With a cup in hand, Kirina stood against a wall at the front end of the room right near the doors. She had zoned out, staring at the empty fireplace. Her face blank, Kira was lost in her own thoughts and away from the chattering of other excited freshmen. A buzz in her back pocket snapped her out of her trance and she jolted, shaking her head around to wake herself up. Reaching into her pocket she took a glance at her phone; it was an email notification. A reminder from her gaming team that she had a match later that week. She also had a number of team requests and comments on her profile, but what else was new? For the infamous gamer, receiving countless friend requests on her profile was nothing that surprised her anymore. Kira went through the rest of her emails, quickly deleting anything that didn’t pertain to her. One email did catch her eye however. A notification that she had a response from an anonymous forum she had recently joined. As Kirina was just about to open it, a voice rang out amongst the rest, and the students began to settle down. The president of the campus was speaking, and, Kirina thought, it would be very rude to have her phone out during his first announcement. She would have to wait until later. Leaning back against the wall, she slid her smartphone back into her pocket and glanced at the man speaking. 

As she was listening to his introduction, she casually glanced down at herself. Looking at some of the people around her, Kirina grimaced at the clothing she chose to wear. She had picked out a casual set that she normally would wear out with friends or around the house. A pair of grey skinny jeans, tattered and ripped along both knees, were haphazardly tucked into her favorite pair of black leather boots (reminiscent of go-go boots) that had a 3 inch platform and a 6 inch heel. The heels were not only badass and Kirina’s most beloved pair, but also helped with her self-consciousness about her height. The top she picked out was.. unique. A tribute T-Shirt to her favorite show, Cowboy Bebop, it had a picture of one of the characters from the anime; Ein the Corgi. His head covered most of her chest and on the bottom it read “Let’s Jam!” a slogan of the show. As she glanced at some of the other girls, she noted that they had tried much harder to look nice for their first day on campus, and she started to regret her clothing decision for the evening. Nervously she started to yank at the bottom of the top, twisting the fabric in her fingers. 

Wait.. Had she hear something about guns? Kirina didn’t know that guns were allowed on campus, but the thought of it surprised her. Had she missed it in her reading somewhere? It wasn’t unlikely, she skimmed the packet she was given about the school. As Mr. Nelson explained the rules of the firearms that some students apparently were allowed to keep in their lockers, Kirina tried to think of any other school that would allow that. Understandably, this school had it’s own firing range, but the thought of students bringing their own weapons? It was interesting to the girl. 

Soon the president was introducing an upperclassmen, and Kira returned her attention to the front of the room. It was a small girl, just about Kira’s height, wearing a simple black t-shirt. The text on the front of it made Kirina smile. The fact that the senior student was comfortable in her own skin made Kirina relax and let go of her own shirt, sighing slightly in relief. 

Her name was Emily and as she talked, Kirina focused on actually paying attention instead of nervously fiddling around. Though the redhead wasn’t interested in paintball, she was interested in tabletop and video gaming. The fact that she saw someone else that shared her interests eased her worry on making friends, and she was excited to introduce herself to the girl. It also meant that there were others on campus that would be able to play games with her. Kirina thought that it was quite possible that a few might actually know her from online forums, or from gaming videos she posted on YouTube. 

Soon the introduction was over and Kirina was standing among chattering students once again. She never was good at starting conversation, always hoping someone would come up to her and chat before opening up. One hand ran through the curly red hair that cupped her freckled cheeks while she tilted her head back and downed the rest of her punch.