Bliss

Chapter 22

The next few days were a blur. Margo, Kiori, and Zack knitted six blankets over the course of a week. Orabelle taught Margo to make carrot cake while Zack taught her how to add spices to snap-noodles.

Margo spent a significant amount at his house, hardly ever alone though. They played card games with Orabelle (who couldn't stand losing and would throw a fit if she lost) and organized the findings of the Raiders. They passed out coats and socks to the dorms, the first being the Hemlock dorm, which was always sullen and gloomy.

Davia and Elliot moved in together, though something was off about them.

"It's Garion," Zack told Margo when she asked. "They were best friends. The trio."

The trio.

Like us, Margo thought as Kiori and Zack argued about the right way to pronounce "whistle." She loved both of them in different ways: Kiori was fun and realistic, Zack was caring and sweet. Margo was, well, stable and a good listener.

"What do you like about me?" Margo asked Kiori later that night.

Kiori was taken off guard. "I don't know. You swim pretty good."

Margo chuckled. "That's it?"

"Yeah. Plus you're smart and pretty cool at times. And you laugh at my jokes and pranks." She frowned. "No one did that before. Not even my parents."

"Your parents?" Margo coaxed.

"Ellorie and Koharu. They liked going to parties. Big parties and festivals. I knew I couldn't go with them, and I'm not angry about that—I know it's the law. But they'd send me to the daycare that was run by people like Jael.

"Sometimes my parents would get so caught up in partying that they'd forget about me. It'd be eleven at night, the lights were off in the daycare and I was all alone." Kiori shuddered. "I used to imagine monsters were coming for me. I'd get caught up in fantasies, where my parents played with me and that I didn't feel alone. It would work too, until my parents rolled up in their airporter, drunk and giggling. Ellorie would say, 'Oh, we forgot you' and neither of them would apologize. I told myself that it was normal. I thought it was an Implant thing."

"It shouldn't be," Margo said, rolling over on the cardboard to face Kiori.

"I know. But that's why everyone called me a 'bad kid.' I did everything for attention, that's the truth. Those pranks and crimes—I liked when my parents scolded me. They'd laugh as they did it, and I liked to imagine every laugh was for me. I wanted to be the reason my parents smiled, not because of parties and drinks."

"The troublemaker title kinda stuck, huh?" Margo asked with a sad grin.

"I guess it did. There's a thrill of being noticed, you know? Even if it was our old dormmates yelling at me for mixing the cereals, I liked it. I don't want to be forgotten. But I don't want to be the next Kitty Flame or Ophelia Tanner. I just want to be noticed."

"I notice you. Zack and Casen do too."

"I know. And I love you all for that. You're more of my family than my parents will ever be."

Margo held Kiori's brown eyed stare. She looked so lost, so innocent. So young in that matter of seconds.

But Margo couldn't take it any longer. The question rolled off her lips: "Why did you cross the Border that day?"

It was something they both had been dancing around, ignoring it like it didn't matter. But it did. It landed them in Eden, whether they chose to believe it or not.

"I don't know," Kiori replied, flustered. "It was an act of rebellion I suppose. I was tired of 'Kiori, don't go here' and 'Kiori, don't do that' and 'Kiori, don't feel that.' I—I'm sick of people telling me what I can and can't do."

"I know what you mean."

"And the funny thing is—well, I guess it isn't very funny, but I didn't care if the officers got me. I remember thinking, 'So what?' If they noticed me, good then. Good. That's what I wanted when I ran out there." She was silent for a moment. "I never wanted you to follow me. I wanted to make you jealous—jealous that I was brave for running out there. But you followed me. Because you cared. And before they shot us, I also remember thinking, 'Someone cares.' In that moment, I didn't want to die."

Margo studied Kiori in a new light. No twelve year old should go through what Kiori did. "I know you have crappy parents," Margo told her. "No matter how hard we try, they're always going to be that. But I don't care what genetics and science says, you're my sister. I'm always here for you."

"Thanks, Margo."

"I love you, you know that, right?"

"More than Zack?"

"More than anyone," Margo agreed. "Sisters forever?"

"Wow, that's cheesy," Kiori giggled. Then she smiled. "Sisters forever."