Limitations

[Caspian Collins]

Cass sighed as he sat on the window sill in the lounge of the Rec Centre; his prosthetic leg against the window, and good leg bent at the knee, foot on the sill. He hated winter. It used to be a great time, playing out in the cold, building snow-forts, snowball fights with his friends... Now? It was a time that everyone was cautious! They were so worried that he was going to slip over and injure himself again, so it was just easy to accept the limitation everyone else put on his disability, and pretend to be the invalid that his parents saw him as.

He leaned his head back again the wall behind him, wanting to throw something, but the only things he had on hand were his camera, and there was no way he was pitching that across the room, and his crutches. While they would make a really good noise, it would take too much energy to go and pick them up again. He sighed again as he went back to watching the people moving about so freely outside the room.

[Katherine Lorelia]

God above, but it was cold. And Kitty was not impressed. She'd grown up in Ireland, where it was usually freezing cold, but they almost never had snow at this time of year! Rain, yes; hard and constantly. But snow was a new one on her, as it had been the year previously, and she was definitely not a fan. Snow was lovely, in theory; in practice, however, it just made life hugely inconvenient. The blonde would permit snow for one day a year: on Christmas Day, when she didn't need to go anywhere, do anything, meet anyone or venture outside her own doors even once. The rest of the time, it just meant that getting on with the things that needed to be got on with was a lot less convenient than it could otherwise have been. Still, there was a smile on her face as she entered the Rec Centre; life was difficult sometimes, and if you got worked up about it then things just got worse.

Her smile only widened as she found that the room was already occupied; Kitty loved people almost as much as horses, and here was one that she hadn't chatted with before. "Hi!" she exclaimed brightly, dropping into a chair as near to the boy as she could manage.

[Caspian Collins]

Cass closed his eyes, head turning toward the window as he heard the approach of feet, biting back a nasty remark for the person to leave as the feet drew closer. He drew a breath in through his nose, exhaling slowly through his mouth, silently reminding himself that this girl was not to blame for his current issues and even though he could tell her exactly what to do with her bright greeting, he also didn't want to make a habit out of scaring off everyone who spoke to him.

Turning toward her, he gave a bright, and oh-so-insincere, smile "Hi!" He responded, tone matching his mood rather than the fake smile. "Enjoying the weather?"

[Katherine Lorelia]

"Not particularly," the blonde responded cheerily, curling her legs up beneath her and wrapping an arm around her knees. "Bit chilly, snow gets in the way..." Plus, of course, she found that cold weather tended to exacerbate her nocturnal problems somewhat, but somehow she didn't think that she would be telling this particular boy about that, not when they'd only just met. So yes, whilst summer was the worst time of year from an emotional point of view, practically, Kitty didn't much like winter either. She was a sunshine soul, and the cold, dark days of November and December did not suit her, not one iota.

"But how about you?" she enquired, realising that the boy hadn't actually told her that yet... and speaking of which, she really should find out his name.

[Caspian Collins]

Cass held back the urge to roll his eyes at her reply, state the obvious why don't you! He did wonder how long the weather remained like this, and would it get worse? He wasn't going to ask though, as this tiny blonde seemed as impressed with the weather as him, if not for different reasons.

"Would rather be outside." He replied. "Hard to take photos through the window. I need the flash because it's dim out there, and as you could guess, the glass doesn't like the flash too much." Next time, he was going to sulk and hide out in Slick's stall. At least he was sure he couldn't get a lecture for just doing that. And his gelding would lie down on command to be groomed, so he could at least be doing something in the barn.

[Katherine Lorelia]

Kitty had many talents. Insight was not exactly amongst them. She took the world as it came not only in the sense of pragmatism but in the sense of trustingness; so much thereof that it bordered on stupidity. And so she was not particularly inclined to look beyond the obvious when explaining, or indeed when questioning. It was a quirk which admittedly made it a little difficult to navigate some areas of life, and particularly those pertaining to interpersonal relationships.

The blonde knew next to nothing about cameras, but she did know a bit about glass; not a lot, admittedly, but enough to know that it reflected stuff, and she assumed, though biology was more her field than physics, that that probably wasn't good for taking photos with. Maybe you got a white blur or something. Did that matter when you were photographing snow? "Oh... Why don't you go outside, then?"

[Caspian Collins]

Cass' eyebrows shot up at her question before he shook his head with a laugh, his shoulder shaking in mirth. He liked this girl. "Because it makes the adults feel better if I'm stuck inside when the ground isn't perfectly dry." He couldn't help but wonder if his parents had anything to do with the fact that he seemed to be watched like a hawk since the weather had decided it was winter. "I'll get some photos when I head to the barn later to feed Slick." At least he hoped that it would be deemed ok for him to do that.

He gave her a genuine smile, the first one that day. "I'm Cass... Well, Caspian, if you want to get all formal, but I prefer Cass"

[Katherine Lorelia]

Kitty's eyebrows also ascended her forehead, albeit somewhat less dramatically than the boy's had, and she put her hands on her hips. "Well, that's not very fair!" she exclaimed in indignation. "I'm sure you can manage to take care of yourself enough to avoid breaking anything, can't you? It's not like you're going to die of over-exposure or anything." She paused. "Is it?" Well, you never knew, after all, and she was aware that some people were more sensitive to the cold than others, which could probably be a bit of a problem at this time of year.

"Katherine," she introduced herself, giving Cass a sunny smile of her own. "But everyone calls me Kitty. So... whichever you prefer."

[Caspian Collins]

He shook his head in amusement again. "You'd like to think I could avoid breaking things." He chuckled. "Though since the last breaking of bones was a little more drastic that I had anticipated, I think I can avoid a repeat of it." He was embarrassed by his missing leg, but he also wasn't going to draw attention to it. "And as fun as over-exposure sounds, no, I'm not likely to die of that either. Adults just seem to think that because I can't put studs in the bottoms of my shoes, I have more of a chance of slipping over when the ground isn't dry."

His smile deepened as she introduced herself. "It is purrrfectly nice to meet you, Kitty." Hmm, the sarcasm was still there, so he hadn't completely turned his mood around just yet. "How long have you been at this school?"

[Katherine Lorelia]

The blonde winced in sympathy. She'd had her fair share of breakages, as had most people in the equestrian world come to that, and she knew that even the most straightforward cases were absolutely no fun at all. Casts and slings were decidedly overrated, and she really didn't know how people could put up with it; not being able to do everything that she would normally do had driven her mad within a few days.

She frowned. "Your balance is bad?" Personally, Kitty fell over about eighty per cent of the time when the ground wasn't dry, and yet no one had ever told her not to go out. She was just naturally clumsy, and was quite capable of picking herself up and carrying on.

"First time I've heard that joke... today," she teased, though giggling anyway. Just because she'd heard it before didn't make it any worse of a joke. "Thank you! It's great to meet you too! I've been here... uh... two years?"

[Caspian Collins]

He gave a grin and a shrug. "Some days are better than others." He replied evasively. "Depends on how I decide to face the day I guess, and what foot I put forward first." The whole putting your best foot forward jokes never got old on him.

He shrugged off her tease, as he knew he deserved it with his sarcasm. "Wow, two years? That must feel like forever!" He wiggled his eyebrows as he leaned forward. "So, you came here because you're running from a rich lover in your home country? Or running because you're the rich one and don't want to go through with an arranged marriage?" He knew there were boring reasons people flew halfway across the world to attend a boarding school, but it was more fun if there was another reason behind it.

[Katherine Lorelia]

Again, the blonde giggled. "I would say that maybe you should just put both forward at once... but then you'd fall over!" One of the more complicated and important questions in life, obviously, but she really couldn't imagine being confined to a life indoors whenever it rained a little. At home, she would never have set foot outdoors for ten months of the year.

"Forever!" she agreed with a grin and a nod. It was lovely here, though, and it was nice; she felt that she had got to know the people and the place as well as she was going to, and that was a nice, comfortable feeling; she was at home in her surroundings. "No... A group of anarchists wanted to abduct me and so the Secret Service sent me out here for safekeeping," the blonde whispered with a conspiratorial air. She was by no means above the idea of playing along with a joke.

[Caspian Collins]

Cass laughed and shook his head. "I can actually do that, and not fall over." He said with a grin. "As long as I'm using my crutches and not the cane that is." And wanted to look like a complete idiot, and he'd just never really tried stunts with the cane, as he didn't think they were designed to hold the amount of weight required to do that trick.

He pressed his lips together as he tried to make it look like he was taking what she was saying seriously. "Ah, but now you've told me. I bet those anarchists would pay a good sum of money for your where-abouts." He rubbed his hands together. "I think I've just found the best get rich quick scheme!"

[Katherine Lorelia]

The blonde shrugged. "Well, I guess every cloud has a silver lining?" She grinned. "Though it's probably not a very useful silver lining, to be honest... It'd probably confuse anyone who was trying to follow your footprints, so I guess you could be a vaguely successful criminal?" She shrugged again. The methodology of crime had never been something to which Kitty had paid a great deal of attention, if she was honest; it just didn't occur to her.

Kitty giggled. "Well, maybe I'll dye my hair brown and start speaking with an American accent- they'll never recognise me!"

[Caspian Collins]

He laughed and shrugged. "If I really wanted to confuse anyone trying to follow me, removing the prosthetic is always worth the laugh." He shrugged again, as once it was out, he realised it probably wasn't the funniest of jokes around normal people. If he'd been at physio, it would have been a riot.

He arched his eyebrows as he studied her. "Dying your hair would be a crime, and I get the feeling that you couldn't speak with an American accent even if you tried." At least the first part of what he'd said was true.