Alison and Paige

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around three-ish?

Never one for moping, never mind moping in company, Paige had headed out to the loft over the barn. She figured very few people would be there, and those who were would leave her alone for the less mopey horses. She'd brought up a doodle book, more for scratching out random words, but wasn't really paying it any attention at the moment, more interested in counting ceiling boards.

Whistling cheerily Alison climbed the ladder to the barn's loft, hoping to find the physics book she'd left there earlier - not that it had gotten looked at all that much. Note to self - next time, don't let Sam tag along when you want to study Physics. She popped her head through the trap door and took a quick look around - and stopped whistling when she spotted Paige slumped on a bale of hay, with an expression Alison could only describe as a pout, really. Raising an eyebrow, she climbed all the way in, scuffing the floorboards slightly to announce her presence.

Paige shifted her gaze over to Alison, her face registering and a bright smile forcing itself on her features. She raised a hand in welcome, wrist limp, and let it drop again. "Hi there."

A faint look of disbelief greeted her, and Alison walked towards her to sit down on an opposing bale. "That is not a happy face," she said gently, smiling faintly at her in greeting. She stretched out her legs lazily, plucking a stray strand of hay and starting to shred it absently.

Paige let the smile drop, falling into a more blank expression. "It was a good try though," she replied, shifting over to make more room for her new companion. "What brings you up to my domain of brooding?"

Pouting, Alison corrected her, if not out loud. "I was looking for my Physics book," she said blandly, not really bothering to look for it quite yet. "It can wait though," she continued companionably enough, looking outside the open wide doors of the loft.

"I think I saw it down near Banjo's stall," Paige remarked idly, going back to counting.

Alison blinked, wondering how it could have gotten from the hayloft to downstairs, but decided that going into details out loud probably wasn't the wisest thing to do. "Thanks," she nodded. "I'll check there when I go back down." She closed her eyes, smelling in the scent of hay with a faint smile.

Turning her head, Paige noticed Alison still had not left yet. Her eyebrows raised she gave her companion a questioning look.

Eyes still closed, Alison doesn't notice at first. It's amazing how quickly one can get to associate simple smells to the very best memories ever... Expression peaceful, lips etched into a faint smile, she leaned her head backwards in the hay. "Glad you liked the fudge," she said after a while.


"It was good, thanks. Goes well with my tea," she said quietly, trying to ignore Alison making odd faces in the hay. "My regards to Jamie."

Acknowledging the no longer subtle cues, Alison leans forward, plucking idly at her hair to remove the few bits of hay stuck there. "I'll let him know," she says calmly, before getting up and offering Paige a sheepish look. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to impose on you. I'll just go fetch my book and leave you sole ownership of the loft, if you'd rather."

Paige sighed, grabbing Alison's ankle. "No, stop. Stop. I'm sorry, I'm not good at this whole large group of people who aren't my family thing yet."

The corner of her eyes crinkling slightly, Alison simply nodded at her words, sitting down again. This time however, she placed her elbows on her knees, leaning forward to look at Paige. "No need to apologize. I tend to take up a lot of space sometimes, and forget about others' personal spaces, y'know?" She waited a moment, then continued. "Don't want to talk about it?"

"I don't know what I want to do about it, Lee. Not like I've had a lot of experience with this sort of thing, but... yeah." She looks up at Alison, smiling wryly. "Back home my best friends were my oldest brother and my horse and Nem doesn't have to much to say about it all."

Chuckling faintly at that, Alison grins wryly. "I'd hazard that Sam might be biased on this one, and Nem would want sugar first..." she raises an eyebrow, but continues. "Can't say I'll know what to do about it myself - but sometimes it helps just to ramble on about stuff..."

Paige smiles faintly, poking Alison in the leg with a piece of straw. "Are you looking for ammo, missy?"

"Some stuff you use as ammo," Alison grins wryly. "Some you don't though. Teasing has to be fun for all involved, after all."

"Hm. No wonder my brother is madly-" She cuts herself off and wrinkles her nose. "Well. Finish that thought in your head. I'd prefer to start forgetting it now."

Managing to repress a silly grin as she does indeed finish the thought in her head, Alison chuckles. "It's mutual," is the only thing she says, before allowing Paige to change subject if she wants to.

"So, how irritating am I?" Paige asked suddenly after a long pause. "I think I'm just going to take all my classes in my room or something. Live on fudge."

"You're not irritating at all," was the calm reply. "And taking your classes in your room would be impractical. And might drive Scott or another of the senior staff to drag you out If needed," she opined, a faintly sympathetic look on her face at that particular thought.

"That's just it, Lee. I am irritating and I'm not needed. Now maybe this is just me letting people get to me, and maybe I shouldn't allow them under my skin, but..." She threw up her hands with a frustrated sigh. "I thought I'd be doing something here and all I seem to be doing is creating a problem. I can't even help with words as everyone either already shares my opinion or will never change theirs."

Alison blinked, staring at Paige for a moment. "Oh my," she whispered to herself, then reaches out to tug at Paige's hair with a wry expression. "Hon, you're a student. You're here to learn - first and foremost, that's the one thing you're here for right now. Nothing more, and yet - nothing less. It's like learning how to walk... first you crawl, then you get up, then you walk... you know? Same as me, for one thing... that's what I'm doing too, really."

"You can't change the world overnight - I know, I know. You know that. I'm sorry." She pats her knee gently, an apologetic look in her eyes. "Thing is, you just can't change how people see the world overnight either... or themselves. And no matter how much we might wish some of the others could not feel to badly about being mutants..." she trails off.

Paige nodded slowly, agreeing. "I just thought if I could be there for even one person, then at least I'd be doing something. I want to learn, but what's the point of learning if you can't even help the- if you can’t- it just doesn't make sense. So what if he has a hole in his chest! So what if he doesn't have a jaw, if he glows! Why doesn't he understand that I don't care? That it doesn't matter and-" Paige suddenly clapped her hand over her mouth, eyes like saucers. When she pulled it away, a nervous smile flitted over her features. "To quote Hagrid, 'I shouldn't have said that.'"

A faint smile greeted those words, easily overshadowed by the look of sympathy in her eyes, however. "That'd be the stuff not to be used as ammo, hon," she just said gently. "I promise. And being able to talk or rant about that sort of stuff to someone, every now and then... believe me, is not a bad thing." She stretched out her legs, eyeing the tip of her boots idly to give Paige time to regain her composure. "And it'll be just between the two of us."

"I..." Paige sighed, glancing over at Alison to judge her words as she willed her heart to stop pounding so hard. She ran a hand through her hair, pulling out the pieces of hay there and really only managing to add more. "I've never really had one before so... thanks. And... thanks."

Alison just nodded, and shifted to sit next to Paige. Carefully she started pulling out the hay from her hair one bit at a time, taking her time. "You're very welcome," she just said simply, smiling at her as she tugged out the last bit.

Paige laughed softly, looking up with a quiet kind of acceptance if not respect in her gaze. She doesn't say anything for a long while, just closes her eyes and lets Alison play with her hair, content to just be calm for a moment.