The Search for Artemis - By P. D. Griffith Page 0,48
Awesome New Student,” Celia blew him out of the water. The only point Landon could have possibly claimed against her was that his extensity radius was one meter wider than hers. That was not much of a feat considering the wealth of skill she could employ within her twenty-four meters compared to the minimal capabilities Landon had in his twenty-five.
Within minutes of starting, he found the pencil and the rubber band through sheer observation, but he knew Professor Tzu would not make everything so easy to acquire.
For the next hour, Landon scoured the area Celia assigned to him. With his mind still lingering on the events of the previous night, he reverted back to old methods of accessing his abilities, and like before, they produced less than stellar results. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t concentrate.
Eventually, Celia came out of the woods carrying a small pile of items in her hands. She gave Landon a contemptuous glance when he presented her with only the two items he’d stored in his pocket. When they looked over the list, they realized they had fourteen of the twenty.
Celia silently turned away from Landon and methodically walked around the lawn and lakeshore, stopping ever so often to pick things up off the ground. Well not so much pick them up but hold her hand open in front of her and have the item jump off the ground and into her hand.
Landon managed to become the storage unit for Celia, fighting to hold all of the items in his arms as she walked back to him with one object after another. In minutes, they had nineteen of the twenty items with only the steel ring remaining unfound.
Before heading back out to find the final elusive object, Celia glanced up at Landon to see the embarrassment written on his face.
“Come on. You’re gonna to find the last one,” she said, waving for Landon to follow her.
Landon was taken aback. Celia was so competitive—how on earth was she going to put the fate of their winning the exercise on his shoulders? But he obeyed and caught up with her while struggling to hold on to the nineteen objects in his arms.
She walked casually, which surprised Landon even further.
“So what’s really on your mind?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” Landon returned.
“Well, you’ve been distracted all morning, and I know you don’t do well unless you can really focus. So what’s getting you?”
“There was some craziness last night that I can’t seem to get out of my head.”
Landon hadn’t really spoken to Celia much since they arrived at the Gymnasium. They were more acquaintances than friends. They shared almost every training group, but she had proven herself to be in a different league than Landon, elevating her into a superior social cast in the Gymnasium. That aside, Landon wasn’t sure what he could tell her about his late night run-in with his mystery woman. He didn’t feel right telling anyone until he knew for himself what really was going on.
“Really? What happened?” she asked, concerned.
“Uh, it’s really nothing. I need to just put it out of my mind.”
“That’s probably best. . . . So why do you think you have so much trouble with all of this?”
Landon’s face drained of color, and he felt his palms get sweaty.
“I honestly have no idea,” he returned timidly.
“Well, I think it’s because you’re too hard on yourself.” Celia looked over to Landon, who was staring at his feet. “I think if you just lightened up a bit, you’d be showing us all up.”
Landon lifted his head and looked over at Celia, who now looked out over the water of the lake. The morning sun gave her an ethereal glow.
She then turned to look back at Landon and, with a crazed look in her eye, said, “Come on! . . . We’re going swimming.”
Before he could even respond, she was diving into the water; her shirt and pants laid on the sandy beach.
“Come on! Have some fun!” she yelled after letting out an invigorating woo! upon bursting out from under the water.
Landon stared at her, dumbfounded for a moment. There’s a hot girl in her underwear asking me to go swimming with her. . . . How is this happening? The excitement grabbed him, and he couldn’t help but join her. He cast the nineteen objects in his arms aside, manically stripped down to his boxer shorts, and ran into the water, high-stepping to catch Celia.