As soon as the 7:00 alarm awakes the whole facility that morning, Marley realizes that there's no way he's going to make it through today. Why? Well, he's pretty sure that there's ice growing inside his body right now. Okay, probably not, but it feels like it.

Rellik better put his stupid heart back in his body real freakin' soon, because Marley's had about enough of this. He rolls over, stretching, and realizes the light's on. Nero takes showers at night, so he's just over there reading. Waiting for their group meeting crap. He also looks kind of tired as well.

The thought of a shower lifts Marley's spirits up quite a bit. The showers here get pretty hot, and he'd honestly take about anything at this point. He'd probably get in a stove to be honest. Marley sits up and walks to his dresser, catching sight of sushi. Actually, when was the last time he fed his fish? He really can't tell. Either way Sushi's swimming around so he certainly isn't dead.

Marley takes the food out puts some into the water. Sushi bites his finger when he comes up to get some of it. It doesn't hurt that much, but it catches him off guard enough for him to mumble a curse. Then, "stupid fish."

He digs around his dresser and finds a t-shirt and some underwear, but otherwise plans to wear the exact same thing he is now. They're the warmest clothes he has and he really doesn't care if it feels sort of gross. That's life.

He takes way too long in the shower. He's in there for at least a half hour. Add all his hygiene stuff he's gotta do after (brush his teeth, floss, wash his face, whatever) and by the time he gets back to his room he's got about ten minutes before he has to be at research. Oh god, and he has to call his mom.

Marley lays on his blankets, bundling himself in them and taking out his phone. He senses Nero across the room and he's pretty sure he's staring at the prince. Marley doesn't want to look up, though.

-Hey, can I call you later?

Cool. That's out of the way.

It's a second later when he hears Nero getting up and slipping on his shoes, before heading towards the door. Marley waits a few seconds before he takes his own leave, shoving some socks up his arms and dragging his blanket with him. He doesn't even care if he gets yelled at, they can pry this blanket from his cold undead sock hands. He meets Leilani outside of the building, and she greets him with;

"What in the world happened to you?"

Honestly, Marley totally forgot about her. He's been so busy thinking about everything going on that his only friend here totally slipped his mind. He can't help but to feel a bit bad about it. "I had to go see Rellik yesterday," he responds.

"It's almost 80 degrees outside," she responds. "You're as white as a sheet, wearing all those layers. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good." Marley sighs, he's getting pretty sick of people checking on him, alright? He knows he looks like crap, he doesn't need everyone he meets interrogating him on it.

Leilani just gives him a weird look, and looks as though she's about to question him again. Maybe he should tell her. She won't let it go until she gets a solid answer. Here goes. "He took out my heart, though."

They'd started walking at some point during their 30 second conversation. He only becomes aware of that when the girl stops. A questioning peek at her reveals absolute bewilderment. "What."

Marley notices some people passing glances their way as they walk by. They did just stop in the middle of the sidewalk, though, so Marley can't blame them. Honestly, if they don't get moving they very well might be late. "It's in a case in his office. Allegedly."

"You're being serious."

As a heart attack. Ha.

He wonders if Rellik will even be able to put it back in him. He imagines walking in there when they call him and the doctor telling him his heart won't work anymore for whatever reason. What a nightmare.

"Yeah." Marley responds, beginning to walk again. She jogs a bit to catch up with him.

"I'm sorry. That must suck," she apologizes. Marley suddenly feels bad for complaining. He tries to only do that in his head. They walk a few more steps, nearing the research building. "It's not your fault," he replies.

Honestly, research is probably the most entertaining time of the day. Breakfast and lunch are basic necessities, school is just generally boring, and Rellik is a scary inconvenience. However, with research, they talk about superpowers. Sometimes Supervisor Hookler will focus on a specific person in the group and will talk about them. He finds it interesting, honestly. Not as nerve wracking as most things they make him do here.

The day goes by far too fast for Marley's liking, considering how nervous he is. Somewhere in there his mom texts him that she will be free at 5:00, which works out with Marley's schedule perfectly. He doesn't even know what he's going to say. During lunch he couldn't focus on his food. All he had was some goop that might have been mashed potatoes and he didn't even eat all of it.

"Where you going?" Leilani asks as he begins to go a different direction than their normal one. Usually he walks with her to their rooms but today is obviously the exception. He'd neglected to tell her about the change in plans today. Nice going, Marley. Suspicious.

"I gotta call my mom," he responds. He's not even lying, just missing some details.

Leilani seems to accept this, as she waves him a goodbye and he continues on his way to the library. It's in the academic building for the students to use, even though none of them do. Marley's been in there once before and it was tiny. There were like two bookshelves and no people. There wasn't a librarian and therefore hardly any books, since you could just take whatever you wanted. He supposes that makes it the perfect place to call Charlene—no need to worry about evesdroppers.

Marley reaches the library without problem, something he is immensely thankful for. His stomach is turning with nerves and his hands are sweating and the blanket isn't doing its job. He's not in the best condition at all, but this is more important than his health. It seems as though lately a lot of things are.

When he opens the solid wooden doors, he finds Lola and Bren on the floor. They're both looking through through a book and she's got her finger at the bottom of a page. They don't seem to notice Marley's appearance.

"Have you ever talked to that one?" She asks. Bren leans over too look at whatever she's pointing at.

"Yeah, but I don't really like birds. They get distracted too easily and they're super judge-mental."

Marley catches sight of the cover and sees that it's an animal science textbook. Lola looks up when Marley takes a seat on the other side of Bren, finding that she'd been pointing at a woodpecker. There are several other birds on the page, but it's mostly just text. "Where are the others?" Marley asks.

It's almost 5:00, so they better get this show on the road. He can't be dealing with fashionably late. They'd been adamant about being there during the phone call and Marley really doesn't want to deal with Nero's bitchiness if he can't make it.

"On their way," Lola replies, and it's not even ten seconds later when the door opens and Nero, Eli, and Lenny all make their entrance. Good. Marley wants to get this over with as soon as he possibly can. Talking to his mom in front of a bunch of people he knows next to nothing about (and who in turn know everything about him) is a bit strange. He wants it to be over soon.

"So then I said, yanno, it's not my fault every time I look in your head you're thinking about feet! And then he told me to get out of his business and then I said he's the one that was tellin' me to quit mumbling about my notes. So he punched me."

Marley can't help but to raise a slightly alarmed brow. Exactly what had these three been talking about?

"Lenny, are you seriously messing with people's minds again?" Lola asks, frowning.

"No! I didn't do anything, I just looked!"

Marley takes notice of the busted lip Lenny's currently sporting. He can't help but to wonder what his abnormality is. He knows Bren can talk to animals, Eli has some sort of ability with spiders, and Nero can control electricity. Lola can do something with fire. Lenny, though, he has no clue. Maybe mind reading? Marley should probably ask at some point—it would clear up a lot of unanswered questions he had when he came here.

"Yeah, okay, I don't know why you always gotta piss people off and then complain when they take it out on you. Was this Ian?" Bren asks.

Lenny snorts. "No, but that would be pretty funny."

"Then who has a foot f–"

"Can we focus?" Nero demands from where he'd just taken a seat almost directly across from Marley. Eli nods in agreement.

Marley shivers, clutching the blanket closer to his body. They need to get this over with so he can find something that emanates heat and snuggle up with it for the remainder of the evening. That would be freakin' spectacular.

Everyone in the circle has gone silent, Marley realizes. They're also all staring at him expectantly.

"Right, so," Marley curls in on himself some more. At this point he would jump into a volcano. It's that bad. "I told my mom I'd call her at 5..."

A check at Marley's phone reveals that it's 4:55. That'll do. "It's a little early but I think it should be fine."

Bren nods in agreement beside him, and Marley takes that as an agreement from everyone. He presses the home button and scrolls to his favorites in the phone application. He hears some mumbling from Lenny's direction but he doesn't pay it any mind as he finally find his mother's name.

Here goes.

He presses the dial button.

Marley is honestly half hoping his mom won't answer, then he could ignore this whole thing and try again tomorrow. He would be able to put all this crap off for at least another day, which he would totally take. Maybe then he'd actually come up with a plan to get the information from her. Right now he's just winging it.

"Hi honey!"

Oh god. She answered.

Marley snaps back to reality in an instant, realizing he's actually got his mom on the line, and they're about to talk. In front of all these people—in front of Nero.

This is really happening.

"Hey, mom," he replies, noticing that everyone in the circle seems beyond interested. He can see why. Having the queen of the Western Hemisphere on the line is pretty dang cool if you're not in the royal family.

"How are you doing? It's been a while since I got to speak to you! Did you make any friends? Are you making any progress with a cure? How's that one girl doing—Leilani? How's she?"

Jesus.

Marley forgot he told his mom about her. Shit, she probably has the wrong idea. That or she's going to get the wrong idea.

For a second, Marley envisions himself telling her all about his new 'friends'. Informing her of their plans to dethrone Allorn and make Marley king prematurely. He wonders how she'd react if she knew her son betrayed the throne. Maybe he's going insane.

"She's good," Marley responds, trying to remember all his mother's questions. "They're still uh, trying to cure me." God, he hates that. Cure, like he's sick. Like has some sort of physical illness. The only cure he wants right now is a way to not freeze to death. He can't help the way he scrunches his face up a bit at the words.

"Aw, I'm sorry, Sweetie. They'll fix you up soon."

Okay, mom.

"How have things been with you?" Marley asks, ignoring the way everyone's looking at him like he needs to get a move on with this–and by everyone he means Nero. Sorry but Charlene is far too smart for her own good and if this conversation comes off even a little unnatural, the lady will catch on quick.

"Oh I'm doing alright! We just ate dinner at this really pretty restaurant. You would have loved it."

Marley ignores the pang of homesickness he feels in his gut. Avoiding eye contact, he decides to mess with the ends of the blanket a little bit.

He's proud of himself for keeping his voice steady so far. He's been shivering the whole day. "Do you know if Dad's been spending a lot of time in his office lately?"

Wow. Way to not be suspicious, Marley. Like she won't find such a blatant subject change weird. Really, the more he thinks about it, the more he's starting to realize that there isn't a way to do this smoothly. He can't ask her the sorts of things he needs to without it being fishy no matter how well he phrases it.

"Oh, he's always in there. Why do you ask?" There's a tilt in her tone. It changes slightly, askew, and Marley realizes that it's always been like that when dad's office is involved. How had he never noticed before?

What's going on here? What aren't they telling him? Is he going crazy? Is this all some sort of crazy misinterpretation of his unusual childhood? A coping mechanism for being the family disappointment? He needs answers!

"Well, uh..." Alright, here we go. Head first. "Do you remember when I was, like, ten?"

He stops. There's a silence.

"Yes, Marley, I remember when you were ten."

Yeah, he sounds stupid already. He doesn't even chance a look up to the rest of them. They're probably making fun of him with their eyes or something. At least they're quiet.

"Okay, yeah, and I snuck into dads office? And he got really mad... like, really mad. And I think I found a folder or a laptop or..."

Or...

Holy fucking shit.

"A key." He found a key, that's right! He remembers now. It was golden and plain but for some reason it had caught his attention. Enough for him to take it out of the drawer and actually find it interesting. Where did he get folder from? He was way off.

Marley realizes it's been silent for a while. He finally looks up to find Eli staring at him, though everyone else looks focused on his phone. Her expression looks almost accusatory. He wonders if he will ever get along with her.

"Why are you asking me this?"

Oh, right. He's on the phone.

Crap! He's on the phone!

"Oh, you know, just wondering." Steady, keep your voice steady, you're doing great so far. Don't fuck it up. "I was just sorta thinking about it the other day and I thought it was kind of weird he got so mad over that."

Marley shivers, whether it's at the memory of Allorn's fury or his lack of body heat, he has no idea.

"He keeps a lot of things in his office, Marley, you know that. Some things are better left undiscussed"

Marley frowns, because her voice is beyond off. Since when was she so weirdly cryptic? What the hell?

"Why don't you want to talk about it? Is it a big deal?" God, he wants to know now more than ever. What's she hiding? Where did that key go to?

"I'm afraid I have to go now, honey. Talk soon." She hangs up, not even waiting for an answer. That's gotta be the shortest phone call they've had yet.

What the hell?