Day 6: (Ab)normal Days

Adda turned to look at Marci before leaving her room.

"I'm gonna go bring some breakfast to Laura, I think.  But I just thought of something... could you meet me in the library?  I shouldn't be long," she mentioned.

There was a strange determination in her eyes.  She turned away, placing a few things in her bag, before leaving the room.

Marci blinked. "Um, alright, I was going to head there regardless. I'll meet you there."

She watched Adda walk out with a light bout of confusion on her face, but shrugged it off quickly. She gathered her few things and headed over to her room to drop them off.

Adda held the rail as she went down the stairs at the fastest pace she could manage.  While she hated taking it slow, she certainly didn't want to take a tumble.

She took a moment to regain her balance at the bottom of the stairs, then walked over to the kitchen.

Laura didn't wake up at the announcement because she couldn't hear it. It wasn't until her bed began to shake, likely from some sort of contraption Monobear had set up, that Laura awoke with a start. 

Her breathing was heavy for a moment, but she raised her hand to her chest and calmed herself down. It took her a few seconds to run through the events of the previous day in her head, but she was able to do it, despite the pounding headache that she had. 

Laura looked around. No one else was in the room with her, so she just sighed and rested her head back into the pillow. If someone else came into the room, hopefully they'd be willing to chat with her for a bit.

Eloise was glad to wake up, despite the horrible grogginess.

 Her night of trying to stay awake ended in complete resignation. She felt awful, with her head pounding, and realized how awful of a choice it was. She could've played it safe and stayed awake longer, or actually have gotten a good sleep. But at least she woke up and that was good.

Very slowly and very foggy, the memories of the previous day returned and Eloise groaned, sinking back into her pillow.

But a promise was a promise, she'd have to get Laura her breakfast. She got up and grabbed the mask from her bed-side table. The thing had a crack straight down the face, maybe she should let it go for today.

Adda stepped into the kitchen, looking around with a perplexed expression.

"But...what does Laura even like?" she mumbled.  Figuring she couldn't be feeling so got, Adda grabbed a bagel and bottle of water for Laura.  She still had tons of granola bars in her pockets, but just before she left she grabbed a water for herself as well.

Herbert shook the sleep from his head. He wished that yesterday and night was only a dream, something that was justa  figment of his imagination. He held that forlorn thought while he dressed and stumbled out into the hall. He cast a long gaze at David's door before he went down to eat.

It was a dream. His mind chanted. But it felt too real. His eye was still gone and it still felt like he was punched in the gut. "Ah ain't got time for this." He grumbled, wiping his hand gently across his face. 

His breakfast was toast, fruit, and mostly coffee. He didn't feel like cooking much. Perhaps he'd go see Laura when he put the dishes away. Maybe that.

David jumped at the announcement. How long was he pacing around, exactly? He figured it was only five or ten minutes...but that was (apparently) hours ago. Weird. At least he hadn't wasted the time.

He rubbed his neck - it still hurt a bit. Or a lot. That was going to leave a bruise. He'd get a bandage or something and he'd be fine. At least he wasn't dead; that was a definite plus. He moved his hand away and the smallest drop of blood appeared on his glove.

"Well poo poo." he mumbled. "Good thing I have a spare pair."

He headed down the stairs - two flights to get to the cafeteria. Two flights was two too many, but he went down them regardless. He was starving. Food first, gloves - and tie, he realized - later.

Staring at the blank but dirty ceiling, Laura sighed. She figured there must be something she could do, so she tried scanning the room. There was something she hadn't noticed before on the side of her bed. Laura felt silly for not noticing it, but figured that since it was a white note and blended in with the sheets, she could forgive herself the slip up.

She reached over and grabbed the note, and brought it close to her face. She tried to focus on the letters that were scrawled onto it with a pen, but she couldn't make any of it out in a timely manner. She skipped to the bottom to see who had signed their name. It took a while, but she eventually determined that the note must have been from Eloise. Laura was glad her friend cared enough to visit her in the night.

Adda slowly opened the door to the nurse's office and waved a bit as she walked in.  She stepped over to the bed and put the food down on the side before pulling out her notebook.  She flipped to the back, past occult notes and old conversations with Albert, before writing out a note.
"How was your night?  Hope it wasn't terrible ):" she wrote, passing the book to her.

Eloise decided a simple outfit change wasn't enough, and she was well sick and tired of the same outfit everyday. She took a plain blouse and skirt out of her closet, not even entirely aware of when those got there. She hoped she wasn't hallucinating because the blouse was pretty nice.

Choosing a steady pace to reach the cafeteria, she entered it in good time.
"Okay, let's see..." She hummed to herself, going through shelves to see what she could find. Just to make it easier, she grabbed a plastic bag and filled it with two apples, two juice boxes and four mini boxes of cereal. She had few objections to cereal without milk, and hoped Laura would be the same.

Laura watched as Adda walked in, and inwardly groaned. She was happy to see the other girl, but it was awkward for her considering she had been so mean to her the past few days, especially during the trials. However, Laura wasn't one to turn away free food, so she smiled at Adda and took the book.

She was relieved that the note was short enough that she could spend a minute reading it. After she deciphered the message, Laura grabbed the pen that Eloise left with the note from last night and wrote a reply.

"Alright. I slept through the whole thing. Thank you for the food." She couldn't write too much or she was afraid she would jumble the letters, but she had to add another question. "No one's dead right?" she added before handing off the book to Adda.

Monobear's voice rang throughout the school, over the intercom.

"Congratulations!  You managed to make it a night without a murder."  He laughed.

"I've begun to notice there's a lack of trust between students and staff, though.  Imagine that!  So, I'll be having each of you visit me in my office, one at a time, in alphabetical order.  Don't worry; I'll remember to call you each down when it's time!  But it seems first is Ms. Besley, and since she can't very well walk, I'll be visiting.  I expect the room to be empty when I get there.  You all get privacy, so she should too!"

Adda took the book back gently.

"To be honest, I came right here, so I don't know.  But we would've been preoccupied if something seemed wrong."  She paused for a moment to listen to the message, then returned to writing, a bit more fervently this time.

"Monobear just announced that there was no murder.  But he's making a house call to you- meeting with everyone alphabetically.  I'm sorry, he said we have to go."

She frowned as she passed the note down, waving goodbye as she exited.

She was walking down the stairs as she heard the announcement. She listened carefully, and raised an eyebrow at the suggestion. What, was the bear a guidance counselor now? A guidance counselor of death?

Eh, whatever. She smiled - she had more than a few questions to ask the bear. Maybe she could get an answer or two.

She headed down the stairs with an anxious spring in her step - she wasn't far from the front of the alphabet anymore she realized, smiling grimly.

Laura frowned at Adda's note. It was a lot longer and harder to read. She tried to get a few key points out of it. There was something about not knowing, and then something about Monobear. Eventually, Laura saw the words "no murder." 

That reassurance was all she needed, so Laura put down Adda's book at the side of her bed. She made a mental note to return it to her after she was walking again.

Eloise heard the announcement on the way out of the cafeteria. Looks like she would be staying in the cafeteria.

Hopefully someone would visit soon and ease that wait, Eloise's head slowly churned the idea of a one-on-one meeting with Monobear and it didn't strike her as agreeable. Her stomach didn't agree with it either. She stabbed the straw into the juice box, not wanting the cereal anymore.

Monobear strode into the nurse's office.

Adda walked down to the library and stepped in.  Without checking for Marci, she began to search for the light switch.  She found it, smiled sadly, and then walked over to the table, pulling out chairs.

David listened to the announcement, shrugged it off, and kept walking. A meeting with Monobear was better than getting a punishment from Monobear. 

"Maybe to gain some trust or somethin', the bear'll give me some candy." he mumbled jokingly. "Sure as hell wouldn't mind."

He found himself in front of the cafeteria in no time, and walked in.

Registering David's face, Eloise waved to him slightly as he walked in.

"Hey, morning!" She said, her voice raised only slightly. It was already too much, and her headache intensified.

Herbert dusted some stray crumbs into his hands when he heard the announcement. He sighed, with what happened yesterday no wonder. He didn't trust the bear at all. Perhaps a little before, but now with one eye, things were different. Vastly different.

He dusted his hands in the sink, but he froze when he heard someone approaching. It was quiet enough, and Herbert assumed it could be very few people, but the first person he thought of was David. He crossed his arms, and walked switly back into his seat, trying to look like he was busy with something.

Marci stumbled into the Library a moment later, spotting Adda. "Um, sorry I'm late! I was walking slow, I guess..." she walked over to Adda, pulled out her own chair and sat down.

She looked around the library - nothing much had changed. It looked the same as it did the first day, with the exception of some books being missing here or there.

Marci looked up at Adda curiously. "So, why are we here?"

Adda took off her bag and placed it on the table, not removing her eye from it.

"I'm abridging this a bit, but... do you want to get some closure with Oscar?"  She didn't look up, but it was clear she was fighting back some emotions.