It felt strange being back in the mansion, and yet it also still felt like home. Part of her was happy to be back in a mostly familiar place. Granted there were new faces, but she knew that happened here. She would just have to meet them one at a time and see how things went. She hoped the new people were nice. Of course they would be nice. They live here.

One night in a bored state of mind Victoria decided to relax on one of the couched in the living room and watch a movie or three. She flipped through the channels until she found something that kept her attention. It was a movie about aliens attacking Earth and after that was going to be a zombie movie.

She set down the remote and curled up in a blanket and watched intently.

Waking up covered in sweat and shaking in the middle of winter was not a fun thing at all. Emily tossed and turned in her covers for a while before deciding that this evening, with this headache she was not getting anymore sleep.  She pulled on a sleeveless vest and some long pjama bottoms and stifled a yawn. She reached for painkillers she kept in her night stand and probably took one or two more than she should have done. 

The brunette fished out a silver flask of a drink she probably shouldn't have had access to and slipped it into her pocket, pulled a book out and went to find the lounge to try to relax and read or something. She passed one or two areas with a few students crowded. The mansion was way way busier than most boarding schools at this hour. There seemed to be quite a few students that were nocturnal, mostly she hoped like herself it wasn't entirely by choice. 

She entered one of the living rooms and glanced around, only seeing one other student, a blonde. She didn't greet the other girl, she simply slumped into a single seater sofa and watched the T.V for a few moments. 

Roughly forty minutes had passed when someone else joined Victoria in the living room area. Another girl, who looked to be about the same age. She didn’t say anything, and Victoria didn’t want to just start talking. Maybe the other girl just wanted to watch the movie, so she waited for a commercial.

An ad about insomnia came on. What a great ice breaker! “Can’t sleep? You look like you want to and yet you’re awake. Are you ok?” Ok let the girl answer. Victoria looked the girl over as she waited to see if she would get a response or maybe an object thrown at her. Hopefully it would be the latter. “I’m Victoria by the way.”

Emily was flicking between the t.v and her book on occasion, doing her best to ignore the emotions in the building around her, and more importantly the feeling coming off of the person in the same room as her. She sighed as the commercial about insomnia came on. No her problem was not being awake too late, it was not staying up all night playing video games it was living in a mansion filled with a bunch of overly emotional teenagers.

She forced a smile onto her lips, folded the corner of her page over and turned to face the other girl in the room. Blonde, had to be at least near Emily in age? She was trying really really hard to ignore her power. "No, I could not."

She replied fairly flatly, but when the blonde introduced herself she suppressed a sigh. She supposed that manors didn't need to be forgotten. "Hello Victoria, I'm Emily." The British teen responded, with a little more enthusiasm than before.

The girl, Emily, didn’t seem too happy but then she just admitted to not being able to sleep. Most people who should be sleeping at this hour might also be cranky. Victoria accepted the response as it was and for the reason given. Though she did feel kind of bad for the girl. Not being able to sleep when your body needed too wasn’t exactly fun. Victoria being Victoria still tried to be on the more cheerful side. “I’m sorry to hear that. I’m always awake at night. Every night.” She twisted her nightly routine to sound as if she was trying to help the girl not feel as bad.

“It’s very nice to meet you Emily. I don’t get to meet very many people at night. May I ask where you are from?”

Yeah, Emily just couldn't push out emotions from those around her. It was so damned annoying, but at least the girl seemed to be fairly nice. She showed concern, which was a good sign. It wasn't anything like meeting Bailey, where she had no idea what he was feeling most of the time. Far less frustrating indeed.

The brunette smiled. "Me too these days." She admitted. Emily twirled a finger through her brunette locks whilst glancing over at Victoria. She hadn't made all that many friends at the mansion yet. Actually, she hadn't made any. She supposed trying with someone who seemed friendly and with similar night owl-issues was an okay way to do it.

She forced a smile onto her lips. "Reading, in the UK." She had lived in the US a little before that, but hey. That's where she was born at least. "What about you Victoria?"

A continued conversation was usually a good sign. Sometimes it meant the other person was interested in either talking about a topic or maybe interested in the speaker. Other times it meant they were trying to be polite and not just shrug off others. Either way it was nice that Emily kept replying.

“It took me a little bit to make friends when I was here the first time. I haven’t seen any of them since I’ve been back, but I’m always open to making new friends.” Victoria grinned in a cheerful manner. “How long have you been here?” She stopped there as she didn’t want to overwhelm Emily with a ton of questions. Take it slow.

“Oh, that’s cool. I’ve seen lots of pictures from around the UK. Very pretty places. I came from Estonia. It’s not as well-known as the Uk or many other European countries, but it’s pretty also. I got here when I was 12.”

The other girl didn't seem too insistent or annoying, she looked to be around the same age group too. Emily supposed that she'd to for someone to chat with, most of the mansion's students got on her nerves but there were exceptions to everything. She tried for a more sincere smile in the face of Victoria. 

Emily nodded her head gently at Victoria. She could definitely emphasize with that, she hadn't really spoken to all that many students around the mansion. Sure, she had classes with some of them. And a few people chatted to her, a few guys even tried to hit on her. But she could tell what pretty much all of them were feeling so she generally didn't like them. Teenagers were nasty creatures.

"Erm, nearly a year now. Doesn't feel like very long though." She admitted.

Emily nodded. "I've heard of it, I think my dad went there on business trips once or twice, and I've moved around a little bit. I already lived in the US for a while before I moved to the mansion. You know, powers and all."

Victoria nodded in acknowledgment. Last time she was here it was less than a year before she left the mansion. Wasn’t it? She knew it wasn’t too long before she spent time away. There were people she called friends whom she had met at the mansion though. Where were they now?

A pleasant smile spread over her face when Emily said she knew of Estonia. She was the first person who knew what Victoria was referring to even if she only heard of it. That still counted in Victoria’s book. “My dad went on business trips sometimes also. He’d usually bring back little gifts for my mother and I.”

Emily’s mentioning of powers made Victoria withdraw some. She always hated when this part came up. At the same time, she was curious as to what other people had or could do. She remembered Sam could control ice and Serena could control blood. She missed Serena. “Do you mind if I ask what kind of powers you have?”

Emily let out a very quiet, sigh of complete exasperation and frustration. She really really really wished that if one thing was different about her power, it was an off switch. She picked up on the quiet reflective and contemplative mix of emotions going on in the other girl. Emily wasn't quite sure what was causing it though. She could generally guess, but people's thoughts were more complex than their emotions by a country mile. Emotions were primal and driven, simple and obvious. 

It could well have been thoughts of home, or other people she'd met on nights like this one, or even the movie they'd been kind of watching reminded her of something. It was again, very hard to discern. She sighed again, quietly.

She smiled slightly at memories of her dad. "My dad used to bring back wine for my mum, then while she was getting plastered go out to the store, and come back with a new game for us to play while Mum slept it off." She mused thoughtfully. 

She grimaced. Emily didn't like talking about her power. She wasn't ashamed, but people didn't react to empathy all that favourably, and she didn't just have to deal with sodden expressions, she had to deal with the judgmental emotions. "A pain in the ass." She replied, pronouncing ass with the distinctive English twist, coming out more like 'Arse' 

Listening to Emily’s memory of her dad’s trips sounded a bit unsettling. Victoria was a little sad that the girls mum would rather drink her night away than spend time with her family. She had to remind herself that every family was different. She was at least happy that her dad spent time with Emily.

One little sentence pretty much summed up the answer to the question of powers. “I know what you mean.” She imagined either of them might feel differently if they had different abilities. Maybe things that could help people somehow. Make trees grow or make it rain where it’s needed. But no, in Victoria’s case she could only help herself and harm others. What good was that?

Emily smiled over at Victoria. She could tell that she wasn't going to pry and thankfully she didn't. It felt faintly voyeuristic feeling emotions of those who didn't know it was happening, but at the same time Emily could just as well go without the reactions that went along with them going. When people freaked out and complained about the invasion of privacy.

Huh. She had a power of at least the same level of inconvenience as Emily's. Interesting. She titled her head at the other girl and smiled. She seemed so sweet, why was it that the nicer students seemed to end up with the nastier powers.

Emily glanced back at the T.V, keeping quiet and not commenting on Victoria's agreement. She should probably avoid conversation about mutations. For now, at least. If she got to know the girl a little better maybe...

"So what kind of movies do you like? I hope this one isn't scary for you." Victoria pointed at the TV and the zombie movie currently playing. She hoped Emily was ok with it otherwise she'd switch the channel to something else. She didn't want to scare off someone she just met. Then again, maybe the girl didn't scare easily.

Emily chuckled at Victoria's comment, She didn't think a Zombie movie had so much as caused more than a jump or two since the first time she'd ever watched Rec. Now that had been a damn good Horror movie. She just thought that the British and American's didn't understand the genre anymore, she only ever seemed to get kicks out of weird independent and foreign horror films where the genre was concerned. 

Emily watched quite a lot of movies come to think of it, she used morally dubious means for a lot of it but whatever. She could afford it, she was just a brat that way. 

"Nah, this is fine. I don't scare very easily." Which was technically the truth, she freaked out a bit at horror movies, but that was more the heavy and oppressive emotional atmosphere. 

Well, that was good to hear. At least it was a movie they could watch easily together. “So, what kinds of movies do you like? I like different things such as stuff like this or movies about the creatures of the night like vampires and werewolves, action is always good too and I like some suspense/drama movies.”

Getting in a more comfortable position she half watched the movie and half listened for anything Emily might say. She was liking the girl and hoped they could keep talking and maybe become friends at some point. Victoria loved having friends, but she didn’t have many right now.