Chương 77: 5.16 Clashing Pearssonalities

2104: 01: 04: 13: 34: 29 Jolie, Millie and I, they carrying bags and I my skateboard, exited the bus and made our way to Saga's home. For all I'd imagined how her residence – prison, if Saga was in a foul mood – would look, I hadn't expected it to look as normal as it did. There were no bars in front of the windows like I'd sometimes seen online, nor did the building seem to be falling into ruins any time soon.

In fact, much like the rest of the street, it seemed well-kept despite being in the ostensibly poorer part of Northside. Not that it fell in line much with its surroundings. It was set apart from the other houses in every way; four stories tall to the other housing blocks' three, and much, much broader and deeper than the narrower, lower-ceilinged private homes. The walls were a darker kind of brick compared to the standard, and had a low wall with a fence on top surrounding its spacious front garden.

If I'd had to guess, the building had been made for an entirely different purpose than it now occupied. Maybe a school or something? Its location was far more northern than either Jolie or Millie's, and northwest and across the Hoquiam River from mine. In fact, although I didn't know for sure where it was, I suspected Amber's house to be the closest from those I knew. Which meant that if I had my way today, the two could get together and hang out easily.

It'd also be a win-win when considering how they shared a dislike for their homes. Jolie took the vanguard of our little trio as we entered through the open black iron gate and rang the doorbell. Out of all of us, she was the most familiar with the matron/house parent of Saga's little community. An old, bespectacled man in a reflective security vest answered the door.

"Yes?" he said with a reedy voice.

"Hi Mark!" Jolie greeted cheerfully.

"We're here for Saga?" The older man blinked slowly, and responded half a second too slow to be normal.

"Ah, Jolie! Good to see you again! How's your winter break so far?"

"Fine," Jolie said.

"Us three and Saga were just about to go out and play basketball." Again, the man paused a little too long.

"Of course, of course," he said and stepped aside.

"Always nice to see people from outside get along with…" He trailed off, a hazy look in his eyes, then jolted back to awareness.

"Come on, in you go! Don't want you kids catching a cold."

"Thanks Mark," Jolie said. Millie and I echoed Jolie – which seemed to amuse the older man – and we went inside.

"A security guard?" I asked once we were out of hearing range. Maybe there was something to Saga's prison complaints after all. Not that the guard seemed very effective.

"To get in, yeah," Jolie replied.

"The people living here can just come and go as they please for the most part. Barring things like curfew, house arrest, health issues; stuff like that."

"Not that Mark can stop anything," Millie said. Jolie glared.

"Don't be mean. Mark's a nice guy, if a bit… old."

"More like senile," Millie mock-whispered to me. Jolie and I rolled our eyes in response. We moved up a set of stairs, then another to enter the third floor. But before we could get to Saga's door, we all but walked into a familiar face – familiar to Jolie and Millie, that is.

"Ah, hello Miss Garnette," Jolie said. The woman, who looked to be about thirty or so, wore what seemed to me a permanent scowl, though when Jolie greeted her the smile shone through despite that.

"Hey Jolie, good to see you." Her voice was husky and a bit rough, but not unpleasant.

"And Millie as well." She nodded, then shifted her eyes to me.

"Though you're a new face, I think." I brought forth my hand.

"Samantha Pearsson," I said.

"Or Sam. I'm a friend of Saga's." She looked at my hand with a raised eyebrow, then snorted as she accepted the handshake.

"Yeah, could've guessed. Though it always surprises me how such a surly girl always manages to get such polite-" her eyes glanced at Millie, "-or at least upbeat friends." Despite the deprecating word, her soft smile spoke volumes. Still, surly? I'd sooner describe her as angry, though I suppose she would seem a bit pouty from a certain point of view.

"What can I say," Millie said, grinning.

"The bee always finds its way to flowers."

"A bee?" Miss Garnette laughed, the noise deep like falling boulders.

"A wasp, more like. But don't let me keep you; go and have fun." She moved past us and went downstairs.

"Her house parent, by the way," Jolie said as we continued our journey. I nodded. I'd figured that much.

"Why does Saga hate her so much? She seemed fine to me."

"I think it's like looking into a mirror for her," Jolie said.

"Wouldn't that mean they'd get on much more easily?" I asked.

"If opposites attract, then similarities repulse," Millie said, stroking her chin sagely.

"That, and Saga has had some bad experiences at other places – and with her own parents, of course." Jolie knocked on the door.

"Here she's allowed much more independence, which suits her, but is no match against the bias of past experience." Trauma, my therapist would call it, maybe; I was no expert on the matter.

"But also, don't let her fool you; Miss Garnette can get very angry. I've only seen it once myself, and her cold glare combined with her voice-" Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. The door flung open – inwards, thankfully, or Jolie would've had a face full of it.

"Stop gossiping about me and get in, losers," Saga said, scowling. She turned and walked back in, though Millie tried to hook her foot in retaliation. Saga stepped over it without looking. We followed her in and I'd had my first look of her room, Saga giving me a quick tour. It wasn't small by the standards of a teenager, but since it was meant more as an apartment than one simple room in one house, it was relatively small.

Not so small as to be suffocating or anything, and she had her own fully-kitted-out bathroom, a wide enough bedroom-annex-living room with her own TV, desk and plenty of closets, but she had no kitchen or separate room besides those. It reminded me of a hotel room, albeit a bit more expansive. More like pictures she'd seen of those very, very old apartment buildings where all the inhabitants had to share facilities. Or a large cell without all the things that came with jail. Of course I didn't say that to her.

"Looks nice," I said. But while the apartment looked lived in, there were things that betrayed that the room wasn't quite a home to Saga in the way that mine, Jolie's or Millie's were. It lacked personal touches, like posters, photos, art, or other random knickknacks. The furniture looked bare and cheap, and outside of her tablet that could turn into a laptop – a state-given one, I recognized – and her phone, she had no other electronics.

In fact, the only thing related to any hobby I saw was a basketball, the set of weights she'd been gifted by Jolie's parents, and cookbooks. It was also messy, with clothes strewn everywhere and an unmade bed. Mom would've had a fit if she saw mine in a state like this. Which, of course, I also didn't say to her.

"Thanks," Saga said with a hint of pride.

"As they say: it isn't much, but it's mine." After a second staring at her room, she continued.

"Let me get my stuff and we can get out of here." She didn't take anything but the basketball, since Millie and Jolie had covered snacks and stuff to bring with. X When we arrived at Hufflebee Park, Amber and her group were already there, just as we'd discussed. When they spotted us in turn, they formed up behind Amber and headed towards us.

With me taking the lead of my group in order to introduce everyone, it made the scene look like one of those standoffs from old plays, like the start of Romeo and Juliet or Hillside Henchmen. Though, with Saga one hand in her jean pocket and the other around her basketball, and with my friends in good cheer and smiling, and with Amber's friends' expressions ranging from disinterested – Jewel, Franklin, Casper – to smiling – Alisha and Tommy – there was little of the tension that accompanied such scenes.

Really, the only two people here that were visibly tense were me and Amber, though I'm sure that Saga was feeling some type of way as well underneath the nonchalance. Thankfully, I'd found a way to break the little tension there was. As soon as we were face to face, I scraped my throat loudly and poignantly, spread my arms and said, "Friends, family; we're gathered here today-" Saga buckled my knee at the same time as Amber tsked and rolled her eyes.

"I thought we were supposed to take this seriously," Saga said, annoyed. Thankfully, the rest of the audience was more appreciative with grins and huffs of amusement.

"Solemnly so, I'd say," I returned. Which would've earned me another kick to the back of the knee from Saga if I hadn't caught it, forcing her to hop like a scowling bunny as she attempted to dislodge it. Which, in return, caused more cursing from said bunny and more amusement from the rest.

"Okay Sam, that's enough," Amber said, using her mentor voice without the Crowsong voice-changer.

"Let her go and let's get this over with." I bowed at her imperious command – which earned me another roll of the eyes, though I could see the amusement buried within – and cleared the field for the event proper. After standing there stiffly for a second, Amber began.

"Look, I don't like you and you don't like me-" Saga huffed.

"Yeah, great way to start an apology." Amber scowled.

"God, for once will you just let me finish-""For once?!" Saga said.

"You never even tried to apologize for-""I did! The second day I got back from-""You call that apologizing?!" And so it went. Neither seemed keen on stopping, though they were throwing barbs less out of a desire to hurt and more out of ego.

"Should've expected this," Jolie said. Her comment went unheard by the bickering pair.

"Do you think I should step in?" I asked.

"Nah," Franklin said knowingly, him and the rest having apparently orbited around the arguing duo to join us.

"Unless they start throwing punches, just let them tire themselves and get it out of their system. Franklin, by the way." At the not-so-subtle cue, I introduced everyone to each other before turning back to the still-ongoing argument.

"You shouldn't've stepped in! It was my business!" Amber said.

"It was mine the moment you started airing it out in the open!"

"You goddamn self-centered bitch, you think-!"

"Oh here we go again, calling me bitch! Is that how you thank someone that helps you?!"

"Help?!" Amber returned.

"You think I need your spindly ass to-""They aren't letting up, are they?" Alisha said, the only one still worried beside myself.

"Where do they get the energy?" Casper asked, sighing.

"It's a Battle of the Prides; I fear it won't end for a while," Tommy said, stroking an imaginary beard.

"It's turned self-sustaining," Millie said in faux-revelation, taking fake notes on an equally fake clipboard.

"Like the sun!"

"Thermonuclear," Tommy agreed, nodding sagely.

"Dorks," "Losers," Jolie and Jewel said.

"It might've been a mistake to let the two meet," I said to no-one in particular.

"Who?" Franklin said.

"Amber and Saga, or Tommy and Millie?" I opened my mouth, closed it and stroked my chin.

"Good question." Tommy and Millie made an indignant noise, to which Casper replied, "Tommy and Millie, definitely." Which only resulted in more indignancy.

"What about Jolie and Jewel?" Alisha said.

"We already had enough with one… meanie." Jolie snorted and smiled while Jewel sighed.

"Oh please. I literally have never done anything," Jewel said.

"Yeah, that's the problem," "Can say that again," Franklin and Casper said respectively.

"Can you all shut up already," Amber barked. We all turned to look in surprise, finding Saga and Amber standing side by side, the former relaxed and the other scowling with arms crossed. Amber sniffed.

"Your friends are fighting, all but throwing hands and none of you are even paying attention."

"You're already done?" Tommy asked.

"That must be, like, a record for you or something."

"Shut up Tommy," Amber said, tension vanishing. She sighed and looked skyward.

"God, why don't I have kinder friends?"

"Want me to answer that?" Saga said.

"You shut up too, Saga," Amber said. Saga snorted in response, but said nothing more. A good omen.

"So, you're done?" I asked, then focused on Amber.

"You apologized?"

"Yes, I apologized," Amber returned, her exasperated response sounding like I was her mother or something. To Saga, I said, "And you accepted it?"

"Yup, basically." She didn't seem very impressed, but there was not an ounce of resentment or anything to be seen.

"Lame," Jewel said.

"Why didn't you two fight? Might've been fun."

"Jay!" Alisha admonished, shooting the other girl a stern look.

"I'm switching sides; I'm with Alisha this time," Jolie said, taking it literal and standing next to her, arms crossed. Alisha barely restrained her smile, still busy shooting playfully-disapproving looks at Jewel.

"She's right though," Millie interjected.

"What an anticlimax." Before the conversation could continue ad nauseum, "Well I, for one, am very happy that two of my bestest friends have made up," I said, hamming it up only a little.

"How about a group hug to celebrate."

"Fuck off," Saga, "Hell no," and Amber said.

"Yeah no, I'm with them on this one," Franklin said.

"How about we go do something already."

"What about basketball?" I said.

"Saga brought one with and it'd be nice to do a team game."

"We're with nine; can't make easy teams," Franklin pointed out.

"I'm out," Jewel said.

"I'm shit at basketball anyway."

"I'm sitting this one out as well," Casper echoed.

"Feel a bit under the weather since New Year's."

"Well, that doesn't help," I said.

"Casper's back in," Franklin declared.

"Now we can do four-v-four."

"C'mon man," Casper said.

"Why do you always do this with me? Can't you force Jay in for once?"

"Nope," Franklin said.

"Besides, if I force Jewel to play she'll just stand there and do nothing. Unlike her, you'll at least buckle to peer pressure when I pass you the ball." Jewel looked inordinately proud at that.

"And we'll have her take score and referee." She deflated. Casper tsked, but agreed to his fate.

"Great! A four-v-four it is!" Tommy said, already getting pumped up.

"Do we split by friend group or make new teams?" Alisha asked.

"Let's just make it simple for now," Amber said.

"If we need to, we'll shuffle teams later." That was that. We moved to the – thankfully empty – fenced basketball court and started playing. Later we swapped teammates and when other people arrived, we played with them for a bit in a number of three-v-threes. After a break with the snacks and drinks Jolie and Millie had taken with, those wanting to skate started skating, and those wanting to do nothing hung out.

The experts helped the newbies – in this case, the only real newbie was Millie; Saga already knew some stuff apparently – and all in all, everyone had had a great time together by the end. I really was a natural genius at this social stuff.