Details: Katja was born to two impoverished factory workers- Barbara (b. 1939) and Josef (1934-1970); her father died of heart disease when she was five. Despite this, her family tried to give her the best life that they could imagine. Katja never lost sight of that dream even after giving birth to twins Hans and Lena in August of 1984. After the reunification of Germany, Katja and her two children moved to Portland, Oregon where she became a caretaker at the YouChannell Home. She now lives a rather peaceful life (for a caretaker at the YouChannell Home) with two grown kids and a granddaughter named Olivia (b. 2011).
Katja likes the kids in the YouChannell Home, her children, tranquility, and having some fun. She doesn’t like violence, drugs, alcohol, and when someone makes the same mistakes she has made when she was younger.
Katja has what some consider a maternal instinct (what with having two kids, a grandchild, and works at a group home). As such, she is a very patient and caring person who can also be no-nonsense (sometimes less than Greg but sometimes more than him too). Since she has given birth as a young teenager, she knows how parenthood, especially teen parenthood, can frustrate a former/current occupant of the YouChannell Home.
The first thing Anima woke up to was total blackness. She couldn’t see or hear anything going on. She didn’t even know where her legs were. All she knew was that it was completely dark outside… or inside… and that she wanted out. Then, a stage light flashed right on top of her. Actually, two other stage lights flashed on top of two people who looked way too eerily familiar…
“You disgust me,” the woman snarled as she grabbed Anima by the shirt collar.
Anima’s face turned as red as a tomato and as hot as lava in a volcano. “Wh-What are you even talking about?!”
“Don’t talk back to me like that, you little pig!” the woman screeched at Anima as she slammed her against some sort of wall… a wall Anima couldn’t see because, well… everything was black.
“Get your hands off of me!” Anima screamed, trying to wriggle out of this monster’s grasp.
“No! Why should I take my hands off of me when you can’t even follow your own advice, you hypocrite?!” the woman screamed back, tightening her grip on Anima’s shirt.
“I didn’t put my hands on her! I didn’t put my hands on her!” Anima screeched, tears and snot running down her face onto her chin and eventually her shirt. Her breath was fast and hot, like the smoke coming out of a speeding locomotive train, and her angry tears were blurring her already shitty vision.
“Liar! Don’t give me any of that shit!” the woman’s rage pierced the skies. She slowly picked up Anima over her head and slammed her onto the pitch-dark ground. Anima didn’t see exactly what all came out of her, but she was pretty sure she was bleeding somewhere. When she looked up, she saw the woman standing over her menacingly. The woman held up her fist, her body shaking all over, but then she suddenly put her fist down for whatever reason.
“You’re not even worth it,” the woman growled in a low voice. With an angry glare, she turned away and walked out into the abyss, never to be seen again.
While Anima tried to get up and process what had happened, another person showed up and looked down at her. This person was a man with an evil smirk on his face.
“You know, we’re not that different, you and I,” the man told Anima, deviously licking his lips and rubbing his hands.
Anima barely lifted her head and barked, “What the fuck are you talking about?! We’re nothing alike, you creep!”
“Oh, don’t give me any of that, darling. We all know what you’ve done.” Just like that, the man also walked out into the abyss, never to be seen again.
What the hell had happened? Why did those two people look so familiar to her? Why did they sound and act so familiar? Were those two people her… no, they couldn’t be! She had been separated from them for years, and they were both locked up somewhere. It couldn’t have been them!
Anima tried to get up to confront the two, but, for some reason, her arms were completely pinned down. How?! Anima looked up to see if on those people was pinning her down to the ground again, but they weren’t there. It was someone else… someone else who also looked eerily familiar. This person was a white girl with brown hair. No, could it be…?
…Catherine?! But how?! And what was she talking about with impulses, or rather, impulsives, as she had always said?
“What are you talking about?!” Anima questioned, finally standing to her, “I didn’t do shit to you! I thought you wanted this just as much as I did! Don’t give me all of that bullshit!”
“You’re right,” Catherine admitted, bowing her head down.
“You’re damn right I’m right- what?!” After her eyes stopped blurring, Anima stared right into Catherine’s eyes, but it wasn’t her eyes. It was Penelope’s. It was Penelope’s soft brown eyes that stared lovingly into her soul as she lifted her up into her loving embrace.
Anima blinked back tears and asked in almost a whisper, “You-You really mean that?”
“Of course,” Penelope answered with a warm smile on her face.
For the first time in her life, something was glowing inside of Anima’s heart- something positive. Had there really been nothing wrong with her this whole time? Her relationship with Penelope… it was really okay? It was… there was nothing wrong with her. Why couldn’t she be herself and love Penelope?
“Anima,” Penelope began again.
“There’s… nothing wrong with me,” Anima said quietly to herself.
“Anima,” Penelope repeated.
“Everything’s gonna be okay,” Anima said more loudly, “I’ve done nothing wrong at all. In fact, I’m fine just the way I a-“
“Anima!” Penelope shouted, but it didn’t sound like her voice this time.
Anima opened her eyes and woke up to Katja standing right in front of her bed, staring straight into Anima’s soul with concern creasing her forehead and eyes.
Anima slowly propped herself up by the elbows and stared right back at Katja. “Wha… What happened?” she groggily asked.
“You were talking in your sleep,” Katja explained, kneeling down next to the young girl.
Talking in her sleep?! That was just absurd! “I don’t talk in my sleep,” Anima confidently insisted, sitting up straight.
Katja gently held Anima’s hand and quietly reassured her, “Well, whatever happens, Greg and I will always be here to help and support you no matter what. We love you just the way you are, and we will never abandon you for something you can’t choose.”
Help and support her no matter what? Love her jus the way she was? Never abandon her for something she couldn’t choose? What was this woman talking about? Anima almost asked Katja what the fuck she was talking about, but then… it all clicked. Katja must’ve been talking about what had happened yesterday afternoon after she had been caught with Penelope by her mother.
Jesus… was she really that out of it yesterday? If so, then what had happened yesterday could be what Katja was going on about. Anima looked down at herself and noticed she was wearing different clothes compared to yesterday. She also realized her hair had been tied up into a ponytail. Jesus Christ, did she throw up yesterday, too?!
“Breakfast is on the kitchen table,” Katja said, finally standing up and walking out of Anima’s room.
A few moments after Katja had left, Anima slowly got out of bed and put her socks and shoes on. Then, when she walked out of her room, she noticed a slip of notebook paper taped onto her door with something written on. Anima tore it off and read-
Typical Kishi to make something like that, but it was at least a nice sentiment. And it was something Anima needed at that moment, too. That was nice.
Anima finally arrived at the kitchen and sat down to eat her kitchen. Breakfast was pancakes and miso soup- an okay breakfast to start the day off with. The food was kind of cold, but it was still edible. After eating for a minute, however, Anima had feeling that the whole house was staring at her. So, she turned her head and saw Ryu-jin standing right in front of her with a shit-eating smirk on his stupid little face.
“Hey, I heard you’re a-” Ryu-jin started obnoxiously, leaning right into Anima’s face and breathing onto her skin with the same shit-eating grin on his face.
Oh, God. The good feeling just couldn’t last, could it? Anima bent her head down onto the table and tried to eat her breakfast as quickly as possible without any further incidents, but that asshole Ryu-jin wasn’t about to let up. He opened his mouth once more, but, thankfully, someone came to the rescue- someone special to Anima.
“Hey! You leave her alone, or else!” Kishi yelled at Ryu-jin from across the kitchen table with her fists clenched and pumped up like she was Rocky Balboa.
“Or else what?” Ryu-jin asked, staring at Kishi, trying hard not to laugh.
Kishi pushed her chair back and slowly marched towards the jackass, her fists still clenched and pumped up like Rocky Balboa’s.
“Alright, damn! Shit!” Ryu-jin said with an awkward chuckle, raising his hands up in surrender and walking back, “I was just messing with her!”
“Kishi, sit down and finish your breakfast. We don’t threaten people with violence,” Greg lectured, “Ryu-jin, we don’t make fun of people for something that’s out of their control.”
“I wasn’t making fun of her!” Ryu-jin balked, “I was teasing her, and-“
“My God, will you two just quit bickering? It’s too early to deal with all of this nonsense,” Faustine said to Ryu-jin and Kishi while she was working on her valedictorian speech.
Meanwhile, Katja had been staring out from the kitchen window. “My, it sure is a beautiful day outside today,” she commented as she opened the window, “It’s the perfect day for a high-school graduation.”
Faustine lowered her head and covered it with her arms. Steam was pouring out of her ears.
“Speaking of graduation…” Greg said. He looked over at Ryan, Tamie, and Faustine and added, “We’re a little late for graduation rehearsal. Remember, if we don’t make it to that, then we can’t attend graduation.” He looked over at Faustine and told her to hurry up.
“I just don’t fucking get that,” Ryan commented as the seniors left the house, “I mean, what if you’re sick before the rehearsal, but if you get better by the time it’s time to graduate?”
“If you’re sick, you’re sick,” Faustine blatantly answered right before slamming the door shut.
After breakfast had finished and everyone had finished their morning chores, Anima gave a quick smile and nod to Kishi. Kishi returned the favor. Then, right before Group Time, Anima walked outside towards the woods. She didn’t exactly know why she was walking towards the woods, but she guessed she just wanted some closure. She still remembered what Penelope had said about her parents way back earlier on Valentine’s Day.
“Remember this afternoon when Christian Seger called us faggots, lezbos, and dykes?”
…
“He’s not the only thing that thinks like that,” Penelope explained, “Lots of people think that, too. My parents are really closed-minded. You know how I like singing?”
Anima wished she could hear her sweet singing voice right about now. As she walked further into the woods, she didn’t hear anything coming from Penelope. Did her parents really disown her? Had she already left for Troutdale, or was she really abandoned by her parents? She hoped it wasn’t the latter. Her heart pounding against her chest, Anima ran further and further into woods, until she finally heard it- that sweet, beautiful singing voice!
After all the shit she had faced in the past 24 hours, it was such a relief to hear Penelope’s beautiful singing voice! Anima crept closer and closer to hear more of it, but then… something bad happened. Anima made an awful noise- a very awful noise. The worst noise she had ever made.
CRACK!
Anima jumped and fell back; Penelope also jumped and fell over the log. The girls soon got back on their feet and stared at each other for what seemed like forever.
“Anima?” Penelope asked, blinking rapidly.
“…Penelope?!” Anima exclaimed, “I can’t believe you’re still here!”
“Well, I don’t leave for Track Camp until-” And then Penelope blushed and looked down at her toes. She rubbed her arm and asked quietly, “This is about yesterday, isn’t it?”
Anima nodded and walked towards her girlfriend, her head bent down. “I thought your parents said they didn’t accept you for who you are,” she said, “I remember every word of it.”
Penelope blinked without saying a word for way too long before she sighed and asked what Anima was talking about.
“Don’t give me that shit!” Anima insisted, her face turning red, “I remember all the words you’ve said to me right before Valentine’s Day!” With her fists clenched and her eyes squeezed shut, she repeated every word Penelope had said to her about not only her parents, but also about that asshole Christian Seger.
Penelope sighed and explained, “Anima, listen. Yes, it’s true that my parents don’t really like who I am. And no, they didn’t accept me being gay. But that doesn’t mean they’re gonna kick me out.” She took a deep breath, stared at Anima, and asked, “You’re not getting kicked out, are you?”
Anima shook her head. “My folks took it pretty well,” she said.
Penelope smiled and hugged Anima. “See, everything’s gonna be okay!” she said. She caressed her head onto Anima’s and said more quietly, “It’s gonna be okay.”
The two girls stared into each other’s eyes for what seemed like everlasting moments before they inched closer and-
The girls didn’t know how long they had kissed, but by God, did it feel sooo good, especially considering the shit they had gone through yesterday! Finally, the girls broke away from each other and each inhaled deeply, their faces pink and flushed with glee.
“Hey, what time is it?” Anima asked after a few minutes.
Penelope looked down at her phone and answered, “It’s 9:49.”
“Oh, shit!” Anima exclaimed, “My folks are gonna be pissed if I’m late coming back home!” Anima pecked a quick kiss onto Penelope’s cheek and said she’d see her tomorrow.
“See you, too!” Penelope said, waving her hand.
As Anima ran back towards the YouChannell Group Home, she looked up at the clear blue sky and realized that everything was going to be okay.
“My, it sure is a beautiful day outside today,” Katja said to herself one warm morning in May as she opened the kitchen window.
It certainly was a beautiful day outside; it was going to be a beautiful day inside, too. School was about to end soon, especially for the seniors. Today was Class Day. Class Day was a day for the school administrators to announce which scholarships at which college/university some seniors were receiving. The seniors all had to wear their fanciest formal clothes possible. Speaking of…
“Ryan!” Greg called from the kitchen, “You’ve got one more minute to get finished getting dressed or else I’m coming in, do you understand?”
Ryan slowly stomped down the stairs, one loud clonk at a time, until he appeared in the kitchen wearing a long-sleeved, baby blue button-up shirt with khaki pants.
“Ryan,” Greg began, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Ryan stared at the tall black man liked he had smoked a whole pound of crack cocaine and answered uncertainly, “Forgetting what?”
Greg handed him the Class Day and graduation dress codes in order to receive a diploma.
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Ryan exclaimed irritably, “I seriously have to shave my beard for fucking Class Day?!”
“That’s what it says here,” Greg replied, pointing to a paragraph.
Ryan threw his hands up in the air and groaned, “Oh, my fucking God! We’re not even in the caps and gowns yet; why the fuck do I have to shave my beard off in the first place?!”
“Because Class Day and graduation are formal events, and nobody wants you to look like a dirty homeless person,” Faustine, who was stirring her oatmeal and writing down her valedictorian’s speech, answered in a flat voice.
Ryan swiftly turned his head to Faustine like an enraged owl and shouted, “Oi, fuck off, Faustine!”
“You know what?” Katja butted in, “I think Faustine’s reason is a good reason.”
“Well, I don’t!” Ryan argued with his arms crossed against his chest.
“Ryan, we’re not going to argue about this,” Greg stated once and for all, “Go back upstairs and shave your beard off.”
Ryan moaned and threw his hands up like a little bitch as he stormed back upstairs and slammed the upstairs bathroom’s door.
At least the underclassmen didn’t have to wear their school uniforms that day.
“I’m so glad we don’t have to wear school uniforms on Awards Day,” Kishi gushed to Anima at the kitchen table. She was wearing a ruby red dress made of polyester, and, for some strange reason, the freckles that were usually splattered all over her face weren’t there. Huh, that was strange.
“What do you mean ‘Awards Day’?” Anima asked.
“You know, when people get their awards for doing the best in a certain school subject,” Kishi explained.
Oh, that. Anima knew she didn’t have a chance at getting one of those. Thank God she kept it simple with a white sailor shirt, a red bowtie, and blue jeans.
Upstairs in the bathroom, everyone heard Ryan scream in agony as he tried to shave his beard off. “Holy shit!” he hollered like a fucking bitch, “I’m fucking bleeding!”
As most of the people in the house (especially and specifically Niklas) stifled their laughter, Kishi turned back to Anima and said-
“Is that why you’re wearing all that makeup?” Anima asked.
Despite the heavy amount of concealer on her face, showing only a slight blush of red, Kishi’s face and ears burned like lava in a volcano. Speaking of volcanos…
“Who the fuck used up all of my makeup?!” Fern erupted from the downstairs bathroom.
Kishi squirmed in her seat and twirled a strand of her hair. She looked down at an invisible watch on her wrist and exclaimed, “Oh, no! We’re gonna be late and miss the bus!”
While waiting at the bus stop, their friends Lidiya, Amanda, and River all looked at Kishi like she was a crack-addicted hooker on the streets.
“Okay, I don’t mean to be that person, but where are your freckles?” Lidiya asked Kishi. She was wearing a white, long-sleeved work blouse with a black work skirt and black work shoes.
“I’m wearing concealer on my face. Doesn’t it look good?” Kishi answered.
“Yeah, but why are you wearing so much makeup in the first place?” Amanda asked. She was wearing a white, long-sleeved work blouse and red tie with a black jean skirt, a black choker on her neck, and black boots.
“In case I win an award,” Kishi answered with an arrogant smile on her face.
River, who was wearing a maroon blouse with bell-bottom sleeves and khakis, wheezed in laughter and exclaimed, “What award, nigga? The only people getting any fucking awards are the super smart kids who have been going to this school they entire lives.”
Kishi, with her eye twitching, sharply turned to River and asked in an irritated tone of voice, “How do you know that?!”
“Because that’s how all award shows are,” River answered casually, “If you’re lucky, you’ll probably get a little mention for making the honor roll.”
“She’s got a point, Kish,” Lidiya said with an apathetic shrug.
Kishi’s shoulders hunched up as she twitched her eye. “Yeah, well… how would you know I won’t get any awards today?!”
“Because it’s common fucking sense, nigga!” River argued, “How the fuck have you not noticed this shit by now?!”
Kishi and River continued their arguing as they all got onto the school bus (with Lidiya occasionally butting in), yet there was no sign of Penelope anywhere. Weird, was she sick from school or something, or did she have an appointment somewhere and her parents were planning on taking her to school later?
When Anima arrived at school, she noticed everyone, or rather damn near everyone, was wearing their most formal outfits for Awards Day. This was certainly true as she was walking to Ms. Blume’s art class.
“Oh, my God!” McKenna Suzuki sighed heavily to Kyla Wong and Violet Blume, “Awards Day is today!” McKenna was wearing a pink dress with a pleated skirt and magenta high heels.
“Oh, my God, McKenna. We all know you’re gonna win a bunch of awards. Why do you always do this act every Awards Day?” Kyla said. She was wearing a slinky black dress and fancy black loafers.
“I know I’m gonna win the art award for making the highest average in Ms. Blume’s class,” Violet said. She was wearing a white tank top with a long, tan vest that had fringes torn at the bottom as well as blue jeans and brown flip-flops.
“Wait, where’d you get that from?” Kyla questioned.
Violet shrugged. “I looked over at the those files Ms. Blume had on her desk a few days ago.”
Kyla and McKenna stared at Violet in disbelief and awe. Then, Kyla yelped at the top of her lungs-
McKenna sighed and shook her head. “Nepotism at its finest, ladies and gents,” she said to herself.
…
Because the school system wanted to suck every senior’s dick, every other student was required to attend the Class Day ceremony as well. Somehow, Niklas and Marianne managed to find seats together despite being in different homerooms.
“Holy shit, Ryan actually shaved his beard off?” Marianne asked Niklas right before the actual ceremony started.
“Fuck yes!” Niklas replied, stifling his laughter, “And he actually fucking cut himself while he was shaving, and there was blood everywhere on the bathroom floor!”
“Jesus Christ!” Marianne also managed to stifle her laughter somehow. “I wonder what he looks like now.”
“You’re gonna see in a little while,” Niklas said, “It’s gonna be really fucking funny!”
Sure enough, as soon as they saw Ryan walking in the walkway, Niklas whispered a nasty idea into Marianne’s idea, which made her smack Ryan’s ass in three… two… one…
SMACK!
Ryan jumped, swiftly turned around to face Niklas and Marianne, and whispered harshly with clenched teeth-
Niklas and Marianne, clearly not giving a shit about Ryan’s wellbeing, covered their mouths and tried their hardest not to snicker. However, as soon as he left (mostly because some other students were behind him and wanted to get Class Day over with), the two “pranksters” let it all go. Their laughter quickly filled up the entire auditorium, and it took two teachers to drag them into the ISS room, where they continued to laugh. Saliva dripped onto Niklas’s Pink Floyd T-shirt while he held onto his crotch while Marianne wiped some tears of laughter onto her Nirvana T-shirt.
“Did I mention that Ryan screamed like a bitch when he cut himself while shaving?” Niklas wheezed.
That was the funniest shit these two had ever heard of.
After the Class Day assembly had ended, Riley, who had come with Greg, ran over to Marilyn and hugged her. “Girl, I’m so proud of you!” she squealed as she squeezed Marilyn tighter than the tightest skirt hugging against a girl’s thigh.
“Aww, boo! I wish you could’ve been with me, too!” Marilyn replied, squeezing Riley into an equally tight hug.
As soon as Marilyn said that, Riley felt a swift twang of agony punch her in the guts. Yet another reminder of her failures. “Yeah… yeah, me too,” she said quietly, staring at the ground.
“But don’t worry,” Marilyn tried to reassure Riley, “You’re gonna have a job soon, aren’t you?”
Riley gulped. Why did Marilyn have to bring that up? Okay, no need to panic. Just take a deep breath; she was gonna find something worthwhile soon. “Y-Yeah, Imma have a job real soon. You gon’ be going to college soon, right?”
This time, it was Marilyn’s turn to feel a swift twang of agony punching her in the guts. “Yeah… yeah, I am.”
“Great! We can at least see each other during breaks.”
Marilyn gulped and blinked, her dark brown eyes shifting to the ground, where her feet were shifting her own weight. “Daddy says I have to go to college in Berkeley,” she almost whispered.
Riley’s heart skipped a beat. Berkeley was in the middle of California; Portland was all the way in northern Oregon, bordering the south of Washington state. She may never see Marilyn again. “Damn… I’m gonna miss you so much,” she said, tears stinging her eyes.
Tears stung Marilyn’s eyes, too. She stood still, stiff as a board, for the longest time until she suddenly pushed herself onto Riley and exclaimed, “I’m gonna miss you too, girl!”
The two girls embraced each other for the longest time until they reluctantly let go of each other and stared at each other some more. Finally-
On the ride home, Cereza went on and on about what life would be like in middle school.
“And I can finally wear make-up and own a cell phone and go on dates,” she droned on and on, as if anyone cared.
“And you’ll have to wear school uniforms,” Axel interrupted in a blasé tone of voice, trying hard not to fall back asleep.
Cereza turned her head and gave Axel a nasty glare. “¡No interrumpas mis fantasías, pendejo!” she hissed with clenched teeth.
Axel rolled his eyes and slumped his head down onto his chest, failing to stay awake.
“I don’t see why school uniforms are such a big deal,” Siënna said, “I wore them when I was in school in Belgium, and it wasn’t such a big deal there.”
The high schoolers scoffed at Siënna’s comment because they knew how much hell school uniforms really were, especially for those who didn’t wear them in their home countries. Besides, wasn’t America supposed to be a free country? If so, why the school uniforms?
The only person (besides Siënna and Axel) who didn’t seem to give a shit about school uniforms (or, rather, wasn’t paying attention) was Ryan. There were much worse things on his mind, and Greg could tell by the harsh scowl frozen on his face and how he was positioned in the back- slouched down with his arms crossed against his chest.
“Ryan,” Greg began gently, “Is there something you want to talk to me about when we get home?”
Before Ryan could utter a single sound, Tamie blurted out, “Nikki groped his ass during the Class Day ceremony.”
“Oi, shut the fuck up, Tamie!” Ryan shouted at the fat, alcoholic fuck.
“Ryan,” Greg warned, “Just because you’re upset about something doesn’t make it okay for you to lash out at other people. We’ll talk about your situation when we arrive at home, okay?”
Ryan scoffed and slid further down his seat with his arms crossed against his chest. Yeah, right. Like any of that would be resolved. Looked like he had to take things into his own hands.
Speaking of taking things into Ryan’s own hands, Niklas was still chuckling to himself, even though he had been put into ISS and damn well knowing that Greg was going to get on his ass for that. But Greg wasn’t going to be the only person getting onto Niklas’s ass…
“I’m gonna fucking kill you for this!” Ryan screamed at the top of his lungs as he lunged towards Niklas.
Niklas, forgetting for a second that he and Marianne had “pranked” Ryan during the Class Day ceremony, put his hands up in defense and questioned, “Dude, what the fuck are you talking about?!”
“You know damn well what the fuck I’m talking about, you fucking pervert!” Ryan answered, his face red as a tomato and his breath as fast as lightning, grabbing at the collar of Niklas’s shirt.
Finally understanding what Ryan was talking about, Niklas pushed himself away and loudly insisted, “It was a fucking joke!”
“Does this look like I’m fucking laughing, mate?!” Ryan screeched, his spit splattering onto Niklas’s face.
Niklas wiped the spit off of his face and insisted again, “It was a fucking joke! You do this shit to me all the time! What makes this any different?!”
“I never slapped your ass, asshole!” By that point, Ryan’s face was redder than a tomato and hotter than lava in a volcano. But before a physical fight could break out, Greg separated the two young men and guided them to the Vent Room.
“I need to know what’s going on with you two,” Greg said in a low voice, sitting on a yellow beanbag chair.
“Nikki slapped my ass during the Class Day ceremony!” Ryan snitched, his face still red and burning from embarrassment and shame.
“It was a fucking joke!” Niklas loudly insisted for the third time, “And it wasn’t even me who slapped his ass! It was Marianne!”
“You think that’s gonna make a fucking difference?!” Ryan shouted.
“Well, you do this shit to me all the time! Now, all of a sudden, I give you a taste of your own medicine, and you get a stick up your ass about it?!” Niklas argued, his own face turning red.
Ryan was about to lung at Niklas again, but Greg held him back. “I’ve never slapped your ass before, you fucking pervert!” he shouted while trying to wriggle out of Greg’s grasp, “You are a sick fuck, and I fucking hate you for this!”
“Ryan, take a deep breath,” Greg told the angry ginger. He turned to Niklas and asked, “Niklas, is it true that you and Marianne decided to slap Ryan on his… buttocks?”
“It was a fucking joke!” Niklas insisted, his face growing redder than ever, “And it wasn’t even my idea in the first place! It was Marianne’s! I just thought it was funny!”
Greg took a deep breath and stared at Niklas right into his green eyes. “Niklas,” he began, “Sexual harassment is not funny. It is not a joke to make; it is a serious offense that hurts other people. I want you to apologize to Ryan right now.”
Niklas balked, his jaw dropped. “But I didn’t do shit to him!” he argued, throwing his hands out in the air.
“Niklas,” Greg warned in a low voice, “You encouraged your girlfriend to sexually harass Ryan. Sexual harassment is not a joke. Now, I want you to apologize to Ryan right now. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Niklas sighed and huffed through his nostrils. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled under his breath.
“What are you sorry for, Niklas?” Greg egged on, “I want you to say clearly what you’re sorry for.”
Niklas growled and repeated clearly, although with his teeth clenched, “I’m sorry for slapping your ass during the Class Day assembly.”
“Thank you, Niklas,” Greg said with a tiny, serene smile on his face. Ryan just glared at Niklas with the same frown on his face until Greg made him shake hands with the young man whose girlfriend had slapped his ass earlier.
…
“I can’t believe this!” Kishi whined on the way home from school, “I didn’t win one award!” Indeed, that was true. River was right; the only ones who won any awards were the super smart kids like McKenna Suzuki and Kyla Wong. Violet Blume was right, too; she won the art award from her cousin’s class. Even River won an award for making straight A’s throughout the year. The only time Kishi’s name was mentioned was when the principal was announcing the names of those who made A’s and B’s all year round.
“Gee, kind of makes all of that makeup not worth it, huh?” Lidiya said more to herself, which made Amanda and River giggle.
Kishi, who had heard that, blushed a heavy red and turned her head. “Oh, like you’re in any position to laugh, Lidiya! You didn’t win any awards, either!”
“Yeah, but at least I didn’t waste my time putting on a ton of makeup and deluding myself,” Lidiya argued.
“Yeah, come on, Kishi. You had to have known that you probably weren’t going to win an award,” Amanda added.
Kishi’s eye twitched, and her fists curled up into balls. “It couldn’t help to be prepared, you know… just in case!”
“Just in case,” River mumbled to herself, making Lidiya laugh in the process.
Kishi stormed over towards her “friends” and was about to give them a piece of her mind when Amanda asked where Anima was.
“I don’t know,” Kishi answered, her face and posture returning to normal, “I did know that she got off the bus with us.”
“Yeah, and she was walking with us for a little bit,” Lidiya added, “I wonder why she isn’t with us right now.”
“Yeah… that is a good point,” River said, “This bitch making it look like a missing person’s report.”
Amanda gulped and replied with, “Well, that really worries me. She’s been doing this a lot lately.”
Kishi gulped and rubbed her hand onto her arm. “Yeah, me too. Where could she be right now?”
Where Anima was at that moment was in the woods, looking for Penelope. She didn’t have the energy to listen to Kishi bitch about not receiving any awards. Besides, Penelope wasn’t on the bus. What was up with that? Her heart started rapidly beating out of her chest, and her hands clammed up. Oh, God! She hoped Penelope’s parents hadn’t found out about them! Her chest tightened as her breathing increased in speed. Where was Penelope?! Was she okay?! Anima’s feet crunched on leaves and branches until she heard a noise that finally relieved her- Penelope’s singing.
God, she had such a beautiful singing voice! Anima could just listen to it all day; Penelope’s voice was as smooth as silk, as deep as dark chocolate, and as melodic as a symphony from Mozart. How could anyone not want to listen to this beautiful singing? Anima had to get closer to hear better! So, she tiptoed closer and closer to Penelope as quietly as possible so that she couldn’t interrupt that amazing voice. But, of course, she did interrupt when she accidentally stepped on a stick, making it crack so loudly that Penelope yelped an off-pitch noise and jumped three feet in the air.
“Jesus, Anima! You scared me!” Penelope exclaimed, still tense from the crackling of the stick Anima had stepped on.
“I’m sorry, shit!” Anima replied stumbling back until she tripped on another stick and landed on her ass. Penelope ran over and helped Anima up back onto her feet with the generous grasp of her hands.
“So… where have you been today?” Anima asked after a few awkward moments of silence, “I didn’t see you on the bus this morning or afternoon.”
“My mother was signing me up for track camp today,” Penelope answered in a low sigh as the two girls walked further into the woods.
Oh, yeah… track camp. Penelope had told Anima about her going to one in Troutdale for the summer. Bummer. “So… it’s official,” she said quietly.
Penelope grabbed Anima’s hands and answered, “Yeah, I’ve already told you this before.” She looked down, her brown filled with melancholy, and added, “I’m really gonna miss you, though.”
“Yeah… me, too,” Anima replied quietly. Despite the silence, Anima’s heart was beating loudly and rapidly. A strange feeling weakened her legs, and it felt as if she was about to explode at any second. The two stared at each other’s eyes for several silent moments, gazing at their beauties, until they inched closer to each other, puckered their lips, and… and… and-
“Penelope!” a woman’s shrill shriek pierced the woods.
Anima and Penelope jumped in fear and quickly turned their heads to see an average-height woman with short brown hair and blue work clothes on. That woman looked eerily familiar… why did Anima have a bad feeling in her gut? She glanced back at Penelope, then at the woman again, and… no! It couldn’t be!
Ms. Ross, the principal of that special school Anima used to go to- the whole reason why she was in this situation in the first place! Well, one thing was sure- she damn sure wasn’t going back! Not now, not ever!
“Mom!” Penelope yelped, dropping Anima from her shaking hands, “What are you doing here?!”
“I should ask you the same thing, Penelope Anne Boucher!” Penelope’s mother exclaimed, “What are you doing here?!”
“I was just hanging out with a friend, Mom! What’s wrong with that?!” Penelope answered, her voice cracking and tears running down her cheeks.
“Friends don’t lean up against each other to the point where they’re about to kiss one another,” Penelope’s mother argued, “That’s something lovers do.” She stormed over to Anima and added in a stern voice, “Help me find this person’s parents. We need to talk.”
After being forced to tell Mrs. Boucher where she lived, Anima felt her feet being dragged towards the YouChannell Group Home. Once they arrived, Mrs. Boucher banged on the wooden front door with her fist until Katja answered with a confused look on her face.
“Hello, is this your child?” Mrs. Boucher asked Katja in a stern voice, pointing down at bawling Anima.
Katja stared at Anima for an uncomfortable moment before looking back up at this strange lady and answering, “Yes… is something the matter here?”
“Yes, I caught your child committing highly intimate acts in the woods with my daughter.” Mrs. Boucher pushed Anima towards Katja inside the house. “I’d suggest you talk to her about this.” With that out of the way, she stormed away, gripping Penelope’s wrist and dragging her away from Anima… possibly for good.
Katja looked down at Anima once more and gently guided her into the Vent Room. “Anima,” she whispered, kneeling down to the girl’s level, “Is there anything you want to tell me about? You with that girl- what was that woman talking about with you two?”
Anima’s legs were already weak and wet by that point, but she really didn’t give a shit. She was getting kicked out by tomorrow anyway, so might as well just get it out of the way. So, Anima took a deep breath and shouted loudly enough for the whole house, the whole neighborhood, the whole world to hear-
Katja put her hands to her mouth in a speechless shock.
“God, I can’t wait until we finally start high school!” Lidiya grouched as she and her friends walked home from school one cloudy, chilly afternoon.
“Tell me about it!” Kishi added, rolling her eyes in exasperation.
“Aw, I’m gonna miss you guys when you get there next year,” Amanda told them in a somewhat whiny voice, throwing herself onto Lidiya and giving her a bear hug.
“Ya’ll realize ya’ll gonna have to take more standardized tests, right?” River told them both in a condescending tone of voice.
Both Lidiya and Kishi slowly turned their heads to glare menacingly at River. What kind of young child wanted to be reminded of standardized testing in high school?! High school was about getting driver’s licenses, looking at college applications, senior skip days, more dances and parties, and overall more freedom! More standardized testing was the exact opposite of what their expectations were!
“Shut up, River,” Lidiya grumbled, quickly turning her head away.
River shrugged and smirked with a sly twinkle in her brown eyes. “Alrightie then. I was just saying,” she said more to herself before shoving her hands into the pockets of her orange school skirt.
The gang continued to walk home in silence until they bumped into a young, voluptuous black woman wearing a black Batman T-shirt and blue jeans that hugged her body and rolling a bright red baby stroller which carried a young black toddler in it. Something about her looked familiar- her careless posing and the child in the stroller- and then something clicked. Was this… was this Leandra Miller?! They haven’t seen her in, like, six months, which might as well have been forever!
“Leandra?!” Kishi exclaimed, quickly stepping back in shock, “What have you been doing this entire time?! We haven’t seen you in forever!”
“I dropped out of school,” Leandra answered with a slight shrug, “Now I’m a stripper.”
Stripper?! That was the most and yet the least surprising statement Leandra had ever said.
“Do you make any money doing all of this?” Kishi asked.
That was when Leandra pulled out a whole wad of twenty-dollar bills out of her jean pockets.
Twenty dollars was a lot of money for an eighth grader, so imagine several wads of twenty-dollar bills being earned all at once. Yeah… that was a lot of money.
“Wait, how can you earn all that money without even going to high school?” Amanda asked in pure awe.
Leandra merely shrugged and answered, “That’s just part of being a stripper.” Then she grabbed her son’s stroller and walked away.
The girls just stood there in complete silence for several minutes before finally walking the rest of their ways back home.
“Damn, this really makes me think twice about high school,” River stated.
Lidiya nodded. “You ever think that if any one of us never goes to high school, we’ll make a whole lot of money like that?” she asked.
“I’ve never really thought about that,” Kishi said, “I’ve always been told that you had to graduate high school and go to college if you wanted to be successful.”
The girls started talking about high school again, which made Anima herself think about high school. Believe it or not, there was one good thing about going to high school- going to the same school as Penelope. Hell, maybe she would be in some of the same classes as Penelope! That would be a dream come true. Speaking of Penelope, where was she? Anima hadn’t seen her in a few days, and she really missed her. Maybe it would be a good idea to wait for Penelope out at the playground near the woods, like she had done for her.
So, after school, Anima walked out right towards the slide on the playground with Piro and Katja, where she waited for Penelope. And wait she did… for moments and moments and moments. The sun barely shined, but she waited on… and waited… and waited… but the only person who even noticed her was Piro.
“Menstrual Man! Menstrual Man!” Piro cried out as he ran up to Anima with a stick in his hands.
Oh, God! “What the fuck do you want?” Anima asked in a groan.
“It’s Jason! Jason… Jason…” Piro’s voice strained for a few more seconds, trying to find words to say, but the only thing he could come up with was, “We gotta stop Jason!”
Anima heaved a gusty sigh. “Look, asshole. I don’t have any time for this shit. I’m trying to meet up with someone. Can you please not bother me?”
Piro looked up at Anima’s face, straight into her eyes, with confusion and disappointment in his own eyes. “B-B-But, Jason-“
“Will you please fucking leave?!” Anima shouted at him.
Piro ran away from Anima with tears running down his face and a sad howl coming out of his mouth. Anima heaved a gusty sigh and slid back under the slide where she waited for Penelope once more. Where the hell was she? It wasn’t that late, and it wasn’t that late either. This was boring- oh, so boring! She kind of regretted telling Piro to fuck off, but if she had been playing with him, she would’ve missed Penelope. Nothing was worse than missing out on Penelope! So, she stayed under the slide and tried to entertain herself the best she could.
“Hey, little boy. Want some candy?” Anima mumbled in a small voice.
“Who are you talking to?” a young woman’s voice asked.
Anima jumped in fear, bumping her head in the process. She looked up to see who that was and blushed a deep maroon when she found out it was-
Steam was pouring out of Anima’s ears when Penelope asked that question again. “N-N-N-Nobody! I wasn’t talking to anyone!”
“Then why were you sounding like a creepy pedophile?” Penelope asked, clearly not impressed with the girl’s answer.
Oh… no! “I wasn’t acting like a creepy pedophile!” Anima exclaimed at the top of her lungs.
“Oh, come on! That’s exactly what a creepy pedophile would say!” Penelope argued.
Damn, that was a good point. Anima crawled out from under the slide to see what Penelope wanted from her in the first place.
“I just wanted to say hello,” Penelope merely said.
Anima’s heart sank. Damn, was that really it? Well, that sucked. “H-Hi.” Was that all Penelope wanted to say to her? “How have eh… how have things been doing for you?”
“Fine,” Penelope answered flatly. The two girls just stood there and stared at each other for what seemed like hours.
“Jesus, this is getting fucking ridiculous!” Anima thought. She took a deep breath and was about to say something when Katja shouted from a distance, “Anima, it’s time to go home now!”
Damn, it was time to go home already?! They had barely even talked to each other! Anima sighed and looked at Penelope’s eyes. “I’ll… I’ll see you soon, okay?”
Penelope nodded. “Yeah, see you soon.” Then she did the strangest thing.
Anima’s entire face burned; she had never had somebody hug her like this before! She had especially never been hugged as a means of comfort or love before. What made Penelope do that? Why would anyone hug her? She was unhuggable, unlovable, un… untouchable. At least, Anima thought she was untouchable. Maybe not. After all, it didn’t stop him from getting his way, did it?
“Anima, I’ve already told you it’s time to go home now!” Katja called out from a distance.
Anima wanted to move her legs and get the hell out of there, but her legs were stuck and too wobbly to pick up. Anima’s breath sped up, and her heart was beating out of her chest. This was not good, this was not good, this was not…
And then, everything went black.
…
“Anima,” Katja’s voice called out from a long distance, “Anima sweetie, are you okay?”
Anima slowly and groggily opened her eyes to see Katja kneeling right beside her bed. “Wha… What happened?” she asked in a moan.
“You passed out after some girl hugged you at the playground,” Katja answered, “Was that girl someone you’re close with?”
Oh no, that dreaded question. Had Katja figured it out; she hoped not. That would be awful! Anima still remembered what Penelope had said on Valentine’s Day.
“Remember this afternoon when Christian Seger called us faggots, lezbos, and dykes?”
“He’s not the only thing that thinks like that. Lots of people think that, too.”
“I just wanna rest for a bit,” Anima groaned turning away from Katja and from the whole world.
“Are you sure?” Katja asked.
Anima nodded, though barely.
“Okay then.” Right before Katja opened the door, she said, “I just want to let you know that dinner will be ready in about ten minutes.”
As soon as the door shut, Anima heaved a shuddered shy. She couldn’t believe someone had come so close to discovering the truth between her and Penelope, and it was Katja of all people! Anima pulled her green blanket over her head and squeezed her eyes shut. She had to be way more careful with her and Penelope; nobody should ever know about their relationship lest they get killed for it.
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.
It was a typical day in Ms. Mitchell’s eighth-grade English class… allegedly.
Ms. Mitchell continued on with the same bored tone of voice, “River, why don’t you tell the rest of the class about yourself?”
River barely blinked as she stood straight as a board and introduced herself in a half-assed tone to the class, “My name’s River Ziegler, I’m from South Carolina, my parents are in the navy and my uncle’s a plumber here, and I like listening to Miranda Lambert and Usher.”
Lidiya snorted and muttered to Anima, who was sitting next to her, “White trash.”
Anima understood what that comment meant due to that one time at Lidiya’s house a couple of weeks ago.
“Hey, somebody’s moving into that house across yours on Shiheed Street,” Lidiya announced to Anima and Kishi as she walked in, carrying a big, red, plastic bowl and a bag of Lay’s cheddar jalapeno chips.
“You mean the one across our house?” Kishi asked, sitting on Lidiya’s wooden floor.
Lidiya nodded as she stuffed a few chips into her mouth. “I heard she’s coming from South Carolina.” She swallowed her chips and muttered under her breath, “White trash.”
Amanda nearly spat out her chips. “Hey!” she exclaimed in a whiny voice, “Not everyone from the south is white trash!”
“I don’t know, you guys don’t do a good job with not proving yourselves to not be white trash,” Anima replied. She looked around the room for a bit before asking, “What’s white trash supposed to mean?”
Amanda threw her hands out and cried out, “Are you serious?! You’re calling me white trash, yet you don’t even know what it means!”
“Jesus, I wasn’t calling you white trash. I was calling the others white trash,” Anima said. She turned to Lidiya and asked again, “So what’s white trash mean?”
To put it in the shortest, classiest term- “They’re usually racist, sexist, homophobic alcoholics who have pregnant fourteen-year-old girls as girlfriends.”
So, in other words… half of the people in the YouChannell Group Home.
“River, why don’t you sit between Anima and Lidiya for the moment?” Ms. Mitchell recommended, motioning for the girls to raise their hands.
Anima and Lidiya wanted to whisper to River as she sat down between the two girls, but then Ms. Mitchell would bitch at them about whispering in class while she was going on about subject-verb agreements before state testing arrived. So they waited until lunch when they were safe to talk aloud.
“So, River…” Lidiya began, “How do you like Oregon so far? Do you think it’s better than South Carolina? A lot uh… classier?”
River shrugged. “I don’t know… it’s aight here, I suppose,” she answered, putting a bite of mixed fruit into her mouth, “Pretty fucking cold here though.”
“So, you prefer living back home in South Carolina because it’s warmer there?” Lidiya said.
“Hell no!” River snorted, “Most of the people there are bigoted ass white trash who gotta say something homophobic every ever other minute!”
Lidiya, Anima, and Kishi, who had been eating their food the entire time, laid down their forks and mentally dropped their jaws, especially Lidiya and Anima.
“I didn’t know you were an ally for gay people, River,” Kishi, who had been eating cornbread, said.
“I’m bisexual,” River stated, “I ain’t gonna tolerate that shit.” She sipped some white milk before adding, “Besides, ain’t Portland supposed to be, like, the gay capital of America?”
“Uh… I guess so,” Lidiya answered, uncertain of where this conversation was going, “Why’d you ask that?”
“That’s what I heard.” River tore off a piece of cornbread and threw it in her mouth. “It’s a good thing, too.”
The rest of the girls ate in silence while staring at River, not knowing what else to say until Lidiya finally had the courage to ask, “Hey, River. You wanna come to my house after school?”
River put down her milk and shrugged. “Sure.” She ate her last piece of mixed fruit and asked, “Where ya’ll live?”
…
The walk on the way home from school was a long and quiet one, mostly because River and Amanda have never met each other before.
“Um… hi,” Amanda awkwardly said to River.
“What’s up?” River replied back, staring at the young ginger seventh-grader with uncertainty and confusion.
Amanda looked over at Lidiya and asked-
“Oh, oh yeah. Amanda, this is the new girl River. River, this is my best friend Amanda,” Lidiya said. She turned to Amanda and added, “River’s that girl from South Carolina that we were talking about a couple of weeks ago.”
“What’s up?” River said once more, pulling her hand out towards Amanda.
“Um… howdy,” Amanda replied back, shaking River’s hand as she stared at her with uncertainty and a little bit of suspicion, “It’s real nice meeting another Southerner here in Oregon.”
“Southerner?!” River yanked her hand out of Amanda’s and shouted, “Shit, nigga! I didn’t know you was one of me!”
The other girls stepped back from River in a bit of shock. The only type of white person they’ve ever heard say the n-word were members of the Klu Klux Klan and edgy white boys on the internet.
“So uh, hey… you guys wanna hang out at my house?” Lidiya asked to break the awkward silence.
“Yeah, hold on. Lemme go change my clothes for a bit,” River answered. She walked to her house, the very same house that was across the YouChannell Home.
Who would’ve thunk that River Ziegler of all people would be both the new student at their school and the new neighbor on their street?
“Damn, is it always this fucking cold in Portland?!” River complained in a loud voice, rubbing her arms with her hands. She had returned wearing a puke green camouflage coat, tight, navy blue skinny jeans, and thick, loud, brown snow boots.
Lidiya merely shrugged. “It can always get worse,” she answered.
Amanda patted River on the shoulder and added, “Don’t worry. If I can get used to it, you can get used to it, too.”
At Lidiya’s house in her room, they sat on the floor in a circle eating Doritos Cool Ranch potato chips. There wasn’t really much to say because most of what had been talked about had been talked about during lunch period. The room was filled with so much awkward silence, in fact, that when Lidiya’s father Mr. Utano arrived home from work, they were all still sitting there.
“Hey, Lidiya! I’m surprised your friends are still here,” Mr. Utano said with a slight chuckle. He looked over at River and asked, “Who’s this girl?”
“Oh, yeah. Dad, this is River. River, this is my dad,” Lidiya introduced the two to each other.
River stood up and walked towards Mr. Utano. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir,” she said, holding out her hand for a shake.
“You, too,” Mr. Utano replied as he and the strange girl shook hands.
“So… Mr. Utano,” River started, “What were things like when you were a child?”
The smile on Mr. Utano’s face disappeared as he plopped down onto Lidiya’s bed. “I spent most of my childhood in the 1980s,” he answered, “Do you know what was the big thing in the 1980s?”
“The AIDS epidemic?” River guessed.
Mr. Utano nodded. “Very good. And do you know who was the most affected by the AIDS epidemic in the 80s?”
“…Gay people.”
Mr. Utano nodded again. “That’s right. Reagan made fun of the LGBTQ+ community during all of that. Now, imagine internalizing that message all throughout your childhood- gay people causing the AIDS epidemic, and back then, AIDS was a death sentence. Imagine internalizing the message that if you’re gay, you’re gonna spread a deadly disease to everyone. Now, imagine internalizing all of that as a child and then realizing you’re a gay teenager in the 90s.” He sighed and added, “Thank God my parents were one of the few people who would accept a gay child in their home.”
“Hol’ on, I thought Portland was, like, the gay capital of America,” River said, “I mean, I know things were shitty back in the day, but I’m bisexual, and I thought things have gotten better around here. Like, some states have even legalized gay marriage. So it’s safe to be gay in America, right?”
Mr. Utano sighed and rubbed the temples on his forehead. “God, I wish I could say that,” he glumly answered. He looked over at his daughter and asked, “Lidiya, you remember when I lost my job, right?”
“Yeah, why?” Lidiya answered, her eyebrows expressing confusion.
Mr. Utano took a deep breath before he explained, “It was August 14, 2004- less than a decade ago. I went to the Eugene/Springfield Pride Festival that was happening. It was fun; I met a cute guy there, and we got our picture taken together- I was kissing him on the cheek. Well, that picture was printed in some newspaper my old boss used to read. He found out, his associates found out, and I ended up getting fired for it. Imagine that- one little picture that was taken on one day celebrating something that was a part of who I am was enough to render me unemployed.”
“Wait, I thought firing people for being gay was illegal here!” River exclaimed, “That’s not fair! You should sue them for discriminating against you!”
“It wasn’t illegal in 2004,” Mr. Utano stated, “It only became illegal in 2008, which is a good thing. With the way things are going right now, I think it’s gonna be your generation who’s gonna have total equal rights for not just the LGBTQ+ community, but for many other groups as well.”
“Yeah, did you know that homosexuality is a crime in seventy-eight countries?” Lidiya added.
“Well, that’s just fucked up!” River said, “That shouldn’t even be a thing! You shouldn’t be able to discriminate against someone for something they can’t even control!”
Mr. Utano nodded and checked his phone to see what time it was. “Welp, looks like it’s getting late,” he said, “Your parents might be worrying about where you guys are.”
The rest of the girls said their good-byes to Lidiya, and as they walked out of the house, Anima caught a glimpse of a picture that looked too much like the one that got Mr. Utano fired from his first job.
Was that the picture that- it was. Anima stared at it for several moments, remember what had happened on Valentine’s Day when she and Penelope were in the woods together.
Penelope sniffled and said, “Remember this afternoon when Christian Seger called us faggots, lezbos, and dykes?”
Oh… that. “Yeah, why?”
“He’s not the only thing that thinks like that,” Penelope explained, “Lots of people think that, too.”
Anima had figured that the worst that would happen to her was getting called a bunch of stupid names by asshole seventh-graders like Christian Seger or someone’s parents getting pissed off. She had never thought about getting fired from a job or getting arrested for something that she couldn’t control. What kind of fucked up world was this?!
“Hey, Anima!” Kishi’s voice interrupted Anima’s thoughts, “Are you okay? You look kind of pale.”
Anima jumped and looked over at Kishi. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she answered weakly, “Why’d you ask that?”
“Because you look kind of pale,” Kishi answered, pointing at her face.
“Yeah, you do look kind of pale,” Amanda added, “Are you sure you’re okay because that’s not what healthy people are supposed to look like.”
“Yeah, I can attest to that,” River said, “Are you sick or something? You coming down with, like, the flu?”
“I’m not sick, and I’m not pale! So piss off, and leave me alone!” Anima yelled at the three girls. She stormed away with her head lowered and her feet scraping the rough concrete and dirt ground. They wouldn’t understand; none of them would understand. They didn’t have to worry about getting harassed or having their parents pissed off at them or getting fired or even arrested for something they couldn’t control. Not even River had to worry about any of that, and she was bisexual! How could anyone not worry about any of this?! How could anyone, especially people like River Ziegler, be so open despite all the things going on in the world to people like her?!
…
“What does bisexual mean?” Kishi asked during dinner at the YouChannell Home. Dinner that night was chakalaka, tamales, and pavlova.
Greg laid down his fork and asked, “What makes you ask that?”
“Well, the new neighbor across our house, River, said that she was bisexual when we were at Lidiya’s house,” Kishi explained.
Just then, Katja laid down her fork and looked over at Kishi. “And did that new neighbor River give you permission to tell other people that?”
Kishi opened her mouth and was about to say something, but Anima beat her to the punch. “She kept on bragging about it. What does it all mean?! What does any of this mean?!”
“Isn’t being bisexual mean that you’re attracted to both boys and girls?” Minha asked, “That’s what I’ve heard.
“There are more than two genders, you know,” Ami added condescendingly.
“And who the hell asked for your opinion?” Anima inquired irritably at Ami.
“Look, I was just saying,” Ami said with her hands up and out in front of her chest. She added under her breath, “And it wasn’t an opinion. It was a fact.”
Anima jumped out of her seat and exclaimed with her hands thrown up in the air, “Jesus fucking Christ! I just wanted a single fucking question to be answered! Is that too hard to comprehend around here?!”
“I think bisexual means you’re attracted to two or more genders,” Tessa calmly answered, “A lot of people claim that being bisexual means you’re only attracted to boys and girls, but there are a few bisexuals out there who are attracted to people of other genders as well.”
“Wait, you’re saying there’s more than two genders now?” Anima said, her head spinning in dizziness. This whole thing was starting to get more confusing than she ever anticipated.
Tessa shrugged. “It happens,” she merely answered.
Anima looked down at her food and sighed lightly through her nostrils. Her thoughts went back to Mr. Utano’s story about being fired from his first job for being gay, and she wondered if the same thing could happen with being neither a boy nor a girl. After all, it could happen to someone for liking someone of the same gender, so why not for someone born as a different gender? And there were some people who were okay with announcing to the world that they were gay or bisexual or even identifying as a different gender other than boy or girl. River was one of those people. How was it possible to be even the slightest bit comfortable coming out like that when one had to deal with bullying, pissed-off parents, getting fired, or even getting arrested?
River Ziegler was one brave and lucky motherfucker, and her appearance was the biggest shock anyone like Anima Hatsune could ever wish for.
“Three… two… one,” Ryan thought to himself in the hallway in the middle of the night, “It’s showtime!” Using his ultimate ninja skills, he sneaked into Niklas’s room and quickly grabbed the heavy blue blankets off of the sleeping birthday boy. “Happy Birth- HOLY FUCKING SHIT!”
What Ryan had witnessed was Niklas’s large, flaccid, and circumcised penis.
“Get the fuck out of my room!” Niklas shouted at Ryan, covering his crotch with his bare (naked) hands.
“Why the fuck are you not wearing clothes?!” Ryan screamed, his throat closing up as if he was about to vomit at any second.
Just then, Greg barged into Niklas’s room and questioned tiredly, “What’s going on with you two?”
“Fucker pulled my blankets off of me while I was asleep!” Niklas answered in a loud, angry voice, pointing at Ryan with one hand while covering his crotch with the other.
“I didn’t think that he would be fucking naked!” Ryan defended himself, his voice cracking into a higher-pitched tone.
Greg sighed and glared at the young man who was still holding the heavy blue blanket and was also wearing clothes. “Ryan, what are you even doing in Niklas’s room in the first place? It’s three-thirty in the morning.”
Ryan’s eyes darted across the room as he swallowed some vomit that had been coming up from his throat and trembled. “Wanna sing this Happy Birthday song?” he asked, his voice shaking in fear, “Let’s sing the Happy Birthday song. Happy Birthday to yo-“
“We’re not going to sing the Happy Birthday song,” Greg stated flatly and firmly, “It’s three-thirty in the morning, Ryan. Please go back to your room and go back to bed.”
“Oi, come on! I was just wanting to-“
“Now, Ryan.”
“Yes, get the fuck out of my room! Some of us just want to sleep!” Niklas barked back.
“Alright, damn. Shit,” Ryan grumbled to himself as Greg led him out of Niklas’s room with his shoulders and back slumped.
Shaking with fear and trauma, Niklas slowly pulled on a pair of dark blue boxer briefs and his blue blankets all the way up to his chin. He seriously hoped that Ryan, or anyone else for that matter, wouldn’t barge into his room again.
…
“Hurry the fuck up! I need to pee!” Niklas shouted at the upstairs bathroom’s door as he banged his fists on it and wriggled around, crossing his legs and holding his crotch into his hands.
“Occupied!” Ryan shouted through the door, trying hard not to laugh his ass off.
Niklas muttered a couple of death threats in German before he ran downstairs to that bathroom, having each step hurt with every second passing- seconds that he couldn’t afford to lose. “Hello?!” he shouted, banging on that door.
“I’m busy! Ya’ll need to wait just a minute!” Fern shouted over the sounds of the shower.
Niklas moaned and whimpered as loudly as a locomotive. Time to make those painful steps back upstairs again. One step, two steps, left step, right step… oh, the agony! Walking wasn’t going to do; there just simply wasn’t any time. Those steps had to turn into quick sprints and jumps above the stairs. “Hello!” he whined loudly, banging on the door after he had finally returned to the upstairs bathroom.
“Occupied!” Ryan called out once more through the door.
Niklas shouted a big moan and exclaimed angrily, “You’ve already said that several minutes ago! What the fuck is taking you so long?!”
“Occupied!” Ryan repeated.
“Son of a bitch!” Niklas mouthed with his teeth clenched. Enough was enough! With one hand holding his crotch, he kicked the door open and looked around all over in the bathroom. Where the hell was that piece of shit Ryan, and what the fuck kind of right did he have to hog up the bathroom during an emergency?! Nowhere to be seen- just fucking with him as usual! Niklas was about to give up and finally take a piss when he heard a slight snicker and snatched the clear plastic shower drapes open and found Ryan crouched up on top of a bathtub.
That did it! “Get the fuck out!” Niklas hollered at the top of his lungs.
Ryan started laughing his ass off and pointed at the poor bastard who was already suffering enough with his crossed legs and his shifting weight between each foot. While laughing, Ryan’s feet slipped, and he crash-landed into the the bottom of the bathtub, which was about as flat as his ass. “Ow, shit!” he yelled in pain and shock.
Both boys heard footsteps stomping upstairs, and all of a sudden, Greg was standing right there in the doorway with both hands on his hips. “What’s going on with you two?” he sternly asked.
Ryan tried to get up out of the bathtub but ended up slipping back down. “I think I just broke my ass!” he exclaimed, rubbing to soothe that flat ass booty.
“Good!” Niklas said, “I hope it’s broken into a million of little pieces!” He crossed his legs even more and rapidly and repeatedly tapped one foot.
Greg glared at Ryan once more and stated, “This is the second time I’ve caught you messing with Niklas, and it isn’t even eight in the morning. This teasing is getting seriously ridiculous, and if you don’t leave him alone, I’m going to-“
“It was just a joke!” Ryan whined, “I was just fucking with him. I-“
“Will you get the fuck out so that I can take a piss?!” Niklas growled at the pair of them. His legs started shaking as he slumped down to the floor on his knees. “I can’t hold it in anymore,” he whimpered in a small voice.
Greg grabbed Ryan’s hand and said, “Let’s go.” while dragging him out of the bathroom and into his room to get dressed.
That finally left Niklas all alone right in front of the toilet. Despite feeling like he was literally about to explode any second, he looked around the room for a slight minute before lowering his underwear and finally relieving himself in such sweet bliss.
…
The last thing anyone wanted to do at all was schoolwork, and yet here they were sitting in the kitchen with books, papers, and pencils sprawled out all over the table- Niklas, Ryan, Riley, and Marcus.
“Oi,” Ryan whispered to Niklas, poking him with a pencil because he had a project in his Government class.
“Stop,” Niklas, who was catching up on US History assignments, grunted under his breath.
Needless to say, Ryan did not stop. In fact, he did not stop for so long until a few minutes later when Niklas snatched the pencil out of his hand and snapped it in half. “Leave. Me. Alone!” he shouted.
“Ryan,” Katja said sternly, pulling up a chair next to her, “Come sit by me.”
Ryan balked, pretending to be shocked with his mouth wide open and his hands thrown out in full exaggeration. “What the fuck did I do?! I wasn’t doing anything!”
“You were trying to poke Niklas with a pencil,” Katja answered, still with a flat, no-nonsense voice.
“Yeah, poke! It wasn’t like I was trying to stab him or anything like that!” Ryan argued.
“You’re still a jackass,” Niklas grumbled under his breath as Katja sat Ryan down next to her.
The gang at the kitchen table continued on with their schoolwork for the next hour until Ryan poked Riley with the very same pencil he poked Niklas with.
“What the fuck do you want, boy?” Riley, who was trying to work on assignments for every subject, grunted under her breath.
“You wanna get out some time later and get some food?” Ryan asked in a hushed whisper so that nobody, especially Katja and Greg, heard him.
“Where though?”
Where? Damn, Ryan didn’t think he would actually make it this far. His mouth was slightly open like a fish gulping in water, and his eyes were wide open like a window on a nice, warm, sunny day (which this day was most definitely not).
“Nigga, you trippin’,” Riley grumbled again before turning back to her work.
Shit! What the hell was Ryan supposed to do? Katja already told him off for messing with Niklas, but he seriously needed to talk to him… again. He stared at Marcus and wondered just how in the hell he was gonna talk to Niklas when the answer came right in front of him. “Psst, Marcus!” he whispered right into the boy’s ear.
Marcus, who had been struggling with his Spanish assignments, jumped in his chair and looked around before discovering that it was just Ryan trying to mess with him just like he did with Niklas. “What do you want?” he asked.
“Oi, can you ask Nikki something for me, please?” Ryan said desperately and quietly because he didn’t want anybody to overhear his plans.
“Why can’t you?” Marcus asked, his eyebrows burrowed deep into his forehead in suspicion.
“Because Katja’s gonna get on my ass again if I talk to him,” Ryan answered.
“So?” Clearly, Marcus didn’t give a shit. “Just pass notes to him. I don’t want to be involved in whatever you’re thinking about.”
Pass notes… shit, why didn’t he think of that in the first place? “Gee, thanks for being useful, asshole,” Ryan told Marcus before ripping a piece of notebook paper out of a red binder.
Ryan: oi, ye wan’ go do something later?
As soon as Ryan passed that note to him, Niklas flipped him the bird, which made Ryan open his mouth with confusion and bewilderment. Damn, the least he could do was respond, even just a little bit.
Niklas: wtf do you want?
Finally, something! But Ryan was taken aback; what was he going to do with Niklas? What was he…
Ryan: ye wan’ maybe go out?
Niklas: i have a gf, dipshit
Ryan: i wasnt asking for a date. i was just asking like friends and shit
Niklas: alright. what do you want? im hungry asf
Food, that sounded easy enough. But what kind of food did Niklas want?
Ryan: what kind of food ye want?
Niklas: taco bell
Taco Bell?! What the fuck?!
Ryan: wtf!? there food sucks!
Niklas: i. want. taco bell.
Ryan: why tho!?
Niklas: alright, asshole. if you can think of anything better here, go ahead!
“Katja, what’s for dinner tonight?” Ryan asked aloud after slamming his pencil down onto the table.
“We’re having goulash with tzimmes and fig newtons,” Katja merely answered as she tried to help Marcus with his Spanish assignments.
Goulash, Ryan knew was some type of orange soup with meat, veggies, and paprika and looked like Cheeto vomit. Tzimmes was a type of stew with carrots and raisins, and Ryan seriously did not feel like shitting out his guts that night. Also, the less he said about fig newtons, the better.
Ryan: aight. you win. but im only doing this for u.
Niklas looked up and smirked; he figured that Taco Bell ought to give him some revenge for what he had to go through this morning.
“Psst, Riley!” Ryan whispered, “You wanna get some Taco Bell with me and Nikki?”
“Taco Bell?!” Riley exclaimed in a hushed and shocked whisper, “Nigga, are you trippin’?! Their food nasty as fuck!”
“Alright then, never mind!” Ryan said, “You’re too fucking stupid to leave here anyways. I heard you were failing tenth for what, the third time? Damn, just drop out alread-“
And that was when Riley swiftly kicked that motherfucker in the shin, making him wince in extreme agony. He should’ve considered himself lucky that she prevented herself from doing much more damage.
“Alright, damn! Shit!” Ryan barely exhaled, still wincing in agony, “I’m sorry, okay? I’ll let you go to Taco Bell with us!”
Riley slowly looked up and stared straight into Ryan’s soul for several minutes. “Can I bring Marilyn?”
“Hell no,” Ryan answered, “I’m not letting that bitch tag along with us-” He stopped and gulped because he didn’t want Riley to kick him in the shin a second time. “You know what? Fine, see if I care.”
“Thank you.” Riley stared at Ryan again, this time for a few moments, before she looked back down and mumbled to herself-
…
“Right, is everyone here?” Ryan asked at the playground right before dinnertime. He counted himself, Niklas, Riley, Niklas’s girlfriend Marianne, and Ryan’s girlfriend Sydney.
“Hold on, Marilyn’s not here,” Riley pointed out with no success.
“Alright, everyone’s here.” Ryan opened the driver’s door to his red mid-2000s car. “Does everyone know what they’re ordering from Taco Bell?”
“Taco Bell?” Sydney said, “I’ve eaten a lot of shit in my life so far, but Taco Bell is really shitty.”
“Oi, don’t look at me!” Ryan said defensively, “Going to Taco Bell wasn’t my idea! Now get in the fucking car before somebody-“
“Hold on! I thought I told you that Marilyn wasn’t here yet!” Riley exclaimed irritably.
“Good,” Ryan replied, “Fuck her. She should’ve gotten here on time if she wanted to-“
“Ayy, bitch! What’s up?” Marilyn screamed at the top of her lungs as she ran towards Ryan’s car with both feet hopping as if they had springs on them.
“What’s up?” Riley screeched right into everyone’s ears. She glanced at the clock in the car; it was 5:28. Everyone was supposed to meet up by 5:30, so technically, Marilyn was on time.
Niklas, and Ryan especially, were both disappointed that they had to include Marilyn on their adventure for some fucking tacos because if they didn’t, Riley would kick their asses. In fact, just to make sure Riley was completely off their asses, they turned on a favorite song of Niklas’s.
“Babe, what’s with all the old people music?” Sydney asked Ryan as they rode along.
“It’s not my fucking idea,” Ryan answered irritably, “You can blame the birthday boy sitting right next to me. He’s the one who likes all of this old shit!”
Niklas slid down in his seat and scowled. It wasn’t his fault that 1970s rock music appealed to him and was better than most other types of music. Marianne looked over at him from the back seat and gave him a tiny smile, showing him that at least she gave a shit about his musical tastes.
“Girl, you wanna know what my daddy said to me right before I left?” Marilyn asked Riley after a short while.
“No, what?” Riley said.
“We were talking about which colleges I wanted to attend, and I told him that I didn’t want to go to college. So he was all like, ‘Well, what are you going to do with your life after high school?’. And I told him that I wanted to be a stripper,” Marilyn said.
Everyone in the car looked completely baffled, especially Riley. “Why the fuck do you want to be a stripper for?” she asked.
“Because it makes a lot of money!” Marilyn explained, “But apparently, my daddy didn’t like that idea because he was all like, ‘Well, what happens if you don’t go to college? You’ll make less money!’. And I told him, ‘Well, if that’s the case, then why are there so many people who got Master’s degrees still working at McDonald’s?’. And then he got pissed off and grounded me for two weeks.”
“Yeah, uh, listen to your dad. He’s got a point,” Sydney said, “The most you can get with anything nowadays is a fast-food job. You’re not gonna get paid for shit if you don’t go to college. You’re not gonna get paid for shit if you do anything. I speak from experience.”
Riley and Marilyn along with everyone else just stared at Sydney in crestfallen melancholy because holy shit was that depressing to hear.
“Thank you for choosing Taco Bell. Hold on a minute,” some apathetic lady said over the intercom when they finally appeared at the cursed place.
While waiting for what seemed like forever (probably because like most fast-food restaurants, Taco Bell sometimes has to deal with understaffed places), Ryan turned his head and asked whether everyone knew what they were ordering.
“Thank you for waiting,” that same lady said after a several minutes, “What can I get for you?”
Niklas was the first one to whisper his order into Ryan’s ear.
“Erhm, yeah, I’d like to get a Waffle Taco with a Mountain Dew,” Ryan told the intercom.
“…Sir, we don’t have that yet.”
Ryan quickly turned his head towards the birthday boy, and, with his eye twitching, mouthed, “What the fuck?!”
“I didn’t know!” Niklas mouthed back.
“Well, you better fucking pick something else because they don’t have… whatever the fuck a Waffle Taco is!” Ryan told him aloud.
“What the fuck is a Waffle Taco?!” Sydney asked in bafflement.
“Shit if I know!” Ryan answered, throwing his hands up in frustration, “It sounds fucking stupid anyways!”
“It’s a waffle as a taco shell with beef in it… fuck you, Ryan!” Niklas shouted.
“Well, that sounds fucking stupid!” Ryan said, “You better order something else ’cause there’s, like, a fuck ton of cars behind us!” He muttered under his breath, “Fucking dumb ass.”
Niklas huffed heavily through his nose and reluctantly changed his order to a Grande Scrambler with a Mountain Dew. Ryan ordered a a Beefy Nacho Griller with a Sierra Mist, Riley ordered two crunchy Taco Supremes with a Pepsi, Marilyn ordered two soft Taco Supremes with no beef and a bottle of water, Sydney ordered a Steak Quesadilla with a Tropicana Pink Lemonade, and Marianne ordered nachos and cheese. Sounded delicious, right? Well, it did… until Ryan heard the total amount that he was supposed to pay.
“Oh, shit,” Ryan said to himself.
Sydney heard because she leaned forward towards Ryan and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t have any money with me,” Ryan answered in a barely audible voice.
Well, everyone heard that because they all leaned over, stared at him, and made a huge stink.
“Are you fucking kidding me, Ryan?!” Sydney yelled angrily, “How the fuck do you order fast food and not have the money to pay for it?!”
“Well, I didn’t think that this many people would show up!” Ryan argued, his face turning red and his hands beginning to shake.
“Damn, you’d think you would check just in case,” Riley muttered to herself.
Ryan heard that. “Oi, bitch! I wasn’t even thinking that this many people would show up! I thought the only people who were going to show up was me, Nikki, Sydney, and-“
“Hold on, hold on. I got you guys,” Marilyn said as she pulled a credit card out of her jean pocket.
“Where did you get that from?” Marianne asked.
“It’s actually my daddy’s credit card that I stole from him,” Marilyn answered, “That’s what happens when you’re a pussy ass bitch.”
It was the first time that anyone, especially Ryan, was thankful for Marilyn Cheong’s presence. They got their food and drove to the most secret place they could think of at the moment- Grant Park.
“Jesus, that statue scares the shit out of me,” Marianne told Niklas after they sat down on a wooden bench when Ryan, Riley, Marilyn, and Sydney left them alone.
“What statue?” Niklas asked.
Marianne pointed to the bronze statue of a little girl who looked like she was jumping around in the rain.
“Oh… I’ve never noticed that before,” Niklas stated.
“You mean you’ve never noticed the creepy statues here at all?” Marianne in a faux shocked tone.
“No, I don’t really go here that often,” Niklas answered.
Both were completely silent for a few minutes before Marianne asked Niklas, “So uh… how have things been with you lately?”
Niklas sighed and answered, “If I’m being honest, I’m not really sure. I mean, some day I feel just fine, and then others, well… I don’t know. I just feel as if there’s no hope at all sometimes. It’s like, what’s the point?” He bent down into his laps and covered his face with his hands.
While she was watching Niklas almost have a meltdown, Marianne looked down at him and asked, “Is it okay if I hold your hand?”
“No,” Niklas answered in a tiny voice.
“…Well, can I least sit beside you?”
Niklas didn’t say anything, but it did help him calm down eventually… after a few minutes. When he looked up and saw his girlfriend still sitting there, he said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that in front of you.”
“Nah, it’s okay,” Marianne reassured him.
Niklas took some deep, shaky breaths and said in a low, quiet voice, “Thanks for staying with me.”
“No problem,” Marianne said. The pair stayed silent for several more minutes before she asked, “So uh… what do you wanna do?”
Niklas looked up. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…” Marianne leaned onto her boyfriend and rubbed her index finger up and down on his dark gray sweater. Niklas immediately got the idea as he grinned, then smirked, then leaned closer, then-
It felt good; it was like eating a strawberry dipped in Belgian chocolate and washing it down with a nice cold glass of bubbly water, which sounded a hell of a lot better than the Taco Bell they had. He didn’t want it to happen, but alas, all good things had to come to an end.
“That make you feel any better?” Marianne asked with a sly smirk on her face.
Niklas quickly looked down and bit his bottom lip; yes, it did made him feel better. No, he wasn’t about to publicly admit it.
“Come on, I know you enjoyed that,” Marianne said, widening that sly smirk of hers and elbowing her boyfriend’s arm.
Niklas chuckled and mumbled, “Maybe.”
“That’s my boy!” Marianne said, wrapping her arms around Niklas once more and collided her lips with his.
Obviously, Niklas more than willingly returned that favor because this time, he toppled on top of Marianne, and they made out to high heaven until Niklas heard somebody clear their throat… or at least, he thought he heard somebody clear their throat. Maybe it came from him, maybe it came from Marianne, or maybe it was just some auditory hallucination. Who knew? Either way, he kept making out until he heard yet another and even louder throat-clearing. Nope, that definitely wasn’t an auditory hallucination; that was a real person staring at the pair and quite possibly being grossed out by them making out. Niklas looked up and discovered a very drunk and disorientated Tamie holding a water bottle halfway filled with bootleg vodka. Oh, shit.
“Oh, shit!” Niklas groaned to himself, planting his face into the palms of both of his hands.
“What’s wrong?” Marianne asked.
“Tamie’s drunk again,” Niklas answered in a low, quiet mumble, not wanting to piss that drunk bastard off lest she tried to beat the shit out of him.
“Oh.” Both of them stared at the drunk Tamie stumbling over herself before Marianne stood up from her seat and asked Niklas, “Do you think we should help her?”
“No, don’t,” Niklas answered in a hushed whisper, “Just let her do her thing until she eventually passes out.”
Marianne turned her head in confusion and shock and inquired, “Are you fucking crazy?! Your friend here needs our help, and you’re just gonna let her suffer like this?!”
Niklas heaved a hefty sigh and relented. “Alright, fine. I’ll help too.” He dragged his ass off of the bench and, with the help of Marianne, grabbed one of Tamie’s arms and dragged her towards the bench they had been sitting at. That was a strenuous pain in the ass to do because Tamie was one fat motherfucker.
“You want anything from us?” Marianne asked Tamie.
Tamie drunkenly shook her head and bent over to grab her stomach, praying to God that she wouldn’t barf her guts out.
“Are you sure? Because I’m willing to give you the rest of my nachos if you want them,” Marianne said.
No response from Tamie. Perhaps she was too sick to eat even the slightest bit of carbohydrate.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Niklas asked.
“What are you being such an asshole for?” Marianne replied in a hushed whisper, “I thought she was your friend.”
“She is!”
“Then why don’t you want to help her?”
“Because she’s like this all the time! What’s the fucking point?”
“You know, you can help other people without having a point for it. You don’t have to be such an asshole about this.”
“I’m not trying to be an asshole. I’m just-“
“Oh, shit! Is Tamie drunk again?” a young woman’s voice interrupted the pair’s argument.
Niklas and Marianne jumped in surprised fear as they looked behind them and saw Ryan, Sydney, Marilyn, and Riley just standing there.
“Jesus Christ, we could hear you from playground!” Sydney said.
Niklas and Marianne looked at each other; were they really that loud? And if so, was it really any of their businesses?
“Damn, ya’ll must’ve been fucking each other real good for ya’ll to be this fucking loud!” Marilyn cackled.
Niklas’s face turned red, then purple as his jaw slightly dropped, his mouth dried too much for words, his eye twitched, and his hands balled into fists and shook. He was getting super close to beating the ever-living shit out of Marilyn when Marianne said irritably, “Really, Marilyn. Is sex the only thing that’s ever on your mind?”
Marilyn blushed a deep maroon as Riley, Ryan, Sydney, and even Tamie snickered their asses off, Marianne smirked smugly, and Niklas unballed his fists and returned the color of his face to the color of his skin.
“Alright, damn. Shit,” Marilyn mumbled to herself as she silently sat down into the cold, crunchy grass, “I was just making a joke. You guys are assholes.”
Marianne sat down next to Marilyn and said, “You look really pissed off about my comment. If I’ve pissed you off, then I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to do that.”
“Nah, it’s cool,” Marilyn mumbled. She pulled her knees up to her face and added, “At least I know you ain’t gon’ beat the shit out me like my mom did.”
Everyone stared at Marilyn in astonishment and scared shock as they all sat down in a circle.
“That’s what she did to me and dad when we used to live in Berkeley, and she was a fucking meth head,” Marilyn continued. She sighed out, “I hope to God she never gets out of prison. And if she does get out of prison, then I hope somebody beats the shit out of her.”
Nobody spoke in the mist of the transforming night until Sydney piped up and said, “Well, at least your dad still cares about you. I don’t have a dad, and my mom was always a shrill bitch to me all the time growing up.” She exhaled heavily through her nose. “I’m so glad I live in an apartment by myself because going back to my mom’s place would be my worst fucking nightmare.”
“Damn, you’re lucky,” Marilyn told Sydney, “I wish I could live in an apartment by myself.”
Sydney shrugged. “I mean, she can be hurt by this all she wants, but she’s the one who hurt me first.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I could handle hurting anyone,” Tamie confessed, “Like, I don’t care about hurting myself, but I’m really scared of hurting of hurting someone else ’cause that makes me feel like shit and, like, a burden.” She sighed and added, “It’s why I never tried to kill myself.”
“Damn, I’ve never thought about that,” Niklas said, staring at Tamie in awe and empathy.
“Yeah, I’m kind of scared of hurting people, too,” Riley added on, “Sometimes, I have these thoughts about hurting people or killing them, and it makes me feel awful because I would never want to hurt somebody on purpose unless they tried to hurt me first. But still, it sucks because what if I accidentally hurt someone I like?”
“Yeah, that’s kind of how I am, too,” Niklas said, “You know? Like, sometimes I get so pissed off that when I get into a fight sometimes, I’m scared that I’m gonna fucking kill someone.”
“Is that how you are with me when we get into fights?” Ryan asked.
Niklas turned around with his thick eyebrows furrowed in anger and exclaimed, “Fuck you!”
“Fuck you too, mate!” Ryan said, trying hard not to laugh but failing, which only pissed off Niklas more.
“Fuck you!” Niklas lunged at Ryan with his teeth clenched and his fingers clawing at Ryan’s sweater. “I’m going to fucking kill you, you piece of shit!”
“Oh, so you’re not afraid of killing someone now, are you? Well, fuck you too!”
“Will you two stop it? You’re both acting like little kids,” Marianne said.
Niklas, realizing that he was getting nowhere by fighting Ryan, quickly shoved him and sat back down in the grass.
“So, Ryan,” Sydney said, “What are you scared of the most?”
Ryan blushed and brushed his scratchy beard with the back of his hand. “I’m not scared of anything.”
“Bullshit. You’re scared of something,” Marianne scoffed. Niklas only coughed in a mocking fashion.
“No, I’m not!” Ryan argued, his face turning red and his finger tapping on his leg.
“He’s scared shitless of needles, especially when he has to go to the doctor,” Riley pointed out with a slight smirk on her face.
“That’s bullshit!” Ryan shouted at the top of his lungs, his muscles tensing up.
“Well then, what are you afraid of?!” Sydney impatiently asked, her eye twitching as if she was about to lose her shit at any moment.
Damn, he really wasn’t getting out of this, was he? Ryan huffed through his nose and sighed out in a low mumble, “Spiders.”
The rest of the gang stared at Ryan, not really sure whether they should believe in him or what. Then Riley, Marilyn, and Sydney started snickering, then giggling, before finally just laughing out loud.
“What’s so fucking funny?!” Ryan hollered, “You know how fucking dangerous spiders are in Australia?! Those little fuckers can kill you if you’re bitten!”
“Yeah, but only the poisonous ones,” Riley pointed out, “But I see you scream about even the tiniest fucking ones!” She, Sydney, and Marilyn all started shrieking in laughter again.
Ryan’s cheek burned in embarrassment and shame; they weren’t going to understand about Australian spiders, were they? Spiders were pretty scary creatures, especially the poisonous ones. Besides, there were some more petty shit to be afraid of, right? Surely, somebody in the group was afraid of something less threatening than spiders. “Oi, Marianne,” he said, “What’s your biggest fear?” He was sure she was gonna say something stupid.
Ryan was right. “Damn, you guys have been sharing your trauma, and now I’m gonna look like privileged bitch,” Marianne sighed. She took a deep breath before continuing with, “Do you guys remember that show Bear in the Big Blue House that used to air on Playhouse Disney? I don’t know why, but that bear always used to scare the shit out of me when I was a little kid. The way he used to sniff at the camera reminded me of some old pedophile.” She took her phone out and searched for a video on YouTube. “I didn’t actually get over my fear until I watched this video.”
“Jesus fucking Christ!” Ryan shouted at the top of his lungs, “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
“Oh, my God! That is so fucked up!” Sydney shrieked in a shrill voice.
Niklas slowly backed away from Marianne; even he was wondering what the hell was wrong with his girlfriend.
Just then, Marilyn giggled like a little bitch again, but this time it was at something on her phone.
“What’s so fucking funny?!” Ryan inquired. He snatched the phone out of Marilyn’s hands and immediately sunk his mouth in.
“What the fuck, Marilyn?!” Ryan shouted angrily at the top of his lungs, “Are you a fucking stupid bitch or what?!”
“Wait, what’s going on?” Sydney asked as she, Riley, Tamie, and Niklas rushed over to Ryan clutching tightly to Marilyn’s phone. It only took one look to see what the big fuss was.
“Damn, Marilyn! Are you trying to get us caught?!” Riley grouched, throwing her hands up in the air, “You ain’t gotta tag all of us in everything!”
“Why ya’ll getting upset for?! It’s just a picture!” Marilyn said.
“It’s not just a picture, you dumb bitch!” Niklas replied angrily, “You do realize what kind of house we live in, right?! Pretty soon, somebody’s gonna report us missing and-“
Everyone’s phones started vibrating; it was several missing person notifications for Niklas, Ryan, Riley, and Tamie.
“Oh, shit. You guys are fucked,” Sydney said.
…
“Does anybody know where Niklas, Ryan, Tamie, and Riley are?” Katja announced to everyone in the living room for a special meeting.
Everyone stared at her and Greg with blank looks on their faces, except for Marcus, who was shaking and shifting his eyes left to right.
“Marcus, do you know anything about their disappearances?” Greg asked.
Marcus gulped and started breathing heavily. He quickly prayed to Allah that nobody would ask him any more questions about this topic; he really didn’t want to get into any trouble.
“Would you like to talk for a bit in my room?” Greg asked him much more quietly.
Oh, no! It didn’t work! Marcus had no choice but to follow the tall, very threatening man into his room.
“Let me tell you this first thing,” Greg began as he shut the door, “You’re not going to be in any trouble if you tell me, and you’re not going to be in any trouble if you don’t know anything.”
Marcus almost sighed in relief, but since he was in a group home, he didn’t dare take Greg’s word for granted. So he gulped and squirmed in his spot next to Greg on his bed.
“Katja told me that you were doing some schoolwork in the kitchen this afternoon with Niklas and Riley. Is this true?”
Marcus squirmed in his seat even more; did Katja seriously snitch on him? He didn’t want to tell, but he was probably sure Greg was going to punish him for lying. “Y-Yeah, I was.”
Greg nodded. “And did Ryan come in to mess with Niklas during that time?”
Marcus nodded again.
“What did you see them doing to each other? Were they whispering to each other or passing notes or…”
Marcus’s heart beat so hard and quickly, his hands became so clammy, and his breathing was so heavy that he felt as if he was going to explode any second. He was… until Fern shouted out from the living room, “Oh, shit!”
Greg jumped up and ran straight into the living room; Marcus slipped in a quick thank-you to Allah as he slipped out behind him.
“What’s going on?” Greg asked.
“I found them!” Fern exclaimed rather arrogantly, shoving her phone into Greg’s face.
Greg grabbed Fern’s phone out of her hands and stared at the photo that was uploaded onto Marilyn’s Instagram account.
Greg sucked in his cheeks and handed Fern’s phone back to her. “Thank you for showing me this,” he said in a low voice.
…
“Are you just a fucking idiot, Marilyn?!” Niklas shouted at her, “You don’t realize you’ve just incriminated us?! And that includes you, too?!”
“Hold on, what’s going on?” Marianne asked after meeting up with the rest of the group.
“Marilyn just uploaded a picture of us onto her Instagram account!” Ryan answered, still pissed off about the whole ordeal.
“Oh, shit!” Marianne’s eyes opened in shock for a short while before they blinked and returned to normal. “Well, I’m glad my parents gave me a normal curfew unlike you guys.”
“Shut the fuck up, Marianne!” Ryan shouted. He turned to Marilyn and added, “You’re a fucking dumb bitch!”
“Alright, damn! You ain’t gotta be so salty about this!” Marilyn said, “If it’ll make you feel any better, I’ll delete the picture.”
“It’s too late for that!” Niklas argued, “We’ve already got missing persons reports on us!”
“Damn, it’s already gotten to that?” Marianne exclaimed, this time with her eyes genuinely big in shock, “You guys are fucked!”
Thinking about how much they were exactly fucked, Riley said, “I think we should head back now.”
Everyone else stared at her. “Wait, you mean right now?” Tamie asked.
Riley placed her hands on her hips and replied with, “Damn, ya’ll got any better ideas?!”
No, they didn’t because a white mini-bus pulled up near where they were, and a tall, black man stormed towards them. “What is going on here?!” he questioned in an angry, firm voice.
Oh, shit. It was Greg. Who was going to explain this to Greg?
“Well, ehrm… we were just ehrm… we were just celebrating Nikki’s birthday here,” Ryan explained in a feeble voice.
“What the fuck?!” Niklas whispered angrily to Ryan, “Why are you trying to pin the blame on me?!”
“Because it’s your fucking birthday, dipshit!” Ryan whispered back.
“Well, whose fucking idea was it to sneak out of the fucking house?!”
Greg looked over at the two boys quietly arguing and then at Ryan’s car, which was right across the mini-bus. “So, you drove everyone here to the park? Am I correct in assuming that?” he asked Ryan.
Damn, literally caught red-handed. “…Maybe,” he answered with a worried chuckled.
Greg was not impressed with that little answer. “Get in the car,” he said firmly in a no-nonsense voice.
Ryan sighed, slumped his shoulders, and dragged his feet towards his car while Greg guided Niklas, Riley, and Tamie into the mini-bus.
“Do you two need a ride?” Greg asked Sydney and Marilyn right before he hopped into the bus himself.
“I think I have enough spare change to catch a bus,” Sydney answered.
“I don’t need a ride. I can call home,” Marilyn reassured.
Greg nodded and closed the driver seat’s door. After he buckled up and made sure everyone else was buckled up as well, he honked at Ryan’s car, telling him it was time to go. Niklas, Riley, and Tamie laughed at that gesture.
“I’m glad to see the amount of trouble you’re all in is considered funny to you guys,” Greg said as he followed Ryan back home.
That shut everybody up. Actually, it was a little embarrassing to be caught by Greg in the way they were. Then again, it was more embarrassing to have someone pull the blankets off of you in the middle of the night and exposing your naked body in the process, barring you from using the bathroom until you were absolutely about to wet yourself in the hallway, have that very same person distract you from doing your schoolwork until you agreed to go out with him, and getting yelled at for picking out a restaurant nobody else in the group liked despite it literally being your birthday.
Niklas had had better birthdays; he had also had worse birthdays.
First period had just ended at Nach Cuma Middle School, and every student was outside for Courtyard Break. Courtyard Break was a rare occurrence at the middle school, only happening once or twice a year, usually during the ending of a semester, maybe once a week during state testing week after the actual tests. Students could buy snacks and drinks for a dollar or two and chat up with their friends for a while until the second-period bell rings.
“Hey, have you guys seen some moving vans at that empty house?” Amanda asked as she, Lidiya, Kishi, and Anima were enjoying their sweet, sweet (temporary) freedom.
“The one across the street from us?” Kishi said.
Amanda nodded. “I saw some moving vans when I was taking Leila to the playground the other day.” Leila was Amanda’s little sister.
“Wow, really?” Kishi gushed, “I hope it’s a girl our age!”
Lidiya rolled her eyes and said, “It’s pretty unlikely that a girl our age is gonna move in across the street from us and be our friend at the same time.”
While Lidiya, Kishi, and Amanda were arguing about the probability of a girl their age moving into the same neighborhood as them and being their friend, Anima was too busy paying attention to what Violet Blume, Kyla Wong, Avery Watson, and McKenna Suzuki were laughing about. They were hunched over, their shoulders shaking up and down in laughter… mean laughter. What were they laughing about?
What was so fucking funny?
“Hey, Anima,” Kishi interrupted Anima’s thoughts, “Are you okay?”
Anima snapped out of whatever it was that was bothering her. “Wha- oh. Oh, yeah… yeah, I’m fine.”
“What were you so focused on?” Lidiya asked.
Anima shrugged. She didn’t want to look like an insecure asshole in front of her friends, and she especially didn’t want them involved with whatever Kyla, Avery, Violet, and McKenna were laughing about.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Kishi asked.
“I said I’m fine!” Anima snapped. She cleared her throat and repeated in a smaller, quieter voice, “I said I’m fine.”
Kishi, Lidiya, and Amanda all stared at her, not really believing a single word she had said. Then they went back to their conversation about the new neighbor moving into the neighborhood, leaving Anima all alone with her thoughts. She wished she had someone to talk to about her deep, personal secrets. Someone with brown hair, pale skin, brown eyes…
On second thought, maybe not…
…
Anima was still worrying about that incidence during Courtyard Break and what exactly Avery was showing to Kyla, Violet, and McKenna while she was in ICT2 nearly at the end of the day. She stared at her website project on some shitty mid-2000s computer, trying hard not to think about what had happened. It was impossible; Avery was in her class sitting right across from her. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, McKenna Suzuki walked into the classroom and said to Avery in a whisper, “Did you see that movie trailer with Selena Gomez in it?”
“You mean the same one in Wizards of Waverly Place?” Avery answered, clearly confused as hell.
“Hold on, I gotta pull it up on YouTube,” McKenna said. She pulled up YouTube and typed in the name of the movie with Selena Gomez in it.
Avery gasped. “Oh my God, my whole childhood is ruined!” she exclaimed in a hushed whisper.
“I know, right?” McKenna said, trying hard not to laugh.
“And Vanessa Hudgens from High School Musical, too?!”
“Wait, you’re surprised about Vanessa Hudgens?”
The two girls were trying their damnedest not to laugh and not to be noticed. That lasted only a couple of moments.
“Hey, do you know where that cheerleader video is? I didn’t get it in your text,” McKenna told Avery.
Cheerleader video?! What cheerleader video?! Was it the one of… Anima doing that dumb cheer on Halloween?! Oh, God. Anima’s stomach started gurgling, and she felt as if she was going to throw up at any minute.
“Hold on, let me pull it up.” Avery typed in the name of the video McKenna wanted and clicked on it after a few minutes of browsing. The two girls started giggling like crazy. Anima almost didn’t want to look over her back, but she felt too much curiosity to not know. Turned out the video that they were originally laughing about was from 2008. Anima sighed in relief.
“Are you two just going to laugh at YouTube videos, or do you actually need something important from me?” Mrs. Mol, the ICT2 teacher, asked Avery and especially McKenna.
McKenna cleared her throat and quickly composed herself. She told the teacher that she needed some white blonde bitch named Miranda Vogel and some white brunette bitch named Savannah Vogel for dismissal.
“Thank God,” Kishi sighed after Miranda, Savannah, and McKenna left the room, “If I had to hear about Miranda and Savannah talking about their vacation to Disneyland one more time, I was going to scream!”
Disneyland? Damn. Anima had a weird feeling that those two shows that Avery and McKenna were talking had something to do with Disney. “Do you know who Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens are?”
Kishi shrugged with a confused look on her face. “Beats me.”
Anima turned back to her computer and sighed. Damn it.
...
“Ayy, bitch! You hear about that movie with Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens in it?” Marilyn asked Riley at the YouChannell Home after school.
Riley, who was too busy trying to do some World History homework, slightly shrugged and answered, “What movie?”
“Spring Breakers, nigga! Spring Breakers!” Marilyn exclaimed, “It’s got Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens in it!”
Riley looked up. “Hol’ up, you serious?”
“Hell yeah, bitch!” She showed Riley the trailer from her phone. Riley was left speechless for a moment.
“So when’s it coming out?” Riley asked.
“March 22. You wanna come see it with me when it comes out? I already got tickets for it with my daddy’s credit card!”
How the fuck-?! Damn, privileged bitch! Fuck made her think that Riley was gonna be able to watch a movie with that many bikini-clad girls in it?!
...
Tamie had just finished cooking ratatouille, buckwheat kasha, and ostkaka for dinner, and she slumped against the kitchen sink, ready to pass out at any moment. The only thing she had any energy for was to yell out, “FOOD’S READY!”
That might not have been a good idea because Ryu-jin zipped down the stairs and crashed right into Tamie… with his face right into her boobs.
“Get off, jackass!” Tamie growled, trying her damnedest to get herself up.
Ryu-jin rubbed his nose and pulled himself up to his knees. He didn’t notice that despite being such a fat fuck, Tamie had some pretty big tits. “I didn’t know fat asses like you could have some nice tits,” he told her.
That was probably the worst thing one could tell an overweight woman because Tamie kicked Ryu-jin right in the balls with the edge of her foot.
“WorldStar!” Anima shouted as she walked into the kitchen.
“Shut up, Anima!” Ryu-jin screeched, bending over to lessen the pain of being kicked in the balls.
Anima chuckled to herself and stated, “This looks just like an anime scene.”
“Shut up, Anima!” Ryu-jin screeched even louder, his body dropping to the floor.
“You shut the fuck up!” Tamie yelled at Ryu-jin. She darted her eyes up at Anima and growled, “What the fuck are you looking at?!”
“Alright, damn! Shit!” Anima said, stomping away from the pair.
Five minutes later, after Katja settled down whatever the hell was going on with Tamie and Ryu-jin, everyone was eating their dinner at the dinner table.
“Oi, anybody heard about that movie with Selena Gomez in it?” Ryan announced after swallowing his kasha.
Yes, everyone has heard about that movie with Selena Gomez in it. Nobody would shut the fuck up about it.
“Marilyn said she’s got tickets for it,” Riley said, chewing on her ratatouille.
Greg sipped his cup of coffee and asked, “What’s the name of the movie?”
“Spring Breakers,” Ryan and Riley answered at the same time.
Greg looked up the movie on Google and clicked on the trailer’s link; he quickly exited out of the internet as soon as he actually saw the trailer. “You’re not going to see that movie,” he sternly told Ryan and Riley.
Riley simply nodded and rolled her eyes; Ryan, on the other hand, balked and objected. “Why the fuck not?! It’s got Selena Gomez in it!” he exclaimed, “You know, Selena Gomez, from the Disney Channel!”
Greg was going to explain to Ryan that Selena Gomez grew up and was going to star in more raunchy and inappropriate acting roles (all while thinking about Dana Plato from Diff’rent Strokes) when Anima pushed her plate off the table and shouted-
Everyone stared at Anima like she had grown a second head or like she was on crack cocaine or some shit, and then they all laughed.
“What the fuck?! I’m being serious!” Anima yelled, clenching her fists in case she needed to punch anybody.
“Holy shit! You don’t know who Selena Gomez is?!” Ryan exclaimed, laughing his ass off.
“Well to be fair, Ryan, not everyone is attracted to teenage girls who look like they’re ten years old,” Riley mumbled under her breath.
Ryan heard that. “Yeah, used to. Now I’ve got a girlfriend who’s older than me!”
“Well, congratulations,” Riley said, “Which university is she currently attending, and what’s her major?”
Everyone who was laughing at Anima were laughing at Ryan, which made him clench his fists and blush. He was about to yell at someone or beat the shit out of someone when Anima interrupted his thoughts and screamed, “CAN SOMEONE JUST TELL WHO THE FUCK SELENA GOMEZ IS?! WHO IS SHE?! WHO IS SHE?! WHO IS SHE?!”
“Yeah, who is Selena Gomez? I’ve never heard of her,” Kishi said much more calmly.
“I’ve never heard of her either,” Siënna added.
The kitchen grew silent as Ryan tried to process the fact that three people, three girls, had no idea who the fuck Selena Gomez was.
“Ryan, can you please explain who Selena Gomez is?” Katja asked with a touch of exasperation in her voice.
Because it was understandable that Katja and Greg didn’t know who Selena Gomez was, Ryan complied. “You guys heard of Wizards of Waverly Place?” he asked the three underage girls.
Kishi and Siënna both nodded. “Oh, yeah! That show was on the Disney Channel, wasn’t it?” Kishi said.
“Yeah, it was on the Disney Channel back in the day,” Ryan replied. He looked over at Anima and asked, “You’ve heard of Disney Channel, right?”
“No,” Anima answered flatly.
“Holy shit, you’re dumb,” Ryan said quietly so that only Anima could hear him, “Okay, so, Selena Gomez was an actress on this show on the Disney Channel called Wizards of Waverly Place. Here-” He quickly pulled up a video on YouTube. “You can see her on the show’s intro.”
“You see the girl with the black hair?” Ryan elaborated, “That’s Selena Gomez.”
“Oh.” Anima stayed silent for a several minutes. “How do you know these things?”
“Probably because he used to have a crush on this girl,” Riley mumbled under her breath.
Ryan heard that. “Oi, bitch! Used to! Now I don’t anymore!”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about your adult girlfriend for a second,” Riley mumbled again, this time making her that only Ryan heard that.
Ryan was about to tell Riley exactly where she could shove her unnecessary comments when Katja told Ryan, “Okay, let’s click off of YouTube and eat our dinner.”
Ryan reluctantly exited out of YouTube (which kind of proved Riley’s point in retrospect) and slumped down into his seat. “Okay, so we all know who Selena Gomez is, right?”
Everyone nodded. “Thank you for telling me,” Kishi said.
Ryan nodded and looked over at Anima. “You know who Selena Gomez is now, right?”
Anima slowly nodded. “I don’t get it,” she blatantly stated.
Ryan sat up in his seat. “What the fuck do you mean, you don’t get it?”
“I don’t get why people like her so much,” Anima explained just as blatantly as she did the previous statement.
Riley choked on her drink and laughed when she saw Ryan blush like mad. “Oh, shit!” she chuckled.
“Look, do I have to explain everything to you again?!” Ryan inquired Anima, his hands clammy and sweaty.
Anima shrugged, drinking her glass of water and subtly enjoying the shit show she was causing at the dinner table. “Look, all I’m saying is that she’s not very good and that she looks like a ten-year-old girl.”
Ryan blushed a bright red- brighter than the color of his hair and brighter than the blood that was boiling inside of his body.
“It’s okay, girlfriend,” Riley reassured Anima, placing her hand onto the girl’s shoulder, “He’s just salty because he’s the only one who thinks Selena Gomez is sexy.” She turned to Ryan and added loudly, “Which she isn’t because she does look like a ten-year-old girl!”
Ryan’s lips opened and closed, his face, cheeks, and ears burning, his blood boiling, and his arms and hands shaking. He was about to strangle the little shit when Greg gently guided him to the Vent Room.
“Well, that was eventful,” Tamie mumbled to herself.
It sure was, and Anima still didn’t understand the appeal of Selena Gomez. But hey, at least she knew who she was.
“So, Siënna,” Katja began while they were in her room, “I’m going to ask you a few questions that I hope you don’t mind answering.”
The tiny ten-year-old girl looked down at her swinging feet, her stomach filled with butterflies and… well, actually an entire zoo. She hoped this lady wasn’t going to ask why she was here in the first place.
“Are you ready?” Katja asked.
Siënna nodded, bracing herself for the worst.
“Alright then, I want you to be honest with me.” Katja took a deep breath and asked, “Have you had thoughts about killing yourself?”
Siënna shook her head.
“Have you had thoughts about hurting yourself?”
Another head shake.
“Have you had thoughts about killing someone else?”
Yet another head shake.
“Have you had thoughts about hurting someone else?”
There went a fourth head shake. What kind of person would think about hurting someone else or themselves, let alone killing?
“Alright, Siënna. I think that’s enough questioning for now,” Katja said, closing a black pocketbook that she had been writing in with a pen. After checking her bags to see if she had sneaked in any contraband, she got up and showed her to some room on the first floor. “This is going to be your room for some time,” she said, “Make yourself comfortable, and we’ll get you at 10:30 for Group Time, okay?”
Oké… d’accord… ganz gut… okay. She wasn’t quite ready to meet up with the other people in the home just yet.
Right before Katja turned around to leave, she exclaimed, “Oh, I almost forgot!” She handed Siënna a black composition notebook. “This is your journal,” she explained, “I expect you to write down at least half a page each day, okay?”
Yeah, that should work.
…
Cereza’s eyes popped open, and she wriggled around in her seat because it was about damn time she had a girl around her age in here.
“Siënna, why don’t you sit next to Cereza?” Katja suggested.
Cereza, the brown girl with the really curly brown hair, raised her hair and waved it in the air, desperately wanting Siënna to sit next to her in the plastic yellow chair.
Siënna looked over at Katja and sat down in the yellow chair next to Cereza; might as well since she had no choice.
“Alright, I think we can get started now,” Katja said. She then went on and on about tolerance or something among those lines; Siënna had trouble concentrating due to the fact that Cereza kept staring at her on and off throughout the whole thing, and there were big teenagers around her who looked really bored and apathetic about the whole thing. She hoped that they weren’t going to beat her up or bully her for being a new kid.
…
“And this is our kitchen,” Cereza said to Siënna right before dinner, “And in the living room, these are our books.”
Siënna’s eyes lit up like Christmas lights, particularly at the sky blue book with the scarlet lettering that was in the center of the center tan shelf. “Who’s Faustine Louis?” she asked.
Faustine, who had been reading on the stuffy orange couch the entire time, looked up at the two young girls and casually answered, “Oh, that’s just me.”
Siënna’s Christmas-light gray eyes looked like they were about to explode in brightness. “You wrote this?” she asked in awe and excitement.
Faustine rolled her eyes and nodded. “I was only eleven when I wrote it. It can’t be that great.”
At that point, Siënna’s eyes took up three-quarters of her face. Eleven years old?! That was seriously awesome! “How’d you do it?! I mean, what made you write an entire book at eleven?!”
Faustine sighed through her nostrils. Of course the new kid had to ask that question of all questions. She reflected back to late July of 2009 in Port Townsend, Washington. Faustine could remember it clearly- Ryan and Tamie were stuck at home for getting high and eating a whole basket of blackberries while Riley, Marilyn, Niklas, Charlotte, Sydney, Mr. and Mrs. Johannsson, and Maurice were sailing around in some tiny boat that could barely support all of their body weight. Anyways, while everyone else was doing their own things, Faustine had noticed Marilyn’s father Mr. Cheong’s old dusty 1980s typewriter sitting around on a dark tan bureau. That gave Faustine some ideas.
It was like there were two Faustines in her head, and they were both arguing against each other nonstop. Guess which Faustine won?
“And that’s how I became a published author at the young age of eleven,” Faustine concluded.
Wow. That was a wild trip. “That’s really amazing,” Siënna said in even bigger awe and excitement.
Faustine sighed through her nostrils and stated, “Again, I was only eleven when it was published. It’s probably not that great.”
Just then, Anima stepped out of the kitchen and told the girls that dinner was ready. It was kibbeling, french fries, and chocolate mousse. “I see you’ve been having a deep and intellectual conversation with God over there,” she said to Siënna, pointing over at Faustine, who had just gotten off the couch.
Faustine sighed loudly through her mouth and rolled her eyes extra hard. “Please, stop,” she groaned.
“Why? I thought you’d be proud about being a published author at the age of eleven and being a high school senior at only fourteen,” Anima said very loudly and very condescendingly.
“Oh, boy. I can see that I’m not going to get anywhere with you by arguing,” Faustine muttered to herself before putting her book up and walking into the kitchen.
Cereza walked Siënna into the kitchen and whispered, “And that’s the house asshole, Anima.”
Siënna’s ears burned red; she had never heard someone close to her age call someone an asshole before. Too bad Anima heard all of that.
“House asshole?” she questioned, “What house asshole? There’s at least five of them in here, especially this guy.” She poked Niklas’s cheek when she said that last part.
“Get your fucking finger out of my face before I beat the shit out of you,” Niklas growled meanly, little droplets of spit splattering onto Anima’s cheeks.
Siënna shivered in fear and slumped down in her seat. This was the type of thing she was fearing in the group home. She hoped this boy, or man, wasn’t going to beat her up. She remembered a couple of lines from one of her favorite books- Der Wunschpunsch by Michael Ende- and began reciting them under her breath. Too bad Niklas heard that.
“Hey, kid. That sounds like German you’re reciting,” he said, “Are you sure you can speak German?”
Siënna looked up at the tall, block-shaped man with black hair and green eyes. Here was her chance to prove that she wasn’t such an easy target to attack; she had to remember not to get physical or else one of the caretakers would restrain her. “I can speak German,” she insisted with a stone cold look on her innocent face.
“I’m sure you can,” Niklas said. He then muttered to himself in German, “Little shit.”
Oh, no! Siënna was NOT going to take that lying down. She ended up telling Katja.
“Niklas, come here!” Katja commanded sternly with her eyebrows furrowed into her forehead. She ended up scolding him about how inconsiderate and threatening it was to call someone a little shit, especially a new kid.
“How the fuck would she know what I said?! She doesn’t even know the language!” Niklas exclaimed angrily.
“Okay then, what did you say under your breath?”
He said it again: “kleine Scheiße”.
Katja, whose native language was, like Niklas’s, German, said, “So you did call Siënna a little shit.”
“I didn’t call her that! I was just-” But it was pretty obvious that Katja wasn’t going to hear out what Niklas was going to say, so he just gave up.
Just then, Riley walked into the kitchen from the bathroom and stared at Siënna. Siënna stared back.
“What the hell is going on in here?” Riley asked.
Siënna looked up at Riley and stated, pointing at her, “You have the same hairstyle as me!”
Riley looked at the new kid in confusion and then looked at her hair. “What are you talking about?”
“Those little twintails at the side,” Siënna answered, “I have those, too. What made you want that hairstyle?”
Just then, Kishi got out of her chair and stared at both Riley and Siënna, saying, “Yeah, I’ve just noticed that, too. It’s such a weird coincidence, you know. I mean-“
Riley touched her hair and sighed as she reluctantly told the story of why she had two little pigtails on the sides of her head. It was November of 2010, and Riley was sound asleep in her room, sprawled out on her twin-size bed with the white blankets spread out all over the place beneath her. Next thing she knew, Anima was kneeling right over her with a sharp pair of scissors and had cut off a lot of red hair. In fact, the haircut was so horrendous that Riley ended up having almost all of her hair shaved off, leaving her with a hairstyle used more by boys.
“Now, I don’t know if it was because she thought I was talking shit about her or what,” Riley said, “But now I have to remind myself about my hair every time because of dipshits like her.” Riley pointed at Anima eating her french fries and concluded, “And this time, I absolutely am talking shit about you!”
“Me?” Anima said, pretending to be innocent, “Why are you saying such bad stuff about me for?”
“I know what the fuck you did all those years ago!” Riley shouted, “And I ain’t about to forgive you for what you’ve done to my hair! Do you realize how traumatizing that was for me?! For several months, people were thinking that I was a boy or a butch lesbian!”
“So?” Anima said heartlessly, clearly trying hard to show that she wasn’t hurt by that last statement.
“What’s so bad about that?” Siënna asked.
“I’m not a boy, and I’m not a butch lesbian!” Riley answered, her face almost as red as her hair.
“Alright, damn. Shit. I was just wondering,” Anima mumbled under her breath.
Siënna was pretty insulted by Riley’s response; she was asking a simple question, what was the big deal? And what was so bad about being a boy or being a lesbian? It wasn’t that big of a deal… at least, not really in Belgium. Should she tell? She should, but seeing the mean looks on everyone’s faces made her slump back into her seat to make her invisible since she had just given herself the repetition of being the house snitch.
Well, it could be worse. At least they didn’t beat her up when the caretakers weren’t looking.
“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 