Oh, the Places You'll Go (Ari/Invite)

[Evan]

He sprinted down the hall, trying to avoid the hairbrush that flew past him. How the heck was he supposed to know he had wandered into the girls’ dorms? The more important question was why the hell the girls’ rooms were in the school building. Could they not have just built separate buildings for the students at least? He let out a huff and continued to wander down the hall, rubbing the back of his head. A heel had nicked him in the back of the head, and he was certainly feeling it. I’ll be lucky if I don’t have a migraine after this,he thought to himself, glancing around before continuing on his aimless path through the west side of the school. The tour guide that had showed him around had warned him to stay away from this side of the school, though he really did not know why. It was not like there were booby traps or anything, right?

Clearly, Murphy’s law had been just lying in wait to strike, because, not even a few moments after he thought that, he heard a noise. He stopped dead in his tracks, looking around for the source of the soft, high pitched noise. After seeing nothing in particular, he shrugged and continued walking. He kept wandering down the halls, trying to look into the doors, though most of them were closed. Most of the doors did not have little windows like the classroom doors did, which he found odd. He could not say for sure, but this side of the school seemed a lot darker than the eastern side, though it could have just been his imagination. He had been told often when he was younger that he had a wild imagination, and even the kids at the lab thought he was pretty creative. The thought made him frown a little, but he shook his head a little to dispel the thought. It was best not to think about it; it would just drag him down. He started to hum a song to himself to cheer up, which he did quickly, thankfully. It was hard to keep the orange-haired young man down.

He noticed that the floorboards were odd underneath his feet. If he did not know any better, he would say that something was going to go wrong. As if someone had heard his thoughts, a net shot up from the floor and snatched him up. He let out a yell of surprise and looked around. He noticed the floorboard he had stepped on was bent upward and groaned to himself. Of course he had set off the booby trap. He shrugged to himself, glaring at the material that surrounded him. He had no way of getting out of this predicament, did he? He had left his schoolbag in his room, since classes were done for the day. He wriggled around a little, trying to see if brute force would break the material, but to no avail, much to his irritation. He tapped his chin, then snapped his fingers. He had a multi-tool in his pocket; maybe he was going to be able to get out after all! He placed his hand in his pocket, only to realize they had taken it upon his arrival to the island. S***. What now? he thought to himself, letting out a frustrated huff. He tried wiggling again, since the net seemed to be attached to a loose peg on the ceiling. Honestly, he did not care how he got down, just as long as he was able to be back on the ground. He was not very found of being hoisted into the air like a little kid.

A soft ‘zzz’ sound sounded from nearby and his red eyes scanned the room to see what was going on. He could not see much, but the noise sounded like it was coming closer to him, which made him brace himself. After a moment, he saw the source of the noise. A little black and yellow insect was buzzing and flying around the net he was contained in. He felt a little bit of sweat bead on the back of his neck when he identified it. What the hell is a bee doing in here?! he thought, trying to keep a calm outer state. He hatedbees and had, ever since he was a kid. Of course, it was just his luck to be trapped up high in some wing of the school that he had no way of getting out of with his least favorite thing in the world. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed someone walking down the hall and decided to ask them for help. It was embarrassing, but he was certainly not interested in sharing a space with the same creature that he had loathed since childhood.

“Hey, uh, excuse me? I’m hoping you can help me. See, I’m kind of in a pickle here, and I thought maybe a pretty young lady such as yourself might be so generous as to, uh, help me down from here? I’m sure you’re a very kind person, and I would be really grateful if you could help…”

[Arianna Rosa]

Light filtered in through the dusty windows of the West Tower, the air itself seeming to hold a dreamlike quality from the dancing of the dust in the light. The corridor of the West Tower was empty, the only presence in the halls being the shadows that were forever engaged in a dance with the light that streamed through the windows. However, there was a single door cracked ever so slightly open in that hallway, tossing the shadows out of synch with the faded light. The room itself was but a simple abandoned classroom that looked as if it hadn't seen the light of day in ages and yet there was a single girl in such a room. The sound of her footsteps echoed off the walls of the classroom as she walked towards the window with its shutters closed. In a single swift movement she threw open the shutters to brighten the room a bit. Turning away from the window, her gaze swept over the desks, the empty cabinets, the forgotten bookshelves of the classroom before finally settling on the old teachers desk at the front of the room.

She approached the desk with a faint flicker of a smile touching her features and set her bag down beside the desk. For a moment, she thanked whatever god existed for the fact that classes were over for the day and that she could actually do something. Her crystal blue gaze once again swept the room, this time settling on a small closet door in the corner of the room. She made her way carefully to the closet door and opened it, causing a few assorted cleaning supplies to come falling out and send a dust cloud in the air. Coughing from the stale air, she grabbed a cloth and a bottle of Windex before backing away from the supplies and nearly falling over some of the supplies. Catching herself before she fell, she stumbled a few steps forward and straightened herself, letting out a little sigh of relief in the process.

The sound of the door creaking slightly, made every muscle in her body tense, her thoughts racing as her heart pounded in her chest. Quietly, she stepped closer to the door, setting down the Windex and the cloth on a nearby desk before doing anything else. As she stepped closer to the door, she listened carefully for any movement on the other side but got nothing. That was when her phone buzzed, making her jump. She pulled the phone out of her blazer pocket and checked it, noting that someone had set off the silent alarm. A groan left her lips as a single thought crossed her mind.

Why does this always happen when I'm over here....

The thought was brief but still there and that's when she heard the sound of a net getting sprung. As the sound reached her, she brought her palm to her face and groaned, knowing only a real idiot would have fallen for whoever had set that trap up. Dropping her hands to her side she slipped out of the abandoned room and made her way towards the direction noted in the alarm. It took but a few steps before an unfamiliar voice echoed off the hallways asking her for help. Her gaze settled on the trap itself before following it to find a release hidden on the near wall. She smacked the release button and brushed her bangs out of her face as the net dropped. With a flick of her wrist, she pulled light from one of the nearby windows and had it grab the trap so the boy caught in it wouldn't just fall to the floor and get hurt, instead she lowered it down until it was a couple inches off the floor before dropping it. "You...should probably be more careful. Most people don't come this way because of the fact students set traps." Her tone as she spoke was soft, just loud enough to be audible but not so loud it was oppressing.

[Evan]

Walking through the dark, dusty hallways of the West Tower made him feel like he was in an abandoned funeral home. He could see dust and cobwebs piled up in the corners, which made him wonder why on earth the cleaning crew did not come to that side of the school. It was their job to clean right, so why was the west wing so dirty? His fascination with the oddity that was Ashford made him forget about his headache and capture his attention enough to not see the clearly open door that he had passed. He was never labeled as the observant type of lad and, honestly, some people were right to call him oblivious. Had he noticed the door, things might have turned out differently. But, Evan, being himself, walked right by the obvious signs of a presence and right into a trap he could have avoided.

The red-eyed young man was clearly embarrassed as he spoke to the young woman, but he tried to keep it under wraps. It was bad enough that he was trapped like an animal in a net, and it was even worse that a woman had to save him. Wasn’t that supposed to be his job? Clearly not, he thought, bracing himself for to hit the ground when the young woman slammed her fist on a button on the nearby wall. He waited to go crashing to the floor and bruise his tailbone (again), but oddly enough, the impact never came. He did, however, feel some kind of gentle heat and looked down to see the young woman projecting light underneath him, which confused him a little. He looked at her and noticed that one of her hands seemed to be yanking the light streaming in from a nearby dusty window to cushion him as he was lowered toward the ground by gravity. A few inches from the floor, though, the light seemed to disappear and he landed right on his butt, coughing a little to hide a wince. He gave a nervous smile to the young woman as he stood up, rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck. After a few moments of silence, he gave her a more genuine smile and spoke to her. He tried not to be too loud, but he could not help it; he simply had a voice that naturally projected and echoed throughout the empty halls. He offered his hand in greeting to her.

“Heh. Sorry about that. I kind of just wander into things sometimes… The name’s Evan. Surely, a pretty lass like you has a name, right? What is it, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Her words caused a look of confusion to cross his face. Why would the students set traps? Well, okay, he could understand that rationale. There was nothing wrong with a little prank every now and again. If the students wanted to make it even, though, why did they only put traps on one side of the school? Or, more importantly, why did they put it on the side of the school that looked like it hadn’t been used since the late nineteen nineties? The place sure looked like it had not been cleaned for over sixteen years, that was for sure. He shrugged a little, looking around before speaking to the young woman again. Even though he tried to hide it in his voice, his nonverbal cues indicated that he was quite confused and maybe even a little lost, both in what she was saying and in general.

“Why would they do it just here and not in the other half of the school? I always found pranking teachers more fun, heh. The looks on their faces were much more satisfying. Anyway, why would they set them here? Seems kind of stupid, considering this place looks like it hasn’t been dusted or cleaned since I was born.”

No one had ever accused Evan of being a subtle young man. In fact, many people described his way of speaking as “getting hit with a Mack truck”. He was obvious, blunt, and to the point. He really did not think before he spoke and it clearly showed. He also liked to be a little more hyperbolic than was necessary, but it was hard to tell sometimes, considering that he was very good at crafting his speech in an understandable manner. Of course, some people could clearly see right through him, and he hoped that this particular young woman would not catch on.