It had been a chilly Tuesday morning when Diana had jogged into the classroom. She'd almost been late, but had managed to slip in just as the teacher was preparing to begin her lecture for the day. The teacher had mousy hair that came down to her shoulders, brown with blond high lights, and had an experienced look about her. She was rather short, but her body was well proportioned to the rest of her. She began her lecture by introducing us to an artist by the name of Dali. The man was considered mentally unstable, he had many phobias, and he used his mental instability to produce radical artwork. One of his more memorable pieces was the "Persistence of Memory", which she put up a picture of via a projector. "As you can see," she began, her voice clear and thoughtful as she slipped into her element. "This painting by Dali is unique in its composition. You can see the melted faces of all of these clocks, even the distorted face of a human, laying on the ground. These would have been considered symbolic of Dali's fear of time slipping between his hands. You can even see his phobias present here, such as the ants that are covering the watch in the bottom left corner. He had an extreme phobia of many kinds of insects." She laughed to herself. "And really, who can blame him?" A few chuckles and giggles were replies from the class. "Dali was one of the artists that was part of the Surrealist movement. This is one of the topics that you can pick for your projects."

Confused chattering began in the classroom, as no one had any foreknowledge of the project. One particularly daring girl raised her hand and said, "Miss, you never assigned us a project." The teacher covered her face, blushed visibly anyway, clearly embarrassed and laughed softly.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry! I meant to assign it before we started getting into the art movements and forgot. I was wondering why I had so many left over copies in my bag of the assignment." She ran to her desk, then proceeded to quickly and frantically hand out the assignment. It was only one page, but that one page would require at least a 4 page report, a presentation with visual aid and thorough research done on one of the art movements of the 18th century. Everyone was to be assigned into groups of 4, they had a week to complete it, as the teacher couldn't push the dead line any farther back due to time constraints for the course actually ending.

Diana looked around the class and immediately saw everyone jumping together into groups, going with people that they thought looked like promising partners, and began to chatter excitedly about which movement to pick or complain that the assignment was unfair. Diana simply remained in her desk, silently watching everyone mill about, waiting to see who was left without a group to approach her. She preferred the quiet people. They normally got their work done quickly, efficiently and there was very little socializing done in between. In her current state of mind, that suited Diana just fine. She'd grown tired of failed romance, which is where every single relationship she made seem to lead.

"You are not getting up, do you already have a group?" The voice came from behind Diana. Nell was sitting at the desk directly behind the fair haired woman. She hadn't moved from her seat either but for not quite the same reason. She had not yet mastered the skill of socializing with girls her own age and thus she had not made many friends in her classes. Still, she was determined to keep on trying. She smiled brightly at the girl in front of her hoping her instincts were right. "Or are you like me and don't know many people in this class yet. It you don't have anyone to partner up with would you like to start a group with me?"

Diana had to admit, she was a little shocked at the voice that came from behind her. She twisted in her chair and smiled at the woman sitting behind her. "Oh, hello. No, I don't have a group either. I'm guessing you being new is why we haven't met yet. But between you and me, I'm new too. Not to the school, but to this particular course. I felt like experimenting." Diana winked playfully. Something happened when she heard the other woman's tone. The look in her eyes. Diana didn't get the feeling of being sized up, examined. She was simply another human being with whom contact could be made. She could finally relax. "So, which style would you like to work on? I'm thinking of the one we just covered, surrealism. It's kind of fitting, considering the atmosphere of our beloved school." Diana smiled sarcastically at the term 'beloved.'

"Yeah..." Nell sighs heavily. "I'd have to agree that being at this school has been a surreal experience." She said the word 'surreal' as though she meant a different word entirely. Her life at Shokushu thus far had been a good deal more than just surreal, it had been horrific. She'd been bond and raped by a demon in this very classroom. That was another reason she didn't know many of her classmates here. She had avoided coming to the for a couple of weeks after that incident, her excuse being that she was ill. She shook her head and smiled a little more somberly at her classmate now. "The Surrealist Movement is alright with me. I admit I am not terribly familiar with the artists in this movement but I enjoying learning about new things so it sounds like it'll be a good experience. I'm Nell, by the way, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself before."

Diana smiled sympathetically at the girl. From the way she sighs, Diana can determine that she's also suffered at the hands of the monstrous inhabitants of this island. Diana's life had taken a turn for the drastic as she had become a more experienced and aware part of this school. It was like a prison, but worse. A nightmare taken straight from Orwell's 1984. Where you thought you were free, but in fact had less freedom then even prison inmates do. "Don't worry, I don't know much about it either." She shrugs her shoulders. "It'll be a learning experience for us both. I mean, that's what school is for, right?" Diana smiles halfheartedly. What a world to find oneself in, she thinks to herself. "Oh, I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself either. I'm Diana." She's about to open her mouth to say something when the teacher's voice pokes up over the myriad of conversations.

"Students! Students, your attention, please!" Diana turns around and watches her teacher. "I can see that everyone has found a group." She looks around, seeing the clumps of people, except Diana and Nell, who sit by themselves, separated from the others. "I'm guessing you two can't find groups? Diana, how about you go with..." She looks around the class, finding a suitable group.

Diana pipes up. "No, Miss, it's fine! Nell and I will work together just fine." The teacher looks at the two girls curiously. When she'd drawn up the original project, she'd had 6 more students in the class, so doing groups of 4 was fine. but due to the drop outs, she was now left in an awkward position about it all. So she accepted the proposal. She knew that their work would probably end up being better then the work everyone else would produce. There was better synergy between two people then four. But she'd worry about the marking when the time came.

"Alright, get together in your groups and make plans. You have until the end of class, that's 10 minutes. I'll finish the lecture on surrealism next time." The teacher sank into her chair behind her desk and sighed to herself, going about what she felt was the unpleasant business of marking. She always felt so judgmental while doing it.

Diana turned around, relieved not to have to be put in one of those awkward groups where she knew she didn't belong and wasn't welcome. "So, when do you want to get together to work on the research? We could do some of the broader stuff together, to get an idea of what we've got on our plate, then decide who researches what afterwords." Diana was in her element. Reports, research, text book work, this was her specialty, something she'd become rather good in during her anti-social High-school years.