[center][img] https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b3925-4631-76cc-9072-a66ea7622bec.webp[/img][/center][center][/center][hr] [hr][center][b][color=ffcb00]Location:[/color][/b] Margaret Carter - Winter Carnival 
[b][color=ffcb00]Magic Items:[/color][/b] Thousand-Faced Rose, Rune Stones
[b][color=ffcb00]First Day Fit:[/color][/b] Letterman jacket, baggy pants, sneakers.[/center][hr]

Leah didn’t need to be neurotypical to understand that things were complicated between Percy and Chase. On one hand, she felt a little bad about being snarky towards him back in New Orleans. On the other hand… She didn’t know him. Any progress he may or may not have made was on him to prove, and it wasn’t Leah he had to prove that to. She liked Percy, respected him and considered him a friend. That meant that if, by some miracle, Percy was cool with him, then he was cool with her. Though, she made a mental note to kick him for a field goal if he made Percy regret giving any amount of slack. She elected not to say that out loud.

So when the walls went up around them, Leah stepped around to the scuffed one and looked over her shoulder at the test of Excelsior.

[color=ffcb00]”I’ll wait outside,”[/color] She said, ducking her head low and squeezing out from between the overlapping walls. Then she posted up and planted Sjafnamarr blade-down in the snow, leaning on the hilt. She sighed and shut her eyes.

Sometimes, the best move was to abstain.

[hr]

[center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b3925-0274-729f-8f88-83effadccda8.webp[/img][/center][center][/center][hr] [center][b][color=b940da]Location:[/color][/b] Margaret Carter - Winter Carnival 
[b][color=b940da]Magic Items:[/color][/b] [sub]She’s no magician but you know she’s got that magic wand.[/sub]
[b][color=b940da]First Day Fit:[/color][/b] Floral button-up, slacks, converse shoes.[/center][hr]

So the snow [i]was[/i] real. Huh. Neat.

Marlena looked at the ground when Chase and Percy both started bawling. She barely knew one of them, and the other was a complete stranger to her. This was not the sort of thing she needed to be witness to right now, certainly not when this day was supposed to put her nerves to rest. The walls April put up were a smooth move to give the boys some privacy, and she was going to take the out.

[color=b940da]”Yeah, this isn’t my business. I’m bouncing.”[/color] She turned over to April with the barest trace of a frown, running a hand through her hair. [color=b940da]”I’ll be around.”[/color]

And then she slipped out after Tall, Dark and Nordic, looking around. Sure enough, there were cameras and flashes. Even at their own school, they could’t get a lick of privacy, could they? The frown became a bit more overt. One hell of a carnival this was.

Marlena turned on her heel and darted off in an uncertain direction, hands stuffed into her pockets and fidgeting. Dread was bubbling up in her stomach again, she imagined it’d be like this more often, with people exploding on each other and everyone stopping by to post about it on SuperLink. Fuck, she didn’t want to deal with all that, and she probably didn’t have a choice.

There was a snowball fight happening, but it looked like people were using powers and another fucking gigantic sword. Nah, she wasn’t up for that right now. She didn’t want to get clobbered and ruin her fit.

So she kept walking.

[i][color=b940da]Don’t catastrophize,[/color][/i] Marlena thought. [i][color=b940da]It won’t help, and it’ll be harder to stop the more you do.

It’s not even noon yet. You’ll be okay.[/color][/i]

Stuff to do… Stuff to do… There were club signups. Maybe that’d be fun? She swung by the tables, where parents were yammering at teachers and other clerical work was being done.