Alice is in desperate need of company.

"Who are you?", the older girl asked. Looking at Alice like she expected her to have brought food with her. Which was odd, because Alice knew she was way too young to be working at the base.

"I'm Alice", Alice told her.

The other girl scowled a little, then suddenly her eyebrows shot up in realization.

"Oh! Of course you are", she said.
"The little girl Warner signed for as guardian."

"You've grown", she continued, looking her up and down.

"I'm sorry, but I have literally no idea who you are", Alice said.

She assumed that she was there for the symposium, albeit a little early. But the fact that she knew about her and Warner had made her uncomfortable.

"Sorry! I'm Lena. Lena Mishkin", she said, reaching out her hand for Alice.

Alice had to rearrange her book in her arms before shaking her hand.

"Alice Sjögren."

"Sjögren? That's Swedish", Lena remarked.

"I am Swedish", Alice confirmed.

"That's my territory", Lena said, smirking a little.

Alice blinked.

"My mother is the Supreme Commander of Europe. Hasn't Warner told you about me?"

"Nope", she said.

Then seeing that Lena did not look pleased she added:
"But I forget things very easily. It's a bit of a problem."

Lena didn't seem to hear as she sat down on the sofa again, her jaw visibly clenched.

"Asshole…", she muttered.
"And you can tell him I said that", she added, flicking her long, pale blonde hair.

Alice just sat down on the other end of the sofa. The older girl glanced at her, not having expected the sudden silence.

"What?", she asked.

"Aaron and I aren't talking right now", Alice explained in a clipped voice as she opened the book and rested it on her knee.

Something seemed to shift in Lena. Something awakening. Curiosity.

"And, pray tell, why is that?", she asked.

Alice squinted at her for a moment.

"Could it be because of a certain new Supreme Commander?"

"Maybe...", Alice responded as she put her book down again. It was obvious by Lena's tone of voice that she, too, was skeptical about Juliette.

"Well Warner has been like a big brother to you, right? I would be mad too if he got a crazy girlfriend."

"That's a bit of an understatement", Alice told her.

"So you hate her?"

She nodded.

Lena's eyes widened. Then she smiled. She leaned in towards the younger girl.

"Really…!"

Alice could hardly believe it. Someone who had a positive reaction to her words for once!

Alice nodded again.

Lena reached forward and took Alice's hand into her own well manicured ones.

"You need to tell me everything…!"

"Alice?"

Alice turned in her seat.

"Oh, hi Jasper!", she greeted.

It was the most cheerful he had heard her in weeks. She was sitting with her hand waving in the air. The other one was being held by Lena. She was applying nail polish to it.

"Look!", she told him.

Still slightly stunned he walked up to peer at her nails.

If he knew his terminology correctly it was a French manicure.

"Lena said we'll put rocks on it as well", Alice told him.

Delalieu nodded, glancing at the Russian. And sure enough, there was a box with multiple compartments containing small rocks sorted by color on the table next to her.

Now, Lena would not have been his first choice of company. Or second for that matter. Actually he'd much rather have Alice spend time with Ibrahim's daughter. Ever since her childhood Nazeera seemed like a very level headed girl. And those were hard to come by these days.

But there wasn't any harm in painted nails, was there?

"I'm sure it will look l-lovely, dear", he decided.

"Alice, have you heard!"

Alice looked up from the book she was reading.

Lena was smiling at her. Manically almost.

"What?", Alice wondered.

"It's over."

For a moment Alice felt a stab of terror; thinking the planes were on their way.

But Lena wouldn't be here if that was the case. Supreme commanders didn't bomb their kids.

She didn't have time to ask her before Lena ran her up to speed however.

"They've broken up!"

They.

"Broken up…?", Alice asked, but understood as the words left her mouth.

Lena nodded.

She sat up straight, book sliding to land open on the cushion next to her.

"No way!"

"Yes way!"

Alice feels a smile tug at her lips, then she stops herself. Thinks.

"How?" She couldn't imagine Juliette and Aaron falling out with each other for any reason. Not unless Aaron had suddenly seen reason and realized Juliette was violent and dangerous; but that was obviously too good to be true.

"I don't know. And I don't really care", Lena said.

"Now come, you can help me pick out an outfit for the symposium. I have this really cute tunic that might actually fit you. You're a bit old for those lolita dresses, don't you think?"

Alice couldn't help but look down at what she was wearing. She had a habit of wearing the dresses Aaron had gotten for her while on base. It wasn't very practical in the compound, and it also felt a bit too much on the nose towards her friends that she was better off than them financially.
She liked the look of them. They made her feel a bit younger than she actually was.

But trying on a tunic didn't hurt. Maybe Aaron and everyone else would take her more seriously if she didn't dress like a dress-up doll all the time...

Can I just rant for a moment?
Is it just me who thinks it's pretty weird of Tahereh to have Lena be Russian and transphobic? Like, she has Russian readers right? Russia already has bad rep about LGTBQ for warranted reasons, but to make a Russian character (when she could have picked literally any other European country) and not use the opportunity to say "Hey, not all Russians are transphobic you know", and instead say "If you didn't understand that Lena is a b*tch from her assaulting Warner, she's also Transphobic because what else would she be when she's Russian", actually makes me angry.

Does anyone agree with me?

Disagree?