Lumen Buelow (burninginside_) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2012-11-29 01:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-09-21, joseph, lumen |
you could teach me a thing or two
Who: Lumen and Joseph
When: Just after school
Where: The park
As far as Lumen was concerned, Scarlet Oak High School could take their spirit week and stuff it. There was no week she dreaded more than this. The outfits were one thing. Despite the fact that it was scaring to her eyes (and sometimes mind) to see some of her classmates in the get-ups they would pick for spirit week, she could easily avoid participating by dressing as she normally did. On any other day, Lumen would have been all too happy to wear her pajamas to school, but because everyone else would be wearing theirs, she had opted for a simple jeans and shirt combination. Yes, she was one of those kinds of people. The one thing she couldn’t escape was the pep rallies. She generally couldn’t stand the school on a good day, but nothing made her want to burn it to the ground more than pep rallies. Getting pulled out of class so that she could be crammed onto the bleachers with everyone she couldn’t stand to watch the cheerleaders shake their pompoms like it was their only purpose in life was a giant joke; she would much rather stay in class and work on her homework than suffer through another rally. Lumen didn’t even have a friend that would join in with making fun of everyone to lighten her mood. She had learned long ago that Dalila didn’t like it when she mocked her other friends. “Whatever. Not like I even care.” She spoke to no one in particular as she kicked a rock down the sidewalk on the way to the park. She plopped herself down on the nearest bench once her feet hit the grass. The outdoors had never really been her thing, but she liked to come to the park and watch people. Sometimes it was rewarding, like when she got to see Frisbee players eat dirt when they tried to catch a wild toss. Other times it was really depressing, like when she watched happy, perfect families have picnics together. Really? Like anyone had actual picnics these days. As she dug into her bookbag for a pack of cigarettes, Lumen had her eyes on a couple currently making out in the grass. Normally, she would have been hunting for small rocks to throw at them from a distance, but they were about to get something better. No more than a couple yards away was a man playing fetch with his dog and slowly but surely they had been inching themselves closer to the oblivious couple. Just a few more tosses and—Lumen burst out laughing when the dog jumped to catch the ball and landed perfectly between them; the girl’s scream of surprise was the cherry on top. “Better than television,” she muttered to herself as she stuck a cigarette between her lips. Her attention then turned to the other end. She brought her hand up in front of her face. Lumen could have easily heated herself up and lit the cigarette with tip of her finger, but she was practicing trying to make a flame on her own. So far, it was not going well. She could feel the heat rise to her hands. A deep breath to further her concentration, and she snapped her fingers – nothing but sparks. Lumen took another deep breath, this time to keep herself calm. Another snap of her fingers followed by sparks. Again and again she tried in rapid succession to no avail. “Stupid fucking useless powers.” She practically yelled the words for everyone in the park to hear as she slumped back on the bench and glared at the people around her who were staring. They were lucky that she couldn’t set them on fire with a single thought. Really lucky. |