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Lunch was just ending. Kirin sat in the cafeteria, at the Leprosy table. Almost everyone else had left already, but Kirin had a free period next, so he was taking his time. The silence was nice, and all too hard to find in a co-ed boarding school. Kirin sipped a juice box and poked unenthusiastically at a lunch that was MEANT to be meatloaf, but looked more like grey cardboard that had been mushed up and then cooked. He supposed it was too much to ask for that even a school as exclusive as Barren Pines have decent meals all the time. Maybe they'd hired a new cook, because Kirin was sure the food hadn't been this bad for the past several years he'd been here... right? Otherwise he wouldn't have stayed here this long... right?

Kirin gave up, pushing the food away. He kept sucking on the juice (thankfully, vending machines were much harder to stuff up than cooked meals), while alternatively fixing his hair and rummaging through his pockets for lip gloss. Being a girl was hard work! Harder still since he'd picked up a few female rivals. Lucy and he in particular were quite vicious, and he knew she'd be all over him if she decided that Kirin was letting "her" looks go.

Goddamn high school. Why couldn't he just learn everything he needed off a computer, and stuff all this social interaction crap? The only thing high school was good for was giving him karaoke buddies. And that didn't quite make up for the stress of trying to hide his gender when the stupid school had him rooming on the MALE floor! Thank god that most males were dumb enough to accept the school had made a mistake, and just make stupid male noises over the fact that a "girl" was all that much closer to where they slept. Asses. It was giving Kirin an even lower opinion of his own gender. Though, to be fair, the girls could be just as bad, but they were distracted by disdain, disapproval or jealousy over the living arrangements, rather than hormones.

A suck on the straw gave a loud, slurping-air noise rather than the expected sip of juice, and Kirin was jolted from his hatred for his fellow students. Kirin tossed the empty container onto the abandoned lunch tray. A small mirror came out of one pocket. Appearance... acceptable for any catty encounters. With a small nod to his reflection, Kirin snapped the mirror shut, tucked it away, and stood.

Now, what to do with his free period?

Kirin turned to see who was trying to lose their balls by daring to run into him. He recognised the offender as someone from Leprosy House (who the HELL named these school houses?!), but the boy wasn't someone Kirin had talked to before.

"Watch where you're g-" Kirin began to snarl, but was interrupted by the buffoon wailing about his sandwich. Filled with dread, Kirin looked down. There, splattered all over his pristine sweater, dripping down onto his neatly-pressed skirt, was the kid's sandwich - which of course had to be made of egg paste (wasn't coming out without serious drycleaning) and bacon (oh god, the grease stains were appearing already).

Kirin's left eyebrow began twitching. This... IMBECILE... had just ruined a full uniform. Kirin was going to have to run back to his dorm - hoping that no one saw him because if that Lucy Mor heard about this, she would have taunting fodder for at least a WEEK - and spend his free period changing clothes, possibly needing a midday shower to rid himself of the stench of egg, and then pay a hugely unfair drycleaning bill to get his uniform back into wearable condition.

There was nothing Kirin wanted more than to howl at the top of his lungs, '******** ********', reach for his abandoned cutlery and gouge this kid's eyes out with a blunt spoon. But Kirin was trying to AVOID being noticed, and therefore becoming gossip fodder, so he settled for his worst Ice Queen glare.

The temperature around the two dropped noticeably.

'Give me a reason NOT to kill you,' the glare demanded, while Kirin ground his teeth and tried to scrape the worst of the mess off.

Kirin was lost for words as the boy tried to brush the egg off (not even trying to cop a feel, how surprising!), and then offered not only to clean his uniform, but to loan Kirin a hoodie for the trip. That... wasn't among the options Kirin had in his mental flowcharting. It took him a while to process the offer and consider his own reply.

"Thank you," Kirin eventually said, accepting the hoodie. "That's surprisingly chivalrous of you." Who would have thought a teenage boy was capable of that!

The hoodie would no doubt still be the cause of teasing if Lucy heard of it, but not as much as being splattered by food. And he could always play this off as a boy desperate for Kirin's attention.

"Come on, then," Kirin sighed, turning and heading for the stairs that led up to the dorms.

Kirin raised an eyebrow at the raised arm. He accepted it, despite the strong suspicion that Cameron had ulterior motives. That was fine, so did Kirin. Let news of this get back to Lucy Mor! Hell, Kirin may just have to throw it in the girl's face himself.

Well, manners demanded Kirin introduce himself in return. "I'm Kirin, Kirin Thompson. I'm... also on the first floor. Computer error, don't ask," Kirin added quickly, scowling the whole while. "Apparently some ones and zeros got mixed up and the computer system thinks I'm male."

Buy it, buy it, buy it...

By this time they'd reached the stairs that led up to the first level. Kirin began climbing, eyes darting over to Cameron to gauge the other boy's reaction.


(( I have no idea if the stairs are enclosed in stairwells, or completely open... Won't mention it either way til I can check with a mod XD ))

The door to the stairwell slammed shut behind them as they continued up the stairs. Their voices echoed faintly, an effect that might be unnerving under different circumstances.

Kirin held back a smirk of triumph as Cameron bought into the lie. "I'm in room sixteen," he replied. "On a corner, which is nice. Though the guy on the other side of me is a bit... weird."

Yeah, maybe that was the pot calling the kettle black, and Kirin had never actually MET the guy with the dreads. But Kirin had seen (and heard) him coming and going - at very weird hours of the night - and last night Kirin had even thought he smelled smoke, not the kind from cigarettes. Kirin felt justified. "Weird" might even be toning it down.

"Near the kitchen? You cook?" Kirin felt obliged to keep a conversation going. Cameron was... not totally sucky... and even if the other boy had ulterior motives, until they played out, Kirin was playing along like his mental flowcharts directed.

Kirin nodded, not entirely surprised by the idea of another teenage boy who liked to eat but not cook. He suspected that was normal behaviour - not that he'd know much about that.

"Not really. Well, a bit," Kirin hedged. "I used to help out. Learned enough to keep myself alive during the hols, when not on campus." He shifted uneasily. He didn't like talking about... before.

It wasn't like it was unusual for Kirin-the-girl to know how to cook. Just that explaining anything involved mentioning his family, and, well... if anything was off limits for discussion, that was at the top of the list (right under crossdressing).

"What do you do when the cafeteria's closed then?" Kirin quickly asked, eager to steer the conversation away from himself.

Kirin was halfway through mentally rolling his eyes at Cameron's claim of finding girls to cook for him when Cameron's arm slid around him. WHAT. THE. ******** sub-zero glare fell to the offending hand on his shoulder, then back to Cameron himself. A hand reached out and pinched Cam's wrist. With a surprising grip for such a little girl, Kirin lifted the offending limb from him.

"Touch me again," came the frosty hiss, "and I'll remove your reason for chasing ******** was lucky Kirin's female persona wasn't the slapping kind of girl. Though if push came to shove, she was the ball kicking kind.

"Boys are all the same," Kirin glared at Cameron. "Try to have a polite conversation and they think you're asking to be groped."

Never mind the hand hadn't gone anywhere near a danger zone. Being touched at all was offensive enough for Kirin. Honestly, what part of his Ice Queen personality encouraged touchy-feely behaviour?

Cameron taking the rejection so well... was not on Kirin's flowchart. Well crap! As he mentally floundered, Kirin just stared at Cam with wide, blinking eyes. After a few moment, Kirin decided this was good and continued up the stairs. Firstly, there didn't need to be an argument. If there'd been an argument, Kirin would have had to have ripped off Cam's hoodie and stormed off to his room - hoping all the while that no one saw the stains. And, of course, then Kirin would have to be the one to deal with removing said stains.

"You're rather unpredictable, aren't you?" Kirin asked, a bit arch but also rather serious and confused underneath the attitude. He shook his head. "That's not polite behaviour, but at least you're displaying it now."

They finally reached the first landing of the stairwell. "Here we are, home sweet home for us both," Kirin said, turning the door handle that would let them out onto the boys' floor.