Aberrant: Mutant High - Nerves

[z-The Morrigan]

Ms. Gomez was anxious. Today was the big day for her young ward, and the Honduras native was experiencing all the anxiety the young girl seemed immune to feeling. Not for the first time, she wondered if she was making the right decision.

The teacher set her coffee mug down, listening for her ward. All was silent from the living room, where the girl had been living for the last week. Eileen considered letting her continue to stay in her small suite, but there wasn't really room here. And the girl needed other people her age to develop her socialization skills.

But was she ready? And was the school ready for her?

Standing, Eileen walked into the room, failing to hide her worry. The girl was sitting on the bed, looking out the window. From this angle, the slim teen looked like a young woman of mixed heritage. Only the reflection in the glass showed her abnormality: red glowing eyes were refracted back. The mutant didn't turn as Eileen entered the room, and the teacher looked out the window to see a squirrel perched on a limb.

"Morri?" she called, watching as the mutant's eyes flickered away from the window. Eileen had learned to not startle the young girl, so she called her name again and waited until the mutant had turned to face her.

The full force of those eyes was still unsettling. Their unnatural glow always made her want to shiver. "Morri, are you hungry?" The girl turned to look at the squirrel again. "I have eggs."

"Yes," the girl replied, then stood up, turning from the window with a final longing look.

Eileen relaxed. It had taken her a while to convince her that she didn't have to kill for her dinner. Morri had grasped refrigeration quickly; Eileen still had nightmares from opening the door to find a neighbor's dog wedged into the meat tray.

Morri took her seat at the dinette and messily grabbed a handful of hashbrowns. Without pause, she jammed most of the fistful into her mouth, chewing rapidly. Eileen, who had already dished up her portion for this reason, sighed as food was dribbled over the table cloth and Morri. For Morri, a plate was something that held the food she'd already claimed but hadn't been crammed into her face; she hadn't gotten the concept of food going to the plate before going into the mouth.

Once again, the mentalist wondered if she was so sure this was a good idea.

[z-The Morrigan]

The hollow beast, the car, snarled again as it took off. Eileen insisted she had control over it. But Morri had seen one car slide into the ditch her second day here, and so she'd learned that they could betray their drivers. Normally, they walked to the school-cavern, but because she was moving to the school-cavern, they'd brought the car to carry everything.

Morri was a little confused by this. First, she moved a lot, and there had never been a big deal made out of it. Second, she was just going to be living in a new cave - no, building. It wasn't that far, and the cases for suits weren't heavy. Last, Morri didn't have suits; she knew what suits were. Eileen wore them all the time. Morri had clothes. When she'd asked Eileen for the right kind of case, Eileen had carefully explained that even though they weren't suits, they still went into suit cases. But you didn't store things in the wrong case, because that upset Eileen. Eileen had gotten her away from Vyse and taught her to talk and read, and Morri tried not to upset her.

In a way, living in a new place would be good. If she weren't around Eileen, she couldn't upset her all the time. Morri had come to dread the deep breathes that signaled the other woman's unhappiness. She was usually unhappy at Morri, so it was very unsettling to hear that indrawn breath. She didn't feel guilt about feeling that; her presence made Eileen unhappy, so it was best not to be around her.

She was going to live with other kids. Morri wondered what they'd be like, if they wanted to hunt with her maybe. Hunting upset Eileen, so she didn't do it, but it felt wrong to eat something that someone else had gotten. She was sure that Eileen hadn't killed it either, and the woman had never been able to explain who had killed or gathered their food.

Her thoughts were interrupted when they turned into the driveway. Morri had been to the school-cavern before, but the back part, where there were fewer students and more teachers. They had been studying her. Now it was her turn to study things, though not like she'd been studied. She would be looking into books, not into people. Morri wasn't sure about this, but Eileen wanted her to study, so Morri would try. It was hard to think, though.

Eileen pulled into one of the control boxes for the car. Morri wasn't sure how the white lines contained it, but it wasn't able to move while Eileen was away. Perhaps it couldn't back up easily, and needed her to look and see if the coast was clear? Morri considered that a moment and decided that Eileen forced it into a spot where it couldn't move without her. That was very clever of Eileen.

They got Morri's clothescases - she was going to call them by their right name, at least in her head - out of the hollow back part and walked up the path toward the school. Eileen led her up the flat-stone path to a building. Inside, there were many kids, all different kinds. They stared at her; Morri stared back until they shied away from her.

"Morri, don't stare," Eileen said nervously, smiling as one of the girls greeted her by name. Morri stopped staring and starting determining the best way to exit the cavern if she needed to run.

The small cavern that she was to live in was nice. She'd have to share, but it was much better than the cage she used to have to sleep in, so Morri liked it. Eileen helped her unpack, then sat and talked with her for a while. Eventually, she said she had to leave, thought Morri thought she just wanted to go. Eileen gave her a hug, and then Morri was alone.

She didn't want to be alone. She had come here to 'so shell lies' which seemed to be talking to people. She'd thought lying was bad, but this must be a special kind of lying that was ok. Morri wasn't good at talking to people though, so she decided that she should find a group of kids and let them talk to each other while she listened. That would be good enough, and she could try so shell lying later.

Morri opened her window and dropped out of it. That was the most direct way out of the room, so she went that way. The fall didn't hurt her, and she dusted off her pants and went looking for a good group to so shell lies with.

[Curtis Shane]

Curtis had been walking down during a free period when he'd heard the thump. He rushed worried over to see what had happened and was flabbergasted in shock.

The new girl, the feral looking one, had leaped out the window. Fucking leaped. Though Curtis was unsure about the merits of trying to talk to her, a lucky good start could pay dividends later.

Somehow, the first words out of his mouth were, "There's a better way to get out of the room you were in without jumping out the window. Would you like to know?"

[z-The Morrigan]

So the lies started already, though she didn't see the shells yet. "No, no better way," she said. "I looked." She knew lies were bad, but Eileen had insisted that so shell liesing would be good for her, so Morri tolerated it - for now.

She stared at him, remembered that she shouldn't stare and turned her head to watch a squirrel. "Name?" she asked after a moment.

[Curtis Shane]

"Curtis." His reply was quiet and measured, not the least because he felt offending this girl his age could be quite dangerous. Obviously, very little socialization she'd experienced.

He turned to watch the squirrel as well. "I hope you're not scared or worried here. It happens to all of us, but we want people to feel happy here."

Click to reveal..

Attempting to establish emotional caring and support:

(21:46:58) (Curtis_UA): Wits 5 + Rapport 2

(21:47:02) ChatBot: (Curtis_UA) rolls 7d10 and gets 6,6,7,7,2,10,3.

(21:47:10) (Curtis_UA): 3 sux

Morri may judge as she wishes.

[z-The Morrigan]

He was nice. This wasn't hard, to talk to other kids. Morri relaxed a bit, though her expression didn't change. But he'd said something unusual.

"Scared?" She hadn't been scared, ever. She knew what it was; Eileen had tried to explain it to her. Her red eyes flicked to Curtis, then away. She knew worry. The only thing she worried about was eating and making Eileen not-upset.

The squirrel moved, and her eyes snapped back to it. "Hungry?" she asked Curtis, her eyes locked on the mobile food.

[Curtis Shane]

Curtis knew now that she definitely been raised by wolves or something. He'd also seen her red eyes, but ignored them. "No, but thank you." he replied calmly.

"You don't need to hunt here. First, I think the other kids will be scared more if you hunt. And, we've got food. Lots of food. There's no need for hunting here."

Damn, but he could see a little of himself in her, which made this current talk more important. Generally things did not come for free from Curtis, but this obviously was something that as a person, he should do.

Help her fit in.

"Name?" he added quickly.

[z-The Morrigan]

Morri frowned as she was informed that she shouldn't hunt here. She resolved to do it at night from now on. She turned and leveled that red gaze on Curtis. A human would have flinched from that unnatural gaze. "The Morrigan," she told him.

It was her name, but hearing it said, even by herself, made her blood boil. It had been what Vyse had named her, stripping away who she had been and leaving only who she was. While that concept was a bit deep for her - who could she be other than who she was now? - he had locked her in a cage. He had taken her freedom and made her hunt humans like animals. He'd turned on her rage like a switch, and even now, the thought of him was enough to upset her. Her lips flicked back from her teeth, and only the memory of Eileen stopped her from loosing her anger.

"Morri," she added, the much safer nickname Eileen had given her. It made her think of the time where she came back to herself, guided like a wild animal from the darkness to the fire by Eileen. She was happier, being Morri. Happier than when she was The Morrigan.

[Curtis Shane]

Curtis' lips parted nervously as she glared at him for a moment. Then it subsided and he decided to leave the obvious history aspect of Morri for later.

"Glad to meet you Morri." he responded. "Morri's a nice name. I hope when you feel alright talking about whatever happened to you. We're not strangers to misfortune here. Bad things have happened to all of us."

For a moment, he remembered the haste with which his parents had sent him to Hunt. The fear for him they'd felt.

[z-The Morrigan]

Morri didn't remember Vyse having such a skinny boy working for him. She didn't remember other mutants, other than herself. Her limited cognition couldn't comprehend anyone's 'bad things' being different from her own. Curtis had just told her he'd been caged and misused, to her mind.

She just looked away from him, though her body language shifted toward him slightly. Morri had yet to understand the limits of non-verbal communication.

She didn't say anything to Curtis, just waited silently.

[Curtis Shane]

Curtis, despite being able to tell that Morri had limited social understanding, found himself waiting for Morri to say something. A cold breeze increased, but the two waited for each other, watching the squirrel or whatever was around.

[Atomicweasel]

As the two stood watching the squirrel, another student walked by, smoking a cigarette. He paused to glance at them, squinting at them both like you might at an oddity in a museum.

The boy, wearing a white cashmere sweater under his London Fog jacket, Levis and Clark boots, was an Asian teen with sharp handsome features, a broad jaw and his hair shaved down to a dark stubble. He turned to go after a moment of watching Curtis and Morrigan...and found himself face to face with Mr. Richardson, the math teacher.

"Ren, come on," Mr. Richardson, a fat jolly man with jowly cheeks and a splotchy complexion, said. "No smoking on school grounds. You know that. In fact," he added, wagging his finger, "you're under eighteen. You shouldn't be smoking at all. So, let's go, hand 'em over son."

"Mr. Richardson," the boy, Ren, replied, his voice cool and clear and strangely entrancing, "I'm not smoking. See?" he took another puff from his cigarette, inhaling deeply, savoring it, and then blew the smoke straight into the teacher's face.

Mr. Richardson coughed and sputtered, "Oh, oh, I'm sorry Ren...I..."

"That's okay, Mr. Richardson. You got confused."

"Yeah, that's....right, son, I did...I..."

"You made a mistake."

"I made a mistake. I'm sorry Ren,"

"That's okay, Mr. Richardson." The boy and the teacher nodded at each other and Ren turned to watch him walk away...then he swiveled towards Curtis and Morrigan, fixing them with an icy glare that would've made Glacia proud.

[z-The Morrigan]

Morri watched the show without any real comprehension of what had just happened. While Curtis might have grasped what had just happened, the only moment of significance for Morri was when Ren's eyes met her in a clear challenge.

Morri's lips curled back from her teeth and she stared back, her red eyes locked on his. This man wore nice clothing, like Vyse. His scent, as it gusted over the frigid ground, was soft and fake, like Vyse. He was a predator - he carried that in his body language, like Vyse.

Morri was not his prey. She was no one's prey.

Her eyes bore into his, unflinching, unmoving.

[Atomicweasel]

Morrigan's snarl softened Ren's glare into a harmless grin. He dropped the cigarette into the snow, watching it fizz out, then looked up to give Morrigan a wink, shrug his shoulders up into his jacket...and walk off towards the dorms.

[Sonja Bahaar]

Sonja stalked out of her room, a hockey stick in hand and a pair of skates thrown over her shoulder, indigo eyes furious behind her Raybans. What 'Neca had done back home was bad enough, but now, she was going to be coming here, and that was just going to suck, suck bad. It didn't help that Smurf had decided to follow her around now either - the little blue-skinned boy was nice enough, but the love-struck stares were getting to here, especially after the way her sister had snickered.

She threw the back doors open and began walking down to the lake, long legs moving at a pace that was slightly too fast to be normal, long silver-blond ponytail flaring behind her. She swung around a corner of a building, boots gliding across the snow in a controlled slide, then stopped to look at the odd pair standing ahead of her.

The boy was Curtis Shane, a Brainiac, a little mercenary, but a good tutor - she'd gotten his help a few times with computer and physics assignments. She didn't recognize the girl with the glowing red eyes.

They had been staring at another boy's retreating back - she didn't recognize him from behind, then their gazes shifted to watching a squirrel for some reason. They stood in eerie silence, together and yet not.

Sonja walked up to stand with them, and stared at the squirrel too.

"Why are you guys staring at a squirrel?" Sonja asked in a sexy, slightly accented alto. "The Chemical Brothers didn't do something to it, did they? Like with the pigeons?" Sonja gave a mild shudder, remembering that mess.

[Curtis Shane]

Curtis smiled in a half-nervous way as he saw and heard Sonja. "Morri's considering eating it. Seriously." he told the older Bahaar sister.

[z-The Morrigan]

Morri was pleased. Her first dominance challenge won without bloodshed. Eileen would be very pleased that she wasn't using her blood to settle fights.

She gave the blonde girl a glance when she arrived, but little of what she said made sense or seemed important. She choose to be silent, and let Curtis tell so shell lies. She was surprised that he spoke about her. Her eyes flicked to the silver-haired woman, not in challenge, but appraising her.

[z020]

Oneca had finished arranging her belongings and redecorating the room into a suitable lair. She was on her own for now, which was good, and the two other girls that shared the other room in the suite had passed the first test of being friends (not wearing pastels) with flying colors. Hopefully this school wouldn't be as lame as the one she'd been evicted from just because of a run-in with a mostly successful demon-summoning. It wasn't like she'd burned down the house or anything; adults just couldn't handle it when kids did something they couldn't. Oneca figured they didn't like being reminded how close they were to shuffling off their wrinkly mortal coil. Wusses.

With the blackout curtains up and the dried roses hung in the right directional and elemental colors on the walls, she was ready to go me the rest of the freaks. She pulled on the dark green flowing cloak she'd managed to wrangle out of her Father for the winter (dark green was the darkest he'd go), and she had to admit that even though it wasn't black, it went beautifully with her now-golden colored eyes and the black-and-lace corseted dress she was wearing. She wandered the halls for a bit, not spotting anyone that seemed particularly interesting in the first round of the dorms. She spotted an Asian-flavored student walking through the snow, and not far beyond him a clutch of kids talking to her sister.

Great. I'm really not going to be able to get around without bumping into Super Barbie, am I? She was about to turn about and just go somewhere else, preferably somewhere blonde-free, when she got a bit more of a look at the boy heading away from her sister and towards her. He's kinda cute, at least from far away. She gave him a slight smirk, the closest she really got a smile these days.

[Atomicweasel]

Ren trudged on through the snow, hands thrust deep into the pockets of his dark winter coat. He was keeping his head down, to keep the breeze from cutting across his neck, and then he chanced to glance up at Oneca. He saw her smirking at him and frowned as he pushed on towards the dorms.

Then he stopped, frozen in his tracks as he went to walk past Oneca. He looked at her. And looked. And looked.

God, I love this school so much.

"Hi," Ren finally managed to speak, lifting his eyes from Oneca's cleavage through the colossal force of his will. Smile. The hard lines of his jaw twitched as he managed a smile. "You must be new..."

[z020]

The smirk deepened as she followed his eyes' path upward towards her face. Just cute enough to be malleable and easy on the eyes. Perfect. "Yeah. Just got here."

Never losing the smirk, she fished a pack of cloves from....somewhere and pressed it between her lips. So much lace and black and the long cloak, she might have just materialized it in her hand while he was blinking. "Don't supposed you have a light?"

[Sonja Bahaar]

Turning to face Curtis and Morris directly, Sonja glanced over their heads and caught her sister's look. Other than a brief expression of disgust - I know Halloween, sorry, Samhain is her favourite holiday, but come on, a cloak? - Sonja ignored her younger sister and focused her attention on the new girl.

Under her appraisal, Sonja stood up straight and looked her up and down in turn. "Hi, Morri, right? I'm Sonja." She glanced quickly at the squirrel, then back at the new girl. Sonja had been here long enough to know that some of the other students were really messed up. "You know, if you're hungry, how about we just go to the cafeteria, my treat? I... wouldn't trust the animals here anyway." She turned a polite smile on Curtis, inviting him too.

[Atomicweasel]

The Asian boy's eyebrows shot up with interest. "I do, actually..." he grinned, showing a line of mostly perfect teeth but for one chipped incisor.

"Don't let 'em catch you though," Ren said as he stepped in close to Oneca and used his shoulders to shield her clove from the wind while he fished out his lighter, dark titanium trimmed with a little line of white gold at the top. He flicked it, held the flickering flame to the girl's smoke, and watched her take a few puffs, shivering as he returned his hands to his pockets.

Still standing close, he asked "What's your name?" His voice had a strange quality to it, pitched at some perfect point between smooth and gravelly, carrying a seductive promise of intimacy. It was a radio voice. An actor's voice. Strong and clear and convincing...and it was out of place coming from the slender and unremarkable looking young man.

[z-The Morrigan]

"Calfy teary ah?" Morri looked away from the squirrel, hopeful that this was a place to hunt. But she got the feeling that Sonja didn't mean that. Eileen had used the words 'my treat' sometimes; it meant that she had traded paper for prepared food. Morri didn't like others to prepare her food, if she didn't trust them. Ford had put drugs in her food, sometimes.

[z020]

Oneca puffed on her clove and gave the boy a second once-over. He wasn't as stunning as a few of the frat-boy wanna-be's she'd seen running around, but he had voice to make you shiver in the heat and keep you warm in the cold.

"Oneca, " she answered. "What's yours?"

The longer she could keep her relations to tall, blonde, and endlessly annoying quiet, the better. In the spirit of smoker bonding she held up her pack of cloves, "Want one? And I'm not really worried about getting caught. What are they going to do, expel me?"

The sarcasm in her voice could have curdled the snow around them.

[Atomicweasel]

The boy shrugged his agreement. "Ren...thanks," he said, plucking a cigarette from the pack and slipping it between his lips.

He reached for his lighter again, then paused and raised his eyes to Oneca's. "Oneca's a pretty name. Makes me think of a lake." He looked at her a while longer, letting her cleavage draw his gaze again. Then, grinning sheepishly around the cigarette, he moved the end of his clove a little closer to hers and waited expectantly.

[z020]

She quirked a brow and said, "It means fire."

Grin still playing about her lips, she lit his cigarette with hers. "Ren. You new here, too, or can you play guide for an afternoon for new student?"

Her grin became unrepentantly wicked, "Y'know, civil service and all that."

Okay, so the smoking hot thing, kinda fun to play with. Her eyes slid over to Big Sis Barbie and she stifled a sigh with an irritated look. Can't fucking compete, though. Couldn't have me ever outshine Mommy's favorite, now could we?

[Atomicweasel]

"Really? Fire?" Ren echoed Oneca's quirked eyebrow with one of his own...though he couldn't pull it off quite so well. It looked kind of like he was trying for a unibrow.

"I guess I was off, huh?"

He turned his face to blow his smoke away from Oneca and answered her wicked little grin, and invitation, with a pleased nod. "I can show you anything you want to see." Something about his smile, about the way he said it as he held his arm out for her, made it sound almost literal.

[z020]

"Mmmm." She finished off her cigarette and the butt seemed fall apart into nothing in her hands. Ren could faintly smell something that was like a mix between hot metal and molten rock. "Just a little, but I'll forgive you."

She threaded her arm through his and motioned him to lead on. "How about anywhere here that's interesting. If I've got to live here for the next however many years, I don't want to be bored the entire time."

[Atomicweasel]

Ren didn't miss the disintegrated cigarette, but he let it go without comment.

"The lake then. We can start with the lake."

As he walkeed her away from the dorms, Ren pointed out a tall brick building with a bell-tower. "That's the clock tower. Built by immigrant Chinese in nineteen oh four, it's now a place of worship for young muties of all denominations. Services are regularly held on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday." Ren quipped.

"Over there, you can see the quad, which is actually a triangle. That's where the hippies go to play hacky-sack and smell gross, and the jocks practice throwing things and date-raping students as they walk by."

They continued deeper past the campus, leaving the paved walkways to start down a little dirt path that starts next to a wooden sign reading 'Walden Lake Path'. The path wound and twisted its way down to a pristine frozen lake, wrapped heavily in mist.

Ren paused by one of the park benches, now covered in snow. His breath trailed up from his mouth in a fleeting plume made by the biting cold. He sniffed and turned to Oneca. "The lake. Pretty great huh?" and then, after a pause, "Wanna see the castle?"

[z020]

Standing out in the snow in the woods like this, she looked like part of a AFI music video. She took in the natural beauty of the place with the first genuine, non-sarcastic emotion he'd seen from her yet. "It's beautiful."

He got her attention back with the mention of castle, and the brow was yet again quirked. "Castle? Like honest-to-god castle or like amusement-park-I-wish-I-were-a-castle castle?"

[Atomicweasel]

Ren started to answer, then chuckled to himself and licked his lip thoughtfully as he chose his next words.

"I'll tell you what, you be the judge. C'mon." He grinned at her boyishly, took her hand and drew her towards him as he back-pedaled to the edge of the frozen lake. His hand felt oddly warm.

"It's mostly safe." Ren teased as he took Oneca across the lake. As they walked, the ice crunching beneath their feet, the mist closed in around them.

"There. Do you see it? The castle..." Ren's voice was a whisper that started somewhere in Oneca's bones, that pulsed inside her like her own blood.

And then Oneca's foot touched down on solid stone and the mist parted to reveal an ancient fortress.

The lake was its moat, Oneca saw, and moss clung to the thick walls that rose out of the mist and disappeared into the sky. Ren walked her under the portcullis, from which spider-webs the size of cars hung, and up to the massive double doors, made of hardened oak. He fished in his pockets again, producing a thick gold key. "Only upperclassmen get these." Ren taunted.

He pushed the doors open to reveal the great hall, with the fire pit at its end and a winding stone staircase on either side.

[Sonja Bahaar]

"English not your first language, I take it?" Sonja guessed with a friendly grin. "No worries, we get all sorts here. The Cafeteria is where we get food - it's actually surprisingly good here..."

Sonja frowned, catching her sister smoking - filthy habit! - with the boy that had been walking away. He turned a little to get his cigarette lit, revealing his profile, vaguely recognizing him. Ren somebody - she had heard rumours, but nothing concrete. She tried to give 'Neca a surreptitious warning, but the little bitch gave her such an arrogant look, she wanted to smack her. Then 'Neca went with him down the Lake Path. Fine! She can learn stuff herself. God help me, if he tries to pull something...

"Come on, Morri, I'll show you around some, on the way, if no one has yet." She nodded in the general direction of the cafeteria, the opposite direction her sister had gone, then cocked a brow at Curtis. "You coming too?"

After getting his response, Sonja led the way to the place of non-hunted sustenance, her gait fluid and strong, like a tiger's.

[Curtis Shane]

"Why not?" Curtis had replied, giving a look at Morri to convince her to come along. Then, he set out with Sonja toward the cafeteria.

[z020]

Her smirk this time was only half-mocking; her eyes were too glued to the honest-to-god castle! in the lake. Hell, if they'd've put that in the brochure, she'd have tried demon-summoning years ago. Her eyes were shining as she breathed, "Yeah, definitely interesting."

Her spark returned with a teasing, "Oh, so you're an upperclassman? Never would have guessed." Her grin kept most of the sting out of the tease. "What's the story on this place, really? I mean, I know New York is way more old Europe than most of the country, but you don't usually see a whole lot of castles just laying about."

She explored as she spoke, her hands running over the rough stone and the hardwood of the doors with equal reverence; whatever the reason for her prickly nature, he'd scored a major hit in softening her demeanor with this place.

[Atomicweasel]

"The story?"

Ren padded along beside Oneca as she moved around feeling the grainy textures of the wood, the age-slicked surfaces of the stone. Above them a burst of fluttery movement signaled the flight of some bats racing each other across the rafters of the enormous great hall and then up past the fire-pit into one of the winding stair-cases leading to the towers.

"One of those crazy millionaires maybe? A Rothschild. Or a Rockefeller. One of those Rs." Ren answered with an evasive grin.

"You wanna see the rest of it? Upstairs?" He nodded towards the stairs.

[z020]

"Yeah, really? Then how'd us freaks end up with it? We're not exactly top of the totem pole." She couldn't take her eyes off of the place though and quickly moved past her self-deprecating sarcasm.

She smiled at him in genuine 15-year-old-girl enthusiasm and took his hand, waiting for him to lead on. "Is there anything more than just the building left? Is the second floor intact?"

[z-The Morrigan]

Morri took one more longing look at the squirrel and turned to trudge through the snow after the other kids. She wasn't sure what Sonja had meant by first lan gauge. She didn't know what a lan was, or how you gauged it. So she remained silent and followed.

At least she'd get some food, and see if it could be trusted. Eileen would have warned her if they drugged the food. Morri wanted to trust this place; she wasn't sure if she could afford to do so.

[Jor]

The cafeteria was basically empty thanks to everyone out playing in the snow. Empty except for one table at which sat a red headed boy in a heavy but expensive looking wool coat with a large tray of food in front of him. The tray looked like someone having thanksgiving dinner, either that or the kid hadn't eaten in a while. He looked up just a bit nervously when he heard the door open, but then shoveled another bite of carrots in his mouth. Intense green eyes stared out at the group of new arrivals from beneath long straight red hair hanging halfway down his face. Despite the expensive look of his clothing he somehow had the look of being a little unkempt. It was hard to tell with the coat on but he seemed to be well built and athletic.

Great, I knew I should have gotten a shower and cleaned up before coming in here. So much for making a good first impression with these kids. He looked back to his tray and took another bite. Sure is good food though and I was soo hungry. Damn.

Jor decided to wait till the others got their food before trying to talk to them. Maybe he'd wait and see if they would some sit with him, that might be best.

[Curtis Shane]

Curtis sighed. He whispered carefully over to Sonja. "I think it's more that she never had a language to begin with. Raised by wolves, so to speak."

He glanced at Morri and smiled. "Want some turkey? I think you'd like it." he promised her kindly.

[Weft]

Jamie Wren, cold and shivering, made her way to the cafeteria as well. Playing in the snow was cool and all, but she could no longer feel her extremities so well, which was less than ideal. She shook what snow she could off her feet and silently followed Curtis and Morri and Sonja into the cafeteria. She did nod at Curtis, whom she'd established fairly cordial terms with, in the short time they'd roomed together.

Jamie was a small girl, a sophomore, about 5' 4'', with an athletic build and dark, short hair. She was bundled up in a slightly worn peacoat at the moment, but was still trembling, mainly because someone'd shoved snow down her coat.