Clearmay School for the Gifted (IC)

[adriane]

The new and returning students had loaded off of the buses, dropped their bags at the Office, and had been directed to the Auditorium for a welcoming speech. The students and visitors that had stayed over the summer, such as Neci, had been directed into the Auditorium to help welcome the other students. On her way inside, her aunt - Headmistress Knox - pulled her aside. She informed Neci that she was to make a speech(already written for her) to help greet the new students. As a permanent resident of Clearmay and a relative of the administration, it was her duty to accept the responsibility of reaching out to her peers. Neci reluctantly accompanied her aunt onto the stage, not because she bought into the leadership idea but because she owed it to Aunt Lily. She had a debt she could never repay. So she let herself be guided over to one of the seats lined behind a podium where the rest of the staff sat. Lily approached the podium, and the large room fell silent. Lily had a way about her that earned others respect without needing to ask for it. She smiled at the crowd and spoke, welcoming them and introducing the members of the staff and the translator. She then introduced her niece, who would be saying a few words of welcome.

Fiery eyes flicked across the room, catching each worrying, pleased, bored, and nervous face. The girl stood up from her stool, and walked forward to the podium, holding her speech. Clearing her throat she set the paper down, parted her lips, and spoke. “Welcome. My name is Neci Cardelli.” She paused, her gaze flitting to the woman who stood beside her, signing the words with her hands. In place of “Neci Cardelli”, she made the movement of fire. The woman nodded at her, welcoming her to proceed. “I am a student here, a junior. I have been in this school for five years. These have been the best five years I have ever known.” Again she paused, letting the woman catch up, and staring at the paper before her. Behind the podium she stood at, her hands fiddled out of boredom, pulling at her fingers and the hem of her red shirt. She inhaled deeply, and then started once more. Behind her, she could feel the gaze of the headmistress, a comforting stare, encouraging Neci. In front of her, she could feel the gaze of the new students, a terrifying stare, testing and teasing her. “This school is not for normal people.” She frowned down at the paper she was reading off of. Damn was this a corny speech.

With a slight smirk, she leaned forward and rested her arms on the podium, hiding the speech from her view. “But you already knew that, didn’t you? You already know you’re…” she raised her fingers and made air quotes, “different. Which is basically the nice way of saying you are a freaking weirdo,” Neci chuckled, raising her eyebrows at those before her. She glanced behind her, catching her aunt’s stern stare. She should wrap this up. She moved her arms off the paper, and skimmed it, pursing her lips. There wasn’t much else of importance for her to say. “Anyway, your Headmistress wanted me to let you know that you’re among other freaks of nature, so you should feel safe and secure and all warm and fuzzy on the inside.” She scrunched up her nose and hugged herself, demonstrating her words. “And lastly, I’m supposed to be some sort of tour guide or welcoming guide or some shit like that. But I’m gonna warn you right now…I bite.” She flashed a last smile at those watching her, and raised her hand, laying it out palm up. She kissed her hand, leaving behind a small flame, and then blew off the kiss, sending the fire out before it turned into smoke and was gone.

She sat back down as the Headmistress rose, and thanked her for the original touch she had put into her speech. Neci rolled her eyes and watched as her aunt read off the rules. Don’t leave campus without telling someone otherwise you can’t get back inside, don’t fight with other students, don’t eat other students, if there’s an emergency follow instructions, don’t be the hero, etc. The Headmistress was a rather young woman, with short light brown hair. She, like the rest of the staff, was dressed professionally, in a white skirt suit. Her stance was completely relaxed as she spoke to the students and visitors- she was a natural- born speaker and leader. Traits she insisted had been passed into Neci’s genes as well, but Neci disagreed. She wasn’t keen on being social with her peers, much less having them follow her.

The Headmistress finished and dismissed everyone, sending everyone off to lunch. This lunch was actually mandatory for most, as new and returning students and visitors would receive their room assignments. Those that had stayed over the summer already had theirs. Neci departed from the stage with her stomach growling, and managed to make it to the Cafeteria before most by going out the back of the stage and down the hallway. She grabbed a lunch tray and walked down the line. No one stood behind the counter to serve the food, it was all buffet and self-serve style. She passed the bottles of human and animal blood, the raw meat, piles of something green and gloopy, living sea creatures, and went down to the human food. She grabbed a few pieces of Italian Bread, some pasta, and water. She left the line and weaved between the round tables, heading for one in the back against the windows. She plopped down in a seat the sun was shining on, and propped her feet up on the chair across from her. She ripped off a small piece of bread and toasted it in her hand, and then munched on it. Her eyes glanced around the cafeteria, watching the other students walk around awkwardly, looking for seats.

[BearClaw]

Amaya listened to the speech, captivated, but itching for it to be over all the same, she was hungry and also wanted to get away from all the other people, people made her nervous. She hated it when there were too many of them around. She was glad when it finally ended, but she hung back until everyone had left, she didn't want to be the first to leave but also didn't want to be in a big group of people. She followed everyone to the lunch area, found the human food, grabbed some pasta and went to find somewhere to sit, there were many tables but they all had at least one other person sitting at them, finally she found one closer to the back of the room next to an open window that was empty, she sat down and started eating.

[General Scales]

Donovan was very fidgety during the opening of the auditorium. He was one of the first few into it considering he lived below the school in the drainage and sewage systems. He had taken the time to clean himself up so the smell wouldn't knock most of the newer students out cold and even a few of the older ones. When the Head mistress spoke he listened more patiently than others near him mostly because of his gratefulness of just being allowed into here. He noticed Neci having to give a speech to the students this year, he found it amusing because he knew she had difficulty with people and her additions to the speech definitely reinforced that. Don noticed his two largest worms, Anthrax and Leech, crawling around on the ceiling still fairly unnoticeable even if they were light-green and black, like the majority of his worms, looking around at all the new students themselves.

Once lunch hit the Carrier moved himself towards the cafeteria where he knew his favorite table wouldn't be taken, no many would go near it willingly with three of his other worms (Sliver, Nitric, Preen) acting like guard dogs. However, on the off chance there was he would let them if they really were determined to join him. Don arrived at his table with four trays balanced on his arms covered in a variety of food, lacking one because Leech had already eaten. He also began looking around the room to see if any others were more nervous or distracted. His eyes briefly made contact with Neci's, followed by a short nod, but he was half eating and scanning through the rest of the crowd looking for those who might give his little friends a hard time. He saw one other girl near the open window not too far away, he didn't recognize her in the least and he was not one to bother the others most of the time.

[Metronome]

Atrius stood at the back of the room while the speech was being given, keeping to his antisocial self. He wasn't interested in interacting with the other students. Hell, in any other situation, he'd be more interested in cooking and eating them. His stomach grumbled at him, reminding him of his hunger.

The bayang only halfway listened to the words being said. He'd already heard it all when he had arranged with the school board to go here. They hadn't been too thrilled with the idea, seeing as there was a legitimate moving being made to kill off his barbaric people and send them into extinction. But after some string pulling, he'd gotten in.

So there he stood, wearing a plain grey sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head. His purple horns stuck out of two holes cut on top, and his glowing red eyes shown from underneath. He wasn't doing a very good job at hiding himself. His thick tail swayed back and forth behind him, and his large, digitigrade feet stuck out without shoes. With claws the size of small, sharp knives, accommodating footwear wasn't easy to come by.

Finally, the introduction was over and they were allowed to go eat. The trip here had taken a tole on the bayang. He'd gone from living in the backwoods to walking to town, trying to avoid being chased by an angry mob, getting on a train, taking it to a city, getting on another train, going to another city, and finally got on the train that brought him here. The whole time, he had hardly been given the opportunity to sleep or eat much. The food the humans seemed to enjoy was absolutely revolting. It almost made him sick to think that he ate a creature that lived off such vile means of nutrition.

Atrius got in line for the food trains and got a tray. He didn't even bother looking around at the assortment of fruits and vegetables, as none of that bullshittery interested him. He saw bottles that were labeled with human blood, probably from donors. Unfortunately, providing his favorite food would involve actually killing the human. And that was apparently illegal. So he made due by piling his plate with almost raw, still bleeding meat and going to find a nice, dark little corner to sit in.

It wasn't easy finding a table that the sunlight didn't hit, and when he did, it was crowded with goddamn vampires. Atrius wasn't interested in sitting with them in the least. So he went to find another table that, although not quite as shady, didn't have enough sun to burn his eyes. The bayang hopped up onto the bench seat and crouched as he began to tear into the meat he assumed was beef. Cows were ugly and stupid as hell, so he didn't feel too bad eating one.

[BearClaw]

While she was eating, Amaya was also staring out the window. She was happy to be here but also felt a little lost, she wanted to get outside and talk to the only friends she had, the animals. They always listened and knew exactly what to say to cheer her up. The best way to cheer her up was for her just to talk to a fish, it was so funny, you could tell them something but then only a few seconds later they had already forgotten it, she once spent hours just repeating the same story to a school of goldfish, she loved it...

[Calrn]

Pat's mother didn't like the opening speech. She always kept an open connection with him and his father and they could feel her annoyance through her mind. Pat suspected it was because the speech was prepared and she could anticipate what it said and what was to be done before Neci spoke a word. His father had just sat there continuously sipping water from a bottle.

Pat had liked it just fine. The young woman was lively and obviously very comfortable with her powers. He had heard variants on the same speech for a few years now, but it was nice that they have Neci do it this time. Pat's mind kept drifting when the Headmistress came up to speak. He knew all the rules by heart. To amuse himself, he kept tweaking the light in the room, practicing, warming up. It was very warm in the hall, but only for Pat. He felt the heat more than most people. His mother said it was just part of growing up and all that, but she'd been saying that for years. His father just doused him with water and chuckled at Pat's reaction everytime he'd said it. He picked up the water straight after and told him to take another cold shower.

Finally, the talking was over and the students were dismissed. After saying his farewells to his parents, Padraig noticed a few interesting ones making their way to the cafeteria. There was a willowy girl, shining to Pat's eyes, in a kind of magical way. She quickly went ahead of the other students. The light shifted around continuously in the hall, partially by Pat's doing, but mostly from it reflecting off of other people.

There was a strange one, though. Large tail and odd feet. Purple horns? There was something about his eyes, though. The light coming out glowed oddly. Pat was curious and made his way to the cafeteria.

He wasn't terribly hungry, but he thought he should eat something, if only to hold him over to dinner. He grabbed a simple sandwich and a small plate of pasta before trying to find a seat. He noticed the horned student's eyes flashing as he looked at the dark tables full of blood drinkers. Eventually, he trundled away and went at a different table, seeming to turn away from the windows.

Pat wandered over to him. "Excuse me," he started timidly, "I noticed that you don't like the light. I think maybe this will help..." The area around the table became inexplicably darker. If one was watching closely, they'd see some of the light bend away from the table. It was light enough to see, but Pat thought it would help. He liked helping.

[Metronome]

As Atrius ate, his table slowly began to fill with other students. After all, it was a huge school. There was hardly enough room for a student to have a table all to himself, much to his own annoyance. Thankfully, his unappetizing show of table manners, or lack of, was enough to keep them from sitting too close.

He was then approached by another stupid human. They just seemed to crawl out of the woodworks like insects these days. The boy spoke to him about the light, then used some sort of magic or some bullshit like that to bend the light away from him. Honestly, the human was bothering him much more than the sun had been. In fact, he would rather stare into the blazing ball of fire and be blinded than be forced to communicate with the species that he used to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But then again, that probably had something to do with the fact that he was an immense asshole.

His long, narrow ears pinned back as the human tried to help. He didn't need his help, he was a feared predator, dammit! So Atrius only glared his red eyes at the boy silently, then took another large chomp out of the slab of meat he was holding in his hands.

[adriane]

Neci watched the students milling around, stopping here and there and then moving on to a different table. It was actually pretty funny, watching them. She finished off her toast as Donovan sat down at his usual table nearby and nodded to her. She returned the nod, but her eyes were on his worms. She remembered when he had first showed up here, with those things crawling around him. They almost didn't let him in, but Lily made sure he got to stay. Her main argument was that if they let vampires in, why not some blood-sucking worms? Neci didn't have too much of an opinion on them, to be frank. If they didn't bother her, she didn't bother them.

She spotted the Power Control Elemental Division teacher approaching her way before she reached her. She was holding a stack of cards and a box. Neci groaned inwardly, and then stood. It was her turn to hand out keys and room assignments. She took the box and stack of cards wordlessly. Balancing her tray(still holding half a cup of water and some pasta), she walked over to the table between the lunch line and the garbage cans, which had been territorially claimed as the werewolves table. Mostly it had been claimed because it was easy access to seconds, and anyone who hadn't finished their lunch but was on their way to throw it out. She didn't bother making the trip past them and waiting for them to call her over, she simply set the tray down on the table and continued on. Her lack of need for fuel by the way of food and their disapproval of uneaten food had lead her and the wolves to become close acquaintances.

She turned and looked down at the cards before her. She shuffled around, stopping at the few people she knew, and handing them their keys. Whoever she didn't know's cards would be handed over to Josh when she was done. He was the designated man for this job, as he had the convenient ability to know a person's face by seeing their name. She looked around, and spotted him making his own rounds with people's room assignments. Neci flipped over to Donovan's card. It was odd he had one- he was a summer kid like her. There was a sticky note on the card. "Ask student if room assignment is used- rarely spotted in room." Shrugging, she approached the table, stopping just behind Donovan. "Yo, Don." She glanced back down at the card, and then up at the large boy. "I'm supposed to ask if you use your room..." She shrugged again. "Not really sure why, they probably want your room back to give to some freshmeat. Still, gotta ask."

[hyuge]

Alexis sat on the bench bored out of her mind. She had been inspecting her nails when Neci gave her speech and blew a fire kiss at them all. Show off. She smirked and waited for the assembly to finally be over. She had heard it before and there was no putpose for her to go to the lunch other than to eat. Alexis had no desire to ever go home. She had been in the same room for two years since she always stayed through the summer.

She picked up a tray and stared at the food on the line, noy really in the mood to eat. Alexis gathered a hodge podge of various items and carried the tray over to a table. She had the notebook she always kept with her placed neatly under the tray and slid into an open seat. She watched Neci get up and head over to do room assignments. Alexis didn't envy her. Handing out room assignments was a pain. Alexis smiled at her friend and slipped the notebook out from under the tray. It was filled with short stories, poems, and the occassional journal entry. Her english teacher and power control teacher had teamed up when she arrived here to find an outlet for her agression. It seemed to have worked well.

[General Scales]

Don ate quickly and ate every last crumb, he hated wasting food at all. On the other hand all five worms had horrible manners and the smallest had actually burrowed into its pile of food tearing it up from the inside out. Leech was watching his siblings quietly but fairly bored with most of the day so far except catching a full nest of sewer rats earlier. The 2 1/2ft worm slipped off of the seat and crawled closer to the strange creature with several pieces of raw meat plated nearby, the smell of conflict was in the air. He slid under the table quickly proceeding to slither up one of the chairs near the meat as his appetite came back, he would pick his moment and try to snag one or two of the as of now unidentified meat.

Don started glancing around the room looking for Leech just now realizing he disappeared. The Carrier shook his head before sighing with a hint of annoyance at the worm then put one more spoonful of food in his mouth as he stood up to get a better view. Where did that little bug go? He thought with slight agitation setting in, he did not need this on the first day. He quickly shot his gaze towards Neci when he heard the question. " I'm liking the basement more and more, just wonder if they have enough Glade to clear it up for the freshies."