Sitting alone in an empty room [OPEN]

[lovelylittlemind]

Joanna sat alone in an empty classroom, her nose stuck in a book. She was in the far back corner of the room, away from the view of someone who might just happen to peek in. Unusual for her, she liked the silence around her. Mostly, she was all for listening to the sounds and hearing funny snippets of other peoples conversations, or listening to music, but every once and a while she needed some time of her own. She needed time to keep to herself.

She had her eyes glued to the words on the pages, she's wasn't really sucked into this book. Her mind drifted else where. She tried to focus more on the plot line and the character developments of what should be a deep and thoughtful book, but after a while she finally let her mind drift outwards. The main character of the book reminded her a lot like her brother. Happy, loving, and caring. Until something didn't go his way, something he didn't want happened, and then he was against you. He was angry and would throw fire with his words.

A slow tear drifted down Joanna's cheek, and willed herself that she couldn't do this here and now because she couldn't walk down a hallway, whether deserted or not, with mascara dripping down her face.

[BASTIAN RAY HAWTHORNE]

Bastian sighed as he walked down the empty hallway. He had gotten out of talking with his art teacher and now it was lunch time. He wanted to find a quite place to draw and eat. He didn't feel like going to his dorms since he had the period after lunch off. The day itself was rather cloudy with the possibility of rain. So in the end Bastian had just decided to find an empty classroom and enjoy some privacy for a while. He wasn't that far from his next class so he could eat, get some drawing done and when the time comes head out for his next class. Math. Not something he revealed looked forward to but oh well. He really had no choice now did he.

Bastian opened the first door he saw and peeked in. He saw that this room had already been spoken for. There was a girl sitting at one of the back desks. He hadn't met this girl but he actually did recognize her from one of his classes, meaning that they were in the same grade. He didn't want to intrude. "Sorry. I didn't know anyone was in here. Excuse me." he said with a warm smile and began turning around to walk out and close the door. This ended up being one of those times where the clumsy side of Bastian came out. He wasn't paying attention and he bumped into something that made him drop his bag with his belongings falling out. It wasn't much really, just his sketch book and art kit now were scattered on the floor. "Sorry." he said before he started picking everything up. He would embarrass himself like this.

[lovelylittlemind]

Joanna was startled by the boy who walked into the room. She stared up at him and wondered who he was. He remembered his face from here and there, but couldn't put an exact name on him. As he kept talking, she guessed that he easily was one of those people who kept saying, "sorry" this and "sorry" that. But she could have been wrong. She didn't say anything back to him though.

When his things scattered across the room, she got up with grace and ease, and walked over to where a sketchbook had skidded across the floor and fallen open when it hit the wall. She picked it up and looked at the picture it had opened to. It wasn't horrible, it was actually pretty good. Joanna was an okay artist, and she had to admit she couldn't sketch better. She flipped through a few more of his drawings, nicely sketched landscapes, and a very detailed one of a woman's face. She held the notebook, open to that picture and handed it back to him. Pointing at the drawing she said, "I like that one. It's my favorite." She met eyes with him. "Can you draw me like that?"

[BASTIAN RAY HAWTHORNE]

Bastian was a careful person. Sometimes on occasion he'll do something that will embarrass himself. Of course when that happens the only think Bastian does is apologize for what he did, even if it's something that doesn't need apologizing for. He's guilty of doing this a lot more than he really should. This time being no different really. His friends would get on his case about unnecessary apologies and he knew better but it was a force of habit and sometimes habits were hard to break. Maybe he'd get to the point that he'd feel he didn't need to apologize for every little thing.

Most of his things had fallen out but the majority of his bag was his art supplies. He was thankful at least that his actual art supplies hadn't fallen out of it's case. That would have been extra trouble trying to pick up all that up. He was finishing gathering his drawing supplies and was going to pick up his notebooks, one of which was his sketch book. He was beat to it though. The girl who had been in the room before him picked it up first. She started looking through his work which he didn't mind. He liked showing other people his stuff, getting the opinions of others was something he welcomed. By the looks of it she was rather pleased by his work. He finished gathering his belongings when her voice brought him out of his bubble. He looked at the picture before taking the notebook. It was a drawing of his mom. Technically adopted mom but they didn't need to go into details. Bastian always took care when it came to drawing people, especially people that he cared about or knew.

He smile broke into a smile at her request. He always loved a chance to draw so the fact that a request had been was fun. "I'd love to. If you're not busy I could draw it right now." he said with a bright smile. "I'm Bastian." he said warmly. If there wasn't anything the wind was good at was being kind and making friends. It was something that definitely came natural to the young wind.

[lovelylittlemind]

"I'm not busy right now. All I know is I just have math next." Joanna slightly studied Bastian, and finally decided that she liked his smile best, and the way it flattered his eyes. That was always one thing Joanna was guilty of when she met someone new, she always had to give them a once over, and decided what feature of them was her favorite. Everyone had a feature that stood out from all the others, and she felt that when she properly understood what feature that was, she knew that person just a little bit better.

She wished she had a mirror with her right now, so she could check herself over and make sure her hair wasn't sticking up or her lip gloss hadn't smudged on her teeth.She mentally shrugged her shoulders as she fixed her hair a little bit, making sure it fell over her shoulder and covered the scar on the jaw line beneath her right ear. She hated looking at the scar and talking about, the worst possible thing would if the scar showed up in a wonderful drawing of her.

"Okay, so how do you want me posing? I could go like this."

"But you probably cant sketch me while I'm moving, so...how should I pose?"

[BASTIAN RAY HAWTHORNE]

Math huh? He had math next too, sort of. Only he had the next period off and then the following period was his math class. So basically he had the lunch hour to draw Joanna before she would have to leave for class and then he'd be alone again. At least things had worked out better than he had originally planned. The idea was to find an empty classroom where he could eat in privacy and probably get some drawing in depending if he was able to find something worth drawing and if that hadn't worked out then most likely he'd just finish up one of the sketches that he had already started. That would have been the more likely turn out. Instead though he found a room that was already occupied and was now to going to be drawing a portrait for someone. It wasn't an inconvience at all. Bastian always loved drawing people. He did that a lot with people he was meeting for the first time. In a way it was his way of saying hello since drawing was a huge part of who Bastian was.

Bastian walked over to an empty desk and sat down on top of it. he put his bag down and began to set himself up. Taking out his drawing supplies and opening up his sketchbook to a clean page. In the proces he also took out his lunch so that way he could eat. Bastian wasn't a messy eater so eating and drawing wouldn't be a problem for him. He was very careful when it came to his work so he was very careful as to not drop any crumbs or anything while he was drawing. While he was doing this Joanna was getting herself together. He didn't pay to much attention to her while he got himself ready and finally sat down into a comfortable position on the desk with his pencils laid out accordingly and his lunch as well. He looked up curiously when Joanna spoke. His bright smile return as he giggled a bit at Joanna's sudden dancing."How ever you want is fine." he said through his silent laughter. "I haven't exactly mastered drawing movement yet so a single pose will be fine but whatever makes you feel more comfortable. Once I have the image of you in my head you won't have to be perfectly still or anything." he said reassuringly. Bastian had a photographic memory, so most of the time he just had to look at something long enough and he would have the image imprinted in his head.

He noticed the closed book that was lying on the desk where Joanna had been sitting prior to Bastian's intrusion. "What book were you reading?" he asked curiously as he picked out a few pencils to start out with it.

[lovelylittlemind]

Joanna watched him curiously through the corner of her eye while he set up his art supplies. She took graceful steps over to where she had left her book, face down on the page she was interrupted on. She finished the last few words she had left on the page, dog eared the book, and closed it. She tucked it under her arm and then choose to sit in the desk next to Bastian. She showed him the cover for it. The cover was of the top of a pink candle, the flame appeared to have just gone out and the ending smoke rose from it in a spiral. Joanna still didn't know what the cover really had to do with the story yet, or if it even did (she knew a lot of the time some covers had nothing to do with the story a novel told).

"I'm reading Looking for Alaska by John Green," she said. "I don't know much more about it than what the back tells me, because I'm not too far into it. I think I'm in the middle abouts of the second chapter. But it's really good so far. You can just draw me sitting here like this, I guess."

Joanna traced a nothing in particular drawing on the desk, and asked, "Who was the lady in the drawing I liked? She was really pretty."

[BASTIAN RAY HAWTHORNE]

Bastian hadn't heard of that book. He read a lot but that hadn't been a book that had yet to meet his hands. Bastian loved to read. Back when he lived in the orphanage he was rather limited to what he could read, especially since he didn't live near the library and he wasn't able to visit very often. He didn't check out books very often from the school library in fear that some of the bullies of the orphanage would wreck them on purpose. So basically he read what he could get his hands on when he could but that wasn't very often. Sometimes he would be rereading books which he didn't mind of course. Since moving in with his new family it no longer became a problem of finding books he could. His parents had a wide variety of books and when he wanted to he could just drop by the bookstore of library if he really wanted. Just another perk of entering the world of elementals.

When Joanna had decided on her position Bastian just nodded in understand with a light smile. He took a good look at her and figured out how he would draw her and got straight to work. First starting out with her face and features. He normally always started with the face when it came to drawing people. In this case though he wouldn't just be drawing her face. He would be adding some of her body and the book that she was holding. He took a bite out of his lunch as he began to sketch in his book with his pencil. He would draw out the outline first with his regular pencil. Then when he had done he would begin to fill it out with colors. Bastian smiled when Joanna complimented on his earlier picture but didn't look up at her. He normally didn't tear his eyes away from the drawing the he was working on. It was probably kind of rude not to but he always dove into his work and didn't come out until he was done.

"Thanks. It was my mom. Her birthday is coming up and I wanted my first gift to her to be special. She likes my drawings so I thought a drawing of her would be perfect." he said warmly. This wouldn't be the first time he celebrated his adoptive mother's birthday but it would be the first time he'd give her a gift so it had to be a very special gift. "If you don't mind me asking, what's your element?"

[lovelylittlemind]

Bastian's question made her remember a couple of years back on how she figured out what she was. Her mother knew she would have had told Joanna sometime, especially if Joanna started showing some sign of powers at some point. And when it started getting a little too late for Joanna's elemental powers to surface, she had hoped that it had skipped a generation, even though she knew fully well that Joanna's brother was a fire. Joanna's mom, on a morning when she had both the children, had taken them to the beach. Her brother dived right into the high waves, which nearly took his down straight it away. It took a couple waves to go over his head and knock him under the water. Too which is clearly looked like her mother was controlling some of the sea to help him get back up. That's when Joanna knew, that's when she figured something was wrong with her...or actually that something was right.

"Water," she said, craning her eyes over and trying to get a peak at how she was looking in the picture. He was doing pretty well, and got most of the details down to fine accuracy, like a cluster of a tiny freckles on one of her cheeks. "How about you?" She asked.

[BASTIAN RAY HAWTHORNE]

OOC: Small Question- Is she gonna tell him her name?

He had been thirteen when he had first developed his powers and it had been by complete accident. It had happened a couple of weeks after his birthday. A few friends were being picked on and he got angry. Normally he wasn't a confrontational kind of person but when it involved people he cared about then he could surprise you. When he went to push the bully he'd expected to only push him back a bit. Then to his surprise and the surprise of everyone who had seen they saw the bully get thrown back a couple of feet, evening slightly rising off the ground. Bastian had no idea of what he had done nor could anyone explain it. Luckily it had been very few who had actually seen the even transpire but it was enough of them to use it against Bastian, even if the young wind didn't have the ability to do it again. It would be a couple of months after that that he would be found by the scouts of the academy and taken to the school. The revelation of this the entire world of elementals had been truly amazing. Of course growing up in an orphanage Bastian had no idea that he belonged to this world and along with that this new adventure opened the door to many different things.

It didn't make everything easier. There would be other trials and things to worry about but it didn't make it any less amazing. "A water. That's cool. The last time I met a water we didn't exactly get off on the best of terms. Definitely refreshing to meet you." he said with his usual smile. The water he had been referring to was that had been on the verge of harrassing a dear friend of his and after that first incident Bastian had been unlucky in crossing paths with said water which would have ended badly if it not had been for his friend who made a perfectly timed entrance. Bastian was adding the finishing touches on the eyes of his drawing before beginning to work Joanna's hair. "Wind." he said proudly. He had been blessed with the powers of wind. One of the benefits of being a Wind was not being tied down by the alliances unlike the other elements. The winds were free to befriend whom they liked. Of course personalties played a factor and would tend to decide who you associate yourself with and with Bastian's personalty the waters and earths suited him most of the time, with the exception of a certain thunder. It was sort of the same with another friend of Bastian who's best friends were both fire and thunder. It was funny how things worked out.

"Did you know you were going to be an elemental?"

[lovelylittlemind]

Joanna considered asking Bastian what had happened with the last water he had encountered, but then decided against it. Of course she was curious of if she knew this water (probably), and if and how the water was giving them all a bad name. But she figured if it was something he had wanted to talk about, then he would have. There was no sense in pushing something, especially if he had already gone on talking about something else.

She smiled when he told her that she was a wind. She could have easily guessed it though. He was too nice to be a fire or thunder, and the fact of her just meeting him right now let her know that he wasn't a water; so that only left earth or wind. Joanna honestly hated the whole "allies" thing when it came to the elements. Most people tended to stick with people the had the same general personalities as them, and at some points that did have to do with the elementals, but just because some people we're of water and some were of fire didn't mean they automatically had to hate each other and be enemies. Joanna had friends all over the place, and refused to dislike anyone right away just because of what elemental they were. Actually, Joanna refused to hate anyone right away. But she never judged on their elemental.

"Um..no. My mom had refused to tell me, even after I saw her and knew that something was up. It took me to finally figure it out and force it out of her when I got older. And then my dad...well he sort of held a grudge against me like my brother, and stopped being around as much as he should have been." It took Joanna a minute to realize that the words had just flown out of her mouth, and she had said more than she had told most of her best friends. It was much more than she had wished to share with a basically complete stranger, but she knew if he pressed on the topic, she would gladly spill more. How about you?""

[BASTIAN RAY HAWTHORNE]

Bastian wasn't one that liked to linger in the past. He didn't like to dwell on things if it wasn't necessary. The past was the past. He didn't mind talking about certain things but if he could avoid talking about the less than happy ones then he was all for it. In this case though he didn't linger about his past experience with the certain water. He preferred light moods over tensed ones any day which was why he tried to stay away from the more depressing topics if at all possible.

When Bastian first arrived into this new world of his one of the first things he learned about was the alliances. Being a wind that he didn't have to really worry about it too much but it was interesting to watch them the alliances in action. To see the different personalities mixing together. Although he was a wind and thus wasn't tied down to an alliance his personality kind of spoke for itself to the kind of people he would get along with the most. Then again sometimes you'd be surprised how well some meshed together. Like one of his fellow winds. His friend Kai had sort of the same personality as he did and his two best friends were a thunder and fire and they got along great. So it really all depended on the people. Since Bastian was a wind he didn't have a set rules like the otehrs.

Bastian was finished with the outline of the drawing and now it was time to add some color to his work, starting with the hair. He picked up his color pencils while Joanna was talking about how she learned about her abilities. He always liked hearing these kinds of stories. Whether it be that they always knew the possibility or if it was him that it was by random chance that the powers were born. "I was the same, sort of. No idea growing up. And since I had no clue who my parents were I had no chance of knowing." he said softly as he looked at Joanna to get the color of her eyes before returning to his drawing. "Then all of a sudden a couple of weeks after I thirteen my abilities just appeared." he said with a light smile in remembrance that had led to him entering the world of elementals.

[lovelylittlemind]

Joanna rested her chin on the palm of her hand, and tapped her brightly painted fingernails on the desk in rhythm, making a steady beat with each tap of a finger on the wood. She noticed a chip in the paint on one of her fingernails, and made a mental note to fix that later when she had the chance. She would have fixed it then, but she wasn't about to go pulling nail polish out of her bag to fix them. Actually, she figured, she was. She grabbed her funky bag that was sitting at her feet, and rummaged around in it without bothering to look into it to find her nail polish. Her palm found the cool glass, and she wrapped her hand around the bottle that held a pretty shade of blue. She started fixing her nail to make it look like all the rest. The nails started with a darker blue up at the top of the nail, and then gradually started getting lighter until it stopped at the tip with a light, almost lavender colored blue. That sweet blue, that was bright and popped, but didn't shout "hey look at me!" too much like a lot of other blues, was her favorite color. It was blue, it was beautiful, and it was modest.

"How did your powers start to surface?"

[BASTIAN RAY HAWTHORNE]

Out of the corner of his eye had noticed Joanna starting to move. Some artist would rather not have their models moving around but Bastian didn't mind. He already had a pretty good idea of what Joanna looked like and what not so he had basically stopped looking at her and focused on the drawing. In his opinion it was coming out nicely. The waves in hair looked very natural and he was able to capture a light sparkle in her eyes. Of course this was his own opinion. The final verdict would come out in how Joanna liked the picture herself. That was the make it or break it moment.

"Well, one day in play yard of the orphanage I was living at these guys were picking on some of my friends. I told him to back off and that was when he shoved me. He was going to try and do it again only this time I shoved him back and I did. I pushed him back about five feet. " he said thinking about the day his powers had for shown themselves. That had been a crazy day. It had happened so fast that he hadn't been able to make anything of it then except that he was different. "Thankfully there had only been a handful of us there and no one believed him since I couldn't do it again."

[lovelylittlemind]

Joanna wouldn't have guessed first off that Bastian was an orphan. Of course, she considered, someone being an orphan wasn't something you could tell about a person just by looking at them. She liked his story. It was a classic and cool way to find your powers. Get picked on by bullies, successfully defeat the bullys with newfound powers you never knew you had, become a super hero and save the world. Well okay, maybe Bastian would never come up to be a 'super hero' and 'save the world', but thats only because there's a whole world full of people with powers just like him. His way of finding his powers were a lot cooler than hers. She just practiced and practiced for a month before something finally showed up. She had known she was different about a month or two before she actually knew how because she had seen her mother do something extraordinary, and it couldn't be explained. And she figured her brother had been using his new powers on her before she even saw her mother doing anything.

"Why were they picking on you?"