Three's a Crowd

Adeloise was pumped! She had planned the day out since earlier in the week and texted her uncle about it as soon as she thought of it, only telling Henry a few days later. It was fine! Uncle Hal was a really busy guy -- college guy and all! But since she and Henry were just elementary, they had more time in their hands so she was pretty sure it wouldn't do any harm to surprise him while she bugged...er... asked for Hal to keep him company. She could have gotten Stef or Ai but they had other plans it seemed like. It was too bad though! They were both real nice. She would have simply gone out with either Stella or Adrien but she figured another person wouldn't hurt.

Adrien was the one who tagged along today, and Stella, as usual chose to stay at home. She remembered making a joke about Stella being like a housewife and she swore she saw papers fly out of nowhere and made a note not to make wife-related jokes with the grumpy ghost lady. Anyway!

Adeloise stood at the lobby of the dorm, waiting for her new friend. She'd reminded him of the time the day before just so she was sure he didn't forget after a while. She was already thinking of the places they could go later: cafes, shops, the playground even! This was going to be fun!

This was ridiculous.

Hal was supposed to be preparing for school; he was a college student now and he had to focus more into his academics than he ever did in high school but here he was, waiting for a couple of kids at the elementary kids' dorm building. His little cousin, Adeloise decided she wanted to go into the city today and she had none of her older non-disembodied soul friends to keep her company. (Where ever they were, he wished they trip on something right now.) Which automatically makes him the responsible person over her? That was ridiculous. The logic was flawed somewhere there but he didn't want to think of it at the moment.

Which brings him there, sitting on a couch, next to the aforementioned gremlin girl, who was waiting for her friend. Pray to god they'll be there sooner.

Adeloise was first to jump out of her seat at the sound of a new, but familiar voice. It was Henry of course! She went straight to meet him in the middle of the room, smiling just as brightly as always. "It's a-okay! We haven't been waiting long." Adeloise felt a tug at her side, which she was sure was from Adrien but she chose to ignore it. Adrien didn't usually have important things to say unlike Stella!

The petite girl straightened up and stepped sideways to introduce her company. First gesturing to the green flame behind her, floating right next to Hal, "So I brought Adrien along with me again," then to the newer face, "And this is Uncle Hal I mentioned before. Uncle Hal, my friend Henry! We met over the start of school."

As soon as Hal heard the new voice directed at them, he schooled his expression out of the frown it was in. He managed to crack a smile relaxed enough to seem very genuine. It wasn't like he didn't like meeting people; the point is that he already had the idea at the back of his mind that he was here to babysit a couple of twelve-year-olds. His gaze turned to the side, to see Adeloise's ghost companion snickering. God, he hated this family trait of theirs.

Hal nodded, acknowledging the younger boy; it was almost weird because at an angle, people could probably mistake them to be related. "Don't mind her; Hal is just fine with me. Uncle makes me feel older than I want to be. I hope she hasn't been bugging you too much," he spoke rather calmly, but his words earned him a light kick from the girl.

The green ghost fire seemed to move at the acknowledgement, though for the other two, they saw him wave to to younger boy -- not that he could see it anyway, but Adrien wasn't rude. He turned to to Hal, saying "He can't actually see me; but apparently he sees the ghost fire."

Adeloise added nothing to that and shrugged at both before turning to take the lead for all of them, making gestures for them to follow. "Mhm, we're supposed to go downtown, I remember there's a teleport pad to the station here in school so we don't have to take the long road through the forest!", she chimed. She didn't know that earlier but she didn't want to tell anyone. She couldn't make her ghost companion keep quiet about it though and he whispered it to Hal.

Hal tried his best not to laugh at the girl; he honestly expected between the two of them, she would have known these things since Hal wasn't that big on asking questions when he was new. "I'm glad to hear that, kid. She's kinda pushy apparently; was kinda worried she'll have a hard time making more friends around here," he told Henry, making sure the girl didn't overhear.

He then adressed the pair, "So where'd you kids want to go first? Playground in the park, arcade or what?"

Adeloise was beaming when she'd heard Henry call her nice and it filled her with so much pride. She loved it! People thought she was nice! She was likeable! It was perfect. Neither of the other two boy seemed to pay her any attention though so her grin dropped, fading into what seemed like her default smile. Adrien wasn't meeting her eye but it was probably because Hal was here and she figured Adrien like messing with Hal as much as he did with Stella. Which was true to some degree but the girl didn't know about that.

"I don't mind!" she lied. She wasn't big on games, but she did put arcades on the list. She didn't mind it when it was her and her brother, but otherwise, she didn't have much interest on it. She thought it might have been a boy thing to like them? She wasn't all too sure but she decided to play a smile so she wouldn't upset her party. She led the way as they walked, mostly getting feel of where Hal seemed to be headedas he walked so she wouldn't get lost.

"So! Teleport pad! You know when they I was going to a magic school so I could "sharpen my senses" or whatever," she said, weaving quote marks into the air as she said the words, "I didn't actually think of having all these other creatures here. I always thought it was gonna be all Harry Potter-ish."

Hal actually did notice Adeloise's dumb grin, but she decided not to make too much a deal about it. Judging by the timing, she was probably being smug about being called nice, despite his suggestion of her being bossy. He had to resist rolling his eyes at it.

He'd have been surprised that Adeloise agreed to the arcade idea; she didn't seem to him to be much of an arcade person to have agreed so quickly but maybe she was concerned about company. Okay, admittedly that was... nice of her. But he wouldn't say that loud. He smiled to the both of them, as he began ushering them to where the teleport pad had been located. "Well, I guess that's a unanimous decision then!"

The group eventually reached the school's teleport pad, Adeloise bouncing along the way, chattering away. Hal worked behind the scene, speaking to the operator for a moment before joining them back. While things were being set up in the backdrop, Hal responded to Adeloise's musing. "Well, it's not Harry Potter. I think a lot of kids expected that when they get transferred here; me included really. So what was your expectations, Henry?" he asked, turning the question to the younger boy.

Hal was the first to react to Henry's response, muffling out a laugh behind his arm. It was nothing like he was mocking him for the thought because if anything, he had similar thoughts. He didn't expect the gothic architecture but he'd expected something at the level of premier colleges when they told him it was a school for the gifted. He might have expected the nonhumans at least.

The operator called over from behind him, politely reminding them of the protocols for a moment before the teleport activated from under them. Their surroundings seem to blur as and in the next moment, they were in a more techy space. Hal knew it was the space station but he didn't bother saying a thing and stepped forward.

"Well," he began, picking up from the conversation. "it's definitely not Eton either. The school is pretty old so I guess it's not a surprise there are old really buildings around save for a few. Pretty sure have enchantments on them so they couldn't just tear them down to rebuild new ones over them," he mused aloud. He turned to Henry with a grin on his face, one you'd probably see on an upperclassman who was gracing his the new kids with his personal knowledge. "Pretty sure Eton doesn't have kids who breathe fire either," he added.

"I mean, I kinda wish I was in those schools sometimes," Adeloise blurted out. It had been an honest though on her part. Hal had told her his story how he ended up in the school. His powers got found out, his friends started avoiding him and his parents probably acted weird too, though he didn't admit to it. She had a few friends who've lost contact with their families too. Sometimes she wondered if it meant something but she didn't want to think of it, knowing that she still had her parents on her side.

She didn't seem to notice how Henry had picked up on her thoughts and kept on talking. "But it's not so bad! There's been lots of interesting people in the school and on the island. Few other ghosts who could materialize on their own. One of my closest friends is a woodland fairy I think and the other's... erm... he's a pyrokinetic." Ghosts were the last of the things she needed to worry about.