[open/active] No more emotion, nor a trace And so you beg for her to stay

[truewhitequeen]

Characters: Lara, Fletcher, anyone, everyone
Location:  Lara's office, and hallway outside said office.
Time:  School hours, all week
Format: Flexible, prose or brackets
Content: Lara's usual. Counseling. Emotional manipulation.
Warnings: Beware of Lara.

Comments

[phytokinesis]

Fletcher had spent Tuesday getting re-acclimated with the school and trying to settle back in, but he was still unable to cheer up. Without really thinking about it, he found himself wandering toward Lara Raith's office.

He stopped when he saw that the door was already open. He hadn't actually thought about coming here, but he must have had a reason for it.

Even though the door was open, Fletcher reached in and knocked on it anyway. "Hello...?"

[truewhitequeen]

The reports sent by her office in Chicago were not much to Lara's liking, and she'd filled at least two pages of the notepad with possible business plans. That had been enough to block out most of her emotional awareness, but the knock on the door, and the soft, familiar voice cut through all of it, and she set the pen down.

"Fletcher?" she asked, letting pleasure flow into her voice at the sight of the boy. She rose from her seat and waved him in. "I heard you were back! Are you settling back in?"

[phytokinesis]

Fletcher stepped into the office and waved shyly to Lara. "Um... I'm all right, Ms. Lara. Thank you." But his voice wasn't in it, and he didn't meet her eyes as he spoke.

[truewhitequeen]

The Brotherhood's arrival had caused more than its share of upheaval, and even now Lara could feel the ripples of the group's passing on the student body if she looked for them. "Won't you have a seat with me?" she asked, with an encouraging smile as she got up and shut the door. She was careful not to mention the Brotherhood and, when she spoke, an outsider could only have assumed the young boy had been on a trip, perhaps an extended field trip. "I'm glad to see you're back, Fletcher. The school hasn't been the same without you."

[past_returns]

Jeremie knocked quietly on the door of the counselor's office. He'd been seeing a psychologist off-campus, but with the man moving his practice farther away to be closer to his family, it meant Jeremie would need to find someone else.

So to the school shrinks he went.

"Miss Raith?" he called nervously.

[truewhitequeen]

The knot of nervous anxiety hovering outside her door wasn't someone Lara was familiar with, but then she had hardly met all the students in the school. The voice was unfamiliar too, but that was hardly a surprise. She put away the notepad she'd been writing on and closed the emailed business report she'd been reading. The family business could wait another hour.

"Come in," she answered pleasantly, the faintest hint of laughter in her voice. "The door's open."

[past_returns]

Jeremie opened the door and took a step into her office but didn't let go of the doorknob.

"I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you," he apologized immediately. He paused, remembering that she probably didn't know him. "Um...my name's Jeremie Belpois."

[truewhitequeen]

Whether she recognized the name or not, Lara greeted every student that walked into her office with the same inviting smile. "Not at all, Mr. Belpois," she answered smoothly, rising from her seat. She gestured to the two comfortable looking armchairs in front of her desk. "Would you like to have a seat and a cup of tea?"

Lara liked to start things off slow, letting that inherent nervousness that most of the students approached with ebb before they got down to business. It also gave them something to fidget with, which helped. Sometimes.