Alia is avoiding me. She's avoiding everybody. She hasn't eaten and its almost dinner. I saw Kenji try and talk to her, Brendon and James too. I watched them all get nicely rejected by her.
I've been training with Castle today. I've been testing his psychokinesis and he's been testing my power negation. I've learned today I'm strong enough to default his ability, only through touching. He's trying to figure out if I can project it.
He's going on about concentration and physics or something like that.
"Mr.Kent" Castle says.
I slowly look away from Alia hiding in the corner.
"You're distracted" he says.
"I'm s-sorry, a lots happened today" I tell him.
"It shouldn't be that much longer until dinner, can you focus until then?" Castle says.
I glance back at Alia.
"Probably not" I answer.
He follows my gaze.
" ....don't take it personally. She gets like this once in awhile" he explains.
"Hm?"
"Alia" Castle nods. "I've known her for three years and no one even knows her last name, she won't talk".
"....she said you found her three years ago"
"She told you that? She never talks about her life" Castle says.
" ....do yo know why?"
"Don't even know where she came from. Our men found her above base nearly starving to death, said she was like a stray cat" Castle continues.
"A stray cat?"
"She was scared of everything" he says. "Doesn't take help from anyone, hates attention. She made progress by designing for us, however. We were working on putting her through psychological therapy before Omega Point....you know".
Then I begin to wonder if anyone else knows about her sister Ava or her past with Warner or that her parents were commanders but died.
"Anyways, um we should get back to work" Castle says.
"Dinner!" I hear James cheer.
"Oh" Castle says as Delalieu enters the training room. "We'll continue tomorrow".
We get our food, the same meal of chicken, rice, and broccoli. I don't mind that its the same everyday, its nice to have food again.
"How come Alia won't talk to me?" James asks when we sit down.
"Maybe you should ask her" I say.
"Maybe YOU should. I tried, Adam, she won't listen to me" James complains.
"I don't think she'll listen to me either, James"
"Maybe she will. I think she likes you. Why else would she draw all those pictures of you?" James explains.
I'd kill myself if that happened to me. Alia's been one of the only people that haven't managed to piss me off. She's been nothing but sweet, compassionate, and kind to me. Its been killing me all day to see her so sad like this. Does she want me to talk to her?
"Alright, I'll talk to her. Go eat with Kenji or something" I say.
"Okay" James smiles.
I retrieve an extra plate of food from Delalieu and head towards Alia, sitting in the far corner.
She hasn't touched her sketchbook all day.
"Hey" I say when I reach her.
She quickly glances up, surprise fills her eyes when she sees me. I even sense a little fear.
I kneel down beside her and place the food in front of her.
"I know you're hungry" I say.
She says nothing.
"Fine, you can ignore me, but only if you eat" I tell her.
Still nothing.
I throw a broccoli at her hair and she turns her head to me.
"Hey" she says, slightly smiling.
"Welcome back" I smile.
" ...why are you talking to me?" Alia whispers and looks down.
"Because I like talking to you" I answer as I detangle the broccoli out of her hair.
"But don't you think I'm weird?" she asks and looks at me.
"No" I laugh. "Why would I think that?".
" ....because people think I'm a 'stalker' now" she says and rolls her eyes.
"Because of the drawings?" I say. "Lily was just being a jerk, I'm actually a little flattered".
She blushes.
"When were you ever gonna show me them?" I question.
"Never" she scoffs. "I'm so embarrassed".
" ...I'm sorry" I apologize. "Look, you don't have to worry about this anymore. Just eat".
" ....I don't wanna" Alia shrugs.
I playfully throw another broccoli at her but she just throws it back.
We both end up with food down our shirts and in our hair, but I managed to stuff some in her mouth before our little fight.
"Adam-" she begins.
I toss rice into her face, some managing to get into her mouth.
"I'm sorry" I laugh.
Alia quickly opens the water bottle. Before I can figure out what she's doing, she splashes the water in my face.
"You deserved that" she smiles.
I steal the bottle away and splash water onto her by she immediately covers her face with her hands in defense.
"This is kinda fun, its like taking a shower" I smile.
"I hate to break up whatever this is but Warner's getting a little pissed so you really need to clean all this up" Kenji says.
"Sorry, Kenji" Alia apologizes as she begins to clean up.
I look back at Warner to see him slowly pacing the room, Juliette stands next to him, exchanging glances with me.
I help Alia clean up all the food, and then follow her into the showers when we're done.
" ....you're gonna shower too?" Alia quietly asks.
" ...um...yeah, you got grease all over me" I laugh.
She immediately flushes, redder than I've ever seen her blush before.
