Annie sighed and grabbed the soapy dish Auggie handed her. She wanted to go somewhere else, or at least not being on kitchen duty.
"Sucks, doesn't it?" Auggie asked, noting her sigh. They both had gotten kitchen duty for misbehaving. She just nodded. Someone behind her ran into her. She turned around to see who it was.
"Sorry," Said the boy. He had spiked brown hair and cute green eyes. She just smiled at him, going back to her dishes.
"What's your name?" He asked, walking away from his partner, making her yell at him. Annie didn't answer, but ignored him, pretending not to be interested.
"It has to be something pretty, for someone as pretty as you." He had a smile. At this Annie rolled her eyes, turned off now. Is that all boys think about, getting a girl to bed?
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Eric . . ." He said breathlessly.
"Bye Eric," She said and went back to the dishes.
"You've got some issues."
"Doesn't everyone?" She threw at him, "Isn't that why everyone is in this place?" He smacked her butt, causing her to jump and drop the cup. Luckily it fell in the water. Annie turned around, ready to punch him, but was stopped by a very strong arm. It was Auggie.
"What are you doing?!" Annie yelled, confused.
"Do you want to get into more trouble?" He let her go. Annie thought a moment, turning back around and continuing with the dishes.
"Fine, your not worth-" Eric stopped when Peter entered.
"Is something wrong? Do I have to get Roger?" He asked Eric.
"She hit me!"
"What?" Annie turned around, staring at him angrily. Then she caught Peter's eye. He looked disapproved.
"I didn't . . . " Annie had a sinking feeling, "He ran into me and tried to hit on me!"
"No, yelling," Peter told her. She held her head down, not wanting to be yelled at or auguring with someone.
"Eric, another day of kitchen duty."
"What! No fair!"
"Life isn't fair.'
'Annie I want you to come with me," He saw her lift her head. She opened her mouth, but closed it. They walked out together. Annie would rather have an extra day in the kitchen than talking to Peter any day.
Peter opened his office door and gestured for her to sit. She stood at first, but sat.
"What happened?"
"I told you! He ran into me and tried to hit on me!"
Peter held up an index finger to quiet her, "Settle down and talk not yell."
Annie took a big breath, "He ran into me and asked for my name saying my name must be pretty since I am. I told him to back off and he hit my a. Boys are pigs that's all they think about."
"Not all, but those are rare to find and watch your language."
"Why'd you take me in here? Its not like we were hitting each other."
"It could have turned that way."
"Can I go now?" Annie asked.
"What do you think?' It was silent for a while.
'You may go, but you've got to behave better.' Annie rolled her eyes.
'For that, you get to stay." Peter stopped her from leaving.
"Can I go, please?"
"Sit," Peter ordered. She went back to the couch. They didn't say anything.
Peter was waiting for her to cool down. Annie started to look sad. Peter knelt next to her. She tensed a bit, but relaxed."Is there something you want to talk about?" Annie shook her head.
"I want to go," Was all she said, not looking directly at him.
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"You may go now, be good," Peter said to her. Annie nodded and departed.
Annie played with her dinner, turning the fork around in the mashed potatoes. She took a small bit and then another. She had come in a little late so almost everyone was already done and gone. Juliette and Auggie where the only ones sitting at the table with her but was in deep conversation and hadn't even seen she was there.
Apparently she was wrong about everyone had already eaten because Scott and Shelby sat down. Shelby ate quietly while Scott said hi to everyone and started chatting with Auggie.
"See you later," Shelby said to Scott, she had eaten all of her food and Scott was taking too long.
Scott stopped talking to Auggie for a moment, "Bye, Shel." Everyone continued to chat. Annie was back to playing with her food again. She had eaten some potatoes and picked at the breading of the sloppy joe. Auggie turned away from Scott to nudge Jules into eating more.
"Bulimia?" Scott asked, to Annie, who hadn't been sure he was talking to her until she looked up. She shook her head.
"Anorexia?"
"I just don't eat, it doesn't mean I think I'm fat," Annie said a little aggressively.
"Oh, so you don't think your fat?"
"Do you think I'm fat?" She asked back.
"No, your as skinny as Queenie, if less."
"Um," Annie mumbled. She continued to play with her food. Peter came up behind them.
"Scott, when your finished, I'd like you to come to my office," Peter told him.
"What I do? I haven't done anything lately," Scott asked.
"Nothing, I just want to see you." Peter almost walked away, but glanced at Annie's tray. Annie thought he was going to say something about her eating, but he didn't.
"If I didn't do anything, why do you want to see me?" Scott was in Peter's office.
"Incase you wanted to talk," Peter explained.
"I know I can come here any time I want to talk, so why'd you take me down here, when I know that?"
"Just incase, but anyway, I wanted to ask you some questions."
"What?"
"How your feeling, such as without drugs now and how you think about life now that you've been given a second chance," Peter said.
"Oh, I guess its great. I don't feel like drugs are taking control over me and that I don't have to take them to forget about everything. Its nice to know that I'm not a freak."
"Good, Scott. I'm proud of what you have accomplished and in no time you should be able to go on with your life." Peter smiled and showed Scott out. He asked him to send Shelby when he saw her.
Annie walked slowly up to Ezra and Auggie; who are talking. She just walked by, knowing that they probably didn't want to talk to her, but feeling very alone, just fell into step with them. She didn't say anything though.
Auggie looked at her, "What?"
"I'll go," She said, saddening. She walked off.
"What's her problem?" Auggie asked Ezra.
"Don't know."
A knock came at the door.
"Come in," Peter called.
"Scott said you wanted me, so here I am. So what I do? I mean I know I haven't done anything, but what do you think I did?" Shelby chatted.
"Sit." She sat and waited while he looked though some paperwork.
"What do you think you did?" Peter finally asked.
Shelby shrugged, "Kiss Scott?"
"You know there's no kissing or any of that kind of stuff, but that's not why I called you down here."
"Than why? Did something happen at home? Is Jess okay?"
"You haven't gotten a phone call from home, no." Shelby waited a few before Peter answered the question.
"I just wanted to know if you want to talk. How you're feeling."
"I'm fine, but why do you want to know?"
"Just wondering," Peter explained. Peter can tell that she was uneasy and that she probably didn't want to talk.
"Oh."
"I don't want to talk about my past life any more, I don't want to think about it!" Shelby yelled at Peter.
"Calm down."
"No, why'd you bring this up, huh?!"
"I didn't, you did, but it's okay now," Peter concluded.
"But you continued on with the conversation!"
"You seemed okay with it. I thought you wanted to open up and talk."
"Well, I'm not!" She stormed out of the office. Peter followed, trying to get her to cool off.
"Shelby, come on back into the office and we'll talk about something else."
"No!" She began to run.
"Shelby!" Peter yelled.
"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea to bring them into the office individually and talk," Peter said to Sophie as they watched Shelby relax in Scott's arms.
"Shelby hasn't learned to go on yet, as some of the others have; her pain is still fresh in her mind."
"Yeah, I knew I should have been careful of what she was saying and about her feelings."
"She'll be fine. She'll learn how to deal with her past and live on."
"Hope your right," Peter said.
"You should continue with the rest and just be careful of what you say to them."
All the boys were fine with the talk and were learning to cope and get better. Daisy had been almost fine, but she wouldn't let Peter know she wasn't. She left without any yelling. Juliette had started crying and told Peter that she had started vomiting again.
"It's fine Jules. You told me and we can now correct the problem," Peter told her, hugging her tightly. Jules nodded.
"Thanks Peter," She said.
"You've come a long way, I won't let you slip back again."
Annie sat silently in the chair infront of Peter's desk. He studied her, noticing that she was confused and scared.
"Do you want to talk, that's why I called for you. So your not in trouble." Annie shook her head.
"How do you feel? You're hand feel sore?"
"A little," She answered, ignoring the first question. Annie had gone to the hospital for further tests on her hand and it came out that she had poor circulation. That was why she couldn't feel much.
"Annie," Peter tried to get her to look up at him. She did, but quickly looked down.
"Are you afraid of something because there's nothing to be afraid of here. You're safe." Annie didn't respond. Peter wanted to find out why she wouldn't look at him, but didn't want it to turn out like Juliette or Shelby's had.
"If you want to talk, I'm here. You may go. Group is in an hour." Annie got up, leaving.
She saw Ezra, Juliette, and Auggie together. Auggie and Jules went off in another direction, leaving Ezra. Annie really did want to talk to someone. She felt alone, because no one would talk to her besides Peter or Sophie. Annie didn't want to feel the pain of someone hurting her either. Before the other two had gone, she had seen Juliette's face in tears. She wondered if she was okay.
"Is she okay?" Annie asked Ezra.
"She'll be fine, she's just a little upset."
"Oh." It fell silent for a moment.
"Aren't you going to ask why she's crying?"
"It's not my business, and I don't want to seem nosy. If I was crying I wouldn't want people asking questions," Annie answered.
"Yeah, you're right." Silence fell again.
"So why did you burn your self?" Ezra asked, interested on learning something about her that may lead to why she was at Horizon.
Annie shrugged, "I told everyone I just did."
"But why did you really? I mean, do you want to go back home or get attention, or did you get mad at someone?"
"I don't know. I just did." Annie was getting a little annoyed, but wondered if she should tell him.
Lying, she said, "I've got to go do something."
She walked away as Ezra watched her. She'll be a hard case for Peter to crack, Ezra thought.
