[right][h3][color=f28500]Jamie Drummond[/color]
[color=00aeef]Ash Mareino[/color]
[color=0076a3]Katalina Hargraves[/color]
[color=3dbd91]Luca Agnelli[/color][/h3][/right]

Whilst Jamie waited for the cramped back seats of his two-door car to fill up (which was a shame, really, because it otherwise would’ve been just Ash and him) he stared over the parking lot at the school bus as the students filed on. Miss Standiford and her mother were over there, somewhere, and a faint buzz of distant emotions filled his head as whatever power surge he’d had dissipated slightly with distance and overuse.

Agnelli flicked his ear as she climbed in, one horn scratching the lurid orange paint that Jamie had diligently kept clean and unscathed over the summer. Unable to bring himself to scowl, he pushed the front seat back and started the car.

[color=f28500]“Seat belts on, et cetera – I wanna get out of here before we get stuck behind the bus,”[/color] he said as the engine roared to life. Jamie ignored his, just in case he had to make a quick and heroic escape if they crashed.

[color=0076a3]“Can’t blame you,”[/color] Katalina’s voice said from the backseat. There was the click of a seatbelt buckling.

Once Ash could climb into the front seat she buckled up as well. [color=00aeef]“I want to put as much distance between myself and this school as possible.”[/color]

[color=f28500]“The school or the teachers?”[/color] Jamie asked almost rhetorically as they peeled out of the parking lot. [color=f28500]“And by teachers I mean Standiford. Junior or senior, both are suspicious [i]as[/i]. Won’t be surprised if, when we get to the police station, both of them are arrested.”[/color]

[color=0076a3]“I hope so,”[/color] came Katalina’s voice from the back again.

[color=00aeef]“I’d pay money to see that.”[/color] Ash said, she was leaned over her bag looking for something. It seemed she didn’t find it because she sat back up with a frown on her face. Jamie half-turned to see what she was doing, paying little attention to the winding road away from the boarding school.

[color=00aeef]”Did we just pass the school?”[/color] Ash asked, (panic spike), as a flash of the bright orange school bus, full of students, swept into view.

[color=0076a3]“We did,”[/color] Katalina said.

[color=f28500]“Wait, wait, what?”[/color] Jamie asked, stretching up to peer through the rear-view mirror. [color=f28500]“Hold on, let me just–”[/color] Accelerate, as they continued down the same road that they had just driven down. But that surely wasn’t the case, right?

[color=0076a3]“We just passed it again. We’re going in a loop,”[/color] Katalina said, leaning in between the seats. 

[color=00aeef]“No, no, no.”[/color] Ash started to repeat. She took a shaky breath. [color=00aeef]”There’s got to be something... There has to be a logical explanation. We can’t be just driving in circles around the school.”[/color]

[color=0076a3]“Well then how do you explain the fact… Oh look third time!”[/color]

[color=3dbd91]“It’s not even slightly subtle,”[/color] Luca piped up from the back from where her face was practically glued to the window, sharp protrusions of bone clattering against the glass with every corner. Jamie, meanwhile, scowled, and drove faster around for a fourth loop.

[color=f28500]“What do I [i]do[/i]?”[/color] he asked the car as a whole, more than slightly panicked. [color=f28500]“Do we have to hike out of here?”[/color]

[color=00aeef]”If that’s what it takes I’ll walk the whole ten miles to town.”[/color] Ash said, she was trying to wipe away tears from her face without being noticed. At about the same time, Jamie frowned, but otherwise said nothing. 

[color=0076a3]“I don’t think it’s just us. I think a few of the teachers have parked again.”[/color] Katalina pointed as they passed the school again.

[color=f28500]”Well, what do I do?”[/color] Jamie repeated, falling further and further into a flap. He sped around the bend again, holding on to the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip.

[color=0076a3]“Stop the car.”[/color] 

Obediently, Jamie stopped it. Abruptly. They were stationary in the middle of the road, the school just barely out of sight behind a small copse of trees. Another few seconds, and it would come back into view again.

Ash jumped out of the car, taking her bag with her, and started walking down the road. [color=00aeef]“I am getting out of this damn place.”[/color]

[color=0076a3]“Don’t you get it! We can’t fucking leave! There’s no point! We’re going to die here! Doesn’t matter how far we walk or drive, we’re [i]stuck[/i].”[/color] Katalina’s voice cracked. 

Jamie followed her at a much slower pace in the car, the windows rolled down just like in those old romance movies, the ones he snuck out to watch back at home.

When the school came back into view Ash dropped to her knees. [color=00aeef]“No.”[/color] Ash’s voice was drained, there wasn’t anything to it but the word itself. Tears fell unstopped as she sat there on her knees staring up at the school.

There was a click of the seatbelt, and then Katalina climbed over the center console, with not much grace as she bumped into Jamie, and muttered an apology. She got out of the car and walked over to Ash and dropped to the ground and then wrapped her arms around the other girl. Ash leaned into the hug.  

Not two seconds later, Jamie turned the engine off and pulled the keys out and threw them to Agnelli, with a quick warning – [color=f28500]“Don’t scratch it,”[/color] – and rushed out to flutter awkwardly around the two, as if not quite sure if he was allowed to hug his girlfriend and her worst enemy turned best friend.

Ash was taking shaking breaths. [color=00aeef]”I refuse to be killed here.”[/color] She looked up between the two people that were her only friends. [color=00aeef]“Amy gave us clues. It’s time to use them and fix this place.”[/color]

[color=0076a3]“Agreed. We should head back. I know we’re not the only ones to notice that we are stuck here.”[/color] Katalina stood up, seeming to give Ash and Jamie some space.

From somewhere behind them, the engine returned to life as Luca guided it in through the gates and back into the parking lot. Jamie found himself not at all interested in the fate of his car for once, instead turning to haul up Ash with a sympathetic, [color=f28500]“C’mon, now, up you get. None of us are going to die.”[/color] The corners of his lips turned up, and well-aware of it, he turned his face elsewhere to the sky.

Ash stood, staying as close to Jamie as she could. [color=00aeef]“I doubt we’ll all survive, but I’m not going down without a fight. Let’s find out what everyone knows, what they all learned from Amy. If we all put our information together we can find out what she was trying to do.”[/color]

[color=f28500]”Now [i]that’s[/i] more optimistic.”[/color] Jamie smiled, even if his heart wasn’t in it. It was everything he could do to stop his power from stealing away all that sadness of hers in one sweeping move. Nobody liked getting their emotions played with, even when he couldn’t exactly help it (and didn’t exactly want to). Ash slipped her hand into Jamie’s. [color=f28500]”Alright, we ask around. See who got what. But we [i]don’t[/i] do it in front of the teachers, alright? They’ve been utter – pardon my French – [i]wank[/i] since Coleman’s death.”[/color] Ash nodded.

[color=00aeef]“What do we know? What did she tell us?”[/color]

[color=0076a3]“Y’know, Mrs. Wellington did punch Miss Standiford in the face. We sure we don’t wanna at least trust her? I doubt all of them were in on it.”[/color] Katalina looked like she was trying her hardest not to cry still, and crossed her arms across her chest.

[color=00aeef]“Maybe, but not at first. We’ll see what happens next.”[/color] Ash put her hand on Katalina’s shoulder. [color=00aeef]“What did Amy tell you?”[/color]

[color=0076a3]“The lake. Nat... “[/color] Katalina’s facade cracked as a few tears rolled down her face, [color=0076a3]“Nat was found there. There’s something about the lake that I… we need to check out.”[/color] 

[color=f28500]”Don’t go down in it alone. Take, uh…”[/color] As much as Jamie didn’t want to say Ash, because the risk of death seemed to be very, very high in the lake, she [i]was[/i] the best. [color=f28500]”Someone else,”[/color] he finished limply. [color=f28500]”Damn. Who knows who’s next?”[/color]

[color=00aeef]“It has to be me.”[/color] Ash’s still blue skin paled a bit. [color=00aeef]“It’s why Amy told me I had to get along with Katalina, we’re the only ones who can do it.”[/color]

[color=f28500]”And here I am, feeling upset I wasn’t special enough to get anything useful from Amy,”[/color] Jamie griped. [color=f28500]”[i]’Don’t trust Miss Standiford, Jamie’[/i] – like I didn’t already get that.”

[color=00aeef]“Maybe there is more to it than that.”[/color] Ash frowned. [color=00aeef] “What about Luca? Do we know what she was told?”[/color] 

[color=f28500]”You really want to ask her about what [i]Amy Snow[/i] said to her?”[/color] Jamie asked, raising an eyebrow.

[color=00aeef]“Probably a confession of her love.”[/color]

[color=0076a3]“Guys… don’t make fun of her.”[/color] 

[color=00aeef]“For once in my life I’m not. We need to know if it was important to solving this though.”[/color]

Jamie held up his hands too in a gesture of innocence. [color=f28500]”I don’t make fun of love. Worked it out years ago, anyway. It was cute,”[/color] he informed them, carefully leaving out everything else he gleaned about the horned girl’s little problem through her emotions, especially recently. [color=f28500]”But, yeah. I think she’ll tell us if it’s useful, what she got.”[/color]

[color=00aeef]“All right that means we need to start asking other students. Do you think Amy told everyone something? Or only those she knew?”[/color] 

[color=0076a3]“Knowing Amy, she gave everyone something.”[/color]

[color=00aeef]“Fun that means we only have to ask what 95 students what she told them.”[/color] Ash sighed. Jamie squeezed her hand as they rejoined the group of students and teachers stranded in a bubble.