Jillian walked out onto the soft grass of the courtyard and made her way over to a slightly secluded area near the fountain. She sat on the edge and inhaled the scent of the flowers nearby. Closing her eyes, she gathered her courage and stood up after a long pause. Her eyes slowly opened and she slowly began to walk past a group of students, her heart pounding.
She knows that it's imperative for her to work on her power, but it's difficult for her to get up the courage to train, especially because it involves interaction with complete strangers. As she walked past the students, she inched a bit closer in order to lightly brush against one of them. Jillian did so, and that brief moment of skin-to-skin contact was enough to let her into the person's past just a bit.
She couldn't help the pause in her footsteps as she felt joy overwhelming her senses; it was the emotion that best represented that student's past. As soon as the pause finished, she tried to hurry away as the group collectively stared at her, puzzled by her strange pause.
After traveling a mere ten steps away, the delayed and entirely unexpected reaction kicked in. Her eyes glazed over and she saw, in her mind's eye, a scene of a young girl and her mother playing in a field. The moment was brief, but Jillian knew it was a distant memory of the student she had touched.
Quickly, she walked farther away, a slight skip in her step, for the memory had made her a little happier and alleviated her nervousness slightly. She came near another student, one that was alone and browsing through their phone. She stopped about a foot away, hiding behind a large, blooming bush. Focusing, she closed her eyes and mentally reached out to the student. After a long minute, a tingle of sadness sparked in her mind and another even longer minute later, she saw a scene begin to form. A young boy watched his father leave the house, then sat on the doorstep. Rapidly, the seasons and age of the child changed in the scene until finally the boy got up and left.
The scene pulled back suddenly and Jillian stumbled backward a few steps, melancholy washing over her. The leaves of the bush rustled and the student looked up from his phone and back into the bushes. She ran out of her hiding place and back into a quiet corner of the courtyard. Once there, she collapsed onto the grass and rolled onto her back. Exhaustion trickles through her, making her feel almost numb as she stared up at the clear sky. She closed her eyes and decided to rest for a while.
The thought of the side effects of her power had escaped her and the exhaustion came upon her all at once, like a brick wall. Jillian laid there, staying conscious just barely. She began to count the seconds in her head, trying to keep track of the time so she wouldn't fall asleep.
1...2...3...
