Bandages and body bags

[sofiadioli]

Sofia was laying on her belly, staring over at the wall in absolute misery. From what she'd been told, she'd been the victim of a hazing by senior level college fire students and hadn't been fully awake for two days. The induction process had been to catch a younger student on fire and take off before they were caught. It was a brand new thing and she had been their first ever target. Thanks to a nearby professor, Sofia would be the last. Apparently, they weren't supposed to completely catch you ablaze, just catch the end of your shirt or jacket and then put it out. But the twit they'd picked to go first wasn't as good in his abilities as he'd bragged. All she remembered was being on fire and not being able to breathe, then nothing.

This assurance didn't do much for her mental processes. The young girl was still haunted from the last time she'd been engulfed in flames, it wasn't an experience the wind adept had cared to repeat. The nurse wanted her to talk to someone, a traumatic experience like this required psychological intervention. Sofia didn't feel like talking, she didn't feel like moving, she didn't currently feel like being alive if she had to be honest with herself.

The professor had made quick work of the growing blaze, being a water graduate. She hadn't been able to put them out fast enough yet, so Sofia suffered a third degree burn about the size of a her palm on her right shoulder blade where the fire had been started, where it had been the hottest the longest. The surrounding tissues along her back were second degree with a few small blisters, the skin on the back of her neck had been blissfully spared. Since the fire had been so close to her head, most of her hair had quickly gone up from the surrounding heat. Sofia didn't know what her face looked like, she refused to look, but she could tell she had at least a first degree, as her cheeks felt sunburnt.

Her dreams were all gone now. She would never be pretty enough, or have the mobility she once had to be an actress, she told herself. The skin on her neck would heal up just fine, and leave a shiny scar, her back was what she was worried about. Who knew how long that would take to heal... No doubt she was the talk of the Academy... half the school had to have been there watching her burn up. Someone at least had the decency to bring her flowers. If Sofia's face hadn't been so burnt and cracked, she would have cried herself to sleep. Deciding that keeping her eyes open hurt to much, she shut them. No sense in looking at nothing but an ugly wall.

[crystal]

Crystal watched the girl from the doorway. Sofia had been lucky that Crystal had been nearby during the fireworks because that first teacher was not all that skilled in putting out fires, that and he had no idea there was a bathroom full of water right above their heads, and when asked how she knew this she avoided the question by asking other questions: Who's getting a nurse? Things like that tended to get people moving, especially when an angry guidance councilor was yelling them out.

Times like that Crystal liked being the one in charge, because she knew she could take charge in this kind of situation with ease now that she had been trained to do so.

She was just glad this wasn't a thunder student's prank, that could very well have killed the girl. It was very difficult for a fire student to produce fourth degree burns on the human body, but a thunder... It only took one out of control attack to hospitalize someone. She understood that the college students were not part of the silly alliance that the students had started years ago but that only meant that the staff had to work that much harder to keep them under control.

Something that obviously needed improvement.

Days like today she wished that she could just throw the attackers in the dungeon so they wouldn't hurt themselves or others with anymore of their hazing. Though Maple Hallow did have some rules and regulations about such acts and so the graduate was now sitting in a jail cell and the redhead would go talk to him once the police had finished processing him. Fun times.

But she was here now considering how to approach Sofia, the girl had been set on fire before so the entire thing would have to be delicate. So like most things in life she dove right in as soon as she was told the girl was awake. "Hey so I heard you've had a rough couple of days." Crystal placed a get-well-soon card on the girls bed along with a box of chocolates which she found helped in every situation.

[/size]

[sofiadioli]

Why couldn't it have been a water student's prank? That wouldn't have been issue at all! All she would have needed to do was lay her books out to dry! Nothing more. Stupid fire students, stupid school, stupid abilities. Stupid everything. Sofia felt like throwing things. Her normally well kept temper was going crazy and she wanted to break something in half. How much of her studies was she going to have to catch up on? How behind was she going to fall? UGH!!!

Sofia didn't look over as the woman walked in, knowing that it had to be the shrink. Yeah, they were good at their job, and necessary in some cases, but this had happened to her before. The girl didn't want to talk to anyone, all she wanted was for her back to not be burned and to go home. Tired of being picked on, bullied, whatever. Raging all to herself, Sofia didn't notice the woman had set stuff on the bed at first. Listening to the lady address her made her agitated again. Feeling guilty, Sofia made herself calm down. The woman was just in here to do her job and who knows, maybe she genuinely cared about what had happened to her.

“Yeah. I guess I have, haven't I,” Sofia replied to Crystal's comment. “Thanks for the card,” she sniffled and tried to adjust a bit. Knowing she couldn't lay on her back and talk to the woman, the tenth grader hoped that the counselor wouldn't think that she was being rude. It was difficult to look at her from this position. “They told me I had to talk to you. I've been through this before, so I really don't think that I have much to say. Aside from ow.”





ooc: Sorry its short. Muse kicked out after not having enough sleep the past couple days.

[crystal]

A tough girl, why did teenagers always have to stonewall her? They didn't realize that most of the teachers and staff here had done the same exact thing, no one could ever know what they were going through. This was the frustrating part of her job. So she looked down at her watch, she did have a meeting to prepare for if the girl didn't want to actually talk yet. Crystal didn't mind giving her time to cool down, but she was going to bait her anyways because the girl might as well have been screaming "I hate my life." at the top of her lungs. "So I take it you don't want to hear about the student who did this to you, cause Avery doesn't know anything about it."

It was only a simple staff meeting but there were a few files she could go over again so she wasn't flying by the seat of her pants in the meeting. She hoped Sofia wouldn’t want her to go away, Crystal knew from experience that she revenge was a very strong motivator when it came to these situations. Crystal herself had wanted to drown the students who had killed her ally for about a day. Then she had realized that it was a cycle, if she fought more people could get hurt and it would only continue to get worse.

This case was rather similar although there was a specific person that was at fault and was being sent to reform himself behind bars. The rest of them had extra detention and were going to sit in Crystal’s office during every major party at school, the ones that were off the books anyway. She may be from an older generation but she still knew it was never about the school sponsored parties, always the after-parties. Oh sweet justice.

[/justify][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[my muse shot me in the foot as well]

[sofiadioli]

Sofia blinked at the woman. Did she want to know more about the student that did this to her? Was she even allowed to know any more about what was going on with him or any of the other students that had attacked her? True, she'd like to know who it was so that she could avoid them or any of their hangouts. Avoiding them probably wouldn't be to difficult since she didn't go near the dungeons or places that the fire students like to hang out around. It wasn't like Sofia was the vengeful sort, but her parents would have to be informed and it was likely that legal action was going to be taken, especially if the wound got infected.

Another question that ran through her mind was, who was this Avery fellow she mentioned? “I know its your job and all, I don't mean to seem rude or anything. I just really don't know what to tell you. I was caught on fire, I feel like dirt, and I'm not happy. Far from it. I don't know how far behind in my studies I'm going to end up. Just a lot of stress.” Her back started to sting and she hoped that it wouldn't keep her from sleeping, though she knew that it would. Burns of this degree always kept people up unless they had something to deaden the pain.

“Did they get anybody else?” Someone had told her that she had been the only one, but she didn't know for sure, she needed reassurance that this wasn't going to happen to anybody else. She didn't know why it mattered so much to her, but it did. She didn't wish this on anyone, and the more she thought about it, she realized that at least she knew how to deal with this sort of pain since she'd been through it before. The only thing she didn't know how she was going to deal with was the humiliation. The victim always seemed to get the short end of the stick, at least that's how Sofia saw things at the end of the day.

[crystal]

Hm, seems like Crystal could still get the girls attention after all. If the girl opened up then she could finally deal with whatever previous times she had been lit on fire. The memory was weighing on her mind, and Sofia had mentioned it before and now she was lashing out at the shrink. Must be Tuesday... Or parent teacher day...

She smiled and turned around and noticed the pain on the girls face. The burn was on her back so she was probably not able to sleep in peace, she should have seen that one coming, some psychiatrist she was. She smiled sadly and helped the girl move into a more comfortable position. Her careful hands moved Sofia without jostling her back, she didn't want the girl in pain when she should be talking about how she really felt about this entire situation. Getting Sofia to open up would probably not be a fun process but besides being paid to get her to open up she genuinely wanted to help. If only she would let herself get on with her own life as well as help. That would be a nice change.

"My job isn't to ask questions and be annoying, my job is to help you in whatever areas you need it. If that means talking about your friends then I can do that. Just think of me as an impartial listener." She sighed at the girl hoping that she got her message across. She wanted the Sofia to get over this little setback in her life and move forward. Crystal knew perfectly well that sometimes that wasn't as easy as it sounded. Sometimes what you’d been through would eat you up as soon as she closed her eyes. No right now it was time to focus on Sofia, not her own troubles. Those she would sweep under a rug until she could deal with them. Being back at this school didn’t help her avoid the subject but that’s what work was for.

She sat down on the end of the bed and looked the girl in the eyes, ”Well the student who lit you on fire is now in jail and I’m testifying for the prosecution tomorrow. He won’t hurt you or anyone else again.”

[/i] She glanced back at the nurse’s station where the overworked Avery was somewhere around probably flirting with a student. [/justify][/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

(my muse still hates me)