Wrangler 8 -TUA [S1]

04: Gorillas

"You should work more on your flirting skills if you're gonna try to get a woman like her," said Joan.

"Pfft" sounded Diego. "What are you to tell me?"

"She got expensive standards." She shrugged. Joan stops once they had reached Diego's occupational martial arts ground.

"Welp," she said, "I guess this is where the path ends." Diego swaggers to the front door, "could've ended way before," he stated.

Joan rolls her eyes at him, "oh well, see you later, jerk." He opens the door and said "see you later..." he paused, "bitch" he then disappears inside.

Joan inhaled and huffs from their last interaction. She stood for a while and held out a crumpled piece of paper in her hand that was given from her psychiatrist, whom Vanya convinced her otherwise.

Did you like— go see a therapist? Vanya's words echoed in her mind. She purses her lips, and made one last look at the crumpled paper, and grasped it again. She made a reassuring nod to herself and goes.

***

5 years ago

Vanya's Autobiography

My name is Vanya Hargreeves and this is my story.

We were never a real family. We were our father's creation, family in name but not in fact. In the end, after our brother Ben had died, nothing was connecting us. We were just strangers living under the same roof destined to be alone.

Starved for attention, damaged by our upbringing, haunted by what we might have been, and scarred to find closure. We all wanted to be loved by a man incapable of giving love. Our father never missed an opportunity to remind me that I was ordinary. A hard thing for a little girl to hear. If you're raised to believe nothing about you is special if the benchmark is extraordinary, what do you do if you're not?

Joan shuts the book and stood up from the toilet where she was sitting, surrounded by clumps of hair. She gave one last look in the mirror and ruffled her head to see her new fresh pixie cut.

"That should do the trick..." she spoke to herself.

Today

Joan hits the ground running to the metal door behind the zoo. She sticks her card on the scanner as it gives a bleep of verification and pulls the door.

"Oh hey, Jo," says Richie.

"Hey Rich" she replied pantingly, she fumbles on to her zoo vest getting it to be put on. "Oh crap, crap, crap. I'm so sorry I forgot that you and I are switching shifts."