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[Izzy Dockett]

Izzy squinted out of one eye, trying to get the proportions right. She held a graphite stick loosely in her hand, and made short, sharp strokes in her sketch pad. Adjusting her leg on the bay window seat, she looked out of the window again, trying to get a good look at the cat before it got too dark.

Sketching had always been a release for her. She had dabbled in sculpture and photography, but her talents lay in her hands, her fingers. She just...flowed better with a brush or pencil in her hand. Izzy stuck the pencil behind her ear and used her finger to smudge a slight shadow.

She loved it here. Back in New York, everyone was a "struggling artist," and so subjects became cliched. There were only so many pigeons and homeless people one could draw... But here, it was calm and peaceful. Well, during the day, at least.

"Shit." Izzy swore as the cat got up and walked away. And she'd only done half its face! Perhaps... She doodled a little, knowing that there was no way she could make it realistic without seeing it. She made the rest of it look almost like a robot, and was quite pleased with the effect.

She was so absorbed in her work that when someone entered the common room, she didn't hear them. Moments later, she felt a presence behind her. Oh no. The sun had set! She froze, and slowly picked up her sharpest pencil. She was not a slayer, and never would be, but that didn't mean she couldn't defend herself. With a shout she spun around, and almost maimed the person behind her.

"Get the f-- Oh, sorry," she apologised quickly, "I thought you were... Never mind. Sorry about that. You really shouldn't sneak up on people like that. Scared the bejeesus out of me." Izzy had started to blabber.

[Izacke Bähr]

Izacke made his way up what felt like the eighth set of stairs towards the Moore common rooms. He had just come from an Elemental Magic class on the other side of the lake, and had brought his sketchpad with him along with his notebook. What he didn't know is that the teacher would be giving them a pair of rather large leatherbound books to finish by the end of the semester. So the walk from lake to common room had seemed longer than usual.

Now that he'd reached the common room, how to open the door?

Colored pencils and a couple of pens, along with a single graphite pencil were perched precariously atop Izacke's notebook, and he watched those carefully to make sure they didn't roll off the book as he shifted the waight so that he held it only on his left arm. With the other hand, he took the doorknob, pushed in, and reached over to grab the pencils just before they fell onto the floor.

He entered the common room, tapping the door quietly shut with his foot as he moved over to a table to put his books down. On the way though, he spotted a girl by one of the windows, sketching something. Izacke squinted a little, turning his head to the left slightly so that he could see better, and his eyebrows raised slightly at the picture of what looked like a cat. Actually quite a good one, at that.

Forgetting about his books, Izacke made his way across the room and looked over the girl's shoulder to watch her draw. It was an interesting way to draw a cat, with half of its face machine-like, but certainly not a bad way to do it. Actually, it looked pretty cool. Izacke straightened and was just about to go back over to the table when the girl suddenly whirled around, pencil in hand.

"Get the f-- Oh, sorry," she apologised quickly, "I thought you were... Never mind. Sorry about that. You really shouldn't sneak up on people like that. Scared the bejeesus out of me."

Izacke tried to step away when the girl spun around, but his foot caught on one of many raised areas in the throw rug on the floor, and he fell backwards, dropping his books in order to catch himself with one hand. "Was sind Sie..." he trailed off, realizing two things. One, he'd spoken in German, and she probably wouldn't understand him even if he did finish his sentence; and two, he'd been the one who frightened her.

"I'm sorry." he replied, getting up onto his knees and straightening the dark green long-sleeved shirt he wore, then starting to pick up his books. "I wanted to see what you were drawing." There was a short pause, and Izacke looked at the picture again. "It's very good."

[Izzy Dockett]

"Was sind Sie..."

The boy seemed to be speaking a foreign language. Then again, perhaps he wasn't. Izzy often experienced moments of complete confusion, and this just might have been one of them. Just in case, she decided to bluff it, and nodded and smiled.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to see what you were drawing." There was a short pause, and Izacke looked at the picture again.

Had he been peering over her shoulder the whole time? Izzy quickly made a move to shut the sketchbook, but stopped as the boy said,"It's very good."

"Oh, um, thanks," she stammered. She wasn't very used to strange albino boys complimenting her on things that were quite private for her. At least she hadn't been working on a nude. That would have been excruciatingly embarrassing. Izzy shook her head, clearing her thoughts, and decided to try for a fresh start.

"I'm Izzy," she said with a smile, holding out her hand in a "Let's shake, be friends, and forget that I nearly tried to kill you" manner.

[Izacke Bähr]

Izacke wondered briefly at her nod and smile. Did she speak German? No, she must have misunderstood him somehow... He hadn't even finished his sentence, so how could she reply to him? Still though, he wondered why she was bluffing. Izacke wasn't one to inquire about those kinds of things, so he brushed it aside.

"Oh, um, thanks,"

She seemed a bit distracted. Izacke wasn't sure whether it was because he'd frightened her or something else, but he did note her staring. He always became uncomfortable when people stared at him, even if it was a common occurance. He cleared his throat slightly, brushing a sfew strands of white hair away behind his left ear and straightening his already-neat pile of books a bit more.

"I'm Izzy," she said with a smile

Izacke looked back up from his books, noting her outstretched hand. He accepted the offered hand, feeling how much warmer her hand was than his own were. That was hardly surprising, seeing as his hands were seemingly always cold.

"My name is Izacke." he replied, trying a little harder than usual to pronounce the words so that she could understand him more easily. There was a short pause, and he released her hand as he asked, "Do you... Speak German?" He was still curious about her reaction earlier, and he wanted to know whether she really was bluffing or not. But he wouldn't ask so directly. No, this was a better way to do it.

[Izzy Dockett]

Izzy flinched slightly at the icy cold touch of his hand, but determined to be polite after almost maiming him, she shook it firmly. She always found it annoying when people did those pathetic finger-grip handshakes, as if they were too good to just do it decently. She'd give the strange boy a 6 out of ten, but he could probably improve on that with practice. And mittens.

"My name is Izacke." He had a foreign accent, it sounded German, but Izzy couldn't be sure. He was speaking rather slowly, and Izzy thought, Oh, he must think I'm crazy. That's why he's talking to me like I'm three years old. Today was really not turning into a good day, although it had been better than most. She tried not to scowl, as he asked her, "Do you... Speak German?"

Izzy burst out laughing. So he'd caught her! Ah, the shame! She blushed and said, "Well, no, uh, not really." She could see, however, that he was wondering why. Dare she tell him she didn't want to look stupid? Although pretending to speak another language was a pretty silly thing to do in the first place.

"Er. Hey! What's that, over there!" she cried, desperately trying to change the subject. She pointed wildly at something on the wall that looked suspiciously like a squished bug. Lovely.

[Izacke Bähr]

Izzy burst out laughing.

When Izzy laughed(not just a light laugh, but /really/ laughed), Izacke wasn't sure what to do. Was she laughing at him, or was she thinking about some kind of inside joke that he had no way of knowing about? He smiled slightly in return, uncertainly and hesitantly.

She blushed and said, "Well, no, uh, not really."

Ah, so that explained the laughter. His smile came a bit more easily now that he understood what she was laughing about.

There was a moment of silence after that, where Izacke shifted position uneasily and debated whether to just say goodbye and go up to his dormitory. She spoke again before he had the chance though.

"Er. Hey! What's that, over there!"

Curious(and a bit alarmed) by the girl's sudden outburst, Izacke turned slightly to look in the direction that she was pointing. At first, he had no clue what it was she was gesturing so wildly at. It was just a stone wall, like hundreds of others in and around the school. Then he spotted the little black smudge about four feet up. She wasn't talking about that, was she? Then again, the girls here did seem to get awfully squeamish about little things like that...

Unsure about precisely how to respond, Izacke turned back to face Izzy and, after a long, uncertain pause, decided to ask her about something that he'd been wondering about subconsciously since she nearly stabbed him.

"Um... What is the 'bujeezuz?'" he asked, butchering the pronunciation of the word. He'd never heard it before, and it made him wonder what exactly this 'bujeezuz' was.