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

[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]

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.]

[comeandfindme]

[ It seems like, for a moment, she's actually going to learn something. Something amazing, something key. But then— ]

Hester?! Hey- hey, hey, hey, what's wrong? [ Peregrine surges forward to try and catch her by the shoulders. Over the desk it's a little awkward, a little forced. ]

[tailor_made]

I'm-I'm okay. [Hester grimaces but she doesn't pull away when Peregrine catches her. This costume might not expose a lot of skin on her shoulders but Per will still feel she's very warm through the fabric of her dress.]

Just, um, just a really sudden migraine. I used to- I used to get them before... [She pauses, like she's searching for a word that just won't come. Why are her words failing? What's wrong with her?] Before.

[comeandfindme]

Hester?

[ Her hands almost shoot back in surprise. Does she have a fever? Is she sick? What's happening to her? Peregrine decides to swing around the desk's other side, if possible. ]

Are you sick?

[tailor_made]

I'm not, I swear. I just- [She can swing over to the other side! Very easily in fact, it's just a wooden flap separating the two sides. Hester curls in on herself a little, hunching over her desk.]

I haven't...really slept, not since the sleepover. I'll get about an hour here and there but... [She trails off, almost like she's embarrassed to admit it.]

[comeandfindme]

[ Okay, well, Peregrine moves so her hands are on Hester's shoulders. ]

What the fuck? Why— how can you not sleep? The human body starts to freak out after three days.

[tailor_made]

I've gotten some! Just...not a lot. [Of course it would have to be Miss Dead Reckoning who gets to chastise her about this.] I...can't. Every time I try, I start having dreams. Then I wake up. [She takes a breath, holds it, then lets it out slowly.]

At best I can fall asleep again in a few hours and stay that way for a little bit. At worst I don't sleep the rest of the night and take a cat nap at my desk. Farrah didn't like that very much though.

[comeandfindme]

Why didn't— [ Not important. ] What dreams? How are they so bad that...that they keep you awake that long?

[tailor_made]

It's not that they're bad, it's just...I dream about my high school, the families I've been with, my extra circulars. It all plays out exactly how I remember but something's always wrong or off. Like my favorite foster dad would be in the middle of my dance class or my school colors are wrong.

That's when I wake up and my body is so wired that it won't let me settle back down, even if it's something small and inconsequential.

[comeandfindme]

[ Is that what’s making her forget? No, it can’t be, that seemed…too conspicuous. ]

…What the hell… You’ve never used anything to help? Any sleep aids?

[tailor_made]

I tried when it first started but they didn't do much. Drugs don't tend to do much for me. [She starts to turn her head, to crack one eye open to look at Peregrine but just ends up wincing.]

Peregrine, can I tell you something...?

[comeandfindme]

[ Right now, looking down at Hester, it’s hard to see the person Peregrine’s spent night after night directing her anger at, in lieu of a face to give the Wizard that isn’t that mechanical mockery. It’s hard to see a person complicit in all this. There’s the person who let her have a quiet moment with Connor. The person who cleaned his blood off her deerskin leather.

The person who kept Salieri and Discord and Benjamin from making an awful mistake out of love.

And right now, that person just seems sad and scared and hurt. ]

…Yeah. Yeah, what?

[tailor_made]

...I'm sorry. For what I said that first day to you. I didn't mean- [She takes a shaky breath, a lump growing in her throat.] I'm not good with words when I'm not reading someone else's. Sometimes I say things and I...can't get my point across how I want them to. They sound perfectly reasonable in my head because I know what I mean but then I start talking and-

[She still remembers how Peregrine had stormed out that first day. How hurt she'd looked and how much hurt she'd had to endure since then. Kicking off a domino effect of Peregrine's Pain Olympics.

She hadn't even meant Jacob at the time but in the end it doesn't even matter who or what she meant. It just matters that it hurt.]

It's not an excuse. I'm not asking you to forgive me, for anything. But I just wanted you to know...I'm sorry.

[comeandfindme]

[ It’s the last thing Peregrine had expected, despite the turn their conversation’s taken. That first day seems so far away now, after Mumble and Connor, the Balladeer, Rina and Varian and the cold night in the woods—

She shivers. It’s like she told Janis, she’s sure it’s psychosomatic. But she can’t seem to stop shivering, no matter how warm she is. ]

I… [ She nods. It’s not forgiveness. That’s right. But it’s an acknowledgement. Peregrine sniffles down something to keep herself stable. ] …Okay. Thank you. For that.

[ She removes her hands from Hester’s shoulders. But she doesn’t step away, just yet. ]