Office Hours - November 12

[bigdamnprincipal]

Zoe would be the first to admit that she didn't always like technology. The way things worked sometimes, and then didn't work other times bothered her. Sometimes, the telephone was a terrible thing, distracting her from her work, and giving all of the most terrible school board members direct access to her office.

And sometimes, the telephone allowed her to call her husband who was states and states away, and talk to him when they both desperately needed to hear each other. The phone bill would be huge this month, but she also wouldn't kill anyone in her office today due to an overload of hormones, so that seemed like a fair trade. Today, she was tackling paperwork to keep her mind off of things, like wondering whether or not she should call John again tonight.

[Open! I'll be on SP during the day, stupid work making me work. ;)]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

Karla held her last letter in her hand. Perhaps waiting to the end of an already antsy week was a bad idea; she could feel herself fidgeting already. Maybe this would be easier if she knew the principal a bit better? Okay, maybe not. Still, Saetan had been very firm that her headmistress be kept informed of these things, too, and so here she was.

And at least she didn't have to give one of these to Deadpool. Thank the Darkness for small favors.

She tapped on the door. "Principal Winchester? Are you available?"

[bigdamnprincipal]

Zoe looked up from her papers, and smiled softly at Karla. "Sure, come on in," she said. "What can I do for you?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla returned Principal Winchester's smile with a hesitant one of her own. She entered the office and slipped into a chair "My adopted uncle asked me to provide this letter to you," she said, passing a sealed envelope over to Zoe. "I, ummm, got into a bit of trouble back home. Sort of."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"Sort of?" Zoe said, smirking as she took the envelope. She opened the letter and read it, her eyebrows going up and down at the new and interesting terminology she kept coming across. "He certainly sounds beleaguered," she said, folding the letter back up. "Are you sure you'd rather be here than at home?"

[glacial_queen]

"There's nothing for me back home," Karla said quietly. "Not right now. My legal guardian has had me declared dead, Uncle Saetan can't afford to let me stay with him. That leaves me few options. In all, I'd rather remain here."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"Well, I certainly support people staying here if they want to," Zoe said. "And if I can offer you any help that might make staying here easier, my door is always open for students. I'm good at listening, if nothing else."

[glacial_queen]

"Uncle Saetan mostly wanted you to be kept in the loop," Karla said, shifting a little in her chair. "He believes I've been far good about keeping secrets thus far."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"Of course you have. You're a teenage girl," Zoe said, trying to get at least a small smile from Karla.

[glacial_queen]

Karla offered Zoe a tentative smile back. "I figured that was probably the wrong weekend to admit I had a boyfriend, too," she said, joking a little bit. "Between this and blowing up his kitchen earlier this summer, I think I'm at my limit."

[bigdamnprincipal]

Zoe laughed at that, and set the letter down on her desk. "I appreciate being kept in the loop, and while I'm glad you're here, I hope things work out so that you can safely go home too."

[glacial_queen]

"As soon as I make my Offering and set up my Court," Karla said with a nod. Because this would all make intuitive sense to Zoe, really!

"I'm sorry Uncle Saetan found out about the invasion," she added with a slight wince. "Next Parents' Weekend, he may come and be grumpy to you about them. Or rather, be very very polite at you. But he just worries."

Karla's poor, beleaguered uncle. Who happened to be named Saetan, High Lord of Hell. No cognitive dissonance, there!

[bigdamnprincipal]

Between the unfamiliar terms and Karla's uncle's name, Zoe was sticking to what she could answer. She felt a lot smarter that way. "It sounds like he cares about you very much," she said. "Don't worry about him coming to bother me the next time he visits. I can guarantee I've dealt with parents and guardians who were angrier than he sounds."

[glacial_queen]

"It was a lot to take in," Karla said. "It was a very, uhh, busy two weeks."

'Busy' sounded better than 'nerve-wracking,' 'traumatizing' or 'excessively violent.' Yay, diplomacy!

"And he doesn't expect you to be some kind of baby-sitter, either!" she added quickly, since she knew some of the others had come to that conclusion and wanted to head that quickly off in case Zoe did, too. "But this way, I know I have several authority figures to answer to if I do something stupid."

Like get sacrificed. Again.

[bigdamnprincipal]

"And several to help you if you do something stupid. While you answer for what happened. Multitasking is an important skill to me," Zoe said.

[glacial_queen]

Karla chuckled a bit. "That's a relief. I wouldn't know how to respond if I wasn't getting lectured at the same time. I would keep looking around, wondering if I'd come back to the wrong Fandom or something."