Welcome to Gaia! ::

The celebration was just about to get started and the sun was finally beginning to set. A searing orange glow slowly turned to a silvery violet. The lights played on the stone walkways of the courtyard changing its tone and color. Lights of local shops around began to turn on like fireflies one by one.

The open-air square was decorated for the occasion - the graduation of the local high schools that were a mere month away. Triangle banners and multi-colored balloons mixed with strings of lights. A few small and festive tents surrounded the main area serving food and drink. There was a stall with some carnival games. A small stage lit with spotlights stood at the center.

The tell-tale click of a microphone being turned on could be heard right before an announcement.

"Welcome to Destiny City's pre-graduation celebration! Remember to drop your raffle ticket into the box by the fountain for a chance to win a special prize."

Alphonse Wingates-St. Grey had volunteered to help check tickets at the gate. Each senior had received one for themselves and one for a guest. All he had to do was check that these were present and void the ticket. The grand clock could be heard in the distance from one of the schools with a dim chime.

It was 6 o'clock.

Time for the celebration to finally begin and a wave of relief filled Alphonse as he ripped the first ticket in half with a cheery smile. I wonder how many will come, the boy with the amber eyes thought.

It was hard to believe his high school years were almost over.

✪

Evren Porter

Evren had ended up going to the festival because she knew some of the upper class-men who where graduating so she decided to attend and maybe even help out if it was needed. Evren was dressed in sweet lolita clothes when she got her ticket checked and entered the area. She smiled as she saw the box for the raffle tickets. She pressed her raffle ticket in between her two hands in like a praying fashion. "Good luck, good luck, good luck." She mumbled this and then dropped it into the box. Not noticing the stares she got she just smiled and walked away from the raffle ticket area.

"Mmmm I wonder where I should go..." Evren looked around her sunset hair being jostled side to side before she seemed to get and idea. "I'll look around to see if I can find anyone I know!"

Alerana Ikaros

Rana was browsing the tents and stalls, seeing what there was to eat and do at this event, when a voice spoke up behind her. She turned around to find a blond guy was looking at her, so she assumed he'd been addressing her. She thought she'd seen him recently; possibly he was the guy who'd taken tickets at the door.

"Who, me?" she asked. "Yeah, I just moved to the city. I'm Rana. Or Alerana, if you want my full name." She hadn't the faintest idea what his name was, or if they'd even had classes together. As a preemptive explanation for why she didn't know him, she added, "I haven't done much at school yet, so I don't know anybody here." It almost didn't make sense to get to know anyone yet, considering the school year was about to end and she might not see any of her classmates again. She make a face and said aloud, "Who moves just before the end of the school year, anyway? My parents couldn't have just waited a month?" Then she shrugged. Nothing she could do about it, really.

Alphonse hadn't realized how new Alerana was until now. He remembered when he had to get used to life here too when he first moved from Britain.

"If you need any help around Meadowview, let me know. I am a senior, but I know how difficult being new can be." He seemed a bit sad for a moment and added, "I'm going to be graduating soon."

He didn't have much time to ask the new girl about herself when another girl - the one who had put her ticket in the raffle box - came and introduced herself as Evren Porter.

He appeared a bit startled and blushed. He scratched his head and squinted shyly.

"Oh, I'm Alphonse."

He had almost forgotten to introduce himself!

✪

Evren giggled. “Rana, you can’t say you don’t know anyone here if you’ve met someone. It’s up until now you didn’t know anyone! Now you have two people you know here.” Evren looked at all the decorations and hummed.

“It’s really cool they decided to have a joint party for all the schools… though it makes finding my friends from Medowview a little hard.” She scrunched her nose a little. “I think she’s even graduating this year so I thought she would be here… maybe I shouldn’t have assumed.” Evren said scrunching her face slightly so her nose crinkled.

“We should just all hang out together then. The more the merrier right.” Evren said her face going back to her usual smile.

Alerana Ikaros

Rana wouldn't really say she "knew" either of the other teens, since she'd barely met them. But she just shrugged at the idea. It seemed the perky girl was they type to consider people friends quickly. As far as Rana was concerned, both of the other teens were just barely acquaintances, but at least hanging out with acquaintances beat wandering around the event alone. "Sure, I don't mind hanging out together," she answered Evren.

When Alphonse offered Evren a small object, Rana looked at it curiously.It seemed to be a piece of shiny red paper on a golden cord, and maybe something written or drawn on it. She had no idea what it was, but it did look kind of pretty. When a moment more of staring provided no other hints, she looked up at him and asked, "What is that?"

Evren just kept smiling as Alphonse seemed very passionate about this charm. Though when the explanation kept going on and on a sweat drop appeared on Evren’s face. “Um.” Her feeble attempts to try and make him stop seemed to be completely useless. Clutching the charm her eyes began to swirl in confusion and the time it was taking for him to get through his explanation. Eventually it was night time and by the time Alphonse was finished the whole explanation the event was over and he was saying good bye to them.

Evren waved goodbye with hand that had her new charm. “G…goodbye…” She laughed which sounded forced and when she saw that Alphonse was out of sight she turned to Rana with tears in her eyes. “Rannnaa.” She said with a slight wine. “I didn’t get to do anything… and I didn’t win the raffle.” She said with a sniff.