The Boarding School Chat

I honestly didn't care what their names were, Danny and.. Alice, or whatever. I pointed to the one who said he was Will, then jerked my thumb behind me, towards my room.
"You're in the other room with me. Idiot."

With that settled, I turned around, and walked back into my room, flopping back onto my bed; one arm behind my head, the other hanging off the edge.

I waited for Will to come into the room. "Now, if we're ganna be roommates, I have to set some ground rules."

Dorian
"Wonderful. Now that we have reached an understanding, let's just hope you have the common sense to stay out of my way" Perhaps this year wouldn't be too intolerable after all. At least my sister wasn't in town, to my knowledge. Really, what would the chances be? She could be on the other side of the country, for all I know, and that actually wasn't altogether unlikely.

Cricket

Perhaps I wasn't quite so dead this year, after all. Just perhaps. All I had to do was not be myself for several months. Aye. "A'right, aye, I get it." You know that feeling where you do something incredibly stupid, like climb up to a high place, feeling proud . . . and then you realise that you're clinging above a sixty foot drop with only slippery brick to hang on to, but you're too proud to step down to safety, so you just keep going? . . . Aye. Well, I was too proud to simply move next door.

It wasn't that I hated Dorian. I didn't particularily like him, but that didn't mean I didn't have any respect for the guy. Respect . . . hard to pin down where that tiny little glimpse of a feeling came from. Anyhow, I finally figured I'd better shut up if I didn't want to make myself miserable.

. . . Aye, it was going to be a long year. I let out a quick whistle. Oi my my.

Which left Alexander and I alone in the room together.

Ok, then. "Hi."I said calmly. I wheeled my trunk over to be at the empty bed and started unpacking. I had all these neatly pressed white shirts for some reason. Ah well, I figured that once I put them in my closet I wouldn't be getting them back out... I might just nail them in, so that I never had to take them out again. Considerably lighten the weight of my trunk.

There was some other random crap in my trunk as well... a bunch of mementos, some notes... assorted other school stuff... My mother had over prepared for things. As usual. Psycho woman.

October
Well...shit, where was I supposed to go....
Paperssss....where'd you gooo..... I /know/ i TOTALLY put you in this bag somewhere! ARGH. I wasn't about to go upturning my dufflebag in the middle of the hallway. Let's try luck then... I peak my head into an occupied room, looking around slightly confused. "Might your roommate be October Tyler to your papers?" I ask the girl.

*PoV change~* (tho most of you will prolly guess who this is by the first sentence....)

"Are you...fucking CRAZY?"
Grayson didn't so much as flinch at my outburst, just kept looking at Father for some sort of recognition. Because he had to be the perfect child... WHERE THE FUCK DID THIS IDEA COME FROM IN HIS DERANGED MIND THOUGH?! Me, and school? WHAT.
"Damian..." It's that tone again. He doesn't know how to deal with me, yet, and it gives me a sting that I refuse to recognize at the moment. He's honestly perplexed. My Father, Batman, the world's greatest detective, who handles supervillain after supervillain, doesn't know what the fuck to do with his biological son. The sting again, but I push it away again, keep my stony face until - "I agree."
Sputtersputter.... WHAT. "But Pennysworth homeschools me just fine. I dont need to go to a fucking prep school for stuck up bastards, for some damn 'social interactions'!"
Off to the side, I hear Chelsea mutter, "Case in point..."
I shoot her a glare. "What about /her/ then? The damn villain princess!" My turn for receiving glares, from her and Tim... "This is SHIT. WHY THE FU - "
"Damian!" I silence, looking away, but grit my teeth. I've frustrated him. This is it then? He just wants to send me away... His gaze is hard, but he doesn't look away from the Batcave's computers. I shame him...
I've always shamed him...

...Reliving fucking memories... not any damn fun. Go the fuck away... Leave me the hell alone.
My face betrays nothing as I walk through the halls of the boy's dormitory, looking for my room number. Voices though, I vaguely recognize some, but dont really care enough to go see who. I just want to get to my damn prison for the rest of the year or howeverlongGraysondecidestotorureme.... Just wanted to be the fuck alone but apparently single rooms were not an option.
I push open the room I'm supposed to live in, drop my bag at the foot of my bed that I immediately claim, and lay down facing the corner. No roommate yet, but I'm not going to do anything if he comes...
If he does he better leave me the fuck alone....

Dorian
Now that that was perfectly settled... what happens next? I supposed that the chance of classes beginning on the first day was fairly slim, to give students a time to settle in, though I had never been to school before... so I didn't actually have the slightest idea. Perhaps I should take a look around campus...?

Alex:
I saw him take out some slightly old fashioned looking shirts, like the kind you might find in a an older setting, like castle or some such thing. Huh. Maybe it's like a new style... Speaking of unpacking, I knew I should probably get to doing that, too, but I wasn't quite comfortable enough to do so yet. Standing up, I began to pace around and look through the room, just trying to get familiar with it.

I occasionally glanced over at what he was doing, but I wasn't sure why I was so paranoid. It wasn't if those notes were going to magically tell him to kill me...

I was actually excited to be there, walking the plain-looking halls. Honesty, truly excited. And the halls were lit! It was so different from being alone in the Bell Tower, where every gleam of light was a miracle. Then I matched numbers to numbers, and found the plain little door that lead to wherever I was going to be living for the next . . . however long. The doorknob turned with a satisfying click.

Ah, there was someone else already flopped onto a bed. Didn't know we had roommates. Well . . . perhaps he was friendly enough? I wandered in and plopped down on the other bed. "Ah, pardon mate, but 'ello." I flashed a grin.

Daniel:

I put the books of mementos on my desk, as well as all the notes, just left them in an untidy pile there, and noticed something on the floor under my desk. I kneeled down and pulled it out from under my desk. It was kind of heavy... and dusty.

And suddenly It was in front of me... A lantern. Huh. Weird. "Hey, Alexander... Did you find a random lantern under your desk too?" I asked. I mean... might as well get to know him... I mean...chances were good that he was not some kind of psychopathic torturer hoping to use others suffering to open up some portal in reality or something...

Alex
"Er..." I walked over and checked under my desk, and in a drawer on the side "No. Huh, that's weird. Maybe the people from last year left that?" I suggested, giving the lantern a weird look. What could a lantern in a 21st century school be used for? Unless the power went out, it wasn't like it was going to help keep you sane or anything... "And you can call me Alex if you want... I'm not really used to people using my full name"

Damian
"Dont fucking talk to me," I murmur to him without looking at him, scowling at the wall. And I had half hoped no one had been assigned to room with me... Right. My luck isn't that good. Godfuckingkillmenow....

Daniel:

"So... if they never cleaned up the random lantern... what else haven't they cleaned up, I wonder?" I thought about aloud. Maybe there was some weird fleshy pink goo somewhere blocking a path to a place or something frustrating like that. It didn't make me feel good about the sanitation crew on the school grounds.

He told me I could call him Alex. Perhaps I didn't want to call him Alex. Perhaps I preferred Alexander. I also almost pointed out that he spoke with an accent, but then I realised that technically I was the one with the accent in this situation, and that it would probably be easier to just not mention that whole thing. "What if I just like calling you Alexander better?" I asked, sitting down on my bed with my lantern.

It occurred to me that the lantern may be useful at night. When it was dark... and... not light outside. Redundancy intentional.

Alex
That is kind of interesting to think about. If they missed a huge lantern in the middle of the room, in theory, there could be like... random flammable stuff like tinder and oil scattered around. That could be useful. Hm.

"Er... alright" I shrugged "Call me Alexander then. I don't really care"

My hand automatically flew to my dagger when she came towards me, and I forced myself to relax, rubbing my wrist instead.

"Um...dolls?" I asked hesitantly, not sure I wanted to know. "I don't really know what you mean..."

Thinking for a moment I gave her a smile, carefully stepping past to place my bag on the bed that I guessed was mine. I was doing my best not to stare around the room, everything was so... nice.

Will

Great. Ground rules. I had a few of my own, I could tell this was going to be wonderful. I rolled my eyes, dumping my stuff on my bed. "You could at least tell me your name."

"James." I said, giving Will a sideways glance.

"Now. Rules. Rule one; Touch my stuff, and I cut open your hand. Rule two; Touch my books or my laptop, and I cut off your hand. Rule three; Touch me, and I cut off both your hands. Rule four; Repeat offenses of any of the above rules result in a knife through your foot." The best part is, he probably thought I was joking. I wasn't.
Either way, I got my point across. He followed my rules, or he didn't. That his issue, and I had informed what would happen if he didn't.

Will

"Fine. Here are my rules. Try to kill me and I slauter anyone you care about, touch my stuff and I stab you..more than once, and I'm not kidding." I said, pulling out the books I had brought and sticking them on the shelf.

James

I rolled my eyes, vaguely wondering if he could actually back up that threat, but then, I didn't really care. "First. I don't care about anyone. Two. Who said I was kidding? Three. Top two shelves are mine, you can have the bottom two." I said, gesturing towards all the black books on the bookshelf.

I finished unpacking all my stuff and sat down on the bed for a moment to take everything in. It was funny...I'd always wanted to go to a boarding school, and now, thanks to the SO, I was.

Remember, you're here on a mission, a voice told me. The ginger tabby was curled up on the bed beside me, ears flicking.

I know, I know, I thought back. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy it while I'm here. I wonder what my roommate will be like...

Then my phone, sitting on the table nearby, vibrated. Text message. Alright, this technically wasn't my cellphone; the SO had given us phones so we could readily communicate even though we were separated. Man...it felt really good to be holding a cellphone and texting again. I picked it up and looked at the screen.

From Nike:
all other dorm members present. nothing suspicious yet

I started a reply right away.

---any word from the fearless leader?

From Nike:
not yet. assuming from your question that you havent, either

---nope. think he knows how 2 use a phone? lol

From Nike:
of course he does. hes not an idiot

---ya, but hes not /normal/

From Nike:
can you blame him?

---yes? even homeschooled ppl know this stuff

From Nike:
oh right, you dont really know anything about him

---wat do u mean?

From Nike:
not my business to tell you. he will if he wants to

I frowned. I didn't really know much of anything about him, now that I thought about it...him and Senet both. I just knew that they and Izzy were sort of a family with Karin and Elizabeth, they were polytheistic but not really religious, they'd been homeschooled--at the research center? I wasn't sure about that one--they'd had extensive training for at least a handful of years, and...that was pretty much it.

Some voices sounded from the other side of the dorm. So the other girls of the dorm had arrived. Still no sign of my roommate, though. Oh well. I went over through the bathroom to meet my dorm-mates.

Noticing the sound of someone entering the room, I glanced up from my bag to spot a girl coming out of the other door. Oh, right, there would be two other girls besides Marley...

Nervously I felt my hand go back to rubbing my wrist as I studied her for a short moment, all my nerves about being around new people coming back to me.

"Um.." I began, trying to think of something polite to say. "...hello."

Kaya: Finally, i decided to remove myself from this situation. While these people seemed nice, i had things i had to do. "Uhm, if you'll excuse me, im going to go find my dorm room, the library, and possibly the administrations office. I'll probably see you both around.... thanks again for helping me with the stairs!" i said brightly before wheeling myself off. I dug out my school map and studied it for a moment, gathering my bearings.First things was first - i needed to find my room. I'd marked the route out on the map, and it didnt take me too horribly long to finally find the appropriate room. My crutches and bag had been moved in there ahead of time, as i was capable of carrying neither while in my wheelchair, but no unpacking had been done. The room was empty for the moment, although i knew i would ahve a roommate. I went about unpacking, neatly putting all of my things in their place while i had the time.

"Hello," I said. "My name's Sarah. So...looks like we're neighbors for the year. I guess we could use this time to get to know each other if you want... Totally fine if you don't, though."

I knew some people weren't the social type, but if we were going to be next to each other all year and sharing a bathroom, I figured we should at least be familiar. Not to mention that, underneath it all, I was running an investigation.

Will

"Thanks..." I said, placing the books on the shelf. A dog eared Poe, An Oliver Twist, A couple Natheniel Hawthorne's, and a few others. "So...who's your favorite author?" I asked, trying to make somewhat pleasent conversation.

Marley
"Hi!" I said happily, beaming at the girl that had come through the bathroom. Er... I guess that would be the other half of the dorm, right? I was a little iffy on the details. "I'm Marley, master thief. Pleased to meet'cha" Really, I was getting more and more optimistic by the second. I'd probably even be able to stay at this place for a couple of months, if I was lucky.

Sarah

"Master thief?" I asked with a sort of friendly skepticism. Really, if I were a thief, I wouldn't be open about it. She also seemed a little too young to be a thief, let alone a master one. Then my phone vibrated again (I'd carried it with me). "Oh, uh, sorry, gimme a sec..."

From Peter:
Everyone present and accounted for. I know for a fact they're all clean. Also, if I happen to fall out of contact for an extended period of time, it's probably because one of the people in my dorm murdered me. Just letting you know.

Sounded like he got stuck with a control freak, or at least a really touchy person. That was going to suck for him. I wondered how he knew they weren't Sybek, though. How could he possibly be able to tell?

I slid the phone back into my pocket, turning to the other girls. "Sorry about that."

Marley
Fun fact: when a scrawny kid goes around telling people they're a master thief, nobody believes them. And I found myself being kind of curious about who she texted. Not like it'd be anybody I know, though, since I'd never been in this area before... and trust me, I keep track of that kind of stuff.

"No problem. So... do you know who your roomie AKA our mysterious fourth dorm mate is?"