angrydurf

Mike merely glared at the young prankster and slowly began opening his door. Oh boy hazing he thought. He stepped out of the car once Koyama moved away from the door and stretched breifly to his full height before dropping into his standard slouch and extended a grudging hand to the young man to avoid alex's inevitable lecture should he be rude on thier first day. "Mike Harris." He stated simply.

Formalities taken care of he pulled his own back pack from the trunk and turning to Mrs. Harcourt asked in a respectful tone, "Should we unpack now? Or is the tour first?"

Mike was thouroughly lost in his own thoughts when he felt the small tug on his arm. He shook his head in vague confusion at Alex's words. "Wha huh," he quieried as the fog began to lift from his mind.

As Erin inquired about the prank it fully dawned on him what had been said. "Wait, yea, what kinda prank?" he asked as he glanced around frowning at the passing foilage and buildings the splendor of the campus largly lost in his sudden confused paranoia.

He tensed slightly and prepared himself for the unexpected sitting closer to his full height than he had since the drive began as he looked for some kind of threat.

And i think this one is done. We'll pick up with thier arrival when we get the orientation/powercheck thread going.

So when we tie off the intro we're in now should we start an Orientation thread over there or wait on a ref to start it up?

I think we finish this off with our arrival and get a ref for the orientation and/or powercheck thread. It looks like most of the clairmont specific stuff happens in bayview so since its a good break point we can have a new thread thats there.

Also the thief has been upgraded to Rant N' Rave messing with us I think.

Go ahead and ask Sandman about joining in the OOC thread though I imagine it'll be fine

Mike quietly and efficiantly gathered up the detritus of the meal and made his way to the garbage can to dispose of it.

Returning to the table he inquired "Shall we then. No time like the present." He waited for his companions to stand and followed them out to the car. The tall boy settled into the car with a nervous sigh as they headed once more underway to the school, his thoughts and worries whirring silently in his head though somewhat plain on his face and in his posture.

Mike followed her up to the counter blissfully unaware of his faux pas and handed his own more diminutive stack over to be rung up.

As the cashier scanned his items witht he usual glacial pace of a minumum wage employee Mike replied "You know what your problem is? Your spoiled." He waved off her impending arguement and continued, "You don't understand the value of snack food and that is should not be tainted by health food no matter how covered in waxy chocolate." He continued his diatribe against the evils of tainted snacks explaining "If you had to have raisens for every movie untill you could go without your parents you would understand that the inexorable right to indigetion inducing movie food must be exercised or you may well lose it." He nodded quite pleased with his argument and took his change formt eh thouroughly unimpressed cashier.

Mike remained slouched in his chair for a few moments kinda staring off after the question. "Well uh, we didn't really do a traditional school thing. It was more directed self study and tutoring and ... stuff." he answered lamely.

He examined Erins face for a moment and noticed the vague confusion, "We're not like homeschool shut in's or anything they just didn't really do grade levels there really weren't enough of us." He said quickly trying to not come off too odd. "Anyway I'm 16 and Alex's almost there so I guess we're like juniors or something." he further explained then looked to Alex, "Alex could probably be in like collage or something if..." He kinda went quiet for a moment then continued quickly "If I didn't hold her back. She's wasted a ton of time trying to get my grades up." He smiled weakly but less comfortably his earlier joking smile about dorm life.

Should we wait on Rant and Rave or continue? Cus we're probably heading out of the bookstore soon.

Mike slouched down in his chair as he took a long pull on his drink. "Its still a school I figure they have a standard curriculum like any other right?" He posited. He glanced around at the table and picked at the crumbs on his tray. "Ya know dreary old clasics, math you'll never actually need again, all that stuff." He complained. "But it is the cross to bare for every highschool student don't see why we would be any different."

First Flight

Ah the joys of child rearing in Freedom, and now on to our story.

Melinda Harris hoisted her son up onto her hip with a slight grunt, "Come on heavy boy, nap time." Little Mike pouted and let out a resounding "NO" in response. Melinda smiled at he two year old and tickled him lightly "Good words my big boy but its still nap time." She carefully picked her way across the minefield of discarded toys and down the hall to the nursurey while her young charge repeated a pleading "Doun?".

Melinda Gently laid him down in his crib with his favorite blanket and kissed her fingertips before touching them to the young childs forehead. "Night night sweet boy." She said as she slipped quietly across the room and gently shut the door. She stiffled a curse as she realised she had forgotton to turn on the monitor but shrugged and resolved to check in in a bit when he was hopefully asleep.

Melinda returned to the kitchen and continued to work on her active culture pickled beets. Hearing an odd noise from the nursery she rushed down the hall to find her son quietly playing on the floor, he beamed up at her and shouted "Momma, gu doun!" while pointing at himself. She was surprised but glad he hadn't fallen in clambering out of the crib and noted that they would have to convert to the toddler bed soon. She scooped up her son and lightly scolded, "You can play later Mike, right now is nap time." She stepped lightly back to the crib and layed him down once more with the reminder "Now no climbing big boy its nap time, ok." She waited for his confusion to settle and give her an assenting "u kay" before she slipped out of the room once more.

As the door clicked shut she turned to head back to the kitchen and remembering the monitor again sighed and returned to the room no longer wiling to rely on the noise traveling down the hall. She carefully turned the nob of the door and eased it open so as not to desturb the hopefully drowsing toddler. As the door swing open she was greeted by a happy squeal of "Momma, No clum." from her son as he hovered several feet off the ground in mid-air.

She lost focus for a moment and nearly fainted then rushed across the room to catch him before he fell. A few seconds after she had him in her arms his weight slowly settled as he babbled at her "Momma mi doun? mi doun?" pointing at the floor and his toys. She hushed him and rocked him as her pulse bgan to normalize. "Hush baby snuggle momma for a minute you scared momma." she said as she strode out of the nursery and back down the hall to pick up the phone and quickly dial a number.

Melindas heart was racing by the third ring, and before the person on the other end could offer greeting she interupted with "Rebbeca its Melinda, I need you to come over....no no everything is ok I... I just need you to come here." She paused for a moment as Rebecca responded then quickly replied "Yes yes of course bring Alex, I'll see you in a little bit then." and hung up the phone with a steadying breath and walked her son over to his play room and gently set him down to happily crash his cars together while she collapsed on the couch awaiting her friends arrival.

"Mmm hmm." Mike agreed through a mouthfull of food before he swallowed.

He glanced over at Alex with a smile "Don't worry so much Alex I can down right bearable when I need too. I won't be that much of a burden on my roomy." He said it in a light tone but it was still clear that he understood her concerns and was trying in his clumsy way to assuage them.

Mike popped the last bite of his meal into his mouth and swallowed almost without chewing. Even for a boy of his size he could certainly pack it away. "I dunno I guess there isn't much privacy but the campus is big I'm sure its not too hard to find a corner to get away from people." He offerd a weak smile with his commentary as hiding out may be his preffered M.O. it wasn't really the norm.

Mike watched Alex launch into lecture mode with a slight grimace and sat nodding while she put forth her theories on the school while wolfing down the small pile of breakfast sandwich's in front of him.

As Alex paused to breath he quickly swallowed and interject "Long story short we probbably don't know alot more than you." He waved off Alex's inevitable disagreement and continued "I hadn't heard of the place till we were recruited, not that I really paid much attention to schools or anything but its not like its a well publicized place."

He took a quick sip off his drink before adding "The invite came at a rather fortuitous time for us we had just, uhm, finished up at our last school and were looking for a place to go." Mike glanced at Alex as if to confirm he wasn't saying too much, "It must not be too expensive my dad din't flip out about it or anything."

"A few burgers with proccesed cheese sounds good to me." Mike said his stomach murmuring agreement, "I only had a smoothie and handfull of granola this morning." He explained "Overslept." He added with a shrug.

"Oh hey its still early I can get some of those sausage biscut dealies." Mike exclaimed with a bit more enthusiasm than normaly woudl be warrented by such. "Well one good thing about this being a boarding school the food should be pretty good." He commented.

Obviously Mike had not done his research into dormatory dining. Or perhaps escaping the craved dietary restrictions of his mother would make it an improvement. Either way he settled back into his seat seeming quite satisfied with the prospect.

Mike smiled at the mention of food and his stomach rumbled its agreement with the idea. He shut the back of the car and allowed himself to be shooed into the more spacious front seat though his head still nearly touched the roof of the car.

He glanced over his shoulder as the girls settled into the back and replied "I'm good with anywhere I can get meat, moms back on that gluten free vegan kick, if I never see another lentil it'll be to soon." He was clearly trying in his awkward teen way to make up for his earlier silence but was stuggling again for a topic.

"So have you lived in Seatle your whole life then?" He offered weakly.

Glad your feeling better

Mike visibly stiffened at the mention of the 'voluntary program' and peered grimly out from beneath furrowed brow with an attempt at stoic silence.

"I guess you get used to the crowds and its not all so busy like this," he gestured at the airport throngs for emphasis "I don't go out a whole lot actually." He shifted nervously clearly uncomfortable with offering further explanation but unsure how to change the subject. Instead he kinda trailed of with a frown and peered out looking for their incoming ride leaving an awkward silence like only Mike could and avoided eye contact with his companions.

As Mrs. Albright pulled up to the curb he quickly popped the back open for Erin to stow her bag glad to have a distraction.

Mike fell in step behind the girls as they made the trip to the waiting car. "It was twelve hour redeye I don't know that that ever qualifies as a good flight. The way I see it we're lucky she's still ambulatory." Mike said with a wry grin.

"I'm sure you'll get the hang of the city pretty quickly its really not too hard once you get over expecting all the landmarks to be on the same stretch of ten blocks like in the movies." Mike explained before falling silent once more.

Mike dropped the sign to his side as Erin greeted them. "Yea, we're all new to this too." He confirmed as he dropped back into his traditional slouch. His plain jeans and black t-shirt had been spared the inevitable fall of glitter but his large overcoat had not been so lucky and its color was perfect contrast for the myraid particles to shine against.

He offered one large hand to take her bag with a questioning "Traveling light?" as he noted her lack of other baggage. "Some of us could take a lesson in that." he added with asmirk and a nod in Alexs direction.

Mike piled out of the SUV and stood to his full height scanning over the crowds head looking for someone matching the rough description Alex's mom had been provided for a few moments before Alex batted at him with her homemade sign, with glitterpaint none the less, insiting that he use his height and hold it up where it could be seen over the crush.

He glanced down at the proffered sign and with resolved sigh took it from his more diminuative friend. "Fine," he grumbled "but if I get craft herpes its your fault." His token protest taken care of he held aloft the sign in question.

Once held aloft it was clear that the intended target could not miss it, she might turn and run, but she would certainly take note of it. Alex had decorated the middling sized posterboard with a border of glitter butterflies 'Because its more friendly, and welcoming." she had noted with a smile, accross the center in crisp block letters progressing through the rainbow of markers she had available was writen ERIN WHITE. Its angst ridden bearer not withstanding it was a rather festive sight.

Well I don't know what you had planned but another option is that Psyches Mom could have volyunteered to pick you up on the way to drop off psyche and phalanx.

Or We could get dropped off and have a platform 9 3/4 style meeting. Either works.

Yea I was gonna try and figure out a way to tie in there but both of us are natives not much reason to be loitering around the airport. :)

Mike knew better than to get Alex started on her 'higher purpose' lecture. He had heard it to many times and really didn't want to start up the I didn't ask for this and I don't want it argument again.

Instead he decided to tease his friend to distract her from the oncoming lecture.

"Like a date movie?" He inquired with a smirk "I mean then I'd have to put the moves on to keep up my rep, ya know?" He asked rhetorically "And then things would get all weird afterwards. Nope I think it'll have to be Terminator Salvation for the sake of our friendship unfortunately." Mike adopted a look of faux depth and turned to Alex before adding sarcasticly "Your friendship is just to important to risk for something like that." He smiled an honest smile at his jest which given his usual teen angst was a sure sign that he was trying to break out of his normally black mood.