Wrong Kind of Company

[Lucy Serrano]

Admittedly, Lucy had only been to the school a few times in her adult life. She remembered so little of it from her high school days, and the first time she had wandered the halls looking for a certain someone, nothing had jogged her memory in the slightest. High school was, for the most part, something to forget about the second it was behind a person. Recollection was for primarily for people who found themselves far too stuck in their proverbial high school career. Sometimes, that was as bright as a person's name got in life.

There was one particular room Lucy knew how to get to. In the half-empty handful of times she'd been here, she'd always made it to the same place without much difficulty. Her name was on the books as a fabled girlfriend to a relatively non-existent English teacher, so she never struggled getting by. She knew where the English classroom was.

She just didn't know that there was more than one. And with that, more than one teacher.

With confident steps - the natural progression whenever she moved - she found herself standing at that familiar door. Instincts told her to just open it, because she'd done it before and it had always worked well enough for her. Given the students  trickling through the hallways and the almost alarming bell that rang the halls not too long ago, she knew she'd timed everything perfectly. It should be lunch, by now.

So she raised a hand to the closed door of the near-empty classroom, placing a few knocks in tandem against the surface, either to be let in or called inward accordingly.

[Bell Connelly]

Bell’s hair simply didn’t want to behave today.

Of course that wasn’t saying much. Bell’s signature bright curly red hair had been nothing short of a monster unwilling to be tamed by Bell in any shape of the word, she;s been in a constant battle with it since as far as she could remember. Take now for instants. She was currently sitting at her desk, her trusty marker at her side at the moment grading papers. -She was spending her lunch in her office again, these days it seemed to have become something of a tradition for her to spend time away from the rest of the staff- But this task was proving increasing more difficult when a stray lock of hair insisted on falling down between her eyes, Bell had tried to swipe it back into place several times over but it simply refused to cooperate.

Sometimes Bell lamented girls with fabled straight hair…..They must have it so very easy……

Bell’s thought were interrupted by the sounds of her door being knocked on “Yes? The door’s open please come in”

[Lucy Serrano]

Patience was a virtue Lucy had never really been known for. Standing on the other side of a door for seconds when she could have just tried to open it was proof of that; she already felt the way pressure seemed to rise in her head over her own actions. Why waste time for the sake of, what? Politeness? That voice wasn't the one she remembered. Certainly not the one she expected.

But there was a door to be opened, regardless. So she opened it.

A brief double take and she was sure to check the allocated classroom. It was a quick enough action, but one that might have warranted questioning all the same. It was rare to look lost, but even if she'd gone to high school here, there were still things easily forgotten. "Sorry, I was looking for someone." Lucy admitted then, though the words passed her lips almost absently. Like it didn't really matter that she was lost.

And then she gave a spare glance to the nature of the desk she was sitting at, eyebrows raising with some kind of understanding; "Grading over lunch?" Lucy had to ask. What was it with the teachers here and doing that?

[Bell Connelly]

Bell honestly did prefer working in solitude more then anything else, it was far more calm, she could do it in her own time and she didn’t feel as nearly pressurized as she might have done if she was around other people. She didn’t even mind working in the dark, darkness didn’t really bother her either. Darkness meant to absence of people, and at the same time the problem they sometimes insisted on creating, so she found the lack of people the best kind of environment to have when working….

That wasn’t to say she was excluding herself, and she was more than willing to share her time with company, so she wasn’t perturbed at all when the door opened to review someone standing there she looked up blinking with a warm smiling face directed towards the door encouraging the woman to step inside putting down her pen carefully. “Oh not at all, please come in I was just done anyway” Shoving her papers away and folding her hands in her lap and shrugging “My time organizational skills leaves a lot to be designed-Oh, I’m Bell by the way”

[Lucy Serrano]

Encouragement lined an unfamiliar expression, and Lucy had to wonder why anyone would ever be so friendly towards a complete stranger. Perhaps she had the novelty of being labeled a visitor to thank for the fact that her presence had to be noted.

And really, who could ignore the subtle hints from a face that looked like that?

Leaving the doorway, the ink manipulator allowed her eyes to traverse the room instead, noting the familiar things that reminded her she wasn’t wrong in where she stood. She exhaled a small, practically polite laugh at the way she spoke of her own organisational skills.

“I bet that makes a life outside here a bit difficult.” She reasoned with a light shrug, “Or maybe that’s why you’re grading at your desk now instead.” Because time outside of designated school hours really should have been used for greater things. Why waste it on a stack of papers? “I’m Lucy. Serrano.” She added, and once in such distance, she extended her hand out, “And I can’t be much better at organisation if I’m in the wrong room.”

[Bell Connelly]

…..Well….why wouldn’t she be friendly to a stranger? that would be the question Bell would ask the stranger if she felt the need to ask her that question. After all, she was a stranger and therefore has given Bell no reason not to welcome her to the office, not that she would treat her any less if they did have a less than positive encounter Bell would of course be as nice as nice could be to her, but until then, Bell’s philosophy went the same as that old song

“ A stranger’s just a friend you haven’t met”

“...A vibrant social life, fortunately for me, is not a prerequisite for being an english teacher….Lucky for me she shrugged before a pleasantly surprised expression hit her features “Oh, yes! I know you. You’re the artist aren't you” Bell asked softly removing an idly lock of bright red hair out of her eyes