WARNING: UPSETTING CONTENT. Bereavement, h*móphóbia, immigrant issues.

Elodie paced around the room, her eyes firmly fixed on the ground.

"Miss Elodie, are you feeling positive or negative emotions?", asked Katie.

Silas shook his head and waved his hand over his neck to signal that she shouldn't say anything, but it was already too late.

Elodie's eyes widened in fear.
"Stay back!"

"I will not harm you, Miss Elodie", replied Katie.

"I mean it!
I don't want you to... malfunction and start attacking me."

"Hey!
That's a harmful robot stereotype", said Bennett.

"Yeah, not cool man", said Silas.

Elodie stared at them as if they had all grown second heads.
"This... this isn't happening.
I'm... she..."

Elodie's eyes widened again.
"What are you doing here?"

"Your Mum's boss is a creep who locked Katie up!", exclaimed Silas.

"Woah, Silas-", started Professor Harrow.

"-No, Sir. It's too late.
Let's not beat around the bush", said Bennett.

"What are you talking about?", asked Elodie.

"Your Mum's boss has it in for us. Always has.
Only now we've found out that he knows Katie ain't human.
He stole her so we got her back", said Quinn.

Elodie laughed.
"Very funny.
Good one, guys!"

When all she was met with were their dead pan expressions, Elodie frowned.
"You're serious?"

"Phillip's a bad guy.
I hate saying that but he is", said Azlan.

"He's not the angel you think he is", said Maya.

Elodie turned to face Maya.
Her jaw clenched for a few seconds. She squinted her eyes at her.
"Why should I believe a word that comes out of your mouth?"

Quinn rolled her eyes and stepped forward, but Maya stepped forward and grabbed Elodie's arm.

"Get off me!", yelled Elodie.

"Take me somewhere private and I'll explain everything", said Maya.

_________________________

With Elodie and Maya occupied, the others had to decide what to do with Katie.

"I'm going to take her to Lena", said Professor Harrow.
"We can do a full check up there.
Who knows?
Maybe Everett's plan was for Elodie to find us and turn against us?"

"I want to stay here", said Quinn. "With Maya."

Azlan nodded in agreement.
"Me too."

"I'm not leaving either", said Bennett.

Professor Harrow nodded.
"I'll take her back now."

"Wait", said Silas.
"Katie... you tried to stop Elodie from seeing your true self.
That's not in your programming."

Katie shrugged.
"I was just trying to protect you all. That is what friends do, is it not?"

Quinn, Yukishiro, Azlan and Bennett smiled.
"Dámn.
Our baby's all grown up."

Silas nodded.
"Yeah.
She's learning to adapt."

"It is as you said, Mr. Silas.
Sometimes you must rebel."

Silas smiled at her and looked into her eyes. Katie stared into his eyes too, a small smile appearing on her face. Silas blushed as he remembered they weren't alone.

"Chem-istry-chem-chem-istry", chanted Yukishiro, making everyone laugh.

______________________________

Elodie closed her bedroom door. "What lies do you want to tell now?"

Maya sighed.
She closed her eyes briefly as she placed her hand over the purple broach on her jacket.

"I'm sorry."

Elodie froze for a brief moment, before furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.
"Wh-what?"

"I was your friend.
I completely ignored you when you needed a friend the most.
I was a terrible friend for what I did to you, but I was an even more terrible person for not giving you an explanation.
For making you feel like it was your fault."

Elodie crossed her arms and pressed her lips together.
"So uh... what's the explanation?"

Maya exhaled shakily.
"Without my Mum around, I looked for approval, for a mother figure every where.
One of my Aunt's came into our life and... she told me all these stories about my Mum.
I just felt... I felt so connected to her, you know?"

"That's great, Maya.
But I don't see what this has to do with me."

"She's... she doesn't get people having a sexuality that isn't straight", said Maya.

Elodie frowned.
"She's a h*móphóbe."

"No, she... she's just-"

"-Maya, to me the only thing worse than being a h*móphóbe is defending one."

"I'm not!
Look, she's set in her ways.
She doesn't like change.
She's not a very accepting person. Honestly, I think she's just confused by it all."

"And that makes it ok?"

"No. No, it doesn't.
But I wanted her approval.
So I started distancing myself from you."

"Let me get this straight.
You didn't support me grieving over my dead Dad because of your Aunt?"

Maya frowned.
"No, I... there's more to it.
I... was going through a rough time."

"Oh, you were, were you?
Well so was I!
What were you going through that was so bad that you couldn't h-"

"-I realised I liked girls!", she exclaimed.
"Both girls and boys.
And I didn't want it to be true because I didn't want my Aunt to hate me.
My Uncle always gets upset when we talk about my Mum.
I just wanted someone I could get to know my Mum through."

Elodie stayed silent, but her face betrayed her. She couldn't hide her surprise.
"Maya... I could've helped you."

"I know.
But I didn't want help accepting myself.
I wanted help to bury it."

"Maya..."

Maya shook her head.
"But that's no excuse.
You needed me and I should've been there for you."

Elodie nodded.
"Yeah.
But, growing up like that must've-"

"-No. I'm not here to justify it.
I don't want you to either.
My biggest regret, aside from pushing you away in the first place, was not telling you why."

"Well, I... thank you for telling me now."

Maya felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. She always felt like such a hypocrite whenever people told her how good of a friend she was.

"There's something else", said Maya. "I... I was ashamed of what I did. That's why I never apologised afterwards, but... I never wanted to bring it up because I was scared I'd have to tell the truth."

"I don't get it."

Maya sighed.
"I...I really liked you, Elodie."

Elodie's eyes widened ever so slightly. Then her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Why... why are you telling me this?"

"I-"

"- Is this your way of keeping me on your side?
So I don't tell Mr. Everett what you did?
Has this all been a lie?"

"No!", exclaimed Maya.
"I'm not trying to make you side with us!
I just wanted to be honest with you."

Before Elodie could speak, Quinn stormed into the room.
"Imma need my friend back", said Quinn.
"Everett should be home soon, so we have to go."

Maya looked back at Elodie, but Quinn had already pushed her away.  She slammed the door and stepped closer to Elodie, their faces inches apart.

"Maya did a messed up thing.
But I swear to God, if you snitch on us to Everett just to get back at Maya-"

"-You think that's what I'm like?", asked Elodie.
"Mr. Everett gave my Mum a job when she was made redundant.
Why was she fired?
Because they didn't want to support a grieving Latina immigrant."

Quinn frowned.
"That sucks.
I'm sorry.
But Everett isn't this picture perfect man.
He's dangerous."

"I only have your word for that."

"Elodie, listen to me.
He has a lift in his room that takes you to his underground technology lab where he kept Katie-"

"-Are you listening to yourself?"

"You don't believe me?
Take a look for yourself."

Quinn clenched her jaw and stared into Elodie's soul.

__________________________

Elodie approached Phillip's wardrobe. The same wardrobe her Mum was never allowed to clean.

"You don't believe me?
Take a look for yourself."

Elodie took a deep breath. She opened the wardrobe, her heart beating rapidly when she saw the large glass lift.

______________

Hi.

Elodie knows! Which side will she choose?

We are so close to the end of the book now!

Any theories?

What are your thoughts on this chapter?

DoodleYeet

LeMystical-Puffle

hopefulfirebird

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italllic