[Friday, August 27, 2004.] [It's fifth period. You're outside. It's VERY BRIGHT. The firemen are just getting back into their shiny fire truck. Wait, firemen? Oh right, that's because Camila spontaneously combusted in class.] [Jeremy was also apparently found later, with burns, though you couldn't see them. He didn't seem as badly off as Camila, though. They've both just been whisked off to the hospital.] [The bell just rang for fifth period, and most of the school is outside, milling about in groups and waiting to see what happens. Is there anything else to really do?] [Charlotte and Veronica are heading... who knows where! Let's find out.] [Mini Start.] * Charlotte is heading to the front of the school! She's not very talkative at the moment. * Veronica keeps following Charlotte. She seems...irritated. Maybe because of her experience with Jeremy. Maybe because of her arch-rival spontaneously combusting. Maybe because Charlotte's taking off. Maybe that's just her normal state. Who knows? Wait up, I said! * Charlotte stops and glances back. * Veronica stops running after her and talks. She seems just a tiny bit winded, but not much. Comes out when she speaks though. "That's better. What the hell's with the Ivy act?" What about Ivy? I'm saying wandering off at random, being cryptic, not saying anything... don't make me add clinging onto Jeremy there... though at least it makes sense in your department... * Charlotte turns around. "What's that supposed to mean?" * Veronica looks at her carefully and runs her fingers through her head as she scratches it. "I didn't mean anything by it... you're trying to figure out what's going on with her.... right?" Best guy to go to for that is Jeremy. It makes sense. * Charlotte nods. * Veronica sighs again. "Don't tell me you're gonna get pissy too. I've had enough of that these last three days..." * Charlotte starts to walk again. "I need to find someone." Who? Monica. * Veronica starts walking to. * Veronica looks at Charlotte. "Why her?" Because her friend just burst into flames and she probably needs someone to comfort her right now. Camila was her...? * Veronica downcasts her gaze. "Geesh. I'm sorry." (Funny how high school works. It's very six degrees. ;P) (Hmm?) (People know people who know people.) (Ah. Yes ^^) * Veronica looks away slightly. "I... I admit I never really liked her. But... that kind of thing... I'd never wish that on anyone..." * Charlotte nods as she walks. [You're nearing the front of the school! There are a lot of kids out there. Probably a good third to half of the school.] That kind of thing just doesn't happen though... it makes no *sense*. *No one* goes from perfectly fine to third degree burns in 15 seconds..." [Things are starting to get less organized, as kids mill around and talk to each other.] Yeah. * Veronica shakes her head. "I can't... I won't believe it... and... why didn't I see it?" See what? * Veronica shakes her head still. "Nothing. Nevermind." * Charlotte eyes Veronica suspiciously. * Veronica gazes at Charlotte, noting her stop. "What? Quit staring at me like that!" What? You're creeping me out... Why? You don't like the attention? (Ha!) Wh- what are you talking about? * Veronica takes a step back away from Charlotte. She's obviously freaked. What did you mean before? When you said you couldn't see it. I told you it was nothing! Geez, you're nosy, ain't ya? You sound like you were expecting something like that to happen. Something like someone bursting into flames right in front of me? Ha. I wish. * Veronica stops backing up. "If I had those kind of powers, I'd pick something much cooler than Camila." * Charlotte sighs. "Sorry, this just... isn't a good day, you know?" She turns around and starts walking again. * Veronica eyes Charlotte carefully for a few moments, then walks fast to catch up, but stays a pace or two behind her. "Just what the hell is going on with you, anyways?" I mean... you think someone in the class did it? I don't know. Well of *course* you don't know. That's why it's called speculation. So did you do it? * Veronica stops, taken aback. "Wh-what?" Why would you... if I did it, why would I be the first one to jump up and try and smother the flames? I don't know. Why would you? * Veronica scowls at Charlotte and yells. "This is ridiculous! I don't need this. Don't you think I've been through hell too?" (I dunno, I think Camila's hit 'Hell' in a greater sense of the word.) (True dat) * Charlotte sighs. "Of course I don't think you did it. It would be nice to find someone to blame, but more than likely it was just an unfortunate accident." * Veronica grits her teeth and clenches her fist, then breathes out. She's looking at Charlotte angrily though. "You know... this is a really really bad time to fuck with my head like that." Sorry. * Charlotte keeps walking. Yeah yeah. I'm outta here. Screw you. Good luck finding Monica or whatever. I hope she takes it well. * Veronica takes off in another direction. * Charlotte halts. She just glances back at Veronica. * Charlotte yells after her, "How many more people are you going to alienate?" * Veronica doesn't seem like she wants to look back. She does stop though. She seems like she's trying to restrain herself. "What... what did you just say to me?" * Charlotte walks towards Veronica. * Veronica walks forward, scowling and pointing her finger at Charlotte. "Wait, just hold on one fucking minute. You're the one who insulted me here. Don't give me that crap." Insulted how? Camila, Monica, Ivy, Jeremy, and now me. How many more? I wanted to be friends with you, but you sure aren't making it easy. I don't care. Only real friend I've got now in this whole fucking school is Christy. At least she won't stab me in the back. Hell, that professor's a better friend than you're being right now. And how the hell did I alienate Monica? She doesn't even know me. You were rude to her. I was... what did I say? * Charlotte sighs. "You probably didn't realize it. But that's the problem. And you're going to get mad at me no matter what I say, so please forgive me for being so direct. You out and out accuse me of setting Camila on fire, come back and say it was a joke, and don't expect me to get mad about it? And you say I'm the one who has problems... right. You're the most obvious suspect. You don't like her. You don't like Jeremy. They both got set on fire. But I... * Veronica backs up. "I-I wasn't even with Jeremy at the time." * Charlotte shrugs. "You wanted speculation." Yeah but...me? Come on. You don't really think I could do something like that, right? Why not? You like fighting, you can be pretty violent. I'm not... * Veronica lets out a breath and calms down, putting her hand over her forehead. "Look. I admit I lost my temper with Jeremy but...this whole business with Ivy's so frustrating. I meant to tell him...but you heard him. He wouldn't hear it." It's not like I actually hurt him. Just scared him a bit. You can see how he reacted. Yeah... I realized it right away. You weren't there. Ivy was just acting... weird and cryptic... I mean... I helped her find him and everything, didn't I? But she said something about... "she doesn't understand" or something like that... I don't know, maybe I took it wrong, but it freaked me out. And then you grabbed him. * Veronica sighs. "He told you, huh?" You mentioned it. Look, I meant what I said at the ambulance. I worried about him when I heard he was burnt too. Otherwise why would I even come? Just because you apologized doesn't mean he has to forgive you. And Camila... sure she's a bitch, but she doesn't deserve to burn like that. If I wanted to hurt her, I'd be less subtle than that. [Both of you notice that students are starting to file back into the school.] * Charlotte frowns. She looks for Monica. [Charlotte doesn't see her yet, but that might just be because she's not near the front.] I'm sorry she's your friend's friend but I'm not going to change my opinion just because of that. * Veronica takes a deep breath. "And you're wrong. I may like the sport but that's different than actually liking to fight." I know. And you also don't like Monica either. Excuse me? * Charlotte shrugs. "First thing you told me about her was you hate people like her." That doesn't mean... I don't even know her that well. * Charlotte glances at the students again and sighs. "Speaking of Monica, I guess I'll have to talk to her in Orchestra." I just said I don't like people who try to coast. I've never had anything easy... But you're not them. That's your problem. You don't think about other people before you speak. You don't put yourself in their shoes before you judge them. Yeah? What about you? You're jumping to conclusions about everything I say. I'd say that's guilty of the same crime. What was I supposed to think when you said you "Hate people like that."? * Veronica sighs. "It's just like people. See a jock, think dumb. Think violent." * Veronica shakes her head. "You're supposed to think that I hate that kind of attitude in a person?" But see... you assumed I thought that's the only personality that Monica had. That's shallow." You're talking about kickboxing and I'm not supposed to think of violence? Did I talk about beating up kids for their lunch money? Didn't I go to protect that girl who was getting teased during lunch period? It's okay if it's two adults in a ring? * Veronica sighs. "It's a sport. You may as well say people playing football are violent too. They slam up against each other just as much." How do you know I don't? So why talk to Jeremy? He does play football, you know. I like Jeremy. So you like violent people. ( I don't like you.) I suppose I do. That doesn't mean I like violence. * Veronica sighs. "This is incredibly shallow. You're supposed to see the flaw in that logic right away. I thought you were smarter than this..." Sorry I don't meet your standards. * Veronica shrugs. "Doesn't bother me." * Veronica looks slightly up at the clouds. "Still... I'm disappointed. Not mad, but disappointed." [They float by.] I guess so. But so far the only person who seems to have met your standards at all is Christy. * Veronica chuckles. "I didn't say I only had friends inside the school, you know." * Charlotte brushes some hair out of her eyes. Besides... it's a new school year. Hopefully a new start. * Veronica stretches her arms above her head. "Who knows? Maybe I'll meet a boy who isn't psycho this time..." * Charlotte sighs. "For what it's worht, I'm sorry for before." It's cool. I won't go violent and beat you up over it. This time. * Veronica smiles and stretches. "Nice clouds. You'd almost think two people didn't go to the hospital..." * Charlotte shudders and rubs her arm. "I don't know about that..." * Veronica glances at her. "What's wrong with your arm by the way?" * Charlotte blinks and looks down at it. "Oh, nothing... I guess I just bumped it or something." You sure? You keep rubbing it. I could check it out or something... * Charlotte shakes her head. "Nah, I'm fine." O... kay. * Veronica goes back to looking at the clouds. "You're not a bad friend..." Does that mean I count? Pfft. You don't have to if you don't want to. Besides, you're the one who thought my standards were incredibly high. Not me. I mean... I've gotten pissed off at Christy before. It's no biggie. That's why you're friends, right? You respect each other even when you get pissed off? * Charlotte nods. Now the big question is whether you can take a wild, violent tomboy as yours. * Veronica flashes Charlotte a grin. * Charlotte chuckles. "I guess I could try it. I seem to like violent people." But seriously, if you think Jeremy's violent, you're crazy * Charlotte smiles. "Maybe I am." You and me both. * Veronica grins back, but then loses it, looking off to the distance. "I didn't do anything to Ivy. Just thought I'd let you know." * Veronica sighs. "She was just freaked to see her sorta boyfriend backed up against the lockers. Can't say I blame her." * Charlotte sighs. "Are you sure? I think you might have, even if you didn't realize it." Jeremy's the only one she trusts. Of course that was going to scare her. Well that old guy. You know, our English teacher. He said he's looking into it. Mr. Mendel? What's he looking into? But... well... she seemed like she was starting to trust me... then... she... * Veronica rubs her forehead. "No. I probably blew it." * Veronica then looks up. "Huh? Mr. Mendel? Well he doesn't have any more of a clue to what happened to Ivy than the rest of us do. He actually had nerve enough to ask *me* if I knew anything. * Charlotte nods. "I'm not surprised. He likes his gossip." You think so? * Charlotte nods. As much as he likes supernatural stuff, I'd bet. He doesn't seem that professional. I don't know... maybe that's why he's the first teacher I've ever really talked to... well, except P.E. teachers but that's different I think he's new. We're probably his first class, ever. He said he came from out of town actually. Probably couldn't get a job elsewhere. Actually...wait, he said he was out of work * Charlotte nods. "See?" Yeah. I caught it as weird too. But then he gives me this total bullshit cryptic answer. Oh god, I hope he's not one of those high school perverts. * Charlotte snickers. Hey you never know. Why do you think he's getting so "friendly" with us? [Nearly all of the students are back in now.] I figured he misses his high school years and wants to be in the 'in' crowd. Yeah... well... he's failing miserably. He's a dork. * Charlotte nods. "That's what usually happens to people who try to be cool." I mean... that whole discussion in class was total BS. * Charlotte snickers. "I don't think it went quite like he intended." * Charlotte frowns then. "Not at all." She glances at the school. "Guess it's almost time to go back in." * Veronica snickers back. "Because of you mostly." She shrugs. "I'm in no hurry to get to Chem." * Charlotte nods. "Yeah, me neither... I'm gonna check out those lights, though." She starts walking back to the entrance they came out of. I was curious about that too... maybe that's how Jeremy got burnt. I mean... if he'd gotten the same thing as Camila, you'd think he'd be worse off. I guess we'd have to ask Ivy though... Maybe. I don't know much about spontaneous combustion. *IS* that kind of thing really possible/ I guess it must be. I mean... I saw it... but I still don't believe it. Something had to cause that. Like what? Hell if I know. [The students on this side are all gone. So are the teachers! Back to fifth period class, probably.] * Veronica shrugs slightly. "Magic?" * Charlotte jogs to get there before the students are all in... but doesn't make it! "Magic?" Well... we were talking about supernatural stuff... I'm not sure if I do believe in it or not... but that kind of thing just seems kinda supernatural doesn't it? Or it could have been spontaneous combustion. How much longer do we have? Not sure. Well...if we got time, we could check the school library. (Neither of you have watches?) I bet they'd have something on it. * Charlotte does have a watch! She checks it. (Veronica doesn't. It just makes class go longer.) You check it. I think I'm going to look for Ivy. Sure. Trust the jock with the research. [There's about twenty-five minutes left in the period.] * Charlotte looks back over her shoulder and smiles. "I'm not smart enough to do something like that, remember?" * Veronica shakes her head. "Fine. If you find her, tell her I'm sorry for what happened to Jeremy." * Veronica waves and heads for the library! * Charlotte nods. "See ya." [Mini End.]