Things you can do [OPEN]

Some time has passed already and Ada hasn't felt almost any difference from this school and the others, if you discount the physical matters of course. Besides the two people that found her sleeping and the other students from the street, she had almost no contact with anybody exceptuating team work or simple favors. Ada always wondered if feeling that this was a normal school was the right thing or the wrong thing; if it was normal, then she would be a fake person, but if it was special, then it would be disrespectful. At least the chats with Angela or her mother made her not feel alone.

All these thoughts went through her mind while Ada stood in the canteen's line. She noticed how almost all of the food looked disgusting and only certain students ate it, thinking that they were on some special diet. Just then she was at the front, and she tried to ask for the best looking thing

"Err... can I have the rice and some eggs please?" "And even that looks cold and raw" she thought as the plate was handed to her

Sighing, Ada took her plate and turned around quite abruptly, hitting a random person. Her food didn't fell, but it was made a mess. Luckily, she didn't asked for some hot sauce or her uniform would be stained

"Hey, watch where you're going"

Sometimes the people destined to meet meet in the most unexpected places and situations

Jimmy was lost in thought, spacing out as he so often did when he was alone. Well, technically he wasn't alone, but actually surrounded by other students. However, none of them were engaging with him, so he let his mind wander aimlessly. He thought about his old friends, how he'd rejected them when they were understanding and willing to wait for him to come back to them, and how he'd ended up almost completely isolated in Canada. That was the price he paid for being ungrateful, for selfishly seeking a new beginning that had now left him in some sort of purgatory. The days blended into one long, amorphous haze of study and...

Out of nowhere, Jimmy felt an impact slam into his side and the sound of cutlery clattering noisily against a plate, snapping him out of his thoughts and making him turn to see what had happened. Then, a voice called out.

"Hey, watch where you're going!"

"Shit, sorry, I... My bad." Jimmy apologised clumsily. The girl now in front of him seemed familiar, but he couldn't place her. He'd probably just seen her around the Academy a few times. Then again, they could have had classes sat next to each other for all he knew.

The first thing that came to Ada's mind when she saw the face of the person was...

"Do I know you? Are you...Jimmy?"

She only knew the names of four people in the Academy, with many different traits, and that saves a lot of the mental pressure of placing names correctly.

Ada stared at his face, still wondering if it's the right person. As usual, her face barely moved. In the sea of people this place was, she actually encountered someone she knew from before. Maybe it's her fault for not trying to meet more people, maybe not.

Some seconds later, the memories of what was probably the most interesting event for her began reproducing in her mind. As a response, she raised an eyebrow waiting for his response

Jimmy met this question with confusion initially, trying to find the most diplomatic way of broaching the fact that he had no real idea who the girl speaking to him was.

"I wouldn't know if you know me, but I am Jimmy, so I can only assume that you do."

He grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck, as he often did when he was embarrassed or nervous.

"Sorry if I've forgotten you but... I, uh, I have facial blindness of sorts. As soon as I can't see something in my line of sight, I don't know what it looks like anymore. That includes people. I guess I must not have told you before."

Ada's head tilted slightly towards the right, that was definitely one of the weirdest things she heard in this academy. "You can find anything inside these walls" she thought

"Then, I think I'll introduce myself again. I'm Ada, the finger cutter. Does it refresh your memory?"

To complement, she hit Jimmy's head in a whack-a-mole style as light as she could. Just for the sake of socializing

Jimmy's eyes lit up as he placed her. But the smack to the head still hurt a little, it had momentarily jarred him at the very least.

"Oh, yeah! You were sleeping on a bench in the gardens or something, weren't you? Well, I'm sorry about that, Ada, but pienso que sea..." He stopped himself briely as he began to slip back into Spanish.

"...I think that'll be happening a lot. You might need to crack me 'round the head like that whenever you see me. Unless there's a way of jogging my memory that doesn't involve harming me repeatedly. I'll still know you by name, at least." He said with a smile.

Ada was initially confused by the sudden change of language, specially one she didn't know anything about, but eventually shrugged it off because of his apologies. Then she remembered her native city, Quebec. And also thought of a method for him to remember everyone

"Il n'y a pas de problème, ami. What about this? You take a photo and write my name, that way you won't forget about anyone and I don't have to play whack-a-mole everytime I see you"

Satisfied with her plan, Ada turned and grabbed a fork. She began eating her plate while standing

Jimmy nodded, he hadn't thought of applying that, really. The only time he'd ever done something similar was his use of a photo of himself with his sister as his phone background, so he wouldn't forget her face.

"Sounds good to me. Just let me know when you're ready for the photo, unless you want me to have one of you with a mouthful of food." He said with a laugh.

"Do you want to sit down at a table or something? That looks more than a little awkward."

The dark haired shrugged, not really caring about how she'll look on Jimmy's phone. She could not care less about how she looked, a proof of that is having the knowledge about make up and hair products of a six year old.

"Take it now or later, I don't care. At least I'll look different from the others"

Shoving another portion of cold rice, Ada looked around for a free seat, locating one nearby the window, she swallowed and then talked

"I'll be over there. Will you get something to eat? Because I won't be carrying you to the doctor when you pass out"

She started heading to the free seat, still feeding herself on the way there, not noticing the amout of people staring at her for her awkwardness, size, male's uniform or all of them

[OOC: Sorry for the wait! Lots of stuff going on IRL]

"I'll find a moment that's representative of you. That'd be best."

Jimmy nodded.

"Probably should get some food, I guess. I'll be with you in just a minute."

Jimmy quickly grabbed himself a cold sandwich and an apple, before heading back to meet Ada.

"So, Ada..." He paused and looked around the canteen quickly.

"Wait a minute, I've got the right table here, don't I? You're Ada?"

"Ouch, is this an... eggshell?"
Raising up her head to spit out the extra ingredient, she saw Jimmy sitting on another table, and then looking erratically around.
"Oh, god, I guess he wasn't kidding"

Ada sneaked up behind Jimmy and slapped the back of his head. Lightly enough.

"Don't tell me you can't even remember a place. How much time would you last if you ever get a girlfriend?"

Jimmy's confusion continued until his head was lightly slapped.

"Uhhhh..."

He hastily turned to the stranger at the table.

"Sorry, my bad. See ya around, I guess." He said with a chuckle. The girl opposite didn't know how to react, but was very clearly just as confused as Jimmy had been a moment ago.

"Hijo de puta..." He muttered quietly, keeping the Spanish profanity under his breath.

He stood up and turned to Ada, red-faced with embarrassment.

"I told you, it's bad. It wasn't the location, it was her, she looked like what I thought was you. I wasn't too far off though, was I? At least she has the same hair colour as you, somewhat similar height too. Well, clearly with my visual memory being this bad, I'm incapable of getting myself a girlfriend. Unless you think I'd be good enough to nail a first impression so perfectly that this hypothetical girl and I somehow both agreed to start a relationship right there and then. Somehow, I doubt that..." He rambled defensively. However, the talk of girlfriends struck him with a pang of guilt over the souring of things with his ex, Jenni. He'd tried very hard, but he couldn't make it work again. Whatever it was, Jimmy couldn't quite put his finger on, but the aneurysm had fundamentally changed something about him beyond just his visual memory.

Ada tilted her head at his explanation. She thought that he was being more careful around her that he really needed to be. Not that it was something strange either, but this was a place almost new to her and she didn't want to leave bad impressions.

"Hey, calm down. I'm not biting you or something for stupid things. Now come on" Ada said as she started waking back

"Never mind. You can remember me by clothes as well. Do you see any other girl with the male's uniform around here?" she turned back and held her arms out. Comparing herself to everyone in the canteen

"Yeah, sorry. I'm just a little... out of my depth here." Jimmy said with a sigh.

"I'll figure it out though." He quickly added, accompanying his optimism with a wide grin.

Jimmy eyed Ada's uniform.

"Huh, didn't even pick up on that. Never had much of an eye for detail, and it's only gotten worse since the aneurysm." He laughed.

"It's OK, don't worry. Now hurry up, I'm hungry" Ada replied while turning around. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't happy for reuniting with someone she knew. Then again, maybe it was just because he was the only one she encountered.

She sat again in her place and resumed her eating, her gaze fixed on the dining hall, scouting for nothing in particular; she became like a machine, digging the fork in whatever piece of food, take it to her mouth and swallowing taking only a few bites. It was true that this food gave her chills.

"It can't be so harmful if I don't know what it tastes like. And nothing would really happen to me if I get sick" Ada was trying to make Jimmy ask her about her reasons for ending up in Tachibana, in the most discreet way possible.

"The food isn't that bad, is it?" Jimmy asked, between mouthfuls of his meal

"What do you mean nothing would happen to you if you got sick? You'd get sick. That whole cycle explains itself, doesn't it? I mean, unless you have some superpowered immune system like Deadpool or something..." He responded, confused.

If the cleaning duties fell off on Ada once in her life, she would definitely clean up the canteen in first place, and according to what she's found on her food so far it isn't the best first impression.

"I wouldn't be surprised to find a rat's head in here, being honest" she answered after swallowing a piece of her lunch.

"Well, I kind of have one. Congenital Analgesia. Long story short, I feel no pain but I can die"

That was the explanation Ada developed in case someone asked her about her life, any medical problems or if someone found her stabbed and walking calmly to the hospital.

"A rat's head?! Well, you've put me right off this now." Jimmy laughed, now slowly picking at his meal.

"Huh, that's a new one on me. I knew it was a thing, but that must be quite difficult to manage. But you still do get sick and feel the symptoms of that, right?"

"Hmm, some of them. If I get something like a common fever, I'll have the typical red eyes, sneezing and everything, but not the headaches or body soreness. Everything that involves pain is "disabled" to say it somehow" she said looking at her food

Differently from many other people attending the school, Ada talks about her ailing as if it was the world's most normal thing. It is something she had since her first day of life, and she has prepared herself for all types of reactions.

"That's why I ended up here. I need to have constant medical checkups to find anything wrong and fix it if it's necessary; I try to keep a good inmune system by eating correctly and doing some exercise here end then, but it seems that I'm short on money recently" Ada raised up her fork to make an emphasis, and then ate the food in it.

She thought about forcing a smile, but after seeing herself in the mirror one day, she discovered she looked as scary as a serial killer. So in the end, her lips curved down and threw a random comment to keep the conversation going.

"And no, you can't stab me 'just to make sure'"

"Even headaches, huh? Heh, I could do with something like that." Jimmy joked. Then he realised he could have seemed a bit insensitive towards Pearce in saying that.

"I'm just kidding about my aneurysms, just so ya know. I don't actually mean that."

"Pretty involved condition, then, I guess. Exercise?" Jimmy's ears practically pricked up at the mention of it.
"What kind of exercise do you do?" He pressed, perhaps a little too enthusiastically.

"Sorry, it's just that I'm a bit of a gym rat myself, so I can't help but be a little curious." He said, shrugging off his excitement with a casual laugh.

"Stab you? Wasn't planning on it, honestly."

Ada didn't mind any comments about her ailing, but probably others did, so she decided to tell him to not make it a habit.

"I don't mind, but I don't think everyone has the same sense of humor" she said calmly

"My sport... recently, I just go to the school gym for like two or three hours to keep going. But I like football, even though it's not so common between girls"

While thinking about her answer, she thought about how men considered her. If she was so tall and muscular then maybe they would think of her as another guy. She doesn't know if this is good or bad, so she asked Jimmy after the last two bites of her lunch.

"Hey, am I easy to talk to? Do you think of me as a guy?" she said while playing five finger fillet and unconsiously picking her fingers occassionally due to paying attention to his answer.

Jimmy nodded. He wasn't usually one to make comments like that, but he figured with Ada it'd be ok. It was, but the mild scolding he got afterwards still made him feel a bit childish.

"Yeah, we've got a pretty good gym around here, don't we? Maybe we can help each other out some time, I can spot you with the weights or whatever if you need it. Might help with motivation, too. Football? Do you mean soccer or American Football? I don't know which term's used in Canada." He confessed.

Ada's next question seemed a little strange to Jimmy, just because it was so sudden and blunt.
"I mean, yeah, you're good to talk to. But I don't talk to girls differently than I do boys unless I have a crush on said girl, really, so I'm probably not the right guy to ask. I just see you as strong and athletic, I don't think those traits have to be manly. Although the boy's uniform doesn't really help your case. It kind of raises the question of how you want to be seen, though. Do you even care about how other people see you?"

Looking at her bleeding hand, Ada cleaned it up with a napkin and meditated on her answer. He was right, though; if she used the men's uniform then did that mean she was some kind of weirdo? The answer that seemed correct came to her almost inmediately, blurting it out ignoring the sports question.

"Well, skirts and blouses look good and cute on small girls. On tall, muscular women they look ridiculous, at least that's my opinion since I'm 5'11 feet tall and hate that type of clothes"

She frowned in realization that this was the first time she had to answer to this topic. In the end, she just shaked her head lightly.

"But not really, it's just that people have different behaviors with me. Just forget I said anything, really" Ada finished her answer with a short sigh.

Jimmy didn't realise that Ada had been unconciously stabbing at her fingers as they spoke until she dabbed at them with her napkin. He looked and saw that they were only fairly small nicks, but it was still a somewhat surreal thing to witness that Ada make herself bleed and not react at all.

"Well, if you hate clothing like that, you don't have to justify it any further. I think it's stupid to restrict what you wear because of what people expect of you. I think that applies to most other things, too."

"It's ok, I think I get where you're coming from. If I've realised anything from my aneurysm, people act different about things they don't understand. Yeah, you're right, let's move on to something less depressing." Jimmy nodded.

Ada was somehow grateful that she didn't had another disability like not having a limb or something, it was hard to notice that she is a disabled person unless you hear it from herself or anyone who knows about it. Yet, the shock people take when they see it is much bigger than seeing a person in a weelchair.

"Very well. Do you do anything besides sports? I don't really do much else, besides wandering off around the city or staying in my apartment"

Ada didn't exactly know why she was telling Jimmy this, but just felt like there was someone who needed to know how she lived; checking her cellphone to see the hour, she saw that she could spare some minutes of chat before classes.