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]

Farrah, good morning! [Hester chirps from...across the room? She's still behind her desk but looks like she's in the middle of hanging some kind of framed poster on the back wall of her office. Her back is to Farrah but it's still noticeable that she sounds...less authentically upbeat than usual, even a bit strained.]

Do you want some tea? It's still hot and I have honey and oat milk and sugar- or I can probably find some coffee if you'd prefer that. Or I can get some ice and make it iced tea. Or iced coffee. Hot water with lemon?

[brokeforgood]

Oh. Uh. No thanks. [She does, however, invite herself back into the bad kid seats.]

Where did those cute lil guys from yesterday go?

[tailor_made]

[That gives her pause, turning around to reveal the poster she's been trying to hang straight for the past ten minutes.] Little guys...? Oh! The rabbits, with the horns!

They were just magical figments, they weren't really real. So when the magic ended they disappeared.

[brokeforgood]

Oh. Stew wasn’t real? [He was just... magic? She seems disappointed, her voice small and drifting, before she remembers why she’s here.]

I have a more important question anyway. Those pictures you gave us. Do you have copies?

[tailor_made]

No, I'm sorry, Farrah. Not everything you see here is going to be real, not when you're dealing with this kind of magic. [The second question Hester noticeably hesitates before answering.]

I...do but Farrah, I'm so sorry about yours. I knew what it was but I didn't know the photo itself would be so graphic!

[brokeforgood]

Yeah, you should probably... Check, next time. It was a little upsetting, at first. [Her mouth twists in distaste-- she's still not sure how to feel about it, especially coming from Hester.]

But you don't have to apologize. Actually, I was gonna ask you if you could give me a copy?

[tailor_made]

A copy-? Why? [Hester frowns and pulls open one of the top drawers of her desk to pull out a small plate of iced sugar cookies she holds out to Farrah.] I don't think it's a good thing to linger over, Farrah.

[brokeforgood]

[Tea she can turn down-- but the cookies? No way.]

I gave mine to Salieri, when I first saw it. If I tell him I want it back, he's going to think I've gone of the deep end. Kind of like you, right now.

[tailor_made]

[The cookies are very tasty! And all different shapes- hearts, stars and horseshoes.]

I don't think you've gone off the deep end. I just think getting a second copy of a picture that includes your own corpse isn't, hmmmm, let's say "productive" or "healthy".

[brokeforgood]

Yeah, see, this is why I’m not asking him. [She sighs heavily.]

I need it back. I don’t even care about my own corpse being in it, though, thanks for bringing that up and also for confirming?

My sisters in that picture.

[tailor_made]

[She's on the verge of arguing- she doesn't want to retraumatize Farrah anymore than she already has- but the moment she brings up her sister Hester's resolve wavers and she glances toward one of her several desk drawers.]

...Right. Annleigh.

[brokeforgood]

Yeah. Annleigh.

It’s not the best picture of her, but... it’s the only thing I have. [She hadn’t been looking at Hester— but now she does, pleadingly.]

[tailor_made]

[Hester watches her for a long minute, her brows deeply furrowed while she tries to find any real reason to not give it to her...and she can't. Heaving a heavy sigh, she pulls open the draw and takes out a photograph. She starts to extend it to Farrah but stops, carefully folding it so that just Annaleigh is immediately visible, before she hands it over.]

I wish I could give you a better one.