[Closed RP for Claire] English was never so interesting

[geekboy_sammy]

Sam and Dean parted ways so they could go teach their respective classes. He found room 213 fairly easily. The classroom had a few students in it already but it wasn't anywhere near full, something he was grateful for as he walked in. He shifted the backpack on his shoulder, realizing that maybe it wasn't the best idea. It made him look a little

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[geekboy_sammy]

"Absolutely," Sam nodded. "Valium's heyday was in the sixties and seventies. It got a nickname 'mother's little helper' and was prescribed to a lot of women for emotional problems." He paused, watching the blond for a moment before looking back out to the rest of the class.

"I don't know if Plath had a prescription for valium or if she was taking something illegal but I was sort of talking about something else. Odder things...weirder things. Something that could give us an explanation for why Plath might have done this or why anyone might do this."

"Like depression?" A guy in the middle asked. Sam shrugged in response. "Maybe?" he responded.

"But not everyone who does that is depressed," the guy countered.

"True," Sam nodded. "So if it's not drugs or depression what else could it be? Maybe something weirder. Do you all read Stephen King? Since we're not talking about Sleepy Hollow and I need to do something or I'll never get hired again, imagine this is a Stephen King novel. What would it be? Call it creative brainstorming. I can put that on my lesson plans."

[thecheerleader]

Claire was relieved when other people started joining in. They'd probably like the idea of talking about Stephen King more than Sylvia Plath. Mr. Ramone was finally getting on track with some kind of discussion. She couldn't tell what he was getting at, but other people seemed to be interested.

"Maybe the devil made her do it!" Eddie White suggested jokingly. His comment was met with a few laughs, and Claire couldn't help but smile.

"Possession," she added. "If Stephen King needed a reason, he might like that one."

[geekboy_sammy]

"Maybe he did," Sam smiled at the kid and nodded. The blond's comment made his attention snap to her with probably a look entirely too intense for the conversation. His expression softened and he nodded.

"Right. He would use possession. But possession has signs. At least it does in all the movies and books. Things like flickering lights, people acting out of character even before they do anything major, black eyes, the smell of sulfur. Flinching at the Latin name of God. So if, hypothetically, we were in a Stephen King novel, we'd have to have a hero. That hero would have to notice things happening around the school Things he might have seen. Anything weird happening here that the hero could pick up on? Or would King have to give up on Costa Verde has a location and move somewhere else?"

[thecheerleader]

Claire noticed Mr. Ramone's reaction to her idea of demonic possession. It was like she'd said something wrong at first, but then he looked like he caught himself and calmed down for her sake. She hadn't really meant anything by it, other than to add in something that she thought the author would like. No one else in the class had been bothered by it, but Claire was going to keep her mouth shut for a few minutes. She knew she'd touched on something they probably weren't supposed to, and even though she didn't know why, she knew to stay quiet for a while.

[geekboy_sammy]

The kids were quiet again and the blond in the front row looked like she was shutting up for good, which was bad. She'd gotten them to talk in the first place.

"Nothing?" Sam asked.

Some kid shrugged and said "You mean besides seven suicides in two weeks? Two of them being teachers?"

Sam half shrugged because the kid had a point. "Okay, so we're writing our book and right now there's nothing weird going on at the school. Let's go with this idea of possession for just a minute. Whatever is possessing the people has to be able to move from person to person pretty easily. Were the kids all close? Did they hang out at the same places or do the same things? Entities can move through a lot of different means. Touch, water, certain words or phrases, songs, things like that."

[thecheerleader]

Claire was surprised someone else hadn't gotten upset by the conversation yet. She was still the new girl. She didn't have a lot of friends, and while had been in gym class and homeroom with Katie Ashton, they hadn't talked much. The news of Katie's death had surprised her, mostly because Katie had been so friendly and open and well, happy, but she didn't like to think about it too much. Death was so final for everyone but her, it made her feel kind of sick.

She sat back and listened to the class talk about possession, wondering if Mr. Ramone still thought she was strange for suggesting that one. She wanted to tell him she didn't have a clue as to what she was talking about and she wasn't one of those weird kids that hated everyone, but what was the use? He'd probably be gone tomorrow and another sub would be battling against the class for a discussion.

[geekboy_sammy]

It took anyone a few moments to respond. It was a hard subject. Finally another girl said something.

"Kind of? Like three of the kids were Emo so no one was really surprised. And then it was a teacher and then Katie who didn't hang out with any of the Emo's. She hung out with the popular kids and now...it's just all over," the girl said the last a little quietly. "There wasn't a common factor."

Sam nodded, giving the room a moment before he said anything else. "There was. There's always a common factor. I just haven't found it yet."

He bit his bottom lip and scanned the class. "I mean...we haven't. For the Stephen King book we're writing today. So it's a common factor that's easily over looked, maybe something that you wouldn't notice or something so broad that everyone shares it."

[thecheerleader]

Claire looked up at Mr. Ramone when he said he hadn't found the "common factor" he was talking about. There was something about the way he'd said it that made her think he was serious and that it was more than just a slip up. He looked like he was worried about them, but that could have meant anything. Everyone kept talking about how bad they felt for the students and faculty, it was all over the newspapers.

To Claire, the hard part was in not being able to help anyone. She was never around when it happened, and by the time the news leaked to the school, it was too late to do anything. She was starting to think that it was fate, especially after her mother's lecture on playing God.

But what was the use of having her ability if she couldn't help anyone with it?

[geekboy_sammy]

The girl shrugged and glanced around at the class. "Well...I guess we all go to Costa Verde is too broad of a common factor?"

Sam nodded and stood up to start pacing again. He raked a hand through his hair as he paced. "Probably. The point is to eliminate some people so that we can figure out why they aren't being targeted while the others are. We're assuming at this point it's something being done to the kids...for the sake of our story...rather then something they're doing precisely. Like the possession," he nodded at the blond in the front row. "So we need a common factor that gives us a lead or that would give our reader a lead as to what's going on."

[thecheerleader]

"What about a school event or something?" Claire asked, raising her hand again. She still had a lot of questions about why someone would want to have this discussion with a classroom of grieving high school students, but it was a thought. It probably didn't have anything to do with their lives or what was actually happening.

"If they don't have anything else in common, then they're all usually at the same place at the same time in most books," she added, just for the sake of explaining herself.

[geekboy_sammy]

"That's a good idea," Sam nodded at the blond. "Maybe they were all at some big school football game or a dance? Have you guys had Prom yet? Or maybe they were all in some kind of activity together. It doesn't even have to be all of them. All it takes is one person that knows all of them for it to jump from person to person."

[thecheerleader]

Claire nodded at Mr. Ramone's comment and looked down at her notebook. The page was empty because he hadn't given them anything to take notes on, this was just another thing she didn't know how to contribute to. Social circles were pretty well defined in Costa Verde, but she knew that there were some kids who drifted between groups and ended up being well liked by everyone. They were a little more open to that than they'd been in Texas.

She also didn't say anything because she doubted anyone was supposed to be naming names. Even if someone had been friends with everyone, that didn't mean they'd wanted their friend to die. It probably meant the exact opposite. No one would appreciate being called out for having friends, so even if she'd noticed a connection, she couldn't say anything there. She doubted there was anyone in the classroom who felt different about that, they were all starting to get a little protective of each other because of how frequently the suicides were happening.

[geekboy_sammy]

Sam watched the class for a moment then nodded. It was obvious they weren't reay to start naming names and that was okay. He didn't necessarily expect them to.

"Okay...so what major events have you guys had around here? Things that everyone might have discussed or gotten excited about?"

[thecheerleader]

Claire thought about this question for a minute, trying to think of something that might fit with what Mr. Ramone was talking about. They hadn't had a lot of major events since Debbie had ended up in the newspaper for the prank she'd pulled with West. Everyone had apparently decided to reschedule things after that so the school wouldn't get a reputation, and then this had happened.

"Football games," Oliver suggested. He was on the team, it wasn't a surprise.

"We had a dance last month," Allie offered.

"That assembly on drunk driving," Jennifer added.

Claire hesitated for a moment. She felt like she was talking too much, but she did think of one thing they hadn't mentioned. "Local rock shows," she said finally, doodling a swirl at the top of her blank notebook page.

[geekboy_sammy]

Sam grabbed a notebook out of his backpack and scribbled those things down then nodded. He looked back up at the class and smiled at them. "Okay. Good. Those are all great ideas." He rubbed his forehead a moment, thinking. They were almost out of time.

"Uhm...alright for homework, provided I'm actually here tomorrow which I plan on being...I want you to think about some books. Mysteries...things like that and then come back and we'll talk more about it."

[thecheerleader]

Claire wrote down the word "mysteries" at the top of her page, but it really wasn't homework. She'd read a bunch of Nancy Drew books when she was younger because someone had told her she looked like Nancy. She was familiar with how those books were written. If Mr. Ramone wanted to talk about them, she could probably offer up some things if she had to. She might be able to get through a class without raising her hand if other people wanted to talk though, and if she could, she would. Being the one to start the substitute's lecture wasn't the best way to fit in, and she knew it. Once again, she was just bad at being anything but herself.