Day 1: Introductions

Miranda nodded. "There was an announcement so I'm pretty sure it will be! We all must be hungry too!" She gave Claire a smile.

"Though I'm pretty hungry to know why we have these bracelets." She picked at the strap. "Maybe hungry's not the right word..."

Dark clenched his fists under the table while listening to Jason. He took a long time to respond. "Not sleeping. And I am liking it." He didn't open his eyes at all.

Shock hit Martin when he realized he was the last to arrive. "Late!" He berated himself, balling his hands into fists. There wasn't much choice of where to sit at this point, and so he gloomily walked towards the chair.

Antoine rested his arm across the back of his chair and looked towards Lisa.

"Ah, sweetie, I could have helped! Next time let me, okay?"

Lisa shot Antoine a fairly angry look.

"What, do you think I'm a helpless kid because I can't walk?  If there's something I can do, it's sit in a chair."

She paused for a moment, frowning, before looking away awkwardly and playing with her ponytail, turning to Jordan.

"Ah!  Hi again!"

Caleb couldn't help but toss a pitying glance at the scout. The horror of being late was something he could sympathize with. It took him a moment before he noticed the very obvious gap between them.

"Say, isn't the cobalt-clad lad supposed to be here?" he said to Jason.

Claire was going to respond to Miranda, but seemed nervous and ended up just biting her lip and nodding quickly. She looked embarrassed with herself.

Jason stiffened at the long silence before Dark answered. He stared ahead, trying to keep calm but not being good at it.

"I'll... stop bothering you then." He said, his voice slightly shaky, falling silent.

Martin turned to Antoine, seeing he was talking to his new friend. Noting her anger he responded similarly, "Antoine, yes?" his tone was fairly scathing.

Cobalt perked up when Caleb mentioned his name.

"Never fear! I am always here! I am simply short, and easy to miss on occasion." He smiled weakly and laughed as heartily as a thirteen-year-old could.

Jason was cut off by Cobalt the second he opened his mouth to speak so instead he decided to laugh. "That answers your question, I think!"

Antoine looked towards Martin out of the corner of his eye.

"Ah, come on, that's rude! We only just met, no need for the hostility. Aren't you scouts supposed to be model individuals?" He said, smiling and gritting his teeth.

Once everyone was congregated in the dining hall, a strange clatter could be heard in the kitchen.

"Just a moment, students! And stop arguing! You're all friends, aren't you?" called a familiar voice from inside.

After a dozen more seconds, the doors erupted outwards, and standing there with an overfilled tray above it's head was...

...a bear. A small, robotic bear, carring far too much for it's size, and yet managing somehow to keep it steady. It looked hilarious.

"Here we are! Dinner is served!" It chirped mechanically, carefully setting down tons upon tons of entrees and appetizers of every type and size on the table. "Eat up, now! I'm a bear, so I don't eat this food."

After it set down the collection of food, it hobbled back into the kitchen and grabbed plates, forks, knives and spoons and set them out slowly, each in front of every student. "Does this make me a steward? What a demotion." it mused.

It sat down at the head of the table - the chair was bigger than the rest, and laughed once more.

"Welcome, once again, to your class retreat! In case you've somehow forgotten, I am your headmaster, Mister Monobear!"

Jaden raised an eyebrow. "What kinda headmaster's a bear?" he said aloud. "Eh, whatever. Can we eat?" He was already going for a helping of pumpkin bread and chicken wings.

Food!

Aris ignored all the dialogue, waiting for the bear to shut up before piling everything she could onto her plate as fast as a hungry cop could, and before anyone else managed to snatch her food. As soon as she had a decent amount of food on her plate, she dug in, relishing every bite.

Cobalt stretched for the dish in front of him, placing some of the chicken fingers on his plate.

"Thanks, Mr. Monobear!" He yelled. As he was about to eat, fork and knife in hand, he stopped to look about and see what the others chose to do.

Ruby stared completely dumbfounded at the little bear that was parading around serving everyone.

"You..." her voice trailed off.

She turned to Dark and said not-so-subtly,"That björnen is our headmaster??"

Antoine didn't wait for Martin to respond, and eyed the food, crossing his arms.

"What's with the bear? That's not funny."

He surveyed the spread, raising an eyebrow.

"If there's one thing the people who own this place don't know, it's comedy."

Martin stared blankly at Antoine for a few seconds, his lips quivering slightly. "You...wouldn't know anything about that." He spun his head around at the sight of monobear and nearly stood up. "I-is this a joke!?" He then turned his stare to the food. "Is...this real?" He poked a potato with his fork. It was real.

Before questioning anything, Lisa placed some chicken salad on her plate. She then craned her neck to look at the bear.

"You're cute and everything, but when do we meet the real owners? Or headmaster? Or adult?" She raised her fork to her mouth and took a small bite.

Jason had to suppress a laugh at the oddity of the bear. "I've seen some weird stuff in my time, but this might just be one of the oddest." he said quietly. "What a weird...mascot? School mascot, probably."

He looked at all the food around him and absently licked his lips. "Don't mind if I do." he said, grabbing a hamburger and taking a bite. As he swallowed, he laughed. "Oh my god, I've seen heaven!"

Miranda blinked. "Aww, cute bear! Hello!" She gave the headmaster a little wave, before looking out at the selection in front of her.

She took some small Hors d'oeuvres for her plate, eating them as daintily as she picked them up.

Jordan smiled at Lisa, "Hello!"

"Looks like we can get a proper introduction now," she nodded, also turning to Aris, "We're classmates after all. If this...is a school, that is."

She doubted that statement as a bear served them dinner. "Food's food," she shrugged, carefully piling food on her plate, which was difficult to do when sitting next to a ravenous cop.

Dark eyed the food on the table with a disinterested expression. He didn't bother putting any of the good-looking food on his plate, and instead grabbed a pitcher of water to fill his glass and pushed his plate further into the table.

Caleb rolled up his sleeves and laid his napkin across his lap.

"Thank you so very much, Mr. Monobear," he said politely as food was piled onto his plate. Famished as he was, Caleb still took his time cutting his food into tiny pieces and finally popping a forkful in his mouth.

As he swallowed a bite, his face lit up.

"Oh my, this is absolutely scrumptious! Finer food could not be found on Olympus itself!"