In the Real World (open to anyone and everyone)

[Ariana Mullen]

Welcome to Hammel Institute, Ariana.

Screw and you, Aria thought. And it's Aria, not Ariana! She pushed back a loose lock from hair behind her ears and simply scowled at the main office. It took days to get here - a place where she would probably never ever enjoy staying at - because she originally lived states away in a pleasant little place called Cloudsborough, Minnesota with her best buds ever. She had promised to call them whether she could or could not because she didn't want them to worry. Aria was a jerk, but underneath that tough little shell was a young girl. As much as she enjoyed being the brawn, she had some brains as well.

Aria knew from the beginning, whether she had her powers or not, she was the powerhouse of her group of friends. She knew her limits though. There were plenty of things the others were good at but she wasn't good at. The point was that she was a pretty decent runner up though. Many would see her as a cocky girl, which she was, but she only did so to make sure nobody doubted her confidence-even if she didn't have to prove anything.

Even in this office, she was ready for a fight. She was sucking on a Watermelon Jolly Rancher; pink always toned down the extent of the powers she could use. It also toned down the extent of which her body was deteriorating through the use of her powers. There were adults around, definitely: teachers. Aria wrinkled her nose in dismay. She never liked authority. But since she was brought here, Aria would probably have to deal with them. who was she to them? A juvenile delinquent was her best bet. Surprisingly, even now, she didn't know this was a place for metahumans to train themselves in their powers.

It was probably weird to think that it was within a normal human's capability to ravage an entire hospital room with the strength and fury of a bull. But Aria though she was capable of doing anything she set her mind on doing - including that. All of that just added to inflating her large enough ego.

Aria scoffed mentally. As if anything stopped her ego from inflating. It was more that people took on that job-like teachers and parents for instance. Oh, how she hated those adults; they always told her to grow up! Wasn't she grown up already?

Aria never got to find out, even with the obvious clues given to her in her home town.

The only proof she could find would be right here-in the real world.

She gulped and began to speak, "Excuse me. Can anyone tell me why I'm here? Is this a juvenile delinquent center or something because I'm not that engrossed in that kind of idea?" She had a very exasperated disposition as she frowned at whoever would listen to her. However, she still had to repeat a mantra to herself to stay calm. This is not the end, this is not the end, this is not the end... I'm not in any trouble. I'm just here for doctors to check up on me or something. Yeah, that's why I had to pack up and all of that.

[Romeo Buckland]

It’s already been established that Romeo’s quite the troublemaker. Never been one to follow the rules, the Irish boy had been known to sneak into campus late at night (usually drunk as a skunk), never submit a single homework on time (and bully his classmates into doing his projects for him) and even occasionally pick fights just to prove a point (this one’s a rarity though; despite the physical nature of his power, the boy thinks he’s much too important to stoop to that level. He’d rather demean his opponent and attack their confidence).

And since Hammel never really had expelled a student before (he’s been threatened a couple of times that they might just do it to him to set a precedent; but since they didn’t really expel those involved with the Sex Ed prank two weeks back – which was way worse than anything Romeo’s done so far – the Irish boy believed that them adminly figures were just bluffing) and suspension’s pretty moot since the institution’s a boarding school, Romeo’s punishments were often in the form of ‘community service’. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for example, he’s in charge of cleaning the pool and the lockers right after his swim team practice. Tuesdays and Thursdays are for the rest of the gymnasium, while the weekends were for the training rooms. He’s also tasked to help teachers check test papers occasionally as well as help the theater group and the band with setting up should these particular clubs have practices.

While these might seem too much, Romeo would rather do any of them for twice the time rather than help in the administration offices during Wednesday mornings. For three hours, the boy’s basically the recruiting office’s and the registrar’s slave, helping sort out student files and schedules into folders and stuff. It’s three hours of monotonous pawn-work, and since he’s surrounded by the hoity-toity administrative people, well, let’s just say he couldn’t even crack a joke.

He was just sorting out the new housing reassignment requests (why can’t these people settle in their rooms anyway? So they had a dirty roommate? Why don’t they just suck it and let him be. God) when someone just spoke. He was expecting someone else to answer her so he simply did his work for a few more minutes. Then he realized that they were having some administrative meeting (something about some new rules, he overheard the headmistress say earlier) so there’s no one to entertain the girl but him. Fuck.

“Well you’re basically here to die. Like pigs for the slaughterhouse. There’s no escape,” he said nonchalantly, walking out of the office and settling in the front desk, “What kind of a stupid question is that anyway?” Shouldn’t her recruiter have told her about the place? Wasn’t that protocol? Maybe amnesia’s part of her power’s side effects. Or perhaps she’s just naturally dumb. That thought made the Irish teen chuckle a bit. “Tell me your name so I can pull your file off and I can get back to work.” He still has three piles of paperwork to sort. Oh this is punishment alright.

[Ariana Mullen]

So it's the Troublemaker vs. the Jerkass. Aria knew by first glance that this guy was tough and bound to cause her some trouble in whatever way he does that. Aria saw that the boy wood be a good fighter- someone to ease her boredom, perhaps. That's why he's here, no? Aria did her homework, unlike this guy, mainly because Moira kept on pestering her. She couldn't deny that she bullied kids into doing what she wanted them to do for her either, but at least, she never used violence-only blackmail and passive-aggression. Those two options always did the trick. She only did that to Moira and Daniel though. Deep down, Aria felt guilt. Bullying was not a way to repay kindness. However, it was all she knew how to do because she was born a jerk and grew up as one. It helped ease her mind of conflicting emotions and detached her from these people. It was wrong though and she couldn't deny it.

Aria didn't know what was up with this school. She hadn't even considered it a school that accepted minors like her, since it seemed so advanced and whatnot. School in Minnesota was extremely different. Here, the school system was different. They taught much more advanced subjects whereas in the Cloudsborough Public school, all one could ever learn was basic math and English and some history. Maybe some Physics if you get lucky. The institute was huge and easy to get lost in, with an enormous faculty/student population to boot. She wondered if it was a university, but she saw kids her age as she entered the school. Then, Aria just shrugged off the thought and passed it off as an elite boarding/private school. She didn't know Hammel Institute was a boarding school- just for metahumans. The reason why she didn't know was not because she had amnesia as a side effect or was dumb or whatever.

It was because she had no respect for her recruiters from the beginning. Both were chubby, suited bald men with glasses and a suit. They spoke to her in a monotone she could easily forget in ten seconds flat. Her only options were to be bored to sleep or death. Aria was pretty sure the former would be best. There was nothing to prove her wrong either, was there? Aria didn't see any proof against her except that what they were saying must have been interesting. Aria didn't care though if they didn't put some urgency into their tone of voice. It was very difficult to take the recruiters seriously, if she had to be honest.

Aria found it easy to get why a student would be here sorting paper work. Community service. Why, she saw the other high schoolers do it at her old school. The Cloudsborough Public School didn't do expelling either. It was the only school around for miles. Aria simply got detention for what trouble she caused. Normally, she saved her fights for when school was out of session. For some reason, other students wanted to bother the school administration. As much as she hates authority, Aria already has enough turbulence in store for the teachers through personality conflict. It all worked out.

"You're quite the ray of sunshine," she retorted as sarcastically as possible. Aria simply scrutinized him, sizing him up to see how he acted. "As for the stupid question, I ask that merely because I was bored to sleep long before the recruiters actually told me about it. I'm surprised they weren't even able to notice that I was dozing off while they ranted. I'd think they would be more uptight." Or maybe, it was that Aria coincidentally got the worst recruiters yet. Maybe, the recruiters weren't even trying. That was unusual though with this school; you'd really expect that the staff, not just the students would be interesting too. Oh, she bet some of the teachers were interesting. Aria just had set high standards for them from the very beginning. "As for my name, it's Ariana Mullen. Don't call me Ariana though; I prefer Aria. And who the hell are you?" she asked with not so much disrespect, but more so irritation out of being so bored.

[Romeo Buckland]

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Seemed like Ariana’s and Romeo’s recruiters were more than worlds apart; unlike hers, his recruiter was more like a Sports Illustrated model than a recruiter really. Ms. Tate, when she came and picked him up, was dressed in a very classy blouse-and-pencil-skirt ensemble, high heels and, if Romeo remembered it right, her hair up in a bun. He’s not actually sure if she was wearing glasses that day in the hospital, but he’d probably say yes if you asked. (If only because it completed the whole ‘hot librarian’ look that the Irish teen insisted was so perfect on her). Ms. Tate had experience and confidence, and really didn’t take no for an answer. It was amazingly terrifying. She knew everything there was to know about Hammel, and had the right answer to counteract whatever argument they’d raise about his abduction recruitment. She even helped with his enrollment even if he did head to Kocher instead of Hammel at first.

And if you’re wondering how exactly did Romeo remember his recruiter, well at first he didn’t. But then one day after Ms. Singleton’s English class Ms. Tate walked in and gave her partner a kiss. Hormones kicked in and surprisingly enough, his mind happily remembered that memory. Which he then used to strike up some small talk with the two of them. They were such a fine lesbian pair and Romeo’s been having dreams of being stuck in between them ever since.

“Oh thank you madame,” he barked back, sarcasm just oozing out of him, “Glad I can be of service.” He even did a little curtsy as he rolled his eyes and let out a very irritated sigh. A shadow of a smile did appear on his lips when she said (admitted?) that her question was stupid. “Of course. Blame others for your own failings. Was that how you got by with your former life, Little Miss Sunshine?” Romeo’s voice was slow and very condescending, and the very judgemental smirk on his face was he was saying all that wasn’t really helping ease the tension.

“Ariana Mullen. N’aww, I’ll stick to Ariana, thank you very much,” said Romeo with a wink, giving her one last insincere smile before going back to the offices to pull her file out. It took a while, but after a few minutes Romeo came out holding a relatively thick folder with her name written on the side. “Apparently I’m your upperclassman. Ever heard of respecting your elders?” He pulled out a sheet from the file that contained her class schedule then grabbed a couple of pamphlets from the shelf beside him – the school manual, code of conduct, FAQs, the map, all that stuff. (He’s done the whole thing a couple of times; sadly, the number of hot recruits weren’t that high lately). He then pulled a little card out and inserted it to a slot beside the desk computer, and after a couple of clicks here and there, a small beep was heard. “And here’s your key to your room. Room 206.” A small chuckle escaped him as the list of the current residents appeared. “Woah. Three girls and one guy. Patch has a man-gina though, so he wouldn’t really be able to take advantage. Such a waste.” Not to mention the two other girls were pain in the asses. Literally.

“Any more questions twerp?”