Jane Foster (astrosearcher) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-08-26 15:19:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !closed, !complete, !log, [plot] age2, ~2017 august, ~25 points, ~~jane foster (astrosearcher), ~~ty johnson (allthingsdark) |
WHO Teen!Jane & Teen!Ty
WHAT Stargazing
WHEN very late Friday night
WHERE At the park
WARNINGS none!
STATUS Closed | complete (8/26)
As soon as she was reasonably certain Lindsay was asleep, Jane slid her window open, tossed her bag to the ground, and climbed up onto the roof. She texted Ty to remind him that she was going to come get him and then made her way down the side of the building. It was a really good thing the fire escape was right outside her window because otherwise she wouldn't have been able to look at the stars and it was honestly too clear of a night for her to pass up.
She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder as she headed over to Ty's place. It was important to know exactly what she was looking at, so of course she had her journal, plus a couple of books on star charts and constellations. Her dad was one of the best astrophysicists around and Jane wanted to be just as good, which meant she had to study every chance she got.
When she got to Ty's, she threw a rock at his window hard enough that it cracked the glass. Oops. Jane winced and pulled her phone out to text him again. Come on! Also, sorry about your window.
***
Ty didn’t know why he liked hanging out with Jane. She was weird and she was always bothering him in the middle of the night. He did like going out to look at the stars and everything, liked seeing how it was different here than it was back at home. That part wasn’t so bad but she came to him so often.
He’d been hiding under his covers, reading, not wanting to be caught doing so even if he was pretty sure he was alone in the flat, and he flat out screamed when he heard the window crack, limbs flailing and getting tangled up in the blankets as a result.
He scrambled out of bed, to the window to peer out of it, seeing Jane down on the ground even as his phone lit up with the message. Well, since she was there anyway. Hopefully she hadn’t gotten in trouble. Racing to collect his things, sending a quick return message that he was on the way, he darted downstairs and outside, pulling his jacket on against the cool air.
“You could’ve broken that!” he chastised, jogging out to meet her.
***
Jane felt bad about the window. She really did. Just like she felt bad about sneaking out of the apartment, but these were the sacrifices that had to be made to learn more about the stars. She put her phone away when he texted her back saying he'd be down soon and waited patiently until his door swung open.
"I said I was sorry!" Jane was already moving though, leading him down the street toward her prefered place to lay out and see the stars. They usually got a good view of the night sky in the park where the clearing was open enough that their view was almost entirely unobstructed. "I'll just text next time, I promise." She hadn't thought she'd thrown it that hard, anyway.
"Did you bring any snacks?" She had a blanket in her bag for them to lay out on, but she always forgot snacks.
***
She was such a weird, strange girl. Casting a glance back toward his cracked window, Ty just shrugged and ran along with her, the bag he’d packed for himself bumping against his side as he hurried to catch up with her.
“Yeah, of course.” She’d asked him to when she’d said they were going to go look at the stars, so of course he had. Ty kept his promises. “I found some crisps. And some granola bars.” There’d been a lot of fruit and vegetables and fancy looking things, too, and beer that he definitely didn’t think he should take. So he’d grabbed some water instead.
“What’re we supposed to be looking at?” Jane always had something in mind that she wanted to show him when she dragged him out in the middle of the night. Which always seemed like a bad idea. He was always worried about being caught.
***
"You're like Lindsay, always making me eat something healthy," she complained, but there wasn't any real heat to it. Hungry was hungry and she never really noticed what she was eating anyway so long as it got whoever was waving said food under her nose to leave her alone. She had way too much work to do to be picky about finding something to eat.
"We should be able to see the Andromeda Galaxy tonight. It's the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way and it's the furthest thing you can see without a telescope or anything," Jane recited, having read up on the Andromeda Galaxy earlier in the day. August was the perfect time to see it and she was excited to share that with Ty. He always listened to all her rambling facts about the various stars and how it all came together.
***
He wasn’t trying to make her eat healthy. He just liked granola bars and they were convenient and easy to carry. Besides. He’d brought crisps too!
Listening talk about space, like she actually knew anything, just made Ty sigh a little to himself. She actually sounded like she was reading it from a book, but it was kind of nice that she’d remembered something to answer his questions with anyway. Not that he’d know the difference if she was giving real answers or just making stuff up. It wasn’t like he knew anything about space.
“Cool,” he said. “Is it dark enough?” There were a lot of lights and even he knew about light pollution.
***
Jane would not ever make anything up about space. She hypothesized a lot, but there were always facts and figures to back it all up. Science wasn't for making things up, but it was for proving the leaps she made in her logic. Her notebook was full of equations and notations, observations of the stars and how they've moved from night to night.
"It should be alright once we get to the park. We might have to go further in tonight since people aren't sleeping like they should be." It was a little hypocritical since she wasn't sleeping either, but Jane didn't even register that as she pulled Ty by the hand down the path she wanted to go tonight. "There's a clearing we'll hit in another ten minutes or so that'll be perfect." She kept her hand wrapped around his though, not paying attention because she was already rambling about how they'd have the perfect view of the night sky and how pretty the Andromeda Galaxy was going to be. Some things were more important than handholding.
***
Ty was pretty sure Jane made things up. It didn’t matter. It made her happy and he listened. She was a nice girl, even if she was strange.
He really noticed that she was holding his hand, completely unnecessarily, and pulling him along. It wasn’t as if he needed to be dragged or anything; he’d already snuck out in the middle of the night to go look at stars he barely even cared about with her. And just coming to an age where girls were maybe sort of not all that terrible after all, it was very confusing.
“Right. Okay.” He didn’t argue, looking down at her hand around his a little as she tugged him along and wondering if it meant something or if Jane was just being Jane. To Ty, space was definitely not more important than handholding.
***
Space was the most important thing ever and understanding how it all worked was Jane's goal in life. She was going to do everything she could to prove that she was worthy of following in her father's footsteps. Jane didn't say anything else until they got to the clearing she wanted to be in. "There, see? We can't see the town and all their stupid lights," she pointed out as she pulled him toward the middle of the clearing.
She let go of his hand because she had to lay out the blanket for them to lay down on, since the stars were up in the sky and that was the best way to look at them for long periods of time. She pulled her notebook, pen and pocket telescope out of her bag before folding it up in a makeshift pillow.
"Okay. What do you see?" She always liked hearing that.
***
Looking up at the sky, Ty squinted a little, like that would make him able to see further or something. He knew it wouldn’t, but he tried it anyhow.
“Stars.” At least he could see that much. He never really knew what he was looking at, didn’t even really care much when Jane inevitably explained it. Ty actually just liked listening to her talk about the things she loved. She always got so excited, and he wasn’t someone who really got excited like that.
He wasn’t quite like all the other kids his age.
***
Jane chuckled. "They're definitely stars," she teased. Jane pointed to a really bright star just to the left of being right above them, and she tugged him by the shoulder so he would lean closer to see from her point of view. That way, there'd be no mistaking which star she was talking about. There were so many that it was just as likely he might not ever get exactly which one, but he tried and that was what she liked best about him.
"That one is part of a constellation with these other three. See how they form a diamond shape? It points to this star over here, and that's the Andromeda Galaxy," she explained. "It's amazing isn't it? That there's so many other galaxies out there? There's got to be planets that have life on them and someone's there, pointing at our galaxy, doing the same thing we are." Jane thought that was the coolest part of all.
***
Really, the amazing part was how cool Jane made it all sound.
“It’s alright,” he agreed with a little smile. “Cool that you know it all enough to show someone.” And cool that she wanted to show him. Ty had never been great at making friends. He was even worse at it here in Madison Valley. It was just hard to connect with other kids. Jane had done all the work for him, though. Just decided that she liked him enough to drag him out of his flat in the middle of the night and he was definitely going to be in trouble if he was caught.
No worse trouble than he’d ever been in before though. So it was worth it.
***
Jane turned and gave him a broad smile. She liked it when he liked what she was saying. He asked questions and always seemed interested. She didn't know why she'd gotten the urge to be his friend after seeing him, but that was pretty much what she'd done. Jane wasn't the best at making friends either, so she was lucky he'd gone along with it after she'd decided they were going to be friends.
"I like sharing. It's too cool to not share!" Jane was very excited about that. "I'd love to meet someone from another planet one day. That would be so cool." If she could live out in space, she'd do it. To be closer to the stars was all she wanted in life.