Marie and Crystal, Sunday early afternoon

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Crystal runs into Marie decimating a punching bag.

After a few laps around the mansion grounds, Marie headed to the gym to add a little strength training to her workout. Eyeing the punching bag, she decided that it looked like it could use a few hits. Pulling off her regular gloves, she grabbed a pair of boxing gloves and slipped her hands into them. Walking over to the door, she floated a few inches off the ground and began a series of punches and kicks.

The door to the gym flew open and Crystal entered, already hovering several inches above the floor. For a few moments, she stood watching her RA victimize the punching bag. Unfortunately for the defenseless bag, it didn't look like it stood a chance.

Though Marie heard the door open, she didn’t turn to see who had entered. She hurried her movements and released another combination of kicks and punches. Launching herself higher in the air, she decided to try a new kick and her feet moved in a flurry of motion. As she settled back down on the ground, she winced as she saw that her action had busted the bottom of the bag and a pile of grain was quickly accumulating beneath it.

"I suppose you didn't mean to do that?" Crystal queried as Marie apparently decided to destroy the punching bag. "Can that be fixed, or is the school in need of a new punching bag?" Crystal eyed the grain on the floor. Sweeping her hand to the side and then in an upwards motion, she generated a wind that picked up the grains and moved them back towards the opening in the bag. "That bag is heavy," she commented, landing as the grain stopped flowing out of the bag.

Great impression to make with your students Marie. “No, that was a bit of an accident. Ah think it’s usually easier to get a new bag. Although…” Flying up, Marie disconnected the bag from the ceiling and lowered it to the ground on its side. “If you can fill it back up…?” she asked, holding the hole in the bottom of the bag open.

"Of course I can," Crystal replied. Dropping the air wall that had been preventing more grains from leaking out of the bag, she picked up the grains with a wind, this time pushing them into the somewhat depleted bag. "For the moment, I'm keeping the grains in the bag, but the hole needs to be fixed."

Marie nodded, impressed that a girl Crystal's age had such control over her gifts. Carefully flipping the bag over, Marie wrapped her arms around it and lifted. "Ah think Ah can do something about that. Just gotta find the right stuff." Walking over to a corner of the gym, she leaned the bag against the wall. "It should be ok there until Ah get back to it." Pulling the elastic out of her hair, Marie combed it back with her fingers and began tying it up again. "So how is your new room placement? Ah've been meaning to check on you."

"Oh, it's fine, thank you. As I know you noticed, we had some issues, but I believe we have worked them out," Crystal responded.

“Ah’m glad to hear that,” Marie said with a smile. She had worried that Crystal would just have an issue with any roommate and it was a relief to hear that she was settling in to the new arrangement. “How is everything else going for you?”

"Everything else is fine. I'm still taking it all in, a little at a time." It was the culture that was constantly surprising Crystal, not the fact that a large percentage of the student body could fly, or the fact that weird things were supposed to happen on a regular basis.

“It can be a bit of an adjustment,” Marie said. She had thought the move from Mississippi to New York had been hard to deal with and couldn’t even fathom what it would be like to move to a new country. “Ah need to grab a shower, but do you maybe want to run into town and grab a bite to eat?” She wondered if the girl had even had the chance to leave the mansion proper yet.

Due to her Lorna issues, Crystal had been avoiding the dining hall and lived on delivery... and Power Bars. Crystal wouldn't go so far as to subject herself to peanut butter and super-fried foods, but she saw nothing wrong with Power Bars, and Lorna didn't like them. "That sounds very nice," Crystal said with a smile.

“Great! Meet you in the garage in thirty,” Marie said before jogging off to get cleaned up.

---

Pulling out of the garage, Marie smiled as the sunshine spilled through the windows of the sedan. “Ah love summer weather.” Fiddling for a moment with the radio, she glanced over at the girl beside her. “Oh…um, why don’t ya pick the station?”

Crystal didn't want to make a big deal out of the fact that she was unfamiliar with local radio stations. For that matter, she wasn't used to listening to a radio at all. Radios played commercials and songs you didn't like, and what was the point in wasting your time listening to that? "You're the driver, you can choose the station," Crystal replied.

Switching to her favorite country station, Marie smiled as the sound of June Carter’s “Keep on the Sunny Side” came over the airwaves. “So had you been to New York before coming to the school?” she asked, curious about the girl beside her.

“No, this is my first time here,” Crystal replied.

“Ah’m sure you’ll like it. We have a little bit of everything – small town here with a city close by.” Pulling into the parking lot of a small building, Marie’s stomach rumbled in expectation of the meal to come. “Now, Ah don’t know if you’ve ever had good Southern cookin’, but this is as close as it gets up here.”

Crystal winced inwardly. Hopefully the menu consisted of items that didn’t begin with the word barbeque or fried.