Rehabilitation

35

The next day when we all arrived at the community centre, Alisha came in last.

"Morning," She smiled at us. Her hair was tied back and she wasn't wearing any makeup. She wasn't wearing her classic hoop earrings and her dress was a dull grey colour. It wasn't like any dress she normally wears, it was extremely modest and honestly just ugly compared to what she normally wears.

"You want to tell me what's going on?" Curtis asked her, "What's with the makeover?"

"If you dress like a slut, people will treat you like a slut," Alisha replied.

"What's happened to you?"

"I'm sorting my life out. All the drugs and the drink-driving. I've done so many things I'm ashamed of," She wasn't talking how she normally did, she seemed really off.

"'Lisha what is this? Has it got something to do with that lot we saw yesterday?"

"You should come to one of our meetings," Alisha said and pointed to a poster that was taped to the wall.

"Did they do something to you?" Curtis asked not looking at the poster.

"You used to have so much going for you. You threw it all away. So pathetic," Alisha said.

"This isn't you," Curtis said before walking away.

"We can help you Curtis," She called after him.

I followed after Curtis and we found Nathan, Kelly and Simon in the locker room.

"She's saying all this weird stuff about sex and that." Curtis told them, "It's that lot we saw yesterday. She's dressing like that. They did something to her."

"Like brainwashing or something?" Kelly asked.

"It's the storm," Simon said, "When weird stuff happens, it's always the storm."

"Did you just suddenly grow a set of balls?" Nathan said.

"I've always had a set of balls. You've just never seen them," Simon said.

"That is about the gayest thing I've ever heard," Nathan said.

"Stop dicking around, we need to find out what's going on with Alisha," I snapped.

"What can we do, she's turned her back on sex, there's no hope for her," Nathan said wistfully.

We all tried to think of what we could do but before we could Alisha came into the locker room.

"We should start now, yeah?" She smiled politely at us all but there was something in her eyes that didn't seem happy, it was like she wasn't really there. We all shrugged and got ready to start.