Apathetic Musings and Car Crashes [OPEN]

"ROSEBURY
5 MILES"


The monotony of the drive had rooted itself so deeply in Joseph's mind that he nearly missed the sign.

He hadn't really been keeping track of time since he'd left the hotel earlier that morning, but he assumed it'd been around five hours. The young man hadn't stopped since. Cigarettes both used and fresh littered the dashboard, and a pair of empty beer bottles rattled around in the passenger seat. The window next to the driver's seat was slightly ajar to relieve Joseph of the scent of nicotine that had been growing more and more potent as the hours came and went. Coupled with the hum of the car's engine was Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight, playing softly through the radio.

This was the second day since Joseph had departed from home. Admittedly he was somewhat relieved that his trip was coming to an end, but he couldn't exactly say he was excited about arriving at his destination.. Nor was he discouraged. He didn't know what to expect, really.

He was headed for a school full of freaks, just like him, from what he'd heard of it so far, but a school nonetheless. Joseph was eighteen. He'd already finished school, but here he was, driving himself to one again. He'd come out of high school sporting decent grades in all of his classes, but not knowing where to go from there. His parents has always been understandably.. Uncomfortable with his special ability, but they also held strong to the philosophy that one's gifts should not be wasted. As a result, Joseph's mother had presented him one one day with "Beata Academy", where she hoped he would find a path in life that could, perhaps, put his strengths to good use.

Maybe it would be interesting, maybe it would be just like every other school experience. Maybe this school would receive a nihilistic kid with regenerative powers better than the last.. Not that he cared, really. People thought what they thought, and that was it. Joseph didn't let it affect him.

As it turned out, Joseph had become so lost in his thoughts that by the time he snapped out of his trance, he was headed straight for a telephone post.

He didn't even have time to grapple properly at the wheel. The car collided head-on with the post, and Joseph jerked violently forward, ramming his head right into the window and shattering it. Glass flew in every direction.

For a minute, everything was a blur, and the only thing he could hear was high-pitched white noise. When his sight and hearing became clear again a few seconds later, Joseph fell back into his seat with a low groan. There was a large piece of glass lodged into his forehead, among other, smaller shards. He pulled it out with a sharp hiss. He could feel the blood seeping down his face, thick and warm. Totalled the car on my first day of boarding school.

He turned his head. Sure enough, the gate leading into the academy was right across the street. And I did it in front of the whole damn place. Perfect.

Kyou jerked awake, the sound of a loud crashing interrupting her nap. Her head whipped around, looking for any sign of damage to the building. She managed to catch her breath after the shock of waking up so abruptly. Glancing around, she wondered why she was in the main building on a bench. And why was she sleeping on that bench anyways? Oh right. Noah.

The cocky bastard had the audacity to play some ancient game called Last Daydream, or something along those lines, for hours on end the previous night. She had even, in the most polite way imaginable, asked him if he could turn his TV down even a little bit, and surprisingly he smiled and nodded. As she went back to her room feeling accomplished and ready for a good night's rest, suddenly his game music blasted even louder than before and she could hear two small groans from their other dorm mates. The rest of her night was spent watching the latest anime in an attempt to drown out the loud, 16-bit music.

Somehow she had managed to sleep through all of her classes without being noticed. But after taking a moment to collect her thoughts and analyse the situation. It took her a few seconds, but it finally occurred to her to looked outside. Peering out one of the many windows, she saw a smoking car across the street from the academy grounds. Jumping up from her seat, she grabbed her bag and rushed out towards the car, ignoring the cold biting at her nose and ears.

She ran forward to the driver side of the car, gasping at the sight of a young man sitting and bleeding profusely. "O-Oh my god! Are you okay? I-I need to get a doctor!" she exclaimed, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him slightly. She resisted the urge to gag at the sight and smell of blood all over the car, not to mention the mess it must have been even before the accident.

"H-Hey, it'll be okay. Don't worry." Kyou couldn't tell how he was feeling from his blank expression but she was sure he was in shock. Grabbing her phone out of her pocket with her free hand, she began dialing 9-1-1.

Joseph had been in this situation before. Early in his years of driving, back when he'd just turned sixteen, he'd somehow managed to drive his car into a ditch and flip it over, effectively breaking both of his arms and getting a piece of twisted metal stuck in his eye socket. A passerby had called up an ambulance, but Joseph was completely healed via his gift half way to the hospital. He may have given one of the paramedics a heart attack that day, ironically enough. Now, here he was again.. Only this time, it wasn't too late to stop the inevitable 9-1-1 call.

Joseph turned towards the girl that had shook his shoulder. Luckily, no one else had turned up yet. The girl was fumbling around with her phone, eyes stretched wide in panic.

"Wait.." he rasped, reaching through the jagged remains of the driver's seat window, aiming to grab her phone to stop the call.  "Don't.. Don't do that."

Kyou jumped and yelped as he turned and reached for her phone. The small phone slipped out of her grasp and landed harshly on the ground. She stared at Joseph with wide eyes, wondering how in the world he could be so calm in this situation. Not to mention moving after such a intense crash. "I-I need to call them!" She bent down and picked up the phone, fumbling with it in her hands while trying to finish dialing.

Thankfully, without checking, she knew her phone was okay. It was a Nokia after all. It happened to be the cheapest phone she could obtain before coming to this school, and she was rather glad with her choice. An indestructible phone in a school full of magical and dangerous teens.

And then it clicked. Standing back up again she glanced over him. Didn't he have a large cut on his forehead before? It could have been her imagination, but under the circumstances it was most likely healed, however that happened. She went to a school full of 'freaks' and 'weirdos'. Heck, the entire town was full of freaks and weirdos. This boy, whoever he was, had to be like everyone else who came to this place. Gifted, to say the least.

The brunette heard the quiet voice of an operator coming from her phone and quickly pressed the end button, shoving the cell back into her pocket. "Y-You wouldn't happen to be a new student at Beata.. would you?"

Joseph reached for the door handle at Kyou's insistence to call 9-1-1, but she ended up dropping her phone, and then seemed to understand why Joseph didn't want her to finish the phone call. He exhaled quietly, relieved that he'd narrowly evaded another hospital dilemma. He then resumed pulling on the handle, opened the door, and stepped out onto the asphalt. "Yeah.. I'm the new guy." And what a great way to make an entrance--A car crash. His parents would hound him about this for months after they found out, he presumed.

The young man stepped past Kyou and approached the front of his car to inspect where it had met with the telephone pole, hesitant to see the full extent of the damage. Sure enough, it was a squished, gnarled mess of twisted metal and wood splinters, complete with oil and emission fuel leaking out onto the road beneath. He sighed again, nonchalantly wiping some of the blood away from his eyes. "God knows how I'm going to pay for this," Joseph muttered, picking another shard of glass out of his forehead and flicking it away. He looked back at the girl. "Sorry about your telephone post."

Joseph glanced towards the academy at the sound of a young woman shouting in his direction, ordering him to step away from the car. From the distance she was at, he perceived her as just another concerned stranger, but when she came a little closer, Joseph realized that he knew that face. He hadn't seen his cousin in a little while, but she hadn't changed enough to be unrecognisable to him. He'd known that she was attending Beata prior to arriving, but he hadn't expected to see her this soon. He turned to Juliette as she approached his ruined vehicle, one side of his mouth twitching upwards ever so slightly at her comment on his situation.

"You could at least pretend to be concerned that your cousin smashed his car," he said with feigned annoyance, opening the back door of the car to grab his bags. Both the suitcase and the backpack were ridiculously heavy. Joseph had initially packed his things himself, but of course, his mother had added "a little more" clothing to make sure he "didn't run out". Washing machines were indeed a thing, but the irrational paranoia she had formed over sending her precious little son away for a couple years had made her forget, apparently.

Hoisting the smaller bag over his shoulder with a small grunt of effort, Joseph met the gaze of the first girl who'd shown up. "I apologize for startling you. Did your phone break at all when you dropped it?"

Kyou let out a sigh of relief. He seemed more distressed by the state of his car rather than the glass piercing his skin. If he had been anyone other than a student, she would have worried as more time passed. Thankfully, he appeared use to the pain, basically disregarding it as he surveyed his car. She gave the boy a soft smile. "Oh, no, it's fine. It's not my telephone post anyways," she chuckled softly.

The brunette took a step towards Joseph and the car when another voice called out telling her to step back. The brunette rose her hands in defense and looked to the stranger running towards the crash. She had seen this girl around the Autumn dorms, but something about her always kept Kyou away. Maybe it was her dangerous attitude.

Seeing Juliette sigh in relief as she saw the bloodied boy caused curiosity to rise in the Autumn. It was only when she called what seemed to be the new student's name that she began to understand the situation a bit more. And Joseph's reply only solidified her suspicions. There are a lot of families at this school. The girl rubbed her hand against the back of her neck, wondering if she should leave the pair along to talk.

She turned her attention back to the dark-haired initiate. "I-It's fine! These kinds of things are common here," Kyou commented. "Don't worry about my phone," she pulled it out of her pocket it and held it up, flashing the logo, "it's a Nokia." Something about it made her feel proud.

Joseph followed silently behind Juliette and the nameless girl. He had half a mind to refuse a visit to the infirmary, but he knew Juliette was right in sending him there. As he walked and the cuts running across his face and neck began to disappear, he could feel a slow-growing weakness in his legs. The only downside to his regeneration ability was that the more injured he was, the more energy was sapped from his body. He was required to take extra dosages of vitamins each morning to combat energy depletion.. Today happened to be one of the days that he'd forgotten to do just that.

"Oh, I'm Kyou," she replied with a quick smile as the girl oh-so-casually dragged her away from crash. Perhaps it was a good idea. Even though it seemed fine, cars were finicky. It could burst into flames at any second. Though, Beata Academy was no safer in actuality. "Does he really need to go to the infirmary? I mean, he can just heal all of his wounds, right?" The brunette gave Joseph a quick once over, pausing as she caught a slight quiver of his legs. She let out a small sigh. Even if he could heal his cuts and scratches, it would be better to get him checked out by a professional. "Ok, I'll take him," she nodded and gestured for the dark-haired boy to follow her.

"Nice to meet you, Juliette," the Autumn called over her shoulder.

ooc: thought i might as well post here to finish it off