THIRD CHAPTER~ I love this one. Dunno why, I just love it :) Enjoy!

Normal. Everything felt normal. There was no breeze but a slight darkness as the weather simulations in the Black Room took place. No rain would pour nor would snow lightly fall on the ground. It was no longer sunny and windy, the smell of salt from the nearby beach already drowned out by the scent of grass and air. Jordan drew in a big breath, inhaling the wonderful and familiar fragrance. Her dainty hands rested comfortably on her lap where she had neatly folded and placed her faded purple sweater. She was finally left alone, at last left to her own devices.

It was rare when Clay left her alone. He kept a constant vigil over her, making sure she wasn't having another manic attack. Jordan, being inexperienced in the health department, didn't know about her condition. It was something that, when Clay explained it in perfect detail, went in one ear and out the other. She wouldn't believe it. She wasn't mentally ill. She probably had those ticks since before she was captured but she never noticed. Sighing, the teenager swept her untied hair away from her face. She had let it down earlier, allowing the dyed locks to enjoy the air.

She wouldn't admit it openly but she was sincerely bored. No longer having the television placed too high on her wall that gave off a bit too much glare whenever she kept her window open or the game system already halfway broken by her older brother to keep her entertained caused her to pluck the blades of grass, inspecting them before throwing them behind her. There were some that occasionally had an interesting dew drop that alternated where it wanted to reside at the slightest tilt of the blade of grass. Jordan would've never noticed that back home in New York where everything was surrounded by skyscrapers and shopping centers. Not once in her short-lived life had she seen so much nature, so much green. The Black Room was really her only way to see the green areas of the world.

"Having fun?"

Clay grinned as Jordan gazed at him with the eyes of a deer in headlights. As always, he was one to show up with flare. Jordan narrowed her eyes and tried to push him. Huffing when he didn't even take a small step back, the teenager crossed her arms. Saying he frustrated her was the understatement of the decade. It was constant teases and strange sayings that Jordan, despite her intelligence, was never able to figure out. He was exactly like her older brother, the person Jordan led herself to believe she despised the most. Smiling with his eyes, Clay ruffled Jordan's hair before taking a seat beside her.

"What do you want?" She asked, annoyance burning in her eyes.

"I can't just sit and take a break from distracting the Animus software?" He answered with his own question, his grin reminding Jordan of a certain cat that showed up mysteriously to Alice in her adventures in Wonderland.

"Yeah, sure."

"What's got your panties in a double knot?"

Jordan's cheeks blazed scarlet along with the tips of her ears. She was never able to hear that saying without embarrassment settling in her mind. She shook her head.

"N-Nothin'."

"Riiight. You've always got somethin' going on in that coconut of yours. What is it now?"

"I told you, nothing."

"Okay, playing hard to get. Lemme guess. Parents? No? Okay. Friends?"

"Shut up."

Clay clapped in his accomplishment. He had hit a nerve and boy was he glad to. Grinning, he placed an arm around his pint sized friend. Jordan gave him a strange look along the lines of "If you don't get yourself away from me, I will bite your face off". He only continued to smirk and hold himself up on his accomplishment pedestal. Jordan sighed.

"Tell me about your problems."

"Weirdo."

"I'm only as weird as you are, kid. Besides, I've told you a billion times. You're dead. You'll never see them again. Ever."

Jordan swallowed the lump in her throat. Her nervous ticks began again, fingers curling. Her lip quivered unnoticeably to the normal human eye but Clay caught it very easily. He patted her back, unsure of what to do.

"Thanks." She said sarcastically, standing up and walking away angrily.

Clay sighed. This kid was unnaturally bi-polar. Perhaps a side-effect of the Mania, perhaps not. Out of sheer curiosity, he followed her. She reached the tall stone at the area she had labeled as her place of concentration. He watched as she struggled to climb to the top, her seat and sat there, cross-legged and hunched over in spite.

"Well then." Clay mumbled. "Be a tiny bitch."

"I heard that!" Jordan's breaking tone broke the temporary silence as she pointing an angry finger toward Clay's direction.

"I'm just statin' the truth. C'mon kid, you're pretty much the only entertainment I got here. Depressive Desmond isn't as much fun as he used to be."

Jordan faced him, arms crossed on her chest. "Maybe if you were nicer-"

"I'm nice to those who are nice to me. Which you're not."

"I can if I wanna."

"Well, why don't we start now?" He cleared his throat and definitely could not believe he was going to say this. "I'm sorry."

Jordan leaped ungracefully from her spot on the tall stone, holding her hand in the other as she reluctantly walked toward him. When she finally reached the spot a foot in front of him, she glared into his teasing eyes. She hugged him. Clay blinked in confusion, raising an eyebrow at her strange behavior.

"I accept your apology,"

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