Swallowed By A Whale [L =D]

[P ! R @ T E [Randi Miller*]]

<sub>What a wonderful day to be at school? The sun was shining brightly over the horizion, the birds were chirping happily, as if saying hello to the world, and the bus drivers were driving slower than usual, so that no kid would have to run too much to catch up to the bus. Yeah a wonderful day it was, but it wasn't day anymore. It was night time, and Randi was opening her locker. Still at school after seven o' clock. You might be thinking that maybe she's a teacher, but she isn't. Randi is a senior in high school, and she's staying at school because she doesn't want to return home to her stepfather.

Randi grumbles quietly to herself as she tries to open her locker, but for some reason-- it's either jammed or insubordinate-- the darn thing wont open. Randi tugs and tugs at the thing, and is kind of getting irritated because all she has to do it put ONE book back. Why go through all of this just for one book? As Randi was about to let go and bring the stupid thing home with her, the locker unjammed and she fell to the floor as the door ran into the locker next to it. There were two loud bangs- One from the locker to locker collision, and the second from Randi falling to the floor, leaving her books in a bit of a mess right beside her.

Now as Randi had had a rather horrible day after stressing about two finals, going home to her step father and mother who doesn't believe her about her spouce [if that made a bit of sense] and of course second day of school jitters, it wasn't hard to predict what she did after she fell. She began to cry, letting all of the pain of being abused, her mother's hurtful words, her father's death, second day jitters and all of her other problems flow out of her. Her books lay beside her, the locker's noise still reverberated through the very empty hallways, and Randi sat there on the ground, sobbing like a schoolgirl without her favorite book.

Randi didn't even DARE look in a nearby mirror, for she knew that her make- up was probably all over her little porcelain face. After a few minutes of sobbing, her volume lowered a little bit as she cried, and she wiped her face off with her sleeve. As a black streak stood out on her sleeve now, she knew that her make- up really MUST have been on the brink at this point. She had wiped it off of her cheek, you see.
Randi began picking up her books, one by one, still dreading her long and very along walk home to her abusive household.</sub>

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[.unlogged//]

Well today was rather slow, which was surprisingly disappointing to the Teacher who only looked forward to these type of days. The harsh steaming spray of water shot through the shower head, beating against a softly tanned body. Instantly the water covered the youth's naked frame with steaming hot streams, however the man's skin started to turn red as blood instantly rushed to his skin. He was just a Teacher, meaning that his job was to teach students about Art considering how he was an Art Teacher and knew his fair share of the Arts and he took pride in his work knowing that he could have had a hand in training a the next Da Vinci or Mary Cassatt. After all, he didn't just ignore those that simply signed up for his classes just for an easy course, he paid attention to all of his students making their interest in the Arts blossom. Lifting his head up to the spray of the water he allowed it wash over his face. Raising his slender digits he ran them over his almond shaped eyes, down his long yet well blended nose, to his pale rose lips then down to his chin. Long strands of cheek length dark brown hair fell across his eyes and upon parting his lips he turned about allowing for the harsh spray to strike his back. Streams of water leaked down his back, moving along with his shoulder blades and spine. Running his hands through his hair he smoothed back the soaking tendrils so that it wasn't attacking his face anymore. He normally didn't use the School's showers just due to the reason he was very cautious about cleanliness and highly doubted that the showers in this School were ever cleaned.

Reaching out he took hold of the shower hanger and pulled down, causing the water to stop. Soaking wet with beads of water dripping from his body the tall youth grabbed a dark ruby hued towel from the hanger next to the shower curtain and wrapped it about his waist before he stepped out of the shower. A sigh escaped the youth as he dried himself off and slipped on some clothes. Pulling on a long sleeved white white dress shirt, he buttoned it save for the last three buttons near the top and slipped on a pair of semi-tight jean pants that were somewhat baggy about the knees and slid a plain black belt into the loops. Drying his hair, he merely let it remain in a tousled state, allowing his bangs to fall over his face he whisked them away from his rare dark blue eyes and slid his feet into a pair of plain wooden sandals. He supposed he should probably stop these random all-nighters but with a lot of work ahead of him he wanted to get it done, besides, it wasn't like he had anything to look forward to at Home. Hell he didn't even consider it a "home." A home is what you looked forward going to after a hard days of work, but that is if you had anything to look forward to. This man used to know the feeling of excitement when he would go "home." But now, that excitement had died. The Asian youth didn't think his boss minded his occasional sleep overs in the School but he could tell that he wanted him to go home and get some rest. Sleep wasn't an option anymore. Every time he closed his eyes to sleep he was always greeted by the harsh scorning faces of his Parents. Shaking his mind from those thoughts Gabriel then moped from the Boy's Locker room and made his way down the hall, heading toward his Room where he would be greeted by a desk swarmed with art utensils and large pads of plain white canvasses.

However, when he had almost reached the door to his room he paused hearing quite a racket echo down the halls. Sounded like someone was having Locker trouble, but who would be around at this time other then him? He began to dismiss the sounds thinking it to be another Teacher or perhaps one of the Janitors just cleaning out old lockers from the last school year. Wrapping his hand about the bronze handle he twisted it and opened the door only to hear more noise echo down the halls. What was going on? With a small sigh he stepped inside of his room not bothering with the door and merely walked toward his desk with the familiar clank of his wooden sandals against the floor. It was a sound he was use to but when he heard the sound of faint sobs he turned from his desk and slowly walked out of his room trying to listen for said sobs and try to pinpoint their owner. Soon he found himself wandering the halls, pausing momentarily to listen only to go on a wild goose chase. What was going on was the main question in his head right now and soon he turned the corner only to pause at the sight of a young student on the floor. Was she alright? Gabriel instantly moved toward her and crouched before the sobbing mess of a girl with a worried expression on his face.

"Hey, are you alright?"

He spoke softly hooking a finger under her chin. His dark blue eyes observed her own seeing how upset she was. Upon observing her frame further he paused seeing partially hidden bruises about her wrist and arm. Was she..like him then? Gabriel let his hand fall to his side. And before he could even register his own movements he reached out to gently embrace her.

"Shh..calm down. Everything will be alright, Dear."

Why was he cradling this girl like he had known her all of his Life? Well, that was simple. He felt connected to her in such a strong way that it was almost scary to him. He was worried that if he were to speak anymore that his voice might waver and break with sobs. His eyes searched nervously, flicking from the girl he held to the walls and lockers about them as if the answer to both their problems were written somewhere with invisible ink..
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[P ! R @ T E [Randi Miller*]]

<sub>Randi found it completely pointless to try to get up at this point, because she would just end up falling over her own shoes in a crying heap. So she just sat there on the ground, still crying as though it would help her through all of her problems. Although sometimes crying does the soul good and makes you feel better afterwards, Randi knew full well that this wouldn't at all stop her home problems. The teenager was crying so hard that she didn't even hear the person coming up beside her, but she did hear the man ask her if she was okay. Not even able to speak she shook her head and only began to cry harder. Ugh what an ugly lot she must look at the moment, how embarassing to be crying to the point of exploding while your mascara is dribbling down your face, making you look like a bit of a sad clown or something. Well at the moment none of these thoughts passed through Randi's mind, because it didn't matter to her whether she was pretty for this teacher fella or not.


Suddenly she felt herself being embraced by him, the man who had seemingly crept up on her while she was looking like a sad clown. Somehow she seemed to feel quite a lot better as they embraced, yet she couldn't stop herself from crying. What was she now, a faucet? That was what see seemed to be turned into, after all.
"Everything will certainly NOT be alright." Randi blubbered, allowing her not so tough and confindent side to come out for a few minutes. "Once I step out these doors the 'alright' is as good as gone." Was she even making sense? Was she losing weight or something by crying so much? What's four times six?! Yeah I know the answer to the third question but still...


Randi disconnected herself from the guy, whoever he might be, and glared at him a bit. It was about the seventh time in her entire life that she had glared at someone- The kid was accepting and forgiving, and thought that a glare was only saved for those who TRUELY needed them. This guy didn't deserve to be glared at though, he had tried to help her out. But he didn't know what she went through when she stepped through her front doors, how could he POSSIBLY say that everything was going to be alright? Impossible.</sub>

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[.unlogged//]

Well it seems the only thing he managed to get from this girl was more tears. He knew asking if she was alright was a pretty silly thing to ask considering how she couldn't stop crying and only shook her head to prove the ridiculousness of his question. It was almost cute in a way how her face was streaked with the make up that was originally for her eyes but he soon shook those random thoughts from his head. He honestly didn't know what to do but for some strange reason it felt right to embrace this sobbing girl, to try and ease her troubles only for such a short period of time just to see her smile. Those lovely green eyes of hers were clouded with tears and makeup and he had to stop himself from wiping her delicate face free from the tears that only spilled and ran down her cheeks. Even though he didn't know what was going on in this girl's Life he had a feeling that his assumption was correct. She reminded him of his days as a Child, but even though most of that time had been but a blur to him now he still had faint memories now and again that were often jogged by random cases of deja vu. Perhaps this wasn't exactly classified as deja vu but it certainly jogged his memory. He had been much like how this girl was when he was little, unable to break away from the abuse because of a parent who failed to recognize the signs of abuse; a parent that lived in a fairy tale where everything was perfect.

Suddenly hearing her voice which was slurred with sobs Gabriel gained a frown understanding exactly what she meant. Even though he could relate to her in some way he still couldn't find any words that would help her. After he had escaped his problems whilst she was stuck in the middle of her own. He felt his gaze lower to the floor sadly finding that he couldn't find anything to say to help her. It was then when he felt her break away from his embrace but he slowly retracted his arms to rest them on his knees looking at the girl in-front of him. Instead he leaned forward and lifted a slender hand to her tear streaked face and gently began to wipe at skin clearing her delicate face of the makeup that had ran down her face with a tissue from his pocket. With a soft faint smile he let his hand fall to his side again as he looked upon her face.

"You must be hungry after so much sobbing, hm?"

Rising to his feet he offered her a hand using the other to shove the dirtied tissue into the back pocket of his jeans pocket. He knew that once she would leave his company that her night would only get worse and that he was just delaying it. Gabriel felt a need to protect this young Woman just to see her smile and laugh instead of sob and frown. She was too lovely to waste with tears and sorrow. Again he had no idea why these sudden..inappropriate thoughts had weaved their way into his mind but they had. Still, he wanted to make whatever time they had together better for the young Woman so she could look back on this moment and smile.
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[P ! R @ T E [Randi Miller*]]

<sub>It was pretty hard to keep the glare on Randi's face, because pretty soon her face was being wiped by the stranger. What exactly was with this guy anyways? I mean, sure you can be nice to people, for example you can pick up a person's pencil as they drop it on the ground during class. Or you can try to open someone's locker for them because they're odd little weaklings who can't open it themselves. But this would seem weird to the pencil dropper and the weakling. Heck, it was kind of creeping Randi out a bit too. She stood up slowly, leaving her books where they lay in a heap by her feet, and glanced down at the guy. It would have been an actual 'look' but he was looking at her and it was already awkward enough withOUT them making some type of eye contact.


"Yeah actually... I am kinda hungry." Randi said, wiping off her face and closing her locker quietly. She could hear her own voice reverberating throughout the hallway as she spoke, and didn't want to make even MORE noise. Especially since she had heard a few kids talking in front of her in her second period class about the janitor who lived right under where they were now. If that was true, which it most probably wasn't, she didn't want to disrupt whatever he was doing at the moment.
"Do you know of anyplace nearby? Or really really far away? How about China, that's far enough." Randi said with a small laugh. She couldn't really believe that she was actually joking about the fact that she would probably meet her doom soon enough. Maybe they really COULD go and eat someplace in China and completely forget about her parents... But wouldn't that be even more awkward than just making eye contact? Staying in China basically forever with a teacher. Bleck, gross. She didn't even know this fella, that mdae it all the worse.


OOC. Sucked!</sub>

[.unlogged//]

Hell even he was a bit hungry from a long day that passed by slowly, the boredom of every hour sinking into his empty stomach only to accompany a cup of coffee from this morning which honestly wasn't the best he had had before. But where could he bring his new friend? China? She wanted to go to China? Gabriel released a small sheepish laugh, leaning against the opposite row of Lockers whilst Randi shut her own. Well he couldn't exactly bring her to China much less pay for much at the moment but he could bring her to a place that was China related. The place he had in mind wasn't that far away and they could actually walk there from the High School. It was a good shop and he knew the Owners well which was a good thing considering how they spoke little English mostly having customers of Asian decent both being either Chinese or Japanese. Plus it wasn't everyday Gabriel got to speak in the language he had grown up with but strangely didn't mind the absence of a tongue that only reminded him of what he had left behind.

"Well, I can't bring you there but, I can take you to another place that isn't too far from the School."

With his reply he stood upright with his hands slid into the pockets of his jeans and waited until she was ready to start walking down the hall. He paused however and crouched down to gather her things within his arms only to walk and offer her things back to her. After all she was still a Student and he was a Teacher so that didn't mean he'd let her just forget her studies. Ok well he wasn't going to make her study or do her homework or anything like that but he wanted to make sure that her grades at least wouldn't go down the drain.

"O, pardon me, my name is Mister Kirisame. I'm one of the Art Teachers here. I've never really seen your face around the school but excuse me if we have exchanged names before, I don't have a very good memory at times!"

O how ironic was that? He was telling the truth even if there was some irony to his words. Sometimes he hated irony especially when it involved his past which to be even more ironic was a past he could hardly remember! But enough of the Literary elements. After offering her her things he once again began to walk down the hall way letting his arms fall to his sides as he walked.

"Care to share your thoughts? I promise I won't pry if you don't want to tell me but..perhaps I could relate to you in some way."

He was more then sure he could relate to her now all he had to do was wait and see if she would open up to him. Gabriel of course had no intentions of becoming a temporary Psychologist nor a Shrink but he would listen to her problems and offer her aid if she wanted it. Sometimes people had a hard time accepting help even more so from Strangers that seemed a bit intent with hearing your problems. O well, he would try to at least solve one of her pending issues by filling her stomach with food and beverages.
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[P ! R @ T E [Randi Miller*]]

<sub>Randi wished that she could just leave the stupid books behind, since they had caused her enough trouble in the past two days that she had had them, but she knew that it wouldn't be good to just leave them in the middle of the hallway. She would have to pay for the lost books at the end of the year, and usually just one of those books costs around sixty dollars. There were more than five right there on the ground at the moment, so whatever sixty times five is is how much Randi would owe. Alsoooooo Randi would probably get sued on Monday by whoever happened to trip over her books, break their neck and then look inside the book and see her name written on the top row. Most people didn't just write random names in there, did they? They wrote their real names. Stupid books.


Randi was hoping that maybe the teacher would just forget that she had ever had the books, and maybe he would think that they had always been lying on the finely polished ground, but as he picked them up and handed them to her, she realized that he obviously hadn't forgotten. Randi took the books and stuffed them into her little tote bag with elephants all over it, and began walking down the halls. Truthfully the girl didn't mind where they went, as long as they could stay there forever..? No that wouldn't happen. Well long enough for her to spill her guts, get some food and figure out a way to get into the house without her abusive step father finding out that she had probably broken curfue AND almost lost her school books. He had supposedly 'paid good money' for them, although I highly doubt that's the truth.


"Nice to meet you." Randi said, giving up on being a pouty teenager. It was much more fun to be herself, even if she annoyed fifty other people in the process. "I'm Randi... And no we haven't met before. I just moved here from Canada." Randi said with a bright smile, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. Art teacher eh? She enjoyed art, maybe they would see eachother around during the next like, half a year that she had left in the school. That's one of the reasons she found it pointless to move to the little town and get into a new school. She didn't even have that much longer to be in the school that she would be enrolling- What's the point?


"My thoughts? Oh I don't think, I gave that up years ago." Randi responded, but then changed her mind. No use in being a smart alec, this guy obviously wasn't going anywhere. Sometimes she had a hard time not pushing people away when they were trying to help her out. Randi swallowed her pride, took a deep breath and gave a truthful answer.
"It's just this thing with my step dad doing stuff to me and my mum not believing me about it.. Nothing huge or anything eh? But I'm sure you can't really relate to it, it's pretty stupid." Randi added, blowing it off. It really WASN'T a big deal, she had dealt with it since her mother had married the little scum bag. That was a long time ago. Randi was used to it..</sub>

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[.unlogged//]

He didn't know how many books students were required to carry around these days but it seemed to be an overwhelming amount which beat the grand total of three he had to drag around as a Child. Ok so he often skipped classes save for Art and usually didn't bother with such paper weights his Teachers told him were necessary to have at all times. Pft, screw that. He was never interested in the droll that came from their mouths anyway figuring it to be warped and mutilated information. Gabriel had been taught to always question everything, to question what people told him to be fact and nothing more, however this wasn't a case where he could just inquire. There was something they shared in common and for Gabriel, it was twisting his insides just to confirm it. The bruises, how she cried..it told Gabriel that something was wrong in this young woman's Life and that he, somehow, could help her.

So she was a new Student? Not really much to look forward then considering the feeble half year Students had left now. It was the beginning of Summer so really Gabriel wondered why the family had decided to move so late. It must've been hard for her, Gabriel thought, to have to move to a new area with new people and such but figured she was a strong individual and would probably befriend the other students instantly. Though..he had been wrong before. The Asian youth continued forward, going down the hall until the main entrance was clear in sight. He paused and looked to the girl beside him with an inquisitive expression in reply to her rather smart mouthed retort. Hm..he didn't seem to take offense to her though seeing her seem to reconsider her words. When she spoke Gabriel felt his heart seem to stop suddenly. No one believed her? What the bruises weren't enough proof?

"Of course it matters!"

Gabriel chided softly moving to stand in-front of her. He stood there looking down at her silently with his dark blue orbs that seemed to show his strong emotion. He knew the connection with her now. She might have claimed to be "use to it" but Gabriel knew she wasn't and probably never would be. He had said that same thing to himself when he was her age and knew by fact that it wasn't something you could get use to and simply dismiss.

"I have gone through the same as you are now..I know what it's like.."
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[P ! R @ T E [Randi Miller*]]

Randi didn't really see why this guy was making such a big deal out of something that was pretty much part of her daily routine. She WAS used to it, since her mother had married her step dad she had been dealing with this, and it was all she could do to cope with it every day. Anyways, had this teacher never heard of people just not even feeling the pain after a while? That was kind of how Randi was, and it seemed that if she didn't show the pain on her face, her stepfather only beat her even MORE. Of course if she DID show the pain, he mocked her and kept going. I guess Randi can't win for losing around her house, when it came to her stepfather.


Randi found herself being stopped by the teacher guy, having him tell her that it did indeed matter. Yeah it DID matter, but it really wasn't something that Randi wanted to bore the poor fella with. I mean, I'm sure that he had enough problems of his own, why would he want to take in her problems too?
"Well it DOES matter, but it shouldn't matter to you. They're my problems, and I shouldn't have even gotten you into this mess." Randi replied, almost unable to tear her eyes away from the man's blue ones. Almost. She looked around him at the janitor, who was standing a good ways down the hall and kind of looking at them funny. Well hey, if I was sweeping late at night at a school and happened to see a teacher and a student talking like they WEREN'T talking about physics, I would kind of wonder too. But the janitor just shrugged and walked the other way down the hallway, probably too happy
to care about Randi's stupid problems.


"Well you're still living, so that obviously means that I can live through it too eh? Don't worry about me, I can take it." Randi said, wondering just how much her last sentence had sounded rather manlilike. Before he had died, Randi's father had always told her that she could take anything on. He had always seemed to believe that his little girl could do anything and take on anything. Sort of like his own little SuperWoman or something... But Randi's father had not encountered this stepfather coming and beating the crap out of his daughter. He hadn't meant that Randi could take THIS on, now had he? Well anyways, since he had told her that multiple times, it had stuck in Randi's head and that was probably why she had the mindset that she could get through it. Just like she got through everything else. Randi smiled up at the teacher, trying to let him know without speaking that everything would be fine, and walked around him towards the exit.

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