To watch it burn

Place: Chemistry class
Date and time: March 4th, 9:15
Weather: Sun’s shining
Outfit: Lab coat covering her yellow t-shirt. Dark pants. Fake glasses, hair and necklaces too.
Dedicated to: @Roman

The sound of a teacher, talking about their subject completely invested, filled the room, where Lauren sat in the middle of the chemistry class, by her station. She sat on a tall stool, slumped over the table, with her hands flat on the table, underneath her cheek.  She was tired and slightly hungover from the day before. She had managed to get her lab coat on to protect her clothing from any leftover chemicals on the table.

A ball of paper was thrown after Lauren, hitting her back. Another. Another. Another. “Stoooop,” she mumbled. Shortly after another was sent flying. She sighed and slowly sat up right on her stool, stretching her torso.
“I’m glad you’re awake, miss Martin,” the teacher said, clearly somewhat bothered with Laurens will to attend actively. She looked over her shoulder to see if she could spot, who the brat was, who wanted to interrupt her sleep. And there he was, in the middle of making yet another ball of paper, to throw. He had a friend next to him who sat, giggled, and help him ready loads of paper balls. Lauren’s eyes therefore widened as she mouthed to them that they should stop. She didn’t want any trouble with the teacher. She had more than enough hovering over her head from the Saturday, where she had forgotten it had been a full moon. Stupid, Lauren, stupid!
Even though she clearly told the boys to stop, they threw a ball after her, and she tried to dodge it. Failing. She pushed her stool out from the table, just about to get off of it and wander directly over to the guy to teach him a lesson, but the sound of the stool caught the teacher’s attention. “Going anywhere?” Lauren shook her head, apologized, and took her legs back under the table as she sat down properly.


The class was parted in small teams for small projects, involving burning stuff on a Bunsen burner. Lauren was actually participating in the project, asking relevant questions and noting results. It just didn’t take too long, before one of the smart kids asked for something specific to burn and the teacher had to leave the classroom for a couple of minutes.
As soon as the door closed behind the teacher’s legs, Lauren was almost showered with hard balls of paper; close to the Bunsen burner she stood with. She tried to block some of them, bringing up her arm to cover her face. It was fine, just until her patience ran out. She grabbed some of the paper balls and started throwing them after the two boys – quite harmless. But then, her somewhat fried brain thought of a ‘good idea’. She took one of the paper balls close to the Bunsen burner, so it caught on fire. She loaded it up. Getting ready to throw it towards the boys.

Outfit + lab coat
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"Do you know if when Wayne will be back?" He had asked the teacher just before class started. Not even Maya was here, what a day. Roman sighed, just hoping not to get partnered up with another one of the people who would end up letting him do the entire assignment. Even if Maya and Wayne sometimes spoke a language he didn't understand, he still felt like he got something out of having chemistry with them. "Fine," he mumbled to himself as he was asked to sit down, even if he felt like he would rather just go. It was over a month ago since his brother had been killed, and the teachers had already forgotten or some of them just didn't care about that anymore. Roman walked over to the chair and sat down. He opened the book where he had a notebook with notes he had made from today's homework.

The werewolf looked a little to his side, as he observed some jerks behind.. wasn't that Lauren? Since when was she a werewolf or had that just slipped his mind. They weren't friends, but she was a friend of Wayne's. There was a difference between a smell of a pureblood werewolf and a created one, it wasn't strong, but when you grew up in a pack you just knew. Roman had always liked his pack, mostly because they could live how they wanted - and just show up occasionally for meetings, and then of course the pack had your back. He was still a bit sour over the fact that Romeo’s killer had managed to get away, even with half of the pack after whoever that person was. Lauren stood up, which made Roman frown for a second, once again the teacher wasn't at any help. It was like either the teachers were great, or they were the worst - there was no in-between. And then she just kept on teaching as if the idiot who had bothered Lauren hadn't done a thing wrong in his entire life. Of course, there was a chance she hadn't seen it. But still, the way he sat and giggled to himself like a spoiled brat made Roman a bit angry. He observed the situation quite closely, how she told them to stop almost as she didn't even manage to try convincing them by asking nicely. It to Roman just seemed like a silent beg for them to just stop whatever they were doing, and so they should stop. They shouldn't even have started. Roman held his breath shortly as she pushed her stool out from the table, getting the teacher's attention once again. However, he could clearly tell Lauren didn't want any trouble by the way she sat down again.

As they got partnered up in smaller teams, he was as always prepared. Ryan often mocked him for being a tiny bit nerdy, and if Ryan wasn't after him - then Riley was. He wasn't in group with Lauren, but he sat closely by, mostly having his attention on the guys who for now seemed to behave. At least they had respected her saying stop, so he thought it was over with that. However, as soon as the teacher talked out the room he realized how wrong he had been. Lauren fired the paper balls back. Even if balls of paper were harmless, it wasn’t the point. The point was that they didn’t stop once being told to, they kept going. There was almost nothing more dangerous than a pissed of werewolf. His senses kicked in as she took the paper balls close to the Bunsen burner, so they got caught in the fire. “Lauren,” he yelled after her before he rushed over there, almost tripping over a chair.

He came over there and grabbed her hand letting the paper balls fall to the ground where he stumped on them to make the fire go out. "Are you out of your mind?” He lashed out in an almost panicked voice before Roman let go of her hand and turned the Bunsen burner off and turned his attention to the guys who had been bothering Lauren since the class had started. “Okay, jerk one and two. You seriously need to stop bothering her, or you are going to have more problems on your hands to count.. got it?” His eyes glowed up a bit, and his voice demanded they listened to him. If they, however, should as much as cry to laugh or snort at him, he would grab the hand of the guy who started it all and twist it around in a tight squeeze. It was possible for Roman to break the wrist of the guy if he wanted to, however, right now he just wanted to make a statement.

Her name was called, but she was too focused on keeping an eye on the ball of paper that had caught on fire. She certainly didn’t want the fire to hit anyone else than the two boys. She was just about to throw the fireball, when someone grabbed her hand, so the paper ball fell to the ground. Lauren tossed her gaze from the boys she had aimed at to whoever had seemed to interfere with her shot. Are you out of your mind? The question hurt her right in the guts. She was out of her mind. She felt so god damn ruined since she had changed Wayne. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She frowned at him, making her nose wrinkle a bit. She was just about to pull her hand forcefully back, when he let go of her. However much she put up a angry façade, it continued to feel like she was on the brim of crying. It was hurtful words, since they were true. “Maybe I am,” she hissed. Her reply didn’t help with how she was feeling. She wanted to crawl into a whole, hide away, think about what she had done, and most importantly; get high.

He shut of the gas, so the fire from the Bunsen burner was shut off. He stood up for her, even though she had hissed back at him. Great. Now she just felt even worse. It felt like her heart dropped and she felt cold, and her mouth seemed to be more neutral, or even turning slightly downward. She was simply a bad person. She had even thought she had been a great person, taking Wayne out for a party so he could loosen up a bit. But it had ended so badly that she had bit him – on a full moon. What a fucking disaster.
The guys listened, but they certainly didn’t show Roman any respect, even though he had warned them quite well. They snorted at him and started laughing, but it didn’t last long. As soon as Roman started approaching the jerks, Lauren gave Roman the same medicine. “Roman!” she called, following him. This wasn’t his fight to pick. The jerks instantly started to call Roman for an overprotective boyfriend, but they only got to say it, before one of the jerks arm was twisted around by Roman, making the jerk squeal like the pig he was. The other jerk was about to go for a hit on Roman. Lauren caught the beginning of the movement, and therefore kicked the guy on the knee from the side, so he fell to the ground.

And in came the teacher with the new chemicals. The chemicals that was brought into the room was put onto a table before the teacher stormed to the crime scene. Two werewolves hovering over two squealing pig-jerks. “Lauren! Roman!” the teacher called. It felt like ice cubes ran down her back and she looked over her shoulder to the teacher. “Detention!” the teacher said to the werewolves making sure they got away from the two guys. Unfair. The teacher looked around to all of the other students. “Class dismissed,” the teacher called. The teacher had to make sure the jerks were alright – and the guy whose knee was kicked didn’t look too well.

Laurens shoulders dropped and her face was filled with sorrow. Another failure. She glanced over at Roman, trying to nonverbally tell him, that she was incredibly sorry for the mess she had put him in. “You two, principal’s office, right now!” Laurens brown eyes sought to her own feet before she walked towards the class exit door, leaving her coat on a hanger. Ashamed.

"Don't Roman me," he snapped lightly back at her. He was still dealing with his loss and people pissing him off wasn't really the greatest thing ever. Even if it wasn't Lauren he had meant to snap at, the anger was taken out on one of the jerks. However, Lauren did defend him even if his senses had been preparing him that the other asshole was about to throw a hit. At least they had it under control till the teacher returned to the scene that looked mostly like two werewolves going crazy on two morons. Roman took a look around as he zoned back to his senses, oh Ryan wouldn't let this one go. Their names were called and he sighed annoyed, as he went over to close his book so he could bring it with him. Roman usually kept to himself, the amount of friends he had was to be counted on one hand and he liked it like that. Detention, bloody detention and without at least Maya. "Nice work," he mumbled a bit to himself, mostly annoyed at Lauren. If she hadn't started wanting to play with fire, they wouldn't be in this mess.

Principal's office, Roman snorted a tiny bit arrogantly. He didn't like the principal, mostly because that man had totally neglected his friend. That kind of stuff was unforgivable. "I will take it from here, thank you Erica," another teacher approached them and looked at the two werewolves. Jack looked inside the class room, looking at the two people who just sat and complained about Lauren and Roman. "Nice kick," he chuckled a bit making Roman frown a bit. Oh, it had to be the teacher who had been helping Maya, Roman thought to himself, but didn't say a thing. "If you go to the principal's office he will most likely just give you a week. I give you an hour, now, don't get into more trouble," Jack gently touched Lauren's shoulder and gave her a little smile. "Now both of you.. get going."

Roman sighed a bit and shook his head as he headed to the detention class room. "You know him?" He carefully asked, mostly making a conversation. Even if he most of the time liked silence, right now - he didn't. The anger wasn't usually this strong in him, but there was a lot going on. "How long have you been.. a werewolf?" He asked as they entered the class room. Luckily they were alone in there. He wanted to ask her this. A werewolf turning a human was a big thing, and it didn't matter why but how it was handled after. Being born a werewolf, he had more sense of control and understanding of his nature - he couldn't imagine waking up one day and being forced to deal with the full moon and everything in between.

So, he could ‘Lauren’ her, but she wasn’t allowed to ‘Roman’ him? Yes, he was dealing with something traumatic, that most people knew of by now, but at least people knew. People didn’t know about what Lauren was going through – at least not yet. Lauren was almost sure that as soon as Wayne got better, he would probably start to talk about what had happened. Oh, the guilt…
Most people at Athena knew that Lauren had overdosed on her first year of the academy; it had given her a reputation with drugs. Some people still believed she was dead, even though she never died. She was only hospitalized. She had no real memory of anything, except of the fact that she woke up in a hospital bed. She believed, that no one knew about her father’s secret work or that Lauren had continued his job when he died.
Nice work. The words grabbed around her guts, twisted them and tied a knot. She had caused him to act, which now led them both into problems. Idiotic.

A well known voice lit up Laurens expression, with a hesitant smile she looked the leader of the Southside Serpents in the eyes. Even though she felt like she wanted to vomit in guilt, Jacks words pleased her, to a full crooked smile. “Thanks,” she said with a low voice, not wanting to draw any more attention than she already had, not that the low voice changed anything. Detention for one hour. Don’t get into more trouble. The message was understood, and she really didn’t want to let him down. The touch on her shoulder was also received with a warm hesitant smile. Telling Jack thank you.

They finally headed to the detention classroom, and it didn’t take long, before Roman wanted a conversation. Maybe he wasn’t that mad at her after alle? “Hmm?” she said looking towards him, before she realized what he asked about. “Oh, yeah. We know each other quite well. I-, eh… I knew him before I started here,” she tried to explain, pulling on a slight smile. “I guess he has my back,” she said and scratched the back of her head with her bitten nails.
Once again, she was confused by the question he asked, and she looked towards him as he stepped inside the classroom. She followed him, thinking about whether if she wanted to answer or not. Like him, she looked around, seeing if they were with company.  She took a deep breath in, “This summer,” she answered quietly, feeling how her throat tightened. She hadn’t really talked to anyone about it, except for the Serpents. Not even her mother or sister knew about it. With no tears in her eyes, she tried to dry her eyes, which only irritated them. “I’m sorry… I-” She mumbled as she approached one of the stools and slumped down onto it, with one leg on the table, massaging her forehead with one hand. “I don’t really talk about it,” shrugging on her shoulders, letting her eyes rest on her shoe.

He had seen Jack when he had track, he was nice. Or at least he seemed nice. "Nice," was the only word leaving Roman's lips. He nodded a bit to himself, not sure why nice was the only word he managed to say. Maybe because he was way too focused on this whole werewolf thing. Call it an instinct. He also did not want her to become a lone wolf or a rouge - unless that was what she wanted. She had been a werewolf since summer, damn he was slow. "I'm sorry," he said without thinking too much about his words again, but he at least meant it. She didn't seem way to comfortable about it, which made him worry. Even if he had seen people wanting to be turned and had been bitten by choice - it wasn't pleasant. Roman once again just observed her movements, from the way she tried to dry her eyes even though she weren't crying. He watched carefully as she sat down in one of the chairs, with one of the legs on the table. Looking like someone who was trying to solve a mystery in her mind. I don’t really talk about it, he walked closer and pulled a stool out and placed it in front of the table she had sat down at.

Roman took a slightly deeper breath in, and looked at her with a more concerning look. "Do you want to?" He then asked and frowned a bit, "talk about what happened?" Roman folded his lips shortly together as he took a deeper breath in. "I know we don't know each other that well.. but despite that I'm a werewolf," he pointed out with a little more comforting smile. He wasn't sure if she knew or if she didn't. It didn't matter, it was now confirmed. One thing that didn't discriminate between what kind of wolf you were - was the temper - the temper was cruel to either type of werewolf, the hunger and the pain of transforming.

To Lauren, it was more than just nice to have Jack on her side. It made everything much easier when he was around – or at least while she was at school. Outside of the school, at home or with her friends – there he couldn’t help her in the same way he had just done.
He apologized, but she didn’t really get why. She didn’t let her eyes look at him, but simply just pulled on a smile for a solid second. She had no words. It wasn’t his fault that she was a werewolf, neither his responsibility to know it. He hadn’t let her down in any way, since she hadn’t gotten any expectations. After all, they hadn’t really been talking much unless classroom projects had forced them to.

Her eyes weren’t taken off of her foot, as he sat down in front of her, as an investigator. What a boy, huh. Her thoughts started spiraling as he asked if she wanted to talk about it. She didn’t really know. Was there anything important to talk about, that she didn’t know of? What would he gain from such a talk? She started picking her own nails, letting her gaze rest on the fingers. As he then mentioned that he was a werewolf, as if it would change the reason why she would want to talk about it with him, she grinned shortly, letting her cheeks tighten in a short, ironic smile before she looked up at Roman. “I can smell that, you know,” she said and let her gaze fall upon her nails again. She let silence fill the room for a moment before she sighed and gave up, whether or not if he was still sitting in front of her. “I don’t remember much,” she said. “I just remember some ugly fucking eyes, and then I passed out,” she explained and shrugged her shoulders. “Gosh, man…. I don’t even know who the fuck chose to bite me,” she said shaking her head, slowly turning her sight towards the lights in the loft. “I’m sorry if cursing bothers you,” she mumbled. It was almost imprinted in her vocabulary.

"Good.. that's good," he pointed out with a smile, it was good she could tell he was a werewolf. If she hadn't known he would have to learn her to tell things apart, species apart or he didn't really need to do anything honestly. But someone had changed a human to a werewolf, and not taken responsibility for his actions - it was outrages. I don't remember much, he frowned a bit, he had heard in most cases the shock could be enough to make them completely forget the event - till they realized or at least were told about what had happened. "Ugly eyes.. please, I think they are pretty cool," he pointed out in a lower voice with a smaller smile that faded quickly a second after. Roman took a deeper breath in as he started playing out in his mind how and who would do something like that. It didn't seem like a pack werewolf, usually alpha's had a clear way on how they wanted their wolves to behave under a moon - or at least trained them in control. He knew for a matter of fact his own alpha was strict. "Most likely a fucking moron," he mumbled to himself. Rough werewolves and their reckless behaviors. "Cursing doesn't bother me," he added quickly after. Roman didn't always curse, after all his mother would give him shit if she heard he was walking around cursing every time he got. "It was most likely a rough werewolf, those fuckers have a way of ruining people's lives.. I swear they are bad news."

Lauren raised her eyebrows while she looked at her nails. She had after all been a werewolf for at least half a year. The fact that she still had no clue of how to control things was something entirely different, and there was still some smells she couldn’t determine – but werewolves were clear to her.
She glanced over at him, as he said the eyes were pretty cool, “What?” she frowned. “Foggy red eyes seems pretty fucking ugly to me,” she cursed and looked back at her hands fidgeting with each other. She didn’t really think that he could’ve misunderstood her.
Her lips was stretched into a smile, just for a moment as he said the person who had bit her most likely was a fucking moron. “Yeah… Fucking moron,” she repeated with a slight chuckle. Cursing didn’t bother him; nice, so she wouldn’t have to hold back. Holding back was just going to make things worse when she got home. It was much better to curse as much as possible while she was out in public, rather than at home. Most likely a roughe werewolf. Once again she frowned, still looking at her fingers while he finished his sentence. She placed her hand flat on the table and looked towards him. “What the hell is a rouge?” she asked, still frowning. She had honestly no clue of any of the werewolf hierarchy and wouldn’t mind him explaining it if he offered. She couldn’t smell the difference from the hierarchy either. Every werewolf was just a werewolf to her.

Foggy red eyes he frowned a bit, he knew alpha eyes were red, but foggy red? It sounded like something he should report back to Walter, and he wrote a mental note to do just that. It was always something to be aware of what other packs that were in the area. Most alpha's didn't like if their territory was crossed. It seemed like she didn't know much about the levels of different wolves, another thing that made it clear to him no one had helped her getting used to this. It was a almost unbelievable she hadn't killed anyone - of course he couldn't know that - but he assumed since she had tried to control her temper that much that she had some control. "A rouge werewolf is someone who got banished from it's pack," he took a slightly deeper breath in. "There is two terms for werewolves without a pack.. rouge and lone wolves, the lone wolves makes the choice to leave - but rouge wolves are more aggressive," he added while keeping his eyes on her. "No one has really taken their time teaching you this, huh?" Roman took a deeper breath in and frowned a bit, it wasn't really a question more a statement. What had this academy become? Wasn't it the teachers jobs to help people like Lauren who stood in a life changing situation, and provide her with all the information she needed? "Well, then I guess I will be your mentor. Werewolf mentor, what do you say?"

Banished from it’s pack. It definitely sounded like something she didn’t want to be a part of. Being banished. Such an awful thing. Well, some would say her mom had banished Lauren from being part of the family, but that was a thing she didn’t really share with anyone. And she had the Southside Serpents. They were her family, now that her own didn’t really want her. Except for the fact that she didn’t count on her mother to look out for Bernice…
She nodded slowly, as he explained the two types of wolves without a pack. One would choose to leave, and the other was aggressive… Interesting. Was she a lone wolf then, since she wasn’t part of a specific pack? She scratched her cheek looking thoughtfully at her leg on the table. No one has really taken their time teaching you this, huh?
She looked up at him, “Pardon?” she said before she took her leg, so both feet were in contact with the floor. “No…” she then replied, and started picking her bitten, dry, nails, shrugging. She had been dealing with being werewolf somewhat alone – or, she had to teach herself everything on her own. The serpents didn’t really have any werewolves, yet. I guess I will be your mentor. She looked up with an elevated eyebrow. “Yeah,” she nodded slightly, “Sounds good,” she leaned back into her seat. “So, what are you going to teach me?” she asked and readjusted a hair strand looking at him.

Not even a lone wolf deserved to be left without help or any type of guidance. He even thought about giving her an offer to join his pack, then wondered shortly what Walter would say. It wasn't Roman's job to come with new members, and there was a slight chance that he would just think that Roman had turned the poor girl - which he did not want to be faced with the charge off. It didn't mean that Roman didn't want to help because he did. Like he wished someone would have helped his best friend. Which reminded Roman that he needed to find Wayne one of these days, but he had patiently waited for him to come to him when he was ready. At least it seemed like Lauren agreed to the fact that Roman wanted to be her mentor, not that he had much experience being a mentor - but, he had things he could teach, at least he thought so himself. "First of all, control - You already seem to have a hang of it. But we are more likely to feel more irritated and angrier than other people. It's a part of the whole cursed thing, but its not impossible to learn. Also doing the full-moon." Roman took a deeper breath in. "The fullmoon is always worst for all of us. No one is fully able to withstand it's powers completely, but with the right training it makes it easier not to give in to what the wolf wants." He informed and took a slightly deeper breath in.

Control. Something she never really knew if she had or not. She had believed that she had had it. But clearly, today showed her that she hadn’t. He explained how werewolves temper seemed to be shorter and that it was a part of the cursed thing. To some extend she hated that being a werewolf was equal to being cursed. She didn’t like that word, unless she used it to flick someone off.
The full moon is the worst for all of us. She pressed her lips together, reminding herself of the terrible mistake she had done the other day. She had truly believed that it had been the right date, but she had been wrong, and had ended up turning a pal. Such a bad mistake. With the right training it makes it easier not to give in to what the wolf wants. She looked up at him frowning somewhat sadly. There was a lump in her throat, which she had to swallow. “I.. I know the fullmoon is a bitch…” she sighed, licking her lips to relieve stress, she looked back at her fingers. “I’ve done some stupid shit, so I really want to get more control,” she raised an eyebrow for a moment, “Or you know, whatever you call it,” she looked back at him. “Can you teach me that?” she wondered.

I.. I know the fullmoon is a bitch…"Oh, do you now? Good enough, here I thought only had one functioning brain cell, good to know you have two," he replied and sat up more upright. He didn't know how much she did know or how little, but going on from basics was better than just starting talking about the following abilities that belonged with being a werewolf. Roman had only just learned to control them himself. Lauren mentioned she had done some stupid shit, which sounded like it could be anything really, she did look like a trainwreck than a functional young woman. Then again, who were he to judge when it came to make smart decisions? Roman took a sharper breath in and narrowed his eyes a little bit. "Okay, but before that, you need to tell me what you did - because I can't help if I don't know what the issue is," he pointed out with a more serious done. "I can teach you." He confirmed. He believed that he could at and he might even learn something himself.

She rolled her eyes at him as he told her that he was relieved that she had more functioning braincells. It was probably some shit about her being under influence, and the fact that she had tried to throw tissues on fire after a classmate. Lauren noticed the sharper breath in and prepared herself for whatever he wanted to say; and of course, it was what she had done. Her eyes sought to her hands which were picking at each other. “I umh…” She puckered her lips and let them slide across her teeth thoughtfully and processing the question. She took a deep breath in to gain courage. “I bit someone… Under a full moon… Recently,” she replied hoping that he didn’t want to back out. Lauren just wished for her loved ones to be safe around her, which had been fine when she knew when the full moon was, but the fact that she had forgotten it just once and she had ended up hurting someone… She felt so damn awful about it. Her dark eyes looked over at him, clear with regret from what she had done.