Beyond the Sun

02

Annie had retreated to her thoughts somewhat and jumped when she realised she was being spoken to. "Come again?" She asked politely while looking back to the boy on the swing.

Clark sighed and rolled his eyes, "Did you want to swing?" He asked again eyeing her up, he half wondered if daydreaming was something she did often. She really did get lost in thought, whatever her thoughts consisted of were evidently more interesting than to the here and now. Not that he was totally surprised. Considering his current mood, he wasn't exactly the best company in the world.

"Yes, please!" Annie's ever enthusiastic voice sung happily, she looked at the simple swing with wide happy eyes. Clark stood and stepped away and let Annie take his place. Firmly planting her feet on the floor, she shuffled backwards a few steps before kicking off the ground and took to pushing herself. Such a simple thing caused such happiness. Annie's face took on an expression of pure excitement. Her dark eyes looked up at the sky above as she swung ever higher, and of course she was giggling all the while. "Bet I can jump further than you!" Annie said coming past him on a back swing. Clark watched as her short hair whipped forwards from the breeze she was creating around herself. She had to shake her head to get her face free of the brown curled strands. Yet once she did, she could see and she fixed him with a playful look.

"Uh-huh, sure you can." Clark said while crossing his arms, he raised an eyebrow and got a tongue stuck out at him as Annie went swinging past him again. He frowned worriedly though, she was managing to swing herself rather high. If she jumped from the swing when it was at its height, she'd surely hurt herself. "Erm, hey...Annie?"

"Don't chicken out, Clark!" She exclaimed while going backwards and pushing herself forwards again. "Count down for me, will you?" She looked at him with a grin, he resigned himself to the fact that she wasn't going to listen to him, no matter what. If he reached out and stopped the swing himself, he was certain he'd still manage to inadvertently cause an accident.

So instead, he stood and quietly counted down from three to one, and as soon as he uttered the number Annie was off and flying through the air. She let out rather happy sounding cheers only to end in a yelp when she crash landed, literally. She went skidding along the ground, kicking up dirt as she went. She rolled a few times as the momentum wore off and then she was left laying on her back, legs and arms splayed out, heaving breaths and not moving.

Clark naturally ran over and skidded to a stop beside her. He knelt and looked at her worriedly, she still wasn't moving. Maybe she had hit her head or something? "Annie?" He asked with a concerned tone and look on his face.

"That," Annie said quietly, he had to lean a little closer to hear her. "Was awesome!" The sudden shout caused him to wince slightly and lean away from her quickly. He rubbed at his ears gently and nodded down at her. He was still struggling with the fact that everything he heard could be amplified. It was a painful experience, and he really didn't want a repeat of what happened at school. Annie, of course, had no idea about this. As she stated earlier, she just thought he was a kid having a panic attack, though he did in fact have one, but it was for an extremely founded reason.

Shaking his head slowly, he placed his hands on his knees and watched as she slowly sat up. There was dirt covering her clothes, bits of gravel and leaves and grass sticking out of her hair. Her hair was in fact sticking up at odd angles, which made her look like she'd just had a shock; not rolled along the floor for a few moments. He couldn't help it; he laughed, she did look rather frazzled and dazed. Annie shook her head and frowned at him suddenly, she pouted and pushed him on the shoulder. Though to be honest, the sudden joyous sound hadn't gone unnoticed by the two adults in the house. Both Rebecca and Martha had been watching them. Martha for one was certainly pleased to watch as her son had begun laughing, she couldn't remember the last time she saw him like that. Which was horrible in fact, seeing someone so young be so sad.