Xaviers!

Yes, classes still happened at Xaviers. Occasionally. Much to the chagrin of others.

Katarina had her nose buried in a book, trying to get ready for her physics test...probably. She seemed pretty zonked out, half asleep on her books.

((open))

"Do you know how many people are suffocated by physics books?" Drake quipped as he settled nearby.

"Nnneh? Wha?" Katarina said, her eyes blinking open.

She was greeted by a face out of princess-stealing storybooks.

"Your face was so far in that book I was beginning to wonder if you could breathe," he joked.

"Eep!" she said, seeing her dragon-faced classmate for the first time.

Those princess instincts are hard to quash.

He puts his hands up placatingly.

"Whoah! I come in peace," he said with an amused expression.

"Sorry, sorry! You just....startled me, is all."

"You wouldn't be the first to be startled by my totally awesome visage," he grinned.

"No, no, it's...I'm sorry.

Were you waiting to use this table?"

"Seems there's plenty enough room for the two of us. That is if you don't mind the company," he answered with only a little flirtatiousness. It was hard to turn off.

"Yes, yes, of course.

What, erm...what brings you here? Tough classes?"

"I thought I'd waste time between classes finding new ways not to finish my creative writing assignment," he answered as he set up his laptop.

"You're in creative writing? What are you writing about?"

"My usual thing, to the surprise of absolutely no one, is fantasy and adventure," he answered with good humor. "But I have to write a mystery with no magic or superpowers or anything I'm used to. For the experience."

"Ooo, a mystery. Do you need any help?"

"I wouldn't say no to some cooperative brainstorming. I had a plan for who did the deed, but I'm not sure the clues add up."

"Well, lay it out, and we'll see if it makes sense. It will make more sense than this textbook, at any rate."

He laid out a whodunit involving the murder of a tycoon in the classic retro theme of many a costume party, but with an espionage twist. The clues were clever for his lack of experience, but In the end, they weren't quite fully coherent.