It was past midnight, and curfew, but that never stopped the students of Aura Academy from roaming the grounds. Piper Fuller, however, generally did not leave her room that late. She had no reason to, most nights. She didn't have any clandestine meetings. She had no secret objects which need to be secreted outside of her dorm room. The only secrets that she had were within her heart and they could not be seen by most people so it didn't matter anyway. No... The reason for the freshman being awake at that time was quite simple. She couldn't sleep. She hadn't had a nightmare or anything, she hadn't had those in a long time. She just couldn't fall asleep. So, she had pulled a light blue hoodie over her white tank top and slipped into a pair of black moccasins in order not to sully her feet, and had slowly made her way through the halls of the school, avoiding any monitors with little distractions. Really, if they were distracted so easily by a ball of light floating above their head, they shouldn't be the monitors, so Pip didn't feel even the least bit bad for them.

She had set out with one destination in mind, namely the school gardens. They reminded her of the gardens at home. Namely, the gardens in Central Park. Her parents penthouse, while palatial, had not had their own garden. That was unheard of in Manhattan. A hanging plant or something on the terrace, that was heard of. But the gardens in Central Park were a thing of beauty and Pip had always found serenity when she went to them. She had made her brother head through the park upon their running away, just so she could get a glimpse of the gardens after being kept away from them for so long. While it had been risky, it had been worth it.

Piper stepped onto one of the garden's main paths and inhaled. Even at night, the scent was intoxicating. Thanks to the students who could control nature, even in the winter flowers were blooming and Pip was thankful for that. She sat down on a bench, ignoring the chill coming through her sweatpants, and looked up at the stars in the sky. They were so beautiful. Somehow, no matter how hard she tried, she had never been able to reproduce the image of a star. Perhaps it was because they were millions of miles away and her own orbs of light were only a few feet away. Or perhaps it was the fact that the stars were not meant to be imitated. Pip preferred to think it was the latter, because the former was admitting that her power had limits within its domain and she would not do that willingly.

Thinking of her power, Pip raised her hand and a small orb of light lit up the garden pathway and Piper could see everything for a distance. If she wanted to, she could make the garden as bright as day. Or she could blind someone with a flare of light to rival the sun's glare. She hadn't done that in a while and she didn't really want to. Her power was not anything useful, but she didn't want it to become anything harmful. Yet she had heard that she would have to battle others in a type of duel and that scared her. Would she have to blind them? Her light caused no heat, only a beam to mimic a laser or lamp. Nothing of great importance. She couldn't even conceal things by bending the light around them. She had tried but it had never worked.

She started to bounce the orb of light back and forth between her hand, warming herself up as she did so. While it couldn't scorch, there was a heat that emanated from her light, similar to a lamp. I guess if I really wanted to, I could burn something, Pip thought as she held the orb in her hand. She had never wanted to before so she had never wondered. And she didn't want to wonder. These powers were gifts. Not weapons.

Yet had it been a gift when her parents had locked her up for it? No. The expression on Pip's illuminated face fell as she thought this but she promptly shrugged it off. She had come out here to get rid of all of the thought's running through her mind which kept her awake and her she was, thinking of even more.

Just great...

((To whomever responds, sorry that it's so shitty. And short.))

(This is pretty short.)

Arthur was wandering around. It was after hours. He had his very expensive digital camera that his parents had bought him for his fourteenth birthday. He loved it. The optical zoom was incredible, and it had a wide range of effects and filters that made artistic photography much more interesting. He saw three couples making out on various benches and lawns, and he took very good distanced photographs of them for later incrimination. Sure, he didn't know any of them personally, but he would be able to put them in the newspaper on a slow news day later on. Yeah. I'll title the section Love and Lies or something equally dramatic. The readers'll love it.. He also had his iPod, another gift from his parents. It was a nano, 4 GB, in red. He had filled about half of the thing, mainly with showtunes and classic rock. He sat down on a bench to fiddle with the music. He cycled through some Sondheim musicals and looked up at the dark sky. Stars were out, and the moon was crescented and small, so not much light was out in the sky. He was going solely by his knowlesge of the school and a bit of light from his camera. Suddenly, he saw some bright light from nearby, in the garden. It was moving around a bit. He stood up.

Must be a student, he thought. Do I know any students who can make light? Hm... Oh, yeah. Piper can do that. I wonder if it's her. He walked towards the gardens. He entered it and was greeted by incredibly blooming flora. He went closer to the light. The girl was inside the sheath of light, bouncing a bright little ball back and forth. He dropped to the grass at once. He fiddled with his camera, getting it ready. This is a good photo. I need he thought. He snapped a shot of her. He crawled around in the darkness, taking two more photos of the scene. Finally he stood up, brushed himself off, and walked into the light. "Hi. What're you out here for."

The blond's head turned around sharply as she heard a click of some sort. A click that sounded slightly familiar. Kind of like a camera. She glanced around and couldn't help but wondering who in the world was taking pictures in the middle of the night. She may create light but her little ball didn't make it as bright as day out there and night pictures never looked good without a flash. She knew, she had to make the flash on her own because she hated turning it on on her camera, just because she was rather lazy when it came to things like that. She closed her hand around the orb and it evaporated into thin air as she saw Arthur Flynn stand up from the grass, a camera in his hand. She raised an eyebrow in question and rolled her eyes. "You know, it's not as if someone using their powers can be used as blackmail," Pip said dryly. And then, after a moment of thought, she added, "at least not at Aura."

Without the ball of light, it was rather dark and Pip contemplated creating another few orbs of light. Darkness, while not frightening, was not comfortable for Piper Fuller. She didn't hate it or anything. It was just unsettling anytime when she wasn't in her bed. Especially unsettling when random people snuck up near her and took pictures. "What's with the camera?" she asked Arthurt and then added, "and why are you snooping around Aura at this time anyway?"

((Mine's short too, sorry.))