who: kaysen and charlotte
where: outside school
when: lunchtime

Things were starting to feel a bit more 'normal', but Charlotte was still having an all around bad time with life in general at the moment. School was still weird without Lullaby there, and her home life wasn't much of a break. Valen was stressed out and taking it out on anyone who happened to be nearby. And oh yeah, the nightmares had never gone away after coming back again. Charlotte didn't have much of an appetite anymore, but at this point felt like she needed something to give her energy. So, food was a necessity. Even if she wasn't a fan of noisy cafeterias at the moment.

Kaysen wasn't either. She never actually braved the cafeteria, though when she was walking by, she spotted Charlotte. "Hey, Charlie." she said, just loud enough that the other girl could hear her, or she thought so anyways. She hoped so, she didn't want to have to draw actual attention to herself.

Charlotte turned at the sound of Kaysen's voice, and actually managed a smile. It was much more genuine than anything she'd had recently. She missed Kaysen. Charlotte had been a little preoccupied lately. Hiking her bag up her shoulder, she headed over to the redhead. "Hi, Kaysen." she returned. "How's it going?" Felt like kind of a weird question, but... it was good as any, what with all of the crazy.

"You're not for really going in there, are you?" Kaysen asked, eyeing the lunch room warily. She felt exposed just standing near it, and started walking. "C'mon, I'll buy you a pizza roll or something." she added, starting to head outside. "And um. Okay. Things're kinda insane. How about you?" she asked, but only once they were outside.

Charlotte blinked, but didn't hesitate. She walked with Kaysen. "I have food," she said, lamely. She always had something in her bag, usually at least an apple stashed away by her mother when Charlotte wasn't looking. "I'm okay. Define 'insane'?" Lately, insane could mean anything from 'I'm floating in the abyss' to 'spider-monkeys invaded my home this morning and killed my father'.

Kaysen flushed dark red, and didn't know how to say it. "Um. Well...you remember Chance, right?" she asked, voice tiny, and she was practically squeaking. God, this was probably lame of her. Like, some girl had just died and things were all stupid all over the place, and here she was, geeking because she'd like...got a boyfriend. For real n stuff.

"He threatened to kill me and a dozen or so other people if you didn't come back alive." Charlotte said, with a slight nod. "That Chance?" She didn't say it with any animosity or ill feelings, that was just how she remembered Chance. As that guy she'd thought for a moment could probably put up one really strong fight against Herbert if the car ride got any more uncomfortable.

Kaysen made a face at that, even if Charlotte didn't sound like she held it against him. "He didn't mean it." she said immediately. "I asked him and he told me and he's just an overly angry asshole sometimes, he wouldn't have done anything." And now she was defending him. Aginst a girl who hadn't even said anything bad or untrue. "Sorry." she added quickly.

Charlotte shook her head. "It's okay. I don't mind. I understand where he was coming from and stuff." Yes, okay, he was intimidating and possibly insane, but intimidating and possibly insane with good intentions. Probably. And being killed would have been preferable to her mother finding out anyway. "What about Chance?"

Kaysen walked for a good three minutes fretting, staring at her shoes as they went, and trying to figure out wording, which so didn't work out for her. "Um. Well. There's...I mean..." she stammered, totally failing in vocabulary. "He'skindamyboyfriendnow." she mumbled out all in a rush so it was really just one big unintelligible word.

Charlotte frowned and furrowed her brow as she tried to figure out what Kaysen had said. Once she did it gave her pause, and she blinked at her before she started walking again. "Okay." she said, smiling a little bit. She'd thought they were together before, and remembered how freaked out Kaysen had gotten at the mention of it. "Um... congratulations?" She wasn't really sure what one said in this sort of situation.

The 'okay' gave Kaysen pause, and she panicked, feeling like she shouldn't have said anything and maybe she and Charlie weren't good enough friends for her to say anything. She was in full panic mode, and she looked it too. "Um, forget it, I just, nevermind." she mumbled quickly, kind of wondering how to backtrack, or start on some other subject, but she totally didn't have one that wasn't 'so how are you dealing after the death' which was just worse.

Charlotte frowned again and quickly shook her head. "No, I didn't mean it as a bad thing." she said, hurriedly. "No nevermind. I just... never had a friend that had a boyfriend before." Not that she'd had a ton of human friends anyway, and animal mating was so much less complicated. "I'm new to this role. But really... congratulations. You seem freaked out. I'm sorry."

"I just!" Kaysen started, but she didn't know what to say, and she still didn't know how to continue. "I dunno, it's just...I never had one before and I think my brother might be mad and I think my parents would just look at me like I grew another head because they don't even expect people to talk to me much less that I'd have a boyfriend and things just kind of went in a different direction and I'm just gonna be quiet now. Sorry." she rambled. Kaysen could flail with the best of them.

Wow. Charlotte had stopped walking entirely in attempts to keep up with what Kaysen had said. "...Let's sit down." she suggested, simply because she wasn't sure she'd be able to keep up both mentally and phsycially. She'd seen Kaysen be flaily before, but this was sort of different. Paranoia she was much more used to, and rambling she could usually keep up with. Even if it confused her. "First things first... you think your brother is mad? Why?"

"No, I think my brother would be mad." Kaysen said, totally not sure if that's what she said or not, but better correct herself now. "But I dunno. Like, he knew Chance got me flowers before n stuff. Recently. But this might be different, I dunno. So I don't wanna make him upset and with everything else going on lately, he's been really stressed out. Like, massively stressed out." There was a bench outside of Lake Superior Pizza, and Kaysen dropped down onto it. "And so I don't want to pile anything else on him but at the same time I figure if he doesn't hear it from me he'll be mad about that too."

Charlotte wished she had siblings, right now just for the perspective. She sat down next to Kaysen and pulled her legs up to sit indian style across from her. "Does he not like Chance? Or just... not want you to date at all?" Maybe he was really overprotective. Really, right now, she wouldn't blame him for it. The two of them had been through a lot. A lot more than most people ever, ever would.

"Not really, he's a senior, and like, he has a really bad reputation and everything, and some of it's true, like fights n stuff, and all that crap but I mean it's not like he's bad to me or anything, cuz he's really not, he's really sweet to me and at first I didn't believe any of it but he kept trying and stuff and putting up with me and now I do, and--" she stopped to draw in a deep breath. Kaysen made an attempt to calm herself down, but yeah that didn't work out so awesomely well. "Anyways I know I'll have to say something I just don't know how or what and I'm supposed to go hang out with Chance after school anyways so maybe tonight. Like. Later."

Charlotte nodded and thought it over. Okay, yeah, she could see where Isaac might have a problem. "I think he needs to hear it from you." she offered. "Maybe if you're freaked out you and Chance could talk to him together. Or I could go for moral support but that might just annoy Isaac. But... it's not like he has a choice in this boyfriend thing, right? As long as Chance makes you happy..."

"I definitely think us talking to him together would be the worst thing I could ever imagine." Kasyen said first. Because yeah totally. "No, I'll tell him. Like...tonight. I guess. And no, he doesn't, but he's still my big brother, and I don't wanna make him upset he's got enough going on." Kaysen knew her brother when he was down and he'd been down for a while now. She could tell.

Charlotte nodded again. Yeah, that might seem like he was being ganged up on. "What about the other stuff you said?" she asked, since she realized her advice in the sibling department was going to kind of suck. "Your parents?"

"I'm less worried about what they'll say and more about Isaac." Kaysen said honestly. "I mean, they don't really get me. And they've been like, amazingly better since I went missing n stuff, but that doesn't mean that they understand me any more than they did before that happened, and I actually don't have any idea what they'd say if I told them I was actually kinda dating someone."

Charlotte was about to say that they had to be expecting it someday, but she thought better of it. This was, in fact, Kaysen, and her parents had known her a lot longer than Charlotte had. So not mentioning that, then. "I'm sure Isaac will be worried about you, but would he really be angry?" She had to ask honestly, she didn't know Isaac well enough to guess for herself.

Kaysen thought about that. "I don't think like...at me." she said after really truly setting her mind to it. "But I don't think he'll be happy, either. I do think he'll be worried. I think he was anyways, and this'll just make it kinda sorta worse." She sighed.

Well, it seemed like a start to Charlotte that Kaysen could see that he wouldn't be angry with her. "I don't think there's anything you can do about him being worried." she offered, gently. "I think that's kind of a given and you need to go with the lesser of all evils. Getting it over with sooner rather than later and all. He'll be worried no matter what, but maybe in time he'll see it's a good thing?" If it was a good thing. It was probably a good thing, scaryness of Chance aside. Maybe it would help Kaysen a little.

"Maybe. I dunno. Hopefully." Kaysen said, looking over towards the pizza place again. "Want that pizza roll I mentioned?" she asked. There were other things on her mind, but she didn't think she could actually say any of them. Besides, the other stuff was kinda squicky, and so yeah. Noooo talkies.

Charlotte offered a small smile and nod. "Sure." she said, slowly standing up. "Um... sorry I haven't been around much." she offered. She'd been feeling bad about that. "If you're up to it I thought maybe we could start getting together after school again and stuff."

"That'd be cool, and don't worry about it. i don't think anyone's been that around. Everything's been totally schizo stupid lately, so yeah. It's not a big deal. At all." she assured Charlotte honestly. Kaysen knew all about the crazy, and she didn't figure it was any better for Charlie just cus she hadn't lived here long. It was still crazy.

Charlotte nodded again. "Anything else been going on?" she asked, feeling a little out of the loop. She felt like she'd kind of been living in her own little bubble the past week or so. "Or just the Isaac worries? Um, not that the Isaac worries aren't enough."

"Beyond the weirdest time to hook up with someone in the history of man?" Kaysen asked. "Not really. Besides like...feeling like the entire world went to total hell. I dunno what to do about it. And I feel like I should be able to, but um, yeah no. Like I've got...special stuff..." she said, refering to her fire elementalism. "And it isn't even remotely helpful."

"It was helpful when you were away." Charlotte pointed out, not about to let her forget that. "It can't be helpful all the time, you're not... like... female Jesus or something." She wasn't sure if that was comforting or not, but she was trying. "At least you've got something good out of it. I don't think the timing matters."

"Seems like it does." Kaysen said. "Oh well, guess not. Anyways--I'll get the pizza rolls, then we can walk back. Maybe you can tell me what's been up with you lately." she suggested, heading into the very small shop to grab quick, totally bad for them food.

Charlotte followed her in, giving a faint shrug as she did. Nothing was ever up with her. "I haven't really been doing anything." she said, feeling a bit lame. "I, um... I went to Lulu's house the other day. That was it."

"Yeah?" she asked as she got the pizza rolls, and handed one of the aluminum foil wrapped things to Charlie, stepping back out again. Kaysen waited for her. "I heard people were allowed to go there. But...yeah. I didn't know her well enough. What was it like?" she asked. Maybe it was a morbid question, but she couldn't help it.

"Thanks." Charlotte said, taking hers. "I owe you one." She followed Kaysen outside, debating the question a moment. "Really weird." she finally answered. "I didn't take anything, I guess I just kind of wanted to go. It felt really alive, like she was gonna come in at any second. I'd never even been in her room before but I could just see her living in there with no problem at all."

Kaysen listened, and nodded as she did so, eating as she walked. "I know Isaac wasn't doin so well with it. I think it kinda plays in with everything else though. Like...like bad things are happening and they don't seem to be stopping. That and they seem to keep getting worse. Which makes you wonder like...what's next that's worse? What would even qualify?"

Charlotte wasn't sure she wanted to think about that, it seemed to be tempting fate to do so, but at the same time she couldn't exactly help it. "They are getting worse." she agreed, after eating a bit. "And it's just... constant. Valen's really stressed out, my house is basically... miserable right now. How's Isaac doing now? Is he getting... any better?" She kind of doubted it. He was lost in the magical mirror land of doom, and then his friend died. That was a lot of levels of Not Good.

"I dunno. I know he like, tries to keep from looking upset around me." Kaysen said. "But I can kinda tell. Like, when he's not really looking at me, or he doesn't know I walked into the room yet? Maybe he's doing slightly better but not like, a ton or anything. I dunno how to help though. Whenever I get around I think I open my mouth too much and make things worse."

It occured to Charlotte for the first that now that Isaac definitely knew what Kaysen was - a fire elemental - maybe it would be a little weird to have a sibling that was something 'special' if you weren't. Special or different or whatever it was. She wasn't about to risk Kaysen feeling worse, though. "I could see where he'd want to be strong for you and stuff." she offered. "I don't think anyone knows what to say about anything right now."

'Yeah. I know. I guess I'm just used to Isaac knowing what to do. And like, if he doesn't? Then Thom does. That's the way it's always been, and now I don't know if either of them do." Kaysen admitted in a quiet tone. "I think even Thom's worried about me. And I dunno what to say, cuz like, I'm worried about them, y'know? Thom...he's always been like this annoyingly perfect guy. Like, nothing ever happens that he's not prepared for, and now it seems like he isn't prepared, and it's wigging me out. And at the same time, it makes me worry about him cuz if he's not dealing well, then um, that's bad. Same with Isaac. I'm not used to him being thrown either, he's my brother. He's like...able to do anything." Only not, anymore. On either of their scores.

Charlotte had only met Thom at the mines, but he had seemed pretty collected. "So your world is basically turned upside down." she summed up. "I'm really sorry." She still felt bad about involving Kaysen in the mines, though she knew Isaac and Thom would have got involved either way. Why did all the awfulness of this place have to happen around them? They were too young to deal with any of this stuff. Actually, I could probably be forty and still deal with this all pretty horribly. "I feel like we need to form a support group or something. But we'd probably all get committed."

Kaysen shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. But not like...support groupy. More like a weekly report on any weird shit going on, so we can all know what's going on." she said absently, not really thinking about the full impact there, or what could be the full impact.

Charlotte nibbled thoughtfully on her pizza roll, and wondered if that might actually be a good idea. Or... a start. "We could." she replied. "We're probably all going through the same 'waiting for it to get worse' paranoia. At least that way we'd know we're not doing it alone. Or that if something does go wrong we'll hear about it."

"...could um. Could do it after school. Or like, at lunch time. Call it a book club or something." she said. "If it's a club thing, could proably even get a room set aside for meetings, and time during school to do it." Kaysen continued. Then paused. "Wait, are we thinking on this for real?" she asked.

"Quite possibly." Charlotte answered Kaysen. "We could set up some kind of system where if something happens we'll e-mail each other. We could ask other students that had been involved with the mines, too. Herbert, and um..." Darnit, she didn't remember all of their names. "Dean. Thom and Isaac's girlfriends... I, uh, don't remember their names." she said, sheepishly.

"Peyton, and um. Thom's girlfriend isn't his girlfriend anymore. But her name was like, Leija or something." Kaysen remembered because of the star wars reference. "And um, Chance. What was Lullaby's boyfriend's name? He was there too. Not that he's in school, or anything, but like, I dunno." She shrugged. "Emails or texting. If we were gonna do stuff, maybe we'd have like. Someone to report in to. Like, in case anything happened? And if someone didn't, then people could know sooner. Instead of like, waiting to be missing for a few days."

"Joshua." Charlotte answered quietly. "I have his number, I could ask him if he wanted to be part of it." It seemed so wrong that they were thinking on doing something like this and Lullaby wouldn't be involved. "I think it's a good idea. Maybe it's not quite a support group, but it could help. That way we're not just waiting for something to go wrong... we'll all have talked about it beforehand and we can have an idea of what to do when it does."

"Yeah." Kaysen said, chewing at her bottom lip as she stopped to toss the tinfoil in the trash as they walked back into MSHS's parking lot. She was still kind of not thinking about it like support, but like, an early warning system. Or something. It did make her nervous, though. It wouldn't stop her, but it made her nervous.

Charlotte tossed her foil away as well, the wheels inside her head spinning quickly. "...I think we should do it." she finally said, hesitantly raising her eyes to meet Kaysen's. "We have the weekend ahead of us to ask around, we could all get together on Sunday or even Monday at school."

That was jolting. Putting a day on it. "O-okay." Kaysen said. "Um. Who's organizing this? Who's saying? Am I gonna be telling like, Chance, my brother and Thom?" she asked. Why that thought was a bit panic inducing she didn't know. Probably because she felt like she didn't do this stuff. She was just Kaysen St. James. She didn't organize useful stuff, she just skukled around and tried to remain as invisible as possible.

Kaysen looked freaked out. "I can do it if you don't want to." Charlotte promised. "I can find us a place and a time, and I'll talk to Joshua and Herbert and find Dean. It'd be easier if you can get Chance, Isaac, and Thom, but I understand if you'd rather I do it. Would it be weird if we asked Leija to be there?"

"No no, I can do it." Kaysen said, sounding more confident than she felt. "I'll um, I'll do it tonight." she assured Charlie. "And I dunno, honestly. Like, I know she broke up with Thom, and I know he wasn't cool about it. Maybe I'll ask Isaac first. See what he says." Because she didn't want to make things all weird.

"I won't try to talk to Leija until I hear from you then." Charlotte replied. The last thing she wanted was to make their current reality even worse for someone. "Do you think there's a time or place we should shoot for? I'll ask about getting time during school."

"I have no idea." Kaysen said. "So like, whenever? Whenever you think." she said, leaving that part in Charlotte's hands, because she didn't know, and she didn't have the experience to draw from either. Clubs? Um yeah no. Not in her lifetime.

"Well... if I can't figure something else I'll shoot for during lunch on Monday." Charlotte decided. She was brand spankin' new to this, too. "Like before the mines, I guess. I'll call or text you tonight and let you know if I figure anything else out or hear from anyone."

"Kay." Kaysen said, as they headed back up the steps to the building. "Sounds good?" she suggested. "I'll um. Like I said. Talk to the guys tonight." Which sounded insanely weird. The Guys. Like she had a bunch of them or something. But weirdly, she guessed she did. Other than that it was just Charlie. So yeaaah. Her life was weird.