[CT] I'm Not Lost

[François Laffont]

Franck had his father drive him to the school this morning before going to work. He would take the bus with the other students. He didn't want his father to be late for work after all. Of course, he refused to leave until the buses took them away. Franck could see the car still there and his dad looking. In a way, it was a bit embarrassing. Franck was not an eight year old anymore, he was eighteen. He could go out if he wanted to. But he knew his father had always been the protective type and Franck just couldn’t bring himself to tell his dad to give him some space.

Anyway, he soon couldn’t see the car anymore and he knew the man was not protective to the point of following them. He would go back to work, and probably spend every evening Franck won’t be home wondering if he was alright. Because that was his dad he was thinking about.

François however refused to let the fact he was away from home tarnish the fun he could have here. He knew a few of the students here also, and was planning to spend time with them. He also recognized some faces he preferred to avoid, hoping they had the same desire, basically just Ellen and Demi but who knows if more would end up on that list by the end of the trip. But Franck also took it as an opportunity to meet more people or talk with some he spent less time with.

He wanted to do some exploring for now however. He had no idea how good his sense of direction was but he was ready to put it to the test. Anyway, if he didn’t go too far, he assumed he could still locate himself by the sound of the other students. So Franck took off to explore the area. He liked how quiet it was, helped him relax and deal with the flow of emotions he constantly got from everyone else. So far, nothing bad happened because of this, nothing affected him too much for Franck to do something he might regret. He wished it to remain that way.

Lost in his thoughts and looking around, he kind of lost track of time and the location of the camp. He was not certain how long he had been walking but he suddenly realized that he couldn’t hear anyone. Not good. He turned around, trying to perceive something. Well, he only had to retrace his steps and he would be fine. Except it was not as easy as it sounded. Nothing looks more like a tree than another tree. And when Franck found himself in front of water, when he was pretty sure he didn’t walk anywhere near some earlier, he raised his arms in the air before dropping them in a sigh.

Alright, he was lost. Oh wait, didn’t they say they could go fishing? With a bit of luck, this was the place, or leading to it. He only had to walk along the shore to find some dock or something with boats stowed to it and he should be fine. That sounded like a good plan.

[Averia Jemson]

Averia had been so stoked for the camping trip. It was her first time out in a long while and the fresh air was just what she needed. It was a pity that she didn't know many of the students on the trip, and that her brother couldn't make it. But still, she was there to have fun. Ave looked forward to meeting some new faces and mingling with the crowd. As the bus slowed down, she could hardly contain her excitement.

After running to her assigned cabin, she met up with her new roommates. They seemed nice enough. Settling in, she began to feel the ache of homesickness hit her. She grimaced, trying to hold back the memories of camping trips like this, where she would pitch up tents with her dad and build fires with Andrew. No, she couldn't think like this. It was too unpleasant. She was here to enjoy herself, not get lured into the past. Tossing the last few things on her bed, she scurried out of the cabin to explore.

The mountain air was fresh and clean, so unlike the city air Averia was used to. Looking around, she saw that everyone was still in their cabins. No one would notice if she left. Only for a few minutes. She was about to walk off when she remembered her compass and ran back to grab it. Her roommates gave her a confused look, to which she just smiled back. "Okay, compass in hand. Time to go."

 Travelling down a worn path, she hiked through the forest. Ten or so minutes passed before she heard a noise. Snapping her head in the direction of the sound, she saw the glowing yellow eyes of some animal, an animal that wasn't happy to see her. In most situations, she would have screamed back, but considering she wasn't supposed to use her powers (at least she thought they said that), screaming was not an option. So she ran. Her long strides allowed Ave to get away from the creature, but she was now hopelessly lost in the forest.

"Great. Just absolutely perfect." she said, disgruntled. "Now I'm lost in the forest. How the hell do I get out of here?" Huffing angrily, she began to walk towards the sound of fish jumping. Fish meant water. Water meant dock. Dock meant other people who could take her back to camp. As she approached the shore, she began to look across the waterline for someone, anyone really. As time passed, no one came and Averia began to feel angry with herself for going off trail in the first place. Then a branch snapped. She spun around, staring intently at the greenery, hoping for someone. A boy stumbled out into the open. He looked familiar. "Hey.....you there! Are you with the Bellefonte people?"

[François Laffont]

Franck looked up, surprised, when he heard someone calling out for him. At least, he assumed it was for him. He looked around. No, there was no one else. Only the two of them and the water he finally found. He wished he had brought a map, really, even though he suspected he would have been able to get lost with one anyway. He didn’t know the area at all. He had not been camping for years. He vaguely remembered when his parents joined with some friends to do that. He must not have been older than eight years old the last time he did that. Ten years. No surprise he had no real idea what do to around here.

At least he had yet freaked out. When he heard one on the bus suggesting they had to make a fire tonight and roast marshmallows and tell the spookiest ghost stories they knew, he suddenly realized being an easily scared person and spending nights in the woods might not have been that great of an idea. Well, he would be in a cabin and last he heard bears could not open doors. He should be fine.

Except he was not exactly here. But the sun was still up and so he wasn’t too scared. Wild animals generally avoided humans, right? It was not an animal he had in front of him anyway, it was a girl. And she mentioned Bellefonte. So she was a student like him. “Yes, I am, why?” he asked as he joined her. The thought she might not be and said that in order to hit him on principle for being a mutant did not even cross his mind. What were the odds a bunch of ‘normal’ students decided to camp here at the same time they did? No, she had to be from the school. Which meant she knew of their camp. Great! “You wouldn’t happen to know where we are precisely? I think I might have wandered off more than I thought,” he asked her, looking around. Well, there was water and they mentioned boats and fishing, so he should be able to locate the cabins from there. How far from the water they must be? He could just imagine the girl telling him they were just a few feet away from their location. How silly would he look, right? But he’d find the camp and that was more important than what she could think of him.

[Averia Jemson]

Averia smiled inwardly as he turned to face her. "That's good. He heard me." she thought. Walking up to the boy, she shrugged at his question. "I don't know a lot of people here... But I'm from the school too and you looked familiar. I just wanted to make sure." The sun was hitting the clear water, bouncing light back onto the shore. It wasn't too hot to be out, but Ave didn't like the chance that they were far from camp. Sooner than later, they would have to find their way back.

"If only Andrew came. He's a lot more into this stuff than I am." She thought. Then the boy said it. The few words that could drop her spirits. "You're lost too? And here I thought I was saved. Well, this is just fantastic." She ran her fingers through her hairs in anger and looked back where she came from. This was going to be a long day. "So, we're currently lost in the middle of this forest and there are wild animals that wouldn't hesitate to eat us. I suggest we make a move and try to find our way back. Camp is due east from the dock, which is somewhere here. I have a compass that I brought." She pulled out the metal plastic circle and held in her palm, watching the arrow move. Rotating, she aligned herself with the eastern arrow and looked up. "East is that direction, so our best bet is to go that way." she said, pointing. "Unless you want to stay here. But I can tell you that the cabins aren't just around the corner, if that's what you're thinking." 

[François Laffont]

Franck actually felt relieved to have found someone. Even if she was not from Bellefonte, the girl might be able to send him in the right direction. She confirmed being from the academy however which only made it better. She definitely knew where the cabins were. Were there more of them around here? He didn’t see why none of them would come here, maybe go fishing or swim. “Yes, I’m from the academy. Name’s Franck,” he told her. Hey, might as well give his name f she was to get him out of his jam.

But apparently he was still in some trouble. Because she was lost as well. “You too?” he repeated after her. Great. Were all the kids lost like they were? Maybe they should have picked a smaller, easier to locate yourself place. He too was a bit desperate for a moment to hear that his saviour was in fact as lost as he was. But then he sensed her anger and he realized he needed them both to calm down. He didn’t want any emotions to rub on him, especially anger, around here. It would not help them.

He didn’t quite like the bits about animals even if he told himself she must be exaggerating. No animal was coming out of the woods right now to eat them. They were safe. They had to. He could not be eaten by a wild animal while being lost. His father would never survive this. Okay, he told himself to calm down, right.

She was more organized then he thought. She knew the camp was east of the docks. She must have come from this direction or noticed it earlier. “So, all we need to do is walk alongside the water until we find the docks and then head east?” he replied. That sounded like a good plan. “Oh, I’m coming with you,” he said quickly when she suggested he could stay lost there if he wanted. He certainly didn’t want it.

[Averia Jemson]

Averia lead the way, indicating to Franck that they walk. She figured it would be best to walk and talk. He seemed completely lost so she wasn't sure how helpful he would be, but it wasn't in Ave's nature to leave someone behind. "That's good. I'm not sure what I'd have done if you said no... Probably look really stupid. Anyways, it's nice to meet you Franck. I'm Averia.

 She hopped onto a large rock and tried to look across the water, for a hint of the dock. No luck. "Yes I got lost too. Everyone else was settling in and I wanted to explore. I was on the path, until this huge beast with yellow eyes chased me off the trail. That's when I bumped into you." She said nonchalantly. She forced herself to calm down. The situation wasn't as dire as she thought and there was no reason for her to loose her head.

Hopping down from the rock, she nodded. "Yep. If we're not too far, we should get there in twenty minutes or so. I think." Chuckling at his mildly scared expression at her comment, she placed her hands on her hips, formulating a plan. "Relax, I wasn't planning on ditching you, even if you weren't from the academy. Though it would make finding our way back a little difficult. A few minutes passed and she was still trying to figure out which way they should go. If they travelled upwards, they could have missed the docks completely, but if they went lower down the water, they might not travel far enough. "What to do, what to do." she muttered under her breath. Light bulbs went off in her head as an idea popped. 

Jumping back on the rock, she sighed. "I know I said I wouldn't use it during the trip, but I'm desperate." Mumbling to herself, she tossed a small stone into the water and checked the rate that sound was travelling at based on the size of the waves. Turning back to Franck, she gave him an apologetic look. "You may want to cover your ears." With that, she let out an ear piercing screech. The scream flew across the lakes in clear waves, before bouncing back at Ave. She waited a minute before letting out one more screech to be sure. Then she hopped down to the gravel ridden ground and brushed off her hands, a victorious smile making it's way across her face. "I know where the docks are." Averia said. "Not too far from here actually. They're just behind that ridge. Let's go." 

[François Laffont]

He had a little chuckle, not because he did think she would have look stupid but more in a way to get rid of the awkwardness of this whole situation. Franck was the kind to laugh and smile through hard times. Because sometimes it was all you could do. He nodded as she said her name but he thought that it seemed to be a thing in this school to have unusual names. Maybe he should not talk. François must seem to them pretty strange if it was quite common in France. “It’s an uncommon name. But a nice one too. Kind of have an angelic touch to it,” he replied. Her name reminded him of the prayers, the whole Latin Ave Maria. He wondered for a second if her parents thought the same. Probably not. He realized almost everyone if they were religious here were Lutherans. They mustn’t be saying the mass in Latin.

Averia didn’t seem that scared about the huge beast with the yellow eye but Franck couldn’t help looking behind into the woods, as if it was about to jump on them or something. “We still have more than enough daylight, we can’t be lost forever,” he pointed out. Surely they would notice two students were missing at some point and go look for them. If that happened, it would mean the two had been lost for hours and if so, Franck wouldn’t mind the lecture if he could just get to bed. But the day was still quite young and they had no reason to worry too much. So he didn’t.

Now they only needed to decide where to go. Were the docks up or downstream? Franck had not been around water and boats enough to know. And apparently, neither did Averia. He frowned when she tossed a rock and told him to cover his eyes. When he started to hear her screech however, he placed both hands over his ears and even ended up trying to bury his head between his shoulders. He could have grown deaf with that sound. He waited in that position for a little while even if she stopped screaming. But after a moment, she looked pretty proud of herself and was pointing in a direction. He nodded. “Okay,” he said, his voice a little flaky. He sighed, tried to get a grip and soon was back to his usual self. “That was a pretty neat trick,” he admitted as he walked with her.

[Averia Jemson]

After she had hopped down, Ave apologized profusely. "Sorry about that Franck. You okay?" She eyed him carefully as they walked. No good in him fainting after all. Smiling, she nodded to acknowledge his compliment. "Thanks. I guess you can tell from my little display back there that I'm a sound manipulator. Anyways, I used echolocation to figure out where the docks are, but the thing is that I'm still working on it so it's not exact. The docks are in that area, I'm just not a hundred percent sure their exact location." She thought back to his earlier comment. "It's funny you mentioned that. Averia's just a nickname. A lot shorter than my full first name. But, I like your name too. Is it just Franck or is franck short for something?"

They continued walking in silence. Averia felt the chill of the mountain air on her arms and shivered. Trudging forwards, she decided to break the ice. "So...since we're going to be walking for a bit and the silence is killing me, how 'bout we get to know each other? Not support group like, where people are all 'I'm Jenny, I'm sixteen and I have issues', more like normal people talk." She rambled. Slapping a hand to her forehead, she blushed. "Sorry, I'm really awkward some times. Generally I stick with my brother, but seeing as he's not here..." her voice trailed off, as she mentally face palmed. Again.

[François Laffont]

Averia’s scream had been deafening. He had no idea what frequency she used or exactly what she did right there to locate the dock, but there was a light ringing at his ears. He was relatively fine other than that but the inner ear was important for balance and since they were walking on uneven ground, he couldn’t go real fast for now. He wished he could chase that feeling away, like you do with water, but it wasn’t that simple, of course. “I’m fine,” he assured her even if it was not exactly true. At least he believed he was and would be until they reached the camp. It was all he wanted.

She explained what she did. She could say it was not exact, he still considered it pretty impressive. “That’s still pretty amazing. And the docks are big, so as long as we know where to look, I doubt we’ll miss it,” he replied. They ought to be the worst explorers in the world if they walked towards the right location near water and miss something as big as a dock.

He nodded as she questioned his name. “It’s François,” he answered, his French accent clearly showing. He shrugged before adding “I just wanted to come out with something easier for people to say. It was Franck or Francis, they chose Franck.” He was curious now that she was Averia was just a nickname. He found it already unusual and couldn’t quite guess what it could be a shorter form of. “What’s your full name?” he asked. Hey, he told her his, why couldn’t he ask her about hers.

They walked and silence slowly took a place between them, almost like a third person walking by. That is until she started to talk, say they should discuss, get to know each other. He supposed she was right. It was why he decided to do to this camping trip after all. He even chuckled at the way she brought it up and how she apologized later on. “No, it’s fine. Talking’s good. I’m an empath by the way, since you told me what your power is. I sense people’s feelings, like, all the time. And, as you probably guessed, I’m French. So, sorry if the accent makes it hard sometimes to understand what I say but I can assure you it was worst when I first came here,” he said, throwing at her what he could think about first, chuckling again as he talked of his accent.

[Averia Jemson]

Averia smiled inwardly as the satisfying crunch of gravel echoed with her every step. She loved the feel of being outdoors, and even if they were rushing, attempted to savour the moment. As Franck denied her worries, she couldn't help but glance over ever few seconds to make sure. He appeared mildly unsteady and she remained on guard, ready to help if need be.

Shrugging her shoulders, she accepted his compliment. "Thanks. Truth be told, I've never had to use it on a region this big before." She mumbled, just happy that it worked. Nodding her agreement, they continued on.

"François?" she said, rolling the name over the lips. She said it slowly, sounding out each syllable. A French name, and one she happened to like. "It's a nice name. I like it." Then he asked the question. Averia normally wasn't comfortable telling people her full name, mainly due to the constant looks of oddity she got. It was a very strange name. But she felt comfortable enough with Franck to tell him. He had told her his after all. "You're going to laugh." she said blushing. "My full name is Averiangeline. I know pretty strange huh?"

She smiled as he shared somethings. "Nice. J'adore la Francais." she said in French. "My turn. I was born in California, moved to Quebec for eight years, then returned to California. I have a twin brother who also attends Bellefonte. I'm a singer and I can play several instruments. And I can speak French as you can see." she said, scouring her mind for things to say.

[François Laffont]

Franck was also happy that it worked, if she never used it on so vast an environment before. He had no idea where was the best place to put docks really and he didn’t want to admit he got lost just as the trip began. If they got back to the camp now, they could just say they went exploring and would be fine. If they come a little late, then they didn’t the time passing by and rushed back when they realized it. As simple as that.

Franck knew the two big problems with his name, when someone only speaking English tried to say it, was the fact the R was not pronounced the same way and the S was not pronounced at all. If you did, then he’d end up the feminine version of his name and if Franck was gay he was still a guy. He smiled to her as she said liking his name. He liked his name too even if there was some irony in being French and having a name that pretty much meant Frenchman. He looked at her as she said he would laugh. He didn’t. But his eyebrows did arch up high on his face from the surprise such an odd name would create on everyone. “You’re right, that’s not very common. And makes you sound even more angelic,” he said. He didn't want to laugh but he did wonder what her parents were thinking, coming up with such a name. Some parents just wanted a unique name not realizing the amount of mockery they would put their kids through later. “And are you? Angelic, I mean,” he said, for conversation’s sake.

“Quebec. Is that where you learned French,” he asked. He had chuckled a bit when she spoke in his native language. He didn’t start talking to her in French however, as he knew there was a big difference between knowing a few words and being fluent. “My father came to Montana with me after my power showed up. He’s a little... protective. That’s the only family I have,” he shared with her although something in his voice as he said his father was the only family he had sounded almost sad. He knew it wasn’t true. He had a mother, somewhere, back in France. A mother that didn’t want anything to do with him. It pained him to think that so he forced a smile on his face to forget about it.