Butting Heads (Zaeric)

[Vincent Romanov]

Several days had passed since the episode at the pond involving Zaeric and Sidra, but the moment was still fresh in Vincent's mind. Zaeric had had time to recover in the infirmary from the fatigue he had suffered from pushing himself beyond his limits and Vincent had had time to gather his thoughts and curb his anger. Disrespect of authority figures was one thing Vincent did not tolerate at Hammel, especially when said authority figure was him. The usual verbal berating generally slid off his back and Vincent was pretty lenient with the punishment which usually followed those incidents, but Zaeric had crossed a line. He had assaulted a fellow student willingly and with malice and then turned that attack onto a security officer. It was a serious offense and one which had to be dealt with quickly and with serious consequences. Zaeric had to be made an example of unless the other students started thinking they could get away with similar actions.

Sitting at his desk, his computer on and opened to the personal file of Zaeric Blackwood, Vincent stared blankly at the young man seated on the other side of the desk. Vincent was sitting back in his chair, his hands resting on the chair's arms. Silence filled the room save for the ambient muffled sounds occasionally heard from outside. Five minutes had already passed since Zaeric had entered the room and taken his seat, both Vincent and the young man saying nothing to each other. This moment would no doubt run quickly out of control if not handled correctly, then again, maybe letting Zaeric run out of control might be what Vincent wanted.

Throwing the kid out on his butt was an amusing idea, but an outcome Vincent wasn't always fond of pursuing. Hammel was here to help these kids, even the ones who made trouble. There were time though, when getting rid of the bad seeds was the best option, however, Vincent wasn't ready to label Zaeric as a bad seed. The kid was hot headed and had a chip on his shoulder, just like some other kid Vincent seemed to remember. Hammel hadn't given up on Vincent back in his day, even though he had done enough share of starting fights to get himself kicked out ten times over and so in return, Vincent wasn't going to give up on any kid if he could help himself.

"Assault on another student, using your powers in a malicious and violent manner and finally assaulting a member of the security staff," Vincent finally said, laying out the charges against Zaeric. "I've got enough here to have you put on lock down the rest of your time here at Hammel. Heck, I've got enough to probably get you expelled if I pushed the matter," he said, never taking his eyes of Zaeric. "I'm gonna give you a chance though son. Convince me why I shouldn't bring down the full extent of punishment on you," Vincent said, his eyes darting over to the computer screen to look at Zaeric's case file one more time.

[Zaeric Blackwood]

He had been out for at least a full day before he was properly awake for more than five seconds. Of course, that tended to happen when you decided to take on a teacher [much less a security guard] no matter of training would get him out of this trouble. All of yesterday he had spent his waking time reviewing in his mind what had happened. How had the fight with Fang girl even escalated to where it had been? It was hot. That's what it was. He hadn't been able to think straight at the time because he had just been so irritable. It had started out with music and gone far beyond that. The thing was, he hadn't hurt Sidra. Ya, made it her wet, mighta ruined some clothes, but he hadn't hurt her. And the whole thing had been slightly amusing upto a point.

It was when Vincent had gotten involved things had gone bad. He had felt so strong making that ice wall, but....it was a wall. Only after that when he had actually tried to hurt someone had he gone wrong, really wrong. He had figured that out too. Well, he wasn't exactly a person you wanted to piss off and make competitive.

Zaer took a breath in as Vincent lay down what was happening. There was a possibility he was going to get kicked out of Hammel. At best this guy would watch him forever and ever. That was not fun. He chewed his lip, uncharacteristically nervous. Who wouldn't be. He didn't really know what to say to convince anyone that he should stay. What could he say?

" Umm, well, I like Hammel and I still need training. I'd have to go to one of the other school on a different continent." That was one good reason to stay. He wasn't sure what else. Was he really going to be expelled? He couldn't imagine it. Hammel was relatively close to home. If he had to go somewhere else.....it would be so far away.

" I've never done anything before except skip class here and there. That's a plus right?" Zaer was not so sure inside though, and it showed slightly. He was scared.

[Vincent Romanov]

Zaeric wasn't exactly convincing in his list of reasons to stay at Hammel. They were textbook answers and his tone lacked the heart Vincent was looking for. Zaeric had been so defiant and so sure of himself the other day during the confrontation with Vincent and it was sort of disappointing to see that fire quenched now. The new found show of respect to Vincent was welcome, but the boy seemed unemotional so to speak. Vincent never took his eyes off the computer screen as he listened to Zaeric, his interest growing weaker with each unemotional word. The one thing which Zaeric was right about, was his lack of any real offenses in his file. A few detentions for skipping class and other minor offenses. Fighting seemed out of place for Zaeric, but Vincent had learned that women could have a very odd effect on men, no matter their age. It seemed Sidra had pushed Zaeric's buttons and then when Vincent came along, things just got out of hand.

Letting out another sigh, Vincent finally looked at Zaeric as the boy finished. "Your lucky your record has only a few minor offenses in it or you might be finding yourself out the front gate. Before your punishment is decided though Zaeric, I want to know just what got into you out there. I know what you did to me I deserved, I pushed you to that point on purpose. However, what did Sidra do to you to deserve the things you did to her. Your clearly stronger than her, both physically and as far as you meta ability goes. I'm no head shrink but nothing in your files suggests you've got a bully complex so that leaves a very large unanswered question for me. I don't like bullies and I really don't like liars, so let's take the honest route here. You be straight with me and I might cut you some slack on the assault of a security officer charge," Vincent said, clasping his hands together in front of him. He let out a long slow sigh through his nose as he narrowed his eyes, sizing up Zaeric once again. He was reading the boy's body language, something which Vincent was pretty good at. War had taught him how to read his enemy and while he wasn't trying to be Zaeric's enemy here, they were both on opposite sides right now.

[Zaeric Blackwood]

What was he supposed to say? Honestly, Zaer could take about five seconds and tell Vincent exactly why everything had happened, but when Zaeric thought about it he realized exctly how ridiculous it was. He couldn't blame the weather for his outburst and expect the security man to believe him, no matter how truthful it was. It sounded ridiculous even now when he thought about it. One bad day had allowed him to be pushed into doing something he had never done before. He had never attacked another student efore other than in training, and that wasn't really an attack, just practice. He had never attacked a staff member before, and wasn't proud of doing it either. He sighed and sunk into his chair, not sure what to do in this situation. It seemed pretty hopeless right now.

" It was a bad day for me. That's how it started. Sometimes my temper fluctuates with the weather, and it was very very hot that day. I don't do so well with hot. I went outside to relax and try to come down and found Little Miss...." he stopped himself from caller her Fang girl or Gothica, "....Cotton sitting there. It started as sort of a musical challenge and went from there. To be fair enough she did start it by shoving me in the pond. I just...I don't know. I was in a sort of dark humor that day I guess." Zaer knew that was a weak exscuse. Even though Sidra had attacked him first by shoving him in the pond he could have stopped and not soaked her. But he hadn't intended on hurting her. Just a wave. With a few fish. Jeeze, I hope I didn't kill any of those damned fish. He looked away from Vincent.

Zaer looked out the window, trying to think of somehting else to say. Nothing else was coming to mind. He didn't want to leave Hammel when he was so close to graduating. If he had to go overseas to just finish his meta education as well as his high school education..well..things wouldn't end well for him most likely.