No One's Perfect (A Zodiac Story)

Reprecussions

Aries

After the mall trip, our hall was divided into three groups and led off by different adults.

My group consisted of just Sagittarius, Virgo, and me. Walking in front of us was Orion.

"Hey, it's perfectly fine to have varying emotions at some point. Joy, anger, sadness, jealousy- that's what makes us human. So, it's okay if we all don't get along in the group. But acting on that aggression?" Orion asked us. 

"A great outlet?" I suggested.

"Acting on that aggression means you have no impulse control." Orion chided, raising an eyebrow and turning around to look at us.

I glanced away from his scrutinizing gaze, even though I knew it wasn't just aimed at me. 

Finally, we stopped in front of a door and the four of us filed in. Orion shut the door behind us as I looked around. It was an extremely plain room, on the smaller end, with whitewashed walls and a few clunky-looking chairs set against one wall. 

"Go on, take a seat." Orion urged, motioning towards the chairs I just mentioned while walking up to the front of the room.

"Are we in trouble?" Sagittarius finally blurted out, seemingly unable to take it anymore. 

Orion blinked, before answering the question hesitantly. "No, of course not. We just need to go over some things."

I sighed. Why couldn't they just give us a straight answer for once? If they're gonna sugarcoat it so hard, why tell us in the first place?

"Now, I'm sure you recalled what happened on the mall trip we just went on." Orion started after a pause just long enough to make us feel uncomfortable.

How could we not? It happened a few hours ago, idiot.

"That probably wasn't the brightest moment for any of you, and I jus-" 

"Please, just get on with it." Virgo sighed. "We get it, we're in trouble. We acted out. We're not your perfect little patients, unlike all the others, okay? Just tell us our punishment."

Even I blinked in shock at that, and I felt Sagittarius stiffen besides me as we both turned to look at him. 

"Virgo, Virgo, the purpose of this hospital is not to make you our "perfect little patients", as you say. Our goal is to help you feel better so when you eventually go back out, you can fit into the world as feel safe and secure without us there guiding you.

"So is that why you had two people tailing Leo and Pisces the whole time?" Sagittarius cut in. I glanced over at her. She was sitting up straight, eyes intense and focused. I'd never seen her this concentrated before.

"That was for the benefit of both of them. Leo is prone to pick-pocketing, as you all probably know, and it would've been a terrible hassle if security had gotten involved. They were merely there to prevent that from happening." Orion explained. "And as for Pisces, his schizophrenia has been getting worse lately. We needed to keep an eye on him in case he has one of his... fits, in public." He finished. 

"So this whole thing was a setup made by you guys to test how good we are with "normal" people?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, it was a small examination on our parts, but it was still fun for you guys, wasn't it?" Orion countered. 

"And we're the kids who flunked the exam." Virgo sneered, throwing his hands into the air. White gauze was neatly bandaged around each of them. "So? Spit it out Orion, what do you want from us?"