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Willa Dupont

Watching the girl so flustered over her name made Willa most curious. What kind of name was so terrible that she was all worked up about it? When the name was finally outed, Willa almost laughed. Why in the world was this girl so worried about a name like that? Girls with boys names were cool. Parents who gave their kids names like that were cool. Willa wanted to be a parent like that.

"Your real name's David? That's, like, totally hip! You don't like it or something? I was never good at numbers, but point-two-five sounds far out."

Davie Schaer

Davie watched as the expression developed on the other girls face. And there was a single thought in her head. I should have just lied. [&@%!] lied. Davina. Davina's a lovely name. Or even Davida. Davida's godawful but it's not David. Her lips crinkled into a weak, toothless smile as the name was called back to her and she nodded. She was bracing herself for the laugher. That, she could already see it starting to creep up into Willa's features.

When that didn't come, no response of Davie's own immediately followed. Silence stretched for two, then three, seconds and Willa's voice didn't fill it. That crinkle, however, had broadened to form something resembling a very self-conscious smile. One that she didn't snap shut the moment she felt that tension in her lower-jaw. She coughed another anxious half-laugh.

"Like, David's a boys name." Of course Willa knew that. "Like, a name for boys." She repeated it anyways. And felt stupid, but she had no idea where this response was going. "Like, it's." She cut herself off from rephrasing that statement a third time. Lets stop trying to convince the girl not to be friends with you.

"Most people just find it weird is all."

Scott Folley

Scott's music track came to an end, and before the next one started, he turned off his mp3 player and removed his headphones. He placed them both onto his lap, then stretched his arms into the air, producing a large yawn as he did so.
He craned his neck upwards, like a meerkat checking for danger, trying to take a peek over the seats to the front of the bus.
Wonder if we're nearly there yet. I hope so.

Scott sat back to his relaxed position, facing the left side of the bus, his legs still comfortably spread across the neighbouring chairs.
In boredom, he began to stare at the entertainment provided in front of him. In this case, it was a backpack with a random collection of keyrings, black boots with a pool table and smiley face added to them, a red leather jacket that didn't go with its owner's red hair, in his opinion. Scott didn't think much of this girl's fashion sense, though her face was pleasant enough.
There was some other kid further along the row too. Now his fashion sense...that looked cool.

Willa Dupont

"Well duh it's a boy's name. You just said it yourself; two-point-five girls or whatever. That's what makes it groovy! It's weird, but, like, it's good weird." Willa smiled (hopefully encouragingly) at the other girl. She felt bad when people thought they were weird. I mean, there were actual weird people. Those people could feel bad all they wanted. But some people were just not-normal like her, and she didn't think that was anything to be upset about. On the contrary, they were pretty cool.

"So, what's your bag? You were typing a bunch back there."

Davie Schaer

Davie nodded to express understanding. "Good weird." It was muttered. She nodded again and pressed her smile that bit harder. Probably too hard. She wasn't sure so she relaxed it. And coughed another half-laugh instead. Lots of responses ran through her head. They all seemed kind of dorky. But she couldn't nod again. Maybe they weren't that dorky. Like not everything she said was dorky. It couldn't be. But she didn't get to find out, Willa asking another question she was only glad to move on to.

Sort of. I spend my free time reading maths books was never something she'd figured out a way of explaining to her peer group.

"I'm, eh, I'm a Kaggler." She drummed her fingers against her laptop a moment, it produced a soft rattling. "Like it's for a competition. I compete in them." She paused a moment before suddenly realising she'd explained nothing. She quickly moved to add detail. "I'm trying to predict who's going to die on the Titanic." That sounded super [&@%!] morbid and creepy. "I mean, eh, for the competition, we have to do that. And whoever has the best predictive algorithm, wins."

She included a pause before adding:

"Not very cool, I know."

Davie was soon saved from the downward spiral of a conversation she had found herself in; though maybe it had just started going kind of well and was now being cut short? In either case, the bus finally came to a halt with a discreet screech. It was an unassuming sound but the finality of it was no doubt apparent to everyone. No more drawing it out, and no going up.

"Well kiddos...here we are: Yarrow Run," the driver leaned out of his seat to look back at the rows of seats. He gave them all a smile, which doubled as a gentle urging to get up and get off now. He had places to be, but he didn't want to be rude. He gave each of them a nod as they passed him by.

The bus station was atop a hill, with the town's central road leading up to itl; or down into the settlement, as it were. The rooftops of the buildings and the streets between them were laid out in front of them in an inward curve, as if the town were set into a bowl. A man in a police uniform and yes, a brown sheriff's hat was walking up from it, towards the station, eyes pinched almost shut against the cold sunshine that had broken through the clouds. It was hard to imagine he was looking for anything but the group of freshly arrived youngsters.

Scott Folley

As the bus came to a halt, Scott perked up and immediately rose from his seat. He was looking forward to stretching his legs after the long journey.
The black haired boy grabbed his music player and headphones and stuffed them into his backpack. He then snatched his jacket and made his way to exit the bus.
He said no thanks or goodbyes to the bus driver, not even offering him a nod or smile, or even a glance of acknowledgement.

Outside at last. Scott breathed in the cold Washington air and placed his backpack on the ground beside him, so that he could put on his jacket. It was a classic black fabric affair, and didn't offer much in way of insulation.

His eyes clocked the Sheriff walking up towards them, as he looked around at the bus station. So, this was part of the town that he was supposed to be calling home for who knows how long. If he had his way, not long at all.
Great. Here comes the local goon of a cop to say hi.

Willa Dupont

Willa's face took on a slightly confused expression at mention of the Titanic. "But, like, what's the point of predicting something that already went down?"

Before she could get the answer, or ask if Davie knew what really went down on the Titanic, the bus screeched to a halt. She turned slightly to look out the window.

"Oh, we're here? Groovy!" Slinging her satchel over her shoulder, she stood and stretched. Her bangles clattered as her hands reached above her head and then came to rest on the seat back. "Good talking to you!" She smiled at Davie before turning her attention to Amelie, still sitting next to her. "You cool to split, Ams? I wanna get out and stretch my legs."

Amelie Dupont

Amelie looked up from her book as the bus stopped. She glanced out the front window before feeling a sense of nervousness brew up in her stomach. The bus journey had kind of made her relax as it stretched on over the hours, but now that they were actually here, the foreboding sense of the unknown had returned.

Not wanting to lose her spot in the book, Amelie continued to read until she had finished the paragraph. Though she read the words, their meanings could no longer be absorbed; her mind was too distracted.
She was just putting the bookmark back between its pages, when Willa addressed her.
"Oh...yeah. I think so." She put her book into her brown leather-look crossbody bag and stood up.
"Let me just...put on my coat."
As her sister waited for her to move out of the way, Amelie put on her burgundy duffel coat and began to do up the torpedo-shaped buttons. She then began to rummage in her bag for her gloves.

Ophelia Grey

Ophelia barely had time to gather up all of her dropped possessions and pocket her latest scribblings when the bus stopped at their destination. Removing her headphones and waiting to be the last to exit the bus, the quiet girl quietly stepped off the bus and stood in the cold, quietly. She tightened her scarf around her neck and stared nervously at the police officer before them.

Never one to like cops, Ophelia tried to distract herself in ways that didn't resort to introspecting. She didn't want the man to ask about her eyes glazing over or anything. She instead tried to spot birds, or perhaps pretty flowers, or no Ophelia, don't stare at the pretty punk girl, you'll make yourself look like and idiot and then you'll have to actually talk and we can't have that. Just stare at the ground and... no wait, look at the officer so he doesn't say anything about you not looking at him. Now you're swinging your head all over the place. Just look. At. Him.

To outside perspective, Ophelia's eyes had merely darted around a few times with slight, barely noticeable head bobs. To Ophelia, she felt like she had her head on a swivel.

Davie Schaer

Davie felt Yarrow before she saw it. The buzz had been faintly ratcheting up for a while now. From tingle, to itch, and it was kind of disorientating. Not Seattle-disorientating. [&@%!] Seattle. But enough to force a blink or three. The level shifts were always weird, of course. They seemed more pronounced. But then maybe her illness--power, whatever--was intended as some [&@%!] alarm system or something. Don't worry Davie, if you're ever about to be attacked we'll make sure to give you a [&@%!] headache. Good job, evolution.

By the way, [&@%!] evolution.

It wasn't, though, like she hadn't become good at multitasking. But she'd kind of missed a lot of what Willa had said as they hit the town-proper and the spike occurred. She'd turned away with a smile. This was unfortunately ambiguous. Davie nodded a brief smile back. That was supposed to be ambiguous, too. Somewhere between catch-you-later and see-you-outside. She felt pretty smooth for managing it. Though wasn't sure which she wanted it to be. She guessed it would have been nice to have a friend to walk in with. Not that they were friends. Only a complete sad-case would have called their 90-second relationship friendship. And Davie totally wasn't that sad-case.

But, like, a friend would have been nice, is all.

She decided not to get her hopes up anyways. And began to pack up her stuff, loading the laptop into her bag. Somehow she managed to stuff it in among all the assorted [&@%!]. Then, with a breath, she stood up and made her way off the bus. A thank you was said more to the windscreen than the bus driver. Outside, she took her time to look at the other students. Not, like, weirdly she hoped. She just wanted to see what they were like. Some of them seemed nervous. Which was good. Well, not that it was good. Just comforting.

Summer arrives!



Did he hear me? Summer, it’s not hurting you, just ease the bag away and keep to yourself. We don’t want to cause any trouble and it could make you seem a bit whiny if you press the matter. Just relax, take another nap and next thing you know, we’ll be there. Having failed to gain the attention of the feet’s owner, Summer slowly pulled her backpack away and placed it onto her lap. oh, we’re here? . Summer slowly stood up after putting her backpack on and made her way towards the front of the bus. She didn’t stop to say hello to everyone out of nerves. She wasn’t one to introduce herself unless there was a chance to make some ill gotten cash. At the casino, she was very confident but here? She couldn’t conjure up the courage to say hello. She didn’t want to attract attention to herself either.. “Er… thanks.” She gave the driver a small smile as she walked off the bus. Is that cop looking at me!? Summer, be calm. Just try to look like you’re nervous because of the school, not because you’re a talented girl at thievery. She looked down at her feet as she walked a few paces. Her breathing was quite heavy and her body was starting to shiver from a mixture of the fear this was a trap and the cold.”God it’s cold!” She exclaimed as she felt the cold penetrate all of her clothing. She folded her arms into her armpits and leaned forwards slightly to try to keep her body heat to herself. Knew I should have gotten the thermal stuff! It’s soooo coooold. She bit down on her lip and whilst she didn’t appericate it, the cold was the distraction she needed.

June

June groaned, rubbed her eyes and got out of her seat. With a yawn she shoved her earphones into her pocket, stuck on her jacket and put a rucksack on her back. June wasn't in any particular rush to depart the bus, but she carefully took her guitar case and small suitcase and waddled out the door.

She let out an audible groan and rolled her eyes seeing a cop as she got off the bus.

Samuel sighed to himself.. Well that wasn't very long to read his book at all was it? Oh well, at least we're here at any point... Hopefully. If I got to walk I'm going to have to use a pocket warmer... A shudder shook down his arm from the cold as he placed the book back in it's nest amidst numerous scarfs, beanies, all sorts of warming items. Letting his earbuds hang down from his jacket as he picked his bag up and walked off the bus, fishing a pocket warmer out just in case with one hand another taking the additional suitcase, stuffed full with items he needed to sleep comfortably, with him.

Yep.. looks like I'm walking.. He grumbled, cracking the seal inside the gel to trigger the reaction, he placed it between his palms rubbing them together to get the heat all over his freezing cold fingers. Eyes on the cop. "Are you the welcoming committee? Please tell me the school and warmth isn't far." The reaction stopped, well that was the warmer at the height of it's heat. "Urgh. Totally tepid." He grumbled. This curse just sucks.. I miss a nice hot bath.. or shower..

Willa Dupont

Willa sighed as her sister began to button up her coat (far too slowly, in Willa's humble opinion). She watched some of the other people get off as she waited. Her eyes brightened at the sight of a guitar case being carried past. Maybe they could play together, sometime.

At the sight of her sister rummaging, she sighed again, this one much more obvious. "What's up, slowpoke?" At the "poke", she actually physically poked her sister in the arm. "I wanna gooo..."

Amelie Dupont

Amelie found her dark green gloves, just a moment before Willa poked her in the arm.
"I knooooow. I'm ready!" She replied quietly, but exasperatedly.
To her, she was always, well, most of the time, going as fast as she could, and thought her sister was often too impatient. However, Amelie also knew that what she thought of as normal speed, others thought of as slow and dawdling, and so she quickly put her gloves on and fastened her bag.

As she began to move out to the aisle, she turned to Willa. "Have you got everything? What about your hat?" She was referring to the item that Willa had been crocheting.

Willa Dupont

“In the bag.” Willa said, patting her satchel. “It’s not totally done yet, I’ll finish it later.” Following Amelie out into the aisle, she ushered her forward with her hands. “Now, let’s go see what’s waiting for us, you dig?”

Amelie Dupont

Please be something nice.

Amelie got to the bus exit and gave the driver the briefest of looks, paired with a "thank you".

She stepped off the last step of the vehicle. Her eyes looked around apprehensively at her surroundings, the other kids, the approaching sheriff.
A sheriff? I hope nothing bad has happened!
She stood outside and looked at Willa as she waited for her to also alight the bus.

Willa Dupont

Willa walked along behind her sister, waving at the bus driver by way of thanks.

Stepping off the bus, she looked around smiling, until her eyes came to rest on the sheriff walking towards them. At the sight of the man, her smile faded and her eyes widened slightly. Pulling Amelie to her, she whispered in her ear.

"You think he's with the school? You think he's with the government?" She paused to take another look at the man. "I can't tell, but this could be totally legit... It's sketchy, man. Suuuper sketchy. Don't tell him anything unless you have to. And keep your eyes open."

After this, she pulled away from her sister and kept her eyes locked on the sheriff.

Amelie

Amelie wondered why her sister was grabbing her, but rolled her eyes when she realised the reason.

"Don't be silly!" She whispered back.
The sheriff was hopefully just welcoming them, but...Amelie would have expected someone from the school to be doing that. Whatever the reason, she was both puzzled and concerned.

The policeman steadfastly approached the bus, his walk heavy and his face slightly grimaced by the uphill trek. The sun had broken through the clouds momentarily to shine on one of his eyes despite the brim of his dumb hat, forcing him to close it slightly. The combination of that and the fact that he was chewing gum made him look like a character out of a B-tier spaghetti western. He even seemed to have a personalized revolver in the holster beneath his shoulder. He nodded up at the bus driver- "Hey, Larry." -and at the kids "Hello, kids." There was a short awkward silence, which Larry broke. "Hey, Dan," he said with a nod that carried a strong hint of contempt. "Well, gotta run. So long. Take care, kids." The bus's door fell shut and the engine rumbled.

"Dan" regarded the trembling vehicle, blinking into the sun. He looked on as it drove away for a little while before speaking again. "My name's Daniel Drecksau." He had turned to them, slowly chewing his gum as he inspected them. He had left a pause between his first and last names, as if to make clear that he would not tolerate Larry's mistreatment of his name from them. "I knew you were headed here today. Benjamin up at your...academy always keeps me informed in case I need to know anything. Not that any of you have something to hide, huh?" His grin was ghoulish, and he made sure to look at each of them individually as he said his part. "I just wanted to introduce myself. I figured it'd be a good thing if you got personally acquianted with the authorities of this town. Benjamin and Jeremy are going to be here soon, so how about we use the time to get a little acquianted."

He actually pulled out a notepad and a pencil, flicking a few pages over before looking back up at them. "Would you be so kind as to tell me all your first and last names?" There was no sign of this Benjamin or Jeremy.

June Diaz

June ran her tongue across her teeth. Annoying the local cops wasn't the first thing she wanted to do upon arriving in this new town. But well, her and police officers didn't exactly get along and he had set it up perfectly. June smiled and eagerly answered Officer Drecksau's question. "Bofa." June answered, awaiting the Sheriff's follow up.

"Bofa...what?" the sheriff prodded snidely as he wrote, eyeing June up from behind his noteblock, completely oblivious to the landmine he'd just stepped on.

June Diaz

The sheriff falling for it was easily the best thing to happen to June since she left L.A. Leaving no pause and not wanting to give her classmates a chance to interrupt June answered the man's question immediately. "Bofa Deez Nuts!" June shouted excitedly.

Willa Dupont

Watching the sheriff warily, Willa's eyes widened yet again, this time at the mention of giving names. She began to weigh the pros and cons of giving a false name in the back of her mind; did the guy have a list? Would he know if she lied? As the first of the students spoke up, she paused and listened. Bofa didn't really sound like a real name, so maybe this other girl was on the same page. Or maybe she just had a name that didn't sound real, that was always possible.

At June's shout, Willa's doubts vanished. So did her thoughts, as she became absorbed with trying to keep herself from laughing. She clapped a hand to her mouth and watched to see what the sheriff would do.