First Few Missteps [open]

She had already met up with the front office and received her schedule. Her bags and other belongings were accounted for. By some miracle, she'd managed to find her way to the cafeteria and grab a small, stale bagel and can of coffee for her dinner. And yet, just while she thought she was getting used to the place, she'd managed to get herself lost.

'Did you see that fight in the courtyard last night?'

'No way, she totally didn't sleep with him!

'What do you mean the last book was delayed again?!'

The few students she'd passed by had little to offer, leaving her with nothing to do but sigh. "Useless," she grumbled, continuing her seemingly endless wandering throughout the school's many hallways. Unfortunately, she was too stubborn to ask for help on her first day, not wanting to feel so useless right off the bat - or make it appear otherwise. Instead, she kept her ears open, so to speak, just waiting for that perfect clue in to lead her off in the right direction.

But nothing came. It was all useless chatter. She'd found herself listening so deeply to it all that she'd perhaps even made herself even more lost, dazing out and not looking exactly where she was going, and near crashing into the side of someone else.

Jayden had just finished his classes for the day, and was turning to head out of algebra. Honestly, he would like to have a strong talking to with whoever invented algebra. Or, less of a talk, more of a sign. And it probably wasn't likely regardless, as whoever invented algebra was more than likely dead.

He was contemplating whether algebra had been created by the Greeks or Muslims (he thought they had said something about it in history) when he nearly collided into the girl in front of him. Seeing her last minute, Jayden attempted to move to the side, his cursed algebra homework flying out of his hands and floating to the floor. Still, despite his effort his shoulder grazed the girl, but nowhere near their expected crash.

Shit, I don't have an instrument with me, I can't even tell her I'm sorry. He hadn't carried an instrument with him today, and he cursed himself for it. Most people knew about Jayden and his unique circumstances, but he had never seen this girl before in his life. Flashing her an apologetic smile, he crouched down to gather his papers. He was a walking cliche, and a mute one at that. Fuck his life, actually.

Wow, his first official day, this was going to be exciting! Renji carried a map in one hand and his saxophone case in the other. It was kind of awkward to carry around, but he had band next period and couldn't afford to forget his instrument. I wonder if they have band lockers... Turning the corner, he picked up the pace, worried he'd be late.

"Shit... late on my first day." He mumbled under his breath. Unfortunately, his footing wasn't the best and Renji almost tripped over someone on the floor. Almost falling over, the student caught his balance, looking back at the students. "I'm so sorry, I was walking to fast." He chuckled.

Looks like they already had a little crash. Forgetting about being late and more worried about being nice, he walked over to the boy.

Will headed around the corner after he finished his classes. He was in the same algebra class as Jayden, so when he saw math flying around the hallway, he went over to help pick up and saw saxophone man nearly trip over Jayden and the girl. "Whoa now, this hallway is just disaster central." he said, laughing. "Is everyone alright?" He finally got a good look at the girl Jayden had run into and he smiled. 'Damn she's pretty.' he thought. "Well hello there. I don't believe we've met. Will Kennedy, at your service." he told her, winking.

Despite the fact that it was probably her fault, Dakota was irritable from her not-so grand adventure and found herself quickly spinning around on her heel, picking up quickly on his own thoughts and acting quickly on them, as if he'd said them straight to her own ear. "You better apologize, pronto." Even as she could hear him loud and clear, the young woman wasn't quite sure what he'd meant and found herself confused still when all he did was smile at her and bend down to pick up the papers that were scattered across the ground.

And then she felt bad. Dakota bit back a sigh. "Hold on, I'll help you." She muttered, setting her things down and kneeling down to the floor. "Just don't step on my ha-" The young woman paused, watching as another guy came rushing in, near tripping over the poor blonde. She winced all the same.

"Does anyone here watch where they're going?" A little crash. Wasn't that a bit of an understatement. She'd just wanted directions. Never had she wanted to cause a full-blown traffic accident.

Or a scene. Another young man walked right up to them. Dakota glanced up, at first un-amused. If he wasn't going to help with the papers, he could get a move on, she thought. But then he smiled and her face turned a light shade of pink. "A-Are you dense?" Was now the time to think things like that? A wee bit flustered, she shot a sharp look at Mr. Kennedy, then at the band geek. "Lets hurry and clean up before someone else breaks a leg." She was quick to distract herself and change the subject.

Honestly, he brought this on himself. And he never even figured out if the Muslims or the Greeks created algebra. God, I hope she doesn't get too mad at me for not apologizing. I'll have to make it up to her later. Find out her name. Explain that I can't talk. Send a fruit basket or something. Maybe not fruit. But flowers would be too much of a romantic gesture, not what I'm going for. I'll figure out the details later. When she joined him on the ground, he glanced at her in surprise, but soon smiled softly and began gathering the rest of his work.

Now, Jayden wasn't shy by any means. But on the days he decided he didn't want to talk to anyone, and therefore didn't even bring musical instruments to communicate through, this was not his ideal situation at all. He flushed as more and more people got involved in the scene. At Dakota's annoyed comment, Jayden let out a breath of laughter and looked up at the boy who almost ran him over, offering him another smile to let him know that Jayden wasn't angry. Honestly, that's all he could do in this situation. Smile and hope it sent the message that he wasn't an evil son of a bitch.

However, at the next person's entrance, Jayden's patience began to wear thin. Which was saying something, because typically he was aneasy going guy. However, at this Will Kennedy's sudden interest in the new girl, he couldn't suppress a roll of his eyes. If you weren't going to help, don't get in the way. Yes, yes, thank you Will, for the astounding effort to help out and not just stand there like a love struck idiot. Brilliant. One of the few perks of being mute, nobody could hear the shitty things you had to say when you said them.

Looking down at the group, another guy came onto the scene. Well, at least I'll get to know a lot of people's names today. Then again, maybe this wasn't the best time to have a heartfelt chat. Turning to the girl with pigtails, he couldn't help but smile. She's cute. God, what was he thinking? He had no idea who she even was, now was not the right time to be distracted. But how could he resist a cute girl?

Trying not to say a comment that'd piss the girl off even more, Renji stood there, setting his instrument case down vertically. "Guess we're all in a rush?" The good natured student chuckled.

Will smiled. "Guess we are." he said, picking up papers. He looked at Dakota. "Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I was simply introducing myself." he told her. He was the only one who's done so, so far. He was honestly surprised she didn't slap him. That was usually the reaction he got when he tried to hit on a girl. Not that it would hurt anyway, not many physical hits could hurt him. His gift was a handy thing to have in the case of a fight or an angry girl.

Whilst the young woman was used to having different thoughts thrown in her direction at once, she had yet to solve the dilemma of reacting to them all in a proper manner, their words making different emotions clash in her. Her cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink, ever just slightly, as she shot a look at the man carrying the instrument case. Were guys like this always so forward? It had seemed so, except for the original guy that had bumped into her, and totally not the other way around. Mute was he? That was pretty strange. She had to hold back a small laugh at his silent biting words.

Once the last of the papers were off the ground, she handed them over to the boy they belonged to. "Now that that's settled. I'll still be expecting that formal apology. A fruit basket should do nicely, but no pineapple." The initiate winked up at him before turning her attention to the two others.

There she was, the new student surrounded by three fairly attractive guys. She should've counted herself lucky. There was something about the William-guy who stood out to her. Maybe it was the cocky air he carried about him. The other two seemed so humble in comparison. "We're not rushing much anymore," she mused. "Dakota Hall." The girl put on her best smile and held out her hand for whomever took it first.

When Dakota responded to him, Jayden's eyes widened in disbelief. There was no way she could have heard him. He had no instrument, and he really doubted he could suddenly speak for the first time. He wasn't even paying attention to the other two at this point, studying Dakota intently. Can you hear me? How? It was an off chance, but this was a magical school, and stranger things had happened.

Renji stood their, watching as the air around him turned thick with awkwardness. Honestly, he somewhat wanted to just get to class, but then again... what if something interesting happened? If he left early, he might miss a prime fight or something of the sorts. Not really giving an attention to the other's around him, he shook the girl's hand. "Renji Mikealson, at your service." He said with a smile.

Will clapped his hands together, slightly disappointed that he wasn't the one to shake Dakota hand. "Wow, Renji, thanks for stealing my line." he said in good humor. He turned the Jayden, wondering why he hasn't spoken yet. Maybe he couldn't. It seemed the school had a wide variety of kids. Those who couldn't talk, those who couldn't shut up, and those that were in between.

Dakota laughed quietly to herself, catching on to his little slip of the tongue herself. It was endearing, she supposed, letting him hold on to her hand for a moment longer. "The true trouble of having so many true gentlemen in that same spot at once," she sighed melodramatically, finally pulling back and shooting that thin smile Will's way. Though, it quickly fell away. "So Renji, Will, and..." She paused, peering over the paper's they'd just finished picking up. "And Jayden. You should know I'm very good at reading people." She shot a glance at Jayden knowingly.

She shot a look at the man with the saxophone. "If you're late to class, know that you can't pin it on me. I doubt anything terrible will happen, so long as Will here behaves himself." She looked his way with a small smirk. "None if this bothers you, does it?" Back at home, it was hard to have any close friends, because she could come off as, well, a little too personal. It couldn't have been that much different here, right?

Jayden smiled, the fact that Dakota could read minds finally dawning on him. He was ecstatic. For Jayden, making friends had never been easy, but that didn't mean he didn't have his share. Still, knowing someone he could literally just converse with thought made it a lot easier. Well, I'm sorry for running into you. And I'm sorry for making these two trip over me. I guess I caused this whole fiasco. Whoops. For the others, it might have just looked like Jayden was staring at Dakota in silence, but he was used to weird looks.

He began gathering his papers and shuffling them around while the other's conversed around him. It wasn't like he had much to input into the conversation anyway.

"You're welcome." Renji replied with 'sorry not sorry' sort of smile. He wasn't one for starting fights, but a little competition here and there wasn't going to hurt anyone. The tall student wondered what the guy named Jayden's problem was, he seemed like a total introvert. Guess there are odd people everywhere. His attention was broken when he noticed the girl look down at his saxophone. A lover of music, perhaps? He'd have to ask about it later. "Trust me, being late to class is the least of my worries." Renji chuckled.