After Alucard had fallen asleep, and the girls had noticed – when he didn't respond to another question from Harriet, and a quick check confirmed their suspicions – they gathered together with a much more excited and somewhat "naughty" atmosphere, which the chicken was thrown into as well.
"Did you hear about that girl who got dumped on Valentine's Day?" Jenifer, with a lush head of medium length "Legally Blonde" hair looked at the gathered faces with an impish grin.
Annabelle, or Anna, who was thin and lithe, having been able to flex her body into a number of invasive and pestering contortions in order to annoy Seras earlier, giggled shrilly – though she afterwards hoped she hadn't sounded too mean. "Which one? I've heard of three girls who got dumped- actually, two girls and one guy – but the guy'd definitely earned it."
This guy story was shelved for the moment. Harriet worked over her toes, and then scowled at a few that looked messy to her. She uncapped the nail polish remover and made more of a mess in her impatience to remove the purple and lavender paint. "What about her? And who are we talking about?"
Jaclyn, seated opposite to the fledgling vampire, and the fledgling herself, had no idea what was going on. While Jenifer laughed, Jaclyn nudged her with a bare shoulder. "Tell, tell, tell- C'mon already."
Seras wondered whether she should paint her toes in an alternating pattern of bright blue and pink.
"Well, I think her name's Francine or something. But she's the girl who was dating a school counselor." Jennifer beamed as she gained everyone's attention.
The other girls seemed familiar with the "rumor" (which now seemed to have been confirmed as truth), while Seras' head rose and her squint widened as she looked away from her toes in surprise. Blinking as the depth of the matter sunk into her considerably more than it managed to be assessed by the other girls, Seras swallowed uncomfortably. For the teens, the story remained shallow and the misfortune, entertaining. Perhaps toying with a "moral," of sorts – for at least one or two of the girls.
"He dumped her, really? Well… nah, I saw that one coming."
"I heard that girl's 16, and he was like 28 at least."
Seras' nose scrunched.
"But he was really good looking."
Seras frowned.
"People were just jealous of her."
Seras started painting her toes again, resorting to pink as she selected the nail polish from the gathered assortment of colors that stood in the middle of their circle on the floor. Some of the girls worked over pillows, or sat on a folded blanket they'd brought with them.
The fledgling ignored the girls as they seemed to be recounting rumors and gossip that had spread at the very beginning of the forbidden courtship.
"They got caught making out in the school." Anna suddenly announced, again taking Seras by surprise. "By a janitor who was working late. And he reported them, and that's why the counselor got fired." Jenifer seemed to know about this rumor as well, but with different details.
"I heard they got caught by a teacher."
The teenage girls mulled this juicy bit over. "No, that's gotta be made up. This happened late at night, on the weekend. Teachers don't go into the school on weekends, or at night, unless for, I don't know, club stuff. Science fair projects. But even then, it's not going to be at night. After curfew – which is when I heard it happened."
"No, no they got caught by a teacher. There aren't any janitors that work past six, and they only work on weekdays." Jennifer didn't confide as to how she knew this. "And there are teachers that live on campus, right? Or nearby. Not all of them, but there's no janitor who's going to be living on campus or even in town. The housing prices here are so inflated." Again, she did not admit how she knew this information.
Jaclyn asked in a near whisper, adding more suspense with a smile: "Who do you think it was?"
They, however, unfortunately failed to develop this question, and moved on to other scandals. Valentine's Day had put them in quite a ruthless mood, there being only one girl present who was not currently single.
"Rachel Hefner in Jaclyn's and my Economics class got dumped by Jacob Patterson."
Now there was an exclamation of pity from one of the girls who cried in dismay, "Oh no! They were so cute together! Poor Rachel! And she's so sweet, too."
Not exactly having the impact that'd been desired, they moved on to the next unfortunate girl. "I don't know the girl's name, but she was dating Ricky Johnson – I think she was just a Sophomore too-"
"Ugh, it's so stupid that Senior boys date these younger girls. I mean, the girls don't get it! He's just going to leave for college at the end of the year anyway! What's the point? You're doomed, unless he's like head over heels for you, and you two, like, get married when you graduate or something. But who wants to get married so early? Enjoy your life a bit first, jeeze."
"It's sooo much worse when it's the Freshmen girls. Just- clueless! It's pretty sad."
It wasn't Harriet who'd said this. She'd yet to join the topic, but she was nodding emphatically and joined the murmurs of "Hmm…" or "Mmm… mhmmm. Right."
"I totally know what you're getting at," Anna said, presenting the wholly empty remark as though it had some important value.
Seras had meanwhile zoned out, oblivious towards the topic of age and grade-level as she picked up the bright blue polish. She was chewing her lip in concentration when Harriet burst out laughing and accidently elbowed her arm, causing the cold blue to crisscross wildly over her foot and between her toes.
A little "Oh!" broke from Seras, and Harriet, noticing what she'd done, apologized and offered to fix it for her, scrambling for a cotton ball, finding one, then tossing it in preference of a couple of Q-tips and a tissue. So Seras was again assimilated into the group of teenage girls.
Somehow, a girl thought it wise to bring up John, asking: "What about this whole thing between John and Seras' sister?"
"Let's not talk about that." The aggression in both Harriet's tone and her look of near-hatred frightened the speaker (which happened to be the more childish Jaclyn), so that she remained mute and timid for a long period of the afternoon. Sadly she could not hide in her bushy brown hair, as she had it tied tightly behind her head in a puffy ponytail.
"I hear there's… oh, Rebecca, her name's Rebecca Thorsten, I'm pretty sure. She's got some man she's supposedly in love with. And he's 30 or even older than that. And really ugly, I heard." Jennifer made a face, which Harriet and Anna mimicked. Seras was listening now, letting Harriet work on her foot as she had her leg extended and she sat back, leaning on her hands behind her. Dimly she wondered how old Pip Bernadette was supposed to be. But then, she wasn't a high school girl, and it didn't really mean the same thing for her. And he was, what, only in his mid-twenties, or something… Pff. She was dead. Age didn't matter anymore. –This thought made her a bit sad, so she focused all the more on the other girls.
The young fledgling tried to feel bad for Jaclyn, or this Rebecca person she didn't know, rather than herself. God… the emotional roller coaster that is high school. She sighed audibly. Teenage drama.
"There's been a lot of girls dating older guys this year, hasn't there? What's wrong with people?"
Harriet smirked at Anna, "But I thought you said Mr. Anderson was-"
"Oh shut up. It's not like I'd date him. He's too old. And I'm not stupid. When I'm 30 he'll be like 60. That's just gross!"
Harriet laughed, not seeing how Seras' expression had changed, how she stared blankly at her knee, lips slightly parted.
Her Master had been looking in all the wrong places, and ignoring their strongest asset.
Dear lord, the fact that this was their strongest asset made Seras ashamed of their position at the boarding school for the first time. (She could actually feel her cheeks burning as she rummaged through her thoughts… what could be deemed sensible, by some definition, at least.) …Finally she could understand why her Master was always in such a bad mood these days – aside from the whole John baby-sitting situation.
Oh, she just wanted to go home already.
…
…
…The girls started talking about a boy band- they still have those? Huh. … Um… Another debate of, who's hot and who's not… Is this really going to happen… all over again….
Hmmm…. Yuuup. It sure is. What a treat.
…
…
Reasons to get the hell out of here:
These girls were really on the brink of turning her brain into mush. If her brain became mush, her Master would probably think she was useless, beyond any hope of improvement… She'd lose her job… and… Well. What would happen if Sir Integra fired her?
…oh wow… …glad I enjoy my job, then… …that's really fortunate…
Her Master was a prepubescent girl (now), and probably prettier than her in some ways…
Oh.
Ohhhh-
Her brain was mush.
It was total, and complete, mush. Sloppy mashed potatoes swimming in gravy, why not? Her Master, the great Hellsing Vampire, scourge of the underworld, DRACULA… was pretty, petite, an absolutely dainty little doily.
If someone up there was trying their darnedest to make her crazy, they were doing a pretty good job.
No… No, the dead could rise, but this… this was just… and Father Anderson!
Ha ha! Ohhh, yesss!
Yes, the icing on the cake! Seeing Father Anderson, almost…
EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
Since- since everyone just adores Father Anderson. He damns your soul and sticks you fullll of silver. What a charmer. A real charmer. No wonder all the girls like him. A guy usually gives you jewelry. He gives you blessed silver, and shoves it through your bloody heart. The sweetheart.
…yes, about as charming as her Master, really…
…
Talking to Sir Integra would probably solidify her brainy potato mush. She was a sensible female. She was sane. She was mature.
Walter-! Walter was old! Right? That's what she needed! She needed to talk to someone old! (And not a vampire, Iscariot, or high school teacher… Though her teachers [with the exception of Father Anderson] were nice… and not old, not really. There was the pretty lady bio teacher, who she just didn't have as a teacher… No, the teachers… they were just a bit… useless, for fixing her particular… problems. … Not like it was their fault or anything. They've put up with her Master for weeks on end! What more could we ask of these poor, underpaid, underappreciated people? Someone needs to- Sir Integra needs to give all these people a nice vacation. Yeah. To some tropical island, that's really, really, really far away from vampires and teenagers. Just to show them our appreciation, and to congratulate them on surviving… a perpetual cycle of high school… and the Vampire Alucard.)
(And then Sir Integra needs to send me off with them, for a couple weeks… that's not too much to ask… Um. Wait, hot sun plus me, heat and me equals no fun. And no swimming. Just a lot of drowning. No- nooooo, I could find something fun to do. I could! Just give me a plane ticket, and I'll make it happen!)
…
Sigh.
… How many guys are in this boy band? … One, two… eight… was that ten? …
It's endless!
…
UGGGHHHHHHhhhhh... Splazzle, frazzle, gazzle, snazzle, mnazzle… plehhhhhh.
…
Sigh.
A… B…
She needed to blow something's head off, within the next 48 hours.
And she knew exactly how she was going to accomplish this.