Ashton mentally cursed himself for speaking so bluntly. The sentence sounded lass offensive in his head, he hoped it didn't offend the girl he will be working with. His doubts soon disappeared as Anna spoke. "Ah, straight-forward. I like that." She even smiled. It had seemed that the greeting had upset Nicholas far more than it did Anna.
"Gosh! Don't get so clever, she's not always like that... Just to people who like fun, though. But hopefully, you're just as colourless as your hair... You two should get along fine! Anyways, I guess I should be going now. It looks like the assistants are arriving. Tootles!" The boy's rant surprised him considering the fact that his potentially insulting comment was directed at Iridan who he obviously wasn't the best of friends with. The joke, was that part about his hair even a joke or an insult, well whatever it was, it went over his head. Ashton crooked his head a bit to the left and watched the blond boy leave.
He was now alone with Anna, well not really alone since they were standing in the middle of a courtyard filled with their fellow students, but their attention was directed only at one another. "You must be Ashton Brooks. Please, call me Anna. It's a pleasure to meet you." She held out her hand for a shake but instead of doing so Ashton lifted her hand and kissed it. It wasn't anything special, just what he was thought a gentleman is supposed to do. "The pleasure is all mine, Anna." He said with a genuine smile.
"I think the welcome ceremony for the first years is about to start." He spoke after a short break. "Don't you think we should go, the vice principal might talk more about the disappearance. With at least 300 other students as competition we should use every opportunity to find evidence." By the discussion Anna had with Nick Ashton assumed she would be more than keen on solving the case. His words were spoken with the best intentions but they lacked honesty. He would be happier if the principal just popped up from behind the podium and said it was all a joke but that was highly unlikely.
It's not like he's not going to try it's just that he wasn't as excited about the mystery as the rest of his schoolmates. Ashton is rather good at finding missing things. How much different can it be with finding people?
Ashton took a step in the general direction of the auditorium the ceremony was going to be held in and waited for Iridian to follow or take the lead he was fine with either.