Sparrow Truman: April 26th, 20XX

A stack of fabrics, rolls of parchment, and two mannequins tumbled down onto the club room floor as a large entourage of people invaded the space. I looked over at the group of invaders to see if I could recognize anyone, maybe a friend of a student in my department or a sibling of one of my friends, but the hostile looks on their faces made the possibility that they were here to pick up a friend very low.

A few members of the invading group looked embarrassed by the mess their entrance had made and shuttled around to pick them back up, but even when they did, there was nowhere to put them back down.

Well, it was my fault for leaving the space in such a mess. I tried to keep the space clean, but the current situation made it harder than ever. They had convinced me to join the showcase, but that meant we'd joined later than others. It took a lot of energy to focus on both the submission and keeping the space organized.

The newbies that Jake had somehow picked up a little while ago also didn't really help matters. What exactly did he think telling a group of first and second-graders to make their own submissions would do?

My department was already so busy with our people, but now we also had to babysit, and hand hold the babies to a decent presentation. Right now, Melissa was breaking her hands, trying to synthesize all of our current ideas into a single, cohesive performance.

"Where is Sparrow Truman!"

A high-pitched voice that tore through my ears and intensified the budding headache I'd been trying to ignore interrupted my frustrated thoughts.

I had to put down the scissors in my hands and take out the pins from my mouth before I could respond, but the longer I took, the more frustrated they got.

But well, they were the ones that barged into my room, so there was nothing they could do but wait.

The applications for the showcase had closed out a week ago and everyone that intended to participate in it had already found a team to do it with. Maybe their producers or seamstresses had dipped out at the last minute, and they needed a replacement? It wouldn't be the first year as the department head that I needed to deal with something like this.

"You're looking at her. But what did you all need? If it's about recruiting people for your projects, you'd be better off putting out ads in the newspaper or on social media than hunting around here. Everyone still in the club rooms is either working on their own submissions or working on someone else's."

Well, the angry looks on the front line's faces made me guess that wasn't why they were here, but I hoped they could just take the cue and leave the room. Although I wasn't one to run away when others came to pick a fight, I didn't have enough time to entertain things that weren't in direct service to our showcase submissions.

One of them, the one with the loud voice that had assaulted my ears earlier, stepped forward and barked out a harsh laugh.

Well, that was unfair. Her voice wasn't that bad, but her words were unnecessarily hostile and aggressive. It also carried well and reached all around the decently large room. I suspected she was wearing a microphone, but I couldn't see it attached anywhere on her and I also couldn't see any speakers that her voice could have boomed out of.

"Like anyone would want to join your group after what you did! It's actually impressive that you still have the nerve to stick around on campus."

Well, the only reason I used the school's clubroom was because my studio was on the other side of town, and it was inconvenient for some of our members to go back and forth. There was also the sheer scale of our project made it illogical to cram everything into one space.

But what exactly was I being accused of doing?

Although my earlier years at this school had been… tumultuous. I hadn't really done anything this year that would cause this sort of reaction and group condemnation. Well, then again, sometimes people liked to find things to be offended by. I'd done things that someone with the right motivation could have found offense in. As long as it wasn't anything too crazy, I would just give them an apology and let them go.

Whatever I'd apparently done hadn't really affected my reputation within my department, and I didn't much care how the rest of the school saw me. In the end, my skills would speak louder than any rumours that surrounded me.

"Sorry, I haven't slept a full night in about three nights, so I'm a little lost. What should I be ashamed of doing?"

"Don't fake stupid! Everyone knows you stole Alice's boyfriend!"

The proclamation forcibly wrenched me out of the ingrained apathy I'd built for the situation. I desperately searched the crowd for a laughing face, or something that would tell me they were all joking, but everyone stayed serious. Another wave of disbelief hit me in the gut and if the pins were still in my mouth, they would have fallen out and hit my feet.

Alice herself caught my eye as she ducked behind her friend with an embarrassed expression. She even looked somewhat apologetic to me, but that did nothing to make this any more bearable.

I looked over at the group again and put the ties together. So she had Jake had broken up. She'd likely been embarrassed about it since it was so close to the showcase and Jake had been a pretty large part of their group's presentation. She'd needed a good way to explain why Jake had left them so suddenly and had let the group paint me as the bad guy.

From the intense embarrassment on her face, I could tell that she'd planned on keeping things small and not letting any of this impact me directly. It was probably her friend, the loud one, that had taken things so far.

I finally released the breath I'd somehow been holding and let it come out in a heavily annoyed sigh. I understood how fast things could blow up in such a large and emotionally charged group… but I wasn't so understanding that I'd let myself get steamrolled over like this.

It was pretty gross how willing she was to let her friend make a fuss and embarrass herself like this. All around, this just wasn't anything that I wanted to get involved with.

"Now…"

The loud one cut me off before I could set the record straight and usher all of them out of the room. After all, this had nothing to do with me.

"Don't even try to say anything! We're just here to ask you how you could get between them so close to the showcase? Was it because you wanted to win that bad? Or do you just hate Alice that much?"

Well, she was right that I wanted to win the showcase. After all, there was no point in doing something like this without trying to win it, but I disliked the implication that I wouldn't have been able to win without sabotaging Alice.

It was also disarming to hear them talk about Jake like he wasn't a moving, thinking, conscious being. Even if I had set out to 'steal' him, it wouldn't have been possible if he didn't want to go.

Once again, I was cut off before I could give a retort, but this time it was by the Quadruplets. They whispered in loud voices that demeaned the action of whispering in the first place, but then again, that was probably what they had meant to do.

"But that's not what I heard about it."

"Yeah, didn't Jake totally dump Alice?"

"I heard she even cried and begged him not to."

"What? No way that would happen. But they got into a yelling match. A friend of a friend of a classmate told their best friend who I work with. They heard everything."

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"That's a lot of people that know then. But then why are they here to blame Sparrow?"

"Well, isn't that because Jake joined our team?"

"Yeah, but didn't he only join because Finn was a part of us?"

"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting he's a part of this, too. He's never around."

"He does good work, though. It's so nice to not have to worry about our budget."

"Oh! That reminds me! Wasn't Alice chasing after Finn for a while? Wasn't that why they broke up?"

"What? No way! Aren't Jake and Finn like super close?"

"Yeah! They're like best friends."

"But why would Alice like Finn? Isn't she from some super rich family?"

"Well, I wouldn't say rich. They're okay, but they do have some connections with some agencies. That's how she got into her agency"

"And she was already dating Jake, and Jake isn't exactly super wealthy either. There had to be another reason she suddenly went after Finn."

"Yeah, and didn't she tell the entire school to ignore him earlier? What happened to that?"

"Jake is pretty well off, though. He's been getting a fair share of ads lately. I saw one on the front page of Squire before, and one of their anchors talked about him on their segments."

"Oh yeah! I saw that too! Did you hear he's going to do an interview with them soon?"

"Yeah! I can't wait! But also, what does Sparrow have to do with all this again?"

"Beats me."

The whole hyper-paced conversation wrapped around the room and made it hard for anyone else to intervene, but the loud girl was determined. She butted in and increased her volume to make sure the quads didn't talk over her.

"Why are you guys talking about Alice like that? She would never just date someone for the money! And she got into her agency on her own. And she would never try to cheat on anyone!"

She tried to continue her passionate defense of the girl that had completely crouched behind her friends. The loud girl was a valiant warrior, even if the one she was defending and attacking for seemed to want to disappear from the earth, but she was no match for the quadruplets.

"But she did, though. I heard Jake was really upset after she called him a commoner."

"Ooh! When did that happen?"

"I'll tell you later! I heard it too."

"And she wasn't exactly quiet about her interest in Finn."

"Yeah, she even came up to one of us to ask us about Sparrow when she saw her leaving the school with Finn."

"Oh yeah! I remember Sparrow asking us if she had anything to do with Finn!"

"You said that there was no way Finn would ever like someone like her."

"That was just a little mean."

"But it was true."

Once again, the quads overwhelmed the loud girl. She tried to interject a few more times, but eventually gave up and actively tried to shuffle away from the situation, but the crowd she had brought with her actively worked against her.

I wasn't sure what ending she'd thought would come out of this, but I couldn't afford to pity her while the situation spiraled out of control. Actually… I just didn't care either way.

I just needed them out of my work space so I could get back to work.

Alice saw her friend had lost, and quietly broke out into an embarrassed sob as the whole situation came to light. She tugged at her friend's sleeve and tried to get her to leave.

"Vanessa! Lets go. This is humiliating enough; we don't need to do any more. I didn't say she did anything, and she's clearly not willing to clear things up! Like I said before, I just hope Jake's happy now, even if it's with someone else."

Till the end she didn't forget to paint me in an unpleasant light.

The quads reared up to resume their attack, but I stopped them. Unlike Alice, I didn't love the concept of having others fight for me when I could defend myself. Besides, the quads loved to drag out verbal battles, and I wanted to send them all out and get back to work.

"I didn't want to get involved, but you seem so determined to pick a fight. I'd figure you didn't have the time for this type of thing, seeing as we all have the same due date for the showcase. Did you even finish your exams yet? Really, why are you here?"

While I wasn't a big fan of fighting, I'd gotten into my fair share of them in my four years as a department head. I didn't particularly like to engage in situations like this, so I fell back onto my strategy that had served me well over the past three years.

I emulated my older brother.

My face creaked as I twisted it into a smirk, and I lightened my tone to sound like we were having a fun conversation.

"What are you-"

Vanessa jumped in and tried to speak for Alice again, but I didn't have the time to deal with her. In cases like this, cutting off the head of the beast was much faster than sealing its mouth.

"I wasn't talking to you, sweetheart. Alice."

She startled as I called out her name, despite my constant gaze on her.

"I didn't think I could tell you anything that you don't already know, but then again, I guess I shouldn't assume you're aware of anything. No, I didn't 'steal' your boyfriend. Putting aside the philosophical debate on whether someone can be stolen; he broke up with you before we held any sort of meaningful interaction. Yes, I was there while the two of you broke up. No, I wasn't 'peeping' I was already in the room when the two of you got into it and I couldn't find a good time to get up and leave. Maybe next time you want to hold a fight in a public building, you shouldn't do it in another person's department."

She paled as I confirmed I was there and tried to shut me up and push her crowd out of the room, but it was too late. If she'd wanted to keep things under wraps, then she shouldn't have come at me in such a public setting.

"Wait!-"

"-I've never really been a waiting sort of person. Sorry. But also, it's not my fault that you chased after my younger brother so aggressively that your boyfriend got tired and broke things off with you. Don't put that blame on me, since again, I was just minding my own business in my space. If my spending time with Jake really bothered you that much, then talk it out with him! Coming to yell at me like this is only wasting both of our time. Finally, even if I was dating Jake, that's really none of your business anymore; is it?"

Vanessa jumped at what she thought was a mistake on my part and interrupted me.

"What are you talking about? Finn doesn't have any family, everyone knows that. And even if you say you can't steal someone, you can definitely convince them to join you and your project. I don't even know how you did it, but stealing team members is against the rules! If Alice wanted to play against the rules, don't you realize how simple it would be to give a call to her uncle?"

It would feel a little uncomfortable to brag about my older brother's connections to Volui, where Alice's uncle notoriously worked and where I planned to apply to when I graduated, but the quads had no such qualms.

"Do you think they really don't know who Sparrow's older brother is?"

"No way they don't know! It's not exactly top secret."

"How embarrassing would it be though if they didn't? like-"

"No, I think they don't know! After all, if they knew they wouldn't have brought up her uncle when Sparrow's brother is practically his boss!"

"What? Isn't he the head of the legal department? I think her uncle is more in the business section of Volui… right? Wasn't he just an executive?"

"And wasn't his job in danger? I remember hearing her cry about it before."

"Oh yeah! While we were walking down the hall for lunch!"

"Then why is she still slinging his name around as a threat?"

"Come on guys, don't get distracted. Remember the main point here? How could they use her uncle to threaten Sparrow? Even if they're in different departments, isn't her brother super close to the owner of the company?"

"Yeah! Sparrow even mentioned him making home calls before!"

"Wasn't Sparrow's brother also the owner's temporary legal guardian?"

"I read little about it since all of that bores me, but something along those lines."

"But doesn't that make Sparrow his sister? In some weird legal way?"

"Probably. Hey Sparrow, have you ever met the owner of Volui?"

They finally included someone other than themselves in their conversation and turned to me with excited eyes. Vanessa and Alice's group had almost completely dispersed as they saw they couldn't win a crushing victory over me. The sizeable crowd had dwindled down to just Alice, Vanessa and a few stragglers that just looked like they had missed the right timing to leave.

I could only shake my head in response to their question.

"I'm afraid not. Will is very serious about keeping his identity a secret."

"Ah, well, I guess that makes sense. But you have gone to Finn's house before, right? I remember you talking about how you occasionally went overt to drop off some food for him."

Now, this I could answer with confidence, although I wasn't super sure about why we had suddenly made the jump from the owner of Volui to Finn. Actually, thinking about it, Will's relationship with the owner of Vouli was almost identical to what he had with Finn…

Well. that was something to think about later.

"Yeah, although he usually spends so much time at our house that I don't have to make the trip."

"Oh! Speaking of which! Did you guys see the article about Jake saving the owner of Volui?"

"Yeah! They didn't get any pictures, sadly enough, but the story was so intense! I heard there was a robbery, and he fainted! Jake had to fend off like twenty people while protecting him!"

"Doesn't that mean that they're like… best friends, then? After all, why else would they be out shopping together without any sort of security detail?"

"Ooh, that's true!"

"The owner's birthday is in august! I heard he's planning on officially exposing his face during it!"

"Ooh, Jake will definitely be there! Do you think he could score us some tickets?"

"Don't be stupid! Even if he had extras, do you think he'd give them to us?"

"Yeah! We should ask Sparrow to ask her brother for us!"

"Speaking of birthdays, when is Finn's? Wasn't it also in august?"

"Yeah! He'll turn eighteen this year, right?"

"Oh! Wait, doesn't that mean Alice was chasing after a younger guy?"

"Hmm, wouldn't have pegged her as the type, but I guess that's right."

I looked around and pulled myself from their fast paced conversations that packed in all the information that they knew.

"But then again, isn't Jake also younger than her?"

"Only by a few months, I think."

Alice and Vanessa finally realized the Quads had no intentions of slowing down their conversation and stormed away, successfully this time. I looked at the two's backs as the door slammed closed and genuinely wondered how they thought this little interaction would have gone.

I shook off the bad feeling that the whole encounter had left me with and went back to work. There was still a lot to be done.