|| CHAPTER SEVEN ||

I'm constantly reminded that nothing I do can measure up to what Brianna does. She outdoes me in everything. Put me at super-cheap McDonald's dinner and then put Brianna at Freddy's. She walks into the restaurant hand-in-hand with Issac wearing his hoodie. I guess that because it looks miles too big on her. She has on tiny shorts that I can barely see and dirty supposed-to-be white AirForce1's. Her black hair is piled on top of her hair in a messy bun, and her make-up is heavily applied. She has bright cherry-red lipstick that is over-lined to make her lips look bigger. I do a double-take and realize that it isn't over-lined. She got lip implants then tried the Kylie Jenner trend. I almost laughed, but my not-caring took over. Allen looks over. "Hey, you look like you're about to pass out," he says. Issac looks over and we make a split second of eye contact. His eyes flit towards Allen. His facial expression changes so quickly I almost don't notice. He went from laughing and smiling too panicked to a forced smile. He mumbles something to Brianna then walks out of line and over to us. "Hey!" he says, trying to act upbeat. Allen glances over and fake smiles. "Hello," he says through gritted teeth. "Are you here to steal my fries too?" he asks. I look at them both with a confused expression. "Why do you always have to bring her around me huh?" he asks, while aggressively getting out of his chair. "SHOW HER OFF LIKE A TROPHY JUST TO REMIND ME THAT I CAN'T BE WITH HER?" he yells. Issac looks like he's trying to Everybody is watching us now. "Hey, Allen," I say, putting my hand gently on his shoulder, "Let's leave before someone gets hurt okay?" I say. Brianna runs over. "OMG! Issac! You're like, totally not worth these guys' times okay?" she says while giving me the death-glare like I did something to her. "Who's this junky piece of trash?" she asks. "Like, this thing looks utterly disgusting," she wrinkles her nose. I smile. "Laurel Johnson, also known as Little Bird, also known as LJ, also known as Yvette's kid-" she cut me off. "There's no way you're Yvette's kid. All of Yvette's relatives are knock-out gorgeous," she says. I snort-laugh. "Well I'm looking at an exception," I say tauntingly. She steps closer to me trying to threaten me. I pull myself up to my not-very-impressive height of five foot six. At least she's shorter than me. She's only about five feet. "If you're going to talk like that. Be able to back it up with hard facts," she says. "But don't worry, because you won't need to back anything up while you're in the hospital in a full-body cast," she says. I grab the fist she tries to innocently punch me with. "Funny how I anticipated that," I say while judo flipping her. Issac kicks me in my rib cage extremely hard and I can feel it crack. Allen quickly helps me up and tries to hall me away but not before I roundhouse kick Brianna in the jaw, knocking her out clean. Allen throws a miniature handkerchief on the floor and we poof back to the car. "What in the actual- Laurel!" he says. I look at him emotionlessly. "Can I help you?" I ask flatly. "Yeah, you can help me, help me understand why you have such a problem with Brianna! You don't even know her! She didn't deserve what you just did to her," he says. I smile insincerely. "You look in the wrong place for sympathy, comfort, or a single care to give," I tell him. He looks at me angrily. I shrug unapologetically. He blows up with rage. "WHY? WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM? WHY DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT WHAT I'M TELLING YOU? A SINGLE LOOK AT HER AND SUDDENLY YOU'RE A HATER? IT'S JUST LIKE YOU TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT ISN'T IT? EVERY TIME YOU GET OFFENDED OR JEALOUS YOU START BEING A JERK? YOU ARE TRULY SICK! SHE'S A GOOD PERSON! YOU HEAR ME?" he turns to the side and yells across the street, "SHE'S A GOOD PERSON!" he screams. He turns back to me and looks at his feet. "She's a good person," he whispers quietly. He looks up with tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry. I just get really protective of her, because I care a lot about her," I look at him and have to resist the urge to make a joke about him caring about her. Nobody, literally nobody, Allen: Watches Brianna with Issac, Me: You wish that was you huh?. I really want to laugh. I get really mad when people make fun of her or are mean to her. She might not seem like she cares but there is a high chance that she's crying right now," he says. Man, I genuinely don't care and it's just scary how little I care. Boo-hoo cry me a river. I genuinely hope she breaks her neck falling down a flight of stairs. "Why are you so obsessed with her?" I ask. "Because I've known her for years!" He yells. I look at him blankly. "And she's turned you down for years," I reason. "And please stop yelling, you're making my ears hurt," I mock him. "And if you continue to yell, I will not hesitate to throw you into moving traffic," I smile sweetly. "You wouldn't dare," he says, with danger creeping into his tone. I nod. "Yeah, I actually I would, or I will if you want?". He pulls himself up to his full height. "Do it, I dare you, try it and see what happens," he warns. I shrug. "Okay, if you say so," I pick him up by the back of his shirt in one hand then the back of his pants and throw him in traffic. He says don't look at me. On the inside, he is crying but on the outside, he is bursting out laughing. I feel bad for him a tiny bit but my mind is telling me "Don't feel bad for him you wimp," I say. Or, not me, you see, I have D.I.D as I've said before. He looks at me confused. "Who are you talking to?" he says. Nico, the personality that just spoke, speaks again. "You, you disgusting rattlesnake raccoon two-faced bag of rocks. The only dummy I'm talking to is you, smooth like butter lookin' boy," Nico says. "My name is Sugawara Allen," Allen says. Nico is completely unimpressed. "Can you play volleyball?" Nico asks. Allen shakes his head. "No,". Nico wrinkles his nose. "Then what are you doing with your life?" he asks. "Now I really don't like you. How is your name Sugawara and you can't play volleyball?" he asks. Allen shrugs. I switch back in. " Hey, so it turns out, I'm just gonna go," I say. I start walking off. I pick up a little handkerchief that Allen gave me, throw it down, and poof back to Yvette's office. "Mom-mom mom mom mom mom mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mom mom mom-" Yvette cuts me off. "What what what what what what what what what what do you want?" She asked irritatedly. I'm sorry, "I'm stressed but yeah, what's up?" she said, rubbing her temples at her desk while looking frustratedly at the multiple large stacks of folders that are crowding her workspace. "I can just come back later," I say. "No, no, no- wait please- I could use an excuse to not have to finish three more folders -honestly. My brain hurts. I had to write notes on all of these files so that the people that actually have to 'sort through the files', don't have to dig very deeply seeing as I just dumped everything down to like, dummy level. A kindergartener could understand this, I'm not kidding. I literally have tiny preschool sentences with little words and baby punctuation. I can't even use big words. And I love big words," She makes a pouty face as she talks so she bears a striking resemblance to a pouty Momo Yaoyorozu fanart I have saved in my phone(yes I save anime fanarts, don't judge me). The similarities freak me out. She even has her hair in a high ponytail with a little piece of hair out. "But anyway, what did you need?" she asks kindly. "Nothing really, I just came to vent and be annoying," I say. She shrugs. "Okay, have at it kid," she says. I sit down crisscrossed on her desk at the only part that isn't completely cluttered which is the corner. "So there's this girl, a cousin, Brianna. She's a brat and I can't stand her like I genuinely hope she breaks her neck falling down some stairs like honestly she just gets on my nerves and I may be her family but that doesn't mean anything. At all! Like, she was saying all this mess and I'm just kinda laughing at her and her little Issac because they act like they're gonna make it through college like I hope one of y'all got separation anxiety and y'all decide to be dumb and apply to a different college than the other person like-" I stop because I see Yvette trying not to laugh. "Why are you laughing?" I ask. She smiles. "Because you sound just like me when I was your age," she says, "All that pent-up aggression towards someone isn't good by the way. It's all fun and games for that person-" her accent mangles the GA in games and the per in person, so it sounds more like, "It's all fun and gyuhaems for that peehearsOn,". I try not to laugh as she struggles to say person. "Pee-air-son, no that EEZ not right, pear-son, no, not thyhat euitherr,". "Agh! Cyhurse this shtupeed Rrrussian acccyhent!". Soon I'm doubled over laughing even though she's glaring at me with a hurt expression. "Eet EEZ nyhot foeney- fyuhnny- feeunny- funny. Good grief,". We have a good laugh for a little bit until a man knocks on the door. Yvette's face goes pale. I notice, finally, that she's dressed nicer than usual in an ankle-length shoulder-fitted silver satin dress that has roses all around the fitted part. She has on strappy silver heels that have diamond studs on each strap. She has a small sliver-chained cross-body sliver Birkin tote bag with a diamond clasp. Her hair is perfectly curled and freshly dyed and cut which I noticed but just didn't really think much of it. Her new hairstyle is black roots with just barely shoulder-length silver hair with a diamond clip in her hair that says 'BO$$' on it that is beautifully adding the finishing touch to a small side fishtailed part in her purposely 'messily' curled hair. Her eyes are a very startling gray. Her makeup is beautifully done. She has silver eyeshadow with white in the crease and little makeup stud diamonds around the rest. She has perfectly pointed and even eyeliner that is filled in. Her eyelashes are fake but I would've thought they were real had I not seen the eyelashes package n her overly crowded desk. She has on a pretty peach lipstick that makes her eyes stand out. She quickly hurries over to the door to open it and almost falls and breaks her neck in the skinny heels. "Curse these uncomfortable little things!" she says irritatedly````````````. She opens the door to reveal a good-looking man in a suit holding a bouquet of flowers- white roses. The man smiles. "Hey," he says. His voice is deep. Like- deep, deep, deep. He takes her hand and she smiles and closes the door behind her as they walk out.