White Thorn | On Hold

A Girl Named Velvet Thorn

A finger prodded her cheek, stirring Arya from her sleep as two familiar blondes waited by her bedside. "Wake up already, would you?" Jake sighed, staring down at his sleeping friend in worry. "Arya..."

"Whatdayawant?" She groaned, rolling over so she was facing away from the offending finger. "I'm trying to sleep."

"You're a terrible student."

"Huh?" She blinked, slowly turning to face the two fourth years. "What're you on about?"

"Sleeping through class again." Jake folded his arms.

"Then what're you doing here? Shouldn't you be in class?" Arya grumbled, sitting up slowly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Hypocrites."

"Meh." Jake waved a hand. "I know most of the stuff anyway."

"We haven't seen you in a while... and we heard some stuff about what happened..." Lydia shrugged, smiling somewhat sheepishly. "We wanted to make sure you're OK."

"I'm fine, mother." She said, sitting up slowly. "So... What mischief do you lot have planned for today?"

"Why?" Jake wiggled his eyebrows, a wide smirk forming on his face. "You wanna join?"

"You didn't want to last time..." The other blonde said, staring at her sceptically. "What's changed?"

"It's not a god-forsaken hour on a Saturday morning." She grinned. "Now spill it. I need something to take my mind off things..."

"You sure you don't want to see Velvet...?" Lydia asked, her expression serious. "I've heard the rumours."

"Rumours?" Jake blinked, completely clueless as to the rumours being whispered in the depths of Riverdale High. He tended to focus more on mischief making rather than the snippets of information passed between the Four Underground Kings. Lydia was the opposite.

She liked to know everything that went on, and for a good reason.

Lydia didn't like surprises.

"Velvet is the one suspected of hurting Arya last night." She sighed, closing her eyes. "Ridiculous, if you ask me... but they've apparently got some sort of evidence, along with the description Arya gave them."

"I told them they were idiots." She folded her arms, swinging her legs out from under the sheets. "But they didn't listen. They just said that Vel has a history..."

"Too right she does..." Lydia sighed, running a hand through her messy hair. "But that's just of stealing files like the cheeky little kid she is."

"You do know she's only two years younger than you, right?"

"Yep," she said, "and that's precisely why she's a kid."

Arya simply settled for rolling her eyes. "Well, what're we doing?" She asked, quickly shifting the conversation to a less annoying topic. "You weren't gonna leave me to die of boredom in my hospital bed, were you?"

"Of course not." Jake grinned. "We've got things to do... People to prank... Commanders to annoy..."

"Sweet." Arya stood, dusting down her uniform. "Let's get going, then." She said, smiling as Jake led her out of the room and into the corridor.

Unfortunately, their plans were interrupted by a certain blonde wearing a white coat.

"Jake."

"Flynn."

"Arya."

"Flynn."

"Lydia."

"I'm not saying it." The blonde girl scowled. "Just say hi or something. You don't need to address us individually, idiot."

"Don't call me an idiot."

"I'll call you whatever I like." Lydia grunted, ignoring the scowl directed her way.

"No, you won't."

"Gah!" Her eye twitched. "Infuriating fudge cake."

"Did you just call me a fudge cake?" Flynn blinked.

"No. I called you an infuriating fudge cake. Get it right."

"OK." He stared at her blankly, soon moving his attention onto Arya. "You sure you're well enough to be out of the hospital, Ari-bear?"

"I'm fine, Flynnie."

Lydia smirked. "How I wish I could get away with calling him that..."

"Well you can't, so don't try it." Flynn grumbled, grabbing the smaller black-haired girl by the arm. "Now, I'm borrowing Arya."

Jake snapped out of the trance he'd fallen into. "No way." He said, pulling at the girl's other arm. "Arya wants to come with me, right?"

"No, she wants to come with me."

"What do you want?" The girl on the verge of being pulled in two sighed, turning to the brown-eyed blonde.

"I need to talk with you about some things in private." Flynn sighed. "There've been a few developments in the whole situation regarding last night."

"Like what?"

"You're not going to like it." He said, turning on his heel, walking away from the trio, leaving her with little choice but to chase after him much to the disappointment of Jake.

"Spill it." She scowled, following him as they walked into the forest, away from prying ears.

"Velvet's just incriminated herself even more."

Arya froze, turning to face him. "It's not her Flynn." She scowled. "She's a good person... and one of the few friends I've got here."

"Loxian says it was probably just an act to find some easy victims."

Her teeth gritted together. "That bloody Loxian again..." She hissed, storming into the woods, walking faster as she heard the blonde Commander trying to catch up with her. "Leave me alone. I don't want to hear any more of that idiot's accusations."

"Arya." Flynn ran up behind her, suddenly skidding to a stop, his eyes fixed on something to her side. "Arya." He repeated, his voice far more urgent. "Go back to the school."

"What? Why?!"

"Just do what I say for once." He sighed, pulling out his mobile phone.

That was when she finally spotted where his gaze was fixed, her eyes widening when she spotted the bloody scene.