All of Them People

Sean woke up Monday morning after an evening of intense internal conflict, to confront Adrien about what happened to Minhoe or to pass it off as a hallucination because that just couldn't be possible.

However possible or impossible, something happened that night and Adrien was definitely involved. He scarfed down his breakfast, four pieces of toast and some orange juice, before grabbing his school bag and headed for the door just as Emmett was walking down the stairs.

"Where are you going this early in the morning?" Emmett asked, hand over his mouth in a slight yawn.

"Rugby practice" Sean responded, a big game was coming up so they had started doing morning practice on the days that the fields were being used for other sports after school. "did you just wake up?"

"Haven't slept yet" Emmett said sleepily as he eyed him over, "you should at least get dressed before you leave." He then proceeded to walk into the kitchen to grab milk and sugary cereal.

Throughout the morning Sean was fidgety, he could barely concentrate on his rugby practice and his teacher had scolded him during first class. As soon as the bell rang for break he had bolted out of the classroom in pursuit of Adrien. However his search turned out to be fruitless as nobody had really seen Adrien yet that morning. Sean sighed, sluggishly walking over toward his locker to grab his binder for his next class. Maybe I'll have better luck finding him at lunch, he thought to himself. Just then he saw Tawny walking down the hallway presumably to her own classes. In the spur of the moment he ran up to her.

"Hey," Sean began awkwardly, "uh, do you know if Adrien is at school today or maybe where he is at the moment?"

"Uh, why do you of all people suddenly care where Adrien is?" Tawny scoffed, without pausing, making Sean walk next to her at her brisk pace.

"Well, that is..." He began to say, but cut himself off as he dodged other people in the hall who were also on their way to classes. Faintly he thought he heard the bell ringing. Catching back up to her speed he started again "I just. I really need his help with something."

"Something?" She spared him a quick side-glance.

He let out an exasperated sigh. She really wasn't going to make this easy.

"Look, I just need to talk to him and him alone. Can't you please tell me where he is?"

Tawny stopped behind a group of other kids waiting for the classroom door to be opened and looked up at Sean. "He might show up this afternoon. But I don't know what his next class is." She knew full well what his next class was. "Goodbye Sean, I'll let him know you're looking for him," she said, already looking down at her cell phone.

"Thanks." He said to her, muttering an 'I guess' as he left to go to his own class. For the entire class he was growing evermore anxious.

'Sean's looking for u', Tawny text to Adrien as soon as Sean had turned his back. 'remember he was dating minhoe, he might ask questions'.

A couple seconds later Adrien had sent her a response, 'dont worry bout it. ill take care of him if he does'. It was followed by another, 'c u later ;) '.

When the lunch bell rang Sean wasn't as much of a rush as he had been in at first break. He was a bit more calm now, though he was still anxious about what he was going to talk to Adrien about. Little doubts sprouted in his mind. What if he had seen things all wrong? Or if he didn't would Adrien kill him because he would be considered a witness? He really hoped not but Minhoe had not responded to any of his texts and he had not seen her at all around school. She never missed class and she always returned his texts so he figured something had happened that night. All he wanted to figure out was what. He turned the next corner and ran into something, or rather someone, who smiled cheekily at him.

"I heard you were looking for me." Adrien spoke casually, "What is it you wanna talk about?"

"Heard some rumours, about Minhoe and the party and you..." He started slowly, Adrien did not look like he was in the mood for jokes, and this must be the biggest one he's heard all day. "and look. Okay I'm worried about her. I haven't seen since the party and... and I've been told you were with her last."

Adrien frowned, maybe he'd had Sean all wrong? He wasn't going to cast away his suspicions just yet though. Then he tried making a face that looked thoughtful, like he'd just remembered something.

"Well, I was with her last. You saw how she jumped out that window right?" Sean nodded his head, remembering how she jumped out, and then how Adrien followed. "I was afraid she got her hands on some bad drugs, it happens sometimes." Sean looked sceptical, but Adrien continued "so I went after her, to make sure she was all right."

"You both jumped from the second floor!" Sean exclaimed, some students passing by gave him odd looks but he paid them no attention.

"I'm used to doing crazy stuff like that." Adrien replied, brushing it off "look morale of the story I was with her, but she was fine when I left."

"When you left..." Sean's voice was filled with disbelief. "You left her alone while she was in such a messed up state.?" He wasn't referring to her being on drugs. No, the image of her bleeding body and Adrien's hands on the trigger told him a different story.

"Hey man, I did what I could." He eyed Sean suspiciously, wondering again if Sean knew more than he let on. "She had calmed down by the time I caught up to her, I helped her lie down near a creek to rest and she told me she wanted to be alone. So I left." He made some obscure hand gestures. "Was that wrong of me?"

Sean's mind faltered, the events he thought he had seen blurred and the ones Adrien told him seemed so much more real.

"Then what happened to her?" Sean asked, but it was aimed at himself more than Adrien.

"I don't know man, but she's gotta turn up eventually." With that Adrien left Sean, glad that he wouldn't have to add Sean to the list of classmates he'd killed. It wasn't very long, just a couple names but the less the better.

Sean went through his next class glumly. Had it all been his imagination? That couldn't be, he didn't want Minhoe to be dead but what he saw was so vivid. She had even bit Cian. That's it! Cian! If he talked to Cian maybe he could figure it out! He was so busy thinking about where to find Cian that he could hardly focus in class. Calculus was hard even if he was paying attention.

"Can you answer this question?" Mr. Leroy asked scowling, white chalk in his hand ready to be thrown "Sean?"

"Uh" Sean looked hurriedly at his blank notes, he's barely begun the question. " x equals 2?" he replied timidly averting his gaze from his teachers scrutiny.

"Fortunately for you, Brinkerhoff, this is my last piece of chalk." He then turned and asked another student for the answer. Sean was relieved, Mr. Leroy had good aim and a strong arm.

However after class ended he found no sign of Cian, and all of Cian's groupies said they hadn't seen him since the morning classes. Sean would just have to wait until tomorrow, for their Law field-trip, Cian wouldn't skip that.