Tom sensed a pause in her reaction. She must have still been afraid, he didn't know what any of that was about, but his hardened heart almost went out to her. But hey, when he was he age, he was in regular fights with people who wanted to kill him just because he was a mutant, people adapted, so he imagined she had had it more or less soft, then again she was a girl... Clean slate he told himself, all details aside, here was terrified little girl in front of him and he was the one terrifying her. He withdrew the hand after that pause moment, just as the normal looking guy spoke. He asked what Tom's mutation was, but the boy ignored the question for a second as he added something to the girl in front of him.
"It's alrigh' you don' need to shake my 'and, I just wanted you to know tha' I ain't a danger to anyone who ain' a danger to me."
He said philosophically.

He pulled out a chair from the row in front and sat on it backwards, looking at the guy who had asked him about his powers. He wasn't going to tell him his weakness, in fact there was only one person in the world thus far who knew his weakness. But he was only too happy to divulge the rest.
"Me mate? I'm invulnerable. Can take an 'it like a champ!"
He said with a chuckle.
"Bu' serious, my body can' get 'urt, not by anything from being dropped in 'ot lava to being run over by a lorry. I skydived without a parachute once... It 'urt bu' it was worth it to see the skydiving coach drop a tom tit in 'is pants."
He said with a warm smile.

The other kid spoke up in an American accent, saying his name and his power. Tom nodded in approval,
"Tha's quality mate. Mus' be right wicked turning into a tiger."
He said in slight awe. The only other mutants he had met were ones in his father's gang and Andrea. None of their powers had quite the ring to it that turning into a tiger did. The boy with the wings piped up, saying something to Calley and that reminded Tank of something else he needed to be clear on.

"As for you mate,"
He added with a non-threatening smile,
"You need to chill ou'. I wasn' trying to get in a scrap with 'im, but when tha' twat jumps up and starts ruffling 'is feathers and puffing up 'is chest, I ain' gonna sit there an do nothing. I've know 'ow tha' works mate. If you show weakness on your firs' day, you get three beatings and a swirly tha' day, and another beating every other day for the res' of the year. I ain' letting tha' 'appen twice I tell you."
He said.

He glanced across to the girl and leaned in closer to the other two boys.
"Um... 'Ey Calley, is she gonna be alrigh'? Do either of you two know wha' wen' on back there, who she go' me confused with?"
He inquired quietly, not wanting her to hear him and get set off again thinking about her personal boogey man.

It was a hectic morning... First the Russian Mutant slept in, due to the comfortableness of her new bed and also to the fact the night before she was a nervous wreck about classes. So suffice to say when her alarm went off and she woke up an hour later- she was in a tizzy, rushing from place to place stumbling, tripping over her loose stuff. And trying to get to the bathroom without knocking her head on something- like the sink. After a brisk shower, Emil quickly dried off forgetting that her hair was still wet she put on her clothes. Which consisted of a nicely knitted sweater the color purple with blacks in it. A pair of form fitting black jeans, and a pair of her old sneakers. Hair still matted she rushed in the bathroom once more and somehow managed to brush her teeth while blow drying her hair at the same time...

Walking or jogging in her case she paced quickly to the kitchen still disheveled and looking like she got over a bad hangover- she also got some curious glances upon entering the nearly empty kitchen. To worsen her late Morning, she somehow burnt her toast, and broke three eggs on the floor before making a sloppy breakfast. A simple egg sandwich with mayonnaise was good for her as she scarfed it down with some fresh milk. After THAT she ran back to her room brushed her teeth to get the offending smell out of her mouth and then, hurried to the other side of the Mansion in hopes of getting to class on time.

Worst.Morning.Ever.

It didn't help as she ran down the halls with a tired and stressed expression on her face- and having a grumpy Aggro roaring in you're mind about 'how much it wanted to rip the toaster apart' or something another. Emi could never tell with Aggro... Grumpy, tired, and generally in a bad mood Emi opened the door to the classroom only to briefly become aware that she was around more people than she thought... Quietly as she could she passed the other students and tucked herself in the back of the room sitting in a back desk hoping that no one would notice her late arrival. Even though it was just homeroom the emotional Shadowmancer didn't want to make a habit of this..

. Putting her head down as she closed her eyes she slowly listened to what looked like a fight was going to break out- Oh so help her god! If these, these BRATS started something she would not be held responsible if Aggro came out to "Play"- with the kids heads. Yes she was annoyed, yes she was bitter, yes she was pissed. But with a morning like this- Sweet little Emil was too pissed off to care and wouldn't mind bashing some skulls in. Well one thing was certain- this attitude of her's would blow over come lunchtime- or so she hoped it would..

The World wasn't ready for a angry Emi.... It would not last long from her wrath.

Ruby Lupin was so excited today, because today was her first day of school for the spring semester. A gleeful grin crept across the fox girls face as she practically skipped down the hallways. It had been a while since Ruby had gone to class and the thoughts of going back to school made her so happy she could just explode with joy. Learning new things were one of Ruby's greatest joys in life, if anyone who could teach her something new was a saint in her eyes. Unlike the other two Lupin sisters, Ruby was an amazing student, always coming prepared as well as paying attention in class. In all honesty, Ruby was a teachers dream to have in a class.

Wearing a pair of overalls with a red t shirt underneath it Ruby had eagerly ate her pop tart and made her way to class. Upon entering the classroom with her spiral note book in hand she noticed an odd tension in the air, almost like there was some sort of fight about to occur. The young girls ears flattened to her head a tiny bit, worried about what would happen if a fight did break out. She was worried she would have to shock the two culprits, something she really didn't want to to, she hated violence. After a minute of standing in the doorway Ruby fully walked into the room, taking a seat in front of Carrick waving at him. Taking a pencil from her messenger bag, she flipped open to the first page in her book, dating the top of the page. Ruby was officially ready to learn!

Two small words and the entire classroom scene had changed from a sleepy and peaceful morning to an emotionally charged confrontation. Too. Much. Testosterone.

Katrina could only watch wide eyed as the green eyed doppelganger pointed his bat threateningly at Koga who had jumped up to protect her from whatever it was that had frightened her. This new student didn't even know what caused the commotion and he was ready for a fight with the first thing he saw that moved. His body language spoke louder than his words; his claim that he didn't want to start anything was not very believable as long as he was the only one in the room holding a weapon.

Calley and Carrick both spoke up, both trying to settle everything down again, which seemed to work. At least the guy put his bat away and started to go back to his own business of ignoring the rest of the world.

>>>”And I think that might be the first time someone beat me swearing aloud in a class… don’t like that S*** one bit…”

Katrina didn't manage much of a smile at the winged boy's attempt to lighten the situation. At this point she would rather just forget that she had sworn at all.

After a few moments it became apparent that the baseball bat kid wasn't done with her quite yet. He had thought of something else to add to his earlier statements and returned over to her side of the room. At least this time his tone was gentler and even attempted to be friendly.

>>>"Look, sorry tha' I scared you righ'. The name's Tom Barker, an I tell ya, I won' 'urt you ok?"

Katrina stared at his hand for a split second; the handshake, the friendliness, it was such a reversal from a moment before when he'd practically been spitting and hissing at all the other male cats in the room, then Calley interrupted. There was a warning in his question that was not aimed at Tom, though the question was addressed to him.

>>>“What’s your mutation, Tom? I’m Calley. Tiger shifter.”

She knew Calley well enough to read between those lines. There was no telling that even if he said what his mutation was that he'd be at all complete or even truthful. Touching his skin could be a very bad idea. Especially when he'd already proven himself to being a little hostile. Sure, he'd said he wouldn't hurt her, but they'd already established how easy it was to lie.

Valiant Carrick tried to change the subject,
>>>”Tiger shifter? Got a trick I’ll need to show you sometime…”

But Tom, as he called himself, wasn't sidetracked by questions and subject changes,
>>>"It's alrigh' you don' need to shake my 'and, I just wanted you to know tha' I ain't a danger to anyone who ain' a danger to me."

Katrina gave him a shy smile as he withdrew his hand and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. This was a school for mutants. The first question the greeters asked every new comer was “Is your mutation dangerous to yourself or others?” Generally every mutation was dangerous in some way.

>>>"Me mate? I'm invulnerable. Can take an 'it like a champ!"

See? Even though he probably wouldn't shock her to death by touching her skin (assuming he was being truthful) it still would have been very dangerous to have gotten into a fist fight with him. He wouldn't have even needed the bat.

And he went on, again telling others that they needed to chill.

>>>“... I've know 'ow tha' works mate. If you show weakness on your firs' day, you get three beatings and a swirly tha' day, and another beating every other day for the res' of the year. I ain' letting tha' 'appen twice I tell you."

An insightful piece of information, that last little phrase.

Though he hadn't directed that comment at her, Katrina responded to it quietly, “That's not how it works here, Tom. Here, we're a family; we have to be. There's a whole big world out there that hates mutants, if we can't even get along amongst ourselves we're not going to last long.” If this boy didn't learn to control his temper, he could very easily wind up making the wrong person angry. He may be an unbreakable shield, but someday he may find himself up against an unstoppable force wishing he hadn't been quite so eager to pick a fight.

~~"Now look 'ere kid. I ain' gonna 'arm nobody. So I suggest tha' you cool it alrigh' mate?"

Koga didn’t say a word; he didn’t flinch at the bat in the other boy’s hand. Unarmed melee vs. armed melee was something that Sam and he had gone over extensively. He was just waiting for more than words to happen.

~~"I really didn' want any of this drama on my firs' day, but if you really wanna go, make it 'appen mate."

Koga spread his stance slightly as the boy came up. this wasn’t about him or anything he had done, he had made a promise to protect Katrina and he would do so, if at all in his power. He certainly wasn’t going to sit and gawk as she screamed bloody murder in the back of the class.

~~"No 'ard feelings?" Koga offered half a smirk.

~~"Look, sorry tha' I scared you righ'. The name's Tom Barker, an I tell ya, I won' 'urt you ok?"

Koga eased back onto the top of the desk behind him as he saw that he was attempting to be civil and now that Katrina was being calm, he wasn’t even sure what exactly happened. He heard out the rest the conversations and glanced at Katrina, ensuring once more that she was fine. He picked up on the attributes that set her off, even the set of images that she had given him so she didn’t have to tell her story made him wary. But that wasn’t toms fault.

**“That's not how it works here, Tom. Here, we're a family; we have to be. There's a whole big world out there that hates mutants, if we can't even get along amongst ourselves we're not going to last long.”

His ears twitched at the comment of what exactly he was that was puffing up. Invulnerable eh? He watched as Tom there breathed. Koga dealt in constriction and suffocation, it was just as easy to get a grip over a mouth and a nose as it was to strangle someone’s throat. He specialized in holding on tight too. Koga looked to Katrina and tapped his fingers on the edge of hre desk and offered another small smile. He wondered if she knew that Fausto had moved into his room after that night. If he said nothing he couldn’t be drawn into a trash talking match that required him to attempt to hurt anyone. That wasn’t his goal by any means. As He sat back down his mind was certainly not on the topic at hand.

He paced back to his chair slowly, half expecting the guy to say something else.

A pair of females came into the room rounding out the guy to girl ratio a bit more. And then over the intercom a voice beseeched them.


___“Home room 102? Your teacher has been delayed, Please remain in the class room until the next period starts.”

Oh goodie, looks like it was martial law after all. Koga looked to Teddy. “ Sssorry about that.” His skin faded from the black and his hair from bright red, he hadn’t even realized it but that was the coloring that his skin turned the night he found out what happened to Katrina and about the bastard who did it.

“ah, what were we talking about, oh yeah classsss, so yeah Chemissstry hasss all sssortsss of applications that can be applied in the real world and I appreciate a readily applicable curriculum.”

Ted was intently focused on the conversation that was unfolding in front of him. Well, technically it was behind him, since he was sitting in the front row. But either way you looked at it Ted was paying attention. Ted listened to them all talking and trying to calm things down. He wasn't about to get into the conversation because he thought that it would make him the target of the aggression rather than helping to diffuse it.

Thankfully they were all starting to settle down and the classroom was going back to its uneventful happenings. Tom, as he was called, still didn't seem that believable with not wanting to get into a fight. If he wasn't trying out for a baseball team, which the school didn't have, then why did he carry it around and bring it to class. Ruby walked in and he was thankful that he finally knew someone. Teddy ignored the people in the back a little bit. "Hey Ruby. Nice to see you again." He saw that she had pulled out a few things for class which meant that she was glad to be in class. Ted couldn't say that he was glad to be in class but he was sure glad that she was here.

Great, the teacher wasn't coming back. Who was going to keep the older kids from starting a mutiny and turning this classroom into a war zone. Koga came back to his seat next to Ted and continued talking. "I haven't taken any chemistry classes yet but I would love to play with the chemicals in class." The young boy continued the conversation but he was still trying to figure out what had just happened in the back of the classroom. Since he only just met Koga he really didn't think that he would get told exactly why the girl had sworn or why he'd rushed to her side. Although one thing was apparent...Koga had feelings for her.

“That's not how it works here, Tom. Here, we're a family; we have to be. There's a whole big world out there that hates mutants, if we can't even get along amongst ourselves we're not going to last long.”

What the girl in the back had said was pretty true. He didn't know for sure but he was sure that she was speaking the truth. He'd have to think about that later on.

”Easy with the feather reference HardChaw, some might take offense to that.” said Carrick as his wings lifted slightly on his back and opened and closed quickly. He didn’t take offense to it but it was clear Hardchaw was getting close to an avian insult. Carrick smirked again, ”So you claim your invulnerable, your twice the size of everyone else,” yes Carrick took note that the Brit had a good foot on him, ”and you carry around a bat?” he started to laugh and shrugged again, ”Yeah, I’d worry about getting beaten if I was you…” he said sarcastically as he blew some of his hair out of his vision.

His tail flicked about behind him as he started to notice the newer members to the class. Ruby sat in front of him with a smile, one he returned in kind and then looked to Koga, ”Nerds converge, Koga meet Ruby, fellow nerd” he had a feeling Koga and Ruby would get along well enough, both of which he associated as friends and both he dubbed nerds for school. He smirked and poked Ruby in the back and whispered, ”You already missed a show…” he leaned back in his chair again and looked out the window as the blonde girl gave her little speech about how everyone in the mansion was a large extended family.

Carrick was familiar with an extended family his was the circus and if the girl truly felt that way she might become part of his, hell even Hardchaw might be included. ”Blondie is right, might not have to be family but no reason we can’t get along.”

Smirking again turning to Barker, ”You wouldn’t be related to Bob Barker would you?” yes Carrick had a mouth on him, sarcastic or not it often found him trouble not that he was looking for it he was a runt after all, though he usually never meant anything by it. This was the time when he meant nothing by it.

His ears perked as the announcement system mentioned their teacher would not show to homeroom for some reason or another. He started to get antsy and looked back out the window again, debating if the lack of teacher meant no school. They said wait but… it was so nice outside… reaching into his flannel pocket and pulling out a deck of cards Carrick started to shuffle them quickly the kind of speed and control only an experienced player could have. It was a habit of his he used to pass the time.

Her temper simmered down Emi gave a small yawn before looking around seeing that more people have entered and things had calmed down... Though- did she miss something? Lilac eyes blinked in confusion as she looked more aware, pulling back a strand lock of hair she sat up finding her mind more cleared yet the sudden nervousness swelled in her gut as she realized she was in a room full of people! Sure most of them were younger than her, but it didn't help that Emil wasn't a social person... However what was good so far was that no one paid attention to her at the moment- though the paled skinned mutant began to wonder if that was a good thing or not?

Shaking her head mentally she pushed any negative thoughts that sprouted up back in her mind as she straightened up and sat at her table- taking out a few things from her cluttered bag, she finally pulled out her sketchbook, with a pencil she began to sketch something. Emil wasn't the best artist in the world and she was sure she wouldn't win an award but she could draw decent things more than a stick figure that is... She took anatomy back in her boarding school so she was used to drawing realistic stuff. So far she had the basics of the head of what looked like a female, it was bald having not drawn the hair yet, and the eyes needed filled in, but most of it was getting started and soon she would have a full portrait!

She had been on this i her spare time for the past month, on her travels and such before she landed herself here in the mansion- it helped- she supposed being able to concentrate yet be relaxed all at once... Sighing she put her pencil down and looked round noticing something was going on. Worry furrowed her brow as she thought some fight would break out and hoped that was not the case- Emil was bad with fights.... She just didn't like them. Hopefully she wouldn't be noticed for a little while longer... Shifting in her seat she accidentally knocked over her sketch book as the leather bound back made a resounding 'slap' on the hard floor..

Darn her luck...

No one would notice her leaning to get her sketch book- right?

Wings spoke up instead. Calley seemed to have gone oddly quite, but whatever. Someone to talk to was someone to talk to. He seemed to think that Tank was being over cautious, what with the bat and all. He had a point of course, it did look that way. But what he didn't realize was that was exactly the idea.
"You see mate, tha's the idea. The main reason people carry round weapons is so they don' ge' their 'and 'urt when they punch someone in the face. My 'and can' ge' damaged anyway so it don' really ma'ter. So if I don' need the ba' why would I carry it round? Cos it scares people off. No one wan's to take on a feller with a baseball ba'. Simple as tha', it's to 'elp stop trouble believe it or not."
He explained. Somehow he got the feeling people had their first impression of him and that that wasn't going to change anytime soon no matter what he said, but it couldn't hurt to try right?

The girl from before said that it wasn't like that here. Like somehow she believed that people didn't get bullied? He was starting to realize that maybe he was the biggest one here, maybe he didn't need to worry anyway. Regardless, he had no idea what he could potentially meet here, and he wasn't willing to take any chances. She did talk a lot of sense though. The whole rest of the world was against them, sticking together did seem like a solid idea. The bird-kid seemed to agree. He said that even if he didn't want to be in a tight knit family, he should still try to be friendly. Tom smiled and looked away.
"Actually... You'd be surprised 'ow nice a family's startin' to sound righ' now."
He added somberly.

There was a lot going on in the classroom. Some girl about Tom's age walked in a took the seat next to his at the back. He watched as she sat down just to make sure she didn't accidentally think the seat was free. After all, no one was sitting on it right now. The guy with wings... Tom really needed to catch his name... anyway, he was talking to some other girl, introducing her to the rainbow kid. Tom listened in and picked up that his name was Koga. So not rainbow kid then... When the human sparrow turned around Tom addressed him.
"By the way mate, didn' catch your name?"
He inquired as the guy pulled out a deck of cards and began to shuffle like a pro. Tom patted the table between them smiled.
"Deal us up mate. Wha're we playin' then?"

It wasn't long before there was a bang from over towards his desk. If that Koga kid had touched his stuff in revenge Tom was gonna... Well that wasn't it so he jumped off that train of thought straight away. The girl had dropped her book and looked nervous and jumpy. Hopefully it wasn't Tank's fault this time. He jumped up out of his seat and grabbed the book for her, handing it up to her. Once she had her book Tom gave her a charming smile and headed back over to the table with the cards. They had time to fill before their teacher arrived and a good old game of cards was a damn good way to pass it. Carrick spoke as he worked with the cards, making a joke somewhat at Tom's expense. The English kid just laughed, heartily.
"Your a cheeky li'tle sod aren' ya?"
Tom joked back.
"Now mate, if you say something quali'y like tha' to someone, and they take it bad, just tell me. I'll 'ave your back all the way, there's nothing tha' makes me laugh more than a good smar' ass comment."

The fight that almost commenced had made the young fox girl quite nervous for the safety of those in the room but luckily everyone had calmed down enough for the risk of the fight to pass. Ruby waved to Ted and yipped a little at the back poke. Apparently she had already 'missed a show' which Ruby really didnt want ot see. She hated it when she saw people fight and the thought of a fight breaking out on her first day of class made her a little bit queezy inside.

The fox girl was a little bit surprised that carrick decided to introduce her to a new person so she did te polite thing and smiled, figuring that would be the best thing to do for the boy who kept changing colors. Ruby recognized Katrina who she had seen a few times before and had seen her reading Now, Ruby felt a little less nervous about being in a room with so many people.

Typically, when she was in a room with so many the little fox girl would retreat back into her safe place and work out a few new designs for a new robot, but being at the mansion somehow erased that tension from her.

“Hi, Koga! My name is Ruby and apparently we are both nerds in Carricks eyes. “ Ruby said, a small laugh escaping her lips. “The good thing about being a nerd is that we don't have to ask others for notes in class.”

(sorry guys writers block)

~~"I haven't taken any chemistry classes yet but I would love to play with the chemicals in class."

“There isss ssso much more potential than sssimple play, but yeah I agree, there will alwaysss be sssomething fantassstic about acid and base reactionssss.”

++”Nerds converge, Koga meet Ruby, fellow nerd”

Koga shot Carrick a look that rose his eyebrow, if he wasn’t constantly talking smack about everyone and everything than he might have called him on it, but for now he’d pass on it.

“We prefer the term Acumen.” Oh he was living up to the nerd term, if Carrick wanted to make him into a know it all he could throw his knowledge around.

Ted knew her so that was a good start. And well Carrick knew her, so she might be back at square one.

**`` “Hi, Koga! My name is Ruby and apparently we are both nerds in Carricks eyes. “ Ruby said, a small laugh escaping her lips. “The good thing about being a nerd is that we don't have to ask others for notes in class.

“A pleasssure to meet you Ruby, and yeah I think sssomeone is losssing hisss notesss begging rightsss.” He nodded toward Ted, we were just discussing our favorite class, how about you? Do you have a preferred subject. “ Koga slowly maneuvered so he was sitting on the table and facing the back of the classroom.



He winced as the sketch book went down as the shy girl seemed to not care for the attention and there was tommy right back up out of his chair. Maybe he was too quick to judge. or maybe the kid had got called on being an ass and was too soundly talked down. He smiled lightly at the girl who had just bent over, and certainly didn’t notice anything about the eighteen year old that a fifteen year old might notice. She was pretty. Her eyes in particular. He offered a soft smile if she met his eyes. …he hoped Katrina didn’t notice him noticing…but they were just friends right…that was her decision.

She thought no one would notice, however she quickly found out she was wrong. However luckily for her it was a nice person- or so Emil perceived him as nice. She wasn't really listening on what what going on, so she didn't hear any fight going on earlier. She quickly held her sketch book as he turned away. Giving a small smile, she looked at the teen with lilac eyes showing appreciation, she muttered a "Thankyou" before turning away quickly to her seat. Sitting down she blushed slightly as she noticed Koga was looking at her, giving a small smile she returned to her sketch book and decided to draw something on another page.

There was nothing much to do as of now, however the young Russian born would keep an ear out for the conversations int he room- if only to pass the time. Hopefully she would not annoy anyone for eavesdropping though. Light purple eyes glanced around the room again before settling on her sketch book as she blushed once more. This felt so strange and awkward... Hopefully they would not be here all morning...

>>>“Home room 102? Your teacher has been delayed, Please remain in the class room until the next period starts.”

Oh great. Just when the students were starting to get unruly they had to go and make an announcement like that. At least everyone was settled down a bit now, so there wasn't any danger of anyone getting into fights.

>>>”So you claim your invulnerable, your twice the size of everyone else, and you carry around a bat? Yeah, I’d worry about getting beaten if I was you…”

Unless Carrick's sarcastic comments went a little too far, that was. Though, Katrina agreed completely with the sentiment behind the stinging words.

Tom just laughed it off though, and asked to join in the card game since Carrick was shuffling. He also responded to her comment with something that surprised her at bit.

>>>"Actually... You'd be surprised 'ow nice a family's startin' to sound righ' now."

Apparently Tom had a softer side. He seemed to be working hard to change that first impression he'd made with everyone. She could appreciate the effort, but she'd seen enough people (one to be exact) that tried to seem nice at first and later revealed themselves to have completely sinister intentions that she didn't trust Tom's sentiment completely. Or at all. But then, she might be prejudiced against him simply because of his physical resemblance to that other person.

Katrina wrote down 'ackume...' on the inside cover of her notebook so she could look it up later, but was distracted by a loud noise before she could add the '...n'. She was jumpy today, and even a sketchbook hitting the floor had her jerking in surprise. It was the older girl with the violet eyes sitting in the row in front of her. Why did she...? Oh.

She caught the glance Koga gave the violet eyed girl. And the smile. And that cute little reddening of the ears the violet eyed girl displayed.

Katrina turned away before Koga could notice that she had noticed him noticing. They were just friends. She wasn't supposed to feel any particular way if he looked at girls... or boys for that matter. It was none of her business if he wanted to fall for the obvious ploys of an older girl. The low cut shirt... the book dropping... the shy and completely fake blush. Didn't she know she was much too old to be blushing? Much. Too. Old.

Yes, the card game. It was much more interesting. Katrina stood. Crossed out the word she'd written inside her notebook. Wandered toward the boys with the cards.

“What are you going to play?” She tilted her head curiously, keeping her back to the lizard boy at the front of the classroom.

The shuffling stopped as a few things happened, a notebook slammed on the floor and Tom asked Carrick his name. Carrick frowned slightly and looked up to Tom who was tapping on the desk between them, not only asking his name but also asking him to play. Carrick smirked slightly and held his hands apart bending the cards in one hand forcing them to shoot out into the other one. ”Didn’t give it to you specifically but I think it might be time to do so,” he set his cards down on the desk between him and Tom and said Carrick, Carrick O’Conner.”[/color] his Irish accent filled in his last name as he picked up the cards again.

Eyes trailing over to Koga and he smirked and said noting, he heard the term before but if he recalled correctly it was due to a video game or a movie of some kind. ”Not saying a nerd is a bad thing, just saying you guys have something in common is all.” he shrugged and looked to Ruby, ”Only a joke, I like my nerdy friends…” he smiled and winked to Ruby. A second later as he turned his head back to Tom he overheard Koga mentioning Carrick losing his rights for note begging rights. He smirked and looked at his foxy friend in front of him, she would be the one he would ask for notes or homework to copy. If he ever planned on doing it in the first place, which as of now he had no intention of doing it.

Dealing out a few cards to himself and Tom he nodded his head slightly and spoke, ”What people tell me though they are a bit more colorful with their words… five card draw, acey ducey” Carrick smirked slightly as he looked at his cards debating to cheat and deciding against it. Carnie rule of thumb, if you want to cheat make sure your never seeing the people again otherwise it is bad news. Which was why the ace of hearts he slipped while he was dealing remained in his sleeve was going to stay there. On a side note it was a good thing he wasn’t betting anything.

”Good to know, but I’m not one for fighting” he smirked and raised a hand to the top of his head to elaborate on his reasoning, ”Runts don’t win often and when they do it usually leads to more trouble.” and by trouble he meant a throw down with a few chaps twice his size, often the size of Tom, those fights, those were ones he never one. On a side note he started to like Tom more and more, if he truly like smart ass comments Carrick was chalk full of them.

Looking at the discard pile Carrick waited till he Tom discarded his choice of cards, his ears twitched slightly as he looked up to the blonde asking them what they were playing. Confused slightly by her actions he smiled and said, ”Cards, five card draw to be more exact…” it then dawned on him that he never really got the girls name, even though they spent Christmas eve saving each other. ”Ummm… never got your name, which is weird I usually get a name for those who ride me like a horse…” he extended his free hand towards her, ”Carrick” turning his attention back to the pile of fresh cards he picked up five and placed them inbetween him and Tom so if she wanted to play she could. ”Doubt it will be a long game though, the skies are calling to me… and seeing as there is no teacher, really no one to keep me here.” discarding a six of clubs and a nine of diamonds Carrick kept his King of hearts and his two of diamonds.

The posturing seemed at an end, for now. Calley didn’t relax back in his chair; no need, when he hadn’t visibly tensed up in the first place.

>> "Tha's quality mate. Mus' be right wicked turning into a tiger."

Calley gave a little lop-sided grin. “Invulnerability doesn’t sound half-bad, either.” It didn’t. It also sounded fairly truthful. It wasn’t wise to lie about a power like invulnerability; that kind of thing couldn’t exactly be faked by other powers. Not like good ol’ “tiger shifting.” Whether it was the full truth was another matter, but knowing someone was invulnerable at the least... yeeeeah. Yeah, that was good to know, if he ever did have to fight this guy.

>> "Um... 'Ey Calley, is she gonna be alrigh'? Do either of you two know wha' wen' on back there, who she go' me confused with?"

He gave a nod, and a shrug. “Not for me to tell.”

It wasn’t. It really wasn’t. Attempted murder was one thing. What the black haired, green-eyed man had done to Kat... that was an entirely different thing. The kind of thing that needs to stay in its dark place. There was only one person with the right to bring it out again, and that certainly wasn’t him.

“If you see someone who looks like your older brother—get away from him.” Fair warning. Maybe they should plaster the city with fair warnings, like lost cat posters. If Kat’d had fair warning... If. He still didn’t like the other teen’s jump to a standoff, but everyone deserved that fair warning. Calley leaned a little further back in his chair, crossing his ankles one over the other under his desk as he raised an eyebrow. “Do you have an older brother?”

A valid question.

Very, very valid.

More students shuffled in, taking their seats in the aftermath of the flare up. Just in time for the announcement to come on: homeroom nixed, due to lack of teacher. Though apparently the students still had to stay. Clear double standards, if ever Calley has seen them.

Around him, people began to naturally form into groups. Calley dragged his desk over to the card game, flopping his bag onto the top and wrapping his arms around it. His head flopped down after. Books: not the most comfortable of pillows. No worse than the floor, though. And slightly more socially acceptable.

“Too early,” he complained to no one in particular, letting his eyelids do what they’d be already doing, if they hadn’t been guilted out of bed.

((ooc: Count Calley as asleep and/or playing at sleep until further notice. He may or may not wake up, depending on what goes on around him. ))