{ The School Office } [Re-Open] PAGE 36: THE CALLING

[S a l l y S h e e p]

At the sound of Barth's voice, Colette turned her head from the mock pillow and darkness her folded arms had made to look for the boil. She assumed he got stuck in the same type of predicament she did, but with less being crushed under the other Reapers.

Finding him, she mumbled to the boil. "I'm just.. tired." With a sleepy expression, she rubbed her eyes and looked at him for a few seconds before continuing. Tiredness clearly made her a tad slower. "I didn't sleep a lot last night."

Being up as late as she had at the Truth or Dare game made her lose what little sleep she already managed, but with the shrieking carrots still living outside her window, Colette didn't get much at all. The groundskeeper's stupid lantern did nothing to help either. She had no idea why he gave it to her.

Colette remembered Barth had used "both" and looked around to see who else he was talking to. Ugh. It was Christof. She wasn't surprised, someone like him deserved to be in detention. What with almost maiming her twice.

Still fully bothered by the boil, she got up and moved a seat over - one away from Christof and closer to Barth's wall - just in case the patchwork wanted to slam a desk onto her or something.  

[Toshihiko Two]

"No," he repeated after Christof, then said to Colette, "...And tired. I see. What's keeping you awake, exactly?"

He needed details. He was not good for much, usually. Sleeping advice, he could handle.

"I'm an expert, you know. At sleeping. One of my many talents."

He didn't know what to tell Christof. Buck up probably wouldn't do the trick. Anyway, after dragging him out in the middle of the night Barth wasn't sure he deserved much comfort. Maybe he was regretting what he'd done to Barth.

Because he was so loyal.

He finally said, "You don't err, have to worry about me. It wasn't all that bad. Anyway, I didn't have to walk back."  

[Kyrieko]

The she-wolf folded her arms across her desk and stared at the patchwork with big eyes. He was definitely distressed about something. Was it so bad being in here? So far, LW hadn't seen much of anyone but the students filtering in. Violet hues narrowed a little as she looked at Christof closely. Either he had something in both eyes, or the poor boil had been crying.

She jumped in her seat when he all but slammed the notebook down on the desk. Really now? was that necessary? She'd also heard (and smelled) the lazy one (as was her name for Barth). Apparently he didn't know what was wrong either. Quirking an eyebrow at the large 'NO' scribbled onto the notebook, LW sighed and rolled her eyes a little.

"Calm down, patches." LW patted his arm. "How bout writin' down whats got you so worked up?" The she-wolf gestured towards his notebook. "I'll listen (or read) if you'd like..." She was trying to make him feel better. But she wasn't sure how successful she was being right now. Maybe the lazy one needed to come and 'listen' as well? Tail twitching, she glanced at Barth when she heard him. Was that the best he could do? She just gave him a 'look'.  

[Eight]

"You wouldn't." She seethed, hissing a bit. Yaya would never cut Junko's hair! Junko loved her hair and was proudly taking care of and growing it out despite her protests and how much she hated The Mistress! But She wasn't exactly willing to call Yaya's bluff for now...she was a demon, and She was a little less trusting of demons than Junko was; while She didn't totally despise the lovely Yaya She still held a quiet mistrust for all those Junko encountered. Could never be too careful. She did Her best to be a complete hassle, wrapping hair around Yaya's fingers and up along her arms, wriggling and squirming and trying just anything She could to not be braided.

Junko closed her eyes and tilted her head toward Yaya, sighing softly. Even with Her fighting this felt rather nice. People didn't often play with Junko's hair like this mostly because she didn't let them for their own good, or She didn't let them because She was a b***h. Eventually the braiding was complete and Junko opened her eyes again, leaning against her friend and looking up at her with a tiny smile. "Thank you, Yaya." Underneath Junko's hair She could be heard crying out muffled curses, anything She could possibly think of? She said it, though for once it was so muffled it was nearly impossible to make anything out.  

[Bilious]

Both? Christof glanced up, eyes widening at the sight of Colette- Oh... Oh Candlejack. He tensed, hands trembling now as she moved her seat away- he really didn't mean the ghoul any harm! It just kept.... happening. Hell's Bells she probably hated him. If she was friends with Barth too there was certainly a chance of them crossing paths again... and again... He was cut out of his terror by Barth's sympathetic comment.

He's fine? Why would the Igor care if- And then it dawned on him. The only reason Barth was here was because Chris has dragged him along with him! But... but it had been with good intention, his Master DID need more socialization, and a game party had seemed like a good venue, and really he HAD helped him find all his.... beautiful ghoul friends and.... reconnect and... His face reddened again, as he struggled with conflicting emotions. Ultimately, it came down to fundamentals.

Slumping again, and still trembling as Barth and Colette continued their conversation, Christof turned back to the little red werewolf beside him, his handwriting shaking as he wrote, very simply:

I am a Bad Igor.  

[elvyralani]

Detention. Holly had heard things about it. It didn't sound fun at all! It was only a bit on fun, nothing really happened, right? Anyway, she hadn't been involved in anything. Okay she did perform a dare but it was bad at all, she just had to eat something. How was that detention worthy?

Holly sat down somewhere and looked around to see all the other students. "So, what are we suppose to do?"  

[S a l l y S h e e p]

Carrots. Carrots. CARROTS. She frowned the furrowed her brow as the words danced through her mind. Unless they were cut to pieces or cooked, she hated them so very much.

Not having the energy to rant and rave about them, Colette sighed, "Carrots." She paused for a moment. It sounded silly. "I mean the shrieking kind."

Her expression relaxed into one of overwhelmed sadness at the entire situation and she couldn't help but sound depressed. "They're outside my window and won't go away."

Colette buried her face back into her arms, her voice muffled a little. "Truth or Dare too. It started late." She actually hadn't even checked the time when she made it back to her dorm, she was too tired and upset over receiving detention, but it felt far early into the next morning when she flopped onto her bed; hugged one of the many pillows; and drifted to sleep almost instantly.  

[Toshihiko Two]

He didn't see Christof's note, but he assumed Christof felt better. Knowing Barth was alright.

"Hmm," Barth said. The solution to Colette's sleep problems, too, seemed easy enough. "I could take them off your hands, I don't mind. The shrieking, that is. Most high-pitched noises remind me of alarm clocks. They err, relax me."

Anyway, if the carrots were anything like minipets, Barth thought he could handle them pretty well.  

[S a l l y S h e e p]

The Reaper's heart skipped. The carrots could be taken care of? She would be able to get a full night's of sleep? FINALLY.

Colette looked up again and stared at Barth. She hoped this wasn't a joke, who could really be relaxed by and want such a thing? She shoved it aside nonetheless. It wasn't important, not if he would take the carrots away.

"Really?" She sounded relieved and subconsciously made a sort of pathetic and hopeful smile. If Colette was out-of-body and saw herself right now, she would probably sigh in shame at the desperation.

She thought about her attempts at removing the carrots herself and frowned. Every time she tried to get rid of them, they just popped back into the ground before she could even do anything. The thought trampled on her happiness at the offer and she couldn't help but ask Barth, "But.. how?" The Reaper didn't exactly want to explain how difficult it was for her yet, in case it scared him off, but that wouldn't exactly be fair..  

[Toshihiko Two]

"Well, they might stand some convincing. Demons can be good at that, you know. Persuading things. If that doesn't work, there's always magic. ...Or a carrot relocation device of some sort. I could probably figure it out."

He could, too. As long as it didn't involve any heavy-lifting. Some very slow-moving (but well-oiled) gears in his brain were beginning to click together.

"I'm sure I could."  

[Kyrieko]

LW moved enough so that her chin rested in the palm of her hand while the other tapped against the table as she waited for Christof to write some sort of response. Or choose to ignore her. But he didn't disappoint and wrote on his paper. She leaned over a little to read it and then frowned at him.

"Why's that? You don't seem like a bad one to me." Her tail twitched and her frown continued as she tried to ponder why he might feel that way. It probably would help if she knew more about patchworks, but hey! She was gonna make patches here feel better if she had to sit on the boil and discover if he was ticklish or not! Not a bad idea actually...

She refrained and waited patiently for him to write out another response.  

[Bilious]

Looking pained, Christof's responce to LW would probably be mostly unintelligble.

I did not follow Conducts 1 2 3 4

He had broken the Rules. Not all of them, but a sizable enough amount that it made his stomach churn.

1- He had abandoned Barth in jealousy, and ultimately if he hadn't stepped in would have also harmed one of his allies.
2- Granted it hadn't been INTENTIONAL, but he had obviously bullied the demon into breaking The Rules, ergo, putting him in harm's way.
3- He was still swallowing the jealousy he had over the way the Sloth Demon could twist the hearts of the Ghouls around him so easily for someone who seemed to think EVERYTHING was a huge effort. And there he was again!
4- And here he was, sitting in Detention, with his Master along for the ride. The rumors in the hallways were vague but generally gave the vibe that it was not a place you wanted to be.

Not that any of this would mean something to the werewolf, but it was true.

Slumping, he resolved into drawing depressed circles in the margin of the paper before adding underneath,

Also that Ghoul hates me.  

[Kyrieko]

The finger tapping ceased as she stared at the first thing he wrote. Did not follow Conducts 1 2 3 4...? She had no idea what these 'Conducts' were, but they couldn't be much different from say, what a schools Code of Conducts was? And if it was anything like that...then perhaps it had to do with breaking such rules. This started to make sense to the she-wolf.

"So...you broke some Igor rules?" She offered. "Well. If that is the case, then you don't need to feel so low. It is alright to break a rule every now and then." It made life more exciting. She could totally vouch for this.

Looking at the next thing he wrote LW blinked once at patches and then glanced over her shoulder. The lazy one was talking with some ghoul. Huh. Why did that one hate him? LW turned back to Christof and blew out a puff of air. Alright. Start from the top of the list.

"Did you have fun last night?" She asked first. "Do you wish you hadn't gone?"  

[S a l l y S h e e p]

All Colette did was listen and nod at Barth as he listed options. She'd have to express her enthusiasm later, because she was just still too tired right now.

If he believed he could, that was good enough for her. And he had listed things she didn't even think of to try, maybe there was hope! Colette nodded as vigorously as she could with such a lack of sleep and stifled a yawn. Oh, how she hoped she didn't look rude.

"Alright. Yes. Please."