Return to the Academy

[Macy Deltine]

Macy walked on the train, down the carrage, to find a good seat. She was coming home early, as her and her mother realised that it was probably better her being at school, and her mother at home, each getting on with their own lives.
She sat down at a table on the left side of the train, as it was meant to have the nicer view of the countryside going back to Cardsdale. She as in the station at a town called Belling, about two hours away from Cardsdale. It was the only place that had a train running to the Orchid area. She had come to Belling an hour before the train was meant to leave, she had some time to read some of the textbooks for the next term. As she started reading her copy of Hidden Shape-shifters of the Past, she noticed someone else coming on the train.
"Madeleine? Madeleine!" She said, standing up, and running down the carrage to meet her friend. "I didn't know that you were getting this train back! Good timing, eh? So, how was your Christmas, tell me all about it!" She said, walking back to her table, and sitting down. She was so pleased, seeing a familiar face, after two weeks of sitting in silence with her mother.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Could this just get any worse?!
Call it a dramatic year. Two battles, seventeen deaths, one coma, one disastrous camping trip, one assassination, one memory loss... and now, the year seemed to be determined to go out with a bang - excuse the pun.
This wasn't fair.
Madeleine's phone had gone off at her grandmother's house.
"Why the hell hasn't your phone been on?" Olivia had yelled down the line as soon as she answered. "I've been trying to reach you for days!"
"It... has..." No use telling her that at the edge of the site where her trailer was parked, the reception sucked.
"Well, why don't I have your home number?"
"Because you don't need it..."
Olivia had then told her that Steve Ritzski had run away. She hadn't really gotten the gist of the whole thing, only that a few days ago - and this was said with a lot of effings and blindings and - Will had forced him to take medication that he didn't want to take instead of letting Nurse Gornray deal with it. Steve had then eventually run away - how, Olivia wasn't sure.
So Madeleine was on her way back to Orchid now, to join in with the search party for Steve - as he was a friend and a Warrior.
Oh, and of course, there was then the fact that Will had been stabbed by her villager boyfriend...
Madeleine made her way down the train carriage, looking for a table that she could have to herself, and not have to have a forced polite conversation about where she was going to some random stranger.
Because as worried as she was about her friends, the last few days, after her graveside rant, had been a bit of a break from her tortured thoughts, because she wasn't reminded of Lee anywhere. Returning to Orchid would bring them all back.
"Madeleine? Madeleine!"
Madeleine turned her head to see a mass of blonde hair streaking towards her.
Macy.
Her friend's voice was breathless and excited - not what Madeleine had been expecting, after what Macy and Steve had going on. Madeleine had expecting Macy to be ... well, like her.
"I didn't know that you were getting this train back! Good timing, eh? So, how was your Christmas, tell me all about it!" Macy beamed, leading Madeleine back to her table.
Madeleine was now really, really, really confused as she hovered beside Macy. "It was fine... Macy, haven't you heard the news?"

[Macy Deltine]

Macy tilted her head at her friend. What was she talking about?
Macy had seen this look on Madeleine's face before, and it wasn't a good one.
"What? What's wrong? What's happened?" she asked, feeling slightly annoyed at herself, for being excited at seeing her come on the train. She just...hadn't seen anyone that she was pleased to see in weeks.
"What happened, Madeleine?" She asked again, feeling herself go pale. She hated when people knew something bad, that she didn't. She kept expecting the worse, that someone had died, or gone wrong.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine winced, realising that no one had thought to tell Macy about it.
Her friend's smile had faded suddenly, replaced by a look of sheer panic.
"What happened, Madeleine?"
Her face was pale... much too pale.
"I'm sorry Macy... it's... it's Steve."
She couldn't think of a tactful way to put this. Steve had run away. If Lee had ran away, how would she want to be told?
Straight out. No hesitation, no pauses, no pointless, truthless reassurances.
"He's run away. They tried to force him to take medication, and he ran away..."

[Macy Deltine]

What?
"What?"
What? What is she talking about?
"What are you talking about? What? He can't. Wait...what? When? Where? What...how?"
Macy could just feel herself babble, almost an out-of-body-expirence. She couldn't believe Madeleine's words. Steve? Her Steve?
"But...where is he?" she asked Madeleine, feeling herself start to panic. She was feeling like something had been ripped out of her. She was now starting to feel dizzy and was going to be sick.
But it didn't feel, like how she did when her grandmother died, but it felt as if something in her was just...missing.
"What? But..no...where is he?" She kept asking, trying to focus her attention on something, but her eyes were diverting around her. She hadn't even noticed that the train had started, and was speeding down the countryside.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine slid down on the seat beside Macy. "I don't know," she said softly. "That's why I'm going back, to join in the search party. I only got the phone call yesterday."

[Macy Deltine]

Macy opened her mouth, but no words came out. She just stared infront of her, down the carrage. She rested her head on her friend's shoulder, and realised how much she needed someone to tell her that everything was going to be okay.
"But..why didn't anyone tell me?" She asked, staring down the hall. Then she had an idea- she looked down at Gypsy, who was as cat at the moment, resting her head on Macy's bag. "Gypsy- Gypsy, wake up." She said, shaking her companion. "I'm going to open the window, here, I want you to fly out, and then go on ahead to Cardsdale. Look for Steve, okay?" She said, getting up, and kneeling on the seat. She reached up, and pulled open the window, feeling the rush of air from the outisde flood in. Gypsy changed into a sparrow to fly though the window, and when she was outside, she changed into a hawk and darted off.
Macy turned round to Madeleine, after closing the window, and set her hands in her lap, looking ahead. "I- we could have changed and flew on, I know, but, what would we do with a load of luggage on the train?" She siad, noticing her voice had become weaker.
"But, he's going to be okay, won't he, Madeleine?" She asked, trying to find some hope from her friend.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

She could have flown...
Drat it, she hadn't even thought of that...
"But, he's going to be okay, won't he, Madeleine?" Macy's voice said weakly.
Madeleine bit her lip. She couldn't lie to Macy, but the quaver in her voice was killing her, dammit.
She reached over and touched the back of Macy's hand lightly. "I don't... I don't know, Macy," she said quietly, her voice cracking slightly. "But I am going to do anything in my power to get him back safely, okay? We all are. They're doing it as we speak, I promise. I know... I know that it... probably doesn't help, but we'll try."
All she could think of now was what Macy had said to her in the dorm.
She'd told Madeleine that she loved Steve.
Madeleine didn't know if Macy had meant it in that way, but if she did... if she did, then, Macy had lost the boy she loved.
And Madeleine thought that she might know a little of what that felt like.
But she was certain that it hurt.

[Prof. E. Gonzalez]

Esther Gonzalez walked down the carriage of the train that was bringing her to her new job as a Professor of Water Control in Orchid Hill Academy for the Gifted. She was also returning to Cardsdale, where she lived there for sometime with a woman who taught her to use her powers more carefully. Esther hadn't been back to the village, since she escaped from the hold of The Army, they called themselves at the time.
She didn't know what to expect from the school, she had been there once before, with an interview with the headmaster, but she had been told about the school before, and it seemed nice.
She looked further on up the carriage, and saw two girls sitting at a table. They looked like students. She had already talked to some other people from the school, but they seemed younger than these two. She saw an empty table across from them, and decided to sit down. What she was actually looking for here The Heads. She knew that they were probably not on the train, or the chances were very slim, but the girls looked around the right age for them.
There was a brunette and a blond girl, sitting on the same side of the table. They looked around 16-17 years old, and were both quite pretty. The blond one was very pale, though, and the brunette seemed to be deep in thought.
"Hello, girls. Do you go to the school in Cardsdale?" She asked, deciding to take a stab at it. The blond girl looked up at her, and nodded.
"Yes, we go to Orchid Hill." Her voice was quiet, and was still pale. "I'm Macy Deltine, head of Academics, and this is Madeleine Baudelaire, head of Warriors."
Heads? What were the chances?
"Really? I'm Esther Gonzalez, but I'm actually you're new teacher in Water Control. So, I suppose you have to call me Professor Gonzalez. I think I'm actually a teacher in Warriors." She said to the brunette- Madeleine. "What's the school like? I've never taught in a gifted school before." In fact she hadn't ever taught in a school. But that was on a need-to-know basis.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine smiled quietly up at the young, dark-haired, Hispanic looking teacher.
Well, she looked capable, at any rate. She was very, very thin, but she gave off a sense of authority, of experience. She was giving off the aura of a leader.
If she was a Warrior teacher... well, Madeleine needed to give off a good impression. Madeleine needed to show that she was able to lead the Warriors, but right now, she wasn't sure how well she could give that impression. Not after Lee...
But she could lead the Warriors. She had won two battles. She was respected. People spoke in hushed whispers of what sh'd done on the field. So she could do it. She was Head. She was a leader, and being scared and hurt shouldn't be able to change that.
So, time to pretend. Time to act like nothing's happened, and this time, you'd d**n well do it well, Madeleine.
Time to forget.
She smiled confidently up at Professor Gonzalez. "It's... well, it's dramatic," she said, glancing sideways at Macy. "Definitiely dramatic."

[Macy Deltine]

Macy nodded at Madeleine's response to Prof. Gonzalez. She would have said more, but it was hard to keep her mind from worrying about Steve. Why on earth did he do this? She tried to keep her mind of him, and looked back to the teacher. She seemed nice, she felt like she could cope with them. "So, um, where are you from?" She asked, hoping that she wasn't sounding rude, she was just interested.
"I was born in Peru, but I've lived all around the world." Professor Gonzalez replied, smiling. "I even used to live in Cardsdale for a while." She said, running her fingers though her thick, dark hair.
"Really?" Macy asked, and she nodded, giving off the empression that they weren't meant to ask any more questions. There was silence in the carriage, except for the conductor walking past. The teacher turned around to her window, and Macy leaned back on her seat. "I really can't believe him.." She whispered to Madeleine, staring out the window.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

"It wasn't his fault," Madeleine muttered.
Madeleine wasn't one to kick someone who was already down, but, like Olivia, she felt that Will should have found an alternative, or at the very least, went to Nurse Gornray to calm Steve down. Still, she couldn't say anything.
She glanced over at Professor Gonzalez, before deciding to issue an invitation. "Professor, I'm holding a session for the Warriors on Tuesday, if you would like to come along...?"

[Prof. E. Gonzalez]

Professor Gonzalez hlaf-listened to Madeleline and Macy's conversations. Who were they talking about? She knew that she shouldn't pry into other's business.
"Professor, I'm holding a session for the Warriors on Tuesday, if you would like to come along...?" She heard the head of the Warriors ask. She was still getting used to be called 'Professor', but she tried to act professional.
"Oh, yes, that would be wonderful. I'm not too sure what type of fighting you learn here, but I am sure I can teach you some things that I've picked up on my travels. And..oh no, can you hide me? I'm sorry, but I need to not be seen." She said, feeling like it was out of her place, but she knew who was coming down the carriage behind them. She stood up, grabbed her backpack, and moved across the carriage quickly into the seat across from the two girls.
She positioned herself, that her back was two the two people coming down the corridor. She slid herself down the seat slightly too, so she was about the same height of the girls. When the two men finally walked by, taking a look at her, but Esther's eyes were fixed out the window. She lookd up at the girls, who seemed slightly confused.
"I'm so sorry, it's just...I'm sorry." She stood up, taking her place on the opposite side of the carriage. She turned around to the girls again, trying not to act like anything had happened. "But, yes, I'd love to come to the training session. Do you, um, know any one that takes Water Control? She asked, looking at them. The blond girl, Macy, was staring out the window, not really taking any notice of any one else, so she tried to pose the question to the brunette.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine took all this in with keen eyes. Professor Esther Gonzalez definitely didn't want to be seen by those two men.
That meant that she knew who those two men were.
Which meant that Esther Gonzalez had most definitely had some experience.
But as she was a teacher, Madeleine couldn't ask.
"Yes, the um, Head of the Spies is a... water controller. I know more than a few water controlling Warriors, they shouldn't be too much hassle," she added with a smile.

[Macy Deltine]

Macy turned around from the window to look at Madeleine and Professor Gonzalez. Strange- they both looked similar, they both looked like..Warriors. Apart from the dark hair and thin structure, they both had an aura of a leader. She smiled at the new teacher, trying not to make her feel alienated. She leaned back on the seat again, and gazed out the window. She tried to figure out how far ahead Gypsy was, but her mind wasn't working well.
Everyone had seemed to stop talking, and were just in their own minds. Prof. Gonzalez was writing in a notebook, across from them, and Madeleine seemed to be in a world of her own. Macy continued to watch the world outside them that they passed.
"We are now approching Cardsdale." Came a voice from the over-head speakers. Macy snapped out of her day dream, and looked around. She now recognised the sceneary outside, and ahead of the train was was the hills, that on one, was their school. She looked around to Madeleine, and sighed. "We're here." She said, putting her book away, and getting her coat on.