I Had to Find You; Tell You I Need You (Caleb)

[Felicia Blackwood]

The hallways were quiet as the silver-haired young woman walked down them. Ruby eyes glanced from side to side, examining each of the classrooms in a superficial glance. Her long hair disguised the fact that a set of white earbuds were tucked securely into her ears, and the only indication that she even had them in her possession was the wire that connected them to the device tucked securely in her pocket. In her arms, she carried a small stack of books, though she hardly seemed unstable and barely hesitated. She was used to carrying a lot of things at once, so it did not really bother her much. Still, she had to shift the sheer volume of books onto her right arm to accommodate opening a door to her left. She had made sure no one was inside before she grasped the dull, bronze knob in her pale hand and pulled the door open. Anyone else with her powers might have just willed the door to open, but, she supposed she was trying to take comfort in the fact that she could still be a bit normal, even though she knew she was the farthest thing from it. She brushed the thought away and stepped into the empty classroom, forgetting to close the door behind her.

The prefect carefully placed the books down on a desk in the front of the classroom, pausing to look around the room. Her eyebrows pulled together slightly, confused by the lack of light in the room. She glanced over toward the wall, where there should have been a cutout where a window would be if it was a more modern building. She sighed slightly when she realized the one that was there was rather small. She turned slightly to face the lights that had /somehow/ been installed and moved her hand in an upward motion. The light switch seemed to follow her hand and, in a moment, the lights started to make a buzzing noise before flickering to life. She smirked a little and took a seat at the desk where her books were piled, pulling one off the top and starting to work on the problems in it. Math was pretty easy for her, after all, and even though she was a grade ahead, she was still managing to do the work in record time.

Just as she finished the math problems, the song that Felicia was listening to changed. The familiar tune made her smile sadly as she reached for the next book on the pile. She carefully opened the book and grabbed the pen that was resting by her left elbow while singing the words of the song quietly. She had to admit; she was a sucker for the arrangement in the background, though, in all honesty, the lyrics spoke more to her than anything. Sure, she knew nothing about love, but she knew what it was like to leave someone who you cared about behind and how much it hurt. As much as she wanted to pretend everything was okay, she knew it was not going to be easy to prove such a thing. Despite being surrounded by people, she felt very lonely. She had met people who shared her ideals, sure, but a common interest was not nearly enough to common ground for her to start confiding things in said people. She let out a soft sigh, starting to fill in the space on the paper underneath the assignment. I met my best friend when I was still a kid… Almost immediately, without her permission, her right hand reached for the dog tags around her neck. The metal plates clanged together, but she did not really notice because she became lost in thought.

Everyone had left for the night, and Felicia was sitting on her bed, looking around at the walls around her. The familiar decorations made her feel safe and at home, and she was about to venture into the unknown. A glint of light caught her eye and she pushed herself off the bed, walking over to the frame. There were two children in the center of the frame; one was standing toward the foreground with a bright smile while the other one, who seemed more timid, was trying to hide behind the other. A weak smile crossed her face as she placed the metal frame face-down on her dresser. She pressed her lips together tightly, trying to control her emotions. The sudden guilt and waves of sadness and fear overwhelmed her and she started to cry quietly, clenching her teeth together so she did not make a sound. She did not realize her door was open and that her mother was leaning against the doorway. The soft yet firm voice of Donna Blackwood caused Felicia to turn slightly, wiping her eyes futilely to hide her tears. Without a word, the woman embraced her daughter, who proceeded to cry and bury her face in her mother’s shoulder.

The intrusive memory caused Felicia to abruptly shove her chair away from the desk she was sitting at. She stood up and started to pace slightly, running her hands through her hair. Her headphones had dropped onto the surface of the desk when she had stood up suddenly, so she heard the door creak slightly as someone opened the door more. She blinked slightly, forcing her eyes to focus, despite some of her silvery hair being in her face. The prefect narrowed her eyes slightly and carefully slid her right foot behind her left, anticipating some kind of attack. What she was not expecting was to see a face she had not seen in over a year. She was stuck for a moment, rigid and speechless. There had been no indication that he had been attending the school, and she felt her stomach drop slightly. If he was at Ashford, that meant that he was like her. Still, she could not help the small smile that crossed her face as she spoke in a soft voice, “Caleb?”

[Caleb Radner]

Caleb made his way down the empty hall, his hands tucked into his pockets and his eyes closed lightly. Besides having had a horrible time trying to sleep in this place thanks to his...condition, the boy was starting to lose hope. He had been at the school for at least a week, and had spent the entirety of that time looking for someone. Someone whom he hoped he'd find easily, with her snowy white hair and her shining ruby eyes. He knew she was here, she had to be...but he hadn't had any luck yet. Slowly the boy had settled back into the monotony of school life, and today was no different. Slowly he made his way towards the first class of the day: mathematics. At least he would be able to sleep through this one, math was hardly a subject that came difficultly to him. He had, after all, been transferred to this class after disproving a formula his last teacher had been attempting to present to the class. Caleb had never been so...contradictory back on the mainland, but truthfully the pretense of this school didn't mean much to him. He was here for one reason. He had to find her.

The white-haired boy ran a hand through his bangs lightly, shaking his head as the last bit of fuzziness left him. Thankfully, this area of the school was older than the rest. The stone walls and very antiquated architecture helped to block some electronic signals from elsewhere in the building, and allowed Caleb to at least remain clear-headed. It was a nice change. He closed his eyes and shook his head almost painfully, remembering what it was like to be so close to the electronic "nerve center" of the school before. It was like...being trapped in his own body; his mannerisms and words not his own. The boy shuddered a little and shook off the thought. Right now he had to focus on finding his new class. Thankfully there was an electronic map of the school in the computer systems and, with a little difficulty reaching through so many streams of data and, Caleb had managed to access it, pull it up in his mind's eye and create a little path for himself as he went. A line of what looked like solid light, glowing and pulsing green, was currently hovering in the air in front of him. It was projected quite a ways out ahead of him, rounding a corner and continuing on down the hall. Caleb chuckled a little, a small smile curling his lips. As frustrating as his abilities could be, they most definitely had an upside.

As he grew closer, the boy's mind couldn't help but wander back to Felicia. He hadn't the girl in almost two years now, and he wondered if she looked any different. He certainly did. He was a little taller now than the last time they had seen each other, his hair kept in a much longer style as well, his bangs now hung to cover his forehead and the tops of his eyes. He chuckled a little as his hand went up to his ear and brushed the small steel ring hanging from it. That one was sure to surprise her. He laughed a bit more to himself, shaking his head. It was ironic how easy it was to get a piercing without your parents knowing, particularly when scheduling an appointment was as simple as thinking it. The boy shook his head again and refocused. Overall...he just hoped that this place hadn't hurt her yet. He'd seen quite a few...disturbed people since he'd arrived here, not to mention the lonely, angry and forlorn. I won't let it happen, Felicia...I wont.

The boy rounded the last corner, the line of light in front of him stopping in front of an old classroom door. Caleb shook his head. "I guess 'renovation' isn't in these people's vocabulary, huh?" The boy mused to himself before walking to the door in a couple of strides and jiggling the handle before pushing his way into the classroom. He brought his eyes up as he entered, ready to be faced with the usual mass of faceless students, and instead his jaw dropped, his eyes widening a bit. He took a deep breath, too shocked to remove his hand from the door handle. It *would* turn out that the moment he stopped looking was the moment he found her. "Felicia?...

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[Felicia Blackwood]

Felicia had originally been placed in the classes that corresponded to her age group upon arrival to Ashford. This, of course, bored her to death, and she tried subtly hint it toward the teachers. Thankfully, they had gotten the hint and she was placed in more challenging classes. Of course, she had picked the information up rapidly in those classes as well, but such was her life. Apparently, having telepathy also meant being super smart without even trying that hard. It might explain why she preferred to spend more time reading books when she was not on patrol or breaking up typical teenage spats. It could also just have been that she was a bit anti-social, and she would fully admit that. She was still unsure why they had chosen her of all people to be a prefect commander, and the doubts she had been having recently related to occurrences on the island were only making her question their choice more. Maybe they’d be better off with a different leader, she thought, tapping the eraser of her pencil against bottom of the workbook page. She looked around, wondering where in the hell the other students were. She was always early for class, but she was not that early, was she?

She was lost in her own thoughts after the old memory had been dug up out of her memory banks, so she did not hear the sound of someone’s voice outside the door. She did, however, notice someone familiar step through the door. Her voice sounded unsure when she questioned whether or not the other person who stepped into the room was indeed her childhood friend, but she still seemed slightly happy at the prospect. “That would be me,” she said with a small smile, brushing the lock of hair that had fallen in her eyes out of the way. Her ruby eyes reflected weariness, but she seemed really happy to see Caleb.

Felicia approached Caleb carefully. A wide smile broke across her face despite her better judgement. She was more than happy to see him, and she really could not hide it. Not too many people knew that she had emotions beyond anger or irritation, and no one was really around to witness it. Of course, that really did not matter. She glanced over her friend, noting some major differences. He was a lot taller than he had been and his hair was much longer than it had been. It was still that odd silvery white color that they both had in common, though, so not too much had changed since they had last seen one another. "You're taller," she joked, "Statistically, that's normal though." It was only when she tilted her head that she noticed a slight shine coming from his ear. "Did you get an earring?" she asked curiously, leaning a bit closer to examine his ear. "Aren't you getting rebellious?" she teased, crossing her arms over her chest before giving him a tight hug. "I'm really glad to see you. I missed you," she murmured.