A meeting of {f a t e }

This was bound to be disaster. Sending her away from home to be surrounded by idiots had not been the wisest decision her parents had ever made. She had expected such a terribly thought out plot from her father, but for her mother to actually agree with it was almost enough to infuriate the teenager. Adelina took a deep breath, however, to keep herself calm. There was no point in getting angry now, since there was no one to scream at in the middle of the hallway.

Heaving her bag over her shoulder, Adelina walked into the lounge, glancing around quickly. Everything was neat, for the most part, though much less fancy than back home. Everything was so informal and hardly warm at all… this was definitely going to take some getting used to. She was almost afraid to sit down on the couch, since it didn’t look very designer – usually, couches like the one in this room fell apart easily.

Her shoes clanked gently against the wood floor as she took a few steps inside, closing the door behind her. She spotted a boy sitting down, reading, and couldn’t help but let out a surprised laugh when she saw him. “You’re actually studying?” she stated, bewildered. She studied… but she didn’t do it as excessively as she used to. “Whatsa matter, your brain can’t retain the information after one time of reading?” An eyebrow rose and she walked over to him, looking at the cover of the book as he closed it. “Oh, please, like that stuff is even hard.”

"It's a little thing called trying to get good grades."

“That’s unfortunate,” Adelina stated simply. Trying wasn’t usually worth the effort, since people usually spent too much time of one thing and got themselves worked out. No one knew how to balance. Granted, Adelina didn’t know how to balance things out very well either, but she had done a pretty good job of blinding herself to that fact.

"It is easy. So easy it's boring, which makes it hard to concentrate. Hence why I am going back over it."

Ouch, burn. She’d gotten her own venom sprayed right back at her. Adelina raised an eyebrow at him when he moved his books over, clearly indicating for her to sit with him. It was a nice gesture, and since the weight of her bag was beginning to cause her shoulder to ache, she decided she would take him up on that. She slid the straps down her arm and sat down with him, resting the bag on the floor with care.

“Well, suit yourself,” she said, not going to argue. She really only liked to argue when she had a point to make. All of her other little comments were just to annoy people. “What’s your name?” She didn’t seem to care very much, and really, she didn’t. Her father had just always told her to be nice to people, especially those less fortunate. And, let’s face it – who wasn’t less fortunate than Adelina?

"Andrew Clark."

That was such an incredibly plain, boring name. It didn’t have a spark to it… even though it rhymed. Adelina smirked and almost laughed at the thought, but she stopped herself from doing so. That would make her seem crazy, and she didn’t need to create a false reputation for herself when she was just starting here. Rumors could start when she wasn’t as new. “That’s nice,” she said insincerely, snickering.

"And you are?"

Immediately, the teenager straightened up in the chair, squaring her shoulders and taking on a rather dignified look. She really only succeeding in making herself appear stuck-up. “Adelina Natalie Brooks-Lancaster,” she said. Now that was a name! “I like my name, don’t you?” She smirked at him, resting her head in the palm of her left hand. He was cute enough to be seen with her… so she supposed it was all right that she was talking to him.

"Yeah, it's pretty."

“I know,” Adelina said with a sigh, twisting a lock of black hair around her fingers. “Everyone tells me that.” She was bored; this conversation wasn’t very interesting. He was cute, and he was polite, but so far he was lacking when it came to being very intriguing. He was quiet… she wondered if that was a sensitive subject. People always had reasons for the way they were… ooh… she should ask!

"New here?"

Adelina stared at him with lifted eyebrows, giving him a look that obviously answered his question. “Congratulations, you can see!” she cooed, reaching over and patting him on the shoulder. “Too bad I don’t have a cookie to give you… oh dear.” She tilted her head, giving him an apologetic look. She was obviously mocking him; it was the only way to make this meeting even mildly appealing.

“You’re a quiet guy – why?” She folded her hands, her brown eyes attempting to burn a hole into the center of his forehead with their intensity. If he didn’t tell her, well… there was always telepathy! … if it decided to work.

Adelina scowled when he gave her that look. That was slightly uncalled for. She was only trying to make light conversation, since he wasn’t doing a very good job of doing so. If he thought the subject was odd, then he could try coming up with something! Honestly, her father might have had amazing social skills that he instilled into her, but she wasn’t a genius and certainly did not enjoy wasting time with one-sided conversations.

"You're a really blunt girl — why?"

So now he was throwing the question back at her? That was dull and hardly cutting at all. Unlike some people, Adelina didn’t have a terrible past filled with depression. Maybe a little bit of anxiety because she lived for other people, but… not a lot of sadness. “My parents raised me to be this way,” she said pleasantly and with pride. “They’re good people. But you didn’t answer my question. Don’t make me use my methods…” She narrowed her eyes, leaning slightly closer to him with a smirk on her face. She was trying to be lighthearted to make him a tad more comfortable, but she doubted he would take it that way.