Vedika stood on the roof of the building, overlooking the nearby scenery.  As the wind brushed through her hair, an inspirational quote popped into her head: "Look Simba, everything the light touches is our kingdom."

Hmm.  Maybe not the most awe-inspiring quote, still, she had to keep herself occupied somehow over the break, which she did through climbing.  Everything.  She wasn't allowed t ogo back to her family, as far as the 'normal world' was concerned, she was serving time in prison for manslaughter.  She'd only gotten to see her family a few times in the past five years when they'd pressed for visitation rights, in which case an elaborate ruse was set up where Vedika was carted off to the prison nearest her home and told to pretend to be a prisoner.  As funny as that might sound, it was one of the few times where the reality of her situation actually got her down; she couldn't stand to lie to her parents and siblings like that, and the thought of it had made the tears come, tears that all the more convinced her family that she was a prisoner and hating prison life.  Technically, she was a prisoner, but if she didn't think too hard about it (and she rarely thought hard about anything), life at the Academy wasn't half-bad.  She was in her senior year, and looking forward to the future.  Perhaps one day, if she does as she's told, she'll redeem herself, and return home a hero of sorts. Yeah, maybe she'll become one of the world's first superheroes, that's what people with unusual powers were supposed to do, right?

A clatter brought Vedika out of her reverie as the roof access door unlocked and opened noisily.  "Hey! How'd you get up here?" called the voice of some janitor or roof technician.

"Shit!" Vedika clambered over the chain link fence and let herself drop.  As she plummeted towards the ground, she focused her mind and concentrated on her core strength.  She struck the ground like a steel statue, stiffly bouncing once before stopping.  Coming out of her defensive state, she noticed that she had left two nasty bumps in the soft earth.  Looking up she could see the janitor looking down at her through the fence in annoyed awe.

With a silly, apologetic face, Vedika slinked away and headed for the gym where the social would take place.  She would take it upon herself to make all shy newcomers feel welcome, and maybe even try to soften the barriers of some of the non-freshmen who she hadn't been able to close the distance with.