Florence was tired. She scribbled notes for Japanese in her free period. She sat on her own and felt the loneliness affect her. She missed Genesis, she hadn't seen him for the whole day because he had so much work to do. The last time she ever saw him was yesterday in Dance when they were paired up. Her train of thought was interrupted when some girls sat in front of her and she narrowed her eyes at them.
"What do you want?" she spat venomously.
Bianca, Hayley and Crystal stared in horror at their friend's cold tone. Bianca recovered first and smiled.
"Well, we were wondering if you would like to do some practice routines down at the ice rink," she suggested as Hayley and Crystal lifted their skates.
Florence narrowed her eyes at them before sighing.
"And if I refuse?"
"Anne, you love ice-skating," Hayley pouted.
"Please stop telling me what Anne is supposed to love and hate," Florence said curtly.
"Now, Florence," Crystal sighed as they remembered Anne's fall down the staircase "We suggested a lovely activity for us to get to know each other a bit better. And you looked rather lonely here and as we're your friends…"
"Anne certainly had a poor choice in picking out her friends," Florence grumbled as she eyed them all warily.
Hayley looked like she was going to cry at Florence's cruel tone and Bianca curled an arm around her shoulders to comfort her. It was lucky for them, Melody was just passing by and caught their conversation. Taking a deep breath, she darted forward and crouched down to her.
"Now, Florence," she said carefully and Florence glanced at her with a bored look "Ice-skating can be just like ballet but on ice."
"Really…?" Florence said slowly as she picked up on the word ballet.
"Oh yes!" Bianca exclaimed "We've been taking a break on all the routines in our lessons because of Ruka's accident."
Hayley and Crystal nodded eagerly and Florence regarded the four girls warily before sighing.
"Alright, but this better not be a waste of time," she said as she got up and began packing her stuff.
Crystal flashed Melody a grateful look and Melody smiled back. Asa watched them as he pretended to listen to his music while reading a magazine about Drama techniques. Anne, or Florence, seemed to have a shift in her personality. Maybe the bump on the head made that change? Or had she really lost her memories of being Anne and replaced them with the artificial memories of Florence from the pressure of being bullied? Asa lowered his magazine as he noticed Anne's change in walk, designed to be more elegant and graceful like a ballerina.
Florence watched as the girls glided onto the ice rink effortlessly. She carefully stood up on her skates, expecting to wobble and lose a bit of balance then frowned when she realised she was perfectly still. Strange, she hadn't been in ice skates that much. After hearing the blunette calling to her, Florence went to the ice and carefully stepped on. She wobbled a little bit but found her surprise when her foot pushed her further on the ice and soon she was skating with the others.
"Hey, Anne, I mean Florence!" Bianca called as she circled her "Remember how to do this?"
Florence watched as she skated across then leapt, doing a single turn in mid-air before landing. Florence raised an eyebrow and folded her arms.
"In ballet maybe but not on ice," she said.
Crystal grimaced and came up behind Florence, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Try it," she urged.
Florence scowled but glided forward anyway. She closed her eyes as she jumped, twirled and expected to fall flat on her face. But her skates landed back on the ice and she stumbled only a little bit. She hit the barrier on the ice rink with a dull thud as the girls cheered for her. She clenched her fists and turned to her audience.
"What did you do to me?" she growled.
The girls shared a confused look and Florence skated towards them.
"You did something to me so I could be able to do such a complicated technique," she accused and pointed to them.
"Anne…" Hayley whined.
Crystal and Bianca gasped as Florence turned on Hayley and backhanded her. Hayley fell over in surprise and rubbed her cheek in shock. Florence snarled before skating off and storming off into the changing rooms. Hayley began crying and Bianca helped her out.
"Crystal, why could she do such a technique if she claims to have barely ice-skated before in the past?" Bianca asked as she sensed Crystal's distant look.
"Anne may have Florence's memories of Florence's past," Crystal murmured "but she does still have Anne's procedural memories stored in her muscles."
"Weak, pathetic, stupid body!" Florence grunted as she punched her reflection in the bathroom.
She grinned happily as she succeeded in making her fist bleed and the mirror crack. She brought her fist to her mouth and slowly dragged her tongue over the cuts, shivering in delight when she tasted her blood. She caught the cold green gaze of a girl who had just come in and turned to her. The girl shook her head.
"You're mad," she whispered.
"What are you going to do about it?" Florence challenged.
Fiona heaved a sigh as she grabbed some tissue paper to dab on Florence's cuts. She knew enough from Othello, her brother, about Florence's character. Florence drew away from her and Fiona sighed again.
"Florence, Anne," she said and shrugged to herself when she didn't care about the difference "I don't know what kind of world you lived in but in this world, people who self-harm get locked up."
"That's a bit harsh," Florence snapped.
"You're lucky a teacher didn't walk in on you!" Fiona hissed and gestured to the mirror "How exactly would you have explained yourself?"
"I punched the mirror a few times to release some tension?" Florence shrugged.
"Anne, Florence," Fiona shrugged again "I don't care about what the hell is going on in your head. Nonetheless, I'm your friend. Please, let me help you."
"Help me with what?" Florence asked suspiciously.
Fiona bit her lip and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath before an idea came to mind.
"If I can help you restore Anne's memories," she said carefully "Then you might be able to return back to your home."
"Might?" Florence raised an eyebrow.
"Think about it logically," Fiona said "You are trapped in Anne's body because you have your memories inside her. She might be in your body because of the memories she holds. Maybe if we have Anne's body get to remember Anne's semantic memories, your memories will go out of Anne's body and back into your body."
Florence paused and stared ahead blankly as she took in Fiona's words. Fiona took the opportunity to wrap her hand up in tissue paper. Florence regarded her curiously before shrugging.
"So, what does Anne like to do?"
"Anne loves writing and horse-riding above everything else," Fiona smiled softly as they began talking.
