Fins Resembling Wings

Blistering heat often drove the school rather mad. The weather called for this description on one Sunday afternoon, when the breezes were far between and the fans were even scarcer. Beata's failures to invest in a sufficient amount of air conditioners left the school in mayhem, as the library was stuffed with persons and the schools pool had more students than water. It was around four o'clock when Ru had taken a seat at one of the courtyard benches, a sketchpad on her lap and a look of concentration on her face. She was by no means an artist, though she wasn't inept at the task. The sketchbook was given to her by one of the academy's teachers who specialize in psychological powers. She was asked to draw a summary of each dream that she had encountered the night prior. If the girl was not keen to drawing then, she would be on par with Da Vinci by the time she graduated.

And so, with a pencil in hand, she began to draw fish. She shaded the fins, which resembled moreso wings, the reddish orange from her box of colored pencils. She traced the eyes with a dark blue. She drew rocks and mounds in the water to indicate the size of the fish, which were ginormous. Ru then sought to include to most memorable part of the experience, the water. It was a mirror, a second sunset, and it was beautiful. She wondered how her mind could ever paint her such a picture when her hands couldn't even draw a goldfish. She stared at the image in her lap for a while, before deciding to simply point to the surface of the water and write reflection. The image was more two dimensional anyhow, so the effective would not have worked.

The final piece of the puzzle she drew was herself. The girl made sure to carefully trace short, brown hair, and two velvet eyes. She was generous towards the breast area, for she was afraid of looking like a boy. She made sure to include the outfit of a sailor, as she remembered wearing this. A hat was placed in the sand. X's were placed over her eyes.

She stared at the picture when she realized it could not get any better, and placed her pencil over the top of the pad, bringing a rose to her nose and taking a silent inhalation. A moderately strong breeze blew, a most pleasurable sensation. People jogged by, others walked with small electronic fans. There was something serene about the day, despite its unbearable heat. Everyone was outside, together. Ru spread her legs in a stretch and sought to give her picture some final touches. A shadow here and there, some increased shading. It was better to practice her artistry, considering she'd be doing it a lot.

It had been a particularly long morning for Verona. It had first started with waking up way to early and the inability of falling back asleep. It seems that ever since she had caught her roommate coming out of his room with a random girl, sleeping didn't really seem like much of an option. So the brunette had gotten up, made herself a cup of coffee and went for a run. Normally she wasn't much of an athletic person, but lately she had thought she was starting to get a little pudgy and she was not going to have that.

Two hours later and the girl was practically drowning in her sweat. As disgusting as it was, it was hotter than Hades outside and paired with a cardiovascular activity, sweat seemed like a pretty obvious outcome. But Verona felt absolutely awful and spent a good hour or so showering and getting ready for the rest of the day.

Dressed in a mini dress the girl slowly made her way down to the courtyard, popsicle in hand. It was hard to believe that nearly a week ago the school had seemed freezing, for now it was so hot that any thoughts of winter were unfathomable. The only reminder of winter's icy grip seemed to be from the lime popsicle in Verona's clutch, and the girl savored each second she had with the cool treat. But the frozen lime juice was short lived and she was left with a wooden stick, stained green from the juice.

Verona walked over to through away the stick, when something caught her eye. A drawing. Her mother and younger sister were wonderful artists, but the autumn hadn't seen to have picked up the trait. She then looked up at the artist herself, a girl with short brown hair... Was this... Could this be the girl Jace slept with? The question nagged at her lightly and so, Verona decided to approach. "What are you drawing?" Verona questioned, staring at the girl with a raised eyebrow as she took a seat next to her on the bench. "A... fish?"

"Oh..." the encounter was something Ru was not expecting. It was definitely something she had prepared for, having set up shop out in the public eye, but she did not see Verona at all. The girl began to place the face of the drawing to her breast, a tad self conscious now that someone had seen her amateur depiction. "Erm, yeah, it is a fish." said she. "Its for a thing a teacher asked me to do."
More of a psychologist than a teacher, but she did not need to address that.

"Interesting." Verona said slowly, studying the drawing. It was definitely an interesting interpretation, especially if that figure was supposed to be her. It was definitely... bustier than Verona deemed fit, but hey. She didn't really know the girl, well she thought she might have an idea, but she couldn't really judge her on how she thought of herself. At least not yet. "I like it." She said lightly, letting out a small laugh. Not a mocking laugh or really a judgmental one, but more of an attempt to keep a friendly vibe. "This may be a weird question, but do I know you? You look really familiar. I'm Verona by the way." Only once more, Verona didn't hold out her hand. She was much of a hand shaker and especially not at the moment.

Ru tried to laugh along with Verona, but it came out unnatural and awkward. Now the girl thought she knew her? Who was this person? Ru felt the poison beneath the feigned friendliness, and was a little uneasy towards it. This was the second person to approach her at this school, which was a low enough number to invoke a generality about the student body.
"No, sorry, I've never seen you before. I just enrolled, my name is Ru." said the girl. She took Verona's lack of a hand to shake as an invitation for her to begin the gesture, and so she put out her hand for the girl to (hopefully) shake.

Verona stared at the girl adjacent to her on the bench with narrowed green eyes. She genuinely believed that she may be new, but a nagging suspicion caused her to wonder if maybe she might be lying. Not that she really cared if Jace liked this chick he slept with or not, she could care less; besides, Verona seemed to think that Jace was pretty clear about only flirting with her in order to win a competition. But something about her roommate sleeping with people on the other side of the wall from her made her a little uneasy and if this was the girl, it wouldn't hurt to maybe ask her not to just sleep around with people, even if he's a king.

"Hi Ru," Verona said with a small smile, looking down at her extended hand. "Don't take this personally, but like, I don't really shake hands." And even as she folded her hands in her lap and seriously considered backing off the topic, she didn't. She was just a nosy kind of person and she needed her questions answered. "So how do you like Beata? Have you done anything... exciting since you've been here?"

What was with these questions? Ru felt as if she was being interrogated, a spotlight on her face for a crime she didn't even know of. She looked down at her mediocre drawing, and spoke once more. "No, I only got here a few days ago. I've only talked to one other student, but he was just this random boy." she stated rather quietly, uncomfortable by the look of Verona's eyes that dug into her.

Verona nodded, but froze for a second. She looked up from inspecting her cuticles to instead inspect the brunette girl in front of her. So surprised that she had actually admitted to have met a boy since being here, Verona had to double check she had heard right and wasn't exactly hearing her wrong. "I'm sorry what was that?" She questioned, although not as demanding as before. It seemed that the taller brunette had been taken by surprise.

"Um, he just showed me around. I'd ask if you knew him, but I don't remember his name." said Ru quietly, realizing what she had said wasn't the best of things. Did Verona know the kid? Was she dating him? He was very short, and all he did was guide her to the dormitories. No, they couldn't have been speaking of the same person. In an attempt to count out the person Verona was thinking of, she added. "I do remember he had orangish hair."
Fuck, what was his name?

Verona stared at Ru, her mouth making a small "o" shape. "Ooohhh that's nice." She said to the girl, tucking a lock of her own brown hair behind her ear. "You know, you really have to be careful with the boys around her. Some of them are kind of... flirts." Despite her best attempts to sound sincere, Verona ended up sounding much more gossipy than she had hoped. And at the mention of "orangish" hair, her eye brows raised, as if she was trying to look out for a friend in need. "Did his name start with a J by any chance?"

"Um..." Ru thought for a moment, and that was all it was, a moment. She didn't think it was a J, but even if it was, she didn't want any trouble brewing from the encounter. "No, I don't think so. I am pretty sure it started with an n or m." determined she, giving Verona a smile. An impatient smile, a half-hearted smile, a quit interrogating me you bitch smile. Her eyes were searching for a better power, one that could render Verona frozen or something. But no, instead she had a power that only affected sleep, and she couldn't do anything to the girl.

Hey now, that was very harsh of you Ru. Sure Verona was nosy and bossy and loud and demanding and controlling... yeah okay, it was easy to see where this girl was coming from. Verona nodded, not returning the girls fake smile. At this point there was no point in trying to pretend this was a common, friendly encounter when this girl obviously felt uncomfortable. "I'm sorry I am being really rude," Verona offered, giving a small shrug, her tone was friendly and not at all bitter at this point. "I just thought you'd rather know who was trouble here." Verona shrugged again and looked down at Ru's sketchpad.

That was peculiar. Ru accepted the apology, but felt curious, wondering who was so important that he was the topic of so many questions. The girl shut her sketch book self consciously, before asking Verona a question herself.
"Who'd you think I saw? Why's he so trouble?" asked she in confusion, in a yearning for story or explanation.

Verona looked at the girl and gave her a small smirk, but didn't answer the question immediately. Instead she viewed the situation. Now that Verona actually had something to offer the girl instead of her questions, she seemed interested. It was a trait that honestly reminded her a lot of herself, so she didn't get upset or frustrated with the girl. After all, Verona got it. But that didn't mean she had to add fuel to the fire.
"Whoa now Ru! I was getting the vibe that you didn't like questions." She teased, fanning her face with a manicured hand to keep beads of sweat from forming on her brow. The brunette adverted her eyes away from Ru and looked around the courtyard once more.

"Hm." Ru narrowed her eyes, but with a lack of seriousness. It was playful expression, one that portrayed an annoyance without the anger being all the way there. She placed her book next to her and the rose, crossing her legs. "I didn't want to know anyway." said she, looking into the courtyard as well.