First day of school, First day of school wooot hehe Well. actually that's at the end of the chapter but, that just means we have plenty to dig into for this week's chapter so let's get right too it.

Song Suggestion: Brighter Than Gold by Louis II

Disclaimer: I own nothing and Capcom is the all mighty rights holder.


It had been three and a half years since the village incident. Three and a half years of exciting highs and hopeless lows. Yet with all the things he'd been through since then. The last thing he thought he'd ever do. Was go back.

What started as a Late August mission had officially bled into the first day of September as Chris looked around at the barren wasteland of rubble. The rest of Hound Wolf Squad had spread out and were hard at work turning over any stone they could find. Without Rose, of course. The agent paused as he pulled out his phone that started ringing.

"Talk to me," Chris says as he put the phone to his ear.

"Cap'n I think you might want to take a look at this..." Canine says in a reverent whisper.

"Take a picture and send it over. you know the drill," Chris says as he starts packing up to leave all the same.

"You're gonna want to see this for yourself. Trust me,"

Chris paused at the insistence. "Alright. Where are you?"

"I'm at what's left of the ceremony sight," After a brief pause canine spoke again. "I'll call the rest of the team. We might have a problem."

Great. "I'll be right there." With that Chris ended the call and pocketed his phone. "Umber eye," He called to the sharpshooter who was a couple hundred feet away checking a cliff face to see if there was a way to get back into the mines. "We're moving out. Canine's got something."

Upon hearing this, Umber eye stopped what he was doing and jogged over to join Chris. "Alright where are we heading."

"Ceremony sight,"

"I was afraid of that." Umber eye says as he walks alongside Chris. "We've been here for 3 days now. Suppose it was inevitable that we'd have to check there."

Yeah... I'm kinda glad the director agreed when I asked to let Rose sit this one out." Chris said as they walk through the brush and saplings that had grown to cover the turned and scorched earth.

"I can't imagine, anyone who knows what happened here, would have a hard time agreeing to let the kid sit this out." Umber eye agreed before bobbing his head as they continued to walk to the one place they'd all avoided checking for the last few days. "Though I doubt she remembers anything from here." He adds before pausing to think for a bit. "She's old enough to know now. You know that, right?" The second in command asks as he looks over to Chris with a hesitant yet curious glance.

"I know," Chris quietly admits. "It's one thing to tell her... It's another to force her to see it."

"Fair enough," With that he let the subject go. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Do I have a choice?" Chris asked in turn.

Umber eye shrugged. "Not really. Doesn't hurt to ask though."

The honest answer got half of a chuckle from Chris as the two walked the rest of the way in silence.

As they approached the Center of the cerimony site it was easy to see why they were called over. A large dark brown tree with leaves that were murky yet iridescence like an oil slick. It had started to grow plentiful branches that reached for the heavens, and the sap of the tree made it look as if it was oozing ink that hid a slight reddish hue of the bark.

"That," Chris paused as his voice fell short. That should be impossible. Three and a half years was a decent chunk of time but not long enough for a tree of that size to grow here.

"I've already tested it," Canine admits while holding up a large glass and metal container that held a decent chunk of one of the roots. "It's in an infant state but... It's the Megamycete."

"The explosion didn't kill it?" Chris asks as he could feel his eye twitch from annoyance. So much death and yet, the one thing they set out to destroy was forming anew.

"That unfortunately seems to be the case..." Canine says as he stares at the persistent nuisance.

"We should probably call this in," Lobo finally spoke up after staring at the tree for some time. "You washed your hands after touching that thing, right?"

"Yeah, I'm clean," Canine confirmed.

If they were going to call this in. Might as well make one large report of it. "Did anyone else find anything?" Chris asks as he shifted to get his phone out and start documenting the area.

"Yeah, I found this," Night Howl kneeled to take a skull from his bag that was covered in crystals. "Found it under some rubble. It looks like the remains of an infected villager."

"That was bound to happen. there were a hundred or so casualties," Chris replied brushing off the provided evidence.

"No I mean... this is the only skull I've found. after three days of searching," Night Howl stated, which causes the group to look at him with renewed interest. "Has anyone else found any sort of remains? There should be more than just this one."

The 5 looked at each other, waiting for any of them to confirm they found the same. Yet no one spoke.

"We all saw how many Lycans there were. we fought off waves of them," Canine says with a sense of dread as pieces were falling into place.

"So you think this place has been picked clean?" Umber eye asks while holding his chin.

"Likely a long time ago, given the plant life shows little indication of being disturbed." Night Howl explained as he moved to put the skull back into his bag.

The revelation caused Chris to hold his forehead to nurse a newly forming headache. "So someone had access to infected cadavers and the mold?"

"Probably our friend that sent you that lovely greeting call," Night Howl suggests. "Guessing they popped a few unfortunates souls together to see what they'd make."

"That would explain a few things," Lobo admits as he crossed his arms. "If it's a matter of forcing pieces together that don't fit and praying something viable comes from it. That could be why they're moving so slow." He suggests with a scowl. "I mean, think about it. That one freak from the mountain could have easily done us in. If it was a formula, they'd just make another one of the same thing. or twenty for that matter. Instead we got that creepy no face shit and some barfing flesh dragon."

"Goddammit all, what was the European branch doing? They should have been guarding this place..." Umber eye grumbles in a rare display of annoyance.

It took another moment, but Chris spoke up and motion for the team to enter formation. "Alright everyone, pack it up. We need to get this back to HQ pronto."

'*'*'*'*'

The second the team got back, they were placed in quarantine due to their unexpected exposure to the mold source. For Rose this was a bit strange, knowing that the team was back yet not being allowed to see or speak with them. Before when Chris would go on missions with out her, she'd just stay with Emma but this time was different.

Instead each day that he was gone Emma would drop her off at the BSAA. It was the last place she wanted to be but she smiled all the same as she roamed the halls and avoided the labs yet again. It was Friday September 6th. Any other year of her life, that day would hold no meaning, but this year. This was the last day she'd have to go to this awful place.

Chris would be out of quarantine by the end of the day and come Monday, she would be on the bright yellow bus that would take her to school. She'd finally be free. With all of this excitement a small creeping sense of nervousness and dread ate away at her stomach. What if the other kids didn't like her? she only got to see a school for half of a day and it seemed like she messed up a few times while she was there. What if she messed up again? Last time she went to school as Summer. Summer already had friends. She didn't.

She kinda wished she could visit her dad and talk to him, yet her fear of Eveline was all the more validated after her last mission. Eveline said she could 'rewrite' books and that sounded an awful lot like what that thing did. It made people see things that weren't there, and that was enough for Rose to want to keep as much distance between herself and Eveline as possible.

It had been a while since she last visited... While she wanted to stay away from the hellscape, she was able to see in her dreams. Visiting his grave didn't seem so bad. Hell it was her last day here. She could just, Leave. No disguise required. What were they going to do about it?

The more she thought along this line the more her smile returned. Yeah. She could do that if she wanted to. and she did. So she would. The 16-year-old equivalent of a 4-year-old happily marched her way down the stairs out of the building and snuck past the guard towers by climbing a few fences. all of which was caught on tape and she couldn't care less.

She made her way out to the street, down the road and into town using the familiar paths she'd taken before leading her to the door of a small florist shop. It was important to bring a present after all. The flowers were purchased and after a not so quick ride on the local bus, Rose made her way to the graveyard.

As she made her way up the hill, she slowed to a stop before quickly ducking to hide behind the nearest tree. Someone was already there. The realization caused her to panic for a moment. Why was someone else at her dad's grave? She's never seen anyone else visit before. Holding her breath only made it harder to hear, as the beating of her own heart filled her ears. Once she'd calmed down though, she was able to hear the other visitor talking.

"I never thought I'd have to go back there..."

Wait a second. Rose peaked out from her hiding place to get a better look and confirm her suspicions. Oddly enough, she was right. Chris was sitting in front of her father's grave, which had a decently large bouquet of flowers on it. Did he leave the flowers from before as well? Before she could think on that much longer she also realized just how much trouble she'd be in if Chris saw her. That realization caused her to quickly pull back into her hiding place to wait.

"This is all my fault," Chris admitted to the grave for the hundredth time. "It was my own stupid stubbornness that got you killed and for what? that fucking mold is still growing and we're not any closer to finding out who's harvesting it."

WHAT?! Rose had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep from vocalizing that thought as her breathing began to labor again and her panic renewed. Her mind raced as she started to remember the first time she was here with Chris and the story he told.

There once was a little girl that was taken away from her parents.

It's for your own good, the soldier said. but the father knew better.

At the time she was too young to understand but now, the more she thought about the story, the more it started to make sense. Rose sat in horrified silence as she waited and listened Chris's continued apologies to her father's grave. How if he could do things over, the things he would change and a promise to put this in the ground for good, so it would never hurt anyone again. She sat there for a good 30 minutes before the shuffling of cloth told her that Chris stood up.

Chris stood there for a moment staring at the headstone. "See you around old friend." And with that he moved to leave. He needed to get back to the BSAA after all. He'd need to officially check out and take Rose home.

Rose waited until she was sure he was gone before walking over to the grave and glaring at the bundle of flowers that Chris left behind. She nudge them out of the way and placed her own flowers there instead. She was about to sit down and talk before a bit of simple math came to mind. If Chris was leaving... He was going back to the BSAA. There was no way she'd get back there first.

"Shit," Rose said as her eyes went wide. Ooooh she messed up. this whole time she assumed she'd get back before anyone really noticed she was gone. Sure the BSAA couldn't do anything besides stomp their feet but she lived with Chris. If she wasnt there when he got back. "Oh i'm so grounded." Rose said as she quickly started sprinting back to the bus stop.

"Come on. come on, come on, come on," She repeated while bouncing in place as she read the schedule. She'd just missed the last bus. Of course she did what else could go wrong. "Screw it!" Rose shouted as she started sprinting back to town. she'd catch which ever bus she ran into first, because come hell or high water she needed to get back before Chris. Maybe if she was lucky he'd get caught in traffic? No if there was traffic then she'd get stuck too. a Taxi? She didn't have that kind of money she spent it all on flowers.

The trip that would have taken an hour if she waited took an hour and a half. As she made her way back on to campus, for a brief moment she thought that just maybe she got away with it. That thought quickly died as she opened the front door and found Chris waiting there for her with his usual scowl and crossed arms.

"... Wrong door," Rose quietly said as she tried to slowly back out and close the door.

"Get. Back. Here," Chris annunciated through gritted teeth. He was not letting her out of his sight.

Rose winced, but just as slowly opened the door.

"You are going to follow me and stay next to me." He listed off while trying to contain his anger. Why couldn't she behave for one month. Just one!

Rose did as she was told and struggled to keep up with Chris's larger irritated steps, without jogging. To her horror, he led her directly to the directors' office. The one person that could get her taken right back out of school. Noooo!

"Redfield," the director greeted before looking over to Rose. "And Rosemary. I'm glad to see you were able to find her."

"Yes ma'am. There was a slight miscommunication... She thought I left without her and went to go find me," Chris lied.

"Ah," She nods. "And this has nothing to do with Rose's other miraculous disappearances?"

"No Ma'am" Rose paused. Wait. "Yes ma'am?" she corrected with a raised eyebrow. How did she answer that. "It's not related."

"I'll let this slide this time since it's the first incident on my watch, but that's it," She said while looking between the two. "I'll be assigning a personal escort for when she's on campus so this doesn't happen again. Understood?"

Nooooo, Rose mentally whined.

"Understood," Chris replied before nudging Rose.

"... Understood," She said as well. At least the director didn't take away school.

"Good," She said with a nod. "With that you're free to go for the day. your quarantine release has been approved."

"Thank you Ma'am," Chris replied before nudging Rose again. "Come on. Lets get your things. We're going home."

That was the tone of a lecture to come... Great. Rose followed Chris all the same as they collected their stuff so they could head home for the day.

The car ride home was done so in silence for some time before Rose spoke up. "You didn't tell mom right?"

"She knows," Chris snappily replied.

oh no... Rose sunk into her seat. While Emma was generally the gentler of the two, she could still be pretty scary when she's mad. Even more so if they were both mad at the same time. This sucked.

Silence remained for the rest of the trip home. the car pulled in to the garage and sure enough Emma's car was already in it's spot as well. Not that she should be surprised. Emma always got home first... Even then, a part of her had hoped that maybe she'd be able to avoid the tag team lecture she was about to get. The more she thought about it the more fight or flight started to kick in.

Chris opened the door for them to enter the house. "We're home." He announced and his irritation was still ever present in his tone.

Rose put her shoes away and peeked around the corner to find Emma, arms crossed and waiting for them. "Welcome home. We need to talk."

"Do we?" Rose asked while hoping that she could maybe cheese her way out of this.

"Rose I am extremely disappointed in you," Emma started the lecture all the same before Rose could even take her shoes off.

"It's no big deal I do it all the time and they only noticed cause I got sloppy," Rose argued as she moved to take off her shoes and put them away. If she pretended there wasn't a problem then maybe they'd believe the same thing?

"Wrong answer," Emma said as her frown turned to a scowl that could almost rival Chris's. What on earth did they do wrong for her to run off like this so often? "Rose it's dangerous to run off like that. I understand that you're strong for your age and very independent, but you need to understand that you can't keep doing this."

"Seriously. you can't just run off like this if you go to school," Chris points out. Granted it would be easier for her to get out of a school then a highly guarded military base but still! "It's dangerous to walk around like that."

"I wouldn't have to walk if you let me learn how to drive," Rose grumbles which just irritated the two further.

"You're missing the point. It's dangerous for you to be alone, someone could try and kidnap you! And you can't do that. You're 4." Chris started but before he could continue Rose snapped.

"You mean like what you did?!" Rose barked back. She was tired of getting picked on and being told what she could and couldn't do. It wasn't fair! "I'm only four when it's convenient for you to tell me what to do! Any other time, it's just lectures about how you expect more from me. So which is it?!"

The shouting quieted the two, while hurtful it was hard to ignore the underlying message. They weren't being consistent in how they were treating her, and she was upset because of it.

Chris forced a neutral expression as Emma remained speechless. "Look. Neither of us really know what we're doing. But we're trying."

The answer did little to appease the upset child who was now so far into fight or flight that she wasn't thinking straight. She was hurting so they had to hurt too. "Oh, well I'm soooo sorry this is so inconvenient for you that YOU killed MY dad. This must be SOOOO hard for you!"

"Rosemary," Emma started but stopped as Chris held up a hand to signal that was enough as he refused to look at either of them.

Rose looked between the silent pair, she was ready for a fight, so why weren't they fighting back? it wasn't fair. Rose slowly backed away before storming off to her room as guilt from lashing out started to mix with her anger from being treated unfairly. It's not like she didn't know where this was going anyway, she was just going to get grounded again. The second she was in her room, she slammed the door behind her and quickly flopped onto her bed to bury her sobbing into her pillow.

The door however did not close all the way and the soft sound of quiet steps made their way into the room. Piers had been playing in his room when he heard the loud boom from Rose's room. The curious toddler made his way over to see Rose curled up on her bed. While small he understood the sound of crying when he heard it.

"Oo-see?" he wasn't sure how to communicate, but he reached as far as he could on his tiptoes to give her a few pats to try and get her to feel better. When he cried he would get pats, and they made him feel better. To the Toddler's confusion, Rose just rolled over and continued to cry. hm. Pats didn't work... Toy! When he cried, people would give him toys to play with.

Piers looked around to see if he could find anything in Rose's room and picked up the first thing he found, which happened to be a hairbrush. He tried to give it to Rose by putting it on her bed. still nothing. Different toy. He went back to looking around the room and fond a book which he carried with both hands and tried nudging Rose with it. If he could get her to take the toy, she'd stop feeling sad. That's how it worked.

Rose eventually rolled back over with an unamused stare. She was trying to wallow in sorrow here. Some privacy would be nice! Instead, she found Piers holding a book with a sad pout and the beginning bubbles of empathy tears in his eyes.

Uuugh. She was just going to get into more trouble if the baby started crying too. Rose rubbed her face against her pillow and hesitated a moment before eventually forcing herself to sit up on her bed and stare down at the quiver lipped toddler. "What do you want?" She grumpily asked.

again Piers nudged her with the book. Take the book and stop being sad.

"I don't want to read you a story," She said as her deadpan expression remained, but the toddler was just as persistent. "... Fine. Fine just a few pages then go away." She relented as she accepted the book and helped Piers to sit next to her on the bed. She opened the book to the first page and pointed at it.

"What's that?"

"Woof woof!" Piers happily answered as he misunderstood the question.

"it's a dog." Rose corrected. "Say dog."

"Dowg,"

'*'*'*'*'

An awkward silence hung over the house all the same after Rose's outburst. Rose would refuse to join family meals and in general tried to avoid everyone. sticking to sneaking food from the fridge after everyone went to bed or when they were busy.

One day of that was all that was really needed.

Emma made her way to the basement to find that Chris was hiding away in his study with a small stack of paperwork. "Chris?"

"Hm?"

Emma frowned as he avoided eye contact and continued focusing on his work. Both of them were sulking and it was getting old fast. "Are you busy later today?" She asked.

"I have a bit of time. Why?" He asked as he finally looked up from his work.

"I think maybe you should try and talk to Rose," Emma suggests and just as quickly he went back to his papers.

"I don't this might take a while,"

Oh for the love of all that is holy. Emma walked over to gently hug him over the back of the chair. "You know why you need to talk to her," Emma starts again while maintaining a gentle tone. "We did kind of gang up on her yesterday once she got home. I don't think it would help for me to be there. She'll get defensive again."

Chris moved to hold his forehead. "What's there to say?"

Emma paused before giving him a peck on the side of his head. "I know it's not easy, but she's not going to understand if you don't explain what happened... The last time you two talked about it, she hadn't matured enough to genuinely understand what you were telling her."

"Well she seems to get it now," Chris replied as he moved to sit back in his seat and more fully accept the offered comfort from Emma.

"Chris. She's hurting and she needs you. I can't fix this one," She knew he was hurting too but, unfortunately, adults tend to be the ones that have to suck it up and say sorry first. She could try and apologize before him but that wouldn't help much if the larger pain was unresolved.

Chris took a deep breath before nodding, "Alright." He knew this wasn't going to be easy but it was the repentance he promised Ethan. "Alright. I'll try talking to her."

"Thank you," Emma gave him another peck and a gentle squeeze of a hug before moving to let go and walk away.

Chris sat there for some time trying to think about how to go about this. Eventually, he got up and made his way back upstairs and over to the kitchen to start making a quick plate of lunch, which gave him a bit more time to try and think of what he wanted to say. Once he was done he took it with him upstairs to find that Rose's door was still shut.

He took a breath once more to try and steel his nerves before knocking. Naturally, there was no response. He gave it a few moments more before opening the door anyways to find that Rose was laying on her bed staring at the ceiling with her ear buds in.

Not that he knew, but the earbuds were currently silent and she'd only decided to wear them in case something like this happened, so she could pretend to ignore whoever walked in. Rose Rolled on her side to face the wall as Chris moved to sit on the edge of her bed and put the plate of food down on her bed side table.

"Hey"

She continued to ignore him.

"Rose." He tried again, this time noticing her mouth scrunch into a tighter frown. A quiet hum of contemplation crossed his lips as he noticed this. "I haven't seen you come down to eat in a while. Figured you might be hungry." He stated and Rose shifted to move a bit closer to the wall, unknowingly confirming that she could in fact hear him.

The confirmation was helpful, but all the more frustrating. Talk. He could do this. "Look. About Friday," He paused a moment as her expression went from tired to deadpan irritation. "I get why you were upset." He started which surprised Rose.

She thought she was going to be grounded...

"And, yeah. You're right. We haven't always been the most consistent with you. And, maybe it wasn't quite fair of us to both scold you at the same time," Chris admitted. "But"

There it was.

"We really are just trying our best. Sometimes, we get scared and angry too. So... Sorry about that." Again the admission instead of punishment confused Rose. She said some pretty awful things. He should be mad at her.

Rose hesitantly moved to take out one of her ear buds while trying to glance back at him. What was she supposed to say?

Chris noticed the movement and open ear. "...Are you hungry?"

"Yeah," Rose quietly and hesitantly replied.

"Go ahead and eat," He offered and waited as Rose cautiously sat up and scooted over to sit closer to her bedside time and pick at the offered meal of a peanut butter and banana sandwich, some chips and a pudding cup.

Rose picked at her food a bit longer before opening the sandwich to put a few of the potato chips in with it which caused chris to chuckle.

"I see you're picking up some of Emma's food habits now," He points out as Rose happily takes a bit of the now crunchy sandwich.

"It tastes good this way," She mumbled before taking another bite.

"I'll take your word for it," He says while trying to think of how to ease into this next part. "Where did you run off to?"

Rose froze up upon hearing the question and ever so conveniently took longer chewing the bite of food in her mouth. "... I wanted to see dad before school started."

The answer shouldn't have surprised him as much as it did. Was that what she meant when she said 'You mean like what you did'? Did she see that he left for a bit too? Sure he told the director Rose left because he did, but that would be odd for her to pick out that part as truth within a lie. "Why didn't you just ask? I would have taken you."

"I wanted to go by myself," Rose replied while avoiding eye contact. "Besides. You're always tired after missions."

Okay. He was usually a couch potato for a few days after missions. They're exhausting on multiple levels. "Fair enough, but I actually did go and visit him as well. It would have been nice to get to go together."

"Sometimes I just want to talk by myself though," Rose tried again to explain her interest in running off.

"Alright. Can we try and compromise that I'll stay off to the side?" Chris suggests in return. "I get it, I was there too and talking helps sometimes, but I promised him I'd keep you safe." he moved to lean forward so he could rest his elbows on his knees and tap his thumb against his other hand for a moment as he thought. "I try not to talk about it because I don't want to scare you but, if we're going to ask you to act like an adult, we should treat you like one, and that means being a bit more upfront about your situation."

Rose remained quiet but nods.

"When you were a baby. back when your father was alive, your mother worked for a group of very bad people." while trying to explain it, he couldn't help but censor the story even slightly after years of not being allowed to talk freely about his work. "Because of this. They found out about you. They wanted to use you. A few people did. One wanted power. One thought they could trade your life for another." again he paused while trying to find his words. "I didn't know that then just that they were going to hurt you. And because your mother was involved, I didn't know if I could trust your father or not... So I took you away from them, and it remains to be one of the biggest mistakes of my life. because I made it worse than, I could have imagined."

Chris gave himself a moment to take a breath as Rose surprisingly remained quiet. "Those people, they ones that want to hurt you. They're still out there and we don't know who they are. That is why we want to always know where you are. Because they could be anyone and anywhere. and if we at least know where you are. We can hopefully keep you safe."-again he paused- "You're father died that day fixing my mistake... That's not something I'll ever forgive myself for." He then looked over at Rose and attempted to smile, but failed. "So. Yeah. You were right on that account too." With that, he went back to looking at his hands. "I didn't want this to happen, and I had every intention of saving Ethan... Your father. I was ready to be the one that stayed behind, so he could be the one that raised you."

"I don't want that either," Rose finally spoke up as the admission finally hit a nerve. "I know I don't always call you dad and stuff, But I still kinda think you're my dad too... and I still like spending time with you... I don't want to have to pick if I lost you or him. That's not fair."

Okay... maybe he still wasn't doing this right. "I'm sad that Ethan is gone. I wish you didn't have to pick. You're right it isn't fair... but I am happy to have you as my daughter." He replied as he shifts to pull her in to a gentle side hug.

Hearing this caused Rose to smile for the first time since they fought. She thought it over a bit more before pushing herself to try and explain a little better. "I guess, I want to visit him by myself because I used to be able to do that whenever I wanted, and I'm too scared to visit him in my head anymore. It feels weird having to ask and be watched."

Chris shifts to look at Rose with concerned confusion. "What do you mean, visit him in your head?" She said something like that before when she was small he just figured she had an active imagination and maybe a few residual memories from her time in the mold. Ethan mentioned having a few hallucinations of other infected victims that he met.

Again Rose paused as she shifted to curl up a bit more. "Sometimes if I think about it really hard while I'm falling asleep I'd go to this weird place. it was all white and there were other people there. One of them was really nice and would talk to me when I was scared. After a few visits, he said he was my dad." "There were other people there two. a hunchback man covered in boils. a very tall lady with sharp fingers. a woman that was missing an eye and carried a doll. and a woman with wings."

Chris listened in silent awe as she described three of the four lords along with Miranda.

"There was a little girl there too. The one that everyone keeps accusing me of being. She's really scary... I didn't talk to her at first, but after I did... I don't want to go back there." Rose explains as she shifts to lean into the side hug and enjoy the sense of comfort it brought. "But I still want to talk to him so. I just go visit."

This. Didn't make sense in some way, but in others it did. He wasn't completely sure what to make of it. "I'll try and talk to Hound Wolf." Maybe night howl could do a bit more research into the megacycte now that they had a sample of it state side. They knew it worked like a data center, but not to this level.

"You're not going to tell the scientists, right?" Rose asks in wide-eyed terror. She didn't want them to know, no matter what. they'd make fun of her more or pick on her. make her do more test even.

"I'm not going to tell them," Chris confirmed. "It will be our secret. I just need a bit of help from hound wolf if I'm going to help... Is that okay?"

"Yeah, as long as they don't tell," Rose hesitantly confirmed as she slowly began to relax again.

Chris quietly waited and tried to think of what to say. She wanted to visit Ethan because she was nervous about school, right? "Even if I don't always say it. I am proud of you, and For what it's worth. I don't think I need to wish you good luck at school because I know you'll do well."

Hearing this caused Rose's smile to slowly return. "Thanks."

'*'*'*'*'

Emma apologized to Rose shortly after that, and the shroud of conflict that hung over the home was slowly lifted. Just in time as the sun rise announced the return of Monday. and not just any Monday. The first day of school.

Rose found herself laying awake in bed while trying to pretend to be asleep. anxiously waiting for the moment, her new alarm clock went off. As soon as it did, she was up and out of bed rushing around her room at the speed of a hyperactive teenager that could not and would not be bothered to slow down. She quickly tossed away her pajamas in favor of the outfit she carefully curated and laid out ahead of time. Once she changed and dawned her backpack she rushed down the stairs to find that Emma was already awake and there was a lunch box waiting for her on the counter.

"I'm going to go wait for the bus!" Rose announced as she quickly hurried over to grab the lunch box.

"Not before breakfast you don't," Emma chided through an amused smile. "Eat then brush your teeth. you still have 30 minutes before the bus will be here."

Rose groaned but put the lunch down in favor of just as quickly hurrying over to the table to find that, to her surprise there was not oatmeal and plain boring marshmallow-less sugar cereal but a plate with eggs and toast. Rose sat down and treated this like a race as well. Scarfing down her meal before rushing back up the stairs to speed run brushing her teeth and running back down the stairs.

"Bye, I'll see you later!" Rose tried again and this time she was allowed to run off with her lunch box.

"Have a good day, Make lots of friends!" Emma called after, but Rose was already out the door and on her way to the main street of the area to wait for the bus.

Waiting felt like torture. Buses would drive by occasionally, giving her hope that maybe her bus was early. Only for it to be dashed as they drove by. One by one, other kids made their way over to wait by her as well. The golden chariot eventually arrived and Rose used the remaining portion of her patience to allow the other kids to get on the bus first to avoid looking over egar since, from her last visit to school, over egar was bad.

She took her seat and watched it drive around making various stops to let on more and more kids. How did they know which ones to let on the bus? She pondered this the whole way to the school which was a rather large and intimidating building. Unlike last time she didnt have map that already marked where to go just a piece of paper that held a time table and room numbers. The excitement faded as she realized she might have an issue. How would she know which room was were? she had the number, but she didn't know the lay out of the building yet.

The second she got off the bus Rose immediately started looking for the first room on her list. To rose's confusion the room was empty aside from a woman at a large desk at the front of the class. "Hello?" Rose cautiously greeted causing the teacher to look up and around in confusion.

"Oh. Hi. Are you looking for someone?" The teacher asks as she moved to get up and walk over.

"I think I'm supposed to be here for lessons? I'm a bit lost though," Rose admits.

"Well, Let's take a look at your schedule" The teacher stated and leaned a bit to look over Rose's shoulder at the paper. "Yep this is your first period class. you're a bit early though. Most kids just wait in the lunchroom for the first bell. You're welcome to wait here though."

"Oh," Oh shoot she messed up already. Leaving would be kinda weird though, right? she was supposed to be here anyways and she didn't know where the cafeteria was. "Where is that again?"

"You must be the new transfer student. Rosemary, Right?" The teacher asks as this started to make more sense.

"Yeah," Rose confirmed.

"Not to worry. Your assignment book has a map in it. if you want. I can help you mark your classes on it,"

"That's okay I can do it," Rose insisted with nervous determination.

"Okay then," the teacher replied through an amused laugh. "Well let me check the seating chart and you can take a seat and start looking over your welcome materials."

With that, the teacher went back to her desk and provided Rose with her desk which held a plethora of papers and a large book that had the dates and blank spaces to write down memos about each class period's homework assignments. Rose smiled as she picked up a small card that held a locker number and code. She had a locker! She was totally going to use that every day.

First period started and with it began a wonderful new routine. Go to a classroom, everyone would introduce themselves and so would the teacher who would then explain the subject they taught and what to expect for the next few months. Papers were handed out along with textbooks that slowly filled her book bag which grew heavier and heavier.

This was great though! She got to take a lunch break and well. she sat by herself, but that's because she didn't know anyone yet. She'd make friends in time, and then she'll have people to talk to during lunch. more classes. more introductions, papers and books as her already stuffed book bag grew heavier. Well, that's okay, that's what the locker was for. In a week or two, she'd be able to use that. For now, she needed to focus on getting to class on time, since she didn't know the building. Surely that would end up being useful one she had her timing worked out. This was a learning process after all.

More books. more papers. more names to remember. This was starting to get a bit overwhelming. but the day was almost done! She did it her first day of school as Rose, and she managed not to stand out in any way shape or form that could ever embaress he- Rose stopped as she noticed Gary standing across the hall from her class. How long had he been there?! Had he been following from class to class? Nooo! oh my gosh, there's no way the other kids wouldn't figure out he was following her within a few months.

This was a disaster! Rose sank into her seat as dread started to set in. as soon as the final bell rang she quickly picked up her book bag and put it over her shoulders to try and get away from Gary as quickly as possible. yet in her panicking she didn't pay attention to where she was going which resulted in her accidentally bumping into another student and falling over.

"Hey what where you're going, twirp," the student sneered.

"S-sorry I,"

"What are you gonna go cry about it?" the asks with continued annoyance. It was bad enough they had to go back to school now they had to deal with some sniveling freshman running into them and getting all upset about it.

"Knock it off Francis," Another voice said before Rose could speak, as a girl she recognized from one of her classes hurried over.

"Knock it off Francis," the mimicked back in a condescending tone.

"God you're so immature," The other student said with a tired sigh before offering Rose a hand. "Just ignore him. He's just bringing down the average IQ of the whole school."

Rose cautiously accepted the offered hand and got back up. "Thanks."

"No problem," The girl replied and motioned for Rose to walk with her. "I'm Sasha by the way. Are you okay?"

"I'm Fine. Rosemary. He just startled me is all," Rose said in an attempt to save face.

"It happens," Sasha said with a shrug. "You're new here right?"

"It's that obvious?" Rose asked with a wincing smile.

"A little," Sasha admits. "No worries. You can hang out with me if you want."

"Thanks again," Rose said though she wasn't really sure if this counted as making a friend or an offer from pity.

Sasha only chuckled in response. "Okay thanks-a-lot. Let's get to the buses."

"Right" Rose agreed with a nod. It wasn't going to be easy but, she could do this. She wanted to be here and she was going to prove she belonged here too.


And we have character development! Rose and Chris are doing better at communicating and despite a bump in the road, Rose actually talked to Chris about her ability to visit the void~. And we have progress with school! woot woot hehe.

I didn't get quite as much done as I wanted to during my break, cause I caught a fever lmao but hey I got two chapters and an AU finished so not bad. If anyone is interested in seeing Chris and Emma meet in their younger years, Coffee Shop Cop is up and available. It explores how that may have worked out. until next week =v=