Prepare for the delights that await you in chapter four! A Jane and Alec backstory teaser, bad gangster moments, deception, happenstance collisions, and inside jokes. I hope you enjoy it!
During the drive to school the next morning, Aro realized something imperative. "Didyme," he said sternly. "I know you planned that whole thing yesterday, with running into Marcus at the restaurant. And I do not approve," He continued. He did not trust his driving skills, which were tenuous at best, to permit him to take his eyes away from the road and fix her with a scowl. "What?" she said indignantly. "I heard him planning to go out for barbecue with his friends, and that was when I realized I really wanted some. How was I supposed to know he'd be at that particular restaurant?" Now Aro had to shoot her a disparaging glance. "Didyme, that's the only barbecue restaurant in town," He informed her. She had no reply to this, and instead examined her faultlessly polished nails.
As they parked in their spot in the school lot, Aro turned and plucked up one of his sister's hands, cradling it in his own. "Just….. be careful, please. I don't want Marcus to think that my little sister is after him," he said, concern for his sister's reputation singing in his tone. "Aro," she responded firmly, clasping the tangle of their fingers with her other hand. "First of all, I'm not after him. You don't have to worry about it, I'll keep well enough out of his way for a time. And second of all, it could be worse. I could be after Caius!" They both laughed and went their separate ways. Aro was left with the distinct impression that his dear little sister had not been entirely truthful.
{o.o}
As Didyme walked into her biology class, she saw Alec, Jane and Renata talking. Her smile was full of cyanide as an idea occurred to her. "Hey, guys!" she said, beaming as she sat down next to them. "Hey, Didyme," Alec greeted her. "So, anyway, this weekend, for our project, my parents said we could meet at my house, if that's okay with you guys?" Didyme asked, being sure to look every member of her group in the eye as she spoke, the way her mother always did. "That actually would be a lot better than meeting at our house," said Jane, as that had been their previous plan. Alec nodded vehemently, and Didyme wondered, not for the first time, what it was that they didn't want people to know. No one had ever seen their house. They didn't appear in the school directory or in the phone book. When Didyme had asked them for their house phone numbers at the start of the school year (she did this in every class, in case she ever forgot to write down her homework or something) Alec had glanced at Jane, who had given him an imperceptible but very firm, "no." Both of their outfits were always the very height of preppy fashion, as though their parents shopped exclusively at Lands' End, and yet neither child ever looked comfortable in them, nor did the outfits ever look like something a child would voluntarily pick out to wear. One time, in the middle of September, they had gotten a grade on a test back, and Alec's had been a low C. The next day, Didyme had noticed something imprinted on the skin of Alec's arm, just below the edge of his sleeve- a collection of deep purple bruises, in a pattern suspiciously like the grasp of a hand. Both twins were always quiet, always looked startled when they were addressed directly by an adult, and once, when she'd gotten a bad grade on a math test, Jane had sprinted out of the room, but not in time to keep the class from seeing her burst into tears. Didyme had a vague idea of where all these signs pointed, and this worried her. In fact, this worried her a great deal. She managed not to say anything about it to either of them, or to anyone else, because if they wanted to talk about it or wanted her help, they'd let her know, but she wholeheartedly agreed with the nagging voice inside of her that said there was something more she could be doing
She took into her mind to casually bring it up to Aro later in the day, and kept up her smile anyway, saying, "So, this Saturday, my house, eleven o'clock?" Renata nodded- she was one of the few people Didyme knew who actually preferred to communicate silently. It would not have surprised Didyme at all to find out she was a champion sign language speaker. "Great!" Didyme burbled, tearing a piece of paper into two strips and neatly printing her house address on both, handing one to Alec and one to Renata. "Actually, Didyme," began Alec, a blush steadily taking over his pale skin. "If we're going to meet at your house now, Jane and I are probably going to need a ride," Didyme responded immediately, "Oh, it'll be no trouble. My brother and I will just come pick you up. I'll need your address, though," Jane looked up from Didyme's address on the slip of paper she had taken from Alec and said, "Maybe you should meet us in front of the Barnes and Nobles, next to Stein Mart?" she said. "Yeah, I know where that is," said Didyme. "Awesome," said Alec conclusively.
Mr. Newton rushed in (late again) and attempted to teach the lesson for about five minutes until he threw his hands up and said, "I give up. Just do whatever you want," he flung himself down at his desk and began composing an email with vigor. Didyme made a mental note to ask Aro if Mrs. Cullen made any mention of receiving any longwinded emails later in the day. She pushed aside the enigma of Jane and Alec's possible familial turmoil as a matter to be mulled over at a later interval and began chattering animatedly to her lab group about their barbecue misadventure the night before.
{o.o}
Caius and Athenodora were walking down the hallway, on the way to lit class. Caius was dragging his feet because he truly didn't want to go, and Athenodora was walking along in front of him simply because that was easier than walking beside him, as the crush of bodies in the hallway made it impossible to stay side-by-side for long. "Gotta pee," Athenodora announced bluntly and veered across the hall into the girl's bathroom. Caius continued walking to the classroom, sighing, shuffling his feet, and scowling violently at any underclassman who dared look at him for too long. He only went because he had been told off many times by faculty members and students alike for lurking outside the girls' bathroom, no matter how many times he protested he was waiting for Athenodora. When he got to his classroom, lurking outside the door, like mobsters in a really, really bad movie, Stefan, Vladimir and Amun were leaning up against the walls, arms crossed and faces wrinkled into the identical scowls of people who find themselves more impressive than they actually are. Caius rolled his eyes and continued walking, figuring they might try to trip him as he passed, but would attempt nothing worse than that. But as he tried to cross through the door, Amun threw his arm out to bar his way. "Hey, Caius," said Stefan aggressively. "Where's Aro?" he demanded. Caius looked at all three of them in turn, expression getting more irritated by the second. "Why would I know?" He asked derisively. "Now get out of my way," he attempted to duck under Amun's arm, but Vladimir stepped in his way, blocking the door. Caius stepped back and crossed his arms, glaring at them, a burst of perverse pleasure blooming in his chest- he just hoped it would come to a fight so he could bust a few heads.
"We think you'd know because you're obviously friends," said Stefan, acting as spokesperson of the stony-faced group. "You're preventing me from furthering my education and nurturing my impressionable mind by keeping me from going into my classroom. This is bullying." Caius responded. Stefan waved his hand dismissively. "Where is Aro?" he repeated. Caius let out a snort of incredulity. "I'm not, by the loosest definition of the word, friends with that skinny little nerd, and so therefore, I have absolutely no idea where he might be. What do you want with him?" he asked, suddenly suspicious. Stefan put his hands on his hips and Amun and Vladimir crossed their arms in unison. Caius snickered meanly at this. "Did you guys practice looking like gangsters in a low-budget Lifetime original movie, or was it just a coincidence?" he asked. Ignoring this jibe, Stefan replied, "We care because we hear Aro is planning to found his own history club," Aro appeared as though he'd been called by name. "Not only planning," he said, voice so insufferably smug it made even Caius, who had no new reasons to hate him besides the fact that he was himself, grit his teeth. Aro flourished a piece of paper, cleared his throat regally and began to read. "I, Mrs. Stephanie Meyer, do hereby give Aro Vocisano, a most exemplary student in all areas, permission to start his own history club, for the purpose of enriching the minds of his fellow students and peers," Aro looked at the three other boys smugly. "And then that goes on for several lines," he said.
Jutting out his chin furiously, Stefan said, "Well, good luck finding members for this rinky-dink little club of yours- everybody who wants to be a history club is already in ours," Adopting a look of false sincerity Aro said, "Oh, I don't presume I'll be taking member s away from you. Maybe our fledgling club can even work with yours on a booth for the December Carnival. I wish not to establish myself as your enemy, but merely as your offshoot and friend," he said, smiling. Much to Caius' surprise, Stefan summoned up a smile as well, saying, "But of course. How silly of me to assume otherwise!" Vladimir and Amun stepped aside sullenly, and Aro gestured with his free hand that the three of them should proceed into the classroom. Aro and Caius went to their corner, where Marcus and Sulpicia were waiting. "What was that all about?" Sulpicia (immaculate and polished once more) asked Aro as she reached out of her seat to hug him.
Aro triumphantly placed the paper containing Mrs. Meyer's permission on the table, which Marcus and Sulpicia leaned in to read. "That's great, Aro!" Sulpicia exclaimed. "Awesome!" Marcus concurred. "So, when's the first meeting?" he asked. "I was thinking this Saturday, after our meeting for this class," Aro responded. Athenodora slid into her customary place beside Caius, asking, "Why are Stefan, Vladimir and Amun snarling about causing freak accidents in the chemistry lab to kill the leader of the newest history club?" The self-satisfied look on Aro's face was very nearly intolerable. "I have permission to start my own history club, like we discussed last night. Apparently, somehow word got around to our friends and they don't appreciate it. They believe me to be setting myself up as their rival, which," He now lowered his voice to a whisper and they all leaned in to catch it, "I am, but they can't know that now, while we're so new. Until we have enough members to establish ourselves as actual competitors, they have to believe that we mean them (or at the very least can do them) no real harm. In reality, I plan to eradicate themselves completely and replace them as sole history club of the school," He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms and smirked. Marcus looked a little shocked. Caius let out a low whistle. "Quite a game plan you've got there, bro," Caius said. He had to be a little impressed by the ruthless ambition Aro managed to display.
Caius was surprised when Athenodora vindictively said, "Good. Count me in," Aro drew a perfectly creaseless piece of paper from his flawlessly organized binder, replying, "I already did. You're all listed as charter members," And Caius saw, sure enough, in black ink under the heading 'Charter Members', were the names Aro Vocisano, Didyme Vocisano, Marcus Leone, Sulpicia Turati, Caius Uccello, and Athenodora Riccetti. "She agreed to let us not have a teacher advisor because, due to my successful involvedness on multiple other clubs and committees, she said that I had proven I knew what I was doing." Aro said, trying not to sound like he was bragging. Caius reached for the paper, but Aro snatched it up before Caius could touch it. "There will be plenty of time to discuss all of this at length on Saturday. For now, however, we must work on our project,"
After frantic rustling in his backpack (and Caius wasn't one to talk about organizational skills, but Marcus' backpack had so many loose pages of paper crunched within it that Caius thought if it was turned upside down, there'd be an avalanche,) Marcus whipped out the same papers he'd been attempting to show them earlier in the week. They all began to look over it. Once they finished, Marcus said, "Okay, so we'll need someone to be the guy, the girl, someone to drive the car and two people to be police officers," they were all quiet for a second until Athenodora said, "Sulpicia should be the main character- it was her idea, after all. And Marcus should be the creepy guy," Marcus didn't look insulted at all. "That's fine with me. Caius and Aro should be the police officers, "Athenodora and Caius met each other's gazes and snickered. "What?" asked Aro. "Having Caius as a police officer seems like a little bit of a conflict of interests, given all the time Caius has spent being told off by police officers," Marcus gawked at Caius. "You've been in trouble with the law?" he asked. Now it was Caius' turn to wave his hand dismissively. "Obviously nothing important enough to go on my permanent record or land me in a juvenile correctional facility. Mostly cops just get an attitude whenever Athena and I try to hang out in front of any sort of established public venue," this seemed incredibly hilarious to Athenodora, who asked between giggles," What about that one time?" Caius scowled fastidiously at her. "That time was quite plainly and abundantly not my fault. Which we established," Sulpicia, looking back and forth between the two of them, asked, "What?" Caius leaned forward in his desk and tapped Marcus' script. "Say, why don't we focus on this project?"
"An excellent suggestion," Said Aro graciously. "We must address the problem of-" Aro broke off and stared mutinously as Mrs. Cullen called Amun up to her desk. "Let him be in trouble. Let him have broken federal law and have received a summons to appear in court for sentencing-" but alas, Mrs. Cullen did not give him a subpoena, but a stack of papers. "Could you pass out the rubrics, please?" She asked him. He obliged. He made his way around the room, coming last to Aro's group. Instead of distributing the papers one to each person, he simply tossed the five remaining papers in the center of their circle of desks. "Why does he go out of his way to be spiteful?" asked Marcus as he writhed, in a highly undignified manner, Caius noticed, under his desk to retrieve the papers. "He's just a spiteful person," Athenodora responded.
Aro scanned the rubric and his eyes stopped on a line of text near the bottom of the page. "My fellow classmates, we have a slight problem," he announced. "Please refer to the last sentence of the 100-point box," After everyone looked at it, Marcus summed it up by saying, "Oh, snap," Caius looked irritated. "Who even says, 'oh, snap' anymore?" Marcus began to look hurt. "I say 'oh, snap'," Athenodora jumped in. "But it's so, like, early 2000's. Not long enough ago to be retro, not recent enough to be current," Marcus stopped looking hurt and looked defensive. "So? I was just saying. I didn't mean for it to be analyzed by you two,"
Sulpicia turned away from the mini-spat and began to speak directly to Aro. "I vaguely recall Mrs. Cullen saying something about this earlier, but I presumed it was a slip of the tongue." Without looking up from his rubric, Aro said, "Having to have all members of the group appear in all the shots doesn't change much of the premise of our project; it just complicates things a bit. Excuse me," He said, raising his voice. "Please return to the subject at hand," Caius, Marcus and Athenodora all returned to paying attention, albeit Caius and Athenodora with a bit more attitude than Marcus. "We all have to appear in all of the shots. I think for the exposition shots, myself, Caius, and Athenodora can be trees or some other form of woodland creatures and blend in to the background." He was interrupted by Caius saying loudly, "Oh, no you don't. I haven't dressed up as a tree since I was in kindergarten, and I'm not going to start now," Smirking, Athenodora said, "Actually, you weren't permitted to participate in the performance, because you pushed one of the other trees off the stage at the dress rehearsal," Caius turned to her. "Wait, what? I didn't know you in kindergarten," Athenodora tossed her hair. "Well, I knew you. You pulled my hair on the first day of school, because I wouldn't give you the last piece of your puzzle and I got you put in the Quiet Corner for fifteen minutes," Caius looked even more confused. "You remember the first day of kindergarten?" Athenodora fixed him with a stern, pompous glare. "An elephant never forgets, my darling, an elephant never forgets,"
Now Marcus looked befuddled as well, their squabble put in the past. "Did you just call yourself an elephant?" he asked. Caius held up his hand, palm out, in Marcus' direction. "If you don't understand something Athenodora says, you're better off just letting it go," Aro cleared his throat loudly. Looking guilty, Marcus returned to the subject at hand. "I have some costumes and stuff at home that I can bring, because my moms' an artist, so she'd be happy to help," Aro made a note on his rubric, replying, "Excellent. Now, on to the other shots. When they're at school, we can just be students. And when he's being led away by the police, Athenodora, along with some of the other children in our building, if they're willing to help, can be onlookers. Will this be all right with everyone?" Everyone nodded in the affirmative.
Aro opened his mouth to continue, but as he was speaking, the fire alarm went off. Shouts of jubilation from other classes could be heard, along with a general triumphant sibilation from Mrs. Cullen's' literature class. As Caius punched the air, Aro threw his hands up, exclaiming irritatedly, "Now this is just getting ridiculous!" Mrs. Cullen, having tripped her way across the room to pick up her fire drill sheet, which bore her name on the front so all the students could find her outside so she could count them present, and a box on the back side for that purpose, exclaimed, "Hurry up, class! Let's move!" All the children obediently filed past her out the door. Caius whispered to Athenodora as the joined the surging mass of students in the hallway, "Is it wrong of me to hope that this time, it's not a drill?"
{o.o}
Aro and Sulpicia were the last people out of the classroom and walked sedately down the hallway side by side. Once you became a senior, things like fire drills lost their excitement. Aro was still fuming slightly. For the fourth day, they had not managed to get much work done at all! This was the most far behind Aro had ever been on a school project. He knew he could do it all himself- script, costumes, concepts, and editing of the film- but he knew that Caius (at least) wouldn't react well to being told what to do. So he had to keep up this facsimile of the group being a democracy, when they all knew neither Caius nor Athenodora (and also possibly Marcus- truly, the man was besotted with Didyme. If that didn't speak for his decision-making abilities, nothing would. His sister was a lovely girl, but should have been firmly off-limits in Marcus' mind, as the sister of a friend.) had any business making any decisions about anything. As though Sulpicia could sense his mood, she slipped her dainty hand into his. This surprised and pleased Aro in equal measure- Sulpicia normally disdained public displays of affection of nearly any kind.
However, there were many children stampeding through the hallways, holding their ears and shrieking about how much loud noise hurt their ears. Despite the tether of their hands, Aro and Sulpicia were eventually separated and lost sight of each other in the crowd. Aro scowled deeply. Every moment he got to spend with Sulpicia were precious things, even when those moments happened to be trooping down a loud, smelly, high school hallway instead of working on a project they were desperately behind on. As a result of his reflections, Aro didn't notice where he was going and bumped into someone, hard enough to knock both of them down. "Not again," Aro thought tiredly. This whole 'running-into-people-and-knocking-them-down' thing had only just recently started happening. Aro was certain there was some sort of reason for this and decided he would have to figure it out. He scrambled to his feet to help the other person up. It was a girl, freshman, if her nymph-like stature and the slightly reverent wideness of her hazel eyes as she gazed at him were anything to go by.
"I'm so sorry, are you all right?" He asked. She looked fragile, like being knocked down in a hallway might result in her breaking a limb. "Yes, I-I-I'm fine," she stuttered as she took Aro's proffered hand and rose, a little unsteadily, from the floor. Aro smiled kindly at her. The poor thing was obviously petrified- she was blushing a magnificent strawberry color and blinking rapidly. He could see her pulse jumping in a vein in her neck- idly, he noted that her hear was racing. "I'm Aro Vocisano," He said, shaking her hand, as she still had not let go of his when he helped her off the floor. "You're Didyme's brother?" she asked, sounding incredulous. Aro laughed, "That's not my favorite way to be introduced, but yes, Didyme and I share a significant amount of DNA. Are you a friend of hers?" The girl let out a quick, breathy laugh at this, dropping her gaze to the floor. "I'm Jane De Chantraine, one of Didyme's lab partners in biology," Aro smiled broadly. "Well, it's very nice to meet you, Jane," Mr. Varner, the ninth grade math teacher, hurried past where they had been standing in the alcove where the water fountains were, segregated from the main throng of people, exclaiming, "Hurry up, you two!" Only a thin trickle of teachers were left in the hallway, grousing as they walked about how this was cutting into their instructional time. "See you around," he said, offhand, as they hurried to their separate destinations. She bobbed her head and grinned, eyes glittering.
Aro arrived at one of the unused parking spaces of the student lot where Mrs. Cullen's classes were supposed to meet. "Aro!" Mrs. Cullen snapped. "I left class after you and tripped no less than four times and still made it here before you! What took?" Aro responded seriously, "I bumped into someone in the hallway and had to make sure she was all right. I'm sorry, ma'am." Mollified, Mrs. Cullen responded. "Don't let it happen again," Aro went to his customary place at Sulpicia's side, noticing that Stefan was a bit too close to her for his liking. "Who'd you run into?" she asked. "One of Didyme's friends," Aro responded. "Her name was Jane De Chantraine," Understanding sparked in Sulpicia's' eyes. "Oh, the little bit that's in her lab group? She told me about her the last time we were hanging out," Caius shoved roughly around Amun and lurched over to them. "Did you just say you actually stopped and talked to Witchy Jane?" Aro frowned at Caius. He had been called nerd, weirdo, and freak enough times in elementary and middle school to where he deplored any and all formed of name-calling. "Witchy Jane?" repeated Sulpicia. "Yeah. I'm in PE with her and her brother and one time we were playing dodge ball at the beginning to the year, and I hit him. But he's a scrawny little scab, so he fell, and, like, broke his stomach or something, and she came storming over and cussed me out," Athenodora, seeming to have materialized by Caius' shoulder, finished out the story. "So, knowing the delightful temperament possessed by our dear Caius, you could tell he wasn't going to take that one lying down. He responded in kind, culminating with calling her Witchy Jane. He meant to say another word in place of witchy, but as I had landed an excellent shot right on his mouth only moments previously, it came out witchy. And the nickname stuck,"
"That's cruel," Sulpicia responded. "Didyme said Jane's brother is her best and only friend. What would you do if someone hit Athenodora with a dodge ball hard enough to knock her down?" Caius eyed Sulpicia coolly. "I certainly wouldn't let loose with all the curse words I knew at a senior fully capable of knocking me into next week," Sulpicia turned away. "High school's hard enough without demeaning nicknames," Aro replied. "What should I do, offer her a written apology?" Caius responded irately. Aro was spared having to answer to that by a signal from Mrs. Meyer, indicating that they should begin to return to the school. Aro began walking fast enough to be classified as a trot. "Everyone hurry up," He called over his shoulder to his group. "We have lots and lots of work to do,"
{o.o}
As the school began moving en masse to their classrooms, Marcus kept a sharp eye open for her. When they all had been coming out of the school, Marcus had contrived to run into the gleeful, giddy girl he had been unable to get off his mind for the past week. Didyme had been nowhere to be seen. He scanned the crowd, and realized that his searching for her was bordering on nervous. He checked himself. What was wrong with him? She was only a freshman, and the sister of one of his friends.
Suddenly, his eyes alit upon her. Daring a quick glance at Aro, who was engaged in talking with Sulpicia, he began heading over to her. "Hey, Didyme," he said, smiling at her. She looked like he had startled her, and after the look of momentary surprise faded, she smiled charmingly in return. "Hi, Marcus!" she replied cheerily. "How are you?" Marcus asked, as a matter of habit. "Would you like the long version or the short version?" she inquired. "The long version," He responded. "I'm not looking forward to having to go back to class, I'm dropping cheer team, I have a lot of research to do, I'm contemplating getting a haircut, cauliflower has a taste most foul, Aro needs to invite Sulpicia over more often, and my cat needs to stop crawling into my bed in the middle of the night, because I kicked him on accident last night, and now he may be plotting my death. And yourself?" Marcus thought for a moment before responding sanguinely, "I'm good."
"Ugh!" Didyme exclaimed. She twirled around gracefully, twittering, "You're good? That's all? You must elaborate for me, Marcus!" She laughed and reached out and grabbed his arm, swaying a little woozily. "I'm dizzy," she giggled, by way of explanation. They joined the huge mass of children waiting to enter the school building. "So? What else?" plied Didyme. "Uhhhhh. . . . . . This literature project is going to be pretty fun," He offered hopefully. "The project that you're working with my brother on? What a nightmare that must be! Is he micromanaging absolutely everything yet?" she asked. Marcus laughed. "No, not yet," he responded. He knew it was illogical and overreacting to say he felt like his entire body temperature dropped five degrees when she removed her tiny hand from his arm- like stepping from a warm shower into a cold hallway. "So what class are you heading back to?" he asked, hoping his line of questioning didn't seem intrusive or stalkerish. "Math," she responded, tossing a lock of hair behind her shoulder. "What about you?" she continued, looking up at him from under her lashes. "Ummmmm, back to lit," he responded. "Oh, silly me!" she trilled.
"So, this is it?" Marcus asked, when they arrived at the ninth grade math classroom. He instantly regretted it- he'd had math in this room four years ago himself, of course this was it! "Yes," Didyme responded. And then she bounced up on her tiptoes, wrapping her elfin arms around his torso and pressing her face to his shoulder. Marcus responded without thinking, his arms closing around her snugly, and his only thought was, "this feels right," She let go after a heartbeat. It felt like an eternity to Marcus at the time, but when he looked back on it, it seemed she had only hugged him for the most infinitesimal second. "See you around!" she chirped, lightly dancing into her classroom.
Marcus walked back to his own classroom. Everything around him had a slight edge of surrealism to it, like Didyme was the only thing that was actually real and everything else was a mere daydream. Also, hugging Didyme didn't seem quite real, either. He knew that once he had a little time to let it sink in, it would become very real, indeed. He sat down in his chair, smiling secretively. "Marcus, its good you're here," the unspoken 'at last' that Aro's reproachful tone implied made Marcus feel ashamed. He analyzed that. Why did he feel ashamed? It was not as though he planned to take advantage of Didyme, or as though he intended to hurt her- or even intended to date her. It wasn't as though she liked him- hugging might just be what she did with all her friends. It was no use letting himself misinterpret the smallest and most innocent of gestures, leading himself down a road of distortion and deception. "Uhhhh…. Sorry, I just had to talk to a teacher," he responded, looking Aro right in the eye as he said it. He was instantly appalled by himself. The lie had just rolled out before he could do anything to control it. Aro seemed to accept this, which made sense, as he himself should know something about talking to teachers.
"Well, tonight, I'd like it if you could email me a copy of the script," He said to Marcus as he wrote his email address on a piece of paper. "Who has a camera they know how to use?" he asked as he handed Marcus the paper. "I do," Athenodora volunteered. "If you could please remember to bring it to school tomorrow, that would be wonderful." Aro returned to addressing Marcus directly. "If it's alright with you, I'd like to make a few changes to the script. It won't be anything big, and you'll still get credit for writing it, but I'd like to make sure a few concepts are included, as according to the rubric." He said. "Yeah, sure, that's fine," Marcus responded. "Caius, if you could bring any convincing props you might have, such as guns, or anything you think we might need to make costumes-" Aro tried to continue dictating but was cut off by Caius. "Wait, back up to the guns. You're saying that I can actually bring my firearm with me somewhere and not get totally busted for it?" Aro paused for a moment. "That is the general idea of the second amendment, yes." He confirmed, wondering if he was doing the right thing by permitting Caius to bring a licensed weapon to a meeting. "Yes!" Caius said, punching the air triumphantly. "In case you're wondering, giving Caius free reign to bring his gun with him was a mistake," Athenodora informed him. Aro just shook his head and continued to dole out tasks. "And Sulpicia, if you could please bring your stage make-up, if you're not averse to sharing," Sulpicia laughed. "As long as no one had an STD," She said, flipping her hair. Aro laughed too, and Caius got the feeling it was an inside joke.
The bell rang, and all the children left the classroom for a second time. Aro and Sulpicia muttered to each other, Caius and Athenodora whispered to each other, and Marcus drifted after them, a world away, in which protective older brothers did not exist.
So! I am on SUMMER VACATION NOW, so I can have unlimited time to write! This is a win. I hope to have Chpt. 5 up soon. I am hesitant to say under a week, because that just seems like tempting fate.
