Chapter 11

The next morning found Anjelica walking through the arch of the school. She walked up to her friends, just like every day. Everyone was excitedly talking about how it was the end of the week and their plans. Her blond friend asked her what she was doing for the weekend.

"Oh, nothing really," she replied. "Really? Then come over to my place tomorrow! I never see you anymore," said her friend. "And I really want to show you this new game I got, it's so cool!"

"Oh, okay then." Anjelica nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a plan," she added.

Her friend tilted her head, wondering if she should have said anything at all. But remembering to act natural, she kept on going with her plans. But the bell rang, and everyone went to their separate classrooms.

Finally, after a few more subjects rolled around, it was lunchtime. The blond, ginger, and Anjelica all headed back towards the courtyard to eat. Everything went along as normal. Nothing was out of the ordinary. And so the rest of the day went.

Entering her science class, Anjelica had been asked the equation to the hypothetical chemistry problem, and while responding, she stared straight ahead, emotionless. The teacher gave her an odd look, but went on ahead with the lesson.

.~.

After school, Anjelica's mother decided to check up on her daughter. She knew she probably would be busy on her laptop, or talking to one of her friends, or maybe even reading a book. The woman knew that her daughter had been starting her homework as soon as she got home, so she should be done with any work by now. Taking a step to open the door, she peered around to see her daughter.

She was sitting at the end of her bed, staring at the opposite wall, hands folded flat on her stomach. She stared blankly. Eyes empty, full of nothing. Nothing showed on her face to give away what she was thinking of. And this frightened the mother. Her daughter's face used to be an open book, revealing every single emotion she felt. But she shook herself; Anjelica is probably just daydreaming, she told herself. No need to worry.

The mother took a deep breath to calm herself down, and opened the door wider, allowing the girl to realize she was there. Anjelica's head turned toward the squeak of the door, and raised her body up into a sitting position. Her mother smiled at her daughter, her own brown eyes trying so hard to twinkle.

"Hey, honey, just checking up on you, if you were done with your homework," she said. The girl nodded. "Yes, I'm done."

"Oh, alright," her mother said. Her curiosity piqued, and she asked how long she's been done. Anjelica replied, "An hour."

The woman's expression was incredulous. She certainly has been able to get more work done now, she thought. "Okay, sweetie. Just wanted to know. Dinner will be ready in about ten minutes." Her mother turned to close the door, then hesitated. Looking back at her daughter, who was watching her disinterestedly, she asked one more question.

"What were you thinking before I came in?" was the question, hoping that the answer would spark some emotion.

"Nothing."

.~.

(Flashback from journal)

Day 33

It's no good, I failed my math test. Thank goodness my parents won't know about this. But it's so hard! I always make stupid little mistakes that cost me a lot. That happens to me a lot, actually. Urgh. And Mom gave me another lecture about what I'm going to do about the future. I'm sorry, but that's something I honestly have no idea about. But I'm getting older, so it's kind of a problem. I'll figure it out eventually... right? I don't know, I'm just a bit scared.

On a brighter note, I found out that the Heart no Kuni manga was actually based on a computer game! Well, technically, it's more like a visual novel. So you can go different 'routes' and pick a character you want to end up with. I love it! It's supposed to be a bit dark but I don't mind it, it makes it interesting. At least what I've seen of it. I have yet to install it, mostly because it's annoying that everything is in Japanese. Which I can't read. Fooey. Well, hopefully the Internet will help me. I would love to do Boris's route. I've figured that even though I really love all of the characters, I've got a soft spot for him.

A couple of my friends managed to snag a boyfriend in the last week. They're adorable together, but I can't help but feel a tad lonely when I see them together. But my time will come. In about 20 years. Or never. I'll just be the old cat lady. Or dog lady. I like dogs more than cats. They're less prone to biting and scratching me. Anyway, I'll write later!

.~.

Now the sun had gone down, and dinner was finished. Anjelica was about to get ready for bed when she remembered she promised her friend to go to her house the next day. Deciding that it was better to ask permission now, she aimed for the door to her parent's bedroom. She gripped the doorknob when she heard her mother say in a hushed voice, "But don't tell anyone."

Anjelica debated on whether she should enter the room; obviously her mom was going to say something that she was not supposed to hear. She took a step backward when the voices from beyond the door became louder.

"I know, I know, it might just be something left over from what happened. It shouldn't take that long-" her father tried to tell his wife, but she interrupted him.

"But that's the problem! It's been almost three weeks! Shouldn't it have been gone by now? And don't you tell me that you haven't noticed either!" her mother's voice started to sound frantic.

"Well, with things like this, it could take a while to settle back to normal, and of course I noticed. I didn't want you to worry," Anjelica's father tried to say while calming down her mother.

Anjelica could hear her mother starting to cry. "Of course I would notice! I'm her mother! I should know these things... I just... I just wish things were back to the way they were. When she had so many different emotions on her face. When she would actually talk to us without us having to ask her something. When she would smile so much I thought her cheeks would freeze that way," she choked back a sob. Her next words were muffled, as if she pressed her face into the shoulder of her husband.

After a few seconds, she sounded more clear. "I want her to be back to the way she was." Her husband murmured quietly, "I know, darling. I do too."

Anjelica stared at the door, unsure what had just happened. She remembered that she probably should not have listened onto their conversation, and walked back to her bedroom.

Closing the door, she quickly crossed her room to her bed and sat down.

Are they unsatisfied with me? she wondered. I need to be more like what they said. Apparently I am so different from before my fainting. I need to fix this. Otherwise, they will not be appeased by my actions. The gears started to churn in her head.

So I must be like what I was before. She searched her memory, trying to find out how she was before. Hm. I was a very happy person, and I made people smile. Procrastinating was something I was really good at; so was creating abstract ideas. I had liked to eat sweets as well. I used to have a smile on my face all the time in public.

Anjelica got up and looked at herself in the floor length mirror. Staring right back at her was a girl, petite in size, with long black hair. Wearing jeans and a tee shirt, she would look comfortable, except for the fact that there was an emotionless face looking right back at her. There was not a frown, not a smile, but just simply no emotion showing on her face.

Smiling... you turn up the sides of your mouth. I know that. She attempted to smile, but it did not look right to her. The girl appeared to be completely fake, and she knew it. Maybe if I show my teeth, it will look better. She let her lips separate, and the result looked more natural. Different emotions... I remember them. There is anger, happiness, and sadness. She paused. She knew the other emotions, and she can remember there were times that she had felt them. But she could not remember how she felt. Glancing over at her laptop, she decided to look up all the emotions to try to imitate them..

.~.

So I wasn't the only one who noticed it, Boris thought as he gazed through the water at the girl. He had heard her parent's conversation as well. And now she knows it too. But what is she doing? Why does she need to look these things up? And practice them? Don't they just come naturally? Is it different from my world? The cat was puzzled.

Or has she been all this way her whole life? No, wait, that can't be right, because her mother said that she used to be really happy and stuff. So, she really isn't this emotionless? What happened?

He thought about the way she acted. She seems like a robot. With no interest in anything. Boris realized that practicing the different emotions are the first thing that she had done without being asked to since he started watching over her. She's almost lifeless.

.~.

Not being able to visit her friend because her family had already made plans for that day gave Anjelica time to practice for a couple of days. She devoted much of her time to that, other than eating and sleeping, so she could be perfect. She searched every nook and cranny of the Internet to find out the infinite amount of ways to express any type of expression. And when Monday rolled around again, her friends got a pleasant surprise.

"Hihi!" the smiling girl said as she bounced up to the group. "How's it going?" she questioned them, putting her hands in her jeans and leaning forward, grinning.

Shock showed on everyone's face, until one brunette recovered her senses and said hello right back. Anjelica twisted around to ask the blond how her weekend went, apologizing for not being able to visit. Gradually, everyone started chattering but the same thing was going through their heads, even though their mouths weren't.

Babbling excitedly about the upcoming carnival, Anjelica practically skipped towards her next class. Most of her friends stared at the back of her, wondering what had changed. They held back, wanting to gossip about the difference in their friend.

"Do you think that she's back to normal?" one asked, caught in between relief and doubt.

The girl wearing a blue shirt shrugged and said, "Maybe. Because maybe she doesn't have the side effect anymore." She thought about it for a couple of seconds, and added, "If that was the issue."

Nodding her head, the brunette said, "Or maybe everything seems more normal now. I don't know, but it's a good thing, right?"

A murmur of assent went through them. They all thought it was nice to see her smiling again, but they wondered what on earth had made her return back to normal. Anjelica stood in the door of her science classroom. She observed everyone hanging about the room, waiting for the bell to ring. She let a smile take place on her face, and she bounded over to her seatmate.

"Hey B! What's up? How was your weekend? Did you go to the beach like you said you would? Or did you have a boring weekend like me? Oh and how's your puppy? Did you name it anything?" B gave a jolt at the outburst of her petite classmate. She wasn't used to her talking so much. Or so fast that her words seemed to run together. It's been almost a month since she heard anything like it.

"Oh, uh, yeah, I actually went to the beach with..." she continued, answering all of the girl's questions. Anjelica was looking at her with eager eyes, soaking up every word she said, and then start to joke around with her.

The rest of Anjelica's classmates glanced at each other. "What happened?" some whispered to each other, while others simply pointed at her and raised their eyebrow. Most shrugged back, saying that they had no idea.

Math class, she had a couple of mistakes on a quiz that raised a couple of eyebrows, but nevertheless seemed like her usual self. She lightly complained about her marks, but listened intently on what she had gotten wrong. Once her teacher was done explaining, she nodded and looked quickly at her paper, and looked back up to the teacher. "Oh, okay, I get it! Thank you!" she let him know with a cheerful smile.

And so the day went on. While eating lunch, Anjelica would gossip with all of the other girls about how one of the art teachers had gained quite a bit of weight, leading them to think that she was pregnant. She would giggle and laugh at their jokes, teasing them about their quirks. She even managed to trip on her way to the trashcan, and gained a couple of scratches on her hands.

"Look guys, I've got battle scars!" she gleefully showed her friends, splaying out her palms like a proud little girl.

The ginger laughed and said, "Good job, Annie. What is your next challenge? Is it flying a plane? Or is it becoming a fashion designer?" The dark haired girl tilted her head and looked up to the sky, as if she was thinking. A grin crept across her face. She eyed the cupcake next to the red head, and slyly inched her way over.

"Hm, I don't know. I think it might be involve eating. Eating something delicious. Maybe like... a cookie... or a pie. Or maybe even a chocolate bar! Or, hey, it might even be... this!" she said, grabbing the cupcake and dashing away with it.

"Hey, I was going to eat that!" the red head exclaimed, clambering out of her spot and trying to catch the girl before she ate it. Anjelica teased her with the sweet, and dodged out of the way each time her friend came too close to her. With this friendly play, anyone looking would have thought that Anjelica was having the time of her life.

But no one noticed that even when she smiled, it didn't quite reach her eyes.

I suck at keeping up my fanfics. I should just ban myself from them. Also, sucky chapter is sucky and also filler but also plotwise important. But honestly, BLESS YOUR HEARTS FOR STILL FOLLOWING & REVIEWING. I've got about 2-3 more chapters written, and then I really have to buckle down on finishing this story (because I will!) Also, next chapter should be up within the week with pretty soon with only the Wonderland residents (rejoice!)