Emily laid out a large quilt on the grass under the shade of a large tree near the dorms. She smoothed out the corner upwind and set a large picnic basket onto it to keep the wind from making the quilt all wrinkled. The bright afternoon sun tossed flecks of sunlight through the boughs of the tree, catching the swaying hem of her pale green sun dress and the wide rim of her straw hat. Her chest rose and fell as she took a deep breath, smelling all of the wonderful scents of nature.

With a smile and a quick spin, Emily sat in the center of her quilt. She adjusted the ripples of her dress around her and leaned back on her arms, looking at the puffy clouds against the beautiful blue sky.

"Ahh, what a wonderful day..."

It was certainly a wonderful day if you were anyone other than Raven who was in fact STILL trying to find her dorm room & one of her favorite bras which she had magically transported away earlier in the week. She was still carrying her five or six bags around with her having obtained a few locks and keys for them to keep them untouched while she wasn't holding them along with a couple of bottles of nail polish or hair clips in her pockets... items her kleptomania had obtained for her which she planned to return the moment she could figure out who she took them from.

She had decided to take a break from looking around the dorms and take a seat by a tree she had seen every day she came into the building. Today though it seemed to have had the same idea. Raven looked at Emily with a sigh adjusting her own clothes; her usual jacket & white shirt a black & white plaid skirt today her usual black belt with it's usual skull buckle and striped stockings & buckle boots, a bit punk rock actually.

"You don't mind if I sit with you here do ya?"

Emily looked up at and smiled into the lovely pair of lavender eyes that had managed to seek her out. She didn't recognize this girl, but always liked to see a new face, especially when it was as cute as this one.

"Of course not!" she said, patting the quilt next to her, "I'm Emily. It's so beautiful out today, isn't it?"

"Hmm, yeah kinda is."

She said simply as she put down a few of her bags off of the quilt and took the seat offered to her

"Lot of people call me Jack... Though my name's Raven full name's Raven Danger Poe."

She'd begin to pull a few of the mis matched hair and beauty items from her pockets to show to Emily deciding to see if perhaps she'd accidentally stolen something from one of the dorms that had been unlocked.

"None of these are yours are they?"

Her small book was in the pile that was the only one of the items she actually owned.

"Umm, no they're not... Why do you ask?"

She cocked her head to the side as she looked up from the pile of items. It seemed to her that this girl couldn't choose one brand to stick to.

"Diagnosed klepto, don't notice I've taken them until awhile after... never anything big a hair clip here bottle of nail polish there mostly beauty items I try to return them after I notice. I have to carry around my psychiatrist's diagnosis so I don't get arrested for shop lifting every time I go into a pharmacy or department store."

She scratched her scalp and brushed her hair with her unpainted nails before returning the items to her pocket with a shrug.

"Not embarassed by it or anything thousands of people have it and don't even know it sorry about that a bit of a blabber mouth some times."

she only thing she kept out was that little book with the blue cover she'd open it to the last page for just a second, on that page looked to be a sketch of a demon or creature of some sort.

"Eight hundred sixty two... only were seven hundred twelve last week..."

she mumbled to herself before putting it away.

"Oh, I see..." she said softly, secretly glad that she didn't bring much with her and that she always kept her door locked.

"What was that last part? The, um, eight hundred-something?"

"Oh that, I have this strange little book... hard to believe but, it grows longer every couple of weeks or so or sometimes pages just vanish."

She again pulled the book out and offered it to Emily to look at as she wished. the book itself would be in a language not normally found on earth, well at least no longer found on earth.

"Can't be destroyed either or gotten rid of. keeps coming back to me no matter how hard I try. I've burnt it to ashes and found it in my pocket an hour later without even a scorch mark; dropped it in a river and it was on my nightstand when I woke up the next day gave it as a gift to my best friend the day she left cross country and I tripped over it entering my house."

She shrugged slightly looking up to the sky.

"Hmmm, looks like a finch."

she said pointing to a cloud.

She took the book and flipped through it. All of the scribblings that she didn't understand almost gave her a headache, so she shut it and set it next to Raven. It was too confusing for her.

However, the comment about the cloud did catch her attention. She looked up at it and giggled. "Hey, it really does!"

"Love clouds so good at taking my mind off of... well everything."

She said simply smiling and laying back to rest her head on one of her softer bags to enjoy the sky.

"Surprisingly quiet out for a day like this isn't it?"

She asked of course being new she didn't know if people liked the out doors; though she did already unfortunately know about the school's monsters much to her disappointment. Beyond that and the lack of a place to sleep she was having a pretty good time at the school practicing her magic and chatting with school mates.

"Yeah, and it's so much better then being cooped up in a stuffy dorm. Hey, do you want an apple?"

Emily scooted over to where her basket sat, smiling back at her guest while she awaited an answer.

"That would be pretty great actually, would probably cut some of the coffee in my system."

She said simply bending her knees a bit resting on leg on the other out of comfort making sure her skirt kept doing as she had meant it to, covered.

"Doesn't matter what sort. So Emily tell me a bit about yourself if you don't mind, better than uncomfortable silence isn't it?"

"Hehe, I guess so..." She opened the basket revealing its contents: Apples. Lots and lots of apples.

"Well there's not a whole lot to tell. I'm just a simple girl! Um, I like to sew and I like games. I'm a pretty good cook too... The last few months I've been cooped up in my room or in class, so I haven't had a chance to socialize or go outside even, which is a real shame because I love nature..."

She hands Raven an apple and takes one for herself, biting into it with a distinctive crunch.

"So many people short change themselves, that's more than interesting enough."

After picking up the apple she'd look it over a bit looking though her other pockets for something before finally pulling out that key to her dorm with just the key ring she'd cut a slice of the apple off and take a bite from that. just a random skill she'd seen and copied from memory nothing special.

"Yeah most of nature's pretty cool actually... especially seeing an albino peacock in person.. . that had to be a highlight of my high school senior graduation trip... so long ago now."

She graduated roughly ten years ago it may have seemed odd to most other people

"Really? Wow, that's so cool!" Her face lit up like a child at Christmas. It was more than obvious that she wasn't lying about liking nature. She couldn't believe how cool this strange girl was.