Encounter in Broad Daylight

[Stasis Kiss]

There was no help for it this time. Pride goes before a fall, as the matron and some overblown fiction used to say. Might as well just admit it and get it over with.

Three weeks in her new school and still lost.

Stasis settled her crossed arms for the seventh time and continued to stare at the bewildering map hung on the wall like it was going to yield a new answer by force of will. She was pretty sure by this point that she'd figured out which part held her new science class, with the map painting it a bright painful yellow. The science class that was supposed to contain her cold, breathing body as of fifteen minutes ago.

Now she just had to figure out where she actually was in relation to it.

Without moving her head, she continued to scan for a teacher out of the corner of her eye. Not a chance of course. The map categorically refused to give up any more information than yellow equaled science and the only people she could see were the chattering bodies of other students who were, obviously, nowhere close to lost. Somehow the thought of actually asking someone didn't seem to be an option.

The minutes ticked by as she looked at the crisply drawn diagram until her eyes crossed and the colors all blurred together. She would have to concede defeat eventually but she wasn't emotionally ready for that yet. Probably no science class today though. Maybe she could claim she'd been sick? Maybe a pressing emergency elsewhere.

Maybe she could say she'd been kidnapped by psychopathic ferrets and had had to distract them by feeding them pieces of her packed lunch while slowly backing for the cave entrance. Sandwiches only went so far after all, which would explain the delay.

Stasis snorted under her breath. Oh yeah, right. Not even Jonesy back in her home town would believe that one, and Jonesy would believe anything you told him. Not the brightest salmon in the run after that accident on his uncle's farm.

She stared moodily at the large bulletin board because the You Are Here just wasn't holding her attention anymore. The whole thing was covered in what looked about a hundred years of notices, only the building plan being left mostly clear of clutter. There were big notes, small notes, some creyocopied on crisp new paper, others barely more than scrawled postage stamps glued on by what looked like chewing gum. Who the heck was Forensic and why did he or she want to know if anybody had seen their Hordeling? Judging by the haste the question had been scrawled in, it was apparently of desperate concern. No date though... maybe the pet was still missing. Hopefully Hordelings were on the level of parakeets and not panthers. And wasn't that a comforting thought.

Intrigued now, she leaned forward to study the rest, blowing the falling hair out of her eyes. Apparently somebody named Annie was... sorry, had held a cookout in dorm room sixteen, esoterically billed as a Cultural Experiment in Pollination. Some wiseass had pencilled in the bottom that everybody had happily survived.

At least three people were trying to unload the latest issue of Paragon Protectorate: Final Strike. The sales competition had gotten pretty acrimonious as the last person to post had nearly slaughtered the one before with pin holes. Somebody else was looking for back issues of Atlas Underground, no questions asked. No name on that one, just a direction to leave messages under the left arm of Velocity. That one made her blink for a moment until deciding that this Velocity had to be statue, not a person. She'd probably find out who that had been when she figured out where her School History class was.

Depressing, depressing thought. Nobody had ever died in the hallways here, had they? Surely somebody would notice a skeleton leaning against a corkboard, taking up valuable notice room.

The last thing to catch her eye was a garish piece of paper barely hanging onto the board by a grim wish. Artistically decorated with what might have been black crepe paper hearts and purple glitter, it gaily announced "Valentine's Mosh, Pocket D, Be There Or Be Socially Unacceptable, Nimrod!" No name on that one either but judging by the smudged thumbprints the author had probably glued themselves to the walls in the attempt and had no doubt required rescue.

Stasis straighted and finally uncrossed her arms, stiff after holding them so long. She absently cracked the ridge of ice that had formed on her fingers. She was pretty sure she could find her way back to the courtyard and sight-target on that funny looking tree thing. From there she could at least get back to the English wing and then it was only a hurdle or three to the dubious retreat of her room. Temporary Domicile, actually. That was another appointment that she was supposed to get to this afternoon, which meant that there was probably another damned map in her future. Permanent assignment to a dorm, which meant roommates. She hadn't shared a room in... well, ever really, now that she thought about it.

An odd expression slid across her face before finally settling on a lopsided grin. Well, hopefully whoever she landed with had packed for arctic weather this year. So far control had been mostly been wishful thinking and an entry in a dictionary.

Well, no time like the present to get back into territory she knew. Stepping back, she turned left and promptly headbutted someone.

"Hey!"

"Owww!"

Her teeth snapped together so quickly she saw stars. When her vision cleared she was glaring at him, he was glaring right back at her and they were just about toe to toe with each other. The first thing she realised was that the guy she'd just about run over was only barely taller than she was. The second thing was that he looked oddly hazy at the edges. The last thing, before he opened his mouth, was that he wasn't bad looking at all, even with only one cyclops eye.

If you liked cyclop blondes of course. Not that everybody had to like blondes. Personally she liked her guys with black hair and blue eyes, and not with big dark cyclops sunglasses that pretty much screamed 'too cool for you, sweetheart'. She stepped back suddenly and his face resolved into the more normally proportioned configuration.

However she had to reluctantly admit that what she could now see of the skin peeking out behind the open vest that he probably had at least kissing rights to the shades. Damn it.

"Watch where you're going, fresh. I just about lost an eye there."

Okay. Maybe he wasn't so tall that she would have to put her neck in traction just to stare at his chin but he obviously knew he was taller than appeared on the packaging. She should have gone with the first thought about the sunglasses. The apology died on her lips. She resurrected it reluctantly.

"Sorry. My fault. I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Yeah, it was." The guy adjusted his grip on the backpack slung over one shoulder which did interesting things with the shadows along his collarbone. "But I probably shouldn't have had my head down anyways. So let's call it even. Deal?"

Stasis stared at him and then grinned. "Deal!" she said and promptly stuck out her hand.

The other guy looked surprised but then took it firmly. "You look really new, fresh. What's your name?"

"Stasis.. Stasis Kiss."

"Huh. Well, we'll work on that," he said cryptically. He looked over at the wall, making her turn to look as well. His hand slipped out of hers at the motion and while he flexed his fingers he didn't make any further comment. Goosebumps ran up the arm she could see but if he was going to ignore the reaction, she was happy to as well. "Lost, huh?"

Okay, that was a little too much in the way of personal information. She opened her mouth to tell him so, only to hear herself say from far away, "Yeah. Really, really, really lost. Science is yellow?"

Her voice trailed off weakly at the end. Okay, maybe the ice had gone to her brain now, freezing something vital. But the grin that split the stranger's face was hard to resist. She found herself smiling back out of habit and watched as he lifted a finger to point to the map section that she just hadn't been able to figure out.

She blinked. There was dark smoke trailing from his hands. You could barely see it head on, but when she turned to look away there were streamers of it trailing into the air like amorphous, winding snakes. Weird.

She amended the thought in her head. Not weird. Probably normal around here. No doubt she'd get used to it eventually.

"You got it. Science is really, really yellow. Look, Stasis. Some of the upperclassmen think its funny to mess with the maps. Mostly they just get creative with stuff but sometimes they can get a bit mean. Look, you see here?" She leaned in and looked closer. "This is where it says you are. But if you look closer you can see that the marker is not the same color as the legend it matches up with. So what you need to do is look around the map until you find the real marker that's probably been covered over with white correctall. Do you see it?"

If there was one thing she understood, it was challenges. With her nose damned near touching the printed surface, she traced the colored schematic without blinking before finally giving a crow of delight. With one stabbing finger she pointed to the nearly hidden circle. "Right there! That's where I am."

The grin was gone but she was pretty sure that was approval in those shades. "You got it. So which way is yellow?"

She closed her eyes and traced it in her head this time. That way was the tree, that way was English so this way would be the main courtyard and the Library which could only mean that that direction was....

"Science!" Opening her eyes she saw her finger pointing unerringly through the wall. But her saviour was nodding his head approvingly.

"Science."

"Thank you. God, thank you.I was starting to think I was going to have to start carrying chains and rattling, just for the verisimilitude."

"Not a problem, freshman." An expression that might have been amusement flowed across his face. "When I first got here I just about starved to death trying to find the cafeteria." He waited a heartbeat. "I've spent the rest of my time trying not to eat the food."

"It can't be that bad.. can it?"

He gave a shrug that could have meant anything from 'you'll find out' to 'i hope you never find out' and stepped back, easily avoiding any possible collisions with the flow of traffic as he merged with it. "Anyways. Later".

He was four or five steps away before she thought to ask the obvious. She pitched the question up and over to his retreating form. "Hey! What's your name?"

The muffled answer came back a heartbeat later, "Jaygo. Jaygo J...."

Jaygo. Well, that was something. A name and... hot damn, a map. A working damned map!. Hotdiggity.

Well, Science was definitely out of the question now but she bet she could find that nun's office about the dorm room question. Yes sir, she had a game plan now.

Savoring the picture in her head for a blissful moment, she executed a swift pivot worthy of any drill master. She managed to avoid a potentially nasty incident by the swift expedient of freezing the stack of books falling from the arms of the overloaded bookworm student. The resulting frozen waterfall was quite pretty, she thought.

"What did you do? My God, my textbooks!! They're ruined!"

_______________

muah! this sniplet brought to you by the kind permission of Jaygo who probably had no idea what he was agreeing to. i promised to be good to the big lug .. and i was. mostly.

i know, not very lone wolf. but you just seemed to be the helpful sort even if busy dealing with backpack issues.

[Amends]

*standing ovation*

[Jaygo Jones]

I was far less concerned than you might think, Statis

[Annie Dromida]

<looks up from her own writing>

Oh! People are getting so good! This has got to be one of the best "St. Joes Snapshot" pieces written yet!


And P.S.:
That cookout was a big hit! I was able to get one of the human students to try Oooglemacs, and he said he liked it a lot!

[Stasis Kiss]

And P.S.:
That cookout was a big hit! I was able to get one of the human students to try Oooglemacs, and he said he liked it a lot!

was that before or after the stomach pump?

/ducks.

[Annie Dromida]

We had a healer on hand! It's not my fault humans have such weak stomach linings!

[November Bell]

Wow, great work!

You made Jaygo almost seem dreamy. Almost.


THAT'S TALENT.

[Jaygo Jones]

don't get mad Bell. I still like you. hell I gave you the bear remember

[FrancisCross]

Sorry about the map....you shoulda seen what it looked like before I found it....believe me, the white correctall is the only thing standing between one of our dear students and an afternoon with Moltar....

Nice work Stasis!

Franky X