Enjoying Some Alone Time - Remi

Faith settled herself down on the prime sofa, the one closest to the television, curling her legs beneath her and leaning against the left arm. She was alone in the recreation room; in the quiet one, anyway. Downstairs, further from the bedrooms and the staff members, was another more popular common area - about six kids were in there, laughing and joking over a ridiculously loud TV. After sticking her head in there briefly, she had retreated, continuing to wander around the main building until discovering a room that was both empty and not likely to cause any trouble. Her exploration of the attic the day before had left her a little more likely to stick to the rules about the restricted areas; she felt a whole lot safer in a room that was ten seconds away from responsible adults, rather than a few flights of stairs and a corridor. Faith liked to stick with the group; to withdraw from it, certainly, but to stay close enough that she wouldn't be abandoned when she needed help.

Picking up the remote control, she began to flick through the channels, keeping the sound very low. There was nobody else in the room to disturb, but she didn't want any adults coming and telling her off, or some kids hearing that there was somebody inside and coming in for a bit of fun. Until she figured out the rest of her new home, Faith was keeping a very low profile. Even if that involved watching childish cartoons by herself in a dismal, dark and slightly cold room. Sighing, she curled up a little tighter, resting her head on the back of the couch and wondering how she was supposed to get through the next few weeks. It hadn't been what she had expected, so far. Faith hadn't been wearing make-up to cover her scar, ever since she had tried to apply it the day before and realized how glaringly obvious it made the wound instead. Instead, she had been ducking her head, putting her hair in a strange style and avoiding contact with most people. She just hated to feel them staring, trying to work out what it had been caused by. At least they didn't know it was self-inflicted, not right away.

As well as the problem of hiding her face from everybody she encountered, it was also proving slightly difficult to cope with having roommates after fifteen years in a single. She had only one night listening to them bitch quietly, snore, kick in their sleep and make strange grunting noises but she was already climbing the walls. How did the staff expect her to survive? If she was being told to spend the day with people in classes and at meals, they at least needed to give her some space at night. A consequence of sharing a room was the lack of sleep she got: not wanting to wake the others up on her first night, screaming -if she were to have a nightmare; they were rare, but happened occasionally- Faith had lain vigilantly awake almost all night, succumbing only to sleep a few hours before the bell to make them rise went off.

She already hated that bell.

Exhausted from a self-inflicted lack of sleep, Faith let her eyes close for a few seconds, fluttering them open quickly to make sure she was still safe. The door was tightly shut, she knew; if anyone was to enter, she'd hear them. She slept ridiculously lightly. Slowly convincing herself to relax, she closed her eyes and decided to let herself rest for just a few minutes. When it was time for lunch, she would go down for the meal, and be properly rested to face the rest of the day. Just a few minutes...

A while later -she had absolutely no idea how long it had been- the door opened and closed with a bang. Jerking reflexively awake, Faith twisted around violently before she was properly conscious. "The fuck?" she asked a little too loudly, squinting due to the brightness of the light that had just been turned on. "I mean...what?" She had no idea what was going on, only that her sleep had been cruelly disturbed, and she wasn't too impressed about it.

Faith wasn't the only one staying away from the crowds today, but Remi's reasons were entirely different. He was just trying to get a feel for the place, poking around in quiet corners and abandoned attics, certainly not eyeing some of the prettier girls around the home. He couldn't do anything with them if he wanted to, what with this place not having uniforms and all, but even he thought that to be a good thing. Of course, that did give him extra incentive to get over his issues, a normal sex drive in a place like this would make everything all the better, but he wasn't going to admit that part to anyone else.

So far today, he'd been up in the attic, having a poke around and seeing if he could find any evidence of the ghosts some of the other kids claimed were up there. He didn't see anything like that, and wasn't at all surprised, but it had been an amusing way to spend an hour or two after lessons had finished. He was finished with it now though, and heading down towards the second floor rec room. Odds were there was nothing on British TV, he'd never seen anything worthwhile on there after all, but there should be something else to do inside, shouldn't there? Outside, the weather was foul, and he didn't feel like explaining to the staff why he was going out in it, so it was TV or nothing it seemed.

getting in was easy enough, but it seemed there was a window open, as a gust took the door and slammed it shut behind him. Wincing, he flicked the light on, assuming the room would be empty. He had no idea there was anyone hiding out in the dark until the girl spoke. "Sorry, wind took it." he explained in his heavy French accent, moving towards the window and making sure it was closed. "Did I wake you?" he continued, looking to her again, his eyes roaming over her face and hair. She certainly had the look of someone who'd been sleeping, and what the hell was that scar? Not something to discuss, that was for certain.

"I didn't mean to wake you, I apologise. I had no idea anyone was in here." he said, moving towards the couch, hoping to defuse things a little. "I'm Remi, I was just taking a look around, thought I'd see if there was anything on." he continued, nodding towards the TV, stopping when he reached the end of the couch she was on. Making a point of not looking at her scar, he even gave her a smile, hoping she wasn't going to bite his face off. This was already a shitty introduction, he could only try to make it better from here on out.

Disorientated -how long had she been asleep for? it was hard to tell- Faith simply stared at Remi for a few seconds as he apologized for slamming the door. He was acting nice enough, considering she had sworn at him in her first sentence, and she did her best to act like a normal person in return. Awkwardly smiling, she lent back against the sofa in a slightly more relaxed position, rather than huddling up in the defensive ball that felt much more natural.

As he shut the window, she ran her hand over her hair, smoothing it down in a vague attempt to look slightly human. Automatically styling it so part of her scar was covered. "I was just napping," she told him, slightly defensive. It was probably against the rules to sleep outside of the allocated bedtimes in the damn hospital, she thought; they outlawed everything else that she enjoyed doing. Luckily, it wasn't likely that another student would turn her into the staff, even if she had been caught breaking a rule - she felt a slight sense of community among the kids. A 'us' versus 'them' type atmosphere, similar to the one in a regular school. It was reassuring, if only because the adults didn't like it. She tended to enjoy anything they didn't approve of.

Once Remi spoke again, Faith frowned. He had an accent, strong, one that she somehow hadn't picked up at first... "French?" she guessed. "What are you doing in a place like this, when you could be...y'know, up the Eiffel tower, shagging girls, eating cheese and all that?" Possibly racist, but she was genuinely curious, making it fine in her eyes. Of all the students, she had only met one other foreigner - Maggie, the weird girl she shared a bunk with. They hadn't really communicated, but it was hard to miss the irritating, loud American accent. The French one was much more tolerable, she thought; didn't girls usually go for that, and the Italian one? Remi would have girls throwing themselves at him left and right. Good thing I'm smart enough not to be one of them.

Ignoring his apology, Faith shuffled down to the other end of the sofa and passed him the remote that had fallen to the floor. It wasn't really a friendly invitation to sit down, but it was the best he was going to get, coming from her. Half the time, she would have simply focused her eyes on the TV screen and ignored whoever was talking to her - Remi was really being treated very nicely. "I'm Faith. Put whatever you like on, I don't give a fuck... I don't think they've got satellite, or anything interesting, though."

Faith spoke, sounding all defensive, and Remi nodded, smiling. "Of course." he said, eyes darting to her hair for a moment, his smile growing. "Strange place for a nap, isn't it?" he continued, the smile going nowhere. "Not that I'm judging or anything. Bad roommates?" he continued, still moving towards her, perching on the arm of the couch and looking down at her "At least you found a nice place for it." he added, smiling again. It was surprising this room was quiet for long enough to nap in, but he supposed everyone else was busy bouncing around the other rec areas, doing...whatever it was people did around here.

She spoke, and he laughed. "I got stupid, got myself arrested, and they won't let me out of England anymore." he said, giving a shrug. "The food's terrible, the weather is worse, and I don't understand cricket." he continued, grinning a bit. All were true, and just as stereotypical as what she was saying about his homeland, though it was all just a bit of harmless fun; he hoped. "I'm from Paris, to be precise, and yourself?" he asked, still smiling. His ability to place British accents was...somewhat lacking, to say the least, he had no idea at all where she was from.

As she shuffled away, he dropped down onto the sofa proper, took the remote and flicked through a couple of channels. there were top gear repeats on, as always, so he just left it on those, turning his attention back to Faith. "It's nice to meet you Faith." he said, smiling, keeping his eyes on her face. No sense in giving off the impression he was a pervert. he was of course, but dressed as she was, she didn't interest him in the slightest. "What do people do for fun around here? I haven't been here long enough to figure it all out for myself just yet." he asked, still smiling. She seemed nice enough, so far.