The night passed with no problems. That morning, however, I found myself being rudely shaken awake by a very impatient Liz.
"Chloe…. Chloe! Wake up! It's morning! I want to know! I want to know everything!"
I groaned as I tried to push her off me. "What everything?" I finally freed myself from her and rubbed my eyes. I looked over and gave her a mock glare. "You should know better than to attack a schizophrenic so early in the morning." She gave a small laugh before waving her hand, dismissing the joke.
"Funny, but enough stalling! I want to know! What did your…. Informants, I guess, say about me? Did they believe you?"
I looked at her for a second, trying to piece together what she was talking about, before putting my head in my hands.
"I don't know what you're talking about. What time is it?" I groaned. She stood up from my bed and threw her hands in the air.
"Chloe! The non-poltergeist poltergeist that haunts me? You said you were going to ask somebody about it? You said who knew who to talk to?"
I straightened up, snapping my gaze to her. "Oh right." I said. I got up from my bed and stretched, sighing.
Liz sighed in annoyance. "So? What did they say?"
"Well…... " I dragged out, walking over to the closet to grab some clothes. "They're not really sure. They said that they would have to do some more research before they come up with the final answer. But they believe you, Liz, we aren't imagining things." I turned and smiled at her. "We're not crazy."
Liz squealed and jumped on me, practically screaming her thanks. I couldn't help but smile. This was something that I could only ever dream about. Meeting someone that was like this, like me. Well, Liz wasn't seeing dead people, but she still was cast out because of something that wasn't considered even real. It was nice to see someone else's reaction to being told that they weren't crazy, that they weren't imagining the strangeness happening to them.
I finally pulled her away from me. "C'mon, breakfast is soon, right? We should probably head down there."
She nodded and let me go, moving away to get dressed as well.
"You know, it's kind of weird to have both of us in the same building. Do you think it's a coincidence? I mean, it definitely can be! Seeing ghosts and monsters is a common schizophrenia thing… Well, in movies anyway. I don't honestly know too much about it. And with my poltergeist - well, I guess it's not a poltergeist, I'll just call it my "strangeness"- I guess I could get labeled as temperamental and violent. What about the "someone" or "someones" you know? Do they have any powers? Ooo! Is one of them like superman? Super strength and laser eyes? That would be pretty cool, I would be pretty jealous."
I had just nodded along to most of what she was saying until the last part. I couldn't help but laugh a little as I took the wrappings off of my hands. They were finally starting to look a little better. Maybe they wouldn't crack today? I would just have to take it easy.
"Actually, yeah. One is pretty strong, apparently. I don't know about laser vision though.." Or tights, or a cape. Though picturing Derek with his usual scowl wearing and bright blue tights was definitely going to be useful. His glare wouldn't be as scary to me when I'm picturing him prancing around in a blue super suit with a cape that's too short for him.
We were heading down the stairs into the kitchen, and Liz went off to meet Tori, who was quietly sitting at the table, pushing her oatmeal around her bowl. She looked a little better than before, but I wasn't going to risk sitting next to her to see if she was.
After "taking" my medication and grabbing breakfast, I made my over to my usual spot across from Simon and Derek. Rae was over in the kitchen grabbing an orange before taking a seat between me and Liz.
"How're ya feelin', girly? You look like you're doin' better."
"Yeah, you look brighter than usual! Finally better?" Simon asked, a bright smile pointed directly at me. I blushed a little before I felt the cold glare from Tori.
I shrugged my shoulders and looked down at my breakfast, stirring it so that it could down quicker.
"I got a lot more sleep last night is all." I said quietly. I peeked over to Tori to see her glaring down at her food.
After overhearing her mother yesterday, I could understand why she acted the way she did. Her mom was a grade A bitch towards her. I don't think I would've turned out much better.
"You know," I started quietly. "It looks like Tori's doing better, too." Her glare snapped up to me, becoming more heated. I quickly turned towards Liz, hoping she could save me. "Right Liz? Simon?"
Luckily, both were able to catch on to my SOS. Liz jumped in quickly. "Oh definitely! I hate seeing you so quiet and lifeless. You definitely have your spark back today."
Simon nodded along with her. "Yeah, it's weird when you're suddenly quiet all day." Tori beamed at him and Liz.
"Well, I'm obviously better now, so I guess you all can stop worrying about me." She went back to her food, complaining about how the nurses could feed us this 'mud'. Rae let out a long sigh and turned to me.
"You're too nice. Now we'll all suffer from your "good deed"."
"Chloe's just trying to divert attention," Simon defended, giving me a smile. I smiled back, glad that he understood. "Besides what I said was true. I'd rather hear where she's at rather than get a surprise visit in the middle of the night." Rae snorted a laugh at this.
"Touche, Simon. Touche."
I rolled my eyes at the two of them and looked over at Derek, who was currently stealing the rest of his brother's oatmeal and shoveling spoonful after spoonful of brown sugar into it. I waited patiently for him to finish before I grabbed the bowl.
Super Derek, the man who saves lives by hogging all the sugar. I gave a quiet snort as I dug into my breakfast, finally feeling up to eating more than just a couple spoonfuls.
The rest of breakfast went by uneventfully, with Simon talking enough for the rest of us. I smiled and laughed here and there, but my mind was elsewhere. Thinking about Liz, the life-sucking vision, Lyle… It was a lot to process in such a short amount of time. If I hadn't seen weird my entire life, I would've thought that this was some sort of demented joke to trick already troubled kids.
It was just hard to believe. There were just too many coincidences. It made me feel as though getting out of here was going to be hell of a lot harder than originally planned. I had hoped to be here only a few days, maybe a week, then go back home to dad before he left for China. The longer I was in here, the longer he was alone or having to deal with the presence of Aunt Lauren, especially with the anniversary coming up...
I sighed and rubbed my eyes in frustration. Would I even be able to get out before mom's anniversary? I've managed to visit her every single year, despite how tough it was. Now it was going to be all ruined because of this stupid place. Who knows when the last time her grave was cleaned….
I focused back on the conversation before I got too tied up about the thoughts of mom and her abandoned grave.
"- And that's what I think of that, Mr. Bae!" Rae said, leaning back with a smug look on her face. I looked over to Simon just in time to see him dramatically sigh and wipe an imaginary tear.
"I concede, you are a true debater, Rae, how could I have ever doubted you?" They both laughed a bit, while I tried to piece together what I missed. I looked over to Derek, hoping that he at least had a clue.
Spoonful halfway to his mouth, he paused and looked back at me, scowling at me a bit for interrupting sugar soup. I gestured over to Rae and Simon, giving him a confused look. He just shrugged and muttered something about comparing different art styles and which one's better. I mouthed an "Oh" before turning back to the two quickly shoveling the rest of their food in their faces. I looked past them to see that Tori and Liz had already left for our last class of the week. I stretched a bit and grabbed my bowl, intending to head to the sink before something warm clasped my wrist. I jumped a bit before realizing that the warm hand had belonged to Derek. Derek quickly pulled away before pointing to my oatmeal bowl.
I sighed and handed over the bowl, before he pushed my hand back. I looked at him, slightly irritated and confused.
"Sit." He said, giving me his usual scowl.
"Why? We're going to be late for class." I said, looking around to find that Rae was out of sight and Simon waving at me to hurry from across the hall. I made a small hand motion for him to go on ahead. He looked at me curiously before giving a bow.
"Whatever the lady demands." He yelled. One of the nurses chastised him from upstairs for being too loud, and he mumbled an apology before he went to class. I gave a small laugh before turning back to Derek and sitting down, pushing my bowl towards him again.
Instead of taking it like he usually did, he slid it back to me. Again.
"Don't worry about being late, she won't come looking for us until after class. When we get in, just explain to her that we were working out a couple math problems before class and got carried away with time."
I doubted she would believe it, but it would be hard to argue with a guy Derek's size and current grades. He was usually a model student from what I've heard from Simon, so she would probably just accept it and continue her game of solitaire.
"Okay, that answers one question, but what about my breakfast? I thought inspection season was over."
His glare hardened a bit, probably annoyance for having to explain himself so much. "Apparently not. You're still barely eating." I sighed as I looked down at my bowl. It seemed he was right, of course, I snarled mentally. Not even half of it was gone.
"I'll have to tell Simon to get you to stop hounding me." I muttered, scooping up some and quickly swallowing it.
It didn't taste bad, in fact my stomach warmed a bit as I continued eating. I just had been so tied up in thinking that time passed quicker than I thought it would.
I looked over to Derek who had already put his bowl in the sink and had sat back down across from me. He was glaring at the floor, leaning back in his chair and tapping his fingers on his crossed arms.
Impatient, are we? I thought to myself, irritation bubbling up.
"You know, you can go on ahead if you want." I said between mouthfuls. He shook his head, shifting his scowl over to me.
"No. You need to finish." I complained quietly to myself about how I was a big girl and could take care of myself as he continued. "Besides… I think it's a good time to discuss a few things." I looked up at him, surprised, then looked around the area.
"Are you sure now's a good time? Out here?" He waved his hand, his impatience clearly showing.
"Everyone's out of earshot." He snapped. "Do you know where the key is to the basement door?" He demanded, straight to the point.
"No," I sighed, leaning back. "But I don't think we need it. The ghost said to get their stories, and I'm positive that I accomplished that task." Every time I even thought about the basement my stomach would turn in knots and my hands would start to shake a bit. I definitely wasn't ready to go back down there again… Maybe I could find someone to trade chores with…?
Derek shook his head. "He said "their", meaning more than one story."
I glared at him. "I think the first one gave us a big enough clue to what happened." I grit out. I didn't like where this conversation was headed. I looked down at my bowl to see that it was almost completely finished. I took the last couple bites and shoved the bowl out of the way of my arms. I put my head in my hand and toyed with the tablecloth, refusing to look Derek in the eye. He didn't deserve eye-contact right then. He dared to suggest having me go through another one of those nightmares.
He was basically asking me to go through another brutal murder.
"Listen. There are too many similarities here. The chances of having four of us under one roof is already near impossible. But to be in a house where a guy supposedly experimented on our kind?" I looked up to see him shaking his head and glaring at the table. "We need to gather all of the evidence, see how this relates to us. And we need to do this as soon as possible." He lifted his gaze toward mine. "Meet Simon and I outside. Same time as last time. Don't be late." He grunted as he got up, and headed straight toward the classroom without even waiting for me to catch up.
"Rude, sadistic jerk." I muttered under my breath, not caring if he heard. Why was he such a jerk? Couldn't he say please or thank you? I practically slammed the bowl in the sink before making my way over to the classroom.
"Chloe, please help me with this. I would so appreciate it if you did. I'll even get you a tub of icecream for your trouble!" I muttered to myself, doing my best impression of Derek's voice. "Oh why thank you Chloe! You risked your health and your sanity just so I could satisfy my curiosity! You're a true hero!" I stopped the voice as I got closer to the room, mumbling at how if he wanted to be a superman wannabe, he should start acting like it and put himself on the frontlines instead.
I took a calming breath before I reached the handle and opened the door. Everything was quiet as usual. Simon gave me a quick wave and pointed to a folder that was sitting on an empty desk between him and Derek. I looked over to the substitute nurse who just nodded and motioned for me to take a seat.
.
.
As I sat down, Simon handed me a folded piece of paper. I looked at him curiously before looking back to the note and unfolding it. Inside, a chibi blonde character of himself was looking at me with what I could only guess was concern. His little chibi hand formed the last clue I needed to decipher what he was asking.
Are you okay?
I smiled as I picked up my pencil and wrote back. When I handed it to him, I turned back to my folder and pulled out the first few assignments I needed to work on. Math, thankfully was off the table, seeing as I was, for the first time in my life, ahead of schedule. The teacher had moved the test to next Tuesday so that today could be used as a review day for everyone.
After about five minutes, Simon handed the note back.
Yeah, Derek just wanted to make sure that I finished breakfast. He sure follows your orders, how do you get him to do it? XD
Below the written message was another picture, similar to the first. The chibi was confused again, holding up a paper with numbered instructions on how to make cereal. Around his head were little question marks.
Instructions?
Underneath the picture, was a further explanation.
I don't even try to order him around. He can get touchy about being told what to do. Especially by me. Though I do suggest things quietly to him while he's asleep. Maybe my brainwashing is finally getting results?
I laughed quietly and wrote a response down quickly before giving him the note back.
I guess so. You know, for a mad genius, you sure are terrible at math… maybe even worse than me!
Now stop passing notes and start your homework. You were just telling us this morning how important it is to finish.
Good luck!
I tossed the note back onto his desk and got back to work. After a couple minutes, I looked over to see Simon hunched over his homework, pouting. I giggled quietly and turned back, determined to finish these last two assignments before class finished.
