Really, it's a secret? on Hospital Wing

Anon

September 22, 2015 9:25 AM

Really, it's a secret? by Anon

The moon was waning but only just, and the scent was still strong in the area of the hospital wing where the boy's changes took place - away from prying eyes, in the quarantine area. Even without an acute sense of smell, he didn't understand why he had to spell this out for the humans. Who got sick, routinely, once a month? Didn't they hear him? He'd made a racket last time.

But if they needed his assistance to see the obvious, he was only too happy to help. He knew the boy was keen to keep it from everyone. He was one of the most fearful of being discovered. One of the three little girls had been too, and there was still one more juicy little morsel to go…

He risked it, sneaking back in, because there really only was one place for this one to go. He hoped the medic was sleeping. She had to rest sometime. Still, he was careful to be extra quiet. On the door of the hospital wing, he carved…. Someone's contagious.

Just in case anyone at Sonora didn't wake up feeling woozy, he slipped out his chalk to leave a trail of arrows from the nearest main corridor. He didn't want anyone to miss the excitement.

13 Anon Really, it's a secret? 0 Anon 1 5

Jax and Gia Donovan

September 22, 2015 9:11 PM

This is the end. (replies to Gia here) by Jax and Gia Donovan

Jax walked the corridors to the Cascade Hall as he did every morning and discovered the arrows. At first, he thought someone had started a game of some sort. ‘Follow the arrows and discover a prize' or something like that. But the longer he followed it, the more he began to realize the direction it was heading and soon he found himself looking at the Hospital Wing doors, doors that he had come out of only a couple of days before. The sign, the dreaded words. They weren't direct, but the point was made. Someone new.

He heard other people coming and fear had him moving. He quickly passed other early morning risers and went in the opposite direction to where the arrows were pointing. He almost didn't notice his sister until she called out to him.

“They know!” He hissed in their native tongue of Greek. “It's out. Everything is out. Someone told!” His blue eyes looked like they were on fire from the anger and fear that pulsed through him. Gia stared at him wide eyed as she comprehended what he was telling her. There were people coming, some of them were going to figure it out. He needed to get away before they noticed him. His sister opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off “Not now.” Jax turned to get away, but Gia caught his arm in her hand.

“Jax, wait!” She exclaimed.

“Not now!” Jax ripped his arm from her grasp with so much force that she toppled backward and landed hard on the ground. Surprise and regret slipped into his features as he stared down at his sister. His normal ‘brother' mode would have had him apologizing and helping her up, but he was in flight mode. He needed to get away from the message. He needed to get away from people. Jax turned away from his sister and stormed away**

Gia laid on the ground stunned by what had happened. Her brother had rarely ever been so furious and never with her. He was terrified by his secret getting out and now it seemed to have.

She moved tentatively from her position on the ground. Her elbow hurt from where she landed on it and her left side was probably going to bruise a little. Moving, she noticed the arrows again and fury erupted within her. On her hands and knees, Gia started to scrub furiously at the chalk arrows. Why would someone do this to them? They haven't done anything wrong! They just wanted to have a normal life for a little while. Someone knows and they want everyone else to know too! Jax isn't bad! He isn't but no one ever gives him a chance and now we'll have to go away again! I don't want to go away…

Gia worked her way through three arrows before she realized someone had joined her in the hallway. She had chalk and dust covering her hands, sleeves, and jeans. Her face was streaked with hot tears and she seemed to be on the verge of complete meltdown. She sniffled rather pathetically when she looked up at the person. “Why are people so cruel?” She asked in a quiet and rather shaky voice.

**Jax is continued in the gardens

6 Jax and Gia Donovan This is the end. (replies to Gia here) 296 Jax and Gia Donovan 0 5

Barnaby Pye

September 23, 2015 3:10 PM

Yeah, if you're a blubbering idiot. by Barnaby Pye

It had been awhile since Barnaby had cared to track down his elusive roommate's whereabouts. He'd know for quite sometime now what Jax was but in true Pye fashion he hadn't alerted anyone yet since one never knew when a bit of blackmail would be necessary to get one's point across. That blackmailing his werewolf roommate was wrong wasn't something that had ever crossed Barnaby's mind. It was just a simple market interaction. A "you want something, I want something" interaction that he had unknowingly witnessed over a hundred times at home.

That particular day his roommate's condition was actually far from mind when Barnaby wandered into the Hospital Wing. Alfie had given him a nasty bruise last night after shoving him into a file cabinet when Barnaby had antagonized him greatly (using his relations with Cecily and supposed relations with Professor Carter as bits to dangle in front of his face much as Alfie had dangled those same things in front of him) and he was just looking for something to keep the edge off. To get rid of the bruise completely would be a missed opportunity to taunt Alfie with what he had done and Barnaby was still trying to figure out what it was that triggered Alfie's anger—he didn't buy the cool head that his older brother presented in class and he knew something was up. Pushing him until he snapped wasn't the cleanest method that Barnaby could think of but since he was only only thirteen and his brother was a full fledged wizard there weren't many other tactics he could really use. That Alfie had been remorseful mere seconds after the incident only further proved to Barnaby that Alfie was soft.

When he got to the Hospital Wing he was just in time to see Jax struggle with his sister over something that was written on the wall and then run away. Here, Barnaby was torn. He wasn't sure if he wanted to move closer to read what it was that had been on the wall (and likely get caught up in a conversation with the sister) or if he wanted to follow his roommate. From the previous graffiti the school had been dealing with, Barnaby surmised that it was another secret that had been scribbled up there. And if the Donovans had been arguing over it, he assumed it had to do with them. That it was written in the Hospital Wing only further cemented Barnaby's suspicions that the secret had to do with Jax's lycanthropy. Barnaby bit his lip. He took one step forward and then retreated into the shadows as Gia bent down to scrub the arrows from the ground and from his vantage point he tried his best to make out what had been written.

“Someone's contagious.”

Barnaby raised an eyebrow. That was really the best the secret writer would do? Writing something like that would only cause students to run in the opposite direction. Unless someone was incredibly stupid and wanted to get sick. It didn't make any sense to Barnaby. Why, if someone had information as juicy as they did on Jax and wanted to hold it over him, why in the world would they write something as innocent as that. Contagious could apply to a world of diseases and not just lycanthropy. In fact, Barnaby thought lycanthropy would be just about the last thing people would think of. Unless, of course, he realized with narrowed eyes, they saw Gia trying to get rid of those ridiculous arrows. Barnaby sighed and rolled his eyes, marching forward to stand over his roommate's twin. He would have made a much more condescending picture if his right eye hadn't been yellow, purple, and green from the file cabinet drawer, but his arched eyebrows and twisted lips got the picture across just fine.

The whimper that escaped Gia's lips only served to exasperate Barnaby instead of eliciting a sympathetic response as he thought she might have expected. “Get up,” he said, his voice almost disdainful. “You're only going to draw more attention to the situation if you sit here blubbering like an idiot.” He offered a hand to the girl, squashing the little voice in his head that tried to ask him why he cared enough to help the siblings by reasoning it was so that he didn't loose leverage against them if he needed it some road down in the future.

“Look at the words carefully,” he said now. “There's nothing in there about your brother being a…you-know-what,” he continued lowering his voice so no one could over hear. “And I highly doubt the idiots at this school will put it together from a scribble as ambiguous as that. I mean, it's obvious to you and I since we know what it's referring to, but someone's ‘contagious'?” He scoffed. “No one in their right mind is going to actually go into a sick person's room to catch a contagious disease, right? And the only people who are going to figure it out likely already had their suspicions and has anyone raced to the Headmaster with this juicy little tidbit?” He raised an eyebrow as if asking her to challenge what Barnaby viewed as very sound logic.

OOC: Yeah, I know... Barnaby's a cocky ass.

10 Barnaby Pye Yeah, if you're a blubbering idiot. 298 Barnaby Pye 0 5

Gia Donovan

September 24, 2015 7:01 PM

...you are not helping the situation. by Gia Donovan

Gia wasn't sure what she would have expected from someone who came upon her crying and trying to clean up the mess that the vandal had left behind. Perhaps they would have assisted her with helping to clean it up or even tell her everything would be okay and that the vandal would be caught. Heck, she even expected to simply be ignored. But what she had not expected such a rude response to come at her. Gia looked up from her position on the floor to see her brother's roommate standing there with his hand stretched out for her to take. Although she was surprised to have been so rudely spoken too, she wasn't rude herself to deny the offer of assistance.

She took his hand and helped herself off the floor and then directed her attention to the words written on the door while Barnaby spoke. Her tears had stopped flowing for the time being and she wiped away the streaks using the back of her hand and leaving chalk smudge on her cheeks.

“I am not an idiot.” Gia said once Barnaby seemed satisfied by what he told her. She turned to look at him. “Crying because my brother is suffering and being upset over the fact that someone is trying to bring harm to my family does not make me an idiot.” Gia clarified. “And I don't appreciate you trying to put me down for it.” Her eyes were swollen and her face pink, but she otherwise looked determined and resolute.

Jax had told her his fears that Barnaby was working out what he was and it turned out to be true. Now the real question was why hadn't he said anything to Jax about it or told anyone about it? Anyone who had ever found out about them wanted something from them in exchange for their silence. If Barnaby knew and hadn't said anything, it was because he was going to use it against them, right? That's what Jax always told her and that's what always seemed to happen. Gia didn't want to think that way about her own classmate, but she had to remain wary.

“You don't think that someone writing anything like this on the doors for all to see that someone isn't going to be curious enough to find out who is contagious?” Gia asked, clearly doubting his logic behind it. “You were curious enough to find out, weren't you? People are going to want to know what might be so contagious. They'll watch who goes to the infirmary often and eventually they'll catch on about my brother. They'll figure it out and they'll demand for him to go.” Tears were welling up again even though she was trying very hard to not allow them to fall. “They'll say he's dangerous. Parents will send letters. Eventually, they'll give in and we'll have to run away again.”

Gia didn't want to have to move away. She didn't want to go into hiding again. She liked school. She liked her friends. Where would they go if they had to leave America?

“And if, for whatever reason, they don't figure it out or some do and don't say anything, we have to wonder why. We'll have to leave anyway. Because people will abuse us with it and sometimes that ends up being the worse of the two deals.” Gia turned back to the door that had the graffiti on it. “I appreciate you trying to… help.” Was it help? She couldn't tell what it was. “But I don't think people are as slow as you think they are.”

6 Gia Donovan ...you are not helping the situation. 308 Gia Donovan 0 5

Barnaby

September 27, 2015 8:58 PM

I never pretended to want to help. by Barnaby

Barnaby held back an affected scoff as Gia dried her tears—clearing one stain from her face and adding another. For her credit, she stayed quiet while he talked to at her, but when she finally did deign to answer him her response both annoyed and amused him. “First of all, when did I ever say I wanted to help. I'm just trying to keep you from making an idiot of yourself in front of the entire student body. If people find out and you leave then I'm likely to be stuck with just Jack and he likes to chat. Your brother, loathe as I am to admit, keeps quiet which, is quite preferable to my tastes.”

The little partial truth wouldn't hurt her, Barnaby reasoned. Besides, if he and Tarquin weren't so hell bent on what they wanted then it was quite likely that what he told her would have been the whole truth rather than just the superficial reasoning behind his shut mouth. “Secondly, I wasn't curious enough to find out anything. I'm not an idiot, anyone with any sense is going to find out if they share a room with a werewolf. If you've got anyone to worry about it's Jack Spencer, not me nor anyone else at this ridiculous school.”

He sighed rather exasperatedly before continuing to answer her doubts regarding his logic. “And no, I don't think that someone writing anything like this on the doors for all to see is going to cause anyone to find out who's contagious. Do you even think the Medic is going to let them through those doors to get close enough to find out? Besides, your brother isn't even in there. I saw him run the opposite direction.” He could barely contain the eye roll that threatened to punctuate his statement. “No one's going to watch the infirmary. They're not going to care because people are selfish and self-absorbed. It will all go away by the end of the school year I'm certain of it.”

Gia's lack of faith in humanity coupled with her odd belief that the majority of wizarding kind had a couple knuts to rub together in the brains department completely boggled Barnaby. He himself had no faith in humanity but along with that he also held the belief that the majority of wizarding kind couldn't really do anything. “You're not going to have to leave because the majority of people are going to see the sign and either not go in or try to go in. If they try the Medic will kick them out. If they decide to find out, Jax isn't even there to be discovered. No one is going to think the Medic is going to let a contagious student roam around the hallways so they'll either come to the conclusion that it was some first year who died and never came back or that whoever was contagious isn't anymore. Besides, I've heard rumor that some students think the vandal is just making stuff up to freak us out. This graffiti is going to become urban legend and by next year people will be talking about the ghost of the child that died from dragon pox, there's no need to worry about it. Okay? People are idiots, they're slow, they just are.”

"I'll start the rumor myself if it pleases you." He took a deep breath and tilted his head to get a better look at her. “Now if you want to continue this debate I suggest we keep it moving or else people really will start to wonder if two second years are having a large blow out fight over a couple of chalk arrows, hmm?” He grabbed her arm lightly—not unkindly and started to pull her away from the scene.

10 Barnaby I never pretended to want to help. 298 Barnaby 0 5

Gia

September 29, 2015 9:26 PM

I wish you had just kept on walking. by Gia

Gia frowned at the Aladren. She was not finding herself filled with the idea of friendship with him and the more that he spoke, the more she realized why Jax didn't seem all that eager to be friends with him either. “I used the term ‘help' to be polite.” Gia commented, a hint of annoyance filling her voice. “It doesn't seem you are capable of being polite though.” Gia had been around roughnecks and all around terrible people, but she had never been spoken to in such a way as this. There had always been some form of respect.

Even warning him not to be condescending to her had not get him to understand that he was crossing the line. Gia was not brainless. Yes, she could be emotional, but she felt like she had all the right in the world to be when it dealt with her family. Maybe other people would interpret that incorrectly, but she was not stupid for being Human. Perhaps it was a language barrier between them that was causing the friction, she wasn't sure. Either way, she didn't want to have to defend herself to someone who didn't understand the fear that this message caused for her and for her brother.

He apparently didn't know people as well as he thought he did. Gia knew them to be curious creatures. If they caught the scent of something interesting or dangerous, they went out of their way to discover what it was. Years of traveling, meeting people, settling, only to be uprooted over and over again because someone became too curious about them had taught the Donovans how people were. Barnaby seemed to be from a family of wealth and privilege. What did he know of anything? He didn't know how people worked. Not real people.

Gia knew that if her father were still alive, life for her would be very different. He was a Donovan and that name still held meaning in Ireland. She would have a life of wealth too instead of fear and worry about being found out. Gia didn't really remember her father, she had only just barely turned five when he was killed, but Jax and her mother spoke of him in the sweetest of ways. It made her ache sometimes. “You really have no idea what people are capable of.” Gia stated when Barnaby went on and on about how people were too selfish or stupid to work it out for themselves. If they were so self-absorbed or stupid, her family wouldn't have had to flee Greece in the first place.

“I doubt that rumor would even work.” She commented. “We have a small class; people would know if someone was suddenly not here anymore.” Gia looked at his hand that was holding her arm. She did not remove it, but she was not pleased by it either. “If you aren't attempting to help me, why would you spread a rumor for me? Or for Jax? I can't imagine Jack being that terrible of a roommate that you would desire Jax to be around that badly.” Gia walked with Barnaby even if she didn't believe him. She was tired and wanted to go find Sammy and have a good proper cry with someone who actually cared. "Perhaps they would just think we were having a lovers quarrel and won't even notice the arrows on the ground." She added just for fun.

6 Gia I wish you had just kept on walking. 308 Gia 0 5