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There was an atmosphere about the Shufflepuck Cafe that usually repelled the Crystal girls, and indeed, it was sometimes considered a dare to spend an hour in there with the 'local flavor'. However, it was also generally agreed that Eilian Halpan didn't have the snooty disposition of other Crystal Girls. She actively tried to make friends with most of the scholarship students, and others within Destiny City. It was even rumored that she'd had a nice talk with a Hillworth boy!

So it was on a lovely winter Saturday that Eilian was happily going over her weekly schedule and copying Blackberry entries into her Filofax, and vice versa. If she had any time left over once her delightful corroborating was done, she could then pull out the meticulously, suspiciously, well cared for notebook and continue her story. The sleek laptop she had sitting back in her suite might have been more suited for this sort of thing, but Eilian would never trust her precious stories simply to a machine! That was simply irresponsible!

Humming in the back of her throat and sipping an exquisite french blend, she was unconsciously bouncing her pigtails to the rhythm in her head. Her strange hair plus the jaunty movement caused some looks, but no one coming over. It was sad, but at the moment, she preferred it that way!

The 'alarm' part of her slim cell phone was probably the second most used function it had. She had alarms for appointments, and depending on the nature of the appointment a different song played. Most of them were classical pieces, though certain acquaintances had alarms matching their ringtones. Everything was quite tasteful, of course. Eilian, for all her hate of social barriers, was still a well-bred young woman!

She was halfway through setting an alarm for her Wednesday lute-playing when a young man burst into her scheduling bubble. Teal eyes fixated on him, down to the cake, and back up silently before she finished entering the data and set her phone down. Then it was almost as if you could feel the bubble burst, and her personality spilled over onto him.

"Hello there! I love company, all the time. Well, sometimes I don't have time but I have..." she checked her disgustingly expensive watch and looked down at her Filofax for confirmation. "Forty-three minutes to dedicate to social activity! And thank you, I didn't think to get the cake. I've never heard anything about the food here, is this their best cake?"

Pausing, taking a breath, and beaming again, she held out a delicate hand. "I'm Eilian. Eilian Halpan, pleased to meet you!"

Digging cheerfully into the cake, she couldn't help but agree with his statement. It was indeed delicious cake! Picking up her pencil, with her deliberate and careful script she noted that the Shufflepuck had excellent crumb cake and it should be sampled in the future. Perhaps purchase of the recipe was possible? "Thank you for the cake, again. It's delicious! As for the interruption, don't worry overmuch. I will simply pencil in a smaller chunk of social time later to make up for my laxity."

Sometimes Eilian forgot how her meticulous schedule seemed to intimidate and garner strange looks. But if there was anything sacred in this world, it was the inviolate schedule. Time was blocked for a reason, and she made good use of the building blocks of life. When the comment about rabbit ears reached her own human ones, she all but inhaled her delicate sip of coffee. Coughing into her napkin, wide eyes met his own.

"A..a rabbit? Really?" Shaking her head, she noted that indeed they did tend to flop about, and were fairly solid, tapering. But they were pigtails! Not rabbit ears. Oh dear. Picking up the pencil again, she noted that this needed further opinion. "I never thought of it like that. A rabbit? Really. But I am not particularly fond of carrots." Eilian glanced over to Azzo, and noted that he himself had a bit of a resemblance to a household animal.

"You know, you look a bit like a hound yourself. Bassets you know? Those drooping ears."

Twirling one voluminous tail of hair around her wrist, she released it and it simply arced back up over her head. "I suppose you're right, though we normally just call them my braids and leave it at that. I only had one when I was younger, but as I got more and more hair we had to split it into two so that the weight wasn't horrible." Though sometimes, she did get rather fierce headaches. Normally, however, these were attributed to her full schedule and the fact that she was constantly having to babysit her groupmates.

"And yes, I'm at Crystal Academy. Their music programs are truly top-notch, and I'm hoping to expand into the theater. Their alumni contacts are absolutely lovely, and I'd like to think I'm talented enough to secure a decent place without ridiculous nepotism." Scooping up the last of her cake, she washed it down with the last of her coffee, and eyed her mug sadly before returning attention to her companion.

"I would ask you similarly, except I know you're not from Crystal's." Giggling softly and touching her mouth as if to silence herself for her rude action, Eilian couldn't help but smile. "You wouldn't happen to go to Hillworth? I hear they're awfully scandalous there!"

Brightening at the prospect of educating a poor new soul on their entrance to Destiny City made Eilian brighten. If she could get to him and instill him with the right ideas before rivalry gossip did...it would be marvelous! The teen leaned forward slightly and beamed at Azzo. "Well then, you have come to a fine source. I myself have spent quite a bit of time trying to find out more about the schools, and why they almost never interact outside of sports rivalries!"

Shuffling through her Filofax she found the correct notes section and wished desperately that she had the space to carry around a small chart. Perhaps she could upload one to her Blackberry when she got home? It was so hard to educate without the proper tools! "Here we are! You said you have a friend at Crystal, is she a scholarship student? Generally the wealthier girls look down on them, but not all thankfully! I myself am on a scholarship committee and my parents donate a full tuition every year. It was my condition upon going there and finding out how dismal the scholarship program was, let me tell you!"

The slightly reserved Welsh girl was now animated and in teaching mode, nothing could stop her now. "Meadowview, I admit to know little about. It's coed, but nothing really terrible happens there. Your basic public school that you could find in any city in the world, would you agree? But Hillworth...well. My information may be skewed, but there's no secrets about that place! It was originally some sort of militant reform school for all sorts of boys that have lawful troubles, or are orphans, or something horrible like that!"

Pondering this, she shrugged and closed the thick leather of her book. "I also hear that they have a particular taste for Crystal girls, because they're supposedly unattainable. Somehow, I have a feeling they have a taste for Crystal wallets and Daddy's credit cards." She would not personally understand this, having gone to all-girl boarding schools her whole life. But it was logical! "Apparently Crystals stands at the top with their 'world-class snobbery' filtering down to Meadowview so the Meadowview students avoid us and think us insufferable. Hillworth boys are dangerous. I think that's how it works, from my observations!" Eavesdropping. Worked like a charm!

Emphatically, Eilian nodded at Azzo, pleased that he was of a like mind. "I hate stereotypes. I mean, they're so broad that at one point or another everyone is a stereotype. I mean, I am a Crystal student and my father is rich. So I'm supposed to be overly-concerned with my looks and not even come to a place like this! Apparently the Shufflepuck tends to be a bit 'common' or something silly? It is silly, they have the best coffee!" As she said this, she flipped to another section in her Filofax, one that was alphabetical. Calmly, she noted down the name Azzo with the school Meadowview. She would fill it in later with her personal thoughts on the matter, for Eilian had already been told off more than once for doing that in front of the person in question.

Looking at her watch, the teen sighed and as she ran out of breath, the familiar chimes of her alarm sounded as her cellphone moved lightly across the table with vibration. "And I hate to be rude, but my schedule is insistent. If I don't leave almost immediately, I will be late and that is simply not allowed." Eying the stuff on the table, she discretely tucked a ten under the coffee pot and smiled. "Feel free to keep the table, but make sure whomever cleans this up gets the tip? I really do have to run! Maybe we'll meet again sometime, it was lovely talking to you!"

The last came out in a rush as Eilian was almost to the door, and then out it before waving through the window as she started jogging into the Destiny City crowd. Really, she was going to have to stop talking to people. Her schedule was going all to hell!