< HSoS 68 | High School Of Scenes | HSoS 70 >
< HSoS 61 | H So S Timeline | HSoS 64 >
Furud hangs out during lunch break.
Polaris hangs out with Furud, almost in an out of character clingy fashion
Maia sees Furud, veers towards him, sees Polaris, veers away, and kind of circles, before coming in uneasily.
Furud "Pol, why are you being so clingy?" He's distracted, and restless.
Polaris "Big test. I might score less than perfect. Oh, and here comes the kill- Maia."
Merope leans against a wall, frowning, tapping a pencil against her cheek.
Furud "I'm pretty sure I scored less than perfect. Don't worry about it."
Maia "Hi Polaris. I have your bag. What the hell did you mean about getting me in trouble?" Maia spares Merope a distracted glance.
Polaris takes her bag and pulls out a book, then unfolds it to the middle showing her some papers clearly labeled NASA. They are all plan diagrams.
Maia squints, then shrugs at Polaris.
Furud waves a little at Merope
Merope keeps looking down at her feet every minute or so.
Polaris "If you got caught with these, it would be less than good."
Merope nods at Furud.
Polaris stuffs it all back away
Maia "Isn't it dangerous to walk around with classified materials in your backpack?"
Furud keeps an eye on Maia and Polaris, to make sure they're getting along more or less.
Merope looks unusually pale.
Polaris smiles a bit, "No one knows I still have copies. I was supposed to turn them all in."
Maia "Doesn't that...you know...make it MORE dangerous, not less?"
Maia "What is it, anyway?"
Furud wanders over and leans against the wall next to Merope.
Polaris looks at Maia blankly, and now takes her turn to shrug
Polaris "We are all one big poster for safety after all."
Merope "Hey." says Merope, in a slightly higher voice than normal.
Maia shrugs again, in acknowledgement.
Maia "Listen, I'm..."
Maia "I didn't..."
Maia "I didn't expect that to happen to your hand."
Furud "You okay?"
Polaris "Bad things happen a lot around here, I'm getting used to it... thanks though."
Merope "It happens most when I'm distracted. Or just emotional, or stressed..." She looks down at her feet again.
Maia "I guess bad things do happen a lot around here."
Maia "What happens, Merope?"
Polaris turns to Merope
Merope makes a face, and looks pleadingly at Furud.
Furud follows her gaze down, and realizes why she keeps looking down. "Ah, yeah." he says helpfully. "So you've been pretty stressed out lately?"
Merope "Yeah, stressed..."
Furud gives Maia a 'later' wave.
Maia raises an eyebrow at Furud, then looks back at Merope.
Polaris "What? Did you gain a pound or two?"
Maia "Well. Happy birthday."
Merope "Huh? Oh, yeah, birthday. Thanks." she scowls at Pol, but her heart isn't really in it. She whispers to Furud. "Can we get away from these two?"
Polaris wonders suddenly why she doesn't know Mero's birthday and looks confused
Polaris then suddenly nods to herself like she figures something out
Furud "Yeah, sure." He whispers back, then speaks up. "We'll be back in a minute."
Maia shrugs again, this time exasperated, and sits back against the wall.
Furud crosses the hallway, far enough that they won't be easily overheard.
Polaris studies Maia, "This is a hard time for me, SA Ts?. How about you?"
Merope "I can't concentrate, Furud. I keep thinking I'm going to end up hovering a foot above my chair because I got too focused on a math problem! This test is deciding my whole life and I have to spend half of it looking at my feet. This isn't FAIR."
Maia "Eh."
Maia "I don't know if I'm even going to college."
Polaris "So you don't care?"
Merope "And god damn do I not need Polaris right now. And she knows! You KNOW what she's like, she might tell anyone, even if she doesn't mean to. The stuff she'll just come out with..."
Merope "And Maia, does she know? I told Heka on Thursday and now I feel like I have this whole secret and I can't stop it getting out and somethings just goign to happen, Furud, I can feel it."
Furud puts his hands on her shoulders, facing her, "First of all... Calm down, Merope." He says quietly. "I'll watch you okay? If I see anything start to happen, I'll cough or something."
Merope tries to breathe.
Maia "Well."
Furud "I haven't told anyone. I thought you would want to be the one to tell people. I know how this is a sensitive issue for you."
Maia "I like to succeed."
Polaris "See, its different for me. Its not like I can fight, or I'm in a rock band, or I can fly, or whatever. Its like a challenge."
Polaris looks down
Polaris "I mean, what if I'm not as smart as I think I am? What then?"
Maia glances at Polaris, then slides to the ground.
Maia "Look, I don't really...I don't really like you that much. But listen."
Maia "You don't need anybody to tell you you're smart, or you're special, or whatever, in order to have value, okay?"
Polaris nods
Maia "You're good enough. No matter what happens. You're enough."
Polaris "I know that. Its me that doubting me."
Maia "Also, I can't actually fly. That's just a rumor. Or metaphor or something."
Polaris "No, but the girl missing from my dream can."
Maia shakes her head. "What?"
Merope takes a deep breath, nodding. "Okay. Thanks."
Merope "Anyway, there's um... there's something else."
Polaris blinks, "huh. What part of the statement is in question?"
Furud looks at Merope steadily, "You're going to be fine." He lets his hands drop from her shoulders. "What else?"
Merope "On Friday the principal called me in, and..." she looks around for a second "I think he knows something, Furud."
Maia "What dream? What girl? None of that made any sense."
Furud "I wanted to warn you about that... but I didn't see you."
Furud "Did you tell him anything?"
Merope looks at Furud in surprise.
Polaris "It made sense, you just lack the obvious references."
Merope "What? Wait, you knew?"
Polaris "I had a dream. In this dream I gathered up all the stars, all of you, except our girl Mero over there."
Furud "He called me in Friday morning." He clenches his fists unconsciously
Maia "How would any of that be obvious to me?"
Maia "Also, Merope can fly?"
Merope "Oh, crap. So he's on to both of us?"
Maia "That's...that's...not very useful."
Furud frowns "Maybe we should talk after the test is over."
Polaris "Obvious is all in the point of view, maybe not obvious for you surely."
Maia "Yeah."
Polaris "Yes, flying is overrated. Though it has some kind of sexual connotations in dreams as I understand it."
Merope "I mean, I didn't tell him I could fly or anything. It was weird... he was sort of..."
Maia "If I ever have a dream, I'll keep that in mind."
Maia glances at Polaris. "What did you do to dream, exactly?'
Furud "Yeah... we should talk about that, too."
Furud "Mostly he just thinks you're still in my gang, probably."
Polaris "I'd like to say it took a lot of effort, but the first time I simply took too much valium by mistake."
Polaris "The other times though, they have been difficult. And you can't sleep long."
Maia "That seems...dangerous."
Polaris "You're funny. You are easily the most dangerously minded person here, but the first to call someone else on it."
Polaris chuckles
Merope looks at Furud oddly. "What do you know about him?"
Maia "What do you mean, dangerously-minded?"
Furud "Not as much as I want to. You might want to ask Maia about him."
Merope "What? Why?"
Polaris "Its like you seek out trouble, which naturally leads to danger."
Furud "I guess she knows him pretty well."
Maia "I don't seek out trouble. Trouble is fucking everywhere."
Polaris "So maybe then you lack the natural instinct to avoid it."
Merope "Uh.. okay." She exhales, deeply. "I can't even think about this now. I just gotta try and answer some questions without my hair brushing the ceiling."
Furud "Right. You studied hard, right? You'll be fine. I'll keep an eye out for you, I promise."
Merope "Thanks." She smiles, but still looks pale.
Maia glances at Polaris. "Look who's talking."
Polaris just smiles
Furud gives her a quick hug.
Furud heads back towards the others, with Merope
Merope "I mean, it was just so weird. He was asking us both questions, and then that afternoon he ends up in hospital."
Merope "You don't think there's a connection, do you?"
Furud "I'll tell you my theory on that afterwards too."
Merope "I mean, ok, there was a fire, but how'd he get hurt that badly?"
Merope is now within earshot of Maia. "It just doesn't make sense..."
Furud "Have you been to visit him or something?"
Maia "What doesn't?" Maia eyes Merope strangely.
Merope looks at Furud. "Okay, so you know something but you don't want me to worry about it. Okay. Well, thanks for trying to help me pass the test." She smiles. "We'll talk after, 'kay?"
Furud smiles. "Yeah. Sounds good."
Merope She looks at Maia. "Oh we were talking about what happened to Johnstone. Weird, right?"
Merope looks at Furud. "Maybe I should talk to you about this later..."
Maia "Weird," echoes Maia.
Maia "That's probably not the word I would use, but yeah."
Furud looks over at Maia
Maia gives Furud a look at exactly the same time.
Furud "Definitely weird."
Maia "Furud, come here for a second."
Maia walks off in the same direction Furud just came from.
Merope looks between the two of them.
Furud turns to Merope, "I'll be right back." He smiles reassuringly and walks after Maia.
Merope "Oh god, I can't worry about this right now! I need to remember how to add up!" she says, mostly to herself.
Polaris looks over at Mero, "Now its just you and me butterfly."
Maia leans into Furud and hisses, "Don't tell her what happened."
Merope looks down at Pol.
Furud "She's one of us."
Merope She frowns for a few seconds and then says, "Pol.. look, about Tuesday night, on the bridge. You understand that what you saw then, you can't just tell anyone about that, right?"
Maia "Everybody at this fucking school is one of us, Furud."
Maia "She's not one of US one of us."
Furud crosses his arms.
Polaris "Oh that. Who cares about that. I'm sorry I didn't remember your birthday though."
Polaris "I keep forgetting they you are the one star that I don't know almost anything about, the missing one."
Furud "What exactly are you trying to accomplish by not telling Merope? Johnstone called her in on Friday. She knows he knows something."
Merope frowns, having been looking urgently toward the door back into the hall. "What? Missing one?"
Maia "I am trying to prevent her from freaking out, doing something stupid, or telling three other people. What part of 'secret' didn't come across?"
Maia "Let me handle Johnstone."
Polaris "Its a long story, but I know almost everything about the kids named after stars here, but very little about you."
Polaris "In fact, I think its likely you can do more than just that levitation trick."
Furud shifts, his expression hardening. "I still don't trust him."
Merope looks at Polaris in alarm. "Don't talk about that! Where are you... wait..."
Maia "That's good."
Polaris "Geez Mero, get a grip."
Merope "Shit, it's you, isn't it? That's how Johnstone has...." She clams up quickly. "Leave me alone, Polaris."
Maia "But that doesn't mean you should react violently to everything he does."
Maia "Remember. He doesn't know you know."
Maia "I want to keep it that way. Okay?" She's pleading, a little.
Polaris "Why? What did I do?"
Furud "He called me in his office Friday. He knows I know he knows SOMETHING. He was asking me about theories and everything."
Polaris moves closes to Merope, "If anything, I think I need to get closer to you. I think we all do. beat Maybe that is why I gathered us all."
Merope has moved away, her head spinning.
Polaris follows her, "Mero?"
Maia "He doesn't know you know what I'm saying you know because you DIDN'T KNOW until last night."
Maia "We need better goddamn vocabulary for this conversation."
Merope "I can't deal with all this right now! Just stay away from me!"
Merope is now speaking loudly enough to attract the attention of the other students.
Maia hears Merope raise her voice and looks back in concern.
Polaris "But... you need us."
Polaris "I'm sure of it."
Furud looks over at Merope, "Pol, leave her be."
Furud calls
Maia "Merope, what the hell is up with you?"
Maia "You're freaking out."
Maia looks back at Furud and cocks an eyebrow meaningfully.
Polaris looks like she is going to yell at Furud for just a second but then backs down and slumps against the wall
Furud turns to Maia, "I'm going to tell her some of it. Not everything."
Furud "If you want to be there, fine."
Merope runs over to where Maia and Furud are, trying to avoid Pol. "Look, Pol is spying on us damnit! She knows stuff, she's saying she gathered us here!"
Furud cocks an eyebrow at Maia, then turns to Merope
Merope has gone very pale now.
Furud "That's just a dream, Mero."
Maia "Yeah, she had some kind of weird thing. Don't let it bother you."
Merope "I swear, she knows stuff! Johnstone has to be getting his information from somewhere!"
Maia "Information about what?"
Maia "What are you talking about?"
Furud mutters to himself, "Christ."
Merope is trying with not great success to keep herself to an urgent whisper.
Furud "I hate this fucking school."
Merope "Furud, I'm freaking out here."
Maia "Yeah, no shit."
Maia "So stop fucking doing it."
Furud puts an arm around Merope, "Listen, we're going to be okay. Maia, shut up."
Maia "Answer my goddamn question."
Maia "What the hell do you think you know about Johnstone?"
Maia "Furud, I fucking told you."
Furud "Stop freaking out, Maia. I haven't said anything." he growls
Polaris comes over to join then, hanging out behind Furud who pretty much eclipses her totally
Furud knuckles his forehead.
Furud "Polaris, have you talked to the principal lately?"
Furud looks behind himself
Polaris "Nope. But I did do some work for him on star charts a while back."
Furud "Do you still have the charts?"
Maia "You what?"
Maia "Yeah. That's also a good question."
Polaris "I have the source documents on my pc. I also sent a copy of them to Lacerta a while back."
Furud "I'd like a copy too, please."
Maia "Merope."
Furud "But printed. I don't want it to be traceable to me."
Maia gets right up into her face, stiff-arming Furud.
Polaris "Sure. Its just about star paths and crossings and such in the sky thousands of years ago. Pretty boring."
Merope backs away a step.
Maia "What. Are you talking about."
Merope "I...I..I..I don't even know, Furud knows more than I do. Just let me go fail my test now, ok? This... later. Please?"
Furud steps back as he's shoved, caught off guard. "Maia, leave her alone!" He snaps. "We're going to TALK AFTERWARDS."
Maia "I have somewhere to BE after the SA Ts?. Don't...just don't do anything...bad."
Maia "Okay?"
Furud "There was a lot LESS bad happening a minute ago!"
Maia sighs.
Maia "Sorry, Merope."
Maia "We'll talk about it later, okay?"
Maia "We should...probably get back inside."
Merope "It's okay... it's okay. I'm sorry too. Let's... let's just go."
Maia "Yeah."
Maia grabs Polaris on the way back in.
Maia "Listen."
Maia "You're pretty fucking smart."
Furud 's fuzzy feelings towards Maia have evaporated once more.
Maia "But there's more to being smart than being good at the SA Ts?."
Maia "Like not getting people to be really pissed at you for no apparent reason."
Maia "Good luck."
Polaris just looks kind of vacant and shocked
Announcer "All students please return to their seats."
Maia does.
Announcer "Testing will begin in five minutes. Please return to your seats."
Polaris shambles off, stowing her bag in a locker along the way.
Furud pauses to punch a locker and then rest his head against it for a minute, then grabs ahold of his temper again and slouches back to the hall.
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