3-14-05

"Annie, get up! You'll be late for skool!"

Annette cracked open one eyelid. No sunlight at all was coming in through the open window. It must have been five a.m. or earlier. Time to sleep, not for skool.

"ANNIE!"

"Fine, fine, I'm getting up...mon dieu, Nny...it's still dark out..."

"Nny? Annie, wake up. It's Devi, remember? Nny's been in prison for six months."

"What? Oh..." A small sigh. "My apologies, mon amie. I became confused upon waking..."

"It's okay, kid, just get up and eat something."

Annie sat up and stretched. The thin fabric of her nightclothes did little to block out the April chill of early morning. She shivered and fumbled for the warm kimono that lay nearby. Devi handed it to her with a strange look on her face. Annette was probably mistaken, but it might have been fondness.

"Come on, Annie. Toni will be here at six."

"I'm coming..."

Annette smoothed back her hair, amazed as she was every morning with how alarmingly matted her rapidly-lengthening locks could get. The blue streaks she'd put in a month before were starting to fade, giving her the look of having natural highlights. Natural blue highlights. Now THERE was a laugh. Ah well. Stranger things had happened-including Tenna's recent hair dyeing disaster that everyone now referred to as "The Great Pink Incident."

"Kari's making pancakes. That okay with you?"

"What? Oh, yes, of course. I suppose she's going crazy with the vanilla again?"

"Probably. It reeked near the fireplace."

"I wonder if that stuff is flammable?"

"I wouldn't be surprised to hear a large explosion several minutes from now."

Annette smiled. Karasu, too had a few mishaps. They'd just had their hearth reconstructed after "The Cinnamon explosion." Who could have known that stuff was like gunpowder?

Annette caught sight of a painting in the corner farthest from the fireplace. It was a strikingly accurate portrait of Nny, complete with a dagger in his right hand. Devi had managed to capture the skeletal look of the man without making him look ridiculous. That in itself had been a feat. The sight of her adoptive father's portrait gave Annette a small pause, an almost imperceptible faltering in her good mood.

"Hey, Devi?"

"Yeah?"

Annette looked away. "Why didn't it work out between you two?"

"What are you-"

"I mean, you and Nny are perfect for each other-"

"Whoa. Just-just WAIT. What the hell are you talking about? HE TRIED TO KILL ME, IF YOUR MEMORY HAS FAILED YOU.There's NO way in HELL I'd get together with him after what he did-"

"That was YEARS ago, Devi. Can't you just let-"

"No." Devi's scowl softened as she took in Annette's dispirited gaze. "Well, I know we've been getting along better since then, but...I just can't let myself trust him again. I'm still wondering if I should have let you stay with him for so long. I'm sorry, Annie, but you can't just magically make something like that disappear."

"It's called wiping the slate clean. I had to do it when Nny killed my mother. I got over it. Mostly. There's no reason not to start over. Look. I lived with the man for almost four years. Nothing happened to me. Well, I suppose I'm now a horridly warped young woman destined to become a serial killer before I finish hi skool, but I'm alive, aren't I?"

"Annie, it's different for you."

"How? Please do clarify."

"Well, you're a naive, innocent child. I'm a jaded college girl who's seen WAY too much to be very stable. It's much easier for you to forgive someone than it is for me."

"I still don't see the difference."

Devi sighed. Annie just didn't understand. She desperately wanted to patch things up with him. It was the one thing that had kept her up at night for years. But it wasn't that easy. There were defensive walls that had to come down, mindsets that had to be overridden. If Nny wasn't willing to do his part, they could never start over.

And fat chance NNY was going to help.

"Devi?"

Devi smiled sadly. "Go eat your breakfast, Annie."

"Will you think about it at least?"

"I-"

Tenna chose this moment to burst into the room, waving her laptop around wildly.

"Guess what guess what GUESS WHAT?" she shrieked happily, dancing around in a circle in front of Devi.

"You found out how to change the cursor?" guessed Karasu from the fireside.

"You found the other half of your brain on Ebay?" offered Devi.

"You finished your novel?" was Annette's guess.

"NO!" A pause.

"So?" asked Devi, rather annoyed.

"NNY'S COMING BACK! THEY FINALLY KICKED HIM AND KAYAKO OUT OF PRISON!"

Dead silence. Annette felt a slow smile creeping its way to her face, and a familiar warm feeling returned to her chest. Nny was coming home.

"Well, Devi?"

Devi turned to look questioningly at Annette.

"I think it's time to patch things up with your old boyfriend, non?"