Welcome to Gaia! ::

"So pick your partners and get ready for instructions on your projects." The teacher spoke at the front of the class, scanning each student before sitting at her desk.

Everyone paired off quickly, leaving only a few students without partners. Even then, they snapped each other up. Leaving only a small-framed and slightly tanned brunette girl and a broad-shouldered blond. She glanced across the aisle at him, her soft green eyes looking him up and down. He was quite the looker and he was a genius, Clear knew that. She gave a half-hearted smile to him and then looked up as the teacher began to speak.

She named off topics that she'd assigned to each set of partners, hesitating at Clear Rivers and Dain McArthur. "I want to see the Indian Removal Act, Jackson's presidency, and how it all affected us today."

Clear groaned, the final projects for their American Studies class was never something enjoyable. You were given a topic and let lose. You could write a series of essays, makes posters and other visual aids, or you could give a lecture. It was only difficult because of all the different options you had to do.

"At least she didn't give us slavery. And hey, an easy A is never that bad." Clear's heart jumped to her throat, this wasn't going to be an easy project. Working with Dain had been a dream for her all year, and now she could. She took a small breath and then looked up and met his eyes, smiling gently, "So what do you want to put together for it?"

"I've no idea." Clear blushed as she tugged her hair over one shoulder and ran her fingers through it. "I guess a lecture wouldn't be that bad. When do you want to get together for research and such?"

Clear tensed slightly, her father wasn't home Thursday. But Dain wasn't going to try anything, would he? "Uhm, sure." She gave a meek smile in an attempt to keep herself from blushing, there was failure. Her cheeks warmed slightly as she turne dher gaze to the floor.

Clear reached for the door and then hesitated. Was her hair ok? Was there anything in her teeth? Was her eyeliner smeared? She shook her head and took a deep breath, then pulled open the door and smiled sweetly, "Hey." She held the door open for him with a smile and closed it behind him. "I was kinda worried that you'd forgotten about me."

"Uhm, my dad is at work, and my mom, she's up above." Like Dain would ever believe her mother was the Greek goddess of the Earth, Demeter. She smiled, "I never had the chance to meet her." She leaned on the staircase banister, "There's three libraries. Mine, my father's, and then the study. Which would you like to use?"

"Of course. It's a big house, what're we gonna do with the extra space?" Clear smiled sweetly at Dain, "We'll use mine, it's larger then the study but less organized then the study. And my father's is locked I think." She quickly climbed the first flight of stairs, "C'mon, idiot, you'll get lost if you lose sight of me." Then down a short hall and through a door and into her room. The walls were a gentle hue of tea green and the furniture was painted white. Clean as it was, her two desks on either side of the door wre a hideous wreck and as was the small bookshelf and table next to her bed. Passing around the corner of the L-shaped room, she entered through a closed door and hit the light. Books stretched the rest of the length of the old Victorian house and about a fourth of the width. Floor to ceiling and wall to wall shelves hid whatever paint there was and in the middle of the room was a waist high bookshelf that ran the same length as the others and was stacked to about Clear's height in books above it. Down the two aisles of the L-shaped room was stacks of books of various sizes and some opened and others closed. "Meet where I live."

"Not including the extended, about three thousand." Clear pointed a thumb over her shoulder to a door next to the entrance, it was latched shut and had a deadbolt on it. "The extended is where I keep books not meant for many other's eyes. Stay outta there." She walked down the other aisle from Dain and peaked through two stacks of books, "What we're looking for is around the corner with history." Then she vanished, only the steady sound of her footfalls until she vanished around the corner and leaving Dain without a view even between stacks of books of her.