Aberrant: Mutant High - Better Things To Do

[Aradia McConnell]

Aradia glanced outside the window to the room she shared with Sonja. She could see the crazy little bastards running around in the snow, throwing snowballs at each other and dragging sleds towards the big hill further from the school. Normally those types of fun and games were right up her alley.. but not when they involved cold, freezing, wet, icy weather. She had grown up in New Mexico, and spent a good amount of time traveling across the south, southwest, and west coast with the circus after her parents had died. So transferring to New York, where it turned into the North Pole for five months out of the year, had been a bit of a rude awakening. Instead, she was bored, hanging out in her bedroom. And Aradia bored was never a good idea. When Aradia was bored, trouble happened - though it could very rarely be linked back to the young teleporter, much to the faculty's annoyance.

Perhaps this was on Coach Murphy's mind this morning when he'd decided to put together the new shipment of gym equipment they'd just received. For now that he was finished with it, he had a plan. He made his way up to the girl's dormitory, and knocked politely on Room #202.

Aradia hopped up from her spot on the bed, where she had been laying, gazing out the window and attempting to plan some sort of mischief. She opened the door, and flashed Murphy a smile, her glowing green gaze meeting his gray eyes with a quizzical expression.

"Hey, Coach - what's up?"

"Just thought I'd let you know there's a surprise for you down in the second gymnasium, Ari. Wouldn't mind if you'd go try it out and let me know if it's all right - you're the expert."

Her eyes widened, and she let out a little whoop of joy as she punched her fist into the air in victory.

"Thanks Coach Murph, you rock!"

And then, before he even had a chance to say "You're Welcome", she was gone, a small flash of blackness the only indicator of how she'd made her exit.

Any other person would've had to get changed to be properly attired for gymnastics equipment. But Aradia dressed in stretchy, clingy clothes half the time anyway (with jeans being the favorite exception), and today happened to be one of those days. She was one of those rare girls that knew how to rock the Flashdance years and actually look good doing it. So when she reappeared in the gymnasium that housed the weight lifting and other special equipment, and saw the two new sets of parallel bars (even and uneven), the balance beam, and the vaulting horse laid out, all she had to do was slip out of her clunky Doc Marten boots and socks, and dip her hands in some chalk to give them a little slide.

Before she started on the equipment she gave it all a good once over, but Couch Murph was a thorough dude - all the bolts and nuts looked properly tightened down. Besides, the young acrobat was too excited to care overly much - if she fell, she could always port herself somewhere before she hit the ground.

She ran towards the uneven bars, and after a leap and a heartbeat her palms hit the lower bar with a dull thud. Her fingers tightened around the wood, and she began to dance, twisting tossing herself through the air and around the bars, with the ease of someone who had lived their lifetime on them.

[Sonja Bahaar]

Sonja dashed back to the residence hall, laughing brightly, outpacing a barrage of snow balls that followed her. Okay, so maybe her own snow balls had been getting a little big, but she hadn't really hurt anyone, other than knocking a few - more than a few - of them down. They didn't all have to turn on her. She blamed Hotstreak - he was just bitter that she'd blinded sided and thrown that snowball fast enough that his heat aura didn't have a chance to melt her missile.

She burst through the door a long second before the mass retaliation, snow balls shattering against the brick facade. She looked over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out at her attackers, but the limited alliance was already fracturing in a hail of molded snow. With a shrug, she bounded up the stairs, six at a time, intent on getting her skates, maybe trying to talk Aradia into joining her outside. It wasn't that cold.

But when she got to her room, she found it empty of her roomie. She dug through one of her gym bags and pulled out her hockey skates, then changed into her deep blue and silvery grey Spandexium outfit. The special carbon fibers not only provided great protection and an unlimited range of movement, they also regulated body heat like a dream. Throwing on a hockey jersey and slipping on her raybans - the ice could get bright in the sun - she headed back out, skates dangling from her hand.

Just in case the kids outside were planning something, Sonja decided to take the tunnels, coming out near the Second Gymnasium. As she passed by the gym doors, she heard the thrum of vibrating wood and the squeak of metal sliding on metal. She peeked through the wire-reinforced glass.

Ari was there, dancing across the uneven bars in a fantastic display. Sonja slipped quietly inside, watching her roomie working her magic. She used to do gymnastics, but that was before she sprouted up - and out - like a weed. Always adjusting the equipment after the shorter girls was a bother. But Ari mentioned that Coach Murphy was trying to get some new gym equipment, stronger and more adjustable. Looks like it was here.

Finally, Aradia dismounted, a flawless performance and Sonja grinned, giving her an appreciative clap. Aradia turned around, slightly startled, lost in the aerial ballet, then returned the grin, bowing, hands flourishing just so.

"Elevens across the board, definitely, Ari!" Sonja said, then eyed the rest of the eqipment. "Guess Coach Murphy finally got the new gym gear, hmm?" Sonja walked around, checking them out, noting the much sturdier construction of the gymnastic paraphernalia and ease and breadth of their possible variability. Other than the two of them, the gym was empty, not even any of the weight lifting equipment in use.

"Mind if I join ya, Ari? It's been a while, and I can go skating anytime. How often do we get the gym to ourselves?"

"Not at all, glad you've come to your senses about the cold," Aradia teased.

Sonja gave a snort, taking off her sunglasses and stripping out of her jersey and boots. Dressed in figure-hugging Spandexium, it was easy to see how Sonja got called Super Barbie. Despite sharing a room with her for over a year now, it still amazed Aradia that a girl as well endowed as Sonja could still be one of the top athletes in the school.

Sonja sauntered over to the springboard, testing its resistance, then moving it further from the vaulting horse. Walking to the end of the running track, she stretched and took several deep breaths, then she was off!

Legs flashing, powerful thighs flexing, Sonja raced at a speed far beyond human, hitting the springboard like a train. She flipped and twisted in the air, superhuman strength and grace launching her from the vaulting horse like a comet.

Her form and technique was technically perfect, but she didn't have the other little cues that judges would look for, that turned a jump into a performance. Sonja cleared the landing mats, coming down hard and fast, too much so, and couldn't stick the landing. She stomped the ground in disappointment.

"Damn it! I'm quite a bit faster and stronger than last time I did this. Thought I had compensated enough." Sonja dragged the mats further back, then walked backed to the end of the jumping track.

"After gymnastics I went into sports where you faced off against your opponent, rather than their arbitrarily judged score, y'know, Ari? I find it easier to compete against someone instead of against yourself."

[Aradia McConnell]

She was quiet for a moment, and she glanced outside thoughtfully, which was an unusual expression for Aradia - even after a year of rooming together, there had been very few times Sonja had seen her where she didn't look as if she'd already given the topic at hand as much thought as she cared too.. she seemed to do her thinking in private, with no one around to try to change or make up her mind for her.

Then her gaze flickered back to Sonja, and she shrugged a little, looking a little annoyed about something.

"I don't do competition. It's stupid, in my opinion. If you have a bunch of people who are amazing at something, who cares who's better? Isn't it enough that they're both incredible? But if you do have to compete, I'd think the only person worth competing against is yourself. After all, you can compete against others and win, and still not be as good as you could be. But if you compete against yourself, then you're always looking to get better, right? Not that gymnastics is much of either, really. You're competing against politics, and the image people have of you, and the moods the judges happen to be in that night. That's no real competition."

She walked over to the stretch of mats, and nudged the springboard back into a normal position.

"The strength is an issue, and you do need to pull back, but you also need to adjust your footing on the landing. You were off a bit and so your stance didn't support the impact. Try it this way."

She took a few steps back, then did a jump off the springboard onto the vaulting horse. Though she didn't hit the ground with the impact Sonja had, it was still an excellent demonstration of how she should position the landing to absorb the shock. She stepped back and watched her carefully this time to see if there were any other suggestions she could make, assuming the blond athlete was willing to give it another go.

[Sonja Bahaar]

Sonja was more than willing to give it another go. During her few attempts, she pulled back severely on the strength and speed of her jumps, getting a feel for it once more. Aradia offered another suggestion and both of them realized that Sonja would have to adjust slightly again, considering that there weren't any other gymnasts that had to account for a build like hers.

However, with each jump, Sonja became more confident, using more and more of her strength and speed with each successful jump. Soon, she was completing vaults that no gymnast without an active X-gene could match. Even after twenty more vaults, Sonja wasn't even breathing hard. She paused for a bit, sitting on the vaulting horse, watching Aradia on the balance beam. Sonja's indigo eyes grew thoughtful.

"I hear what you're saying about competition Ari, especially now that I'm really getting into Track, but I'm not sure I totally with you, y'know? Seems to me, that people who're always competing against themselves... well, they are never satisfied, never feel like they are good enough. And I find that a little sad." Sonja looked down for a moment, thinking about her sister, then shrugged, and looked back up to watch Aradia.

"In direct competition, winning gives you a more concrete sense of accomplishment, more than shaving a second off a track record or... whatever. At least for a moment, you can saw, 'I did good, this is enough.' And in team sports, the feeling is even better. When you have the whole team working in synch, prevailing over another good team in a hard fought game, the feeling, it's pure gold."

Sonja got up from the vaulting horse and walked over to one of the walls of the gym, unwinding a spindle and lowering the rings from the ceiling. At least these, she was still good at. When she was in gymnastics class, years ago when her youngest sister was still alive, all the girls would play around on the rings. But she had been the only who had the strength to work them, and actually showed any skill.

She jumped up and grasped the rings with ease. "In most of the sports I play, you only get better by playing against someone, anyway," Sonja said, swinging up into a perfect iron cross. "Besides, if you don't compare yourself against others, how do you know if you're getting any better anyway?"

[Aradia McConnell]

"People who compete against themselves aren't ever satisfied because everyone tells them that you can't ever be 'good enough'. You have to keep 'getting better'. It's bullshit. There comes a point where you don't have keep 'getting better', if you're happy with what you do. It's not always a fuckin' contest. And the people who say it is should be stuffed. Sometimes it's okay to do shit just because we like doing it."

She did a couple graceful somersaults on the balance beam, and started a routine that seemed to be old hat, as if she'd done it many times over and didn't have to think about it as she did it.

"And besides, if you're competing against someone who isn't as good as you are, what improvement can you find from that? That's not competition.. that's just showing off. And if you're gonna show off - do it right. Do it in front of someone who cares.. and without making an idiot out of someone who's not as good as you are. That's why I don't compete anymore. My parents wanted me to compete. I just perform."

In all the time that they'd dormed together - not that Aradia really hung out much around the dorm room anyway, other than to sleep - she'd never once mentioned her parents, or even her background in competition. She'd only ever talked about her circus days, performing as an acrobat in her uncle's traveling carnival and circus. Sonja hadn't even realized till then that Ari had even known her parents. Her voice had an edge to it that wasn't unfamiliar though, that tone of bitterness that many of the students here used when speaking about their parents, and how many of them had been rejected because of their mutations.

But it was common knowledge that Ari's powers had woken up because of a fall from the trapeze during practice for a performance.. it wasn't anything she'd ever bothered to hide, and she'd had plenty of words to describe the freak-out that her fellow circus performers had delivered, despite having saved one of their lives. Most of them involved four-letter words. So if she wasn't bitter about them turning her out because of a mutation, what was she bitter at them for?

[Sonja Bahaar]

Sonja idly continued her improvised routine on the rings, spending more time watching Ari on the balance beam. With her enhanced musculature, the strength and hold elements were ridiculously easy, and she barely had to think about it. Sonja nodded to herself, agreeing with Ari's point about being good enough... though she still liked winning.

But when Ari started talking about showing off against those who weren't as good, Sonja felt a surge of old guilt mixed with anger. She dropped from the still rings, making only a token dismount, and walked over to sit on the old vaulting horse, continuing to watch Ari on the beam.

"I never said anything about playing against those who aren't as good, Ari," Sonja protested with a twist to her lips. "What's the fun in that? I know what can-" She cut off suddenly, looking down at her toned arms, powerful legs. Clearly, she didn't want to talk about what she knew.

It was known that Sonja was revealed to be X-gene active when she hurt someone during a little league football game, but somehow, it was never mentioned just how much. It still made her feel ashamed, the more so that Sean Cassidy never blamed her for his condition, though his parents did. They still even e-mailed each other, since his parents had blocked her number.

"At least with gymnastics, you don't need anybody else. Have any idea how boring it is play football or soccer by yourself? Even here, the team sports are different. Either powers are allowed, which makes the games almost unrecognizable, or they're not, which means I can't play, since I can't turn off being strong or fast."

Both of them were silent with their own thoughts for a moment, the only sound being the soft slap of Ari's feet on the balance beam, when something else Aradia had mentioned, almost in passing, occurred to Sonja.

When Sonja first came to LHA, she had felt guilty that she had no visible mutations - other than developing physically faster than all the other girls - and still had a great relationship with her parents, when so many others had been worst off. Her parents had never held her X-gene against her - though Oneca used to - and she visited them for the weekends. With a caring family and no obvious signs of her X-gene (though a lot of boys begged to differ), Sonja used to be picked on by some of the others, but she refused to feel sorry about it anymore. It wasn't her fault she was fortunate.

"You never mentioned your parents before, Ari."

[Cirque]

"That's because they're dead."

She finished her performance with a stretched back salto with a triple twist, and landed flawlessly on the mat with no stumbling. She glanced up at the startled look on Sonja's face and rolled her eyes, though she looked a little more tense than usual.

"Oh, lose the weepy look. It was five years ago. I was performing in Minneapolis, in the Junior Olympic National Championships. They were supposed to meet me there, I'd gotten there three days in advance for registration with my coach and the team. They were in a plane crash the first day of routines. I was performing in floor routines, balance beam, and the uneven bars."

She was quiet for a long moment, turning the memory of that day over in her mind as Sonja pondered the truthfulness of what Ari had just told her. Sure, they were all mutants.. but Ari had just claimed to be on the Junior Olympic National Team. The team for kids on the fast track to the Olympics. After a long moment, Aradia spoke again, and her voice held a slight tension to it, like a string on a violin wound too tightly.

"My coach waited till after the competition was over to tell me. He didn't want me to be distracted."

[Sonja Bahaar]

Sonja held her hands in her lap, holding them tightly together in a habit she developed so she didn't break things... as much. Her jaw trembled, clearly feeling for what had happened to Ari. It also made her think about Saja, and how her death had affected her family.

"That's - that's horrible, Ari. I hope you kicked the fucker in the balls than strangled him with the medal you won. And, still, I'm sorry. I'm lucky that I still have my parents and they accept what I am... even 'Neca... I guess. I wish you could've had the same."

Sonja opened her mouth, about to mention her own familial lost, then closed, lips quirking into a grin of forced levity. Things were getting down enough already.

"I thought stuff like that only happened in movies, guess I was wrong." Sonja stood up and moved over to her skates, swinging them by the laces. "Enough of this, Ari. It was fun playing trying out my gymnastic skills after so long, but lets try something else." Sonja lips spread into a genuine smile, edged with a copious bit of challenge. "I know you still got those skates I got you last winter. I think now's the time to try them out. Come'on!"