Inside the buses, talk about the fight was raging like fire. Pretty much all of the students who hadn't been involved said they'd wished they had, as they watched those "lucky enough" to be nearby try to do something about their minor injuries. Katie sat down in her seat, trembling all over, hand clamped to her bleeding cheek. Well, today was certainly interesting, wasn't it?
The students waited in dread, some trembling just as violently as Katie, and others staring straight ahead with a grim expression of foreboding. After clearing things up rather badly with the store managers and failing to get close enough to the afflicted human teenagers to be able to examine the damage and perhaps apologize, Scott returned to his bus.
His foot steps seemed to reverberate in the student's ears as he appeared at the head of the aisle, his face set and clearly pissed. Some cringed while he took a shuddering intake of breath. Scott sighed. "I'm disappointed in all of you. Getting into a fight with humans. Do you realize that if anyone of them had gotten critically hurt, you all would be in JAIL, with no trial because of your powers, rotting away in confined cells, subject to experiments the rest of your lives?!" he burst, glaring hard at each student in turn. "I have half a mind to convince the buses to turn around and go back to the school."
"They deserved it!" someone yelled from the back, before ducking down before anyone realized who it was.
"Whether they did or didn't, you need to realize the consequences! You can't go around using your powers on humans like that, and you're lucky that they aren't going to press charges!" Everyone had fallen silent by now, though it was a frosty, guilty silence.
Katie, sitting alone, felt the weight of the disapproving glare that he sent to each of them. Should she stand up and explain that it was all her fault?
Before Katie had made up her mind, Scott had given them one last prolonged glare and disappeared off of the bus to go explain to the other teachers why there was blood, ice, and various scorch marks on the pavement.
Slowly the buzzing murmur of students filled the bus. Would they really have to go home? Would they really have gone to jail? Katie did not join in, thinking to herself. She was filled with guilt that it had been all because of her, but also a rising irritation... why didn't he get that the humans had started it? Did he really think they were all that irresponsible?
She leaned over Scott's empty seat (how awkward would that be, when he got back? once he found out that it had been her fault, he'd probably refuse to speak to her for the entire trip). "Pyro," she called.
He looked up from telling an enthralled-looking girl about his greatly embellished role in the fight. "Yeah?"
She smiled at him, suddenly. "Thanks for that."
He grinned back at her. "It was my pleasure."
Scott reappeared on the steps of the bus, still looking deeply disappointed in them, though not quite as furious as he'd been before. Part of it, of course, had been him being terrified at the idea of one of his students ending up in jail... Sighing, Scott fell heavily into his seat, unable to suppress the obvious vibes of disappointment that he emanated in Katie's direction. Putting his coffee and scone down (he'd had to retrieve it from the disapproving clerk, which had been an adventure in and of itself).
Katie couldn't help but cringe away from the peeved Scott slightly. He didn't say a word to Katie, nodding to the bus driver letting him know that everything was good to go again. The bus engine roared to life and there was little confusion as to which bus would be leading so it took a few moments for them to finally pull away from the gas station and to get back on the road again. Eating the scone in a brooding silence, he drank his coffee while opening his book.
After sharing a few minutes of ominous silence with Scott, Katie turned to him to see that he as completely immersed in his book, Angels & Demons, and wasn't paying any attention to her in the slightest. Katie sighed, "Scott... It was my fault." She took a deep breath as he turned to look at her, afraid that she'd start babbling incoherently. And what she wanted most in the world right now was not to look stupid in front of him. "It was my fault... the fight and everything. The-the other kids noticed me, and they knew who I was, and decided to come over and start a fight... the other kids were just standing up for me... so you shouldn't go and punish everyone because of something that was my fault..."
Scott's face remained blank behind the glasses, and for a moment Katie longed to see what emotion brewed in those crystal clear eyes of his behind those glasses... Scott sighed through his nose; closing his book with a 'whump' (it was a good sized book). "That fight could have been solved in a much more reasonable manner. I don't care who started the fight or whose fault it is that the fight started- though I'm glad that you came forward and told the truth- That fight could have been avoided altogether or ended peacefully. Those who had participated in the fight are at their own fault for ever making up their minds to take part in it in the first place." he said, his voice taking on a gentler tone than it had earlier, though still retaining an officious, disappointed responsible adult tone.
"But," Kate burst, "But you still shouldn't punish everyone... If it weren't for me they wouldn't have-" she faltered when Scott held up a hand for silence.
He smiled reassuringly. "I'm not punishing anyone. We're still going to Salem aren't we?" he prompted.
Katie's face took on a look of utter surprise. "We are?"
His smile widened. "Yes, we are."
"Oh," she murmured, looking away and blushing. "I didn't realize..." She looked back at him, smiling a bit at her own silliness. This was looking at him straight-on, mind, instead of keeping herself tilted away out of a guilty conscience and the fact that he had been in full disapproving-adult mode. Thus, he noticed, for the first time, that she was bleeding a bit enthusiastically from a laceration on the other side of her face.
The smile slipped off of Scott's face like soap through wet fingertips. "Katie, what happened to you face?!" he blurted in alarm, reaching forward to wipe the blood that shone a sickeningly bright red compared to Katie's pale face.
A look of dawning comprehension overcame Katie's face as she realized what Scott was talking about, finally noticing the sharp sting that was throbbing in her cheek. Oh yes, she had forgotten about that... "Oh, uhm... one of the girl's had fake nails... she scraped me pretty badly..." she said, trying to shrug it off as if it didn't hurt like hell.
Scott frowned, "Well then I'll have to get the first aid kit from the head of the bus and we can get you cleaned up. I might do well to see if anyone else has had a run in with dangerously manicured nails…"
She nodded at him, doing her best not to dissolve into an idiotic-happy grin that he was back to talking to her. Watching him do just that, grabbing the first-aid kit with its cheerful emblazed red cross, she was fairly unaware of the stabbing pain. Happiness at his obvious sympathy and that he'd have to touch her face quite extensively worked nicely as anesthetic. The blood dripping down her cheek to work its way down her front was quite the nuisance, however.
Scott returned momentarily, silently working at the clasps of the first-aid kit until it popped open. He rustled through the various first-aid items until he came upon a box of band-aids, some cotton balls, and a small bottle of antibacterial ointment.
Katie meanwhile had put her hand under her chin to keep the rivulet of blood from drizzling down onto her chest (which was semi bare given the low scoop of her shirt). When Scott looked up to see this he grimaced, it was so disturbing, seeing such bright vital red blazing against her pale skin.
She twitched slightly as she felt a red droplet drip down onto her collarbone, and slide its cold, wet way down her chest. If that wasn't uncomfortable, nothing was...
Scott paused for a moment, trying not to stare. Should he try and catch that with one of his cotton balls? Or was that one of that much-to-close to feeling her up sorts of things?
Thankfully she reached up and wiped it off herself, pausing to give the red splash on her fingertips a morbid examination. She smiled awkwardly at him. "Can I have one of those cotton balls? Please?"
Scott nodded somewhat awkwardly. "'Course you can." he muttered softly, offering his large handful of cotton balls to her.
She smiled thankfully, accepting a cotton ball and dabbing at her cheek, chin, and chest. When she finished, she looked up at Scott somewhat expectantly, a fresh beading of blood appearing immediately. Scott resisted the shudder that yearned to rack his body, and sat down, not really knowing where to start. Biting his lip, Scott handed Katie some more cotton balls. "Press them against the cut really hard, pressure will help stop the bleeding enough so I can apply some of this ointment..." he instructed softly, waving the small tube of ointment slightly.
Katie did as instructed, biting her lip at the pain as she pressed the cotton balls against the cut. They waited a few minutes in an awkward silence. Removing the cotton balls, she looked at him. "Does this work?" Only a faint beading appeared this time, and he nodded at her.
"Yeah, that's fine. Can you tilt your head this way?" he tried to gesture in the direction he wanted, but Katie (as their rights and lefts were reversed, as they were looking at each other, and she wasn't all that adept at the whole right/left thing anyway), turned the other way. "No..." Gently he caught her chin in one hand, tilting it to the angle he needed. "Like that..."
"'Kay." Katie blushed, feeling Scott's thumb (accidentally or no) brush just beneath her lip gently before his hand left her face.
"Good, now don't move." he chuckled, squeezing a small amount of ointment on the tip of a forefinger. With his ointment-free hand, Scott cupped her chin and kept her head in place, and with his other he dabbed the ointment gently over the small laceration. He rubbed it into the cut as gently as possible, pausing to observe Katie's expression. "Does this hurt at all?"
She winced a little bit. Yes, it stung, but then, that's what all cleaning ointments tended to do. "No, I'm fine..." she lied, not wanting him to think that she couldn't take it or something. It's not like it hurt that badly, or anything. Though she was definitely enjoying the feeling of his warm hand on her face, yes indeed.
"Alright," he said rather distractedly, "Just making sure" he smiled warmly, swiveling ever so slightly to wipe his ointment-y forefinger on a cotton ball before grabbing a few band aids.
Katie allowed him to stick three of them over the long jagged scratch(es), sitting as still and quiet as a mouse, running her fingers over the band-aids lightly after he was finished. "Thank you." she said softly, smiling as best she could given the slight restraint given the band-aids.
Scott smiled in return, putting the first aid supplies neatly back into their box. "No problem. Any other afflictions that I might need to take a look at?" he queried.
Katie giggled, grinning slightly, "Well you know, I do have this bruise..." she joked.
"And where might this bruise be? I'll see what I can do," he replied, smiling at her warmly.
Katie just colored a bit, wondering if she dared make herself ridiculously obvious and point out her heart?
Thankfully, her deliberation was broken by Pyro calling out, "Hey, Scott, when your done over there can you spare me a band aid before I bleed all over the seat?" Pyro was one of the few other students that referred to the teacher so informally to his face.
Scott smiled, sending Katie an apologetic look. "We can deal with your bruise later okay?" he promised. Scott spent a good amount of time playing doctor to all of the student's ailments and when he had returned Katie was dozing lightly.
He sighed, having wanted to get around to her bruises before putting the first-aid kit away, but he returned it to its rightful place and took his seat.