Event #2 "Madonna's responsibility" [Starter thread]

[Catherine "Pidge" Santorini]

A familiar redhead finally awoke, and that made her tech partner rather happy. Thank God Naomi woke up; now there was one more person to worry about. Pidge was not leaving this room until everyone was confirmed to be alive and well. But... maybe Esme was right... She didn't have to think so much about everyone's safety; as long as the few who were alive were alive, everything was going to be okay. Right?

"I'm glad you're okay. I guess tech list doesn't matter anymore..." Naomi joked, causing the tech kid to laugh dryly with her. "Yeah, I guess it doesn't," She responded with a hint of sadness in her voice.

Zak responded to Al's questions, possibly in denial about what had happened. She could almost pity him for a moment. Surely, he had been a boy who wasn't deserving of anything in her eyes, but seeing him pretend that everyone was alright when it clearly wasn't was heartbreaking. Something must've happened to him that made him act out the way he did. Fright? PTSD? Impending doom?

She heard something buzzing from the floor, somewhere around her. It was a phone... her phone. But how did it get there? Dad must've stopped here and dropped it off before the earthquake happened. Pidge had to think logically about this. Dad normally kept her stuff almost as secure as she did... Never mind that, it seemed as if she had got a text from someone. She picked it up and looked at the text, a request from a number she didn't recognize. It was an odd one, to say the least. Nevertheless, she decided to go through with it. It was harmless. "But still, I'm glad you're safe!" Katie gave her friend a hug from behind, as the request entailed, with her face smashed into the back of her head... or as far as she could due to her height.  She took a large whiff of the ponytail and stepped away. "Hey," she tried to play it off coolly and as normal as possible, "your hair smells nice. What shampoo do you use?"

Please don't be mad at me, Naomi. I got this weird text and the sender may be blackmailing me or something... She thought of a possible explanation to her action, but it didn't seem right. She adjusted her glasses and then smelled one of her bangs. Pidge definitely needed to use a different shampoo.

Before she could face any consequences for her thing with Naomi, she eyed one of the couches in the room. Catherine approached the upholstery and lifted both of the cushions. What things, if any, could she find between there?

[OOC: Pidge made a perception check.]

[Administrator]

Dice result: 1D10 => 8
Success; you found a clue!

---

Catherine has noticed that a file fell from Madonna's desk. It was mostly data about the students, some reports, boring stuff, but on top of that lay a tiny calendar. A date June 11 was circled red with a big bold question mark drawn with a gel pen right beside it.

[Madonna Truman]

Raindrops. Staircase. Flash and then silence.

The principal let out a cough, covering her mouth and rising on one elbow. Her heart was pounding, her throat sore from a swallowed scream. When she finally got enough strength to open her eyes, she saw figures in familiar uniforms. "Cathie," she tried to say one of her students' names out loud but was interrupted by another cough.

In a moment Madonna has finally managed to sit up on the floor. She looked around the room, realising that she was in her office. "Kids, I-" she tried to explain herself, but couldn't finish the sentence. She just couldn't stop coughing! Leaning on the desk, she helped herself to stand up.  "Fol- low me," she could barely speak, but still the woman coughed out her words and left the room.

[Alejandra Ramirez]

Zak's reaction was somehow both unexpected and unsurprising. With all the stigma around mental health and the concept of toxic masculinity, it wasn't a shock that Zak wanted to deny that anything that would bring about that kind of attention would be attached to him. "No one was thinking you were mental." she said, sighing as she stood back up. "But I'm glad you're ok." She by no means liked Zak, he was a douchebag, but she didn't want anyone to be hurt. Physically or mentally.

Another person began to wake up, and looking over Al saw that it was Naomi. Well that's good at least. Riley and Ms. Truman were still unconscious though. That worried her. Frowning, the Latine looked around once more. A rattling sound caught her attention, turning back towards the desk and seeing Esme shake a bottle before grabbing some papers. Whatever was on them caused the other Latina to frown, peeking her curiosity. "What you find?" he asked, moving towards her and looking at the papers after the other girl set it aside.

Her dark eyes widened as she read them over. "Holy fucking shit!" she swore. "Miss Kishi's gonna get sacked!?" She couldn't believe it! Yeah the woman was a hardass, and as her marriage failed and the divorce filed she had grown worse, but Al had never thought the school would ever fire her. She had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it'd be nice to not feel like armageddon was around the corner. On the other, who would be their advisor for drama club?

"It's not locked, but I'm not sure if there's any rubble outside that could get us hurt."

Talk of the unlocked door and the possible rubble that could pose danger took her attention away from the documents and she sat them back down on the center of the desk. Her eyes glanced back to the bat in the glass case. It could be useful in knocking around at least some of the debris, possibly. Grabbing a paper weight off the desk, she made her way over to the case and chucked the paper weight as hard as she could at it. Glass shattered upon impact, littering the ground around it. As careful as could be, Al reached in to grab the bat, but on her way of taking it out, some of the jagged edges of the remaining glance cut up her arm.

She hissed a little from the pain but finished pulling the bat out. "This might come in handy." she stated, wincing from the stinging pain in her arm. There was a bit of blood dripping, but everything looked shallow. Naomi and Esme began to talk about possibly leaving the room and checking out for more supplies, while Pidge went to hug the redhead out of relief, and it seemed like a good plan. But there was the issue of the ones still unconscious. Someone would probably need to watch over them to make sure they woke up safely-

Sudden coughing caught Al's attention, turning her head towards the source. Ms. Truman was waking up, calling to Pidge before coughing more. She seemed in real rough shape. But the woman managed to get up and began to tell them all to follow her. "Wait, what about Riley?" she asked, looking over to the still unconscious girl. With a frown, she went to Pidge and handed her the bat. "Carry this ok?" she asked before turning towards where Riley's body laid and picked it up. She grunted a little bit, dead weight was always heavy, but she had to move heavier things during shows so she could handle it.

With the girl in her arms, and awkwardly shining her phone's flashlight so she could still see, she went to follow after their principal.

[Off-Top: Al got the bat out of the case and gave it to Pidge]

[Esmeralda Ortiz]

"What'd you find?"

Esme jumped as Al joined her. Well, Al was probably the only person she truly trusted in the group right now. Well, she trusted Becca, too, but she was too busy making goo goo eyes at Zak. Yes, they were a cute couple, but right now making out should be at the very bottom of their priority list The Latina handed her the papers aside before once again looking to the door. Supplies were important and right now focusing on finding them was big. Oh, and making sure the others weren't getting killed in the process.

Esme handed the papers to Al, "Check this out."

"Holy fucking shit! Miss Kishi's gonna get sacked!?" Al exclaimed.

"I know. Explains some of the stuff. Doesn't excuse it, but explains it." Esme folded her arms.

Pidge and Naomi were reuniting, and there was the sound of shattering glass. At first, Esme thought someone got a window open. But no, it was Al. She had broken the glass and was pulling out a baseball bat. Dark red drops fell from Al's arm and Esme bit her lip.

"Chica, you have bigger balls than any of us right now."

Someone coughed nearby, making her jump. Mrs. Truman was awake. She looked ruffled. Unbelievably ruffled. The woman ushered for the rest of them to follow. Al had run to grab Riley and Esme held out a hand. If Al over-exerted that arm, the small cut would probably get worse.

"Al, let me help you. I know you've carried heavy stuff before, but," she nodded to the blood.

[Rebecca Rolfe]

Rebecca sat there feeling anger and sadness , why did she kiss him? she'd let her eyebrows crisscross nearly and furry.As soon as Madonna spoke, she'd blink looking up at her."Miss Truman," said the Egyptian styled beauty ."The ground still could be unstable, is there Every single word Alexandra had been speaking, she'd replace it in her head with dubstep. she'd frown, but the young girl 's consistent whining was getting on her nerves."I don't trust this ground.."She knew female Al met well, but her eyes glanced at the ground...standing up she'd tap the wall lightly to try and see exactly where she was going. She wouldn't just follow Truman yet. waiting to see if she would respond, to her fear.



"Miss Kishi's gonna get sacked!?" Becca froze at that. What? She knew she had a temper, was it that bad? ''It's not locked, but I'm not sure if there's any rubble outside that could get us hurt."
No.shit. thought Rebecca Rebeccas thought's turned a little nasty because she was in slight pain due to that cut, she'd  dig through a  drawer? near by , of maybe something was in there. Becca eyed Riley, she'd gently rummage still..hand's moving about, hoping to find some fabric, some-thing to cover her hand...or she'd need to buy a new  uniform, by than.

Becca near about jumped"OI!" What the hell are you trying to give us MORE of a blasted heart attack!?"she' d shout eyeing Al when she broke the glass. 

"Chica, you have bigger balls than any of us right now." Would not be surprised if she did have them.. thought Rebecca, meanly, she'd grunt- what the hell, cranky bitch, stop.

Rebecca looked at Esmerelda 's voice direction frowning.She knew Al came off as a "Not so bright person," But she did give brownie points, Al's bat could be useful later.

Rebecca was so close to graduation, her eyes narrowed at that, if this was some sick twisted reality it wasn't funny."I've worked so hard, I am not going to let anything happen to me, or Esme, or Tris.. TRISTAN!" saying Tristan's name out loud,  Rebecca got worried.She remembered the rest, how were they doing? What day was it? she'd sigh deeply, she didn't care,she just wanted her friend.And her family, her cousins, they were safe?  

Rebecca grunted. she needed something , and she wondered if she had found anything to cover it, she didn't seem to find some-thing in this stand, but.

ugh, okay she was about ready to sock someone in the face if they did not shut up the whining.even though she did have balls right now, she just was irritated by it.

Becca contemplated on finding the door and following Truman.

[Zak Gully]

Zak's heart was still beating so loud and strong that he barely registered the next events. He was staring down at his feet in a daze, sometimes glancing out the window to the utter blackness, but finding that didn't help his emotions at all. Get a grip, Zak. He was still scared, more than he wished to let on, but if they got out of here, he'd be damned if he'd be known as the school pussy. He didn't know how to live with that.

He didn't snap out of it until a shattering of glass brought him back down to Earth. Snapping his head, Zak noticed Al just in time to see her hurt herself. His heart jerked. She'd just been helping him. Sure, he wasn't going to thank her, or let on that he'd appreciated it, but it just seemed wrong. She'd helped him, or tried to anyway, and now he couldn't even make himself take a single step in her direction to check if she was alright. He wasn't going to pretend they were friends, and Al was probably the last girl in school Zak would want to date, but he still found himself respecting her.

Still torn about not helping her, Zak had almost reconsidered when he heard the headmaster awake in coughing spurts. So the old broad wasn't dead, but she certainly wasn't healthy. She wasn't the last to wake, and after the trauma of the fall, he wasn't surprised she'd slept a little longer - wait, she hadn't even been in the auditorium, this didn't make sense. More and more he accepted the idea that this must be a dream. Never had he been so sure he was dreaming. Anyway, he wasn't surprised she'd woken up only now, but he was surprised how she just got straight up on her feet and wanted to lead them somewhere. Almost like some kind of game tutorial.

Curiouser and curiouser.
Dreamier and dreamier.

Zak looked around the room, almost astonished that no one else seemed to share his ideas. They didn't all seriously think they were awake? Then it hit him. If he were dreaming, these people weren't actually people, just a part of the dream. Of course they didn't question the dream they were themselves a part of. He felt like a genius for figuring that one out.

Dream or no dream, once Al went to pick up the sleeping girl, Zak couldn't just stand by. Al was hurt, and perhaps more important; this was a way of showing off his strength, get people to forget about his little outburst, get Rebecca to see how manly he could be. Rushing over, he just had time to hear Esmeralda volunteer first. That wouldn't do, she was also a weak woman. Zak would obviously be the better option and they should both know it. Coughing to make his presence known he looked down at both of them with a smug smile.

"Shall I, ladies?" he said and held his arms out for Riley.

[Catherine "Pidge" Santorini]

So far, no one had said anything about the hair thing, so the techie was okay there. Hopefully, they weren't judging her, thinking of her to be a creep. As Pidge kept rifling through the cushions, she heard something fall, a stack of papers from Ms. Truman’s desk perhaps. She turned around and, before she could go over and take notice of what the item was, Al and Esme were it over. The tech kid scooted to the other end of the table and looked over towards the Latinas.

"Holy fucking shit! Miss Kishi's gonna get sacked!?" Al cursed, causing the girl in the glasses to jump in surprise. The reactions that Pidge had were extremely mixed. In one hand, she'd honestly celebrate and start humming 'Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead' or some other song that fit (there absolutely had to be among the amount of times she joined Emery and her friends in watching a bootleg of some musical); however, on the other hand, Catherine had felt bad for her, but she didn't know why. Ms. Kishi was the woman who made her and nearly everyone else on the tech crew's lives hell, having them partake in thankless jobs for as long as they were in the club, while select few were given proper recognition. She chose to remain silent on the issue. Besides, Ms. Truman may have only been considering firing her.

Her concentration was broken by the sound of shattered glass. She stepped away as to not step on any of the broken glass that came from Al's punch. If Ryan was here, he'd probably be pissed.

"OI!" What the hell are you trying to give us MORE of a blasted heart attack!?" Rebecca barked at Al, seemingly turning Cockney for a second. Yes, the two girls were on good terms, despite her being one of Veronica's lovelies (It was still kind of a mystery as to why Pidge and Arielle were so close), but some times Becca could get on her nerves.

"Would you rather us use our hands to get potential debris out of the way, Becca?" Pidge retorted. Besides, someone could bash my brains in, considering how much of an annoying pest I am. You can do the honor of doing so...

Before she could say any more clever responses, Ms. Truman slowly woke up and said something... her name... Pidge rushed over to her side and helped her sit up a bit. "Mrs. Truman," She lightly hugged the woman, seeing as if she wasn't feeling well, "I... what is it? What are you gonna say?" All Madonna had to say was for the motley crew to follow her. Perhaps she knew what was going on.

"Carry this ok?" Pidge nodded and saluted towards her friend with the hand that wasn't holding the bat. She took one last at the ruined office before following the rest of the gang out of the door.

[Naomi Smith]

Naomi felt a warm hug, it took her by surprise. She took a glance behind her, seeing it was no other than Pidge - who was hugging her. The whole scene was a bit bizarre, since they didn't hug often but maybe Pidge was really relieved that Naomi was alive. Naomi couldn't help but smile at girl when she heard: "I'm glad you're safe!".

But the next question made it even more odd, "Your hair smells nice. What shampoo do you use?". Naomi had to repeat that question in her head over and over again.
'Did she really just ask that? In this kind of situation?' she wondered. But who she was to blame her? Naomi's way to handle serious situations with jokes and smiles was not also THAT smart or appropriate. Maybe Pidge tried to act as normal, so she would not show any fear or panic.
Before Naomi was able to answer, Pidge had started to get away from her.
"Aussie, the one with kangaroo logo." she said a bit louder, so maybe Pidge could still hear it.

Before Naomi was able to follow Pidge, she heard loud and clear: "Holy fucking shit! Miss Kishi's gonna get sacked!?". Naomi saw Al and Esme looking at some papers, but Naomi was not brave enough to ask from them the details. She was shocked about the news. Naomi didn't care much about Ms. K, but she had this need of please her with all the tech stuff. That was Naomi's way to "stay alive" in the club, and not kicked out. But if what Al said was true, who would lead the club if not Ms. K?

Loud coughing was heard from direction of "the bodies". The headmaster, Mrs. Truman, was awake and seemed to be in awfull condition. She tried to say something to them, but unluckily the speech turned into coughing even louder. "Fol- low me..." she said almost silently, but others started to make preparations to leave the room.

"Wait, what about Riley?" Al asked, but before someone answered she picked up Riley's body. Naomi watched frightened how Al carried Riley, the body was sure heavy. How long she would manage doing that? Right after that others started to offer their help. Naomi also made her way out of the room and took a chance to remind everyone: "Stay safe and watch your steps."

[Rebecca Rolfe]

"Would you rather us use our hands to get potential debris out of the way, Becca?" Pidge retorted. Besides, someone could bash my brains in, considering how much of an annoying pest I am. You can do the honor of doing so......


That may-have  caused Rebecca to get even more annoyed as she heard Pidge speak...her frame turned angered, she didn't know how to respond at this moment...clenching her teeth...she'd look at Her."The yelling wasn't the point , Pidge... she hurt her self, who know's how long we'll be before we get a medic? so lets not try to get anyone else hurt, right? right."she'd grunt as she went to  her own side of the room... she had heard what some people thought of her, at times. 

she hated it.

she  kept trying, trying to fit in. She was concentrating on her own thoughts for the moment...and followed Truman out the door.Rebecca wanted to scream, and hit things. she was in  a  bit of pain, which made her crankier.she'd look at her hand frowning."Miss Truman!?" ( mrs?) she'd look around.