practice makes perfect

[Lilith]

School had ended for the day, all the classes were empty, even detention had been let out. But Lilly wasn't ready to go home just yet. She knew she had homework to do but there wasn't much there to do today, so why not stay after track for some extra work...When it came to school the brown haired elf like girl was rather unmotivated, but put her in an athletic situation and she'll be driven to succeed. Which is probably why she chose to stay; she missed a hurtle during track, and refused to let it happen again.

She had already changed into her track uniform, a pair of gym shorts and a red sleeveless Bayville jersey before she set up the hurtles at varying heights and distances along the outer lane of the rather nice track Bayville had circling the football field. As she knelt down to stretch out her legs she began to wonder if anyone else was still at school...Not that she was doing anything wrong by being here, just, she felt a little self conscious about people watching her use the track by herself, normally it was packed with the rest of the team when she ran.

Shrugging off the thought she looked up to the hurtles she laid out for herself, dashing off toward them, jumping each one but the tallest...And this was why she was hoping no one was around to see her. She silently cursed the one she missed as she walked back to it, setting it up to go again.

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt had been taking a nap in lunch period, just the kind of thing he needed to relax after math class. He hated math, why did he have to have math on a sunny day? So once class had finished, he'd gone outside and lain down in among the bushes at the back of the ground. The older kids all went elsewhere to smoke, so back there was the perfect place.

He was woken by a loud clattering noise, the first sound there'd been for a while. Looking up, he saw how much the position of the sun had changed, and realised with a start that he'd slept right through the bell for the next period. He'd managed to skip the entire afternoon of classes.

WIth a loud "Oh no!" He sat bolt upright in the bush and grabbed for his bookbag. It was when he saw the fuzzy blue hand going for the shoulder strap that he remembered that he's switched his image inducer off for his nap to save battery. Just a second later he realised that there was someone on the track field, and that he was visible.

as quickly as he'd appeared, the fuzzy blue elf ducked back into the bushes and activated the image inducer. If he was quick and lucky, he'd managed to dive back in before she saw him all blue and fuzzy. For a second Kurt debated just bamphing out, but that might make things more suspicious. No, he had to play this cool and hope for the best.

So the boy popped out of the bush with a shaky grin and did his best (poor) impression of sauntering along nonchalanlty. nope, not nervous at all.

"Hi!" He said a little too brightly.

[Lilith]

Lilly was far too focused on perfecting the tallest hurtle to notice what was going on in the bushes around her, she was now re-adjusting every hurtle she set up, so that each one would match the height of that one little bugger that kept tripping her. "I don't care how long this takes, but here's how it's going to go down..." She said to the hurtles as she adjusted them, "I'm going to jump over you, it'll be quick and painless if you just don't make me fall again." As she rose to go back to the starting point she brushed her hand through her long brown bangs. "...I'm talking to hurtles...Lilith, I think you finally lost it." She added to herself, shaking her head just a bit as she took the starting position.

CLANK! THUD! This height of hurtle just didn't like her...And what made things worse, this time, someone had seen her.

"Hi." She replied as she picked herself up off the ground, dusting herself off a bit before actually looking up to see who was talking to her. She suddenly felt at a disadvantage...This was a kid she hadn't met yet...'Time to actually get out to social events again.' She thought to herself as she looked over the student. Her eyes followed where he had come from to the bushes. "Over slept?" She paused with a chuckle. "That's happened to me once or twice too...I'm Lilly." She said with a bright smile as she held her hand to the guy, hoping to make a new friend.

[Nightcrawler]

She'd hit the nail on the head with the guess about oversleeping, and Kurt gave her a somewhat sheepish look.
"Uh, yeah. I missed the lunch bell." The young man explained somewhat bashfully and scratched the back of his head. The attack of shyness also gave Kurt an excuse to give her a small wave of one hand instead of shaking. The last thing he wanted to do was shake hands now that it seemed that she hadn't seen his true form. The image inducer only covered the visual senses, so one touch of the hairy back of his hand, and the girl would know that something was wrong.
"I'm Kurt." The introduction was a bit awkward, mainly because Kurt knew that it would seem kind of odd that he didn't shake hands. To try and defuse a bit of that he gave Lilith a slightly shaky but definitely friendly half grin.

Looking around, the young mutant tried to quickly find something to pass over that awkwardness. The hurdles were as good as anything else for that.
"Oh cool, are you on the track team?" He asked with a curious look at the hurdles. Judging from their height she had to be on the team, he couldn't see normal kids jumping those. He could, but doing that kind of thing on the track team was hard work and made it more likely that he'd get found out, so Kurt avoided the school clubs.

[Lilith]

Kurt's shyness definitely caught the girl off guard, but if he was new, she really should have expected it...Everyone gets a little freaked by her ears the first time they see them... And considering she's gotten to the point where she shows them off proudly, she was sure he had to of noticed them. Honestly, it wasn't something she could fault him over, nor would she, after all, how many people do you see in a day with long pointed ears...

She awkwardly dropped her hand to her side once she realized this guy didn't feel up to physical contact, atleast not yet. Lilly had a new personal goal to add on to her list; make friends with Kurt.

As he asked if she was on the track team she glanced down to the hurtles and nodded with a proud smile. "Yeah...Track, gymnastics, and archery club." She answered proudly before slightly kicking the closest hurtle. "Would be alot easier if I could clear this little thing right here." She added, half way complaining, half venting. "What about you? On any teams? Clubs?" She asked curiously as she leaned against the hurtle, now more interested in the social encounter then in perfecting jumping.

[Nightcrawler]

It wasn't until then that Kurt actually noticed the ears. He really was incredibly good at being oblivious sometimes. His expression went blank for a second, an expression of surprise rather than shock, though that of course was easy to take the wrong way. This had to be the first time Kurt met a mutant with a physical mutation they showed openly. Compared to him she was still normal, but judging by the reaction she might as well have three heads.

"Uh, no. No teams, my grades aren't good enough." Which was true, but not the real reason. But 'No, because no-one's allowed to know I'm furry and that I save the world' wasn't an answer he could exactly hand out just like that.

But then curiosity got the better of the fuzzy dude and he cocked his head to the side to look at her ears. Originally he might have wanted to play it cool, but he just had to know.
"Uh, are those real?" He asked a little hesitantly and pointed at her ears.

[Lilith]

Lilly couldn't help smiling a bit at Kurt's delayed reaction to her ears. "Well if they aren't real my mother must have had a very strange sence of humor." She answered with a laughing tone of voice. "I was born with them, why hide what makes you special right?"

She noticed his finger pointing to them and tilted her head a bit closer, "Go on, I don't mind if you touch, just don't tug too hard." Tugging on them kinda hurts...At one point a one year old pulled them to the point she thought she was going to lose her right ear...Ever since she didn't like holding babies for that reason, only things that know how to be gentle.

"Well there's plenty of clubs you don't need good grades for to be a part of..." She stated, as if offering him a way around the grade situation. "And they look great on college aplications."

[Nightcrawler]

Why hide what makes you special? Because people hate you for it, a small voice in the back of Kurt's head pointed out. One he never managed to ignore for long, given that it was usually right. But he didn't point that out, that was not something Kurt liked to discuss.

Still, he was curious, so he reached out to touch her ear. He stopped just short though, when he realised that even if he touched her there, it was still touching, and that meant th risk of the fuzzy giving him away. If it hadn't been so warm that morning he'd have brought his gloves. He pulled his hand back with another uncomfortable half smile. "Uh, they look cool!" He meant that too, if anyone could appreciate elf ears, then it was him.

Now Kurt just needed a way to realistically explain why he didn't like clubs. One that wasn't 'I can't, I have to train for my teenage superteam and save the world'.
"Yeah, but if I don't study I'll the year." Kurt sounded sad about it, mainly because there was some truth to that. His grades really were not stellar.

[Lilith]

Lilly couldn't help but wonder why this guy was so shy, she'd never met anyone so timid before, she found it intriging to say the least, in turn, found him intriguing because of it. "Thanks," She said with a friendly smile. "I like them...even if they come with the occasional elf jokes." As he pulled his hand away she just nodded slightly before leaning on the hurle once more...This time it wasn't such a good idea since the weight of her on it caused it to skid away from the position she had placed it in then topple over, her stumbling to the ground with it.

"Oww." She landed with the metel bar meeting her back, dust from the gravel track kicking up a bit. She suddenly felt very ungraceful, something she's not used to, well, suppose that's something she should expect when hurtles are involved, the damn things do hate her. "Note to self...hurles are evil." She said with a half smile as she picked herself up, holding onto her back where the metel bar ended up. Sure, as Shattershot she's plenty coordinated, but as just plain old Lilly it tends to be hit or miss. Maybe if she knew what triggered the luck control instead of just doing things and hoping for the best...though that does often work..oh well, now she was quite sure she made a fool of herself.

[Nightcrawler]

Far from being amused, Kurt started in surprise when Lilly fell over. He didn't react fast enough to stop the fall, mostly because he had to make a half jump backwards to avoid the hurdle falling on his foot.
"You allright?" He asked with obvious concern, and still no sign that he thought she'd made a fool of herself. In general, the only fool Kurt ever tended to see was himself.

It looked like she could get up on her own, so Kurt didn't offer Lilly a hand. Though it made him feel guilty, he was still leery of getting cvught out as a mutvnt. Though maybe it wouldn't be quite so bad, given that she was obviously one herself, and had no issues with that. The more Kurt thought about it, the more jealous he became. He wished he could be that confidant. But then, her mutation wasn't as extreme as his.

Lilly's quip got her a sympathetic smile, and an enthusiastic nod. "Yeah, they really are. I crashed into two in track class last year. Major wipeout." What Kurt didn't mention is that he only crashed because one of them got snagged on his tail. Luckily nobody had really been paying attention.

[Lilith]

"Yeah, I'm fine. Honestly, I've had worse." She said as she rubbed her back a bit, sure she was used to falls, but they never stopped hurting. "Reason I stayed so late...asside from avoiding homework, is because these evil little things like to trip me. But asside from that, I used to go for high jump. When you first start out with that you get alot of landing on the pole." Something she didn't enjoy too much, hense why she didn't do high jump any more. She almost let it slip that she could just teleport a bit higher while jumping, but two things wrong with that: She didn't know he was a mutant so didn't know how his reaction to powers would be, And, she didn't want anyone thinking she was cheeting when she very well was not despite the fact she could easily get away with it.

His coment about crash landing in gym made her wonder, and it was a wonder she couldn't help but voice. "So, how long have you been going here? Sorry to say I don't recognize you, which is saying alot for someone like me." She asked as she raised a brow, trying to show it was a question based entirely out of curiosity.

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt chuckled at the idea of hurdles as evil little things. after that one incident of his he could really believe it. He also understood wanting to train on your own, he'd done plenty of that in his time. That and dodging homework.
"Yeah, I bet I have a whole lot of homework now. I missed like three classes." Looking down, Kurt sighed and shook his head. "I'm so dead, this sucks."

He didn't let that keep him down for long though, he had a nice new person to meet, so the cheery smile returned quickly to the young man's face.
"I'm in sophomore year now, I came to the school last year. But I've been living in Bayville for like two years now. I guess you just missed me, I usually hang out with my buddies so maybe you just didn't see me."

Cocking his head to the side Kurt wondered how he'd managed to miss a girl with elf ears though. More importantly, why the Professor had missed it so far. Was there maybe a reason why he hadn't invited her to the institute. Kurt sincerely hoped that Lilly wasn't one of those Brotherhood jerks, though she seemed far too nice for that. Besides, Tabby would have told him about someone new.

[Lilith]

"Well then, I'm really not sure how I missed you. I'm a sophmore too. Lived here all my life." She said with a proud smile. She then stood there thinking, searching in her memory for any recolection of atleast seeing him before...She might have, but he definitely wasn't anyone she could remember...yet.

She let out a sigh as she looked back to her hurtles then back to Kurt, noticing he had a watch. "Sorry I just need the time." She said rather politely as she gently took his hand to tilt the watch her way. She didn't even take in the time before she dropped it, realizing she was touching fur and not skin. She took a step back as she studdered out "W-was that....fur?" Her eyes were on his skin now, which didn't look all that hairy, not as hairy as she felt anyway.

After a few seconds of letting the idea sink in she smiled. "Your one too aren't you?" She asked with a hopeful tone of voice. Her eyes lit up with excitement at the idea of meeting another mutant, well, one that's actually nice to her. "Can you do anything?Or are you just...fuzzy?" She asked trying hard not to offend him, but she was just too excited at this.

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt started violently when she touched his wrist, breaking the contact almost immediately. but the damage was done, and he looked down at the ground unhappily when she started looking at him funny. Maybe he should just bamf out and leave it like that.

Except that Lilith didn't seem to be taking it so badly, probably because she was a mutant too. That gave him enough of a cautious hope to not just vanish right away. and the more she went on, the better he felt about it. Looking around, he made sure nobody else was looking. Then he hit the button on hbis 'watch' and his shape flickered, revealing the blue fuzzy elf underneath.
"No, I can do things too." He said witha small, extremely bashful smile. Suddenly he disappeard from in front of her, leaving only his trademark puff of smoke. In the same instant she felt a tap on her shoulder.

[Lilith]

Lilly's smile just grew when she saw the disappearence, knowing exactly what that meant. She jumped just a bit when she felt a tap on her shoulder, turning around with a smile. As she tried to calm herself she took in his real form. With a chuckle she stated the obvious. "Your a teleporter!" With her excitement her voice got a bit louder then she expected it. Clapping her hands over her mouth she looked around to make sure no one heard.

She took a few moments to gather herself before removing her hands, showing her large smile. "This is amazing!" She was practically jumping with joy. She then disappeared from infront of him and reappeared a few feet away before returning. "We may as well be exactly the same. Well, accept, I you're a bit harier, and I also have a luck manipulation....But still."

She realized she was getting far too excited about this so she took a few more moments to calm down. "So, where did you get that thing on your arm? I sure could have used one of those growing up..." She asked in a much calmer mood then before. "I meen, don't get me wrong, I'm happy with how I am, but still..."