Alicia stiffened and went silent, as if she was unable to cope with what had been said to her. Kind of like those computers he had seen sometimes, when they sometimes processed information and failed with the work overload, jamming completely. Joa followed each stage of her embarrassment with curiosity, studying the little girl like some sort of experiment. After that she looked down on her feet and shuffled them around, stuttering bashfully as a rosy red of her blush started coloring her cheeks. Joa almost couldn't hear her over his inner fanboy squeal how cute she was.
"W-well no not really... T-this is how I normally look honestly. But I'm glad you like it!" She looks up and beams him a smile. It was quite contagious, and despite his groggy condition, the tired boy couldn't help but smile right back at her. There was something special about Alicia Winters; suddenly he didn't feel even half as cranky. But then she looks him over, and the scarred boy couldn't help but feel being scrutinized under her sharp gaze. He frowns, and looks himself up and down, wondering if there's something wrong with his choice of pajamas that he still hadn't had the time to change out of.
"I uh... I have a brush if you want to use it. It might make your hair a bit more tame if you care about that..."
"Oh." He mumbles, the frown still present on his marred face, but it melts soon off into a sort of sheepish smile.
"Trust me, unless your brush does magic, there's no helping this mess. I'm a lost case. At best, it's probably only gonna get worse." He let out a chuckle that sounded a bit embarrassed, and his gaze turned just then towards a shadowy looming figure at the edge of their little rescue group. It was a dark haired boy who was wearing all black along with a expression similar in tone as his clothing, as if he would have been offended by something as his gaze jumped between Joa and the blond boy. Joa's laugh drifted off as he frowned at the guy in confusion. What was his problem?
He should have probably focused on the task at hand instead, and he could have probably caught the ginger girl in time. Instead, his attention was preoccupied and he missed the sudden change until it was too late. He wasn't aware that the blond boy had put his hands apparently somewhere where they weren't supposed to be on the girl's body (uh, wait, that sounds very bad out of context) and suddenly she just made this incredibly loud and shrill noise and flat out fell from her suspended state, crashing with her full weight on top of the other boy. Joa got quite a shock, jumping backwards with wide eyes as he stared at the predicament of the two teenagers sprawled on the floor on top of each other like a stack of human pancakes. The more unfortunate of the two (at this point he wasn't entirely sure which poor sucker won
that lottery) let out a pained groan.
"Wha--?" Joa barely managed to get out before the redhead had scrambled off the other boy, managed to knee him in the gut or something in her hurry and made the kid wheeze out in pain and curl on the floor like a fetus, and planted herself as close to a wall as possible, her feet skidding along on the floor what would have been comical, had Joa not been so surprised by everything that he would have remembered to laugh. The girl had frozen in place by the wall like a deer caught in headlights.
"DUDE, I'm really ticklish, be careful..." She let out a warning complain. A bit too little too late there, Joa wanted to say, already raising his finger up to do so and opened his mouth, but then decided for the better of it and shut his mouth, moving his hand to scratch the back of his neck somewhat awkwardly. He wasn't entirely sure how to proceed with this situation.
"Christ." The blond kid on the floor kept wheezing. Joa did have to hand it to the boy, that all did look pretty painful. If it would have been him in his shoes, he would have been probably letting out something a little bit more colorful out of his mouth than the name of the Messiah. However, many did not take it well for sullying the name of the son of God, and so did the boy on the floor seem to realize.
"Sorry... Won't happen again."
Joa just shrugged at that, not really caring one way or another. Blondie sat back up, muttering to mostly himself in irritation,
"Is this 'haze the new guy' time?" he asked no one in particular,
"Is that why people keep trying to bruise me?"
"Mm... maybe?" Came the haphazard response from the ginger. Joa wasn't entirely sure what that was even supposed to mean. But so seemed the girl be just as lost with her own choice of words by how quick she exited herself right after that, in a hurry to leave, not stopping to look back or make sure the other of her helpers was alright. And not even caring enough to mutter a thank you or apology. Joa couldn't help but frown at that behavior as a whole. What was up with that?
"You're welcome!" He sarcastically called after the girl's withdrawing back, not managing to keep his gob shut any further. That just did kind of piss him off a bit. The irritation washed briefly over his features, but was gone soon enough as he approached the fair haired boy on the floor, and offered his hand. At least someone should show at least some manners here and a good spirit.
"You okay, man? That was quite the hit. Er, couple of them, aight. I guess we new guys need to stick together, eh? 'S all we got." His southern drawl was popping up again, the only sign of his annoyance that was rippling under the surface. Before pulling the guy up, he stopped for a second and pointed his scarred face, managing a dry half-smile.
"Don't worry, these aren't from getting hazed over here."
From the corner of his eye, he glanced at the dark haired boy still looming about.
