an office chair, actually it was an office chair Jason had swiped from the office, Jason grinned.
Following Jason's eyes and gesture, Sally's own eyes fell upon the office chair that held a picture of him on it. Her brow furrowed and she tilted her head just the slightest, before looking back to him. He was grinning now, and it was infectious. She couldn't help but smile in return. Sally couldn't remember ever seeing him smile, but it was something he needed to do more of.
"You should smile more. It looks good on you."Without another word, she turned her attention back to the chair. The smile fell from her face and she exhaled slowly. Sally urged her ability to come forth, the familiar swirling sensation in her mind growing stronger and stronger. Seconds later, the chair began to rise up off the ground. Higher and higher it rose until it was, if she had to guess, 20 feet in the air. She then lowered it half way, and brought it back up.
Sally swallowed hard and her face became a little more stern. Pulling more of her ability to the forefront of her mind, her arm shot out, and the chair was thrown from within the air. It traveled quite a distance before finally falling to the ground. It rolled several feet just before coming to a stop. Sally raised an eyebrow and looked at Jason, her arm falling back to her side.
Brows raised, he crossed his arms. It wasn't a bad start, she certainly had her power down to the basic level, now it was on to the next round. Jason moved to the center of the field, and stared intensely at the grass covered earth, focusing all his mental energy into picturing a chunk of the earth, and replacing it with a large dumpster, feeling the ground tremble before him, as the dumpster sized chunk of earth tore free of the ground, hovering above him like a fly. A large fly.
Dirt slides off the surface of it's larger cousin, littering the "Clean" grassy field , much like acne on the face of a pre-teen. Jason stared up at his handy work, which triggered a brief memory. The very first time he showed off his powers to another. He'd been so proud that day, and all they could do was gape in both amazement and horror. Without so much as a twitch, the hunk of earth lowered back into the hole it came from, giving the field an almost perfect target if one were staring down from the sky at it.
Turning back to Sally, he gestured towards the ground he had just moved,
"If I gotta smile more, then you gotta show me how much earth you can rip free." Lifting things that were part of others things wasn't generally considered easy, but it was a useful skill, since it was often unexpected and could be used for travel if one could steer.
Mimicking Jason's pose, Sally watched as he walked out a bit and stared down at the ground. Her eyes narrowed, almost as if she were trying to concentrate for him. What was he doing, though? Just after the thought, she felt the the ground trembling softly. Her eyes moved from Jason, to the ground at her feet, then back up to him.
"No way," she said softly, her eyes widening as a large chunk of the ground came loose from the Earth and rose up into the air.
She stared in shock, an open lipped smirk crossing her features. Jason could literally tear the Earth up. Just how strong was his ability?
"Holy shit, Jason." Moments after that, he lowered the chunk back into its rightful place and turned his attention back to her. His next comment startled her. He wanted her to do the same thing. To tear a chunk of earth up. In exchange, he would smile more.
"Challenge accepted," she said with a playful glint in her eyes.
Sally then looked at the piece he had torn up, then moved her eyes to a spot just beside it.
"You can do this," she thought to herself as she again, pulled her ability forward. All her focus went to that one spot. In no way was she going to be able to pull a piece as large as his, if she could do it at all. She was going to try though.
The pull on her mind was hard, but she pushed past it. Several moments went by and she grit her teeth. She was getting frustrated. Exhaling sharply through her nose, Sally brought her hands out in front of her, elbows bent. They were steady at first, but soon started to tremble. There was a slight vibration under their feet. That was a plus. Sally pushed harder. Her head started to hurt, but again, pushed past it. The ground shook a little harder, and she could have sworn she saw a the small spot move.
It was at this point, blood began to trickle from her nose. Her hands shook harder. She pushed harder, but only for a moment longer before groaning and giving up. Her hand went to her head, while she wiped the blood from her nose with the back of the other, smearing it across her cheek.
"Shit," she cursed as she closed her eyes.(edited)
Suddenly beside her, Jason suddenly reached down and hoisted Sally up, bridal carry style, and began moving back towards the school.
"Right then, to much for you at this moment in time, best to get you to your room, get some cloth or somethin, make tea, just to be safe. His worry was mostly unfounded, it was a simple nosebleed, but nosebleeds could get worse, and considering he'd did asked of her the equivalent of lifting almost a full ton. He should have been more specific, how stupid of him. She'd pushed herself to hard, that was on him. Ignoring any protests, the doors swung open and he moved into the building, ignoring everything around him. It was easier to pretend nothing else was going on in such situations to avoid immediate embarrassment. If there were other students in the halls watching him, he didn't notice them, he just focused on moving in a straight line. He wasn't used to lifting things with his actual arms, and although he was far from weak, this was new for him. He honestly had no idea when he learned to do this.
The blood had run down Sally's face some, some of it running onto his sleeve, making it look more like he'd broken her nose or something like that and was now abducting her, he was certain the second he put Sally down he was going to get jumped by at least one of the other guys, Sally was rather popular after all, pretty, friendly, and even willing to ask mucks like him for help, it almost made him entertain the idea of kidnapping her for real. Almost.
"Where's your room?" It was difficult to tell if Jason was panicking or not at this stage, mostly he just seemed concerned, albeit a bit over the top concerned.(edited)
What came next was so incredibly unexpected, that Sally was actually startled. Jason had scooped her up in his arms and proceeded to carry her towards the building. All she could do was stare at him in shock, her mouth slightly agape as if she were going to say something. Was this the same guy that had told her just an hour ago, that he didn't want any 'thank you's' or anything like that? Yet here he was, carrying her. Sally slowly wrapped her arm around his neck, mostly out of instinct, but also because it was an odd way to offer Jason comfort. Was he worried? He sure was confusing.
Once they passed through the doors to the institute, several pairs of eyes fell onto the pair. It was clear in their faces that they were wondering what had happened. The last time Sally had been carried into the school with a nosebleed, she had been in a conflict, and was unconscious. She paid them no mind, and instead looked back at Jason. His focus was set in stone. His eyes never wandered from its path. They remained straight ahead, and she wondered at that moment, what he was thinking. Her arm tightened around his neck, in a somewhat comforting manner.
Her wonder though, was quickly washed away when he asked her where her room was.
"Uh... it's in the girls dorm halls," she replied as she then proceeded to give him the room number.
The door opening with a Chunk and sidestepping his way in, Jason took a moment to survey the room around him. It wasn't that much different from his own, but Sally had her own personal touches to it. It seemed more lived in, where his felt like a hotel.
Moving over to the bed, he lay Sally down on it, and hurriedly began searching through the room, looking for tissues, or a handkerchief or what have you, and not coming up successful in the first few seconds, dug deeper into the drawers, rooting past anything that might lurk within, until he found an unused tissue box. Even if Sally hadn't brought one, it seemed to be a running thing that all desks within the dorms had a box of tissues in them. He'd found one in his own desk, and the natural assumption was Sally had one too, and he'd been right. Stretching his arm out to her, he offered the box without a word.
Sally remained quiet while Jason laid her upon her bed. Once there, she situated herself so that she was leaned back against her pillows, then tilted her head back. Closing her eyes, she tried to ignore the pounding in her head. No, it was at that point, the sound of her drawers being opened and closed distracted her from the pain. Her eyes snapped open and she looked at Jason, the boy rummaging through her drawers as if in search of something.
Just as she was about to ask him what he was looking for, he turned and walked towards her, box of tissues in his hand. He handed it to her silently, and Sally carefully took the box in her own hands.
"Thank you," she said softly as she ooemed the box and grabbed a handful of the tissues. She quickly stuck them up to her nose and reached out for Jason, grabbing the sleeve of his hoodie to stop him.
"Hey, it's alright. It's not your fault." Sally let her gaze linger on him for a moment, her lips curving into a comforting smile beneath the wad of tissues.
"I shouldnt have pushed myself so hard. I am what they call, quite competitive. So, when you made the bet, I had to try to win." She chuckled and shrugged.
"It's not your fault," she repeated in a more serious tone, her eyes locking onto his red ones.
He only blinked in response. Jason knew it wasn't entirely him at fault for this, but a nagging sense in the back of his mind told him that it was. Turning away from her, he headed for the door, pausing briefly to say,
"Wait here, I'll go make some tea for the headache." and then he was gone. He was going to need some of that tea for himself, his own head was still going off at him like a car alarm.
Sally watched as Jason disappeared through the door. Exhaling, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back. Her head was screaming. Nose was bleeding. Body was sore. She knew she shouldn't have tried so hard, but damnit... She wanted to win that bet.
"Looks like no smiles until I can lift something heavy like he can." Sally chuckled, regretting the action instantly, as it made it feel like there was a jackhammer in her head.
"Aw, fuck... ow," she groaned as she brought her hand up to her forehead, as if it would ease the pain.
A minute later, the hood wearing boy came back, carrying a teapot and a couple mugs with him. The spout was still pouring up steam, and it appeared tea had been poured only a few moments ago, as also evident by the occasional flick of his fingers as he carried the pot, peeling his fingers away one by one every few seconds as if being stung by the surface of the pot.
"Here, ow hot, drink this, just, owowowowow, let it cool a bit first." Placing the pot and the two mugs on the desk next to Sally's bed, Jason took a step back and began to blow on his hands in rapid succession.
Good grief, he should have levitated it.
Having almost dozed off, the sound of Jason returning to her room startled her awake. Her hand had long slipped away from her head, as well as the one holding the tissues to her nose. With a soft groan, Sally looked down at the hand holding the tissues, bringing her other to her nose to check for blood. As she pulled her hand away, examining it, she noticed that there wasn't any on her hand. That was good. The bleeding had stopped.
Her attention was then pulled to Jason as he handed her a cup of tea. She giggled at him, taking the cup from him. Her eyes lingered on him for a moment before turning her attention to the cup of tea, the steam steadily rolling off of it.
"Thank you, Jason," she said softly as she blew softly on the liquid. Looking back up at him, she couldn't help but smile.
"That bet is still on."The corners of his mouth involuntarily twitched, but he held his tongue. Oh no you don't. She wanted to earn it, she was gonna earn it.
Sally kept her eyes on Jason as she blew on the liquid one last time, noticing his lips quirking before he quickly caught himself. Bringing the lip of the cup to her lips, she took a slow sip, wincing slightly. It was still pretty hot, but not enough to keep her from drinking it. As she swallowed the tea, she closed her eyes, feeling the hot liquid move down her throat. She released a soft sigh, then opened her eyes again. Another drink.
She pulled the cup from her lips and looked back at Jason. Sally wondered if she would be able to get him out of his little shell. Her head tilted a bit and she smiled again.
"I saw that," she stated, referring to the almost smile he had revealed.
Scoffing, and crossing his arms over his chest, Jason huffed.
"S-Saw what? Nothing was worth seeing you odd ball." His eyes moved to the side, pretending to ignore Sally, while using one of his fingers to focus his energy into pouring the tea pot into the second mug, and then levitating it over to him.
He took hold of the mug, blew at the steam coiling off the liquid, and then took a sip.
"Right then, I'll uh...I'll be off... don't tell anyone about this, unless you happen to come across my mangled corpse and have to explain why you had a bloody nose."Taking another sip of his tea, Jason stepped out, gave a small wave, and then his footsteps receded down the hallway.
Jason's comment made Sally burst out in laughter. She had been called many things, but an "odd ball" was never one of them. She laughed for a moment longer before settling down and watching him. Watched how he used his ability to pour himself a cup, and even brought it to himself. When he stated that he would be leaving, Sally nodded her head and took another sip of her tea.
"No one is going to hurt you, Jason. And I promise, I won't speak a word." Then, a thought came to her head, but he had gone before she could ask him.
Well, she could always fudge the story up a bit and leave him out of it if anyone asked. Sally briefly wondered why he'd be so worried someone would hurt him.
