~X~

It's art this morning and Peanut takes his seat closest to the door. He takes out the old sketchbook from his backpack, the spine worn down along with the edges. He flips through a few pages he had sketched in, the lead having smeared a bit. Most of them were of Miss Phillips, a common thing she wanted her students to draw. He wondered if she just enjoyed seeing herself in the eyes of the teens, but he wasn't exactly sure.

He sits back comfortably in his chair, pretending to listen to the woman as she speaks about an upcoming assignment. He can see Pinky out of the corner of his eye falling asleep and he has to admit, he feels the same way. He still couldn't sleep throughout the night without waking up from stupid nightmares. But even now he couldn't bring himself to take a nap. He already knows what's going to happen by now. He'll either wake up even more tired, or he'll have yet another nightmare that will terrorize him, this time not having Johnny to wake him up. So he just sits there, blankly staring at his sketchbook that's been opened to an empty page. He fiddles with the pencil in his hand, absentmindedly flipping it around in his fingers. Finally Miss Phillips stops talking and he looks around. He assumes it's a free day, seeing as most of the students are on their phones or chatting. Looking back down at his sketchbook, he stops playing with his pencil and starts to draw.

Quick meaningless strokes slowly come together, and though he barely knows what he's doing, he finds himself with a sketch of a tired old man straightening his tie. He honestly doesn't know how he did it. He just wanted to scribble to pass the time, but looking at it longer, he bites his bottom lip. The old man is the one he's been seeing. His once bored and carefree expression turns into an almost worried one, and he curses himself for even drawing when Miss Phillips takes notice of him.

"Larry? Is something wrong?" she asks softly as she walks over. He doesn't have time to hide his book before she catches sight of his sketch. "Oh! That's wonderful!"

"Thank you, miss," He lets her take it from him, admiring it even closer.

"You never cease to amaze me, Larry," After getting her fill of the drawing, she finally hands it back, though he notices how she admires his face. "Don't stay up too late practicing drawing."

"Will do, ma'am," She walks away and he knows exactly what she's talking about. With a quiet sigh he closes the book and puts it back in his backpack, throwing his pencil in after it. With a glance at his phone to find no new messages and an hour left in class, he puts his head down on top of his crossed arms, staring at the wall in front of him. Various paintings hang before him, some of still life and some of Miss Phillips. His eyes grow heavy as he sits there and he lets out a yawn. Just as he's about to fall asleep his phone vibrates, making him jump. He slowly takes it out, looking at the notification.

Johnny: date w/ lola after school and-

The full message isn't visible, but Peanut's already rolling his eyes. Two days in a row and he wonders if Lola is jealous with how much time they've been spending together. But he unlocks his phone anyways, continuing on with the text.

Johnny: -I won't be going to ten. If you need anything tonight, text

Peanut: will do. Have fun

He groans softly as he puts his phone away. Hopefully he wouldn't need to text Johnny later, seeing as he hadn't seen anything recently. Although he would miss his boss' company. He had gotten so used to being with him these past few days, but he did assume he wouldn't be with him all the time and that he should try facing these things on his own. However, he does think about it all. The shadows and nightmares. Maybe he could find something to read? He pulls out his phone, feeling like one of those townies with a jumpy habit. But he unlocks it and goes to the search engine, typing away his problems. Scrolling through the articles, he frowns. None of them are of any help and all of them just say to consult a doctor about insomnia or mental problems. He humors himself and even reads through some of them. Of course none of them are any help and he just rolls his eyes. The one place he thought he could find some type of advice for the moment, and it let him down. With another sigh he tries looking up ways to get rid of nightmares, only to see other useless articles. Most just say to increase exercise and eat healthy, along with decreasing stress. Well, he did get a decent amount of exercise since he walked around Bullworth and usually rode his bike. He probably could eat better food, but was he really stressed? Not until all of this started happening. With a soft sigh he sits there, thinking about the past week. How did it all go wrong? Everything was fine up until he had taken those pictures. Was it because he beat himself up for that one photo? He didn't think so. Wouldn't those nightmares be of him ruining things, instead of being attacked or dying? He doesn't know.

The rest of his time is spent looking through more useless articles that say the same thing. By the time the bell rings he's gone through a few useless pages on the search engine and through more links that he skimmed through with a blank expression. But when class is over, he turns his phone off and puts it away, grabbing his backpack and leaving the classroom. Chatter fills the halls and he finds it rather annoying, trying to tune it out as he made his way down the stairs. He hesitates, though, as he gets to the bottom, looking towards the cafeteria. Normally he would spend his break with the clique but today he felt like spending time away from them. Maybe it was because Norton had taken notice of his change and he didn't want the others to realize it as well, or hear the greaser tell the others about Peanut's new look. So, with a deep breath, he goes left and out the back door by the chemistry room. He knew where he was going, though he didn't fully want to. And on the way, he was constantly looking around, the surprised looks almost getting to them. He would just shoot the other students a glare and that made them look away.

The library makes his skin crawl but he forces himself inside, surprised and almost horrified expressions greet him, especially from Gord, a prep who often spent his time in the library reading books about laws and things of the sort, most likely preparing himself for law school like he had bragged about going to after Bullworth. But, Peanut ignores them, going further inside and looking around the books stacked neatly on the shelves. The old worn spines greet him as he reads over the titles. He doesn't know what he's looking for, either, only that he wants to find something that explains to him what's going on and how he can fix it. He must have searched for a bit before he notices Cornelius inching his way towards him.

"What do you want?" Peanut growls as he glares the nerd, who emits a small squeak.

"S-salutations, Peanut!" he greets, a nervous smile on his face as he twiddles his thumbs. "I haven't seen you in here much. Is there something you're looking for?"

He gets ready to shoot back with a nasty remark only to stop himself. Right. Cornelius was one of the smartest students in Bullworth, even to the nerds standing. Maybe his luck was going to change and he changes his demeanor, forcing a small smile on his face.

"Yeah, actually. There is," He glances back at the books before back to the slim nerd. "I'm trying to find something that maybe helps with constant nightmares and hallucinations?"

Cornelius stares at him, almost in shock. Larry "Peanut" Romano, second-in-command to the greaser clique, had actually replied to him a calmer and non-hostile tone. He beams at this point, hands clasped together as he lips curl into a large smile. He nods his head quickly, leading him to another bookcase. He grabs a few books, letting the greaser hold them as he continues to look. After finding no other books that seem to interest him, he leads him over to an empty table, sitting down. Peanut sits across from him, looking at the books.

"So, these are gonna help?" he questions, taking one of the blue colored books, opening it to the first page and looking through the paragraphs.

"They should," Cornelius stares at him, admiring his face and Peanut frowns. "What's been going on?"

He sits there for a moment in silence and wonders what he should tell the younger teen. Finally, though, he lets out a sigh, running a hand through his styled hair.

"Just been having nightmares," he grumbles, "It's been going on for about the past week and I've been losing sleep over it."

"And you're having hallucinations because of it?" He nods slowly and Cornelius looks up at ceiling in thought. "What were you doing before the nightmares started? Anything out of the ordinary?"

"No. I was just taking pictures for photography," he tells him, "Then I felt like I was getting sick, so I went back to the dorm and took a nap. And that's when everything happened."

"Well… there is something that is thought to help," he starts, "Some people keep around this herb – sage – to give them better dreams. I'm not sure if it works, but it's worth a try. You can try to read these books in the meantime before you find some."

"Yeah, thanks," He takes another glance at the books on the table. "Do you know where to find some?"

"I'd say try online," he chuckles softly, "I don't think Bullworth has any just laying around."

"Alright," With a small goodbye and a wave of his hand, Cornelius is gone. Peanut just sits there, thinking over his conversation. Sage, huh? He hadn't really ever thought of that, mainly because he didn't really know it existed. But, he smiles slightly. Maybe he would look online after his visit today.

Checking out the books and thanking Mrs. Carvin, he shoves them in his backpack and makes his way out of the library, the buzzing of his phone catching his attention. Pulling it out, he's surprised to see it's from Johnny.

Johnny: where'd you go for lunch? We missed you

Peanut: went to library

Johnny: you a nerd now? Why ditch us for that place?

Peanut: wanting to find books on nightmares and stuff. Learned some things

Peanut: I might get some sage. it's supposed to help

Johnny: crazy. we'll look into it later. Be on time to class

Peanut: will do

He pockets his phone and makes his way towards the dorm, going to his room to throw his backpack down on his bed. Of course he wasn't going to class like Johnny had wanted. He still had that "appointment" at the asylum. He grabs his packet of cigarettes and his lighter from his nightstand and puts them in his inner jacket's pocket, leaving the dorm and making his for the football field, where the trail would lead him to the old tunnels. The bell rings on his way over and he quickens his pace, not wanting to be caught by any of the prefects patrolling the campus. And when he gets onto the pathway to the asylum, he takes out a cigarette and lights it up, taking a long drag. He can only hope that today's visit goes well.