The Principal's Office

[tailor_made]

The door to the principal’s office is open at all hours, although you will only find Hester at the receptionist’s desk from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. This is primarily where you can have private conversations with her. Though there’s an actual office in the back, it is always closed and locked.

Comments

[tellthestory]

Nothing, really.

[He sets the stuff down, and takes a seat, and that's about as long as he's able to obfuscate the truth.]

I remembered some things this week. When I was doing your job...it meant a lot to me when people would come and visit. And not, you know, yell.

[tailor_made]

[She will! It's only vaguely sketched out but it looks like it could be the start of a jacket or something similar. It's...not very good, even in rough sketch form, so it's a bit hard to tell. Hester doesn't seem to exactly be artistically inclined.]

WEEK 4, FRIDAY, AFTER TRIAL

[comeandfindme]

[ Some time after the trial, maybe...an hour or so, or two—

Peregrine quietly enters the Principal's Office. ]

We gotta talk.

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Well, that's something they have in common then. Non-artistic people in a world of artists.

She doubts there's anything left to glean from the fabric, so she'll put it back and move onto any of the drawers that are still left.]

Week 5

[mcfife]

[The memories have gotten way too concerning. Claudine, the alien, Riley, now Jeremy? Angus recalls the Wizard's comments to the SQUIP during the trial, and the questions are too great to ignore.

He barges into the office.]

Why did the Wizard bring me back?

[tailor_made]

[Hester, for once, doesn't startle when someone busts into her office unannounced. Instead she looks up at him slowly, her shoulders slumped forward. When she speaks it's slowly, like just talking is a huge effort.]

You have to be more specific, Angus.

[mcfife]

Why me? Why not Riley, or Claudine, or Nana, or Jeremy, or Christine? I was in one of these prisons before, Hester. You have to know something about it. You know what's in the yearbook!

[He prays that she isn't entirely in the dark. He prays that he can finally get answers.]

[tailor_made]

[When Peregrine comes in she catches Hester just as she's sitting in her chair. She blinks owlishly, streaks of black mascara and shimmery eyeshadow running down her face.]

I- okay. [She swallows and slowly sits down, mentally bracing herself for whatever dressing down Peregrine has prepared for her.] Let's talk.

[comeandfindme]

[ Very, very evenly, Peregrine says: ]

What happened back there? What can you tell me about why the Wizard thinks he's alone?

[mayavericks]

[When Maya comes in she... doesn't really have any gifts to bring. It's just her, looking mildly distracted. She spares Hester only a glance before sitting down.]

Do you have a moment?

[tailor_made]

[Hester's jaw tightens.]

A lot of things were said at the trial, in the heat of the moment. He can get...emotional sometimes.

[comeandfindme]

I'm familiar. [ Peregrine leans on the desk, staring Hester down. ] But that doesn't mean those emotions don't have a bit of truth in them.

Unless I'm completely off base...you care about us. So stop bullshitting me, Hester. Before another kid's corpse ends up in your office.

[tailor_made]

Of course I do. [She tilts her head, like that's the most obvious thing.] You're all amazing and, well, that's why I'm here.

[tailor_made]

I told you of course I care, I-! [She takes a breath and closes her eyes, centering herself before she can lash out.]

I'm not bullshitting you. We talked and I just...didn't know the extent to what had happened to him before he met me and why it all effected him the way it did.

[comeandfindme]

[ She lets out a harsh laugh. ]

You care about us, but you keep telling us to kill each other? Giving us...threats? Yeah. Sure, okay.

[ Peregrine is, thus far, not convinced. ]

[comeandfindme]

And lemme guess, you can't tell me any of that, it goes against some kind of rule, or- or—

[ Wait. Wait- ]

...How...did you meet him?

[tailor_made]

[Hester opens her mouth to answer but pauses, slowly closing it as it dawns on her this is the first time anyone's really asked about her life before the school.]

I- [She clears her throat and straightens her posture, trying her best to look like she hadn't been falling apart just 5 minutes ago.] It was a bit after my eighteenth birthday. I had graduated from high school that summer and I had just aged out of the system. I grew up in a pretty small town and, I know you can relate to this, the people there could be very small-minded.

[comeandfindme]

[ The system? Peregrine's mouth twitches as Hester mentions it, that she can relate. That's not something she's interested in talking about, right now. ]

...You were a foster kid. [ Her lips are oh-so-thin, as she presses them together. She thinks if she looks away from Hester, she'll miss something, some big piece of the puzzle. ] What happened? What did this guy do to make you sign on to this?

[tailor_made]

[She nods.] Since birth. I've...heard a lot of conflicting stories about my birth mom. That she died when I was born, she died when I was a few months old, she couldn't take care of me and left me at a fire station- and no one ever knew who my dad was.

[She goes quiet for a moment, twisting the pendant of her necklace.]  When I left I said goodbye to the few friends I had after graduation and my latest foster family and got on a train out of town. I remember was...by myself in the dining car. It was late and then this man walked in. He bought a soda and sat down a few seats away from me. [Hester's brows furrows, digging through her memories for every detail she can recall, no matter how unnecessary.]

I was lonely and I know, I know, "stranger danger" but I turned around and started talking to him. He was nice and polite and kept his distance until I invited him over to sit with me. We talked through that whole night about...a lot of things. What I wanted to do with my life, our interests, traveling. He showed me some silly magic tricks- at least I thought at the time they were silly magic tricks- and then the train had to make a stop.

He said this was where he got off but since the train was going to be here for a few hours, did I want to get some real food before I kept going to the city? There were other people getting off to stretch their legs so I figured okay, I would walk around the train station a little and get something that wasn't train trail mix. But when we got off it wasn't a train station.

It was a Denny's, in the middle of nowhere.

[comeandfindme]

[ The whole time, Peregrine listens. She listens, intently, as she always does, despite everything today, despite the fact that she doesn't want to listen to anything—anything at all that could possibly give the man who keeps torturing them a soul.

And then her jaw goes slack. ]

...It was a what?

[tailor_made]

I know! It made no sense! It was just a random Denny's, it had a parking lot and everything! And the train had just...stopped there. No one else seemed to find it weird though so I just got off with them.

Inside it was pretty much like any other Denny's I'd ever been to. The menu was a lot bigger though, and the waitress was a little...um...frantic? I think her name was Hannah, Henrietta- something with an H.

But we sat down and got to talking again. He told me he came here pretty often and gave me some recommendations. While we waited he did a few more magic tricks and thats when I started to realize they weren't, like, regular tricks or Criss Angel street magic. It was real magic.

[comeandfindme]

...'Cause he's a Wizard. [ Yeah, she scowls at that. ] So... So what, you had dinner at a magical Denny's, found out the guy could do actual magic, and then... What? How'd that get you here?

[tailor_made]

Maya- [She's already pouring tea before Maya's butt even hits the seat.] Of course, of course. I always have time for you.

[mayavericks]

[Well, at least she can offer a faint smile at the effort.]

Thank you. [She pauses for a moment, before laughing without humor.] I'm developing a terrible habit of coming in and asking you if you were in the loop on something. Perhaps I should... be a little more straightforward this time?

How much do you know about Nana's background?

[tailor_made]

Do you really think I'm empty-headed enough to do all this because of some palm fireworks? [...] Please don't answer that.

Anyway, he told me- [And she stops, her face contorting in annoyance like she'd just lost her train of thought.] He told me...about the... [Every time she tries to explain the words evaporate before they can leave her mouth. She knows what he explained, all the thing he showed her both terrible and wonderful. It was...it...was...

The more she tries to find the words, to fill in the gaps that she knows were there just minutes ago, the more the dull and throbbing pain of a growing headache spreads from the back of her neck all the way around to behind her eyes. She drops her head into her hands, pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes.]