spark like a matchstick

“I keep it under control,” she said, which was true. Internalizing everything, including her anger, was definitely a strength of Lynn’s, one she had learned long before she had even entered the academy. That wasn’t to say, however, that the increased control she gained over her ability after getting brought here didn’t help too.

“Meditation? You have to have an outlet for it.” 

“Aw you worried? So sweet,” Mac joked, sitting across from Oliver. “Yeah, I tried to escape. Made it past the forest, about a mile before these guys in white just snatched me up and threw me back here. Tried to erase my memory, but I remember,” she tapped the side of her head with her forefinger. “So what have you been up to? Start a rebellion yet?”

If a conspiracy theory had a face, it would be Mac’s. That’s how crazy she sounded (and Oliver loved every second of it, truthfully). “Yep. And you missed it. I suppose that’s why we lost grandly. All the blood is on your hands.” Oliver tapped the back of his pen against the table, while his mouth stayed quiet for a long second. “I need ideas on wooing someone. Suggestions?”

Billy had just finished up bathing in the showers and was now back in his room. Thankfully he was finally getting situated in his new life. As situated as he could be. The food was good, the people seemed nice for the most part, and the room was comfortable. His roommate hadn’t shown up though. He had mentioned something about a party. It could have been one of Oliver’s that he told Billy about, though the shapeshifter wasn’t feeling much up to any parties right now. 

“What are you doin’ here?” Oliver countered and laughed, because whoa -- look who turned the tables, Billy. Marching inside (because he saw no reason not to, this was his room, even if it looked a little different and all of his stuff was missing) Oliver swayed a little, stumbling in his own feet. “She had extra perfume on her, I can’t help if it rubbed off on me,” he answered, completely misinterpreting the statement. “My bed’s never been this clean before,” he said, flopping down face first on Billy’s bed. “The sheets smell clean too. That’s so amazing.” A sigh of contempt and a smile later, Oliver looked around. “Where’s Jiseok?”

“Look who’s free, bitches!” Mac ran out into the hallway from her room, finally allowed out after being iced for a week. Apparently the line between detention and getting iced was when you teleport into an Element’s room to “borrow” their Gilmore Girls DVD set. Honestly it was definitely just detention worthy, but when an element is touchy enough Mac guessed they could hand out whichever punishment they personally saw fit.

There was a group groan surfing through the quiet crowd in the common area. Exam week was making everyone so anal. Luckily for Mac Oliver cared not for finals, grades, or Elswood’s educational system in general. He was in fact desperate for a distraction. With a big smile he closed his book and turned to eye the girl. “I was wondering where you ran off to, since it couldn’t have been freedom.” 

She only frowned at his swatting her hand, more upset about the insolence than any physical threat. And even as he moved from brushing her off to threatening her, she still wasn’t scared. Vals was either brave or stupid, or maybe a little of both to make a nice invincibility complex. “Oh, do you? You know what you’re doing? Really?” Sarcasm dripped from the words and she nodded quickly, tauntingly, boldly, even as her eyes traveled to the lighter in his hands. “You gonna show me who’s boss, baby?” Vals’ gaze flicked back to his face, challenging him. “You’ve already lit me up once today, that not enough for you?”

It would have been really helpful if Valerie wasn’t crazy attractive while being so derisive. As if mockery fueled her, made her shine brighter and beam an extra set of sex-appeal. “Clearly it wasn’t, because that mouth of yours just keeps running.” But seriously, the dilemma to attack was huge. Oliver knew better than to fight girls, but did it count in Elswood? Most of them were deadly by default, and refusing to engage in action because of their gender seemed like a really sexist thing to do. “Now, you gonna keep taunting me about my powers, or are you gong to be smart and not poke the bear?”

“Makes sense,” she said with a little nod. His answer was a little funny ( so she had read him properly, after all ), but, really, who was she to judge? Sleep was hard enough to catch in this place; people found it however they were able to find it.

“Your powers are sort of heat-y.” Yes, he came to that conclusion by himself! ”How’s your temper?” So far the woman seemed really laid back, a quality Oliver genuinely envied her for. Having your temper under control, imagine what that must be like~ 

The movie seemed to fly by now that the two were conversing. Oliver had a point, people did seem to pick fights with him or get frustrated from what she’s witnessed – or seen happen on elpics a few times. Rory sat up, a small laugh broke out from his comment – or compliment, was it even a compliment? “What? No, nono, that’s definitely not true. I don’t think that’s ever happened to me. Or if it has, nobody has ever shown it.” Rory did wish he was right, she had always wanted, and tried to get along with as many people as she could, but it certainly wasn’t that way in Elswood.

Movie was over. Was the date over, too? Maybe not, because Rory was aiming those big beautiful eyes directly at him, all smiles and charm, and no intention of getting up soon. And then she pecked his cheek. “Uh--” he blinked, mouth widening in a smile. Oliver’s poor brain was still stuck on that kiss and needed a second to catch up. “My pleasure. Honestly. Just glad it didn’t bore you enough to send you to sleep. That would have been awkward.” 

“Oh, well why’d you stop? Fire is today’s hot thing from what I here.” He slapped Oliver’s leg, chuckling to himself. Come on, that one was good. Had he been drinking though, Billy would have done a spit-take. His cheeks may have been red before, but thank the Lord he was wearing a shirt, because the redness spread to his collarbone. “Ro-Rolling over?” He wasn’t blushing because he had a puppy dog kink or something; Hell, Billy wasn’t even sure if he had a kink. Billy wasn’t even really sure what a kink was. The guy just knew what he liked. “Dude, you’re in all of those? I need to catch up. Well, I played football before I got here. I always thought about trying wrestling. And maybe I’d be good at swimming if I can manage turning into some kind of merman?” He told himself that he wouldn’t make friends here, that he’d be out of here in a few months. Billy realized that both of those were blatant lies to himself. “I’d probably be willing to join swimming and martial arts, if you be my partner. I could teach you how to do the dolphin-formation in swimming.”

“Don’t give yourself a seizure now,” Oliver said with a smile, watching the other change shades of pink. At least he didn’t need anyone else to have a good time. “Sure. Then we’ll get you to fetch, wiggle your tail.” If he had any idea what Billy was thinking about through all this, Oliver would have smacked him. It was always the quiet ones that played dirtiest in the bedroom. One could only imagine how that partial shapeshifting power came into handy with sex on the table. “You have a lot of free time. It doesn’t look like it at first, but once you settle into a routine it starts showing.” Now, if Oliver ever actually bothered to be a good student and actually study, free time might be significantly hard to come by. Not a possibility that crossed his mind. “Football? You?” He did a double take on Billy. Dude didn’t look like the type. “I was on the football team in high school, even got a scholarship after I graduated because of it. Still can’t believe Elswood doesn’t have a football team. No, they settled on soccer. Who even plays soccer? That’s such a made up game.” Oliver was sure he’d gotten over that one, but the bitter tone said otherwise. 

“…alright, makes sense,” she admitted. It was a piece of information she wasn’t sure she’d ever need to use, but it was interesting nonetheless. The more you know, right? “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t exactly strike me as the type of guy to sit around watching documentaries.”

Oliver felt like maybe he should star getting offended at being stereotyped so often, but then again who’s fault was it that he fit most of the criteria for the big dumb jock slash fuckboy in the first place? “I don’t. I watch them when I need to get to sleep. Books work as well, but watching movies is the better way.” He meant to say it was the laziest way. 

He stopped talking after that, taking a huge breath and laughing hard. “Sorry, I haven’t … I haven’t gotten a chance to actually explain it since I came here. I think it felt good to get that out.” The fear he thought he’d had seem to disappear. So what if people knew what he could do, that’s why he was here, to learn how to control this. It wasn’t a bad thing to tell people and it most certainly was okay to be happy about the power. “I uh, I’d been near the river, living in Floida, when I saw a crocodile. I was really angry from a fight I had with my father and had gone to the river to relax, which obviously didn’t work out. I remember him trying to bite me, and I ran. I ran so fast I thought I’d drop dead and have my heart burst. But it didn’t, so I kept going. When I did stop, eventually, I noticed I had scales all over my arms. I couldn’t figure out what it was, so I went to my friend. One thing led to another, and we learned what I could do.” He smiled to himself, even maybe feeling a little proud. “He tried to get me to go fetch a ball when I was turning into a dog, and ya know what?” Billy laughed, his blush going even redder. “I did. I caught that thing in my mouth.” He put his head into his hands and laughed. 

Yep, Elswood was good like that, making you comfortable enough to talk about your powers like they were the most normal thing in the world. Oliver often wondered how much he was taking that for granted and how fucked up it will be once he went back in the outside world and conceal-don’t-show was be back in his routine. Then he remembered that there’s no way out of this place, no matter what propaganda others were trying to feed him, and he felt slightly better (but like not really. who wanted to be a prisoner for life?) “It’s totally fine. I get it. First week here I was doing fire stuff non stop, just because I could.” Oliver’s personal way of coping with the situation. “Awesome, I’ve never had a dog before. Next time you turn we should check how good you are at rolling over and such. What clubs are you thinking of joining? I’m in archery, track, swimming, martial arts and self defense. Highly recommend all if physical stuff is your thing. ” 

—– Her hair swished as Cricket rolled her eyes. Even without her usual collection of hair products, she still had the shiniest locks in the cafeteria. It was utterly satisfying, despite the fact that she was dangerously close to losing this argument. To a first year, no less. “Honestly, I can’t even stand to talk to you any longer, sweetheart.” Better to pretend to hold the higher ground by fleeing the scene before it became just that. A scene. “I have homework, anyway.” With huff, she spun around–gloriously memorable exit pictured in her mind–and smacked head first into a warm body. “Ugh! Can this day get any better?”

This was --- what? --- the third time this has happened to them already? Had to be, because the déjà-vu was off the charts. “We have to stop meeting like this,” Oliver said, not really bothered by the collision, because come on. Size wise Cricket was harmless and could hardly do any physical damage (unless she wanted to, but she didn’t look like the type). 

He had gotten to learn -recently- what it felt like when people got tired of you, and tried to sense if that’s what this was. Maybe Oliver wanted him out now that he helped him. Billy made his best effort to smile, deciding that if Oliver did want him gone, he’d say something more forward. Calm down, Billy, jeez! You’re just being paranoid. “Well, I’m not sure. I mean, I know what I can do, but not what it is exactly. I guess you’d call it shapeshifting. I can um, take on the physical traits of animals.” He’d remembered feeling excited when him and his friend were exploring his powers. “Like, I can grow gills or scales or fins for fish. Or um, oh! I can grow fur, fangs, claws and all that stuff like canines do. Or I can turn my feet and hands into bear paws.” There was a big smile on his face. Here, he could talk to people who knew what it felt like to be different. “I even almost turned into a monkey, but I started to feel weird, like … like I wasn’t myself. It’s weird, like I take on their mental thoughts. When I was a dog, I wanted to sniff bu-” he blushed hard and stopped himself a little too late. “Or, uh, I had these bad cravings for bananas when I was becoming a monkey.”

The guy must have relaxed in Oliver’s company, because once he started talking there was no shutting him up. Not that Oliver wanted him quiet, this was the longest conversation he’s had all week that wasn’t a feud of sorts. “Niceee,” he nodded, listening to it all. Usually, Oliver would ask for a demonstration, except in this case he had already seen Billy in action when he accidentally set the boy on fire earlier. “How did you discover them?”