Second Floor Common Room, Wednesday Afternoon

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie had gotten a call from her mother today. Just a basic, checking up on the daughter kind of call. Though she'd been here for a few weeks now, it was the first of its kind. Not because her parents didn't care about her, but because they knew she could handle being far away from home. They thought she was a smart, capable girl, after all.

Still, her mother had expressed the same concern Natalie had heard many times over the years, and that was the one about whether she was making friends and not just shutting herself in her room with her books and her comics and letting the social world pass her by.

She'd answered yes and no, in that order.

So, now she was curled up on one of the couches in the common room, with a mug of fresh coffee and a business studies textbook she'd checked out from the library a few days ago. What? She didn't like lying to her parents, but she also wasn't exactly about to throw a party for the whole floor or anything.

[ooc: Open common room, yup.]

Comments

[withasword.livejournal.com]

Where Natalie had a business textbook, Kate had something old, leather-bound and written entirely in Russian. They clearly had different priorities when it came to extra study.

The similarities were there in their almost simultaneous decisions to take their extra-curricular studies to the common room.

"I think this is the first time I've come in and not found someone watching either a talk show or infomercials." It was almost a miracle.

[whenshewasnice]

"There was nothing good on," Natalie drawled, giving the other girl a little nod of greeting. Sort of. "Or I just assumed there wouldn't be."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"It's touch and go if it'll actually turn on when I try it," Kate admitted, wrinkling her nose and dropping down onto the couch. "I think technological things have a hate-on for me."

Her book fell open to a well worn page. "Sometimes I think that might even be a good thing."

[whenshewasnice]

"Most of the time it probably is," Natalie replied mildly, eyeing the book, or what she could see of it. "It's kind of a waste of time."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, and I still automatically try it pretty much every time I come in." It was a tough habit to break. "It's a problem. There's probably therapy out there for it."

[whenshewasnice]

"Well, there's therapy for everything else, so why not that?" Not that Natalie really knew, it wasn't like she'd ever needed therapy for anything. "Help for compulsive TV triers."

[momslilassassin]

Ben walked in a few minutes later and gave the unfamiliar face a quick nod. "Hi."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

Kate tipped a nod and offered a, "Hey," in return. "You one of these people who lives on my floor and I've still managed not to meet?" she asked.

[momslilassassin]

"I was gone for the summer if that helps at all?" Ben offered. "I'm Ben, in 204."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"Kate, 210," she twitched a wave. "Your attempt to make me seem less antisocial is appreciated." She liked to think she might at least be able identify people who she lived no more than a couple doors away from by now.

... Going to his wedding this weekend did not count.

"Had you been here long before the summer?" That implied he wasn't new as her, at least.

[momslilassassin]

"I've been here since I was a freshman," Ben said. "I'm a senior now, but I'm still playing catch-up on all the new faces. I got kind of stuck at 'talking pink pony' at the picnic."

[momslilassassin]

"Hey," Ben said, flopping onto an empty chair. She looked like Kate--sort of--but the Force was telling him she wasn't.

"I'm Ben," he added.

[whenshewasnice]

"Natalie," she replied, quirking an eyebrow just slightly at that greeting. Not that there was anything particularly weird about it, it was just that... "Ben Skywalker, by any chance?"

[momslilassassin]

"Yes," Ben said, looking a little unsure of himself. "Why?"

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie shrugged a shoulder. "Pretty sure I was supposed to lure you onto our evil Bavarian side," she said. "This weekend, I mean. At the wedding."

[momslilassassin]

Ben groaned. "I promise you I'm not normally that much of a crier. Or, um, shot."

[dollpocalypse]

Upon entering the common room, Topher's intentions were to study and to hide from the random class of doorknob-lickers upstairs.

But then he saw Ben and scrambled in the opposite direction, tripping over a couch in the process.

[momslilassassin]

Sithspit.

"Um, you okay?" Ben asked, wincing.

[dollpocalypse]

"Very possibly," came Topher's muffled response from the couch cushion.

And very possibly not, because can you say awkward?

He managed to roll off the couch in the laziest way possible, then hovered awkwardly. Yeah, a quick exit was not in the cards here, was it?

[momslilassassin]

Not so much, no.

"All of your limbs still attached?"

Being a Skywalker meant you got asked weird questions when you were injured.

[dollpocalypse]

Oh, look at that -- this was one of those rare occasions when Topher was studying too. Mainly because it helped him not think about the horror that was this past weekend.

A Psych book under one arm and an enormous bag of Doritos in the other, he flopped down on the couch opposite her. "Hey, New Kate."

The polite greeting was out of fear that rudeness would get him punched.

[whenshewasnice]

He had a really special grasp on polite, didn't he?

Natalie gave him a blank look. Or, maybe she looked just the slightest bit unimpressed. "Natalie."

[dollpocalypse]

"No, Topher," Topher corrected her.

Polite was relative. From him, this was impressive.

[whenshewasnice]

Yeah, now Natalie was definitely unimpressed. "I'm Natalie," she said. "Not... 'New Kate'."

[dollpocalypse]

"OH," Topher said, pretending to get it now for the first time. "I thought you were saying hi. I'm Topher."