Xaviers!

Rob steps out of the car that brought him from the airport to the grounds of the university. The driver helps him retrieve a duffel bag and a messenger bag from the trunk of the car before it leaves. Hesitating for a moment, Rob considers his options...

Could always run away. Live in the sewers. Wear a mask and pretend to be a ghost, Rob thinks to himself. ...We'll call that 'Plan B'.

Still looking unsure and a bit nervous, he begins walking towards the school.

There's the sound of something rustling in, or rather through, the branches of a tree, followed by someone breaking through the branches and coming to a skidding halt on the driveway leading up to the mansion. Wings are flapping wildly as she tries to keep her balance while also holding on to her huge duffel bag. Finally gravity wins out and she drops the huge bag in favor on not face-planting into the driveway, finally coming to a stop in a wide stance, wings spread and tail waving back and forth as it fine-tunes her balance.

"Nailed it." she grins to herself.

A surprised Rob falls backwards at the sudden sight of the clumsy Sphinx, "Gah!"

He might have said more but as he falls backwards his heavy duffel bag twists around him and comes down right in his face, knocking him to the ground.

From underneath his bags, Rob lets out a muffled groan.

"Oh hey. You should be more careful with that." she says, dragging her own bag over to him and leaving it sitting on the ground to help Rob hoist his bag off of himself before offering him an outstretched hand to help him up. "I'm Nailah, by the way. Nice to meet you!"

Rob blushes, but takes the offered hand and getting up.

"H-hello," Rob mumbles. He looks to the ground to avoid looking at Nailah. "Robert. Rob, I mean."

"it's good to meet you too," Rob mumbles.

Wearing a red babydoll dress with jean shorts underneath, Velvet steps out of the car with her black hair tied onto a bun with her favorite cream bow. She looked at the mansions then said to herself. "Duffle bag!" Before you know it the duffle bag appeared on her right hand, she brought it to her shoulder. Wow this place is huge! Velvet thought. Since she had her school purse with her that is a black leather satchel and kawaii buttons pinned onto it. Velvet walked forward toward the mansion getting nervous each step. But she was in awe when she saw someone fly toward the mansion. Ok this a different college according to dad, hopefully things will workout here. She mumbled to herself. Then ran towards the mansion herself waiting to see what it has in store for her.

"Rob-I-Mean, excellent. Is that like Will.I.Am?" she asks, already getting distracted by someone else arriving. She waves at the girl with the bow in her hair as she folds her wings together again.

"Hey there!" Velvet said to the girl that waved to her. Then she decided why not? she ran towards the girl as her wings fold together.

"No, I--," Rob is interrupted by his bag suddenly disappearing. He glances around until he sees a girl holding it. "Hey! Give that back!"

Deep breaths. Rob was not used to this level of chaos. He could already feel his anxiety starting to build. He gripped his other bag tightly, like he was afraid one of the two girls was going to try to steal it as well.

"Hey, relax. She was just saving you form being crushed by your own stuff, right? Pretty cool trick too. I'm Nailah, this is Rob-I-Mean." she chuckles at her own joke.

"Well this wasn't first time this happened." Velvet giggled. "Nice to meet you Nailiah and Rob-I-mean? " she said and then one eyebrow went up. "By the way the name is Velvet." Then gave back Rob his duffle bag. She looked at the car still parked and said "Backpack!" The the backpack appeared with a red spark to her hand. "Sorry about that Rob-I-Mean."

"Sorry," Rob says quickly. He still looks tense, but also embarrassed and a bit chastised by Nailah's words, "I was....yeah, sorry. I'm not really used to....people."

"You're doing fine. Sorry for startling you and all. I'm just really excited to be here!"

"Why?" Rob asks.

"Because there's going to be all kinds of cool people, doing awesome things. Like Velvet here! And it's going to be amazing to be around so many mutants. No one's going to look at me and be an ass about it. Unless they're just an ass, but in that case I can just sock them in the head."

"People make fun of the way you look?" Rob asks. He sounds confused, "I don't understand. You're beautiful. What could they possibly take issue with?"

He glances at Velvet, "Am I wrong? You think she is attractive, right?"

" Nailiah is beautiful the way she is, Rob." Velvet said and agreeing with him. "What's wrong with people these days anyway?" She left a question pondering.

"Aww, shucks you guys." she smiles. "People are narrow-minded, is all. Come on, let's scope out the place." she says, putting her arms around Rob's and Velvet's shoulders. "From what I could see from the air the place is huge. There's even a hedge-maze!"

Rob tenses up at being touched, "That...that could be interesting. Or fun. Something like that. Right?"

"Let's not go to the hedge-maze, I heard its impossible to get through it." Velvet said. "But first lets put our stuff in our dorms where ever they are." She said getting nervous about the maze and intimidated how big the place is.

"Bet you I can solve the maze in five minutes." she says before quietly adding "Don't take that, I cheat."

"Okay, fine, let's bring our stuff to the dorms and then we'll meet back out here and see what else there's around. Deal?"

"Deal," Rob agrees.

"Deal!" Velvet said right after Rob.

"Great!" she says, taking her arms off of her new friends and grabbing the strap of her enormous bag. For a moment her wings slightly open and she seems to bend her knees slightly before remembering how heavy her bag is and instead awkwardly standing up straight again and lifting her bag before she embarrasses herself by failing to take to the air. "Stairs it is." she nods to herself and half carries, half drags her bag to the dorms.

((later))

After dropping off his bags in his dorm room, Rob heads back to meet up with Nailah and Velvet.

Nailah follows not much later, running out the door, taking a long step up to the railing of the handful of steps leading down from the entrance of the dorms and taking a leap. Her wings snap open mid-jump and she glides down the stairs. "There you are! I was worried you might not show." she smiles.

A boy in an XI t-shirt dragged his heavy travel suitcase out of a taxi. The driver practically burned rubber as soon as he got his tip.

"...asshole..." he sighed as he began tugging his wheeled luggage toward the school.

"I said I would," Rob says. He keeps his hands in his pockets and slouches. "You didn't believe me?"

"You just seemed nervous, is all. Good to see you're a trustworthy man." she says, giving him a curt nod.

Tosh stopped when he saw the sphinx girl and stared. He quickly caught himself gawking and looked away awkwardly as he resumed moving.

Bro. Let me out and I'll say hey for ya. It'll be epic.

Ignoring you.

Dick move bro.

"Sorry. This place...it reminds me a lot of home," Rob says. "I think it's screwing with my head."

Rob glances towards Tosh and half-heartedly waves.

"Oh? Man, that must have been some place. Where are you from?"

"Vermont," Rob says. "I grew up in a place a lot like this. Hedgemaze and everything. So, it's like that dream where you're running out of a room and down the hallway and you open the door and you're right back where you started."

Say something bro.

"I've h...had that dream. Except a shark is chasing me," he said.

Just want a hug bro.

"A shark?" Rob asks. "Why a shark? Are you afraid of sharks?"

"Well I guess being from San Fran is busy streets and crowds of people everywhere." Velvet added. "Since all of my stuff is on my dorm where do you wanna explore first?" Velvet asked.

"Oh man, I know that dream. No sharks though. And we should check out the Student Union. The brochure said there's all kinds of stuff. Dunno if it's open yet though."

"Sounds like a good place to start," Rob agrees.

"No, I... umm... kinda turn into one... sorta."

His eyes widened slightly at Velvet. "No way! I'm from San Fran too!"