•••••One Weeks Later•••••

Wall. Where'd that wall come from? Step. Step. Whoa, the room is spinning. Bree stood in front of her capsule, holding her head as she tried to steady the room. Chase looked at her funny as he walked past her. Even Adam was aware of how weird she was acting. She took a deep breath and another step, but swayed and lost her balance. Luckily, Adam was there to catch her before she fell.

"Okay, what is going on with you?" Chase demanded. Adam took a small step back with his hands holding her waist to steady her. She silently thanked him. "You've been acting like this for two days."

"Maybe I'm sick," Bree suggested, faking a cough to prove a point. Chase glared at her, obviously not believing her. Adam noticed for the first time how different shook look. Her clothes were baggy on her and she was noticeably skinnier. For the first time in his life, he actually remembered something he learned in school.

"Have you been eating lately?" he asked, stepping around to look at her.

Bree scoffed. "Of course, Adam."

"Really? 'Cause we just learned in health class about this eating disorder called anorexia and you… You have all the symptoms. Don't think I haven't caught you weighing yourself every night."

"You actually remembered something from school?" Bree asked, shocked.

"You actually paid attention in school?" Chase added, even more shocked. Adam rolled his eyes and gently sat Bree down on a stool.

"Tell the truth," Adam ordered, leaning on his knees so he was eye level with her, "when was the last time you ate?"

"Yesterday, at lunch," Bree admitted.

"You ate only an apple yesterday," Chase said, his eyes widening. "There's no way that apple lasted you the entire rest of the day."

Bree shrugged. "Guess I wasn't that hungry yesterday. Hey, what's anorexia?" Bree's grade didn't cover a health section, so she wasn't aware of the disorders Adam knew about.

"It's an an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat," Chase explained, stepping in front of his sister. "Bree, we're not mad at you or anything like that. Just talk to us."

"We're gonna be late for school," Bree muttered, rising to her feet. She tried to walk away, but Adam grabbed her arm and sat her back down.

"Nobody's going anywhere until you start talking," Adam declared, looking to Chase who nodded in agreement.

"What about Mr. Davenport?" He'll wonder where we are." Adam smirked and walked toward the elevator. His younger siblings watched as he used his heat vision to burn through the elevator panel and blow a fuse.

"Adam!" Chase exclaimed.

"There, now we couldn't leave even if we wanted to." Adam felt proud of himself as he strolled back to his siblings. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at his sister. "Now you have no choice. Start talking, Bree."

So she recited everything she had told Tasha a week earlier, leaving out the part where Tyler told her skip meals. We see how well that worked out, she thought bitterly. When she was finished, both brothers looked at each other.

"Bree," Adam began with a sigh.

"You don't have to say anything. You're boys, so you'll never get it," Bree muttered, rolling her eyes. Ugh, even rolling her eyes gave her a headache. Her body felt so weak she was amazed she could still hold her head up. Her stomach growled, angry at her for letting it starve for so long.

"You're right, we don't get it. We don't get how you could be dumb enough-" Chase began, but Adam quickly cut him off.

"Chase!" Adam exclaimed, shoving his shoulder roughly.

"Sorry, I'm sorry! I can't handle these… These girly emotions. I'm not good with girly emotions!" Chase rubbed his temples. Adam sighed, rolled his eyes, and shook his head.

"I always knew you were a robot, Chasey. But anyways, Bree, you don't have to go to extreme measures like this to look good in a dress. Why not just look for another dress?"

"Because we have to be the hottest couple there," Bree explained. "He's the captain of the wrestling team, I'm the bionic girl-"

"Whoa, whoa, what does your bionics have to do with anything?" Chase demanded. Bree looked at her hands.

"He said they're what makes me unique," she said quietly. Chase groaned.

"Oh my gosh, Bree," he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Adam glared at him over his shoulder.

"Chase, that's enough. If you can't say anything helpful, then go stand over there." Adam waved his hand away from them. Chase grumbled under his breath but otherwise kept his mouth shut.

"You guys don't get it. You don't get the expectations and the pressure put on girls. We have to look a certain way, act a certain way, dress a certain way, be skinny, be fit. We have to show skin to avoid being a prude but if we show too much we're a slut. We have to work out to avoid being lazy but if we work out too much it's weird because girls with abs are gross. Society is constantly telling us what we should and shouldn't be in order to be liked in this stupid world."

Adam frowned. "Who said you have to follow society's rules?"

"Me!" Bree exclaimed. "The girl who's been stuck in a basement her whole life! The one who probably looked really strange attending school for the first time! The one who is just learning to fit in! I have too much to lose to risk being different, Adam."

Adam didn't know what to say. He looked at his feet, then over at Chase. "Can you fix that elevator?" Chase was stunned into silence by Bree's words, as well. It took him a moment to process what Adam had said. He nodded and went to work on the door.

"I realize now listening to Tyler was a stupid mistake," Bree said quietly, drawing Adam's attention back to her. "He's just using me for my bionics to make him the coolest guy there. I get it. I wish I could somehow get him back, but I can't. I ruined myself just to please his expectations. I guess he won."

"Not necessarily," Adam argued, an idea forming in his head. "I wonder how safe it'd be for you to binge eat the rest of the week."

"Normally, it wouldn't be a good idea," Chase said, using his bionic hearing to eavesdrop. "Most anorexia cases try to recover by binge eating to try and gain back their way, and continue to binge without stopping. But since she's only been doing this a week," he pressed a button and the elevator dinged, "I think she'll be okay. What are you planning?"

"Yeah, what are you planning?" Bree asked curiously.

Adam pulled her to her feet. "There's only a week until the pageant, right? Well, I want you back to your normal weight. Get a dress you feel comfortable in and one of us will be your escort."

Chase smirked, "I get it now. Oh, but don't tell him! Make it a quick, last minute thing so he'll be dateless."

Bree sighed. "He'll get mad and never speak to me again."

Adam snorted, "So? Let him get mad. You'll look so much better than him."

"But what if I don't get back to my normal weight by then?"

Chase shrugged. "I guarantee you'll still look better than him. But what's the plan for today? I mean, are we going to school or faking sickness?"

"I'm good with the sickness," Bree said with a smile. Chase agreed.

"Sounds like a plan. Ooh, we can even dot our faces with red so it looks like we have the chicken pox!" Adam offered eagerly.

"No we can't because we already did that once when we were younger and didn't want to train, remember?" Bree asked.

"Yeah, and you can't have chicken pox twice in your life," Chase added.

"Hm. Okay, then what about this?" Adam shot Chase's arm with a laser.

"Ow! Adam, what the heck?!"

"We can say we have this rare rash," Adam explained, shooting himself, "that's very contagious and disappears in a day."

"Like he'll ever believe that."

"What if I say the rash makes you look like this?" Bree offered, gesturing to herself.

Chase shook his head. "Then he'd probably get worried and call an ambulance if he believes us, so let's not say that."

"Or I could just break the elevator again," Adam suggested with a shrug.

"I second that," Bree decided. Chase shrugged and gestured toward the doors, as if saying 'Have at it.' Adam bit his lip and grinned happily. Chase and Bree laughed at him.