The Teacher (Open)

Cafeterias were always a bummer, a bunch of students piled in for the singular purpose of feeding themselves, sectioned off into their own little cliques. Iris sort of pitied them, it just seemed inefficient to her when she could have lunch on the go and explore around campus. Given that she was new here that was exactly what she was going to do, she wanted to know every nook and the cranny of the academy. On top of that, the season had changed into what she liked to call a transitional period where it wasn’t exactly winter anymore, and not quite spring. She hated snow, but loved the spring time so it was during this time of year that she was absolutely the most anxious, a state of being that just didn’t suit a girl who was rarely able to settle down as it were.

Iris had her hands in her hands stuffed into the pocket of her brightly colored blue, pink, and purple striped hooded jacket, wearing a scarf of the same bright striped pattern and colors. Peeking out from under it was an old white t-shirt. Denim capris under which she wore a pair of ankle high zebra pattern socks covered her lower half, with a pair of black leather Mary Jane flats adorning her feet. Of course she was wearing a bunch of different jelly bracelets along with silver and gold bracelets interspersed into the multicolored weave around her wrists. In her mouth she was carrying a half-eaten corn dog from the cafeteria, this one corndog made up the entirety of her lunch.

She probably wouldn’t have noticed the girl around her age and the older man at one of the benches in the courtyard if the girl hadn’t said something to draw Iris’s attention. Despite not having heard what was said Iris’s interest was piqued instantly. Mostly because she was interested in strange new people and things, so without any hesitation at all she found herself bounding over toward the two. Pulling her hands out of her jacket she used both hands to wave enthusiastically at the both of them.

“Hello! Oh-!”

Iris stumbled to catch the corn dog that had fallen out of her mouth, juggling it for a moment. Her attempt nearly ended in failure but with some clever maneuvering in what would surely be rendered exactly as thus in the action movie that would eventually be made about her life she saved the corndog from the cataclysmic fate of being dropped on the ground.

After she had gotten a firm grasp on the dog, Iris finally stood bolt straight with a wide grin and a laugh. “Almost lost that! Anyway, hi I’m Iris, nice to meet you. What’re you guys doing out here? Oh wait that’s rude isn’t it? Yea that’s rude… I’m out here exploring.”

Harmony continued to frown at the old man. He seemed so agreeable it was making her sick. “Whatever,” she replied, digging her toe into the grass. “Cookies are for little kids.” Although those cookies did look pretty tasty, she wasn’t about to take one. Her mother had always thought a cookie and pat on the head could fix any problem.

She was about to explain to him that she wasn’t in the making new friends kind of mood when another student stumbled towards them. Harmony jumped out of the way, scowling. “What where you’re goin!” she said, not bothering to introduce herself. She started to move to shove the girl, but Sean had gotten in her way. She wasn’t sure she should shove a teacher without good reason, so she backed off.

Too bad she didn’t choke on that corndog, Harmony thought as the Iris starting babbling about…whatever. She went back to digging at the grass with her toe, glaring at both of them. Why is there no place in this stupid school that isn’t swarming with morons?

“Doctor?” she asked, looking Sean up and down. “You don’t look like a doctor.” In Harmony’s mind doctors were either the type who wore lab coats and took people’s temperatures or the kind who studied for years to get a piece of paper to prove they were the best at some stupid subject no one cared about. Neither of those were people to be respected.

((OOC: No need to apologize.))

“Well,” Harmony replied glaring at Sean and his cookies. “I didn’t ask for you opinion.” Normally, she might have taken him up on his offer for a cookie (after all they did look tasty), but something about the old man was just so…disgustingly pleasant. He didn’t fit with her current mood of hating the world. But that didn’t mean she had to wander off like the other girl. She had as much right to be here as he did.

With that thought in mind, Harmony plopped herself down on the bench next to Sean. She sat as far away from him as possible, so that he wouldn’t get the idea that she was being all buddy-buddy with him.

“Oh, you’re the head shrink.” she said, remembering the other students talking about him between classes. She was pretty sure she’d heard that he could read minds, Not that she was all that worried about it. Harmony usually said what was on her mind anyways. The only times she really kept anything to herself where feelings that made her feel weak, like sorta missing her uncle or her lack of control over teleporting.

She glared up at Sean, suddenly worried about his power. “Stay outta my head, got that old man?”

Harmony had no idea what impasse meant, but she didn’t like the sound of Sean’s tone. It reminded her of her uncle Josef. He always tried to smooth things over. Well at least she was finally getting him to come out of his shell and say what was on his mind now. Even if she had to get him yelling to do so.

When Sean shifted to give her more breathing room on the bench, she couldn’t help but grin a little. Even though everyone here was a push-over, it did make it nice that no one tried to upset her on purpose. Although it got boring, it made things like sharing a bench a lot more comfortable.

“Well good,” she said. ‘Glad that’s settled.” Harmony had no idea how telepathy worked. She figured someone at Sean’s age would have the control to turn their powers off and on at will. Something she didn’t feel like she would ever achieve. At least not fast enough for her. It didn’t help that she had been skipping most of her training sessions.

And she didn’t really want to dwell on that right now.

“I guess you get a lot of work in this freak show,” she mumbled. It was her best stab at making conversation. Anything to keep from thinking about her stupid power.

Harmony wasn’t interesting in expanding her social skills. She thought they were fine just the way they were. It was everyone else who had the problems.

And that explained how she felt about everyone here at Hammel. All the students, even the staff, were those goody-two-shoes, getting along with everyone, don’t do anything to start a fight kind. And that annoyed her to no end. Sure she’s yelled at a few students, but it was never anything engaging. Never any fun.

And on top of that, everyone was so freaking annoying that she couldn’t imagine volunteering to spend time with any of them. It didn’t help that since she had basically no control over her power, she was pretty much a prisoner here at Hammel. With visitations to her uncle, but even that was lame. And all because of some she was part of the “freaks of nature” club.

“Who are you tryin to kid, old man?” she said, giving him an unbelieving look. “This place is freak central. Why do you think they ship us all here with no hopes of parole?” She frowned; staring at the ground like she was hoping it would burst into flames. “How can you like it here? This place sucks. I hate it.”

“Fine,” Harmony said. “You can try and say it all nice and fuzzy, but we’re still weirdoes. I can’t wait to graduate and get away from here forever.” Not that Harmony had any more of a plan that just getting away. But for right now, that was good enough for her. “Besides, you don’t think that’s how the rest of the worlds sees us? As freaks?”

And then the old man launched into the typical adult talk, which Harmony did her best to tune out. She always hated it when her mother would tell her how much she understood what Harmony was going though. She didn’t care if everyone else her age was feeling the same thing. All she cared was that she was miserable.

“Well I’m thrilled for you,” she muttered. “Can’t see why you’d wanna stick around here with a bunch of fr—weirdoes, but if you wanna punish yourself, go right ahead.”