Casted

Chapter 4: Backyard

Bodhi had been avoiding his Fly Pad for reasons he didn't answer anyone. Many tried asking, from storks he barely knew to some of his closest friends like Ava, yet nothing could get him to touch his Fly Pad again.

Some made their guesses. Maybe he was avoiding his responsibilities on purpose, or maybe his Fly Pad was majorly defective.

Bodhi knew better. Though he did a good job of hiding it, not letting anyone truly know what had been on his mind for the past weeks.

"Seriously, please check your Fly Pad. You've been late for three deliveries in a row already. You might get demoted, and honestly I don't want to see that happen to you after you've come so far," Ava said one day, entering the Common Room. She sat down on the couch across him with a huff.

The room was just as calm as it had been the past months. The tension did thicken — from J.P. and Lucky to Bodhi's reluctance to touch his Fly Pad — but it was never broken. Not quite. At least not yet.

   Though with the golden rays of the sun streaming through the large floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the room, it was very easy to ignore the tension. Couches were arranged haphazardly through the room. Perhaps that was what managed to distract them. Maybe it moved their focus from their swirling thoughts to material things.

   There were only two tables in the room. One in the middle for potential board games or card games they might be playing. Bodhi would fight anyone who said board/card games were boring. Y'know. If he actually had the guts to. The other table was tucked away in the corner, and it was much smaller. It was mainly for anyone who needed peace and quiet, and to work. However as time passed, J.P. unspokenly claimed the table for himself, and they all accepted that.

The walls were quite bare, with just a few small flags hanging around. Lucky eventually managed to spruce it up a bit. He taped a lot of drawings to the walls, and he was quite the decent artist. There was at least some form of semblance in his art, and the kid did know how to use colours. Absolutely nothing clashed.

"Bodhi, you're smiling. What are you thinking about? Is it finally a guy or gal or nonbinary pal?" Ava asked with an excited smile, though her exhausted eyes did frame a something completely different. Bodhi looked up, feeling something was off. He ignored the feeling. For the moment, at least.

"Why would you think that?" Bodhi asked. He stopped to look at the carpet he was crocheting. He wondered of crocheted carpets were even that great, but Lucky had wanted him to make one, so he did. It was blue so far, and he was working on its yellow part, planning to add pink a little later.

"Because I'm tired of J.P. moping around about his old one. I feel like I'm carrying T.O.T.S. right now... You and J.P. could be a power couple in giving me more resonsibilities," Ava said, with a distinct tone of exhaustion in her voice.

"Mmhmm..." Bodhi subconciously said in reply. He was still crocheting and only barely registered what she had said.

   "Jesus Faist you're not even listening—" Ava said, trying to keep a steady voice. There was a groan breaking through though.

   "You're all the same. You all think my problems don't count just because you think I don't have any mental illnesses or grief..." Ava said, staring outside the window.

"To be fair, you don't have one," Bodhi replied, looking up from his knitting. Ava rolled her eyes and the anxious stork felt his heart dropped a little bit. The thought of other animals pretending they have a mental illness when they actually don't have one scared him.

  "Christ you guys think you know everything. Well you don't..." Ava said, finding an urge to get out, but there wasn't anywhere else she could be going so she just sat there and tried to endure it.