Chapter Text
Chess has woken up every morning for the last month and a half with a horrible sting in her gut. It wasn’t a worrying amount of pain, it was just a side effect of healing. But it was a reminder of everything that had gone wrong on the night of the sleepover.
It must’ve been so gradual that Chess didn’t notice that pain disappearing, until one day she woke up and realized that she didn’t feel it.
She rolled out of bed and began to get ready for school, appreciating the routine to take her mind off of the lack of pain. But she couldn’t resist looking at the scar.
During her stay at the hospital, Dr. Arnolds had recommended that she see a therapist. Chess did so and one of the things she had told her was that if looking at the scar was going to cause her to spiral into dark thoughts, she shouldn’t look at it. Pretty obvious stuff, right? Chess laughed to herself as she inspected it anyway.
It was a small scar, honestly. Just a patch of paler, slightly pink skin, a barely-noticeable impression in her stomach. Chess didn’t remember much of that night after getting stabbed, which kind of sucked because her last clear memory was Riley and the knife.
The pain was gone, but sometimes Chess snapped awake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, her heart hammering in her chest, all of the what ifs echoing in her head and glints of knives flashing in the corners of her vision.
“Chess, you gonna be out soon? Hurry up!” her brother Jason was pounding at the bathroom door incessantly. She rolled her eyes and opened the door.
“Patience is a virtue,” she said as he all but shoved her aside to get inside.
“Okay boomer.” The door shut behind him.
“I’m only four years older than you!”
“Suck it up!”
Chess rolled her eyes and went downstairs. Jane was sitting at the table eating breakfast like the privileged elementary school kid she was, although only God knew why she still woke up this early. One of her dads was also sitting there, squinting at his phone and trying to zoom in on something.
“Did Dad already take off?” she asked.
“Oh, good morning,” he replied. “Yeah, he realized his flight was leaving earlier than he thought. Sorry.”
“No problem, just wondering.” Chess collected her keys from the counter and then grabbed her backpack. “I’m gonna take off, and I have practice after school today.”
She was just about to step out the door when her dad caught up to her. “Hey, are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Dad,” she said, exasperated. He did this at least every other day.
“You’re just leaving awfully quick.”
“I’ve gotta pick up Kate, that’s all,” she shook her head as she spoke. It was nice that he cared, but not when he thought something was up every time she did anything. “I’d tell you if I was feeling bad.”
He frowned, clearly remembering that she had been feeling bad for months after her knee accident and hadn’t said a word. Oops. “Okay. Text me if you need anything.”
“I will.”
As she pulled out of the driveway, Chess wondered if she would ever escape the constant fretting. Nothing could go back to normal if they didn’t let it. Then again, maybe the old normal wasn’t ever okay. Maybe this was what it felt like to heal.
-
Mattie leaned back into the orange bench and watched the cars drive by on the main road. It was just after five-ten and although she knew her mom was going to be late to pick her up, she felt like she had to be watching for her.
Most of the team had left right after practice, since they could all drive, which left Mattie, Annleigh and Farrah out by the front of the school, waiting. In all honesty, Mattie knew literally anyone on the team would gladly give her a ride, but she hated asking for them.
“Oh, it’s Clark!” Annleigh all but squealed when her phone buzzed. Mattie smiled as the girl moved to talk to him over by the doors to the school. They were cute together, always excited to see and talk to each other.
Farrah laughed a bit from where she sat next to Mattie. “You know, when they end up getting married, I’m about ninety percent sure that Clark will take her last name.”
“But then won’t he be…?
“Clark Clarke? Yep.” Farrah grinned. “They were truly made for each other. It’s sickening.”
“I don’t know, I think it’s kinda cute.”
Farrah’s face wrinkled in disgust. “They can have a few rights. As a treat. Anyway...” She sighed and reached into her bag. Mattie was more than a little surprised when she pulled out a matted and poorly-stitched together stuffed tiger. One of its cartoonish, beady eyes had been replaced with a much smaller one in an attempt to repair the damage. Farrah held it out to her.
“Uh?” Mattie reluctantly took the tiger.
“It’s a tradition, older than the sleepover I’m pretty sure,” Farrah said. “It’s supposed to be passed on to the freshman on the team each year. Good luck and all that bullshit.”
“Oh!” Mattie inspected the tiger further. There was what looked like a coffee or tea stain on its yellowing stomach. “He’s been through a lot.”
“With this team? Oh, yeah, he has,” Farrah said.
“Are we sure he’s not actually a bad luck charm?” Mattie joked.
Farrah gave her a pointed look. “If you try to say that around Ri-” She cut herself off and pursed her lips together. Mattie looked down at the ground and bit her tongue.
“What? She’ll kill me or something?” she laughed half-heartedly.
Farrah shook her head as she hid a smile. “I mean, probably.”
“God. That’s a little fucked up.”
“Yeah. I can excuse stabbing but I draw the line at murder.”
“You can excuse stabbing?” Mattie asked. It was certainly weird to joke about this, but at the same time it felt nice. The sheer fact that she could joke about it was a testament to the growth she had gone through.
“Well, I’m glad that thing is off my hands, no offense,” Farrah admitted. “I think he would stare into my soul at night.”
“Everything you’re telling me just points to him being some kind of eldritch horror.”
Farrah shrugged. “Maybe he is. Who’s to say, really.”
“So… I just keep him until next year?” Mattie asked, pulling at the tiger’s ripped tail.
“Yup. He’s supposed to come with you to competitions. We’ve almost left him on a random football field at least three times and I’ve only done one season.”
Mattie smiled as she gently set the tiger into her bag. Maybe she could actually fix him up a bit. “Thanks, I guess.” It was then that Mattie’s mom pulled into the parking lot.
“No problem. Sleep well with that little demon in your room!” Farrah called as Mattie got into the car.
“What does she mean?” Mattie’s mom asked with confusion written on her face.
“It’s just a joke, don’t worry about it. Um, do we still have that sewing kit?”
-
Eva had gone over to Kate’s house plenty of times, but today there was a pep in her step that wasn’t usually there. She smiled to herself as she thought of the news she had gotten just an hour or so ago: She’d gotten a scholarship to Giles Corey High School and would be able to transfer when the next semester started.
“Oh, hey, come on in,” Kate’s tired-looking mom said when she opened the door. “Kate’s up in her room. We just ate but you can take a plate up if you’re hungry…”
“I’m fine, but thanks, Mrs. Dalton.” She was a sweet woman, if slightly overbearing. Eva made her way up the stairs and knocked on Kate’s door.
“Come in!” When Eva stepped through, Kate shook her head. “Oh shit, sorry, I completely lost track of time.”
Eva took a spot next to her on the bed and kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t worry about it. Math homework?” She gestured to the papers Kate was working on.
“Unfortunately. Fucking logarithms.”
“Eugh, gross.”
For the next half hour, Eva watched and occasionally made comments about Kate’s math work and laid her head on her shoulder. It was just nice to be around her, even if they weren’t talking that much. It felt safe.
“You’d think that a math teacher would be rational enough to actually teach, but Mr. Shaw would prove that wrong,” Kate muttered as she finally finished the last problem and tossed the worksheet down by her backpack. “Like, all he talks about are his little kids, and they’re cute but I’m really trying to pass.”
“God, he sounds just like Mrs. Irving. She just tells us about random shit she did as a teenager. It’s entertaining but I haven’t learned anything about American government the whole year.”
Eva’s gaze was drawn to a buzz from Kate’s phone. She didn’t want to invade her privacy, so she quickly averted her eyes, but she still caught sight of the chess piece emoji. “Wait, was that Chess?”
“Yeah…?” Kate paused and looked up from her screen.
“Is her contact seriously a rook? You’re so cheesy.”
Kate flushed. “Maybe. There’s a whole story there.”
“Aw, come on, you have to tell me now.”
“No, you’ll make fun of me!”
Eva smiled as an idea formed in her head. “Okay, you tell me that and I’ll tell you a secret.”
“...Fine,” Kate said after a moment and set her phone down. “You know how people will, like, change their crush’s contact to a bunch of hearts or something?” Eva nodded. “Back in freshman year, I started having this huge crush on Chess, and I didn’t want it to be that obvious so…”
“So you changed it to a chess piece instead?” Eva looked at her skeptically.
“Freshman Kate was weird, I don’t know! And then I just never changed it.”
It was quiet for a moment. “I kind of thought you were into her. What changed?”
Kate laughed. “I mean, I knew she was straight but I never got over it until you came along.” She gestured to her. “Now you have to spill.”
Eva grinned. “I’m going to Giles Corey next semester.”
“What?!” Kate all but shouted. Eva lightly hit her shoulder. At a more reasonable volume, she repeated, “What?”
“They gave me a scholarship and told me I would have to join the cheer team. Didn’t sound like too bad of a deal.”
“You know you’re never seeing a medal again, right?”
“I cheer for fun, you know that,” Eva said, shrugging. “And besides, prestigious private schools look really good on resumes.” Kate shook her head in disbelief.
“Shit. That’s incredible.”
“Yeah. I’m not looking forward to having to spend so much time with that girl Kate though, she’s such a nerd—” Kate smacked her with a pillow and Eva laughed as she snuggled closer to her.
-
It was, frankly, a dumb thing to be crying about.
Farrah had been cleaning out some drawers that were full of mostly scrap paper and old, unfinished assignments when she had stumbled across an older photo of a large brown dog with her younger face barely poking into frame. There was a stain in the corner and a portion was ripped off, but it still set something off in her. She managed to set the photo and wiped her eyes. God.
This would be less embarrassing if she didn’t have plenty of other things that would be much more valid reasons to cry.
“Farrah?” Annleigh’s voice was accompanied by a knock on her door. Shit. Annleigh was going to make a big deal out of this.
“Come in,” Farrah croaked and wiped her eyes again in a desperate attempt to control the damage, although with just a glance into the mirror she could see that her eyes were red and her face was splotchy.
Annleigh all but burst through the door when she heard Farrah’s voice. “What happened? Are you okay?”
Farrah gave a watery laugh. “Yeah, just found an old picture. My dog, Penny.” She picked up the picture and passed it to Annleigh. “I forgot I had it. Dumb emotional response.”
Annleigh squinted at the mutt in the photo as she sat down on the bed.. “I didn’t know you had a dog.”
“Yeah, she was left with my dad. Poor thing. She was old when I left, so I doubt she’s still alive.” Farrah looked over Annleigh’s shoulder. “I must have been, like, six,” she said as she pointed at the small face on the side. “Penny hated having phones and cameras in her face, so this is a rare masterpiece.” Annleigh was frowning. “What’s the matter? Do you really hate dogs that much? You’re crazy.”
“No, I just kind of forget sometimes that you had like, another life before you came here,” Annleigh confessed. Farrah raised her eyebrows. “That sounds bad, I just meant that…”
“I get what you meant, don’t worry,” she dismissed her. She knew Annleigh would overthink it otherwise.
“Can I ask you about them? I mean, your birth parents? What were they like?”
Farrah shrugged. “I don’t mind, I guess. My mom was nice. She liked to bake bread and shit. That’s where I get the baking genes from. And my dad was... fine. He worked at an office downtown. He stopped looking after me when my mom died.”
“Do you ever think about visiting him?”
“No,” Farrah answered immediately. “I mean, yeah, I think about it, but I don’t want to. It never really felt like he liked me, and I was never close to him.” Annleigh looked like she was going to start crying, so Farrah continued in a hurry. “It wasn’t that devastating, Jesus, it’s okay!”
“How is that not devastating?” Annleigh asked in disbelief.
“We just didn’t function like you guys do! I don’t know, I was more upset about Mom than worrying about him.”
Annleigh went quiet. “I just hate that you felt unwanted.”
“I didn’t really feel unwanted. I just was.” Farrah realized this was the wrong thing to say when Annleigh’s face fell further and she leaned over to give her a hug. Farrah accepted it after a moment.
“How screwed up would it be if I said I was glad that your mom died so you’d eventually come here?”
“That’s pretty fucked,” Farrah huffed.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay, cause it’s also pretty fucked for me to be glad that Chess got stabbed and now we can actually talk to each other.”
Annleigh laughed now. “Control your language,” she scolded lightly as she pulled away. “It’s family game night and Mom and Dad will rip into way more than I will.”
“Ugh, I hate it here.”
“No, you don’t.”
Farrah smiled. “No, I don’t.”
-
Reese sighed as she parked the car. It was the Saturday morning of her first competition and if she knew she would have to get up this early, maybe she wouldn’t have accepted the position on the team.
Okay, that was a lie, she had been waiting for this for, like, four years. She killed the ignition, grabbed her bag from the passenger seat and began to walk over to the gym.
The air was cool, and with the wind there was a definite bite of cold. Reese certainly wasn’t looking forward to being in the thin, short cheer uniform to compete. She jogged the last few paces to the door and blinked in surprise when she saw Mattie already inside.
“Hey, girl,” she greeted. Mattie jumped and pulled her earbuds out. “Sorry, didn’t mean to spook you.”
“Oh, it’s fine, my music was loud anyway. You know. Trying to get hyped,” Mattie said.
“Ooh, a hype playlist? Care to share?” Reese sat down next to her. Mattie smiled and unplugged her earbuds from the phone. Disturbia started playing and Reese laughed. “Okay, I see you.”
“Old jams are the best jams. In my opinion,” Mattie added quickly.
“Anything by Rihanna goes hard.” There was a moment of pause, and then Reese asked, “You excited for your first competition?”
Mattie gave a tight smile. “I mean, yeah. But nervous, too. I don’t want to mess up.”
“Mattie, I’ve existed in close proximity to this team for three years now, and trust me when I say we can’t get any worse than we are right now,” Reese deadpanned.
“I guess you’re right. Are you nervous at all?”
Reese shrugged. “Sure, but I know I’m good and, honestly, I just can’t wait to get out there and prove it to the rest of the world.” It struck her how true it was. She knew that nobody really cared about the Tigers’ performance, just about their drama, but maybe she could change their minds about that.
“Do you think we’ll win?”
“God, no,” Reese answered immediately. “Half of our practices have ended in impromptu therapy sessions.”
“Okay, good point.” Mattie started sifting through her bag. “Hey, did you know about this thing?” Reese stared in horror at the mangled tiger stuffed animal. “It’s supposed to be a good luck charm that the freshman holds onto.”
“That shit’s possessed. I don’t know what to tell you.”
Mattie smiled. “Yeah, but I thought it was kinda fun. It’s both of our first years, so whatever it’s gonna do to me, it’s probably gonna do to you.”
“Aw, we’re gonna be possessed together!” Reese joked.
“It’s called the buddy system.”
Reese laughed. “You’re gonna do fine, Mattie. We’re all in this together, and nobody’s expecting to be perfect.”
“Yeah. I just don’t want to have to leave the team. Despite all of the… bullshit.”
“There’s no way anyone is letting you leave. I’m sorry to break it to you but literally everyone has adopted you as their little sister,” Reese admitted.
“Oh god, no.”
Reese smiled through the rest of their conversation. Six months ago she was the random, hopeless girl in a tiger suit. Now, she was cracking jokes with Mattie and she was creating cheers for the team, and she was waving hello to Annleigh and Chess in the halls, and complaining about math to Kate during class. She and Cairo had even managed to do a science lab together, which was frankly more than she had ever expected.
It was crazy how fast things changed.
-
Kate strolled into the gym with Chess and Eva at her side. It was a weird sense of deja vu, getting ready for a competition after everything. And it wasn’t all bad, per se, but the simplest way to put it would be that the vibes were off.
She was used to Kimberly’s lax attitude from last year, and Emma and Bridget actually doing warmups. She and Chess had been in charge of the warmup playlist and instead of stretching, they’d goof off and dance. Annleigh would try to include Farrah in something, and then get caught up texting Clark, so Farrah took to pestering the other upperclassmen. Cairo was always sick of it. And then, of course, there was Riley’s constant pep, gone now and frankly good riddance.
Eva shook her head as she looked around the gym. “I seriously can’t believe this place is part of your school.”
“Have you seen the bathrooms yet? They renovated them over the summer,” Chess commented. Eva gestured for her to lead the way, leaving Kate by herself. She was going to make her way over to where Mattie and Reese were sitting, but then Cairo walked through the door.
“Kate. Can I talk to you for a second?” she said. Mattie and Reese looked over, intrigued, and quickly averted their eyes when Kate glanced their way.
“Uh, sure.” Kate followed Cairo over to one of the corners of the gym. “What’s up?”
Cairo took a breath and crossed her arms. “I was kind of a bitch to you and Chess.”
“Kind of?”
“Just listen, or my therapist is going to be real disappointed with me, okay?” Kate put her hands up and let her continue. “It was cruel of me. I’m not trying to justify myself, but…” Cairo seemed to recollect herself. “It didn’t have anything to do with you. I was projecting my own insecurities and shit onto you because we were in the same boat. Having feelings for your best friend, I mean. So I’m sorry.”
Kate gave her a little smile. “Wow, that almost didn’t sound rehearsed.” Cairo rolled her eyes.
“I just don’t want us to be at each others’ throats anymore. Any of us,” she said, gesturing to the others; Annleigh and Farrah had arrived at some point. “The fact that someone almost died that night, it kind of just put it all in perspective. So, yeah. Sorry for all of that. It was dumb.”
“It was shitty, is what it was,” Kate replied. She wanted to be able to accept the apology right then. She had never liked Riley, but Cairo had seen something incredible in her and she lost her. Cairo was hurting, still hurting after many weeks. But Kate would be lying if she said all of the shit Cairo taunted her with never got to her. “It means a lot that you’d apologize, though.” Cairo pursed her lips and nodded.
“Sure.” She pointed over towards Eva. “Is she coming with us?”
Kate flushed. “...No?” The plan was absolutely to sneak Eva onto the bus somehow; West High wasn’t competing anywhere today.
“Well, I won’t be looking too close at who’s getting on the bus. Just so you know.” Cairo gave her a smile as she walked away.
A minute later, Kate was sitting next to Eva. “So what’d she want with you?” Eva asked.
“Nothing bad.” Kate glanced up to where Cairo was sitting, earbuds in and phone in hand. “Trying to make things right, actually.” Just a few months ago, she wouldn’t have believed it. She probably would’ve laughed in the face of someone who told her it would happen. But things change.
-
Getting ready in the morning was always a hassle for Annleigh. Getting ready on a Saturday morning when she’d rather be in bed until noon was, and she did not say this lightly, hell.
Farrah had been ready to go for almost ten minutes, which was probably the most embarrassing part about rushing to eat, get dressed and brush her teeth. But they were able to get dropped off at Giles Corey with a couple minutes to spare before the bus would come. Annleigh glanced over at Kate and Cairo curiously, and then followed Farrah over to Reese and Mattie.
Eventually, Eva and Chess appeared from the hallway, and Kate found her way over to Eva. Annleigh laughed inwardly as Chess watched the two of them go off by themselves.
“Third wheeling?” she asked when Chess sat down close by.
“Guess so. To be fair, I did steal Eva at first to go show her the bathrooms.”
“The ones that got renovated?”
“Yeah! I’m gonna miss all the graffiti, though. There was some funny stuff on the stalls.”
Annleigh looked around the room during the silence. As time drew closer for the bus to come get them, everything seemed a bit more off. It took a moment for her to realize that it was the lack of Riley. There wasn’t any energy, no almost off-putting cheeriness to pump everybody up. It wasn’t terrible, but there was certainly a feeling of missing something.
“Feels weird, right?” Chess asked. Annleigh blinked and turned back to her.
“Yeah. A bit.”
“I never want to see Riley again in my life, but I wish I could’ve learned her secret to endless energy. Should I try ten shots of espresso every hour?”
Annleigh smiled. “I think that’s what will get you to murder someone.” Chess shrugged.
“It worked for her for a little bit, at least.”
Annleigh had no idea how to feel about Chess: pity, sure, but this was still the girl who dropped her sister. It was probably silly to still be hanging on to that when even Farrah was able to have actual conversations with Chess now. Annleigh couldn’t get the image of Farrah falling, falling, and hitting the ground hard and not moving. It was horrifying and burned into her mind. But everyone made mistakes and Chess just happened to make a lot, and was that something you could blame her for?
Annleigh didn’t actually know.
“Earth to Annleigh?”
“Huh? Oh, sorry,” Annleigh said and realized she’d been zoning out.
“What were you thinking about?”
Annleigh grimaced and lowered her voice so that Farrah wouldn’t be able to hear. “Honestly, last year. Farrah getting hurt.”
“Oh.” Chess laughed uncomfortably. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”
It was okay, but at the same time it wasn’t. Annleigh hated being conflicted like this. “Well, Jesus said to forgive. So there’s that.” There was an awkward silence. “And if Farrah can forgive you, there’s that, too.”
Chess smiled at her, and was going to say something else when the loud brakes of a school bus sounded from outside.
Annleigh collected her bag and stood up. Here we go.
-
Cairo filed onto the bus at the end, and found a seat in the back by herself. The others were talking and making jokes so she turned up the volume on her music and sat back.
Everyone else seemed so okay.
Here’s the deal: Cairo appreciated that they all tried to help her, but she wasn’t dumb enough to think that all of them liked her all that much. Cairo was glad that she wasn’t alone, but she hadn’t truly felt seen since Riley was taken away. Cairo was trying to listen to her therapist and forgive herself and grow and heal but it was so fucking hard. Some days she felt almost normal. Some days she couldn’t bring herself to get out of bed. Some days she still just cried. They shouldn’t have to be going through this. They were teenagers .
And it was Riley’s fault, and maybe also her own fault for not helping her. Maybe it was Mr. and Mrs. Williams’ fault for pushing Riley too far. Maybe the world just wasn’t fair.
These thoughts had been disappearing with time, but not fast enough. Cairo was sick of it. She wanted to be better. She wanted to be normal again.
She clicked her volume higher and closed her eyes.
They were going to compete today. They weren’t going to win. They probably wouldn’t even place. But they were going to compete. That must be something. That must be healing.
If Riley was still here, they’d be gossiping back here. Cairo would be spilling about some dumb thing her boyfriend did, hoping to see any hint of jealousy in Riley’s eyes. Riley would tell her about a TV show she was watching.
Riley wasn’t here anymore. It was still heartbreaking. Hypothetically, Cairo could go visit her. Even the theoretical made her want to vomit. She wasn’t here.
Some song came on and from the first few notes, Cairo knew what it was and tore her earbuds out. Some songs she couldn’t listen to anymore. But maybe it was a blessing in disguise, because in all the time she’d spent wrapped up in her thoughts, the scene in the bus had evolved.
Chess was holding a Bluetooth speaker which was blaring What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction and practically screaming along to the lyrics. From across the aisle, Annleigh was singing along with her, much to the disdain of Farrah, Mattie and Reese. Kate was laughing her ass off and she was red in the face, and after a moment Cairo realized it was because Eva (who she 100% hadn’t seen getting on the bus) was dramatically singing along to her.
Riley wasn’t here, but Chess’ words from the dumb (not so dumb, Cairo had come to find, because she was somehow doing better now. Not great, but better) “make Cairo feel better party” echoed in her mind. They were still here. Maybe that could be enough someday.
It was then that the song changed to Up All Night, and the collective team went absolutely batshit, because there were some One Direction songs that nobody could resist. Even Cairo laughed to herself at the first chorus hit and the poor busdriver up front jumped with the scream of “I wanna stay up all night!”
Back at the gym, everything felt odd without Riley, and Cairo knew everyone else felt it. This is what they should have been. Dancing around, singing, getting hyped and not dealing with all the skeletons in their closets and the knives in their stomachs. This is what they should be doing because they were just teenagers on a cheer team and Riley took that from them.
Cairo joined in the singalong eventually, although with much less gusto than the rest of the team. It was nice to forget about everything they shouldn’t have to think about, just for a bit.
Soon enough, though, the bus rolled to a stop outside of Cobalt Prep and nobody got up. Chess turned off the music and the team sat in silence for a moment. All of their good energy had vanished in an instant.
Cairo stood up after wallowing in it for just a second. “Well, damn, guys. We’re here.” She stepped out into the aisle and stood in front of them. “It’s been rough. It’s actually been absolute shit.” All of their faces looked away in practically the same instant. “But we made it. I don’t care about our placement or our points. We’re going to go out there and we are going to perform and they’re going to love it whether they like it or not.”
Slowly the team’s heads turned back to her. Cairo gave them a smile and hoped it was convincing through the heartache and the anger in her heart. “I’m not going to get too emotional, cause I’ve had enough crying to last me forever. We’re strong and we’re resilient and apparently, we get up from stab wounds, so we can handle this. We’ve got each other. Are we ready?”
Chess got to her feet. “Hell yeah, we are.” Cairo’s smile became a little more genuine.
“Then let’s rock this shit.” The rest of the team gradually stood up and Cairo led them to the front of the bus. She paused, and pondered every moment that had gotten them here.
All that teen movie bullshit was just that: bullshit. If Cairo could redo this year, she’d do it in a heartbeat. She would suffer endless pain to fix it all. She would walk through hell and beat Satan in a fist fight to get back all of the hope and happiness she had lost. But there was no way to go back, and here they were, in the terrible and uncertain present, so she was going to make the best of it.
With more conviction than she thought she could muster, Cairo stepped off the bus.