Zoe's Office Hours - September 2

[bigdamnprincipal]

Yes, Zoe was in her office on a Saturday.

No, she didn't mind much.

Because yes, she was charging the powers that be overtime for these hours.

The door is open for anyone who needs her.

[Feel free to drop by, but the door's mainly open for...yeah, I'm not even going to finish that joke. *g*]

Comments

[notajar]

Still unsure of the wisdom of this - or whether this Principal woman will even notice she's here - Door stands in the doorway for a moment without making a sound. Just appraising.

She looks dangerous - but not, Door thinks, in a bad way.

[bigdamnprincipal]

It takes Zoe a few moments to notice the presence of someone in the doorway, and she can't tell if the girl is shy, or simply trying to be quiet. "Hi. Can I help you?" she asks.

[notajar]

"I doubt it," Door says honestly, trying to hide her discomfiture at yet another person acknowedging her presence without her even trying to draw attention to herself. "Though it would be nice." She enters the room slowly, still alert for danger. "Bridge brought me here from the clinic. He told me I should see you." Remembering that she does have manners when not being chased by monsters, she repeats Bridge's ritual wiggling of fingers, and adds, "I'm called Door."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"Door? Why does that name sound familiar?" Zoe mused to herself quietly for a moment before realization hit. "Oh! You're one of our new arrivals. Welcome," she said, giving the girl a little wave to usher her in. "Bridge was right to send you here. I'm Principal Washburn. Did you...have trouble getting here?" she asked, taking in Door's appearance.

[notajar]

Door walks in and moves towards a chair. Trouble? "You could say that, yes." Then the meaning of the woman's phrasing sinks in, and Door takes a quick step back. "You knew I was coming." It's as much accusation as question.

[bigdamnprincipal]

"Well, yes." Zoe wonders for a moment if she's dealing with someone like Zuko who doesn't quite know how things work, so she decides to take it slow. "We have records for all of our incoming students, so we have one for you too."

[notajar]

Door knows she fell out of the Underside and into a school, Bridge told her that much, but - "Incoming students? Someone..." There's a word, but Door only knows it from reading it in stories, so it's not on the tip of her tongue. "Enrolled me here?"

[bigdamnprincipal]

"Yes," Zoe replies, sounding a little concerned as she goes over to the computer to pull up Door's information. "It says here that everything was paid for by your guardian, the Marquis de Carabas." She leans back in her chair and gives Door a careful look. "Were you not expecting things to be arranged when you got here?"

[notajar]

Door lets out her breath at the name, though she has no idea what he's playing at. "Guardian? De Carabas? Hardly." Except... where else had she been planning to turn, once she reached safety - if she reached safety - but to him. She sits down in a daze, finally looking up at Zoe to say, "I wasn't expecting to get here. I wasn't even expecting to survive the night. I've no idea how he knew I was coming."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"Well first, let me say that I'm very glad to see you survived the night. That's always a good start." Zoe glances back at the records before looking at Door again. "There's no information in here about when you were expected to come...and how is it that you got here?" she asks.

[notajar]

Uncertain how much to tell, yet suddenly feeling that 'less information will keep them safer' was exactly the wrong thing to assume in this place, Door folds her hands in her lap. "I opened a door," she says, then gives a small smile when she's realizes she's echoing Bridge's words. "It's what I do. I've never opened one that led this far away from home before, though."

[bigdamnprincipal]

Zoe gives Door a soft smile at that. "I've certainly heard of people getting here in much stranger ways than that," she said. "So, you didn't intend to come here?"

[notajar]

"I was running," Door says. "The only thing I intended was to get away. Someplace safe."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"Well, you accomplished that much, even if it wasn't your intention. Because you are someplace safe now. At least, safer than where I imagine you were, if you felt the need to run."

[notajar]

"London." Door smiles a little wistfully. "The underside of London. It's home. But not safe, not now." She glances down at her hands for a second, then back up at Zoe, because she wants to be safe, but there's right and wrong, as well.

"If I stay here, though, I can't promise here will stay safe. The...creatures...I was running from wouldn't hesitate to hurt anyone they thought could lead them to me." Then she shakes her head. "No, that's not quite right. They'd hesitate, but only to enjoy it a bit longer."

[bigdamnprincipal]

Zoe takes that in, and thinks about the danger in terms of the rest of the students. Creatures hurting people to get to her...it was almost funny how that didn't seem so strange after her time here.

"I won't be naive and try to assure you that that won't happen. But when I say that you'll be safe here, I mean, you'll be safe even from creatures like that. This is a strange little island you've ended up on, and the people here know how to take care of things that mean to do someone harm, especially when that someone is another student."

[notajar]

Door thinks about that, then she thinks that if she thinks too much about it, she'll think about things she daren't think about yet. She'll slow down, and she can't do that, not...yet.

"What... do I do?" she finally asks. "I've never been to a school before."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"Never?" Zoe asks, trying not to sound too incredulous, in case that might scare Door further. "School is basically...you take classes in subjects that you like, or that you might want to learn more about. We've got a lot of them," she says, handing her a list of the class descriptions.

[notajar]

Door nods as she leafs through the descriptions. "I've read about schools in books. Just we don't really have them in London Below." She chokes for a moment on whether or not she can say the words, but they do come out smoothly enough when she opens her mouth again. "My parents taught us things like this. Reading, history, maths." Opening, she doesn't add.

[bigdamnprincipal]

Zoe nods solemnly as she listens. "Sounds like you've got a good start then. That'll be helpful in whatever you decide you want to take. You don't have to decide right this second, but classes start on Monday, so you'll need to pick soon, if you want to stay." She considers Door carefully. "Do you want to stay?"

[notajar]

It's safe, they keep telling Door. It's certainly strange, and judging from most of the accents, it's far enough away from London Below that the only way she'll be found is if someone tells them she's here.

And then there's this matter of her 'guardian.'

"I suppose I do," Door says, the decision making itself as she speaks. She indicates herself with a twist of her wrist. "What you see is what you get, though. Going back to my house alone would be suicidal, and I've no money for new clothes, or books. I don't even know how de Carabas is paying for this."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"I don't know either. But..." Zoe grabbed a sheet from Door's file and handed it to her. "He also had an account set up for you here, so you'd be able to buy clothes and supplies. It looks like he wanted to make sure you'd be taken care of."

[notajar]

Door studies the sheet of paper, only half comprehending what she's looking at, but still aware that represents more real-world money than she's ever seen, and far more than a man like the Marquis de Carabas could lay his hands on. And if he had managed it somehow...

"He owed my father a favour," she says, shaking her head in confusion and handing back the paper. "But not that big a favour. What's he going to want from me, I wonder." The last, she mutters to herself more than to Zoe, before looking up again. "Sorry, you won't know that, of course."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"I don't, unfortunately." Zoe looks slightly disturbed as she shuts Door's file and puts it away. "For the record, when I say you're safe here against people who might want to hurt you, that can include guardians too."

[notajar]

"I doubt he wants to hurt me; he's just...self-motivated," Door explains. "To say the least."