Cynthia Ward's Story

Nathan gave Kayin a look of confusion as the boy continued to shuffle closer, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "Don't know why you've suddenly decided to start talking to me, but whatever." he muttered, folding his arms and shrinking down into his seat. "And don't care about all the meaningless goings on of everyone else. It's all pointless anyway. Looks and drama and sad excuses for relationships."

Clearly, Nathan was a veritable ray of sunshine.

Just a few moments later, the rest of the class started to file in, surrounding - of course - Cynthia Ward. The blonde-haired girl walked with the confidence of someone who knew they were important, knew that people hung on their every word, and knew that they were untouchable.

Around her, the trio of 'drones' as people called them - Katy, Lana and Marissa - walked like a human shield, separating Cynthia from the masses. As well as them, Andy Lawson and Dave Spinelli walked with their respective girlfriends, though Andy seemed more to be trailing after Cynthia than alongside her. Katy was latched onto Dave's arm like a limpet. Finally, Mei - the one girl of the group who seemed to actually have a mind of her own - picked up the rear, laughing about something with Lana.

The group seated themselves in the center of the room, at the tables that had been left unoccupied for them. Cynthia's eyes scanned the room briefly before she sat, finding Wade's. She met his slippery gaze with her lips pursed with distaste, and nodded her head to him. That was all, and then she sat.

The room continued on in a hubbub of post-summer catching up, before the door swung open once more. The noise quieted down, as the class was expecting their teacher, and then quietened even further then they noticed who it was.

Quietly and without so much as meeting anyone's eyes, Jamie Winters crossed to the empty table at the back of the room and took a seat. She was pale and fragile-looking, but otherwise unchanged from the end of the last year. Of course, everyone had heard the rumours that she had committed suicide over the break. There had been police questioning and everything! And yet, here she was, walking into homeroom as though nothing was wrong.

Lily broke off from her conversation with Alacyn to make her way over - she and Jamie were close friends - and sat beside her. The two began to speak in hushed voices.

It didn't take long for the rest of the room to crescendo again, as people excitedly discussed what had happened.

Amy nudged Jerrard. "Does the walking supposedly-dead count as interesting?" she remarked with a smirk, nodding her head towards Jamie.

At the front of the room, Annie stared after Jamie. "Some people," she muttered finally, rounding back to face the front and Rhapsody. "I bet she started that rumour about suicide just for attention."

The Slug accepted the sheaf of papers. His gash of a mouth split open from a smirk to a shark's smile. That sort of pleasure on the face of someone like Wade Shug seemed almost obscene. It belonged on the face of a child turning over a rock to poke at slimy grubs, or pull the wings off butterflies.

"Very good, very good," Wade oozed, shoving the carefully stapled document into his black backpack. He closed his dark-colored notebook, and turned that stupid lolling smile onto Jake. A few seconds passed, as Jake stood there expectantly, nervously. Wade's expression darkened into a scowl. "Get outta here! You don't get your stuff until I get my grade. And it had at least better be a b-plus -- " the Slug slammed a finger onto his closed notebook with a sharp tak, "-- we agreed."

In a split second, Wade was all back to sickly smiles. "And I know it'll be just wonderful. I'm sure you'll have your computer thingy --" Shug waggled the fingers on one hand, "-- by next week."

After Jake's reply, there was a brief lull, during which Wade found himself caught off guard by a brief but polite "Hi, Wade" from Alacyn, seated primly next to him. He wheeled around to face her, pale face scrunched. He glanced from her, to his notebook, mentally running through his deals. So used was Wade to being ignored by those who didn't expressly need his services, that when someone simply extended a simple courtesy, the only solution in his mind was that this person expected something of him.

Before he could slap together some response, a group of students entered the classroom, instantly recognizable as the popular crowd, flipping their hair, rapturously intent on Cynthia Ward, the school's undeniable Queen Bee. Cynthia gave the Slug an all-too-familiar look of aversion, followed by a brief nod. The nod was all Wade needed, and it erased any thought of Alacyn from his mind. We're in business, the look seemed to say. The Slug squirmed in his seat with fiendish excitement. He took in the rest of Cynthia's entourage. He wasn't just observing classmates, he was browsing clientele.

The last straggler into the room was a girl called Jamie Winters. Wade regarded her warily. He had heard what happened, just like everyone else. The rumor was that Jamie had died, like, actually died, and was now back to life. Normally, Shug would have scoffed at such a notion, but since a year ago -- since the Gray Man ..

Things that Wade couldn't understand were often dangerous. Danger was chaos, and chaos unsettled things. Things like business. And so, Wade decided he would have no part in anything related to Jamie Winters. He afflicted the girl with one last, lingering look before opening his dark green notebook again, procuring a pen from his backpack. He wrote her name in the very back page, along with a handful of others. He drew his pen through her name twice, thrice, four times with a dark and heavy mark.

If she wasn't dead before, she was dead to him now.