It was an unusually warm afternoon on the second to last day of March as Anima and Piro sat around the computer in the kitchen, watching old Zelda CD-i YouTube Poops- age-restricted ones loaded with unfunny sex jokes.
“You must have some really awful taste in YouTube Poops,” Anima told Piro, “It’s all nothing but unfunny sex jokes. You know this, right?”
Piro nodded and stared at the screen as if what he was watching was the best video on the entire internet.
“God, it’s not even sentence-mixed well,” Anima muttered to herself.
As soon as the video ended, Piro clicked on the sequel, and as soon as that video began, Siënna and Dante Smith, her friend from school, walked in on them listening to a bunch of dirty, raunchy humor that was not at all suitable for general audiences.
“Hey, those guys are saying a bunch of dirty things,” Dante said, pointing at the computer screen. He looked over at Anima and asked, “What are they even saying?”
“A bunch of sex jokes,” Anima mumbled, “You wouldn’t understand. It’s not even that funny.”
“Sex jokes…?” Dante knew that sex was a dirty thing, but he had never heard the world used in such a blase way. He leaned over and read the title of the video. “What’s a… a YouTube Poop?”
Hoo boy. “What the fuck kind of question is that?” Anima responded to get the two kids off her ass.
Dante’s eyes teared up a little bit and stepped back. “I was just asking a question,” he said in a quiet voice.
Siënna looked over at Dante and decided she wasn’t having any of it. “Greg!” she called out, “Anima and Piro are watching dirty videos on the internet!” There was a reason why she was considered the house snitch.
Anima looked all around the room, her eyes wide and her heart beating in panic. There was only thing she had to do- run. She pushed Piro onto the floor and hauled ass out of the house and into the playground, where she hid behind a bush and waited for the calm after the storm. She hid for several minutes until she figured she was safe and slowly crawled out of the bush, where she unfortunately met Greg, Siënna, Dante, Piro, Katja, Cereza, and Axel all staring at her. Damn it, she was so close!
“Anima,” Greg started, “You know the only things allowed to be viewed on the internet here are age-appropriate material. You also know you’re not supposed to push people. You are not allowed to use the computer for the rest of the day. Now come on, let’s go back in the house.”
As Greg took his hand out to pick the girl up, Anima slapped it away and shouted, “Fuck you, this is America! I pay to be here, and that means I have the freedom to do whatever the hell I want!”
“You’re fourteen years old. You don’t pay taxes,” Siënna told her, “And besides, just because it’s a free country doesn’t mean that there are no rules. America isn’t even that free to begin with.”
And as if that wasn’t enough of a mindfuck, Dante said this-
The records scratched in Anima’s head. “Say what now?”
“In Sweden, two guys can get married, and it’s legal,” Dante repeated.
Anima sat up, her whole world spinning with confusion and shock. “Hold on, you can do that in Sweden?”
Dante shrugged with a blank expression on his face. “Yeah, that’s what my mom told me.”
“Wait a minute… I thought you could do that in America, too,” Anima said, looking up at Greg.
“Only in some states,” Greg answered somberly, “But not here… at least, not yet.”
The whole world turned blurry as Anima’s head starting pounding like a jackhammer at a construction site. Has it always been like this? If two guys could get legally married in Sweden, would that mean the same could happen to two girls? She looked up at Axel and asked him, “Is all of this true?”
“How the hell should I know? I’ve been living in America since I was five years old,” Axel answered with a slight shrug of the shoulders.
Well, that was useful information. “Thanks for nothing, asshole!” Anima said to him. It looked like she was going to have to figure this out on her own.
…
It was right after Group Time, and Anima was packing her brown suitcase for Sweden. She was going to leave right then and there- not by getting kicked out, but running away. She didn’t need Portland, Oregon anymore, and she especially didn’t need that asshole Christian Seger, Greg, Katja, anyone else in the group home, any other teacher or student at Nach Cuma Middle School, any other teacher at that other school, Catherine, and… her parents. The only person she needed was Penelope. Penelope, and that was all. So long YouChannell Group Home, goodbye Portland, Oregon, goodbye United States, hello Sweden!
“What’s with the suitcase?” Kishi asked as soon as she saw Anima walk out of her room into the hallway. She glanced at the suitcase once more and gasped. “You’re not really getting kicked out, are you?”
“No,” Anima flatly answered.
“Then why are you carrying your suitcase?” Kishi asked again.
Anima sighed. Kishi had always been the hardest person to explain these types of things to. “I’m moving to Sweden. I just can’t handle being tied down here anymore. I’m sorry.” She turned around and was about to sneak out the door when Kishi grabbed her by the wrist.
“Anima, that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!” Kishi exclaimed, “Do you know how long it will take to get to Sweden?! Not to mention that it’s very cold there, and you don’t even know the language they speak!”
“So? I’ll adjust quickly,” Anima argued. She yanked her wrist out of Kishi’s hand and added, “Besides, I’ll email you or write to you. I’m not going to dump you as soon as I reach Sweden. You’ll see.”
“No, I don’t! It’s one thing if you’re getting kicked out, but it’s another thing if you’re just running away! What are you even running away from in the first place?!”
Anima froze in self-conscious fear. She didn’t want to tell Kishi the real reason- the main reason- why she wanted to go to Sweden in the first place. She wouldn’t understand. “I’m sorry, Kishi, but it’s just something I have to do. You’re not gonna understand.” She stared deeply into Kishi’s green eyes and added, “I’ll miss you though.”
Kishi opened and closed her mouth as if she was a fish gulping for air. She didn’t know what to say; she didn’t even know how to react.
“I have to go now,” Anima finally said, “I’ll talk to you soon, okay?” With that out of the way, she walked out of the front door and walked towards the woods, where she was certain that Penelope would be there singing a lovely song. Sure enough…
Anima knew what she had to do. She looked around the ground for a stick to step on and found a big branch that had fallen from a tree some time ago. Problem was, it was too thick and too heavy to be broken with one foot or even both feet. It didn’t even show the tiniest tear when Anima used all of her strength. In fact, it didn’t break at all when she picked it up in the air and tried to tear it in half with her bare hands. That was too tiring for her, so she set it back down and figured she needed to break the individual sticks growing out of the huge branch. But that didn’t work out at all because as soon as she picked up her foot, she tripped over the branch and landed flat on her face- hard.
“Ow!” Anima shouted at the top of her lungs, “Son of a fucking bitch!”
Leaves and sticks crunched under somebody’s running feet; the next thing Anima knew, Penelope was holding her hand out to help the poor girl up back onto her feet.
“Oh my God, Anima! Are you all right?” Penelope asked in a worried voice.
Anima brushed herself off and huffed, “Yeah, I’m all right.” She picked up her suitcase and brushed the dirt off of it.
Penelope stared at the suitcase and asked what Anima was doing with it.
“I’m running away to Sweden,” Anima answered with a slight smile on her face.
“Sweden?!” Penelope exclaimed with a confused look on her face, “Isn’t that, like, super far away?! You know, a place where you probably don’t even speak the language or even know anybody there?!”
“Relax, I’m not going alone,” Anima reassured her, “I was wondering if maybe you would like to come with me.”
Penelope’s jaw dropped slightly, and her big brown eyes widened in shock and despair. “Anima, I have family here!” she cried out, “I can’t just go to some foreign country where I don’t know anybody and don’t even know the language! Don’t you know how far away it is?! And how expensive it is to fly to a different country?! You’re acting really impractical right now!”
“Well, I don’t care anymore!” Anima yelled with tears stinging her eyes, “I don’t fit in anywhere! I don’t belong! I need you to come with me! You’re the only one I can even trust anymore!” She dropped head onto Penelope’s chest and sobbed hysterically.
All Penelope could do at that moment was stare. She wasn’t used to seeing Anima cry at all, especially not like this. What did she mean by not belonging anywhere, and did Sweden have to do with it? And why was she the only person Anima trusted? Did she have a worse family situation than hers? Was her family filled with homophobes, too?
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Penelope apologized in a soothing whisper, holding Anima close to her chest as they slowly lowered themselves down on the ground where they soon lied next to each other.
“Hey, I’ve just realized something,” Penelope said after several minutes of complete silence, “We’re, like, the only two people who ever go into these woods.”
Anima looked over at her and asked, “Yeah? What about it?”
“You think we could make this our own woods? You know, just for me and you?”
“…You’d really do that?” Anima asked.
Penelope nodded. “I mean, Sweden already has gay marriage, and Portland kind of has the same weather as Sweden sometimes. So might as well make this kind of our own Sweden.”
Anima couldn’t believe her ears. Their own Sweden… just the two of them, all alone in these woods without anyone else intruding their land. “Without anyone else?”
Penelope nodded. “Especially without assholes like Christian Seger.”
The girls giggled as they rolled around on their backs and stared at the sky. The two of them all alone together without anyone else in their own Sweden… kind of like a Big Gay Forest.
ManictheMod 
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