Pressing Concerns (tags Taki, Jandro, Sebastian)

[Roxy Rivera]

Roxy had already been outside, so when she spotted the group leaving the building, she had quickly hurried over to them. There had been a discussion on how to get there but then it turned out that that Izzy girl that had gone ghost hunting with them was coming and that she was going to drive them all. Apparently she and the Taki guy were dating now.

They all piled into the car, realizing that two people would have to sit on laps for them all to fit. Jandro quickly offered to put Teddy on his lap. Roxy couldn't help but smile at that, figuring that the two liked each other. Good for them. She'd already forgot about the whole joke with her and Ezzie both liking Thad. So, it really wasn't even an issue on her mind when Ezzie nabbed the other seat in the front and she ended up in the back on Thad's lap. If she had any idea at that moment that he was trying to figure out how to ask her out, she probably would have pushed him into the front and tried to sit on Ezzie's lap. But currently, that wasn't an issue she was aware of.

So she was all fine and dandy in the car, eager for a morning sugar rush when the boy next to her started speaking in another language. And while she couldn't pinpoint just what language he was speaking, she knew it wasn't anything to do with demons, like Thad seemed to think. This seemed to make the other boy, Sebastian, really angry. It was actually kind of strange and Roxy found herself inadvertently moving closer to Thad. "Shut up!" she whisper-yelled into his ear. "You're making it worse-you can talk about demons all you want later!"

[fryn]

Takumi blinked slightly at Sebastian's outburst but he could perhaps understand, seeing how much he was disliking being the focal point of the conversation but one comment he made worried the Japanese boy.

the bit where he stated that he didn't need any help summoning demons or werewolves. Did that mean he'd already mastered the required ritual? If so, the danger that Takumi had believed to be on a future horizon might be far more imminent.

His eyes widened in renewed - and depper - concern, positive now, and where he'd been uncertain before, that Sebastian was messing around in demonology.

He shot Thad a terse look before returning his attention to the front windscreen and he gnawed slightly at his upper lip in consternation.

A tense silence fell over the occupants of the car and Takumi inwardly cringed at the awkwardness that came with it. Something had to be said - done? - to change that, otherwise their escape from fist lesson would be wasted.

"Sooo... who is coming bowling on Sunday? Izzy is, I know but anyone else?" He coughed slightly to clear his throat but at least that took their chat away from the devil.

He hoped!

[Thad Cotton]

The mood had shifted from enthusiastic to uneasy after Sebastian lost control of his temper. Thad wondered if he ought to relay that bit of information to Sidra; an ally who couldn't control his anger could potentially harm her plans more than a determined enemy. Or maybe Sebastian was an enemy?! He'd mentioned summoning werewolves. Now that Sidra had to know about.

"I wanna goooooo." He said into Roxy's hair, relieved that Taki had come up with a topic that wouldn't get them all eaten by Sebastian's demonic familiars. "Dunno if my moms'll lemme, though." Normally he wouldn't have asked for permission, but his crutches made sneaking out his window rather difficult. Really it was a good thing Izzy had been able to fit them in the back of her Lexus, otherwise they'd probably be hitting Teddy in the face.

"Are we theeeeeeeeeere yet?" He continued, anxious more for sugar than to escape the confines of the car -- after all, he was in quite the enviable position, what with Roxy sitting in his lap. He was very glad that Shelby Grant had rejected him, because otherwise he might not have been single when he found out that Roxy was madly in love with him, and since she was really cute and lived next door and was always up for mischief there really couldn't have been a more obvious match.

He felt his body jerk as the car came to a less than smooth stop. "Yeah! Cotton candy time!" He celebrated, waiting for everyone else to get out (and off him) so that he could actually move.

[Roxy Rivera]

Roxy was glad when Thad seemed to calm down and shut up about the demons. She was also thankful for Taki changing the conversation. Although Thad screaming into her ear wasn't very pleasant. "I might go," Roxy said. She'd been planning on it but upon hearing Thad might not be there, she wasn't sure now. If she could get Ezzie to agree maybe she'd still go. Roxy didn't know the other kids as much and while she wasn't exactly shy, she knew that it would be much more fun with either Thad or Ezzie. Although unlike Thad, Roxy's thoughts of wanting him to go were simply friendship based. She hadn't asked her parents or anything but she wasn't really planning to either.

Thad moved onto the are we there yets, once again screaming in her ear. "Are you trying to make me go deaf?" she commented, turning her head slightly so she was somewhat facing Thad and could see him out of the corner of her eye. But it was no use the moment the car did stop, Thad screamed yet again. Roxy giggled, she'd have to try and rope Ezzie into sitting on Thad's lap on the way back.

Once the car was parked, everyone started to pile out of the car. Roxy crawled off Thad's lap and grabbed his crutches from the back for him, nearly knocking him in the head as she pulled them over the seats. "Oops..." she said making a face. She handed the crutches to Thad before heading out of the car, ready for her own sugar rush. She wouldn't say anything since Thad was so excited but she didn't think he needed more sugar. Which reminded her...Roxy quickly hurried over to Ezzie and linked arms with her. "Switch seats with me on the way back?" she whispered to her other friend, hopefully.

[Sebastian Flambert]

Sighing in relief, Sebastian slowly allowed himself to slide out of the cramped compartment of Izzy's Lexus and onto the concrete sidewalk waiting outside. Stretching out, the boy allowed his initial feelings of intense discomfort to flow out of his muscles and joints, moving his arms in wide circles of motion.

"Ugh.." mumbled Sebastian, enjoying the feel of the sun on his face.

It was an excellent day, and despite the group's persistence in pressing the matter of demon summoning on his very confused person, there seemed very little that could ruin this perfect Spring morning. Birds were chirping, the sky was clear.. even the air smelled sweeter than usual.

Of course, there was still the problem of Thad.. But as long as he avoided contact with the rest of the group, Sebastian was sure that he could skirt around the ludicrous topic of demonology, werewolves, and whatever ridiculous things his companions dreamed about.

The group poured out of the car, walking in a close group towards the nearest cotton candy stand. Intentionally lagging behind to ensure that a sufficient amount of distance lay between him and the rest of the gang, Sebastian strolled with a slight air of passive disinterest to the rest of his companions; less interested in the topic of cotton candy than returning back to school as quickly as possible without alerting the authorities..

Or talking about demons..

[Thad Cotton]

Thad was happily unaware that Roxy was plotting to swap seats with Ezzy, or that Sebastian was rapidly losing patience with his enthusiastic but entirely inaccurate assumptions. He did notice Sebastian drop behind the rest of the group, and slowed his own pace to match (though really, how difficult was that considering he couldn't go very fast in the first place?)

He poked the other boy in the side to get his attention while he attempted to come up with a topic of conversation that would not result in fiery retribution. "Roxy an' Taxi are pretty awesome, huh? But uhh don't ask Roxy out, 'cause I'm gonna. An' cotton candy! It makes everythin' better!!!"
He poked Sebastian again. "Hey, so, you sure you ain't gon' summon no demons, right? Cause havin' blood-suckin' beasties do your biddin' sounds kinda appealin' an' all, but yeah, Taxi says it's bad so you prolly shouldn't." He meant this in a concerned manner. "Si wantsa be one, but vampires are more like...like...they're kinda demony, right, but not really? An' it'd be sad if you got ate up by demons when you wanted 'em to eat other people. If you really wanna kill people you should jus' hire the mafia or summin'."

[Sebastian Flambert]

All eyes turned towards the two boys, watching this awkward confrontation begin to boil over to dangerous levels. Despite his good intentions, Thad had not been particularly discreet enough to lower his voice, and the demon talk easily carried over to the rest of the bystander's ears.

Sebastian blinked in disbelief, trying to decide whether or not Thad was actually stupid enough to believe that he had some sort of unholy alliance with the forces of hell, or if he genuinely was continuing some sort of cruel inside joke for the amusement of the rest of the group. Either way, he didn't appreciate a single word of it.

"W-What?" asked Sebastian, his mouth dropping open.

Thad repeated his statement, this time emphasizing the words demon, mafia, and kill loudly enough for not only the rest of the group to pick up on, but with sufficient volume for everyone in the vicinity to hear.

A man and woman paused in mid step, giving the two boys the weirdest of looks, before briskly changing direction and walking off the opposite way.

"I... I do not.. summon... demons.." spoke Sebastian, enunciating each word of his phrase forcefully so that there was no possible mistake. "Nor.. Do... I... Understand... A.. Single.. Word... You... Are... Talking... ABOUT!"

He took a deep breath, clutching his head in exasperation. The very idea of him summoning monsters to do his bidding was something not even he, with quite the imagination, could dream up... So ridiculously improbable and stupid that he practically begged to the heavens for an answer to why Thad Cotton -- never mind his eccentricity -- would accuse him of associating with the dark powers of hell.

True, he had felt a murderous rage towards several individuals in his life for good reason, but..

Wait..

"Th-Thad.."

Sebastian shifted uncomfortably at his next thought, clutching his blue blanket tightly to his chest and praying to God that this really was some sort of stupid joke.

Why would Thaddeus Cotton think that he wanted to kill someone, unless...

No.. No possible way...

Anxiety's fist punched a hole through his stomach, causing him to nearly double over with a sudden bout of nausea. He bit down hard on his lip, glaring at the younger boy with a very suspicious gaze.

"Erm... Y-You.. D-Didn't.." continued Sebastian, staring straight into the eyes of his eccentric counterpart. "Y-You d-didn't happen to... t-to.. to l-look at m-my journal... L-Last n-n.. night?"

He did leave early..

Now that he thought about it, Thad had been in his room for a suspiciously longer time than anyone else that night, long enough to notice the thick leather-bound book planted squarely on top of Sebastian's work desk. It would be easily to sneak a peak at latest entries, some of which had been written completely in English..

"Did you?"

Knowing Thad, it would also be easy for the freshman delinquent's curiosity to get the better of him..

[Izzy Chen]

Ezmeralda had turned around in the car to face everyone. As they spoke about demons and stuff. She just listened. She really had no idea what everyone was talking about. Ezmeralda looked from Thad to Sebastian, to Teddy, to Jandro, to Roxy as the conversation kept going and going. " don't get it...how did we get on this topic?" She asked. Finally the car stopped and Ezmeralda jumped out as quick as she could.

Izzy was just driving, pleasantly unaware of such things until it was mentioned. She leaned over to whisper to Taki, "Are they serious...I did not think that was real?" She felt bad when the kid started to get angry, "Okay maybe we should stop the demon talk, cause I admit I have no idea what you guys are saying..." She pulled into a parking lot and got out making sure everyone was safe getting out. Then she grabbed Taki's hand and pulled him toward the Cotton candy, "You are bad about corrupting me...but I like it." She said jokingly as she gave him another kiss.

Ezmeralda thanked Izzy and then walked as Roxy lopped her arm. She eyed her friend, "No way...You think I wanna go deaf...you are on your ow.." Ezmeralda said laughing with her friend. She looked at Roxy and could not resist her best friends look. "Fine but you owe me one...and I will go bowling too...sounds like fun." Ezmeralda was always looking for fun.

Izzy turned her head as the boys voices got louder. "I do not understand, why does everyone think that boy is summoning demons..I mean this is all a joke right..." Izzy really had no idea about the worlds of demonology or anything that was associated with it "You guys, ready for cotton candy." She asked the group in hopes maybe she could distract the boys...at least the one on crutched anyway...Thad was it...

[Roxy Rivera]

Roxy sighed as Ezzie started to say that she was on her own. Oh well...she supposed that she'd just have to deal with sitting on Thad's lap again... But then Roxy supposed that she looked pathetic enough because Ezzie agreed to switch seats with her. "Yes! Thank you! Thank you! Thanks you!" Roxy exclaimed, jumping up in the air. As they started to walk, she kept her arms linked with Ezzie. "Okay, if you go bowling then I'll definitely go too," Roxy said, knowing that she'd have at least one of her best friends there, made it worth it. "Now...should we be nice and try and help sneak Thad out if he's not allowed to go?" she asked as they walked.

Thad was in the back of the group but Roxy didn't really notice. He was on crutches and couldn't really walk as quickly as the others. But without Roxy noticing, Thad brought up the daemons again, upsetting that Sebastian kid. He was yelling at Thad now, stopping the rest of the group. Roxy glanced over at Ezzie once more. "Maybe we should bail him out...I'm not gonna lie...that Sebastian kid kind of freaks me out...I know Thad keeps egging me on...but he's getting kind of unnecessarily angry." But for now, Roxy just stood there, waiting to see what came of all this.

[fryn]

"Me? Corrupt you? Anata, I fear it is the other way around," he said to Izzy with a mischievous grin and a wink.

Behind them That otouto-san's voice rang out. As usual, Takumi only caught one or two words but as 'demon' and 'blood' were two very clear ones it didn't take a complete comprehension of English to realise what he was saying.

"Mafia? Isn't that like Yakuza?" The prevalent Japanese organised crime syndicate that could be found almost anywhere money was to be made... or extorted. Why would Thad put such an idea into Sebastian's head? Demon-summoning was bad enough on its own!

"I do not understand, why does everyone think that boy is summoning demons..I mean this is all a joke right..."

Takumi shot Izzy a look born from sheer worry unhealthily mingled with utter and complete confusion.

"I don't know," he replied. "Thad is sure Sebastian is meddling in the Dark arts but... he doesn't seem the kind to do that, does he? I mean, he's a bit... aah... o-kuni de wa kore... um... timid?" He frowned slightly. "I think that's the right word..."

He glanced at Roxy and Ezzie when the former suggested they go bail someone out. Thad? Or Sebastian? Either way the pair needed seperating... and fast.

"I'll get Thad," he stated and releasing his hold on Izzy's hand he strode towards the verbally warring duo.

"Otouto-san... I wish to speak to you." Thad glanced at Takumi. "And now, if you please."

He grasped the younger boy's sleeve and half hauled him to one side.

"I think you might be mistaken about Sebastian, otouto-san. He doesn't seem like he'd mess with demons. Perhaps you shouldn't talk about it again. He looks angry." Takumi lifted his focus from Thad and towards Sebastian, not wanting to see his 'little brother' hit...