Hope and Adrienne

[x-trance.livejournal.com]

Hope decides to talk to one of her teachers about the strange events of last week.

Trigger warning: potential references to loss of child.

"Excuse me, Ms. Frost. Do you have a moment?" Hope shyly approached the desk as the rest of the class emptied out around her. "I have been having some problems with the current set of equations."

"Sure," Adrienne answered with a pleasant smile, gesturing to the chair that was next to her desk. "You don't normally have problems with math, Miss Abbott," she pointed out conversationally. "What's tripping you up?"

"I am having trouble with the sets of equations we are working on now. I can resolve, but if I try to graph it, I seem to go wrong every time." Hope pulled out her math workbook and an answer booklet. "The answer of how I resolved the equation seems to be correct, but the graph is totally different."

Adrienne squinted at the workbook, then the answer booklet, drumming the fingers of one hand on her desk as she worked the equation out in her head. "Ah. Here it is." She picked up a pencil and circled a notation in Hope's workbook. "Just a tiny calculation error, but the axes of the graph get skewed by it."

Hope frowned at her workbook, looking back and forth between it and the answer booklet. "I see what you mean, Ms. Frost. I wonder though..." Turning a few pages in her workbook, she studied the equations there. "I think I made the same type of mistake in these equations. I kept running in the same problem while making the graph."

"Uhh... I think you may be mixing up your x and y axes, actually," Adrienne pointed out, sounding apologetic. This really wasn't like Hope, from what Adrienne had seen of her work this year.

"What?" Hope squinted at her work, then sighed. "How? I really must have been with my head in the clouds while I was finishing my work. My apologies, Ms. Frost. I should have checked my equations before coming to you."

Adrienne gave a little smile and a wince in sympathy with Hope. "No worries, Miss Abbott. It happens. Particularly around this time of year." It was probably just Teenager Brain, Adrienne figured, but figured she'd ask if something else was going on anyway, just to make sure, recalling Hope's former issues with her mother. "Is everything alright? At home? At the school, y'know... with your peers? That sort of thing?"

"I am fine, Ms. Frost. I still regret not having had the chance to see my parents over the winter break..." The little lie slipped through almost without Hope realizing it.  

Adrienne nodded, putting her pencil back in the cup on her desk. "Good line. That almost sounded convincing," she murmured, cocking an eyebrow at Hope.

"I am truly fine, Ms. Frost. I am still a little worried for Tandy, if you mean something like that, but I hardly think I am the only one in that. She is my friend." Hope only blinked once when she was caught in her little white lie, but smoothly shifted gears.

"No, you're certainly not the only one in that. But I can assure you that her uncle and I, along with the rest of the staff here, are going to... take care of her, and make sure nothing bad happens to her." It was still really weird to think that she was now partly responsible for that.

"I am glad and relieved to hear she has so much support." Hope slowly started to gather up her workbook and answer booklet, scribbling down a few quick notes on how to improve her replies. "Thank you for your assistance, Ms. Frost and I am sorry for bothering you."

Feeling like she was being blown off, Adrienne leaned back in her chair and put her feet up on the desk. "No problem. Come to me anytime, Miss Abbott, no matter what's troubling you."

"Thank you for your offer." Hope nodded and tucked her books away in her bag. "I will be sure to keep it in mind." With another nod Hope headed for the door, only pausing when she was about to close it behind her.

Sensing that Hope was struggling with something else but trying to decide whether to spill or not, Adrienne waited her out, not wanting to pressure her. "You don't have to close the door," was all she said.

Hope hesitated for a moment more, then stepping back inside, carefully closing the door behind. "Ms. Frost, may I ask something very strange and very forward?"

Adrienne raised an eyebrow again. "Seeing how most of what your peers ask me is both strange and forward, of course you may. What's up?"

"You are friends with Dr. Grey, right?" Hope neatly folded her hands in front of her, her eyes mostly on the floor and her voice quite hesitant.

"Sure I am," Adrienne nodded, quite unsure as to where this was going.

"I had a very strange encounter with her last night while I was ghosted out. I was wondering if she was alright..." Hope continued hesitantly, searching for words several times.

Surprised, Adrienne straightened up in her chair. "What? Is she alright?" As far as Adrienne knew, Hope's ghosting wasn't actually dangerous, and it wasn't as if Jean wasn't completely capable of looking after herself, but still, Adrienne was instantly worried about her friend. "I didn't- I didn't hear anything from her. What happened?"

"Sometimes I practice control late at night and I explore the hallways in my astral form. Normally I do no encounter anyone, but this time I met Dr. Grey. She was very startled..." Hope paused for a moment to carefully consider her next words. "I went back to my body and I came out to apologize... Dr. Grey still looked very much like she had seen a ghost... She hardly looked at me and she left so quickly..." Her voice trailed of, not quite able to explain what had discomfited her so much.

Adrienne cocked an eyebrow in curiosity. Based on what Hope was saying she didn't think there was much to the encounter, assuming that Jean had just been caught off guard by the projection and was maybe embarrassed by it or something. But she was willing to give Hope the benefit of the doubt that something wasn't right about what had happened. Hope would have been used to people being startled by her form by now, right? And why would she, when she seemed to have so much trouble speaking to Adrienne outside of class in the first place, have even brought it up if she wasn't convinced there was something off about all of it? It seemed to have taken a lot for Hope to have said anything at all, so Adrienne figured she'd better take it seriously. "How did she seem in class today?" she asked inquisitively.

"I only saw her briefly during training with our powers. She did not seem that different... fairly composed... though she still hardly looked at me... But that night... She did not look like she had just seen me, but like she has seen a real life ghost..." Hope shook her head briefly. "I am not quite sure how to say it... She did not just leave quickly, but almost seemed to run..."

"Okay," Adrienne nodded. It didn't seem on the surface like there was much to be alarmed about- Hope was quite a weird kid, from what Adrienne knew, and based on the description she was giving out it didn't sound like there was much going on beyond Jean being freaked out by the ghost thing and Hope being upset about it. Still, she figured it was sort of her job to give the students the benefit of the doubt. "Yeah, that does seem pretty out of character for Jean. Did you want me to talk to her about it for you?"

"I do not know what is best in this case, Ms. Frost... It was just so strange and I was a little worried. I just wanted to alert someone about my concerns..." Hope shrugged, still not quite able to express what she wanted to say. "I wish I had a way to show you what happened..."

Adrienne smirked a little at Hope's last comment. "There is a way for me to see it," she told Hope, flexing her fingers. "I'll go check it out with my powers. Thanks for alerting me," she added with a nod, not wanting Hope to think telling people about her concerns was a waste of her time. "I'll get to the bottom of it so you aren't worried anymore, I promise."

"Thank you, Ms. Frost." Hope nodded, a small smile of relief on her face. "I hope Dr. Grey is alright." Again she gathered up her bag and headed for the door.