The Orchestrating & The Oblvious

Who: Arden and Arienne
Where: School
When: Morning

Arden was more subdued than usual. Her aunt, two maids, and she had been working on condolence and care packages for the victims and their families -- something Arden had thought of in a pressing need to do something in light of the tragedy -- when the news about the gallery broke out on the radio. It had been horrible: both the tragedy itself and the fact that, like with the vigil, she knew people who there and likely to be there. Since last night it had been chaos, with trying to contact people of the other families and people at the police station and people at the hospital to try to grasp who was where and who was hurt and who might have been... killed. That everything about the situation bothered her on a massive level was clear: Arden’s emotions were always evident on her features. She would have missed school, but there were friends here that she hadn’t been able to get ahold of in the chaos of last night and she needed to make sure they were okay.

She was standing outside the school waiting for any such friend to show up. A bodyguard hung just a few feet back -- at the insistence of her aunt when it became clear Arden wasn’t going to budge on the going-to-school thing -- but she didn’t pay him any attention as she kept a lookout at the school entrance. Then, finally, she recognized a friend coming up and hurried over, waving to catch the girl’s attention. “Ari!”

Arienne hadn't expected to be flagged down on the way in to school, but she apparently was wrong on that. Looking over, she internally sighed heavily. I do not need to deal with her this morning... she thought to herself. But that was entirely different than her reaction. She gave a pale smile to the girl, though it was only pale in the way that she made it look strained and tired, like she was stressed still from her mother's death and all. "Arden, it's good to see you." she said, tone genuine as she got closer. "Are you well? I heard about the gallery--you weren't there, were you?" she asked. Ramona had been the girl she'd saved from that particular fate. Arden she would have happily let bleed.

Arden shook her head. “My aunt wanted me to stay in. She had lost friends of hers at the vigil, so I wasn’t going to argue it when she needed me, you know? But I know some who were planning on showing up -- or might show up -- and with everything so chaotic after the newscast I haven’t been able to get a hold of them yet. I hope they’re alright though, but I won’t be anything close to well until I’m sure.” She managed to stop her line of the conversation there; she was aware that Arienne had just lost her mother -- not even Arden was so self-centered to barrel on past that. “How about you? My aunt and I stopped by to give our condolences, but I wasn’t able to check on you personally. I’m sorry about your mother.” She moved to pull Arienne into a hug, thinking public propriety could go out the damn window after such tragedy. “I can’t imagine how awful you must feel. I lost mine before I could remember her, but I know I’d be devastated if I lost my aunt.”

Hugging. That was just fabulous. But she hugged the girl back either way. "Thank you." she said. "It's been...difficult. I've been making an attempt to move forward, and not dwell, though I'm unsure how well I'm achieving that." she admitted, casting her gaze to the ground for a moment. Then she looked back up. "Ramona was meant to be there. I had stopped by to see her--I can't even imagine what might have happened if I hadn't. It's such a lucky break that I did."

Arden nodded, smiling a little. “You take as much or as little time for dwelling as you need -- not that you need mine or anyone else’s permission about it.” She pulled back at the next part though, the small smile dropped from her expression. “Oh my god...” She couldn’t say anything for a moment, processing that information.. “It’s incredibly lucky that you both weren’t there,” she murmured, breaking the contact as she shifted to Arienne’s side, a bit distracted as she thought about the near miss of what could have been. But then what she said caught up to her, and she winced. “I mean -- sorry; it wasn’t very... it was lucky neither of you were there; but considering the circumstances of your absence... I’m sorry, ‘lucky’ was an awful word for it.” Because Arienne probably wasn’t considering her mother’s death keeping her preoccupied as ‘lucky’.

"It's fine, Arden, I understood your meaning." Arienne soothed lightly as they headed into the school proper. "It was fortuitous that Ramona and I weren't there. Yourself as well, of course. Right now I don't believe I could properly handle another loss." she confessed, even if she really wouldn't consider Arden's untimely messy demise a loss. Arden was a girl who wasn't going to suit her purposes at any point, at least, not that she could see. Ramona? She had potential. Ramona had whole worlds of potential. But Arden...no. Very much not.

“After everything that’s happened lately, I don’t think that anyone can properly handle another loss.” She muttered, the daze of it all giving way to other emotions as she thought more on it. “Thankfully I haven’t lost any members of my immediate family--” her definition of ‘immediate family’ was different from the normal, considering, but she had cousins and aunts and uncles that were just as close as any parents or siblings could be “--but we’ve lost friends; and losing them hurts as much as losing a relative.” She truly felt that, and the whole situation now sparked an anger that hadn’t yet been able to properly express itself amidst the initial grieving and disbelief. “I just don’t understand what kind what kind of sick minds would do anything like that -- what with the vigil, and now the gallery -- attack so many... people. Human beings. Just--” she clenched her jaw in anger, at a loss for words for the complete... fucked up egregiousness of it. It was a little tirade that a still freshly-grieving daughter probably didn’t need to hear, but the whole situation incised a fury in her that couldn’t contain itself.

Arienne reached out to light a hand on Arden's arm, to support her. Or to appear that way, anyway. "I know." she said, voice soft. "And I believe we'll all be dealing with this for a while, we'll be..." she paused, sighing. "It's going to take time." she amended, as if she were at a loss for words. "I believe the best way to deal with things at the moment is to stay strong, stick together, and keep each other informed." She was quiet again. “Perhaps I should speak with Nate, and see about some...assembly, or moments of silence or a support group in school.” she said. She was student body president, but Nate had publicly stepped up to help lighten her load in that capacity since her mother’s death. And if she had something to speak to him about she had an excuse to hunt him down today, ensure to herself he was fine, since it seemed there were mishaps at the gallery. She just didn’t have anything like accurate information so she wasn’t upset yet.

Arienne’s words had Arden staring into space as the gears -- briefly -- churned in her head. “That’s a good idea.” She glanced back at Arienne, her expression serious but decisive. “An assembly and all that. But, a moment of silence is respectful and all, I just don’t think it’s not going to be much actual help to anyone. Maybe there could be some kind of... drive? Or something?” Arden took another brief moment to think, recalling what she and her aunt had been working on when the news broke. “I know, with the vigil, some of the people lost were providers for their family. Or had funeral costs that they couldn’t really afford. My aunt and I were working on care packages, to help ease some material things. That could be done here -- the Churches and other organizations might be willing to get involved. I’ll help you with it,” she offered, partly because she belatedly realized she sounded like she was piling a lot onto Arienne... and partly because Arden just couldn’t suggest some plan and not take part in it.

"I think that would be a lovely idea. A fund raiser or the like. If you wouldn't mind taking a bit of the lead on it, I would greatly appreciate that." Arienne said, looking apologetic in the fact that normally she would be heading it. But at the moment, if she gave something to Arden, it might keep the girl occupied for a bit, while still feeling like she was connected and being helpful to her. It was a rather win-win.

Arden nodded, briefly pulling the girl into another hug. “No problem,” she assured. It really wouldn’t be. She had helped plan such things before, with her aunt; having the Walker name already gave her access to the Who’s Who of charity and fundraising. A list was already going a mile-a-minute through her head of what they would need in terms of raising money and advertising and the like and who to contact first. Which, speaking of...

A thought suddenly occurred to her, and Arden frowned, pulling back again. “Do you want me to talk to Nate?” Because Arienne had asked her to take the lead on this thing, and she wasn’t sure if that included talking to the new student body vice-president. Arden was all for talking to all kinds of people outside of her family’s realm; but talking to a Konovich was a whole lot different than her family frowning at her for associating with people below her class, so she had generally just steered clear from the guy.

Arienne made a face, a little bit of a pained expression. "I'm sure you don't want to voluntarily." she said, trailing off lightly, a tone of distaste in her voice. "I could do it, I need to anyway, or if you'd rather do it on your own you may. Just...be careful, you know his reputation, even if he has been quite...supportive in this trying time." she said, as if she were reluctant to give Nate credit for anything, but needed to.

Arden considered Arienne, noting how un-enthralled the girl was with the idea. “I’ll talk to him about the fundraiser, and the things concerning that,” she decided. “You won’t have to talk to him any more than you need to.” The girl had just lost her mother, and Arden can imagine how awkward it might be to work with the son of the family that -- to put it so dramatically -- was practically the sworn-enemy of one’s own. Arden wasn’t sure that the children should be blamed for their parents’ decisions, but she could appreciate how that situation might be stressful regardless. So if she could do anything to help relieve Arienne of some stress? She would.

Nodding, Arienne gave Arden what appeared to be a very grateful smile. "Thank you." she said. Then she sighed. "I suppose I should head to class...I've been neglecting my school work of late, and I should get back to it. Even if I don't know how I'll manage." she admitted, looking down for a moment before she was back to looking at Arden. "I'm so glad you're alright, Arden."

“And I’m glad you’re safe,” Arden answered, since Arienne clearly wasn’t ‘alright’. But Arden couldn’t blame her. And honestly? The girl’s fortitude despite her loss was to be admired. “If there’s anything I can do -- whatever you can think of -- just let me know.” She smiled back, giving a light squeeze on Arienne’s arm, but not adding anything else. The girl had just said she needed to head to class, and Arden now had fundraiser things to take care of and other friends to check up on in addition to her own class to head back to... with her bodyguard, who she had kind of forgotten all about. But that was what bodyguards did anyway... be there just in case you need them without interfering.