The next afternoon, Brynn found myself in Derek's office.

"Brynn," he greeted, taking a seat in the armchair, like last time. She sat on the large couch opposite him, awkwardly.

Truth be told she didn't know she was coming here today, never mind straight after school. Zayne asked her if she wanted to, she panicked and said yes.

She adjusted myself, so she was sitting with her hands under her thighs. "Derek."

"How are you this afternoon?"

"Fine."

"Just fine?"

"Great."

"Great on a Wednesday afternoon?"

"Yes."

He looked at the girl thoughtfully, then crossed his left leg over his right one and clasped his hands over his left knee. Leaning back, he grinned showing his pearly white teeth.

"Hi."

She tried to match his grin, "hi."

"What's wrong with your feet?"

She looked at him odd, pretending that she didn't understand the question. How could he possibly know that something was wrong with her feet?

This morning, she had wrapped a wet paper towel roll around each of them before putting her socks and shoes on. Granted, it soaked her socks and sometimes it made a weird squelchy noise if she moved too fast, but it also cooled the burning sting of the peeled skin.

"Your feet," he continued, gesturing his head towards the direction of said feet, "you were limping on them."

"How do you know it's not a problem with my leg?"

"Because if it was a leg problem, one side of you would've dipped when you limped. And if both of your legs had an issue so serious that you had to limp on them, then you wouldn't have been able to walk properly. When you used either foot, your ankles looked a little shaky, therefore your feet are the issue." Oh.

"Well," she started her lie, "I haven't had an issue with them. Hardly noticed any issue."

A big, huge lie it was. Her feet hurt. She didn't even know why they hurt.

"Hm." Derek sat there still for a few seconds. Those few seconds passed and he suddenly stood up. "Would you like a drink?"

He made his way over to his desk, getting behind it and leaning down to open something which sounded like a mini fridge.

"I don't mind." He stopped searching the mini fridge and narrowed his eyes at her. From where she was sat, she could only see him from his nose upwards, the rest of his body hidden behind his desk.

"If you're having one," she corrected.

"Only if I'm having one?"

She nodded.

"Well, what if I don't want one?"

"Then you wasted a journey over there."

"Not really. You said you wanted a drink."

"Only if you have one."

"But that means you want one, no?"

"Well, I guess." She began wiggling her fingers underneath her thighs, preventing the rest of her body from fidgeting.

"So I'll ask again, what would you say if I said I didn't want a drink?"

"If you asked me whilst you were still sat, I would have said I didn't want one either."

"Why would you do that? You want one."

"Because it would inconvenience you."

"How? I've asked you if you wanted one."

"You were being polite."

Derek stood back to his original height and spread his hands to lean forward on his desk. "That's just my naturally charming attitude," he gave a purposely awkward smile.

He walked to the side of his desk and leaned his hip on it. "Can I ask why you don't like drinking when I'm not?"

"I don't like drinking around people anyway."

"And eating or drinking alone whilst nobody else is makes that feeling worse?"

She nodded. He nodded his head back slowly like he was processing the information. "Have you always hated eating alone?" She shook her head.

"Do you remember when you started feeling this way?"

"When I was eight and Milo first told me the way I ate was disgusting."

She gulped and looked him straight in the eye. How could she forget that day?

It was two weeks after he'd taken her in, and, although she didn't know it at the time, it was the last time she would be eating a proper meal in his care.

He spat those words out as she chewed on some dry chicken. The toxicity in his voice so powerful that she flinched back into her seat. She could still feel the burning sting of tears in her eyes and her bottom lip trembling slightly. The only thought that swarmed through her eight year old mind being, what was wrong with the way she ate?

She broke away from their staring contest and looked down as she clicked her school shoes together, harshly pinching the back of her thighs.

Derek began to move, coming closer to the middle of the room where she sat. He continued walking until she saw his brown shoes before her.

As he crouched down to squat, he lifted her head up, "Brynn, you know that there is nothing wrong with you wanting or asking for food?" She didn't answer.

"Food is fuel and we need it to stay healthy," he went on. She nodded and looked back down at her knees. If it keeps her healthy then why did she keep throwing it up?

The room remained quiet for a little while, neither of them moving. After a little while, Derek stood back up, his denim jeans crinkling as his legs straightened up.

He walked back to his arm chair and sat down in it, crossing his right leg over his left. He could be heard taking some inhales like he was preparing to say something, but he never did.

After a few more hesitant attempts, he spoke, "Zayne told me you were sleepwalking last Monday night." She shot her head up at this. She did what?

"You don't remember?" Derek asked, like he was trying to confirm something.

She shook her head and gulped. "What did I do?" Did she even want to know?

Derek looked to his hands that were clasped together on his right knee, then back at the girl, "just walked around your bedroom."

It was silent for a few moments as she took in the information. At least she didn't embarrass herself in front of her brothers again.

"In fact," he sat upright and gripped the sides of the armchair. He pointed a finger at her feet, "that's probably why your feet hurt. You might've gotten rug burn."

That made sense.

Brynn nodded for what felt like the millionth time, then thought about something. What if he told one of her brothers?

"Uhm," she started, not sure how to word this in an innocent way.

Derek narrowed his eyes, tilted his head to the right a little and smirked. "I won't tell them."

She exhaled, only to hold her breath in when he spoke again, "that is, as long as you're taking care of them properly?"

"Does wet toilet roll count?"

"No, it does not."

"Oh."

"Oh indeed," he looked like he was thinking for a few minutes, "do you own sudocrem?"

She nodded, remembering the cabinet which Brayden kept my eczema cream in. She was vaguely aware of the tub that read 'Sudocrem' behind it.

"Put it on every morning and night before you go to bed until it stops being sore. Avoid putting it on any open cuts. Open cuts can be treated with wet toilet roll," he winked the last part making me chuckle. "Thank you."

"Anytime," he smiled.

"You could do one more thing though, just to ensure that I won't tell your brothers," he added, with a wide smile, "tell me what drink you'd like."

"Are you blackmailing me?"

"I prefer to call it, helping you overcome something step by step with some push."

She huffed, deciding the most basic answer she could give. It was something he definitely had, which means that she wouldn't embarrass myself if he didn't.

"And if you say water-" dammit "then I will not be happy."

"I wasn't going to say water," she mumbled, lying.

"Oh?" he looked and sounded like he did not believe me, "then what were you going to ask for?"

There was a drink she'd love to have, she hadn't had it for years. She thought about asking him for it, what if he didn't have it? That's just embarrassing. Biting her lip, a small burst of adrenaline forced it out of her mouth, "Oasis?"

She watched his reaction, not expecting him to smile. "Summer fruits or citrus punch?" Her lips twitched a bit. He had it?

"Citrus punch, please." Her legs started bouncing, she couldn't believe he had it.

He got up and walked back over to the mini fridge, pulling out four packaged citrus punch Oasis'. Ripping off the top of the packaging and and throwing it onto his desk, he pulled one out and walked back. He handed her the bottle. "Thank you."

"No worries," he smiled then checked his watch. "Sadly, our scheduled time is coming to an end which means that somebody shall be knocking in about ten seconds."

He kept his eyes on his watch, inaudibly counting down for ten. "One," left his lips, slightly more audible and then someone knocked.

She looked at him, shocked as he mocked the shock on her face, on his own. He called out to the person, "come in!"

Silas opened the door, greeting Derek with a nod. He looked towards Brynn and jerked his head back, signalling that they had to go, "come on."

Brynn grabbed her backpack from the couch, shoving the bottle inside. She turned back to Derek who was looking at Silas with narrowed eyes, much like he did when he was deducing her. He caught her eye again, "lovely seeing you, Brynn."

"You too."

She waved a final goodbye to Derek and left the office. Silas and she got in the elevator and left the building, getting into Silas' car that was parked out front, surprised to see Zaiden and Zach were fighting over the bluetooth speaker. Truth be told, she didn't expect them to stay.

---

On the drive back from school, Silas got a call from Callan. The music Zaiden put on, quietened down to nothing and the ringtone sounded. Silas pressed the green answer button, "yeah?"

There was some commotion in the background of Callan's side of the call. "Are you on your way home?" he asked, sharply.

Silas furrowed his eyebrows, "yeah, Brynn's just come out now."

"Am I on speaker?"

"Yes." Silas answered..

"Oh," his voice made a drastic change, "hey sweetheart."

"Hi?"

"I'm just calling-" the commotion in the back got louder causing Callan to move the phone away from his ear. "Silenzio!" The background noise ended abruptly, so quiet you could hear a feather drop.

"Just calling to let you know that Zayne, Brayden and I will be home later tonight."

Silas nodded, a mischievous look plastered on his face. "How much later?"

"Late," was all Callan answered with. "It's a work thing." Silas nodded.

"And that means rules." Brynn heard Zach quietly groan next to her. Welcome to world, she thought.

"A healthy meal, make sure Brynn eats most of it." Now it was Bynn's quietly groan, embarrassed, and look out the window to roll her eyes.

"Bed at a reasonable time, it's a school night. Any homework that needs doing, do it. And please, for the love of god, if we come back to a pigsty I'm grounding all of you-"

"Yes, yes we know, we'll keep the house clean," Zaiden interrupted him.

"It's concerning that that's all you got from that."

Zaiden scoffed, "we know we know, you can trust us Callan."

Callan sighed and spoke much quieter, "I know."

Suddenly, there was more talking in the background of Callan's call, the voice was deeper and sterner.

"What?" Callan whispered, obviously speaking to another person.

"Do you want to ask?" he asked said person.

The unknown voice became slightly more audible, now proven to be Zayne's, "no, just ask."

"But why can't you-"

"Now," Zayne's voice sounded agitated.

Callan sighed in annoyance and breathily answered, "kay."

There was some noise, probably Callan bringing the phone closer to his ear. "Sorellina," he got her undivided attention immediately. "Hey."

He chuckled, "hey."

"Zayne was-"

He was cut off with a grunt and some rustling was heard, before Zayne's hard voice came out. "Silas take me off speaker."

Silas did as said, disconnecting his phone from the car and bringing it to his ear. "Yes?"

Some inaudible talking from the other side was heard, then Silas looked at Brynn in the rear view mirror. He made intense eye contact before nodding, she felt it wasn't at her though, it was at whatever Zayne was telling him.

He took the phone away from his ear and brought it up behind him, past his seat and in front of her. She looked at him, confused, but he was already refocused on the road.

Hesitantly, she took the phone and made sure not to touch any part of his hand as she did so. That would be awkward.

She slowly brought his phone up, "hello?"

"Brynn."

She tensed at Zayne's voice. Talking and being in the same room as him was scary enough, nevermind having him figuratively in her ear.

"Hey."

Hey?

"What Callan meant to ask was," he cleared his throat, "how was your visit with Derek?"

"Oh," she said dumbly, "it was good." It was silent on his end for a bit.

"He gave me an Oasis," she said, quite excited and needing to fill in the silence.

Why would you tell Zayne that?

"Citrus punch?"

She gulped and nodded, before remembering that he couldn't see her. "Yeah," her whispered answer came out.

"Of course."

"Only because it's more-"

"Flavourful."

He finished the sentence for her, which made her nod stupidly and mutter, "exactly."

It was silent again before Callan's voice entered the call, "alright now give her back."

It sounded like he snatched his phone back. "Hey, sweetheart."

She subconsciously smiled, "hey, Cal."

"I'll say goodnight now, okay? I'm going to be here quite late," he said.

"That's fine, I hope work is fine."

Callan took a deep sigh, "yeah, me too." Brynn didn't understand what that meant.

"I'll- uhm-" she tried to string the words together, making sure no one else in the car was listening. "I'll miss you," she said in a hushed tone, hunching into her seat.

She could practically hear his grin, "oh?" She held her face in her free hand, groaning quietly.

"Well I already miss you," he whispered back in the same tone as she did.

Her face felt like it was on fire, a new feeling bubbling in her stomach as the inside of it went red too.

The commotion in the back seemed to build back up again with some yelling. Callan's voice came out rushed, "okay, hun I've got to go now."

"Okay," she replied.

"Bed early remember!" he reminded, then ended the call rather fast.

She took the phone away, looking at it to see Callan's contact now on screen. Inwardly sighing, she held the phone forward and mustered up the courage to say, "Silas."

He didn't react or look back, just curled his left arm around the seat and held his hand out for the phone. The phone was slipped into his hand, him bringing it to the front.

"Looks like we're free to do whatever tonight."

---

'Question 1. Label all the subject terminology in this paragraph.'

Brynn chewed her bottom lip, trying to analyse the first line. Mr Laurier gave the girl some harder English homework today. He asked if she wanted to try it and she didn't want to seem like she was intimidated. The fact that he thought she was capable made her feel she was.

But, in reality, she was kind of intimidated by the piece of homework.

The second they got home, she went straight to her room to do this. She wanted to prove to that she could do this.

She emptied and laid all her school books on the desk, dropping her bag next to the door. She got out of her uniform to get into something more comfortable. If she was going to struggle on harder homework, she was going to do it in comfort.

And now she sat at her desk, left leg bent and crossed on the seat and right one overlapping it and dangling off the chair. She was half on the desk, leaning over the paper and doing the work.

Oxymoron... synonym... link to context...

Knock knock

She didn't get a chance to answer, the door opened anyway. Why did they knock-?

Ezra walked in, wearing a blue hoodie, black gym shorts and holding his phone in his right hand.

"Right, what do you want from Domino's?" She looked at him, confused. He sighed.

"Pizza place?"

She knew what Domino's was, she wasn't stupid.

"I know," she replied, offended. "Didn't Callan say we were supposed to eat something healthy though?"

Ezra looked at me and jerked both eyebrows up, smirking, but didn't say anything. After ninn seconds she realised that he was waiting for her to tell him what she wanted.

"Whatever Zach's having," she said, thinking that was the best answer. She felt she could trust Zach's order, he wouldn't order anything gross.

"But," she started again. Ezra's attention was drawn away from tapping on his phone to her.

She stupidly mimed something with her hands. She mimed them coming closer until they clasped together. "Smaller."

Ezra gave her a look, then repeated the action with his own hands. "Smaller?" he rose his eyebrow.

She nodded, re-doing the action, "smaller."

He nodded, "alright then." Shaking his head, he returned to tapping on his phone and started leaving, closing the door. "Smaller," she heard him mutter before the door fully closed.

Forty minutes after Ezra came in, it was seven thirty. Brynn finished her English homework and was finishing up with Biology. She'd also finished the Oasis, unfortunately.

Someone knocked on the door, this time waiting until she said, "come in," to enter. Zach came in, just in black sweats and holding some Domino boxes in his right hand and two cans of coca-cola in his left.

"I come bearing Domino's," he smiled. Returning his smile, she went over to take the boxes from him.

"Thank you," she said, placing them on her desk, next to the homework.

"So," Zach started, opening his own box and sitting down on the floor. He took a slice of pepperoni pizza out, "what are we doing, love?"

She smiled to herself, he wanted to eat with me. Or he was told to. Or he wanted to?

Neglecting her homework, she picked up the boxes again to sit down on the floor with him. "I was doing homework." Zach pulled a face, "gross."

"I know."

---

The front door slammed shut.

Zach and Brynn looked towards each other. They had finished eating hours ago and were just talking. Brynn sat with her back flat on the floor and her legs up against the storage box at the end of her bed. Zach sat spinning around on her desk chair, although he stopped himself with his foot on the desk when the door's noise was heard.

"Crap," he muttered, shooting up and picking up all their rubbish, shoving it into the bin under her desk.

"It's past midnight, you're supposed to be asleep," he came over and slipped his hands under her arms, pulling her up to stand and stumbling to get out the room. He got to the door then turned around to come back, to kiss her forehead. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight" she replied as he started leaving again.

"I wasn't here," he whisper-yelled, closing the door behind him, leaving the girl in silence. And also leaving her to think about the sudocrem she needed.

Should she get it?

Simply remembering her aching feet made the pain in them intensify.

She found herself walking towards the bedroom door anyway, should she really? Her hands found their way to the door handle, is it worth it? She found herself opening the door, should she? She was walking down the stairs cautiously, was she really doing this? She was outside the medic, she'd done it now.

The door wasn't locked, making it easy to enter. The light was switched on as she went over to the cupboard; she wasn't sure how long she had.

She found the sudocrem exactly where she remembered it was, right behind the eczema cream. She snatched it and turned the light off as she exited, shutting the door as delicately as she could.

Despite the pain in her feet, she ran back upstairs desperate to not be caught. Once she got there, her socks were whipped off and her feet were lathered in the cool cream. A sigh of sweet relief escaped her as the cream came in contact with the red, raw skin.

Slipping the socks back on and hiding the tub behind her left side table lamp, she stood up, happy to report that her feet didn't hurt so badly anymore.

---

Malcolm was throwing paper balls at her head from the desk behind her in music.

She refrained from getting mad, instead aggressively tapping her pen on the paper. It was only when he kept doing it that she spun around.

"You're just wasting paper, you know?" she stated, not hiding her annoyance. Not that you'd be able to put it to any good use.

Malcolm fake smiled and balled up another piece. Brynn rolled her eyes and turned back around. Idiot.

He threw another one. Ignore it. He threw one more. Then he did it again. Some of his friends laughing at his actions. Just ignore them, there's only five minutes left.

"Brynnnn," one of his friends started calling out to her. She felt her blood run cold in embarrassment. Stop it. It was like Milo and his friends all over again.

She took one of the rolled up pieces of paper and unravelled it, choosing to doodle on it to help her ignoring him.

They eventually stopped, which was when she stopped drawing. That wasn't the only reason she stopped drawing though. Her hands felt a little shaky. The whole of her arms felt numb yet jittery at the same time. She felt a different kind of sick in the pit of her stomach.

And then she realised that she wasn't breathing. Why wasn't she breathing? She couldn't even hold her pen properly. She couldn't do anything. Why couldn't she do anything?

The bell rang, causing the teacher to begin speaking. "Make sure to pack up before leaving and take your assignments with you."

She could hear every word she was saying, but they weren't being properly comprehended. Why weren't they being properly comprehended?

She found herself doing what everybody else was doing, packing their things away and standing up to walk out.

It was lunch now and her legs subconsciously made their own way to the library and to their usual lunch table. Penny and Aubrey were already sat there, eating their lunches.

They greeted her as she sat down. She smiled at them, shakily slipping her bag off her numb shoulder. It dropped on the floor as she dropped into her chair.

"What are you guys talking about?" she tried to start conversation, annoyed by the unstable voice.

"Just boring art. Penny didn't get full marks on a project and she's mad," Aubrey rolled her eyes. Brynn tried to muster up the energy to laugh.

"Oh and I have to tell you that the sleepover has moved to some time else, instead. My mum wants to take us out for my little sister's birthday," Aubrey started ranting. "But at least this way, you have longer to wait to ask your brothers, right?"

Brynn couldn't be fully invested in what Aubrey was saying. Why?

"Brynn, are you okay?" Aubrey asked.

"No yeah, I'm fine," she leaned her arms across the table, slowly lowering her head into them.

"I'm sorry I am listening," she muttered into her elbow.

Penny wasn't sure, "are you sure you're okay? Do you want some water?"

"I just want to lie down here for a few minutes." She was exhausted.

Why?

"Okay, tell us if you need anything from us," Aubrey smiled a little unsure and went back to talking to Penny. They occasionally looked over to where Brynn was laying, neither speaking about it though.

Brynn must've been half-asleep and half-awake because she kept zoning in and zoning out. She zoned into Penny and Aubrey talking a few times then to them trying to talk to me and then it was just peaceful for a while.

She was forced to zone back in when she was shaken. Penny stood on the other side of the table, looking at her concerned and Aubrey next to her, a hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry. We've got French now, come on you like French."

She nodded, weakly and yawned. "Yeah, sorry." She stood up and slung the backpack on, noting at the lack of numbness in her shoulders now. Her fingers weren't shaking anymore either. Gosh she was tired.

The three made it to French, being greeted by Mr Weater. Brynn couldn't focus the entire lesson.

She wanted to be in her bed. She wanted to go home.

---

You all own me. K goodnight.

<3