I'm afraid that the beginning of the end has approached itself on the heels of my utter bliss.
AKA, I spotted Lila talking to Arnold today at his locker after lunch and from the way they were talking and looking at each other... I fear that she has asked Arnold to consider going to the dance with her.
And I KNOW what you're thinking, okay? They could have been talking about ANYTHING, right? Homework, or a certain class or even just something she saw in the hallway but I'm at least 87% certain that NONE of those topics were being discussed.
And HOW might I know that, you ask? Have you simply ASKED him what the two of them were discussing? Well DOI I asked him! That's part of the problem!
I suppose I should explain this a bit more to give you a picture, huh Journal?
There I was, standing at my locker per usual and talking with Pheebs about what Miriam has been up to these days:
"I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad she's going to those meetings or whatever if they're helping... it's just kind of weird to see how she is these days," I told her as I reached inside the locker to pull out a few textbooks so I wouldn't have to return to my locker in between classes. Without much care, I tossed the books into the open mouth of my backpack, pulled the zippers together toward the middle of the zipper's railway and swung the strap over my shoulder. Since I was carrying the books for the rest of my classes, I knew that the minutes I wouldn't be spending at my locker could be spent with Arnold at his. It was all part of my brilliant plan to talk and spend more time with Arnold, even if it only added up to microscopic time at most.
"You aren't happy with her recent transition away from the bottle?" Phoebe questioned while hugging the books for her next class tightly against her chest with both of her short arms.
"Nah, that's not it," the answer huffed out of me and I hoped Phoebe didn't take it the wrong way. Although, as I looked at her from the corner of my eye I could tell that she hadn't even thought twice about it.
"Than what is it that's bothering you in regards to her?" She posed and I sighed while staring blankly ahead of myself to the back wall of my locker as it stared back at me.
My tongue remained tied as I attempted stringing my thoughts together into phrase befitting an explanation of my feelings. After a moment, I finally voiced what I'd been pondering on saying. "I guess... I guess it just isn't what I expected for when she got sober. She's kind of not acting how I thought she would."
Phoebe tilted her head slightly while keeping her eyes locked on me as I remained staring at the back of my locker. "How exactly did you anticipate her to act?"
Shaking my head, I blinked myself back to reality so I could answer my best friend's question. "She's just DIFFERENT, okay?" I slammed my locker door in irritation before spinning around to rest my body weight onto the cool metal behind me.
While crossing my arms over my chest loosely I raised my leg up to bend it at the knee and hold the back of my foot against the lower portion of my locker. I hoped that this stance would look as casual and laid-back as I was trying to make it however, Pheebs seemed to see right through me. After eyeing me suspiciously, I eventually gave in to Phoebe's glare with a release of the deep breath I'd been holding in my lungs.
At the signal of my lapse in stubborn attitude, I dropped my head back to stare up at the fluorescence of the light bulbs shining down on me. Minimally, I started banging my head on the locker and slowly closed my eyes as I began telling Phoebe the mess of thoughts which were tangled up in a ball inside of me.
"You remember when she took over Bob's beepers for a while back in like, fourth grade?" I finally asked while opening one eyes to look at Phoebe who simply nodded her head with a look of interest finely etched on her face.
"Why, yes of course, Helga."
"Well..." I started while glancing over hesitantly with both eyes to where her short stature stood. "That was the last time she stopped drinking- at least that I can remember. And during that time, at least during the beginning, it was practically perfect."
"Perfect how?" Phoebe pushed me to answer and I fought back the urge to roll my eyes while telling her in a snide voice to 'hold onto her horses' and that I was 'getting there, Criminy!' Instead, I took in a breath of shaky air and continued with where I was headed in terms of the story I'd been telling.
"You know," I retorted with heavy sarcasm. "She started packing all my lunches and paying tons of attention to me and being like an all-around-good-example-of-a-mom... well, at least for a WHILE she acted like that, anyway. I'm sure you can remember what all went down with THAT, though."
"Is it safe to assume then, that you were hoping with this new step towards sobriety your mother would return to the behavior she exhibited during her time filling in for your father?"
Despite her long-winded question, I knew she had figured out just what I'd been trying to say without voicing outright. Once again giving up on keeping my angry walls up to prevent others from peeking inside at my feelings, I simply shrugged my shoulders. "I mean, I GUESS, yeah."
"Hmm..." Pheebs hummed out while looking upwards as if a magical answer she could say to me was floating in big letters in the air above her. Just then, a light bulb seemed to click on in her mind and I raised a brow while awaiting her tell me what she'd just thought.
"Perhaps," she began as I watched her with curiosity at the direction she was going to go with this, "perhaps she's simply in another mindset when it comes to her reasons for starting the process of living a sober lifestyle."
Scoffing at Phoebe's theory, I continued to think about what she'd just said and asked in a softer voice: "What are you TALKING about?"
Without missing a beat, Phoebe answered me as though she'd been waiting for me to ask that very question. "You see, the last time your mother chose to adapt to sober living, her motives were different."
"Her motives," I deadpanned.
"Why yes, Helga, her motives," she repeated without sensing my skepticism. "Previously she approached sobriety with the realization that it would help her work more efficiently and with the addition of confidence she felt, the desire to turn to alcohol probably dissipated."
"Okay..." I dragged out the word though Phoebe didn't appear to notice as she just continued without pause.
"However, this new approach of sobriety appears to not be due to the necessity of adapting, but rather by the urge to be sober for her own sake and her personal needs for the first time."
Phoebe had a good point but I wasn't about to admit that to her. Sure, Miriam had different reasons for going without the bottle this time around, but how would that change her compared to the LAST time she quit drinking?
"What are you GETTING at exactly, Pheebs?" Narrowing my eyes in her direction, I frowned and added my own pessimistic cynicism to the end of my question. "Are you trying to say that Miriam wants nothing to do with me all because THIS time there just-so-happens to be nothing at stake? That is, besides the influence on my confidence through her incredible parenting?"
"Certainly not," she immediately defended herself while shaking her head. "I'm merely suggesting that since the circumstances are different, that may offer a reason as to why she isn't acting as she had previously."
I shrugged my shoulders carelessly, "Sure, I guess that makes sense. Doesn't mean it doesn't SUCK just as bad."
Phoebe reached up to set a hand lightly on my shoulder. "Of course it doesn't. The only solace psychological analyzing offers is understanding behind ones behavior."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I waved her off and started making my way towards my next class by walking down the hallway. "I'll see ya later, Pheebs."
"Au revoir, Helga!" I heard her call out to me from where she remained standing as I continued on my plight towards next period.
As I wandered along down the hall, my eye caught a glance of the time on the digital clock in it's bright red display. The time stopped me in my tracks as I realized the warning bell hadn't even rung yet and an idea hatched in my brain.
I could see Arnold for the remainder of our transition time. Sure, it was only a few minutes to spend some extra time together, but Arnold's locker was practically outside the door of my next hour's class so it'd be foolish NOT to stop by and say hello, right?
With my mind made up, I turned the corner of the hallway in pursuit of Arnold's locker while holding onto the hope he would still be there gathering his books. That's when it happened, though. THAT's when I saw her standing there and talking to my beloved; Lila Sawyer was out to actively destroy my happiness and she was doing it right in front of me!
Quickly, I ran to hide behind a row of lockers that were free-standing in the middle of the hallway (they're the lucky people's lockers) and I peeked my head out to watch whatever was taking place between Arnold and Lila.
Since I was a considerable distance away from the two, it wasn't like I could hear anything in particular that they were saying, but from the looks of it their conversation seemed to be pretty serious. Lila looked at Arnold with those big, fake doe eyes and clasped her hands up at her chest while giving some apparent sob story to him. Naturally, being as Arnold is denser than the world's heaviest rock, he appeared to take whatever she'd said at face value.
My eyes widened as I watched Arnold reach up to rub at the back of his neck like I knew he did when he was guilty of something or anxious or even on the rare occasion that it was BOTH at the same time.
"What could they be talking about..." I whispered to myself while keeping my attention fixated on Lila and MY boyfriend.
After a moment of what looked like silent contemplation about whatever Lila had asked him, Arnold looked around himself as if to make sure that nobody was within earshot of what they were talking about or whatever it is he was about to say. Once seeing that the coast was clear, Arnold nodded his head while closing his locker.
"Huh?" I breathed out in confusion before watching as Lila hopped up and down in excitement before wrapping her arms around him in an enthusiastic hug.
"Alright- THAT'S it!" I said loudly as I emerged from behind the lockers that were shielding me from view and I quickly stalked my way over to where Lila had her toothpick arms ensnared around Arnold.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, HEY!" the words came out fast and for a split second I could swear Big Bob had taken over my body to speak through me. "Just what do you think YOU'RE doing?"
Lila released Arnold and took a step back as the warning bell resounded through the hallways. The three of us stood quietly with various expressions lining our face. Arnold looked confused while Lila looked fearful as she RIGHTFULLY should be. And me? Well, I was FURIOUS which I'm sure was evident on my own face. Three dings as if for each one of us rang out to tell us students that class would be starting in 2 minutes.
Despite the warning of the bell however, we remained still; completely imprisoned by shock. The moment the bell ceased to ring, I crossed my arms over my chest and glared in Lila's direction.
"You have an explanation for what you were doing with Arnold, here?" I demanded but Lila simply shared a look with Arnold before turning to face me head-on.
"Gosh Helga. I'm certain that all I was doing was-"
Impatience, or rather my sharp words, cut her off before she could finish her explanation. "All you were doing was WHAT? What exactly WAS it that you were doing? Hmm?"
Arnold looked at me with a blank expression. "Helga..." he said in a deadpan that harbored a mild case of exasperation. "She was about to tell you, just... calm down and give her a chance to explain."
Huffing out an irritated sigh, I gestured for her to go on. "Well. Go ahead."
Lila cleared her throat to try once more at telling me what she was up to. "Arnold and I were just talking and he—he, he said he would do something for me. I'm ever so sure that's all there was to it."
"Oh? You're just EVER SO sure, huh?" I mocked her even though her reasoning had peeked my curiosity and my anger soon took a backseat as I coaxed her to elaborate. "And uh... and what was it that Arnold agreed to do for you?"
It was Arnold's turn to look at Lila who sent it back with a fearful expression lining her face. He quickly broke off the look they were sharing before he faced me and answered my question that had been meant for Lila. "I agreed to..." he looked back at Lila who seemed to mouth the word 'please' to him, but I couldn't be sure that's what she was communicating. "I agreed to help Lila with an assignment."
I raised a brow while keeping my eyes on him. "Oh really, now." It was a statement without even a hint of curiosity in my tone. "For what class?"
They looked at each other again before Lila chirped out an answer for him. "Science- it's a science project."
"Right, right," Arnold quickly agreed and the scowl on my face slowly began to morph into one of hurt and betrayal.
"Really, Arnold?" I asked in a somber voice, "You're going to stick to this lie, huh? For HER?" By the way he looked at me, I was sure he realized how sincerely I was asking him. Despite how angry I'd been at first, I let the walls down to show Arnold exactly how much his obvious lying had taken a toll on me.
Just then, my science teacher stepped out of his classroom which was a mere few feet away from Arnold's locker. "Miss Pataki," he greeted me with an authoritative voice, "might you be planning to join us for class today?"
"Well DOI," I answered as he nodded his head a couple times before looking to Lila and Arnold.
"Shouldn't you two be getting to your classes? The bell is due to ring any second now," my science teacher reminded them and they nodded their heads.
"I'll see you in Social, Arnold," Lila quickly said before rushing to the opposite side of the 7th grade block. Arnold, oddly enough, remained in place and looked at me sadly.
"Helga," he said in a small voice, "it really is nothing, I promise."
"If it really IS nothing, then WHY do you have to lie to me about it?" I counted and he sighed loudly while casting his eyes downward to his feet.
"I promised I wouldn't tell," he managed but his words meant nothing to me.
"So you're choosing her over me then, huh?" The words were anguish to force out but out they came nonetheless.
Arnold's head snapped up to look back at me, "Helga-" he started, but was cut off in haste by my science teacher.
"I really must insist you head to your next class, Arnold." His words were somehow even more strict-sounding than his last statement and Arnold let out a breath he'd been holding.
"I-I..." the sentence he seemed in desperate wanting to say stuttered out of his mouth.
Holding up a lone hand, I stopped his efforts. "Just go to class, Arnold."
"But Helga, I-"
"Just GO!" I ordered before turning on my heel to stomp passed my teacher who was waiting impatiently and into the classroom.
So yeah, Journal. I left Arnold to twiddle his thumbs in the hallway to think about what he had done. It just hardly seems like him to lie to me of all people. I mean, the kid is and has always been the practical morality-police since I'd met him what felt like a zillion years ago.
But just like the day we met, Arnold's morals which he once enforced so completely seemed just as far away.
What if Arnold is planning to break up with me? What if Lila asked him to the dance and he's going to try and go with BOTH of us? OR... what if he's going to go to the dance with Lila AND break up with me just to embarrass me in front of the entire school at the convenience of an organized school gathering?
Sure- it doesn't seem like something he would do but seeing as we haven't talked since this incident at his locker... I don't know WHAT to think anymore. Guess I'll leave it at that.
Paranoid, confused and hurt,
Helga G. Pataki
Hey Journal.
So for the first time in a really, REALLY long time, I backed out of joining Arnold and his family for dinner and game night. I just feel like it'll be really weird and awkward seeing as Arnold and I still haven't really discussed the whole lying thing with him and Lila. I know I should probably be over it seeing as that ordeal went down days ago, but as hard as I try I just can't seem to brush it all off. As far as I know, Lila asked Arnold to the dance, he said yes and is planning to break up with me ANYWAY, so why should I bother?
I guess I don't really have much else to say... I just figured I should write something since I've been feeling so crappy lately.
Whatever,
Helga G. Pataki.
Exciting news, Journal!
I've come up with a foolproof plan on finding out just what it was Arnold and Lila were talking about! Okay, so it isn't really FOOLPROOF, but it's a pretty decent plan and I'm fairly confident I can make it work.
You see, today our gym teacher informed us that tomorrow we'll be paired off to practice for a few of our upcoming fitness tests that the school requires us to take for no apparent reason. Like, SERIOUSLY, what exactly is my doing the sit and reach or a bunch of sit-ups in a minute going to prove to the powers that be?
Anyway, that's not the point. The POINT is, I'm going to connive my being Lila's partner into fruition. You read that right- I'm going to willingly wiggle up to Little Miss Perfect so I can be her partner and trick her into telling me all about her 'innocent' little conversation with Arnold.
I just have no other choice. Whatever it is they talked about (COUGH going to the dance together COUGH COUGH) it must have been important enough for Arnold to keep his lips sealed. After all, the kid literally near ruined his permanent record all to protect long-nose, pink boy and the lemon pudding connoisseur who I formally refer to as 'Stinko,' so I KNOW if he promised to keep a secret, he'll keep it.
But ME? Why keep this secret, whatever it is, from ME? That is, as I've theorized, unless it is ABOUT me... Whatever. Doesn't matter. I'll get to the bottom of this whether Arnoldo wants to tell me or not.
How you like THEM apples, Hair Boy?
Helga G. Pataki
Welp. So much for FOOLPROOF, Journal. Apparently Lila has grown somewhat of a spine in recent years and wouldn't give a THING up. Getting to be her partner was easy, oddly enough- but getting her to tell me about what it was her and Arnold talked about the other day was another story entirely.
Once we were told to pair up and Lila had agreed to being my partner, our teacher instructed us to cycle through the various stations (each station being timed for five minutes) which were dedicated to a different upcoming fitness test. We were supposed to go through one rotation each one at a time. Naturally, we were expected to keep track of how our partners did at each station, but I had something a little different in mind.
I was going to interrogate Lila Sawyer and I was going to get her to CONFESS. At least that was the PLAN, anyway.
"Would you like to go first, Helga?" Lila offered when we reached the station we'd be starting on.
Hands on my hips, I shook my head with a smile tugging at my lips. "Oh no, why don't YOU go first, Lila?"
"Are-are you certain?" She asked hesitantly and I simply nodded my head calmly.
"Just EVER SO certain," I mocked her just as I had the other day and on so many additional days prior.
"Well... okay I guess," Lila acted suspicious of what I was planning to do to her while she was attempting pull-ups, but I knew that she didn't need to fear me PHYSICALLY... I was just planning to dig into her memory and force out the objectives behind her recent conversation with the resident football-head.
"So Lila," I began the moment she had a grip on the bar she was to pull her chin passed, "how ya been?"
She watched me in confusion while struggling to pull her body weight up by her tiny little cotton-swab arms. "I've...been...fine..." Lila managed to say in between grunts and through her clenched teeth.
"Okay, good, good..." I feigned interest while nodding my head before setting up my brilliant plan to get her to talk. "I haven't been too great, unfortunately. One," I counted the number as she finally was able to reach her chin to the metal bar she was holding tightly onto.
"Why...not...?" She grunted once more as her chin neared the bar yet again.
"Two," I counted out before continuing on without missing a beat. "Well Lila, you see, the other day I saw Arnold who- I'll remind you –is my BOYFRIEND talking to a certain someone by his locker."
Lila kept quiet besides her grunting to pull herself up for another chin-touch to the metal.
Taking her silence as permission to continue, I did just that. "And when I confronted this girl and my BOYFRIEND about what it was they were talking about, do you know what those two did?"
"Helga...I..." Lila gritted her teeth but tried to get the words out while also attempting to get her chin over the bar once more before it was time to move on to the next station.
"Annnnnd three," I counted for her quickly before I went back to the story she knew quite well. "They LIED to me, can you believe that? These two people who are both so well known for their ethics, morals and overall do gooded-ness straight up LIED to my FACE."
I watched as Lila went for a fourth pull-up while keeping her eyes on me in a sort of frenzy. "Oh," I verbally took note of what she was doing. "You're going for a fourth one. Well, good on you, Lila."
Lila remained focused on her physical task rather than responding to me, probably because she wanted to see where I was headed with the story she had lived through firsthand. Realizing that this was the perfect opportunity to demand an answer from Lila, seeing as she was tired from the pull-ups and a prime candidate to attack for the truth, I went in for the kill.
"I guess, what I'm getting at is, well..." I was slowly climbing up the hill of anticipation and primed to strike once she was just centimeters away from her chin reaching the bar yet again. Right before she was about to make her fourth push-up, I upped the ante and practically shouted in an almost guttural growl, "tell me what you two were talking about RIGHT NOW or I'll rip your arms off, put them in a shadow box and hang them up on the gymnasium wall so everyone will know the mistake you made when you messed with Helga G. Pataki."
My threat took Lila by surprise as her arms began to shake like the wobble of freshly made jello and she quickly lost her grip on the bar to fall flat on her butt onto the ground beneath her. Reaching up to rub at her head though she hadn't hit it by any means, she looked at me wildly. "Wh-what? Helga, I'm sure I don't understand-"
The moment the words left her mouth, the shriek of our gym teacher's whistle bounced off the walls of the gymnasium and into our ears. Though I remained unphased by the sudden screech, Lila physically jumped at the noise and looked tiredly up at me where I stood.
Being sure not to show even the remotest of emotion to her, I kept my hands on my hips and began walking to the next station without so much as offering a hand to help my enemy get up off the ground. "Geez, Lila. Get off your butt and c'mon- it's sit and reach time."
A soft sigh escaped her lips and she pushed herself up to follow me in the direction of the sit and reach thing. Not gonna lie, I HATE the sit and reach test and not because I'm bad at it either. Frankly, I just think it's a stupid test that literally serves no purpose. Why does it matter how far I can reach my arms? I have long arms! It isn't like it's HARD or that I have incredible flexibility; I just have freakishly long arms because I've always been pretty tall. For someone like Phoebe though, the sit and reach test isn't too easy so in my opinion, the whole thing is kind of rigged.
None of that really mattered at that moment, however. The only thing that I cared about was distracting Lila just long enough that she'd spill the beans on her mysterious talk with Arnold that I unfortunately witnessed the other day.
Tentatively, after the shock of what I'd said to make her fall from the pull-up bar, Lila sat down by the wooden box and placed her feet against the side closest to her. I glanced down to look at the faded numbers long-ago painted onto the sit and reach box which had a plank of wood jutting out towards Lila for her to reach as far as possible onto. 'Criminy,' I thought to myself as I stared at the numbers that looked up at me, 'how long have they been DOING this test anyway?'
"Helga?" Lila's voice brought me out of my daydream and I turned to look at her from where she sat.
"What?" I nearly spat at her but she seemed unphased by my annoyed tone.
"I know you want me to tell you what Arnold and I were talking about the other day," her words were soft and almost ashamed, though I could care less considering that in my opinion, she owed me some kind of explanation.
"Wow," I mused while crossing my arms loosely, "what an astute observation there, Lila. Crazy how you picked up on something that, until now, I had been so subtle about." The sarcasm in my voice was heavy but Lila kept her eyes focused on me despite the glare she was receiving from my end of the eye-contact.
"Oh Helga," she began with a slight chuckle in her voice which threw me off guard momentarily, "I'm just ever so sure that you have nothing to worry about. You can trust me."
Raising a brow, I eyed her carefully from where she sat, having still not begun the sit and reach pretest for the station we were currently at. "Trust you, huh? That's something, isn't it? I mean, you wanna fill me in on WHY I should trust you exactly? What have you done to make me trust you?"
Lila furrowed her brows and looked away from me to instead focus on her hands which were laying delicately on her lap. "You do remember that I never told your secret about Arnold, don't you?"
My smug expression drooped to one of total shock that I'd set myself up for that answer entirely. "Yeah well," I tried to cover, "that was YEARS ago and how do I know that you aren't trying to get back at me with whatever it is the two of you talked about, huh?"
This seemed to confuse the girl as she tilted her head to one side in an obvious lack of understanding. "What on Earth would I want to get back at you for?"
"Oh Lila, don't be STUPID. You know."
She squinted her eyes at me, the confusion growing within her at my assumption. "Helga, I'm certain I don't know what you're talking about..."
"C'mon, Sawyer," I was growing impatient with her lack of recognition at what I knew was her motive. "This is about the Poo Poo Princess, isn't it?"
The words threw Lila into a sort of panic as she reached her hands up and shook them at me in an effort to get me to stop speaking. While looking over her shoulder to be sure nobody heard what I'd brought up, she shushed me before whispering, "Please... PLEASE Helga, keep your voice down? People only just stopped calling me that..."
"What, the Poo Poo Princess?" I egged her on by repeating the nickname I'd created for her, but this time a little louder than before.
Lila's eyes grew wider at my repetition of the name and she pushed herself up to stand facing me. "Helga, I beg of you," she pleaded with her hands holding one another in front of her chest. "I don't want middle school to be filled with that-that... reminder of those dark times."
She was looking away from me now; her eyes fixated somewhere passed me and what seemed miles and miles away from where we were. Scoffing without much care, I offered up an attempt to calm her down so I could keep trying to pick away at what I was after: her interaction with the football-head.
"Get real, Lila. That nickname wasn't even BAD, okay? It was funny. Can't you take a joke?" The words came out harsher than I'd anticipated, but Lila took them in and returned her eyes to make contact with mine once more.
"Maybe for you it was funny but for me..." she paused as if to recall the memories she was thinking of before speaking again. "I can take a joke, Helga, only- that nickname was just ever so hurtful."
As if he were living in my brain, I could hear the ever-righteous, moral-compass-of-a-human-being Arnold speaking up to remind me that I'd given up the bullying gig back when we first got together after San Lorenzo. Even though the imaginary Arnold made some good points, I shook my head in an effort to shut him up because, after all, this was all about his very UNMORAL choice to LIE to me and Lila was no better.
I wasn't about to apologize to HER when she should be apologizing to ME and fessing up to whatever crap she had been trying to pull with Arnold.
So as we went through each station, I kept trying and trying to get Lila to tell me what had happened in any way I knew possible. I tried to catch her off guard by asking rapid and easy questions in hopes that when I asked the question I REALLY wanted the answer to, she'd slip up and tell me. I tried to be sugary-sweet nice in an effort to gain her trust but ultimately, no matter WHAT stunt I tried to pull, Lila never gave anything away.
It was like she knew every trick in the book before I could even TRY it. I gotta hand it to her- she's good. But she'll mess up one day and on that day I will be there to catch her fair and square.
Anyway, I'd better get working on my homework. Maybe I'll call Arnold and see what he's up to and I can try again to get his mysterious Lila-related secret out of him.
Criminy, why is life so freakin' hard?!
Helga G. Pataki
I know i probably shouldn't apologize for the long chapter, but I'm gonna do it anyway cause I've really been trying to keep chapters anywhere from 4000-5000 words but this one got a little wordy cause I had a lot to address this chapter.
Either way, please be sure to leave me a review so i know what you thought of this chapter, what you anticipate will happen in upcoming chapters and/or what you think about this story as a whole. I appreciate any and all feedback!
Thanks for sticking around! I'll see you at the next chapter!
xo
Polkahotness