Inordinate

Chapter Two: Mysteries

1 ½ years ago

The end of the term was finally upon the students at Prufrock Preperatory School. Jo stood in the doorway as a sleek black limousine pulled up to the front of the school building ready to pick up her newfound friends. The three Quagmires picked up their luggage and began to head towards the car.

Duncan stopped, turned around, and asked, "You'll be back next year, right Jo?"

Jo could not answer his question. She truly had no idea whether or not she would be attending school next year, and somehow hadn't given it much thought. She simply smiled at him and hoped that it would suffice.

A pleasant looking woman opened the right-hand door to the limousine and stepped out of the vehicle. She wore a smile on her face and a red scarf around her neck as she approached the triplets and began to pick up Isadora's luggage, then turning to Quigley and asking if he needed any help. Jo knew that this must be her friends' mother- they had described her well.

"Here, Duncan, let me help you with that," Jo said, rushing over to the boy to help with his luggage. Duncan smiled and nodded gratefully while Jo picked up two suitcases and carried them over to the limo, the twelve-year-old boy behind her carrying one. Jo and Duncan placed the luggage into the back of the limousine and bade eachother goodbye one last time before the boy hopped into his seat in the vehicle and closed the door behind himself and his siblings.

The lock of the door triggered a feeling of isolation within Jo as she prepared to watch her friends drive away down the long road that lead back to the city (so she had been told). Would she ever see any of them again? The girl could not be sure. She didn't even know if she would be taken back to her home that day, or if she would have to wait until it was safe to return. Either way, she had no way of knowing wether she would lay eyes on Prufrock Prep again. The truth was, though she was forced to sleep in a shack and take classes that were pointless and that she had no interest in at all, though she had to attend nightly violin recitals preformed by the Vice Principal whom had no musical talent whatsoever, Prufrock had felt more like home than any place she had been to in a long time. Because of the Quagmire triplets, her newfound friends.

A tap on her shoulder pulled Jo from her thoughts. Her friends' mother was standing next to her, wearing a happy but serious expression. She gave Jo a small smile and asked for confirmation, "Jo, right?"

Jo nodded, "Yes. That's me. You're Mrs. Quagmire? They talk about you a lot, your children."

"They talk about you, too. All three of them write about you in their letters to me. Especially Duncan. You mean a lot to him," she told Jo admiringly.

Jo could not help blushing again. What had Duncan told her?

"Duncan, Quigley, and Isadora have been attending Prufrock Prep for years," Mrs. Quagmire continued, lowering her voice, "And they never really had many friends. Before you showed up this year. All three of them have become noticeably happier, Duncan says he actually wants to come back next year. I- I don't know what they'll do if you don't. If you don't come back. Jo, I know that things are tough for you. I know that things don't always work out. I know that there are things that are out of your control, that you can't always grasp concretely. But I'm sure you already know."

Jo's brow furrowed as she tried to calculate what she could have been referring to. "Know what?" she wondered.

Turning away from the teenager, Mrs. Quagmire said just barely loud enough for Jo to hear, "What friends are for."

With that, the limousine pulled away and Jo was left standing in front of the dark school building alone. Her ice-blue eyes pierced the horizon, searching for anything that could give her a clue as to how Mrs. Quagmire had known so much about her. She was sure they had never met before, that she had never been a Calagari Carnival guest of employee... but she clearly knew her from somewhere, and it was that question that lead Jo to the one place where she might find some answers. The library.