Alyssa: What?

I told Alyssa everything, she had to know.

Alyssa: Oh this is a mess she's a mess-

Ashlyn: I know, and I don't know what to do about it.

Alyssa: I don't think we can do anything about it. Ashton told you not to tell anyone?

Ashlyn: Well yes, I feel so bad now...

Alyssa: I promise I won't tell anyone, you don't have to feel bad.

Ashlyn: Are you going to talk to Sophie?

Alyssa: Oh heck no. I'll leave that to Ashton or you or something.

Ashlyn: Oh.

Alyssa: Anyway I think you should get going now, It's 420 time.

Ashlyn: What?

Alyssa: Cannabis.

Ashlyn: You know this shit isn't good for your health.

Alyssa: I'm gonna die anyway, might as well numb the pain while you're at it.

Ashlyn: Hm.

Alyssa: Anyway, see you. And be careful okay?

Ashlyn: Oh uh, thanks.

I left Alyssa's room.

I headed back to my dorm.

Hm. I don't really have anything to do right now, I guess I'll go find someone to hang out with.

- - - FREE TIME START - - -

Miyoshi: Hey Ash, you coming to hang out?

Ashlyn: Yes, actually.

Miyoshi: Well I actually do need your help with something.

Ashlyn: What is it? I'm happy to do anything if it passes time.

Miyoshi: Well Alyssa said that she'd pay me if I helped her sort out the things in the pharmacy and pack them into boxes to be sent to her room. She says she's trying to find the perfect drug to send her on the perfect trip.

Ashlyn: So how are we supposed to sort them?

Miyoshi: She says that on the packet will be a code for the type of drug. We need to sort them according to the letter at the back of the code. So the A drugs go with the other A drugs.

Ashlyn: Seems easy enough, let's get sorting.

Miyoshi and I spent some time sorting out drugs for Alyssa.

Ashlyn: Here's the last one, it's a C drug.

Miyoshi: Put it in the box.

I put the last packet into the box labeled "C"

Ashlyn: How much are you getting paid to do this?

Miyoshi: I usually don't condone this kind of behavior and drug thingies, but she's paying me thirty dollars.

Ashlyn: That seems like very little for all the work we just did.

I looked at the empty pharmacy, shelves completely empty, piles of unknown drugs in their respective boxes.

Miyoshi: Well, organising stuff is quite therapeutic to me, and I really can't ask for much when I'm a small mathematician making about $300 a month doing data filing. I use the money to pay my family's rent. You'd understand right? You're an artist.

Ashlyn: I get around 5 commissions a day, it's hard to earn a lot of money off this.

Miyoshi: Exactly, I spend six hours a day after school grouping data with data and making charts and calculating rates and oh my god it drives me crazy. I kinda wish I never decided to be a mathematician.

Ashlyn: Do you ever wonder what it would be like if we got to go to that school?

Miyoshi: All the time. I spent months applying and going through interviews and I'm missing it all, it's sad.

Ashlyn: My whole life I dreamed of seeing this school inside and out and getting to know people from there and I finally had my chance. But this happened and now I'll never get to go there. I feel like an opportunity has been stripped from me.

Miyoshi: I wonder if they'll still accept us if we get out...

Ashlyn: I think they will, and this is why we need to leave.

Miyoshi: Yea, we'll leave and we can finally go to that school. Thanks for the motivation, Ash. I'm going to go hand the boxes to Alyssa now, bye.

Ashlyn: Bye bye!

Looks like I grew a little closer to Miyoshi today!

I headed back to my dorm.

Hm. I don't really have anything to do right now, I guess I'll go find someone to hang out with.

- - - FREE TIME START - - -

Rachel: Ashlyn!

Ashlyn: Hello!

Rachel: You know what I found in the food court dessert stall???

Ashlyn: What??

Rachel: Apples! I love apples and I was wondering if you wanted to share them!

Ashlyn: Sure.

Rachel: Okay, let's go!

Rachel and I spent some time eating apples in the food court.

Rachel: You know, Ash, sometimes I wonder...

Ashlyn: Hm?

Rachel: We're in Japan right?

Ashlyn: Yea, we are.

Rachel: We were all raised in Japan, but we don't look like it or know any Japanese.

Ashlyn: Well my parents claim that I'm completely their biological child and that I'm 100% Japanese. But I was sent to an international School and my name is Ashlyn. Sometimes I get suspicious.

Rachel: Same, honestly. But it just doesn't make any sense. I was born and raised here, so why is my name Rachel it doesn't make sense.

Ashlyn: Now that I think of it, it doesn't.

Rachel: Whatever, I'm just a lucky drawn student who's name rhymes with bagel.

Ashlyn: Do you have any talents other than being lucky?

Rachel: Well I like drawing too.

Ashlyn: Ooh that's so cool, we should hang out more.

Rachel: We should.

Ashlyn: I'll get going now, I'm tired.

Rachel: But it's only three o'clock.

Ashlyn: I'm not going to sleep silly, I'll just go to my room and vibe.

Rachel: Ah.

Ashlyn: Anyway I guess I'll go now, bye Ragel.

Rachel: Bye.

Looks like I grew a little closer to Rachel today!

I headed back to my dorm.

I decided to sit at the small table in the corner and draw with the notebook and pencil I was provided with. I drew small doodles for what seemed like hours and hours. With every stroke of the pencil was something to be expressed, every line, every circle.

I felt like I'd just spilled every ounce of my heart onto this small piece of paper, my sadness, the fact that I felt like we were all going to die in this place. I didn't cry one tear, it was as if any tear I was meant to cry was substituted with the graphite of this small object in my hand.

I drew till my fingers numbed and my arm ached, I erased till the paper tore holes in itself, and finally I snapped out of the trance I'd just been stuck in and looked at the notebook paper for what it was.

The once dry paper, covered in small doodles of smiling fictional characters, began to be covered in small wet dots. The dots spread all over, leaving the graphite lines crying, just like me. I buried my face in my hands.

If I'd just expressed myself fully, why am I still crying? Why am I like this? I'm going to die aren't I? Someone's going to come to me and they're going to take a knife and plunge it into my back and then everything is going to go dark and-

Someone knocked on my door.

I don't want to die yet please I don't want to die not now not yet. Please just go away.

Another knock.

Ashlyn: Shit.

I wiped my tears away with my shirt and walked up to the door to open it.

Click

Ashton: Can we talk for a moment?