A Little Help from a Friend

Who: Peyton and Herbert
When: Science class
When: Third period, morning

Peyton wasn't feeling all that well. Most of it was a sick feeling in her stomach from what had happened to Geo and Sammy's parents, but there was something else. A bug maybe, though she prayed she wasn't getting sick. She never missed school, except for days she'd ran into giant snake men, but she figured that had been a good reason. She'd felt off ever since she woke up and had shrugged off her dad's concerns, and then Tyler's as he drove them both to school. She already decided by the end of first period that after she ran her errands after school she'd go home and just sleep, and maybe by morning she'd feel better.

Trudging her way to science, she went directly for the class rather than trying to find Isaac. As much as she wanted to, the idea of sitting down and resting her head on the desk for awhile before she actually had to pay attention was far too tempting to pass up. Herbert wasn't there yet, so she climbed onto the stool, set her bag in front of her and folded her arms against it before resting her cheek against them, watching for Herbert.

Herbert was doing pretty well in the not-so-late department today. He was, in fact, rather early to science, which was good, since he kind of wanted to talk to Peyton. Though he was sure she'd understand, he felt like he ought to confess that her old discman and her newly-burned cds were now at Geo's house. Geo would definitely get more use out of them, but he certainly didn't want her to think he didn't appreciate that she'd given them to him, to begin with. Because he had.

And at the same time, he had to make sure she knew Geo and Sammy were okay, and what all was going on with them, in case she didn't yet.

Thankfully there she was, already sitting in class with her head down on the desk and hair spilling around everywhere. He waved a little on his way in, then set his own backpack down on the desk and mimicked her pose, only turning his face towards her on his arms. "Hallo, Peyton." He paused, then wrinkled his nose in mild distaste and concern, both, when he got a whiff of her. "You don't smell so good."

She would have lifted her head had she the energy to do so. Instead, she arched both eyebrows at him, slightly amused. "Uhm. Thanks? I did shower this morning." She reached lazily around with one hand and grabbed a piece of her hair to bring it to her nose. "Used soap and everything. What exactly smells so bad about me?"

"Oh, nothing like that." He took the hair from her grasp gently and sniffed it, himself. It was long enough; it would reach without him tugging on it. "You smell... sick-ish. And unhappy-ish, but mostly sick-ish. It's a kind of wet-but-musty smell." He was used to categorizing scents for Charlie; he'd just slipped into the habit with Peyton, too, now that she knew. After setting her hair back down across her shoulders and tucking his hand back under his cheek, he asked, "Are you feeling okay?"

She smiled, even if it was a bit weak. Was she that transparent when she didn't feel well? "I'm all right. Things have just been a bit stressful the last couple of days, with Geo's parents and everything." She knew Sammy and Geo were friends with Herbert, so he would know exactly what she was talking about. "I think the past month is finally catching up to me is all." Peyton shrugged and rubbed her cheek against her arm to get more comfortable. "Have you seen Geo lately?"

Untucking that hand again, Herbert reached over to pet her hair slowly, just a couple strokes. It might have come across as patronizing or silly in someone else, but he was just so earnest and gentle about it, it was hard to take it that way from him. "Yeah, I know how you feel, there...." Very, very, very long month. "I saw him Saturday. He texted me and I called back and I kind of bullied him into letting me come see him... I don't think he minded, though. I saw Sammy yesterday. They're both doing... uh, as okay as you'd imagine, I guess.... Have you? Seen them?"

"I've seen Geo, but not Sammy," she admitted with a frown. "I made Geo some food and he slept on my couch for awhile. I don't really know what to do to help and I feel terrible about it. I almost want to give Geo my entire record collection, as if that'd somehow make everything better, which it won't, but at least it'd be something, you know? Because he lost everything else and I don't think saying I'm sorry is really enough." Peyton sighed a bit. "What's worse is he said he didn't really get along with his sister, and he's living with her right now, which I'm sure isn't helping him at all, and he's trying hard to take care of Sammy too..."

"Yeah... I don't like how that house smells." Not that he'd been inside, but he got a good whiff from the outside, and he agreed with the raven-brothers: not a nice place to be living. Herbert agreed to all the rest one-hundred-percent, too. It was what Geo did, try to take care of his brother rather than himself, and he had no idea what to say or two to make anything better. He didn't think anything would. "I wound up giving him the music you made me, and the discman... I hope you don't mind. I figured he'd need it more than me, right now."

Peyton shook her head, the best she could laying on her arms. "I don't mind at all, I'm sure he's thankful for it. I was going to go to Fenton's after school and pick up some records for him too." Even though he didn't have a record player anymore. Maybe she could find one online for cheap. Peyton closed her eyes briefly and then licked her dry lips. She forced herself to lift her head from her arms and ran her hands through her hair. "Do you know if Sammy is here today? I should track him down to say hello if he is..."

"I think he was planning on it," Herbert said tentatively, "but I don't know for sure. If I can find him, I'm thinking I might offer to walk him home from school. Or let him ride on my handlebars, he likes that." And with his hair no longer in those cute little braids, he would have no desire to chew on it-- even better! "Or if I don't find him, I might just wait outside the building and catch him on his way out." They did this sort of thing often enough, Sammy'd probably be half-looking for him anyway.

"I'll see if I can find him later," she murmured. "If you see him after school, let him know I was looking for him." Peyton licked her lips again, ignoring the strange taste in her mouth and wishing she'd brought a bottle of water. Resting her chin in her palms, she sighed. "Every time it seems like things will quiet down for awhile, something else happens. I'm like, bracing myself now... like if I relax, or get comfortable with the normality, I'm going to turn around and get punched in the face with something new and horrifying."

"Rrrr, I know," Herbert grumbled. "I'm not used to this... this worrying and stressing and not knowing what's going to happen next, or what to do about it." He was a bear; he lived for the moment. Trying to figure out what "something new and horrifying" was next down the road was not his specialty. "At least we're all waiting for it together." Which was, to him, the only good thing about it: having other people with him in this whole mess.

Peyton nodded in agreement. That was something, though she would rather her friends not be in danger. But she was glad that she wasn't alone in it, and that maybe she could help somehow in the long run. She might not be anything special, but that didn't mean she was useless. The thoughts sort of faded from her mind and Peyton sniffed, her eyes widening only a bit before she stared blankly down at her bag. Her fingers began to tug a bit at the edges of the material before she started smoothing out the loose threads over and over, a repetitive motion she was unaware of.

"And who knows, maybe nothing will...." Herbert's attempt at optimism trailed off as her breathing and heartbeat changed a little, and not in a way he recognized. He blinked over a her. She didn't really look like she was listening. "Peyton?" he asked curiously, not really concerned at this point.

She was only partially aware of her surroundings and she could hear Herbert say her name. She tried to respond, but nothing overly coherent made it past her lips, and a soft look of distress crossed her features briefly. She continued to fumble a bit with the edge of her bag, motionless but for her hands, tugging at the threads and smoothing them down again and again.

Distress was not good. Neither were unintelligible little sounds. Herbert, frowning with concern now, picked up his head and put a hand on her shoulder. "Peyton? Are you all right?" The teacher was here now, if he needed to-- or she needed him to-- he could get him. He just wasn't sure what was wrong. The movement of her hands was distracting and a little weird, and he put his other hand over them, whether to hold them still, offer comfort, block them out so he couldn't see them, or all three.

There was a flicker of fear and confusion through her and she tried to speak again, the words mumbled. The hand covering hers and hindering her movements distressed her further and she tried to push his away with a small sound. Still staring blankly at her bag, Peyton fumbled a bit more with the edge, tugging hard at the thread in her fingers and tearing the seam before she blinked rapidly seconds later and felt herself push through a hazy veil of consciousness. Her hands stilled and her shoulders slumped as she inhaled slowly. Disoriented, she stared for a second longer before exhaustion and confusion took over. "What?" she mumbled toward Herbert, as if he'd just asked her a question. Had he? "Didn't hear... what..."

The werebear had been on the verge of calling the teacher-- fear, even a little bit, had a very distinctive tang on a person, and if Peyton was afraid at all that meant something was wrong. He even had his mouth open to call his name to get his attention, when Peyton finally snapped out of it and spoke something he could understand. His mouth closed, he gave her a worried look, then he opened it again to ask, "Are you okay? You went all weird and funny-smelling and wouldn't answer me." His hand was still on her shoulder, and though he'd lifted his other one from hers when she pushed it off, he dropped it back down on then again, now.

Her brows drew together in confusion and still feeling fairly out of it, she found the energy to shake her head. "No... I didn't." She blinked again and tried to remember. She felt like maybe she'd napped for a few minutes. "Just fell... asleep, I think..." She didn't know what he was talking about, being funny smelling and... weird. She felt the small slivers of fear still, for some reason and finally realized she was sitting in class, and a couple people were glancing at her. Was she in school? Her cheeks tinted red in embarrassment. "Was... I snoring?" she whispered, horrified.

"No, you weren't asleep," Herbert said, looking even more worried. He did keep his voice down for her, though, so as to not attract so much attention. Embarrassing anyone wouldn't help. "Not unless you sleep with your eyes open and picking at your bag. Maybe we oughta take you to the nurse?" He didn't know about her seizures-- and if he did, he'd forgotten-- so he had no idea what could possibly have happened, except that he knew his friend was sick. He just didn't know that "sick" meant "doing strange things".

She was extremely tired. So much so that she wasn't sure she would make it through class without falling asleep. She was still confused and her mind was struggling to piece together what had just happened. She couldn't remember and after sitting there quietly for a few moments, ignoring Herbert's worried look, Peyton felt her mind finally processing that she'd probably had a seizure. That embarrassed her further since she'd never had a seizure in school before and ohmygod she wished she could remember if she did anything humiliating.

There was a vague memory of Tyler telling her that once during a mild seizure she had started screaming. Another time she'd tried to take off her shirt in the supermarket. God. Though she knew if she had screamed this time or tried to take off her clothes, more than just a couple of people around her would be glancing in her direction. And she doubted the teacher would be so focused on writing today's lessons on the chalkboard. Groggy, Peyton nodded at Herbert. "'kay... nurse..." And coherent sentences would soon come back to her she hoped.

Good. The nurse would know what was wrong. One hand still on her shoulder, Herbert raised his hand and called, "Sir?" The teacher looked over at him in askance. "May we have a hall pass, please?"

All it really took was one look at Peyton's red, drawn face and the teacher nodded, going to write them a quick note. Herbert thanked him and got up. "I'll get your books," he told Peyton quietly, taking her bookbag out from under her hands before she could try to pick it up herself. He'd come back for his. "Just lean on me, okay?"

"Yeah, okay..." She got up, face flushed even a deeper shade of red when people began to look back at her, some whispering. She wanted to crawl under the desk and hide really. Or get out of the room and just lock herself in a bathroom stall. She followed Herbert from the room, holding onto his arm as things felt slightly dizzy. Once they were safely in the hall, she blinked and looked up at him again. "I didn't do anything... embarrassing, right? I mean.. I didn't... say anything or... make any weird noises?" A part of her, the irrational part still trying to pull herself together, wanted to cry. She supposed it could have been worse... she could have woken up on the floor with paramedics surrounding her.

Taking the hall pass note on the way out, Herbert got the bag settled on his shoulder and tucked his free arm around her, for support. People staring and whispering got a nice, intimidating werebear glare, though once outside he dropped it for concern again. "No, nothing. You just played with your bag a bit-- see?" He hefted the bag to show the little tear she made. "And mumbled at me when I tried to talk to you, a little. Peyton, what happened? Are you okay?"

She frowned at the tear in the bag, not remembering. That was always the frustrating part, not remembering what she did, or said. She walked slow, though she was starting to feel a bit better and not so out of it. She licked her dry lips again and lifted a hand to brush some hair from her forehead. "I think I just had a seizure... I'm okay. It's just been stressful the last few weeks... I guess it's catching up to me." Had she taken her medication that morning? God, she couldn't even remember. She'd been too busy worrying about Geo, and thinking about other things... her dad was going to kill her. She'd have to try and bribe the nurse, or beg her, not to call her parents. She could just feign that she was sick, nothing more, and see if she could go home.

"That was a seizure?" Herbert's brows came together in mild confusion. "No offense, the only thing I know about seizures is the shaking kind...." He didn't even know what caused them, what they were, aside from shaking. Though if he had to have Peyton doing weird things compared to Peyton on the ground convulsing, he'd take Peyton doing weird things any day. Still, "seizure" sounded terribly serious, to him. "Are you gonna be okay?"

"I'm okay," she said again, reaching up to rub her eye. She was just dead tired and feeling really foolish. Talking made her feel better. "There's... different kinds of seizures... shaking... those are grand mals... I haven't had a bad seizure like... that in a couple of... months. Most of the seizures I have are partial seizures and... I guess I just stare into space and... do things with my hands. Or talk nonsense... I don't remember any of it, that's just what I've been told by people." She was hesitant about explaining it, though it did give her something to take her mind off of the fact that she'd probably just embarrassed herself in class. It wasn't as if she thought Herbert would make fun of her, but sometimes when she tried to explain her epilepsy, people assumed, suggested or asked if she was mentally ill. "I feel silly."

"Awr, don't feel silly," Herbert said reassuringly. "It's not like you can help it, eh? And I'd rather not see you on the ground in a... grammal seizure, if it's all the same. This kind of thing is lots less scary, 'specially now that I know what it is." He paused, looking around. "Actually, uh. Where is the nurse around here?" He'd had yet to go there. Maybe it was in the offices, with the principal and counselor and things?

Despite feeling like crap, Peyton couldn't help but smile a bit at his pronunciation of grand mal. She motioned ahead when he mentioned the nurse's office. "It's just at the end... of the hall to the left. I'll be okay... if you want to go back to class. I feel a bit better now... maybe I'll just go home and try to sleep." Sleep sounded so good at the moment. "I feel bad doing that in front of you..."

"Better me than someone who might laugh at you," Herbert pointed out-- because yes, he was aware some people might. "And now I'll know and won't get weirded out, and when you're feeling better I'll make you tell me what kinds of things I can do if it happens again." His tone was teasing, on the "make you tell me" part, but he was quite serious. "I'll take you as far as the nurse, then I oughta know where it is, anyway. Do you have someone to pick you up or get you home?"

Peyton flushed a bit at the thought of someone laughing at her. She knew she shouldn't really care. Some people were just idiots, but being laughed at over something she couldn't control... that was why she was so afraid of having seizure in school, of all places. She nodded, however, perfectly fine with telling him what to do should it happen again. She'd rather he know than to panic later if if happened again. She knew how it felt to feel useless when you thought someone needed you. "Uhm, yeah... my dad can probably pick me up." That didn't mean she would actually make him. She would much rather walk than answer her dad's long line of questions on the way home. She motioned to the door of the nurse's office when they got there and reached out for her bag. "Thanks, Herbert."

"You're welcome." He lifted the bag off his own shoulder and set it lightly on hers, then offered her the teacher's note to give to the nurse. "I'll tell Sammy you said hello, eh?"

She took the note and nodded. "Yes, if you don't mind. I'll see if I can catch up with him tomorrow. Bye..." She gave Herbert another small, grateful smile before opening the door and disappearing inside, her mind already shifting to a good fib to tell the nurse that would get her off the hook from having to tell her dad the truth.