No Relaxing [Closed]

Lenoir paced around the empty lounge, simultaneously bored and anxious. She had spent too much time locked up in her room, unwilling to deal with the reality that was her new home, but she was still freaked out by the fact that there were potentially dangerous students just walking around, unknown to her. The TV was on, but after a few channel switches, she still hadn't found anything worth watching. Originally, she had sat on the couch, but now she found herself up and pacing.

She missed Virginia. Well, she missed her entire old life, but especially her best friend. It was expected - at least in her mind - that Kaya would be her new best friend, but it wasn't as easy as one might've expected to find anyone on the big campus, and the last thing she wanted was to get lost again. That's why she hadn't yet gone up the stairs in the lounge. Instead, she stood at the foot of the steps, wondering what was up there. Were students allowed to go up there? Probably: it wasn't closed off or anything, but she didn't know. She couldn't see anything of importance up there anyway. Maybe that door led somewhere, or was it the way to get here from the second floor? Was all this thought really worth it for a staircase?

She just wanted to get away for a little while.

The lounge was never her first pit-stop. It was always the roof, or the forest, the tennis court, or even the courtyard. Those were her sanctuaries, her escapes, her small pockets of peace and quiet. Half the time, this place was filled up and the TV was blaring, but it was all she had right now. Kayla shambled through the hall with her thumbs hooked into her pockets, her eyes glued to the ground. She hadn't even been sure where her feet were taking her until she was standing in front of the door, electricity crackling in her hair.

Kayla held her hand over the doorknob, deliberating, but finally gave a sigh and pushed the door open.

The TV was still playing, but there wasn't anyone on the couch. It took a few moments for her to spot the other girl in the room, hovering at the foot of the steps. It was pretty stupid after how long she'd been at this school, and how much time she'd wasted in this room, but she'd barely ever thought about the narrow balcony rimming the upper levels of the lounge. Had she ever even been up there? Kayla glanced up toward the ceiling, snorted, and then closed the door behind her, more sparks flickering down the length of her arm. She'd never seen the girl either.

The sound of the door closing, the clear presence of another in the room, it set Lenoir on edge. Alarms rang in her head as her eyes widened, allowing paranoia to immediately set in: she was in danger. There was nothing in her hands: if only she had thought to carry the TV remote with her, just in case. However, there was still one thing: the map, folded and creased within her pocket. As quick as she could manage, the map was out of her pocket and in her hands. It would've been more useful as a long blade, but there wasn't time to unfold it. She ran her hand across the surface, the paper quickly transforming into a sharper, dagger-like object, and then she whirled around to face her attacker.

Well, she wasn't attacking. Once again, it appeared as if her paranoia had gotten the best of her. Instead of some ne'er-do-well, it was just another girl, standing there with a hat and an expression that was some kind of hybrid between annoyed and bored. Banored, maybe. Annored? Was this really where her train of thought needed to be going? Despite the lack of danger, Lenoir's grip tightened on the makeshift dagger, her face flushing with embarrassment. She didn't know what to say: even the mere concept of 'Hi' or 'Sorry for pulling a weapon on you' escaped her, and so she stood there speechless, her heart racing as she panted audibly. Why couldn't Beata have a homeschooled version of itself?

It happened almost too fast for her to register. There was one brief window of normalcy, with the mystery girl standing at the foot of the stairs, and then all hell broke loose. The girl whirled around, something that looked like a knife flashing out of her pocket, and Kayla went slamming herself back against the closed door. Even as lethargic as she was right now, she wasn't about to let herself to get caught off guard like this...! Electricity went twining around her arm, flickering at her fingertips, ready for the struggle... but the next move never came.

Her would-be-attacker was still standing there, panting, the dagger still held protectively in front of her, but there wasn't any sign of movement. No poise to lunge, no killing intent... If anything, she just looked embarrassed. Kayla didn't lower her hand, gritting her teeth as a tense silence settled over the room.

Well, what the hell? She didn't know what she expected, with how half the school seemed to look at her, but was it naive to expect a simple 'hello' instead of someone jumping for the knife?

"Hey, I don't know what the hell I did to set you off..." she ventured, breaking the heavy silence. "But are you gonna try and kill me, or are you gonna put that fucking thing away?"

Electricity visibly ran up and down the girl's arm, but neither of them made a move to attack. At her words, Lenoir glanced down at her hand, the dagger still held menacingly in front of her. Further embarrassment washed over her as she lost her concentration, the dagger fading away and returning to its original shape. "S-Sorry," she muttered softly, pocketing the map again and fidgeting uncomfortably. It seemed as if she was determined to embarrass herself every day at this school. Honestly, going to class would be preferable to her terrible paranoia. "I... thought you were someone else." Exactly who she expected this girl to be wasn't known. It didn't even matter. As far as she knew, anyone could be out to get her. That was a terrible way of feeling. Not that knowing that was going to stop her.

Shit, if she was going to pull a knife on her for no reason, then she could drop the shy and innocent act. Kayla snorted and let her arm fall to her side, still eyeing the weapon in her hands suspiciously, raising an eyebrow as it seemed to change shape. What the hell was that, a piece of paper? Way to get excited over nothing... She wandered cautiously away from the door, still keeping a healthy distance between her and the mystery girl. "What, who did you think I was? Who were you expecting? The boogieman?" Her lips twisted in a frown as she cast a casual glance over at the TV. "This is a public space, cupcake. At least look at me before getting jumpy."

A spark of anger flared in Lenoir's chest, the first time she had felt like that since reaching the school. Maybe that had been good: she had some anger issues back where she came from. It wasn't that often, and she'd never get angry at her friends. Never. She loved them and they were always there to keep her from going too far. Well, they had been there. They weren't here now. The only one here now was this little pipsqueak who had decided to turn up the aggravation. Okay, maybe she wasn't a pipsqueak. Lenoir was definitely a tiny bit taller though. She liked that. It felt nice to be taller than people she was mad at.

"Lay off, sparky. I-" 'was told there were bad people here.' That's what she wanted to say, but what if this girl was one of those bad people? Then they'd be suspicious, and she'd be in trouble. They'd be watching her. That wasn't good. She needed to say something else. "... You can't just sneak up on someone like that. It's rude."

Huh? Really? Really? This girl was a piece of work, wasn't she? If that was sneaking around, then she felt bad for her roommates. The first time someone tapped on her shoulder, they'd probably have a knife shoved through their eye. Kayla wrinkled her nose, a burst of sparks shooting out of her bangs and drifting to the floor like embers. And she had the nerve to call her 'Sparky.' If she called her that again, maybe she'd end up needing that knife after all. "I wasn't sneaking up on anyone." There was more than a hint of indignation in her voice. She crossed her arms. "You make it sound like it's my fault you tried to stab me. People come in here to kick back. This isn't your private suite."

Okay, so maybe 'Sparky' had a point. It wasn't quite what she had meant, but given another moment to think on it, she was acting rather rashly. She didn't want to back down now, though: she was steadily growing angrier, and it became more of a mission to assuage her damaged pride. "Th-That's not what I meant at all! If you're looking for a fight, don't bother me with that shit. I don't need your blood on my hands." That was probably not a good thing to say, considering how irritated the other girl looked. If Lenoir didn't start moving, she worried that maybe it'd be her blood being spilled. Averting her eyes, she quickly began to climb the stairs, unaware of what was up there awaiting her, or what she would do once there, but if she was able to have the last word, that might keep her temper from flaring up too hot. Still, her entire body remained tensed, on high alert in case this other girl wanted to escalate things.

Kayla was almost taken aback. Hey, the more flustered this girl got, the more she started to test her patience. "You're pretty cocky for someone I've never heard of before," she drawled with more sparks shooting out from her hair, cocking her head as the girl went climbing the staircase. "If you really wanna avoid a fight, how about you keep that thing to yourself, Stabby?" At this point, it was probably best to just leave, or ignore her, but she had a tough time knowing when to call it quits with someone like this.

She leaned against the couch, her eyes following her in muted amusement. "Where the hell are you even going? Is there anything even up there?"

'Stabby'? How original. Lenoir could only roll her eyes as she continued up the stairs, too far up now to back down, lest she have to admit that she only started climbing to avoid any potential bloodshed. She was becoming increasingly annoyed with the relaxed but caustic attitude emanating from the little sparkplug leaning on the couch. "I'm... just seeing what's up here. Is that a problem?" God, she hated this school.

What she found up there was a row of shelves, though only a few books adorned them, and two doors. Shrugging to herself, she kept going and opened the door closest to her: it was a supply closet, with cleaning supplies stacked on the shelves. Well, that was... normal.

Kayla raised an eyebrow, but after a few moments, just huffed and let it go. Whatever. "Alright, you do you." And best of luck to her up there, looking for... whatever there was that was so interesting. She stared up at the ceiling, tapping her foot, only turning to look at Stabby again when she heard the creak of a door hinge. "Having fun? What'd you find? A mop bucket?" she shouted up, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Who are you anyways?" It was either her name or 'Stabby.' Either was fine with her, but it was good to know who she was talking to.

Lenoir wanted to send down an icy retort, but god damn if there wasn't a mop bucket in there. Now she just wanted to drop it on the girl's sparky head. "... Lenoir." Answering with her name was better than admitting that she was just wasting her time. Moving back over to the railing, she peered down at Sparky with a wary look. "And yours?" Stabby, Sparky. Very nifty names they had for each other.

Kayla met her gaze as she peered over, feeling the slightest crackle of amusement in the cold look in her eyes. Man, had they gotten off on a bad foot. "Lenoir," she repeated, turning the word over in her mouth. Not a bad name. Better than Stabby at least. That didn't mean she'd stop calling her that, but it was a nice thing to know. "Never heard of ya. I'm Kayla." Pleasure to meet her acquaintance, even if they'd almost stabbed each other and done nothing but bicker for the first five minutes since they met.

Well, that made sense. After all, she was new to the school. So Kayla then... Wait, she had already met a Kaya. This was just Kaya with an extra L. Did that mean something? Probably not. She wanted to ask, but if there was no connection, and there probably wasn't, then she'd look stupid. "Kayla," she repeated the 'just saying the other person's name schtick. "Well, I'm new here, so I've never heard of you either."