Kaja Lando March 14th,20XX

My bones itched as they ran through the practice once more. It was funny because I had never once in my life voluntarily wanted to dance, but now that it had happened, I couldn't do it because of my stupid foot.

I was scared I would fill the room with negative energy if I stayed any longer, and my smile could only last for so long before its fake-ness came forth.

Not to mention Archer and his hypersensitivity to negative emotion would surely pick up on it, and I didn't want him to think I was angry with anyone but myself.

Joyce and Aaron had left a while ago, probably to deal with the sketchy company, and I'd missed the opportunity to go with them. I had to say my goodbyes, but I needed to make sure that no one caught wind of my bitter attitude. I didn't particularly want to leave alone, but Tillo and Eva seemed to enjoy watching them. At least the group wouldn't have to perform without an audience even when I left.

I waited for the song to air out its final three notes and struggled to get up on my own. Tillo would usually be there to support my left side, so depending solely on the crutch wasn't that easy.

"Kaja, you're leaving?"

Destia noticed first and took a break from inhaling her second pack of chocolate-covered marshmallows to ask me. She'd told us that she needed to take in a lot of high-calorie foods when she used her powers, but she had also said that dancing didn't take up even a fraction of the energy she used when she ran.

Maybe she was just hungry?

"Yeah, I'm a bit tired is all. I'm going to head up but you guys are so amazing! Keep it u!"

My voice was a bit pitchy, and I could see that Tillo had caught on to why I needed to leave, but no one said anything, and I was able to escape.

Unsurprisingly Tillo stayed behind since he was still having fun, but surprisingly Eva got up and tagged after me. She left her Whale in her spot, so I could tell she was planning on returning. Maybe she wanted to grab something from the suite?

Her small hands held on tight to her tablet, another fixture that had joined the ranks of her Whale, and helped me choose the floor on the elevator. That was one of the things I could still do on my own, but it seemed like she wanted to help, so I let her.

The elevator moved slowly, and the ride up the tall building seemed to take forever. I still felt a little awkward with the little girl, but I thought we'd grown pretty close. Our relationship was still somewhat tentative, so I decided to start a conversation, even though I wasn't really in the mood to talk.

I'd gotten hurt of my own volition, so it wasn't like I could sulk about it and bring everyone else down with me.

Eva was paying attention to me to make sure I didn't end up falling flat on my face, and she stood to my left, similar to how Tillo had, to help me with my balance. Otherwise, she focused on her tablet and an unfamiliar video started playing.

At first, I thought it was just another version of the dance videos she'd taken to watching, but then I saw Archer's face pop up on the screen.

"Hmm? What's this?"

I took a video.

I vaguely remembered her bugging Aaron to teach her how to work the camera function. As I dug up that memory, a few more of seeing the little kid pointing the camera every which way came to the forefront of my mind.

"Have you taken a lot of them?"

The long metal doors split apart as the elevator reached our floor and I had to wait until we'd crossed the long hallway and entered the suite.

Eva followed me to my and Tillo's room and made sure I was settled in the bed by clumsily imitating Destia's actions earlier. She fluffed my pillows and arranged the sheets, but it was clear she wasn't sure why she was doing it. At the end of the process, I was just a fraction less uncomfortable than I had been to start with.

I didn't dare adjust myself until she left though, and let the warmth of being taken care of by such an adorable kid carry me through it.

Once she decided I was well arranged and she'd forced me to down a full glass of water, she climbed up to the bed and showed me her large library of videos.

They weren't the best-taken videos due to Eva's short height and inexpertise with the device, but the device itself was of high quality and had naturally steadied enough of the shots to be usable.

The more I watched the more an idea bloomed in my mind.

There was just a lot of content here, and even though not a lot of the video was usable, there was enough to be able to complete my little pet project.

"Hey Eva, would you be willing to work on a little project with me?"

Eva looked confused as she wondered where my sudden proposal came from. Well, I still hadn't thought it all out yet, and I still wasn't sure if I could handle it all on my own. But if I could successfully plan it out, I could get rid of this crippling sense of uselessness.

'A project?'

I held up the tablet she had handed to me.

"These videos you've taken, wouldn't it be cool if we made a sort of behind-the-scenes documentary?"

Her large odd-coloured eyes sparkled as she caught on to what I was saying, and a small but bright smile lit up her doll-like face.

'Awesome! Will these be enough?'

I looked through the entire folder full of five- to seven-minute-long videos. There were a few chonkers that spanned an hour I would need to clip through, but at least it would give me something to do.

All the audio was clear as a whistle, so whatever visual footage that couldn't be used could either be padded with a montage, or with some animation.

Ahh, I couldn't really draw either, but Tillo was pretty decent at it, maybe he could help with those parts.

Hopefully, I could get it done before the hype about the new group naturally died down, but even if it took a bit longer, I could just keep advertising them on either Tillo and I's Page channel or on the account I ran with my friends. It was pretty dead for now since we saved the news we would otherwise have used for the channel.

"Yeah, these should be fine, but keep taking videos. If you happen to see them looking sad, or super happy, make sure to capture it!"

I didn't quite know if it was okay to tell my elementary-aged camerawoman to target their moments of emotional weakness, but I put my morality aside for a moment.

Eva looked antsy to start as I transferred copies of the videos onto my laptop and jogged out of the room before I could wish her luck. I waited a few more minutes before adjusting the pillows around myself and finally let out an exhale of relief.

Finally, I was comfortable.

I opened an old video about editing videos and got to watching it. While I was confident in my technology skills, it wouldn't hurt to brush up on these things. I didn't want to involve a professional or other people, but I still needed it to match the quality of a professional's work.