Alex wasn't used to classmates stopping him in the hall for a chat, so when he saw Mary Somers approaching him as he and Jack were on their way to English, Alex assumed he was in her way and shuffled to the right a bit. But she followed his movement and lightly caught him by the arm to stop him from moving away again.
"Alexander," she said, her eyebrows scrunched together in a slightly concerning way. "You're friends with that girl named Eloise, right?"
"What happened?" Jack immediately butted in, his tone so intense it made Mary jump a little.
"It could be nothing," she said quickly, putting her hands up in a soothing gesture. "I have English with her first class period. In the beginning, she was called down to the headmaster's office. She stayed out for the rest of the class. I'm not sure if she's still there. But I got worried since I knew she was the one who asked Headmaster Conrad about the flowers in the first place, and I imagine he wasn't happy when he found out about those poppies."
"Fuck," Jack muttered under his breath before darting down the hall back the way they came. Away from their English classroom and towards the admin offices. Alex's instinct was to run straight after him, but he stopped himself to properly finish the conversation with Mary.
"Um, thank you for telling us, Mary," he said, not realizing until it was just the two of them that he had never really spoken to her on one before. In his mind, Mary was a nice but flighty party girl, a little vain but not particularly malicious. These past few weeks she had proven herself to be more than that. "And thanks for... Well, being so good to everyone recently. Helping with the signatures and opening up your table to the scholarship kids looking for a safe space."
Mary tucked a stray hair behind her ear and fiddled with the velvet-ruffled hair tie around her wrist. "You know, I never really thought about all this stuff very much," she said, her voice soft and tinged with a touch of self-judgement. "Always had other things occupying my mind, I guess. But ever since... I mean, Charlie still has nightmares about that morning. Seeing her so distraught, and then seeing everyone else scared and grieving and... It just makes so much that used to feel important feel so stupid now. You know?"
"Yeah. I do."
"Anyways, I hope your friend doesn't get in too much trouble. And... I hope they don't tear out those flowers."
"Yeah. Me too. I, uh, should probably go catch up with Jack in case he does something stupid."
"Right. Good luck."
Alex smiled one last time in appreciation and then turned to weave through the crowded hall after Jack. He had long lost sight of him, but he knew exactly where he was going. Sure enough, he caught up to him just as he was stomping up the stairs to the second floor of the admin building where Thomas Conrad's office was.
"God, I'm so fucking stupid," Jack said, noticing Alex come up from behind without even looking at him. "I should have known Conrad would assume Ellie had done it. She was the one who tried to pitch the idea in the first place."
"Do you think she could still be up there?" Alex said as he struggled to match Jack's manic pace up the steps. "It's been three whole class periods."
"Remember how long your uncle made us wait around when we got in that fight?"
"Phrasing it like makes the ordeal sound more mutual than it was."
"Fine. When I got in that fight. He let us cook for like an hour and a half. It's an intimidation tactic. Besides, even if she's not I can still set the record straight."
The door to Thomas's office was closed when they reached the second floor, and Mrs Faraday stood up from her usual post at her desk when Jack made a beeline for it.
"Mr. Farrow, wait," she said with the conviction of someone who knew they wouldn't be listened to. "He's with a student right now."
"Perfect," Jack said, predictably ignoring her and shoving open the door. Alex gave her his apologies as he followed suit.
As Jack had assumed, Ellie was still there, sitting in one of the chairs opposite Thomas's desk. Her hands were folded in her lap, and she was looking at the boys with wide eyes, confusion and relief swirling together in them. The headmaster himself was glaring mildly at the ruckus that had just interrupted him mid-sentence, though it harshened when he noticed Alex was right behind Jack.
"Mr. Farrow," Thomas said. "I don't believe we had a meeting on my agenda. If I've made a mistake, you'll have to forgive me, I'm in the middle of-"
"She's not the one who planted the flowers, Conrad," Jack interrupted, not at all enthused by Thomas's condescendingly polite tone. "I was. Leave her alone."
Thomas raised an eyebrow as Ellie scrunched hers together. "Is that so?" Thomas said slowly, turning his gaze to Ellie, who flinched at being the centre of attention again. "Then why did Ms Mishra just tell me it was her?"
Ellie fidgeted with the fabric of her skirt as she mumbled out some filler words. It didn't take long for Jack to jump back in.
"Because you would have believed her if she had told you the truth?" he challenged. "You've made it pretty clear you don't give two shits about their side of any story."
"An ounce of decorum would be appreciated, Jonathan." Thomas's glare flitted to Alex. "If this is an attempt to cover for someone in this room-"
"It's not. Run a fucking soil analysis on the dirt still under my fingernails if you want."
Thomas rolled his eyes and stood up. "I think we can refrain from bothering forensics experts with this particular case," he said, moving to the door. He brushed past Jack and Alex to open it fully and waved at Ellie. "Ms. Mishra you are free to return to your classes," he said, and Ellie shot up with her bookbag in hand faster than Alex had ever seen anyone move. "In the future, I would advise you not to lie on behalf of classmates. Especially ones who most certainly do not need your help."
Ellie nodded without meeting Thomas's eyes and skirted past Jack without looking at him either. She did glance at Alex, and for a second looked like she was going to reach out or wave goodbye. But she flinched under Thomas's watch again and just hurried out of the office. Alex barely saw her reach the staircase before Thomas closed the door again, locking it this time.
"Have you come down with some affliction that makes you incapable of following basic instructions, Alexander?" Thomas seethed once the door was shut.
"I-" Alex started to say, but he should have known better than to acknowledge the hypothetical question.
"Stay away from Mishra. Don't incite a scene over this incident. These tasks are literal inaction! How is that even too much for you, you useless-"
Thomas cut himself off as the lights in his office flickered and the air went prickly. He and Alex turned to see Jack leaning against his desk, hands in his pockets and his face set in that terrifying mask of neutrality. Small arcs of electricity were dancing off the skin of his cheeks like he was an active Tesla coil.
"I said," Jack said slowly, "I planted those flowers. Alex had nothing to do with it. So back off."
Thomas stared Jack down for a second before responding. "And why exactly did you care about memorializing some random runt enough to dig around in the mud?"
"His name was Baptiste. And I don't owe you any explanations. You can give me whatever meaningless punishment you want. But you're going to leave Alex out of it. And you're going to leave those flowers exactly where they are."
"Am I now?"
"You know the only thing that'll keep people talking about a dead student longer than some flowers in the ground? Their headmaster ordered his memorial torn up and thrown away. Might start whispering about why he's so determined to erase all the evidence of a tragic accident. Maybe people will start to wonder if it wasn't an accident at all."
Thomas narrowed his eyes and stepped towards Jack even though he was still visibly charged with electricity. "Is that a threat, Mr. Farrow?" he asked in disbelief.
"Uh, yeah. Sorry, I thought that was obvious."
Thomas hummed in displeasure, looking for a second like he was going to further argue for his desire to see the flowers gone. Instead, he turned his attention back to Alex.
"Needless to say, this immature impatience has used up any goodwill that may have been afforded to the proposal you wasted your time on," he said as he walked back to his desk. "But fine. Mr. Farrow's little gardening project can remain until the plants have run their course. After that, you can leave landscaping duties in the hands of the wyverns we pay for that job."
Jack came away from Thomas's desk to stand up straight and gave him a rigid salute. Thomas rolled his eyes as he sat back down in his chair. "You are both dismissed," he said, going back to a stack of paperwork he had on his desk. "Don't do anything that will get sent you in here for the rest of the term."
Alex immediately went for the door handle, eager to get the hell out of that room, but as he unlocked it Jack spoke again.
"Oh, one more thing," Alex heard him say. He turned his head to see Jack holding his arm out towards Thomas like he was initiating a handshake, but his hand was clenched instead of open. Thomas stiffened as Jack snapped, and an arc of electricity shot from Jack's fingertips and right past Thomas's face, singing the drawn curtains behind him. Alex jumped and bit back an expletive. He had never seen Jack turn his powers on anyone before.
"You put your hands on Alexander again, I'll fry you like the fucking insect you are," Jack said with the casualness of someone giving their coffee order. He didn't wait for a response as he spun around and herded a bewildered Alex out of the office, closing the door behind them. Alex was half expecting his uncle to come after them, but he didn't.
As Alex was still processing exactly what just happened, Jack rushed over to Mrs. Faraday's desk. "Would you be able to tell me what class Eloise Mishra has right now?" he asked.
"I'm not meant to give out that information to anyone but faculty," Mrs. Faraday said. "But if you hurry you might be able to catch up with her."
"Right. Thanks."
Jack habitually snatched a candy from Mrs. Faraday's dish and darted towards the stairs while Alex stared after him, still in a daze. Mrs. Faraday noticed his state and got his attention.
"Are you alright, Alexander?" she asked.
"Um, yeah," Alex muttered. "Sorry. I, uh..."
Did that just happen? AJ wondered as Alex struggled to collect himself. A little to the right and Jack would have fried the bastard's brain.
"You look a little pale," Mrs. Faraday noticed. "Do you need to go to the infirmary? Or maybe I could make you some tea before you head back to class."
"T-thank you. But I'm fine. I should go catch up with Jack. Make sure he doesn't cause any trouble."
Not that you would be able to stop him. If his heart was set on it. Clearly.
Mrs Faraday nodded reluctantly and didn't say anything else as Alex clumsily rushed towards the stairs. Jack was only halfway down, so Alex caught up and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
"What's up, dude?" Jack said, not seeming affected at all by what he had just done. "I want to catch Ellie and make sure she's okay. She was probably fucking terrified left alone with that tool."
"Why did you do that?" Alex said.
"Do what?"
"What do you mean 'what'? What do you think?"
Jack pursed his lips and picked at a rusted bit of metal on the stair railing. "People like your uncle only speak one language, Al. I had a message to get across and I wanted to make sure he heard it right away." Jack looked up from the railing with a softer expression than Alex was used to seeing. "It scared you though, didn't it?"
"I... It did. A little. You've never done anything like that. I... I sort of forgot you could."
It sounded ridiculous when he said it out loud. Alex was constantly paranoid about his powers going out of control. Worried that other wyverns were unnerved by his inherently dangerous type. But he had never for a second thought Jack was dangerous for him. A strange phenomenon perhaps, given lightning was arguably far more volatile than fire.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Just him."
"Did... did you mean it?"
Jack scrunched his eyebrows together, for a second looking almost hurt. "The fuck kind of question is that?" he muttered before turning to finish his descent down the stairs. Alex watched his receding for a second, wondering if Jack had sounded so incredulous because he didn't mean it, or he did.
Evidently Jack did,n't need to leave in a rush, because Ellie was sitting on the bottom steps of the admin building, her legs pulled up to her chest. Jack hesitated a couple of steps above her since she didn't acknowledge him even though she must have heard the door opening and his steps on the stone staircase.
"You alright, Eloise?" he asked as Alex lingered at the top of the staircase. There was a beat of silence before she turned her head to look up at him.
"I'm not sure how well your white knight routine has worked with other girls," she said, her voice shaking a little, "but if that's what you're trying with me you should stop wasting your time. I'm not into that damsel-saving shtick."
"I just didn't think you should get in trouble for something you didn't do."
"How do you know I didn't?"
Jack cocked his head and looked back at Alex with a confused expression. "Because I did it?" he said, suddenly not sounding so sure about that. That made Eloise tilt her head and stand up.
"You did?"
"Yeah. That's what I... Did you not hear me? I told Conrad that like three minutes ago."
"I thought you were just lying to try to save me."
"Oh. No. I mean, I would have. Probably. If I had thought of it. Which I probably wouldn't have. Not that smart. Don't know if you've noticed."
"Don't know if I'd say that," Ellie said with a chuckle. "Not one to think things through, maybe."
"Right. Yeah. Sorry, by the way. I should have figured he would look for a culprit and find you instead."
"Did he even give you a chance to vouch for yourself?" Alex asked, heading down the stairs to join them.
"Not really. However,r I decided as soon as I realized what he had called me in for that I was going to take the blame. I figured I was covering for another scholarship student. If I had known you were the rogue gardener I would have outed you in a heartbeat."
"Atta girl," Jack said.
A barely perceptible blush crawled up Ellie's cheeks as she bounced on her toes. "Why did you do it, then?" she asked as she fiddled with her uniform tie. "If you were trying to impress me you should have told me you'd done it."
"I slept in. Maybe I just didn't have the chance yet."
"But that's not why you did it, is it?"
Alex could tell for a second that Jack was primed to lie. To simplify his motivations down to a vain desire to get a pretty girl on his good side. But his friend looked at Ellie's inquisitive face for too long and switched gears to the truth.
"It's not, no," he confirmed, squirming in slight discomfort. "I just... It's all been so fucked up. And I... I always told myself I never cared about this shit but maybe... Maybe that was just as bad. Cuz not caring means it all just keeps on going the way it's always been. Not caring is a luxury you can afford when the way shit is doesn't fuck up your life. When it doesn't end your life. So, I want to start caring. But when I do, I fucking hate it cuz I feel so goddamn small. And useless. Like, what can a prick like me do or say to make any of you guys feel better? What can I do to make any of this better? Especially when you guys have to play by rules that we fix against you. I mean, that fucking proposal? We all knew it was doomed from the start. A bunch of time and effort just to get a thinly veiled middle finger. So, I just... I just wanted..."
"To give headmaster Conrad a flower-shaped middle finger?" Eloise finished for him.
"Yeah. I was just so sick of feeling small."
"Hm. I imagine that feeling has a particular sting when you're used to feeling big, huh?"
Jack clenched his fists and nodded. "All these years, without even thinking about it, I've been using my family's name like a crutch," he muttered. "To get away with petty, self-serving things. I can't get rid of it, but the least I can do is start swinging it like a baseball bat. To hit shit that matters. I'll, uh, be careful not to graze any more innocents in the future."
"At the very least give us a heads up before you start swinging," Ellie suggested, stepping towards Jack. She stood up on her tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek that had been sparking just minutes before. Luckily the electricity had dissipated, replaced now by a scarlet blush. "And thanks. The flowers were lovely."
Jack mumbled out a clumsy 'you're welcome' as the scarlet tone of his skin worked its way back down to pink. Ellie turned her attention to Alex.
"Do I owe you a chaste token of appreciation too?" she asked.
"Um, no," Alex answered, trying not to heat up at the suggestion. "Guerilla gardening was one hundred per cent Jack's idea."
"I can take his token," Jack said, regaining enough of his composure to remember he was supposed to convince girls he was suave.
"Tempting. But I should get back to class sooner rather than later," Ellie said, walking backwards slowly.
"You don't wanna hang out with the cool kids who ditch?" Jack said.
"We're not ditching either, Jack," Alex said. "I let you talk me into a lot, but ditching Alvaro's class will never be one of them."
"Try to pay attention in there, Jackie," Ellie said as she veered off towards the science building. "Exams will sneak up on you in a couple of weeks."
"Eh, most of it will be multiple choice," Jack shouted after her. "Just do what I do and spray and pray!"
"Maybe that's what I'll try," Alex said as he forcibly steered Jack to their class. "It has gotten you this far, hasn't it?"
Jack raised an eyebrow and put his arm around Alex in that faux headlock. "The day you start using my life choices as a blueprint is the day we'll know we're all fucking doomed."
"I'm not so sure. Lately, I've found myself wishing I could be a lot more like you. In some ways, at least."
"Ha! Bet you if you told you from five years ago that he'd keel over on the spot."
"He'd probably be as shocked to know you'd stand up for him the way you just did back there. Thank you for that, by the way."
Jack moved his arm away from Alex's neck so he could lightly punch his shoulder. "Well, I think I scared him enough to keep him off you. But if he crosses that line again fucking tell me, alright? I'll take care of it."
"Yeah," Alex said, trying to keep the image of what 'taking care of it' looked like out of his head. "Okay. I will."
I hope you mean that, AJ said as the two finished their trek to English, earning extra readings from Alvaro for being late. Because I for one would love to see it.
Alex didn't know if he meant it. He was a little scared of Jack trying to follow through on the threat, and he was even more scared that if he did, Alex would stand back and let him.