Getting to Know You

Jude wanted to know his classmates. He wanted to have the normal high school experience. He'd never been close with his old classmates, but everyone here was just as weird as he was (if not weirder), and he didn't have to hide anything. He could say and do what he wanted. He could go to a completely ridiculous drink, completely with tiny whipper cream horns peaking out of the side.

Which he did.

Because it was good.

Once he'd grabbed his drink, Jude headed over to a wall, grabbing a seat and making sure there were room for however many people chose to follow him down from the school.

Everyone else was slow to arrive, which meant that for a bit, it was just Jude and Violeta. They'd talked a bunch before in the community center, but never really one on one, which lent the whole experience a kind of differnet feeling.

"You're transferring over from Remedial, right?" Jude confirmed. "There seem to be a lot of us doing the same thing. I guess it makes sense, since they want as many people as possible to get the senior year experience."

It wasn't going to be quite the same not having grown up with their classmates, but the idea was the same, right?

"Making friends," Jude speculated. "And memories. That's what people mean when they talk about senior year. Pranks, but..." Jude wrinkled his nose a bit. "I'm not really interested in those. I'll leave the whole senior year prank to someone else. I just want to..."

He considered for a moment. "I guess I'm looking for the normal teenage experience? I think I'm going to run for student council this year, even though I'm pretty new. Run around the school. See some events. Consider joining some clubs. Things like that. Do you have plans?"

Jude technically knew everything he needed. He knew that pranks often caused reactions. He knew that Violeta fed on emotions. But no part of his powers snapped those two puzzle pieces together until he actually thought about it, so his initial reaction was one of confusion, his eyes scrunching together for a moment before he finally made the connection, relaxing once more.

"I guess you were out of school for a while?" Jude said. He wasn't clear what Violeta's life was like. She'd said a lot of things that had implications, but he'd never asked, and he wasn't sure how open she was to talking about it. Better to give a nice softball question and see how she reacted.

"I don't really have a reaction, honestly. I think I'm going to work with Alma, rather than against her. I'm very organized, and I have the whole perfect-memory thing going on, which means something like treasurer or secretary would be perfect. Fit for the job, bascially."

It was a sensitive subject for her, but realistically it was a sensitive subject for a lot of people. Even for him. And she was taking it decently well. So he wasn't too worried about that, but when the conversation moved on to student council stuff, he took the out and let the conversation shift to avoid making her uncomfortable on what was supposed to be a more laid back day.

She had some good points about having a platform above and beyond Almas, and Jude winced. Because... well, he didn't have anything.

"I guess I feel a bit like I'm too new to know what really matters on the island. Like, I don't have a platform. Everyone else has something to say, like Alma does, but so far my platform is just hi, nice to meet you."

He could think of a lot of things he'd changed back at his old school, but that felt like a lifetime away.