Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Music is what feelings sound like..."

Jake couldn't help but notice Natalia out of the corner of his eye. She was one of the very few people that he was always aware of. Few times would she be near by and he not notice. Okay, so maybe that's not entirely true, but he sure liked to think it was. Made him feel better if he believed he always knew when she was watching.

He briefly considered giving her the finger, playing with the thought of how good that would feel. However, he decided it would be best to just keep his head down and not cause trouble. He learned that she is one of the people that will put you through hell if she wanted to. So, he just kept on walking, ignoring her presence completely.

As he continued to walk he noticed another girl following Natalia, about a year older than him, but she seemed to be lost and confused. He figured she was new in the school. He couldn't help but wonder what her gift was. It would probably be something hard to spot for her to be coming in at such a late age. He considered helping her out, offering to be her frie Help her feel more comfortable, you know? He knew that chances are Natalia would have informed the new girl about him, and that nothing she said was good. He kept going to the corner and posted himself there. After the two got some distance, he began to follow. He wanted to meet the girl after Natalia left the girl alone. The last thing he needed was Natalia influencing the new student to ignore him.

Jake smirked as Natalia gave him a stern look. It seemed she caught on to his devilish plans. He nodded as a sign that he got the message, walked over to a nearby tree, sat down and relaxed. "No problem. I'll just relax here. I have nothing better to do." He said as he scanned the floor for a couple of pebbles.

James smiled a wide grinn as he turned a 360 inside the boys dormitories. He had already gotten lost and couldn't figure out where exactly his dorm was anymore. Today he was wearing a rather colorful outfit. It was a patchwork of different colors and materials. It looked like clothes from a swap meet cot together and that he was wearing their horrible love child. It was his favorite one to wear, no matter how many people looked at him funny. "Well, I have no idea where I'm at or where I'm supposed to go even. Let's try this way and see what happens." He said as he picked a direction at random and walked down the desired hall.

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τ ι м в ε я

Timber nodded to Azariah, tucking the ball under his arm. "I think I remember where her room is, too," he murmured, though it was quiet and mostly to himself. He followed Azariah nonetheless, not minding her initiative. Azariah was a very eye-catching girl. Timber could say she was the most unique girl he knew, despite being at Brookrose for five years of his life. He rarely met new people, and when he did, they did not even compare to the intensity that Azariah brought. He often wondered where her sense of appearance and presence began, and why. His curiosity for it was nothing more than a curiosity though, and frankly, Ren didn't think he wanted to hear the why and how of Azariah's backstory.

He began to lose himself to his thoughts, his eyes wandering as he followed Azariah without hesitation.

Victoria’s smile didn’t lose even a hint of its brightness—she was more than used to students who wanted or needed a bit of time before settling down. It was rarer that Ms. Devries herself delivered a student to the dorms, so Victoria assumed this girl would need extra help and time. “Nope!” she chirped, stepping out of her own room and leaving the door carelessly open behind her. “Everyone has their own space. People seem to do better here if they have rooms of their own. I mean, it’s way easier to study if you don’t have to share desks!”

Plucking the key from Alexia’s hands, she read the number off it. “253. Okay, so that’s downstairs, down the hall and around—you’ll be in a corner room. Who’s your neighbour, hang on, let me think…oh, of course, Bambi. She’s kind of shy but she’s nice, I’m sure you’ll get along fine with her!”

She bounced off down the hallway like a particularly active Slinky, chatting the whole way. “No need to worry, the dorms are a good place to be. It’s five floors, okay, you’ll be on the second one. It’s not really divided by age or anything, so there’ll be people your age anywhere in the building, so don’t limit yourself to your floor! I’m always here if you have any questions, too.”

At last she stopped at the end of the second-floor hallway, still beaming. “So here we are!” Since she still had the key, she opened the door on a small but neat and well-kept room. “Did you want any help getting settled in at all?”

~

“Yeah. Yes.” He wasn’t normally the taciturn type, but when it came to something that he wanted the way he wanted this, he lost all his words. It was so rare for him to actually want anything—in Brookrose, you didn’t worry about getting what was necessary for survival. Nothing else ever seemed to happen, at least not to the kids without much family contact, and Kayle had gradually lost his taste for wanting. All that was left was drive. He’d get what he needed, sooner or later. He had to.

Kayle’s answer came so quickly that it was almost insulting. “Sure, no problem.” Avoid Elsa in order to take the class? So to do what he wanted to do, he had to avoid his least favourite person. That would probably be the easiest request he’d ever agreed to. He couldn’t help the slight, cocky grin that crossed his face. “I mean, it’s not my fault she can’t stay away from me.”

Typical teenage-boy patter, and Nils would know that as well as anyone.

As they approached the dorm, Kayle did his best not to drag his feet. He didn’t want to go back in yet, not really. But it wasn’t as though he had much of a choice, and he didn’t have anything else to ask Mr. Jensen about in order to slow his teacher down; even after years of being taught by this man, he didn’t know his mentor very well, and they had little in common.

He paused for a moment and looked behind them as he felt a brief chill, almost as though an icy breeze had touched him, but he didn’t see anything. With a slight shake of his head, he turned back towards the dorm.

~

Natalia was back in her office, where she’d gone directly after leaving the new girl in Victoria’s hands. Usually she might have given a few more minutes of her time to this particular problem, but she had other meetings that she needed to be at, and this was one of them.

“And that is our graduate list for the year,” she said, handing the list to the man sitting across from her. The man looked ordinary enough, almost dull in comparison to her; older, a little paunchy, beginning to bald. He took the list from her with carefully manicured hands and frowned as he scanned it.

“Seven of these are marked unlikely. Those are problematic numbers, Miss Devries, in a graduating class of twenty-two.”

Her soft exhale held just a hint of annoyance. “I know that, Mr…Brown?” There was a touch of sardonic amusement in her voice; surely they could have come up with a more creative pseudonym than that. “I’ve spoken to the mentors in charge of those students, and they’re doing all they can. Certain students simply can’t, or won’t, be saved.”

“All the same, Miss—”

“We’re doing all we can, Mr. Brown,” Natalia cut in. She’d been having this discussion with him for the better part of an hour before she’d been called away to look after Alexia, and quite frankly, she was sick of it. “We will see you again in December, and with luck, we will have better numbers by then. And of course again in April for the testing.”

Rising, she offered him her hand in polite dismissal. He shook it and left, taking the paper with him.

~

She’d finally finished unpacking, and she had no idea what she was going to do with herself now. The room still looked institutional in spite of her efforts at making it a bit more homelike. Her rock collection glimmered in the window, her little pictures were pinned up around the walls, and it still looked like an asylum.

Shrugging, Celia left her room and went to wander the hallways. She went down a few stairwells, walking this way and that, learning her way around the building. Though she should probably go to the school itself at some point and look around there too, she wanted to start with the building she would call home until…well, for a long time.

It didn’t take her long to find her way to the room that was Victoria’s—she could tell because it was standing open, and it had a handmade sign announcing her name and her dorm adviser status, with a big smiling face drawn on it at the bottom. In spite of her nerves, she grinned a bit. If everyone was like Victoria…

But everyone wasn’t like Victoria. The blonde girl, Elsa, hadn’t been that nice. And she hadn’t talked to anyone else. Maybe she should try.

What if they weren’t really there, though?

Lost in her thoughts as she wandered deeper into the building, she nearly bumped into someone. Jumping back and stuttering out a “S-sorry…” she realized that she had seen this girl before, too. Victoria had said her name was June, maybe? Or maybe July. One of the J-months, Celia was pretty sure.

Tentatively offering a smile, she said, “Um…hi. Sorry again.”

How did normal not-shy people start conversations?

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τ ι м в ε я

Timber always felt uncomfortable going into the girls' dorms. He stood out a little too much there, being tall and male. A lot of the girls looked at him funny, which made Timber feel a little self conscious. So he preferred this method way better, and did it often when he wanted Bambi to come out of her room. It didn't work all the time, and she refused to go outside, but sometimes it did and it was worth it.

He looked at Azariah. "Ugh, yeah," he said, though he sounded a little unsure. Timber bent to pick up a couple pebbles, and then threw one at her window. The curtains were still and Timber waited. He threw another one, and almost immediately afterwards, the curtains were lifted. Timber could see her peek outside cautiously, before recognizing Timber. Timber watched as she spotted Antoine and then Azariah, unsure of why the other two were there. Timber pulled out his soccer ball, lifting it so that she could see it properly. She took a moment to look at it, her face going from contemplation to a no. She shook her head. Timber made a 'tsp' with his tongue before mouthing, "Please?" Bambi frowned, and again her face looked like she was in thought. She sighed, tilted her head before nodding. She lifted one finger up, as if saying, "Wait up." Timber smiled at his success and turned to Azariah with a grin.

Bambi walked onto the grass with a small grimace, eying the two companions besides Timber. Antoine was more intimidating than Azariah, even though he said less. Azariah had this startling brightness about her, one that seemed to attract several to her being. Like a tree. But it was Antoine that she was wary of, because he seemed to talk more with his eyes than anything. She gazed a little long into his eyes, before glancing to Timber, who nodded and smiled. Bambi turned back to the two, waving her hand in greeting. "Pleasure to meet you. Yeah, I'm Bambi," she said, giving a warm smile.

She watched as Antoine's kept his hand on her shoulder, before Timber clapped his hands, rolling the ball around. Bambi gave a small motion towards the two before trotting off towards Timber to start the game. Though she was usually clumsy, she was surprisingly very athletic and found playing soccer a little easier than Azariah, surely. Bambi liked to run and play sports when she could in her free time, though she usually played sports that didn't involve being on the grass. This was only because she had the tendency to have an excess to her powers and any plant life that she touched would be manipulated by her, whether she wanted to or not. She had to wear long socks and pants if she were to play on the grass, in case her bare skin touched the grass and she made sure to never fall or trip. And because it was just too much work to have to take all these precautions when playing simple games like soccer, she didn't usually do this. But because of the beckoning and persistence of Timber and Azariah's face, she decided she'd do them a favor to play.

Speaking of which, Azariah looked a little out of place.
Her brightness was a little awkward and she certainly didn't look like she was wearing any of the right clothes for this game. Plus, she didn't know how to play. Still, it was fun to be out. Azariah was nice, despite looking a little gaudy to Bambi; she looked playful and outgoing. And while Bambi was the opposite, that didn't necessarily mean that Bambi didn't like hanging out with those sorts of people. Moreover, Azariah was beautiful. She had clear blue eyes that stood out against the redness of her hair and even though she wore too much makeup, she could tell that she was probably really pretty underneath it.
After an hour, the game seemed to end, and Azariah disappeared, off to take a shower. Bambi stared after her, a little dumbfounded. Antoine lingered, but only to bid farewell as well. "Likewise," she muttered, loud enough for him to hear as he walked away. She stood there, watching Antoine leave as well.

Timber put a hand on her shoulder, a big grin on his face. Bambi turned to him, raising a brow. "It was fun," she said, though it sounded a little monotonic. She brushed Timber's hand off her shoulder before walking away, likely to take a shower before she had dinner. Timber stood there, watching after her. He was glad she decided to come out, and he was also glad that they were able to make some friends this year around. Bambi was still a little introverted, but at least she had made an effort to speak.