[hr][hr] [center] [img]https://i.imgur.com/swV4s1J.png[/img] [hr] [color=b71d5d]Location:[/color] School [color=b71d5d]Skills:[/color] Enhanced Reflexes (Passive); Enhanced Durability [color=b71d5d]Magic item:[/color] N/A [url=https://medias.spotern.com/spots/w360/513/513251-1745480151.jpg]Fit check[/url], and Letterman jacket [/center] [hr][hr] [center][h2]The day before school[/h2][/center] [hr] The day before school, found Andy packing up her bag. She had more clothes and things than she had ever had before in her life. She ran her fingers over the duffle bag. Even this was new. Her clothes were new. She had so much stuff. Andy carefully packed her school bag. She put Jamie’s deck of cards in there. It felt good to have that again. She rubbed her hand over the spot where it pressed against the backpack’s fabric. For all the new things she had, she had also found so much she had thought lost forever. She had been texting, and on calls with members of the MU, and in some cases talking to them face-to-face. Having four of them living next door helped a lot with that latter one. So much had changed in just the last month. And going farther back even more had changed. Andy felt like it had been a bit of a whirlwind. Andy paused on the sea glass mosaic that Sabine had given her. She smiled, appreciating it. Andy appreciated all the gifts her friends had given her. The strange rock that Leah had made, the coffee from Vicky, the necklace from Percy. Her life was so full. Andy held back tears that burned at her eyes. Her life was so full and she was happy. Looking at the mosaic she wondered how long it would last. Her heart twisted. Fear pulsed through her. Damn. She had made it through the whole break without feeling like the world would pull the rug out from under her at any moment. Part of Andy figured that was because she had had something so terrible happen right before break started that the universe thought she deserved a break. It had been since Thanksgiving that she had been in a near death experience. Something she wouldn’t be able to survive if it happened again. She started pacing. Slowly Andy’s hands traced where old scars would be. Since the final battle of Genosha she hadn’t had any physical scars. They all had gone away, including her piercings, which she had replaced as soon as she had the chance. She ran her thumb over the crook of her elbow. The oldest scar had been there. Back before she had powers she had been playing tag, and climbed on... something. She frowned. What had it been? Andy could sort of picture it in her head, but couldn’t put a name to it. There had been something sharp on it and her arm had gotten cut up. She hadn’t gone to the ER and hadn’t gotten stitches, but she probably should have. The scar had been vicious looking. After that her scars had all been little incidental things. A broken nose, her fists, both from fighting. That had all been healed. Wiped away as if none of it had happened. Now she wasn’t sure if she [i]could[/i] scar. She had fallen from a height that should have killed her. She had taken swipes from Gideon’s sword during practice, and still nothing. No external sign of anything that had happened to her. It was all erased. From her school bag, Andy removed the deck of cards, she pulled the cards out of the worn box. The deck had once been gorgeous, but now it was so worn it wouldn’t be good for a game of anything. She knew each card and how they felt, despite it having been months since she had had them in her hands. It was soothing. She shuffled the deck over and over, playing with the cards, using the magician tricks that Jammie had taught her. This was proof. Proof that Jammie and Ash had lived. Proof that she had lived with them and learned at their sides. Learned how to fight, learned how to do magic card tricks, and learned how to love and be loved. She gave up fighting her tears. She sat down on the floor and cried. Andy cried for the life she had had. Cried for those lost to her forever. Cried at what could have been. She cried long enough that she wasn’t sure how long it took, but the daylight was dimmed as the sun set. After washing her face and getting a glass of water, she hugged Magento and went back to packing. She felt better, still scared of the future, but better. Later Gideon came over and they hung out watching movies together. Andy giving elaborate commentary about the history of the films. Andy talked about her feelings from the day. About how scared she was, even now and still. How she felt like part of her past had been erased and taken from her when her scars had been healed after the Battle of Genosha. But she had hope in what was remembered. She also talked about something she had only spoken with Magneto about after he had told her what happened to Genosha after she had left. She talked about how she had struggled with coming to terms with claiming Genoshan and how much harder that was after learning about what happened after she left. How a piece of her was blaming her for it, if she hadn’t left, maybe she could have helped. Andy told all of this to Gideon, never expecting her to return the sharing. But hoping that by doing it like this, sharing her emotions, it would help teach Gideon how to do that. They crashed out kind of late that night. [hr] [center][h2]The first day of school[/h2][/center] [hr] Andy and Gideon hitched a ride to L.A. with the K-G Household. Casper gave her a small bag full of sexual health items. She went bright red, her ears in particular. In the bag was also a cookie from Ben. Both were sweet gestures and Andy thanked them embarrassed. Magneto had joined them. This was the first time she was on campus with him. She was happy he decided to go too. It felt more personal than a goodbye hug at home. She would have been fine with that, but that he came with her felt so good. She noticed the ice skating and friendship bracelets. As she looked around she planned to unpack her skates, and check out the rink, she also decided to make friendship bracelets for Gideon and America. Once she had her dorm assignment she had parted ways with them. Hell yeah! Andy was now rooming with Gideon. She hadn’t even gotten that lucky with Zari. She was a little surprised, but with how many people had left the Academy she wasn’t surprised at the new room assignments. She partially unpacked her bag, setting the mosaic on her nightstand. When she finished that she asked Gideon, [color=b71d5d]”I’ll finish unpacking later. Ready to head down to the carnival? If they have the sword club thing set up again, wanna spar?”[/color] Andy made sure she had the ice skates from Sabine with her, she was not going to give up the opportunity to be on the ice again. The fact that Sabine had gotten her a pass for the ice rink nearby had been super sweet too. She planned to take advantage of that. Part of her thought about trying to combine sword fighting and ice skating. She’d discover Hockey soon enough and that would be basically the same thing. Before leaving the room she considered which jacket to grab. She touched the one from Ash gently, but ended up taking the letterman style one. The others might be wearing theirs. There was something symbolic about not wearing the jacket with metal studded spikes. Andy did consider that as she and Gideon headed down to the carnival. Gideon had already finished unpacking - she didn’t have much in the way of possessions, everything she owned fitting into a duffel bag that she had dumped unceremoniously on the bed, before her fingers twitched, her body stiffened, and she changed her course, neatly unpacking it and putting everything in its place with military precision. Her week’s worth of clothes were folded and placed in the dresser, her sword maintenance kit placed in the drawers of the desk, her bed made with sheets tucked in appropriately, and the sword placed down on top of it - before she hesitated once more, and slung it over her back. She didn’t like going places without it. It felt like a part of herself was missing, like she’d left behind a limb. She did a wolf whistle, her eyebrows wiggling as she checked out Andy. “Hot damn, you look like an asshole - but in the hottest way possible,” she praised, tempted to keep Andy all to herself for a little while longer. But Gideon [i]loved[/i] the carnival. She loved all the physical contests, all the ways to test her strength. “Hell yeah, man!! We’re doing that! I’m going to text everyone I know and challenge them to a duel. Have ourselves a sword tournament.” Andy winked and flicked her collar, [color=b71d5d]”You love to see it.”[/color] Andy bounced on the balls of her feet a little. [color=b71d5d]”Ohh, yes!”[/color] Andy had noticed the strange shift in demeanor. It wasn’t simple, it was a weird shift. As they walked out of the dorms Andy had to ask, [color=b71d5d]”Did you go to a military school or something?”[/color] “Nope!” Gideon tilted her head, a little confused as to why Andy had asked. “Did you? I do gotta say, I love a gal in uniform - so if you have pics of you in your ROTC blues, I wanna see.” [color=b71d5d]”No, I went to... A really terrible school. If I went to one. That’s not why I was asking. You did a weird thing. At first you threw your bag down, and then you went all military precision on setting up. I didn’t expect you to unpack yet. We have time for that later when we have the Carnival to go to.”[/color] “Oh, but if I have a messy bed, I’ll have the shit beaten out of me by Sis- sorry, never mind, ignore that I said that. Just a brain misfire. Just random words. Do you think they’ll have any good food? The food trucks were killer last time!” [color=b71d5d]”You have a sister?”[/color] Andy asked without thinking about it. She had been trying to not pry on Gideon’s life, and let her come to her when she was ready. [color=b71d5d]”I only knew about your brother.”[/color] “No?” Gideon looked genuinely confused. “Just me and my bro. Well. Our dad kinda fucked his way around, so maybe I do, idk.” [color=b71d5d]”Then who or why is someone beating you for having a messy bed? That’s wild.”[/color] Gideon pretended she didn’t hear Andy, as she pressed the button for the elevator down from the sixth floor. [color=b71d5d]”Gideon, wait, what is going on?”[/color] Andy asked, her voice heavy with concern. Shooting way past her promise to not press. “We’re going to the festival, duh. I could see the snow they’ve got set up from the room, I’m going to kick your ass in a snowball fight, just you wait.” Andy stood there confused, but closed her mouth. She wanted to help Gideon, damn, why wouldn’t she let her? [color=b71d5d]”Okay, we’ll see about that,”[/color] she tried to say teasingly, but knew her voice fell a little flat. They took the elevator down and were soon out among their schoolmates. Andy looked around, unsure what to do first, or who to speak to. She pushed the panicky feeling of impending doom away, by taking Gideon’s hand and heading for the friendship bracelet stand.