Adjusting to Dorm Life

It had all been rather sudden. One day she was waking up in her own bedroom surrounded by her own things. A week later, she was in the school dorms, all her possessions in boxes, some in storage, others waiting to be unpacked in her new room in the school dorms.

Liliana still could not quite believe that she was alone, all alone. Her parents had always been a constant in her life, and now, they were not. They had had to rush back to England to look after her grandparents who had been in a horrible train crash and had almost been killed. They had decided that the best thing for Liliana was to stay behind, finish school and live among those who truly understand and appreciated their daughter and her gifts.

The problem with her parents' ideas was that Liliana felt all alone now, abandoned and basically forgotten. What was worse - she had not even received any word, letter, phone call or email since they had left. All of which made her feel somewhat unloved and unwanted.

Glancing at the clock on her bedside table, Liliana got up and made her way down to the dorm lounge where she had an interview, meet and greet, with the person who would be her dorm parent.

@Romi

"What the...?" Liliana marvelled as she looked around the room and first noticed all the birds, sitting on a tree limb, set up near an open window. It was a very odd thing to behold. Not the oddest thing Liliana had ever seen or encountered, but certainly among the top twenty things, if not the top ten if you only included the academy and not the rest of the island.

Hearing somebody address her, Liliana turned around to look at the person who was addressing her. Noticing he wore a mask, a bird-like mask, caused Liliana to stop briefly and stare, totally not expecting this person to be her dorm parent.

"Uh, yes, I am Liliana," she said hiding her surprise, remembering, for some reason, what Jude had sort of shown, taught her, and held her hand out to him in greeting, feeling that it was perhaps the right thing to do. "Nice to meet you," she added.

Shaking his hand a little awkwardly, Liliana glanced at Finch and couldn't help but smile a little at his rather odd, but also, charming behaviour. The psychopomp in her felt an odd kinship, maybe it was the fact he could talk communicate with birds .. she hadn't seen him do it ... however, the evidence was clear that he did. Birds were often used by or as spirit guides, some psychopomps even took their forms.

"Mr. Finch, please to meet you, and yes, I think I might be one of your students... or dorm children, ward.." she replied a little hesitantly, "I have no idea what I am, a student in your dorm, I guess," she shrugged.

"Are those your birds?" Liliana asked a little fascinated by the oddness of Finch and the birds.

Liliana nodded thoughtfully at this. She hadn't realised it, but she was a ward of the school. It made sense, she guessed. "Then I am your de facto ward..." she said as she walked over to look at the birds.

"Are there any rules that I need to be aware of?" she asked distractedly as she eyed the crow with great interest. Crows and sparrows were two of the birds often chosen by psychopomps as guides.

"I have never lived here at the school before, my parents had to leave unexpectedly, and I was... " she was going to say 'tossed into the dorms' but thought better..."well, they made provisions for me to live here," she said with a soft sigh as she placed out a hand to the crow.

Liliana hadn't considered that before now. She was almost an adult. Her eighteenth birthday meant that officially she no longer needed her parents' consent to do things or make decisions. And while this notion might be welcomed to a large degree, (what seventeen-year-old didn't like the idea of being a full-fledged adult?), Liliana also found it unsettled her a bit. She didn't feel like a real adult, so how could she make adult decisions, she wondered.

"Okay, I understand, Mr. Finch, so no strict house rules beyond the obvious school rules," Liliana nodded, "And if we need to talk to somebody or need advice, can we come to you?" she asked a bit hesitantly, not sure if she would ever confide in her dorm parent, but the need to be able to reach out to somebody now that her parents were gone, made her want to know if she was all alone or not.

When the crow suddenly jumped onto her hand as if he understood what Finch had said, Liliana let out a surprised, yet happy sound, "Hello, Mr. Crow..." she said softly as she eyed the bird respectfully, and then turned to look at Finch. "Can you talk to them?" she asked questioningly.