"Oh, you're great. No, don't move! Augh!" as the girl with a camera in one hand let out an exasperated groan anyone from afar would think she was insane for there was nobody else around so who could she be talking to? In truth, she wasn't, at least she didn't think so. But then again, they never do. Anyway, while there was no person there. There was, however, a bumble bee. At least, there was one zipping away to Piper Fuller's irritation. She loved taking photos of interesting things and a bumble bee was oh so interesting. She had wanted to get a shot as zoomed in as possible with her camera, which thanks to her credit card was one of the best money could buy so she could zoom pretty far, and try and see the pattern on its wings. Alas, the bee had flown away from her.

The blond ran a hand through her hair as she leaned against the pillars of the gateway, letting the camera which she had been holding fall against her black sweater vest and maroon shirt which was peaking out from beneath. Even animals were untrustworthy. What a horrible world she lived in where one person was unable to trust most every other person or animal in the world save one, the one with the closest matching DNA to hers aka her brother. But she wasn't with her brother right now and that was alright. She loved taking nature walks when she should be doing work, even in winter. She wasn't even heavily bundled, but she had a strong constitution. Her black Uggs and jeans paired with her vest and shirt kept her warm enough. After all, it was either that or having nothing to do inside of the school. Nobody to talk to. Which was, of course by choice, and Pip knew she shouldn't dwell on the matter. Human kind had lost her trust about a year ago and she wouldn't be one to accept it again too soon.

Still leaning against the pillar, the fifteen year old tilted her head to look at the school's gate. It was so beautiful, decorated with sapphires and made of silver. However, as Pip knew all to well, beautiful things often hid sinister emotions. At her home, it had been her parents fear of having an odd child. Here, it was the cliques. They were ugly, yet this beautiful gate masked the fact that anything other than a serene environment was just passed it.

Not that Pip really noticed the cliques. They didn't notice her, she didn't notice them. It worked fairly well and was very much so to her liking. Who needed human companion when it would just turn out to be a lie, anyway?

((Yeah, and we're saying bumble bees are around in winter, because I say so! And sorry that it's so short.)

It was an odd day in the winter with so much snow and yet tolerable weather. Phoebe was a little uncomfortable with this occurrence but figured it was best to enjoy it while it lasted. Still, she had related wintertime with extreme coldness, not…bees. Phoebe continued her walk around the school, she had a cold today of all days and nothing would make her feel better than to get out of the freaking bed. She figured that a light jog would work wonders on her but her cold made her feel too bad for even that. Plus, how many rebels and nobodies aren’t dying to laugh at her again? Phoebe had been completely oblivious to it until recently, people hated her. Phoebe just didn’t get it.

Phoebe felt a bit hot under the collar now, was her temperature rising? She hated getting sick more than she hated…well, she just hated it. She was complaining about her stuffy nose earlier that morning but promptly stopped as her voice was apparently quite nasally and caused nothing but laughter. She unzipped her jacket a bit, only a bit because the zipper to the blue jacket got stuck again. Her breath spiraled upward in a white cloud and dispersed as she exhaled the chewing gum in her mouth made this really cool mint feeling in her mouth. It was a pretty fantastic feeling…but she was still sick.

As Phoebe rounded another corner, the school entrance gates came into view and Phoebe smiled as she saw the familiar glint of the entrance gate. Although, a curious frown appeared on her face as she saw a young blonde girl that she’d never met before. She decided that she should go greet this girl, go meet this girl but she wasn’t sure why. Part of her thought that the girl was simply good looking, most likely a royal, the other part was because she wanted to kind of introduce herself to the girl before the girl could hear any nasty rumors.

Phoebe was half way to the girl when she suddenly felt like sneezing. She checked her pocket but she was out of tissue. What to do? What to do? She thought desperately as she felt that she couldn’t hold it any more. Phoebe prepared herself for the sneeze that was coming. Then, suddenly it left, not wanting to sneeze in front of the girl, she waited in her spot for a few more seconds before she was sure it wasn’t returning.

“Hey. New here?” Phoebe asked, hoping that her voice was not as nasally as it was.

Sniffling to herself, Jina felt as if hell had decided to descend upon her and play games with her already weak body. She had caught a cold and her nose was running as though the mucus dripping from her nose was free and the best thing the holy being had ever created. Blowing her nose into a tissue, she tried to breathe, but failed miserably. Sucking the cold air through her mouth, it was as if her tongue had been set on fire. It was uncomfortably dry and Jina felt as if she did not have enough saliva to moisten her tongue. Which worsened her condition considerably. She was seated cross legged Indian style on her dorm bed as usual, because her friends had decided to abandon her and go off to cause their own chaos. Feeling left out, she couldn't blame her friends. After all, who would want a sneezing and sick girl on their misadventure? They would probably have to take care of her and such, it would've been troublesome.

Sighing dramatically, Jina switched on her laptop, grateful to get in touch with something Korean. Studying in Aura Academy had been a fabulous experience, with the gorgeous buildings and the no-less-than-breathtaking scenery. However, since her arrival at Aura Academy each year, her Korean deteriorated badly, without anyone for her to speak to in the same language. Her siblings were in their own normal schools in America, while she was stranded in who knows where, taming her magical ability. Logging onto a Korean website called Iple, she remembered that she should have been brushing up on her Japanese also. Checking her blog, she saw that no comments had been made and nothing interested was occurring on the site. So she closed the window turned off her laptop, slightly annoyed that nothing good had come from her wasting half an hour's of battery, due to her miserably slow start-up and bad Internet connection.

Stowing her laptop away, Jina pulled out one of the Japanese mangas her aunt, the debutante one, had given her on White Day. Although it was surprisingly odd, because her aunt was neither male, nor someone who was interested in Jina romantically. Flipping through the manga boredly, she wondered why her aunt bothered giving her chick flick things, especially when she knew the girl was adventurous and did not like the usual things. Deciding on spicing up her life, Jina grabbed a thin knitted sweater and pulled on some pants before grabbing her manga and leaving the dormitories. She knew she would probably freeze to death, with only her shirt, the sweater and her jeans. However, life was all about experiencing new things, was it not? So, Jina decided that being cold and sick in the middle of winter, was a creative new experiment and she walked randomly around the school.

Having conversations with herself in both Japanese and Korean, she strolled out to the gateway. Which was, she had to admit, something really cool looking. She couldn't describe the gateway, per se, but it was still a really cool looking venue to hang out at. Spotting two figures in the distance, Jina squealed. Someone to annoy and practice on! Hurrying to the two figures, she recognized Phoebe Stavros, a Royal, and Piper Fuller, who she didn't really know that well, after all.

"Anyeong haseyo!" Jina greeted in Korean, feeling slightly escstatic. "Jina imnida!" she continued cheerfully, although she was quite sure neither of them understood yet a single word she had uttered. It was honestly, quite fun to speak to them in Korean and annoy the living daylights out of them. It was her main expertise and Jina didn't mind flaunting it.

((I decided Pip needs some color in her life!))

To say that the words coming over her shoulder shocked Pip was to belittle her reaction. Piper Fuller had been so lost within her world of nature and photography that she had almost completely forgotten that people could actually break into her little world and open their mouths to actually speak! Her eyes flew wide open as she jumped slightly but she retained her composure before turning around to see whom had spoken the words of greeting to her. And whom she saw baffled her. Phoebe Stavros? She was a so-called Royal, wasn't she? What in the world was she doing speaking to a self-made Nobody like Pip herself?

Pip merely stared at Phoebe for a moment, her blue eyes assessing the girl. She could tell immediately that the royal was sick. People didn't have noses as rosy as Phoebe's was unless they were sick. Or deranged. But Piper didn't suspect the other girl of madness. But then again, wasn't everybody mad to some extent? As Pip pondered this, she continued looking at the other student. And then she rapidly picked up her camera and snapped a picture in the girls general direction. She glanced at the digital screen after the picture was taken. "You have really good bone structure," Pip finally spoke. Sure, it was something banal and no type of greeting, but it was Piper, the queen of vanity and hater of people on a whole.

Not that she was entirely against certain persons. But people? The race was just despicable. Or at least, most of those whom she had encountered in her short life had seemed so. Sure, it was little to judge on but those things which have nothing to be compared with are often the ones that cause the most impact.

The blond opened her mouth to speak again, an actual greeting this time, but then she saw a girl approaching from behind the royal. A girl whom she recognized as someone whom she had met several times previously and taken part in one or two conversations with, Jina Kim. Or was it Kim Jina? Piper never knew what was up with Asian's and their names. Why couldn't they just be like everyone else and have their first name first and their last name last? Why did they have to baffle everyone to such an extent that they weren't sure which was which?

Pip stared at the Korean for a moment and raised an eyebrow in response to the girls most definitely not English phrases. "Okaaaay then..." Piper muttered beneath her breath. She then ran a hand through her golden locks and said, "hey."

Phoebe waited for what felt like ages for the blonde haired girl to respond. It kind of made her uncomfortable that the girl was staring at her in such a way. Had someone tried to tell this poor girl that Phoebe was an awful person? Maybe she met Jac already, which wasn’t healthy considering that the girl had (in Phoebe’s opinion) serious issues. So why was the girl staring at Phoebe this way? Was there something on Phoebe’s face? Was she using some weird trippy power on Phoebe? Was she scared speechless just because she was a Junior. Phoebe was about to say a few ‘encouraging words to the girl who was now obviously a freshman when the girl took a picture of Phoebe.

Startled by Piper’s quick motions after so many moments of silence, Phoebe flinched a bit as she had her picture taken. Her facial expressions showed her confusion, what was this girl doing? Phoebe took a few steps back and she watched as the girl looked at her digital image. Well, at least she didn’t sneeze during the picture but she still looked like crap. ‘Wait was that some weird blackmail?’ Phoebe wondered as she watched the girl. Phoebe wanted to know what the girl was doing, what she was thinking, and what her problem was but her questions were soon answered.

” You have really good bone structure” The girl had said, causing Phoebe’s expression to deepen. Phoebe’s eyebrows rose and her head tilted as she tried to consider what might have been happening. Phoebe wasn’t even sure how to respond to that and indeed, it felt as if she could not talk.

“Wha-thanks?” Phoebe began to mutter, her face still twisted in confusion. “You too? I guess.” Her words were carefully chosen, she wasn’t trying to offend anyone today. As she thought about it, the compliment both made her quite pleased as well as quite curious. Who was this girl again?

Before Phoebe could even go on a new girl presented herself. Well, not entirely new. Phoebe had seen the girl in hallways and even at lunch but she didn’t even know the girl’s name. Then Phoebe took another aspect into consideration, maybe she was still lying in bed, this was just weirdness from a dream. Phoebe took another breath and sure enough, she had that feeling that she loved. No, it wasn’t a dream, these girls might’ve been real. Both seemed a little odd but Phoebe was intrigued. Was she being pranked or something?

Out of politeness, Phoebe turned around to see the other girl, immediately Phoebe thought she was crazy. While Piper at least had a sweater vest on, the other girl was wearing a thin, knitted sweater. She didn’t show her, even though she was freaked out. Phoebe just smiled at the two, nodding her head.

In her head, she meant to say something like: ’Nice to meet you’ but as Jina drew closer, she could no longer think of it.

“What?” she asked instead, in reference to whatever the girl had been saying.

The Nobody's eyes sparkled with a smile of enjoyment upon seeing the Royal's confusion. Nobody would ever say that Pip Fuller didn't enjoy causing trouble. She couldn't help but want to tease people a little bit; it was fun. Mostly she only teased her close friends, she happened to tease Matthew a lot, but for some reason she had felt like confusing this girl as well. She was in one of her moods; you know, one of those random moods that hardly reflected the true nature of a person.

A small smile formed on Piper's pale pink lips, "thanks. Yours is truly artistic, however." She looked back down at the screen on her camera and smiled. The lighting of the picture had come out just right. Of course it had. This was the light manipulator of Aura Academy whom we are dealing with here. What was the picture for? Well... The honest truth? It was for Pip's portfolio. She wasn't particularly intelligent, neither book smart nor street smart. She had no specific skills or anything to make her stand out from the crowd other than her power. And that power was truly only good for one thing; photography. And she had loved taking pictures long before she had discovered her power so it was just the perfect profession for her to go into. She hoped, after Aura, that she would be able to go to a university and major in photographic art.

"I'm Piper Fuller, by the way." She just had to say that. No Nobody expected to be known by a Royal of Aura Academy unless there was some sort of relationship between the two of them. To Pip's knowledge, there was no such relationship between her and Phoebe Stavros.

Phoebe continued to look at Piper curiously. The brunette just stood there, coughing twice as she stared at the smiling blonde. What could have made the girl tick in such a weird manner? The girl seemed a bit weird but intriguing all the same. As long as she wasn’t like that other crazy freshman that was running around. Phoebe wanted to get to know her, to at lest be able to pass judgment as a weirdo or a doll.

"thanks. Yours is truly artistic, however.”

Phoebe’s eyebrows furrowed and she stared at the girl with an unhidden expression of puzzlement. She didn’t mean to stare, she couldn’t help it, she was trying to pick on something that wasn’t there…or something that was quite obvious and being missed. Before she could stare at the girl any longer, Piper introduced herself and Phoebe felt bad for staring. “Hello Piper. Wow, what a pretty name. My name is Phoebe Stavros, it also starts with a P.” Phoebe laughed as she stated the obvious, she felt lame but it came with a sickness.

She shook her head softly and her look of confusion weakened. Finally, Phoebe truly noticed the camera and the girl’s behavior before sneaking up on her. Phoebe felt really dumb for missing it all, for not putting it together. She assured herself that her mind was clouded by the cold and that otherwise she wouldn’t have been so dumb. “Ahhh, you’re a photography club girl. Figures, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Well thanks. Can I see the picture that you took?” Well, hey, can you blame Phoebe for asking? She wasn’t being vain but if it looked nice she’d want a copy. Plus, of course, she was sick. While her figure may have been artistic a runny nose and glassy eyes wouldn’t.

{{Horrible, I know. I have a lot of post to catch up on tonight because of Science Fair...Sorry again}}

The fifteen year old wasn't sure whether smirking was appropriate or not. She hadn't meant to confuse the girl, but the look on the Royal's face was clear and pure bafflement. Pip didn't mean to confuse people; it just tended to happen that way. She didn't know why, perhaps it was because she tried to beat about the bush often. Or perhaps it was because she tended not to have real conversations with people but rather she said random things that popped into her head for the lack of having anything better to say.

Upon hearing that her name was pretty, she just shrugged. It was a name. Had her name been Iphigenia, it wouldn't change the fact that it was a name, and she would probably have the exact same life. After all, was it not Shakespeare who had said "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"? Nevertheless, Pip didn't respond anything of the sort. She did say, however, "well, you never know what someone may think when it comes to your name. Someone may believe your name to be spelled with a 'f'. Phoebe... Interesting... One of it's meanings is 'bright' in Greek." Yup... Pip was just a fountain of knowledge. At least when it came to myths in regards to her name and was not another name for the sun-driving God, Apollo, Phoebus?

The girl glanced down at camera. She rarely showed people her pictures, at least not ones that she had just taken. She generally printed out all of her pictures in one shout and only then decided which were appropriate to show others. But what harm was there in showing the girl the picture? So she took the strap off of her neck and brushed her hair with one hand for it had moved around when she had removed the camera and with the other hand she passed the camera to the girl, the display screen onto the picture of her.

((And don't worry! It's fine. Short is good because then mine can be short to!! XD))