Chapter 27: Cycles of Mischief

Eiji was asleep. He was having fairly pleasant dreams.

Hiro was in the dream... She was near this glowing pond and they were sitting next to it.

Eiji smiled. "The pond makes your eyes look really gorgeous..."

Hiro sighed happily. "Yeah, you too..."

Eiji looked back at the pond.

"I wonder where we are?" He asked.

"This dream is starting to feel strange..."

Hiro blinked. "No it's not. I was enjoying the hapiness. Damn, why did you have to remind me it was a dream? I have to wake up tomorrow and do more sentences."

Eiji stopped. "You sound a lot more like the real Hiro than a dream Hiro..."

She looked at him. "Your the REAL Eiji!? Then what are you doing here!?" She exclaimed.

"Well, I could ask you the same question!" He replied.

She smiled. "This is so cool. I'll tell you about the dream in the morning, to make sure you were in it."

"Well, don't wake up yet!" Eiji exclaimed.

"I still want to see what's in that pond..."

"Should we jump in?" Hiro asked.

Eiji nodded. "Yeah, but let's go together... I'm still getting a weird feeling."

Hiro shook her head. "Alright, but you're such a worry wart!"

They held hands, and jumped inside of the pond.

They seemed to float to the bottom.

Eiji held his hand over his mouth, trying to get back up. Hiro tapped in on the shoulder.

"We can breath you know?" She said. She looked amused.

He removed his hand. She was right, they could breath.

He sighed. "Well I didn't know that!"

She laughed. "You're such a dork sometimes!"

He laughed nervously. "Yeah, I hope I'm not too weird though..."

She gave him a soft kiss. Then another.

"I don't think it's bad..." She said softly.

She looked around. "This place is HUGE! Come on Eiji, let's look around!"

Hiro grabbed his arm, and they ran. She was taking him away from the strange feeling, and in a pleasant direction.

There were... Some kind of rooftops up ahead. They were pointed, and looked green and gold.

"Do you see that!?" Eiji exclaimed.

"Yeah." Hiro replied. "Let's get a closer look..."

They stopped in front of some kind of city. There was a castle in the center, but the city itself seemed to span out forever.

"Oh wow... Let's go in the castle Eiji! That sounds like fun."

Eiji nodded. "Let's do it!"

They opened the doors, and walked inside.

The doors slammed shut behind them.

Eiji woke up, startled by the dream.

It was late...

"What!? What time is it!?"

He heard a knock on the door.

"Come in." He said.

Hiro walked in. "It's about 10:00. That's when I sleep in, is when I wake up at 10:00, no earlier, no later."

She sat on his bed.

"Did we share that dream?" She asked.

Eiji's eyes widened. "So you WERE there!"

He looked down. "What do you think was up with that castle."

She shrugged. "I don't know, but it sure was beautiful..."

"Hiro!" Her mom yelled. "Time to start your sentences!"

Hiro groaned. "Oh god why...? I just... Don't want to."

Eiji shook his head. "If you'd stay out of trouble, you wouldn't be in this mess."

She folded her arms. "So I picked the grand lock on the safe... It's not like I was going to take anything, I just wanted to see if I could! ...And, I could. And I did. See you Eiji..."

She walked downstairs. "Coming! But can I eat breakfast first!?"

"Eat while you're writing!" She yelled.

"Okay..." Said Hiro loudly.

Eiji laughed softly. "Why does she always do that...?"

...

Hiro had a chunk of cheese and a slice of toast for breakfast.

Ha, it's like slave wages!

She mused on this thought for a moment.

She looked down at her note padpad, and today's poison was...

"This is the( penance for picking padlocks,)I will not do that, and salvage my freedom. 3000 times."

Why the parentheses...?

She looked at the arrow pointed down at the parentheses, and followed it to a side note.

"Say that five times fast...

Love: Dad."

Hiro laughed. "Oh dad, that was awesome!"

She tried saying it five times fast.

"And impossible... Wow."

She started writing and numbering her sentences.

She'd gotten down to about 1200 when she started to zone off.

that castle was so beautiful... Everything looked so amazing!

She flipped her notepad to a back page.

I Have paper and pen here, I should draw it! I bet I could, I'm not horrible at drawing... Not I like to show them off or anything, but my drawing's aren't bad...

She started to draw out the castle in detail, and drew the city around it. She drew Eiji and herself standing there in front of if. She drew in the light coming down by darker and lighter spots with the pen... This was turning out okay...

"Hiro? Are you even writing anymore?"

She jumped, causing an ink streak to go across her picture.

She looked at her dad. "I...I am so sorry! I got distracted, I really did, and..."

She looked down at her picture.

"What!? ...Aaawww... I was just about... Finished."

He walked over, and looked at the picture.

"That looks... Amazing! I didn't know you could draw like that!?"

She sighed sadly. "But now it's ruined... Look at that? That will never go away..."

He shook his head, and smiled.

"I told them this wouldn't work. You're like me that way, because you can't hold still and your mind tends to wander..."

She looked up at him.

He sat down across from her, and leaned his elbows on the table.

"Why did you do that Hiro? You know it only gets you in trouble right?"

She sighed. "I just wanted to see if I could... I was going to close it."

"You still shouldn't have gone behind our backs." He said. "Trying to hide things from people, in the long term, it only hurts you. I mean, yeah we get mad at you. In the end, it's your trust and reputation that's hurt, and only you will have to answer for it."

Did they not trust her? She knew she had it coming, but it still stung.

She looked away. "You guys don't trust me... I guess I should know why..."

He sighed. "Well? You haven't given us a lot of reasons yet..."

She was mad, and she wanted to be mad at him. But in reality, she was hurt, and frustrated with herself. She wanted a better reason to cry, or to be angry... But there was none.

She felt guilty that she had caused her parents not to trust her.

Hurt that they didn't trust her.

Resentment, because she knew they wouldn't trust her even if save became trust worthy.

She was stuck in a cycle of guilt, where she felt if she tried, nothing would come of it.

When she harnessed the built up resentment to mess up, she just felt worse, and would want to make things right.

She teared up. She stood.

"Just go away." She said.

She walked out of the room.