Please read: we're putting this at the top since most of our reviewers don't seem to see it. xD But what we'd like to say is that we'd love it if you guys would give us story ideas. We do have a lot of our own, but sometimes we run out, and that's why chapters take so long. So if you guys could suggest things, even just small little things, it would be very much appreciated! :D Thank you guys.
AN: Hannah and Neddy here! :3 We already have an idea for the next chapter and we plan to start writing it tomorrow, so hopefully that one will be up soon. Also: don't be afraid to give us ideas or request a certain chapter! We're always in need of ideas, trust me. xD As always, every review is appreciated. On to the story!
The eight of them glanced up at the dark, intimidating building. Their faces all showed the same expression: a gloomy sort of irritation. None of them wanted to be here.
"This is your fault," Diana snapped at Caine.
Caine narrowed his eyes and began to reply, but Astrid interrupted him. "It doesn't matter why we're here," she said. "We're here, so let's just try to get through this without getting any more cops involved, agreed?"
Drake scowled and Kira looked even unhappier, but all of them nodded.
Astrid took a deep breath. "Let's just act like we're normal. Just until we leave."
Drake shot Astrid an irritated glance before being the first to shove open the front door and step inside the intimidating looking building. "Yeah, that's possible," he muttered as he searched for the room number they had been assigned, the others following closely behind him in silence.
"Hahha, it's room 69." Sam snickered, like the doofus he was, earning a thump on the head from Astrid.
"I thought I said act normal," she hissed.
Sam pouted. They stood outside the door for a moment, glaring venemously at each other as if that would enable them to leave. After a moment, Diana sighed and shoved past Sam, then pushed the door open and entered the room. The rest followed suit.
The room was pretty big, and in the center there was a circle of chairs. One of these chairs was already filled by a blonde, perky looking woman with a clipboard.
"Well, don't just stand there!" she said, gesturing to the gang. "Come take a seat."
The group looked at each other, then shuffled towards the circle. Sam was too busy staring at the blonde woman to look where he was going, and he tripped, falling flat on his face.
Astrid sighed. "Sam, why are you on the floor."
Sam didn't respond, but instead rolled slowly towards a couch on the opposite side of the room. Astrid just covered her face with both palms and almost unwillingly went to sit by his side. The blonde woman behind the desk looked very confused at the unfolding events, but said nothing, and kept a forced smile on her face.
Everyone was seated – some closer to each other than others - except for Quinn, who stood awkwardly near the rest of the group.
"Oh I underestimated how many of you there would be… Here let me get you a seat…" The woman began to stand from her seat, but was soon stopped by Quinn shaking his head.
"No its alright I'll…" He looked at everyone in their seats before moving suddenly and sitting on Edilio's lap, earning a displeased grunt from the other.
"Um, alright, if you're comfortable…" The blonde woman settled down again, jotting down a few dates and times on the page on her clipboard. "Alright lets get started then."
"So I suppose we should start with getting to know each other so um… Names please?" The sweet blonde woman smiled at the group of teenagers before her.
They exchanged glances before the person farthest to the right started off the names.
"Kira." Her head was on Drake's shoulder, and they both looked like they'd rather be dead than be here.
"Drake." He continued the line.
"Quinn."
"Edilio." Edilio grunted, not appreciating Quinn's added weight on his legs.
"Diana." Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest and her legs were crossed in her seat, and it seemed like she would never unravel them out of pure stubbornness.
"Oh really? My name is Diana too!" The therapist smiled at her, "Sorry, carry on." She nodded towards the person sitting next to Diana, who seemed almost asleep and uncomfortable with the seating arrangements.
"Caine."
"Astrid."
"Sam." But of course, it was more of a drawl than anything else, since he was trying to stop drool from leaking from the corner of his mouth as he stared at the therapist.
"My name is Dr. Ekans, but if it'd make you more comfortable, you may call me Diana," Dr Ekans said. "Now, I think a good place to begin would be you tell me why exactly you're here."
Diana - the younger Diana - pursed her lips. "Why would that make any difference?"
"Well," Dr. Ekans said, "it'd help me know what we need to work on, for a start."
Everybody looked at each other, not wanting to be the one who told the story.
Finally, Caine broke the silence. "Not it."
Everybody else caught on and followed suit, except for Astrid. She sighed.
"Alright. Why we're here. Well, last Friday night, we had a sleepover," Astrid began. "Another sleepover, that is. And we were all there - all of us who are here, I mean. It started out well enough, but uhm..." she fidgeted in her chair and looked pleadingly at Sam.
"When we were sleeping, something uh...happened," Sam provided.
Dr. Ekans raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"
"I woke up at three am to this idiot trying to crawl into my sleeping bag!" Diana burst in angrily, pointing to Caine.
Caine turned red and narrowed his eyes. "You didn't have a problem with sleeping with other guys during the Spaghettti Incident, did you, Diana?"
Diana nearly tipped over in surprise. "I thought I told you never to mention that!" she hissed.
They continued yelling, and Astrid took over again, shouting over them. "And so Diana woke up, and they sort of, well, they got into a rather severe altercation. At one point they were both in the street with their pajamas on, throwing ceramic platypi at each other. And then one of the neighbors woke up and called the police - "
"- and I told you we should have run, but no," Quinn muttered angrily.
" - and Caine and Diana almost got in a bunch of trouble, but the police offered them the alternative of therapy. But they refused to come on their own, so, well." Astrid took a deep breath. "Here we are."
Dr. Ekans had a rather odd expression on her face, but eventually settled on asking a simple question rather than an intense one, "…And to whom did these ceramic platypi belong?"
Quinn's hand shot in the air quickly. "Mine miss." He sniffled, suddenly looking sad. "And what lovely platypi they were…" He trailed off, and Edilio began to stroke his hair lovingly to comfort his friend.
"I see…" She jotted down a few notes before turning to them once again. "And uh, are you two dating or what?" She pointed back and forth between Caine and Diana for a few second before resting her chin on her wrists, staring intently at the two of them.
Diana said "no" at the same time Caine said "yes". They glared at each other.
"Interesting..." Dr. Ekans raised an eyebrow and wrote something else down. After a moment, she looked up again. "And you were all willing to come with them, just so they didn't get in trouble? That's very admirable."
"Actually," Drake said, "Caine is in our band and we practice at his house, so if he went to jail we'd pretty much be screwed."
Dr. Ekans's face fell slightly. "Hm. Well then. Would you all consider yourselves friends?"
"Most of us." Kira spoke up, casting an irritated glance in Caine's direction, who seemed to sink down in his seat after meeting her gaze. "A few of us are dating. Caine and Diana just don't click. And I'm really not sure about what's going on between these two dimwits over here…" She pointed at Edilio's seat.
"I see… and are all of you in this band or…" Dr. Ekans continued jotting notes down
"No. Just the guys." Drake muttered.
"Alrighty then…" She continued scribbling on her page absentmindedly and glancing between the bored faces in front of her. "It seems to me that Caine is the odd one out."
Drake nodded wisely. "He's like a hermit. A hermit with a salamander's face."
Dr. Ekan tilted her head. "He does sort of look like a salamander."
"Very professional," Caine growled.
"Right," Dr. Ekans said, "if he doesn't get along with anybody, why do you all hang out with him?"
Everyone seemed a bit stumped at the question, but eventually one of them just started and the rest continued.
"Well for one thing he's one of those people I like having around because embarrassing shit happens to him all the time and its really fun to watch him get hurt. I love to hate him." Kira shrugged.
"I've known him since I was five." Drake added
"We're in the same band." Edilio shrugged.
"He has a pet goldfish." Quinn grinned. "His name is swimmy and I love him and if Caine and I weren't… er… friends" he seemed kind of hesitant at the word, "I would never get to see him and I would be sad." He finished, drawing a confused and slightly worried look from Dr. Ekans.
"I don't have a choice." Diana growled.
"He's my brother." Sam rolled his eyes.
"He's Sam's brother." Astrid repeated, not being able to think of her own response.
Caine scoffed at all of these responses. "You guys love me. Except maybe you Diana." He inched slightly closer to her, only to have his chair leg pulled out from under him, causing him to fall backwards onto the ground.
Dr. Ekans took all of this in for a moment, then nodded and wrote more on her clipboard. "Well, that's all very...interesting. Now, let's go back to Sam. You say Caine is your brother?"
Sam nodded. "Unfortunately." He was staring at Dr. Ekan's chest, not even blinking.
She shifted slightly in your seat. "And did you two get along when you were young?"
"We didn't know we were brothers until about two years ago." Sam explained. "We still don't live together but… yeah." He nodded, not moving his eyes.
"I see." Dr. Ekans pulled her blouse closed tighter around the top, then turned to Quinn. "Now, you seen to have a very...unsual passion for fish?"
Quinn nodded enthusiastically, nearly falling off Edilio's lap. He began a long rant about fish, their importance in society, and their lack of rights.
After about five minutes of this, Drake, eager to talk about anything other than fish, sat up a bit straighter. "When I was nine, I lit my school on fire," he interrupted.
Quinn abruptly fell silent, and Dr. Ekans looked at Drake in alarm.
"I locked my parents outside our house in the middle of a blizzard when I was seven," Kira added.
"Well that's um.." Dr. Ekans began, but was abruptly cut off.
"Oh yeah? Well when I was eight I shot my neighbor in the foot." Drake seemed smug with himself, challenging Kira.
"I tried to drown my teacher in the bathroom toilet when I was nine." Kira responded.
"When I was four I killed a baby crocodile by stabbing through it's head with a stick."
"When I was twelve I hung my younger cousin out the window by his leg."
"Yeah we-"
"I'm just going to take it upon myself to assume you two are the most compatible couple here, correct?" Dr. Ekans looked like she was about to run out the door in fear.
Drake and Kira looked at each other and nodded.
Astrid was taking deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. "Uhm," she said, "shouldn't we perhaps discuss the phsycology behind Caine and Diana's contradictory and dysfunctional relationship? Or maybe talk about the conflicts that arise when such a large and diverse group of peers interact with each other so often?" She tried to direct the session back to normal areas, trying to gain control of the situation.
"It's really hot in here," Sam said. "Is it just me or is it really hot in here? Maybe we should all unbutton our shirts a bit."
"It's sixty degrees, Sam," Astrid hissed.
Dr. Ekans cleared her throat. "Moving on," she said, turning away from Drake and Kira. "Who else has an...issue that they'd like to discuss, while we're here?"
Caine, who had just recently finished picking himself off the ground and sitting normally again, raised his hand shyly.
"Yes Caine?"
He turned to Diana then, who met his glance with one of irritation and slight disgust. "All I am is a salamander who loves you and doesn't understand why you hate me so much." He turned back to the therapist, who didn't know if she should smile or be freaked out by this group. "Why does she hate me so much?"
"Well," Kira said, before Dr. Ekans could even say anything, "you're an idiot. You get yourself into really awkward situations daily. Mind you, I'm not complaining."
"You break peoples' things," Drake said, still bitter about the drum set, "and then you give them a bunch of crap about now getting your allowance instead of paying them back."
Edilio shrugged. "You come on a bit strong," he admitted. "You're pretty much declaring your love for her or begging her to make out with you twenty four seven."
"You're mean to fish," Quinn said in a teary voice. "At the water park, you just tipped them over...they could have died..." He sniffed.
Diana snorted, not even bothering to design a reply.
"You're pretty creepy, brah," Sam added with a shrug. "I mean, you built her a shrine. You tried to crawl into her sleeping bag. You draw her naked in your spare time. That's weird even for me."
Astrid bit her lip. "You're a bit, well, tenacious. And you never bother to think things through, you just blast things out of your way. Not to mention how much you threaten her with The Spaghetti Incident."
Dr. Ekans could no longer hide her disgust. "You built her.. A shrine?"
"Yup." Kira laughed, "I found it and sent a picture of it to her." Her giggles cut her off and she could no longer continue her sentence, so Drake did for her.
"She was bursting through the door with a baseball bat within ten minutes." He smirked at the memory.
"Okay wait you draw her naked?" Dr. Ekans continued.
"In math class." Sam added with a nod.
"Okay, and finally, can somebody please explain the spaghetti incident to me? For professional purposes, of course," she added.
Everybody fell silent. They looked at each other, some smirking, some frowning, deciding whether to tell Dr. Ekans or not.
"No," Diana said finally.
Dr. Ekans raised an eyebrow. "No?"
"No. It's my personal business - it involves Caine, but mainly it's mine. And as such, I can request that it be kept private."
"Diana." Dr. Ekans was obviously burning with curiosity, but she took a moment to think of a professional excuse. "This might have affected your mental phsyche. It could play a role in who you are. It could even explain your relationship with Caine. I need to know what happened."
Diana maintained a stony silence, and finally Drake raised his hand. "I'll tell it," he said cheerily, and launched into the tale.
Ten minutes later, he finished. Everyone was staring at Drake, even though the gang had all heard the story before.
Dr. Ekans didn't move. She sat completely still for a moment, staring at Drake. Then, she swiftly stood up, and, carrying her pen and clipboard, walked out of the room, the door slamming shut behind her.
The gangs eyed were all glued to the door, not exactly in shock, just empty stares from all of them. "You know." Kira cleared her throat and spoke up ,"scaring a therapist so badly that they themselves need therapy has always been one of my life goals."
"What a coincidence, me too." Drake said blankly.
Kira stood up, holding out a hand to her boyfriend "Lets go...celebrate acheiving a life goal." She winked at him.
His eyebrows rose, getting dangerously near his hairline before he took her hand and bolted out of his seat and dragged her out the door, practically dislocating her shoulder in the process.
Quinn stood next, and was followed by Edilio. They both approached the door in a goofy fashion, Quinn doing the running man and Edilio doing the moonwalk. While Quinn got out the door without too much of a fuss, Edilio learned the hard way that trying to exit a room backwards did not work very well, as his head firmly smashed against the wall near the recently opened door, causing a nearby picture frame to fall and shatter into a thousand tiny glass shards. He and Quinn - who had been waiting for him at the door - stared at the broken glass for a moment before exchanging a glance and bolting from the office together.
Diana stood with a sigh and exited swiftly without a word to anyone, closely followed by Caine, who left in a similar fashion, only with his shoulders slumped far more than hers had been.
Being the only two remaining, Sam and Astrid looked at each other for a moment.
"Well?" Astrid asked, ending the silence.
"Well what?" Sam asked.
"Are we leaving...?" She stood, stretching out the kinks in her back and waiting for him.
Sam didn't respond, instead, he slowly lowered himself to the floor. "Watch. This," he said, taking a deep and dramatic breath as he began rolling back and forth in his spot on the floor.
Astrid threw her hands above her head in exhasperation, storming out of the room without another word.
Two hours later, when Dr. Ekans returned to the room, Sam was still rolling. Silently, she rolled him out the door, then returned to her desk and popped an advil.
AN: we've been planning this for a while and just now got around to it. xD Hope you enjoyed it. :D Chapter 9 should be up sometime soon. Thanks for reading!