18th Howl: After School Numbers Club, Summer School Edition [Action | Open]

[professorwolf]

Summer school got out earlier than school during the year proper, so Lyall had his classroom open from one until five in the afternoon, in case any students wanted to come by. There were a few games and a few decks of cards, and plenty of snacks, most of which he browsed on while he worked.

Lyall himself had some finishing up to do, as this was the last week of summer session, and he was leaving the week after anyway, so he needed to get everything graded and turned in early. So he was busy, but always ready to take a break if someone wanted or needed to chat.

Up to and including fellow teachers, one of which came by halfway through the afternoon acting very strangely....


((I'll have one thread for the oddly-acting teacher, that a couple people can join in with if they want to! this is plotty stuff :) otherwise, feel free make new threads if you wanna come visit!))

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[professorwolf]

It wasn't terribly busy here, really, what with it being summer school rather and with far fewer students willing to make the separate trek out. So when Lyall spotted-- and smelled-- Anthony making his way inside, he finished up the paper he was on to give the boy time to get settled and then pushed up to come over to greet him personally.

"Anthony," he began, somewhere between fond, welcoming, and a little stern. This, after all, was the boy who had purposefully avoided telling him he hadn't had anywhere to sleep at night.

[scramasax]

He detected Mr. Lyall rising. His attention glided over, with a small turn and tilt of his head.

When it occurred enough that he was in fact approaching, with a mental jump to attention, Anthony straightened up a bit in place and aimed over a smile - weighted down, still, with some diffidence. At what he did think he caught as a trace of sternness the "Hi, sir," he'd preemptively started to form bent into a "Yes, sir?"

It had been another month and still in front of Lyall as well as Dr. Strider some feeling nastily clung of exposure and abashment.

[professorwolf]

The reprimand would come in a minute, once he had made sure the boy was all right and not obviously in need of anything. Like a proper meal or a shower or anything. For now, Lyall just asked, "May I join you for a few minutes? It's been a while since I've actually seen you in person."

[scramasax]

"Of course -- ...I understand." Deferently mumbled. He flinched inside on it striking him that he'd already made a mistake without the confirmation that he was in trouble - to greet as he'd entered wouldn't have been that distracting! - and then tried to smash the feeling down with the leverage of working the smile up a tad lighter. " -- Hello..."

[professorwolf]

Lyall settled into the chair beside the one Anthony had chosen. The smell was stronger, closer up, and it took all his self control not to wrinkle his nose. This was Anthony, not actually a vampire. Or dead body. Either one.

"How've you been?" And where had he been, that would come next.

[scramasax]

And Anthony tried not to let self-conscious tension set in in another layer already on Mr. Lyall's moving to settle into a place for conversation - a small mercy it was that he, himself, hadn't had any reason to cast any awareness back onto the fact that he smelled like something that had died.

"Fine," he said - and even in spite of his mood he said that with a certain amount of eagerness and heart, a string of warmth. Things had gone well for him this past month - and nothing, to his knowledge, had gone any worse. "...Ahm -- how did - things - go..." Voice thinned, uncertain blinking. " -- the last full moon...?

[professorwolf]

"I was securely locked in a bedroom and had two guards on hand in case I did get out," Lyall answered with an awkward little shrug. "Other than that, it was about the same." Still extremely painful, still required a full day to recover from. It was exhausting, but thankfully it was a week ago now, so he actually felt all right at last.

If a little off-kilter every time he thought about it. Turning into something else made it all the harder to claim he wasn't turning into someone else.

[scramasax]

"About the same" was a disquieting answer.

Anthony had been feeling freer to step out after dark, however - it thanks to awareness that it would have some time since, now, with nothing evidently worse for the wear that his internal tensing didn't freeze out a hint of curiosity on one bit " -- 'Two'?"

He assumed that by one he meant Hajime. He heard anything of anyone else who'd be needed one way or the other to be at Lyall's.

[professorwolf]

"One of my former students, Hajime Aikawa," Lyall confirmed, "and Mr. Locke, the chemistry teacher, I don't think you've had him yet." Given the boy had been a freshman and had his science taken up by biology last year, he was in fact sure he hadn't had him yet. "He found out about it when he got back from his trip out of town, and insisted on being there, too."

[scramasax]

"Oh."

Anthony had recalled that Mr. Locke had been one of them, from the first recording indicating that that very "popular" chemistry teacher had connected, and had seen his return message - this was a bit of a respectable reminder of presence.

Quicker if still light-treading in carrying on, "Though they didn't have to do anything -- right?"

[professorwolf]

"No, thankfully. The door held, and the window, too." Given he'd spent most of the night in pain and hobbling around uselessly while he howled and growled and generally made a wolfy fuss, that was really about what he'd expected. "But having them there made me feel a bit better about it in case I had gotten out."

[scramasax]

"I-I'm guessing Mr. Locke's -- not..." He froze up on it occurring to him to be somewhat mortified with himself for implicitly asking this - but it was an inevitable curiosity about any one of them from whom he hadn't seen it for himself. Considered backpedaling - no reason to guess or not guess anything, but it'd do even less to ask as if he was assuming that anything should be on the fact that he would have been there with the man with superhuman strength and the shape of a bug to watch over a werewolf...

"...That Mr. Locke's still - human," he tried - and flinched a little, that was a little uncouth on yet another hand, but hopefully the intention was understood.

[professorwolf]

"As far as I know, yes." Really, Lyall didn't find it that strange of a question. After all, they were all changing a little, and with him and Hajime both being a little "different", well, it was a reasonable guess. "But he insisted, and I'm not really any stronger when I'm like that, so as long as he can avoid getting bitten if I get out...." He shrugged helplessly. "More hands to guard the windows and doors is probably for the best."

That topic, though, seemed talked out, and he had something else-- possibly more important-- to ask. "I heard from Dr. Strider that you weren't actually staying with him."

[scramasax]

Had the subject not been talked through Anthony half-knew he wouldn't have been able to keep feeding it - inevitably shut off, leaving room for the sense of Am I in trouble? to rise up again, set in, and with that strike him frozen cold.

He tried holding eye contact - glanced aside after a blink, then back, and eyes fell down in giving-in, in two seconds' span. Anxious shake of his head " -- I... wasn't," he said, and stopped there, swallowed an "I'm sorry" that he hadn't meant until he'd gotten caught and was now prepared to be plainly disgusted by that fact, too.

He wasn't in any position to have anything to say for himself unless asked, he knew - that might be some better apology.