Time to get with the beat.

"Lila." She replied to Nyota, who sounded unsure of why Lila required her name. Honestly, the only reason for this was so she knew in case they met again. It was better to call her Nyota than the girl in the crowd watching the dancing boy. And it's not like she wouldn't remember or recognise her. Her eyes were too distinctive.

The boy's finale was nothing short of spectacular. As he faked falling off of his shadows, Lila's heart skipped a beat. She was so involved in the performance she thought, for just a split second, the boy was actually falling. When he took a bow, Lila clapped loudly. It was a very good performance.

Nyota gave her a nudge with her elbow, clearly impressed by that last trick. She went on to question Lila about asking for the name of the boy. "Oh yeah," she remembered aloud, "I'll do that once the crowd clears." The crowd was still clapping for the performance. She would have to wait until they cleared out.

A couple of minutes later they had done just that. Lila walked to where the boy was, and asked, "Hey, my name is Lila, and my friend and I are wondering what yours is." She hoped that got the message across without sounding too creepy. And deciding to
add a compliment, she said "Great performance, by the way."

Blinking, the boy answered by saying, "...Guess you can call me Cor." Cor, Lila thought. What could it stand for? Corey? Cornelius? Actually, she didn't really care. She despised her full first name so much she had never even written it down. In response to her compliment, the boy said, "Oh. Uhm...thanks." For the sake of being polite, Lila answered, "You're welcome."

Cor continued to blink, seemingly caught off-guard by her approaching him. He appeared to be more introverted when spoken to compared to his performance, and Lila knew from experience that shy people are more easily scared off by her outgoing personality. She would have to be careful if she wanted to give a good first impression.

Unfortunately, this thought process didn't really sink in until after she had waved Nyota, the glowing-eyed girl, over to join them both. Way to make Cor uncomfortable, thought Lila. Regardless of this, she smiled welcomingly and said, "So I haven't seen you around before - do you go to the Academy?" And hoping she had said enough but not too much, she put her hands in her jacket pockets and sighed.

Nyota joined the group and seemed excited about the show. As Lila relaxed, she just dodged being hit in the head by one of the girl's arms flying around. Lila just kept smiling and nodding, trying to look as inviting as possible.

"The... Academy? Nope. I'm kinda...new." Cor replied. That wasn't surprising to Lila. She was new, too, but she was amazed at the boy's control over his power without the school to assist him. She, on the other hand, needed their help to develop hers. Perhaps he had help back wherever he came from. Either way, from what she had heard about the Academy it was perfect for Cor to build his skills and get to know other gifted creatures. Lila said, "You should enroll. It's supposed to be really good at helping with your powers. Who knows what you'd be capable of with their help!"

"Plus, you can get to know other people with powers. Maybe even others with the same." She glanced over at Nyota. Who could she mean when she said that? The only double-up in powers Lila had one across was an older girl who was an Angel, like her. Shadowmancers were rarely mentioned anywhere, so she assumed there would be few. Then again, who knew. She only got here a couple of weeks ago.

Still curious about the guy Nyota knew, Lila asked, "Who has similar powers?" Lila swept her long hair away from her face, twirling a small piece around her fingers. She felt comfortable in the group, something she hadn't completely felt since she was wth her human friends at home. She sensed Cor loosening up, too, and Nyota seemed fine from the beginning. They were almost done with introductions and already it felt like she had found friends, or at least allies.

Lila just nodded in reply to Nyota's answer about her friend. A different variety of power sounded normal, in the last couple of weeks she had met plenty of types of everything. Nothing seemed surprising to her anymore.

Without noticing Nyota staring at her, Lila glanced around at the bustling city life surrounding the trio. "It's so busy here - and so... normal." She said this aloud, but more to herself than the others. She could remember the way she would hang out with her old friends downtown vividly, shopping and gossiping. Their weekend routine... She realised she was daydreaming. About her human friends. She shouldn't miss them. They weren't even important to her! Maybe it was something else, but Lila felt a sudden pang of sadness, of mourning for her past. For a moment, her carefree expression changed, she looked at the ground and sighed. Quickly she corrected her emotions and listened in to the conversation again. Maybe one of the others noticed, maybe they didn't. But she was starting to find a sense of normality on Manta Carlos, and she wasn't giving it up for the sake of humans.

As she tuned back into the conversation, Lila realised Nyota momentarily sounded more uncomfortable than she had previously. However, she quickly disregarded this as the girl continued to talk.

She backed Lila up on her suggestion of joining the Academy. But she brought James back up into conversation. he sounded interesting... Maybe she could meet him too at some point? Still curious about James but not wanting to push the topic, Lila said, "Well anyway, think about it. And don't worry about making friends, I'll always be there if you need one." This would've been strange for her to say at her human school, where she was the leader of the popular girls, but here it was different. She was still a new girl. She didn't have power here, or endless friends. Things had definitely changed.