love it when a plan comes together

who: Jessie and Arden
where: the art room
when: late morning

Words couldn’t describe just how little Jessie cared about art class; as far as she was concerned it was a waste of perfectly good time that she could have spent doing something useful. She’d wanted to do woodwork or shop but when she’d suggested it, the Principal's face had gone an interesting shade of purple before exploding that those classes were for boys only. So she was stuck drawing bowls of fruit and the like until she worked out a way of sneaking into the workshop.

Still the upside was the teacher was fairly relaxed about what they drew most days and was happy to let the students talk as they long as they actually got on with their work hence why she was currently sat by the window with paper and charcoal attempting to sketch the large tree outside.

Arden had come into the class a bit late, but she didn’t seem any bothered by it. It wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last. She was a social person, and had gotten caught up talking in the hallway (again) ...except this time the topic of conversation had been far more grave than her usual chatter. Anyway, it wasn’t as if she had gotten in trouble for being late before -- and that possibility was less likely today considering the bodyguard tailing her that she practically kept forgetting about -- and when she got into class she made a beeline for the seat next to JJ. “JJ, are you alright? Were you anywhere near the Sea and Sky gallery last night?” Whether J.J. frequenting such places was within her social range or not didn’t really occur to Arden when faced with the pressing matter of checking up that all her friends were safe and accounted for.

Looking up at the interruption, Jessie smiled as she saw her friend, late as usual though her flurry of questions caused her to frown for a moment. “I’m fine Arden and I was at home last night. Why...” She trailed off as she remembered the headline from the mornings paper - there had been no names mentioned but it was exactly the sort of thing that Arden and her posh friends would go to. “Was anyone you know there?” she asked, pushing aside her paper to concentrate fully on her friend.

“Yes. I know some people that were planning to attend and others likely to have dropped by, but I haven’t been able to get the word on everyone yet.” Her speech was a bit slow with the worry. “It’s been a hassle, trying to contact people last night and this morning to see who is alright and who isn’t. Right now there’s little more I can do but sit and wait until somebody is able to update me -- considering how chaotic everything about it is, it wouldn’t likely be the first thing they’d do -- it’d probably slip my mind for awhile, if I were in their shoes. But I’m not very good at sitting with my thumbs twiddling waiting on anything,” she admitted, grimacing. Her fingers drummed lightly against the easel that she hadn’t bothered to look at since sitting down, and when she spoke again it was closer to her usual mile-a-minute manner:

“I’m setting up a fundraiser for the victims and their families -- from the vigil, and maybe now for this though I hope that won’t be the case. I think condolences and flowers and prayers are a good start, but the people hurt and the victim’s families could really probably use something more useful than sympathy bouquets in something like this. Like care packages, or something to help funeral costs, or something -- What are you doing after school?” she asked. Though it came out more like a demand to know than a question, considering the determination she had asking it. Arden just had the idea to invite J.J. along, and she was clearly set on having the girl agree.

Well used to Arden’s manner of going on for long periods of speech without seemingly taking a breath, Jessie listened patiently as she spoke, nodding a little where appropriate and smiled a little at the suggested fundraiser - her friend may have had a tendency towards being a little self-absorbed but she was never selfish. “I’ve got no plans,” she replied, a little caught off guard by the sudden question but not overly fazed by it. “I should let Dad know if you’re gonna steal me away for something though.”

“Of course,” Arden agreed, shoo shoo-ing the air with her hand. It didn’t occur to her that there could be any issues in JJ talking to her father -- Arden was a girl who had perfected getting her own way, and she just took for granted that the same applied to others. “I’m going to get the ball rolling on this drive, and that means talking to some people, looking at supplies... stuff like that. I think I’ll stop by the church first, there’s a priest there who’s got a better head on knowing what people need than I do--” Actually, he had been the one to tactfully suggest that Arden consider the needs of the people she wanted to help in addition to expressing sympathies. Arden still wasn’t great at determining that herself, she had little grasp of wanting for anything, but now she knew to try asking around about that sort of thing.

“--and maybe get something to eat, or something else... who knows? I just think there’s little point doing anything alone when you can have company as well!” Just having some kind-ish plan before lunchtime for what she was doing after-school was as fore-thinking that she got. She did know she wanted to do something productive before returning to the chaos back home -- she had no intention on bailing out on family, but Arden could admit to herself that she did needed a brief reprieve before returning to a household that would be even more upset and chaotic than when she had left.

As it was, Jessie was fairly certain Jesse wouldn’t have a problem helping Arden out after school - the business with Nate the night of the blackout was the exception to the rule that he trusted her to look after herself and do the right thing. “Sounds like a good place to start,” she replied, turning her charcoal in her fingers as she spoke. “Then we should find out how many people were hurt, make a list of who would benefit most from having help.” There hadn’t been any names in the paper that morning but that didn’t mean they couldn’t help. “Maybe we could call the Echo, see if they have an information we could use. They might even be up for writing something about your fundraiser, drum up some interest.”

“Brilliant -- I’m certain they would. My aunt knows some people on the staff; they’ll talk to us -- the paper seems to love chatting me up, down, and sideways anyway -- we can get the advert on the front page.” The statement was a bit presumptuous for an on-the-fly fundraiser brainstormed by a high school student just that morning. Except it was spoken by Arden Walker, and she spouted every idea with the confidence that made them certainties. And in this case? She even had more than just sheer willpower going for her: her family was well connected enough to make it a cake-walk.

Arden’s confidence was one of the things that had drawn Jessie to the older girl; she knew it could come across as arrogance, and to some people it did, but she knew it wasn’t and admired her friend for it. Granted it was easy to be self-confident when you’d had the live she did but compared to the entitled, bitchiness of some of the society girls that attended the school, Arden was a breath of fresh air. “Well that’d be amazing if you manage it,” she said, her own realistic outlook countering Arden’s enthusiasm. Still, if anyone could pull off getting an ad on the front page of the Echo, it would be her.

Arden grinned. “It would be fantastic,” she agreed, finally seeming to notice that there was a blank sheet before her and she took a piece of charcoal to it. “A fundraiser needs people to know about it in the first place, and nothing reaches as many people as the front page of the paper -- well, maybe the radio. Which is another idea... though I’ll definitely talk to the Echo first.” Deft, quick strokes made their way across the page as she talked, though Arden had no actual vision of the end product. “Though I suppose I’ll be talking to Nate Konovich first,” she amended, recalling the last part of her conversation with Arienne.

Turning back to her own paper as the teacher strolled past, Jessie really wasn’t concentrating on her art anymore as her father’s warning echoed around her head. “What do you need to speak to Nate for?” she asked, curiosity piqued. Because while she had no intention of seeking out Nate for herself as Jesse had asked, it hardly counted if she was with someone else who was looking for him.

“The fundraiser,” Arden replied, her picture taking on some curved-ish form that she was trying to figure out what she could turn it into. “I thought of the idea with Arienne this morning, and I’ll need student council’s help on it. But Ari’s having to deal with her mother’s death, so I’m trying to keep as much load off her as possible with the fundraiser -- which means working more with Nate now that he’s vice-president.” Arden had never talked to Nate, and she was aware of ill-terms her family and the DiGiovannis were on with his own, despite that she didn’t seem to foresee any trouble with talking to him. He had signed up for the position, and Arienne had admitted to Nate being supportive in the role, so Arden figured talking to him was more likely to go smoothly than not.

She’d figured it would have been about the fundraiser, Jessie had meant what specifically. Still, if the fundraiser was still in it’s early stages then it made sense to get other people involved now and if Nate was included in that it meant she might be able to find out more about it him without disobeying her dad. A win-win situation if there ever was one. “That’ll be good. We’re probably gonna need a lot of help getting this organised once you’ve figured exactly what you want to do.”

Arden chuckled. “I don’t think I ever figure exactly what I want to do,” she admitted, smirking at Jessie before returning back to the drawing. “I tend more towards just winging it and calling it good -- sometimes it drives my aunt a bit crazy.” And she didn’t try to hide the amusement there, her smirk widening as the drawing finally took on the surprisingly realistic form of... a radio with a hat?

Laughing too, Jessie added some shading to her tree and then began to draw the vague suggestion of a person sitting beneath it. “I can imagine,” she shot back, still laughing as she looked at Arden’s drawing and grinned. “Nice hat,” she offered with a grin. “But seriously, if we’re gonna go to the Echo about getting an ad and stuff, it might help if we have a vague plan.”

That was, well... a good point. It even gave Arden pause in what was a clearly an ‘oh... right.’ moment as that bit of practicality sunk in. “Astutely observed,” she finally conceded, looking thoughtful as she re-assessed some aspects of the pseudo-plan. It didn’t take her very long, and she returned to spouting out the modified idea in short order: “Well! If we get to the Echo we can make it a preliminary trip -- focus on the information part: reporters have certainly gone around interviewing people, and might be helpful letting us know what people might need; or maybe not. We won’t really know until we try.”

“Well I do try,” Jessie countered, adding some extra branches to her tree as she spoke. Arden was all energy, she just wasn’t all that great at focusing it sometimes, that’s where she would chip in and between them they would get somewhere. As her friend was now proving. “Of course, we should still go there. Do you think there will be time after seeing the priest over at the church?”

“Maybe,” Arden answered, knowing herself too well to commit to the availability or limits of the time frame. ...Which meant the answer could have just as easily been ‘maybe not.’ “A driver will cut down on time--” because Arden was just as prone to walk about the city as she was to be chauffeured, even though she didn’t have to “-- so I’m thinking we try to get done what we can before it gets late, and then I’ll drop you off at home.”

The non-specifics didn’t faze Jessie, the afternoon looked like it was going to be interesting regardless of how much they got done and she nodded. “Sounds like a plan to me Arden,” she said, sitting back from her drawing as she tried to decide whether or not to add foliage to the tree or leave it’s branches bare. “Are you gonna try and speak to Nate today as well?”

“Likely,” she answered, putting the final details to the sketch. “I’ll catch him next time I see him -- we’ve never crossed paths, but I’ve seen him in the hallway, so I’ll probably go up to him then.” She probably should have thought that out better, considering just marching up to someone she had never talked to and whose family was at odds with her own might be too bold... but it was also the most direct, and Arden didn’t see the point in beating around the bush. Her hand stilled, dropping the charcoal back into the tray and angling the easel toward Jessie. “I call it ‘Stylish Radio With Too Many Pearls’,” she beamed. “Brilliant, no?”

Deciding that she should try and be around for this meeting, amused at how Nate’s cool demeanour would mesh with Arden’s decidedly warm one, Jessie smiled. “Well come find me if you decide to go hunting; I’m not exactly overwhelmed with desire to go to my American History class.” Looking at Arden’s drawing, she couldn’t help but snigger at the proposed title. “I like it,” she said through her giggles. “Very chic.”

“If I go hunting, I’ll try to find you first,” Arden promised, angling the easel back again. “May not be much good if I run into him, but with him helping I doubt it’ll be the last encounter.” Rustling by the wall caught her attention, and she glanced backward to see the bodyguard shifting his weight. She hadn’t considered whether he had listened to the whole conversation -- not that she minded, considering it was part of his job and she had nothing to hide -- but a brief glance he ticked in her direction had her guessing he probably had.

“Thanks.” Turning round to see what Arden was looking at, Jessie was a little thrown by the sight of the bodyguard. “I’m assuming he’s with you?” she asked, smiling at him and giving a small wave before turning back to her paper. She wasn’t about to pretend he wasn’t there, even if that was sort of the point.

The bodyguard nodded in turn, or inclined his head just enough for it to pass as a nod. Either way it was something Arden appreciated, expressing that with a smile. She didn’t have bodyguards often, but she knew some who would have responded with nothing more than a grunt to JJ or refused to acknowledge a greeting at all. “After the attack on the gallery, my aunt insisted on a bodyguard if I was going to be so stubborn about coming to school,” Arden confirmed, the smile dimming as she turned back to Jessie.

Pleased to get a response, Jessie grinned. “So they do move,” she whispered conspiratorially before returning to her normal spakng voice. “You can’t blame your aunt for worrying about you Arden,” she pointed out. “I’m fairly certain that my dad would do the same if he thought I was in danger.” Of course if that were the case, Jesse was more likely to find the trouble and get rid of it permanently.

“I don’t blame my aunt for worrying, I blame the situation that brought it in the first place.” Arden clarified, jaw muscles clenching. There was a clear anger there beneath the overall worry and bother about the whole thing. “The vigil and now the gallery. I don’t know what kind of retribution is out there that can truly punish such acts; but I hope the bastards behind them get it.” She didn’t want to see it, or think too much on what exactly that retribution would entail, but she did want justice done.

Jessie had been lucky, she hadn’t known anyone who’d been at the vigil or the gallery, but like Arden, she hated that something like that could happen. She knew that Jesse tried to keep her shielded from the worst of what happened in the city but she wasn’t naive; Eidolon was a dangerous place to be right now, another reason to be glad that her father wasn’t in that line of work anymore. Being below the radar didn’t protect them from everything but it was a start. “I hope so too,” she said quietly, reaching over and giving her friend’s hand a gentle squeeze.

Arden squeezed back, smiling her gratitude. The expression remained for a moment, but then morphed into something defiant. “I don’t know what they hoped to gain to by massacring innocent people, but -- whatever it is -- I refuse to give it to them.” Arden didn’t know if the culprits’ goal was fear or desperation or something else; that mindset was too foreign for her to try guessing at. But she sure as hell wasn’t going to satisfy them by succumbing to the disaster. She smirked instead as the bell rang, straightening up on the stool with her shoulders pulled back. “So we’re going to plan this drive, work to ease the disaster where we can, and rob these monsters of a few more people they might have wanted cowering.”

Statements like that made Jessie love her friend even more and she didn’t bother to tame the grin that spread across her face. “Yes mam,” she shot back, hopping off her stool and grabbing her bag. “Let’s do this thing.”