New Chapter, Same Old Sh**

[Veronica Abbot]

Now a whole week removed from her sudden departure from San Francisco where she left the life she'd spent all of three years building with a guy she probably should have married it was clear Veronica had turned the page on a new chapter.   She found Montana to be peaceful and gorgeous in the winter.  She could only imagine what the scenic, rural landscape would look like come spring when the snow melted to reveal green grass and blooming flowers.  There were no problems with her job and being around her sisters again felt like a homecoming of sorts.  And yet the restless tension that followed and refused to be sated by the abrupt change of scenery and new job made it painfully obvious she was also falling into the same bad habits as always.

Veronica sat behind the front desk of Bellefonte's main administrative office with a blank, expressionless mask upon her face.  She wasn't bored or particularly unhappy so much as she was simply... there.  She'd made short work of the cataloging and filing that was handed over to her for the day and at 2:30 in the afternoon there wasn't much going on elsewhere.  Only the occasional student or teacher filtered in, usually only passing by on their way to something probably far more interested than manning the front desk.

When the door opened Veronica perked up, dark eyes gleaming with the hope of some sort of distraction that would offer at least a fleeting reprieve from the dreary day.  The weather had been horrible today and a biting, howling wind kept most from venturing out.  Only a brave (or stupid, depending on who you asked) few bothered to wander out into the frigid winter.  Veronica offered a half smile at the lean, tattooed groundskeeper.  "Hey, Kasey."  She said.  She'd only been at work for two weeks but she'd already memorized every staff member's name.  "What the hell are you doing outside?"  She asked, glancing over his shoulder to catch a peek outside before the door closed behind him.  "The rest of the maintenance crew went home four hours ago."

[Kasey Westhope]

The weather reflected Kasey's stormy mood well. He'd been trying to prune back some of the larger trees while they were bare for winter and easy to get to by the end of the day and had finally admitted defeat when he'd started literally being pushed away from the trees. Wet, wind-lashed and annoyed Kasey stomped into the offices, the bottoms of his trousers wet with green, grass stains. He was surprised when he saw someone still working away inside, even more so when she greeted him by name. He floundered for the briefest of moments, unable to recall who she was at all. He'd once been counted on for his perceptive paranoia, his tendency to notice even the smallest of details. He was slipping, clearly, and the thought pissed him off even more; and it scared him.

"Still got work to do," he explained shortly, slapping his rain-soaked gloves down on the table. He at least made sure to avoid hitting any of the papers that were stacked upon it. He leaned against the table, picking up the large garden shears he'd carried inside and thunked them down on the desk as well, jabbing at it empathetically. "They broke. Where can I fix them?" The shears, almost as long as his arm, were bent right at the top, almost as if they had been swung against something with quite a bit of force.

The man fought the urge to fidget while he waited for a reply, still slightly uncomfortable with the fact that the woman knew his name and he didn't know hers. He didn't know if that made him a bad employee, or she a creepy one. Then again, he made a habit of avoiding others; he was probably a bad employee. "You know my name." It wasn't a question, and it may have even sounded a bit apologetic. "You are....?"

[Veronica Abbot]

The smile on Veronica's face brightened a bit, her dark eyes gleaming as the groundskeeper trudged his way across the office toward the front desk. Memory was her strong suit and with it came quick judgement of who she liked and didn't. There was something to Kasey in the few, brief moments she'd seen him. He moved with a precision and determination that wasn't like the other faculty. She'd wondered from the moment she saw him what his story was. He just didn't look or act like he belonged here.

"Oh, uh..." The smile wavered as once the shears had found their way to the desktop. She looked at them, blinked a couple times before glancing up to Kasey. "I, uh, I don't know." She answered pitifully, shrugging her shoulders for emphasis. She went to say more but the words caught in her throat. "But um..." The stammering continued as Veronica dropped her gaze, furrowing her brow in thought. "I do have some purchase orders I need you to sign so I can send them off." Quickly she fell back into 'work' mode and produced the forms, a trio of them for whatever supplies and equipment the grounds keeping department had recently ordered. "One of them's pretty big." She noted absently, really just trying to make small talk more than anything. "Have a project coming up in the spring?"

Kasey's inability to remember her name didn't bother Veronica at all. They'd yet to be introduced, he'd just been pointed out by a co-worker on one of her first days and by virtue of her genetic mutation, remembered it. "Oh!" Eyes widened as realization struck her. He didn't know she couldn't forget even the smallest of details if she wanted to (which she frequently did). "Veronica." She said, the polite smile returning. "I started last week." She tapped her temple lightly. "I've got thing for remembering names." She paused, frowned, then shrugged. "And everything else."