Cheap Sunglasses

A girl slowly walked through the gates of Beata Academy. On her back was a hiker's backpack, in which seemed packed as tightly as it possibly could. After all, she had no room in her hands. Her fingers clutched a golden colored bird cage, and within it, a tiny jay hopped around, uncomfortable with the constant movement of being carried. The girl had a pair of cheap tinted sunglasses on.

This was a problem, however, and was also why she was walking slowly. The day was cloudy and dark, bearing no sun to make the glasses relevant or needed. Therefore, it was hard to see through them, and she was almost blind, trying not to bump into one of the students. Sadly, though, this proved futile, as the girl felt herself collide with another person's back. She fell into her butt, the sunglasses flying off her face and snapping on impact with the ground. The birdcage landed between her legs, the latch thankfully staying closed, and she herself had a backpack to cushion her fall. Well, at least her back. All the food in the front compartments was probably crushed, and she'd find this out later to her dismay.

She looked up at the person she bumped into with wide eyes, and didn't apologize.

Dark clouds billowed across the sky, covering the school grounds in a depressing gray. Not good weather for shadows, Renard thought to himself as he peered out of the front doors of the school, sighing softly before sliding out of the enclosure and standing in front of the doors, waiting for the sound of them closing before he ventured across the walkway. After spending a lot of his school time with Emily now, being out here felt strangely... lonesome. This wasn't a feeling he was used to pairing with sad emotions, but now it seemed applicable. Perhaps he should be worried about it... A couple of wandering students passed him towards the doors, chattering among themselves. Suddenly, he swore he heard his name called between hushed whispers. He knew they really weren't talking to him: almost nobody knew who he was at this school, and this was just a normal phenomenon. For some reason he always was hearing his name when nobody was talking to him. It was a strange thing, but not something he wasn't used to. Still, he turned his body around to look, and that momentarily lapse of concentration was all it took for him to collide with someone.

Jerking forwards in surprise, Renard whipped around to find the person he had collided with down on the ground, having been knocked back by their encounter. It looked like he had run into a young girl, her eyes wide and a birdcage situated between her legs. He just couldn't meet people like a normal person, now could he? "Oh, I'm sorry," he apologized to her, holding out a hand to try and help her up. "I didn't see you there."

The girl examined the hand for a moment, and shakily brought a small hand to meet it, hauling herself up before grabbing the birdcage between her arms. The bird inside was frantic inside of the metal cage, hopping around and looking at each person in the area, tweeting every now and then. The girl let out a little sound, which resembled a Sssssh! to the bird, but it did not seem to work. The jay immediately let out a small tweet after she made this sound, and the girl looked back up at the boy she collided into with pink cheeks. She didn't talk, and felt like running. It would be rude, but the situation was awkward and scared her.

Renard helped the girl up before releasing her hand, shifting his weight to his right side as he looked her over. She seemed rather... skittish, as silently nervous as her bird was raucous. It was easy for him as a shy person to detect this girl's uncomfortable feelings being around him, though he wondered whether it was due to a general anti-social nature or because he exuded an air of fear. "My apologies again," he spoke, giving her a soft smile. "I'm Renard, by the way. Are you new here?" As his question finished up, he noticed the pair of sunglasses, snapped in twain, lying on the ground. "Oh, your glasses," he murmured, bending down to pick up the pieces and examine them for a moment. "I'm really sorry about this. I can pay for a new pair." He gently stretched out his open palm, the broken glasses spread upon it. It was bad enough that his first encounter with this girl was of such a colliding nature, but he had broken her glasses too. What a way to start things off.

The girl nodded at his first question. She was indeed new, and was surprised by the friendliness of the first person she met. If this was a reflection on how the rest of the student body acted, this could be a tolerable school year. Though, she couldn't exactly make friends if she didn't talk. The girl was afraid to, though...
She shook her head at the offer. It was her fault, and he did not have to pay for anything. There must have been a store in town that would sell another pair. And when it was cloudy like this, she'd just...not go out. So long as she had these sunglasses, she would be able to talk. Though, they made her look like someone trying to be cool, someone she was not, and this could immediately be a social turn off. All of these conflicting ideas raced through her head as she stupidly stood there with a death grip on her bird cage.

Ty was walking around the school campus, doing nothing, besides being bored. He would occasionally teleport to a new place in case he got bored of the old one. Each time he got farther, and farther from his target. The last time he tired he was aiming for the forest, and got close to the entrance. Also that time it made him a little sick. He was about to try again, ignoring the sick feeling he was getting when he noticed a whole situation going on with some girl running into some guy who these people were he did not know. He wasn't going to concern himself with the two until he noticed the girl was a little shaken up. With that he decided to approach the two. "Are you okay?" He asked the girl with a bit of concern apparent in his face, as he asked.

Great. As this other boy walked up, the girl started to get overwhelmed. Run just run just run just run just run just run just run.
Her legs wouldn't move her, though. She wished she could communicate right now, tell them she is fine and maybe her name. Colette. The name was French, for her family were French Canadians who moved to Alaska after a business scandal involving her father. Her father loved the name Colette, and his mother fell in love with it as well. It was an obvious choice when they found out they were going to have a baby girl.
Colette reached down and picked up the broken pieces of her sunglasses, tucking them into her breast pocket. It was her only pocket, for she had a skirt on and therefore none on her pants. The jacket over her blouse was equipped with this pocket, inside of the fabric. There was now a n even bigger lump over her breast area where the pieces were placed. The girl still didn't talk, though she desperately wanted to.

A small frown crossed Renard's face at the girl's continued silence. Maybe she couldn't speak at all; if so, that would make conversation nearly impossible, since he didn't know any sign language. Then, another person - a guy this time - made his way over to them. Would a second person make it even harder to coax words out from this girl? "Uh, hey," Renard greeted the newcomer - new newcomer - as he came over and asked the girl if she was okay. Still nothing, just silence to greet them. She looked as if she'd rather be anyplace else besides here, as if they were accosting her rather than helping her. "Do... you know where to go?" he finally asked, scrambling for anything to try and get her to relax a bit around him, or rather them now. He didn't even know the guy standing next to them; never had seen him.

"The d-dorms?"
The soft voice surprised even Colette. She had accidentally answered the question, after a good two days of silence. She had nearly forgotten what her own voice sounded like. She held her mouth, and examined each person's expressions. They seemed normal; her power hadn't activated. Still, she had been afraid of doing that and was afraid of making the mistake again. Sighing, she raised an arm and covered her blue eyes with it. Her sleeve, due to gravity, trailed a little down her arm, revealing more of her skin. She was quite pale, but this was normal for people who lived in cold places, and this would probably change soon.

Well, at least she talks. Renard was thankful that she could at least answer him, but her voice was tentative and soft, as if she hadn't talked for awhile. She seemed a bit... out of place, perhaps, and to make things stranger, she suddenly covered her eyes with her sleeve. So she didn't like to talk, or even look at people... maybe it wasn't so bad. Renard always thought that making eye contact gave others the thought that you wanted to talk to them, and that could lead to unnecessary conversations. Still, there wasn't much he could do with what she was giving him... "Is everything alright?" A touch of concern laced his words. Perhaps she was sick or something.

The girl didn't answer for a little bit, gathering her voice and wondering if she should talk. Her eyes were covered, so there was no problem. She could sneak in a few words before her arm got tired.
"S-sorry. My power...talking w-with eye contact is n-not the best...idea." she managed to say before lowering her arm. The fact that his stare wasn't blank meant her eyes were still blue. That was good. While her power struck rather rarely, it was randomly, and this made her scared of it popping up at the worst times. She turned her gaze from the boy. "D-don't look at my eyes..." she said a little more quietly. It was embarrassing to talk as if she had a large handicap on her. Her cheeks still kept their blush. What about this other guy, who was with them? She never got a look at him.

Seeing he was no longer needed in the topic Ty looked at the other guy, then looked at the girl. He stepped backwards and then used his power to leave.

"Oh," Renard exclaimed simply. So her power had something to do with eye contact... Heeding her advice, Renard turned his gaze over her shoulder, only noticing out of the corner of his eye that the other boy had disappeared. I wonder where he went off to. "It's okay now. I'm not looking," he reassured her, wondering how odd it would appear to people if they saw the two of them conversing without even looking at each other. It'd certainly look awkward. "Well, do you need any help getting to where you need to go until you can get new glasses?" He figured that the dark-tinted shades helped her avoid an accident with her power, whatever it may be. Besides, it was the least he could do after knocking her over.

"S-sure...if you...could show me the dorms." she said with an awkward smile, keeping her eyes on a tree and not on a person. Once in a dorm, she could at least sit down and not worry about where she lays her eyes. If it was bunk based, though, she at least hoped that not too many people where in the room.
"My n-name's Colette...by the way." she added shyly, grabbing her right arm with her left hand. She shifted her weight a slight bit, causing the bird cage to deescalate and the jay inside to peep angrily. It did not like moving, and was quite grumpy.

Giving the girl a small smile in return - although she couldn't see it - Renard agreed to show her the dorms, moving to her side so he could lay a hand on her shoulder to guide her to where she needed to go. "Nice to meet you, Colette," he responded politely, giving her shoulder a gentle nudge to indicate she needed to move forward, towards the big front doors. "I hope you don't mind; I just need to make sure I keep you from bumping into walls or something." Things would potentially get ugly if she was against him having his hand on her shoulder. Acquiescence would make things much simpler.