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]

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. ]