Ophelia spread out her drawings and materials over a couple of tables. She had decided to spend the afternoon away from the others and get back to something she really enjoyed, designing clothes. The school was still foreign to her, and she spent most of her time alienated, if not jealous, by those who displayed more fasinating mutations.

She had decided go for a dress, pink, obviously as that was her favourite colour and short, to show of her legs.

She started to hum to herself muttering a few words here and there as the graphite of her pencil hit the paper and she drifted off in her own little world...

Max had grown restless over the past few days since his arrival to the mansion. It seemed that everything worked out perfectly for his being able to stay at the institute and receive an education. For that he was grateful. Normally he would be excited for a few days of not working, and he had been. But after those first few days he became anxious, as if waiting for something to happen but he wasn’t sure what. Max had gone running on most mornings on the grounds just to get some exercise and blow off some steam but the treatment was becoming less effective.

The mutant finally decided to go make something from wood. Perhaps this school had workshop he could use somewhere? The building certainly had enough space to hold one. Max wasn’t quite sure what he had wanted to make though. He still wanted to find out if there was a workshop on the campus so he set out from his room wandering around.

The mansion was becoming more familiar to Max with every passing day. There were still times he got lost and asked for directions but he was finally getting the hang of it. Max supposed the workshop would be near where the classrooms were located so he decided to check there first.

While walking down the hallway, Max heard what sounded like a voice. There was a feminine, melodic quality to it he realized as he continued down the hallway. There were no words just a light sound, as if the source was humming a tune. He found himself wanting to know where the source of this voice was hiding. Max decided finding the origin of the voice was more important than what he had originally come for.

Max looked to his left and stepped closer to the classroom door from which the voice was traveling from. He knocked at the door a couple of times. Max silently laughed at his actions. Who knocks on a classroom door? He had the feeling that the source of the voice way not want to be disturbed, hence the knock he supposed. Shaking his head at himself he opened the door and poked his head inside to better ascertain the source of the voice.

Inside was a young woman, somewhere around the age of 18, staring intensely at a sketchbook apparently drawing something that Max couldn’t see. This girl was the source of the humming he had heard in the hallway. Not knowing if the young woman had heard him open the door, he cleared his throat and said, “Your voice sounds very beautiful.”

Ophelia stopped humming and turned around abruptly. She smiled at the sight of the boy. "Thank you" she said, not adding that that was her mutation, "I'm Ophelia by the way..."

"Thank you" she said. "I'm Ophelia by the way..."

Max stepped into the room and crossed the intervening space between them heading towards the girl to greet her properly. “I’m Max,” he said while offering his hand. “I’m new here, and I was looking around for a workshop when I heard your voice in the hall.”

Max let his eyes wander to her sketchpad. He was genuinely curious about what she had been drawing. The image wasn’t something that Max could make out yet. Perhaps she had just started when he interrupted her. “Is this for a class or something you do for fun?” Max said referring to the sketch while smiling shyly. He was always did that when he met new people.

Ophelia smiled showing him her perfect white teeth, curtisy of her parents and there connections. She liked this guy already. He looked older, but not by much..

and by god was he hot!

She battered her eyelids and blushed slightly as he peered over her work. "No, it's just a pass time, I haven't started any lessons yet, I'm sort of new here." she thumbed the pencil and looked around at the paper and bits of materials. "Fashion, I'm not the most academic type." she grinned at him.

Max just kept on smiling as Ophelia continued speaking. She was a pretty girl, there was no doubt about that. She had a very nice smile as well. She seemed to excel at the eyelashes and blush routine that Max had seen quite a lot of over his time as a bouncer at a small bar.

So she liked fashion huh? Max has always been more of a function over fashion type of guy but people like what they like. That’s what makes everyone different. In Max’s opinion girl’s more often than not liked to downplay how smart they actually were. He wasn’t sure why that was but it was his observation.

“Oh, so we’re both new here. That’s good. You’re not originally from the U.S. are you?” Max asked. He had heard a tinge of a British accent as she began speaking. “So what brought you across the pond? I mean, don’t they have schools like this over there?” he asked, genuinely curious.

"Oh, you're a newbie too!" she said. "Have you had the tour yet? I haven't but this girl called Gina said she'd get me one, maybe you could come with." She smiled at her own enthusiasm. She had never been in a school environment before so this was very exciting for her, even though she really only had haf a year left in education.

"Is it really that obvious?" she smiled as her mentioned her accent, "My parents moved here form England a few years ago, they own a plastic surgeory over here." she bit her lip. Usually when she told people that she was treated as the little spoilt rich kid. She was, but they didn't have to know.

"so, what can you do?" It was a question that not meny people asked in this place. It was odd really, she had never met people like her before so was curious at what people's mutations were.

“No, I haven’t had the tour yet. Yes, that sounds like it would be fun,” said Max. Taking a tour would allow him to find all the interesting spots in the mansion that he would have missed otherwise.

Max continued to nod and listen as Ophelia talked. Plastic surgeons more often than not led very lucrative practices. Money didn’t mean much to him though. He had gotten by enough to know that you didn’t need a lot of it to live a life worth living.

“Um,” he hesitated. It’s not that Max was ashamed of his powers but he was more comfortable with the fact that other people didn’t know. “I’m extra dense.” He said without thinking. Hadn’t he heard that was slang for stupid in Britain? Maybe not. “And I’ve got some above average strength to go with it,” said Max humbly. He had never truly tested his limits yet. It was better for him to go with the half-truth answer than have people learn everything about him at once.

“So what’s your special talent? Besides your fashion sense I mean.”

Ophelia snickered. "Haha! I'm extra dense too!" she raised her eyebrows, "though probably not in the same way... so you have a proper mans power?"

Super strength, that would come in handy in a tight spot. She wondered whether anyone had approached him yet. She had heard of mutants being recruited for different-what was the word-gangs.

"You've already seen, well heard my power, that's why you're here." she said smiling. It felt good to show off. "I sing."

Judging from Ophelia’s reaction his assumption had been right. Oh well, it wasn’t the first time he had played the fool in front of a woman, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Max chuckled at her remark, “Yes, I suppose I do.”

“Oh,” said Max in surprise. He had wondered what drew him to the room. It had to have been more than simple curiosity. If the girl could draw people in with just a simple hum then what could she do with her full-fledged voice?

"So what do you do for fun around here?" asked Max. He had starting to become bored since his arrival and wanted a task to perform or something to distract him until the fall term would begin.

((sorry for the late reply!))

She laughed nad then sighed. "There isn't anything to do around here, I'm so bored!" she said matter of factly. "I don't really know what I was expecting but I thought it would be a little more than..." she looked around the room, "this. If you have any ideas please tell me." she said almost desperately. The fact was that she had been waiting and wishing for something to happen, anything. She even thought that she may have to go and fight like the rumours you heard around the grounds. But that didn't happen. She looked at the guy in the doorway.