A muse's coincidence

[Casey Pryor]

Casey hadn't been scared of what other people thought of her in a long time. She got defensive sometimes and always stood up for herself, but she'd never really feared that someone would look down on her and lets face it there were plenty of people out there who would hear "partier" and think the worst. Right after her answer, Casey and taken up her drink and slowly sipped on it as she listened to Serena's reply. The bundle of nerves that'd been wrecking havoc inside Casey loosened and she set her drink down with a smile as Serena replied. "It's okay, I don't mind." She replied.

"Kind of both, I guess. I was pretty shy growing up and when I first started at Bellefonte I was still shy. I had decided to start trying to come out of my shell then but then there was that first terrorist attack and then all the dominoes that seemed to fall afterwards I panicked." Casey looked down at her now entwined hands with a frown. "I mean, nothing bad happened to me personally but I was scared. I basically ran away, stayed with my Mom and became a recluse." Casey looked back up at Serena, the shame she felt always when thinking of the past being replaced with the determination that had Casey had used to change herself. "I finally came back to the school full time, and started to be more out there." Casey took a deep cleansing breath and then scrunched up her face and laughed a bit awkwardly, "that's the personality part, the powers part is this: When the moon is waxing and full I am constantly absorbing its energy. It comes with its perks, and its downfalls. I can't sleep during the three or so days the moon is the fullest. Then as the moon wanes the energy I absorb is lessened significantly and the three or so days where there is no moon I have to use energy I've reserved to get through those days." She took a quick drink and breath and then added, "So having all that energy is one of the reasons I decided to change as well cause at one point all I did was run to try and burn off some of that. Partying is definitely a lot more entertaining."

Of course, mentioning that the lunar energy was essentially her life force now and if she completely let herself go and managed to somehow drain herself completely she'd likely die seemed to be saying too much. Maybe in the future if anything happened between them Casey would mention it.

[Serena Rivers]

Serena gave Casey a gentle, reassuring smile while the girl spoke, she didn't want the other girl to feel at all uncomfortable, especially when talking about topics which could be considered sensitive, like people's powers. In Serena's experience, powers tended to be one of the most personal things to students, like it was a part of their personalities, which was sometimes a little funny to Serena, given how her power seemed to contrast quite strikingly with her personality.

The blonde raised an eyebrow occasionally and listened intently. The girl's power, and the way she described it showed that she had a fairly in depth understanding of her own power, which was good. Serena had to admit if asked, one of the main reasons she ended up in genetics, was due to a fascination with the way that her own power worked, especially with aspects like her resistance to toxins, and her advanced blood cell replication.

"I see." She smiled softly. "I know of a few, sort of similar powers. Though they seem to be quite rare, most people's power's function on stuff already around them, or with the person's own energy. Or other... resources, like stuff in the environment." She didn't really elaborate on resources, her own were... kinda creepy.

[Casey Pryor]

Casey was a bit shocked at how readily she opened up to Serena, especially about the whole being scared and running away part. 'Maybe it's a sign,' Casey thought a bit dreamily before focusing on reality again.  "Yes, I did notice that as well. When I first learned about how many different kinds of abilities, or powers, people had, I was a bit jealous of some. Some seemed so easy to learn and didn't seem to affect the person to much so I wanted to switch with them," Casey laughed softly and shook her head. "It took me a while to fully accept my power and even longer to understand it like I do."  

Casey bit her lip, something she noticed was becoming a habit when she was nervous or not sure how to broach a subject, "I know it's hard talking about all this stuff and we just met and I'm not asking you or anything but just letting you know that if you want to talk about yours I'm here to listen," she said, though immediately thought, 'Oh my gosh that sounded stupid and weird and awkward. Maybe o back to the writing?'

[Serena Rivers]

Serena nodded with a soft, reassuring smile as the other girl spoke. "Yes, a lot of students I know of feel that way, trust me. I know how you felt." Serena remembered hating her power, feeling sick when she thought about it, hating her lack of control, and a myriad of other things about it. She remembered her sheer jealousy at how much easier James' power was to deal with than hers.

Eventually of course, she accepted it, and got the hang of it. She nodded again lightly. "Yeah, I feel bad for the really late manifests too, I know somebody whose power only showed up when she was 17." she recalled outloud.

Serena's smile reappeared at the girl's sweet comment, she'd noted the way that Casey bit her lip, again. It was so adorable. Her head leant forward gently as she grinned, covering her eyes and smile for a moment before she brought it back up and pulled it out of her eyes. "That's sweet of you to say. Though I'm not so sure if you want to know about my ability, it's a little more... dark than normal." She admitted.

[Casey Pryor]

"Late manifestations really do have it harder I think. I was 15, almost 16, when it happened to me. It's harder to adjust, especially moving to a new school and town and still having to deal with all the high school drama on top of trying to learn about the new part of us," she said in response.

Casey was relieved that Serena didn't seem weirded out or offended by offering to listen to her about her powers. Casey actually felt a little giddy at how good the conversation was going and she was soaking up all the smiles. Maybe she'd try her hand at drawing later. Maybe she'd try her hand at writing a poem or something and give it to Serena for her opinion. Of course, she wouldn't admit it was about her. Casey smiled at that and definitely decided she would do that. 

Casey couldn't help her eyes as they widened as she considered what Serena might mean about her powers being darker then normal but she gave Serena a genuine encouraging smile and said, "I think I can handle it, try me." 

[Serena Rivers]

Serena nodded in agreement. "Mine was quite early compared to yours, but knowing me, I probably took even longer than you to get a handle on them." she admitted, slightly embarrassed. Though in fairness, it wasn't really her fault or anything, she had kind of a complicated and frustrating power when it came to trying to get control. A lot of the telekinetic based powers were tricky like that.

Serena smiled. "Well, you know telekinetics? And how you get people like Hydrokinetics that only control water, but often to a much more precise or powerful degree?" She asked mostly rhetorically. "Well, I'm mostly like that. I'm a haemokinetic, which is rare in itself, but I control blood outside of the human body, which is even more so. I've also got lots of strange things about my body, like my blood's properties, and other things like that."

Serena paused for a second. "Most of the weirdness comes from how volatile it is, and also people don't tend to react very well to seeing me do it, I didn't used to for a very long time, it can be quite creepy." She admitted. Serena hoped the girl wasn't put off talking or socialising with her by the description of her power.

[Casey Pryor]

'Control blood...' Casey's eye brows were furrowed in thought as she listened. She had never heard of something like that. It was a bit unnerving, mostly because of how alien it sounded. "Like only outside of the body? Not inside?" Casey couldn't help the shiver that passed quickly over her. 'Seeing blood floating around and moving on its own would be creepy,' Casey silently admitted to herself. 

It was obvious Casey was a little unnerved but she didn't want to put Serena off or make her think It was all negative. She gave Serena a small smile and said, "A unique ability for a uniquely beautiful girl." She had the urge to reach out and pat Serena's hand but she resisted by gripping her cup with both hands. Casey knew that once she got used to the idea of what Serena could do, she would be more used to it and it likely wouldn't unnerve her.

[Serena Rivers]

Serena wasn't surpised by the other girl's reaction, a small part of her head hoped for a differing reaction to the normal one she tended to get, but she couldn't blame the other girl. She'd had to take so much time to even get used to the idea of her power, let alone using it. She didn't even dare imagine what her reaction would be like if Casey saw her actually using the power.

She almost winced as her gaze drifted downwards, taking solitary gulps of her coffee. The girl's comment quite surprised her though. She opened her mouth to speak, but the sound that came out wasn't speech... very little sound came out of her mouth period. After a few seconds, her cheeks coloured in a deep shade of pink.

"I-Uhm... Well. I'm sure you can see why I'm sometimes reluctant to tell people about it, they tend to see me differently and such." She cleared her throat and, kept her gaze relatively low, adjusting the hair out of her eyes, still blushing gently.

[Casey Pryor]

Casey couldn't help but smile when she saw Serena blushing. In fact, with her gaze low, cheeks pink and the way her hair fell, Casey thought Serena looked perfect. With out a second thought she pinched her phone out of her jeans pocket, slid the camera icon up and rolled her eyes in frustration as it took a few seconds to load up. Finally, with Serena still looking the same as a few seconds ago she raised the phone and quickly snapped a picture.

A silly grin lit up her face as she hit save and then went to make a new contact. The picture was perfect, and adding her into her phone was a good excuse for taking the picture. "Sorry for the random picture taking," Casey said sheepishly and held out her phone, "I just wanted to add you in my contacts." She set the phone in front of Serena and then said hurriedly, "Not that I'm ready to leave now or anything, I just uhhh...thought it was a good time to ask for your number?" She finished somewhat lamely, a small blush on her cheeks as well.

[Serena Rivers]

Serena gave off a nervous giggle after Casey snapped the photo, the other girl was clearly into her on some level, which was so refreshing, and it made Serena feel rather giddy, more so than she had felt in quite some time. Yeah, her and Casey would most definitely get along. The simple fact that Casey went from learning about her power to complimenting her and then taking pictures....

Serena smiled to the other girl, forcing aside the blush. "It's no problem. I was going to offer you my number soon anyway." She typed her digits into the other girl's phone. After she was done, she slid the phone across the desk back to Casey, smiling softly. "Well, there you go, you have my number." This had to be a new record for Serena as far as making friends and getting their number went.

She smirked. "Though you know you've got to give me yours now~" She teased.

[Casey Pryor]

Seeing Serena put in her number gave Casey thrills and was glad that the nervousness and awkwardness Casey felt wasn't off putting or anything. She picked up her phone and looked at her new favorite contact and then slipped her phone back in her pants as she smiled.

"You are completely right," Casey said, her smile turning into a grin. She grabbed her pen and reached across the table to grab hold of Serena's hand, turn it over and write her number on Serena's palm. It was pretty gutsy of Casey, with how she was feeling at the moment. She definitely noticed Serena's soft skin and how her hand seemed to fit in hers. "There you go," she said, her grin still in place. "A bit old fashioned but effective." She pulled her hand back to her side of the table.

[Serena Rivers]

Serena grinned at Casey brightly as the girl retrieved her phone. There was just something inherently awesome about making new friends, she loved it. She found herself swimming through memories of how she'd met some of her best friends, also noticing a slight pattern of crushing instantly on the cute ones like Jo, Liz and Erika. And now tentatively adding Casey to that list.

She smiled and raised an eyebrow at Casey's comment, letting the brunette take her hand. Serena had a pretty slender build, her fingers were thin, not sickly or anything. But delicate. Her skin was also unusually pale for somebody living in Kalispell. She tried not to giggle at the pen dragging over her hand, she'd always found people drawing on her skin to be an odd sensation, sort of ticklish but not.

A shiver ran through her arm as Casey let go, and she drew it back gently, looking down at the number and smiling. She then smirked at the brunette and drew a slender smart phone with a purple case from her pocket. "Very cute. You could have just typed it on here though.~" She winked at the other girl.

[Casey Pryor]

Casey chuckled as Serena pulled out her phone, "True, but I may or may not have had ulterior motives for wanting to write on your hand," she teased while winking back. 

While Casey had started out her trip to school that day tired, she was definitely not feeling that way now. A combination of the caffeine from her iced caramel mocha and the buzz she felt from sitting across from Serena. She knew, just knew, that even if nothing romantic happened (though she'd by lying to herself if she said she didn't want that), Serena would be a good friend for the rest of Casey's life. There weren't many people you meet that you know that for certain, but Casey had that feeling. Of course, she tended to keep those thoughts or feelings to herself because she didn't want to come off as sounding crazy or something. Like love at first sight. She was starting to give that one some credence now.

Casey took a deep drink from her coffee, noticing with a small frown her coffee was almost gone. "These drinks never seem to last long enough," she mused out loud and then continued, "So anything more exciting then classes or homework planned for later?"

'Maybe I should ask when a good time to come over and check out her tea and lounge would be or is it to soon?' Casey mused to herself. 'Maybe asking her to hang out somewhere else less private would be best first before bringing up said visit to her home. Hmmm....'

[Serena Rivers]

Serena smirked and raised an eyebrow at Casey's comment. She was actually rather enjoying the confidence. People who had given her the same vibe has Casey had often been shy about the affection that Serena thought she was noticing. Especially with guys when she was younger, too bad for them when she was a teenager she wasn't into them in the slightest, now she might be, but people like Casey were definitely still more her type.

Serena felt like she'd had more than one cup of coffee. She'd already finished her drink. How long had they even been here? She couldn't even remember. The conclusion was reached by the blonde that it didn't matter, and she was more than okay with that.

Her smile widened as the other girl spoke, tilting her head to the side slightly to study the other girl's face as she continued. "Well. I suppose facebook stalking my new friend wouldn't be completely out of the question." She to winked at Casey. "Maybe get some reading done and relax, I'm not entirely certain to be honest with you." She paused, smiling more at the girl, never really breaking contact. "I tend to just let the evening take me where it will."

[Casey Pryor]

Thinking back on how everything had been going, Casey was happy to see how well she was doing. She was even a bit surprised at some of her own comments. Even a year ago she would have held back more and been more awkward and quiet. Boy was she glad she'd been open to changing herself. And really, it was for the best. Casey was so much more happy and care-free then she had been in the past. More confident and self-assured.  

She picked up her drink, taking the last mouthful and savoring the taste for a moment before finishing it completely.  She giggled a bit at Serena's Facebook stalking comment and nodded in agreement as she continued. "That's what I usually do when I don't have work." Casey folded her arms on the table and leaned forward a bit again. 'It's like she's magnetic,' Casey mused. 'Hmm, what to pick her brain about next...oh writing!'

"So you mentioned that you liked to write. Do you like write stories, fan fiction, non fiction?" Some people would say, save some things to talk about for your next meeting, but that would mean this first meeting would have to end and Casey wasn't sure she was ready for that.