Leonardo Marinos's Story

A correlation was slowly forming in Jessica's head; the longer she spoke to Jackson, the more relaxed he seemed to be becoming. It was clear that he was using their conversation to distract himself from.. something. Whatever had caused him to walk away from Lulu and Mckenna and then walk away from her. Unlike the other two girls though, Jessica hadn't left him alone. This struck her as odd, she barely spoken to Jackson before today and now she was carrying him home. He was drunk, she reasoned, he needed the company to stop himself hurting himself. That had to be the reason... right?

The brunette gave Jack a look when he made reference to the fact she had gotten smaller, 'I'm fun sized, don't you forget it' She told the Irishman, pointing a mocking finger in his face, 'besides, I could take you on any day.' She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, before bursting out into fits of giggles. The alcohol she had cosumed tonight had definitely taken it's toll on her. She was never this confrontational, at least not in a crazy-cat-lady way. She'd never hurt anyone, least of all the beautiful Irish man walking besides her. Jessica's laughter escalated when Jackson tried to justify him being able to walk home alone with the idea that he was Irish, ' Honey. there's a reason brands have to write Ireland in brackets after their logos, to remind you what country you're in.' She smiled up at Jack. He was extremely handsome, she couldn't deny that and he had such beautiful eyes; wise eyes.

When Jack thanked her for walking with him, Jessica tore her eyes from his face and smiled, 'That's quite alright, I was going to go soon anyway. Everyone seems to have left or be leaving. Doesn't surprise me really, there's far too many slut and man whores in this place and i'm just talking about the Noctrem people.' She gave a small smile as she spoke. Jessica had never really counted herself as a Noctrem student, she had never really fitted into that crowd. Then again, with her past, she knew that Mr Marino's would never have accepted her. The brunette's face fell slightly as she remembered the scene; a man attacking her and then ending up on the floor, his eyes having been burnt out; dead. The brunette blinked and shook herself, looking back up the male walking beside her, 'besides, I wasn't having you walk home alone after the episode I saw earlier and especially not after speaking to you...' She trailed off, hesitating before asking her next question, 'Jackson, how does a beautiful man like you end up walking away from a party looking so...broken? What happened?'



Ashy could feel fear of Erin melting away as she spoke; despite the fact the blonde sitting next to her was a lot stronger than she was, it seemed that Drake did have the same effect on two of them, in a sense. Erin had been right with what she first had said though... if didn't have the time of day for a strong willed girl like her than what the hell was he was going to do to her. If he even paid her any attention again, that was. She had heard what Drake had said about Lulu, did she feel the same way about him as the two girls did? Drake obviously had a fan club. tte

She smiled when Erin took another sip of the orange juice, and then toasted it, saying that neither of them should have to deal with prick men. 'We both deserve better than that' She said quietly. Ashy was one of these people that saw the best in everyone, most of all people that allowed time to get to know to her (even if, like Erin, they were extremely drunk.) Erin might have been a complete bitch to her in the past, but eh, Ashy didn't think that this entirely her fault. She hung round with the Ice queen a lot, so she was probably influenced a little by that. Although, Ashy would never count on that and she most certainly wouldn't say that to Erin's face.

It was then that Ashleigh's thoughts were interrupted by a kiss on the cheek. How odd. She turned to see Sky and she smiled. Sky was a bad influence on her and she knew it. But he made her laugh, which was a lot more than certain other bad influences did. Sky didn't make her feel nervous or worthless like Drake did. So that to be a plus side. 'Sky, you're drunk,' She pointed out, as the male started to ramble about how much of a hot mess he was. He then sat down between the two blondes and flicked up his lighter. Was it really safe for him to be using his power when under the influence? The blonde shuffled away from slightly. As it happened it was perfectly safe, he sculpted a fish, which made the blonde smile, 'you are so cute.' She told Sky, nudging a little. She then watched as the two drunkards had a disjoined but nevertheless funny convesation before Erin got up, thanked Ashy and walked away. 'You're welcome' The blonde said quietly. She didn't know whether she needed to follow her or not, deciding it was best not to, in case the two of them bumped into Cor, Erin's best friend, yes that would be a bad move.

Ashy's thought's turned to her own best friend. Where was Zac? He had headed off in the direction of the forest quite a while ago and so far she hadn't seen him return. She was worried, so worried.

Quickly, the blonde stood up, 'Sky, I'm sorry but I need to find Zack we both know he'd hate me to be here alone with you...' She said quietly, before turning on her heal and heading for the woods. The absence of any light in the woods made an eerie and scary place to be, there was a slight part of Ashy that regretted coming here, she pushed it to the back of her mind, she had to find her friend, 'Zac' She called out, quickening her pace to almost a ran. She called out several times more, tree branches hitting her face as she did so. Finally, she heard something; something that disturbed her greatly, the sound of a man sobbing. Was that Zac? The strongest man that she knew? She followed the sound until eventually she found it's source. Her worst fears were confirmed, it was Zack, curled up in a ball, crying in pain. She placed a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off, telling her she couldn't help. The blonde then sat on the forest floor and pulled the male into her lap 'It's ok Zac it's me' She said soothingly.

"I actually came to school here. Leo saw me through winning a tournament every year, passing all of my exams first time, and the legend of the time I was playing a game of tennis on a treadmill for a bet. I won. The other guy was really, really crap," Chris replied with a giggle. Katia giggled and felt her shoulders rise and fall with the motion as she tried to contain the laughter that was becoming so contagious she thought her stomach might start to hurt. Her cheeks were certainly getting a workout. “A student here, makes sense,” she smiled, nodding and processing that Chris of all people must know the school in and out.

"What about you? How did Leo come to find you? I knew just about everyone in my year, and I'm fairly sure there was no Katia Hunt in my year. Or the year above or below me for that matter. I had met just about everyone through sports and dance,” he asked her, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. “Well,” she started, shifting her legs to cross them the other way when Chris moved to stand.

"Hold that thought. Just no, I'm sorry, I have to correct them," Chris paused her before he strode over to the dance floor where a group of guys were still trying to dance with a gaggle of girls and they were failing miserably. Katia sighed, her smile falling. She leaned her elbow on the arm of her chair and cradled her head in it. Katia didn’t doubt that she was tired but she didn’t even know where her teacher’s quarters were. I’m probably going to end up sleeping on a couch somewhere...maybe in Leo’s office?

Katia watched as Chris argued with a few of the boys who immediately appeared threatened that he had re-appeared. She watched as he moved to show them with one young woman a few simple steps expertly, no different than she had taught him. Still, the kids didn’t quite get the idea of frame and posture. She sucked in her cheeks before moving her left hand on her lap, twisting her fingers slightly as she got a lock on one of the boys, seeing the surprise in his eyes as his feet moved where she wanted them too. The dark haired boy took up with the girl he’d been trying to dance with before and suddenly he was leading her – and she followed excellently – in a gentle waltz to the slow song that was playing. She smiled and the boy blushed, his eyes flicking up and around unknowingly. She let him off as Chris re-approached and fortunately he retained some semblance of the moves. Katia smiled, but she could feel the drain. She was most certainly tipsy and exhausted and in pain.

Chris settled back into his chair. “Anyway. Glad to see that's over and done with. I've either scared them so much that they won't dance, or hopefully I've shown them how to dance. Either way, they're not going to be irritating me anymore,” he smiled. “If I didn’t know better I’d say you can’t sit still for more than five minutes,” Katia smirked, leaning over to collect his half finished glass of orange juice to sip on it. She raised her eyebrows at him after she swallowed the remaining contents, licking her lips.

“As for me, I never went to a school like this. I was in Venice as a teenager and I was working more than I was studying,” she confessed. "I met Leo in New York about two years ago I guess? I was dancing in a production there, we hit it off." No sooner had she said it than she fell silent. She had never told anyone that before, aside from Leo but that was all he knew. Her voice gave away that she was Italian. “You’re an excellent teacher,” she commented, raising the orange juice glass to the trio of boys Chris had just instructed. They moved somewhat fluidly though their hands tended to travel awkwardly down the backs of their respective dance partners, causing her to tsk and roll her eyes.

"Was Leo in the production too? I just had a mental image of him doing tap dance. That's just too funny,” Chris replied and at once Katia snorted while her male companion laughed at the own image he had conjured up. When she closed her eyes, Leo was right where he had been when she’d met him, standing off side as a supporter of the production company, and later in the front row. When she had danced the ballet that night, he had been her focal point and not three days later was he far from the stage and in her bed. They had danced, yes. Katia had taught him a few things but otherwise Leo was a very talented man, having lived through as many centuries of dance style as he had. It was all too easy to get caught up the memory, of how he had led her and she hadn’t had to do anything but follow his cues. While Chris was a quick learner, Katia couldn’t deny that he lacked in…wisdom. It was the only word she could put to it. And as Chris laughed at his own assumption, Katia could only shake her head and smile, allowing him to preserve that idea for now and commenting instead on his teaching skills.

"It's probably because I had such an excellent teacher. It was a pleasure to pass it on to the next generation,” he complimented her. Katia sighed. Few people seemed to get her method and she didn’t doubt that he was likely to hate her when he saw her in action. I’m falsely nice tonight, she mused in thought. Definitely drank too much wine.

"I'd salute you, but you've taken my drink, so I can't. And I can't be bothered going to get a new one. Just imagine I have a drink in my hand,” he added. She shook her head and raised the nearly empty glass to his hand which he held in a gesture of holding a glass though he had none. Katia brushed the glass up against the back of his hand before drawing it back to her lips and finishing off the juice. The tang of citrus hit her tongue sharply and she puckered her mouth as she set it down on the table between them.

Katia allowed her eyes to run over Chris a third time, seeing the way he leaned forward and then back, bouncing his legs absently. He was definitely…twitchy. For a moment he seemed to be contemplating something and sure enough he was. He turned to face her quickly asking, "Anyway, any ideas for extra-curriculars? Dance, obviously, but anything else? I'm going to be expected to have some ideas by the end of the week, and at the moment, I have- roughly- nothing."

He drummed his fingers slightly and Katia shrugged. “A musical might be entertaining but I have yet to meet the theater teacher here so I’m not sure just yet. I have a feeling my students will be more inclined to hate me than want me to direct them in something else though outside of class. We’ll see.”

Chris seemed to leap from his seat in that instant and Katia flinched as his chair nearly toppled over. "Okay, I need to get a drink. I shall be back momentarily. Don't miss me too much,” he announced. Katia’s smile dropped immediately and no sooner had he turned to head for the bar did she roll her eyes and sigh unhappily. This was taxing. He had so much energy and she was the drunk one. Though he was quick to get his drink and return, Katia was already collecting her things. He sat down with a contently as she pulled her wine glass back into her hand along with the ¼ bottle she had left.

"I'm starting to think that you were right about the ADHD. And I've got paperwork tomorrow,” he told her, groaning falsely as she stood and stumbled forward as her lower back spasmed. Katia felt like a cripple and she tried to stand. At once she dropped the wine glass in her hand to allow her arm to wrap around her side to support her lower spine. Wincing, she sighed again, biting on her tongue before she turned to face him, slowing straightening so that she stood tall. Fortunately the glass hadn’t broken so she squatted to pick it up, careful not to bend her back. The actions were slow but she didn’t care. Chris was watching, as were several students, but she didn’t care either. If he moved to help her, she swatted him away. Call her proud but she didn’t need him. What she needed were the painkillers in her bags which had been brought to staff suite E – wherever the hell that was.

“Well, if I want to walk tomorrow I need to do something about it. Thank you for entertaining me this evening. It was pleasant to meet you Chris. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of each other,” she smiled weakly. She stepped over to him and like the true Italian that she was, Katia bent and kissed him gently on either cheek. “Buonanotte,” she whispered in his ear gently, before straightening and slowly ushering herself away through the grass.

The more she walked, the more her muscles seemed to work. Within a few steps she was able to move somewhat swiftly, though her tipsiness definitely didn’t help her as she proceeded inside, finding herself daunted by the first set of stairs. Each one was painful and it took her awhile to navigate through the school though she had recalled the secretary telling her earlier that the staff suites were on the second floor

She got to her suite some fifteen minutes after leaving Chris, finding herself jamming the key to get through the locked door and having too much trouble with it. The pain had her slim patience all but nonexistent and after three tries her hands were shaking severely. She breathed through the severe jolts of pain radiating from her lower back into her arms and legs on top of the blooming stupor in her temples from the wine. On her forth attempt the key slipped sideways and she dropped it. In her anger she slammed a fist against the door. “Non me ne frega un cazzo!” she cursed under her breath in Italian, choking as she was forced to bend down and pick up the key from the floor, finding herself washed with pain in an unexpected way. She felt her eyes water and she hissed as she stood, staring at the lock on her door squarely before she slowly, with two hands, guided the key into the lock and twisted it, hearing the magnificent thud as the door swung open. “Giuro davanti a Dio,” she murmured as she slowly made her way inside, grateful for a side table to lean on as she closed the door behind her, locked it, and took off her shoes.

Her bags had been left on the bed and she went straight to them, finding her purse as she sat down and pulling it onto her lap. As once her hand dove for a vial of Methadone, the narcotic pain killer the last of her prescription. She pulled a fresh syringe from her purse, using her teeth to pull off the plastic cap. Spitting it out onto the floor, she stabbed the needle through the cap of the vial, withdrawing a high dosage. She didn’t care that she had had alcohol. She couldn’t feel this pain right now. She knew that even if she tried to lay flat on her back in bed she wouldn’t be able to move or stay calm. Breathing heavily through her nose, she held the syringe in her lips and started to shed her clothes, tearing off her jacket and shirt, skirt and tights. Moving to the bathroom she turned her back to the mirror and looked over her shoulder, seeing the surgical scars on her lower back, the bruising evident still. Sighing she leaned back up against the counter, extending her right arm and slapping her veins before taking the syringe in hand and sliding it into her arm and pressing down the plunger with no hesitation. When it was done she pulled the needle out and dropped it in the sink, falling to the floor and leaning back into the cupboard as it sank in and the numbness spread. "I'm such a role model," she muttered to herself, almost amused but also wondering where Leo was and what he would think if he saw her now.

The alarm clock next to his bed, beeping in his ear, awoke the male who had been fast asleep. Both him and Amy had fallen asleep on top of the covers after their conversation the previous night, and they hadn't woken up until now. Yesterday had been an extremely trying day for the two of them; Amy had announced that she was pregnant, she was already getting a bump, they were arguing more and more, and everything was collapsing slowly when it came to his school. Students were leaving every where, and more and more seemed to be joining from nowhere. It was confusing, to say the least, having extra students and loosing some, and Leo was loosing track of who was a member of his school, and who no longer was no. He pressed the button on top of the clock to stop the insistent beeping, and he gently shifted in the bed, turning to look at his beautiful girlfriend.

Amy's bump seemed to have grown again over night; the life in there seemed to be growing at an alarming rate, and the immortal Spartan was still quietly panicking about what they were going to do about it. How long was it actually going to be before they had a child? How long before he had to admit to the Headmaster of Noctrem that he had gone against his rules? How long did they have to get everything sorted before they could even think about raising a child in this environment. Amy couldn't even go to see a normal doctor with her pregnancy, as it obviously was a supernatural one; he was terrified about her health. Surely this wasn't going to be good for her. Everything seemed to be going too fast for the male, and he just didn't like it.

"Amy?" Leo sighed softly, the hand attached to the arm that she had fallen asleep on gently stroking her shoulder. His body was aching, that was for sure, since he had slept in such an awkward position, but he wasn't going to complain. Waking up to Amy was one of his favourite things that he had ever experienced, and a little bit of aches and pains wasn't going to destroy that happy feeling of his. "Babe, we have to get up." He pressed his lips softly against her cheek, before nuzzling her gently. "We actually have to teach children today."

---

Blonde hair stuck up from all ends underneath the duvet, and a groan emitted from the body that was curled up underneath. Erin wasn't sure if her roommate Loralei was in the room or not, but she sure as hell didn't want to deal with her general perkiness right now. She was extremely hung over, felt very sick, and she just didn't want to move. Her head was pounding as she dared to poke her head out from underneath the covers, but it went straight back under again. The brightness of the room had literally destroyed her eyes, and she instantly decided then and there that she wasn't going to be getting out of bed at any time soon. Who really cared about classes today? There was probably nothing good that was going to be taught on the first day - why should she even bother?

As she lay there, Erin was alerted to the soft vibrations that buzzed on her bedside cabinet, and she reached out a shaky hand from the covers to pull her phone underneath her safe haven. The brightness of the screen caused her to squint in pain, and she quickly turned the brightness of the screen down, until it was at it's lowest. Yes, that was definitely more comfortable to look at; it wasn't as if she was looking directly into the sun any more. A message from Cor was on her screen, along with a couple of missed calls last night from her friends, probably drunken calls asking where she was, or just them calling to tell her that they loved her. She opened the message from her best friend, her eyes skimming over the blunt words that stared her in the face. Blunt words from Corentine Quellen were never good, and she groaned as she realized it had to have something to do with Jay.

To: Cor<3

Okay. You may have to give me a few days to recover from last night. Seriously, I would rather be in hell than feel like this.

From: Erin xo

Erin tapped a response back on her touch screen, before dropping the phone next to her. She was probably in hell with her best friend, if Cor had seen her sitting next to her boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend, or whatever he was right now, but she just didn't want to deal with it. All she wanted to do was stay curled up in bed and sleep, for about a month. Yes, that sounded good. A month of sleep. Maybe by then, she may have withered away to nothing, forgotten about whatever stupid feelings she had for a certain brother of her best friend, and this hang-over may have vanished.

But that was a long shot.

---

The previous nights events were playing through Jackson's head in a dream; the frank admittance of his feelings towards Lulu, her running off to be with Drake, and him taking solace in a beautiful brunette that seemed to smile whenever she was around him. Jackson definitely wasn't the sort of person to have a one-night hook up, and he wasn't the sort of person to drink excessively either, but that night... he felt as if he had needed it. The want to be drink his sorrows away, and then be close with someone had just been overwhelming, to the point where he had actually acted upon those wants; a rare feat when it came to the usually gentlemanly Irish man.

Slowly, the male turned over in his bed, a bare leg brushing against his as he moved. His eyes slowly opened, taking his time with them as the sunlight streaming through the slightly open curtains was almost blinding. His head wasn't as bad as he had expected it to be that morning, but it was still aching if he moved it. Something else was aching too actually, although he couldn't put his finger on it. Jack decided that he was going to have to wake up Jess, to gently shake her awake, or something. He didn't know how to wake up a naked, sleeping girl that you practically just met and slept with, so he was probably going to go about it the easiest way, with just a hand on the shoulder, and a shake.

As he went to move however, Jackson felt himself stuck. He couldn't move. He soon pinpointed where that ache had been coming from, and he dropped his head back onto the pillow as he heard the gentle rattle of a chain. A chain? He exhaled a loud sigh when he looked up towards the ceiling, between his raised arms. Somehow, last night, Jess had handcuffed him to his headboard. He pulled gently on the restraints, feeling the metal of the hand-cuffs press into his skin, causing a discomfort in his wrist. Okay, this definitely wasn't good. Jack looked to the left, noticing a shape in the other bed, and the hair of Drake poking out of the duvet. He wasn't sure what had happened between his friend and Lulu last night, but he wasn't going to ask, because he didn't want to know. Besides, he was going to have enough to talk about if Drake woke up before Jess did, and found him in this.... predicament.

"Jess." Jackson breathed, his lips practically brushing against her ear, as he shifted as close as he could towards her, without rattling the chain that kept him restrained to the bed. "Please wake up." His voice was a hushed whisper, trying to be as quiet as possible, keeping Drake asleep. "I seem to be handcuffed to the bed, Jessica." The last he had remembered, Jessica had been messing around in one of the drawers of his bedside cabinet, and he was sure that was where the handcuffs had to have come from - even though they weren't his. So, she had to have been the one that had the key.

Right?

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beeep… the sound went on and on… and on. The blonde groaned quietly, wishing the damned alarm clock to everlasting hell… where it might burn for eternity. Yeah, she wasn’t in the best of moods, as one might guess. Her head was aching and so was her entire body, although to be perfectly honest, her body was aching quite nicely. She’d lost track of time and the amount of times she and Max had fucked by the time they were both spent and exhausted. At that point, Cor had crawled out of Max’s bed, tired enough to go to sleep on the damned floor, but she’d only just begun to gather her clothes – thong under the bed, dress by the door, and her shoes… well, she thought they were in the bathroom – when Max spoke to her, asking her to spend the night instead of leaving. Usually Cor always did the fuck-em-and-leave-em routine, and she knew Max was the same, so she had wondered why he suddenly wanted her to sleep over.

Not for long though, because her hazy, tired brain, didn’t really want to go back to her room with sickly sweet Ashy, and maybe part of her wanted what Max offered more than she wanted to admit to herself. In any case, Cor had been too exhausted to ponder things further and she’d gotten back into bed. Funny thing was, the two of them had been rigid as hell laying there for the first while, Max’s arm hesitant around the blonde, until they’d sort of simultaneously relaxed and then it had felt sort of nice. She was surprised to find that she had actually liked just sleeping with Max, and she couldn’t quite figure out what that meant. In any case, the damned alarm clock was killing her. She opened one eye slowly, searching lazily for the bloody thing. Locating it, she then moved her naked self, hoisting her middle above Max to reach the alarm on the nightstand on his side of the bed, her hands supporting her on the opposite side of him. His arms had still been around her when she awakened, and she hadn’t eve flinched. Weird, this knew relaxed calm around Max.

Corentine moved her hand then to push the off button, glaring at the thing when she found she couldn’t reach. That was just amazing; she had moved for absolutely nothing. Quite bothered with the thing, and in not the best of moods already, she then cast the machine a vengeful smile before wind picked up, smashing it against the wall, effectively cutting off the beeping. Noting that Max was stirring too – probably only due to her – she smiled wryly down at him. “I officially hate your alarm clock, so I’ll buy you a new one.” She told him, voice surprisingly playful as she moved back down to lie on the bed. Jay had yet to spring to mind, but then again, the blonde had only just awoken. However, her first class of the day sprung up immediately. Great, biology. Like shit wasn’t fucking awful enough, she had to start off her Tuesdays from now on, with biology class. That was simply fucking magnificent. She rolled her eyes at the thought, very seriously considering cutting, but if Max had classes during first period too, it’d feel weird staying in his bed anyway, so she merely looked over at him, a slight grin taking over her face.

“Good morning,” she finally said, noting his ruffled manliness only even more sexy in the morning, his body gorgeous as ever. Good morning, indeed, she thought to herself, her grin widening slightly before she added, “is it weird that I could really fuck you again right now?” They probably didn’t have time though, with it being 7 am, but damn, he was downright edible and Jay was starting to force his stubborn way into his head, only pushing the girl even more. Her own curls were surprisingly tame if you thought about it, lying almost perfectly atop her head. She had always been lucky like that. All that really had her looks ruffled were the activities of the previous night.

---

The young nurse was fast asleep, surprisingly comfortable, when the beeping of Leo’s alarm clock caused the male at her side to stir, and her as well. She didn’t move though, or even open her eyes. Instead, feeling blissfully at peace, the brunette remained where she was in that same position. Besides, it was Tuesday – both she and Leo had late classes. Well, she had her first one at 12:15, but there were still many hours to go there. So when Leo gently contacted her, his fingers brushing gingerly against the skin of her shoulder, his lips pressing down on her cheek, she merely smiled to herself before turning to him, a lot of her energy restored. It was amazing really, how much a good night’s sleep could do, although she was far from sporting her usual amount of power, she knew that much. The baby was still tapping her, but for the weakness last night, she had only her own idiocy to blame. She should’ve taken better care of herself, she knew that, but she couldn’t just let Chris be in pain either.

Violet eyes appeared as Amy’s eyelids fluttered open, and they settled on the handsome man now in front of her, a more vibrant smile adorning her features, the colour back in her cheeks. “I love you, Leo, but if you pull me out of bed at 7 am, in spite of the fact that I don’t have classes until 12:15, I will shave your head and glue feathers onto the skin while you sleep tonight.” She told him, her eyes glinting with humour. Of course she was kidding – she would never actually do that – but it should give him a pretty good idea of how much she did not want to leave the bed at present. In fact she had no idea why he wanted to, except to work – headmaster duties and all. Hah. Headmaster duties. Did those usually involve hiring very flirtatious, obviously still interested, ex girlfriends? And why the hell had Amy never even heard of the woman as it was? Why was she even there?

And while she was at it, what did they really need more PE teachers for? She just… didn’t get it. Was Leo still interested in her? Was Amy just being paranoid? No. No she wasn’t. She was being perfectly logical. What woman would just quietly accept this? Not her, that was for sure, and Leo was going to learn that soon enough. Gods, they were having a child together and all of this was just tearing at the seams of their already way too new and fragile relationship. Amy didn’t feel the least bit established, especially since their relationship was not public. This Katia person had no idea Leo was in a relationship, which to her would make him open game. And he wasn’t – not by a long shot. Amy would fight with teeth and claws when it came to keeping Leo. Usually she was rather mellow, but this jealousy was new to her. She felt sick even to think of the way Katia had been looking at her man, and to think of watching her flirt with him… it was almost enough to make her hurl again.

Her smile had slowly disappeared as the brunette’s thought took her down a darker trail. Some might call it pregnancy hormones and all, but though Amy was much longer ahead than she should be, it didn’t cross her mind. This whole Katia-deal bothered her more than anything, so, her mood seemingly changing in a matter of seconds, she added a biting comment; “but you’re welcome to leave, in case you have more exes to hire.” Normally this would have been so unlike Amy; she would have waited, taken her time, and spent some time chewing on how to handle it, but pregnant Amy was slightly angered, she wanted answers, and more than anything, she wanted an outlet for her irritation, preferably at the man causing it. So she didn’t care.

---

Not a big sleeper, Drake had already been awake for a while when he heard Jackson rustling with the cuffs little Miss Coleman had obviously chained him with. He grinned quietly, his back turned. Oh, this was priceless. He had put a pair of hand cuffs in Jackson’s drawer a while back – a drunken joke – and had actually forgotten all about it until now that he was actually using them, not something Drake had ever imagined would really happen. He had come in the night before, a half sleeping, drunken Lulu in his arms, immediately noticing the naked, sleeping couple in the other bed. Accustomed to much worse at Noctrem, Drake hadn’t even frowned, but had actually had to fight not to laugh out loud, waking the two, and maybe even calling Lulu back to earth. Instead, he had taken the keys from the night desk after putting Lulu in his bed and hidden them. Being drunk himself, that had seemed like the perfect idea. He was a freaking genius when he was drunk, he soon decided.

This was going to be the best morning in the history of mornings. A sleeping Lulu was currently in his arms, hidden from Jackson and Jessica with the help of a duvet and Drake’s own size. He was only wearing boxers himself, and Lulu… well… she was wearing everything but her underwear… which he had gotten rid of during a very heated make out session the night before. He had actually managed to keep himself from taking the last step; actually fucking her, because… well, he had lots of reasons. One among many, she had been drunk, and though she had been very eager, Drake had stopped. He had no clue how, thinking back on it. He had wanted her, and he had been very fucking turned on by her too, but no, the manwhore of all manwhores had actually stopped. Now, he wasn’t too sure what he thought of it, but he had to admit, just lying there with the blonde in his arms, was rather nice.

The only downside? He knew his involvement with Lulu was a thorn in Jackson’s eye, something he only considered an issue because Jackson was among the few people Drake dared calling friends. Not people he usually did things to bother – in fact, Drake tried to preserve those few friendships, but if it came to choosing between Lulu and Jackson… Lulu came first, which was why he had chosen to bring her to their room regardless of the complications. Lulu had been drunk out of her mind by the end of their stay in that common room… where he was pretty sure her underwear still was… and he hadn’t wanted to leave her, nor take her to her own room full of splinters and such nuisances. Primarily, though, he hadn’t thought much about it in his drunken state, only wanted to make sure Lulu was okay. Contrary to popular belief, Drake had real feelings for the blonde. The problem was that he couldn’t figure that out himself, because emotions were not something he was very used to.

He didn’t want to hurt her, and he had warned her, but he also wanted her, and she had chosen to disregard his warnings. Well, his and probably those of countless others. Lulu had been into him for a while; that much would have been obvious to anyone with eyes and ears – she did a piss poor job of hiding it – and he was sure her friends had talked against him, not to mention his own sister. Cor knew better herself though – Drake knew her words whispered in Lulu’s ears had been filled with anger, hurt and a wish to hurt Lulu, not the truth. On that note, he really needed to talk to his sister. Right now, though, he was enjoying this moment too much, so grinning quietly, the male waited to see what would happen.

Well, the first things out of Amy's mouth hadn't been what the man was expecting. A small smile cracked onto his face as she spoke, and he gently leaned down to press his lips to her forehead. "I love you too Amy, but I don't think I could pull of a feather-head, babe." He grinned, before then he thought about the rest of her words. No classes until 12:15? Then, he remembered that the schedules had recently been changed to accompany the rise in students, and he hadn't remembered that both Amy and himself that day had late classes. His only class that day was last lesson, anyway. "I'm sorry." He spoke, linking his fingers with hers apologetically, "I forgot, and my alarm was still set for yesterday's arrival. Forgive me?"

Leo felt a little bad about waking up his pregnant girlfriend so early, but he was sure that it would be forgotten soon. It wasn't that big of a deal, anyway, not at least to him, and it would soon pass. He usually woke up early anyway, Spartan training still embedded in his modern day routine, and he had a lot of things to do, things only a headmaster could do, and with the added students in his school, the pile of work on his desk was growing. The room grew quiet as neither of them spoke, and Leonardo looked down at the beautiful woman on his bed. She really was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life, and he was so lucky to have her to call his own. And now that she was pregnant too.... the fact had really sunk in to the male this morning, seeing the bump on her stomach, realizing that this was really happening; Leo was actually starting to look forward to the coming couple of months or however long her pregnancy was going to be. He had reacted badly at the beginning, when he had found out that she was carrying a child, but now... he wanted this to happen. He was excited to become a father.

Amy's expression had changed from an adorable morning smile to a face of pure anger and irritation, a looked that made Leo moved back slightly, pulling away from her. He was worried when she looked like that; it meant that she was angry. Which was never good. He sighed when she spoke, flopping back down onto his pillow, covering his face with his hands. Really? She was going to do this now? Just after he was going to tell her that he wanted to be a father, and that he was happy with everything? "Amy...." He groaned, dragging his hand down his face. This wasn't how she usually acted, and Leo was sure that it had something to do with her pregnancy. Maybe he wasn't going to enjoy these months as much as he had previously expected. "Please, you have nothing to worry about. Katia is just a friend who needed a place to stay whilst she recovers from her injury. There's nothing else to it."

---

This was getting rather awkward now. Jackson was strung up on his own bed, with a girl that he barely knew naked beside him, and the guy that had stolen the heart of his best friend and the girl that he loved asleep on the other side of the room. The male dropped his head back, as best as he could in his current position, and closed his eyes, and exasperated sigh escaping his lips. He ignored her comment about being sexually dominant, and just lay there. He just wanted to get out of this now, to forget the past evening, and go back to the way that everything was. But of course, that wasn't going to happen, was it? Jessica's words alerted Jack to the situation presenting itself, and he snapped his head back up, his eyes wide. "What? They're not here? Where else could the be, Jess?" He asked her, his eyes frantically following her around the room. He couldn't well stay here for the rest of the day, could he?

But the morning just continued to get worse. A soft, female voice that didn't belong to Jessica alarmed the Irish man, and his head snapped towards the Drake-shaped mound in his bed, the area where the sound had come from. Had he really brought Lulu back here? After everything that happened last night, everything that Drake probably knew, and he had still brought her back here? Jackson took in a deep breath and prayed, hoping that it had just been a mistake, a horrible, horrible trick of the ears. But when a blonde head popped up from behind Drake's shape, and Lulu's face registered in his mind, Jackson knew this wasn't a trick of the mind. This was real. The girl he loved was sleeping next to the man he was thinking of calling his best male friend, looking at him, who was handcuffed to the bedstead, with a girl they barely knew. This was a nightmare.

Jack moved to kick the sheet upwards, using his feet to cover more of his body than was already sheltered, bringing the cover up to the middle of his torso. It was better than nothing, he had to admit. He looked over at Jessica again who was searching for the keys to his release still, and he glanced around the room himself, hoping to see something shiny and silver. Nope. Nothing. A bang caused his head to turn to the left again, the sound coming from Lulu hitting her head. Usually, he would have rushed over and asked if she was okay, but after the previous night, he was sure he didn't have the right to ask her if she was all right any more, and he couldn't really move. Now he really wanted to just leave.

"Jessica, please. Find those god-damned keys."

---

The awkwardness between himself and Corentine seemed to disappear quickly, thank god, and Max stood there in all of his naked glory, holding out his hand for her to take. He wasn't sure what was happening to him, as he definitely wasn't the sort of person to care about what someone thought, especially a girl that he usually just used for his own pleasure, and he wasn't the sort of person to show cute gestures such as kisses on the cheek. A small shudder ran through his body when he thought about being more than just a player, more than the bastard that he had been for most of his life, and he didn't like it. It felt strange, and alien, and wrong to him. Although, it still felt, right? It wasn't as if he had a crush on her or something, or was feeling something real for her, but there was something new. Something that made him just want to care for her, every now and again, and to make sure that she was okay.

"I'm turning into a pussy, it seems." Max mumbled under his breath in answer to her comment, but he quickly pushed it aside, plastering his trade-mark smirk back onto his face, watching her stretch right there in front of him. He bit down on his bottom lip softly, appreciating the sight; she really was a Goddess of a woman, stunning even. He stayed in his position as Corentine moved to go into the bathroom and collect her phone, his eyes following her ass as she went, again, appreciating the beautiful thing in front of him. He didn't care that she was ignoring him, walking away from him; he got to see exactly what he wanted. His head titled to the side ever so slightly as he watched her pick up the phone and sigh, before walking towards her. The English teacher wasn't going to ask her what was wrong, but he was going to take her into that shower, and wash away all of the troubles that had seemed to come over her.

Max let himself be pushed into the shower, and he turned on the water with the hand that he didn't have placed on Corentine's hip. It came out cold at first, and he turned the shower-head to the side so that it wouldn't freeze either of them, before turning it back around onto them when the water warmed up. "You want to talk? But that's just not as fun." Max playfully pouted, moving around slightly so that the main stream of water was flowing onto her body. "Rebecca? Eh.... we dated for a little bit when we were kids, but it just didn't work out, I guess. Stop asking questions, and turn around." He smiled at her, picking up one of the bottles of shampoo off of the shower floor.

When Leo groaned her name as if he was the victim in their situation, Amy narrowed her eyes, glaring at him in irritation. She moved in the bed so that she could better look at him, but she remained horizontal, head on the pillow which she had come to think of as hers, one arm below it to raise it just enough to offer proper support as she was lying on her side. Her usually straight hair was unruly and messy, and strands were falling onto her face, but she didn’t seem to care, because except for blowing absently at them once in a while, she made no moves to remove them from her once more healthy looking skin. Her lips had moved into a non-expressive mien, but her eyebrows were pushed slightly together in her frown, which, along with the narrowed-eyed glare she was serving Leo, gave her an air of pure irritation. Not exactly anger yet, but she was definitely getting there, her moods seemingly taking some crazy rollercoaster ride, not that Amy was yet reasonably enough to see that herself, something that was in itself very unlike her.

With his next words, however, Amy took a deep breath, trying to keep her emotions somewhat in check. A friend, was she? Last time Amy checked, ex girlfriends tended to be a touch more than a ‘friend’, especially in Leo’s case, since he so rarely actually dated, and if Amy had to be perfectly honest, maybe what bothered her the most was that she had an inkling as to when this had gone down; she remembered Leo having been away from the Academy a year or two ago, and Amy gathered that was when things had happened, mostly because Katia didn’t look old enough for it to be much longer ago, and Amy would have registered something if she’d been around Leo on a daily basis during a time in which he was dating a woman, and the time frame meant that while she had been missing him, lost for him at home at Arcana, Leo had been not just sleeping with, but dating someone else, and that knowledge hurt. A lot.

And now she was here, and Leo was actually hiring her. Really, how did he expect her to react? Just smile and wave like the good little secret girlfriend he apparently wanted her to be? She sat up, having worked her own mood into a much darker place. And he was upset about Chris?! “I have plenty to worry about, obviously!” Amy told her boss, boyfriend and best friend, her voice frustrated, wanting him to understand her, “Leo, you just hired a girl who you have not only slept with, but dated! Am I right? Dating involves some amount of feelings, and that is what I have trouble accepting. No, wait, actually I really don’t like the fact that you happen to have hired an ex bedpartner either.” She took a deep breath, shaking her head at him. “You were upset about my hugging a friend, someone who has never been anything but a friend to me; never more. How would you feel if Chris happened to be an ex boyfriend of mine, who I had myself asked you to employ?”

Bringing up to fingers, Amy pinched the brink of her nose, trying not to start screaming at Leo before removing them again, looking at the door leading to the livingroom before looking back at him, sighing. “Because I’m sure you would be freaking out a whole lot more than I am. Don’t tell me she has no other friends, or whatever she really considers you, she can go to, because if not, then I’m sure there’s a reason, and she’s probably not someone we should have around the kids either way. The noctrem influences are bad enough as it is. Don’t make it worse just because you happen to have humped some piece of trash a year ago!” With that, her eyes widened in shock, and she brought up both hands to cover her mouth, astonished by her own words. Had she actually just said that? She muttered a weak “I’m sorry” behind her hands, the words themselves seemingly making her forget her anger. Who was she even anymore? She closed her eyes, embarrassed by herself. Her rant had gone completely off-track somewhere. And, oh gods, had she said that with her baby maybe being able to hear at this point? With that thought, one hand slowly moved from her mouth to her bulging tummy.

This really wasn’t going the way she wanted it to.

---

"Hey Chase. It's nice to meet you." Sky said, bringing Chase’s eyes from the clothes on his bed, onto the darker male student, who just so also happened to more or less homosexual. Which… was also made very clear in the next second, when the guy starting checking him out. Oh, come on! This couldn’t be real. Chase felt the sudden urge to hug his upper body to preserve some level of dignity. He was definitely bringing his clothes with him next time he went to take a shower. It wasn’t that Chase was a prude, neither was he in any way a virgin, but he really wasn’t accustomed to situations like this, and he had no idea how to deal with it politely. “Well, Sky, it’s nice to meet you too,” he managed to say, though, his voice actually sounding completely normal, and he inwardly breathed a sigh of relieve; the last thing he wanted to do was come off as a homophobe, or what was worse, an impolite homophobe. He had been raised better, surely.

He smiled casually, and how he pulled it off, he didn’t know. His nervousness at the situation certainly showed itself in his flaky gaze, however; the way his eyes kept flickering from one thing to another. He did, however, notice the way his roommate was biting his lower lip while gazing at Chase’s body, and he suddenly thought of how his grandparents had always been very strict with him, always telling him never to objectify women; now he could certainly understand why. It did not feel good, or maybe that was because the attraction was in no way mutual. Whatever reason it had, he didn’t like it, and he really, really wanted to just… put on his clothes. He was about to excuse himself to the bathroom when Sky spoke again, and he smiled slightly, shrugging in response as he spoke; “To be perfectly honest, I haven’t seen much of the school yet, nor have I really experienced a lot of people in it. I only just arrived last night, and my sister and I spent the time unpacking, as you can see,” he made a gesture towards his part of the room, smiling, a little more at ease now that Sky wasn’t drooling over him anymore.

Then he looked back at his new roommate. “I’m definitely not complaining, though; it seems like no expenses are spared when it comes to interior.” With that, Chase slid his t-shirt over his bare upper body, instantly feeling entirely like himself again, and he managed to put on his boxers under the towel without looking like a complete idiot before putting the now useless towel on the bed. Huh, not so bad. Right, he could live with that. Maybe he just needed to loosen up and get used to having a roommate who happened to be into guys. That was it. Right, he just had to… settle in properly. With that thought, feeling much more optimistic, he added his jeans, looking over at Sky. “So, are you originally from this school, or from the one which burned down?” He asked, all of a sudden feeling curious about his roommate, wanting to get to know the person he was going to be living with. Sky seemed like an okay guy, though, albeit a little too sexually free-spirited, and his grandparents had not seemed too fond of Noctrem, so it had him wondering.

He was feeling rather hungry right now too, though, so he’d probably have to leave in search of breakfast soon. Maybe he could ask Sky where the cafeteria was. Nah, he’d manage on his own, he soon decided. He had a map, and what was the worst that could happen? He’d get some more exercise, see more of the school and maybe meet some people. Yep, that was the plan.

The sound of Rebecca’s black, loud, and very irritating alarm clock woke her up, and as she forced one eyelid open, she sighed, immediately closing it again. 7:30 am. Hell, she had the first period off on Tuesdays, but honestly she liked having time in the morning, even in this place. And honestly Rebecca could presently think of many places she would rather be, mostly because she obviously didn’t like the changes – she despised anything unfamiliar, because it meant another thing she had to adapt to, and adapting, to someone like Rebecca, tended to be a little bit of a challenge. On top of finally moving out of the dump of a motel and into Arcana, a lot of new students were enrolling currently, and she’d been told two new teachers would be joining the faculty. What was up with that? She slapped her hands over her face, completely covering it as she groaned in irritation before finally reaching out to turn off her alarm. “Rise and shine, Rebecca, it’s a beautiful new day,” she muttered sarcastically to herself before slowly moving out of the warm comfort of her new bed.

“More work,” she continued as she padded across the room to reach her closet, adding “more students flirting,” as she took out a set of underwear, “and a lot of hung-over laziness from every single one of them.” She sighed, shaking her head as she picked out the rest of her outfit for the day. “Well, almost,” she added on a second thought, remembering she had Arcana students in the mix too – they had a tendency to be more reasonable. She cracked a wry smile at that, wondering what the stereotyping would have to say about her. Moving from Arcana to Noctrem, like some confused teenager. Of course she had been, that was no secret, but still – most just figured it was regular teenage confusion. Rebecca’s had been a little worse, not that she ever told anyone, even though all of her many shrinks had told her talking about her past experiences would be “healthy” for her.

What did they know? It just so happened that every time she tried to talk about it, she ended up wallowing in self pity for days, and in worst cases, she would cut herself. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe the pain provided relief, or maybe it was simply to make herself most unattractive. Something she figured she should have done as a kid. Broken her nose, shaved off her hair, cut up her skin, preferably leaving ugly scars… things like that. But she hadn’t thought of it back then; she’d been only a kid with a messed up freak of a father… which in turn had messed her up. Rebecca admitted to being a screw-up, she knew she was less than normal and more than a little mentally unstable. Her breakdowns were horrible, and she wouldn’t wish them even on her worst enemy. Well, no, that was a lie; she often wished for her father to feel the pain he had forever marked her with. More than once, she had actually wished for him to be alive again, solely so that she could make him feel it, but that was a nasty part of her, and she didn’t really like it when it emerged.

The blonde teacher rolled her shoulders, taking a deep breath. Right, getting out of that line of thought might be preferable today. On any day, really. Grabbing the clothes, she tossed it on her bed and shuffled into the bathroom where she turned on the water, and while waiting for it to heat up, Rebecca glanced at herself in the mirror, wincing. “I look like crap,” she murmured, slightly irritated with that fact. She really didn’t need any of this right now. So, so many changes. How could anyone be expected to cope with that easily? How did others do it? Right, by not being raped by their fathers for a decade. Another wry smile came onto her face at that. Truth be told, usually Rebecca was a bit more optimistic. In fact, she usually did anything in her power not to think of her father, not to think of her childhood, but when everything around her seemed to be falling apart, somehow those thoughts never failed to press on from the back of her mind. The young teacher ran a hand through her hair, feeling suddenly really sad. “I am so fucked up,” she noted, snorting at the obvious statement.

After a long, warm and soothing shower, Rebecca dressed herself and grabbed a small cup of yoghurt from her mini fridge – one she had brought herself, refusing to join the throng of students and teachers in the cafeteria all the time. One or two meals a day in public would have to do. Breakfast was a big, fat no. Mostly because she was certain her morning would be a bust if she did socialize this early. Safe for Friday evenings, the blonde preferred her own company. Mostly because no one around her really stirred her interest on a more personal level, and she didn’t spend time with people, just to spend time with people. She’d never understood how people could do that constantly. She remembered enjoying times with Max back at Arcana, though; how it seemed he just got her, how she hadn’t preferred solitude to his company. It had been nice. And then… well, then he’d dumped her because she refused to fuck him. Because she was still healing quite a bit from Donny’s abuse.

Sometimes she wondered if she should have told him her story, and she had actually begun considering it before he dumped her, but then… well, then he’d shown her what really mattered to him, and she’d changed her mind, deciding then and there that he wasn’t the kind of person she could let herself be vulnerable with like that. She ate her yoghurt in silence before tidying up her place, grabbing her bag and heading down to the history room, not bothering to put on her coat since she wasn’t going outside. Half there, however, she groaned, remembering she’d forgotten to get the new history books she’d decided to hand out to her class, and turned around, heading for the elevator, which she promptly rode to the first floor. As she headed there, however, noises caught her attention. She frowned, cocking her head in wonderment. Curious, Rebecca took a detour and moved towards the cause of the sound.

It didn’t take her long to discover that the noise came from the medical room, and that the door to the inside was indeed very open. That was rather weird; Amy usually wasn’t there yet, unless it was an emergency. Thinking that was the cause, she carefully popped her head inside to check the gravity of the situation. She was surprised to see a stranger in the room, though, and knowing Amy always locked the medical room, Rebecca stepped inside and cleared her throat, raising an eyebrow at the stranger. “I’m sorry, but exactly do you think you’re doing here?” She asked, her voice hard as steel, no-nonsense as usual as her eyes scanned her room. “Besides knocking over everything in the school stash, I mean.” She added then, eyes now slightly narrowed. No one but Amy and Leo had unrestricted access to this particular room, and Amy wouldn’t let anyone be alone there. Rather, if someone needed something, the nurse would be the first out of bed, ready to help in a heartbeat, so all in all this was very shady, and Rebecca didn’t like shady, no matter how sick the woman looked. And she did look sick; very much so. Rebecca decided instantly that she was getting Amy for this stranger. Well, if she wasn’t some random thieve of some sort, which… didn’t really make sense either.

Rebecca watched the woman carefully as she clearly struggled with speech and pain. As someone who knew how painful back injuries could be, the blonde had patience to boot, so she didn’t rush the brunette in front of her. For some reason, although she didn’t know this woman, nor liked this little B&E she had arranged, she cared. Maybe it was purely pity, but Rebecca very, very rarely pitied anyone, so she figured she was feeling a wee bit compassionate, which in itself was a little irritating. Then, as she stood there, the stranger began talking, but the second “methadone” was mentioned, Rebecca stiffened, and she had to take a deep breath not to be overtaken with childhood memories again. Those were nasty things, they really were. Getting herself sorted quickly enough, she once more attached her attention to the new teacher apparently, Katia Hunt. Must be the dance teacher she had heard was being hired. For what, she didn’t know; the kids already had four phys-ed. classes a week. She supposed it didn’t much matter though, because here she was, breaking into the medical room like some lowly thieve.

She gave a slight nod when Katia snapped her explanation at her, not really bothering with being affected by her tone; pain wasn’t really the best motivator of manners, Rebecca knew that well enough. She had been there as a kid plenty of times. Plus, she sort of liked the honesty. She didn’t sense anything particular being hidden from her in Katia’s words, and she was rather straightforward, which Rebecca always appreciated as a trait in people. The two of them had gotten off to an awry start though. Then, however, before Rebecca could say anything in reply, Katia continued, remarking on Amy in particular. Rebecca raised an eyebrow at that, shaking her head. “You obviously do not know Amy half as well as you think you do,” she told the brunette, then sighed. “And how do you suppose you’ll deal with it without the particular meds you need? I’m guessing they’re in the top cabinets, which are also always locked, and you can’t stretch your back enough to jimmy them open like you did the door, am I right? So you need help. Especially since you’re not exactly allowed to be in here.”

With that conclusion, Rebecca walked properly into the room, eyes scanning the shelves of the top cabinets. Hmm. Well, she wasn’t breaking the rules just so Katia wouldn’t have to deal with Amy or Leo, so instead she turned to her, shrugging. “Amy’s not just a nurse, you know; she’s a healer. That’s her power. Maybe it’d be useful in your case?” The blonde looked over the other woman; she really did seem to be in a shitload of pain, and for some reason, she hadn’t gotten off to a very good start with Amy, which was weird. Amy got off to good starts with everyone, safe for the people who thought her too nice, but this woman seemed to think of her not as too nice, but as someone who’d be smug at seeing her in pain, a thought completely strange to Rebecca. The nurse had always helped her when she’d needed it, and she hadn’t asked that many questions when Rebecca had first arrived at the Academy, still damaged physically as well as mentally from her dad’s abuse. Instead, she’d healed her up, even though she'd been a student herself. Granted, it had taken some times, and Rebecca hadn’t been too fond of it, but in the end it had removed all physical evidence of her past experiences. Something she couldn’t really bring herself to complain about.

“You obviously do not know Amy half as well as you think you do,” The blond replied, seemingly amused with Katia’s comment on the nurse. The brunette leaned onto the counter, shifting her weight to take the pressure off. “I know what she thought of me the moment she realized who and what I was,” Katia shot back, knowing she was cryptic but curious as to whether or not this blond stranger knew anything about her.

“And how do you suppose you’ll deal with it without the particular meds you need? I’m guessing they’re in the top cabinets, which are also always locked, and you can’t stretch your back enough to jimmy them open like you did the door, am I right? So you need help. Especially since you’re not exactly allowed to be in here,” she added smugly. Katia rolled her eyes and turned her head away, fighting the brutal urge to just roll it out on this woman, what she was facing and how…humiliating it was to be caught in this position. She had always taken care of herself and now to be in this place, dependent on an ex-boyfriend for income and benefits, unable most mornings to walk straight and get dressed without being in excruciating pain. She had no one to help her and she never wanted help. And the blonde’s comment’s stung deeply because they were true and she could do nothing about it. Part of her wanted Leo there, just so that the reality of her injury and what she was facing was confined to one person. Now she could do nothing but explain herself and that in and of itself was hard to explain.

Katia remained where she was as the blond walked beyond the entryway, taking in the room before looking back at her. Katia stared at her in the face, knowing that her pain was at a level that she couldn’t hide, how her eyes were likely bloodshot and watering, her lips pursed while she clenched her teeth or bit on her lower lip to distract herself.

“Amy’s not just a nurse, you know; she’s a healer. That’s her power. Maybe it’d be useful in your case?” the blond prodded. “Of course,” Katia sighed, shaking her head. “No, I believe she’d never want to lay a hand on me.” Her own thoughts made her chuckle and she tossed her hair back as she sighed. “I was with Leo once, we were close. I told her as much last morning when we met and she seemed…surprised? And tense all at once. I know disdain when I see it. Leo hired me as a favor. A dancer can’t well make money if they can’t dance. Noctrem wasn't thrilled with the idea but when I applied there Leo got word. He doesn't know that it's this bad but he knows it's enough to make me be here.”

Katia paused, wondering where in the building he was, wondering what this woman intended to do. She had entered the room, still without introducing herself, and hadn't made any movement to find what she needed. Did Arcana even have what she needed? If Amy was a healer, the stock of drugs was likely very limited, a thought that made her increasingly uncomfortable. To be frank, Katia knew that she could have easily taken control of Rebecca's body in that moment and used it to get what she needed, but she doubted she had the energy and for some reason she didn't want to take such advantage of the woman. Yet. She was pissed at being found in this situation, but at least it was an adult and not a student, and she didn't seem like the type to blackmail or tattle.

"I won't ask for your help," Katia remarked, wondering if the woman was waiting for her to beg and say please with batted lashes to get what she wanted. "But I can't guarantee that the methadone won't have you morph into my mother, and that is not a hallucination you want to be."

The blonde listened quietly while Katia explained her situation with Amy… and her past with Leo. She raised both her eyebrows slightly in silent surprise. So Katia had been with Leo, and Amy had reacted poorly when told of that information? Well, that was… interesting. But none of her business, of course. That didn’t keep her from being rather curious about it, though. She nodded slowly in response to Katia, letting her know that she was indeed still listening. This all sounded rather odd. Since when did teachers at Arcana get hired not by ability, but by who they happened to have dated? The blonde didn’t particularly like that route. Maybe that was what had bothered Amy too? Then again, maybe it was the thought of another woman having been close to Leo. Or something. It’d make sense. She’d heard of people who got very possessive over friends. Oh, who was she kidding? She wasn’t that naïve. She’d sniffed out something between Leo and Amy a while back, but she hadn’t sought it out. Not that she was going to now either. Nope, if the two of them had something going, they deserved to be happy. She wasn’t going to meddle in that.

She was about to moved towards the cabinets, having decided to help Katia regardless of consequences, when the brunette spoke again, and Rebecca paused, looking at her in wonderment. Soon, however, it turned into soft laughter – then a little smile. “It wouldn’t be the first time drugs made me into an unwanted hallucination.” She started, ignoring the pang the hint towards her past shot through her. “Try and relax for a minute, will you? The only reason I haven’t found you the meds already is that I’m not really allowed to. None of us are, but I’m gathering you’d rather Amy didn’t find you in this particular situation, and a strange part of me gets that, so I’ll see what I can do.” She shook her head slightly, still a little smile on her lips as she looked through her bag, getting out a bunch of hair pins. After that, it didn’t take her long to unlock the first of the top cabinets, her eyes scanning the shelves. Nope. Nothing there.

She closed it again, relocking it, and like so she continued for a couple more cabinets until… bingo. Well, she knew some of them, so that was better than nothing. She turned back to Katia. “Ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen, ketoprofen or Sumatriptan?” She asked. She’d hurried, so the whole deal hadn’t taken too long, and if there was one thing Rebecca knew, it was pain killers. And lots of them too. She held the cabinet open with a hand on the door of it as she watched Katia, not for one second doubting that this woman hated being this incapacitated. This… unable to take care of herself. It was a feeling Rebecca knew well, and she imagined it would be even worse now that she was an adult. If she was in Katia’s situation, what would she be like? Most likely very bitchy. Hell, if Katia bit her head off for still being there, Rebecca wouldn’t even blame her, which was weird. She wasn’t that understanding. Most of the time she just got irritated with people moaning, because if she had to be perfectly honest, actual sympathy from her was rare. That was why she admired people like Amy, who had so much sympathy and caring to spare for everyone. Or maybe she was just curious about those types, because it seemed to be doing the impossible.

“I’m Rebecca Fields, by the way,” she then added on a second thought briefly after, realizing she hadn’t even bothered introducing herself. It had just seemed rather redundant to her in the beginning. “I teach History.”

---

”Noted,” Chase commented when Sky spoke of the fire and… not being the one who set it. It seemed like a rather odd thing to say if you asked Chase, but hey, if the guy needed to reassure him then fine. He didn’t get to say anymore, however, because Sky stretched and then… fell out of bed… naked. Chase let a sigh escape as he turned to the side slightly, picking up his bag to give him an excuse not to look at Sky, because honestly this was feeling very strange. He wasn’t even accustomed to public changing rooms, because he’d never really been in regular schools, where kids got used to things like that. Instead, Chase had always changed alone. He hadn’t been naked in front of another guy since he was young enough to be unable to shower himself. So though he had been naked in front of girls, it wasn’t really the same thing, and to chase this wasn’t actually natural. Sometimes he cursed his grandparents for homeschooling him, even though he knew it had been with the best of intentions.

He was ready to leave the room when Sky spoke up again, and Chase turned carefully, relieved to see Sky fully dressed in front of him. Well, that was a nice change wasn’t it? Chase certainly preferred Sky with his clothes on. He smiled when his roommate spoke of Arcana, and nodded. “I’m sure I will,” he replied, just about to excuse himself so that he could go get some breakfast, when Sky spoke yet again. This time it truly made Chase pause. He wanted to know about powers? Well, that was certainly different. “what’s your power?” wasn’t usually among the first questions he got when he met new people. In fact, his powers had always stayed in the family, so he’d never spoken to anyone but his grandparents and his sister about them. To just up and say something seemed almost impossible. Were all people in this place like this? Because if they were, Chase would have more than a little to get used to. He hadn’t expected things to be this difficult.

He rubbed his neck, unsure all of a sudden. At least Sky’s comment about the Noctrem fire made sense now, which was a small favor, but a favor none the less. Fewer things to be confused about. He cast a small smile in Sky’s direction. “Pyrokinetic? So you can create fire out of… nothing? That’s pretty cool.” He said, actually feeling a little curious. “I… well, I guess I can control time. You know, stop it, rewind, and fast-forward. All that…” He trailed off, surprised at how easy it was to talk about. Maybe Sky’s devil may care attitude was rubbing off on him… which was a really bad expression to use. No one was rubbing anything on him. Especially not Sky. Nope, no rubbing. Besides, it seemed like Sky had had plenty of “rubbing” already. No need for Chase then. Fortunately. Oh, gods, now he had those images in his head. A chill ran down his spine, and he ran a hand through his hair, clearing his throat. “Anyway, I’m gonna go get some breakfast; I’m starving. I’ll see you later, Sky.” He rounded that off with a polite smile before he made it out of the room.

In the hallway Chase took a deep breath, trying to relax. This had him wondering how his sister was doing. Was she alright? Did she have a sensible roommate? He took out his phone, typing as he made his way towards the elevator he and his sister had gotten to the second floor with. That, he at least knew where was. “Hey, sis. Doing alright? How’s your roommate? Mine happens to be gay. Yep. Gay. So guess what I woke up to. xD” He sent the text just as he reached the elevator, and once it was there, the brunette got in. Soon, Chase was on the ground floor and he took out his map, which was surprisingly easy to follow, so Chase found the cafeteria easily enough. The letters he’d gotten said food was included in the tuition, to that meant he could just grab whatever, right? Right. Chase moved around, getting a yoghurt, an apple, and a bun before looking around, tray in hands. He smiled when he spotted a darkhaired girl sitting alone. She was reading a black book. Which, to be frank, was what interested him the most. It didn’t look like a school book, which meant she read purely out of interest, or she was a writer. Either option hinted at intelligence of some sort.

And so, intrigued, Chase made his way over, stopping by the table she was at, a smile still on his lips. “Excuse me, Miss,” he began, his upbringing causing him to sound rather old fashioned at times, “would you mind my keeping you company?” He then added, always the type to ask before simply doing. To merely sit without approval would be highly impolite, and the last thing he wanted to do was intrude on her personal space.

Katia watched as the blond proceeded to smile at her, amused once more. The Italian felt ready to pounce on her. She didn’t know why, but the other appeared smug to her. And yet her mind continued to say that things could be worse. For all of the woman’s expressions, her words were far from the high and mighty taunts she’d thrown at her when she walked through the door.

“It wouldn’t be the first time drugs made me into an unwanted hallucination,” the blond said with a slight chuckle. Katia bit down on her tongue, clenching her teeth and closing her eyes at the comment. She tried to move but her back spasmed as she shifted her weight momentarily back onto her feet. Exhaling deeply through her mouth, Katia flickered her eyes open and glared at the stranger openly. Time was pain and she sure as hell didn’t feel like she needed to talk anymore.

“Try and relax for a minute, will you? The only reason I haven’t found you the meds already is that I’m not really allowed to. None of us are, but I’m gathering you’d rather Amy didn’t find you in this particular situation, and a strange part of me gets that, so I’ll see what I can do,” she told her, responding to the stare. It was a look Katia had perfected from a young age. It rivaled her parents powerful stares and it was the kind of raw intimidation that had her nicknamed a variety of…less than pleasant names by various dance companies and productions. She couldn’t help but be pleased with the stranger moved with hairpins and began to jimmy the locks on the cabinets. Katia knew she couldn’t move anymore. Whatever adrenaline she had in her from waking up and knowing that she needed to get something to stop the side effects was gone. She was left with the pain, wishing more than anything that she could just float off her feet…or just have the injury healed. All she could do in the meantime was just breath through clenched teeth, fighting the desire for her eyes to water. It was particularly bad this morning, a swift reminder by her body that dancing even for a few minutes was off limits…however fun. It reminded her of Chris and that thought just made her tense. The boyish teacher and former model just wasn’t her type. And Leo sadly was. As she waited, she knew she would have to seek out her employer, to say something and to seek more help than this kind of raw begging. She couldn’t sneak around this anymore.

It took several tries before the blond appeared to find what Katia had described needed. “Ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen, ketoprofen or Sumatriptan?” the stranger asked. “Is there valium?” Katia requested, curious if the powerful sedative was on the shelf. “Or Ativan?”

“I’m Rebecca Fields, by the way,” the blond added, at long last giving a name to her unfamiliar face. “I teach History.”

“I teach dance and theater. My power allows me to teach without demonstrating…I can control…other people’s actions,” she explained hesitantly. So very few took the news of her powers well. If she was maniacal, she could undeniably to a lot of harm with it – controlling important figures, making them do things. But she had never been able to make a person say something unless they were completely incapacitated, and moreover she could never control what they thought of her or of anything else, only what they did. It was far more limited than most knew, but it was powerful none the less and she had always had control of it from a young age, though Leo himself had taught her more in a few weeks than she had learned in years on her own.

When the pills finally reached her, Katia felt raw elation spread throughout her. She moved to grasp what was offered by shuffling slightly. Keeping her weight on the counter, she awkwardly shifted to a small sink. She turned the water on and cupped her hand to bring a mouthful to her lips, tilting her head back to pop the dosage and wincing as her back cracked audibly. She swallowed the sedative, closing her eyes and standing still for a few moments, trying to let it settle, waiting for the numbing feeling to spread through her legs and lower waist.

Blinking through the daze, she looked back at Rebecca and then eyed the mess she had made. “I’m sorry that we had to meet this way,” she commented lowly, her Italian accent clipping her words as she was slowly able to see what she had done…what her hallucinating body had been driven to do. There was an enormous amount of shattered glass on the one end of the counter. It was in many ways a wake up call and it made her sick to think that it had somehow gotten this bad and moreover that she was still just as, if not more so, inept and in pain.

People always said things about drugs, how easy it was to get hooked if you were the right type of personality. Katia remembered her father’s addiction to hard liquor, and her mother to the T3’s after particularly nasty broken leg, and later the sleeping pills when pain meds had made her an insomniac. She would be lying severely if she said that such addictions didn’t run in her family. But to have one…how long had she been taking it? She paled at that thought. Almost six months…far longer than the six week prescription that came with the bed rest demand attached to it. Christ how had that happened?

“I don’t teach class today. Does Leo? I don’t even know my schedule, or his but I need to speak with him.”

When Katia asked about other sedatives, Rebecca gave a slight shrug and a muttered ”let me check”, before turning her back once more to search through the top shelf of the cabinet too. As she did, she figured she might as well introduce herself, and for doing so, she was rewarded with yet another bout of information about her brunette colleague. However, the words caused Rebecca to stiffen slightly, but she did manage to turn around, now regarding Katia with a thoughtful mien, her mind trying to figure out how much of a threat she would be. To Rebecca, whose life had been steered for her in the most horrid of ways, the thought of someone being able to just… take control of her body, even now, even with all her training… well, it unnerved her.

It creeped her out, and in all honesty she wasn’t quite sure how to deal with it. Instead she put Katia’s desired drug, Valium on the counter next to her, cocking her head slightly. Then, finally, the blonde shuffled her feet, knowing she couldn’t judge Katia based on her power. However, if it every came to her using Rebecca in any way like that, this would change. Radically. Benefit of the doubt, Fields, she told herself, her voice sounding almost normal when she spoke, “to what extent?” Yes. This was a good question. A question she felt like she needed answered. Also, she had to admit she was kind of curious. Katia’s power was different from the ones she’d heard of, which spoke volumes since Rebecca had been a student at both Noctrem and Arcana, and now had been a teacher in both places too.

She’d heard of a lot of powers, from elemental control to advanced intelligence or telepathy, yet none of them had made chills run down her spine like this either. She really wasn’t trying to be judgmental, but it was really hard not to, in light of Katia’s power. When Katia then apologized, obviously just now realizing the mess she’d made in the medical room. Rebecca regarded her with a vague, yet friendly, smile and shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. Really, I taught at Noctrem before the fire, and this is far from the worst I’ve seen.” As she spoke, she began moving around the room, cleaning up the mess Katia had made. Amy would know someone had been here though, so Rebecca might have to let a bit slip, although she would leave out all the details.

The least she could do, was respect Katia’s privacy, and let her keep whatever amount of dignity she felt like she still possessed after this. The blonde had just dumped a large amount of glass into the trash, all former contents of the containers in a pile on the desk, when Katia asked her about Leo and she paused, looking thoughtful for a moment before turning back towards the brunette. “I’m pretty sure he has a class or two. Most of us work every day. It sounds weird that you would have none on a Tuesday,” she explained, her voice perfectly level and pleasant. “However,” she then continued, “he’s oftentimes in his office during the day.”

Actually, he was in his office most times Rebecca went to look for him, doing headmaster stuff, whatever that particularly entailed. Probably a lot of paper work. He had to sort of be used to it by now, though, right? It seemed like Leo had run Arcana forever. It was at least a century or two old, wasn’t it? She couldn’t even remember, even if she was pretty certain she had been told at some point.

---

When the ravenhaired girl in front of him looked up, presenting him with intelligent, deep, blue-green eyes, Chase wondered if he’d been right in assuming her to be the kind of girl he’d like to hang around, because a little glint on her eyes seemed rather… calculating. Shrugging it off, however, he sat when she offered and smiled at her, placing his tray of food carefully on the table. He noticed her putting the book away entirely, which was a small triumph in his mind. If she put the book entirely away, it meant she was genuinely interested in talking to him, as she would otherwise keep the option of finding other pastimes available. So, not just a pushover. Great. Chase had never found pushovers attractive, although he did have friends who were like that.

He returned her gaze as she seemed to study him, a playful smile on his lips as he quietly took a bite of his apple, waiting for her as she took him in. He liked it. Not because he enjoyed being observed that way, but rather because it showed something in her he found appealing, except he wasn’t quite sure how to phrase it yet.He finished chewing, quickly sinking his food and putting the apple back on his tray as she at last seemed to have reached a conclusion to her studies and extended her hand, greeting him. He inclined his head slightly, taking her hand in a gentle, yet firm handshake. “You too, Amber,” he said, smiling at her, his voice kind and calm. “I’m Chase Westley.” Only then did he release her hand, gesturing towards her back as he smiled and said, “may I ask what you were reading?”

Chase didn’t work the way most other guys did. Instead of obvious, over the top flirting, he let girls know he was interested with subtle hints, like holding her hands just a little longer than necessary in greeting, or something of the like. If they got it, he’d know they were interested too, and if not, well then they weren’t interested. He’d found that women didn’t read a lot into the actions of a guy they only planned on a friendship with, but rather they read too much into the actions of a guy they did wish more with. It was a delicate balance. Besides, there was something to be said for the ability to read others.

Not that Chase wasn’t all for friendships. Really, he hadn’t come over with the intention of coming onto Amber, but rather to get to know some people. Something, he didn’t know what, in her eyes, had him thinking she could be more than a friend, though. She just… sparked his interest. He wasn’t going to be aggressive about it, however. He hadn’t been planning on a relationship here at all. He just figured he’d take the 6 months he’d promised his grandparents, even if they were academically redundant, and then move on to somewhere else… find whatever it was he needed to do. He should’ve already decided on what to do with his life, he knew that. He and his sister had taken their final exams about a month ago, so he should be starting college this summer.

The fact of the matter was, however, that he had no clue what he wanted. It irritated him, because he was the type to just decide on something and then do it, yet he didn’t want to start an education he didn’t feel for, or aim for a job he would never be happy in. Because, to be honest, all Chase wanted was to be happy. To have no years of sadness or unsatisfactory moments. He knew the road to happiness wasn’t through money, because to him life was so much more, and he refused to waste it.

Lulu sensed the awkward silence following her comment. Too wound up in her desire to talk about her brother and nightmares to the one person she could, she missed the curious glance that Alli sent her way. When she asked about her roommate, the small prod generated a long response. It made her pay attention to the present and not the frustration she felt.

"Well, obviously there's gymnastics. Science kinda runs in my family as well. Both my parents are scientists and I've got an interest there. I like to read as well, just about anything I can get my hands on. That started when I was a kid. I was always the same. My guilty pleasure has got to be spy movies. James Bond, Mission Impossible..." Alli explained, trailing as she concluded. Lulu nodded. “The only James Bond movies are hilarious to me. The new ones are pretty good, much more…brutal and less comedic. I like that they’re trying to be more realistic but I’ll always be a sucker for black and white films,” Lulu replied. Still, silence hung there. Lulu continued to stare at the ceiling. Without anything to pay attention to, her mind wandered to across the hall again. Aldous might be willing to lend an ear. But she didn’t want to bother him when he was as solitary as he was. No. Today she needed Jackson. Her Jackson. The very same one who had seen the cuts and bruises, who understood Grey – who had met him. She bit on her lower lip. Normally she would just go right to him, or call, but she was still so stuck. He was there. She hadn’t heard any movement since her and Jessica’s departure. What the hell was going on in that room?!

"Yeah, I'm not sure what else to say. I'm not exactly the best when it comes to talking about myself. I'm usually the one in the corner who's watching everybody, trying to piece together their personalities purely by watching and observing their behavior. That's another hobby of mine, I suppose. Although it's more a habit. I get bored and read psychology articles online. That's the type of person I am, I suppose,” Alli added. Lulu turned her head so that her cheek was to her pillow. She rolled to lay on her stomach, looking across the room at her roommate. “People watching is totally my thing,” she smiled weakly. “Seriously. I’m always on guard for other people. Kind of like a guardian my friend told me once. But I like to think of myself as karma most days, serving people up. But then I encounter the dilemma – do I really know justice? Professor Leo has told me that much. Too much to think about.” She sighed “Now. I know this sounds stupid and I know we just met. But I can’t remember much about last night, like I said before. But I may have…involuntarily left clothing somewhere. And I’m not so sure where these lounges are…feel like helping me out?” Lulu didn’t know why she was asking Alli for the favor. She could very well leave and search for the common rooms but for some reason she felt like she had a lot in common with this girl. Talking to her was distracting as well, and would keep her from running back to the two men who dominated her life across the hall temporarily at least. "If you don't want to, I totally get it. I don't even know when my first class is."

---

Katia could count on her hand the number of times someone had learned about her power and was reserved about it. Her explanation drew a stiffened reaction from Rebecca. The dancer watched the stranger shuffle and tense as soon as she had claimed herself to be a puppetmaster. Normally she liked that her power intimidated people. Yes, I can make you do things you don’t want to do, she thought with a small sigh, closing her eyes. For some reason she didn’t want to be threatening to this woman.

“To what extent?” Rebecca asked. “People of a clear mind with weaker wills are easy to control. I can manipulate a person’s actions but I cannot change how they think of me or others. There are a lot of people who can push back against me and make it harder or even painful. When people are drunk, or under the influence of something, it can be easier but most times it’s almost impossible because they’re irrational and clouded. I can’t explain it. And only one person at a time and I have to be able to see them,” Katia explained. Still, she felt the woman’s discomfort. “I could have taken control of your body as soon as you walked in the room and made you get the pills. But I didn’t and I won’t. I don’t hurt people unless they hurt me,” she added. The last sentence made her purse her lips and look at the floor. Or the one’s I love, she thought to herself. Her mother was still so heavy on her mind, her father too. She couldn’t help but apologize then. “I’m sorry that we had to meet this way.”

“Don’t worry about it. Really, I taught at Noctrem before the fire, and this is far from the worst I’ve seen,” Rebecca told her. “Normally I’m not apologetic,” Katia muttered, miffed with herself. “I don’t teach class today. Does Leo? I don’t even know my schedule, or his but I need to speak with him.” As Rebecca moved to collect a broom and sweep up the glass, Katia shuffled along the counter towards the small bottle of valium the stranger had left on the counter for her. She pulled the bottle into her left hand, her right gripping the counter tightly. Slowly she twisted at the cap. When she realized it was a child protected squeeze variety she put the edge of the lip under the ridge of the counter and pulled at it up, like she was opening a beer, and low and behold it popped off. She held the bottle close to her chest to prevent pills from flying onto the floor. The effort involved in opening something so simple as a pill bottle had her flushed and frustrated. She tilted it into the counter and took two of the small pills, popping them into her mouth before turning on the faucet to the sink, taking a small paper cup from a stack near it, filling it and drinking so that she could swallow.

“I’m pretty sure he has a class or two. Most of us work every day. It sounds weird that you would have none on a Tuesday,” Rebecca explained. “Maybe I’m not in the schedule yet?” she muttered to herself. Not that dance was an essential every day class as a non-arts school. “However,” the blond continued, “he’s oftentimes in his office during the day.”

Oh that office. That tense and awkward space she had visited too many times already. It was so formal and lawyerish. Still, she supposed it would work. She just needed to talk to him. And hopefully that Amy woman wouldn’t be there, all sick and green like the day before. Hopefully she hadn’t gotten some sort of infection from her, making everything worse.

“Thank you,” Katia said lowly as Rebecca concluded with the glass and stood across from her now. “I don’t know what I would have done…” she trailed, looking away, biting her lip, feeling the wave of numbness suddenly spread through her torso, hitting her lower back. The tension in her shoulders melted. The good thing about valium was that it was fast and long lasting. Just long enough for her to say something to Leo. If she could find him.

“I appreciate your discretion,” Katia added. Tentatively she stepped forward, testing her legs. The valium dosage was strong enough to make her thighs relatively numb. On a bad day she would have poor coordination. Today the medication was busy enough that she was able to remain standing. The pain in her lower back was tolerable, more like a small poker to her spine than the sledgehammer from moments before.

“I’m going to try and stop this,” Katia reassured Rebecca. “You won’t find me in here like this again.”

Leo knew that he was in trouble the second he let his eyes roll back into his head. He saw the dark look cross over his girlfriends face, and instantly knew that he had done wrong. There was an air of irritation hanging around her that he definitely didn't like, and he was regretting his actions already. But he couldn't help himself. There really was nothing for her to worry about, and she had kept going on and on about Katia being in the school. He was surprised by the whirlwind that was Amy's emotions at the moment, although he couldn't blame her - he was sure that it had something to do with the pregnancy - wasn't that a thing that happened to women when they were pregnant? They acted a little stranger than usual, and their moods took a roller-coaster ride?

The immortal headmaster was quickly snapped out of his little daydream however when Amy's shrill voice hit his ears, shouting at him, saying that she had lots of things to be worried about, and was irritated at him for hiring Katia. He just couldn't understand why it was upsetting her that much. His head cocked to the side ever so slightly as he listened to her speak, his eyebrows coming together in the middle of his forehead as he listened to her. Leo slowly began to see what was annoying Amy, when she said that she was upset with the fact that he had dated Katia. That thought made him sigh, and drop his head a bit. She was right of course, with her next statement. He had over-reacted when it had come to his girlfriend hugging Chris on his first day here. "But that was a completely different situation." He spoke, shaking his head. "I, have not touched Katia in front of you. I just didn't like seeing someone with his hands on the woman I love, that's all. Different situation, totally." He nodded, before letting her carry on.

Leonardo could see that Amy was holding back a lot of anger, and the pinching of her nose almost made him take a step back in fear. Angry Amy was scary. His eyes widened as she shouted at him, screaming about Katia being white trash. His mouth almost fell open in shock too, just as her's did - mirroring her expression. Leo just stood there for a moment, staring at his girlfriend.

"Amy..." He spoke softly, taking tentative steps towards her, until he was close enough. He then wrapped his arm around her waist slowly, his other hand moving to lay onto of hers, the one resting on her stomach. "Amy... please, stop this. I know I got angry the other day, but like I said - I just didn't like the idea of someone else touching my girlfriend like that. But... really, Katia's injured, and she's only going to be here for a little while, okay?" His lips pressed against her head in a gentle, soothing peck, trying to back up his words with a reassuring gesture. "I didn't get to date her, okay? I wanted to, but she got scared at the idea of commitment. She interested me, which is why I started to ask about her. But nothing happened between us emotionally, other than her running out on me."

---

Jackson didn't move.

His eyes stared blankly forwards, ignoring the silhouette of Drake out of the corner of his eyes.
He ignored the shape of Jessica storming out of the room in his shirt.
He ignored the upset face of Lulu as she tried to talk to him, apologizing before leaving.

Jack just did not move.

His arms were painful, suspended above his head, and as the door slammed shut, he turned his head slowly in the direction of the guy that was supposed to be one of his best friends. The one guy that he was supposed to be able to talk to about anything, and yet he was the guy that had brought that girl that he loved, and had confessed that love to last night, into the bedroom that they had shared, and slept in the same bed as her, knowing that he would see. He was furious at Drake. More than furious. But there were just no words to explain it.

Jackson didn't want to talk to Drake. In fact, he wanted to ignore him and walk out of that bedroom right now. But in the current position that he was in, he was in no state to be able to do that. In fact, all he could do was glare at the male who was standing in just his boxers, before taking in a big sigh. "Please, unlock me." He spoke quietly, yet harshly. He didn't have to put up any pretenses right now; it was just him, alone with the guy that he was seriously pissed at, and he wasn't going to be nice. In fact, he was going to be blunt, and rude, and very un-Jackson like.

It wasn't actually a shock to him, when he paused for a moment to think about it. Drake was exactly the person to go off and seduce the girl that his friend was in love with, when she was upset, and he was drunk. Oh yeah, that was very Drake like. His eyes were still trained on Drake, glaring at him as he though. Of course, it probably hadn't looked very good to Lulu either, seeing him waking up naked with a girl that the two of them barely knew. He dropped his head back onto the pillow and closed his eyes, a soft groan escaping his lips. "Drake, I'm not kidding. Get me the hell out of these cuffs." He spoke, another deep exhale coming from his mouth as he tried to calm himself down.

Jack wasn't feeling all that great this morning. He felt sick from the copious amounts of whiskey that he had poured into blood stream last night, his arms were sore from being strung up in such a stupid position, he had upset his best friend, slept with another friend, and was now being held hostage by the man that he despised more than anything right now.

Could this morning get any worse?

---

Max couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes as Corentine spoke, and he stepped closer to her, allowing his bare chest to press against her, dipping his head slightly to brush his lips delicately against hers, not kissing her, just brushing. "Ah, don't tempt me, you blonde demon, you." He grinned playfully, before turning back around, shampoo in his hand. His smile stuck on his face as the blonde spoke about him dating Rebecca, and he just shook his water covered head, little droplets splashing off in various directions. "Don't even say anything about my little tryst with Rebecca. She was actually less up her own ass in those days - and she was hot as hell. I wanted a good fuck, she said no, and unlike the dickhead I am now, I was nice and stopped pushing. Like I said, stop quizzing me." He liked it when she paid attention to him and listened to what he said. Corentine was always the sort of person that liked to fight against authority, and little wins like this over her, made him rather happy.

She had listened to him and turned around when he came back up, shampoo in hand. He squirted some into his hand and slowly began to run his fingers delicately through her long, damp locks, letting the soft liquid mix in between his own fingers, and her soft strands of hair. He then slowly let his fingers dance further down, traveling down, across the side of her neck, along her collarbone softly. He let his soapy fingers dance over her gossamer, glistening skin, enjoying the feeling of just being close to someone as beautiful, and as feisty as Corentine Quellen. However, before Max let his hands wander any further, as he had decided that his lessons could wait for another round with Corentine, he felt her tighten underneath his hands. Her voice was different too, soft and weak - definitely un-like herself.

"Corentine?" Max questioned her, his hands resting gently on her shoulders now. He softly began to massage her tense muscles, however staying at a slight distance. He knew that she was a wild card, and sometimes, it was wrong to ask her what was wrong, but yet, he couldn't stop himself. After last night... he just wanted to make sure again that she was okay, when she definitely didn't sound it. "We will do this again, okay?" Max smiled gently, moving one of his hands to cup her chin softly, turning her head ever so slightly to look at him.

"Are you okay, Corentine?" The brunette's voice was sincere and full of worry for the girl, a new feeling for the usually uncaring male. "You know you can talk to me, right?"

Amy was so out of it. She couldn’t believe she’d just said those words. And in front of her unborn baby too! What if her little bump could hear her? But she was just so frustrated and upset, and she didn’t know what to do with these intense emotions right now, except letting them out, and that didn’t even work for her. She looked over at Leo when he spoke her name, and she dropped her other hand to join the first one on her small bump. It was stupid, but she sort of felt like she could protect it that way.

Tears had begun pushing at her, but she was stubbornly holding them in. She didn’t even know what she was crying about, for Christ’s sake! She was angry, not sad. But then, she was frustrated beyond compare. Frustrated with her situation and pregnancy, frustrated with Leo, and frustrated with Katia, a woman who she didn’t actually know. It was all such a mess she could hardly describe it to herself, much less anyone else. She needed to talk to a woman. She loved Leo, and he meant the world to her, but there were certain things he just… didn’t get.

She sighed when Leo walked up to her, putting an arm around her, his other hand moving to rest on her small bump. Amy closed her eyes briefly, calming herself. All this arguing and panic wasn’t good for the baby, after all. She shook her head though, nearly giving up on her, when he chose to focus on the episode with Chris. She had only drawn in Chris to help Leo see how all of this with Katia made her feel. Obviously he couldn’t grasp that. Ugh, why was he being so… pigheaded about this whole deal? Couldn’t he just understand her and take her side and… kick the brunette out? Oh, that was so cruel. Why was she thinking like that?! What was wrong with her?

Perhaps it was a motherly thing; after all, Amy wanted to protect her family. If she lost Leo to Katia, she wouldn’t know what to do with herself…or her baby. She opened one eye to glare at him half-heartedly when he spoke of Katia merely being injured. “How long is a “little while”, Leo?” she asked him, her voice telling him she expected a short, while also honest, answer. She didn’t want to see Katia putting her greedy claws on her man. Ugh, again with the bitchiness! She shook her head, looking down at their hands on her stomach when he kissed her forehead. She silently told herself not to react to it.

He was trying to calm her down, and it really only served to piss her off all the more, but she tried to keep it in. However, it was just beneath the surface, boiling. At his next words though, Amy scrambled back, away from him, out of range, gaping at him. He had been the one who had wanted it? She had run out on him? He had wanted to date her? What if Katia hadn’t run? Would they have been together now? Her heart skipped a beat in fright, and she was hurt all over again. Finally, tears burst from her, trailing aimlessly down her cheeks, as she looked up at him, her eyes filled with anger and sadness.

They had unfinished business. If he had been the one to want it before, what would stop him from coming to want it again? And this time… she had come to him. She hugged her baby bump, taking another step away from him, which only caused her to bump against the wall as she silently sobbed, her breathing pattern uneven as she did. She couldn’t take this. It hurt, and so, as her legs began shaking, Amy sank to the ground, pulling up her legs, arms wrapping around them. It protected the bump better. She put her forehead against her knees, the sobs raking her body.

Her emotions were incredibly heightened, and so to some, Amy might be overreacting, but it seemed this pregnancy was going to rule her life for a while.

As Amy cried, she began speaking to him, her voice weak, but she was on the verge of screaming at him. Flat out screaming. She didn’t yet though.
“Leo, I can’t do this,” she choked out between sobs, “I can’t… can’t look at her every day, knowing you have unfinished business… knowing you wanted to be with her back then… knowing she was the only reason you weren’t. I… I can’t.” She hugged her knees tighter, not looking up at him as she weakly whispered, “I can’t lose you. P-please don’t make me be around her, Leo. Please.”

---

---

When the girls left, Lulu only managing a stuttered apology, which had caused a slight sigh to escape him, and Jess, well, her comments weren’t unlike her, so he’d merely smirked at her, replying with a simple ”good guys always finish last, baby.” Then he’d shut the door behind her and looked to Jackon, not entirely sure what he wanted to do, except keep the guy around for him to explain himself, not that he was yet entirely sure what he wanted to say. Surprisingly he felt really bad about this whole situation. Mainly because he knew it hurt Jackson, which in turn pissed him off. In some ways, Drake thought Jackson’s expression a little comical.

He was on the bed, still as stone, glaring at the wall ahead of him, completely naked. Drake was about to get the guy’s duvet, but stilled when Jackson spoke, his voice uncharacteristically harsh. Drake raised an eyebrow, glancing at him. “No.” He then simply replied, picking up the duvet and throwing it onto Jackson, a part of him getting that jackson’s situation was plenty embarrassing without the nudity too. But he wasn’t unlocking him just yet. Why? Well, it was simple: Drake knew Jackson would run out on him, and he needed to talk to him, which itself was a little odd. Drake didn’t usually give enough fucks to explain himself and his actions, but Jackson’s anger irked him a little.

Really, the guy was acting like Drake was hitting on his girlfriend. He was acting as though Drake had known of Jackson’s emotions when he’d begun having his own for Lulu, when in fact… Drake hadn’t even known Jackson when he started having feelings for Lulu, and now he was supposed to do what? Be unselfish and let her go? He would have, if that was what Lulu wanted, but it wasn’t. Drake didn’t quite see how Jackson’s claim on the girl was any bigger than his own. By chance, Drake and Jackson had become friends, good friend incidentally, but it seemed Jackson was going to blame Drake for actually having some semblance of feelings for once.

That surprisingly got to him, so when Jackson spoke again, his head falling back onto the pillow, Drake frowned, throwing the duvet on top of the guy. His tone was cold as he said “I know. I just don’t give a fuck,” in reply, finally looking wholly at the man he’d begun considering a friend. He sat down on his own bed then, still looking at Jackson as he continued. “You’re pissed about what exactly? That I brought Lulu here? That I happen to spend time with her?” He raised an eyebrow, placing the keys on the nightstand. Jackson wasn’t going anywhere until they’d resolved this. Drake wasn’t going to live with someone who potentially wanted to kill him.

“If it’s the first, I didn’t have much of a choice. My sister blew up her door; the room, her bed, her things – everything, is filled with splinters, and she was drunk off her ass last night. Leaving her to her own devices in there would’ve probably ended badly. It’s not as if we did anything in here. We slept next to each other. That’s it.” He continued, not giving Jackson the chance to cut in. “as for the latter, you need to get through your thick skull that I’m not using her. Nor am I spending time with her simply to get to you. I knew Lulu long before I ever met you and found out you have feelings for her. I actually care about the girl, which, frankly, is almost as rare as a polar bear in Arizona. And she was upset yesterday, which you know.”

He shook his head, sighing. “You’re acting as though I’m stealing your girlfriend, which I’m not. So get your head out of your ass.” Drake was being surprisingly blunt and straight with Jackson at present, which was another rare sight, but he figured he needed to talk some sense into the head of his friend. And hell, this was all the effort Drake was going to make. If it didn’t work – if Jackson was too self absorbed to understand Drake’s dilemma in this, then… well, then he’d simply have a friend less. It’d suck, but he’d live. He wasn’t really a fan of partaking in drama. He’d much rather start it, and then watch from the sidelines.

---

---

Max’s hands in her hair were so relaxing, she almost dozed off. She’d closed her eyes and was humming slightly in sign of relaxation, her muscles incredibly comfortable. This was quite enjoyable, and she rather needed it. Maybe she should treat herself to a day at the spa or something? This night and morning with Max had done a lot for her alone. She didn’t know why, although maybe it was because Max cared. She didn’t have, nor did she want, a lot of people to care about her, but knowing that Max liked her for who she was, well… it was a little satisfying.

Soon, however, his hands began exploring her skin and that was when thoughts of Jay hit her, causing her to tense up, all of her relaxed state of mind completely forgotten. Sweet memories of the two together in the shower almost caused tears to run down her peach-coloured cheeks, but she refrained, instead merely remaining rigid, her hands clenched at her sides in a stubborn attempt not to cry. She’d cried enough. He didn’t deserve her tears if he could do that to her… if he could actually fuck someone else. These thoughts had been the only things able to bring her to do what she had with Max.

Sex was therapy, and Max was a god in bed. Ergo: one very damned good psychologist, which was funny considering his job. It didn’t take her long to decide that she needed some sort of distraction, and so, her voice reflecting her current mood, she spoke, simply saying that they should repeat this: the two of them fucking, the sleeping together. It had been nice, and rather therapeutic. Most likely because it had given her something other than Jay to think about.

When Max replied to her, her name on his tongue filled with worried inquiry, she almost wanted to slap herself. Why hadn’t she just kept her mouth shut? She’d just had to say something, alluding him to her feelings and thoughts at present. It bugged the fuck out of her. Why did she have to be such a bloody idiot? She sighed when his hands began massaging her tense shoulders. She didn’t even want to reply, and so, she kept quiet. Right up until his hand moved to cup her face, turning it slightly towards him. She opened her eyes, her thick lashes fluttering.

She snorted at his words. He sounded so worried, and so diplomatic; careful, most likely wary of her reaction. He was talking to her as one would talk to a hungry lion about to attack. She had no actual expression on her face. In fact, she had no actual expression on the inside even. It was like she had suddenly slid into numbness. She sighed openly when he asked her whether she was aware that she could talk to him, and she turned around to face him, stepping fully into the water. She put her arms around his neck and closed her eyes as she leaned her head back, letting the water wash out most of the soap in her hair.

After a little while in silence, she straightened, eyes opening to look at him once more before he finally spoke, her eyes not quite readable. Most likely because Cor’s emotions were in turmoil – a turmoil she could not even access through the numbness. “Max,” she finally began, keeping her voice calm, but she couldn’t quite keep the pain out of the way she spoke. “I just lost the only guy I’ve ever loved. He left the party with a bitch, who I know sleeps around.”

“He was angry with me, and looking to get back at me for something I never did. He also happens to have been the sender of both note and condom. He wants to keep playing games, to keep hurting me, and I’m sick of it. So it’s going to be a while ‘till I’m feeling ‘okay’ again, alright? Asking me is redundant, because no… I’m not okay. I feel like tearing my heart out of my chest would be less painful than this, and I’m constantly fighting the urge to tear everything around me apart.”

She took a deep breath. Cor was being blunt, the only way she knew how to deal with things, even though she wanted to die, standing here being vulnerable. At the same time, though, Cor felt like Max had seen plenty already, so really, explaining all of this to him couldn’t possibly make things any worse. He’d seen her crying, for christ’s sake. Cor could count the amount of times anyone had ever seen her crying on one hand, and the majority of those had been when she was a kid.

She looked at Max’s chest for a little while, clearly wanting to say something more, but not quite sure how. Then, finally she looked back up at him, her hands moved to rest on his chest now. “Never had sex with anyone but him in the shower. Never showered with anyone but him.” Her voice was rather quiet, and though she didn’t want to be telling this to Max, she sort of knew she needed to. Not because of him, but because part of her recognized that if she was going to use Max the way she wanted to, he needed to at least know what he was dealing with,

And okay, maybe she did care about him... a little.

---

---

Chase nodded thoughtfully, chewing on a bite of apple as he listened to Amber speaking of her book. He’d hoped for something a little more academic, but looking at her, he could see the intelligence glimmering in her eyes, and so it stopped mattering to him. He wasn’t himself a huge bookworm, but he remained a smart guy, and so he didn’t expect girls to be either. It had merely been an indicator. And now, well, now he was a little interested as to her thought processes. If someone wrote down their thoughts, there was usually a particular reason for it, and that piqued his interest further.

He sunk another bite of the apple, and smiled at her when she asked him about his arrival, noting that she hadn’t seen him before. He hadn’t missed the fact that her lips had seemed to become redder all by themselves and he made a note to himself about asking her how that worked. He assumed it was part of her powers. Again, so weird seeing that stuff displayed so openly. He was having a bit of difficulty figuring out what her power might be, but he was rather fascinated. Not that he dwelled on it for long, instead preferring to answer her question like was proper and polite. He couldn’t just let her hanging simply because her lips had caught his attention… in more than one way. He was a young man, after all, and she was rather beautiful.

He only just started with a “well, I…” when her phone buzzed and she moved to check it. He immediately paused, his eyebrows raised just enough to be noticeable. She was checking her texts? Well, he told him as he regained his friendly smile, maybe she was just checking in case it was important. See, as Chase had been raised by two elderly people, the concept of cellphones had always been a little odd to them, and since he and his sister had never actually gone to a normal school while being old enough to have them, the rules had always seemed normal to him. And so, Chase considered it rather rude to be texting while in conversation with someone else. It showed a lack of interest, and it usually resulted in a decrease in the amount of attention given.

However, he recognized that maybe Amber simply had another take on this, and he didn’t really expect everyone to be the same way as him. He was just… having troubles shaking off the strict upbringing. He was determined to try, however. Chase had decided to try to school-thing, after… well, after being forced to, but well, he never did anyways half ways. He was going to try this and see it through. And he was going to learn in the process.

However, when she started typing, his toes curled. It was an involuntary reaction, and he wanted more than anything to be completely chill about this, because honestly he was starting to feel like a snob, which he wasn’t. There were just… certain things he couldn’t quite take and it was almost enough to quit the conversation then and there. Obviously she didn’t really have much of an interest, and he wasn’t about to push an unwilling girl in any direction. Hmm, maybe she was a pushover after all. He tilted his head to the side a little, regarding her curiously. All the while, he merely kept eating his apple.

Then, finally, she put her phone away and looked at him once more. Well, at least she apologized. And he didn’t really know what it had been about. Maybe she had a sick mother or something. He inwardly nodded to himself, deciding to forgive and forget, and so he smiled at Amber, putting his apple core into the nearby trashcan. He couldn’t help a little chuckle when she mentioned Sky though. “Sky, you say? Unless we have more than one Sky on campus, I believe he’s my roommate.”

He smiled at her before continuing, “regarding your previous question… yes, I’m rather new. I arrived during the party yesterday, but my sister and I decided to unpack and unwind after the long drive instead of joining everyone.” He chuckled, remembering Sky and his companion. “Although it seems we were missing out?” He couldn’t help it; he was actually rather curious. Maybe his roommate was merely the type who had fun no matter where he was. He seemed the type.

---

---

Rebecca thought over Katia’s explanation for her lacking classes on Mondays, and tilting her head slightly, she considered it. She supposed it was a possibility, but it didn’t really sound like the headmaster she knew. Leo had always been very thorough with these things as far as she knew, and she couldn’t quite imagine him changing the schedules again in a couple of days due to a new teacher putting Dance on the schedules. It would mess things up as they were changing schedules today. And so, concluding on that in her thoughts, she shrugged and sent a small smile in Katia’s direction. “Suppose so, but maybe you should double check. Just to be sure. We all just got new schedules today.” Then she continued by telling Katia about Leo’s usual whereabouts.

Rebecca paused when Katia thanked her, and she looked over at the brunette female, thinking without a remotely readable mien. She smiled in a surprisingly friendly manner when Katia attempted to elaborate, and feeling the woman’s discomfort with it, Rebecca brushed her off with a gesture. “Don’t worry about it.” She began, shrugging with her smile still present. “Really, it’s okay to need a bit of help once in a while. And you’re welcome.” She took the bottle of pills from Katia and put it back where she found it, closing and locking the cabinet. She wasn’t about to leave it around for students to get their hands on.

She looked around her, scanning the room. She’d removed the glass, locked up the cabinets. That left the pills out and about. She didn’t even know which went where and, well… Amy would notice different jars for them in any case. Her eyes soon went back to Katia, however, and she sighed when she was thanked for her discretion. However, she remained quiet as Katia began moving forwards, her legs a little too unsteady, but at least moving and she could stand upright on her own, so that was definitely improvement. She could see the relieve on Katia’s face and so, she decided to inform the woman of her own thoughts on this.

“I have to tell Amy something. You know that, right?” she looked Katia straight in the eyes, taking a stance in this for once. She had let the other run the show a little, because… well, Rebecca would’ve probably felt bad if she hadn’t helped her some in this situation. “She’ll notice the broken glass jars, the pills on the counter, the bottles rearranged in the cabinets and so forth. That wouldn’t really result in anything good for anyone.” She smiled apologetically. “So as much as I want to respect your wish of secrecy, it’s simply not entire possible. Well, either that, or you say something yourself. That way only what you want her to know, will be revealed.”

She was really trying to compromise with this woman, wanting to make sure no one got the sucky end of this. Which was a little weird. Rebecca usually wasn’t the type to pay that much attention to others. She would’ve most likely just gone to Amy herself without much consideration towards the stranger who had broken into the medical room. Maybe it was Katia’s blunt honesty that had earned her the blonde’s grudging respect, and on some level she knew Katia had told her more than she had told most others, and Rebecca didn’t wish to break that trust. Well, not particularly.

With Katia’s following words, Rebecca smiled, eyes landing on the stray pills on the counter once more. “I hope so. Although mostly for your own sake. This whole deal doesn’t exactly look comfortable.” The blonde checked the clock on her wrist, making sure she wasn’t in a hurry… which she still wasn’t. She had time before class. Her students would simply have to wait outside the classroom until she arrived. She wouldn’t be late in any case. She just wouldn’t be half an hour early either. She then looked back at Katia, adding a “you okay to walk properly now?”

She wanted to leave and yet the conversation wasn’t done. Katia listened to every word Rebecca said, watching as she shrugged off the gratitude the brunette expressed. The lack of any real reaction on Rebecca’s part reminded Katia of why she didn’t say such things that often. Really – who appreciated a thank you these days? Only those looking to be thanked it seemed. The selfish ones. It made her purse her lips momentarily.

“Don’t worry about it,” Rebecca shrugged with a small smile. The move was almost haughty. As Katia stepped closer, she noticed how the woman stepped back. She’s scared of me, she realized and that fact only served to make her feel pained.

“Really, it’s okay to need a bit of help once in a while. And you’re welcome,” Rebecca smiled. She took the bottle of valium where Katia had left it, looking back at the cupboards for its place. To have it locked away again was disheartening. A discomfort rose in her, and Katia felt like a panic was spreading over her shoulders, her hands tingling as she watched her remedy be locked again. Can I go without it? I just said I would but…

“I have to tell Amy something. You know that, right?” Rebecca announced suddenly. That comment was enough to make her visibly pale. “I—“ Katia started, finding herself without anything to say. She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes more in her own frustration than in an effort to force the woman to keep it a secret. “She’ll notice the broken glass jars, the pills on the counter, the bottles rearranged in the cabinets and so forth. That wouldn’t really result in anything good for anyone,” Rebecca added. That much was evident. She had made a mess in her haste that was hard to deny. The soppy smile Rebecca tried to send her way only made Katia turned rigid. “So as much as I want to respect your wish of secrecy, it’s simply not entirely possible. Well, either that, or you say something yourself. That way only what you want her to know, will be revealed,” Rebecca concluded.

Katia felt her eyes water and she wasn’t entirely sure why. She settled her left hand on her hip and her right behind her back to support her lower lumbar column. Clenching her teeth, she looked at the floor and nodded, her body language little different than a child being told to suck up a punishment. “I will say something. I have to. I intend to,” she conceded, not that she had intended to hide it in the first place. “Please let me be the first person to say something or else I will be in a very bad situation. Worse really than this but still.”

“I’m going to try and stop this,” Katia reassured Rebecca. “You won’t find me in here like this again.”

“I hope so. Although mostly for your own sake. This whole deal doesn’t exactly look comfortable,” Rebecca replied, checking her watch before looking up and giving Katia a once over. She followed the blonde’s eyes, trying to stand up straighter. “You okay to walk properly now?” Rebecca asked. Katia rolled her eyes, jutting her hip out as if to give the woman sass only to wince. “I’m getting there. If you have somewhere to be you should go. I need to go anyways. Takes me freaking forever to navigate this school,” Katia sighed, twirling her hand in the air beside her before she ran her fingers through her hair and slowly made her way back into the hallway.

“Have fun with the kids,” she tossed over her shoulder, looking back at the woman and stopping to establish eye contact with her once more before turning forwards and moving in the direction she thought was best, leading back towards the front entrance of the school where she hoped she could navigate herself back to the office – and Leo’s by extension.

By the time she go to the main area of student services it was close to breakfast time she estimated. More students were certainly moving through the halls. The Valium had her legs relatively numb but she forced herself to walk as normally as she could, attempting to be fluid and natural but still coming off as relatively stiff.

As she stepped into the main office she was face to face once again with the bitter secretary. “Hello,” Katia smiled with a slight smirk. The woman frowned, staring at her sourly. In her movement to glare her glasses even slid down her nose. “Well that’s a pleasant greeting,” Katia scoffed, moving past the desk. “Where are you going?” the woman shot at her. Katia looked over her shoulder. “Do you need to know everything? It’s not like you ever leave your desk anyways,” she replied sharply. Her remark proved offensive. The secretary gasped and looked wounded. Katia only shook her head, moving towards Leo’s office. She stood outside it, seeing that there was no light on inside. She knocked politely before she opened the door, surprised to find no one inside. “Well,” she sighed to herself. “At least his couch looks comfortable.”

The brunette closed the office door behind her and settled herself in a chair opposite of his desk only to stand up the moment she was forced to slouch – too tall for it. Hissing in pain she moved over to a couch on the far wall, laying down on it with her head facing the door in waiting.

With his girlfriend tightly wrapped in his masculine arms, without holding her too tight in fear of hurting their unborn child, Leo kissed the top of her forehead, probably for the thousandth time that morning, hoping to console her in what little way he could. He felt useless, and horrible - it was his fault that his Amy was so upset, and there wasn't a thing that he could do about it, without hurting someone else, someone that he had once been very close to. Words flowed out of his mouth as he tried to make everything better, holding her into his chest - but apparently something he said was wrong; very, very wrong.

"A little while is a little while, Amy. You know I could just kick someone out who needed a place to stay; I did exactly the same as I'm doing for Katia with the Noctrem students. I don't even have to socialize with her all that much, darling."

Leo never had to think about what he was saying, all that much, until he got into a relationship - especially one with a friend as close to him as Amy was. And now, as he tried to think over the words that he had just said, there was nothing that he could pinpoint to be wrong. All he had done was tell her the truth about his past with Katia, and that there was nothing else there between them any more, was that wrong of him? An expression of confusion came over the male as he watched his girlfriend scamper away from him, as if she was terrified of him. His arms stretched out slightly towards her, mentally trying to will her back into his grasp, but to no prevail. Something had frightened her, so much so that even his embrace wasn't comforting any more, and that worried him.

Suddenly, when tears burst from her eyes, flowing in steady streams down her cheeks, Leonardo started to panic once again. "Amy?" His voice was almost frantic as he watched her sliding down the wall, collapsing onto the floor in a mess. He rushed to her side, and used his thumb to ever so softly try and wipe away some of her tears. Of course, they were just replaced by more, but it was the thought that counted, and he continued to do so, as she just sat there and cried.

At her words, Leo froze, pulling back a little, so that he was able to look her in the eye. "Amy... really? We have no unfinished business, I can promise you. And you know how sound my promises are. I love you, Amalthea Roerig, and I will until the world ends and I cease to exist. You are the only person that has ever gotten themselves so deeply penetrated into my heart, and you will forever be the only one there. You're never going to loose me, Amy. I swear to you." His hand reached out slowly again to brush away a stray tear that was about to drop from the end of her chin, a caring smile on his face.

"I love you, Amy."

---

Whilst the blanket over his most private of parts caused some relief for the Irish man, it still didn't relieve any part of the anger, confusion, or guilt that had grown inside him over the last few days. He was angry at Drake, for bringing Lulu back here, especially as he was sure that the man who was supposed to be one of his best friends had been told everything by the girl of his dreams. He felt guilty for using Jessica the previous night to get over his own stupid feelings for his friend, and he was also confused as to what had actually gone on the night before - as well as being slightly stunned at the feelings he was beginning to realize had developed for the beautiful brunette that had spent the night in his bed.

At least she actually like him back, in some way, which was a bonus.

He had wanted to be let go, purely for the reason that his wrists were in pain, chafing from the metal around his wrists, cutting into his skin. Jackson wasn't going to run out on Drake, and leave the conversation unsaid; he wasn't the sort of person to do that. In fact, he thought it would be good, for him to get out everything in his system, to tell Drake how pissed he was at him. He just lay there with his body arched slightly to accommodate the awkward position of his arms, his eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling above him as Drake started talking to him, asking why he was so annoyed with the situation.

Jackson kept inside everything he actually wanted to say to the man - about how he knew that even though Drake believed that he was feeling something for Lulu, that he was going to get bored of her. It was the same story with Drake, and he didn't want to see Lu get hurt. A small laugh escaped the male's lips however as he was told to get his head out of his ass, and he shook his head, a movement he instantly regretted when the whiskey induced migraine started to penetrate his temples. "Seriously? I need to get my head out of my ass, Drake? How fun." Jack's accent was thick with his Irish drawl as his irritated voice filled the room.

"I'm pissed, because I wasn't enough of a man to tell her I loved her. Because I have no-one else to blame but myself, and my stupid chivalrous ways, whereby I thought I was going to hurt her, so I tried to move on. And I lost her. But I don't want to blame myself, even though I am the only one to blame. So please, just let me go, so I can go apologize to numerous amounts of people, and have a couple of aspirin before I die."

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It was strange, having Corentine in his arms without any incentive to bend her over and take her as his own, but it was also rather nice. It was different, but something he could definitely get used to, that was for sure. Relationships were extremely unusual and foreign for Max Henderson, and also something he didn't want in the near future, but he wanted something like this. With someone like Cor. Nothing expected, or labelled, but.... a companionship. Yes, that was a nice word - Max wanted Corentine to be his companion. A companion he could have sex with whenever he pleased, but still.

The silence after his words was soon broken when Corentine turned around in his arms and wrapped her own around his neck, pressing her wet, lathery body against his, but letting her head drop back. She looked incredibly hot in such a position, and he had to hold himself back from bending her over and letting his hands roam her perfect body. Instead, he decided to listen to her, his own hands moving to wrap around her waist, holding her against him. It should have made Max feel uncomfortable, having a girl bear her feelings to him, as it was something he just wasn't accustomed to, but it didn't - again adding to the strangeness that the male was feeling. He liked it.

A small shudder ran through the males spine as he thought about this, shrugging it off to the young woman in front of him that he was cold, not thinking about deeper things. "No more asking if you're okay, got it." He smiled gently, removing one of his hands from her body to run through her hair, brushing out the last remaining bits of shampoo that were trapped between her blonde locks. He could see she was beginning to feel as uncomfortable as he was at the moment, and he wanted to move the conversation on-wards, to anything other than Jaysin, or Rebecca, or even their strange little agreement. But, if he did that, he was sure that he would be seen as insensitive, dick-like, or something along those lines, and seeing as Corentine was being so open with him - he didn't want to loose that connection between them.

"I can always get out, if you like." Max shrugged his large shoulders, looking at the woman in his arms. "Once in a life time offer, pet. I'm not usually this nice, you know." His trade-mark smirk appeared on his lips, dancing on his face as he spoke, turning the conversation in a lighter direction, as much as he possibly could.

With his hand on Amy's face, Leo waited for a reply. It felt like hours had passed in silence, no reply from the woman that he loved. He was beginning to get worried, and was about to speak to her, something stopped him. A tremble in the ground, one that caused him to freeze. It wasn't right. Something terrible was about to happen, something he hadn't experienced in years. The trembling under the ground grew more and more violent, and soon, the entire room that the two of them were sitting in was shaking. The roar of the earthquake ripped through the school, and Leo pulled away from his girlfriend, the woman he had been holding tightly, screaming at her over the noise to stay there.

He had to go and push the panic button. Leo stumbled over the broken shards of his apartment, falling around as the room still shook; trying to make his way over to the other side of the room to the panic button by the phone. After stumbling over everything that had fallen into his path, Leo fell into the wall, his hand smacking into the wall against the button.

The wailing of a siren filled the air, almost being heard over the thunderous earthquake, warning everyone to get under cover as soon as possible.

Leo’s touch proved exceptionally bothering to her, even though he was merely wiping away her tears, looking at her with that half-panicked, worried look in his beautiful eyes. She just… couldn’t have him touching her right now. It was… too much. Regardless, the brunette remained in place, crying. She’d put herself in a corner, so there was no way of getting away from him anyways. Gods, she could hardly look at him. Every time her violet depths grazed him, they fell back onto the floor almost automatically, and her heart was aching in her chest. It hurt, and she didn’t even know why. He had done nothing. How could she blame him for being with someone else when they had not been together? She didn’t even know.

All she knew was that she had loved him and missed him secretly, while he had been off with some… some woman. And she couldn’t see them together. She couldn’t. Not knowing that they had been together. It was too much. When she spoke, sobs raking her entire body and cutting off her sentences in the oddest of places, causing her to stutter through it, she could feel Leo freezing up, pulling back a little. The movement caused her to raise her eyes, to try to read his eyes even though looking at him hurt so much. She just… needed to know what he was thinking. What he was feeling.

As he spoke, Amy felt her tears drying up and her lips curving into a vague smile of their own accord. She sniffled, looking up at him with part hurt, part love in her eyes. This man in front of her was the love of her life. Amy had known that for years, and she could feel her heart letting itself be swallowed by that love. As she looked into the most caring, loving eyes she had ever seen, everything else seemed to fade away. He loved her. She had nothing to worry about. It would be fine. Their bump would be fine… their family would be fine.

“I-” she began, not even able to properly speak a sentence, or to move enough to let her boyfriend know they were okay, when the earth began trembling beneath them. She froze, her eyes widening in shock. It couldn’t be. No. No, they couldn’t have an earth quake now! Not now. Please, not now! She had too much already and… oh gods, the kids. All of those kids! “Leo…” she said on a gasp, but he was already on the move, screaming at her to keep still and to remain exactly where she was. But she couldn’t do that! She needed to get outside and then she needed to help anyone she could. She needed to heal up anything who might have gotten and she… she couldn’t stay there.

As Leo stumbled his way to the panic button, Amy dared moving onto all fours, trying to achieve some kind of balance in the shaking building. Oh gods, she couldn’t die now. Leo would be alone again. She couldn’t die now. She shook her head, taking a deep breath before moving to get onto her feet, except she’d only begun bending her knees, pushing up her body with her hands, when a loud crack had her turning her head right in time to see one of Leo’d giant bookcases falling. She screamed, trying to scramble away, but the fall was too fast and as books began hitting her, Amy tried to curve herself into a ball, protecting both her head and her baby, but the movement had no time to reach completion before the big wooden furniture hit her hard, smacking against her bump, effectively capturing the lower part of her body.

She cried out in pain, tears falling as she tried to push off the bookcase. Oh… no. No! That flutter of life… that beautiful little beat in her… that extra flow of energy within her… it was gone. As realization hit, the word “no” echoed through the apartment, a pained scream. She couldn’t stop the tears from falling, and she didn’t care. The screaming didn’t stop either as she hysterically tried to push the heavy bookcase off of her, fruitlessly trying to save her little bump. It couldn’t be. They’d just given it life and now it was just… gone. “No, no, no, no, no no!” She kept screaming the words as she thrashed violently, but the bookcase wouldn’t budge. Her baby was… gone. Pain tore through her already vulnerable heart, breaking it into thousands of little pieces. Never had she experienced pain like this. Physical pain was nothing in comparison… it didn’t even register. Her baby. It was just… gone…

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When Max without further discussion, merely told her he wouldn’t ask whether she was okay or not anymore, she sighed, feeling relieved. She couldn’t entirely pinpoint why, but she knew it had something to do with the fact that a conversation always ended up depressing and awkward. Just look at the mood between herself and Max at current. It was tense and odd and just sort of off in comparison to the usual ease with which they socialized. She and Max had always sort of gotten along effortlessly, like being around him was so… easy. It had never been forced or awkward, perhaps because they were so much on the same page without any words being uttered.

They just knew that they fit. Not like a couple (Gods no, they were both train wrecks), but as something different. Something she didn’t know what was. Especially not after yesterday. Maybe that was why she felt somewhat okay with talking to him. She’d cried in front of him, and had that been most other people in his situation, Cor would’ve never gotten past it. The embarrassment was too much, but part of her sort of had to admit that she didn’t entirely mind him seeing the more sensitive side of her. Contrary to what she wanted people to believe, it did exist. It just rarely surfaced at all.

Then again, Cor had always been taught that to care was to be weak, and weakness was the last thing she should ever want to be. She supposed she and Drake bonded over their fucked up childhoods, although they differed in one very important way; Drake wasn’t a sadistic type of guy. He didn’t take pleasure in the misery or downfall of others, although he sometimes found the reactions somewhat amusing. No, Drake took no pleasure from it. Corentine did. Then again, he’d been sent away for several years. She, however, had been left alone with a mother who cared mostly about the amount of power her pretty little daughter had, and building that power… was essential. In fact, it came before motherly concerns.

Of course her mother had not been a total failure. In fact, Imogen had spent a lot of time with Cor, and the two had bonded quite well, so Cor rarely thought of why she was the way she was… mostly because she didn’t really care to. She was a bitch, everyone knew that. She was a sadistic young woman with an unforgiving nature, and she accepted that, because she actually did quite like herself, but in situations like this, when her heart had been broken, she sometimes wished she’d learned a way to cope. Instead Cor had found her own medicine; sex. It probably wasn’t the best of cures, but it worked, and if she could keep to Max this time… perhaps things would go over better. A girl could hope.

When Max offered to get out, Cor smiled wryly, having reinstated her wall as she moved her hands down, palms against his chest before she pushed him up against the wall of the shower, feeling the water run down her back as she stepped up to him, her wet body pressing into his as she looked up at him. “Now, Max, why would I come to you, seeking ‘nice’…” She said to him playfully, eyes on his as she moved a hand further down, stopping at his navel before adding, “when bad is so much more fun?” With that, Cor leaned up, her lips taking his passionately.

If she was to get past Jay, then she needed to do it fully. Which meant she had to force herself into doing things she didn’t feel entirely comfortable with. She needed to kiss him. She just… had to. Part of her wanted to stop, to move away from him immediately, but she forced the contact, her mind focusing on the way his hands felt on her skin, the way his lips felt on hers, the way his body had always driven her wild. She needed to focus on those things… on the physical.

Cor had barely begun the kiss when the everything seemed to begin shaking. She drew back, looking around furiously. “What the…” she began, but stopped immediately when the glass of the shower began showing cracks. “Max… we need to get out of here,” she said then, eyes wide. “Like… now.” With that stepped forwards to pry then glass door open, except the second the touched it, the sounds of cracking glass filled the room.

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Chase was still waiting for some kind of reply, watching Amber with a smile on his face, when the ground began trembling beneath his feet, and as he looked around, people seemed just as perplexed as him, shocked into some kind of inactive state. His smile faded away immediately as he stood. “We should probably get outside,” he shouted to amber over the roar of the earth quake. To no prevail, because as Chase moved to grab Amber’s wrist to pull her outside with him, he heard a cracking sound.

As he looked up, all he really registered was a huge crack in the ceiling… and a great lamp falling straight towards him. He had no time to react, no time to think, no time to… do anything, as the huge piece of furniture hit him on the head, killing him instantly. His body crumbled into a heap at Amber’s feet.