[h1][color=crimson]Katherine Argall[/color][/h1]
Not one to betray Crash’s expectations, Kathy’s head tilted to the side in puzzlement. She had hoped for a positive response (though she had also prepared in part for a negative one), but a thank you had been rather unexpected. [color=crimson][i]‘He looks a lot more relaxed now.’[/i][/color] She thought, and released a breath in relief. [color=crimson][i]‘And good thing that I wasn’t too hasty…’[/i][/color] During the moment of silence she had, once again, been tempted to do a 180 turn on her opinions and come to a rather untrue epiphany about how great bikes were… But luckily for both of them Crash had managed to slide his response in before she made any hasty decisions.

Kathy laughed, [color=crimson]“Hm. Maybe I’ll start with a car license before attempting to travel on less wheels. I believe they’re a [i]fraction[/i] safer in comparison.”[/color] She gave a thoughtful hum before responding to his last sentence. [color=crimson]“It is quite interesting to… ‘Walk the road less travelled’, as some might say. Though I really admit that walking on and on are excellent ways to get blisters and sunburned.”[/color]
[center]---[/center]
Growing quite comfortable in her spot against the wall, Kathy entered an interesting balance between feeling patient and anxious all at once. On one hand, just standing back and watching the students walk through the halls felt quite calming. There was a certain happy buzz that everyone seemed to have and it seemed to be infectious. But then every time she saw a flash of red, even for something like a red dress or a flower pinned to someone’s short, her heart jumped up with excitement. Then of course, she realized what she was really looking at and her heart dropped back to its ideal rhythm. The abnormally-colored falcon was no exception to this pattern… Except that this time she recognized the now-bird as the person she’d been waiting for so her pulse continued to rise.

First, a smile broke out onto her face as she recognized Crash. Her expression quickly changed with a wince as the shapeshifter bumped the light and fell in a rather YouTube-worthy fashion. Not wanting to miss such action on the first day of school, several students had stopped in the walls and watched curiously as the rolling mass of feathers changed into a young man. Though now that they could see him get up unharmed, they seemed to have lost all interest in continuing to spectate. Kathy, on the other hand, continued to focus her undivided attention to him. [color=crimson][i]“Well, in your defense and as something to frown upon, you were trying to fly through a hallway full of people. I’ll bet you do a much better job outdoors.”[/i][/color] She pointed out, unable to keep the corners of her mouth from lifting up with amusement.

Stepping away from the wall, she stood in front of Crash and tried not to make it too obvious that her eyes were moving up and down to try to take in as much of his appearance as possible. [color=crimson]“Hm?”[/color] And actually, she almost missed his question entirely because of how distracted she was. It took her brain a moment to rewind and make sense of his words before she could respond. [color=crimson]“A-Ah, no! Not at all. I haven’t waited long… At all.”[/color] Her face became red from both her pathetic sentence, and the worry that Crash would notice how she had been… Well, checking him out.

While Crash wasn’t happy with his compliment, Kathy obviously was. Under her super red cheeks, a wide smile appeared on her face as she beamed up at him. [color=crimson]“Thank you. I…”[/color] Then she looked down at her shoes and laughed, [color=crimson]“I thought that wearing a glass slipper might have been too clichéd. That, and I didn’t want to run away at midnight if the party goes on for longer than that.”[/color] Nodding, she also moved towards the ballroom doors. She paused after just a few steps though and looked up at Crash. [color=crimson][i]‘It’s going to be crowded… It’s not a bad request…’[/i][/color] She fiddled with her hands as she warred with the ideal of holding onto Crash’s wrist or asking to hold hands… Apparently she still needed a bit more time to replenish her courage because in the end she simply said, [color=crimson]”Yeah. Let’s go.”[/color] And waited for Crash to join her before going inside.

[@FaithsRose]
[hr]
[h1][color=darkorchid]Ara (A)[/color][/h1]
This was bad. This was very bad. He wanted to kill [u]B[/u] for the thousandth time, but there was a much more pressing and dangerous issue that he had to deal with first.

Ara had to figure out how to escape from the [i]women’s washroom[/i]. Ideally, undetected.

[u]B[/u], being the evil witch that she was, had decided to switch places in the [i]women’s washroom[/i]. Before he could really get a good bearing of where she was, she had just casually placed her hand on the mirror and invited him to switch places. And of course he’d taken the chance to do so! Who wouldn’t have? It got incredibly boring just floating around in the ambiguous space they shared and called the Fractal World, and he’d been itching to roam around the academy for quite some time.

… He was going to kill her.

Luckily for him, they shared all of their memories the instant they made the switch so he had a fairly good idea of where he was in the building and which hallway he needed to run down in his desperate escape… But unfortunately for him, the washroom was heavily populated. And actually, he had a very heavy suspicion that there was a line forming. It likely had to do with the fact that [u]B[/u] had been very careful to select the closest washroom possible to the ballroom.

In hindsight, he really should have just run out the minute they switched. The washroom had, miraculously, been empty at the time but he had made a hasty retreat into one of the stalls when he realized where he was. And, more importantly, he had heard a group of girls approaching. He really should have just apologized and left. As embarrassing as that would have been, he could have easily muttered a quick apology about entering the wrong washroom and not be judged for it.

Well… He doubted that the girls outside would look kindly upon a man that was hiding in the stall of a washroom that was supposed to be a complete forbidden territory for his half of the population. And really, at this point, he would probably need to count himself lucky if all they did was scream at him for being a pervert. Ara had a sinking feeling that a number of the girls actually in the washroom, and probably more waiting in the line outside, had deadly abilities that they would not hesitate to use on him. This was no longer just a matter of his pride and dignity (what he had left of them anyway), his life truly was in imminent danger.

This was bad. This was very bad.