Aer & Incendia

[Jacinda Blake]

It was still dark outside. Actually it was sort of grey, with a hint of orange threatening to appear at any moment. There was a chill in the air and it was slightly windy.

Wonderful..

Jacinda sighed and glanced at the red glowing numbers on her alarm clock. It wasn't even time to get up yet but she'd been up for over an hour. She simply wasn't sleepy. She was used to getting up early to work as a teacher's aide at school before classes started. But that had been her other school. She wasn't Jacina Blake, the straight "A" Prom Queen anymore.. Today she was starting mutant school.

She tip-toed out of the room, trying to not wake her room mates who were all still asleep. She hadn't even had the chance to meet them, as she had arrived late in the night. That was Jacinda all right, last one to bed and the first one up.. She crept into the girls bathroom and quickly brushed her hair and teeth, checked her bookbag (which she was't even certain she would need) for her makeup compact and dabbed a touch on, along with some gloss. Dressed in a pair of jeans, boots and a black sweater she was as good as she was getting for this hour of the day. She tied her hair back in a pony-tail and decided to go in search of breakfast.

[Carlos Calaveras]

The school was quiet. Morning was one of the only times of day that it saw any peace. Though mutants, the students of Dr. Cullens institute were still teenagers and as such rising any time before mid-day was always a chore. The only people awake were the grounds staff, a couple of teachers and a few bleary-eyed students, one of whom was sitting with his head in his hands on the main staircase. He yawned, rubbing at his tired eyes with the ratty cuffs of his sweater.

Perpetually hounded by bad-luck, Carlos Calaveras had been awoken – not for the first time – by an over eager alarm clock which seemed intent on getting him out of bed at least five hours before his first class begun. There was no use trying to get back to sleep, not with Marty snoring next door, so he had decided to go for a walk... only to come to the conclusion that a walk wasn't half as interesting without any company. In the end he had settled for loitering about on the stairs, watching the rain fall.

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda was mentally preparing herself for meeting the teachers, while scampering down the stairs, head tilted to the side as she fastened the back onto her earring.

The very last thing she expected was for someone else to be awake at the same hour that she was, let alone for them to be perched on a darkened staircase. With a squeal of terror, she tripped over a body and began to pitch forward down the stairs, her mutant senses kicking in from her scare lifted her body safely into the air. She was about to give a sigh of relief, when suddenly her ability failed her and she resumed her fall foward..

She flailed about in mid-air and grabbed the first thing her fingers locked onto, which felt surprisingly like a raggety sweater, digging her fingers in, she gave a tug of self preservation..

[Carlos Calaveras]

Carlos suddenly found himself lurching forwards, head over heels. It made very little sense, at first, until he realized that he was not the only one making a graceless descent down the staircase - that somone else was pulling him. Thudding to a halt, after tumbling down four or so steps, Carlos gave a groan. “Ay, dios mio...”

He sat up slowly, dazed, raking both hands back through his hair to where he was sure a fresh bump or bruise was soon going to appear. He was about to berate whoever it was that had sent him falling when a) he reminded himself that it was, in all likelihood, his own fault and b) he saw who the culprit was. “Hey, you okay?”

[Jacinda Blake]

After a mental round of "oh my god.. oh my god ...oh my god...", Jacinda came to the conclusion that she was going to live. Only now she had just nearly killed herself and someone else before her first day of school had even begun. She was sprawled on her back on the stairs, still gripping the sleeve of a sweater in her hand like a lifeline. She really, really, hoped it wasn't a teacher.

"Yes, I think so.." She loosed her death grip on the sweater and sat up slowly.

"I am so sorry.. I didn't see you." Oh good one Jas. State the obvious, why don't you. She suddenly felt like a twit. It was a rarity for her.

Jacinda rolled into a sitting position and winced a bit, figuring on a bruised elbow when the sun came up. "Are you alright..?"

[Carlos Calaveras]

“Just a couple of bumps.” If one positive thing could be said for the experience, it was that the fall had woken Carlos up well and truly. The haze of sleep had been knocked clean out of his head. Getting to his feet, he offered a one gloved hand to help the mystery girl up.

“You're new here, right? I'm Carlos.”

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda accepted the hand up and brushed herself off nervously. Talk about falling for the cute guy.. You didn't have to do it literally, Jas.. She was really going to have to stop talking to herself. She shook it off and tried to focus on something simple, picking up her bag was a good place to start. Jacinda shoved a few loose items back inside drew the ties shut..

"Yeah, I just got in last night. Professor Dupont was kind enough to rescue me, I really thought I was going to jail or something.. I'm sorry I am such a jittery mess, this is all happening so suddenly. I'm just going to try to go with the flow and make sense of it all later.." She laughed and held out her hand once more.

"Anyways, my name is Jacinda and I'll try to not kill us both in the fututre."

[Carlos Calaveras]

It had been a stab in the dark, guessing that she was new, but hey – he was right. At any given time, it seemed like a quarter of the school was 'new', still adjusting to life at Cullen's. As the girl spoke Carlos fought back a grin, thinking that more than a few of the male students would have liked to be 'rescued' by the good professor.

“Jacinda, huh,” Carlos nodded, glancing down at her extended hand for a moment before clicking onto why it was there. They shook hands and he smiled again, trying to discreetly ruffle his hair into place – a useless task really, since it always looked the same.

“That fall was probably my fault, to be honest. Part and parcel of the whole mutant thing,” he said, with a laugh that tapered off into a sigh.

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda clearly had no idea what he was talking about. She barely knew anything about her own abilities, let alone pondered what other peoples could possibly be. She had been in denial about her own little gifts for a long time, trying to ignore the news and reports of the growing mutant population. She just wanted to to keep going with life and pretend that nothing was happening, until it had been too late.

Like a lot of people, she supposed, she had tried to see the mutants as people that were suffering from some affliction. The fact that she was one of the afflicted had scared her into silence. After last night and the introduction to this school for what she should now be viewing as "The Gifted", she wasn't sure about much. She did however want to begin on the right foot and that meant understanding.

"What do you mean, exactly..? I mean, I tripped over you right? You didn't just appear or anything... did you?"

[Carlos Calaveras]

“Oh, no.”

Carlos frowned. Best to save that explanation for later.

“You heading somewhere in particular?” he asked, nodding at bag she was carrying.

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda got the distinct impression that she was missing something. She still didn't have a clue what Carlos was talking about, but she was going to let it go. He was being nice to her and she didn't want to ruin her first chance to make a friend by being nosey about his mutant abilities. She didn't know if there was a protocol or not but just blurting out "Hey! What mutation do you have?", didn't sound very polite at all..

"Umm, I was actually looking for breakfast." She gave her bag a little shake. "And this..? I wasn't sure if I would need it for books or not.."

[Carlos Calaveras]

“Ohhhh.”

Sometimes it was easy to forget that they were here actually here not just to goof about with their powers, but to receive a well-rounded education. Carlos, like many others, made up his credits as quickly and painlessly as he could and spent the rest of his time just enjoying himself.

“I could do with some breakfast too. Want to head over to the cantina? We're early, so we should get first dibs on the good stuff.”

Carlos heard himself speaking, heard how dull he must have sounded and wanted to groan. Oh well.

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda grinned and slung her bag over her shoulder. "If they have toast and orange juice, I'm there."

It wasn't turning out to be such a bad morning after all. Yeah sure, she had nearly broken her neck tumbling like a bag of bricks down the stairs, but she had found someone to help her find breakfast, at the very least. Carlos seemed to know his way around and that probably meant he had been a student here for some time. He was probably exactly the person she needed to learn her way around the school and where classes were and other things, equally important to being a sucessful student.

"So you've been a student here a while then..?" It seemed a safe enough topic. She wasn't being personal, just inquisitive.

[Carlos Calaveras]

As predicted, the lunch-hall was empty save for a few lazy-eyed early birds. That was good. Fewer people meant a lower chance of mishaps.

“Uh-huh. It's a nice place, some good kids about.”

Carlos, who had managed to walk ahead a little, looked back and smiled.

“Not your average high school, of course, but I'd say that's a bonus.”

[Jacinda Blake]

Seated at a table, spreading strawberry preserves over her toast, Jacinda smiled up at Carlos as he took a seat opposite her. She took a bite, munched and swallowed it down with a sip of juice. Not a moment too soon. Her stomach let out a gurgle of annoyance at waiting so long to be fed, and then being put through the stress of tumbling down the stairs. Still she was embarassed.

She blushed and wiped her lips on a napkin. "See? I told you I was hungry."

"So what were you doing on the stairs anyways? Granted I just met you, but you don't strike me as an early riser.."

[Carlos Calaveras]

“My room-mate snores like a buzz-saw,” Carlos sighed and shook his head, as he poke warily at the food on his plate. “So I thought I'd just... go for a wander, you know. See if I couldn't bump into someone interesting.” At this, he looked up and smiled.

[Jacinda Blake]

"Ahh yes, that's me. Jacinda Blake: Interesting danger girl.." She couldn't help smiling back. She was finding out quickly that she really liked Carlos. He had a way of getting her distracted from what was really bothering her and that was exactly what she needed right now.

"I haven't met my roomies yet, they were asleep when I got in. I didn't hear any buzz-saw's among them though, so that must be good news."

[Carlos Calaveras]

“I'm sure they'll be cool,” Carlos replied, giving his food another testing prod. He wasn't entirely sure, just yet, that it was edible. “They try to assign us people we'll get along with, you know? But with you starting late, you might have got the bottom of the barrel,” he added, with eyebrows raised in mock-fear. “The weirdest of the weird.”

[Jacinda Blake]

She smirked. "Then I'll just have to make sure I have plenty of excuses to stay away from the room!"

"So how long do we have before classes?"

She was finishing her toast and noticed more students were beginning to pile in. She was supposed to check in before class and get her schedule and she figured the time was gettting close. Much as she would love to stay and let Carlos lighten her mood some more, Jacinda was not about to start breaking rules day one.

[Carlos Calaveras]

Carlos gave a non-committal shrug. He had never been a big fan of school. He enjoyed the mutation-focused lessons at the Institute, but could have done without the math. “I got history first period. Might skip it though. There's only so much you can hear about the industrial revolution before you start to lose the will to live.”