Leroy: Has his own confession time By no particular plan, it became Leroy's and Devina's turn to pick up the two girls after school ended. The Saint Eustace School, by deliberate design, let it's day students out an hour after normal schools. So Leroy had plenty of time to go home from his own school, and then go back out and pick up Kaydence and Juniper. I still feel weird about this. Here I am, keeping company with a bonafide killer, who at one stage was hell bent on killing us all. And now we've all been meeting each other every day for the last week. They were currently standing in the entrance hall, waiting for the handover. "Say, it's nice that the weather engineers are giving us another couple of fine days before starting the transition to winter, isn't it?" Verdant might have been the green city; however its climate was designed to be a temperate zone type, with definite seasons. The cold season was necessary for all of the deciduous trees and fruit trees. Although they did have plenty of hothouse areas, to grow tropical fruits. "Yes" said Devina. She did treat Leroy better than she treated Teylon, but that was not saying much. Right now, she had her usual half angry, half distrustful expression. This is hard. I could use a break from their company - maybe everyone else could too? Devina's expression relaxed and became much more approachable when she was reunited with Juniper. And Leroy forgot about his grumbling as he was greeted by Kaydence's usual exuberance. Everybody was happy has they made their way back to Teylon's. But, still. With a certain amount of diffidence, after the girls had gone to bed he made a proposal. "Say, everybody, we have spent a lot of time together, do you think it could be a good idea to split up occasionally. Perhaps the Girls in Pink could take the two girls somewhere on one day, and then Teylon and us could take them somewhere the next? It's just a suggestion..." Fortunately, Francesca was immediately onto the idea. "Great idea! We are not exactly the most compatible of groups, are we? How about we take the girls to the water playground while it's still summer? I always wanted to go there, but the chance I had back in my high school days... Well, I had to cancel." "Sounds like a good idea." said Teylon. He will always be agreeable to other people's plans. I suppose it is part of his Narrative Causality stuff. "Well, I'll stay home and do my house work." said Sarawatch. The other teenagers were amenable. And so it was agreed. Later that night, as he lay in his bed starting at the ceiling, he did some thinking. I'll bet anything that Adalace's dark past involves being the target of bullies. After all, she practically went berserk over that horrible Ajaeren, and he is definitely the bullying kind. And what's more, I know all about that kind of stuff, her actions match the patterns. So, after everyone else is gone and it's just Teylon and us teenagers, how about I try something? If it backfires and I'm the one that suffers, then, so be it. As long as they still let me look after Kaydence, that is. The next day, a Saturday, found Teylon and the teenagers waving goodbye to five girls as they set off to a day at the Water World Adventure Park. I bet Kaydence looks stunning in a bikini... No, no, forget that. Not to mention the other girls... He had a brief image of three Girls in Pink, all wearing pink bikinis, and all out to kill him. No, definitely forget that! He wondered if Erasyl was being subject to the same temptations. Probably not, he's still recovering from the Ajaeren stuff. So I'm the only one who has to cope with inappropriate desires. Yeah, that figures. He took his opportunity, before anyone else could start some other activity. He cleared his throat. When everyone was looking at him, he said "Considering that we have heard about Teylon's past, and Sarsaparilla's and Maggie's past, and, well, there's the Angel of Death stuff, and, and, we are now looking after Kaydence and Juniper, and, it's been preying on my mind for some time, that is, I think I should tell you about my past..." The others, without making it too obvious, made themselves comfortable. If previous experience was of any guide at all, they just knew that something important, and possibly dramatic, was coming up. Leroy took a breath and looked back at five pairs of expectant eyes. This is one very intense friendship group, that's for sure. Well, here goes. "I have on occasions said that I hated bullying. And I'm sure that some of you have been subject to it. I'm sure that Adalace, in particular, has been." Adalace twitched uncomfortably, but did not say anything. Sarsaparilla moved closer to her side. "Well, you see," Another deep breath. "I've never been bullied." "But that's because I was the bully." Silence as they all kept right on looking at him. I can't escape now, so I might as well keep going. "Back then, four or so years ago, I was a new student at my school and a complete nobody, no one knew me. So, in a fit of stupidity, I decided to pick on some of the other kids, the ones who were also completely without support groups. And, my pathetic strategy to get some renown sort of worked. I got my own little group of followers, all boys, who were happy to let me take the lead in tormenting others. Not to any great degree, mind you. Well, apart from one girl. She was just as much a loner as we were and she had weird combination of abilities; she was born totally deaf, but her esp ability compensated by allowing her to hear sounds directly in her mind. But only if the sound source was directly in front of her, and only at a distance of about one metre. Which means that while she could use a hearing aid, it's speaker had to be a one and a bit metres away from her." "So, she almost always carried her hearing stick around, and had to point it in the rough direction of what she wanted to hear. The directional microphone in the handle of the stick would pick up any sounds, amplify them and retransmit them from a small loudspeaker at the end of the stick." "I, I'm ashamed to say, we made a lot of fun of her; After all, if she didn't have her hearing stick, we could talk about her when she wasn't looking in our direction and she could never hear us, and even when she was looking at us, she had to be in the correct range." Leroy was looking at the floor, to avoid everyone’s gazes. "It, well it got really bad, I guess I got a bit carried away, as in, well..." "I would make fun of her hearing aid stick, and sometimes I would pinch it and hide it, and, and, sometimes I managed to get other students to laugh at her, and I suppose this just reinforced my own behaviour, and since she had never had friends before she was already acting a bit weird by our young teenage standards, so when she got upset she acted even more strangely, and, and, well, it all came to a head when one day she didn't turn up at school." "We eventually found out that she had tried to commit suicide. Fortunately it didn't succeed and she recovered, but she never came back to that school." Adalace was twitching, but everyone else was still, waiting to see how this was going to turn out. "The teachers gave us all a big talking, and then my parents had to take me to the head mistress and there was further talk, and I was reprimanded, and my mum and dad were very disappointed in me, and everyone else decided that they would make me the scapegoat, and so I spent the remaining few years at that school totally isolated. Not to mention that I felt really really bad about it all. When I came to Verdant City I decided to go in the opposite extreme and try to be a hero. To look after people instead of bullying them. Ah, actually I never really managed to look after anyone before I met you lot. I did try to stop the occasional bullying if I saw it, but I can't say I was very successful. It's a lot harder to stop than you would think." He paused for a long moment. "Well, I suppose that is my confession." He turned to look at Adalace. "I'm sure you've been bullied in the past, hopefully you can accept my repentance and maybe tell us about your experiences?" He got a good look at her expression. "... I hope?" Adalace did not look too happy. Her face was flushed with anger. Her arms and hands were making small jerking movements. She stared at Leroy as if looking at a particularly unpleasant unidentifiable mess of uncertain provenance that happened to be lying on the ground. Leroy backed away slightly. Adalace glanced at Sarsaparilla, and gently removed her arm from Sarsaparilla's hold. "I'm alright." she said. She turned her attention back to Leroy and moved a few steps closer to him. "So, you think you can help me with my dark past, do you? You think that because you bullied someone in the past and regretted it, that you now have the qualifications to help me? You think that you know how I felt about being bullied? Well?" "Ah, well, I'm truly sorry for what I did..." "Really? Turning over a new leaf and feeling sorry? That's all it takes? Well, I don't think so. It takes a bit more than that to fix things up, you know. At least that's what I think. And I'm the one that is supposed to be the victim here." Shit, I don't think this is working out. At all. But I've got no option but to stand here and take it. Otherwise my regret for my past actions means nothing. Adalace's voice raised in both volume and pitch. Sarsaparilla, behind her, had her hands lifted up as if to hold her, but she must have been restraining herself. "Frankly, I think you are being a bit presumptuous. You are stepping a long way out of due bounds here. You're not qualified to speak for me or to guide me. OK?" Leroy shuddered as he took this blow. "I, I, sorry, I thought I could make things better..." "Make things better? Get me to discuss my dark and horrible past? Who gave you that right? What the bloody hell made you think that you could be part of the solution, when in fact you were part of the problem?" Leroy backed off even further, and bumped against the wall. Adalace had advanced and was within arm’s length. She was getting visibly more and more angry. "You're just another dickhead man, thinking you can explain to a woman how to deal with their life, as if she didn't have a clue unless she was helped by the all knowing male." Leroy was going pale and beginning to tremble. "Please, I didn't mean to upset you..." "Upset me? Upset me? Perhaps you should have thought of that before starting your spiel!" Adalace grabbed his collar and shook him. Since she and Leroy were approximately the same height and build, she managed to get a bit of whiplash into the shaking. By now, she was at the height of her fury. By now, Sarsaparilla and the others were in a close semicircle around the two, but from a combination of not knowing what to do, and being in each other’s road, they did nothing to stop the unfolding drama. "So, you want me to discuss my dark past do you? Everybody wants to know all about it, don't they? OK, I'll tell you!" She managed to shake him so violently that he bounced off the wall and clumsily collapsed onto the floor. Fortunately, Teylon had specified a heavy pile carpet when he bought the place, so Leroy had a soft landing, falling flat on his back. Adalace, still holding on, was pulled down and landed on her knees next to him. She leant over him, her face above his, and screamed. "I wasn't bullied, you dumb idiot! I was raped!" "There! Everyone now knows! I was raped! OK!" She let go with one hand, and took out one of her steel nails and held it above his face. Its end glowed cherry red. "One of the sleazy bastard high school boys, who I actually knew slightly and thought I could trust, lured innocent little me to an isolated location and then just raped me!" Adalace looked around and saw her audience, freaking out in alarm. "Erasyl, if you cancel my ability, you'll burn both me and him! OK?" "Ah, right." She turned back to Leroy. By now, he was crying, tears streaming across his face. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" But this did not assuage Adalace in the slightest. "I don't care if you're sorry! What about me? Half dressed, I ran all the way home and my parents found me sobbing on my bed. I cried so much I vomited. They had to take me out of that school and move to another dome because I was so devastated. It took me two months before I could muster up the courage and go to my new school. And I was so frightened about the students there finding out and maybe some boy would decide to rape me again, that I never spoke to anyone. I never made any friends with anyone. I even changed my name, just so that no one from my previous school could track me down!" She was screaming at the top of her voice, and still trying to shake him, while holding the glowing red nail above his face. "Even now, every time I walk around in public I get tense. I hide it as much as possible. And, sometimes, I'll see some young man acting stupid, and he will trigger off an anger trip. Can you realise how hard it is to control my rages, how hard it is tramp down on my desire to go berserk, how exhausting it is to have these violent fantasies about retaliating against some man and making him regret hurting me!" She stopped yelling to recover her breath. Everyone else was silent and still as statues, afraid to do anything in case someone was badly burnt. There was only the sound of Leroy and Adalace, both crying. The stillness stretched out, then Adalace let go of Leroy and straightened out. The orange glow on the nail vanished and she put it back in her pocket. Sarsaparilla, also with tears in her eyes, knelt on one side of Adalace, Maggie knelt on the other side. "Ah, girls, let's go to your bedroom and cool down, shall we?" said Maggie. Half supported by Maggie and Sarsaparilla, Adalace staggered to their bedroom. The door closed behind them. Teylon and Erasyl exchanged a glance, and then they helped Leroy up to a sitting position, leaning against the wall. Hands on his shoulders, Teylon and Erasyl sat either side. Leroy, still sniffing and crying, tried to wipe his face with his hands. "Here, have my clean hanky. You know, I always keep a clean unused one for emergencies." said Teylon, handing it across. "I'm so sorry, I've completely ruined our friendship group. I thought I was going to do some good, but instead I'm just a stupid dickhead male who stuffs up other people's lives." said Leroy. "Oh, I don't think you should be so hard on yourself." said Erasyl, patting his shoulder as he spoke. "I mean, it did blow up, but, really, I can't fault your intentions." "I agree. The execution was bad, but you did mean well." said Teylon. "But, but, I still caused her pain, making her bring all of that up. And since everyone now knows how much of a dickhead I am, I won't be able to look after Kaydence anymore." "Ah, Leroy, I really don't think you need to worry about that, either. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, this gives me a better insight to your personality. And I am quite happy to trust you and keep you in our little group." said Teylon. "Yeah, I agree. You may feel very bad now, but I'm pretty sure that Adalace will come around to accepting you again. At least somewhat. It might take a little while, but." said Erasyl. "Remember, you’re not the one that raped her. You merely triggered a bad flashback." said Teylon. Running out of things to say, and with Leroy feeling both miserable and also extremely embarrassed at the fact that he was crying in front of two males, they became silent. Leroy dabbed at his face with the now not so clean hanky, and Teylon and Erasyl remained on either side of him. Click. The bedroom door opened, and out came the three girls. Adalace in the middle, hands held by Sarsaparilla on one side and Maggie on the other. Adalace's face was also ruined by crying, the other two girls looked serious. They knelt, in a row, in front of the males. Adalace let go of Maggie's hand, and took out her own hanky to try to wipe off some more tears from her face. Adalace and Leroy looked at each other, everyone else waited silently. "Well, we've had a little talk, me and the girls. And, well, I might have over reacted just a little bit there." said Adalace. "At least, that is what they told me. Very gently. And, apparently, it was long overdue for you all to find out my dark past, anyway. At least according to Sarsaparilla. Whose opinion I value very much." "So, I suppose I can apologise. For going a bit too far. I mean, I do recognise that you're not a ... rapist ..." She spat the last word out in a snarl. "And you do seem to repent your bullying. So, maybe you're not so bad after all..." "I, I, too would like to apologise, for, you know, being so presumptuous" Leroy cringed as he said this word. "I was stupid to think that I could help you..." Adalace squirmed uneasily, and looked at Sarsaparilla for help. "Ah, yes, we talked about that bit too. We decided that maybe it was all to the good, getting it out in the open so to say. A bit hard on you two of course, but still it was necessary. At least I think so." said Sarsaparilla. "At least, you didn't ask me to forgive your bullying. Or for that matter, forgive my rapist. I will never forgive him!" said Adalace. "Ah, right, ah, yes, I don't ask for forgiveness. As part as my quest to become a hero, I've already decided that I'll do whatever is necessary to atone for my actions, but I don't expect that that particular the girl will ever hear about me again. If she did, I certainly don’t expect her to ever forgive me, or to even feel sorry for me." “Of course we still expect you to look after Kaydence in the way she would want to be, without any moves on her..." said Sarsaparilla, with a slight edge to her voice. Gulp. “Of course.” said Leroy. "Ah, and just saying, I don't think being raped had anything to do with me being a lesbian." said Adalace. By now, she was speaking in a much more normal tone of voice. Much to the relief of Leroy. There was more silence, before Teylon looked at his wristband. "The girls aren't supposed to be coming home for a few more hours, but it’s lunch time, what say we eat?" With the males on one side of the table, and the females on the other, they ate lunch. Catered and delivered to Teylon's front door, of course. They did not talk much, and what they did talk about was more in the lines of "pass the salt" and "anyone want any more of this before I eat it all?" "For the final hour or so until they come home, do you want to play cards? If you like, this time I'll promise not to cheat in any way." said Teylon. So they played cards. At the end, in spite of not cheating, Teylon still won by a huge margin. The front door was pushed open and Francesca marched in, followed by the other Girls in Pink, and two tired looking teenagers. "Hi everyone! We had lots of fun. Although they all chickened out on the high dive, the wimps. I had to do it all by myself!” “Did you lot have any excitement today?" she also said after everyone was inside. "Nyah," said Erasyl, "We just relaxed, ate Teylon's food, and played cards. Naturally, Teylon won." "Well, since you had such a boring day, we shall tell you all about what we did!" said Francesca. Francesca seemed to be in no hurry to go home, so everyone ended up staying. After Kaydence and Juniper went to bed, the others gathered around the dining room table. Francesca became serious. "Devina and Tamara have decided to let me talk about this. We've noticed that Juniper acts just a little strange at times. As in, even more stranger then her known condition should dictate." "Oh" said Teylon. "You see, occasionally she will sort of blank out, and starts to act as if she was thinking about something really unpleasant. Then it passes and she resumes whatever she was doing, without being seemingly aware of what just happened." "Well, does Kaydence do anything like that?" said Sarsaparilla. "Not to our knowledge. Also, Kaydence doesn't seem to have any missing memories, or at least none that are apparent. But, Juniper..." "Yeah, I know, Juniper's memories only come back in dibs and drabs, when I'm granted some from Esmeralda." said Teylon. "It's so unfair, Juniper should have gotten the same treatment from Esmeralda as Kaydence did!" said Devina. "I'm sorry, but..." said Teylon. Devina glared at Teylon in anger. Teylon is certainly the target of a lot of hate from Devina. What is her story, I wonder? Francesca cut in at this point, possibly in an attempt to prevent a blow up. "Anyway, if we can move on, here? I would also like to say that, judging by her body language when she is having one of her little episodes, that she might be thinking of some sort of - ah - sexual abuse." After regretfully ruining the social atmosphere with that little titbit, Francesca couldn't think of anything more to say. Neither could anyone else. So they decided to call it a night. By seeming chance, Maggie and Leroy ended up walking together down the corridor outside of Teylon's entrance door. They were somewhat separated from the others. "I just thought I would say that if Adalace had lost control for herself completely and tried to burn you with that glowing red nail, I would have prevented it by gripping it with my magnetic ability." said Maggie, in a whisper. "Oh, thanks." said Leroy, "But, perhaps we can keep that quiet?" "Sure. Although anybody can work it out if they happen to think about it.” I still have friends. Even if they do know all about me.

Terrence: Later in that day, the committee went over today's accumulated security camera footage about Teylon's group. Yes, I clearly remember that... Terrence flashback time: Recruiting a super programmer Deep underground and five years before, Lenny opened the committee meeting, and asked for Terrence's report. "Some sleazy teenage boy decided to go out and rape a school girl. The girl's parents are hopping mad and want the police to do something." he said. "And? Can't the police just go ahead and arrest him?" said Teresa. "Well, you see it's a girl called Adelina. She happens to be one of our esp implanted kids. Not only has she got a reasonably strong ability called 'Maxwell's Demon', she also appears to have acquired the ability to program computers. By that I mean her programming ability is freaking high. Right off the scale. Like a whole ten levels above anybody else's. And she is still a young teenager. So..." Terrence looked at Arnold, who took over. "So, if we can recruit her into being a full member of our little group, she could be a tremendous asset." "Somehow I think you are leading somewhere a bit ugly, aren't you?" said Teresa. "Well, now, we've been using the newish physiological prediction software which has come out of Earth, and it appears that Adelina's default personality and attitudes don't really suit our mission parameters." said Arnold. "In other words, she's too nice a person to join a bunch of shady people like us?" "Err, something like that. However, if we just sort of block the police action, and leave her and her family to their own devices, then by the time she's young adult, things could be different." "Oh, gross. You let the experience of being raped and then not receiving any official help fester in her psyche, in the hope that she gets sufficiently corrupted that she becomes a suitable candidate for us?" "Now, now, there's no need to be so, ah, blunt." said Lenny. "Nevertheless, you've already decided, haven't you?" said Teresa. The four others nodded their heads in agreement. Teresa, looking very disgruntled, said: "Fine, fine. Just record in the minutes that I voted against it, OK?" Lenny typed a bit on his keypad. "Yeah, OK, it's done. Can we move on, now?" "Wait, what about the other Maxwell's Demons espers. Can't they program, too?" said Teresa. "Ah, we looked it up. There's currently seven, all with similar strength temperature control abilities, and none with the slightest programming ability what so ever." said Lenny. "Right, so that's why you are so desperate to recruit the only known super programmer." said Teresa. "Well, it is occurred to us that maybe someone with a super programming ability might be able to coax something more out of the Artifact's user interface. After all, Terrence has managed to make some small advances, so someone who is better might be able to do more." said Lenny, looking irritated. Teresa looked disgruntled at this, but he didn't say anything. Lenny moved on to the next item in the agenda. Terrence: Back to the present time, Terrence had a few extra moments to himself. How galling. I used to think I was such a hotshot programmer, but both Lenny and Arnold took be down a peg or two. He felt again the shame of being found out, of having to realise that he had been deluding himself, of being humiliated by having it pointed out by two separate men on two separate occasions. And then we found out that this little teenager, a girl at that, really was a hotshot programmer. Practically God-level, in fact. And, back then, we were hopeful that in a few years time she'll be quite amenable to joining us. That the rape could turn out well, for us. Damn it all. It now looks like that has become impossible. Sarsaparilla: Does some comforting. Sarsaparilla returned from the bathroom, after having a shower and changing into her pyjamas. Adalace was already in bed, but sitting up. She was fidgeting around, she was looking very unsettled indeed. "Juniper's condition doesn't sound very good at all, does it?" she said. "No." Sarsaparilla took a good look at Adalace. She's avoiding my eyes, she's wringing her hands, she looks as if she is trembling, she jumps at every loud noise, yep, she's definitely suffering. Looks like I need to go all out to comfort her. So Sarsaparilla pulled up Adalace's blanket a bit and sat next to her. "Huh?" said Adalace. "Now, don't worry, nothing is going to happen. But, just for tonight, I think I had better sleep next to you. After all, you need it, don't you?" "Ah, yes..." Sarsaparilla lifted her right hand, the one with the wristband on it, and produced the appropriate twitch code to turn off the lights. Another function that the wristbands were useful for. They lay on their sides, facing each other, hand in hand. "So that's what your dark past was all about." "Sorry, I know I should have told at least you sooner, but I just could never find the right moment..." "So, in other words, Leroy did you a favour?" A faint giggle from Adalace. "I wouldn't go quite that far. But still, it is a relief to get it out. Before I met all of you, I was so frightened of anyone finding out. Frightened that people would think that I deserved it in some way or that people wouldn't believe me and think that I was making things up." "Well, due to various circumstances, I don't think you will have that sort of problem with us lot!" "No." There was a warm and comforting silence. "I'm so glad I have you." said Adalace. "And I'm glad I have you." said Sarsaparilla. "But why does it all have be to so complicated?" "God knows." Adalace: It's nice to have friends. And again, by seeming chance, at breakfast the following morning, Maggie and Adalace happened to end up sitting next to each other with no one else within hearing. "Oh, Adalace, I decided I would tell you; when you were threatening Leroy with that red hot nail, I wouldn't have allowed you to actually burn him." said Maggie. "Ah." said Adalace. She thought about it for a moment. "Thanks. In the heat of the moment, it felt so compelling... But now I'm glad I didn't hurt him." I have a good friend in Maggie. I must keep her.