Whisper in the Dead Man's ear

Alice turned and forgot her anxiety at Alex's voice. However, Alice recognized that something was not right in the way Alex held herself. She could see tension. Was it irritation? Not at her, Alice hoped. She stepped close to Alex so that their trays almost touched so Alice would not have to talk over the din of the room.

"It was alright," Alice finished with a suddenly rising yawn. "I'm sorry I missed you this mornin'. I didn't wanna wake you up twice an' I had to grab a few things. I had to get rocks, Alex. School wanted me to buy rocks!" Alice paused. "Sorry. I din' wanna make you think I was bein' dodgy or nothing. I kept my promise though," she said with a grin. "Din' look around for anyplace but this room." Alice shook a stray lock of wind-mussed black hair out of her eyes and made sure that she did not drop the tray.

"How was your mornin'?"

“Oh don’t worry about it.” Alex said with an exaggerated smirk and dismissive sigh. “I figured you must have had some stuff to do, but you got to show me one day how you managed to get out of there without even waking me up. That’s some impressive ninjaing…” Alex trailed off and cocked an eyerbrow as she realized what Alice said. “Rocks?” She aske, surprise in her one, “What did you need them for?”

She glanced around as she waited for a reply trying to find two empty seats beside each other in relative isolation. “Oh me I didn’t really do much this morning.” Alex said absently. “Woke up, took shower, got dressed, did some school work, the usual.” That wasn’t exactly accurate she mostly moped around her room most of the morning before deciding to get out of the dorm and wandered the campus, but she really didn’t want to tell Alice that. It was incredibly embarrassing and she was sure it would make her feel rather uncomfortable.

Glancing back at Alice she smiled and added, “Nice outfit.” She immediately regretted it and had no idea why she said it was just some reflexive after thought and she had no idea what she was doing until the words had already escaped her lips. She could almost feel her face turning red from it… maybe she could just go into Alice’s mind and erase the whole memory if it freaks her out.

Alice nearly turned red. Her full outfit was her black skirt and a stark white turtle-neck sweater. In those moments before Alex showed up, she wondered if she ought to tone it down. She become aware of the heat on her face.

"Hey thank ya," she smiled wide enough to be almost devilish. She could hardly remember getting much compliments growing up, leaving home so little. There had to be a rude awakening somewhere. There had to be somebody just waiting to call her a jester or a mime or something! She asided the pessimism. She paused for seconds. Words were around there somewhere...

"But yeah, I have no idea what the rocks are for." She balanced the tray.

"Do y'want t'find s'place t'sit?" It occurred to her that she was not used to so much noise, not even in when in a tree full of frustrated pigeons. "With less noise?"

Alex breathed a sigh of relief; Alice seemed to have not taken it the wrong way. Of course do to all the thoughts of other people she had bouncing around in her head still she wasn’t able to pick up on Alice’s individual thoughts and really know how it made her feel. My god, Alex thought, this is how normal people have to interact. It was so mundane to her; she had really been using her telepathy as a social crutch it seemed.

“Well,” Alex said unsurely as she tried to find two seats in the room. “That would be nice but I’m not seeing anything are you?”

Alice looked around as best as she could. Her father's boots added an inch and a half to her small height, but that did not make her tall enough for this moment, not by a long shot. She walked away from Alex and nearly slipped on a spill of some sort of dark cola, but kept balance. She may have been clumsy, but the treads on her boots were not. Off to an end of the room, she did spot two boys at one of the less ornate long tables, likely meant for an overflow than for show.

"Hey Alex, I see a table!" She pointed in the direction. The two boys seemed to be in a conversation, one in more black than Alice and the other in a more modest hoodie. They did not necessarily seem unfriendly. Alice looked to Alex for a sign of what she thought of the table.

Alex was looking in a completely opposite direction, standing on the tips of her toes trying to see over the students going back and forth from the tables and lamenting about how short that she didn’t even notice as Alice wander some distance away, and almost fall over. She was about to call it quits and suggest they eat out in there room, or maybe the courtyard when Alice spoke up.

Glancing over in the direction Alice was pointing it took Alex a minute to notice who she was talking about. She cocked her as she stared at the two boys trying to figure them out, she didn’t recognize them. But she did find they were a rather odd pair to be seen together, one was dark and kinda pale looking, the other considerably not.

“Yeah,” Alex finally said. “Sure that works for me.”

"There isn't anything wrong with my eyes, boy. Got them from my fathers side, their perfectly normal, better be."

His eyes widened, and he tried to backtrack. "No! There's nothing wrong with them. They're actually nice. I mean, not that I think they're nice nice or anything. They're... normal. I mean, they're obviously not normal, but they're not ugly or anything..." He trailed off, staring intently at his fruit salad and mentally berating himself. What was so hard about saying something without offending someone? Why was he so bad at talking? Why didn't he just eat lunch on the third floor?

He stared, transfixed, at the boy's mouth, hardly aware of what he was doing. How could he have not noticed before? You missed things, when you never looked directly at people. The boy's tooth pierced his own thumb, and Jamie stared as crimson leaked from the wound, as the boy lazily leaned forward and licked the blood away. He swallowed, half embarrassed with himself for not noticing earlier - he must think he was an idiot; what kind of person doesn't notice that the guy he's talking to is a vampire? -, half shocked that there were vampires at the school to begin with. He cleared his throat, trying to regain his voice, eyes never leaving the other boy's face. "...I just thought you were a goth." He said finally, tearing his eyes away with some difficulty, face bright red with embarrassment.

Alice might not have thought twice about the table if she was very receptive to a fear of the sinister-seeming smile noting her from across the room. She smiled back to the darkly-dressed student, thankful for the small welcome, and began to head to the end of the cafeteria. She moved across the tile floor carefully, avoiding messes and other students. When she got close enough, standing behind the student with a hoodie and fruit salad, she waved in a small sort of way.

"Hello. Is it alright if m'friend and I sit at your table?"