Blake Holsey High Reboot (IC)

[Corrian]

OOC Link

Sunday, September 7th, 2014
Today is the first day of school for the new school year at Blake Holsey High. The weather is nice and sunny, giving a good feeling for the first day of school. Students from previous years were arriving or being dropped off for the new school year, and newcomers to the school as well. This would probably be one of the strangest years for the school yet, but of course the students didn't know that. The crowds were generally filled with excited students at the idea of a new school year, with a few exceptions. But overall there was a lively crowd, talking with each other and some happy to meet with their friends they apparently didn't really do much with over the summer. Today was mostly about sorting yourself into your dormitories, meeting your friends again, and possibly making new friends, while the real school stuff tended to start next day after everyone got settled in. Though there were still some classes today, later in the day, giving the students a few hours to settle in and make some friends, or talk to their friends they already had.

And so the year begins.

Shailene
Shaliene had said her goodbyes to her parents when they dropped her off at the school, and then she started to head up towards the school. On her back, she had her school backpack, and her skateboard there as well. Around her neck was her headphones for her music, but she wasn't listening to anything right now. And because it was her first day, she had a suitcase with her to help get all of her things up to her room. Her outfit was pretty simple, which consisted of a red hoodie, which was a bit weird to wear on the first day of school which was in summer, over a simple blue T-Shirt. Her hair was let loose, but she had little braids in the front of her hair instead of a big one in the back. And that was about it.

She looked up at the interesting looking school, thinking that it looked almost more like a house than any school she was used to going to. But she figured that it sorta fit, seeing as it was a boarding school. So it looking like a house was less strange to her. From what she gathered from the looks of it, it felt sorta...old to her. She just hoped that it didn't feel old inside, too, or smell like some old musty house. That would truly be annoying, but she figured that would also be a serious health issue if it was that noticeable, and the school would be shut down.

She stepped into the school, and was surprised with how it looked inside. It was quite nice, but not what she usually expected from the inside of a school. Schools were usually super bland and stereotypical looking, not having some rather nice-looking woods and textures throughout the hall of the school. The hall of the school was rather small, she thought, but it was a boarding school, there wasn't going to be tons and tons of people here, was there? At least she believed that boarding schools tended to be much less populated than public schools, anyway. There were quite a few people, but not enough that she expected the place became overcrowded, though.

Without a word to anyone, she moved through the halls and straight to the stairs, heading up to the dormitory she had been assigned beforehand. She repeated the number in her head over and over again to make sure she would remember it, and eventually found her room, pushing the door open and seeing that someone already had half of the room to themselves. It looked like they had either arrived before her, or had been here for a few years now and left their stuff here over the summer. She had hoped to have a room by herself, but she guessed that was too much to expect from a boarding school. Letting out a sigh, she began unpacking her things and organizing them around her room.

Brooklyn
Brooklyn got dumped off at the boarding school by her annoying brother, because her parents told him to because they were too lazy to drop her off themselves or something. Or too busy like they always liked to say. Her brother wasn't exactly enthusiastic about that, especially since he had moved out, but he did it anyway, because them not getting along well or not, she was still his sister. They managed to talk the whole drive, but half the talking seemed to be the brother poking fun at her and being a bit of an ass, which she had expected so when she was dropped off she was relieved, and quickly got out her things and said a half-assed goodbye to her brother, and gave him a thanks before heading inside to begin the school year.

Ariana
Ariana had already given her parents her half caring goodbyes, before driving herself to the school in her brand new Chevrolet Corvette that was literally only a few months old at most. She almost felt some sense of superiority as she drove through the parking lot of the school and saw all the other students cars, which mostly consisted of old hand-me-down clunkers or cars that, while maybe not clunkers, were still fairly old, or brand new cheap cars. While hers got peoples attention for standing out. Honestly she wasn't entirely sure why she was feeling that way, but she was.

She parked her car next to what she believed was some Ford Mustang from the 70's, and stepped out. It took her a few moments to realize that almost everyone appeared to be here already, and a lot of them inside, so she was clearly late. How that happened, she wasn't sure. After getting her stuff, she headed inside and attempted to meet up with some of her friends.

Hailee
Since she lives so close to the school, she walked there from her house, after saying her goodbyes to her parents. She wanted to get some fresh air, anyway, and the mountain air that she lived in was something she always loved, no matter where she lived. Even when it was dryer air than, say, in Washington state. And the fire hazards that came with that kind of weather. It was still nice enough for her to love it, to walk outside in the fresh, sunny day air, as she headed to her new place that she would be calling home over the next few years until she graduated and did something else worthwhile with her life.

Eventually she arrived to her new home, and she didn't think much on how it looked from the outside, because she had seen this place plenty of times before, even without going to it to talk to school officials to join in the first place. She stepped inside though and was quite impressed with what she saw inside. It was quite the beautiful-looking school. After taking it in for a little bit, she headed off towards her room to settle in.

Josie
Josie drove herself to school after escaping her overly concerned parents, who she loved dearly but she felt like could be a bit overbearing sometimes. She had made sure over and over again that she brought everything that she needed, not wanting to forget something important like her inhaler, and then needing it all of a sudden. She was a bit surprised that she ended up arriving to school early, before most of the students, because she hadn't been in a huge rush to leave or anything. Most of her stuff had been sent to the school early, so she didn't have to haul a whole bunch of things around with her condition.

She stepped out of her car, and then lifted her tank that she had to set next to her in the car out of the car. From what she had heard, a lot of people that had conditions like hers and needed an oxygen tank everywhere, they preferred the idea of getting some sort of backpack that could hold the tank for them, instead of pulling the tank behind them wherever they went. But for some reason, she felt a sort of...connection to the idea of pulling the tank behind her everywhere. Like it was just a part of her now, a part of her that was inconvenient but she almost felt weird without after having gotten used to pulling it wherever she goes for the last 3 years. Though, there were certainly times when she decided that holding it in her backpack was a better plan than like, say, pulling it through the woods.

While she didn't go out of her way to get all nice and dressed up very often, her normal sense of style always came off as rather nice and stylish, which honestly more often than not tended to look nicer than trying to dress up all nice and fancy anyway. Today was no exception in that regard. However, this RP'er is too lame with describing clothes properly, so I can't really describe it. Her long, curly brown hair was let loose over her shoulders and down her back, her preferring her hair to be down than up in any sort of ponytail or something. She never really liked to have her hair up in anything.

She headed towards the school, her oxygen tank being pulled behind her as she went, the tubes attached to said oxygen tank leading from the tank to her nose. She always had it set up like this, tubes being attached to her a part of her everyday life now. As she reached the steps that led up to the front door of the school, she stopped for a moment, before continuing, her tank banging against each step as she ascended them. She headed inside of the school, and found the inside of it to be quite impressive. It had an old charm to it that she really liked. History being her favorite subject, it was only understandable that she found older-looking architecture to be neat, and old antiques in general. Due to her condition, she had gotten one of the downstairs rooms, though she would personally prefer an upstairs room over a downstairs room, solely because being upstairs is automatically cooler than being stuck downstairs, even if this place didn't exactly have a 5-star view. But for her own sake, she didn't. She didn't head straight to her room though, and explored downstairs for a little while before she would head off to her room and get situated.

Lena
Lena got dropped off by her parents, and she gave her enthusiastic goodbyes to them, their last words to her being "Study hard" before she headed off into the school, having been one of the earliest arrivals to the school. Having only friends she barely knew, she headed straight to her original dorm room, and started unpacking her things and getting her desk all set up perfectly for doing homework and such, making sure that all of her things were set out perfectly so she could keep track of them. Being a bit scatterbrained was known for her being so all over the place she always lost track of her things, so she figured that maybe, just maybe she could keep track of things better if she had all of her pencils and such neatly lying out across her work area. At least that was hopeful thinking...

Before classes even started, she started to make sure she knew what the schedule for the school was, and what she might generally be learning this year, wanting to know ahead of time. So her time was currently occupied with doing stuff in her dorm room.

[Palonitr and Howland]

Vincent
Vic had arrived early, so much in fact that he was the first one there. He had packed all his necessaries into his van and went to have a smoke within the nearby forest. He had gone through several cigarettes when the first students arrived. He first saw a girl with a tank which had tubes running uo to her nose. Vic had raised a eyebrow on that but decided to not dwell on it. Several studenrs followed after that and he watched them all shuffle about awkwardly, saying goodbye to their parents or figuring out where the hell were their dorms. Vic sighed as he dropped the butt of his final cigarette and squished it with his shoes. He put on his black Pierce The Veil hoodie over his plain white shirt and started walking back to his van. Once he reached the van, he took out his box off stuff and went to his room which he checked his piece of paper as he passed by the rooms.
"Room #19. Room #19. Hmm here it is." He thought as he searched for his room. Once there, Vic put his stuff dkwn and arranged it. After 30 minutes of arranging, henlayed down on his bed and put on his Ipod's earpieces, listening to Front Porch Step.
"Hmm, introductions can be made later but for now I relax." He thought as he closed his eyes and started singing in his head.

[Landenburg]

Mikael walked to his classroom, a cane in his left hand and his briefcase in the other. He noticed that there were some students arriving already, quite early. The more the merrier he sarcastically thought. Upon reaching his classroom, he went over to his empty desk. Setting his case on the desk, he opened it. He pulled out papers and pens that he'd be needing, getting prepared for the year. On one wall was a poster of Colorado and the other was a poster of America. The classrooms layout was quite simple, with his desk and computer in a corner and a smartboard on the wall at the front of the room. Then the rest of the room was occupied by the desks in the room, leaving just enough space to get around in.

Well, let's get this day over with already. he muttered.

[Fascist Russian Empire]

Edward Cunningham

Donning his expensive suit and tie, Edward said farewell to his parents, hopped in the fancy car his parents had bought for him, and started driving down to the school. He had flown into Aspen a day early, and had been staying in a nice hotel at his parents' expense, since he had to fly from London and he risked arriving late if he flew out on the same day that school started; flights were delayed all the time, especially in someplace with horrible weather like the United Kingdom, and it would reflect poorly on him if he showed up late on the first day. Besides, he risked missing out on a cool party or two if he was late, and Edward didn't want to do that. He was obviously not very excited about heading back to school, and certainly wasn't going to enjoy it (since he wasn't a nerd), but he was somewhat eager to meet back up with some of the friends he had made during his past two years at the school. While the education part of school wasn't of the slightest interest to Edward, he was certainly going to enjoy the partying and friend-making part of it.

After a fairly brief drive of around fifteen minutes, Edward arrived at the school. He was early, but he didn't exactly have anything better to do, so he went ahead and headed inside. He wasted little time looking at the decor; it might have been unique from regular schools, but the fact remained that it was still a boring school interior. He was much more interested in looking around for his friends. Unfortunately for him, nobody he was friends with had arrived yet, so he elected to head on up to his dorm. He had number twenty six, which was upstairs and to Edward's liking. After a relatively brief few minutes of him unpacking his things, he was out of things to do and decided to head back downstairs and wait for somebody he knew to show up. He knew a lot of people, and a lot of people knew him, but that wouldn't really give him something to do if almost nobody had even arrived at the school yet. Why the hell did I come early, again? Edward couldn't help but think to himself, regretting his decision to show up so early, kind of wishing he had gone shopping or out to eat or something.

Somewhat impatiently, Edward stood and paced around by the front door, waiting for some of his old pals to show up. Again, unfortunately for him, the kind of people he associated with weren't the kind of people to arrive early, which meant he had the absolute pleasure of pacing around the school lobby for a fairly substantial amount of time until his social class started arriving. After a pretty long wait, Edward's good friend Adriana showed up, and Edward's somewhat annoyed expression was replaced with one of mild pleasure. "Well, it's about time somebody I actually like showed up. Adriana, what took so long? Was there some kind of party I wasn't invited to?" Edward asked, curiously, in his charming English accent, genuinely wondering just what in God's name made his friend take so damn long just to show up. Edward wasn't the most impatient person in the world, and he was capable of waiting a few minutes for a friend, but it was obnoxious to show up as one of the earliest students at school only to have to wait hours for his friends to arrive.

[Corrian]

Ariana was wandering around the school a bit, searching for some of her friends, when instead of her finding one of her friends, one of her friends found her, and quickly started to talk to her. Glad to have someone she knew to talk to now, she gladly responded immediately.

"No, no, no party" Ariana said with a slight laugh. "You know how it is being a girl. It takes a while to get ready. And then your parents slow you down even more" She explained for her reasoning of why she took so long, even though she didn't think of herself as that late. "But of course, I have a fancy car, so I was able to drive here quite quickly. In a legal way, obviously. Well, mostly" She smirked lightly, chuckling. "How about you? How long have you been here, waiting for your slow friends?" She asked curiously with a slight grin.

[Fascist Russian Empire]

Ariana was wandering around the school a bit, searching for some of her friends, when instead of her finding one of her friends, one of her friends found her, and quickly started to talk to her. Glad to have someone she knew to talk to now, she gladly responded immediately.

"No, no, no party" Ariana said with a slight laugh. "You know how it is being a girl. It takes a while to get ready. And then your parents slow you down even more" She explained for her reasoning of why she took so long, even though she didn't think of herself as that late. "But of course, I have a fancy car, so I was able to drive here quite quickly. In a legal way, obviously. Well, mostly" She smirked lightly, chuckling. "How about you? How long have you been here, waiting for your slow friends?" She asked curiously with a slight grin.

Edward Cunningham

Edward smiled a little at Ariana's story; women did take a long-ass time getting ready, after all. Thinking about that made Edward a little bit glad he was into guys, instead of girls; that might get the occasional person to be mean to him, but he was from the UK, and people there weren't particularly intolerant of gay people like him, which was rather encouraging. "I've been waiting here for hours, I tell you. I had the bright idea to head here early, since I didn't have anything better to do, so I ended up waiting forever. I had to fly into town yesterday night instead of today, since the shitty weather back in the UK means that flights constantly get delayed and I didn't want to risk getting here late, so I had all morning to sit and wait. Fun times, I tell ya." Edward said, still somewhat annoyed about how damnably early he arrived. He wasn't usually so easily irritated, but given the circumstances, it was a little hard not to be.

"I swear, I sometimes hate having to fly from London. But, anyways, enough about me; how are you this morning?" Edward asked, turning the subject to his lovely friend. Edward didn't plan on being a spoilsport and setting a negative mood; after all, the happier his friends the happier he is. Making people happy was something Edward liked to do, not boring people with his own problems. Besides, Edward himself wanted to move on to more pleasant things, anyway; perhaps something like partying, which was something Edward was fond of. Edward actually thought it might be fun to throw a party to celebrate the start of the school year, if somebody else hadn't already beaten him to it; school was certainly not something worth celebrating, but any occasion is an occasion worthy of a party, or so Edward thought.

[Saestea]

Mackenzie Reid

Mackie Reid pulled up onto the boarding school driveway in his elegant jet black '63 Buick Riviera. He could see other students arriving already, and that alone made him uncomfortable. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath, slowly regaining his composure. It was hard to accept that he was going to have to interact in this school. He needed to make new friends.

He stepped out of his car and looked around. It was just like his social worker, Miss Tuckett, said it was. Old looking, but his style. He nodded and leaned against the side of his car. He stroked his chin as he observed his surroundings and took in the scenery. Whoever planned the building's design was a genius. With a satisfied nod, Mackie walked over to the rear end of his car and opened the trunk.

Right now wasn't the time to complain. Right now, he was supposed to be celebrating his freedom from Eddie Cappel and his family of greedy morons. Today was a time for rest. A time to acquaint himself with other students, except for a few classes later on, as Miss Tuckett had said.

He took out a small slip of paper from his left pocket, and on it was written the number 30. That was simple enough, and Mackie could understand it. The room where he would be staying was on the Upper Floor, room Number 30. Once he was sure he'd gotten the number, he pocketed the piece of paper and heaved his suitcase out. It was a new year for the school, and a new start for himself. He locked his car and entered the building to find his assigned room.

[Emperial Germany]

James Frederich

James stood outside his new work, smiling happily. He walked into the rather large building, whistling as he went. As he walked into the class room he thought "Its a wee bit small, but it will do." He said sitting down at the teachers desk. Since he had some time before his class began, he pulled his laptop out of his bag. And decided to surf the web until his class began., be briefly said to himself. "This is going to be a good day!"

[Saestea]

Vensel Hendri Odhner

"Take care of yourself, yeah?" said Odi's brother Johan, giving him a pat on the back. His accent was thick, and one could easily tell he wasn't from around here. Odi smiled an nodded in reply, then looked over the boarding school building. He was liking it so far.

Before Johan returned to his Volvo, he turned around. "Have you got your inhaler?" he asked, concerned. He patted both of his pockets to make sure he didn't have it with him.

Odi simply nodded and took the inhaler out of his jacket pocket for proof. Johan sighed, paused, gave his brother a hug and got in his car. "Hej då, Vensel! Vara bra, okej?" he called over to Odi as he drove away. Odi waited for the Volvo to come out of sight before turning around to face the school. He was truly nervous. This was going to be the first time he was going to be far from his family. But he had to make it through if he wanted to go back.

He had told his brother that he could take his suitcase to his room without help, and so he did. He was assigned to Room #20. That was easy enough to remember. Dragging his suitcase along, he headed to his room which was at the end of the hall and noticed that there were two beds... Was he going to have to share? Honestly, that was alright, since he had shared a room with his brother before. They never argued over territory and stupid stuff like that. He shrugged, hurled his suitcase against the side of the bed and lay down to think of what he could do next.

[Saestea]

Mackenzie Reid

Finally, with his stuff, Mackie reached his room. He was slightly irritated that he was going to have to share a room with someone else later on. He wanted his privacy. Not once in his life had he ever slept in a room with anyone else. But he would obviously have to bear with it. Besides, Miss Tuckett said the kids here were supposed to be nicer. Decent. Maybe.

Mackie shrugged and began to bring his things out, arranging them and placing them where they should be. After he was done, he left his room and walked down the hall. He ignored the other occupied room and continued outside where he sat on an old stone bench facing a fountain. There was nothing he was doing here in particular but taking a little rest. He was going to get his other stuff from his car later.

Vensel Hendri Odhner

Excited, Odi literally tore his earphones away and threw them on the bed as he got up. He wanted to explore the school first, just to get a feel of it. The corridor was pretty dark, but cool as well. He liked darkness. It was suspenseful. He stuffed his hands into his hoodie's pocket and strolled out with a stupid grin on his face. As he walked down the hall, he was singing a song he had sung before during midsummer.

"Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se.
Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se.
Ej öron, ej öron, ej svansar hava de.
Ej öron, ej öron, ej svansar hava de.
Kou ack ack, kou a--"

He had stopped in the middle of the song, and he'd stopped skipping as well. He had run into a girl he had not noticed earlier. She was holding something, pulling it along behind her. Odi wasn't sure what it was, so he gaped at it, head tilted. Then, being the naive, childish guy he was, he pointed at the tank and asked, "Vad är det, om jag får fråga?"

[The Miaphysite Church of Coptic Archism]

Aleksy
Aleksy walked nervously towards the school, his worldly possessions in the large backpack he wore. This was, in fact, his first time seeing the school. The architecture was unexpected, and looked rather homely, if slightly creepy. Aleksy quickly shook off the feelings and entered the school grounds. He walked past a few students here and there, all seemingly confident and cheerful to meet up with old friends. All that was on Aleksy's mind was one word, "Dziewięć". It was his room number, and he kept repeating it over, and over, in his head in case he forgot it. Once he entered the actual building, he was surprised by how... unschool-like the interior design was. Thankfully, the layout was fairly simple and he soon found the correct hallway.

He passed two students which were just starting a conversation, a boy and a girl. Aleksy noticed the girl had some manner of tubes wrapping her face. Not noticing the tank she was carrying in time, Aleksy's foot hit the tank and he stumbled, fortunately not falling over. Aleksy, mortified, turned around and mumbled "Am sorry, did not see your... tank."

[Corrian]

Ariana
"Not to say that men can't be slow, too" Ariana chuckled lightly at her comment. "Girls are slow at getting ready to go somewhere, boys are slow in other ways. Like getting around to fixing broken things" She laughed lightly at her comments on the subject. "I only kid around, though. We're all slow at our own different things" She said

"Have you actually been here for hours? Dang" Ariana said, surprised by the fact that he would arrive so early as to make it so that he would be here alone for that long of a period of time. She was almost never early, and honestly, didn't care to be. If she was a little late, others could just deal with it. Though she did feel a bit bad that Edward had been here alone for hours, supposedly. "Well, you left shitty weather to arrive to a school 8,000 feet up in the mountains in Colorado, a state known for lots of snow in winter. So I think you swapped shitty weather for different shitty weather" She chuckled lightly.

"I'm good" Ariana smiled warmly. "It is a start of a new school year. While summer is always fun, a lot of the best shenanigans happen during a school year. I don't even look forward to school for the schoolwork itself. I look forward to school for what happens during the school year. Parties, that sort. You know, the stuff we have in common" She said, grinning lightly. "And I can't believe I just used the word shenanigans. Nobody really uses that word anymore, do they?" She shook her head lightly, before continuing again.

"Oh, and obviously meeting my friends, like you, and however many new people I end up getting to meet over the year, is always good, as well" Ariana smiled.

Josie
Josie stopped when she got bumped into by someone who had been singing, who she believed must have been a bit too enveloped into his singing to notice that he was about to bump into someone. She didn't say anything when he did bump into her (or almost did? I always take "running into them" as literally bumping into them), because he didn't, and she honestly didn't care that much because if it was, it was an accident. She saw him looking at her tank, tilting his head and then pointing at it, saying something in a language she couldn't immediately identify, but she didn't need to understand what he was saying to know exactly what it was that he was asking, and without any hint of hesitation, started talking about it.

"Oh, this? This is an oxygen tank" She said, and since his words were likely followed by some expression of why she was hauling around an oxygen tank everywhere she went, she was about to explain to him why, again with no hesitation, when another student tripped over her oxygen tank. This was the most attention she had ever got before from her oxygen tank in such a short period of time, though her tubes and tank always did tend to draw some attention to her, some of it unwanted attention.

"No worries. It is quite okay" Josie reassured the boy that had tripped over her tank, giving him a warm smile, then turning back to the boy who had appeared most curious about her oxygen tank and her condition first, wanting to finish what she had been about to explain.

"So, where were we?...Oh yeah. I have CF" Josie cut off for a moment, judging some more expressions, before continuing, "Which stands for Cystic Fibrosis. The short explanation of it is that mucus builds up in my lungs until I can't breath and die". Her explanation of it sounded rather casually said, like she was used to the curiosity, and decided to embrace it instead of frown upon it, worrying about her condition all the time. This was the reality of her life. Better to embrace it than let it bring you down all the time, even if that thought that you would some day likely die of your sickness lingered on your mind if you liked it or not. Better to accept that reality as well.

Honestly, she didn't even know if this boy understood her or not, seeing as he spoke to her in a different language at the start. But she continued even further, anyway. "So I need ways to take care of my mucus build up, and give myself some oxygen to help me breath. I get constant lung infections, so I'm always taking antibiotics. It's a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes, but this is who I am now, so I'm used to it" She shrugged her shoulders lightly.

[Saestea]

Vensel Hendri Odhner

"Oh... Hmm..." said Odi, placing a finger on his chin and leaning back. "That doesn't sound good." he shook his head at the thought of her sickness. He had asthma, though that was different. All he needed was an inhaler.

He noticed how confidently she spoke about her condition, and he smiled. "But it's good that you can still be happy even though you are sick..." he told her, nodding. He wasn't perfect at speaking English yet, though he was quite sure that what he'd said was correct. He was just a little worried that maybe the words were right, but could have a different meaning. To compensate, he kept smiling at her, humming the same song he'd been singing as he was skipping down the hall.

While waiting on a reply, he took his glasses off and used the bottom of his hoodie jacket to wipe the lenses clean. They weren't really dirty. It was just a bit of a habit that he needed to clean his glasses because his eyes blurred up at times.
As he put his glasses back on, he said to Aleksy, "Hej, vem är du?"

[The Miaphysite Church of Coptic Archism]

Aleksy
Aleksy, after tripping over the tank, had been drawn into the conversation, and listened quietly to the girl as she explained her condition. Aleksy felt genuinely sorry for her, but had no chance to console her as the boy had turned to him and said... something. "Am sorry, I do not speak... Danish? Norwegian?" Aleksy shrugged gently, unable to discern what language the boy was speaking. At the very least it was another European, it was comforting to know that Aleksy wasn't alone among the Americans. Feeling the need to introduce himself, Aleksy quickly said "Name is Aleksy Żielinczyk, and you?" He said, looking at both the Scandinavian and the girl.

[Corrian]

"It really isn't. But you gotta live with whatever life throws at you, and this is what life threw at me" Josie shrugged her shoulders lightly. "I've accepted it a long time ago" She added, clearly not all that bothered by her likely to be dire situation in the future. She had a predicted period of time when she would most likely die if she didn't get the proper, expensive, long waiting list treatment that she needed, that probably isn't even guaranteed to make everything all better. Yet she didn't let the fact that her death would likely occur in her early to mid twenties dampen her mood for the rest of her short life, and she'd rather live her life in confidence than in fear and depression of dying. To the last thing that the boy said about her, she smiled a bit before responding. "Yeah. Better to not let my sickness always dampen my mood, except for when I can't help it when it gets really bad" She said

"My name is Josie Furhman" Josie said to Alesky, saying her full name since he had done that with her. "It is nice to meet you. Alesky is a nice name" She smiled lightly. She wasn't even sure how to begin pronouncing his last name, even though he had just said it directly to her. Something else he might notice about her at this point was her faint British accent, though it was clearly not as prominent as you might expect from someone straight out of England. It used to be more prominent when she was younger, because that was where she was from originally. But now that she had been here for so long, it had mostly gone away, and was only subtly there in the background.

[Corvus Metallum]

Being his second year at Blake Holsey, the wooden floors and halls of the school were nothing new to Matthew. They looked the same as last year, felt the same under his feet as they did last year...same school, not as many as the same faces as last year. Some had graduated and left whilst others that had transferred in or were just starting took their places. The teenager wasn't a very sentimental person, but having some of that small bit of familiarity replaced with the new made him nervous.

The previous year had almost been a disaster. His parents had plucked him out of the public school system and sent him half way across the country to go to the small private school in which he now stood, thinking it would better his grades and help his self confidence. Both endeavors failed miserably; his grades in his weaker classes stayed largely the same, and the lack of any friends from home made him reluctant to talk to anyone. Eventually he had made some friends, yes, but the majority of them had been upperclassmen, and thus they were now gone and doing things with their life while he was stuck in a school full of fresh faces. Was he paranoid about people making fun of his difficulties in speaking? Probably, but if there was anyone like in his prior school, it was justifiable...

He had made his way into the crowd large mass of students gathered at the school's entrance, wormed his way out of them when he came to the door of the room he'd be staying in. Opening the door was a little bit of an act; he was carrying his laptop bag in one hand, a backpack full of various school supplies was hanging by one strap off of his left shoulder, and the duffle bag that contained his clothes and other essentials lay in his other hand. Awkwardly tucking his laptop under his arm, he managed to open the door, immediately throwing everything on one of the two beds inside.

After taking a breath and stretching his arms a bit, he took a brief look around the room. It was windowless, the floor was still wooden, as it had been in the hallway, and the room was lit by a bulb on the ceiling fan; the beds, which stood on opposite sides of the room, had bland bed coverings, and the closet was bare. The year before he had been assigned a room just a few doors down, so it wasn't too surprising what he saw; an overall boring, move-in ready room.

Since nobody seemed to be coming in at the moment, he kicked his shoes off (he rarely tied them if he was going to be inside all day) into the closet and slumped onto the bed opposite the one he had deposited his belongings, leaning back and letting his legs hang off the edge. The actual "first day of school" was tomorrow, and he didn't want a part of any drama today. He wanted to relax, and that's what he'd do. Putting his hands behind his head, he began to stare at the ceiling fan as it spun lazily in an endless circle, circulating the air in the room to keep it cool.

[TriStates]

How Bōsōzoku Boys Roll

Scene: Thursday - December 25, 2013 ; A Brisk Tokyo Night

Cast: Kenji Katsumoto

The light breeze caused the naked tree branches to rattle like wooden wind chimes amid a flurry of fresh snowflakes. White and pure as they are cold. The sky was pretty dark now, as much from fall of night as from the grey collection of clouds. No stars or moon be seen, but then, the light from them was unnecessary. The hundreds of glowing neon signs and giant animated advertisements did a fair job of doing that.

Welcome to December in Tokyo.

Right now, he was leaning against one of the bare-leaf trees, a few steps away from the entrance of GENIUS. A nightclub on the uptown side of the Japanese capital. It was a popular hangout for young couples, and people who enjoyed a good party in the later hours. It was also the single most coveted place for those on the young side of 21 to try and enter. A task made a lot more convenient, and required less bouncer-evasion, if you had “connections”.

Having the familial name of Katsumoto, for example. Personally, while he didn’t mind a party every now and then, such a place wasn’t his style. Meeting here had been the bright idea of one Naoya Shirakawa.

“Ossu! Whats up? Damn, you're always on time!” said a familiar voice from behind him.

Well, speak of the devil… thought Kenjias he turned his head in the direction of the shout.

“ Betsuni, and its the same reason you're always late Shiroyan,” he replied with a grin, using Naoya’s nickname. Takumi’s was Fukutsu.The two of them, and everyone else in their group, had been given one when they joined up with the biker clan. Of which, Takumi and Naoya were the founders.

“Careful bro,” the late biker gang member returned the grin with one of his own “you keep that up, you might just make something of yourself.”

“For a baka like you, thats probably a bad thing huh?”

The back and forth banter between the 16 year olds went on for a while, joined in by a few familiar voices, the amount increasing every so often as the minutes ticked by as the groups members started trickling in. The next two to arrive were the bike clubs lieutenants. Ikuto “Ikkun” Sarashina and Ryuunosuke “ Kurotatsu” Kurosaki. Both of them had been part of the original crew that had founded The Black Emperor MC, and as such, helped run the show as it got bigger. About 30 minutes after Kenji had originally gotten there, a loud group of 20 teenagers stood milling around the entrance of the club.

Most of them were members of the gang, with a visiting girlfriend or boyfriend mixed in as a guest. A large majority of those in the group were guys, with a small but solid core of girl members, most 16 with a few younger and older. All came from a variety of diverse backgrounds. Rich and poor. City and country. They even had a few foreign-born people. But all were hardcore motorcycle fans and enthusiasts, and about as dedicated to Kenji and The Black Emperors as they were to their bikes. For Bōsōzoku, thats saying something.

“About that time isn’t it?” asked Naoyo, turning his attention from a few girls passing by to Kenji.

“I guess. I don’t see Hinata though.” observed the biker groups leader, speaking of the MC’s Treasurer.

“Oh yeah! He Faced Timed me on Friday. Dude caught the flu or something over the week, and said he couldn’t make it. He looked like shit!” returned the biker groups lieutenant.

“That sucks. We’ll swing his place and say sup afterwards.”

“Sounds good. Hinata always has the bomb food stashed away-” continued Naoyo with a sage nod, as if imparting a pearl of great wisdom.

“To wish him well, you bonkura, not to empty his fridge!” replied Kenji, with an exasperated sigh.

“-And his sisters a total babe! Little on the older side, like 19 or something, but, I hear she has a thing for me.” continued Naoyo giving Kenji a sly knowing look, completely oblivious to what Kenji had just said, as his mind continued to wander in the Wonderful World of Hinata’s House.

Shaking his head, an amused expression on his face, Kenji distracted himself from his friends rambling by admiring the falling snowflakes. He breathed into his cupped hands, rubbing them together furiously, trying to keep them from getting numb. He had leather gloves on, but the cold still managed to seep through.

“Hey you!” cooed a soft, but attention-getting, feminine voice from behind him. Two hands, equally gloved and just as cold, suddenly covered his eyes from the same direction.

“Hey yourself!” replied Kenji with a smile, as he threw his hands behind him, fingers splayed and going for their well-known targets. He knew he had been successful when he heard a squeal, followed by the return of sight to his eyes as the similarly gloved hands retreated in response to his prodding hangs, trying and failing. Managing to turn his, head, Kenji got a better view of the person the familiar voice had come from.

Her name was Sakura Ayuzawa. She was 15 years old; a sophomore from Takeda High, the same school as Kenji. And right now, she was terminally ticklish.

Gradually, the laughing couple realized that all background talking had lowered, and that their antics had become the center of attention. An small awkward silence ensued, broken by a faint but adamant shout from the back of the group. It sounded like Ryuunosuke.

“Just kiss already!”

“Yeah, please..That other shit was so cute..I thought I was gonna vomit!” chimed in Naoyo, giving a mock retching sound.

“Don’t be so jealous Shiroyan,” shot back Sakura with a sniff of superiority.

Kenji took up his previous position leaning against the tree, an amused look on his face as the he watched the show passively.

“Believe me, I’m not. Unlike Millionaire over there, some of us got reputations we can’t just buy.” joked the motorcycle clubs VP with a laugh, tussling the young girls short hair in a way that could only annoy someone.

“Well,” she started, pulling out of his reach,”I guess not every guy can be good with his hands hm?…” she retorted.

This caused a few hoots, wolf whistles and jeers from the rest of the gathered crew to be launched at the couple and Shiroyan, who starred in speechless disbelief at the girl before him, shifting the look to Kenji.

The calm and collected biker returned the look with a open mouthed smile, and a casual shoulder shrug as if to say, “You stepped in that shit.”

With a satisfied huff Sakura stalked off in the direction of Takumi’s bike, which had been parked along the sidewalk with everyone elses, with Kenji in tow right behind her.

“...Right,” started Naoya in a mumbled, raising his voice to a shout as he put on a pair of wrap-around shades,“Lets get this show on the road. Mount up, you bastards!”

As the gathering broke up, the bikers heading to their rides in ones or twos, Kenji and Sakura shared a private laugh as they clambered onto the bike.

“Harsh much?” asked Kenji as he keyed the ignition to the motorcycle, the engine starting up with a high-pitch whine.

“Hmf, not even. Shiroyan has an rubber ego the size of Hokkaido. He’ll bounce back. Just in time for me to knock him down again.” said Sakura as she put on a black helmet.

Laughing at that, Kenji put on his before he drove both of them out into the road, a formation of nearly two dozen other bikes assuming formation to the side and back of him.

It was a damn good night for a drive.

---

What Doesn’t Kill You, Makes You Stranger

Scene: January - May 2014 ; Kitihara International

Cast: Kenji Katsumoto

It was quiet. That was the thing that stood out the most. The next was the beeping of the heart rate monitor, the green virtual line showing itself in sync with the sound. Then the incessant dripping of the rooms leaky faucet. Something that was so unnoticeable otherwise, that it probably would never be fixed. The slow, ticking of the rooms wall clock topped of the maddening monotone orchestra. Its black second arm racing the minute one around, and around the white face of the time-telling instrument. Like a perpetual game of cat and mouse.

If nothing else, this was a good time for reflection, thought Kenji Katsumoto.

In the whole time he had been here at Kitahara International Hospital, he could probably count the times he left the hospital room with one hand.

Four months is a long time when you're left alone. Just you and your mind. Perhaps the bright side to it all, was that it allowed him to come to terms, if not fully accept his condition.

Arrhythmia.

A strange word. A foreign, alien word that belonged in an encyclopedia, in some dusty dilapidated section of a library somewhere. Not in the foremost thoughts of a fit, healthy 17 year old.

A rare condition. It causes the heart to act erratically and occasionally beat too fast. Usually, with fatal circumstances. Chiefly, heart attacks.

Apparently, I was born with it. A cogential defect, the doctors called it. A relatively benign case, that had been elevated to a serious risk factor after the...incident. The doctors all said it was a miracle it hadn’t become prominent earlier.

Was that statement supposed to make me feel better? Appreciate what life was like before this?

It sure didn’t do anything to cheer me up.

My parents, I think, were hit just as hard, if not harder by the news than I was. They practically had two hemorrhages apiece. Perhaps the biggest shock was my father.

By then I had already had a full day by then to digest everything. To them, it was all fresh and it showed. Both of them were kept outside by the doctors, orderlies and nurses for a while as they were told the situation. The staff closed my door and shaded the window, but I could make out low voices and shadow silhouettes past the blinds.

After a while of muffled speech I heard a loud, demanding voice shouting. My fathers, but the tone was entirely alien. He was not a very emotional man, and while strict, I had never heard him raise his voice. He didn’t have to.

The shouting continued for sometime. Afterwards, I’d piece it all together. It was about the kind of care I was receiving. While it was the best hospital in Tokyo, and maybe Japan, the doctors were adamant about the cause of the argument. There was no known cure. It was an impossibility.

Possibly the most hated word in Sozin Katsumoto’s vocabulary, and something that rated between “cunt” and “fuck” in our house. Sufficient to say, it was never used. He made offers of millions in American dollars to the doctors themselves, payable immediately with one phone call and a blank check to the hospital itself, if they would just correct whatever was wrong with me.

They thanked him and declined politely, and told him they couldn’t do anything.

He then threatened them, with everything from a public investigation on part from the Japanese Surgeon General, to the personal firing of each of them for incompetence and inability to perform duties.

They apologized and tried consoled him, but said, they couldn’t do anything.

In the end, after my parents visited me, I saw him sit down in the waiting room with my mother. He had become very quiet. And they just sat there for a while. As the nurses came and went from my room, I could only see him from the back and briefly before the door closed. His hands were dropped to his side, and his shoulders were shaking.

It was the only time I had ever seen him cry.

Because of the late discovery of this... condition, I've had to stay at the hospital, to recuperate from the treatments.

When I was first admitted, it felt as if I was missed...

For about a two-weeks, my ward, hell the whole lobby was full of visitors. My room was wall to wall with flowers, balloons, cards and other gifts. Teachers, classmates, family friends, international businessmen, even the Prime Minister of Japan made an apperance. Talkative guy. Good taste in suits. Lousy taste in politics.

Had a Army General come by. His son had been hospitalized for a similar wreck in the same wing as mine and he happened to have heard about my story on the cafeteria television. Pretty friendly, if a bit gruff. I beat him him 6-0 in chess. He took the defeats gracefully. Even bought me a coke in exchange for challenging play. Contraband, the nurses and orderlies called it carbonated drink. I prefered the phrase “my only salvation” from the tasteless grey matter that passed for food here.

Naturally, well-wishers soon dwindled and all the get-well gifts began trickling down to nothing shortly after.

I didn’t mind though. The people I really wanted to see kept coming. Maybe the only ones who out visited my parents were the guys from Emperors. Of course, the one person that I really wanted to see...that I needed to see...wasn’t there. And she never would be.

But I’m not going to touch that subject. Ever.

As far as the hospital goes?

It's not really a place I'd like to live in.

The doctors and nurses feel so impersonal and faceless.

I guess it's because they are in a hurry and they have a million other patients waiting for them, but it makes me feel uncomfortable.

For the first month or so, I asked the head cardiologist every time I saw him for a rough estimate of when I'd be able to leave.

He never answered anything in a straightforward way, but told me to wait and see if the treatment and surgeries worked.

So, I idly observed the scar that those surgeries had left on my chest slowly change its appearance over time, thinking of it as some kind of an omen.

I still asked the head cardiologist about leaving, but my expectations were low enough by then that I'm wasn’t disappointed any more when I didn’t get a reply. The way he shuffles around the answer shows that there is at least some hope.

At some point I stopped watching TV. I don't know why, I just did.

Maybe it was the wrong kind of escapism for my situation.

I picked up reading instead. There was a small "library" at the hospital, although it was more like a storeroom for books. I began working my way through it, one small stack at a time. After consuming them, I would go back for more.

I always liked reading. Of course, I think I became a bit addicted to it in the time at the hospital. I started feeling naked without a book in my hands. I began playing music more often too, though reading was still the frontrunner for entertainment in the dreary time that I spent there.

I enjoyed the stories I guess.

That was what my life had been like. A big story. All played out and rehearsed before hand. All scripted.

Then that night happened, and I came here. And the script burst into flames.

---

As Good As I Once Was?

Scene: Sunday - September 7th, 2014 ; A Balmy Autumn Colorado Morning

Cast:Kenji Katsumoto

“Is everything alright, Young Master?” asked a late-middle aged man sitting opposite to Kenji. Ever since the drive had begun from the private airfield, the 17 year old heir to the Katsumoto business empire had been staring absently out of the passenger window.

“I suppose so,” replied Kenji, an equally absent minded shrug of his shoulders accenting his apathetic mood. A trend that had come into being during the two month mark of his stay at the hospital.

“And don’t call me that. I know you don’t mind the term, but do you have to use it while we are in private?”

“Very good sir. As you wish,” replied the older gentleman with a chuckle.

“Might I offer you some refreshments though? You haven't eaten or drunk anything since before the flight from Los Angeles.”

His name was Nobuhiko Okamoto and he was the Butler for the Katsumoto family estate. Driving the expensive luxury car was Hideki Okajima and riding shotgun was Saito Tadashi. Both were served as footmen for the Katsumoto family, and acted as men-servants and bodyguards if need be.

His parents had been very adamant about them coming along with Kenji. Of which Kenji was the opposite of that opinion. While he certainly didn’t mind the three men, and was quite fond of them, he thought their presence was...an unnecessary extravagance. As a compromise, he agreed that they would come along. In return, his parents agreed that they would not follow him around school and everywhere else. This included the bodyguards. Instead they would remain off campus at adequate lodgings, and would remain ready and on-call should any emergencies arise.

“Just some water...thanks.” replied Kenji, as the man handed him a bottle of Voss from the small mini fridge located on the right wall of the passenger side.

Sipping from the drink, Kenji noticed fresh graffiti on wall near the entrance of the school. It said Simon City Royals. He smiled at that. While the meaning of the name was lost to him, he couldn’t help but cherish something normal like graffiti.

You really are out of touch aren’t you… he thought wryly to himself.

For the better part of the last few months, he had been on the inside of a hospital. From that fateful day of December to May of that same year, white clinical walls and the smell of disinfectant had been the features of his home.

“Say, Nobu,” began Kenji, using the nickname for the butler he had used since childhood, “I am going to get to drive something...right?” That had been a major point of contention between him and his parents.

“Of course, sir. Your father and mother have left a very adequate vehicle along with your mountain bike, for transportation.”

A sudden, horrid thought crossed the young mans mind, causing him to stop mid drink.

“Its not this is it?” he asked, a nervous tone in his voice, waving his hand the Rolls Royce special edition that they were now sitting in. The body had been extend as a special order from Katsumoto, so it looked like the spawn of a Lincoln limousine, and a Rolls Ghost.

“No sir.”

“Oh, thank god.” replied the now pacified teenager, going about his drinking. They were now entering the schools parking lot, the elongated luxury vehicle making a sharp turn in order to clear the slightly cramped entrance.

“They felt very apologetic with everything that you had to go through sir,” continued the butler, “So as a show of appreciation and gratitude for your, in your fathers words-’taking it like a trooper’-, decided on granting you something more gift worthy.”

With a flourish of his hand, the butler indicated a particular place in the parking lot with a point finger out of the window.

The sight of it caused Kenji to spit his water, half choking and half shouting. This failure of body multitask sprayed water all over the interior of the Rolls Royce. A very ungentlemanly thing to do, but he couldn’t have helped it. He was in complete and utter shock, which quickly turned to a look of abject horror.

“Oh. My. God. Nobu!-” the teenager worked his mouth a moment, the words not quite coming out. “I-I-Its the-..They sent me ‘The Beast’! What-..I don’t-..”

The butler chuckled again, finding the young man's spluttered response more amusing than rude. He was used to young people. Especially in a family with 5 of them. “Yes. Your parents, your father especially, thought that it would be a nice boost for you. You always have wanted to drive it after all. We had it delivered here expressly...Is something wrong sir?” asked the Butler as Kenji started laughing quietly, shaking his head as he did so.

“Well, I don’t know yet Nobu. They may have as well just tattooed ‘WARNING: Rich Kid’ on my forehead…”

‘The Beast’ was none other than a Aston Martin DB5, and all that the name implied. To say it was rare was a understatement, and to say it was expensive was beyond obvious. With its high polished sheen, it looked like it had come straight out of a James Bond movie.

“We have arrived, sir.” stated the driver, as the footman riding in the front passenger seat got out and opened the door of the Lincoln-Royce hybrid.

“Thanks,” replied Kenji as he got out of his seat, his feet touching concrete sidewalk for the first time in months. He liked the feeling.

“Do not forget this,” reminded Okamoto as he handed the teenager a ornate red hickory wood walking cane, with a engraved brass handle. Another concession that Kenji had made to his parents, at least, for the first few days while he left the hospital.

“Seito and Okajima, park the car. I’ll follow you inside sir. Once we find out where exactly you’ll be staying, they will take your bags to your room while I escort you to your first class.”

Holding up his hand to forestall any possible protest, the butler stated, “This, I am afraid is non-negotiable,” but giving the young man a understanding smile, he continued, “but this will not be a habit. I understand your reasons for not wanting us present a majority of the time. If however impractical I find it, I do understand.”

Clapping his hands together, the Butler got out of the car, directing the other two servants to park the vehicle and then met them inside. Turning around to Kenji, the old gentleman said, “Now, let us make haste. It would not make a good impression for you to be late and lost.”

“Of course. Its not the Katsumoto way…” mumbled the youth under his breath as he placed his left hand in his pocket, while gripping the cane with the other. Together, both smartly dressed men began striding steadily toward what seemed the main hall.

================================================================================================================================================

Somewhere Between Sunset and Tomorrow

Scene: Sunday - September 7th, 2014 ; A Balmy Autumn Colorado Morning

Cast: Elizabeth Lee Taggart

They say that the first few seconds of when two people meet are the most important. Opinons are formed and judgements are made. Some of which, may be true. Most arn't. Thats why its always good to break the ice with the person... Make them feel at easy, find a way to connect and get all nice and social cozy.. At least thats what the Counselors are always telling me.

So, lets give it a go. Me, and you. Some real heart to heart. Sound good?

I like jokes. So here are a few on the spot ones... you ready?

World Peace.

There are about sixty-five hundred langauges in the world. Just looking at English, there are 1,025,109.8 words recorded. The Average Joe and Jane knows about 16 to 20 thousand of them and will speak up to 10 thousand in a single day. Of that, a full one-third, are of a negative nature of one sort or another. Stick that on your peace prize.

Fortune Cookies.

Its a bright new dawn. Soon, you will have to make a choice between two life paths. Second chances come your way. Extraordinary events will culimnate before you in a glorious climax. Your lucky numbers are 64 42 9 13 and 29... Almost had you didn't I? Ha! What a load of shit.

Love. Its a weird thing, really. Fickle, and unpredictable. Some people have it, and end up wishing they didn't. Others don't, and wish they did. I hear that a person can't live without it. Personally, I think oxygen is more important.

Family... Family. Now theres a word that sees a lot of use. Truth be told. I never knew a lot about it. Family I mean. I didn’t know about parents, home, or matter a fact, the whole American Dream thing. Because where I started out, you don't have the luxury to be positive. But lets give it a go.

Dad. A bitter word between pathetic and coward. Synonomous with traitor and asshole.

Mom. A weak-willed concept. A stony ephitath of "Maybe Later" written on the grave of Dissappointment. I don't blame her for leaving. Just for forgetting to take me too.

Home. A house full of booze, and a yard full of dogs. I spent my Summertime cutting up cord wood for the winter. When Sunday came ‘round, didn’t have much use for the Lord, so I went workin’ round town to pay the old man for my room and board. Our place was a graveyard for cars and such. At the end of the porch there was two stacks of wheels, tires for sale for a dollar or two, cash. Which was meant to go towards fixing the fifty-sum holes in the old patched roof. Course it went to his booze instead.

Family? I never heard of a greater joke...

---

The throaty roar of a 4.2-litre engine pumping 265 bhp broke through the quaint quiet of the Colorado morning. The twittering of birds and light rustling of leaves were shouted out of existance by a steel-string guitar and vocal combo from Billy Squier as the rocking beat bounced out, loud and proud, from the speakers of the jetblack Jaguar. Going 40 easy, the car seemed to fly into the school zone, miraculously missing both students and other vehicals as it did its best Die Hard stunt impression. Slowing to an easy 25, the auto seemed to prowl the parking lot like its namesake, stopping only once it had found a spot it deemed desirable to rest a while.

From the way the new students and incoming Freshmen gawked at the now parked speed-demon, their guesses as to the identity of the driver probably ranked between Evil Knievel and the Grim Reaper Himself. Any upperclassmen around could have told them how wrong they were. Holsey wasn't that lucky. Instead.. they had Her...

[Terintania]

2 7-seater vans pulled up outside of the school, and all 14 Dracones piled out. The 'kids' ranged in age from 10 to 26, and as soon as they arrived, any sense of peace was shattered. They pilled out of the vans, laughing and shouting playfully at each other, shoving each other to get out of the car first, and just overall playing around.

Drake playfully punched his eldest brother in the shoulder when he shoved him, grinning, then turned to his youngest sibling, Piper, when she pulled at his sleeve. "What is it, Pipe?" He asked, smiling as she handed him a picture, "I drew these for all of you," She said. He took the picture, looking at it. It was a reasonably good picture of all 14 of the Dracones posed like in a family portrait. "Thanks! It's great," He said, picking her up and giving her a big hug, before putting her down so that she could go give her pictures to the others.

Knox had gotten out of the van and stood by the front of the one he'd been in, smiling as he watched his siblings play. He didn't like people yelling, or loud noised, but for some reason when it was his sibblings yelling playfully, it didn't bother him, even if it was loud. He guessed it was probably because it was such a normal thing in the house. He would have gone insane by now if it DID bother him. He smiled when Piper came over, handed him a picture, then ran off toward Brooke, then looked at the picture. If there was one thing that meant more than anything to all Dracones, it was family. He spotted his parents standing between the vans, watching the rowdy bunch, shaking their heads, but with wide grins on their faces. They had long sense learned that it was pointless trying to calm them down. They were 11 against 2, after all. He made his way over to them, dodging as Skylar and Sylar started squirting people with water bottles.
Making it over to his parents, he gave them both a big hug. "Sorry for leaving," He said. He felt a bit bad about it. Even the two 20+ year olds still lived at the house, and now 6 of them were leaving.
His mom scoffed,"It's about time! Do you know what it's like teaching all 12 of you?" She said teasingly, hugging him. He chuckled, and she added,"And maybe we'll be able to get some peace," still obviously joking.
"Doubtful," He said,"There's still going to be 6 of us at the house."
"Yeah, but we can just use the empty wings to hide," his dad replied with a grin.
"You could have done that anyway. We have a big house, if you hadn't noticed," He teased, before giving a wave,"Seeya."
He made his way back over to the group of his siblings, who were now all somewhat wet, and it had turned in to a full-on water bottle battle. He grabbed a couple of water bottles, unscrewed the tops, and promptly dumped them on the mischievous twin's heads, since they were clearly the ones who started the battle.

The twins climbed out the car, getting stuck in the doorway as they both fought to get out first. Once out, they immediately began plotting. "I wonder what the school would think if we got off a good stink bomb on our first day," Sylar said to Skylar. "Why don't we find out?" Skylar replied, grinning. They high-fived each other with perfect synchronicity, then Sylar grabbed a couple of water bottles out of the car. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Skylar asked, take one from Sylar.
"You know it!" Sylar said, and immediately both started squirting their siblings with the bottles. Sure, it was a waste, but it wasn't like they couldn't afford it, and they didn't do it often. And they didn't really care that much. None of the Dracones like people making big water wastes, but this wasn't that much, really. Their first targets were the other twins in the family, April and July. The water battle just escalated from there, as they all grabbed water bottles and started squirting each other. Until Knox promptly ended it by dumping water on the mischievous twins head, and all the others took advantage and squirt them like crazy. "Ah! We give up!" Both twins said at the same time, putting their hands up.

Brooke climbed out the car, jokingly shoving her oldest brother out of the way, and in to Drake. She was also playfully shouting at Chase, her youngest brother who was 13, because he'd been throwing gold fish at the back of her head the whole drive. They had been throwing joking insults back and forth to each other the whole drive, as well. "Waster!" She called at him, running around the car as he tried to catch her and put some goldfish down the back of her shirt.
"Bug-eyes!" He called back teasingly.
She scoffed,"How dare you! That's so low, picking on a poor girl's glasses!" She said, spinning around and grabbing him as he plowed in to her,"You'll pay for that!" She said jokingly, tickling him, until suddenly they were both being squirted with water bottles. She quickly joined in with the fight, though her glasses got wet, preventing her from being able to see well. Once it was over, she wiped her glasses off, shaking her head and smiling.

Savannah piled out with the rest, messing with her phone. Putting her phone away, she playfully jumped on to her eldest brother, Gage's back in a piggy-back kind of way. And this was after he'd gotten shoved by Brooke and punched by Drake. "You guys are mean," Gage jokingly complained,"Ugh, this is a lot harder than it used to be," He panted. She slid off his back, laughing. "I'm not a little kid anymore, that's why."
"Yeah....When did that happen?" Gage said, ruffling her hair.
"Hey!" She snapped, fixing her hair. Suddenly, a water fight ensued, and she used Gage as a human shield. By the time it was over, she was fairly dry, and Gage was pretty wet.

Having calmed down a bit now, the Dracone kids all gathered in a circle and did one big 12-person group hug, then a 14 person one as their parents joined in. Then, the 6 Dracones where were going to be staying here linked arms together, and headed toward the school, while the others carried their luggage. When the six reached the door, they all started laughing as they turned and all walked sideways through the door in a line, before the more hyper of the group lost it to laughter and let go of the others. Once they'd calmed down, they each took their luggage to their rooms, before heading off to explore together, and the other Dracones all headed back to their vans and left, laughing and playing all the way.

(Asher)
Asher pulled up on his motorcycle just as the Dracones were leaving. He'd said goodbye to his parents at the house, and then taken his motorcycle for two reasons. One, he wanted to have it with him, and two, he hated long car rides, and though it wasn't that long of a drive, he still didn't want to do it. He would have done this the other years if he'd had his motorcycle license. He was currently wearing his biker outfit, obviously.
He climbed off his bike, taking his helmet off. He took his suitcase and board off the back of the bike, then headed inside, placing his stuff in his room. Rather than changing out of his biker outfit, he kept it on, simply switching out his boots for his inline skates. Skating through the halls was basically how he got around, and clearly the school didn't mind, seeing as he'd done it for years. Either that or they just figured they couldn't stop him. Leaving his helmet in his room, he made his way outside, and skated around in the parking lot a bit.

[Corrian]

Shailene
"You have got to be freaking kidding me" Shailene said as the parking lot became a place of mayhem. In a matter of minutes of her sitting out there, watching and observing, thinking about skateboarding around instead of making friends, someone drove up in one of those cars that screamed that you were a rich douche with a lack of style for actual good looking expensive cars.

Following that, some idiot who didn't appear to know how to drive came barreling down the drive at like 40 MPH, slamming on the breaks and parking their car into one of the parking spots. For one, that could have easily killed someone, with the idiots reckless driving. And for two, what the heck made them think that was a good idea at all?

To top it all off, 2 vans drove up, and suddenly a hyperactive family stepped out of both of the cars, squirting water at each other, shoving each other around, tackling each other, and so on. It was like the parents had no control over their wild children, or just didn't care. She shook her head at the sight of the mayhem that was breaking out, and decided that she had enough of this crap and needed to go inside to get some room to breath instead, when typically she did the opposite.

While wandering, she stumbled across one of the men's rooms that were left open, because apparently she was wandering random dormitory sections. Her curiosity hitting her of what the men's rooms looked like, if they were different at all, and a bit of mischievousness to snoop around like she did quite regularly brought her to peaking into the room. It looked like a pretty standard room, except her upstairs room had a window overlooking the parking lot, and had a bit of a different shape to it due to being upstairs and so close to the roof, which she guessed could be annoying in a rainstorm. But it apparently wasn't empty, as there was a man in the room, staring up at the ceiling fan that was going in circles in the room. Stepping around the corner, she decided to speak up.

"You left your door open" Shailene said, standing in the doorway now, looking towards the boy sprung out on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

Hailee
Hailee for a moment thought about waiting outside for Drake to arrive, but since she was new to this school, she ended up getting distracted with looking around the school, and then setting up her stuff in her room to how she liked it to be set up. She had her window propped open slightly, to get that fresh summer air blowing into her room. She loved winter weather, because it let her go snowboarding and play in the snow, but there was no denying that a lovely spring day, or fall day, or not too hot off a summer day, with a little breeze, felt extremely calming and nice.

But the calmness didn't last for long. While she was working, she heard a noisy car come barreling down the drive, and shortly after that, the sounds of a LOT of chatter, playful screams, water guns, and so on. Her first thought with that was that Drake had arrived, with his family members that were coming with him, plus the rest of his family from the sounds of it, because she knew his family was big and fun and playful, so the sounds sounded way too appropriate for that. She hopped up from her bed quickly, and looked out the window towards the mayhem, smiling when she spotted Drake among the crowd of his family. She wasn't the type to intentionally draw too much attention her way, so she didn't say anything down to him, but she did finish up what she was doing and then head downstairs. But not quick enough, because by the time she got there, Drake and his family made it to their rooms to unpack. Waiting for them to return, shortly after Drake showed up in sight again, she approached him with a smile.

"Hey Drake" Hailee said, stepping up to him and standing on the tips of her toes to give him a quick peck on the lips as a greeting. She went down onto her feet again and smiled. "I missed you, even though it hasn't been THAT long since we last saw each other. Like a week or something while I've been busy with getting ready for the start of school and such" She said, glancing towards the rest of his family that had come here for this year. "This is gonna be a fun year, isn't it?" She asked with a grin, referring to a large chunk of his family being here at the school this year and how many shenanigans they might end up getting into this year with his family being around. Nothing bad, of course, because she was the type who tended to like to stay under the rules. But she wasn't really referring to breaking the rules, just what crazy things might happen when 6 members of one fun loving family were in one school at the same time. She had a feeling it could definitely get very interesting.

[Terintania]

Drake smiled when he saw Hailee, then gave her a quick kiss in return. "I missed you, too. Now we have to deal with seeing each other every day," He said jokingly. He followed her gaze toward the other Dracones, then looked back at her,"You mean when my family destroys the school?" He said jokingly, putting his arm around her shoulders. "Trust me, my whole family is already making holiday plans. They figure, why not bring some of the fun holidays we have here? Of course, it'll be on weekends, so we can have our normal events at home, too. Of course you're invited, if you want to come."

(Magnþór)
Magnþór Fjólmundurson pulled up outside the school in his tesla. He drove a bit fast, but not dangerously so, and there was no danger of him running over anyone. Not even Asher, who was skating around the parking lot on his skates. Magnþór could already tell that he would be a good student for him. He parked his car in a teacher's parking area, and got out, looking around. First day as a teacher....This was going to be interesting. Deciding that he should probably tell the headmaster that he was here, he jogged over to the entrance of the school, through the door and down the halls, only walking when he neared the Headmaster's room, where he knocked.

[Corrian]

"Sounds good to me" Hailee chuckled lightly to Drake saying that they would now have to deal with each other daily. "If this develops our relationship to the arguing couple phase, because we're around each other all the time, we'll work it out" She smiled, though looked a bit amused at the same time when referring to the fact of them ever possibly ending up to the arguing couple phase. She preferred to keep a level head most of the time if she could help it, and that would include in arguments in a relationship with disagreements or whatever. Instead of yelling at each other, which she always found really annoying in relationships and just made matters worse getting all your anger out on each other than working on your problems with each other in a level headed matter, she'd like to solve things calmly, if they ever had those sorts of problems in the first place. Though she was pretty certain that no relationship was without its ups and downs, so she was sure that it would happen eventually.

"Yeah, that" Hailee chuckled when Drake talked about his family destroying the school. She smiled when Drake put his arm around her shoulders, always loving that kind of gesture in a relationship for some reason. She wasn't entirely sure why she specifically liked that, but she did. "Oh great, we're already doomed" She joked to Drake. When he said that she was invited if she wanted to come, she smiled. "Of course I want to come. Do you think I started dating you for you? No, I started dating you because I wanted to experience one of your families Christmas parties at least once" She joked.

Gideon
Principal Burke heard the knock on his office door, and he hopped up from his desk, answering the door to see who he believed was the new PE teacher of the school this year. The principal himself looked awful serious in contrast to Magnþór and his energetic personality, and when the Principal spoke up, he didn't say much, making him act even more serious.

"You must be the PE teacher" Gideon said, not saying anything more than that.

[TriStates]

(Asher)
Asher pulled up on his motorcycle just as the Dracones were leaving. He'd said goodbye to his parents at the house, and then taken his motorcycle for two reasons. One, he wanted to have it with him, and two, he hated long car rides, and though it wasn't that long of a drive, he still didn't want to do it. He would have done this the other years if he'd had his motorcycle license. He was currently wearing his biker outfit, obviously.
He climbed off his bike, taking his helmet off. He took his suitcase and board off the back of the bike, then headed inside, placing his stuff in his room. Rather than changing out of his biker outfit, he kept it on, simply switching out his boots for his inline skates. Skating through the halls was basically how he got around, and clearly the school didn't mind, seeing as he'd done it for years. Either that or they just figured they couldn't stop him. Leaving his helmet in his room, he made his way outside, and skated around in the parking lot a bit.

Scene: Sunday - September 7th, 2014 ; Parking Lot Problems
Cast: Kenji Katsumoto

After having had ironed out all the details with the school officals in the office, Okamoto left Kenji at the schools front lobby. The middle-aged Butler and Kenji's caretaker had dismissed himself to check up on the other two footmen, Seito and Okajima, who themselves had already parked the Rolls Royce. Much to the chagrin of Kenji, neither of them would allow him to take charge of his own luggage, citing that they were ready and able to assist. He had confronted them in the parking lot, standing on opposite side of the Royce as they busied about. Hoping to prevent such an embarrassing position. What would the other students, the facualty, think of this! Well! He was the boss on this trip right? He'd give them a piece of his mind!

"Please forgive us, Kenji-sama. Serving the Katsumoto House, is as much our duty as our employment. It would shame us to not attend to our duties, when we are fully well and able," declared Okajima passionatly, inclining his body in a bow towards the tall teenager.

"Hai! It would be a disgraceful display!" added in Saito, as he manhandled the teenagers mountain bike for the car trunk, placing it on the ground before he joined his partner in the apologetic posture

Naturally, it backfired. Now, instead of two grown men dithering about with luggage that had his name on it, he had a pair of contrite bodyguards kowtowing like mad. In full view of all those gathered. Being the first day of school, the usually empty parking lot might as well have been Times Square.

"Stop, no, no, no!" he hissed out towards the body, cheeks turning red at the thought of being the cause of this commotion. Striding over, quick as could be, Kenji continued, "Its fine, its fine! You want to carry the bags, fine, carry the bags. Just stand up and stop doing...that!" he continued in a low voice as he manhandled the larger, burly men's inclined bodies, pushing them away from public view as they happily went back to organizing the baggage.

Man.. one diagnose of arrythima, and you'd think I was an invalid who couldn't handle his own stuff! I don't need this...

Walking away from the parked luxury car, Kenji wandered the lot aimlessly, following the arbitrary path of a rock that he had begun kicking around with his ornate hickory cane. Hitting the rock, Kenji's ears were met with a odd muffled thump instead of the usual rattle of rock on ashfalt. Looking up, he was met with an unexpected sight. A motorcycle.

Whose the rider?

Thought Kenji as he walked over to the parked piece of machinary. Lowering himself on his good leg, he braced himself with a left-hand grip of his cane, as he examined the vehical up close and personal.

"My, you're a beauty!" he commented apperciativly, a closed-mouth smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Truth be told, he missed his own. But if his parents were anal about his protection, if the butler and bodyguards were any hint, then they were absolutely phsycotic about that subject. No bikes: Period! A perfect shame and a waste, was Kenji's opinon.

[Terintania]

Asher was spinning around the parking lot on his inline skates, not really paying all that much attention to the people around him, though he was looking out for cars. However, when he heard a bit of shouting, he stopped his spinning and steadied himself to watch a boy who didn't seem very happy with his body guards or whatever they were, which was probably because they weren't letting him do anything and were acting a bit...stifling, it seemed.

He was debated going over to see what was going on, when the boy seemed to give up, and got distracted with his bike. It was clear the boy liked bikes. He skated over to his bike, and came to a stop beside it, opposite of the side that Kenji was looking at. "Hey! I take it you're a bike fan," He said, leaning his weight on one leg and kicking the other back and forth, sending the wheels of his skates spinning.

(Magnþór)
"Yup, that's me," Magnþór said, nodding to the headmaster. He was sort of bouncing on his feet, and shifting his weight back and forth. "I just wanted to tell you I am here. I am new to this whole teaching thing, and no one told me if I was supposed to come talk to you, or, well, anything, really."

[Saestea]

Vensel Hendri Odhner

"Ahh." Odi nodded. "Very good..." he said to Josie, then turned to Aleksy, repeating the name over and over in his head. It was funny, in a good way. He giggled and clasped his hands behind his back, raising himself up on his toes. He now knew what the girl with the tank's name was. Josie... Fuhrman.

So then once she was done speaking, he pointed to himself. "I am Odi!" he said simply, not bothering to add where he was from or what his surname was. He was just too excited, though he probably looked and acted like a 5 year-old. That didn't matter to him at all. Then with the same finger, he pointed at Aleksy. "You are from Central Europe, ja?" he asked, trying to make sure he wasn't thinking wrong... He was getting confused even though he had been to Poland before.

[The Miaphysite Church of Coptic Archism]

Aleksy Żielinczyk
"And Josie is beautiful name!" Aleksy said, smiling happily. He didn't expect to find himself in a conversation with seemingly kind people, at least this quickly. It was a significant relief for the Polish teen who'd more or less expected a long wait before making any friends. The girl, despite her condition, was cheerful and sweet, which has a happy surprise for Aleksy. The boy seemed sweet too, he had an inquisitive, almost child-like nature about him which seemed to project an aura of good vibes. "Hello Odi, I like name!" Aleksy responded as he introduced himself. He wasn't quite sure whether the boy came from Sweden, Norway or Denmark, as they were difficult to distinguish as a foreigner, but it didn't matter an awful amount. "Yes, I am from Central Europe. From city of Gdańsk, in Poland."

The conversation came to a natural, comfortable pause for several seconds, before Aleksy asked Odi the main question on his mind. "Odi, you are from Scandinavia, yes? Which country? I can not tell." Aleksy hoped he didn't seem rude in any way, he'd tried to word the question politely, but he had no idea how Odi would take it.