[Currently, on Those Far Beyond...] [It's Monday, November 22 and today is Meri's first day at her new school! She's had a bit of a time to adjust to the life of being an orphan. Which is probably better than the life of being homeless, but hey, you take what you can get.] [She's going to one of many Junior High Schools in the Bronx. Most of them have numbers. This one does too. She's probably not used to a junior high school with a number. She's also in a school that has a larger percentage of white students, so she can fit in. This being the Bronx, that's in about the 5-10% range.] Meri's gearing all up to go through the neighborhood to her school. This one's more school like than most (in that it actually has a play yard with courts and stuff instead of just being one big ugly building school), but it still looks fairly intimidating. Inner city, bars on the windows, metal detectors, and all that jazz. And not much of a fancy entrance to boot to get in.] [Some of the kids are waiting outside as Meri comes along before classes have started, most around the courts, some waiting on the steps or along the street, chatting along over the hubbub and noise of traffic in the Big Apple.] [Session start!] 06* Meri walks to school and looks at it, eyes wide. Okay, so she's been in the city for a while, but she's never really seen a school like *this* before. It looks kind of like a prison. She chews her lower lip briefly and looks around at the other kids, taking stock. [Most of the kids don't notice her and continue chatting. A few look her way. Responses are varied. Some keep staring at her, some seem like outright glares. A couple are just to size her up. After all, she hasn't actually gone *in* the doors yet. Maybe she doesn't go to this school anyway.] 06* Meri is wearing a pair of new (cheap) sneakers, a pair of slightly too short jeans, a t-shirt, and a windbreaker. She has the same backpack she was carrying around the night Christian found her, which is probably worth the rest of her outfit put together. [Some of them are definitely eyeing the backpack, yeah. Or they might be. Eventually they turn back to chatting with their friends.] 06* Meri decides this must be the place... there are students here... and hopefully no prison wardens. Unless that's what the teachers *actually* are. She heads for the school entrance and in. [As she goes for the door, one of the students pipes up. He's not quite near the door and it's hard to see exactly who said it. "You lost?" A couple of other kids laugh at the comment around him. It seems to be coming from a group of black kids sitting by the front entrance.] 06* Meri looks over at group of kids. "Nuh uh, I don't think so," she says, and then smiles. "I'm new here." [There's some low muttering at that. The one that piped up earlier gives her a look over. "Looks like. Bit late in the school year to be transfering, isn't it?"] 01 Yeah, kinda. But the orphanage thought it'd be a good idea to get me started sooner than later so I don't miss too much. [The boy pauses for a moment. He wasn't quite ready for that comment. "Huh. Which orphanage?"] 06* Meri blinks. "Coleman Children's Home." [He nods for a moment. One of his friends start talking to him again and he gets back involved in the conversation, new kid forgotten.] 06* Meri takes that as her opportunity to go in. No solid new friends yet. [Meri goes inside and *hopefully* gets past the metal detector without incident. After that, she sees a few more kids in the halls. Some are on the floor, chatting. A few are playing card games. The hallways are *long* and there's a couple of stories to this school too and there's a sign pointing to wear the office is and some bathrooms, fortunately. So progress!] 06* Meri looks around, then brightens at the sight of card games. She heads over there, some bounce finally back in her step. [Some kids are standing around to protect the game and keep people from stepping on them. The floor looks like it's a little grudgy to be playing card games on, but they make due with what they've got.] 06* Meri is okay with that. She just walks up and looks clear over one of the kid's shoulders to see the game in progress. [There's a black kid and a hispanic kip plaing MtG. The black kid's got his cards in sleaves, but looks like he's losing anyway. Standing between them and the rest of the students are two white kids and another black. They're watching the game and occassionally giving advice to the players.] 06* Meri watches for a few turns, then says, "I would've tapped his land, not the artifact." The hispanic kid looks up. "Yeah, but if he draws his [technobable] and comboes I'm screwed. So I gotta keep it locked down till I can steal it. I'm Jesus, by the way." *the rest of the kids shuffle over a bit as he's talking so Meri can get a better view of the game.] 01 Oh wow, he's got one of those? I'm Meri! [The black kid looks up now. "Only got one of 'em man, not like I'm Terry over there and pulling two planeswalkers in four packs. I'm Tyler." One of the white kids, presumably Terry responds, "Hey, that only happened once!"] 06* Meri covers a giggle, and she looks at Terry. "That's awesome! Which ones didja get?" Uh, Nissa and Liliana, but I sold Lilana. 01 Aw. Still cool! 01 Hey, um, where's the principal's office? I kinda have to check in before school. [The other white kid mumbles that he's Chris, but if Meri wasn't Meri she probably wouldn't have caught it, the last remaining unnamed kid elbows him. "You gotta speak up Chris or nobody's never gonna notice ya, I'm Devon by the way." He then jerks with his thumb back twords the stairs. "Second floor 'bout half way down on the right. There's probably a sign 'less somebody knocked it down 'gain."] You play? 06* Meri nods. "Uh huh. I've currently got a rainbow artifact/sliver deck." [As luck would have it, it's just about then that the 5 minute bell rings.] [Devon makes a cross with his arms. "Ahh! Keep 'em away!" And now it's Chris's turn to elbow him.] Cool! Hey, if you've got second lunch we've gotta table if you wanna play. Gotta go! 06* Meri looks up. "Oh crap. Bye!" And she's making a mad dash for the stairwell. At least she can run fast! [The game is quickly packed up and kids go to class.] [Meri finds the principal's office easily enough, though she has to wait a bit to see him. The principal seems a little put out directing her to her classes, but eventually lets her know. After all, she's an orphan kid.] 06* Meri finds out how to get to class and probably makes first period late. Yay? [Meri does get to first period late, and gets a bit of a reprimand from the teacher (easier because she's a transfer student at least). The school day goes by pretty slowly. It's definitely public school and probably slower than Meri is used to, but the teachers don't seem to teach very well compared to what she might be used to. Kids get distracted in the classes pretty easily and, depending on the class, the teachers don't seem to take care of it right away. It also seems she's called on a lot to answer compared to other students, with some snickering if she doesn't know the answer. All in all, she definitely stands out at least a little bit.] [But eventually she makes it to lunch! And wouldn't you know it, she *does* have second lunch after all. Small blessings at least.] 06* Meri heads to lunch, navigating a swarm of students in the halls to get there. Her ears are still burning a little from being snickered at with the last question, her thought preoccupied with why they'd laugh at her. She doesn't get it. It's not like they probably would've known the answer. Who memorizes stupid civil war battle dates, anyway? 06* Meri checks her sheet again, making sure she really *does* have second lunch and wasn't just imagining it to make the day go better. Okay! She adjusts her backpack and definitely heads for the cafeteria. [The cafeteria during second lunch is pretty crowded and packed with students. They also don't have much of a vegetarian selection here (though she's probably used to that with the orphanage so far). She might have been lucky enough to bring her own lunch with her. Otherwise, she's stuck eating just the side of vegetables that come with it. Which are french fries, since they're serving hamburgers today.] 06* Meri gets in line, then, because the orphanage didn't give her lunch - she gets the welfare lunch instead. She looks at what the other kids are walking out with and prepares a plan of attack for once she gets to the end. 06* Meri also checks the ticket as to what she's entitled to. 06* Meri gets to the end and gives the lunchlady a smile, handing her ticket over. "Hi, can I please have two milks - one regular and one chocolate - and everything on the burger, with extra tomatoes and pickles but no patty. And um, no fries, please. I'm allergic." [The lunch lady looks at Meri a little funny, but doesn't give her much grief. She does have a welfare ticket, so she must be legit. So she gets what she asked for in the end.] 06* Meri takes the tray with a "Thank you!" and grabs a salt and pepper packet on her way out. She looks for the kids playing Magic earlier. [She does manage to find them easily enough. Off on a table in the corner.] 06* Meri heads that way, then, bounce back on her step. [This being near the begining of lunch, the tables are packed and half of the card players are seated facing away from the table and eating off trays in their laps so that there's room for a game on the table. Right now it's Devon vs Chris but looks like it'll be a short game as Devon can't draw the mana he needs to play anything in his hand.] 06* Meri sits down next to Terry, at the end. "Hi," she says cheerfully. 06* Terry chews and swallows before responding. "Hey again, Mary, right?" 01 Uh huh. But not Mary, as in Mary had a little lamb, but Meri, like with an I, for Merilyn. 06* Meri sets her tray on her lap so as not to disturb the game, and she removes the top bun to put some salt and pepper on her makeshift veggie sandwich. Aww man, I'm gonna get that wrong forever. Anyway, you wanna play something after people finish eating and there's more room? We've all got Magic decks, anda coupla Yugioh decks, and Pokemon, and I think Tyler's still hauling around a Star Wars deck, but nobody else has one. [Tyler nods and continues eating.] 01 Oh, wow, cool! I only brought Magic and Pokemon today, but I... yeah, I still have a Yu-Gi-Oh deck. I think I played Star Wars, like, once, but nobody else wanted to. 06* Meri puts the top bun back on and has a bite of her sandwich. 06* Terry rattles off a short summary of the sorts of decks people are running while Devon finally pulls a second green mana and starts to get creatures out, but it's too late. "So, uhm, I haven't seen you before, you new?" 06* Meri nods, polishing off the last of her sandwich. That didn't take long. She finishes chewing and swallows. "Yeah, I just started today." She opens her first carton of milk. Ahh, sucks having to move in the middle of the year. Hope you didn't leave too many friends behind. But if you wanna stick around and play cards with us, that'd be cool. 06* Meri smiles at Terry. "Yeah, that... that'd be awesome. I'd like that." 01 What grade are you guys in? I didn't see you in any of my classes. 06* Terry grins back. "Awesome, and we're all in eigth, but there's a lotta classes." 01 Oh! Does that mean you're going to another school next year? I'm in seventh. 06* Meri drinks milk. It does the body good! Yeah, think we're all gonna be in [number] High school. So we gotta get two years wortha games in before we go! 06* Meri laughs. "Okay!" Brief pause, then she adds, "Don't have most of my cards anymore, though." [Tyler looks over "Don't worry, Ace's Card shop's awesome, and you'll have the Terry discount."] 06* Terry turns a bit pink. "I'm pretty sure that was a joke." 06* Meri grins at Terry. "You get a discount?" she asks, before drinking more milk. [Tyler laughs. "Nah, Joe, he runs the place, said the rest of us do if we don't let Terry pick the packs."] 01 Awww, that doesn't sound very fair. [There's a lot of chatter going on in the lunch room so it's hard to pick out, but at least it's not enough to drown out their talking. Then from the table behind Meri, from a little ways down, she hears a voice go "Hey new girl." If she looks, she *might* recognize him as one of the kids who 'greeted' her at the front steps from earlier, but it's hard to tell.] 06* Meri turns to look at whoever it is, looking behind and up. "Hi!" 01 (Oh wait, I misread. Nix that!) 06* Meri twists in her seat to look that-away. "Hi!" [The kid looks down at her and gives her a bit of a grin. "Where'd you steal the pack from?" The other kids around him laugh at his statement. Seems there's a few regular comedians here.] 06* Meri blinks. "Huh? I didn't steal it." [The kid frowns and another one, also probably around when they greeted each other. "Yeah right. Since when do orphan kids get such posh stuff, right?" Another one pipes up. "Shit, man. If I were to get something that nice, maybe I shouldn't have no parents neither." The other kids (and more at the table who weren't in the group) laugh at that too.] 06* Meri reaches down to clutch her pack reflexively. "Hey, that's... that's not funny. My mom got me this." Aww man, seriosly Tyrone? Orphans? Did you run out sixth graders to stuff into garbage cans? [Tyrone gets up from the table and looks down at Terry. "You steppin' up, Terry? Cause I got a trashcan with your name on it if ya want."] 06* Meri blinks, and she stands herself, leaving her backpack on the ground, more likely than not seeing eye to eye with the older boy. "Hey," she says, more strength suddenly appearing in her voice. "Leave him alone." I'm not stepping to nothin- Whoa, let's not get everybody thrown into detention on day one yeah? 06* Terry waves to the reason he was brave enough to pipe up. "That's Big Joe, duty monitor and probably half troll." [Tyrone looks at the girl for a moment and gets right up in her face. "Yeah. You're lucky. For now." He looks down at Terry. "This ain't done, Terry. You better watch your mouth." He goes back over to his buddies again. They go back to ignoring the situation. As do the other students, since there's no actual fight. Aww. 06* Meri doesn't back up at all, and when Tyrone turns around, she glares at his back for a while before sitting down. And drinking milk, without a word. [Jesus sighs. "Why you gotta do that? I swear I can feel myself gettin old, I'm gonna have wrinkles and old man hair by the time we get outta here." Terry looks nervious. "Eheh, uhm, so there's a coupla back doors and fire exits you might wanna know about."] 06* Meri mutters darkly around her milk, "Whatever. Pretty sure I coulda taken him." And, uhm, I'm sorry 'bout your parents, and stuff, that's really really gotta suck. 01 Yeah... I don't really wanna talk about it. Can we play Magic instead? 06* Terry pulls out a heavy plastic card case. "'Course!" 06* Meri smiles gratefully at Terry. She finishes her first carton of milk and sets the tray at the very edge of the table before going to the other side with her backpack and other carton. She makes herself comfortable, pulling out her own deck and counters. 06* Terry sets up his own side with a pile of counters and a half dollar coin. 06* Meri shuffles expertly, then slides her deck towards Terry to cut. 06* Terry does the same. "Roll, topdeck, or the coin for first?" 06* Meri cuts his deck. "Roll. Even or odd?" 06* Terry cuts her deck. "Odd." 01 [Meri rolls a six and goes first! They begin their game in earnest, and Terry quickly discovers that Meri is one cutthroat MtG player - it doesn't help that her deck is built without any consideration as to the relative rarity of cards (though it's probably tournament legal). Terry's luck holds out in the beginning, but eventually he's overwhelmed by the combos Meri brings into play.] [Jesus shakes his head. "And that is why Slivers are evil incarnate." Terry just laughs. "That was a good game!"] 06* Meri beams. "Thanks!" She looks at Jesus. "You're just jealous 'cause you're not a sliver whisperer." [Jesus frowns "It's cause you can play three slivers you can search for and shut down every card in my deck!" Terry waves his hands "Hey, relax, it's just a game."] 06* Meri blinks at Jesus' reaction. "Geez, sorry," she says, cleaning up her own cards. [Shortly after their card game, the lunch bell rings! Meri gets back to class and makes it to the end of the day without any major incidents (though it's still not *better*). Thankfully she doesn't get stuffed in the trashcans at the end of the day, but the storms probably going to brew that way before long if things keep up. Back to the orphanage! Home sweet home.] [Session End.]