Kate took a deep breath as she walked through the large doors of the mansion the cold air burning her lungs as the heat engulfed her body. She smiled fondly thinking of how warm and inviting this place had always been for her and so many others. In the past year she had visited it once a week for Jude’s lessons but she had never taken the time to visit it. She had become so consumed with her schoolwork and practice and career. She was beginning for form a new life but was losing the one she didn't want to leave behind.

She moved into the building, letting the door close behind her. She loosed her scarf and unbuttoned her thick jacket. It was freezing out and this meant layers upon layers for the tiny girl. She hated this time of year and often felt that she should have moved to Florida. Yet she was still here even though it was 15 degrees outside. She hung her jacket on one of the hooks near the door meant for guests. It was odd to think of herself as a guest here. It had been her home for a long time and even now was more of a home then the one she grew up in and owned. Kirby hall was just as big but far more empty.

Kate stood wondering who was actually here. She really had no way of knowing which direction to go in. For all she knew all the people she loved and cared about weren't even here.

COOOOOOLD-outside. Serena was rather happy being under her bed covers completely warm and toasty. She was sitting with her laptop and biology work which she needed to have done by the end of the following week.

However eventually she decided that she should brave the slightly less warm outside! Meaning hallways, because Serena was NOT stepping outside today without a damn good reason. However, she did make up her mind that she needed to go and get herself a cup of tea, or SOMETHING before she fell asleep.

She got up and grabbed the hoodie from the chair at her desk, slipping it on over her sleeveless top. She was wearing a teal top, and matching hoodie, as well as a pair of skinny jeans. Serena turned the handle, and stepped out into the open hallway, and immediately began striding in way of the kitchen.

Serena turned the corner, if she carried on like this she would reach the kitchen and therefore caffeine in about 2- THUD!

She had collided with someone. Serena had managed to land on the floor. She was embarrassed, as reflected by the colouring of the naturally pale girl's face. She had knocked into another blonde girl, who was actually smaller than Serena... "Sorry! I should have been watching where I was going!" the British girl apologised, hoping she hadn't annoyed the other girl.

Kate wondered towards the music room to try and check on the tuning of the piano first. It had sounded a little off the last time she was here and she wanted to get it fixed before her next lesson with Jude.

She rounded a corner only to be met face to face with another blonde girl. Kate fell back into the corner as they collided and the girl fell to the floor. She looked very concerned but tried her best to smile reassuringly offering her hand to the girl not really thinking about how hot her skin currently was.

>>>>Sorry! I should have been watching where I was going!

Kate’s smile faded hearing the accent. She had actually never met another Brit within the mansion walls, “That is quiet alright. I wasn’t paying a huge amount of attention to where I was going ‘ither.” Her words were kind and soft as she tried to make the girl feel as comfortable as possible. “I’m Kate it is very nice to meet you. It isn’t often I meet people from my own country.” She stood waiting for a response and hoping that she wasn’t holding the girl up in whatever it was she was doing. Kate had the rest of the afternoon off so she had all the time in the world.

Serena's face was a bright shade of red. She wasn't normally this... dopey. Serena accepted the hand that was offered to her. The woman was very friendly... and warm, not just metaphorically, she was warm. And it looked like she had just came in from outside... Strange.

Serena gave an enchanting smile at the other girls comment. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Kate. I'm Serena." she added with a smile. She still felt a little embarrassed. "Again, Sorry about that. I'm normally a little more coherent than that."

She shook of the embarrassment again. And smiled more. "I agree though, it's nice to meet other people from England. It doesn't seem to happen too often around here." as she finished speaking, a small part of her mind added "And at least one third of them will betray you and break you." She gave the voice mental daggers.

Kate smiled at the woman trying to let her know that it was really okay. “Are you one of the students?” Of course she was one of the students that was a silly question. Why was Kate being so awkward all of a sudden. She is always so good in social situations, but she had been taken so off guard by the other brit she wasn’t sure what to do really. “Oh that is silly of course you are a student. I haven’t lived here in so long that I just don’t recognize faces anymore.”

Kate’s mind raced a bit as she thought about it. It had been almost 1 and a half years since she had been a mansion resident. She wondered who had the pleasure of her room. She hoped the treated it with respect and she hoped that it was helping with their mutation too.

For a second Serena hesistated to respond to Kate. She had been at the mansion for quite a long time, but she hadn't actually been a student for all that long. She had only started taking formal classes at the school in the last couple of months.

They had given her time to grieve for her dead brother, and then she had spent time doing independent study and catch up for the work she had missed through that year in time for her exams. She had still actually performed very well in them, which was a good thing especially all things considered.

>>“Oh that is silly of course you are a student. I haven’t lived here in so long that I just don’t recognize faces anymore.”

She smiled and nodded in response to Kate. "That's quite alright, To be fair I have only been a formal student for a couple of months, I have been at the mansion for around a year though."

Serena was curious as to what Kate was doing at the mansion though, if she wasn't a student, and she also didn't recognise her as any of the staff. "So, if you don't mind me asking, were you a student here previously?" The young blonde inquired with a smile.

>>>>>That's quite alright, To be fair I have only been a formal student for a couple of months, I have been at the mansion for around a year though.

Kate tried to focus in and remember the girls face but couldn’t. She must have come as Kate left. They had passed in the night and never met. Good thing they were meeting now. Kate would never know all the students anymore but she liked to know some of them if she could. Maybe she could get information out of them on the one she was here to see if she was lucky.

>>>>>So, if you don't mind me asking, were you a student here previously?

Kate laughed at the question not even thinking about the fact that the girl was probably wondering about her just as much as she was wondering about the student. “I was once, but I started to college about 2 and a half years ago and moved out shortly after. I come back to visit my friends who still live here and to teach piano.” She really only had one piano student but she was still coming to teach. This place was a big part of her and she would never really stop coming here. In a way none of it’s students would.

Serena smiled sweetly at the woman. "That would be why I've never seen you before then, I only moved in about 12 months ago, as I mentioned earlier." The other blonde girl was pretty, or so Serena thought.

Teaching Piano? Serena had always wondered what it would be like to be able to master or play an instrument in any capacity.

A thought then crossed her mind. People who were heavily art orientated and had never had much talent with writing, or things like poetry, probably often wandered what things were like for her. She giggled.

"From my experience here, I take it that the students here probably on the whole provide for more lively pupils than those elsewhere."

Kate chuckled at the comment. The only other students of piano she really knew where the ones that were back at Julliard and those were her peers. They were also all paraprofessionals. They were studying to play piano for a living and therefore would more than likely take it far more serious than some student learning it to learn.

Her mind drifted for a moment to Jude. She wished he would take it that seriously. However she knew he never would. He didn’t see it as practical to play piano for anything more than his required grade. Maybe someday she would get through him. She won’t give in to him though.

Kate was lost for a moment but pulled herself back. “I wouldn’t really know. Jude is my only student. I suppose I could take on others if they wanted to learn but he is the only one that has ever asked.” She shrugged not really having ever thought about it before.

Serena smiled and giggled lightly. "Yes, I imagine that a limited number of students would make it difficult to tell." She wondered if the other girl would like to warm up after being out in the cold.

Serena could certainly do with grabbing a cup of tea herself. She suspected that the other girl could at least go for a cup of coffee, or possibly hot chocolate? The only way to determine would be to ask her.

"If you're not too busy, would you like to join me for a cup of tea? It might be nice to sit down if you want to carry on chatting. " she gave the older blonde a a warm smile.

She wandered if Kate had genuinely stopped to chat, or if she was just making conversation before going somewhere. She seemed rather pleasant, so Serena found herself hoping it was the former.

Kate chuckled back at the girl. She had only known this girl for a few moments and she could already tell she liked her. She was sweet and funny and British. Kate kept finding herself smiling and it was nice.

It was as if the girl had read her mind about warming up with some tea. A smile grew on Kate’s face as she thought about getting to use her china tea set with someone that might actually appreciate drinking from it. Someone who actually may understand the difference of drinking from something like it in comparison to plain old ceramic mugs. “I would love to join you. I could use some warming up honestly and the company seems nice enough.” Kate gestured for the girl to lead the way as she followed her to the kitchen.

“If you wouldn't mind terribly I would like to make the tea myself. I am a bit particular about it being just so.” Kate had almost wanted to say nothing about it but she knew that if the tea wasn’t hot enough it would seem cold to her and she would not enjoy it. She had gotten used to a lot more things at cooler temperatures over the years but the one thing that she could never seem to shake was the need for things that went into her body to be at boiling temperatures.

The blonde laughed gently at the older blonde's comment. "That is absolutely fine. I understand some people are quite particular about how they like to have their tea prepared." She smiled warmly.

Her older brother had always prepared tea with wayyyy too much hot water, always just a splash of milk, as if the only thing he was trying to accomplish was to give it a colour. It had always gotten on Serena's nerves, thankfully she was better at waking up first so most mornings out of the week, she got to make it how she liked it, rather than being subjected to his strange tastes.

She led the way into the kitchens and gestured at the cupboard which had the tea held in it. The coffee had actually been moved over to the right, as Serena had added to the selection rather a lot recently, so now instead of just 2-3 flavours, the cupboard's selection was more akin to 20.

She smirked as she moved to open the cupboard which held the tea pots and mugs. "Choose whatever flavour you like, I like almost all of those, so I'm not picky."

As soon as they entered the room Kate got to work. She filled the kettle with water and placed in onto the stove turning it up as high as the burner would go watching the blue flame as it ignited with interest. She may have hated her powers at times but thye were still her powers. She was still part fire and therefore seeing it always seemed ot warm her insides a bit. It was as if any flame around her spoke to her own internal flame and brought joy to the angry beast. She focused for a second and the flame grew causing her to smile.

Kate turned to the other girl glancing at the cabinet for a moment before choose to instead go to the cupboard. She opened the double doors and bent over to glance at a shelf about half way down. In the back of this shelf there was a large wooden box about 10 inches by 15 inches. It was funny how it was exactly where she left it as if no one had pulled it out to look at it at all. She reached in her hands and carefully pulled it out not wanting to tip it over. Moving over to the counter she placed it down and pulled it open revealing a number of bags full of loose leaf tea. “It isn’t really meant for tea but I find it works rather well. In all honesty I am not sure what it was originally used for.” She had found it at a thrift store years ago and never really asked it’s intended purpose.

She thought for a moment running her hand over the bags before changing her mind and moving over to the cabinet right next to the cupboard. She pulled up a step stool that was intended for the shorter students and reached up to the top shelf pulling out a teapot and 2 teacups with saucers. She placed them down on the counter and moved back to the box pulling out a tea infuser and a bag of Indian Black Tea. She pulled some out and put it into the infuser and as if on cue the kettle began to whistle. She let it go for a few more seconds wanting it extra hot before he pulled it off and poured the water into the pot with the infuser.

“I hope you don’t mind I wanted to use my own. I ran out of this tea at home and have been craving it.” She first moved the two cups to the table and then the pot which still needed a few moments to steep. She placed her hands on either side of the hot ceramic and focused trying to keep the temperature from cooling even slightly as they waited.

Serena gave a gentle giggle upon seeing the box which Kate had been referring to. It was an interesting method of keeping ones tea contained, some people just left them in the packaging they came in, or tossed them in bland metal jars. It reminded Serena of how her and her older brother Jake had kept theirs.

"Well, It's certainly non-traditional, but I think it has it's own charm. Me and my brother used to use home made jars, I believe we actually made them in a pottery class which we attended together, the wooden box certainly is cute though." She rambled.

She shook her head in response to Kate's comment. "No, I do not mind in the slightest, I do enjoy trying different brews and blends, although around here there isn't usually a huge amount of variety, apart from when I can peel myself away from my books to go to the tea shop in the city." She chuckled.