Roxie sat on her bed for a while, staring motionlessly at the Ouroboros poster on the opposite wall, before getting up and tiptoeing out of the room. She had been planning to get a glass of water before returning back to her room, but what she hadn’t expected was to see a dim light shining from the cracked open kitchen door. She checked the clock at the end of the hallway. 1:45.
She slowly pushed open the door and entered the room to find her mother sitting at the kitchen table. There was photos on it, the table, dozens of photos, mostly of people’s faces but also of a strip of road. Roxie recognized the road instantly. She glared at the photo, though the photo didn’t care.
Her mother looked up from the report in front of her when she heard the door open.
“Oh, Roxie, why are you still up?” she asked, setting down the glass she had been drinking from, the amber liquid swaying slightly. Roxie glared at the glass as well, though its reaction was similar to the photo’s.
“I had a weird dream and couldn’t get back to sleep,” she said simply, going over to the cabinets and producing a glass of her own. She filled it with water and sat down across the corner from her mother. “I could ask you the same thing though… This the case data?”
“Yeah,” her mother said, rubbing at her temples. Roxie picked a few pictures at random and flicked through them. The police had taken a photo of everyone they’d found on the street that day. From the corner of her eye Roxie noticed Annalise’s face, but she refused to look at it. “We’ve ID’d nearly everyone that was on the street, notified families, cataloged every piece of evidence we found on the street, had a lot of paperwork…” She shook her head and downed the rest of her drink. “The only thing we haven’t done is find any kind of sensible reason why any of this happened.”
“You found evidence on the scene?” Roxie asked, laying the photos back on the table.
“Something like that,” her mother said. “We gathered up everything on that street, from candy wrappers to a lost button.”
“A button?” Roxie asked, amused. It hardly seemed like anything between the two would be valuable as evidence.
“Yeah, a really pretty button at that,” her mother said, shuffling through the photos before picking one up and sliding it to Roxie. It had a button in it, about an inch in diameter according to the measurer next to it. It had a crest on it, though Roxie couldn’t quite make out what was in it. “We’ve yet to match the crest to any family, race, or company, although the girls down at the lab are at it as we speak. I’ve been trying to tell them they need to go home and sleep every once in a while too, but when do forensics teams listen to the detective in charge?” She smiled a little at that, leaning her chin on her hand and then let out a sigh. Roxie knew how tough this was for her, to be unable to produce even a theory of the events.
“Sorry about that,” Roxie said but she shook her hand.
“We’ll find the truth. Eventually,” she said and then paused. “We did notice something weird though… You know how there were a lot of people on the street?” Roxie nodded. It had been unusually crowded that time. “Well, the position of the people was… really weird. Like, it’s hard to believe that everyone was just walking like that at the same time.”
“I have no idea what that means,” Roxie said. Her mother picked up another photo, taken from above the scene. You could easily see the way the people standing.
“Look at this,” she said, pointing at the people. “These people are standing abnormally close to each other, these two are on a collision course, and this guy is a businessman standing in the middle of a group of teenagers… None of this seems natural! It feels like someone who didn’t know what a normal street view looks like tried to arrange the people.”
Or maybe the people didn’t freeze simultaneously, thought Roxie, thought there really was no way to prove that. No one’s watch or phone had stopped, unfortunately for the police.
She dropped the picture back on the table, pushing some of the others around for a bit. And then something caught her eye. She picked a photo off the table with trembling hands.
“Mom?” she said. Her mother looked up, frowning. “Who is this?”
In the photo was a girl, not more than ten in age, who was smiling and looking to the side. She had orange eyes. Big, orange eyes. Roxie knew those eyes, but what she didn’t know is why they were here.
“That’s one of the only vics we haven’t identified, actually,” said her mother. “No one’s filed a missing child report, so the only thing we’ve been able to do is go around schools and hope someone recognizes her. No luck yet though.”
“Is she… where is she?” Roxie asked, her head spinning.
“Uh, at Samhain Memorial Hospital? Like all the other victims as well,” her mother said, frowning. “Are you alright, sweetie? You look like you’ve seen a ghost? Do you know this girl?”
Roxie stared at the photo, unable to understand what was happening. Why? How? This was the same girl she’d seen in the dream, she was sure of it. But what did it mean? How had she appeared in the dream if she was laying petrified at Sam Memorial? Why had she revealed to herself to Roxie in the first place? Why had she left before she’d said anything? Had… had something happened at the hospital..?
Roxie turned to her mother, eyes wide and opened her mouth.
The phone rang, loud and shrill in the silent kitchen. Both women jumped and Roxie’s mother shuffled out her work phone.
“Sorry, honey, I need to get this,” she said and answered the phone. “Hello? Yes. Yes. Wha- … yes, I… What? When?! Are you sure? Alright… mmhm. Yes, I’ll be right there.”
She hung up. Roxie looked at her, shocked, as she stood up and put her phone back in her bag.
“I need to go,” she said.
“What? Where? Why?” Roxie asked as her mother packed the photos up and stuffed them into the bag as well.
“To the hospital. Something has happened to one of the patients…. the victims.”
Roxie stood up, her chair falling down behind her.
“I’m coming with you!”
“Oh no you’re not,” he mother told her. “It’s late and you need to go to bed. This is official police business, I can’t have you running around playing Nancy Drew.” She paused, and sighed. “I know you’re worried about Annalise, but I promise you I’ll get to the bottom of this. She’ll be fine. Not get your butt back into bed, young lady! I might be out for a while.” She pressed a kiss to Roxie’s temple and then left the room. Roxie could hear the jingle of keys and then the front door slamming.
She stood still for a moment before rushing back to her room, grabbing her phone and a pair of pants, and then she was out the door as well.
_________________________________________________________________
Heyyyyyyyyy. I still don’t know what’s happening but ohhh well.
I actually finished this in the bus on the way to Helsinki at around 3, but for some reason the bus wi-fi won’t let me onto blogspot???, so I can’t upload it until later. Sorry about that.
Well, that’s all from me for now. I do wonder what they’ll find in the hospital though, hmmmm… Your topic isssss…. “Staff”
Pie out.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Soar, Part 12 - Spirit
"There's nothing here," Skye said and shut the book. The others looked at her wearily over their own books.
"Same here", Alex said, but didn't lift her hand to close the book.
The girls had spent the Saturday afternoon in the library, trying to dig out something, anything, about what could possibly be wrong with the streetful of people. They were continuously coming up empty-handed. Of course they had found a lot of things that could turn a person into a statue, but either it was something so obvious and simple the authorities on the case would've tried it by now, or there was something that didn't fit to the case. Like one spell that turned people to actual statues, meaning stone. And the people on the street were still quite people, jsut not moving.
"Maybe we should call it a day?" Roxie said, yawning. I had been a beautiful day, with the sun shining, the temperature climbing higher than for a few weeks, and there was hardly any wind at all. The perfect day for being outside. Unless you had a friend who was frozen and you needed to spend the entire day in the library trying to find any explanation as to why.
The girls had also spent a long while in the morning trying to figure out what the text on the street was all about. They had dug out all possible meanings or "soar", first from a dictionary and then from everywhere else to see if it was an abbreviation for something. It wasn't. At least not an abbreviation for anything that would make much sense to be written on a road where a bunch of people were petrified. Finally they had agreed they should give up on that, at least for now, because it didn't seem to have much to do with how to get all the people better. Even so, Skye had a nagging feeling that if they figured out what the text meant and why it was there, they would find a way to help the people. But when you find nothing, you find nothing.
"Yeah," Alex said. "The library's closing anyway in.... a half an hour."
"I'm starving," Olivia said.
"Ok, let's go," Skye said. They gathered their things, got up and returned the books to the shelves they had taken them from. Probably. They'd looked through so many books today it was almost impossible to remember where all of them were taken.
"What should we do tomorrow?" Roxie asked as they walked out of the library into the cold.
"What what should we do tomorrow?" Skye asked.
"Well, the library's closed on Sundays, so we can't come back here," Roxie said. "Not that I'd want to. It was a loooooong day today. But we could go search somewhere else, though I'm not sure where. Or we could go train. We are falling behind with all this mess. And I could use some exercise after a day of sitting."
"But we don't have Annalise. We can't train a new choreography without her," Olivia said.
"We can always train something," Roxie said. "Or..." she paused, not knowing if she wanted to say the next thing out loud. "We could take a day off."
The other girls' faces fell.
"I know, I know, there's so much we need to do and we can't just leave Annalise but it's not like we are any help to anyone if we wear ourselves out working all day every day on one thing or another," Roxie tried to defend herself. The others looked at her in silence for a moment.
"I don't know," Skye said. "I'm hungry, and I'm tired. How about if I we just agree on something tomorrow morning?"
"Sounds good. We can sleep in and then decide what to do," Alex agreed.
And so the girls went home, tired and scared for their friend, not really knowing what to do.
~x~
Roxie was flying. Or floating was probably the better word, since there didn't seem to be any gravity. It was black everywhere. Not dark, because she could see herself when she look down, but there was nothing else anywhere to be seen. But she still knew she was moving, going somewhere through the darkness, flapping her wings.
Then she saw something in front of her. A figure. A figure, that looked like Annalise. She hurried towards her through the non-existing air. It was slow going, as if she wasn't moving as fast as she thought she was, or that Annalise was moving away from her. She didn't know which. All she knew was she had to get to her.
Finally, after an eternity, she reached Annalise. She was standing with her back to Roxie. Roxie was going to yelp in joy for having found her friend, but then the girl turned at it wasn't Annalise. She wasn't even her age. She was a little girl. The girl had huge and weird, orange eyes, and she was looking directly into Roxie, seeing everything she was.
"Hello," the girl said. Her voice was soft and wonderful.
"Hello," Roxie said, "I was looking for my friend. Do you know where she is?"
The girl thought for a moment.
"The friend who was cursed?" the girl finally asked. "No, I don't think I know where she is."
"But you know she was cursed?" Roxie asked her, "Do you know what happened to her?"
The girl laughed then, a delighted laugh, like a tiny stream in the spring.
"Of course I know what happened to her," she said and smiled wide.
"Can you tell me what happened to her?" Roxie asked, her heart lifting. The girl went still for a moment, like she was listening to some far away voice Roxie couldn't hear. Her face went serious.
"I have to go now," the girl said. "Come find me."
And then she grinned, and jumped, and was gone before Roxie could even begin to say anything, to ask her to stay. She was left alone in blackness deeper than the sky at night.
Roxie opened her eyes in the dark room. She reached with her hand, turned on the light next to her bed, sitting up. For a moment all she could do was stare at the wall across the room.
What had just happened?
_________________________________________________________________
Your topic for Friday is Buttons.
~matu
"Same here", Alex said, but didn't lift her hand to close the book.
The girls had spent the Saturday afternoon in the library, trying to dig out something, anything, about what could possibly be wrong with the streetful of people. They were continuously coming up empty-handed. Of course they had found a lot of things that could turn a person into a statue, but either it was something so obvious and simple the authorities on the case would've tried it by now, or there was something that didn't fit to the case. Like one spell that turned people to actual statues, meaning stone. And the people on the street were still quite people, jsut not moving.
"Maybe we should call it a day?" Roxie said, yawning. I had been a beautiful day, with the sun shining, the temperature climbing higher than for a few weeks, and there was hardly any wind at all. The perfect day for being outside. Unless you had a friend who was frozen and you needed to spend the entire day in the library trying to find any explanation as to why.
The girls had also spent a long while in the morning trying to figure out what the text on the street was all about. They had dug out all possible meanings or "soar", first from a dictionary and then from everywhere else to see if it was an abbreviation for something. It wasn't. At least not an abbreviation for anything that would make much sense to be written on a road where a bunch of people were petrified. Finally they had agreed they should give up on that, at least for now, because it didn't seem to have much to do with how to get all the people better. Even so, Skye had a nagging feeling that if they figured out what the text meant and why it was there, they would find a way to help the people. But when you find nothing, you find nothing.
"Yeah," Alex said. "The library's closing anyway in.... a half an hour."
"I'm starving," Olivia said.
"Ok, let's go," Skye said. They gathered their things, got up and returned the books to the shelves they had taken them from. Probably. They'd looked through so many books today it was almost impossible to remember where all of them were taken.
"What should we do tomorrow?" Roxie asked as they walked out of the library into the cold.
"What what should we do tomorrow?" Skye asked.
"Well, the library's closed on Sundays, so we can't come back here," Roxie said. "Not that I'd want to. It was a loooooong day today. But we could go search somewhere else, though I'm not sure where. Or we could go train. We are falling behind with all this mess. And I could use some exercise after a day of sitting."
"But we don't have Annalise. We can't train a new choreography without her," Olivia said.
"We can always train something," Roxie said. "Or..." she paused, not knowing if she wanted to say the next thing out loud. "We could take a day off."
The other girls' faces fell.
"I know, I know, there's so much we need to do and we can't just leave Annalise but it's not like we are any help to anyone if we wear ourselves out working all day every day on one thing or another," Roxie tried to defend herself. The others looked at her in silence for a moment.
"I don't know," Skye said. "I'm hungry, and I'm tired. How about if I we just agree on something tomorrow morning?"
"Sounds good. We can sleep in and then decide what to do," Alex agreed.
And so the girls went home, tired and scared for their friend, not really knowing what to do.
~x~
Roxie was flying. Or floating was probably the better word, since there didn't seem to be any gravity. It was black everywhere. Not dark, because she could see herself when she look down, but there was nothing else anywhere to be seen. But she still knew she was moving, going somewhere through the darkness, flapping her wings.
Then she saw something in front of her. A figure. A figure, that looked like Annalise. She hurried towards her through the non-existing air. It was slow going, as if she wasn't moving as fast as she thought she was, or that Annalise was moving away from her. She didn't know which. All she knew was she had to get to her.
Finally, after an eternity, she reached Annalise. She was standing with her back to Roxie. Roxie was going to yelp in joy for having found her friend, but then the girl turned at it wasn't Annalise. She wasn't even her age. She was a little girl. The girl had huge and weird, orange eyes, and she was looking directly into Roxie, seeing everything she was.
"Hello," the girl said. Her voice was soft and wonderful.
"Hello," Roxie said, "I was looking for my friend. Do you know where she is?"
The girl thought for a moment.
"The friend who was cursed?" the girl finally asked. "No, I don't think I know where she is."
"But you know she was cursed?" Roxie asked her, "Do you know what happened to her?"
The girl laughed then, a delighted laugh, like a tiny stream in the spring.
"Of course I know what happened to her," she said and smiled wide.
"Can you tell me what happened to her?" Roxie asked, her heart lifting. The girl went still for a moment, like she was listening to some far away voice Roxie couldn't hear. Her face went serious.
"I have to go now," the girl said. "Come find me."
And then she grinned, and jumped, and was gone before Roxie could even begin to say anything, to ask her to stay. She was left alone in blackness deeper than the sky at night.
Roxie opened her eyes in the dark room. She reached with her hand, turned on the light next to her bed, sitting up. For a moment all she could do was stare at the wall across the room.
What had just happened?
_________________________________________________________________
Your topic for Friday is Buttons.
~matu
Monday, October 26, 2015
Soar, Part 11 - Lies
Roxie and Skye dropped back down to the ground, quiet and shocked. Ales and Olivia waited for a while for them to tell what they'd seen, but they didn't.
"Well?" Alex demanded finally. "Did it say something? What did it look like?"
"That's..." started Skye, looking at Roxie, uncertain. "It was a word. Just one."
"It said 'soar'," said Roxie. Alex's eyes widened, as did Olivia's.
"W-what?" Alex managed. "Seriously? That's... gotta be a... a coincidence, right?"
"It could be, like... a message?" suggested Olivia, her usual playfulness disappeared from her eyes.
"What, for us?" asked Roxie. "Why? And it was only the one word."
"It's probably a coincidence," said Skye, sounding much more certain than she was feeling. "It's a common enough word."
"I guess, but..." Alex started but a sudden melody interrupted her. They all jumped a bit at the music, until they realized it was Alex's cellphone.
"Hello?" she answered it after digging it from the pocket of her jeans.
"Oh, hello," came a somewhat familiar female voice. "Is this Alexandra Sherwood?"
"Yeah," she said, trying to place the voice. The other three crowded around her.
"I'm calling on behalf of the National Air Dancing Championship," said the voice and Alex realized it was the harpy from a week ago. "I'm just asking about your status... Your group was qualified for the next round, but you haven't checked in yet. Your turn isn't for another hour and a half, so there's still time if you can get here quickly."
Alex paused, looking at her friends with wide eyes. There was still time..? Her friends of course hadn't heard what the harpy had said, and were looking at Alex very confused.
"Uh..." said Alex. "Hold on a moment, please." She places her hand on her phone, addressing her friends. "It's from the championship! They're calling after us since we didn't inform them we were gonna drop out. She says... She says we can still make it!"
"But..." said Skye and paused. "We still don't have Annalise..."
Alex's face fell. It was true, nothing had changed had it. Though she felt like something had....
"Sorry about that," she said back into the phone.
"No problem," said the harpy. "So.... do you want me to check you in, or...?"
"Well, the thing is..." Alex said, feeling a terrible twisting in her heart. It wasn't fair! They should be dancing! "One of our members got hospitalized just this week... we're kinda short on dancers, so I don't know if-"
"The backup choreography!" breathed out Olivia, hand flying to her mouth. Alex snapped her head towards the succubus, eyes blown wide for probably the fifth time is as many minutes. How had they forgotten..?
"Shit you're right..." she said. She faintly registered the 'hello's that were coming from the other end of the phone line.
"But that choreography was made for the first round," said Skye, stroking her tail, but Alex could see it in her eyes that she was considering it.
"But we didn't use it on the first round," said Alex. "We didn't have to, cause Roxie wasn't sick after all!"
"I think..." said Roxie. "I think it could work. I mean, it's nowhere near as good as the one we had, but it's... it's something, right?"
"Yes, yes!" Alex cheered, turning back to the phone in her hand. "Hello, are you still there?"
"Oh! Oh, yes," came the answer. "What is going on?"
"Urgent group related discussion, sorry," said Alex, feeling the excitement wash over her. "We can be there in ten minutes, is that okay?"
"Oh, that is okay." There was a pause and Alex could hear the faint sound of scribbling in the background. "I've marked you as checked in now. Stop by the table in the lobby once you get here and I'll give you your numbers, okay?"
"Yes, okay, thank you," said Alex. The call disconnected. She grinned at her friends. "Well? Let's go! We need to go make Annalise proud!"
~x~
"I'm still not sure we should be doing this," said Skye as they waited for the previous group to finish their performance. "I mean, it's been a while since we did this choreography, and it isn't as good as the other one, and poor Annalise is still..." She was wringing her tail again. Olivia placed her hands on hers, pulling them away from the tail and placing a small kiss on her knuckles.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again," said Alex, even more determined then before. "We are doing this for Annalise. She won't even forgive us when she wakes up if we just threw away our chance like that! We have to at least try."
"I... I guess," Skye said, quietly. There were applause and soon the group that had been dancing walk off the stage, past them into the back. The girls took deep breaths and walked onto the stage.
The judges were the same as they had been last week. The woman looked up as they stopped in the middle and pushed up her glasses.
"Hello," said Alex, a bit too loudly than she had meant to. She was getting nervous all of a sudden. The auditorium was very full. "We're dance team, uh..." She hesitated. Roxie nudged her in the back. The judge raised her eyebrow, expectant. "Team Soar. And we're here to get through to the state championship."
The judge stayed quiet for a while, shuffling through her papers. Then she squinted at the stage.
"Yes, I remember you. You're the group that was on when the power outage happened," she said and then frowned. "I do seem to recall there were five of you then, though?"
"Oh, yes," said Alex. "She, uh. She had to, well."
"There was an accident and one of our members had to be taken to a hospital, so she can't dance with us today," said Skye, stepping forward a bit. The judge turned her eyes on the daemon. "Some last minute arrangements had to be made, and we're using a backup choreography, but..."
"We felt like we owed it to her at least to try," finished Alex. The judge nodded and gestured for the girls to start. Alex and Olivia hurried to climb their sashes while Skye and Roxie took flight. There was a soft 'clack' just before the music started, and Alex glanced at the dance hall door. Her mouth fell open just a crack.
Anka walked through the door, followed suit by a small girl in a frilly Lolita-style dress. She, too, had white hair, neatly braided in two braids falling over her shoulders, deep red ribbons tied at their ends. They sat down in the back row, and she leaned in to whisper something to him. He nodded, his face serious. He noticed Alex staring, he must have, because suddenly he looked away, like he was embarrassed. The girl said something else, but Anka didn't look back.
Alex had barely time to register all of that when she heard the cue in the music and her entire concentration was swept into the dance. And dance they did.
When the final beats of the music echoed though the hall the girls were out of breath, just hanging there in midair, waiting for... something. There was a pregnant silence hanging over the room.
The applause started from one person. A single clapping, soon accompanied by another, and another, and before long the entire room was clapping. The girls slowly came down from their literal and figurative high and took a bow. The judge nodded at them, a small smile on her face and they turned to walk off the stage. The judging would come later, they knew as much.
Just before they were off the stage and behind the side curtains, Alex glanced back again, only to see two white-haired figures disappear out the door.
~x~
"That went... well?" said Roxie when they sat in the room reserved for the dance groups to wait in. The final group had danced just minutes ago and the judges had went off to decide who passed and who didn't.
"I... think so?" said Skye. "They did applaud pretty enthusiastically, didn't they?"
"Well I think we did good," said Olivia, swinging her legs. "I even managed to do that really hard triple flip I've been having problems with without a hitch."
"What do you think, Alex?" asked Roxie. Alex didn't answer. She was staring at the wall, arms crossed and a frown on her face. Roxie slapped her with a wing and she let out a yelp. "Earth to Alex, what is up with you?"
"Sorry, I just..." she said, looking sheepishly at her friends. "I'm just trying to make sense of it..."
"Of what?" asked Skye.
"Anka," said Alex. Roxie groaned. "No, I mean... He was here. Just for our show."
"Just for our show?" Olivia asked. "That's nice of him."
"No, I don't think," said Alex, pushing her hands through her hair. "I mean... There was something weird. He came in with this kinda odd little girl and they sat there while we danced and then they left. There was something... unsettling about the girl and I'm still not convinced Anka isn't hiding something!"
The three other girls exchanged looks.
"You think you're... being a bit obsessive about this? You're starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist," said Roxie, looking simultaneously amused and very concerned.
"But... The bird a the alley, and then he was there just moments later, and then there's his animal form, and the word on the ground, and know he's here with this girl just for our dance-!" Alex rambled on, twisting her hair in her hands.
"I admit, there's a lot of... weird things going on, and that's a lot of coincidences, I suppose," Skye said, trying to stay reasonable. "But what exactly are you proposing it all means?"
"I-" Alex started, paused and bit her lip. "I don't know. Yet. I just... He's lying. I know it. About something. And I will find out about what."
Whatever had been coming next got interrupted when the door opened. The dozens of dancers in the room turned to where the judges stood, a silence falling over them.
"We've made our decision regarding who goes on to the next round," said the main judge, pushing her glasses up. "If you hear your number called, go to the room next door to get your instructions for the next competition. First group is number 43."
Six girls stood up, cheering, and hugged each other. There was a polite applause from the rest of the groups. They disappeared though the door.
The judge continued to call out numbers and groups of people left the room. They were much more diverse in number, race, and gender than Alex had originally realised.
"Final group..." said the judge finally and the whole atmosphere of the room tensed. Everyone wanted to be the last group. It was this, or it was over. "Number 66."
There was a pause.
"Wait that's us." It was Olivia. She pointed at the piece of paper attached to her uniform with safety pins, indeed bearing the number 66.
There was another pause.
"Well, off you go," said the judge and then her voice was drowned out by the excited yell of Roxie. She was grinning bigger then the other girls had seen her ever grin before.
The reality of what had just happened dawned on them simultaneously. They had gotten though to the state championship. They had really made it.
Alex was in a daze when she was dragged into the next room. She was in a daze when the harpy explained what happened next. She was in a daze as they went to their locker room and changed clothes.
They had just stepped into the cool, crisp autumn air when she finally got a word out of her mouth.
"Did we... win?" she said.
"Probably not 'win'," said Skye. "But we were in the top 10, and that's all that matters."
"I can't believe we almost didn't do this," said Roxie, pulling at her hair and then staring to braid it. "The state championship is in a month, we have plenty of time now."
"Right," said Alex. "One month. You guys know what we have to do, right?"
The other girls looked determined too.
"One month to figure out exactly what happened to the petrified people," Alex said. "And how to cure them."
________________________________________________________
Waaaaa.
I just couldn't accept the fact that they just... didn't so anything about the dance competition. Like just ignore it until it's too late to go. Now we have a month. And that's pretty much the time we have to finish the story anyway, so that's good, yeh?
Anyway. I wanted to make the "lies" a bit more... obvious or like... prominent or something, but I didn't feel like writing any more scenes and idk. Who is even lying? Anka probably, but why? And who is the mysterious girl? Very exciting. I think. Anyway. I have another thing I wanna write today, so I'll end this here. Your topic is "Spirit". I don't think we've used that before? Nope. That's good.
Byyye~
Pie out.
"Well?" Alex demanded finally. "Did it say something? What did it look like?"
"That's..." started Skye, looking at Roxie, uncertain. "It was a word. Just one."
"It said 'soar'," said Roxie. Alex's eyes widened, as did Olivia's.
"W-what?" Alex managed. "Seriously? That's... gotta be a... a coincidence, right?"
"It could be, like... a message?" suggested Olivia, her usual playfulness disappeared from her eyes.
"What, for us?" asked Roxie. "Why? And it was only the one word."
"It's probably a coincidence," said Skye, sounding much more certain than she was feeling. "It's a common enough word."
"I guess, but..." Alex started but a sudden melody interrupted her. They all jumped a bit at the music, until they realized it was Alex's cellphone.
"Hello?" she answered it after digging it from the pocket of her jeans.
"Oh, hello," came a somewhat familiar female voice. "Is this Alexandra Sherwood?"
"Yeah," she said, trying to place the voice. The other three crowded around her.
"I'm calling on behalf of the National Air Dancing Championship," said the voice and Alex realized it was the harpy from a week ago. "I'm just asking about your status... Your group was qualified for the next round, but you haven't checked in yet. Your turn isn't for another hour and a half, so there's still time if you can get here quickly."
Alex paused, looking at her friends with wide eyes. There was still time..? Her friends of course hadn't heard what the harpy had said, and were looking at Alex very confused.
"Uh..." said Alex. "Hold on a moment, please." She places her hand on her phone, addressing her friends. "It's from the championship! They're calling after us since we didn't inform them we were gonna drop out. She says... She says we can still make it!"
"But..." said Skye and paused. "We still don't have Annalise..."
Alex's face fell. It was true, nothing had changed had it. Though she felt like something had....
"Sorry about that," she said back into the phone.
"No problem," said the harpy. "So.... do you want me to check you in, or...?"
"Well, the thing is..." Alex said, feeling a terrible twisting in her heart. It wasn't fair! They should be dancing! "One of our members got hospitalized just this week... we're kinda short on dancers, so I don't know if-"
"The backup choreography!" breathed out Olivia, hand flying to her mouth. Alex snapped her head towards the succubus, eyes blown wide for probably the fifth time is as many minutes. How had they forgotten..?
"Shit you're right..." she said. She faintly registered the 'hello's that were coming from the other end of the phone line.
"But that choreography was made for the first round," said Skye, stroking her tail, but Alex could see it in her eyes that she was considering it.
"But we didn't use it on the first round," said Alex. "We didn't have to, cause Roxie wasn't sick after all!"
"I think..." said Roxie. "I think it could work. I mean, it's nowhere near as good as the one we had, but it's... it's something, right?"
"Yes, yes!" Alex cheered, turning back to the phone in her hand. "Hello, are you still there?"
"Oh! Oh, yes," came the answer. "What is going on?"
"Urgent group related discussion, sorry," said Alex, feeling the excitement wash over her. "We can be there in ten minutes, is that okay?"
"Oh, that is okay." There was a pause and Alex could hear the faint sound of scribbling in the background. "I've marked you as checked in now. Stop by the table in the lobby once you get here and I'll give you your numbers, okay?"
"Yes, okay, thank you," said Alex. The call disconnected. She grinned at her friends. "Well? Let's go! We need to go make Annalise proud!"
~x~
"I'm still not sure we should be doing this," said Skye as they waited for the previous group to finish their performance. "I mean, it's been a while since we did this choreography, and it isn't as good as the other one, and poor Annalise is still..." She was wringing her tail again. Olivia placed her hands on hers, pulling them away from the tail and placing a small kiss on her knuckles.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again," said Alex, even more determined then before. "We are doing this for Annalise. She won't even forgive us when she wakes up if we just threw away our chance like that! We have to at least try."
"I... I guess," Skye said, quietly. There were applause and soon the group that had been dancing walk off the stage, past them into the back. The girls took deep breaths and walked onto the stage.
The judges were the same as they had been last week. The woman looked up as they stopped in the middle and pushed up her glasses.
"Hello," said Alex, a bit too loudly than she had meant to. She was getting nervous all of a sudden. The auditorium was very full. "We're dance team, uh..." She hesitated. Roxie nudged her in the back. The judge raised her eyebrow, expectant. "Team Soar. And we're here to get through to the state championship."
The judge stayed quiet for a while, shuffling through her papers. Then she squinted at the stage.
"Yes, I remember you. You're the group that was on when the power outage happened," she said and then frowned. "I do seem to recall there were five of you then, though?"
"Oh, yes," said Alex. "She, uh. She had to, well."
"There was an accident and one of our members had to be taken to a hospital, so she can't dance with us today," said Skye, stepping forward a bit. The judge turned her eyes on the daemon. "Some last minute arrangements had to be made, and we're using a backup choreography, but..."
"We felt like we owed it to her at least to try," finished Alex. The judge nodded and gestured for the girls to start. Alex and Olivia hurried to climb their sashes while Skye and Roxie took flight. There was a soft 'clack' just before the music started, and Alex glanced at the dance hall door. Her mouth fell open just a crack.
Anka walked through the door, followed suit by a small girl in a frilly Lolita-style dress. She, too, had white hair, neatly braided in two braids falling over her shoulders, deep red ribbons tied at their ends. They sat down in the back row, and she leaned in to whisper something to him. He nodded, his face serious. He noticed Alex staring, he must have, because suddenly he looked away, like he was embarrassed. The girl said something else, but Anka didn't look back.
Alex had barely time to register all of that when she heard the cue in the music and her entire concentration was swept into the dance. And dance they did.
When the final beats of the music echoed though the hall the girls were out of breath, just hanging there in midair, waiting for... something. There was a pregnant silence hanging over the room.
The applause started from one person. A single clapping, soon accompanied by another, and another, and before long the entire room was clapping. The girls slowly came down from their literal and figurative high and took a bow. The judge nodded at them, a small smile on her face and they turned to walk off the stage. The judging would come later, they knew as much.
Just before they were off the stage and behind the side curtains, Alex glanced back again, only to see two white-haired figures disappear out the door.
~x~
"That went... well?" said Roxie when they sat in the room reserved for the dance groups to wait in. The final group had danced just minutes ago and the judges had went off to decide who passed and who didn't.
"I... think so?" said Skye. "They did applaud pretty enthusiastically, didn't they?"
"Well I think we did good," said Olivia, swinging her legs. "I even managed to do that really hard triple flip I've been having problems with without a hitch."
"What do you think, Alex?" asked Roxie. Alex didn't answer. She was staring at the wall, arms crossed and a frown on her face. Roxie slapped her with a wing and she let out a yelp. "Earth to Alex, what is up with you?"
"Sorry, I just..." she said, looking sheepishly at her friends. "I'm just trying to make sense of it..."
"Of what?" asked Skye.
"Anka," said Alex. Roxie groaned. "No, I mean... He was here. Just for our show."
"Just for our show?" Olivia asked. "That's nice of him."
"No, I don't think," said Alex, pushing her hands through her hair. "I mean... There was something weird. He came in with this kinda odd little girl and they sat there while we danced and then they left. There was something... unsettling about the girl and I'm still not convinced Anka isn't hiding something!"
The three other girls exchanged looks.
"You think you're... being a bit obsessive about this? You're starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist," said Roxie, looking simultaneously amused and very concerned.
"But... The bird a the alley, and then he was there just moments later, and then there's his animal form, and the word on the ground, and know he's here with this girl just for our dance-!" Alex rambled on, twisting her hair in her hands.
"I admit, there's a lot of... weird things going on, and that's a lot of coincidences, I suppose," Skye said, trying to stay reasonable. "But what exactly are you proposing it all means?"
"I-" Alex started, paused and bit her lip. "I don't know. Yet. I just... He's lying. I know it. About something. And I will find out about what."
Whatever had been coming next got interrupted when the door opened. The dozens of dancers in the room turned to where the judges stood, a silence falling over them.
"We've made our decision regarding who goes on to the next round," said the main judge, pushing her glasses up. "If you hear your number called, go to the room next door to get your instructions for the next competition. First group is number 43."
Six girls stood up, cheering, and hugged each other. There was a polite applause from the rest of the groups. They disappeared though the door.
The judge continued to call out numbers and groups of people left the room. They were much more diverse in number, race, and gender than Alex had originally realised.
"Final group..." said the judge finally and the whole atmosphere of the room tensed. Everyone wanted to be the last group. It was this, or it was over. "Number 66."
There was a pause.
"Wait that's us." It was Olivia. She pointed at the piece of paper attached to her uniform with safety pins, indeed bearing the number 66.
There was another pause.
"Well, off you go," said the judge and then her voice was drowned out by the excited yell of Roxie. She was grinning bigger then the other girls had seen her ever grin before.
The reality of what had just happened dawned on them simultaneously. They had gotten though to the state championship. They had really made it.
Alex was in a daze when she was dragged into the next room. She was in a daze when the harpy explained what happened next. She was in a daze as they went to their locker room and changed clothes.
They had just stepped into the cool, crisp autumn air when she finally got a word out of her mouth.
"Did we... win?" she said.
"Probably not 'win'," said Skye. "But we were in the top 10, and that's all that matters."
"I can't believe we almost didn't do this," said Roxie, pulling at her hair and then staring to braid it. "The state championship is in a month, we have plenty of time now."
"Right," said Alex. "One month. You guys know what we have to do, right?"
The other girls looked determined too.
"One month to figure out exactly what happened to the petrified people," Alex said. "And how to cure them."
________________________________________________________
Waaaaa.
I just couldn't accept the fact that they just... didn't so anything about the dance competition. Like just ignore it until it's too late to go. Now we have a month. And that's pretty much the time we have to finish the story anyway, so that's good, yeh?
Anyway. I wanted to make the "lies" a bit more... obvious or like... prominent or something, but I didn't feel like writing any more scenes and idk. Who is even lying? Anka probably, but why? And who is the mysterious girl? Very exciting. I think. Anyway. I have another thing I wanna write today, so I'll end this here. Your topic is "Spirit". I don't think we've used that before? Nope. That's good.
Byyye~
Pie out.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Soar, Part 10 - Word
"This sucks."
The other girls lifted their heads from their hands to look at Alex. She looked at them back, like what she said didn't need any more explanation.
"This sucks," she repeated. And she was right. It didn't need any further explanation. In two hours they were supposed to be at the second tryouts. Except there had been no word of Annalise or any of the other people getting any better. So they had decided, through a long conversation, that there wasn't much point going just the four of them. The choreography they had was good, and they knew it. But it wasn't good, if one of them was missing. It simply wouldn't work. If they'd had more time, they could've adjusted it to work for the four of them, but there wasn't enough time, not nearly enough. This way they wouldn't stand a chance.
Alex had argued that they should go anyway, because they wouldn't forgive themselves if they missed a chance like this. And Annalise wouldn't forgive them, if she stopped being a statue and found out they'd simply quit. Especially if they had passed again, and they could've been in the championships in time for Annalise to join them again. But the others finally convinced her. They wouldn't get anywhere missing a person, and there would always be next year. And the year after that. They would train for another year, and then they would go and win the whole thing, because if they were let in this year, they'd be even better the next.
"You girls know what," Alex said and stood up, "Even if we're not going to the competition, I don't want to just sit at home and do nothing. It's making me nervous and uncomfortable."
"Well, what do you suggest we do?" Roxie asked. "We could look into the petrified-people-thing, but there's less than nothing to go on. Unless Anka lied to us. Though I don't think he did. Or we could to train, without Annalise. We'll get lazy if we don't do anything. We don't know how long it will be before she'll be able to do anything again. If ever."
"Don't say that," Alex snapped.
"Already did," Roxie said, "Of course I want her to be okay as much as you, but we don't know. There is no way for us to know."
"We could go see the street where the statue people were," Olivia said. Everyone turned to look at her.
"Why?" Roxie asked.
"Because maybe there's something there," Olivia answered, like it was obvious.
"We looked around pretty thoroughly the last time we were there," Skye said, "And I'm sure the police looked it over even more thoroughly."
"There might still be something," Alex said, lifting her head.
"You really think so?" Skye said. Olivia smiled.
"I think it doesn't actually matter, because it's the only thing we've got and I won't spend this afternoon sitting around doing nothing," Alex said.
And so they went.
~x~
The afternoon was cold. The sun had set already, and the puddles from the previous night's rain were frozen. Olivia broke the thin ice over one of the puddles next to the side walk, grinning like a little child, as the others rounded the last corner and came to a stop at more or less the same spot as last time, when the street was filled with frozen people.
"Wow," Roxie said.
"I know," Skye said.
"This is almost as creepy as the frozen people," Alex said, and the others turned to look at her.
"What?" she demanded. "I said almost."
The whole street was deserted. On the way here the girls didn't notice anything weird. There were people walking around, normally, going home or grocery store or where ever people usually go. But there was no one on this road. There weren't even any lights in the windows of the buildings along the road. At first it seemed like the police had closed the street for investigation, but there was no sign of that. It seemed people simply avoided the place, avoided walking along it even if it was on their way, and had to gone to live with family and friends until their street was declared safe again by some authority or another. Or at least that how it seemed.
"Do we dare to go there if there's no one else here?" Skye asked, almost whispering. No one said anything for a moment.
"We went there already once," Alex said then, stepping forwards. She didn't sound as sure as her words implied. But they had gone there already once, when it was filled with the people stuck in place, and nothing bad had happened to them then. So nothing bad could happen now either, right? People were just being superstitious. Alex took another step and turned to look at her friends over her shoulder.
"Come on," she said, and the others followed carefully.
They walked along the street, looking for a sign of anything weird. Other than the whole place being abandoned by people. There was nothing. They walked in more or less a row, searching the middle of the road, and both sides. Looking carefully around. But by the end of the part of the road where the frozen people had been, they had found nothing. They looped back, looking again. They checked the corner where they had seen the huge bird take off. There was nothing there either.
So they gave up, sitting on some grass by the road, exhausted.
"So that was another colossal waste of time," Alex said and, laying down on the cold grass.
"Yeah," Skye said.
"At least we didn't sit inside all afternoon feeling sorry for ourselves for not going for the competition," Roxie said.
"Speaking of which," Skye said, checking her watch, "It started an hour ago. So no, officially, there's no going back."
They all fell into a sulking silence. No one had anything left to say, not today at least. Not right now. Eventually Alex began shivering and sat up, seemingly a little too fast. She leaned her hand back down, and lifted her other hand to her head to steady herself. Then she stopped, and just stared in front of her.
"Alex?" Skye asked.
"Uh," Alex said, "Was the street painted when we were last here?"
They all thought for a moment.
"I think so," Skye eventually said.
"But it isn't usually. It's never been before," Roxie said.
"I can't believe we missed that," Alex said.
"You think there's something to it?" Skye asked.
"I don't know," Alex said. She got up and began jogging along the street. The others glanced at each other and followed her.
"I think you're right," Skye said once they reached the other end of the street. "I think the painted parts make some kind of a pattern. But we're too close up. There's no way to see what it is from the ground."
"That's why we have to go up," Roxie said and her wings flapped open behind her. Skye nodded, and followed her lead.
So up they went, looking back down every now and then to see if they were far enough yet. It was high, but not nearly too high for either of them, when they could finally figure out what the pattern on the road was. The paint on the road spelled out one word:
Soar.
________________________________________________________________
Your topic for Monday is Lie(s).
~matu
The other girls lifted their heads from their hands to look at Alex. She looked at them back, like what she said didn't need any more explanation.
"This sucks," she repeated. And she was right. It didn't need any further explanation. In two hours they were supposed to be at the second tryouts. Except there had been no word of Annalise or any of the other people getting any better. So they had decided, through a long conversation, that there wasn't much point going just the four of them. The choreography they had was good, and they knew it. But it wasn't good, if one of them was missing. It simply wouldn't work. If they'd had more time, they could've adjusted it to work for the four of them, but there wasn't enough time, not nearly enough. This way they wouldn't stand a chance.
Alex had argued that they should go anyway, because they wouldn't forgive themselves if they missed a chance like this. And Annalise wouldn't forgive them, if she stopped being a statue and found out they'd simply quit. Especially if they had passed again, and they could've been in the championships in time for Annalise to join them again. But the others finally convinced her. They wouldn't get anywhere missing a person, and there would always be next year. And the year after that. They would train for another year, and then they would go and win the whole thing, because if they were let in this year, they'd be even better the next.
"You girls know what," Alex said and stood up, "Even if we're not going to the competition, I don't want to just sit at home and do nothing. It's making me nervous and uncomfortable."
"Well, what do you suggest we do?" Roxie asked. "We could look into the petrified-people-thing, but there's less than nothing to go on. Unless Anka lied to us. Though I don't think he did. Or we could to train, without Annalise. We'll get lazy if we don't do anything. We don't know how long it will be before she'll be able to do anything again. If ever."
"Don't say that," Alex snapped.
"Already did," Roxie said, "Of course I want her to be okay as much as you, but we don't know. There is no way for us to know."
"We could go see the street where the statue people were," Olivia said. Everyone turned to look at her.
"Why?" Roxie asked.
"Because maybe there's something there," Olivia answered, like it was obvious.
"We looked around pretty thoroughly the last time we were there," Skye said, "And I'm sure the police looked it over even more thoroughly."
"There might still be something," Alex said, lifting her head.
"You really think so?" Skye said. Olivia smiled.
"I think it doesn't actually matter, because it's the only thing we've got and I won't spend this afternoon sitting around doing nothing," Alex said.
And so they went.
~x~
The afternoon was cold. The sun had set already, and the puddles from the previous night's rain were frozen. Olivia broke the thin ice over one of the puddles next to the side walk, grinning like a little child, as the others rounded the last corner and came to a stop at more or less the same spot as last time, when the street was filled with frozen people.
"Wow," Roxie said.
"I know," Skye said.
"This is almost as creepy as the frozen people," Alex said, and the others turned to look at her.
"What?" she demanded. "I said almost."
The whole street was deserted. On the way here the girls didn't notice anything weird. There were people walking around, normally, going home or grocery store or where ever people usually go. But there was no one on this road. There weren't even any lights in the windows of the buildings along the road. At first it seemed like the police had closed the street for investigation, but there was no sign of that. It seemed people simply avoided the place, avoided walking along it even if it was on their way, and had to gone to live with family and friends until their street was declared safe again by some authority or another. Or at least that how it seemed.
"Do we dare to go there if there's no one else here?" Skye asked, almost whispering. No one said anything for a moment.
"We went there already once," Alex said then, stepping forwards. She didn't sound as sure as her words implied. But they had gone there already once, when it was filled with the people stuck in place, and nothing bad had happened to them then. So nothing bad could happen now either, right? People were just being superstitious. Alex took another step and turned to look at her friends over her shoulder.
"Come on," she said, and the others followed carefully.
They walked along the street, looking for a sign of anything weird. Other than the whole place being abandoned by people. There was nothing. They walked in more or less a row, searching the middle of the road, and both sides. Looking carefully around. But by the end of the part of the road where the frozen people had been, they had found nothing. They looped back, looking again. They checked the corner where they had seen the huge bird take off. There was nothing there either.
So they gave up, sitting on some grass by the road, exhausted.
"So that was another colossal waste of time," Alex said and, laying down on the cold grass.
"Yeah," Skye said.
"At least we didn't sit inside all afternoon feeling sorry for ourselves for not going for the competition," Roxie said.
"Speaking of which," Skye said, checking her watch, "It started an hour ago. So no, officially, there's no going back."
They all fell into a sulking silence. No one had anything left to say, not today at least. Not right now. Eventually Alex began shivering and sat up, seemingly a little too fast. She leaned her hand back down, and lifted her other hand to her head to steady herself. Then she stopped, and just stared in front of her.
"Alex?" Skye asked.
"Uh," Alex said, "Was the street painted when we were last here?"
They all thought for a moment.
"I think so," Skye eventually said.
"But it isn't usually. It's never been before," Roxie said.
"I can't believe we missed that," Alex said.
"You think there's something to it?" Skye asked.
"I don't know," Alex said. She got up and began jogging along the street. The others glanced at each other and followed her.
"I think you're right," Skye said once they reached the other end of the street. "I think the painted parts make some kind of a pattern. But we're too close up. There's no way to see what it is from the ground."
"That's why we have to go up," Roxie said and her wings flapped open behind her. Skye nodded, and followed her lead.
So up they went, looking back down every now and then to see if they were far enough yet. It was high, but not nearly too high for either of them, when they could finally figure out what the pattern on the road was. The paint on the road spelled out one word:
Soar.
________________________________________________________________
Your topic for Monday is Lie(s).
~matu
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Soar, Part 9 - Fruit
Thursday was a slow day but finally lunch time rolled around. Alex had decided that they should ambush Anka in the cafeteria and try to get some kind of answers out of him. Skye had protested, somewhat weakly, saying that they shouldn't harass the new kid since they didn't even know he had anything to do with it. Roxie had no objections, feeling irritated at the whole mess and demanding someone be made answerable, and Olivia just rolled with the punches so poor Skye's objections fell to deaf ears as Alex led the other three to the table Anka was currently occupying. Alone. Perfect.
"Hiya," said Alex, setting her tray down and doing her best to appear friendly. Anka looked up, surprised, setting the apple in his hand back on the table. Alex refrained from making a comment about it, and instead said, "Do you mind if we sit with you?"
"Oh, no," he said, gesturing at the table. "Go right ahead." The girls took their seats around the boy. He looked at them curiously for a while before clearing his throat and scratching his cheek. "Is there possibly... something you need from me?"
"Oh, no, we just - " Skye began, her cheeks flushing, while Roxie deadpanned, "We wanna know more about animorphagi."
Everyone looked at her for a second, silent, and she frowned.
"Well we do! I ain't gonna beat around the bush, we don't have time for that shit," she exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. Her wings flared up a bit.
"You have a deadline?" said Anka, quirking his eyebrow in amusement. "For finding out about animorphs?"
"Something like that," said Alex, waving her hand and leaning closer to him. "You gonna tell us?"
"Sure, I guess," he said, leaning away. "It's not like it's a secret or anything. What do you want to know?"
The girls hesitated, trading looks. They wanted to know so much, they wanted to know everything, but now that the opportunity had arrived they were drawing a blank. Alex opened her mouth but then closed it again. The silence stretched on for a minute as Anka waited patiently.
"What's it feel like when you change?" said Olivia suddenly. Anka looked up from the apple he had been turning around in his hands, and let out a thoughtful hum.
"It's not something I really think about, it's just... natural, I guess," he said. "My skin does tickle a bit when the feathers form though." He paused for a bit and scratched his cheek again. "Sorry, that's probably not a good answer... The sensation is really hard to explain."
"What color feathers do you have?" asked Alex, and Skye jabbed her in the side with her tail. Anka seemed to miss it, luckily.
"White," he said easily, twirling a few of his white strands of hair between his fingers. "They used to be kinda light yellow though, until a few years back."
Alex looked pointedly at Skye, who looked away. It still proved nothing.
"How does it work?" she said instead. Anka frowned, not understanding the question. "I mean, the animal which you become... is it somehow passed down from your parents, or is it completely individual?"
Anka rolled the apple between his palms, looking down at the table. He looked... conflicted.
"It's... mostly genetic," he said finally. "At least the type of animal is, I think. I don't really know animorphs outside my family and they're all birds as well. Majestic birds." He looked a bit wistful on the last statement and another silence fell over the group.
"Can you show us your animal form?" Olivia asked with a smile, unable, or perhaps unwilling, to read the tension in the air. Anka's gaze snapped up, his eyes wide and a blush on his cheeks. Olivia just smiled sweetly and tilted her head.
"I don't - I mean, it's - I just - " he tried, unable to form a full sentence.
"Oh, no, don't worry about it!" Skye hurried to supply. "You don't have to if you don't want, it's not a big deal! Livie, please," she hissed as Olivia who shrugged and sipped her drink. Anka was looking down at his hands, still toying with the apple, and his face was very clearly flushed.
"Do you have some kind of powers?" asked Roxie, deciding that it was about time someone asked what they all came here to find out.
"I... Powers?" Anka asked, looking up at the tall girl. "What kind of powers?"
"I read that the first animorphs got their power from becoming one with nature," Skye explained, her tail slapping Olivia on the forehead. She let out a small yelp and pouted. "We were wondering if that meant that you have some kind of cool nature related powers or something."
"Oh. Sorry, I don't think I do," said Anka. "I don't even know if the whole 'one with nature' thing is actually true or not. It could just be a really old folk tale that really doesn't have anything to do with reality. The only 'power' I have is being able to switch between an animal form and this one."
Alex looked disappointed. Roxie tisked. Skye had a hand on her cheek as she frowned while Olivia was rubbing her forehead on her upper arm, now completely uninterested in the conversation at hand. Anka scratched his cheek and looked away.
"Sorry I haven't been much use," he said quietly. "Honestly I don't know a lot about animorphs myself, the history or the lore... It's just something I don't really think about that much, I guess."
"No, it's alright," said Skye, the only one who remembered to stay polite no mater what. "It's been nice to talk to you. We'll let you finish your lunch before the next class starts. Girls?"
She stood up and the others followed. No one looked at Anka, except Skye who gave him a smile and a wave as they left the table.
"Well that was a colossal waste of time," declared Alex not very quietly as they walked across the cafeteria floor.
"It was your idea," said Roxie and Alex glared at her from the corner of her eye.
Behind them at the table Anka leaned his chin on his hand as he watched them leave and took a bite of his apple.
__________________________________________________________
I... don't know what's happening. I also don't really know how animorphs work hahahahahaha....... anywayyyy.Let's give this guy an apple so he can look like even more of an asshole lol
Also please stop whining about this. Your constant unwillingness to do this is really taxing my own motivation and I really want to write this story! I think it could be interesting if we just keep at it. We can do this!! (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑
In other news, since I now have a google account, I've taken the liberty of adding us as separate authors to this blog. So from now on you don't have to sign out and then back in when you want to write a post. Also anyone can see who wrote what post. How convenient!
Your topic for Friday is "Word".
Pie out.
"Hiya," said Alex, setting her tray down and doing her best to appear friendly. Anka looked up, surprised, setting the apple in his hand back on the table. Alex refrained from making a comment about it, and instead said, "Do you mind if we sit with you?"
"Oh, no," he said, gesturing at the table. "Go right ahead." The girls took their seats around the boy. He looked at them curiously for a while before clearing his throat and scratching his cheek. "Is there possibly... something you need from me?"
"Oh, no, we just - " Skye began, her cheeks flushing, while Roxie deadpanned, "We wanna know more about animorphagi."
Everyone looked at her for a second, silent, and she frowned.
"Well we do! I ain't gonna beat around the bush, we don't have time for that shit," she exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. Her wings flared up a bit.
"You have a deadline?" said Anka, quirking his eyebrow in amusement. "For finding out about animorphs?"
"Something like that," said Alex, waving her hand and leaning closer to him. "You gonna tell us?"
"Sure, I guess," he said, leaning away. "It's not like it's a secret or anything. What do you want to know?"
The girls hesitated, trading looks. They wanted to know so much, they wanted to know everything, but now that the opportunity had arrived they were drawing a blank. Alex opened her mouth but then closed it again. The silence stretched on for a minute as Anka waited patiently.
"What's it feel like when you change?" said Olivia suddenly. Anka looked up from the apple he had been turning around in his hands, and let out a thoughtful hum.
"It's not something I really think about, it's just... natural, I guess," he said. "My skin does tickle a bit when the feathers form though." He paused for a bit and scratched his cheek again. "Sorry, that's probably not a good answer... The sensation is really hard to explain."
"What color feathers do you have?" asked Alex, and Skye jabbed her in the side with her tail. Anka seemed to miss it, luckily.
"White," he said easily, twirling a few of his white strands of hair between his fingers. "They used to be kinda light yellow though, until a few years back."
Alex looked pointedly at Skye, who looked away. It still proved nothing.
"How does it work?" she said instead. Anka frowned, not understanding the question. "I mean, the animal which you become... is it somehow passed down from your parents, or is it completely individual?"
Anka rolled the apple between his palms, looking down at the table. He looked... conflicted.
"It's... mostly genetic," he said finally. "At least the type of animal is, I think. I don't really know animorphs outside my family and they're all birds as well. Majestic birds." He looked a bit wistful on the last statement and another silence fell over the group.
"Can you show us your animal form?" Olivia asked with a smile, unable, or perhaps unwilling, to read the tension in the air. Anka's gaze snapped up, his eyes wide and a blush on his cheeks. Olivia just smiled sweetly and tilted her head.
"I don't - I mean, it's - I just - " he tried, unable to form a full sentence.
"Oh, no, don't worry about it!" Skye hurried to supply. "You don't have to if you don't want, it's not a big deal! Livie, please," she hissed as Olivia who shrugged and sipped her drink. Anka was looking down at his hands, still toying with the apple, and his face was very clearly flushed.
"Do you have some kind of powers?" asked Roxie, deciding that it was about time someone asked what they all came here to find out.
"I... Powers?" Anka asked, looking up at the tall girl. "What kind of powers?"
"I read that the first animorphs got their power from becoming one with nature," Skye explained, her tail slapping Olivia on the forehead. She let out a small yelp and pouted. "We were wondering if that meant that you have some kind of cool nature related powers or something."
"Oh. Sorry, I don't think I do," said Anka. "I don't even know if the whole 'one with nature' thing is actually true or not. It could just be a really old folk tale that really doesn't have anything to do with reality. The only 'power' I have is being able to switch between an animal form and this one."
Alex looked disappointed. Roxie tisked. Skye had a hand on her cheek as she frowned while Olivia was rubbing her forehead on her upper arm, now completely uninterested in the conversation at hand. Anka scratched his cheek and looked away.
"Sorry I haven't been much use," he said quietly. "Honestly I don't know a lot about animorphs myself, the history or the lore... It's just something I don't really think about that much, I guess."
"No, it's alright," said Skye, the only one who remembered to stay polite no mater what. "It's been nice to talk to you. We'll let you finish your lunch before the next class starts. Girls?"
She stood up and the others followed. No one looked at Anka, except Skye who gave him a smile and a wave as they left the table.
"Well that was a colossal waste of time," declared Alex not very quietly as they walked across the cafeteria floor.
"It was your idea," said Roxie and Alex glared at her from the corner of her eye.
Behind them at the table Anka leaned his chin on his hand as he watched them leave and took a bite of his apple.
__________________________________________________________
I... don't know what's happening. I also don't really know how animorphs work hahahahahaha....... anywayyyy.
Also please stop whining about this. Your constant unwillingness to do this is really taxing my own motivation and I really want to write this story! I think it could be interesting if we just keep at it. We can do this!! (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑
In other news, since I now have a google account, I've taken the liberty of adding us as separate authors to this blog. So from now on you don't have to sign out and then back in when you want to write a post. Also anyone can see who wrote what post. How convenient!
Your topic for Friday is "Word".
Pie out.
Monday, October 19, 2015
Soar, Part 8 - Free
Skye walked to where the others were sitting at the library and slammed the book to the table. The others looked up at her, confused.
"What do you know about animorphs?" she asked as she sat down.
"They can change into animals," Alex said.
"They have a particular animal they change into," Roxie said.
"They are born with the ability?" Olivia asked, though the actual question clearly was why Skye was asking the question, not if animorphs were born with the skill.
"Did your mom say anything about how all the people are doing?" Skye asked Roxie, getting weird looks from the other girls for the sudden change of subject they never actually got into.
"Uh... No," Roxie said, "They're all still in the hospital. They haven't been able to figure out what's wrong with them. Why are you asking what we know about animorphs?"
"Because I realised we don't know much about them, so I did some research", Skye said.
"Because you think Anka has something to do with this?" Alex asked.
"You think Anka has something to do with this", Skye corrected her. "I don't know if he does, because I don't know anything about animorphs. So I went to find out something about them, so I could figure out if he had something to do with it. And honestly, we don't even know it was him back there. We don't even know if it was an animorph back there."
"What else could it have been? There aren't birds that size around here. Or anywhere," Roxie said.
"Actually, about that you're wrong", Skye said. "There are enormous birds, living far off in the South. Birds, that look more or less like that. Of course I can't know any better than more or less, because we didn't exactly get a good look, at the bird, and even if we had I doubt we'd remember. We were all busy concentrating on something else."
"Get to the point, would you?" Alex hurried her.
"Ok, since we saw a bird, I first took a look if there are any birds like that," Skye said, "I found the birds I just explained. But they've never been seen this far West, and there doesn't seem to be a reason for them to be anywhere near here. And besides, I could find anything about them that would have anything to do with turning people to statues. Basilisks can do that, though, another thing I found out, but that has nothing to do with the birds. So I decided there's probably nothing to the birds."
"So you came to tell us you found nothing?" Alex said, irritated.
"I'm not done yet," Skye frowned at her friend, "So, since there was nothing to the birds, and you thought Anka might be an animorph that turns into a bird and was there and has something to do with it, I started looking into animorphs. To figure out if that kind of thing would make any sense."
"And what did you find out?" Roxie asked.
"Well, the first animorphs appeared in the wild, old forests in the North. They lived off the forest, with the forest and everything that lived there. And they learned to understand the forest and every living thing, and they learned how to be a part of the nature, free from their humanity in a way. And the more time passed, and the more time learned, the more they learned about the world, and the more one they became with the nature around them.
"And then one day, they learned how to free themselves of the physical restrictions their human bodies bound them with, and fully become a part of the nature they lived with. They learned how to become nature, how to become animals. And they taught their young. And in time, the ability became so deeply a part of them, that it stuck, and it became a part of them so permanently it was passed on to their offspring, even now when the children aren't anywhere nearly as connected to the nature as their ancestors were."
Skye fell silent and let her words hang in the air. For a moment no one said anything.
"Well, that certainly proves you're a story teller," Alex said, breaking the silence. "But how is that relevant to anything?"
"I don't know," Skye said after a moment of hesitation. "I just thought it was interesting."
"Maybe it means their deep understanding of the world gives them some kind of ability to also change the way the world works. Like freeze a bunch of people in place. Stop other people's time," Roxie said, her face brightening with the idea.
"Or maybe it means that they are immune to some spells, knowing exactly how they work so they can get off free from their affect. Which would mean that if the bird was an animorph maybe they saw something", Skye said. "Or maybe it means nothing. Maybe this has nothing to do with any of it, and animorphs don't have any powers like this. They might once have had, which I'm not saying they did, because I don't know, but it doesn't mean they are capable of turning people into statues with a thought anymore."
"Even if it is nothing," Alex said, "We have nothing to lose looking into this. I think we should talk to our new animorph friend. See if he knows something. He showed up at the scene quite conveniently."
"Agreed," Olivia said, smiling, "Let's go talk to him. And I think he's kinda cute. Though a very weird-looking cute."
"Agreed," said Roxie too, "That we should go talk to him. Not that he's cute."
"Fine," Skye said and stood up, "Though I want you to remember we still don't know nearly enough to make any kind of conclusions, ok, guys?"
The others grumbled an agreement as they stood up and packed their things.
__________________________________________________________
The not liking this story has nothing to do with my attitude. It's got to do with the fact that I think people should write stories that speak to them, and this story gives me absolutely nothing. I can't get anything at all out of it. Every time I'm supposed to start writing I have absolutely no idea what should of could or will happen next, because this story doesn't speak to me at all. I realise that it's about coming up with the next thing yourself, but a really good story writes itself. All you have to do is sit down and start typing, and then it just happens, and you're like "oh, okay so that happened."
You know what I mean. Of course writing isn't that easy all the time. Or ever. But a story you're writing should still give you something to work with, something to inspire what happens next and give the writing a certain ease that this story just doesn't give me. The point is: this story isn't a pain to write, because it doesn't give me anything to work on.
Your topic for tomorrow is Fruit.
~matu
"What do you know about animorphs?" she asked as she sat down.
"They can change into animals," Alex said.
"They have a particular animal they change into," Roxie said.
"They are born with the ability?" Olivia asked, though the actual question clearly was why Skye was asking the question, not if animorphs were born with the skill.
"Did your mom say anything about how all the people are doing?" Skye asked Roxie, getting weird looks from the other girls for the sudden change of subject they never actually got into.
"Uh... No," Roxie said, "They're all still in the hospital. They haven't been able to figure out what's wrong with them. Why are you asking what we know about animorphs?"
"Because I realised we don't know much about them, so I did some research", Skye said.
"Because you think Anka has something to do with this?" Alex asked.
"You think Anka has something to do with this", Skye corrected her. "I don't know if he does, because I don't know anything about animorphs. So I went to find out something about them, so I could figure out if he had something to do with it. And honestly, we don't even know it was him back there. We don't even know if it was an animorph back there."
"What else could it have been? There aren't birds that size around here. Or anywhere," Roxie said.
"Actually, about that you're wrong", Skye said. "There are enormous birds, living far off in the South. Birds, that look more or less like that. Of course I can't know any better than more or less, because we didn't exactly get a good look, at the bird, and even if we had I doubt we'd remember. We were all busy concentrating on something else."
"Get to the point, would you?" Alex hurried her.
"Ok, since we saw a bird, I first took a look if there are any birds like that," Skye said, "I found the birds I just explained. But they've never been seen this far West, and there doesn't seem to be a reason for them to be anywhere near here. And besides, I could find anything about them that would have anything to do with turning people to statues. Basilisks can do that, though, another thing I found out, but that has nothing to do with the birds. So I decided there's probably nothing to the birds."
"So you came to tell us you found nothing?" Alex said, irritated.
"I'm not done yet," Skye frowned at her friend, "So, since there was nothing to the birds, and you thought Anka might be an animorph that turns into a bird and was there and has something to do with it, I started looking into animorphs. To figure out if that kind of thing would make any sense."
"And what did you find out?" Roxie asked.
"Well, the first animorphs appeared in the wild, old forests in the North. They lived off the forest, with the forest and everything that lived there. And they learned to understand the forest and every living thing, and they learned how to be a part of the nature, free from their humanity in a way. And the more time passed, and the more time learned, the more they learned about the world, and the more one they became with the nature around them.
"And then one day, they learned how to free themselves of the physical restrictions their human bodies bound them with, and fully become a part of the nature they lived with. They learned how to become nature, how to become animals. And they taught their young. And in time, the ability became so deeply a part of them, that it stuck, and it became a part of them so permanently it was passed on to their offspring, even now when the children aren't anywhere nearly as connected to the nature as their ancestors were."
Skye fell silent and let her words hang in the air. For a moment no one said anything.
"Well, that certainly proves you're a story teller," Alex said, breaking the silence. "But how is that relevant to anything?"
"I don't know," Skye said after a moment of hesitation. "I just thought it was interesting."
"Maybe it means their deep understanding of the world gives them some kind of ability to also change the way the world works. Like freeze a bunch of people in place. Stop other people's time," Roxie said, her face brightening with the idea.
"Or maybe it means that they are immune to some spells, knowing exactly how they work so they can get off free from their affect. Which would mean that if the bird was an animorph maybe they saw something", Skye said. "Or maybe it means nothing. Maybe this has nothing to do with any of it, and animorphs don't have any powers like this. They might once have had, which I'm not saying they did, because I don't know, but it doesn't mean they are capable of turning people into statues with a thought anymore."
"Even if it is nothing," Alex said, "We have nothing to lose looking into this. I think we should talk to our new animorph friend. See if he knows something. He showed up at the scene quite conveniently."
"Agreed," Olivia said, smiling, "Let's go talk to him. And I think he's kinda cute. Though a very weird-looking cute."
"Agreed," said Roxie too, "That we should go talk to him. Not that he's cute."
"Fine," Skye said and stood up, "Though I want you to remember we still don't know nearly enough to make any kind of conclusions, ok, guys?"
The others grumbled an agreement as they stood up and packed their things.
__________________________________________________________
The not liking this story has nothing to do with my attitude. It's got to do with the fact that I think people should write stories that speak to them, and this story gives me absolutely nothing. I can't get anything at all out of it. Every time I'm supposed to start writing I have absolutely no idea what should of could or will happen next, because this story doesn't speak to me at all. I realise that it's about coming up with the next thing yourself, but a really good story writes itself. All you have to do is sit down and start typing, and then it just happens, and you're like "oh, okay so that happened."
You know what I mean. Of course writing isn't that easy all the time. Or ever. But a story you're writing should still give you something to work with, something to inspire what happens next and give the writing a certain ease that this story just doesn't give me. The point is: this story isn't a pain to write, because it doesn't give me anything to work on.
Your topic for tomorrow is Fruit.
~matu
Friday, October 16, 2015
Soar, Part 7 - Trees
They called the police eventually. Roxie's mother, to be precise. Not that the police who finally arrived on the scene could figure out any better what could possibly have petrified an entire city block all at once. They did seal off the street and took all the people to a hospital at least. The girls watched their friend be lifted into a back of an ambulance as they gave their testimonies to the Roxie's mom.
"And when you got here, no one was moving," she asked, writing on her small notepad. The girls started to nod, but Olivia let our a sudden "oh!"
"No, there was a bird," she said. "A super big, white bird."
"Oh, that's right," said Alex. "It flew off from that alley when we arrived." She pointed over at the side street. Roxie's mom hummed in thought.
"How big a bird," she asked.
"Wing span bigger than mine," said Roxie, spreading her jet black wings above her head. He own wingspan was well over three meters. Her mom made a note on the pad and then rubbed a hand over her face.
"Did you notice anything else peculiar? About the bird or anything else?"
The girls exchanged glances, but none of them could think of anything and they reluctantly shook their heads. Roxie's mom sighed and tucked away her notepad.
"Well, this is something. Let's hope the hospital will be able to tell us what exactly petrified everyone. With luck it's just a really weird version of Medusa's curse, and we'll be able to turn everyone back in no time." She smiled, but it was strained. The girls knew she was just trying to make them feel better. They didn't say anything.
~x~
"Should we do something?" asked Alex after a long, long silence. They were sitting in the park, staring blankly at the colorful trees and their slowly falling leaves.
"About what, exactly?" Roxie asked, not looking up at Alex.
"Well... anything? The petrified people? Annalise? ...our choreography?"
"You're actually thinking about dancing when one of our friends could be in mortal danger??" Roxie seethed, standing up and spreading her wings in an impressive show of power.
"That's not what I mean!" Alex scoffed back, glaring at the Valkyrie. "But this competition is the chance of a lifetime and it means the world, especially to Annalise! I just... I just think that it would be disrespectful to her to just... abandon the whole thing! Besides, your mom said they might be able to cure everyone right away!"
"Mom doesn't know shit," Roxie snapped. "And apparently you don't either! We can't just leave Annalise behind! We can't-"
"Girls, please," Skye said, standing up between her two fuming friends. "Fighting isn't going to solve anything. Let's just calm down and..."
"Uh, excuse me?"
The four girls turned to look over at the sudden voice.
"Well what the fuck do you want?" Alex huffed, plopping back down on the park bench. Anka scratched his cheek, looking sheepish.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything..." he said. "If this is a bad time..."
"Oh, no, not at all," said Skye, a sweet smile on her face. "Can we help you with something? Are you lost? You are new here, right?"
"No, no. Well, yes, I am new, but I'm not lost... at the moment anyway. I was just wondering if you knew what happened over there?" he said, pointing over to where the police were still swarming. Alex stiffened and grit her teeth. "They've got the whole street blocked off but no one would tell me what had happened."
"There was a... an accident," Skye said eventually. "A lot of people had to be hospitalized. The police are still trying to figure out what exactly happened."
"Was one of your friends there? That fifth girl, uhh... Anna-Lisa?" Anka asked with a frown. Alex could feel her eye twitch. She was just about to give him a piece of her mind when he slapped a hand on his mouth. "Oh, gosh, sorry, that was rude, wasn't it? The rules of social interaction are still a bit foreign to me, I didn't mean any disrespect. I was just... worried. You five are always together, so I thought..." He shook his head. "Anyway. I hope she's fine. I'll just... leave you alone now. Sorry to have bothered you."
He gave them a small wave and walked away. The girls watched him go when suddenly Alex had a thought.
"He's an... animorph isn't he?" she asked, squinting at Anka's retreating back. "Did he ever say what animal?"
"No, I don't think so," said Skye, thinking back. "He just said he's a... oh."
"You don't mean..?" asked Olivia, looking up at Alex. She tilted her head, pressing her index finger on her lips.
"Oh yeah," she said, watching as the last of Anka's white hair disappeared behind the trees. "A big, white bird."
__________________________________________________________
Ok so this week has been super weird. My internal calendar is all mixed up cause I haven't been in school for three weeks. But yeah, here you go I managed to get it done before Monday so it's all goood.
You don't like the story because you've decided you don't like the story. I mean... you do realise that you are the person that writes the story, right? If you don't like it just make it into something else. It doesn't have to be anything you don't want it to be. We're just starting, so you can literally write anything you want. I really don't care what we write about, so... just do what you want I'll patch up everything else.
Your topic is "Free!"
Pie out.
"And when you got here, no one was moving," she asked, writing on her small notepad. The girls started to nod, but Olivia let our a sudden "oh!"
"No, there was a bird," she said. "A super big, white bird."
"Oh, that's right," said Alex. "It flew off from that alley when we arrived." She pointed over at the side street. Roxie's mom hummed in thought.
"How big a bird," she asked.
"Wing span bigger than mine," said Roxie, spreading her jet black wings above her head. He own wingspan was well over three meters. Her mom made a note on the pad and then rubbed a hand over her face.
"Did you notice anything else peculiar? About the bird or anything else?"
The girls exchanged glances, but none of them could think of anything and they reluctantly shook their heads. Roxie's mom sighed and tucked away her notepad.
"Well, this is something. Let's hope the hospital will be able to tell us what exactly petrified everyone. With luck it's just a really weird version of Medusa's curse, and we'll be able to turn everyone back in no time." She smiled, but it was strained. The girls knew she was just trying to make them feel better. They didn't say anything.
~x~
"Should we do something?" asked Alex after a long, long silence. They were sitting in the park, staring blankly at the colorful trees and their slowly falling leaves.
"About what, exactly?" Roxie asked, not looking up at Alex.
"Well... anything? The petrified people? Annalise? ...our choreography?"
"You're actually thinking about dancing when one of our friends could be in mortal danger??" Roxie seethed, standing up and spreading her wings in an impressive show of power.
"That's not what I mean!" Alex scoffed back, glaring at the Valkyrie. "But this competition is the chance of a lifetime and it means the world, especially to Annalise! I just... I just think that it would be disrespectful to her to just... abandon the whole thing! Besides, your mom said they might be able to cure everyone right away!"
"Mom doesn't know shit," Roxie snapped. "And apparently you don't either! We can't just leave Annalise behind! We can't-"
"Girls, please," Skye said, standing up between her two fuming friends. "Fighting isn't going to solve anything. Let's just calm down and..."
"Uh, excuse me?"
The four girls turned to look over at the sudden voice.
"Well what the fuck do you want?" Alex huffed, plopping back down on the park bench. Anka scratched his cheek, looking sheepish.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything..." he said. "If this is a bad time..."
"Oh, no, not at all," said Skye, a sweet smile on her face. "Can we help you with something? Are you lost? You are new here, right?"
"No, no. Well, yes, I am new, but I'm not lost... at the moment anyway. I was just wondering if you knew what happened over there?" he said, pointing over to where the police were still swarming. Alex stiffened and grit her teeth. "They've got the whole street blocked off but no one would tell me what had happened."
"There was a... an accident," Skye said eventually. "A lot of people had to be hospitalized. The police are still trying to figure out what exactly happened."
"Was one of your friends there? That fifth girl, uhh... Anna-Lisa?" Anka asked with a frown. Alex could feel her eye twitch. She was just about to give him a piece of her mind when he slapped a hand on his mouth. "Oh, gosh, sorry, that was rude, wasn't it? The rules of social interaction are still a bit foreign to me, I didn't mean any disrespect. I was just... worried. You five are always together, so I thought..." He shook his head. "Anyway. I hope she's fine. I'll just... leave you alone now. Sorry to have bothered you."
He gave them a small wave and walked away. The girls watched him go when suddenly Alex had a thought.
"He's an... animorph isn't he?" she asked, squinting at Anka's retreating back. "Did he ever say what animal?"
"No, I don't think so," said Skye, thinking back. "He just said he's a... oh."
"You don't mean..?" asked Olivia, looking up at Alex. She tilted her head, pressing her index finger on her lips.
"Oh yeah," she said, watching as the last of Anka's white hair disappeared behind the trees. "A big, white bird."
__________________________________________________________
Ok so this week has been super weird. My internal calendar is all mixed up cause I haven't been in school for three weeks. But yeah, here you go I managed to get it done before Monday so it's all goood.
You don't like the story because you've decided you don't like the story. I mean... you do realise that you are the person that writes the story, right? If you don't like it just make it into something else. It doesn't have to be anything you don't want it to be. We're just starting, so you can literally write anything you want. I really don't care what we write about, so... just do what you want I'll patch up everything else.
Your topic is "Free!"
Pie out.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Soar, Part 6 - Statues
"Hey guys!" Skye dropped her bag onto the floor of the dressing room and got a hi from the other girls and a hug from Olivia. "Sorry I'm late."
"You're not," Alex said, pulling her training pants on. Skye checked her watch for the time.
"Oh," she said. "I was sure I was going to be late. I guess I fly faster than I thought."
"Apparently," Roxie said, "And either way, Annalise isn't here yet, so it's not like we were all waiting for you."
"Yeah, good," Skye said, pulling off her shirt and digging another one from her bag.
"So does someone know when Annalise is coming?" Alex asked after a moment.
"Yeah, she said after school she'd have to head home to drop off her school stuff and pick up her training stuff and maybe grab something to eat," Roxie said, "But she said it shouldn't take her too long, and they don't live too far away, so its not like she can spend forever walking there from school and then here."
"So any minute, then?" Alex said and Roxie nodded.
"Ohh, I want to get training already," Olivia said, smiling widely. "I can't wait for the first go-through."
"I know, it's exciting, isn't it?" Skye said, pulling on some pants.
"I think we could go warm up already," Roxie said, pulling her long hair back in a ponytail, off her face. "Annalise will realise we went already when she gets here in two minutes."
"Sure, let's go," Skye said, locking her locker and grabbing her water bottle from the bench.
The girls walked into the big hall, and started moving. They were all doing a little different things. Skye and Roxie flew around carefully, warming their wings after the cold world outside. Olivia was hand-standing and doing push-ups to get her upper body warm, and Alex was skipping around the hall. In fifteen minutes all of them were pleasantly warm but not quite sweaty yet, and Annalise was nowhere to be seen.
"I'll go check the dressing room," Alex said and returned a minute later, waving her arms in confusion.
"It's not like her to be this late," Roxie said, concerned.
"It's not like her to be late at all," Skye pointed out.
"I'm sure she'll be here any minute now. Maybe she just got stuck in traffic," Olivia said.
"She got stuck in traffic walking?" Roxie asked. "I guess it's not impossible, though that wouldn't be my first guess."
"So what is your first guess?" Alex asked. Roxie looked thoughtful for a few seconds before answering.
"Honestly, I don't have one. I just hope nothing bad has happened."
"Ok. How about," Skye began. "Since we can't have a go-through without her anyway, we each train the most difficult parts on our own until she gets here?"
The other girls nodded in agreement and got to work.
"Ok, something bad has happened," Roxie said after another half an hour had passed without a sign of Annalise, and they were having a break to get something to drink and catch they're breath for a minute. "This isn't like her. Half our reserved time has already gone, and the only one of us who's always on time isn't here. I don't like this."
"I know," Alex said. "Something's not right."
"We should go," Olivia said, "We have to find our friend."
"We should stop here and walk to Annalise's place," Alex said, nodding to Olivia, "She must run into her at some point. Or if we don't, maybe someone at their place can tell us where she is."
The others nodded in agreement, and in silence they headed back to the dressing room to change into their normal clothing. Then they were on their way.
"I wonder what's happened," Olivia said as they walked out the door and began their walk to where Annalise lived.
"You shouldn't," Alex said firmly. "Because that's going to make you think about bad things, and she's alright. Of course she is."
No one said anything more after that. They all knew the chances were Annalise was alright, but they couldn't stop the dark thoughts and visions from circling in their heads. They all had the little voice in their head saying what if.
They rounded a street corner half way between the training hall and Annalise's place and came to an unexpected stop.
There was nothing moving on the street. There were a lot of people, seemingly going about their daily business, but absolutely nothing moved. The girls froze too, out of surprise.
"What has happened here?" Alex asked them in a whisper after a moment of silent staring.
"I don't know," Skye answered.
"Nothing is moving," Roxie said.
"This is scary," Olivia whispered.
A noise came from somewhere down the road and they all startled. Olivia jumped almost a meter up in the air and stuck to Skye's arm. A big, white bird took off from behind a corner leading to a short dead-end between the buildings.
"Annalise," Skye breathed and pointed, eyes white. She had just spotted their friend, frozen some fifty meters away from them, on the other side of the road. She was clearly walking in a rush, towards the training halls. Except she wasn't. The others noticed her too. Roxie began moving towards her, almost taking flight, but Alex stopped her.
"You don't know what made them into statues. You might end up the same way if you go out there," she said.
"I won't," Roxie said, "The bird didn't."
She pulled herself away from Alex's grip and half jumped half flew to Annalise. The rest followed by foot as she landed next to her. They all stood around her, in a circle. Skye touched their friend's face carefully. It was soft, but cold. She turned around to look at everyone else frozen into statues, all over the street. Then she turned back to Annalise and the rest of her friends.
"What are we going to do?" she asked.
______________________________________________________________
Yeah, I still don't like this story.
Your topic for what ever day it is is Trees
~matu
"You're not," Alex said, pulling her training pants on. Skye checked her watch for the time.
"Oh," she said. "I was sure I was going to be late. I guess I fly faster than I thought."
"Apparently," Roxie said, "And either way, Annalise isn't here yet, so it's not like we were all waiting for you."
"Yeah, good," Skye said, pulling off her shirt and digging another one from her bag.
"So does someone know when Annalise is coming?" Alex asked after a moment.
"Yeah, she said after school she'd have to head home to drop off her school stuff and pick up her training stuff and maybe grab something to eat," Roxie said, "But she said it shouldn't take her too long, and they don't live too far away, so its not like she can spend forever walking there from school and then here."
"So any minute, then?" Alex said and Roxie nodded.
"Ohh, I want to get training already," Olivia said, smiling widely. "I can't wait for the first go-through."
"I know, it's exciting, isn't it?" Skye said, pulling on some pants.
"I think we could go warm up already," Roxie said, pulling her long hair back in a ponytail, off her face. "Annalise will realise we went already when she gets here in two minutes."
"Sure, let's go," Skye said, locking her locker and grabbing her water bottle from the bench.
The girls walked into the big hall, and started moving. They were all doing a little different things. Skye and Roxie flew around carefully, warming their wings after the cold world outside. Olivia was hand-standing and doing push-ups to get her upper body warm, and Alex was skipping around the hall. In fifteen minutes all of them were pleasantly warm but not quite sweaty yet, and Annalise was nowhere to be seen.
"I'll go check the dressing room," Alex said and returned a minute later, waving her arms in confusion.
"It's not like her to be this late," Roxie said, concerned.
"It's not like her to be late at all," Skye pointed out.
"I'm sure she'll be here any minute now. Maybe she just got stuck in traffic," Olivia said.
"She got stuck in traffic walking?" Roxie asked. "I guess it's not impossible, though that wouldn't be my first guess."
"So what is your first guess?" Alex asked. Roxie looked thoughtful for a few seconds before answering.
"Honestly, I don't have one. I just hope nothing bad has happened."
"Ok. How about," Skye began. "Since we can't have a go-through without her anyway, we each train the most difficult parts on our own until she gets here?"
The other girls nodded in agreement and got to work.
"Ok, something bad has happened," Roxie said after another half an hour had passed without a sign of Annalise, and they were having a break to get something to drink and catch they're breath for a minute. "This isn't like her. Half our reserved time has already gone, and the only one of us who's always on time isn't here. I don't like this."
"I know," Alex said. "Something's not right."
"We should go," Olivia said, "We have to find our friend."
"We should stop here and walk to Annalise's place," Alex said, nodding to Olivia, "She must run into her at some point. Or if we don't, maybe someone at their place can tell us where she is."
The others nodded in agreement, and in silence they headed back to the dressing room to change into their normal clothing. Then they were on their way.
"I wonder what's happened," Olivia said as they walked out the door and began their walk to where Annalise lived.
"You shouldn't," Alex said firmly. "Because that's going to make you think about bad things, and she's alright. Of course she is."
No one said anything more after that. They all knew the chances were Annalise was alright, but they couldn't stop the dark thoughts and visions from circling in their heads. They all had the little voice in their head saying what if.
They rounded a street corner half way between the training hall and Annalise's place and came to an unexpected stop.
There was nothing moving on the street. There were a lot of people, seemingly going about their daily business, but absolutely nothing moved. The girls froze too, out of surprise.
"What has happened here?" Alex asked them in a whisper after a moment of silent staring.
"I don't know," Skye answered.
"Nothing is moving," Roxie said.
"This is scary," Olivia whispered.
A noise came from somewhere down the road and they all startled. Olivia jumped almost a meter up in the air and stuck to Skye's arm. A big, white bird took off from behind a corner leading to a short dead-end between the buildings.
"Annalise," Skye breathed and pointed, eyes white. She had just spotted their friend, frozen some fifty meters away from them, on the other side of the road. She was clearly walking in a rush, towards the training halls. Except she wasn't. The others noticed her too. Roxie began moving towards her, almost taking flight, but Alex stopped her.
"You don't know what made them into statues. You might end up the same way if you go out there," she said.
"I won't," Roxie said, "The bird didn't."
She pulled herself away from Alex's grip and half jumped half flew to Annalise. The rest followed by foot as she landed next to her. They all stood around her, in a circle. Skye touched their friend's face carefully. It was soft, but cold. She turned around to look at everyone else frozen into statues, all over the street. Then she turned back to Annalise and the rest of her friends.
"What are we going to do?" she asked.
______________________________________________________________
Yeah, I still don't like this story.
Your topic for what ever day it is is Trees
~matu
Monday, October 12, 2015
Soar, Part 5 - Duck
Monday opened up crisp and sunny, the trees around the park swaying in the soft breeze. Alex could hear the last blackbirds of the autumn singing in the trees as she hurried across the park towards the school. She was going to be late, and she refused to be late. Taking the steps two at a time she slipped into their homeroom seconds before the teacher.
"Good morning, class," said Miss Hemsburg as she walked in. Someone trailed in after her.
"Good morning, Miss Hemsburg," the class chorused after a moment's pause, no doubt caused by the surprise of seeing the newcomer.
"Today I have some very... unusual news," said the teacher, shuffling through her papers. "We received a transfer student just this weekend." She gestured at the person standing next to the teacher's desk. Alex exchanged a look with Annalise, who was sitting on the desk next to her. She shrugged. No one else in the class didn't seem to know what was happening either.
It was a boy, or at least Alex thought it was. He had white hair, just a bit wavy, cut above his ears, which were round. His eyes were yellow and they scanned the classroom with amused intrigue. He seemed... normal. Almost too normal. He possessed no outward signs of his race, like horns or wings or a tail, which wasn't that uncommon, but still stuck out like a sore thumb in the class where most people did. Alex squinted at him as his eyes drifted over her.
"Would you like to introduce yourself?" the teacher suggested, and the boy looked at her.
"Sure," he said, his voice surprisingly light. "My name is Anka, Anka Wuopio. It's nice to meet you all. I hope that we'll get along." He smiled sweetly, but Alex couldn't help but feel it was... forced, somehow.
He took a seat at the back of the class and the lesson begun.
~x~
"So, what are you, exactly?"
There was a crowd around Anka's desk during recess, as the students tried to find out more about the mysterious transfer student. He was nice, and polite, going along with their questioning and giving the most roundabout answers Alex had heard since the previous parliament elections. Alex wasn't sure what to think of it... Was he hiding something, or was he just too polite to outright tell the others to bugger off?
The girl who had asked the very straightforward question was slapped on the arm by her friend with a muffled hiss of "you can't just ask that!", but Anka just laughed.
"I am an animorphagus, actually," he answered with ease. There was a collective 'ooh', from the students. Animorphs didn't show the traits of their animal forms, except for during transformation, so that explained why no one could tell.
"What animal?" asked the friend who had just reprimanded the other girl for being just as blunt.
"Well, I can't give away all my secrets, can I?" asked Anka with a sly grin and the girls 'aww'd in disappointment. "I'll tell you this though; it's a bird."
If only you'd given away any of your secrets during the conversation, maybe I'd buy this bullshit, thought Alex to herself.
"Are you okay, Alex? You've been glaring at Anka for a while now," came a voice by Alex's ear and she looked up, surprised. Skye was looking at her, brow knit together in worry, and her other friends were looking uncertain as well.
"Oh," said Alex. She scratched behind her ear. "Sorry. It's just.... I can't shake the feeling there's something... off about 'em."
"Off?" asked Olivia and Alex shrugged.
"I don't know," she said. "I feel like there's something more to this Anka Wuopio than meets the eye."
The girls were silent for a while, regarding each other worriedly.
"I suppose..." said Roxie finally. "That would be his animal form."
The rest of the girls groaned and returned to their desks while Roxie sniggered to herself.
__________________________________________________________
DONE. I know I'm late I forgot haha.
New character ooh.
Your topic issssssssss "Statue"
Pie out.
P.S. I'm giving you full reigns on where this story goes from here. You clearly don't want to write about normal things, so You get to decide what the thing is gonna be! I'll back you up with anything you decide to write. See you on Wednesday!
"Good morning, class," said Miss Hemsburg as she walked in. Someone trailed in after her.
"Good morning, Miss Hemsburg," the class chorused after a moment's pause, no doubt caused by the surprise of seeing the newcomer.
"Today I have some very... unusual news," said the teacher, shuffling through her papers. "We received a transfer student just this weekend." She gestured at the person standing next to the teacher's desk. Alex exchanged a look with Annalise, who was sitting on the desk next to her. She shrugged. No one else in the class didn't seem to know what was happening either.
It was a boy, or at least Alex thought it was. He had white hair, just a bit wavy, cut above his ears, which were round. His eyes were yellow and they scanned the classroom with amused intrigue. He seemed... normal. Almost too normal. He possessed no outward signs of his race, like horns or wings or a tail, which wasn't that uncommon, but still stuck out like a sore thumb in the class where most people did. Alex squinted at him as his eyes drifted over her.
"Would you like to introduce yourself?" the teacher suggested, and the boy looked at her.
"Sure," he said, his voice surprisingly light. "My name is Anka, Anka Wuopio. It's nice to meet you all. I hope that we'll get along." He smiled sweetly, but Alex couldn't help but feel it was... forced, somehow.
He took a seat at the back of the class and the lesson begun.
~x~
"So, what are you, exactly?"
There was a crowd around Anka's desk during recess, as the students tried to find out more about the mysterious transfer student. He was nice, and polite, going along with their questioning and giving the most roundabout answers Alex had heard since the previous parliament elections. Alex wasn't sure what to think of it... Was he hiding something, or was he just too polite to outright tell the others to bugger off?
The girl who had asked the very straightforward question was slapped on the arm by her friend with a muffled hiss of "you can't just ask that!", but Anka just laughed.
"I am an animorphagus, actually," he answered with ease. There was a collective 'ooh', from the students. Animorphs didn't show the traits of their animal forms, except for during transformation, so that explained why no one could tell.
"What animal?" asked the friend who had just reprimanded the other girl for being just as blunt.
"Well, I can't give away all my secrets, can I?" asked Anka with a sly grin and the girls 'aww'd in disappointment. "I'll tell you this though; it's a bird."
If only you'd given away any of your secrets during the conversation, maybe I'd buy this bullshit, thought Alex to herself.
"Are you okay, Alex? You've been glaring at Anka for a while now," came a voice by Alex's ear and she looked up, surprised. Skye was looking at her, brow knit together in worry, and her other friends were looking uncertain as well.
"Oh," said Alex. She scratched behind her ear. "Sorry. It's just.... I can't shake the feeling there's something... off about 'em."
"Off?" asked Olivia and Alex shrugged.
"I don't know," she said. "I feel like there's something more to this Anka Wuopio than meets the eye."
The girls were silent for a while, regarding each other worriedly.
"I suppose..." said Roxie finally. "That would be his animal form."
The rest of the girls groaned and returned to their desks while Roxie sniggered to herself.
__________________________________________________________
DONE. I know I'm late I forgot haha.
New character ooh.
Your topic issssssssss "Statue"
Pie out.
P.S. I'm giving you full reigns on where this story goes from here. You clearly don't want to write about normal things, so You get to decide what the thing is gonna be! I'll back you up with anything you decide to write. See you on Wednesday!
Friday, October 9, 2015
Soar, Part 4 - Weekend
Skye had to leave early that evening, because she had promised babysit her little brother when her parents went to the theater that evening. Because this left the girls too little time to celebrate properly, they decided to go to Skye's place to make cookies after their training the next day. They would have a lot of time then, since it was Saturday. So that's what they did, emerging from the changing rooms and heading towards Skye's place together.
"Oooh, it's so chilly today," Annalise said as they came out of the building with the training hall.
"But it's so pretty!" Olivia said, bending down to pick up a colorful maple leaf from the ground. "Look, there's frost on the leaves!"
"Huh, you would've thought the night's frost would've melted away already", Roxie thought out loud. "It is afternoon, already."
"Yeah, but it's only two hours past noon", Skye pointed out. "It's not that warm here. In the sun the frost melts easily by now, but that leaf has been in shade all day."
"The frost is pretty. I like it it hasn't melted yet," Olivia said. Alex laughed.
"Well, you're right at that. It is really pretty," she said, "Just imagine if the whole winter was like this, not any colder, like a long long autumn. You would have the pretty frost on leaves and grass every morning for months."
The others thought about that for a while.
"Yeah, well, I like winter better," Annalise said after a moment, "And besides, there is frost everywhere every morning in winter, you just don't notice it because everything is white with snow any way."
"I like summer best. I don't like the cold," Skye said, frowning, "Do you know how horrible it's to freeze your wings, and how difficult it's to find something to keep them warm? I can't believe no one's developed wing-warmers yet! Or at least I haven't seen any anywhere, and it's not like I know how to make ones myself."
"But if it's never winter, it's never Christmas," Annalise said.
"Or, more importantly, if there's no autumn, it's never Halloween!" Alex said.
"Halloween is kinda great", Skye admitted too. "But can we hurry it up? I really want to get out of the cold."
And so the girls sped up their walk. The walk wasn't long, Skye lived only a kilometer from the training halls, but the girls were already chilly when they got there, sot he first thing they did was make some hot chocolate for everyone.
"Ok," Skye said as everyone was gathered around a table, sipping their chocolates, "What kind of cookies do you want to make? I have the basic dough recipe here, but we can add cocoa powder or chocolate chips or spices or nuts or raisins or dried fruit or really anything to it to make it better."
"Raisin cookies do sound really good," Alex said.
"But chocolate chips are so good!" Olivia objected enthusiastically.
"Would it work if we put both in the cookies? Raisin-chocolate ship cookies?" Roxie asked, uncertain.
"I don't think so..." Annalise said, "It might, but it doesn't sound like a really well working combination. Maybe we could make some chocolate ones and some raisin ones?"
"Split the dough in half? Yeah, that's perfectly doable," Skye said.
"No, I mean make two whole sets of dough so we'll have so much cookies," Annalise smirked.
"Let's make so much cookies!" Olivia agreed.
"So much cookies it is," Alex said, turning to look at Skye, "Assuming you have enough ingredients?"
"I think we do," Skye said, smiling.
And so the girls got to work. A half an hour later the dough was done and the oven was warming up, and the girls were swooping up the dough from the bowls in small (or in some girl's case in a little bigger) balls, pushing them into circles with their thumbs. And not much after that the most amazing smell began to fill the place.
"Ok, here's the first batch!" Skye said to the others "Watch out," she added as she lifted the baking tray out of the oven and onto the table on the other side of the kitchen. Olivia was at her heels, trying to get a taste as soon as Skye put the tray down.
"You can't take any yet," Skye told her as she turned around and saw her friend waiting for the cookies. Olivia's face fell, but Skye explained: "They're still soft coming out of the oven. You'll have to wait for them to cool a little bit, so they'll have time to get hard enough to pick up. And so you don't burn your fingers."
"Okay," Olivia said, and went back to the table with the others as Skye put the second tray into the oven.
"Meanwhile," Alex began, "We could talk about tomorrow. How long do we want to train tomorrow? The halls are open from noon to five. I assume we want to go there right away when it opens, so we're not stuck once again stuck training in one of the small rooms like that one time because all the ones big enough for us are occupied?"
"Yeah, that sounds good," Annalise said, "I think we'll go in then and train for as long as we have the energy. Meaning at least two hours. Sound good?"
The other girls nodded.
"Ok, so what are the things we noticed today that need the most work?" Roxie asked the others.
"That one twist I'm supposed to do," Annalise said.
"Yeah, the same for me," Alex said.
"We need to figure out the timing for that one catching thing with Skye," Olivia said, "I don't want to accidentally fall to the floor from high up there. That's why I've only trained it low so far."
"Ok, this is good," Roxie said. "This is how we get better."
"But there is surprisingly little stuff that we need to pay special attention to," Skye said, "But we do still need practise with the entire choreography, going through it in one take."
This went on for a while, the girls planning the practise for the next day. The next batch of cookies being done distracted them from that, though, and they decided to watch a movie to go with the cookies that were finally cool enough to eat. In the end the girls ended up curled on the couch with a lot of cookies for the entire evening, happy and excited about the following day and the new goals that had suddenly become possible.
__________________________________________________________
And this is why I don't write normal. Because it's boring. And they're making cookies again. Didn't someone already make cookies in one of our stories? Carol, maybe?
Anyway. Your topic for Monday (it's Friday now, right?) is Duck.
~matu
"Oooh, it's so chilly today," Annalise said as they came out of the building with the training hall.
"But it's so pretty!" Olivia said, bending down to pick up a colorful maple leaf from the ground. "Look, there's frost on the leaves!"
"Huh, you would've thought the night's frost would've melted away already", Roxie thought out loud. "It is afternoon, already."
"Yeah, but it's only two hours past noon", Skye pointed out. "It's not that warm here. In the sun the frost melts easily by now, but that leaf has been in shade all day."
"The frost is pretty. I like it it hasn't melted yet," Olivia said. Alex laughed.
"Well, you're right at that. It is really pretty," she said, "Just imagine if the whole winter was like this, not any colder, like a long long autumn. You would have the pretty frost on leaves and grass every morning for months."
The others thought about that for a while.
"Yeah, well, I like winter better," Annalise said after a moment, "And besides, there is frost everywhere every morning in winter, you just don't notice it because everything is white with snow any way."
"I like summer best. I don't like the cold," Skye said, frowning, "Do you know how horrible it's to freeze your wings, and how difficult it's to find something to keep them warm? I can't believe no one's developed wing-warmers yet! Or at least I haven't seen any anywhere, and it's not like I know how to make ones myself."
"But if it's never winter, it's never Christmas," Annalise said.
"Or, more importantly, if there's no autumn, it's never Halloween!" Alex said.
"Halloween is kinda great", Skye admitted too. "But can we hurry it up? I really want to get out of the cold."
And so the girls sped up their walk. The walk wasn't long, Skye lived only a kilometer from the training halls, but the girls were already chilly when they got there, sot he first thing they did was make some hot chocolate for everyone.
"Ok," Skye said as everyone was gathered around a table, sipping their chocolates, "What kind of cookies do you want to make? I have the basic dough recipe here, but we can add cocoa powder or chocolate chips or spices or nuts or raisins or dried fruit or really anything to it to make it better."
"Raisin cookies do sound really good," Alex said.
"But chocolate chips are so good!" Olivia objected enthusiastically.
"Would it work if we put both in the cookies? Raisin-chocolate ship cookies?" Roxie asked, uncertain.
"I don't think so..." Annalise said, "It might, but it doesn't sound like a really well working combination. Maybe we could make some chocolate ones and some raisin ones?"
"Split the dough in half? Yeah, that's perfectly doable," Skye said.
"No, I mean make two whole sets of dough so we'll have so much cookies," Annalise smirked.
"Let's make so much cookies!" Olivia agreed.
"So much cookies it is," Alex said, turning to look at Skye, "Assuming you have enough ingredients?"
"I think we do," Skye said, smiling.
And so the girls got to work. A half an hour later the dough was done and the oven was warming up, and the girls were swooping up the dough from the bowls in small (or in some girl's case in a little bigger) balls, pushing them into circles with their thumbs. And not much after that the most amazing smell began to fill the place.
"Ok, here's the first batch!" Skye said to the others "Watch out," she added as she lifted the baking tray out of the oven and onto the table on the other side of the kitchen. Olivia was at her heels, trying to get a taste as soon as Skye put the tray down.
"You can't take any yet," Skye told her as she turned around and saw her friend waiting for the cookies. Olivia's face fell, but Skye explained: "They're still soft coming out of the oven. You'll have to wait for them to cool a little bit, so they'll have time to get hard enough to pick up. And so you don't burn your fingers."
"Okay," Olivia said, and went back to the table with the others as Skye put the second tray into the oven.
"Meanwhile," Alex began, "We could talk about tomorrow. How long do we want to train tomorrow? The halls are open from noon to five. I assume we want to go there right away when it opens, so we're not stuck once again stuck training in one of the small rooms like that one time because all the ones big enough for us are occupied?"
"Yeah, that sounds good," Annalise said, "I think we'll go in then and train for as long as we have the energy. Meaning at least two hours. Sound good?"
The other girls nodded.
"Ok, so what are the things we noticed today that need the most work?" Roxie asked the others.
"That one twist I'm supposed to do," Annalise said.
"Yeah, the same for me," Alex said.
"We need to figure out the timing for that one catching thing with Skye," Olivia said, "I don't want to accidentally fall to the floor from high up there. That's why I've only trained it low so far."
"Ok, this is good," Roxie said. "This is how we get better."
"But there is surprisingly little stuff that we need to pay special attention to," Skye said, "But we do still need practise with the entire choreography, going through it in one take."
This went on for a while, the girls planning the practise for the next day. The next batch of cookies being done distracted them from that, though, and they decided to watch a movie to go with the cookies that were finally cool enough to eat. In the end the girls ended up curled on the couch with a lot of cookies for the entire evening, happy and excited about the following day and the new goals that had suddenly become possible.
__________________________________________________________
And this is why I don't write normal. Because it's boring. And they're making cookies again. Didn't someone already make cookies in one of our stories? Carol, maybe?
Anyway. Your topic for Monday (it's Friday now, right?) is Duck.
~matu
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Soar, Part 3 - Gnome
By the time the lights flickered back on a minute or so later, the three remaining girls had descended their sashes and a number of concerned spectators had gathered to the edge of the stage, including the three judges.
Roxie was sitting on the floor, holding Skye in her arms. She was trembling, holding her hands against her head as she lay across Roxie's lap.
"Skye!" cried out Olivia as she practically sprinted to the two girls' side, kneeling down next to them. Skye made a small whimper and her hand instinctually shot out at the familiar voice, grabbing at air until colliding with Olivia's hand. She more or less flung herself around the smaller girl, wrapping her leathery wings around the two of them. Her sleek tail had snaked its way around Olivia's leg and if her spirally horns were digging uncomfortably against Olivia's shoulder, the other didn't mention it.
"What happened, is she alright?" the female judge was asking, voice slightly panicky, as Olivia petted Skye's hair, cooing against her temple.
"She's alright, I broke our fall," says Roxie, standing up and dusting herself off. She flexed her own wings around for a bit, before tucking them against her back.
"Skye suffers from a fear of the darkness," Alex explained. "If it comes suddenly like that, she might get a panic attack. Olivia will get her to calm down in a minute."
"A daemon that's afraid of the dark," said the judge with a shake of her head, sounding surprised but ultimately glad no one was hurt. "This is certainly new."
The main door into the hall opened and everyone turned to look. The janitor was standing in the doorway, panting a little and looking sheepish.
"Sorry 'bout the interruption, ladies," she said. "One of the fuses blew. I hope no one got hurt while the lights were out."
"No, no, we're fine, luckily," said the judge, waving her hand. "Thank you for getting the power back on so quickly."
"No problemo, ma'am," said the janitor, tipped her cap, and left the hall again. The judge turned back to the girls on the stage. Skye had calmed down considerably, though she hadn't managed to find her footing yet, and she was still clinging to Olivia.
"So, uh," started Annalise, fidgeting with the hem of her uniform. "Do we... do we redo our choreography, or..?"
"Oh. Oh, no, I don't think there's a need for that. I think we've seen enough already," said the female judge, taking her seat at the judges' table again. The girls' could feel their hearts sinking because that really didn't sound too good.
One of the other two judges leaned in to whisper something into the main judge's ear and she smiled and nodded. The other one did the same. The girls stood on the stage, nervous beyond all measure. Sure they had been almost at the end of the routine when the power cut out, but they had had some great spirals planned to the ending, and if they dropped now...
"You're through to the next round!" said the judge happily, pushing her big glasses along her sharp nose.
The girls stood there for a moment, processing what had just been said. They burst out into cheers simultaneously, jumping up and down in excitement. Roxie even took flight for a few seconds. They hugged each other, and shook hands with the judges, and were instructed on where to go get the instructions for the next round. They left the stage feeling light headed and dazed and happy.
After changing out of their uniforms and back to their everyday clothes they went to the entrance hall to find the person to give the next set of instructions. They found two of them, a harpy and a gnome, sitting by a desk. The girls went over to them, introduced themselves, and got their instructions. The gnome explained things, while the harpy was gazing Roxie's wings up and down, clearly impressed by their beautifully maintained, jet black feather coat. Roxie gave her a wink when their gazes met.
The next round was also being held in Saint Hallows the following Friday, trimming the groups that passed the preliminary selecting into the top ten, who would move onwards to the next round. The third round would be statewide, and it was to be held at the state capital a month from the second round.
"So you're saying if we pass the next round we'll get to the state championship?" asked Annalise, studying the chart on the back of the pamphlet explaining how the selection process worked.
"Yes, although there is no saying how easy that will be, because there's no set number of groups that pass the preliminaries," said the gnome. She was sitting on the edge of the table, dangling her short legs over the edge. "Probably several dozen groups, going by the numbers of the last years. And getting through to the nationals is going to be even harder, because they do only take best group."
"Yeah, we know," said Alex, flipping through the pamphlet and then slapping it on the table, shaking it so that the poor gnome had to lean back to not fall down. "Is it televised?"
"Is what what?" asked the gnome, frowning at the fae. Alex rolled her eyes.
"Is the state championship going to be televised?" she repeated, flicking her shiny hair over her shoulder. "I've always wanted to dance on camera!"
"Yeah, I think so," intervened the harpy. "At least the previous ones have been. It's not live though." Alex let out a thoughtful hum and frowned
"The nationals are live, if that makes you feel better," the gnome offered, slightly amused.
"Well, good enough for me," said Alex, shrugging. "Oh, this is so exciting!"
"It really is, isn't it," says Skye. Though she was feeling back to normal Olivia refused to let go of her arm. "To think we passed the preliminaries just like that... It was much easier than I had anticipated."
"We're just that great!" said Olivia with a gleeful smile. "And our next choreography is even greater!"
"It is also much harder," reminded Roxie. "So we need to keep training this weekend too."
"I know, I know," said Olivia with only a small whine in her voice. "Shall we go now? We could go get celebratory smoothies or something?"
"Pumpkin spice latte!" roared Alex, throwing her fists in the air and the girls laughed as they walked out of the gymnasium into the cool, fall night.
________________________________________________________
Fuck off with your gnomes.
I do like that idea that most people aren't humans tho, so I kinda went with it. My current headcanon for the girls: Alex is a forest fae, Skye is a daemon (which is essentially the same as a demon but without as much... christianity), Roxie is a Valkyrie, Olivia is a succubus, and Annalise is a ... idk yet. But yeah, only Alex and Skye's races have been explicitly stated so far, so I guess the others are still up for grabs... although Roxie needs to be sth with wings obvs.
Ha, you thought they'd be like angels wings or fairy wings or some shit? Lol nope, DEMON WINGS! Yaaaaaaas.
Anyway. Your topic is "Weekend". Just write... normal stuff, k?
Pie out.
P.S. In case you are confused about the harpy, I would like to point out that their original depiction is actually beautiful women with wings instead of hands. The whole "chicken with a woman's head" thing came much, much later. Basically what I'm imagining is like a generally humanoid creature with like wings as hands and bird legs and maybe a tail? Possibly a bird-ish face. I might draw some creatures later on, who knows.
P.P.S If you are one of the people who read the epilogue to The Sorcerer during the day of the 1st, I highly recommend you go reread it there's been some additions because I forgot some really important shit. Or, if you missed it completely, here it is. Go read it!
Roxie was sitting on the floor, holding Skye in her arms. She was trembling, holding her hands against her head as she lay across Roxie's lap.
"Skye!" cried out Olivia as she practically sprinted to the two girls' side, kneeling down next to them. Skye made a small whimper and her hand instinctually shot out at the familiar voice, grabbing at air until colliding with Olivia's hand. She more or less flung herself around the smaller girl, wrapping her leathery wings around the two of them. Her sleek tail had snaked its way around Olivia's leg and if her spirally horns were digging uncomfortably against Olivia's shoulder, the other didn't mention it.
"What happened, is she alright?" the female judge was asking, voice slightly panicky, as Olivia petted Skye's hair, cooing against her temple.
"She's alright, I broke our fall," says Roxie, standing up and dusting herself off. She flexed her own wings around for a bit, before tucking them against her back.
"Skye suffers from a fear of the darkness," Alex explained. "If it comes suddenly like that, she might get a panic attack. Olivia will get her to calm down in a minute."
"A daemon that's afraid of the dark," said the judge with a shake of her head, sounding surprised but ultimately glad no one was hurt. "This is certainly new."
The main door into the hall opened and everyone turned to look. The janitor was standing in the doorway, panting a little and looking sheepish.
"Sorry 'bout the interruption, ladies," she said. "One of the fuses blew. I hope no one got hurt while the lights were out."
"No, no, we're fine, luckily," said the judge, waving her hand. "Thank you for getting the power back on so quickly."
"No problemo, ma'am," said the janitor, tipped her cap, and left the hall again. The judge turned back to the girls on the stage. Skye had calmed down considerably, though she hadn't managed to find her footing yet, and she was still clinging to Olivia.
"So, uh," started Annalise, fidgeting with the hem of her uniform. "Do we... do we redo our choreography, or..?"
"Oh. Oh, no, I don't think there's a need for that. I think we've seen enough already," said the female judge, taking her seat at the judges' table again. The girls' could feel their hearts sinking because that really didn't sound too good.
One of the other two judges leaned in to whisper something into the main judge's ear and she smiled and nodded. The other one did the same. The girls stood on the stage, nervous beyond all measure. Sure they had been almost at the end of the routine when the power cut out, but they had had some great spirals planned to the ending, and if they dropped now...
"You're through to the next round!" said the judge happily, pushing her big glasses along her sharp nose.
The girls stood there for a moment, processing what had just been said. They burst out into cheers simultaneously, jumping up and down in excitement. Roxie even took flight for a few seconds. They hugged each other, and shook hands with the judges, and were instructed on where to go get the instructions for the next round. They left the stage feeling light headed and dazed and happy.
After changing out of their uniforms and back to their everyday clothes they went to the entrance hall to find the person to give the next set of instructions. They found two of them, a harpy and a gnome, sitting by a desk. The girls went over to them, introduced themselves, and got their instructions. The gnome explained things, while the harpy was gazing Roxie's wings up and down, clearly impressed by their beautifully maintained, jet black feather coat. Roxie gave her a wink when their gazes met.
The next round was also being held in Saint Hallows the following Friday, trimming the groups that passed the preliminary selecting into the top ten, who would move onwards to the next round. The third round would be statewide, and it was to be held at the state capital a month from the second round.
"So you're saying if we pass the next round we'll get to the state championship?" asked Annalise, studying the chart on the back of the pamphlet explaining how the selection process worked.
"Yes, although there is no saying how easy that will be, because there's no set number of groups that pass the preliminaries," said the gnome. She was sitting on the edge of the table, dangling her short legs over the edge. "Probably several dozen groups, going by the numbers of the last years. And getting through to the nationals is going to be even harder, because they do only take best group."
"Yeah, we know," said Alex, flipping through the pamphlet and then slapping it on the table, shaking it so that the poor gnome had to lean back to not fall down. "Is it televised?"
"Is what what?" asked the gnome, frowning at the fae. Alex rolled her eyes.
"Is the state championship going to be televised?" she repeated, flicking her shiny hair over her shoulder. "I've always wanted to dance on camera!"
"Yeah, I think so," intervened the harpy. "At least the previous ones have been. It's not live though." Alex let out a thoughtful hum and frowned
"The nationals are live, if that makes you feel better," the gnome offered, slightly amused.
"Well, good enough for me," said Alex, shrugging. "Oh, this is so exciting!"
"It really is, isn't it," says Skye. Though she was feeling back to normal Olivia refused to let go of her arm. "To think we passed the preliminaries just like that... It was much easier than I had anticipated."
"We're just that great!" said Olivia with a gleeful smile. "And our next choreography is even greater!"
"It is also much harder," reminded Roxie. "So we need to keep training this weekend too."
"I know, I know," said Olivia with only a small whine in her voice. "Shall we go now? We could go get celebratory smoothies or something?"
"Pumpkin spice latte!" roared Alex, throwing her fists in the air and the girls laughed as they walked out of the gymnasium into the cool, fall night.
________________________________________________________
Fuck off with your gnomes.
I do like that idea that most people aren't humans tho, so I kinda went with it. My current headcanon for the girls: Alex is a forest fae, Skye is a daemon (which is essentially the same as a demon but without as much... christianity), Roxie is a Valkyrie, Olivia is a succubus, and Annalise is a ... idk yet. But yeah, only Alex and Skye's races have been explicitly stated so far, so I guess the others are still up for grabs... although Roxie needs to be sth with wings obvs.
Ha, you thought they'd be like angels wings or fairy wings or some shit? Lol nope, DEMON WINGS! Yaaaaaaas.
Anyway. Your topic is "Weekend". Just write... normal stuff, k?
Pie out.
P.S. In case you are confused about the harpy, I would like to point out that their original depiction is actually beautiful women with wings instead of hands. The whole "chicken with a woman's head" thing came much, much later. Basically what I'm imagining is like a generally humanoid creature with like wings as hands and bird legs and maybe a tail? Possibly a bird-ish face. I might draw some creatures later on, who knows.
P.P.S If you are one of the people who read the epilogue to The Sorcerer during the day of the 1st, I highly recommend you go reread it there's been some additions because I forgot some really important shit. Or, if you missed it completely, here it is. Go read it!
Monday, October 5, 2015
Soar, Part 2 - Wild
"Hello," said the woman behind the long table as the girls entered the hall. She had huge glasses, and hair tied loosely behind her head, so that it stayed out of the way. She smiled at them. The men sitting on both sides of her didn't.
"Hello," said Alex, the other girls crowding around her, "I'm Alex, and these are Roxie, Annalise, Olivia and Skye. We're here to try out for a spot in the international championships."
"Everyone is," the woman told them. "Let's see what you've got, then."
The music started, and Skye and Roxie were already up in the air. Having two winged members in the team gave them a shot to be good enough to get through the incredibly tight qualification criteria to make it to actual competitions. Or so they hoped. They had been practising a lot, but they knew this was just their first time trying, and many groups tried at least half a dozen times before passing.
The other girls were off the floor too, climbing the fabric half way up to the high ceiling in seconds. Their wild dance began with the ninth beat, and they swirled, and flipped and climbed, up and down and round, with perfect timing and synchrony.
The girls had been nervous before, understandably. It was a huge opportunity for them, and would mean huge changes in their lives if they could get that opportunity. It was one of the scariest things any of them had ever had to do. But it had been good nervous, with butterflies on the stomach and excitement in their eyes when they ha talked about doing this. And it's not like it was their only opportunity. If they didn't pass now, they could always practise more, they could train harder, make a better choreography, and come back for the try outs next year. Even so, they all wanted it very much, and they were nervous, because in a situation like that, who wouldn't be? Even if it wasn't the end of the world if they didn't pass. But all the nervousness, and the anxiety about preforming vanished as the girls got up there, swinging and dancing and swirling high up off the floor of the hall. Everything else in the world was forgotten when they got up there and began, because in that moment, there was nothing else.
They were all breathing hard soon, but it felt good. Their wait in line before their turn had been a good length, enough to catch your breath properly, fill your body with new oxygen, but not so much as to get your muscles cold again, if you kept moving a little all the time. So they had been nice and warm and ready once they got started.
Not that air dancing was all about sports and muscle strength and stamina and being able to do all the movements. It was also about cleverness, making the audience think you're about to do something and then do something completely different. It was about surprising whoever was watching you, and it was about making a beautiful show, even if the technique wasn't so difficult the movements were light to do. Though often it helped to be both clever and smart. And often it would be you pushed harder than you thought you could, did things you wouldn't actually have the strength for, but the dance would swoop you in and you'd let it, so you would only realise how exhausted you and all your muscles were after you were finished.
The choreography the girls had made for this show was a little different than what they usually did. It told about all things beautiful, or at least it told them about all things beautiful. They could only hope their meanings would understood also by the audience. It told about the colors of fall, and the first frozen puddle on a cold morning, and fireplaces and woollen socks and thick blankets you could crawl under to drink hot tea, preferably with a friend. It told about hot chocolate and freshly baked cookies and candle light. It told about how beautiful a city looks in the dark.
Their show was near its end when it happened. The entire hall went dark, all at once, all without warning. The music stopped, and complete silence filled the hall along with the darkness. In the dim light that came in through the windows on one wall near the ceiling from the already dark world outside three of the girls saw the shapes of their winged friends simply fall out of the air.
___________________________________________________________
I have absolutely no idea. Which is why this is so short. Did I ever tell you I tried to read The Little Women, but never made it further than the first chapter, because my god that kind of girl books like that are so... Blah. So I'm a little nervous writing a book about a bunch of girls, because a story like that can just be so boring I wouldn't want to read it myself, and that would be bad for having to write it. So... Wings.
Oooooh that sucks, I know, but there is absolutely nothing coming out of my head for a story like this. Maybe if we always just take the most idiotic idea that we come up with and write that idea as he next bit and then see where that takes us? And by idiotic I don't mean the most cliche thing, though that's kind of idiotic too, but the kind of thing that when the lights come back they realise they are in a cave filled with gnomes that want to take them as queens.
I'm not saying it would make a good story, but it would definitely make a very, very weird story, which might be interesting on its own, but also it would be interesting to see where a story like that that would end up.
Yeah, I have no idea what I'm talking about any more, because that is just a train of thought I ended up following and writing down, and I have no idea.
Either way, gnomes is... well, not a good idea by any means, but one we haven't yet used in any of our stories, so why don't you take that to be your next topic.
So Gnomes it is.
I can already feel how this story will be an enormous disaster for my part.
~matu
"Hello," said Alex, the other girls crowding around her, "I'm Alex, and these are Roxie, Annalise, Olivia and Skye. We're here to try out for a spot in the international championships."
"Everyone is," the woman told them. "Let's see what you've got, then."
The music started, and Skye and Roxie were already up in the air. Having two winged members in the team gave them a shot to be good enough to get through the incredibly tight qualification criteria to make it to actual competitions. Or so they hoped. They had been practising a lot, but they knew this was just their first time trying, and many groups tried at least half a dozen times before passing.
The other girls were off the floor too, climbing the fabric half way up to the high ceiling in seconds. Their wild dance began with the ninth beat, and they swirled, and flipped and climbed, up and down and round, with perfect timing and synchrony.
The girls had been nervous before, understandably. It was a huge opportunity for them, and would mean huge changes in their lives if they could get that opportunity. It was one of the scariest things any of them had ever had to do. But it had been good nervous, with butterflies on the stomach and excitement in their eyes when they ha talked about doing this. And it's not like it was their only opportunity. If they didn't pass now, they could always practise more, they could train harder, make a better choreography, and come back for the try outs next year. Even so, they all wanted it very much, and they were nervous, because in a situation like that, who wouldn't be? Even if it wasn't the end of the world if they didn't pass. But all the nervousness, and the anxiety about preforming vanished as the girls got up there, swinging and dancing and swirling high up off the floor of the hall. Everything else in the world was forgotten when they got up there and began, because in that moment, there was nothing else.
They were all breathing hard soon, but it felt good. Their wait in line before their turn had been a good length, enough to catch your breath properly, fill your body with new oxygen, but not so much as to get your muscles cold again, if you kept moving a little all the time. So they had been nice and warm and ready once they got started.
Not that air dancing was all about sports and muscle strength and stamina and being able to do all the movements. It was also about cleverness, making the audience think you're about to do something and then do something completely different. It was about surprising whoever was watching you, and it was about making a beautiful show, even if the technique wasn't so difficult the movements were light to do. Though often it helped to be both clever and smart. And often it would be you pushed harder than you thought you could, did things you wouldn't actually have the strength for, but the dance would swoop you in and you'd let it, so you would only realise how exhausted you and all your muscles were after you were finished.
The choreography the girls had made for this show was a little different than what they usually did. It told about all things beautiful, or at least it told them about all things beautiful. They could only hope their meanings would understood also by the audience. It told about the colors of fall, and the first frozen puddle on a cold morning, and fireplaces and woollen socks and thick blankets you could crawl under to drink hot tea, preferably with a friend. It told about hot chocolate and freshly baked cookies and candle light. It told about how beautiful a city looks in the dark.
Their show was near its end when it happened. The entire hall went dark, all at once, all without warning. The music stopped, and complete silence filled the hall along with the darkness. In the dim light that came in through the windows on one wall near the ceiling from the already dark world outside three of the girls saw the shapes of their winged friends simply fall out of the air.
___________________________________________________________
I have absolutely no idea. Which is why this is so short. Did I ever tell you I tried to read The Little Women, but never made it further than the first chapter, because my god that kind of girl books like that are so... Blah. So I'm a little nervous writing a book about a bunch of girls, because a story like that can just be so boring I wouldn't want to read it myself, and that would be bad for having to write it. So... Wings.
Oooooh that sucks, I know, but there is absolutely nothing coming out of my head for a story like this. Maybe if we always just take the most idiotic idea that we come up with and write that idea as he next bit and then see where that takes us? And by idiotic I don't mean the most cliche thing, though that's kind of idiotic too, but the kind of thing that when the lights come back they realise they are in a cave filled with gnomes that want to take them as queens.
I'm not saying it would make a good story, but it would definitely make a very, very weird story, which might be interesting on its own, but also it would be interesting to see where a story like that that would end up.
Yeah, I have no idea what I'm talking about any more, because that is just a train of thought I ended up following and writing down, and I have no idea.
Either way, gnomes is... well, not a good idea by any means, but one we haven't yet used in any of our stories, so why don't you take that to be your next topic.
So Gnomes it is.
I can already feel how this story will be an enormous disaster for my part.
~matu
Friday, October 2, 2015
Soar, Part 1 - First Color
"I can't believe Roxie is sick!" Annalise whined as the three girls made their way through the park. "Today, of all days! We need her today! She's out star!"
The fall wind was cool as it whipped around them and Alex tightened the scarf around her neck before patting Annalise sympathetically on the back. Olivia was running a little way ahead, kicking fallen leaves and stomping on the many puddles formed by the past few day's rain. She was wearing a pair of ladybug rain boots, which would have looked childish on anyone else, but on Olivia, they were just endearing.
"We'll do fine, stop worrying about it!" said Alex, looping her hand through Annalise's. "Sure, Roxie is the most skilled of us, but we're a team, and we're going to kick butt."
"Yeah, but-" stared Annalise but she was cut off by Olivia.
"Check out this leaf!" she said with a big grin, excited beyond reason. In her hands was a maple leaf, bigger than her face, with a beautiful array of colors across its surface. Reds, yellows, oranges, and greens sliding and swirling in beautiful patterns on it and Alex smiled softly and looked up at the trees around them. True enough they were filled with similar colors as they swayed in the wind.
"God, I love autumn," she said, her smile widening.
"Yeah, we know," said Annalise with a laugh as they continued walking, Olivia leaving their side occasionally to pick up more beautiful leaves from the ground. "And everything that entails."
"Is there a sweeter thing in the world than a pumpkin spice latte?" sighed Alex wistfully.
"Anything else," said Annalise at the same time as Olivia chimed, "Cotton candy!"
"It was a rhetorical question and you know it, twats," said Alex, giving her friends a mock glare. "And quit raining on my parade, I don't ruin Valentine's day for you, do I?"
"But I thought you liked rain!" said Annalise and then dodged the slap Alex haphazardly threw her way.
"Hey! Skye!" squealed Olivia when the front of the gymnasium came into view. She was waving at the fourth girl who had been waiting for them by the front door and she waved back. Olivia ran the rest of the way, only remembering to check for traffic after stepping on the road that ran between the park and the gymnasium.
"Sorry, did you wait long?" asked Alex when the two of them reached the gymnasium. Olivia had already glued herself to Skye's side, but she smiled and shook her head.
"I've only been here for a few minutes. I could hear your talking from across the park and decided to wait," she told the others. Olivia rested her head on Skye's shoulder and smiled in a manner that could really only be described as 'stupidly'.
"That's nice of you," said Annalise as they started to move inside. "Olivia clearly appreciates it."
Olivia stuck her tongue out a her, but then turned her attention back to Skye, a wide smile on her face. They greeted the janitor as they walked across the entrance hall and towards the back, through the door that lead downstairs where the dressing rooms were situated. Their dressing room was empty when they got there and Alex checked her watch, surprised. They did have over forty minutes left, which explained why no one else had come yet.
"Someone remind me why we're here so early?" she asked.
"Because you said we wouldn't have time to go anywhere else after school so it would be just the same to come straight here," said Annalise, hanging her bag in one of the lockers and pulling her coat off.
"Well why didn't anyone tell me I was wrong," complained Alex as she started to tug her own boots off. "We would've had time to stop by that one café on the way from school, but it's too late now to go back!" She dropped the boots to the bottom of the locker and then unbuttoned her jacket.
"If we'd stopped, you would've just had a bunch of cupcakes, right?" asked Olivia with a grin. She'd already taken her uniform from her bag and was in the process of taking her shirt off. Alex flushed, but only a little, mind you.
"That's not true!" she sputtered and then paused. "Necessarily..."
"God, Alex, you can't binge eat on big days, you know that!" Annalise reprimanded her as she looked away. "It's bad enough Roxie is-"
"Roxie is what?" came a voice from the door and the four girls turned to see Roxie herself standing there, hands on her hips and a grin on her face.
"What the hell, girl?" Annalise almost shouted as she stood up and walked over to the tallest girl. "
We thought you were sick! Why weren't you at school?"
"I was sick," says Roxie, pushing past the not-quite-fuming Annalise. "So I decided to skip school and rest so I'd have enough energy to come here! I couldn't leave you guys stranded on our big day, now could I?"
"Nice," said Alex and gave her a fistbump. Annalise sighed and rubbed her forehead.
"Well, as long as you're here now. You sure you're up for this?" she asked.
"As sure as I'll ever be!" said Roxie, giving her a thumbs up.
"Should we do some last minute practicing once everyone has changed?" suggested Skye, who had apparently managed to change into her uniform already. The others nodded in agreement and went back to changing, and once they were all ready they went over to one of the large rooms along the hall.
After a rather tense thirty minutes of practicing they left again, stopping by the dressing room once more, before making their way up into the main hall.
________________________________________________________
Ooh, exciting!
Apparently our main character this time is... a group of teenage girls. Or like... young adults. 18±2yrs I imagine. Alex is British.
But the big question is, of course, what exactly do they do? Is it a sport? Basketball, volleyball, floorball? Is it dancing? Or is it something... magical?? A pokemon contest!? Are they participating in a talent show?? Who knows!!? I sure as hell don't!!
We shall see, eh?
Okay, so, schedule! We're doing this thing like we did with the previous story: that is every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, each writing every second one. It will go... until it goes, somewhere to the middle of November probably. It will end before December tho, because that's when the next Christmas story begins.
On a separate note, in case someone missed it I finally wrote that epilogue for "The Sorcerer"! Yay! It's literally the previous post made, so just keep scrolling down to get to that. And drop a note if there's still something you didn't understand about what happened/want to know something more about what went on after the thing.
Anyway, I'm gonna go eat dinner now. The next part will be on Monday and the topic will be... "Wild"!
Pie out.
The fall wind was cool as it whipped around them and Alex tightened the scarf around her neck before patting Annalise sympathetically on the back. Olivia was running a little way ahead, kicking fallen leaves and stomping on the many puddles formed by the past few day's rain. She was wearing a pair of ladybug rain boots, which would have looked childish on anyone else, but on Olivia, they were just endearing.
"We'll do fine, stop worrying about it!" said Alex, looping her hand through Annalise's. "Sure, Roxie is the most skilled of us, but we're a team, and we're going to kick butt."
"Yeah, but-" stared Annalise but she was cut off by Olivia.
"Check out this leaf!" she said with a big grin, excited beyond reason. In her hands was a maple leaf, bigger than her face, with a beautiful array of colors across its surface. Reds, yellows, oranges, and greens sliding and swirling in beautiful patterns on it and Alex smiled softly and looked up at the trees around them. True enough they were filled with similar colors as they swayed in the wind.
"God, I love autumn," she said, her smile widening.
"Yeah, we know," said Annalise with a laugh as they continued walking, Olivia leaving their side occasionally to pick up more beautiful leaves from the ground. "And everything that entails."
"Is there a sweeter thing in the world than a pumpkin spice latte?" sighed Alex wistfully.
"Anything else," said Annalise at the same time as Olivia chimed, "Cotton candy!"
"It was a rhetorical question and you know it, twats," said Alex, giving her friends a mock glare. "And quit raining on my parade, I don't ruin Valentine's day for you, do I?"
"But I thought you liked rain!" said Annalise and then dodged the slap Alex haphazardly threw her way.
"Hey! Skye!" squealed Olivia when the front of the gymnasium came into view. She was waving at the fourth girl who had been waiting for them by the front door and she waved back. Olivia ran the rest of the way, only remembering to check for traffic after stepping on the road that ran between the park and the gymnasium.
"Sorry, did you wait long?" asked Alex when the two of them reached the gymnasium. Olivia had already glued herself to Skye's side, but she smiled and shook her head.
"I've only been here for a few minutes. I could hear your talking from across the park and decided to wait," she told the others. Olivia rested her head on Skye's shoulder and smiled in a manner that could really only be described as 'stupidly'.
"That's nice of you," said Annalise as they started to move inside. "Olivia clearly appreciates it."
Olivia stuck her tongue out a her, but then turned her attention back to Skye, a wide smile on her face. They greeted the janitor as they walked across the entrance hall and towards the back, through the door that lead downstairs where the dressing rooms were situated. Their dressing room was empty when they got there and Alex checked her watch, surprised. They did have over forty minutes left, which explained why no one else had come yet.
"Someone remind me why we're here so early?" she asked.
"Because you said we wouldn't have time to go anywhere else after school so it would be just the same to come straight here," said Annalise, hanging her bag in one of the lockers and pulling her coat off.
"Well why didn't anyone tell me I was wrong," complained Alex as she started to tug her own boots off. "We would've had time to stop by that one café on the way from school, but it's too late now to go back!" She dropped the boots to the bottom of the locker and then unbuttoned her jacket.
"If we'd stopped, you would've just had a bunch of cupcakes, right?" asked Olivia with a grin. She'd already taken her uniform from her bag and was in the process of taking her shirt off. Alex flushed, but only a little, mind you.
"That's not true!" she sputtered and then paused. "Necessarily..."
"God, Alex, you can't binge eat on big days, you know that!" Annalise reprimanded her as she looked away. "It's bad enough Roxie is-"
"Roxie is what?" came a voice from the door and the four girls turned to see Roxie herself standing there, hands on her hips and a grin on her face.
"What the hell, girl?" Annalise almost shouted as she stood up and walked over to the tallest girl. "
We thought you were sick! Why weren't you at school?"
"I was sick," says Roxie, pushing past the not-quite-fuming Annalise. "So I decided to skip school and rest so I'd have enough energy to come here! I couldn't leave you guys stranded on our big day, now could I?"
"Nice," said Alex and gave her a fistbump. Annalise sighed and rubbed her forehead.
"Well, as long as you're here now. You sure you're up for this?" she asked.
"As sure as I'll ever be!" said Roxie, giving her a thumbs up.
"Should we do some last minute practicing once everyone has changed?" suggested Skye, who had apparently managed to change into her uniform already. The others nodded in agreement and went back to changing, and once they were all ready they went over to one of the large rooms along the hall.
After a rather tense thirty minutes of practicing they left again, stopping by the dressing room once more, before making their way up into the main hall.
________________________________________________________
Ooh, exciting!
Apparently our main character this time is... a group of teenage girls. Or like... young adults. 18±2yrs I imagine. Alex is British.
But the big question is, of course, what exactly do they do? Is it a sport? Basketball, volleyball, floorball? Is it dancing? Or is it something... magical?? A pokemon contest!? Are they participating in a talent show?? Who knows!!? I sure as hell don't!!
We shall see, eh?
Okay, so, schedule! We're doing this thing like we did with the previous story: that is every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, each writing every second one. It will go... until it goes, somewhere to the middle of November probably. It will end before December tho, because that's when the next Christmas story begins.
On a separate note, in case someone missed it I finally wrote that epilogue for "The Sorcerer"! Yay! It's literally the previous post made, so just keep scrolling down to get to that. And drop a note if there's still something you didn't understand about what happened/want to know something more about what went on after the thing.
Anyway, I'm gonna go eat dinner now. The next part will be on Monday and the topic will be... "Wild"!
Pie out.
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