"Just turned six," Age six probably wasn't all that different from age five, but still Locke wanted to know what his little brother and sister were doing. Did they have a good birthday? Hopefully they both enjoyed their birthday cake this year. Normally one of them was left less then happy. Either it wasn't the flavor they wanted, or they didn't get sprinkles. Thinking of such things reminded Locke of a fact he had often ignored. "I'm going to be turning seventeen..." He had forgotten that he had a birthday fast approaching. Seventeen meant he'd have to start applying to colleges and that he'd be getting his license. Or at least he would if he could legally get a permit.

Not wanting to linger on himself Locke forged on, studying her flip flops with a critical eye. "Maybe I could get more off?" he gestured at the shoes, hoping that she wouldn't shake free more mud. It made him feel bad that something he welcomed so easily would be looked down upon. And that thought made him feel like he was Pigpen from those old Charlie Brown cartoons. "You said you have no offensive capabilities, so that would mean you're either defensive, supplemental, or support right?" He had grown tired of the same question of "What do you do?", and this seemed like a good way to find out without being so cliche.

“Aw, a great age. Their old enough to be fun and young enough to still be completely adorable,” Elise said pushing a clump of hair behind her ear and managing to smear some more mud on her face in the process. Feeling the spreading mess, she shook her hand to the side, a few droplets fell but her try at cleanliness was generally unsuccessful. With a sigh, she resigned herself to letting her arms dangle at her sides rather uselessly, a flip-flop in each hand. There was nothing else she could really do.

Locke’s comment on his own age seemed to take her by surprise. Her eyebrows rose and her mouth slanted slightly to the side in a slop-sided grin. “Really? I’m turning seventeen soon as well. When’s your birthday?” she asked, giving an air of excitement at the idea that someone might have a birthday near her own without actually moving. That lack of movement, however did not last long, as was usual for Elise. She tended to have to be in a constant state of movement. Her hands began to fidget with the flip-flops again.

“You think you can clean them off more? Oh good. I mean, it usually wouldn’t be a problem and all. I mean dirt’s natural and all, but I’m new to the mansion, and I would really hate make a mess…” she said gratefully handing her flip-slops over to Locke and trying to explain how really she wasn’t naturally needy, “I just don’t want to seem ungrateful and all. You know?” Elise forced herself to stop blabbing and bit her lip. Sometimes Elise swore her tongue just had a life of its own.

“Oh,” at Locke’s question about her power Elise instantly looked down at her feet, which were predictably sliding ever so slightly across the grass. Her hands also moved behind her back where her right hand grabbed her left wrist. She looked very much like a little girl that had been caught stealing a cookie out of the cookie jar. “Well, I guess none of the above, really. It, um, its basically useless I guess. I mean, music, emotions, you know? Doesn’t really fit the picture,” Elise clamped her mouth shut once more. Well, that had been a brilliant response. She mentally cursed herself thoroughly before she bit her lip once more and refused to look back up.

So they were almost the same age. When he was younger Locke thought that parents all had kids at the same time, so everyone his age had to be a big brother or sister if they had any siblings. Of course it was stupid to have thought that. “Oh trust me, they’ve got the adorable part nailed,”. Now that he was older and knew better Locke just thought it was interesting how families spread out. Some were tightly clustered together, then there were ones like his own where there was a huge age gap. “August twenty-ninth. You?” Had Locke been into the whole astrology thing he’d know that he was a Virgo, which might explain some things about his personality. As it was Locke knew only that there was a sign called Cancer because of a book he had read. He didn’t believe in that sort of stuff, and since he failed epically when it came to picking up girls there really wasn’t any point in asking ‘What’s your sign?’

On the whole he wasn’t doing too bad. So far he’d done a few embarrassing things but she was talking and seemed interested in what he had to say when he did speak. If nothing else he hadn’t babbled some nonsensical word or burp or anything like that. It was almost as if he was normal. Locke tried to act as if he was interested in the process of removing mud from her flip flops but her babbling drew his focus away. She’s better at it then me. When I go off on something out of nerves I’m not nearly as interesting. Locke wanted to tell her it’d be ok if she tracked some mud in. He had done it a couple of times, and there were still times where he tipped over potted plants unintentionally. Maybe there was a bit more leniency with him since Locke could not help but attract dirt and his mutation let him clean up after himself. Forcing himself not to look at Elise while he worked on the mud Locke found it easier to get her shoes a bit better off. “What about music and emotions?” he asked, genuinely interested.

“Aw thanks,” Elise said taking her shoes back. They were nearly completely clean, and Elise openly marvelled at this, her hands running over the plastic. “That must come in handy,” she said with a little nod, “Shake off the dirt and you’re ready to go.” Smiling to herself she moved both flip-flops back into her left hand before looking back up at Locke. Thinking back to his earlier question, she looked up at the sky . “September seventh we’re like a week apart. How cool is that?” she finally said looking back at him with a little laugh.

Then Locke asked her to clarify about her powers. Elise’s smile slipped a little, and her gaze turned to her feet. “Well I amplify and manipulate, well, more suggest emotions through music. I play. People feel,” Elise said, trying to explain. The last two sentences kind of slipped out before Elise realized how silly they sounded. Well there went her bid at sounding intelligent.

“Yeah, I suppose it would be useful. Problem is dirt still hangs around me,” Locke explained, “It sounds stupid, but it likes me. Clay is the worst though. It’s got the most potential, but it’s really lazy. It will cling to me all day.” That was one mess that Locke did not enjoy dealing with. He knew that water would dilute it, but given the shear amount that would stay stuck on his skin it would be very taxing on the Institute’s pipes. Soils and rocks were his element so having them around made Locke feel more comfortable. It was like he had his own little shield with him at all times. Other people might not be happy about having grit in their clothes, but Locke was. He also felt a strange surge of pride and joy in seeing her smile over something that was so small to him. There, he had done something right. His eyebrow lifted when she told him her age. It was weird how she had almost read his mind about how close the two were in age. “I think it’s like eight days.”

Elise had problems explaining her powers at first it seemed. With the patience of the rock he worked with Locke listened to her bumblings. It actually made a great deal of sense. “Well that’s got to be useful. Do you play anything or is it just vocals?” he asked. If she had expressed any sort of distaste for her powers Locke ignored it or just did not notice. He could not see a down side of it.

“Oh is that a side affect?” Elise said clearly surprised at the fact dirt seemed to cling to the boy. She hadn’t noticed when they had first met , and well, afterwards there had been a clear explanation for him being covered in mud. Mud fights tended to do that. It made sense. That wasn’t the only part of the statement that caught her interest. “So different minerals act differently for mutation? Like personalities?” she asked, her nose wrinkling and her eyes narrowing a little as she tried to figure out how different minerals would react.

“Eight, seven, basically the same,” she said with a little shrug at the comment. She pushed her hair back over her shoulder. Everything was starting to get sticky, in a thick way. Her smile which had begun to rally and inch back up began to slide back down at the comment from Locke on her powers. “Not as much as you would think…” she said trying to come up with some sort of response. It was lame, but hye, what else could she have said?

Her smile however, did a fully rally when Locke asked her about the music in a way that Elise could ignore the entire mutation part of it. “Well, I play the piano, guitar, and violin. Two strings and a percussion,” she said, obviously much more cheerful with this topic. "Do you play any instruments?” she asked her eyes wide with genuine interest.

The Californian nodded his head. How embarrassing to confess he gave dirt and rocks different personalities. “Well, yeah. I mean I know that it isn’t actually alive, and you don’t normally see them move, but to me?” A part of Locke’s face softened. “To me it dances. The sand back home skitters, excited. Marble does not like moving, but it has poetry in it, and when you get it to move, it’s just…” Locke blushed, “Sorry, maybe I’m talking too much.”. He had to have sounded like a complete idiot.

Locke had no shame in being a mutant. He relished in it. And while he was friends with Chris, he couldn’t understand how someone could play it down so much. To him it was almost as bad as Kendra ignoring the issue. From what he could gather there was something wonderful about Elise’s powers. “Actually it sounds really helpful. It ain’t music until you put everything into it, as my friend Eaan always says, and music is just emotions that you can hear.” Maybe he was talking to much. Rather then push the issue of her mutation, he went off of what she asked about instruments. “I played the bass back in San Francisco, but I had to leave it behind when I came out here.”

Elsie listened to Locke talk about his mutation with interest. How cool was that? For a moment Elise wished her mutation had been more like that. “No, no you weren’t talking too much. It was kinda cool actually,” she said clearly interested in what he had been talking about. “Blabber all you want,” she added with a dismissive wave of the hand and a large smile.

“Your friend’s right. You should put everything in your music, but that still doesn’t mean I have the right to mess with other’s emotions, well at least not to that level,” she said trying to explain with a shrug. Elise was getting the feeling that Locke just wasn’t going to get what she was trying to say. It wasn’t worth argueing with someone over it. “The bass? Sweet. That’s an instrument I’ve never tried. How is it?” she asked slipping her hands in her back pockets, her flip-flops hanging from her thumbs. She was beginning to get anxious from standing still for so long.

Locke’s blush increased. He’d been told that his powers were interesting before but Elise said that it was cool. Not only did she say that it was cool but it felt almost as if she had also complimented how he described it. Eaan had just stared at Locke with a blank expression when he said almost the same thing. Then again his friend had failed English multiple times. “Thanks. I’ll try not to blabber too much though. Most people don’t really care about dirt. It’s just something that’s there and is messy. Unless you’re a farmer I guess. Or a gardener.” Locke started walking alongside Elise again. The mud puddles they were passing were small and mostly watery, but they blurbled as he past them, the dirt moving the water. “Mud is the most poetical thing in the world. R. H. Blyth.”

After his less then stellar conversation with Twyla Locke realized that though he had favorite authors, he really needed to read more. Trips to the library to force himself to study that dreaded anatomy book were less painful when he broke it up with some random and pointless reading. Anything not science related was fair game and so far he had devoured Pierce, Nix, Paulson, and Macguire. Eventually he’d get out of the middle letters, especially since he was not looking forwards to Meyer. Blyth had been incorrectly shelved, the only reason why Locke knew that quote. Poetry was the most soothing for his frustrations. “I dunno. It might just be because of what I do with the earth, but the bass is the best instrument in my book. Brass stuff is all in the lips and nose area from what I’ve heard, and piano is in your hands and arms. I’ve never played the flute, but I think that would be here-ish,” Locke made a general motion to encompass the jaw line and ears, dropping briefly to where neck met shoulders. “You can feel it there when you listen too. When I hear the bass or when I play it, it’s like the drums. The vibes start off in my feet, making the whole world seem like it’s gotten sharper, then it settles right in my chest. It fills me.” He laughed. "Ok, now I know I'm saying way to much. My jaw's hurtin'."

Elise listened to Locke speak as they walked towards the school entrance. She shook her head at his first statement. “Dirt’s not boring. Like you said, its poetry, or at least when you’re talking about it,” she said with a little shrug. “Everything’s interesting if someone who’s passionate about it is talking about it. At least that’s what I think,” she said looking over at the boy. It was true. Passion created interest.

She looked back towards the school and saw they were almost at the door. She listened carefully as Locke spoke about the bass, nodding at all the points she agreed with. “Yeah, the bass is the heart. Like the drums, its what keeps the music going, what gives it real depth. Melody draws you in, but it’s the beat that keeps you there,” she said remembering something her brother had once told her.

Stopping in front of the school door, Elise dropped her flip flops on the pavement. She flipped them over and moved them into the correct position with her feet, before sliding into them. Looking back up and over at Locke she smile. Elise subconsciously ran a hand through her hair, but winced as it caught and tugged at the dry chunks of mud. That was going to be fun to clean.

Two things were occurring way to easily for Locke as he continued to spend time with Elise. It had been no joke or witty comment when he said his jaw was hurting. Even with people he felt comfortable talking with Locke tended to be more of a listener. If he did get vocal it usually was because something had provoked him into doing so, like when he babbled in the laundry room or was trying to encourage Chris out of his shell. To claim that Elise wasn't intimidating him in some way would be a lie. She was after all, actually looking at him and had stood dangerously close before. This was a different sort of intimidation in some ways. Talking. What a novel idea.[/color]

Elise was getting smiles out of him, like he was a bubble gum machine and she had a roll of quarters. The combination of all the talking and smiling had worn out the muscles of his face. Even if it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile if those muscles don't get used it makes no difference. Locke tended to frown or just have no expression. For now he simply smiled at Elise, blushing a little when she said that he was making dirt poetic. He wanted to say something to her, something that really was meant to be witty or funny. Nothing was popping to his mind.

So he just watched her, giving his tired jaw a rest. Of course he was aware that he really should speak up. If only he could think of something to say. The opportunity arose when Elise winced as she pulled out a clump of mud from her hair. Locke's had twitched as he brought it back to his side before he could really reach out and help. "It likes you."

At Locke’s comment, Elise felt her arm drop. A blush rose on her cheeks. Heat enflamed her face and she focused her eyes on her toes. She let her bangs hang down to hopefully hide her face. Why that comment hit her so hard, she wasn’t completely certain, but it made her want to run away and hide. She didn’t want to see his smile. She didn’t want to think. She wanted to be gone, to disappear.

Maybe it was the fact that Elise hadn’t realized that Locke might just be falling for her until that very moment. Maybe that imperfection wasn’t an issue there, just hit her like a shock of cold water. Maybe it was because this was one of the rare occasions Elise’s mind went blank in the search for something to say. Whatever it was, she felt mildly awful, and was that her hands that were wringing themselves so obviously in front of her?

She stuffed her hands in her back pockets. It wouldn’t do to get all fidgety now. She was fidgety enough as it was, the sick feeling she had in the pit of her stomach wasn’t helping. She took a shaky breath through her nose. She desperately searched her mind to see if she had sung anything, whistled, hummed, or even drummed her hands in a rhythm. Nothing came to mind, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t happened.

For a second there Elise almost felt like crying. She was supposed to be a pretty little doll. Let them make her into what they wanted. She would be anything, be anything if it made someone else happier. That way she didn’t get hurt. That way they didn’t get hurt. Anything else was dangerous, bad. Irrationally enough as it was, Elise just couldn’t get over the fact that maybe, just maybe she had messed with Locke’s emotions, made him feel the way he was feeling, made him like her.

Luckily for Elise, she was a good liar. Her parents had never found out about her mutation for a reason. The whole time she had been mentally torturing herself for what she might have done, the girl had been smiling lightly. The blush on her cheeks made her look sweetly embarrassed nothing more, nothing less. She watched her foot slide back and forth ever so slightly on the ground. It calmed her, helped her focus. “Thanks,” she finally mumbled, “Um, I should probably go back and clean it off before the rest gets too attached.”

At the end she glanced back up at Locke from under her lashes. At his face, a small smile couldn’t help but drift its way across her lips, but that didn’t mean she still didn’t feel like throwing herself off a bridge. What if she had put that smile on his face and he hadn’t actually wanted to smile? Her smile slipped ever so slightly, and a hint of her inner turmoil flashed across her eyes. Elise felt it, and she forced her cheek muscles into a stronger smile before dropping her eyes back to the floor. “I had a great time. It was awesome meeting you Locke,” she said shooting glances back up at him as she shuffled towards the door. Deep down she didn’t really want to go, but that what if just couldn’t leave her mind.

Locke could be very aware of the feelings of those around him, in part because he had to grow up so fast and, in some ways, had become a father to two small kids. His own dad had been so sharply aware of Locke's emotions that the teen had developed the same sort of intuition when it came to his family. He could empathize with Kealey, vaguely grasping what it must be like to deal with an entire school filled with the unpleasant ball of confusion that was teenage emotions and her own. Yet he was oblivious to most of what he felt other than happiness (the twins), hunger, embarrassment, and several other negative feelings. If there was anything that he was even more blissfully unaware of it was that he had just sent Elise into a panic over something that wasn't even on his radar. Did he find her attractive? Of course, he was only human after all and he was faced with a good looking girl. Did he like her? All Locke knew was that he actually managed to talk to a girl his age without any major mishaps and that he had gotten a compliment from them. His comment about the mud liking her may or may not have been a reflection upon his own feelings vocalized by some subconscious gremlin that wanted him to make a fool out of himself. Instead of catching the drift of what just happened Locke continued on as Elise made the excuse of needing to clean off. "Tell me about it. My little sibs? They use their floor for a sock drawer and my step-mother will leave dirty dishes in the sink for days. I've been growled at by stuff in the fridge before. But you know what? Not a speck of dust stays on them. All the dirt and mud and grit gets drawn to the clean ones. That's why you always see us wiping off tables when everyone is still eating."

And while Elise had tried to hide her squirms, Locke wiggled his shoulders, working up the courage to ask a question. It had been difficult for him to do the same thing with Chris as well. "Do you like movies? Like I said my birthday's coming up and all I really want to do is watch a couple of flicks and go into the city with a few friends. I'm not sure how Chris will feel about the city part, but he was the one who wanted to go swimming in the Hudson, so maybe it could be fun. Since your birthday's coming up too maybe we could do something to celebrate that? Be efficient you know." The last sentance was said with his serious Big Brother face and tone, the one he fell into whenever talking about something less teenagerish. Locke loved practicality and he was hoping that maybe he could have a friend in Elise. It seemed kind of stupid to have to have a big party for himself when that wasn't what he wanted, but the proximity of their birthdays meant that he should do something for her at least. Locke already was trying to think of what to get Chris to celebrate the birthday that he had missed out on. He'd been the kind of kid that got his elementary school teachers a small present every year and wrote Christmas cards for those he met who celebrated the holiday, even if his own lack of belief meant that he looked more at the comercial side. Having twin siblings probably was to blame though for wanting to get everyone's birthday celebration over with on one day.

Elise stopped trying to walk away at the sound of Locke’s voice. It was such a common, true thing to say, that it made the teenage girl hesitate on her original assumption. Maybe he wasn’t being so nice because she had accidentally messed with him. Maybe he was just, well, nice.

She looked back up at him, a half-smile twitching one side of her mouth up into a slop-sided grin. “Yeah, my brother does the exact same thing. When I was little he would purposefully spread bread crumbs all over my napkin. It drove me near insane,” she said taking one hand out of her pocket and motioning in a way to emphasize certain areas of the story.

The calm normalcy she felt for the few moments it took for her to talk disappeared quickly. Her earlier fears returned. She tried her best to ignore them. She really did. A few pull yourself together and don’t be ridiculous, you enhance emotions, you don’t change them completely ran through her head a number of times. Those little speeches didn’t stop her from twitching. She went back to stuffing both hands in her pockets quickly. She really wanted to believe in her practical side.

“A movie would awesome,” Elise said, her smile spreading back into its usual wide grin. Hunching her shoulders just a little and tilting her head ever so slightly she looked up at Locke. “Why not hit two birds with one stone, yeah? But, I have to ask. Who’s Chris? If he goes here, I haven’t met him yet,” she asked as if on a second thought.

Breadcrumbs on a napkin? Seriously?[/b][/color] Locke wasn’t fond of messes, but he didn’t see how horrible breadcrumbs on a napkin could be. The whole purpose of it is to keep yourself and your place clean. A napkin is meant to get bits of food on it. Did it really bother Elise to have any bit of mess around her? If that was the case, and it had to be if she got bothered by breadcrumbs on a napkin, then why did she even suggest the mud fight in the first place? It was just illogical. She might as well have suggested that they burn all their clothes. He decided not to call her out on how ridiculous it was that she had been so annoyed by something so tiny in the past when she was almost as covered in mud as he. Locke simply smiled at her politely and nodded his head.

It amazed him that he had managed to ask someone he barely knew if they wanted to hang out with him. Locke had left San Francisco because he wanted to escape the darkness that closed in on him at night. Perhaps now that he was away from it the part of him that was closed off was opening again. He wasn’t always so intimidated by his peers. True Locke never went up to a random stranger and said ‘Hi’ or anything like that, but he at least would go to a friend’s house now and then. For the first time it occurred to Locke that his friend here had the same name as his little brother. “This Chris goes here. You’d know who he is if you met him, but I think he’s even quieter than me.” She didn’t seem to have any issues with sharing a birthday with him. “Cool, uh….” he scratched his head and tried to figure out what girls would like to do. Elise was up for a movie, but his selection was rather limited. There had to be something else she’d like to do. “Is there anything you want to do or eat? I mean if we’re going to celebrate our birthdays you should do something that you like.” Reaching over Locke pulled out his pair of hightops. The shoes looked as if someone should have thrown them into the garbage long ago. What pattern there may have been on the soles had long ago worn away into a smooth bottom, and the laces looked as though they had gotten chewed on by a large dog. Locke loved them.