[4th Floor Common Room: Monday afternoon]

[savedfornow.livejournal.com]

Claire did nothing all week, and this was OK by her. She wandered town, she hung out in her room. And quite amazingly, not once did she break a leg or another bone almost die or actually die or have to be rescued or anything.

She could get used to this.

She wasn't so sure she could get used to the smell of smoke that was beginning to permeate her room. So while her roommate was in class, she opened the windows as far as they would go, switched on a fan to get the air circulating, and decamped to the common room, where she was now curled up on the couch, channel surfing for sitcoms and painting her fingernails.

Comments

[savedfornow.livejournal.com]

"My dad's got strange ideas about a lot of things," Claire said, smile fading a little. "Don't they all?"

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"I guess," Mel said with a shrug. "My sister pretty much raised me and we butted heads all the time."

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Claire winced in sympathy, and a little in embarrassment. "Sorry. I uh.. I kinda forget I'm lucky to be adopted."

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

Mel shrugged. "Barely remember the guy in my life. It was just me , my brother and my sister. We didn't have much but what we had we just made it count."

Of course then everything went to hell one fateful evening, but Mel wasn't going to lay that on the newbie.

"So where are you from originally?" Mel asked deftly changing the topic.

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"Odessa, Texas" Claire replied promptly, taking the subject change and running with it. "No where near this humid, there."

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Thaaaaaat's down South, right?" Mel said trying to remember some of the few things she's picked up from TV and scattered things she's read. "Where it has lots of cows, barbecue and oil rigs."

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"Yeah," Claire said with a nod and a smile. "Why, were're you from?"

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Well... Earth but not around this time," Mel replied. "The city is called Haddyn and I lived in the Versi borough. No rutting clue where the city would be here and now."

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Claire shakes her head, not really knowing the names either.

"Not in Texas though, huh? Which is the nearest ocean?"

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"Atlantic," Mel replied. "Most of Haddyn is on a small island right off the coast."

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Claire frowned, thinky-ly.

"Only island city I can think of on the East Coast is New York," she offered.

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

Mel thought about that for a second. "That could be it. I may have to do a road trip one of these days and see if that's the place. Not sure why they changed the name to Haddyn though."

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Claire gave a wide, indifferent shrug.

"People are weird," she offered. "You're from the future, huh? How far ahead?"

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"200 years or so," Mel replied. "The jerks who sent me here cast some kind of spell. I've had my friends working on a way to get me back there for a while. Hopefully I find a way."

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Claire pulled a sympathetic face. "That's really crazy. Why go to so much effort?"

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Apparently I have some destiny to fulfill," Mel said using air quotes.

It's a bad habit she's picked up since coming to this century.

"So as soon as I figure out how that's supposed to work I'm stuck here until I can find a way home."

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Ew. Air quotes. Claire gave them an appropriately disdainful look.

"Destiny? At High School?"

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I know. Toy, isn't it," Mel said rolling her eyes. "I'm still trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do."

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Save the cheerleader?

Claire shrugged, shaking her head in sympathetic confusion. "Don't ask me."

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

Peter beat me to it! *shakes fist*

"Eh. I'll figure it out eventually," Mel shrugged. "In the meantime I get to take classes on how to be awesome and blowing stuff up. You can't beat that."

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There'll be plenty of other times.

"True," Claire agreed. "There are worse classes than the workshops here."

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"No kidding. Best thing about this place? No math requirement."

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"I think I love it here already."