“Good morning!”
“AH!” Yelled Maia. She turned to see Tim, and with a sudden realization saw how the past four months had so drastically changed him. His once clenched brow was now relaxed and of yore his eyes had been drooping and sad. But now they were alert and sparkling.
“Do you see what’s coming over the trees, sister?”
“The sun?” She said dubiously. Was it a trick question?
“Don’t answer a question with a question,” he said, settling down next to her. “But yes. It’s the sun. And a new morning. And my bi-“
“Birthday! Crickets! How could I forget?”
He smiled. “Well you’ll be 15 in eight months. Let’s see if I remember,” he said hugging her tightly back.
“So tell me, what will you do this year? You're a man!” Maia asked, looking up at the rapidly color changing clouds. Tim tucked his legs under him. “Hm. I don’t know. One day at a time, I guess. I would like to be apprenticed but I don’t know what I want to do. But I’ll stand by you, Maia. We all know you have a hard year -or five- ahead of you. So remember your big brother Tim is here for you.” He kissed her head. “I see someone coming to talk to you, I better go.”
“Sydney? Oh joy, a killjoy. Just what I wanted on this joyful morning. Stay, please.” She said and held his arm tightly.
“No, no. Just give him a chance, Maia. He’s a good person, he’s just....broken. And confused. And that has made him satirical and angry by turns. But if he’s seeking your company that’s good. That means you have the power to influence him. When people seek another person, that person always can influence that person. Whether for good or for bad is for the following to decide.”
He stood up, and soon enough his place was filled by Sydney.
“Good morning, Maia,” he said politely. She looked at him and tried to control my contempt. Maia saw he was making an attempt at civil conversation, so I tried too
“Good morning,” Maia replied, smiling.
“What were you doing? I saw some blue light, and came down to investigate, and here you are!”
“I try to meditate every morning. I only have another month of Anna, and I want to make as much progress as I can, but there are not enough hours in the day for me to practice holding the Water, so I do it for an hour every morning.”
“Wow. At the end of a day of practicing with Earth and Air, I can barely keep my head up. I would never be able to wake up early.”
Don’t say never, Sydney. And besides, you're up right now, right?” Maia said, raising her eyebrows. Her arms hurt terribly, and the pain made her snappish. She could barely hold her tongue.
“Yes, Maia. But my curiosity always overtakes anything else. It’s a fault of mine.”
“Hm.”
“I...I’m going to go back inside. See you later.” Sydney stood up and he wore quite a dejected posture. Instinctively, Maia took his arm.
“Hey. I didn’t mean to be nasty. It’s just incredibly painful to hold the Water, and pain makes me irritable.”
He looked down at her, and smiled. Painfully. “See you later,” he repeated.