Owner	Pose
Alexander Aaron	3:47 in the afternoon and Happy Harbor is quiet. The faculty are still in their rooms, still settled in place and looking over homework and tests and considering the next day's plans. The halls are mostly empty, though outside and in the open field behind the school several teams are running laps and doing calisthenics. Not too many students out and about beyond that, except in the gymnasium.     There in that tall lone building, Alexander Aaron can be found, standing at one end of the gym, his ESU backpack having been tossed away and left near the bleachers. Occasionally there's the sound of a ball bouncing with a steady tang-tang-tang, then silence and a whish or /klong/. He's pulled one of the basketballs off the metal cart that holds fourteen more of them, casually standing near the end court hoop and is taking a few shots here and there, dribbling the ball a few paces and then lining up for a shot. Sometimes he hops up into the air, sometimes he doesn't. He hits a few now and again, more than he misses, but he most likely won't have a career in the NBA anytime soon.     After a particular loud /KLONG!/ he jogs after the ball as it rolls away, fanning himself a little with his t-shirt, which today proclaims happily, 'TEAM BANZAI' with a little BB logo on the top of it. He pauses for a second to tie his shoes, kneeling on the wooden floor.
Christine Lake	Ever since her talk with Sam last night, Christine has been feeling much better. She's normally happy, but now she doesn't feel like she's putting up a front, and her smiles and wave feel more genuine to her and those she greets. She's also cautiously watching for signs that other students are also 'special' like Sam and herself. So focused is she in her scouting that the announcement that she made the Vastity cheer team isn't the highlight of her day. She already has a couple of candidates in mind after the cheer tryouts, and she catches up to one of them after classes are done for the day. Christine walks into the gymnasium, her boot heels sofftly tapping on the wooden floor; the parque, she thinks it's called? She approaches Alex and waches him practice shooting hoops, smiling and waving at him in greeting, but waiting for him to approach her, rather than totally interrupt his practice. But he's watching him; watching him carefully.
Alexander Aaron	"Watch the floor and all that," Alex says without looking at her as she wanders in, though he does pause when she keeps on heading in his direction, the basketball tucking under one arm as he tilts his head to the side and peers at her curiously. "Hey Christine." He smiles and gives her a small wave but then squares back up under the hoop, aiming with one hand held up and the other off to the side, sticking his tongue out a little. Then he takes another shot and this one goes in.     "How are all the things?" He asks her without looking, half-jogging over to get the ball back and dribbles it a few times as he clears it out to the three point line.     "I saw the whole cheerleading thing was announced, though didn't look at it." He holds up, sets his feet, and tries a three pointer, and it doesn't even hit the hoops, just bounces off the floor and hits the back wall of the gym.
Christine Lake	"I made varsity," she answers him. She does sound moderately pleased with that accomplishment, but it's clear she has other things on her mind. "Hey...can we talk for a bit? I mean, shower up first, and we can walk and talk. There's something I've been wanting to ask you about." She casually strolls over to the loose ball and picks it up, dribbling it some as she walks back. She may not be on the basketball team, but she still knows how to dribble a ball. "Go on and get cleaned up," she urges with a smile. "I'll wait here for you."
Alexander Aaron	"What?" Alexander tilts his head, "Nah, I'll shower at home." He tells her with a casual aplomb, since he's still wearing his t-shirt and jeans, though he has sneakers appropriate for the gym floor on since hey, he's not a total barbarian. He steps over toward her and holds out a hand. "Is this like a thing? Or a thing." He says, slightly emphasizing the second word more than the first. And if she hands him the ball back he'll set it on the cart, leaving it for the classes tomorrow.     A few more steps and he pads on over to his backpack and slings it over one shoulder. Then he sort of smirks at her, "Are you grossed out? You're totally grossed out aren't you. Ohmigod Alexander didn't shower he smells, ew!"     But he doesn't seem to mind as he sort of grins and gestures with a nod for them to start the walk and talk. "What's up?"
Christine Lake	Christine gives Alexander the ball to put back into place, then walks with him outside. It's a leisurly pace, not rushed. "It's...not what you're thinking," Christine tells Alex when he asks. She smiles enigmatically as they stroll, but she doesn't say anything until they're alone, and she looks around to make sure they're alone. "So," she starts. "That was...pretty impressive yesterday. Your performance in the tryouts, I mean. Everyone's saying that you shold be on the men's gymnastics team for the Olympics this year."
Alexander Aaron	"What am I thinking?" He asks her by way of kneejerk reaction to that sort of phrase, though he does give her a quirked eyebrow look as if thinking a lot of different things, probably several racing through his mind simultaneously but he manages the nonchalant look with aplomb.     But they keep on walking and he'll glance at her sidelong, hands settled deep in his pockets and is gaze distanced a bit, though sometimes sneaking a glance as if trying to gain some useful insight. Failing. He gives a small shrug just before she makes that statement. "Yeah, mebbe." He takes it in stride.     "That or fencing. My dad's always been sort of a big almost I wanna say prepper guy. Think losing my mom always sorta didn't sit well with him, figured he had to keep us protected or whatever."     Which, to be fair, is entirely true. But then again it isn't the whole truth.
Christine Lake	Christine doesn't directly answer Alexander about what she thinks his thoughts are. But at the same time, there's a hint of doubt in her expression. Like, suddenly, this plan she thought of isn't as good of an idea as she thought it was. But, she takes a deep breath. "It's more than that though, isn't it?" She looks Alexander directly in the eyes. "The way you were moving...it was like watching a video of Captain America. Or Spider-Man. That's...that's beyond intense training." She's still walking with him, leading him behind one of the buildings to be completely out of sight. "I know that there's a lot of...secrets. At this school. I just want to know if you're one of those secrets." Her mouth feels dry, now that it's come to the moment of truth. "One of those secrets, like me." Suddenly, Alexander isn't looking at Christine's face anymore. Instead, he's eye-level with her shoulders, and Christine is suddenly a full head *taller* than Alex, rather than a few inches shorter. After a few moments, she's back to her normal height, looking around to double check that no-one else saw that. "I'm a mutant," she admits. "I can get alot taller; 30 feet is my max size. And I can also shrink. But...I told you becasue I think you're special like me. A metahuman. I don't know if you're a mutant or not, but I don't think what you did yesterday was 'normal', either."
Alexander Aaron	"Ooh," Alexander's eyes follow her up and up as she grows, his smile a little bit warm in his manner, his hands still in his pockets. He sort of tilts his head to the side one way, then lets it loll the other way. He smiles a little more, letting it grow but only on one side of his face, trying to perhaps consider the ramifications. "Christine..."     His brow knits as he starts walking again, gesturing with the roll of a shoulder for her to follow him. "You should be more careful." He says that gently as one hand slips from his pocket and opens it forward, gesturing. "I understand it's nice to try and... find people like yourself. But you telling people is dangerous. You don't really know me. You might think I'm here and another one of you. But I could just as easily not be, right?"     He turns around and starts walking backwards, keeping a bit ahead of her, "At best in this scenario I say yes and we smile and laugh and become friends. But we also become more vulnerable. All the rest of the scenarios are sorta bad. Ranging from something like I say no and you think I'm lying and people talk and it gets around and perhaps suddenly I'm endangered just because you have suspicions."     He takes a deep breath, "Worse than that, I am, but I have to maintain my secret and that means bad things for people who know right? Think of all the movies where bad things happen cuz of secrets, right?"     He stops for a little bit and settles down on a circular bench that surrounds a tree off near the courtyard, propping a foot on it. "So all this you're gambling in the hope of finding others? Friends? Confidants? It's not a good gamble to play those odds."     He takes a deep breath and holds up a hand, as if signalling that he's about done with his rambling. "But on top of this you could be endangering me because you are sort of being selfish, right? You want this camaraderie. I can understand that, but you need to think of these things. You need to be careful."     And with that he takes a deep breath, "Sorry if that makes me an asshole."
Christine Lake	Christine listen to what Alexander has to say. She does look a little deflated, but also there's a sligh shake of her head. She doesn't say aything, she just listens and sits down with him. Once Alexander is finished, she takes a while before replying. "If you say you're not a meta, I believe you. And I won't stalk or spread rumors about you. You'll just be Alex; my normal friend who knows my secret." "Yes, I took a risk. I took a calculated gamble. Becasue that's a part of the learning process when you're a mutant. Learning who to trust and how to talk to them about it. Becasue the other option is living life alone. Never being your true self. Always hiding, even from the ones you love and care about. And yes, I am looking for camaradie and friendship and some sense of belonging. What kid our age isn't? Maybe you are a meta and know what I'm talking about, maybe you aren't. Either way, I'm not going to bother you about it or go around spreading rumors, becasue that's not cool. If you are, then you need to make your own choices about who you can trust, and that's your right; I'm not going to trample on that." Chrisitne smiles, sitting up a bit straighter. "As for you being an asshole...no, I don't think that. What would make you an asshole is if I trusted you with my secret and you went around telling it to everyone. But I don't think that's you. That's why I took the gamble."
Alexander Aaron	A deep breath is taken as Alexander just sort of sits there, looking up and away, one eyeball scrunching up as he considers the gymnasium they just left, but perhaps more thinking about the school as a whole. "You don't need to worry about me." He tells her with a faint smile, "And to be fair, next semester I'm sorta outta here and heading to ESU. So there's that." He offers that small insight to probably help mitigate the situation.     "So you don't need to worry about me. And hey sure, we can be friends. I like having friends. It can be a lot of fun." He says as if it in some ways were a novel thing. "Just, I dunno. Maybe learn from this? Or wait a bit before you go off and reveal yourself to people. Cultivate a suspicious eye and then double check your suspicions. Ok?"     That having been said he folds his arms over his chest and tilts his head, "You got any other questions for me? Now's the time."
Christine Lake	"Nope. That was it," Christine says. "Sorry I made a mistake about you, but I'm not sorry that I told you. I know I don't have to worry about you." She pats his arm, then leans in to give him a hug before standing up. "See you in class," she says with a wave before heading off.
Alexander Aaron	As she wanders off Alexander gives a nod and lifts a hand in a wave. When her back turns and she gets a lil bit away he lifts his eyes upwards as if pleading for a particular head of a pantheon to grant him strength, then he shakes his head and calls out, "Hey Lake!"     He waits until she turns or otherwise signal she hears him. For a moment he seems to consider saying something, then he shakes his head and just says, "Be careful." As if she needed to hear it from him. But then he rolls to his feet and slings his backpack, starting to head off in the other direction.