#tobearwithoutbreaking

During some of her conversations with Erik he'd mentioned a school. It hadn't been easy but she'd finally tracked down what she'd assumed was the school he'd mentioned. From the outside it looked similar to the ones she'd seen in England and it had her curious if this was a boarding school or if it held children with power similar to the man she was hesitantly aligning herself with. If it was the latter… Luring the child out had been easy but now she needed to find a way inside of the school to prove her hunch correct.

“I never knew Josephine had such a gift. I’ve always thought she’d grow up to become a painter- she loves art class. She has a hand in illustrations, her school teacher had told us. Will she able to learn art at your school?” the caretaker asks.

Emerald orbs narrowed slightly at the dismissal, the rejection a rare phenomenon. Still, he let his shoulders shrug delicately as he leaned back into the chair. “It’s no fun playing alone,” he muttered, glancing at the deck of cards on the table. “You seemed like pleasant company. And, perhaps, a little...down. I suppose my empathy is a bit off, though. Have a good night.”

          When Nora was fourteen she had an under-the-table job working at an in-the-wall pizza place, thanks to the owner being friends with her mom and willing to help out the little family of two as they were just barely skating by. Most of her money went towards helping her mom with bills and saving up for another apartment, but the rest of it she spent on cat food and dog food. They’d been staying in a shady side of the city being that their last apartment had to be renovated because of a fire, and the part of the city wasn’t very pretty or very safe, and there were a lot of stray animals. The landlord didn’t really care if anyone had pets, so Nora had taken to feeding and taking care of a bunch of strays —— and she even went out of her way to find some of them permanent homes. The whole experience made her want to be a veterinarian, which she would have pursued the career had she been able to go to college.