Spare Time (open)

[Exxie]

"STEE-RIKE THREE! YOU'RE OUT!"

"That's in baseball, you moron."

"Quit calling me names or I'll call security. That would be a mistake on your part. Besides, who are you to judge? I'm calling it on some other guy's game."

"That would be a mistake on your part to call security. And ask yourself this question: does the girl before you look like she cares a wit about whether you don't want her to call you out on judging someone else's game?" The guy running the bowling alley really was stupid. Maybe there was a reason he was on the shift that was always pretty slow.

"Get me some bowling shoes, size 8." He stuck his tongue out at her. Real mature. Then he put the shoes on the counter and she looked at the shoe's tab. Size 6.

"I said size 8." Her voice was patient and quiet. The guy grinned mischievously. She just wanted a nice relaxing game of bowling. Just practice. She didn't have to play against anyone. Then he put a new pair of shoes on the counter and she looked in the tab. Size 8 alright. Men's.

"I said size 8 ladies."

"You can't prove that." Well, this was as good a time as any to test out her new trick. She shifted the light in the room that was behind her so that the light shone on her. His eyes widened.

"Y-y-you're a mutant!"

"Can you prove that?" She laughed, putting a palm on the counter, and vaulting over it. Size 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and...8. Ladies. Good. Jodie grinned and vaulted back over, letting the light do as it chose again. She put the money down on the counter, only short one dollar just for the sake of it.

"Good luck explaining to your boss why you're a dollar short at the end of the day. Have a good evening." Then she walked over to the nearest bench, lacing the ugly pink and blue shoes up and going to alley number one. It was empty after all. And she knew the guy could see her there. She picked up the first bowling ball, a sparkly blue one. Perfect. Putting her fingers in the holes, she hefted it gently down the lane with a smile on her face. Currently, she was suppressing her glowing ability. The people wouldn't believe one guy with a crazy reputation, but more witnesses to her ability could get...messy. Literally, if she used her training to defend herself. A spare. Hmm...not as good as she would have liked.

[Constance Bumble]

Constance walked into the bowling alley alone, a small bag containing a book, a watch and a couple of loose pens that she carried around was hanging over her shoulder. There weren't that many people here, she didn't think. She didn't really know how many people were normally in a bowling alley, the last time she was in an actual bowling alley, she was five. When she turned fourteen she had gotten a rubbish outdoor bowling set and had played it quite often with Lucas the butler, but she found that it got boring after a while, because she'd always win, even if she did cheat. She discovered her powers a year before then, and, with hand movements, found it relatively easy to direct the ball in the direction she wanted to get a strike, even if that was the extent of her abilities at the time. Lucas didn't know about her powers, which made it even easier to cheat and win.

There was a small queue of three people, a couple behind a blonde female, who seemed to be arguing with the man at the counter about bowling shoes. At first she had thought the blonde girl was a complete stranger, but when the couple went to the other worker ay the counter, and Constance moved forward; metres away from the female, she realised that the voice and the hair belonged to Jodie. After the man behind the counter had given her the wrong pair of shoes twice, it became very obvious that the blonde was Jodie when the lights did an odd trick, shining onto her. She gave a small smile as the man's facial expression shifted into shock as he realised that Jodie had powers. The smile stayed plastered to her face as she watched Jodie vault over the counter, got the right pair of shoes and vaulted back to the right side. She didn't even notice the lights go back to normal when Jodie gave the man money and walked off to put shoes on.

When Constance walked up to the counter with her boots in hand, the man's face hadn't changed, and he was staring like a fish at Jodie who was now beginning to bowl. When the man finally realised he was supposed to be doing his job, he looked to her and gave a forced smile. "Women's, size five, please." She said to him. When he'd given her the right bowling shoes and she was rummaging in her pocket for the right change, he spoke to her. "Did you see that?" He asked, now seeming almost angry. "See what?" She replied softly, placing the change on the counter. "That girl moved the lights, and humiliated me." He grumbled.
"How could someone move lights?" She asked him with raised brows, "I didn't see anything like that." Constance told him, moving away from the counter to put the shoes on, she didn't know he was supposed to tell her which alley to go in, to be honest, he didn't really seem up for telling her anything but how Jodie humiliated him.

When she had finished lacing up the shoes, she moved over to Jodie in alley one, who had just scored a spare.
"Hello." She smiled to Jodie, peering around to look down the alley to see the pins. "This is going to sound ridiculous, but do you mind if I sit and watch you bowl?" She asked her curiously.

[Exxie]

Jodie turned around and grinned. Constance!

"No, not at all. It'll be nice to have someone to talk to. But you sure you just want to watch and not play against me? It would all be in good fun. I'm just here to loosen up. Not serious about this like I am with swimming. Besides, I'm not at all sure yet if this thing allows for one person games." She laughed. Then she noticed the guy at the counter shooting her a dirty look. What the hell? She wasn't laughing at him! She smirked thinking of what she done though. And suddenly the guy was walking over all angry.

"I served you technically! And I have the authority to kick you out of here! I know what you did and you'll pay for humiliating me."

"Uh...no thanks dude." Suddenly he was all up in her face and she put a firm hand on his chest. The voice that came from her next was serious, and if her actions didn't dissuade people, usually the voice did.

"Take a step back or I'll be well within my rights to use self-defense. Right to bear arms, and all that."

"You have a GUN?" Then he proceeded to try and find it. Felt too much around too. She grabbed his arms and twisted them in such a way that if he didn't behave, it would hurt very much. Her voice was calm and clear.

"No, I do not have a gun. I meant my arms. I'm an artist. A MARTIAL artist." Jodie laughed and then let him go. His eyes widened and he ran back to his counter. Then she brushed her hands together as a joke and grinned.

"I'm so incredibly glad he pushed me too hard. I've wanted to use those jokes for a while. And for the record, I would never ever even joke about using those moves on my friends. In fact, unless that guy had done something super offensive, I wouldn't have hurt him either. I didn't. He only has damaged pride right now." Hurting someone for no reason was inexcusable. Hurting someone because they were being offensive was almost as bad because it meant you weren't in control. Threats on the other hand...empty threats she figured were okay. Jodie was just letting the opponent know what she could do. Maybe one day she'd challenge someone with equal or better skills. She eagerly awaited the day of that fight. That would be a great test of her skills.

"So...how you been?"

[Constance Bumble]

Constance smiled, Jodie seemed happy to see her. "Thank you." She said, placing herself gently on the seats at the side of the alley, she sat with her legs together and her hands resting on her thighs, just above her knees. "I'll just watch, if that's okay." She told her, "I'm not a good bowler at all, and I'd very probably end up cheating." She confessed softly, with a smile.

Constance followed Jodie's gaze to the angry worker who had now begun to storm over towards them, she stayed silent as he spoke to Jodie. Her eyes widening slightly as the man attempted to find a gun on Jodie's person.
Constance's brows then furrowed curiously as Jodie grabbed the mans arms, she had never seen anybody do anything like that before, she'd never actually considered that anybody was able do it. She couldn't help but let a small laugh slip out at the arms joke, allowing a grin to spread across her face.

Her eyebrows arched again, this time in amusement, as the annoying worker scurried away, back to his counter. She grinned as Jodie did, looking back up to her as she began to talk, she laughed, still smiling about the jokes, "Noted." she nodded, when Jodie mentioned that she'd never joke about using her moves on friends. She nodded again at how the man had damaged pride, "He won't be talking about this for a while." She chuckled, beginning to loose herself in her thoughts about martial arts, she'd always wanted to learn, but her parents wouldn't get her a teacher, worried that the movements during the lessons would cause her powers to act out and destroy things, Constance still didn't really know what they were so worried about, she couldn't even lift a paperback book with the air properly yet, maybe she could convince Jodie to teach her at some point.

She snapped quickly back into reality, realising Jodie had asked her how she was. "I've been good, thank you. I'm still getting used to things at the academy though." Constance replied, "How about yourself?"

[Exxie]

Jodie heard the statement about not being a good bowler and would end up cheating. Right. Wind powers. That would be handy during games. She chuckled. When Constance answered the question Jodie had posed, she smiled.

"Good. Trying to keep my energy to myself so that people don't get completely sick of me. As you just saw, it isn't working out too well. I just can't seem to help myself." She glowed a little bit, happy to have a friend to talk to. It was hard for her to believe that before coming to the Academy, she had only ever had two friends before. One of them was her trainer, and the other was someone she had played with for a weekend when she was seven. Jodie thought that last one probably might not even count. After all, seven year olds tended to pronounce themselves your friends after five minutes. And while that was fine when you were seven, the requirements of friendship increased slightly as you grew older.

"So just wanting to read in a new setting?"

[Constance Bumble]

"I don't think it's possible to get sick of you." Constance chuckled lightly, she enjoyed talking to Jodie, the conversation had never bored her, it was always an interesting subject.
A smile floated across her face as Jodie began to glow slightly, she remembered when Jodie had told her that she glowed when she was happy. "You're a lovely person." Constance told her, brushing the gap from her bangs again. "Even with the slight delinquencies." Their first meeting was still quite fresh on her mind, she didn't tend to forget things, unless they were directions, or politics. Constance found that she enjoyed having Jodie as a friend, something fascinating seemed to happen when she was around.

"I suppose so." She nodded gently, a motion that returned the silly gap to her bangs. "I normally prefer to read in silence when I start a new book, but I've always enjoyed the sound the bowling pins make when they're knocked down." Constance mentioned with another smile.

She remembered Jodie talking about her swimming. "How often do you swim?" She asked curiously, Constance had never been a strong swimmer, she wasn't a partially strong person anyway, and wasn't a big fan of the ocean. Her home did have a pool, but in the summer it was to hot outside, and Constance never tanned, she just got terrible sunburn, no matter how much sunblock she wore, meaning that the entire time she spent outside involved wearing a hat with an oversized visor running all the way around, shading the majority of her torso. But she did love her big floppy hats, her aunt sent her one every April, in time for the hot months.

[Exxie]

Jodie heard the first statement and glowed just a little bit brighter. A lovely person, eh? Well, that might be going a little far she thought. There were things she still did that she shouldn't, and knew before she even did them that she shouldn't. But she wasn't going to say any of that.

"Thanks, but you're the shining star inside. I just have the outside shining covered with the way my powers work." She grinned at the joke. It was pretty lame, but what was she supposed to say? Compliments weren't something she was very graceful at accepting. So it was just a different setting, other than the surrounding sounds. Jodie shrugged.

"To each her own I guess. I have trouble hearing many sounds and concentrating on reading. I mean, if I'm hearing something and wanting to concentrate on that, it's fine. But my mind can't seem to...shut off my ears, for lack of a better description." She shrugged and chuckled lightly at her awkwardness. At least, it felt awkward. She didn't know if it appeared that way to others or not. When Constance asked about her swimming, Jodie smiled.

"Most mornings. I skip if I sleep in, but otherwise I get up bright and early to swim laps. My body's used to getting up early for training, so I'm in the habit. Plus, I've always loved swimming. My parents had a pool and I swam whenever I had time. Do you swim?"

[Constance Bumble]

Constance's smile grew wider as Jodie glowed slightly brighter. She was still sitting down, and had to look up at Jodie to talk to her, though even if she was standing Jodie still stood three inches taller than her.

She smiled greatfully when Jodie called her a shining star, and laughed softly when a joke was made. "Thank you." she told her, her smile growing rapidly wider. "I don't think so at all, but thank you." Constance chuckled happily. If she was anything, it wasn't a shining star, she knows that everyone has a bad side, she just didn't really know how bad her's was yet.

"When I read, I..." She paused thinking of the right words, "I go into a trance." She finished with a frown. "I can't really see or hear anything around me." Constance told her with a grin.

"What time do you normally swim then?" She asked Jodie, looking up at her, "Since you go in the morning." When she was asked if she swam, she shook her head quickly, "I do like swimming, but I'm not very good at it. I'm not really that strong, so I can't do it for long." Constance told Jodie. The only sport she really practiced and enjoyed was her archery, and she wasn't any good at that either, no matter how patient her archery teacher was, she didn't really get any better though her teacher refused to let her give up.

[Exxie]

A trance, huh? Jodie could kind of relate to that. Sort of, but not exactly. That was like she was when she was 'in the zone' with her training or her swimming. She sat down at the table. There was only so much looking down at people that was good for her health. Physical and mentally. She had had enough snobbishness to last a lifetime already. What time did she normally swim? Jodie was silent for a moment, thinking that over. She didn't really keep track of time very well.

"It varies and I don't always keep track. Anywhere from 5-6 am I think. After that, I get ready for school and have breakfast and stuff." She shrugged.

"All it needs is practice. Practice makes perfect and all that, right? I wasn't good at it either." She smiled, then tried to think of a constructive question to continue the conversation.

"Do you play any sports or anything like that?"

ooc: sorry for the short post - muse fading and I'm getting kicked off the computer XD

[Constance Bumble]

"That's quite early." Constance stated, she hadn't been up earlier than 7 in the morning for about three years. It would probably be good for her to try and get out of her old routine. "Maybe one day I could come and swim with you? Or at least come and see you swim?" She asked with a smile, "If that's alright." Her eyes followed Jodie as she sat down at the table with her.

"Yeah." Constance gave a small nod, "Practice." She repeated after Jodie, her archery tutor would beg to differ, it had been three years since she had started, and she still couldn't hit the centre of the target if her life depended on it.

"I kind of do target archery." Constance told Jodie as she asked the question, "I'm absolutely terrible at it." She said, giving a wonky smile, "and when I was a child I was really into sailing, but that ended in under a year, when almost everyday I would fry in the sun." Constance said, raking her fingers through her bangs again, "But the main reason I stopped was because, like I said, I'm not a strong swimmer, and I almost drowned when I fell off the boat I was using, I can't really get on boats anymore." She gave an awkward laugh, she could still occasionally feel the drowning sensation when she was in or near the ocean. She had almost died that day, but this had been when she was still talking to her dad and they were on the boat together, at first he hadn't realised she'd toppled into the water, and she had already began to sink when her dad dived in, pulling her out of the water and hurrying her to the nearest hospital, that was the end of her sailing hobby.

"Do you play any other sports?" She inquired, Jodie looked pretty strong, and it wouldn't surprise her if she did play any other sports.


[[ xD Don't worry about it. ]]

[Exxie]

Jodie heard Constance comment on how early it was and she chuckled lightly. It surprised her when the girl asked if one day she could come and swim with her or come see her swim. Jodie smiled.

"Of course. Swimming and the pool is for everyone. And I love to swim alone. I bet it would be even better with a friend along." Target archery huh? And terrible at it? Her brow furrowed a little.

"Wouldn't wind powers help with that? You have a talent that works for your sport. I'm assuming you think it would be cheating. But you have those powers. And if you were born with them, they're a part of you just like someone who has a talent for playing an instrument. Nobody should hold something like that against you and say it's cheating. If I had aquatic speed, I'd sure use it. What you have shouldn't be a downfall in competition and if it's considered that, then that's prejudice." Jodie smiled to lighten the mood. Using powers and being looked down upon because of them was something she had thought a lot about. Powers weren't something she had wanted, so the thought that people might have some sort of prejudice against her because of them rubbed her the wrong way. When Jodie heard about the boat, her eyes widened.

"Yikes. Sorry." She didn't know quite what to say. She knew that must be horrible, but at the same time that fear was a distant thing for her. Fear wasn't a present thing in her life, and even if it was she had been taught to resist it. She was glad when the other girl asked if there were any other sports she played.

"Not really. I practice things that could be considered sports I guess. Like my martial arts sometimes. And my acrobatics, balance and knife-throwing. 'Course my knife-throwing's getting rusty what with the weapons ban. They could all technically be considered sports, but not really competitively, y'know? Because if I did, that would really show my hand. I trust you won't tell too many people about it, right? Because I really do like to have to have an ace up my sleeve." She smiled, still friendly.

[Constance Bumble]

"Thank you." Constance said happily when Jodie told her she could come to the pool with her. "I'll look forward to it." She smiled, she hadn't been swimming in ages but was happy to find that a swimming costume had been packed for her.

"Well, I have tried using my powers to help, since my archery teacher didn't know about my powers, I thought using them to direct an arrow in the direction I want would be easy, but I'm not very good with my powers, and from all the concentration I put in from trying to aim the arrow at the centre of the target, it's hard to switch my concentration to manipulating the air around it." She told her, in a soft tone. "And I normally need to use hand movements to shift something from it's original path, like bowling balls." Constance explained gesturing to the bowling lane. "Anyway, when I told my mother that I couldn't do it, she got angry that I tried to cheat my way through my lessons." She remembered that conversation quite well, that was around the time her families wealth had gone down slightly and her mother got mad and thought she was wasting lessons that she paid for, she actually got so mad that she'd started pulling money out her wallet and throwing it at Constance saying 'Go on! Waste it like you did in archery!' It was safe to say they slight slip in money had effected her mother the most. And Constance had stood there like a good child, being seen and not heard, as she'd been taught, while her mother ranted about money until her father came home and calmed her down.

"Thank you." She smiled when Jodie apologised, "No need to be sorry though, it's not like it was your fault." Constance told her, it had been a long long time ago, back when her sister was still alive, she could recall her family coming to see her as she recovered from the boat incident and her sister had curled up with her on the hospital bed and they'd slept until Megan had to go home because visiting hours had ended.

Constance laughed gently, she never have thought of Jodie as the knife-throwing type. A acrobat for sure, but she didn't at all think of knife-thrower. "I think they should." She laughed, agreeing with Jodie on the fact they should all be sports, "The only person I have to tell is Cora." She smiled, "She's the only other person I know, and I only met her because she's my roommate." Constance told Jodie cheerfully, she was glad she had Cora as a roommate, but if she hadn't been, and Constance had been in a room on her own, she didn't really think she would really have properly gotten to know Cora. Without Jodie and Cora as her friends, Constance would probably spend the majority of her time being antisocial, and reading in the back of classrooms and the cafeteria alone.

[Exxie]

Jodie heard the explanation about powers and she bit her lip. She had no idea what could be done about that.

"Yeah. I have to use hand gestures too most of the time unless I'm doing my super-glow. Then I just have to concentrate on glowing. Basically. It isn't that simple of course, but it's fairly hard to explain." Then Constance said about how her mum became angry with her and Jodie's smile faded. Unrealistic expectations...that sounded familiar. She groaned lightly. Then she heard Constance say that it wasn't her fault, that there was no need to apologize. Jodie rubbed the back of her neck with a lopsided smile on her face.

"I know, but still." She listened to Constance laugh and it made her glow brighter. When she heard Constance say the only person she had to tell was Cora, Jodie's eyes widened before she laughed.

"Well I might tell Cora myself at some point. She was there in the cafeteria when I pranked the cafeteria by the way. You're lucky to have such a nice room-mate. My roomie has yet to speak to me. FYI though, Cora seems to not be big on mischief-makers. Granted, she was the only one to speak to me in the cafeteria. But she wasn't exactly pleased with my pranks. Not quite I don't think." Jodie shrugged.

"I'm not quite sure what she thinks of me. I also temporarily blinded her because she suggested if I managed my emotions, my powers would be better controlled. I tried it and temporarily blinded a guy two tables down. And Cora was sitting at the same table." Cue the sheepish grin. Jodie fiddled with the end of her ponytail, not sure what to say.

[Constance Bumble]

Constance smiled when Jodie told her about her glowing, "When I get really really frustrated and angry, it can get a little breezy, even inside, but I don't get angry very often, and a breeze doesn't do much" She said, no other emotions seemed to set off her powers, but she'd never really felt any strong emotions, apart from anger that would be able to set her powers off. She gave a small nod when Jodie told her it was hard to explain.

She gave a pleasant smile when Jodie said 'I know. But still.' after she'd rubbed the back of her neck. When Jodie glowed even brighter, Constance's smile became wider and she laughed along with Jodie after she'd told her about Cora.
Constance nodded when she said that she'd probably tell Cora herself sometime. She gave a smile and an agreeing nod when Jodie said she was lucky to have a roommate like Cora.
Her brows arched with curiousity when Jodie said her roommate hasn't yet spoken to her, "Have you not met your roommate? Or do you just not speak?" She asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.
"She doesn't really seem the mischief making sort." She laughed softly when she was told Cora wasn't big on mischief-makers. Constance chuckled lightly when Jodie shrugged.
"How did you tenporatily blind her?" She asked Jodie with an inquisitive frown, she had heard why, but wasn't sure how. It sort of clicked into her head after she asked the question, though she didn't say anything else. She smiled again as Jodie smiled sheepishly.

[Exxie]

A little breezy? Well that was good to know. Then she thought she might as well pass a tip on.

"Try some zen exercises or somethin'. Empty yourself of your emotions. That's what I did, and then my powers weren't as connected to my emotions. It sounds like yours are just like mine were. And sometimes still are." When she heard the question about her room-mate, she cocked her head to one side a bit.

"Can it be both? Because honestly we haven't exactly met, and we certainly don't speak. I don't know where she's gone honestly. Maybe she's on vacay." Jodie heard Constance laugh about the mischief-makers comment. Then when she heard the question about the temporary blindness, Jodie bit her lip.

"My glow. It appears it's not only a small glow when I'm happy. I knew that was the way, because when I was super happy I temporarily blinded about two hundred people. I think. Don't quote me on the numbers. But yeah...and I did the same thing only not quite as powerful, in the cafeteria when I siphoned my emotions away from my powers. Hence the temporary blindness. The whole spots thing. I don't think Cora was too happy." She bit her lip again and looked down at her hands awkwardly for a moment before looking up again.

"I was just trying it out. I didn't know it would be quite that powerful. Should've warned her I guess."