shade.

“Yeah, maybe you should think ahead a little more often,” Karim replied. He finally recognized the girl as the one who made a rather intricate design in her pumpkin during the lame Halloween party the school hosted. “Like I said, sign the sheet and you’ll have more luck,” he added. He closed the trunk after putting some equipment back. “No, not really. I’m just about done. All I have to do is kick out the girl standing in the middle of the room. Maybe you should go carve a pumpkin instead.”

❝Maybe so...❞ Shiloh frowned, feeling a bit chastised. It seemed that even outside of her father’s house, there were expectations that she couldn’t meet. She wasn’t proactive enough to learn to control her powers, she was too clumsy with her computer, and now she was too dense to check a sign in sheet. She started putting her things in her bag without looking back up to him until he mentioned her pumpkin. ❝I’m going, I’m going... Sorry to make you stay behind... and I’m pretty sure all of the pumpkins are rotten by now. Wait, people don’t use them for any other holidays do they?❞ She paused before shaking her head. ❝Never mind... sorry for keeping you.❞ She walked, head down towards the exit.

Alysha let out a hum in consideration to the others point. “I think in some sense, having holidays helps with keeping optimism alive but the way holidays are over commercialized can put pressure on to waste money on gifts that people feel obligated to get,” she countered. Not that there weren’t parts of the holidays she enjoyed. “Well, I guess that’s not quite as terrible as having Christmas decorations starting in July, but really? I don’t even know that many people that celebrate St. Patrick’s.”

Shiloh was quick to agree. Despite her lack of celebrations as she grew up, she knew enough about holiday specials from the old shows and movies she’d found and watched when her father was off doing unsavory things. ❝Oh? I though it was up there with the Fourth of the July... That one seems pretty big with the fireworks and all.❞ She could remember many years where she’d gone out during the Fourth of the July. It had quickly become her favorite holiday as she could at the very least see some of the celebrations of others from a distance.

“Yeah, that’s why. Plus it’s break and no one wants to be on campus unless they’re stuck here,” Karim told her. He walked over to the other side of the room and closed the door to the supply closet and put up some equipment. “You know there’s a sheet at the front that tells you times when people are around for sparring. You should probably check that out so you’re not stuck without a sparring partner again.”

❝Makes sense.❞ Shiloh nodded once. ❝I don’t know why I thought more people would be here. I guess I still forget what normal is... even in here.❞ She started gathering her things. At least she wouldn’t have to take a shower. ❝Yeah, I saw it. I guess I was just hoping someone else would show up.❞ Shiloh moved slowly, dreading her return to her lonely dorm room. Nodding toward the equipment, she addressed him again. ❝Do you need any help with that?❞

          She wasn’t going to judge students for what they did to their laptops, but sometimes it was a little difficult not to do that when some students frequented her office more than normal. Bethany had to work for everything she’d gotten in life so far. At least after she turned fifteen. Sometimes she didn’t get how some people could be so careless with their belongings. But she knew it wasn’t her place to judge. Only to fix the problems that came up. She looked at the girl and tried not to laugh, even if it was sort of funny. “Alright. Well… you probably broke the screen. It shouldn’t be a difficult problem to fix. Although I’ll need a bit of time. Do you want a loner for the time being?” Bethany asked. She grabbed the laptop and gave it another look. She could fix it in a few seconds, but she had other important problems she was working on at the moment. “Maybe you won’t break this one,” she handed over a laptop. “Sorry, that came off… ruder than I meant for it to. You’ve jut got to be more careful with these. They’re breakable. But if you want, I can teach you how to replace the screen so you can do it on your own from now on.” 

❝Dammit...❞ Shiloh winced. Shew knew how irresponsible she likely seemed to, well, pretty much everyone. She needed to get her powers under control before she broke something big and caused some real damage. Shiloh hesitantly took the temporary laptop, images of all the horrible ends it might meet if she so much as twitched the wrong way while she was shady. After a moment of thought, Shiloh held the loaner computer back towards Bethany. ❝Maybe... I should just use the library computers for a while. Things haven’t exactly been accident proof in my dorm as of late. I’d hate for this laptop to meet the same fate as that one.❞ She chewed on her lip, her cheeks warming. ❝I haven’t had the best control of things.❞ She perked her brow before nodding enthusiastically. ❝If you could show me, I’d be forever grateful.❞

Alysha stood in front of another store, taking in all of the heart decorations and letting out an exasperated sigh. “God, can’t we ever get a break from the constant holidays? Like, really, as soon as one holiday is over, everyone rolls out the decorations for the next one.” Especially during any time of the year that wasn’t the summer. But even then, some stores started pushing holiday merchandise in late summer now.

Shiloh stood beside her and furrowed her brows. ❝But then, how will they sell us things?❞ She sighed, knowing well that she would likely not experience what most seemed to want on Valentine’s Day. ❝If people don’t have something to celebrate they might realize how pointless everything is.❞ She shrugged. ❝I saw some St. Patrick’s hats yesterday.❞

“The gym is closed for the day. You have to leave,” Karim said. He finally settled down with a job at the school’s gym. All the other jobs he tried out didn’t work, but he actually liked working at the school’s gym. The hours were good and in his spare time, he’d pick up some weights. “Gym closes early because it’s the break. Normal hours resume when classes start,” he added. “If you’re in the middle of something, I can give you like five more minutes, but you have to go then.”

❝Closed? But I’ve only been here like five...❞ She glanced at the clock and winced slightly. ❝...hours.❞ Shiloh looked around noting that she seemed to be the only one left in the building. She really needed to invest in a watch or refine her sense of time. ❝Oh. So that’s why there’s no one to spar with.❞ She sighed and nodded once, beginning to unwrap her hands. ❝Nah, I’ll get ready to go. No point in keeping you here. I’m sure you have places to be.❞

          Usually this early in the year there weren’t that many problems. Since most of the previous year’s models went on sale for the near year, it was easy to get hands on good technology for cheap. That didn’t mean she was completely bored though. There were always a few students that still had problems with their devices and even a few that needed help setting up a new computer. That was a tedious job which she was tired of having to do. Bethany loved her job, but sometimes it was tedious when she worked on the same thing over and over again. It was strange that in a world filled with so much technology, some students were completely clueless when it came to operating simple machines. Then again, she’d always liked computers. Looking up as someone entered her room, she saw Shiloh. Again. “Did you drop it?” she asked. Bethany wasn’t going to chastise her because that seemed like a waste of time at this point. 

              Shiloh winced, knowing well that Bethany was likely tired of seeing her by that point. Some students went their whole undergraduate career without having to visit IT outside of initial set up assistance and yet she’d been there pretty consistently. ❝I can’t... uh... exacftly remember what happened prior to this. I remember logs of blinking on here then the windows closed and I... Well, I somehow ended up outside on the grass after that and when I got back to my room, I noticed it was doing this nonsense and now I’m back here...❞ Shiloh absolutely despised feeling so helpless when it came to technology. Her father had taught her several survival techniques growing up but none of them involved composing an e-mail and she wasn’t hadn’t yet had a course that didn’t require working on the computer in some fashion or another.

Shiloh’s laptop bag was slung over her shoulder as she walked hurriedly through the halls until she reached the IT center. She felt as though she was in there more often than she was in her classes and it was beginning to present quite the problem. Once she landed herself in front of the appropriate desk, she pulled out her laptop and opened it on the desk to show the moving stripes of color that covered the screen. ❝Before you ask, I already turned it off and on again...❞

“Y-You didn’t have t-to…okay.” he nodded as he watched her delete her clock app.“That w-will, in fact, k-keep it…quiet.” he sniffed before taking another swig from his flask.“Yeah? I-I’m not the b-best at it either bu-but I uh…i try.” He shrugged.

❝Good. I’m tired of it going off every FIVE minutes.❞ Shiloh eyed his flask, jealous of all of the students who were of legal drinking age. ❝I should probably try harder. This party was my attempt for the week.❞

Timothy scanned the drinks around the table, wondering if it was even worth it to grab another. Looking to his side, he saw a girl struggling with her phone. Seeing her throw it down, he squatted down and picked it up, pressing the power button to turn off her alarm.“Th-That should uh…sn-snooze it. Y-You can turn it o-off from th-the clock a-app.” He said as he gave the girl her phone back, offering a gentle smile.

Shiloh, perked a brow as he handed her the, now silent, phone. ❝Clock app?❞ She squinted, searching through several icons until finding the one with the clock on it. She immediately deleted the app altogether. ❝That should keep it quiet...❞ At least, she hoped it would. ❝Thank you so much... I’m not really the best with... technology. Or uh... life it seems.❞

“Red pepper,” Victoria said with a tilt of her head and a small shrug. “Which is pretty ironic because I don’t even like red peppers that much to begin with.”

❝Maybe the quiz thinks you’re spicy or something.❞ Shiloh shrugged, flipping to another quiz that she’d completed earlier. ❝Apparently, I’m also a Slytherin.❞ She tossed the magazine onto the table. ❝Alright, I’m done soul searching with the help of...❞ She squinted at the back of the publication. ❝...Seventeen magazine. I think it’s time for a break.❞

Shiloh, stood on the edge of the party, very much wishing that she was anywhere else where she could avoid people and curl up with her sketchbook. Instead, she stood behind the drink table, trying desperately to turn off the alarm on her overly complicated cell phone. After a solid 20 seconds of failing to turn her phone off she threw it on the floor... only for Beethoven’s 5th Symphony to continue playing. ❝Why me...❞

Tori sat back a little more in her chair with the end of her pen resting against her chin as she added up her responses in the magazine quiz. Laughing as she read the results, she shook her head and placed the magazine back down. “I always love those things. Always wrong, but they’re fun.”

Shiloh bit the inside of her lip, putting her magazine down. ❝Apparently, I’m an asparagus...❞ She furrowed her brow, thinking very much that the answer hardly made any sense, but it seemed that very few things did. ❝What did you get?❞

A tsk passed her lips at that. “Well we should get some curtains or something. Not blackout curtains but some light ones to at least obscure the light some.”

The logic was, for a lack of a better word, logical but there were flaws in the other’s thinking. “I mean, it makes sense wanting to avoid hurting someone but if you don’t understand what you’re capable of you might not be able to avoid hurting someone in the future. Trust me. It’s better to work on it here where there’s equipment to handle this stuff.”

“On a final ‘lecturing mom’ note, it’ll be okay, people have better things to think about. Now let’s watch a movie or something.”

❝That might be a good idea, actually...❞ Shiloh was sure that she could get a little extra money from her account to cover the costs, despite her aversion to using the money her dad had wired to her from some Swiss bank.

❝You know, sometimes, I wish you didn’t make so much sense.❞ She finished off her hot chocolate before tossing the cup in a trash can when she passed. ❝Then again, it’s not like I have anywhere else to work on it.❞ Shiloh looked over to Alysha with a genuine smile. ❝I would hardly call your mom notes anything resembling a lecture. You definitely have a more cool aunt vibe about you.❞ She smirked. ❝I’m all for a movie.❞

Ethan just waited for an explanation, the apology she provided him with practically dismissed. Eventually, she’d find the words to explain what had happened and he’d wait until she did…probably. If it took too long he’d just leave.

The young man listened as closely as he could. There were several areas where he got confused, but he assumed that it made sense to her. Or at least she explained it as best she knew how. “Okay, okay, fine I believe you. You weren’t trying to hurt me, I’m convinced. You pull of the Bambi watching his mom die look very well,” he paused thinking of how to phrase his next statement. “Look, I’m not gonna spread rumors or some shit, but it looks like you’ve got some work to do with your powers.”

Shiloh stopped speaking, thankful for the ability to do so. The regret from speaking at all set in shortly afterwards, one hand over the side of her face as if she could hide from her own discomfort, she sighed. ❝Oh deer...❞ On the plus side, he seemed to believe her. ❝Yeah, there’s a reason for that... but it really be considered a look if it’s my natural state of being?❞ She spared him a glance with an apologetic smile.

❝I would appreciate that. I really don’t need anymore negative P.R. I think I inherited enough of that to last a while.❞ She sunk into her seat with a nod. ❝I know. I know. I just... Don’t really know where to start with it, but I’ll figure it out, probably.❞

The young woman chuckled. “Do you have curtains to block out the blinding sun or is it something you get to wake up to every morning before you’re ready?” Alysha remembered living in the dorms. Not at Skybourne of course, but she remembered the worse for wear condition they tended to be in.

The temptation to turn and glare at their onlookers was tempting, but she didn’t really have the nerve. Instead, a gentle frown was directed the crowd’s direction as she grabbed her hot chocolate and followed her friend. “It was out of defense is what it sounds like, you know. An innate reaction, so screw those people for judging you. But you can view it as something you can work on - being able to deal with the surprise. To your credit, it doesn’t sound like you hurt anyone, just broke a window on accident. And most kids with a baseball do that shit.”

❝The latter, unfortunately.❞

As she grew closer to the doors, she felt herself wanting more and more to simply run from it all, but she’d been taught that running was for guilty people and she refused to look any worse than she already did. Shiloh’s shoulders lowered slightly from their tense position when she stepped through the doors, careful to avoid eye contact with anyone they passed. ❝You’re right... I’m just, I guess I’m scared to work on it, because I feel like I’m not even here when it happens... I didn’t hurt anyone, but I scared Ethan, I think. I could have hurt someone.❞

Shiloh did her best to take Alysha’s view to heart. She was right. Breaking a window hardly made her an evil mastermind. ❝I’m always scared to bring it up in training because I feel like it could be opening Pandora’s box or something.❞ She shrugged, pulling her head away from the negatives. ❝Hopefully, the snow will be enough entertainment to make them forget about it soon.❞

Once in the classroom, Ethan seated himself across from her. There was the slightest nervousness radiating off of him, because she had cryptically stated that she may have tried to kill him, but she had no idea what his power was. If need be, he could defend himself.

“That was one of the most cryptic answers ever,” he stated, a clear edge to his tone. “Do you not have any control over your powers? What does going ‘shady’ mean? And why were you all zoned out?” He shot the questions rapidly, but he was clearly frustrated. He’d started tugging at some of the frazzled plastic on one of the seats to help keep occupied. “You admitted to possibly attempting to harm me, so I deserve answers.”

Shiloh glanced to him intermittently as they sat there, never quite making eye contact with him as if that would make it harder to control the words that left her lips. She was determined to at least partially keep her wits about her since she’d already lost it once in front of a large group of her peers. ❝Sorry... I don’t talk about it a lot, so I don’t have the best... words for things.❞ She swallowed, her heart speeding up again as the questions overwhelmed her. She ran a hand through her hair and down her face, picking apart the questions one at a time. 

❝I have very... minor control. I developed it the same day I left home and never had proper training until I came here.❞ She swallowed. ❝Shady is... when there’s more shadow to me than uh... skin. Usually it’s when I actually go into the shadows, but sometimes, it’s just when the shadows get away from me. My eyes do this dark scary horror movie shit, I caught myself on video once.❞ She left out the part about how she’d immediately destroyed the video after it had freaked her out so much. ❝I... think I freaked out a little bit. I remember feeling like something heavy was sitting on my chest and I didn’t feel like I could move after the lights shut off.❞ 

Wincing at the very idea that she could have hurt someone, her eyes fell once more to the desk in front of her. ❝I... Would never want to hurt you, but I don’t remember what happens when I get like that... It’s like a dark space in my memory. When I come out of it, I always feel a bit... disoriented. It’s like it’s not even me. I don’t know. I wish I had a better explanation for that part.❞