Grey times after school

(OOC: Read my tumblr post))

He stared surprised for a long moment before backing off and raising back to his feet, walking away just when the teacher went out of the
office and called out for him but he only ignored her and didn't come back before disappearing over a corner. "Man... Listen Riley, I have a
request to make of you" she said turning to look at him with a worried look "Would you follow him around school? we'll move your classes
so you have them equal, we believe someone may be distressing him badly and you're the first person he ever spoke to, we called his parents
and/or relatives but nobody ever picks up, so we decided to make you our personal detective, so please find out what's wrong with him okay?
We'll all give you extra credits so you don't fail any grades, how about it for a bribe?"
 
Riley blinked. "Er...sure, I guess? I mean, he's an okay kid, I don't mind helping him out..." He gave the teacher a sheepish grin, "and extra credit's always nice." Riley collected his things and hurried after the boy. He wandered through the school, trying to organize his thoughts. "It'll be like babysitting,' he decided. 'I'll keep him company, make sure he goes to class, and eats right and stays healthy. It's shouldn't be too hard... but I have to find him first...'

Unfortunately, Riley couldn't find the other boy. He tried his best, searching high and lo, but Liam showed no sign. Eventually, Riley gave up, and returned to his classes.
The next four days seemed to have been stretched out into months. Riley could not stop the bubble of anxiety that filled his stomach as Liam failed to show up for each and every class. Riley would stay for each lecture, taking down notes as avidly as he could. He would later stand up, and approach the teachers with a card that the office had given him at the end of that day. It excused him from class for however long he wanted, and Riley did his best to spend the rest of his period time trying to find out more about Liam. He dug around, tried asking some other students about Liam, but always came up blank.
Riley continued this for the rest of the week, wanting to ensure that Liam would have good notes to use when, if, he ever returned.
 
At the Monday of the next week Liam was in his first class, as usual he was sitting at the back of the classroom, not a single fuck given,
but he seemed more calm, even the annoying guy who would pick a fight with him all the time wasn't even giving him one look at all,
and Liam wasn't really moving, he actually was chewing on a candy bar silently with his eyes set on the window to his left.
 
Riley tried to keep calm as he approached the other boy. He tried not to let out a breath of relief, or his wide grin. Desipite this, a small smile crept ontho his lips. "Liam!" he breathed, "You're okay!" He let out a short laugh. "I'm glad...I got notes from our classes for you!" Riley took the seat next to Liam's, which was thankfully empty. "Here, I photocopied them so you won't need to write them out...Here's math and English and Chemsitry..." He trailed off. "Oh, right, you probably didn't hear...The office put all of our classes together!." Riley slid the piles of paper over to Liam. "I'm glad you're feeling better," Riley said after a moment.
 
Liam only glared at him slowly, he looked extremely tired after the first five seconds of looking at the notes and then at Riley, he shrugged and looked away
"Thanks" he said low, his voice wasn't that high to begin with so it was a little hard to hear him at first unless you were real close to him, and Riley was, which
immediately made him shrug and look away from him. "I didn't know." he replied afterwards "I'm not feeling better, I'm always like this, but I think I told you...
I don't want you close to me..." he hissed, and then hid his face between his arms, and before Riley had any chance to respond to that, class started, and on each
class Liam would look for a seat far away from Liam, and when lunch break came, he ran away again.
 
((New Character alert))

Riley was a little surprised. Liam certainly hand't acted like he wanted Riley to stay away, especially when Liam had practically begged to be pet. Which was nice, Riley had enjoyed that.
No, stop, focus.
The boy tried and tried to find Liam during lunch. Eventually, he came up with a plan.

Riley abandoned the rest of the school day at lunch. He trudged through the thin, snow before he stopped at an abandoned house in the middle of the city. It was broken and run down, and probably going to be de commissioned soon. He should really convince her to move...

Riley pushed the door open, which was barely hanging on his hinges A shape dropped down from the rafters above. Riley was greeted with the sight of a young girl, with a thing black mane of hair that contrasted her pale white skin. The girl gave him a toothy grin, blinking her large, cat-like eyes. She held her hands out, and Riley dug out a sandwich from his bag, tossing it to her. She took a few quick bites and chewed thoughtfully. "Yes?" she said after a careful swallow.

"I need a bit of help, Faline."
The girl sniffed. "Typical. Send the street rats out to do the dirty work." The girl took a few more bites of her sandwhich before responding. "Very well, what do you need, dear patron?"
Riley smiled. Faline was a rather strange case. She didn't go to school or have a job, and as far as Riley knew, she wasn't involved in any srt of crime, but she did alright, moving about the city and offering her services of information gathering to those who needed it. How she managed to survive in this weather with nothing but an over-sized T-shit and cargo pants was a mystery to Riley. But she was a good friend, and would be perfect to help him find out a little more about Liam.

"Well, there's this boy-"
"Boy?" Faline seemed to perk up. "Oh dear Riley, have you finally come to terms with your silly sexual-"
NO!" Riley blushed. "I-it's a school thing..." Faline snickered, and returned to her sandwich, eyes never leaving the boy.
"See...this kid goes to my school. His name's Liam...I'm supposed to find out a little more about him and help him out, but he never just sits down. He's always running away and acts like he doesn't need a friend." Riley pulled out a folder. "This is what the office gave me to work with." Riley tossed the folder over, and Faline flicked it open, her large, green, cat-eyes scanning the paper aimlessly. "I want you to help me find-" Riley began, but Faline held up a hand. "You want me to stalk him." she deadpanned. Riley shifted uncomfortably. "Well...no...I mean, I need help getting something from him, I need to figure out a way that'll get through to him, so..."

"So you want me to stalk him and relay his deep dark secrets to you." Faline licked her thumb. "Fine. a hundred dollars should be enough."
"A hundred-!?"
"Yes. Fish need to swim, I need to eat. One-hundred."

Riley rummaged through his pocket. "All I got on me is fifty...how about that, and...I dunno, A week at my place."
Faline raised one eyebrow.
"I'll give you the other half when the job's done."

"Deal," the cat-girl sang, swiping the bills from Riley's hand. "Come back tomorrow. I'll see what I can do."

((Don't worry: she won't find anything you don't want her too. ;3))
 
There was nothing in particular out of picture about Liam from first sight, he seemed like he lived alone in an apartment not too far from school,
or maybe it was because his parents worker all the time, the only windows in his apartment were on the back of the house and the curtains
were always closed, he never left his house, and no one ever went in.

The next morning at school there was a little more noise as usual in Riley and Liam's classroom, in the middle of the ruckus there was Liam looking
away from the classmates who kept asking the same questions: Do you have a girlfriend, Are you deaf, and Is there something wrong with you?
Still, it was like it wasn't happening from Liam's point of view, he didn't even flinch when the girls would move his shoulder to get his attention, he'd
only shove them off and look away again.
 
Riley blinked, and approached Riley. "Hey man...what's up? You alright?" He tried to think about what the other kids were asking. Girlfriend? Had Faline been spotted? He'd have to tell her to be more careful next time. He didn't want to cause Liam any trouble. Although, she was usually careful.
 
He shrugged and looked away from him, and at his presence the crowd began to scatter away and Liam was left alone at last. However he only
gave one quick look at Riley before he finally spoke up "Nothing's up." he simply replied and the teacher walked in interrupting them from any
further conversation, and it was like that for the rest of the classes, but during lunch break instead of escaping like he'd usually do, he approached
Riley and stared at him for an entire minute before he spoke up "I have something I need to ask you".
 
Riley had kept a careful eye on the other boy throughout the day. He was ready to try and chase Liam down at lunch, assuming the other boy would run. However, he was rather surprised to find that Liam approached him at lunch. They stayed quiet for a moment, and Riley wondered idly if Liam was going to punch him. He was surprised when Liam spoke. "Of course," Riley replied slowly. "What is it?"
 
"Not here" he simply said and walked out away, they went trough the first building and then onto the next one, the one with the staircase,
where they had met for the first time before, he sat down on the desk and pulled Riley before kicking the door closed, he looked numb as
always "I need to ask, what kind of girl do you like? fat, or skinny?" he suddenly asked, with a tone as cold and numb as usual, but curious.
 
Riley followed Liam quietly. He recognized the room where they'd had their first-and only- lunch.
Riley merely knitted his brows together in confusion. "What kind of question is that?" he said, irritated, "It doesn't matter if a girl is fat or skinny, you have to judge someone on their actions rather than appearance And besides If you really like that girl, it wouldn't matter what size she is. no, it shouldn't matter what size a girl is." Riley crossed his arms and glared. What a weird question.
 
He looked down for a moment and then away, there was something odd about his expression, he only looked at the ground again
"I'd preffer someone ... thin after all, or maybe with a good body." he began explaining "I don't think you're right, appearances are
everything in the world we live in today, if you're too heavy you get labelled as whale or fat or cow, if you're too skinny you're a
snake or a never-eat, if you're in between you get called both ways, and if you're popular around guys you're definitely a whore.
From my point of view... I rather be skinny" he shrugged.

He looked away to look at the sign saying "No climbing to the roof on winter" he kept quiet for a while and then looked at Riley
"Just be completely honest, would you go out with someone who's very fat?"
 
Riley sighed and rubbed his temples. "Well...I guess that would depend on the definition of 'fat'? I mean..." Riley stared at the ceiling in confusion, trying to find some sort of answer. "Like...okay, I guess if a girl couldn't fit through a door, that's be a problem, but...I dunno, if she was a little over-weight I wouldn't mind..." Riley sighed. "I have to agree that society paints horrible pictures for every kind of person, but I think as long as you're happy with how you look, then you're fine."

He couldn't stop his eyes from quickly flicking over Liam's body. "Anyways, like I said, I don't mind if they're a little on the larger side, but there needs to be some space when they go through a doorway. Why?" he added cautiously. "What does it matter?"
 
He twitched his shoulders and rose back to his feet with the intent of leaving, but when he was by Riley's side he looked at him and hissed
"Liar" he simply said before walking away and rushing off so he wouldn't catch him on time, getting lost in the crowd as usual, and asset
hard to find even tough he did jump out quite a lot. After that he was missing for the rest of the day, he didn't go back to class, he probably
had skipped school again.
 
Riley glared at Liam as he left, not even bothering to follow. What a jerk! Riley couldn't even express his own opinions now!? Riley kicked the desk in frustration. Liam was insufferable!
The boy headed back to his classes in a foul mood, which lasted the rest of the day. He didn't bother to try and find Liam for the rest of the day.
~~

Faline took the guest pass gratefully from the main office of the school. It was apparently Liam's old one. The girl ambled about the halls, and slid over to a group of girls. 'Excuse me" she purred, "Do you know anything about a boy named Liam? He went here until recently."
 
One of the girls seemed lost in thought after hearing that name but she only shook her head with a worried frown "I don't remember the name"
however one of the girls pointed out at the end of the hall "Actually I remember he was on the music club, you should go ask the members there,
I think people called him the porcupine"
 
Faline nodded, and thanked the girl. She slipped into the music room, glancing around. The class didn't seem that full, and the girl wondered idly where the teacher was.
 
One of the boys noticed her and approached "Oh hi, are you looking for someone?" he asked, with a weary smile, they were practicing at the moment.
 
Faline nodded quickly. 'Yes, I'm asking about a boy named Liam. He went to this school until moving recently." She gave the boy the friendliest smile she had. "It's just for recording purposes, nothing too big. Do you know anything about him, or anyone else who might've known him?"

Faline Took out a note pad and Pen. "Liam is very hard to track down himself," she sighed, looking tired. "And he's not one to answer very much, so we were hoping that maybe his old classmates might know something."

Now of course, this was an act. Faline had the finest acting skills this side of the equator. She had to, after all. Her specialty was drawing information, and being blunt and forceful was not the only way to retrieve such things. Besides, the boy seemed friendly enough, and probably didn't need that form of persuasion. A tired record-keeper would be fine for this environment.
 
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