down with the patriarchy

“This isn’t just for students and staff you know,” Kiara pointed out to Nora. “But yeah I guess it’s good to get yourself out there,” she added with a little shrug. “Look you should be proud of yourself for coming in the first place. You could’ve totally figured out an excuse to not come last minute but you still made it. That’s a feat in itself.”

“I know, but for someone who has never had anything to do with the academy or even knows anyone in the academy, this is a bit odd,” she replied. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t confident– Nora could and would stand for hours on street corners handing out flyers for protests happening that week– her callous and brash personality just did not get on with a lot of people, so she tended to only speak to those she knew would tolerate her. “Yeah, I guess. How come you’re here? Are you a graduate? Or are you just another loner like me?”

“Oh for god’s sake, I’m not,” Penny said, “I’m speaking hypothetically. If I had anything to say about your writing, it would be about that not your opinions. Stop being so testy, I have better things to be doing than stroking your ego.”

“Right, hypothetically. Okay,” Nora responded, instantly feeling a little more calm. “I’m not asking you to stroke my ego, jeez. I was just asking you what was wrong with my writing style. And since nothing is, we’re fine here.”

“Who knows?” she couldn’t help her laughter. “Alright, alright that sounds like a fair deal. First to ten,” Alaska nodded, retrieving the ball and already squaring herself up to serve it. “You promise you won’t cheat?”

“Even if I wanted to cheat I have no idea how I’d even be able to do that in this game, I don’t even know if I’m holding the bat right,” she laughed, standing at the edge of the tower in the pose that she’d seen professional players doing at the olympics. “Ready when you are.”

“Yeah, I uh, can’t get that for you.”

“Why not?” Nora asked, puzzled. “It’s only recommendations, I’m not asking for something big like a car, pfft.”

“As much as your opinion matters to me, Nora, what makes you think some randomers are gonna stop complaining about their coffee because you told them I was good?”

“I can be persuasive when I want to be,” she teased. “I’ve gotten you to come to protests with me when you weren’t bothered about the cause, so why would that level of persuasion not work on your ever so wonderful customers?” She added, batting her eyelashes at him.

“So you’re telling me, your parents used to do science experiments on you?”

Nora wasn’t sure how to answer her question. Her parents did science experiments using her to create her dinosaur, but that was something she’d never told anyone, and she wasn’t going to come clean about having a telepathically linked bio engineered dinosaur in her basement to a random stranger. “Er, I guess, kind of,” she muttered out, not willing to elaborate. “I more meant that they were doing experiments while I was in the room and benefitting from the heat.”

“I’m not sure that’s the greatest idea.”

“It’ll be fine. I can talk to it, see what it wants.”

“I don’t really think that’s a good thing,” Sloane replied.

“Why not?” Nora asked. “They can do their experiments which produce heat, simultaneously warming me up and allowing them to do their research. It works pretty well, and isn’t as bad for the environment as chopping down trees might be.”

“Uh, I’ll try and let her know,” James replied awkwardly.

“You should, totally. I’d love to hear some of her other recommendations too, seeing as we have similar taste.”

“Uh yeah, I think I know that for myself thank you very much,” Tristan didn’t mean to sound so venemous but the pressure of his abilities was something he was very aware of and struggled with, “The flame was barely bigger than a penny and it was nowhere near your jacket, what is there to freak out about?” His anger was redirected onto the other in a way he was sure he would regret.

“Jeez, someone’s a bit crabby aren’t they?” Nora retorted, pushing her glasses up her nose. “That’s not the point. It was a flame, and some people,” she signalled to herself, “wear fake leather that is incredibly flammable. Don’t use your powers if you can’t control them.”

“Sweetheart, I’m your boss. If I was going to critique anything it would be your writing style, not your opinions. And if I did disagree, I could just not publish it but I did so drop the attitude please.”

“What’s wrong with my writing style?” Nora asked, ignoring the other comments her boss had given her.

Christian shrugged slightly. “I don’t really like sunsets.”

“How can you not like sunsets?” Nora questioned, “That’s like saying you don’t like the northern lights, or you know, anything that’s naturally beautiful.”

“Really?” James asked, not in a mean way, just curious. “I’ve been trying to finish it for years, but I always tend to get distracted. It was my mom’s favorite book.”

“Really,” Nora affirmed. “Well, you can tell your mom that she’s got excellent taste. A book before it’s time, really.”

Sloane gave her a look. “Hey, I’m strong,” she replied. “And we’re not going to chop a tree down. Branches and brush will work just fine.”

“Unless you’ve got super strength, I don’t think you’d be able to chop a tree down by yourself,” Nora chimed, shrugging. It was just fact, right? “Right, okay– that makes more sense. As you can probably tell I’ve not ever had to do this before. With scientists for parents, you find more creative ways to warm up.” 

Amy turned slightly when she heard animal sounds like Nora. “Yes, and I don’t want to be around here to find out what exactly it’s coming from. Let’s get out of here.”

“Wait–” She placed her hand on Amy’s shoulder, “Hold on. I can use my powers to see if it’s got the intention to hurt us. We just need to get a bit closer.”