Post by LORELEI BANCROFT on Jan 20, 2010 22:06:17 GMT
Classes started tomorrow. That in and of itself was enough to terrify her. She didn't like new things in the least. Lor was seated cross legged in her room, staring out the wide picture window and trying--unsuccessfully--to stem the slight panic that was beginning to put pressure on her sternum.
She sighed once, a long and drawn out sound that echoes off the bare walls. She should probably buy some posters. After all, she was going to be here for a while. A long while, if the Pack had anything to say about it. Lor's eyes narrowed and closed. It wasn't as though her parents were itching to have her home either.
The two were not related to one another. The Pack lived in Romania, in the wild and tumbled forests that she could still feel in the slow beat of her heart and when she clasped her fingernails to her palm. Her parents lived in New York State, now an ocean away. On the shadows of her eyelids she could see it; a cold, massive mansion that ate into the land and had a cavernous inside without a soul.
Her lips twitched. Her she was in a new school, in a new nation, and all she could think about was the things she'd left behind. The things she didn't miss. She had not found affection in either Romania or the United States. She wasn't looking for it here; or rather, she didn't expect it. The Pack had been very clear that this was the end of their obligation to her. She was a fish out of water, a wolf without the company of other wolves. Only in the dark of night, when her Other form whimpered and longed to run with its own kind, did she wish she had worked harder. Maybe learned how to belong.
She didn't really know what the plan was. She was simply on her feet and moving before she'd really thought it out. She tucked her room key into the back pocket of her jeans, and a map of the grounds slipped into the other pocket. She looked around the room simply out of habit, double checked for her key and stepped out into the hall.
And nearly stepped right back into her room again. The panic had been instantaneous and crippling. She sucked in an anxious gasp and waited it out, not moving a single inch of her short and lean frame until she thought she had everything under control. Then her dark grey eyes flicked up and down the hallway to be sure no one had witnessed her weakness and started walking.
She hadn't met any students yet, and she was fine with that. Her colors didn't suit those of a social butterfly. In fact, she checked around corners before turning them to allay the risks of awkward social situations. It was seven past seven, according to the delicate silver bracelet on her wrist. Hopefully everybody was unpacking, or talking to their friends or getting prepared for tomorrow. Whatever it was that people did before starting school here. She had been told at Orientation (or the fifteen minute excuse for one she'd been given) was that most students were returns from last year. Established cliques and friends already made. Fantastic.
Originally she had meant to get outside, to feel the sun on her skin and maybe do a bit of exploring on the grounds. There was one thing that cold always distract her, however, and that was the scent that dragged across her senses and changed her path. She opened a door, stuck her brunette head through, and this time her sigh was of pure pleasure.
Books. Thousands and thousands of them, all their spines glittering like a trove of treasure just waiting for hands to worship them. She was more than willing to volunteer for that. Closing the door softly behind her, she raced up the red carpeted stairs and stumbled a bit when she came around the top balustrade. A smile came around the corner of her mouth again, but she didn't laugh. A sense of humor like hers was meant for private, self-deprecating jokes.
The school had apparently spared no expense. She kept wandering until she came across a fireplace, a small marble confection flanked by snarling gargoyles and voluptuous women. It was nothing that she hadn't seen before. This one was hardly precocious compared to some of her mother's designs. Besides, the important part of library's is not the fireplace. It's the comfort of the place that matters, and the way that fire crackled in the grate made her spine unfold a little and the knots unwind.
She picked a book at random and curled up on the floor in front of the grate. She didn't have any opposition to chairs, but why not enjoy that fire completely? Why not let it leap inside her skin and get comfortable? She was always so cold, even after changing to a Pack member. That was still something she was getting used to. It was just over eight months ago that Virmir....
The wolf inside her quailed down and tucked its tail at the mention of a higher wolf in the pecking order. Lor decided it was time to think about something other than her time in Romania. It hadn't been as happy a story as she particularly liked. Not everyone was going to get a prince charming and a castle and a kiss to end all kisses. At the thought, her stomach pitched and dropped. She knew from experience, from that cold house she'd lived in and the vicious scheming and plotting of wolves, that relationships were not what Grimm would have the children believe.
She flipped to the first page of Steinbeck's East of Eden and fell feet first into the book. Within moments the tension was gone from her shoulders, and the light in her eyes had faded from wary to dreamy. She lost track of the time and of the place she held in it. The fire burned low in the grate.
It was after midnight when her wolf made her raise her head. Someone was here, and immediately every inch of her became as lined with tension as a violin bow. If she had been in her wolf form, her hackles would have been up and her belly to the ground. Whose there? she asked hesitantly, the faint rasp of New York showing in her voice. Her eyes pierced the shadows, but saw nothing.
.ooc. Open to anyone! ^_^
