Chapter Three: Theodora

The day after, I was released on strict orders to stay in bed for two weeks, eating nothing but soup and light things not to disturb my stomach. Test results came back and I was good to go... Home.

Not feeling pain was good. Fast healing was a plus. Only sister Ophelia knew about my perks, so whenever I got hurt (or someone hurt me) I’d fake pain and put bandages over my bruises so I wouldn’t become a lab rat.

Or getting a promotion on my status as a punching bag, Clarissa and her minions would have a blast.

The week passed slowly. It was neither cold nor hot. It rained a lot, and it made me happy. I never knew why heavy rain and the sound of thunder made my feelings so at ease. It usually brought people to their knees out of fear, but not me, just looking at the black clouds at the horizon filled with lightning and the thunder roaring loud from afar would make me shiver... out of excitement.

Homework was brought to me every afternoon by Theo. We had almost the same classes, and the ones we didn’t she’d collect the papers with my teachers. Whoever is up there may please bless this girl. She has a heart the size of a bus. Gets along with everyone, is the class president and the third of the class. Which meant she’d go to Oxford with me by next semester.

Our friendship is not as old as you’d think. But I feel like I have known her for our entire lives. Theodora Abbott got to the orphanage because her mother and father died in a car crash on her 12th birthday. She was waiting for them to pick her up at school together as they always did every year on her special day. But they never came. She got the news from her only living relative, her aunt, who had two teenage kids and did not want another one to disturb her perfect little life. I was sitting on the stairs on the day her aunt brought her. She buried her parents two days after they died, and on the same day of the burial, the witch dropped her here as if she was a dead weight. She cried so hard, she couldn’t stop sobbing, and by the looks of it, she had been crying for days. I saw Father Phillips talking to her aunt and Theo hugged her school bag, as if she was holding her entire life, with a large luggage by her side. I was listening to my MP3. Evanescence was my jam at the time. I paused Bring Me to Life, and put the little device on my pocket, got up and walked towards her, without being noticed by the stupid adults who were talking like old friends and smiling. Felt like kicking their chins, but the sobbing girl in front of me was more important. Adults disappoint us. I was used to that. I needed Theo to learn that, I felt the need to teach her that so she wouldn’t get hurt anymore.

‘I’m sorry you are here... I can be your friend. But only if you stop crying. I get uncomfortable when people cry. I don’t know what I am supposed to do. But I am a good listener. Do you wanna meet the castle? It’s huge. They don’t let us play hide-and-seek because last time people played, a kid was missing for two days. But it is fun! I promise!’

I do get uncomfortable 'till this day whenever I see sad people. I say the most imbecile stuff until the person laughs or beg me to stop talking. But I made her give me half a smile that day.

We became roommates, best friends, and this poor little angel puts up with my shit every single day.

'Ky, I swear to Lucifer, if you don’t eat your chicken soup, I’ll shove it down your throat. You don’t get to starve on me. We’ll live ‘til we’re 100 years old, nagging about teenagers, and complaining about the noise they make.' Theo complained.

People kept threatening me these days. Theo was more literal with her threats, though. She once broke an egg on my hair while I was asleep because I used her hair brush and left a little hair on it for the hundredth time. It stank for days. She did warn me, though. When I woke up, my white pillow was yellow and gooey, so was my hair, and my face. I thrash myself on the bed while I'm asleep and I don't wake up easily. That certainly did not help with the egg situation. Christ, the amount of shampoo I used that week could have been used for a year.

June was beginning, and we were on the verge of final exams, two days to go. Italy was three weeks away. Being bedridden did help my studying, I had more time to focus, and since Sister Ophelia did not leave my side, Clarissa couldn't demand me to do her bidding. I wonder what she will do to me when the tests are over. Her good grades will go bye bye and so will Oxford. YAY!

Oh, wait.

She'll kill me. I always knew that the female psychological version of Charles Manson would end up in prison, but never thought it would be by murdering me. I wanted to see the fuzz, the scandal, her wrists being hurt by handcuffs while policemen threw her on the back of their car. But nooooooooo, this fucking ulcer is going to get me killed! For fuck's sake!

I was feeling just fine two days after my discharge. Sister Ophelia knew it, but Theo didn't, and it was just my luck she Googled ulcers when I was unconscious at the hospital, enough to freak out and knew I had to be careful, bedridden an on this freaking diet because she had a crush on the doctor and heard every word he said. When he finished his discharge speech and he was about to leave she hugged him, on a very suspiciously and way too caring 'thank you for taking care of my BFF' way. Sister Ophelia saw that, and Theo got scolded for flirting all the way home. Funniest ride home EVER.