branch to the gut (open)

Fall was different in Canada. Though she didn’t notice too much of it back in the city, here it was all around. My first autumn of freedom. A sort-of freedom, a flimsy thing that could be taken away from her at any moment. At the end of the year, actually. But for now, as she always did, she focused on the present—she looked up at the colorful foliage, her favorite part of fall. She enjoyed the feeling, the chill that made her throw on an old Varsity jacket she got from the thrift store last winter. She enjoyed just taking walks around when she finished up all her work, but usually she had someone with her. Nell hated being alone with her thoughts, so if she was ever going somewhere she’d ask her friends if they wanted to come along with.

However, since it was so peaceful and the girl she’d just been studying with needed to go home, she decided why not to stroll the Academy grounds alone. She really thought of it as her home, other than the apartment where Pablo was. Canada was her home, and it was ironic considering she wasn’t even legally there. She let out a soft, content sigh, but unfortunately she couldn’t form a cloud in the coldy air. Nell thought of her friends who’d pretend they were smoking, even when they usually did smoke. As she crossed the lake, she looked for rocks along the shore to find a flat one to skip. Even though she really didn’t know how to skip rocks, she tried. She didn’t even know how to swim, actually.

Her peace was interrupted by what sounded like branches cracking, and she looked over to find that it was her friend, Juliet...crashing down through a tree. Nell’s eyes grew wide, and she hurried over to the tree, crushing fallen leaves beneath her sneakers. ”Jules, are you all right?” she called up, anxiety apparent in her voice and her scrunched together eyebrows. ”Uhh…let me get you down from there.” She used her powers to grow out one of the branches below Juliet and made it flexible enough to gently wrap around her waist and pull her down, setting her on the leaf covered ground. The branch returned to normal, Nell asked, ”Are you hurt? Do you want to go to the medical wing?”

She was always worried whenever her friends got hurt. Very worried. Even when they were completely fine, because health was a big issue for her. But she didn’t let that on too much—unless she outright told you, you wouldn’t tell that she was a health nut. She didn’t want to seem like an overbearing freak of nature, as Tilly used to call her. And so, just so she wouldn’t seem like the complete mother hen she was, she added humor by saying, ”You should leave the tree climbing to us Earthies.” She gave Juliet her brightest smile to accompany it.

Nell was now skeptical whenever someone said they were ‘all right’ or ‘fine’, and it was most likely Josh’s influence. Or maybe the knowledge that whenever she said she was fine, sometimes she wasn’t. Lately more than ever. But she kept telling herself not to be overbearing and going off in an overprotective spiel, fussing over the girl who looked pretty out of it for someone who said they were ‘ok’. ”Can’t blame you though,” Nell said, her voice airy, though now with more concern than usual, ”Climbing trees is awfully fun.” In the past, when she’d sneak out, she would cimb the park trees to stay out of trouble. She wasn’t completely unaware of how dangerous the South Bronx was. She could give herself that much now, whenever she beat herself up for being so damn stupid when she was younger.

The creases in her forehead only deepened like ruts in a field when the girl pulled up her shirt. ”That’s still bad,” she said, lifting her eyebrows. She wasn’t going to poke the girl in the stomach to check and make sure—she was pretty sure no medical proffessional would do that. ”Seriously, if you don’t feel good,” Nel trailed off, still trying not to be ridiculously pushy or anything. She know how she felt when other people tried to tell her what to do. It didn’t really annoy her—it took a helluva a lot for that—but it made her a bit uncomfortable. She was a private person, and she liked everyone to see her as a strong and someone to rely on. So she could see why Juliet wouldn’t want to go to the medical wing.

The Earth girl was surprised to see her manipulate ice. ”Oh jeez, you can do that now?” Nell thought any show of elemental prowess amazing, especially graduate level stuff. She tried not to think of one person she had seen use ice, because thinking of Jane made her feel sick and she would like to ignore her for as long as possible. In any case, she was more than excited to watch what Juliet was doing. But she laughed when the Water elemental wrapped the ice around her waist. ”You’re going to walk around with that?” she asked, tilting her head while giggling. She admired that Juliet could do that with confidence—Nell had her scars to hide, the word under her naval that didn’t allow her to wear bikinis. ”All right, I won’t force you to march down to the medical wing, but I have my eye on you.” She playfully made the hand gesture, pointing her fingers at her eyes and then Juliet’s. Then, still smiling, she asked, ”So what were you doing up there, squirrel monkey?” She didn’t think tree climbing was most people’s idea of fun, even though she indulged in it. Once she was harrassed by Cynthia, actually, and that thought wasn’t very pleasant either, now that the Thunder leader had passed.