Oddities

Chapter 11

I managed to spot Rena as she stepped out, but that's all I saw of her. I expected her to still be upset (we all did), so I decided to just let her go. I'd see her either in the assembly this morning, or in class, so chasing her would be useless and a waste of energy.

I slipped my hand into my backpack loop as I started heading out of the dorm. I tossed it onto my back as I stepped out of the door
Turning a corner, I barely stopped myself from bumping into someone, "Sorry-"
"You're fine." I recognized it to be Nick almost immediately after that.
"Oh, Hey Nick. Fancy seeing you here." I looked up at him and I could tell he seemed... off... but I chucked that up to him being worried about Lizzie.
"Whatsup?" He looked at me, the glossed-over look in his eyes still present.
"Not much." I shrugged, "you ok?"
"Yeah. Just... was hoping Lizzie was ok."
I internally congratulated myself for assuming correctly, "We... don't know yet. We haven't heard anything."
He nodded, his shoulders dropping slightly, "you ready for this assembly?" he asked. I assumed he was changing the topic, but I didn't want to talk about the Lizzie situation either, so I was glad.
"Not at all." I chuckled as I started walking, Nick falling in step next to me.
He smiled slightly, "it won't be bad. I'm sure it's just talking about the games."

I've never gotten a chance to talk one on one with him, and now that I was I realized he has a slight British accent. it's not too prominent, it's just certain words that it's pretty obvious.
My mind spun as I tried to decide if I wanted to bring it up, "Yeah, hopefully..."
We then fell into a silence, which I wouldn't quite describe as "comfortable". Instead of sitting in silence, I decided I'm just going to ask about the accent, "this... may seem random, but I realized you kinda... you kind of have an accent."
I noticed his muscles tense slightly, and his eyes shot forward. A couple minutes went by before he spoke again, "my grandma was British." He answered very... forcefully? Almost as if the words were hard for him to get out.
"Is... is she ok?"
"Yeah, she's fine." I noticed he was now hiding the accent.
"Ok...." I trailed off, it seemed that the topic upset him, so It'd probably be best to drop it, plus, we were arriving at the gym. "Guess I'll see you later?"
"Yup." He waved as he walked in, immediately going off to find his friends, and I did the same. I sat down next to Rena, hoping the mystery of Nick will distract her, "Nick is acting really weird."
She looked over at me, raising an eyebrow, "how so?"
I noticed her face lift a little, Mission slightly successful.
"I noticed he has a slight British accent, so I asked about it. then he just... went weird. He hesitated a lot with the answer."
"Strange... what was his answer?"
"He said his grandma was British."
"Is she..."
"he said she's fine. But as soon as I mentioned the accent, he tried to hide it."
"Weird..." her facial expression shifted to her thinking face, "maybe his grandma was a bad person, so he doesn't like talking about her?"
"That's possible." my eyes scan over the crowd, part of me wanted to spot Nick again, see if he was acting normal with his friends, but there was also a part of me that was looking for Vee
but... I saw neither, so I just looked back to Rena, and we talked till Mr. Nightmare walked out and cleared his throat.
Then he started his announcements...

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"I can't believe this! He can't do this!" Rena said, sitting down at her lunch table. we haven't gotten a chance to talk to each other after the assembly, and to be honest, we're all reeling.
"He can do whatever he wants" Ryder slammed down his food tray. I sighed, rubbing my face. I was sitting backward in my seat so that I was facing them.
My mind ran over his words over and over again, but I just couldn't figure out why he would do this.
I heard some people like to explore around during the night, despite my rules. Now from 12 am - 6 am, there will be men with... toys out on the campus, and trust me when I say they aim to kill.

Part of me thought The Black Night told him about my late-night walk, but part of me also thought that maybe...
Vee was the one who told him.
I knew it was a small chance, but Vee hasn't even looked my way all-day
I know he was yelled at by Mr. Nightmare once to stop talking to me but... a small smile would be appreciated.
I just shook off my thoughts as I start to say something, but I was cut off by Pandora running over, her face pale white, "Guys! It's... It's Lizzie! something happened!"