((OOC: This is an open RP for now. If you want to join, say you're interested here, and leave a character bio. I will allow a few characters to have some minor powers or magic abilities, but please ask me before you give your characters powers so I can decide if it'll work. I will also allow non-humans, as long as at the school they use a human form and they aren't basically super heroes.))

Characters:

Mine
Sophia Ingram

Amjbrazik's
Jezebel Laurence (Jessie)

MuffinMan's
Sarah Kirtus

- - - - -

It was a hot morning for September, like summer was refusing to let autumn take its place just yet. Sophia felt warm under her long-sleeved blouse as she walked to her first class. She rechecked the class number before opening the door. The classroom was loud when she came in and she didn't think anyone noticed her as she looked for a spot to sit. She found a place at the back, and sat down.

The bell rang and the class quieted down, but not completely. Sophia spotted several other students with laptops or tablets - as was the case with the girl next to her - and a few had different handheld devices they kept under their desks out of the teacher's view. Their teacher started with introductions, roll call, packets of papers for their parents to sign, and then told them that they were free to talk or read for the rest of class.

Sophia glanced around, wondering if she should try to introduce herself to someone, or just take out a book and start reading. She looked around at her neighbors for a moment, playing with her charm bracelet, and felt nervousness well up in the pit of her stomach. Her parents had said she should try to make new friends, but... It was only first period, she could find someone to talk to later. She took her book out of the front pocket of her backpack.

(Bump)

Sarah shoved her glasses further up her nose and avoided looking at anyone else in the classroom. She sighed and fiddled with the pen in her hand. It was the first class of the day which of course meant that the general torture had only just began. She heard a high-pitched giggle and looked up to see one of the girls spread out on a guy's desk. Sarah gave a quiet snort and looked back down at her own desk. She honestly worried about some of the students in her class.
She went back to staring absently at the door as more students poured in. A girl with dark blonde hair and a long-sleeved came in and Sarah watched her gaze about for a seat. The girl eventually took the seat between her and some other girl who was busy goggling over some electronic device. The teacher came in as the bell went and Sarah looked up. After the teacher had finished with all the normal things, they were told to basically do whatever they wanted. Sarah sighed as the class once again irrupted in noise.
The girl beside her took out a book and started to read. Sarah craned her neck to try and get a glimpse at the title but found herself unsuccessful. Biting her lip thoughtfully for a bit, she cautiously lent over.
"Good book?" she asked quietly, kicking the chair of her leg with her heel nervously, uncertain as to whether or not the girl would actually want to talk to her.

Sophia jumped a little at the other girl's voice. "Oh, y-yes. It's very good so far..." she said. She was blushing, as she realized she had stuttered. "I mean, I've only read a few chapters. But I've heard it's a really good story." She put her finger between the pages she had been reading to show the other girl the cover. "It's a retelling of 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon'. Have you ever read that story?" She realized she had been babbling a bit.

"If you haven't, it's fine... I just really like that story..."

Sarah smiled at the other girl, hoping that she could help her to not be as nervous.
"It sounds interesting, although I can't say that I've ever heard of it. You'll have to tell me how it turns out," Sarah replied quietly, brushing some of her hair from her face. She had a vague idea that she had heard of the story somewhere, but if she had it must have only been in passing as she had no recollection of the actual story which was quite rare for a bookworm like herself.
"My name's Sarah, by the way," she added quickly, realising that she had failed to introduce herself. "Are you new here?"

"Nice to meet you. I'm Sophia," she said. "Um, yeah. I moved over the summer." She tried not too show the relief in her voice, though she was quite happy. "Are you reading anything right now? We could trade off when we finish."

"It must have been hard having to change schools" Sarah said sympathetically, trying to imagine how she would feel having the move away from all her friends. Not that she had that many. Sarah quickly thought back to the stack of books that were currently sitting in her room. She had been sort of slacking off lately, but she knew there was something that she was technically currently reading.
"I'm reading Sherlock Holmes actually. My auntie bought me this huge book filled with the original stories and I've just sort of been admiring it since," she said dreamily, getting that same thrill she always got when she thought about the novel sprawled on her bed.
"I'd like to trade off. It always helps you to find something interesting to read without having to spend any money."

((I guess Amjbrazik decided not to play.))

"Yeah," Sophia said. Even if she hadn't been popular, she was at least comfortable there. She had promised to keep in touch with her old friends, but she had still been frightened that she wouldn't find someone to talk to. She was quite relieved now having met Sarah.

Sophia also didn't have much money, but she did have a lot of books already. "Just tell me when you want to borrow something." The bell rang for class and Sophia said, "Maybe we could hang out at lunch?"

Sarah grinned.
"Sounds like a plan," She said with a slight giggle. She grabbed her books and stacked them into a reasonably neat pile before she hefted the whole lot into her arms as she stood. A couple of the boys were pushing and shoving each other near the door so she dawdled by ensuring that her chair was pushed in neatly.
"You ready?" she asked Sophia, glancing up as she shifted her books to her other arm.

((I guess so))

Sophia grabbed her backpack and filed the papers away in her binder. "Sure!"

They walked together toward the cafeteria through swarms of other students. As they arrived,a girl screamed from across the room. It wasn't screaming like someone who was joking around. Sophia turned to see what was going on, and couldn't see anything going on but heard the girl yelling "They're all over me! Get them off! Get them off!".

The girl ran for the door past them, and was scratching at her skin until it was bloody in some places. Sophia even thought she had seen something, and she shivered. Of course I didn't, she thought. That would be silly.

Sarah dawdled alongside Sophia, elbowing other students out of the way. As they reached the large room, Sarah heard a high-pitched scream coming from the other side of the room. She stretched herself up as far as she could but was unable to see a single thing. She watched in shock as the girl ran past them, bleeding in several places. Sarah turned away as she caught a flicker of something, probably the girl's shadow.
"That has NEVER happened before," Sarah whispered to Sophia, still staring at the door which the girl had just left. The loud chaos of the cafeteria had been transformed into hushed whispers as people started bunching up and retelling their version of events. A few students even left through the same door, but returned with puzzled expressions on their faces.
"What do you reckon happened?" she asked Sophia, glancing about for somewhere to sit, biting her lip anxiously.

"I-I d-don't know," Sophia said, crossing herself. "I hope she's ok..."

There was a table open at the back of the cafeteria, and Sophia motioned to Sarah where it was. They sat down, and Sophia took out bags from her lunch bag only to wrinkle her nose at a slightly misshapen sandwich. "I hate egg salad... Do you want this?" She still had some carrots, a fruit snack-cup and some peanut butter crackers.

Sarah obediently sat down at the table Sophia indicated and promptly whipped out a small notebook. She scribbled down everything that she had seen and heard about the strange event with the girl and vowed to ask around to gather more information. She glanced up briefly as other students settled back down although many people were still sneaking looks at the doors.
"Do you reckon they found her? She probably ran entirely off the school grounds so who knows how far away she could be," Sarah murmured, partly to herself. She looked up as Sophia offered her the sandwich. She inspected it critically before she shrugged and took it from her friend. She cautiously took a bite and decided that it was alright although it definitely couldn't be counted as one of her favourite foods.
"I've never had an egg salad before. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to try one," she said to Sophia, taking another bite and ignoring the fact that she sounded extremely odd. After a few more bites Sarah remember something and hastily swallowed.
"I noticed you doing that sign of the cross thing before. Are you christian?" she asked, genuinely interested. No one in her family technically had a religion as her mother was of the belief that it was all 'ridiculous wishy-washy', although Sarah wasn't a hundred percent sure what they was supposed to mean.

"Yeah, I'm Catholic," she said carefully. Sarah seemed interested, but some people could go from neutral to hostile pretty quickly. She nibbled on a carrot stick.

((Sorry, busy right now and uncreative...))

((Bump?))

((sorry for the prolonged absence, something just came up all of a sudden))

"Really? Is the rest of your family Catholic too?" Sarah asked, leaning on the table with her elbows. She tried to imagine what her life would have been like if she had been religious, but as usual, her imagination ran dry with things that it had no experience in. She was ashamed to admit that she knew embarrassingly little about any religion. Her main source of information was TV and books, and she wasn't really sure if they were accurate.

"Yes," she said thinking. "Pretty far back even. How about your family?" She was finishing up her carrots and debated whether she should eat the crackers or the fruit cup nest. She decided on eating the fruit. She could save the crackers as a snack for later, and plus, her mouth was dry. She opened the container and ate slowly, mostly sucking on the plastic spoon as she listened.

Sarah pulled a face.
"Well, my family doesn't really have a religion or anything. My mum doesn't believe in anything that in her opinion can't be proven. She's very logical and everyone else just sort of has to follow along with what she says. I've never really thought about it that much to be honest," Sarah said quietly, scratching at the table. Someone had scratched a name into the table, followed by a rather rude remark.