Checking In (backdated to....whenever.)

[wildkate]

A young girl cautiously crept up the hallways of the dormitory building, almost as if expecting something to jump out at her at any minute. Her blue eyes darted about, taking in every detail as she slowly advanced. Few students were in the hallway, but those who saw her stared at her curiously and whispered amongst themselves. Katelyn wondered what

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[girl_in_a_tree]

Oblivious to any murmurings just outside her doorway, or even what was going on in her own room, Kalinka was actually just above the window, sitting on the branch of a tree. Much like everything of hers, it was her tree, and no one else used it, not that any of the other students would have had much to do with a tree. One tan covered leg outstretched, the other bent upwards at the knee, she'd propped one of her hands there, reading a book full of less than realistic accounts of what the average person would call fantasy. Her hands ventured out of too-long sleeves, further hid by a pair of fingerless gloves. They, like her shirt, sneakers, and even her hair, were colored a deep, forest green.

As she realized her head was drooping behind the high collar of her shirt, more than her eyes were helping to take in words, she eventually woke herself back up fully from being soothed asleep by the classical piano melodies from her headphones. Besides being tired, she was also getting fairly cold in the air becoming night. Placing a bookmark of a picture into the correct page of the novel, she snapped it closed over the image of her mother, along with the few stray thoughts of her that followed into the resilient grass below. Landing as if it were practiced, she sent a single finger to readjust her dark glasses. Anyone who ever caught her in the process might have found it odd that she chose to enter her own room through the window, but it seemed normal enough for her.

The room was very shadowed by now, normally being left to the normal cycle of day and night, unless there was some very good reason to bother with the artificial lights. It had been sometimes joked that she could see in the dark, though it wasn't entirely true, as she'd simply gotten her eyes used to it. Setting the book next to her dormant computer, she woke it to check over a few things, though nothing seemed to interest her enough to keep her awake with it. Glancing over the assumed to be empty room, without seeing any excuse for staying out of bed, she began removing her shoes with her feet and placed her folded glasses on the window's edge. The sketchy blur of a sack by the bed caught her eye, though she was too tired to investigate it before crawling in mostly clothed, assuming it to be something that simply looked different at night without her glasses on.

Under the covers, at first, she could only determine that they were quite warmer than usual. Groping the, well, rather oddly shaped and squishy object before her, she became rather puzzled. Opening her eyes, then squinting, she was surprised to at last recgonize a female face, though it was not a face she rightly recognized. Leaning her head back, her eyebrows met, one a bit shakily. Dreaming, perhaps..? No, though, the door was locked, so..!

[wildkate]

With so much going on all at once, Katelyn's brief nap had gradually turned itself into a deep slumber. Though she had spent half a semester at another school prior to this, she was still not fully used to sleeping in warm, soft beds after years of resting in trees or in caves. Leaving the human world of new buildings and strange people and papers and schedules behind, Katelyn pulled the covers over her shoulders and happily dreamed of running wild and free in the forest, not a care in the world.

So tired was she from her move to this new place that her normally acute senses did not notice the other girl quietly slipping in the room, much less into the same bed. Being awoken reluctantly from her dreams by a strange touch, her eyes shot open in realization that something was so close without her being prepared. Scampering backwards to the foot of the bed, taking most of the covers with her, she ended up on all fours, hissing like a cat as her mind reawakened and took in all of the available information.

Her eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, seeing well enough to determine it was a girl in the bed, and she did not seem to pose a threat. If anything, she seemed equally as surprised to have found an unsuspecting bedmate. Crouching down a little more, eyes peering out from underneath the blankets, she quietly stated "You are Miss Roommate" though never taking her eyes off of the stranger in case she was wrong.

[girl_in_a_tree]

Arms lifted off and away from the intruder, Kalinka did nothing in the way of keeping her from escaping. Leaving her hands up, as if to prove she wasn't going to harm her, Kalinka began to feel even more uneasy as she was reminded of a similar situation a long time ago. Though she wanted to scramble for her glasses, she waited until she felt the over defensive blur had calmed down a bit first. Blindly dragging spectacles from the window, snapping them open, and slipping them onto her face again, she got a somewhat better look at the shadow on her bed. Well, I guess, the window..?

Crossing her legs, Kalinka reached a very flat hand slowly out, down low across the bed, as she would if she were warming up to someone's cautious pet dog. If any so called normal person had snuck into her room, or even knocked and been unwanted, much less used her bed, she would have been angry, but there was something different with this one. Katelyn seemed to have the air of an animal, whose company Kalinka generally preferred over most humans. "I'm named Kalinka," she paused, watching curiously. "Kalinka Lenore Wellington, actually. After my mother." The rest of her very still, she shook her green head, "But I don't have a roommate. I've been alone in this room since last year. No one else comes in here."

[wildkate]

As she considered their meaning, she repeated Kalinka's words. "You don't have a roommate. You are alone," the soft-spoken voice coming from underneath the blanket, eyes peering out from the shadows. "I am sorry then...I-I thought this was to be my room." She leaned backwards on the balls of her feet, her body pulling completely underneath the covers as she stretched out in a very feline manner. Slowly the tangled mass began to lower, and then with a rustle fell to the bed empty and lifeless.

On the other side of the mountain of covers, a grey kitten scampered out from underneath and leapt from the top bunk, landing softly and silently on the tile floor below. She hopped back onto the bottom bunk, leaning over the edge slightly as she pulled her acceptance letters from the plain sack with her small paws. She sat down atop a stack of books as she unfolded the paper. Besides allowing her to escape from the tangled sheets and easily make her way down to the floor below, her new form allowed Katelyn to see almost perfectly in the dim light, easily reading the words on the page.

She stared at the letter in minor confusion for a moment, as she tried to figure out which room she was supposed to go to from here. Scanning the letter, she recognized a familiar name listed as her roommate. "Is there another Klin-kah that is here?" She asked curiously as she twisted her furry head to stare at the bottom of the bed above her. "The letter from Head Mistress says to go to her room, one oh four?"