Clearing out the Past (Cali)

[Kimberly Jones]

Red hair flashed through the hallways as the acting leader of the prefect moved through the halls. The stick of a lollipop was sticking out of the corner of her mouth, something she had been doing since she had the money. She loved sweets, it was no secret. The fact that Ollie had actually bought her a bunch when they went to the mall meant that she had plenty to finish off, along with her now regular trips to the mall to get more. But what was the sweets loving Kimberly doing out right now? She was heading towards the lounge, knowing that she needed to do something eventually about it. She slipped in silently, moving over to the vending machine, noting that no one was in the lounge before making the quick code input, moving into the Prefect lounge, the machine closing behind her.

She paused a moment later, tilting her head, looking towards the door to what was previously Meredith's office. She saw movement and heard it on the other side of the door, her mind wondering who it could be before shaking her head, smiling only a moment later as she realized who exactly it was. She walked over to the door, her eyes drifting to the handle for a moment before grabbing it, pulling it open slowly and slipping inside. "I should have expected someone else would beat me to the punch, especially if that someone was you, Cali."

She smiled softly at the girl, knowing how hard it had to be to have to clean out the office a second time. Kimberly was a very small figure until a year ago, but she did remember what had happened with Seth. "Mind if I come in and help?"

[Calista Leila Rosa]

Calista carefully set books and papers into various boxes, her dark eyes glimmering with tears. This was the second time she had to clean out this office. One more time that she had to say goodbye to someone she loved. Her sister was dead. As Meredith's almost sister-in-law, she had taken it upon herself to clean out her office before someone else could. She wanted to be the one to sort all of Meredith's belongings. It was hard to believe that once upon a time, she was here with Meredith, picking through her brother's belongings.

The only consolation she had was that maybe Meredith was finally with Seth again and that she would have both of them watching over her.

The emotions that ran rampant and ravaged her mind and soul were a mixture of anger and regret. A deep rooted desire to return to the past and a burning hope to move into the future. She had promised Meredith. She had promised her, just before her sister had died, that she would live up to her dreams, to their expectations. She would be the one to end the Ashford program and get the students out of this hell hole. That way, no one would ever have to suffer through the terrors of battle, never again be forced to watch as the life left the eyes of loved ones. Meredith’s touch was, but a ghost on Calista’s skin. She winced, as she remembered her sister go limp in her arms, she could feel Meredith’s spirit leave her, she could feel her sister was gone.

There were dark bags under her eyes, her face puffy, cheeks slightly wet from tears. Mourning wasn’t pretty.

This was her fault. This was all her fault! If she had acted soon, if she had predicted something like this would happen, if she had worked harder and made change happen faster! This would never have happened...Fire burned in her tired eyes. Fueled by sorrow and anger. Their deaths wouldn’t be in vain. They wouldn’t die forgotten.
As Calista sealed a box and stacked it with the rest, she heard the door knob turn. Immediately, she flushed with fury. She had told the prefects to stay back, to not touch anything in Meredith’s office and to even think about disturbing her. Her sister hadn’t been gone for a full two weeks and they already had some replacement for her! They had known better than to disturb Calista in this state.

She was about to tell whoever it was to get lost until she caught sight of Kimberly’s figure looming in the doorway. Her anger left as soon as it came, her shoulders slumping as she went back to sorting. She had to keep her hands busy, had to keep moving. If she didn’t, who knows what she would do.

”Meredith is my sister, after all. I wasn’t about to let someone else get their grimy hands all over her stuff.” She said bitterly. Sighing, she wanted to turn Kimberly away, but Calista knew that Meredith would want any important information to remain with the prefects and to be stored. AS Calista was too busy with her own faction, she didn’t know which of these papers were important and which just random musings were. Calista couldn’t tell which were statistical data and which just random pieces of math homework.

”Yeah, sure.” She said, barely looking at the girl. “you can start with that paperwork over there.”

[/b] She said, pointing to a large stack of papers on Meredith’s desk.[/blockquote]

[Kimberly Jones]

"Well, if it's any plus I only planned on clearing out the paper work. I was planning on leaving her personal belongings to you," she stated, telling the full truth. She didn't want to tread where she shouldn't, Calista and Meredith had been extremely close and she knew it would be stupid to get between such a bond. She wandered over to the piles of paperwork, looking at it. How much of that had actually needed to be processed over the years, and how much of it was actually just built up and ignored? She took a seat in a chair next to the desk, flipping through the papers and separating what she knew to be important and what she knew not to be.

She glanced through the papers, separating them, staying silent for the most part. What was she supposed to say to Calista? Sorry for your loss? The girl didn't want to admit it but she was pretty much in the same boat herself and was only putting on a strong facade so she didn't look weak and unfit to take her temporary leadership position. Would she be in the position forever? She didn't know. What she did know though was that any sign of weakness was bad, something she didn't want to show. She needed to stay strong, to keep anyone who wanted to act in check. She didn't need any killing sprees sprouting from the conflict, not that she wouldn't be surprised if there were. She sighed a bit out loud, looking at the various math problems and random drawings on one of the sheets. She couldn't tell if there was supposed to be something under the mess, but she doubted it.

She set the piece of paper to the side, grabbing another paper, looking at it and closed her eyes, mumbling under her breath. It was a roster of one of the teams. It just had to be Naomi's that she picked up. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for a moment before placing it into the pile where she was placing things to be filed away later. Why had this happened? So many had lost their lives, so much potential to change the world was just completely lost. There had to have been something she could have done. It was stupid how it had happened, so many things happening all at once. The only reason why she had escaped relatively unharmed was her previous experience and the fact Oliver had been keeping an eagle eye on her the entire time.

"Why did this happen..." she muttered under her breath, needing to at least get it out. There was no reason why it needed to happen, no reason why the deaths happened. They just had. She leaned forward, grabbing another paper. "If this keeps up our biggest enemy really wont be those in charge."