Chapter Text
Tuesday, October 8th 2013 – Part Four [ Brooke ]
Their procession down the stairwell of the Prescott Dormitory was a slow and careful one. Brooke had left a slick of rainwater on her way up which posed a bit of a wet floor hazard, so some careful motion was needed. The three girls weren’t in a rush anyway. They were all feeling quite delicate right now, and knew this would be their last real moment of calm before they were set upon by the crowd outside.
Brooke led the way, Kate clinging limply to her hand. Max followed behind, staring at her shoes and trying to wipe away her impromptu nosebleed. Weird, Brooke thought, though Max soon interrupted her pondering.
“I’m so glad you were there, Brooke,” Max mumbled, then wiped her hand on her hoodie. “I got there a bit late. I was afraid I wouldn’t make it at all…”
“It’s good you were there period, Max,” Brooke said. And though Kate obviously hadn’t found her voice again yet, Brooke could see her nodding in agreement and passing Max a shy smile.
Max smiled too, a little awkwardly, then let out a puff of breath. “It’s going to be crazy out there.”
Brooke had a feeling that prediction was going to be proven correct any moment now. As they neared the door leading out of the dorms, she gave Kate’s hand a quick, reassuring squeeze. Once they’d had a moment to prepare, Brooke opened it and stepped outside.
Immediately it felt like she ran into a wall of solid sound. Squinting through the slowly diminishing rain, she found what must have been almost the entire student body of Blackwell standing on the lawn in front of the dormitory, cheering and applauding for her, Kate, and Max.
Brooke cast a disbelieving glance at her friends and found them both looking just as confounded and overwhelmed as she was. It was fortunate that some members of the faculty had formed a line to stand between the crowd and the girls, though even the teachers were joining in on the ovation.
And all it took to bring them together in one common cause was an innocent girl trying to kill herself. Christ. Feeling bile burning its way up her throat, Brooke tore her eyes away to find the source of the flashing lights she saw in her peripheral vision. There was a police cruiser from the ABPD parked behind an ambulance, and Brooke saw a police officer step away from the cruiser to walk up to them.
“Girls,” he greeted with a small nod and a tip of his hat, a sympathetic look on his face. “Well, Max knows me already, but for the benefit of you two, I’m Officer Anderson Berry. I’m here to help escort Miss Marsh to the hospital.” He passed a quick look between the trio, trying to make eye contact with each. “You were all incredibly brave today.”
Brooke mumbled a thank you, rubbing the back of her neck. She glanced at Kate to check her friend was okay with this development, and saw her nodding slowly and stepping forward. Before joining Officer Berry, though, Kate seemed to pause in thought for a moment. She still had Brooke’s free hand in hers, so now she turned to face Brooke fully and set her other hand over Brooke’s.
“Together,” she affirmed softly, and the one word in her hoarse voice sufficed to reassure Brooke about seeing her go away.
Brooke eased a little and nodded back. “I’ll visit you. I promise.”
Kate let go then, waving to Brooke and Max as she went with Berry. Brooke only had a second to sigh and watch her retreating form before Mr. Madsen appeared, his posture stiff and awkward. He didn’t look particularly happy to see either of them, but he got straight to the point.
“Principal Wells wants to see you two. Straight away.”
“Oh hi, Mr. Madsen,” Max greeted with false enthusiasm. “We’re okay, thanks for asking.”
Brooke held back a laugh as Madsen glared at Max. She wondered what that beef was all about? Still, the security chief didn’t rise to it.
“Let’s not waste time, please,” he said gruffly, and turned to start walking. Brooke shook her head at Max and followed him as they made their way back to the school.
It was an awkward and unlikely bunch who were eventually crammed into Wells’ office. The principal himself stared down at Kate Marsh’s student file on his desk, rubbing his temple with his fingers; there was an emptied glass nearby which Brooke suspected had never once held water in it.
Mr. Madsen milled around self-importantly, his thumbs hooked in his belt loops and a scowl on his face as his suspicious eyes wandered over the room’s other occupants.
Mark Jefferson had his arms crossed. He was trying his best to look calm and collected, but Brooke thought she detected a hint of agitation in his posture. He was studiously not looking at her.
Nathan Prescott sat in the first of three chairs, carelessly leaning forward, his elbows planted on his legs. His cold gaze flicked around frenetically, his foot tapping on the floor. He only focused occasionally to glare daggers at Max and Brooke.
Speaking of Max, she was in the next chair over from Nathan’s, trying to look as small as possible. Her involvement in the incident had been comparatively minor, but she had been asked along anyway. Brooke was privately glad that she had an actual ally here.
Lastly, there was Brooke herself, seated in a spare metal chair that was much less comfortable than Max’s or Nathan’s looked. To say nothing of that virtual throne that Wells was safely sequestered in. Her clothes were still soaked through, her hair was a mess, and the steel seat was a literal pain in the butt, but Brooke ignored the discomfort. She sat with her legs spread slightly, back straight, and arms crossed, hoping she was doing a good job of projecting confidence. She felt no desire whatsoever to seem polite and conciliatory around these people; as far as she was concerned, everyone in this room but Max had played a part in sending Kate up to that rooftop.
With the tension thick in the air, everyone was dead silent. It fell on Principal Wells to eventually break the stillness with a sigh. “In all my years here at Blackwell, I think it is safe to say that the school has never been challenged quite like this. But, at the end of the day, we avoided tragedy. I’m proud to see how our community came together to save a student’s life.”
Brooke failed to suppress a scoff, which won her a tired glance from Wells, and glares from Madsen and Nathan. None of them said anything, so Wells went on.
“Of course, we owe Ms. Scott in particular special thanks,” the principal amended somewhat, looking at her. “You showed grace and maturity beyond your years by helping your friend.”
Brooke’s lips thinned, but she kept herself from saying or doing anything stupid, just nodding stiffly. Wells took that as a sign to move on to his next grandiose statement.
“But what happened today should never be allowed to happen in these hallowed halls of learning. Our students should never feel driven to such extremes. Mr. Madsen –” and as Wells said that, the security chief tensed up – “... the doors to the rooftops are to always be locked. That was your responsibility. Please make sure that doesn’t happen again.” Then his searching eyes moved on. “Mr. Jefferson, with as much as Kate helps out with projects for your classes, I am surprised you did not notice anything amiss.” Jefferson was stoically quiet, only furrowing his brow a little. “And lastly, Mr. Prescott, you oversee all Vortex Club activities, including the party where that horrible video was recorded. We have a good many questions for you.” Nathan clicked his tongue and averted his gaze.
Then Wells looked over Max and Brooke in turn, assessing. “What I do not understand is exactly how you girls came to be on the roof with Kate today. Were you aware of what she was planning? Please, tell us everything.”
Brooke and Max shared a look. After a second, Max nodded to defer to Brooke, who went first. “Max and I saw Kate having an… argument with Mr. Jefferson. When she ran out crying, I followed her, because I was worried about what could happen if she ran into one of the students who’s been bullying her. She was vulnerable.” She squeezed her elbow through the sleeve of her hoodie. She couldn’t tell them the whole story. “Once I realized she’d gone outside, I guessed that she would have headed back to her dorm room. I was almost right. When I heard a sound on the roof, I raced up there as fast as I could.”
She looked at Max, who picked up from there.
“... And after Zach Riggins called everybody outside, I slipped through the crowd to go help. I’ve been talking with Kate since the party incident, so I hoped I could convince her to come down. I couldn’t really see everything that was going on up there, so I didn’t know whether Brooke had been having luck or not. By the time I made it to the top, she’d already gotten Kate back from the edge.” A rather well-composed answer by Max’s standards, Brooke thought. Max flashed her a quick, grateful smile for her work, which Brooke awkwardly returned.
Nodding thoughtfully once the accounts were finished, Wells spoke up. “So the immediate cause of the incident was this argument with Mr. Jefferson.” He turned his searching gaze on the now rigid photography teacher. “Mark, could you explain this argument that the girls overheard?”
“I had… approached Kate outside of the classroom because I was concerned by the bullying she’d been experiencing,” Jefferson said, tentative when he started, but soon smooth and controlled. “I hated to see the other students laughing at her.”
Brooke cut in, glaring fiercely at him. “Is that why I heard you calling her ‘brittle’? Is that why you said she was probably lying for attention? It seemed like you were having fun joining in on the bullying yourself, Mr. Jefferson.”
Jefferson glared back. “You didn’t have the context of the full conversation, Miss Scott. And need I remind you that you shouldn’t have even been there to start with?” He gestured helplessly to Wells, as if seeking backup. “Mr. Wells, this girl skipped class to come shout at and insult a teacher–”
“And both of those incidents were on my desk before Miss Marsh even stood on that rooftop, Mark,” Wells responded with a scowl. “Frankly, I don’t give a hoot about what rules Miss Scott might have broken today, when if she hadn’t, Miss Marsh might well have lost her life.”
Huh, Brooke thought she felt her respect for Principal Wells increase from a one to a two out of ten with that. Still, the reminder of the knife’s edge Kate’s life had rested on made her gulp heavily, before she sent Mr. Jefferson another hard look.
“You owe your students better.”
Wells looked at Max. “Does this match with what you heard, Miss Caulfield?”
Max looked a little unhappy. Brooke recalled that Jefferson was something of a photography hero for her. But still, the brunette nodded slowly. “Yeah, it does. It was… pretty harsh.”
Jefferson’s shoulders sagged a little. He seemed to know he was beaten.
“Then I must echo what Miss Scott said a moment ago,” Wells told Jefferson. “We owe our students better than that. Miss Marsh deserved understanding, not judgement.”
Nathan chimed in, sneering. “If she didn’t want judgement, maybe she shouldn’t have asked to be in a video slobbering on ten different dudes. And a couple of chicks, too,” he added with a leer.
Brooke had never watched the video, so this piece of information was news to her. Was it true? Did it even matter? She was too busy seeing red to think about it intelligently, just about ready to fly out of her seat and tear Prescott a new one. But before she could move, Max took hold of her arm.
Brooke looked at the brunette questioningly, and saw her shaking her head urgently at Brooke, blue eyes wide with alarm.
How the hell did she know…? Never mind. Brooke exhaled and forced herself to be calm, letting Max respond to Nathan instead.
“Kate didn’t ask anything,” she spoke tersely, staring him down. “I talked with her about her memories of that night and she told me she barely drank anything before she started to feel unwell. She was drugged. And I think you had something to do with it.”
“Drugged?” Nathan blurted, incredulous. “Obviously she had a bit more than just one sip.”
“You told her you were going to take her to the ER,” Max accused.
“Yeah, I did say that, and then she sobered up while I was helping her and she was on her merry way. Nothing happened. ” His warning glare promised retribution if she contradicted him.
Brooke couldn’t listen to this anymore. “I wouldn’t bet on it,” she snarled at him. “Why don’t you tell the Principal and the others what you said to me on Thursday?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he grit out, his glare passing to her.
“I believe your exact words were, ‘we’re going to make sure you know your place. And your Jesus freak friend too, real soon’. Isn’t that right?”
“Your word against mine,” he denied with an uncaring shrug.
“Maybe we can just blame that on alcohol too,” Brooke retorted acidly.
Max chimed in again, her arms crossed as she joined Brooke in glaring at Nathan. She was as angry as Brooke had ever seen her. “And if that’s not enough, how about we revisit the issue of you pulling out a gun in the girls’ restroom?”
“That’s slander!” he exclaimed, pounding his fist on Wells’ desk. “You want this to get litigious, Caulfield? I’ll sue you and this damned school if I have to!”
“That will be enough, Mr. Prescott,” Wells finally spoke, glowering and unamused. “This is the second time I’ve heard of this alleged gun incident, and while I still don’t know if it is true or not, the testimony of these ladies paints a very unappealing picture. On the basis of this and past disciplinary action against you, I’m afraid I don’t have any other choice but to suspend you pending a fuller review of these allegations.”
Nathan stared hard at Wells, then slumped, staring hollowly at Brooke and Max. “So, the Feminazis win the day.” Then he threw his hands up in dismissal and stood. “Fine. I’ll see you in court.” With that, Nathan stormed out.
Shaking his head, Wells glanced at Jefferson once more. “As for you, Mark, I’m afraid that this matter will be coming up in your next review. But for now, I am going to remove you from presiding over the Everyday Heroes photo contest.”
“You can’t be serious,” Jefferson said, but at Wells’ warning look, he sighed. “I understand. This is bigger than me.”
He was impressively full of shit. Brooke chose to just take silent satisfaction in him getting snubbed like that, and turned her attention to the pair of forms Wells was sliding over the desk.
“Thank you for your honesty, Miss Scott, Miss Caulfield. Sign these to confirm what you’ve told us here today, and you can be on your way.”
“I can’t believe Wells actually did something,” Brooke told Max with a slight grin as the two of them walked down the hall toward the doors of Blackwell Academy.
“I was kind of surprised, myself,” Max admitted. “He didn’t seem willing to believe what I said about Nathan yesterday. I guess he felt spurred to action.”
“Bureaucrats always move at snail speed until they think their ass is on the line,” Brooke observed. “Or that’s what my mom always said, anyway.”
The two of them emerged into the evening air, the orange light of the setting sun illuminating them as they slowly strolled down the front steps.
“I do feel a little bad for Mr. Jefferson. He seemed pretty upset about not being able to stay on with the photo contest.”
“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over that, Max.” Brooke glanced at one of those creepy photo displays Jefferson had put up on the lawn. “He is so not the ‘cool, approachable teacher’ he wants you to think he is.”
A statement based principally on gut feeling and the one conversation they’d overheard him having with Kate, but Brooke still felt quite justified in her estimation. And Max still considered carefully, lips reluctantly pursed, before shrugging and letting the matter drop.
“He is an even bigger hipster than me,” Max finally said, with a hint of impishness.
Brooke patted her shoulder. “You’ve finally admitted what you are. It’s the first step to recovery,” she told her solemnly. Then they both laughed.
There was a bit of motion, and the girls looked over. Brooke saw Warren milling in place on the path nearby, having stopped on his way to the dorms. He looked like he wanted to say something to them, but he ultimately just nodded awkwardly, waved, and then kept walking.
Brooke sighed as she watched him go. “There’s another problem I need to address. I really lost track of the fact that happened in all the, uh, excitement.”
“Things with Warren will be fine,” Max assured her. “Once you and him clear the air, you can go back to being friends again.”
“I hope so,” Brooke mumbled. The two of them finally came to a stop to sit on the lawn, facing the setting sun. “Everything’s so complicated now. I miss when my life was just worrying about video game spoilers and trying to get a boy to like me. And that was just a few days ago.”
“I know exactly how you feel,” Max said, a bit of weight behind the quiet pronouncement.
Brooke lifted her knees to prop her hands on them, thumbs linked together. “So, you and Chloe… What’s going on there?”
Max’s fair skin immediately reddened. “Huh? What makes you think there’s anything going on? She’s my best friend, it’s not like…”
Brooke stared at her blankly. “That’s not what I meant, you dweeb. I’m talking about you spending most of the last two days with her. I’ve barely seen you outside of classes.”
“Oh,” Max mumbled. “Well, we’re just making up for lost time. I was gone for five years…”
“Yeah, right after you almost saw her get shot by Prescott. You two are up to something.”
Max worked her jaw this way and that, eyes far away. Brooke waited patiently while she hashed out whatever inner crisis she was having. Eventually, Max said, “I think Rachel Amber’s disappearance is connected to what happened to Kate.”
“Whoa. What? Why do you say that?”
“There are just too many coincidences around both of them. The Vortex Club, Mr. Madsen, and Nathan…”
“What exactly makes you think Nathan and Rachel had anything to do with each other? She partied, but she wasn’t really friends with him. For that matter, what does Mr. Madsen have to do with anything?”
“I saw him interrogating Kate yesterday,” Max divulged, picking at the grass between her fingertips with a frown. “He was treating her like a suspect. And I guess you must not have noticed when you went running off, but he was snapping these pictures of her when she went out in the rain earlier. It was so creepy…”
“That fucker!” Brooke swore. She always knew that guy had bad vibes.
“And, look, I don’t know if Chloe would exactly like me to share this, but you have to know. You’re… wrapped up in all this now. Early last week, Nathan drugged her, too. She managed to get away in time.”
Brooke felt the blood leave her face. Nathan had struck more than once? “... So if… if he drugged Kate, and he drugged Chloe…”
“Then they might not be the only ones,” Max finished solemnly.
There was a lot more to say, but Brooke found her thoughts going astray when she felt a strange chill on her face. It was getting… darker? Squinting, she shielded her eyes with her hand as she looked to the horizon, and saw something impossible.
“Is that…” Max breathed.
“An eclipse,” Brooke confirmed. “You’re not tripping. But that’s… it’s not even the right moon phase for a solar eclipse right now. This can’t be real.”
But it was, and the feeling of the world growing darker and colder as a result told her as much.
“First the snow, now this,” Max said, drawing her legs closer to hug them. An expression of naked worry passed over her face, before she peeked at Brooke from the corner of her eye. “Brooke, do you know anything about chaos theory?”
The digression confused Brooke, but she would play along. “A bit. Henri Poincaré theorized about the behavior of complex systems over a century ago. Mathematicians have developed it since then. Small differences in the initial conditions of the system cause exponential changes, which lead to wildly different end results. Why? You’re not considering a career in meteorology, are you? Because I think this eclipse is a bit above the local weatherman’s paygrade…”
“I guess all the crazy weather has me thinking about that saying. About a butterfly flapping its wings in one place and causing a hurricane somewhere else. Like something has changed and now there’s all these unforeseen consequences.” Max’s voice had grown a little quieter. She wrung her fingers together.
“People get the butterfly analogy wrong a lot,” Brooke pointed out. “The point isn’t that the butterfly is changing the system depending on the way it chooses to flap. Rather, the point of chaos theory is that we don’t have the ability to know the position of every proton, of every cloud particle, or… every butterfly, either. The butterfly is a small, unnoticed thing in the system. It is one of the initial conditions. So while the storm might seem random or chaotic in nature, it actually has a deterministic cause. We just can’t see it.”
Max smiled faintly at the correction. She seemed to be listening closely. “Well, maybe it’s not the best analogy. Maybe it’s more like A Sound of Thunder. The Bradbury story. Maybe someone’s come back from traveling to the past with a crushed butterfly on the bottom of their boot.”
Brooke laughed and shook her head. “And the initial conditions changed? It’s a fun theory, but last I checked, road trips to the Mesozoic were still impossible here in real life.” Then she gave a light shrug. “Chaos might be what killed the dinosaurs, but we’re gonna survive. Poincaré also said that dynamical systems tend to return eventually to a state similar to their initial one, given enough time.”
“I hope Blackwell will, that’s for sure,” remarked Max.
Brooke paused for a second, pensive. “Me too.” Then she turned to put her hand on the other girl’s arm and look her in the eye, imploring. “Look. Like you said – I’m wrapped up in all of this now. I want to find out why Kate got hurt. I want Nathan to pay. So whatever you and Chloe are up to… I want in.”
Max’s eyes widened a little, before she got a pondering look on her face. “I don’t… Mm. I’ll… have to talk to Chloe. But I’d like your help, Brooke. I really would.”
“It’s that or I keep shaking you down for updates every time I see you,” Brooke promised with a grin. “I can be really annoying, I promise.”
“Well, we don’t want that,” Max finally remarked, smiling again.
The two watched the moon continue its improbable transit of the sun, and tried for a few minutes not to think about the end of the world.