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Maybe she should have asked one of the sailors if it was okay to invoke a doomed ship on a voyage, because when [i]Laurus[/i] jolted underneath them, it reeked of such perfect ironic timing that Nicole wondered if she'd cursed them all. 

She had never before felt the surface buckle underneath her the way that the ship did then, a sudden [i]lurch[/i] that left her with the sick feeling of her organs having to catch up with their proper positions. She watched the other girls lose their footing one by one, heads and limbs slamming into the room that had been so comforting moments ago. Even with the ship's screams of protest overwhelming her ears, somehow she could make out the yelps and cries of pain from her fellow would-be students. Wait, would-be?

[color=ec008c][i]Is this it? We're not even gonna see the school? Fuck, dude.[/i][/color]

Fuck, dude? The strange serenity of her reaction surprised her, even in the split second she could register it. She supposed that was who she was: Nicole Cognoscenti, queen of vibes, always going with the flow. Even at the end, her smile would be on the wind.

--and then the gods noticed her, and decided it was her turn to be tossed about.

The ship bucked again with a squeal of metal, and Nicole was launched off her feet, thrown in the same direction as the table she'd been snacking from minutes previously. One of the other girls hurtled past her, and Nicole reached for her hand out of desperate impulse - Astrelle's, maybe, or Dana's or even Vanna's - but the girl was gone before their fingers could do more than brush. The table had slammed into a wall, two of its wooden legs snapped off. It was a recipe for impalement; at best she would slam into the table face first, and after that any case she might have had for being the prettiest girl in the class would be dead in the water.

[color=ec008c][i]My smile is on the wind.[/i][/color]

Nicole closed her eyes, let go of her body, and smiled.

She felt herself curl up into a ball and undergo a single, controlled somersault. When she had finished her rotation, her legs outstretched, and the tip of her boot bounced off the shrapnel-studded wooden surface as easily as it would have bounced off a trampoline. While she was in the air, the ship's uncontrolled fall into hell finally halted, and the girls began to haul themselves upright from whatever they'd grabbed onto or fallen against. Nicole, the lone girl still suspended in the air, was panting softly when she landed on her feet, but it was hard to wipe the goofy, exhilarated grin off her face. The whole thing, from initial turbulence to her graceful magic gymnastic routine, felt like the longest hour of Nicole's life. 

It had only been six seconds.

She looked around to see if everyone was okay. Most of them looked sore, slightly ruffled up, but like they could handle themselves in what seemed like an imminent fight. Vanna was already giving out orders about as effectively as any veteran Wing of Justice, even though inside she must have been as taken aback as the rest of them. While she was talking, Nicole bent down to pick up her beret. She pouted slightly when she saw a couple condiment smears from one of the sandwiches, but pulled it back on, just facing in a different direction from the rest of the girls. Hopefully her hair was enough of a mess to distract from that kind of thing anyway, and besides, who was she going to be vain for? Vanna? Astrelle? The giant demon eye from the blackest flames of hell?

If that was her audience, she would rock her mayo beret with pride.

[color=ec008c]"Speaking of people, and uh, help, and all,"[/color] she said, once she had collected enough breath and felt the tingles of her instinctive magical display fading from her extremities. [color=ec008c]"How far could the Wing of Justice have gotten? Hopefully she's not too beat up to pitch in, but either way, I kinda want a couple answers. 'Cause I'm feeling a little screwed right about now. Anyone else feel like she definitely knew we were getting perved on by that giant eye? Not just me, right?[/color]