To get things Right

"Not something anyone I know does, at least." He shrugged, eying the stacks of books and papers with interest. "It's cool. I think it's interesting." He added honestly, lest the other boy think he thought it was strange or weird.

Jamie grinned and flushed red, holding up his hands defensively. "Kidding, kidding." He wasn't good at telling when another person was joking, or whether or not they understood when he was. He tended to keep on the safe side and rarely made jokes; when he did he always backpedaled quickly.

He went back to his typing for a few minutes, humming happily in thanks when Dorn offered to let him keep the hoodie. "Probably would look better on you, eh? But thanks. M' glad I don't have to wear that stupid dress shirt all day." He wrinkled his nose, still slightly embarrassed of how easily Dorn had ascertained that his mother had forced the clothes upon him.

He shrugged, toying absentmindedly with one earring. "I don't mind if someone's smarter then me. Don't worry about it. I'm good with things unquantifiable; I don't need to be the best at everything." The other boy offered him help with his schoolwork and he buried his face in his hands, laughing embarrassedly. "Great, now you think I'm stupid... Don't get me wrong, I can't memorize my textbooks or ace tests without studying, but I've never had problems with schoolwork. Back home, at least. Hopefully the classes here are not geared towards those with IQs of a hundred and forty?" He paused, peeking out from between his fingers. "But... Thanks. I appreciate it. If I do need help, I'll definitely ask you."

"Ah. Good. I can never tell." He turned his attention back to the computer, popping up a moment later to add "and I figured I'd better play it on the safe side 'cause a lot of the time I find out later people take my jokes seriously and think something's horribly wrong with me, I guess they think I don't have a sense of humor or something -" He stopped abruptly, ducking his head back towards the computer screen. He was babbling again...

"You think?" He examined the hoodie with renewed interest. He had always been tiny for his age, had never considered the possibility that he might grow taller in time. The idea was welcome - he was tired of people mistaking him for a twelve year old.

He was explaining about his grades, probably babbling again, when suddenly he felt warm hands against his cold fingers, and then there was Dorn, staring at him sincerely with bright blue eyes and apologizing. He stared back, faintly realizing that this was the first time he'd actually made direct eye contact with the boy. He quickly shifted his gaze away, hazel eyes flickering about nervously while he tried to think of something to say. They finally landed on the bedspread, and he cleared his throat, fingers twisting nervously.
"I don't mind. It was a nice offer. I've always studied by myself; it would be nice to try it with someone else. If it's really more fun that way?"

Jamie hummed happily, pushing up the sleeves of the hoodie and dropping back down on his bed. It was true, all of his older brothers were quite tall. Even his younger sister was almost his height, despite being three years younger then him. Maybe he just needed a growth spurt or something.
He eyed the book Dorn had picked up, turning his attention momentarily back to his email. "You're allowed to bring books?" He asked, glancing up at Dorn curiously. "I only brought a few, thought I'd have to smuggle them in or something. I'll have to ask my parents to send the rest of mine." He studied the empty bookshelf next to his desk, attempting to determine how many of his books would fit.

Dorn let go of his hands and he slipped them into the dark confines of his too-long sleeves, fingers warm from the unexpected contact. To him, the safest, most comfortable place to be was always alone, with any friends and family safely far away where they couldn't try to have conversations with him where his brain spun in circles trying to think of responses fast enough, where there was no one to ask him questions he didn't know the answers to. The idea of attempting to study with a group of strangers seemed daunting and unproductive. Still, he could hear how careful Dorn was to stress that the group would be little, the way he assured him preemptively that his friend would like him.
"I'll give it a try." He smiled, shrugged with one shoulder, rather difficult when you're lying propped up with your elbows.

"Your friend... Nikki, he has powers as well? Do a lot of people where you come from have them?" As far as he knew, he was the only one in his town with powers. He knew that the news of his enrollment in the Academy was already local gossip. It was strange to think there were places where having abilities didn't necessarily mean having to hide them.

He laughed, seeing the other boy's reaction to his assumption. "I don't know. I thought this was, like, this super strict school, and you weren't allowed anything distracting."

He lapsed into silence while he finished his email, finally closing the laptop and carrying it across to Dorn's desk. "It's definitely going to take getting used to," He said, wrinkling his nose in thought. "I mean, I'm used to being able to be alone as much as I need to. Usually I'm good at it, but... There are a lot of people here." Even the quick walk through the grounds had convinced him of that. He didn't like the thought of always being in this giant crowd of people, never finding a place to be unconditionally and completely alone.

"Oh, that's him, eh?" He glanced up, interested. If Nikki was the one who had saved his friend's life, he was less worried about meeting him.

"No one that I know of. But I never tried to find anyone else, or anything." He shrugged, watching his hands. "Kinda always been freaked out about the whole thing, to be honest. I mostly just tried to forget about it."

James shook his head, holding up his hands quickly. "No need for that. I'm good at finding anti-social hangouts." He grinned at the other boy, going back to rifling through his messenger bag for his contacts case. He had been up since five, and his eyes ached from wearing contacts the entire time. He took them out, digging through the bag again for his glasses.

Pushing the glasses up on his nose, his eyes followed the boy's gesture to a previously unnoticed shelf filled with movies. He scanned the titles, a nostalgic grin crossing his face. "Haven't seen any since I was a kid... My little sister never got into them the way I did. I used to love 'The Aristocats' and 'Robin Hood'. I knew all the songs; my brothers used to laugh at me."

He nodded as Dorn told him about his troubles with his powers, a little surprised. He had thought Dorn just noticed other people's emotions; he didn't realize he could feel them, too. "That must have been annoying," he mused, trying to imagine what it would be like to feel other people's emotions as if they were his own.