Title of the Thread (Nick, Open)

[Malix]

It's a warm sunny day outside, and the students of PHS #42 like to take advantage of balmy days just as much as the next fellow. Kids all across campus were taking their business outside: lunch, work, and play alike, and some teachers were taking their classes outdoors as well.

There were, however, some things that kept you inside. One of those was the need for a computer.

The school's computer lab...walls crowded with dopey inspirational posters and informative flyers about "safe browsing." What computer lab would be complete without that, aye?

The warmth of the computers...the hypnotic whir of thier cooling fans...the rich spring breeze entering the cracked window...no wonder Malix was asleep.

With her arms resting on the desk to either side, she lays across the keyboard with her face buried somewhere in the "FGHJ" region of the flat plastic input device.

Oh what a miserable plight...trapped in the depths of sleep, how can our dozing damzel possibly complete her assignment without some rescue? Tune in NEXT POST to find out!

[Nicolas Constantine]

The bell rang. Hmm... after lunch, Nick had... computers!

He made his way down the hall from the cafeteria towards the technology department, walking down the hall fueled by a wonderful cup of hot English Breakfast tea. Lots of cream and sugar, as always.

Nick entered the computer lab and headed towards the back row to find a nice hidden seat to sit in. He was planning on surfing the web a bit and then crashing if he had the time. He pressed the power button, but the computer didn't want to turn on. So he checked in the back to see if the plug was in.

There was only one other explanation. The surge protector was off. He looked under the desk only to see the surge protector to be obstructed by two feet. He looked over to the computer next to him to see a girl sleeping at it. Nick smiled. She sure had the right idea.

He tapped her on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, umm, I think your foot might have turned the power off..." he said as politely as he could in his accent.

[Malix]

The bell rang, class periods changed, and the girl slept through the shift peacefully until...

*tap*

Malix is brought gently back to some semblence of wakefulness by the shoulder tap.

With a sleepy moan she plants her palms on the desk and pushes herself into a proper sitting position slowly, and wipes at a bleary eye with a palm.

It takes a moment to register the words that had floated into her ears in those first moments of wakefullness. She looks around sleepily at the ceiling lights and her computer screen, all operational.

"Power looks on to me" is what she means to say, but it comes out in a sleepy slur, sounding something like "Powrlksontmm..."
She's clearly not grasping the situation quite yet. She idly observes that her essay is now eleven pages longer, nine of which are filled entirely with the letter 'k' repeated over and over.

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick looked at the girl with an inquisitive look on his face, not understanding what just came out of her mouth.

"Umm... what?"

He decided to let it slide anyways. She just was woken up and seemed to be a tad groggy. Nick would try again.

"Sorry for waking you, but your feet are obstructing the power of my computer." he stated a little more specifically, but still acting as polite as he could.

If she gave him any more of a difficult time, he would just go underneath the desk and do it himself, feet in the way or not.

[Malix]

"AAAHhhhhhAHahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

Malix yawns a massive yawn and stretches luxuriously in her seat, arching her back like crazy. Releasing the yawn, she gives herself a little shake to knock the sleep from her bones like stalactite from a cave ceiling in a quake.

This time, she hears his statement and comprehends the situation fully. His statement...his...she observes the fact that she is accompanied in the computer lab by a guy now.

"Oh," she says simply.

Malix rolls her chair back and peers under the table at the offending power strip. She flicks off a sandal and swipes a toe across its red plastic switch, which glows to life.

Now she swivels her chair to face the guy and schools her face into the best cheery smile she can muster in her still-groggy state.

"Sorry about that!"

[Nicolas Constantine]

She flicked the power switch on and the computer behind him hummed to life. He smiled at her. She was cute. Why the hell did he always happen to run into all the cute girls? That's right, he's Nick...

"Quite alright. I could see you were having quite the nap there, sorry for being a bother."

He sat back in his own chair and swiveled to face her, extending his hand and smiling at her, his dark blue eyes shinning in the dim light of the computer lab.

"I'm Nick, by the way."

[Malix]

"Oh, you're no bother, I should be working anyways," she states simply. Indeed, the assignment was due the next day but the more she could do now the more time she had for whatever the hell else later on.

"Nick, huh...well congratulations!" says Malix when he offers his name. It seems a strange response, but it's not really all that bad when you think about it. What sort of sad clown wouldn't have some sort of pride in their identity? Malix sure does,which is why she doesn't really mind whether or not it's a strange response in the first place. Comes full circle rather nicely doesnt it?

Malix takes the proffered hand and leads them through a two-shake handshake. One is just cold and three or more is way too friendly, even for old friends. Two shakes is *perfect*

"I'm Malix," she adds, as she spins her chair back to half-face the screen with a shake of her hair, which is almost maroon in the twilight of the lab.

"What brings you in here on such a nice day?" she asks. If she wasn't playing catch up for joining mid-semester, she would certainly be out in the sun herself, but those were the waters.

[Nicolas Constantine]

It was an odd introduction, but Nick went with it anyways. She took his hand and gave it two firm shakes, which he found rather respectable. None of that limp hand bullshit that a lot of people shook hands with nowadays, like the other person was diseased or something.

"I'm Malix."[/b]

Nick could swear that he heard a faint English accent when she spoke and her name surely was British.

"What brings you in here on such a nice day?"[/b]

He chuckled at the odd question. Why else would he be in here?

"I have class here, if you must now." he slyly smirked at her, looking at her with a tinge of sunlight reflecting off his eyes from the window nearby.

"What about you?"

[Malix]

Malix plants her hands on her hips and puffs out her chest, and her face becomes a mask of stern pride.

"For Justice!" she shouts with grim determination in her voice. If anyone else was in the lab they wouldn't be able to help hearing it unless wearing headphones or something.

Then her solemn expression melts away into unrestrained cheer and she relaxes in the chair again.

"Naw, I'm just tied up in backwork. I'm such a slacker." she states, and makes a few keystrokes to save her work and delete some erroneous characters from her assignment.

"Class huh...are you learning anything interesting?" she asks with a faintly jaunty intonation.

[Nicolas Constantine]

How come Nick always seemed to pick the odd ones to talk to? Even if he found them to be more interesting and attractive...

Malix slumped back into her chair after her little outburst and had a very cheery look on her face, which in turn made Nick smile.

"Naw, I'm just tied up in backwork. I'm such a slacker."[/b]

"Yeah, me too. I am the definition of slacker." he smirked at her.

"Class huh...are you learning anything interesting?"[/b]

Nick sighed. It was computer class after all.

"Well... not really. Computer classes are meaningless when you already know how to operate them. I rarely come to the class and I'm still passing with flying colours."

[Malix]

"Well... not really. Computer classes are meaningless when you already know how to operate them. I rarely come to the class and I'm still passing with flying colours."

Malix taps out a sentence or two on the keyboard while the guy answers her query in a very straight-forward but self-complimenting sort of way. Her typing extends a few seconds after he finishes, because, well, who stops typing midsentence anyways? XP

With a very resolute smack to the enter key, she whirls her chair back around to face the guy and meets his eyes directly. Her gaze has an appraising quality to it, but her expression is otherwise unreadable. Thoughtful pauses like these are just a dreamy peculiarity of hers the people just have to get used to. A lot of things run through her head: speculations about this guy, musings about her own self, society's expectations and school's demands...but in the end she concludes there are no new conclusions to be drawn.

And so Malix pauses for a moment, reflecting. "You can always learn something anywhere, though perhaps not from the coursework." she says finally, with a flip of her hair.

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick smiled at her.

"Well, yeah, I'd hope so. I would be in a world of confusion if you had to learn from a course, cause frankly, I'm terrible at school." he chuckled.

It was true, though. Nick was a horrible student and was only getting by because American public school was far easier than upper class British private school. Plus, there was no corporal punishment allowed by teachers, which meant he could ditch like crazy and still get a good grade as long as he turned his work in on time.

"Well what class are you supposed to be in now? I've never seen you around here, unless that's because you're new..."

[Malix]

Malix laughs along with his little joke about school's difficulties. For herself, she really likes to get good grades and works for them when she has to, though in a world where violence ran rampant in the school system itself, the gain of knowledge seldom seemed to pale in comparison to the gain of strength.

"Well what class are you supposed to be in now? I've never seen you around here, unless that's because you're new..."

He asks. Malix scratches her head with a gloved hand for a few moments, thinking about it. She finally decides to delve into her bag and fish out a planner, which she looks through before declaring...

"Lunch! Good thing it's just lunch..." She trails off into thought there again, and idly types the last sentence of her assignment. It's not work she can be proud of, but it's good enough to net her an A or B, or so she thinks. "And yep, I'm new, new as a fish that doesn't stink!" she says, and her faint noble British accent clashes cheekily with the grimy vernacular of her sentence.

She follows it up with a quick press of Ctrl-P to start the thing printing, but the printer complains noisily and fails to produce a paper copy of her assignment. She mutters an expletive under her breath.

"How about you, how long have you been here?" She asks, forcing amiability through frustration at the uncooperative printer as she tests it again, with similar results.

[Nicolas Constantine]

"Ive been here since the start of the semester." he said, still looking at her and reaching over to bang on the printer a couple of times before it buzzed to life.

So she was a new girl. Usually the new people asked to be shown around after running into you and nearly killing you. But this one seemed that she wasn't too worried about that. He definitely heard the faint accent in her voice and wondered why she hadn't said anything about his very prominent one. The printer behind him finished printing two copies of the girl's paper and Nick grabbed them and handed them to her.

"And you know that lunch has been over for about fifteen minutes now, right?" he smirked.

[Malix]

Malix watches from under her lashes as Nick makes the printer work by hitting it, like something The Fonz would have done. He was only slightly less new than she was, which was heartening...she would not be the only person going through the process of being immersed in a new high school culture. She neatly fields the offered copies of her assignment with an appreciative nod, and stuffs them down into her bag.

"And you know that lunch has been over for about fifteen minutes now, right?"

...says Nick. Malix looks over her shoulder at the wall clock, and her face contorts into a pained expression.

"Well, snap..." she says, and begins stuffing the rest of her things into the bag in a mildly hurried fashion. "So much for a catnap...slept right through the bell..." she muses.

She stands and stretches again, and shoulders her knapsack, before turning to Nick. "Well, I should probably get going..." she says, trailing off, regretting meetings cut short by the vicissitudes of fate.