Seeing that the...person was talking to him, Duncan said "Yeah, I have. Blizzard really came out of now ware." Since he didn't have to walk home any more Duncan peeled the leather jacket off, feeling that it was getting too hot. As he finished Duncan heard, much to his embarrassment, his stomach growl loudly since he hadn't eaten lunch today. Looking at the little person, Duncan said "Well I guess I will see you around, I gotta get some food. Names Duncan by the way." While presenting his hand for a friendly handshake.

Alice ran until she found what was referred to as the 'Forbidden Door'. Everyone, Ben the teachers, called it that.

If there were teachers anywhere, they most certainly wouldn't be here in a crisis. Hopefully. If even one was here, it would prove that some teachers just don't give any more fucks to give.

Alive took a deep breath and slowly cracked open the door.

The rancid smell of day-old coffee and printer ink filled her nose. Alice pinched her nose in disgust, fighting off the smell.

"How can they stand the smell in here?" The student asked herself as she walked into the teachers' lounge.

It was as crappy as she imagined it. Two coffee makers, one shitty couch with butt marks all over it, three old arm chairs with coffee stains, and one printer that looked to be from the early 2000s. A pathatic little TV sat on a cheap wood stand against the wall. A teacher's natural habitat.

"Jesus, you think with all the money the school has, they'd mate pare a buck or two to the teachers."

There were a lot of rumors about this room. Some freshmen said the teachers hung their last favorite students by their toes for a whole day in this room if the TV stopped working. Some juniors claimed that all the honor's kids got free passes to get coffee any time they wanted. A few 10th graders once almost broke into there. Rumor has it they would have drawn dicks all over the walls if they got in. Principal walked right by just as they started picking the lock.

According to all the senior girls, Mrs. Callie fucked Mr. Jay in it.

Alice didn't know why the hell they'd want to get it on in school, but hey, go figure.

She stepped over the threshold. No teacher here. Alice walked over to the cheap counter with the coffee makers. A little frige was huddling next inbetween the wall and counter. She opened it and found a tub of lasagna and a few cokes.

"Least we have food," she said to herself.

Alice closed the refrigerator door and walked in front of the couch. A big fat sharpy marker sat on one pillow. The freshman smirked as an idea popped in her head.

She grabbed the marker and started drawing all over the walls. After a few minutes, she backed away to view her master piece.

Dicks of all shapes and sizes covered the walls. Alice smirked and laughed. She ran out and started screaming.

"No rules no rules no rules!" She yelled and laughed as she drug the tip of therarker against the walls and lockers.

“I was actually heading toward the cafeteria, care to join?” Esther asked casually, thinking it would probably be safer in numbers in case other students who were trapped would get a little crazy. Certainly with all this freedom people may go a little overboard and probably end up drawing penises all over the walls. It probably would be best to establish some sort of order, but then again, Esther couldn’t care any less about picking a leader or even acknowledging someone as leader.

Esther glanced down and noticed Duncan, as he introduced, had put a hand out for a handshake. Oh goodie, physical contact. They responded by not returning the gesturing but instead poking his hand lightly with a finger, making the touching as limited as possible. “Yeah, no sorry. Esther,” They replied, continuing their way toward the lunchroom and if the big guy wanted he could go the same way if he wanted.

Sighing, Harper lowered her hand almost fast enough to slap her thigh. No signal, her dad hoping she was safe for the night...Hopefully detention wasn't canceled - for her sake - and those hooligans might still be here because she definitely didn't want to find out she was alone in the high school. If Daddy was hoping she was safe, that meant the storm really was as bad as they had said it would be; at the very least, she didn't have a way to get home. Either he would tell Victor to stay wherever he was, or worse - she realized as her heart picked up the pace and a coldness settled into her gut and along her spine - he might be stuck in his car somewhere; hopefully it was the former and not the latter. And hopefully Walker was still in the school, if detention just let out. The phone slipped into her back pocket and she pulled on her backpack to go off exploring.

She hadn't even noticed anyone else in the auditorium - after all she only had the stage lights on for doing her work so a good portion of the seating was pretty dark. It was when the music abruptly started that she even looked up. It took a moment to located the source of the song, but when she did it was to spot a guy...wait, not just a guy - that was the new kid that just started school this year, and he kind of looked like a deer trapped in blinding headlights. Despite the half a second held breath, her brain still went to one place: the thought of 'poor thing'. She was just about to open her mouth and say something along the lines of 'hi' or 'do you know if they had detention today?' when the guy abruptly left.

The backpack slung onto a shoulder, Harper jogged up the aisle. Worse case scenario, it was just the two of them. Regardless - she definitely didn't want to be trapped in school all alone, especially if someone else was around. Not that she was afraid of the dark - no, because she was too old for that obviously - or bad storms - because Storm of the Century hadn't caused her nightmares for a while about being stranded somewhere - but just, the school was so big and what if the power went out and what if they lost heat...plus she didn't really like having to be alone if it wasn't her choice. "Hey, wait a moment," she shouted as she got to the door and pushed it open. Her gaze searched the halls - to the left, to the right, straight ahead - in hopes the new boy hadn't gotten too far. Because absolutely worse case scenario - she could talk him into at least hanging out around her even if they didn't talk. She just really didn't want to be trapped anywhere alone; she may not have known how bad it was outside just yet, but if her dad wanted her to be inside somewhere safe - it meant she had no way home tonight.

With the pitiful excuse of a handshake over with Duncan assumed that the person has touching issues, and with a name like Esther he is now just going to assume that it is a she. Anyway, Duncan liked her thinking. With a cheery tone, Duncan said "Yeah, cafeteria sounds good. Since the powers still on than the ovens should still be working." With that knowledge in mind the two walked in the direction of the cafeteria, on a quest of food.

Duncan may not know much about a lot of things, like geometry or biology but he did now how to cook. Not that there will be much to cook, just some frozen pizzas, hamburgers, fries, tater tots, and maybe taco salad. No spices, seasonings, or raw ingredients, which was a shame really... he could go for some cupcakes. Shaking off the thought, Duncan started to hum his favorite song as the pair made their way to the lunch room.

The more the girl inside the room spoke, the more familiar her voice became. Walker squinted his eyes to see in the darkness of the room and started to catch the shape of her face from the light on her phone. The light went out, but figured out who he was looking at. His eyes widened a fraction and his hand formed a fist to knock on the door, but the unexpected drawl coming from behind him startled him.

He whipped around and looked over the guy with wide eyes. "Hey, man," He said, perhaps sounding a little too friendly in his surprise. He tried to be subtle and move so he was standing in front of the window on the door, blocking Odie's view of it. A smile broke the thinly veiled surprise on his expression.

"Yeah, I mean, I had detention, so I figured those guys would be around, but I haven't seen anyone either," He admitted convincingly. A little lie never hurt anyone. Well, usually they ended up backfiring on him, but hopefully this wouldn't be the case. He just needed to give Arden enough time to finish doing whatever she was doing so she wouldn't get caught. Odie was a nice guy, but that was kind of the problem.

Odie nodded slowly, his eyes narrowing just a little bit as Walker seemed a little too surprised....and friendly. When he got pretty friendly, it usualy meant that he was hiding something. But it was probably best not to pry too much into it. The big fella just shrugged and let his backpack fall to the floor, slumping his bulk against the wall and taking a seat.

"Looks like we're snowed in. Probably best be gettin' comfortable or goin' over to the tool storage and gettin' some shovels together." He said almost absently, scratching at a stubbled cheek. He forgot to shave this morning. It was going to bother him all night. "Probably better to stay put, though. Shovelin' snow from the inside of the buildin'...probably ain't a good idea if that Simpsons episode was any indication."

Then he paused, blinking a bit as he looked over at the door Walker seemed to be intent on covering. "...so...uh...who's in there, anyway?"

Don't look back, don't look back, don't look back.

Jorge continued to repeat the mantra in his head, willing his legs, that were now jelly, to move him along the seemingly endless left hallway. He almost made it to the end of the hallway when he heard a voice behind him.

"Hey, wait a moment."

Jorge immediately stopped. He closed his eyes and inwardly groaned. He was almost out of sight. He could have just kept walking and pretended not to hear her. He sighed and chewed on his bottom lip a little before taking one step forward. He could keep going if he really wanted to. Sure, it would have been totally rude, but then again, did he really care? He didn't want to make friends here in the first place. It's not like he was going to talk to them after high school. With another sigh, Jorge turned slowly and faced the girl at the other end of the hallway. He didn't move an inch. He slumped his shoulders a little and just leaned against the wall, defeated. If she wanted to talk to him, she would have to make her way over to him.

The boy shook his head and sighed once more. That was silly. He wasn't an ass, he was raised better. So, with yet another small sigh, he pushed himself away from the wall and started to walk slowly towards the girl. He stopped about ten feet away from the girl and gave her a small, polite smile. "Hello," he said.

Alice laughed as she ran and marked all over the walls. She slowed down to catch her breath and look at the long sharpie mark running along the wall, completely uninterrupted.

"Woohoo!" She shouted and laughed to herself. She regained her energy and breath. The new student looke around their surroundings.

The wall that she had not ruined was painted with music notes and instruments.

"Never been in the music section before," she said to herself.

Alice walked by a few doors before she found one with the label: "Instrument storage"

She hesitated, then thought to herself, fuck it, no one to tell her not to. The student opened the door and stepped inside. The room was just a bit bigger than a janitor's closet, but cramped a bit beyond it's limits. Alive was surprised a bunch of trim bones didn't come tumbling down on her. She reached up and quickly grabbed a trumpet, bracing herself in case of a fall. Now avalanche of hurtful brass instructs poured down on her, so she closed the closet, taking the trumpet with her.

She use to be in band, back in 6th grade, but after a yet of torture from the bitchy instructor, she was done. Alice still remembered how to pull off a few notes.

Alice scrubbed the mouth piece then put her lips to it and blew.

August sighed before seeing dicks drawn on the wall. An immature act, by an immature person. Except, he didn't see the person who was doing it. He thought the said immature person would still be drawing. He then saw a girl with a sharpie in hand, pressing it against the wall as she ran. Well, she saw the culprit. He sighed before hearing a large noise. it sounded much like a trumpet. Was it the girl running with the sharpie? Probably. Most likely. It definitely was, he thought. He knew that all the way down the hall was the music section of the school.

So, he started walking down the hall. He was staring at the long sharpie mark on the wall before running into a locker.

Yeeeeeep.

Alice coughed after blasting the noise of a dead whale out of the trumpet. She scrubbed her tongue and said to herself,"No wonder they threw that shit away, it taste like braces and stale gum!"

While she was throwing the trumpet back into the death trap waiting to happen, she heard a foot steps approaching. She turned and saw a large shadow slowly walking around the corner.

"Teacher! Fuck!" She whispered under her breath. She looked around for a quick place to hide but eventually had to settle on the closet. She closed her self inside. "Okay, now just to-woah, wOAH!" Alice tripped and fell into the horn of a tuba. She slumped inside of it against her will while a trombone caught a strand of her hair.

"Fuck!" She said. Alice quickly covered her mouth when she remembered the teacher outside.

Please pass by, please pass by, please please pass by

"No wonder they threw that shit away, it taste like braces and stale gum!"

That's what August heard. It sounded like it was from the Instrument room, or somewhere nearby. "Ouch." He said, before looking in- what he thought- the direction which the voice came from. Why would there be anyone in that room, anyways? It's not like there was a ton of people that were actually interested in music class, at least that's what he would think. He just thought music class wasn't that great any more. I mean, in like 4th grade or so, it was fun, but that was about 6 or 7 years ago? So, as expected he grew over that. The statement that he just heard was actually very true. Trumpets do taste quite awful. That must be why music teachers don't let you eat them, I guess.

"WOAH!"

Okay, that was a loud scream. And it was very close by for him to hear it. He didn't know where it was coming from. I mean, there was the Instruments storage room. But there also was a bunch of other places where she could be.

"Maybe it was my imagination." August said to himself before walking back to where he came from, still looking at the lines on the wall and the dicks on the lockers in front of him. "Who drew these, then?" He asked nobody in particular. Maybe it was a new person? Probably. If it wasn't, he would've recognized them.

Arden gave a sigh. So, she managed to fuck up two things: Plan to get back before curfew. Check that shit off. Find something of actual value.

Because after she flipped, oh she flipped alright, because the only thing that happened to be in the orange envelopes were either notes or fucking graphs depending on your letter. "Yay! So happy. My phones is at fucking five percent, but at least I have these notes!"

They were proven to be about as useless as the papers, ranging from teachers telling who to check off, to Mr. Lep or Mr. SUA bitching about his star students. Because for some reason, in her seventh and sixth period, she just happened to find anything she felt was of use. Seventh. Parent phone numbers, confiscated notes. Sixth. Next pop quiz date, exactly what it was going to be about, and the first five answers. But no way. Mr. Stick-Up-Ass just managed to be the most useless teacher in the yearbook.

Arden collected her backpack off a desk, and didn't even bother to put anything up. It really wasn't her fault that random pieces of paper were on the floor... Folders were scattered on his desk, and his life-long collection of pens were... How dare she say it? "Either stomped on or sticking out of his chair." She smiled at the idea. Yes, it was little she could do for payback, but it wasn't like she could throw them out of a window.

She imagined him crying about his pens, like he did every time a student gave him a new one. Not really the Mallon type of thing, but, whatever. She hoped the storm wasn't that bad, and moved to the door. That's until she noticed something blocking it from the window.

It took Harper a moment before she finally spotted the boy. If she had been a few seconds longer to get out of the auditorium, she probably would have been shouting to an empty hall. She supposed she had partially expected to be shouting to an empty hall, but luck had it he had stopped. Thank goodness she wasn't going to have to wander the halls alone. Hopefully. That was if he wasn't one of those kids that did his best to ditch hanging out with people.

She started toward the new boy, not caring that he hadn't started approaching for the moment. When he did finally start her way, she stopped a step before he did. A hand reached up and brushed the bangs from her face when they had fallen into it. "Hey," she replied with a soft sigh of relief. "So, I know we don't know each other or anything - I'm Harper, by the way - but, and feel free to say no to this because of that, but so, I was wondering if you'd at least, like, hang out with me?" Hopefully that didn't come off too desperate for company. She wasn't willing to admit being afraid as a reason for wanting to be around someone - much less a cute someone - so she just moved on to the next thing. "Also, do you maybe know if detention happened today?" Because at worst case she at least would know if Walker should be around here somewhere.

Jorge looked down at the short girl and spotted movement. In response, he raised his hand, thinking that the girl wanted to shake hands. That was not the case. While she brushed the bangs from her face, he lowered his hands with a flush red face. He took a small step backwards and sighed softly, mentally kicking himself for being stupid.

You see, Jorge? This is exactly why you should have kept walking. She obviously saw that, and now thinks you're an idiot.

His solemn mood was brightened for a moment, however, as he listened to the girl, who apparently was named Harper, ramble on about wanting company. He smiled for a split second before consciously making his face go straight. He reached up with his right hand and tugged absentmindedly at his left shirt sleeve. Jorge sighed silently as she continued on, and decided to study his new companion. It took him a couple of seconds to register the fact that she had asked him a question - two, in fact.. He shook his head and cleared his throat. "Um. Yeah. Sure. That's fine I guess. And uh, yeah, there was." He paused for a moment and narrowed his eyes in silent thought. Did she know he had detention? Was she a stalker? Obviously not. She was probably waiting for a friend. "I was in there today, got caught doing a.... special favor for a potential friend, this dude named Walker or something." He tilted his head and frowned again. "Speaking of which, I didn't see him in there, they called his name and he wasn't there...." He trailed off and shook his head. "Sorry. Didn't mean to ramble." He side-stepped and walked past the girl, hoping that he wouldn't come off as rude, and hoping that she would follow. "The name is Jorge, by the way."

Harper fought the smile that twitched to grow higher on her face at the raised than being lowered and light flush. It was cute to see a guy flustered, not that she meant to make him flustered - and only assumed she had given off a wrong signal with knocking hair out of her face - but still...It brought her smile back after she was done talking. Especially since he was willing to at least hang out with her. That made this whole potentially getting trapped in school thing a bit better. Aside from hanging out with a cute guy, she at least was going to be able to be around someone and not feel so stranded for a snow storm. It didn't make the chill in her gut go away any, but at least it raised her spirits a bit.

That is, until, he mentioned special favor and Walker in the same sentence. The smile fell slightly and her mouth gaped just a tad. "Oh, oh that was you? Oh man, he felt so bad about that when he heard. He'd never mean for anyone to get detention for him." But if he said Walker wasn't in detention...did that mean he skipped and went home? She tried not to let that thought bring her down. As much as she wanted one of her best friends around her if she was going to be stuck somewhere for a night and it wasn't home with her dad, she supposed finding someone else willing to hang out was a good trade off.

The smile came back to her face when he apologized for rambling. "That's okay," she said. Turning, she moved to follow along with him. After all, Jorge did say he was okay with them hanging out. "So, please don't take this the wrong way, but you're new right? How are you liking it here? Walker accidentally getting you detention not withstanding." After all, if they were going to hang out together, maybe there was a way she could turn this into more than just a 'we're stuck in the school together and may be the only ones here' friendships.

Walker mentally cursed when the Tex began to settled down on the floor. That certainly complicated things. Maybe he could convince him to turn a blind eye. His uncle from Texas did him that kind of a favor every once in a while. After a long lecture, usually.

"Heh. Yeah." Walker got the reference with a fond grin. He often found himself watching reruns late at night when he was feeling restless, but not so restless as to sneak out of the house. Hopefully their situation would parallel the anarchy that ensued in the school of that episode either.

The question shook him out of his thoughts and into stark reality. "What? Oh, I dunno," He shrugged, "I was going by and I thought I saw something in there, but it looks empty, so..." His lie sounded convincing, but his eyes refused to settle on Odie for very long while he said it. "Trick of the light, you know?"

He masked a glance back to the window by scratching the back of his head and froze for a split second when he saw Arden's figure on the other side of the door. His eyes widened a fraction and his mind scrambled for something to do.

"So, um," He started and looked directly at Odie, "Do you wanna hit up a vending machine or something before we set up camp?" Again, he may have sounded completely sincere, but his expression may have seemed a little... insincere.

Jorge waved his hand in a dismissive, but not rude, way. "It really is no problem," he lied. "Things like that happen. It kind of seems like I'm part of the small colored group of kids in this place, so of course security was going to stop and check me." He shook his head a little, but not at what he had just said. He shook his head because, out of all the people in this stupid school, he had to meet a supposed friend of the dude who got him into trouble in the first place. If he was lucky, he wouldn't have to run into him, or anyone else, for that matter.

As soon as Harper asked if he was new, and about how he was liking the school so far, Jorge stopped abruptly and looked at the ceiling for a moment. His tiny smile faded and twisted into a frown. How am I liking it here? How am I liking it here? It's fucking horrible here. This school sucks, this city sucks, this fucking town sucks. I wanted to stay in Cali, but no, we had to move. Jorge blinked and shook his head, getting out of his fog, and shrugged. "Yeah. I'm new. School is fine, for the most part." He started walking again and took a deep breath. It was obvious that this girl was the type who wouldn't be satisfied with that kind of an answer, so, before she could ask, he spoke up again. "Classes are okay. Teachers are fine. A lot of white people though. I mean, not that it's bad, but I;m just not used to it. Where I'm from, the school is really mixed" He turned the corner into the auditorium and walked down to the middle of the building. He slipped into one of the aisles, and took a seat in the middle of it. He was silent for a moment, then nodded towards the stage, and towards the painted set. "So, did you do that?"

Esther looked around, a bit spooked out the quietness of the school. Their thoughts stayed clear of possibilities of it being haunted or they wouldn’t be able to sleep when it comes to it. Then again, would it be safe enough to sleep in a place infested with a bunch of kids with no supervision? Eh, I’m sure I can find another hiding spot. If it comes down to it, maybe I can try the air vents. Those seem cozy. In mid thought, they looked at the walls. “I totally called it, punks are starting to graffiti up the place,” They said, pausing their steps to open up their messenger bag and rummaging inside. They pulled out a marker and figured why not. On a couple of lockers, they wrote in large caps, “BUTTS,” and couldn’t help but laugh at the childishness of it. Maybe they were going a tad mental from the lack of adults. Oh well.

The cafeteria was nearby and luckily wasn’t locked. Oh man, that totally would have sucked. Maybe Duncan would have made a decent battering ram. Esther quickly went inside, not seeing other students around. “Hella. Think we should hoard food? Ya know, finders keepers thing?” They said, heading toward the kitchen and looking for something edible.

Odie might not have been a ball of fire in the brains department, but he knew when he was being lied to. Granted this lie wasn't a very big one, and it wasn't going to hurt anyone, so he decided that he might as well let it slide. He gave another shrug and started to stand, snatching up his pack and looking down the hallway.

"Sure, still got a buncha singles. Might as well get sum'n to eat while we wait..." He let out a heavy sigh. "Gonna be real happy when I c'n get back down South. Don't think I like winters all that much."