+Anima the Roleplay part 2 (Because part 1 was burried alive.)

((Thank you, Nathaniel. *huggle* I love you.))

Caresa swallowed, trying to compose herself.

"I... I'm fine," she stammered, knowing that she was very unconvincing. She stayed close to the back of the seat, listening and watching the storm all around them. This wasn't going very well. She hoped they would stop soon... maybe she should tell her where she lived. She was beginning to feel slightly lightheaded now. How was this happening? Everything had been fine before... she sighed raggedly, and tried to imagine she was somewhere quiet and safe and alone, and not burdening Ms. Pierce. She was so kind to pick her up like this...

"T-Thank you," she said, quietly, out of almost nowhere. "For picking me up, I mean."

She glanced out the window to see that they were near the hill... near that tree. With the cross, where the Beasts' leader was murdered the year before. And there was someone there, barely visible in the rain, like a ghost. It could be anyone... maybe someone who'd known the leader, paying his respects. But who would do that at a time like this? She looked closer, trying to get some idea of who was there.
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Aidan began feeling the machine he was inside begin to shift, began to hear some sort of muffled roars around him, wind pressing water against the vehicle. He slowly began to open his eyes, the pain in his body still dulled. It was sort of blurry for a second, but he realized he was in a car, with rain pounding on the windows, like driving through a waterfall at night.

Last he remembered, he was on the ground in the hospital. Maybe being carried. But it was all so cloudy...

"W-Where am I?" he whispered, hoarsely. "What's going on?"

Mrs. Pierce knew that Caresa was lying, but she could last until they got her home. Jade knew a little bit about medicine, he could take care of her. Karen chuckled lightly to herself about how his new girlfriend would feel about him patching up another woman. Oh the troubles of young love. She heard Caresa thank her. "It's no problem honey. I couldn't leave a young thing like you out in the rain. It wouldn't be right." she said, dreading the thought. She pulled up in front of the hill, and looked up at the tree. "Poor Jade." she said to herself, immediately identifying her son. She looked back to Caresa. "I'm sorry about making you wait like this, but Jade will come when he's ready." she told the young girl.
___

Jade stood, and stared at the cross. "Is this what you wanted? You used to always ask us. "Why can't you love us +Anima?"" Jade asked the pieces of wood. "Is this what you meant? All this guilt? Self hatred? Alienation? What is it you wanted from me? Because I feel the love. And for every ounce of love, I'm dying more and more." he said.
___

"Crap" Muttered Roger. Hearing Aiden from the back seat. He wasn't supposed to be up yet. Roger turned his head to look back at the boy, only for a second. He needed to come up with a plan, before Aiden started asking more questions.

((I love getting on during school...))

Caresa listened to Mrs. Pierce's chuckles, as quiet as they were. She wondered what she was thinking about. As they went up the hill, she barely heard her speak, as they got nearer and nearer to the person observing the cross. It was Jade, undeniably Jade. His mother confirmed it even more. She felt more pain in her stomach, she felt a surge of anxiety at the thought of him being in this car with her now. What would she do? And how would he act in front of his own mother? Was everything alright... she drew in a breath, trying to calm herself, but this too, was slightly painful.
----
Aidan heard Roger muttering, but he couldn't make out anything but his surroundings now.

"W-What's going on?" he asked again, straining to speak at a normal volume.

Roger, in a panic decided to make it seem like he was still hallucinating. "I'll tell you what's happening Aiden. You're dead. And me, well I'm here to deliver you to hell." he told him, attempting to sound as menacing as possible, while he sped through the storm, bringing him to Brian. In a way he wasn't lying.
___

Jade turned away when he saw his mother's car pull up. He looked back the the simple grave. "We'll finish this later." he told the wood. He then stalked off to the car. Clambering down the hill, and noticing somebody in the back seat. His heart stopped when he saw Caresa. The pain of everything that had happened today hit him like a ton of bricks. How had she gotten into his car? But it didn't matter now. He had to get in now. He might as well make the best of it. Jade opened the door to the back seat, and slid in beside Caresa. He put his arm around her. "So how did you end up in my car?" he asked, smiling at her. He was glad the rain hid the tears that had been going down his face before he entered.

Aidan listened to him, puzzled. What? Was this true? He couldn't be sure... after all, nothing seemed to really make sense at the moment. And the man sounded pretty... convincing. He swallowed. He was probably still on the floor in the hospital, passed out, in some sort of strange nightmare.

((Oh geez... ))
___

Caresa couldn't help but stare as Jade entered the car. She stared right into his icy blue eyes, that seemed iridescent in the darkness of the storm. She bit her lip, looking away only as his arm slid around her shoulders, losing her fight to the tears that had gathered in her eyes. She wiped them with the arm that was not around her stomach, and made an attempt to smile back.

"Y-Your mom... she picked me up. I was just... walking around. She's very nice," she said, keeping the tears from her voice as best as possible.

Roger gave a cruel smile, making sure that Aiden could see it in the rear view mirror. "This isn't just a dream kid. This is a warning." Roger continued.
___

Jade felt a bit of pain as she turned away when he put his arm around her. He could feel her sadness, and could tell she was about to cry. He put two fingers under her chin, and turned her head so that she was looking him in the eyes, so he could see the two beautiful turquoise eyes filled with sadness. Another stab went to his heart. "Caresa. What's wrong?" he asked. "Please tell me." he said, pressuring her only slightly.

Aidan saw it. He felt the pain in his chest actually hurt for a second. He shook his head, which also hurt, and he cringed. Maybe... maybe this was real.

"N-No..." he whispered.
____
Caresa didn't want to hurt him. But she could see the pain in his eyes, through her own. She didn't look away, she had to look into his eyes. She swallowed, closing hers for a moment to hide the tears again. It still didn't work.

"Today," she whispered. "What happened today..."

She bit her lip, and pressed her sleeve to her stomach some more. Why was all this happening now? Everything with her and Jade together, just ran through her head again... she wanted them to be together, she wanted to love him, to be with him... but what could she do? What could they do?

Just then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw some red on her sleeve, slipping onto the visible edge. She instinctively winced, and pulled away from Jade.

"Sorry," she whispered.

Roger could see Aidan moving around in the back seat, he seemed to be in pain. "See kid, this isn't a joke. If you can't clean up your act, you're going to hell." he told him.
___

Jade saw the tears that Caresa was trying to hide, and wiped them away. He longed to hold her close to him. Here where nobody who would judge him was here. He knew what he had done to her was wrong, and he wanted to show her how much she really meant to him, here and now. But Caresa pulled away, with her arm to her chest. She was bleeding.

"Caresa, what happened to your arm?" He asked. He turned his gaze to the front, now with a hard serious look on his face. "Mom! Get us home NOW!" he yelled.

Karen, who was watching through the rear view with a soft look in her eyes nearly jumped in her seat, and slammed on the gas.

Jade ripped off his dress shirt, and ripped off a part of the shirt.

"Show me the cut." He ordered Caresa.

Caresa swallowed, and pulled her arm away from her shirt.

"It's not my arm," she whispered. "The... wound... f-from Sunday."

She looked at her shirt, which was now covered in blood. She felt so exposed now. She looked down at the floor, biting her lip, as the car accelerated. She sniffed, biting back tears.
---------
Aidan swallowed. This couldn't be happening. And when you're dead, you go straight to just one place... no, no, this wasn't right. But maybe, maybe this man was telling the truth. After all... what he did to Caresa. He cringed again.

"W-What should I do?"

You don't do things to fix this, Aidan... but... maybe... something...

It was beginning to be too much for him to fathom at these moments.

"I don't know. I just have a sinking feeling that everything is about to change, for everybody."

Kyrine still wondered about what he thought was going to happen, but didn't press the issue any further. Although she really did wonder what could have so much impact that it affected everyone. It would have to be something huge.

" And I won't let you face it alone."

At that, Kyrine gave a small, sad smile. She knew that Gabriel would be there for her, but she was used to handling things on her own. Before, she had thought that she could handle anything-- she was in a gang after all-- but now she realized that being in a gang didn't really help her face things. Sure it had a little effect, but there were times when she was so absolutely stressed by being a Beast that she didn't want to have to face anything at all. Having someone there with her would be so much better.
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Carter didn't spend very much energy glaring at the car as it drove away. He just dragged himself to a nearby tree (not the one Jade's at) and sat down at the base of it. Carter crossed his arms on top of his knees and rested his head on his arms. He should have just opened a door and jumped in when he had the chance. Now it was too late....

((Filler post on the way...))

A knock on the door was heard. Amanda looked over at the door, and wondered who was that late to class, not that she should talk. She looked back down at her books. Some students had started using their cellphones to read or text or call their parents She sighed. Hers was still a smashed wreck of metal in the middle of the street somewhere...
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Another teacher stood at the door of Mr. Jenkin's class. He knew the storm wouldn't get better for another couple of hours, from his classroom's battery-powered radio. There were other schools closing, kids locked inside. Some had already headed to the basement of the school, locker rooms, etc. He knew that they weren't supposed to leave the school, but he didn't live too far away.

And there was someone he was sure wanted to get out of this place. Parents were allowed to pick up their kids if they were a safe distance away...

((Btw, total pageclaim of Script Frenzy and roleplay success. <3 ))

Mr. Jenkin's heard a knock on his classroom door and walked over to answer it. "Hello, Damien," he said, greeting the science teacher, Mr. Blake. "Is everything alright with your class?" It seemed very possible that Mr. Blake's class was giving him trouble because of the storm. In fact, Mr. Jenkin's wouldn't be surprised if all of the teachers had been having trouble with their classes.
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Carter looked around desperately. If he saw another car coming toward him, he was going to jump in front of it, and hopefully not get much more injured in the process.

He almost wished that he hadn't left school, or at least the hospital. Or he could have just faced his parents and let the cop take him home, but no. He had to be an idiot and wander around town during a storm while he was hurt.

"Well, not particularly, but, I've been called out of here. The school's closing down. The kids can call their parents to leave if they're not too far away, but..."

Mr. Blake lowered his voice.

"Most of them are probably going to be stuck here. Sorry."

He gave a sidelong glance at the class. Some of the students had begun to pay attention. Including his one-in-particular. He brought his voice back up to normal volume.

"And, I was told that Ms. Rivver's parents have arrived."
-----
Amanda tried not to pay attention as the science teacher walked in. Mr. Blake. He was young too, even younger than Mr. Jenkins, and not many took him seriously. Well... some other female students did. Ugh. She looked down at her books when he looked in her direction. She heard their conversation, as quiet as he was trying to be. There were a couple of groans from students, and speed dialing seemed to go on even more.

Then he addressed her.

Her parents hadn't come for her; they worked a half an hour away. It would be impossible for them to come back to Humbleton in such little time with this weather. But she wondered what he wanted now. She swallowed, and packed up her books, heading for the door.

"Good luck," she heard Mr. Blake say to Mr. Jenkins, as he followed her out into the hallway.

Peter and Antha left the school building. Antha decided to walk home. She didn't want to deal with her parents today. Not after what happened earlier. She knew she wasn't thinking right, but she didn't care right now.

Peter waited for his father to come pick him up.

Mr. Jenkin's nodded. He had expected many of them to have to stay there. He just had to hope that no lunch ladies had already left. These kids would probably get hungry sooner or later.

He thought it was a bit odd that Mr. Blake would be told that Amanda's parent's were there before he was told, but passed it off. With things being crazy as they were, it didn't seem too odd about that.

"Good luck."

Mr. Jenkin's nodded, waving to Mr. Blake and Amanda as they left. He turned back to his class. "So how many of you just called your parents?" he asked, sighing when about half the class raised their hands. He knew how they felt, so he just walked back to his desk and sat down.

Peter retreated back inside and went to his class. He didn't want to go home or wait to be picked up. And besides it was much more interesting here than at his house.

Amanda saw a couple of other students head for the entrance of the school. The dark hallway seemed ominous. She walked toward the main exit, which was the front doors, but Mr. Blake guided her another direction. It seemed they would be taking a different way out.

"You didn't have to do that," she said, quietly. As if anyone was paying attention to them. They hallways were mostly empty. They turned down another hall, down the stairs.

"I figured you wouldn't want to be trapped here all day," he replied, with the same low tone. The two had reached a doorway. Damien handed her an umbrella that he'd been holding and opened the door.

"And I didn't want to be here either."

Amanda took the umbrella, and fumbled to open it. Her teacher sighed and opened it for her, holding it as they stepped out into the teacher's parking back behind the school. The storm was far more threatening outside. But Amanda didn't really care. Honestly, she had wanted to leave... she figured she should have just done so earlier, with Carter. But now she was losing all that work again.

Mr. Blake seemed to sense her tension.

"C'mon, Amanda, loosen up a little. School isn't everything."

"Apparently," she muttered sarcastically, as she stepped toward his car. He ignored the comment as he took her bag and unlocked his car with a button his keys. She had only been talking to him for less than a week. She assisted in his class sometimes when she had the time, and she'd been taking extra courses with him for much more time than that... for her job, and the like.

But only recently had things begun to get... different.

"Hey, you know, I kinda don't want to just leave my car here for the night..." she said, subtly protesting.

"Don't worry about it," he replied, nonchalantly. As if a huge storm like this hit every day, and a teacher taking a student out of a class that wasn't his to take her to an unspecified location was normal.

Peter entered the classroom and tried not to make a scene. He didn't feel like being lectured at this moment.
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Antha looked back and saw two people exiting the building. One was Amanda. She wanted to wave to her, but she didn't. She did stop and watched them for a while.

"I'm worrying."

"Then I can't stop you."

Amanda thought she heard somebody behind them, and jerked her head back to look.

"Paranoid much?"

"Shut up," she mumbled. They continued for his car. Mr. Blake pulled open the backseat door and set her backpack inside, then shut the door. He opened the door to the driver's seat, and Amanda opened the one to the passenger's side.

"Okay, you're supposed to be one of the more logical people in the school. Don't you think it was a little, you know, NOT subtle to pull me out of class like that?"

Damien shrugged.

"You wanted to leave, didn't you?"

Amanda sighed, exasperatedly.

"That's beyond the point."

He stuck his keys in the ignition and started pulling out of the lot.

"Alright, it wasn't my greatest idea, but we should be fine."

Amanda ducked as they passed the front of the school.

"I know someone was behind us," she said, as they finally got onto the street. The storm was loud, and the wind pounded the rain against the windows. But Amanda had to admit, this car was much better than hers, something she'd learned a few days ago.

"Well, I don't suppose they are anymore."

"I guess... but still."

"Like I said, we'll be fine."

They continued driving out. There didn't seem to be any particular direction they were headed.

"I thought you said you lived nearby."

"I do."

Amanda resisted the urge to facepalm.

"Don't be so tense. Everything's going to be fine."

Somehow, they wound up near the hills. There were a few trees, and of course, the cross that marked the grave of the former Beasts' leader.

And there was someone sitting by a tree in the rain. Someone undeniably familiar. But was it worth being exposed?

"Hey, do you see that guy by the tree? Think we could pick him up?"

"Why would you want me to pick up some random kid in the rain?"

"Um, because I assume you're not heartless?"

Damien sighed dramatically and drove toward the hill. She did her best to cover herself with her jacket.

"Well, if you didn't want whoever's there to know what's going on... now who's being 'not subtle' ?"

Amanda glared, and rolled down her window.

"Hey!" she shouted. "Need a ride?"

Carter saw a car pulling up to his tree, but before he got the chance to jump out in front of it, it pulled over. He jumped to his feet, even though he heard that annoyingly familiar voice asking if he needed a ride. He could put up with Amanda for a little while if it meant being out of the rain.

He was just getting in when he noticed something. First, this wasn't Amanda's car. Second, she was in the passenger seat. Third, the driver was their science teacher.

He glanced at Amanda in confusion, but quickly hid it, deciding he would ask her about it later. Or, he could observe for the time being.

"Oh, I know you," said Mr. Blake. "Yes, this looks strange, but we were both leaving the school, so I decided to take Amanda home. I figured another passenger wouldn't be a problem."

Amanda did actually facepalm this time. Even if Damien could be the most convincing liar, she still figured Carter could see through it. This was a dumb idea. Why did she keep making stupid decisions lately?

"Yup. What he said."

Another stupid decision...

"Yes, this looks strange, but we were both leaving the school, so I decided to take Amanda home. I figured another passenger wouldn't be a problem."

Carter nodded, unconvinced. There seemed to be more going on than Mr. Blake and Amanda were letting on, but Carter was fine with waiting until he could speak to Amanda alone to find out exactly what was going on.

He glanced at her again when he heard skin contact skin. Her facepalm only confirmed it for Carter that something was going on. He would figure it out, sooner or later, preferably sooner, though.

Carter sat down, hardly feeling guilty about getting Mr. Blake's car. If the man weren't failing him, he might care more, but as it was, he didn't care.

Amanda now realized that this was probably making everything even more suspicious. She decided to just give up the act. But she wasn't saying anything yet.

"Maybe we should drop Carter off first," she said. She didn't want to make this more awkward than it already was. And she was going to have to talk to the both of them at some point...

Mr. Blake nodded.

"Sure. So, Carter, where do you live? And while we're at it, since you're failing all your classes, Amanda wanted to know if she could tutor you."

"I said no such thing!"

"Well, now that I think about it, it's a great idea. After all, I see that Carter is needing help in the majority of his classes..."

Amanda glared at him. Although, she wouldn't mind tutoring Carter if he wasn't doing well. But did the conversation have to be right now, right here, like this?!

"Sure. So, Carter, where do you live?"

"I live at 342 Westbrook drive," he answered, already bored.

"And while we're at it, since you're failing all your classes, Amanda wanted to know if she could tutor you."

Carter gasped. Mentioning his failing grades was a low blow. It was probably payback for getting his precious car full of mud and water. Carter made sure to rub his muddy shoes all over the floor mats while Mr. Blake and Amanda were both distracted.

"I don't want any help with my homework. I could pass if I tried, but that's not happening," Carter replied through gritted teeth. Having a regular tutor wouldn't have been awful, but Amanda? Was this some type of post-purgatory-but-still-pre-hell?

"I'll just get dropped off with Carter," said Amanda. "I can walk home."

Mr. Blake ignored her.

"You should try then. But, given the current situation, I'd recommend getting the help, Carter," he said.

"I'm walking home," said Amanda. She had some explaining to do... a lot of it.

The teacher at the wheel arrived at Carter's address.

"Please refrain from getting all your mud on my floormats. I know I'm probably late on that, but... well, I'll see what I can do about it. Have a nice day, Carter."

He unlocked his doors. Amanda made a motion to step out of the car. She figured the man had enough sense in him than to try and stop her right in front of Carter.

"We'll talk," he said, quieter. Amanda gave a curt nod, and a half-glare, as she stepped out of his vehicle.