School (Danny, Rachel, Cai?, Zoe?)

[daniel_marlow]

Danny had stubbornly stayed home from school until Friday, even though he started to feel better near the middle of the week. Rachel's visit on Monday had gotten him to a point where he didn't feel the need to self-harm in order to sleep, but he was too nervous to see anyone else.

Or he was too nervous to see Cai.

Somehow he had successfully avoided seeing any of his friends until lunchtime. It had taken a bit of maneuvering and a small jump behind a rubbish bin, but he had managed it. Lunch was different though. It would be more difficult. But just what in the hell was he supposed to say to his brother now?

He made his way outside, his small lunch gripped in his hands. With a cursory glance across the schoolyard, he didn't see his friends, and he made his way to a bench to eat. Maybe he was going to be able to avoid them all day. Maybe he would be lucky enough t get home and send the rest of the weekend hiding. Could he spend the rest of his life hiding too?

It sounded kind of good at this point.

Comments

[lightningseed.insanejournal.com]

Rachel was going on and on about her debate and Zoe had reached the point where she didn't want to listen any more. She wanted to snap at Rachel to get her to stop her constant stream of words, but she had promised that she was going to try really hard to be nicer. And at least Rachel didn't seem as anxious about the debate anymore, not like last night. Zoe had spent a few long hours at Rachel's helping her form her (really badly written, if Zoe was being honest) notes into a cohesive argument.

Of course, then Danny had emailed through his contributions and Rachel had gone wild for them. It wasn't that they were bad, he had some really good points, Zoe was just irritated that Rachel was giving his words such weight and had stopped listening to her.

Then Zoe had gone home and had to finish her organic chemistry research write up, which she'd been putting off lately because the rest of life had kind of roared up around her ears. She hadn't had nearly enough sleep and she felt annoyed and irrational.

They walked across the quad after their PE class, Rachel nattering on, Zoe with her mental hands over her mental ears, when Zoe spotted Danny. "Danny!" she called over, relieved. Rachel bounced on her heels and dashed over to straddle the bench beside him.

"Danny," she beamed, falling into a hug. Zoe sat down much more sedately on his other side, giving him plenty of space.

[daniel_marlow]

He'd been spotted, and they hadn't even been subtle about it. He sort of gave them an uncomfortable smile, pushing his lunch aside. Then Rachel was in his arms though, and his smile became a little more genuine.

"Hi, guys," he said, flushing bright red. "Uhm...so nice day, hmm?"

[runrachelrun.insanejournal.com]

"S'alright," said Zoe, at the same time as Rachel said "it's gorgeous."

"It's good to see you back at school," Rachel added, smiling at him. "We missed you so much, it wasn't right without you."

[daniel_marlow]

"I just needed to get my head on straight," Danny mumbled. "I think if I tried to stay home today though, my mum would have sent me to hospital. Figured I should probably come in instead."

[runrachelrun.insanejournal.com]

"Yeah, don't go to hospital, hospital sucks," Rachel said, with an emphasising nod. "Stay here with us instead, it's much better. Well, it's still high school," she made a face.

[daniel_marlow]

"I usually like it," Danny said with a shrug. He was sort of considering checking himself into hospital anyway, just so he could get some sleep. He knew the bags under his eyes were not insignificant.

Maybe, though, Cai had decided not to be friends with them after all. The thought made him upset and relieved all at once. Danny honestly didn't know how to face his brother right now, but he didn't want to lose him either.

Conundrums sucked.

"Almost blew chunks in maths. Sorry, that's depressing. How are you guys?"

[runrachelrun.insanejournal.com]

Zoe didn't even bother trying to reply as she assumed Rachel would bulldoze right over her, which she promptly did. "I have my debate in forty minutes," she said, wide eyed. "I've been arguing with myself about it all day - getting really pissed off with how the media messed things up, you know? Like what they chose to focus on during the riots? And stuff they didn't show? And it's like, how are they allowed to do that, you know?"

[daniel_marlow]

"Yeah, media bias is so horrible, but social networking is stepping up to counteract it in a way," he said, bobbing his head. "You'll do great with your presentation. I wish I could come, but I have class too."

[runrachelrun.insanejournal.com]

"Counteract," said Rachel, hooking onto an excellent word she had to remember and use. "Counteract it, yes. I wish you could come too. I should get someone to tape me."

"Not a bad idea," Zoe said, looking up from checking her phone. "It might help for your final presentation."

"Uuugh, I wish this was the final thing," Rachel said, rolling her head back in frustration. "I'm so ready for school to be over."

[daniel_marlow]

"Not too long," Danny said, lifting the corner of his mouth in a smile. "My phone can take videos. Quality isn't great, but you can borrow it if you trust someone in there to video it for you."

[runrachelrun.insanejournal.com]

"But then how will I text you after?" Rachel grinned at him, like texting him afterwards was the part of it she was looking forward to the most. "It's okay mine has video - both of mine," she winked at the both of them. She was still so pleased with her new secret phone.

Zoe said, "Heey, Cai wants to know if we're around." She watched Danny carefully as she spoke. "You alright if he comes over?"

[daniel_marlow]

"Cool," Danny smiled. "I'll have my congratulations ready."

When Zoe mentioned Cai, Danny stiffened. He so thought he was going to get away with this. "Uhhh, sure," he nodded, because it was rude to say otherwise. "'sfine. Just nervous." Danny was kind of sort of terrified Cai would find out he had cut himself. If Cai blamed himself for that, Danny would feel even worse.

[lightningseed.insanejournal.com]

"I can pretend I didn't check my phone at lunch," Zoe offered, seeing him tense up. "If you really aren't up to seeing him."

[daniel_marlow]

Danny shook his head and even though he felt like he actually might vomit, he said, "I have to see him some time. I mean, probably, right? It's fine. I'll be fine."

[lightningseed.insanejournal.com]

"He's been really careful about running into people this week, he said," Zoe explained, as she texted him back. "Just, if you're worried it might happen again."

"I want him to do me," Rachel said, adding quickly. "Hah! Not like that. But, like, magic psychic boy, that's kind of interesting."

[daniel_marlow]

"I'm just- Nevermind," Danny shook his head. There was no way he was letting Cai touch him, so he wasn't worried about that. He was worried about seeing judgement or pity or something worse in his brother's eyes.

Danny didn't know what Cai might see if he touched Rachel, and it seemed as if she didn't either. He just wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close for a moment. "I wonder if he would want to after the other day."

[lightningseed.insanejournal.com]

Zoe shrugged toward Danny. "I don't know. He seems okay."

"Okay," echoed Rachel. "She thinks he's okay. Zoe's been talking to Cai a lot." She grinned suggestively.

"Not a lot," Zoe protested, making a face at Rachel. "Just... some."

[daniel_marlow]

That was enough for Danny to not simply focus on himself. He turned to Zoe and smiled, though he wasn't going to tease her. He wouldn't want to be teased for the way he felt about Rachel.

"Good talks?" he asked, instead of reading into it too much.

[lightningseed.insanejournal.com]

"Sort of," Zoe said. They'd been good in that they'd covered a decent amount of information; visions they'd both had in the past, and how accurately they'd came to pass. That sort of thing. Business talks. Though Cai kept trying to make it personal by jumping in with trivial questions like favourite colour and do you get on with your sister and the like. Zoe generally answered them, mostly out of surprise.

He'd teased her a bit for not having a favourite colour, though.

Which hadn't been horrible.

"Didn't you have a thing to tell us?" Rachel asked, prodding her in the side. Zoe bit the inside of her cheeks. Sometimes Rachel's memory was so vague and sometimes it was annoyingly precise.

But she was right. Zoe did. She took a short intake of breath and said "Yup. But not at school. Are you both free after?" Her chest was feeling tight again, and her voice came out a little squashed.

[daniel_marlow]

"A thing? Sure, I can do talks," Danny said, narrowing his eyes at her. "Are you okay?" he asked, and then he shook his head. "Sorry. After school. I just hope you aren't sick or anything."

[lightningseed.insanejournal.com]

Zoe shook her head, meaning that no she was not sick. She tried to smile at him to back up this claim, too.

Cai poked his head out of the nearest door, his eyes doing a quick sweep of the area before he found them and wandered on over. Zoe had warned him in her reply text that Danny was with them today, but he hadn't had time to get as nervous about it as Danny had.

Mostly he was expecting Danny to get up and leave as soon as he saw him. And because that's what he'd expected, that's what he'd analysed beforehand. Of course Danny would get up and walk away from him; Cai had invaded his worst memories.

But he had to give it a go, just in case Danny didn't walk away.

Besides, his other friends were being - ugh. He had been drifting, this week, between his old group of friends and Zoe's. He was in a weird position where he only wanted to talk to Zoe, to find out everything about her life and what she might know about his abilities. But his old friends were familiar and - well not exactly relaxed, and not exactly easy - but... familiar. And when he'd seen Zoe at school she was not exactly open about anything at all, because this wasn't the right environment to talk, so he felt awkward and not exactly welcome anywhere he went.

But he hadn't had a vision since the weekend. So there was that. He had to look on the bright side. "Well hey," he said, smiling at the trio. "How's today?"

[daniel_marlow]

Danny was still worrying about Zoe when Cai joined them. He glanced aside at his brother, his ears turning bright red. Instead of answering right away, he just chewed his lip, wondering if he could hide behind Rachel.

It was a little too late for that though.

"Uhm. Hey," he mumbled, not really looking at Cai. "Doing okay I guess. Uhm. Heh."

[itsajesusthing.insanejournal.com]

"It's been a weird week, hasn't it?" Cai said, his smile lopsided and understanding. Well, he was doing his best understand. He figured 'weird' was a decent way to sum it up, in an understated kind of way. "Or at least it has been, for me," he added.

[daniel_marlow]

"Well I've just been home, so-" Cai wanted the attention off of himself. He wanted it on someone else so badly that he blurted out, "Zoe's gonna tell us something after school."

Almost immediately, he realised that maybe Cai wasn't allowed to know that, and he flushed a dark red. "I'm sorry! I mean- I didn't mean to- Shit." Unconsciously, as he often did when there were injuries on his thighs, he wrapped his hand into a fist and bounced it up and down on his leg hard enough to cause pain. Sometimes the wounds even re-opened. He didn't even realise he was doing it. Sometimes the pain grounded him but this was different. This was him, punishing himself for blurting out Zoe's plans.

[lightningseed.insanejournal.com]

Zoe smiled at him, a watered down kind of expression. "It's okay," she told Danny. "It's kind of about... stuff he saw. Kind of. It's... stuff I've been keeping to myself for maybe too long." Maybe? Maybe? Zoe still wasn't sure. But she'd promised herself she would try to trust them. And Cai knew. And it felt okay, that Cai knew. Not fabulous, not even approaching good. But okay.

"Ooh, heavy," Rachel said. She started to lean into Danny when she noticed he was hitting himself. "Danny," she whispered, and bumped her hand against his fist instead so see if he'd want to take her hand instead of punching himself.