"Don't think you're off the hook just because I'm not here for the next few days. I still want that gift you promised me." Valentina says teasingly, the two of them in their usual spot.
"I haven't and wont. Suggestions? A candle maybe?" Mark asks, attempting to meet her energy.
"A nice candle I hope." Picking up from where Mark left off with an amused smile, "But is that really the best you've got? I buy my mother candles for her birthday."
"Face cream?" Mark mutters, keeping an eye on her reaction just in case he defaults to using what the woman had given him, "Now you're really shopping for my mother."
"That's off the table, when's moms birthday again?" Mark thinks before suddenly being pulled back into the conversation.
"It is flattering to know I'm the first you've done this for." Valentina continues, "Was it really that obvious?" Mark, laughter only staying for his first couple of words.
"Yes but I'm only joking.. about the gift. I didn't give you the tea expecting anything in return. I think that's why I enjoy this so much, I don't expect anything from you and you don't expect anything from me."
"It is nice, I suppose."
Sitting in her parents restaurant, occupying a booth to themselves, Alex and Valentina wait patiently for their food as Karl is off doing his own thing somewhere unbeknownst to them.
"How did you and Karl start off?" Valentina asks out of left field, "What? Why?" Alex asks, not able to hide her surprise in the slightest before suddenly brealizing and adding to her previous questions, "Who?"
Valentina doesn't attempt to refute Alex's suggestion wrapped in a question, "How did it happen for you two?" Valentina persisting with her original question.
"If I tell you will you tell me wh--" Before she can finish her question, Valentina answers definitively, "No."
"He told me he liked me and asked for my InstantChatter username. Is it a Top Ten member? I never see you anywhere but the Top Tens area." Allowing herself to think about it for a moment, Alex quickly dismisses that idea, "Santos and Brian are idiots. Obviously its not Henry or Karl. Miles, Jack or Jacob? Not likely. Who?"
"You'd get along I think. He's a peculiar personality but nice, smart and sweet."
"Describing him like that right after practically asking for ways to get closer-- " Alex chuckling to herself, "He's definitely not peculiar looking, right?" Making sure to choose Valentina's own word instead of what she herself was thinking.
Turning a tad more crimson, Valentina quickly forces out whatever words comes to mind, "It's not all like that, he's--" Forcefully bringing her own words to a halt, Valentina stops to think through her words instead of letting whatever comes to mind come pouring out.
"I'm pretty, right?" She asks to Alex's confused but almost instant agreement. "My mother told me all the time until I was fourteen maybe fifteen. Then she started telling me how my eighteenth birthday present was going to be a rhinoplasty. It felt awful but I knew I was still pretty in spite of my nose. Then he comes around in his stupid buttoned up shirt, like a missionary, and he says he likes my nose in the most awkward way possible. It's funny to look back on but something so silly didn't make me feel pretty, it made me feel beautiful."
"Okay I get it now. Wait, buttoned up? Like uniform shirts? He's a regular student.." Bustling out from the kitchen holding three plates, Karl slides them onto the table leaving his for last placing it specifically next to Alex.
"Human?" Alex pointlessly whispers, Karl only glancing up as he begins shovelling food into his mouth, "No." Valentina answers hastily, almost too eager to shut it down.
"Well you wanted advice?" Alex asks, Valentina answering with a gentle nod as Karl pokes his fork into his pasta, trying his best to focus on his food and not this conversation he has unwittingly wandered into.
"Wait for him to make the first move, guys prefer that. Feeling in control or whatever." Karl slowly looks up, stopping his food halfway to his mouth as if his girlfriend had just admitted to seeing ghosts and the couple lock eyes.
"I told you to stop butting into the kitchen and helping all willy-nilly without saying anything to anyone." Alex says, sternly placing a hand on her boyfriends head and flipping it back towards his plate. "Apologize to my uncle before we leave."
"He doesn't mind... but I will." Karl mutters, attempting to return his focus to his meal.
"We're going out tomorrow if you want to tag along, Val?" Alex casually asks.
"Are you two not coming to the event? I was told its a Top Ten event."
"No we don't really get to go on those. You got picked this quickly? Who else is going? Oh, obviously you don't know, you thought we were going up until twelve seconds ago. I went once, once and all I got to do was watch as Henry fought all five of them one by one. It was worth it because of the nice hotel stuff they just let you take but it was boring once our turn was done with." Alex rambles on with herself.
"What is it? I was only told to show up to the van and this Henry fought five alone?"
"Yeah but it was more like five duels one after another instead of it being at the same time. This event is just a 'friendly' competition but its never really friendly. Each school can take five students for these little games and whoever wins.. wins. That's all there is to it."
"How are these other schools?" Valentina questions, taking her first bite of food. "They're the best.. The best co-ed schools. Co-ed cant compete against full awakener schools, not until the end of year competition where every single school can compete. So up until then we dominate the co-ed schools. Its not fair but what can you do?"
"So this competition is pointless?" Valentina hardly gets her words out before Karl interrupts, "Are you two planning on eating?" The girls look down to Karl's now empty plate, even his sauce having been almost completely stripped from the plate.
Valentina and Alex exchange a quick, amused glance before Alex casually reaches over to the edge of the table and places the bread basket right in front of Karl.
"You have nothing to do here. Seriously we should hang out at my house more." Anthony complains as Mark pretends to be needing to do homework, "You act like I invited you over."
"C'mon.. are you still upset?" Anthony grumbles while he explores the never changing room he has frequented too many times by now.
Releasing the pen, Mark turns to respond, "No. I never was--"
"We both know you don't care about whatever that is." Anthony interrupts, squatting down slightly to get a better look of something on the bottom shelf of Marks bookshelf, "Not that, I forgot to put them away."
"I invited myself over to ask if you could just try a little more with everybody." Anthony pauses as he stands, his back now to the bookshelf, "Everything's new and great and I want you there. There's this karaoke thing going on next week, it's a big thing if you want to tag along."
Sharing an awkward silence, Mark nods in agreement and like a switch being flicked Anthony returns to his usual self, "My tutor is a half ass and I'm still adjusting to all the introductory classes so I was hoping I could borrow one of your books."
"Sure." Mark mutters as he shakes his head, already having returned to his work.
Awkwardly, Anthony begins to read the titles on the books spines, "Which one?"
Casually, using his telekinesis, Mark pulls the exact book out of line a few inches.
"A bookmark?" Anthony exclaims, peeling open the book to the highlighted page, "You bookmarked it? Since when?"
"Over a week." Mark answers, returning his worn pen to his frail pencil case before returning to face his friend now that he doesn't feel like doing the rest of his assignment.
"Not to be greedy.. Have you got one for stations?" Anthony asks a little too shamelessly.
"No, these don't really have anything even approaching strand control never mind stations. But it's too early for you anyway so.." Mark pauses seeing Anthony who's doing his best to convince him of something without having to speak a word and does easily.
"Stations are clusters of strands that morph together and ultimately serve as a kind of pathway for future strands. Its that simple but its pretty important if you need to use your ability faster or need it to be stronger. You connect stations to one another but the road always ends back with the core. Make stations in your arms and legs and then you just allow the strands to continuously circle the stations and then you can use you ability faster whenever you need to."
"When do I know I can make stations?" Anthony asks, hanging onto Marks every word. "You wouldn't need to wait long. It doesn't take long to be able to cluster strands together for longer periods of time."
"As soon as I can you've gotta be there as I try, talk me through it all." Anthony says, unable to take the smile from his face.
"That's the thing. You can certainly do it--" Mark begins with a knowing smile, "People just don't because if you mess up the placement there's no going back. You're stuck with a crappy system. The only way you can get rid of a station is if you wipe out the entire system and that means death. A core breaking is guaranteed death, instantly if its destroyed or prolonged over a few years if its cracked. Dead either way." Catching himself quickly Mark finishes, "A system is just everything as a whole, core, stations and how its connected. Like a network in its entirety."
"Its like a railway system that loops in on itself." Anthony says, sitting back on the edge of the bed, "Yeah.." Mark grumbles, "You should've just said that. Stations as in train stations."
"See you later man." Mark says at the front door of his house, "It was cool, just us two y'know?"
"Yeah, I can't wait until you're like this with everybody else." Noticing Marks face change slightly Anthony continues, "I'm serious, give them a chance. They're all nice once you get to know them and... I cant go back. I cant go back to how things were now I know how they can be. I don't regret it obviously but looking back I missed out on a bunch and so did you. I'm not willing to miss out on anything anymore, not now college is breathing down our necks."
Pulling the spilling pillow close and stuffing it back into its case, Marks parents ready themselves for bed until his father makes the mistake of attempting the conversation. "Has Mark said anything to you? I think he's been having a rough go of things this last week or two."
"No, but he'll be fine." The mans wife answers, not stopping her nightly bed routine while doing so. "Just like that." The husbands words carrying a fickle, hollow laugh.
"This isn't new, it happens, it passes. Just wait for something to swing his focus and he'll be right back to normal." She says standing and making her way over to the opposite side of the kings size bed. "It's not sustainable, especially in the long run." Now laying down.
"It's sustained us this long." Her tone dismissive in nature. "That depends, what exactly is sustaining? His unhappiness? And even if that were true and silly distractions were helping him with what he's holding now, what happens if god forbid something happens tomorrow?"
"I'm not talking hypotheticals. It's not worth the breath." Her dismissive tone persisting through the line of questioning, "It's not hypothetical with you, is it?" Catching himself as the words leave his mouth, his voice tired. "I didn't mean that, obviously. The only reason I brought this up in the first place is because I think it'll be good for Mark if we get him someone to talk to."
"He doesn't need it, he has us. If you want to talk so badly talk him into college." Her tone and actions aligning and screaming that she's done with the conversation, turning away to face the window.
"Who are you to say he doesn't? I'm trying to help him here." The man says to the back of his wife's head as it rests on the pillow, "I'm trying to help you too. It weighs on you. I see it, every time he dips so do you and we can't afford that now with your health. I need you here."
"We have our boy back." Turning her head against the pillow to look at her husband without fully committing to facing him, "He's not how he was when he came back, he's our boy again. You could ruin everything. Last time it did more harm than good, I'm not letting that happen again."
Holding her head against the pillow as is for a silent moment, awaiting a response, she rests her head back down normally and mutters a goodnight.
Despite knowing he has to challenge her words he simply cannot bring himself to do so. He loves her too much.
Almost bumping into one another in the almost quiet upstairs hallway, Mark and Scott exchange an awkward look as they trade places, "Do you know what they were going on about?" Mark mutters, referring to their parents failed attempt at concealing their back and forth ten minutes beforehand, the bathroom faucet flicking on as he asks.
Stopping for a moment to look into the bathroom, Scott replies, "They only ever bicker over one thing so yeah."
Mark pauses momentarily, his hands cupping water, "I suppose so." Before he can finish splashing his face, Scott had retreated. "Goodnight." He mutters to nobody in particular.