What Little Worlds

Ten

Amelie leaned against the wall outside McDonalds taking deep breaths. The address Adrien had given her was just around the corner and she wanted two more minutes to collect herself before she entered.

She had no idea what to expect. That persistent tingling spread through her body as she thought of Adrien standing on her doorstep last night, with his bulging arms and rare carefree smile. She basked in the memory for a minute then shoved it to the back of her consciousness. Seeing Adrien surprisingly was not what she was worried about.

He said she had magic.

What if he was wrong? Or if he was right and she was too weak to access it, or had started training too late?

Every disappointing scenario had already run through her head on her walk here and she was again grateful that she had spent the workday immersed in a challenging problem, for without it, these thoughts would have bombarded her throughout the day as well.

She tried to calm down her nerves and steel herself against every possible disappointment. It had always been her coping mechanism: expect bad news and be surprised when it's good.

She just didn't know if she could handle such a failure, even if she went in expecting it.

Amelie stood outside the McDonalds until she had watched two families go in, eat, and then come back out. Her mood still had not improved and she realized it was not going to. She pushed off the wall and walked towards Adrien's address.

She rounded the corner to a giant warehouse with no visible entrance.

Confused, she pulled out her phone and called Adrien.

He picked up on the first ring, "Hey! Are you here?"

"I think so?" she said as more of a question. "How do I get in?"

"I'll come get you, it's a little confusing. Don't move I'll be right down."

Amelie shuffled her feet awkwardly and waited for Adrien to come. She had no idea which direction to look in for him.

"Hey!" she heard after less than five seconds of waiting. She turned around, startled and felt her long hair whip Adrien in the face.

"Ah sorry! That was faster than I thought it would take." She said, smiling. He was dressed in all black today and she had to check herself to make sure her eyes stayed glued to his and did not wander to look at the muscular arms she remembered from yesterday.

"That's because I Dove," he said and puffed his chest out in mock arrogance.

"I'm assuming saying you Dove doesn't mean you jumped from up there, right?" Amelie said.

He laughed, "No. Not at all. That would be cool though." She looked at him expectantly for an explanation. He stood next to her so their shoulders aligned, "Think of it like stepping forward here," he pointed to their feet and started a slow step forward, "and, instead of your foot landing right in front of you, it lands ten feet ahead of you." He pointed at the trashcan about ten feet away. Then he stepped forward again and as soon as his foot was about to hit the ground his body appeared instead next to the trashcan.

Amelie broke out in a grin.

"Ready to go in?" he said from across the road.

"Yes!" she nodded vigorously.

She had anticipated that she would get to "Dive" with Adrien to enter the building but he admitted that, unfortunately, you could not bring someone with you when you Dove so instead he had to show her the back entrance to the warehouse.