Daniel
Morgan was painting again. That in and of itself wasn't uncommon, but she wasn't exactly happy this time. Normally making art was a way to release some of her stress, to be creative, but she had no idea where to even start. She'd been loitering in front of a basically empty canvas for about half an hour now, and the only thing she'd done so far was trace a heart on the back of her hand. The red outline had basically already dried.

Morgan sighed, discontent. As nice as the facilities in Newton's Cradle were, it still wasn't home. She pulled out her phone and sent a quick text, thinking at least she could pass the time talking to someone she actually knew.
Andrew
Knock knock knock. The sound of a knuckle on wood.

The door slid open, and a faculty member peeked in. The arts and crafts rooms were his space, but they were vacant - still, he figured he'd find Morgan there.

"Morgan?" He stepped into the room, scratching the back of his head. "It's 4 PM. We scheduled a conversation right now, remember?" He closed the door behind him and smiled patiently at Morgan. "Are you busy?"

He could tell she wasn't *Busy,* But she seemed upset. He thought she might prefer to be left alone.

He wasn't persistent enough to pry.
Daniel
Morgan was so lost in her own head she jumped about a foot when she head the knock. There was a rattle of plastic as the paintbrush hit the ground. "Oh, hey Mr. Cantor." She'd forgotten the appointment. Granted, she'd only scheduled it in the first place since her brother told her it would be a good idea, so it wasn't surprising it'd slipped her mind.

She paused for half a second before she answered, "No, not really. I forgot about the conversation so I just sort of wandered in here." She positioned herself in front of one of the many tables scattered around the room, closing a bit of the distance between her and her faculty contact. "So, how're you?" She was only really asking to be polite. She didn't imagine he'd be doing much better or worse than usual.
Andrew
"Yeah, I get it." He chuckled a bit. "I'm fine, thanks. How are you, champ? Doing alright?"

Graham could tell she wasn't doing alright. He pulled out two chairs at the table and gestured for her to sit down. Then, he sat down himself.

"Oliver told me you're falling asleep in class." In the most unpleasant way possible - but it was Oliver. "I understand, everything is pretty new here, but is something going on?" Morgan was new to him. He didn't know how to get through to her. He was trying anyway, but... Baby steps.

"We can talk, if you'd like. I won't tell anyone anything unless you want me to."
Daniel
Morgan opted to remain standing. She had a bit too much excess energy to sit still at the moment, but she at least moved to instead stand behind the chair he indicated for her. Her fingers tapped occasionally on the back of it, and she scratched the dried paint on the back of her hand. She frowned slightly. "About as alright as I can be living in a foreign country for the first time."

Morgan winced slightly when he mentioned her falling asleep in class. She was never an honor student, but this was the first time she'd ever slept through classes. "Yeah... I mean, I haven't really been able to sleep the past few days. And I'd rather stick myself with a fork than lay in bed for hours so I've just been watching anime or coming in here instead." She gestured around to the room at large. "This place is cool as hell by the way. I tried making pottery a few days ago and-" She paused as she remembered the less than excellent results, followed by about half an hour of cleaning up the wet clay that had flown everywhere. "Well it was fun to try at least."
Andrew
Graham had been haphazardly finding bits of wet clay from that day ever since. He'd never known who it was - and he didn't really want to assume it was Morgan, even though it sounded like it. "Well, thanks for cleaning up after yourself. But I'm sure we could've made that the janitor's problem."

He nodded. "It's not that easy for most people when they first come here. Wasn't easy for me either." His face went blank for a split second, as he remembered something, but he quickly returned to his otherwise cheery self. "The important part for now is that you get enough sleep. It's fine if you have to sleep during the day to do that.

A school population consisting largely of troubled, jet-lagged teenagers generally drove Newton's Cradle to be lax about scheduling, particularly with newer students. A normal daytime schedule was the end goal, not the assumption.

"You know, we actually have classes pretty much around the clock. Some of the students here have to sleep during the day, so we teach them at night. We can put you on some later classes if that's what it takes for you to get some sleep."
Daniel
Of all of the responses Morgan had been expecting, that wasn't really one of them. To date most teachers she'd come into contact with had taken issue with her. While many had had good reason, she wasn't generally used to them trying to work with her. Usually they just wanted something, for her to pay attention, to do her work, to pretend to get along with someone, and as soon as she figured out what she needed to do to get off their radar, she did it, and went back to living her life. So she was a bit thrown off when Graham's biggest concern seemed to be her getting sleep. It was kind of refreshing.

"That's... Really nice, actually." Plus, if she took later classes, she'd be a bit more synched up on American time, which meant she might get to hear from her brother more. "I'd like to do that, for a totally different reason actually, but-" She considered for a moment how much she wanted to say. "I don't think that's going to help me sleep better. It's just kind of hard to shut down at the end of the day. I think I'm just sort of stressed out about being here, but I can't really do anything but wait for that to pass so." She shrugged.
Andrew
Graham nodded. "Mm. Yeah, I get it." Graham had been a habitual coffee drinker for a period of several years, but he eventually cut down on it because he found himself drinking paintbrush water too often. He only drank coffee on breaks after that.

"Just try to sleep when you can. I'll pass along to your teachers to keep your schedule flexible for now. I'll keep in touch with you about it." Really, Graham figured Oliver would be relieved to *Not* See Morgan in class. At least she'd be out of his hair then.

"Has there been anything in the last week you'd like to talk about?"
Daniel
Morgan thought for a moment. The almost feral girl in the woods she had met, the experiments she'd tried with her powers, the newest work of art that hung from the wall in her dorm, her worries about her brother now that he was living alone, all of it came to mind. But was there anything she really wanted to tell him. After all, even if he seemed nice enough, she didn't really know him.

"Do you have any dating advice?" She blurted out. It took a second before she realized that she should probably supply the context for such an out of the blue question. "It's just, my brother mentioned he had a date this weekend, and he's kind of hopeless when it comes to girls. The only thing either of us know about romance comes from romcoms, so if you have advice I could pass to him, I'm sure it would help."
Andrew
Graham smirked a little. "Dating advice, huh? Fancy someone?" He heard the schtick about Morgan's brother, but it wasn't convincing him. After all, if anyone needs dating advice, it's hormonal teenagers living together in a single building, right? Still, he kept a comfortable distance. It wasn't his job to scrutinize Morgan.

"I, uh..." He scratched the back of his head a bit nervously. "I'm still single, so take anything I say here with a grain of salt, but, uh... Maybe just treat it like meeting someone to try to get to know them? Don't make a spectacle of it, basically."

He paused.

"Oh, and don't take your date to the movies on the first date. You just *Sit there* And don't even talk to each other. Terrible way to get to know someone."
Daniel
Morgan felt herself blush slightly against her will. She didn't have any crushes at Newton's Cradle. Not yet at least, but she *Had* Asked for her own knowledge. Helping her brother out was just a nice benefit. "No, not particularly," She said, hoping it sounded as truthful as it was. She didn't need her faculty advisor playing matchmaker for her, funny as that would be. "Uh- thanks. That's really helpful actually. I'll pass it along to him." Over the conversation, the somewhat irritated, nervous way she had been standing had relaxed a bit into slight confusion. Having gone into this conversation expecting a fight and a lecture, she'd been pleasantly surprised, and she wasn't quite sure how to act so as not to ruin it.

"I- I think that's it, for now. Thanks for the help with the class timing. And for," She gestured around the room again. "Making this place so cool. It's probably my favorite spot on campus."
Andrew
Graham smiled warmly and chuckled. "Aww, how sweet. Thank you, Morgan." He'd be sure to pass that bit of feedback on to the people in charge of funding. He *Had* Been wondering if it wouldn't be nice to upgrade some of the power tools.

He stood up. "I'll leave you to it, then. Try to take a nap, maybe. If you can. But it's obviously better if you don't take it in class."

"See you, Morgan."