[centre][h1]The Next Day...[/h1][/centre]

[h2][color=a2d39c]Mason Crawford[/color][/h2][hr]Mason's alarm blared wildly, but he swiftly tapped the stopper and brought its incessant ringing to a halt. He paused for a moment, hoping he hadn't woken Zach up, but aside from a few grunts and groans his roommate seemed to be fast asleep. That was good, Mason thought to himself. Not for any altruistic reasons, but simply for the fact that Mason liked peace and quiet in the morning. He slid out of bed and pulled on some baggy black sweatpants and an oversized shirt to match, both splattered with coloured paint. These well-worn clothes served a multitude of purposes for the usually stylish individual, from painting scruffs to chill-out comfies; but currently, they were for exercise. He grabbed his yoga mat from beneath his bed, along with his keys and cigarettes, then headed out into the grounds. 

It was roughly 6:00am, and the masses of birds in the surrounding woodland sang chirpily to herald in the new day. Mason had always said his favourite singers were the blackbird and the wood pigeon. Mason had read once of a Swedish word, [i]gökotta[/i], that had no direct translation into any other language. Essentially, it is the act of getting up early to listen to the birds singing. Mason liked to think that yoga only counted towards half of his serene routine; it would be useless without the accompaniment of the morning chorus. 

Mason found a nice grassy spot to lay his mat, and some time passed as Mason went about his practice. He was in the first pose of the warrior, [i]virabhadrasana[/i], his arms stretching up high whilst his legs were in a low lunge position. He breathed in deeply through his nose and exhaled through his mouth; he was sweating considerably, which to him was a sign of a good practice. He stretched his arms out wide and twisted to the side, entering the second pose of the warrior, and held the stance for a while longer, before returning to the standing pose of the mountain, [i]tadasana[/i]. For a few moments, he simply breathed. 

After rolling his mat up, he lit his first cigarette of the day and began to head back towards the dormitories, where he showered and got changed into something more... [i]him.[/i] 

[center]***[/center]

By the time 8:30am rolled around, Mason had been up and out for a while, just strolling the academy and its grounds as he waited for his first lesson. It was scheduled for 9:00am, and his timetable informed him to be present at the sports field to the rear of the institute by this time. Reluctantly, he headed to the class early and figured he'd wait for the others to arrive. He didn't want to make a bad impression with the teachers on his first day.

[i][color=a2d39c]Fucking Gym class...[/color][/i] he snarled to himself. If this was anything like the schools he'd attended, he was going to soon find himself becoming very uncomfortable indeed. But hey, nobody really knew him here yet. Maybe they wouldn't pick him last here.