Elise wiggled her eyebrows at his response before throwing the mud. She couldn’t help but laugh victoriously as it splattered all over him. The game was indeed going well. Preparing for her next attack she felt large hands seem to grab her feet, impeding her motion. Well darn, Locke was finally using his mutation. She had figured him the type to wait longer, but who knows? Maybe she had gotten him too well the last time.

Her eyes widened as she saw him toss two handfuls of mud at her. Turning at her waist sharply and folding downwards she tried her best to avoid the mud, but only managed to get the edge of one on her shoulder and the other full on the face except for where it was partially blocked by her hand. She straightened, lifting her hand away to feel that the entire right side of her head and neck were caked with mud. Tsking Elise wiped the mud away from her eye and mouth. “Up another notch I see. Lucky you, my mutation has absolutely no offensive capabilities,” she said the twist in her mouth showing how absolutely unoffended she was.

Using the hands that were holding her feet as a steadying devices, she wiggled and pulled herself up until she was standing out of the mud at an angle. Her abs and legs were going to kill her the next morning if she stayed in that position too long, but the farther away her body was from the mud the less it could impede her, right? Bending down, feeling oddly grateful to her jazz dance teacher at the moment, she scooped up two handfuls of mud. Hefting them she tossed them down at the boy. Her standing gave her visual advantage and hopefully a strategic hindrance as well, but it definitely gave away her ability to throw surprise mud balls.

The plan seemed to have worked. Elise wasn’t moving away from him, and he had a phantom feeling of holding onto something with hands that were not his. If she was indeed unable to get away that must have meant that he did hit her with his last shot. Ok, so he felt a little bad about cheaping out and using his powers so soon. He was just about to release the girl when she made an unexpected move and stood up. It was really a smart move on her part, since apparently the higher ground always gives you an advantage. But there was something odd about the way she was shifting her balance. It felt like she was forcing the hands at an angle.

Locke was not the type to comment about a girl’s weight, but he wouldn’t mind it if Elise weighed a little less. Not that she was heavy. Mud was just not all that strong a material to work with and it strained him to keep the hands holding her. He pulled himself up out of the mud and made grab for Elise’s arms to keep her from falling over as he let go of the mud hands. Of course doing so made him fling mud at her. The intention had not been to score a hit. Locke was not really doing so well with this fight. If he had been he would have just let go of the hands and let her fall. Twice already he’d lost his footing, and the second time really hurt his butt. The mud was squishy, the ground itself, not so much. It would smart to face plant.

Elise was very proud of her manoeuvre. Not everyone could pull it off. It had been rather clever if she could say so herself. Feeling smug she almost didn’t feel the mud hands beginning to fade away. Elise rolled with the fall, because anything else would have been a disastrous fall. Shoving her feet farther into the mud ,she folded backwards into a bridge position. She slid wider until her hands and feet were deep enough that they were touching the ground beneath and not the much slicker surface above. Her plan hadn’t lasted very long at all.

She saw Locke reach out to grab her and slip and slide as was natural to happen. So he hadn’t meant to drop. Elise found that thought oddly comforting. Seeing as he might actually fall, and possibly on top of her, Elsie shifted her balance to three appendages, and shot her nearest arm forward towards the boy. She felt her hand reach him, and he stopped sliding. She wasn’t really sure whether she was only helping him balance or had outright caught him. All that she knew was that her muscles were going to kill her tomorrow morning and this was beginning to be a bit of a stretch even for her. Sonia would have been proud. “You good?” was all she managed, her voice obviously a little strained, as she looked up at him.

Once again Locke was caught off guard. Apparently his attempts at chivalry would have been useless because he was in a mud fight with the most flexible person he had ever met. Elise was doing something that Locke had only seen happen on TV shows about circuses and acrobats. He was, to say the least, impressed. Although Locke could not remember the names of them, he was aware of just how many muscles she had to be using. It was a reminder of just how far he was from perfection with Fluffy. Some things he knew he’d never be able to do. A working eye would always be impossible and ears probably weren’t a reality either. But who was to say that he couldn’t try to make something more soft, like mud, bend and twist in a more realistic way.

“Ayemm,” he started stretching out the words ‘I’ and ‘am’ until they became one long and odd sounding word. Part of it was that he was still in awe of Elise being able to bend over backwards like that. He wouldn’t be able to do that forwards, at least not to that extreme, and certainly not for as long as she was holding herself up. His leg would give out on him quickly. A second reason why he was unable to speak clearly was that his mind was still in that hazy state from the earth work. So he just nodded his head and shifted his weight so that he could fall back onto the ground and not onto Elise. It made for a terrific splash.

Elise couldn’t help but exhale in relief when she felt Locke’s weight disappear. OK, the splash was mildly irritating because a drop got in her eye, but mostly it was relief. She folded back inwards into a sitting position before flopping backwards. Her muscles turned momentarily into liquid from the abrupt change of strain. A rush of feeling returned to her extremities and Elise turned to face Locke once.

“Sorry to say, but I think I am wiped,” she said with a small smile. Her bangs were heavily dripping in front of her eyes, but she ignored them. She was much too used to having them hang in her eyes to give it much notice. “I know it was kind of short, but if we continue I may not be able to dance very well tomorrow.” Her smile turned apologetic, but it was true. If she was too sore, her muscles would be tight, and that would make her mother a very unhappy individual, something Elise never wanted to deal with.

“You dance?” Locke had to ask. It would explain why her body seemed to have been made out of rubber. Elise probably would get along well with Twyla. The two could talk about being on point or whatever the terms for dance moves are. He knew nothing about the professional dance world other than that there was ballet, jazz, and tap. If she did indeed dance then it was just a matter of time until the two met and Locke’s epic failures became well known to her. Sighing heavily Locke started pulling mud off his arms. “What kind?” Locke stood up, wincing a little in pain. His butt still hurt a bit from the fall and all that slipping around did not make his bad leg feel happy. Rain always made his arm and leg have a dull ache anyways.

He bent over, placing one hand on his knee and offering Elise his other. It was a bold move for him. Without the excuse of a mud fight he found himself worried that he’d make a wrong move or say something horrible once again. The mud gave him confidence.

“Yeah, my mom owns a dance studio,” Elise said sitting up. She stretched out her arms and legs one at a time, a few audible pops could be heard. “Mostly ballroom, but I do some jazz, and I used to do ballet.” Seeing Locke’s proffered hand, she accepted it with a smile. She happily let him help her up. She was having enough trouble as it was to be able to say no to any help at the moment.

Nearly completely vertical, she slipped lightly once more but was able to catch herself on Locke’s shoulder. It did, however, bring her into a rather close approximation to Locke’s face, where she saw him wince. “Hey, you OK?” she asked, clearly concerned, completely forgetting to step away and give the boy room.

This is… Locke’s mind shut up as it waited for the word to come to it. Usually he wasn’t that guy who had a girl grabbing on to his shoulder, and usually he did not want to be that guy. The brief period of time that he had had a girlfriend he wasn’t huge on the whole touchy touchy thing. Locke did not pull his chair as close as possible to hers in the cafeteria or wrap his arms around her shoulders. This is…[/I] he was staring right into Elise’s eyes. “Not good,” he said with a jolt, stepping back from Elise as if she had just electrocuted him. He had not meant to hurt her feelings in any way or to make her think that she had done something wrong. It had just occurred to him that she had been incredibly close to his face and therefore his eye.

Thinking quickly he rubbed his butt and thigh. “I.. had an accident a few years ago and just got a little stiff now. I’m not as flexible as you.” There. That should be a suitable excuse for why he had repelled himself away from her. It was the truth and gave only the vaguest information. If Elise chose to press the issue he’d just mention the broken arm and blame the falls for the stiff legs. Funny how the different injuries ranked. His eye was not to be seen or spoken of, his leg was nothing of consequence most of the time, and the arm didn’t make any difference at all. Most kids break a bone at some point in their life. Did he dare offer more information? "I use to play little league though."

Not good?! Elise’s eyebrows furrowed down even farther, before they suddenly shot upwards when Locke pulled away so suddenly. Taking a moment to regain her balance without Locke’s support, Elise didn’t think about the why, immediately. However, the questions did eventually come, and with them, her natural worrying. Had she done something wrong? People don’t jerk away when they are entirely comfortable. Biting her lightly, she mentally searched for several reasons why Locke would have pulled away. The possibilities were endless.

>>>“I… had an accident.”

Relief swept through Elise, and she immediately stopped biting her lip and smiled. Well, it wasn’t a good thing Locke had an accident, but it partially lifted the blame from her, which was a good thing. “Oh, I’ve gotcha. I’ve got a bad knee myself, why I stopped with the ballet,” Elsie said, her relief palpable in her voice and her dismissive hand gesture. However, her worrying quickly returned. It was just the way she was. She had a friend who when faced with Elise’s mild panics before tests, competitions, or what have you, would call her several ridiculous alliterations of the word worry and make her laugh. It helped, but only a little. “Are you OK? Do you want to ice it or something? Icing followed by heating sometimes helps me,” Elise offered sympathetically, “I have wrap that you can borrow if you want.”

“Well, we should probably get out of the mud, either way,” she added looking around. Taking careful steps, she made it to the edge of the mud pit with only mild slips and no real falls. Success! “Baseball, really? Did you play a certain position or a little bit of everything?” she asked looking over her shoulder and seeing if Locke needed any help. He was after all, the injured one.

Sloshing his way out of the mud, Locke found, was a bit like trying to pull up linoleum floor tiles. The mud just was too friendly. He listened to Elise’s talk about her own problems with her knee and how it prevented her from continuing with ballet. It made no sense to him why a bad knee would prevent her from one type of dance but not others, unless she danced with wheelchairs. Surely all types of dancing had to have some extensive body training. There was a reason why some professional sports players took dance lessons. Locke shook his head no. “No need. It’ll loosen up eventually.” Her concern was touching, really it was. Locke’s butt would feel better and just sitting down for a bit would make his leg less tightened..

“Well when you’re six it’s the parents who play all the positions, and you swing at a tree. Baseball camp was really where they tried to get us to do different things. Mostly they told us what we’d be doing. Which is good because otherwise you’d have teams of nothing but pinch hitters and no catchers.” What was it that Locke wanted to play? He didn’t care if he hit a home run or caught the out in left field. Locke turned his head slightly to the side and gave Elise a half grin. He paused, pulling his arms tight into his chest, took a breath. Then with a quick kick of the leg Locke whipped his arm around him, throwing an imaginary pitch.

“OK, if you’re sure,” Elise said, looking over her shoulder at Locke as though she didn‘t quite believe him. She walked over to her flip flops, and bent over to pick them. She had decided they would stay cleanest if she held them instead of putting them on her feet. She would save that for when she entered the mansion. She didn’t want to get the whole place dirty. That seemed like a mildly ungrateful act to her.

Walking back to Locke she smiled and clapped at his move. “You don’t play anymore? Why not?” she asked as she finally reached him once more, her bangs dripping into her eyes as she tilted her head the little bit back it took to look him in the face. That was not something Elise had to do often. Her height usually saved her from tense necks, if not standing out in crowds. People didn’t realize how irritating it was to be tall sometimes. Yes you could look over crowds, but you also stood out in them like sore thumbs. Plus, it was hard to find willing dance partners. Guys tended to have a thing against being seen with girls that were taller than them. Apparently it was embarrassing. Elise didn’t understand it, but she definitely knew it happened.

He gave Elise an odd shrug, really more of a movement of the shoulder blades then the shoulders themselves. It had been so long since he tried throwing a baseball, let alone an imaginary one, but he could tell that he had not done it right. None the less Elise seemed to have been impressed by it. Had he actually thrown something the result would be less then impressive. There would be no applause for the wild toss. Now was the time for an outright lie, something he was use to doing. “I grew up, interests changed and I became a spectator and not a spectacle. Chasing the little sibs is enough of an exercise.” Had he mentioned Chris or Mai yet? Locke couldn’t be sure, he was still trying to figure out how they ended up having a mud fight and what to do now as Elise was drawing closer to him.

She’s tall Locke thought to himself. Granted he had never really tried looking anyone in the eyes, but Locke had grown use to looking at people’s belly-button when talking to them. Elise was tall enough that he couldn’t do that. Her eyes naturally were just about level to his, giving him no escape. Did her height scare him? Not really. There were plenty of tall blonde bimbos back in San Francisco , with a few of them not being actual females. What was really disconcerting to him was that they kept on doing this, her looking in his eyes and him finding it hard to escape from it. “You can’t go in there like that,” he blurted out, trying to both fill the silence and, to his surprise, get a conversation going. He knew he could get the mud off him without having to hose off or wait until the sun baked it back into dirt.

“You have younger siblings?” she asked looking mildly surprised. Why she was surprised? Elise had no idea. Perhaps the idea had just never enter her mind. What ever it was, she decided it would make sense. Locke seemed like the kind of guy that was a big teddy bear with little kids. It was a cute image, and a small smile couldn’t help but spread across her lips. “I can’t imagine having younger siblings. I’ve always been the baby. I only have one older brother,” she said in a conversational manner, her hands moving with the conversation. Every once in a while a fleck of mud would slide off with the movement.

At Locke’s comment, she looked back down at herself with another expression of surprise. Looking back up, her eyebrows were furrowed. She wasn’t dripping quite that badly, was she? “With my flip-flops clean and all, I figured I could make it to my room with minimal mess,” she said, clearly unsure now. “Is it that bad?” she asked, her tone worried, as she unconsciously wrung her hands.

“Two actually,” Locke answered. Ok so he hadn’t talked about his family in any form so far. “A little brother named Chris and a little sister named Mai.” He patted his back pocket, checking to make sure that his wallet was there. The outside had gotten a little bit of mud on it, but the inside was ok. Locke didn’t keep his money in there, only his pictures, which were in those little plastic sleeves. He flipped it open to a picture of the two youngest Tori’s that had come from a Walmart photographer. “Don’t let the angelic look fool you, they’re really wild things.” As always a smile naturally took over his face. It just came so easily when he saw or talked about them. “I can’t imagine having older siblings.” Maybe he could make some joke about it being tough being the big brother, but no, the moment had passed and such a joke only works if there's a complaint.

He had to look at Elise critically when she asked if she was really that bad. Chewing his lip Locke contemplated what to say. This could possibly be some estranged cousin of that dreaded question that girls occasionally like to torture guys with. Alright maybe it wasn’t, but Locke did not want to step on a “do you think I’m fat” type of landmine. But it had been her idea to have the mud fight. Then again he was the one to blame for it in the first place. You’re over thinking this. “Well… You look pretty well coated to me, and I usually end up going around with a healthy layer of dirt. But I guess if you don’t go running around or wave your arms like you’re Kermit the Frog you’ll be ok. Best to get the mud off the shoes first though.”

Elise leaned forward and peered down at the proffered picture. A smile spread across her lips and crinkled the corners of her eyes. “Aw, they’re adorable. How old are they?” she asked straightening once more into her perfect posture. She could almost hear a click when she reached the right position. Looking at Locke she reconsidered the two little kids. He looked similar but not terribly so. Half-siblings perhaps? Maybe, they just didn’t look that alike. Little kids were always hard to get a good draw on. Genetic features tended to fill in with age, but Elise decided not ask. She felt as though it wasn’t an appropriate question.

At Locke’s reply, Elise sighed in relief. “Oh, good. I didn’t know what I would do otherwise. Maybe go back over my tracks with a mop later?” she said, with a sweep of her hand. Taking one flip-flop in each hand she banged the two together, dislodging a few clumps of dirt. Looking around, she considered wiping them off on the grass, but that would probably just spread the remaining mess around “Well, I think that’s as good as its going to get,” Elise, finally said with a shrug and a mildly hopeless look upwards.