The mansion was massive and he was lost again. No matter how many times he studied his surroundings and the path he took he’d always find himself in a new wing or a new hallway that almost didn’t seem to be there before. He recognized the hallways but the doors all seemed different. Sam was following his dog Bruno, one he had for a few years now. Bruno remembered him, Sam sadly did not and while he was fine walking out on people the dog seemed too precious to do that to.

”Bruno!” no answer. Sam turned the hallway and recognized some stairs because they were hard to miss. Without seeing his dog he decided to take a flight down into another hallway with a set of classrooms in the hallways. These at least had people in them. Some pretty crowded some more vacant. He could hear pencils scratching in one room and music in another.

If he were younger he probably would have enrolled. However he was in his opinion fairly educated. He could hot-wire a jet and navigate said jet with the stars and survive several assassination attempts while being in the woods for months at a time. He wasn’t sure what the place could teach him. They did have a library after all and languages were one of the only things he seemed concerned about. Everything else seemed not that crucial to learn.

Sam kept walking hoping to find the giant Saint Bernard, if he didn’t well he’d get hungry eventually and that dog is never late for dinner.

"Who's a good boy! Who'sagoodboy!"

Juniper loves animals. More than people, really. Animals either loved you or wanted to eat you, there was no in between. Animals couldn't make her feel terribly guilty about turning down a friend when asked to join his stupid school for gifted nerds.

Which she had ended up doing anyway, but still!

At least this strange, giant dog she had run into wasn't going to guilt her into anything.

She was stooped slightly and scratching the big canine behind the ears while absolutely babying the @#$& out of it. So far this had been the highlight of her trip to the school. Paper work sucked, and trying to ghost around without being potentially caught by Xavier sucked even more. She didn't want him catching on yet though. It was supposed to be a surprise.

She'd run into the dog out in the middle of a hallway while trying to figure out how to leave. She was sure if she tried exiting via running leap out a window every time someone would have complaints.

"Big doggy wanna lead me outside?" Her coddling was interrupted by the sound of footsteps. She panicked and tried to hide behind the dog until she could be sure it wasn't Adonis.

”And there is my new not best bud.” Sam said spotting the dog before he spotted the woman giving Bruno all the pets. What a lucky dog, instant attention where ever he wanted and no one tried to kill him. ”Yo, sorry if you aren’t a dog person.” Sam said smiling with a slight wave, ”I’m finding he doesn’t understand that people don’t like dogs.”

Sam formed a ball of ice which immediately grabbed Bruno’s attention away from the woman. Bruno sat as he was apparently taught to when there was a snowball, ice ball or any kind of ball about to be thrown. The ice doubled as a treat, which only made it look like the dog had a drooling problem as said ice melted after it was caught.

”You don’t know where we are in the mansion do you? I gather by the stairs and by some classrooms” Sam pointed to one then the other, ”I don’t think I’ve ever been this far back of the mansion before.” Sam said looking for some kind of map. ”I could just leave through a window but, “ Sam shrugged, ”Not to that point yet.”

Thank sweet baby Jesus it wasn't her giant lumbering neighbor. She popped back up a little and gave a sheepish little smile at being caught by a stranger with, apparently, his dog. "Nah, I don't mind. His big drooly face is too cute not to like." She smooshed his jowls in a little while his tails thumped happily away on the floor.

Ooh! Ice powers. That was pretty cool. Heh! pun. She watched as the giant canine thundered on over to the guy and his ice ball, attention firmly dislodged from her. She'd only gotten hit with a small spattering of drool, so all in all a good trade off for some doggy pats!

Standing and wiping away some of the said drool, she refocused on the guy as he asked her for direction. "Eh.." Scratching the back of her neck, she pondered how to inform him that she was also lost. He was barking up the wrong tree.

"About that. I was kinda just asking your dog for directions out of her myself?" She chuckled guiltily. "I'm new here, haven't even officially started yet, so I keep getting lost myself." It was actually pretty hilarious that he'd mentioned windows. Maybe she wouldn't get in trouble for that after all?

"I could probably just pop down to the bottom floor real quick, but i'm a bit nervous too. I'm trying to surprise someone with my admission here so I don't want him to see me." She could think of worse things than being lost in a hall with a hot dude and his dog, though. At least luck had thrown her a bone!

”What a coincidence, I’m pretty new here too. Kind of.” Sam didn’t want to elaborate on the kind of but was willing to if asked he just found it weird to mention he used to be thirty and lived here for years. He was no longer thirty and he clearly didn’t know where anything was here.

Sam already thought she was a pretty decent person, Bruno while he was large and sometimes super drooly was still pretty awesome and it seemed a good judge of character. ”You can talk to dogs?” Sam asked pretty impressed. ”What did he say? And does he have an accent?” Sam never had a dog… well he had a dog but this was still a relatively confusing time for him and he found himself wondering that every time he looked at Bruno.

”Boyfriend?” Sam asked, ”Must be a lucky guy, be a nice surprise I’m sure.” Sam then raised an eyebrow. ”I mean, stairs… not really doing anything other than being lost. I can play lookout if you need me to?” Sam offered. ”We can be lost together.” Sam said as he started to walk towards the stairs.

"Yep." She responded without missing a beat. "He said 'Woof woof' and I think it was a Cajun accent." She winked to show that she was kidding.

The guy brought up whether or not she was hiding from a boyfriend and she wrinkled her nose. "Oh, no. Noooo, no,no. He's just a buddy. Helped me get settled in the city." How the hell did she explain her reasoning for joining the school? It wasn't normal to just... hop into an education, was it? Was this a club now?

"Anyway.. Yeah, I'd sure appreciate another set of eyes. He's a comically tall blond with beady eyes and the overwhelming ability to be too nice." It was painful sometimes, seriously.

"I'd rather be lost with someone, than by myself." She followed him as a casual pace, with one hand on the banister. "Especially with a cutie like you."

With a chuckle at her joke, at least he was hoping a joke he looked to Bruno. He figured a deeper voice with a heavy Russian accent. Then again Sam couldn’t speak to animals. He could talk to them just have to guess what they were thinking. Some animals like Bruno were easy to read; Food, love, outside, play, and sleep. Wasn’t much more than that.
”best bud of few words then.”

”Nice huh?” Sam asked as he stared down the stairs. ”reoccurring theme here. Kinda nauseating, but I nice change of pace from the normal.” Sam said not really elaborating. He made it down the middle of the stairs and then waved her forward, ” Oh? Careful. I might start thinking you are talking to me instead of Bruno, no good for you.” Sam said with a smirk looking back and raising an eyebrow.

Clearing to the next floor down he looked about. No tall blondes with beady eyes. What even defined beady eyes Frosty the snowman like? Dead inside? Did old Sam have a beady eye? Sam stopped thinking about the description. ”What kind of classes you thinking of taking?” Sam asked curiously. ”Might start thinking of getting some more class if it means bumping into someone who enjoys getting lost.”

Bruno who was way ahead of them ran up and down the hallways waiting for the pair to catch up occasionally hopping and whining. Sam formed and tossed another ice-ball which vanished inside of the dogs mouth.

"Yep. Totally talking about the dog." She grinned, damn near purring at his jest.

He stopped to let her go first and she absently wondered if it was just so he could look at her butt, or if he had caught on that she was staring at his. Who knew? How exciting.

She hopped and skipped down the few remaining stairs once he said all was clear.

"I dunno. All the boring ones? I haven't looked over class catalog fully yet." She cringed every time she tried. It was going to seriously cut in on her one night stand time.

"I'm more of a bump and grind girl myself, but getting lost sounds pretty adventurous too."

She chuckled at the dogs antics, locking her fingers behind her head as she walked.

”Who says they are mutually exclusive.” Sam mirrored Juniper’s hands and locked them behind his head. ”Plenty of places we could do both.” she was forward, more forward than Sam. He found this both very entertaining and very awkward. Mainly because he wasn’t sure what to say when she said stuff like bump and grind his mind went straight to the gutter.

With the ice currently being chewed he removed his hands from behind his head and reached out to Juniper forming a ball of ice and offering it to her, ”I’m more of a learn by doing type of guy. Could never sit in a classroom long enough to learn anything.”

”You checked out the danger room at least right?” Sam asked his voice giving her an idea how great the place was.

Turning so that she could face him while walking backwards, Juniper grinned at his comment. "Sounds like my kinda fun! Where do I sign up?"

She accepted the ball of ice easily, palming it for a second to look at it, before rolling it to the back of her hand. "You're power is pretty neat." A little flick of the wrist had it rolling down her forearm a bit, and then a jerk of the elbow sent it up into the air. She caught it in the other hand as she turned away from him and to the very expectant large dog who was waiting for the next treat.

"You want that ball?! Who wants the ball?!" She held it up over her head, which, mind you, wasn't very far seeing as she was pretty dang short, but when the massive hound danced around a bit and launched at her for it, he just went right through her. She skipped forward a bit with a laugh as the confused dog turned around for another go. The second time she was merciful and tossed it to him.

Her attention shifted back to Sam. "The danger what now?" She was honestly confused. She hadn't been able to peek around much at all while avoiding Xavier. She wasn't sure what a 'danger room' was. "That a euphemism? I'm down."

She flipped back around and re-locked her fingers behind her head. "I'm Juniper, by the way!"

Sam was about to list potential rooms to get lost in but then stopped. She was way more forward than what he was used to. Was this the future? If so he’d have to play it cool, like his powers would instruct him.

Watching the ball of ice roll from the palm to the elbow and back to the hand Sam raised an eyebrow. She seemed to be enjoying herself playing with the big pooch, which was good. Bruno seemed to approve of the woman. ”Sam,” this time he offered her his hand for a shake. ”And yes, my power is pretty cool.” he smirked at the pun. No matter what age he was he’d still find ice related jokes funny.

”Danger room is a room in the basement for training powers, massive dome, light projections life like danger without any of the killings.” Sam summed it up. Danger was what it meant. Then again if he could make anything… did he use the danger room like that before? He must have. Maybe there was recordings of it, if he was smart he would have deleted them. ”Favorite room actually I don’t have to worry about covering everything in snow.”

Sam slowed his pace when he started to realize where he was. His gaze stopped to his name next to the door. Apparently he still had a nameplate up. ”So what can you do?” Sam asked about the powers before looking one side of the hallway to the other. He opened the door and looked in.

Sam. Now she had a name for the face. Juniper turned back to him and spied the offered hand. She took it easily, giving a little shake. He was taller than her, no surprise nearly everyone was, but he was much taller. She'd been running into a lot of really massive people lately. She withdrew her hand when he started talking about what the danger room was.

Interesting! Also, sounded completely terrifying! Why would they have such a thing in a school full of kids?

Actually, never mind. It actually made a heck of a lot of sense to have something children with newly blossoming powers to have somewhere safe for them to destroy things while learning to use it. She could envision Xavier in there going crazy with his power. Hers... her's was a little more discreet. No need to blow anything up. "Sounds pretty neat, and useful." She shifted to other things though, because the fact that he could apparently cover everything in snow.

"I don't know man, with how this winter is turning out here i'd welcome a snow storm. Everywhere else I've ever lived would have had at least a few inches by now."

She stopped when he stopped, turning to watch him as he opened a door to a room and peeked inside. What were her powers?

She headed on inside the room, phasing right through the wall right beside the door and sauntering inside. "I can go intangible. Turn other stuff intangible." She had seen two other rooms so far, one when Xavier had been showing her around, and one while trying to get the heck out of the school after signing up for classes. This one was different. It was clear that no child roomed here, nor was it a classroom.

"What's this place?"

The office was empty of people, which made sense because he was supposed to be one of the people that worked in there. Was quickly changed though. Juniper walked through the wall and Sam the door. Looking back to Bruno he smirked, ”Go get the squirrels.” Bruno’s ears picked up and booked it to the nearest exit, which was most likely, the main entrance. Sam had never been to his office but he knew it was near the main entrance. Meaning now they were towards the front of the mansion. Place was big enough to get lost in.

”My office apparently.” he looked from Juniper to the bookcases and filing cabinets. One wall had a grand bookcase covering the entire wall. Sam knew that was the wall his flash drive mentioned. It required him to check on it often apparently there was a fridge and hot tub in there. Basically a place for people to get lost.

”Phasing is pretty cool, heck you could have found yourself anywhere you wanted to be with that power.” Sam smirked, as he looked over to the giant desk with his nameplate on it. The amount of paper work was pretty absurd. Sam didn’t plan on doing that any time soon though, not unless he had to. He was told that Gawain and a few others had been stepping up since he got younger. Young adults shouldn’t have paperwork anyways.

”So where did you live before? I can make it snow for you anytime you want. Just ask.” he walked from behind the desk towards the large bookcase and frowned. The books all seemed real where was the one that revealed the door.

His... Office?

Oh @#@% she had been hitting on a member of the staff the whole goddamn time?! Her eyes darted to the desk. Yep. Name plate.

@#$%%&$#!

She stared at something other than him, wondering if it was too late to flee back through the wall or change her name. "Eh heh... You'd think so, but people tend to frown on you barging into their private space when you are just trying to find the exit." She rubbed at the back of her neck nervously. Him shifting around over by his desk just made her more paranoid that he was looking for formal complaint papers of something.

Jesus Christ, she only been signed up as a student for like, 15 minutes and she was already getting herself in trouble.

Juniper eyeballed him for a second when he kept on casually talking. Where had she come from, and an offer of snow. She found herself squinting at him suspiciously while he was checking out the books in his collection. "Ohio, originally, but also Kentucky and Alabama."

She mulled over the snow offer for a moment before deciding to test the waters a little more. Maybe there weren't any issues with student staff relations if both were consenting adults? "Careful, or I'll make you my personal snow globe."

She ended up over by him, hands in the pockets of her coat as she stared down the book case with him. She only recognized a few titles.

"What are we looking for?"

”Something that stands out… and you wouldn’t want to keep me. I require attention.” Sam said with a smirk and a few snowflakes that happened near Juniper. His eyes shifted through the bookcase till he found an old favorite of his. Sherlock Holmes, he was a detective and when one was trying to convince a kid to do something like their hero it was easier. Sam reached out and grabbed the book disappointed it was a fake.

The book shifted out of the bookcase a third of the way till the wall started to move. Sam let go of the book and stood back not exactly sure what to expect. Disappointed again he looked at the new exposed door and the console. There was a slit on both sides of the keyboard. Sam frowned as he walked closer to the door to expose the recent change. He wanted to know what was on the other side of the door now. The slits looked like something that would fit a knife or sword. He didn’t know why he came to the conclusion, only that it made sense.

”Apparently I have a lot of secrets.” Sam said more to himself as he studied the door. ”You said you could turn things intangible?” Sam asked as he offered his hand hoping that he too could walk through walls like she did. ”I kind of want to know what is on the other side now.” Sam said with a smirk.