You Just Do What You Gotta Do To Get By

Mal was always most comfortable outdoors -- something he could blame on his earth magic -- so it was no surprise that he wound up outside in the garden. He sat on a bench, with his head leaning on his hands, and wondered what there was to do in this school.

Roxy also, was most comfortable outdoors--well, most of the time. She did enjoy being inside for training, especially in the heat of summer or the cold of winter, but a jog outside or a battle in the sunshine was usually better than a stuffy dojo. What was odd, though, was that she wasn't in her usual training uniform nor out for a jog. A nice walk in a floral dress through the garden was good for her, considering she had been pushing her training to a high degree ever since she left her home for this school.

Mal had been staring blankly at the ground in front of him, bored out of his skull but not knowing what to do about it, when he heard the footsteps of someone else in the garden. Deciding that school would probably be a lot more exciting with friends, he looked up and searched for the source of the sound, and spotted a girl he didn't recognize. "Hey!" he said brightly, shooting her a smile and a wave.

Oh, a boy! She liked boys. She had many friends who were boys at home. Hopefully the group you befriended didn't put her standards too high. "Hello there!" Roxy greeted, equally as bright with a friendly grin. She jogged up to him. "How are you today?"

Mal grinned. This girl seemed nice, and he really did want to make friends here. "I'm good, just really really bored." He ran a hand through his messy hair and pretended to pout for a second, though he couldn't hold it and soon started smiling again. "What about you? Out for a nice walk in the garden?"

What a cutie.
She liked this guy already.
"You bet!" Roxy confirmed, nodding and clapping her hands together enthusiastically. "I love the outdoors, though especially at night when you can see the stars."

"Hey, same here," he said brightly. "I just love the outdoors in general, but I bet this place would look great at night." He looked around the garden with its various statues and beds of flowers and imagined it bathed in moonlight. "We should check it out sometime." And then, in a sudden change of subject that was common for him, asked, "So are you new here?"

"Totally." Roxy moved to sit next to him on the bench, pulling her legs up to sit on her side. A normal position for her. "Mhm," she confirmed, nodding, "it's...pretty crazy. I feel a bit stupid with all of this stuff happening around me and I barely understand it. Like, real magic? What?" She threw her arms up in the air for emphasis.

Mal moved over a little to give her a bit more space and nodded in agreement. "Hey, I know how you feel. It's like, when I was a kid my sister used to read me all these stories about magic and stuff when I was a kid and it seemed like fantasy and now it's suddenly real and I have the magic I used to imagine I did and it's both amazing and scary," he said, then, realizing he was rambling, stopped and took a breath.