Jimmy Lawson's Story

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Shit.

Jimmy considered all the reasons he shouldn't be inside the headmaster's office at that moment, and yet, doing what he went in there to do compelled him. One of the Ruhig students, which was a surprise to Jimmy, had asked him to get into the headmaster's office for a specific book he'd left during a visit. Hell, he felt for the kid: he was tripping over himself in shyness and his voice barely rose over a whisper. That's how he found himself staring Headmaster Ryan in the mirror, trying to find the book in the plethora of books scattered in the chaotic office.

Why did Jimmy have to be the go-to biomorpher?

There were at least three other people on campus that could shapeshift into other humans. One in particular, Amy, could only shift into women, but most students knew him as "the boy could can't say no".

Jimmy looked about the room and could not find the book the boy was yearning for. He checked where the boy had originally told him the book was several times, scoured the desk, and even skimmed the bookshelf. He couldn't believe that the large mythology book would be this hard to find. He checked his watch for the time the headmaster usually came back from lunch; he still had fifteen minutes to search.

"Are you looking for this?" Headmaster Ryan looked himself in the eye.

Double shit.

"If I had to guess, it's... James, James Lawson." Jimmy let his body morph back to its original form, his head hung in shame. The headmaster only took it in a light-hearted fashion. "Son, you have to learn to say no!" The man laughed, slinging his arm around the younger boy's shoulder.

Headmaster Ryan knew most of the Guardians, especially Treu guardians, kept their heart on their sleeve and would help anyone, even if it meant they got in trouble as well. Jimmy was one of those people. Unfortunately, since it was the second time Jimmy had been caught using his power to break into rooms, the headmaster had to punish him. Jimmy had to take an extra hour out of his free time for mental control, one of his worst classes. Jimmy didn't understand the mental aspect of his power, and often replicated details falsely; just a few minutes ago he replicated Headmaster Ryan with two pinkies instead of a ring finger.

Once Jimmy was allowed to leave, he groaned; he hated mental control class. Granted, Professor Lawrence was a great teacher, he just didn't like classes he didn't understand. He was careful to not take his anger out on the freshman, whose words of thanks gushed out of his mouth when he returned the book.

Maybe something good did come out of it.

The cab drove away leaving Alice before a long cobblestone driveway leading up to a castle. A bloody castle! They hadn't been kidding when they'd mentioned it in the letter. The plaque by the front gate confirmed that it was Eltz Academy, she hadn't been sure the German cab driver had understood most of what she was saying but he seemed to have recognised the school's name at least. She propped the small cardboard box she was carrying on her hip and adjusted the strap of the duffel bag on her shoulder. This was it, no backing out now. Alice started her way up the driveway.


A short while later, and a half decent little walk, Alice stood in the foyer, or front office, or whatever, of the Academy. She let her bag slip off her shoulder and drop heavily onto the floor in front of desk startling the administrator from her work.

"Hi," Alice grinned, placing her box on the counter.

"Hello," the administrator replied, recovering from her surprise. "What can I do for you?"

Thank heavens, the woman speaks English. "Ender. Alice Ender. I'm enrolling this semester."

"Oh, yes! Miss Ender. If you just want to take a seat, I'll organise a copy of your class schedule and your dorm allocation details."

"Ta," Alice picked up her box and bag and went to take a seat in the corner, but paused and turned back. "Ergonomic."

"I'm sorry?"

"Ergonomic. I couldn't remember the word. You know for those office chairs that are supposed to be good for your back or whatever? Anyway, maybe you should try one. I don't know, it might help."

With that Alice went and took a seat with her box and her bag, leaving a slightly puzzled administrator to return to her work and her sore back.
Humming tunelessly, Alice gazed around at the room bouncing her feet on the floor with nervous energy. She smiled seemingly contently while mentally she was reinforcing the block in her mind. She hadn't been transferring this time, pain was a strong motivator in learning control and most of the time she no longer unconsciously transfer it onto herself, but she had let the sense of it become distracting. A more frequent occurrence since the accident. With some concentration all the little lights of pain in her minds eye dimmed to an ignorable but still comfortingly present level, and she continued to survey the plush décor of the old German castle.

The door to the headmaster's office opened and two people came out. One was assumedly the headmaster, the other, a young guy carrying a book and looking slightly shamefaced, she guessed was a student. The student left the lobby quickly and the headmaster crossed the room to speak with the administrator who then gestured in Alice's direction. He turned towards her, "Miss Ender?"

"That's me." Alice hopped to her feet and shifted her box under one arm to accept his proffered hand in a firm handshake.

"It's good to hear your finally joining us." She'd put off accepting her letter and then the accident had happened and she'd My name is Jacob Ryan, I'm the Headmaster here at Eltz."

"Sweet," she acknowledged, then hesitated. Despite her usual confidence she was suddenly nervous behind her smile. She hadn't really ever taken her various encounters with her previous headmaster seriously but Eltz Academy was different, and aside from Tessa she'd never been around others like herself. "So you, uh... have powers too?"

"Yes, but all that in due time. For the moment you should concentrate on getting settled in. I've been told the copy of you enrolment information is ready, let's see if we can find someone to show you around?"

"If you say so."

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Eleanor woke up to the sound of nothing but the sound of her book, The Great Gatsby dropping to the hard wood ground and as it did the Romanian was up. She rose up so quickly before looking to the ground and seeing the cause of the noise. She breathed out and closed her dark brown eyes to calm her now raising heart. "Goddamn it." she whispered. Now that she was up, Ellie picked her book off of the ground and began to walk towards her bookcase. She looked for the proper space to put it right there with the G's. She then knew there was no way she was going to sleep another moment because once she was up, she was up. She walked over the her closet and looked over her numerous pairs of jeans, hoodies, and t-shirts. Before deciding on what to wear for the day. And, with her clothes in her hand, she walked into the restroom to take a shower. And for the next ten minutes Eleanor just let the warm water relax her from the morning scare. After washing herself up the Romanian turned off the water, grabbed her white towel and wrapped it around her small and thin body before stepping out of the shower and into the steamed bathroom.

She wiped the mirror down to see her reflection before putting the towel around her light brown hair, she brushed her hand through her newly cut hair and sighed. "I can't believe I cut my hair." She had just cut her hair not long ago and she still couldn't believe that she went through with it. She reached out for her clothes and slipped on her gray sweater and jumped into her rather new dark wash skinny jeans. After doing so, she began to dry her hair and began to watch it start dry. Which took about another couple minutes with her hair dryer on low. She grabbed towards her gray beanie and put it on before walking out of the bathroom, leaving the door open to let the steam all out. While walking, Eleanor grabbed a pair of her sneakers and slipped them on. After that, she sat up and looked into her full length mirror.

She sighed as she looked herself up and down and shook her head as she grabbed her Edgar Allen Poe book and placed it in her old messager bag and walked out of her room, she stopped and grabbed her camcorder before turning it on. As she walked down the hall, she slipped her headphones in and ignored anyone who might be looking in her direction. Once exiting the dorm rooms, she walked to the commons and took a seat on the grass right under a tree that she always sat under in the morning. As she did so, she looked for a blank page in her notebook and began to continue on a picture of a very blurry photograph of her family with her mother and her father and older brother before being left with her grandparents. She never seen her father and brother but was determine to finish this picture in order to know at least what they looked like. Or if it brought back any memories of her hated past. And as much as she wanted to quit trying, she couldn't. She turned her music lower before keeping her eyes steadily on the picture, stapled to the piece of notebook paper to keep it from flying away.

And the longer she set her eyes on the picture, the more blurry her eyes got. The Romanian rubbed her eyes and blinked once or twice before looking in her black leather bag for her sunglasses. And when she looked up she saw one of her best friend, Jimmy. They were different but, they just clicked. She gathered her belongings and walked up behind her best friend and wrapping her arm around his shoulder. "Hello, Jimmy my boy." She said with smile on her face and she took a photo of her best friend before looking down at it and chuckling. "Aw, you look so cute." Her smile turning to a smirk as she said it. She took out her head phones and placed them in her bag before looking back at her friend.

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After Jimmy took the walk of shame out of the office, he was bombarded by the plethora of people standing outside the front office. Astrid Horn, the Head girl of Driest, with her partner-in-crime Annabelle Watson, and Treu Head Boy Kian McKinley, took one side; Jeremiah Raimin, someone he didn't talk to much, was with a fiery red-head; and finally, a freshman he'd heard about, Alice Ender. Who started the party?

He didn't let the corny joke slip from his lips and gave a friendly wave to all of them, then headed on his way.

Jimmy wanted to take a detour to the cafeteria, to get a hot cup of tea and maybe a bite to eat. However, this changed when he saw Eleanor heading his way.

She was pretty damn beautiful. Jimmy felt more like who he really could be around her; around her, he felt that he could be loud and curious and however the Hell he pleased. That's how she was. Unfortunately, he felt more like a lovestruck puppy following her around, endlessly fascinated by her.

His attention was taken by a freshman wondering how to get to her house. She was a Treu freshman, and he promised to take her to the house after breakfast. Jimmy tried to make her feel welcome by joking that he had a scout's honor. She laughed, and he pointed out on her map where the cafeteria was, promising to meet her there later. Meeting and helping out other students was something Jimmy loved to do, and it was most likely the reason he was guardian. Unfortunately, he was a push-over to most and some of those "nice" students would take advantage of him.

Jimmy was pulled from his thoughts when Eleanor slung an arm around his shoulder. "Hello, Jimmy my boy." She greeted, putting a smile of both of their faces. To commemorate the moment, she snapped a picture of him and commented on his cuteness. His cheeks lit up like a fire.

"Good morning to you too, Eleanor."

The friends were soon talking lightly about their weekend, the new students, this, that, and the other. "Guess who has an extra hour in Mental Control today?" He hinted to her, hiding his disdain. He told her a lot about his struggles with mental control.

Their powers were controlled in different fashions, but she was there to help him anyway. "Hey, I was going to the cafeteria for some tea, care to join me?"

It all seemed surreal just the other day he woke up under a tree suffering from dimensional sickness and just having lost his only friend, and brother. Today Vas was ironing his shirt for his first day school in 3 years... or was it 1 year... the fabric of time and space has been ripped just for him to arrive here and only through his brother sacrifice did he make it. The painful memories still fresh on his mind along the urge to curl into the fetal position around his toilet and vomit still plagued him, but he was not about to waste the opportunity given to him by being allowed to attend this academy.

Vas knew that this place was home to people like him, people with abilities beyond their control, and he also knew that everyone here was invited, something he was not. Only by the grace and generosity of the headmaster was he allowed to live and study here, for if not here he would have no place to go.

After putting the finishing touches to his smooth crimson colored collard shirt he gently slid both arms into their respective places being carful not to cause any wrinkles as he tucked the tail into his slacks, then to finish off his attire Vas reached into his closet and removed a grey cotton sweater vest from its hanger and after sliding it over his head and arms he looked into the mirror to inspect himself. "Presentable" he whispered to himself before grabbing his satchel and journal from his desk.


Vas stopped writing to contemplate his word choice and after taking ten seconds or so he scratched out the word earth with a single line.

retracting his pen almost in unison with the growling of his stomach he placed his journal into his satchel and exited his room locking up after himself.

Vas made his way through the hallways of the academy passing by a large crowd of people standing outside what seemed to be the office and witnessing the interaction between a striking young woman with short brown hair and what appeared to be her good friend, a younger looking irishman. Feeling the emotions of sorrow and loneliness begin to creep up on him Vas paid no further attention to the two except to take a second look at the girl, and with that done he continued on in the direction of his nose.

after taking a few wrong turns further down the hallway he witnessed another interaction between two people, a boy and and a girl with a small dog. At this point Vas was just taking in the atmosphere of the castle and people watching but his stomach made another desperate cry for food "Alright I hear you, calm yourself" he said quietly as he continued walking now holding his stomach.

Finally Vas arrived to the cafeteria where he laid his eyes immediately on the fresh fruits, muffins, teas.... but most importantly to him the cereal and milk station. He immediately rushed over and attempting to not draw attention to himself , he prepared two large bowls of cereal and proceeded to drown them in soy milk. After placing his bowls down he went back to grab him a spoon, a blend of breakfast tea and four packets of honey. It was now time to feast and after a quick blessing of gratitude that is exactly what Vas did.
It appeared as if he was enjoying a delicacy and to him, he was. "Three years without you, never again he thought to himself as spoonful by spoonful seemed to disappear.

Halfway through the second bowl Vas looked up and noticed his table wasn't unoccupied two girls that appeared to be around his age were also at this table and had begun what seemed like a conversation just a few seats away. One seemed happy and alive and the other haunted and slightly disturbed but it was none of his business and plus he still had a bowl to finish...

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Looking around, she caught the eye of someone looking towards her and Jimmy before looking back at her bag as she slipped in her sketchbook and tightened the buckle on the bag to close it. But she turned her attention back to her friend as he spoke to her. "Guess who has an extra hour in Mental Control today?" She gave him a smile smile before sighing. "They just want you to be able to control your power so you don't do anything that you might regret." Unlike Jimmy, Ellie didn't need help to control her power. Mostly because her's wasn't too difficult to control like his and she felt like the least she could do is be there for him when he wants to talk about it.

"Hey, I was going to the cafeteria for some tea, care to join me?" She smiled and nodded. "Sure, why not? I have nothing better to do, seeing that you're one of my only friends." The Romanian said with a smirk before chuckling. Was it true? To an extent, yes. The younger male was one of, if not her closest friends and as bad as it sounded, she had more acquaintances than anything. The pair made their way to the cafeteria and when they entered, Eleanor looked towards her friend. "I'll get the food if you get the tea." She said before walking off, she stopped halfway before turning back to the younger male. "Oh, and if you don't have anything planned for tonight, we are having a movie night." She told him with a smile before walking off to the line, praying that she wouldn't bump into someone and start stuttering.

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Once she agreed to accompany him to the cafeteria, they walked in a comfortable silence. Nothing was ever awkward between them; for Jimmy, anyway. He watched the way she switched her feet, the wind barely bothering her cropped hair, he could never be bothered to be awkward. Unless he tried to flirt, which was usually a fumbling compliment she took in full stride. Even when she caught him staring, she would simply laugh at his reddening cheeks.

They worked their way like veterans through the cafeteria, Ellie going for the food, Jimmy for tea.

He noticed the two girls that had been in front of the headmaster's office: the fiery redhead with the small dog, and the fiesty brunette that intimidated Jimmy by the stare she gave to him. They seemed to be getting along quite well, so he returned to the task at hand. He mulled over Eleanor's more command than offer of move night.

"When am I ever busy, Ellie?" Jimmy joked, taking the cups of tea as he joined up once again with her. He didn't like to admit it, but he was just as much friendless as she was. They clung to each other.

They both decided to head out into the large courtyard of the academy instead of braving to find a clear, clean table in the cafeteria. The courtyard was starting to fill up as well. Jimmy didn't mind being around people, talking to them was his issue, but he wasn't so sure about Eleanor. He liked to think she didn't care either way.

"What movie did you have in mind?" He asked her, sipping slowly on the hot tea.

He always squeezed a lemon and a dot of honey before he drank any tea from anyone. It was one of his many quirks. He closed his eyes momentarily, savoring the taste of the sweet tea, then looked up from the cup.

There it was. There was a moment when he was distracted it would appear; the start of a migraine. He blinked when he started to notice the symptoms. The tea usually helped so he mentally calmed himself down and took another long sip. Anything could've triggered it, but this was the first sunny day since he arrived at Eltz ten days ago; The mountains Eltz was settled on had been experiencing a lot of rain lately.

Just as a precaution, he pulled out his sunglasses. He gave Eleanor his quirky little smiles.

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When she got in line, she kept her eyes down and made sure to get what she needed without bumping into anyone. Around her small group of friends, she was fine but around large groups of people and strangers, she just became a different person. She looked down at her feet before feeling a force accidentally push her back into the person behind her. Without even looking back, she could tell he was much taller than her. She offered a soft smile towards the girl in front of her when she apologized. She looked behind her to see the man towering over her, she was already nervous but when she saw his eyes, she just forgot what she was going to say. "I--um..--I. Sorry." She turned back around and tried her best to keep herself from getting red. She quickly made her way through the line trying not to make a bigger fool of herself. She walked towards Jimmy, only taking a second glace towards Vassi before turning her attention towards her best friend. "God, Jamie. I'm a complete idiot."

As they made their way out of the busy cafeteria, Ellie looked towards Jimmy. "When am I ever busy, Ellie?" She shrugged. "I don't know. For all I know, maybe you finally asked that girl you're crazy about on a date. Miracles happen after all." She said in sarcasm with a playful smile on her pale face. As they say down, she handed him one of the cookies she grabbed as she took off her bag and put it to her side. "What movie did you have in mind?"

Once more she shrugged before taking a bite. "I'm not sure, just not romance because the last time I watched a romance with you, I fell asleep on your bed. And that's not good." She honestly didn't mind, she was comfortable around Jimmy so it didn't really matter to her. She just knew it was awkward for him. "I got a few new movies online, we can have just a huge marathon of comedies, and sci-fi, and stuff. It'll be awesome, I swear." Ellie said before taking a sip of her tea. She watched Jimmy slip on his glasses before pouting and tilting her head a bit. "Jamie? You okay? You want to go inside or something?"

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He had to stifle small giggles when she bumped into the new guy; but when Ellie mentioned the girl he was sweet on, his cheeks flared up. "I-I don't think she likes me like that, E-El." Jimmy started to stutter.

She switched topics, and Jimmy sighed in relief. Ellie started to ramble on about movies, and the memory of that night flared up. Jimmy couldn't decided who had picked the romantic movie, but, having Sarah to drag him to romantic movies even at a young age, he was used to it. What he wasn't used to was a girl falling asleep in his vicinity, especially Ellie. She nodded off and her head fell into his lap. He literally spent twenty minutes planning what to do, and finally decided to do nothing. When the movie stopped, it was late and he didn't want to wake her up, so he slept on the couch.

"If you're not too chicken, we can catch a horror flick at the movies." Are you trying to flirt? Jimmy didn't know if Eleanor was up for going into the village, but he liked catching a film in their movie theatre from time to time; it reminded him of his life before the years of darkness.

Eleanor noticed the sunglasses, obviously, and asked him if he was okay. "Um, yeah, El, I'm fine, it's just a bit bright." That was a lie, but he could blame it on acute eyesight, like he usually did. But he could feel it steadily getting worse. It usually didn't develop this fast; this was going to be a bad migraine week. "No-no, we can stay... here, it's fine." The pounding in his head was making it hard to lie. If he continued to focus on it, it would continue to steadily climb. Instead, he saw a girl sitting on the windowsill.

"Why don't we get ourselves some new friends?" Jimmy asked, taking her hand as they finished their breakfast. He led the way, only because she was a bit shier than him. He walked up to the girl.

"Hey, I'm Jimmy, and this is Eleanor. I saw you were sitting by yourself and I would love for you to join us."

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"I-I don't think she likes me like that, E-El." Ellie sighed before shrugging. Jimmy was a good guy. He was kind, sweet, smart, and cute to boot. Not that she would admit it but, she really was head over heels for the younger boy a little. "If you're not too chicken, we can catch a horror flick at the movies." She scoffed a little before rolling her eyes. "Me? Scared? Please, if anyone's going to be chicken, its you but don't worry youngster. Big tough Eleanor will be there to protect you." She smirked before taking another sip of her tea.

When he started talking about how he was fine, she raised an eyebrow towards her best friend. "Um, yeah, El, I'm fine, it's just a bit bright." She tilted her head a bit before shaking her head. "Let's just head inside, Jamie. It's not that big of a deal."

"No-no, we can stay... here, it's fine." The older girl just sighed before nodding towards her friend. She could tell that he was in some type of pain but, if it got bad enough. She make him go inside. She hated seeing him like this and whenever he was, she tried her best help him until he felt better. She looked up to see the man that she had bumped into in the corner of her eye and she couldn't help but look away. "Why don't we get ourselves some new friends?" She looked up at her friend before shaking her head nervously. "What? No, Jamie. Please no." But it was took late he had already gotten up and grabbed a hold of her small hand. Ellie looked down at them hand and hand before smiling sweetly. She snapped herself out of it before speaking to Jimmy in a soft tone as they continued to walk up to the girl. "Jamie, I can't do this." But, it was too late. They were already in front of the girl.

"Hey, I'm Jimmy, and this is Eleanor. I saw you were sitting by yourself and I would love for you to join us." She just let her friend talk while Ellie looked down at the two still holding hand. She quickly but softly removed her hand from his and put it to her side. There was no reason to give people the wrong idea, especially with Jimmy's little Miss.Perfect someone on campus.

"We could wander around and get lost or I could take a nice nap and leave you behind. But i'm not rude so...we can wander or eat some more. I up for anything at the moment."

Alice pushed her seat back a little and stretched her arms above her head with a bit of a groan as she loosened the slight stiffness in her back. "If you're tired don't let me keep you. I'm not hungry any more." A nap for herself wasn't a bad idea, but unless she found a couch or something it would require actually making her bed and that seemed more effort than it was worth right now. Besides, she ought to be social on her first day at least, she had all semester to hole up in her room sleeping.

"However," Alice continued "Wandering doesn't sound too bad if you are up for it. What shall it be? Explore the castle, head down to the village, or go back to the office and see what other students have arrived? Up to you, I'm easy."

She put her hands behind her head and looked around the hall, catching sight of a trio gathering near one of the windows; a girl/boy couple approaching another student. A pitying smile graced Alice's lips as she watched the girl extract her hand from her partner's.

"We could even wander over there and interrupt that awkward little interaction," she nodded towards the trio, "Introduce ourselves, relieve tension, and what-not." She shrugged.

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Jimmy felt bad bringing Eleanor when meeting new people, so he gave the girl his number so that if she needed anything, she could call.

From Jimmy, this was an innocent move, and Eleanor laughed when he did flirtatious things and was unaware of it.

They continued into one of the less used hallways where Jimmy had a room for migraines. He wouldn't realize until the next few minutes how handy it would be.

They sat against a windowsill, idly chatting, when the migraine hit him full force. Jimmy cried out, curling up into himself. His head seemed to be pounding in sync with his heart. When his mind is clogged with a migraine, many of the systems in his body go out of order. His pain center was sending signals off in every direction, encircling his body in agony. It was a reminder of all the electric shock.

His body was transforming in and out at a rapid pace, many different forms flickering on his body.

Jimmy had never done this in front of anyone except the Headmaster and Professor Lawrence. His body dropped to the floor with a thud. Jimmy's eyes were shut tight and he was gasping for breath. His head was pounding too hard to function.

"E-el, E-el-lie, the roo-roo-room, there." He managed to pry out. It was a relief she knew him well enough to know he hid himself from everyone when his migraines occurred. He'd never gone into detail about their origins, but she'd only seen him lying on the bed, fans blowing at his half-naked body as the heat flashes of the migraine attacked him.

As soon as they were in the cold vicinity of his attack room, the flashing transformations subsided. His head still felt like it was going to split open, but his hands and feet had only a tingling sensation left in their sensation pads.

Jimmy supposed, now that he could think straight, that he would have to tell her at least all that the migraine did to him. The origin, however, wasn't something he was too found of sharing. That was something no one knew about, except Headmaster Ryan, and his deceased siblings. Not to mention the people that tortured him.

He forced himself away from those thoughts and regulated his breathing from its current hyperventilation.

This was definitely not a good day.

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As they were with the girl, Eleanor felt her phone in her back pocket. When she looked at the text, it was from the head boy of her house, Kyle.

"Hey, Eleanor I was just wondering how the freshman orientation plans are going, I was thinking we could give a brief introduction to what their responsibilities are"

The girl didn't take long to reply before putting her phone back in her pocket.

The plans are going well but, we may have to meet up to just make sure everything is okay.

The two were as close as the two could be, seeing that they were both a bit closed off to the idea of getting close to a lot of people. It wasn't easy for them to as close as her and Jimmy were. But, like most of the head students of the other houses, Eleanor felt something for him and she would be lying if she said that she never wondered what it would be like to be with him and actually be more than friends. Then she would remember who exactly she was; She was Eleanor Sinclair, a girl who really liked her space from most people, a girl who never liked letting people touch her, but more than anything. She was the girl who's father left her to be with an abusive mother and would constantly remind the young girl that she was nothing special. Nothing but a mistake that couldn't be erased or taken back and after awhile she began believing it herself and has ever since.

Not long after them going over to the girl, Eleanor's anxiety began to form and Jimmy more than likely could tell which was why he just gave the girl his number before walking away with Ellie by his side as they headed inside to hopefully make Jimmy's forming migraine more tolerable.

When they made their way to a vacant hallway, Eleanor just sat across from the best friend on the large window as the two began chatting, about random things. In all honesty, Eleanor just wanted to get his mind off of the migraine and hopefully make him feel better. She wasn't used to seeing him like this and she never wanted to see it again. But, it wasn't long until he was curled up in pain and cried out. She bent down and put her hand his back as she tried to find out what was wrong. Her eyes darted from his eyes and the empty hallway around them before looking back at her friend as he talked to her. "E-el, E-el-lie, the roo-roo-room, there." She didn't even say a word as she helped him up to his feet and helped him to his room. She had been in the room a few times when she was trying to find her best friend. She laid him on the bed and stayed by his side as she waited for him to return to normal.

She wasn't used to seeing this happen to him but, she wasn't going to let it scare him into leaving him to suffer through it himself. Nothing would make her leave him like this. She walked in front of him before bending down to meet his eyes with hers. She offered him a small smile as she put one hand through his hair to move it off of his forehead and away from his face as he tried to stop his hyperventilating. "Just breath in and out, Jamie. Everything's fine. Just take your time and if you feel like something's about to happen, let me know." She assured him as she moved her hand back to her side and watched him carefully, making sure that if something bad was going to happen, she was going to be right there. But, for now all she could do is wait for him to show signs of being okay.

It came and went, the pain.

There were moments where he felt he could go on, and then he would be attacked again. There were layers almost visible of tears on his face. His mind kept replaying the fateful day where he became an only child in his personal Hell. He needed the medicine Headmaster Ryan had given him for the attacks. He always wondered if they were actually helping or if it was a placebo to trick his mind into getting better. Regardless, his mind searched for them. "El, I have to get to my room." He called to her. She was so faithful to him, he could think of anyone that had been at his side for so long. If only she knew how much he cared.

With her help, he returned his sunglasses to his bloodshot eyes and slowly made it out of the room. The brightness attacked him and he had to slam himself against the wall to stable himself before he was brought to his knees. He knew she was worried, and she had a right to be; he'd never had a full-blown attack in front of her, and decided he never would again.

With all the strength he could muster, and a slow twenty minutes, they were inside his dorm room. It was mostly tidy, bookshelves of different proportions on every wall. A movie shelf hung in front of the screen he kept in his bedroom. On the counter, in front of a picture of his two sibings, was the pill bottle. He held it with shaking hands and took a simple pill from it's body. The effects were almost simultaneous; his headache subsided, the brightness dimmed, and he could finally relax from the constant pain of tension. He took Eleanor in a hug, "thank you for helping me, I know it was probably strange and pretty scary." Jimmy murmured with his head nustled on top of hers.

When they parted, he checked his watch. It was ten minutes to Professor Lawrence's class and it took fifteen to get there from his part of the dorms. "Shit," he breathed, taking Eleanor's hand and breaking into a sprint. Hopefully, with the speed they could share, they would get to his class in time. Jimmy didn't want another detention for being late.

Luckily, they both made to the classroom to witness the projection Professor Lawrence was using. It was a beautiful scenery, and Jimmy gasped in awe. But all too soon, the scene melted, and Jimmy felt that familiar tug of someone's power on his mind. Terror coursed through his veins and down his spine; the professor's mind had latched onto Jimmy's own and was starting to project his memories. Before the cell could fully reemerge and thoroughly scare the living shit out of Jimmy, he filled his mind with the hills of Ireland, his laughing family, and the lake he called home. The dank smell left as soon as it entered, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully, Eleanor was too focused on something else to have noticed the first projection.

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After they had gotten to Jimmy's room and he had taken his medicine. She just watched with worry in her eyes as she watched him. Almost automatically, she could tell that everything was getting back to normal. She sigh and smiled towards him before being pulled into a hug and wrapping her arms around him. She nuzzled her head into his chest before sighing. "thank you for helping me, I know it was probably strange and pretty scary." Eleanor nodded her head before speaking to him. "It's fine. Jamie. Don't even worry about it...I just wanted to make sure you were okay." When they moved a part, she looked up at him as he looked down at his watch. "Shit,"

"What time is it?"She went on her tiptoes a bit to see the time before she began to get worried. She was never late to a class and she didn't want to start now. She didn't have time to react before Jimmy reached out and grabbed her hand once again and rushed towards the door. She quickly grabbed the bag from his bed that she had sat down once they entered and rushed to walk at the same pace as her best friend. It didn't take long for the couple to get to their class and when they entered, Eleanor turned her attention from Jimmy to the other people in the classroom, seeing how many new kids there were.

She could point out a couple of new faces from the others she had seen around before. She may not be social but, she was observant when it came to knowing faces. The two took their seats that were right next to one another. And, when the projection of the cell came up, Eleanor was looking away. She only had time to catch a second or so of the places before it changing into something much more pleasant. She looked towards Jimmy before losing her smile a bit as she saw the small specks of fear in his eyes. She put her hand on his shoulder before whispering in his ear. "Are you okay? Are you having another migraine?" She asked with worry in her voice.

Eleanor called out to him but the fear had kept him rooted in his spot.

He had to bite his lip to keep from saying anything. Jimmy felt like screaming, punching, anything to remind himself he wasn't there anymore.

Jimmy had had a hard time adjusting. There were days where he would feel it again; the hopeless and utter desolation that had taken hold of him for countless weeks. The days had mixed together and his memory was a blur of cackles, the pain of forced transformation, and eating from the floor because they'd stripped him of his dignity and humanity. Trying to rid himself of that animalistic nature was the hardest part of coming back.

Jimmy shook his head and looked to Eleanor, giving her a small smirk. "No, no migraine. Just, the projection brought on a couple bad memories." It also reminded him how little Eleanor knew of his past. They met the year before he enrolled, when he would shadow Headmaster Ryan. They became better friends the more and more they hung out but he'd always had a crush on her. He thought her intelligence with such a laid-back attitude was very alluring. He liked to think that he could have been that way without his horrible childhood.

He decided not to say anything about it to the professor because he seemed genuinely apologetic. Since the professor seemed to be stuck in his thoughts, he designated a independent/small group study day. Of course, Jimmy was with Eleanor, which usually meant he transformed and she read to manipulate the landscape. The migraines had worn him out so he decided to curl up into the form of a kitten on Eleanor's desk and closed his eyes.

Being from Ruhig, Eleanor wouldn't want him to waste this valuable study time to work on his powers, but hopefully she would be convinced by the display which she'd experienced earlier that he needed to rest.

Late-comers where given the agenda on what they were doing today, and most of the head students were helping out the freshman. He transformed for a moment, telling Eleanor that she could help some of the freshmen since he was going to sleep, and transformed once again into the kitten form.