Bringin' Da Anger [JD]

[Andi Thalis]

It has started so innocent, a social class discussion you needed to attend in order to graduate. She had been at every one of them since she had come here, but this year, she had been home with a family emergency, and when she had come back…the saying “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” wouldn’t even begin to lighten the dark cloud hanging over her head. It had been a few weeks ago, but now…everyone avoided her.

She had been sitting in class when the damnation came, a favor from her professor after class had ended. “Jonah Paerson hasn’t been to class lately, and he’s missing assignments,” her teacher had explained to her, handing her a folder filled with papers. “Please go to the boys’ dorms and give these to him. Inside is a written note of consent for you to be there and give these to him. Please, don’t waste time simply because he helped LaRousse with the whole sex ed thing.”

Great, even their teacher knew about the pictures of her and Lukas.

She walked quickly across the courtyard from the classrooms, flashed the note to the person sitting at the front door, and quickly located JD’s room. Her anger was boiling over, simply because she was helping the boy who had ultimately destroyed her good mood for the past few weeks. She knocked sharply on the door, shifting in her boots as she held the folder to her chest. If he was in there sulking, she’d make the door explode, detention be damned.

“Jonah! I know you’re in there!” she said angrily, keeping her voice down to not attract unwanted attention. “Open the door!”

[JD Paerson]

He'd thought he'd gotten rid of all the unwanted visitors. After summarily kicking Zac out the door--and he was still smarting from that--who else could possibly want to come by? Was it Robbie? Except that he'd been moping around too, and the chances that he would stop by JD's dorm were slim.

But the voice at the door was female, and JD didn't really recognize who was there. So he got up and pulled on a pair of jeans, removed the chair jammed under the doorknob, and opened the door.

He didn't exactly recognize the girl standing there, though she seemed to be about his age. They probably had a class together. He glanced down at the folder she was clutching to her...chest. It looked like homework. He continued staring at it, hoping that she would just hand him the folder and go away.

Eventually, he held out his hand. "Thanks," he said. And maybe she'd take the hint. And leave. Right now. Because he really wasn't in the mood for talking to anyone.

[Andi Thalis]

It took a moment, but he finally opened the door, and she had to blink for a moment. She had never really seen him from the front, since she sat behind him in class, and in doing so now, some of her anger faded. His grey eyes were dull, like he was lifeless, and he was shirtless, which gave her a good look at his chest. He was certainly in shape, to say in the least, but she knew that he wouldn’t be able to do anything so long as his power was suppressed.

His hand came out and beckoned her to give him the folder, and she remembered the reason she was out here. “Now hold on a second,” she said sternly, putting the folder away from his reach. “You helped Zac and Mia with that stupid stunt in the sex ed seminar. What in the hell were you thinking?” she demanded angrily, not really caring that he probably didn’t want to hear her rant. She was pissed, and she would talk to him.

“Didn’t you think about all the people that would be embarrassed by what they did, or the emotions that would be hurt?” she continued, now speaking from the heart. “Hell, I was in that stupid slideshow Mia oh so conveniently put on the screen behind Professor Neville. Are you so stupid to do something like that?” The folder started glowing with the force of her anger, a sure sign to the boy that her volatile emotions would threaten to destroy his homework if he didn’t do something.

[JD Paerson]

No, it wasn't going to be that simple. Someone else wanted to talk to him. So JD dropped his hand and let out a sigh through his nose as he waited for the speech to be over.

"You're right. I wasn't thinking. Can I have my homework now?"

Ah, but she wasn't done. So JD stopped and waited for the rest of the argument. Her appearance in the slide show explained some things, like her anger over the whole mess.

"Sorry you were hurt," he said, monotone. "But honestly, I wasn't that big a part of it. Not only did I not plan the actual slideshow, but I also didn't say whose pictures were in it, and I didn't even see it. I was out of the room. If you were offended by the rain of sex objects that came afterward, fine. Get mad. That was almost entirely my fault. But the actual slide show? I've been getting enough punishment from that already, don't you think?"

He'd completely missed the fact that his homework might actually be in danger. He was just getting sick of all the lectures, and he hadn't quite gotten all of his ranting out earlier.

[Andi Thalis]

His voice…did he not feel anything at all? That only made her angrier, and the glow of the folder in her hand brightened considerably. Only when she pushed past the angry buzzing in her ears did she actually listen to his explanation. With every word spoken, her anger faded a bit, the glow of the folder diminishing. Was he telling the truth, or spouting a lie just to make her go away? The girl knew how to lie, it was a skill, but what she heard from him was the plain truth.

Now she felt like a fool.

“I…I’m sorry, Jonah,” she said, her voice softer this time, her angry stance relaxing into something of forgiveness. “I was wrong to yell at you. I didn’t hear the whole story, and I jumped to conclusions.” She looked up at him with her green hazel eyes, stark forgiveness in those mixed pools. “I am sorry for yelling at you.” She looked away as she handed him his folder, feeling utterly ashamed. She felt jittery, like she needed to run away from this situation, and it didn’t sit well with her. She felt horrible for what she had done to him.

“I hope I didn’t make things worse,” she mumbled softly and turned to leave.

[JD Paerson]

"Don't worry about it," JD said, extending his hand again for the homework. "It's JD, by the way. Only my mom really calls me 'Jonah' anymore." He absently flicked through the assignments.

Looking back up at Andi, he realized that she was quite upset and ashamed. And part of him knew that he should care more about this, but he wasn't sure he could really be bothered.

"No, you didn't do anything. You were upset, I get it. Besides, it's harder for everything to get worse unless you had actually hit me or something." He shrugged.

"Thanks for the homework. Good luck in class." He'd gone straight from his rant back into monotone, trying to shove all emotion away from him again. "And I really hope that the prank didn't hurt you too much."

He turned back to his empty room only to fall onto the bed and stare at the ceiling some more.