Hadrian sighs in relief as the Library finally comes into view, it takes a while for him to get here by walking. Even longer if he's injured, which at the moment, and almost always, he is. He does like walking though, because it gives him time away from the house before he is once more consumed with the overwhelming need for praise and approval. It's a baffling change of personality, whenever he's by someone he perceives as "family" or as a "true friend" he becomes this being whose sole purpose is to make them happy. Then again, he does a lot of strange things, so this is just another one to add to the never-ending list.
A shout muffled by the distance reaches his ears, causing him to focus his eyes, which had blurred as he thought, to the Library steps. There, standing on the worn concrete, was Jaden, impatiently glancing at his wristwatch every few seconds. "Hadrian, you're late by exactly 3 minutes! That's taken up 3 minutes of the 30 that's allotted towards the communica-" He is suddenly interrupted by a girl, who has long black hair, placing a hand in front of him, or more accurately, in front of his mouth.
"Halt! Jaden, calm thyself. You know that Hadrian has to walk here, and he is easily distracted. Be content that he was able to come in the first place, you know how demanding his abydocomist aunt and dalcup uncle is!" Margaret frowns sternly at the now blushing Jaden, who was to busy staring at her. "Jaden, hey… Jaden!" She yells in annoyance, stepping closer to him, completely missing his lovestruck look. "Pay attention!"
"Y-yes you're right, s-sorry." Jaden, whose blush has began to deepen, nervously looks away from Margaret, who is now less than a foot away. In a moment of absolute brilliance, he glances towards Hadrian, who had stopped at the end of the steps, looking on at the scene in amusement. "Hadrian, my friend, good to see you! M-margaret wants to introduce you to her… friend she's been telling you about. You know, that fellow named John." Jaden said with nervousness, only to end with barely concealed jealousy as he spoke about Margaret's new friend.
Margaret abruptly turns to face Hadrian, unknowingly hitting Jaden in the face with her hair. "Yes, Hadrian dear! You are finally going to meet John! He's absolutely, positively, one hundred percent adorable!" She beams at Hadrian, who just blinks before glancing behind her back a Jaden, who is seething in jealousy.
"W-well I can't w-wait to s-ssee h-him." Hadrian smiles shyly, and with worry. "I h-hope h-he likes mm-e." Hadrian begins to slowly walk up the steps, stopping at the top to beam at his two friends. "H-hello J-j-j...aden, Mm-ahr-gah-reht."
"Kyahh! You're so cute, I just want to steal you and dress you up all day!" Margaret squeals with delight, overwhelmed by Hadrian.
"Did you literally just yell out 'Kyahh' towards Hadrian?" Jaden asks in disbelief, while also somehow saying it completely monotone. Shaking his head in complete exasperation, Jaden sighs, before finally bringing his hand up to his forehead. "You know what, I don't want to know. Let's just go inside alright?" He then proceeds to walk into the library in silence.
"Hey, Jaden, whatever is wrong with 'kyahh,' it's a perfectly acceptable way to express yourself when you have a strong amount of elation! Hey, hey, are you listening to me Jaden Taylor!" Margaret yells at Jaden, running into the library after him to further prove her point, leaving Hadrian alone on the steps.
Typical Margaret and Jaden, I wonder how this is going to work out. This John fellow is going to add an interesting and refreshing change to the normality. Ah, that reminds me, I need to ask Margaret what abydocomist and dalcup mean. Maybe they would be useful to know, especially if it confuses people! Hadrian lets out a grin, bordering on devious, as he walks to the library door, opening up the large wooden doors. You know, I wish that the city would repair the library instead of other things. He glances around, seeing a few regulars he recognizes. Oh, it's Mr. Rogers. I wonder what he's reading about this time? Last time he was reading the History of Pottery. He mentioned something about a Potter being mentioned, maybe I should take a look at it after the study session.
Seeing their usual table in the far corner, he begins walking towards it. Greeting Mr. Rogers as he passes him, along with a few others like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Miss. Wilson. As he does, he studies John, and how he interacts with others. John is rather tall, with messy brown hair and, surprisingly, bright blue eyes. He is wearing smart clothing, although it doesn't seem like it's his choice, most likely his parents buy his clothing and only let him wear a certain type. That make sense from what I've heard about the Pemberton family. Hadrian hums, purposely not thinking, really, he's not, about his own clothes, or rather, Dudley's old clothes that have been thrown out to the… freak.
"Hadrian! This is John, John this is Hadrian." Margaret beams, her hands clapped in front of her.
"Yes, yes. I'm sure they're quite delighted. Let's get back to the point of this entire meeting! We have to follow the timeline Margaret! It's very important!" Jaden inputs, slamming his hands on the table to emphasize the point. Only to wince in apology when the Librarian, Mrs. Williams shushes him with a glare.
"Nice to meet you Hadrian." John says as he bows his head in greets. Which Hadrian automatically returns.
"It'ss nn-ice to mm-eet y-you too, J-ohn." Hadrian says, placing his paper bag on the table. Sitting down, he reaches his hand into the bag and pulls out a cheap notebook and a smaller brown bag that holds a few pencils, a sharpener, and an eraser.
"How have you been doing Hadrian? We haven't heard from you in a while." Jaden, who had calmed down in the few seconds that passed, worriedly asked. Hadrian, who had opened the notebook to a fresh page, paused and looked up.
Tilting his head Hadrian thought, what should I say? I can't say "Oh, just recovering from my punishment caused by my stupidity and freakishness." Yeah, that would go over so well, no problem at all. Let's just do what I do best, lie until it pleases them. On the outside, only a mere second and a half had passed by. So when Hadrian softly smiled, his two friends relaxed slightly. "Oh, th-ah f-fay-mm-eh-lee just w-wantt-eh-d to ss-spp-end s-s-ome t-time tog-getth-ther. Mm-ahr-gah-reht, I w-want-eh-d to know w-what ab-bydoc-oh-mist and dalcup mm-ean."
"Oh! Yes, I just learned those the other day, aren't they interesting? Well, abydocomist means a liar who brags about their lies, and dalcup means a hair-brained, or dull-headed person. Do you want me to spell them out in your notebook so you can remember them?" Margaret asks, smiling at the suddenly red faced boy.
"Y-yes." Hadrian replies simply, pushing the notebook towards her, before looking down. Not seeing the concerned looks the three teens exchanged.
Meanwhile, Hadrian is attempting to hold back laughter. That means she called uncle Vernon a liar, and aunt Petunia stupid! I can't believe it! Hadrian finally brings himself under control, looking back up as Margaret pushes his notebook back across the table to sit in front of him. "Th-thank y-you."
"You're welcome Hadrian." Margaret beams, pushing back a stray piece of hair from her face. "Anyways, about the homework. This week we're having a difficult time. The teacher is in the process of introducing us to arithmetic sequences, and you know how I am about maths. It's just a bundle of confusion and mental anguish. Please help m-us."
Hadrian laughs, picking up his pencil, and turning the page, after folding down the page that was covered in the definitions that Margaret just wrote down. "W-what p-p-p-part?" He asks, pencil poised to write down the lesson, instead of speaking is all out loud.
"Huh?" Margaret responds, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.
"He means, what part are you having trouble with in the arithmetic sequences." John, who had been silent since his first, and only, greeting towards Hadrian, finally speaks up.
"Oh! Well, I'm having trouble with the problems where they give you the common difference, and a term that's not the first one. Like this problem here," Margaret pauses to flip her textbook to a certain page, running her finger down the page until it rests somewhere around the middle. "Which says that we need to find the explicit formula for a sequence where the common difference is 3 and a7 is 23."
Hadrian nods, reaching up to tug on his fringe, before beginning to write down the steps need to reach the answer:
Arithmetic Sequence
d = 3
a7 = 23
Finding the explicit formula from d = 3 and a7 = 23
an = a1 + (n-1) d
a7 = a1 + (7-1) 3
Simplifying the Equation:
a7 = a1 + (7-1) 3
23 = a1 + (6) 3
23 = a1 + 18
5 = a1
Finding the Explicit Formula:
d = 3
a1 = 5
an = a1 + (n-1) d
an = 5 + (n-1) 3
an = 5 + 3n - 3
an = 3n + 2
Checking your work:
an = 3n + 2
a7 = 3(7) + 2
a7 = 21 + 2 = 23
a7 = 23
Finished with the steps, he sits back a pushes the notebook towards the trio. Jaden and Margaret immediately pounce on the notebook, writing down the steps into their own.
John on the other hand is staring at Hadrian in shock. "That barely took you a minute. Margaret was right, you are genius."
Hadrian blushes bright red in embarrassment. "I-i... i-it'ss not th-that d-di-fa-cult w-when y-you get th-ah h-hang of i-it." He tugs on his ear, before switching to his fringe, pulling down until it covers his eyes.
John eyes him, letting out a sceptical, "uh-huh, whatever you say," before turning back to the duo and writing down the steps as well.
This continues for the next hour, the trio of teens asking for help on a sequence, and Hadrian helping them work through it. When study time finally comes to an end, they decide to spend another half an hour talking.
"Jaden, look at this!" Margaret, who was looking through the local newspaper, which is mostly just full of gossip, points to an article about an animal show coming up. Jaden, who loves animals, gasps in delight, throwing away his dignity to coo at the adorable pictures alongside Margaret. Because of this, they don't see John melt at the picture they represent, blushing bright red as he looks at the both of them with adoration.
Oh! John, John likes Margaret AND Jaden! Oh, this is so cute! This is, well, adorable! Hadrian can barely contain his excitement, wiggling in his seat. I can't wait to see where this goes! I want to do a Margaret and scream "kyaa," but I won't, because I don't want to ruin The Moment! Yes mind, it deserves and will receive capital T and M!
John glances towards Hadrian freezing when he sees him looking back with wide eyes. He panics, glancing between Jaden and Margaret, and Hadrian. Only to let out a small yelp when Hadrian smirks, and mimics zipping his lips shut, before throwing away an invisible key.
At the sound, Jaden and Margaret look up to the two of them. "What's the matter?" Margaret and Jaden ask simultaneously
"Just ah…um." John falls silent, his face that had gone pale when Hadrian discovered his secret, now a bright red.
"H-hav-ing a c-conn-v-er-sss-ay-tion." Hadrian inputs, gently nudging John's foot under the table.
"Ah, Hadrian and I were just talking about my... dreams for the future." John fibs (although what he said is not a lie, since he wants them to be in his future, or more accurately, he wants them to be his future. If that came true, well, he could die a happy man) twisting his shaking hands that rest on his lap.
Hadrian, who realized the hidden meaning behind his words. Let out a near silent sound. One that was suspiciously similar to "aww,' which he would never, ever, say at a time like this.
"Oh, I see! I'm overjoyed you're getting along!" Margaret beams, reaching over to pat his shoulder, before turning back to the paper.
John glares at Hadrian, who had snickered when John froze at the pat. Mimicking a "shh!" with his finger, John looks at the clock. Eyes widening in surprise, as the clock reads 6:37 in the afternoon. "It's late, I'm going to have to leave soon to get home by 7:00." John says, getting the attention of Margaret, Jaden, and Hadrian, all of who glance at the time in shock.
"Wow, time flies when you're with friends." Margaret, who had began to fold up the newspaper, says.
"I didn't even pay attention to my schedule." Jaden whispers to himself, clenching his fist in victory.
"I-i h-have to g-go n-now." Hadrian quietly says, gathering up his notebook and other supplies. Uncle Vernon, aunt Petunia, and cousin Dudley get home at around 7:30. They'll stay longer than aunt Petunia says, because uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley will want dessert. So if I go now I can get home about 10 minutes before them.
"I'm sorry Hadrian, I know you need to get home soon." Margaret says aghast, helping Hadrian get his belongings before pulling him into a hug. "It was wonderful seeing you, don't be a stranger, okay?"
"O-okay." Hadrian replies as he's pulled from Margaret's arms into Jadens.
"Thank you for coming, don't disappear on us, you hear?" Jaden whispers softly, before ruffling Hadrian hair gently.
"Y-yes." Hadrian dutifully, nodding his head.
John, who had stayed on to sidelines, waves his hand when he sees Hadrian looking. "Bye, nice meeting you, and thanks."
Hadrian, in lieu of answering, nods with a slight smile on his lips. Waving bye to the three before turning to walk out.
That was fun, and really interesting. I'm glad I could help them figure out their homework, although what I'm even more happy about is the triangle! Though it's not really one, John likes Margaret and Jaden. Jaden on the other hand like Margaret and doesn't like John. While Margaret is clueless about romance in general. I can't wait to see how this turns out.
Hadrian glancing at a clock on a bank as he passes by, yelping when he sees it's almost 7:15. I'm almost ten minutes away, I can try and walk a little fast. Since I'm going to be going to be going to Miss. Figg's house tomorrow for Dudley's birthday. He nods, walking faster, furrowing his eyebrows as the pain in his body grow with each impact of his feet meeting the concrete.
This continues until he pauses, not quite sure why. Looking around quickly, worried about getting home later than his family. Not seeing anything he starts walking once more, only to stop as a loud grinding comes from his left. He looks warily into the bushes were the sound was originated. With a deep breath he puts his bag down, and gets on his knees, his right hand reaching out to push a branch away from his face so he could see. This is such a stupid thing to do. What if it's a cat, or a dog, or, or a murderer!
Because of the darkness it takes a few seconds for his eyes to adjust, and when it does he gasps in shock. There, a bunny lays on its side, its stomach a dark red, fur matted with dried blood. It's head is turned towards him, it's dark eyes watching, seemingly judging his character.
That's...That's a silver bunny! What's it doing out here? Once more he overlooks the bunny, being sure to stay away from the mouth, just in case. It looks like it got trapped in something, maybe someone was hunting it, but here? In this neighborhood? Maybe it got away though, and came here to hide?
All of a sudden the injured bunny launches at Hadrian, causing him to freeze in shock. The bunny, looking into his eyes as he did so, bites deep into his hand, which was supporting his weight as he had examined the bunny. "O-ow, w-why?" It, the bunny, then collapses in him arms, as it had used the last of his strength to… attack him?
But why not attempt to escape, and why collapse in my arms? That doesn't matter Hadrian, get your act together! I need to get him to someone who will make sure he's alright, but I don't want him taken away for some reason. Why is that? It must be another part of my strangeness. Let's just accept it. Hadrian looks down, biting his bottom lip. Well, I can't do anything right now, I have to get home or I'll be in worse shape than this bunny!
Hadrian stands up, picking up his bag as he does so. Turning, and walking home, he adjusts the bunny so it's more comfortable in his arms. I'll keep him hidden in my cupboard until he recovers, then I'll release him. Hadrian glances down at the unconscious animal, rubbing his thumb over his leg, where his hand was supporting him.
It's horrible, how can someone hurt a creature, he's never done anything wrong… I'll have to treat his injuries, I believe I have some bandages left, I'll use them on him, and I can get some more a Miss. Figg's house tomorrow.
As he gets closer to his house, Hadrian looks side to side, watching for any neighbors. Aunt Petunia had warned him not to be seen in the neighborhood, and he wants to please her. He sighs in relief when no one is nearby, sneaking into the backyard. Aunt Petunia said she left the back door unlocked. I hope she didn't forget.
Much to his relief, the door opened without any problems. Thank goodness. Hadrian releases his breath, one he had been unaware of holding in. Quickly walking into the house, he closes, and locks the back door. Looking around the empty kitchen, he nods in satisfaction when everything is clean.
With his minor inspection finished, he walks through the kitchen door way, towards his cupboard. Just as he opened the door, the sound of a car pulling into the driveway causes him to freeze. They're home! Quick hide the bunny! As gently as possible, while also being fast, Hadrian placing the bunny on one of his blankets, wrapping his up slightly to both hide him and keep the animal warm. Placing the bag in the room as well, he closes the cupboard door and hurries to stand by the front door.
A few seconds later, it opens, and aunt Petunia not even looking at him thrusts her bag and jacket into his arms. Uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley quickly doing the same. Hadrian, who had stood straight up when the Dursley family had entered, happy and content to see his family, wilts in sadness at not being acknowledged.
"Freak! Hang those up then get in your cupboard! I don't want to see you again tonight." Hadrian nods his head when he hears aunt Petunia commands, joy at being spoke to warring with the sadness of the words spoken. Quietly, he follows her orders, putting up the jackets on the coat rack, and putting her purse, and uncle Vernon's suitcase by the door.
Taking a deep breath, and letting it out in a sigh. Hadrian opens his cupboard door, and closes it behind him softly. Kicking off his tattered shoes, he reaches into his backpack, and pulls out his flashlight, taking out a water bottle, and the last of his bandages.
Turning on the flashlight, he uses the blanket to clean the wounds on the bunny, wetting it with the water. The, doing his best, he wraps the bandages around the bunny, being as gentle as possible. I'm not sure how I should do this, but this will have to do.
As he hears footsteps from the kitchen he quickly turns off the flashlight, and gets ready for bed. Laying down of the plastic sheet, and pulling all but the blanket the rabbit is using to cover his shivering body. His body, tired from injures and exhaustion, falls to sleep in a matter on minutes.
Unknown to him, he curls around the bunny, who in turn does the same.