Sorry I Couldn't be Better 16- Ten Second Photos

I have no excuse for why this took so long, inspiration was at a zero and the last week of school was hectic (on holidays now!) *gets down on my knees* PLEASE FORGIVE ME!

But on a brighter side, it was my birthday! I'm having a cosplay party (Saturday) and I got a Toshiro plusy from my siblings (massive Bleach fan) but my other stuff is still coming from overseas.

Also it's mental illness week so I would just like to say I support everyone out there who suffers from a mental illness, I can promise that it can get better. I'm here for you!

Thanks go out to

Dwmalove: Sorry for the confusion
Guest 1: Yes he does have the stripes, I think I've mentioned them before but maybe not. Sorry for the confusion
sabrina bina: I can't tell you that but you'll find out soon. The rant was fine, my teacher's really just a passionate person who never stops to think for a second. You'd think she'd get the clue will all the counselling sessions I was going too. *shrugs* Ms Oblivious obviously
Phantom wish: Aww thanks for liking the song. All will be revealed soon (I keep saying that) Your review did make my day, all reviews do. Thank you so much for your support
Guest 2: Thank you, the ambulance person will be revealed soon!
Sol's Darkness: I hope that's not bad
Guest 3: Wow thank you so, so much for your review! I really like Soul too, more than Maka but I felt if I made my favourite characters (Soul and Kid) the main characters then I would focus on them and ignore everyone else
Person: Oh wow, I hope that's not bad (I kinda see it as flattering…is that rude?)
Mjus: Wow you're lucky. I was planning to update last night but decided to write an extra-long chapter as an apology so your review did make it into this one. And it's totally fine to forget, I do it all the time. Depression is different for everyone. I often get told by people, 'hey you can't be depressed. You're too happy.' I act happy. I'm glad I really presented my illness and all who suffer from it too in an accurate way. I'm sorry stuff is so confusing, it'll make sense I promise. And a massive spider is lurking outside my house. I think it's pressing for an invite inside.

AND TO ALL FOLLOWERS AND FAVOURITERS! I LOVE YOU ALL! ROCK ON!

Disclaimer: I have like, no idea what to do for a disclaimer today other than the typical don't own it. Gosh darn it *runs away to read Blood of Olympus*


Maka frowned at her lunch, scrutinizing it carefully. It wasn't like there was anything wrong with the lunch, she just needed something to focus on and her lunch was the victim. Around her, voices blended together as everyone in the dining hall voiced their opinions, interests and thoughts to each other.

After lunch, she and Kid would be attending team building exercises with floor five. She wasn't sure who else would be but Marie had told her that she and Kid couldn't go outside (half of the class would be outside with floor three) for safety reasons. After all, they'd both lost the plot a couple of days ago (BlackStar's words) and apparently going outside would worsen them.

Well the therapists were meant to be the experts here.

To say she was looking forward to the team building exercises was a lie. She didn't know floor five but judging by the floor number, they were going to be older than her and it would be really awkward. The people would be aging from two to four years older than her. And would their floor be splitting up like hers was? Were they just a small group?

"Kid," Maka turned to the symmetry obsessed boy who was seated next to her, carefully eating his food so that the pattern on his plate remained symmetrical. "Do you know where the team building exercises are being held? Are they on our floor or floor five?" Kid swallowed his food and turned to her, absently handing Patty his apple because she was yet again constructing a tower, this time with oranges mixed in.

"I'm not sure," he said thoughtfully, rubbing at his wrist. "They'll probably tell us when they sort us into groups in about ten minutes." He paused to frown at Maka's hair and she sighed, letting him fix them into something more suitable to his taste.

"Do any of you know anyone on floor five?" Maka asked, addressing the whole table now that Kid had gone back to his food. The whole group was together at lunch today, no one had broken off to sit alone or with other people.

"N-no," Tsubaki stuttered. BlackStar nodded his agreement and then went back to flicking mashed potato at Ox whose table was close to theirs.

"I don't either." Patty chirped. "But I heard Marie talking about someone called Mifune once."

"I've heard him mentioned too." Liz nodded. "But that's all."

"Nup," Soul said shortly. He'd been looking grumpy ever since music and Kid kept shooting him glances.

"I know someone," Kid said slowly. "But we won't meet him, he's stuck in solitude twenty four/seven." His tone said that it was something he didn't want to talk about so everyone went back to their food or the conversations they'd been having before Maka had interrupted.

Poor little Maka, scared of big kids

Oh great, the voice was back. Maka had been kind of hoping it had decided to leave her alone, that like always, she was too much of a nuisance to bother with. Obviously the voice didn't see it like that. Well that was ironic. The one thing/person/whatever the voice called itself that Maka wanted to leave her alone was the one that stuck around. Yay for her.

Go away

You can't boss me around. This is my home

Why can't you move out?

I was born with you. I'll die with you

That's grim

That's my nature. I'm only trying to help you

Well your help sucks

Poor, poor little Maka

No

Afraid of disappearing, fading in others eyes

S-stop it

A stutter huh? Am I getting to you?

No…

Hesitant little child. You always were

You don't know me!

Really Maka, I thought we were past this. I am you. I am the truth that you need to accept

"Maka are you finished?" Liz's exasperated voice broke through. "They're splitting us up now. Pay attention." Maka nodded her thanks and looked to the front of the room where Sid and Nygus stood.

"The people going outside will stand on my side of the room," Sid was saying. "And the ones staying inside will go with Nygus." Said nurse gave a little wave.

"Okay Maka, Kid you're with Nygus." Sid jerked a thumb at his colleague. "But you already knew that."

Kid and Maka hurried to get up, walking over to stand near Nygus. Kid had his fingers crossed, obviously hoping for a certain person to join him and Maka.

"Kilik you too." Sid said and the African/American teen trotted over, shooting a look at the Pots who stared back at him, eyes wide. "Crona, Jaqueline, Patty, Luke and Harvar as well. That's the inside group, everyone else with me."

"What?!" Liz exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "You're separating me from Patty? No! I won't let you!"

"Sis please," Patty said levelly, suddenly more mature then her older sister. "It'll be ok."

"No," Liz stamped her foot. "I need to be with you. I need to watch you. I need to know you're safe!"

Maka averted her eyes from the conflict and happened to glance at Kid. The boy's face was pale and drawn and his fists were clenched. He was staring at Soul who when Maka glanced over at, saw he was staring back helplessly. So that's who Kid had wanted to be with him and Maka. Kilik obviously wanted Thunder and Fire. Liz wanted Patty.

This wasn't a coincidence! They were splitting people up on purpose. It was a test, some sort of activity to see if they handle being apart from each other.

Liz obviously did not like it.

"She needs me." She was shouting at Sid. "I'm not leaving her alone."

"Sis please," Patty said again but her voice was different, more angry and fed up. "I don't need you, you need me!"

Silence seemed to fill the room after this, and endless wave that sucked everyone in. No one spoke, they just stared. Maka was in shock, she'd never seen Patty and Liz like this before. Even BlackStar was silent, his eyes shifting nervously from Patty to Liz and then back again. Tsubaki's cheeks were slowly growing red as the silence grew longer. Finally Azusa who had been hanging around at the back of the room spoke up.

"Liz come with me please, everyone else follow your activity leaders." Everyone hastened to obey except for Liz who just kept staring blankly at nothing, lips mouthing the same word over and over again.

"Hurry up Maka," Nygus called. "We need to go upstairs now." So they were going to level five.

Maka shot one last look at Liz before turning and following her group out.

As they walked to the stairs (Nygus didn't see the point of using the elevator for going up one level) everyone remained silent, shooting looks at Patty who was walking casually as if nothing had happened. Maka noticed that her shoulders were tense however and he fingers clenched and unclenched slowly every now and again. The events that had just happened were bothering the younger sister even if she was trying to make it seem like they hadn't.

Maka didn't have time to ponder Liz and Patty's problem for long as they had arrived on the fifth floor and were being ushered by a staff member from said floor to a room labelled 'group sessions.' The room contained a piano off to one side, a dress up box (what?) and a circle of chairs, half of them filled. There were exactly eight people there, one for each of them.

Well that hadn't sounded sinister.

"Okay welcome to the fifth floor!" A perky woman standing next to Nygus sang as Maka and everyone else sat down, trying not to stare at the other people in the room. "My name is Blair and it's nice to meet you all."

"Hi Blair," Maka mumbled with everyone else from her floor, trying not to shudder. She could feel the eyes of the floor five people boring into her. Did they have no respect for others?

"Ok we're going to introduce ourselves." Nygus said calmly, her eyes scanning everyone in the room. "I'll start. My name's Nygus, I'm a nurse and therapist for floor four and I enjoy martial arts. Blair, you can go next."

"Hiya, I'm Blair!" The woman trilled. "I'm a therapist for floor five and I love cats!" The floor five people groaned and Maka got the feeling that this was a regular occurrence. Blair almost seemed crazy enough to be in the hospital herself. The adult's one of course.

The next person to go was a pale teen with longish blonde hair and bandaged knuckles.

"I'm Mifune, I'm eighteen and I like my sword." He said all of this in a flat tone with no expression on his white face. Maka shuddered and prayed that it hadn't been his eyes boring into her at the start of the session.

"That's great Mifune!" Blair didn't seem to notice or care about how emotionless he'd been. "Do you feel like sharing why you're here with floor four?"

"Bulimia," Mifune didn't even seem to care. He just said it. Maka frowned at this.

Why wouldn't you keep things like that private? Did he not care?

"Hi I'm Tezca," the next person spoke and Maka's draw nearly dropped. Neatly placed on the boy's shoulders was a giant teddy bear head that hid whatever he truly looked like. "I…I'm nineteen and I um…don't really know what I like."

"Monkeys," a cool looking boy wearing a beret nodded his head wisely then grinned around at the floor four occupants.

"It's not your turn Eibon." Blair said in a playfully stern tone. She sounded like she was scolding a child.

"Yeah monkeys," Tezca seemed encouraged by Eibon's somewhat mean (it was the tone) suggestion. "And I'm in here for avoidant personality disorder."

"Ok Eibon why don't you go now." Blair carried on, apparently happy to ignore whatever had just happened.

"Ok so I'm Eibon, I'm eighteen and I really just want to find my soul mate." He winked flirtatiously at Maka, Jaqueline and Patty. His eyes kinda swept over Crona and they look more than relieved.

"Right, I'm Justin," a blonde boy who was next to Eibon in the circle broke in calmly though Maka noticed headphones stuffed in his ears from which a quiet noise was erupting from. "I'm seventeen and I like music. I'm here for brief psychotic disorder."

Okay what was it with the floor five people and so causally sharing what had brought them together at DWMA hospital? Did they have no self-respect? Did they not care that complete strangers were basically finding out their major flaw?

The next four people trailed through in clear polite tones. There was a girl (Raven) with something Maka didn't understand (avoiding people…huh?) and some twins who were way too attached to each other. The final person was a green eyed teen who actually didn't share what he had to Maka's surprise. Though he didn't actually share anything. Was he mute? Selective mutism? But now…it was their turn.

"I'm Luke, I'm sixteen and I like black. I have factitious disorder." Well that went without incident. Luke had been one of the odd ones to tell Maka what she had.

"C-Crona," Said teen muttered and refused to say anything else. Nygus said something about being shy and part of their condition and they moved on to Patty without a fuss.

"Hiya everyone I'm Patty!" The teen called exuberantly, waving enthusiastically and smiling round at floor five . "I'm fourteen and I like giraffes! I have bipolar disorder."

"Jacqueline, fifteen, I like light and I have Misophonia." Speaking of Misophonia, Maka still hadn't figured out what it was. But Jacqueline didn't elaborate (why would she) so Maka was still in the dark so to speak.

"Harvar," Said boy said quietly and Maka realised that she'd never really heard him speak at all. He'd only ever said his name during the first group session and she only ever saw him hanging around Ox. So in a way he'd been separated from the person he was dependent on. So had Jacqueline probably since she had been taken from Kim. The two seemed very close. Everyone had been separated except for…

Maka…

Was it because she was new? Would she have gone with the outside group if she hadn't collapsed? Did they feel like they'd taken someone away she relied on?

"Fourteen," Harvar went on just as quietly and Maka was shocked to find out he was younger than her. His height and spiky ponytail gave the appearance of him being at least fifteen, even sixteen.

He didn't speak after that and they moved onto Kilik.

"Hey everyone I'm Kilik. I'm sixteen and I like a lot of things. I'm here for substance abuse, deranging from physical abuse."

Well that was new. Kilik hadn't said that at the introduction group therapy. Just something about his condition happening because his dad was a tosser…

Oh…

Why were they sharing things with floor five? This made no sense to Maka, just like her condition and the voices she heard. She'd always been able to solve problems before, she was top of the class in everything but here she was helpless, floundering in the deep. Why? It didn't make sense.

"I'm Kid," Kid's introduction stopped Maka's train of thought from continuing onwards. "I'm fourteen."

What was it with finding out people were younger than they looked? Kid was fourteen? She'd always assumed he was fifteen like Soul…

Was Soul fifteen?! Ok Maka really needed to start questioning her friends more. She knew next to nothing about them.

"And I like symmetry. I'm here for severe OCD."

And other illnesses…

And then it sunk in.

Kid was done with his introduction. She was sitting next to Kid. Kid had finished. Kid had finished.

KID HAD FINISHED!

She would have to speak. Okay, okay she just had to stay calm and not stutter. Stuttering was a sign of weakness right?

"I'm Maka," Maka got out. "I'm fifteen and I like books. I'm here for…" The words got caught in her throat. She couldn't say it. "I'm here for…"

It wasn't coming out. Her throat felt dry and it stopped the words from escaping.

"I'm here for…"

Say it dammit! Surely it couldn't be that hard. Just one word. One teeny tiny little word that…

that defines you. One big ugly word that says everything everyone will ever need to know about you

"I'm sorry, I can't." She had to. She just couldn't share, just couldn't.

"That's okay Maka," Nygus said kindly though Eibon smirked. Blair shot him a deadly glare, one that surprised Maka. So Blair wasn't as ditzy as she came across to be. She could be quick and stern when she saw fit to be.

"Well it's time for the team building games!" That was a sudden and slightly disturbing change of character. Blair was back to singing and bobbing up and down.

"Please get into groups of four, two from each floor." Nygus instructed as Blair pulled a wad of laminated papers out from under her chair.

Maka and Kid instantly got together, determined to not be separated. If Nygus didn't like that, she sure didn't show it, instead motioning to Patty and Jaqueline, the latter who was pressing her hands to her ears as footsteps and voices (mostly floor five) filled the room.

"Wanna be with us?" A friendly voice asked and Maka turned to see Justin (the music guy) and Mifune (Mr Blank face) standing there. Justin was smiling encouragingly but Mifune was staring blankly at a random place on the wall.

"Sure," Kid did the talking, moving to stand a little closer to the two to show that they were a group. It was funny, Maka hated those words. Form a group. Yet it was the second time she'd heard the words today and both times she'd been accepted into a group without a single complaint. Both times invited in.

Was…was the hospital a better place for her? Was she happier being in than out? The question hurt her head so she tried to focus on who had formed the other groups.

Patty and Jacqueline were standing with Eibon and Tezca, the former winking flirtatiously at the girls. Tezca stood a little to the side, shuffling and staring (at least that what it looked like. It was hard to tell with the mask) around the room.

Kilik and Harvar were with the twins who were ignoring them, staring intently at each other instead. Kilik looked a bit miffed but Harvar looked like he couldn't have cared less, his eyes hidden by his dark glasses.

And Crona was cowering as they stood next to Luke, Raven and the nameless green eyed boy. None of them looked happy about the arrangement and Maka felt sorry for all of them. She knew what it was like, had felt that pain.

And you'll feel it again the moment you leave here. They can fix you but they can't fix what things were like at school. They only care so much…

"Right," Blair stopped the voice from tormenting Maka any further. "We're playing ten second photos. We'll tell you a scene and you have ten seconds to make it with everyone in your group."

There were groans, sighs and one cheer (Patty) in response to this but Blair was oblivious and Nygus just seemed amused.

"Okay first up, a tropical holiday." Blair read from one of her laminated sheets. "Go!"

"Okay I can sunbath," Justin suggested and Maka noticed that whilst his headphones were still embedded in his ears, no music emitted from them.

"I'll be swimming," Kid suggested, posing just like Justin had when he'd made his suggestion.

"I'll be sunbaking too," Mifune said blankly.

"Hurry up Maka," Kid urged as Nygus reached two.

"Uh," Maka quickly posed as a waiter bringing Justin a drink, bent over slightly with her palm open.

"Time's up!" Blair sang as Nygus reached zero. "Let's take a look."

Maka peered over at the other groups who were standing around as randomly as her group probably looked.

Patty's group had her and Eibon playing volley ball whilst Jaqueline sun-baked and Tezca fanned her. Blair congratulated them and they moved onto Kilik's group.

Harvar looked like he was trying to be a tree (which kinda worked) and Kilik was sitting down, leaning against him with a look of relaxation plastered on his face. The twins were swimming or dancing, it was kind of hard to tell.

Crona's group had kinda failed. Crona was curled up in a ball, Raven was standing close to him and Luke was lying down. The nameless boy was swimming. He was the only one doing something that actually resembled a tropical holiday. Maka felt the pang again.

And then it was her group. All eyes were on them now and Maka was glad her ponytails hid her face due to the fact that her head was tilted down.

"Good job. Let's move onto the next photo. This time it's a school."

Ten second photos is something I do in drama (though three seconds) and it's really fun. We always, always do the first Christmas so I'm avoiding that. And wow, my longest chapter.

I'm really emotional right now. I don't know why. It just feels like everything is ending and there's this huge wave drowning me. And that's my happy thought for the day.

Quick question, is Soul Eater your main fandom? Like is there something you prefer?

Ok bye *flies away crying please review but only if you want to because I don't want to tell you what to do*