[IC] Wellington Academy ₊*

[Kautalya]

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^{I T ' S F A L L A G A I N
T H E S E A S O N O F M A T U R I T Y A N D P R O S P E R I T Y}

_{Weiss Gillian Wellington}

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Wellington Academy is proudly presenting their returning and incoming students for the new year; whether you're a student who stayed at the dorms for the entirety of your summer vacation, or a student excited to experience the wondrous academy, Wellington is hosting a move-in week where all students have the chance to move into their cottages. The students will get acquainted with those in the same living space, bonding over each other's interests. After said move-in week, the staff and our students services leader, Idette, will welcome all students to an orientation day. Before the start of the academic year, a variety of events will be present at this orientation to greet the students during this period. The students will follow through a quick tour around the building(a returning student can attend the tour if they'd like), basking in the comfortable environment Wellington Academy lays out. After the tour, students are allowed to walk around on their own or together with their cottage-mates and check out the clubs that have their own open-house in the classrooms.

Afterwards, students will have 3 days to get their schedules before they are ready to experience the richness behind Wellington's learning curriculum. Interests are a big part of Wellington's tradition! Therefore, classes are implemented to fit the needs of every student and are chosen to align with their interests (for example: If your interest is solving crimes then your classes will most likely be anatomy, psychology, statistics, etc). This allows the student to continue exploring and growing in their area of expertise. Wellington is ran exactly like a college so that students can mature ahead of their days and be prepared for the future.

There will be plenty of social events! So always be wary of your calendar dates and try not to miss out on them!

With that being said, welcome to Wellington Academy! The Administration Board thanks you for joining us on this adventure we call learning; we hope you enjoy your stay!

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^{2 4 T H O F A U G U S T
7 : 0 0 A M}

_{a r r i v a l}

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On a Monday morning—7AM to be exact—there may have been better things to be doing (like sleeping in) instead of lugging around belongings up a steep hill to wait to be picked up at one of the many rest stops along the way. The sun, aggressively bright with no clouds as company, made the walk even more exhausting. For you see, Wellington Academy was built on top of a mountainous, in the middle of nowhere, area that was not designed for a lot of traffic. With only a single road in and no place to park, the solution was to provide the students with the Wellington Coach. The road cuts through the mountains and the slow increase in altitude tends to pop ears. But the ride in, whether it's being experienced for the first time or not, does spark a range of emotions as the coach finally turns off the highway and onto a rockier, more secretive road where signs and stores become fewer with land outstretched in the horizon. The coach drives up, up, up and into the woods.

Once a turn is made, there is a small opening in the trees which leads to a tunnel beckoning you further in; overgrowth of leaves decorate its entrance with a small black sign with golden letters expertly spell out: Wellington Academy Entrance. The tunnel opens up to a dirt path that showcases a clear cut through the forest. The coach fights through the path against branches scratching at the sides of the vehicles and rocks underneath threatening to pierce through the wheels—the struggle lasts but a few minutes until the ground starts to level and the trees give way to more space, with green lawns observed in the distance. The coach sputters to a stop right by a large gate met at each side with stone statues on a pedestal. While you may not recognize them immediately, you will soon learn that the statues represents the Goddesses Athena and Minerva; goddesses that represent wisdom and knowledge. In that moment, you are hit with the realization that you have arrived. It was Wellington Academy.

A little after 7AM, that Monday morning, things have changed for you.

[Kautalya]

Ｉｄｅｔｔｅ　Ｇｅｎｅｖｉｅｖｅ　Ｂｌａｎｃ

_{i n t e r a c t i o n s. none at the moment
l o c a t i o n. Cottage ► Front gate}

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_{——————————————
6:05 AM - Wisteria Cottage
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In all honesty, she shouldn’t have been up this early.

Idette shifted awkwardly on the red couch displayed in the middle of the living room. She had spent the last two hours sitting and keeping her attention at the front door. Remarkably—she herself didn’t know how she did it—Idette didn’t feel as tired as she should’ve been considering she had gotten very little sleep. She liked to believe it was because the coffee was finally doing its job, but her body would say otherwise with the exhaustion creeping up with every lurch of her joints. As much as she loved making everything harder for herself (she, gladly, would’ve loved to take this whole week as a break), Idette still regrets the side of her that just can’t say no to anything. Sure she was always used to the same ol’ routine of constantly being told what to do, but it doesn’t change the fact that she sometimes would just like to, maybe just for one day, be alone and box.

Still, it was her fault in the end for easily accepting the task. The girl on a daily basis would have a never-ending No, Sorry or No thank you, sorry playing like a broken record in her head as ammunition to use if someone were to ask her for something. Her body, however, would betray every bit of her mind and disregard her mental practice by just answering yes, of course I can.

A prime example would be a few days back. Idette had just arrived at her cottage from the gym, sweating from head to toe, with her sports bag and drink almost falling off of her hands from how worn out she was. She knew it wasn’t right to overwork herself and she knew that her practices were harsh and she knew that working out and doing boxing to the point she can't feel her arms wouldn’t rid her of her cynicism—Idette knew all that, yet she still repeated the cycle. Upon opening the door, Idette was hit with a couple of keys thrown in her direction. She dropped all of her belongings in a surprised manner (but didn’t have the energy to present it well) and looked up from the direction it was thrown into. The cottage leader eyed down at Idette while he sipped from his white, “I’m the best mom!” mug. As intimidating as Nathaniel might’ve looked, his attitude and personality was of an awkward person trying to make sure he didn’t look intimidating—that’s where the mug comes into play, he swears it’s the funniest thing.

Idette just stared at him before reaching down and picking her belongings, along with the scattered keys. She felt like she had an idea of where this was going.

“Listen, Blanc.” He placed the mug at the kitchen counter. “You’re in charge of the new kids coming in.”

She had an itching that he was going to push this on to her.

She didn’t want to do it.

She really, really, didn’t want to do it.

But her legs were wobbly, her feet ached, and her vision was bleary and strained, so if she wanted to get out of this situation quickly she would have to just agree to it.

And she did just that. With a quick nod and a stumble to her steps, Idette stuffed the keys into her bag and vanished into her room.

_{——————————————
6:45 AM - Walking to front gate
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Idette rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She didn’t know if her cottage-mates were awake or not, she never really tried her best to keep a concrete conversation with any of them. It wasn’t as if Idette didn’t like them, but she often felt her friendships or interactions often felt forced because she felt obligated to like them or talk to them. But it wasn’t something Idette wanted to psychoanalyze herself for, especially not so early in the morning.

So, the young girl with messy blonde locks, a bandage to her right cheek, her ace band on her right hand, and her school uniform that she wore to seem “professional” (which consisted of the usual white polo shirt of an owl imprint along her cottage emblem and black shorts with Weiss Gillian’s signature at the hem) stood up and quietly left the cottage. She—what the dorm leader was supposed to do—was to meet the incoming students that will be residing at Wisteria once they are to be dropped off from the Wellington Coach.

She walked her way down the hill, passing some students and the wonderful flowers, while finally arriving at the spot where she was told to pick up the students.

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Ｏｃｅａｎｕｓ　Ａｒｇｕｓ　Ｏｄａｌｙｓ

_{i n t e r a c t i o n s. Elaina the cottage leader
l o c a t i o n. Pick-up spot ► Front gate ► Begonia Cottage}

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_{——————————————
6:30 AM - Pick-up spot
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Ocean sat crisscrossed at the sidewalk with his blue luggages by his side. He was dropped off at a secluded area with a sign that read, “Wellington students are to be dropped here. Do not drive them past this point, you will be turned down and the student will not be allowed to attend the academy.”

He recalled himself idly standing there and narrowing his eyes at the disclaimer etched on the wooden sign. It was out of the blue, and maybe a tad bit weird since he was wondering what was so secretive that they didn’t allow people aside from the driver to send the students to Wellington. Either way he didn’t care to question it that much.

He was seen wearing a baggy—that was three times his size—pastel blue sweater over a white dress shirt and black shorts. Oceanus had his hair up in a messy ponytail where strands of black hair were already spilling out, as well as blue and white striped socks that were followed up with buckled black loafers. He wasn’t dressing for the weather and he knew that. It was cold. Oceanus wasn’t new to that. However, as cold as it was, it never stopped him from wanting to wear outfits that wouldn’t restrict him so.

In the beginning, Ocean had wanted to just go without a sweater that was larger than the earth , but his father had insisted, saying Oceanus would arrive at school sick and who would want to be sick in the first week of school?

(and Ocean responded with a slick, “It’s just move-in week. I dont have classes yet…”)

Thus he settled with a baggy sweater and shorts.

As he was about to bury his whole entire face into his rosy knees, he noticed two pairs of clean, fresh, and obviously rich looking shoes in his peripheral view. He slowly looked up. A tall, pale and skinny man stood as straight as a pole while extending his white gloved hand towards Ocean. The man wore what Ocean would assume to be the most expensive suit known to man; It was dressed with gold emblems that glittered in the bright light, a midnight blue of a suit with a thin green windowpane pattern traced alongside the hems of the pants. He noted the unique design of the suit and quickly assumed that the garment was a bespoke. Whether the man in front of Ocean was young or old, it was not noticeable. In fact, Ocean was in awe of the man's features—bright brown eyes, white slick long hair thrown in a ponytail.

He was the definition of Wellington academy.

Ocean took his hand and was guided towards the long, black coach car. Following the driver felt like Ocean had been walking on clouds. His steps were light as if he was floating along the universe, hovering over every spinning star that sprinkled light in the night sky. Needless to say, Oceanus was aloof during the five seconds of travel to the car; because before he knew it the boy was already seated in the back seat and the drive had already begun.

He stared longingly at the driver's mirror, mostly in shock at someone who made Ocean feel like he was in a dreamlike state. The boy never wanted to start conversations, ever, it was rarely a choice, but something about the alluring atmosphere and the comfort of the drivers aura, had Oceanus almost spilling his entire life story. The driver was enigmatic, unpredictable, he was of a riddle. Oceanus never dealt with people like that. He was often used to how loud people were, how invasive others were of the so-called ‘privacy bubble,’ or how rude and uncharismatic. Others could call this judgmental of Ocean, or maybe a- so you think you’re better than them? And Ocean wouldn’t deny it. He always believed maybe it was his upbringing.

He remembered visiting a friend of his mother, who had a child his age at the time. They lived in an apartment, and while Ocean would’ve thought all of his parents' friends fell under the same category as them, this was a surprise to him. That and he’s never seen an apartment before. Upon seeing the room of the kid, Ocean blurted out that it was hardly the size of his bathroom. He made sure to continue on his remarks during the whole time. It didn’t gain him the friendship he had least wanted seeing as Ocean didn’t mind the child.

Realizing he had been staring at the driver while daydreaming, Ocean quickly hid his gaze. He turned his attention on the window and noticed that as bumpy as the road had been, it did not feel so inside the car. In fact, he felt like he was laying in a bed. As simple as that. He didn’t know what type of pixie dust the driver sprinkled on him, and maybe he was enjoying it, it did also scare him at how at ease he was. He noted the quick change in scenery when the driver cut off from the highway. The roads seemed rockier and bumpier, pebbles were spread out, there was land as big as the cosmos stretched out—It was a nice change to behold. The ride began driving upwards a hill, and soon enough Oceanus was welcomed with leaves just as long and grass just as green.

Enchanted forest.

The first word to pop into Oceanus’ head upon witnessing such a fairy-like place. Coils of vines dragged themselves across the hood of the car, at times lingering it’s touch on the roof of the car, other times bumping itself against the windows, resembling a knock. It was an ancient forest that reeked of age. Snapping branches rustled against the forest’s floor and rotted silently, mystical foliage flew their way past the car, shuffling noises were heard deep within the interior of the web of leaves, the forest was enchanting and something that could only be described in fairy-tales. Ocean never knew such a place existed. Then, just when Oceanus blinked, he was welcomed into a tunnel of magic.

The driver (which made Oceanus jump when he heard the deep voice), informed Ocean that a mural was painted by one of the students at the school. He, in shock that during this whole time the two were in a comfortable silence, didn’t respond. Mainly for the fact that he was freaking out and didn’t know how to respond. When moments passed and he felt it was too late to reply, Oceanus gave up and brought his attention back on to the mural.

He knew how to draw and paint, but this was on a whole new level of beauty. The mural surrounded the entire inside of the tunnel, as if transporting students into a whole new world. He noticed the splashes of swirls that were drawn on the top of the tunnel and on the sides; he felt like he was Alice, embarking on a journey to another world. If he hadn’t been traveling in a car, Oceanus would’ve loved to trail his fingers across the detailed fish, and the endless colors that clothed the entire tunnel. He couldn’t exactly make out the image but he knew that it was captivating with the infinity swirls, the splashes of water and fishes swimming through, the colors all contrasting with one another—it was truly a sight to gaze on, and it only made Oceanus excited to settle down at the Academy.

And then just like that, just like the beauty of both the forest and tunnel wasn’t enough, Oceanus had the luxury to witness the endless green and flowers that sprouted on the ground. He was truly in awe and fascinated by Wellington’s scenery that made him excited for the library.

The coach came to an abrupt stop and, repeating the same steps, Oceanus was guided out of the car and into the fronts of the Academy’s gates. The driver softly handed the boy his belongings and with a slight bow, he entered the car and traveled down the hill.

_{——————————————
7:00 AM - Front gate
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He wanted to respond back with a bye, he really did, but he was too captivated by the looming statues at opposite ends from one another. The large gate (which he assumed opened to the area of Wellington) shined brightly under the sun’s kisses, while the white statues illuminated a very prestigious look to the Academy. He didn’t know the names of the statues, but he was positive they played a part. Weiss Gillian (from what he has heard and read) was not a man to have a statue that shared no meaning.

As Oceanus was about to step closer to the gate, he noticed a short woman by one of the statues. She wore a sad, somber look, while her brown locks of wavy hair were stationed in a low ponytail. She wore a bright red lipstick and a red flowy dress that fell to her ankles, along with some black flats. Once she got closer (and Ocean could’ve swore she floated while she walked because of how light and soft her steps were), he noticed the blush that was scattered on her face along with her freckles. He wondered if the blush was makeup. She was a pretty woman, someone that preached of peace and reminded those of a sunrise-gold beach. A golden sand sweeping around on the beach, while a peach colored sky would loom over with softness.

_{“Oceanus Argus Odalys, right?”} She quietly spoke, like a whisper.

“I’m Elaina. I’m the cottage leader of Begonia.” She placed her hands on Oceans’ luggage, as if to allow herself to assist him. He let her.

“They are nice people. Your cottage mates,” they were both already on their way there as she floated along with her dress.

She told him in soft whispers and in a honey coated voice, that she will be living on the bottom floor while the students reside on the second floor. She explained how some students have cleaning duties. She told him how everyone has a responsibility in the cottage, she then went on to explain how Wisteria is their neighbor cottage but not to act too friendly with them because their cottage leader, Nathaniel is the worst (she giggled afterwards and it was soothing to listen to. It seemed like Elaina is close friends with said cottage leader.)

Once they traveled to Begonia, Elania unlocked the door and allowed Ocean to walk in first. The place wasn’t a “wow-factor” to Ocean, it was normal (he ended up telling her in a curt sentence that the living room, plus the kitchen and everything that was on the bottom floor was the same size as his room. Elaina was impressed but Ocean began to notice he didn’t change from when he was young. He soon felt embarrassed.)

Awkwardly, Ocean placed his belongings and waited for Elaina to explain what to do next. Rather, all she did was say, "Get comfortable, your room number is Begonia 3. I'll be in my room if you need anything else."

So, Ocean trotted upstairs, walking past the numbered doors and—

"Ah! Oceanus!"

Ocean walked his way towards the railing, looking downwards at Elaina.

"Something came up so I'll be out for a bit. Mordechai might be in there! Not too sure."

He was about to speak up and say a quick "okay," even though he was freaking out on the inside about the sudden roommate topic. He watched her leave the door with a little hum and, with everything setting in, Ocean turned his way back to the front of 'Begonia 3' and knocked...quietly.

[Karisma]

^{Lucas Martin De Los Angeles Lavanda Meri De Los Angeles}

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^{| l o c a t i o n | rest stop > wellington academy
| t i m e | 7:00AM}

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"Lali," Lucas exhaled a loud, exasperated sigh before continuing,"Por el amor de dios, explícame lo que haces aqui."

Lavanda had one of those shit-eating grins Lucas hated so much, he was usually graced with their presence whenever his older sister felt she and one upped him. Today wasn't one of those days, there couldn't possibly be anything that Lavanda could've pulled on him. After all, he had fool-proofed his suitcase and double checked he had everything earlier in the morning while she was still snoring. Not to mention, he had already finished breakfast and had no drinks with him. Anything and everything that could have been considered possible ammo for Lavanda was nowhere in sight. But here she was. Standing next to him at the rest stop he normally waits at to be transported up the mountains, into the woods, back to the place he calls a second home.

Lucas had spent the summer back home with his mother and sister; the weight of how much he missed them swallowed him the moment he got home. His mother's hugs, her cooking, his old shared room and even his sister's shit-eating grin—those were all things he had been excited to see once more. Now that summer was over and he got a truckload of that back into his system, he couldn't wait to be back at the academy and back at his cottage."Seriously, Lali, you're going to miss your flight back home."

"Lu, bro," Lavanda's grin gets even wider, "don't worry about it, I just want to make sure you get on your secret car ride to school safely."

Lucas lets another sigh escape him—this was the fifth one this morning—defeated and tired of the back and forth, he decides to just wait in silence. He takes in the scenery; the sun aggressively reminding him how summer was valiantly fighting to stay around, but the wind that came through brought in the signs that fall was just around the corner, winning the battle. He looks over to his sister, her hair a mess of strands blending in with the wind and a long sweatshirt that spelled the words 'mashed potatoes.' He never understood the point of that sweatshirt but it was Lavanda's favorite go to. His eyes then focused on what she was carrying and his confusion only grew. "Why the fuck do you have your suitcase with you?"

Lavanda threw her head back into a fit of giggles and as if on cue, the Wellington Coach arrived at the rest stop. Lucas nodded his acknowledgement to the driver while his sister filled the background with laughter, now bordering on cackling. "Look, Lali, I don't know what the hell you're on, but I'll see you during winter break, okay?"

Lavanda's laughter only grew and instead of answering, Lucas sighed (sixth one and counting) and began entering the coach as the driver took care of his luggage. To his surprise, Lavanda followed right after. She had been wiping off the corner of her eye; the residues of her laughs lingered in the air. She took in a loud, satisfied inhale of air and closed the door behind her. Lucas, confused and with an unrestrained anger, nearly raised his voice when he asked, "the fuck?"

"Chill, chill." Lavanda placatingly (and very annoyingly) said as she rose her hands in defense, "I got accepted to Wellington too! Surprise!"

Lucas, in his shock, looked around as if he were waiting for the "gotcha! you just got PUNK'D!" But with no cameras rolling in sight, he instead watched as the driver took in Lavanda's luggage, settled into the driver's seat, and began their ascent up the mountain. Lucas avoided looking over at Lavanda because he could just feel the energy she was giving off. Instead, he opted to look out the window in stark silence.

"So," Lavanda started, cutting through the silence. "What's Wellington Academy like? You rarely tell me anything juicy about it."

"Does mami know?"

"What?"

"Mami, did she know?"

"Oh yeah, she did. I can't wait to tell her how you reacted." She sighs in contentment before continuing, "I should've recorded it."

"Why wasn't I told then?"

"Porque then it wouldn't have been a surprise, obviously."

They ride in silence once more. The scenery began changing before them, it had gone from signs and farms to longer stretches of land and thickening trees.

Lucas finally looked over at his sister, who had been staring out the window. She had been tapping her foot to a nonexistent rhythm which Lucas knew it to be her nervous habit. "Hey, Lali."

Lavanda looks over at him and Lucas smiled. "Congrats on getting in."

Lavanda broke into a full smile and punched him in the arm before happily teetering back an dforth in her seat. "About time you said that! You were angry for way too long."

▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄

^{| Wellington Academy |
| Arrival Time: 7.30AM |}
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"Shit," Lavanda blurted, "isn't this that mural you painted, Lu?" She glued her face onto the window of the car, trying to soak in all the colors before the tunnel ended.

"This is fucking amazing," She turned back at him, smile in tow, "much better than the pictures you showed mami and I."

Lucas smiled in return and turned her attention back to what they had been talking about.

"Anyways, like I was saying," he grabbed onto the hem of her sweatshirt and pulled her back down so she can sit properly. "We're almost at the school and since this is going to be your first year ever, you're going to be going a different way than I am."

Lavanda tried to dig through everything Lucas had told her before in passing about the academy; most of what Lucas would ever share was how amazing the resources of the school were. Lavanda saw her once listless little brother become passionate about life once more and she had been interested in Wellington Academy ever since. "Will I be in the same cottage as you?"

"Dios, no." Lucas said, "I hope not. Sharing a room at home is enough, definitely don't want that here."

Lavanda rolls her eyes in response but does not have a chance to retort since the coach juddered to a stop. The driver looks back with a silent look that read 'we're here.' Lucas and Lavanda began getting off the car and helping the driver tale their luggage out. Lavanda stared up at the large gate they had just driven through and towards the green expanse of lawn before her. It was a huge contrast to the forestry, woody, natural surroundings they found themselves in. With her suitcase in hand, she thanked the driver before following Lucas to a larger clearing before a fountain. Lavanda looked behind her to see the gates just a few feet away, she saw as the driver pulled out to head back down the hill. That must be exhausting.

"What time were you supposed to be here?" Lucas asked Lavanda, bringing her attention back to the front again.

"I don't know, they kinda said 7AM, but that wouldn't have worked with my plan."

Are you dumb?"

"You're the dumb one, dumbass." Lavanda huffed defensively, "what's the big deal, I'm here anyways."

"The big deal is that you probably made your cottage leader wait too long. I hope they left you behind." Lucas began walking away from the fountain and towards a pebbled path leading deeper into the campus. "And it's not my problem! So! Good Luck!"

"Asshole." Lavanda yelled after him but instead of following, lingered awkwardly until she noticed a girl standing by the fountain. Lavanda quickened her steps towards the girl; she was taller than Lavanda with long blonde hair. Bandages littered the girl but Lavanda dismissed it, hoping the girl could guide her towards the principal's office or whatever the heck this school had. Plus, judging the only person around by their looks right now was probably not the best choice to make.

"Hey!" Lavanda said as she got within ear shot, "I'm Lavanda and new and lost. Can you help me?"

[Torack]

_{Interactions: Idette Blanc
Location: Wellington Grounds
Time: 5:30 am - 7:00 am}

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His phone’s alarm went off, blaring loudly and buzzing against his cupboard. Groaning, he sat up on the bed and turned off the alarm, attempted to wipe the sleep off his face, and looked out the window. It was still dark, the sky just starting to brighten as it slowly approached dawn. He lay back down for a moment. Today was the start of the new school year, when all the students who hadn’t stayed at Wellington would be coming back. He didn’t know how to feel about it. One part of him was glad the place had gone quiet during the summer, where he could do what he mostly wanted to without all the social obligations that came with being part of school.

And another part of him was glad they were coming back. For the exact opposite reason. It had been somewhat boring staying at Wellington. He certainly wasn’t alone in staying at the school over the summer, but there were far less students and a lot of the friends he’d made during his stay weren’t around. And now that they were coming back, he’d have a lot more people to talk to, and chill with instead of being alone with either the same people or relegating himself to talking with the teachers. Which wasn’t all that bad, but still.

Getting up, he started getting ready for his morning run. By the time he’d stepped out of his cottage, the sky had brightened. Still somewhat dark, but bright enough that he could see. And the morning air was pleasantly chill, which he wasn't dressed for at all, instead wearing his uniform shorts over a pair of black compression pants and a simple grey shirt.

He warmed up for a few minutes, then started jogging to the track, and by the time he’d gotten there his body had heated up enough that he could barely feel the chill anymore. And as he ran, he thought about home. It would’ve been nice to have gone back instead of staying at Wellington, which was as pleasant a place to stay as anywhere else. But, seeing the other students leaving for their homes had brought about a pang of jealousy, many of them going back to loving families and parents that wanted them home.

Every time he thought about going back however, he was filled with anxiety. His stomach would roil up and his chest would tighten. His parents were loving, in their own way, but the demands they put on him. He was glad he was out of the house and glad their constant pressure wasn’t on him. It probably would’ve helped if he shared how he felt with them, but knowing his father, the old man would’ve told him to “man up” and get his head right instead of wallowing in his emotions. And even with all of that, he still missed his home, missed his siblings and the rare look of approval his parents gave him when he did something right.

He didn’t dwell on it overlong, though. Pushing the thoughts out of his mind, letting it empty out as he ran. The endorphins coursing through his veins giving him that runner’s high and making him feel a whole lot better by the hour mark.

Taking off his drenched shirt, he walked back to Coleus cottage, taking his time to enjoy the morning. Taking a paved path that cut through a lush grove which led towards the cottages. And as he approached his own, he saw Idette walking out of Wisteria. "Yo," he called out in greeting with a head nod before going inside his own cottage and grabbing a water bottle from the fridge.

Getting back to the common room, he plunged himself down on the sofa to catch his breath. The muscles of his calf and thighs throbbing, and his foot giving the occasional twitch. He sat around, resting for a while and staring at the ceiling, a small smile on his face while hydrating himself. Then he got up and showered. When he got back down, wearing a navy blue shirt and a pair of grey joggers, he went into the kitchen and started making breakfast for everyone, hoping the smell would wake someone up.

[Rithas]

🄼🄰🅃🅃🄷🄴🅆 🄳🄾🅈🄻🄴

Begonia Cottage: Dorm 1

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Today was going to be a bad day.

His awakening was the dying breaths of whatever semblance of peace he could say he had these last couple of months. Soon, the STD's of this school would return from whatever those gremlins did during the holidays. Could have been murder for he didn't care as long as it was far away from him. Being able to read outside without being bothered had been a rare joy.

Specifically, the peace of mind that comes from not having to listen to Oliver's music, or eating, or about his dad. The thought of having to listen to those stupid video calls with his bloody cat sent shivers down Matthew's spine. Still, He had practice Soccer over the summer. Perhaps now if he truly crush Ollie at it he would finally stop asking him to play. It was a meager hope, afterall that man's brain consited of oatmeal soup but it was still a hope that he stuck with.

He had been awake before the sun had risen. In the dark, staring at the ceiling. Another year of this. It made him feel a little green. There had been a lot of thinking...throwing his football up and down. Bemoaning life, such and such. When eventually, where the speckles of light had began to rustle through his curtain winodws, Matthew began to hear approaching voices.

He picked out the voice of Elaina, their dorm head. A woman who Matt had a...interesting relationship with. And the subtle voice of...someone new? Ah, yes. Freshman would be moving in today. With their blind ignorance and oblivious attitudes. A deep sigh rose from Matt's lips. Terrible awful day.

Putting his ear to the door, he listened to the introduction the boy(?) was being given by Elaina downstairs. He was given that introduction once in this very cottage. He often wondered if it was a script each of them were given.

Matthew bit his lip as he heard the soft patter of the newcomer walking up the stairs. He very softly put his hand on the handle. Ready to barricade the door with his body if this person turned out to be someone who felt the need for door to door introductions.

Hearing the call out that Elaina was leaving the cottage, Matthew let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't quite ready to deal with her yet. He turned on his heel to go back to his bed. But thought of what this newcomer was like was probably a string of questioning that he'd like to get out of the way. It was best to know what obstacles he was facing this year.

He opened just enough to stick his head out, this still caused a solid creak. Matthew was not one for cottage maintenance. What he saw was a short kid knocking on room three. That was Mordechai's room. Haha, serves him right to have to deal with a freshman. Deal with the puzzle of a fourteen year old whining about...whatever they did nowadays.

"Hey Kid." Matthew uttered, his sharp eyes staring holes through Oceanus. "Quick tip, You roommate loves people who talk loads and bright lights, make sure the curtainsa are whipped open in the morning." He tapped on the door, with slender fingers. "You are...?"

Physically Interacted: @Kautalya

---

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Fatima Musa ♥

Wellington Academy

---

"I wonder if they have an arena? Or a home theatre. I want massive speakers for the most epic of explosions!" She raised her hands to the sky. "I'm talking big KABOOMS! and deep KADUNKS!" She grinned widely at the thought. "The arena can be used for personal duels." Her eyes narrowed and she brought her voice to a raspy whisper. "When the only way to get justice is outside the law..."

Fatima turned to the freshman that had the..fate of sitting next to her on the coach. She hadn't spoken much. Or at all, really. Fatima had really just instigated talking and hadn't decided to stop yet. "Woouldn't that be sooooo cool!" she nodded to herself in agreement.

"Anyway, when is this coach finally gonna get us to the place. I feel like we've been stuck in a bundle of trees for the last SIX CENTURIES!" She adjusted her glasses, which threatened to fall off her face each time she jolted her body. "Maybe we're gonna have to fight off some forest ninjas." She patted her fellow incoming freshman on the shoulder. "Don't worry gal, I'll protect you. They wont be expecting these fists of justice!" She shadow boxed infront of her.

Disappointingly, the coach made an uneventful stop to their location. "Let's go!" She announced, being the first one to get off the bus despite having sat at the back. She even jumped off with a little kick in the air and a 'Hwah!'

Completely ignoring the statues that surrounded the gate, cause all statues have ever done for her had solidified the sad truth that she couldn't punch concrete.

There were people talking as the coach group disperse. People who knew eachother beforehand or had gotten friendly on the bus. She had already lost track of the girl she had talked to, and she hadn't gotten her name either. How ill-mannered of her. After looking around for a little bit. Fatima spotted a girl ordained with bandages. A sparkle twinkled in her eye. A worthy opponent!

Sprinting up to the girl who was currently being talked to by someone else. Fatima raised her hands "LET'S FIGH- OHFLIPMYGLASSES" Tripping on a small twig, Fatima was agile enough to keep her balance but the sudden loss of speed sent her glasses soaring past the two and into a nearby bush.

Fatima looked at the, now two human shaped smudges with glittery yet unfocused eyes. "I NEED THOSE!"

Physically Interacted: @Kautalya @Karisma ( @alexfangtalon (If You wish to be the freshman girl) )

[Aces Away]

Interactions:

Collab with@ImmortalJaskier

Location:

Wellington Rest-Stop

Time:

5:23am

---

A battered Sheriff's truck pulled up the edge of Wellington's rest-stop and idled as the the two people inside turned to each other to speak.

"Don't-"

"I'll-"

The two voices overlap and both men stutter a stop, Mordechai motioning to his father to go first. The gruff looking man smiled and leaned in for a readily returned hug, whispering, "I'll call you every night."

Mordechai's tense frame finally relaxed in his father's grip as he gave out a shaky, "Thanks, Pops." and gripped back just as tight. The two then pulled back from each other and Mordechai removed his seatbelt, rubbing at his eye lazily. "Don't forget to pull over and take a nap at some point, you've already been awake sixteen hours," he added, as he slid out of the truck and turned back to face his dad. "no matter how much coffee you drink on the way, you still need at least 20 minutes of shuteye to keep your focus."

"I promise, Bubbie, now go solve that mystery every old private school seems to have." It was the same words he and his father had exchanged every year since Mordechai joined Wellington Academy, but it made Mordechai laugh all the same. "I love you, kiddo."

"I love you too, Tate." And with that he closed the door, waving his father off and watching him start the twelve and a half hour drive back home. When his father’s truck disappeared around the corner, Chai rolled his shoulders and turned around, coming up short when he saw someone was already there.

---

(Translations: Bubbie= Yiddish term of endearment, the U has the OO pronunciation such as in Hoof or woof.
Tate= Yiddish for Dad, Pops, Papa)

---

Interactions:

Collab with@Aces Away

Location:

Wellington Rest-Stop

Time:

5:13am

---

"Nervous for your first day at school?"

Flashing a smile, Zeke did his best to appear at least somewhat confident as he faced his mother. "I'm seventeen, not seven Ma, I'll be fine" She gave a slightly watery laugh as she pulled him in for a quick, tight hug, before pulling away.

"Yes, you will." There was nothing but confidence in her eyes as she said that and Zeke felt some of his tension drain away. "Bye sweetheart, I love you."

"Love you too, Mamma."

A hand on his shoulder had him turning around just as his father pulled him into a tight hug. "Bel gereeld."

"Elke dag. Lief vir jou, Pa."

His father studied him for a moment, misty eyed, before nodding "En ek jou. Wys daai skool wies baas."

And just like that his parents' Audi drove off, leaving Zeke feeling more alone than he could ever remember being before.

---

(Translations: Bel gereeld.=Call often
Elke dag. Lief vir jou, Pa.= Every day. Love you, Dad.
En ek jou. Wys daai skool wies baas.= And I you. Show that school who's boss.)

---

Time:

5:23am

---

At the sound of a vehicle, brown eyes immediately glanced up from where he was reading on his phone. He wondered briefly if it was the school finally arriving, only to have that theory soundly crushed once he laid eyes on the sheriff's truck that just pulled up. Not wanting to intrude on what was undoubtedly a private moment, Zeke immediately forced all of his attention back to the story he was reading, quietly mouthing the written words. He was just starting to get back in the zone when the rumble of an engine once again made him look up.

The truck was gone. In its place was a young man with pale skin, an athletic, lithe build and messy, pitch black hair styled in an undercut.He seemed to be around Zeke’s age and just like that, all the anxiety that he had successfully been repressing until now reared its ugly head. What was he supposed to do? Should he announce himself? Should he go back to reading? What was the social protocol here? Looking down at his phone, he was sorely tempted to pretend that he didn’t notice anything, then he looked up - brown eyes meeting blue, the boy having turned around during his internal debate.

Nothing for it now...flashing the other boy what he hopes comes off as a smile, Zeke just hoped that he won’t commit some social taboo or grievously insult anyone before even setting foot on school grounds.

Mordechai smiled softly at the other boy and made his way to the bench. The boy didn’t look familiar to him and given the size of the student body that would be almost impossible, but he also didn’t look young enough to be an incoming freshman. He must have been coming in as a junior or senior, and looked about as nervous as could be.

"Hey there, I’m Mordechai, one of the Seniors," he greeted, holding out his hand for a shake. “Are you new to Wellington?”

"Is it that obvious?" Taking Mordechai’s hand, Zeke shook it, forcing his body to remain loose and casual instead of the tight ball of tension it wants to become. "Nice to meet you, Mordechai. I’m Ezekiel, I just transferred here."

As an afterthought, he also added "Junior." before taking back his hand.

”I’ve seen that look on newcomers before,” Mordechai laughed, pulling his hand back into his space and stuffing it in his pocket, the other still holding his duffle bag. Just as he was about to set it down, the coach arrived, so instead he nodded his head towards it while looking to the other. ”C’mon Ezekiel, we’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other on the ride.” Then he got in first, nodding and smiling to the driver like he always does.

Giving Mordechai a nod, he quickly stood up to follow his lead. Giving the driver a smile, he paused before entering, taking a moment to inspect the coach. It was long, black, fancier than he thought possible for a school vehicle and made him wonder once again how exactly he managed to get accepted into a place like Wellington. He’ll admit that he’s a pretty good writer and all, but - forcibly pulling himself from those thoughts, Zeke reinforced his smile and followed Mordechai into the coach.

Aaaand it was even fancier on the inside. Ezekiel didn’t even bother to cover up his slightly disbelieving expression as he took his seat. "Is this really school property?"

Mordechai laughed again. ”Bet your ass. Everything about this school is gonna give you that doe-eyed look for a while, trust me.” He took the moment before the other had entered to really get a look at him. He had dark hair and deep brown eyes behind his glasses. He had a grip on a book and was definitely on the more nervous side, though worked well to hide it. Ezekiel was also a bit taller than himself, which Mordechai acknowledged easily as he was somewhere in the middle of the upperclassmen heightwise and had never had issue with others being taller than him. Hell, Oliver had a whole head on him at six foot four.

As the coach pulled off on its journey, he picked the conversation back up. ”So what cottage did you get put in? Maybe I can give you a heads-up on your housemates.”

A little of the tension left Zeke upon hearing that. One of the main causes for his nervousness is not knowing what to expect, so any information Mordechai can give him - even if it’s just something inconsequential - means a lot. Meeting the other’s striking blue eyes, he gave his most grateful smile. "That would actually be really amazing if you could." Quickly opening his book, he pulled out a folded piece of paper from where it had been wedged between the pages, before shutting it again.

"According to the notice they sent, I’m going to be in Coleus and my roommate will be someone called Jordan Dom." A swift glance at the paper reassured him that he got the details right - as if he hadn’t basically memorised it already. "I hope I didn’t butcher the pronunciation?" One of the concerns he’s had since receiving the notice.

”Nope, you got it,” Chai grinned. “You’ll like JD, he’s a good guy; we work out together every now and then. He’s got his ticks just like everyone does but it’s pretty easy to work things through with him in my experience. He can definitely be a neat freak when he wants to be,” he laughed, but it turned into a yawn halfway through. “Chali is in your cabin if I recall correctly; she’s sweet if not a little chaotic, and if you got any problems with bullies you could definitely come to her or me. High chance the youngest one, Bee, will want you to record a skate move every now and then. She’s a good kid with good energy around her.”

Housemates spoken of, Mordechai tilted his head and thought of what he knew of Venetia, speaking up just as they reached the tunnel. ”Hmm, your cottage leader is not someone you want to test when it comes to breaking curfew, and she has those ‘eyes in the back of my head’ vibes.”

Ezekiel listened intently while Mordechai talked, nodding here and there, taking careful note of every person mentioned and relaxing a bit more with every piece of information given to him. Knowing a little of what to expect, helps him to actually believe that he’ll be able to survive in this new environment. “Thank you.” Hopefully, those words will be enough to properly convey how much he appreciates it.

Then they passed through the tunnel and he went even more ‘doe-eyed’ than he did with the coach.

“Damn...” The mural lining the tunnel wall was, put simply, astounding. The colour and intricate detail just begged for attention and Zeke promised himself that once he got the chance he’ll come back here to look at it properly, maybe take some pictures to show his parents.

Almost as soon as they entered it, the tunnel ended, opening up to a dirt path, showcasing a clear cut through the forest. Turning back towards Chai, Zeke grinned. “You weren’t kidding earlier, this place is unreal.”

”Yep, real fairytale imagery around here,” he knocked lightly on the window with his knuckle. The coach came to a stop and Mordechai rose up from his slumped position, taking his duffle that the driver already had out for him and giving him a soft thanks.

---

Time:

6:00am

---

”Well, here we are!” He pointed toward the gate and statues, making his way in. ”You’re about an hour early for the new students, but it’s happened before. I’ve got to get to my cottage and unpack the boxes I left of my stuff,” he dug into his pockets and pulled out a receipt and permanent marker, scribbling on it before handing it towards Ezekiel. It read:

Chai

740-673-0061

”Feel free to text me if you get bored or lonely around here, yeah?”

Taking the number, it was all Zeke could do not to act like a dumbstruck fool - he was not expecting this - but that didn’t stop him from smiling brightly at Chai as he gave a nod. “Will do.”

After they separated, Zeke carefully placed the number inside his book before grabbing his luggage and settling down by the Athena statue to wait for his cottage head.

Mordechai took off towards his cottage with a soft smile, still tired but feeling lighter than he had when his dad pulled off.

---

Interactions:

@Kautalya@Rithas

Location:

Begonia Cottage

Time:

7:10am

---

Having greeted Elaina shortly after arriving to the cottage, Mordechai collected his boxes of possessions they had put in a storage closet when he left for summer; he headed up to Begonia 3 to set up, knowing he would never bring everything out of the boxes if he didn’t do it now.

He had been at it for the past hour give or take, and he was starting to feel the length of the drive. He was contemplating a nap as a reward for getting up his investigation board- which he now had a little curtain to pull over it as he was going to have a freshman roomie, gotta maintain that youthful innocence and all- when he heard one of the softest knocks since Elaina. Oh boy.

He had crossed the room and grabbed the door handle when he heard Matt’s voice through the wood, causing him to huff out an exasperated laugh at the junior’s antics. He opened the door as Matt asked the kid his name and, oh jesus, this kid was small, he wasn’t expecting that. He quickly lowered the volume he was about to reply with that and tried to soften his tone.

“Nem Zich a vaneh, Doyle,” he spoke with a light glare, turning to his roomie. ”I’m Mordechai, but you can call me Chai or Mor if you’d like. Don’t let Matt put the wrong idea into your head; on the contrary, you can definitely believe me when I tell you that he loves staying up for as long as possible and solving mysteries just like I do.”

He threw a smirk in Matt’s direction.

---

Translation-Nem Zich a vaneh(Yiddish)= Go jump in the lake

[alexfangtalon]

---

Ely

Location: Pick-up Spot -> Front Gate

Interaction: Ramona(@canaryrose)

Date: August 24th; 6:25 AM

---

"_{-si. Elysia.} LYSI, Wake Up!." The young girl groggily sat up from the backseat as she was, almost, gently shaken awake. She slowly rubbed the drowsiness from her eyes looking at the two sitting in the front seat who had been attempting to wake her for the last minute. In the driver's seat was Adelinde while her father Ryon sat in the passenger seat. "You were out like a log, Blueberry. Dreaming about what Wellington would be like?" Ely took a momentary glance outside the car. People. More people than she had expected. The girl looked towards her father giving a short nod. She had indeed been dreaming about what Wellington may have been like, but the not so great sleeping position, as well as her nerves, lead to the dream being a little on the bad side.

First, she dreamed that she missed Move-in week. Showing up late, not being allowed in her room, and being unable to unpack her things as she was stuck in the main room. She was at her first day of class, and every other student the school had was there. They were forced to take turns introducing themselves. She was nervous beyond belief, and her family caught on to this fact. "Hey, are you sure you want to do this?"

"Adelinde can turn the car right back around and I can try my hand at homeschooling you." Elysia shook her head no. She pulled out a piece of paper she had written on earlier because she knew that they'd try to talk her out of doing this. It reads, *I decided to do this. So, I can. Don't worry. Drive safe. I love you.* She quickly typed on her smartphone, the only remotely expensive thing the family owns. Even compared to the vehicle they were in now which on the outside didn't look like it could drive for an hour let alone nineteen. The phone piped out the message she put through it, "Tell Eliza I don't blame her for not being able to come. Work is important. Get rest before you leave for Iowa."

The two in the front gave each other a look before both exited the car. Adeline went to the back to get Elysia's luggage while their father opened the back door for Elysia, giving her a long hug once she got out. "You always worryin' about us too much. You stay safe, and if you start to panic just remember what Dr. Stiles said to do and you'll be fine. I have faith in you." The teenager hugged her father tight scared to let go knowing it'd be a long time before she'd see them face-to-face again. After they finished hugging, Adelinde gave Elysia a hug as well. Despite the rocky start the sisters had, they had grown very close in the previous few years. They hugged for almost as long as Elysia and Ryon had. Letting go, Elysia rubbed the starting of tears away. Elysia grabbed her backpack from the car throwing it on her back and then took her suitcase from Adelinde.

She walked over to where the other newcomers were waiting. She turned to look at her sister and father as they were about to drive off and signed, Bye. I love you. Then waved as they drove off. She looked at the others around her. There weren't all that many people here. The school was really small in number so not many new students usually came but they were all still new faces. There wasn't too much talking except for one girl who seemed to be talking to herself but also at them and the world itself all at the same time. There was also a boy sitting on the sidewalk that didn't seem all that approachable. Looking at everyone Elysia had settled on who to approach but then the coach arrived. Out of the driver seat emerged a man who looked like the ultimate gentleman butler. The impeccable suit, pristine visage, and excellent posture. Had she somehow found herself at an old-fashioned British boarding school? Despite his beanstalk physique, the man easily gathered everyone's belongings into the coach along with them themselves. He had a job and he was good at it. Was everything about this school so prim and proper?

Elysia quickly sat herself at a window so that she could watch the scenery as they rode up the mountain. Not long after she sat, the girl who could talk to anything sat right beside her. It felt like she had enough enthusiasm to match everyone else and then some. The girl talked so fast that Elysia couldn't find the time to get any type of communication across. She even fumbled with pulling out the note cards she'd made which had her name and other general introduction pleasantries written on them. The view outside the window drew her attention from the attempt to introduce herself. Sure, she'd seen a lot of forests but she had never been up a mountain. The sensation of her ears popping was strange but the sights more than made up for it. The highlight of the drive had to be the tunnel though.

The moment they entered the tunnel Elysia became glued to the window. She couldn't take her eyes off of it. It was so pretty. The fact that a student had made it caused it to be even better. When they finally exited the tunnel, the teen had a moment of sadness which soon became replaced with the desire to draw. She grabbed a sketchpad from her backpack and pulled a pencil from her pocket. She stared at the pad for a few minutes and was about to begin drawing when her attention was drawn to look out the window once again seeing that the coach had stopped. It was beautiful. Everything looked so amazing. So magical. She wanted to draw all of it but she noticed the driver was informing her that it was time to disembark.

She got up carrying the sketch pad under her arm putting her pencil back in its pocket. She looked around for the girl who she had sat beside to introduce herself but she didn't see her anywhere. Other than those who had been at the pick-up area there were a few more people to the crowd. Some had started talking with others but Elysia looked around unsure of what to do. She knew she was supposed to wait for her dorm leader to come to her but what should she do until then? Elysia looked at the people around her and determined she would introduce herself before she missed her chance. Setting her sights on someone, Ely walked with her head slightly down straight for that person, holding out to them one of her little pre-prepared introductory cards.

[canaryrose]

---

_{Location: Rest Stop -> Front Gates Interactions: Elysia @alexfangtalon Date: August 24th, 6:25 AM -> 7:00 AM}

---

Just a little before 6:30 AM, a white Pilot pulled up to the rest stop. There was an Uber sticker on both the rear and passenger windows of the car- it didn’t belong to a parent. The driver was far too young to be one anyways. There was a high-school aged girl in the backseat, too, dark-skinned and curly-haired. Ramona had hired the Uber to drive from the airport to Wellington Academy. The car stayed parked at the stop after it had pulled up, the engines still going. Then, after a minute or so, the back door popped open and Ramona hopped out. With a heavy grey duffel bag already slung over her shoulder, she raced to the trunk and popped it open. With effort, she planted her feet in the ground and hefted two suitcases out, dropping them on the ground once she was done. Once everything was out of the trunk, she gave a thumbs-up to the driver and he drove away, leaving her alone at the rest stop.

Ramona could barely keep her eyes open as she tugged her suitcases over to where she thought the coach would pick them up, staggering the entire way. At this point, she had been awake for… she checked the leather watch on her wrist and sighed. 20 hours. It wasn’t that the flight from Miami to Vermont had been that long. The plane ride had taken only five hours, and she had spent half of it trying to sleep and the other half trying to read Chinese literature. So it hadn’t been that. Rather, it had been all the extra time. She had gotten to the airport three hours before her flight, and it had laid over in Philadelphia, which took another two hours. A
Starbucks had been her guardian angel in Philly, but apparently it had been too early for the coffee shop in Burlington to open when she landed. And, even then, she hadn’t had enough time to get coffee once she landed- she had had to race across a deserted airport to her 4 AM Uber. The drive to Wellington Academy had taken them winding through dark, unpaved mountain roads for nearly two hours, with no coffee in sight. So now, at 6:30 AM, her eyes were trying their best to betray her by closing and lulling her into sleep.

With her bright yellow-painted nails, she pinched the sensitive skin on the inside of her wrist, jarring herself back to being three-quarters awake. Fighting to keep her eyes open, she glanced around and nearly lost her breath. The New England wilderness was only missing a blanket of snow to make it a proper winter wonderland. Even here, from the road, it was breathtaking. Mountainous and covered in what seemed to be some sort of tree, it was radically different from the wilderness of Florida. The sun was steadily rising It was August, and it was cold even now. Realizing the chill, Ramona tugged her zip-up jacket closed, sticking her hands in its pockets. Maybe she had brought too many tank-tops for the climate here. As of right now, even her current outfit didn’t seem to be enough- a black zip-up hoodie from Hollister, exercise pants, and slides with socks. She was wearing sunglasses, too, which didn’t seem to be too necessary. She took note of the other students around her, dark brown eyes skimming over the few other students that had arrived this early. She yawned, anxious for the coach to arrive.

She had been waiting for this moment for what felt like eons, although she knew she had only applied 6 months ago. This school sounded perfect to her. Ramona was good at math and science and history, sure, but what she loved was languages. And it turned out that trying to focus on things that she didn’t love led her to crash and burn. But no school except Wellington would let her forgo the general curriculum and instead pursue her interests. It had been a miracle when she had been accepted, and now she was here- actually here. Or about to be. She wondered what her classes would be like. Or her roommate- it said on the information sheet she had been given that her roomie’s name was Evelyn Albright. She liked to imagine that her roommate spoke a language that she didn’t know yet, but she had looked her up and found only mentions of piano competitions and recitals. She hadn’t been able to find any videos, though. That was probably her thing, her special Wellington skill. Ramona just hoped that her piano playing wouldn’t interrupt her studying.

Finally, the coach pulled up to the rest stop. Ramona had never seen a coach before, and was honestly kind of expecting a horse-drawn buggy. But, much to her disappointment (?), it just kind of looked like a bus. Not wanting to take too long, Ramona let everybody else go before her, finally dragging her heavy suitcases and bag onto the coach with her and sitting in one of the front seats. The seat beside her was left empty, so she could scoot over to the window seat and gaze outside without any feeling of guilt.

The scenery seen from the Wellington coach was even more beautiful than from the road. Ramona watched, captivated, as the coach cut through the slim forest road, the boughs of the pine trees brushing against the windows. The thin morning light filtered through the forest, casting leafy shadows on the windows. The coach bumped as it went over rocks and divots in the dirt path, and when Ramona thought that it couldn’t get any cooler, a tunnel appeared ahead. She pressed her cheek to the window, aiming to see what laid ahead of them. The tunnel appeared to be the entrance into the Academy- after all, that was what it said. Her ears popped, and she made a squeak of discomfort. And then, it passed through the tunnel. A gorgeous mural covered the insides of the tunnel. Ramona pressed her hands against the window, wanting a closer look, but it disappeared within seconds as the coach sped past the tunnel and started to struggle up, up, up, further up the mountain. I didn’t think that mountains could be this high, she thought, hands pressed to the window as the coach struggled through the path.

They pulled up to the gates a few minutes later. The doors of the coach popped open, and Ramona gazed out for a moment or so, marveling at the exquisite gates. She caught herself doing this and then, groaning, pulled her duffel back onto her shoulder and hauled her suitcases out of the coach, muttering a “thank you” to the driver before hopping out.

Attempts to focus on getting to where she needed to be were not enough. Instead of looking for the other incoming students, Ramona trudged up to the statues and simply stared. She cocked her head. They looked vaguely… Greek? Roman? Like goddesses of some sort. Athena and… she couldn’t quite place the other one. Before she quite knew what she was doing, her right hand was touching the statue. She yanked it away quickly.

She looked around for a moment more, finding the spot where she had been told to wait for her cottage leader and standing there. She was a bit too tired to initiate conversation, with anyone, so she chose not to.

Then, a shorter girl approached her, holding out a notecard. Ramona blinked. Did I drop one of my flashcards? But she was sure that her flashcards were in her supplies suitcase… she took the card, reading it, and popped her head up. Her mouth formed an “o”. She was mute. And from Zinnia Cottage!

“Oh, it’s awesome to meet you! I’m Ramona Hernandez.” She waved to the younger girl, smiling widely and naturally. “That’s funny, because I’m in Zinnia Cottage too. I don’t think you’re my roommate, though. I’m a sophomore, but I just enrolled this year…” Ramona trailed off, glancing to the side.

“Anyways, since you’re, uh, mute, do you speak ASL? Sign? Whatever. My Wellington thing is that I’m a polyglot. I’m trying to learn ASL right now, but I’m not very good at it, like, at all. It’s kind of hard to practice and stuff because it’s not written or anything and I have to memorize all the… nevermind. Just wondering.”

[Karisma]

^Nico

---

^{| l o c a t i o n | zinnia cottage > front gates
| i n t e r a c t i o n s | @alexfangtalon & @canaryrose (and @Hey Im Jordan if you would like to have Kass follow Nico to the front gates.)}

---

The day is raw.

Nico had just finished his 5AM jog through one of the academy's less traveled hiking trails and was now seeking shelter from the sun's perseverant rays. Nico walked. He thought about heading back to the cottage for a change of clothes and to cool down a little but a quick glance at his phone told him that wouldn't be the best course of action. Of course, it was still 6am and he had plenty of time to walk leisurely to the front gates, but one should never just assume everything will go as planned. What if he encountered an emergency on his way there? What if he needed to assist Ela? Or even Nat? There were too many factors and in order to allow for enough time to both respond to them and also arrive 15 minutes before 7AM, Nico needed to start walking now.

The walk towards the fountain near the front gate was a short one, less than 30 minutes. He could've taken a golf cart like Nat or Venetia usually do, but that would spoil the leisure part to the actual journey. New students were arriving! It was a wondrous day and he was going to be one of the first people they interact with, so he needs to make it worth their time; being late is not going to be a good look. Their image of Wellington Academy started with him and he needed to live up to that standard. As he passed by his own cottage, he picked up his pace while humming one of his favorite tunes. From the corner of his eyes, Nico noticed some movement and as he looked over, he saw a student he recognized from his cottage—Kassandra. He continued walking without a second glance, wanting to avoid any delays.

The fountain was already in view and Nico fell into a rhythmic pace since he had arrived a good 20 minutes before the scheduled time. He rehearsed the names of the new students he was welcoming to his cottage in his head, making sure he got the pronunciations correctly, Elysia Dey and Ramona Hernandez. Nico stood a few steps away from the fountain and waited.

▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄

^{| 20 Minutes later... |
| 7 : 00 A M |}
▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄

Once he saw the Wellington Coach pull up near the front gates at 7AM (right as scheduled, he loved how punctual the driver always was), Nico began making his way towards them to meet them halfway. He stretched his arms out towards the sky accompanied by an easy smile until he stopped mid-track—he had an idea of what Ramona and Elysia looked like due to their student applications, so as his outstretched arm began resuming its rest position, he watched on as he saw Elysia go up to Ramona. He concluded they must be introducing themselves and decided not to interrupt immediately. After watching for a few minutes, he glanced at his watch, making the internal executive decision that he had waited long enough.

"Good morning!" Nico's voice cut through their conversation with no regards of what they may have been discussing. "My name is Nico Cavalcanti! But please, just call me Nico."

Nico was standing by the two girls, leaning back on his heels and his lips forming an easy smile. "It is my most absolute pleasure to welcome you both to Wellington Academy."

"I'm the Zinnia Cottage faculty cottage leader." He paused for a few seconds as if to allow them to reply but instead barreled on with practiced ease. "Which basically translates to me being your go-to for any concerns or help you may need while you stay with me at the Zinnia Cottage—your assigned dorm."

"I hope you both had the chance to introduce yourselves to each other since you will be sharing a home for the next year. Now, please follow me! I will lead you to your new home and give you your assigned rooms. Oh! do let me know if you need any help with your luggage." Nico—without waiting for any confirmation of understanding—turned around briskly to begin walking back towards the cottage.

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^Venetia

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^{| l o c a t i o n | coleus cottage > front gates | t i m e | 7:15AM
| i n t e r a c t i o n s | @ImmortalJaskier}

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"Sweet mother of pearls," Venetia's voice rose with each bump and rock she continuously ran over, the sarcasm dripping from each word, "Oh yeah! Let's build this super famous school in the absolute jack middle of nowhere where the paths are uneven and a constant safety hazard!! Genius idea!!"

Venetia pulled onto a sharp turn on the golf cart she had demanded the day before. She didn't understand why they would even entertain the idea that she—just her— would walk to and from her cottage (in her Jimmy Choo's even!) just to pick up a new student. Heck, she had tried to convince the assistant principal that since all these students are oh so smart and gifted, they should be able to find their own way to their cottage with some paper instructions. That didn't go so well.

And now, Venetia found herself speeding (if you could even call it speeding in this sorry excuse for a vehicle) to get to the front gates area and pick up a kid called Ezequiel. She forgot his last name, but figured with the limited amount of kids that are accepted, her margin for errors was very small. She had a brief idea of what he looked like, so as soon as she pulled up to the front gates, her eyes began scanning the crowd. There were some students she recognized since they were returning, but she did not find the supposed Ezequiel anywhere near the fountain area. Instead, she drove closer to the front gates and there by the statues, she found a dark-haired kid sitting by that area. "Bingo."

Venetia pulled up beside the statue, the rhinestones on her sunglasses glinted as a response to the sun's ray landing on them. It was her natural spotlight—the sun. She did not bother getting off the gold cart and instead called on over to the boy sitting by the Athena Statue.

"Hey, Kid!" She said before adding, "My name is Venetia, get on, I got better places to be."

[Hey Im Jordan]

_{Time: 5:30 AM - 7:00 AM
Interactions: JD @Torack}

Zerged out on the bed was where Bee belonged.

Her parents disagreed, they thought she could be a doctor, a software engineer, a lawyer like her father… someone who was successful, who mattered. However, Bee disagreed. Why work so hard when she could coast through life? Plenty of people made it in the world without so much effort. Imagine trying, imagine spending six years of your life just to be stuck with years of student loan debt, and then in like forty more years, whatever profession she chose would just give her a watch and kick her down the road with a quiet ‘fuck you.’

Abigail wasn’t about that. She had no lofty goals in life, whatever ambitions she’d had (when she was nine, she wanted to be an astronaut) had been drained out of her by things that were beyond her control. Now, she at least had a safe space. Wellington Academy wasn’t so bad, and the only real rule here was quite simple: just don’t get caught.

Bee had gotten caught one damn time, and for fuck’s sake it was during the summer so what the hell was that all about? Was she not free to do what she wanted during the summer!? It was the summer! Her vacation! Why did none of the cottage leaders understand that she couldn’t go home? It wasn’t that she didn’t want to — oh, she did. She missed her house, her neighborhood, and the skate park (especially the skate park), but Bee was at war.

She was at war with her cunt of a mom, who still refused to call her by the name she wanted. There was no respect! Wellington Academy was like her safe space. Here, she didn’t have to deal with her mom, and there weren’t daily screaming matches; instead, they were basically biweekly. During the year since she’d taken up residence in Wellington, Bee had done her best to avoid her mother — though she popped up occasionally during her video calls with her father… and that often led to a verbal brawl for all.

Bee had forsaken her home, and now this was where she belonged. It was like in the stupid Harry Potter books (Bee would never understand how they’d found so much worldwide success — cringe fanbase, honestly), where Harry never went home for the holidays because his family didn’t love him, and then like in some of the books he went home to his friend’s house to stay where the family loved him and he didn’t feel like shit — only, Bee had zero plans to go to her friend’s house. And, on top of that, Bee was pretty sure her friend didn’t have a cute sister she could hook up with. Seriously, bro code Harry. What the fuck was up with that?

For now, Bee was holed up in the safety of Wellington Academy — and honestly, depending on how the next two years went? She might never leave. She could be a cottage head herself, couldn’t she? That wouldn’t be too bad of a job — or like a janitor. Of course, she’d need to figure out a living situation that didn’t suck. These buildings were built in like, the 1800s and they were wired like. She’d had plans to bring her desktop computer, and a TV, but then her dad was like ‘you can’t.’ That made her mad. It made her more mad when she arrived and found out the bastard was telling the truth.

Bee had to scramble and order a shitty gaming laptop off of Amazon, to go with the ancient one she had for anime downloading purposes, and she used that to play games. She’d set up all her systems on the TV in the common room, but during the school year? Bee didn’t much like to go out there and use it — that might lead to, like… interacting with the nerds that went to this super school. She had her time during the summer, and then every once and a while when Freddie was over.

Right now, here in the cabin it was basically just Bee and J.D., the running man. If Bee had to guess? He was just about getting back from his run, and… yep, there it was. The scent of breakfast was wafting up to the rafters and sneaking its way into her room. She’d heard him leave the building around the same time she woke up, and she knew the drill: within two, or three episodes of whatever she wanted to watch, breakfast would be ready.

Of course, the inevitability of breakfast hadn’t stopped her from preparing a snack mix of her own. While she was laying on the bed, Bee had a bowl on her stomach — one that contained a mix and match of her favorite snacks: Hot Cheetos, Jelly Belly’s, white cheddar popcorn, M&M’s, and salt and pepper potato chips. Was it perfect? No, but nothing ever was.

Bee had started the morning watching DragonBall, but after like an episode and a half of nothing happening, she’d turned that off and resigned to scrolling around on her phone. Or, at least she was scrolling around on her phone until she scowled and dropped it. “Law? Seriously?! My ideal man from One Piece is obviously Zoro, you scumbags. Stupid Buzzfeed.” She grumbled, then watched as her phone bounced off of her bed… and flew to the ground. “Shit!” She said, scrambling over to grab the phone… and inadvertently sending the crumbs and remains of her snack bowl falling to the ground too. “What in the goddamn! FuCK!” Bee was screaming now, before she snatched her phone off the ground.

Picking it up, she was glad to see that, at the very least, her phone hadn’t sustained any injuries. “At least Korean engineering never lets me down.” She said, letting out a sigh of relief. Luckily for her, the bowl she’d been eating out of was plastic. Sighing, she got down on the floor and started to pick the Jelly Belly’s and pieces of chips remaining. There weren’t many M&M’s… Bee liked to eat those first.

I guess this is the universe’s way of saying, ‘okay, Bee, you piece of trash. It’s time to get out of bed and do something productive.’ Well, normally I’d tell the universe to get FUCKED, but today is the day. Right? All the new kids should be showing up? The bastard that replaced Freddie should be here soon… Plus, I mean, breakfast. I might as well go eat.

Bee threw the snacks that had fallen on the floor back into the bowl, and then carefully sat the bowl on her bedside table. Those were snacks for later, as far as Bee was concerned. She was the only person living here for the whole summer! What was the worst thing that could have been on her floor?

Bee had already changed and gotten ready for the day. She knew Venetia and the other cottage leaders would be down catching kids, so she’d been sure to get up early and sneak away for a wake and bake before gorging herself on snacks and Goku yelling at Frieza. Now, Bee was comfortably sky high, and hungry — even after munching on her bowl and mismatched munchies.

To: Freddie
when r we playing animal crossing
i got a gift 4 u
it made me think of u

The gift in question? It was a garbage can. Bee was already laughing to herself thinking about it as she adjusted her baseball cap (which really amounted to making sure it was turned on backwards). Freddie was gonna get owned, she was gonna get so owned. Trouncing down the stairs, Bee found her way to the cottage kitchen. “Yo! J.D.! What’s up, bro? Did you make enough for me?”

[Fabricant451]

Zinnia Cottage

_7-ish

When Evey first arrived for her junior year her only concern was if her room would have a window or not; she didn't much care for a view or what direction she was facing but she preferred a window so that every morning she could hear the gentle cries of the birds as they began their mornings in the same fashion as everyone else. Her first two years at Wellington had been a success academically but if she was being honest she still had a ways to go on the social scene - which was to say that going into her junior year the only numbers in her phone were her parents and her childhood piano teacher who she was pretty sure was no longer among the living. That didn't stop Evey from checking her phone every morning and sighing at the resounding disappointment of having no messages waiting for her.

To her great delight, when she walked into her listed room the day before she saw a window and, with no room mate yet to fight and argue over who gets what, she was able to stake a claim on the bed closest to the window. The difficult part came in her having to make her bed so that her pillow, not her feet, were closest to the window; Evey's feet were against the headboard which meant that Evey, bizarrely, was choosing to sleep functionally upside down. Her reasons weren't grand but they were hers and it only took a single night's sleep to bear fruit. Some needed an alarm to wake up, others required a shot of caffeine or a rushing shower or, yes, loud stimulation or physical interactions but Evey only needed a simple

zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip titititi tseee...

Evey's eyes opened as nature's song entered her ears though it wasn't with a smile and a look of a good night's sleep. Evey blinked twice, waiting for the song to sound again. Zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip titititi tsee... Evey sat upright, the thin bedsheet cover dropping to just above her navel as a long sigh flitted out of her lips before dainty, thin fingers brushed loose hair from her forehead. "Mister Blackburnian warbler, are you well?" Evey spoke softly, her pale blue eyes looking wistfully towards the window and the landscape painting-like view contained on the other side of the pane. "Or is it..." A shake of her head to remove the thought from her mind; it was far too early in the day and the term to be bogged down by negativity. Today was no day for negativity. Many of those who didn't stay the summer would be arriving or returning today and that included her new roommate.

This year would be different, for sure. This year she would make a friend. This year her roommate wouldn't hate her.

For minutes more, Evey sat on her bed, silent and still, listening to the songbirds in the trees of the forest or the honks of the geese and ducks that were like nature's trumpets so loud and invasive but so familiar and welcome. Evey turned, her feet dangling over the side of her mattress as she placed them into the plain slippers she left at the edge of her bed every night, and stood up. Her light begonia pink pajama top falling to cover the similarly colored short bottoms that made up her sleepwear as she stifled a yawn while interlocking her fingers and stretching them above her head. Every motion of hers seemed deliberate and routine, like a robot following wake-up morning subroutines. Sitting up in bed, putting on slippers, light stretching, a silent morning in a quiet space. Though not for much longer, surely.

Evey glanced at the current state of her room. Though her wardrobe and day-to-day mannerisms and demeanour could certainly resemble that of some sort of princess of privilege out of a storybook, her interior design sense left much to be desired. Her bedsheets were a gentle plain pink while her pillowcase was an eastery light sky blue. Her desk had a small stack of notebooks separated into two categories: one for note taking and one for notation - the latter stack was next to a small stack of songbooks. Pencils and pens were in a holder, and the only two bits of personal touches were a picture of a frowning Evey with a smiling, disheveled man and a small 'bird of the day' calendar. Today's bird was a Blue-grey Gnatcatcher.

Other than half the closet, the only other aspect of the room that was decidedly 'Evey' was a portable piano placed in a small nook near her bed and window. Her freshman year Evey had wondered if she could fit a full piano in her room but logistically it wouldn't work out and her best option was to request one to be in the common room but that ran into other issues and so the portable option was taken instead. It was at this piano that Evey, now stretched, sat behind, the early morning sun shining through the window. She might not get another chance to play so early in the morning. Later she might opt to walk around and take in the move-in week highs, but for now she paused a moment before putting her fingers in place over the keys.

Evey would lose herself in the melody her fingers provided.

---

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<sub>Out by the lake

With a text to Bee (@Hey Im Jordan)</sub>

Freddie was in a bit of a pickle.

Her desire to spend a night under the stars had come to fruition though not in the manner she had envisioned. When she had asked if she could sleep outside one night, she was given funny looks and half-answers that mostly contained the 'Why would you want to do that?' look that Freddie knew all too well; the important thing that she wasn't given a flat-out 'no' which was all the permission she needed. She had asked Bee if she wanted to come along but when Freddie mentioned that she wasn't talking about camping with a tent but rather sleeping on actual dirt in the open night air she was, again, on her own. But why spend every night on a bed? That was just so...routine.

So, on the night before move-in week, Freddie didn't go to her new cottage (exiled from the one she shared with Bee last school year...as Bee put it) and instead planted herself in the grass by the lake in much the way she often did between classes her freshman year. Freddie was there so often the grass had practically carved out a groove in her shape. The last thing she remembered was the way the moon was obscured by the clouds and laughing to herself that she hoped a wolf or something wouldn't take her away in the middle of the night.

Fortunately, no night terror attacked her in the night though as morning broke she found herself in quite the pickle.

It was the low rumble of her phone that woke her up but it was her eyes seeing a massive collection of red and black stomping on her face that startled her to alertness. Of course, perspectve was a hell of a thing and Freddie immediately realized that a ladybug was crawling on her nose which, of course, made her chuckle as the little feeties tickled her bridge. Thus was the pickle. If she moved the ladybug would fly away and her friend would leave her but if she stayed still then not only would her text message go unanswered - and if it was who she thought it was than letting it go unanswered for too long was a terrible idea - but she had no guarantee when her ladybug friend would get bored and leave on its own.

"Good thing you're not a mosquito, yeah?" Freddie's cool, husky voice had a supernatural ever present tone of 'calm, chill, and relaxed' that made it seem like nothing - even ladybug crawling along her face - ever truly bothered her. The mosquitos probably had their way with her overnight but that was the kind of risk she took when sleeping under the stars. "Otherwise I might have to hit myself in the face and I'd really rather not. You got a name?" Freddie waited as if the ladybug was going to actually respond. "Louis? Cool name, man. You look like a Louis. I can tell we're gonna be bros, Louis. One day I'll introduce you to my best fri-oh." Louis the ladybug took the opportunity to fly away but Freddie didn't break her smile as she watched Louis fly away until she lost sight of it. "Good talk."

Freddie took the opportunity to finally rise from the ground, her legs grassy and with specks of dirt and her hands matching. "Man, I'm gonna regret this in a day or two. Whatever." Freddie took a look at her dirty and grass-stained limbs and then to the lake that was like her second home away from home in Wellington and then she looked around to see if others were around. Was she considering it? Yes. Yes she was. Was it a good idea? Probably not. But the way she saw it, she could make her way to the cottage and take advantage of indoor plumbing...or she could enjoy nature as her ancestors likely did. Even if it was potentially worth a Moon for some violation of the rules.

After double checking that she was, at the moment, alone, Freddie changed into her birthday suit and stood at the shore of the lake nearby the campus. "Any of you fishy dudes do me a favor and swim away, cool?" Freddie spoke before stepping into the lake and going for a wade as she moved deep enough in that the water came just below her neck. Now she really was regretting going alone but then she wasn't doing this for some romantic sensual exhilarating affair but a practical - or as practical as a still slightly sleepy morning thought process was - one. Freddie needed to wash off the dirt and grass grime and the lake was a body of water and it wasn't like students drank from the lake.

Freddie went ten minutes in the lake before getting out of it - immediately realizing the flaw in her plan as she didn't have a towel and her feet were immediately tracking up mud. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Without a towel there, Freddie figured the wisest course of action was to just...air dry. Who would come to the lake at this time of morning? Maybe some animals and bugs and stuff but bugs and animals couldn't tell tales.

Water dripping from her person, Freddie took the opportunity to grab her phone from the pocket of her shorts. Of course it was Bee. Who else would it bee?

To: Bee
We'll play later. I'm at the lake rn. Gonna get a Moon for my moon. ;o
is your new roomie cooler than me?

Freddie had little to do now but wait and make her way back towards campus. Somewhere there was breakfast with her name on it. Written in syrup.

[Kautalya]

Ｉｄｅｔｔｅ　Ｇｅｎｅｖｉｅｖｅ　Ｂｌａｎｃ

_{i n t e r a c t i o n s. @Karisma & @Rithas
l o c a t i o n. Fountain ► . . .}

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The minute she had arrived at the front gates, she finally registered that a student—Jordan—had greeted her when she was heading down the hill. She lifted her thumb and pulled at her lips (a nervous tick she was accustomed to do), she remembered not greeting him back and immediately felt bad. Her mind was now subconsciously going to be more aware of Jordan and greet him whenever she spots him regardless of the situation. Idette sighed and placed her forehead on her palm, are you that tired Idette? Get it together.

Nonetheless.. Idette started realizing that it was past the meetup time now. Releasing her face from her palm, Idette narrowed her eyes at the forest clearing. Did she get the time wrong? Was she too early? Did Nathaniel give her the wrong time because it is something he would most definitely do. She played with her bandages before walking her way to the fountain. She just went with the whole, “Nathaniel probably gave me the wrong time.” And, “The next scheduled ride should be 8:30.” Therefore, Idette decided to settle at the nearby fountain.

She would sit up, sit down, stand back up, pace around; she couldn’t stay still. There was a part of her worried she left the students stranded but another part was her reassuring herself that she was right and the students were just late. Right when she was about to pace back and forth once more, Idette was called out by a student.

The girl had messy locks of brown hair, it looked smooth but wild at the same time. Idette eyed her sweater that yelled out: “Mashed Potatoes.” It was..interesting to say the least, but Idette wasn’t one to call out someone’s style when all her closet consists of is just bland t-shirts and pants. Either way, Idette plastered her usual smile and was about to respond to the lost student before noticing that she looked exactly like one of the students on the paper that Idette received from Nathaniel.

“Oh.” Idette uttered out, “Yeah, um.”

Her brain gears were obviously not functioning today.

Idette quickly shook her head remembering how her facial muscles worked and managed a shaky smile.

“Sorry, I hope you didn’t wait too long. I’m, well—You’re, uh, Lavanda?”

“LET'S FIGH-OHFLIPMYGLASSES”

Idette flinched from the sound and raised her arms up in defense—her reflexes immediately coming onto play—before peeking down at the girl. She slowly lowered them when she noticed a student smaller than her point out that she ‘needed that.’ Idette, kinda still in shock? Or just confused? Took awhile to finally register that what the girl needed, was the pair of glasses that flung past Lavanda and her. She cleared her throat and nodded, taking the responsibility herself to pick up the fallen spectacles.

She dusted off the glasses, going from the rims to the legs before returning them back to the girl. All the while, Idette fell into an internal monologue where she replayed the last few seconds over in her head. Idette always put others before her, especially when it came to other students. And this situation? this girl—while now apparent to Idette that she’s harmless—could have been a potential danger to Lavanda. And what did she do? she shielded herself instead of defending Lavanda.

She sighed. She decided to apologize to Lavanda when they arrive at the cottages.

Idette handed back the glasses and smiled at the student in front of her. She stared down at the girl (who was really short) and eyed her for a while before fully recognizing her as one of the students that is incoming to Wisteria and in this case, her roommate. Idette categorized her as a bubbly, maybe an “all-over-the-place” type of person (who she was never really the best at dealing with) and the other, Lavanda, someone who had an interesting style.

Her expression grew into a confused one, maybe that's what the style is nowadays?

Idette looked back at Lavanda and then to Fatima and concluded that these were the two girls residing at Wisteria. She wasn’t sure if Eden was awake and maybe she didn’t want to test that out since Idette was never good at holding conversations with her, but maybe Eden's roommate (Idette looked at Lavanda now) could shape her into a model student or something.

At this point, she figured she might as well start walking them to the cottage. So, she took a step forward that way she was now facing them both and spoke.

“I’m Idette Blanc,” She introduced herself, “I’m the students service leader at Wellington Academy, we handle the complaints that you, or another student might have, as well as what problems you may have regarding with the Academy itself. Please don’t hesitate to let me know when the time comes.”

“I’m mostly at the gym. If not, you could find me in my room.” She shot a look at Fatima. She definitely wanted to be friendly but it’s not like she could just outright say, “hey I’m your roommate! We are gonna have such a diggity darn good time, you’ll definitely enjoy my company!” Because really, Idette treated her old roommate like a stranger(and she just thought it’d be best to kinda just tell Fatima when they arrive at the cottage, or when they enter their rooms.) And her previous roommate may have tried but because of Idette’s default responses, things didn’t get anywhere. Idette is accustomed to reply in an automated “customer service” voice and would be more like an informational bank and guide for her roommate rather than a friend—she didn’t even qualify as an acquaintance.

Don’t get her wrong, she wants friends. She just sometimes can’t stop her fabricated persona. Or her “perfect” personality (and wow did she think she sounded conceited thinking like that) because it never allowed her to befriend others. Mainly because Idette was just seen as a source for information. But, sometimes, all the time, Idette thinks it’s her fault for feeding onto that.

Maybe she should start trying to get out of her shell?

“Oh but that’s not important, I, well, just—” She fumbled with her words, “I can still—You guys can still reach out to me! It doesn’t really mean like I’m always stuck at the gym. I know it sounded like that but that's not really—Like we have, it's a service thing so you can, kinda like just catch me at room 104 in the school building. In the students services room. Doing, stuff...”

Okay, maybe she shouldn’t try getting out of her shell.

“Um, with that being said!” She clapped her hands together. “Lavanda De Los Angeles and Fatima Muse, welcome to Wellington Academy! You both will be residing in the Wisteria Cottage with our cottage leader being Nathaniel.”

She turned sideways to the front gates that led to where the drop off area was and cocked her head to the side, insinuating to start following her.

---

Ｏｃｅａｎｕｓ　Ａｒｇｕｓ　Ｏｄａｌｙｓ

_{i n t e r a c t i o n s. @Rithas & @Aces Away
l o c a t i o n. Begonia Cottage ► . . .}

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Was it safe to say that Ocean wanted to throw up?

Cause he really wanted to throw up.

He eyed the person peeking their head through the small opening of the door and he really had no idea what to say. I mean there's, thanks for the heads up! But then he thought he would sound too excited, which he was, but not at the moment. There was also a simple, okay but then Ocean debated staying quiet might just be better. Did he really need to answer to the explanation of his roommate? Did he even want to engage in that conversation? What if his roommate overhears and Ocean is now hated by someone who always wants the curtains open in the mornings? (Ocean right now was in distraught, he hates the morning lights.)

He was about to just respond with a casual nod (seemed like the only thing he could come up with), till the other boy tapped his fingers against the door frame. He had asked Ocean his name in a way that meant Ocean had to go on this whole spiel of an introduction. Not wanting to do that, Ocean quickly turned his gaze to the front of the closed door 3 and decided to just avoid eye contact. The student’s sharp eyes wasn’t something he wanted to meet with for the past couple of minutes. So, Ocean answered the question while staring daggers into the door in front of him.

“Oceanus.” He spoke, quickly side eyeing the other but looking away just as quickly.

Was that enough? That should’ve been enough, I mean, It’s a simple word but maybe I should’ve told him my nickname? Cause, what if he can’t pronounce it? Then that means I have to explain it, but let's say I did say my nickname instead of my name he could make fun of me because who names their kid Ocean? But then who names their kid after a greek god? Oh god, I should’ve said a fake name because really why would my parents name me that knowing full well I don’t know my mythologies, so what if he asks me things in that field and I can't answer because I-

His thoughts were quickly dismantled when the door in front of him swung open and Ocean was welcomed to the sight of his roommate saying something in a different language. The boy in front of him was tall, just as their creepy neighbor—Ocean felt very intimidated. He shifted his stance and fidgeted with the hems of his sleeves.

The two boys shared a sharp glance with one another before the attention was turned to Ocean. Oh, he definitely felt his breakfast slowly rising back up his throat. He forced a gulp down because he did not want to vomit; one he’ll be embarrassed and two he’ll have to clean it up and three his cottage leader will look at him with the disappointment of a lifetime because what type of 14 year old throws up just because he’s nervous of social interactions? And she’ll be ashamed because how will he survive at a school where you have to socialize? And then he’ll be kicked out because he just sucks. At. This.

”I’m Mordechai, but you can call me Chai or Mor if you’d like. Don’t let Matt put the wrong idea into your head; on the contrary, you can definitely believe me when I tell you that he loves staying up for as long as possible and solving mysteries just like I do.”

Ocean sighed and looked down while shaking his head in the process, wow he really surprises himself with how all over the place his thoughts were.

“Okay.” Ocean said, looking up at Mordechai. “Um.”

He glanced at the other student who he learned was named Matt.

“Um. So, uh.” He threw in an awkward laugh, “I’m Oceanus. I already told..” Ocean pointed at the one peeking through the door frame.

What can he say??? He felt like he completely killed the conversation there and Ocean had to think of something quick, a joke, a story, something to fill in the silence. While it had only been a second or two, it felt like excruciating hours passed after Ocean introduced himself

And then he remembered: “..he loves staying up for as long as possible and solving mysteries just like I do.”

“Cool!” His voice cracked and woah, wow, he didn’t have to yell it out like that. “I, um. I used to watch like.. Criminal Minds I guess.”

He fidgets.

“Which makes me like a.. Detective.” He joked.

Or was it really a joke? Did it sound like a joke? Or maybe he offended the boy in front of him, who was his roommate btw, which means Ocean could like, die in his sleep if he looked at Mordechai funny.

He was kinda at his limit right now.

---

Mentioned Eden @Pink Khione and JD @Torack

[Moirin]

Lillie Text Color - #FC80A5
Jack Text Color - #5FA777

6:00 am | August 24

Looking out the window of her brother’s Subaru, Lillie dozed off ever so slightly during their seven hour car ride to the drop off point. The two were silent, simply listening to the music playing on the radio as it played One Piece at a Time by Johnny Cash. Lillie blinked slowly, and looked out the window of the car at the passing scenery with drowsy eyes. With sleep in her voice, she asked her brother “ Jack, Do you think I’ll make friends here or will it be like my old school?”

The man chuckled at her question and replied, “Yeah, I think you’ll be able to make a lot of friends. I have faith in you, Cheesepuff.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “Besides, you’re a sweet, outgoing girl. Give yourself some credit. What if I told Piper you were putting yourself down like this? You know what she would say.” Jack cleared his throat and began speaking in a mocking falsetto. “Now look, Lillie. You are an amazing person, and I won’t let anyone put my little Cheespuff down like that. Not even you.”

Lillie giggling at her brother’s funny voice- knowing that Piper would definitely say that. “ Yeah yeah. I know Jack. I guess I’m just nervous. We also have Discord to talk to each other. Come to think of it, I don’t think Keith and Scott have been on. I know they’ve been busy with College but you’d think we’d hear from them.” Looking down to her phone rubbing her thumb on the screen showing a group photo of all them at her Brother and Pipers graduation. She had worn one of her favorite dresses to it that Piper had helped her pick out: A pink dress with little white flowers and glitter. Thinking about it made her miss everyone even more.

6:30 am

Finally arriving at the shuttle drop off, Lillie slumped down in the seat. Thinking about how alone she is gonna be at the academy not knowing anyone, and potentially not making any friends made her even more unwilling to get out of the comfortable seat. She didn’t think her gift was all that special, solving math problems was something anyone could do- at least in her opinion. Jack put the car in park and looked out at the stop before saying anything. “You’re gonna meet a lot of new people. And when you get to know them a bit more I know you’ll open up.” Getting out of the car they unloaded the military duffel bag Jack had given her with all the stuff she brought. Lifting the bag on to her shoulder with a bit a humf from the weight of the bag. “You gonna make it there, Cheesepuff? That bag must weigh as much as you do.” He with a bit of a chuckle.

Lillie’s face turned red a bit, but she regained her balance. “ I think so. It didn’t think it weighed this much. You made it look so easy. I should try and do some push-ups like you. Maybe I’ll be able to open the jars for Mom next time instead of having to ask you.” Finishing her statement with a little giggle and smile knowing full well that would never happen. Before walking over to the drop off Lillie turns to give Jack a big hug. “ Give one to Piper for me too when you see her please. I love you, Jack. Be safe driving home.” She turned and headed off to the shuttle stop before turning back to watch Jack drive off before she got onto the bus.

Finding a nice seat she places her bag down quickly pulling out her Switch not knowing how long of a ride it will be. Starting to hum quietly to herself hatching Eevee eggs wanting to find a shiny to evolve into a Umbreon. After a bit of time feeling her ears pop she looks out the window to see that she had traveled pretty far up the mountain. Not thinking of it engrossing herself back into the game.

7:00 am
Wellington Academy Front Gate

Not too long later, the shuttle came to a stop. She waited for the others to get off the shuttle as she stuffed her Switch back into the little special bag for it before shifting the duffel bag back on her shoulder. Getting off the bus, she looked for a place to sit while waiting on her cottage leader to come and find her. There was no way she could heft the heavy duffel bag for much longer. After a moment finding a place and plopping down and pulling out the letter that was sent to her. Looking over the letter again to make sure she remembered everything. “Venetia. If my research on the computer is to be true I’m looking for someone… very... noticeable?” Thinking about what that could mean, probably something colorful she thought to herself. Looking up to see someone pull up on a bright gold golf cart. Softly mumbling to herself “That would probably be her if I had to take a guess.” Throwing her bag back on her shoulder before walking over watching her talking to another person. Walking up and softly speaking to the loudly dressed woman “Ahh Miss are you Venetia? I’m Lillie, I think you're the dorm leader I’m looking for?”

[ImmortalJaskier]

Interactions

: Venetia@Karisma, Lillie@Moirin

Location

:Front gates

Time

: 7:15am

---

A resigned sigh left Ezekiel as he closed the book. He’s been reading the same page for the past thirteen minutes without really reading anything, he knows when somethings a lost cause. Glancing at his phone for the umpteenth time, Zeke looked out over his surrounding areas – teeth taking turns between worrying against the inside of his cheek as well as his bottom lip.

He’s probably not completely in the wrong place, after all he already saw a few students getting picked up so he should be fine. Besides, if the new students each had to meet their cottage heads in different places, they would have let him know. The likely-hood of them sending a notice and something happening to it, resulting in him not seeing it, is minimal. His dorm-leader is probably just running a few minutes late, only being human themselves. After-all, what are the odds of him messing up so royally on the first day that – in spite of arriving an hour early – he spends the day waiting in the wrong place and annoying his cottage head enough to be sent home?

A metallic taste fills his mouth immediately shocking him out of his fretting. A cursory poke with his tongue confirmed that there was a microscopic cut on the inside of his cheek where he bit down too hard.

"Bleddie hel." Clenching his teeth to make them stay still, he took a deep breath and continued to think on the matter at hand. He’ll give it another hour, if he’s still parked under the Athena statue at that time – then, he’ll worry.

Just then – as if summoned by his thoughts – he spotted a woman approaching on a golf cart. She was blond with rhinestone-encrusted sunglasses and gave off the feeling of someone claiming their rightful place in the spotlight. Was this Venetia?

"Hey, Kid! She called out from where she was sitting on the cart. "My name is Venetia,” So his guess was right and, more importantly, he wasn’t completely off base with his waiting place! Thank goodness. “get on, I got better places to be."

After the stress of the past thirteen minutes, with a polite nod to the head of Coleus Cottage Ezekiel scrambled to obey, gathering up his luggage in record speed. "Yes, Ma’am, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Ma’am."

As he was loading his stuff into the cart as instructed, a girl carrying a heavy-looking bag approached Venetia, speaking softly. Walking up and softly speaking to the loudly dressed woman “Ahh Miss are you Venetia? I’m Lillie, I think you're the dorm leader I’m looking for?”

So, she was going to be one of his cottage mates, a fellow newcomer at that. Giving her a nod and a smile, he gathered all the residual courage his earlier encounter with Mordechai left him with as he waited for Venetia to respond, before holding out his hands towards Lillie. "Let me help you with that." Gesturing to her bag. "I’m Zeke, by the way."

Afterwards, he quickly climbed into the golf-cart, following Venetia’s lead – not wanting to test her patience just yet.

(Translation: Bleddie hel = Bloody hell)

[Rithas]

🄼🄰🅃🅃🄷🄴🅆 🄳🄾🅈🄻🄴

Begonia Cottage

---

Matthew held in a grin as the boy refused to hold eye contact. Good, someone who understood the importance of not insulting him with his sight. He did hate people who didn't understand sight space.

The intimidated boy gave his name, Oceanus.

Jesus christ his parents didn't give him much of a chance did they. Matthew couldn't decide to laugh at him or sigh and close the door. Some twisted mixture of the two was forming in his brain when Mordechai opened the door.

“Nem Zich a vaneh, Doyle,”

"I still don't speak dutch you know."

Then the puddle-boy spoke some more trying to fill the silence, his voice creaking and cracking. This just reminded Matthew why he didn't talk to the freshman. Their voices were often a whole octave above the upper limit He could tolerate in a person. As he talked about being a detective or something Matthew began to make the mental processing of closing the door and going back to bed. As much fun he was not having listening to Water and Dutch he had sleep to try and not have. But before he could do anything a pang of hunger eminated from his stomach.

Ah yes, it was true that he not managed to eat anything over the long night of being able to eat anything. His rations had ran out the day before and he coudln't risk going downstairs and waking up Elaina and having her spear tackle him. Or worse trying to have a conversation with him. That crafty woman knew his worse fears.

Als, with a deep sigh. Matthew stepped into the light of the outer cottage. Oceanus and Mordechai both noticed that Matthew's black pyjamas were two sizes too big for him and therefor hung loosely. "Detective huh?" Matthew raised an eyebrow inquistively as he approached Oceanus.

"Is that your 'gift'" Matthew knew it wasn't. It was so obviously something to do with the beach that the thought of it being anything else couldn't even gain a foothold in his head. "I think I know your partners. Pondi and Lakethey right? Shame their not in the same cottage as you. Such is the path of independence" He turned his gaze to Mordechai for a moment. Before looking at his nails. "Of course I enjoy solving mysteries. It means theres no longer a mystery there. That's rather simple don't you think."

Matthew headed for the stairs. With move in week, the food in the cottage would be at an all time high. And with Elaina out, there was no need to pretend for there to be any type of cordialness with his fellow cottage mates with the food. It was every man for himself out there. With those two likely being preoccupied with introductions for another few minutes, all Matthew had to do was-

There stood in the open doorway was a girl with dripping hair. As in her hair was literally dripping with water. Mild confusion washed over Matthew's face before he realised there was a cottage transfer. Frederica Cecilia Tewksbury, such a long name. Yet Freddie was too casual. Someone should advise her to revise what she calls herself and think of something in the middle.

Still, with her being here now. He could see the glint in her eye of a fellow contestant of the breakfast battle royal. And with little fondness of the idea of a dripping land baronness trying to make conversation with her new "Cottage mate haha". Matthew decided that a group would be the best disguise to make it out without having to make any actual food conversation.

"Breakfast everyone? Perhaps Ollie and the others will join us. Perhaps not. Food is happening either way."

---

@Phys Interactions: @Aces Away @Kautalya @Fabricant451

[Hey Im Jordan]

_{Interactions (direct): Nico @Karisma, Elysia @alexfangtalon}

Kassandra was running a tad behind schedule. With the summer months, she’d turned off her alarm, and had yet to adjust it properly for the school year — despite arriving about a week early. Kass had a tendency to show up early to Wellington Academy to get to know her cottage leader for the year, and sort of take a leadership role in the place. Kassandra liked structure, and order, and she was happy to find out that Nico, the man who’d be overseeing the cottage she was staying in for now, was much like her. He took it seriously, perhaps too seriously, but Kass would be lying if she said she didn’t like that about him. It was a serious deal!

Unfortunately, Kass was lagging too far behind to leave right when Nico passed by. It wasn’t like she could follow after him then and there. She’d hardly woken up twenty minutes ago, and despite her best attempts to freshen up with a shower and vigorous moisturizing afterward… Kassandra was hardly awake. She was awake, but there was really nobody behind the wheel, at least not yet. She needed coffee. As ashamed as she was to admit it, Kassandra was somewhat reliant, even addicted to the stuff. All she could do was offer Nico a wave of apology as he passed by, and glance at the Keurig that was currently filling her mug.

Internally, Kass was cringing. It was embarrassing, an awful showing for day one of what was supposed to be a good year. How was she supposed to leave a good impression now? She already knew Nico planned to walk down to the gate, instead of driving — could she catch up? Would he accept her apology?

Stupid, stupid. Forget to set the alarm, really? You’re better than that, Kassandra. Way to look bad.

She would have to think of something to make it up to him, because simply showing up late wasn’t going to do it from her perspective. As the last of the coffee dripped into the cup, Kassandra took the steaming mug from its plate, and took a huge gulp without waiting for it to cool down. It wasn’t her normal method, but the burn to her tastebuds was like a self-punishment for messing up. At least once she’d taken the gulp, she could feel the warmth radiate through her body and her mind start to come to life.

Looking back at the Keurig, she shrugged her shoulders and did the only thing she could think of, setting a thermos on it, and flicking it back on… It was the best she could think of.

_{7:03 AM}

Before long, Kass was hurrying along the trail, and as she looked at the scenery, she could tell why Nico preferred this method to taking the golf carts down. If only she didn’t have to rush quite so much… but Kass wasn’t going to be that late, not to something as important as this. Even looking beyond her failure, and the potential let down she’d left Nico with, Kass still wanted to hurry. This was a big day; there were new students coming! It was, for some lucky young (and some older) students, the first time they’d lay eyes on the grounds… and she wanted to see their reactions!

Between Kass hurrying, and Nico taking a somewhat leisurely pace, she was able to make it there just a few minutes after he’d arrived — but too late to talk to the new kids. With a wave and a smile, Kass pushed away the harsh thoughts floating in her head, and instead walked toward Nico as he headed back up the trail, and thrust the thermos out to him. “Sorry I’m late… I overslept a bit. I made you some tea, though.” Kass’s apology was stuck inside the thermos, and she turned her attention to the more pressing matter once Nico took the damn thing: the new kids. Ramona, and Ely she believed. She’d spent enough time peering over Nico’s shoulder at paperwork to know who was who.

“Elysia, right?” She asked, glancing at the ever so slightly smaller girl. Geeze… she looked soft. Kass would have to be careful when making sure she was comfortable. The girl looked like if Kassandra spoke too loudly, she might explode. “My name’s Kassandra. I’ll be your roommate for this year, okay? Let’s make sure it’s a good one!” She gave a thumbs up, and then took another gulp of coffee. At least it had cooled down to… ‘not molten.’

[Rithas]

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Fatima Musa ♥

Wellington Academy

---

Waiting around in the smudged world as her glasses were cleaned for her. Fatima briefly formed a defensive pose incase she was to be suddenly tested in battle by school ninjas.

As Fatima fiddled with straightening her glasses once she had. The bandaged stranger declared herself as the students service leader. Which obviously meant she was the top dog in this school. Truly Fatima's inner guts was great at picking a target. Everyone knew in school you had to pick the biggest person there first!

'I’m mostly at the gym. If not, you could find me in my room.' Idette shot a look towards Fatima and she grinned proudly back. One should always be courtous towards an opponent. Plus, she said she could be found at the gym mostly. A partner! It was finally time for her to get jacked!

Then Idette announced that the two of them and her would be residing at the same cottage. Fatima smiled brightly once more. A perfect sequence of events. Though the cottage leader nathaniel was of course one to be wary of. He was an offical part of the school. Which meant authority. Boo! Bad!

As Idette beckoned them to follow her. Fatima happily skipped along, randomly kicking the air and making karate poses. At one point she noticed the writing on Lavanda's sweater. "Mashed potatoes? I LOVE MASHED POTATOES. Though my mom always makes me eat them even when I tell her not to. She won't let me go on a all protein diet cause it's like 'not healthy for a fourteen year old to eat only protein' like geez mom how ELSE will I become the ULTIMATE WARRIOR." Fatima took a deep breath in. "RIGHT?"

---

Phys interacted: @Kautalya @Karisma

[alimariloasun]

^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Wang Family Speech Colors Chao-Li Wang - #7ce4e4 Tian Wang - #177171 Kaylin Wang - #3bd7d7 Fang Wang - #bdf1f1 Ru Wang - #21a2a2 Xiao-Tong Wang - #6af6f6 Xiao-Wen Wang - #94cccc	Park Family Speech Color Jae Sun Park - #d53838 Tae Park - #fa1313 Ga Rin Park - #b95454

---

---

_{Location:
Rest Stop ► Front Gates ► Zinnia Cottage
Interactions:
With each other, and their families
Nico @Karisma
Kass @Hey Im Jordan
Elysia @alexfangtalon
Ramona @canaryrose}

---

"Huanxing, Women zai zheli!" Sunny pulled off his jacket from head when he hears Uncle Tian yelling, Squinting while looking out the window. Seeing that they had arrived at the school rest stop. He quickly got out of the car when one of the twins started to push him against the door while they stretched. He laughed when heard the Wang boys yelling in a mix of Chinese and English as they try to push each other out of the way to get out the door he opened instead of opening on the other doors. He smiled as he stood next to his dad and stretched while they were waiting for his mom and Chali to pull up to rest stop. Just like the past three years since Chali and him started school at Wellington, they had gone on a road trip before the new school year started. In the Wang family van, The Wangs Brothers, Uncle Tian, his dad and him had ridden together. While his mom and Chali followed in his mom’s suv with all the luggage.

Hearing a car honking, he turned to the main road entrance and waved at Chali as she drove into the rest stop area. He walked up to the car when she parked, seeing her sticking her tongue out at him. He crossed his eyes, and stuck out his stuck to make a funny face. He stopped when he started to hear her laughter, smiling in victory he opened her door and pulled her out for a quick hug before going back to hug his mom. “Ahgi, ready for your senior year?” His mother asked him, squeezing him a bit. “Yes, Eomma can’t wait for it start.” He replied excitedly thinking about his plans.

Sunny watched the Wang brothers started separating his and Chali’s luggage away from everyone else, seeing Chali standing by herself staring in the direction of the school. "Chali, Jal jinae?" he asked as he threw a arm over her shoulder. "Yep, can't believe that it's are last year. How about you?" Before Sunny could respond, both of them turned to the twins. who had popped up next to them out of know messed both his and Chali's hair. As always started switching who says each sentence between them. "Mei Mei." "Di Di." "The coach is here." "Come say good bye." "to everyone."

"Aish, My head hurts every time you guys do that!" Chali said as she linked arms with Sunny to walk over to their parents. When she feels Sunny's armed, she blinked in confusion and turned to look at her twin brothers XiaoTong and XiaoWen holding both of Sunny's arms while smiling at her. "You go ahead your brothers just want talk really fast before we go." He says as he jerks his head in the direction of her older brothers Kaylin, Fang, and Ru. "er...Okay..I guess..." She said with a frown, before running over to her father and hugging him. "Baba, I miss you already." He heard Chali say as he walked away with her brothers.

As he followed the twins, He waved at the rest of the Wang brothers when they got to the little circle that they were standing in.
“So we just check in on your and Mei Mei’s cars, it got to the garage safely. Just let Fang know when you plan on coming on surprising Chali, He’ll drive here with one of the cars.” Kaylin told him, before getting push out of the way by Fang. “Okay great, glad we got that. I know you’ve heard us say this many times before but we’re gonna say it again.” He says as he nods his at Ru to take over the rest of the conversation. “Chali is NOT allowed to date! You see her flirting with someone, You better shut it down. Get in the way, flirt with the person. Cock-block like your life depends on it damn it!” He said as his other brothers nodded their heads.
“You know how much of a process it’s been for us, when we’re going to school with you and Chali to scare off or polite advise any who so much as looked at Chali with interest to look some where else cause our baby sister is off limits." "Since we have unfortunately graduated it's up to you now to be the overprotective brother." The twins said as they patted him on the back.

"Don't worry guys, I got everything under control" Sunny said as he walked over to his mom and dad. "[[color=#d53838]i]Appa, Eomma I'll miss you and I can't wait to see you next break."[/i][/color] He said as he hugged his parents. "Yeolgong" His dad says as He hands Sunny his backpack and duffel bag. He walks over to where Chali is standing to board the coach, when his mom walks up to him and hands both him a small pot of colorful zinnia flowers and Chali a pot of blue-purplish coleus. "I almost for got about our little tradition, you to keep each other safe. Okay?" "Thanks Mom, I promise will be fine." "Thank you Aunty. You don't have to worry about" He and Chali said at the same time. When they boarded the bus and found their seats, They both waved at their parents until they couldn't see them anymore.

^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Seeing that they had finally arrived to campus, Chali nudged Sunny awake so that they can get off the coach. When they finally got off the coach Chali put her backpack and duffel down so that she could stretch. After she was done stretching, She put back on her backpack. instead of putting on her back, she strapped to the front of her body. Taking out the coleus plant her Aunt had given her, she handed it over to Sunny. Who gave her his pot of zinnias, slipping into her backpack. She kneeled in front of Sunny as she waited for him to put on his pack and both of their duffels, As soon as he wrapped his arms her shoulders. She hooked her around his knees, standing up she jokingly shuffled back and forth like she was gonna fall. "Damn, Sunny... You got heavy! maybe you should to your cottage this year." She said jokingly as she started the trek to Zinnia Cottage. "Fuck you! I am not heavy! Besides we have been doing this for the last three years, we are not breaking tradition." He said flipped his middle finger front of Chali's face, moving his hand quickly when she pretends to try to bite.

"Geez, Sunny I'm only joking!" She teasingly, as she continued the walk to Zinnia Cottage, "So are you gonna tell what you and my siblings were talking about?" "I have no no idea what your talking about.." Chali rolled her eyes at his response. "Sure, you don't.." She said sarcastically. It took a couple of minutes to arrive to Zinnia Cottage, the whole entire way Chali and Sunny kept make jokes and comments at each other's expense. When she finally reached Zinnia, She let go dropping Sunny in front of the cottage. "Whoops!" She said while laughing. "Whoops...my ass!" Sunny muttered as he stood up next to her.

As she started pulling her duffel away from Sunny, She noticed his cottage leader standing by the cottage with Kass and two students. Who she was assuming as new students. She waved at Nico and Kass, as she started to walk in the direction of Coleus Cottage. "Hello Nico, Nice seeing you again Kass." As she passed the two students, she politely waved and said "Hello, Hope you enjoy your time here." while walking away from Zinnia.

"Bye Chali! Thanks for dropping me!" He yelled sarcastically, Before turning to Nico and Kass with two new students. "Hey Nico" He said while giving him a two finger salute. "Hi, Kass How's it going? I see we have some new students..." turning to the two new students, He opened the door to the cottage for them. "Welcome to Zinnia Cottage, My name is Jae Sun Park. But you can call me Sunny!" He greeted them, gesturing for them to go ahead of him.

---

---

^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Chinese Translations Huanxing, Women zai zheli!- Wake up, We're here! Mei Mei- Little Sister Di Di- Little Brother Ba Ba- Daddy	Korean Translation Ahgi- Baby Eomma- Mom Chali, Jal jinae?- How are you Chali? Appa- Dad Yeolgong- Study hard

[Torack]

_{Interactions: Bee @Hey Im Jordan
Location: Coleus Cottage
Time: Morning}

---

---

In the kitchen, JD started gathering several ingredients and a packet of turkey-bacon for what he had planned. He wasn’t entirely sure of the new students and what their diet preferences were, so he decided he would make two separate breakfasts, one meat-based, and the other vegetarian based and let whoever came by take their pick. What he needed to decide was what the vegetarian breakfast would be based around.

Falafel was always a safe choice. Thus, rummaging through the kitchen he brought out some chickpeas he’d boiled a couple days before from the freezer to let thaw, then started going through the pantries to find the ingredients he needed to make the dish. And that's when he noted some of those ingredients were missing. Nothing that was too terribly essential, but the falafel would taste a little funny without tahini and he wasn’t about to subject the newly arrived students to some sub-par meat-substitute.

He looked around for a few minutes more, trying to find something that could mimic the flavour, or at least something that could mask the flavouring of the falafel without tahini. But he found nothing.

Sighing, JD leaned against a counter and looked around. There were plenty of ingredients to make hash-browns, but that was boring. Still, what choice did he have? It frustrated that he already came up with a plan and most of it was already there but, because of one ingredient, he couldn’t see it to fruition. And it annoyed him to no end, and in no way did it help with his anxiety. Thoughts were running through his mind on what to do, on ways he could fix it. But just going ahead and making the falafel would see some students not liking the taste. And if he didn’t go through with it, whatever hash-browns he made wouldn’t be as good. And he already took the chickpeas out of the freezer.

JD took a deep breath. And let it out slow. Making the falafel was unfortunately out of the equation, unless he wanted to run out of school grounds to the store. But there was no time for that.

Gathering the ingredients, he made a batch of hash-browns, a stack of pancakes, a small bowl of mashed potatoes, and another bowl of baked beans. He also made a batch of turkey bacon and a large bowl of eggs.

Just as he was finishing, he heard footsteps coming down and looked over to see Bee stepping into the kitchen. “What’s good, fam,” he responded. “Yeah, there’s more than plenty. Take whatever you want.”

[Karisma]

^{Lavanda Meri De Los Angeles}

---

^{| l o c a t i o n | fountain area > wisteria cottage
| i n t e r a c t i o n | @kautalya & @rithas}

---

Lavanda had watched over the events before her as if she were watching a movie, completely detaching herself from the situation. A brief thought of helping the girl who had just tripped flashed through her head but she dismissed it and instead pressed replay in her mind; she had gone up to the blonde girl—Idette—to ask for directions and it turns out she's exactly the person Lavanda was supposed to be looking for (talk about lucky.) Then just as she had begun the conversation with Idette, a chirpy voice from behind her distracts them both by literally falling into view. So she had met Idette and Fatima, her cottage mates, all in a matter of seconds within arriving.

Lavanda tuned herself back into what Idette had been sputtering and awkwardly explaining. Then waited as Idette turned to walk in the direction of their supposed cottage. Lavanda followed right behind Idette.

"Mashed potatoes? I LOVE MASHED POTATOES. Though my mom always makes me eat them even when I tell her not to. She won't let me go on a all protein diet cause it's like 'not healthy for a fourteen year old to eat only protein' like geez mom how ELSE will I become the ULTIMATE WARRIOR."

Lavanda's attention went towards Fatima, the shorter of the three, with a glint of amusement in her eyes and opened her mouth to say something—

"RIGHT?"

Lavanda laughed rather than respond; her laugh was sudden, loud, and accompanied with splutters in-between.

"Yes," she managed to squeeze out, "Mashed potatoes are the absolute best. Actually, potatoes in general are amazing and tasty and you can do soooooo much with them. Not that I cook. But, you know? Yeah, you know."

Lavanda took a deep breath in an attempt to recover from her earlier laugh attack. She offered a glance to her surroundings and noticed that aside from scattered statues and thick, tall trees, there wasn't much else to Wellington Academy. Sure there were a few old, vintage looking buildings, but she was expecting more. The way Lu always talked about this school she imagined a butler at every corner. She was rather disappointed that was not the case. And where was the limo service? Honestly, having to lug around her suitcases was NOT the image she had of Wellington.

"So," She said, continuing the earlier conversation by completely changing topics, "Fatima, right? What grade are you in?"

Just as she had said that, Idette had stopped in her tracks and the girls were now stopped in front of a house. Now she understands why they refer to the dorms as cottages.

---

---

^Venetia

---

^{| l o c a t i o n | front gates > coleus cottage
| i n t e r a c t i o n s | @ImmortalJaskier & @Moirin (students in kitchen mentioned: @Torack & @Hey Im Jordan)}

---

"Ugh," Venetia sighed, "Heavens to betsy." She muttered under her breath as she admonished herself internally for forgetting a whole student. She could have sworn she had only needed to pick up one of the incoming students for the morning drop-offs, but then yesterday's conversation slowly dawned on her once again. She had completely blocked out the aftermath after she tried to convince the Assistant Principal of her genius, fool-proof plan.

"Okay, okay!" Venetia watched impatiently as the students boarded the golf cart and as soon as she saw Lillie's butt touch the seat, Venetia slammed the accelerator towards the cottage. Venetia ignored her surroundings as she always does and sped through the bumpy tracks, her hat and sunglasses rising with each bump but never falling. She skittered to a stop once she reached the cottage and parked to the side.

"All right," Venetia jumped off the golf cart and with a flashy smile turned to the students, "Welcome to Coleus! This is my kingdom, you get caught doing anything that's against school rules, then you'll suffer the consequences, just ask Abigail—she's got firsthand experience with that. I hate curfew breakers, doesn't matter if it's a second after or 2 minutes after. I don't care if you tripped on your way and have a note from the nurse's office. Don't. Break. Curfew."

Just as quickly as she had ushered that out, she pushed through the front doors allowing Ezequiel and Lillie to follow behind her but never checking to see if they were actually following. "All rooms are on the second floor. Ezequiel, your roommate is Jordan Dom, you'll know where it is when you see it, probably. And Lillie, your roommate's name is Jessa—oh, sugartits."

Venetia had led them past the entrance and towards the living room, she heard some chatter coming from the kitchen but dismissed it after her sudden realization. More students were still to come later in the morning.

"Wait a minute..." Venetia's eyes sparkled as she zoned in her focus onto Lillie."You're perfect! Your roommate is Jessamine, she arrives at 9AM. You remember the front gates right? Go pick her up. You have two hours or so, don't forget. Ezequiel?" Venetia turned to Ezequiel then, "You'll accompany her. It'll be your first project!! Perfect!! You need to make sure you pick up Jessamina, Chester, and Taro. I think that was all of them?"

Venetia internally congratulated herself, a smug smile plastered on her face as a result of constant mental affirmations on how great Venetia was. "Now, you're all set. I hear some voices in the kitchen, go on, introduce yourselves, or make friends—whatever it is that kids do these days. You have some time so run along now. I got better places to be."

Venetia came and went like a storm. She left Ezequiel and Lillie in the living room, already with a huge responsibility to take care of, while she sauntered off and onto the golf cart, speeding away.

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^Nico

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^{| l o c a t i o n | front gates > zinnia cottage
| i n t e r a c t i o n s | @alexfangtalon & @canaryrose & @Hey Im Jordan & @alimariloasun}

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“Sorry I’m late… I overslept a bit. I made you some tea, though.”

Nico took the thermos being handed to him and opened up the lid. The smell of freshly brewed tea wafted out of the thermos while Nico inhaled in the soft smell. He hadn't had his morning tea as of yet since he had made picking up the incoming students as priority. Now his day had officially begun and with tea in hand, Nico began the mini tour he loves to go through while walking the students to the cottage.

"Thanks Kassandra!" He said, after he had taken a sip. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to be coming, seeing as you got here so late. Nevertheless! You're just in time to help me out with the tour!"

Nico took the liberty to take the slow path once more, hoping the students would take in the sight of what Wellington Academy truly is. While at first sight it feels as if you're stuck in the middle of nowhere with all the surrounding greenery and forestry background noise, as soon as you come across any of the buildings the academy has throughout campus, you're brought back into reality. They were walking through a flowery path, one intended to be for leisure walks in between classes as Nico began.

"Wellington Academy was founded by the ingenious Weiss Gillian Wellington, a true man with a true vision. He wanted students to actually love studying and believed it was meant to be treated as a game—a puzzle, a riddle."

Nico paused to let the new students absorb the information; something he wholeheartedly believed in himself. "Right over on that side is the student library—it's where you can borrow books, study or even request reading materials that we may not have." He pointed to a building off in the distance. Then he walked slightly ahead of the group reaching the front of the cottage, continuing to drink out of the gifted thermos. Nico was fully intending for the three students to mingle and introduce themselves as well as give Kassandra full reign of guiding the new students from here on. Nico was curious to see if Kassandra would be able to handle it; she was always responsible so now was her chance to prove it. Of course, he'll hover near to make sure no mistakes are made, but he'll ease off on being the driver for now and allow Kassandra to take the wheel.

As he walked more towards the cottage, Nico noticed another student waving at him and as he focused his attention towards her, he recognized her as Chao-Li while Jae Sun trailed right behind her. They approached the group and Nico nodded in return as a greeting.

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