Daniel allowed Jonathan to lead the group towards the principal’s office, hoping to use the travel time as an opportunity to get acquainted with Kate. Unfortunately, the words he’d exchanged with her didn’t seem to help very much. Being as unfamiliar with her canon as Simon and Jonathan were, all he really learned about the high-strung girl was that the transformation seemed to be causing her as much anxiety as it caused him, if not more – also she referred to her weapons as if they were sentient beings and seemed as if she were suppressing some sort of powerful violent urge whenever she saw a crack in the pavement. Mildly concerning. Daniel distanced himself awkwardly for the latter half of the walk. 

He spoke up as they approached the building, “So, where exactly do we go from here?” he asked. “Bear in mind that locks shouldn’t be an obstacle.” He added, twirling his screwdriver around between his fingers. 

---

Ordinarily, Kate wouldn’t try so hard to be antisocial, but on the walk over, she could hardly pull her eyes off the ground in front of her. The problem was the taller man trying to make conversation with her. Not that there was anything wrong with what he said, but every time she tried to look up at him, her gaze drifted towards the back of his head, where his unsightly hairline consisted of an ugly mix of dark brown and something much lighter, like ginger or something. She figured he’s been wearing a wig yesterday that didn’t fit perfectly, leaving the tiniest sliver of his real hair exposed. And as a result, that tiny bit of exposed hair didn’t change overnight with the rest of it, leaving it to change slowly and unevenly as a gruesome battle broke out between dark and light… she didn’t want to think about it. Unfortunately, the ground beneath her didn’t serve as a very good distraction, since every unsightly imperfection in the concrete made her want to tear it all up from the ground, smooth over the earth underneath with her own hands, and start over. 

Hardly able to focus on where she was walking, she bumped into Simon, and mumbled an apology as she re-focused her attention on the path in front of her. Looking up at the building ahead, she dreaded every possible scenario that could arise to set Kid’s brain off. “I sure hope everything in there is really well-organized…” she whispered.