[color=DarkRed][i]1.January.2037
Morning[/i][/color]

It was 9 o'clock in the morning, an hour before lectures started. That one extra hour was a sign of goodwill by the principal who had decided people would be too sleepy anyway to pay any attention after the new year celebrations last night. It struck Tokarin as peculiar as their bootcamp-like regime involved being woken up on short notice most mornings. 

In any case, she appreciated the extra hour. Not because she hadn't slept much, really, but just because she wasn't a morning person in general. The worn face in the mirror said as much. 

Gathering up her energy she gnawed at the toothpaste infused water and spat it out, putting her toothbrush back in its container. She gave her face an ice-cold wash, her feathers bristling in protest, and evaluated the result in the mirror. Not great but satisfactory, still dripping wet. 

A click behind her made her eyes shift in the direction of one of the shower cabins of the communal baths. What came out was a guy and he let out a yelp just as Tokarin heard a loud hick escape her throat. For some reason she whirled around, pressing her back against the sink like a cornered animal. The boy probably felt the same as he slammed the door of the shower cabin between them and shouted through it. 

“The hell are you doing in the men's showers?!” 

“I-I-I--” She gasped, trying to convey in a sensible manner that she hadn't realised it as the males' bathroom at all, and failing dramatically. Her face felt like it was on fire, and so did her brain, blocking all rational thought out of it. In a fit of panic she covered her face and pulled her wings around herself, hoping against hope that the guy wouldn't remember her as she gave up explaining and ran out of the facility. She ran all the way down a hallway and sneaked in a small dark corridor, back pressing against a big stairwell. 

Tokarin gave herself a few minutes to calm down before dropping her hands off her face and getting to her feet again. It occurred to her that it wasn't her face but the wings that would betray who she was but she tried not to dwell on it as she walked to the diner. 

It was a grand space, and, like everything here, didn't contain half as many residents as it was intended to. The teachers didn't have their own diner but they usually sat at the far end, engaging with each other rather than the students. There was a buffet table to the right of the door containing all kinds of weird and wonderful dishes of a variety of cultures and even just the sight of it made the girl forget all about the incident. 

Staring at the rainbow of colours and tastes she found herself unable to decide between the Chinese vegetable dumplings and the Bulgarian white cheese-filled pastry, between the kiwi jelly and the apple strudel and between the espresso and the americano. In the end she made her choice, grabbed the items and whirled around, determined to at least choose a table quickly. Spotting an unfamiliar face she headed straight to it and took a seat, greeting instead of asking if it's appropriate.