Sorry for length
Take her time? She wasn't even getting a start! If it wouldn't make her lamer than she must already look then she'd voice as much.
Rafe gripped the rim, tight with frustration. What was different this time? She didn't have to be in danger to get it to kick in, she'd managed without it before, or to already have a head start from an adrenalin rush but that's when it seemed easiest. When she'd practiced before she'd been alone but people being around shouldn't be the issue. She was feeling stressed right now, which should help, but it didn't seem to be.
She tried breathing deeply again, tried 'taking her time'. What was different? As she stood there, still experimentally putting her weight on the bird bath, an answer occurred to her. It was easier to slip into that mode when her body decided to go without her consent because fight-or-flight was already an automatic response. When she'd done it by herself before it felt like a lot of standing around, breathing, and willing herself. She hadn't been thinking about that - trying to will or 'ask' her body to cooperate with her - for this attempt, she'd been too frustrated and nervous to even think of it that way. It sounded stupid but...
She took a meditative breath and reached down into herself. She wasn't sure quite what felt different this time but she felt more self-conscious of her body or and that 'feel' that her power was kicking in.
The rush hit her in one go.
Her pupils dilated, her entire body seemed acutely aware of everything, her heart rate and breathing jumped dramatically and she gripped the bird bath and lifted it a fair distance from the ground with seeming ease and speed.
Rafe managed a half-hysterical, half triumphant laugh, but then she felt her body protesting and her face turned to panic. She tried putting the bird bath back down where she'd taken it, before her power or her body gave out, but the effort fell short. She got it part-way down...and then she felt she had to let go. The bird bath wobbled for a second, then instead of falling back in place it fell over on its side with a loud thud.
Rafe swallowed air, reflexively grabbing at her chest as she tried to tell her body to calm down already. The 'oh shit' the went through her mind acted as an unfortunately good sobering force. She slowly looked at Ruppy, nervousness clear.
"I'd like to point out that nothing was broken or ruined," she blurted.