-- FACE PRESSED TO THE WINDOW; [NELL]

Nell leaned against the wall, and held up her hand with a sigh. The burn there didn’t look too-too bad, but it was still a burn. Sure, she could go to the medical wing, but the girl was too used to letting these things hang, ever since childhood. Besides, she hated admitting that she was injured. And in a way, it was a little like pride. She did not have a lot of it at all, but she liked to be viewed as someone dependable. Not for her sake, but for those she cared about. Nothing was ever wrong with her, and in that way she hoped it would make others feel more at ease in coming to her for help. No one really knew about her and that was for the best.

The next object to go into inspection was the burnt potted plant cradled in her arm. It had once been a spider plant, but apparently the Fire student hadn’t wanted that at all. Only the interference from a professor saved her there. She’d have gotten off with much worse than burns on her hands if the teacher hadn’t been there to detain her attacker. Because she never fought back. If people knew what had happened to her in the past, they might wonder why she’d want to be treated that way again? But the fact was that she never wanted to hurt anyone, and the fact that she killed her mother—well, it certainly did not encourage any violent behavior in her, despite what others may say. She was not a homicidal maniac. All she wanted was for everyone around her to be happy.

And this war was making no one happy. Wars never did, unless you were sadistic or had beef with someone in another element. She was suffering from neither, and all she really wanted to focus on now was protecting her friends. Nell may have thought twice about sticking up for herself physically, but she would defend any of her friends should she see them in danger. It sparked a rare kind of anger in her whenever she saw someone harming her friends. Well, one couldn’t call it anger. That was really just reserved for Jane. But her protectiveness certainly made her fiercer than she usually was. The people she loved were the best part of her, and if she lost them, she had nothing else to exist for. All of her energy went into making those around her were happy, and the war was not helping with that whatsoever.

Nor was it helping her project, which she now had to re-do thanks to the Fire student. She held no bitter feelings, though. All she did was move on and forget about it. Before doing anything about the plant, she needed to figure out something to do with the burns. The proverbial lightbulb going off in her head, she got a cup of ice and a plastic bag from the mess hall and used a vine to wrap around her arm and hold her makeshift icepack in place. With a triumphant grin as she walked toward the dorms, she said, ”An at-home fix it, you done good, Nells.” Of coruse, her personal bragging was not something she truly believed, but she didn’t linger long on that. Instead, she ate the bag of chips she’d gotten from the mess hall with the pot still cradled under her other arm. With her hands full, there was the frustrating instances of itches on her face, and she vainly tried to blow on her forehead to alleviate one, but merely succeeded in blowing up her bangs.

Despite her issues, she made it to the common room in enough record time and to see a familiar face to boot. ”Hola, Señor Dev,” she said rather cheerfully, practically floating in, in disjuncture with the fact that she had an icepack on her forearm and a burned plant in her hands. She set it on one of the tables and asked about his well-being first. ”Whatcha up to?” He was standing by the window, and she wondered if there was something of interest out there. She blinked, and then humorously jested, ”Except sky-gazing, of course.” Her attention fully on her friend, she steered her eyes away for a mokent to see a few books laying out. ”Those yours?” she inquired, tilting her head a bit.

She laughed as she waggled her fingers at Devin, in a very good mood despite having just been attacked. There was little that could bring Nell down, even though she had a murder trial coming up that she should be worried about. Jane wasn’t about to ease up in her torment, and so she had constant reminders of her eventual fate. All I have to do is not think. It was hard to do when her mind worked in circles the way it did, going over ideas as many times as possible, but repression was almost natural to her now. Even when the pain was in her arms, she was nonchalant in her behavior with Dev. She didn’t realize that he’d taken notice of her injury, because he’d went on in conversation. ”Winter is on its way, I suppose.” She didn’t sound upset by it, and she walked closer to the window to take a peak. Winter is on its way. The words were foreboding—December was now synonomous with ‘trial’ and she really needed to stop her thoughts from going there. Instead, she smile lazily at the clouds hanging in the sky as Dev made his statement. ”I guess so,” she chirped. ”I wonder if it’s going to snow…” It was nice to see the beauty in everything, as the Earth male seemed to do. A lot of the Earths hated on winter, but she enjoyed it save for the one little thing she’d have to deal with this year.

Devin seemed amused when he looked at the books, and she cast her eyes over to the books. She wore a pained expression as she said, ”Tough luck, holmes. What happened?” Nel gave him a skeptical look. ”Was it that notebook? I’ve seen it with my binder, I should have warned you.” It was amazing that she could pull a straight face, but she had it down. There was the give-away twinkle in her eyes, but she was otherwise faring well considering. However, she was interested enough to turn serious when she asked, ”S’pose you aren’t too fond of your homework,” she observed. Nell could relate, even though she hated to procrastinate. If she ever laid down homework and tried to do something else, her mind would just go back to the work that was sitting undone. She tilted to her head as if considering something. ”I guess it’s for the best,” the girl continued with her joke. The year was close to finishing up, and she felt the stress with her supplementary classes. All the while, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was even worth it. What if she ended up in jail? At least there was this taste of freedom, and she was hellbent on enjoying it while it lasted.

It looked like she wasn’t about to get away with blowing off her injury, because Dev decided to ask just then and she felt like a deer in the headlights. Of course, she had a good enough façade that it didn’t show. She wasn’t one to be sarcastic, otherwise she’d have told her friend ‘I didn’t do this to myself, thank you’. Instead, she told him with a bright smile, ”Ah, this Fire student just got a little territorial.” She was used to shrugging these things off, and thankfully she had a high-pain threshold to better her mask. ”Apparently didn’t like me bringing my flowers around his parts.” Nell said all this jokingly to further emphasize the point that she was all right and Devin needn’t worry. She understood that he could be protective, but it wouldn’t do since attacks were so common in this war. If she freaked out over every injury she received she’d probably give her more stress than was worth it. As she was deft at, she steered the talk away from her and said, ”Has the war been giving you any trouble?” There was obvious concern in her voice where it had been light and fluid before. Devin seemed to be fine on the outside, but one never knew. ”What am I saying, ‘course it has,” she sighed. ”Any injuries on your part, though?” Talking about it like this made it easier to brush off her injuries—it happened to everyone, so hey, let’s not scream and panic. Of course, she’d be speaking to anyone who messed with Dev. A little bit hypocritical, but that was all right.

With a soft smile on her face, she joked with Devin, ”Well, unless we can phone up mother nature and tell her to quit it, I s’pose not.” She enjoyed watching the seasons run their course. It was still so brand new to her. This was the first autumn that she could really enjoy without fear of staying out in the open too long. If her mother had ever found out about her sneaking out… Nell didn’t let her thoughts travel to that place. All she knew was that she loved any season because she loved this world and whatever it threw at her. Snow included. Speaking of snow, apparently Josh had said that it was expected by the end of the week. ”I wonder how much we’ll get,” she said. She liked to watch the news before going out to do anything, so she knew what traffic was like and how the weather would turn out. Especially before going to work—it was always nice to be prepared. ”If we get a lot, I’ll be out making snowmen. And little igloos, like every proud Canadian does.” She was still not very used to Canadian winters. She was a city girl with Earth elemental sensibilities. So far, she’d only had to suffer through one winter when she first came to the country. It was when she built her first snowman with Ashton, and then another with Dani. Her first snowball fight, too. Though she had yet to build an igloo…

Nell didn’t ask what else it was that Devin had on his mind, as he explained when he caught sight of those apparently wretched books. Her philosophy was that if he wanted her to know, he’d tell her. So she left him to his privacy as she appreciated when anyone did the same for her, and simply said, ”I feel ya. Everyone needs a break.” She didn’t know anyone who could actually enjoy schoolwork. There was Josh, but otherwise she was certain that no one got a thrill out of their hand cramping out from having to take notes. There were subjects that she enjoyed, and she always pushed through her work, but of course she’d prefer more time for play. She felt as if she were always busy—though she rarely complained, even to herself—but she always persevered like a good little student. Apparently, though, Devin was having a tough time. She breathed a laugh at Devin’s humor, a welcome relief from the stress that was usually plaguing her. Especially now that she’d been attacked. ”Something better?” she reiterated as if shocked. ”I think not. She lost something very good.”Even though she said this jokingly, she winked to show him that this comment could also be taken in all seriousness. She thought highly of Devin, and if this were a real situation, then she’d be doing her best to reassure him that he was a great guy. ”There’s plenty of fish in the sea,” she assured him, patting his shoulder with her bright smile still affixed to her face. She wasn’t about to scold him and tell him to do his work, because that would be strange. And she believed in what she’d said—everyone needs a break once in a while.

She was glad when he didn’t press on the subject or force her to go to the medical wing. The girl didn’t like being forced to do anything. However, she was more independent than rebellious. One person had too much control in her life before, and it terrified her to imagine having to go through that again. So her relief was apparent when she said, ”My survival skills have saved me once again. I should be a girl scout. Or get a show. ‘Nell’s Adventures in the Wild.’” She didn’t like to talk about herself seriously, but when she was joking she was certainly fine with using herself as the butt of it. And even though she sounded confident, she had a lot of survival skills thanks to a book she used to read when sneaking out. When living with her mother, it seemed necessary. But she didn’t think herself good enough at anything to get her own show. ”I don’t imagine any Fire would appreciate having a collar around their neck.” They were the ones with the tempers, after all, but they also seemed to have this pack mentality going for them. It was scary sometimes, especially when you were their enemy. She was lucky it was only one she had to deal with—they liked to attack like wolves most of the time. ”I don’t know, I’ve seen some pretty flamboyant flowers,” she said lightly when Devin went over and held her dead plant. It was almost heartbreaking to look at, but she’d get on that soon.

Right now, she was more concerned about Devin and how he’d been holding up. Her expression softened from her wide-eyed, worried look when he assured her that he was okay when it came to injuries. ”That’s good,” she said, another relieved note entering her voice. She didn’t like to see her friends hurt in any way. But when he told her about the incident with the Thunder student, she winced and let out a heavy breath. ”Jeez, this war is ridiculous,” she said, a hard edge to her voice that wasn’t anger. She rarely came near anger. She blinked at Devin and saw that the bruise was no longer there, so it must have been a while ago, but that didn’t make her chest hurt any less when thinking about it. In all honesty, she was attached to her friends in the way that they were basically her existence. She lived to make sure they were okay. And it made her feel powerless to know there was no real way to help even Devin. She couldn’t end this war, she didn’t even understand how it reall happened. ”I guess you have experience in this, though, haven’t you?” she said, speaking of the fact that he’d been attending the Academy longer than her. It was ironic considering that he was younger, but she’d just enrolled this year. And what Devin didn’t know was that it was as a fugitive. ”Just promise that you’ll take care of yourself if anything else happens to you. Or come to me, since we all know how much of a medical expert I am.” She motioned to her arm, though she was completely serious. She was always there for Dev, whether he realized this or not.

Nell rolled her eyes at Devin. ”Mhmm, well you get on that, vato,” she said wrly. Spanglish was becoming almost natural for her now, thanks to the fact that conversations with her father were usually entirely in Spanish. And she was glad that people didn’t get as offended as she thought they would—most just ignored it, since they knew that it wasn’t a vital part of the conversation. However, she knew doing what her grandparents always did would not be very kind. Entire conversations in a language someone did not understand was very rude, and something she did not like to do, unless she was messing with her aunt. Nell leaned against the couch Devin had sat down on, placing her hands on the back of it as she tapped her shoes against the floor. It was difficult for her to remain completely still. ”What, you think I was going to exclude you from my snowplay? Silly Dev,” she chided lately. ”Depending on how much snow we get, construct our being of snow soon.” You won’t be around for too long during the winter. And maybe never again. Lately, it seemed she couldn’t stop her thoughts from going to dark places. She wondered if she should mention to Dev that she was going to be leaving for—what was expected to be—a few weeks. If things didn’t work out…much longer. Of course, what she was telling her close friends, the ones who would notice her absence (hopefully), was that she was going on vacation. She just wondered when she should bring that up to Devin, if at all.

I might have to leave this place. Oddly enough, Canada had become more of a home to her than New York ever was, even though she knew the city she grew up in to be much better than what she’d experienced. The Academy had been her new beginning, and now it may be the only taste of freedom she’d get. ”You can do whatever you want,” she said in that appeasing motherly voice as she ruffled Dev’s hair. ”Hey, we could have an igloo-building competition.” She actually didn’t know how igloos were made, but that was just a technicality. She was always up for fun, especially with the limited time she had left. Nell was going to soak up everything she could before she had to fly to New York and sit in that courtroom to face the strangers who’d be decided what she deserved.

Nell didn’t really have a clue about Marianna. She figured that Dev might be going out with someone, but she was always at the ready with sincere compliments. When there was an ego that needed to be fed, she’d be there with her honesty. And Dev looked so sad right then, that she wanted to shower him with all the compliments she could devise. No one should be sad like that. ”Of course I’m right, I’m always right,” she said, flipping her bangs out of her face. She would have done a whole-hair flip for effect if she didn’t have her hair clipped up. ”Shame on you for doubting me.” Nell smiled to show that even though she was saying this as breezily as any conversation turned out with her, but her words—as always—were genuine. She had great faith in Devin. ”I don’t know if I can pull that off. Thinking of sticking with a stereotypical Latino accent. Or thickneing my New York one.” She lapsed into a stereotypical dialect, gesturing with her hands in exasperastion as she said, ”I’ve been shleping for hours through this swamp, and what do I find? It’s a freaking alligator gnawing my arm! I’m shvitzing right now.” It would be rather ironic for a city accent to be found in a survival accent.

It was ironic that a pacifist like her had a life filled with violence up until almost a year ago. She wished that it didn’t exist in the world, and though she may be naïve, she was not that ignorant. Some people reacted to events with violence when differences came into play, and there was nothing they could really do to change that. World peace may have been something people strived for, but as long as people had differences, it would be near impossible. Still, the world was a bright place for Nell, because she knew that anything she went through now was better than what she’d come from. It was a dogma of hers. ”We’ll just have to endure,” she said with a bright smile on her face. ”We might not be able to fix anything, but as long as we do have each other’s backs, we’ll be good.” She was lucky in the last war that the meeting with Alexandre had worked out and gotten the Fires to back down. After that, the Thunders had been ganged up on and their hunt for her blood had ended and months of stress were pretty much over with. Of course, the alliance was still bitter and she was sure not many of them liked her, but as long as they were no longer trying to kill her, that was pretty damn good.

Devin went into his rhyme, and she shook her head in an amused expression. The war for her was definitely made better by his presence in the dorm. Of course, she had an apartment and a cat to return to—and also a boyfriend—so she wasn’t living in the dorms, but it was still a safe place to hang out. The Earth boy definitely had the right idea. She smirked when he mentioned that sticking a needle in his eye would not be a good idea. ”Yeah, that’s just a little counterproductive,” she joked. ”That rhyme is a little too ironic for this situation. Pinky promise?” She waggled her pinky. Since they were sticking to childish antics, she had one of her own. Nell didn’t have much experience with childhood games and the such, and even though she wouldn’t admit it since it sounded strange, the rhyme Devin had used was one she only became aware of later in life. She felt like her growth had been stunted thanks to the lack of a childhood.

Nell shook her head emphatically. ”Nope, nope. It can be a whole party of peeps thing.” She and Josh did a lot of things together, but it wasn’t like she would exclude her friends from anything. Well, unless her boyfriend had a problem with them and it would be safer to keep two people apart. She knew that they didn’t have all their friends in common, and that was okay. They had Devin, at least, and she was pretty sure Josh would be chill with him coming to do something. They weren’t just a couple who only hung out together, after all. ”And hey. You can ring up your people, I’ll ring up my people, we can have our people meet. It’ll be real fun.” Nell held her fingers in the universal sign for a phone. She was pretty serious, actually. She enjoyed large groups of people and hated being alone for anything. ”Do you have anyone in mind that you want to bring along?” Nell teased him, waggling her eyebrows. Being carefree was something they could both share in common, and it made it easier for the two of them to be childish, she supposed. She liked being childish, because she never had the chance to be one back when she was younger.

Swatting Devin’s hand away, she said, ”Touche.” She had been doubting his doubting abilities. ”But I shall never doubt your redundancy abilities again, either.” It was nice to be able to joke like this with Devin in the light of a war. That’s what friends did, after all—cheered each other up without even trying. And Nell’s friends always did a very good job of doing that for her, even when she had an ice pack on her arm and the sting of the burn was not all lost on her. She might have a high-pain threshold, but it didn’t make her immune to injuries at all. Nell just didn’t let it show, refused to show whenever she was in pain. Because she’d get over it. Whatever happened to her now would be better than she’d ever had before. She snorted as he rolled over like a puppy dog. ”You’ll be a few of them?” Nell questioned with a wide grin. ”I never knew that you knew how to do mitosis and split yourself apart.” She pursed her lips as if thinking about it still moving her legs around. ”I’ll think about it. Gotta contact the Travel channel, pitch them my ideas.” If she were to seriously consider, she knew that she didn’t have a chance of being great. But that was okay. She was sure Devin had a big chance at making something of himself.

She roped an arm around his shoulder when he pulled her into a hug. The girl understood that Devin was a huggly kind of person, and she definitely didn’t mind. She was affectionate, too. Except when it came to the people who didn’t like to be touched. It was easy to discriminate rather quickly, however. But when it was for being reassured by a friend, she was certain that everybody liked physical comfort. She didn’t know what to say to the fact that she was an awesome and good friend, but she did chuckle when he mentioned Josh. A thought came to mind, but she hesitated before speaking it aloud, though it was just a brief moment. If she said it, she’d be revealing something about Josh that he’d seemed uncomfortable in admitting to her before they were even friends. He and Dev are tight. ”He’s a vegetarian,” she pointed out when he mentioned being eaten by the Fire graduate, grinning. She really didn’t talk much about Joshua, but it was better when it was with someone who she knew her boyfriend trusted. Nell held up her hands in surrender, ”I ain’t a hater.”

Smiling when Devin took her pinky, they hooked them together and she told him, ”And if you break our promise, may the plague descend upon your house.” Moving around the couch, she dropped to her knees in front of what once had been a plant, scrunching her lips together in thought. Instead of talknig about what she was going to do with the pot, she asked Devin, ”So you have anything else planned for today instead of procrastinating?” She tilteed her head to sen him a cheery smile, showing that she wasn’t even poking fun at his choice to ignore work. Nell actually wanted to get her plant back not only for the grade, but because it really did hurt to see it all…burnt and withered.

The Earth girl noticed Dev’s shift in expression, the happiness falling from his face for a moment like turning over a bottle and draining out the water. ”What’s up?” she asked with some concern. If she didn’t get a real answer, that would certainly be okay. It was probably just her being paranoid or something, anyway. She didn’t want a key to her friend’s innermost thoughts, she was just hoping that hedidn’t suddenly feel bad about something. Either way, it was left as an open answer for him to either answer or wave away. He brought up a name that sounded a bit familiar, and paused a few moments to think about it. ”Harley? You mean the Fire girl?” They had met briefly during the war, after she saved her butt from a Fire student who’d actually meant her harm. Nell found out that the girl had ditched her element because she trusted Josh more than she trusted the alliance, and the Earth student was thankful to know that somebody had common sense. ”I’m guessing she took our side again?” Otherwise, she didn’t think Devin would be reckless enough to get caught up with a Fire, especially uring a war. It would end up getting both of them hurt, most likely. Instead of asking more questions, she smiled at him and said, ”I’m sure she’s interested,” she said with a teasing tone, moving her eyes up in a mischevious expression.

Nell rolled her eyes as she shifted the ice pack on her arm so it better covered the burn. If she had gone to the medical wing and had it treated, it would have disappeared quickly enough, with only a temporary red mark to show for it. But now it would fade slowly with time, probably leaving an unattractive white mark for a while. She didn’t mind much—as long as she didn’t die from it, she was okay. ”I can tell,” the girl remarked about Dev’s redundancy powers, smirking a bit. She resisted wincing when she felt the stinging sensation in her arm intensify for a moment, as if reminding her that she was injured. You’ve been through worse. Mind over matter, that’s all it took. Reminding herself that she’d been in more physical pain than this before helped steel herself against it. ”I’m counting on ya, D,” she told him seriously, tilting her head and nodding. She’d count on him for anything, but it would be interesting to see if he had the ablility to get her a show on cable television. It almost made her want to take it seriously. Nell mussed up the black of her clipped up hair and said, ”I don’t think you have anything to worry about.” She and Josh really were protective over one another, but she trusted Devin.

Speaking of trust, she also trusted him to keep his promises. And okay, she definitey trusted too easily all the time. If someone charmed her with good mannerisms and smiles, she trusted them. If someone betrayed her—and her, not someone she cared about—she would give them a second chance. She was just as easily manipulated, as long as it wasn’t against any of her morals. Nell just wanted to make people happy, wanted them to be happy. So as long she cared about Devin and he further proved just how good a person he was, then she would trust him. After all, for her, it was better to trust too easily than to not trust at all. That was what happened to her mother. The woman had closed herself off from the world because she’d put her trust in people that ended up betraying her. Nell would rather have her heart broken a thousand times ever than to never allow herself to trust again. ”Good, then when I tell you my secrets, I won’t have to go all Men In Black on you and erase your memories.” Hypothetical, of course. Nell never told her secrets, never talked about herself. There was a lot that Devin didn’t know about her. Hell, he didn’t even know if she had parents or not. And she knew that shouldn’t matter in a friendship. Two people didn’t need to know everything about each other in order to form a bond. ”And I’m serious about the plague.” Nell raised her eyebrows when she looked at the boy.

As she tapped her fingers against her chin, she listened to what Dev was saying before turning her playful brown eyes on him. ”Sounds like you have a pretty full schedule, hopefully you can pack that all into one day.” She herself had a few things to do after school, actually, including work. Nell could never be satisfied with sitting around and doing nothing—she had far too much energy to be kept sitting still at all times.Even when she was on her knees in front of her plant, she had to be doing something, which meant focusing her eyes on the poor thing. ”If you want, knock yourself out,” she offered. She wasn’t going to be a snob and tell him to stay the heck away from her project and she could do it all by herself. She was independent, but if her friend wanted to do something, she’d let him. To explain what she was doing, she said, ”We are supposed to accelerate plant growth, and I had a spider plant that looked like it’d been growing for a few weeks before…well, yeah.” there was no need to explain what happened, and as she moved her hand up to see if she could at least revive it, she felt a few drops of water fall on her leg. The ice pack was melting slowly, but she’d take care of that after the plant. The damage to the plant was too great to even attempt regrowth, so she told Dev, ”I think I might need to go out and get some more dirt. A new plant will be in order.”

Nell nodded in acknowledgment. There was the very good possibility that several Harleys were running around the Academy, but she figured that chances are there might just be one in the Fire element. It worried her a bit, for Devin’s sake, even though the redhead might have ditched her element again. Coming into the Academy at the beginning of the year—it seems so long ago now, look at how much has changed—she didn’t really have a clue about the alliances or even the elements. She never knew about her father because he’d never used his powers around her, she just figured it out when she met the Sinclairs and Fuenteses who harbored an age-old grudge toward each other and both hated the black sheep that was Nell. However, the first war did well to erase most of her naivete. She was now careful about what she did and who she interacted with. Of course, there was Josh, but they had met under…special circumstances. And she thought that almost being shanked by him outside of a bar was a special circumstance. And he had ended up betraying his element, as well, and she felt bad about that no matter what. ”Hopefully so. It’s not very safe to be going outside of either of you guys going outside of alliances during the war.” She wasn’t about to give him a long lecture, however, noting how he seemed to be acting a bit strange, even though he saved face by the end. She offered him a smile to help lighten him up, but she didn’t pry any further—it was his prerogative, whether he wanted her to know or not.

She was glad to have someone who wouldn’t let her down, even though she wasn’t really worried about herself. But still, she was used to being disappointed and hurt, but she still liked to put her trust in people like Devin. If she didn’t, well…it was a scary thought. She playfully rolled her eyes at Devin’s remark. ”Because you’re just so incredibly awesome,” she said. Actually, it was true—he was pretty fucking awesome. She always thought highly of her friends and the people she liked, and she wasn’t shy about it. The girl was very good for those with egos and lack of self-esteem. If she felt it was needed, she would remind her friends just how awesome she thoughht they were. He seemed to waver at her comment, and she only laughed. No, Nell would never wish harm on another. Ever. Even with her aunt, she never thought that she would like to see her dead or anything of the sort. And she’d never go out of her way to hurt someone.

Nell fisted her hand against her mouth in thought, listening to Dev’s words. Yes, this particular Fire student quite enjoyed proclamation like that. ”Well, live and let live,” she said with a light sigh to show that she was willing to move on and wasn’t going to focus on the fact that some trollish dude sent her project up in flames. ”Or in this case, live and let die.” The song came to mind, but she resisted breaking out singing. She had pretty good restraint. Dropping her hand, she smiled at Dev and said. ”Well, are you willing to make room in your schedule for a little outing?” Nell would rather work on her project outside, after all, because even though the common rooms were full of flowers and earthen tone, she liked wide open spaces. She held up her arm, and shook the now water-filled Ziploc bag. ”And I need to stop by the mess hall and get more ice.” And quite possibly food, of course, since it was near impossible for her to be around food and not eat. She picked up her plant from the table and held it against her chest, starting on the way out of the dorms and toward the mess hall, making sure to keep an eye out for anyone who might have foul intent. In the mess hall, she got her ice and refilled the bag, then headed toward the main doors of the building. ”You have any preference?” she asked Devin, and not just to be polite but because she would rather have his opinion more than anything. ”Garden, the lawn, the lake…?”