xp_logs | A guilty conscience is a nasty thing...

but Alison cheers Terry up just fine.

Terry carefully walks along the corridor towards the classroom Alison has dubbed "the Music Room", a stack of papers and a tattered pencil case in her hands. She's almost tip-toeing and continuously looking left and right as if looking for someone. She arrives at the door and pushes it open, slipping inside and looking around for Alison.

Alison turns around from where she was looking out the window at the sound of the door opening, and smiles in greeting at Terry, raising an eyebrow at how quiet she's being but passing no comment for the moment.

"Hey there kiddo," she says calmly, and starts walking towards her. "You ok?" she adds concernedly.

Terry stares at her feet. "Well, mostly. I feel stupid, guilty..." She sighs and finally looks up at Alison. "I don't know if ye have figured it out already, but Ms Braddock's mariachi band..." She takes a deep breath, then continues hurriedly. "...that was me. But I didn't mean to, honest, and I wasn't in her room without permission, I swear, and if I had known that the system was so complicated I wouldn't have touched her computer but it
started talking to me and I just wanted to know how it worked and I know those excuses are no good."

She busily starts to examine the walls of the room, not daring to meet Alison's eye after her admission.

That was fast, Alison blinks, and then hides an amused smile, reaching over to wrap an arm around Terry's shoulders and lead her towards the door. "Why don't we go outside and get some fresh air," she suggests, gently leading her along. All that hiding out must have been driving you nuts. "We can talk and see how you'd like to try
and sort all that out. Sounds good to you?"

Terry looks at Alison gratefully. "That'd be really great." She shuffles along, still clutching her notebook to her chest. "I wasn't quite sure if I could talk to ye about it, you being half a teacher and all that. Not that I'd expect ye to rat me out or something," she adds quickly, not wanting to offend Alison.

"And I have an idea how I could make it up to her - that's where I need your help."

Alison smiles at her as they walk, giving the young girl's shoulder a reassuring pat. "I understand what you meant, Terry," she says, chuckling at the look of relief she gets in answer. She waits until they step out of the main door and lets Terry lead the way once they're outside. "Making it up to her is a good idea," she agrees. "And I'll help if I can, for sure. But - you might want to actually let her know what happened first."

"That's actually part of the plan," Terry answers. "I know I complained about that postcard I got from me Da, but it also made me smile. So I thought... Ms Braddock really likes literature, and she teaches creative writing, so if I write a poem with an apology she probably wouldn't be as mad at me."

Terry wraps an arm around Alison's waist and steers them away from the busy basketball field and towards the rose garden with its benches. "Do you think this might work?"

"That m'dear," is the reply, showing more than a hint of approval "is a brilliant idea." They sit down on the benches, and Alison pauses a moment to breath in the scent of the roses in bloom. At least - as long as I get some good with the not so good - I'm okay...

"I would be very happy to help you out with that," she states, intending to make sure to just help Terry along so that the work is actually entirely hers - and then blinks as she thinks of something. "You know, you could ask Piotr if you can borrow some of his art paper, and write it up nicely for her when it's written out."

Terry hesitates at that. "I don't know. I wasn't really nice to him and it doesn't feel right to just act as if nothing happened and ask things of him."

Alison ponders that for a moment, thinking about what Terry has just said and trying to work out when that was. "Ah," she nods, remembering a few comments. "Well - maybe it would be a good time to sort things out with him as well," she suggests, giving Terry a sidelong look. "Chances are though, Piotr's not even thinking of that anymore at all, you know. He's really not the type to keep a grudge. But-" she pauses, giving the redhead a meaningful look. "But if it would make you feel better to talk to him about it and clear things up, why not?"

Terry shrugs, uncomfortably. "I guess he thinks it was all sorted out after I went on the rollercoaster with him last week, but we haven't really spoken since." She hesitates a moment, then asks "Isn't he coming to the skatepark with ye on the weekend?"

"Indeed he is," is the serene reply. Doubt he'd cancel. "Why don't you come along?" she adds, inwardly chuckling at how things are working out. "You could easily talk to him then, if you'd like."

Terry looks at her gratefully. "That would be great. Everyone has been so busy lately." She grins wryly. "Some of us even with studying."

Quiet laughter greets those words, and Alison gestures at the pencil case and papers Terry brought along. "Speaking of studying... why don't we get started on this? You write, and I'll nudge you along if you get stuck. Shall we?"