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Giselle normally made a snide comment at the sight of Tara, or at least frowned. However, she was unusually wan looking, and when Tara opened her door, she didn't even do so much as sneer despite her face muscles aching to try. Instead she launched straight into a speech before her old nemesis could go on the attack. "I require your assistance immediately." she began.

"I am not trying to trick you. You know that I have no time for childish pranks." This was true. Whenever they spoke, Giselle and Tara fought like cats, but never had these disagreements gone beyond the chance meetings that were only to be expected when two students were from the same House group. Something has happened in my room that requires further..." she hesitated, as if there was a word caught in her mouth, but finally said "...scientific examination." She looked away, almost ashamed to admit it, although Giselle had no real argument with science itself. On some level, she even enjoyed it, but it was Tara's failure to recognize the value of history that made her speak so adamantly against it when they met. Tara attacked what was precious to her, Giselle attacked right back, more out of instinct after all these years than anything else. Either way, Tara was talented in her own field, and despite their bitter rivalry, Giselle was not blind to the fact.

"If you need something more than my word that the situation is urgent, I will swear to you by all historical principles I hold dear, but I need you to bring some lab supplies up to my room immediately." She paused, biting her lip before adding, "Something for identifying blood."

GIselle was merely grateful that Tara was being cooperative, (Though this was by no means an overture to a beautiful new friendship, God, no.) and she picked up the boxes Tara asked her to, moving quickly as she could and waiting impatiently by the door after. "Time is of the essence," she stated, as Tara said ready, and left. Striding quickly back upstairs, she knocked on her door once, twice, three times. "Lancaster." she enunciated clearly, putting down the boxes next to the door in case she would need to hit whatever let them in.

The... whatever it was had been harmless enough, but something was going on, and from what Elke had said before, it could be more dangerous than it had been so far. She wasn't taking chances until she found out more.

In the name of possible breakthroughs, Tara remained silent while heading upstairs. As soon as the door was open, and some girl she wasn't too familiar with sprinted out, she went in and set her microscope down on the desk. Since this room had the same basic layout as hers, she knew where the outlets were. But before she could reach, the girl came back and squeezed herself under the desk.

"I'll need to plug this in eventually," she said matter-of-factly. Then, in a softer tone, "I mean... was it that bad?"

The sophomore mutely held out one hand for the plug for Tara's microscope, fingers spread. Her look was very solemn and clearly said it was that bad. It had been terrible, in fact. She had heard scary things and then a scream and probably that poor lady was dead, only she hadn't looked out the window. Elke had stayed right under the desk after puking.

"Giselle," she whined after she plugged in the microscope behind her, "I don't want to come out. Not 'til the sheet's gone. Please? I already threw up once." Her voice did have a very believable tremor to it, reflecting the nausea she felt just from being in the vicinity of blood. She'd be smelling it the rest of the night at this rate...

It was bad enough that Giselle had to depend on Tara for something, so she nodded jerkily. "Excellent." she said, and fidgeted as Tara worked. What with the strange events that had lead to the equally strange situation of her having to ask Tara for help, she was on edge, and despite that something was being done to solve it, she was still vaguely uncomfortable.

She turned her attention to Elke for a moment, but her attention was torn. "You have to make it up later, then." she said sternly, but it was more than she usually let Elke get away with.

She opened her mouth to explain the situation, but paused. First of all, she didn't want Tara to know more than she had to, partially because claiming that Giselle was insane was too good a rebuttal to an argument to be passed up, but mostly because she just didn't feel comfortable with it. If even she barely believed it, how would someone who hadn't even seen it happen?

Then she remembered what Elke had been talking about right before the hand had rapped on the window. If she talked about it, would something else happen? If something did, it would at least prove her point, and if it didn't, the incident was a proven coincidence. She reached for her textbook and said "Grab the chair, Elke." Looking at the door and windows to make sure they were locked, she said "There was a girl rapping on my window. She was dangling from the sill, but when I threw her the sheets, they passed through her. She turned into blood and splashed on the ground below. You might have seen it. I would have thought that it was an illusion, but for the substance on the sheets. As it is, I believe it is a hoax, however, I would like to find out for myself rather than make guesses in the dark. I will not stand for nonsense, and the record must be cleared."

Without delving too much in the chemical make-up, the familiar red grouped splotches or -- at further magnification -- the doughnut shape of a blood cell, in short: it was blood.

Please could people stop talking about blood? It kept reminding her of the sheet and the smell and she withdrew deeper under the desk. Nothing could get at you under a desk, especially not Giselle's desk, that was practically holy space. No blood monsters. No bad things at all.

Or so she was telling herself.

Elke whimpered as she edged out from under the bed the slightest bit, grabbed the legs of the chair and looked carefully at the patterning of the wood grain until it seemed like the coast was clear. Then she returned to her hiding spot, covered both her ears and closed her eyes. Maybe she'd fall asleep under the desk. Though, that hadn't ended up so well the one time she'd done it. She didn't want to sit in the hallway and get history help...

Giselle's lips thinned and she looked at Tara as if trying to figure out whether or not to trust her.

But as she wouldn't prank Tara, neither would Tara prank her. Yes, they despised each other with a special kind of hate, but they were, at the core, professionals. "Permission granted." she said, even though by that point Tara had already started the next test. "Tell me the results."

She was lost with the science tests. Though Giselle was an intelligent, sometimes even superintelligent student, she was only brilliant in History. In subjects such as science she was decent, in math she was average. This was Tara territory, and she could only watch and guess that Tara was telling the truth. But it was better than knowing nothing.