As expected, Flower wakes up to the already set alarm in the morning. 9:03am. I swear they have an obsession with this number. Flower rubs her eyes and moves her messy hair out of her face and mouth. Since Flower thankfully has so much more time today to set everything in place that she left yesterday, she gets up. Flower goes to the bathroom where she is able to brush her teeth and use the bathroom. She washes her hands and heads to the kitchen where she finally has time to wash the dishes of the past day. While her hands scrub the plates, her mind wanders. Who is taking care of her? Why are they doing that? What do they want? What had she overheard in that RS yesterday? Is it important? Probably not since they sounded like old friends catching up. She has no money for a maid, an apartment, or any classes, but somehow seems to have all of them. Flower sighs and cleans the last of the plates. I wish my parents were here. But her parents had been in jail for months now. When Flower finishes everything she has to do and prepares herself for today's classes so as to not have a day like yesterday, she sits down on her bed. She looks over at the carving in the door and sees that it is a bear standing up and roaring….or is it howling to the moon? She couldn't tell. Regretting not taking Ray's phone number, Flower checks her phone to see if she got something. 9:29am. Her phone is empty except for a message from Emily who's her parents' lawyer. Now she follows up with Flower and makes sure she is ok, though she never makes any decisions regarding her future and lets a bunch of anonymous people that have nothing to do with her, control where she goes. Flower rolls her eyes. How kind. Regardless, Flower opens up the message and it reads,
"Hello Flower. I hope you are having a good time so far in whatever place you are in. I just want to let you know that I unfortunately can't take care of you any more. But fear not a group of people came by and decided to adopt you. Isn't this amazing? Your caretaker Emily."
Wait. Flower hasn't been told any of this. Does Emily not know where she is right now? Did she just sell Flower? The young girl knows that Emily doesn't care much for her but how could she do something like this? Who does she belong to right now? Did Mrs. Meanlady adopt her? Is it the well dressed lady that came by at the very start of Flower's time here? Who is it? Flower thinks furiously. Nobody cares about her enough to tell her. After only a day here in The Sheero Flower begins to cry. This is a disaster. Before Flower could start to fall more in her grief, the clock lights the time. 9:39am. Flower wipes her eyes and looks back to her phone to make sure that nobody else texted her. It's like a part of her just wants someone to care and waits there, but the clock ticks 9:40 and so Flower gets up and gathers the things she needs. This time the girl has the map, the schedule papers, a pen, pencil, eraser, phone and most importantly a journal. Just in case Flower feels heavy again and needs to write. A tiny paper is stuck at the bottom of her bag, but Flower just leaves it there. She takes one last look in the mirror to make sure her eyes aren't red and heads out the door. This time there is no maid and now that Flower thinks about it there was no breakfast for her either. What? Did the mysterious people stop paying to take care of me? Flower rolls her but but pain stabs at her. What is she going to do now? She has no money. Flower ignores this and walks down the apartment building. Around the third floor, the girl's legs begin to ache and she slows her pace. The girl hears a sudden noise to her left but has no time to turn around before someone collides into her and they both fall to the ground. Flower's head slams into the railing, making black spots appear at the edge of her vision. Her mind stops working and she can't get up.
"Oh! I am so so sorry. I really didn't mean it. I was just abou-" Realizing that Flower is not responding the girl panics and starts shaking Flower aggressively.
"Wake up. Please don't die. My family doesn't have enough to pay for that. I am too young to have killed a person. Please,"the girl begs and begins to sob. After a minute Flower's mind stops buzzing and the girl tries standing up which sends a wave of nausea through her. The crying girl stands up and starts bowing her head in apology.
"I am so sorry." The girl says between sobs. "Please don't report this to anyone. My parents are doctors and they can help you. But if you report them, they might never come back. Please. I don't want them to pay for my actions." The girl's sobs turn into cries and she starts pulling at Flower's shirt begging to forgive her. Flower is frozen in shock. The girl must have gone through a lot to react like this. The young girl takes the crying girl's hand and pulls her up.
"Hey, don't worry. I won't say a thing." She says touching her head like it is nothing.
"Oh! Oh! Thank you so much. My family will forever be grateful to yo-"
"Ok enough of that. I am no god. And if it makes you more comfortable I am a thirteen year old girl with no parents." Flower laughs. "I can't do a thing to you." Hesitantly the girl wipes her eyes and laughs along with her.
"Yeah. thank you."
"Where are you going?"
"I am going to a class here in The Sheero for the rich. My family can't afford for me to learn, they can barely pay rent. The Baha family paid for my school tuition but we all know they only did that to humiliate my family further." The girl says looking down.
"How awful." Flower says but she is busy thinking about something else. Rent? If the people that used to pay that money stop, what is Flower going to do? How is she going to pay rent? Flower looks back at the girl and she feels bad. She is also in a bad situation with finance and friends. And for this girl, it seems her family's honor too.
"Neither you nor your family deserve any of this. The people here are beyond human and not in a good way. I am also heading to the classes. We can go together." They start to laugh but then Flower checks her phone and the laughter dies on her lips.
"9:45. We are both late." The girls share a horrified glance before they turn around and sprint down the apartment building. During their race the girl turns to look at Flower
"My name is Macy." She has to scream over the wind for Flower to hear.
"My name's Flower. Brace yourself for when we reach the class, they are some bullies." Flower's heart sinks knowing she will get a worse lecture than yesterday. When the girls reach the class they both bent at their knees and pant, not even trying to find it. Of course Reina's face is the first to greet them.
"9:48. It seems each day you're getting later and later." She says, directing her gaze towards Flower.
"I hope you learn quickly because at this point you are slowing us down and being a burden. People here have better things to do." Then the teacher levels her gaze at Macy and a wicked smile curves her lips.
"Oh, what do we have here? A new student, how nice. We haven't met this one yet. Welcome." Reina says slowly walking towards Macy. The other girls pitch in.
"Oh how nice. Two nobodys become friends. This is so heartwarming." says Sally in mock sweetness turning her eyes big and her hand folded together by her face as if adoring the girls. Flower's face turns red and so does Macy's. The girls don't stop there and Aly makes sure to mention how both the girls are living in the poorest "town" in The Sheero. Quite funny because their poor town is a homeless person's wildest dreams. In other words it isn't bad at all and gives people more than the basic living necessities. The girls eventually get bored and leave Macy and Flower alone and start going crazy over a man passing by. Reina bows and all the other girls bow as well. The man they are bowing to however doesn't care at all and keeps walking as if he didn't stop ten miles worth of people from moving along. Before Flower could do anything, Macy grabs her hands and they hide in a small corner away from the man's view. Unfortunately for them since every human within a ten mile radius had stopped moving to bow and stare at the man, the girls' movements are noticed. The man turns towards them but doesn't see anything. Because he didn't find anything or maybe because he simply didn't care, the man walks away. Flower looks over at Macy and sees the girl trembling abnormally.
"Hey Macy, what's wrong." But the girl only put a finger harshly on Flower's lips signaling her to be silent. After a few minutes of complete and utter silence, whispers start to arise and it's like The Sheero itself is doing nothing but guiding little flows of air across the building.
"What is he doing here?"
"Does Gospodar need anything?"
"This is the poorest side of The Sheero, why is he here?" Then it's like a volcano erupts and hundreds of people coming all the way from the western gate run like a crazy mob after the strange man. Flower can barely breathe and the oxygen isn't reaching lower levels. All the girls in her group have run after him like mindless zombies. Macy trips and falls and to Flower's horror she watches people stomping over her.
"MACY. MACY." Flower shouts but her voice is less than a whisper in this hurricane. The girl tries to shove and push people away and not get hurt but she is tiny compared to them and they pay her no attention. Someone shoves her from the back but Flower has no time to scream before she flies head first into a pole. And this time, everything goes black.