Muir Academy

Katri found her boxes and bags stacked neatly on the bed she would call her own for the next school year. She tore open one of them, sifting through the contents until she found her uniform. "Aha!" She exclaimed. She turned back, and saw Dana was still lingering near the door. "Come in, silly. Want to see if our new roomies have anything interesting?" Katri moved to open the zipper on a bag that lay on her neighbor's bed, but stopped. The dogs had a good sense of smell, and that had almost been her undoing with more than one of her practical jokes last year. Her pranks towards werewolves always had to be carefully planned. "Well, I suppose I should get changed first. I don't want to press my luck with the teachers."

She pulled her shirt off without inhibition and started to pull the somewhat wrinkly garment over her shoulders. "You might here some bad things about me." Her voice was muffled by the clothing in her face. "And some of the stories will be true. You can trust me though. I don't mean any permanent harm on people." As she pulled her head out and shook her hair free of the shirt she smiled at Dana. "For the most part."

When she was dressed she shoved her discarded clothes into the corner of the room before beginning a search of the room. "One thing I always do in a new place is make sure I know everything about it. The room is really similar to my dorm last year, but you never know what surprises you might find." She explained to the human girl as she pulled open empty drawers and glanced into the bathroom and closets. Soon enough the werewolves wouldn't be able to tell where her scent hadn't been. Looking out the window, she saw it would be quite a drop to the ground, but the building was made of old stone and it had lots of handholds. She had climbed down the walls to escape an isolation class she had been sentenced to last year. She couldn't remember the reason for the punishment, which made it quite useless, but the classroom full of werewolves had been utterly unimpressive to her. Dirty looks, and bared teeth, but no action until the teacher had been called away. Then, a few of the more vicious ones had turned on her. She knew that she wouldn't come to harm, but her pranks had bothered several of them and it was perilously close to a full moon. So, before one of the furbags could grab her she had slipped out the classroom window with her school bag on her back, and climbed down the ivy covered stone wall. She smiled to herself at the memory. Of course, she had earned two extra days of isolation because of the escape, but it had been fun!

Satisfied her investigation had brought out of the ordinary to her attention, and that the werewolves would be unable to tell where she had not been, she went back to her bed, pushing the boxes and bags to the ground in one heap before dropping onto it with a self indulgent sigh.

“We’re in the mixed race dorm…” she finally said her fine black brows knitted together in a frown. “It’ll be the first time I’ve ever lived with one of them. Getting along with werewolves isn’t even in my genetics and yet we’ve both been placed in a dorm absolutely teeming with them” she continued flatly her olive eyes down cast at the thought of it all.

Colette's dramatic brows rose in shock before she scoffed loudly, "Your mother must be under some pressure this year." She said simply, though her mouth was pulled down into a frown, "Male werewolves I can deal with. All that pent up testosterone and ruggedness, you know?" Colette said, remember her ex boyfriend Jason (werewolf) who had been expelled a while back after a rather nasty break up. Quite the temper, but also quite the body. "But the girls? I could do without them." Colette said with a flick of her hand as though she was warding off some invisible bug. She didn't look particularly enraged or disgusted because she didn't care all to much about werewolves while the other vampires seriously seemed to really despise them. In her case, she didn't think it was worth the time or energy to hate all of them. If a few pissed her off then yes, they had better watch out... but that went for any of the races.

“I suspect it’s even worse than living with Ambrose.” She added in a disgruntled fashion

She laughed brightly, not bothering to hold down her skirt like Alisha had, and elbowed her playfully in the side, "Well why don't we trade next summer? I'd gladly live with him." They had reached the top of the stairs now and begun down the hall to their dorm room, shoes echoing on the stone walls.

“But you met the human boy you say. Most human’s are clumsy, it’s there nature to make mistakes” she murmured. “Is he handsome?” she added talking Colette’s language in an attempt to lighten her own mood.

Colette considered the question for a moment, as though it was a life or death situation, and then finally said, "He's cute. Sort of like a little doll and he hardly speaks." With that she opened the door to their dorm room and entered. Her things were already all put away so she walked across the large room and collapsed gracefully onto her soft bed.

Dana smiled slightly and walked into the room, going over to her own bed. Her bags were already unpacked and stuffed under her bed, now emptied. On the floor next to her were several reference books, her way of spending the time the night before instead of sleeping. She never slept the night before school started, and the fact that she was in a completely new place had made it basically impossible.

She looked away from Katri as she was changing, but didn't miss a beat. "If I hear anything worth bothering about I'll just ask you," Dana assured her, sitting criss-cross style. "I don’t hold much merit in rumours to begin with."

She paused for a moment then looked towards the door, wondering when the other two were going to arrive.

“I hope everyone gets along alright…” she muttered, mostly to herself as she nervously bit her bottom lip. Everyone was so segregated here. It was impossible to guess how her dorm life was going to turn out.

Tabby remained inconspicuous, a reasonable distance behind Katri and the human, and paused when they entered the dorm room. She took a short breath and wondered why Katri seemed to be behaving so amiably towards the human. Lulling her into a false sense of security? Whichever way, it couldn't be good. As Tabby stood at the top of the stairs, she contemplated waiting for Alexia to show up. No...that was just an excuse to stall. Come on Tabby...you're just sharing a room with one vampire, it can't be that bad. It could have been so much worse!

Bracing herself, she pressed herself into motion and strolled into the dorm, affecting a genial smile at the two other girls and dropping her pack onto her designated bed.

"Hey Katri." she said warmly, trying to keep things sweet for now, realising that any percieved animosity or suspicion would most likely work against her at this stage, "You have a good summer?"

She looked across at Dana and her expression warmed further. "Dana right? Sorry Ms Cane went and mentioned you by name in her opening, but if it makes you feel better she's done it to others in previous years. I think it's because things in the school are changing a lot and she's such an old stickler she doesn't know how to deal with it except blurting it out in neon letters to everyone. Still, nice to see you, I'm Tabitha. Tabby, or whatever you like really."

Tabby glanced at the fourth, empty bed, and wondered where Alexia had gotten to. They'd been seperated after the assembly, but Tabby had assumed that she was following not too far behind. It gave her a little chill...there had been something odd about the way Alexia was so withdrawn and quiet.

Dana smiled as the new girl walked in. She was pretty, not in the way Katri or some of the other girls were, but she had that kind of unique face that made her attractive. And she seemed really nice, which was a big plus.

"Pleasure to meet you, Tabby," Dana answered, returning her smile. "I'm Dana, which you already guessed. It was a little embarrassing being called out, but nothing I can't handle," she explained with a blase tone, acting as if she hadn't wanted to crawl under a table and hide with a blush from her head to her toes.

A knock on their door made her jump slightly, but she made it to the door before the other two. Opening it, there was a stern looking woman standing there, a faculty member she supposed. The hallway outside was still crowded with girls and boys heading to their respective dorms. She talked to her for a moment in a quiet voice, then closed the door.

"It seems our other roommate, Alexia I think, won't be joining us," she told the other two girls with a small frown. "Something about a trip for the school? Whatever the case, I suppose it's just the three of us for now." She walked back over to her bed and plopped back down, shrugging at the two before reaching down to the floor and grabbing one of her reference books, a review guide.

"Once everyone gets settled, we should introduce ourselves to the girls in the room next door. We're sharing a bathroom," she added in a detached voice, her eyes moving across the pages in her hand.

Tabby casually continued to unpack a few things as Dana answered the door. She didn't listen in, assuming it was something specific to the human...maybe something to help her stay a little safer?! (Like a ticket home perhaps...) Tabby threw Katri a weak smile, trying to keep the atmosphere light. But her face fell when Dana delivered the news about Alexia.

"Really?" she said, barely able to mask her concern, "Oh OK, well I guess we have a spare bed then. Not to worry."

Tabby watched Dana discreetly as she looked at the book she picked up, which didn't exactly seem like light bedtime reading. The human seemed nice...and what's more she seemed fairly cerebral, serious about school...dare she say even smart? That was a surprise. Could it be that the council had decided to let someone in who might actually be in line for a promising career? Not someone who wouldn't be too badly missed if they ended up having their vascual system treated like a mobile drinks vendor.

"Mmm," she replied with a cagey smirk as Dana suggested saying hello to the girls next door. Tabby had seem the dorm list...she knew who they were sharing the bathroom with, and she had every intention of getting her routine out of the way early enough each day that she wouldn't have to share excess breathing space with any of them. Especially Alisha and Colette. Tabby tried to think of the most diplomatic way to air her concern. "That's a really nice idea Dana. I don't know them all that well myself. You seem real friendly...I hope people give you credit for it because, y'know, it really is a mixed bunch here. Some people you just can't please and you'll just come a'cropper trying."

“Good luck,” Thyme murmured as Tabby made her way off… he should probably follow suit and make his way to his own dorm. ‘Roommates, eh?’, he thought, before absently walking towards the mixed dorms himself. However, he couldn’t help but think that Tabby was being all too optimistic about their situations. They were rooming with vampires and now humans as well – and bloodlust certainly worked itself into that whole equation. He couldn’t say that exactly who his roommates were was going to make his year any easier either.

“My room was… second floor,” Thyme murmured to himself before entering the building. He traced the banister of the staircase with his hand as he ascended, vaguely wondering when the school facilities had last been renovated. Going down the corridors, his thoughts wandered back to his roommates again. Seeing as he’d taken his time, surely most of the others had already settled in? While pondering this and the tiresome days to come, he nearly passed by his own door.

He hesitated for a moment, but decided to knock before opening the door wide. “Ah, hello,” Thyme called when he saw people already there… although the greeting was more directed towards the human. Was the human… sparkling? Thyme caught the smell of aged wood in the air, and he scowled. What the smell and metallic glint was, he wasn’t too sure, but for all he knew, it could be silver. ‘That would be a wonderful way to start of the year…”

Unable to think of much more to say, Thyme awkwardly made his way to his assigned bed, briefly counting his suitcases to make sure they all made it there. He ought to unpack, but… it seemed so tedious. He’d always have time for that chore later. For now, he decided to take a moment to let laziness take over and just relax. Someone had decided to turn on some music, and he vaguely recognized the melody. He wondered if he should try to be more interactive with his new roommates, but Thyme wasn’t at all sure how to go about doing that. He instead, kicked off his shoes and lied back, falling into his bed. He noted that the mattress was too firm for his liking.