Highmauve: Noelle's Dorm

September 4th, 2008

5:00 PM

A small, cinderblock styled dorm room with two tall beds, two desks, and a dresser underneath each bed. A small, prison style window is on the upper part of the ceiling near Noelle's bed. Noelle faces the western side of the room, and her bed has a worn-in, thick comforter the color of charcoal. Her pillows and sheets are a pale grey. A handmade throw pillow sits out of place- it's bright purple with small tassels. There is also a small shelf next to her bed that holds a couple small, leather-bound books and a moleskin journal.

On her desk is a framed picture of her family- Her mother and sister are smiling next to her, the three of them embracing. Her mother, Karen, is also tall with very beautiful modelesque features. Her warm brown eyes sparkle with happiness. Noelle's sister, Joy, looks no older than 8, and she is smiling only like a young girl does. Her energy makes her nearly lifelike in the picture. Joy's pigtails are bouncing, and the freckles on her checks look like constellations. There is also a picture of a small black cat with yellow, lamplight eyes. The cat is perched up, looking out a window.

Noelle's clothes are packed neatly away into the dresser, and her dirty clothes are folded in her hamper. Other than that, Noelle's side of the room was neat and tidy

On Tamara's side of the room, it's a tornado of clothes, textbooks, bags, and shoes. Tamara's bed is adorned with a bright pink comforter and bright green pillows. Her walls were already covered in posters and pictures of her friends and family. A MacBook hums on the dresser

Noelle sits on her bed, reading a textbook and occasionally jotting down notes in her moleskin. Her hair is pulled back into a low ponytail, and she occasionally sips her coffee. Her lips begin to read the textbook silently, but she quickly stops and brings her knees in tightly. Luckily, Noelle was alone. Tamara was already invited to a party.

September 6th

6:00 PM

Noelle sits in her bed, wearing grey sweatpants and an oversized maroon hooded sweatshirt. She is curled up, sniffing and crying. Tamara had left about 30 minutes ago, annoyed with Noelle's constant sniffling. Noelle holds her small black cat to her chest, which purrs loudly.

After Mutant History, she realized that she broke one of the rules. 'Also, please do not use your abilities to give yourself an unfair advantage in any athletic, academic, or artistic pursuits. For this program to grow, we must cooperate with the powers that be.' Dr. Kilgrowlith's voice rang in her head loudly. She logically knew that Tobi wouldn't have been able to function, but there were probably other students with claustrophobia who could deal with their issues without using mutant abilities. She curls up tightly into herself miserably.

Tobi's feet slam against the pavement as he jogs. He's set a brutal pace for himself, but it's better than the lingering skin-crawling claustrophobia that had rattled him so bad earlier. He'd rather be moving, outside, freely than constrained to that tiny underground concrete box of a classroom. He had emailed his advisor earlier to ask if there was another class he could transfer into, but had yet to hear back. Tobi couldn't bring himself to go inside the administrative building to ask again, so he had gone for a run instead.

He had headphones in as he ran, but rather than music playing, his sister was on the other side. Giving him shit.

"A course, I'm breathin' hard, you dipshit, I'm runnin'." He almost yelled into the headset speakers. They had both always been a little hard of hearing, and telephones were darn near impossible to use without headphones. 'Lifetime near firearms without ear protection will do that to ya,' he thought as he listened to his sister on the other side.

He stopped at the entrance to one of the dorms to lean against the brick steps. "I'm jus' sayin', I don't think I can get through that class." His eyes narrow at no one. "An don't you suggest a proffes'nal, you know'I can't afford none."

Noelle wipes her eyes, and sits up, looking out her window. She saw Tobi leaning against the brick steps, clearly frustrated. She frowns, opening the window, about to call out to him. While she is distracted, the small black cat leaps from her arms, and out of the window. She lets out a small gasp and begins to run out of the dorm room.

The cat bolts into some nearby bushes.

"I ain't takin' your money, Ness." Tobias shakes his head and leans back further against the brick. There's a lull in the conversation before he speaks again, softer this time. "How'd that not mess'ya up bad as it did me? We're stock similar in goddamn evr'ything else, why not this?"

He scuffs his sneakers against the pavement, sighs. "I ain't mad. I'm jus' frustrated." A beat. "Not with you, ya idiot. I swear t'God." he rolls his eyes fondly.

He doesn't hear the cat in the bushes, nor does he see Noelle as she comes out. He's wrapped in his own conversation and his own thoughts, the headphones blocking out a lot of the noise around him. "Wouldn't'ave even made it through that class if that freshman weren't there. Yeah, that one." He nods at the air, agreeing with whatever the other person had just said.

Noelle rushes outside like a bullet without shoes, running right past Tobi. She looks around wildly, then crouches down and reaches out into the bushes. She rolls down her sleeves but still gets scratched by the branches on her hands and fingers. Noelle begins to mumble to herself "Come on. Come on... Just come here..."

The cat skitters to another bush over, and Noelle begins to crawl after it. Her face is bright red in shame, reaching out her hands again. At last, she reaches up and grabs the cat, furrowing her eyebrows. She holds him close to her for a moment, then starts to carefully put the cat on her large sweatshirt pocket.

Tobi feels something rush pat him. 'Thankfully not into me.' he thinks. There's a hint of familiarity as the figure passes, and it's only when it stops by the bushes, cooing to something inside desperately, that he realizes who it is.

"Noelle...?" he asks.

She stands and yup, that's her. She's got whatever she was trying to get in her sweatshirt pocket. Tobias chooses not to ask.

"Ness, I'm gonna call'ya back." he says loudly into the speakers, then closes the call on his phone.

Noelle freezes, the cat wriggling in her pocket. "Oh. Hey."

She begins to chew her lip. Her eyes and nose are red from crying, and she avoids his eyes. She feels so ashamed. On one hand, she felt for Tobi. It must have been rough sitting in that little classroom. Yet, her anxiety about being caught still looms over her like a shadow. Any minute now, she expects an email or a phone call about what happened and demanding that she was now on probation. Or she was suspended. Or expelled. These thoughts spiraled within her.

The small cat pokes his head out of the pocket, and Noelle gently tries to adjust her sweatshirt so the cat relaxes back within the pocket.

He takes in the disheveled freshman in front of him. Sweatshirt, sweatpants, puffy eyes; she's been crying. She looks definitely worse for wear. He wonders what's happened in the interval between class and now.

"You... alright?" he asks tentatively.

"Oh. Yeah. I'm fine." Noelle knows it's not a convincing lie, but admitting to her anxieties wouldn't be fair. It wasn't worth making Tobi feel bad. She quickly changes the thoughts on him, asking in a soft voice "Are you doing better?"

She stands, one hand in her pocket, which is now purring loudly. She is tense looking around for other RAs or staff members, but luckily there are none.

"Yeah, I'm better." he nods. He doesn't mention how he's only gone inside a building to grab his running sweats, a new t shirt, and sneakers, nor how he's been running around campus since class. His sharp eyes are drawn towards her hoodie pocket.

"Y'know your pocket's makin' noise."

Noelle tenses up more and says softly" Tobi, I'm gonna share something with you, and I would prefer that you don't tell anyone about it? Okay?" After she takes a quick look around, she slowly and carefully pulls the cat out of her pocket, protectively. It yawns and purrs, stretching its paws out. Noelle's face softens a little as she scratches his head, and she slowly sits next to Tobi at about an arm's length away.

Noelle also knew that Tobi wasn't feeling as well as he said he was. But she didn't want to be a hypocrite and point that out.

Tobi blinks once. "Noelle. That's a cat." He says blankly. "Why you got a cat in y'pocket?"

He's torn. On the one hand, it's Noelle. Noelle ain't ever gonna hurt a fly. She would never break a rule, or at least that's the gist he's gotten after knowing her for just this short while. It could only be doing her a world of good, and she seems happy with the cat. On the other hand, he was an RA, and this was an animal in the dorms. He knew the rules. He knew this was such a blatant break in them that he'd absolutely be remiss if he didn't report it.

But for now, it's a cat. He kneels down, balancing on the toes of his sneakers to reach out a finger to rub against the small cat's head.

"I saw you outside and opened the window to say hello, and Glenn hopped out before I had a chance to stop him," Noelle says softly. The cat nuzzles itself to Tobi's finger.

Noelle quickly adds "I'm working on filling out forms to register him as an emotional support animal, but at this school, you have to meet with a counselor and do 3 hours of counseling... And with everything going on, I haven't-" She cuts herself off, tears starting to form in her eyes again. She looks away for a moment.

"Hey hey, what's with the cryin'?" Tobi looks at her worried. "You got evr'ything figured out. Don't gotta worry bout nothin' now, just makin' that time for counseling, yeah?" He tries his best at comforting words, unsure as to whether or not they're working.

Noelle wipes her eyes "I'm sorry. I'm not normally like this...I'm just... Overwhelmed."

She strokes Glenn the cat, who purrs and slowly falls asleep in her lap. After a moment, Noelle starts to take a couple of deep breaths and begins to relax her body slowly. She finally looks at Tobi in the eye again "I don't cry in front of other people, usually."

"Ain't no shame in cryin'." He shakes his head. "It's a lot on your plate, lol a changin', new sitiations, there ain't no shame in gettin' a little caught up in e'erything."

He tests his arms on the top of his legs, still balanced on his toes. "It ain't no weakness to cry. Just gotta let it out some times, y'know?"

Noelle shrugs silently. She felt trapped at the moment; she wanted to say something to Tobi to make him not worry about her, but she also wanted to help him desperately. She slowly deposits Glenn back into her pocket, and says softly "I know you were on a jog, but do you want to take a walk? Maybe off campus? There's a small stretch of shops like a mile from here."

She lets the offer hang in the air.

Tobi stands slowly and balls his fists at the base of his spine. He leans back and there's a soft cascading crunch as his back cracks. A soft sigh escapes him as he stuffs his hands inside the pockets of his sweatpants.

"Yeah, might need a break. Been runnin' a while, walk would be a nice change'a pace." His stomach growls quietly. Now that he's stopped running, he's acutely aware of the fact that he hasn't eaten since breakfast. "Maybe a bite'ta eat."

"Okay. Give me a second?"

Noelle goes back inside, putting Glenn away in his carrier. She puts on her shoes and does a quick brush of her hair. All the while, she is thinking about what she is going to say to Tobi.

Once she is outside, Noelle leads the way towards the southern side of campus. After a couple minutes of silence, she says, firmly but in her soft voice "You know, I used to live with my mom and my sister."

Tobias waits outside patiently. His phone buzzes once in his pocket so he pulls it out to check on it. He swipes one finger up the screen to unlock it and up pops the text his sister had sent him. It's a photo; his sister is on the couch of her apartment with the phone held out at arms length to capture the massive, brown fluffy dog sitting next to her. She's wearing a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, trying to fend off the dog with one arm as it leans in to try and get the popcorn in the bowl in her lap. He snorts out a soft laugh and locks the phone.

Noelle comes back then, and they start to walk. He lets her lead, preferring to just follow for a little bit and let his mind wander. He's caught a little by surprise by the sudden statement and looks over at her.

"I think mos' people do before college." he nods. "You said a little bit 'bout em before. Y'do crafts together, right?"

Noelle smiles fondly "Yeah. We do. My sister, Joy, is my best friend. She's one of the coolest people I know. And she's eight. And my mom's really great too. And that's all of our little family."

She gets quiet and looks at the ground

"Sounds like quite the family." Tobias agrees. "Sister's are pretty great; sister's m'best friend too." He hears her go quiet, feels the lull in the conversation. There's something there she's not saying.

"Stop me if'm bein' rude or pressin', but y'ain't mention no Pa."

Noelle smiled at the mention of Tobi's sister.

Oh Boy. There it was. Noelle realized that she needed to open up if she expected Tobi to do as well. She had never talked about this to anyone, besides a therapist, her mom asked her to see until they couldn't afford it anymore.

She takes a deep breath "Yeah. My dad left about 8 years ago. After my sister was born. He doesn't really talk to us anymore." Noelle is silent for a moment, then adds "He was my best friend when I was little. I'm all elbows and knees and we'd run in my backyard or climb trees. It was skinned knees and stubbed toes and no cares. And then fourth grade happened, and... well... it happened."

Tobias walks alongside her, listening. There's just a slight breeze in the cooling evening air, just enough that he half regrets not grabbing a jacket. He doesn't say anything, just quietly 'hmms' as encouragement to continue. He wants her to continue at her own pace, he can feel that this is something important.