Class is Out /Roxi/

[Zacharia "The Raven" Sholl]

Raven smiled as he picked up a sandy haired lad, running around the room making helicopter noises whilst the boy laughed and smiled in pure happiness. His parents watching from the door smiling as the large hulking man threw their child into the air. It was amazing how reckless some people could be with their kids. How they would let a man handle them and throw them around like he was currently doing so. But then Zach couldn't really blame them, he was the pre-school tutor. Children under the age of 7 were his job. He spent more time around young children than he did adults. He was invaluable, without him these parents would have to look after their own children and that required effort.

Zach popped the kid down onto the floor and wrapped his arms around his as the little boy did the same to him, laughing all the while. Sometimes Zach wished he could roll his eyes at what he was currently doing. But he was used to it. This was his mask, it was as important to his life as breathing. He ruffled the kids hair whilst the kid glanced back to his parents, obviously preferring to stay with him than go home. They where off on holiday for a few weeks so Tim wasn't going to be in class for a few weeks and they were heading out early to catch their plane. Zach was pretending that he was going to miss him.

“But can't Uncle Zachy come on holiday with us mum?”

Zach smiled up to his parents, grinning and answering before they had a chance too, the great amazing teacher didn't let the parents look like the bad guys. Plus he had an appointment today with a Miss O'Hara. A sweet and pure kitty cat that apparently wanted a job or something. As such the school had scheduled a meeting with him, king of the roost.

“But if uncle Zachy goes on holiday with you all of your other class mates are going to miss me too when I don't turn up after lunch. Plus, this way you get to tell me Alllll about your holiday when you get back.”

Tim grinned as he ran off to his parents, Zach went through the simple part of nodding and thanking and have fun and all of that crap. If they would just hurry up he could get to his appointment. He had to be careful, he was getting antsy. It was the Dragons fault. The all mighty Dragon was getting lax in his work. It had been days since he had last killed some one and as he had been trailing Dragon's kills, it had been days since he had last killed some one too. His go to for stress release, Rory was unavailable as well. Everything was adding up to a very tetchy Zach.

Right now he had an assistant teacher to interview. A potential victim to scout out.

He walked down the corridors confident as ever, nodding and smiling to people who passed. The pure and pure teacher was taking a chunk out of his own lunch break in order to interview little miss kitty cat. It was the sort of selfless thing he would do. Plus, he had sandwiches. He strolled into his office... which had kids toys and presents from kids scattered around the place. Even cups been made by the kids which he drank from. He ran his free hand through his hair, ruffling it whilst opening the door, leaving it open for the little Miss O'Hara he was waiting on. He dropped himself into his large chair and pulled his laptop towards him and emptied his lunch onto his desk.

He started by searching for Miss O'Hara, not on google or anything like that. More private databases with the Elemental's and the Cats. See if she could find a little more on his new target before they met. He would have done this way in advance but the interview was only set up a few hours ago by request of Sylvia. All he knew about her was that she was a kitty that wanted to work with kids, and from the way Sylvia had gone on and on about how amazing she was, the little kitty was as sweet and kind as his mask. Zach pretty much had preset paths on how to get in and out of the cats files, it was great how they seemed to detail everything. The cats where a little anal when it came to records.

She came up fast, and damn it all if there wasn't a whole damned book written on this kitty. Great. He barely had 5 minutes before she was due. He paged down rapidly, to get to the most recent entries. Ah so little kitty has recently found her mate. In the form of one Ethan Kavanagh. This was going to be a good kill... there would be no way the Free Court would be able to keep that under-wraps! Not with the recent merge the cats and elementals seemed to be angling for. Good luck with that when the mate of the future king would be dead with his feather of her pale bloodless head.

He glanced to the door, seeing she hadn't arrived yet and jumped back up to the top, deciding to skim all he could before he killed her. Wanting to know her past before he ended her life tonight. He was already feeling calmer from the hunt, even though she was walking right to him and he didn't even have to track her down like he ususaly would. What he read halted his thoughts, he brother was killed. And her parents. In front of her. As bloody and violent as his own fathers killing had been. Yeah she had been older than him... but she had watched them die and ended up covered in their blood just as he had. Proof again that the killers seemed to walk free as it was their job, same as our loving Dragon. He cursed under his breath and rolled his eyes, this was a complication. He wouldn't be killing her tonight.

However she was just too perfect, it would be the perfect kill. The perfect message! She was the perfect victim and he wasn't going to kill her tonight. That did not mean that he would not kill her... Miss O'Hara had just had a reprieve but she was in his crosshairs now and that's as good as being on death row. Heck he might even have a little fun with this.

He closed the page down and grabbed on of his sandwiches. Ah the simplistic mean... chicken and stuffing with a ton of Mayo. It was a shame he wouldn't be killing her tonight, but now he had a plan. It was enough to stop the shakes and the anger boiling in his stomach and let him eat his sandwich in peace. After taking one bite a slim hand knocked his door and Sylvia stuck her head in through the door.

“There he is! Mr Sholl...”

“Sylvia! you know to call me Zach.”

“Stop it you! Here's my daughter... Now I have to run, one of the kids fell off the monkey bars.”

She rolled her eyes and pushed the little sweety pie into the room with him. Oh god she would be a good kill. He pushed that idea back for now as he waived goodbye and turned his full grin onto her. He wouldn't kill her yet, he would wait and bide his time.

“So you must be the charming Miss O'Hara I have heard so much about, Please take a seat. I hope you don't mind if I finish my lunch. I'm famished.”

He grinned whilst taking another bite out of his sandwich, nodding towards the chair in front of his desk for her to get comfortable. All the chairs in his office where horrendously comfortable, he like people to be comfortable, they where less likely to think about him too much of they where comfy.

[Roxanne O'Hara]

Roxi should have learnt from the last time something like this had happened; never complain about being bored to you're mother, it'd only end in heartache. This time, Mum had suggested her getting a part time job. Apparently, despite the fact she had enough money in her bank account to spend the rest of even her considerably lengthened lifetime in comfort and was also mated to the Prince of the Moonlit Court, she could always do with a little bit of spending money. What the rest of her money was for, she had no idea, but apparently it wasn't for spending.

Her Mum had asked her a series of seemingly random questions then declared that she knew the perfect job for her and proceeded to ring someone to make an appointment for an interview. How she'd gotten the perfect job out of what her favourite colour was or whatever it was she was asked, she had no idea, but here she was, being driven to ...

"Mum, where exactly am I going?"

"A private school for Elementals, dear, did I not say that?" Roxi sighed and shook her head. No, she hadn't said that. If she had, Roxi would probably have mentioned that she didn't particularly want to work with snotty teenagers that were just finding their powers and their sexuality. She had enough testosterone flying around at home, thank you very much. She was considering getting a job so she could escape that, not be around even more of it.

She sat in silence for the rest of the way. She realised that she was probably acting like the teenager she was often mistaken for, but she couldn't help it. She was being driven to a job she didn't particularly want and she certainly didn't need it, despite her shoe fetish beginning to grow out of control. She had more then enough money to back that and her other addictions. Especially as Ethan often refused to let her pay for anything herself. When she did, he'd often wire money into her account, more than the item actually cost, and expect her not to notice.

The car pulled up outside a large building on the outskirts of London. Even though there were no signs, it was obvious that this were a school, it had that vibe about it.

They parked in the car park to the side and got out, Roxi smoothing the suit Loki had dropped round earlier that morning on his way out to meet JD. She was sure that it was a bit much for a teaching assistant interview, but she didn't really have that much choice; it was either the black skirt and silk shirt or whatever else she had in her wardrobe. And considering Loki had had his bimonthly wardrobe makeover and she hadn't had chance to top it up, she seriously doubted that there would be anything suitable there.

They entered the building, her Mum typing in the set of codes she'd been given that morning that were supposed to keep the humans from just walking in on them. To her, it just gave the impression of a prison and the high walled play area's she could see out of the window didn't help get rid of that.

She did, however, notice something that gave her some hope. The children she could see were all younger than she'd expected. None of them could be much older than ten, at the most. She turned to her Mum with a puzzled look on her face. "I thought you said I'd be working with teenagers?"

"No, dear. You'd be working with the elementary children. That is, unless you'd rather work with the teenagers?"

"Oh! No, I think I'd be better with the younger ones."

[/color] She smiled to her, then carried on taking in the building. It really was rather beautiful, for a school at least. It was all brick work and big windows, no signs of the grey, pealing paint she was so used to seeing on TV. Being home schooled, she had never actually set foot in a school, so she'd been setting all her assumptions on stereotypes. And American ones at that. She shook her head lightly, she should have known better.

They approached the receptionist, who smiled and greeted them as if they'd known each other all their lives. Of course, that was highly likely on her mother's part, but Roxi had never met the blonde in all her life. She tried to keep up with the conversation, but was soon over whelmed and decided to wander over to the staff photo's and look for the person she was supposed to be meeting. Of course, she was hindered by the fact she didn't know exactly who she was meeting, but she wasn't about to let that stop her.

"Roxanne, dear, Mr Sholl will be waiting for us ... " Roxi quickly pulled her gaze away from the portraits and turned to where her Mum was stood in an open doorway waiting for her. She smiled apologetically and followed her down the hall, nearly running into a couple carrying a bouncing chattering child. She turned on the spot and watched as they disappeared through the doors and into the car park, smiling as they did. For a moment, she could see her and Ethan doing the same and the smile grew until she caught herself and shook her head. There was no sense thinking about that just yet, that could wait another few years yet. It would wait another few years.

She turned back and jogged up to where her mother was muttering to herself, questioning the whereabouts of the ever elusive Mr. Sholl. After a few minutes seemingly mindless wanderings, she came to an abrupt stop outside an open door, knocked once and stuck her head through in a way only she could do.

“There he is! Mr Sholl...”

“ Sylvia, you know to call me Zach.”

“Stop it you! Here's my daughter... Now I have to run, one of the kids fell off the monkey bars.” She rolled her eyes and quickly ran off towards where Roxi assumed the playground was, but not before patting her reassuringly on the elbow and pushing her into the office, shutting the door behind her with a click.

She shot a shy smile to the man behind the desk and quickly took in his appearance, realising that there obviously some stereotypes that crossed the Atlantic. Sandy hair, pale clothes, easy smile; this guy had 'Kindergarten Teacher' written all over him. She found herself actually disappointed. She'd been hoping for something else, though she couldn't for the life of her work out what. Maybe someone more along the lines of Jack Black in School of Rock?

She mentally shook her head, realising that she was being ridiculous. If someone were a good teacher, they could be whom ever they please. Just as long as they weren't some axe wielding, serial killer that is.

“So you must be the charming Miss O'Hara I have heard so much about, Please take a seat. I hope you don't mind if I finish my lunch. I'm famished.”

Roxi smiled again as he took a bit out of his sandwich and gestured to the seat in front of him. She sat down quickly and smoothed her skirt in a nervous gesture. After a few seconds hesitation, she crossed her legs and recrossed them. Something wasn't quite right, but she couldn't tell what. The room seemed to be too quiet, blank, like it was missing something. What, though, she couldn't tell you.

She laughed a little nervously. "Sorry I'm so restless, I guess I'm just more nervous than I thought I was. It's my first interview and all ... Oh, and call me Roxi. Miss O'Hara makes me feel old."[/color][/blockquote][/size]

[Zacharia "The Raven" Sholl]

Zach hid the smirk as he watched her smooth her skirt down. Acqua Elementals where similar around him, emotions where pretty much beyond him. Anyone with even a latent empathic ability tended to feel nervous around him at first. The trick was to get people to rely on their other senses and the ignore the one pointing out an obvious absent of emotions. He'd expected him from her however and he had spend his whole life around elementals. Some with even stronger Empathic abilities than the cats. He tended to just drop into conversations over there time that he only had one active ability... and they people just made the intuitive leap that maybe he had a latent ability that masked him from readers.

It was handy that people made intuitive leaps like that, if the didn't he would have to tell them the reason they could feel nothing was because of a latent ability he wasn't supposed to know about which generally killed the whole point of the lie. Cats usually jumped their quicker tan other elementals. Elementals could be so over confident in their abilities and didn't like the idea that something was getting past it. Cats tended to have it as a latent ability so could shrug it off a little easier. It was easier to believe he had an ability rather than the happy smiling man in front of them felt nothing. That he was hollow and didn't feel happiness or sadness.

He leaned over to grab a bottle of juice from his bottom refrigerated draw. Popping it on the table and grabbing two of the obviously child made “Best Teacher” cups as she sat herself down. He put the best easy going smile that he could muster on his face as she continued to fidget even in his comfy chair. He hated people who fidgeted. It was why he liked his puppet master ability, he could paralyse some one so they couldn't move, perfect silence with no movement just like him. He could stay still easily, he didn't need to fidget to feel safe and comfortable. He pushed back the thought of having the curly haired kitty in front of him paralysed as he methodically checked over his knives, she would be nervous then but non of that silly fidgeting.

"Sorry I'm so restless, I guess I'm just more nervous than I thought I was. It's my first interview and all ... Oh, and call me Roxi. Miss O'Hara makes me feel old."

Zach smiled, trying to keep it easy and not sharkish. Smiling could be tricky, but he liked to think he had got it pretty much down, the only time he ever let himself go from the mask was when he had some one in his room. People where always so much more beautiful when paralysed, they where free even though they couldn't move. They where near their moment of death and as Xiang Yu had written, the only way to truly find out about a person is to torture them. You could live with some one for a hundred years and never know them, put them near death and cause them pain and you have the best written biography ever. Zach however expecting that stories on Xiang Yu over an interview for a kindergarten teacher would not be applicable.

“Then Roxi, I shall call you that as long as you promise to call my Zach and not Mr Sholl. All the kids call me Uncle Zachy but the other teachers may question your sanity if go along that route.”

He grinned and he reached forward the grab the juice on the table. Generic apple juice. Zach was all about Generic. People never questioned ordinary... even if you where so much the text book definition that something had to be up. As much as the world had grown blasé to the idea of serial killers and crazy people, and the fact that the killer is most likely to be some one you know. That there had been a serial killer operating within the Free Court for nearly half a decade... and yet people never question that face he was... Too normal. Zach found it amusing.

“Drink?”

Although he asked he poured a drink for her and himself anyway. There where some habits he couldn't shake and he was always in control of a situation. Simple things like that, deciding if some one will have a drink or not and taking the decision out of there hands... it was enough to sat the monster to just loiter and bide its time. She was sat comfortably in his cross hairs now so he was already significantly calmer. He took a good sip of his drink, his hunger quiestened down now so he could have a conversation without his attention drifting back to the sandwich every four seconds.

He'd requested the meeting at lunch so there would not be too much of an interview process. Originally it was because he had just wanted to get enough of an idea about her to see if she was suitable to be next on his list. He always liked to meet his victims first... even if he was pretending to be a magazine seller of something. The look of realisation when they recognised him just had Kodack moment written all over it. He caught her eyes for a breif second, he never held eye contact for long, Eyes where the windwos to the soul and seeing as he didn't have one he didn't want people to realise it. He just had to know if the pain was there, behind her eyes over what had happened.

Most people wouldn't even see it to be perfectly honest, it was subtle. As it was with him these days. Zach however knew what he was looking for and he saw it there, there would be no way of hiding a past like that from some one who knew how to look for it. As Zach saw it in the mirror every morning he knew exactly what he was looking for. She was a bit like him in that respect, sharing the same pain. But he had been younger and where he only acted pure and innocent she blatantly was.

The meeting being scheduled at lunch now was better he could talk to her for a bit and get a feel for her and convince her it was the best job and she should start right away, he could introduce her to some of his favourtie kids. The kind who could have some one wrapped around their little fingers with less effort than even he could manage. The girls would love her too, the curly hair and her general appearance was something kids went for normally. Also give the fact she was a cat so she was probably harbouring some strong maternal need in there some where, worse since she had found her mate. This was working out well for Zach.

“Sylvia said you where looking for a job with younger children, I've been talking about getting a TA for ages but I just never find the time. Which is pretty much the reason why I am yet to find one and why we are having this meeting on lunch break.”

He shrugged into the direction of the playground, some of the kids playing with their various abilities in view, his office had a very large window... showing his concern for them even when he was on lunch... little things like that made other people happy. People where easy.

“It'll mainly be based around abilities with some of them, the few Scuro children that we have you have to be careful with, they can come into their abilities as early as age four but most of the kids get one before they move on to the larger schools. Other than that its all simple math, finger painting and just being there.”

He took another quick bite from his sandwich, knowing he wouldn't get another chance to eat until home time now.

“Most of the heavy duty teaching is done else where, so the kids will love you as they love me because we are the fun class. I'll have to have you meet a few of the classes first, make sure we don't have any personality clashes if that is alright with you?”

Zach posed it as a question but there was little way around it really, he'd gotten his last TA the same way. Talk them up, point out the job is easy money and fun, introduce them to the kids and bam, fallen hook line and sinker. The last had been a guy, he liked to keep them around in case he got bored of it Dragon went silent. They were the kills he his in his caves, not the ones he displayed though, other wise people might realise that his TA's keep showing up dead.

[Roxanne O'Hara]

“Then Roxi, I shall call you that as long as you promise to call my Zach and not Mr Sholl. All the kids call me Uncle Zachy but the other teachers may question your sanity if go along that route.”

Roxi laughed, trying to get herself to relax. Her instincts, which had been developing ever since she’d met Ethan, were telling her something was wrong with this man, she just couldn’t understand what. When he laughed there seemed to be something wrong with it, like there was something missing.

“Drink?” Before she had chance to respond to his question, however, he started to pour them both a drink. She smiled and leant forward to take her glass from him, muttering thanks as she did. She’d realised what was making her twitch; there was no emotion coming emanating from him as there was from everyone else. The slight empathy she had as a cat always worked in the background and she never really took any notice of it unless she had to, but this sudden lack of emotion in general was making her uncomfortable.

Now that she’d realised what it was, however, she was able to relax properly. He probably had a power similar to hers that made it so no one was able to read or influence his emotions. She wondered idly if people with weak telepathic abilities felt as uncomfortable around her as she did around Zach, but knew there was little point in dwelling on it; there wasn’t exactly much she could do about it.

“Sylvia said you where looking for a job with younger children, I've been talking about getting a TA for ages but I just never find the time. Which is pretty much the reason why I am yet to find one and why we are having this meeting on lunch break.” When he shrugged in the direction of the window, she looked out of it and saw the playground for the first time. What she saw brought a genuine grin to her face. She knew that Ethan would be ecstatic with the involuntary response, but she made a mental note not to mention it to him. And to moan about snotty nosed kids as often as she could bring herself to do so when she was at home.

On the playground were around forty children, running around, playing with skipping ropes, hanging upside down on the monkey bars, doing all the stuff children loved to do. She could see her Mum stood with her hands on her hips, talking to a young boy who she assumed had been the one to fall off the monkey bars. She had no idea what she was saying, but she could tell he wasn’t all that bothered by it. In fact, as soon as her Mum turned around, he ran back to the monkey bars and joined his friend in hanging upside down.

She nodded along as he went over what she’d be doing with the children if she were to get the job. It all sounded fairly simple to be honest and she found herself itching to start. It took her by surprise just how eager she was to do this and made a quick mental note to buy her Mum a huge gift of some kind, maybe another candid portrait of everyone. She was sure there were plenty of them on her camera.

“ I'll have to have you meet a few of the classes first, make sure we don't have any personality clashes if that is alright with you?”

Roxi sat forward and nodded excitedly to Zach. It was more than fine by her; she couldn’t wait to get started on it. It had been over thirty years since she’d been around a young wereanimal and she’d never been around Elemental children.

A sudden thought occurred to her, sending a wave of dread through her. “Their parent’s won’t mind that you’re employing a Cat, will they? I mean, I know you’re not supposed to prejudice against me because of my race, but it doesn’t stop other Elementals from distancing themselves from me. I wouldn’t want to upset anyone by doing this … I mean, I’m sure there’s something else I could do …”

[/color] She looked out of the window again and hoped with all her heart that it would be fine; now she was here, she couldn’t imagine herself doing anything other than working with children in some fashion. She knew that the Moonlit Court would never let her, a Fallen, Marked cat anywhere near their children and she didn’t have any qualifications to be able to get a job in human schools.[/blockquote][/size]

[Zacharia "The Raven" Sholl]

Zach watched as her demeanour practically palpably shifted as he spoke. The children helped of course but then she was a cat that had recently found her mate so it was pretty much standard. Cats where pretty highly instinctual. Even now in this day and age a lot of them was base instincts even though they where now coloured with new ideals. Elemental were a little further removed from their instincts but unlike cats, could not really have children with some one who wasn't their closest approximation of a mate. Were's could. They simply just did not, but then when you know there is some one destined for you, what's the point?

Humans where ridiculous – they had the same instincts but they just blindly ignored them. Staying with people bad for them and have children with anything that breathes. Elementals slept around true... but they where pretty safe when it came down to it, little chance of getting pregnant unless it was meant to be or whatever. Zach mentally shook his head to clear the random train his thoughts had gone to. Since Dragon had gone quiet it was happening all of the time. He was bored and tetchy and without having something to occupy his mind he was turning into a day dreamer. Next he was probably going to start doing math problems now when he was bored. Something had to change.

Her face suddenly shifted into a picture of dread before she spoke and Zach nearly rolled him eyes. Bloody women. I swear every five bloody seconds that had to focus on some point that was usually so pointless it didn't even bear thinking about – but yet women did. They then stressed and become annoying and looking all dread filled and what ever. He kept the easy smile on his face even though it was taking a lot of effort, he still kept it easy however. Barring laughing however he was a master.

“Their parent’s won’t mind that you’re employing a Cat, will they? I mean, I know you’re not supposed to prejudice against me because of my race, but it doesn’t stop other Elementals from distancing themselves from me. I wouldn’t want to upset anyone by doing this … I mean, I’m sure there’s something else I could do …”

Zach had to bite his tongue so he didn't say something brash and stupid that could loose him his latest TA but he really wanted to. Heck the parents at this school would probably be fine with it, heck they where fine with him. Albeit they didn't know that he was a serial killer but he was effectively a defective Elemental with only one ability. Realistically he had all of his abilities, but they where odd ones that people so would not trust around their children. They where more fit for the battle field rather than a school room.

“They won't mind in the slightest, generally the parents that bring their kids here know about my self so they are pretty accepting from the get go. I've had a few parents that didn't do the paranoid background checks that most Elementals do on their teachers pull them out when they find out about me but usually they are not fussed on your race as long as the kids love you.”

Zach laughed it off lightly before he noted her expression was a little confused. At which point he realised Sylvia likely hadn't gone and said anything about his abilities or something. He wondered how long Sylvia had been planning this, but then that woman didn't really need time. She was a mini tornado considering that she was an earth elemental. When she got her mind set on something it damned well got done. He had to admire that as much as he could in another person.

“ Sylvia didn't mention anything did she?”

Zach nodded and grinned lightly, knowing that she had probably skipped over it considering the confusion.

“I'm an Arian with only one ability, Air manipulation. Thanks to the wonders of human society I didn't get my other abilities as I was growing up. And as I guess you know well enough, The Elemental community isn't the most accept bunch of people when it comes to people that are not considered normal. They are happy enough with me looking after their kids so they will be fine with a cat as long as the kids love you.”

Zach took another quick bite of his sand which and a quick swig of his drink before standing up and brushing himself down. There was a good 15 minutes left of break time so that was pretty much perfect.

“If we run we will catch the end of lunch and I can show you a few of the regulars from my class. You'll be able to spot most of them as they will likely try and run me over when I get onto the yard”