School for the Enchanted

Joan looked away from the ginger girl and to the ginger boy (were they related?). She watched, still holding out the whiteboard and pen, as the boy took something small out of his pocket. He sat it on the ground. Joan watched as the boy's lips moved, and then a word appeared on the screen. 'Hello'. It was simple enough, but Joan was intrigued. Hastily putting the board and pen into the girls hands, she crouched down to be closer to the robot. She looked back up at the boy, and then at the robot again. She signed 'hello' down at the robot. The screen went blank for a second, then 'hello' appeared on the screen again. One more test. She signed 'my name is Joan' at the robot. Even though she had to spell her name out, when she was finished, the words were on the screen. A laugh escaped her, bright and happy as she scooped the robot up. She stood back up, holding the robot in her open palms. She turned it around so that the screen was visible to Rocco and Nanya, a million dollar smile stretching across her face.
 
Sam looked between mother and son, not really seeing the similarities. Adopted perhaps? Makes sense, seeing as normals didn't tend to adopt people like them. He would know...

Sam shook his head. What's in the past is in the past, no need to dwell on it. It was at that point that Sam noticed many of the people were well on truly on their way out, and Sam took that as his clue to leave.

Grabbing Draven's arm, he gave a smile smile to his mother. "Well it was lovely meeting you, but alas we cannot stay here forever. I think I'll give Draven here a tour. If you need to find me, just ask a y of the other teachers, they know where I live."

He then walked off, pulling along Draven, not even stopping to ask him if he wanted to go. Yet, why would Sam let a silly thing like that stop him? No, he had a minion- Friend to to corrupt with the power of fun.
 
"Wha—" Draven gushed as he was pulled by Sam. Wasn’t like he had anything better to do and it would be good to know where he was going when school actually started. Turning back for a second, he gave a lazy wave to Seka as he kept pace with Sam.

Now that the room was cleared save for the staff, Seka tucked her bag against her chest and tapped her new suede pumps against the floor, waiting for further instruction for how the rest of the evening would go from the principal. Looking down as she scrolled through her reminders on her phone, she searched her mind trying to recall anything about a staff meeting in the emails she’d received over the summer.
 
Nanya looked at the bracelet around the girl’s arm. I AM DEAF it read. Some people may have turned away from the girl, but not Nanya. She believed that you should judge people on who they are not what they are. It always irritated her when people bully someone just because they had red hair or were poor without even trying to get to know the person. Communication would be a challenge Nanya thought when the girl handed her a board and pen. Her handwriting wasn’t the most readable and patient wasn’t really something Nanya had.

As she was thinking this the boy pulled out another robot. “Woah, how many robots do you carry around?” she exclaimed surprised. Taking over the board and pen from the girl. When she noticed the robot could translate sign language she was impressed. “She smiled at the girl who hold up the robot. She looked extremely happy. See, Nanya thought the boy is nice. She did wonder why he was taking such a robot to school. Maybe he wasn’t new and already knew her. Maybe he had a robot that could look into the future. Or maybe he just always caries all sorts of robots with him. “Hey Joan, my name is Nanya” she said to the robot and the words appeared on the screen.
 
Rocco waited a couple of seconds before saying softly, “My name is Rocco, this is Plink and that is Telly” he said gesturing to each robot respectfully. Telly turned around so he could show Joan what his screen read. He glanced at Nanya before looked at the floor and saying, “I only brought 2 with me but I have nearly a hundred different robots” he said softly. Telly gave a short nod of agreement before Rocco’s message winked out and was replaced with “HI” and telly gave the girl his own little wave. Plink who had already gotten bored with messing with Rocco’s shoelaces retied them before turning to Nanya and messing with hers.
 
Joan steadily read the tiny screen, pale grey eyes soaking in the cool thing in her hands. She looked at each person as they were introduced, especially Plink, who she hadn't even noticed was there. She reached out with a battered trainer and gently prodded the bot, before quickly returning her foot back to beneath her. What if it had teeth?

Since she had to use her hands, she held the bot out to either Rocco or Nanya, she didn't really mind who held it. As per usual, there were a ton of questions going through her head, and having no clue how to filter them, she just decided to ask them all at once. As soon as her hands were free, she started asking. Even though she was fast, Telly could keep up.

'So you guys are students here, yeah? Have you been here before or are you just starting up? I'm just starting here, me and my parents, we used to live in Hawaii, but...whatever, doesn't matter! What were you asking before, anyway? Oh, and can I have my board back? Sorry, it's just that it's got all the speech written on it for my parents!'
 
Rocco watched Joan suspiciously as he prodded Plink and accepting Telly from Joan, he set Telly in her hands and bent down to look at Plink. “Plink don’t mess with her shoes! It is rude” he softly scolded, though to his embarrassment Telly decided to translate that as well. Once he stood up he quickly responded to Joan’s question, not waiting for Nanya to, “Yah, I am new I am not sure about Nanya though, before Nays was saying hi, and didn’t you erase the speech?” He spoke equally fast as Telly translated it all. After he had said his part he closes his mouth and averted his gaze before taking Telly in his hands once more, making sure Joan could see the screen. He stayed quite waiting for Nanya to speak.
 
She was surprised at how much boy spoke at once. Rocco his name was Rocco. They should use the robot more often. He seemed way more comfortable talking to robots than to humans. He had a hundred robots he said that is a lot and Nanya was curious in what those robots could do.

When she heard Rocco noticing that plink was messing with shoes she looked down to see if he had meant her shoes. She laughed when she discovered it was indeed her shoes. “Naawh it doesn’t matter.” She said looking at Rocco. Then she switched her attention to the girl and said “Yes, I’m new as well. I asked if you had the same lessons as us that would be cool and of course you can have your board back” Nanya handed the board and pen back to Joan. She couldn’t read what was on the screen of Telly because Rocco was holding it towards Joan but she assumed her words were written on the screen.
 
Rocco attempted to not look Nanya in the eyes, none the less he could tell she was staring at him and his face turned an even brighter shade of red. 'I said to much, I knew it' he thought, his hands quivering slightly as he attempted to not let it show. This was one of the many reason he preferred his robots over people, as at least with his robots he almost always knew how they would react whereas people are completely unpredictable. Plink who had been in the process of untying Nanya's shoes paused, hands still in the air holding tightly to the shoelaces. glancing up at Rocco plink quickly noticed his increasing embarrassment, and setting the shoelaces down he returned to his creator and sat a top the leather boots he almost always wore. despite how small this action was, it was really all Rocco needed at the moment.
 
Joan's face rumpled into confusion at Rocco's query about the speech. She took the board from Nanya and lifted it so the ginger boy could see. The whole speech was written down in loopy calligraphy, apart from at the top. There, there were empty lines that Joan had rubbed off to make room for Nanya to write. Originally, it had just been the headmistress introducing herself, and some other 'important' people that Joan didn't really care about.

'Just the beginnings!' She signed with a frown, setting the board down by her feet with the ink up. 'They're not important anyways!'

She turned her attention to little Telly, and then to Nanya. She signed directly to Nanya, though of course it would be Telly that would be speaking for her. 'I don't know my classes yet. I don't have my timetable. Are we supposed to?' Her face showed a clear fear that she'd missed out on something.
 
Nanya picked the little robot by its middle out of the hands of the boy and turned it towards her so she could read the translation of the signing of the girl. When she read it, she turned the robot around so the girl could read what she was saying. “hhm my schedule arrived just before I left home, and I left my home late, too late.” Nanya paused shortly “Let’s ask the principal he will probably has all the schedules or a schedule of the schedules or something” As she said the words Nanya was determined she wanted to know the girls schedule. It is only fair anyway.
 
Sam lead Draven out of the auditorium, out of the building, into the courtyard out front. Leading him to a shady spot under a tree, he took a seat, inviting him to do the same. There were a few other students lingering out front also, but many had decided to leave or go exploring.

After a few moments, Sam broke the silence. "So, Draven huh? Before I go giving you my super amazing tour of the place, let's share a bit about ourselves. That way we get a feel for each other, get out any miscommunication right away, then we an go exploring, snapping up anyone who we snag along the way, because anyone who is still here might as well get a good tour."
 
Mr. Handel drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes. He was entering a meditative state in which he could relax, clear his mind, sand generate a good atmosphere. In this state he is only aware of time itself passing. He breathed deeply, and exhaled through his pipes just enough to make a faint call. He did this slowly, and often for an hour or more after school let out for the day. Since school wasn't starting for another five days, he had plenty of time to enter this almost dream-like state.
 
Rocco let out a sigh as Nanya mentioned returning to the principal to ask about Joan’s schedule, meaning that he was in fact not going to be able to leave yet. He should have token his chance while he still could, but now there really was no turning back, “My parents gave me mine, they said it had came in the mail. Maybe yours just came late?” Rocco suggested. Telly once more displayed the words on his screen, though with his own little twist. After displaying the words Rocco had spoken Telly added his own little message reading “Rocco, thinks you’re cute” and even without a face it was now obvious that if Telly did have a face, it would be pulled into a mischievous grin.
 
“Hmm well what would you like to know.” Draven shrugged, briefly glancing up at their surroundings as they walked. “There’s not much I can say that would be interesting.” He admitted as he searched his brain for what to say. Sadly he came up blank. He wasn’t really sure what kind of things he wanted to know since that topic can easily become something deep and invasive quickly. Hopefully they would just stick to the basics and shy away from those big, life seeking questions.

Since everything was over, Seka decided to take this chance to set up her room the way she envisioned it as she designed her syllabus and lesson plans. Since this was a school of great magical treasures, she had planned to fill her room with encouraging decor. Fishing out her keys, she began to walk towards her car, as the thought of given Draven one for his birthday danced across her mind.
 
'Maybe my parents have it,' Joan signed, face contorted as she tried to remember if she had seen the paper around. Joan's memory was as bad as an elephant's (they either had really bad memories or really good ones, she could never remember) and it always gave her trouble. She would forget chores and homework and events and birthdays and all sorts.

She had glanced away from Telly as her thoughts started to go off the rails, but quickly lifted her head to try and get herself on track. As she did, she caught the words across Telly's screen. She snorted, glancing between Rocco and the robot. 'He doesn't even know me!' She signed, words obviously directed to Telly and not to either Nanya or Rocco.
 
Nanya couldn’t see what was on the screen of the robot and was surprised the girl had laughed. The boy had said nothing that could provoke such a reaction. She turned around the robot to see if the robot maybe translated something weird. Frustrated she noticed that the words of the boy were already gone. The words that she did read confused her even more. Nanya hated it when things like did happened. She was also a bit insulted nobody reacted to her suggestion to go to the principle. “What did it show on the screen? why does Joan says that he doesn’t know her? ” Nanya said demanding answers while she hold the robot in a way all three of them could read what appeared on the screen. She wasn’t going to let it show something different again without her knowing it.
 
Telly screen quickly went blank as he realised he had been caught and putting his hands behind his back his screen displayed the words, “I know nuuuthing” the clear hogans hero reference not escaping Rocco’s notice. “What did you tell her Telly?” He asked a strange firm tone entering his voice that seemingly pulled Telly to attention without hesitation. “Rocco x Joan” his screen now displayed as he kicked his toe guiltily and Rocco’s face burned bright red. Plink began to tug at Rocco’s pant leg, noticing his creator’s embarrassment and trying to help him out.
 
While Mr. Handel was doing his meditative thing, Principal Banks had begun chatting with the teachers and staff about random things, mostly about their thoughts for the coming year. She turned to Seka, "I want to congradulate you on your new position. Im looking forward to many years of working with you." Principal Banks was always welcoming to new teacchers and staff.
 
Everything that the two other teens said that wasn't translated was lost to Joan, so she couldn't do very much to answer them. She just had to wait until Telly finally said something, which ended up being something she didn't understand. 'Rocco x Joan'? She guessed it had something to do with what the robot said before, but she still didn't know what it meant.

The deaf girl signed, "and so I said that you don't even know me. How could you think I was cute if you didn't even know me? Like, don't even know my surname kind of don't know me. You know?"
 
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