First night is the hardest

[UPstart]

"Um thanks, but I can take my bag," Carter said hurriedly and took the bag from Kevin, holding it close to him. He didn't trust this guy, and the last thing he wanted was to see him clothes thrown out the window with his underwear littered all over the yard for everyone to see. He took his skateboard from the hallway on the way, taking in the route so he wouldn't have to ask again how to get there. The last thing Carter wanted to do was bother anyone else or have too much contact with his roommate.

Luckily the room was very easy to find, near the end of the hall and across was a lit up room with an open door where he could easily make out the the form of a girl sitting down. He quickly looked away, not wanting to draw attention to himself and walked into the room after Kevin. To his surprise, the room was actually really nice. It was clean, and on one side of the room was covered with weird glass sculptures, some looked pretty cool. It was easy to tell which side was Kevin's side with the nice sheets and the pictures on the wall above his bed and on his nightstand.

I guess this guy is nice to some people. Or maybe they're all jerks too, those guys stick together. Oh but look its Veronika in a lot of them. She's so sweet, and so nice and really pretty. Maybe she's just too nice to be mean to anyone... Carter snapped out of it and went over to the empty and bare side of the room. The bed had soft and new looking sheets and he had a nightstand, a desk and a dresser and a small closet all to himself. That was even more than he had at home! He looked around the area rather pleased with it and went over to set his skateboard and duffle bag on the floor by the bed.

"Thanks for showing me where the room is," Carter said quietly not looking at him, hoping he'd leave now so he wouldn't have to deal with him. Instead he sat down quietly on the bed and leaned down to unzip his bag, pulling out a framed picture. It was a picture of him and his mom with his two dogs. They were his whole life, and he already missed them like crazy. He always preferred animals to people; they never judged or ridiculed him, they just accepted him and loved him no matter what. His German Shepard mix Samson would go with him to the skate park and run along side him while he skateboarded. His other dog was another shelter dog named Jewels, and she loved to go on long walks with him and was a big help to his mom. He was really going to miss them, he already did. They were his best friends, and the best family ever. Carter hoped that the dogs would take care of his mom for him, and themselves while he toughed it out here.

[Hardlight]

"Uh sure. It's no prolbem, thats what friend's are for." Kevin grinned as he sat down on his bed and watched his roommate for a second while he uppaked. "Aww cute dogs, I was never alowed to have pets because my parents were both real alergic, or so they said. I think actulley that they just didn't want me to have any because I don't have any alergies and if they boths did then you would think I would too huh? But well, they have problably had some issues with me longer than I can remember, I just know what the most recent ones are form."

"So I do like to keep things very neat and tidy, I hope you do to like to because I just like it to feel fresh and new when I walk in here. It keeps the clutter of life here from sorta infecting my space you know?" He loked around, pleesed at how nice it looked. "Nobody has tutched that bed since I asked for extra sheets to make it up months ago, but I have made sure and dusted it so it should be nice to sleep on. Now we have inspections on our rooms once a week, on Thrusday, and most people just messy up their rooms all week and do a major clean up the night before inspections, but I like to keep it clean all the time and I have'nt failed an inspection yet."

He was most proud of that fact, since so many times he would be free to do his own thing while others had to get reinspected on the weekends to. "Oh but like the bathroom is another story. Jasper shared with me from the next room over for a long time with no prolblems when it came to cleaning, but with Aleix there now the schedule got all messed up, so it's cool that you are gonna be here because it will put it back on track and makes the cleaning easier. So we'll swicht off every other weeks for the bathroom and they are clean guys mostly, so it's not to bad to clean it when it's our week, you'll see."

"Hmm what else? Oh yeah we're not supostda have food in our rooms but some people do it, I don't because up till recently I have'nt been a big eater, but now I'm trying to gain some weight and stuff so, but anyway I still dont bring food in here and if it's all the same I'd prefer it if you did'nt either because of the bugs and all." he was trying to thing of a something or other he might have missed and to fill the time he said "I am trying to put on some weight working out with Ian, he's like our teams captian- unoficielly acourse, but he is so cool, you'll like him, everybody does. Here he is." Kevin stood up to pull a picture down from his dresser.

"Thats Him there in the middle and Niki is the really light skined girl she's his girlfriend and there is Gavin and me and Ricki. Ivy took that picture like a buncha weeks ago or so right before she got real sick and went into the medlab for quarentine, but she's better now." He placed the picture back very carefully in it's spot next to a scuplt of his friend Guardian, and he touched the head of it before going back to sit on his bed. "Um I can't think of much else- OH, I do have a ironing bored an an iron if you need to use it, just put it back when youre done is all I ask. Did I miss anything? I'm not sure but do you have any questions? Like about anything? The team, or the school, or me, or anything?" Kevin had never had anyone share a room with him before, not even had a friend to spend a night since he had no friends back home, so it was going to be a new thing for him.

[UPstart]

"Um..." Carter looked over his shoulder, not necessarily at Kevin but in his direction. "I think I'm okay for now thanks. I'll um... I'll keep the bathroom clean and I won't bring food in the room." His voice was quiet and he didn't really want to talk to him. The first impression stuck to Carter's mind, and he just couldn't forgive or forget it. Not now at least, when it was so fresh in his mind.

He thought that maybe, at least from what his mom told him Ms. Frost said, that this place would be different from his old school, because well everyone here was different too. He learned quickly that he was very wrong. Even though everyone here was supposed to be a mutant, there were still jerks and people were still jackasses. Not everyone though, but the fact that there was even one made Carter realize that it was completely impossible to escape them.

He stood up and began putting away his clothes and all his things. His mom washed all his clothes and folded them neatly for him the night before, tucking in some of his favorite magazine. As Carter dug through his bag, he found a plastic container and kept it in the bag so Kevin wouldn't see. His mom packed him some of her famous snicker-doodle cookies that he loved. He knew that food wasn't allowed in the room, but Kevin didn't have to know about them. He kept the cookies in the bag and unpacked the rest of the time, watching Kevin at the corner of his eye with caution, he didn't trust him, and was just bracing himself for the next move.

When he finished packing, he took a new towel that his mom bought for him just the other day and his pajamas, looking on the ground but at least facing Kevin. "I um, think I'm just going to take a shower and sleep. Tired you know?" Carter said quietly, concentrating hard on the fibers of the carpet and not looking up or over at Kevin. "Yea um, thanks for showing me the room," he said just as quietly and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him and locking both the doors so he could have his privacy.

Carter had no idea what this place had in store for him, but he was as of now incredibly cautious. He hoped that Kevin wouldn't mess up his stuff or do anything to him while he was sleeping. He tried not to have a negative attitude about this place and not think that everyone was going to be a jerk just like at home. While turning on the hot water, he only hoped that tomorrow would make up for his first night.

[Hardlight]

Kevin just nodded and slid back up to the head of his bead and reeched up to the shelf above to turn on his stereo. He had placed the speakers around the room just so, figuring the output and anglr to direvt them best so he could get a great use of the acoustics of the walls. Kevin was after all very good with math and sceince so figureing the angles was not hard at all, the tughest part was mownting them onto the walls.

He had done a clever thing, using his power he had placed his hand against the wall and formed a solid light spike right into the wood of the wall. It sunk in and he was pretty sure it would have been a great defenced against the demons in Limbo when they did what they did to him. He still remembrered the feeling of it all and some night he wept from the memeries and his reactun to what they had did to him.

The music was his Tangerine Dream and Kitaro mix CD and the way it reverbirrated off the walls took him away, drifting into the galaxy and beyond, all inside his mind. It helped him to get rid of the scarriness and the sadness of all he had done. He hated regrets, and as he lay down on his bed looking at the ceiling he regretted so many things in his life, his mom and dad, his blue haired friend, his dragon friend, and all the loss of them from his heart and his world.

He didn't know if there was space enough for another person to make friends with and then lose, which is why he didn't really want to be freinds with this new guy, whose shower water was sounding like a nice ambient beat as it mixed in with his quasi-techno new aged music, from ten or twenty years ago. He always giggled when old music was called new age, because it was from an older age and it just did'nt make any sense. He was now just avoiding the issue in his mind, he realized, and then he knew what it was really that was knawing at him. He had been a real asshole to this kid, and there was no reason for it. The guy was even giving him the body language and all, Kevin knew when someone wanted to be left alone.

Glancing over to the photo in the frame that Carter had brought with him he felt a pang of homesickness for the new guy. He remembrered how it was for himself and he could only times it by a hundered for Carter since he didn't think the boys mom hated him like the way Kevin's own mom felt for him. He knew, at least he thought, that it had to be worse for him and here he had been a total jerk to the kid. So what if he stutered and stamered and looked like, well he wasn't all that bad looking after all and he might look half decently cute dripping wet but- NO! No I can't gawk at him, in fact I shouldn't even be here when he gets out. I'll go for a run like Riker said, it will help and give him some space. Mabey I'll stay in Veronika's room again if she'll let me- but first-

He got off his bed and took the picture Carter had left on his bed in his hands. He studied it intentely for a moment before walking to the boy's dresser and placing it there. He took a step back and a slow deep inhale. Closing his eyes he did his best sculpt of the two dogs in muted light that was close to the colors of the animals themselves. His mind was imadgining and mixing the cool soundscapes of the music to clarify and pull out any pain from his own mind and heart so the scuplts were unflawed and beautiful in their own right. It was not perfrect going to be, because he didn't know exactly what the rest of the dogs looked like, so what he did was make the parts that showed in the picture look amazingly acurate and he kept it simple- just doing their heads and smoothing down the rest to come together at the bottom. The very bottom he blended together, swirling the different hues of light around inside it, and he formed a smooth base.

Opening his eyes he saw one of the best sculpts he had ever done. It had multiple colors and the fur was far better than all the busts he had tried of his Riff~Raff. It just came together so perfect that a tear fell from his eye at how far he had come with what he could do. He wiped it from the sculpt lovingly as he placed it down gently next to the pictuer and wiped his cheek with the back of his hand. It was not a tear of pride but one of acomplishment like a marathon runner when they cross the finish line or something. He knew he wasn't at the finish line yet with what he could do, but he felt a sense of relief that he was growing. Quickly throwing his running shoes and some PJ's and some other things in a satchel he hurried out of the room.