Lauren gave a startled squeak and lunged forward in her seat as the bus came to a rather abrupt, and rough, stop. Several other students around her shared her sentiments and gave groggy groans and little yells of protest at the driver who waved a hand dismissively back at them and stood, hands pressed into the small of his back as he turned his waist and let loose a series of little pops and cracks.

"Off the bus" he ordered mildly over the buzz of their newly resumed chatter and whining. He was already half way out the door as he said this and Lauren had to mutter if that was a good idea. Sure, he had the keys with him but, the kids here weren't normal. What if one of them used super electric power or something to high jack the bus... Nah, that probably wouldn't happen.

She laughed at her over active imagination and, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, stood. The girl who had been sitting beside her when the journey hard started from the airport was now gone and as she looked around she realized, so was about half of the bus.

She figured as much. It was hot and stuffy in there and it smelled kind of funny, she could only imagine how eager some of the other kids, especially the ones with a heightened since of smell or a sensitivity to temperature, would have been to get out. She didn't much care though and took her time, standing and stretching slowly, her tiny body a little sore from being so scrunched up the past few hours. She collected her bag of belongings, being sure to fold her blanket up carefully before setting it inside, and waited for the two or three kids who'd sat in the back, and were just now leaving, to pass her.

She was the second to last one out, and winced as the sunshine, bright and hot, assaulted her already sensitive eyes. She cupped a hand over them as she settled her pack on her shoulders and looked around. To either side of her there were buses, eight in total. Each was long, yellow, and far too bright in the mid day light. Looking at them hurt far too much and so she stopped it, looking at the ground instead.

There were white chalk arrows there, going in slightly slanted straight line. Below each the word Freshman was written and so she, along with the other ninety nine freshmen that had come on her bus and another parked directly beside theirs, walked along them and towards the school grounds.

Lauren drew her hand away as they came upon the grand campus. Andromeda High, school for the special, for the magical and other worldly, was a castle, three castles actually and several smaller home like complexes, spread across a beautiful, expansive campus. They were walking into a court yard decorated with flowers, a banner reading "WELCOME FRESHMEN" hanging on the stone archway that led to it.

A makeshift stage was built up in its center, chairs lined in rows before it. On the stage sat twelve people, all adults, each perfectly human in appearance. Their range of their ages was seen in, one a young man who could have been at youngest twenty two and an elderly woman who cold have been sporting ninety years or more, though she stood mostly straight and looked rather healthy.

All seemed mildly bored and sat in their own seats shuffling papers back and forth to each other. Occasionally a student would wave and they'd smile, waving back but besides that they seemed totally uninterested.

Lauren saw this and though it was understandable. It was a little hot out, the usual fall breeze not yet here, the heated holds of summer still clinging desperately on, and they'd probably been waiting at least the last hour or two. She herself was starting to feel a little toasty in her bulky blue sweater and thought she might take it off when a hand rested gently on her shoulder.

"Go take a seat kid" a friendly young man, probably a junior or senior, said pointing over to the chairs. "Then we can get started."

"Mkay" she nodded, smiling up at him before she wandered over to take a seat. She found one, two rows back, almost dead center, and smiled up at the elderly woman who was seemed to look at her for a moment.

She smiled back and gave a little wave with long, bony fingers. Lauren reciprocated. "Are we starting soon?" she called up.

"When everyone's seated" the woman replied.

Lauren nodded and settled back, pushing her glasses back up on her nose absentmindedly, and waited for things to start up.