Abbigail held onto Aunt Teresa's hand as they got out of the car. The place in front of them was frighteningly large. The young girl wasn't sure how she felt about that fact. She was probably going to get lost, that was for sure.

"Why don't you go look around? I'm going to see if I can find someone."

Abby wanted to stay near her Aunt, but she stopped. If she was going to be living in this school, she wouldn't be able to cling to her Aunt and Uncle, who wasn't able to make the little viewing. As she watched Aunt Teresa left, Abby looked around the area. She didn't know anyone and she probably wasn't going to after one day.

With her head down, the blonde walked to a seat and sat down. Her mind made up that she would wait for Aunt Teresa to come back for her.

Chase wasn’t generally the “outreach” sort. Sure, he had an interest in other people, but that didn’t mean he wanted to talk to them—new people, in particular. New people interested him, but new people were scary. The child occupied a small corner of the floor in the foyer, a basket of Lego’s to his side, and a small handful of them out in front of him. There was a small rectangle in front of him, which was open in the middle of the longest side. It was going to be a Lego house, for the Lego people that were buried somewhere in the bottom of the basket.

An older lady and a girl walked in, and after quiet conversation (which the boy did not pay much heed to), the girl meandered to a bench to sit, her head pointed towards her lap. She looked pretty normal. The shapeshifters’ eyes swam with golden curiosity, but the child didn’t dare approach. You weren’t supposed to talk to people you didn't know.

After a few moments spent in relative silence, Abbigail looked around the room again. This time around, she spotted a blond person sitting in the corner. They looked to be around her age, though she wasn't sure. Another glance around showed that nothing had changed besides the other kid being in the room. She figured they had to have been in the room before she and her Aunt arrived, since she hadn't heard them enter.

Abbigail stood from her place on the bench slowly. She wasn't too sure if she wanted to talk today, but making a friend was a good idea if she was going to stay at the school. With a big intake of air, the small girl started walking towards the other child.

"Um, hello," Abby greeted softly. her voice just above a whisper. Her hands held some of the extra fabric of her skirt, a nervous habit of hers.

Chase looked up hesitantly, through his lashes, at the girl. His eyes followed her as she strolled closer, her hands knotting themselves in her skirt. She offered a shy greeting.

“Hi,” Chase answered back, his voice trailing with a similar hesitance. He looked at her shamelessly, “I’m Chase. I am ten. What is your name?”

He was mainly being polite, but he did not stop fussing with his Legos while he spoke.

“Why do you have boy hair?” his voice was genuinely intrigued, and by no means cruel in intonation. Her hair was short, and Chase hadn’t seen many (well, any) short-haired girls. It was unfamiliar, which prompted questions.

>>“Hi, I’m Chase. I am ten. What is your name?”

Abby let out a soft breath in relief. The other kid, Chase, was talking to her. That was one obsticale down.

"I'm Abby and I'm nine," she answered a little louder than before.

She watched as Chase kept playing with his Legos. She wasn't sure what to do now though. Should she sit down and play with him? Or would he get angry at her? Did she go back to the bench? Or was that rude?

>>“Why do you have boy hair?”

The questions caused Abby to reach for her hair. It was rather short. She fingered one of the blonde strands near her ear. She had cut it after the accident happened. It had been tangled beyond repair and too much of a hassle for the nine year-old.

"It got in the way," she explained simply. "What are you doing?"

Chase watched the girl closely, awaiting her answer, and judging her based on any answer that was to come. Her name was Abby, and she was nine years old. A little younger than him. She had short hair because long hair got in the way. Those responses would do.

“Legos,” Chase said plaintively, “You can play, if you want. I’m making a skyscraper.”

Said skyscraper was about 16 x 16 units of multicolored blocks, complete with a doorway on one side. It was still in the beginning stages, and therefore, not really tall.

“Are you going to go to school here?” the young boy asked, “Are you a mutant?”

>>“Legos. You can play, if you want. I’m making a skyscraper.”

Abby nodded as she moved to sit down. Legos were a little obvious for what he was doing. However, it was nice to know what Chase was trying to make. The multicolored base wasn't very tall to the nine year old, but she figured he had just started.

>>“Are you going to go to school here? Are you a mutant?”

Abby blinked at the questions. 'Is it common for normal people to go to school here?' she wondered silently.

"I hope to," she stated softly as she picked up a few pieces of Legos. "Aunt Teresa says this place would help me with controlling my gifts. Do you have gifts too?"

The wording Abby chose were the ones that her fisherman friend used when he talked to her. "Gifted" is what he called her. However, her uncle explained to her that other people use different words than what she and the fisherman used.

Chase hummed and nodded as he built, carefully working around where Abby was working.

"Yeah, I am," the little boy replied, "I can look like other people."

His round eyes lifted towards Abby, "I could look like you, if I wanted."

He quirked a smile. If she asked nicely, Chase might just show her.

"What about you?"

>>"Yeah, I am. I can look like other people. I could look like you, if I wanted."

Abby froze as she watched Chase. She had never seen someone look like her. It seemed like a cool gift.

"Wow," she gasped.

>>"What about you?"

"I'm a mermaid," she answered. It was the easiest way to explain what she could do. It's also what Aunt Teresa called her. "But only in water and it really hurts. Is there something special that makes you turn into people?"