Stonebrook High School

Chapter 87

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~*Ω*~

The three of them made it to school around 7:30, giving them an extra half hour to unwind before classes started. Jess mentioned she had something to do and left Petra and her brother alone, running straight for the choir room.

As she arrived, she saw her choir teacher and Vienna walking out of the classroom, the two talking about what could have been nonsense or work. Jess waved to them, inquiring what they were doing this early in the morning.

"Oh, Jess, it's been such a long time since I've last seen you!" Vienna exclaimed, her wide eyes fluttering with relief. "I'm so glad you're okay." The brown-haired girl ran up to the twin and hugged Jess tightly, refusing to let go for a few seconds.

Jess laughed lightly, holding up her right hand. "Well, the majority of me is okay. Don't ask," she said as she saw the question begin to leave Vienna's mouth.

"Good morning, Jesse," the choir teacher said. "She was asking me about people who went missing and if I recognized them. I was just about to go identify some pictures. Do you want to watch my room for me?"

Jess nodded. "Yeah, sure! I can do that." She made sure not to mention that that was her plan in the first place.

They began to leave, Vienna turning around to say one last thing to her friend. "Hey, Jess, are you okay?"

Where did this sudden emotional intuition from Vienna come from? The girl was always a bit of an airhead, oblivious to the most obvious of things, yet she was still able to see through Jess. Or, perhaps, Vienna was simply double-checking that Jess really was okay, but the look in the French-Asian girl's face made the twin believe otherwise.

"Yeah." The female twin nodded. "I am. Don't worry, Vienna. By the way, thanks for all that you're doing with the search for others."

The brown-haired girl dipped her head in response out of respect. "It's the least I can do. Take care of yourself, Jess."

"I will."

~*Ω*~

Jess sat down in the choir room, brushing her hand over the piano keys. Plunking out a few notes, she roughly figured out the melody to a random song in her head. She had never learned how to play the piano but with the choir teacher's help and worksheets, she knew enough to play the simplest of pieces by understanding music theory.

Her head smashed against the keys, causing the dissonant shrills of the piano to bounce off the walls. If only she could understand what she really wanted to learn: what she wanted. Recalling the conversation from this morning, she spaced out and thought to herself. What did she want? Did she want to join this new Order? If so, was it to have something to boast about? To get that feeling of helping others with pure altruistic intention? Was it to get attention? To be able to say she was a leader? To feel like a hero? To be someone she always wanted to be? To be someone to cover up who she wasn't?

If she didn't want to join, was it out of her own necessity? Or was it because she didn't want the attention? Maybe she didn't want to continue training; perhaps that was the answer. It could even have been because she just wanted to live her life and forget.

Forget.

Forgetting was just like her playing the piano. She would never truly forget how to play - she might forget the names of certain chords or where the letters began and repeated but she would never forget the movement of her fingers. Once she learned, she couldn't act as if it never happened. The same went with her Storm incidents. She could forget all about the Storm, all about the Order, but her hand wasn't coming back. She couldn't forget.