Highmauve: The Quad

10 AM

September 4th, 2008

Orientation

Highmauve college is a stereotypical New England College. Large, old buildings stand tall against the grey September sky: among the class buildings, there is a small coffee shop, a large clock tower, athletic buildings, and dorms that litter the landscape. Even the trees are old, with roots that etch their way to the sidewalk. The quad has dark green grass, stretching towards the admin building. A cool breeze makes it's way across the lawn.

Noelle Scott stands almost a head above her peers in the orientation group. She chews her lip nervously, clutching her dark brown messenger bag, knuckles white. Her white blouse is tucked into a knee-length black skirt. She pushes her glasses up and looks at her name badge, the yellow and black stripe signifying her status as a member of the Mutant Immersion Program. She tries to look around and find someone else in the program. Someone like her. The Junior giving the tour of the campus starts talking about the history of the buildings surrounding the Quad, but Noelle drowns it out. She had already read everything about Highmauve. It was a boring, safe private college.

Tobi's been here a week. A week of shuffling around new students, helping them move into their dorms, and assuring their worried parents that their child will be well taken care of at Highmauve. He'd been ready to bolt after the last of them had cleared out, though a quick meeting with the other RA's in the building had forced him to stay a little longer than he would of preferred to talk about team building or group exercises or something of that sort. It'd be emailed to him later that day, in any case.

Now, with his backpack slung over one shoulder, he walks leisurely out of the dorm building and towards the manicured lawn of the Quad. His name tag with it's yellow and black stripes bounces against his chest as he walks against the edge of the path, giving the tour group passing through ample space to pass by.

He honestly can't wait until everything settles down again, orientation weeks were really the worst. Now if he could just catch a quick nap before the next and last round of students were scheduled to come in, he'd be golden.

Noelle looks in the opposite direction of Tobi as he walks by and accidentally steps back, brushing her shoulder against him. She quickly jumps back and turns around, about to open her mouth to apologize. Her gaze goes to his badge and she breathes a soft sigh of relief.

So she wasn't the only one.

Thank God. Since 5th grade, she's been the poster child for Mutant Immersion in the classroom. An IEP that allowed her to read quietly on her own instead of with the class was essential for her education, and every school she went to used it as a way to show their support for "every kid". Silently she feared that this program was just another way to show off the schools diversity with one quiet and studious girl. She hated being singled out for something that she couldn't control. She wasn't a great representation of an oppressed person or even a person with an abnormality, and she always had felt weird about representing a group that was so diverse and changing. But Noelle had never met anyone like her before. She knew of other mutants, but she had never met one. He didn't look like the mutants she'd seen in the news. No bones sticking out of his skin, or glasses covering his laser eyes, or wings stretching out from his back. Although, she didn't look like a mutant either.

Noelle realizes that she had been staring at him for a couple seconds now. She meets his eyes for a moment and mumbles a soft "Sorry."

A jolt knocks Tobi's thoughts firmly back to his immediate surroundings. It's nothing too sharp and not hard enough to knock him anywhere near off balance, but he still catches himself with a quick stutter step that turns him towards whoever hadn't been paying enough attention to their tour. He smiles briefly at the thought, a brief and barely-there quirk of his lips, before really focusing on the poor unlucky freshman.

'Huh. Tall.' are his first thoughts. He waits patiently as her eyes flick from his badge to his face. She looks a little shell shocked and a lot unsure of herself. Typical Freshman then, he thinks with a small sigh.
His gaze goes to her white knuckled grip on her bag then flicks to her yellow and black ID tag. Huh, maybe not so typical then. He glances back up to her face just in time to catch a softly mumbled "Sorry."

'Aw, hell.' he thinks. This kid needs a friend more than he needs a nap.

"Don' worry about it." He says, the words heavily accented in the heavy twang his classmates had teased him for. "Tour a little borin' then, if it's got you stumblin' into strangers."

Noelle blinks up at him, assessing him for a moment. He seemed friendly enough- unkempt but friendly. There was something about his eyes that made her feel unnerved. They seemed deep and infinitely sad. She quickly looks away from his eyes, the eye contact making her feel uncomfortable. She notices that the tour guide had started to move on, but she had to respond to him. Out of courtesy and a sliver of curiosity. She loosens her grip on her bag and tries to straighten out a little bit. 'Shoulders Back, Noelle. Give a small smile if you can' Noelle could feel her mothers hand on her shoulders, straightening her out.

Unfortunately, the small smile was not returning to her lips.

She pushes up her glasses again and takes a deep breath before saying in a small but clear voice "It's not that it's boring. I just know about it all. But thanks."

Silence. Noelle counts to 5 seconds of silence before she realizes that in order to have a conversation, you have to say something that could be responded to. Mentally smacking herself in the forehead, she ungracefully blurts out in her small voice "So you... I mean, you're a... Well, it's quite obvious that you are? I mean, you wouldn't be in the program if you weren't..."

Noelle abruptly stops talking, biting her lip again.

Winter Marta yawned as the tour guide spoke to the various architecture of the buildings or whatever. It wasn't like she could see anything over all the other freshman. She had her hands in her front pocket of her well loved Alaska Aces hoodie. She bounced from one leg to the other as all she wanted to do was explore her new school on her own. She had glanced around at the other students, trying to find others who were part of the Immersion program. Her parents urged her to apply and she figured that if she was going to school on the East Coast, she could maybe catch a few hockey games! She repressed another yawn. If only she could BAMF out of here like that one blue mutant on TV. Poof of smoke and she could be out trying to find new friends. Most of her high school friends stayed in Alaska, she went clear across the country.

She ran a hand through her short hair to straighten it out as best she could before pushing up her sunglasses up her nose. Her black and yellow tag was attached to her front pocket. Most people hadn't noticed it. People had stared at her hair and she only grinned. "Color's from a box. Gotta have some fun freshman year, right?" she had quipped to a group of guys who had been standing and staring at her outside her dorm before she had to meet the orientation tour. She was used to stares because of her eyes being a dead giveaway of her status as a mutant. So once she was old enough, she decided to give people a reason to stare. She started to develop her style to stand out in a crowd, to give people something else to talk about other than here mutation, not that she used her powers in public. In fact, she rarely used her mutation at all, except for at night or when she's working on a project and she needs more light.

Finally, the tour guide started moving again. She sighed with relief and followed the group. She groaned to herself as he started to talk about the diversity on campus. She just wanted to get to the good part of the tour... when they were shown the dining hall!

She had met his eyes, which was more than most on campus had ever done, Tobi had to give her credit for that. He personally didn't understand the fuss, but his classmates had told him before that they were unnerving. Cold, they would say.

Tobi always shrugged it off. He watches her now straighten and breathe, reply to his statement. There's nothing really to say to that, so he stands, testing to see if the conversation had ended and if he should break away when she begins to speak again, this time much more flustered than the last.

Tobi watches the girl flounder for words for a brief moment before what she's impliying catches up to him.

"I'm assumin' you don't mean PreMed." He says as he holds up the ID tag at the end of his lanyard. "Mutant," he pauses, searching for a word. "Mutant whatsit, always forget the name."

He shrugs and drops the lanyard back down. It bounces once against his chest before settling. "Name don't matter much I guess, a scholarship by any other name smells just a' sweet. Whatever it is, it's gettin' me through."

"Yeah. Mutant."

Noelle lets the word hang for a moment. She always hated that word. It made her sound like she was a swamp monster. Of course, there was nothing wrong with mutants that might look like swamp monsters, she reminded herself. I bet a swamp monster doesn't have to the answer 'So, what do you do? Like, what's your power?' question. A swamp monster could speak for itself.

"Yeah. The scholarship. Charles Xavier Mutant Immersion Program. I wasn't really sure if there was anyone else who received it." Noelle adds, meeting his eyes again. The scholarship was the only reason she accepted. It was almost a full ride, and she was able to supplement the rest with her high grades. Noelle's eyes wandered to the group, which was leaving without her. She notices the short, purple-haired girl who seems to be gathering the attention of everyone else. Especially the boys. She wasn't judging, just observing. She looks back at Tobi and states softly "My group is leaving."

Tobi blinks as she says the name, as if something's finally clicked in his mind. "Yeah that's the one. Too many words in my opinion, but hey, I'm not gonna' write em 'bout it or nothin'." A roll of his shoulders keeps his backpack from sliding off.

"I think there's actually a list, the powers tha' be sent me a list. It's small, but it's somethin." He responds. He knows it's a helluva thing, that scholorship, but can't find it in himself to be too overly grateful. He didn't find himself overly special candidate wise, and his grades were nonexistant up until he was 13 or 14. He knows why he got in, and he's paying the difference with this RA position.

He sees Noelle fidgit and look back toward her group. He knows the freshman is itching to get back. One of the most awful feelings is getting lost your first day, and Tobi's not going to keep her any longer than she wants to stay.

"You gonna go with em?"

"I'm not sure." Noelle answer, much quicker than she expected. She already knew the layout of the campus, and she did already know all of the facts that the tour was throwing at her. She didn't really NEED to be there either. It's not like the guide was keeping track of everyone. Noelle considers this and says allowed "I mean, I should probably go. Protocol."

Her eyes flit back to Tobi, and then back to the group. She notices the short girls name tag and takes a deep breath. At least she had something in common with someone else in the group. She final focuses on Tobi "I think I'm going to go. I'm sorry-"

She breaks off, realizing that she hadn't asked his name. She holds her bag tightly and almost starts to walk away, leaving the incomplete sentence to hang in the air.

Tobi blinks at her sudden turn. 'Nervous sort, isn't she', he think briefly. His eyes widen then. He's realized something; his Ma would've smacked him should she have known about this.

"Tobi, my name's Tobi." He offers. "Tobias Maynard, if you're gettin' formal. Prob'ly shoulda led with that." He reaches back behind him into his backpack. When his hand comes back around, it's holding a pen and a worn leather journal. He quickly scribbles something inside before tearing it out and handing it to Noelle. The words are chicken scratch, but legible enough to be recognized as numbers.

"It's my phone number, case you need anythin'." He explains. "Jus' gimmie a holler, yeah? Or jus' find me, I do live on campus, I guess."

"It was nice to meet you...?" He pauses, lets the invitation hang.

Noelle squints at the paper and adjusts her glasses for the third time. She carefully folds the paper and puts it into the front pocket of her bag. Tobi seemed nice enough. Who knows, maybe she would shoot him a text if she had any questions. Unlikely, but possible.

She nods at him and looks right into his eyes again "Noelle. Noelle Scott. It's nice to meet you too." Noelle relaxes a little bit. She would definitely see him again in one of the programs related classes. At least she knew one person on campus. She turns around and starts to walk away, but is knocked by another freshman riding a bike. Noelle hits the ground hard, her open bag spilling its contents all over the lawn. A couple of notebooks, pens, pencils, and a large number books are now strewn over the grass. The books are old and fragile looking, and Noelle desperately tries to pick them up first. Some books are open, revealing pages of blank spaces in the place of words, sentences and even paragraphs.

The boy speeds away, without a second glance, and Noelle lets out a high pitched but quiet "No."

She couldn't believe she didn't notice the cyclist. The group was getting further and further away, and Noelle desperately tried to stuff everything back into the bag.

"Aw shit!" Tobias curses as the cyclist passes him, just a hair's breath away from clipping him. He knows it happens and is just about ready to forget the incident and walk back towards his dorms when he notices Noelle on the ground. She's scrambling for some books, most likely knocked loose in the impact. Cyclist must have hit her hard, then.

Shit, some of those books look old.

Tobi drops to his knees beside her and picks up one of the books. Something's not quite right with them though; he flips through some of the least damaged pages as gently as he can.

"These misprints or somthin'?" His brow furrows as he looks at a blank page. "Pages are blank." He murmurs quieter this time, like he he's working out a particularly challenging puzzle.

Noelle takes the book from his hands, briskly, and shoving it into her bag, not looking at him "No, they're... It's just my... They disappear when I..." She has a hard time finishing the thought. Funny. The question that she always had to answer, the one that had a canned response, was the hardest to explain at that moment.

Get over it, Noelle. He of all people will understand why the books were missing words. Just take a deep breath and tell him what you need to.

"When I read things aloud, they appear. And the ink disappears. And It's not something that I knew about until I was 10. And it's really embarrassing sometimes because I'll read a sentence or two aloud on accident and things just appear. But I know how to handle it and it's not a big deal and there's no risk to anyone if it happens and I take the extra precautions to make sure it doesn't happen."

She rattles out the response as if she memorized it. After years of explaining why she didn't have to read in class or complete oral exams for foreign language classes, she was used to defending herself. She suddenly realizes how stupid this must have sounded. Tobi was a mutant; he knew what she was talking about. Noelle quickly stands up, brushing off her skirt, which has a brand new grass stain. Great. She carefully closes her bag. By now, the tour was pretty much out of site.

God, she was so stupid. 'If I expect myself to succeed here, then I need to get a grip and focus.' She thinks to herself.

Tobi blinks slowly at her explanation and her quickly rattled off words. He takes a quiet moment just to collect them, parse them, make sense of them, then file them away in his mind. It's an interesting power, one that his sister would definitely consider cool.

Tobi stands slowly, taking time to brush some dirt off his cargo pants. Not like he minded the dirt, but she had done it, so it seemed like the right thing to do.

"Shame then. Seems cool." He says in response. His lips tilt up in a just barely there smile, restrained but there nonetheless. The lines around his eyes crinkle up softly in a way that hints at thousands of previous smiles, and even his eyes seem a touch warmer.

"Should show me sometime."

Noelle blinks. She didn't know what she expected the reaction to be, but it wasn't that. He seemed interested, but not weird about it like some of her peers in school. And he didn't reject her or label her as something rude. She smiles a little bit as well. She feels lighter somehow- revealing her mutation to the first person she had a genuine connection to wasn't negative. She didn't realize that that specific situation carried so much weight in her chest.

Noelle shrugs, saying softly "It isn't that cool. They don't last long. Unless the book is old."

By now, the orientation group was out of site. Noelle sighed and looked at the direction that the group went "Well, I don't think I'm going to catch up anymore."

She looks down at her legs, and there is a small rip in her black tights. She frowns and picks ar it for a moment.

Tobi follows her eye in the direction the tour group went. It's not too late, he doesn't think, but he knows that guide. With their next stop being the dining hall, the tour guide's probably booking it. He pulls his phone out from his pants pocket, checks the time, considers.

"Well I gotta move if I'm gonna make it back to the dorms in time for the last move ins. Wanna walk? Promise I don' bite."

The smile's gone, brief as it was, but there's warmth in his eyes still and a newfound fondness for the freshman in front of him. She seemed genuinely relieved he had reponded kindly to her, even if he was just speaking his mind. He really did think it was cool.

Her response had kinda made him want to find the people who made her think she was a danger and make them reconsider. At least he could do something about it now, in a little sort of way.

"I'll even buy you a coffee, my treat. Pastry too, if you like em'. They ain't my prefren'ce, but apparently people like 'em plenty. I jus' take their word for it." He shrugs.

Noelle considers this. While she normally did not like the company, she felt a little closer to Tobi after their short conversation. To be fair, it was longer than most conversations that she had in the past. And there wasn't any use meeting up with the group now. She straightens out her skirt nods slowly "Coffee would be nice. I can get it though."

She waits for Tobi to move, a cool Connecticut breeze brushing against her cheek. She wondered what Tobi's abilities included. He looked normal, but that didn't really mean anything. Was it rude to ask? He probably was asked all the time. Noelle quickly decided to not ask and just let him tell herself. It's not like it mattered anyway.

Tobi nods as she agrees and begins to walk towards the campus coffee shop. While he's not too fond of any of their baked goods, he can already smell the bitter roast of their dark brew coffee. He needs a large cup of that if he's going to make it through one last set of parents side eyeing his ID tag as he helps their kid pull their luggage up three flights of stairs. As much as he kind of enjoyed his job, that bit was getting pretty old.

He feels Noelle start to follow as a cool breeze ruffles his hair. 'Season's turning cold.' he thinks with a calm satisfaction. The leaves would start to turn soon (if they hadn't already) and though the trees he studied in would be bare in a few months, the colors and view would be briefly incredible. He thinks of the crisp autmn crunch of leaves, the sharp smell of the coffee shop, the soft grass under his feet, of Earth and open sky, and the rustling of the wind through the trees.

There's a familar tug then, at the front of his mind, luring him forward into the world. A brief hyperawarness envelops him, let's him feel and experienece every aspect of the changing world. He breathes in once and closes his eyes, reveling in the soft breeze that results.

He opens them again and snaps back to the world at hand. They're hallway to the coffee shop now. He realizes he outta say something. Small talk's never been his forte. "So, you, uh. You like it here?"

Noelle walks in the comfortable silence between them. She watches the world around her move and change. The soft rustle in the trees comforts her as she walks next to Tobi. She notices that his eyes sharpen for a moment. He wasn't looking at anything in particular, just.. the world around him, she guessed. As he took a deep breath and closed his eyes Noelle tried to focus her gaze on the spot he was looking at. Nothing.

Strange.

Of course, it really wasn't that strange. Hell, she had done some pretty strange things herself. Like making jungles or unicorns or dead presidents appear. She shouldn't really judge anyone else's strangeness.

When Tobi comes back to here and now, Noelle notices that too. She looks away, not wanting to come off as creepy. She liked watching and gathering information around her, but it mainly just came off as a weirdo intensely staring at the things around her. When she hears Tobi's question she blinks and clears her throat "I don't have enough information to make any judgment. It's pretty, though. I like the trees."

'I like the trees?' God, she was so socially inept. She quickly added "It adds ambiance. What about you?"

She was surprised she even asked anything.

Tobi's lips tug upward. "I like the trees too," he nods. "Remind me a' home. Not nearly as many, but I'll take what I can get."

"Was kinda a shock comin' here actually." He continues. "Building's are bigger than I seen in my whole life. Then they stick me in a small ass room t'live?" He shakes his head. "No sir. Can't keep myself in there, so I stay outside mostly, sleep in the trees some nights." He looks towards the nearest tree, a massive oak with a wide, lush canopy. The leaves are just starting to break away with the season. "They'll force me inside with the colder weather, but till then, I ain't sleepin' under anything less than open sky."

There's another soft breeze. Faintly, Tobi can begin to smell the aroma of the coffeeshop and hear the soft acoustic music playing over the store speakers. It's amazing it's still pretty quiet, he would've thought with the orientation, it would've been busier.

"Course," he says as he opens the thick wooden door for her, "The trees are nice, but the people ain't half bad neither."

Sleeping in the trees?

Noelle swallowed back a laugh. It seems Tobi was stranger than she thought. But that was okay. She wondered what it would be like- She camped a couple of times when she was younger, but it always ended up being a bust. Her sister would talk too loud and her mother would encourage her to play games or sing songs. All Noelle wanted was peace and quiet.

When Tobi opens the door, she breathes in the scent of coffee. She relaxes her shoulders, and steps inside. Coffee was what she needed right now. She can get a cup, go to her dorm, and spend the rest of the evening reading her textbooks. She wondered where Tobi was staying.

Noelle listens to him and realized that she hadn't talked to anyone since she arrived on campus yesterday except for Tobi. And her roommate, Tamara. But she didn't think that a round of 'Hey's' and 'I listen to music when I work and clean and if you don't like it, you can ask for a room change.' With her mouse-like voice, she speaks "I haven't really met anyone yet."

"No kiddin'?" Tobi raises one eyebrow at her as they approach the counter. "Thought they would've made you, what with all the 'ice breaking' games and whatnot."

He turns briefly to the student working the counter and slides him a five dollar bill. There's no words exchanged, just a quick back and forth of cash and change before the man moves to the coffee machine. He grabs one of the larger cups and pours it full and black before handing it across the counter to Tobi, who takes it with a nod and lifts the cup in mock salute. The barista tips his cap with wry smile in Tobis direction, then slides his way back to where Noelle stands. Tobi waits patiently at the other end of the counter, sipping slowly at his drink.

"What can I get'cha, miss?" The barista asks.

Noelle fumbles for her wallet in her bag, and says quietly "Um, dark roast, medium. Black. Thank you."

She starts to take out a couple bills as the barista says "That'll be three."

Noelle hands over the money and puts her wallet back. She takes a deep breath and watches the barista grab a cup and pour. Noelle's toes curled as she smelled the fresh cup. When she is handed the cup, she thanks him again, holding it with two hands. She walks over to Tobi, continuing their conversation that ended moments ago when she ordered "Yeah. I've been doing my best to get out of those. Plus, I don't really strike people as the... noticeable type. Despite the height."

She sips the coffee and sighs, happily. It reminded her of late nights in the library in Portland, studying for midterms at her leisure.

"I noticed ya just fine. Though I suppose that had somethin' to do with you running into me." He hums as he takes a sip of his coffee and makes his way across the old wooden floors to the door. He pushes it open and the two are once again on the quad.
Tours are winding down for the evening, and students have taken to mingling openly on the grass. There's a group of them playing frisbee, laughing, tackling each other, and fighting for the disc. Small groups have set themselves up on benches around the open space, a rollerblader weaves between pedestrians. It's mellow and subdued fun.

"You were kinda hard to miss." He hides his smile this time behind his large cup.