Getting a Feel

She spoke condescendingly, and Owen almost pulled a face at her, but stopped himself. He barely knew her, and it wouldn't look good on his part to suddenly act like a child. He opted for rolling his eyes when she wasn't looking at him, and, although it was silly, it made him feel a little better about the situation.

"Well, I just got here today, and I'm pretty impressed so far," he said. He followed Nicola's gaze over to the calendar on the wall. His gaze returned to the two girls. "I'm really looking forward to getting to know people better." He grinned broadly at the two.

"It sucks." The sentence ended hard. Madison sat down on the couch, a little more politely. "It's better than home, though..." It wasn't really the school that sucked, in was her predicament, the darkness and the way she made friends. Well...the school also did have crazy people with crazy abilities. She looked down and back up to the boy, and her cheeks almost exploded with warmth as he grinned down at them. Why was he looking at them like that? The Human Flashlight was strange.

People were weird - that was the only conclusion she could come up with. Even if someone was sorted into the same House and supposedly had similar personality traits, she could only see constant differences in one person from another, each with their own quirk. It was the same way she wasn't the same as Madison, yet they were in the same house. Or Brant. Or whoever else she roomed with. "People at this school can be rather peculiar. And most students don't get very eventful first days." Didn't like school that much, huh? Nicola let out an exasperated sigh, trying to imagine what sort of possibilities someone's past could have where they would prefer living in a dorm with complete strangers where the students might as well be complete weirdos. Well, they are weirdos, in the end. They weren't normal people. "I would prefer if there weren't as many rules. Curfew's lame and the prefects seem to like enforcing everything too much. Especially the Springs."

"They aren't the house of order and organization for nothing in the end, though." What's worse was that she knew the two Spring prefects personally. If she made one wrong move - which was often - they wouldn't hesitate to send her to the office for disobeying again. And to think that students tried to kiss up to them to get out of trouble less. Leo was the Autumn prefect too, and maybe he would be more understanding, but that was always unlikely. She could scarcely recall who his partner was and the prefects for her own house and the Winter house were a complete blur. Nicola quickly jotted down a mental note to herself to search through the school records that she stole from her brother later when the two had left.

According to Nicola, Owen must be lucky, since rarely anybody had such an eventful first day. It hadn't truly been as eventful as he kept thinking it was, but he couldn't help thinking it was an exciting one. With this in mind, he was surprised at Madison's not finding school very interesting. Despite not experiencing any of the actual functions of the school, such as classes, dormitories, or breaks, Owen was rearing to find out more and to see the rest of the school and to meet more people like these two girls.

Disappointment flooded through him when rules and curfew were mentioned. Owen knew there were bound to be rules, it was a school that wanted the best for its students. He wondered how late curfew was and whether it was heavily enforced or not. If he made friends and they all ended up in different dorms, he would have to sneak out and visit them every chance he had. He was always a troublemaker at his regular school at home, and he knew this school wouldn't be any different, but he wanted to avoid getting into too much trouble. Detentions and other punishments never suited him.

"I just hope I end up in the fun house," he said. Quietly, Owen wondered if there was even such a thing. Surely, if the Springs had a reputation for being the clean and organized types, there was a house for the slobs and the disorderly.

The House for the slobs and disorderly were the Autumns. Madison had been there once, had gotten tutoring from an Autumn boy. It seemed like somewhere, at any time, there was always music blasting. The floors vibrated daily with the heavy bass of modern-day hip hop. "All houses are fun in their own way, I guess." She looked up, and immediately to the side. Wow, that was a nice refrigerator, she preferred to focus on that than Mister Flashlight. "Depends on what kind of person you are..."

She didn't really know what kind of person Mister Flashlight, erm, Owen was. She'd been with him for a while, but it didn't seem like she had a good idea. She would have loved to chat about it, but her gaze went from the refrigerator to the nearby clock. Fuck, she had class. The girl made a squeak of sorts, throwing her bag over her should with a worried huff, red shame across her face. "S-shit, I have class...!" She could not be late. Madison began to back up to the door, mumbling run-on sentences at them until she was out. "Um, you two have fun, with each other--err, talking, I mean, Nicola, t-thanks, I'll be back in an hour or so, um, well maybe a little longer, I-I'll have to take it off, I can't give you a uniform if I'm still wearing it I mean, so, see you, nice to meet you Flash--Owen, y-you're name is Owen..."

The last part faded out as she shut the door in her own face.

Seeing Madison leave just like that, Nicola let an amused smile came unbidden to her lips. She leaned back onto the couch, kicking her legs onto the arms and her head rested behind her hands, blue eyes staring up at the ceiling. "Apparently she thinks you're a flashlight. You might want to make sure she doesn't drag you into the dark with her." What an awkward girl. How exactly was she a Summer again? Nicola glanced over at Owen out of the corner of her eyes, and another sigh escaped her. Madison could've at least shown the guy to the initiate dorms or at least, not ditch him here all of a sudden. If her brother came in right now... Hopefully he wouldn't. One hand traveled towards the gigaminx on the table, and soon enough, her fingers were flying through, trying to complete the half-finished puzzle.

"Say, what exactly are you going to do now that your guidepost left?" There were quite a few options that he could take. Anything involving outside wasn't one that she could help him with. It wouldn't be great if he stayed here with her either - what the hell would her roommates think when they see her alone with some tall new student? So many students were quick to jump to conclusions. Unfortunately, Nicola fell into that category as well. "There's a lot that you can do if you don't care about whether you'll be aimlessly wandering around or not."

Madison left abruptly, and Owen began to feel panicky again. He had almost made her his friend, and now she had left him alone with this girl who he couldn't quite understand. He avoided looking directly at her as though somehow, she might blind him, despite it being impossible. What the hell did Nicola mean by, drag him into the dark with her? His eyes looked to the door that Madison had disappeared through moments before, his heart racing at all the mysteries surrounding both her and this school.

At her question, Owen found himself shrugging nonchalantly, as if he didn't really care about what he might do now. Of course, he knew he had to find his own dorm somehow and get checked in and get a class schedule and a mountain of other things, but right now, he needed to take a deep breath to reorganize his mind and focus again.
"I'll probably just go check in at the office or whatever," he told her. His voice was much calmer than he had expected it to be. He wondered where it came from. "It was nice meeting you, Nicola. And," he added, "if you see Madison later, can you tell her I said sorry again? It really wasn't on purpose. Thanks for helping us out. I'll, uh, see you around."

Owen lifted his hand in a feeble sort of wave before tracing Madison's path and heading for the door. He pulled it open and walked out, closing it as quietly as he could behind him. He paused for a moment outside, inhaling and exhaling, trying to get his heart to relax. It had been a rather embarrassing ordeal; it was the complete opposite of the beautiful day he had imagined in his head, one which involved him inexplicably being crowned the Most Popular Kid in the middle of dinner, surrounded by faceless students that all desperately wanted to be his friend.

It was a minute before he finally managed to pull himself from his own mind. Shaking his head slightly, Owen found his way out of the Summer dorms, hoping he wouldn't get lost trying to find the offices.