The drive to the mall was… uncomfortable but not as bad as yesterday. The seat belt hurt so I had to have a blanket over my stomach in order have a tinge of padding between my stomach and the polyester straps. You’d think my body would be mostly fine by now with how it’s been a week since my wounds were, uh, reopened. But I guess I was weaker than the average person, which wasn’t really that much of a surprise. 

“Alright kids, you ready for some shopping?” Lucy questioned from the front seat as we came to a stop in the large parking lot. 

“Yep!” Sena chirped and unhooked her seatbelt, tossing herself out of the car. “I’ll grab the wheelchair.”

“Thanks, dear.” Her mother called back as she stepped around to open my door. “How are you feeling, Yun?”

“N-not bad. A little nauseous, but I think I just need to get used to cars again.” 

“Yeah, it’s probably been a week and a half, not counting yesterday, since you’ve been in one.” Sam, our chauffeur, said.

“True. Let’s get you in that fancy chair now.”

As said, as done. I eased out of the car on my own power and settled into the chair. The outside air had a bit of a bite to it, what with fall setting in, so Lucy draped my blanket over my legs.

“Thanks.” 

“‘Course.” She replied as Sena got to pushing me towards the entrance of the mall, a big white and gray complex with a number of windows as well as a huge dome. “It’s chilly out and we figured it’d be more comfortable having a blanket than a jacket since you’ll be sitting.”

“Oh.” I gasped, remembering something. “Has the fall festival happened yet?”

“Nope. Still a week away.” Sena replied. “Uh, Mom? You think she’ll be able to go back before that or not?”

“Hm.” Lucy tapped her chin. “It depends on a couple things.”

“Like what?”

“Well,” Sam began. “Obviously first is her health. I think by next week she should be physically well enough to start going back. But the second thing, and likely the larger problem, is her mental well being. We’ll need to talk to Dr. Grey and her psychologist to see if she’s, sorry, stable enough.”

“It’s fine.” I mumbled. “I haven’t really been the picture of stability during my hospital stay…”

“Nothing you could control.” Lucy interjected before any of us could feel awkward.

“Yes. Anyway, thirdly we need to speak with the principal and board before she starts going back. They’ll probably have to make an announcement to the student body about a few things.”

I grimaced at that, but it made sense. I was pretty popular despite only staying in one clique, so news about my disappearance or even the attack itself was probably already circulating. And then there’s the whole ‘I’m actually a girl’ thing. Uhg.

“... Fair. Everyone’s kinda tapered off a little bit from the rumors and stuff, but there’s still a few squeaks here and there.” My friend admitted.

“What kind of rumors?” I asked, tilting my head.

“U-uh. Not the b-best kinds… to be honest.” She sighed. “They know you got stabbed, but not the more intricate details.”

I groaned. “Great…”

“Don’t agonize over it, you two. We’ll work it out with the school. Elias agreed to help with that too, so it should be pretty easy.”

“Exactly.” Sam nodded. “Anyway, all of that depends on when Yun herself is ready to go back. We won’t push her to anytime soon, and I’d hazard a guess that Dr. Grey could get the school to get off her back about it. Not that they’re pressuring us or anything though.”

“What does the school know, anyway?”

“Last week we told them the gist of the situation but nothing too personal. Just things like the fact we adopted her, the initial confrontation, the extended hospital stay, and all that. We hinted about the whole thing having more layers, and they were fine with waiting until all of us were ready to talk to them about it.”

“Huh.” 

Phew. At least I had time to think about all of this before I had to commit to anything. That was a weight off my chest.

 

Entering the mall was both something familiar and entirely foreign. I’d been in here a few times with our friend group, even though I’d hardly bought anything. Just content to stand back and watch. But now, as I was being rolled in with my new family, it felt… better.

“Where to start first…” Lucy hummed as we slowly cruised through the halls, passing groups of people and a few teenagers here and there. 

“I’d say clothes.” Sam presumed from my left as his wife took my right. Sena was obviously behind me.

“Yup. I wanna pick out some nice clothes for her.” She spoke up while pushing me.

“That sounds good, but remember we can only get stuff that will accommodate growing. Loose shirts and most pants should be fine, but anything tight should wait until later.”

“I knooow! It’s a shame but I can wait. I’m sure Yuki’d have a fit if we dressed Yun up without her.”

My cheeks were a little hot but I didn’t hate the prospect of my friends doing that, though I kept that fact to myself. “What else are we getting besides clothes?”

“Well, probably a phone for starters.” Lucy proposed. “And some things for your room, even though you decided to stay with Sena.”

“Really?!” Sena’s enthusiasm was… loud, and a few people turned to look at us. “E-er, sorry.”

“Indoor voice, young lady.” And before Sam could add a ‘witty’ remark, “One word and you’re on the couch, Sam.”

“Boo.” 

“A-anyway, you want to stay with me?” 

Angling my head so I could see Sena, I nodded. “Yeah, I talked with Lucy earlier about it. I think I’ll just keep waking up if I don’t.”

“Ah, so that’s why you were in there.” Sam commented. 

“Yeah. Nightmares.” 

“Either way, your room is your room and you can put whatever you want in it. So if you spot anything you like, or any stores that seem interesting, let us know.”

I just nodded and murmured an okay. Honestly I was pretty content to just walk, er, get pushed around with these three more than anything else. Sure it was cool that I was gonna get more clothes that fit who I was, and maybe some other stuff, but I just wanted to revel in the- the feeling of being cared for. The closest I’d ever had to feeling even a modicum of love from my ‘parents’ was whenever we had house parties at home, or at their friends' places. They loved to act all ‘high society’ and whatnot which meant we had to act the part of a loving family. They would parade me through the rooms with fake smiles plastered across our faces, talking about the things we were up to, new business opportunities, investing, and a lot of other hogwash. There were even some families who wanted to set up ‘courtships’ between their daughters and myself. The thought disgusted me. What did they think we were? Fourteenth century nobles living in castles?

Apparently that’s exactly what they thought, some delusion everyone at those parties shared. Talking about how ‘back in the day we owned these lands!’ and ‘My grandfather was a baron over in England.’ In the end they were all high-middle class merchants or forgotten bloodlines that split off from actual nobility. Not like nobles nowadays did anything. And not to mention we were in America. Not Europe.

Though more than once I’d heard mom mumbling to herself or shouting at dad about what she was cheated out of. She claimed she was done wrong, thrown out, cast away for whatever reason, and was bound to get some debt she was owed back, and then some. I never heard more than that, and I never cared. Why would I? The only way to find out more was to ask or sneak around and eavesdrop, but both of those were far out of my comfort zone. Hell, the mere thought of sneaking was beaten out of me a long time ago. Even now I figured if Sam or Lucy raised their tone at just the right volume, I’d bend over backwards to do whatever they asked. Any autonomy I had now was temporary. And fragile.

I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts in favor of taking in my surroundings. I didn’t want to steep into depression while with… my new family. 

The first store we found was a chain clothing outlet that had a huge selection. My gaze swam around the small section we were parked in; the women’s corner.

I said corner, but it was practically the size of a few classrooms put together. The place was massive, and only a part of the store. 

“Well, let’s get to looking.” Sam let out a breath. “Damn, there is a lot of stuff here…”

“Which is why it’s perfect.” Lucy responded without missing a beat.

“You sure it wouldn’t be better to slowly acclimate her to this? Go about it on levels?”

“Perhaps.” Lucy shrugged. “But this works anyway. Yun, take your time and look around. Don’t worry about prices or how much to get, just grab what you like and show us when you’re ready.”

“Are you not staying with us?” I asked.

“We’ll leave you and Sena to it.” She winked. “Though I am going to look for a few things you might like, as well as some formal attire. If you need anything, we’re a call or a quick roll away.”

And like that, the two left Sena and I to go do their own thing. But what confused me was why I would need formal attire? Just earlier she’d said I needed to wait to get anything more form fitting and delicate until after I’d grown a little. 

“Welp. Let’s get to it.” My friend offered with a wry smile.

That we did. We definitely did. The place was huge. I could probably get lost in all these clothes to be honest, so it was a good thing Sena stuck to my side the whole time. The two of us walked back and forth across rows and rows of racks, just taking everything in. Immediately I spotted multiple things I might like, but my conditioning made it hard to reach out and grab them. Fortunately Sena was there to spot my gaze and snatch whatever article of clothing I lingered on. She even pointed and picked up a few sets to show me in better detail, explaining how they worked, what went with them, and how to wear whatever it was. We went like that for a long time, half an hour? An hour? I couldn’t tell. But by the time we met back up with Sam and Lucy… we had a pile of stuff folded on my lap.

“My, look at that.” Lucy offered with a glint in her eye. “Quite the haul.”

Puffing her chest out in pride, Sena smirked. “Right? Pretty proud of it.” 

“You did try and get things that would fit, correct?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “We don’t know my exact size, but most of it should be pretty close. Anything else will be too big and I might be able to grow into it.”

She nodded her head and smiled in satisfaction. “Well done. What all did you two get?”

“A little bit of everything.” Sena shrugged. “Some skirts, shorts,” That earned an eyebrow raise from Lucy. “Tights, leggings,” The eyebrow went down. “Sweat pants, shirts, hoodies, uh, underwear and sports bras, and… anything else?”

“We got some pajamas.” I offered, pulling up some silky pink and white shorts with a matching button up shirt.

“Oh that’s cute.” Lucy murmured. “Where’d you find that?”

“Over there,” I pointed to a section closer to the wall. “There were a few different colors.”

“We’ll inspect your stash in a bit.” She said, setting their haul on top of ours. “I’m keen to see if they have a set of those I’ll like.”

“Ah, we’re gonna need a shopping cart by the time we’re done at this rate…” Sam facepalmed, chasing after his wife.

“Mom’s a shop-aholic.” Sena clarified. “If she isn’t careful she’ll have as much clothes bagged up as Yuki has in Elias’ car.”

I giggled. “Gosh. Does she still have all that stuff in his car?” It’d been a while since I last saw the horde.

“You wouldn’t believe it.” She rolled her eyes. “We went out to eat the other night after school and it had somehow grown larger. No clue how. One of us accidentally mentioned the possibility of using it as a bed, so we think she’s actually gonna try and turn it into one.”

“Her own little nest…” I whispered. “On brand.”

“Right?”