Lasird Academy

As the people around her began to shuffle in their seats, Alaysa pulled the ear buds out of her ears and let them fall into her bag. She stood up carefully, as not to hit Zoe, and pulled her hair back into a ponytail; her bangs fell casually into her eyes. Lifting her bag onto her shoulder, Laysie looked back at Zoe, who had stood up and was looking a bit puzzled beside her. Pulling her hair lightly out of habit, Laysie gently touched the girl's arm and looked her in the eye.

"Be careful," she murmured. "But know this: not everyone here wants a part of this fight." Looking over at Annemarie, she said," You can trust Annemarie - and me. She seems to have taken a liking to you, and I understand why you're nervous. But once you become used to the feel of things here, you'll be fine." A small smile flitted across her face.

Scooting past the girl toward the door, Laysie glanced back over her shoulder at Zoe. "Go to your dorm. If you need anything, just call. " Pausing, she smiled slyly, her eyes glinting playfully. "Perhaps I'll pass through the garden later; I'm sure everyone would love to see me. . ." She laughed quietly under her breath and turned, padding down the bleacher stairs and disappearing into the crowd.

Laysie quickly wove her way through the mass of students and pushed through the doorway. She breathed in the earthy-smelling air, closing her eyes happily. A drop of rain fell from the sky and dripped down the side of her face.

Good thing I wore my contacts today. . .

Leaning against the side of the building, she took a sweatshirt out of her bag and pulled it over heard head. She let her hair spill out the side of the hood as she lifted it over her ponytail. Slipping her moccasins off of her feet, she threw them into her bag while tucking the satchel hanging from her neck into the hoodie.

"Be prepared, be prepared –" She sang softly to herself, smiling slightly and looking up at the darkening sky.

As the rain began to fall harder, Laysie walked toward her dorm, her feet stepping lightly through the wet grass.

Leon nodded in greeting to Alistair, smiling slightly as he thought of his accomplishments last year. “Yeah. It’ll be interesting,” to say the least. Of course, he’d have to think of some sort of initiation. As clichéd as it sounded, it definitely proved useful. A sacrifice too big to fake. That kind of thing. He had to make sure his gang members were loyal, after all. He thought back to the previous years, even though it was an unspoken rule never to repeat the same initiation. It was the leader’s job to prove to the members that he was intelligent and capable as a strategist, along with several other traits that all went back to machismo.

The ceremony, as expected, was boring. There was a bit of drama at the beginning that involved a new human girl that didn’t look nearly emotionally strong enough to join his gang. She’d probably end up being another girl he had to look out for. Hopefully, she’d help somehow. Maybe she was smart enough. Or maybe she was good enough at acting to try and scout out the other gangs. Maybe intuitive?

Well, there was no point trying to find use in someone untalented. Instead, Leon turned his attention to some of the other new students. There were a couple of people that seemed competent. Well, they will be soon enough. There was a reason he pushed for ownership of the pools – one lap of swimming was approximately equal to five of running. Less time, less space, overall more efficiency. Just the way he liked it.

There was always a slight murmur in the background as the teachers spoke. Not a surprise. The teachers tried to quiet everyone down every few moments, only for the rumble to start up again. Finally, the teachers gave their closing speech, even though it was quite obvious that no one was actually listening to them at that point. Dismissal worked out just as well, as students started filing out of the auditorium with no regard to the teachers at all. As Leon stood up, he looked down at everyone to see if there was anyone that could catch his attention.

Unfortunately, the first person he saw was the girl from earlier. She was looking around, obviously lost, and the werewolf friend she seemed to have made had walked away.

Well, maybe I can see if she could be any help at all. Plus, the lost types were typically easier to approach.

Walking against the crowd wasn’t too difficult. People tended to move out of his way. Social status sure was a useful thing. He navigated down the ramp, nodding in greeting to several people on the way down and reminding them about the gang meeting later that night. Finally, he reached the girl and lightly tapped her shoulder.

“Hello, ma’am, I see you’re lost?” He gave her his best prince charming smile and extended his hand, “I’m Leon Robespierre. I suppose by your company, you don’t know how this school works quite yet. If you wouldn’t mind, I would be honored to give you a tour of the school grounds.”

Zoe flinched as Laysie's hand touched her shoulder lightly. She took a deep breath and then turned her head to look up at Laysie.

"Be careful," she murmured. "But know this: not everyone here wants a part of this fight." She turned her head and looked over in the direction of Annemarie. " You can trust Annemarie - and me. She seems to have taken a liking to you, and I understand why you're nervous. But once you become used to the feel of things here, you'll be fine." There must have been something funny in the words because Laysie smiled slightly as she finished her sentence, although Zoe couldn't really understand why.

Before she could figure it out and give a response, Laysie had walked past her and was getting ready go leave. "Go to your dorm. If you need anything, just call." She paused before starting down the stairs, murmuring something soft in a mischievous voice that made Zoe shiver. Maybe there was a dark side to her new acquaintance after all.

As she watched Laysie walk away, Zoe's mind started to spin - what could she do? Laysie had advised her to go to her dorms, but - at the moment - Zoe wasn't even quite sure where they were, and even if she had known, her sense of direction was not the greatest. One of the only people that she thought she could trust had just abandoned her in the middle of a crowd of rushing people who didn't seem to care in the least where she went or who she was, beyond the fact that she wasn't one of them.

What am I going to do? Zoe thought, starting to panic. She couldn't just stand here - there was irritation that she was blocking the aisle already beginning, and she knew that crowds were not the most kind of people. She took a step down hesitantly and then another one, although she wasn't quite sure -

Something touched her shoulder.

She whirled so fast that she almost ran into a couple of weres. They murmured something unpleasant and glared at her. One opened her mouth, clearly about to say something that Zoe could hear - but then she stopped, looking behind Zoe at the young man who had just tapped her on the shoulder. Her face twisted, went white and then red. Her throat worked, but she said nothing, instead turning around and continuing her walk at a faster rate.

Zoe turned her attention back to the young man who had tapped her on the shoulder. He was introducing himself now, and, though she was not quite sure, she had suspicions that he was a human - especially by the way he said 'your company', as if it was something almost shameful.

Leon Robespierre. It was an important sounding name, and Zoe wondered just who exactly he was and why he was trying to help her. If he was human, was he maybe trying to recruit her back to 'their side'? It must have looked like she was siding with the weres, given on where she'd been sitting. Was she going to be ostracized from both sides now?

Just before it got out of control, Zoe forced the panic back down and looked back at Leon. He was smiling kindly at her, one hand extended. She carefully took it and shook it, murmuring, "I'm Zoe. Zoe Voltaire." She looked down and then back up. "I'd - I'd appreciate it. A tour, I mean. I -" She broke off blushing.