[h3][center]Lan, Thalia, and Cam[/center][/h3]

I unwrapped my bear claw as I waited for the curly haired girl to respond, not my favorite pastry but my favorite from the ones on offer. Then again, despite how many people tended to assume I was constantly experiencing a sugar high, I didn’t eat many sweets to begin with. Thalia, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying her danish a fair bit more.

Even with the repeated opening of the door, I could feel the temperature of the room steadily rising with every warm body that joined the meeting.

[color=990000]“You’re dressed fancy. Just get in from a date or something?”[/color] I repeated, trying again to grab her attention.

“Hey, you came back! Lan, isn’t it?” the brown haired girl exclaimed, seeming surprised by my presence; “Oh, sorry, your question, didn’t mean to ignore that!” she replied stiffly.

[color=990000]“No worries, Thalia.”[/color] I waved off the awkwardness of it all, [color=990000]“And yeah. Considering coming to AA was the last thing Boxcar Joe asked me to do before he went home, I can’t just go to one and then never come back.”[/color]

“Yeah, you talked about him last week! Have you seen him since then?” 

[color=990000]“Afraid not. His letter said he was heading back west to be with his family.”[/color]

“That’s another atypical leaving town. Seems to be a common phenomenon. There used to be several regulars, but now there’s only new people. Kind of strange.”

 A woman next to them piped in next, cutting the conversation: “[color=92278f]...[i]’Atypical’[/i]? Don’t wanna sound like a total dumbass, but I don’t suppose you guys would know a bit more about what this group is supposed to be?”[/color]

“Oh, are you new? Wait...what meeting do you think you’re at?” Thalia inquired.

I let out a slight chuckle at the new girl’s confusion, [color=990000]“Probably alcoholics anonymous. Which… I think is part of why Erina called the group what she did.”[/color]

The new girl seemed to be annoyed by that sentence, her nostrils flaring visibly. [color=92278f]“I’m sober, thank you very much. Or… ah, well, I [i]was[/i] sober, anyway. Was half hoping it would be a regular AA, to be honest. But… yeah.”[/color] She tucked a curly strand of auburn hair behind her ear, expression sour.

[color=990000]“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that.”[/color] I absentmindedly rubbed the back of my head with one hand, smooshing the bear claw into my crimson hair, “I was just saying, that seems like the most obvious conclusion based on the acronym.”

 At that, the girl’s previously on-guard expression softened a bit, and she nodded. Her prominently blue eyes wandered up to look at the newly found mess in my hair, obviously distracting her form the flow of the conversation.

“Hey! It’s okay, it’s always confusing for new people! So, what brings you here? Weird things happening in your life, unexplained oddities…” Thalia trailed off, her eyes locked onto me as I removed my hand from my head and grimaced. 

[color=990000]“Take me for example. I don’t sleep. Ever. Since I was, like… six, I think”[/color] I offered, retrieving some napkins from my backpack to try and clean the crumbs and icing from the back of my head.

The redhead with glasses was visibly taken aback by that, and her eyes fell back from observing my hair. Then her expression shifted to something that resembled mild envy.
[color=92278f]“Shit, I [i]wish[/i] that were me. I mean, that is me. But you don’t look like you’ve been tired for a second of your life,” [/color]she observed. [color=92278f]“Unlike me, that is.”[/color]

“So what about you, must be some reason you’re here?”

The woman hesitated. [color=92278f]“Well, not nearly as glamorous as not needing sleep. I’m able to see into people’s minds, emotions and thoughts. Creepy, right?”[/color]

[color=990000]“Not that creepy… What am I thinking right now?”[/color] I asked curiously, shifting my full attention onto a particular squirrel with which I’d held a staring contest that morning.

The redhead frowned, then smirked lightly. [color=92278f]“Not how it works, pal. I can’t exactly pick which thoughts I see. I can’t read specific thoughts, just snippets. My real ‘speciality’ is emotions,”[/color] she explained, then proceeded to close her eyes briefly. The woman’s eyes fluttered rapidly behind her closed lids, and then an intense frown disrupted her freckled face.
[color=92278f]“Either you’re thinking about if you came into the right place, getting another one of those snacks, or a squirrel. Any of those? They get lost in the stream easily.”[/color]

“I think the more snacks thought was mine,” Thalia replied; unlike me, she seemed to be a bit uncomfortable about the presence of a mind reader in the room.

At that moment, the redhead’s expression turned bothered, as if she could sense the emotion in question. Which, of course, was kind of what her talent was about, as she had just explained. The woman blushed and shook her head, as if trying to clear her mind. [color=92278f]“Stop it,”[/color] she muttered at herself while massaging her temples.

[color=990000]“It was the squirrel. I’m trying to train him so I can bring him to group for show and tell.”[/color] I admitted cheerfully, [color=990000]“I don’t know if we actually have show and tell, I just want to be able to say I trained a squirrel.”[/color] Once I was satisfied at how much bear claw I had managed to remove from her head, I balled up the napkins and tossed them into the nearest trash can, [color=990000]“oh, I should probably introduce myself. I’m Chunlan Zhu, but everybody just calls me Lan.”[/color]

“And I’m Thalia! Don’t mind the cocktail dress, it’s not usually the dress code! What’s your name?”

The red haired woman smiled and adjusted her glasses. [color=92278f]“Cam, I guess. Or, you know, know. Camilla really, but no one calls me that. So just Cam,”[/color] she introduced herself before frowning yet again, looking a bit sheepish now:
[color=92278f]“So uh… you… you can see the cat too, right? Not just me?”[/color]

[color=990000]“Yep. Definitely a cat. Pretty kitty, too.”[/color] I confirmed, sliding out of my chair, stopping a moment to place my backpack in it to save my seat before wandering over. Cats were great, and I’d be damned if I didn’t get a chance to pet it.