Courtyard (North)

[Armohny]

Livvy waved good-bye to Eden and Vahn before turning back to Lilka. "I'd love for you to teach me some of the things you know! I just can't promise that I'll be any good at it. But the time we spend together would be fun enough." Livvy said. "Hey!" she exclaimed, as she had just gotten an idea. "Maybe I can try and teach you some of the stuff I know. You may not be able to do it since I think my powers are inherited, but it would still be fun to try! Not to mention, you'll at least get to see how it's all done." She leaned forward to look and smile at Kiria, who was sitting on the other side of Lilka. "You're invited too of course."  

[The_redish_ninja]

Turning his eyes upwards he'd meet with those of the woman there before him. It was strange to him still. To see people with them though he didn't mind them. Nor did he feel any hostility towards them. He rubbed his nose a bit and nodded. "I think that I will be alright. As soon as my nose stops hurting," he stated laughing a bit as though he where nervous. To be honest, he was a tad bit nervous. Though not nearly as bad as he had been walking to that spot to which he'd now sit. Especially since he'd already made a fool of himself.

His golden eyes turned up to view the woman before him taking note of her scent as well. So that he could not be caught off guard by her in later moments. "I thank you for asking. I tend to make a clumsy fool of myself when I'm nervous" he mentioned perhaps for future references. One might never know for sure. "I hope my face isn't bruising," he stated raising a hand to his nose as though he would bruise whether it was possible or not.  

[Misao]

After another hard day of work at the pizza shop, Hikaru came skating into the courtyard on her way home, smiling happily and whistling to herself. Deciding to stop and enjoy the cool summer night air, she skidded to a halt near the fountain and sat down on the edge. She cracked her neck and stretched a little before digging her shoes out of her backpack, and then bent down to take off her rollerblades, changing into her more comfortable sneakers instead. After changing, she swiveled around to a sitting position, wrapping her arms around the front of her legs and staring up into the night sky.  

[soless]

Terry cut through north courtyard on his way to the dorms, a late summer breeze tossing his hair and cooling his reddened cheeks. His overnight duffle bag hung loose on his left shoulder; packed to the bursting with weeks worth of freshly cleaned clothes, the bag bounced off of his leg as he walked.

It was a relief to be back on school grounds, like he could breathe again. Of course, when he thought about what Ms. Spindlewebber had told him, he got all panicy and short of breath. But still, the night was fresh and he was looking forward to stowing his belongings and finding his friends again.

She said you had to tell them. Open your self up and you can open the door to others...

"I don't want to tell them," Terry said to himself, speaking it to the night but to no one in particular. It'll just mess everything up.

Terry slipped a hacky-sac out of his pocket and began kicking it idlely into the air, resting it on his foot, kicking again, and so on. He walked like this--keeping the sac airborne as he moved. Not paying much heed to his surroundings.  

[Misao]

As Hikaru stared up at the night sky, she heard two familiar sounds. One was a hackey sack. The other - the one that actually caught her attention away from the night sky - was the voice of a friend she hadn't seen for nearly a month. Sitting up sharply and swiveling around, she called out to Terry, a large smile spreading across her face.

"Hey, Terry!" she yelled, waving him over to where she was sitting. "Where the heck have you been? It's summer break, we should be hanging out more!"  

[soless]

Terry let the sac drop to the ground.

"Hiko, hi." Terry said, fishing around for the sac in the dark. "How've you been?" His hand closed around the home-made hemp ball and he squeezed it tight. His pressure rose a little and he could hear the blood pumping through his ears. If it weren't for the night, Hiko'd see how flushed he was.

"I've ah...I've been away." Terry moved to the fountain and took a seat next to his friend. "What's everyone been up to? You smell like pizza."  

[Misao]

Hikaru smiled, laughing a little at the comment about smelling like pizza. She rubbed at the back of her head, somewhat embarrassed what with this being the first time she'd seen her friend since the carnival at the end of the semester.

"Actually, I've barely seen any of the others since the carnival either," she said, leaning her head back and looking up at the sky again. "Tekishe stopped by my room one night, but fell asleep while I was out training. I covered him up, and he was gone the next morning. Haven't seen El or Alex around too much either."

She frowned for a moment, wondering where everyone had gotten themselves off to and thinking of how much she missed them. Shaking this feeling away quickly, though, she smiled again as she started speaking once more.

"I met a lot of other nice people, though! There's Tomoro and Rayne and Rayna and Makie..." She counted all of her new friends off on her fingers as she listed them, her grin growing wider with each person she mentioned. "You should meet them all sometime, they're really nice! Oh, and I got a job at the pizza shop in the student lounge! It ends pretty soon, but it's been a lot of fun!"

Turning back around and stretching out a little, she started kicking her legs as she brought her gaze around to face Terry again. "So... where've you been? Haven't seen you in like forever!"  

[soless]

Terry avoided the question with the elegance of a vomiting mousse.

"Why are you working for food services? Isn't your dad like some kind of super inventor or something? Shouldn't you have loads of spending money and cauffers filled with gold or something." He stopped for a second. "No, that's probably El's shtick."

Terry started tossing the hackey sac from left to right to left to right, bouncing it off of his hands and sort of juggling it.  

[Misao]

Hikaru laughed at this, waving her hand. "C'mon, it's not like my dad's a rocket scientist or something like that. He makes energy drinks. I mean, it pays pretty well and all, but with mom gone, we're living on his income by itself. Plus, I figured I could earn some spare cash and train at the same time if I signed up to be a pizza delivery girl - and if you think about it, what else was I gonna do with classes out and not much else going on around here during the summer?"

She smiled again at Terry, catching the hackey sac out of the air and holding it in front of him with a grin. "So, you never answered my question - where ya been!" She nudged him playfully in the side, grinning and tossing the sac back and forth between her hands.  

[soless]

Terry watched the ball travel back and forth between Hiko's hands. Each time it smacked into her palm, he felt his mind asking: Tell her? Smack Don't tell her Smack.

Truth...

Lie...

Knock knock Terry. Who's there?

"Ms. Pennybottom, the summoning prof, well after my...um...interesting results on final exams she kinda recomended I get some tutoring. It was that or they down graded me to the kindergarden level classes." Terry was pretty sure Ria didn't have a day care services.

He let his half answer linger in the air.  

[Misao]

"Oh..." Hikaru said, catching the sac in her left hand and tossing it back to Terry, a somewhat guilty look on her face. "Sorry to hear that. I didn't know you were still having problems with that."

She kept silent for a few seconds, apparently thinking this over, before piping up again slightly awkwardly. "Is there anything I could... y'know, do to help? I mean, I don't know about magic like El does or anything, but..." Her statement sort of dropped off at the end, as if she already knew what the answer was going to be.  

[soless]

Terry's laugh came too quickly--it was a nervous reaction, like when Tekishe practically fell to his death on the ferris wheel--but that didn't ease the bark of a "HA" he let out.

Wanting to take it back as soon as it had taken flight from his lips, Terry did the best he could to cover up the Freudian slip.

"See there is this one thing I have to do and I kinda need your help for it but I don't really want to. I mean its not that I don't need your help but the thing, its kinda scary, and Ms. Spindlewebber said if I did this enough then I might be able to get better at summoning but I just...I don't know."

The jumble of words fell out of Terry's lips and sat on the fountain between him and Hiko.  

[Misao]

Hikaru's smile flickered for just a moment when Terry started to laugh - probably just long enough for him to notice. She was about to apologize for even having asked when he started to talk again, and she was cut off before she even got the chance to say anything.

"So there is something I can do?" she asked, her expression immediately brightening at this thought. She slid a little closer on the fountain, leaning her face closer to Terry's. "Tell me, what is it! It can't be that bad, right? I'll do anything!"  

[soless]

Terry leaned back away from Hiko, his nerves creeping back into his voice. "Well, uh...the thing is..." Tell her. "Well there's this thing that I need to kinda get off my chest. I...uh...Ms. Spindlewebber, Jean, says I need to start telling people my emotions and...uh...opening up and stuff. See Ms. Pennybottom thinks that I'm holding too much in, so I can't get anything to come out..."

Terry stumbled over his tongue.

"...and that's why I keep summoning things into my mind."

The frog incident rushed back into the forefront of his memory...and everything that followed because of the incident. Terry brushed his hands against his shirt.

"So yeah. I guess I need to start telling everybody more stuff about my feelings sorta so...um...yeah." He concluded with a few soft laughs to cover his unease.

Unfortunately, soft laughter seems to only heighten tense situations.  

[Misao]

"...Oh."

That was all Hikaru said after hearing Terry's explanation. She had no idea he was holding his feelings in so strongly, and immediately began to wonder what exactly it was he had to hide, or why he felt he had to hide it from his friends. It had to be something really big for it to be bothering him that much, and she really wanted to know, but at the same time she felt like maybe it wouldn't be the best idea to ask. But if his teachers thought it would be a good idea, and this was the only thing she could do...

"...So, um, what exactly is it that you've been bottling up?" she asked, fiercely pushing all the thoughts that were causing her to blush out of her mind.

There's no way it's that. Just shut up, she told the part of her brain that was throwing these unwanted images at her.