Pressing Concerns (tags Taki, Jandro, Sebastian)

[Ezzie Lopez]

Ezzie kept her voice low as she spoke, "I will totallt help you get Thad out. Maybe one of us can run in and distract the moms or something. Like you can say you locked yourself out of the house. Don't they have a spare key. Maybe that will get the moms out long enough or something." Ezzie suggested. She continued to walk side by side, "You are so bad you should enjoy sitting on Thads lap...remember how brave we think he is...." Ezzie gave Roxie a wink and laughed. It had been a harmless joke that Ezzie thought Thad realized. She had no idea the boy liked Roxy.

Ezzie turned to watch the confrontation. "Sebastian seemed nice at lunch. He saved me from a flying trsy, but....this....I don't know what is going on, but Thad needs to be quiet....I don't think he is help. Adios Mio. He really suggested the Mafia....where does Thad get these ideas. That's it no more TV for him." Ezzie looked at Roxy. "Where did all this demon talk come from? I agree I would not want to be on the other end of that kids temper." She said referring to Sebastan. "Come on." Ezzie led Roxy over to That and Taki.

Ezzie stood there as they spoke, "Yeah Thad, maybe you should give it a rest. " Ezzie suggested, "Mire. El esta ..." Ezzie said slipping into Spanish and slowly caught herself, "I mean he seems scared....and quite frankly he is kind of scary when he is mad." She admited the last part in a small voice.

*****************

Izzy knew a little about Japanese. She knew Yakuza was the Japanese version of the Mafia, "Yes..." she told Taki when he asked. She watched Taki go to Thad as she went to Sebastian. Poor kid did not deserve this. "Hey Sebastian, come on....why don't you and I head inside as Thad gets a lecture." She told the young boy. She had no idea what was going on. She obviously missed a part, but she was not about to sit back and wath two kids fighting. On the way back Sebastian would have to sit up front or on the other side.

Izzy place a hand on his shoulder softly. She did not want to scare the boy. "Come on let my buy you some cotton candy my treat. This is all just something that never should have gone this far." Izzy was never good with confrontation. She had only ever fought with her brother, she had never separated a verbal argument. "I am not sure we have properly been introduced, I am Izzy." She said sweetly.

Izzy just wanted to defuse the situation, "I take it you are new here? - thought I knew every kid who went to Gould, Silver or not...so you must be new. You speak very good French....you from there?" She was just trying to start a conversation that veered away from demons.

[Roxy Rivera]

Roxy grinned at Ezzie's idea to sneak Thad out. "Perfect!" she said. "Of course we'll let him ask first but we'll tell him that if he's told that he can't go, that we've got back up," she said with a smile. Although secretly she thought that it could be fun to sneak Thad out, although it would be hard to get him out with crutches on. "Yeah, I think they do have a spare key," Roxy said.

"Oh you've met him before?" Roxy asked. She had missed the food fight in the cafeteria. That had been the day that she'd helped Levi out and ended up having lunch outside. "Yeah, I have no idea what Thad's thinking though--I mean, I know that we both know that Thad can get carried away...but I imagine if you don't know Thad...he can be a little..." she trailed off, watching as Taki and Izzy went to intervene.

Roxy looked over at Ezzie, who was insisting they went in to help too. She followed a little reluctantly, as she wasn't sure what Sebastian might do. But Izzy talked to him...she seemed really good with him...being overly nice. Roxy hoped that it worked. As for Thad, Taki and Ezzie were both trying to reason with him. Roxy had known Thad a long time...longer than the others since she'd met him the day he'd moved in next door to her. This meant that she knew he couldn't always be reasoned with and since she couldn't grab his arms to drag him away due to him still being on crutches, she wrapped her arms around his waist and did her best to drag him away. "Thad! Cotton Candy! Now!" Roxy ordered.

[Sebastian Flambert]

This was terrible.. If Thad had in fact read his journal, the peace that Sebastian had been searching for the last five years would be gone in an instant.. snuffed out by a single pair of curious eyes.

"Come on let my buy you some cotton candy my treat. This is all just something that never should have gone this far."

Sebastian shook his head in silence, flinching slightly at the touch of the girl's hand. Embarrassed enough by the thought of someone peeking through his own personal writings, the boy also felt extremely self-conscious by the severity his own outburst, and withdrew into the safety of his 'shell'.

Did he tell everyone? Is that why they're talking about demons?

He nibbled away at his thumb anxiously, wondering who else could possibly know about his secret. If the rest of the gang knew, then it would be very likely that the entire school could also learn about the details within a matter of days..

Who else did he tell? Did he tell Fallon? Does she know? Oh god.. Oh god.. Oh god.. Oh god..

Everyone would find out, and then... How would he deal with it?

"Je veux rentrer à la maison," spoke Sebastian, now sucking his thumb with a look of complete terror in his eyes.

All of a sudden, he was no longer Sebastian Flambert.. Sixteen years old.. High School student.. He was Sebastian... The pitiful little boy who had clung so fearfully to Clara's side many nights and days ago at an orphanage called 'The Rose Garden'.. The same little boy abandoned years earlier on the streets of Marseilles, left to fend for himself in a dark a cruel world.

The same little boy forced to bear witness to the atrocities committed by the so-called 'men of the cloth' on the meekest of the earth.. subjected to years of humiliating abuse that clearly eroded away at the fabric of his emotional well-being.

He shook his head again, glancing up for a brief second towards Izzy, before snapping his gaze back down onto the concrete pavement.

There was nothing he could say, or even think to say. Even if these people didn't know of his secret, his sudden outburst would be sufficient enough for them to think of him as an emotionally unstable lunatic in the future.. If they did know, then that would be thousands of times worse.

They would judge him, joke lightheartedly at the circumstances of his abuse, and question his sexual identity.. After all, normal boys didn't get raped... They didn't take it and even if they did, they would've fought to the death rather than let something like that happen to them.. Right?

He blinked, a flood of memories flashing before his eyes.

As the years passed at the Rose Garden, Sebastian eventually learned not to struggle.. and even would sometimes follow Father Francois into an isolated room in the hopes that the lecherous old man would be gentle..

"Laisse-moi tranquille.." he added softly, with a slight tone of finality.

Hunching his shoulders, the boy lowered his head to rest lightly atop his chest, shying away from Izzy's further attempts at conversation.

"I feel sick.."

[fryn]

Takumi shot Sebastian a terse glance when he heard him speak first in French and then state he felt sick. Thank god he hadn't been like that moments before as Izzy would have been most upset had he thrown up inside her Lexus.

"Go with Teddy, Roxy and Ezzie, otouto-san," Takumi said with a firm nudge of the younger boy's shoulder. "We will follow." He nodded to Roxy before making for Izzy's side. "Perhaps then," he said to Sebastian, "cotton candy isn't such a great idea. It makes me feel sick even when I didn't before and so the sugar is sure to make you feel worse."

He drew Izzy back slightly... just in case the distraught boy was closer than they thought to losing the contents of his stomach. Taki didn't want Izzy to catch it down the front of her body.

"You would like to talk about this?" he asked Sebastian. The boy had reacted far more strongly than the situation called for, telling him there was more to this than what was fast looking like Thad's misunderstanding. "We don't have to go in there with them," he added with the hint of a worried frown across his forehead.

[Izzy Chen]

Ezzie looked at Roxy and laughed, "Need help Rox." She said as she watched Roxy try and pull Thad away. Ezzie wrapped her arms from the other side of his waist to pull him toward the others like Taki suggested. "Come on Thad...or I will make Roxy hurt you." Ezzie stuck her tongue out laughing at her two best friends. Ezzie was really only pushing Thad more toward Roxy cause it was easier to grip him. Basically they made a Thad sandwhich.

******************

Izzy looked worred. She felt Taki pull her back, but she was too focused on Sebastian. "I can get you some water. That usually helps. Why don't you sitdown, in the shade..." Izzy looked around and spotted a bench. "Come on." She lightly touched his shoulders, bt made sure and stood behind him so if he did give back his lunch she would not get hit.

Izzy gently attempted to lead Sebastian to the bench. Well this was turning out to be the adventure she had never imagined, but it was fun. Well not fun, but interesting. "Should we get him back to th school or offer to call someone?" She leaned over whispering to Taki. Izzy had really no idea. She never considered what to do if someone got sick when skipping.

"It will be okay, don't worry. Just ignore them, they obviously have no idea what they are saying." She told him. She just did not want him to be upset. Poor Sebastian, and she barely knew the kid or what they were talking about. Izzy glanced at taki wondering what the hell happened to get them talking about demons anyway. This kid was far from summoning demons as she ever saw. If anything he was more childlike.

[Thad Cotton]

Guilt flickered over Thad's face at Sebastian's accusations, but before he could decide whether to admit and rationalize or deny all wrong-doing he was dragged away by his friends. He really hadn't meant for Sebastian to find out that his privacy had been utterly violated, and his original good intentions had rather snow-balled with enthusiasm a general avoidance of reality and an inability to recognize when he was pushing someone until it was too late.

"Ummm. I guess he is kinda mad." He agreed, allowing Roxy and Ezzy to escort him away. Fortunately Takumi was brilliant and knew everything and would be able to take care of things, because if Sebastian called down demons upon his friends instead of the people who had actually done him wrong (and Thad didn't really blame him for wanting to kill his father) then that would be very unfortunate.

"So," He whispered to the two girls, "I kinda did read his journal. I was tryin' to get Taxi to help help 'im but I guess he don't want no help." He glanced behind, to where Izzy and Takumi were attempting to calm Sebastian down. "Less we do it all sneaky like. So we gotta formulate us a plan."

[Sebastian Flambert]

"Non.."

Sebastian shook his head in refusal, still sucking away at his thumb. Izzy's attempt at touching his shoulder was immediately met with a sudden twist of the hips, the boy's shoulders jerking suddenly away from the girl's hand.

"Laisse-moi tranquille.." repeated Sebastian, this time with a bit more conviction in his voice.

Burying his head deeper into the crook of his shoulder, the boy wrapped the security blanket tightly around his body with a single fluid movement of his free arm. Any other attempts at communication were quickly rebuffed by Sebastian's head shaking violently in a gesture of refusal, the occasional French phrase mumbled incoherently through a mouthful of thumb.

"So you see..." the girl spoke, pointing up to the clouds. "When snow comes 'up', the wind makes it blow all around so that it kinda looks like it's coming down from the sky... But really, snow comes up.. Really. It comes up!"

She smiled warmly, taking the younger boy by the hand and leading him into a small section of gardens separated by a trio of hedges. A beautiful rose bush flanked by a bird bath stood in the center of the small area, to which Clara playfully ran to the opposite side of the fountain, hiding her pretty face behind the sculpted concrete.

A single white butterfly fluttering in the air caught Sebastian's attention, snapping him to attention. Like a dancer, it seemed to glide elegantly through the air in a near-perfect waltz with an invisible partner, pirouetting effortlessly in a complete circle before disappearing in the crowd of people beginning to fill the walkways of the pier.

"Oh.." mumbled Sebastian, transfixed by this odd sight.

Wordlessly, he stood up and began to walk in the direction of the crowds, leaving the two teenagers behind. While his bright blue blanket easily stood out at first from the rest of the pedestrians, it wasn't long before the form of Sebastian Flambert was lost in the multitude.

"Like this! Like this!" exclaimed the girl, grabbing the younger boy by the hands.

With surprising grace and confidence, she guided Sebastian's hands into the ready position of a traditional Viennese waltz, wrapping one of her arms firmly around the shorter boy's neck.

"And... One.. Two.. Three.."

[Roxy Rivera]

Roxy let go of Thad once he voluntarily started to go with them. Walking toward the store, Roxy listened as Thad admitted to actually reading Sebastian's diary. "Tha-ad!" Roxy said, pushing him slightly, but not too hard since he was on crutches and she didn't want to knock him over. "You shouldn't have done that," she said, giving him a look. "Remind me to never let you alone in my room," Roxy said. She didn't keep a diary, but who knew what Thad could possibly get himself into if left alone anywhere.

"No, we're not going to do anything," she said when Thad said that they needed to formulate a plan. It was one thing when their schemes were innocent, but this guy was seriously messed up. Roxy turned back to see him walking away from Izzy and Taki. "Listen, this guy has issues," Roxy said. "We're going to stay away from him. That's what were going to do."

The look on Thad's face when she said it sort of made Roxy feel bad though. But Ezzie reminding her of their joke...where they pretended to like Thad and had called him brave, gave her an idea. She smiled at Thad, "Listen, I know how brave you are, and how much you want to help him, but I just think we should stay out of this one," she said, softly, still with a smile on her face, hoping that Thad would go along with it.

On the plus side, if Sebastian walked off, that meant that neither Roxy nor Ezzie had to sit on Thad's lap on the way back and neither of them would have to worry about Thad screaming in their ears. Pushing the door open to the store she looked at the other two. "How much should we get?" she asked.

[fryn]

Takumi tore his attention from Sebastian and looked in concern at Izzy. The boy seemed to have withrawn completely inside himself and as Takumi only knew a little French he wasn't at all sure what Sebastian was saying. "Do you understand him?" he whispered to Izzy who shook her head. "Sebastian-chan..." he tried but that only served to see him clutch even more tightly to the blanket he held. "What should we do? We can't leave him here and I don't think we can make him go inside the store. Your car? Perhaps we can get him back there... "

It was worth trying and Takumi reached out to grasp Sebastian's arm, startled by the speed in which the other boy shrank back from his touch.

"That isn't going to work either. We need to call the school and have them contact his family." He looked at Izzy once more, knowing that action would see them all end up in seriously hot water for skipping class but at least they didn't all have to be held to account. The others - Thad, Teddy, Ezzie and Roxy - were safely inside the building and wouldn't even be noticed by whoever repsonded to Takumi's phone call. And Izzy... If he could persuade her to leave him with Sebastian then only the two boys would be in trouble.

"I will call the school," he stated in a decisive tone. "And before they arrive you will go and hide with the others until we've left. Ok?" He had a feeling he was in for something of an arguement but it made no sense what so ever for anyone else to end up in detention.

[Izzy Chen]

Ezzie felt bad for Sebastian. It would be bad if he left them, but she also was a little weirded out by the kid. He spoke in French all the time and got super mad over something that in Ezzie's mind meant nothing. it was weird. Yes he saved her from a tray, but still. She had no idea how things got so bad. Ezzie looked at Roxy as she spoke. Cotton Candy! Now her attention was else where. She watched as Roxy talked about Thad being brave and tried to hide a snicker. "No fair Roxy, you cannot hog Thad all to yourself." ezzie said chiming in.

"We should get enough to take home. I say three bags. That will give me a pleasant sugar high. You going to get some for your sisters Thad?" Ezzie asked eyeing her friend. She knew he was trying to help, but apparently the other kid did not see that.
*****************

"Taki, if you called the school, you would get into trouble." Izzy did not like the idea, but the kid also just took off. "Remind me I owe you a big favor for this. I promise to make this up to you." Izzy knew she should take the fall with Taki, but if she got caught she would get in trouble and she would get kicked off the paper.

Izzy leaned up and placed a kiss on Taki's lips, with a promise of a night to make up for him being selfless in this. Izzy squeezed his hand and walked off to the store and told the others what Taki was going to do. She really did luck out with a great guy. Izzy was defiantly going to plan a special Spoil Taki night for this.

Tag for wrap?