Meeting the Other Half (Valencia, Open)

[charlotte]

(OOC: Mainly for Valencia, but otherwise open to veritably anyone, within reason. After all, you don't see too many freshmen or sophmores in a 12-1 English class.)



Third Period. The class right before lunch and it was English Class.

Of course, english right before lunch was something Charlotte did not mind at all, despite the fact that she had been moved up from an 11-1 to a 12-1 course. English was where she excelled, and despite the change, it was very similar subject material, and not altogether mind boggling.

However, neither her course changes, as provided by Prinicpal MacMillan, nor the class itself, were the subject of her focus today. Today's class was her first chance to get to know Valencia Donahue, her 'partner' under the pillars.


"One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death."


One student read the line aloud from the book in his hands. The teacher too stood near the front of the room with a book in hand.

Charlotte stared, not really paying attention to the words, but instead trying to decide if the girl beside her was Valencia or not. She had blonde hair, flowing just past her shoulders. A slight tilt of Charlotte's head brought the other woman's eyes into view: a mysterious silver-grey, similar to the grey color of her own eyes, only far more prominent and noticable.


"I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle. If his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note."


"Valencia Donahue I presume?" she said, low, just loud enough for Valencia and perhaps a few others who may be close by to hear. The voice of the student who was reading was monotonous and strained, and most of the other students appeared either wholly involved in the reading, or absently off in their own worlds, the teacher himself absorbed and not paying strict attention to the rest of the class.

Charlotte slid the folder Principal MacMillan had given her out of her notebook - the folder containing Valencia's class lists and feats of troublemaking.

Charlotte said nothing further in preference of letting Valencia respond, unsure of exactly how to proceed with the news of thier 'partnership', or towards the endevour of learning a thing or two about Valencia, whom, up until now, had never before seen.



"For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming."

[Valencia Donahue]

Valencia found it futile to read during a bland period when her time could be spent more wisely. She had nothing against reading in general, she just wanted to read at her leisure when things were easier to comprehend… Besides, the kind of English they were reading at the moment? It was the kind she’d rather read aloud or mouth it out silently since it was just too wonky for her to understand nonverbally. Trust me, she has a personal vendetta against “Shake-a-spear”. So instead of wasting her period away reading, she was doing her math homework in advance while it was still fresh in her memory. Contentedly punching away at her graphing calculator, Valencia couldn’t help but feel the urge to pick up a sizable object and hit someone with it. There was something… Different about her “happy” environment… And it has been that way for a while now. Now, this wasn’t saying that she didn’t know about the new student in her class. Rather, there was this looming feeling that something else was afoot and you can say that Valencia’s instincts kept her alert.

My Valencia senses are tingling.

This was when she heard someone inquire about her identity. It was the new student. Valencia absently turned her head towards Charlotte by only half-a-degree and with her eyes indolently directed downwards, it’s a safe bet to say that she didn’t really look at her either. What she saw instead was a very familiar folded and without a second thought, she took it and began to sift through its contents as if the person who handed it to her wasn’t even there. Valencia blinked mildly, noticing that certain bits of information didn’t get torched when the principal set fire to a couple sheets in plain view some time ago. With this in mind, the computer in Valencia’s skull ciphered out several things.

For one, obviously this person got sent here to get acquainted with me. How else would she get her hands on this information? Clearly, she got in touch with the principal somehow and now I’m either stuck with a “buddy”, dead weight, or someone to make sure that I do as he says. Glorious.

That’s not all, folks!

For another… Since these pieces of evidence in regards to my shenanigans are clearly here instead of gone, that means our dear, beloved, Satan-incarnate of a principal… Still has his grip on me. Truly, truly splendid.

Sarchasm! Noun! The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it! See? You can learn something new everyday! And with that said, Valencia now had a new task to take care of. Finding out who the hell this person (Charlotte) was and possibly establishing a “pecking order” if this person believed that she (Valencia) was going to get along with a strange stimulus in her “environmental bubble” within seconds. Hoo boy. She began to punch a bunch of characters into her graphing calculator, then passed it to Gladys, who was a seat away, in the row on the other side of Valencia. The message was, as entails:

Who is the person to my right.

Gladys gave her piece of info, seeing that she was one of the main people Valencia turned to whenever she wanted to hear the latest gossip.

Charlotte Anders. People are saying that her boyfriend is Tiao.
She’s a junior. She was at the riot when you were at your filming shoot.
She was also at the incident in the cafeteria too.
I was there.

Well, that ought to suffice. And here, Valencia could’ve asked the real thing, but…

Is she any good?

Gladys passed the calculator back to Valencia.

I dunno.
She must be bright, but why don’t you find out?

Enough note passing. Valencia slid the cover over her calculator and put it away, contemplating about what to ask… Or just say in general. She only met Tiao once, in which he dubbed her “crazy bitch”, and figured out that of all the Pillars, he was the infamous hothead of the bunch that people’ve been talking about. Whatever he saw in Charlotte was a mystery to her, but she was in no position to say anything about the matter since… Well, she didn’t know either of them personally enough to judge. Here goes nothing. Valencia spoke softly…

“What’s it to you.”

Guess who won the “Most Social Butterfly” award? I swear, if you buy this year’s yearbook for Hircine High, you’re not gonna see Valencia’s picture in that slot.

[charlotte]

Charlotte noted the calculator passing with a slight interest, watching it go back and forth between Valencia and the person to her left.

When the passing had stopped - an exchange she could only assume was an clever form of note conversation - she edged the capped end of her pen into her mouth, gnawing at it absently. A terrible habit, she knew, and hard on the teeth at times, but as it was with her on-and-off glasses switch, it had become almost second nature to her when apprehensive or bored when a pen was within reach.

And apprehension certainly was the most prevailant of emotions coursing through her nervous system at the moment, unsure of what Valencia (assuming, of course, that it really was Valencia) would say.

Charlotte watched her pause, sliding the cover of the calculator on, then speaking:

“What’s it to you.”

Well ... she didn't expect it to be easy. From what the file had read, MacMillan had blackmailed her as well, meaning almost an assurance of some animosity.

Perhaps waving the file in Valencia's face probably wasn't the best way to break the news, but sledgehammers like that were usually the best way to get the attention one needed.


"Blackmail's a tricky thing," Charlotte said in a low tone to match Valencia's. "It's hard to get out of on your own. Interestingly enough, it seems we're both in the same boat."

Charlotte slid out a sheet of paper, pulling off the cap on her pen and scribbling a note quickly in a messy scrawl, slipping it onto Valencia's desk and withdrawing her hand quickly, as not to draw attention from the teacher, or other students.

I was the one who I blew up a fire extinguisher in the riot. I'm being blackmailed into working with someone named Valencia Donahue, who is also being blackmailed who happends to have been blackmailed as well. Basically, we're supposed to be partners in this

'deal', working under the pillars. By asking around school, I've found an accurate enough description to say that you're Valencia, so I'm here to get to know my 'new partner', as it were.[/font][/center][/i]




"Frankly," Charlotte whispered, "I think we're both stuck in the middle of something neither of us wants, but we're stuck together, regardless."

She shrugged, allowing Valencia time to read then.

[Valencia Donahue]

Valencia glanced at the clock to see that lunch was still a short while away, meaning she still has to endure a couple more minutes until she fully got the cover she needed to converse a lot more freely. Her light fingers absently landed upon the sheet of paper Charlotte wrote upon, making slow, natural movements that would be harder to detect in the stillness of the sluggish class as opposed to more sudden movements. After all, Valencia was more likely to sense something move quickly than someone creeping up on her, so she assumed that most people were the same way. But in the end, there’s a time and place for everything, so her method of remaining out of sight in comparison to Charlotte’s is simply more preferred in this scenario and isn’t to say that Charlotte is an amateur… At least, Valencia hoped so.

Her steel-gray eyes scanned the piece of paper and her mental processes went to work again. “Buddy”, dead weight, or someone to keep an eye on this wild anomaly. Apparently, Charlotte too have been blackmailed, and got the message that Valencia didn’t expect to get a “partner” of any sort. She exhaled when she finished reading the note. By the way Charlotte crossed things out, that meant that she was either overthinking or thought faster than her hand could write. If the first, that in turn would mean that she wasn’t giving the whole story. Okay, that was fine, but when it comes right down to it… Charlotte’s ability to conceal was unintentionally selective. In the long run, if Valencia’s gonna work with someone who has loose lips, she might as well save herself than drown on the ship it’s sinking.

One step at a time. A lot of people were at that riot and if all of them got blackmailed, then… Well, apparently, Charlotte’s getting special treatment of some sort. Meaning, after some time, I’ll find out about the details behind it. After all, it’s a bit unfair that she got the records on me when I have nil. Oh well. Handicap.

Valencia paused as the monotonous student switched off reading the passage with another student. This student, being less adept at speaking English in general, read with more difficulty, mispronouncing words and reading more slowly. The Vietnamese senior had to be careful. The random pauses to sound out the words would clearly blow their cover should either of them be caught talking during a lull. Valencia took a glimpse at the passage and guessed at the words the student would have trouble reading, then gauged how much time in between for each brief string of words.

Careful now… Not everything goes according to plan…

Valencia then spoke, not even turning her head to the person she’s conversing with.

“I will ask you two things—”

She stopped, waiting for the student to complete reading the word.

“—I’d like to know how you plan on going about this ‘blackmail’ business…"

Valencia stopped once more and had to wait a full minute this time around because the teacher had to help the student too.

“Secondly, what you would’ve done if I was not the person you’ve been expecting.”

Another pause.

“If I wasn’t Valencia Donahue.”

[charlotte]

Charlotte took a careful note of Valencia's careful, elegantly slow movements as she glaced over the note.

Sitting back in her chair, her ears perked at the sound of the reading being switched to another student - this time one who was not a particularly stellar reader, often struggling with words and leaving painful gaps.

Through the corner of her eye she watched Valencia, almost seeing the wheels churning about in the stream of furious, but was was almost certainly careful, thought. After a time - one filled with painful reading and stuggled gaps with mispronounced words, she heard Valencia speak again. She listened with her head turned towards her book, using her pereferal vision to watch her 'partner', noting, with a small measure of pride and pleasure, that Valencia likewise did not look at her.

Apparantly we have developed some sort of brainwave together ... oooooor we just have the same ideas towards keeping 'under the radar'. Charlotte remarked duly to herself.

“I will ask you two things—”

Pause.

“—I’d like to know how you plan on going about this ‘blackmail’ business…"

Pause.


... pause ... Charlotte observed that careful expertise with which Valencia timed her speech: picking the exact moments when the reader would stumble across a difficult word and sound it out, to say something.

"... or else shall he suffer not thinking on ... with the ... hobby-horse, whose ep ... epi-eh ... eh ... epitip ... "

Epitaph, Charlotte corrected mentally. It's epitaph-

She snapped her focus back to Valencia, though still appearing to be completely engrossed in her book as the teacher made to help the student with the word.

“Secondly, what you would’ve done if I was not the person you’ve been expecting.”

There came another pause, and Charlotte bit her lip, knowing almost instictively what Valencia was going to say next, if only the infernal pauses could stop, and the coversation recommence with greater ease. There was a strange, tugging apprehension at the wait, her mind willing Valencia to jsut say what she already guessed the senior would say.

“If I wasn’t Valencia Donahue.”


Charlotte exhaled a minute breath, eyes fixed upon her page, waiting for the next pause to end before she responded, wanting to take her time, to collect her thoughts more cohesively.

"Well, if that were the case,"

Pause.

"I'd call you a bloody liar."

Charlotte paused again, though the student had found and easier passage and was not struggling heavily with any of the words.

"But for the sake-"

Pause.

"-of a hypothetical situation, if such were the case, I would tell you to forget we ever had this conversation or -"

Pause.

"-I'd find you later, spray you with water and toss some lye on you I stole from the chem lab."

She paused again, waiting again to properly organize her answer for the first question, and being forced to wait nearly a minute longer as the student struggled with yet another word.

"As for my plans on going about this blackmail business, well ..."

Pause. She shot Valencia a sidelong glance before turning her gaze back to the book, eyeing the blonde senior with her peripheral vision, brushing back a strand of her dark brown bangs, inconspicuoulsy affording a better view of Valencia through the corners of her eyes. It was times like this that she was glad she had decided not to wear her glasses, which would only provide a blindspot from her angle. She didn't really need glasses for reading, or much else for that matter, though she wore them at certain times nonetheless.

"... I think I may just follow your advice and wait until I find out if you really are Valencia Donahue before affording a certain level of -"

Pause.

"... discretion with you."

Charlotte allowed her last words to sink in, affording an extra emphasis and stress on certain parts, her tone set to make sure that she remained obviously steadfast in the knowledge that the blonde senior beside her really was Valencia Donahue, whilst indication less-than-subtley that she was not about to reveal everything at once.

[shabazz]

(OOC: If you don't mind I'd like to join in on this post. I hope I don't interrupt the seemingly intense storyline too much )

IC:

"One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death."


Ah, the ever-so-annoying old lingo that is, "The Shakespeare." Sadat read several Shakespeare books, simply to increase his vocabulary, but has grown have a bitter-sweet taste to this type of writing.

The words flow together like jumbled amateur poetry. It's disgusting yet poetic.


"I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle. If his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note."

Jeez, I don't even know what that is suppose to mean.

A dull look sat across Sadat's face as he leaned on his elbows and read along with the class, hoping that something, just something could liven up his unusually boring English class.

*Sighs*

And like a blessing from Allah himself, an interesting conversation from in front of him came dancing around just enough so that he can eavesdrop on school politics. Sadat leaned on his desk, inching his head a bit foward just in hearing range so he can eavesdrop attentively, his book standing upright opened so it looks like he's reading along...

"Valencia Donahue I presume?"

Valencia, hmm... sounds familiar. That name has been floating around recently. Sadat thought to himself has he continued to eavesdrop.

Sadat's eye's peered over his book and glared at both girl's, blatently attractive.

I wonder where this conversation will lead to.

He thought to himself as the dreadful voice of the clearly uninterested student scratched his ear drums like nails on a chalkboard.

"For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming."

If only that voice would shut then I wouldn't have to focus so hard to listen.

Sadat's ears wiggled as he leaned forward more trying to get a better listen to this conversation, his desk making a skid sound as he did so.

---Silence---

Sheets of concealed paper was passed and the one who we will refer too as, " Valencia" began to look through them. She then took her calculator and immediately Sadat recognized this gossip technique. He had seen it in a familiar coming-to-age novel.

The ol' scientific calculator typing trick eh?

Sadat thought to himself as he rose from his seat a bit to get a better view of calculator text, although it was to no avail. It was obvious that his vision wasn't nearly as good as it needed to be to see the bland font on the dim calculator.

*sighs yet again*

It seem that the eavesdropping would end for now, and the presumingly spark in Sadat's English class subsided as he subsided into his seat once again.

*long pause besides the monotonous reading*

[!!!]

The whispers from the one we will refer to as Valencia girl made Sadat's eye's jolt up in excitement. He leaned forward and eavesdropped once more.


“What’s it to you.”



"Frankly," The black haired girl whispered, "I think we're both stuck in the middle of something neither of us wants, but we're stuck together, regardless."


Sadat listened quietly making little notes to himself here and there during this conversation.

Well she isn't the most social one.

*Pause in thoughts*

"Blackmail's a tricky thing," "It's hard to get out of on your own. Interestingly enough, it seems we're both in the same boat."

Blackmail. And to think the Corporal Punish Act wasn't peculiar enough...


"Frankly," "I think we're both stuck in the middle of something neither of us wants, but we're stuck together, regardless."

It definitely seems so...

*Pause in thoughts*

The one we will refer to as Valencia began to respond:

“I will ask you two things—”

“—I’d like to know how you plan on going about this ‘blackmail’ business…"

I'd like to know that as well

Sadat thought to himself as if he was in the conversation.

“Secondly, what you would’ve done if I was not the person you’ve been expecting.”“If I wasn’t Valencia Donahue.”



Tch. too bad you actually are Valencia Donahue

Hey, being the quiet black islamic kid definitely does have its advantages. Especially in these kinds of situations.

"... or else shall he suffer not thinking on ... with the ... hobby-horse, whose ep ... epi-eh ... eh ... epitip ... "


"Um, it's Epitaph." Sadat said aloud, drawing unwilling attention toward himself as the class shifted heads to see who was the smart ass correcting the student.

Sadat looked at everyone and simply shrugged, "What?"

"Ahem Epitaph---

Hmph, as if correcting the idiot disturbed the very balance of this already chaotic school. Sadat thought to himself with an annoyed attitude.

He drew his attention toward the juicy conversation that was just about to unfold.


“Secondly, what you would’ve done if I was not the person you’ve been expecting.”



"Well, if that were the case,"Pause.

"I'd call you a bloody liar."

Charlotte paused again, though the student had found and easier passage and was not struggling heavily with any of the words.

"But for the sake-"

Pause.

"-of a hypothetical situation, if such were the case, I would tell you to forget we ever had this conversation or -"

Pause.

"-I'd find you later, spray you with water and toss some lye on you I stole from the chem lab."

She paused again, waiting again to properly organize her answer for the first question, and being forced to wait nearly a minute longer as the student struggled with yet another word.

"As for my plans on going about this blackmail business, well ..."




"... I think I may just follow your advice and wait until I find out if you really are Valencia Donahue before affording a certain level of

-Pause.

"... discretion with you."



The temptation to interject in this conversation was beginning to take it's affect, but soon subsided realizing that it wasn't his place to interrupt the conversation. And so, Sadat leaned forward once more and was awaiting the one we will refer to as Valencia's response to this bitter-sweet conversation.

How reminiscent of this dull ass Shakespeare

[Valencia Donahue]

Hmph… Was I misunderstood?

That was a possibility due to Valencia’s tendency to select ambiguous words and weird sentence structure. It was a bad habit and although it was a safety net to prevent accidentally saying more than what’s needed, it can get mighty inconvenient when you’re saying one thing and the person you’re talking to thinks it’s the other. Oh well. The best part of all is that by not talking “in a mold”, you force people to talk on their own and off their own understanding of what they just heard instead of using what’s asked as a crutch. To this day, it was one of Valencia’s more effective methods of finding out who’s a good or bad liar without relying on other cues. Anyways, what Valencia asked was not to say that she wasn’t whom Charlotte was seeking, nor to say it was a fake-out of any sort. Simply… If Charlotte slipped up and accidentally gave the folder with confidential information to a random student.

So. If I was a random student and she accidentally gave my folder to the said student, she’d either try to fake it out… Or draw even more, unnecessary attention to quiet, under-the-table matters by resorting to violence, should the person in question be knowledgeable enough to continue pursuing the subject.

Well, that’s her interpretation at least. Valencia will just have to assume that Charlotte is good at fooling people when considering the first scenario… As for the secondary scenario…

Inconsistency. I figured as much… She’s unintentionally selective in the information she gives. Or, she doesn’t seem to be aware that her confidence is sporadic. Something like that, anyways. If she already knows who I am, enough to call me a liar, she wouldn’t need to “make sure” if I’m the one she’s looking for. Because of that, she’s trying to be a bit more careful. Logical I guess. To each their own. I can learn a lot from this…

If Valencia had ears like an animal, they would’ve perked up a few times by now. But, since her sensory awareness was more like a machine’s, you can say that the stirrings in the desk some ways away from her… Emitted too many waves. Insert “frequency” somewhere into the equation while you’re at it. The sound of creaking metal as someone’s leaning forward. The noise was unusual during the stop-‘n’-go hum of the student trying to read aloud (and the quiet murmurings), so naturally, Valencia finally got the message that someone was eavesdropping because the sounds persisted. On top of that, when Sadat corrected the student reading… She marked him.

Working example. In the event that an outside individual comes to know of the circumstances, how will it be dealt with? Once things are “too late”, what do you do? It depends. Will the information in the hands of the person, should the person be persistent in getting more answers, in question hurt you? …Or help you? Immediately resorting to violence makes it difficult to acquire possible allies--

Hey. Valencia. Yes, the narrator and the audience here seem to believe that the intellectual monologue-ing is very insightful indeed, but it’ll do little good if no one can make use of it… Since it’s mostly in the head and all. Her eyes of gray looked at the clock. It was almost lunch and the end of this gawd-foresaken period. She turned her head towards Gladys, who was intently watching casually off to the side. The lesbian sensed that Valencia wasn’t feeling “free”, judging by how she’s been trying to scope out her environment moments ago, and got the message on the dot.

3… 2… 1…

The bell didn’t ring.

--0.5…

And it rang. Valencia didn’t say a single word. She just began packing. The thing is… Nonverbal communication. How sharp were these two fellows…? How long will it take for them until they give up on trying to figure this lady out…? And more importantly, what are they going to do?

[charlotte]

(OOC: Terribly sorry for the lateness - a sudden wave of mideterm assignments had me swamped this week)



The bell rang. Students stood.


Like clockwork, the class ended, people shuffling from their seats, collecting thier books, spilling out into the halls. It was a strange thing, that the bell should hold so much power over students - like a hypnotic signal, triggering subconscious reponses, so powerful to the point that the reactions were barelt registered as such.

Ring.

Stand.

Ring.

Stand.

No matter the situation, whenever a bell rang, standing occured as naturally as breathing or chewing.

The bell rang, so Charlotte, like a part of bristling and varying wave of teenagers, stood.

She shot a glance at Valencia , who had begun packing, but didn't bother to venture a glance at the student who had been trying to listen in on thier conversation. Her ears had perked up several times during the conversation, though she hadn't been quite able to discern where the student had been until he had finally spoken out to correct an error by the reader. As such, Charlotte had made no indications that she had even detected the listener, her body language, tone, and volume in conversing with Valencia remaining entirely the same throughout.

Sliding her books into a neat pile with a single hand movement she retreived her slim glasses case from her pocket, unclasping it and putting the dark rimmed eyewear on, flicking her hair back to clear her bangs from her face as she did so.

Charlotte tucked her books under her arm, stepping to a comfortable length to the left of, and ever-so-slightly behind Valencia, her motions indicating that she was going to follow the blonde senior.

There was much more to talk about, after all.

[Valencia Donahue]

((OOC: Now it’s my turn to ask to be pardoned. Spring Break is ending for me, so I might not be extremely active and testing is right around the corner.))

Out the door Valencia went, generally after most of the class was out of the room. She was very thorough when it came to making sure that all her belongings were intact and she wasn’t fond of being pushed by random people trying to get out. Although people may perceive her as a slowpoke because of this, she preferred to be called a slowpoke in comparison to someone who’s careless. Following after her was Charlotte and mostly out of the way was Gladys, fixing her glasses as she kept a steady pace from afar. Should there be an intruder that ventured too deep into Valencia’s affairs, Gladys would be ready to stall long enough for her friend to find an escape of sorts.

Valencia held her belongings close to herself, letting her hair cover some parts of her face, not pausing for a moment to brush it away. When she made it to her locker, she opened it quickly compared to most, then put her things away as neatly as she could. She pulled out her lunch bag, then began to walk briskly down the rest of the hall as if it was another routine day. If Charlotte knew what was good for her, she’d have to keep up the act and be natural as well, in heading to her locker and whatnot while still keeping up with the Vietnamese senior. After a good deal of walking, they would arrive upon a grassy knoll on the school grounds, complete with a shady tree. This event called for a more private setting instead of some place in the cafeteria. As nice as it would to be in a place where the volume was too loud to hear anything meaningful, don’t be surprised to know that Valencia didn’t want to take any chances and frankly… Didn’t want to be associated too much with Charlotte for the time being.

If anyone tries to eavesdrop around here, I should be very able to detect the intruder…

Once Charlotte was ready, she would begin.

“Like I said, I’d like to know how you plan on going about this ‘blackmail’ business… Or at the very least, your thoughts on the subject in general in relation to you.”

Valencia didn’t know how Charlotte got blackmailed. However, one thing for sure was that she herself was blackmailed against her will and was definitely not a happy camper. Not in the slightest.

[charlotte]

Following Valencia at a comfortable distance was an easy task, Charlotte found ... at least, for a time.

As the blonde haired senior reached her locker, Charlotte immediately quickened her pace, moving past Valencia, further along and across the hall to her own, locker, scrambling to open it whilst throwing occasional glances the senior's way. The hall was so densly packed she did little to disguise her watchful intent; any prying eyes would be hard pressed to follow her motions in the dense crowd.

She slid her books into the upright metal space, swiftly snagging her lunch: a turkey and lettuce sandwich wrapped in plastic wrap and a green apple. Making a quick scan of the bustling hall, her gaze caught the back of Valencia's head and she moved into step behind the senior, following her at a casual pace. Valencia took her outside the school, and out onto the grounds; up a grassy knoll, overhung by a well endowed tree.

Leaning her back against the tree and biting into the apple thoughtfully, Charlotte listened to Valencia's words with care.

“Like I said, I’d like to know how you plan on going about this ‘blackmail’ business… Or at the very least, your thoughts on the subject in general in relation to you.”


Charlotte shrugged, finishing her mouthfull. Then, hands crossed over her chest, leaning against the tree, the apple held loosely in her hand, she replied:

"To be honest, I'm not sure we're quite comfortable enough around each other for either of us to be revealing our 'plans' for the whole blackmail dealie ..." she paused.

"In fact, I have the suspicion that neither of is too pleased about it, and will jump at the best chance to get out of the sticky mess. Which is exactly why it isn't best to talk about such things just yet. Security.

"We're supposed to be working together, doing whatever the Principal or pillars need us to do, but we could be potential liabilties ... especially if somewhere, somehow, word finds its way out that we're working to screwball the system into releasing its hold on us."


Another pause. Long speeches had a calming effect on Charlotte, but that didn't change the fact that she needed a breath once and a while.

"Furthermore, what if our agendas or plans conflict in some way? However, we ARE in this together, it seems, like it or not. The only question would be how can we help each other with whatever goals we hope to accomplish, given the situation?"

She stopped, uncrossing her arms and taking another modest bite of the apple, pushing up her glasses with her free hand, eyes fixed on Valencia, though her peripheral vision scanned the nearby surroundings, her ears peeled for possible eavesdroppers.

[Valencia Donahue]

Funurghbah.

When Charlotte began to talk, Valencia began to eat her lunch, mentally spewing her colorful word after hearing what the other student had to say. She consumed her tomato soup emitting as little sound as possible, finding what her “partner” said a bit inconsistent… And this is coming from someone who is consistently inconsistent, mind you. Charlotte was unwilling to tell about her thoughts, yet wanted to know what Valencia’s plans were in relation to the grand scheme of things. In other words, there was no way to know how their plans could be helped or hurt if neither party put their cards on the table to begin with. Valencia’s all too aware that she’s stuck with this person whether she liked it or not and didn’t need it to be told to her incessantly, so she’s already testing out the limits of Charlotte’s ability… Y’know, to know what she’s dealing with. Thus far, she isn’t seeing anything too impressive. She’ll give the junior credit for keeping up, but that’s it. In terms of communication, it should be fairly obvious that Valencia isn’t entirely pleased…

There’s a reason why I’m not telling Charlotte her weaknesses now. One big thing people tend to do is reveal the fallacies of their opponents’ statements, leading to a series of bad outcomes. The opponent may try to “defend”, screwing up information gathering if their defenses are effective… The only time when revealing flaws in statements can be considered effective is when the speaker is aware that the what’s going to be said will influence the person the “right” way…

…And we’ll leave it at that, folks. After all, Valencia went through a couple reboots when she was in MacMillan’s office, so of course she went through a ton of these mental processes already. No use repeating what already has been figured by the person conversing with her. By this time, she was halfway done with her soup, courtesy of her appetite.

“ My orders were to do what the Pillars and the principal asks of me. So far, I’ve received no such orders, so I’m led to presume that they currently have little use for me or do not require my assistance to begin with.”

Duh.

“Since you’ve told me nothing, I can’t guarantee that the scenario is the same for you. In case you didn’t figure it out, the principal is taking a risk or rather… The odds must be mostly to his favor and he doesn’t give a darn.”

She took several gulps of her drink to wash down the soup and clear out whatever else that may have gathered up.

“Instead of freaking out about what will or might happen, I’d rather know what the hell you’re going to do when it happens. In short, I say bring on whatever may come up. I’d rather think about that instead of thinking myself as a ‘liability’.”

Besides, I hate that feeling. Every fear can be conquered… Every obstacle can… Nothing is impossible.

“For instance, should there be an eavesdropper nearby, I know what I’m going to do, but what about you?”

Here, Valencia resumed devouring her soup, finishing whatever’s left. The Asian’s eyes glimmered with thought and never once landed on Charlotte. The entire time, it was almost like she spoke 15% to herself and the other 85% to the junior, which could only be detected by the inflections in her voice instead of whatever her austere expression may show.

[charlotte]

(OOC: Soooo, sooo sorry!)




"Of course I know exactly what I would do," Charlotte countered cooly, but with a hint of defensive anger beyond it. Of course it was her instinct to be defensive, but in her mind, she forced herself to remember that she was trying to be at least moderately sociable, and make an effort to get along with Valencia. But then, it did also occur to her that neither her nor the blonde senior were the most sociable in the student body; not by a long shot. It didn't hurt to try, however.


She sighed deeply and openly, taking a wandering glance at her bitten apple. She needed the sigh to clear her fragemented and swirling thought processes, no longer caring if Valencia saw her internal struggle.


"I guess you can see I haven't been at this long, huh?" she asked Valencia quietly. A sign of weakness, maybe. But Valencia was right. About a lot of things. Thusly, Charlotte decided to tell her so.

"Anyway, you're right. They haven't been paying us much attention, but that still leaves the blackmail hanging over our heads. I've kept this off for a long time, mostly from myself because I really wasn't sure, but this is what I'm planning to do about it:

"Stern Mason, Kvist, The Pillarship, Leon Loire."

She left the list of names and groups hanging for a moment, twisting the apple about in her hand, taking an occasional, but fleeting glance at it while the wind shook the upper branches of the oak gently.

"Kvist is on the decline, from what I hear, with very few loyal supporters, and even fewer recognition amongst the student body. Leon Loire and his allies, however, have been growing massively in support, and I believe they plan to take care of Kvist themselves.

"The Pillarship, as Loire gains support, they loose more. And Stern, though his group is small, is gaining more and more recognition as well. So, obviously, the pillars and administration are going to have far larger and better things to worry about you and me.

"I support the pillars. I support Leon." She shrugged, speaking her next words slowly and with a slight air of what could certainly be construed as vulnerability. "I've been doing a lot of flip-flopping lately."

Charlotte took a minute, nigh ponderous bite of her apple, brushing her bangs back as she chewed the morsel, swallowing lightly after a moment.

"If the administration isn't paying us much attention, I intend to keep it that way for as long as possible. Right now, I can do quite a few of my ... extracurricular activities, while they sit on my record, and if all I have to do is some "community service" in compensation for it, then I can live with that.

"I'm going to use the situation to my advantage: using the blackmail as a buffer, like I said, so my actions against Stern Mason, if they happen to be also against or outside the system's laws, any penalty will be exchanged for my 'services'.

"And then comes my fallback option. If MacMillan screws me over, or doesn't erase my record, as he clearly didn't do with yours, from the look on your face earlier and from the copy he gave me, then I have a plan for them to be erased without his consent."

She shrugged, finishing her outline, but intentionally leaving several of the most important details out, some of which she was certain Valencia would figure out on her own, or would eventually ask about. So, with that, Charlotte took another bite of her apple, chewing away as she waited.

[Valencia Donahue]

Valencia’s gaze wandered nowhere except to odd things that may have caught her eye like a ladybug landing on a dandelion or someone shooting an empty can into a trash bin like a basketball in the distance. In spite of her eyes drifting where they felt like drifting, her attention was still on Charlotte’s voice as she finally provided her end on things. She listened to every falter that snuck into the junior’s voice and regarded them with some respect.

“There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

…Valencia replied, remembering a random quote from who knows where when Charlotte admitted her inexperience. In a sense, what she meant to say was that if she (Valencia) was going to work with someone who didn’t have the right flexibility to think beyond their own capabilities and a sturdy enough resolve to know some things will be difficult to surmount at default, she might as well continue “working” on her own. She didn’t want to work with someone who already met his or her limit (or thinks so) and doesn’t have the right “build” to keep advancing. Valencia won’t have any of that cocky attitude founded by arrogance and overconfidence in one’s own ability. She learned on her own that humility is one of the first steps to learning from anything and everything.

For instance, badmouthing a teacher because he or she is a “prick”, “slave driver”, “mean”, the rest of the works… Shows that the student lacks the discipline to humble him or herself and understand their own potential and shortcomings. Having a “nice teacher” for the majority of one’s life won’t work. It’s hard to put into words, especially since Valencia doesn’t mean to say that people should get rid of their backbones, but maybe they’ll come out some day. Ehh… Just treat everyone with respect? Something like that, huh?

“Okay… My thoughts. You gauged those names correctly… And the thing I should let you know is that everything here works relatively off of the same thing.”

Let’s see…

“At the bottom of the ladder is Kvist. I haven’t met him personally to properly measure his character, but I have a good feeling that putting him at the bottom of the ladder is appropriate because of a couple things. He lacks any sort of foothold here, I don’t see his ‘influence’, and instead of expanding, he’s probably scrambling around, trying to keep whatever he has left in his grasp. My guess of course. I need to check up with my friends on that. What advantages he has have a very low chance of helping him if he doesn’t fix his current problems.”

The Vietnamese closed her eyes, thinking a few things over to check if what’s going to be said will make sense. Not talking often has its side-effects of seeming incomprehensible when talking is done.

“I have to admittedly say that the Pillars are the second to the bottom. They still have the school, but they’re losing it. I can’t… Quite put it into words, but one thing I can say that will actually do them some good is that they give their image a facelift, since practically everyone against them is slandering it. I believe a Varron transfer became a Pillar as well, correct? He’s one of the keys to giving them a higher chance at ‘victory’ because of his understanding of what they’re ‘up against’ and… He’s not established as a bad thing just yet. I will emphasize now that both the Pillars and Kvist have this in common: They’re falling off the radar. I’ll get back to this later.”

It feels so weird to talk sometimes.

“Next up is Leon Loire’s faction-thing. Unfortunately, I mentally dubbed him Sir Squawk-a-lot because I believe it’s a title adequately given. As a speaker, he’s effective and as a result, he’s garnering lots of followers. Good influence. The only problem lies in that very thing… Actions speak louder than words. If you remember how Hitler conquered Europe, other countries kept telling him to stop, but Hitler saw them as ‘all talk’ and kept going. If Leon doesn’t know how to mobilize quickly, he’s screwed. He’s focusing his attention on the ‘wrong target’… Kvist isn’t acting, at least from what I see. What Leon needs to concentrate on are either the Pillars, should the Pillars muster up the right sort of stuff… Or, the top of the ladder in my eyes.”

Valencia sighed and opened her eyes, letting a breeze toss some hair over her view.

“Stern. When I went to one of his meetings, the whole ‘Satyagraha’ idea thing linked him to Gandhi with the nonviolence… That was unusual since his aura says otherwise. However, as this conflict of sorts continues, this isn’t something to associate to Gandhi, but rather more to Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. His influence is growing, it’s expanding, and I don’t think he’s taking on several fronts all at once since the other fronts aren’t actually doing anything. I sense one goal and a firm resolve. His expansion… Comes from garnering attention. Birmingham… Selma… Crack open the history books, you’ll find that King succeeded whenever he got attention.”

The Asian paused, wondering if she got her thoughts out right. Now that Valencia gave it some consideration, she never had a chance to get these thoughts out of her system, save for perhaps Ruth and Gladys, but… Holding things in means that it has to come out eventually. They might come out garbled, but better late than never?

“I think I got a gist of it… I need to get out more. Speaking of which, where we stand in the grand scheme of things. From what I can judge of you, or at least from what I can interpret, I have a feeling that the prime way for you to hold any sort of political status in this… This hooplah… Is for you to branch out. I think you’ve got yourself a good head start already, by the way you carry yourself. Don’t just meet the leaders of all sides to know who they are and to let them know who you are; be sure to meet all sorts of people because you never know when someone will be useful.”

She paused…

“In my case, I believe I work best unseen, unnoticed, and out of sight.”

Too many leeches… The last thing I want is to get TOO involved with what I’m interested in and have more junk to deal with.

“Unfortunately, it’s extremely complicated to do so since… I’ve been ‘unlucky’ as of late and being unnoticed sometimes keeps me from getting the information and resources I need. Ehnn… Where am I in the middle of all this… I’m nowhere. I’m still checking out my options, but in the end, I’ll probably ‘be helpful’ to whomever I see that benefits me, preferably the most, in some sort of way… I’m at my best when I help people realize that they’re capable of their own accomplishments. I’m not one to follow or let people lead me when I know for a fact that I can do something on my own.”

That sounded weird.

“In general, we’re both practically on no one’s radar. At best, we’re potentials. If no one takes up the potentials, they’ll lose ‘em to someone else who will know how valuable they may be. MacMillan acknowledges us as potentials. That’s supposed to be a scary prospect. Supposed to be. Kvist? Kvist who? Phah. He’s nowhere. Leon doesn’t know I exist ‘cept for maybe our first couple-minutes-long meeting in the halls. Stern… Well, he doesn’t give a damn about me and that’s fine with me until he regrets it in the future or something.”

She paused again. Valencia sighed quietly…

“In a nutshell, we do have a good chance of being a part of the tide that wins the ‘war’ once we actually pick a side. As long as we’re benched, we can’t win any games. I do apologize for wasting any of your time by any unnecessary diction, but I just felt like getting rid of some steam.”

Valencia, did you even MENTION anything about your blackmail issues!?

“I think I spoke more than my fair share. Take what you will.”

The narrator wants to pummel the character.

“Then… I think I have something that’ll help you in the long run.”

((OOC: Studying and procrastinating does weird things to the brain.))

[charlotte]

Charlotte nodded, not taking a bite of her half-finished -

(yes, yes ... pessimism ... I know)

- apple as she listened intently to every word that flowed from Valencia's mouth. She found herself surpressing a giggle at the senior's nickname of Leon, "Sir Squak-a-lot", though the humor quickly passed as Valencia moved on to far more serious matters.


Stern Mason ... Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr

Leon Loire: Will you be ready for action when the time comes?

Kvist is falling off the radar.

And so are the pillars.


It seemed obvious that Valencia knew what she was doing, or at least, had a plan and probably several backups. However, the thing that bothered Charlotte was the blonde haired senior's lack of a difinitive loyalty.

"... We do have a good chance of being a part of the tide that wins the ‘war’ once we actually pick a side."

The statement rang clear in her head. That, unfortunately, was where Valencia and Charlotte differed. Of course the Junior had fallbacks and backup plans, but she had already chosen her side. All that remained was seeing it through to the end and doing whatever it took to make certain her choice was the right one, and that she had not misplaced her trust.

It was then that Charlotte decided to take a large bite of the apple, chewing the mouthful with an almost dramatic flare before swallowing.

"... Kvist ... doesn't know I exist. Leon Loire, however, does. Where I stand with MacMillan is exactly how you put it. Stern ... he and I ... well, long story short, we're at odds, though nothing large ... yet. I'm making an effort to stay "under the radar", as you put it, from him for the time being."

(Out with it then.)

"I suppose that's the thing about being under the radar. I've already picked my team. But no one but me really needs to know which team that is yet.

"Yes, I have backup plans. Yes, nothing is really set in stone. But I'm going to make damn sure the side I've chosen is the winning side."

She paused, nearly wincing inside as she heard her words leave her mouth. Mentally, however, she reminded herself of the importance of being truthful to someone like Valencia, especially considering thier mutual situation.

"And no, I don't think you really have wasted my time."

She sighed again, taking a final thoughtful bite of the apple before lightly tossing the core behind her, trusting in nature's decomposition cycle to do all the cleaning up. She unwrapped her sandwich slowly - and nigh ponderously - bundling the spent plastic wrap in a tight ball with her left hand, consciously slipping the waste into her pocket so as not to litter.

"... You said you had something that might help me in the long run?"

[Valencia Donahue]

“Well, if you already found yourself a side of sorts, be careful with it. At least few to no one knows which one you’re on, as you’ve said so yourself, the thing people ought to worry about in terms of side choosing is this…”

Valencia pondered a moment and tilted her head upwards into the swaying boughs of the oak tree they were sitting under. For a split-second, she began to subconsciously gauge the difficulty of climbing this tree, but it was only a random passing thought that wasn’t to relevant to the conversation at hand, so she tucked it away for later. Y’know, in the event that it could come in handy.

“You have yourself two corrals. One is for the sheep to have its wool sheered, the other one is for the sheep that’ll become mutton by being shot up like fish in a barrel. It doesn’t matter how those sheep get into those corrals, either by free will, accident, or even by being herded or chased into one by some mean dog… In the end, whoever feels like taking charge will know where everyone is and will know what to do to them. Slaughterhouse or sanctuary. Meanwhile, whatever sheep, goat, cow, or anything else that’s still roaming or causing heck outside of the corrals? They have the ability to still see everything from outside in, instead of the other way around like all the others, and will have the right state of mind to think straight… That is, if the person who took charge doesn’t do something about those free folks still about.”

What an extended metaphor we have there, huh? But it explained a good chunk why Valencia decided to be the black sheep and outside of the main mayhem. She wanted to keep her views open and untainted by too many opinions so she’ll be able to think for herself about what ought to be done, who’s doing what, and so on, so forth. The problem with this is that if everyone leaves her out in the open, she’ll lose her cover pretty darned quickly and so long, sayonara to hiding out of sight. And didn't she say earlier that whatever side they choose will determine the outcome of the conflict? What she said here in conjunction to what she said earlier may sound funny because of how inconsistent it may be, but remember, somehow... Some way... It connects.

“Considering our circumstances, if Stern is playing his cards like an ace, he’s probably the one taking charge, though I have yet to see the ‘herders and dogs’ to be absolutely, positively sure.”

Are my speech problems kicking in yet? Mreh.

“Back to your case… No one ‘cept for those you can figure are aware that of what side you’re on, right? After what I’ve said, that sounds good for now and your guts to come out on top sure shows something. Just remember that closed minds cause problems. Heck, if someone is capable of joining every side unscathed to understand every faction, I recommend that person to step outside once in a while to see things from another angle.”

Valencia and her darned manner of speech.

“So of all people you’ve come into considerable contact with, you’ve met and got to know Leon and Stern. Nifty way of going about it, but what do I know. Leon seems like a fella who… If you KNOW him, like as a person aside from a plain identity, then you might be friends with him or something. As for Stern, if you’re trying to lay low after already getting somehow in his way… I have a weird feeling that he won’t let you off the radar for some time if he knows how to spot potential dangers of any sort.”

It’s not as though what Valencia said means that Charlotte was screwed. It just meant that things may get a bit tricky if Charlotte doesn’t know how to handle herself. Ah well. She should be able to if she thinks fast enough. To sum everything up, since Charlotte got a side-sorta, the idea is to keep an open mind no matter what so adaptation will be easier should the need arise.

“As for what may help you in the long run, I should let you know that what I’m going to give you depends on what could be done with it. For instance, my li’l ‘network’ of attaining information? Mostly rumors from lots of secondary, tertiary, and such sources. Meaning, my information about your relationship with one of the Pillars may be false. On top of that, how do you learn? By example? Study? Situation? Experience? How fast can you learn, if you could measure it?”

[charlotte]

"Interesting metaphor," Charlotte said simply, then took a modest bite of her sandwich, chewing ponderously, glancing straight ahead at nothing much in particular.

She allowed the breeze to fill her silence as she chewed, taking another bite as she finished her other. Again, she chewed at an almost agonizingly thoughtful pace; an eating habit she had always seemed to posess - slow and careful chews the entire way. Then, after what had been most certainly several minutes of silence - save for the quiet rustle of the leaves overhead and the occasional noise from nearer the school - Charlotte finally spoke again.

"I think we talk to the same people," she said simply, clearly alluding to the similarities between Valencia's said method of obtaining information and her own: an essentially identical method.

"As for how I learn? Experience, study, example, situation? I guess, truth be told, it's a mix of all four, really. As for how fast ..." Charlotte pondered that for a moment before continuing on. "Well, that's relative. But if I could measure it myself, I would say very fast under most circumstances."



Cue another bite of the sandwich, followed by much slow chewing and a shift in the Junior's gaze to regard Valencia directly.

[Valencia Donahue]

Ehh… It wouldn’t have hurt for you to confirm that my information in regards to your relationship with Tiao, but whatever suits your fancy.

“Huh. I have a feeling that you don’t know squat about combat, so I suggest you prepare yourself for ambushes because that’s going to be the only warning I’ll give you until something happens. Do try to establish your identity as something besides ‘Tiao’s girlfriend’ unless you don’t mind freaks bugging you all the time.”

I think I’m missing something, but oh well.

The Vietnamese lady reached into her belongings, rummaging about until she got a pen and a small sheet of paper. Valencia then began to stab and poke at the sheet, tossing in a line or two for good measure. It was almost as though she did it randomly because of the lack of attention given. Some of the dots resembled holes and if Charlotte noticed it, Valencia didn’t even look at her handiwork before folding it up neatly… It was probably the only neat thing she did that had anything to do with the message she handed to her. The message would look like so:

…_.’_.’._:’.~…_.’._’._.:._.’

“If you can decode this in a week, I can trust you in being part of my strange, ‘only for oddballs’ network. If you can’t, well… You can’t and it’s best that you still try to figure it out fast since it won’t do if some simple code takes more than two days to solve. The faster you know how to decode and interpret things, the better.”

Valencia then got up and surveyed her surroundings one last time, then tilted her head in the directions of Charlotte, speaking clearly without so much as making eye contact with her.

“I already gave you more than enough clues. Hop to it. And if I find out for a second that you leaked somehow, no matter what, even if that code is generally difficult to decipher… I can no longer trust you with any sort of intel that could’ve been conferred to you..”

With that, she walked away as though it was another day at Hircine High and also with a presence that suggested that they might not meet again. This wasn’t just a symbol of who established the pecking order or a sign of superiority or what have you. In some wars, it’s highly discouraged for soldiers to salute or formally greet their superiors because their enemies may mark said superiors and knock them out, causing the soldiers to possibly get disorganized. This occasion was fairly similar, despite how “late” it is 'cause Charlotte looked at Valencia one too many times during the meeting when the Asian tried to make it clear that they "weren't related" when they passed through the halls. Valencia’s gut told her from the beginning that Charlotte’s ability to conceal was selective, so it’s best that she didn’t get too attached to the FNG that may potentially screw her over until she knows for sure that Charlotte could be trusted fully. She preferred the anonymity anyways.

And that’s not the only code I use in my little network…

((OOC: Flargh. Note to for all eternity: Those Dippin’ Dots-wannabe ice cream packs that come in the strawberries and cream flavor have more strawberries than vanilla. Ick.))

[charlotte]

Charlotte watched with a growing curiosity - or perhaps nervousness - as she watched Valencia rummaging for a slip of paper and a pen, who then proceeded to write (?) ... or at the very least stab, the paper. Casting the senior an inquisitive and borderline-disturbed look, she accepted the very neatly folded paper and finished the last bite of her sandwich before examining it.

As she stood by, listening to Valencia's explanation and her movements, the Junior immediately felt her mind draw a blank. A literal blank. Not so much as thought filtered through Charlotte's head until Valencia began packing up her things and turned, walking away.

The senior had given her two days to decipher the script. There would be time to ponder over it later.

Hastily folding the paper back up and slipping it into her pocket, she pushed off from the tree, not following the blonde senior, but standing at a relaxed stance behind her, watching her go.

"What about the ex-running back?" Charlotte called after her, not so loud as to be overheard by anyone, but loud enough for Valencia's retreating form to catch clearly.

"I heard about the ... trouble he and you have been having with each other lately. In fact, it's almost not hard to hear about at times.

"Now, I'm usually not one much for butting into the personal affairs of others, but if there's anything I could do to help you with your 'ex situation', I feel it's the least I can do for all your advice for me."

Charlotte stood by, brushing her bangs back again at yet another gust of wind, unsure if Valencia would stop to respond, or simply continue walking - a clear sign of a more dominant relationship in the junior/senior sybiosis of sorts.

[Valencia Donahue]

Valencia paused when Charlotte spoke to her. There really wasn’t much to say since she already considered the meeting over should they meet again, but a nagging feeling compelled her to respond for sake of being courteous. She didn’t turn or do anything and her form was casual as though she was appreciating the sight of something off in the distance. If anything, this was a brief lapse of what’d she be like if she dropped a layer created by her habitual mannerisms.

“I do appreciate the consideration, but every deed gets repaid somehow. You don’t need to worry about returning any favors until I ask for it.”

Or rather, when the occasion calls for it.

“As for my ex… He’s just one problem out of many I have to deal with on my own. The only things that’d quicken my progress in any sort of way would involve the ability to fight and having him remove the bugs in his nature. Everyone meets a few of them at some point of their lives, but they can only be removed of their own will… And I highly doubt that my ex would do such a thing, considering that it feeds his character.”

In a nutshell, if you can beat Agon senseless and lock him up in prison somewhere and mind-wipe him enough for the gang leader to never get an inkling of retribution, that’d be the end of him. The alternative would be to humble him and hope that enlightenment will befall him whatever good character he has left will move on and leave Valencia in true peace.

It’s hard to put into words… ‘Cause there’s no such thing as a one-size fits-all solution when it involves other people.

“Good day.”

And Valencia continued on her way.

[charlotte]

Well that was it then.


With her final word given, Valencia once again began walking away, and Charlotte merely stood by watching the blonde senior go.

She allowed herself to steer both her eyes and mental processes from the recent conversation as she pulled out the slip of paper with the "code" upon it, her mind already beginning to work furious cogwheels. The junior tried to recall anything Valencia might have said that could be construed as a clue, but nothing seemed to quite click at present.

Two words. Four letters, first word. Five letters, second word.

As good a guess as any, she supposed.


With a concerned look, Charlotte folded the paper neatly, slipping it into her pocket once more. There was much work to be done; much pondering as well. And she had the feeling that something bigger was building on the horizion, soon to spill out over the school and everyone connected to the conflict.

It seemed wise to take a few days and stay away from the oncoming storm, instead observing it from afar.



[Exeunt.]