Amelia Gannett

*Knock*

Slowly opening her eyes, Alma glanced at the clock on the wall, seeing that it was almost one o'clock in the morning and wondering why she was even awake. She was not a particularly heavy sleeper, she knew that, but nor did she wake up unless there was some actual noise, and at the moment, everything was perfectly quiet, just as it should be at one in the morning on a Tuesday.

*knock, knock, knock*

Suddenly, a trio of rapid knocks on the door rung out, each of them hard enough to echo inside the sparsely furnitured dormitory. Beside her, her brother's started grunting and twisting in their beds, searching to escape the noise that was threatening to wake them up any minute. Alma held her breath, watching them settle back into sleep before quickly sliding out of bed and making her way over to the door. As she lay her hand on the cool metal of the door knob, she glanced back at her brothers, making sure they were properly asleep. She knew Jake would punish her if he got woken up, and it was something she'd rather avoid if possible.

Taking a deep breath, she slowly crack the door open, slipping out into the dark hallway to face whoever it was that came knocking at their door in the middle of the night.

It feels like a bad idea, of course, to go out into the dark and empty hallway without anyone knowing in the middle of the night to face someone who knocked on their door, but Alma didn't want to risk the person knocking again and awakening her brothers, and she also couldn't help but feel a bit curious who this person could be.

Still, she really hoped she wouldn't get kidnapped.

"Hey, you are awake! I'm sorry if I disturbed you I just saw the light and I thought…"

The first thing Alma see is a pair of Emerald eyes staring at her, big and glowing like lanterns in the weak moonlight. Slowly, the rest of the person comes into focus, and Alma find herself face to face with a curly red haired girl about her own age. The girl's overall appearance is quite distinct, as is the Irish accent with which she speak, and Alma think she recognise her from some of her classes, even if she didn't think she spoke much in them.

"Excuse me, could you repeat yourself?" She knew the girl had said something, or a lot, but the general confusion as well as the girl's thick accent had made it impossible to hear what she was saying.

"Could I borrow a hairbrush?" The girl's question is straight on, honest and simple, underlined by her holding up a hairbrush that had quite obviously been snapped in two. "I like to brush my hair before going to sleep but mine broke."

Alma blink in surprise, and though she knows exactly what the girl said she still feel shocked. Who, if they now so happened to be up at one in the morning for whatever reason, cared about brushing their hair before going to bed. But, the girl jsd asked, and Alma answered.

"Of course, I can go get it now if you want." She shrugged. She did have a hairbrush to spare, and it didn't hurt to be friendly to some of the other girls. If this girl was in her class, she might get use out of it, could get the girl to repay her by helping with homework or something.

Quickly, she slipped back into the room and grabbed her hairbrush, quite as to not risk waking her brothers up, and returned to the hallway, handing it to the girl. "Here you go. Return it to me when you get the chance."

The other girl smiled, a broad, friendly grin, and accepted the offered item "Thank you! My name is Amelia, by the way, Amelia Pond. Or Gannett if you want my bird name"

"Alma LeFay Bentham, Peregrine for my bird name." She shock the girl's free hand and thought that this was indeed an odd way to meet a new friend, but that she didn't really mind.

She'd made friends in ways more peculiar than borrowing hairbrushes at one in the morning.