[Friday, August 27, 2004.] [Charlotte's ditching school! Bad Charlotte. But maybe she has more important things to worry about. It's really a beautiful, warm, sunny day, with white clouds floating lazily by. Hard to believe someone spontaneously combusted.] [It's what should be her lunch period. She's been walking for a while, but she's still in the very general neighborhood of the school. The place is more residential than anything.] [Session Start.] * Charlotte would've just had another jelly sandwich anyway. She walks! * Charlotte scans the neighborhood as she goes. She probably doesn't come from around here. [It's not a bad neighborhood. Nothing particularly fancy, but it's solid middle class. The lawns are nearly nonexistent, and there are fences around what little there is. Cars are parked along the sides of the road.] [To Charlotte's left, across the street, is a small playground. She spots a blonde figure huddled in one of the apparatuses with a slide. It's a little tough to make out, given the bars designed to keep kids from jumping off, but whoever it is, they're not a kid.] * Charlotte heads over that way because, as luck would have it, she's looking for a blonde figure who's not a kid. [As Charlotte approaches, she sees it's definitely Ivy.] * Ivy is huddled! She's also sobbing into her lap, since, yeah, the huddling and all. * Charlotte approaches slowly, not wanting to startle her. Or maybe she's approaching slowly to sneak up behind her and shout "Boo!". But if she is, she screws it up by speaking. "Ivy?" [Ivy is up! Charlotte is down. The world is blue and pretty.] * Ivy shoots her head up out of her lap, startled, her eyes finding Charlotte. Her eyes are all puffy from crying, and the tears haven't really stopped when Charlotte made her presence known. She looks at Charlotte uncertainly and with a bit of fear. * Charlotte halts. She stays where she is and looks up at Ivy, offering a small smile. "I was worried about you." * Ivy looks away from Charlotte to whatever happens to be at the right of her... monkey bars, sure! There's no more tears at this point, but her cheeks are still all wet. * Charlotte offers again. "Jeremy was too. He asked me to find you." * Ivy 's face turns pained. She closes her eyes, one last tear falling down for good measure. * Charlotte looks at a loss for what to say next. She hesitates a minute, then offers, "I talked to him last night, about you." * Ivy opens her eyes and glances back to Charlotte at that. He told me... about what he thinks happened to you over the summer. I'm sorry. * Ivy glances down. * Charlotte glances up! "He cares for you a lot... I'm sure he'll understand." * Ivy's face gets that pained expression again. She then shakes her head back and forth with more energy than she really looks like she has to offer at the moment. * Charlotte watches her. She sighs helplessly. "Ivy, I want to help. I just..." She shakes her head. "I don't know how. But I'm trying." * Ivy has stopped shaking her head at this point. She studies Charlotte for a moment and then glances toward the direction of the school. * Charlotte follows her gaze. "You're... scared to go back? Because of what happened?" * Ivy pauses a moment, and then nods slowly. * Charlotte nods slowly. * Ivy glances back over to Charlotte, looking like she wants to ask something, but instead, she decides to avert her eyes from giving eye contact as she stays quiet. * Charlotte takes a few steps forward. "What is it?" * Ivy looks at Charlotte's person, seeming to be searching for something. She evidentially doesn't find it however, because she gives a small frown. * Ivy then glances down to the sand below the equipment she's on. She slowly begins to stand up. * Charlotte blinks a few times. She looks at a loss again. * Ivy walks down off the equipment and heads somewhat near where Charlotte is standing. She kneels down in the sand and begins to trace a finger in the sand. She writes, 'Jeremy is okay?' She then looks up to Charlotte, evident worry in her eyes. * Charlotte reads. She gets a worried look, but quickly replaces it with a smile. "He was conscious when I saw him, so I'm sure he'll be alright." * Ivy nods slowly and then pauses a few moments. She then smoothes the sand over her question and begins to write again, 'Is someone helping him?' She glances back up again. * Charlotte nods. "They took him to the hospital. The doctors will know what to do." ( "Ok, dump him in the pit." ) * Ivy lets out a small breath in relief and then stands up. She lightly kicks some sand on top of her words and then starts to look around the area. * Charlotte tracks Ivy's gaze, trying to see what she's looking for. * Ivy starts her search in the direction of the school. After that, her eyes trail to the left.. and then she looks confused. * Charlotte asks, "What are you looking for?" * Ivy stops looking so she can glance back at Charlotte. She then kneels down once more and writes, 'Tiger Lily Lane?' * Charlotte reads. "Tiger Lily Lane?" she asks. * Ivy goes down a bit and writes, 'My street.' Oh. I'm afraid I don't know where it is. * Ivy gives a slight frown in disappointment and brushes the sand words away. She then stands up once more, glances around, and then just randomly starts to walk. * Charlotte follows. "Do you want to go home?" She asks. "I can ask at the school, or... or after class we could see Jeremy in the hospital." * Ivy leaves the sanded area! She is not walking in the direction of the school at all. Her face grows sad at hearing Charlotte and she shakes her head a few times slowly. Or we could go somewhere else. That's fine, too. * Ivy keeps walking! Away from the school! She's eyeing areas, attempting to figure out if any look familiar. [It looks sort of... residential.] * Ivy keeps on awalking. * Charlotte follows. She certainly looks confused. "Um... Do you know where you're going?" (Does anything look familiar to Ivy?) ( [Ivy and Charlotte wind up in Sri Lanka.] ) (Not really. Well, it's around the school, so it's vaguely familiar.) * Ivy peers around, a little uncertain, but then shakes her head. We'll get lost if we keep going this way. * Ivy stops walking and glances over to Charlotte. She eyes her as if she expects her to be throwing out an alternative. * Charlotte casts her gaze to the side as she tries to come up with one. "You'll have to go back to the school eventually... But I guess you wouldn't want to right now. But if I lost you Jeremy wouldn't forgive me." * Ivy shakes her head at the school line. She then just looks blankly at Charlotte when she doesn't give them a direction. * Charlotte returns Ivy's gaze. "What do you want to do?" * Ivy shrugs. (She's so helpful.) Do you want to see Jeremy tonight? * Ivy looks down, looking to be a bit split on the topic. He'll want to know how you're doing. * Ivy looks over to Charlotte, her eyes looking misty. (And then she eats her.) ( Wah! ;_; ) (Mm, tastes just like a cupcake.) * Charlotte waits a minute, then says, "If you don't want to, I'm sure he'll understand. I was going to go visit him tonight, though, so if you like I can tell him I found you. * Ivy pauses... and then nods slowly. Okay. * Charlotte comes up with a solution. "Want to go to a library? We could look up where you live online." * Ivy thinks on that a second and then gives a ghost of a smile with a nod. * Charlotte smiles back. "Okay. Let's do that." ( I beat the system! XD ) (Yay!) * Ivy nods and follows Charlotte to a library! [Session End!]