I hate teaching these other classes...

Grell sighed. It was almost the end of the schoolday - the last class he'd have to bother with, actually - and here he was again, sitting in for some other teacher in a subject he knew nothing about. His feet were up on the desk in front of him, legs crossed, as he casually leaned back in his chair and read a magazine he had brought from his apartment.

Almost out of the blue, an energetic pop song began to play somewhere quietly. Huh... Grell thought to himself, turning the page to his magazine, I thought the kids were supposed to have those on silent. "Whoever's phone that is, turn it off..." he said lazily (even though this was his first year teaching, he was growing to hate his job).

"Mr. Sutcliff?" a student asked, "Isn't that your phone?"

Grell paused, quickly digging into his coatpocket, "Oh, um, yes, it is!" He laughed, embarrassed, and quickly stood up to make his way toward the classroom door, "Beg y'pardon. Erm, would you excuse me for a moment?"

Once outside of the classroom, Grell quickly set to answering his phone, "Hello? Sorry for the late answer, you've got me during class, but I can call you right back after three o' clock, I can't really talk -"

"Wait a sec, first time I've talked to you in, like, forever, and you're pushing me aside?" the caller interrupted, laughing into the phone, "It's me! Ronald! Will told me that you bugged him today and gave me your number!"

"R-Ronnie?" Grell squeaked into the phone, jumping up and down slightly from excitement. "Oh my god, you're right, it has been forever! I almost didn't recognise your voice, even!" He giggled, "I just got this phone a few weeks ago, y'see and I'm not quite used to having it on me during classes..."

Ronald paused, "You're going to school? Man, I feel so sorry for you!"

Grell shook his head, "No no no, Ronnie, I'm teaching. I thought it was something that would be intersting - by the by, if you ever wanna teach, don't, it's not what it's cracked up to be." He chuckled to himself, "But enough about me. How've you been doing?"

"Eh, decently," Ronald replied, sighing, "I'm tired all the time and I keep moving. Every night I work, I get called to someone's place for some party, and I always wake up hung over to all hell and in someone I don't know's house."

"You know, partying all the time isn't good for you," Grell scolded. He scratched at his head, biting his lip, "And what do you mean by keep moving? Ronnie, are you just living with whoever lets you stay with them...?"

After a long pause, Ronald responded solemnly, "...Y-yes. You know, if you have space, I'd love to live with you." He then laughed, "But don't worry about me, okay? I'm doing fine! I only called you because Will wants me to pass some info along to you. Dunno why he won't do it on his own, though..."

"He probably just wants to remind me to stay away from him," Grell said blankly, keeping an eye on a clock across the hallway - school would be out any minute, "He's so... unfeeling! I do find it attractive, but only to an extent..."

Ronald laughed again, "Hey, cheer up! It's not that, even. He wants me to tell you how to find Undertaker. Probably just because Undertaker and I can stand you for more than five seconds, y'know?" His laughter subsided, "I know that you gotta go soon, so I'll just be quick. He works nighttime hours at the hospital, just ask for Dr. Barnum and you should be okay. Got it?"

While he was being told this, Grell had snuck back inside of the classroom to grab his messenger bag and magazine. "Barnum? Funky last name, but alright, I suppose. Listen, I'll get in trouble if I'm on the phone too long by the school, okay, Ronnie?" Quickly making his way back out of the classroom again and toward the school's main entryway, Grell reluctantly stopped talking to his old reaping friend. "You call me on a weekend so we can meet up, okay?"

"Can-do! That is, if I'm, y'know... not hung over."

The city hospital was an incredibly large, imposing complex - and at nighttime, this was multiplied tenfold. Grell eyed it curiously, For a building where people go to become healthy again, he thought to himself, it sure is giving off one deathly vibe... Brushing it off, he proceeded to hurry inside, thinking only that he did not expect Undertaker to be in a place full of living bodies, as opposed to dead.

Quickly tying his hair back into a long ponytail to look (somewhat) normal, Grell walked up to the reception counter. He cleared his throat, "E-erm, hello. Is a, um... Dr. Barnum here? I need to speak with him..."

The woman behind the counter looked up at him, "I'm afraid that Dr. Barnum doesn't have any appointments. He's currently busy with something right now, anyway." She paused, "If you'll give me your name, I could send a notice down."

Great. Now I have to lie, Grell thought, biting his cheek. "Well, someone very dear to me is seeing him right now, and I would just like to check in," he spat out. He hated lies made up on the spot, they never worked.

"Oh... I'm terribly sorry, sir," the woman said softly, "if that's the case, I'll just send a visitor's notice down." She quickly turned back to her desk, "Go to the second basement floor. He should be in the room third on your left, from the right."

"A-ah... yes, thank you," he said, smiling, "thank you very much." With that, he quickly walked to the other side of the room, toward a flight of stairs. I wonder why that woman apologized to me... he thought to himself as he began to quickly climb down the stairs. Maybe he's one of those emergency room doctors... but why would the ER be in the basement?

Now at the correct level, he turned to his right. "Okay, let's see here..." he mumbled to himself, looking to his left as he counted off the doors, "Door number one, door number two... Aha! Here we go!" He grinned, eagerly opening the door and walking inside, only to be taken aback.

It was freezing.

It stank horribly, like decay.

And directly in front of him, bending over and delicately cutting open part of an already-mangled corpse with a scalpel, was Dr. Barnum.

Filler chapter is filler-y! It was going to be longer - I only decided a minute ago to cut if off where it is, to keep it and an additional one character per chapter. Trust me, I hate the first half of this chapter because it's hard to me to write people talking to each other on phones.

Meanwhile, the next chapter is pretty decently along since I cut this one off, and has non-shitty dialogue.

I totally didn't mean for Grell to be the main character for a few chapters, but it looks like it may be that way. Once Will, Ronnie, and Undertaker are all in - and maybe Eric and Alan, too - it'll begin to just be brainfarts and hit a stopping point. Herp de derp. - Kolo