welcome to derane academy.

[Luke Foster]

Luke was out in the middle of the field on campus, his football in his hand. He kept throwing it up in the air and catching it, wishing that he had somebody to throw it to. But nobody was there.

The field was vast and barren of humans. Luke threw the football as far as he could, which was rather far, and then chased it down. His blood started to run again, so he repeated this several times, admiring the spiraling brown as it rushed through the air. Where was Emmy when he needed her? She was always good at catching the ball when he needed her to. But she was probably off with Aliyah somewhere; she always seemed to be these days.

[Grace Emerson]

Alright, so what was one to do on a Monday? Especially if one wasn't really the type that had many friends at the moment. That was the problem, the answer? Walk. Wander. Travel aimlessly around campus until one finds something to do. Everyone else seemed to be with their own little group of friends who they stayed loyal to. That meant you had to act like eachother, dress like eachother, and stay by their side until they part. The downside to cliques. Well, one of the many downsides. The upside? At least you know you're suppose to have friends that way... Thought Grace flatly.

Blue grey eyes drifted off towards a tree, or the path ahead of her. Eagerly watching to see if something, anything was familiar. Maybe she had mistaken how big the campus was. That or just wasn't really trying to find her way back. But nothing really did seem familiar. The building just next to the concrete path could've been the dorms for all Grace knew. A sigh escaped the vocals of the girl as she continued to just search. At least it isn't cold... She thought, trying to be optimistic about things. Being from Minnesota, Grace was very well used to all sorts of temperatures, hot or cold.

A pale hand reached up to pull a stray lock of hair out of her face. The usual auburn was hidden by a layer of dark brown dye. The hand shoved itself back in the jean pocket as the eyes darted to the ground. The sidewalk looked like cold stone, not some fake block. Looking up again, Grace listened to the rhythmic pace of the black hightops as they, one by one, paced across the concrete. She wasn't really searching for a building, or anything that really showed as familiar anymore. But more someone that could help her find her way back. But still, no one.

She had come to an open feild, quite large actually. There was but one person there tossing a football around. Grace blinked, a little suprised. She thought everyone was in cliques, didn't they all stick together? You're in a clique too...remember? she reminded herself. Anyway, it didn't matter. Soon she hopefully wouldn't be just wandering anymore. So, she had two ways of approaching this. 1. Just say that she was lost right off the bat and sound like a total idiot in doing so. 2. Try starting a little bit of a conversation, being social isn't that bad, is it?

"Nice toss!" Grace called out, so the person, whoever he was, would hear over the little bit of distance that seperated them. She smiled a little bit, just so it would seem like she wasn't some weirdo. But alas, if she remembered correctly, "The Weirdos" was the clique she was in. It didn't neccissarily she had to act like one...right? It didn't matter, not anymore. Grace was only self-conscious to a certain point before she just didn't care. If someone had a problem with her, then that was just too bad. However, she highly doubted anyone would have a problem over just a little compliment...

[Luke Foster]

Luke's head went up when he heard a voice from behind him. He turned around to see who the speaker was. It was a girl, roughly his age, standing alone, the classroom building behind her. He smiled and nodded, walking towards her as he did.

"Thanks." He shrugged, standing in front of her. "So, you know anything about football? Or are you just walking around? I would think that you would be hanging with your friends right now."

It seemed like all girls did was hang out after school, and scheme about how to confuse guys more. Luke had three sisters, and they confused him exceedingly. They had to plan it at some point.

"I'm Luke Foster," said Luke, holding a hand out to shake the girl's hand.

[Grace Emerson]

Grace couldn't help but feel a little relieved when he didn't think she was completely weird. All girls worry about what people think of them sometimes. Some stressed it all the time, making sure they put just the right amount of make up on so they would at least look good if they didn't act it. Grace never wore make up, she didn't see the point. Plus, it wasted too much time in the mornings when you could be getting sleep.

"So, you know anything about football? Or are you just walking around? I would think that you would be hanging with your friends right now."

"Well..." Grace bit her lip, not yet ready to explain how she was terribly terribly lost. "I guess I'm just going for a walk." Wording it differently by not really explaining a few details was eaasy enough. It gave the right answer as well. Then came the topic. Friends. She shrugged. "They kinda...went somewhere...and I don't really know where." Lying wasn't really one of Grace's strong points. She didn't really want to admit that infact, she hadn't really made any friends that wanted to hang out with her. She added another little shrug.

"I'm Grace," she replied, holding out her hand as well. "Emerson," she quickly added her last name. Secretive and afraid of identity theft were two things she didn't want to be labeled.

[Luke Foster]

So she was exercising. That was good. Girls who actually exercised were a plus. Girls who didn't wear make up - another plus. Not that he minded make up. He didn't mind it at all, but it was nice to see somebody who didn't care about purely superficial things.

"I'm sorry that you lost them," said Luke. He could understand how it would be hard to keep up with girls, he had enough trouble keeping up with his sisters. They were insanely social and hard to keep track of.

Luke shook Grace's hand, smiling her her. "It's great to meet you, Grace. I've never seen you around before. Are you new?" Having not seen her didn't necessarily make her new, since Luke didn't know everybody, but he had a twin sister, which led to his knowing a lot of the girls at school. Apparently Emmy talked about him.

[Grace Emerson]

Okay, so there was currently one lie, and one twist of words. Way to make a first impression. They weren't that big of a deal, though. Not like stealing and saying you didn't, just a little bit of a fib to get out of sounding stupid. That was still okay, right? It seemed like it at the moment.

"Ah, that's okay, they'll turn up somewhere." she answered with an increasing smile. Though she wasn't sure if they would. She didn't even know some of their last names. All she knew is that they were all part of a clique. Grace wasn't really sure if she fit in with them as well as they thought she did. In her eyes, she saw herself fitting in with basically any clique. Yet she rejected them all the same. The Weirdos probably was the best place for her none the less.

"You too. And I guess you could say I'm new." Grace shrugged as she shook his hand as well. "And how about you, shouldn't you be hanging out with your friends right now?" Good, a slightly sly remark that reperesented the real Grace. She understood why Luke would be alone, though. She herself could use a little bit of time alone every-so-often. Even if it wasn't intentional.

[Luke Foster]

Luke smiled down at Grace. It was nice that she wasn't entirely concerned with where her friends were. After all, there was more to life than friends. That was what Luke was constantly telling Emmy.

Luke moved the football restlessly from hand to hand, mentally reminding himself to update is Fantasy Football team that afternoon. There was a game tomorrow that would change the stats. He mentally slapped himself, though, because he was being rude. That didn't matter, it was just a computer game. Real life humans mattered much more.

"If you need somebody to show you around, I'm always here," offered Luke willingly. "And my friends are off doing who-knows-what, but it's probably stupid." He shrugged. Teenage guys had a tendency to be that way.

"I would really like to introduce you to my sister, Emmy. She's cool. But be warned, she's incredibly friendly."

[Grace Emerson]

"That'd be nice," she admitted, biting her lip. Now Grace didn't even have to say she was lost. "Yeah, same here," she said with a returned shrug. She hadn't really known her friends for very long, but she could tell what they'd probably be doing. There were two types of stupid in Grace's book. 1. The stupid things that really are stupid, as in, not fun and pointless. These were things like, going to a little kids movie, or going to a playground while all the little toddlers are running around near your ankles.

2. The stupid things that would get you in trouble. Pranks, in a way. At home Grace had always been with the rebellious crowd. Whether it was doing something to the already disgusting school lunches, or making it so the drinking fountain spurt water in your face as you tried to take a drink, it was all one particular type of stupid.

"Alright," Grace said with another increasing smile. Meeting new people wasn't really a bad thing. Plus, if they were, infact, really friendly it was a good chance of them becoming a friend. Silently, though, Grace wondered exactly how friendly Emmy would be. But it didn't really matter, she'd find out when she met her.

[Luke Foster]

"Do you want me to show you around now?" asked Luke, smiling at Grace. She was pretty, he had decided, and she didn't seem preppy. Not that he disliked preppy girls, because he didn't. He just didn't harbor a certain fondness for them that seemed so common.

"We'll have to find Emmy first. Wanna look for her now?" He asked, his face brightening slightly. He hadn't seen his sister in a while, and he was anxious to check up on her and making sure that she hadn't done anything a)stupid or b)life-threatening. With Emmy you never knew. Drama sometimes took a hold of her and never let her go, and then odd things happened.

[Grace Emerson]

"That'd be great," Grace answered brightly. Now relieved that she wouldn't have to admit anything embarrassing. Everyone hated doing that, whether it was telling an embarrassing story from a long time ago, or screwing up and getting caught. Only those with no shame could hold it together without completely wanting to bury themselves.

"Alright, sure," she said again brightly. The sooner of meeting new people the better. Or was it the fact that she kind of wanted to stay with Luke? Secretly, and though she may not have known it yet, Grace thought he was cute. She felt herself blush, and it wasn't from any cold winds of Florida. "So, what grade are you in?" she asked, trying to start up a conversation. He didn't look too much older than her, so maybe he was a Junior too.

[Luke Foster]

"All right, well, let's start on the grand tour, and eventually we'll find Emmy, unless she's disappeared. And if we don't find her, we'll find one of my other two sisters, Lucy or Kate. This campus is overpopulated with Fosters, trust me." He put the football in one hand and began to walk down the walkway, gesturing to the building on the left.

"That's the classroom building, where the torture begins. It's SO much fun. Or not." He smiled slightly at his own sarcasm, then kept walking. "I'm a junior, by the way. So is Emmy. What about you?"

[Grace Emerson]

Grace nodded, smiling still. "Alright," she replied. To herself she wondered just how many Fosters there were. However, there were just as many Emerson siblings. At least there had been. Grace's older brother had gone to college, and her sisters to another boarding school. The family had basically split, but they had never been too close in the first place. If all the Foster siblings went to the same school, then they must've been closer than Grace's family ever was. Not that she cared much. Maybe that sounded a little bitter or cold, but if they couldn't get along there wasn't much of a point in trying after so long.

Grace gave a small laugh at the sarcastic comment. She didn't like classes much either. She'd rather skip them than learn how to calculate the square root of whatever number. It didn't matter, how many people actually used that kind of stuff in their jobs anyways? "Same here," Grace said brightly. It was good to know people your own age. Being a Junior and switching to a new school was hard sometimes, everyone was always so tight from being there through their Freshman and Sophmore years. Plus, then the cliques had already formed and were moving along with full force.

[Luke Foster]

Luke continued with his previous statement so that Grace wouldn't think that Fosters multiplied like rabbits, or anything. "Don't worry, there are only four Fosters on campus. There's my older sister, Kate, my twin sister, Emmy, and my younger sister, Lucy." That made him the only boy. Luke had actually kind of enjoyed that position, though, because it meant that he didn't have to share his toys and gadgets, like the girls had. Of course Kate, Emmy, and Lucy had owned practically every girlie thing ever made between them.

Luke grinned at Grace. "So, what dorm are you in? And if you see anybody who's small, brown hair and blue eyes, and loud, that's Emmy. If you see somebody who's small, with brown hair and blue eyes, and not so loud, it's one of my other sisters." That was always the easiest way to distinguish between the sisters. Luke was lucky to be the only boy, because nobody ever called him KateEmmyLucy, like they did to the girls.

[Grace Emerson]

"Yeah, I had three siblings too." Grace stated with another shrug. She knew what it was like, having siblings. They were your family that you wished weren't your family. Sometimes they were cool, but there always seemed to be some type of rivalry in her house growing up. It was almost funny how they would cover eachother's backs, even when they so wanted to rat eachother out. The truth was, they knew things about eachother that they wouldn't want parents to know. Siblings were spys that didn't need to do any actual spying.

Grace laughed a little bit. "Well, I'll get my dorm assigned soon, and I'll keep my eyes open." Grace's siblings had all looked pretty different. She was the only one who ended up with anything close to blue eyes. The others all had brown, blonde hair too. She had always liked being the one different one. The spontanious one. It didn't matter anymore though, there were none of her siblings to be compared to at Derane. But that was some of the reason she chose to come here in the first place.

[Luke Foster]

Luke grinned at Grace. "So, you have three siblings too? Cool. You know what it's like, then." She knew what it was like to love your siblings to death, yet be so sick of them sometimes. To want to punch them and hug them at the same time. He felt that way occasionally, though most of the time he just wanted to protect them. They were his sisters, after all.

"So, where are you staying until your dorm is assigned?" Asked Luke, curious. He didn't have a room mate yet, but he didn't mind. He could watch movies on his laptop or listen to music as late as he wanted. Or he could jump on the bed, or let his stuff take over the whole room. This was the first year he hadn't had a roommate, and he was kind of enjoying it.