Gio chuckled good-humoredly. "Don't apologize. I wasn't exactly being specific. About the mission thing or whatever. What do you think?"

He searched his mountain of a tray for something he actually wanted - ah, pizza! He pulled the piece of pizza - which had a little bit of ketchup on the end from the hamburger that had been sitting on top of it - out of the pile and began munching contentedly. He shot Gabriel an inquisitive look.

Harper was perusing the books at her leisure, going through row after row of shelves. She was quite methodical, carefully scanning the spines of books for anything that interested her. She had found a lot of books that she catalogued for later use, but she was more concerned with books that had something to do with the Soviet Union, the Cold War, and U.S. Foreign Policy. She wanted to really know what she was getting into, especially if she was to be giving information that could change lives to a bunch of kids with little idea of what they were doing. Not that she didn't believe in them, she just didn't want to be responsible for their deaths.

Her hand was just about to pull a nice fat book off the shelf when her stomach began to complain. She slid the book from its slot, but she would need to continue her search later. She was hungry. She went to the front desk and checked out a small stack of books - just three little ones and the large one she'd just found - and headed out of the library.

Fortunately the cafeteria was close. She slipped the books into her bag and entered. She sidled up to the lunch line and picked up a tray, perusing her lunch options. There was a lot more to choose from than she was used to, which was nice. Oatmeal for breakfast and cold soup for lunch got really old, really fast. She picked up a turkey sandwich and some chips, then looked at her dessert options.

"Sorry..." Nellie repeated, letting her voice drift off into nothingness as Bo went back to the table. Awkward? Kind of. What was wrong with her, why was she acting like this? She normally didn't; was there something going on?

Her heart pounded roughly against her chest as she walked back to the table, tray held tightly, and sat across from Bo. Had she ruined it by accidentally brushing her hand against his? Oh boy she hoped not.

"So, what's up?"

Sergei scanned the line to see what was being served today. He wasn't exaclt sure what he was in the mood for. He passed up the fish sticks. He wasn't in the mood for anything deep fried. Farther down the line, he examined a row of sandwiches. Finally, he decided on Turkey and slipped it onto his trap. He also grabbed a bowl of potato salad. Sergei slipped next to a girl who was looking at the desserts. "Excuse me," he said politely as he reached for a bowl of orange jello. He smiled at the girl and then moved on. However, a few steps away, he paused to look back at her. He had saw her in the lecture room and for some reason, he just couldn't take his eyes off of her. Normally, he wouldn't shy away and would attempt to make friends, but Sergei just couldn't find the courage to say anything to her.

Instead, he grabbed a carton of milk and exited the line. He looked around for a table and then saw Gabriel. He was sitting with Gio, one of the others named commanders. He looked around and also saw Bo and Nellie. Should he sit with them? Sergei finally spotted Vaughn. He had seen her during breakfast and in the lecture hall, but neither time had he gotten the time to say hi. Now seemed good.

He made his way over to where she was sitting and sat down across from her. "Mind if I sit here," he smiled, slipping into the seat before he allowed her to answer him. "Been a long morning, huh?," he said and started to dig into his potato salad.

Vaughn smiled at Sergei and nodded, even though he'd already taken a seat. "Oh, yes." She replied. "Very long morning. So you're a commander, eh? And I guess I'm rooming with your team. Who all is on your team?"

Vaughn was anxious to know who she'd be dealing with on a daily basis. She figured she'd probably be busy a lot of the time, on assignment or whatever they called it, but it would still be nice to know. She got along well with most people, if only because she tended not to get angry too easily, but there were a few people that it would be rather unpleasant to live with. She certainly hoped Lilly was in Sergei's group, but she hadn't seen her friend in a while and the girl hadn't been at the meeting to recieve her assignment.

Vaughn sighed quietly, hoping Lilly would find her soon and tell her what she would be doing, and picked up her fork. She took a bite of her salad and washed it down with a sip of apple juice, waiting for Sergei to respond.

Harper bought her lunch and moved away from the line, looking around the cafeteria. She hoped Vaughn was still there, as she had no where else to sit if she wasn't. It wouldn't be the end of ther world if she had to sit alone, but she'd prefer to sit with a friendly face. She scanned the cafeteria and found Vaughn sitting across from the boy she'd seen in the meeting. She hoped she wasn't inturrupting something, but Vaughn had invited her to sit before. If she really didn't want her there, she'd tell her to go away, right?

She approached the table and addressed Vaughn. "Hey, I'm glad you're still here. May I sit?"

"Oh, sure! Go ahead." Vaughn looked at Sergei and then at Harper before remembering her manners. "Oh, Sergei this is Harper, Harper this is Sergei."

Harper smiled at Sergei. "Hey - you're a commander, right? I guess we'll being seeing a lot of eachother over the course of the mission. You, too Vaughn."

Sergei looked up from his salad when Vaughn mentioned his position. "Yeah...commander," he replied rather unenthusiastically. He looked back down at his potato salad and took a couple of bites before resuming the conversation. "Cool. Having someone I actually know on my team is comforting," he said. "Oh. Um. I don't really know. There's Gabriel. But that's the only one I`m certain about," he answered. He hadn't really spent a lot of time after the lecture trying to find out who would be on his team.

His eyes then redirected towards the girl who was friends with Vaughn. He smiled when Vaughn introduce the girl. Finally. A name. He had been wondering. "Harper, hello," he said. "I don't think I've seen you around before," he mentioned. He was very tempted to add Because I would've remember a face like yous. However, he didn't. "Yes, commander," he repeated, putting down his fork and starting on his sandwich. "So we'll be leaving in a one week," he started to say after swallowing. "How long do you think we'll be over there?" Of all the places, they were picked to go to a cold environment. Sergei hated cold weather.

"You're hungry? Me too. Maybe I should go get lunch now... What do you think? Bo's probably having lunch with Nellie... So... Maybe Sergei wouldn't be busy?" Sorren stared through the grass blades at the sky as he held a one-sided conversation with a nearby duck. Flipping onto his side, he poked the duck in its side, "Should I? I'm kind of hungry now. And I've passed my hunger limit... D- Ow!"

The duck had been picking randomly in the fallen leaves for bits of food, but had pecked him in the hand when he had poked it. Sorren rolled his eyes as he nursed his hand, sitting up, "Fine, I'll shut up and go now. I'll bring you some food too, wait here." Sorren risked patting its head, only to be returned a second peck.

"Ungrateful duck..." he muttered to himself as he crawled through the tunnel again. He headed for the entrance, but turned around, and peeked through a half-opened window. It was a shortcut he took sometimes to the lunch room, which took a path through the library. The window was a few inches thinner than his shoulders, so he had to really squeeze through. The window opens when you push either the top half, or the bottom half, resulting it to flip outwards.

Readying himself, Sorren jumped and struggled through the gap, tumbling into the fiction section, the section about rabbits. He'd actually discovered the shortcut while looking for books, but spotted the courtyard through the window, and attempted to go through it.

At the lunch room, Sorren ran and grabbed a tray, piling it with whatever caught his eyes. He was hungry now, but he did remember to grab a piece of bread for the duck. Looking around, he spotted Sergei, sitting at a table with two other people. Careful not to drop anything, he ran over, opening his mouth to call out to Sergei, but saw that he had a strange look on his face as he talked to one of the girls. Maybe he was doing what Bo was doing. He sat down next to them anyways, only popping in a, "Hey Sergei."

He turned to the girl Sergei was talking to and gave her a quick introduction and greeting, then turned around to face Vaughn. He paused to stuff a strawberry into his mouth and shoved the piece of bread into the side of his tray. Swallowing, he gave her a small smile, "You're going too?"

Sorren had talked to her a few times before, and had caught a glimpse of her in the meeting. Wondering what position she got, he ate another strawberry.

Bo looked at Nellie as she sat down, and the faint blush returned. "Nothing..." He replied, taking a sip of his orange juice. His heart was pounding so hard that he almost choked on the liquid.

"Just...nervous about the mission, I guess." He lied, his voice wavering a little. He ran a hand through his hair again, his nervous habit. He wondered if Nellie was feeling like this too.

"Me too." Nellie agreed, taking a large bite out of the apple, then finishing it within a few more bites. "I'm glad that I'm finally getting out of here, but I don't know if I really want to go. Fighting was a warrior seems fun though." A slight smile painted itself on her face as she started on the orange; peeling it then finishing it quickly as well.

Heart pounding, she coughed quietly, smile faltering. Then it returned as quickly as it had disappeared, wider than it had been before. Though she was nervous, she was pretty good at hiding it, like all of her other feelings. The only thing that would make her crack was something about her wings...

Sergei smiled when Sorren took a seat. "Sorren, hey man," he replied,giving a half salute while his other hand held his sandwich. "Where have you been?," Sergei asked. "You just kind of disappeared after you said you were going back to your room," he said and then took another bite into his sandwich, staring down at his tray as he chewed and swallowed. He place the sandwich down and opened his carton of milk, taking a drink.

She seemed almost as twitchy as he was. Bo could feel his skin prickling, his quills itching to burst through his skin. It was a reaction to adenaline and it wasn't something someone wanted to be around for. He struggled to keep himself in check.

"Yeah, same here. I can't wait to start fighting. I need a good workout. I've been lazy lately." It was the truth. He used to get good exersize, and that's where he got his muscled figure from.

His heart was still pounding. He wondered if he should just come clean with Nellie...tell her that he liked her.

Vaughn nodded, also glad that she knew someone on the team. She hoped there would other familiar faces, but she didn't know how likely that was. There were a lot of hybrids and only a few were going on the mission.

Harper gave the tiniest hint of a smile. She was pleased that Sergei had noticed that he hadn't noticed her, however strange that sounded. "I'm new," she replied. "I was only just bought from another lab. That sounds so strange...bought. Like an animal." She scowled a little, but hid is quickly. She didn't want to give off the impression that was bitter or surly.

When Sorren approached the table Harper smiled. She was a little disappointed, though, to see that he knew Sergei. She had wanted to continue talking with him. Vaughn smiled, as well. "Yes, I'm going. I'll be a spy. How about you?" She looked to Sergei. "Oh, he was with me for a while. We were going to go to the courtyard before the meeting, but it took so long so I went straight there. I lost him after that, though."

"Oh, um... I kind of have this secret place, you know? There's ducks and stuff there, and I just held a stupid one-sided conversation with a duck and promised it a slice of bread... Uh..." Sorren mumbled into his donut.

"Oh, yeah... Sorry about that, Vaughn. I completely forgot about that! You want to come again after lunch? The duck's still waiting, probably," he grinned at her. "Plus," he added in a whisper, shooting a glance at Sergei and Harper, "You know?" Hopefully, she'd get the idea. Being so secret-secret was weird and awkward.

-OOC- Whoops, Gumdrop. My brain had an epic brain-fart or something weird like that, and I completely forgot that Vaughn and Sorren had met before. Xp

((Oh, it's ok. I didn't really notice because he still used her name and stuff, though I guess they did talk about how they were both going. Hehe. It's fine.))

Vaughn chuckled softly, trying to be inconspicuous. "Yeah, sure! I'd love to." She glanced over at the other two. "This secret place sounds cool. I've got one of those, too. Though I guess it's not really a secret, since I told my roommate..." She paused, then took a bite of her salad. She also had french fries, but she was saving those for after the salad.

"Oh, I see. Hm, you must really be something then if Project Diana wanted you," he smiled at Harper. He then looked down at his tray, only looking up again when Vaughn explained about Sorren's absence. He turned to Sorren when he started to ramble on about some secret place and talking to a duck. Sergei laughed. "Is there anyone who you don't make friends with?," he laughed and finished his sandwich.

Sergei was busy finishing up the last few bites of his sandwich that he didn't noticed Sorren throw a glance in his direction. He heard Sorren whisper something and looked up. Vaughn had accepted Sorren's invitation to wherever this secret place is. "Huh?." Sergei then rearranged the food on his tray so that the bowl of orange jello was now sitting in front of him. He wondered why Sorren had not offer to show him this "secret place". Oh well. He grabbed a spoon and started to dig into the wobbling gelatin cubes. "Anyway, I think I`ll head to the library after lunch. I want to do some light reading." Sergei dropped the spoon. The jello was too sweet for Sergei's liking.

"It's still a secret if only people you trust know about it," Sorren replied, then turned to listen to Sergei as he poked fun at him. Grinning back, he said, "Most people are nice enough. Ducks are nice too, if you're not bothering them. Unlike you, always so laid back... You do have one thing in common, though. You both have bad taste in food." Sorren looked disbelieved as Sergei dropped the spoon.

"If you're not going to eat that, can I have it?" Sorren stared at the gelatin, "If you give it to me, I'll show you the place after, on another day, providing that you can fit through that tunnel. Harper, too. Another day, though," he couldn't risk Sergei not spending time with Harper. She's bound to go to the library with him, since she looks like a library person.

Harper smiled at Sergei and took a bite of her turkey sandwich. She was flattered, but wasn't really sure how to respond to that. She looked back at Sorren when he started to speak.

Vaughn laughed at the duck comments. She liked ducks. They were really smart creatures and she thought even better of Sorren that he had managed to befriend one. Although Sergei was right, Sorren could somehow befriend pretty much anyone. "Hey, Sergei - if you want to study up on commanding, I saw a new fighting tactics book in the library this morning. They just got it in yesterday. And I think I know a really good one about codes that you might want to read before trying to get through any of my reports, Harper." Vaughn chuckled to herself, gleeful to think of all the different codes she would get to use in the Soviet Union. "I encrypt pretty much anything I can get away with. I tried it on homework and...well, my teacher ended up burning it after trying to decode it for half an hour."

Harper smiled again, then addressed Sergei. "I just came from the library, but I didn't really get everything I wanted to. Do you mind if I go with you?" She asked, gesturing towards the books as evidence. She really did want to continue looking and Sergei was nice. Maybe she could have three new friends by the end of the day. That would be a career record for her. Her old lab hadn't really been full of hybrids, considering pretty much all of them were at Project Diana.

Sergei smirked at Sorren's comment about him having bad taste in food. "...Or a really good one," he added. "Yeah sure. Go ahead," he replied. He had forgotten his friend was really into sweet desserts. He wondered why Sorren kept emphasizing that he would not show Sergei nor Harper the secret place today, but some other day. He looked at his friend suspiciously. However, he quickly sighed and smile. Maybe he just want alone time with Vaughn. Who knows. It wasn't important.

"Tactics? Cool. I`ll check it out," he said appreciatively towards Vaughn. It would helpful since he was very experienced in leading a group. He still had his doubt about his position. But the least he could do was read up some so he doesn't sound like an idiot commander out on the field. Of course, nothing would beat hands on experience. Vaughn also mentioned book on code language for Harper. This intrigued him a little too. "Sounds fun to learn," he commented and thought about how handy it could be to know that sort of stuff. His position didn't really require him to learn about codes but he interested in it for personal use.

When Harper mentioned wanting to go the library too, he smiled. At least he would have someone to hang out with since Sorren was going to ditch him. He nodded. "I don't mind at all. We can go together," he answered. He picked up his carton of milk and started drinking. When it was empty, he placed it back down and wiped his mouth.

"Me too! I've been working out lately, but only because my fitness instructor got really mad at me last year about not doing it." She winked shakily. "I really don't want them to have a reason to... dispose of me. Some fun will be loved, especially fighting fun. I love fighting bad guys, and winning. It just sends adrenaline ripping through my veins."

At least it was getting easier to talk to him. The more she talked the more comfortable she grew, which was a good thing. If they couldn't become comfortable around each other they could never really... date each other. Maybe it would be different if she came clean?

Not right then, though.

Bo laughed softly, a strange out to him. He almost never laughed. Grumpy old Bo was smiling and laughing? Wow, the world must be coming to an end.

"Adenaline's probably not the best thing for me." He said, smirking. "When I get worked up, my quills just shoot out everywhere. Very useful when fighting enemies. And a pain in the ass to get out." He snickered. His quills usually ended up paralyzing his foes, hitting pressure points and such.

This was the most he'd talked in a long while. He was nice, once you broke through the barrier.

Harper smiled when Sergei accepted her proposition. "Cool. I'm trying to read up on the Soviet Union and the Cold War and all that stuff. I want to be prepared when we get there." She looked down at her tray, a little embarrassed that the first thing she'd done when she'd arrived was to go to the library and pick up books about the mission.

"Yeah, codes are a lot of fun. Even more fun? Crossword puzzles in code." Vaughn laughed and took a sip of water. She loved doing puzzles in general, and decrypting things. She just liked anything that posed a challenge. Picking locks used to be really difficult, but now it was figuring out the sequence of a keypad for unlocking doors, or finding out a way to get a fingerprint for those that needed one. She also happened to be really curious, which helped.