Ness grinned as soon as she heard the announcement. "Class is skipped!" She cheered, practically skipping over to the cafeteria and going in. She had the appetite of a full grown male blue whale, and if she wasn't sleeping, she was eating. She grabbed some breakfast and sat down at her assigned table, happily eating as much as she could before she had to stop.
She glanced up as two people, a guy and a girl, entered. They were looking in her direction. It must be Dorm 1, who she shared a table with. She had heard rumors of a guy and a girl sharing a dorm, being madly in love, but they didn't look like they were madly in love. Just friends.
She shrugged. It wasn't any of her business, anyway… although, when she was supposed to not be nosy, and to leave well enough alone, Ness of course did the opposite.
Kingsley grabbed her food and then slipped into the table, her feet not touching the floor. Typical. Why did Sawyer have to get the tall genes? She smiled at the girl who was already sitting there. "Hi, I'm Kingsley. You must be Abellona? Or Vanessa? Sorry, I'm not really good with matching names to faces."
"Vanessa. Ness. Whatever." Ness grinned at the girl before continuing to eat, "Nice to meet you." She made a face. "Just call me Ness, though, seriously. Nessie. Nessa. Vanessa just sounds like an old person's name." She bit into a muffin.
"So, what do you think this is about?" She asked.
"What what's about?" Kingsley broke off a piece of her muffin and plopped it into her mouth. "I'm confused. There's like…5 things you could be talking about. I can't read minds."
"Pity," Ness commented. "Reading minds could be so useful. Imagine knowing what everyone was thinking, all the time!" She grinned and shoveled the rest of the muffin into her mouth. "The announcement telling us to come here. Why do you think that happened?"
Kingsley looked confused. "Because it's breakfast? It's always like that. Every morning. That's just kinda how Legacy works. And no, I wouldn't want to read minds. I'm perfectly happy making them go deaf or overload their sound sensors. So much more helpful."
"They do?" Ness tilted her head. "You know, I've been here for years, and I've never noticed that." She shrugged. "Then again, I never wake up this early, anyways." She grinned.
"But mind reading would be so cool! You could make fun of people for what they think, and who they like." She sighed dreamily.
Kingsley stared at Ness. "Yeah, but what if you couldn't control it? What if all you hear is other people's thoughts? Ever heard of Physic? She went insane cause of it. And she's not the only one."
"Yeah, yeah." Ness waved her hand dismissively. "Consequences and shit. It would be really fun." She grinned. "That way, I would know if Mrs, Taylor really does have a secret stash of chocolate around her office, or if that was just a rumor."
(That actually looks quite interesting. Robin Williams was a good actor, too.)
"I wouldn't want to read minds, either," Oskar commented as he used his foot to pull out one of the empty chairs on the farther end of the table, as if he were intentionally keeping his distance. Which he was. He smirked a little, only to lighten his following words— even though he wasn't joking. "I wouldn't want to know all of the horrible things people think of me."
"I would," Ness said, grinning at the guy with her typical easy smile. "Because then I can find tiny ways of revenge to get them. And they would have no idea what was happening." She sighed blissfully. "Imagine what I could do with that power." She laughed.
Oskar raised his brows slightly, trying to decide whether he was more amused or concerned by this girl. An equal bit of both, he decided, finally dropping down into his seat and taking a generous bite from his crumbling blueberry muffin. "If I could pick my power—" he began through a mouthful, though be paused mid-sentence when he unintentionally spat a few muffin crumbs onto the table in front of him. He wiped them away with his sleeve and swallowed his bite before continuing. "— If I could pick my power, I'd want to be able to manipulate electromagnetic fields. I knew I guy who could do that, and it was epic."
And, of course, you could touch people without torturing them. That was always a plus.
"Huh. Well, it would be cool if we could actually choose your powers." Ness shrugged. "Alas. We can't always get what we want. Or ever, really." She grinned. "I'm Vanessa, by the way. Ness."
Oskar gave her a nod of greeting, mostly because he'd taken another bite of his muffin in the meantime and thought it might be rude to spew his saliva-infused breakfast all over her in an attempt to respond. After swallowing and running his tongue over his teeth to make sure no stray blueberries were lodged between them, he replied, "Cool name. I'm Oskar."
"It's not a cool name." Ness grabbed another muffin and shoveled it into her mouth. It wasn't that she was a messy eater, she just ate as if every meal would be her last. She liked to eat, liked it so much that if she could, that was all she would do. "But thanks anyway." She shrugged and finished chewing, gulping down some milk to help it all go down.
"Well, at least your name isn't forever associated with Oscar the Grouch." Oskar leaned back into his chair nonchalantly as he finished off the remains of his own muffin, stopping at one. He probably half-starved himself most of the time, but it wasn't like it mattered. The world would probably be just as well off if he didn't wake up one morning, anyway, so why should he care? The answer, quite simply, was that he didn't.
"That's true," Ness acknowledged. "But at least Oscar the Grouch is cool. My parents had a sense of humor, and literally named me after a butterfly." She grinned at him. "You aren't eating anymore. Why not? These are really good!"
"At least your name isn't forever associated with two of the most famous heroes from last generation." She realised why that might be confusing. "My parents are Glitch and Impulse. Somehow technology and super speed combined to make sound. I still don't get it."
"It makes sense," Ness offered. "Kind of? I dunno, I've never been good at combining powers and stuff." She shrugged. "So, how early do you guys usually wake up?" She asked, giving them a warm grin, although it didn't reach her eyes. "This might be my first time in six years that I've woken up early enough to catch breakfast."
"I wake up around 7:00, then I sent a sound wave to wake Oskar up. Otherwise he never will. Don't know what he'll do without me next year." She smiled, giggling softly. "I'm just kidding."
"I dunno," Ness said. "Maybe I should hire you as a personal alarm clock. That way, I wouldn't be so late all the time." She grinned. "Not that I'd be happy being woken up."
"I can if you want. Wouldn't suggest it though. Depending on how tired I am, my powers can go haywire. I mean, normally I get a proper amount of sleep. Once I was super jetlagged from a trip to Australia that I made my whole family deaf for an hour without even realising."
"Ooh," Ness said, wincing in sympathy. "I mean, at least you haven't done it to Oskar, though," she said, grinning. "Poor guy, being forced to room with someone like you." Her tone was joking, teasing. She wasn't serious at all.
Kingsley looked at Ness with a slightly baffled look on her face, half-laughing. She already liked this girl. "If you're not careful, I'll throw my leg at you."
"Do it. And I'll catch it and run away with it." Ness sent her a grin, amusement and laughter in her eyes, her smile, the way she held herself. "I'd like to see you try and catch up with me."
