[By the way, Keiko, if you come back and see this, I'm totally not calling you lazy. Alex just has a very cruel mind (:]

Alexandre sat on the comfortable black couch in the fire dormitory lounge, bored because it was the middle of the day, he had woke up late and missed half the class so wasn't going to bother showing up, and surprised. Yes, surprised. Quite frankly, he didn't know what happened when a leader didn't hang around for a while, neglected their duties to the element. He'd never seen it happen, and come to think of it hadn't seen Keiko working out any of the problems they had in the fire element. Yes, it had all fallen on his shoulders, hadn't it? The prospect irritated him a little - did she expect him to just do everything while she sat on her ass? Well that hardly seemed fair!

But it was changing now, and Alex thought of this with a smile. He hadn't met this Isabella character yet, but he hoped she'd be the type of fire student that wasn't afraid to back down from a fight. Because he was plotting such a fight in his mind, and all he would need was her consent on the matter. He would wait a while before bringing it up of course, a few days perhaps, maybe even a few weeks depending on the circumstances. There really was no hurry. Damian had simply ticked him off, and if someone ticked off anyone in the fire element, they were going to pay for it. He should have known not to call Alex's - the very short-tempered, reckless leader - element dumb, even if he only suggested they have 'selective memories'.

He brushed his black hair from his eyes with a sigh of boredom. He was wearing a pair of black jeans held up by his favourite studded belt, custom red and black Converse, a Marianas Trench shirt an unzipped Mayday Parade hoodie overtop. His pale skin almost gave off a sort of a glow in the light from the torches that hung on the walls, brighter because he was in the room, and the aura of his power was affecting them. He yawned, blinked, and put in his iPod headphones, blasting his Alesana music at top volume.

[Trust me to find a way to mention all three of my/his favourite bands in one post XD]

[Alex, by the way, is a vampire, that's what I meant by 'sharper than most' ]

The minute the unfamiliar girl stormed into the room with an expression that clearly defined what people meant by 'if looks could kill', Alexandre paused his music, though he pretended that he was still listening to it so he could witness if there was going to be some type of explosion. He knew his element well it seemed, because she did start to go into some sort of rant. His lips tugged into a sort of an amused smirk. Professor Klusen. Oh, how Alex hated that made. They'd hit it off badly right from the start, when the idiot teacher asked in front of everyone if jail had impaired his hearing, too. His hearing was actually sharper than most, he'd actually heard the idiot through his music, and had just chosen to ignore the request to turn it off. Alex hated to talk about jail, so he'd went into a bit of a furious rant, attacked the teacher, and ended up in detention for three solid weeks in a row, an hour every day.

Tilting his head up a bit more - he was wearing his hood and it slightly impaired his vision - so that he could see her face better, Alex's smirk turned into an amused but friendly smile. "Hello. Having teacher troubles, I'm guessing?" he said innocently, even though his tone made it obvious that he'd been eavesdropping. "But honestly, I hate him as well, so it's no big deal." He yanked the headphones out of his ears and stuffed the device into his pocket. "So, I'm guessing you're new here judging by the fact that I've never met you." He stood up and offered his hand. "I'm Alexandre Blackthorn, by the way. I'm guessing you'd be Isabella? Correct me if I'm wrong?"

[Very polite when amused, this one XD]

"Alright, I'll call you Is if you want me too, that's no problem," Alex assured her, nodding. He brushed his dark bangs out of his eyes, accidentally knocking off his hood in the same movement. He glowered at the hood and flipped it back up, not feeling like taking it off at the moment. He liked his hoodies, for reasons he didn't even really know himself. "Well I hate those god damn teachers as well, they don't elect us. They'd probably go right ahead and pick the most polite, civil ones, and before we know it, we'd be another group of mushy, tree-hugging idiots. So much for controversy and revolution, we'd be begging the other students for forgiveness!" Going into one of his rants about how much he hated the teachers, though in a very calm, not raised voice, he continued. "They always tell us that we're too insistent, that we're too cruel! Well who ever got anywhere by asking nicely? We ain't giving up that easy, and they know it! I'm not here to make friends, I'm not here to settle into a peaceful world, I'm here to make change, to make sure the fire students are finally given the credit they deserve! They'll never dare to shun us again if we stand up against them! But there are some people that stand in our way, and the teachers would totally give them power if they could! A few of us differ from the usual conforming personality of the fire students. They're the ones that leak the information. And the thing is - they can hide it so well, it's hard to figure out the traitors!" Then he realized he'd just ranted for minutes about how much he hated the teachers, and he stopped. "Sorry about that. They annoy me, they really do. Anyways, as I was saying, they don't elect the leaders. The students do. Sounds like they made a good choice bringing you to the position, if you don't take crap from those teachers, then, well, it speaks for itself really. Our old female leader sort of went missing in action, so they booted her out of her position."

He saw her looking at him and smiled, guessing what she was thinking just by the way she instantly defended herself once he noticed. He didn't get embarassed around girls who found him attractive anymore, not once he was sure of who he was in love with. He just wished she would figure it out without him having to say anything, and then they could be together. It sucked that they couldn't tell anyone of their friendship because they were the leaders of rival elements. They used to be enemies, and now he wanted to be her boyfriend. Ha, things always worked out in extremely strange ways in Alexandre's life, didn't they?

"I do that a lot, too," he said, then smirked lightly. It was a friendly smirk though, just his dark appearance made it look more smirkish than smily. This often happened with fire students, and he hoped that Isabella wouldn't take it the wrong way. "So, got into any fights with the other elements yet?" he wondered. If she already hated one of them, it would be easier to suggest, when the time came, to attack them. He was battle hungry at the moment, and that surprised him. He hadn't felt this eager for a fight since the days he'd spent on the streets running around with gangs and getting thrown in jail for a number of crimes. He blinked away the thought and waited for her response, his gray eyes curious.

"I've had enough of being controlled!" Alex said, his voice scaling just a tiny bit higher as his frusteration peaked. "The law's tried to rule my entire life for years, from the shit I do to the people I hang around with! They tried to file their own sort of restraining order between me and my own fucking brother for god's sakes, all because of that stupid jail stint I went through! Just 'cause I'm a fucking criminal -" he was cursing harshly now, "- they try to seperate me from my only family that cares about me! So I vowed after I got those rights back that I'd fight for every fucking thing I've ever had, and everything I do, so that only I control my life. But I won't stop there, no way. I'm going to make sure that everyone who's willing to take a stand gets the glory right alongside me, and then everyone will regret the day they refused us!"

He nodded sharply. "Yeah, I heard about that. One of the more loyal, trusted one of us came and reported to me when they saw that. Is, I have a piece of advice for you. Be careful who you listen to. Even the people that seem like they can be trusted can turn on you. The older students, the ones that I grew up with, who know what I stand for and who I am, they're usually loyal to me. If you agree with our opinions, they'll follow you, too. But the younger kids, some of them want power so they can befriend the other elements without being considered an outcast. Power-hungry jerks want to take us down, but we can't let them. So if someone tells you something, pretend to listen, and then investigate it. Cause if you just jump right into fights on someone's word, the loyal ones start to lose their trust in you. I've learned from mistakes. And you're totally right - we need to whip some loyalty into them. And toughen the weak ones up. We can't be viewed as a group that has weak defences, we need to let everyone know that we stand up for ourselves, and we do it right." This was why they elected Alex leader. He wasn't afraid to voice his opinion, and he didn't care how others took it. He just told it like it was, and got people behind him.

Hopefully now, with someone as his equal, two leaders instead of one, they could start to really make a change in their element. He guessed he was going to fail his subjects this year, but he would take that. If he had to come back next year, he would. And if they made the choice to reelect him, he would continue to work toward perfecting the element. Everyone would be a fighter. They would stand together, stand up for each other. He smirked to himself as he plotted this. He hoped Isabella thought the same way he did on that matter.

"Ugh," Alex said, shaking his head and scowling. "Those water students. I don't even care that my brother leads them, I'll attack them if it's what we need to gain the power and recognition we deserve. I could never hurt Aiden, but his little friends are perfectly open for attack. There's still Alexa, after all." He glared at the floor for a moment, then looked back up. "The earth students, they've provoked me. I was planning an attack, would you be on board with that?"

He had intended to wait to tell her, but he wanted to do something now. Start plotting the ineviteable fight he knew was coming. He would lead it alone, if he had to. Hopefully, she'd stand with him, because then they'd have more chances of winning. "Of course I'm not planning blindly. I'd of course toughen up the weak links - with your help, if you're willing to jump into this whole thing. But that male earth leader, he basically called us stupid, unintellegent. I won't take that sitting down. I think we need a war, to make sure they understand who we are, for real."

[Alex is very verbal and bent on causing revolt. I mean it's in his nature, but he's so punkish, it's amusing ^^]

[Haha, that's okay. I was in an inspired mood, PLUS I was pissed off at my school, hence the reason I was able to have him rant for so long]

Alex nodded sharply and smirked in satisfaction, feeling the adreniline that accompanied the bloodlust pump through his bloodstream. The fact that his kind - the vampires, so to speak - loved fighting, as did the fire students as a population, doubled the dark side of him, so right now he was eager to jump right into a fight without planning anything first. But the logical side of him, the side that was born a leader, it stopped him. It forced him to pause, to calm his composure, to think of the most important elements of the war, first. If they took on the earth students, they could easily win. This assuming that the cowardly peacekeepers were to fight alone. But Alex had to seriously go in-depth with his thinking on this one.

If the thunder students were to be attacked, I would immediatly call our forces to fight by their side. That's what allies do. They would do the same for us, I'm sure, he thought silently, a sharp, calculating look overtaking his hardened features. So I must assume that the water students will attempt to help their allies in earth. I'm not enough of an egomaniac to honestly think that we could take on large group of water elementals and win... unless we had backup, as well.

"Is," he said, turning his full attention back to the conversation. "I plan to only attack Earth, if that's alright with you. I know we wouldn't be wise to lead an attack against the element that brags our weakness. But I think that the water students might choose to help out their allies. We would do it for the thunder students, would we not? And everyone knows ours is a more violent population. They must have good connections. So assuming that we'll have both Earth and Water against us anyways, I say we should try and get a few thunder students working with us. I'd try for Kai, but his sister is in Earth. I think his loyalty to her would overpower the will to fight. I can't blame him for that, as I'm not planning on being the one to injure Aiden if it comes down to that in the end. But we do need to think of defending ourselves from the water students. If another grade twelve were to take us on, we'd be in danger."

He brushed his hair from his eyes. "So, what do you think?"

[Haha Josh is so with Alex and Is. Sooooo with the fire students. And Alex is much smarter than he acts, a lot of the time]

"Oh don't worry," Alex said when she said what she did about the water students. He waved his hand and shook his head in a gesture to say that it was really nothing, and that it didn't bother him at all. Because it didn't. The water students - minus Aiden - were a group of the most annoying people on the face of the earth. Alex narrowed his eyes even thinking about them. He remembered the mingled feelings of pride and disappointment he'd felt when Aiden had discovered his powers. Pride that his brother had power, and that they might be able to see each other more often than he'd thought. This was before he almost killed the person, and got sent to jail. And disappointment that their two elements were forever known as enemies.

"The water students irritate me, as well. They seem to think that they're on top of the world, and that anyone in our element or thunder is nothing compared to them. Especially the females. I don't mean to be degrading to women, but honestly, a lot of those girls in that element are much too vain for my liking. Honestly, if a guy really likes you, he's going to care more about your personality rather than if you're - forgive the word - 'sexy'." He made air quotes and rolled his eyes. "They think that all guys are those stuck up egotistical bastards." He flipped his hair in irritation, then shot her an apologetic glance. "Sorry. That's just something that's always bothered me."

Alex nodded when she said she wouldn't attack siblings. "Thank you."

Alex smirked lightly. "I'm pretty sure that Josh will - do you know him? He's a thunder student of course. As for the others, I really don't know any of them all that well. We'll talk on occasion, but they usually know to stay out of my way. A few of my friends might help as well, they're loyal to me despite the difference in element."

"I know!" On any other occasion he wouldn't go so in-depth about how much he hated the so-called 'popular' girls in the water element, because he didn't really like to be rude toward women, but honestly they just pissed him off so badly. He could scream. But he wouldn't. He would not scream. He didn't want to scare off Isabella when they seemed to be getting along really well thus far. He swept his dark hair out of his eyes, scowling slightly as he thought about the water students. "Honestly, someone called me a jerk because I told them I had no interest in dating! They're all 'Oh, I bet it's just because we're in different elements! You're so impossible!' and then ran off. I'd never met her before that. Like I'm going to just cuddle up to someone I don't even know! Especially a mortal enemy! How stupid do they think we are!"

He tossed his head in irritation. "And that's another thing entirely! Why do they always think we're so stupid just because we can be jerks if you piss us off? Angry doesn't equal unintellegent, and they should touch up on their own intellect if they're thinking in that direction! Ugh! I could fucking strangle them, I swear I could." He let out a heavy breath, shaking his head. "Sorry," he said, referring to his ranting, though he wasn't really sorry at all.

He laughed slightly when she mentioned how she and Josh had met. "Ouch. Yeah, he can be a prick at times. But we're friends and all. I think. I don't believe he uses the term friend. I think he said ally. But it's close enough. I just think he's afraid of committment." Alex chuckled. "It's not like I'm some girl who talks about getting married when we're older. Oh god. That made me sound gay." He wanted to slap himself. "Awkward. I'm not, though."