The next three days at Blueberry Academy were… very quiet.
Ordinarily, this would be a very good thing, symbolizing the peace and camaraderie between students. But for Carmine, Juliana, and Kieran, these days were anything but peaceful.
For Kieran at least, it made sense that nobody was hearing from him. Even after he was discharged from the nurse's wing, he was still confined to his room for a couple of days, getting plenty of bedrest and letting his arm heal. Carmine was often seen heading into his room to help with bathing and healing the blisters in his arm.
But outside of that, Carmine might as well be a ghost to anyone who knew her. Lacey and Amarys initially believed she was withdrawing herself to her room whenever she wasn't in classes or caring for her brother.
…That is, until Carmine's name suddenly appeared within the BB League's ranks for the first time in months.
The two girls were pleased that Carmine had apparently found the motivation to retry the League challenge like they'd been urging her to, to let out her frustrations. Though, Lacey grew concerned by rumors circulating from those who'd battled Carmine that her battling style and her banter had both become… extremely brutish, even for her.
But of even greater concern to the BB posse was Juliana, who'd seemed to have become even more emotionally unavailable.
She attended classes same as normal. She was even present at her first BB League meeting as the new Champion/sort-of President… but only physically so.
Whenever someone asked her for her opinion, Juliana would give a basic response. But otherwise, she sat silently and listened to everyone else. Drayton noticed that she didn't crack a smile even once, which even he found odd for the girl who usually couldn't stop beaming.
Nobody was sure what had brought about these sudden changes in Juliana and Carmine's demeanor. When Lacey finally got a chance to visit Kieran, she learned about the destruction of Kieran's Furret pillow shortly after she left the wing and could only presume Juliana and Carmine must've had a nasty fight that led to it being ripped in half.
But even Kieran was in the dark as to the whole situation. Whenever he tried asking Carmine about it or even so as mentioning Juliana's name, she would bristle up like a Purrloin and shut down that conversation. Considering how Kieran's last memory before the accident was seeing the two of them about to make up, he couldn't help but wonder what happened while he was out.
Carmine even told him that Juliana wasn't coming to visit her and that he shouldn't see her for a while either, until she could "explain things".
But Kieran was getting real sick and tired of Carmine ordering him what to do, and Juliana was his friend.
So the first day he could get out of bed and walk, with his right arm in a cast and a Blueberry-branded sling, Kieran's first order of business was to go and get his answers.
His first visit was to the League Club Room to check in with everyone. The BB Elite Four were all happy to see him, of course.
Unfortunately, they couldn't tell him any more about what happened, but when he learned of Juliana's activities that day, which included heading into the clubroom, depositing all of her BP at once into various clubs and then leaving without a single word, it piqued Kieran's curiosity even more.
And that's how he found himself in front of Juliana's dorm room.
Kieran gulped. His hand was shaking as he balled it into a fist, and after a few moments of trepidation, not knowing what kind of reaction Juliana was going to have, he knocked on her door.
"Who is it?" came a calm voice from inside.
"It's uhh…" He cleared his throat. "It's Kieran. Can I—come inside?"
"Oh, Kieran! Sure, come right on in!" came Juliana's… surprisingly pleasant voice.
Kieran didn't know if he was happy to hear such a normal sounding voice or not. But she invited him in, so he cautiously opened the door.
Juliana was sitting on her bed, gazing at a photo frame she'd grabbed off her nightstand, holding it over a box.
She looked up at Kieran and gave him an earnest smile.
"Hey," she said rather cheerfully. But then Juliana frowned a bit when she saw Kieran's sling. "How's… your arm doing?"
"Oh, not too bad," he said, gesturing at his cast. "I still have to wear this cast for a few days, and then the sling for a little longer. But it doesn't hurt that bad except when I have to get up in the morning or take a bath."
"Well that's good," said Juliana. "I'm so sorry about what happened, Kieran."
"Oh, it's fine," Kieran shook his head. "I know you couldn't control Terapagos. I probably shouldn't have jumped in front of my Pokémon like that, but I was panicking! So y'know… my fault just as much as yours, I guess." He scratched his head with his finger awkwardly. "But at least I got a cool cast out of it! Check it out."
He walked up to Juliana so she could see it up close.
"All my Elite Four friends wanted to sign it!"
Juliana looked at all the marker-written signatures on his cast. "Oh, wow!"
"Do you wanna sign it too?"
"Sure! Let me look for my markers!"
Juliana got up and searched her desk drawers for her drawing materials, while Kieran decided to take a seat on the bed.
"Yeah… considering how many people here are still mad at me for all those rules I imposed when I was Champion, it's really great that at least those guys all still wanna be my friends! I couldn't stop wondering why, but… I guess being super loyal like that is the kind of thing I always wanted my friends to be, so… maybe I should just accept it and move on."
Kieran then gazed up a bit more thoughtfully.
"It's sorta weird, actually… Even after I let all my bad feelings go down in that Crater, I still felt like I was doubting a few things in my head, and still thinking about all the bad things… But ever since this whole thing happened," He gestured to his arm. "…those bad thoughts are like… all gone. My head feels so much more clearer now and I'm— feelin' a lot happier!"
"Awww! That's great, Kieran." Juliana found the pencil case filled with her colored pencils and markers, and took one of them out so she could sign it.
Kieran held his arm up, ignoring the slight wince of pain, so that she could write. As Juliana put in her signature, he glanced over at the photo on her bed that she was just looking at.
"Oh, that's Arven! And… are those other two your friends too?"
"Mm-hm!" Juliana nodded. "Nemona's the really tall one, and Penny's the girl wearing the glasses."
That's a girl? Kieran briefly thought, staring at the bashful kid next to Juliana, wearing a gray sweater, rounded glasses, and her hair split between bright blue-and-red tones.
All four of them were smiling and posing for the photo, with an equally cheerful Miraidon snaking its head in from behind.
"You guys all look really happy in this picture!"
"Yeah, I love my friends a lot…" Juliana trailed off a bit. "I really miss them. But I'll be seeing them again very soon. Anyway, I'm done!"
Kieran looked at the spot on his cast where Juliana wrote, and was flattered to see not just her name written in surprisingly neat cursive, but with a winking face added too.
"Oh… w-wowzers! You got a cool signature!" he said.
"Thanks!"
Kieran smiled bigly at her, but then he remembered something he had been wanting to ask her for days.
"Hey, so I was just wonderin'… Carmine told me you went to my room to go get my big Furret pillow."
"Yeah?"
"There was… umm, a box in my room. It had a present I was going to give to you. Did you—take it?"
"Oh… yeah. I did."
Juliana reached right into her pocket, and pulled out the Pecha Berry she had taken from the gift box.
"I got it right here!"
"Oh good!"
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have peeked inside and taken it." Juliana started looking at the Berry oddly. "I… don't know why I did that, actually. Did you—want it back?"
Kieran shook his head. "No, you can keep it! Like I said in my note, I want it to be a token of our friendship! I was just worried somebody else stole it, so I'm really glad!"
"Alright! Thank you!" Juliana put the Berry back in her pocket. "Oh, and—about that Furret pillow? I'm… really, really sorry about that."
"It's alright," Kieran shrugged. "Not really your fault."
"…It's not?"
"Nah." He sighed. "Nobody can really control how mad my Sis gets, and the kinds of things she does when she gets mad. I'm still a little sad about it, especially 'cause she knew how much that plushie meant to me. But… I know she didn't do it on purpose, so… I'm tryin' to forgive her for it."
"Wait, Carmine told you she broke your pillow?"
"Yeah." He tilted his head. "Isn't that what happened? She told me you guys were having an argument about somethin' and she got so mad she ripped my pillow in half. But… she wouldn't tell me what you guys were arguin' about."
Juliana had a slightly surprised look on her face as she went "Hmm."
This finally reminded Kieran of the real reason he wanted to visit Juliana right now. He tried to pop this question as delicately as he could.
"So like… have you and my sister been, hanging out at all or anything?"
"Mmm…" Juliana thought about it. "Not lately, no. Not ever since we had that argument."
Kieran scooched in a little closer, intensely curious now. "What were you guys arguing about?"
"Hmmm…" Juliana leaned back for a second and pondered. "I don't know, I haven't really thought about it since then. I think we were both just, really worried about you? And then I guess we started yelling or… something?" she recounted, her face getting a little twisted.
"Oh."
Kieran started wondering if maybe he had just misread the situation, if Juliana seemed to remember it so casually. But then, it still made him question why Carmine seemed so worked up about it and didn't want anyone to even talk to her about Juliana. Or for him to—
"Mumble, mumble… too reckless…"
"Huh?"
Juliana for some reason was now… murmuring to herself about something, in a quiet, dry tone.
"Mumble, mumble… bad influence? Mumble, mumble… Me? Mumble, mumble, show you…"
Her brown eyes were stoic and—unblinking, staring dead at a certain spot in a room, in a very creepy way. Her head was mostly still, except for a couple times when it sharply cocked to an angle for a split second, which freaked Kieran out a little.
"Uhhh, J-Juliana?"
"Mumble, mumble… Huh? What?" Juliana stirred up and blinked several times, like she had just come out of a trance. "Sorry, I guess I zoned out for a second there. What were we talking about?"
"Umm…" Kieran didn't know what any of that is, so he decided to just… ignore it. "Well, I just—I just wanted to say that for some reason, Carmine told me I shouldn't go visit you until I'm healed up all the way. I don't know why she's fussing over me so much… I get hurt one time, and she forgets how independent I've become and goes back to treating me like a little baby again! It's so unfair, y'know? Just… not right!"
"I'm sorry," Juliana said calmly. "I'm sure she means well."
"Yeah, yeah, 'cause she's looking out for me and all that… But no matter what she said, I still wanted to see you anyway! Because you're my friend, Juliana! And if my Sis doesn't like us being friends, well—well that's her problem!"
Juliana chuckled, though with only the lightest smirk on her face.
"Well, it's probably a really good thing you came to visit."
"Really?"
"Yeah…"
Juliana took one last look at the framed photo of her with her Paldean friends, and then dropped it into the box in front of her feet.
"Now I can say goodbye to you in person, instead of just writing a letter."
"Goodbye!?" Kieran reared back. "I'm confused! What do you mean by—"
Then he stopped and glanced at Juliana's box, and realized… it was filled with all her personal belongings.
Kieran gazed around the room, and only just now seemed to take stock of the fact that Juliana's dorm room had been stripped almost completely bare.
The last time Kieran visited her room, he remembered seeing a big poster of Juliana's school, a big frame with all her Gym Badges, and books and little knickknacks on her desk. But most of that was gone now…
It looked almost like a default dorm room again.
He turned back to Juliana with a gaping lip.
"Umm, Juliana? W-what's going on…?"
"Mor… pehhhko…"
Morpeko's tummy growled loudly as it fell to the ground, with swirls in its eyes.
"GRRRRR…" Carmine seethed with her fists shaking like crazy.
The Kitakamite girl recalled her last Pokémon with bitterness quaking in her bones. Her opponent, a similar-aged student on the other side of the Canyon Biome arena, celebrated with his Raichu.
"Chu! Rai-chu-chu!" Raichu was even doing a little dance with its stubby brown arms.
"We did it!" he said, smiling with his Pokémon. "That was a really great battle, Carmi—"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, you goofy dingbat," Carmine retorted sulkily. "Just take your stupid points so you and your fat little rat can go beat up some other poor depressed student."
"Chu?" Raichu tilted its head.
"Wow, okay…?" Carmine's opponent seemed more confused than offended. "I was trying to compliment you! You looked kind of sad when we were battling. Aren't Pokémon battles supposed to be fu—"
"WELL, MAYBE I DON'T NEED YOUR PITY!" she suddenly screamed like this Trainer had hit a massive trigger. "EVER THOUGHT ABOUT THAT? GEEZ!"
And Carmine stomped away with a face redder than fire, much to the Trainer's confusion.
He turned to his Raichu and said, "Huh. I knew that Carmine girl had a reputation for being tough, but I didn't expect her to blow up like that."
"Raichuu…"
"Too many stupid… goody-goody two shoe trainers," Carmine muttered to herself. "I need someone who fights like a real rival!"
She squinted her eyes shut and gritted her teeth, feeling putrid about the fact that her eyes were getting glossy.
I just need someone who'll stop reminding me of her…
That dark cloud might as well have been visible over Carmine's head. Everything about her facial expressions and physical mannerisms made clear to her fellow Blueberry students that they'd all better leave to one side lest they face her horrible wrath as she steams down the hallway.
Especially when Carmine bumped into one person by accident, and swiftly turned around and growled at her like an angry Pyroar.
Carmine practically threw the door to the League Club Room open, startling everyone seated at the tables.
She marched over to the clubroom's computer, glancing at the BB Elite Four all seated at the big table in the corner who had all stopped whatever huge discussion they had been wrapped in to stare at her.
Lacey and Amarys both looked straight at Carmine with deep concern. Not least because this was the first they had seen of their friend at all in over three days. Carmine felt an unusually sympathetic look emanating from… Drayton of all people. This only made her sneer.
"Ignore me!" Carmine snapped at all of them. "I'm just looking for more peons to beat up! Pretend I'm not here!"
Lacey wanted to ask her what was wrong, but the poor girl looked like a powder keg about to go off. Carmine pressed onto the keyboard keys so hard she was threatening to pop them off, pulling up lists of names from the current BB League circuit.
"There's gotta be someone…" she whispered, almost in desperation. "Some stupid twerp a little too cocky for his shoes, or a girl who won't be all sunshine and flowers whether I beat her or not… Someone that I can beat to a pulp and not even feel bad about!"
Meanwhile, despite wanting to reach out and dissect what was wrong with their friend, the BB Elite Four hesitantly returned to their focus, with Drayton being the first to speak up.
"Anyway, like I was saying, I don't see why you guys are pinning this on me."
Amarys shook her head. "Do you really not grasp how your own impulsive decisions are partially responsible for our current turmoil?"
"We literally warned you from the beginning that this would happen, Drayton!" Lacey lectured him.
"Yeah, but I didn't think it was going to be this soon!" he protested. "You guys are acting like I'm the one who told Juliana to do all this!"
Carmine, who had mostly been gritting angrily at the computer screen while they were talking, perked up at the mention of Juliana's name.
Lacey groaned and laid her head down as she ran her fingers through her hair.
"I felt like we were finally getting the club back to a sense of normalcy again, and now we've got this whole mess to figure out already!"
"Yeah!" Crispin agreed. "Like… does this mean we're inviting Tayon back again?"
Carmine's face looked more and more confused as she eavesdropped on this conversation.
"Ugh, I don't have to take Juliana's place as Preisdent again, do I?" Drayton rolled his eyes. "Especially not when you guys just thought up so many more duties we were all going to have to take on…"
"Umm, hello?"
Carmine raised her voice and turned around, garnering their attention.
"Not to be like… super nosy or anything, but what are you guys all talking about?"
"Oh, sorry Carmine. Were we being too loud?" Lacey asked in a motherly tone.
There she is, giving me that weird look again… Carmine noticed.
"You… really don't have to listen to us prattle on. I know you've probably got a lot on your mind right now."
Carmine grumbled and crossed her arms. She didn't know why even her best friend Lacey was reacting like she deserved all the pity in the world, but she was getting very fed up with everyone looking at her like a kicked Rockruff puppy.
Lacey sighed, recognizing her friend's stubbornness. "We're just trying to figure out how the BB League is going to move forward now, that's all."
Carmine raised an eyebrow. "Meaning…?"
Lacey smiled sheepishly, which just served to annoy her further.
Crispin spoke up. "Well since both Kieran and Juliana are out now, we're mostly tryin' to figure out who's gonna be Club President now!"
Drayton snapped his fingers. "I've just had a great idea! You talked about not wanting to saddle Juliana with all those hard duties at once, so why don't we just have no President and make this a collaborative thing forever! That way, I—or, y'know whoever's Champion at the moment, doesn't have to get stuck doing all the—"
"Woah, woah, woah, can it for a second, shitlord," Carmine interjected. She faced everyone at the table, eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean by Juliana being out?"
Lacey's expression seemed to instantly grow worried, while Drayton and Crispin looked at each other with confused faces.
"Wait, do you like… not know or something?" Crispin asked. "I thought you guys were real tight with each other."
"Know what…?" Carmine was still sneering at them all puzzled. Then she gasped and slammed her hands on the desk. "You're not telling me… did Juliana seriously bail on being your guys' Club President?"
Now all four of them looked at each other in huge shock. Amarys found herself gasping uncharacteristically.
Drayton gazed at Carmine in a way he had never traded eyes with her before. Rather than being all smug, he looked equally as puzzled and concerned as everyone else.
"Wait, so like…? This isn't a bit or anything, you actually really really don't know?"
"Know what?" Carmine titled her head. Drayton being this soft with her was almost more annoying than his usual haughty self.
Lacey was trying not to cup her hands over her gaping mouth.
"Carmine…?" she said shakily. "What—what happened between you and Juliana? I mean, I figured you guys had a big fight and that's why you weren't talking to each other but…" Her voice became a shrill whisper. "I didn't know it got this bad."
Most of Carmine's anger was gone now. She was instead growing very anxious, wondering what Juliana had done that was warranting this kind of alarm she had never seen from her friends before.
"What do you mean, Lace?" She put a hand on Lacey's shoulder. "T-tell me what happened."
"Carmine, she—she…!" Lacey choked.
Then she grasped at her mouth, unable to finish her sentence, and Carmine saw she was starting to tear up, which only heightened her fears even more.
Drayton sighed, realizing he was going to have to be the bearer of bad news.
"Carmine… Juliana didn't just quit the club," he told her sincerely. "She quit the whole exchange program."
"W-w-what!?" Carmine's eyes widened, and she practically jumped up.
"Yeah, she's… she's going back to her old school now," said Crispin.
"I—I…"
Carmine's head was immediately spinning. Of all the possibilities running through her head, that one had never come up in her mind!
"You're kidding me, right?" Carmine sputtered. "Please tell me you're joking!"
Drayton sadly shook his head. Lacey still couldn't bear to look at her.
Amarys gulped. "It's the truth. Juliana gathered us all at this table roughly three hours ago to inform us of her decision. She wished us all well in continuing the club without her…" She paused, as if she too might start choking up. "…and then left, before any of us had a chance to talk with her more deeply about such a puzzling initiative."
Carmine grasped her hair, her face a twisted mix of confusion, shock, and anger.
"Wha—how could she do that!? WHY would she do that!? Juliana's only been at Blueberry a month and she was LOVING it here! Why would she just… up and call it quits like this!?"
Nobody really had an answer. Even Amarys was struggling to keep her composure, and Drayton's quiff drooped down sadly.
"Is it true?" he asked. "Like… did you girls have a bad fight that made her leave?"
Carmine brought her hand to her forehead and groaned loudly.
"Alright? Yeah… yeah, we had a fight! And sure, we might've said some pretty nasty things to each other, but—but! That shouldn't have been enough to make Juliana leave completely!" She then started to seethe. "I mean… if she never wanted to talk to me again, that's one thing! But to do this to you guys? Leaving you high and dry? That girl needs her head screwed on straight! And if I'm going to have to be the one to muster up the courage to apologize for what I said in order to convince Juliana not to make such a dumb mistake, then so be it!"
She slammed her fist on the table.
"Where is she, anyway!?" she demanded to know.
Their mouths were all agape, but silent. Drayton sighed heavily. Lacey turned her gaze away again, and this time a tear rolled down her cheek.
This brought Carmine back into max anxiety levels again, as a horrid feeling started brewing up.
"Guys…? Where, where is she?" She looked desperately towards Lacey, who was shrinking even more. "Lace…?"
Lacey couldn't hold it back anymore, and let out a loud heave, startling Carmine a bit.
Her hand trembled as she brought it away from her face. Slowly, she turned her gaze back to Carmine, the tears coming down like a waterfall now.
"Carmine, she… she left for the airport an hour ago."
Carmine was crestfallen.
"…what?"
Ogerpon watched as Blueberry Academy became smaller and smaller from the plane's window. Seeing the facility that had been her home for these past few months slowly fading out over the horizon from Castelia City's skyline made her feel… very melancholy, even though she had seemed eager to follow Juliana home on promises of rich fields and many wonderful friends in Paldea.
Both of her cloaked arms hung on the glass.
"Ponnn…"
Juliana had been sitting back in her seat with a blank face, Terapagos resting on her right shoulder. She looked over at Ogerpon hearing its cry, and saw as the clouds rose up and started overtaking Blueberry Academy outside.
With a faint smile, she reached over and started patting Ogerpon on the head.
"Hey… I know this will be hard, Ogerpon. That was like, your home, right? And I know you're going to miss all the friends we made. Believe me, so will I! Especially Kieran… And, and…" Her tongue felt tied up for a second. "…and Drayton. Lacey too."
"Ponoo…"
Juliana nudged Ogerpon with a bag, and Ogerpon turned around and gasped.
"You like cookies a lot, don't you?"
The Mask Pokémon smiled softly, and sat down in her seat, still feeling a little sad but happy with her treat as she munched noisily on the cookie.
Juliana looked out the window past her, and watched as the last little bit of blue from her school away from her school disappeared into the white horizon.
She gulped.
"You're going to love Paldea a lot, Ogerpon…" she said, trying to sound reassuring. "There's so many cool natural places to run around in, so many new Pokémon and friends to meet…" She chuckled. "And my friends back home too! Not just Arven, but the ones you haven't met yet. They're all cool. We'll be seeing them again soon… It's all going to be great. It's exactly where we need to be… Everything will be alright."
Ogerpon murmured optimistically with bites of cookie in her mouth, and Juliana sat back and sighed again.
Then she reached her hand into her pocket.
"Hmm… mumble, mumble… Exactly where we need to be…"
"Pnn?"
"Mumble mumble… Everything will be all right, be all right, be all right…"
"…P-pon…"
Ogerpon didn't know why, but her bones all rattled to suddenly hear Juliana mumbling so weirdly. It was an odd, but… familiar aura, that seemed to instantly make the monster girl uneasy. She gazed, worryingly, at Juliana's sudden still and stoic face, as if her soul had just checked out… And then…
"Tera-pa-gos?"
"Hmm?"
Juliana perked up at the sound of Terapagos crying out from her shoulder.
"Pa-gooos?"
Juliana smirked like nothing had just happened, and happily dug out a Rawst Berry to give to her small turtle friend.
The sight of Juliana smiling again only did so much to help Ogerpon, who still felt a worrying feeling in her tiny little gut wondering what that brief, strange moment in her new partner's eyes was all about…
Carmine had trouble carrying herself as she walked the lonely, miserable walk to her dorm room. Her arms were hunched tightly over her sides, and her eyes darted around in disbelief, her mind still not completely able to comprehend what she had just been told.
"Left… she just left school… completely… Without even saying goodbye."
The girl gritted her teeth, feeling sad and angry at the same time. Her brain was refusing to do anything else but flash back to hers and Juliana's last big fight repeatedly, trying to figure out how it led to what was happening now.
"For crying out loud, Juliana… I know I was super-angry, and scary… But when I said to stay away from us, I… I didn't mean it like this."
But then she focused, like really focused for the first time on just how hostile she became in that moment. The amount of venom she let be laced all over her words. How her fuming anger, shock, and betrayal at the destruction of Kieran's plushie led to her huge blowup.
"I SAID GO AWAY, YOU—YOU LOUSY HOMEWRECKER! FROM NOW ON, JUST… STAY AWAY FROM THE BOTH OF US FOREVER!"
Carmine cupped her mouth, and felt her eyes gushing, as she began to understand the full weight of the horrible thing she had just done. Now all Carmine could think about was Juliana's terrified, crying face running away from her. The last time Carmine ever saw her.
She had three days to realize the kind of monster she'd been and apologize for it… and she never did. She just stewed all alone and stayed mad, like she always does. Carmine blew the last chance she had to win that girl's love.
"I let myself get too angry this time…" she blubbered. "I went too far."
I just drove one of the coolest girls I've ever met away. For good.
Over some stupid… freaking toy.
Carmine was already feeling like she was on the verge of a breakdown as she creaked open the door to her room…
And then, on her bed.
She saw a note.
"Huh…?"
Carmine tried to wipe her tears away so she could read this mysterious letter. Then she gasped upon realizing who it was from.
Dear Carmine,
I'm sorry I didn't come to say goodbye to you in person. I didn't know how it would make you feel. I didn't want to say the wrong thing and make you mad at me again. So I hope this is enough.
This past month I attended Blueberry Academy with you was awesome. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world! I loved getting to catch up with you and Kieran again. And I loved meeting all those cool new friends. It was great to save the world together, and to get you and Kieran talking again.
But I feel like my time here is done now. I miss my friends back home in Paldea. I think they need me back at Uva Academy more than anyone still needs me here at Blueberry. So I'm going back home now.
I don't want this to be goodbye forever. I hope we meet again someday. Until then, I hope you and Kieran and everyone else keep having fun adventures!
Your friend,
Juliana
Carmine's hands shook more and more, the longer she read the letter.
And then a tear splashed onto the paper. And another one. And another one.
Her lips were squiggling like nothing else. She sniffled loudly, over and over again, trying to hold herself together before she burst into tears in the middle of her dorm room.
"Sis…"
Carmine turned around.
Kieran was standing at her doorway, arm in sling. His eyes were red and puffy from all the crying he'd been doing.
The two siblings gazed at each other with their ugly faces.
No words were spoken. None needed to be.
After a brief moment of silence, the two of them walked over to each other. Carmine accepted Kieran in her arms, and as they held each other they both started crying together.