[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/QPwjDVl.png[/img][/center]
[sub][i]Ordeals and Repeating Patterns...
Who could break the mold?[/i][/sub]

Alice hummed a low note as she pondered Augie's words, gaze shooting off into a distant cloud unseen to all outside of her imagination. The whole ordeal of homecoming—the whole ordeal of secrets changing hands and the aftermath thereof— brought something out in her peers. Alice could watch it happen. It had happened before with each prior secret revealed and it was happening now with Rob and his business with Ara. As of yet, Alice was uncertain of her feelings on the matter. It was all so confusing and hectic. She could never understand the rat-race that followed the exchange of secrets. Apparently, there was much more to it than she realized.  For now, she could do naught but observe. That was her place.

Alice allowed the momentary silence born between her and Augie to permeate the room for a long while. She couldn't help but ponder the mental archive of those that had been outed with secrets thus far and those who had not. Alice and Augie were on the same side of the paradigm. She had to shake herself from her heavy thoughts as Augie questioned her. [i]Had she appeared nervous?[/i] She tried to maintain ignorance to her own mannerisms, but that quickly melted away, and her blank and distant demeanor returned. She caught herself...

[b][color=coral]"Oh, I'm fine. Just... Not all that interested in the whole scene upstairs. It's a lot to deal with."[/color][/b] When Alice had finally finished laying her canvas aside against an obscured shelf, she returned to clean the few supplies that remained out around the art room. It was as though she couldn't stop herself from perpetually continuing her duties even after hours. Perhaps it was more of a nervous thing, though. Alice, once again, wouldn't entirely be cognizant on the matter.

[b][color=coral]"They'll... Be alright, I think. This repeating process of secrets being traded... I don't think it will bother them forever."[/color][/b] Alice maintained her distant trance-like gaze as she spoke, though as she took a long pause once again, her eyes finally flicked to Augie's own. [b][color=coral]"What do you think?"[/color][/b] Alice pulled the canvas before her down from the easel, her mannerisms were nonchalant, though it seemed she was sure to maintain an angle where the subject matter portrayed in paint was obscured to all but her. Alice always was a shy one.

[b][color=coral]"Of the secrets. Of everything,"[/color][/b] Alice clarified. Perhaps she was fishing for answers to questions she wasn't entirely sure of. Either way, it seemed by the sincerity of her gaze that Alice's curiosity was genuine, and that was no common factor in conversations with the young artist. [b][color=coral]"Some may fragment,"[/color][/b] she repeated before continuing, [b][color=coral]"But what's it all for? The website... What do you think of it?"[/color][/b]

Alice pondered the repeating pattern that seemed to trap Sterling High in a loop. She watched the effects, but none she had met could envision the cause. The whole secret revelations issue was a repeating pattern. The homecoming dance, its processes, and the whirlwind of emotions that followed— a repeating pattern... Her confiding in Augie must have been telling, as her palpable confusion on the matter seemed to show a certain degree of naivety.