White Noise

who: Kaysen and Thom
where: MSHS
when: during third hour
note: kaysen's wearing her hoodie of 'you don't see me if you're out to cause me harm!' thom spelled for her, so only available to someone not looking to mess with her brain. ^_^ (this also means, people who're generally mean to her won't really see her around school either, feeding those 'she's missing' rumors)

Kaysen had heard all the rumors and everything, even the ones that involved her. Hell, people said them when she was standing right there, like they didn't even see her. She'd even managed to hear that she was missing. They were whispered all over the halls, everywhere, and there was a whole air of dread and suspicion in the school. Or maybe that was her, projecting. It was possible. She didn't know. She didn't care. To her, she was just shocked. This stuff happened around here? She had known that there were like, a couple murders a few months ago n stuff, but it was a little fucking different to hear about it in conversation at the dinner table between your parents, and to have it laying on the front steps of your school.

They were in her grade, even. She knew them. Not well, considering the people she did know well were like, countable on one hand with fingers to spare, but still. They were like...dead. After the bell had rang, and everyone else had gone to class, she found herself sitting inside the stairwell, the ones that lead out to the front steps outside. There was police tape all across the doors the windows papered over so no one could gawk out, and big signs that said to take other exits. The doors were probably locked. She didn't know, she hadn't tried them. She was just sitting on the landing, her back to the doors, staring down the short flight of steps to the corridor that opened up below. She didn't really care if she was marked absent for her class. Her head was too...staticky. That was what it was like. Like her brain had gotten knocked off-station, and the volume was up the whole way. White noise.

The school was abuzz with rumour and Thom was panicking. Because the one thing that was clear was that people were dead. And Kaysen's name kept coming up, time after time, along with the fact that nobody had seen her. He felt sick - classes had been abandoned, he just hadn't bothered. He was actively looking for her, searching every part of the school. He needed to make sure she was okay. Why had he ever let her out of his sight? Because she wouldn't let you do anything else if you tried.

It had been a few hours that he'd been looking when he found her, and he almost ran over, not really caring what that looked like as he sat down at her side. "You okay?" he asked her. "Course you are - but, I heard - they'd said. Nobody had seen you..." And then he realised. Of course nobody spreading the rumours had seen her. Because three she was, sitting there, wearing her hoodie. Which he'd spelled. So she wouldn't be noticed by anyone wishing her harm. And those rumours had been vicious - not just that she was dead, but about her and Chance, what they were doing together, what kind of a slut she was.

Kaysen didn't notice the running over thing. Her mind was still a little too...fuzzy to take much note. She was also a bit too '...' to really freak out about him sitting next to her, and being all concerned. "No." she answered, frowning lightly as she looked at him. "What's happening?" she asked and if she would have realized how much like a little girl she sounded like right then she would have hated it, but she didn't.

Because Thom would know, wouldn't he? He was Thom. Thom and her brother knew everything. That was how it worked. They had some inner knowledge of everything that was happening and how it fit in, and so she had to be able to get something. She meant of course, everything. The whole of everything, because right now, she couldn't make heads or tails of anything. The world had been tipped upside down and shaken a whole lot. There had been dead people outside those doors. Might still be, she didn't know. And while she could have gone and ripped at the paper over the windows to peek, she didn't want to. She didn't want to see two dead classmates. Ever. Even if they treated her like hell, she...just no. She may even joke about everyone dropping dead but it was so different when there was a reality there.

"I don't know," he admitted, quietly, his panic subsiding now that he'd found her - only to be replaced by guilt that he didn't care more that whoever it was out there was, in fact, dead. Just as long as they weren't Kaysen, Thom could deal. "I know what I've heard - Mary Curtis and Josh Barker are the names that keep coming up." When they weren't talking about you. "Apparently someone found them there first thing - on the steps. They say they were holding hands." He pulled his legs up, resting his arms on them, his back against the wall. "How you doing?"

"Did you hear I'm dead?" Kaysen asked. "Because I keep hearing I'm dead. And people keep ignoring me. They say it when I'm standing right there. I don't...know what's happening. And how did that happen anyways? Them being dead. I don't..." she stopped again, frowning more, trying to stop herself from spazzing out, even if she wasn't feeling the usual tide of panic. No, this was much different. This was a haze of confusion, a thick fog that she couldn't seem to get past. She felt lost in the dark.

"I'm doing...bad. I don't know what's happening." she answered his question. "And I don't know if I want to, an I dunno if it's...we live in Marquette. Things like this don't happen here." she insisted, looking over at him with something akin to pleading in her expression. In a 'Thom, please agree with me and make this go away' type of way.

Thom had a choice - he could either tell her about the spell. Or he could keep quiet. Would it help anything at all? If she knew? At least she'd have a choice - if they were ignoring her, which he had no doubt they were, from what he'd heard and what she'd said, then telling her would at least take that away for her. And she knew he knew about the weird, it wasn't that much of a stretch - but, he couldn't explain why. And was this the time? With the murders, there were bigger things, and yes, it would maybe clear so shit up for her, but it would replace it with a whole other lot of confusion instead.

He was silent for a long time before he made up his mind. "Kaysen - I don't know why this happened, or how, or even what," he said, slowly. And yes, I heard the rumours - about you. And I know people have been ignoring you. And I know why - that's my fault. I didn't want you to have as hard a time this year as you always do. People saying things as you walk past and looking out for you to pick on you. I didn't want that for you, so - I know a little magic. Not much, but I kinda spelled your hoodie. So that if anyone wished you harm, any kind of harm, if you were wearing it, they just wouldn't notice you. Which is why the people spreading those rumours about you didn't see you."

"The last thing I heard was that I had AIDS and infected Chance too so that's why we suicided." Kaysen mumbled, then paused, stilled, and finally blinked at him. She of course understood the words. they were all words she totally understood, what with a decent vocabulary and all, but it was the order they were presented in that was giving her trouble. The bits where it appeared that he'd actively gone and done something to help her. And like, with magic.

System Error. Does not compute. Please shut down and start again.

In the end, she wound up not coming up with anything at all to say, and was left staring at him.

"Yeah, I heard that one," Thom told her, not sounding at all happy about it. He'd been torn at one point between stopping and doing what he could to quash such insane rumours and actually finding her. Really, it was the crack-whore, AIDS-victim insaneness that had given him hope and kept him looking, rather than even believing for a moment that Kaysen was involved. Except, he realised, he must have done, because he'd felt the need to skip every class until her found her. "People are insane - and I can't believe that they would even - don't people have better things to do?" He noted that she said nothing about what he'd done and so he decided to leave it for now. He'd told her, she hadn't freaked out specifically about that, he was chalking that down to a success.

"...no. They never had anything better to do before." she said, sighing a little, because at least she could comment to that, and not have to think about what he'd just told her about her hoodie. Because that just didn't add into her world view in any sort of fashion right now, and her mind was too much of a broken radio to even try to figure it out. Therefore, it had staged a mutiny, and walked that bit of information off the plank for now.

She gave a smile that was devoid of humor, and not very pretty at all. It came off as more of a grimace than anything. "I'm their favorite target." she told him. Even though he should know that one already. Thankfully, the smile died off after she said it, and she went back to looking lost. "Have--"she started, not sure if she was even going to ask it, but then she did anyways. "Have you seen Chance?" she asked.

"I know you are, squirt." He knew it all too well - his knowledge of that was what he figured landed him with her in the first place. She might not have been the easiest person in the world to protect, but it needed doing. Even if she could never know he was the person to do that. He shook his head. "Haven't seen him." If he had, he wouldn't have been panicking quite as much, it would have quelled that small part of him that hadn't been able to just brush off the rumours. It would have been the first time he was glad to see Chance connected to Kaysen.

"Oh." she said. She was worried about him. Kinda. Maybe sorta. Or maybe sorta a lot, she couldn't tell for sure. "If you see him could you...lemme know? I don't wanna go and find him, cuz...people would..." she frowned again, the thing earlier popping back into her head. "Would they not see me?" she asked.

He smiled a little. "They wouldn't see you. Not those people anyway - not the ones who'd spread rumours," he promised. At least he knew his spell had worked. He was never sure they would, though he'd been getting better at that lately. "Or... You could just phone him," he suggested, putting aside his feelings that Kaysen shouldn't be assciated with someone of Chance's reputation because she was obviously concerned and her immediate wellbeing came first right now.

She thought about that, and nodded. Maybe she should. Or would, she didn't know. She'd probably have to work on getting up and going somewhere first though. Which so far, wasn't really looking like that awesome a plan. "Do I have to be wearing it?" she asked, picking at one of the holes in the left cuff, eyes keeping down on that while she tried to figure everything out in a vague, distant sort of way. Some part of her realize she should probably be massively freaking out around now.

"I'm not sure," Thom admitted. "If you just tied it round your waist, it might work, but I can't guarantee it - you could try it and see," he suggested. he hadn't really given much thought to women's fashions when he'd seen the opportunity to grab something she kept close to her.

Kaysen immediately made a face, and shook her head. "...no. N-not today." she answered him. Because she didn't think she'd want to find out when things were like they were right now. Maybe tomorrow. But definitely not today.

Thom fell silent for a moment, resting his head back against the wall. Everything had seemed so yesterday, perfect and stress-free by the end of the day. And now it was all fucked again. Was nothing every lasting? He rolled his head towards Kaysen. "I'm glad you're okay, squirt," he told her - something that didn't encompass how he currently felt at all, but which he thought she'd accept without too much question.

And he'd be right about the accepting thing. She nodded. "Thanks." she said. She looked a little confused over it, but she wasn't really thinking too hard on anything at the moment. "You too." she added. Even if she didn't actually know if he was okay, and there hadn't really been a question. It was kinda just something to say, regardless of sense attached to it.

He accepted that too, never questioning that she should have reflected it back - sense wasn't, well, necessarily making sense today. "You want me to stay with you for a while?" he asked, making no move to go. "I've kinda given up on classes for today."

She thought about it, then eventually nodded. "...maybe for a bit." she said. She didn't really think she'd be doing class today anymore either. She wasn't even able to concentrate on what was happening around her let alone whatever might be going on in classes. Though, she noticed as well that school was a little optional today. She saw lots of people in the halls, not going to class, and she knew a bunch of people had gone home too. It was like school was a really subdued free for all today.

"Okay," Thom agreed, settling down a bit more beside her. He made no effort to make conversation, he didn't really think it'd be wanted, and knowing their history would probably just end badly. Instead he decided to just go down the 'comforting presence' route, unless she needed him to be otherwise. In any event, he wasn't going anywhere unless she told him to.