Quietly and calmly, Edwin got up to face the man, his smile becoming a bit more honest when he heard Crayola's mockery of the old man. But still very, very arrogant.

"I gladly follow you, Mr. Headmaster. I'd work on that personality if I were you though, for you see, losing one's patience is ever so... unsophisticated." His advice was a pearl given to a pig, he thought. Pigs can't make pearl necklaces.

Degenerate - for some, it may be a compliment. Aren't all artists nowadays degenerate?

"But I beg you to hurry. That book was being most interesting... I understand if you cannot grasp the beauty of the arts, but those such as me do."

"My name is not to be known by those who so rudely speak to me."

He glanced at the chair, then looked at Li, with a smug smile on his perfect and effeminate face.

"Besides, while I am thankful for your offer, I would rather stand. I am afraid that I can fall asleep if I sit. For you see, my good sir, yelling is of no use. It is not the volume that keeps my attention. It's the content. And the content of your words fails to amuse me."

<Herpderp. Turned out longer than I'd planned. For you folk who don't like reading long places, I'll mark where you can skip ahead to, lol.>

If there was one thing Lucy O�Malley was garbage at, it was waking up before 12. That made school a bit more of a challenge than she�d like it to be, but eventually things worked themselves out � she was a pro at falling asleep in class. She finally rolled out of her bed onto a large pile of dirty laundry about a half hour before classes started; she showered the day before, and wasn�t about to bother doing it again this morning, so she figured she�d sleep in for an extra ten minutes.

The tall gal was just drifting back to sleep in her laundry when a small, strong hand grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and hauled up until she was forced to stand. Blinking and groggy, Lucy blinked at the Destroyer-of-Sleep to find her housemaid, Beatrix, standing hands-on-hips and very stern-faced.

�You will be late, young Madam,� she chastised, her brown eyes livid, �You are not to be late. Edmund has brought your...heap to the front. There is toast wrapped up there. Hurry.�

�Well, Bea!� Lucy exclaimed, putting her arm around the sour little woman�s shoulders and grinning like a mad food, �You�ll be proud to know I�m already dressed!  Put on m�clothes last night so I wouldn�t have to bother this morning. I�m a certified genius, huh? Oh, and it ain�t a heap � it�s called a classic model of a moped, priceless!�

�Your trousers are wrinkled,� the woman replied, picking the girl�s arm from her shoulders and storming from the room, �You did not inherit your father�s meticulousness.�

�Love you too, Bea! I�ll be thinkin� of ya in class!�

Smile still on her generous lips, Luce looked over into the small mirror mounted on the red, poster-covered wall of her room to get a look at her hair. Blue, partly shaved, and messy. Close enough to perfect. Picking a wooly from her white blouse, the girl grabbed her canvas shoulder-bag from beneath a pile of papers and dashed out of her room, running down the massive staircase into the main hall of her house, and bursting out the front doors. Bea�s promise was right on the money � her moped was parked right by the doors,  toast wrapped in cloth on the seat, and her helmet hanging from the handle � where it would stay.

Grabbing her toast by the teeth, she hopped onto the moped and motored off to school. The brat was lucky she lived so close to the prep campus, or she would�ve been very late.

***She made it to her first class � wicked, foul math � just in time, taking a seat in the back so she could get some shut-eye. It seemed like someone, somewhere loved her, however, for the moment attendance was taken, her teacher ordered her to take an envelope � some kind of personal papers that Luce guessed to be about maternity leave, judging by the woman�s belly � to the Headmaster.

�Gladly, missus! Yer a lifesaver!� the overly-friend Lucy nearly yelled, picking up the smaller woman in her arms and swinging her around once, �Can�t bloody stand numbers.�

Before the teacher could wipe the bewildered look off her face, Luce snatched the envelope and laced her hands together, bracing them behind her head as she took long, sweeping strides out of the room. When she reached the Headmaster�s office, however, the last few words from a very snotty girl exploded from the door. Lucy ignored the secretary waving and telling her not to go in, but the nosy gal couldn�t help herself.

She walked into the office, big ol� goof grin on her face, and leaned her tall, lanky torso between the two girls so she could drop the crumpled envelope on the Headmaster�s desk. Then she squat down, all her weight on her toes as her rump came down close to her heels. She reached two long arms up to either side of herself, and ruffled the hair of both students, smiling widely at each in turn.

�Calm down, brats,� she said in a friendly tenor, no trace of an insult in her words, �It�s a headmaster�s job to chastise us kids, and �e�s not about to be friendly if y�act like pompous little asses. Just relax and you might just get the treatment ya want, hm?�

An obnoxious laughter burst from her lips then, and she reached her arms out and, in a friendly manner, grabbed both of them in the crooks of her arms.

�Name�s Lucy O�Malley. Looking forward to bein� in school with you two pretty ladies. Ah, and you too Li!�

[OOC: Insulting Kelly's belief in a free nation. Nice.]

Crayola listened for a minute.  Maybe even two.  Oh, but then he had the audacity to insult her patriotism!  "Oh, ho ho.  Says the moron who surrounds himself with kids when he hates them!" she chirped.  Little Miss Crayon had long since convinced herself that all teachers hated children and all Headmasters hated them more.

This had happened before, at her last school.  The Headmaster had told her some nonsense about how she had no rights.  Lie was doing the same thing.  Lie dared insult her beliefs in her country.  That would NOT go unanswered.  Not that time.  No, no, she had rehearsed her response to this outrageous nonsense.  She giggled.  "Oh, I'm not worried about that, Lie,"  she whispered once she got close to his desk.  Her stomach almost tipped over a small item of some sort, maybe a sign.
"I like punishment.  Can't get enough.  You dare talk about disobedience that way when it is, in fact, what made our country great.  If you had paid attention to your social studies as a child- which I assume you didn't- you would know a little something about Civil Disobedience.  I'm not being denied freedom because I do bad things.  I do bad things because I'm being denied freedom.  You, my new friend, are going to have to understand this, or we'll meet again.. You don't want your perfect school's record tarnished even more, do you?  Honestly.  It doesn't matter if I get bad grades.  Bring down your precious test scores.  I knew enough to take the GED before I came to this prison.  I'll be fine.  You, however...  I'll bring you down, or my name isn't a color."

With another girlish giggle, she opened the door to the hallway.  She turned around, winked at Lie, then waved goodbye.  Say hello to your new nemesis, Kelly, she thought.  She seemed to walk toward the detention center, but she wasn't really sure where she was going.  She just wandered the halls in the few vague directions she remembered from back in July.