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Samara was super bored. She probably should be studying, considering her epic failures with science and social studies, but she felt like she'd been doing nothing but study this entire last week. Her mind just wouldn't focus anymore. She needed to find a distraction, something fun to take her mind off things and help her relax.

She was wandering through the halls, debating her options. She could make a round of the different common rooms and see if there might be anyone she could hang out with or any games to join. She could go outside for a walk and see if the sun felt as warm as it looked. Or she could wander the halls and try to memorize more of the building, just in case she got up to some late night mischief and needed quick escape routes.

Choices choices.....

Samara had opted for a stroll outside. After all the weather was still going through that shifty phase as it turned from winter to spring. You still had to savor a nice day, and she would always stalk common rooms or walk through halls when the weather was bad. She'd probably have more luck with the two activities in bad weather, actually, since students with time to kill would gather in the common rooms, giving her more potential people to mingle with, and hallways would be more abandoned for cozier settings.

She kept to the sunlight, which was nice and warm. Amusingly enough, with her particular set of colors she could probably pull off a seamless vanishing better in sunlight than darkness. She had an arm held up, admiring the effect of the sunlight on the twilight-pale colors, when she noticed a bit of brightness that didn't quite mesh with natural surroundings.

She stared for a moment in surprise. Wow that Nixie had some bright colors on them! Bold reds and pretty purples. They were some of Samara's favorite colors, since she liked anything in the realm of sunrise or sunset, though they were a bit....bold to properly qualify. As she stared she noticed little flickers of pale blue. Oooh, they were a Geist hybrid! Interesting!

Samara wandered over to the tree they were lounging under, squatting down to balance on the balls of her feet just outside the shadow's reach. "Hello," she called out, a slight smile on her face.

Samara had to fight to suppress her grin at the Nixie's reaction. She had a spirit of mischief in her, no doubt, which was part of the reason she'd been so quiet in approaching. She was very pleased that her sneaking skills were still sharp.

She also seemed to make them nervous? She couldn't be sure since it could just as easily been the result of their surprise still showing on their face, they kept giving her these little looks. Samara didn't really get what was scary about her. She was very short and petite, and had a wispy, insubstantial look to her, like a good breeze would take her out. Which it wouldn't, but she liked her impression of frailness. All the better to her advantage. But the Nixie shouldn't know that, so there shouldn't have been a need for them to worry?

"I just wanted to say hi. I'm bored, and you look interesting." Samara gave her head an innocent tilt, with an equally innocent smile on her face.

She couldn't help her small giggle. Newt's reactions were just so very different and she felt the urge to tease welling up within her. "My name's Samara." She plopped down on the grass, crossing her legs and smoothing her dress neatly around her. The tendrils on her arms and legs gave little wavering flickers. It was like a cat, perfectly still except for the wiggling of its tail.

"I'm still pretty new here, so I don't know a whole lot of people. What about you? I don't think I've seen you around before, cause I'd remember someone so interesting-looking." Samara did her best to appear well behaved. She wanted to figure out what it was about her that made Newt tick before he could run off.

Samara propped an elbow against her leg and rested her head in her hand. "I thought so," she exclaimed in a bright voice, though inside she really was pleased. It was good at she was starting to become aware of her surroundings, and what was considered "in place" or "not normal".

"So what are you studying," she asked, glancing at the papers. Internally she winced a bit. She'd gone out walking to get away from studying, not to find more of it. Well it was the best point of conversation she had at the moment without outright asking questions that someone might consider rude. Such behavior wasn't beneath her, but she at least tried not to offend in the beginning. No use closing a door before you got to it, after all!

Samara made a face, her tendrils flickering around her like the guttering of a dying candle. "I was, not that it's seeming to do me any good." Geez, all the retakes she'd had to do on her history exam... At least that one she had finally passed and gotten out of the way. She still had to make up her science exam, which she had already failed multiple times. Maybe her problem wasn't studying. Maybe she just needed to make a bunch of offerings and prayers to Mnemosyne the Wise. The Nine only knew how much studying hadn't really seemed to help her.

"I was being raised by my family, and my Granny was teaching me," she explained. "I'm not completely behind, but I guess she's just one person and the teachers here are many, so there's a lot of things I'm catching up on." Her tendrils flickered around her like the tail of a disgruntled cat. The urge to fade was pretty strong as well, but she suppressed it; it was a natural reaction when she wanted to avoid something, but she had since gained more control over her fading. She might have paled just a touch, but she didn't wink out like she sometimes had as a child.

"That would be nice. I'm apparently not getting things on my own," Samara said, though her voice was a little distant. She was paying attention to Newt's tendrils. He appeared to be on the verge of a fade of his own, but it looked a bit more....erratic. Like he was holding it back, but his hold wasn't very strong.

"I could teach you how to fade properly, or keep from fading," Samara offered, a trade of knowledge for knowledge. "I did it on accident all the time as a kid when I got upset, cause I was a pretty emotional child, so she taught me tricks to control it." She held up an arm and focused. It did noticeably fade, though it was still pretty visible and quickly flickered back. She sighed. "I'm still working on doing it on purpose. Emotions make it work best, but it's super hard to control emotion so even then it doesn't really work right."

Samara wrinkled her nose a little. "You might regret that. I had to retake my history exam like four times before I finally passed it." She sighed and reached out her free hand to trace random swirls in the ground, her tendrils alternating between coiling and flickering. "I failed the science exam four times and I still need to try to make it up." There was a look of childish mutiny in the way her brow crinkled. Maybe she should just give up on education and run off to live a life as a daring thief. They seemed to have it good in all the books she'd read. Then maybe she'd find a daring and noble love, sent out to initially capture her for her thieving ways while she eluded him, until they fell for each other and ran off to start a new life together.

Samara sighed and flicked the grass, sitting upright. No, she was here for her sister. She couldn't just run off. Besides, Granny would likely find her somehow, and she'd get tossed right back into school or something.

"Do you want me to start, or do you want to see how hopeless I am and wonder if you should give up," she asked, half serious and half teasing.