The stairwell, Thursday evening

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia struggles a little bit on the stairs with four bags of groceries and basics while balancing her full backpack on one shoulder. Figures she's ended up on the fifth floor of this building. At least the endless climbing of stairs will keep her in shape. Just like running from the cops used to.

After Marty's tour, she'd hit up the store for some stuff she hadn't managed to get when she was staying with her parole officer, and some food, since enough folks had made vague comments about the cafeteria food that she's leery of ever eating there. She'll have to be thrifty, though, since her stipend isn't meant to cover three meals a day.

Not that she'd had three meals a day for the last five years, anyway. . . .

As she climbs, she keeps her eyes scanning from side to side, checking for gremlins. She's getting even more paranoid than when she was living on the streets.

[open to replies by anyone who happens to wander by as she goes upstairs]

Comments

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

"Oh. Hey. I was your secret santa." Broots blinked. "And I'm definetly not a gremlin, 'sfar as we know, they don't talk. I hope."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia smiled at Broots "Oh wow you were indeed. Its nice to finally meet you. Thank you so much for the gifts they were wonderful and I keep the teddy bear on the bed, he's just to cute for words." She laughed then "Very glad your not a gremlin."

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, me too." Broots said slowly. "Um, nice uh, meeting you, um, person. I kind of have to go and not get killed."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia smiled slightly and leaned against the wall. "Well, it was nice to meet you, 'Secret Santa'. Or should I call you 'Not-Gremlin'?"

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

"Broots." Broots introduced himself. "Um, that's my last name, but everyone calls me that. J.C. if Broots really bugs you for some reason but J.C. is also my laptop, so that quickly gets confusing. And you're new?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia sighed. "The freaking out about the gremlins is a big clue, huh. Yep, I'm a newb. And a freshman. Doubly cursed. And Broots works fine, for me."

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

Broots shrugged. "I've been here for a semester now, and I freak out about the gremlins. Then again, I'm human and mostly normal and stuff. And a sophomore? Uh, you got a name?"

[nadiathesaint]

"Oh good. I'm human, too. And normal and all that. And, um, Nadia. Nadia Santos."

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

"Nice to meet you Nadia. Don't be too scared off by the insanity. If all else fails, you could always escape to your room, they're supposed to be like fortresses or something. Even the Zombies couldn't get in." Broots blinks and debates taking that last sentance back.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia grins. "Zombie proof rooms? They should put that in the brochure."

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

"Zombie proof but not demon proof." Broots recoiled at that memory. "But vampires need to be invited in. But they can be out in the corridor. With power tools." He blinked. "I had an interesting couple of days when I first got here."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia wasn't entirely sure how much of what Broots was saying was true, but she sure as hell hoped her first couple days weren't quite that interesting. "Powertools? Yikes." She tugged at the strap of her backpack. She'd have to look into finding some loose bricks or something to load it down with, make it better for hitting things. "I'm surprised you stayed."

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

"Uh." Broots rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. "The FBI officer who dropped me off made it very clear that I didn't have much of an option. It got better after a while. You sorta...get used to the weirdness."

[nadiathesaint]

"I hope so." Nadia shrugged. "I was given options, but they weren't all that great. It's kinda this, jail, or spy-dom."

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

"Juvenile hall or this." Broots admitted. "Apparently, the government doesn't like sixteen-year-old boys nosing about in it's security system." There might be a bit of pride in Broots's voice.

[nadiathesaint]

"You know security systems?" Nadia's eyes go slightly wide in street-rat-thief geekerdom.

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

Broots made a squeaky noise. "Um, yeah. Yeah. Definetly, yeah." Squeak.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia raises her eyebrow at the squeaking. "That's totally cool!"

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

Broots stuttered something out. He gulped and tried again. "Thanks? Um, I don't mean to run, but my friend is kinda having a birthday thing over at Caritas, in town. I'm afraid she'll kill me if I don't show up on time. Because it's sort of a surprise."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia blushed slightly. "Oh, nononono, that's fine, go! You were saying you needed to go, and then I kept talking and . . . my milk is probably getting warm. So go ahead." Nadia snapped her mouth shut and lifted her shopping bag as if to indicate *see? warm milk!* "Have fun at the party!"