It was the next morning. God, Jax hated waking up now. He had no idea who was alive and who wasn't, or when he would stumble across another traumatic scene, or if he himself would die. He needed a f*ck ton of therapy if he ever got out of there. He would confide in Dawn, however she was also a victim and scarred for life. Plus, she needed to come to terms with her own emotions first.

"No, I don't wanna," he mumbled as he felt Jackie licking his hand. He buried himself further under the blanket and squeezed his eyes shut even tighter, as if that would somehow let him go back to sleep faster.

The air was nearly knocked out of him as Jackie then jumped onto the bed, stepping all over him as she tried to nudge the blanket off of him. Given she was a pretty big dog too, it was very uncomfortable.

"Fine! Fine! You win," Jax groaned, throwing the blanket off in defeat. "But if there's a dead body in the hallway, I'm going back to sleep."

Jackie's tail only wagged harder in response. It was hard to be mad at her when she was so freaking adorable. It was the only thing he disliked about her. How could he ever raise his voice or say "bad dog" to such a precious creature of pure fluff and kisses?

"Where's my camera?!" was what he heard as he stepped out of his room. Tommie was running down the hall, her skirt and messy buns swishing as she turned a corner and disappeared.

"Wait!" Jax called after her, running in the direction she'd vanished in. To his relief, she'd slowed down upon hearing him.

"Have you seen it?" she demanded, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him. "That thing is my f*cking LIFE!"

"Don't you have it with you at all times?" Jax raised an eyebrow.

"I really thought I brought it with me after leaving the music hall yesterday, but I can't find it in my room! I don't know where I could've left it," she sighed, letting go of him- much to his relief.

"Well, you know you had it with you when going to the music hall. Where did you go after that?"

"I went down to the third floor, then we got called to the gym, so I went down there. After that, it was around dinnertime so I went and cooked myself some spaghetti in the kitchen..." Tommie paused. "Maybe I left it there."

"Sounds like a good place to start. I wanted to make some bacon for Jackie anyways," Jax agreed.

They continued down the hall together in awkward silence for a moment.

"How long have you had it? The, uh, camera," he added quickly.

Tommie smiled. "As long as I can remember. When I was little, I wanted to be an explorer when I grew up. I'd go outside in a vest and rainboots and run around the woods in the back, looking for bugs and cool flowers. I once saw a really pretty bird, and was really excited about it. I made sure my parents knew every single detail about that bird. For my next birthday, I got the camera. I don't know if you've seen, but there's a bird keychain attached to it. A silver one, with the wings outstretched like it's flying. I still remember that bird like it was yesterday."

As her gaze became unfocused, Jax chose to not snap her back to the present. She seemed to be enjoying the moment, and he didn't want to ruin that for her.

"Well, anyways," she suddenly chuckled, shrugging, "I seriously will kill someone with my bare hands if we don't find it. Go ahead, use that against me when there's a dead body."

Jax laughed half-heartedly. "I will."

They arrived at the kitchen to see Evan whistling as he sprinkled a bit of pepper onto some eggs he had in a pan over the stove. When he seemed to realize that he wasn't alone anymore, he glanced over his shoulder at the newcomers and smiled.

"Morning," he greeted. "You guys, uh, want some eggs? I don't think I can eat all of them- I have some pancakes made too."

"Since when are you a chef?" Jax teased. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tommie tense up as she looked at the actor.

"My mom taught me," Evan explained, turning back to his work. "Just a few basic foods for whenever she and my dad were out of town. They're actors, too. I learned from the best."

"That's nice," Tommie said, but the lack of emotion in her voice was notable.

Jax didn't know what had happened between the two, but he didn't think it would be a smart move to provoke Tommie if she was seemingly this sensitive about it.

"So, what else do you know how to cook?" he tried in an attempt to keep the tension as low as possible.

Evan, beginning to catch on, responded, "My mom's famous Sancocho recipe, arepas, and some other, less exciting stuff like grilled cheese."

"I take it you're not a big fan of American food, then?" Jax guessed.

"I mean, it's okay, but have you ever had Colombian food? It's the f*cking best. My mom is the master of the stage and the kitchen. My dad's just a master of the stage."

"Does he not cook that much?"

"...My dad's just a master of the stage."

The two of them looked at each other for a moment before laughing.

"So, do you mind if I get some bacon started on the stove?" Jax asked. "I want to make some for Jackie."

"Yeah. Go right ahead." Evan shifted to the side a bit, allowing him some space to cook as well.

Jax could almost feel Tommie's increasing agitation, and was almost relieved when she suddenly said, "I'm going to keep looking for my camera", and left the room.

As soon as she was gone, Evan frowned. "She really hates me all of a sudden, and I don't know why. Was dancing with her too much?"

"W-what kind of dancing?" Jax nearly dropped the pan he was preparing.

Evan nearly choked on air. "Just actual dancing, man! Get your head out of the gutter, I wasn't seducing her or anything! It was just dancing and having fun. She got embarrassed when Strats showed up."

"Huh." Jax thought about it for a moment. "Do you think she took it a bit too seriously?"

"I sure hope not! I sure as hell wasn't that serious. But it was a nice moment," Evan said.

"Maybe there was some miscommunication. Could you try talking to her?"

"I mean yeah, sure. Let me finish cooking these eggs first. I could try bringing her some."

"I don't think she'd want your eggs, Evan."

"JAX, WHAT THE F*CK?!" Evan exclaimed, his jaw dropping as he turned to look at him with wide eyes. His face was red as a tomato.

Jax doubled over laughing, having to even wipe tears from his eyes from how proud he was of himself. Leave it to him to drop the most unexpected lines.

"Dude, don't say sh*t like that!" Despite his words, though, Evan was laughing too.

They stood there laughing together for so long that Jax nearly forgot to flip the bacon. While that was finishing, the two ended up sharing most of the eggs and a few pancakes, making sure to build a plate for Tommie as well.

"She probably went upstairs to check the music hall," Jax said as the two of them left the kitchen with Jackie hot on their heels. "She thinks she might've left it in there."

"No, I'm pretty sure I saw her run out with it," Evan disagreed. "I left after her and I'm almost certain that it wasn't there."

"Hm. Well, she said that she went to the gym after that, then here, and that's all she told me."

"What if we check the art room? She probably did already, if she's up in the music hall. Or maybe she went back to the headmaster's office..."

Jax stared at Evan as they ascended the stairs to the second floor. "What? I didn't make it that far."

"Oh. Right. You wouldn't know, then." Evan thought for a moment before saying, "We found the headmaster's office on the fourth floor yesterday. There's files on all of us and tapes of... a dead tenth student. But I'm thinking that maybe she went up there last night by herself to do some more investigating? I don't know, it's all I can think of."

They continued down the hallway to the next flight of stairs.

"You know, and sorry to change the subject, but why the hell couldn't they just make one continuous stairwell? I don't wanna walk down the entire f*cking hallway to get to the next level," Evan complained.

"That's so true though," Jax concurred with an irritated smile.

After stepping out onto level three, they continued down the hall of the labyrinth of a school in order to make it to even more stairs. Jax was starting to get sick of stairs. But finally, a miracle happened- they made it to the fourth floor.

"Only took us, like, twenty minutes," Evan grunted. "The food's gonna be cold and I had a little too much time to think about what I want to say to Tommie."

"Relax. If you don't like her, then don't overthink it. The more you do, the more it seems like you like her, and that would be a problem," Jax advised.

"Since when are you so good with relationship advice, hm?"

"I'm the king of third-wheeling. Don't think I don't know."

Evan chuckled a little before raising his voice and calling, "Tommie? You up here?"

Silence.

"Maybe she just doesn't want to talk to you?" Jax tried. He didn't like where this was going.

They turned the corner and approached what he assumed was the headmaster's office. Nobody was in there.

"Well, while we're here, better just keep looking for her camera," Evan said, his gaze sweeping the room. "I don't see it in here."

The two of them peered into the other office room as they re-emerged into the main hallway of the fourth floor.

"Chem lab's right here, might as well check it out too, just in case." The actor nodded towards the room almost right across the hall. "I don't know if Tommie's into science, but I think it's worth a shot?"

The door was slightly ajar as they approached, the lights off as well. Jax wasn't sure why it made him so uneasy. All he had to do was flip the light switch, and-

As soon as the lights flickered on, he froze.

Evan dropped the plate he was holding.

***
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