15. Two Snakes and The Lone Traveler

School felt odd. I was facing a strange disconnect. On the one hand, I had to deal with what I had been dealing with, working from a deficit to keep up with the class. But on the other hand, I was somehow in the accelerated program. That didn’t amount to much in school, only outside of class activities in my father’s mad science experiment.

Still, I strangely wanted to run away. Run somewhere far away, like back home. I missed my mother and sister and while I had been texting them it was more or less the normal stuff. How are you doing? Things are going well…etc. I didn’t want to worry my sister and she missed me, I could tell but that didn’t change the situation for either of us.

“Why so glum, bub,” Taika plopped himself down next to me and flipped his bangs which had started to grow longer than I remembered, or perhaps I just started noticing it because he was much too close for comfort.

“Not that it matters, but I’m just tired,” I replied, attempting to get him off my case.

“Eh, I’m not falling for that old trick,” Taika said, shaking his head. “Tired, sure…maybe, but there’s more in those melancholic eyes of yours.”

“Lay off, the tests are exhausting and I just wanna go home, like back to Washington.”

“You’ll get more depressed, not much sun there, no? Heard people have to take vitamin D supplements and such to stave off depression,” Taika stated as if he knew.

I sighed. “It’s not like that.”

“While it pains me to ask, what are you two whispering about?” Miya said, but she certainly didn’t sound as if she really cared. More as if she was going through the motions.

I glanced at her and stood up. The bell had just ended and it was time to leave. I assumed we’d be staying at Miya’s again as was the suggestion by my father and the others seemed happy enough to do it. As much as I wanted the seclusion of my house it did get rather lonely. We all stood up to leave and I looked over at Alice. She was standing by the door, leaning against the wall with her arms behind her back. As we approached, Miya stopped.

“Well, another snide remark in passing?”

Alice shook her head. “Not today, I’d like to join you all.”

“You’re joking?” Taika exaggerated a gasp at the end.

“Where are we headed?” Alice smirked.

Juliet jumped forward, excitedly grabbing both of Alice’s hands and shook them in a

friendly gesture. “I’m so excited, I can’t believe it, it's a miracle!”

Alice blushed lightly and timidly let out, “Hey, enough of that, don’t touch me!”

Miya didn’t say much and the group left for the adventure that awaited us in the mansion.

***

As we arrived Alice whistled entering the place. “Quite impeccable, I suppose. Though, I wouldn’t expect any less from someone as rich as your father. How’s it feel to be the most spoiled girl in school?”

Miya smiled. “If I had to rate it. I’d say my satisfaction at my circumstances are around a similar level to your own self-conceit. Or rather, I must be as happy as you are to see your own reflection.”

“Cute.” Alice rolled her eyes.

“How about we show you around?” Natalie suggested.

“Yeah, we…know the place a bit now,” Melanie added.

“Oh by all means, snoop around my home as if you own it. Would you like my social security number as well?” Miya quipped.

“Oh..we, uhm, we didn’t mean too…” Natalie appeared to be at the edge of tears but Juliet quickly stepped in.

“Don’t mind her, she’s joking!” Juliet reassured them and then looked at Miya.

“It doesn’t matter to me, after all I know what you’re all doing at all times,” Miya confessed. Though I already could have guessed that.

“Wait, at all—” Taika was probably on his way to saying something embarrassing but Miya beat him to it.

“At all…times,” Miya gave him a sidelong glance and then added, “And the lord would be disgusted.”

“Hey! Stop it! I didn’t do anything weird. Don’t give anyone the wrong impression of me, I’m a good man, honest! Honest!” But Taika’s protests fell on deaf ears, everyone knew he was the wildest man in school, possibly the world.

“I’d actually like him to show me around,” Alice said pointing at me. My eyes widened as I realized what she said and I had to do a double-take.

“Me?”

“Yes, you, I think you’re the easiest to deal with,” Alice answered.

“I don’t know about that, this guy shows his dong to maids…” Taika said with a disgusted look.

“Shut your mouth! We were both there! And neither—” I stopped myself short and took note of the stunned reactions in the crowd, “It’s a long story, okay!”

Natalie laughed and Melanie was blushing.

“Sure! I’ll go with you!” Juliet volunteered herself.

Alice shot-back quickly, “Wait, I never agreed to such a thing.”

“What do you mean?” Juliet tilted her head in confusion.

“I mean, I want alone time with him.” With that, Alice gripped my arm and began to tug me. “Show me the garden,” she added.

“Wa—Wait!” Juliet called out but Miya stopped her for some reason and no one else was following us. In my awkward confusion I went along with the series of events but felt as if I was headed into a dark alley with a stranger.

By the time we made it outside I had to rid myself of the sad look of Juliet’s face. I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea, I didn’t know Alice well to begin with. We approached a small patch of roses with a bench and she forced me to sit. She was standing and glaring at me. Then she narrowly shifted her eyes back and forth.

Sighing, she expressed her intentions, “Now then, tell me, new guy. I gave you a chance before but as you can see that did little for me. Are you really a part of her little gang?”

“Gang? Are you talking about Miya,” My confusion was immense.

Alice huffed. “Don’t be slow, you already look the part. Don’t act like it.”

“Alice, what—”

“Are we on a first name basis?”

“That’s how you introduced yourself…” I leaned my head back and tried to decide what I should say. It was obvious that she was fishing for information. It didn’t take a detective to know that. Even my sister with all her fake detective Conan like aura would have deduced it immediately. I looked back down and took a good look at her face. Her eyes were actually pretty sharp. She had a pretty face, not in the way Juliet or Miya did. If Juliet was cotton-candy, and Miya was a sour patch kid, then this girl Alice was something spicy, a tajin-covered watermelon hard candy perhaps? I think I’m getting too specific here. Was she even sweet underneath? She’s rather pretty in a more stubborn way. She was sporting a twin-tail as well today and that contrast of cuteness with her personality was dangerous.

“Well, are you gonna stand there staring like a creep or answer me?”

“No. Listen, I don’t have the best opinion of Miya but I happen to find the others nice. I’m not gonna betray anyone just because you ask me too, I don’t owe you anything.”

“I never said such a thing. But I do want some information,” Alice said innocently.

“Didn’t you hear Miya?”

“That’s why we are outside, I’m sure she can see us, I doubt it’s bugged here.”

“Yeah, the bench isn’t bugged, okay…” I shook my head. “You don’t understand Miya Weskaber.”

“But you do?” Alice smiled at me.

I rubbed my left temple. “I don’t know anything more than anyone else.”

Alice then started tearing up. Huh? What did I do?
The tears started to slide down her cheeks and finally she covered her face with her hands, sobbing.

“He—Hey, wait, what’s wrong?” I panicked. What did I do?

“I hate her!” Alice cried. “She stole my friends from me.”

“Well, your friends…they—” I wanted to counter her point but she began to sob harder.

“She’s a monster and she steals everything, that’s why I tried to stop you from joining her. You’ll see she’s going to eat you up!”

Well, I mean, she has dragged me around a lot and made me the butt of the joke since I met her, but then again, my dad has also been a big part of that. It was hard to say whether or not Alice was wrong there.

“Listen, I don't want you to feel lonely, but I don’t know what I could even do.”

Alice sniveled and wiped tears from her eyes. “I just want help getting my friends back. Don’t you know what it's like to lose everyone? You had to move, didn't you?”

“Uh, yeah, I suppose when you put it that way I do, but…” Seeing Alice sob, I couldn't be too hard on her. She was a girl after all. Not that that meant she was weak but, I just, my inner nature wanted to help her. “Okay, maybe I could help you get your friends back at least but that’s all. Besides they didn’t really leave you if you just talk to them—”

“No take backs!” Alice smirked, suddenly she wasn’t crying anymore. She wiped the obviously fake tears from her eyes and was beaming with a satisfied look. “So you’ll help me?”

“Hey, wait a second! You tricked me.”

“And? Are you saying you aren’t a man of your word? How disgusting.”

“That’s bullshit, you can’t play with someone’s emotions like that, I was worried.”

“And, you said you’d help me, so help me.”

“You’re annoying as hell. Just talk to your friends. They miss you. Not like I know why with that attitude of yours,” I complained. What was with these girls around me? Miya and Alice were absolutely the worst.

“Eh, I was just hamming it up a little. Obviously I’m totally upset. Miya stole my friends! I meant that much,” Alice said, attempting to justify her snake like behavior. I really didn’t want to hear it. What was I supposed to even do to help her anyway? It’s not like I knew anything about her friends or her. Iki was a loner even in his own group, and the twins just wanted a little breather. If anything they wanted to enjoy time together with Alice.

“What do you want from me?” I asked.

“Well, you promised to get my friends back from Miya. Show them who Miya really is. So they know to stay away from her,” Alice suggested.

I shook my head in dismay. “How would I even do that? If you just had a good time with everyone then it would be fine.”

“Oh come on, don’t be so naive. There’s no way I could have fun around her!”

“Just try it, and I’ll try and chat with your friends and get them to spend more time with you. Maybe if they heard it from someone else it would mean something, I don’t know?” I was at a loss. There wasn’t much I could do in this situation. But Alice leaned back on the bench and stared up at the sky. For a moment she looked quite beautiful, though her face was filled with concern.

“Right,” She said. Then she stood up and stretched. “Let’s get back then. You can at least be my lackey for the time being.”

“I never agreed to that!”

“Come now,” Alice commanded and began walking back inside. My headache was coming back. Now there were two of them.