New Beginnings, Open

The train ride had been a short one, the taxi ride had been a short one, but the combination of train ride and taxi ride had been a long and boring one from the highlands of Scotland. But now the weary traveler stood in the center of the Main Lobby of Academia Mutandis, looking around with amazement in her widened, ocean-blue eyes. "Good night," she commented in awe as her scot accent seemed strange with the mixture of so many accents around her.

With her rolling luggage right beside her, the young woman couldn't have stood more than 5'2" in height and her body was so petite she looked small compared to the variety of other people walking by her. Having heard about this special school from her former Art Teacher, the young strawberry-blonde had transferred from her old high school to here as she was promoted from sophomore to junior. But now that she was there, everything seemed overwhelming. She had been to a few Art Galleries this nice before, but she had never been in a fancy place this huge before. It was like something out of a film.

"I can't believe I let Ms. De Lorme talk me into this, I must have been daft," she commented as she messed with one of her broom-like pigtails. Spying the registration desk off to the side, the petite lass pulled on her luggage and headed over towards it.

"Name?" the lady behind the desk asked professionally as the young girl pulled out an ID.

"Allison Kurakawa, Junior," the blonde replied as she was then greeted with a bunch of papers to sign. "More bloody paperwork!?" she exclaimed as she began signing each and every one of the lines she was directed too.

"Here you go sweety," the secretary finally said. "Your dorm room number, key, and other necessities are in this packet," she replied as she handed Allison a manilla envelope.

"Thank you," Allison replied as she rolled her luggage away from the desk a few meters and began to open the packet. Only, she forgot about the crowd around her and began to read in the middle of the lobby.

So many people, so many names. Just in this one place too. Meika was a little disoriented by it all, but she was doing well in keeping her composure. Her own luggage was a backpack and a suitcase. They were getting heavy after a plane ride and a taxi, but Meika was excited to be here. So many new faces just meant more opportunities to make friends.

Going over to the desk to register, Mika-Mika was given a stack of papers to sign. She did so with a will, and soon was done.
"Here you go dear," the lady behind the desk said, handing her an envelope.
"Thank you!" Meika said in an excited manner. She couldn't wait to meet her roommate, and she nearly dashed off in her hurry. That just led to her running right into another student who was standing still.
"Oh I'm sorry," Meika apologized. "I didn't see you there, uh, Allison Kurakawa is it?" For once it was a good, easy to translate Germanic name, although that last one threw her for a ringer. "I'm Meika Eisenhaur, pleased to meet'cha!"

"Hmmm...now wheERRRR!!!" Allison squeaked at the end as she felt someone moving fast bump into her. Luckily, her rolling luggage was in front of her so she could grab that and steady herself. "What the bloody..." she said in surprise as she turned around to look at a blonde several inches taller than she was. Allison would have made a fuss, but the young woman had already apologized and even been friendly enough to introduce herself.

"Um...a pleasure," Allison replied, a bit stunned by the suddeness of their meeting. "I should probably apologize as well," the strawberry-blonde went on with her thick scot accent. "I should know better than to stand out in the middle of the lobby," she explained as someone bumped into her luggage and pushed it into her leg.

"Um...mind if we move out of the way? We're going to end up like pinballs in a moment," she joked with a more friendly smile. The shorter, petite scotswoman seemed to have a pension for more cuter clothing. With a thigh-length, blue and white skirt and pink and white long-sleeve shirt that showed a bit of her shoulders and collarbone. A small fanny pack remained tight around her waist with stickers and pins for decoration.

"No, its all my fault, I wasn't paying attention," Meika replied to Allison's apology. People were starting to crowd around them, indicated by someone pushing past Meika. "Yeah, good idea," she said to Allison's suggestion that they move. She made her way through the crowd to a less populated area with a few chairs to sit down in.

Once there, Meika plopped down in a seat tiredly. Stretching out, she yawned loudly before saying, "Man, traveling sure takes a lot out of a girl. How far did you have to come to get here Allison?"

Rolling her luggage through the crowd, the petite, young woman managed to make it through the crowds to the place Meika had picked out for them. Sighing in fatigue, the scotswoman fell back into a chair across from the young German's seat. "Oh, not that far," she replied with her accent a bit thick. "I came from the north, the highlands o' Scotland to be exact," she explained as she smoothed out her skirt.

"Where are you from, lass?" the strawberry blonde asked inquisitively as she stared into her new friend's black eyes, a bit curious as to why it was so hard to detect where the pupil ended and the iris began. "Probably further off than I was," she commented.

"Scotland, well that's not too far," Meika commented. Her accent was thick also, and she was a little self conscious about it. How anyone understood each other here was beyond her.

"Oh," Meika said, startled out of her reviere, "I'm from Germany. Its quite a bit farther off, had to take a plane here." She couldn't complain though, even coach was quite comfortable. Still, she had a bit of jet lag after going through a few time zones.

As Meika sat, she noticed Allison looking at her eyes.
"They're natural," she commented, anticipating the question.

The young woman's cheeks flared pink as she was caught staring. "Hehehehe, sorry fer staring," Allison replied scratching her head. "But it seems like you get it a lot, so at least I don't feel alone," she said before looking the taller woman over. "Anyway, we wouldn't be here if we weren't unique in some way," the strawberry blonde said as she pulled a notebook from her luggage.

Flipping through the pages, the young lass came to a sketch of a butterfly. Closing her eyes, Allison touched the sketch itself. Slowly the butterfly came out of the drawing and crawled onto Allison's finger. Smiling at Meika, she raised her hand and allowed the black and white butterfly to take off. Slowly, the former sketch danced in the air in front of the German blonde before evaporating into dust.

"Sorry," she replied with a grin. "I've held back from showing anyone my ability for so long I just had to demonstrate."

"Don't worry, I do get a lot of questions about them," meika replied to the apology. Then she sat there, wide eyed, although it would be hard to tell, as Allison animated one of her drawings and it danced in front of her.
"Thats amazing," Meika commented. She had tried translating Allison's power but it had come out as either Artistry or Animate. Turns out it was both. "Wish I could do that, all I can do is frost surfaces over right now." To demonstrate, Mika-Mika leaned over to the table in front of her and blew on it. Frost accumulated over a small area, but melted just as soon as she stopped.

"Oh, there is one more thing," Meika said, sitting back. "But I don't really like it getting out." At this point she leaned in close to her new friend and look at her closely. She then said, in a low whisper, "My eyes are different from everyone else's. I can see people's names and powers around their heads. That's how I know people's names quickly. Only problem is, the words are in ancient Germanic, and I've only got a rudimentary grasp of the language. Names are hit and miss, but at least I got yours right. I think you're pretty cool."

Allison blinked in surprise and whistled in amazement at the power. "Wow, I bet that makes introductions easier," she replied with a smile before sitting back in her chair and sighing, a light pinkish tint creeping upon her cheeks as she was called 'cool'. "So both of us have pretty cool abilties," the scotswoman commented as she looked around the room. "Like everyone around here...we're different from what others consider normal," the young woman said before giggling.

"Everyone must have some interesting stories to tell, awesome powers to show, and hopefully are friendly enough," she said before looking back at her raven-eyed friend. "And for the record, you're an awesome lass." she replied with a friendly grin.

Meika nodded and said, "Uh huh, it sure does," as she leaned back in her own chair. "Yeah, we're all special here," she commented, looking around at the mass of people. She wondered how the school could handle so many students. Would housing be a problem? What about feeding everybody? Meika wanted to check out her room, but she thought she'd stay a little bit longer with her new friend.

"Oh, thank you," she replied to the compliment paid her. She was caught a little off guard, but she recovered quickly. She blushed slightly as she then said, "People usually just look at my clothing and decide they don't want to talk to me. I usually have to make the first move, then they realize that I;m more than just my looks." It was difficult to like wearing black, since you're most likely to get labled as 'gothic,' so Meika was constantly amazing people with her personality. More than anything, she just wanted someone for once to approach her instead of the other way around.

Allison looked over Meika innocently before smiling at her blonde friend. "Aye, there are people who base their opinion on looks alone," the scotswoman replied as she sat forward and crossed her lithe legs. "And many people are a bit paranoid about types who wear black a lot or like to wear black," the strawberry blonde continued before looking Meika directly in the eyes with her ocean blue spheres.

"But personally, I think you look cuter in black. That and you aren't 'gothic' or angry at the world like stereotypes suggest," the friendly girl explained as she cupped her chin in the palm of her hand. "I'm glad I met someone like you on my first day here."

Again, Meika blushed at the compliment. Many people had complimented her on her personality, but rarely on her looks. Several even had tried to get her to wear different colors. One notable incident ended with a canary-yellow dress being flown from a flagpole. But oh well, such was life.

"Thank you," she finally said with a smile. "I'd just like people to realize black is beautiful also. It compliments my eyes really well." Meika then laughed, a clear, crisp sound that had a bell-like tone to it. "I'm glad I met you also," she replied to Allison's statement.

Allison laughed along with Meika, shaking her head and continue to grin at her new friend. "You know, it's been a while since I felt this good," she admitted as she sat back and uncrossed her legs, smoothing her skirt out over her legs. After all, it wouldn't be very complimenting to allow anyone a view of her panties.

"What grade are you in Meika?" she suddenly asked with a cuter smile. "It's possible we could have classes together if our grades are close enough," she said before blinking.

Meika unconsciously straightened out her own skirt when Allison did, just an old habit. Although she was a little more open than Allison seemed to be, she still didn't want anyone catching a peek. She kept her legs tightly together and her hands folded on her lap, just where skirt ended.

"I'm in the twelfth grade," Meika replied to Allison's question. "we might have a class or two together, that would be fun!" she added with a cute smile.

Now, Meika had had a few relationships with girls before, and only one as pretty as Allison. Meika was interested, to say the least, but she never made her move in the first meeting. Besides, she knew from experience that most girls didn't take flirting from the same sex very well. She was content, however, just to get acquainted with people initially, learning whether or not they were open to same-sex relationships.

"So, met any cute boys here?" she asked in a low voice, often like girls will do when they are discussing such issues.