To The Bone (Kennedy)

[Locke F. Herald]

Kennedy had opened the room a while ago, and had summarily dismissed those who wanted to leave after they'd finished their projects. Locke himself had finished his work long ago, but remained behind working on something on the computers. An odd blueprint looking almost like a human circulatory system on the computer screen, with a book on electric theory to the side. He had been using both before, looking over them fervently.

Locke was not at all the boy he usually was, he seemed drained and sluggish, and was unable to muster the energy to show off or tell people off for being stupid. It was unusual.

Yet now he was even more different then usual, passed out at his computer station. The idea of one like him asleep in class was odd enough, but he'd fallen asleep halfway into the notes he was typing on the blueprint, leaving a half finished sentence next to the blinking cursor.

"Electric charge approaches 435 Watts at junction 'S'. Suggest lower-"

And the cursor flashed as Locke's head lay on the table, oblivious to everything.

[ken]

Of course Kennedy had noticed the odd behavior exhibited by his student. Hard not to, really. Add on that every time Kennedy got closer, he could remember exactly how Locke was supposed to be acting. Which only served to bother the tutor more.

When Locke had fallen asleep, Kennedy knew something was up. Frowning, the tutor silently approached, leaning over Locke's shoulder.

Kennedy's eyes scanned the screen, trying to figure out what exactly Locke had been researching. This close to the young Edengrowth, Kennedy could easily remember a good deal. Everything he'd ever seen, for that matter. Still, he couldn't figure out how that applied here.

Finally, Kennedy sighed, poking Locke with a finger.

"Hey, Locke," he muttered, trying to gently coax the student awake. Kennedy knew he could shock the other student, which would definitely awaken the slumbering catboy. But it would also put Locke in a foul mood, which wasn't Kennedy intent.

So, poking.

[Locke F. Herald]

Locke snapped his head up at the poke, looking left and right, nearly falling out of his seat. "What I-...oh Kennedy." Now that Kennedy could look at Locke he'd notice some more odd signs. Some small bags under his eyes, frazzled hair, mussed clothing, the usual symptoms of being over worked.

"Sorry, sort of slipped out there." Locke said, stifling a yawn. He then turned back to the computer and cracked his knuckles, resuming the sentence he was working on. It was only a moment more into it when his eyes started to droop again. He caught himself this time and snapped upright, seemingly realizing the futility of the situation.

"*yaaaawwwn.* What time is it anyway?" He glanced at the clock and thought. "No nothing left, better go then." He moved to stand up from his seat and collided with the side of the desk, stumbling a bit. He grumbled quickly and began collecting his notes and other belongings.

[ken]

Bags under the eyes and messed up hair were two sure signs of sleep deprivation, something that Kennedy was intimately familiar with. After all, he'd barely gotten any sleep during the little rebellion last year, and had pulled all-nighters in his past as a Coven member.

"It's still afternoon, if that's what you're wondering," offered Kennedy. His expression was serious; his usual smile no where to be seen. "Locke..."

The boy tried to get up, which only irritated Kennedy. He grabbed the student's shoulders, trying to gently push him back into the seat. Kennedy wasn't ready for Locke to leave, not just yet.

"You slept through most of my class," the tutor pointed out. He raised his brows. "You. Slept. Through a class."

Kennedy moved to lean against the computer, in front and to the side of Locke. "Care to explain?"

[Locke F. Herald]

A gentle push was more then enough, and Locke tipped back into the chair rather easily. He was a little confused as to why Kennedy had just pushed him. The next sentence explained it though.

"Ah...sorry about that." Locke said, slightly abashed. "It's been....busy lately." He said, being obviously vague.

Locke was not a good liar, and it was plainly simple to see that he was lying by omission. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to be easily pried from him.

"I've just haven't been getting enough rest lately, that's all. It's nothing major or anything. Sorry for sleeping through your class, it's just that well..."

Your class doesn't teach me anything new?
Your class isn't useful to me?
Your class is full of morons?

"No never mind..." He said waving his hand.

[ken]

"Just finish the sentence, Locke," Kennedy rolled his eyes, "you're not going to hurt my feelings."

Kennedy had already had close friends tell him flat out that they were avoiding his class because he taught it. And he was already aware that most people didn't find his class nearly as interesting as, say, private lessons with Karmine. Still, it was odd for Locke to be acting like this, and the boy was clearly avoiding something.

"If you don't want to talk to me about it, that's fine," Kennedy waved a hand, "just don't fall asleep in my class, alright?"

He pushed off from the computer, heading back to his own desk. He had a few things to gather together before he left, after all. Kennedy did pause, talking over his shoulder. "Unless it involves Kiri. I kinda adopted her last year, so I'd like to know if something's up there."

Big brother still shines through, after all.

[Locke F. Herald]

"It's not your fault, but it's hard to take a class seriously when students are giggling and exchanging gossip stories and generally forgetting why they are here. If you want to run your class loose, run it loose, but trying to run it seriously and not backing it makes people lose faith in it." He once again covered his face as he yawned again.

"It's not a big problem Kennedy, don't get all paranoid. I've just been tutoring some people, keeps me kind of busy." Locke said simply, packing up his gear, or attempting to for the second time. "Only a month or so left..." He said quietly, moving his fingers in the air as if typing something on an invisible keypad. "And that means...by the 6th it should be enough." He mumbled.

"Yeah, I think I'll be ok." Locke said. "It's only a small deal."

[ken]

Kennedy hardly thought that the person who'd been sleeping through class should stand around and dissect it afterwards. He knew he didn't have quite the teaching chops he probably should, but he'd never really had the training for this sort of thing. Just because he had tons of knowledge...

He shook his head. Locke was clearly moody, which was making him say things he never would. Therefore Kennedy should take everything the young man said with a grain of salt. And keep bits of it in mind, of course.

"Alright, if you're doing alright..." Kennedy turned, looking over his shoulder. Locke was fumbling to get his things together. Which didn't exactly inspire tons of confidence in Kennedy. It looked like the Edengrowth just needed some sleep...

"Do I need to escort you to your room?" asked Kennedy. "Or are you actually going to go lie down and get some sleep? It certainly looks like you need it..."

Despite his desire to do otherwise, Kennedy simply couldn't drop the big brother act.

[Locke F. Herald]

Locke shrugged it off. "I'm not a little kid, all right?" He snapped at Kennedy. Couldn't he just drop it already? "I'm perfectly capable of...dealing with it." Locke's hand slipped as he grabbed for one of his books, which resulted in him knocking the book across the floor, knocking several scraps of paper out of it. More so, it also knocked an envelope from it, which hit the floor with a 'thump' spilling a few bills from it. There were markings of various numbers on it, and Kennedy might be surprised to realize that some of the latter numbers were in triple digits.

Very uncharacteristically of him, Locke practically jumped on the envelope, covering it with his hand and scooping the few bills back into it before stowing it in his inside pocket. He then made a move to gather up the last of the papers on the floor and be on his way.

He was really falling apart at the seams here.

[ken]

"Well, most adults know when to stop," offered Kennedy, shrugging. "And they generally know to get sleep when they need it. Your body shuts down after a while, you should know that."

Kennedy was silent as he looked over the bills. Clearly something was going on here. And with numbers that large, it probably wasn't something good. What exactly should Kennedy do here? Report Locke? That struck him as being horribly cruel, and slightly hypocritical.

"Where did those come from, Locke?" asked Kennedy. He faced the Edengrowth student, and arched a brow. Locke wasn't going anywhere until he cleared this was Kennedy. If there was drugs or something behind this...

Well, Kennedy would have to pull Kiri away from Locke, even if he had to do it kicking and screaming.

[Locke F. Herald]

Locke saw Kennedy as slightly imposing, and took a step back from him. "I-I told you. I've been t-tutoring some people...and working an apprenticeship...saving up..you know? What of it?" He started meek, but he went back on the offensive at the end of it. What business did Kennedy have in what he did with his personal time? Or what he did with his money for that matter.

Even though the Cavanite tutor was much taller then him, and slightly intimidating, Locke held his ground. He wasn't going to give an inch in this matter willingly.

"It's not a crime to work, is it?!" He shot back at Kennedy, clearly being overly defensive.

[ken]

"Tutoring doesn't generally bring in the benjamins," said Kennedy, waving a hand at the envelope Locke held. Sighing, he massaged the bridge of his nose. Somewhere someone was laughing at him, reminding him of his past. Full circle and all that.

"I'm just wondering what kind of job a fourteen year old can get that earns him that kind of money," added Kennedy. He sighed again, removing his hand to look directly at Locke. "You do realize that if you're abusing your Gift to make money, I have to report you, right? That's the way this is supposed to work... I mean..."

Kennedy sighed again. "Look, I don't want to, and if it's mostly harmless, i probably won't. It's just... we're supposed to keep things on the downlow, and there's the whole slippery slope thing.

[Locke F. Herald]

Locke was flustered now. "Look I'm not...I just...I didn't do anything! I'm working for someone...he's...um...well he knew all about gifted and all the races and this place before he met me." Locke wasn't sure how much he could say, but he figured that would be ok. "And I've just been tutoring some people, people who...ya know might have trouble with their classes." Locke mumbled, looking at the ground.

"Look I know people are supposed to pass classes on their own merit and stuff, but I don't need to do it for too long, so I figured I could take time to do it. What's a month?" If he was making sense of begging, he didn't know, but he needed to explain himself. "I didn't do anything for any people who aren't here already, and I just...well..."

He moved his feet around on the ground nervously. "I mean, when was the last time you guys changed the bank of questions you used on tests? I just...told em what would be better to study...that's not wrong...right?"

A question more then a statement.

[ken]

It bears reminding that Kennedy had, in fact, once been a horrible person. He still remembered desperation, and how you did things that you didn't necessarily want to do for reasons that made perfect sense at the time.

He also knew how hard it was to climb out of that hole.

"Locke," he began, shifting. How to say this without coming across as hypocritical? " Locke, you can't just give people the answers. You know that. I have no problem with you hiring yourself out to people."

Wow, that sounded dirty.

"But you can't just memorize the answers and give them to people. And I hate to break it to you, but the sheets change all the time. Someone's going to get the wrong sheet and be p**sed at you," Kennedy mentally winced. Locke versus someone who needed memorized answers... not an even match.

"What do you need all this money for anyway?" asked Kennedy, nodding toward the bag. "You building a giant robot or something?"

Honestly, that was about as good a guess as Kennedy could make. He knew that Locke was dating Kiri, but you probably couldn't find a cheaper date. After all, the bouncy Fae girl would be just as happy having a picnic in the gardens as going to a fancy restaurant, if not more so. It wasn't like Locke was dating a model or something...

"You're not on drugs, are you?"

[Locke F. Herald]

Locke sat there and got chastised. But then he looked up. "But you're wrong! The tests change in a predictable fashion. They are designed so people with my memory ability can't decipher it, but there is a patten. It just requires a lot of analyzing to find it. It's a lot of work, but it works!"

Should he be proud that he broke the system used for measuring knowledge? Maybe not. When Kennedy asked him what he needed it for he looked away again...he didn't really want to tell him.

"...I...wanted to..." He started to mumble, and then snapped his head up at Kennedy's accusation.

"Just who the hell do you think I am?! I'm not some drug dependent fool!" Locke practically shouted at Kennedy. Being accused of being a drug user? Honestly now! The nerve of him to make such an accusation.

"Why are you so interested in my business anyway?! Asking how I get the money, what I'm spending it on, why I need it? Why is that any of your business to know?!" Locke was nearly shouting at Kennedy now.

Maybe it was the exhaustion making him irritable, maybe it was the accusations that bothered him. He didn't know. All he knew is he was angry.