People started to funnel out of their rooms. Including Trish and Zach, who both saw me and walked over.

 

We were hoping we'd have a bit more time before we had to deal with this.

 

The two of them sat down, and Zach somehow looked less tired.

 

Yeah, But I should still say sorry.

 

"Hey, I'm sorry about last night…"

"Don't be," Zach said, "I know I went further than I should have. And I already told Trish to not blame you for any of that. Not your fault for wanting to find out some way to protect yourself, but I'm sorry. I really can't talk to her again."

"Don't worry about it, and we should stop talking about her right now." I leaned over to look at Trish. "I hope you're not upset with me."

"If Zach's not going to be mad at you, then I won't be either."

Pern settled himself behind the couch and hovered over us as his vines wrapped around the couch.

 

That went better than expected. Finally, things worked out at least somewhat well. 

 

I got comfortable in my seat, "Thanks. I was worried about that."

 

Ask if Trish is still up for helping out.

 

"Hey Trish, are you still willing to help me out with her?"

"Yeah, I'll still help you. Sorry, I might be coming off like I'm annoyed right now, but other than that entire thing, I just had a bad night last night."

"That's fine," I said, "And thanks."

We went back to just sitting in silence as I tried to think of what else to talk about.

 

Ask about Alice.

 

"So Alice is leaving this place today?"

"Yeah," Trish said as she yawned, "It's just going to be a small thing, but we're seeing her off."

"Do you think she'd want me there after I upset her?"

"Not sure. If she does, then she'll probably let you know," Zach said.

"Alright, I'll hang around then."

More silence. This place was really starting to get to me with how little there was to actually do here.

"What do you do when you're bored here? I figured there wouldn't be a lot to do the first day here, but I didn't realize how boring things could get."

"Yeah," Zach said, "Get used to it. Besides, I bet boring is a lot better than being in school."

Thinking about it, he wasn't wrong.

"I guess, but what about those notebooks I saw you two with?"

"If you want one, then you can just ask the nurse."

 

Let's go and get one then, otherwise we'll just sit here trying to awkwardly think of what to say.

 

"Thanks. Then I'm going to go get one," I said as I got up and walked over to the nurses counter where Kim sat. "Excuse me. I was told I could get a notebook to write in from you?"

With a bright smile, "Of course, one moment."

She leaned down and sat a notebook with no wire spine on it and a pencil in front of me. "Feel free to use it for whatever you want."

"Thanks." I grabbed them and went to sit at a free table next to the window.

 

What should I even write about?

 

We can write about what we'll do with our friends when we get back. Make plans for a big party or some such.

 

That does sound nice. Sure.

 

I opened up the notebook and started to write.

 

-Big party with Sophie, Holly, Mark, Ben and Vanessa.

-Games with Sophie and Holly.

-Play lego's with Emily.

-Get Trish to intimidate Kendall.

 

Pern hovered over me and wrapped a vine around my arm and hand.

 

-Beat Kendall in a fight.

 

You know how hard that'd be.

 

We do, but we still need to be able to. Even with Trish there, that might not be enough to stop her. We need to find a way to physically stop her.

 

Then I need to get stronger. That'll still take too long.

 

His vines guided my writing again.

 

-Start working out.

 

We can at least start. Maybe with everything that's happened we'd at least be able to stall her long enough to get muscle on us.

 

You really think we can stall her for that long? It'll take months at least.

 

In a fair fight, yes it would, but who says we need to fight fair? We just need to get strong enough to get one good cheap shot in.

 

I don't know how she wouldn't expect it. You know how twitchy she is with people.

 

For other people, but not for us. She thinks we're weak. Hell, we might not even have to work out. All we'd need is one good hit with a weapon.

 

…What kind of weapon are you talking about?

 

Any that can give us the advantage in a fight. If we aim for the knees, then she'll fall like a rock.

 

Yeah I want to hurt her, but that sounds like it could cripple her. As much as she deserves it, I still don't want to take it that far…

 

With a sigh, he let go of my arm.

 

Yes we do actually. Even if we talk ourselves out of it at times, we still want to see her get hurt. And it's not going to go away just because we talk ourselves out of it every now and then.

 

I thought you said you don't want to take it that far when we were both screaming our heads off?

 

That was us getting excess anger out, but it didn't actually work to get rid of what was causing that anger in the first place. We have Kendall to thank for that, and as long as she has power over us, then she's always going to be in the back of our head, making us angry again.

 

So you're saying doing that was pointless…

 

No it wasn't. It did help us get into a better place, but it's not a solution. We have a lot of ways we can stop her. Trish, threatening to tell her parents, getting her in trouble with the law, breaking her knees with a weapon.

 

I'm still not doing that weapon thing.

 

That will likely change if nothing else we do works.

 

Rubbing my face, I tried to just change the subject.

 

Well I'm open to more ideas of how to deal with her then.

 

We could find out how much she cares about her family. Maybe she has a smaller sibling we could threaten to bully to get her to stop.

 

Woah what the fuck!? No. That's actually crossing the line. 

 

We wouldn't actually do anything to them, but if she has someone she cares about, then maybe we could get her to stop if she thought her sibling was in danger.

 

I dropped my pencil next to my notebook and slid down.

 

That sounds like something Kendall would do. Are you telling me I'm seriously like that? 

 

Not naturally, no. Kendall is evil, selfish and stupid, but she never stops and the only thing she understands is violence and mockery. We need to make her stop by getting her to understand we'll do everything in our power to protect us. Even if that means using people she cares about. Then again, someone like her probably doesn't even have anyone like that.

 

If getting her to stop means becoming like her, then I'd rather jump out of that window.

 

Pern brought his bulb down to eye level with me. 

 

Doing what we need to to protect ourselves doesn't make us like Kendall.

 

I picked up the pencil and wrote more down.

 

-Learn how to stop Pern from being super aggressive.

 

His vines wrapped around  my hand again.

 

-Learn how to stand up for ourself more.

 

I plan on it. Sophie isn't going to need to stand up for me like she had to before.

 

I took over writing again.

 

-Find out what Kendall is planning with Holly.

 

With Sophie, we should be kept updated. Besides, there's something that is arguably more important than anything on this list so far.

 

Pern guided my arm again.

 

-Kiss Sophie

 

I added a big '1' in front of that, because that's the first thing I was going to do. I leaned over the table and rested my head next to my notebook. 

 

God I miss her.

 

The weekend we get off is going to be one of the best. Spending all weekend with her sounds amazing.

 

Trish walked over and sat down next to me. "Hey, I just wanted to say sorry for what I said before. I know Zach kept going when he knew he should have stopped."

"It's fine. I just hope that's the last of this stuff happening."

"It probably will be with Alice and I leaving today."

I looked up at her.

"What time are you guys going?"

"Noonish probably. Same for Alice." 

"I guess I'll see you when I get out then." I picked up my pencil and asked her, "What's your phone number?" She told me her number and I wrote it down.

"Text me as soon as you get out," Trish said.

"Promise. But I still need to get Zach's number as well."

"If you don't, then I'll just send it to you later."

I went back to laying my head on the table. "Alright."

"You okay?" she asked.

"Today's Thursday. Right?" 

"Yeah. What's going on?"

"I'm really happy I get to see my friends and family again, but I don't know if I have enough stuff to stand up to Kendall…"

"Well that's why I've got your back."

"It's more about what I learned about her after I came here." I sat back up straight. "Can you keep a secret?"

She crossed her heart with her fingers. "Course I can."

With a deep breath, "I think when I get out it's going to get a lot worse with Kendall. She loves beating me up. You should see the sadistic smile she always has."

"Yeah, I can imagine it'd be hard with someone like that."

"That's not the part I'm worried about though. I'm worried because I learned someone woke up her anima."

"Oh god I hate those fucking things. No wonder you wanted to find out anything you could. 

Pern hovered over her.

 

What does she know? We're a wonderful plant.

 

"Is it safe to ask why you don't like them?"

"My ex had one, and I realized both of them were really fucking creepy when I finally got out of it."

"I mean, I'm sure Kendall's anima is creepy too, but not all of them are bad."

"Well I haven't talked to a single one that's decent, so I'm not holding my breath."

I played with my pencil as one of Pern's vines wrapped around my arm.

 

Let's tell her about us.

 

And make her not want to be near me? That's a terrible idea.

 

She said that she hasn't met a decent one, so let's show her a decent one.

 

What if she decides she wants nothing to do with me like Alice?

 

If that's all it takes for her to not want to hang out with us, then can we even really call her a friend in the first place? We've tried everything we can to show her we're a good person. If she doesn't see that, then it's her loss.

 

…I guess you got some good points.

 

"Do you hate all anima in general? What if there was a really good one?"

Trish leaned back in her seat. "I'll believe it when I see it, but until then I don't want to trust those things. They can get people to do some horribly messed up stuff."

With a deep breath and figuring that at least I'd have Zach if this went poorly, "I have an anima…"

The awkward silence was entirely what you'd expect. Long, drawn out and with Trish clearly uncomfortable.

"Oh…"

"He's not a creep, and he's actually been helping me a ton since I got in here."

She rubbed her face and tried to subtly scoot away from me, but she did a pretty bad job of hiding it.

"You don't have to, but you can talk to him if you want so you can see we're not as bad as the others you knew."

Pern patted my back.

 

It's good to hear us use 'we' by the way.

 

"You seem like a really sweet guy, but I just really don't want anything to do with anima. Sorry."

"That's fine. Everything's okay between us though, right? I don't want things to not work out because I have one."

"Of course everything's okay between us. I'd just like to not talk about it if that's okay with you."

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Hey Trish," Zach said as he walked up, "Can I talk to you alone for a bit?"

"Sure," she said. As she got up she leaned over towards me to say, "Secrets safe with me." and walked off.

 

That didn't go so bad.

 

Still could have been better.

 

So could a lot of things. As far as everything else went, that was not bad.

 

True enough.

 

I took up my pencil again and went back to writing for the rest of the morning.