fandomtownies | The Beach: After classes

Entry tags:

The Beach: After classes

Charlie was starting to get pretty good at burning off enough heat to work her powers. After about fifteen minutes of stop-and-start bay-boiling, she went back to play with her TK ball on the beach, and to wait for Isabel.

[open, and waiting on

izzyalienqueen and the Nomadic Celtic Chef if he wants to join them]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Isabel walked up, a plastic shopping bag held out at arm's length in front of her. "Here. As promised, something to practice on."

"The clothes from last week?" Charlie said, then actually saw them as she took the bag. "Ugh!"

"The clothes from last week," she nodded. "Just...wrong on so many levels."

"Ew. Ugh. Bleah." Charlie took them over to the fire pit, dumped them in, then cracked her knuckles. "Full burn?"

Isabel grinned. "I don't even want there to be ash."

"Volcano time!" Charlie sang out, mostly joking, then sent a blast of heat at the clothes, just to see how flammable they were.

FOOF!

And that would be ashes and a big burnt glassy spot at the bottom of the fire pit. "Wow. Talk about non-natural fibers." Charlie waved the smoke away.

"Thank you," she laughed. "That was just as cathertic as I thought it would be. You're getting good at this."

"I am, aren't I? Enough to notice?" Charlie said, part hopeful, part pleased. "It really helps if I burn off a lot of energy before I start trying to control it. Sometimes I wonder if I should do that every day, to make it easier." She grinned. "So you're all over your puppy trauma now? What kind were you, anyway?"

"Maybe? A little every day instead of a lot on the days you practice?" Isabel wondered. "It might be worth trying for a week or so."

"Something big and lean with long fur," she told her. "And it's not so much trauma from being a dog as it is trauma from being a dog with the Jerries."

"I've never met them. How traumatic are we talking about? I know they're supposed to be a little crazy, but..." Charlie was turning the idea of a controlled burn over in her head, trying to figure out when she could work runs to the beach into her schedule most days.

"A little crazy?" Isabel laughed, "Oh no. That's like this place is a little weird. Or I'm only a little blonde. Or," she said, slanting a look at Charlie, "Dean is a little cute."

"Oh. Oh!" Charlie turned red, then rolled her eyes, nodding as she fished a rope to burn out of her bag, twisting it in her hands a minute. "How do they even run a shop, then?" She dumped the rope in the fire pit, and folded her arms up to her chest as she thought. "And... yeah, Dean's still the cutest. To me, anyway."

"That is one of life's great mysteries," she shrugged. "And I'm not arguing with you on him being cute. I just think he might have a little competition."

"I told him." Charlie made a face, then set fire to the rope, a tiny flicker of flame. She started pushing sand over it with her telekinesis, then waited for it to go out before lighting it again. "Dinosaur weekend. Well. At Caritas, before that. And we talked after the dinosaurs." She crossed her arms, and shrugged. "He was nice about it, at least."

"He's a nice guy," Isabel smiled. "I can't see him being a jerk about it."

She watched, impressed, as Charlie lit the flame. "How the dating thing go?"

"No, he wouldn't be. And no one else has teased me about it. I lucked out." Charlie smiled a little more genuinely at the mention of the dating thing. "Good, actually. I have a date tonight, and one on Thursday. So, yay for that."

"Oh? With who?" Isabel asked. "Anyone I know?"

"Rodney McKay?" Charlie said, starting the flame again, letting it burn a bit more and then nudging it along. "He's new. And, he thinks I'm hot." She snickered. "It was nearly the first thing he said to me. That and the glazing over at the mention of lesbians."

"I don't know him unfortunately," she replied. "But please don't mention lesbians to me. It makes me think of that twit teaching my one class and then I'll be cranky."

"Which class is this?" Charlie asked. "And he seems... interesting. I'm hoping it goes well. The other date's with John Sheppard, who's always seemed pretty cool, the couple times I talked to him."

"I think he might be in one of my classes, but I'm not sure," Isabel said. "I haven't really been paying attention. And the class is called How to be Awesome, but in all honesty, it's really all about picking up chicks." She made a face at the sand. "The teacher is a sexist ass."

"Okay, that's someone to avoid then. Although would they even offer that class in the fall?" Charlie wondered, dousing the flame with sand again. "What *are* classes like here, during normal semesters?"

"Yes, avoid Bilbo at all costs," she nodded. Isabel took a seat on the sand and watched, remembering what Anakin had said. "You're not feeling too tired?"

"I've had some classes that were perfectly normal, and others that were completely off to the wall."

Charlie grinned. "Sounds cool. Way better than my old school. I'm going back home for a week before next semester, but then I'll be back here to stay." She looked consideringly down at the rope. "No, not tired yet. If I get in a rhythm-- fire, douse, fire, douse-- it's easier. If I have to think about it every time, it's harder."

"It's fun," Isabel promised. "You'll enjoy it."

"Funny you should mention going home. I'm heading back to Roswell next week."

"Yeah?" Charlie looked up, then closed her eyes while she lit the rope, feeling gleeful when it worked, and she could sense it. "How long are you going to be gone?"

Isabel waited until Charlie had extinguished the flame. "I'm not sure. There's a chance I might not come back."

"What?" said Charlie, startled. "But-- why?" She stopped herself from starting anything else again, not wanting to be distracted.

"Family stuff," she shrugged. It was evasive and vague but she didn't want to dump all the alien angst on poor Charlie. "I've got some responsibilities to live up to."

"Ohh," Charlie said, a little mournfully. She studied Isabel for a minute, then bit her lip. "I'll miss you." She bumped Isabel's arm, and smiled. "And I really really owe you for all this. But I hope it goes well?"

"We'll see. And like I said, there's still a chance I'll be back," Isabel told her. "We'll just have to wait and see. But we still have today. So let's what you can do."

"Okay. Oh! Hey, new trick." Charlie put aside Isabel's departure for now, and pulled extra ropes out of her bag. "Watch."

Carefully, she lifted all three ropes at once, and then closed her eyes, making them dance around in a circle, like she'd done for Johnny. Concentrating very hard, she lit each one, one after the other. "See? Patterns help. Like learning chords, before trying to play a song."

"Impressive," she said, watching carefully. "I do that with nerf balls sometimes. Just to practice control. I know someone that would do it with glitter. He'd make models of galaxies. They were so pretty."

Charlie grinned, imagining that, and said, "At least it's good for something. Maybe I can be a magician? The Amazing Charlene, Fire Tricks and Floating Toys!"

One of the ropes incinerated suddenly, as Charlie's concentration slipped, and she hastily turned back to the remaining two. "Whoops. Well, maybe not yet."

"Running away and joining the circus might actually be an option," Isabel chuckled. "But yeah, get a little more control first."

"Better than anything else I've thought to do with it," Charlie admitted, and carefully moved one rope up, and the other down, concentrating hard, and trying to nudge the fire at the same time. One rope kept dropping when she concentrated on the burn, so she gave up on the floating, and let them drop in the firepit, keeping control of the flames instead.

"You're doing good," she told Charlie. "I think you've come far in a pretty short time."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Beach: After classes

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject