claire

For a little old fashioned b&e.

Who: Claire and Joshua
When: mid/late morning
Where: on the phone

Joshua was worried about people. This included Claire, and wasn't even dampened by his possible stupidity. Because people were hurt. People were probably dying, and he didn't like the thought of either of those things happening to her. Not that he could do anything about it, but still. So while he was still in phone-mode from texting with Lullaby, he picked Claire's name out of his phone book and hit Send. He waited a bit nervously, fingers scratching lightly at the bandages under his sleeve. He was trying not to pick, but it was hard. He felt like he had to be doing something.

As was becoming habit lately whenever her phone rang, Claire jumped at the noise, hand immediately reaching for the non-effective plunger to her left. She settled at the second ring, rolling her eyes at her own stupidity and paranoia, and dug into her light jacket to pull it from it's pocket. She glanced at the caller id and then flipped it open to answer. Gabe was currently sleeping, or trying to, so she stood up from the grass and started walking a bit away as not to wake him up, but not too far so that if the shadows returned, she'd be able to warn him.

Who: Gabe and Claire
When: Morning
Where: Marquette Senior High School

With an hour or so to blow before school started, Gabe had plenty of time to kill. The school was creepily silent, each footstep seeming to echo down the long halls. Though he'd hoped that leaving Jules would clear his head, his eyes continued to play tricks on him, movement down empty corridors catching his eyes. Rubbing a hand over his face, Gabe headed into the boy's locker room, hoping to catch a shower.

Just like the halls, the locker room was empty, the room dark until he flicked the lights on. He was halfway across the room when he saw it, a human-like figure climbing out of the mirror, and from the direction the thing was facing, it saw him as well. Gabe stared, eyes wide as he began to shake, and once the shadow set it's feet on the ground another one began to follow. That was all he needed to see before sprinting from the locker room, back out into the school.

Who: Claire and Sean
When: After school
Where: Steps outside of the library

It wasn't too shortly after school that Claire started walking toward the library. It was the easiest, most convenient place to hide for awhile and read and hopefully the building would remain shadowless. She wasn't sure what the things were, only that it freaked a lot of people out - some more so than others. It wasn't affecting Claire so much, given what had been going on in town over the past couple of months anyway. However, that didn't mean the shadows weren't terribly unnerving. She thought about texting Josh to see if he was okay, you know, just in case, but bit back on the urge. She hadn't heard from him since they hung out a few days prior, and she didn't want him to think he had to hang out with her, or communicate, or just about anything with her. Then again, maybe something had happened, or he broke another body part, or hurt himself and couldn't get in touch with her. Maybe she should text or something.

Claire readjusted her book bag on her back and decided not to turn into one of those annoying girls who wondered if some guy was going to call or not. Especially when they were just friends. Claire rolled her eyes at herself and quickened her steps to the library, attempting not to trip over herself on the way. She managed it - until she got to the steps. She wasn't even sure how she did it, except that her feet were sort of tangled up and then she was landing hard on her knees on the stone steps. A few books slid out from her bag onto the stairs behind her. Sighing, Claire shifted and sat down, watching three of her papers flutter away from her books, down the steps toward the street. She would have jumped up to run after them if her knees didn't hurt - and she was sure she wouldn't have just gone toppling down the stairs after them. "Bullshit," she muttered, resisting the urge to throw a fit. At least no one saw her.

Who: Claire and Joshua
When: after school
Where: phone, streets, burger joint, the orphanage

Joshua? Needed a job. Badly. Or for his school paperwork to go through so he could do something with his days. It was hard enough not to text Lullaby all the time, it was doubly so when he had nothing to do. Which was kind of all the time now. He was bored, and he had too much time to pace and wallow and think. None of which was very good for him. He glanced at the clock on his bedside table, passing his phone from one hand to the other. He wouldn't text her, he really wouldn't. Dean would be getting home from school right around this time, probably, so ... yeah, he wouldn't bother ... whatever. He was waiting for them to set up a time when they needed him to be on the other side of the mirror or whatever, so ... he needed something distracting.

Idly, he started cycling through the scant few numbers in his phone. He wanted to go out, be out of his room, outside somewhere. His thumb stopped when he reached Claire's number. The also-clumsy girl who called him Josh. Maybe she ... wasn't busy or something. She'd said for him to call or whatever if he was ever bored. Because it was easier and she had much more say over whether or not she answered, he texted instead. Hey, its Josh. Whats up? He hit Send before he could feel too weird about texting a girl who wasn't his ex-girlfriend. Which was probably backwards, but when had he made sense in the past few weeks?

Who: Lucius and Claire
When: Afternoon
Where: Park

Being it was a Saturday afternoon, Claire had all the time in the world to wander around town before she was expected home. She'd given her mom and Frank some excuse about going to the library to study for a test next week, though she was sure her mother knew better. It seemed to satisfy Frank to an extent, and Claire knew that by the time the library was closed and she'd be expected home, he'd be long since passed out to even notice the time when she came home. So she bypassed the library and went shopping instead. She found some bargains in some of the shops along West Washington, and some of the smaller things she felt were too expensive for what they were... she nicked. And she didn't have some skinny guy following her after and lecturing her about paying for things.

Heading back through town, she began to cross through the park, shifting the bags in her hands. She attempted to juggle two in one arm while readjusting her grip on another when her feet seemed to cross one another and she tripped. Which, of course, meant the bags fell as she did and spilled some of their contents on the ground. She sighed and pulled back to rest on her knees before she began to reach out and grab things that had fallen out into the grass. Thankfully, the park wasn't overly crowded with the looming weather, so she doubted she'd have much of an audience.

Who: Claire and Ivan
When: After school/early evening
Where: Arts on the Rocks

If there was one thing Claire enjoyed in Marquette, it was all the weird little festival things it did throughout the year. Fairs, cheap carnivals, fish festivals, art shows... she blew her money on more crap than anyone she knew, half of which were still in bags in her closet. It was just fun finding little knick knacks, or spending five bucks on a small cone of cotton candy. It was even more fun to people watch. Crowds meant being in close vicinity with others, and if you had to place your hand on someone's back lightly just to be able to get by them, even better. She could feed fairly quickly at times, depending on the situation and the person. She liked crowds, for more than one reason, which was why she headed to the lakeshore shortly after school. It was busy, as she had a feeling it would be given the dull atmosphere of the town over the past few weeks. Finally, something that resembled normalcy.

so close...

Who: Herbert and Claire
Where: School!
When: Statistics class, after lunch

The trend of being on time or even early for class was continuing; Herbert wasn't complaining. Though once he reached statistics, he was starting to think maybe he should. This was by far his worst class, and the one class he hadn't managed to get something done for over the weekend. After Geo and Sammy Saturday, and then Olivia finally coming home Sunday, trying to figure out statistics had just been beyond his poor brain's capability. Most of his other classes he's managed something decent to turn in, but not this one.

So he had to sit there, guilty-feeling and wondering just how badly it would hurt his already-not-too-high grade to have not done a single problem, for ten minutes until the bell rang. He really needed a distraction.

Who: Claire and Joshua
When: afternoonish
Where: down by the lake

Maybe it was from being born and raised on an island, but Joshua liked being on the lakeshore. There was something soothing about the water. The damn thing was big enough to be an ocean, when you were standing on the side of it. In any case, he'd walked aimlessly out there again, far from where he'd run into the naked-feather-man, but still. Down there. His head was all over the place, and he'd been hoping the movement would help, but it hadn't really.

She'd said that she missed him. Gave him little text hearts. But he hadn't heard from her again. She hadn't wanted to see him. He was again in that place where he didn't know what she was thinking and he was stopping himself from texting her at least once an hour. He didn't know what to do. Should he do it? Go out there and try to see her? Would she even ask for his help if she needed some? He kind of didn't think so. But then he didn't want to be the insane stalker ex-boyfriend either, who just showed up to a house that wasn't even her's and demanded -- or begged, more likely -- to see her. So he was stuck. Wondering if she was thinking about him at all, if she'd meant it when she said she missed him, or if he was just ... placated and tucked to one side. Because that was what it felt like. She hadn't actually talked to him, after all, just made references to having a hard time. A hard time she apparently didn't want his help with. Not that he had any. He was worried about her, and felt completely helpless. Which really had been the problem, hadn't it? It was a bad headspace to be in.

Who: Claire and Joshua
When: lunch, post-meeting stuff
Where: MSHS

Joshua couldn't help but be glad that the meeting on the sidelawn was over. It was a good idea, to keep everybody in touch, that was great and all. He just felt ... out of place there, conspicuous with the tape over his nose and his wrist all wrapped up. That and it really fucking sucked to have to an awkward and brief conversation with Dean. Wasn't his fault, in the end, but still. It was weird. In any case, he was relieved when they all split up. He started around the corner of the school building, board tucked up under his arm, sneakers flopping a bit from where he'd pulled the goddamn laces out of them, on his way back to the sidewalk to go home.

Who: Claire and Thom
Where: English
When: Morning

For it being the first day back to class in what felt like forever, Claire knew she ought to be down and depressed like the atmosphere in school suggested. But she wasn't. She was, in fact, feeling pretty relieved and mildly happy that she didn't have to hang out at home anymore. The threat seemed to have left Marquette, things were getting cleaned up and people were beginning to cope. That's all anyone could really ask for. Trading in her calculus book for her Advanced English, she shoved it into her book bag, shut her locker and headed off toward class, adjusting her book bag on her shoulders and keeping an eye out for someone she knew who didn't look overly sullen. When she spotted the familiar mop of brown hair ahead of her, Claire quickened her pace a bit to catch up to him. Thom was rarely smiling but he was also very rarely actually sullen. From what she observed in class anyway. And given they were both placed in several advanced classes, they had more than a couple together, so Claire observed a lot. "Hey Thom," she said breathlessly, falling into step beside him and hoping he didn't mind. "Walk a girl to English? It's been so long I've kind of forgotten where the classroom is."

Who: Claire and Herbert
Where: The Library
When: Early Afternoon

After finding Nevermore had been closed down for the day, Claire had debated returning home before her wandering took her to the library. Most of the people staffed inside knew her by name, given she had spent much of her free time over the past few years confined within it's walls. Unfortunately they didn't have any books on vampires - reliable ones anyway. Vampire erotica and chick-lit did not count. Making her way up to the second floor, she was mildly depressed to see how empty it was. It wasn't surprising, what with the town being thrown into chaos just about every evening - but she missed the sense of normalcy it once had. She missed seeing familiar faces, and hell, she actually missed going to school. She was sure a lot of students were thankful for the day off, but Claire was one of the rare few who hated holiday break, snow days and summer vacation. She preferred spending her time away from home unless her father was working overtime. Claire moved through the stacks, fingers brushing along the books for something to read. Anything. She didn't even care at this point. Just something to take her mind off of what was happening all around her. It was the movement a few rows over that caught her attention and she bent down just enough to look through the tops of the books into the other aisle. She could see someone moving, but try as she might, pushing up on her toes now, she couldn't catch a glimpse of his face.

So the living will come out in the daylight, she mused, falling back on her heels. Curious now, she walked in the opposite direction than the other person, down her aisle until she casually wandered toward them, pretending to still be searching for something. It was a sad day, when she had to spend her free time stalking some poor innocent schmuck in the library. A sad, sad day.

Who: Claire and Sammy
When: Afternoon
Where: Out and about, heading for Nevermore

With the town seemingly in full destruction mode, Claire's mother had wanted her to stay inside for the day since school had been canceled, but since she had been forced to stay inside all weekend, Claire had been determined to get outside and get some fresh air - if that's what you could call it. The air was stale and smelled of fire and ash. Everything seemed so gray and depressing outside, and she occasionally bent over to pick up trash on the sidewalk and toss it away properly. She ignored the bits of stained blood she passed, greeting a few familiar faces on the street who were also trying to clean up Marquette. She wondered if it would help or make a difference, or if people were cleaning up and boarding broken windows and doors in vain. Would everything start up all over again after sunset? Claire turned the corner onto Washington Street, bending down to pick up what looked to be a broken silver bracelet with tiny heart charms on them. There was a bit of blood dried on the end of it. Rather than throw it away, she pocketed it, thinking maybe by some miracle she could get it back to it's owner.