Issue 1 Downtime

Mars was still trying to get a handle on the grounds. She wasn't used to living somewhere so big and permanent. She felt restless and lost all the time and it was starting to get on her nerves.

Hopping up on the back of a bench, she balanced carefully.

Maybe coming here had been a bad idea.

Theresa made her way through the garden, mostly trying to avoid bumping into Kay or Brigid right now. Seeing Marcie, she stopped and watched for a moment. "Those benches aren't the most stable things ever, you might want to be careful."

Mars grins, feeling like showing off a bit, "It's not so bad. Watch."

Tapping into the skill of Ernesto Gambonno, Mars bends over backwards and begins balancing on her hands with her feet in the air. Then she springs into the air and lands on her feet in front of Theresa.

"See? What'd I tell you?" Mars says, looking cocky.

"I have to admit, that was pretty awesome. Must've taken a lot of practice to learn how to do that."

"Nah," Mars says, "It's just my power. I pick up stuff super-quick."

"I'm Mars by the way."

"Theresa. Good to meet you. I saw you in power control, but I always have my hands full in there, so I couldn't really pay too close attention to what was going on."

"Well, it's good to meet you now, Theresa," Mars says, smiling at the girl, "So, how do you like the university?"

"Eh." She shrugged. "Not everything I thought it would be, but I'm getting my power under control, so there's that I guess? Mostly just trying to stay on top of my high school classes at the moment."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Mars says, "I haven't even been here a week and I think I'm already failing most of my classes."

"Talk to me after you've been through one of Sackville's tests," she said, rolling her eyes. "He's kind of weird. Most of the other teachers are pretty cool though."

"That's good," Mars says, "How is Sackville weird? Does he have two heads? Do they argue with each other? That'd be pretty weird."

"He's lived for forever or there abouts. Has a sword. Was trying to recover his wife's organs from like... Egyptian times or something. Like I said... weird."

"That works too," Mars says, "So, do you just study all the time? What do you do for fun around here?"

"I'm not sure what other people do. I spend some time on my computer, but that's about it these days. Used to do more, but that way a complicated story lies."

"Well, we should steer clear then. Keep the boat sailing towards the Cape of Good Times," Mars says.

"Trying to find that lighthouse, but things are still kind of foggy."

Mars smiles, "Well, if you ever need to talk about it, I'm a fairly good listener."

"I come from a pretty big family. You get used to hearing about everyone's problems."

"Thanks, but I probably already planted enough notions about me in your head as is. Where are you from?"

Mars shrugs, "All around, really. We traveled a lot. Europe, mostly, but I've been to the States and South America too."

"Military family?"

"Something like that," Mars says, laughing nervously.

Damn it. Why do I suck so bad at this?

"Hey, do you know a good place to get coffee in town? The cafeteria here is kind of terrible," Mars asks, trying to change the subject.

"There's some coffee shops. I'm more of a Mt. Dew kind of girl though. I could show you around if you like."

"That'd be super helpful," Mars says, sounding relieved, "I'm fine exploring on my own, but it gets boring pretty quickly, y'know?"

"Sure thing," she said, pulling out her phone. "We should be able to catch a ride into town if we hurry."

"Awesome," Mars says, "Thanks a lot."

"My pleasure." She said, leading the way to the bus stop.

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