“Can I have everyone’s attention, please?” Katja said at the beginning of Group Time.
Yeah… like that was going to happen anytime soon. From Niklas and Ryan trying to fight each other to Ryu-jin and Minha arguing over something stupid to Fern belting out whatever Top 40 song was popular at the moment, nobody was paying attention to whatever the hell Katja was about to say. Looked like it was Greg’s job to do something about that.
“Everyone, Katja has something to say!” Greg called out, cupping his hands around his mouth like a megaphone, “So it will be really considerate of you guys to pay attention to what she is about to say.”
Finally, everyone calmed the fuck down so that Katja could make her big announcemenet.
A new kid? That oughta get some interesting results! A new kid meant that there was some new meat to pounce on and a new target to hit on!
“Don’t worry,” Katja continued on, “Greg is in charge while I was gone, and there will be a cop car driving by at least once a day.”
Any intrigue that was in anyone’s soul was quickly replaced with groans and complaints because fuck the police.
“The police officers aren’t going to come into the house,” Greg reassured, “Not unless something serious happens, of course.”
That didn’t stop the complaints. “Jesus, you’re acting like we’re all criminals here!” Anima whined.
Niklas snorted and glared at Ryan. Ryan glared back and flipped him the bird. Niklas would’ve kicked him in the shins, but Ryan was directly across from him because their little fight earlier, so he just ended up flipping him back off.
“I will be back by early March at the latest,” Katja said. She picked up a black suitcase that was sitting beside the front door and concluded with, “See you soon. I’ll miss you all.”
Bis bald, Katja Schacter…
…
It was just after lunchtime at the YouChannell Home, and Fern and Niklas were washing the spots of grape jelly off of white plates with Fern singing some song by Rihanna and Niklas trying hard to not yell at her. He ultimately didn’t do a very good job at it.
“Will you shut the fuck up?” Niklas grunted under his breath.
Fern looked over at Niklas with a mean and nasty glare and asked, “What the fuck you got against expressing myself?”
“I’ve got something against expressing yourself LOUDLY in my ears while everyone’s here minding their own damn business,” Niklas argued.
“Exactly,” Fern said, “Mind your damn business.” She continued to wash the dishes and sing that same Rihanna song- very loudly. Niklas couldn’t mind his damn business any longer.
“Can’t even sing that well anyways,” he muttered under breath just quietly enough for only Fern to hear. Needless to say, Fern couldn’t mind her business any longer either.
Even though Fern wasn’t completely sure whether Niklas had bruised her back or not, she fought back by popping him a real sweet one in the mouth. Niklas responded by pulling on Fern’s hair- or… weave.
“Aw, hell no, you stanky ass son of a bitch!” Fern screeched at the top of her lungs like a banshee. She jumped right on top of Niklas’s back and started pulling his hair.
That was when Greg ran into the kitchen and tried to separate the pair apart. First, he pulled Niklas away from Fern. Then he pushed Fern away from Niklas. It was pretty hard to do, but that was just how things were for Greg in the YouChannell Group Home.
“WorldStar!” Ryu-jin, who was dusting the furniture in the living room, shouted.
Greg ignored that as he separated the pair and guided them to the Vent Room. “I wanna know the full story,” he said in his most professional tone of voice.
“She started it,” Niklas grumbled, pointing at Fern, who was sitting directly across from him on a blue beanbag chair.
“Actually, no! I was minding my own damn business when he was yelling at me to shut my mouth,” Fern argued.
“Yeah, because you fucking singing straight into my ears!” Niklas exclaimed, “And at the top of your lungs!”
“Well, maybe you should’ve minded your own damn business!” Fern shouted.
“I was!” Niklas shouted back, “You were the one getting up in everyone’s shit!”
Greg took a deep breath and said, “So… what I’m seeing is that you, Fern, is that you were singing while you were washing the dishes, and you, Niklas, didn’t want Fern to sing while washing the dishes. Am I correct in saying that?”
Fern and Niklas nodded in agreement- the first time they had ever agreed on anything that day.
“Niklas, did you tell Fern to keep it down with the singing?” Greg asked.
“Yes, I did!” Niklas answered irritably, “And she wouldn’t shut the fuck up!”
“‘Cause you was being a damn hater about it!” Fern argued, “Besides, why you so upset about me expressing myself anyways?!”
“Because you were expressing yourself at the top of your lungs and in everyone’s ears!” Niklas shouted.
“Alright, Niklas. Let’s take a deep breath,” Greg said, “Inhale-” He inhaled. “-Exhale.” He exhaled. He, Niklas, and even Fern (unintentionally) inhaled and exhaled for a few moments before asking Niklas, “How do you think you should respond whenever you think Fern is singing too loudly?”
Niklas sighed through his nostrils and answered in a low voice, “Tell her to keep it down, like, all nice and stuff.”
“And how would you respond, Fern?”
Fern huffed through her nostrils and slumped into her beanbag chair. “I don’t know. I guess… sing in, like, a lower volume or something like that.”
“You see,” Greg began, “You know how to resolve your conflicts calmly, yet your anger is getting the best of you. The next time you get angry, walk away from the situation, take a deep breath, come up with how you should solve the problem. Do you both understand where I’m coming from?”
Niklas and Fern nodded, mostly because they just wanted to get the hell out of the Vent Room.
“Good. I’m glad we got this settled then.” With that out of the way, Fern was sent to vacuum the living room and Niklas to take out the trash with Ryan and Tamie.
...
“How come you make us take all of these pills even though you’re constantly on all of our asses about doing drugs?” Anima asked Greg during dinnertime. They were having stoemp, cassoeula, and cheesecake.
Greg put down his fork and asked, “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, you’re always saying that drugs are bad for you, yet we’re always having to take medication, which, by definition, are drugs,” Anima explained.
Everyone in the YouChannell Home put down their silverware and gaped their mouths open.
“Ooh, that’s a real ballsy thing to say here,” Tamie said to herself.
Niklas cleared his throat and told Anima, “Bitch, some of us NEED our medication to survive, especially you.”
Anima snorted and gave Niklas that same look as one of the scenes from Freaks and Geeks.
“Excuse me?” Niklas said, his eyes slightly twitching, “I’m pretty fucking sure that without your meds, you’d be the most fucked up bitch in this place!”
“Niklas,” Greg said in a warning voice, “This is NOT something to say to someone. You could’ve hurt Anima’s feelings by saying that.”
Niklas snorted. “Yeah, like she had any feelings in the first place,” he muttered under his breath.
Anima heard that. “I’m pretty damn sure that you’re in the same situation as I am, motherfucker!” she argued.
“No, I’m not!” Niklas argued back, “I don’t get into stupid shit all the time and get kicked out of a school that practically accepts everyone like you did!”
Anima’s face glowed a bright red as she sprang out of her chair and lunged at Niklas with Niklas trying to throw her off and Greg trying to separate the pair to take them to the Vent Room.
“Damn, you’se just asking to get your ass kicked today, aren’t you?!” Fern shouted at Niklas as he was dragged into the Vent Room.
“Fuck you!” Niklas shouted back right before Greg shut the Vent Room’s door.
“Niklas,” Greg started, “I want you to look at me.” When Niklas reluctantly looked up at Greg, he said, “You’ve been getting into a lot of arguments and fights today. Are you upset about something that I don’t know about?”
“Yeah. He’s upset about not having a fucking life,” Anima answered meanly.
“Mind you business, dipshit!” Niklas yelled angrily.
“Yeah, I think someone else told you that earlier this morning,” Anima said, chuckling to herself.
“Anima, sit down in your beanbag chair. I’ll get to you in a minute,” Greg said. He turned back to Niklas and did that same deep breathing exercise again. That took a good while before Niklas sank down into a blue beanbag chair and Greg repeated, “I see you’ve been getting into a lot of arguments and fights today. Are you upset about something that I don’t know about?”
Niklas huffed through his nose and mumbled, “I don’t know.”
“Yeah, that’s why he’s gotta be up in everyone else’s business,” Anima scoffed on her green beanbag chair.
“I told you to mind your BUSINESS!” Niklas growled loudly enough to shake the whole room.
“Don’t be a hypocrite, dipshit! Don’t do my girl Fern dirty!” Anima said.
“I’ll get to you in a minute, Anima,” Greg said. Again, sitting on a red beanbag chair, he turned back to Niklas and said, “Are you sure you don’t know what you’re upset about or are you saying that because you don’t want to tell me?”
“I’m being serious,” Niklas replied in a grunt.
Greg nodded and said, “It’s okay to be upset, but that’s not an excuse to pick on people and saying something offensive for no reason. If you really need to let it all out, you can always come to me, okay? And you have a journal I’ve given you. Either way, don’t start any fights just to express your anger. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Niklas nodded and rolled his eyes, only because he just wanted to get the whole thing over with
“And as for you-” Greg finally turned to Anima. “There are better ways to solve your problems. You could’ve told Niklas not to make fun of you instead of lunging at him without a second thought.”
“I was doing that when I called him a jackass and a hypocrite!” Anima balked.
“You could’ve told him not to pick on your without calling him a jackass and a hypocrite,” Greg pointed out, “Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Anima sighed, rolled her eyes, and nodded because like Niklas, she too wanted to get the whole thing over with.
“Good. I’m glad we got this settled then.” With that out of the way, Greg took Niklas and Anima back to the dinner table to finish eating. While he was eating his cheesecake, he looked over at the kids arguing and shouting at each other and wondered when Katja was ever coming back with the new kid; he also wondered what the new kid was going to be like and how they were going to adjust to this chaotic mess.
ManictheMod 