Day 3: (Ab)normal Days

Laura eased up a bit as Herbert withdrew his knives, and promptly sat down at the table to be at eye level with him. "That's not really suprising," she said nonchalantly. "I mean, I'd be stressed too if my only friend was brutally murdered."

It was hard even for Laura to tell if her lack of tact was intentional or not. The words had just seemed to stream out of her mouth, but she didn't feel sorry for saying them. She simply looked at Herbert, trying to read his expression.

He stepped in, figuring that was probably a good idea before things got a lot worse.
"I wouldn't worry, Herbert. I mean, I feel asleep outside of my room for, what, a few hours? And the bear did nothin' to me. Maybe he was just joshing us with that rule." He shrugged. "Either way, we probably shouldn't do it. Because I trust that bear as far as I can throw it, and my arm muscles aren't that great." he laughed and turned to Laura, and his face contorting into a small frown. "Erm, you wanna...not do that? It's kinda, uh, rude." He didn't really know what to say. He wasn't very good at this whole thing. "Uh. Yeah."

Herbert narrowed his eyes, taking his cup of coffee and placing his blueberries into his vest pocket.
"Sos ta gorl ho'as rippin'e uh new'un yosterday." He frowned. "Ain't good ta change ya words."
Though when David finally interceded, he looked at the fish. Oh look, a way to get himself out of a group of presumably murderous teenagers. "Oi'm gon feed muh fosh." he finally muttered as he stalked away to the freezer, cup of coffee in hand.

As he watched the confrontation, he let out a sigh. There wasn't anything to be done, but he knew, and figured everyone else knew, that this wouldn't end well. After throwing out the paper plate, he walked over to David.
"So, from one hat wearer to another..." he lowered his voice, nearly whispering, "I wouldn't mess with those two when they're having a conversation..."

Marci peered over at the others by the fishtank and smiled a little.

She turned back to her other friends. "Do you think we could just sit here and watch? It's like watching a really dramatic TV Sitcom, one of the really crappy ones, except live!" she said quietly. "And uh, it's real life and not obviously scripted from beginning to end, but that's not the point." Of course, she definitely didn't watch enough TV Sitcoms to actually know that they were scripted. That wasn't the point either, thankfully.

"Yeah, the library!" Oscar gathered up his notes now, a proud grin on his face. They were covered in formula after formula and various lists of elements, household products and kitchen appliances.

His expression grew dark then, "I-I...don't know." He was too anxious about the meeting to really want to do anything other than hiding until it was time. However, he did have his own plans.
"I-I've...got stuff to do..." He glanced towards the kitchen now, "Hold on, I'll be back, guys!"

He left to the kitchen to make two waffles. As he stood and waited for them to heat up, he searched around the room and organized things like salt shakers and matches into piles. Someone was up to something.

In an almost trance-like state, Laura simply stared at David for a solid ten seconds. It was somehow strange to hear this other kid, who she had barely spoken to aside from telling him off when he tried to halt her during the investigation, actually reprimand her. And for a reason she couldn't explain, Laura didn't really mind. At all. And with Herbert going to look at the fish, she had nothing better to do but entertain him.

"That's alright Asher, I kinda want to talk to him!" she said, smiling warmly. "Hey, what's your name, anyway? Sorry, I never found you to be real significant. Guess I just couldn't be bothered to remember it."

In the break in conversation, Adda took her journal from her backpack and began to leaf through the pages from long ago. There were doodles and silly notes her dad had left her before birthdays and big days, which he had done for her overnight. She couldn't help but smile. She failed to take much note of the ragged edges left from torn pages.

He stared back at Laura oddly, not saying anything. "Er, name's David. David River." He hesitated for a moment, shrugged and did his goofy little bow, with his goofy little fancy voice. "Super-High School Level Chauffeur. At your service, miss."

His stomach interrupted his eloquence. He laughed. "I'm hungry. Nice to meet you, I guess." he said simply, and headed off to get some food.

He spotted Oscar and called over. "Well this looks familiar! Are you gonna run this time, too?" He said jokingly, hoping it came across as as obvious a joke it was.

Having placed her food on the table, Eloise now walks in to see Laura and David staring at eachother. It seems the fun had already ended, but never-the-less this was interesting.
"Good Morning!" She says, butting in, "You two never met before?" she starts peeling her orange, tearing it

Laura acknowledged Eloise talking to her, but her stare was still fixed on David walking into the kitchen. "No, I don't think we have! But you know, I get that sort of Chauffeur vibe from him. Like he was born to be stepped on and told what to do." She paused for a moment and tilted her head to the side. "Huh. I don't even know where I got that from."

Then Laura turned and looked directly at Eloise. "You haven't eaten yet, have you? Let's go back in the kitchen."

Asher scratched the back of his neck a bit, then began to walk towards the door. He wasn't sure what to think about anyone. He began to stroll through the halls towards the gym.

At least nobody followed him, Herbert noticed, laughing to himself as he entered the freezer again. He set his coffee down onto the floor so it would be propping the door open.
With a free hand, he cut another slab of meat for the fish, making sure it didn't have a case of freezer burn, making sure he didn't touch it with his wrapped up hand. He placed the slab of meat in his right fist and quickly exited, trying to find a pot to place the meat in. Or just stick it into the sink and run hot water over it. That worked too. he took a sip of his coffee, and it was pretty strong. Good.
Once he was pretty sure the meat was thawed, he got a smaller plastic contained and cubed the meat into it, filling it up over the brim. Perfect.
Sadly, there were still people by his fishtank. He frowned, holding his coffee in his left hand and the meat in his right as he walked back over. Perhaps he could start feeding the fish without anyone noticing.

Oscar was half way through stacking a pile of water bottles when David popped in. He flinches, sending the water bottles rolling across the table. One falls to the floor with a soft crunch, almost giving the boy another heart attack.
"A-h-...G-guh..G-Good Morning!" Oscar manages to force out of his mouth. He was well considering running.
"No!" He laughs nervously, " Not this time..." His voice cracks.

The toaster with his waffles goes off and Oscar jumps again.

Adda put the book away again and pulled out her student ID, looking it over for some sort of destination for the day. For such a renowned school, there really wasn't that much when it came to diverse rooms. She stood, finishing off her milk and gathering her garbage. "Well I'll see ya round Marc, call me beep me if ya wanna reach me!" She smiled as she walked away, throwing out the items in her hands and leaving the room.

He laughed. He laughed so hard he had to lean on the counter for support. "S-sorry! I-I didn't mean to s-start anythin'!"

He picked up the bottle of water that had rolled over to his feet, opened it, and sipped, trying to suppress his laughter so he didn't choke. Choking to death wouldn't be fun, he decided. Actually, he had decided that during yesterday's course of events, but that was besides the point, out of sight and out of mind.

"Aah. Oscar, right? Name's David. Nice to meet ya." He grinned at the boy who looked like he was about to faint, and decided offering a hand might be a bad idea.

Eloise shrugged, she couldn't exactly deny any of that considering David called her "Your Highness".
"I've got my food right here," She listed up the orange in her hands and motioned towards the bowl of cereal she left on the table nearby. "Unless you want to eat in the kitchen, that's fine! Crazy, but fine."

Asher walked into the gym, passing through to the boy's locker room. He scanned his ID to pop open his locker, and placed his hat and jacket inside, though he didn't bother locking it- he just closed it over a bit.

He left the room and returned to the climbing ropes- the one place he could go that no one could reach him, while still not feeling like a complete shut-in and just staying in his room. He quickly climbed a rope, and then grabbed the one next to it with one hand, dangling between the two.

Marci waved to her friend as she walked out. She wasn't sure what do to either.

She looked at the map; she hadn't visited the classrooms explicitly, but she had a feeling they were rather boring. The gym was just flat out unappealing, though maybe checking her locker in the locker room would be worthwhile.

She didn't feel like moving, though, and watching all this unfold was way too interesting to her, so she sat down and nibbled at her toast, watching out of the corner of her eye.

Adda entered the storage room, wading through the various belongings scattered about and settling down in a corner in the back. She leaned against the wall, and prodded at a few of the random objects before letting out a sigh.

Laura nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, I didn't even notice. But yes, let's eat in the kitchen!" She knew Eloise would take a moment to gather her food, so she just picked up her bagel, crackers, and water and made her way over to the kitchen, munching on the bagel as she walked.

"It's me again!" she said as she stepped into the room, looking at David. "You miss me?" Then she noticed Oscar. "Oh? Am I interrupting something special?"

Thank god Laura finally managed to get the hell out of his business. He dragged a chair over, using it as a stand while he opened the top of the tank. The fish swarmed to the surface, making Herbert crack a very rare smile. "Ey babies." He said, his voice taking on an almost scary high-pitched quality. He slowly sifted the meat into the tank, causing an uproar at the surface as the fish fed.
To minimize the chances of some fish getting fed more than others, he sifted all the cut up meat around where he could reach, his grin widening.

Oscar gathered up the remaining bottles, flustered. He stared at David as he downed a bottle, a blank stare forming on his face.
"I-I needed...those....ounces..." he mumbled under his breath and walked back towards the shelf the water bottles were stored. A few moments of silence passed before he finally replied.
"Y-Yeah, it's Oscar. Hello...David," he waved his hand that was still bandaged, the makeshift cast starting to fall to pieces.

He saw Laura walk into the kitchen and he nearly straight up bolted out of the room. If only he was able to move.

After a few moments of silent passed, Adda leaned her head back and let out a disturbed laugh.
"So much stuff here! More things than I could think of any one person-or te-er, eight people, even needing!" She let out a sigh and drew her legs in to her chest. "And still, nothing matters. Nothing can help any of us."

He calmed down by the time Laura came in, taking another sip of his water. "Hello again," he said simply.
He followed Laura's look over to Oscar and started laughing a little again. He looked at the bandage oddly, but didn't ask any questions. They had too many injuries to really ask questions about every single one at this point. "You're not interrupting nothing. I'm just finally getting around to meeting my fellow peers. Kinda late, I guess." he shrugged. Something was better than nothing!