someday, somehow* open

[Nicki Burne Michigan]

Fierce predator... Nicki didn't like the sound of that. He didn't like the sound of "run-in" either, but fierce predator... the combination of two already intimidating words just made him more nervous. Did Addison count as a fierce predator? She probably did... she smelled like cat of some kind, and to the defenseless pika shifter, even small cats fell under the category of predator. Big claws and teeth... Nicki's face paled, and he took a short step backwards, shuddering slightly as she compared the human anatomy (or, well, the pika anatomy) to a sheet of homework. Both were easily shreddable? Nicki really didn't like the sound of that, not at all. Skin was easy to tear off... meat was harder... and bones, were they easy or hard to break? He was sure that he had learned about this in health or something, but panic made it hard to think. He panicked easily, got mad easily, and cried easily. And boy, could the freshman cry. He reeled back as the junior touched his nose, losing his balance and falling to the ground, his bony butt making a little thumping noise as it hit the floor.

Nicki sniffled, using the back of his hand to wipe away the abundance of wet stuff that was coming out of his eyes. No, he wouldn't even admit to himself that the wet stuff was tears. Nicki viewed himself as someone in a much higher place than he was; someone who didn't cry. So no, the wet stuff wasn't tears, even though to Asia and Addison it would be obvious that Nicki was crying his eyes out, even if he refused to admit it to himself. He was pathetic like that, really, and it was kind of sad. Making a little snuffling noise, he managed to wipe most of the years off his face and stop any others from falling down. He cried easily, but soon enough he ran out of tears. "I... I don't need anyone to do my homework for me," he said stubbornly, shooting a watery glare at Addison. He didn't like her, didn't like her at all. He stood up and leaned into Asia's hand slightly when she patted his shoulder, wiping some damp hair out of his eyes. He needed to cut it eventually, seeing as it reached almost to his shoulders and got in the way of everything he did.

"S'not very safe when Addison's around..." he mumbled, his rude little git side peeking our from behind some corner of his mind. He hated being embarrassed, and Addison had just made him cry in front of one of the people he respected most at this school. That didn't put her in his good books; not that anyone cared what he thought of people. He was just a freshman, after all. He shuddered slightly at the thought of what else in this school might try and eat him. How many predators were in here, anyway? It certainly wasn't a very safe environment to put a bunch of teenagers in. Maybe the principle should hire security guards or something; it would make parents a lot more willing to send their kids here. Well, parents that knew about the whole shifter thing, at least. He knew that some families just thought it was a normal private school for scholarship kids, or something. That was what his parents thought... oh, hell would be unleashed if they knew that he had almost been eaten today... but of course, no one outside of the school would believe him if he said anything about it. He supposed that this was why they had so many counselors. But, really... the staff should consider hiring guards.

[ADDISON LEIGH OLEANDER]

The tall, treacherous female almost felt bad for the poor kid, he practically started bawling his eyes out, but quickly changed her mind, 'Life goes on, he'll have to learn to suck it up eventually.' Addison thought, justifying her actions in her head before turning to Asia's question, "Definitely necessary." The blonde replied with a pert nod, the smirk still plastered to her freckle clad face. She knew this would earn a 'stern talking to' from her dorm mate on a later day, but the junior wasn't exactly worried about it. In the end the two girl's would sort out their differences, and eventually Addison would be kind to the poor freshie, because she cared.. or pity... or something like that. Addy stared absently down the hall as Asia and Nicki discussed homework and the like, her thoughts floated with images of her comfy bed waiting for her just behind the door nearby, and how lovely it would feel to be cuddled by the big, fluffy, down-feather comforter calling her name.

"S'not very safe when Addison's around..." The cougar-like female caught the rabbit-like male mutter under his breath. The loud scoff he received in response should've been nothing less than what he expected from her. The other Junior and Freshman continued their talk of homework, Addy allowed herself to doze off, tuning out most the words they said for a few minutes. She was kind of surprised how tired she was feeling all of a sudden, which was no good at all. She was slowly reaching the point where reality, and dreams blended and it was hard to tell one from the other. "Oh, Addy's just a big, lazy cat, ignore her at all costs." The female thought she heard her friend say, 'Or did she say it? Maybe I'm dreaming...' She mentally weighed the options for a moment, cracking her eyes open just a tad to ensure the two were still in the hallway with her.

Another thirty seconds passed and Addison found herself caught up in a vivid dream.. The chase was on, the tawny cougar's heart was pounding beneath her pelt as the feline ran with every fiber of her being. Her long tail hardly waivered to aid in her agile balance over rock and under tree. Liquid amber orbs searched the woodsy, jungle like area, but had no idea what they were truly searching for. The massive mountain lion came barreling through the underbrush and into an open field, whence it reared back it's head and cried out into the empty sky. Ears perked up atop her skull, awaiting any sort of reply, a tell tale sign as to what she was even doing here, but to no avail. The feline's brow furrowed as her muscles tensed like springs which sprang to life only fractions of a second later and she was off again. Running, running, running, endlessly running. The cougar could see a break in the group ahead, and the sounds of running water came flooding into her thoughts. She tried to blink the thoughts of fear away before she leapt into the air in hopes to clear the river beneath her feet.

All of a sudden a horrific shot rang out in the valley, and everything went black as the cougar fell from the air and into the river below. Just as the dream cougar was about to hit the water Addison's body jolted to life, eyes wide awake and unbearably alert. "Ohmygod!" The female cried out in a hushed whisper, completely stunned by the dream/nightmare she'd just endured. "What the fuck was that..." She asked, although to nobody in particular but herself, the girl was too shocked by what she saw in her dream to even register what the pair in the hallway might have heard or what they now think.

[Asia Nicole Sedgewick]

The Junior laughed shortly at the muttered comment. "That's why I specified us, not her." She gave his shoulder a squeeze, hoping to relay some amount of comfort to the poor Freshman. She lightly kicked the bottom of Addy's foot when her roommate's only reaction was to scoff. Fearful people couldn't simply be told to not be afraid, they had to be reassured and work up to it eventually. The blonde's mock hostility... well, it wasn't helping. Looking into Nicki's still-red eyes, she said, "Oh, Addy's just a big, lazy cat. Ignore her at all costs." From the looks of it, the cougar shifter was playing the part perfectly at the moment. "See? She's practically narcoleptic." Asia sank to the ground, waving a hand in front of Addison's face. Nothing.

"Have a seat. No point in being ready to flee at a moment's notice." Although she was smiling, her words were firm. Sure, the hall floor wasn't exactly the most luxurious place to relax, but standing around made it look like they were in the middle of a drug deal. At least if they were all sitting down they would only look homeless. There shouldn't be any staff roaming the halls anyway. For a boarding school, the professors took a very hands-off approach. Everything was quiet at the moment, and the tension that had saturated the air was dissipating. The canine shifter was able to remain unaffected, but tension mixed with the metallic tang of fear did not a comfortable atmosphere make.

Suddenly Addison jolted upright, everything in her expression screaming alarm. Asia sat up immediately after, her eyes mirroring the alarm, with an added dose of confusion. Nothing had changed, nobody had appeared. Even her heightened senses had failed to pick anything up. "What the fuck was what?!" Her brows knotted together as the Junior changed to a kneeling position and rocked back onto her heels. In the space of a heartbeat the calm atmosphere had vanished. Honestly, it was like she did it on purpose. Asia's face didn't reflect any annoyance though, just concern. She was confident now that whatever it had been, it was located wholly inside Addison's head. Remembering her skittish friend, Asia turned her head to check on Nicki. "Just hold tight. False alarm."

[Nicki Burne Michigan]

Nicki sighed, wiping his eyes again. Just in case, right? He smiled at Asia's comment, knowing that she would protect him. Though it was kind of sad that she had to protect him from her friends. He knew that Addison didn't mean him any harm... well, he thought that she didn't, seeing as she hadn't shifted yet, but she was still annoying. His eyebrows furrowed slightly when she scoffed, but he didn't respond to it. After all, Nicki had already embarrassed himself enough today, right? The pika obviously didn't need any more trouble in his life right now, so he shut Addison out, glad that she was fading into an almost zombie-like state. Well, asleep, that was. She wasn't sleep-walking or anything, so that was good. He frowned slightly. "What does narcoleptic mean?" he asked, taking a seat next to Asia.

He sighed, zoning out a bit himself. He should be getting a letter from his family in a few days... so that was something to look forward to. He hadn't heard from his family since he started school here, and he missed them. His little brother and his older sister, his father and mother and father's various friends that were pretty much considered family by now, they came by so often. Being away from them, his mood swings had just gotten worse, and it wasn't helping to think of them, but whatever. He was allowed to think of what he wanted, even if the pika part of his mind was insisting that he didn't need them; that he was a solitary creature by nature and was just fine without family or friends. It was true that by his nature (not the pika's), Nicki was quite a solitary kid. He enjoyed being alone and away from other people, didn't make friends easily and was completely fine with that. It was who he was, and he would be like that even if part of him wasn't a rabbit-like animal. He just couldn't bear being away from his family for so long, and that was the one and only point that he and his almost alternate personality disagreed on. It was... odd. Truly odd that he regarded his shift not as a part of him, but as another being entirely. Sometimes he wondered if anyone else thought that way, but he didn't dare to ask. He supposed that it would change with time...

There was, however, something else he was curious about. "What's Addison's shift?" he asked quietly, watching the tall junior sleep. He knew what Asia's was; it had come up in some random conversation a while ago. It was just an inevitable topic when you were in a school full of shifters, and eventually friends figured out what each other's shifts were whether they asked or not. Nicki knew that Addison was a big cat, but he was pretty sure that he wouldn't find out which kind of cat if he didn't ask somebody. He didn't want to ask Addison herself, and he didn't really want to find out any other way, either. He shuddered at the thought of running across the junior when she was in her shift form. He knew she was big and deadly, and he didn't want to be anywhere near that in either of his forms. Or, like Addison said, she might rip him apart like his homework, even if it was by accident. There was a reason that students weren't allowed to shift in the hallways, after all... though he suspected that with the principle's obvious hatred of students, people in danger of being eaten wasn't the first concern when the rule was put down.

He flinched into Asia when Addison woke up. He didn't like the swearing, nor did he like the volume. His ears were sensitive, and though he himself could be as loud as hell when he wanted, he wasn't used to others yelling. He looked nervously around the hallway, wondering if a teacher had shocked her out of her sleep or something. But wouldn't he and Asia notice before the sleeping cat did? "Uhm... false alarm? Okay then..." he said, nodding slightly and watching Addison. He was about to ask if she was okay, but quickly reminded himself that he didn't like her, and she probably didn't like him either. Nicki could be sweet even if he disliked someone, but if it was mutual than he could be downright rude. For now, he was just going to ignore the big cat in hopes that she would return the favor.

[ADDISON LEIGH OLEANDER]

Addison had to focus on slowing her breathing, that dream, or nightmare, or whatever it was had her heart racing a million miles a minute. 'What the hell was that about!?' She asked herself, lost in her own thoughts, she'd never had any dreams like that before, especially only half asleep the way she was, or at least the way she thought she was. With wide eyes she turned to look to her room mate and the boy, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry guys, I don't know what happened," Her voice trailed off, she knew what happened. She'd had a nightmare, the first one she'd had in who knew how long. Maybe it was a sign, was something bad going to go down? [PLOTTAGE IDEAS for an epic bad thing to happen to the whole school later in the year?]

A short huff emitted from the blonde's lips, "That was the worst dream I think I can ever remember," She gave a small frown to the pair sitting across the hallway, she wasn't sure what the dream meant, but it made her pretty uneasy. Addison also knew the pair would probably have questions about what she dreamed, or at least she knew Asia would, so she went ahead and explained the dream she had with as much detail as she could remember. The retelling didn't take long, at the most maybe a few minutes, she had kind of hoped maybe Asia would be able to make heads or tails of the situation, otherwise maybe she needed to see the school counselor. Was she going completely insane?

"What do you think it means, Asia? It really seems to me like someone shot me out of the sky, but.. nobody would just randomly shoot some giant cougar.. right?" The female tried to reassure herself it was only a dream, but she did fear it was something more, an instinct telling her something wasn't right. Addison considered the time, knowing it was only getting later and later, "It's getting pretty late, maybe we need to get Nicki back over to his dorms before someone misses him.." The female's eyes seemed absent, as well as the tone of her voice. She was lost in the thought of this dream, and she felt extremely vacant.

[Asia Nicole Sedgewick]

"Narcolepsy is where you can't help falling asleep, all of the time." She said, laughing lightly at the thought. Her Driver's Ed teacher had had narcolepsy. No, t hadn't been funny then but she saw the humor in it now.

"Addy's a llama. A drama llama." Asia grinned, highly doubting that her joke was amusing to anyone but herself. Sobering up, she said, "No, I'm kidding. She's a cougar. Mountain lion. Puma. Whatever." She could see how this would be cause for concern for the considerably smaller pika, but there really was no way to reassure him further. She was confident that Addy wouldn't ever hurt the kid, but Nicki didn't know her roommate like she did.

A dream had set Addy off? It must have been a hell of a dream. She hadn't even thought that the other Junior was sleeping soundly enough to conjure up a dream. She laid a comforting hand on the other's shoulder as the details were explained. "Hey, relax. Dreams aren't supposed to make that much sense. And death in a dream isn't actually a bad thing, as unnerving as it seems." She could remember what had prompted it, but at some point Asia had been extremely interested in dreams and unraveling their meanings. Finally there seemed to be a payoff for all of that seemingly useless knowledge. "If you die in your own dream it just means you're going through a transitional phase, experiencing some changes in your life or personal development. Don't ask me how I know." She laughed once, imbuing the sound with as much positivity as she could. She didn't want Addy to feel like her anxiety was being dismissed; she was just trying to make her feel reassured. And everything she had said was true and as accurate as her memory allowed.

Asia stood up, holding her hand out to Addy to help her to her feet. She knew she didn't need it, but her concern for he friend hadn't evaporated. Asia knew the feeling; although she hadn't died in any of her dreams, for a while everyone she cared about was systematically dying off. Oh, that's right. That's what sparked the hunt for knowledge. That make sense.

"Addison, go to bed. Being tired is only going to make you feel worse." She pointed firmly in the direction of their shared room. She turned to face the Freshman now. The campus was more than likely deserted, but she would still be happy to walk Nicki to his dorm room. If some night-owl males were still awake an in the halls... well, they could just shove it. "You doing okay, Nicki? Ready to head back?" She glanced down at her attire; it shouldn't be a problem. Florida nights were mild enough that she wasn't going to get frostbite from wandering around in her pajamas. Her record was clean, too. Any excuse she came up with, if they were to encounter a teacher, would be credible enough. She wasn't going to let the pika shifter wander around alone at night, in any case.

[Nicki Burne Michigan]

Nicki nodded when Asia explain what narcoleptic mean. It made sense. Hadn’t Addison randomly fallen asleep just a few minutes ago? Of course, it was pretty late at night, so she couldn’t be blamed… but still, it had sounded like Asia was making a joke when she used the word. At least he had added something else to his too-small vocabulary today. For a freshman, his vocabulary really was quite small. Half of the time he had to look up words in the dictionary during a teacher’s speech, and that really dragged him down. Him and his grade, that was. He didn’t mind it that much, even though the constant searching for words gave him a huge headache.

He didn’t even tense up when Asia told him Addison’s shift, like he normally did when he learned that someone was a predator. Having just recently been in his shift form, there were things… lingering. Like a slightly enhanced sense of smell. And as Addison had been about to shift, that plus the smell kind of gave away the fact that she was a feline. So he had been expecting something big like a cougar; Addison didn’t seem like just any old house cat, but it still terrified him. Of course, everything terrified him, so it wasn’t like this was a new experience. He nodded slowly, focusing on the wall and taking slow breaths. Right, no panicking, no more crying. Nicki could do it, he knew he could. He just… had to prevent himself from freaking out and accidentally shifting. Because no matter how tired Addison was, he knew that having prey in the vicinity wouldn’t make anyone happy. Nicki really didn’t want to be eaten.

He swallowed and returned to reality a few moments later, listening to Asia comfort Addison about her bad dream. Nicki had never had any dreams in which he was dying, though he knew a song with some lyrics that involved that. It was a good song, and now it was stuck in his head. He hummed it quietly, standing up and making an effort to ignore Addison. He waited until their conversation was done, then nodded when Asia asked if he was ready to leave. Oh, boy, was he ready to leave. Addison terrified him, he was feeling extra skittish because he had shifted, he was tired as hell, and he still needed to do the homework that actually was due tomorrow. So he’d just being staying up later. Nicki rubbed his eyes, sighing before waving to Addison and walking towards the stairs. Maybe if he was lucky, his roommate would be out doing something instead of bothering him all night.

notes well, nicki’s gone xD

[ADDISON LEIGH OLEANDER]

Asia's thoughts on Addison's dreams floated through her head, she was probably right about everything. But, she really couldn't think of anything in her life that was changing drastically, things had been pretty much the same for the past couple of years. "Addison, go to bed." The female flinched slightly, she didn't exactly agree with being told what to do, but deep down she knew Asia was right. She was rather exhausted, and sleep would probably rid her mind of the dream she had.

She glanced over to Nicki, watching him curiously, the way Asia and he interacted was interesting to her, though neither of them probably saw it. It reminded her of a mommy bird taking another baby bird under her wing, instead of just killing it. But, in this case it was a wild dog and odd breed of rabbit. The male seemed to agree with heading back to his dorm, and Addison considered deeply if she should go with them, but she also knew Asia was pretty tough and they'd be perfectly fine without her tagging along.

"Guess I'll be going to bed then, night Nicki," The blonde waved in the boy's general direction, "I'll probably still be up when you get back Asia, I doubt you'll be too long, right?' She asked softly, letting a yawn escape her lips as she stretched her limbs above her head. The wrapped her fingers around the cool metal of the door knob, turning until she heard the familiar click that allowed access to their 'top secret' domain. She had almost forgotten her things in the hallway, laughing slightly at her absent-mindedness, she turned on her heel and collected her laptop, pillow and blanket. She perched the laptop on the desk, and tossed her blanket and pillow onto the bed in a heap, letting her own body slump onto the mattress shortly after. "Oh bed, you feel so goooooddd..." She said softly, a barely audible purr coming from deep in her chest, bringing her knees up and curling into a ball underneath her blankets she closed her eyes, wondering if she'd fall asleep right away or be awake when her room mate returned.