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Chapter Text

Mari had started going to school again for a few months. The only one of her friends already there was Aubrey.

They both seemed very glad to have someone to talk to. But they didn’t hang out much out of school anymore.Usually Mari went straight home after. Hoping catch her brother while he was awake.

She knew he’d been out of bed. At least she had that comfort from seeing the used dishes in the sink.

Basil started coming to school soon after.And then the three of them would more often hang out at his house. 

Mari was the first to stop hanging out with both of them as much.She was more concerned with Sunny and Henry.

After school she stopped going to Basils house, instead trying to knock on the Rodrigues household door for a while. There would be no answer, both Mr and Mrs Rodrigues would still be at work when she finished school.Then she’d just retire to her room. Talk to Sunny. Or the blankets he was under.

She picked up the piano again.She would play the same songs as before..

Before…

When Sunny would have been on the other side of the stairs painting. That room had almost become a gallery. The big window that showed their beautiful tree in the backyard made it look all the better.That’s where she would go to wind down sometimes.

After she stopped going to Basil’s house, she didn’t know what he and Aubrey would be talking about during school anymore. Like she missed 50 inside jokes and neither of them bothered to explain them, while she laughed awkwardly.

She stopped talking to them at all after a while. Spending more time in the music room and talking to other kids who played.They offered her to join the band club, but she refused.She kept to her after school door knocking duty.

Mari didn’t do much on the weekends. Usually her mom or dad would ask her to go to Othermart, or fix-it. But that’s as much as she did. She didn’t usually knock on the Rodrigues door on weekends anymore.Mr and Mrs Rodrigues always seems to give her a solemn look at first, inviting her in as she persuaded Henry’s closed room door to open. She didn’t know if he could hear her at all.But recently she stopped going on weekends because the once solemn look she got is turning to a forced smile through annoyance.

She could tell when she pushed a boundary, so she stopped.

But now she really didn’t know what to do.

Between the active friends she has but doesn’t feel it’s her place to go talk to them anymore..

Her brother who still won’t look at her or ever get up when she’s in the house…

And her best friend who won’t answer the door and talk to her either.

She didn’t know what to do.

Nothing was going well.

So she played piano.

Because she could make all the notes perfect.

Because she could control that.

She played at any time she could.

She learnt new songs.

She would play until she would need to be pried off of the bench by her father.

Sometimes she would fall asleep on the piano, but the moment her head plopped on the keys, the sound that it created woke her up again, just to start playing again.

And she did end up joining the band team.

She signed up for school recitals.

And she practiced for them as if her life depended on it.

She played in front of all her friends from band.

And she felt unfulfilled.

There was something missing.

So she tried again.

She practiced, and practiced.

The next recital would only be closer to summer.

She has plenary of time to practice.

And maybe this time she could have more friends to see her.

Chapter Text

After Mari’s self proclaimed “disappointing recital” she laid in bed. And talked to the pile of blankets on the other side of the room.

“I had my school recital today..” she said pausing to see if there would be any movement from the other bed. “It didn’t feel right to play just for the band team.. mom and dad didn’t show up either. Maybe if you’d have been there it might have been better.” She continued before turning in her bed to fall asleep as well.

For the next few weeks she’d be practicing almost non stop again. Even if this time she had plenty of time before the recital. She didn’t want to disappoint this time. She wanted people to be proud of her. She wanted people to come and see her… no not just any people, she wanted her friends to come and see her play.

She’d try and talk to Basil and Aubrey in school again but.. talking to Basil was…

“Hey how are you doing?”

“I’m ok.. why are you asking, don’t you have your new band friends to talk to anymore?”

“I just.. wanted to hang out with you and Aubrey sometime again.”

“Well if you’re more than welcomed to try and talk to Aubrey but leave me out of it.”

…that wasn’t what she’d expected at all. Had the two of them had a fight? Was Basil mad at her? She didn’t know what happened.. again.

She would have gone to try and talk to Aubrey but she never ran into her.

She thought about going to Aubrey’s house but.. today could be the day Henry finally opened the door…

It wasn’t the day.

She left to her house, in a lower mood. Days were still shorter and the sun would be setting soon.

She went home and played the piano until her mom got home. Dinner came and left in mostly silence. Nothing more than a “How was school?” And nods of approval.

After dinner she didn’t want to keep playing piano so she went to her room. The pile of blankets on Sunny seemed to move as she came in.

“Sunny?” She called out “are you awake?”

After getting no response she waved it off as a trick of the eye.

Sunny wouldn’t be purposely ignoring her right?..

He had no reason to..

..right?

Not bothering to turn the light on she laid in bed and tried to sleep early.

This while she wondered how Sunny could sleep for that long.

The next couple weeks seemed to be the same thing everyday. Mari would go to school, and band club. Then she’d knock on Henry’s door for a while. Go home. Play piano, eat, and go to sleep.

She’d still not found Aubrey with enough time to talk. Sometimes Mari would see her in the hallways, but other than that, nothing. It felt so weird to drift from her closest friends like that.

One afternoon she decided to go out into the old treehouse after school.

She hadn’t been there since that day.

The makeshift curtain was drawn over the small window. She rolled it up at the top and looked out. She could see the Rodrigues’ backyard from there. She sat down thinking about that yard for a while.. thinking about Kel.

Looking around the treehouse itself.. it had weathered over time. A lot of it seemed.. almost soggy. Some of the floor was green, and there was some spiderwebs around. Not that Mari minded spiderwebs, or spiders. She thought about how Sunny and Hero were both terrified of them, both then making Kel have to step up. The thought had made her smile.

She went back down, and into her and Sunny’s room.

“I just came back from the treehouse, and…” she said, sitting on her bed, contemplating if to say anything more. She decided she would. “well, I ended up thinking about Kel.”

With this she saw the blankets move a bit. So she kept going. “Ya know.. I don’t think he’d be happy to see you not even talking to anyone for almost a year..”

The mattress creaked.

Sunny was sitting up in bed.

“What?”

Chapter Text

“What?” Sunny’s voice croaked. It was barely audible, but Mari could hear him. The first thing he had said to her since the funeral.

“Are you saying that now I’m also disappointing Kel beyond the grave?!” His voice was getting louder as he turned completely towards her. His hair had almost grown to his shoulders, and most of it was covering his face, so all she could see of his face was his eyes.

“You keep telling me all the things that could have been better if I was there!” he was standing up from the bed now. “Like I was the one that told you to come home instead of hanging out with Aubrey and Basil! Like I was the one who stopped everyone else coming to your recital! News flash: Mom and Dad weren’t home EITHER!” Sunny walked over to her side of the room, as Mari slid down from her bed and took the yelling.

“And if that wasn’t enough! NOW IM MAKING KEL UNHAPPY!?!?” He stopped, now completely facing Mari, his hair had shifted off his face.

She could see the dark circles under Sunny’s eyes.

And his nose was pink, as if he’d been crying before.

Sunny fell to the ground, letting his head fall forward and leaving his hair to cover his face again.

Mari could see his whole body tremble as he hiccuped.

Mari felt horrible.

He had heard her all those times. She had probably made her brother feel worse every time. All she wanted was for him to talk to her again. But it seemed that she might of made everything worse.

She wanted to go over and hug her brother. But she didn’t know if she should.

Not knowing what to do now.. she cried.

It was only when she’d started wailing through tears that Sunny seemed to realise what just happened.

His expression fell to one of guilt, as he made his way to hug Mari.

Neither said anything for a while.

Just sitting in the otherwise empty house.

Only noise was Mari’s sobs, and the slight sniffle from Sunny once in a while.

“I’m sorry”

“Sorry I-”

They both separated from the hug and looked at each other for a while.

“I shouldn’t have said all of that. I thought that if you’d heard me you would of said something, so I kept saying those things hoping you’d hear one and talk to me.. I didn’t mean to make it seem like your fault” Mari said, her eyes not deciding if to look at Sunny or her knees so instead just wavering around the whole room.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you” Sunny starts “I know you didn’t think I heard you, I just… i haven’t slept in a while and it all seemed to blow over.. Ironic, I stay in bed for the whole day, yet I barely get a wink of sleep” he says turning towards his bed to for a second.

He didn’t go back to bed that day. He’d gone down to listen to Mari play, the same nostalgic songs from before, and only went up with her.

From then he’d started to get out of bed more often.

And after convincing his parents to let him stay at home or just run errands out for a while, they agreed to let him only start school again next school year.

While running errands to Othermart he’d accidentally gotten himself a job at Gino’s, as a delivery boy.

And from this Basil and Aubrey would end up running into him, eventually.

Chapter Text

After Aubrey and Basil saw Sunny going around and Mari in a much better mood, they’d almost been able to get to all meet up and talk to each other again. But it seemed that as  quickly as Summer had started it was already over, and Sunny no longer had any time to spare, being a senior and having missed almost a full year of school he threw himself into so many study sessions he was barely home at all.

Mari got him out of his bed and out of the house and now she wondered if he’d ever come back to it.

It once again Mari didn’t actually get to have her friends or her brother, so she would knock on Henry’s door again and again. She’d call out into the silence she received about how she missed him, and everyone else did too, even if she wasn’t too sure of the last part, she would hope they all do.

As Sunny miraculously managed to catch up with his year, the universe seemed to be teasing Mari again, since he’d stopped going into the study groups for less than a week before school started to make longer days for seniors’ study time before finals.

The summer following was just as lackluster as the previous one. Sunny had been keeping with the same jobs he had while also getting college applications out. If anything it was even less likely for the group to meet up that summer.

Soon another year had gone and past, this time Mari had spent most of her time in the house by herself. Practicing her piano in the empty house, waiting for either of her parents to show up and complain about their job and how the piano would distract them. She’d wait for her brother to call the house phone on the weekends. And she’d still kept knocking on Henry’s door, maybe once a month, with the hope that he’d open it one day.

At some point Mari noticed the “For Sale” sign next to their mailbox, and she knocked on the door, hoping Mr or Mrs Rodrigues were in. Which they were.

Mr Rodrigues came to the door, while holding a baby.

“ Quién es, Miguel? ” (Who is it, Miguel) could be heard from Mrs Rodrigues in the other room.

“Marianna, it’s good to see you again” Mr Rodrigues said, loud enough for his wife to hear. “What brings you here?”

“Oh I.. well I saw the sign and.. um ” Mari could figure out a way to string her words properly but Mr Rodrigues seemed to understand.

“Yes, we’ll be moving away soon, but we’ll need to find a buyer first.” Mr Rodrigues continues while noticing Mari staring at the sleeping baby in his arms. “And this is Sally.” He cleared up.

“Oh well, I’ll get going, but I’ll really hope to see Henry at some point before you all move.” Mari said looking away a bit, before she practically ran past and into her house.

She was not doing well, there’s a chance she’ll never see Henry again.

She started seeing the moving trucks parked near the Rodrigues residence.

Then she’d seen the “Sold” sticker on the sign. She ended up talking with Mrs Rodrigues as well, who said she’d mention to Henry how she’d been trying to talk to him before they all left.

That night she’d spoken to Sunny:

“When are you coming home from college anyways?”

“Uh.. next week.” She heard him flicking through papers “Monday.”

“Have you heard Henry is moving away soon?”

“Yea. Mom told me they’re going in about a week… hopefully I’ll get there before they leave.”

“I hope I get to see him” she whispered

“Hm? Did you say something?”

“No, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” Mari wasn’t sure why she’d backtracked her words.. or why she was somewhat glad Sunny didn’t actually hear her. She just said her goodbyes and let the phone set on the hook switch.

One week.

One week until she’d at least have her brother to talk to.

One week until her supposed best friend moved away.

One week to try and talk to him at all.

One week is all she had. And she’d make a hell of a good job using that week!