like a flashback, sneak attack, chain reaction
Who | Claire Bennet (autophoenix) and Damon Salvatore (thatsagiven)
What | It was bound to happen eventually; Claire's not so good at keeping the smell of blood away from her.
Where | Mystic Falls
When | Within a week of this. Post-Heroes S1, early S1 of TVD.
How | Prose
Why | I want to help Ally wave around her prose dick and get on that.
For all of the crap that it led to her getting from the rest of the squad, there were certain perks, Claire realized, to being the new girl. First of all, there were the oohs and ahhs when people realized you'd actually done tumbling more than one day in your life. Second was the silent agreement that you would stand in the back of the formation and you would like it, and Noah would just be thrilled to know that she wasn't drawing attention in any way, and third, that you got stuck with mat duty.
Most people would probably find putting up the mats for three weeks straight all by themselves while the other girls got changed and left the already hours-empty school to be monotonous, boring, and some kind of cruel and unusual punishment, but Claire actually took solace in the quiet minutes between the end of practice and when she actually got around to getting into her car and driving home. It was a nice, private time away from the expectations of her family, where her dad had forbidden her to be herself even around the house, and the expectations of school, which demanded she be extraordinary to even survive the day when she was very strictly not allowed to do so in any way.
It also meant getting some alone time practicing her tucks and tumbles. The other girls had cleared the gym out a few minutes ago and the loud rush of the showers in the adjacent locker room was prevalent in Claire's ears over the squeaking of her sneakers on the basketball court as she began to fold the mats, shoving the pads off to the side. As she walked to the tower and got ready to drag it out of the way, she stopped.
Well. The other girls would be too busy showering and talking about her behind her back anyway, right? There was no harm. Everyone was too busy or gone to even care. So, she began to climb the side, familiar exhilaration mounting with each rung as she crawled her way to the top of the stunt tower. When she stood at the top, she stared down over the gymnasium with wide eyes. It felt like it had been too long since she'd seen anything from this high. Slowly, she turned and shut her eyes, a smile on her face.
When she jumped, she did a double back tuck on her way to the ground. In fact, she completed it, surprisingly, because she landed on her heels when her sneakers squealed across the ground and her body made the loud thunk as her joints slammed against the hard, wooden floors. Unfortunately, sticking the landing meant that the fractures in her legs were compound, the bones sticking in a grotesque way out of the flesh on her calves. She grimaced, grunting as she realigned her spine with a slow twist of her torso, rolling her shoulder back into place and then sitting up to start nudging her bones back inside of her skin. The blood remained a staunch, unforgettable stain on her skin, and she didn't wipe it away immediately.
It still hurt. Thank God. At least she had that much going for her. For as freaky as she was, she wasn't so screwed up that she'd become a monster. She was still human. As long as she could feel it like a normal person, she could rest assured that she was still human. Claire's eyes slid shut again and she let out a deep, slow sigh, remaining in a state of near-meditation on the ground of the gymnasium, enjoying the silence and solitude.
What | It was bound to happen eventually; Claire's not so good at keeping the smell of blood away from her.
Where | Mystic Falls
When | Within a week of this. Post-Heroes S1, early S1 of TVD.
How | Prose
Why | I want to help Ally wave around her prose dick and get on that.
For all of the crap that it led to her getting from the rest of the squad, there were certain perks, Claire realized, to being the new girl. First of all, there were the oohs and ahhs when people realized you'd actually done tumbling more than one day in your life. Second was the silent agreement that you would stand in the back of the formation and you would like it, and Noah would just be thrilled to know that she wasn't drawing attention in any way, and third, that you got stuck with mat duty.
Most people would probably find putting up the mats for three weeks straight all by themselves while the other girls got changed and left the already hours-empty school to be monotonous, boring, and some kind of cruel and unusual punishment, but Claire actually took solace in the quiet minutes between the end of practice and when she actually got around to getting into her car and driving home. It was a nice, private time away from the expectations of her family, where her dad had forbidden her to be herself even around the house, and the expectations of school, which demanded she be extraordinary to even survive the day when she was very strictly not allowed to do so in any way.
It also meant getting some alone time practicing her tucks and tumbles. The other girls had cleared the gym out a few minutes ago and the loud rush of the showers in the adjacent locker room was prevalent in Claire's ears over the squeaking of her sneakers on the basketball court as she began to fold the mats, shoving the pads off to the side. As she walked to the tower and got ready to drag it out of the way, she stopped.
Well. The other girls would be too busy showering and talking about her behind her back anyway, right? There was no harm. Everyone was too busy or gone to even care. So, she began to climb the side, familiar exhilaration mounting with each rung as she crawled her way to the top of the stunt tower. When she stood at the top, she stared down over the gymnasium with wide eyes. It felt like it had been too long since she'd seen anything from this high. Slowly, she turned and shut her eyes, a smile on her face.
When she jumped, she did a double back tuck on her way to the ground. In fact, she completed it, surprisingly, because she landed on her heels when her sneakers squealed across the ground and her body made the loud thunk as her joints slammed against the hard, wooden floors. Unfortunately, sticking the landing meant that the fractures in her legs were compound, the bones sticking in a grotesque way out of the flesh on her calves. She grimaced, grunting as she realigned her spine with a slow twist of her torso, rolling her shoulder back into place and then sitting up to start nudging her bones back inside of her skin. The blood remained a staunch, unforgettable stain on her skin, and she didn't wipe it away immediately.
It still hurt. Thank God. At least she had that much going for her. For as freaky as she was, she wasn't so screwed up that she'd become a monster. She was still human. As long as she could feel it like a normal person, she could rest assured that she was still human. Claire's eyes slid shut again and she let out a deep, slow sigh, remaining in a state of near-meditation on the ground of the gymnasium, enjoying the silence and solitude.