Room 324, Monday Afternoon

[vanillajello]

The awesome mood Kate had been in at the Perk in the morning? Completely gone, thanks to religion class. It seemed like the island was adamant on dragging her back down when she was feeling good.

She had been happy, finally thinking of Fandom as home, finally realizing she was really staying here and not just visiting. Of course the world had to go and remind her of the worst time she had had in Fandom. The fact that her face was painted blue didn’t bother her; that could’ve been just karmic payback for laughing at Bobby so much when he was pranked. No. It was the sudden paralysis, and the panic that followed it.

Being paralyzed was too close to the nightmares she had had after the incident with the sleepers and the other Fandom. Too close to the nightmares, and worse than them, because it really happened. Screaming inside her head with no control over her body, and completely awake.

She had calmed herself down in class, and she had made it to her room – because there was no way she was going to town looking like this – before she realized how messed up she was. And now she was sitting on her bed with her back against the wall, looking at her shaking hands, just like she had been for... quite a while now.

It was another way of being paralyzed and stuck inside her own mind.

[ooc: Door half-open, post completely so. I couldn’t resist being evil to her.]

Comments

[living_endless]

"Hey Kate," Didi said, peeking in as she passed by her neighbor's door. "How are you doing?"

She wasn't psychic; she was just good at turning up when people needed a friend.

[OOC: I could not resist, but you can shoo her away if you want ;-). Heading home and to SP in about half an hour.]

[vanillajello]

You might think Kate's instinctive reaction would have been trying to hide her blue face, but no. It was shoving her shaking hands behind her back.

"O-oh, hi Didi," she stammered, startled as she was. "I'm fine." And a bad liar.

[living_endless]

Didi peeked a little more in the door. "You sure?" she asked. "You look kind of -- well. Blue. To start with."

She wasn't commenting on the shaking hands yet.

[vanillajello]

Kate managed a weak smile. "Yeah, I... got painted in religion class."

Other things happened, of course. But she'd work up to that. Or fail to mention them completely.

[living_endless]

"Not a big fan of blue, huh?" Didi asked. "I don't blame you. It's not really a color you want to see on human skin."

[vanillajello]

"Bobby was blue for a few days, too. He got pranked," Kate noted, her voice a little on the quiet side. "I'd rather just be pink."

[living_endless]

"Bobby looked fine, but I agree with you," Didi said.

She was closer to white than to pink, but that was a side issue.

"What was going on in class?"

[vanillajello]

"Nothing much..."

Kate knew that wasn't going to fly, and she hesitated before telling the truth. "We kinda... got paralyzed. Before they painted our faces."

[living_endless]

"... on purpose?" Didi frowned. Hard. "Why did they do that?"

[vanillajello]

Kate shrugged, finally taking her hands from behind her back and resting them on her lap. Yep, still shaking. "To teach us a lesson. About something. I... didn't really listen."

[living_endless]

"... not much of a lesson if it took paralyzing you and painting you blue and they still didn't get it across," Didi said, eyes skittering to Kate's hands before she jerked them away. "That's ... I mean, I'm not a teacher, but that sounds like bad teaching."

[vanillajello]

"I don't know, I think it's just me. I mean, it just brought some bad stuff up again."

Kate closed her eyes for a second, breathed in, and then shook her head, opening her eyes again. "No, wait, screw that. It was a shitty thing to do."

[living_endless]

"Especially if they didn't warn you what they were doing," Didi agreed. "Sometimes people get carried away with power, right?"

She reached to put a hand on Kate's shoulder. "You're safe now."

[vanillajello]

"Yeah, I guess so," Kate sighed. It was a complicated thing, 'being safe', and she wasn't going to go into it. "Thank you."

[living_endless]

"Sorry I can't make you not blue." Didi said with a shrug.

[vanillajello]

"They said it would come off in a day or so," Kate replied and smiled, a little less weakly than before. "I'll live."

[living_endless]

"Well, I figured that much," Didi said. "Are you going to try to talk to the teacher about it?"

[vanillajello]

Kate fell silent for a moment. "I guess. Maybe," she then said. "I probably should."

[living_endless]

"Worst she can do is laugh, right?" Didi said with a little shrug. "Maybe it went wrong for her, too, and she feels bad."

[vanillajello]

"Yeah, maybe." Kate didn't think that was at all likely. "We'll see. At least I'll probably find out what I was supposed to learn."

[living_endless]

"Good luck either way," Didi said. She wasn't sure she believed her encouraging thought either.

[vanillajello]

"Thanks." Kate glanced down at her hands. At least they weren't shaking anymore. "And thanks for stopping by, Didi."

[living_endless]

"No problem," Didi said. "I like listening to people. Sorry I couldn't do more."

She rose to leave. "See you later, Kate."

[vanillajello]

"Listening's enough," Kate said with a little smile. "See ya."