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Chapter 9:

Soto jumped as he turned, to see an older female looking down on them. She had her hair up in a loose bun (light brown, Shira noted, like Diego's, though it lacked the darker highlights). Everything about her, the strict way she held herself and her cool expression made her nearly opposite to Diego, who usually held himself in a casual joking manner. However, one similarity that they shared was the gracefulness. Shira had seen Diego move around before, and though one would see it as clumsy, there was a sort of gracefulness in the way that he moved around, and Diana carried herself the same way.

However, one glaringly obvious difference was their eye colour.

While Diego had bright green eyes that gleamed with mischief whenever he grinned, and darkened dangerously every time he glared at someone, Diana had bright blue eyes that held stress and worry right now.

"And I believe he is awake now." Diana spoke, and entered the room before the others could get a better look at her. They turned to the window, where Diego was now staring blankly at the wall in front of him, not seeming to even have registered Diana's presence.

And then Diana closed the curtains.

"What do you think is up with Diego?" Sid asked. The incident had been yesterday. Today, all were walking together - a rare occurrence, going over to pick up Shira, at Ellie's strict insistence. Manny shrugged, still not exactly on conversation level with Diego yet. Ellie sighed.

"I hope he'll be ok."

Manny shrugged. "He's survived worst."

Ellie frowned. "How do you know that?" She reprimanded. At least Manny had the decency to look sheepish. He shrugged, and looked up. They were reaching Shira's place. Shira looked up from where she was going out of her house, and looked startled at seeing the group there.

"What do you want?" She asked gruffly.

Ellie shrugged. "We're walking to school, and we're seeing if you want to join us."

"I don't have a choice, do I?" Shira asked in exasperation.

"Nope." Ellie shook her head. A ghost of a smile flickered across Shira's face, before it was gone as she started walking with them. Eddie and Crash ran around them, laughing all the while as the group walked up the pavement, playing on the pavement and the road.

Suddenly, Shira's head snapped up. "Get out of the way!" Both looked up startled, and Ellie caught the warning in time, pulling everyone away from the road just as a car zoomed by, in the wrong direction, and purposely crashing hard into another car. The small group froze in astonishment that what had just happened.

"Oh my god. What the hell just happened?" Eddie asked in a small voice. Ellie blinked, while Shira looked down, frowning.

"We should get to school. Like, now."

Listening to her, they ran the rest of the way to school.

The next days, rumours about Diego and his sister were spreading rapidly around the school, and also about his collapse. Apparently, they had been arguing rather loudly, and the nurse herself had to go in there and kick Diana out, because she was, apparently, 'disrupting the patient's recovery process'.

It was unknown what they were arguing about, though.

As Diego walked into the room, alone for once, and took his seat, silence fell upon the students in the room. He sat down and opened a book, not seeming to notice the silence that fell when he had entered, which greatly contrasted the difference as to before he had entered: Loud and boisterous.

Shira entered the classroom, having had to run to her locker to get something when they arrived, and took the seat next to him, taking out her notebook and beginning to scrawl something in it.

Ellie frowned. Both seemed to act as if nothing had happened, and from what she had seen, Shira had definitely been affected. But then, as the teacher walked in, she opened up her diary. Better not to think about it now. What was in Diego's family and his and Shira's relationship was entirely their business, and she had no right to think about it.

It was safer that way.

During Music class, Diego had remained silent and distant, only answering when spoken to. It was like all the way back to square one, although he did grin weakly once as Sid tripped over a folder strewn on the floor and bumped his head on a stand: nothing too serious to worry about constantly. And the fact that Sid had laughed along showed how harmless the act was.

Diego kept silent even as PE rolled around, though he normally would be chatting eagerly with his friends. Soto seemed worried, casting fleeting barely noticeable glances at Diego, which you would only notice if you were actually looking for it.

Shira was the only one that he seemed to tolerate for the day.

Ellie supposed that after suffering a panic attack in front of the whole school, he had a right to be as withdrawn as this, but one thing that she couldn't erase from her memory whenever she thought of the panic attack was the gleeful look in Manny's eyes as Diego collapsed and was hauled past him.

That disturbed her.

Manny had shown hate, and even aggression, towards Diego at the beginning, but collapsing just like that, in that condition shouldn't make him that happy. She briefly wondered if there was something in the picture that she was missing, but shook her head mentally.

Better not.

And so she smiled as she passed Diego.