Sushi time

[Aidan Steele]

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Aidan sighed lightly as he walked through the streets of Kansas City, shaking his head a little. It was insane. To be expected, and something he was getting used to by now, but still completely insane. After merely a week, the professors already had their students drowning in school work. Aidan did somewhat feel bad for the Freshman class. He always did when remembering his own first year. Of course, he'd expected it to be hard... just not that hard. By now, the overload of books to read, essays to write, exams to study for and, in his case, texts to memorize by heart, though it intensified with the years, was more of a routine to him. He wasn't arrogant enough to say it was easy, but at the very least it was expected. After all, the Academy wasn't just any school. Kids from all over the country, and sometimes even from other places around the world, wanted to get in, and with less than a hundred students per year, a good deal of the applications sent over were not kept. Select hardly began to cover how the admission worked at Gordon Park's.

With a shudder, Aidan recalled his very first audition to get in. He'd entered the room confident, happy, a bit cocky, and had left it with a flattened ego and the feeling that he was the worst actor to have ever set foot in there. Two weeks later, when his sister ad told him he'd been called for a second audition, he'd believed she was making fun of him. Then the reality had sunk in and he'd decided to adopt a different way to face the audition, not feeling quite as crushed that time. Then, when he'd received the letter of acceptance, he'd felt as though he finally had a reason to live. He still had the letter and often carried it with him whenever he moved - during the summer, he kept it in his bedroom, mainly on his bedside table, and at school he simply folded it and left it in his wallet. Of course, by now it was not in very good shape, but he still would not throw it away. He simply couldn't, it'd been such a changing point in his life, the proof to his parents that he was determined to go through with it all, though they still didn't get the point.

Coming back to the present, Aidan stopped in front of the place he'd been heading to all along, Nara. Of course, he had lots of work to do still, like everybody else, and he was nowhere near to be done with it; he had a book report of at least four pages to write for English Literature, book which he had not even started yet. There was an exam to study for both in History and Maths, and a lab to prepare for Science along with an oral presentation for language. Apart from the book, he'd started and done a bit of work on everything, but he always found himself concentrating more on the plays he had to read and learning his parts by heart, which always put him in trouble when it came to the regular classes. Despite the fact that he was behind in those school works, he'd already memorized everything he had to know, if not more - he often knew the part of the other students as well, unless it was a monologue. But anyway, he had to take a break from it all before his brain burst - he could already feel it boiling and all sorts of funny and weird things brains should normally not do. Besides, he was hungry, which was another very good reason in his opinion, and he wanted to eat sushi.

Entering the restaurant, he headed straight to the small sushi bar and sat on one of the stools, glancing at the small menu that was placed in front of him and trying to decide on what he wanted before somebody came over and asked him what he wanted. By the time one of the chefs was free, he'd made his choice and looked up at the man who was practically staring at him. He was used to it by now. "I'll have the Chirashi Assortment, please," he said, placing the menu aside as the chef nodded and headed off to prepare his plate. It wasn't long until he came back and gave it to him without a word, moving on to the next customer.

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[Mandy Steele]

Mandy walked through the streets, she knew where she was going, but not how she was going to get there. She knew that she wanted to be at Nara, but she had forgotten how she was suppose to get there. She'd first seen the sushi place when she'd been exploring a few nights ago, but she hadn't had any money and on top of that it was late and she'd already ate. She promised herself that she'd come back around sooner or later and eat there. Though lately she hadn't had the time to go out to eat, let alone the time to re-find the place that she wanted to be at. The work load was immense and despite Addison's warnings, she wasn't really prepared for all of it. She knew how much work she had to do back home in school and it was really nothing compared to what they had to do at the academy. She could tell already that it was going to be too much for some of her classmates and she wondered how the upperclassmen ever managed to do anything else considering the extra amount of work that they'd have to be getting. It only made sense, that was the way that it had always been. As you got more advanced the work load increased.

She just hoped that she would be able to handle all of the work. So far she was keeping up with everything, though she still had quite a bit of work she had left to do she had managed to put a significant dent in it. She did all the things that she was suppose to do for Vocal class (quite a few of her classmates were just a bit surprised when Ms. Philips had informed them that they would indeed be having homework) first. After that she'd started on her English homework, she was about half way through with the book that they were suppose to read and had her log of all the important characters and events done up to that point as well. She'd managed to start studying for her Math test, too. Though she was only half way through her reading assignment in History and still had a time line to do to go along with it. Also she had to study for her oral test in Languages still, and had a lab to write up for Science. Though overall that wasn't bad progress to her anyway. She'd just finish more of it when she went back to the dorm after she ate.

She kept walking for a little bit longer before she finally ended up in from of Nara. She had been afraid for a little while that she was never going to find it, which would have been very disappointing. She headed inside, waiting for a few minutes in line before she was allowed in, once she was she headed over to the sushi bar and took a seat on an empty stool. She looked at the menu that was sitting in front of her, she looked at it and figured out what she wanted just as the person next to her was being served. When the chef looked at her, not saying anything she was assuming that meant to place her order. "I'll have the Bangohan Combination, please," she said with a small smile. She watched as the chef moved on and she looked around as she waited for her food. It was her first time being to a place like Nara, usually she just ate the store bought kind so she knew that it was going to be different. Things from restaurants always did taste different then things out of the package, actually everything tasted different compared to how it was out of the package. She glanced at the people to her sides curiously, on her left was a man who looked to be in his thirties, talking to someone sitting next to him. She glanced to her right and saw that he was only a couple years older then herself, she wondered briefly if he went to the Academy but didn't say anything to him. Instead she just looked around again, wondering how long it would take for her food to get there.

[Aidan Steele]

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Aidan ate his meal slowly, figuring he wouldn’t have anything to do when he was done and he wasn’t exactly looking forward to being back in his dorm and do nothing. Then again, maybe he could try to find something else to do once he was done, maybe go eat an ice cream for dessert or something like that, but then again, he wasn’t sure if ice cream and sushi were such a good mix. That probably wouldn’t keep him from trying though, but that was only if he was still hungry by the time he finished his plate anyway. Well, that was very likely, considering he still had the stomach of a teenage boy, which was often quite hard to fill completely, though he was trying to help by eating slowly, because he’d heard that the slower you eat your meal, the less hungry you’ll be afterward. Of course, he’d heard that from a girl who was almost constantly on diets, so it wasn’t necessarily accurate considering the diets she went on never worked, or most likely never had anything to work on. Either way, he wasn’t eating slowly in order to lose weight but to make the time pass, so he kept on chewing every single bite thoroughly. This was going to be a fun evening.

He was almost half way through his meal when someone took a seat next to him at the sushi bar. Curious, he glanced sideways to see who the person was and if he knew him or her. From the corner of his eyes, because he didn’t want to make it too obvious that he was looking at the girl sitting there (because it was a girl), he started examining her. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had the feeling that he somehow knew her, or at least had seen her somewhere before. She looked rather young, maybe around fourteen or fifteen. She was rather cute too, somewhat similar to the type of girls Aidan usually went for – he had a thing for red hair, and also loved freckles. For some reason, he felt like skin without freckles lacked something, which often lead his friends and the few girlfriends he’d had to think of him as weird or plain insane, especially the people who actually did have freckles and would have wanted to peel them off their skin when they were younger. Aidan enjoyed it though, especially on girls. He often found himself linking them together with his finger, like the game he used to play when he was younger, the one where he had to link dots together to see what the drawing was. He was often curious to find out if an animal or any other drawing would actually appear on the back of his girlfriends when he did that. Of course, he didn’t actually expect anything to really appear, so he wasn’t overall disappointed when he didn’t, but he still enjoyed it anyway.

After a while of thinking and looking, he finally realized where he’d seen her. She was the Freshman girl he’d noticed, the one he’d seen on the first day of school. He’d actually been wanting to meet her and talk to her, but he hadn’t thought it’d be here or even so soon. Overall, he was quite glad about it. He just hoped she wasn’t one of those girls who freaked out when a stranger talked to them ad took out a can of pepper spray. Then again, they were in a public place, so the chances of that happening were probably rather low. “Hey, you go to the Academy, right?” he asked her after a few seconds of thinking, figuring that was a good way to at least start the conversation. Probably better than most other things he could have thought of anyway. “I think I might have seen you there at the beginning of the year,” he added, not saying that he was actually sure of having seen her. It could be a bit awkward if, after all, he was wrong. He hadn’t exactly seen her up close either, but he was pretty sure he was right on this one. At least, he hoped so.

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[Mandy Steele]

Mandy kept looking around for a bit, watching people with interest. Most people weren't actually doing anything that was extremely interesting, or entertaining, but it was keeping her from staring ahead and doing nothing. People, at least, could sometimes be interesting. There would always be a moment when a person would slip up and no one would be expecting it. Which was usually why she liked to watch people, because there was just something amusing about other people when they made mistakes. She knew that she probably shouldn't have felt that way because it was probably viewed as wrong to be amused by other people's mistakes in some way... which was why she never mentioned that particular fact to her friends. Sure sometimes they got curious as to why she loved to watch other people so much, but usually she was safely able to steer the topic of conversation away from that when those moments came up. It was a skill that she rarely had to use, but still found that came in handy from time to time, She turned back to face the chef when he came back with her food though. Bored with the people anyway.

"Thank you," she said with a samll smile to the chef as he moved on without even acknowledge her. She simply shrugged it off, knowing that it was probably how he treated everyone. She took a bite of her food and realized that she really wasn't in that much of a hurry to finish. After all things with Addison as a room mate weren't horrible but weren't exactly going great either. Though there hadn't been very many problems that were spoken between the two of them, both of them just didn't really seem to get along. Both of their personalities just clashed with the other. So really she tried to not be around the dorm as much as possible, because Addison really just made her feel very uncomfortable. There weren't a lot of people that could actaully make her feel like she was constantly doing something that was wrong or annoying, but Addison did happen to be one of the select few. And she managed to do it without even saying anything to her about it, which was definetely something that was new to her. Really just staying away from her was probably the best solution.

She was snapped out of her thoughts though when she heard the guy next to her say something. She turned to him and saw that her earlier thought about him going to the Academy seemed to be right. For a minute she wondered why he even started talking to her, but then decided that she didn't really care. After all she loved talking to new people so it was an opportunity to get to know someone else. She really hadn't gotten a chance to get to know that many people yet with all the work that she was given, and she was really too busy paying attention in class to get to know the people that were sitting around her. She smiled slightly at him before she answered. "Yes I do go to the Academy," she said. She hadn't seen him around yet but apparently that didn't hold true for him. "I'm a freshman." She looked at him for a minute trying to guess what year he was in. He looked to be seventeen or eighteen so it was probably Senior maybe even a Junior, but the former was more likely to her. "What are you, a Senior?" she asked going with her first guess.

[Aidan Steele]

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Aidan grinned lightly at her when she confirmed his suspicions that she was indeed a student of the Academy. He'd also figured by himself that she was a Freshman, so it didn't come as a surprise when she mentionned that it was the year she was in. So she was the girl he'd seen after all, he wasn't just making it up. For some reason, she'd held his interest at first glance, but he couldn't exactly say why. Of course, there was the fact that she was pretty much his type, but for some reason there was something more to it. Maybe because it'd feel like a challenge. Aidan rarely got any trouble winning over girls, though he didn't try to get someone he wasn't interested in. He was a ladies' man, but not a jerk. If he happened to realize later on that he wasn't so much interested in the said girl, however, he couldn't exactly be blamed, though he often was. Either way, this girl seemed like a challenge, for some reason. She had innocence written all over her face, and that was definitely something interesting. Something he'd never really been confronted with - he didn't usually go for innocent girls. And then, there was the fact that she was three years younger than him. To him, the age difference didn't matter at all though.

When she asked whether he was a Senior, he nodded, smiling. "Yep, last year at the Academy," he said. "Craziest so far, too. Never seen that much work load but I figure that after three years of getting used to it, it would hardly be the time to give up," he added with a light shrug. Most of the time, he didn't mind the work load, though it did tend to drive most people insane, him included at times. But he wasn't one to get stressed or worried easily, so even when he was deep into trouble because a lot of things were due soon and he'd hardly started on them, he didn't get too freaked out by it, and he usually managed to finish it all in time. He was a procrastinator when it wasn't about theater, and even when he tried, he never managed getting anything done until the very last minute. And surprisingly enough, he usually got good grades too. It annoyed a few people who were aware of it, especially those who worked so hard on it and didn't get grades as good as him, but he didn't usually aknowledge that fact. Besides, he wasn't about to start feeling guilty because he was good at doing school work. It'd be idiotic.

"What's your talent?" he asked, taking a bite of his food and tilting his head as he looked at her. He was trying to figure it out, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He could figure which talents classes she wasn't in. He was pretty sure she wasn't an Art student, nor theater. Film or Photography didn't seem likely either, though he was less sure on that. Creative writing... possible. But something told him it wasn't that either, nor Dance. His best guesses were Music or Vocal, so either way it was a musical talent, at least he thought so. And she somewhat reminded him of a church choir singer, for some strange reason. Maybe it was the look on her face, the fact that she seemed so innocent and that he was pretty sure she was a believer too. He wasn't exactly much of one, but he didn't judge other people according to what they believed in anyway. "I'm a theater student," he said, figuring she'd probably ask him about it since he'd asked her first. If she was indeed a Music or Vocal student like he though, and with being a Freshman and all, it was really luck that they'd actually met.

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[Mandy Steele]

She watched him as he spoke smiling slightly as her suspicions were confirmed and he told her about the work load. It was just as she'd suspected earlier, that it'd get harder as they went up. It scared her slightly to even think about it. What that type of work load would have to be like and how much time it would entail. But he was right about not giving up, if he'd managed to put himself through three years of all the word and effort than it wouldn't make any sense for him to stop at the home stretch. "Yeah you're right it wouldn't make any sense for you to give up now," she said with a nod. Part of her had been surprised that he even did go to the academy. Not that she really doubted it, but there was a part of her that sort of saw him a lot like some of the people in her year. The ones that were bound to be flushed out soon enough because they just couldn't handle the work that it involved. For some reason that was unknown to her he seemed like one of those people, but apparently that part of her had been wrong. As he'd just proven.

When he asked what her talent was she couldn't help but smile slightly. No one ever really got what her talent was. Apparently she didn't look like a singer, which she didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Not everyone could have their talent easily recognized, but there were just some people. Some people who looked like they were dancers, artists, or photographers. It was just impossible to think of them as anything else because for some reason they seemed to look a part. She often wondered if those people had some kind of unseen advantage over those who didn't look the part. Would people be more likely to give those who did look the part a chance? Probably not consciously, but maybe somewhere in the back of their minds they acknowledged that people looked like they should be something and therefore it was only right to give those people a chance. She looked at him and tried to figure out what his talent was. He didn't actually look the part of anything really, just like her it appeared that his talent wasn't spotted by his looks. However, he actually told her what he was and it did seem like it could match up.

"I'm a vocal student," she answered his question before taking another bite of her food. "I guess I don't quite look the part though." She gave him a small half smile and wondered what his guess had been to what her talent was. She wouldn't ask of course, though maybe he would tell her, maybe he had actually thought that she was a vocal student. She wouldn't actually know, but then again as she thought about it, she didn't really care all that much either. It didn't matter what some stranger that she'd just meant thought about her. He was a stranger after all and therefore his opinion of her shouldn't matter in the slightest. But for some uncomfortable reason... it did. It mattered a lot to her, it was probably just because she still wanted people to like her at the school and she wasn't succeeding in that quite yet. She hoped that she would soon enough though, because she was starting to get a bit uncomfortable and lonely without anyone really liking her like they had back home.

[Aidan Steele]

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He grinned lightly as she spoke, nodding as well. "I wouldn't want to anyway," he said with a light shrug. "They'd have to drag me out of that Academy to force me to leave," he added. The Academy had brought so much to him, both personally and in matter of improvement, he had troubles imagining himself anywhere else, which would come as a problem considering he would indeed have to leave at the end of the year. Maybe by then he'd be okay with it, and he still had a full year to get used to the idea, but for now there was no way he was ready to leave this place. He'd started looking already at a few Colleges where he could possibly go, but none seemed to have a program that was as exciting as the one they offered here. He hadn't talked to his parents about it yet either, knowing they didn't actually expect him to go through with his plans. His father especially. They were unbelievable, really. He'd always made it clear what his passion was, and still now it was rather obvious of what he wanted to do for the future, yet they still convinced themselves that it was only a crazy dream that he'd get out of his system after highschool. Well, if delusional is what they wanted to be, it was their problem.

He glanced over at her as she mentionned which was her talent and smiled lightly, nodding. "That makes sense," he said, figuring he hadn't been far off since he'd hesitated between that and Music Student. "Well, it's not that you don't look the part, but you know, some talents are harder to label than others. Musical talents aren't easily guessed, unless you carry mics or instruments around," he added, taking a bite of his food and swallowing before giving a small grin. "Actually, I thought you looked a little like a church choir singer." He didn't think that would offend her in any way, unless she was extremely anti-religious, which he highly doubted, looking at her. And if anything, he really thought he was right on that one too. At least, she looked like it... not really looked like a religious person, because that's not necessarily something that can be easily seen from a mere appearance point of view, but there was just something about her... well, he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something. Maybe it was the almost freakish aura of innocence that surrounded her, which was something he definitely wasn't used to. "Am I wrong?" he then asked, raising an eyebrow. He didn't think he was, but he prefered getting a confirmation.

He ate some more of his food, finding that he was actually more hungry than he'd expected though there was still a lot of it in his plate too. He then glanced at her again, tilting his head slightly as though examining her. "So, how are you liking the Academy so far?" he asked though his eyes were still thoughtful, as though he hadn't actually asked the question that'd been on his mind just then. There were actually a couple of questions running through his head at that moment, including a few that he couldn't necessarily ask right away, and he figured he might as well try to satisfy his curiosity instead of waiting for her to possibly do so. He was usually pretty straightfoward, though he tried not to be too rude at the same time, which could be somewhat of a challenge sometimes. "Must be different than what you're used to, especially with the living here and having a roommate and stuff like that," he added. That had been the strangest thing for him, getting used to living at the Academy and not just going there, and then sharing his room with a stranger every year.

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[Mandy Steele]

Mandy couldn't help but smile slightly she heard him say that music students weren't easily labeled. That was probably true actually, considering that singers didn't really have anything besides their voice that represented their talents. Actual musicians would also be hard to label unless of course they did carry around things like drumsticks and such, which some of them actually did. Though she smiled even more when he said that she looked like she was a member of a church choir. She was glad that she looked to fit that part at least. Considering that she considered her church one of the most important things in her life... wait no the most important. She still hadn't found a local church that she planned on attending yet, but it was in her list of priorities. She'd actually stopped by a couple of them in her time there, she just didn't find them all that promising. She believed that a church had to have spirit, it was essential to anyone ever believing in what happened there. If the church was lifeless it wasn't going to get through to anyone.

"No you aren't wrong," she said with a smile at him. "I am actually in my church choir back home. It's how I really started to sing." She had gotten a few e-mails already from her youth minister and a few members of her youth group to help encourage her to stay active in the church and such. And really she was trying to, actually she was trying to find a church that had a choir in it. That way she could still get a chance to sing as a form of praise within her faith, but it wasn't as easy as it sounded like it would be originally. Most of the places that she'd come across so far were everyone sang the songs, which she was usually fine with but the amount of tone deafness involved with the other people that sang was enough to drive her up the wall. She'd gone to a few churches that did everyone singing before in her life and she wasn't ever really happy with the results. Although she knew that a lot of people did like to sing, there were just some people that she'd rather didn't sing. Especially those who couldn't seem to find a pitch if their lives depended on it.

She sat in silence for a few minutes, eating some more of her food. Though she couldn't help but wonder again why he was even talking to her. She knew that she really didn't appear to be anything of much interest, and she was always fine with that. She never questioned it or anything. But there was probably some weird reason for why he was talking to her. Maybe he was just extremely outgoing, which could actually be the case. She decided that she liked that answer the best out of all the other ones that her brain kept coming up with. Though she looked back over at him when he began talking, she could tell that he wasn't really asking whatever it was that he really wanted to know. It made her a bit curious, but she figured that she'd just answer the questions that he had asked. "I like the Academy for the most part, I'm still getting used to it of course, but I really think that I'm going to settle in just fine," she said with a nod. Then he brought up the roommate subject and she sighed slightly. "My roommate is a bit of a challenge. See me and Addison don't exactly see eye to eye on.. well anything really. On top of that I'm pretty sure that she dislikes me."

[Aidan Steele]

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He glanced at her sideways and instantly figured that he'd been right about the church stuff when he saw the smile on her face at the mention of it. It wasn't overly surprising, but he'd figured that asking would do no harm. "Figured as much," he said with a light grin when she then confirmed that she indeed belonged to a church choir. She really did look like she belonged there, though in a better way than some people he'd come across before. Starting with his very own grandmother - his father's mother. The old bat was completely crazy and Aidan avoided her as much as he could whenever he was home at the same time as she was, which unfortunately happened way too often to his liking, though then again, he had it easier than his sister, who was constantly at the mercy of the old lady. His grandma couldn't understand why a girl would want to put so much effort into her studies when her future role should be to stay at home to take care of her husband and children, and then the conversation irrevocably turned against her daughter-in-law who was setting such a bad example for her kids.

Aside from the crazy woman, Aidan however hadn't been raised in a very religious environment. His father was a strong believer, but it'd been toned down a little by the fact that his wife wasn't religious. Aidan and Sarah had still gone to churfch rather often in their childhood, but at the age of fifteen, the both of them had stopped altogether, him because of the Academy, her because she didn't have a reason to go if he didn't because she was like her mother. His father had tried to get them both to keep going, he'd even come to Kansas City and visited a couple of churches, giving Aidan a list of address for those he thought would suit his son better. It was incredible how little his father cared when it came to something his children wanted to achieve on their own because of their personal tastes, but how much he suddenly wanted to help and push them if it was something that matched his own interests, even if in the end, those interests were actually just that - his. Pushing the thoughts away, Aidan smiled at Mandy and tilted his head slightly. "I could give you a couple of addresses for churches near if you want," he said with a shrug. "My father tried to force me to go by getting those for me."

He smiled at her when she said she thought she was going to settle in just fine. She most likely would, though she probably would have a couple of problems with a few people, mainly because of the first impression she gave out - most people really hated Mary-Sues, and she looked the part one hundred percent. But she'd most likely managed to get a few friends too, people he knew didn't base their opinions on first looks, but then again, he had the feeling that the impression she gave away wasn't just an impression. She really sounded like she was as innocent as she looked, and that would make a few people hate her at first sight, or tease her like hell. He looked at her sympathetically when she said her roommate would probably be a challenge, but when she actually named the person, his eyes widened and he stared at her for a few seconds. He'd often wondered if the Academy roomed people together with the intention to cause drama, and this there was definitely something that could lean toward a positive answer. Unable to restrain himself any longer, he burst out laughing, covering his eyes with his hands. "Addison Blythe? Gosh, if you think she dislikes you, she's been trying really, really hard to be nice," he said, forcing himself to stop laughing but a wide grin remaining on his face. "I mean no offence, but you and her are the most different people I've met, and you're not exactly the type of people Addie likes. I mean, I don't know you that well, but girls even remotely close to being like her are easily picked out of a group of people. Not that anybody could be like her," he chuckled a little. He now understood the irritated tone of the texts he'd been getting from Addison about her roommate. Though he was fairly interested in getting to know Mandy, he could tell at first glance that she represented everything his best friend hated.

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[Mandy Steele]

She smiled slightly at him when he offered to give her some addresses of churches that were around there. "Thanks, I'd like that a lot," she said with a smile at him. She felt kind of bad that his father had tried to force him into going, she knew from experience with her older brothers and sisters that if a person didn't want to be there, it just was best to not make them go. For faith to mean anything to a person it had to be something that they wanted themselves, it couldn't be something that was forced upon someone. Force tended to drive people further away from what the person who was forcing them wanted in the first place. She'd tried to tell her parents that fact several times when it came to her siblings. She realized that while Mark, Samantha and Brianna had managed to accept their religion in time, it wasn't the same from James or Candice. Her parents kept hoping that the two of them would change and see the light. Both of them had things against Mandy (probably the fact that her parents liked to make it apparent that she was their favorite ), but she always tried to help them out when it came to their parents, they simply never believed it when they heard it though.

She watched him as his eyes grew wide after she mentioned who her roommate was. Which was a bit weird... unless of course he knew Addison personally in which case he could probably see where that'd be a problem. Actually she'd already heard quite a bit about her new roommate though she had no idea whether or not she was suppose to believe it. She hadn't really been paying a lot of attention to Addison in hopes of the out of sight, out of mind trick. But with all the talk that was going around about her it was a bit hard to ignore her all the time, she often spent a lot of time wondering if most or any of the things that were said about her were true. After all she kind of wanted to know the person that she was sharing a dorm room with for the rest of the year, but she was much to afraid to actually ask Addison if anything was true. She didn't want her to think that she listened to gossip, nor did she want her to just suddenly go off on her or something just because she brought it up. Which was always a possibility with anyone actually.

She watched as he burst out laughing and wondered what was so incredibly funny that she was missing out on, a few other people in the restaurant seemed to be wondering the same thing as they were glancing over at him. She waited for him to explain it and was immediately confused, if Addison disliked her she was trying to be nice? She couldn't help but wonder what kind of logic that was, some kind of weird reverse psychology maybe? How could her trying to be nice come off as her disliking her? When he started talking some more though her whole tone of thinking changed as she realized what he meant by his words. If she thought that Addison only disliked her, than she was being nice because it was probably something worse than that. Which was kind of a depressing thought, she hadn't really done anything to make Addison dislike her. She didn't let it show that she was a bit put out though and just gave a bright smile at him. "Well maybe things will change. After all you can't just hate a person for the first impression that they leave on you. I mean, maybe even though I'm not the type of person that Addison likes she could learn to like me. After all we're going to be living together for the rest of the year, so she'll have a bit of time to adjust to the idea," she said optimistically. Though she knew that the likeliness of that happening was as close to the likeliness of her becoming an atheist, it just wasn't going to happen. Their personalities were probably just a bit too different to actually function properly with each other.

[Aidan Steele]

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"You're welcome," he said with a light grin, glancing at her sideways after she thanked him for the suggestion of giving her churches addresses. It was almost a suggestion that suited him perfectly too, because it'd give him the option of seeing her again and possibly getting to know her better. There was also the fact that he couldn't wait to see Addie's reaction when he'd tell her he'd met her roommate and actually planned on maybe seeing her again - she'd go through the roof. That would be pretty funny, and he needed funny right now. It seemed that the roommates were rather strangely put together this year. So the boy he was rooming with, David, wasn't all that bad... though slightly annoying on the sides. But nowhere near what other people could have been. He'd have probably requested a change of room if he'd ended up being put with someone like Andrew Preston, so he considered that David wasn't that bad of an option. Of course, the posters of half naked guys on the walls weren't all that interesting, but he could deal with it. It'd made him want to put posters of girls in bikini or something of the sort, but that wasn't something he'd do at home anyway, so he'd figured it was better to just suck it up and put pictures of his family and friends on the wall instead.

There was also Alan's roommate that was a bit of a bother to him. Of course, Alan wouldn't have a problem with Milo, they'd probably get along just fine... but that prospect didn't please Aidan more than needed. So Milo was a nice guy, according to other people anyway, and there was very little chances that Alan and him would become ennemies or something. But it took away the option of going to see his best friend in his room when bored or something, because well, Aidan and Milo just didn't get along. At all. There was no good reason for it actually, and Addison had often tried to shake them both about it, saying they were acting like childs, seeing as she was good friends with the both of them, and had dated the both of them too. But both Milo and Aidan were guys that liked being on the front stage, center of attention, whatever way you want to put it. And seeing as they were often in the same classes, it didn't always turn out very well. Aidan got annoyed at Milo's jokes, which he considered anything but funny, and Milo just didn't appreciate Aidan's personality. They were better off on their own.

He gave a small smile as she said things could possibly change between her and Addison, able to read through her optimistic expression and tone. He was pretty sure she knew just as well as him the chances of Addison changing her mind about her roommate and liking her were extremely thin. It was one of the girl's flaws, once she made her mind, there was no going back. That was why she'd ended up dating guys like Andrew Preston and Colin Sinclair, guys who'd just ended up being jerks to her anyway, though she'd made them both pay for it in some way or another. He always acted like a big brother to her, but he knew she didn't need his protection. "I'm sorry about that, I know it must be kind of depressing, the thought that you're gonna be stuck with someone that doesn't like you for the whole year. But if that makes you feel better, Addie rarely stays in her dorm," he said with a light shrug. "She's one to explore during the day, if she's not hanging out with her friends she needs to draw or paint or something, and she can't do that all coped up in a room that looks like an asylum to her. Though she's probably done something about that already," he added thoughtfully, figuring Addie wouldn't stand the white long enough to keep the room that way. Though it'd probably be only half of the room that'd be changed since he was pretty sure Mandy liked white. She seemed like someone who liked white anyway. "And she often sneaks out too," he grinned at her. "As long as you don't rat her out, you shouldn't have any problems with her. She's really good at it too, better than most I've seen. Tiny as she is, it's no surprise."

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[Mandy Steele]

She nodded slightly when he tried to comfort her of sorts when he said that Addison didn't hang around much in the dorm anyway. That was something that she'd already picked up herself, it seemed that Addison was never in the dorm at the same times that she was. Or - now that she thought about it - at all. At first she'd been more inclined to think that it was just because of her and that Addison was trying to avoid her, but now hearing what Aidan said she was glad to hear that that wasn't the case. It would seem that Addison was simply one of those people who just liked to spend time outside of the dorm. She guessed that that would be something that was normal, as the dorms weren't very big and there wasn't much to do. If she had more friends herself she'd probably spend more time outside of the small dorm room, but until that point came she was perfectly content with spending time in the small mismatched room and just doing her work. It was more than a little time consuming anyway, so it was probably for the best. She managed to concentrate better when Addison wasn't there, too which was another plus.

She gave a small nod when he said that she liked to sneak out. It was something that she'd guessed by now also. She wouldn't tell of course, unless something major ever happened and the time called for it. But to her Addison seemed like a bit of a troublemaker. She knew well enough from experience that the best way to deal with people who didn't like rules was to give them a simple explanation about what she thought and why she thought that it would be better for them just to listen to the rules. When that didn't work she knew it was just let them do what they wanted until they got themselves into trouble, when she could always go back and tell them that she'd told them so. It was probably a bit mean to do that, but she could never help herself. The words just always had a way of slipping out of her mouth. As did the lecture that she always gave about the rules and how they were put there for a reason. Sometimes she really disliked herself for it, but most of the time she realized that she was doing the right thing and that if more people simply thought the way that she did than things all over the place would be in a much better state then they were at the current moment.

She decided that the best thing that she could comment on was the room color. After all that was the most amusing part of the whole situation anyway, plus she didn't want Aidan to dislike her because of anything that she had about Addison by accident or something. "Yeah Addison has already painted the room," she said with a small smile. She actually thought it was a bit amusing, it was easy to tell who's side was who's. Her own side was a bit on the plain side and was without much color, except for the posters and pictures that she had hanging on the wall. While Addison's side was, well Addison's side was something much different than her own. "Or rather she painted her half of the room," she corrected herself for him. "I really don't mind the white. I think that it looks good, so I asked her to leave my side. Our room looks a bit like it's only half painted," she admitted. "If I didn't know how the room looked originally I wouldn't be able to tell which side was the one that wasn't painted over." She laughed slightly and took another bite of her food which she'd been neglecting ever since she had started talking to him.

[Aidan Steele]

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Aidan couldn't help but feel a little bad for Mandy now that he thought of it. This was her first year at Gordon Parks', and he was pretty sure that though Addison wouldn't be openly mean to her, she surely wouldn't make her living there any easier. Of course, he most likely wouldn't do anything to change that, though maybe he could try to put in a word, but that might not end up in a good way, and he liked Addison, she was one of his best friends and he didn't want to get in a fight with her on account of a girl he'd just met. Besides, if like he thought Addie was hardly ever in her dorm room, what harm could come out of the two girls rooming together? Mandy would be free to do her things on her own, which he was almost sure was the kind of thing she enjoyed to do, and Addison would just go around and about doing whatever she pleased, like always. Sometimes, those things tended to worry him a little because he knew that his friend had no limit and was just too stubborn for her own good. For some reason, she always managed to get out of whatever could have gotten her in trouble before the trouble actually happened, but he doubted this good luck could last forever, and whenever she told him about something that she planned to do that could be dangerous, he never tried to keep her from doing it because he knew that'd only make her want to do it more, but he always got worried anyway.

Glancing sideways at Mandy, he examined her a little and wondered what kind of person she was. Well, he'd already guessed a few things, but he never made up impressions of people in his mind according to a first meeting. She did seem like an overly innocent and religious girl, but there was surely something more to her than that, possibly something she didn't even know about herself, but after all, that's what highschool is for, discovering more about yourself. There was only one thing that he really hoped she wasn't, those people who just meddled in your life without asking for permissions and gave unwanted advices. If she was a person like that and went all counselor on him, he wouldn't really mind or care, so that wasn't what worried him. But if she even tried giving Addie advices as to her way of living, which he was pretty was something Mandy didn't really approve of, she would make her school year seem a lot longer than it actually was. If there was one thing Addie hated, it was taking advices from other people, especially people she didn't care much for. He'd never even tried giving her any sort of advices though he'd often wished he had, mainly because he didn't want to go down that road and have her do the exact opposite of what he'd told her to do. The worst about it was that reverse psychology wouldn't even work on her.

He raised an eyebrow slightly as Mandy said Addison had already painted the room, wondering if that meant she'd actually let the older girl do as she pleased with all the room, even her side. However, when she corrected herself, he grinned lightly, thinking that sounded much more likely. There was no way those two girls had similar tastes, just like Addison wouldn't have stopped herself from bringing color to the room if it meant having only half of it decorated and making it look weird in the process. However, he knew she wouldn't push anybody in order to have both sides painted, mainly because that would involve actually talking to the other person, and also because she surely found the situation very amusing herself, or at least she felt like, if she hadn't won over this, she hadn't lost either. "I guess it does look a bit weird," he said with a smile, taking a bite of his food. "But that was to be expected. Addie's an artist, she can't stand something that's like a blank canvas. I know she had a room back at her old home, before her parents' divorce, where she could just paint over the walls and then they would paint it back to white so that she could do it again," he smiled a little, shrugging lightly. "You'd never catch her living in a colorless environment. She's too colorful herself for that."

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[Mandy Steele]

She nodded slightly as she listened to him talk about Addison. She wondered how close the two of them were, considering that he seemed to know a lot about her. She supposed at some time or another they must have been more than friends, if they weren't already now. After all, he was an attractive guy she'd admit so it would be natural for Addison to maybe see him as something more. Then of course, there was the reputation that she was learning her roommate had. Apparently she got around pretty well when it came to guys, and as she'd heard (much to her horror) a few girls as well. Of course, due to her own religion she didn't believe in sex before marriage. And she most certainly did not believe in homosexuality. She had a feeling that even if she wasn't religious she'd probably still feel the same way. But back to Aidan and Addison, it was possible that they could have been romantically involved. Though something about the way that he spoke about her led her to believe it was more a platonic relationship at that moment. Also, she was pretty sure that had it been anything more than friends that Aidan would hate her already and he didn't seem to.

It didn't escape her attention that he said that Addison's parents were divorced and she felt a bit bad for her roommate. After all, she knew a few friends that went through their parents getting a divorce and it was hard on them. She was so glad that her parents seemed very happy with one another at most times, she didn't think she could stand it if her parents ever split up. Then again, she didn't have to worry about it. With her parents being such strong believers as they were they didn't believe in divorce except for the reason of unfaithfulness. So even if they wanted to get a divorce, their religious lives bound them to stay together. Though she knew that that wasn't always the best things for some couples either. Some couples did worse staying together, they simply caused more damage. One of her friends who's parents had eventually split tried to stay together for a while for the family. It ended up being worse for everyone and things got badly out of control. It was one of the few insidences that she wished for someone to go against what was written in the Bible. It was just causing the rest of them a lot more pain than it was actually worth.

"Her parents let her paint on the walls?" she asked in wonder once she moved her brain away from the divorce train of thought. "My parents would never! I mean the walls? And having to buy the paint again and again and re-paint them?" Her parents were more than just a bit strict, but it was something that she never questioned. She didn't see a reason to, they obviously knew what they were doing. Even if she had been an artist, her parents would have never allowed her to paint on the walls even the ones in her own room. She remembered when her sister was about 15 and started drawing things on the wall of the bedroom that she had shared with Mandy and her other sister. Her mother had just about died, she remembered. "I mean I share my room with my two older sisters and we never agree on anything. Let alone what to put on our walls really," she said. "But now I'm here and one of my other sisters just started college so I guess that Candice pretty much could do anything that she wanted with the room now," she added thoughtfully. "Not that my mom would let her do much."

[Aidan Steele]

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He couldn't help but notice there was some sort of curious look on Mandy's face as he spoke about Addison, and he could only guess that it was because of the way he actually spoke of the girl, which often lead people to wondering how exactly the two of them were involved together. A lot of people guessed at first that he actually was her boyfriend, others were a bit more risky and suggested they might have some sort of merely physical relationship with only friendly feelings toward each other, but very few actually asked him if they were only friends. Maybe it just didn't seem that way when he spoke of her, because he really did love Addie a lot and that was obvious whenever he was talking about her. However, there was a big difference between loving someone and being in love with someone. Thinking back on it, he didn't think he'd ever been in love with Addison, nor had she been in love with him. It had been obvious from the start that their relationship would not elvolve the normal way, but they'd still given it a try though it hadn't taken them very long to give up on the idea. Kissing her was disturbingly just like kissing his sister, and he wasn't too high on incest.

"We're just friends, you know," he told her with a light grin, deciding it was better to give her the details right away instead of having her wonder endlessly what it was that was going on between the two of them. Also, for some reason, he didn't want her to think he was taken, though he refused to admit that as an actual reason as to why he was telling her that. "We dated, once," he then said with a light shrug. "Last year, actually. I think I might have been her third boyfriend at the Academy or something," he added thoughtfully. He knew Milo had been the first, followed by Colin Sinclair - who Aidan considered to be pretty much as much of a jerk as Andrew, though maybe not quite as bad. Then, she'd been with Abigail Kingly for a short while, but he figured that it was better if he let that detail out when speaking to Mandy. He was pretty sure she'd heard already about Addison's sexual orientation, but the less said about it, the better. After all, he didn't know many extremely religious people who were overly okay with homosexuality, at least not until they got close to someone who was swinging that way. "But we were just too much of friends by that time to be a real couple, and now I really just see her as my little sister. Sometimes annoying, not always right, but I still love her and want to be there for her as much as I can," he said with a shrug.

He chuckled lightly once she reacted to what he said about her parents letting her paint on the walls. "Well, it was just this one room that served as an office room in the house before," he explained. "It was pretty small, but it was like any kind of room still, as if they'd given her a place in the house to practice her painting but instead of limiting her to an actual canvas or something, she'd just paint on the walls instead. Not so often though, because it obviously didn't taken her only a day to paint on all four walls," he said with a light grin. "She's too much of a perfectionnist for that, she has to work on the smallest piece of paper for hours, so imagine four walls. She was the one to re-paint them white too, and most of the time she used her own money to buy the paint," he added, shrugging lightly. "She's always been independant, if she can pay for something herself she will. The only times she'll accept a gift willingly is at Christmas. She doesn't even like her birthday all that much," he smiled a little, knowing why that was but not sure if he was actually free to speak of it, or if it'd really interest Mandy at all. He was actually starting to realize he might have talked a bit too much about Addie, though he thought it was normal seeing as she was her roommate, but he didn't really know what other subject to move onto.

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