rainy days

Aaron did not usually spend much time in libraries at home, even the school library he preferred to go in, get what he needed, and leave. Usually during breaks, he'd be outside running around or chatting with friends inside chatting with friends, or in the cafeteria eating and talking with friends. Or he'd be beating up bullies and getting in trouble. After school, he'd head home, get his homework done as fast as possible and be outside again.

But here, having only been here a couple days, he hadn't made any friends yet. And while he didn't mind the overcast weather, he figured most other people would probably be hanging around indoors. He also didn't have a home to do homework in, and he didn't feel like being stuck in the dorms with it. So he'd decided to go to the library, hoping that other people had had the same idea. Of course, he might also get his homework done while he was there, but if he didn't it was no big deal.

Some of the courses were actually really interesting here too. Especially the ones to do with supernatural things and powers. Knowing that he was in some way magical made all that boring fantasy stuff seem a lot more relevant and less of a waste of time. He was actually looking for a specific book that had been recommended to him. So he was scanning the shelves and not paying much attention as he made his way to the back of the library.

Aaron, being used to mildly cold temperatures, was also wearing jeans and a reddish-brown t-shirt, but his was not long-sleeved. He also had a plain black hoody wrapped around his waist. The first thing the teenager noticed was the foot tapping. Then he noticed an attractive older boy he guessed was probably a college student, who also seemed to have brought homework he wasn't actually doing. Aaron gave a lazy wave to the boy, unsure if he could be heard over the headphones. Then he greeted him in a moderate tone, "'Ey! What are ya' at?"

Aaron gracefully sat in the seat next to the other boy and looked at him curiously for a moment before he spoke. His eye was caught by a dim reddish glow that surrounded the stranger. He'd noticed this glow surrounding people before, but until coming to the island had always passed it off as some trick of the light or his eyes. Now he wasn't so sure, but he had no idea what it meant. He suspected it was something only he could see too, so he wouldn't even be able to ask the people he saw it around what it was until he had some sort of pattern to narrow it down with. He wondered if he should start a journal or maybe ask the therapist the school had saddled him with. Nothing he could do about it now at any rate.

"I jest noticed ya were also avoiding yer 'omework. I'se new 'ere. 'Oping to make friends. Name's Aaron Jacobs. What's dat yer watching? Oh - and what's yer name?" He put his own homework on the table next to him and placed the book he had found and grabbed just before greeting the boy down as well. Then not wanting to start anything productive right away, he leant back and subtly checked the older boy out, thinking he was quite handsome. Aaron liked looking at attractive males, though he wouldn't really consider doing more than looking at his age, especially with some stranger.

Besides, he was still distracted by the strange glow. Now that he'd started to pay attention to it, it felt like he was seeing it everywhere. How many powers did he actually have? And why had his mother not told him about this place earlier? Although even though what he had done had been hard to do, he supposed it was good he had been there to do it, even if it did mean finding out he had powers later.

Slightly taken aback by the vehement denial of the other boy and wondering how he always managed to end up talking to tetchy people, Aaron calmly apologised, "Sorry b'y. Wrong of me t'assume ya was. Nutting wrong wit' it. I'se ignoring my 'omework, so I sposed you was too." He guessed that if he wanted to make new friends, he'd have to ride out the annoyance of less social people. His laidback attitude had served him well in the past. Although, admittedly he might have stepped on people's toes a couple times before becoming friends with them.

He smiled at the other boy's apology, a barely noticeable quirk of his lips, and accepted it as easily as he had given his own. "Not a problem, b'y. Being cooped up like t'is is nar good fer anyone's sanity. 'Ave to h'admit I do gets on people's nerves some days." He looked at the screen, but didn't recognise the band, and couldn't hear the song cause of the boy's headphones. "Interesting. I don't listen to much music meself. And most've what I do listen to is probably not 'eard much on the mainland, 'cept Great Big Sea... Where's yer 'ome to?"

Aaron shook Andre's hand back just as firmly, just enough to be polite, not trying to show off. He wasn't sure at first if the boy was asking him why he was at the library or at the school in general. Saying he was a shifter cleared that up before he could ask, though. All the supernatural terms were new to him, but shifter seemed sort of easy enough to understand. Aaron was pretty sure he was more here to control his powers and hopefully not kill anyone else than because of what his actual powers were, but he thought this was a kind of silly reaction on behalf of the school. It's not like his powers made him do what he did. And if he had to do it again, he'd do it to protect his sisters.

But this meant he could separate his abilities from what he had done with them and didn't get defensive whenever they were brought up. Fortunate in this place, where powers seemed to be brought up almost as often as a person's name. "I'm just 'uman meself, but I 'ave some strange transformation power I spose ya'd call it. Get wings and claws and such. Don't 'ave much control over it yet."