StV: Sudden Onset, part one

Jade paused outside the door to compose herself, and Snoop took a moment as well. This wasn't a situation she wanted to walk into lightly; the family was grieving, after all. The rest of Team Phoenix was around, but staying out of sight; they were there because school policy said they had to be, but they wouldn't be part of this mission unless something went very, very wrong. 

"All right," she said quietly. "Let's do this." She rang the doorbell and waited. 

The woman who opened the door was wearing shorts and a rumpled t-shirt, and had her sandy blonde hair pulled back into a simple ponytail. "Can I help you?" she asked. 

She'd made her voice polite, even friendly, but there was something fragile underneath. This was a woman who was holding it together by an act of will, maybe because she had no other choice. 

Jade asked: "Mrs. Donaldson?" When the woman nodded, she added more cautiously: "Emily Hubbard. My friends call me Em. We came about Evan."

The woman froze, and for a moment her face was a raw study in grief. Then she stiffened, and looked the pair of them over. After a moment she asked, "Were you friends of his?"

Jade shook her head. "No. We just... look, this is going to sound crazy, but we just came to check on something." She looked around. "Can we come inside? It's not easy to explain."

Mrs. Donaldson only came up to her eyebrows, but the look she gave Jade made the younger girl feel about two feet high. "You aren't reporters, are you?" 

"No," said Spook firmly. "Not even for a school newspaper." He paused, then added, "Ryan Darling."

"Good," she said, looking him over. "All right, come in. You want some water? Or a soda?"

"We wouldn't want to impose," Jade said, as she followed the grieving mother into the house, "but if you don't mind, I could use a soda."

"I offered," said Mrs. Donaldson, in a mild tone that suggested that she wouldn't have done so if it had been an imposition. "Wait here in the living room, and I'll be right back." She turned to Snoop. "What about you?"

"Water would be fine," he said quickly. 

"All right." Mrs. Donaldson crossed to a doorway that apparently led into the kitchen and disappeared. 

Jade took a quick moment to look around. The house was nice, but not ostentatious; thoroughly middle-class, with a fireplace against the far wall and a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. There were posters for the Lord of the Rings movies hung on the wall, along with some of the weapons from the movies; Jade found herself smiling at that. 

"Who are you?" asked a new voice, this one male, young, and curious. 

Jade turned to face a young man -- her own age, or close enough -- who'd evidently come up from the back of the house. He was lean, with a rangy, broad-shouldered build; he had his mother's sandy hair, also in a ponytail, and striking blue eyes. 

"Ah," said Jade, to cover her hesitation. "You must be Cody. I'm Emily Hubbard -- Em. This is my friend Ryan. We, um..." She swallowed. 

"They came about Evan," said Mrs. Donaldson, coming back into the room with a trio of glasses on a small tray. 

"Oh," said Cody, suddenly downcast. He moved to join them as they sat down, though.