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The Academy Dining hall is dimly lit to allow for a calm atmosphere while the students eat. The tables are circular to promote conversation among diners. Though it is possible to eat alone, there is usually someone here willing to chat over a meal

The food is served from several different stations. Each station is dedicated to a specific food category, and you can get anything from Tacos to Cherry Pie.

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She was at ease.
Well, as at ease as she could be. Rosie laughed along with Ella, even though she had no idea what Colin actually looked or acted like. The image in her mind of a frazzled handsome boy, though, was pleasant enough.

As Ella walked off to the bathroom, Rosie walked over to a vacant table and set her things down. Ella could become a very close friend, she thought. Rosie would just have to watch her temper and frustrations, or let go of them completely to make sure her end of the friendship was bearable.

But friendship wasn't about tolerance, was it?

Rosie let out a soft sigh. She was the painfully obvious complication.



{No more scales of gray for me...}

__________________________Яѳsąℓiη
{This Beat - First Train Home}

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Rosie didn't notice him at first.
As Samyule had made his way towards the apples, Rosie had kept her eyes downcast upon her bag. It was covered in buttons, some with ridiculous sayings and others with words of wisdom. Though her favorite, she had to say, was one that had a dove on it. Peace what was she had come here for, and peace was what she would learn to promote inwardly and outwardly.

Though the peace in the dining hall was suddenly disturbed by murmurs and a few laughs as Samyule began to juggle on what seemed to be a whim. Rosie brought her eyes up from her buttons to see what people were fussing over. A smile flashed across her lips as she watched him catch and throw each fruit like it was just practice, not a show. No grand call for attention, no winks and such to the watchers... just juggling. And just like that, he stopped. A little bit of disappointment welled up in Rosie. If he could do that, she thought, what else could he show them all?

Rosie looked at the other people here and there to see if anyone would say anything about it, but before she could think of what she could even say, Rosie found her feet moving towards the food display. It was like something within her had given her a little shove-- time to make a friend, the inner voice said. Time to not be so introverted.

Her strides were long as she made her way by the selections, just so she wouldn't lose him. Though why she felt so rushed, she wasn't sure. Nervousness, she reasoned.

And just like that, Rosie found herself standing next to Samyule with what felt like a brain full of cotton and nothing smart to say.
This was new.
"Uh..." Rosie started out with, as she hoped to catch his eye, though she was standing right next to him, so really, she didn't think she was that hard to miss even if she was quite short.
"That juggling thing you did back there?" Rosie said with a bit more pluck. "That was... cool." With an anxious smile and nervous laugh, Rosie looked up to Samyule, hoping she wasn't making too big of a mistake by putting herself out there.



{No more scales of gray for me...}

__________________________Яѳsąℓiη
{This Beat - First Train Home}

Stepping
out of the restroom after washing her hands and fixing some of her makeup, Ella looked around for Rosie. She felt almost protective of the girl, in a sisterly sense. The red-head certainly had the potential to be lively and friendly, of that she was sure. However, at this point in time, Ella was sure that she would need a bit of guiding, a horse to water sort of thing.

Her blue eyes rested on her new friend, looking awkward while addressing a boy. From here, Ella could see that she felt nervous and had little idea of what to say.
'Betta step in..spur her along.' With that thought in mind, Ella paced over with her usual smile, and announced her presence with a warm:
" Ey Rose, there you arh. An' 'oos this?" Her eyes darted over to the boy she was speaking to, and she allowed them to sweep over him quickly, assessing him.

Being pretty, Ella had alot of experience with the male kind, as she had been asked out and hit on-not something she enjoyed- a number of times. He was wearing a warm smile, and she had expected that. Rosie was quite pretty, and had a sort of gentle prettiness Ella wished she herself possesed.

She had only seen this boy since leaving the restroom, so for now, she would give herself time to evaluating him. Ella simply warmed up her smile a bit and slung a friendly arm around Rosies shoulder, radiating friendliness and comfort towards both the girl and the nameless boy.

"I'm Ellanore Hayes, bu' yur free tah call meh Ella." She sent a friendly wink in his direction before looking at Rosie.
"Di' I miss anythin'?"

bεcausε tonight thε [ w o r ℓ d ] turnεd in ɱε
bεcausε right now
i don't darε to brεathε.




He cringed again as the suddenness of this British invader hit their conversation. Ah, the elusive Hayes sister. How odd to meet both in one day. He let his interest play freely on his features once the initial shock of Ella had subsided.. "I promise it was an...accident. Well, ok, not an accident but I guess what I mean to say is that it was nothing impressive. Had I known I would have such an enchanting audience, I should have done much more than throw a few fruits around." A speech initially intended for modesty became a vehicle to gauge their acceptance of light flirting. Prudes were out of the question.

But there was a distinct difference in the feel of the two of them. Ella was distinctly un-flustered by him, by talking to him. The other one, Rosie she'd said - or rather stammered - seemed to be exactly the opposite. Yep, he'd gotten this one right, for sure.

What about Ella though? He wondered if she was as surly and un-companionable as her brother. He wondered also what had happened to the conversation back in the Oak Grove where he'd left Len and Colin to their own devices. Ah well, let fledglings fly as soon as possible. The two of them might just become friends out of this.

Back to the present...they were drawing attention, standing as they were in front of one of the food lines. "Ah...well. I'd like to continue this but..." He let his voice trail off, giving them the option to invite him to join them or to be able to retreat to their own gathering.

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Ah, her getaway.
Rosie gathered a salad and a few pieces of grilled chicken. It wasn't much, but her anxiety at being out in public and talking to new people made her appetite shrink. Though Samyule seemed nice enough, she could feel his want to leave the area and avoid unwanted attention.

With nothing but a quick gesture of her head in the direction of the table where her things lay, Rosie left to serve as their guide.
She really wanted to say something to the effect of, really? Did you miss the table with my stuff on it? But bit her tongue. Something told her it wouldn't do her any good to be snarky with Ella.



{No more scales of gray for me...}

__________________________Яѳsąℓiη
{This Beat - First Train Home}

Ella
listened to him speak with an easy smile, one that some often took for vacant, but it was far from it. Ella always found it easier to smile than to frown, and she also found that it encouraged people to speak more often and with a more loose tongue if she appeared and acted friendly. Besides, it was much easier getting through life being polite than being rude or closed off. Sure, you could get hurt, but the rewards of being open and social far out weighed the risks.

She nodded her head slightly as he explained his powers.
" Sounds useful. All I can do is make stuf' grow." She shrugged and took a sip of the tea she had snatched up. She took another sip and made a modest shrug of her shoulders. Truthfully, her power was highly useful, but only outside any combat situations. She could make vines curl up around people, and knew all the poisonous plants, but her power was passive in its origins.

" Lih, this, actually." Pulling out her tiny trusty vial of seed-ridden dirt, Ella dumped a small portion in her hand. She took a breath, and mentally probed the dirt until she found the seed she was looking for. She exhaled the breath onto the small puddle of brown in her hand and directed her thoughts towards it, willing it to grow as a lotus began to blossom right in the palm of her hand. The dirt was still for a moment, before a tender shoot of green emerged from the brown, growing at a rapid rate, budding, and then soon exploding into a large pink flower that covered her palm. Its growth stopped after that, and the flower rested in her hand, petals glistening attractively.

The little British girl beamed at her handy-work, before reaching over and placing the flower in front of him, hoping she had been correct in assuming he was Indian.
"I've nevah actually made a lotus well befo'..they're a lih'le tricky. I tried a coupl' years befo' and it came ou' all wrong." She wrinkled her nose at the memory, and decided she liked making roses better.

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She couldn't do something so magnificent.
Rosie thought of the flower Ella had made or her when they had first met. It had been filled with a soothing happiness that she could pick up on immediately just from touch. But how could her abilities possibly seem interesting to these two after that? Even Samyule seemed more interested in Ella...

"Well," she said, with eyes averted to the napkin in her fingers. She ripped and tore at the paper square as her mind tried to find words...
"I, uh, can pick up on emotions. I guess. Like, in rooms where something bad has happened in the past? I can feel people's fear or anger like it was an imprint in the air. Or when something was happy," she quickly added, not wanting either of them to think she was a vessel for negativity.
"Same thing goes for objects. Then there are odd times when things go missing and turn up somewhere else, like keys, and..."

Her eyes picked up to meet the pairs looking at her. Rosie wanted to say that sometimes when her own emotions were negative and strong, things spontaneously broke around her. But again, she didn't want them to think she was a walking wreck. That was why she was there at Grove, afterall: to get better at these things, and make them not so frightening and misunderstood.

"I dunno, I guess it's kind of psychic things going on!" she ended on a cheerful note with a smile.



{No more scales of gray for me...}

__________________________Яѳsąℓiη
{This Beat - First Train Home}