xp_logs | Backdated to Monday morning

Backdated to Monday morning - Sooraya and Angel meet for the first time. Sooraya is worried about this whole 'roommate' thing, but it turns out she doesn't need to be at all.

Angel glanced around the suite and nudged over another box onto her side. A lot of her stuff was going to go into the house her dad would buy in New York so that she wouldn't overfill her side of the room. But that didn't mean she could just ignore the boxes that would be arriving.

Digging into the first one, she smiled a little bit as she pulled out an ancient and well worn stuffed hippo. Fred had been with her since before she could remember, one of her first presents from her parents. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she glanced around and then hugged it tightly. She knew she had a roommate but they had managed to miss each other because of Angel's odd schedule of moving in and settling down.

Said roommate was now navigating her way through the hallways in search of her room - the twisting turns and lookalike walls were starting to make a little more sense now. Nathan had showed her where she would be staying a few days before, but she wanted to find it herself this time. Although it might've been nice to have him there to introduce her to her roommate, she could handle it herself. She could do it.

Stopping in front of the door that she thought was hers, she took a deep breath and then reached out, turning the knob."H-hello?"

Angel glanced up and then smiled brilliantly at the person in the door. "Hi!" she said, putting Fred very softly on the bed before standing up. "I'm Angel."

"Oh! You have a very pretty accent, where are you from?" The only thing she'd been told about Sooraya was that English was not her first language and to be patient. Angel could do patient, really, especially for a roommate.

"My name is Sooraya," the Afghan girl said, stepping a little further into the suite. She smiled, looking only slightly nervous as her eyes shifted around the room and then landed back on Angel.

The first part of the statement was a little too fast and foreign to follow, but Sooraya had been getting very good at listening for questions. Those were the most important things to notice, since they usually necessitated a response. "I am from Afghanistan," she replied, hoping she had pronounced that right. "I am new here."

Looking fascinated, Angel gestured towards the two beds on the room and sat on hers, sitting indian style. "So am I," she said, a bit shyly perhaps. She'd never had a roommate before and she really wanted to be friends with Sooraya. "I make fire, though not on purpose yet. What's your power?"

Sooraya shuffled over to the other bed and perched on the end, tucking her hands between her knees. Remember what Nathan said. "~Angel is a very nice girl, and I'm sure she will be understanding. Just do your best and remember, the more you practice, the easier it will become.~"

"I become sand," she said slowly. "All of me."

"Sand?" Angel blinked and then grinned even bigger. "That is awesome. Can you move around or do you just...um...settle in a little pile on the floor?" Ohh, she'd have to be careful when she came into their room.

Stepping on the roomie was right out.

"I... do not move," Sooraya replied. She made a fluttering motion with her hand that could have been describing something, though it wasn't clear what. "Dr. Moira... she says soon I can move, if I am practice."

"Ohh, that makes sense. It's like how I can't really turn the fire on right now without lots of practice." She grinned. "I'll be super careful until you learn how to move around when I see any sand on the ground, then. How long have you been here?"

This question caused Sooraya to pout her lips slightly - though she was grasping the language well enough, she was still lacking in vocabulary, and increments of time was one of the things she struggled with. "I have not been here long," she finally replied, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "How long have you been here?"

"Not very long at all, either, only a few weeks. I've never been in New York before, I come from Washington State so while not quite as far away as you, still a bit of a hike."

Sooraya nodded and smiled, knotting her fingers together. She really didn't know what to say to this girl, her new roommate. She wanted to be friends with her very much, but friendships were difficult to cultivate with such a wide divide in language and culture. "Do you have... things you like?" she asked, hoping maybe that they might share an interest or hobby out of the blue.

Angel nodded and pointed up to the few things that were on her wall so far. "I take pictures," she said, "and I swim a lot. And I read...I'm not really one for the computer." She made a face. "I break them more than I use them. What do you like to do?"

"I... study English." In truth, Sooraya wasn't very well acquainted with the idea of free time or hobbies... she didn't know what she had been expecting. Unless her roommate enjoyed cooking over a fire or traveling long distances on horseback, there was little chance they would be able to relate. "I do not know to read. Or swim. Or pictures."

"Oh." Angel blinked and then screwed up her face in thought. "I...I know that the school will be helping with the reading but I can help with learning to swim or take pictures! If, you know, you'd like that?"

Sooraya listened closely, an expression of concentration on her face. "Oh... yes," she replied brightly, nodding at the other girl's offer. "I do like that. Thank you. I will try hard at learning."

Bouncing slightly, Angel grinned and resisted the urge to throw her arms around her new roommate. Scaring her off would not be a good thing. "Great! We'll start with the camera because that's easy and doesn't involve, you know, water." Reaching over, she grabbed for her simplest camera and beamed. This was going so much better than she'd been afraid it would.

Now? Well, it wasn't as if she was doing anything else... Smiling back, Sooraya scooted to the end of her bed and leaned forward, peering intently at the contraption in Angel's hand. She was so curious to learn what it did that she began to forget the nervousness and anxiety she had felt over the change in her living situation once again. "That is a camera?"