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You know what? Keo considered thoughtfully to herself.  In retrospect, it probably wasn’t the best of ideas to decide to wear my absolute noisiest accessories on a trip to the library. The Autumn glanced down at her clanging golden bangles, sucking in her cheeks with mild contempt at her own terrible decision- making skills.

Honestly, now that she was in the mood for judging herself, her entire outfit was a walking disaster.  Sure, it looked cute, but against the cool and relaxing tones of deep wooden bookshelves and faded literature, her bright yellow romper, spiky black belt, and heavy platform rollerblades seemed loud, obnoxious, and much too overwhelming; she probably looked about as in her element as a drunken clown at a formal dinner party.

Sighing, Keo opted not to worry to much on the subject- after all, she'd come here on an important mission which had still not yet been properly fulfilled.  Since she'd first enrolled, the girl had been dying to find a moment to herself where she could finally begin to look into her mother's past; now that her computer was broken (once again) and she had nothing to distract herself, now seemed like as good a time as any to commence her search.

God, it was boring, though.  Keo loved her biological mother just as much as the next girl- perhaps even more, if one looked at it subjectively- but any search could be considered challenging when all one had to go off of was a name.  Even her mother's powers were a mystery to the girl, and it wasn't like the school's past yearbooks could reveal much more than a face.  What she needed was access to Beata's directory, or perhaps a list of acquaintances of her mother that she could track down and talk to.  She needed medical records, grades, personal preferences- none of which seemed to be accessible even in Beata's expansive library.

A little disheartened, Keo stood to return what few books she'd been able to find back to their original positions.  Suddenly, her ear buds (which were of course the most obnoxious shade of bright green ever in the history of forever,) yanked her back and dropped her phone to the floor.  The girl stumbled with a yelp, slipping as her feet rolled out from under her.  As her books dropped to the floor with a sturdy *BANG*, Keo flopped over her chair and upended the table with her feet before finally settling into a mangled heap upon the ground.  "Fuck!" She ground out loudly, propping herself back up- only to remember where she was a few moments later.  Sheepishly, the girl glanced in apology at one of her fellow students a few feet away, who had now doubt borne witness to her entire disaster.  "Oops...?"  She uttered guiltily, managing an awkward smile in hopes of reconciliation.

There were many things that she could list off the top of her head that was wrong about trying to head to the library now of all days, especially considering that there really wasn't much of a need to go. It was way too hot today, scorching and blazing to the point where she would've been certain that it was a complete desert and nothing about North Dakota's current climate could say otherwise, and her vision was positive in detecting waves distorting everything that her eyes glanced around at. Not to mention the blood and sweat that she had to shed to get all the way from the Summer dormitory to the destination, leaving her throat parched and shriveling away, even with the number of water bottles she had on her. Wearing long-sleeved clothes was only detrimental but completely necessary, lest she wanted to look like the idiot roaming around with an umbrella in her hands. Carrying parasols on days like these was culturally inappropriate, and honestly, it was the wrong era for that sort of thing. What was it again? Feudal times? No, wait, it was only about twenty years ago or so and probably still a popular activity.

But that wasn't the point, not at all.

Preferably, she would've looked up the answers or done some research for this assigned project online and saved the trouble of having to go outside when the sun was perched in the sky at the highest peak it possibly could be at, even towering over the mountains on the horizon. Unfortunately, that wasn't remotely possible when information on gifts and the rest weren't on the internet. Referring to the lessons during class was always an option but she hadn't exactly taken any notes at the time, and now, Nicola found herself lacking any information on the matter. Her pride felt damaged, as though it had taken a stab from a wooden stake, and not knowing the answer to the question that had been plaguing her mind for weeks was practically morphing into her Achilles' Heel. Any longer and she would've been driven mad and someone could exploit it in combat or something.

So here she was, sitting in a secluded corner in the library with multiple stacks of books surrounding her as her fingers slid across the smooth, age-worn pages of ancient archives of information that didn't seem to have a date planted on them. If she had to estimate, maybe around the time the school first opened with some newer ones in mint condition here and there, but those were rare and came up once in a millennium in her search. From morning until now, reading hours and hours upon end, it was starting to get really boring. A few times, she was starting to fidget and get restless, constantly messing with her cap or fraying the edges of the books. Sometimes, her hand found itself fiddling with the pencils she was using to take notes.

It was getting boring, cracking upon thick books without so much progress. Sure, she was learning some pretty weird and interesting things, like the history of the gifted gene and where it supposedly originated from, but that wasn't what she wanted to learn at all. Her patience was beginning to wear thin. With her chin propped up with one hand, Nicola stared down another text-reliant encyclopedia. Something about how the gifted gene was passed on this time, but that was very, very boring. There wasn't anything particularly special about it, to be completely honest. The mechanics were exactly like any other normal monogenic trait, which was rather underwhelming the more she thought about it. One would think that the way it worked was much more complicated, but it really wasn't.

Maybe she should put some research into this later. Find out what that particular DNA strand really did. After all, there were so many kinds of powers and gifts that one had to pin it down as something that wasn't as simple as that. There was no way that it could be that easy. Absolutely impossible. Or maybe her mind was trying to overthink it too much and she should try delving into this with a more open mind...

... Wait, hold on. She was getting off track again. That wasn't the question that she wanted to solve at all. Quickly jotting down a mental note, Nicola shut the book closed, a cloud of dust puffing up from the impact as her hand flimsily waved it off before she could inhale too much.

Rising from her seat, she gathered up a decent pile of tomes and anthologies in her hands, carefully balancing them as she walked to return them to their proper shelves. At least, that's what she would've liked to accomplish had it not been for one girl being just the clumsiest person in existence with the grace of a one-legged flamingo deciding to wear rollerblades into a goddamn library and just making the most ridiculous mess Nicola had bothered witnessing anyone ever make on their own. Was she one of those walking accidents or something? With a small frown, she cautiously set her books aside on a flat surface - taking a bit more caution than before, as though she didn't want to mirror the accident herself - and bent down, gathering the fallen hardback copies before handing them to the other student once she managed to stand upright again.

Man, this girl was a complete eyesore to look at in that design set. It was as though someone had taken a bunch of bright colors and threw up to create this mess, the obvious clash against the library making it that much harder to look at. Why was she even wearing that anyway? Even though school was technically on break, they did have to wear their uniform still. Technically. Her peer was looking at some rather intriguing material, something that Nicola wouldn't have expected other students to be looking at.

Nicola readjusted her cap, long white hair cascading behind her in an unkempt manner as though she didn't bother brushing it properly, which was actually the case. "If you were lookin' for the roller derby, there's one in Rosebury." She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, allowing her childish manner of speaking to spring forth. "But I don't think that's what you're actually doin' since all of the map directories are in the office."

"Ahahaha... yeah, I probably should have taken these off before coming in here, huh?"  Keo laughed awkwardly, bending down to remove the paper tabs from her sandals that had brought her wheels into existence.  Slowly, the roller skates disappeared into the paper, restoring her shoes back to their original form: platform high- heels.  The Autumn looked down at them thoughtfully.  Huh, She monologued to herself.  Somehow, I'm getting the very distinct impression that these are not much better than my first choice; how odd.  Shrugging to herself, Keo stood once more and slipped the paper bracelets that had once been her wheels onto her wrists.

Smiling in as dignified a manner as possible, considering the debacle the female in front of her had just witnessed, Keo quickly returned the library table to its original position before extending her hand in greeting towards her fellow student.  "You seem like a nice person.  I'm Keo,"  The girl grinned amiably.  "Thanks for helping me with my books.  Your name is...?"

Suddenly, Keo's eye drifted down to the girl's outfit.  "Fucking hell!"  She muttered in dawning realization.  She groaned, stomping her foot in disappointment.  " God dammit, if I'd remembered that we were supposed to wear our school uniforms, I would have had a much easier time getting ready this morning.  Fuck me with an electric sledgehammer on steroids with type 2 diabetes and thyroid cancer."

Thrusting her fingers into the deepest, darkest corners of her backpack, the teenager began the very strange and unkempt process of locating the paper in which she'd stored her school uniform for safe-keeping.  Various piles of broken pencils, eraser bits, candy wrappers, crumpled note cards, and other miscellaneous odds and ends were strewn about on the floor, quickly gathering into a rather sizable mass of what could only be described as useless junk.  Finally after having emptied out the majority of her backpack's content onto the library floor, the necessary paper-which had been crumpled in a ball and shoved between an romance novel and a dirty whiteboard-was found.  Keo gently unfurled it, shimmying it over her body until the blinding fabric of her romper was replaced with the much tamer tones of the Beata Academy uniform.  Ah, the conveniences of this ability really knew no bounds, did it?

"...That probably looked really weird."  The Autumn suddenly realized, glancing at her companion with yet another sheepish grin.  "I'm completely sane, I swear."

She had met her fair share of really awkward and strange students in the one year she had attended Beata thus far. Really, she had. From that one weird water girl way back outside in the forest that one time that didn't know anything about private space to the Cerberus siblings that seemed to have disappeared off the face of the Earth, not to mention her Frontier group where she was surrounded by angels, demons, and necromancers, and then Madison, it seemed that there wasn't anything that the kids at the academy couldn't do. They all had some obscure and strange gifts, some being much more eccentric than others, and Nicola was certain that she didn't know even a quarter of the school's population. The fact that she was unable to put a name to the brunette's face was only solidifying that. At least, until Keo actually introduced herself.

Nicola gave Keo a brief but pointed look. There wasn't anything necessarily wrong with the enthusiasm or energy that the other girl was showing, no, it was just that she was moving too quickly to give any opportunities for a decent response. Awkwardly laughing, attempting to give the common gesture for introducing herself, a certain characteristic way of cursing at herself for something stupid, and spilling a good amount of items onto the floor that seemed to make that backpack seem less like an actual backpack and more like a void with no end, something that could be considered a pocket dimension... She had considered Madison to be the most peculiar person she knew on the campus thus far and now, Nicola was unpleasantly surprised to find that her roommate had a strong contender for the title, and really, that was saying a lot, considering Madison's gift.

Then again, nothing could really beat the spectacle that Madison made whenever her power worked. At least, Nicola had a sinking feeling that she wouldn't be able to forget the scene on the rooftop or in their room or, well, anywhere else. Her friend was really bizarre in more ways than one. It was rather amusing watching her swing a sword at what seemed to be nothing as she seemed to be battling her life out to survive. That seemed like it was only yesterday. Had it already been a year?

Oh wait, this wasn't the time for reminiscing. She could save that for another time. At least Keo didn't seem to notice since she was too preoccupied with herself.

Or so she hoped, anyway.

After her peer got herself settled in her uniform, Nicola just blinked for a few moments before a thoughtful expression fell over her features, hand resting under chin as her fingers held her elbow up. It was really weird, but it wasn't the worst that she had ever seen. "I wouldn't consider you sane." If they were sane and completely normal, they wouldn't be at this academy in the first place. Though that was really the last thing on her mind at the moment. Her brain was swimming, being filled with multiple mechanisms and techniques on what sort of gift Keo had. There were many things that seemed to be possible: pocket dimension via the use of papers, creation based on what was scribbled on the pages, or maybe it was something very silly like the ability to change outfits in the blink of an eye like what those magicians did.

No, the last option seemed very unlikely, seeing as that there was no way that was actually a power. Storing things in pocket dimensions seemed handy, but using a paper as the catalyst didn't quite appear to be the most convenient way possible. Besides, if anything, Nicola would have thought that the pocket dimensions were elsewhere. Judging from all of the pencils and erasers that came out of that backpack and the quality of the paper, something in her mind clicked.

Maybe it was a good idea to have done some gifted research beforehand. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. Either way, she figured out Keo's power quickly enough.

"The name's Nicola." Slowly, she lowered her arms, allowing them to hang limply at her sides. "Your gift is bringin' your drawings to life, huh?" Subconsciously, her voice lowered a bit, as though she had just registered that they were still in a library. There was a few things wrong with the current scenario, but Nicola decided to simply roll with it. Besides, she might as well help Keo - again -pick up everything that she had thrown to the floor before the librarian came over and decided to kick them out for causing a ruckus. Or more like throw Keo outside, though she had a small feeling that wasn't exactly what the other student wanted. "Say, whatcha doin' in the library anyway?"

Keo smiled in thanks towards her companion for- yet again- helping her clean up the mess she'd somehow seemed to magically spawn into existence involuntarily.  Unlike her brother, who seemed to be a clean freak by nature, (Hehehe, probably because his cat side is prompting him to clean but he can't lick himself in public, she thought giddily,) Keo always seemed to bring a whirlwind of dysfunctional destruction wherever she went.  Honestly, the girl wasn't even sure she knew how others kept themselves so organized and tidy; hell, Keo could literally make just about any sheet of paper into a storage bin, if she needed to, and she still seemed to have a difficult time containing the masses of junk she liked to call her valuables.

Seriously, how does cleanliness even work?  The Autumn wondered to herself.  I could make a giant box out of paper to put all of my junk in so that I could call my real life organized, but then there would eventually come a point where the box would be considered messy and I'd have to find some way to organize that, as well!  If I make more than one paper box to hold different categories of things, there would eventually come a time when I have too many categories to logically carry around everywhere.  Then, I would not only have to find some place to appropriately store the categories I don't want to carry around, but if I suddenly find something that needs to go in a box I don't have with me, I'm of course going to have to put it in one of the other boxes that I do have for safekeeping until I get home!  But what if I forget to move it when I get home?  Pretty soon, there would be one box that I end up putting all of my shit in, and now I've got one disorganized box full of shit, plus a bunch of slightly organized boxes that I'll probably lose eventually anyway.  What is even the point of attempting to be clean in the first place?!

"Yeah, just shove it in," Keo addressed Nicola.  "If something doesn't fit, just move around a couple things until there's space and I'll (probably not) organize it later."

Standing, the teenager brushed herself off before returning her backpack to her shoulder.  She was surprised to hear her new friend guess her power so quickly- and with such accuracy, as well.  "You're pretty intuitive, aren't you?" Keo complimented the other girl.  "Even my own brother had a little trouble figuring out my ability when we first met.  I'm pretty sure I gave him a heart attack when I pulled a tutu for cats out of one of my drawings- though that might have been more because of the tutu that because of my power."  The Autumn snickered to herself, reminiscing about the sheer screech of panic Grey had emitted upon seeing the bright pink monstrosity she had drawn come suddenly into physical existence.  He absolutely refused to turn into a feline for weeks after that, Keo recalled.  Dad eventually had to throw away the tutu, since the neighbors hadn't known that Grey had a human form at that point and they were beginning to wonder where our cat had gone.

Actually, Grey was pretty skittish back then, wasn't he?  The girl remembered, her mind slowly losing track of reality once more.  He used to stay in cat- form almost all the time, which was why Mum and Dad were thinking about adopting him as a pet instead of a son in the beginning.  He didn't talk very much, either, but I still ended up learning like ten swear words from him, which was absolutely fabulous.  Grey didn't speak at all in front of our parents for the first few weeks, so when I started copying his vocabulary Dad thought I'd learned the words from Mum.

The teenager snorted at the memory, right hand reaching up to yank habitually at one of her pigtails before returning her attention of Nicola.  "Speaking of family, I was wondering if you could help me?  I'm been in this place for hours looking for information about a student who attended this school around twenty years ago, but I haven't been able to uncover anything save for a couple dusty yearbooks.  I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you've been attending Beata a lot longer than I have; is there any place I could get my hands on the school's directory or student records?"

ooc;; I sincerely apologize about the wait for this post. I've been so preoccupied lately and haven't found the time to write this until now. >_<

There couldn't have been more of a disarming combo if she could think about it - Keo was the sort of person to talk so quickly and with such energy yet still seemed to wander off into her own thoughts and leave very awkward and abrupt pauses in the conversation. Every time Nicola tried to open her mouth to speak, believing that the brunette had finished with her little one-sided dialogue, it wound up not working and went a bit ignored. It was a bit frustrating, to say the least, and it would've been wonderful to get a word in at one point or another, but that seemed highly unlikely at the current time, so she simply listened to whatever was being talked about halfheartedly, scarcely catching onto the current subject and only grasping certain key words that may have perked her interest every once in awhile.

She hated to admit that she was having a hard time trying to place Keo into a category as to what sort of person she was like. With the other students across the school, it wasn't too difficult. Madison was the awkward antisocial who had a difficult time making friends. Owen was a literal and metaphorical human flashlight. Leo lived up to his name as an angel. Devin was the opposite of what one would expect from a demon. Things like that, it was stripping it down to the bare bones and completely oversimplifying everything, but getting a basic idea on how her peers operated was enough for her, though she wasn't exactly the most perceptive person ever. Simply someone who was good at guessing. At least, with this, Nicola wasn't sitting around and judging people right off the bat like she used to and she had to suppose that D'Angelo would be satisfied with that much, or so she thought.

What kind of person was this girl anyway?

It was driving her more over edge that she couldn't figure her out quite yet or get a good impression on how to describe her. Keo was peculiar, eccentric, and interesting--- no, those were all synonyms that basically meant the same thing. She seemed to have butterfingers and shambolic, a bit hyperactive, and loquacious. There wasn't a way to sum this up in one word, was there? Her mind raced to find something, some sort of label that she could use, but it didn't wind up working. Resorting to Meyers-Briggs personality types was always an option, though those were utilized for getting a practically undeniable comprehension of another person. Once it seemed like Keo had seemed to stop speaking, Nicola quickly resorted to a one-word answer: Keo's weird. Not the bad kind of weird or anything. Simply weird. She could modify her opinion as she went along.

"That compliment would be pretty flatterin' if you were talkin' to someone else," Nicola replied simply, trying to go over what Keo had said in her head as she flicked a long whispy white strand of hair off to the side. There was a lot that she had to try and recall after letting her thoughts wander in and out in their complex, twisting mazes in a sort of disorder that only she could bother trying to understand. "Though I feel sorry for the cat that dealt with your tutu, 'ya know?" Something about a brother here and there and a heart attack, though she could barely make the connections outside of the hyperbolic use of heart attack, which meant that her sibling - older or younger, she couldn't pinpoint yet - had panicked at the sight of it. So that meant either her brother had a gift regarding felines or he owned a pet cat that he was particularly fond of. Both seemed pretty viable as choices, but she didn't have enough information to come to a firm conclusion yet. Soon enough, however.

A student that attended the academy twenty years ago? What for? That was practically when the school first opened. She hadn't quite figured out the mysteries enshrouding the campus yet, though Nicola liked to convince herself that she was working on it. There was too much to uncover and figure out. She frowned slightly, resting a hand on one cheek, elbow supported by her other palm in deliberation. After a few moments of thinking, Nicola shook her head. "The records are all in the headmaster's office, so you can't exactly just skip inside and grab 'em." Her arms found themselves crossed her chest, eyes closed as she tried to think of any solution. "Not even prefects have access, otherwise I could ask my brother for 'ya." Rather disappointing, honestly. She could easily ask him if she wanted to and he would probably do it, but that was going too far, even for her.

"Yup, I got nothin'. Sorry 'bout that."

OOC:  Please don't worry about taking a long time to update; I've been super busy myself, lately, so it would be pretty hypocritical if me to judge you for needing some time (especially since I'm taking longer to update than you are- sorry about that!)

Keo sighed, biting the inside of her cheek in disappointment.  "Balls,"  She cursed(?).  This search was clearly going to be much more difficult that she had originally hoped.  Obviously, she had to get a hold of those files somehow if she ever wanted to learn anything, but from what Nicola had told her, doing so would be no easy task.  As far as the girl could tell, she really only had two options:  she could either build herself up into such an outstanding individual that the headmaster would be willing to entrust her with the files, or she could throw caution to the wind and find some way to steal the documents without anybody knowing.  The choices were equally tedious, and dangerous, as well.

Obviously, the first course of action seemed undeniably safer, and more likely to succeed; however, Keo had only just arrived at Beata Academy towards the end of her junior year, leaving her with less than a year to gain the trust of the headmaster before her impending graduation.  After that, the teen would be forced to leave the campus and the files behind; staking such a risk on a mere year seemed almost inconceivably irresponsible.  How did one get close to Headmaster Wright, anyway?  She'd never even seen the man anywhere on campus, so it wasn't like she could just walk right up to him and introduce herself.  If she wanted to gain access to the head honcho at Beata, it was obvious she'd have to plow her way through a bunch of little sub- honchos first.  Maybe Mr. Wright himself was a huge softy who would be happy to help her with her cause, but that didn't mean his subordinates would feel the same way.  It was entirely possible that her mission could fail before it even began.

Unfortunately, that wasn't to say that her other option was any more fool- proof.  Keo wasn't stupid; she knew that attempting to steal from the headmaster could easily get her seriously injured- or worse, expelled.  The Autumn hadn't been here long, and she didn't know the capabilities of Headmaster.  She didn't know what kind of surveillance he used; she didn't know how heavy the traffic was outside of his office; hell, she didn't even know where his office was!  What if he had some ridiculously freaky ability that could- for example- turn her blood into soda pop or her eyeballs into diamonds?  From what the girl had seen of the school so far, pretty much anything was possible if the right person was available; the room Mr. Wright referred to as his 'office' could very well be a wonderland of booby traps and terrifying mind games just waiting to ensnare some unruly and unassuming student.  Jumping into this reckless and blind could only end in serious complications.

Well then, Keo finally decided.  Since my main problem appears to be lack of information and reputation, I suppose I'll just keep my options open until I've gained a little more of both.  The girl turned once again to her companion, mind churning with thought.  "Is there anybody here on campus that's close to the Headmaster who is possibly more accessible than he is himself?  You know, does he have a close friend or family member I can talk to?  Maybe I could manage to gain an audience with him through them?"

Keo was actually... pretty clever.

The brunette was clearly thinking things through and what the best course of action would be in order to obtain the files in question. Most students around the campus would probably sit around trying to barge into the office or sneak their way past all of the faculty members, but Keo was thinking about getting in with one of the more discrete methods of snatching up the files - sycophancy. Needless to say, perhaps it was a little too far to consider it sucking up to the headmaster quite yet, though the impression was there. It was a smart and safe choice, to say the least. Nicola could give the other girl that much credit thus far. She had a neat way of thinking that allowed her to guarantee obtaining things she wanted without taking too much of a risk or encroach too far into territory and boundaries that she was unfamiliar with. Though, there really was no fun in it all if one didn't try to take a chance.

Personally, Nicola saw no need to go digging through old archives of the past, even if there was something of personal importance. The past was the past, the future would come when it came, and the only time they had to bother with was what time they had now. What was the purpose on lingering on something that was so long ago, let alone dusty relics of an academy run by some nutjobs with the additional load of probably less sane students? Maybe she was thinking too much along the lines of apathy or having a lack of sentimentality, but there was little to no merit in doing so. Not everyone necessarily needed a past and there wasn't a need to have one to discover things about themselves. If anything, Keo was going to all of this trouble to figure something out about herself or get to know someone of importance from back then, though Nicola didn't see any of them being a good use of time.  A bored, almost tired expression fell over her features as she took a seat at the table with all of her books from before, cheek resting on the palm of her hand as she leaned against her elbow.

In most cases, she would go ahead and act on impulse or immediately speak her mind out, but after the amount of scolding she received from more than one person, Nicola kept her mouth shut regarding what she was thinking. Instead, she navigated through what she could remember regarding the subjects brought up. There was no way that anyone could have more access than the headmaster - he was the one in charge and in power of the entire campus after all - was what she wound up rationalizing. The closest person who could get to said position would probably be the school nurse, who, if she remembered correctly, was Mr. Wright's spouse. He also had two sons attending the academy as normal students as well and anyone that was hired was most likely close friends with the headmaster as well. Weren't there rumors about his niece at the school or something too?

She never really did bother trying to confirm who was related to the Wrights, only because she never saw the need for it... Until now. Having the question unanswered was not something she would like to have lingering in her head for an indefinite amount of time. It would prove to be a huge hindrance.

"You could always befriend his kids - they're at the academy currently." Nicola started, blowing a stray lock of hair away from her face. "I'm not exactly an expert on the Wrights though, so you probably wanna take what I'm sayin' with a grain of salt." She did her fair share of research on them every once in awhile, only because the information may prove useful in the future, especially when she actually needed to get on their good side of the sort. While the academy faced destruction on a consistent basis by the students, that didn't exactly mean that everyone got away with it. The memory of being scolded by one of the faculty members filled her head and brought a chill down her spine. Yeah... she had to be more careful about that for sure. Just a little more careful. "They're actually pretty friendly though, so you don't have to worry too much. The office isn't some gigantic monster trap or somethin' like that."

Keo's eyes lit up.  "Oh, so the headmaster has kids!"  She grinned.  "Well, that will make it a ton easier.  Now-"  A brief grin crossed her face as she swept her backpack back onto her shoulder.  "Now I just need to figure out who they are."  In one fell swoop, the girl gathered the rest of her belongings that had previously been piled on the table, hustling the yearbooks back into position on a nearby shelf.  The gears in her mind were churning with thought, developing strategies and ways to acquire information.  She would obviously have to make friends with whoever these kids were; this usually proved to be an easy task, but there was always the slightest of possibilities that some people would find her annoying.  After all, it was obvious even to Keo herself that she was a scatterbrain and a bit of an airhead, and there had been many (including Grey at first) who had been put off by her apparent inability to hold a serious conversation.  Keo also wasn't the most social of people; creating comprehensible art takes time and solitude, after all, so the girl wasn't really one to thrive in company.  She could pretend to be about as outgoing as she pleased, but she deeply aware of how withdrawn from reality she truly was.

Keo frowned, shaking her head vigorously.  "You haven't even met them yet, ya weirdo,"  she muttered to herself, extracting a much more recent yearbook from the library shelves.  "Why are you already freaking out?  You know better than anybody what happens when you get like this."

Rubbing her necklace soothingly, the girl set the yearbook on the library table and flipped it open to a random page.  "Do you know what year the headmaster's kids are in, by any chance?"  Keo turned to Nicola questioningly.  "This is a really big yearbook."

Apparently the last line she said went completely unnoticed, seeing how Keo had gotten up within mere seconds of hearing that the headmaster had children. That didn't exactly please her - people always got on her case about being a very poor listener, too insistent on saying that she was right without trying to get others' perspectives and then getting on their case when she may have messed up. Receiving the same treatment now made her sympathize - just a tiny bit - with those who had always been on the short end of the stick whenever Nicola went into those modes and bouts of rashness. Cheek resting on her hand, she watched the other girl walk away and leave with the various yearbooks in hand before turning her attention back towards her own tomes. If the brunette had gotten everything figured out herself, then there should be no need to converse anymore, and she could advance her research a bit more. Being in the library for this long was starting to make her too uncomfortable.

It was too quiet. She needed noise. Chaos. Disorder. Something that didn't seem so stiff and dreary. The lack of any real conversations made her jittery, as though anything could be sneaking up on her at any given moment, and not to mention the lack of thrill in any of it. Boredom was the reigning king in any library in existence with no exceptions of whatosever. How could anyone stand sticking their nose into a book for so long and not go inside for a breath of fresh air or something along those lines? Sure, it was a nice resource and archive of knowledge, but wasn't it so much better to go outside and try and find those answers themselves? Well, maybe there were a few things that could be an exception to that, but it was still way more fun that way. The more she thought about it, Nicola realized that she could barely keep herself focusing on the large text in front of her. All of them said the same things anyway. She wasn't getting anywhere with this.

An exasperated sigh escaped her as she slammed the book closed again, clouds of dust evaporating into the air and she made the mistake of swallowing some of it as she inhaled. "Ack--" Nicola twisted her hand, nudging her face into her palm and coughed into it just as Keo walked back with even more yearbooks. She taut an eyebrow in slight curiosity, glancing at the page that her peer had flipped to. No page of real importance, apparently. Her frown widened slightly. And to think that she just thought that this girl was clever when she couldn't even think for a few seconds to realize how easy it was to find who the headmaster's children were. Nicola didn't bother holding back her words this time, half because she wanted to spice up the conversation and half because she had completely forgotten to.

"Aren'tcha a lil' stupid not lookin' in the glossary first?" A slightly smug look crossed her features as she leaned back on her chair slightly, kicking her feet up and onto the table with her book resting in her hands. The thought of Owen or D'Angelo chiding her blinked through her mind, and she pinched her nose, mumbling, "Sorry, that was a bit too mean." This was a stranger, not Madison or anyone she was close with. She couldn't get away with being snarky or harshly teasing Keo. Not unless she wanted a repeat of that incident again. Personally, she would prefer not being responsible for even more bloodshed or death, but it still hadn't knocked it into her enough that she was a bully in more ways than one. "Anyway, my point still kinda stands. All you have to do is check up 'Wright' and pages with that last name will be listed." At least, that's how it should work. She never really did look through the yearbooks herself, let alone actually touch one. It never came off as something that she would need, so she never bothered buying one.

What's the point of reminiscing about stupid things that you couldn't relive anyway?

Keo snorted, waving off Nicola's apology before returning to the yearbook.  "Yo, don't worry about it,"  The girl reassured her.  "Stupid questions are stupid, amirite?  Anyway, my hometown's ridiculously small so our yearbooks didn't even need glossaries. Up until Grey and I came here we thought 30 to 40 kids per grade was normal; thus, having an index to list all the kids' names would really just have been a waste of space and paper."

Flipping to the back of the yearbook, Keo perused through the list of students until she came to the names she was looking for.  "Boom,"  She uttered brightly, creating the corresponding explosion gesture with her free hand.  "Jayden Wright.  You, my friend, are a fucking genius."  The girl delved into her backpack, removing a grouping of sticky tabs from the main pocket- an action that was completed with a fairly unprecedented level of ease given the poor bag's current less-than-satisfactory condition.  Plopping down on the library table- there was no way she was going to attempt sitting on that bench again after the previous clumsy mishap-  Keo deftly flipped through the yearbook and bookmarked every page on which Jayden was mentioned.  Then, after a moment of consideration, the Autumn flipped back to the glossary and located Nicola's name as well before completing the same process she had gone through with Jayden; this time, however, she used a bright green tab instead of a pink one to mark the pages.  "Nicola Kresnik, huh?"  Keo smiled cheerily.  "Now that I think about it, it probably would have been a lot easier to have asked what your last name was before I tried to find you in the glossary.  I know, I'm just so on the ball today, aren't I?"

The girl laughed to herself, pulling comfortably on one of her pigtails.  "Oh, and I promise I'm not a stalker.  You just seemed pretty cool, so I wanted to get to know you a bit better is all.  You seem like the kind of person that doesn't think about the past if you don't have to, so I figured the easiest way to learn about that part of you would be just to look you up in the yearbook.  Forgive me if I'm wrong, though- I'm fully aware that I can go hella creepster sometimes."

ooc;; i'm suuper duper sorry this took so long for me to get to - i had meant to post in this way sooner, but IRL things kept coming up and I kept pushing this back to a later date. hopefully this post comes out okay since i haven't written anything in awhile >_<;;

Considering all of the very poor reactions she had gotten from practically every student out there on the school campus that she had bothered to grace with a few lighthearted jests or teases, believing they'd have the stomach to a very minor blithe comment, Nicola had been under the impression that Keo would give similar responses to the rest of them, which was why she had bothered tossing in the apology in the first place. But no, what she got instead was a girl who didn't actually take the joke to heart or read too far into it, letting it slip away like ice skates dancing on the surface. She rarely actually found herself surprised at many incidents with other students - especially when most of them were rather boring and plain, in spite of their abnormal superpowers -, so it was a pleasant shock when her own eyes widened slightly before her face smoothly transitioned into a smile as she subconsciously reopened her own book to a random page. Finally. Someone who wasn't oversensitive about the stupidest things possible. Almost everyone else seemed to have their feelings hurt way too easily that Nicola found herself treading water around them. Keo was different though. This really was going to be a worthwhile trip to the library after all. Why hadn't she met this girl earlier?

All of the talk about Keo's hometown was something she found herself slightly taking note of, though the possibilities of her actually remembering any of those trivialities was little to none. It was nice to know for the time-being, either way. The idea of attending a school, let alone a high school of all things, where there were so little kids per grade that they didn't bother placing a collective list of names for the students seemed plausible - it was a complete waste of paper to have that, even more so when taking into account that every class already placed their students in alphabetical order with the dreaded yearbook picture anyway. If the town was that small, it was unlikely to have much of a budget for a nice and lengthy big book of memories like many other schools would; the likelihood of it being a private academy was rather low as well, though it may as well pass as one for the small student population it had. Her conclusions jumped to the fact that it was much more of a lower class, run-of-the-mill sort of town, and Keo must not have come from a fancy background. Her brother had a weird name too, but so did Nicola's brother, so she couldn't judge much there.

Blue eyes skimmed through the dense and heavy texts with a scarce amount of interest, as though looking for specific keywords in the glossary that would set off her excitement levels enough to turn to those exact paragraphs. Unfortunately, after pages upon pages of searching, that didn't seem to happen. On the other hand, Keo seemed to have had some success in her search after the quick suggestion to look in the back of the book - naturally -, and Nicola scarcely batted an eyelid towards the genius comment. That wasn't exactly something that she wasn't used to hearing; it was a word that was tossed back and forth on a consistent basis like a hot potato back at home, a title that was attached to her very being that it was something that turned what should've been a compliment into more of a minor annoyance, as much as she relished in the flattery. Remarks like that were always a nice way to boost her ego a tiny bit, though their effectiveness seemed to be diminishing over the years. Oh well, she could figure out something else in the future.

Nicola never had been famed for having a good attention span. It didn't take her long to shut her book closed once again and fiddle around with the pencil in her fingers, spinning it in various directions, tossing it, doing whatever it was to keep herself entertained with neat tricks and things. Just as she was aiming the writing utensil, pointed end up with her tongue sticking out as though it were a gun rather than an everyday, ordinary object, she heard her name and lowered her hand back onto the table, letting the pencil roll slightly before she paused it with the tip of her nail. So that's why Keo took so long - she was looking for someone else besides one of the Wright brothers in the glossary. Loftily blowing a lost strand of hair out of her eyes, she listened in as Keo rambled about something regarding the glossary again and a ball of some sort. Most likely some sort of slang or phrase of something along the lines that she didn't really need to bother with.

The whole shebang wasn't so bad, but what perked the younger student's curiosity the most was how the brunette seemed to have caught onto her lack of enjoyment and interest in reminiscing or experiencing nostalgia. Not bad. Not bad at all. Nicola raised both her arms upward, stretching before giving her answer. Man, Keo spoke way too fast sometimes - it was rather difficult to register everything she was saying, especially when it seemed like everything was being uttered in one breath. Now that was a unique and peculiar talent. If she hadn't seen the notebook with all of the other girl's drawings in it before, she might as well have called her gift out to be the ability to speak nonstop. "Funny thing, I was thinkin' the same thing. You're a whole lot more fun than the other people 'round the school." Her Cheshire grin widened a bit, gaze glinting like a cat's in the middle of the night. "Though you coulda just asked if you wanted to know more. Past is the past, so there's nothin' wrong with talkin' about it since it won't change a thing."

Speaking of creepy people, she couldn't put Keo on that scale yet, not when there was a very strong contender who would take that position. "And don't sweat it. There are a whole lotta weirdos at this school. You're not one of 'em."

Keo visibly brightened when she heard Nicola's response, a wide smile curving across her face.  "Thank goodness,"  She breathed, a soft sigh of relief escaping from her lips.  "What with all the clumsy, babbling shit I've been doing, I was a little worried you'd find me annoying."  The girl leaned back on her hands, swinging her legs back and forth off the side of the table.  She jumped slightly as the big toe of her right foot collided painfully with the bench, but attempted to ignore it as if nothing had happened.  Clearly, wearing open-toed platform shoes was just about the worst idea she'd had all day.

Well that fucking hurt, She thought to herself, but opted against saying anything out loud.  Now that I know Nicola doesn't think I'm a total idiot, I gotta put at least some effort into proving she's right.  Instead, the Autumn hugged the yearbook to her chest, resting her throbbing foot upon the surface of the offending bench in front of her.

"So what...um..."  Keo snapped her fingers, struggling to find the word she was looking for.  After fumbling blindly for some time, the girl finally gave a rather convoluted attempt at describing the term she'd been attempting to procure.  "It's another word for spice, but it has a different meaning, and it's talking about summer,winter, spring, and fall..?  I'm in Autumn, if that helps you any.  Which one are you?"  She pursed her lips, going over what she had just said in her mind.  "Wow, that meant nothing even to me,"  She laughed, curling a finger through her pigtails once more.  "I'm actually kind of impressed with my lack of comprehensible articulation."

Geez, speaking was so difficult sometimes.  Keo had never really been much of an eloquent speaker, usually preferring to express herself through her sketches and the written language.  Emotions and intentions were so much clearer when one could actually see it, after all; speaking on the fly and actually coming off as clever or succinct was something Keo had never quite been able to master.

Well, what's done is done,The girl decided, turning her attention back to Nicola.  I wonder how proficient Nicola is at speaking extemporaneously.

In all honesty, Keo was constantly babbling and rambling off words that Nicola didn't really want to bother listening in with, at first. She still said a lot of stuff that could've been easy to cut to the chase and not lengthen to incomprehensible lengths, though those were easy enough to tune out and jump back into what she had to hear when it seemed like it was somewhat relevant once again. Annoying wasn't quite the word she would put on it, but a lack of entertainment during those 'too much information' moments where Keo wouldn't stop speaking for what felt like hours on end made her lose her attention, and at some points, maybe want to leave the library to go back to her room. The weight of pros and cons, however, told her that she wouldn't be having much fun back in the dorm either, so sticking around until Keo exhausted herself seemed like the best option thus far.

As for her clumsiness, maybe the spectacular display she gave before and how messy her backpack was - especially with that lack of organization -, could equate to that, though Nicola herself didn't have a very clean and proper environment that she worked in either, and there were times here and there where she would slip up, but--

Thump!

The table shook slightly, and she could feel her arm slip a bit from the balance she had given it. Luckily enough, Nicola caught herself in time to prevent herself from faceplanting onto the hard, dense surface below her, though a small frown took its place where her grin had originally been. Never mind, she had to take back that previous statement. Keo was way too clumsy - how could anyone even mess up that much? Was she accident-prone? Did she just have terrible luck? Was it some sort of health disability? Anemia maybe? No, it didn't seem like Keo was all that sickly or anything - she appeared the opposite of it -, so it had to be something else. There had to be some way to figure this out with facts or details, though that could be saved for another time. She could have Hieta go around and follow her to grab whatever data she needed eventually. Hopefully she'll remember and write it down the moment she went back to her dorm, otherwise the mental note for it would fade away in a blink of the eye. I'm not going to remember. Reverse psychology should work here, like a way of challenging herself to not forget it. Possibly.

She couldn't decipher and set down a personality type for Keo in the slightest. One moment, she was swinging around like an energetic and hyperactive girl. The next, she was trying to figure out words and speaking quickly and nervously over something that shouldn't be too hard to figure out. And then there was the dreaded 'which house are you in?' question that every student seemed to ask for some reason. "You mean season." The seasons were really basic; those were things a student would learn in kindergarten. How did anyone forget what they were called and had to resort to explaining it as a type of spice? That was a level beyond stupid. Nicola pinched at the crest on the left side of her uniform, another finger pointing at the maroon center, ornamental rays made up of hues of red and orange encircling it. "I'mma Summer rep." Her eyes rolled slightly. Keo managed to fail at remembering the word 'season' yet she managed to bring up words like 'comprehensible' and 'articulation'. How that worked, Nicola couldn't tell, but she would like to figure it out at one point.

"It's sorta easy to see on the uniform," she added, letting go of the fabric before returning her hands to their original position. "How'd 'ya mess up on remembering what a season is? It's plastered everywhere 'round here."

"I'm sure I could remember if I tried,"  Keo admitted, shrugging nonchalantly.  "I'm just outlandishly lazy.  For example, literally the only reason why I wear my hair in pigtails is because it's a far simpler alternative to actually styling it every morning."  The Autumn grinned widely, tugging on her hair for emphatic effect.  "I'd probably just chop it all off if I could, but I don't wanna do it myself and I really couldn't be bothered to visit a stylist."

"NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP
NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN
NEVER GONNA RUN AROUND
AND DESERT YOU
NEVER GONNA MAKE YOU CRY
NEVER GONNA SAY GOODBYE
NEVER GONNA TELL A LIE
AND HURT YOU"

Suddenly, "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley (sung outrageously off-key in a suspiciously familiar voice) blared from somewhere on Keo's person.  Startled, the girl quickly delved into one of her many paper bracelets, revealing a giant phone in casing that was shaped like a banana.  "I'm so sorry,"  Keo apologized to Nikola, offering a sheepish glance in response to the librarians death glare before turning back to her device.  "It's my brother.  i think he's finally calling to tell me he gave up on fixing my computer."

The girl pressed the phone to her ear.  "Hello?  Are you done with my laptop, yet?... You couldn't fix it?  Shame.  Terrible shame.  Welp, I guess that's life.  Where are you now?... What are you doing on the roof?...Wait, what did you need again?...Why the hell did you take your hoodie off in the first place?!  And what scenario would possibly lead to tossing of the side of the building?!...Hold on, you and who did what now?...No no, tell me now.  You can't just leave me hanging at 'I got in a fight with some douchwallet and then things happened and then we kissed.'  How dare you tempt me with such juicy secrets...Grey.  Grey?  Grey.  Grey.  Grey.  You bitch.  I am so mad at you right now.  I am going to come pick you up, and we are going to go home, and you are going to spill every.  fucking.  detail.  And then you are not even going to complain when I start squealing and writing fanfiction and making up ship names, because you and I both know that is the only logical way to deal with this sort of situation...No, Grey.  I don't give a shit.  Did your lips make contact?  Yes?  Then I fucking ship it.  Consider it a product of your irresponsibility... Okay fine, I promise that I won't just draw out some fake money to pay for a new laptop, even though that is clearly the easiest and most reliable solution for this particular problem.  In return, I expect one hell of a story when we get home, got it?  Okay cool.  Buh-bye."

Keo hung up the phone, casually returning it to the inner depths of her paper bracelet.  She turned to look at Nikola, an apologetic expression on her face.  "I'm sorry, I have to go,"  The girl slung her backpack over her shoulder, loading her yearbooks into her arms.  "It seems my brother has gotten himself into a bit of a pickle.  I'll come visit sometime, though, kay?  Keep an eye out for me!"  Then, with one last wave, Keo bounced to the front desk, checked out her books, and disappeared out the door as if she'd never even been in the library at all.