breathing exercises aren't gonna help here bud

“Hey guys, actually,” Tam pipes up, “could I ask you a favor?”

“Yes, of course!” Leah responds.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Austin asks.

Tam leads her two friends over to the entrance of Secureberus Building & Loan, gesturing towards three heavy locks sitting on the door. “I managed to crack one of them, but I can’t seem to break the other two yet. I’m guessing they can’t be opened with strength.”

“With strength?” Austin snickers. “What, did you punch it until it opened?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Oh! Oh.”

“Maybe magic will work?” Leah suggests, kneeling to the Methepon lock. “I can try using telekinesis.”

Tam and Austin back off as Leah takes a deep breath and holds her palm over the lock. It glows pale blue, and wispy strands of magic flow from her hand into the lock.

“Do you think there’s a key for these locks?” Austin asks.

“Yeah, there was one under the doormat that opened up the locks,” Tam clarifies. “But I read from the paper that the idiots at this bank installed the vault door backwards, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they just forgot to make keys for these locks.”

“Really? That’s so stupid! What happened after that?”

“Oh, they closed the bank ten minutes later.”

“Ha!”

“Could you two please be quieter?” Leah asks with mild exasperation. “I need to focus.”

“Right, sorry,” Austin whispers.

Leah sighs and squints her eyes. This is no standard lock. It’s much tougher than anything she’s ever attempted to crack (that one time Simone forgot her locker combination). She wouldn’t be surprised if Tam’s guess was true, because there appears to be no true keyhole in these locks at all. She feels around with her mind, trying to find any sort of mechanics to tinker with.

With a bit more searching, she finds a spring. Wait, a spring?

“Why is there only one spring in this lock?” Leah asks with a scoff.

“Is that a bad thing?” Tam says.

“Well, a standard tumbler lock needs multiple springs for a key’s grooves to align with them and turn the lock,” Leah explains. “This one just… doesn’t?”

“Maybe Tam was right about these things not having keys,” Austin says with a shrug.

“Ugh,” Leah groans.

Her job just got a hundred times harder. At least with a tumbler or combination lock, she can use telekinesis to push them into the right positions. But she has no idea how this lock is supposed to work. Oh, well, she’ll just have to give it a shot.

Leah pushes the spring back, feeling for any change. Something appears to click, so she tries pulling on the lock. Nothing happens. Okay, not that, then. She feels for any other internal mechanism. There appears to be some sort of a weird metal beam behind the spring. She tries to move that, but it doesn’t budge. She tugs on it with all her strength, but it’s not enough.

With the force of an angry puppy, Leah slams her fist on the ground in one final attempt to pull the lock open with brute force telekinesis, but it only jolts the lock ever so slightly.

“Gaisi!” Leah curses. (Translation note: “darn it” in Mandarin) “This stupid thing just won’t open!”

“Hey, calm down,” Austin offers, stepping closer. “Take a deep breath and try again, maybe?”

“Yeah, I know,” Leah grunts, raising her hands over the lock again. “I’ve got this.”

“Alrighty,” Austin nods. “Let us know if you need any help.”

And how are you supposed to help? a mean thought arises in Leah’s head. She quickly pushes it away and directs her focus on the lock.

Leah feels around the spring again. There appears to be a screw. It’s incredibly small, but maybe she can loosen it?

Channeling her energy, Leah attempts to grip the tiny indent in the screw with her telekinesis, though it slips the first time. And second. And third. When she finally grabs it on the fourth try, the act of her trying to unscrew it causes her to lose the grip. Leah tries again and again to no avail, and with each attempt, her frustration rises and rises.

After a minute without success, Leah grabs her hat and chucks it at the lock. That, of course, does nothing.

“Ugh, who even designed this thing?” she bemoans, curtly picking up her hat. “Nothing is working!”

“Maybe that’s a sign it’s a good lock?” Austin says with an awkward laugh. Leah shoots a glare at him.

“Look, we can always come back later,” Tam assures. “It’s not like I need whatever’s in there. I’m just nosy and wanna see everything that’s behind a locked door.”

But it’s not about that anymore, Leah thinks bitterly. This stupid lock has mocked her enough. She has to crack it to prove that she can do it.

"I think it might do you some good to step back and calm down," Austin adds as a suggestion. "It won't do you any good to keep going if you're angry."

"I know," Leah grumbles.

"Whenever I get upset, I usually go somewhere quiet or play some music, then come back. It helps a lot!"

"I know," Leah repeats, voice rising.

"Austin," Tam says warily.

"You'll feel a lot better after you--"

"I know!" Leah shouts, slamming her fist against the door (as expected, it does nothing). "You don't have to keep telling me that! You might have your whatever magical talking bard powers, but that's not just gonna make me magically calm and know the answer! I don't know how to calm down, okay? If I did, everything would be a lot easier!"

Austin's eyes widen, taken aback, but Leah is already stomping off to the speakeasy without another word.

"I -- didn't know that would make her even more angry..." Austin mumbles. "It always helped when I said it to other people."

"Well, now you know, I guess," Tam says with a sigh.

"Should I go and apologize?" he asks. "But she probably doesn't want to talk to me right now."

"Hold on, I'll go talk to her," Tam says, stepping ahead. "Just wait for me."

------

As Tam walks towards the alleyway, thoughts surface in her head. She shouldn't have let her friends take care of an arbitrary task that doesn't really serve any purpose in the first place. Now both Austin and Leah are upset, and it's indirectly her fault.

Leah's harsh response was definitely rude, but she understands where it comes from. Even though she's only known Leah for two days, Tam has already learned enough to know that she's incredibly hard on herself when it comes to proving herself.

Tam enters the speakeasy and looks around the room, finding Leah sulking at the end of the bar table with a glass of water.

"Hey," Tam says, taking a seat next to her.

"...Hi," Leah responds quietly. She swirls the water around aimlessly. "I know, I was being a jerk. I'll say sorry to Austin."

"Sort of, but I get it," Tam says with a shrug. "It's tough hearing the same thing over and over about something that's hard to control."

"I suppose." Leah takes a sip from her water. "I didn't mean to blow up at him. It just reminded me of all the times my parents or teachers told me that whenever I got frustrated that I couldn't do something."

Tam nods. "It wasn't entirely your fault. He meant well, but he didn't notice you were angry."

"I know, I know," Leah says. "I just wish he'd stop acting so much like a mom to me. We only met each other a day ago."

"If it makes you feel better, he acts like a mom to pretty much everyone," Tam remarks. "For one, he's like this to Molly and that kid Marvin who's sitting on the mailbox. And I'm pretty sure if he met those Largemouth kids, he'd worry about them, too."

Leah glumly kicks her legs. "I suppose so."

The two sit in silence for a moment, listening to the music at the end of the room.

"I get how that feels, you know," Tam says after a moment. "I have enough spite to fight a god. I just have to get the last laugh. Sometimes it's funny, but most other times, it just fucks me up. People tell me it's gonna kill me one day, and they're probably right. But I can't stop. It's like this evil faerie whispering in my ear to be defiant or die to the authority."

"Your defiance can be impressive, though," Leah comments quietly. "Nobody else stands up to the mob."

"You have a point, but the mob doesn't count," Tam snorts. "Those guys are assholes."

"You're right," Leah laughs. "Screw those guys."

"Okay, but really speaking," Tam continues, "you're also impressive! Your dedication to always being better is really amazing. But you also get mad at yourself when you're not reaching that standard you hold yourself up to. So it doesn't help when people tell you to calm down or stop trying to keep push yourself. At least, when it's unsolicited and doesn't actually help you become calmer. I'm not a therapist, but I hope you can see where I'm getting at."

Leah taps her fingers against her cup thoughtfully.

"You know..." Tam starts again. "I should probably fix my spiteful ass before I die a horrible death at twenty-seven. I need someone to stop me if I'm writing my own death wish..." She jabs Leah playfully. "I need more than just Austin to tell me when I'm being stupid. Maybe I'll actually listen when there's two people."

"Sounds good to me," Leah says with a grin spreading on her face. "Could you um, also tell me when to step back? Austin is right. I can't keep trying to push forward when I'm angry. I should change that."

"Deal," Tam says, patting Leah on the shoulder. "Now why don't we get outta here and meet Austin back outside?"

"Yeah," Leah says, standing up with a chuckle. "He deserves an apology."

Sure enough, as the girls exit the speakeasy, Austin is nervously pacing in front of the building.

When he sees them, he exclaims, "Oh! Leah! I'm sorry that I assumed and--"

"No, I'm sorry for being a jerk," Leah says, shaking her head. "You were just looking out for me."

"Right, but..."

"Don't worry about it! How about let's go crack those locks together?" Leah offers pointing out the alley. "I bet we can get it done faster with two people."

Austin's eyes light up, and Tam grins.

------

Later that hour, the remaining two locks bend their jaws back, finally unlocking the building.

With a high-five, Leah and Austin push open the door to Secureberus Building & Loan together.