Flower wakes up panting and for the first time, it isn't from an alarm that she didn't set. She is sweating and her forehead burns. Did she wake up for the second time? She looks around her room and finds that it looks the same as in her dream. Flower tries to get up and finally it works. She looks down at her hands. This time she is for sure in control of her body. When Flower sees her apartment she realizes that this is more a mess than she could have imagined. She takes 20 minutes cleaning up her whole place before sitting down on her couch and checking her phone. It is Wednesday so today is her seventh day in The Sheero. The time is 9:36am. She has been mindless for almost five whole days. She could go to her classes right now but she has no idea what she has been doing and what will be waiting for her there. Still, Flower eats, dresses to go and takes everything with her. While she leaves, the girl notices that her bag is heavier than she remembers but shakes it off. She walks calmly to her meeting place because she's finally not late. When Flower gets to the white room Sally greets her, and the girl prepares herself for the humiliation that is coming next. But, when she opens her eyes, she sees Sally's confused face with Ary and Aly who is looking fidgety and biting her nails.
"Hey, Flower you're early this time. Good. Go do what we agreed on yesterday and make it quick." Next to her, Ary is also very antsy. Flower freezes in place. What did she agree to do yesterday? And how did Flower end up with the same girls who bullied her most? How and why did they meet? Even the last thing Flower remembers, which was her being polite to Reina, didn't make her their friend. Or to be accurate their slave. Maybe, this is what the FF wanted. They didn't seem to change anything else in her life.
Aly looks at Flower and raises an eyebrow.
"What are you still doing here? Go ask her already." Flower doesn't know how to act but she also knows she can't just stand her so she decides to take a risk.
"What was I supposed to do again?" Flower says trying to sound polite. Sally rolls her eyes.
"Sorry, I forgot what we talked about. You know because I have a really bad memory." The girls in front of her smile and two thoughts swim in Flower's mind. All she has to do to convince them of something is talk bad about herself, and did these girls know that she's not mildless anymore? Aren't they supposed to know? Then another thought pops up. Do any of them know? This thought excites her and she smiles. If nobody except the FF knows she is conscious, then she can pretend to be the person they knew and learn about what happened. The girls in front of her giggle and turn back to Flower.
"You do have a bad memory. You have bad everything." The girls laugh at their joke and Flower just nods with a smile on her face. That is probably what she did the last few days.
"Ok so yesterday we all agreed to take you to The Madaya and in exchange you will go and ask Cindy if you can go with us to our dinner."
"What dinner?" This time Ary answers.
"The FF are having a business dinner today and we're invited. There are going to be so many people." She says squealing. But Flower is confused, why would they offer her two good things? A tour of the wealthy part of The Sheero and have dinner with the FF. Wait. Meeting with the FF is not a good thing. Remember that. But part of her is too excited to care. Then she realizes that Aly is only offering her that because Cindy will say no and she'll embarrass herself. Flower's cheeks flush. She really thought it was anything other than a joke. Cindy is one of the members of the FF and people can't meet her without an appointment. In fact the only way people didn't suffocate her wherever she went with the girls as a teacher was because a warning was sent out beforehand. 'If you even come close to my sister, she'll be the last thing you see.' Obviously it was a joke to motivate people to let her live. Or at least Flower hoped so. She walks over to Cindy who is standing with Reina and in the corner of her eye, she can see Sally, Ary and Aly gathering all the girls to watch her. Great. The whole class is filled with quiet laughter just waiting for Flower to do this. She takes a deep breath. What else can she do? She walks up to Reina and Cindy and smiles. Cindy's smile is clearly fake but she still tapes it on, while Reina smiles viciously at her. Clearly this isn't the first time these girls have made her say something to the teachers. Based on her face, Reina had been enjoying her time watching Flower humiliate herself and most likely joined in on all the fun.
"Excuse me Miss Cindy I just wanted to ask you-" But Cindy quickly cuts her off and looks back at the gathering girls.
"Look Flower, if they are making you do something you don't want to just tell me and I'll talk to them ok." Cindy says. Flower is surprised by the genuine worry in Cindy's tone. Does she care about her? But Flower changes her mind when she remembers how real Kate's smiles had looked. Also, she doesn't want to ruin her plan and let anybody, let alone Cindy know she is in her right mind again.
"Oh no Miss Cindy. Sally, Aly, and Ary are so nice to me and even offered to take me to The Madaya. They are also so encouraging. But this has nothing to do with them. I heard from Sally that you guys are having a family dinner tonight and I…." Flower makes a show of pausing and looking nervous. She wants to give her classmates a good laugh. "I.. wanted to ask if I could join you." The girl looks up at Cindy with big doe eyes as if begging. But Cindy's answer completely shakes her off her act.
"Yes, of course you can join us. I'll take care of everything for you." Cindy says loud enough for the girls to hear.
"W-what, but you can't do that. I-I mean." Flower takes a breath and composes herself. "I would love that. Thank you so much for this opportunity." Flower enters so much enthusiasm in her voice and most of it is real. The FF won't take notice of her. The girl is sure that they have plenty of guests coming in using the girls as leverage to gain their attention. Cindy takes out a couple of papers, scribbles on them, and hands them to Flower. As the young girl walks back she catches sight of Reina and her classmate's faces. Some are disappointed while others are shocked. She decides to continue her act but this part is something she will enjoy. She walks up to the three girls and gives them a very big smile ignoring their frozen faces of shock.
"Oh. My. GOD. Thank you guys so much for pushing me to do this. Look what you guys got me." she says, shaking the papers in her hands. And for extra measure she hugs them and thanks them again. As she's walking away from them, she bumps into someone and immediately apologizes without looking up. Maybe she doesn't need to fake the whole I am weak thing. She is already doing a splendid job of it without trying. The girl groans internally before looking up at the person and almost choking
"I am so sorry. I didn't mean to bump into you Ray." The girl's gaze is harsh and anger burns in her eyes. "Oh so now I have a name, huh." Flower can do nothing but stare since she has no idea what she's talking about. Ray snickers.
"When I first met you I thought you weren't an idiot like the rest, but here you are, obeying the triplets' every word."
"Triplets?"
"Sally, Ary and Aly." Ray simplifies and keeps going as if nothing happened.
"When I spent time with you, you were so carefree and fun and now you are a bully and still being bullied. Don't you understand they are using you"-Flower shakes her head and Ray's frustration grows-"well she is and how could you embarrass Macy in front of the whole class like that" Ray says pointing behind her. Flower hadn't realized there was someone else listening and when she looks her heart breaks. Macy's eyes are red and restless.
"You shamed Macy every single day in the morning and clung to the triplets like glue. I am going to be there during the dinner and you better not let me see your face in front of me." Ray says, eyes burning. Flower didn't know if that meant she didn't want to see her during the dinner or she shouldn't come to the dinner at all. Either way, she'd have to find out because she is going to that dinner. She's had such bad luck the last few days and she wants to have fun or even be happy for a bit. Ray storms off and Macy turns back to Flower.
"Did you really mean all that you said to me?" Flower painfully looks into her red eyes and says
"Yes".