Footloose(Open)

[Ocean Abbott]

What had it been a few days. Or a week at this school? Ocean thought about those days. He'd met a few nice people. Wanted to hang out some with them. Wanted to go clubbing. If he could swing it. As he sat in the great hall. Surrounded by Hufflepuff students Ocean sighed.

Not that his house wasn't exciting. His housemates just. Well. Most of them weren't his type of friend. Not that being boring was a crime. But it should be. Staid and true worked in dance. But excitement was still needed. If it was all the same tempo. Ballet would never sell a seat.

Ocean turned on a wireless that he had with him. Contemplating his actions. He couldn't help it. He turned the wireless higher. This school needed some excitement. In the none booty call way. He had heard far to much gossip in the past days.

A deep breath. Ocean closed his eyes. Twisted the knob on his wireless again. He hopped up on the table. Feet tapping. Arms moving. So it wasn't ballet. But a great hall at lunch didn't need one. He was in tune with the music. Pointing to other students. Encouraging them to dance with him.

[Quinn Ashwinder]

Keeping her head down was Quinn's new philosophy. She hadn't been allowed back to see Lyric yet, and there were rumors flying around about how horrible a person she was. Who had started them was anyone's guess, but she had a feeling she knew who it was. She wanted to dwell on the unfairness of this, but for the moment she was free from her past. It still haunted and followed her, but the bodyguard that escorted her to her shop everyday was a relief.

For some reason she decided to actually sit in the great hall for lunch today. Who know what had prompted that, but when music started her head lifted slightly, looking for the source. When it wasn't immediate, she almost dismissed it, except that it grew louder. Her eyes searched for the root again, snagging on a blonde boy who had just stepped up onto a table.

The corner of her lip curved as she watched him move with the beat, even though he sat across the room from her. A few students started moving with him, thought none stepped onto the table with him. Quinn stuck strands of hair behind her ear, thinking about it for a moment, before she stood and allowed her feet to drift towards the Hufflepuff tables.

[Ocean Abbott]

Slow. So slow. Ocean kept moving. At least a few hufflepuff's were moving now. At his old school his friends would have backed him up. There would have been four to five people on the table. The more people, the faster the crowd got caught up. The music shifted, playing a new song. Ocean flowed with it. He noticed a few more people wandering. Perhaps curious to his table from other tables.

[Quinn Ashwinder]

A small chuckle breathed out of Quinn's lips as she watched the boy dance across the table. Watched the shift of his hair against his face, the soft curve of his lips. She lowered her eyes thinking that it hadn't been so long ago that she'd been with Lyric. That thought had another chasing through her mind. What did being with Lyric mean? After a couple sessions with Kane, Quinn felt a bit more confident in herself, and while she couldn't regret anything she had done with Lyric, she couldn't say it was going anywhere.

Quinn tilted her head, she decided that perhaps she would allow herself to move beyond Lyric. Not as a friend, but as someone that allowed him to feel without consequence. Wasn't that life, being able to feel, and feeling the consequence of it as well. She was only seventeen, barely, she had a lifetime ahead of her. Sure she wanted to be married and have a family, but she needed to have a healthy relationship first. Lyric kept her head in the clouds, to busy worrying about him to deal with herself.

For a while she had liked it. When she had started school she had needed to share, until it had run everyone away. Quinn stopped in front of the Hufflepuff table, a crowd of other students flocking closer to the table. She wanted to hide that dark part of herself, but not where she couldn't see it, like she did with Lyric. Rather, she wanted to function in the world, have a normal boyfriend, a normal life. A guy who might call her his girlfriend would be nice to. Maybe this boy, this cute boy that was the opposite of Lyric. Bright vs. dark, outgoing vs. shy. Maybe she was dreaming, but he was casting a web of dreams. He seemed so worldly, different than anything she had ever known.

[Ocean Abbott]

Ocean allowed his grin to curve to a smirk. This was more like it. There were girls and boys lining around the table. Some were cautious. Others not. Hopefully the teachers wouldn't notice. At least not to soon. Holding his hand out he caught a boy and a girl up onto the table. Then held his hand out to a red-haired slender girl.

[Quinn Ashwinder]

Quinn felt a blush fly over her face as she took the boy's hand. She wasn't sure why she was feeling shy, she'd danced with Lyric. That thought brought a lot of other connotations. It didn't take much effort to let her hand linger just a bit longer than he might strictly have liked. Why did it feel like she should be quiet, stand still?

Even as she was standing on the table, the boy and other students up on the tables dancing around her, she couldn't move her feet. She felt frozen, scared, and not in a way she ever had before. After massively failing at the social thing, over the past few weeks Quinn had started to withdraw into a shell. She wanted, needed to talk to Markise, see Lyric, spend time with someone that she had a connection with. Or make new ones she thought.

[Ocean Abbott]

As the music shifted so did Ocean. Encouraging. Directing the student body. His head searched for faculty. Deciding he probably wouldn't have much more time. His gaze swung. Caught on the petite red-head. She'd taken that hand. Why wasn't she dancing? Ocean allowed his steps to shift close to her. He lowered his voice, "want to dance?" His tone was low. He didn't understand his unconscious flirt. People told him. But it was natural. It came without his knowledge.

[Quinn Ashwinder]

The immediate flaming of Quinn's face was masked by her hair. One reason she kept it long, she supposed. Somehow, she managed a jerky nod, her eyes catching on his face, at the curve of his lips, and she thought she was going to die. Even when she felt breathless around Lyric, she supposed she didn't feel like this. Or if she did, she didn't remember it, amidst the wash of other sensations provided when she had joined him.

Quinn wondered if she shouldn't be going to see Kane again, talk to him about what she'd done with Lyric. How it made her feel, how she didn't want to leave him, for many attachments, but how she knew somehow in her heart that it wasn't going anywhere. Could she make it go anywhere? Didn't she need Lyric's cooperation for that? "Yeah..I like to dance."

[Ocean Abbott]

Ocean leaned his head closer to the girl. "Then dance." He whispered. Ocean gave a slow demonstration. His hips shifting. His arms moving with the beat. He turned towards her. His eyebrow raised. Expectant.

[Dahlia Alexander]

All at once there was a flash of light and the music stopped. This had only gone on as long as it had because the other professors were apparently too deep in shock to actually do anything. So she took it on herself to fix the mess.

Her open robes flapped behind her as she rounded the staff table, wand still at the ready. Her blouse and fitted skirt clung to her as her heels clicked a rapid tattoo on the stone floor. "Mr. Abbott, I believe," she said, stopping beside him. "I suggest you return to the floor now." Her gaze swung around the room. "Same for the rest of you!" she snapped. "Clear the hall in less than a minute or you've all got detention! Except you, Mr. Abbott. We're going to have a little chat."

[Quinn Ashwinder]

Quinn stared in shock for half a moment, spared a quick glance to Ocean, and then scurried off the table. If she could avoid detention she would. After what had happened with Lyric she needed desperately to keep her nose clean. She'd only avoided ramifications because they hadn't physically caught her and she'd confessed, helped Lyric.

[Ocean Abbott]

Not a glance was spared. Ocean thought it was typical. They were fleeing. His friends wouldn't have done that. Left a man alone. Whatever. Ocean flashed a grin, held out a hand for the petite professor. "You want to dance? Looks like a spot just opened up." He gestured to beside himself. A tune hummed out of his lips.

[Dahlia Alexander]

Dahlia's lips curved into a sweet, childlike smile as she looked up at the boy. "Oh yes," she cooed, "I'd be delighted. Her lips formed a little moue of disappointment. "But you know, professors are so old and decrepit, it would be a shame if I broke my hip, don't you think?" She reached up and set her hand delicately in his. Then, all at once she pulled. Hard. And she didn't intend to let go until he was on the floor.

[Ocean Abbott]

Ocean tried not to grunt. Shock. That was the best description. Think on your feet Ocean. Years of dancing allowed him to land. Without a single broken bone. Instead of yelling. Ranting. He kept smiling. He leaned down just a bit. His lips landing on her cheek. "You're not that old."

[Dahlia Alexander]

"Detention," Dahlia said firmly. "For a week. Keep being a smart-ass and we'll go to the end of the year." All traces of her false humor was gone. "Get out of my sight, and be in the detention room at six p.m." There was no reasoning with kids that cocky. He could take his punishment and be done with it. Until his parents got their owl, then they could deal with him.