a rather unpleasant confrontation [rowena]

[lucy]

Needless to say, the test had gone horribly for poor Lucy. She hadn't been able to study from her notes or her homework at all since she'd lent it to Rowena (not that it mattered, because they were probably all the wrong answers anyway and would have made her test results, if possible, even worse) and hadn't even remotely been in the mood for writing out new notes to study from, seeing as she didn't understand the material anyway. What was the point, she had asked herself, of writing even more incorrect notes and burning said material into her mind when she knew it was wrong anyway? Nothing, she'd affirmed to herself, there was no point at all to that. And so she hadn't.

As she exited the classroom a few days later, having just received news of her grade along with the rest of the class (though they were told by the teacher individually, she had a feeling from the relieved smiles on most of the students' faces that they'd done much, much better than she had), Lucy had her head slightly down, and a small frown began to form on her face. She knew she was going to do badly but for some reason she felt bothered by it. She'd graduate, wouldn't she? There'd be plenty more opportunities for her to do well, wouldn't there? There would have to be... she wouldn't want to repeat this year again, it'd delay her travels! She wouldn't have any of that. No, if this endangered her in any way, she would have to just talk to the teacher and figure out something. Anything! She needed to pass... for the first time she found herself worried about the subject.

She'd forgotten almost completely now about the problem with Rowena and that the poor Thunder would have failed too- and it would have been entirely Lucy's fault. She was too wrapped up in her own thoughts about passing or failing and traveling (or not). No, as Lucy wandered along the hall with her slight, almost thoughtful rather than pained frown, she thought only of herself (though in the least narcissistic way possible). She looked troubled, but not upset. She was too thoughtful to be merely upset.

[ROWENA AUDREY BENNETT]

Rowena had walked into the classroom with a newfound confidence, head held high and answers imprinted onto her mind as if they'd been etched there with a knife. Though she wasn't the type to enjoy studying, she'd made sure she read over Lucy's notes until she could almost see them swim before her closed eyes. She needed this class. She strove to pass. She was not like most desperate students, she did not try to get through it with honesty. Instead she had conned a poor Wind elemental out of what might have been her only chance at passing herself. There was no associated feeling of guilt. A selfish soul, Rowena was remorseless. The soft smile on her lips as the teacher handed out the results the next day was due to her certainty that she had this entire thing in the bag. Who's to say that cheaters never prosper?

As she found out a moment later, the big fat F on her paper was enough to kill her buzz. She'd been riding the high of her confidence and the crash to the ground could have given her psychological whiplash if it had been any more sudden. She found herself staring without comprehension at the circled letter, the gears of her brain turning as if they wished to find a way of melding the letter into a different shape. The percentage was scrawled on the paper as well—not a high in the eighties or nineties like she'd been hoping but lower than fifty, a fail. When she swallowed uncertainly she became aware of the fact that she'd started holding her breath and she let it out in a strangled, frustrated sigh. What was this? How could she have failed? Blue eyes were hot with a betrayed kind of fury as they sought out her classmate in another row. That cheating cow! Thunders were not as prone to rage as those in Fire. Altair might have reacted much more immediately, much more strongly. What were Thunders known for? Vengeance. She was not going to forget this. Lucy wasn't going to live this one down.

As the bell clanged their dismissal, Rowena stuffed the flunked test haphazardly into her usually-neat bag and stood up sharply. Her sight on Lucy was lost as they were both swept up in the crowd of students exiting the classroom but that did not discourage her from the hunt. In a few more moments she had spotted her—she was walking away from where Rowena stood but it did not take much for the long-legged blonde to catch up. "So you think you're funny, do you? You and your mates having a bit of a laugh?" In contrast to the chipper friendliness that she'd displayed in the library, the Thunder's voice had chilled to be as cold as ice. She did not shake or curse or spit in frustration but it kindled like the fire she could not control in her normally calm baby blues. "I was counting on that test to pass the grade. You really think I'd find it amusing that you set me up to fail?" There were a thousand different urges striking her at that moment but she focused only on the verbal confrontation for now. She was not hard-wired for anger, she did not deal with it like some. It was not always immediate.

[lucy]

With Rowena now in the very back of her mind, Lucy had begun to look forward once more. She was sure that there'd be a way for her to bump up some of her grades at least so that she could pass; she wasn't too concerned as to what the grades would end up as, and certainly wasn't worried as to whether she'd pass with flying colours. As long as she passed this year of school and was able to go forth in freedom from the academy without worrying of a potential return, she'd be happy. After all, it was important that she graduated so that she could begin her travels! She did not want to risk having to repeat the year for fear that she wouldn't be able to travel until next year. She didn't want to delay the travels any longer, after all. And so Lucy began to think of how she could convince her teachers to either give her another chance or to give her extra credit, or something. She wasn't sure what she would do yet, but at least she was attempting to think on it. As Lucy wandered away from the classroom, her mind copied her physical state and wandered as well. She kept trying to keep it on track, and wondered momentarily how she had even gotten this far in school with her horrid habit of daydreaming becoming more and more frequent as time went on.

It was true that she'd forgotten about Rowena at least for now. Even her fears did not keep the thought in her mind for very long. For Lucy, it seemed thoughts would always come and go with no real aim within her mind; she never dwelled on the same thing for very long. She would most likely be the same way when she traveled; going place to place in a rather nomadic fashion, never staying in one place for very long unless with very good reason. She wondered if she would end up like her grandparents, as a nomad, or if she would settle down like her parents. She felt as though she had more in common with her grandparents in at least that aspect- though she'd inherited her parents' love of plants and flowers, Lucy had a strong sense of nomadism as well. Which would she follow? Perhaps both- there was nothing more exciting to her than roaming the land in search of plants, just spending her days studying and daydreaming. Yes, that sounded like the perfect life!

She certainly hadn't expected her moment of peace and happy thoughts to be interrupted, but that wasn't what bothered her, really. What bothered her the most was not that she was interrupted, but rather who she was interrupted by- the very Thunder that had escaped her thoughts, Rowena. Lucy gulped when she heard the girl's voice, but it quickly turned into a startled squeak as she turned around to face her and saw the anger, heard the words that meant her imminent death, probably. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it soon after, not knowing what to say. Tears brewed in her eyes but did not yet fall; instead she stood, shaking a bit, and finally spoke to the angry girl before her. "N-n-no, honestly, I-I... I didn't...." she was first trying to calm the Thunder down but was unsuccessful, mostly on the premise that she herself was hardly calm at the moment. "I d-didn't know, I... I thought...." she couldn't seem to form a coherent sentence at this point, just stammering out random words and phrases instead. Rowena didn't really think she'd done that on purpose, did she? No, she was just trying to be helpful, that was all... couldn't she see...? Apparently not. What had the poor, terrified Wind gotten herself into this time?

[ROWENA AUDREY BENNETT]

Where some people would be reasonable enough to consider that Lucy had tried to do her a favour and that the Wind elemental might be in a similar predicament, Rowena was not as accommodating. She automatically assumed that the Wind had somehow planned for this to happen, that she'd realised the trickery before Rowena had even asked for the notes in the first place. By the time she'd found and confronted her classmate, the Thunder elemental was fully convinced that this was no common coincidence. It would be the fault of Lucy Aeris that she was in danger of failing the year and that was not going to stand with her. She knew a burst of satisfaction when she saw the other girl's eyes widen, noted the fear in her eyes and the way that they welled up with tears. Should have thought this one out, shouldn't you have? She didn't feel guilty in making her cry. Tears were a weakness. It was not her fault that Lucy was weak.

She could feel the energy at her fingertips, the current of electricity begging to be released. As she did not have a temper and she had enough control over her powers to prevent any sudden outbursts of power, the Thunder elemental kept the static charges to herself and merely settled for a fierce glare. The silent threat seemed to be as effective as any physical one might have been and this satisfied her. "Didn't what?" Despite the words themselves being a question, Ro did not give her enough time to answer. She did not care for the answers or excuses. "Didn't mean it? You think I care if you mean it when I'm in danger of flunking the entire year now?" Perhaps she shouldn't have been so open about the dire state of her grades but at this point the Thunder was beyond caring about subtleties. Who cared if Lucy was perceptive enough to pick up on the fact that Rowena had attempted to use her? That attempt had failed and that failure had resulted in what Ro considered to be a tragedy. She couldn't imagine trying to explain to her sister that she'd failed—how humiliating would that be? She might have stopped caring about the opinions of most others after Syria's death but she certainly cared about her twin.

For someone who didn't usually have a short temper, the Thunder was finding it incredibly hard to resist violence at that point in time. Had she been quicker to anger she might have already got down to elemental business but she refrained. Instead she settled for a noise in her throat that was caught between a scoff and a laugh. "Thought? Clearly you didn't." Who would try and fail the Thunder leader if they didn't have some kind of a death wish? Scenarios flashed through her head—might she be able to get some of her elemental allies to corner Lucy, teach her a lesson? She dismissed the thought a moment later. Too much work. She wasn't beyond doing work if it had a strong pay-off but this was something a little more personal. The vengeance wouldn't be as sweet unless it was by her own hand. She created a ball of energy in her right hand and flicked her wrist to send it, crackling, into the opposite wall. It was not meant to harm but to act as a physical threat. "So tell me, what was it you were thinking again? I fail to see your logic." Her voice was tight with strain, a clear sign that she was on her last nerve. She might fail. She didn't know if she could deal with failing.

[lucy]

Lucy was not having a lucky day at all. In fact, she just had been extremely unlucky for the past... oh... well, a while anyway. She seemed as though she couldn't go anywhere without being confronted, and it was always (or usually) by a Thunder, of all people! All Lucy wanted to do was go off somewhere and write about her newest plant discovery, or read, or really anything at this point. She just needed to escape from this situation as fast as possible, hopefully unscathed. After all, she had never done anything to intentionally hurt the Thunder's grades, so shouldn't a simple apology take care of it? She knew that Rowena must have been upset for not passing the test, but was that really something to get so angry about, especially when Lucy had already explained (or attempted to explain, anyway) that she hadn't meant to make her fail? After all, Lucy had failed the test too, so they were in the same boat, weren't they? Figuratively speaking, of course. Either way, it really wasn't Lucy's fault, at least not completely. Rowena had intimidated her horribly, and if Lucy's mind had been working properly at that time she probably would hav explained that her notes were no good. Now she just had to attempt to... no, she couldn't. If she said now that she had known the notes were probably no good, then the Thunder may have become even more angry! She couldn't have that... oh, why did these things always end up happening to her? It was really quite unfair. After all, Lucy had done nothing intentional, and yet she always ended up getting on the wrong side of Thunders. Perhaps it was her fear that made it this way; she must have always ended up saying the wrong things or something because of it. Either way, she certainly wasn't happy to know that yet again she found herself crossing against an angry Thunder. What could she possibly say to calm Rowena down? She did not know, and was at a loss for words.

"Well, well no, I mean... no, but I really... I didn't... they did make sort of sense to me, and so I thought... I just felt bad because you j-just... you seemed so desperate, and...." Don't push it, Lucy, you'll just end up saying the wrong thing again and making her even more mad. Lucy thought, warning herself thought it really did no good. She knew that Thunders weren't as bad as Fires when it came to short tempers, but they were still dangerous, and they definitely were not known for being, well, altruistic or anything. They were revenge-driven and altogether terrifying. Lucy wanted nothing to do with it.

She stayed silent for a moment while Rowena raged, but then could not help but emit a small scream when a burst of electricity hit the wall near her. She was sure that Rowena would have hit her if she'd wanted to but the whole situation still made her frightened and jumpy. What if Rowena decided not to miss next time? Oh, no... she'd have to fix this, or try. "I was only trying to help, I'm s-so sorry it didn't work out for you, really, I just...." she attempted to make her voice stronger, but really, what good was a weak little Wind with no college plans against a powerful and scary Thunder? It was hopeless.

[ROWENA AUDREY BENNETT]

A part of her was glad to see the way that Lucy cowered from her and stammered with fear. Rowena liked the sense of power and control that confrontations gave her, a control over other people when she'd had so much trouble controlling herself. It was a power trip. At the same time, her impatience made it her to stand there and listen to the stammering without throwing up her hands and walking away. As a Thunder elemental she was much more quiet than one of her hot-heated allies might have been, standing with her lips pressed tight and a hand on her hip. "Oh just come out with it!" she snapped, rolling her eyes. They were just words, why was the girl having so much damn difficulty with them? Her judgemental nature was no friend of Lucy's and Ro wasn't either, no matter what sort of act she'd put up for the sake of passing. Lucy Aeris wasn't the first person that Rowena had used for personal gain and she probably wouldn't be the last but she was one of the rare ones whose help ended up doing more damage than good. Usually Ro staked out her targets, made sure that she pressured the smart kids instead of the losers. The Math test had made her desperate and desperation had made her stupid.

The Thunder elemental blinked and then scowled as if she was not quite clear on what she was hearing. "Some sort of sense?" she echoed, her voice tight. "So, let me get this straight, you gave me your notes knowing they wouldn't help with fuck all?" That wasn't what Lucy had said at all and Rowena was twisting words now, justifying her anger in any way that she could. She was not going to admit that karma had came back to bite her in the ass after she'd taken advantage of her poor classmate. She was too selfish for guilt. "And now you're saying you made me fail because you felt bad?" Again, her own interpretation of the words as a laugh burst from her lips. It was almost shrill and tinged with the anger that she felt toward Lucy. This bitch was going to be responsible for her failing the grade, wasn't she? "I was desperate to pass." She still was but how was she going to manage it now?

Lucy seemed to think that apologising was going to help her case but Rowena had already decided her frustration and refused to be drawn away from her rage. She was vindictive and she wanted her revenge. "Oh, you're sorry," she said with a mocking sneer. "Well I suppose it's all better then, isn't it? I guess I'll just forget that you completely fucked me over and we'll go back to being mates. Is that what you want?" She barely gave a pause before launching into a half-snarled, "Because you're not going to get it." Oh, should she attack her? She glanced around the hall as if deciding the worth of the action. She might get caught by a professor and put in detention and then she'd have more shit on top of what she was already dealing with. On the other hand, Lucy had right pissed her off. "I hope you failed as well," she said spitefully, narrowing her blue eyes.

[lucy]

Well her day just kept getting better and better, didn't it? All sarcasm quite intended in the previous statement (or thought, rather), of course. Lucy was starting to get tired of the Thunder's anger, almost more so than she was frightened at this point. Though she would not deny that she was extremely frightened, she could see that showing her fear was not going to get her anywhere (positively speaking at least), and so she would have to try that much harder to hide her fears from the angry Thunder. She gave a small sigh and though it sounded more irritated, it was actually a meditative sigh as she tried to recollect her thoughts and gain control over her wild emotions. She'd have to do that in order to get anywhere with this girl, clearly... oh, but it was such a terrifying situation! She only hoped she could manage to gain a bit more control over her fears just long enough to somehow or other get away from Rowena- hopefully unharmed.

Oh, how the Thunder so easily twisted her words into the exact opposite meaning of how she had wanted her to understand them! "No, that's not what I-" she started weakly, only for the Thunder to continue on an angry word rampage, clearly not in the mood to listen and full of rhetorical questions. She tried again. "I know, I was too, but-" but again she was cut off. If she were not so scared, she may have been more frustrated with the situation at hand. Then again, Lucy wasn't one to be frustrated that often. She just didn't see the sense in it.

Friends? Were they ever to begin with? No, she didn't think so, but attempted a response anyway. "But we weren't really to begin with, were-" she barely got those few words in before Rowena snarled out some more threats and words, causing Lucy to step back and cringe at the anger. If she did not know that Rowena was a Thunder, Lucy would expect her to start spitting flames at any moment. But then Rowena said something rather odd, or at least, Lucy viewed it as such. So odd, in fact, that Lucy responded quite without thinking, her blunt nature getting the best of her. "Well of course I failed, if we used the same notes. You don't really think I went to the trouble of making false notes just for you, do you? That'd be rather redundant, I think...." she quickly stopped talking once she realized what she was saying. Oh, curse her ever-present bluntness! Most of the time she didn't realize it, but she was already on edge... why didn't she stop it when there was still time? Well, she hadn't realized it until it was too late. And oh, was it too late.

[ROWENA AUDREY BENNETT]

She was so frustrated with her fellow elemental that she didn't even bother pausing in her ranting long enough for the girl to get a word in. In truth, Rowena didn't care what Lucy had to say. She had been counting on the Wind elemental to give her an easy ride into college and that plan had failed. What did words matter now? They didn't. The point was that she'd flunked the test and the class might soon follow. I won't graduate on time if I don't pass that class. She was already two years behind others her age, she really didn't want to be held back another year. She'd dealt with enough humiliation. Nothing Lucy said could help her case now, not when the older blonde was so upset. "You think I care how badly you wanted to pass?" Given her act when she'd been trying to trick the Wind into helping her cheat, it was possible that Lucy might have assumed that Rowena was a decent person. That maybe she was just stressed and that she cared on the inside. That façade, had it existed, would no doubt break with the harsh words. Rowena was not sensitive or selfless. "Cause I don't. You know what I cared about? Myself. Pass-ing." She stressed the syllables separately as if the Wind was hard of hearing.

A laugh that sounded strained, like she was trying to avoid flipping out, burst past her lips. "You've got nerve, don't you?" Lucy had a lot of balls for a timid Wind elemental but instead of garnering respect from the Thunder elemental, it only served to make Rowena even more desperate for revenge. She might not have had the violent temper but she had the desire for vengeance that was common in most of her elemental affiliation. "Oh, how cute are you?" The sarcasm dripped venomously from the words and she took a step forward as Lucy stepped back, not allowing the gap to close. "You know, I might not be that great at Math but I did all right with elemental studies. I guess they're right, it does pay off." The static filled the air and bursts of electricity jumped between her fingers as she lifted her hand.

"Hey! Watch it over there!"

She froze at the scolding tone, a glance down the hall revealing a teacher glaring her down with arms crossed and a stern expression. Pressing her lips together in frustration, Rowena lowered her hand and set her jaw. "Consider yourself lucky that we're in school, Aeris," she spat. The teacher was still watching them closely and Rowena stepped back, not wanting to land herself a detention on top of the trouble that she was already having. How the hell was she going to explain this one to Altair? She respected her older-by-minutes twin a lot and didn't want criticism. "I'd stay away from me from now on if I were you." If she came across the girl when there were no witnesses she had every plan to show her that elemental prowess she'd spoke about. Scowling, Rowena shook her head and then stalked off down the hall in the direction opposite the teacher.

[It can end here or you can post again?]