This is an alternate branch of the storyline continuing from [10A]

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The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl

[11A]
For the Primary Branch [11]

Fortunately, that prognostication of insomnia turned out wrong, as tiredness wrapped around her and dragged her all the way to morning.

Or rather the lightless oblivion existing in the place of morning at such an early hour. Giselle felt like the first time she had to be a kid, that school had the common decency to at least not get started until Labor Day rolled around. When Rachel taught, she understood that the horror had slipped out of the protective bonds of September and infected the middle of August.

Giselle kept fighting with her own eyelids as she stretched her face out in front of the mirror and washed up. No amount of hot or cold water helped that much. Getting into the shower felt rather routine. She used a small cloth to gently scrub and even gave a decent amount of care to how her hair looked. The wristband from Britney stayed on. Drying up had to go fast as she realized she was in a sleepy trance for longer than she expected in the bathroom.

She juggled a big towel and a draping bathrobe while getting a whiff of breakfast and informing Rachel she was going to go wake up their guest. Olivia was actually already sitting up in bed with the top blanket over her shoulders and her skinny legs wrapped up. The simple outfit she wore, also ivory white like the toilet seat she supposedly emerged from, twisted and wrapped around almost her entire body like bindings. It was a strange look that Giselle did her best not to dwell on.

“Good morning, Olivia,” she said with a wave. “Did you sleep well?”

“Sleep? No. I don’t sleep.” Olivia oddly rolled her eyes but didn’t give the impression she was annoyed or had any other emotion. Giselle noticed that she did the same when she first met Olivia. She had to wonder if it was some sort of tick, start-up routine, or way of stretching. Olivia continued, “Thank you for the use of your bed to store me. It didn’t have the warmth of being sat on, but it was a comfort.”

She tried not to feel embarrassed by a tween girl acting like being sat on was normal. She did her best to change the subject by asking, “How’s your… energy situation?”

“I am imminently about to slip into the forever cold.” Giselle widened her eyes in alarm and urgently asked, “You’re going to die?”

“Cease all existence, but that would be one way to put it.”

“Can I do anything?!” Giselle felt frantic to the point of wanting to go get Rachel, but she feared that Olivia might go pop at any moment. “Why didn’t you say?!”

“I didn’t want to inconvenience you. The only thing you can do is allow me to have a little bit to sustain me.“

Giselle took a deep breath. ”Transform me, you mean? Do you have to make me younger?…”

Olivia wobbled where she sat. “It doesn’t need to be that much. I have an idea. But you might not like it. Permission?”

On the one hand, Giselle had to wonder if keeping Olivia around was like trying to sustain a shark in captivity. She would need to eat off people around her at least every few hours, from appearances. And despite the fact she agreed to take her to junior high, ethically, she had to wonder: who knew what she might do in that environment? On the other, she didn’t want her to die. So, she vehemently agreed to whatever Olivia needed.

She didn’t even see the flash of blue this time. Instead, she felt as though she had just woken up from something. But it didn’t make sense. She was up in her room tidying her bed. Oh goodness, she had to get ready for school.

It was a Friday and that meant Gi was thinking about wearing a dress. A plaid jumper with a nice blouse would be perfect. She rummaged around the side closet and found just the things she was looking for. The wristband stayed where it was. Flats in the school colors. Stockings that matched. A lovely blue and navy plaid jumper with the perfect hemline so she wouldn’t get in trouble. Then a white blouse. She would have to be so careful at lunch not to get a spill on it, but she could take a magic eraser. She wondered if Dennis in third period might notice and smile at her. She held the dress against her body as she imagined spinning in place and Dennis reaching out to catch her.

Everything fit nicely and looked very cute. She made sure to wear shorts underneath. Now she had to go show mom! But, before she got to the steps, it was like a light switch clicked on in her brain and she realized how weird the last few minutes had been. Giselle blanched and moved stiffly in her outfit as though she’d been attacked by a beast made of cloth and it wrapped her up like a spider.

“What on Earth…?!?” She ran through a gamut of bewildering emotions which lingered in the air and then suddenly felt like an ephemeral vacuum suctioned them up. Giselle wobbled in place and had to catch herself mentally and physically. To her renewed surprise, wearing that outfit suddenly didn’t feel as jarring as it had a moment before. And it took till that moment for her to look across the room and realize that Olivia was slowly standing up from the bed. It wasn’t as though she had vanished but rather like she blended into the surroundings, wearing an undetectable camouflage.

“I’m sorry, but that should be sufficient for the rest of today.”

“What happened?” Giselle felt fully and clearly aware of all the thoughts she had a few minutes ago but didn’t want to revisit them.

“I seeded you with contrary notions while blocking your awareness and then lifted that block. Your surprise at the contrast allowed me to draw in the emotion I needed.”

The part about contrary notions brought relief to Giselle‘s mind. However, the prospect that Olivia could just warp her thoughts as easily as that introduced concerns. She inquired about how much she could do on her own, so far as mental things.

“I could totally and permanently alter every aspect of you, and you would never know the difference. However, that would serve no benefit to me. Your emotion and surprise over change. Your awareness… is fundamental to a wide range of human emotions. Your joy, your love, your happiness, and other qualities matter immensely. If I hurt you, it would poison things. That’s why I asked permission. The visitor last night in the bright and noisy special vehicle was a matter of desperation. I didn’t want to touch any of you. You might say it was like splitting open a cactus to get a drop of water.”

That certainly sounded like a painful analogy. The notion that this kid could suddenly, basically erase her entire existence didn’t help her comfort level, but it was good to know that she had no reason to do that. At the same time, she was curious about the fact Olivia claimed she was about to expire rather than take, and yet yesterday she was willing to grab an emergency meal from a random person without worry.

She questioned this, and Olivia quietly admitted, “The monster, the one beyond the walls, had instructions for me. Keep you contained. Keep you quiet. Erode your mind. It said you would only hurt me. But I saw your emotions for Rachel. You seemed kind. I tried to be like others I saw and to be like you. The ones who came in the noisy vehicle felt like monsters. And I was scared. But I am willing to slip into the forever cold for everything I did and everything I might do. Thank you for giving me a reprieve.”

Giselle still had a lot of lingering questions from all that, but she could tell from the clock on the wall that, if she wanted to bother going to school on a Friday (and she had plenty of thoughts on why not to), it was getting really tight to get ready and have breakfast in time.

“You’re welcome. All right, if you’re coming with me, then I better put you in some reasonable clothes.” Olivia puzzled at this and cocked her head. She undressed as simply as a robot might when given an order.

Sifting through her alarmingly packed closet, Giselle decided to put several things together for Olivia. A spare pink backpack in the back became hers with some generic gym clothes. The next thing was pulling some shorts and a top on her before helping her get into a long fluttery skirt with patterns of bright flowers and a light pink fringe at the bottom. A pink, short-sleeved blouse with lace patterns and even more flowers went over her head before she used simple hair ties.

Honestly, everything felt like a mess for both of them, if she had the judge it. But this was way beyond any intuition or skill for her when it came to fashion. Nevertheless, Olivia stared at herself in the mirror against the wall and seemed enraptured.

Her almost pure-white hair contrasted sharply with all the color, but also gave her an ethereal look, like a fantasy creature.

To Giselle‘s surprise, Olivia spun in place with her skirt dancing and wore a slight smile that not even she seemed to realize she had. A giggle fell out with a shifting expression of surprise. Stretching her mouth open in practically a gasp, Olivia questioned, “… I can fuel myself?”

That soft question perked up Giselle‘s curiosity but Olivia didn’t elaborate. She turned and thanked Giselle for everything and said that all this would be sufficient, and she would try to do her best. Giselle made sure she promised to inform her whenever she was hungry again or about to keel over. Olivia reassured her that she felt “good for the whole day now”.

After shoes and making sure everything was ready, the girls went downstairs to have a hasty breakfast with Rachel, who had called ahead and spun together a story about “Olivia Smith“, some distant relative of theirs who didn’t want to miss school while on break. She wanted to shadow Giselle for the day. Apparently, this was fine so long as Olivia signed in at the front desk and got herself a temporary ID.

So far as breakfast though, they soon discovered that Olivia didn’t have a digestive system. She mimicked everyone else by taking a bite and chewing, but then had to spit up whatever was in her mouth into a napkin. It looked like it had been crunched up with a fork and knife. She seemed to enjoy this pantomime of eating, so they didn’t stop her, and Giselle hoped that it might allow her to generate even more emotion fuel for herself.

Around cleanup, Giselle struggled to summarize everything for Rachel. She vaguely mentioned that she allowed Olivia to take sustenance from her, and that it was temporary, but didn’t go into details. Beyond that, she focused on the fact that hurting them was not beneficial to Olivia and she also essentially promised not to do that. Olivia could’ve listened in to all of this, as they talked not too far away from the kitchen. Rachel squeezed Giselle in a tight hug.

“Be safe today. We have no idea if that monster thing repair guy is going to come after you.” Giselle echoed the same sentiment for Rachel, since he was last seen around their house before vanishing. Rachel mentioned that she was going to spend most of the day away with groceries, visiting Dale and Finley, and she heard about a coffee shop with an all-day music event. Giselle‘s music-loving heart pained but she wished her… wife a safe, fun, event-free day.

On the ride to school, Giselle and Olivia sat together in the center seat. On the edge of campus, as close as the busy morning traffic would allow them to get, Rachel managed to park the crossover in the dirt behind some other cars. The cacophony of screaming, wild morning voices grated on Giselle and had Olivia twisting and turning her head this way and that like trying to catch a dissonant melody.

The business in the office just took a few minutes of unnecessary explaining before Olivia got a big sticker on her blouse. Giselle got one last hug and a kiss on the cheek and Olivia received a pat on the shoulder and a quick hug.

Turning towards the hall that would take them to Giselle‘s first period art class, Giselle tensed when she realized that a hand had slipped into her hand. Olivia, with her head down, had placed her delicate, spindly, pale fingers between Giselle’s. The supposedly-protective wristband rested nearby.

She explained gently, “I saw others out there doing this. Is it normal? Permission?”

So far as the fiction they were spinning about this girl being some distant relation, Giselle figured this could work. It just felt like the absolute capstone to all the weirdness that she, just some normal Twitch/YouTube video editor big into video games, and the entity that lived in a toilet seat, were standing in the middle of a junior high hallway in forms neither of them had just a few days ago.

“Sure. It’s fine. Let’s go.”