"Innocence" is by Avril Lavigne. I picked it because a lot of you will be naive, see Catalina and Sayen talk about Cat having sex with Ella, and assume that's sick or wrong. So let me destroy your carefully-wrought existence:
HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT A MENTAL DISEASE!
Thank you for reading.
Chapter III: Innocence
"Brandy? Sayen, you've drank before?" Callia's eyes were blazing.
"No, she hasn't," Varda said hastily. "I said it as more of a metaphor about how she's so talkative and hyper and doesn't…know…when…to…yeah, stop," she looked down.
"It better be," Callia glared at Sayen before sitting and hearing the squelch of her shirt. Sometime in the middle of her tantrum, she had spilled tea down her front.
"Anyway, the letter said '!-!-*-!#' and that's all it said," Coralie sipped her Darjeeling.
"What does that mean?" Ben asked the most obvious question.
"I don't know why, but it made me want o go to a computer," Sayen said. She shivered as she remembered the Multiverse being crammed into her brain.
"I think we left a few drops of Vortex in your brain," Callia said worriedly. She was at a loss, never having experienced anything that could prepare her for this.
"A few drops should be safe," Sayen said. She walked up to Coralie's computer and looked at the keyboard closely. "If you hold down the shift key, then press one, you should get the exclamation point," she demonstrated by opening up word first.
"Okay," Henry said five minutes later. "I have 12-1-8-13, and we all know what those letters mean!"
"No we don't," Ginny said.
Hermione made a tut-tut sound. "The numbers stand for letters! 1 for A, 2 for B, and so on and so forth."
"Alright-y, then here's the word 'main,'" Henry said.
"Main looks an awful lot like Mei, don't you think?" Sayen asked slowly. "I think trip to visit Angelica is in order." ****
"I did get a letter, now that you mention it," Angelica opened the door to reveal what was either her room or a pigsty. Judging by the smell, it was the latter.
"I wasn't aware that you owned a farm," Mara said.
"Mara, be nice. Your room doesn't smell any better!" Sayen shot back.
"How would you know? You've never been to my room!" Mara retorted.
"Can't we just all get along?" Henry walked in again.
This time, Sayen hugged him, squealing. Mara just slapped her palm to her forehead in exasperation. But her expression quickly hardened when she saw Varda's upset face.
"Sayen, get off him and let Varda hug her boy," Mara ordered.
"Thanks, Mara," Varda hugged the girl first. "But I need to tell you, he's not my boy. Philomena doesn't belong to anyone but himself."
It was a few seconds before anyone could say, "Philomena?"
Varda shrugged. "It's Henry's middle name."
"I wish I had a cool middle name, like Spencer,'" Henry thought. Sayen looked at him, alarmed she knew that. Varda and Callia smacked Sayen at the same time, knowing what the sudden look meant.
"Control that," they both said simultaneously.
Sayen held her hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay," she said.
"Anyway, I don't know where the letter is," Angelica said, trying to ignore the awkwardness around her.
Sayen walked right up to a pile of grass-stained soccer uniforms and picked up the crumpled sheet of paper. "Angela, did you try to make a paper airplane with this?"
"No. I swear some guy attacked me with it. I almost forgot, but I am totally going to water-balloon him next Tuesday," Angelica vowed.
Sayen raised an eyebrow as Ben cheered, "Go Angela!" and clapped. She smoothed the paper over and nodded.
"Same symbols," she nodded.
"This one says Bri," Hermione said after a while. "Anybody here know someone named Bri or could be named Bri?"
"I don't even know anyone whose name begins with a B," Mara complained regretfully. She looked over at Varda and Sayen. They were completely silent and still. "What's wrong?"
"Catalina Bridges, that's what," Sayen looked at Varda. "I'm a bit closer to the Wolves than you, but you've always been better with people. Do you want to talk to her or should I?"
"You do it. I put that part of my life behind me," Varda's tone made it clear that she didn't blame Sayen in the least for still being in the gang.
"Alright," Sayen braced herself. ****
A brown-eyed, dark-skinned woman with long, loose brown curls opened the door. "Pearlie!" Catalina was surprised when she opened the door to her lavish house. "I haven't seen you in a very long time."
"I know," Sayen said, hugging the girl without hesitation. "I go by Sayen now."
"Sayen then," Catalina said with a lift of her eyebrows. "What did you come to ask for?"
"Did you get a letter a couple days ago from this address?" Sayen asked, showing her the envelopes from the other letters.
Catalina's eyes went wide as she read the pieces of paper she snatched from Sayen's hand "I did, as a matter of fact," she admitted. "I was scared because I didn't know who sent it or why. In the business of weapons trafficking, you've got to be careful," she said with a nod.
Sayen nodded knowingly. "I need to see it. I'm pretty sure I know what it's about, but if I don't get it, Ken could die. They say he's already dead, but Varda told me that she doesn't believe it. Something about their handwriting," she shook her head. "Someday, that girl and I are going to sit down for a good, long lesson."
"A lesson like I taught Graciela?" Catalina smirked.
Sayen colored. "That turned me off porn forever. The real thing felt vividly disturbing. Sex is supposed to be sacred."
"It is. Ella died," Catalina's eyes misted over as she fell on her couch like a sack of potatoes someone tossed out.
"Oh!" Sayen's hand flew to cover her violent oath. "I'm so sorry," she said tearfully. "When was the funeral?"
"We buried her head under the oak tree," Catalina said sadly. "We're still looking for the rest of her, and her killer," her eyes blazed with light during the last part.
"I'll help you just as soon as I get Ken back," Sayen promised.
Catalina nodded. "You do that. You were always attached to him. What did he do this time? I heard he was kidnapped."
"He was."
"But you found him?" it wasn't a question.
"Yes."
"Good," Catalina gave a nod that seemed to seal something. "You two were the most good in the entire Fauna gang. I wouldn't have expected you or him to settle down with anyone else."
"Oh," Sayen blinked. "We're not together," she protested.
Catalina smirked as she got up. "I believe you came here looking for a letter?" she asked, opening the drawer and taking out an envelope. "Here it is. I don't understand it."
"I do," Sayen said quietly. "It says Zei."
"Zei? What the hell does that mean?" Catalina threw her hands up.
"Zei for Zane, and who played Zane in my last movie?" Sayen asked.
"Ken, but he's not here. Maybe this is a clue. You have unrestricted access to all my money and weapons regardless of type and amount," Catalina said immediately.
"I don't think I'll need it that badly," Sayen said, staring at the wall. "I know what I need to do," she waved to Catalina once and left. ****
Ken was still floating in her orb. Sayen took her orb back and gently laid his body on her sofa. She hoped Ken's spirit self was still there in death. What if it wasn't? She stood for a while, contemplating what to do. She sang as she tired to figure it out.
"Two days past 18, he was waiting for the bus in his army greens." And she felt more than saw her surroundings melt away into a different place, a black place. She must be standing on something, because she wasn't falling, but she couldn't see anything but herself. Then a light came on to reveal a wood floor that stretched beyond what the light showed. Ken walked toward it and toward her, looking unshaven and even thinner than usual.
"Pearlie?" he asked, disbelieving.
"The name Ken means handsome, and you are," Sayen didn't bother to correct him. She liked it when he said her name. "It's me."
Ken hugged her tightly and sobbed. "I haven't seen life in here for so long!" he said between hiccups.
"You're gonna see plenty of light soon, I promise," Sayen said, hugging him back and patting him reassuringly.
"I know what you came for. Death brings increased awareness," he said, taking a letter out of his pocket.
"No it doesn't," Sayen said seriously. "You were dead and you never made a single clever remark. Cailean was here."
Ken looked a little guilty.
"What did he do to you, Ken?" tears where glistening in the back of her eyes.
"There's very little to be done for someone who's dead," Ken said. "Here," he handed her the letter with shaky hands.
Sayen took it without a word. "It says Orn."
"Death doesn't bring omniscience, but life does bring surprises," Ken smiled, brushing a thumb over Sayen's cheek to wipe away the tear she wasn't even aware of letting fall.
"I have to go," she said, not moving a bit. Then, almost inaudibly, "Thank you."
"We will meet again," said Ken, reassuring her.
Sayen nodded, lips thin like she didn't trust herself not to speak, and disappeared, taking the light with her. ****
"Orn sounds an awful lot like Horn, doesn't it? Leaf Horn," Varda named yet another gang member.
"Varda, you take this one," Sayen fled to another room.
"What's wrong?" Henry and Mara called after her.
Varda colored. "She's right. I had better take this one."
"What happened?" Bela asked, clearly confused.
"I don't need to ask to know. They had a tryst," Callia's expression went from shocked to barely restrained amusement to fear that Sayen had been hurt.
"Oh," Bela's mouth fell open. "HER!? But she was so innocent!"
"They didn't sleep with each other! Sayen walked in on Leaf having a three-way and she stared at him for a while. She said that he saw her and waved her in to join him. She left, of course. She is relatively innocent, but innocent is such a debatable term," Varda said. "Anyway, I had better be off. Don't worry, Phil, I'm not going on a canoe."
It was now Henry's turn to redden. ****
"I figured I'd find you here," Henry stepped in through the door. "I know you like nature. You and Varda both have tons of botany books."
"Correction," Sayen didn't care if she was rude, "she has botany books. I have books about flowers. Varda can name every plant and animal on the face of the earth. I can only name all the flowers, birds, cats, rabbits, elephants, and wolf-like dogs."
"Close enough," Henry shrugged and sat beside her. He seemed stiff, like he was angry. "I heard about Leaf."
Sayen groaned, but Henry held up a hand.
"And I'm inviting you to a two-way."
Next time on Tesseraction:
There were four things wrong with this picture:
First, they were on the same bed.
Second, they were sleeping next to each other.
Third, they were completely naked.
Fourth, Varda was screaming her head off, and she never screamed.
I think things are about to get hot for our friends. Please click the review button and tell me you hated, loved, want to have babies, or want to stab this story repeatedly.