Le danseur de Beata

The girl was a graceful girl, elegant on her feet, her posture possessing a certain poise. At least, it did most of the time. Julie entered that gate sourly, tired and sore, painted orange in the evening light and red with frustration. A bag was slung over her shoulder, another in her right hand. She was looking for the dorms, desperate to sit down for a moment, or a day, or the rest of her life. Neck tilted to the sky, she tried to blend with the students, though save for her uniform, she stuck out awfully.

It was a fine evening for brooding, like she always did. The entrance courtyard was washed in red and orange from the setting sun, and students in black milled from bench to bench, buzzing like flies about the upcoming weekend. She wished she could swat them all away. Kayla's mouth was twisted in a scowl, her eyes shadowed by the bill of her baseball cap, watching the bricks as she sauntered through the crowd, fists stuffed in her uniform pockets.

A jostling bump into somebody's side sent Kayla stumbling to the side, electricity suddenly coursing down the length of her arm. A stab of pain shot through her shoulder, the same one she'd injured on the mission. She looked up, baring her teeth. Some girl with bags. "Are you blind?" she snapped, straightening up. "Watch where you're going."

Jules stumbled forward on the collision, pushing back on her toes and spinning to the girl. She said nothing at first, a drowsy stare telling of her patience as she gave the girl a lackadaisical frown. "Um, excuse me, where are the dorms for new students?" Her voice was coarse, light but weathered from disuse, from hours on a train, and she almost did not recognize herself.

Her eye twitched, a spark crackling in her hair, as the girl twirled as graceful as a dancer to recover from the stumble. Seriously? Was she going to ignore what she just said? She didn't like the apathetic frown the girl gave her, like her words had gone through one ear and out the other. I can make you sleep in the infirmary tonight instead of a dorm. Kayla bit back the thought. "Lost already?"

She slouched back, with more wayward sparks. "Bump into enough people and you might get some directions, klutz."

Klutz? Klutz? It was like her entire existence had been mocked, like her life's work was a sheet of paper and this stranger had used it to wipe her ass. Jules was seldom enraged, but there were always warning signs to when she was. Her gentle eyes became more direct, more glaring, and she shifted further onto her heels, almost defensively. "What did you call me?" She swayed on her heels like a cobra to the badger.

"Are you deaf on top of being blind?" Looks like she hit a nerve. Kayla watched her unflinchingly, still not pulling her hands from her pockets. "I called you a klutz. K-L-U-T-Z." The girl was taller by almost a head, but it was hard being afraid of anybody when you could blow up cars with a snap of your fingers. She tilted her head, glaring up at her. "Do I need to run it through you again?"

Jules stared her down. She wanted to hit the girl, slap her, do anything to hurt her. She also knew, however, that she was new, and did not want to be forced out of that gate the moment she stepped in, all because of a punk kid. She was a dancer, not a fighter. She was not like that, and her parents had brought her to the school for a reason.

What she did too, however, was materialize a barrier with a dainty raise of her fingers, a glasslike pearl transparency that shoved Kayla back, and continued on her way to hunt for the dorms alone. It couldn't be too hard, recruits had to find them somehow.

Kayla met her eye, returning the glare, ready for the girl to throw a punch, spit some curse, to throw out a column of fire or water or whatever bullshit power she had. Instead she was shoved back by the lightest twitch of the girl's fingers, reeling backwards from the sudden push. She grit her teeth, regaining her balance and looking out for the next hit, but it never came. The girl just turned her back and walked away.

"Hey, bitch." She whipped her hand out of her pocket, sending a lash of electricity at the ground near her ankles. "Are you seriously gonna run now?" she snarled, lightning dancing across her fingertips.

Where were those dorms? Oh! Jules spotted the sign, painted in big white letters, text heavy on the shiny black background supporting it. This was where she went, trying her best to ignore the confrontational girl behind her, though treading lightly in a brisk discomfort towards the electricity crackling near her ankles,