Mind Games and D.I.D

8. What a way to start the year.

Back at school, the morning interval had just let out and the new super-group of friends converged at their new spot together.

"Ladies," Steve greeted the girls as they entered the area together. "About time you came to hang out here."

"What took you so long?" Lenka asked with a shy smile. Morgan smiled back at him.

"We liked to chill in the social studies classroom."

"Yah, but they said it would be closed for break times this year," Tammy pulled a sad face as the three girls sat on the bench adjacent the two guys.

"That's too bad," Steve snickered. "I've been asking Ferrie for a while now when you girls would come help us fill this space."

"She only just mentioned it yesterday," Christine informed him.

"That little b-" he muttered before cutting himself off as he spotted Damian arriving while glaring down at his cell phone. "Yo, where's the GF?"

"She's been stood down for the rest of the week..." Damian informed the rest of them. Gasps came from Tammy while Morgan just shook her head.

"That didn't take her long," Steve remarked with a somewhat impressed tone in his voice. "What did she do?"

"She cut Jessica's hair off," Damian uttered in disbelief before walking over and taking a seat next to his friend.

"What?" Drake asked in shock as he'd just gotten into earshot.

"Yeah, what?" Steve asked in bemusement. "How does that even happen?"

"I don't even know," Damian shook his head.

"I do," Morgan sighed before watching Drake take off back in the direction he'd just came. "Well, I didn't see exactly what happened, but I was there."

"Did she say anything leading up to, or after cutting her hair?" Damian enquired.

"She just called her a bitch and stormed out of class," Morgan shrugged a shoulder. "So, I followed her and confronted her about it, and she just said it was because Jessica wouldn't tell her an answer to the test or something stupid."
Steve leaned back a little before crossing his arms like he was thinking.

"Easy alibi. She's hated her for years."

"I hoped she would finally get over it all," Damian thought out loud.

"From the way she was when I talked to her," Morgan uttered. "I'd say not."

"And the way she just went up to punch that random woman last night," Christine recalled. "She's got some rage..."

"Oh my gosh, that was so scary!" Tammy exclaimed.

"Do you think she enjoys it?" Steve queried.

"I wouldn't go that far..." Damian attempted to justify his partner's spontaneous actions in his mind.

"You wouldn't?" Morgan asked him. "I don't think you've seen what I've seen, then."

"Like?" Damian glared back at her. Morgan then shrugged as she remembered still being in hot water with her friend over her prior comments to him the night before.

"I just mean in general."

"You probably just don't want to admit it," Steve noted to his buddy.

"Probably," Damian nodded slowly as he had noticed her behaviour slowly getting worse over the past year of their relationship too.

Back in Ferrie's room, she was lying on her bed, flipping through a fashion magazine, when Martin walked back in.

"You're going to rehab."
Ferrie's eyes left the magazine and rose to where he was.

"What?" She asked in near disbelief. "And what am I rehabilitating from?"

"Violence, Ferrie. And your D.I.D," he sighed. "It's getting worse. Two violent encounters in as many weeks is not good."

'More like three in eight days, is that a new record?' Ferrie thought to herself.

"Because you refuse to see your psychiatrist, I have had to request an immediate placement for you at the youth rehabilitation centre. They want to trial you first, so a mandatory forty-eight-hour psychological assessment has now been arranged. Pack a bag," Martin informed her, then paused to wait for a response. Ferrie merely stared down at her cell phone that was sitting beside her on the bed. Martin went to walk out, then he stopped and glanced back at her.

"And you're so lucky you'll have a cop escorting you there."

"Ron?"

"No. Probably someone you won't like."
Ferrie crinkled up her nose in annoyance as Martin walked out, then grabbed her phone to relay the new information.

Back at school, Damian glanced back down at his phone as a text message notification came through near the end of the morning break.

"Oh damn."

"Any news," Steve asked then puffed on a cigarette.

"She's going to rehab," he corresponded her brief message before replying to get some more clarification.

"The Blyrc?" Steve guessed.

"Most likely," Damian thought out loud at the nearest youth rehab centre. An extremely strict and proper institution commonly known as the Blryc, being the acronym of the facilities name: Brian Lawson youth rehabilitation centre.

"Oh no!" Tammy exclaimed before they heard the bell go, signalling the end of break.

"Well," Morgan sighed before standing up. "Can't say I didn't see that coming."

"Yeah, it was bound to happen," Christine tentatively agreed. "Catch you guys later."

"See you later, girls," Steve grinned. "It's been a pleasure."

"I bet it has," Morgan rolled her eyes and paused to glare at him.

"What?"

"You didn't even offer me a puff..." she eyed his cigarette.

"Oh, here we go," Steve replied rather dramatically.

"That would be the gentlemanly thing to do at the very least," she smirked as her friends walked off.

"I'm no gentleman," Steve snickered back.

"I figured."

"Are you gonna tell me who stole an unopened pack of smokes from my place during a party I hosted at the end of June last year, then?"

"I don't know what you're on about," Morgan replied before realising her friends were gone and quickly wandered away.

"That's what I thought," Steve retorted as he, Lenka and Damian started walking in the direction of their new temporary classes.

"I'm surprised the teachers haven't taken it off you yet," Lenka let off a chuckle.

"They love me," Steve grinned before nudging his other friend to grab his attention. "How long in the Blyrc does she reckon?"

"Two days, initially," Damian quickly answered.

"Well," Steve inhaled the last of his cigarette and flicked the butt. "What a way to start the year."