Lots of people were probably sad to see summer go. Back in Maine at least, Luke had been one of those people. Nowadays, the cooler days were a welcome arrival for him; being covered in fur made hot days an ordeal, and not being able to sweat seemed nice until you realized that humans did it for a reason. Instead, Luke had developed canine methods of cooling himself, but having his tongue out wasn't as cute as it was for actual dogs. People stared.

So while summer seemed far too short for some, but for him, every day was waaaay too long. Right now the weather was much more tolerable, so he was actually able to exist comfortably. Oh, and the shedding had stopped, which was another fun part of being a wolfman in hot weather. He'd given up on lint rollers after like 3 days.

Class and the (relatively few) students who left for summer were back in, and Luke was happy to see some familiar and new faces. Familiar, for example, like Skye, who had a special place in his friend circle for their first two interactions being horrible disasters. She'd been a tiny pixie at the King Con the first time, and after an ill-timed prank shortly after her arrival she'd used her flashbang on him. It was an accident but he was not excited to see (or hear) it again. She was pretty chill and they were into games and other nerdy stuff which was nice.

As for new people, a newcomer to the school was also new to the US, hailing from Israel apparently. Rivka was also quiet, but she had a cheekier side, and he was enjoying her company, especially her enthusiasm for American stuff. Her English was a little choppy, but it wasn't like Luke could speak a lick of Hebrew, so who was he to judge?

Therefore, it was a good day when it was early evening, right after dinner, playing Gachamon on a handheld battling Skye and hanging out with Rivka. Right now they were breaking from doing PvP while he was trying to advance in his permadeath run.

"Aaaaaah, why." Luke groaned melodramatically as red 'critical hit!' text flashed on the screen. He leaned back in the reclining chair, giving the ceiling a look of exasperation, ears drooping in simultaneous disappointment. "Hey, guess who wiped to Whitten, it was me." Whitten was the most infamous boss in this game, and Luke had thought he was in good shape to go at her. Apparently, nope.

He snapped the double screen handheld shut and sat up. The permadeath was self-imposed, but once he'd lost that, it really took away the motivation. Also this was like the second consecutive time he'd lost at this point, or fourth if you counted the runs where he beat her but lost too many good 'Mons and wiped later. "Meh, I'm burned out." Luke looked over at Skye, then turned to Rivka. Figuring she had no idea what was going on, he asked, "What've you been up to?" He didn't want to leave her out by going into weird game jargon, plus he figured giving her more chances to converse would help her learn faster.

Rivka brow furrowed in a look of confusion. "How you 'wipe' with Whitten? Is Fire type, no water, yes?" She didn't know that much about this particular game, truth be told. She was sort of a Star Worlds fan-fiction nerd. Well, and she'd done some romantic fan fiction too, but she would never, ever, admit to that, much less show it to anyone! It wasn't hard to get her to confess to her SW addiction though. 

Then he closed the game and said he was "burned out". She made a face, as she thought about that. Ah! They'd had something spicy at dinner, she had this one!
"Yes, dinner, it spicy. You want, I get acid?" she offered sweetly, trying to be helpful. Acid, antacid; whatever. Stuff you took when you ate something and it didn't agree with you. On the other hand, heaven only knew what she'd actually retrieve if she tried... 

The last one seemed a little odd as a piece of conversation, but Americans did have different customs. It was a slight puzzler too though, as she wasn't sure if Luke would understand kilos. She'd have to risk it; if he didn't, he could use his phone to get a conversion, she was sure. 
"Uh, at, ah, coming-in physical? Was forty-six point seven kilo. Am sorry, not sure what is pound" she told him honestly. She thought it was around a hundred, but couldn't be sure. 

She'd gotten used to the other question that mutants tended to ask as a... what was it called? An ice-crusher or something? That was 'what's your power?' She'd gotten over her initial fear of even admitting she was a mutant. That was safe here. Her power, well, that tended to produce giggles. But she was at least getting the hang of the things that American's said, and everyone had their boss to bear! She couldn't remember if Luke or someone else had said that one, but she was proud to have learned it so quickly. 

Skye didn't often socialize, but sometimes it was just needed. Besides, it seemed as though every time she ran into the-wolf boy(whom she later learned was named Luke), something bad happened. Maybe, just maybe, that was apt to change. She hoped. Besides, she found it may be useful to actually get to know some of the people she'd been sharing a roof with all this time. And so far, it was actually paying off, as noted by the smirk plastered on her face as she ran through her own post-game of Gachamon. She never did the permadeath or got all that competitive, she just liked collecting all of them, especially the color variations.

Rivka, Skye didn't know too much about. Though she learned quite quickly that everyday slang seemed beyond her, which was understandable considering.

"Oh, he means he just got his ass kicked--I mean, he just lost," she explained. "And now he's tired of that and is just wondering what you've been doing lately." Her voice was kind, and not condescending as she explained, sort of getting to know the both of them. She herself turned off her own game after saving, just relaxing.

Luke tried not to look too baffled by Rivka's responses. It was pretty obvious she had...missed the point of what he'd said. He'd been trying to piece it together for maybe a little too long when thankfully Skye stepped in and explained so he didn't need to figure it out.

"Yeah, Skye's right." He almost said that she's 'got the right of it', but that also seemed confusing. He set the handheld on the table so he didn't have to worry about dropping it or something, then stretching his arms over his head, groaning quietly as he loosened up his back.

"I was just wondering what you've been doing since you've been at the school." Ugh, Luke hoped he wasn't coming off as condescending. He really did want to be respectful, but communication barriers made it harder when he had to take a moment to reconsider his own word choice.

"That goes for you too, Skye. How's it going?" He grinned impishly. "Melt anyone's face today?" Unfair? Absolutely. He didn't really hold it against her, though, and his tone was completely unserious. He was just bustin' her balls, as it were.

Ooh, mental note; don't say that to Rivka. He didn't know where he'd begin to explain that one. Yikes.

"'Ass kicked' is 'Lost'. Hmm" Rivka said thoughtfully, obviously filing this way for some future occasion. 

"Oh! Teacher, they try help learn power" she replied with a smile. She spoke slow and deliberately to make sure her sentence was good grammatically, or at least recognizable. "Learn new way make bubble. Call Travel bubble; last long time. No move fast. Twenty, twenty five kilometers hour?" she explained. Teacher say, find friend, see if two fit bubble. She call, umm, umm... funny word. Giggy Pig?" the Israeli said, cocking her head to the side looking for verification if she'd gotten it right. It didn't sound quite right. "Say, find strong student when test" she concluded with a nod. They way they'd said it, she wasn't entirely sure if they meant that part, but it didn't seem like a bad suggestion. 

"How, umm... 'melt face'?" Rivka inquired, looking both curious and worried at the same time. Was it a joke, or literal? In a place like this, it was hard to tell. All the same, she smiled at both of them. She was getting to know them, and building new friendships. That made her happy. She'd overcome her shyness enough to try with these two, and that was pretty huge. She was still hiding from the majority of the student body. 

The playful tone of his voice did make her curious though, and there was a rather major cultural difference she wasn't used to just yet. Israeli's didn't hesitate to ask (or answer) personal questions. Had she known Luke a tad better, the answer to her question would have been obvious, and the question unnecessary. But, such was not the case just yet. 
"Skye, she is, how say? Friend?" she inquired of Luke, putting one of her hands into the other to indicate not just friend but girlfriend. It was just a natural, innocent question, at least where she came from. No beating around the bush and asking friends of friends!

Luke Benson  Skye Sinclaire

Skye tried not to giggle, because giggling was rude, right? "Well, losing a game is getting your ass kicked. If you can't find where you're going, or don't know you're lost as hell." At first she wondered was she teaching Rivka foul language, but compared to her uncle, this was nothing.

Skye's hair turned purple, matching lights flickering from her hands at Luke's question, and she shot him a half-joking glare before turning it into a smirk, the hair still giving away her embarrassment. "No...No one that didn't deserve it anyway..." she mumbled.

After that, she just sort of sat back in her seat, pulling her hood up over her head as the lights on her hands calmed to a steady flicker. It wasn't remotely a flashbang, but she was now self conscious about it. "Oh, it's just part of my power," she explained. "Lots of lights, and sometimes it's really bright and apparently does a num--I mean, it can mess people up sometimes."

This was kind of fun. More than losing at video games at least. Plus it was educational. Kind of. They were educating at least.

"Yeah 'ass kicked' is like, when you lose at something, or fail at it. It's like you get beaten up by whatever it is." Luke paused and considered something. "When someone says 'as hell' it's like, when it's worse than normal. Like when it's hot out, or it's hot as hell, which is worse."

Maybe that was a bad example. Luke wasn't sure Rivka would mind the slightly blasphemous turn of phrase, though he was pretty sure it probably wasn't a thing for her? "And yeah her power makes a big flash, also a real loud boom." He chuckled, wincing unconsciously at the memory. "I uh, don't deal loud noise well." He tilted his head and flicked his ear.

As for Skye and himself..."Uh, we're friends, yeah. We've had...some adventures. She got shrunk once, it wasn't funny at the time but..." He laughed once, then stopped. Rivka had said something about her power. He knew she made bubbles, which was kind of cool and also really adorable sounding. As to the 'travel bubble'...

"I'm pretty strong." He flexed dramatically, then giggled and sat back in the chair. "You wanna try it with me? Whatever it is?" If it was like, riding a bubble like a video game, that sounded fun as hell.

...Well, it sounded fun.

Rivka gave an expressive shrug and grin and told Skye "Am usually 'lost as hell' New York". It was true that she seemed to have a knack for winding up in the wrong place in the massive city. It didn't help that the locals seemed to suffer from selective deafness if you tried to ask for directions. "Hair, it nice. Very, ah... bountiful!" she told Skye, proud of finding the 'right' word - almost. She was very intrigued by Skye's power, given that she loved fireworks and was now curious if it was anything like that. 

Far from clarifying their relationship as 'just friends', Luke now had Rivka convinced that he and Skye were indeed an item. While she had envisioned having a boyfriend, she'd always pictured something, well, less fuzzy. Luke was sweet though, so she wasn't surprised that Skye found him attractive, as she found that attractive too. What she found difficult was that she found them both attractive. That bothered her, and she buried the feeling immediately, unwilling to deal with it, and pounced on Luke's offer. 

"Magniv!" she exclaimed, followed by "minute, minute..." as she dug a bottle of bubbles from her pocket. She blew several bubbles, which began to slowly float towards the floor. She was a little worried that the ceiling might be too low for this, and maybe that was what caused her to not quite have control of things. Maybe it was nerves, due to trying something new - or being nervous about other things too, or a combination of factors. The fact was, things didn't go as planned. She was worried about the bubble filling the room, that much was for sure, and suddenly, the 3 bubbles became 6. 6 became 12, 12 became 24, and they continued to double, the bubbles splitting multiple times per second, until all three of them were hip-deep in clear bubbles, very similar to a playground ball-pit. Other than being clear, they seemed about as tough as the colorful bubbles found in those pits as well!

Rivka looked very distressed, and said something in rapid-fire Hebrew, as the bubbles reached her naval, while spilling out the entryway and into the hall beyond. 


Luke Benson  Skye Sinclaire