All is well that begins...somehow (open)

[pinefresh]

~So it begins...~ Pine thought to himself as he walked out the door of his condo unit an hour prior to his current thoughts. He wondered if life was going to be the same as it was at the last three schools he had attended. Each school started off with him and a fight. So far 66.66666% of the time the fight went in Pine's favor and 33.33333% of the time it didn't. Today was going to determine if it would be an even 50/50 split or a straight up 75/25 victory.

A normal student would not bother thinking of such things because in a normal person's mind such things would never occur. Pine however did not consider himself or his circumstances to date anything resembling normal. In which case it is reasonable for him to think about how his first day would go; and who might try to fight him as he walked up the stairs leading to the main entrance of Hircine High.

The school was undoubtedly big and kind of reminded him of Varron Academy. He knew looks were deceiving from experience. At least his last school Aarondale looked the part of military style hell, and he wondered why the rest of them could not simply do the same. Then again perhaps Pine was just jumping to conclusions and for once he would not have a problem.

For the most part Pine's day was going off without a hitch, he found the office all by himself and managed to get a hold of his timetable. He even found his way to his first class which he was currently sitting in. The day seemed to be going great and the students seemed to be somewhat pleasant to be around. Not a single one had attempted to start a fight with Pine on his way to class.

English was never a very fun subject for Pine. Sure he enjoyed reading and creative writing from time to time but it was not the same. It seems that doing something you love for the fun of it and doing something you love because you have too are two different things. Pine's train of thought however was broken by his pen, which he was twirling, flew out of his hand and under the desk of the person beside him. Pine looked over at the person and whispered "psst...would you mind passing me my pen? It seems to have flown under your desk."

[Rachel Dávill]

School sucks, at least that was Rachel's experience.

She had only been in this city a few months, and the school a few days, but it was shaping up to be a far too well known schedule. At least she had managed to stay out of trouble until now, unless being a victim of minor ridicule counts. It seems her chin to chest, eyes to ground method, despite how unpleasant, was working quite well. It was not like she would have it any other way anyway. She would not be able to manage much more, she was far to shy. A little human contact would be a welcome change though.

Optimism was pretty tricky to cling onto in schools like this, but 'At least it's English class now' was all that ran through Rachel's head, as she made her way to her locker, wading through enough books to constitute her own...petite anatomy. There was hardly room for her lunch in there. She took out a few, for the life of her she could not remember what module she was doing today.

Rachel's trip down the bustling hallway was mostly uneventful, and she entered the classroom with about half the students present, and with no teacher, which was ideal really. Everyone was segmented in their different social groups, she found it quite interesting hearing what little conversation she could. A group of ten was doing nothing but talking about 'chicks' and 'wheels', where a less impressive group were talking nasally about their 'sword of Maka-whatever-us'. At least they had a convorsation...

Rachel saw an available seat, a few metres away form each group, just in front of a boy of her age with light brown hair. She dumped down her books, crossed her legs, and kept her face focused on the poetry. The class started pretty reluctantly, from students and teachers alike. The lesson moved pretty slowly, mostly because at every alternate sentence she had to tell a student to "shut up", or "stop fucking about", or "stop throwing small pieces of your desk at me"...y'know the usual.

The teacher flipped open the poetry book, and scanned the room for a reader, to her dread, the finger fell upon Rachel. She practically stopped breathing, and went even paler than normal. Her hands shook as she lifted her book, and her voice stuttered as she attempted to read out the poem. The teachers constant "motivational" jeers hardly helped, in fact they just fed the inconsiderate giggles and sneers of her colleagues. Eventually the teacher gave up on her, and asked a more confident, and cocky jock to read. Relief was initial, but she realized this would make her more popular amongst the idiots of this school.

At least she gets some pleasant human contact. The quiet boy next to her dropped his pen under her chair, and whispered for her to retrieve it for him. She did so with barely a word, just another stutter. She wondered if it had been so long since she spoke, that she had actually forgotten how too. Rachel just hoped he would speak to her more.

[pinefresh]

"Thanks..." Pine whispered to the girl. Now that he looked at her she was quite tiny. She looked like something he could pick up and put in his pocket to carry around. Such a thought put a small smile on his face, if he wasn't in class he might have laughed at the thought. She was short, seemingly tiny in the desk suggesting she was light as well. Her eyes looked kind of brown and so was her hair. She also dressed like a goth minus the million studs and piercings.

The whole look brought back fond memories of Ein and the gang. Though Ein had sewn lips which was pretty nasty and this girl didn't look nasty. In fact she looked like a scared little girl. Now that he thought about it, when she attempted to read there was nothing but stuttering. Either she had a really bad speech impediment or a lack of confidence. Pine was banking on the lack of confidence which was not good in high school. It also meant that should Pine want to have any sort of conversation he would be initiating and carrying it.

The fact was these kids were starting to piss him off and had this been Varron he would have silenced them forcefully. Then again had this been Varron his presence would have shut most of them up. There were a few perks to being champion of a Varron tournament and a higher up of one of Varron's toughest gangs. Pine hoped that he would not have to create a rep for himself here and that everything would go smoothly. Pine also had no idea who was walking through these halls and recognition could mean serious problems.

It was about here Pine realized that he had been staring at the girl for what seemed like a couple of minutes which was slightly embarrassing. Pine put his pen on his desk, shook his head, and extended his hand toward the girl that helped him in the usual greeting. Pine could feel his cheeks go slightly more rosy with his embarrassment.

"Er... Sorry about that. Where are my manners, the names Pine what's yours?" Pine whispered to her so the teacher who had her back turned to them would not hear.

[Rachel Dávill]

Rachel was mostly uninterested in other studnts, maybe it was because most other students were bastards, or maybe it was because she had not looked up for long enough to actually know anything about anyone. Excluding some of the more grotesque rumours, of which this boy did not meet the descriptions.

In any case, despite her usual isolation, she did find herself looking back at the boy a couple of times. She felt an instant connections in that he is also shorter than the norm, obviously not nearly on the same level as herself, but enough to warrent a convorsation. He was also quite built for his height, his thick neck and broad shoulders gave it away. He carried a few battle marks with him, some of which more noticeable than others, but nothing seemingly sinister.

Each time Rachels eyes dashed back and forth in te miniature glances she took, she could hardly ignore the fact that he did not turn away for a minute or two, which was just verging on the boarder of plain freaky. Rachel blushed. In reality his bizarre beaviour was quite complimentative, when seen in an optimistic sense, really he was probably just entranced by her genetic shortness.

When the boy finally realised he had been looking at her for some time, he instantly looked away and busied himself with his retrieved pen, while his face turned a light scarlet. Rachel giggled very quietly. She turned the page in her poetry book, in some vain attempt to look like she was doing something. The teacher seemed pretty oblivious to this boy and her's contact, since a lot worse distractions were occuring.

Rachel found herself drifting back to her work for a moment, before being taken from the experience by a rare greeting. "Hi..." she said nervously, wrapping her hand around the top of his fingers in a very French accent, "I'm Rachel...Rachel Dávill" the announciation of her surname made her ethnicity embarrasingly more obvious. She could hardly say another word, despite how much she tried. Her quite diverse accent made speaking quietly a difficulty.

[pinefresh]

"So the accent wasn't a figment of my imagination." Pine thought to himself as she spoke back to him. He knew it was french, it was the easiest accent for a Canadian to pick out. The only reason for that is simply because they had a whole province full of them. It also helped that Aarondale had a francophone wing where not a single soul spoke more than a few words of English at a time.

"Tu es Quebequois???" He asked her as he lightly shook her hand. Usually Pine was more of the firm shaking type, but he was afraid he might break this tiny girl if he shook with any real strength. Hopefully the use of a more familiar language might make her less nervous. Perhaps he could even get her to start talking normally to him and hopefully not in fluent french. In fact, Pine had just used almost his entire french vocabulary in that three word sentence. Should she actually start talking in french he would be completely lost and make an ass out of himself. Then again there are worse fates than looking stupid.

Pine retracted his hand from the shake so should the teacher turn around she would not notice what was going on behind her. Luckily for at least the next little while she seemed focused on whatever she was writing on the board.

[Rachel Dávill]

Their hands shook lightly, in a nice, relaxing, French traditional way. It made Rachel feel a little more safe, a little more open, maybe on the level of being able to speak, but one thing at a time. Her nerves were cooled more with his chosen dialect. She smiled and blushed a little at his good nature, and his attempt to make her feel more comfortable. She assumed that was his intention. She spoke back in English, his tone seemed a little shakey, so she guessed he was not fluent or anything, but he was so sweet for trying.

"No, i was born in France." Rachel replied, her slight increase in volume really exaggerating her accent, "A little ville in the South." She finished, peering back to the front of the class a couple of times, just to not arrouse suspision. "You must be from Canada, no?" She smiled at him. She thought she picked up a little accent, but to her it sounded pretty similar to the Americans.

[pinefresh]

~France, that explains why her accent doesn't sound so...dirty.~

It was no secret that Canadian French was not considered to be French. Compared to real French it sounded very rough and unappealing. The excuse for this Pine learned in school was that there was so much melding of the French with the other languages that it just stopped being French. Pine learned French from an actual French teacher who spoke pure French which was why his was understandable. He guessed it could not have been that good if she was speaking to him in English. Personally, this was better for Pine anyway, there was no way he could have held a conversation in French with her.

Pine lifted his book so it looked like he was reading, just in case the teacher turned around again. With his eyes on the book he continued to talk to Rachel.

"I am Canadian, born, raised, and trained. I spent a year in New York and now I'm here to continue with school." He said looking at her through his peripheral vision. "A little town in France eh? That must have been nice. I have always wanted to go visit Europe but never had the time to do so. So how long have you been at Hircine?'

[Rachel Dávill]

ooc: It's been a hell of a while ;P, sorry!!

"Not long..." She whispered back, mimicking Pine's idea and lifting her book. "A couple of months if that." She could not deny the fact the was exaggerating her accent a little. She enjoyed the attention of someone who actually appreciated it, rather than denounced it. she kept it subtle though.

She pondered over Pine's use of 'trained'. He must have been one of the fighters in this school. Rachel had never been a fan of fighting, but because of that she felt vulnerable, and unsafe in a place credited for it's history of student violence. It would be nice to have someone who knew what they were doing around, just to make her feel a little safer. She had not been seriously injured yet, but she had been in a few scraps.

"I miss France...Europe as a whole. If you get there before me, i shall not be best pleased." She said, smiling at him.