"Kasumi, why are you camping out in your room?"

Through the crack within the blanket I was wrapped up like a cocoon in, I peeked at my older sister who hovered by my bedroom door. Fingers over the doorknob, her identically dark eyes were fixed on me, left eyebrow dipped in scrutiny.

I drew my knees closer to my body, dropping my head back into the suffocating warmth.

"Hey, Shizuka," I said, piquing her confusion at once, "am I weird for not being so immersed in sexual gratification?"

"The flying fuckballs—" My extensive foul-mouthed jargon was a family thing. "—What are they teaching you at school to ask BS like that?"

"BS itself," I muffled. "They're all shiny, perverted hypocrites polished in bullshit. And yet they're so well-liked? How can it be...? What is with society?"

Shizuka stared at me with knitted bafflement. I caught her gaze sliding to the dress she'd let me borrow yesterday and she picked it off the floor with a frown. "Your date didn't go well yesterday, did it?"

It did! I wanted to shout. It was going so, so well.

"Rokura High School is a lunatic ward," I groaned, burying my face yet again.

This time, she approached my bed. "We all know you're the lunatic here."

"You haven't seen those monsters."

She sighed. "Aren't you the girl that scorched off somebody's eyebrows?"

"He was an obnoxious asshole."

"Clearly he was trying to flirt with you, the new girl," she insisted. "You also dislocated that one guy's shoulder."

"He was pushing around a kid at school so I pushed his arm out of commission. So what?"

Shizuka placed her palm on my bed. "This attitude is the reason you ended up expelled from your previous schools. Dad already told you to stop thinking that way or else he'll disown you for real this time."

My gut churned with nausea at the idea.

"It's been a month since your last suspension and you haven't gotten yourself expelled yet. Dad's proud you lasted this long, you know," she went on. "Because of your stupid decisions you made us move here to a bigger city because no school was going to accept you in our small town anymore. Then like some immature brat, you refused homeschooling with such passion."

"It worked out better for us, right?" I mumbled. "Your university is in this city anyway, and it's closer to dad's job."

Shizuka collapsed onto the edge of my bed, running her fingers through her sleek, black hair. She'd dyed it from its original auburn because she disliked being a brunette. "It worked out well now, yeah. But it won't for you if you keep acting this way. Suspension is one thing, but expulsion? From two consecutive schools?"

My lips flattened into a purse. "They overreacted."

"You under-reacted," Shizuka enunciated, scowling at me. "Stealing school property—"

"They were mistreating the poor fish," I defended. "I was advocating for fish rights."

"By flushing them down the toilet and telling them to be free?"

I pushed out of the covers and frowned. "You told me fish were flushed down the toilet to go to a better place."

"Yeah, when they're flippin' dead. Not alive and kicking!"

I gasped. "Goldie was d-dead? He didn't go to the ocean like you said?"

"You were a gullible six-year-old who accidentally overfed our goldfish. You wanted me to tell you the truth?"

My jaw fell, scarred. "Holy flipping fish crap," I cursed. "I'm a monster."

Shizuka face-palmed, hoisting herself back to her feet. "Look, I don't get why you went and locked yourself in your room, but you're gonna be late for school. Get your butt up and go."

My heart stopped and I dived back under my pillow. "I'm staying home!" There was no way in hell I was facing that group!

"Why?" she pressed. "What'd you get yourself into this time?"

"A meeting with four devils, and the chance to run into my erotica-writing crush."

Her eyebrows met. "What messed up fanfiction are you reading this time?"

Fanfiction? Hah, I wish. This was bloody reality.

"Kasumi," she groaned. "Get yourself together."

"Impossible."

"It's just a crush," she stated. "Who cares if he doesn't like you back."

"He likes me back!"

"Wha— really? A human does?" She sounded flabbergasted, as if the idea itself was unheard of.

I glared at her. "Yes."

"Then why the frick are you so depressed?"

"'Cause he's not the kind of guy I thought he was," I responded. Not even close!

Recognition flashed upon my sister's face. "Ah, your shallow ass fell for his appearance and rumours? Obviously you're gonna be disappointed then." She paused, taking in how sullen I was. "So, what's he like?"

I shook my head, setting my chin on my kneecaps. "I don't know anymore," I responded. "I don't know."

"So you're gonna dislike him then?" she asked. "Because he doesn't fit your criteria?"

My head jerked up. "I'm not— It's not like that!"

"Sounds a damn lot like it," she huffed, placing a hand to her hip. "Kasumi, not everyone is the same. Nobody is as perfect as you want them to be. There are some people with pretty deranged hobbies in the world—"

I gasped. "How do you it was about—"

"—but they could be pretty awesome people," she continued. "I mean, if you look past your ugly face and personality—deep, deep, deep down—I bet that guy found something in you to like. You have to be open-minded like that. If not, you're gonna knock out the principal next time and get yourself a one-way ticket to another expulsion and out of this house."

My blood ran cold and I cautiously glanced at her expression. It was clear she'd said it without ulterior intention or knowledge. Colour drained from my complexion. If only she knew...!

"Don't get me wrong," she said. "Don't force yourself to like him. But if you do sincerely like him, you have to be ready to accept that nobody's perfect. You don't have to like what he does, but accept what it is. Get what I mean?"

The 'nobody's perfect' bit hit like a baseball to home base. Of course I understood that. Hell, I was living proof of that. You don't even know what kind of shit I'd stepped into in my life (figuratively and literally), and yet here I was now—because of those Student Council lunatics—receiving a second chance to make it up and prove myself to everyone around me.

"Everyone makes mistakes. Some, more frequently than others, but that's expected since nobody is the same. Perfection cannot be achieved, and that's why people forgive. We all have our flaws. And Kasumi has hers as well."

Aid? I didn't need it. Those maniacs in my life, I didn't need them. But the bottom line was, if I myself possessed a questionable personality, why couldn't Junto write erotica? Why couldn't those idiots have that insane S&M fetish? What gave me the right to judge them over myself?

Dammit. I'd never thought this deeply before, and considering I was now said a lot. My head was too high up my ass my whole life that I'd stubbornly cling to my secure bubble without a regard for anyone else. Even flushing fifteen living goldfish down the toilet (gosh, I was a murderer; how could I live with myself now that I knew the truth?)

I made unappealing groaning sounds, tossing my blanket to the edge of the bed. "No wonder you're a psychology major. Going all therapist on me all the time."

She laughed, turning on her toes and sashaying out of the room. "Just get your sorry butt to school already."

She left down to the kitchen at that, and I frowned to myself, staring at my clenched fist.

Maybe I'd give it one last, open-minded shot.