Welcome

[Helen Alba]

By some miracle, dinner had gone pretty smoothly in the days after the opening ceremony. Helen sat at the end of the Vitus' table, happily munching on a roll as she watched the first few students leave to get an early start on homework or sleep or choice seating in the common areas of the dorms. She waved goodbye to the boy who'd been sitting beside her as he left and she finished off a glass of Root Beer.

It didn't take long for Helen to get bored. She picked a little at what remained of a rotisserie chicken, yawned, stretched, sat up on her knees and looked around for Clio and/or Lee. When she spotted neither, she skewed up he mouth and sat back down, not really feeling like climbing up to the third floor dormitories just yet. She sighed, rested her forehead against the edge of the table, and studied her feet with forced interest.

[Finn Baker]

Finn wasn't sure why he was in the dining hall. Eating was useless to him, and it wasn't like he enjoyed watching people eat, either. 'I'm here for girls,' a part of him supplied. 'I'm babe-watching.' The zombie nodded, accepting that answer, and scanned his eyes across the large room, his Babe-dar beeping away inside his mind. As his eyes passed by the staff table, the beeping seemed to stop. Finn frowned. That had never happened before. Peering at the table, he saw his Hulk of a gym teacher, Coach Helga, sitting there. 'Okay, understandable,' he agreed, trying to burn her image from his mind.

Shaking that moment off, he continued his sweep. As his eyes landed on someone with long, blonde dreadlocks, the beeping reached an alarming rate. 'Bingo,' He grinned and began his trek across the room to the girl. Her head was down, and her body language said she was either bored or sad, or both. 'I can fix that,' he decided, walking up behind her quietly. He didn't need to be quiet, since there was no way she'd hear him in the crowded hall, but he liked the practice anyway. He was so sick of his loud, shambling steps.

Finn swept her dreads to one side and caressed her now-revealed neck lightly before sitting down on the side he'd put her hair to, partially hiding himself from her view. He hoped she would look to the side that he'd touched when she looked up. Despite how childish of a game this was, Finn enjoyed it; the smile on his face proving his happiness.

[Helen Alba]

Helen was just considering what color polish would look nice on her feet when someone touched the side of her neck. She jumped and looked up in that direction wide-eyed, then let her mouth draw into a lopsided grin. Honestly, she wasn't all that creeped out; she was a very touchy person, and she knew exactly who it was anyway.
Or so she thought.

As such, though, she knew the joke, the dude was behind her, haha. "Nice, Lee, real cute, funny guy," she said loud enough for the presence behind her to hear. Her dear little redhead friend loved to tease her, so this was really sort of typical. She closed her eyes and lounged back onto the other person, quite comfy, for a little while.

Then, she noticed that this did not quite feel like a 'Lee.' She opened her eyes into a confused expression, and reached a hand back behind her to feel the face. Her lips pursed as she realized...
"Er...this isn't 'Lee,' is it?"

[Finn Baker]

The zombie smiled in surprise as the girl leaned into him. She smelled pleasantly like a forest, and Finn didn't mind her laying on him in the slightest. This had turned out better than he had expected, even if she did think he was the dumb boy from his history class. His eyes widened slightly when her hand went to his face, laughing slightly.

"Not...as far...as I know," he replied, still chuckling, as he brought his own hand to the girl's face, giving it the same treatment. "You aren't...anyone...I...know, are...you?" Finn asked, "I'm sure...I'd...recognize...this...pretty face,"

[Helen Alba]

In spite of the fact that she was laying on what she assumed was a complete stranger, and he was touching her face, Helen burst into a fit of giggles. Soon, though, she seemed to at least acknowledge that she should feel uncomfortable. Helen abruptly sat up and spun around to look at the boy.

She sat sideways on the bench as though it were a pony, and rested one elbow on the table and one cheek on the knuckles of that hand. As she scanned over the boy, a light smile never left her face. He was...tall, undead-ish...and pretty goddamned good-looking. Oh! And also very familiar. Finally, her eyes lit up with recognition. "OH! Erm...history class! Right?" She sighed and bit her lip. "Who are you again?"

[Finn Baker]

A smirk rose on his lips at the question, the answer already on the tip of his tongue. "Anyone...you want...me to be," he told her, flicking his hair from his eyes and grinning. He knew it was the oldest one in the book, but surprisingly few people asked him 'Who are you?' anymore, so he didn't get to use it much.

He silently thanked his Babe-dar for bringing him to this girl, for she truly fit the category. The dreadlocked girl was pretty in an unconventional way, and wasn't caked with make-up until you couldn't see her face, like most of the girls Finn was with before he died. Just thinking about them made him shudder. Why he dated girls like that would forever be a mystery to him, apart from them being easy lays. He remembered that being a major factor.

"Who are...you?" he countered, smirking as he mirrored her leaning position on the table.

[Helen Alba]

Helen laughed openly at the response. Lame, yet always entertaining. One would think that after being courted by someone who spoke fluent pickupese, she would have built up a tolerance. She had not.

At his question, she offered a lopsided sort of grin. "Well...sorry to say I'm not going to tagback with that godawful line, soooo you'll just have to take my name, kay? Oh, and, ah, it's 'Helen,' by the way."

Helen was just briefly distracted when a few more members of her house sitting nearby got up and left. She waved them goodbye, then looked perkily back at her company. "Alright then, let's be fair now." She double-tapped the boy's knee quickly with her free hand, which promptly retreated back to her side. "C'mon, name," she demanded in the most non-demanding of ways.

[Finn Baker]

Finn rolled his eyes, but found himself smiling. "Alright...Helen" he told her, "I'll tell...you...my name...on one...condition," 'That you'll be screaming it later,' his mind supplied, making him suppress a snort. He hadn't even been thinking that, in truth. "You...tell me...where you...learned to smile...like...an angel," He knew it was lame, but it was the best he could do without totally creeping the girl out. And besides; some girls went for the cheese. He didn't know yet how Helen would react, since the only thing he knew about her was that she was friends with the dog-like boy from History, although that in itself spoke volumes.

[Helen Alba]

Helen's trademark smile was quite knocked off her face as she was completely taken aback. It returned quick enough, mostly because she felt naked and exposed without it, but it was a little nervous. Helen instantly grew squirmy out of what must have been delight. "OH! Well...erm, ah-ha-ha," she mumbled and played with a dread. She then muttered something very quietly to herself, just audible, which may very well have been, 'Oh wow [i]Lee]/i] sure didn't use that one...'.

Flustered, Helen looked around for something to change the subject. She spotted a juice box, and reached a little ways past Finn for it. When she fell short of it by about a foot, she scowled. "Er...would you please hand me that?" The pointed to the last little Juicy Fruit carton, and looked expectantly at Finn through wide baby blue eyes.

[Finn Baker]

The zombie boy smirked at how flustered Helen got, feeling good about himself. Since that disastrous day in the library, he'd been a little insecure about himself, and it was good to have a girl react this way with him once more. Finn noticed how she avoided answering his flirty question, but didn't comment on it, and instead just continued to smile at her fidgeting.

He turned his head to look for what the blonde was pointing at, and saw the offending juice box. Letting out a surprised laugh, Finn reached out a pale arm for it and looked at the writing on it. "Been a...while...since I...could...drink one...of these," he reminisced, smiling sadly as he recalled. "I...wonder if...they've...changed...the flavour...in the last...few years," As he held the small box of juice out to Helen, he made sure to brush her fingers when she took it.

"I...suppose I...have nothing to...lose if...I tell...you my name," the boy began, sighing theatrically, "Allow me...to introduce...myself. Finn Baker...at...your service,"

[Helen Alba]

Helen looked legitimately sad when Finn mentioned the losses associated with death. At the very least, she now wore a pitying expression. "Nah, they still taste nice and sweetly artificial," she offered with a shrug. "Ah! Gracias.!" The pitying expression ran off the moment it spotted the juice box. It is a well-known truth that sad emotions are no match for strawberry-kiwi.

She happily stabbed the little foil spot with the sharp end of the attached straw. The latter was promptly abandoned as Helen drank straight from the carton. After some stretching, she shifted her legs to 'pretzel-style' on the bench.

She was half-done with the juice by the time the zombie told her his name. "A pleasure to meet you, sir." By god, it was as though Lee had grown half a foot and a brain, then died. Of course, with that mindset, the boy immediately became a creature whose hair was to be ruffled, or Nerf darts shot at. Helen zoned out a little and giggled at her own thoughts.

[Finn Baker]

Finn frowned at her laughter. "What?" he asked, "Is there...something...on my...face?" He brought a big hand up to pat at his hair and face, acting upset. He doubted there was anything wrong with it, other than his hair being a bit rustled, but it was one way to know what Helen had been laughing at. He watched as the girl chugged back the juice, eyeing it with just a smidgen of envy. If there was one thing he missed about living, it was food.

[Helen Alba]

Helen simply continued with her quiet giggling at Finn's antics. "Haha oh, no, you're fine. You just remind me of my ex a bit, that's all." She presented this factoid in the most chipper of ways, with her cheery little grin glued to her face. She promptly finished off the juicebox, crumpling it reflexively once it was empty, and setting it aside by what had been her dinnerplate.

[Finn Baker]

The zombie boy raised an eyebrow, a small smirk gracing his lips. Who spoke about an ex like that, all smiles and sunshine? 'You sure know how to pick 'em, Finn,' he told himself, shaking his head slightly.

"Do...I?" he asked nonchalantly, leaning on his hand once more. His trademark, sleazy smirk was on again as he watched the dreadlocked girl put the empty box next to her plate, after crumpling it up into a ball. He remembered when he and his friends would play 'Garbage Can Basketball' when they were younger with the same types of things as balls for it.

"Is he...that...Lee guy...you thought...I was?" he asked, curious if Helen had dated the idiot.

[Helen Alba]

Helen nodded vigorously. "Haha yeah. We're still pretty close, it's nice. Erm...do you know Lee? You should, if not by name then, um...oh! He's in Mr. Dowding's history with us! Yeah...."

For a nymph, Helen's skills with the opposite gender were severely lacking. Of course, her tendencies to reminisce aloud about her glory days with a certain ginger did nothing to help this.

But, she did remain cheery through the whole thing, and was now smiling expectantly at Finn, awaiting his verdict on the matter.