Here I Am~♥

[Reira Ling]

"Mom, I get out here," the orange-haired girl said quietly, unlocking the passenger door of the old car. A thin ribbon was tied around her hair to separate the majority of hair from her bangs, her blue eyes sparkled with excitement, this would be her very first day in a public school. Rei looked into the back of the car where her younger brother was sitting down with his seat belt attached listening to an typical rap song on his Mp3 player, the volume was low of course, so their mother would think he was listening to the mixed CD she had made for him.

"Hey, little bud, I'm going to school now. Are you going to be OK looking after the lady of the house?" She asked, nudging the younger boy's kneecap, he responded by looking upward for two seconds and nodding, so Rei turned back around and undid her seatbelt. She looked over at her mother, to think, inside her abdomen a child was growing... it was a funny, sweet, yet utterly disgusting thing all at the same time. Rei could already see herself feeding a little baby girl some oatmeal on a Sunday morning, spilling on her jumper, and changing her diaper whenever there was a code brown alert. Actually, maybe her Mom would do that.

"All right, honey. Have fun and make friends, OK?"

"OK."

Rei leaned over and kissed her mother on the cheek, then she stepped outside of the vehicle and waved her best regards and farewell, when the car took off she turned around and blinked not twice, but once at her new school. #259. "This is going to be fun." Rei held her little black bag tightly, inside she had everything necessary for making a typical school day everything but typical. Walking into the school, the girl observed many students walking about in the hallway, wandering aimlessly toward some hidden redemption from all the garbage that they had just absorbed in the classroom. The bag weighed her down a little as she took it on with only one hand, Rei tried her best to walk casually through the hall but it had become a little too heavy, this the sign to strike at all costs, the orange-haired girl did a little zig-zagging until finally crossing paths with a random student. And then, letting go of one end of the bag, a large pile of hardback books began to shower the student's feet. None of which had even come in a hairline's range of Rei's, OK, maybe a hairline, but they just kept on going and going onto the boy/girl's.

Not making eye contact or even looking past the person's calves, Rei slapped on a reckless and frightened expression, she took a step backward and began to gasp in embarrassment. "O, geez... I am so terribly sorry! I really didn't see that coming! My hand must've been loose on the bag... oh, how silly of me, I'm very sorry...!" Now how better a way to meet a person then throwing books on their feet purposely and making it seem like an accident? Rei was still only looking at the books, she didn't lift her head to see face-to-face with the stranger yet, still trying to nail that "guilty school-girl" impression, if one would ask though, she was doing a pretty fine job already.

[Deleted]

The student body president replaced his bookmark in the 827 page book What If? that he had been reading and glanced at the girl who had spilled the contents of her book bag at her feet. He figured she had to be new to this school because she wasn’t snarling in contempt at him and she did apologize for the blunder. Casually, he placed his book in his own bag before removing his delicate reading glasses and placing him in his coat pocket for protection. Saint smiled lightly as he slowly bent down and began to gather the books up for the girl, as a matter of courtesy. Though a side motivation may have been the need to have someone in the school not blaming him for leaving when he did, but he’d never admit to such a reason. With his usual polite and kind voice, Saint commented simply, while gathering the books…

“It’s alright… these things happen.”

Once he had all the books together, Saint stood and handed them to their owner with his ever-present smile. It was always nice to be nice. However if she was a new student, he probably should make sure she had a sense of the grounds, scheduling, and various things of that sort. Good thing the pillar had taken his pills early before school and wouldn’t have to take them again until about lunch time seeing as he hated to take them in front of anything out of fear of their reaction. No matter how somebody looked at it, having to take anti-psychotics to suppress a latent sociopathic desires was not something to be remotely proud, even the outside concept of “at least your getting help”. Wanting to make sure his assumptions were correct, Saint posed the question while standing at his full six foot two height.

“You wouldn’t happen to be new to this school, would you?”

At the same moment Saint fixed his hair momentarily after having a few stray bangs fall in front of his eyes after he bent down to collect the books. The way he acted most of the time made it blatantly clear to anyone that the pillar was as harmless as a kitten, unless you were trying to destroy the school and even then he wasn’t something to be feared.

[Reira Ling]

“It’s alright?these things happen.?br/>

Rei heard the voice as it's origin bent downward and began to pick up her books. ( Thankfully though, he hadn't taken the time to look at their covers, much of them were about matchmaking, the Chinese zodiac and then there were some graphic novels about obsession, dark stalkers, and serial killers plus so on. The things that the young woman read to keep busy and stay interesting. Could you blame her for reading those over Cosmo magazine? )

She saw the smooth hands of a man, well smooth or not that is what they appeared to be when the blue-eyed girl first saw them, who was kind enough to help her pick up the things of which she had dropped deliberately by his feet. Rei held the bag underneath his arms so he would just drop her books inside and back into position, when he did, she held the bag with two hands instead of one and made sure to be "extra careful".

This stranger, he was very nice... but at the same time Rei was slightly, hm, what do you call it? Turned off? Yes, those are the words. She was slighty turned off that he had been silly enough to fall for her little act. Who knew though? Maybe it was partly Oscar-worthy, but still... a big disappointment he served as, but then again, Rei did look like the innocent type whom would be careless enough to do such a thing. Or maybe he was just humoring her? That would be all the better.

“You wouldn’t happen to be new to this school, would you??br/>

"Thank you... a lot," she said sweetly at a very low pitch so that if he intended to hear her, he would have to try, "... I'll try not to be so clumsy again... and yes, I am. It's my first day here, I've never been to a public school before, though I hear they are... exciting." the blonde girl smiled sweetly, she even made her cheeks a little pink to seem more convincing, ( of course she didn't actually know what she was trying to convince him of at the moment ) then she raised her voice by a little so she could introduce herself.

"I'm Rei Rodney."

[Deleted]

Gently Saint dropped the books into the girl’s bag, slightly surprised to see how easily she held it, though it could be the use of two hands instead of just one. But he wasn’t the type to dwell on thoughts like that, or ones that might lead to any unnecessary mistrust of someone. He was a guy who gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, sure it being so trusting could come back to bite him in the ass but he felt it was better than going about with a sense of paranoia at very turn. With his… condition, he did enough looking over his shoulder to keep control of himself without looking over his shoulder at others. Slowly the pillar slid his hands into his pockets after giving the girl her books back, a simple move of comfort.

When the girl spoke in her low tone, the Student Body president leaned forward to try and catch what exactly she was saying over the noise of the hallway. All he got were bits and pieces of what she said, though he did catch the part about public schools and being ‘exciting’. Not the best word to describe having freakishly strong people who believe themselves to be Greek Gods attacking the students because the supervisor stole something from their leader… also his brother. Well… to some it may have been exciting. Nonetheless as he leaned forward, Saint noticed the tinge of pink in her cheeks for the first time, which again surprised him. Either she was quite shy, as Saint had once been, or she was playing coy. He wasn’t sure of which but simply acknowledged her introduction with his own.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Rei. I’m Zachariah Rose, this school’s Student Body President… you can call me Saint. Feel free to ask me, should you need anything… I am always glad to help.”

Saint finished his same smile and tone, this time extending his right hand as well for a friendly handshake, his clear green eyes gazing down at her. When it came down to it, as long as she didn’t hate him… he didn’t need to know why she was blushing or anything else really.

[Reira Ling]

"Miss Rei? Whoa, well now I feel all grown up," Rei took her right hand from the handle of her bag and grabbed onto one end of her skirt, performing a simple courtesy in honor of their meeting.

She smiled gleefully at the green-eyed boy of whom stood several inches taller then herself, then she crossed her arms behind her back and wrapped her fingers around the little bag, correcting her posture so she stood completely straight.

"Happy to make your acquaintance." Rei grinned as she stood there in front of 'Saint'. It wasn't everyday she ran into 6 ft' strangers with tanned skin and long hair, was it just a coincidence that Zachariah's appearance matched that of those whom were "tall, dark, and handsome"? Maybe.

"And well since you have mentioned it, and this is only additional for you are the Student Body President, I believe it's typically your duty to show me to my locker, correct?"

[Deleted]

As Rei did her little gesture, Saint laughed lightly as the whole bit seemed like a joke on his use of a proper title. It was a habit of his with people, well women, he had just met. Of course, as he got to know them better and become more casual, he would often stop using such titles unless the female enjoyed being called as such. From the way she responded, the pillar assumed the Rei preferred not to have the title added to the front of her name but he noted to ask, just in case. It couldn’t hurt, now could it? After all, she seemed to be very nice and sweet by the way she spoke and presented herself through her actions. At least, that is the way everything appeared to be from Saint’s point of view.

The pillar, of course, returned the smile with his own and nodded politely at Rei’s comment of “happy to make your acquaintance”. Though it was good he couldn’t read minds or anything since his face would have gone beet red at the whole ‘tall, dark and handsome’ bit. He had never considered himself all that dark, but he also spent most of his time previous to Long Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and for the handsome part, well, he would have considered it an overstatement. But he also saw himself everyday, dulled senses perhaps… he was tall though. When it came to his ‘duty’ to show Rei to her locker, Saint smirked with a tinge of humor as he gestured grandly with his right hand.

“Not only my duty… but it shall also be my pleasure. It should be listed at the bottom of your schedule what the number is and the combo. Just tell me the number and I shall lead the way…”

Of course, he waited for her response before asking the quick question of…

“… by the way, do you want me to just call you Rei or do like being called Miss Rei?”

[Reira Ling]

"Schedule, schedule... o, right!"

Rei giggled nervously at herself as she dug down into her bag, underneath the books she was supposed to have her school schedule somewhere. To her calamity though, it was no where to be found, and as the following action was her bringing her hand back out of the bag, that was also a laughing matter for little red lines ran all over her white hand as the weight of the hardback books inside had been pushing against her skin roughly to cause these. The blonde girl sighed as she then nervously looked upward at Zachariah, her front layer of teeth dug down onto her bottom lip, her bubbly blue eyes stared into his fluorescent green ones.

"... I don't have my schedule on me." Rei explained, tossing her free arm around as if to use it as a distraction, "... but I think I recall the number of my locker... twenty-two, I believe."

Not really, that was just a double-digit number of which had come into Rei's mind at the time being. She really didn't remember her locker number, but there was a possibility her little guess had been correct, right? Rei placed her other hand onto the bag and smiled as if she were absolutely positive that she had chosen the right number. Of course she was not but neither was she excited or embarrassed by her little accident earlier by throwing all her books onto the floor, or so on, but then again he didn't have to know that did he? Moments later, Zachariah had asked her whether or not she approved of being called Miss Rei.

Formally she did, but she had considered how awkward it might be to have everyone calling her "Miss Rei" twenty four seven, seven days a week, four weeks a month, twelve months a year, and so on... Rei smiled.

"Rei is just fine, mm'kay?"

[Deleted]

The student body president stood there patiently as Rei went through her bag to get her schedule so they could find her locker. Though he was curious as to how she could find anything amongst all those books in her bag. So, in thinking that, it came as a lessen surprise when she couldn’t find the schedule with locker on it and began to stare up at him with a tinge of nervousness in her blue eyes. As she explained that she did not have the article and guessed at her locker number, Saint placed his hand on her shoulder as he gestured in the direction he had been coming from. All the while the pillar kept his smile trying to take away any feel of nervousness that Rei might have for whatever reason. He liked for people to be comfortable above all else, though sometimes he made things worse unintentionally by misjudging peoples reactions.

“Don’t worry about it, Rei. We can stop and get you another one if need be, but locker 22 is down this way. Shall we?”

With a casual stride, Saint began to lead Rei off toward where the locker she believed to be hers was located. In his mind, he began to compare the different people he had met, some only briefly, and how they carried themselves socially. If he wanted to, the pillar could probably lump most of the student body into a couple of groups or clicks. But that wasn’t his style, so as he ran down the list, Saint realized that when it came down to it… he didn’t know that much about anyone. Not even the other pillars really. Glancing back toward Rei, the president figured he’d try to get to no her better considering that she seemed quite nice and… bubbly, for lack of a better word.

“So, where’d you move here from?”

[Reira Ling]

"We shall," Rei smiled sweetly as she tucked the innocent, scared, frightened act away and began to ready herself for major change of character. So Mr. Zachariah was the Student Body President? That was exactly what she needed to hear, at a school like such that undoubtedly meant he had authority over other students and that teachers let him get away with things like, say, skipping class? What if they let some of his "friends" tag along after him? Maybe... this was a perfect opportunity to come out on top on her first day at school. All Rei would have to do was get close to the boy, say, friends? And then she would never have to worry about anything happening to her ever again, or her grades dropping because she ditched biology or something.

Of course she liked Saint personally though, it would be cool to be actual friends aside from the whole acting gig. He seemed kind enough, not very intelligent to say the least but.. he was... cool. Rei wasn't one who spent her days looking for words to add to her vocabulary, so she wasn't very good at the sport of labeling people's personalities and so on. She walked along with Zachariah as they marched down the hall, some students were sending icy cold stares their way, stares filled with hatred. Rei was curious of why but tried to brush it off, a nice little silence began to brew between them when Saint asked her where she had moved from. This was a rather funny question, as she replied smartly saying,

"The city Orphanage," and then shrugged her shoulders, "I've lived in Long Beach, California all my life... just in an orphanage because I was given away at birth. I guess my good looks were a little too much to contain for my Mom, and my Dad probably feared falling for his own daughter after a period of time. Who knows? I didn't really move from another city."

[Deleted]

“I’m sorry to hear that…”

Was all that Saint could manage to say. His hand moved its way to the bottle of pills in his coat pocket as though acting on its own, though the owner knew very well why. Though in hindsight he wished he hadn’t. Saint had read his file when he had picked it up from his therapist in Rio to give to his new therapist here in Long Beach. After the incident during the Greek gods attack, the pillar wanted to know why he had such a vision and had learned more than he wanted to know. If there was anything worse than remembering the memories that he had repressed, it was reading about them in some paper file that was kept by various parties that tried to ‘fix’ you. Funny how a possibly innocent comment could change someone’s demeanor so quickly.

Lost in his own little world, the pillar just walked through the halls toward the presumed locker without another word or hearing the comments from the crowd. Usually he would cover anything that he might be feeling by talking but he just couldn’t find anything to say at the moment. Every second was filled with questions that seemed to have to no answer. For a small bit of comfort, he had looked and only found endlessly uncertainty. Could he repressed it all again? Would he ever be able to live it down? Would the images haunt his dreams forever? But the worse of all being… was the person he was, or thought he was, truly him or just some idealized personality put together with new-age techniques and the remnants of a broken boy’s shattered psyche? However there was nothing he could do right now so… he kept walking right along until they arrived at locker number 22. He gestured to it with little effort.

“Here you are, Rei. Is there anything else you need help with?”

Though Saint tried to maintain his smile and tone, they came off rather cold. Obvious shells thrown up to project a certain sense of public image and hide everything else beneath.