open , to the outside world * ---

[aurora celeste stryker ,]

Aurora opened the door to the gymnasium very slowly, and peeked her head in, smiling in delight as she realized that it was completely empty. She tiptoed in, dragged the case in behind her as she scurried across the hard, polished wooden floors. She skipped across the gymnastics mats and up the bleachers to the very top corner, farthest away from the door. She could hear her foot steps echo in here - she loved the acoustics. She set the case down, popping a latch and swinging the guitar onto her lap. She stroked the black wood, and smiled. Yeah, she loved this guitar. She slipped the strap over her shoulders and grabbed her plectrum. Aurora began to strum softly and she nodded along with the rhythm, and she started to sing. Aurora had always loved music - it had been a part of her for ages. Ever since he had left she had spent more time than ever with her guitar and piano. It hadn't been his fault. She hadn't even thought of him as more than a friend, but he had mattered to her and he had left. She didn't like being abandoned. He never even called anymore. Shaking her head slightly, she changed the sound immediately and began singing different song, this one more precious - one he had written for her. She loved to sing it when she was feeling sentimental, which was, obviously, today. And sentimental meaning she felt like ripping her own heart out and stomping on it. Masochistic? No, never. She began to sing louder as the music got to her, and she didn't really care who heard; she knew she was good and she wouldn't care if she was terrible either way. It was what she loved to do and she was okay with herself. Sometimes she skipped the music after school to go surfing - it was her new outlet. She found that she loved it; it was her new passion. She was considering entering a local competition, and she had the encouragement from most of her guy friends, though she knew she wouldn't find it with her more girly comrades. Whatever. Aurora had always been a passionate person and she was always up to a challenge - she didn't back down and she fought for what she believed in. She was annoyingly honest, infuriatingly blunt and sometimes absolutely stubborn, but she was a good person. Spirited, but good.

words noooo idea?
tag open!

[eugenia rose lisle]

P r e t t y/g i r l s ,/t h e y/h a v e/i t/e a s y

L i v i n g/t h e/s t r a w b e r r y - k i w i/l i f e

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She was on a mission to scout out the school. After all, as far as Genie was concerned, it was still a hostile environment. Assuming that everything and everyone was right and well in this school might very well be the death of her. Or at least that was what Genie, still unaccustomed to the manner in which people her age generally functioned, had gotten into her head. Chart the territory - literally.

Her schoolbag, a sleek leather satchel, newly purchased by her current foster-family, contained various instruments suitable for this sort of cartography. Pencils, rulers, erasers, sextants, a compass, thick paper, a shiny new digital camera just in case. It was all packed into the hand-stitched bag, Genie having left her actual school supplies back at her dorm. It was amazing, to her, how much money the Wakely's had so readily spent on her. It elicited great suspicion from her, but Genie decided that she'd eventually find out if she was careful enough.

She already had one wing of the school entirely mapped - the details rather amazing with her steady hands and sharp eyes (necessary survival skills, really) - and next up was the gymnasium. Genie wondered why anyone needed this much space to contain the student body - which was admittedly large - in. What was more, everyone slept in rooms of two or one. It was appalling, almost. Such a waste of space. A waste of food. A waste of air.

Genie came to a stop just outside the doors of the gymnasium, and held her ear up to the door. It didn't have any convenient keyholes to listen through, but sound generally carried well through the metal, for some reason. The sound came to her ears almost instantly. Singing. Genie stood stock-still, listening to the feminine voice carrying out the tune. It wasn't long before Genie had gotten the gist of it. She frowned. What reason could the girl have to sing? Genie's childhood had only been smattered with a few hymns and quasi-musical chants, and the thought of someone singing for no reason at all was bizarre to her.

A quick evaluation of the situation told Genie that there was relatively little danger in making her presence known. She pushed open the door, the ropy muscles in her thin arms moving the heavy door with relative ease. She let the door swing shut with an audible thump and click, which was magnified by the high ceiling of the gymnasium. Genie wasted no time in striding forward to the singing girl. No hesitation was in her mind, or in her tone when she spoke. "Who are ya?" she questioned, voice perhaps a bit brusque. But it was a simple enough question, and one the girl should be perfectly capable of answering, unless she was mute or deaf, or suffered from a severe neurological disorder. All these options seemed likely, since the girl had been singing decently in tune just earlier on.

Genie was gripping the leather satchel at her side so hard that the tips of her fingers were beginning to ache, but she ignored the feeling, simply letting her eyes sear into those of the dark-haired girl before her. This girl had an air of innocence about her, and Genie doubted she was a threat, but it was best to start out assertive, lest she begin to get into the habit of passivity.

TAG; aurora/open
NOTES;
LYRICS; kate voegele
WORDS; five seven six

[/blockquote]

[aurora celeste stryker ,]

Aurora heard the door open and slam to a close. Slowly, lazily almost, she looked up and met the eyes of a girl, who was striding purposefully towards her. Who are ya? Aurora continued strumming, and looked straight in the girl's eyes. " Aurora Stryker. " She didn't bother asking the girl's name; she assumed the young lady would tell her anyway. She seemed the straight forward type, and being blunt herself, Aurora already liked her. Rora didn't smile but slowly let the song come to an end. The last sounds of the strings echoed into the gym until there was silence. Standing, Aurora set down her guitar, deciding she should probably be mannered, seen as she was raised to be. " I'm assuming you're new? Most people know me here whether they've met me or not. " Aurora made it a point to be know - she got in fights a lot, her parents were rich and very powerful, and to be honest, she liked the attention.

She wasn't anything like her sister, but she did like having the perks of being filthy rich with parents who let you do whatever you wanted. She already had a car and she had gotten her license at fifteen; to which most of her friends envied. Though she considered the fact that she had a Mercedes model that wasn't even out yet was why the boys liked to ride with her. But of course, though Aurora liked having that car, she preferred her skate board over anything else, something that disgusted the other A-Listers. They didn't seem to understand why she preferred a skateboard over a Mercedes, though she honestly didn't even care about their opinions.

Aurora held out her hand matter of factly at the girl, to shake, and raised her eyebrows at her. " It's nice to meet you. " Aurora wasn't the best at first impressions, and she was worse at making friends with girls; she tended to like being friends with boys better - less drama more skateboarding. Aurora just wasn't a dramatic person and she edged away form anyone she considered even slightly dramatic. She didn't need any of that in her life - she liked things boring. Well, drama-wise anyways. When it came to anything else, well, she loved sports; soccer, tag football, softball, anything that gave her a challenge. Surfing, skateboarding, even skydiving ( she'd been the only one brave enough to try that one ). But, either way, she loved adventure and challenges, and she absolutely hated drama. Probably came from being raised with a couple of drama queens - her mother was notoriously dramatic and painfully manipulative, while her twin sister, Jasmine, was the queen bee of the A-Listers. She didn't even go to the high school; she had insisted upon being home schooled. But even if her sister was a royal "b" sometimes, she loved her and could never have asked for a better friends. Whatever. No need to get all.. mushy or whatever. Ew.

words uhm o.o
tag eugenia
notes oh hai (: sorry no pretty coding :/
listening to soul sister by train

[eugenia rose lisle]

P r e t t y/g i r l s ,/t h e y/h a v e/i t/e a s y

L i v i n g/t h e/s t r a w b e r r y - k i w i/l i f e

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The first thing Genie noticed was that there was no immediate reaction. No snapping to alertness, no wide eyes, no sudden tension in the girl's neck and shoulders. If anything, the girl seemed to take her own sweet time swiveling that dark-haired head of hers over to look at Genie. The final cords of the song the girl had been playing and singing along to were just reaching Genie's ears. The girl gave her name in probably as few words as possible. Genie nodded. At least the girl was no fool, to not be making any enemies on something so trivial as a name. Of course, names could hold a lot of meaning in certain circumstances, but this wasn't one of them. "Anythin' I can call ya tha's shorter, Aurora Stryker?"

Her voice came out with a thick southern accent, like it always did. Had she not been speaking so slowly with such a heavy emphasis on certain words, it might have been impossible for someone unfamiliar with such inflections to comprehend what she had said. Genie didn't care. It was an inconvenience to them, not her, as she would gladly repeat what she had said, word for word, if they didn't catch her meaning the first time around. Genie's stance reflected her initial suspicion for the girl. This...this Aurora Stryker didn't seem to be very threatening, and so no fear was present in Genie's heart - there rarely was - but that didn't mean she needed to ever let her guard down. She had seen such rookie mistakes made, and knew how they normally ended. Of course, Genie had yet to end up in an unfavourable circumstance - as she was fond of calling them - since she had been sent here to California, but there was no need to get complacent.

Genie shrugged, although she kept her eyes focused on the girl in front of her. "New's one word fer it, sure." There was a natural confidence about this girl that Genie wasn't sure she admired. Generally, confident people went well with Genie, and she supposed that this Aurora Stryker wasn't all that bad. Even so, there was always something to be suspicious about people who were naturally sure of themselves. Genie had read books and had spent a good couple months in the school system - enough to be able to tell that this girl exuded the air of one of those kids deemed 'popular' or on the brink of becoming 'popular.' When she'd first come across the term, watching a movie in Ohio, she'd originally thought it had relations to 'populism' and had wondered why those characters were always portrayed as shallow and self-centered. After all, 'populist' meant that they appealed to the ideas of the working class or general public, right? And the 'popular' characters often seemed to do the opposite of that. In fact, they often came across as rather elitist. Her foster-mother had eventually set her straight on that, but Genie still got confused on occasion.

Genie stared at the hand stuck out in front of Aurora. She knew very well what a handshake was and what it was for, but she didn't understand why this girl was offering one to her. After all, for all Aurora knew, Genie might be an escaped psycho-killer that liked preying on young, dark-haired girls that sang well and went to expensive posh schools. She wasn't, of course, but there was no reason for Aurora Stryker to simply assume she wasn't. Genie herself hadn't ruled out such a possibility for Aurora, which was why she made sure to stand at least a meter away from the other girl, weight on the balls of her feet so that she could make a speedy getaway should the need arise. "I'm sure it ain't." she replied dryly. Why did this girl feel the need for such niceties? Now was the time to get down to business - whatever that was - so no time need be wasted on saying things that were so obviously false. She had only just met the girl - who was to say that their general impression of each other was to be positive? "Y'can call me Croak, yeah?" Genie didn't trust the girl well enough to give her her given name, and so her nickname would have to do. Besides - it was a name she didn't ever want to forget. That had been an important chapter in her life, and there was nothing that said she had to forget it now because life had taken a different turn.

TAG; aurora
NOTES; sorry it's so long! got carried away
LYRICS; kate voegele
WORDS; seven seven nine

[/blockquote]

[aurora celeste stryker ,]

people change and promises are broken
clouds can move and skies will be wide open

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Aurora contemplated the girl slowly; she was much younger than Aurora herself, but she held herself as if she didn't want any one to know her true age. Or even her identity. Interest sparked in Aurora's eyes as soon as the first smart-ass answer slipped out of the girl's mouth. Slowly pulling her hand down, Aurora couldn't help but grin at the girl. Croak? S'nice ta meet you. She raised an eyebrow at the girl; she liked her already. So Croak, how's freshman year goin' for you? She wasn't meaning to be nosy, in fact, Aurora was always the exact opposite, but this girl, Croak triggered a sense of amusement in her. She'd never met anyone who could really match her wit, or take her bluntness, but Aurora decided this girl could outdo her, so she decided to play it coy for once. No need to be obvious, right? She smiled on the inside; even if this girl was much younger than her, she secretly hoped a friend would come of this. She liked the young woman's spunk, determination. Although the secretiveness bothered her - Aurora was not a secretive person. She was straight to the point, spoke her mind.

She didn't keep secrets because she didn't want to be as her mother and sister, but either way, if this girl kept secrets it could turn Aurora against her. Secrets were something she hated with a passion.

TAGGED ! [/color]eugenia.
LYRICS ! stacks - bon iver
WORDS ! o.o uhm
STATUS ! NOT DONE ):
OUTFIT ! HERE!
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