The world was dark. Not black darkness; that only lasted the first few moments of really dedicating yourself to it. Her body was form of consciousness and thought; there was no body. You could feel a body. It could be your own. It could be someone else's. Human society was structured around hubs of culture and geology. Even in distant places there were usually clusters. Networks of all the world's people. It stretched on and on and forever more. The great endless horizon that Makayla found she could stare at without tiring for as long as she allowed herself to do it, a horizon of darkness and darkness with the darkest shades of twilight shining with a similar if colder light. Today there was no endless horizon. The darkness was there, but it always was, a constant dim filter on the metareality of her current moment. The lighting was fluorescent, the walls a semi-glossed wood panel, and there were flags lining the furthest wall. The one behind the large desk and the big bald man in a dark suit seated at the desk. There was a glow alive around him; very faded but very warm in a light orange. Instinct and memory told her warmth was good. Because the man closest to her, the smaller and younger of the two men, and seated with his back to her? He was bitter cold. There was conversation but it washed over her like waves from the perspective of a fish far from the surface, a distant rumble that had no direct consequence on her current preoccupations. All of that snapped to a sudden and kinetic change the moment it registered with her subconscious lit up at the conversation at play between them. [i]"Some girl...young, very young like a teenager...taking steps..." The cold man grew colder, and the warm man saw a drop in heat. Although the change was slight it was something she couldn't miss, not in the darkness where the visuals of the world bleed at the edges and dances like flame in a lazy vibration so slow unless you stared you would have missed it. That was the first thing she learned in the darkness of infinity; stopping and staring usually paid off in one way or another. Letting her focus and will power go free was a leap into the air for a first time flyer. Elevation was boundless, velocity a matter of feeling, and descent just a matter of time. Staring at the cold one brought to her lips a gasp sharp enough to cut through even a metareality. The cold man snapped forward from his seat, leaning to the desk and knocking pictures down flat onto the desk so they couldn't be seen by prying eyes. [i]So I can't identify who this is.[/i] The warmer, older, bald man sitting behind the desk was beyond her reach. The colder younger man she only knew from last time. Unlike other people, she couldn't "reach" a person using the cold man as a go-between. Because he was a telepath, too, was her bet as to why. [b]You're not getting away this time.[/b] It wasn't true last time. She got away after he said she wouldn't. After he said that she couldn't. At least Makayla had thought she did. Snapping into this moment, with these people, was like nothing that had ever happened before. Getting lost in it was so easy, so effortless, that she'd lost the fact that she didn't bring herself here. She thought not, until his reaction. He didn't bring her, either. The mystery was enough to snap her focus. She couldn't reach the man behind the desk, but the desk? It went up like a rendered 3D object suddenly given moon gravity. It came down like a very heavy, very large, desk. [i]Still don't want me to run?[/i] He couldn't. She knew it like she knew the size of the moon in the sky, a natural fact so obvious few could miss it. He was a telepath, but he wasn't, as he phrased it, "telekinetic." It was the last thing she remembered before the chill of the infinite and it's darkness became daggers, moments before it was so cold it burned. She was moving, the endless darkness howling with the sound of ambient thought replacing the sound of wind around her as she moved at velocities that gave her rope burn. She did the only thing she could do...she screamed as loudly as she could. Everything was gone. The sound of a whispery quiet ceiling fan and the filtered and cooled air running from the ducts. Her world was a fluffy bed and a four post black wood bed, translucent white cotton canopy blurring the image of her bedroom. Her stomach turned, and her head dipped as pain cascaded around her brain. Her body moved out of the bed and into her bathroom six feet away in seconds. She spent the rest of the early morning throwing up. By the time she got up off the heated tile of her bathroom it was time to get ready for school. She left her hair long and wavy and shiny, giving it free reign. Her top was a pale pink cotton blouse with three quarter sleeves and wore off the shoulders, exposing her gold tanned and one or two freckles on the back of her shoulder when her long sun lightened blonde hair wasn't covering one shoulder or another. Her jeans were black but faded and only slightly high on the waist. Her shoes were black All Stars with pink accents and stitching. She arrived early so she could help start processing the freshman cheerleaders. She even had her own key to the cheer equipment room. That was a trip. Each time she met a new freshman girl, it was like she got splashed with feeling. Makayla wasn't looking, and just let it all roll of her back, but it was an interesting way to form first impressions. Some girls seemed very closed off, some just terrified, others excited and open, but all of those were just surface level. Beneath a stormy sea of emotions and thoughts alive and burning brighter than usual: new school years. Especially freshman year. For Makayla it wasn't quite the same. She was a junior, and her social life was over. Some freshman didn't seem to know. A few thanked her, personally, finding it cool "Makayla Hall" woke up early to help out the new crop of cheerleaders. Makayla stared, before trying to only chuckle kindly at the girls. Whatever her reputation it didn't seem too badly injured at cheer. Then she roamed the halls, unable to perceive much of anything because of the interjections. Samantha. Jessie. Lauren B, Lauren R. Kinzie. Rachel. It wasn't just the girls, either, Bradley, R.J., and Shane. Most wanted information. Rachel was really angry, and thought Makayla should know it. Being born to wealthy parents didn't entitle her to treat people that way, the girl told her. Makayla agreed, Rachel's eyes narrowed. That was painful. Rachel was amazing, and Mak loved her dearly. R.J. was difficult only because it was hard not to talk to him. She'd always talked to him in the morning, since kindergarten. So she asked about his summer, and at least tried until he brought up drama. She had to curtail the conversation there, it felt weird, it felt wrong. Much like her entire life right now: weird and wrong. She skipped the assembly and got high with Eli behind the cafeteria. Even though she hadn't indulged, her mind kept processing. She had a tension headache by lunch. There was simply too much stimulus for a telepath at a highschool; at least when so many people seemed to think and feel in your direction. She heard snippets all day. The cutest was a freshman boy that thought she was the sexiest thing alive. The worst was one senior girl being disgusted at the sight of the "bitchy little rich girl." That was all before lunch. The peach flavored blunt was bliss. Her mind washed clean, her muscles relaxed, and everything seemed to reset. Her vibe was right. She spent lunch and most of the next period in a daze, pretending to read in the library. Coming out of the library she hit Ashley in the hall, or rather, she walked to her locker and found Ashley there. The hug was a little forced, but only a little. "Where have you been?" Makayla paused, but only a single beat, "I got high with Eli. I spent lunch reading in the library." "Nobody's very happy today, Mak," Ashley's green eyes darted that way and the other, before bouncing back to Makayla and sinking into the sight of her best friend, "I know you've heard it, but you also spent most of the summer in the rain forest with your mom. Which is only just a little weird, so you don't know everything." Ashley's arms were crossed, she looked nervous. Makayla smiled the moment she took a [i]peek.[/i] "I don't care if you date John. You're too sweet sometimes." The red headed girl threatened to smile, but there was still edge in her eyes, "Ready to talk to me? You know, me? Your sister? The person who loves you forever?" Guilt panged. [i]The hug was only slightly forced,[/i] she told herself, but the girl continued at Makayla's hesitation in response, "You're either a lesbian and in love with me, which I'd like to think I'd see coming, or you're a vampire, or you were bit by a radio active spider, or--" Makayla's head tilted, "--this fascination with scenarios that involve me being bitten..." "You know what I mean. Eventually you're going to tell me. I don't believe your parents are breaking up. I know you didn't get knocked up. Know what my theory is?" Ashley asked, the tone in her voice suggesting Makayla was going to hear that theory whether she objected or not, "I think you're trying to protect everyone. I think you either got sick, or you're 'Hyper', and I think I'm not far away from starting to take the unsolved mysteries a little personally." "Ashley, wai--" Makayla sighed, the girl vanished behind the hallway highway of bodies but she still followed her best friend down the hall. Able to see her even when she couldn't physically see her. Her locker swung shut without being touched, and she walked away trying to clear her head. The next class was math, Natalie shocked her by asking for help, shocking only after some of the things Natalie had said about Makayla since the start of summer. She left math a little early to slip into student council, but that was literally a mere check in before slipping out. Brynn looked freaked the fuck out, that made Makayla smile. Poor kid. The next class was...whatever. She had mostly forgotten, but she did approve of the location: Makayla was one of the people that got the Loft back into working condition, having spent a Saturday cleaning it out and cleaning it up. She was only sad it had official use now. Makayla and some of her friends had their own uses for it the year before. That was all Makayla found herself approving of about the class. It was an intrusion on her schedule, a class spot better used for something that would directly assist her college plans. Makayla had all the recommendations she could possibly want. Her father promised her she'd be in another class by the end of the week. Until then...an empty classroom that was locked before she unlocked it sans key was her hide-away, locking it away. In the dark, cool, silent empty classroom it was easy for her mind to let go and reach out. She hit a few spots around town, including her parents, checking on loved ones, before curiosity got the better of her. The Loft, the class, Social Conscience. The question wasn't difficult for her: mankind had become fully conscious in ways animals had not. Animals were not, by rule, working separate of nature. They fit within the greater context of the natural world. Mankind was a part of nature that operated outside of that natural world. They were the only creatures that did. Makayla never stopped wondering if the conscious minds she interacted with weren't all just nature's biggest mistake. Jonas all but stopped her heart when he addressed. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers. Her jaw dropped. Luckily she did both in a dark, empty, classroom. She didn't notice it was Aiden that Jonas just happened to be looking at in the moment, she just responded via the mind of the person that Jonas was looking at when he said her name. Cool, casual. [i]"Sure. I'll pop by in a minute."[/i] In the dark, empty, classroom Makayla grabbed her dazzling purple glitter cheer backpack and made her way out of the room and up to the Loft. It didn't even quite take a minute, but she didn't exactly rush, so the minute was close enough. The door to the Loft wasn't locked, and that seemed a mistake to Makayla given just what the class was she was walking into. It took Jonas calling her out for her to figure it out, to take a few peeks and confirm it. Makayla opened the door and walked in, the door closing behind her without being touched, it's lock turning into place after the door had firmly closed. Her eyes went from Jonas, to Aiden, where she seemed to visibly frown even if it just for a heartbeat before she flicked her long lashes back in Jonas' direct. "I have a hall pass. Don't test me." Her tone wasn't light, but it was hard to miss the mystery of the smirk that played at the edge of her pink glossed lips or the tease such a thing implied even as she walked away from him and sat in an empty seat closest to her, her eyes going back to Aiden, her backpack dropping by her feet. She was still seeing heat flare off him like he was a sun.