"Annie…" I whispered again. I hadn't gotten around to updating it yet.
It hadn't even been a day, yet here she was. My finger hovered over the screen as it glowed.
But it was not Annie calling me. This was Eileen, and no fake name could have changed that. If there was one thing I was good at, it was forgetting the past.
Though, I was starting to doubt that. Who I was isn't who I am…
I didn't want to make Eileen wait any longer. I felt a bit nervous as I picked up. Our last encounter was far from normal. What was she going to say?
I put it on speaker and dropped my phone on the bed next to me.
"Hey," I said, "How are you doing?" I had no idea what she wanted to hear, so I kept my tone neutral and didn't throw in any of my usual banter.
She didn't respond. I listened for any background noises to try and tell where she was, but nothing came through other than a faint breeze.
"Oh!" she blurted. "S— Sorry, didn't hear you." Apparently, she was also on speaker. "A couple of things, uh, first of all, thanks for existing." Existing.
I… guessed that was her way of thanking me for the talk yesterday. There wasn't much else it could've meant.
"No problem…" I said. This wasn't Annie, I reminded myself, this was Eileen. Names were confusing. Especially those two.
"Just to make sure, you're not… afraid of me, right?" Oh. That. I hadn't reacted well the last time, seeing her behind that cardboard wall.
"No," I sighed. I didn't like remembering that. "It was the look you had." I wasn't entirely ready to admit that to her, but it was better than the alternative.
"Oh. That… that makes sense." The way it sounded, she was back to her usual peppy self. I knew she had a knack for quick emotional recoveries, but still, this was a huge thing that she was just… shrugging off.
"What's the other thing?" I asked. Whatever it was, I hoped it was something lighter. "You said there were a couple."
Eileen laughed. "Yeah, so Jacob and I are sitting right outside of Deca Tower right now."
"That was fast," Eileen remarked as I landed on the jump point in the middle of the square.
"Yo," Jacob said.
A short distance away, the table they were reclining at was the one we always took. Eileen swept her hair with her hand and winked at me. I went to them, making no effort to mask my smile.
I knew what she was offering when she told me where she was, and I was glad it was this. Out of all the things we'd done together, battle was somehow the least distressing.
But now, what exactly were they doing in Octoling soldier uniforms? Jacob looked… off with his midriff out, and Eileen was thinner than I'd originally thought.
"Didn't you know that what you always wear is a modified uniform?" Eileen said. She'd read my mind. "Like, these are pretty flexible, and, you know… that's nice to have."
Really, the first reason this was my go-to outfit was that I'd never felt the need to go buy another one. But I knew everything Eileen was telling me, and I wasn't complaining about the versatility, even if they made me look… questionable.
Eileen gave me a look as if she didn't have a care in the world. "…And we're going for a theme here," she admitted.
I looked at her, then at Jacob, then myself. Well, it was working. The three of us definitely looked like an organized team. But I was a bit of a standout, with the modified one and all. I must have looked like the leader… or something.
"Come on, I know you want to start." She slipped on a pair of sunglasses—normal ones—and patted me on the back. She waved her hand at Jacob.
"If you say so," he said. He shrugged, stood up, and strolled away.
Around Eileen, he'd become a bit quieter, I noticed. Or maybe that was the open air.
Eileen put her arm around my shoulder and leaned in. "Yeah, he's my brother," she whispered.
And that confirmed my suspicions.
How weird was it that I had just met her brother in a dead-end alley? If I had never decided to walk home that evening, Jacob would've been taken. And turned into Number 10,009. I wondered if he had told her any of that.
Again, I found myself feeling grateful the NSS shut down the metro for good.
"I figured he was," I said, shying away. "Uh…"
She pulled away and raised her voice again. "Just use 'Eileen.' Not like anyone knows that name anyway." She pulled me closer to the rotunda, past clumps of other Inklings and Octolings mingling late into the night. The moon was almost at its peak, but midnight was still an hour away.
As we walked, I leaned closer to Eileen again. "Agent 4 said she'll give you a chance," I whispered.
Without looking back, she slowed and stopped in her tracks. Up ahead, Jacob called to us. "She will, huh…" she said in a tone I couldn't read. Eileen turned to face me and smiled.
"Tell her I'll take that chance."
That night, the tower was a lot more empty than it usually was. Eileen, Jacob, and I picked a lobby, settled in, and waited. And kept waiting.
"One more," Eileen muttered. She was smiling at the floor. Not sulking. That was a good sign, but—
Jacob nodded across from her. "…One more," he agreed.
"Can I ask what that means?" I said, keeping a low tone. That wasn't the first time she'd said that, and even Jacob joined in this time.
Eileen looked up at me standing nestled in the corner. "One more of the Octropes. You know there are… three of us, right?"
Oh. I had thought of that, but I didn't mean to bring it up. It should have been more graceful, at least…
"We don't know where he is," she continued. "We called him Rocky. For his tastes in music." She looked at the ceiling, reminiscing. "But hey, you found Jack, so he shouldn't be too far behind, right?"
Her face was cheerful, but her voice betrayed her thoughts. She was worried.
I blinked at her. "He was the youngest, wasn't he?" I guessed. I'd never met him, but if Eileen felt that way about him…
"No—" She blinked. "…Yes. Fourteen, a year and a half younger than Jacob." She was clenching her teeth. "Three younger than me."
I shut myself up and decided to leave that to her and Jacob. As much as I wanted it to, it didn't really concern me. I didn't want to force myself into their affairs.
If he was fourteen, that made Jacob fifteen. And Eileen seventeen.
Wait, what?
I shot a look at her sitting on the couch. She was seventeen? First me hitting development at nine, now her being seventeen?
Eileen looked up and noticed me staring. "I'm… older than you expected, right?"
I knew she knew me, but I didn't know she could tell what I was thinking at a glance.
"I was the oldest," Eileen sighed. Her eyes drifted to the floor. "It was hard being the role model… Sometimes, I wished it was just me. I wouldn't have to worry about 'setting a good example,' or… I don't know, something."
Jacob, across from her, didn't look the least bit surprised. Maybe he felt the same way, being the second oldest. It must've been tough being an Octrope. Especially after Akash's death.
"And then…" Eileen looked at the door. "Never mind."
A part of me was glad she didn't continue. I didn't want another consecutive night of mixing up names and our pasts. I envied Jacob—it seemed he'd somehow dodged all of this mess.
Somebody else—another Inkling—pushed the door open, and his eyes widened the moment he saw us. Jacob's mere existence was menacing, at least before he opened his mouth, I was creepily hiding in the corner, and Eileen… She was fine, actually.
I checked the time on my phone. Filling one lobby took five minutes. That was longer than usual.
Before slipping it back into my pocket and zipping it up, I stopped and glanced at the screen. Yeah, I had the time. I turned it on again and made one small change to my contacts.
It had somehow only taken a day—no, less—for me to make the shift to Eileen. It must have been a subconscious thing. Something I was primed to do, but never made to do.
And, somehow, I didn't feel any kind of uneasiness about it. Even Rose said she'd give her a chance.
She was Eileen, now. No, she was always Eileen.
Lookee here, another transition chapter. I needed to have something before the next.
Anyway, the next chapter, which will more likely than not be in two weeks, is one I have been waiting to write for a long time.