Partner Bingo (Annabeth/Inverno)

[Annabeth Abbot]

Annabeth stood outside room D-3 with a little apprehension, staring at the shadows that occasionally moved across the door’s translucent window. A sheet of paper was taped to the door that read:

Partner Bingo!
EAT only this week

That’s right; partner bingo. And how she was dreading it! She couldn’t help but hear a little voice inside screaming for her to withdraw, to go home, return to bed, and just sleep. To run away from the room filled with meisters: lying, untrustworthy meisters! ……But she couldn’t. Maybe she could take it the slow way and try to meet someone in class on her own? But she was an EAT student now. A Partnerless EAT student. She didn’t have the capability to function on her own, let alone be a solo weapon. No, as much as she tried to come up with other options the only thing she could think of to solve her current predicament was Partner Bingo. She looked up and down the hallway, hoping no one had noticed her hesitation before turning her attention back to the door. She smoothed down the skirt of her uniform – a very plain, white and black plaid skirt mixed with a black vest over a white t-shirt with a black and white striped tie and an embroidered shinigami symbol on her breast pocket – and took a breath. She opened the door and stepped inside.

There was a soft murmur in the room as students milled about. Some spoke to each other, trying to ease their nerves while other simply sat in the chairs that lined the walls of the rectangular room. While a few were downright giddy with excitement, most seemed as nervous as Annabeth felt. She didn’t bother to count the students, but there were in fact quite a bit more than she was expecting.

“Write your name here.” Annabeth started in surprise to look to her side, noticing for the first time the desk with a creepily-too-smiley teacher sitting comfortably behind it and motioning to a tiny slip of paper. Annabeth stepped fully inside the room and followed the instruction. “Meister or Weapon?” she asked with the same way-too-cheerful attitude. "Weapon" Annabeth replied quickly, receiving a swift motion from the woman to a solid, rotary bingo-basket labeled ‘Weapons’ in response. Annabeth quickly dropped the inch long name slip inside and stepped away to leave the woman to her overly cheerful attitude. She made a bee line to a seat on one of the uncomfortable, wooden chairs lining the walls, brushing her long, brown hair over the front of her shoulder to avoid pinning it between her back and the chair’s back. She glances around the room, trying to be inconspicuous as she examined the others who had gathered.

[Inverno Costa]

Moment earlier, a short, white-haired boy walked into room D-3. Garbed in gray sweatpants, a matching sweater, and white sneakers, the nervous Italian made a b-line towards the sign up desk. Thankfully, only a couple of people were in line to sign off their names before delivering them to their appropriate basket. And once Inverno had his turn, the woman at the desk spoke up. "Inverno, good to see you! You remember what to do, right?", the cheerful woman asked the meister, who nodded nervously in response. Inverno signed off his name neatly, before walking over towards the meister basket and taking a seat on one of the wooden chairs.

As Inverno waited for the inevitable drawing of names, others had entered the room. Many of them seemed to be fellow meisters, the majority as nervous as he was. Several of them were locked in conversation, attempting to ease their addled nerves. Unfortunately, the pale meister couldn't bring himself up to converse with any of his peers, not being the best at conversing with others himself.

Eventually, a brown-haired girl, shorter than Inverno was, ended up sitting next to him. She didn't seem to be paying attention to the pale-skinned meister. Inverno thought about striking up a conversation with her for the moment, fidgeting nervously as he did so. However, the meister remained quiet, not wanting to risk it today.

[Annabeth Abbot]

Annabeth continued her survey of the classroom while rubbing the ends of her hair between her fingers. She purposefully avoided looking at anyone longer than a few seconds but that was all she needed to pass judgment. Two boys dressed like ‘gangstas’ that were compensating for something with their loud conversation, a goth girl that looked just a little too unstable to be trusted with a weapon, a punk in the corner eyeing everyone like he was going to beat them, a preppy girl applying goobs of makeup with a pocket mirror…. The list went on and on with every single person she spotted in the slightly crowded room; unfairly stereotyping a fellow student with each glance. ‘Clothing doesn’t make the man. Besides, a lot of the people here are weapons too...' She reminded herself, trying to calm the anxiety of possibly having one of the aforementioned students as a meister. It failed. Anyone of these people could be her next meister – even temporarily – and she didn’t like the prospects.

She turned her eyes to her shoes and sighed, more audibly then she meant to. Embarrassed she did a quick, self-conscious, glance around the room. No one seemed to notice …but she did spot the boy sitting next to her, in a grey sweat clothes and pale skin. She was a bit surprised by the attire and the thought ‘slob’ ran uninvited through her mind. 'After all, who wears sweats unless they’re sleeping or exercising? And the desert was so hot s-' She silently chastised herself for the immediate profiling of the poor boy. He looked about as nervous as she felt. What’s more she realizes she had been staring, if only for a few moments, “H-hi…” she says, trying to sound casual and nonchalant to cover up her odd stare… “I-I’m Annabeth.”

Her expression could be mistaken for mild shyness as she continued to rub a lock of her hair to keep her hands busy. In truth it was more an expression of regret and wariness; She hadn’t wanted to start a conversation but… well… she didn’t want to seem weird either. And staring for no reason was defiantly weird.

[Inverno Costa]

It was strange that Inverno was wearing a sweatsuit today. Instead of living in the dorms like he used to, now he was living with Laurant as his housekeeper. But then, the sweatsuit was comforting to the meister, and something he wasn't afraid to get messy with. And if anything, he might end up in some sort of mess by the end of the day, depending on his weapon.

Inverno didn't notice the girl staring at him while he glanced around the room. He saw several people, many of which he didn't know, but a few he knew, for better or for worse. One of them, dressed in a polo, slacks, and loafters, was a meister Inverno had conversed with during his first attempt at Partner Bingo. While he seemed to be stuck up, he really wasn't that bad, though only in short bursts. Another was the punk boy in the corner, with the hostile look about him. He was one of Inverno's failed partnerships, and someone Inverno really didn't want to deal with. The two "gangsta" boys loudly conversing with each other were two people who had mistaken Inverno for an easy mark when he had first come to Shibusen, and had been among the select few people Inverno had actually punched out in his year at Shibusen, and had legitimately despised.

Inverno's thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the female next to him. Inverno nervously turned to her as she introduced herself. "I-I'm I-In-Inverno...", he stammered nervously in his normal Italian accent, extending a hand to shake hers. Inverno himself was legitimately shy about talking to her, or anyone for that matter. But he would keep the conversation going as long as she could take it out of courtesy.

[Annabeth Abbot]

Annabeth blinked, surprise by the accent. “Oh-uh, nice to meet you.” She replied, poorly attempting to cover up her reaction with conversation. She couldn’t help but glance the boy over a second time, finding the Italian accent, stammered or not, seemed a bit out of place with what her imagination would stereotype someone of his appearance. She gripped the boys hand hesitantly and offered the short, awkward shake of someone unaccustomed to such mannerisms. “I’m still new to the EAT program. It’s… my first time here… you?” She admitted, straining to sound confident in her question.

She caught herself glancing at the clock and the signup desk, wondering when the bingo would start with more than a little anxiety. She quickly snapped her eyes back to Inverno, not wanting to be thought of as rude, especially considering that she was the one who started the conversation.

Besides, perhaps if she distracted herself with talking maybe she would have a few minutes of peace until the drawing. Suddenly she could understand why so many others were engaged in conversations, maybe it wasn’t a bad thing?