Caroline was mildly impressed that Clark managed to whistle with a tied tongue. Also, she was impressed that Clark had woken Jake up, and that Jake was working.

She shrugged.

She'd take it.

"How is it going Jake?" she asked not expecting much of a coherent reply and not looking up from her book.

A little startled at the sudden question, Jake turned to the healer and immediately let go of the... whatever is was he was cleaning. "I bllunnhuuh ghooghgh hgghhhoomnggg," he said, before thinking again and pointing at his mouth, even though she wasn't looking at him. GUH! He felt so helpless.

In fact, you know what he said? What he was thinking?

I wanna go home.

Cue the pout.

Ooh. So Nurse A was all concerned about Jake, but not him? Clark saw how it was.

"Wha-a- boo mah?" Clark struggled to talk. "C-c-cncernnn f-f-forrr m-e?" The one who WAS working, as was evident in his nearly empty pile. Which soon regenerated. Oh well.

Clark scrubbed profusley at one of his bedpans and lifted it up when it was clean. "Ehh w-w-roook h-a-a-a--a-arrrdddd."

"Don't pout Jake," said Caroline boredly. "You'll never be as good at it as an Avalon." Evie was the best, but then Cari had a pretty epic pout. Yes, epic. Tobi and Briony tied for third. Maybe Tobi and his golden curls edged her out a little.

"Clark, I'm not the least bit interested in your progress," she said, disinterested. "Because your detention is over. You DID work hard." Scary that she was starting to understand the child. She pointed her wand at his mouth and said, "Finite."

"You must remember in the future that if you make trouble you will inevitably be caught and be forced to make amends," she left him with a final word. "Even if you don't intend to destroy property, if you do, accidents still have casualties, and someone has to pay the price. Be sure to excercise caution and respect, and your actions will cost you less."

Clark smiled and nodded. Whoa...what was with all the big words? "Yesh ma'am, I shall never be um...accidental, or um...casual." He did his out-of-detention mini-dance, and stopped at the consequences he percieved.

He nodded at Jake. And then sensed they would have detention again together. And this time.....

Jake would deserve it.

"So, uh, ma'am, can I go now?"

Eeeeep! What about Jake?

Pointing to himself, Jake stepped forwards and got closer to Healer Avalon. He got to go too, right? Because... he'd been working hard too. Sure, he'd gone to sleep for a while, but that was TOTERLY Avalon's fault. Toterly. And Jake wanted to goooooooo.

So... he could go, right?

Right.

POUT!

"I blahhwnghha hggoggoo clghlooo!" he exclaimed, stomping his foot.

I wanna go toooooo.

Caroline got up and quickly ushered Clark out the door. "Yes Clark, you may go. Shoo!" she all but shoved him through, snapping the door shut behind him. She crossed the room back to her chair and sat down.

"You Jake are stuck here. First, because you took a nap, so your pans and pails are not finished. Second, because you lost your temper with Dani and threatened her, and I will not tolerate that neither will any other member of the staff. So you stay."

She took up her book again. "I hope for Hufflepuff's sake that you get out before the Quidditch season starts."

"BLLEHUHHSUUHUUHULLGHHGHNG!!!!!" Jake yelled out indignantly. She had given him the sleeping potion. It wasn't his fault he freaked out. EVIL WOMYN!

Didn't threaten no-one.

Hufflepuff... quidditch...

Jake hadn't seen the roster yet. Did that mean he was on the team?

Where was that vomit pail?

SCRUBSCRUBSCRUBBBBBB!!!!!

He wouldn't give up. He wanted out of here, plus... he wanted Clark back. NOW. Boo-hooooo.

Screwing his face up in a highly disgusted way, Jake scrubbed faster and harder than before. If it meant getting out, he would try to forget the grossness and just go for it.

But... he would need to go swim in the lake to clean off... for about a week.

Caroline snickered. Nothing like a little bit of motivation.

"That one, I believe was Professor Lawson's vomit pail," Caroline said cheerfully, sitting up in her chair, "I always find it interesting at the colours people manage to vomit. What do you suppose he had consumed that caused him to vomit such a voilent shade of pink? It almost matches your hair, doesn't it Jake?"

Did she honestly expect him to reply? For realz? Dude... she had a bad memory in her old age.

Well... at least Jake could mouth off as much as he wanted, with no-one to understand what he was saying. Eyeing the vomit with about as much contempt as he held for the man, Jake scrubbed harder and harder.

The pail was his face. SCRUBBANGHITSCRUB!

"Bhlluujjukllk hilllsghhcngnggg hgbuuhg dnushshhjuck..." Jake started as he scrubbed. He went on, bitterly letting what he wanted to say just... flow.

Caroline ignored him.

"I think it might have been Cranberry Juice," she said dismissively "maybe he has kidney issues. There is one in your pile that is a particularly intersting shade of green. I think it was Willie Crocker's creamed spinach. Weren't you also subjected to creamed spinach?"

Okay, cheap shot.

Evil grin behind the book.

CLANG!

The pail Jake was cleaning fell from his hands as he glanced up at the nurse, the look on his face... just... well, let's just say that if looks could kill, Healer Avalon would be... an urn.

As the very pail vanished, because, well, he'd finished on that one, Jake clenched his fists and GLARED.

NOBODY was to EVER bring that up again. So she could just. Shush. "SHuunghh UPPPHGGH!"

Impressive. Cari expected to have to duck.

"You're showing marginal improvement in your emotional control Jake. Well done," she congratulated him, her evil grin a permanent feature.

There was a good reason why Tobi was afraid of his big sister.

Mumblegrumble.

Oh boyyyyyy was he glad his voice was pretty much BLLABBBHLLABLOO... but, was this technique allowed? Winding him up so bad he was having thoughts of sabotaging the hospital wing?

Hmmm.

OH EM GEEE! This woman was totally condescending... it was infuriating. And she was smiling... he hated it when people smiled. Hated it.

Ohhhhh she was going to pay for this.

Grabbing up a random bedpan, causing a bunch of others to clatter to the floor, Jake gritted his teeth and started attacking it with a scrubbing brush.

SCRUBSCRUBSCRUB!

"So Jake, what if I untied your tongue now? Finite!" Caroline pointed her wand at Jake's head.

It would be good of the child to remember that she had her wand pointed at his head. Just saying.

"I am so sorry about having to curse you, but you know, it's a handy little trick. It helps you to hold your tongue when you aren't capable of doing it on your own. Have you learned to do it with out my help I wonder?" she mused.

SCRUBSCRUBSCRUBSCRUB!!!!!

Jake was still muttering nonsense under his breath, satisfied that only he would understand what he was saying... until he realised... he was talking, like...

... normal.

Dude.

It was too tempting.

And soooooo, Jake opened his mouth to snap at the healer, but his tone ended up being toterly different than he'd intended. It... was more of a whine.

"Why do I have to stay here?" he whined, keeping his face directed down at the next pail he was starting to scrub. "And all you people do is just shout, cast spells and make me more angry on purpose. And now, you've got your wand pointed right at me, and, like my wand is snapped in half and you know that. I'm not fighting back. You people... you rule by fear. I hate it."

ihatechu.

SCRUBSCRUBSCRUB!!!!!

Ah, so that's what would happen.

"Yes Jake, I am trying to make you angry," Caroline confirmed, "And you're letting me. It's a power you're giving me. You have to chose to take it back. You lose your temper too easily. It will hold you back in life. For instance, you're trapped in here, when you could be out on the grounds. I'm sure there are things you would rather be doing than clean bedpans. Meditative though the process might become after you've spent a day or so at it."

"What's the point in that?" Jake asked, indignantly, taking out his frustrations on the pail. SCRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUB! "I'm not allowed to be mad, so you make me mad. It's stupid!"

It was!

"Who cares if it holds me back in life? I won't need a job or anything... I have what I need," he ranted. It was true. Maybe not the best way of seeing things... but it was true. "And, yeah, there's stuff wrong with me, so I can rarely hold in my emotions, okay?"

Honestly, though? What else would he be doing right then?

He'd be... down at Professor Morgan's hut... hiding from Kazi.

Caroline pursed her lips and shook her head slightly. "Not everyone is fond of being attacked for saying the wrong thing Jake. You could lose friends, and at your tender age you may not consider this, but later in life you may wish to marry, do you expect someone you care about to put up with this temper of yours? Or worse, would you wish to risk harming someone you cared about with that temper?"

She stood up from her seat. "Besides, how are you certain you didn't make the quidditch team? When my sister played for Ravenclaw, she practiced even when there wasn't team practice. It served her well; she plays professionally now. She had a temper like yours once, you know, and the biggest reason she never made Quidditch Captain while she was at Hogwarts."

Okay, so she was laying it on thick, but...

yeah she was just laying it on thick

"Don't make friends, don't lose friends," Jake muttered, viciously scrubbing away the last patch of ickiness from the pail, waiting for it to disappear, and starting on another bedpan. "I don't want anyone. I never have loved anyone, and I never will. Who needs people? They're just too complicated."

So therrrrrrrre.

Wait.

Why was she getting up?

PFFFFT!

"Why would I want to be quidditch captain, though? Kaika is that. She's the people-person in charge. I couldn't do that. And... about the temper thing... you can bet your bottom dollar that my step-sister has squealed to my dad and he's going to sort something out..."

SiiiiiighScrub.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!! One step forward, two billion steps back!!!

"Honestly Jake," Cari said with a long sigh, flopping back down in the chair. "you were doing better when your tongue was tied. You need to learn not everything is worth getting upset about. Not everything is worth having the last word on. And as my mother would say, 'You need to learn to pick the hills you want to die on.'"

"I can't help it!" Jake cried out, dropping the bedpan and leaping up to his feet, stepping forwards. "I can't help getting upset or whatever... I can't just stop it from happening..."

What the... why did most of the staff always mention death around Jake. "Hills... I'm not planning on... dying on any hills."

Reaching up and clinging to his hair, Jake gritted his teeth and stared at the floor. "You aren't making any sense!" he finally admitted, throwing himself down so he was sitting on the floor.

"Jake, 'the hill you want to die on' is a metaphor," Caroline explained in the same tone she'd use to explain it to Tobi. That's not really a flattering tone. She held up her book for him to see, "It basically means that rather than get upset about everything, pick fights about everything, make your life hard over everything, you need to chose what is worth getting upset about, what is worth fighting about and what is worth making life hard about, and what things you should just... let go... even ignore.

"For war strategists, it's called picking your battles, the hills you would fight for, risk dying on. In healing, we do something similar called 'triage.' Assigning a priority to injuries and sicknesses and conditions." Caroline opened her book again. "how much priority are you willing to let your emotions have?"

What the...

Huh?

"Why... why are you reading again?" Jake asked softly, biting on his bottom lip, looking up at the woman, feeling as though she was playing mind tricks on him. "You... you got up... then... now..."

Blinking rapidly, for some reason that had something to do with his eyes burning with tears, Jake reached out gingerly for another vomit pail and began scrubbing, alot more disheartened than he had been.

Sad Jakers.

Pouting sullenly, Jake rested his chin on his knees and went on cleaning. He was a loser, it was his destiny.

"Are you upset Jake?" Caroline asked, setting her book in her lap and regarding him carefully.

She kept her voice neutral.

There was a point to this.

There was a point to most things Caroline did.